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THE 



. 







GRAMMAR 



OF 



X 






ENGLISH GRAMM 




WITH 



AN INTRODUCTION 

HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL; 



THE WHOLE 



METHODICALLY ARRANGED AND AMPLY ILLUSTRATED: 



WITH 



FORMS OF CORRECTING AND OF PARSING, IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION, EXAMPLES FOR 

PARSING, QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION, EXERCISES FOR WRITING, OBSERVATIONS 

FOR THE ADVANCED STUDENT, DECISIONS AND PROOFS FOR THE SETTLEMENT 

OF DISPUTED POINTS, OCCASIONAL STRICTURES AND DEFENCES, AN 



EXHIBITION OF THE SEVERAL METHODS OF ANALYSIS 
AND 



A KEY TO THE ORAL EXERCISES: 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED 

FOUR APPENDIXES, 

PERTAINING SEPARATELY TO THE FOUR PARTS OF GRAMMAR. 



BY GOOLD BROWN, 

AUTHOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, THE FIRST LINES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, BTO. 



" So let great authors have their due, that Time, who is the author of authors, be not deprived of his due, 
which is, farther and farther to discover truth.'' — Lord Bacon. 



SIXTH EDITION— REVISED AND IMPROVED. 



ENLARGED BY THE ADDITION OF 

.A. COPIOUS INDEX OF HM^TTEHS. 

BY SAMUEL TJ. BERRIAN, A.M. 



NEW YORK: 

WILLIAM WOOD, 61 WALKER STREET, 

AND 

FRED'K A. BROWN & CO , 29 CORNHILL, BOSTON. 

186 2. 






*%*> 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, 

By Goold ubowst, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Conn of the District of Massachusetts 



KLECTROTYPED BT 

Til' ' MITH, 

82 .'• MAN-6T., 

New York. 



PRINTED BT 

ROBERT CE \ THREAD. 
88 Obntbtc-strebt, 
New York. 



1 



9? 



\J 






PREFACE. 



The present performance is, so far as the end could be reached, the fulfillment of a design, 
formed about twenty-seven years ago, of one day presenting to the world, if I might, some- 
thing like a complete grammar of the English language; — not a mere work of criticism, 
nor yet a work too tame, indecisive, and uncritical; for, in books of either of these sorts, 
our libraries already abound; — not a mere philosophical investigation of what is general or 
universal in grammar, nor yet a minute detail of what forms only a part of our own phi- 
lology ; for either of these plans falls very far short of such a purpose ; — not a mere gram- 
matical compend, abstract, or compilation, sorting with other works already before the 
public ; for, in the production of school grammars, the author had early performed his part ; 
and, of small treatises on this subject, we have long had a superabundance rather than 
a lack. 

After about fifteen years devoted chiefly to grammatical studies and exercises, during most 
of which time I had been alternately instructing youth in four different languages, thinking 
it practicable to effect some improvement upon the manuals which explain our own, I pre- 
pared and published, for the use of schools, a duodecimo volume of about three hundred 
pages: which, upon the presumption that its principles were conformable to the best 
usage, and well established thereby, I entitled, "The Institutes of English Grammar." Of 
this work, which, it is believed, has been gradually gaining in reputation and demand ever 
since its first publication, there is no occasion to say more here, than that it was the result 
of diligent study, and that it is, essentially, the nucleus, or the groundwork, of the present 
volume. 

"With much additional labour, the principles contained in the Institutes of English Gram- 
mar, have here been not only reaffirmed and rewritten, but occasionally improved in ex- 
pression, or amplified in their details. New topics, new definitions, new rules, have also been 
added ; and all parts of the subject have been illustrated by a multiplicity of new examples 
and exercises, which it has required a long time to amass and arrange. To the main doctrines, 
also, are here subjoined many new observations and criticisms, which are the results of no 
inconsiderable reading and reflection. 

Regarding it as my business and calling, to work out the above-mentioned purpose as 
circumstances might permit, I have laid no claim to genius, none to infallibility ; but I have 
endeavoured to be accurate, and aspired to be useful; and it is a part of my plan, that the 
reader of this volume shall never, through my fault, be left in doubt as to the origin of any 
thing it contains. It is but the duty of an author, to give every needful facility for a fair 
estimate of his work ; and, whatever authority there may be for anonymous copying in works 
on grammar, the precedent is always bad. 

The success of other labours, answerable to moderate wishes, has enabled me to pursue this 
task under favourable circumstances, and with an unselfish, independent aim. Not with vain- 
glorious pride, but with reverent gratitude to God, I acknowledge this advantage, giving 
thanks for the signal mercy which has upborne me to the long-continued effort. Had the case 
been otherwise, — had the labours of the school-room been still demanded for my support, — the 
present large volume would never have appeared. I had desired some leisure for the com- 
pleting of this design, and to it I scrupled not to sacrifice the profits of my main employment, 
as soon as it could be done without hazard of adding another chapter to " the Calamities of 
Authors." 

The nature and design of this treatise are perhaps sufficiently developed in connexion 
with the various topics which are successively treated of in the Introduction. That method 
of teaching, which I conceive to be the best, is also there described. And, in the Gram- 
mar itself, there will be found occasional directions concerning the manner of its use. I 
have hoped to facilitate the study of the English language, not by abridging our grammatical 



IV PREFACE. 

code, or by rejecting the common phraseolgy of its doctrines, but by extending the former, im- 
proving the latter, and establishing both ; — but still more, by furnishing new illustrations of 
the subject, and arranging its vast number of particulars in such order that every item may be 
readily found. 

An other important purpose, which, in the preparation of this work, has been borne con- 
stantly in mind, and judged worthy of very particular attention, was the attempt to settle, so 
far as the most patient investigation and the fullest exhibition of proofs could do it, the multi- 
tudinous and vexatious disputes which have hitherto divided the sentiments of teachers, and 
made the study of English grammar so uninviting, unsatisfactory, and unprofitable, to the 
student whose taste demands a reasonable degree of certainty. 

"Whenever labour implies the exertion of thought, it does good, at least to the strong: when 
the saving of labour is a saving of thought, it enfeebles. The mind, like the body, is strength- 
ened by hard exercise : but, to give this exercise all its salutary effect, it should be of a reason- 
able kind ; it should lead us to the perception of regularity, of order, of principle, of a law. "When, 
after all the trouble we have taken, we merely find anomalies and confusion, we are disgusted 
with what is so uncongenial : and, as our higher faculties have not been called into action, they 
are not unlikely to be outgrown by the lower, and overborne as it were by the underwood of 
our minds. Hence, no doubt, one of the reasons why our language has been so much ne- 
glected, and why such scandalous ignorance prevails concerning its nature and history, is its 
unattractive, disheartening irregularity: none but Satan is fond of plunging into chaos." — Phi- 
lological Museum, (Cambridge, Eng., 1832,) Vol. i, p. 666. 

If there be any remedy for the neglect and ignorance here spoken of, it must be found in the 
more effectual teaching of English grammar. But the principles of grammar can never have 
any beneficial influence over any person's manner of speaking or writing, till by some process 
they are made so perfectly familiar, that he can apply them with all the readiness of a native 
power ; that is, till he can apply them not only to what has been said or written, but to what- 
ever he is about to utter. They must present themselves to the mind as by intuition, and with 
the quickness of thought; so as to regulate his language before it proceeds from the lips or the 
pen. If they come only by tardy recollection, or are called to mind but as contingent after- 
thoughts, they are altogether too late; and serve merely to mortify the speaker or writer, 
by reminding him of some deficiency or inaccuracy which there may then be no chance to 
amend. 

But how shall, or can, this readiness be acquired? I answer, By a careful attention to such 
exercises as are fitted to bring the learner's knowledge into practice. The student will therefore 
find, that I have given him something to do, as well as something to learn. But, by the 
formules and directions in this work, he is very carefully shown how to proceed ; and, if he be 
a tolerable reader, it will be his own fault, if he does not, by such aid, become a tolerable gram- 
marian. The chief of these exercises are the parsing of what is right, and the correcting of 
what is wrong; both, perhaps, equally important ; and I have intended to make them equally 
easy. To any real proficient in grammar, nothing can be more free from embarrassment, than 
the performance of these exercises, in all ordinary cases. Eor grammar, rightly learned, insti- 
tutes in the mind a certain knowledge, or process of thought, concerning the sorts, properties, 
and relations, of all the words which can be presented in any intelligible sentence ; and, with 
the initiated, a perception of the construction will always instantly follow or accompany a dis- 
covery of the sense : and instantly, too, should there be a perception of the error, if any of the 
words are misspelled, misjoined, misapplied, — or are, in any way, unfaithful to the sense 
intended. 

Thus it is the great end of grammar, to secure the power of apt expression, by causing the 
principles on which language is constructed, if not to be constantly present to the mind, at least 
to pass through it more rapidly than either pen or voice can utter words. And where this 
power resides, there cannot but be a proportionate degree of critical skill, or of ability to judge 
of the language of others. Present what you will, grammar directs the mind immediately to 
a consideration of the sense; and, if properly taught, always creates a discriminating taste 
which is not less offended by specious absurdities, than by the common blunders of clownish- 
ness. Every one who has any pretensions to this art, knows that, to parse a sentence, is but 
to resolve it according to one's understanding of its import ; and it is equally clear, that the 
power to correct an erroneous passage, usually demands or implies a knowledge of the author's 
thought. 

But, if parsing and correcting are of so great practical importance as our first mention of 
them suggests, it may be well to be more explicit here concerning them. The pupil who 
cannot perform these exercises both accurately and fluently, is not truly prepared to per- 
form them at all, and has no right to expect from any body a patient hearing. A slow and 
faltering rehearsal of words clearly prescribed, yet neither fairly remembered nor under- 
standing^ applied, is as foreign from parsing or correcting, as it is from elegance of diction. 
Divide and conquer, is the rule here, as in many other cases. Begin with what is simple ; 
practise it till it becomes familiar; and then proceed. No child ever learned to speak by 
any other process. Hard things become easy by use ; and skill is gained by little and little. 

Of the whole method of parsing, it should be understood, that it is to be a critical exer- 
cise in utterance, as well as an evidence of previous study, — an exhibition of the learner's 



PREFACE. V 

attainments in the practice, as well as in the theory, of grammar; and that, in any toler- 
able performance of this exercise, there must be an exact adherence to the truth of facts, 
as they occur in the example, and to the forms of expression, which are prescribed as 
models, in the book. For parsing is, in no degree, a work of invention; but wholly an 
exercise, an exertion of skill. It is, indeed, an exercise for all the powers of the mind, ex- 
cept the inventive faculty. Perception, judgement, reasoning, memory, and method, are 
indispensable to the performance. Nothing is to be guessed at, or devised, or uttered at 
random. If the learner can but rehearse the necessary definitions and rules, and perform 
the simplest exercise of judgement in their application, he cannot but perceive what he 
must say in order to speak the truth in parsing. His principal difficulty is in determining the 
parts of speech. To lessen this, the trial should commence with easy sentences, also with few 
of the definitions, and with definitions that have been perfectly learned. This difficulty 
being surmounted, let him follow the forms prescribed for the several praxes of this work, 
and he shall not err. The directions and examples given at the head of each exercise, 
will show him exactly the number, the order, and the proper phraseology, of the particulars 
to be stated ; so that he may go through the explanation with every advantage which a book 
can afford. There is no hope of him whom these aids will not save from "plunging into 
chaos." 

" Of all the works of man, language is the most enduring, and partakes the most of eternity. 
And, as our own language, so far as thought can project itself into the future, seems likely to 
be coeval with the world, and to spread vastly beyond even its present immeasurable limits, 
there cannot easily be a nobler object of ambition than to purify and better it." — Philological 
Museum, Vol. i, p. 665. 

It was some ambition of the kind here meant, awakened by a discovery of the scandalous 
errors and defects which abound in all our common English grammars, that prompted me to 
undertake the present work. Now, by the bettering of a language, I understand little else 
than the extensive teaching of its just forms, according to analogy and the general custom of 
the most accurate writers. This teaching, however, may well embrace also, or be combined 
with, an exposition of the various forms of false grammar by which inaccurate writers have 
corrupted, if not the language itself, at least their own style in it. 

With respect to our present English, I know not whether any other improvement of it ought 
to be attempted, than the avoiding and correcting of those improprieties and unwarrantable 
anomalies by which carelessness, ignorance, and affectation, are ever tending to debase it, and the 
careful teaching of its true grammar, according to its real importance in education. What 
further amendment is feasible, or is worthy to engage attention, I will not pretend to say; nor 
do I claim to have been competent to so much as was manifestly desirable within these limits. 
But what I lacked in ability, I have endeavored to supply by diligence ; and what I could con- 
veniently strengthen by better authority than my own, I have not failed to support with all that 
was due, of names, guillemets, and references. 

Like every other grammarian, I stake my reputation as an author, upon " a certain set of 
opinions," and a certain manner of exhibiting them, appealing to the good sense of my readers 
for the correctness of both. All contrary doctrines are unavoidably censured by him who 
attempts to sustain his own ; but, to grammatical censures, no more importance ought to be 
attached than what belongs to grammar itself. He who cares not to be accurate in the use of 
language, is inconsistent with himself, if he be offended at verbal criticism ; and he who is 
displeased at finding his opinioas rejected, is equally so, if he cannot prove them to be well 
founded. It is only in cases susceptible of a rule, that any writer can be judged deficient. I 
can censure no man for differing from me, till I can show him a principle which he ought to 
follow. According to Lord Kames, the standard of taste, both in arts and in manners, is "the 
common sense of mankind," a principle founded in the universal conviction of a common 
nature in our species. (See Elements of Criticism, Chap, xxv, Yol. ii, p. 364.) If this is 
so, the doctrine applies to grammar as fully as to any thing about which criticism may con- 
cern itself 

But, to the discerning student or teacher, I owe an apology for the abundant condescen- 
sion with which I have noticed in this volume the works of unskillful grammarians. For 
men of sense have no natural inclination to dwell upon palpable offences against taste and 
scholarship ; nor can they be easily persuaded to approve the course of an author who 
makes it his business to criticise petty productions. And is it not a fact, that grammatical 
authorship has sunk so low, that no man who is capable of perceiving its multitudinous 
errors, dares now stoop to notice the most flagrant of its abuses, or the most successful of 
its abusers? And, of the quackery which is now so prevalent, what can be a more natural 
effect, than a very general contempt for the study of grammar? My apology to the reader 
therefore is, that, as the honour of our language demands correctness in all the manuals 
prepared for schools, a just exposition of any that are lacking in this point, is a service due 
to the study of English grammar, if not to the authors in question. 

The exposition, however, that I have made of the errors and defects of other writers, is 
only an incident, or underpart, of the scheme of this treatise. Nor have I anywhere ex- 
hibited blunders as one that takes delight in their discovery. My main design has been, to 
prepare a work which, by its own completeness and excellence, should deserve the title 



VI PREFACE. 

here chosen. But, a comprehensive code of false grammar being confessedly the most effectual 
means of teaching what is true, I have thought fit to supply this portion of my book, not from 
anonymous or uncertain sources, but from the actual text of other authors, and chiefly from the 
works of professed grammarians. 

"In what regards the laws of grammatical purity," says Dr. Campbell, "the violation is 
much more conspicuous than the observance." — See Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 190. It there- 
fore falls in with my main purpose, to present to the public, in the following ample work, 
a condensed mass of special criticism, such as is not elsewhere to be found in any language. 
And, if the littleness of the particulars to which the learner's attention is called, be reck- 
oned an objection, the author last quoted has furnished for me, as well as for himself, a good 
apology. "The elements which enter into the composition of the hugest bodies, are sub- 
tile and inconsiderable. The rudiments of every art and science exhibit at first, to the 
learner, the appearance of littleness and insignificancy. And it is by attending to such re- 
flections, as to a superficial observer would appear minute and hypercritical, that language 
must be improved, and eloquence perfected." — lb., p. 244. 

GOOLD BROWN. 
Lynn, Mass., 1851. 




%tr 






'*///• 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



' •• V I 



PRELIMINARY MATTERS. 

Page. 

Preface to the Grammar of English Grammars ; iii — vi. 

This Table of Contents ; vii — x. 

Catalogue of English Grammars and Grammarians ; xi — xx. 

INTRODUCTION. 



Page. 
Chapter I. — Of the Science of Gram- 
mar; 21. 

Chapter II. — Of Grammatical Authorship ; . 30. 
Chapter III. — Of Grammatical Success and 

Fame- 39. 

Chapter IV. — Of the Origin of Language ; . 56. 

Chapter V. — Of the Power of Language ; . 64. 
Chapter VI. — Of the Origin and History of 

the English Language ; 74. 



Page. 

Chapter VII. — Changes and Specimens of 
the English Language ; 81. 

Chapter VIII. — Of the Grammatical Study 
of the English Language ; 

Chapter IX.— Of the Best Method of Teach- 
ing Grammar ; 

Chapter X. — Of Grammatical Definitions ; . 

Chapter XI. — Brief Notices of the Schemes 
of certain Grammars ; 



93. 

102. 
115. 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

Introductory Definitions ; 145. \ General Division of the Subject; . . 



PAET I.— OETHOGEAPHY. 



Chapter I. — Of Letters ; . . . 

I. Names of the Letters ; . . 

II. Classes of the Letters ; 

III. Powers of the Letters ; . 

IV. Forms of the Letters ; . . 
Eules for the use of Capitals ; . 
Errors concerning Capitals ; . 
Promiscuous Errors of Capitals ; 

Chapter II.— Of Syllables ; . . 
Diphthongs and Triphthongs ; 
Eules for Syllabication ; . . 
Observations on Syllabication ; 
Errors concerning Syllables ; . 



148. 
150. 
154. 
158. 
164. 
165. 
172. 
17S. 
179. 
179. 
180. 
181. 
183. 



Chapter III.— Of Words; .... 

Eules for the Figure of Words ; . 

Observations on Figure of Words ; 

On the Identity of Words; 

Errors concerning Figure ; . . 

Promiscuous Errors in Figure ; 
Chapter IV.— Of Spelling ; . . 

Eules for Spelling ; . . . . 

Observations on Spelling ; . . 

Errors in Spelling ; . . . . 

Promiscuous Errors in Spelling ; 
Chapter V. — Questions on Orthography ; 
Chapter VI. — Exercises for Writing ; . . 



PAET II.— ETYMOLOGY. 



Introductory Definitions ; 220. 

Chapter I.— Of the Parts of Speech ; . . . 220. 

Observations on Parts of Speech ; . . . 221. 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis I ; ... 223. 
Chapter II. — Of the Articles ; 225. 

Observations on the Articles ; . . . . 226. 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis II ; . . . 234. 

Errors concerning Articles ; 235. 

Chapter III.— Of Nouns; 238. 

Classes of Nouns ; 239. 

Modifications of Nouns ; 240. 

Persons ; 240. 

Numbers; 242. 

Genders ; 254. 

Cases; 258. 

The Declension of Nouns ; 264. 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis III ; . . . 265. 

Errors concerning Nouns ; 266. 

Chapter IV.— Of Adjectives ; 268. 

Classes of Adjectives ; 270. 

Modifications of Adjectives; 278. 



Eegular Comparison ; . . . 
Comparison by Adverbs ; . , 
Irregular Comparison ; . . . 
Examples for Parsing, Praxis IV 
Errors concerning Adjectives ; 
Chapter V. — Of Pronouns; . . 
Classes of the Pronouns ; . . 
Modifications of the Pronouns ; 
The Declension of Pronouns ; 
Examples for Parsing, Praxis V 
Errors concerning Pronouns ; 
Chapter VI.— Of Verbs; . . . 

Classes of Verbs ; 

Modifications of Verbs ; . . . 

Moods ; 

Tenses ; 

Persons and Numbers ; . . 
The Conjugation of Verbs ; . 
I. Simple Form, Active or Neuter ; 
First Example, the verb LOVE; 
Second Example, the verb SEE; 



129. 



146 



184. 
184. 
185. 
187. 
188. 
191. 
192. 
193. 



196. 
204. 
210. 
212. 
214. 



283. 

284. 
286. 



291. 
294. 
296. 
297. 
309. 
310. 
326. 
329. 
330. 



331. 
336. 
336. 



340. 
343. 
360. 
366. 
366. 
371. 



vm 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Third Example, the verb BE; . . 

II. Compound or Progressive Form ; 
Fourth Example, to BE READING ; 
Observations on Compound Forms ; 

III. Form of Passive Verbs : . . . 
Fifth Example, to BE LO VED ; . 

IV. Form of Negation ; 

V. Form of Question ; 

VI. Form of Question with Negation ; 
Irregular Verbs, with Obs. and List ; . 
Redundant Verbs, with Obs. and List 
Defective Verbs, with Obs. and List ; 
Examples for Parsing, Praxis VI ; . 
Errors concerning Verbs ; . . . . 

Chapter VII. — Of Participles ; . . . 

Classes of Participles ; 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis VII ; . 

Errors concerning Participles ; . . 
Chapter VIII.— Of Adverbs; . . . 



416. 
418. 
419. 



Classes of Adverbs ; 

Modifications of Adverbs ; . . . . 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis VIII ; 

Errors concerning Adverbs ; . . . 
Chapter IX. — Of Conjunctions; . . 

Classes of Conjunctions ; . . . . 

List of the Conjunctions ; .... 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis IX ; . 

Errors concerning Conjunctions ; . 
Chapter X. — Of Prepositions ; . . . 

List of the Prepositions ; . . . . 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis X ; . 

Errors concerning Prepositions ; 
Chapter XL — Of Interjections ; . . . 

List of the Interjections ; .... 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis XI ; . 

Errors concerning Interjections ; 
Chapter XII. — Questions on Etymology ; 
Chapter XIII. — Exercises for Writing ; 



PART III.— SYNTAX. 



Introductory Definitions ; 457. 

Chapter I. — Of Sentences ; 457, 

The Rules of Syntax : 459. 

General or Critical Obs. on Syntax ; 

The Analyzing of Sentences ; . . . 

The several Methods of Analysis ; . 

Observations on Methods of Analysis 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis XII ; 
Chapter II. — Of the Articles ; . . . 

Rule I. — Syntax of Articles ; . . . 

Observations on Rule I ; .... 

Notes to Rule I ; 17 of them ; . . 

False Syntax under Notes to Rule I ; 
Chapter III. — Of Cases, or Nouns ; . 

Rule II. — Of Nominatives ; . . . 

Observations on Rule II ; . . . . 

False Syntax under Rule II ; . . . 

Rule III. — Of Apposition ; . . . . 

Observations on Rule III ; . . . . 

False Syntax under Rule III ; . . 

Rule IV.— Of Possessives ; . . . 

Observations on Rule IV ; . . . . 

NuteS to Rule IV ; 5 of them ; . . 

False Syntax under Notes to Rule IV 

Rule V. — Of Objectives after Verbs ; 

Observations on Rule V ; . . . . 

Notes to Rule V : 8 of them ; . . . 

False Syntax under Rule V ; . . . 

Rule VI. — Of Same Cases ; . . . 

Observations on Rule VI ; . . . . 

Notes to Rule VI ; 2 of them ; . . 

False Syntax under Rule VI ; . . . 

Rule VII. — Of Objectives after Preposi- 
tions ; 532. 

Observations on Rule VII ; 532. 

Note to Rule VII ; 1 only ; 535. 

False Syntax under Rule VII ; . . . . 535. 

Rule VIII.— Of Nominatives Absolute ; . 536. 

Observations on Rule VIII ; 536. 

False Syntax under Rule VIII ; . . . . 538. 
Chapter IV.— Of Adjectives ; 538. 

Rule IX.— Of Adjectives; 539. 

Observations on Rule IX ; 53y. 

Notes to Rule IX; 16 of them; . . . .542. 

False Syntax under Rule IX ; .... 544. 
Chapter V. — Of Pronouns ; 549. 

Rule X. — Pronoun and Antecedent ; . . 550. 

Observations on Rule X ; 551. 

Notes to Rule X; 16 of them; . . . .556. 

False Syntax under Rule X ; 559. 

Rule XL — Pronoun and Collective Noun ; 564. 

Observations on Rule XI ; 564. 

Notes to Rule XI ; 2 of them ; . . . . 565. 

False Syntax under Rule XI ; .... 565. 

Rule XII. — Pronoun after And ; . . . . 566. 

Observations on Rule XII ; 566. 



460. 
469. 
469. 
471. 
475. 
482. 
483. 
483. 
486. 
488. 
493. 
493. 
493. 
497. 
497. 
498. 
502. 
503. 
503. 
514. 
515. 
517. 
517. 
522. 
523. 
526. 
526. 
529. 
530. 



False Syntax under Rule XII ; . . . 

Rule XIII. — Pronoun after Ok or Nor ; 

Observations on Rule XIII ; . . . 

False Syntax under Rule XIII : . . 
Chapter VI.— Of Verbs; 

Rule XIV. — Verb and Nominative ; 

Observations on Rule XIV ; . . . 

Notes to Rule XIV ; 10 of them ; . 

False Syntax under Ride XIV; . . 

Rule XV. — Verb and Collective Noun 

Observations on Rule XV ; . . . 

Note to Rule XV ; 1 only ; . . . . 

False Syntax under Rule XV ; . . 

Rule XVI.— The Verb after And ; . 

Observations on Rule XVI ; . . . 

Notes to Rule XVI ; 7 of them ; . . 

False Syntax under Rule XVI ; . . 

Rule XVII.— The Verb with Or or Nor 

Observations on Rule XVII ; . . . 

Notes to Rule XVII ; 15 of them ; . 

False Syntax under Rule XVII ; . . 

Rule XVlIL— Of Infinitives with To 

Observations on Rule XVIII ; . . 

False Syntax under Rule XVIII ; . 

Rule XIX.— Of Infinitives without To 

Observations on Rule XIX: . . . 

False Syntax under Rule XiX ; . . 
Chapter VII.— Of Participles; . . . 

Rule XX. — Syntax of Participles ; . 

Observations on Rule XX ; . . . 

Notes to Rule XX ; 13 of them ; . 

False Svntax under Rule XX ; . . 
Chapter V III.— Of Adverbs; . . . 

Rule XXI. — Relation of Adverbs ; . 

Observations on Rule XXI ; . . . 

Notes to Rule XXI ; 10 of them ; . 

False Syntax under Rule XXI ; . . 
Chapter IX. — Of Conjunctions ; . . . 

Rule XXII. — Use of Conjunctions ; . 

Observations on Rule XXII ; . . . 

Notes to Rule XXII ; 8 of them ; . 

False Syntax under Rule XXII ; 
Chapter X. — Of Prepositions ; . . . 

Rule XXIII. — Use of Prepositions ; 

Observations on Rule XXIII ; . . 

Notes to Rule XXIII; 5 of them ; . 

False Syntax under Rule XXIII ; . 
Chapter XI. — Of Interjections; . . . 

Rule XXIV.— For Interjections , . 

Observations on Rule XXIV; . . 

False Syntax Promiscuous ; . . . 

Examples for Parsing, Praxis XIII ; 
Chapter XII. — General Review ; . . 

False Syntax for a General Review ; 
Chapter XIII.— General Rule of Syntax ; 

Critical Notes to the General Rule ; 



Page. 

. 421. 
. 424. 
. 425. 
. 427. 
. 428. 
. 430. 
. 430. 
. 432. 
. 434. 
. 434. 
. 439. 
. 443. 
. 445. 
. 446. 
. 447. 
. 448. 
. 450. 
. 450. 
. 455. 



. 567. 
. 567. 
. 568. 
. 569. 
. 569. 
. 569. 
. 569. 
. 575. 
. 577. 
. 584. 
. 584. 
. 591. 
. 591. 
. 591. 
. 592. 
. 598. 
. 599. 
. 603. 
. 603. 
. 608. 
, 609. 

615. 

615. 
, 625. 
, 626. 
. 626. 
, 632. 
, 633. 

633. 

634. 

650. 

652. 

658. 

658. 

659. 

667. 

668. 

670. 

670. 

671. 

677. 

679. 

682. 

682. 

683. 

687. 

688. 

690. 

690. 

690. 

696. 

699. 

704. 

704. 
718. 
718. 



TABLE OF CONTENTSo 



IX 



Page. 
General Observations on the Syntax ; . .720. 
False Syntax under the General Eule ; . 721. 
False Syntax under the Critical Notes ; . 733. 

PAKT iv.—: 

Introductory Definitions and Observations ; 770. 
Chapter I. — Punctuation ; 771. 

Obs. on Pauses, Points, Names, &c. ; . . 772. 

Section I. — Tiie Comma ; its 17 Rules ; . 774. 

Errors concerning the Comma ; . . . . 779. 

Section II. — The Semicolon ; its 3 Eules ; 787. 

Errors concerning the Semicolon ; . . . 787. 

Mixed Examples of Error ; 789. 

Section III.— The Colon ; its 3 Rules ; . . 789. 

Errors concerning the Colon; 790. 

Mixed Examples of Error ; 791. 

Section IV.— The Period ; its 3 Rules ; . 791. 

Observations on the Period ; 792. 

Errors concerning the Period ; . . . . 794. 

Mixed Examples of Error ; 795. 

Section V.— The Dash ; its 3 Rules ; . . 795. 

Observations ou the Dash ; 796. 

Errors concerning the Dash ; 796. 

Mixed Examples of Error ; 797. 

Section VI.— The Eroteme ; its 3 Rules ; . 797. 

Observations ou the Eroteme ; . . . . 798. 

Errors concerning the Eroteme ; . . . . 798. 

Mixed Examples of Error ; 799. 

Section VII. — The Ecphoneme ; its 3 
Rules; 800. 

Errors concerning the Ecphoneme ; . . . 800. 

Mixed Examples of Error; . . . . . . 801. 

Section VIII. — The Curves; and their 2 
Rules; 801 



Errors concerning the Curves ; . . . . 802. 

Mixed Examples of Error ; 802. 

Section IX.— The Other Marks ; . . . . 803. 

Mixed Examples of Error ; 805. 

Bad English Badly Pointed ; 806. 

Chapter II. — Of Utterance ; 8u7. 

Section I. — Of Articulation; 807. 

Article I.— Of the Definition; . . . .808. 
Article II. — Of Good Articulation ; . . 808. 



Page. 

Promiscuous Examples of False Syntax ; . 747. 

Chapter XIV. — Questions on Syntax ; . . 752. 

Chapter XV. — Exercises for Writing ; . . 761. 

PROSODY. 

Section II. — Of Pronunciation ; . . . . 808. 
Article I. — Powers of Letters ; . . . 808. 

Article II.— Of Quantity ; 809. 

Article III.— Of Accent ; 809. 

Section III.— Of Elocution ; 810. 

Article I.— Of Emphasis ; 810. 

Article IL— Of Pauses; 811. 

Article III.— Of Inflections ; . . . . 812. 

Article IV.— Of Tones ; 813. 

Chapter III.— Of Figures ; 814. 

Section I. — Figures of Orthography ; . . 814. 
Section II. — Figures of Etymology ; . . 814. 
Section III. — Figures of Syntax; . . . 815. 
Section IV. — Figures of Rhetoric ; . . . 818. 
Section V. — Examples for Parsing, Praxis 
XIV; ............ 821. 

Chapter IV.— Of Versification; 827. 

Section I.— Of Verse; 827. 

Definitions and Principles; 827. 

Observations on Verse ; 828. 

Section II. — Of Accent aud Quantity ; . . 830. 

Section III.— Of Poetic Feet ; 840. 

Critical Observations on Theories; . . . 841. 
Section IV.— Of the Kinds of Verse ; . . 849. 
Order I. — Iambic Verse ; its 8 Measures ; . 850. 
Order II. — Trochaic Verse ; its Nature ; . . 860. 
Observations on Trochaic Metre ; . . . 860. 
Trochaics shown in their 8 Measures; . . 862. 
Order III. — Auapestic Verse; its 4 Meas- 
ures; 874. 

Observations on the Short Anapestics ; . 879. 
Order IV. — Dactylic Verse ; its 8 Measures'; 880. 

Observations on Dactylics ; 882. 

Order V. — Composite Verse ; 884. 

Observations on Composites ; 886. 

Section V.— Improprieties for Correction ; 890. 
Chapter V. — Questions on Prosody ; . . . 891. 
Chapter VI. — Exercises for Writing ; . . . 895. 



KEY TO THE ORAL EXERCISES. 
THE KEY.— PART I.— ORTHOGRAPHY. 



Chapter I, — Of Letters ; — Capitals ; . . . 903. 

Corrections under each of the 16 Rules; . 903. 

Promiscuous corrections of Capitals ; . . 908. 

Chapter IL— Of Syllables ; 909. 

Corrections of False Syllabication ; . . . 909. 

Chapter III.— Of the Figure of Words ; . . 910. 



Corrections under each of the 6 Rules ; . 910. 
Promiscuous corrections of Figure ; . .912. 

Chapter IV.— Of Spelling ; 914. 

Corrections under each of the 15 Rules ; . 914. 
Promiscuous corrections of Spelling ; . . 919. 



THE KEY.— PART IL— ETYMOLOGY. 



Chapter I. — Of the Parts of Speech; . . 
Remark concerning False Etymology ; 
Chapter II. — Of Articles ; 5 Lessons ; . . 
Chapter III. — Of Nouns ; 3 Lessons ; . . 
Chapter IV. — Of Adjectives ; 3 Lessons ; 
Chapter V. — Of Pronouns ; 3 Lessons ; . 

THE KEY.- 

Chapter L— Of Sentences ; Remark ; . . . 
Chapter II. — Of Articles. — Corrections un- 
der the 17 Notes to Rule I ; .... 
Chapter III.— Of Cases,- or Nouus; . . . 

Cor. under Rule II ; of Nominatives ; . . 

Cor. under Rule III ; of Apposition ; . . 

Cor. under Rule IV ; of Possessives ; . . 

Cor. under Rule V ; of Objectives ; . . . 

Cor. under Rule VI ; of Same Cases ; . . 

Cor. under Rule VII ; of Objectives ; . . 

Cor. under Rule VIII ; of Nom. Absolute ; 

Chapter IV. — Of Adjectives.— Corrections 

under the 16 Notes to Rule IX ; . . . 



920. Chapter VI.— Of Verbs ; 3 Lessons ; . . 
920. Chapter VII.— Of Participles ; 3 Lessons ; 
920. Chapter VIII.— Of Adverbs ; 1 Lesson ; . 
922. ' Chapter IX.— Ot Conjunctions ; 1 Lesson; 

924. | Chapter X. — Of Prepositions ; 1 Lesson ; 

925. j Chapter XI. — Of Interjections ; 1 Lesson ; 

-PART III.— SYNTAX. 



927- 
929- 
930- 
931. 
931. 
932. 



933. 

933. 
937. 
937. 
938. 
939. 
940. 
943. 
944. 
945. 

945. 



Chapter V. — Of Pronouns. — Corrections un- 
der Rule X and its 16 Notes ; . . . . 950. 
Corrections under Rule XI ; of Pro- 
nouns; 955. 

Cor. under Rule XII ; of Pronouns ; . . 955. 
Cor. under Rule XIII ; of Pronouns ; . . 956. 
Chapter VI. — Of Verbs. — Corrections under 

Rule XIV and its 10 Notes ; . . . . 956. 
Cor. under Rule XV and its Note ; . . . 962. 
Cor. under Rule XVI and its 7 Notes ; . 962. 
Cor. under Rule XVII and its 15 Notes ; . 965. 
Cor. under Rule XVIII ; of Infinitives ; . 970. 
Cor. under Rule XIX ; of Infinitives ; . 971. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page. 

Chapter VII. — Of Participles. — Corrections 

under the 13 Notes to Rule XX ; . . 971. 

Chapter VIII. — Of Adverbs. — Corrections 

under the 10 Notes to Eule XXI ; . . 977. 

Chapter IX. — Of Conjunctions. — Correc- 
tions under the 8 Notes to Eule XXII ; 980. 

Chapter X. — Of Prepositions. — Corrections 

under the 5 Notes to Eule XXIII ; . 983. 

Chapter XI. — Promiscuous Exercises. — 

Corrections of the 3 Lessons ; . . . . 985. 



Page. 



988. 



Chapter XII.— General Eeview. — Correc- 
tions under all the preceding Eules 
and Notes ; 18 Lessons : 

Chapter XIII. — General Eule. — Correc- 
tions under the General Eule ; 16 Les- 
sons; 1000. 

Corrections under the Critical Notes ; . . 1010, 

Promiscuous Corrections of False Syntax ; 

5 LessonB, under Various Eules ; . . 1021. 



THE KEY.— PAET IV.— PEOSODY. 



Chapter I. — Punctuation ; 1025. 

Section I. — The Comma; Corrections 
under its 17 Eules ; 1025. 

Section II. — The Semicolon ; Corrections 
under its 3 Eules ; 1030. 

Mixed Examples Corrected ; 1031. 

Section III. — The Colon ; Corrections 
under its 3 Eules ; 1032. 

Mixed Examples Corrected ; 1032. 

Section IV. — The Period; Corrections 
under its 3 Eules ; 1033. 

Mixed Examples Corrected ; 1034. 

Section V. — The Dash ; Corrections un- 
der its 3 Eules ; 1034. 

Mixed Examples Corrected ; 1035. 



Section VI. — The Eroteme ; Corrections 

under its 3 Eules ; 1035. 

Mixed Examples Corrected ; 1036. 

Section VII. — The Ecphoneme ; Correc- 
tions under its 3 Eules ; 1036. 

Mixed Examples Corrected ; 1036. 

Section VIII. — The Curves ; Corrections 

under their 2 Eules ; 1037. 

Mixed Examples Corrected ; 1037. 

Section IX. — All Points ; Corrections ; . 1038. 
Good English Eightly Pointed ; . . . 1038. 
Chapter II. — Utterance ; no Corrections ; . 1040. 
Chapter III. — Figures ; no Corrections ; . 1040. 
Chapter IV. — Versification. — False Pros- 
ody, or Errors of Metre, Corrected ; . 1040. 



THE FOUR APPENDIXES. 

Appendix I. ( — To Orthography.) — Of the Sounds of the Letters ; 1042. 

Appendix II. ( — To Etymology.) — Of the Derivation of Words ; 1051. 

Appendix III. (—To Syntax.) — Of the Qualities of Style ; 1062. 

Appendix IV. ( — To Prosody.)— Of Poetic Diction ; its Peculiarities ; 1066. 

Index of Mattees. . , 107 1. 



DIGESTED CATALOGUE 



OF 



ENGLISH GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS, 

"WITH S05IE 

COLLATERAL WORKS AND AUTHORITIES, 

ESPECIALLY SUCH AS ARE CITED IN 

THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



Adam, Alexander, LL.D. ; " Latin and English 
Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 302: Edinburgh, 1772; 
Boston, 1803. 

Adams, John Quincy, LL.D. ; " Lectures on 
Rhetoric and Oratory ;" 2 vols., 8vo : Cam- 
bridge, N. E., 1810. 

Adams, Rev. Charles, A. M.; English Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 172 : 1st Edition, Boston, 1838. 

Adams, Daniel, M. B. ; English Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 103 : 3d Edition, Montpelier, Vt., 
1814. 

Adams, E. ; English Grammar ; ISmo, pp. 143 . 
Leicester, Mass., 1st Ed., 1806 ; 5th Ed., 1821. 

Aickin, J oseph ; English Grammar, 8vo : Lon- 
don, 1G93. 

Ainsworth, Robert ; Latin and English Dic- 
tionary, 4to: 1st Ed., 1736; revised Ed., 
Lond., 1823. 

Ainsworth, Luther ; " A Practical System of 
English Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 144: 1st Ed., 
Providence, R. I., 1837. 

Alden, Abner, A. M. ; " Grammar Made Easy ;" 
12mo, pp. 180 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1811. 

Alden, Rev. Timothy, Jim. ; English Gram- 



mar ; 18mo, pp. 
Aldrich, W. ; ' 



36 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1811 
Lectures on English Grammar 
and Rhetoric, for Common Schools, Acade- 
mies," &c. ; 18mo, pp. 68 : 11th Ed., Boston, 
1847. 

Alexander, Caleb, A. M. ; (1.) " Grammatical 
Elements," published before 1794. (2.) "A 
Grammatical Institute of the Latin Lan- 
guage ;" 12mo, pp. 132: Worcester, Mass., 
1794. (3.) " A Grammatical System of the 
English Language ;" 12mo, pp. 96 ; written 
at Mendon, Mass., 1795 : 10th Ed., Keene, N. 
H., 1814. Also, (4.) "An Introduction to 
Latin," 1795 ; and, (5.) " An Introduction to 
the Speaking and Writing of English." 

Alexander, Samuel ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 
pp. 216 : 4th Edition, London, 1832. 

Alger, Israel, Jun., A. M. ; " Abridgement of 
Murray's E. Gram.," &c. ; 18mo, pp. 126: 
Boston, 1824 and 1842. 

Allen, Rev. William, M. A. ; " Grammar of 
the English Language," &c. ; 18mo : London. 
Also, " The Elements of English Grammar," 
&c. ; 12mo, pp. 457 : London, 1813 ; 2d Ed., 
1824. > J J 



Allen and Cornwell ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 162 : 3d Edition, London, 1841. 

Allen, D. Caverno ; " Grammatic Guide, or 
Common School Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 94 : 
Syracuse, N. Y., 1847. 

Andrew, James, LL J). ; English Grammar ; 
8vo, pp. 129 : London, 1817. 

Andrews & Stoddard; " A Grammar of the 
Latin Language ;" 12mo, pp. 323 : Boston, 
1836 ; 11th Ed., 1845. 

Angell, Oliver, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 90 : 1st Edition, Providence, R. I., 
1830. 

Angus, William, M. A.; English Grammar; 
12mo, pp. 255 : 2d Edition, Glasgow, Scotland, 
1807. 

Anon. • " The British Grammar ;" 8vo, pp. 281: 
London, 1760, or near that date. Boston, 
Mass., 1784. 

Anox.; "A Comprehensive Grammar," &c. ; 
18mo, pp. 174: 3d Ed., Philadelphia, T. Dob- 
son, 1789. 

Anon. ; " The Comic Grammar," &c. : Lon- 
don, 1840. 

Anon. ; " The Decoy," an English Grammar 
with Cuts ; 12mo, pp. 33 : Kew York, S. 
Wood & Sons, 1820. 

Anon.; E. Gram., "By T. C. ;" 18mo, pp. 104: 
Loudon, 1843. 

Anon.; Grammar and Rhetoric; 12mo, pp. 
221 : London, 1776. 

Anon. ; " The English Tutor ;" 8vo : London, 
1747. 

Anon. ; English Grammar, 12mo : London, 
Boosey, 1795. 

Anon. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 161 : 
London, 1838. 

Anon. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 85 : Lon- 
don, 1838. 

Anon. ; An English Grammar, with Engrav- 
ings; 18mo, pp. 16 : London, 1820. 

Anon. ; English Grammar, pp. 84 : 1st Ed., 
Huddersfield, 1817. 

Anon. : " The Essentials of English Grammar ;" 
18mo, pp. 108 : 3d Edition, London, 1821. 

Anon.; "A Plain and Comprehensive Gram- 
mar," in " The Complete Letter- Writer ;" 
12mo, pp. 31 ; — pages of the whole book, 215 : 
London, 1811. 



Xll 



CATALOGUE OF GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS. 



Anon. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 131 : 

Albany, IN. Y., 1819. 
Anon. ; (A. H. Maltby & Co. pub. :) Murray's 
Abridgement, " with Additions ;" 18mo, pp. 
120 : Newhaven, Ct., 1822. 
Anon.; (James Loring, pub. ;) Murray's 
Abridgement, " with Alterations and Im- 
provements ; by a Teacher of Youth ;" (Law- 
son Lyon ;) 18mo, pp. 72 : 14th Ed., Boston, 
1821. 
Anon. ; " The Infant School Grammar ;" (said 
to have been written by Mrs. Bethune;) 
18mo, pp. 132 : New York, 1830. Jonathan 
Seymour, proprietor. 
Anon. ; Pestalozzian Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 60 : 

Boston, 1830. 
Anon. ; Interrogative Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 70 : 

Boston, 1832. 
Anon.; Grammar with Cuts; 18mo, pp. 108: 

Boston, 1830. 
Anon. ; " The Juvenile English Grammar ;" 
18mo, pp. 89: Boston, 1829. B. Perkins & 
Co., publishers and proprietors. 
Anon.; "The Little Grammarian;" 18mo, pp. 

108 : 2d Edition, Boston, 1829. 
Anon. ; An Inductive Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 

185 : Windsor, Vt., 1829. 
Anon. ; " A Concise Grammar of the English 
Language, attempted in Verse ;" 18mo, pp. 
63 : lstfEdition, New York, 1825. 
Anon. ; " Edward's First Lessons in Gram- 
mar ;" 18mo, pp. 108 : 1st Ed., Boston, T. H. 
Webb & Co., 1843. 
Anon. ; " The First Lessons in English Gram- 
mar ;" 18mo, pp. 90 : 1st Edition, Boston, 
1842. 
Anon. ; " A New Grammar of the English Lan- 
guage;" 12mo, pp. 124: New York, 1831; 
2d Ed., Boston, 1834. 
Anon.; "Enclytica, or the Principles of Uni- 
versal Grammar ;" 8vo, pp. 133 : London, J. 
Booth, 1814. 
Anon. ; " The General Principles of Grammar, 
edited by a few Well- Wishers to Knowledge ;" 
18mo, pp. 76 : Philadelphia, Lea& Blanchard, 
1847. 
Anon.; "English School Grammar;" small 
12mo, pp. 32": London, 1850. A meagre sketch, 

gublished by "the Society for promoting 
hristian Knowledge." 

Anon. ; " An English Grammar, together with 
a First Lesson in Reading ;" 18mo, pp. 16 : 
James Burns, London; 2d Ed., 1844. Not 
worth a pin. 

Aristotle ; his Poetics ; — the Greek text, with 
Goulston's Latin Version, and Winstanley's 
Notes; — 8vo, pp. 320: Oxford, England, 
1780. 

Arnold, T. K., M. A. ; English Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 76 : 2d Edition, London, 1841. 

Ash, John, LL.D. * " Grammatical Institutes ;" 
18mo, pp. 142 : London, first published about 
1763; New York, "A New Edition, Revised 
and Corrected," 1799. 

Bacon, Caleb, Teacher ; " Murray's English 
Grammar Put into Questions and Answers ;" 
18mo, pp. 108 : New York, 1st Edition, 1818 ; 
5th Edition, 1823, 1827, and 1830. 

Badgley, Jonathan ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 200: 1st Edition, Utica, N. Y., 1845. 
Suppressed for plagiarism from G. Brown. 

Balch, Willtam S."; (1.) "Lectures on Lan- 
guage ;" 12mo, pp. 252 : Providence, 1838. 
(2.) " A Grammar cf the English Language ;" 
12mo, pp. 140 : 1st Edition, Boston, 1839." 

Baldwin, Edward ; Endish Grammar ; 18mo, 
pp. 148: London, 1810; 2d Ed., 1824. 

Barber, Dr. Jonathan ; " A Grammar of Elo- 
cution;" 12mo: Newhaven, 1830. 



Barnard, Frederick A. P., A. M. ; " Analytic 
Grammar; with Symbolic Illustration ; " 12mo, 
pp. 264 : New York, 1836. This is a curious 
work, and remarkably well-written. 
Barnes, Daniel H., of N. Y. ; " The Red Book," 
or Bearcroft's " Practical Orthography," Re- 
vised and Enlarged ; 12mo, pp. 347 : New 
York, 1828. 
Barnes, William, B. D. ; (1.) English Gram- 
mar ; 18mo, pp. 120 : London, 1842. (2.) 
" A Philological Grammar, grounded upon 
English, and formed from a Comparison of 
more than Sixty Languages ;" 8vo. pp. 312 : 
London, 1854. 
Barrett, John; "A Grammar of the English 
Language;" 18mo, pp. 214: 2d Ed., Boston, 
1819. 
Barrett, Solomon, Jun. ; (1.) " The Principles 
of Language ;" 12mo, pp. 120 : Albany, 1837. 
(2.) "The Principles of English Grammar;" 
18ino, pp. 96 ; " Tenth Edition, Revised :" 
Utica, 1845. (3.) " The Principles of Gram- 
mar ;" 12mo, pp. 407 : " Revised Edition ;" 
Cambridge, 1854. 
Barrie, Alexander ; English Grammar ; 24to, 

pp. 54 : Edinburgh, 9th Ed., 1800. 
Bartlett, Montgomery R. ; " The Common 
School Manual ;" called in the Third or Phila- 
delphia Edition, " The National School Man- 
ual ;" — " in Four Parts," or Separate Volumes, 
12mo: I, pp. 108; II, 302; III, 379; IV, 
promised " to consist of 450 or 500 pages." 
First three parts, " Second Edition," New 
York, 1830. A miserable jumble, in the suc- 
cessive pages of which, Grammar is mixed up 
with Spelling-columns, Reading-lessons, Arith- 
metic, Geometry, and the other supposed daily 
tasks of a school-boy ! 
Bailey, N., Schoolmaster ; " English and Latin 
Exercises ;" 12mo, pp. 183 : London, 18th 
Ed., 1798. 
Bailey, Rev. R. W., A. M. ; "English Gram- 
mar," or " Manual of the English Language;" 
12mo, pp. 240: 2d Ed., Philadelphia, 1854. 
Bayley, Anselm, LL.D. ; Enghsh Grammar, 

8vo : London, 1772. 
Beale, Solon; English Grammar, 18mo, pp. 

27 : Bangor, Maine, 1833. 
Be all, Alexander ; English Grammar, 12mo : 

1st Ed., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1841. 
Beattie, James, LL.D. ; " Theory of Language :" 
London, 1783; Philadelphia, 1809. "Ele- 
ments of Moral Science ;" 12mo, pp. 572 ; 
Baltimore, 1813. See, in Part 1, the sections 
which treat of "The Faculty of Speech," and 
the " Essentials of Language ;" and, in Part 
IV, those which treat of " Rhetorick, Figures, 
Sentences, Style, and Poetry." 
Beck, William ; " Outline of English Gram- 
mar ;" very small, pp. 34 : 3d Ed., London, 
1829. 
Beecher, Catharine E. ; Enghsh Grammar, 

12mo, pp. 74 . 1st Ed., Hartford, Ct., 1829. 
Bell, John ; Enghsh Grammar, 12mo, pp. 446*. 

(2 vols. :) 1st Ed., Glasgow, 1769. 
Bellamy, Elizabeth ; English Grammar, 12mo : 
London, 1802. 

Benedict, ; English Grammar, 12mo, pp. 

192 : 1st Ed., Nicholasville, Ky., 1832. 
Bettesworth, John ; English Grammar, 12mo : 

London, 1778. 
Bicknell, Alexander, Esq. ; " The Gram- 
matical Wreath; or, a Complete System of 
English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 304 : London, 
1790. 
Bingham, Caleb, A. M. ; " The Young Lady's 
Accidence ;" 18mo, pp. 60 : Boston, 1804 ; 
20th Ed., 1815. 
Blair, Hugh, D. D., F. R. S. ; " Lectures on 



CATALOGUE OF GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS. 



Xlll 



Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres ;" 8vo, pp. 500 : 
Loudon, 1783 ; New York, 1819. 
Blair, John, D. D. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 

pp. 145 : 1st Ed., Philadelphia, 1831. 
Blair, David, Rev. ; " A Practical Grammar of 
the English Language ;" 18mo, pp. 167 : 7th 
Ed., London, 1815. 

Blaisdale, Silas; English Grammar; 18mo, 
pp. 88 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1831. 

Bliss, Leonard, Jun. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 
pp. 73 : 1st Ed., Louisville, Ky., 1839. 

Bobbitt, A. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
136: 1st -Ed., London, 1833. 

Bolles, William; (1.) "A Spelling-Book ;" 
12mo, pp. 180: Ster. Ed., N. London, 1831. 
(2.) " An Explauatory and Phonographic Pro- 
nouncing Dictionary of the English Lan- 
guage ;" royal octavo, pp. 944 ; Ster. Ed., New- 
London, 1845. 

Booth, David ; Introd. to Analytical Diet. ; 8vo, 
pp. 168 : London, 1814. Analytical Dictionary 
ot the English Language : London, 1835. E. 
Grammar, 12mo : London, 1837. 

Brace, Joab ; " The Principles of English Gram- 
mar;" (vile theft from Lennie ;) 18mo, pp. 
144 : 1st Edition, Philadelphia, 1839. 

Bradley, Joshua, A. M. ; " Youth's Literarv 
Guide ;" 12mo, pp. 192 : 1st Ed., Windsor, Vt., 
1815. 

Bradley, Rev. C. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 148 : York, Eng.,1810 ; 3d Ed., 1813. 

Bridil, Edmund, LL.D. ; E. Gram., 4to : Lon- 
don, 1799. 

Brightland, John, Pub. ; " A Grammar of the 
English Tongue;" 12mo, pp. 300: 7th Ed., 
London, 1746. 

Brittain, Rev. Lewis ; English Grammar ; 
12tno, pp. 156 : 2d Edition, London, 1790. 

Bromley, Walter ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 
pp. 104 : 1st Ed., Halifax, N. S., 1822. 

Brown, Goold; (1.) " The Institutes of English 
Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 220-312: New \ork, 
1st Ed., 1823 ; stereotyped in 1832, and again 
in 1846. (2.) " The First Lines of English 
Grammar ;" early copies 18tno, late copies 
12mo, pp. 108: New York, 1st Ed., 1823; 
stereotyped in 1327, and in 1844. (3.) "A 
Key to* the Exercises for Writing, contained 
in the Institutes of English Grammar ;" 12mo, 
pp. 51: New York, 1825. (4.) "A Catechism 
of English Grammar;" 18mo, pp. 72: New 
York, 1827. (5.) "A Compendious English 
Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 22 : (in Part I of the 
Treasury of Knowledge:) New York, 1831. 
(6.) " The Grammar of English Grammars ;" 
8vo, pp. 1023 ; first printed in Boston in 1850 
and 1851. 

Brown, James ; (1.) An Explanation of E. Gram- 
mar as taught by an Expensive Machine ; 8vo, 
pp. 40 : 1st EL, Boston, 1815. (2.) " The 
American Grammar ;" a Pamphlet ; 12mo, pp. 
48: Salem, N. Y., 1821. (3.) "An American 
Grammar;" 13mo, pp. 162: New York, 1821. 
(4.) " An Appeal from the British System of 
English Grammar to Common Sense ;" 12mo, 
pp. 336 : Philadelphia, 1837. (5.) " The Amer- 
ican System of Enarlish Syntax ;" 12mo, pp. 
216 : Philad., 1333. (6.) " An Exegesis of Eng- 
lish Syntax;" 12mo, pp. 147: Philad., 1840. 
(7.) " The First Part of the American Svstem 
of English Syntax ;" 12mo, pp. 195 : Boston, 
1841. (8.) " An English Syntascope," a 
" Chart," and other fantastical works. 

Brown, J. K, A. M. ; (with Gengembre;) " Ele- 
ments of English Grammar, oh a Progressive 
System ;" 12mo, pp. 213 : Philad., 1855. 

Brown, Richard ; English Grammar, 12mo : 
London, 1692. 

Buchanan, James; "A Regular English Syn- 



tax;" 12mo, pp. 196 : 5th American Ed., 
Philad., 1792. 

Bucke, Charles ; "A Classical Grammar of 
the E. Language;" 18mo, pp. 152: London, 
1829. 

Bullen, Rev. H. St. John ; English Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 140 : 1st Edition, London, 1797. 

Bullions, Rev. Peter, D. D. ; (1.) "Elements 
of the Greek Language;" (now called, "The 
Principles of Greek Grammar :") mostly a 
version of Dr. Moors " Elementa Lingua? 
Grascae :" 1st Ed., 1831. (2.) " The Principles 
of English Grammar;" (mostly copied Irom 
Lennie ;) 12mo, pp. 187 ; 2d Ed., New York, 
1837 ; 5th Ed., Revised, pp. 216, 1843. (3.) 
"The Principles of Latin Grammar;" (pro- 
fessedly, " upon the foundation of Adam's 
Latin Grammar;") 12mo, pp. 312: Albanv. 
1841 : 12th Ed., New York, 1846. (4.) " Prac- 
tical Lessons in English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 
132: New York, 1844. (5.) "An Analytical 
and Practical Grammar of the English Lan- 
guage ; 12mo, pp. 240 : 1st Ed., New York, 
1849. 

Bullokar, William ; (1.) " Booke at Large for 
the Amendment of Orthographie for English 
Speech." (2.) " A Bref Grammar for English :" 
London, 1586. 

Burhans, Hezeelah ; " The Critical Pronounc- 
ing Spelling-Book ;" 12mo, pp. 204 : 1st Ed., 
Philad., 1823. 

Burles, Edward; E. Gram., 12mo : Lond., 
1652. 

Burn, John; " A Practical Grammar of the E. 
Lang. ;" 12mo, pp. 275 : Glasgow, 1766 ; 10th 
Ed., 1810. 

Burr, Jonathan, A. M. ; "A Compendium of 
Eng. Gram. ;" 18ino, pp. 72: Boston, 1797, — 
1804,-1818. 

Bctler, Charles; E. Gram., 4to : Oxford, Eng., 
1633. 

Butler, Noble, A. M. ; (1.) " A Practical Gram- 
mar of the E. Lang. ;" 12mo, pp. 216 : 1st Ed., 
Louisville, Ky., 1845. (2.) " Introductory Les- 
sons in E. Grammar," 1845. 

Campbell, George, D. D., F. R. S. ; " The Phi- 
losophy of Rhetoric;" 8vo, pp. 445 : London, 
1776 : Philad., 1818. 

Cardell, Wm. S. ; (1.) An "Analytical Spelling- 
Book ;" (with Part of the " Story of Jack 
Halyard ;") 12mo, pp. 192 : (published at first 
under the fictitious name of " John Franklin 
Jones:") New York, 1823; 2d Ed., 1824. (2.) 
An " Essay on Language ;" 12nio, pp. 203 : 
New York, 1825. (3.) "^Elements of English 
Grammar;" 18mo, pp. 141: New York, 1826; 
3d Ed., Hartford, 1827. (4.) "Philosophic 
Grammar of the English Language ;" 12mo, 
pp. 236 : Philadelphia, 1827. 

Carey, John ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
220 : 1st Ed., London, 1809. 

Carter, John ; E. Gram., 8vo : Leeds, 1773. 

Chandler, Joseph R. ; "A Grammar of the 
English Language ;" 12mo. pp. 180: Philad., 
1821. Rev. Ed., pp. 208, stereotyped, 1847. 

Chapin, Joel ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
252 : 1st Edition, Springfield, Mass., 1842. 

Chauvier, J. H., M. A. ; "A Treatise on Punc- 
tuation ;" translated from the French, by J. B. 
Huntington ; large 18mo, pp. 112 : London, 
1849. 

Chessman, Daniel, A. M. ; Murrav Abridged ; 
18mo, pp. 24 : 3d Ed., Hallowell, Me., 1821. 

Child, Prof. F. J. ; " Revised Edition" of Dr. 
Latham's "Elementary English Grammar;" 
12mo, pp. 236 : Cambridge, N. E., 1852. 

Churchill, T. O. ; "A New Grammar of the 
English Language ;" 12mo, pp. 454 : 1st Ed., 
London, 1823. 



XIV 



CATALOGUE OF GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS. 



Clapham, Rev. Samuel ; E. Grammar : London, 
1810. 

Clark, Henry ; E. Grammar ; 4to : London, 
1656. 

Clark, Schuyler ; " The American Linguist, or 
Natural Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 240 : Prov- 
idence, 1880. 

Clark, S. W., A. M. ; "A Practical Grammar," 
with " a System of Diagrams ;" 12mo,pp. 218 ; 
2d Ed., New York, 1848. 

Clark, William ; E. Gram. ; 18mo : London, 
1810. 

Clarke, R. ; "Poetical Grammar of the English 
Language, and an Epitome of Rhetoric ;" 
12mo, pp. 172 ; price, 2s. 6d. : London, 1855. 

Coar, Thomas; "A Grammar of the English 
Tongue ;" 12mo, pp. 276 : 1st Ed., London, 
1796. 

Cobb, Enos; "Elements of the English Lan- 
guage ;" 12mo, pp. 108 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1820. 

Cobb, Lyman, A. M. ; (1.) A Spelling-Book ac- 
cording to J. Walker; "Revised Ed.: 1 ' Ithaca, 
N. Y., 1825. (2.) "Abridgment of Walker's 
Grit. Pron. Diet. :" Hartford, Ct., 1829. (8.) 
" Juvenile Reader, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and Sequel :" 
New York, 1831. (4.) "The North American 
Reader ;" 12mo, pp. 498 : New York, 1835. 
(5.) " New Spelling-Book, in Six Parts ;" 
12rno, pp. 168: N. Y., 1843. (6.) An "Ex- 
positor," a " Miniature Lexicon," books of 
"Arithmetic, &c, &c." 

Cobbett, William ; " A Grammar of the E. 
Language ;" 12mo, New York and Lond., 
1818 ; 18mo, N. Y., 1832. 

Cobbin, Rev. Ingram, M. A. ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 72 : 20th Edition, London, 1844. 

Cochran, Peter, A. B. • English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 71 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1802. 

Colet, Dr. John, Dean of St. Paul's ; the " Eng- 
lish Introduction" to Lily's Grammar ; dedi- 
cated to Lily in 1510. See Gram, of E. Gram., 
Inlrod., Chap. XI, HIT 3, 4, and 5. 

Comly, John; "English Grammar Made Easy;" 
18mo, pp. 192 : 6th Ed., Philad., 1815 ; 15th 
Ed., 1826. 

Comstock, Andrew, M. D. ; "A System of Elo- 
cution;" 12mo, pp. 364: Philadelphia, 1844. 
"A Treatise on Phonology;" 12mo, 1846: 
&c. 

Connel, Robert ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 
162 : Glasgow, 1831 ; 2d Ed., 1834. 

Connon, C. W., M. A. ; English Grammar ; 
l2mo, pp. 168 : Edinburgh, 1845. 

Cooper, Rev. Joab Goldsmith, A.M. ; (1.) "An 
Abridgment of Murray's English Grammar;" 
(largely stolen from G. Brown ;) 12mo, pp. 
200: Philadelphia, 1828. (2.) "A Plain and 
Practical English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 210 : 
Philad., 1831. 

Coote, C, LL.D. ; on the English Language ; 
8vo, pp. 28-2 : 1st Edition, London, 1788. 

Corbet, James ; English Grammar ; 24to, pp. 
153 : 1st Edition, Glasgow, 1743. 

Corbet, John; English Grammar; 12mo : 
Shrewsbury, England, 1784. 

Cornell, WilltamM.; English Grammar; 4to, 
pp. 12 : 1st Edition, Boston, 1840. 

Covell, L. T. ; "A Digest of English Gram- 
mar;" l2mo, pp. 219": 3d Ed./New York, 
1853. Much indebted to S. S. Greene,' H. 
Mandeville, and G. Brown. 

Crane, George ; " The Principles of Language ;" 
12mo, pp. 264: 1st Ed., London, 1843. 

Crocked, Abraham ; English Grammar, 12mo : 
Lond., 1772. 

Cromi:ie, Alexander, LL.D., F. R. S. ; " A Trea- 
tise on the Etymology and Syntax of the Eng- 
lish Language ;" 8vo, pp. 425 : London, 2d 
Ed., 1809 ; 4th Ed., 1836. 



Cutler, Andrew, A.M.; "English Grammar 
and Parser ;" 12mo, pp. 168 : 1st Ed., Plain- 
field, Ct., 1841. 

Dale, W. A. T. ; a small "English Gram- 
mar;" 18mo, pp. 72: 1st Ed., Albany, N. Y., 
1820. 

D alton, John; "Elements of English Gram- 
mar;" 12mo, pp. 122: London, 1st Ed., 1801. 

Davenport, Bishop; "English Grammar Sim- 
plified;" 18mo, pp. 139 : 1st Ed., Wilmington, 
Del, 1830. 

Davidson, David ; a Syntactical Treatise, or 
Grammar ; 12mo : London, 1823. . 

Davis, Rev. John, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 188 : 1st Ed., Belfast, Ireland, 1832. 

Davis, Pardon; (1.) An Epitome of E. Gram. ; 
12mo, pp. 56: 1st Ed., Philad., 1818. (2.) 
" Modern Practical E. Gram. ;" 12mo, pp. 175 : 
1st Ed., Philad., 1845. 

Day, Parsons E. ; " District School Gram- 
mar;" 18mo, pp. 120: 2d Ed., Ithaca, N. Y., 
1844. 

Day, William; "Punctuation Reduced to a 
System;" 18mo, pp. 147: 3d Ed., London, 
1847. 

Dearborn, Benjamin; " Columbian Grammar;" 
12mo, pp. 140: 1st Ed., Boston, 1795. 

Del Mar, E. ; Treatise on English Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 115 : 1st Ed., London, 1842. 

D'Orsey, Alexander J. D. ; (1.) A Duodecimo 
Grammar, in Two Parts ; Part I, pp. 153 ; Part 
II, pp. 142 : 1st Ed., Edinburgh, 1842. (2.) 
An Introduction to E. Gram. ; 18mo, pp. 104 : 
Edin., 1845. 

De Sacy, A. J. Sylvestre, Baron ; " Principles 
of General Grammar ;" translated from the 
French, by D. Fosdick, Jun. ; 12mo, pp. 156 : 
1st American, from the 5th French Edition ; 
Andover and New York, 1834. 

" Despauter, John, a Flemish grammarian, 
whose books were, at one time, in great re- 
pute ; he died in 1520." — Univ. Biog. Diet. 
Despauter's Latin Grammar, in Three Parts, 
— Etymology, Syntax, and Versification, — 
comprises 858 octavo pages. Dr. Adam says, 
in the "Preface to the Fourth Edition" of his 
Grammar, " The first complete edition of Des- 
pauter's Grammar was printed at Cologne, 
anno 1522 ; his Syntax had been published 
anno 1509." G.Brown's copy is a " complete 
edition," printed partly in 15i7, and partly in 
1518. 

Devis, Ellen ; E. Gram. ; 18mo, pp. 130 : Lon- 
don and Dublin; 1st Ed., 1777; 17th Ed., 
1825. Hg^Devis's Grammar, spoken of in D. 
Blair's Preface, as being too "comprehensive 
and minute," is doubtless an other and much 
larger work. 

Dilworth, Thomas; "A New Guide to the Eng- 
lish Tongue ;" 12mo, pp. 148 : London ; 1st 
Ed., 1740 : 26th Ed., 1764 ; 40th Ed., (used 
by G. B.,) undated. 

Doherty, Hugh ; a Treatise on English Gram- 
mar ; 8vo, pp. 240 : 1st Ed., London, 1841. 

Drummond, John ; English Grammar ; 8vo : 
London, 1767. 

Dyche Thomas ; English Grammar ; 8vo, pp. 
10 : London, 1st Ed., 1710 ; 12th Ed., 1765. 

Earl, Mary ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 36 : 
1st Ed., Boston, 1816. 

Edwards, Mrs. M. C. ; English Grammar ; 8vo : 
Brentford, England, 1796. 

Egelsiiem, Wells ; English Grammar ; 12mo : 
London, 1781. 

Elmore, D. W., A. M. ; "English Grammar, or 
Natural Analvsis ;" 18mo, pp. 18: 1st Ed., 
Troy, N. Y., 1830. A mere trifle. 

Elphinston, James ; on the English Language ; 
12mo, pp. 298 : 1st Ed., London, 1796. 



CATALOGUE OF GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS. 



XV 



m* 



Emerson, Benjamin D. ; "National Spelling- 
Book ;" 12mo, pp. 168 : Boston, 1828. 

Emery, J., A. B. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 
39 : 1st Ed., Wellsborough, Pa., 1829. 

Emmons, S. B. ; " The Grammatical Instructer ;" 
12mo, pp. 160 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1832. Worth- 
less. 

Ensell, G. j "A Grammar of the English Lan- 
guage ;" in English and Dutch ; 8vo, pp. 6120 
Rotterdam, 1797. 

Everest, Rev. Cornelius B. ; " An English 
Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 270 : 1st Ed., Norwich, 
Ct., 1835. Suppressed for plagiarism from G. 
Brown. 

Everett, Erasttjs, A. M. ; "A System of Eng~ 
lish Versification ;" 12mo, pp. 198 : 1st Ed., 
New York, 1848. 

Farnum, Caleb, Jun., A. M. ; " Practical Gram- 
mar ;" 12mo, pp. 124 : 1st Edition, (sup- 
?ressed for petty larcenies from G. Brown,) 
'rovidence, R. I., 1842 ; 2d Edition, (altered 
to evade the charge of plagiarism,) Boston, 
1843. 

Farro, Daniel; "The Royal British Grammar 
and Vocabulary;" 12mo, pp. 344: 1st Ed., 
London, 1754. 

Felch, W. ; " A Comprehensive Grammar ;" 
12mo, pp. 122 : 1st Edition, Boston, 1837. This 
author can see others 1 faults better than his 
own. 

Felton, Oliver C. ; "A Concise Manual of Eng- 
lish Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 145 : Salem, Mass., 
1843. 

Fenning, Daniel ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
224: 1st Ed., London, 1771. 

Fenwick, John ; an English Grammar, 12mo. : 
London, 1811. 

Fisher, A. ; " A Practical New Grammar ;" 12mo, 
pp. 176 : London ; 1st Ed., 1753 ; 28th Ed., 
1795 ; " A New Ed., Enlarged, Improved, and 
Corrected," (used by G. B.,) 1800. 

Fisk, Allen; (1.) Epitome of E. Gram.; 18mo, 
pp.124: Hallowell, Me., 1821; 2d Ed., 1828. 
(2.) " Adam's Latin Grammar Simplified :" 
8vo, pp. 190: New York, 1822; 2d Ed., 
1824. (3.) " Murray's English Grammar Sim- 
plified ;" 8vo, pp. 178 : 1st Ed., Troy, N. Y., 
1822. 

Fleming, Rev. Caleb ; an English Grammar, 
12mo: London, 1765. 

Fletcher, Levi ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
83 : 1st Ed., Philadelphia, 1834. 

Fletcher, Rev. W. ; English Gram. ; 18mo, 
pp. 175: London; 1st Ed., 1828; 2d Ed., 
1833. 

Flint, Abel, A. M., and D. D. ; "Murray's 
English Grammar Abridged ;" 12mo, pp. 204 : 
Hartford, Ct. ; 1st Ed., 1807 ; 6th Ed., pp. 214, 
1826. 

Flint, John; " First Lessons in English Gram- 
mar;" 18mo, pp. 107: 1st Ed., New York, 
1834. 

Flower, M. and W. B. • English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 170 : 1st Ed., London, 1844. 

Folker, Joseph; "An Introduction to E. 
Gram.;" 12mo, pp. 34: Savannah, Ga., 1821. 

Formey, M., M. D., S. E., &c, &c. ; "Ele- 
mentary Principles of the Belles-Lettres ;"— 
" Translated from the French, by the late Mr. 
Sloper Forman;" 12mo, pp. 224: Glasgow, 
1767. 

Fowle, William Bentlet; (1.) "The True 
English Grammar," (Part I ;) 18mo, pp. 180: 
Boston, 1827. (2.) " The True English Gram- 
mar, Part II ;" 18mo, pp. 97 : Boston, 1829. 
(3.) " The Common School Grammar, Part I ;" 
12mo, pp. 46 : Boston, 1842. (4.) " The Com- 
mon School Grammar, Part II;" 12mo, pp. 
108 : Boston, 1842. 



Fowler, William C. ; "English Grammar;" 
8vo, pp. 675 : 1st Ed., New York, 1850. 

Frazee, Rev. Bradford; "An Improved Gram- 
mar;" 12mo, pp. 192: Philad., 1844; Ster. 
Ed., 1845. 

French, D'Arcy A.; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 168 : Baltimore, 1st Ed., 1831. 

Frost, John, A.M.; (1.) "Elements of English 
' Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 108: 1st Ed., Boston, 
1829. (2.) " A Practical English Grammar ;" 
(with 89 cuts ;) 12mo, pp. 204: 1st Ed., Phila- 
delphia, 1842. 

Fuller, Allen ; " Grammatical Exercises, being 
a plain and concise Method of teaching English 
Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 108 : 1st Ed., Plymouth, 
Mass., 1822. A book of no value. 

Gartley. G. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 225 : 
1st Edition, London, 1830. 

Gay, Anthelme; " A French Prosodical Gram- 
mar ;" for English or American Students ; 
12mo, pp. 215 : New York, 1795. 

Gengembre, P. W. ; " Brown and Gengembre's 
English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 213 : Philad., 
1855. (See J. H. Brown.) 

Gibbs, Prof. J. W., of Yale C. ; on Dialects, 
Sounds, and Derivations. See about 128 pages, 
credited to this gentleman, in Prof. Fowler's 
large Grammar, of 1850. 

Gilbert, Eli; a "Catechetical Grammar;" 
18mo, pp. 124: 1st Ed., 1834; 2d Ed., New 
York, 1835. 

Gilchrist, James; English Grammar; 8vo, pp. 
269 : 1st Ed., London, 1815. 

Giles, James; English Grammar; 12mo, pp. 
152: London, 1804; 2d Ed., 1810. 

Giles, Rev. T. A., A. M. ; English Grammar ; 
12mo, London, 2d Ed., 1838. 

Gill, Alexander ; English Grammar, treated in 
Latin ; 4to : London, 1621. 

Gilleade, G. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
206 : London ; 1st Ed., 1816. 

Gtrault Du Vivier, Ch. P. ; (1.) " La Gram- 
maire des Grammaires ;" two thick volumes, 
8vo: Paris; 2d Ed., 1814. (2.) " Traite des 
Participes ;" 8vo, pp. 84: 2d Ed., Paris, 
1816. 

Goldsbury, John, A. M. ; (1.) "The Common 
School Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 94: 1st Ed., 
Boston, 1842. (2.) "Sequel to the Common 
School Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 110: 1st Ed., 
Boston, 1842. 

Goodexow, Smith B. ; " A Systematic Text-Book 
of English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 144 : 1st 
Edition, Portland, 1839 ; 2d Edition, Boston, 
1843. 

Gough, John and James ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 212 : 2d Ed., Dublin, 1760. 

Gould, Benjamin A. ; " Adam's Lat. Gram., 
with Improvements ;" 12mo, pp. 300 : Boston, 
1829. 

Graham, G. F. • English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
134 : 1st Eel., London, 1843. 

Grant, John, A.M.; (1.) " Institutes of Latin 
Grammar ;" 8vo, pp. 453 : London, 1808. (2.) 
A Comprehensive English Grammar; 12mo, 
pp. 410 : 1st Ed., London, 1813. 

Granville, Geo. ; English Grammar, 12mo : 
London, 1827. 

Gray, James, D. D. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 
pp. 144: 1st Ed., Baltimore, 1818. 

Green, Matthias ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 148 : 1st Ed., London, 1837. 

Green, Richard W. ; " Inductive Exercises in 
English Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 108 ; 1st 
Ed., New York, 1829; 5th Ed., Phila., 1834. 

Greene, Roscoe G. ; (1.) E. Gram. ; 12mo, pp. 
132 : Hallowell, Me. ; 1st Ed., 1828 ; Ster. Ed., 
1835. (2.) " A Practical Grammar for the Eng- 
lish Language ;" (with Diagrams of Moods ;) 



XVI 



CATALOGUE OF GRAMMARS A^D GRAMMARIANS. 



12mo: Portland, 1829. (3.) " A Grammatical 
Text-Book, being an Abstract of a Practical 
Gram., &c. ;" 12mo, pp. 69 : Boston, 1833. 

Geeene, Samuel S.; (1.) "Analysis of Senten- 
ces; 1 ' 12mo, pp. 258: 1st Ed., Philadelphia, 
1848. (2.) "First Lessons in Grammar;" 
18mo, pp. 171 : 1st Ed., Philad., 1848. 

Geeeneeaf, Jeremiah: " Grammar Simplified ;" 
4to, pp. 48 ; New York ; 3d Ed., 1821 ; 20th 
Ed., 1837. 

Greenwood, James ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 315 : London, 1711 ; 2d Ed., 1722. 

Grenville, A. S. ; "Introduction to English 
Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 63 : 1st Ed., Boston, 
1822. 

Griscom, John, LL. D. ; "Questions in English 
Grammar;" 18ino, pp. 42 : 1st Ed., New lork, 
1821. 

Gurnet, David, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 72: Boston, 1801 _; 2d Ed., 1808. 

Guy, Joseph, Jun. ; "English School Gram- 
mar;" 18mo, pp. 143 : 4th Ed., London, 1816. 

Hall, Rev. S. R.; "The Grammatical Assist- 
ant;" 12mo, pp. 131: 1st Ed., Springfield, 
Mass., 1832. 

Hall, William; "Encyclopaedia of English 
Grammar;" (by report;) Ohio, 1850. 

Hallock, Edward J., A. M. ; " A Grammar of 
the English Language ;" 12mo, pp. 251 : 1st 
Ed., New York, 1842. A very inaccurate book, 
with sundry small plagiarisms from G. Brown. 

Hamlin, Lorenzo F. ; "English, Grammar in 
Lectures ;" 12mo, pp. 108 ; New York, 1831 ; 
Ster. Ed., 1832. 

Hammond, Samuel ; English Grammar ; 8vo : 
Lond., 1744. 

Harris, James, Esq. ; " Hermes, or a Philo- 
sophical Inquiry concerning Universal Gram- 
mar;" 8vo, pp. 468: London, 1751: 6th Ed., 
1806. 

Harrison, Mr.; " Rudiments of English Gram- 
mar;" lbmo, pp. 108: 9th American Ed., 
Philad., 1812. 

Harrison, Rev. Matthew, A. M.; "The Rise, 
Progress, and Present Structure of the Eng- 
lish Language ;" 12mo, pp.393 : Preface dated 
Basingstoke, Eug., 1848; 1st American Ed., 
Philad., 1850. 

Hart, John S., A. M. ; "English Grammar;" 
12mo, pp. 192; 1st Ed., Philadelphia, 1845. 

Harvey, J.; English Grammar : London, 1841. 

Hazen, Edward, A. M. ; " A Practical Grammar 
of the English Language;" 12mo, pp. 240: 
New York, 1842. 

Hazlitt, William; English Grammar; 18mo, 
pp. 205 : London, 1810. 

Hendbick, J. L., A. M. ; "A Grammatical Man- 
ual ;" 18mo, pp. 105 : 1st Ed., Syracuse, N. Y., 
1844. 

Hewes, John, A. M. ; English Grammar; 4to; 
London, 1624. 

Hewett, O. ; English Grammar ; folio, pp. 16 : 
1st Edition, New York, 1838. 

Higginson, Rev. T. E. ; E. Gram. ; 12mo : Dub- 
lin, 1803. 

Hiley, Richard ; "A Treatise on English Gram- 
mar," &c. ; 12mo, pp. 269: 3d Ed., London, 
1840. Hiloy's Grammar Abridg-ed; 18mo, pp. 
196: London, 1843 : 4th Ed., 1851. 

Hill, J. II. ; " On the Subjunctive Mood ;" 8vo, 
pp. 63 : 1st Ed., London, 1834. 

Hodgson, Rev. Isaac; English Grammar; 18mo, 
pp. 184: 1st Ed., London, 1770. 

Home, Henry, Lord Karnes; "Elements of Crit- 
icism;" 2 volumes 8vo,pp. 836: (3d American, 
from the 8th London Ed.:) New York, 1819. 
Also, "The Art of Thinking;" 12mo,pp. 284: 
(from the last London Ed. ;) New York, 
1818. 



Hornsey, John; English Grammar* 12mo, pp. 
144: York, England, 1793 : 6th Ed., 1816. 

Hort, W. Jillard; English Grammar; 18mo, 
pp. 219 : 1st Ed., London, 1822. 

Houghton, John ; English Grammar ; 8vo : Lon- 
don, 1766. 

Houston, Samuel, A. B .; English Grammar; 
12mo, pp. 48 : 1st Ed., Harrisburgh, Pa., 1818. 

Howe, S. L. ; English Grammar; 18mo : 1st Ed., 
Lancaster, Ohio, 1838. 

Howell, James ; English Grammar ; 12mo : Lon- 
don, 1662. 

Hull, Joseph Hervey; "E. Gram., by Lec- 
tures;" 12mo, pp. 72 : 4th Ed., Boston, 1828. 

Humphrey, Asa; (1.) " The English Prosody ;" 
12mo, pp.175: 1st Ed., Boston, 1847. (2.) 
"The Rules of Punctuation;" with "Rules 
for the Use of Capitals ;" 18mo, pp. 71: 1st 
Ed., Boston, 1847. 

Hurd, S. T. ; E. Gram. : 2d Ed., Boston, 1827. 

Huthersal, John; English Grammar; 18mo: 
England, 1814. 

Ingersoll, Charles M. ; "Conversations on 
English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 296 ; New 
York, 1821. 

Jamieson, Alexander ; "A Grammar of Rhet- 
oric and Polite Literature;" 12mo, pp.345: 
"The first American, from the last London 
Edition ;" Newhaven, 1820. 

Jaudon, Daniel ; "The Union Grammar ;" 
18mo, pp. 216: Philadelphia; 1st Ed., 1812; 
4th, 1828. 

Jenkins, Azariah ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 256 ; 1st Ed., Rochester, N. Y., 1835. 

Joel, Thomas; English Grammar; 12mo, pp. 
78 : 1st Ed., London, 1775. 

Johnson, Richard ; " Grammatical Comment- 
aries ;" (chiefly on Lily ;) 8vo, pp. 436 : Lon- 
don, 1706. 

Johnson, Samuel, LL. D. ; "A Dictionary of the 
English Language ;" in two thick volumes, 4to ; 
1st American, from the 11th London Edition ; 
Philadelphia, 1818. To this work, are prefixed 
Johnson's " History of the English Lan- 
guage," pp. 29 ; and his " Grammar of the 
English Tongue," pp. 14. 

Jones, Joshua; E. Gram.; 18mo : Phila., 1841. 

Jonson, Ben ; — see, in his Works, " The English 
Grammar, made by Ben Jonson, for the Ben- 
efit of all Strangers, out of his Observation of 
the English Language, now spoken and in 
use :" London, 1634 : 8vo, pp. 94 -Lond., 1816. 

Judson, Adoniram, Jun., A. B. ; E. Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 56 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1808. 

Kennion, Charlotte ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 157 : 1st Ed., London, 1842. 

Kilson, Roger ; English Grammar ; 12mo : Eng- 
land, 1807. 

King, Walter W. ; English Grammar; 18mo, 
pp. 76 : 1st Ed., London, 1841. 

Kirkham, Samuel ; " English Grammar in famil- 
iar Lectures ;" 12mo, pp. 141—228 : 2d Ed., 
Harrisburgh, Pa., 1825; 12th Ed., New York, 
1829. 

Knowles, John; "The Principles of English 
Grammar;" 12mo: 3d Ed., London, 1794. 

Knowlton, Joseph ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 
pp. 84: Salem, Mass., 1818 ; 2d Ed., 1832. 

Latham, Robert Gordon, A. M., M. D., F. R. S. 
(1.) " The English Language ;" 8vo, pp. 418 : 
1st Ed., London, 1841. (2.) " English Gram- 
mar;" 12mo, pp. 214: 1st Ed., London, 1843. 
(3.) " A , Hand-Book of the English Lan- 
guage;" large 12mo, pp.398 : New York, 1852. 

Leavitt, Dudley; English Grammar; 24to, pp. 
60 : 1st Ed., Concord, N. H., 1826. 

Lennie, William ; " The Principles of English 
Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 142 : 5th Ed., Edin- 
burgh, 1819; 13th Ed., 1831. 



CATALOGUE OF GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS. 



XV11 



Lewis, Alonzo; "Lessons in English Gram- 
mar;" 18mo, pp. 50: 1st Ed., Boston, 1822. 

Lewis, John; (1.) English Grammar; 18mo, 
pp. 48 : 1st Ed., New \ork, 1828. (2.) ''Tables 
of Comparative Etymology ; or, The Student's 
Manual of Languages ;" 4to, pp. 108 : Philad., 
1828. 

Lewis, William Greathead ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 204: 1st Ed., London, 1821. 

Lily, William ; " Brevissima Institutio, seu Ra- 
tio Grammatices cognoscendee ;" large 18mo, 
pp. 140 : London, 1793. 

Lindsay, Rev. John, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 88 : 1st Ed., London. 1842. 

Locke, John, M. D. ; small English Grammar ; 
18mo : 1st Ed., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1827. 

Loughton, William ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 194: 3d Ed., London, 1739. 

Lovechild, Mrs. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 
72 : 40th Ed., London, 1842. 

Lowth, Robert, D. D. : "A Short Introduction to 
English Grammar , 18mo, pp. 132 : London, 
1763 ;— Philadelphia, 1799 ;— Cambridge, Mass., 
1838. 

Lynde, John ; English Grammar; 18mo, pp. 
10 : 1st Ed., Woodstock, Vt., 1821. 

Mack, Evered J. ; " The Self-Instructor, and 
Practical English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 180 : 
1st Ed., Springfield, Mass., 1835. An egregious 
plagiarism from G. Brown. 

Macgowan, Rev. James ; " English Grammar ;" 
18mo, pp. 248 : London, 1825. 

Mackintosh, Duncan; "An Essay on English 
Grammar;" 8vo, pp. 239: Boston, 1797. 

Mackilquhem, W illiam ; English Grammar ; 
12mo: Glasgow* 1799. 

Maittaire, Michael; English Grammar; 8vo, 
pp. 272: London, 1712. 

Mandeville, Henry, D. D. ; (1.) "Elements of 
Reading and Oratory ;" large 12mo: Utica, 
N. Y., 1845. (2.) " A Course of Reading for 
Schools ;" 12mo, pp. 377 : Improved Ed. ; New 
York, 1851. 

Marcet, Mrs. ; Euglish Grammar; 18mo, pp. 
331 : 7th Ed., London, 1843. 

Martin, Benj. ; English Grammar ; 12mo : Lon- 
don, 1754. 

Matheson, John ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 
138 : 2d Ed., London, .1821. 

Maunder, Samuel ; Grammar prefixed to Diet. ; 
12mo, pp. 20: 1st Ed., London, 1830. . ., 

Mavor, William ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 
70 : 1st Ed., London, 1820. 

M'Cready, F. ; 12mo Grammar : Philad., 1820. 

M'Culloch, J. M., D. D. ; "A Manual of Eng- 
lish Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 188 : 7th Ed., Ed- 
inburgh, 1841. 

M'Elligott, James N. ; « Manual, Analytical and 
Synthetical, of Orthography and Definition ;" 
8vo, pp. 223 : 1st Ed., New York, 1846. Also, 
" The Young Analyzer ;" 12mo, pp. 54 : New 
York, 1846. 

Meilan, Mark A. ; English Grammar ; 12mo : 
London, 1803. 

Mendenhall, William ; " The Classification of 
Words ;" 12mo, pp. 36 : Philad., 1814. 

Mennye, J. • " English Grammar ;" 8vo, pp. 

124 : 1st Ed., New York, 1785. 
Mercey, Blanche ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 2 

vols., pp. 248 : 1st Ed., London, 1799. 
Merchant, Aaron M. ; Murray's Small Gram- 
mar, Enlarged ; 18mo, pp. 216 : N. Y., 1824. 
This " Enlarged Abridgement" became " The 
American School Grammar" in 1828. 
Miller, Alexander ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 

pp. 119 : 1st Ed., New York, 1795. 
Miller, The Misses ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 

pp. 63 : 1st Ed., London, 1830. 
Miller, Ferdinand H. ; " The Ready Gramma- 

2 



rian;" square 12mo, pp. 24: Ithaca, New York. 
1843. 

Miller, Tobias Bam; Murray's Abridgement, 
with Questions ; 12mo, pp. 76 : Portsmouth, 
N.H., 1823. 

Milligan, Rev. George ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 72: Edin., 1831 ; 2d Ed., 1839. 

Moore, Thomas; "Orthography and Pronunci- 
ation ;" 12mo, pp. 176 : London, 1810. 

Morgan, Jonathan, Jun., A. B. ; English Gram- 
mar; 12mo, pp. 405: 1st Ed., Haflowell, Me., 
1814. 

Morley, Charles, A, B. ; "School Grammar;" 
12mo, pp. 86: (with Cuts :) 1st Ed., Hartford, 
Ct., 1836. 

Morey, Amos C. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 
106 : Albany, N. Y., 1829. 

Mulkey, William ; "An Abridgment of Walk- 
er's Rules on the bounds of the Letters ;" 18mo, 
pp. 124: Bostou. 1834. Fudge! 

Mulligan, John, A. M. ; (1.) " Exposition of the 
Grammatical Structure of the English Lan- 
guage ;" small 8vo, pp. 574 : New York, 1852. 
(2.) Same Abridged for Schools ; 12mo, pp. 
301 : N. Y., 1854. 

Murray, Alexander, D. D. ; " The History of 
European Languages ;" in two vols., 8vo. ; pp. 
800. 

Murray, Alexander, Schoolmaster ; " Easy 
English Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 194: 3d Ed., 
London, 1793. 

Murray, Lindley ; (1.) " English Grammar, 
Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners ;" 
12mo, pp. 284: York, Eng., 1795; 2d Ed., 
1796 ; 23d Ed., 1816. (2.) " Abridgment of 
Murray's English Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 105 : 
"From the 30th English Ed.," New York, 
1817. (3.) " An English Grammar ;" in two 
volumes, octavo ; pp. 684 : 4th American from 
the last English Ed.; New York, 1819. (4.) 
A Spelling-Book ; 18mo, pp. 180 : New York, 
1819. 

Mylins, Wm. F. ; Gram., 12mo: England, 1809. 

Mylne, Rev. A., D.D.- English Grammar; 18mo, 
pp. 180 : 11th Ed., Edinburgh, 1832. ♦ 

Nesbit, A. ; " An Introd. to English Parsing ;" 
18mo, pp. 213 : 2d Ed., York, England, 1823. 

Newbury, John ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
152 : 5th Ed., London, 1787. 

Nightingale, Rev. J. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 96 : 1st Ed., London, 1822. 

Nixon, H. ; (1.) " The English Parser ;" 12mo, 
pp. 164: 1st Ed., London, 1826. (2.) " New 
and Comprehensive English Grammar,-" 12mo : 
1st Ed., London, 1833. 

Nutting, Rufus, A. M. ; "A Practical Gram- 
mar ;" 12mo, pp. 144 : 3d Ed., Montpelier, Vt., 
1826. 

Odell, J., A. M. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
205 : 1st Ed., London, 1806. 

Oliver, Edward, D. D. ; English Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 178 : 1st Ed., London, 1807. 

Oliver, Samuel; English Grammar; 8vo, pp. 
377 : 1st Ed., London, 1825. 

Palmer, Mary; English Grammar; 12mo, pp. 
48 : New York, 1803. 

Parker, Richard Green; (1.) " Exercises in 
Composition ;" 12mo, pp. 106 : 3d Ed., Bos- 
ton, 1833. (2.) "Aids to English Compo- 
sition ;" 12mo, pp. 418 : 1st Ed., Boston, 
1844. , 

Parker and Fox ; " Progressive Exercises in 
English Grammar;" in three separate parts, 
12mo :— Part I, pp. 96 ; Boston, 1834: Part II, 
pp. 60 ; Boston, 1835 : Part III, pp. 122 ; Bos- 
ton, 1840. 

Parkhurst, John L. ; (1.) " A Systematic Intro- 
duction to English Grammar ;" 18mo, pp.104: 
Concord, N. H., 1820 ; 2d Ed., 1824. (2.) 



XV111 



CATALOGUE OF GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS 



" English Grammar for Beginners ;" 18mo, 
pp. 180 : 1st Ed., Andover, Mass., 1838. 
Parsons, Samuel H. • English Grammar ; 18mo, 

pp. 107 : 1st Ed., Philadelphia, 1836. 
Peirce, John ; " The New American Spelling- 
Book," with " A Plain and Easy Introduction 
to English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 200 : 6th Ed., 
Philadelphia, 1804. This Grammar is mostly 
copied from Harrison's. 
Peirce, Oliver B. ; " The Grammar of the Eng- 
lish Language ;" 12mo, pp. 384 : 1st Ed., New 
York, 1839. Also, Abridgement of the same ; 
18mo, pp. 144 : Boston, 1840. 
Pengelley, Edward ; English Gram. ; 18mo, 

pp. 108 : 1st Ed., London, 1840. 
Perley, Daniel, M. D. ; "A Grammar of the 
English Language ;" 18mo, pp. 79 : 1st Ed., 
Andover, Mass., 1834. 
Perry, William; Grammar in Diet. ; 12mo: Ed- 
inburgh, 1801. 
Pickbourn, James; " Dissertation on the English 

Verb:" London, 1789. 
Picket, Albert ; " Analytical School Grammar ;" 
18mo, pp. 252 : New York, 1823 ; 2d Ed., 
1824. 
Pinneo, T. S., M. A., M. D. ; (1.) " A Primary 
Grammar, for Beginners :" Cincinnati. (2.) 
" Analytical Grammar of the E. Language •" 
12mo, pp. 216: Cincinnati, 1850; New York, 
1853. (3.) "Pinneo's English Teacher; in 
which is taught the Structure of Sentences by 
Analysis and Synthesis ;" 12mo, pp. 240 : Cin- 
cinnati, 1854. 
Pinnock, W. ; (1.) A Catechism of E. Gram. ; 
ISmo, pp. 70 : 18th Ed., London, 1825. (2.) A 
Comprehensive Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 318 : 1st 
Ed., London, 1829. 
Pond, Enoch, D. D. ; "Murray's System of Eng. 
Grammar, Improved ;" 12mo, pp. 228 : 5th 
Ed., Worcester, Mass., 1835. Also, under the 
same title, a petty Grammar with Cuts; 18mo, 
pp. 71 : New Ed., Worcester, 1835. 
Powers, Daniel, A. M. ; E. Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 188: 1st Ed., West Brookfield, Mass., 
1845. 
Priestley, Joseph, LL.D. ; " The Rudiments of 
E. Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 202 : 3d Ed., Lon- 
don, 1772. 
Pue, Hugh A. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 

149 : 1st Ed., Philadelphia, 1841. 
Pullen, P. H. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 

321 : London, 1820 ; 2d Ed., 1822. 
Putnam. J. M.; " English Grammar;" (Murray's, 
Modified;) 18mo, pp. 162: Concord, N. H., 
1825 ; Ster., 1831. 
Putnam, Samuel; "Putnam's Murray;" 18mo, 
pp. 108 : Improved Ster. Ed. ; Dover, N. II., 
1828. 
Putsey, Rev. W. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 

211 : London, 1821 ; 2d Ed., 1829. 
Quackenbos, Geo. Payn ; (1.) " First Lessons in 
Composition." (2.) " Advanced Course of 
Composition and Rhetoric ;" 12mo, pp. 455 : 
New York, 1854. 
Rand, Asa ; " Teacher's Manual," &c. ; 18mo, 

pp. 90 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1832. 
Reed, Caleb, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 

pp. 30: 1st Ed., Boston, 1821. 
Reid, A. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 46 : 2d 

Ed., London, 1839. 
Reid, John, M. D. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 

pp. 68 : 1st Ed., Glasgow, 1830. 
Ricord. F. W., A. M.; " The Youth's Grammar ; 
or, Easy Lessons in Etymology ;" 12mo, pp. 
118: 1st Ed., N. Y., 1855. 
Rigan, John; Grammar, 12mo: Dublin, 1823. 
Robbins, Manasseh ; " Rudimentai Lessons in 
Etym. and Synt. ;" 12mo, pp. 70: Prov., R. I., 
1826. 



Robinson, John ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 

95: 1st Ed., Maysville, 1830. 
Roome, Rev. T. ; Gram. ; 12mo : England, 1813. 
Ross, Robert ; an American Grammar ; 12mo, 

pp. 199 : 7th Ed., Hartford, Ct., 1782. 
Rothwell, J. ; English Grammar ; 12mo : 2d 

Ed., London, 1797. 
Rozzell, Wm. ; English Grammar in Verse ; 

8vo : London, 1795. 
Rush, James, M. D. : " Philosophy of the Human 

Voice;" 8vo: Philadelphia, 1833. 
Russell, Rev. J., D. D. ; English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 168: London, 1835; 10th Ed., 1842. 
Russell, William; (1.) "A Grammar of Compo- 
sition ;" 12mo, pp. 150 : Newhaven, 1823. (2.^ 
"Lessons in Enunciation:" Boston, 1841. (3.) 
" Orthophony ; or the Cultivation of the 
Voice ;" 12mo, pp. 300 : improved Ed., Boston, 
1847. 
Russell, William E. ; " An Abridgment of 
Murray's Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 142 : Hart- 
ford, 1819. 
Ryland, John; English Grammar; 18mo, pp. 

164: 1st Ed., Northampton, Eng., 1767. 
Sabine, H., A. M. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 

120 : 1st Ed., London, 1702. 
Sanborn, Dyer H. ; " An Analytical Grammar 
of the English Language ;" 12mo, pp. 299 : 1st 
Ed., Concord, N. H., 1836. 
Sanders, Charles W. and J. C. ; " The Young 
Grammarian ;" 12mo, pp. 120 : Rochester, N. 
Y., 1847. 
Sargent, Epes- "The Standard Speaker; a 
Treatise on Oratory and Elocution ;" small 
8vo, pp. 558: Philadelphia, ^852. 
Scott, William ; Grammar, 12mo : Edinb., 1797. 
Dictionary, with Grammar prefixed; square, 
pp. 492 : Cork, 1810. 
Searle, Rev. Thomas ; Grammar in Verse ; 18mo, 

pp. 114: 1st Ed., London, 1822. 
Shatford, W. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 

104 : 1st Ed., London, 1834. 
Shaw, Rev. John; English Grammar; 12mo, 

pp. 259 : 4th Ed., London, 1793. 
Sheridan, Thomas, A. M. ; (1.) " Lectures on 
Elocution;" 12mo, pp. 185: London, 1762; 
Troy, N. Y., 1803. (2.) " Lectures on the Art 
of Reading." (3.) " A Rhetorical Grammar ;" 
square 12mo, pp. 73: 3d Ed., Philadelphia, 
1789. (4.) "Elements of English;" 12mo, 
pp. 69: Dublin, 1789. (5.) "A Complete 
Dictionary of the English Language ;" 1st 
Ed., 1780. 
Sherman, John; American Grammar; 12mo, 

pp. 323 : 1st Ed., Trenton Falls, N. Y., 1836. 
Sevimonite, W. J. ; English Grammar; 12mo, pp. 

228 : 1st Ed., London, 1841. 
Skillern, R. S., A. M. ; English Grammar ; 
12mo, pp. 184: 2d Ed., Gloucester, England, 
1808. 
Smart, B. H. ; (1.) " A Practical Grammar of 
English Pronunciation ;" 8vo : London, 181Q. 
(2.) "The Accidence of English Grammar;" 
12mo, pp. 52: London, 1841. (3.) "The Ac- 
cidence and Principles of English Grammar;" 
12mo, pp. 280 : London, 1841. 
Smetham, Thomas ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 

pp. 168 : 1st Ed., London, 1774. 
Smith, Eli ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 108 : 

1st Ed., Philadelphia, 1812. 
Smith, John ; Grammar, 8vo : Norwich, Eng., 

1816. 
Smith, Peter, A.M. ; English Grammar; 18mo, 

pp. 176 : 1st Ed., Edinburgh, 1826. 
Smith, Rev. Thomas; (1.) Alderson's "Ortho- 
graphical Exercises," Copied ; 18mo, pp. 108 : 
15th Ed., London, 1819. (2.) "Smith's Edi- 
tion of L. Murray's Grammar;" 18mo, pp. 
128 : London, 1832. Very petty authorship. 



CATALOGUE OF GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS. 



XLX 



Smith, Roswell C. ; (1.) " English. Grammar 

on the Inductive System ;" 12mo, pp. 205 : 

Boston, 1830; 2d Ed., 1831. (2.) "English 

Grammar on the Productive System ;" 

12mo, pp. 192 : 2d Ed., New York, 1832. A 

sham. 
Snyder, W. ; English Grammar; 12mo, pp. 164: 

1st Ed., Winchester, Va., 1834. 
Spalding, Charles ; English Grammar ; 8vo, pp. 

36 : 1st Ed., Onondaga, N. Y., 1825. 
Spear, Matthew P. ; " The Teacher's Manual of 

English Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 116: 1st Ed., 

Boston, 1845. 
Spencer, George, A. M. ; " An English Gram- 
mar on Synthetical Principles ;" 12mo, pp. 

178 : New York, 1851. 
Stanitord, Daniel, A. M. ; "A Short but Com- 
prehensive Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 96 : Boston, 

1807 ; 2d Ed., 1815. 
Stearns, George ; English Grammar ; 4to, pp. 

17 : 1st Ed., Boston, 1843. 
Stockwood, John- Gram., 4to: London, 1590. 
Story, Joshua; English Grammar; 12mo, pp. 

180 : 1st Ed., Newcastle, Eng., 1778 ; 3d, 1783. 
St. Quentin, D., M. A. ; " The Rudiments 

of General Gram. ;" 12mo, pp. 163 : Lond., 

1812. 
Sutcliefe, Joseph, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 

12mo, pp. 262 ; London, 1815; 2d Ed., 1821. 
Swett, J., A. M. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 

pp. 192: Claremont, N. H., 1843; 2d Ed., 

1844. 
Ticken, William ; English Grammar; 12mo, pp. 

147 : 1st Ed., London, 1806. 
Ticknor, Elisha, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 

18mo, pp. 72 : 3d Ed., Boston, 1794. 
Tobitt, R.; " Grammatical Institutes ;" (in Verse ;) 

12mo, pp. 72 : 1st Ed., London, 1825. 
Todd, Lewis C. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, pp. 

126: Fredonia, N. Y., 1826: 2d Ed., 1827. 
Tooke, John Horne, A. M. ; " Epea Pteroenta ; 

or, the Diversions of Purley ;" 2 vols., 8vo ; pp. 

924 : 1st American, from the 2d London Ed. ; 

Philadelphia, 1806. 
Tower, David B., A. M. ; " Gradual Lessons in 

Grammar ;" small 12mo, pp. 180 : Boston, 

1847. 
Trench, Richard Chenevix, B. D ; " On the 

Study of Words ;" 12mo, pp. 236 : London, 1st 

Ed., 1851 ; 2dEd., 1852 : reprinted, New York, 

1852. 
Trinder, William M. ; English Grammar; 

12mo, pp. 116 : 1st Ed., London, 1781. 
Tucker, Benjamin ; "A Short Introd. to E. 

Gram. ;" 18mo, pp. 36 : 4th Ed., Phila., 1812. 
Turner, Daniel, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 

8vo : London, 1739. 
Turner, Rev. Brandon, A. M. ; Grammar from 
G. Brown's Inst. ; 12mo, pp. 238 : Lond., 1841. 
Twitchell, Mark ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 

pp. 106 : 1st Ed., Portland, Me., 1825. 
Ussher, G. Neville; English Grammar: 12mo, 
pp. 132 : London, 1787 ; 3d Amer. Ed., Exe- 
ter, N. H., 1804. 
Waldo, John; "Rudiments," 12mo; Philad., 
1813 : " Abridg't," 18mo, pp. 124 ; Philadel- 

Wahia, 1814. 
alker, John ; (1.) E. Gram., 12mo, pp. 118 : 
London, 1805. (2.) " Elements of Elocution ;" 
8vo, pp. 379 : Boston, 1810. (3.) Rhyming 
Diet., 12mo ; (4.) Pronouncing Diet., 8vo ; and 
other valuable works. 

Walker, William, B. D. ; (1.) " A Treatise of 
English Particles ;" 12mo, pp. 488 : London, 
1653; 10th Ed., 1691. (2.) "The Art of 
Teaching Grammar ;" large 18mo, pp. 226 : 
8th Ed., London, 1717. 

Wallis, John, D. D. ; E. Gram, in Latin ; 8vo, 
pp. 281 : Lond., 1653 ; 6th Ed., 1765. 



Ward, H. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 151 : 
Whitehaven, England, 1777. 

Ward, John, LL.D. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 233 : London, 1758. 

Ward, William, A. M. ; "A Practical Gram- 
mar ;" 12mo, pp. 192 : York, England, 1765. 

Ware, Jonathan, Esq. ; " A New Introduction 
to English Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 48 : Wind- 
sor, Vt., 1814. 

Wase, Christopher, M. A.; "An Essay of a 
Practical Gram.," 12mo, pp. 79 : Lond., 1660. 

Watt, Thomas, A. M. ; " Gram. Made Easy ;" 
18mo, pp. 92: Edinburgh, 1708.; 5th Ed., 1742. 

Webber, Samuel, A. M., Si. D. ; " An Introd. to 
E. Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 116: Cambridge, 
Mass., 1832. 

Webster, Noah, LL.D. ; (1.) "A Plain and 
Comprehensive Grammar;" 12mo, pp. 131: 
6th Ed., Hartford, Ct., 1800. (2.) " A Phi- 
losophical and Practical Grammar ;" 12mo, 
pp. 250: Newhaven, Ct., 1807. (3.) "Rudi- 
ments of English Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 87 : 
New York, 1811. (4.) "An Improved Gram- 
mar of the E. L. ;" 12mo, pp. 180 : New- 
haven, 1831. (5.) " An American Dictionary 
of the E. L.," 4to ; and an Abridgement, 
8vo. 

Welch, A. S. ; "Analysis of the English Sen- 
tence ;" 12mo, pp. 264: New York, 1854. 
Of no value. 

Weld, Allen H., A. M. ; (1.) " English Gram- 
mar Illustrated;" 12mo, pp. 228: Portland, 
Me., 1846 ; 2d Ed., 1847 : " Abridged Edition," 
Boston, 1849. " Improved Edition," much 
altered : Portland, 1852. (2.) " Parsing Book, 
containing Rules of Syntax," &c. ; 18mo, pp. 
112 : Portland, 1847. 

Wells, William H., M. A.; "Wells's School 
Grammar ;" 12mo, pp. 220 : 1st Ed., Ando- 
ver, 1846 ; "113th Thousand," 1850. 

White, Mr. James ; " The English Verb ;" 8vo, 
pp. 302: 1st Ed., London, 1761. 

Whiting, Joseph, A. M. ; English Grammar ; 
12mo : Detroit, 1845. 

Whitworth, T. ; English Grammar ; 12mo, pp. 
216 : 1st Ed., London, 1819. 

Wickes, Edward Walter : English Grammar ; 
18mo, pp. 196 : 2d Ed., London, 1841. 

Wilbur & Livingston ; " The Grammatical Al- 
phabet ;" (with a Chart ;) 18mo, pp. 36 : 
2d Ed., Albany, 1815. 

Wilbur, Josiah ; English Grammar ; 12mo, 
pp. 132 : Bellows Falls, N. H., 1815 ; 2d Ed., 
1822. 

Wilcox, A. F. ; "A Catechetical and Practical 
Grammar;" 18mo, pp. 110: 1st Ed., New- 
haven, Ct., 1828. 

Willard, Samuel ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 
pp. 54 : 1st Ed., Greenfield, Mass., 1816. 

Williams, Mrs. Honoria; English Grammar; 
12mo, pp. 226 : London, 1823 : 3d Ed., 1826. 

Wilson, Charles, D. D. ; " Elements of He- 
brew Grammar;" 8vo, pp. 398 : 3d Ed., Lon- 
don, 1802. 

Wilson, George ; English Grammar ; 18mo ; 
London, 1777. 

Wilson, James P., D. D. ; " An Essay on 
Grammar ;" 8vo, pp. 281 : Philadelphia, 1817. 

Wilson, John ; " A Treatise on English Punc- 
tuation ;" 12mo, pp. 204 : Boston, 1850. 

Wilson, Rev. J. ; English Grammar ; 18mo, 
pp. 184: 3d Ed., Consrleton, England, 1803. 

Winning, Rev. W. B., M. A. ; "A Manual of 
Comparative Philology ;" 8vo, pp. 291 : Lon- 
don, 1838. 

Wiseman, Charles ; an English Grammar, 
12mo: London, 1765. 

Wood, Helen; English Grammar; 12mo, pp. 
207 : London, 1st Ed., 1827 ; 6th Ed., 1841. 



XX 



CATALOGUE OP GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARIANS. 



"Wood, Rev. James, D. D ; English Grammar ; 
12mo ; London, 1778. 

Woodworth, A.; "Grammar Demonstrated;" 
12mo, pp. 72: 1st Ed., Auburn, N. Y., 
1823. 

Worcester, Joseph, E. ; " Universal and Crit- 
ical Dictionary of the English Language ;" 
1st Ed., Boston, 1846. 



Worcester, Samuel; " A First Book of English 
Grammar ;" 18mo, pp. 36 ; Boston, 1831. 

Wright. Albert D. ; " Analytical Orthogra- 
phy ;" 18mo, pp. 112 : 2d Ed., Cazenovia. N. 
Y., 1842. 

Wright, Joseph W.; "A Philosophical Gram- 
mar of the English Language , 12mo, pp. 
252 : New York and London, 1838. 



*£* The Mimes, or Heads, in the foregoing alphabetical Catalogue, are 452 ; the Works men- 
tioned are 548 ; the Grammars are 463 ; the other Books are 85. 



END OF THE CATALOGUE. 



INTRODUCTION 

HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL 



CHAPTER I. 

OF THE SCIENCE OF GRAMMAR. 



44 Haec de Grammatica quam brevissirae potui : non x\t omnia dicerem 6ectatus, (quod infinitum erat,) Bed ut 
maxime necessaria," — Qxjintilian. De Inst. Orat, Lib. i, Cap. x. 



1. Language, in the proper sense of the term, is peculiar to man ; so that, with- 
out a miraculous assumption of human powers, none but human beings can make 
words the vehicle of thought. An imitation of some of the articulate sounds em- 
ployed in speech, may be exhibited by parrots, and sometimes by domesticated ravens, 
and we know that almost all brute animals have their peculiar natural voices, by 
which they indicate their feelings, whether pleasing or painful. But language is an 
attribute of reason, and differs essentially not only from all brute voices, but even 
from all the chattering, jabbering, and babbling of our own species, in which there 
is not an intelligible meaning, with division of thought, and distinction of words. 

2. Speech results from the joint exercise of the best and noblest faculties of human 
nature, from our rational understanding and our social affection ; and is, in the 
proper use of it, the peculiar ornament and distinction of man, whether we compare 
him with other orders in the creation, or view him as an individual preeminent 
among his fellows. Hence that science which makes known the nature and struc- 
ture of speech, and immediately concerns the correct and elegant use of language, 
while it surpasses all the conceptions of the stupid or unlearned, and presents no- 
thing that can seem desirable to the sensual and grovelling, has an intrinsic dignity 
which highly commends it to all persons of sense and taste, and makes it most a 
favourite with the most gifted minds. That science is Grammar. And though 
there be some geniuses who affect to despise the trammels of grammar rules, to 
whom it must be conceded that many things which have been unskillfully taught as 
such, deserve to be despised ; yet it is true, as Dr. Adam remarks, that, " The study 
of Grammar has been considered an object of great importance by the wisest men 
in all ages." — Preface to Latin and English Gram., p. iii. 

3. Grammar bears to language several different relations, and acquires from each 
a nature leading to a different definition. First, It is to language, as knowledge is 
to the thing known ; and as doctrine, to the truths it inculcates. In these relations, 
grammar is a science. It is the first of what have been called the seven sciences, or 
liberal branches of knowledge ; namely, grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geom- 



22 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. I. 

etry, astronomy, and music. Secondly, It is as skill, to the thing to be done ; and 
as power, to the instruments it employs. In these relations, grammar is an art; and 
as such, has long been defined, " ars recte scribendi, recteque loquendi" the art of 
writing and speaking correctly. Thirdly, It is as navigation, to the ocean, which 
nautic skill alone enables men to traverse. In this relation, theory and practice com- 
bine, and grammar becomes, like navigation, a practical science. Fourthly, It is 
as a chart, to a coast which we would visit. In this relation, our grammar is a text- 
book, which we take as a guide, or use as a help to our own observation. Fifthly, 
It is as a single voyage, to the open sea, the highway of nations. Such is our 
meaning, when we speak of the grammar of a particular text or passage. 

4. Again : Grammar is to language a sort of self-examination. It turns the 
faculty of speech or writing upon itself for its own elucidation ; and makes the 
tongue or the pen explain the uses and abuses to which both are liable, as well as 
the nature and excellency of that power, of which these are the two grand instru- 
ments. From this account, some may begin to think that in treating of grammar 
we are dealing with something too various and changeable for the understanding to 
grasp ; a dodging Proteus of the imagination, who is ever ready to assume some 
new shape, and elude the vigilance of the inquirer. But let the reader or student 
do his part ; and, if he please, follow us with attention. We will endeavour, with 
welded links, to bind this Proteus, in such a manner that he shall neither escape 
from our hold, nor fail to give to the consulter an intelligible and satisfactory re- 
sponse. Be not discouraged, generous youth. Hark to that sweet far-reaching 
note : 

" Sed, quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes, 
Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla." 

Virgil. Geor. IV, 411, 

" But thou, the more he varies forms, beware 
To strain his fetters with a stricter care." Dryden's Virgil. 

5. If for a moment we consider the good and the evil that are done in the world 
through the medium of speech, we shall with one voice acknowledge, that not only 
the faculty itself, but also the manner in which it is used, is of incalculable import- 
ance to the welfare of man. But this reflection does not directly enhance our 
respect for grammar, because it is not to language as the vehicle of moral or of im- 
moral sentiment, of good or of evil to mankind, that the attention of the grammarian 
is particularly directed. A consideration of the subject in these relations, pertains 
rather to the moral philosopher. JSTor are the arts of lojic and rhetoric now con- 
sidered to be properly within the grammarian's province. Modern science assigns to 
these their separate places, and restricts grammar, which at one period embraced all 
learning, to the knowledge of language, as respects its fitness to be the vehicle of 
any particular thought or sentiment which the speaker or writer may wish to con- 
vey by it. Accordingly grammar is commonly defined, by writers upon the subject, 
in the special sense of an art — " the art of speaking or writing a language with pro- 
priety or correctness." — Webster's Diet. 

6. Lily says, " Grammatica est recte scribendi atque loquendi ars ;" that is, 
" Grammar is the art of writing and speaking correctly." Despauter, too, in his 
definition, which is quoted in a preceding paragraph, not improperly placed writing 
first, as being that with which grammar is primarily concerned. For it. ought to be 
remembered, that over any fugitive colloquial dialect, which has never been fixed by 
visible signs, grammar has no control ; and that the speaking which the art or 
science of grammar teaches, is exclusively that which has reference to a knowledge 
of letters. It is the certain tendency of writing, to improve speech. And in propor- 
tion as books are multiplied, and the knowledge of written language is diffused, local 
dialects, which are beneath the dignity of grammar, will always be found to grow 
fewer, and their differences less. There are, in the various parts of the world, many 
languages to which the art of grammar has never yet been applied; and to 



CHAP. I.] OF THE SCIENCE OF GRAMMAR. 23 

which, therefore, the definition or true idea of grammar, however general, does not 
properly extend. And even where it has been applied, and is now honoured as a 
popular branch of study, there is yet great room for improvement : barbarisms and 
solecisms have not been rebuked away as they deserve to be. 

V. Melancthon says, " Grammatica est certa loquendi ac scribendi ratio, Latinis 
Latin e." Vossius, " Ars bene loquendi eoque et scribendi, atque id Latinis Latine." 
Dr. Prat, " Grammatica est recte loquendi atque scribendi ars." Ruddiman also, in 
his Institutes of Latin Grammar, reversed the terms loriting and speaking, and de- 
fined grammar, " ars recte loquendi scribendique ; and, either from mere imitation, 
or from the general observation that speech precedes writing, this arrangement of the 
words has been followed by most modern grammarians. Dr. Lowth embraces both 
terms in a more general one, and says, " Grammar is the art of rightly expressing 
our thoughts by words." It is, however, the province of grammar, to guide us not 
merely in the expression of our own thoughts, but also in our apprehension of the 
thoughts, and our interpretation of the words, of others. Hence, Perizonius, in com- 
menting upon Sanctius's imperfect definition, " Grammatica est ars recte loquendi" 
not improperly asks, " et quidni intelligendi et explicandi V " and why not also of 
understanding and explaining ?" Hence, too, the art of reading is virtually a part 
of grammar ; for it is but the art of understanding and speaking correctly that 
which we have before us on paper. And Nugent has accordingly given us the fol- 
lowing definition : " Grammar is the art of reading, speaking, and writing a language 
by rules." — Introduction to Diet., p. xii.* 

8. The word recte. rightly, truly, correctly, which occurs in most of the foregoing 
Latin definitions, is censured by the learned Richard Johnson, in his Grammatical 
Commentaries, on account of the vagueness of its meaning. He says, it is not only 
ambiguous by reason of its different uses in the Latin classics, but destitute of any 
signification proper to grammar. But even if this be true as regards its earlier ap- 
plication, it may well be questioned, whether by frequency of use it has not acquired 
a signification which makes it proper at the present time. The English word cor- 
rectly seems to be less liable to such an objection; and either this brief term, or some 
other of like import, (as, " with correctness" — " with propriety,") is still usually em- 
ployed to tell what grammar is. But can a boy learn by such means what it is, to 
speak and write grammatically ? In one sense, he can ; and in an other, he cannot. 
He may derive, from any of these terms, some idea of grammar as distinguished 
from other arts ; but no simple definition of this, or of any other art, can communi- 
cate to him that learns it, the skill of an artist. 

9. R. Johnson speaks at large of the relation of words to each other in sentences, 
as constituting in his view the most essential part of grammar ; and as being a point 
very much overlooked, or very badly explained, by grammarians in geueral. His 
censure is just. And it seems to be as applicable to nearly all the grammars now in 
use, as to those which he criticised a hundred and thirty years ago. But perhaps he 
gives to the relation of words, (which is merely their dependence on other words ac- 
cording to the sense,) an earlier introduction and a more prominent place, than it 
ought to have in a general system of grammar. To the right use of language, he 
makes four things to be necessary. In citing these, I vary the language, but not the 
substance or the order of his positions. First, That we should speak and write 
words according to. the significations which belong to them : the teaching of which 
now pertains to lexicography, and not to grammar, except incidentally. " Secondly, 
That we should observe the relations that words have one to another in sentences, 
and represent those relations by such variations, and particles, as are usual with 

* Ben Jonson's notion of grammar, and of its parts, was as follows: " Grammar is the art of true and well- 
Bpeaking a language : the writing is but an accident. 

The Parts of Grammar are 
Etymology, \ which is J tne true notat i° n °f words, 
Syntaxe, j" J the right ordering of them. 

A word is a part of speech or note, Avhereby a thing is known or called; and cousisteth of one or more letters. 
A letter is an indivisible part of a syllable, whose prosody, or right sounding, is perceived by the power; the or- 
thography, or right writing, by the form. Prosody, and Orthography, are not parts of grammar, but diffused, 
like blood and spirits, through the whole." — Jonson's Grammar, Book I. 



24 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. I. 

authors in that language." Thirdly, That we should acquire a knowledge of the 
proper sounds of the letters, and pay a due regard to accent iu pronunciation. 
Fourthly, That we should learn to write words with their proper letters, spelling 
them as literary men generally do. 

10. From these positions, (though he sets aside the first, as pertaining to lexico- 
graphy, and not now to grammar, as it formerly did,) the learned critic deduces first 
his four parts of the subject, and then his definition of grammar. " Hence," says he, 
" there arise Four Parts of Grammar ; Analogy, which treats of the several parts of 
speech, their definitions, accidents, and formations ; Syntax, which treats of the use 
of those things in construction, according to their relations ; Orthography, which 
treats of spelling ; and Prosody, which treats of accenting in pronunciation. So, 
then, the true definition of Grammar is this : Grammar is the art of expressing the 
relations of things in construction, with due accent in speaking, and orthography in 
writing, according to the custom of those whose language we learn." Again he 
adds : "The word relation has other senses, taken by itself; but yet the relation of 
words one to another in a sentence, has no other signification than what I intend by it, 
namely, of cause, effect, means, end, manner, instrument, object, adjunct, and the 
like ; which are names given by logicians to those relations under which the mind 
comprehends things, and therefore the most proper words to explain them to others. 
And if such things are too hard for children, then grammar is too hard ; for there 
neither is, nor can be, any grammar without them. And a little experience will 
satisfy any man, that the young will as easily apprehend them, as gender, number, 
declension, and other grammar-terms." See R. Johnson's Grammatical Commenta- 
ries, p. 4. 

11. It is true, that the relation of words — by which I mean that connexion be- 
tween them, which the train of thought forms and suggests — or that dependence 
which one word has on an other according to the sense — lies at the foundation of all 
syntax. No rule or principle of construction can ever have any applicability beyond 
the limits, or contrary to the order, of this relation. To see what it is in any given 
case, is but to understand the meaning of the phrase or sentence. And it is plain, 
that no word ever necessarily agrees with an other, with which it is not thus con- 
nected in the mind of him who uses it. No word ever governs an other, to which the 
sense does not direct it. No word is ever required to stand immediately before or 
after an other, to which it has not some relation according to the meaning of the 
passage. Here then are the relation, agreement, government, and arrangement, of 
words in sentences ; and these make up the whole of syntax — but not the whole of 
grammar. To this one part of grammar, therefore, the relation of words is central 
and fundamental ; and in the other parts also, there are some things to which the 
consideration of it is incidental ; but there are many more, like spelling, pronunci- 
ation, derivation, and whatsoever belongs merely to letters, syllables, and the forms of 
words, with which it has, in fact, no connexion. The relation of words, therefore, 
should be clearly and fully explained in its proper place, under the head of syntax ; 
but the general idea of grammar will not be brought nearer to truth, by making 
it to be " the art of expressing the relations of things in construction," &c, according 
to the foregoing definition. 

12. The term grammar is derived from the Greek word yooc/Ltua, a letter. The 
art or science to which this term is applied, had its origin, not in cursory speech, 
but in the practice of writing ; and speech, which is first in the order of nature, is 
last with reference to grammar. The matter or common subject of grammar, is 
language in general ; which, being of two kinds, spoken and written, consists of 
certain combinations either of sounds or of visible signs, employed for the expres- 
sion of thought. Letters and sounds, though often heedlessly confounded in the 
definitions given of vowels, consonants, &c, are, in their own nature, very different 
things. They address themselves to different senses ; the former, to the sight ; the 
latter, to the hearing. Yet, by a peculiar relation arbitrarily established between 
them, and in consequence of an almost endless variety in the combinations of either, 
they coincide in a most admirable manner, to effect the great object for which Ian- 



CHAP. I.] OF THE' SCIENCE OF GRAMMAR. 25 

guage was bestowed or invented ; namely, to furnish a sure medium for tlie commu- 
nication of thought, and the preservation of knowledge. 

13. All languages, however different, have many things in common. There are 
points of a philosophical character, which result alike from the analysis of any lan- 
guage, and are founded on the very nature of human thought, and that of the 
sounds or other signs which are used to express it. When such principles alone 
are taken as the subject of inquiry, and are treated, as they sometimes have been, 
without regard to any of the idioms of particular languages, they constitute what is 
called General, Philosophical, or Universal Grammar. But to teach, with Lindley 
Murray and some others, that " Grammar may be considered as consisting of two 
species, Universal and Particular," and that the latter merely " applies those general 
principles to a particular language," is to adopt a twofold absurdity at the outset.* 
For every cultivated language has its particular grammar, in which whatsoever is 
universal, is necessarily included ; but of which, universal or general principles form 
only a part, and that comparatively small. We find therefore in grammar no " two 
species" of the same genus ; nor is the science or art, as commonly defined and un- 
derstood, susceptible of division into any proper and distinct sorts, except with 
reference to different languages — as when we speak of Greek, Latin, French, or 
English grammar. 

14. There is, however, as I have suggested, a certain science or philosophy of 
language, which has been denominated Universal Grammar ; being made up of 
those points only, in which many or all of the different languages preserved in 
books, are found to coincide. All speculative minds are fond of generalization; 
and, in the vastness of the views which may thus be taken of grammar, such may 
find an entertainment which they never felt in merely learning to speak and write 
grammatically. But the pleasure of such contemplations is not the earliest or the 
most important fruit of the study. The first thing is, to know and understand the 
grammatical construction of our own language. Many may profit by this acquisi- 
tion, who extend not their inquiries to the analogies or the idioms of other tongues. 
It is true, that every item of grammatical doctrine is the more worthy to be known 
and regarded, in proportion as it approaches to universality. But the principles 
of all practical grammar, whether universal or particular, common or peculiar, must 
first be learned in their application to some one language*, before they can be dis- 
tinguished into such classes ; and it is manifest, both from reason and from experi- 
ence, that the youth of any nation not destitute of a good book for the purpose, 
may best acquire a knowledge of those principles, from the grammatical study of 
their native tongue. 

15. Universal or Philosophical Grammar is a large field for speculation and 
inquiry, and embraces many things which, though true- enough in themselves, are 
unfit to be incorporated with any system of practical grammar, however compre- 
hensive its plan. Many authors have erred here. With what is merely theoretical, 
such a system should have little to do. Philosophy, dealing in generalities, resoives 
speech not only as a whole into its constituent parts and separable elements, as 

* Home Tooke eagerly seized upon a part of this absurdity, to prove that Dr. Lowth, from whom Murray 
derived the idea, was utterly unprepared for what he undertook in the character of a grammarian r "Dr. Lowth, 
when he undertook to write his Introduction, with the best intention in the world, most assuredly sinned against 
his better judgment. For he begins most judiciously, thus — ' Universal grammar explains the principles which 
are common to all languages. The grammar of any particular language applies those common principles to 
that particular language.' And yet, with this clear truth before his eyes, he boldly proceeds to give a particular 
grammar; without being himself possessed of one single principle of universal grammar." — Diversions of Pur - 
ley, Vol. 1, p. 214. If Dr. Lowth discredited his better judgement in attempting to write an English grammar, 
perhaps Murray, and his weaker copyists, have little honoured theirs, in supposing they were adequate to such 
a work. But I do not admit, that either Lowth or Murray " beginsmost factitiously," in speaking of Universal 
and Particular grammar in the manner above cited. The authors who have started with this fundamental blun- 
der, are strangely numerous. It is found in some of the most dissimilar systems that can be named. Even 
Oliver B. Peirce, who has a much lower opinion of Murray's ability in grammar than Tooke had of Lowth' s, 
adopts this false notion with all implicitness, though he decks it in language more objectionable, and scorns to 
acknowledge whence he got it. See his Gram., p. 16. De Sacy, in his Principles of General Grammar, says, 
"All rules of Syntax relate to two things, Agreement and Government.'" — Fosdick's Tr., p. 108. And again: 
" None of these rules properly belong to General Grammar, as each language follows, in regard to the rules of 
Agreement and Government, a course peculiar to itself." — Ibid., p. 109. " It is with Construction [i.e., Arrange- 
ment] as with Syntax. It follows no general rule common to all languages." — Ibid. According to these posi- 
tions, which I do not admit to be strictly true, General or Universal Grammar has no principles of Syntax at 
all, whatever else it may have which Particular Grammar can assume and apply 



26 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. I. 

anatomy shows the use and adaptation of the parts and joints of the human body; 
but also as a composite into its matter and form, as one may contemplate that same 
body in its entireness, yet as consisting of materials, some solid and some fluid, and 
these curiously modelled to a particular figure. Grammar, properly so called, re- 
quires only the former of these analyses ; and in conducting the same, it descends 
to the thousand miuute particulars which are necessary to be known in practice. 
Nor are such things to be despised as trivial and low : ignorance of what is common 
and elementary, is but the more disgraceful for being ignorance of mere rudiments. 
" Wherefore," says Quintilian, " they are little to be respected, who represent this 
art as mean and barren ; in which, unless you faithfully lay the foundation for the 
future orator, whatever superstructure you raise will tumble into ruins. It is an art, 
necessary to the young, pleasant to the old, the sweet companion of the retired, and 
one which in reference to every kind of study has in itself more of utility than of 
show. Let no one therefore despise as inconsiderable the elements of grammar. 
Not because it is a great thing, to distinguish consonants from vowels, and afterwards 
divide them into semivowels and mutes ; but because, to those who enter the interior 
parts of this temple of science, there will appear in many things a great subtilty, 
which is fit not only to sharpen the wits of youth, but also to exercise the loftiest eru- 
dition and science." — De Institutione Oratorio,, Lib. i, Cap. iv. 

16. Again, of the arts which spring from the composition of language. Here the 
art of logic, aiming solely at conviction, addresses the understanding with cool 
deductions of unvarnished truth ; rhetoric, designing to move, in some particular 
direction, both the judgement and the sympathies of men, applies itself to the affec- 
tions in order to persuade ; and poetry, various in its character and tendency, solicits 
the imagination, with a view to delight, and in general also to instruct. But gram- 
mar, though intimately connected with all these, and essential to them in practice, 
is still too distinct from each to be identified with any of them. In regard to dig- 
nity and interest, these higher studies seem to have greatly the advantage over 
particular grammar ; but who is willing to be an ungrammatical poet, orator, or 
logician ? For him I do not write. But I would persuade my readers, that an 
acquaintance with that grammar which respects the genius of their vernacular 
tongue, is of primary importance to all who would cultivate a literary taste, and is 
a necessary introduction to the study of other languages. And it may here be 
observed, for the encouragement of the student, that as grammar is essentially the 
same thing in all languages, he who has well mastered that of his own, has over- 
come more than half the difficulty of learning another ; and he whose knowledge 
of words is the most extensive, has the fewest obstacles to encounter in proceeding 
further. 

IV. It was the " original design" of grammar, says Dr. Adam, to facilitate " the 
acquisition of languages;" and, of all practical treatises on the subject, this is 
still the main purpose. In those books which are to prepare the learner to trans- 
late from one tongue into another, seldom is any thing else attempted. In those 
also which profess to explain the right use of vernacular speech, must the same 
purpose be ever paramount, and the " original design" be kept in view. But the 
grammarian may teach many things incidentally. One cannot learn a language, 
without learning at the same time a great many opinions, facts, and principles, of 
some kind or other, which are necessarily embodied in it. For all language pro- 
ceeds from, and is addressed to, the understanding ; and he that perceives not the 
meaning of what he reads, makes no acquisition even of the language itself. To 
die science of grammar, the nature of the ideas conveyed by casual examples, is not 
very essential : to the learner, it is highly important. The best thoughts in the best 
diction should furnish the models for youthful study and imitation ; because such 
language is not only the most worthy to be remembered, but the most easy to be 
understood. A distinction is also to be made between use and abuse. In nonsense, 
absurdit} 7 , or falsehood, there can never be any grammatical authority; because, 
however language may be abused, the usage which gives law to speech, is still that 
usage which is founded upon the common sense of mankind. 



CHAP. I.] OF THE SCIENCE OF GRAMMAR. 27 

18. Grammar appeals to reason, as well as to authority, but to what extent it 
should do so, has been matter of dispute. " The knowledge of useful arts," says 
Sanctius, "is not an invention of human ingenuity, but an emanation from the 
Deity, descending from above for the use of mau, as Minerva sprung from the brain 
of Jupiter. Wherefore, unless thou give thyself wholly to laborious research into 
the nature of things, and diligently examine the causes and reasons of the art thou 
teachest, believe me, thou shalt but see with other men's eyes, and hear with other 
men's ears. But the minds of many are preoccupied with a certain perverse opin- 
ion, or rather ignorant conceit, that in grammar, or the art of speaking, there are 
no causes, and that reason is scarcely to be appealed to for any thing ; — than which 
idle notion, I know of nothing more foolish ; — nothing can be thought of which is 
more offensive. Shall man, endowed with reason, do, say, or contrive any thing, 
without design, and without understanding ? Hear the philosophers ; who positively 
declare that nothing comes to pass without a cause. Hear Plato himself; who af- 
firms that names and words subsist by nature, and contends that language is derived 
from nature, and not from art." 

19. "I know," says he, " that the Aristotelians think otherwise ; but no one will 
doubt that names are the signs, and as it were the instruments, of things. But the 
instrument of any art is so adapted to that art, that for any other purpose it must 
seem unfit ; thus with an auger we bore, and with a saw we cut wood ; but we split 
stones with wedges, and wedges are driven with heavy mauls. We cannot therefore 
but believe that those who first gave names to things, did it with design ; and this, 
I imagine, Aristotle himself understood when he said, ad placitum nomina. signifi- 
care. For those who contend that names were made by chance, are no less auda- 
cious than if they would endeavour to persuade us, that the whole order of the uni- 
verse was framed together fortuitously." 

20. "You will see," continues he, "that in the first language, whatever it was, 
the names of things were taken from Nature herself; but, though I cannot affirm 
this to have been the case in other tongues, yet I can easily persuade myself that 
in every tongue a reason can be rendered for the application of every name ; and 
that this reason, though it is in many cases obscure, is nevertheless worthy of in- 
vestigation. Many things which were not known to the earlier philosophers, were 
brought to light by Plato ; after the death of Plato, many were discovered by Aris- 
totle ; and Aristotle was ignorant of many which are now everywhere known. For 
truth lies hid, but nothing is more precious than truth. But you will say, ' How 
can there be any certain origin to names, when one and the same thing is called by 
different names, in the several parts of the world ?' I answer, of the same thing 
there may be different causes, of which some people may regard one, and others, 
an other. * * * There is therefore no doubt, that of all things, even of words, 
a reason is to be rendered : and if we know not what that reason is, when we are 
asked ; we ought rather to confess that we do not know, than to affirm that none 
can be given. I know that Scaliger thinks ' otherwise ; but this is the true account 
of the matter." 

21. " These several observations," he remarks further, " I have unwillingly brought 
together against those stubborn critics who, while they explode reason from gram- 
mar, insist so much on the testimonies of the learned. But have they never read 
Quintiliau, who says, (Lib. i, Cap. 6,) that, ' Language is established by reason, an- 
tiquity, authority, and custom V He therefore does not exclude reason, but makes 
it the principal thing. Nay, in a manner, Laurentius, and other grammatists, even 
of their fooleries, are forward to offer reasons, such as they are. Moreover, use does 
not take place without reason ; otherwise, it ought to be called abuse, and not use. 
But from use authority derives all its force ; for when it recedes from use, authority 
becomes nothing : whence Cicero reproves Ccelius and Marcus Antonius for speaking 
according to their own fancy, and not according to use. But, 4 Nothing can be last- 
ing,' says Curtius, (Lib. iv,) * which is not based upon reason.' It remains, therefore, 
that of all things the reason be first assigued ; and then, if it can be done, we may 



28 INTKODUCTION. [CHAP. I. 

bring forward testimonies ; that the thing, having every advantage, may be made the 
more clear." — Sanctii Minerva, Lib. i, Cap. 2. 

22. Julius Caesar Scaliger, from whose opinion Sanctius dissents above, seems to 
limit the science of grammar to bounds considerably too narrow, though he found 
within them room for the exercise of much ingenuity and learning. He says, 
" Grammatica est scientia loquendi ex usu ; neque enim constituit regulas scien- 
tibus usus modum, sed ex eorum statis frequentibusque usurpatiombus colligit com- 
muuem rationem loquendi, quam discentibus traderet." — De Causis L. Latinos, Lib. 
iv, Cap. 76. " Grammar is the science of speaking according to use ; for it does not 
establish rules for those who know the manner of use, but from the settled and fre- 
quent usages of these, gathers the common fashion of speaking, which it should 
deliver to learners." This limited view seems not only to exclude from the science 
the use of the pen, but to exempt the learned from any obligation to respect the 
rules prescribed for the initiation of the young. But I have said, and with abundant 
authority, that the acquisition of a good style of writing is the main purpose of the 
study ; and, surely, the proficients and adepts in the art can desire for themselves no 
such exemption. Men of genius, indeed, sometimes affect to despise the pettiness of 
all grammatical instructions ; but this can be nothing else than affectation, since the 
usage of the learned is confessedly the basis of all such instructions, and several of 
the loftiest of their own rank appear on the list of grammarians. 

23. Quintilian, whose authority is appealed to above, belonged to that age in 
which the exegesis of histories, poems, and other writings, was considered an es- 
sential part of grammar. He therefore, as well as Diomedes, and other ancient 
writers, divided the grammarian's duties into two parts ; the one including what is 
now called grammar, and the other the explanation of authors, and the stigmatizing 
of the unworthy. Of the opinion referred to by Sanctius, it seems proper to make 
here an ampler citation. It shall be attempted in English, though the paragraph is 
not an easy one to translate. I understand the author to say, " Speakers, too, have 
their rules to observe ; and writers, theirs. Language is established by reason, an- 
tiquity, authority, and custom. Of reason the chief ground is analogy, but some- 
times etymology. Ancient things have a certain majesty, and, as I might say, 
religion, to commend them. Authority is wont to be sought from orators and his- 
torians ; the necessity of metre mostly excuses the poets. When the judgement of 
the chief masters of eloquence passes for reason, even error seems right to those who 
follow great leaders. But, of the art of speaking, custom is the surest mistress ; for 
speech is evidently to be used as money, which has upon it a public stamp. Yet 
all these things require a penetrating judgement, especially analogy ; the force of 
which is, that one may refer what is doubtful, to something similar that is clearly 
established, and thus prove uncertain things by those which are sure." — Quint, de 
Inst. Orat. y Lib. i, Cap. 6, p. 48. 

24. The science of grammar, whatever we may suppose to be its just limits, 
does not appear to have been better cultivated in proportion as its scope was nar- 
rowed. Nor has its application to our tongue, in particular, ever been made in 
such a manner, as to do great honour to the learning or the talents of him that 
attempted it. What is new to a nation, may be old to the world. The development 
of the intellectual powers of youth by instruction in the classics, as well as the im- 
provement of their taste by the exhibition of what is elegant in literature, is contin- 
ually engaging the attention of new masters, some of whom may seem to effect great 
improvements ; but we must remember that the concern itself is of no recent origin. 
Plato and Aristotle, who were great masters both of grammar and of philosophy, 
taught these things ably at Athens, in the fourth century before Christ. Varro, the 
grammarian, usually styled the most learned of the Romans, was contemporary 
with the Saviour and his apostles. Quintilian lived in the first century of our 
era, and before he wrote his most celebrated book, taught a school twenty years 
in Rome, and received from the state a salary which made him rich. This " con- 
summate guide of wayward youth,'" as the poet Martial called him, being neither 
ignorant of what had been done by others, nor disposed to think it a light task to 



CHAP. I.] OF THE SCIENCE OF GRAMMAR. 29 

prescribe the right use of his own language, was at first slow to undertake the work upon 
which his fame now reposes ; and, after it was begun, diligent to execute it worthily, 
that it might turn both to his own honour, and to the real advancement of learning. 

25. He says, at the commencement of his book : " After I had obtained a quiet 
release from those labours which for twenty years had devolved upon me as an in- 
structor of youth, certain persons familiarly demanded of me, that I should com- 
pose something concerning the proper manner of speaking ; but for a long time I 
withstood their solicitations, because I knew there were already illustrious authors 
in each language, by whom many things which might pertain to such a work, had 
been very diligently written, and left to posterity. But the reason which I 
thought would obtain for me an easier excuse, did but excite more earnest en- 
treaty; because, amidst the various opinions of earlier writers, some of whom 
were not even consistent with themselves, the choice had become difficult ; so 
that my friends seemed to have a right to enjoin upon me, if not the labour of 
producing new instructions, at least that of judging concerning the old. But 
although I was persuaded not so much by the hope of supplying what was 
required, as by the shame of refusing, yet, as the matter opened itself before 
me, I undertook of my own accord a much greater task than had been im- 
posed ; that while I should thus oblige my very good friends by a fuller com- 
pliance, I might not enter a common path and tread only in the footsteps of 
others. For most other writers who have treated of the art of speaking, have 
proceeded in such a manner as if upon adepts in every other kind of doctrine they 
would lay the last touch in eloquence ; either despising as little things the 
studies which we first learn, or thinking them not to fall to their share in the divi- 
sion which should be made of the professions; or, what indeed is next to this, 
hoping no praise or thanks for their ingenuity about things which, although neces- 
sary, lie far from ostentation : the tops of buildings make a show, their foundations 
are unseen." — Quintiliani de Inst. Orat., Prooemium. 

26. But the reader may ask, " What have all these things to do with English 
Grammar '?" I answer, they help to show us whence and what it is. Some ac- 
quaintance with the history of grammar as a science, as well as some knowledge of 
the structure of other languages than our own, is necessary to him who professes to 
write for the advancement of this branch of learning — and for him also who would 
be a competent judge of what is thus professed. Grammar must not forget her 
origin. Criticism must not resign the protection of letters. The national literature 
of a country is in the keeping, not of the people at large, but of authors and teach- 
ers. But a grammarian presumes to be a judge of authorship, and a teacher of 
teachers ; and is it to the honour of England or America, that in both countries so 
many are countenanced in this assumption of place, who can read no language but 
their mother tongue ? English Grammar is not properly an indigenous production, 
either of this country or of Britain; because it is but a branch of the general 
science of philology — a new variety, or species, sprung up from the old stock long- 
ago transplanted from the soil of Greece and Rome. 

27. It is true, indeed, that neither any ancient system of grammatical instruction 
nor any grammar of an other language, however contrived, can be entirely applica- 
ble to the present state of our tongue ; for languages must needs differ greatly one 
from an other, aud even that which is called the same, may come in time to differ 
greatly from what it once was. But the general analogies of speech, which are the 
central principles of grammar, are but imperfectly seen by the man of one language. 
On the other hand, it is possible to know much of those general principles, and yet 
be very deficient in what is peculiar to our own tongue. Real improvement in the 
grammar of our language, must result from a view that is neither partial nor super- 
ficial. ''Time, sorry artist," as was said of old, " makes all he handles worse." And 
Lord Bacon, seeming to have this adage in view, suggests : " If Time of course 
alter all things to the wx>rse, and Wisdom and Counsel shall not alter them to the 
better, what shall be the end ?" — Bacon's Essays, p. 64. 

28. Hence the need that an able and discreet grammarian should now and then 



30 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. II. 

appear, who with skillful hand can effect those corrections which a change of fashion 
or the ignorance of authors may have made necessary ; but if he is properly qual- 
ified for his task, he will do all this without a departure from any of. the great prin- 
ciples of Universal Grammar. He will surely be very far from thinking, with a 
certain modern author, whom I shall notice in an other chapter, that, " He is bound 
to take words and explain them as he finds them in his day, without any regard to 
their ancient construction and application." — KirJcham's Gram., p. 28. The whole 
history of every word, so far as he can ascertain it, will be the view under which he 
will judge of what is right or wrong in the language which he teaches. Etymology 
is neither the whole of this view, nor yet to be excluded from it. I concur not 
therefore with Dr. Campbell, who, to make out a strong case, extravagantly says, 
" It is never from an attention to etymology, which would frequently mislead us, 
but from custom, the only infallible* guide in this matter, that the meanings of 
words in present use must be learnt." — Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 188. Jamieson 
too, with an implicitness little to be commended, takes this passage from Campbell ; 
and, with no other change than that of " learnt to " learned" publishes it as a 
corollary of his own. — Grammar of Rhetoric, p. 42. It is folly to state for truth 
what is so obviously wrong. Etymology and custom are seldom at odds ; and 
where they are so, the latter can hardly be deemed infallible. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF GRAMMATICAL AUTHORSHIP. 



M Respondeo, dupliciter aliquem dici grammaticum, arte et professione. Grammatici vera arte paucissimi 
sunt: et hi magna laude digni sunt, ut patuit: hos non vituperant summi viri; quia ipse Plinius ejusmodi 
grammaticus fuit, et de arte grammatica libellos edidit. Et Gellius verse grammatical fuit diligentissimus 
doctor ; sic et ipse Datus. Alii sunt grarnmatici professione, et ii plerumque sunt ineptissimi ; quia scribimus 

indocti doctique, et indignissimus quisque hanc sibi artem vindicat : hos mastigias multis probris docti 

summo jure insectantur." — Despatjtee. Syntaxis, $o\. 1. 



1. It is of primary importance in all discussions and expositions of doctrines, 
of any sort, to ascertain well the principles upon which our reasonings are to be 
founded, and to see that they be such as are immovably established in the nature 
of things ; for error in first principles is fundamental, and he who builds upon an 
uncertain foundation, incurs at least a hazard of seeing his edifice overthrown. 
The lover of truth will be, at all times, diligent to seek it, firm to adhere to it, 
willing to submit to it, and ready to promote it ; but e\en the truth may be urged 
unseasonably, and important facts are things liable to be misjoined. It is proper, 
therefore, for every grammarian gravely to consider, whether and how far the prin- 
ciples of his philosophy, his politics, his morals, or his religion, ought to influence, 
or actually do influence, his theory of language, and his practical instructions re- 
specting the right use of words. In practice, grammar is so interwoven with all 

'else that is known, believed, learned, or spoken of among men, that to determine 
its own peculiar principles with due distinctness, seems to be one of the most dif- 
ficult points of a grammarian's duty. 

2. From misapprehension, narrowness of conception, or improper bias, in relation 
to this point, many authors have started wrong ; denounced others with intemperate 
zeal; departed themselves from sound doctrine; and produced books which are 
disgraced not merely by occasional oversights, but by central and radical errors. 
Hence, too, have sprung up, in the name cf grammar, many unprofitable discus- 
sions, and whimsical systems of teaching, calculated rather to embarrass than to 
inform the student. Mere collisions of opinion, conducted without any acknowl- 
edged standard to guide the judgement, never tend to real improvement. Grammar 
is unquestionably a branch of that universal philosophy by which the thoroughly 



CHAP. II.] OF GBAMMATICAL AUTHORSHIP. 31 

educated mind is enlightened to see all things aright ; for philosophy, in this sense 
of the term, is found in everything. Yet, properly speaking, the true grammarian 
is not a philosopher, nor can any man strengthen his title to the former character 
by claiming the latter; and it is certain, that a most disheartening proportion of 
what m our language has been published under the name of Philosophic Grammar, 
is equally remote from philosophy, from grammar, and from common sense. 

3. True grammar is founded on the authority of reputable custom; and that 
custom, on the use which men make of their reason. The proofs of what is right 
are accumulative, and on many points there can be no dispute, because our proofs 
from the best usage, are both obvious and innumerable. On the other hand, the 
evidence of what is wrong is rather demonstrative ; for when we would expose a 
particular error, we exhibit it in contrast with the established principle which it 
violates. He who formed the erroneous sentence, has in this case no alternative, 
but either to acknowledge the solecism, or to deny the authority of the rule. 
There are disputable principles in grammar, as there are moot points in law; but 
this circumstance affects no settled usage in either ; and every person of sense and 
taste will choose to express himself in the way least liable to censure. All are free 
indeed from positive constraint on their phraseology ; for we do not speak or write 
by statutes. But the ground of instruction assumed in grammar, is similar to that 
upon which are established the maxims of common law, in jurisprudence. The ulti- 
mate principle, then, to which we appeal, as the only true standard of grammatical 
propriety, is that species of custom which critics denominate good use ; that is, 
present, reputable, general use. 

4. Yet a slight acquaintance with the history of grammar will suffice to show us, 
that it is much easier to acknowledge this principle, and to commend it in words, 
than to ascertain what it is, and abide by it in practice. Good use is that which is 
neither ancient nor recent, neither local nor foreign, neither vulgar nor pedantic ; 
and it will be found that no few have in some way or other departed from it, even 
while they were j^retending to record its dictates. But it is not to be concealed, 
that in every living language, it is a matter of much inherent difficulty, to reach the 
standard of propriety, where usage is various ; and to ascertain with clearness the 
decisions of custom, w r hen we descend to minute details. Here is a field in which 
whatsoever is achieved by the pioneers of literature, can be appreciated only by 
thorough scholars ; for the progress of improvement in any art or science, can be 
known only to those who can clearly compare its ruder with its more refined stages ; 
and it often happens that what is effected with much labour, may be presented in a 
very small compass. 

5. But the knowledge of grammar may retrograde ; for whatever loses the vital 
principle of renovation and growth, tends to decay., And if mere copyists, com- 
pilers, abridgers, and modifiers, be encouraged as they now are, it surely will not 
advance. Style is liable to be antiquated by time, corrupted by innovation, debased 
by ignorance, perverted by conceit, impaired by negligence, and vitiated by caprice. 
And nothing but the living spirit of true authorship, and the application of just 
criticism, can counteract the natural tendency of these causes. English grammar is 
still in its infancy ; and even bears, to the imagination of some, the appearance of a 
deformed and ugly dwarf among the liberal arts. Treatises are multiplied almost 
innumerably, but still the old errors survive. Names are rapidly added to our list 
of authors, while little or nothing is done for the science. Nay, while new blunders 
have been committed in every new book, old ones have been allowed to stand as by 
prescriptive right; and positions that were never true, and sentences that were never 
good English, have been published and republished under different names, till in our 
language grammar has become the most ungrammatical of all studies ! " Imitators 
generally copy their originals in an inverse ratio of their merits; that is, by adding 
as much to their faults, as they lose of their merits." — Knight, on the Greek 
Alphabet, p. 117. 

" Who to tke life an exact piece would make, 
Must not from others' work a copy take." — Cowley. 



32 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. II. 

6. All science is laid in the nature of things; and he only who seeks it there, can 
rightly guide others in the paths of knowledge. He alone can know whether his 
predecessors went right or wrong, who is capable of a judgement independent of 
theirs. But with what shameful servility have many false or faulty definitions and 
rules been copied and copied from one grammar to another, as if authority had 
canonized their errors, or none had eyes to see them ! Whatsoever is dignified and 
fair, is also modest and reasonable ; but modesty does not consist in having no opin- 
ion of one's own, nor reason in following with blind partiality the footsteps of others. 
Grammar unsupported by authority, is indeed mere fiction. But what apology is 
this, for that authorship which has produced so many grammars without originality ? 
Shall he who cannot write for himself, improve upon him who can ? Shall he who 
cannot paint, retouch the canvass of Guido? Shall modest ingenuity be allowed 
only to imitators and to thieves? How many a prefatory argument issues virtually 
in this ! It is not deference to merit, but impudent pretence, practising on the 
credulity of ignorance ! Commonness alone exempts it from scrutiny, and the suc- 
cess it has, is but the wages of its own worthlessness ! To read and be informed, is 
to make a proper use of books for the advancement of learning; but to assume to 
be an author by editing mere commonplaces and stolen criticisms, is equally beneath 
the ambition of a scholar and the honesty of a man. 

" T is true, the ancients we may rob with ease ; 
But who with that mean shift himself can please ?" 

Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. 

7. Grammar being a practical art, with the principles of which every intelligent 
person is more or less acquainted, it migljt be expected that a book written pro- 
fessedly on the subject, should exhibit some evidence of its author's skill. But it 
would seem that a multitude of bad or indifferent writers have judged themselves 
qualified to teach the art of speaking and writing well ; so that correctness of lan- 
guage and neatness of style are as rarely to be found in grammars as in other books. 
Nay, I have before suggested that in no other science are the principles of good 
writing so frequently and so shamefully violated. The code of false grammar em- 
braced in the following work, will go far to sustain this opinion. There have been, 
however, several excellent scholars, who have thought it an object not unworthy of 
their talents, to prescribe and elucidate the principles of English Grammar. But 
these, with scarcely any exception, have executed their inadequate designs, not as 
men engaged in their proper calling, but as mere literary almoners, descending for a 
day from their loftier purposes, to perform a service, needful indeed, and therefore 
approved, but very far from supplying all the aid that is requisite to a thorough 
knowledge of the subject. Even the most meritorious have left ample room for im- 
provement, though some have evinced an ability which does honour to themselves, 
while it gives cause to regret their lack of an inducement to greater labour. The 
mere grammarian can neither aspire to praise, nor stipulate for a reward ; and to 
those who were best qualified to write, the subject could offer no adequate motive 
for diligence. 

8. Unlearned men, who neither make, nor can make, any pretensions to a knowl- 
edge of grammar as a study, if they show themselves modest in what they profess, are 
by no means to be despised or undervalued for the want of such knowledge. They 
are subject to no criticism, till they turn authors and write for the public. And 
even then they are to be treated gently, if they have any thing to communicate, 
which is worthy to be accepted in a hoinety dress. Grammatical inaccuracies are 
to be kindly excused, in all those from whom nothing better can be expected ; for 
people are often under a necessity of appearing as speakers or writers, before they 
can have learned to write or speak grammatically. The body is more to be regarded 
than raiment ; and the substance of an interesting message, may make the manner 
of it a little thing. Men of high purposes naturally spurn all that is comparatively 
low ; or all that may seem nice, overwrought, ostentatious, or finical. Hence St. 
Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, suggests that the design of his preaching might 



CHAP. II.] OF GRAMMATICAL AUTHORSHIP. 33 

have been defeated, had he affected the orator, and turned his attention to mere 
" excellency of speech," or " wisdom of words." But this view of things presents 
no more ground for neglecting grammar, and making coarse and vulgar example 
our model of speech, than for neglecting dress, and making baize and rags the 
fashionable costume. The same apostle exhorts Timothy to " hold fast the form of 
sound words" which he himself had taught him. Nor can it be denied that there 
is an obligation resting upon all men, to use speech fairly and understandingly. But 
let it be remembered, that all those upon whose opinions or practices I am disposed 
to animadvert, are either professed grammarians and philosophers, or authors who, 
by extraordinary pretensions, have laid themselves under special obligations to be 
accurate in the use of language. " The wise in heart shall be called prudent ; and 
the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning." — Prov., xvi, 21. " The words of a 
man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom [is] as a flowing 
brook." — lb., xviii, 4. " A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare 
of his soul." — lb., xviii, 7. 

9. The old maxim recorded by Bacon, " Loquendurn ut vulgus, sentiendum ut 
sapientes" — " We should speak as the vulgar, but think as the wise," is not to be 
taken without some limitation. For whoever literally speaks as the vulgar, shall 
offend vastly too much with his tongue, to have either the understanding of the wise 
or the purity of the good. In all untrained and vulgar minds, the ambition of 
speaking well is but a dormant or very weak principle. Hence the great mass of 
uneducated people are lamentably careless of what they utter, both as to the matter 
and the manner ; and no few seem naturally prone to the constant imitation of low 
example, and some, to the practice of every abuse of which language is susceptible. 
Hence, as every scholar knows, the least scrupulous of our lexicographers notice 
many terms but to censure them as " low" and omit many more as being beneath 
their notice. Vulgarity of language, then, ever has been, and ever must be, repu- 
diated by grammarians. Yet we have had pretenders to grammar, who could court 
the favour of the vulgar, though at the expense of all the daughters of Mnemosyne. 

10. Hence the enormous insult to learning and the learned, conveyed in the fol- 
lowing scornful quotations: "Grammarians, go to your tailors and shoemakers, and 
learn from them the rational art of constructing your grammars !" — Neefs Method 
of Education, p. 62. " From a labyrinth without a clew, in which the most enlight- 
ened scholars of Europe have mazed themselves and misguided others, the author 
ventures to turn aside." — CardelVs Gram., 12 mo, p. 15. Again : " The nations of 
unlettered men so adapted their language to philosophic truth, that all physical and 
intellectual research can find no essential rule to reject or change."— -Ibid., p. 91. 
I have shown that " the nations of unlettered men" are among that portion of the 
earth's population, upon whose language the genius -of grammar has never yet con- 
descended to look down ! That people who make no pretensions to learning, can 
furnish better models or instructions than "the most enlightened scholars," is an 
opinion which ought not to be disturbed by argument. 

11. I regret to say, that even Dr. Webster, w^th all his obligations and preten- 
sions to literature, has well-nigh taken ground with Neef and Cardell, as above 
cited ; and has not forborne to throw contempt, even on grammar as such, and on 
men of letters indiscriminately, by supposing the true principles of every language 
to be best observed and kept by the illiterate. What marvel then, that all his 
multifarious grammars of the English language are despised ? Having suggested 
that the learned must follow the practice of the populace, because they cannot con- 
trol it, he adds : " Men of letters may revolt at this suggestion, but if they will attend 
to the history of our language, they will find the fact to be as here stated. It is 
commonly supposed that the tendency of this practice of unlettered men is to corrupt 
the language. But the fact is directly the reverse. I am prepared to prove, were it 
consistent with the nature of this work, that nineteen-twentieths of all the corrup- 
tions of our language, for five hundred years past, have been introduced by authors 
— men who have made alterations in particular idioms which they did not under stand. 
The same remark is applicable to the orthography and pronunciation. The ten- 

3 



34 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. II. 

dency of unlettered men is to uniformity — to analogy ; and so strong is this disposi- 
tion, that the common people have actually converted some of our irregular verbs 
into regular ones. It is to unlettered people that we owe the disuse of holpen, 
bounden, sitten, and the use of the regular participles, swelled, helped, worked, in 
place of the ancient ones. This popular tendency is not to be contemned and disre- 
garded, as some of the learned affect to do ;* for it is governed by the natural, 
primary principles of all languages, to which we owe all their regularity and all 
their melody ; viz., a love of uniformity in words of a like character, and a prefer- 
ence of an easy natural pronunciation, and a desire to express the most ideas with 
the smallest number of words and syllables. It is a fortunate thing for language, 
that these natural principles generally prevail over arbitrary and artificial rules." — 
Webster ] s Philosophical Gram., p. 119 ; Improved Gram., p. 78. So much for un- 
lettered erudition! 

12. If every thing that has been taught under the name of grammar, is to be 
considered as belonging to the science, it will be impossible ever to determine in 
what estimation the study of it ought to be held ; for all that has ever been urged 
either for or against it, may, upon such a principle, be proved by reference to differ- 
ent authorities and irreconcilable opinions. But all who are studious to know, and 
content to follow, the fashion established by the concurrent authority of the learned,\ 
may at least have some standard to refer to ; and if a grammarian's rules be based 
upon this authority, it must be considered the exclusive privilege of the unlearned 
to despise them — as it is of the unbred, to contemn the rules of civility. But who 
shall determine whether the doctrines contained in any given treatise are, or are not, 
based upon such authority ? Who shall decide whether the contributions which 
any individual may make to our grammatical code, are, or are not, consonant with 
the best usage ? For this, there is no tribunal but the mass of readers, of whom 
few perhaps are very competent judges. And here an author's reputation for erudi- 
tion and judgement, may be available to him : it is the public voice in his favour. 
Yet every man is at liberty to form his own opinion, and to alter it whenever better 
knowledge leads him to think differently. 

13. But the great misfortune is, that they who need instruction, are not qualified 
to choose their instructor ; and many who must make this choice for their children, 
have no adequate means of ascertaining either the qualifications of such as offer 
themselves, or the comparative merits of the different methods by which they profess 
to teach. Hence this great branch of learning, in itself too comprehensive for the 
genius or the life of any one man, has ever been open to as various and worthless a 
set of quacks and plagiaries as have ever figured in any other. There always have 
been some who knew this, and there may be many who know it now ; but the 
credulity and ignorance which expose so great a majority of mankind to deception 
and error, are not likely to be soon obviated. With every individual who is so for- 
tunate as to receive any of the benefits of intellectual culture, the whole process of 
education must begin anew ; and, by all that sober minds can credit, the vision of 
human perfectibility is far enough from any national consummation. 

14. Whatever any may think of their own ability, or however some might flout to 
find their errors censured or their pretensions disallowed ; whatever improvement 
may actually have been made, or however fondly we may listen to boasts and felici- 
tations on that topic ; it is presumed, that the general ignorance on the subject of 
grammar, as above stated, is too obvious to be denied. What then is the remedy ? 
and to whom must our appeal be made ? Knowledge cannot be imposed by power, 
nor is there any domination in the republic of letters. The remedy lies solely in 
that zeal which can provoke to a generous emulation in the cause of literature ; and 

* This verb " do" is wrong, because " to be contemned" is passive. 

t " A very good judge has left us his opiui n and determination in this matter; that he 'would take for his 
rule in speaking, not what might happen to be the faulty caprice of the multitude, but the consent and agree- 
ment of learned men.' "—Creightorts Diet., p. 21. The "good judge" here spoken of, is Quintilian; whose 
words on the point are these: "Necessarium est judicium, constituendumque imprimis, id ipsum quid 6it, quod 
consuetudinem vooemus. * * * In loquendo, non, si quid vitiose multia insederit, pro regula sermonis, ac- 
tipiendum est. * * * Ergo consuetudinem sermonis, vocabo consensum eruditorum • sicut vivendi, consen- 
Bum bonorum." — De Inst. OraL, Lib. i, Cap. 6, p. 57. 



CHAP. II.] OF GRAMMATICAL AUTHORSHIP. 35 

the appeal, which has recourse to the learning of the learned, and to the common 
sense of all, must be pressed home to conviction, till every false doctrine stand re- 
futed, and every weak pretender exposed or neglected. Then shall Science honour 
them that honour her ; and all her triumphs be told, all her instructions be delivered, 
in " sound speech that cannot be condemned." 

15. A generous man is not unwilling to be corrected, and a just one cannot but 
desire to be set right in all things. Even over noisy gainsayers, a calm and digni- 
fied exhibition of true docrine, has often more influence than ever openly appears. 
I have even seen the author of a faulty grammar heap upon his corrector more scorn 
and personal abuse than would fill a large newspaper, and immediately afterwards, in 
a new edition of his book, renounce the errors which had been pointed out to him, 
stealing the very language of his amendments from the man whom he had so grossly 
vilified ! It is true that grammarians have ever disputed, and often with more 
acrimony than discretion. Those who, in elementary treatises, have meddled much 
with philological controversy, have well illustrated the couplet of Denham : 

" The tree of knowledge, blasted by disputes, 
Produces sapless leaves in stead of fruits." 

16. Thus, theu, as I have before suggested, we find among writers on grammar 
two numerous classes* of authors, who have fallen into opposite errors, perhaps 
equally reprehensible ; the visionaries, and the copyists. The former have ventured 
upon too much originality, the latter have attempted too little. " The science of 
philology," says Dr. Alexander Murray, " is not a frivolous study, fit to be conducted 
by ignorant pedants or visionary enthusiasts. It requires more qualifications to suc- 
ceed in it, than are usually united in those who pursue it : — a sound penetrating 
judgement ; habits of calm philosophical induction ; an erudition various, extensive, 
and accurate ; and a mind likewise, that can direct the knowledge expressed in 
words, to illustrate the nature of the signs which convey it." — Murray's History of 
European Languages, Vol. ii, p. 333. 

17. They who set aside the authority of custom, and judge every thing to be un- 
grammatical which appears to them to be unphilosophical, render the whole ground 
forever disputable, and weary themselves in beating the air. So various have been 
the notions of this sort of critics, that it would be difficult to mention an opinion not 
found in some of their books. Amidst this rage for speculation on a subject purely 
practical, various attempts have been made, to overthrow that system of instruction, 
which long use has rendered venerable, and long experience proved to be useful. 
But it is manifestly much easier to raise even plausible objections against this system, 
than to invent an other less objectionable. Such attempts have generally met the 
reception they deserved. Their history will give no encouragement to future inno- 
vators. 

18. Again : While some have thus wasted their energies in eccentric flights, 
vainly supposing that the learning of ages would give place to their whimsical theories ; 
others, with more success, not better deserved, have multiplied grammars almost in- 
numerably, by abridging or modifying the books they had used in childhood. So 
that they who are at all acquainted with the origin and character of the various 
compends thus introduced into our schools, cannot but desire to see them all displaced 
by some abler and better work, more honourable to its author and more useful to the 
public, more intelligible to students and more helpful to teachers. Books profess- 
edly published for the advancement of knowledge, are very frequently to be reckoned 
amoug its greatest impediments ; for the interests of learning are no less injured by 
whimsical doctrines, than the rights of authorship by plagiarism. Too many of our 
grammars, profitable only to their makers and venders, are like weights attached to 
the heels of Hermes. It is discouraging to know the history of this science. But 
the multiplicity of treatises already in use, is a reason, not for silence, but for offer- 
ing more. For, as Lord Bacon observes, the number of ill-written books is not to 



36 INTRODUCTION. [CEAP. il. 

be diminished by ceasing to write, but by writing others which, like Aaron's ser- 
pent, shall swallow up the spurious.* 

19. I have said that some grammars have too much originality, and others too 
little. It may be added, that not a few are chargeable with both these faults at 
once. They are original, or at least anonymous, where there should have been 
given other authority than that of the compiler's name ; and they are copies, or, at 
best, poor imitations, where the author should have shown himself capable of writing 
in a good style of his own. What then is the middle ground for the true gramma- 
rian ? What is the kind, and what the degree, of originality, which are to be com- 
mended in works of this sort ? In the first place, a grammarian must be a. writer, 
an author, a man who observes and thinks for himself; and not a mere compiler, 
abridger, modifier, copyist, or plagiarist. Grammar is not the only subject upon 
which we allow no man to innovate in doctrine ; why, then, should it be the only 
one upon which a man may make it a merit, to work up silently into a book of his 
own, the best materials found among the instructions of his predecessors and rivals ? 
Some definitions and rules, which in the lapse of time and by frequency of use have 
become a sort of public property, the grammarian may perhaps be allowed to use at 
his pleasure ; yet even upon these a man of any genius will be apt to set some im- 
press peculiar to himself. But the doctrines of his work ought, in general, to be ex- 
pressed in his own language, and illustrated by that of others. With respect to 
quotation, he has all the liberty of other writers, and no more; for, if a grammarian 
makes " use of his predecessors' labours," why should any one think with Murray, 
" it is scarcely necessary to apologize for" this, " or for omitting to insert their 
names V — Introd. to L. Murray's Grain., 8 vo, p. 7. 

20. The author of this volume would here take the liberty briefly to refer to his 
own procedure. His knowledge of what is technical in grammar, was of course 
chiefly derived from the writings of other grammarians ; and to their concurrent 
opinions and practices, he has always had great respect ; yet, in truth, not a line has 
he ever copied from any of them with a design to save the labour of composition. 
For, not to compile an English grammar from others already extant, but to compose 
one more directly from the sources of the art, was the task which he at first proposed 
to himself. Nor is there in all the present volume a single sentence, not regularly 
quoted, the authorship of which he supposes may now be ascribed to an other more 
properly than to himself. Where either authority or acknowledgement was requisite, 
names have been inserted. In the doctrinal parts of the volume,: not only quotations 
from others, but most examples made for the occasion, are marked with guillemets, 
to distinguish them from the main text ; while, to almost every thing which is really 
taken from any other known writer, a name or reference is added. For those cita- 
tions, however, which there was occasion to repeat in different parts of the work, a 
single reference has sometimes been thought sufficient. This remark refers chiefly 
to the corrections in the Key, the references being given in the Exercises. 

21. Though the theme is not one on which a man may hope to write well with 
little reflection, it is true that the parts of this treatise which have cost the author 
the most labour, are those which " consist chiefly of materials selected from the 
writings of others." These, however, are not the didactical portions of the book, 
but the proofs and examples ; which, according to the custom of the ancient gram- 
marians, ought to be taken from other authors. But so much have the makers of 
our modern grammars been allowed to presume upon the respect and acquiescence 
of their readers, that the ancient exactness on this point would often appear pedantic. 
Many phrases and sentences, either original with the writer, or common to every- 
body, will therefore be found among the illustrations of the following work ; for it 
was not supposed that any reader would demand for every thing of this kind the 
authority of some great name. Anonymous examples are sufficient to elucidate 

* " The opinion of plenty is amongst the causes of want; and the great quantity of books maketh a show- 
rather of superfluity than lack; which surcharge, nevertheless, is not to be removed by making no more books, 
bu* by making more good books, which, as the serpent of Moses, might devour the serpents of the enchanters." 
—Bacon. In point of style, his lordship is here deficient; and he has also mixed and marred the figure which 
he uses. But the idea is a good one. 



CHAP. II.] OF GRAMMATICAL AUTHORSHIP. 37 

principles, if not to establish them ; and elucidation is often the sole purpose for 
which an example is needed. 

22. It is obvious enough, that no writer on grammar has any right to propose 
himself as authority for what he teaches ; for every language, being the common 
property of all who use it, ought to be carefully guarded against the caprices of in- 
dividuals ; and especially against that presumption which might attempt to impose 
erroneous or arbitrary definitions and rules. " Since the matter of which we are 
treating," says the philologist of Salamanca, " is to be verified, first by reason, and 
then by testimony and usage, none ought to wonder if we sometimes deviate from 
the track of great men ; for, with whatever authority any grammarian may weigh 
with me, unless he shall have confirmed his assertions by reason, and also by exam- 
ples, he shall win no confidence in respect to grammar. For, as Seneca says, Epistle 
95, ' Grammarians are the guardians, not the authors, of language.' " — Sanctii Mi- 
nerva, Lib. ii, Cap. 2. Yet, as what is intuitively seen to be true or false, is already 
sufficiently proved or detected, many points in grammar need nothing more than to 
be clearly stated and illustrated ; nay, it would seem an injurious reflection on the un- 
derstanding of the reader, to accumulate proofs of what cannot but be evident to all 
who speak the language. 

23. Among men of the same profession, there is an unavoidable rivalry, so far as 
they become competitors for the same prize ; but in competition there is nothing 
dishonourable, while excellence alone obtains distinction, and no advantage is sought 
by unfair means. It is evident that we ought to account him the best grammarian, 
who has the most completely executed the worthiest design. But no worthy design 
can need a false apology ; and it is worse than idle to prevaricate. That is but a 
spurious modesty, which prompts a man to disclaim in one way what he assumes in 
an other — or to underrate the duties of his office, that he may boast of having " done 
all that could reasonably be expected." Whoever professes to have improved the 
science of English grammar, must claim to know more of tbe matter than the gene- 
rality of English grammarians ; and he who begins with saying, that " little can be 
expected" from the office he assumes, must be wrongfully contradicted, when he is 
held to have done much. Neither the ordinary power of speech, nor even the ability 
to write respectably on common topics, makes a man a critic among critics, or en- 
ables him to judge of literary merit. And if, by virtue of these qualifications alone, 
a man will become a grammarian or a connoisseur, he can hold the rank only by 
courtesy — a courtesy which is content to degrade the character, that his inferior pre- 
tensions may be accepted and honoured under the name. 

24. By the force of a late popular example, still too widely influential, grammati- 
cal authorship has been reduced, in the view of many, to little or nothing more than 
a mere serving-up of materials anonymously borrowed ; and, what is most remark- 
able, even for an indifferent performance of this low office, not only unnamed review- 
ers, but several writers of note, have not scrupled to bestow the highest praise of 
grammatical excellence ! And thus the palm of superior skill in grammar, lias 
been borne away by & professed compiler ; who had so mean an opinion of' what 
his theme required, as to deny it even the common courtesies of compilation ! 
What marvel is it, that, under the wing of such authority, many writers have since 
sprung up, to improve upon this most happy design ; while all who were competent 
to the task, have been discouraged from attempting any thing like a complete gram- 
mar of our language ? What motive shall excite a man to long-continued diligence, 
where such notions prevail as give mastership no hope of preference, and where the 
praise of his ingenuity and the reward of his labour must needs be inconsiderable, 
till some honoured compiler usurp them both, and bring his " most useful matter" 
before the world under better auspices ? If the love of learning supply such a mo- 
tive, who that has generously yielded to the impulse, will not now, like Johnson, 
feel himself reduced to an " humble drudge" — or, like Perizouius, apologize for the 
apparent folly of devoting his time to such a subject as grammar ? 

25. The first edition of the "Institutes of English Grammar," the doctrinal parts 
of which are embraced in the present more copious work, was published in the year 



38 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. II. 

1823 ; since which time, (within the space of twelve years,) about forty new com- 
pends, mostly professing to be abstracts of Murray, with improvements, have been 
added to our list of English grammars. The author has examined as many as thirty 
of them, and seen advertisements of perhaps a dozen more. Being various in char- 
acter, they will of course be variously estimated ; but, so far as he can judge, they 
are, without exception, works of little or no real merit, and not likely to be much 
patronized or long preserved from oblivion. For which reason, he would have been 
inclined entirely to disregard the petty depredations which the writers of several of 
them have committed upon his earlier text, were it not possible, that by such a frit- 
tering-away of his work, he himself might one day seem to some to have copied that 
from others which was first taken from him. Trusting to make it manifest to men 
of learning, that in the production of the books which bear his name, far more has 
been done for the grammar of our language than any single hand had before achieved 
within the scope of practical philology, and that with perfect fairness towards other 
writers ; he cannot but feel a wish that the integrity of his text should be preserved, 
whatever else may befall ; and that the multitude of scribblers who judge it so need- 
ful to remodel Murray's defective compilation, would forbear to publish under his 
name or their own what they find only in the following pages. 

26. The mere rivalry of their authorship is no subject of concern ; but it is enough 
for any ingenuous man to have toiled for years in solitude to complete a work of 
public utility, without entering a warfare for life to defend and preserve it. Acci- 
dental coincidences in books are unfrequent, and not often such as to excite the 
suspicion of the most sensitive. But, though the criteria of plagiarism are neither 
obscure nor disputable, it is not easy, in this beaten track of literature, for persons 
of little reading to know what is, or is not, original. Dates must be accurately ob- 
served ; and a multitude of minute things must be minutely compared. And who 
will undertake such a task but he that is personally interested ? Of the thousands 
who are forced into the paths of learning, few ever care to know, by what pioneer, 
or with what labour, their way was cast up for them. And even of those who are 
honestly engaged in teaching, not many are adequate judges of the comparative 
merits of the great number of books on this subject. The common notions of man- 
kind conform more easily to fashion than to truth ; and even of some things within 
their reach, the majority seem content to take their opinions upon trust. Hence, it 
is vain to expect that that which is intrinsically best, will be everywhere preferred ; 
or that which is meritoriously elaborate, adequately appreciated. But common 
sense might dictate, that learning is not encouraged or respected by those who, for 
the making of books, prefer a pair of scissors to the pen. 

27. The fortune of a grammar is not always an accurate test of its merits. The 
go Mess of the plenteous horn stands blindfold yet upon the floating prow ; and, 
under her capricious favour, any pirate-craft, ill stowed with plunder, may sometimes 
speed as well, as barges richly laden from the golden mines of science. Far more 
are now afloat, and more are stranded on dry shelves, than can be here reported. 
But what this work contains, is candidly designed to qualify the reader to be himself 
a judge of what it should contain; and I will hope, so ample a report as this, being 
thought sufficient, will also meet his approbation. The favour of one discerning 
mind that comprehends my subject, is worth intrinsically more than that of half the 
nation : I mean, of course, the half of whom my gentle reader is not one. 

« 
" They praise and they admire they know not what, 
And know not whom, but as one leads the other." — Milton. 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 39 

CHAPTER III. 

OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 



" Non is ego sum, cui aut jucundum, aut adeo opus sit, de aliis detrahere, et hac via ad famam contendere. 
Melioribus artibus laudem parare didici. Itaque non libenter dico, quod praesens institutum dicere cogit." — 
Jo. Augusti Eenesti Prcef.ad Grcecum Lexicon, p. vii. 



1. The real history of grammar is little known ; and many erroneous impressions 
are entertained concerning it : because the story of the systems most generally re- 
ceived has never been fully told ; and that of a multitude now gone to oblivion was 
never worth telling. In the distribution of grammatical fame, which has chiefly 
been made by the hand of interest, we have had a strange illustration of the saying: 
" Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance ; but from 
him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath." Some whom 
fortune has made popular, have been greatly overrated, if learning and talent are to 
be taken into the account ; since it is manifest, that with no extraordinary claims to 
either, they have taken the very foremost rank among grammarians, and thrown the 
learning and talents of others into the shade, or made them tributary to their own 
success and popularity. 

2. It is an ungrateful task to correct public opinion by showing the injustice of 
praise. Fame, though it may have been both unexpected and undeserved, is apt to 
be claimed and valued as part and parcel of a man's good name ; and the dissenting 
critic, though ever-so candid, is liable to be thought an envious detractor. It would 
seem in general most prudent to leave mankind to find out for themselves how far 
any commendation bestowed on individuals is inconsistent with truth. But, be it 
remembered, that celebrity is not a virtue ; nor, on the other hand, is experience the 
cheapest of teachers. A good man may not have done all things ably and well ; 
and it is certainly no small mistake to estimate his character by the current value of 
his copy-rights. Criticism may destroy the reputation of a book, and not be incon- 
sistent with a cordial respect for the private worth of its author. The reader will not 
be likely to be displeased with what is to be stated in this chapter, if he can believe, 
that no man's merit as a writer, may Avell be enhanced by ascribing to him that 
which he himself, for the protection of his own honour, has been constrained to dis- 
claim. He cannot suppose that too much is alleged, if he will admit that a gram- 
marian's fame should be thought safe enough in his own keeping. Are authors apt 
to undervalue their own performances ? Or because proprietors and publishers may 
profit by the credit of a book, shall it be thought illiberal to criticise it ? Is the 
author himself to be disbelieved, that the extravagant praises bestowed upon him 
may be justified ? " Superlative commendation," says Dillwyn, " is near akin to 
detraction." (See his JBeflections, p. 22.) Let him, therefore, who will charge de- 
traction upon me, first understand wherein it consists. I shall criticise, freely, both 
the works of the living, and the doctrines of those who, to us, live only in their 
works ; and if any man dislike this freedom, let him rebuke it, showing wherein it 
is wrong or unfair. The amiable author just quoted, says again : " Praise has so 
often proved an impostor, that it would be well, wherever we meet with it, to treat 
it as a vagrant." — lb., p. 100. I go not so far as this; but that eulogy which one 
knows to be false, he cannot but reckon impertinent. 

3. Few writers on grammar have been more noted than William Lily and Lind- 
ley Murray. Others have left better monuments of their learning and talents, but 
none perhaps have had greater success and fame. The Latin grammar which was 
for a long time most popular in England, has commonly been ascribed to the one ; 
and what the Imperial Review, in 1805, pronounced "the best English grammar, 



40 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. III. 

beyond all comparison, that has yet appeared," was compiled by the other. And 
doubtless they have both been rightly judged to excel the generality of those which 
they were intended to supersede ; and both, in their day, may have been highly ser- 
viceable to the cause of learning. For all excellence is but comparative ; and to 
grant them this superiority, is neither to prefer them now, nor to justify the praise 
which has been bestowed upon their authorship. As the science of grammar can 
never be taught without a book, or properly taught by any book which is not itself 
grammatical, it is of some importance both to teachers and to students, to make 
choice of the best. Knowledge will not advance where grammars hold rank by pre- 
scription. Yet it is possible that many, in learning to write and speak, may have 
derived no inconsiderable benefit from a book that is neither accurate nor complete. 

4. With respect to time, these two grammarians were three centuries apart; dur- 
ing which period, the English language received its most classical refinement, and 
the relative estimation of the two studies, Latin and English grammar, became in a 
great measure reversed. Lily was an Englishman, born at Odiham,* in Hampshire, 
in 1466. When he had arrived at manhood, he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; 
and while abroad studied some time at Rome, and also at Paris. On his return he 
was thought one of the most accomplished scholars in England. In 1510, Dr. John 
Colet, dean of St. Paul's church, in London, appointed him the first high master of 
St. Paul's School, then recently founded by this gentleman's munificence. In this 
situation, Lily appears to have taught with great credit to himself till 1522, when 
he died of the plague, at the age of oQ. For the use of this school, he wrote and 
published certain parts of the grammar which has since borne his name. Of the 
authorship of this work many curious particulars are stated in the preface by John 
Ward, which may be seen in the edition of 1*793. Lily had able rivals, as well as 
learned coadjutors and friends. By the aid of the latter, he took precedence of the 
former ; and his publications, though not voluminous, soon gained a general popu- 
larity. So- that when an arbitrary king saw fit to silence competition among the 
philologists, by becoming himself, as Sir Thomas Elliott says, " the chiefe authour 
and setter-forth of an introduction into grammar, for the childrene of his lovynge 
subjects," Lily's Grammar was preferred for the basis of the standard. Hence, after 
the publishing of it became a privilege patented by the crown, the book appears to 
have been honoured with a royal title, and to have been familiarly called King Hen- 
ry's Grammar. 

5. Prefixed to this book, there appears a very ancient epistle to the reader, which 
while it shows the reasons for this royal interference with grammar, shows also, what 
is worthy of remembrance, that guarded and maintained as it was, even royal inter- 
ference was here ineffectual to its purpose. It neither produced uniformity in the 
methods of teaching, nor, even for instruction in a dead language, entirely prevented 
the old manual from becoming diverse in its different editions. The style also may 
serve to illustrate what I have elsewhere said about the duties of a modern gram- 
marian. " As for the diversitie of grammars, it is well and profitably taken awaie 
by the King's Majesties wisdome ; who, foreseeing the inconvenience, and favorably 
providing the remedie, caused one kind of grammar by sundry learned men to be 
diligently drawn, and so to be set out, only every where to be taught, for the use of 
learners, and for the hurt in changing of schoolemaisters." That is, to prevent the 
injury which schoolmasters were doing by a whimsical choice, or frequent changing, 
of grammars. But, says the letter, " The varietie of teaching is divers yet, and 
alwaies will be ; for that every schoolemaister liketh that he knoweth, and seeth not 
the use of that he knoweth not ; and therefore judgeth that the most sufficient waie, 
which he seeth to be the readiest meane, and perfectest kinde, to bring a learner to 
have a thorough knowledge therein." The only remedy for such an evil then is, 
to teach those who are to be teachers, and to desert all who, for any whim of their 
own, desert sound doctrine. 

6. But, to return. A law was made in England by Henry the Eighth, command- 

* Not, " Oldham, in Hampshire," as the Universal Biographical Dictionary has it; for Oldham is in Lanca- 
shire, and the name of Lily's birthplace has sometimes been spelled " Odiam." 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. . 41 

ing Lily's Grammar only, (or that which has commonly been quoted as Lily's,) to be 
everywhere adopted and taught, as the common standard of grammatical instruc- 
tion.* Being long kept in force by means of a special inquiry, directed to be made 
by the bishops at their stated visitations, this law, for three hundred years, imposed 
the book on all the established schools of the realm. Yet it is certain, that about 
one half of what has thus gone under the name of Lily, (" because," says one of the 
patentees, " he had so considerable a hand in the composition,) was written by Dr. 
Colet, by Erasmus, or by others who improved the work after Lily's death. And of 
the other half, it has been incidentally asserted in history, that neither the scheme 
nor the text was original. The Printer's Grammar, London, 1787, speaking of the 
art of type-foundery, says : " The Italians in a short time brought it to that perfec- 
tion, that in the beginning of the year 1474, they cast a letter not much inferior to 
the best types of the present age ; as may be seen in a Latin Grammar, written by 
Omnibonus Leonicenus, and printed at Padua on the 14th of January, 1474; from 
whom our grammarian, Lily, has taken the entire scheme of his Grammar, and 
transcribed the greatest 'part thereof, without paying any regard to the memory of 
this author? The historian then proceeds to speak about types. See also the same 
thing in the History of Prin'ing, 8vo, London, 1770. This is the grammar which 
bears upon its title page : " Quam solam Regia Majestas in omnibus scholis docen- 
dam praicipit? 

7. Murray was an intelligent and very worthy man, to wdiose various labours in 
the compilation of books our schools are under many obligations. But in original 
thought and critical skill he fell far below most of "the authors to whom," he con- 
fesses, "the grammatical part of his compilation is principally indebted for its mate- 
rials ; namely, Harris, Johnson, Lowth, Priestley, Beattie, Sheridan, Walker, Coote, 
Blair, and Campbell." — Introd. to Lindley Murray 1 s Gram., p. 7. It is certain and 
evident that he entered upon his task with a very insufficient preparation. His bio- 
graphy, which was commenced by himself and completed by one of his most partial 
friends, informs us, that, " Grammar did not particularly engage his attention, until 
a short time previous to the publication of his first work on that subject ;" that, 
"His Grammar, as it appeared in the first edition, was completed in rather less than 
a year;" that, "It was begun in the spring of 1794, and published in the spring of 
1795 — though he had an intervening illness, which, for several w r eeks, stopped the 
progress of the work ;" and that, " The Exercises and Key w T ere also composed in 
about a year." — Life of L. Murray, p. 188. From the very first sentence of his 
book, it appears that he entertained but a low and most erroneous idea of the duties 
of that sort of character in which he was about to come before the public.f He 
improperly imagined, as many others have done, that " little can be expected" from 
a modern grammarian, or (as he chose to express it) " from a new compilation, 
besides a careful selection of the most useful matter, and some degree of improve- 
ment in the mode of adapting it to the understanding, and the gradual progress of 
learners." — Introd. to L. Murrafs Gram.; 8vo, p. 5 ; 12mo, p. 3. As if, to be 
master of his own art — to think and write well himself, were no part of a gram- 
marian's business ! And again, as if the jewels of scholarship, thus carefully selected, 
could need a burnish or a foil from other hands than those which fashioned them ! 

8. Murray's general idea of the doctrines of grammar was judicious. He attempted 
no. broad innovation on what had been previously taught ; for he had neither the 
vanity to suppose he could give currency to novelties, nor the folly to waste his time 

* There are other Latin grammars now in use in England ; but -what one is most popular, or whether any 
regard is still paid to this ancient edict or not, I cannot say. Dr. Adam, in his pi-eface, dated 1793, speaking 
of Lily, says: "His Grammar was appointed, by an act which is still in force, to be taught in the established 
schools of England." I have somehow gained the impression, that the act is now totally disregarded. — G. 
Brown. 

t For this there is an obvious reason, or apology, in what his biographer states, as "the humble origin of his 
Grammar ;" and it is such a reason as will go to confirm what I allege. This famous compilation was produced 
at the request of two or three, young teachers, who had charge of a small female school in the neighbourhood of 
the author's residence ; and nothing could have been more unexpected to their friend and instructor, than that 
he, in consequence of this service, should become known the world over, as Murray the Grammarian. " In pre- 
paring the work, and consenting to its publication, he had no expectation that it would be used, except by the 
school for which it was designed, and two or three other schools conducted by persons who were also his friends." 
— Life of L Murray, p. 250. 



42 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. III. 

in labours utterly nugatory. By turning his own abilities to their best account, he 
seems to have done much to promote and facilitate the study of our language. But 
his notion of grammatical authorship, cuts off from it all pretence to literary merit, 
for the sake of doing good ; and, taken in any other sense than as a forced apology 
for his own assumptions, his language on this point is highly injurious towards the 
very authors whom he copied. To justify himself, he ungenerously places them, in 
common with others, under a degrading necessity which no able grammarian ever 
felt, and which every man of genius or learning must repudiate. If none of our 
older grammars disprove his assertion, it is time to have a new one that will ; for, to 
expect the perfection of grammar from him who cannot treat the subject in a style 
at once original and pure, is absurd. He says, u The greater part of an English 
grammar must necessarily be a compilation /" and adds, with reference to his own, 
" originality belongs to but a small portion of it. This I have acknowledged ; and 
I trust this acknowledgement will protect me from all attacks, grounded on any sup- 
posed unjust and irregular assumptions." This quotation is from a letter addressed 
by Murray to his American publishers, in 1811, after they had informed him of cer- 
tain complaints respecting the liberties which he had taken in his work. See " The 
Friend" Vol. iii, p. 34. 

9. The acknowledgement on which he thus relies, does not appear to have been 
made, till his grammar had gone through several editions. It was, however, at some 
period, introduced into his short preface, or " Introduction," in the following well- 
meant but singularly sophistical terms : " In a work which professes itself to be a 
compilation, and which, from the nature and design of it, must consist chiefly of 
materials selected from the writings of others, it is scarcely necessary to apologize for 
the use which the Compiler has made of his predecessors' labours, or for omitting 
to insert their names. From the alterations which have been frequently made in 
the sentiments and the language, to suit the connexion, and to adapt them to the 
particular purposes for which they are introduced ; and, in many instances, from, 
the uncertainty to whom the passages originally belonged, the insertion of names 
could seldom be made with propriety. But if this could have been generally done, 
a work of this nature would derive no advantage from it, equal to the inconvenience 
of crowding the pages with a repetition of names and references. It is. however, 
proper to acknowledge, in general terms, that the authors to whom the grammatical 
part of this compilation is principally indebted for its materials, are Harris, Johnson, 
Lowth, Priestley, Beattie, Sheridan, Walker, and Coote." — Introd. ; Duodecimo 
Gram., p. 4 ; Octavo, p. 1. 

10. The fallacy, or absurdity, of this language sprung from necessity. An impos- 
sible case was to be made out. For compilation, though ever so fair, is not gram- 
matical authorship. But some of the commenders of Murray have not only professed 
themselves satisfied with this general acknowledgement, but have found in it a can- 
dour and a liberality, a modesty and a diffidence, which, as they allege, ought to 
protect him from all animadversion. Are they friends to learning? Let them 
calmly consider what I reluctantly offer for its defence and promotion. In one of 
the recommendations appended to Murray's grammars, it is said, " They have nearly 
superseded every thing else of the kind, by concentrating the remarks of the best 
authors on the subject." But, in truth, with several of the best English grammars 
published previously to his own, Murray appears to have been totally unacquainted. 
The chief, if not the only school grammars which were largely copied by him, were 
Lowth's and Priestley's, though others perhaps may have shared the fate of these in 
being "superseded" by his. It may be seen by inspection, that in copying these two 
authors, the compiler, agreeably to what lie says above, omitted all names and refer- 
ences — even such as they had scrupulously inserted : and, at the outset, assumed to 
be himself the sole authority for all his doctrines and illustrations ; satisfying his own 
mind with making, some years afterwards, that general apology which we are now 
criticising. For if he so mutilated and altered the passages which he adopted, as to 
make it improper to add the names of their authors, upon what other authority than 
his own do they rest? But if, on the other hand, he generally copied without alter- 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 43 

ation ; his examples are still anonymous, while his first reason for leaving them so, 
is plainly destroyed : because his position is thus far contradicted by the fact. 

11. In his later editions, however, there are two opinions which the compiler 
thought proper to support by regular quotations; and, now and then, in other 
instances, the name of an author appears. The two positions thus distinguished, are 
these : First, That the noun means is necessarily singular as well as plural, so that 
one cannot with propriety use the singular form, mean, to signify that by which an 
end is attained; Second, That the subjunctive mood, to which he himself had pre- 
viously given all the tenses without inflection, is not different in form from the indic- 
ative, except in the present tense. With regard to the latter point, I have shown, in 
its proper place, that he taught erroneously, both before and after he changed his 
opinion ; and concerning the former, the most that can be proved by quotation, is, 
that both mean and means for the singular number, long have been, and still are, in 
good use, or sanctioned by many elegant writers ; so that either form may yet be 
considered grammatical, though the irregular can claim to be so, only when it is 
used in this particular sense. As to his second reason for the suppression of names, 
to wit, " the uncertainty to whom the passages originally belonged," — to make the 
most of it, it is but partial and relative ; and, surely, no other grammar ever before 
so multiplied the difficulty in the eyes of teachers, and so widened the field for com- 
monplace authorship, as has the compilation in question. The origin of a sentiment 
or passage may be uncertain to one man, and perfectly well known to an other. 
The embarrassment which a compiler may happen to find from this source, is worthy 
of little sympathy. For he cannot but know from what work he is taking any par- 
ticular sentence or paragraph, and those parts of a grammar, which are new to the 
eye of a great grammarian, may very well be credited to him who claims to have 
written the book. I have thus disposed of his second reason for the omission of 
names and references, in compilations of grammar. 

12. There remains one more : "A work of this nature would derive no advantage 
from it, equal to the inconvenience of crowding the pages with a repetition of names 
and references." With regard to a small work, in which the matter is to be very 
closely condensed, this argument has considerable force. But Murray has in general 
allowed himself very ample room, especially in his two octavoes. In these, and for 
the most part also in his duodecimoes, all needful references might easily have been 
added without increasing the size of his volumes, or injuring their appearance. In 
nine cases out of ten, the names would only have occupied what is now blank space. 
It is to be remembered, that these books do not differ much, except in quantity of 
paper. His octavo Grammar is but little more than a reprint, in a larger type, of 
the duodecimo Grammar, together with his Exercises and Key. The demand for 
this expensive publication has been comparatively small ; and it is chiefly to the 
others, that the author owes his popularity as a grammarian. As to the advantage 
which Murray or his work might have derived from an adherence on his part to the 
usual custom of compilers, that may be variously estimated. The remarks of the 
best grammarian's or the sentiments of the best authors, are hardly to be thought 
the more worthy of acceptance, for being concentrated in such a manner as to merge 
their authenticity in the fame of the copyist. Let me not be understood to suggest 
that this good man sought popularity at the expense of others ; for I do not believe 
that either fame or interest was his motive. But the right of authors to the credit 
of their writings, is a delicate point ; and, surely, his example would have been 
worthier of imitation, had he left no ground for the foregoing objections, and care- 
fully barred the way to any such inference. 

13. But let the first sentence of this apology be now considered. It is here sug- 
gested, that because this work is a compilation, even such an acknowledgement as 
the author makes, is " scarcely necessary." This is too much to say. Yet one may 
readily admit, that a compilation, " from the nature and design of it, must consist 
chiefly"— nay, wholly — "of materials selected from the writings of others." But 
what able grammarian would ever willingly throw himself upon the horns of such 
a dilemma ? The nature and design of a book, whatever they may be, are matters 



44 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. III. 

for which the author alone is answerable ; but the nature and design of grammar, 
are no less repugnant to the strain of this apology, than to the vast number of 
errors and defects which were overlooked by Murray in his work of compilation. 
It is the express purpose of this practical science, to enable a man to write well 
himself. He that cannot do this, exhibits no excess of modesty when he claims to 
have " done all that could reasonably be expected in a work of this nature." — L. 
Murray's Gram., Introd., p. 9. He that sees with other men's eyes, is peculiarly 
liable to errors and inconsistencies : uniformity is seldom found in patchwork, or 
accuracy in secondhand literature. Correctness of language is in the mind, rather 
than in the hand or the tongue ; and, in order to secure it, some originality of 
thought is necessary. A delineation from new surveys is not the less original be- 
cause the same region has been sketched before ; and how can he be the ablest of 
surveyors, who, through lack of skill or industry, does little more than transcribe 
the field-notes and copy the projections of his predecessors ? 

14. This author's oversights are numerous. There is no part of the volume more 
accurate than that which he literally copied from Lowth. To the Short Introduction 
alone, he was indebted for more than a hundred and twenty paragraphs ; and even 
in these there are many things obviously erroneous. Many of the best practical 
notes were taken from Priestley ; yet it was he, at whose doctrines were pointed 
most of those "positions and discussions," which alone the author claims as 
original. To some of these reasonings, however, his own alterations may have 
given rise; for, where he "persuades himself he is not destitute of originality," he 
is often arguing against the text of his own earlier editions. Webster's well-known 
complaints of Murray's unfairness, had a far better cause than requital ; for there 
was no generosity in ascribing them to peevishness, though the passages in question 
were not worth copying. On perspicuity and accuracy, about sixty pages were 
extracted from Blair ; and it requires no great critical acumen to discover, that they 
are miserably deficient in both. On the law of language, there are fifteen pages 
from Campbell; which, with a few exceptions, are well written. The rules for 
spelling are the same as Walker's : the third one, however, is a gross blunder ; and 
the fourth, a needless repetition. 

15. Were this a place for minute criticism, blemishes almost innumerable might 
be pointed out. It might easily be shown that almost every rule laid down in the 
book for the observance of the learner, was repeatedly violated by the hand of the 
master. Nor is there among all those who have since abridged or modified the 
■work, an abler grammarian than he who compiled it. Who will pretend that 
Flint, Alden, Comly, Jaudon, Russell, Bacon, Lyon, Miller, Alger, Maltby, Ingersoll, 
Fisk, Greenleaf, Merchant, Kirkham, Cooper, R. G. Greene, Woodworth, Smith, or 
Frost, has exhibited greater skill ? It is curious to observe, how frequently a gram- 
matical blunder committed by Murray, or some one of his predecessors, has escaped 
the notice of all these, as well as of many others who have found it easier to copy 
him than to write for themselves. No man professing to have copied and improved 
Murray, can rationally be supposed to have greatly excelled him ; for to pretend to 
have produced an improved copy of a compilation, is to claim a sort of authorship, 
even inferior to his, and utterly unworthy of any man who is able to prescribe and 
elucidate the principles of English grammar. 

16. But Murray's grammatical works, being extolled in the reviews, and made 
common stock in trade, — being published, both in England and in America, by 
booksellers of the most extensive correspondence, and highly commended even by 
those who were most interested in the sale of them, — have been eminenly successful 
with the public ; and in the opinion of the world, success is the strongest proof of 
merit. Nor has the force of this argument been overlooked by those who have 
written in aid of his popularity. It is the strong point in most of the commenda- 
tions which have been bestowed upon Murray as a grammarian. A recent eulogist 
computes, that, "at least five mil [ion's of copies of his various school-books have 
been printed ;" particularly commends him for his " candour and liberality towards 
rival authors ;" avers that, " he went on, examining and correcting his Grammar, 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 45 

through all its forty editions, till he brought it to a cleg;ee of perfection 'which will 
render it as permanent as the English language itself;" censures (and not without 
reason) the "presumption" of those "superficial critics" who have attempted to 
amend the w r ork, and usurp his honours ; and, regarding the compiler's confession 
of his indebtedness to others, but as a mark of " his exemplary diffidence of his 
own merits," adds, (in very bad English,) " Perhaps there never was an author whose 
success and fame were more unexpected by himself than Lindley Murray." — The 
Friend, Vol. hi, p. 33. 

IV. In a New- York edition of Murray's Grammar, printed in 1812, there was 
inserted a " Caution to the Public," by Collins & Co., his American correspondents 
and publishers, in which are set forth the unparalleled success and merit of the 
work, " as it came in purity from the pen of the author ;" with an earnest remon- 
strance against the several revised editions which had appeared at Boston, Philadel- 
phia, and other places, and against the unwarrantable liberties taken by American 
teachers, in altering the work, under pretence of improving it. In this article it is 
stated, " that the whole of these mutilated editions have been seen and examined by 
Lindley Murray himself, and that they have met with his decided disapprobation. 
Every rational mind," continue these gentlemen, " will agree with him, that, ' the 
rights of living authors, and the interests of science and literature, demand the ab- 
olition of this ungenerous practice? " (See this also in Murray's Key, 12mo, 1ST. Y., 
1811, p. iii.) Here, then, we have the feeling and opinion of Murray himself, upon 
this tender point of right. Here we see the tables turned, and other men judging 
it " scarcely necessary to apologize for the use which they have made of their pre- 
decessors' labours." 

18. It is really remarkable to find an author and his admirers so much at vari- 
ance, as are Murray and his commenders, in relation to his grammatical authorship ; 
and yet, under what circumstances could men have stronger desires to avoid appa- 
rent contradiction ? They, on the one side, claim for him the highest degree of 
merit as a grammarian ; and continue to applaud his works as if nothing more could 
be desired in the study of English grammar — a branch of learning which some of 
them are willing emphatically to call " his science." He, on the contrary, to avert 
the charge of plagiarism, disclaims almost every thing in which any degree of 
literary merit consists ; supposes it impossible to write an English grammar the 
greater part of which is not a " compilation ;" acknowledges that originality belongs 
to but a small part of his own ; trusts that such a general acknowledgement will 
protect him from all censure ; suppresses the names of other writers, and leaves his 
examples to rest solely on his own authority ; and, " contented with the great respec- 
tability of his private character and station, is satisfied with being useful as an 
author." — The Friend, Vol. iii, p. 33. By the high praises bestowed upon his 
works, his own voice is overborne : the trumpet of fame has drowned it. His 
liberal authorship is profitable in trade, and interest has power to swell and prolong 
the strain. 

19. The name and character of Lindley Murray are too venerable to allow us to 
approach even the errors of his grammars, without some recognition of the respect 
due to his personal virtues and benevolent intentions. For the private virtues of 
Murray, I entertain as cordial a respect as any other man. Nothing is argued 
against these, even if it be proved that causes independent of true literary merit 
have given him his great and unexpected fame as a grammarian. It is not intended 
by the introduction of these notices, to impute to him any thing more or less than 
what his own words plainly imply ; except those inaccuracies and deficiencies which 
still disgrace his work as a literary performance, and which of course he did not dis- 
cover. He himself knew that he had not brought the book to such perfection as 
has been ascribed to it ; for, by way of apology for his frequent alterations, he says, 
" Works of this nature admit of repeated improvements ; and are, perhaps, never 
complete." Necessity has urged this reasoning upon me. I am as far from any 
invidious feeling, or any sordid motive, as was Lindley Murray. But it is due to 
truth, to correct erroneous impressions ; and, in order to obtain from some an iiii- 



46 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. III. 

partial examination of the following pages, it seemed necessary first to convince 
them, that it is possible to compose a better grammar than Murray's, without being 
particularly indebted to him. If this treatise is not such, a great deal of time has 
been thrown away upon a useless project ; and if it is, the achievement is no fit 
subject for either pride or envy. It differs from his, and from all the pretended 
amendments of his, as a new map, drawn from actual and minute surveys, differs 
from an old one, compiled chiefly from others still older and confessedly still more 
imperfect. The region and the scope are essentially the same ; the tracing and the 
colouring are more original ; and (if the reader can pardon the suggestion) perhaps 
more accurate and vivid. 

20. He who makes a new grammar, does nothing for the advancement of learn- 
ing, unless his performance excel all earlier ones designed for the same purpose ; and 
nothing for his own honour, unless such excellence result from the exercise of his 
own ingenuity and taste. A good style naturally commends itself to every reader — 
even to him who cannot tell why it is worthy of preference. Hence there is reason 
to believe, that the true principles of practical grammar, deduced from custom and 
sanctioned by time, will never be generally superseded by any thing which individual 
caprice may substitute. In the republic of letters, there will always be some who 
can distinguish merit ; and it is impossible that these should ever be converted to any 
whimsical theory of language, which goes to make void the learning of past ages. 
There will always be some who can discern the difference between originality of style, 
and innovation in doctrine, — between a due regard to the opinions of others, and an 
actual usurpation of their text; and it is incredible that these should ever be satisfied 
with any mere compilation of grammar, or with any such authorship as either con- 
fesses or betrays the writer's own incompetence. For it is not true, that, " an English 
grammar must necessarily be," in any considerable degree, if at all, " a compilation ;" 
nay, on such a theme, and in " the grammatical part" of the work, all compilation 
beyond a fair use of authorities regularly quoted, or of materials either voluntarily 
furnished or free to all, most unavoidably implies — not conscious " ability," gener- 
ously doing honour to rival merit — nor " exemplary diffidence," modestly veiling its 
own — but inadequate skill and inferior talents, bribing the public by the spoils of 
genius, and seeking precedence by such means as not even the purest desire of doing 
good can justify. 

21. Among the professed copiers of Murray, there is not one to whom the fore- 
going remarks do not apply, as forcibly as to him. For no one of them all has at- 
tempted any thing more honourable to himself, or more beneficial to the public, than 
what their master had before achieved ; nor is there any one, who, with the same 
disinterestedness, has guarded his design from the imputation of a pecuniary motive. 
It is comical to observe what they say in their prefaces. Between praise to sustain 
their choice of a model, and blame to make room for their pretended amendments, 
they are often placed in as awkward a dilemma, as that which was contrived when 
grammar was identified w T ith compilation. I should have much to say, were I to 
show them all in their true light.* Few of them have had such success as to be 
worthy of notice here ; but the names of many will find frequent place in my code 
of false grammar. The one who seems to be now taking the lead in fame and re- 
venue, filled with glad wonder at his own popularity, is Samuel Kirkham. Upon this 
gentleman's performance, I shall therefore bestow a few brief observations. If I do 
not overrate this author's literary importance, a fair exhibition of the character of 
his grammar, may be made an instructive lesson to some of our modern literati. 
The book is a striking sample of a numerous species. 

22. Kirkham's treatise is entitled, " English Grammar in Familiar Lectures, ac- 
companied by a Compendium ;" that is, by a folded sheet. Of this work, of which 
I have recently seen copies purporting to be of the " sixty-seventh edition," and 
others again of the " hundred and fifth edition," each published at Baltimore in 

* "Grammatici namque auctoritas perse nulla est; quum ex sola doctissimorum oratorum, historicorum, 
poetarum, et aliorum ideonorum scriptorum observatione, constet ortam esse veram grammaticam. Multa 
dicendaforent, si grammatistarum ineptiaa re/ellere vellem: sed nulla est gloria prseterire asellos." — Dbspau- 
tebii Prcef.Art. Versif., fol. iii, 1517. 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 47 

1835, I can give no earlier account, than what may be derived from the " second 
edition, enlarged and much improved," which was published at Harrisburg in 1825. 
The preface, which appears to have been written for his first edition, is dated, 
" Fredericktown, Md., August 22, 1823." In it, there is no recognition of any ob- 
ligation to Murray, or to any other grammarian in particular ; but with the modest 
assumption, that the style of the "best philologists," needed to be retouched, the 
book is presented to the world under the following pretensions : 

u The author of this production has endeavoured to condense all the most important subject- 
matter of the whole science, and present it in so small a compass that the learner can become 
familiarly acquainted with it in a short time. He makes but small pretensions to originality in 
theoretical matter. Most of the principles laid down, have been selected from our best modern 
'philologists. If his work is entitled to any degree of merit, it is not on account of a judicious 
selection of principles and rules, but for the easy mode adopted of communicating these to the mind 
of the learner." — Kirkham's Grammar, 1825, p. 10. 

23. It will be found on examination, that what this author regarded as "all the 
most important subject-matter of the whole science' 1 '' of grammar, included nothing 
more than the most common elements of the orthography, etymology, and syntax, 
of the English tongue — beyond which his scholarship appears not to have extended. 
Whatsoever relates to derivation, to the sounds of the letters, to prosody, (as punctua- 
tion, utterance, figures, versification, and poetic diction,) found no place in his " com- 
prehensive system of grammar ;" nor do his later editions treat any of these things 
amply or well. In short, he treats nothing well ; for he is a bad writer. Com- 
mencing his career of authorship under circumstances the most forbidding, yet re- 
ceiving encouragement from commendations bestowed in pity, he proceeded, like a 
man of business, to profit mainly by the chance ; and, without ever acquiring either 
the feelings or the habits of a^holar, soon learned by experience that, " It is much 
better to write than [to] starve? — KirhharrCs Gram., Stereotyped, p. 89. It is cruel 
in any man, to look narrowly into the faults of an author who peddles a school-book 
for bread. The starveling wretch whose defence and plea are poverty and sickness, 
demands, and must have, in the name of humanity, an immunity from criticism, if 
not the patronage of the public. Far be it from me, to notice any such character, 
except with kindness and charity. Nor need I be told, that tenderness is due to the 
" young ;" or that noble results sometimes follow unhopeful beginnings. These things 
are understood and duly appreciated. The gentleman was young once, even as he 
says ; and I, his equal in years, was then, in authorship, as young — though, it were 
to be hoped, not quite so immature. But, as circumstances alter cases, so time and 
chance alter circumstances. Under no circumstances, however, can the artifices of 
quackery be thought excusable in him who claims to be the very greatest of modern 
grammarians. The niche that in the temple of learning belongs to any individual, 
can be no other than that which his own labours have purchased : here, his own 
merit alone must be his pedestal. If this critical sketch be unimpeachably just, its 
publication requires no further warrant. The correction has been forborne, till the 
subject of it has become rich, and popular, and proud ; proud enough at least to 
have published his utter contempt for me and all my works. Yet not for this do I 
judge him worthy of notice here, but merely as an apt example of some men's 
grammatical success and fame. The ways and means to these grand results are what 
I purpose now to consider. 

24. The common supposition, that the world is steadily advancing in knowledge 
and improvement, would seem to imply, that the man who could plausibly boast of 
being the most successful and most popular grammarian of the nineteenth century, 
cannot but be a scholar of such merit as to deserve some place, if not in the general 
literary history of his age, at least in the particular history of the science which he 
teaches. It will presently be seen that the author of " English Grammar in Famil- 
iar Lectures," boasts of a degree of success and popularity, which, in this age of the 
world, has no parallel. It is not intended on my part, to dispute any of his asser- 
tions on these points ; but rather to take it for granted, that in reputation and re- 



48 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. III. 

venue he is altogether as preeminent as he pretends to be. The character of his 
alleged improvements, however, I shall inspect with the eyes of one who means to 
know the certainty for himself ; and, in this item of literary history, the reader shall 
see, in some sort, ivhat profit there is in grammar. Is the common language of two 
of the largest and most enlightened nations on earth so little understood, and its 
true grammar so little known or appreciated, that one of the most unscholarly and 
incompetent of all pretenders to grammar can have found means to outrival all the 
grammarians who have preceded him ? Have plagiarism and quackery become the 
only means of success in philology ? Are there now instances to which an intelli- 
gent critic may point, and say, " This man, or that, though he can scarcely write a 
page of good English, has patched up a grammar, by the help of Murray's text only, 
and thereby made himself rich ?" Is there such a charm in the name of Murray, 
and the word improvement, that by these two implements alone, the obscurest of 
men, or the absurdest of teachers, may work his passage to fame ; and then, per- 
chance, by contrast of circumstances, grow conceited and arrogant, from the fortune 
of the undertaking ? Let us see what we can find in Kirkham's Grammar, which 
will go to answer these questions. 

25. Take first from one page of his fa hundred and fifth edition," a few brief quota- 
tions, as a sample of his thoughts and style : 

"They, however, who introduce usages which depart from the analogy and philosophy of a lan- 
guage, are conspncuous among the number of those who form that language, and have power to 
control it." " Principle. — A principle in grammar is a peculiar construction of the language, 
sanctioned by good usage." " Definition. — A definition in grammar is a principle of language 
expressed in a definite form." " Rule. — A rule describes the peculiar construction or circumstan- 
tial relation of words, which custom has established for our observance." — Kirkham's Grammar, 
page 18. 

Now, as " a rule describes a j)eculiar construction^ and " a principle is a peculiar 
construction," and " a definition is a principle ;" how, according to this grammarian, 
do a principle, a definition, and a rule, differ each from the others ? From the rote 
here imposed, it is certainly not easier for the learner to conceive of all these things 
distinctly, than it is to understand how a departure from philosophy may make a 
man deservedly "conspicuous" It were easy to multiply examples like these, show- 
ing the work to be deficient in clearness, the first requisite of style. 

26. The following passages may serve as a specimen of the gentleman's taste, and 
grammatical accuracy ; in one of which, he supposes the neuter verb is to express 
an action, and eveiy honest man to be long since dead ! So it stands in all his edi- 
tions. Did his praisers think so too ? 

" It is correct to say, The man eats, he eats ; but we cannot say, The man dog eats, he dog eats. 
Why not? Because the man is here represented as the possessor, and dog, the property, or 
thing possessed ; and the genius of our language requires, that when we add to the possessor, the 
thing which he is represented as possessing, the possessor shall take a particular form to show its 
case, or relation to the property." — lb., p. 52. 

The Present Tense. — " This tense is sometimes applied to represent the actions of persons 
long since dead ; as, ' Seneca reasons and moralizes well ; An honest man is the noblest work of 
God.' "— lb., p. 138. 

Participles. — " The term Participle comes from the Latin word participio* which signifies to 
partake" — " Participles are formed by adding to the verb the termination ing, ed, or en. Ing sig- 
nifies the same thing as the noun being. When postfixed to the noun-state of the verb, the com- 
pound word thus formed expresses a continued state of the verbal denotement. It implies that 
what is meant by the verb, is being continued." — lb., p. 78. "All participles are compound in 
their meaning and office." — lb., p. 79. 

Verbs. — " Verbs express, not only the state or manner of being, but, likewise, all the different 
actions and movements of all creatures and things, whether animate or inanimate." — lb., p. 62. 
" It can be easily shown, that from the noun and verb, all the other parts of speech have sprung. 
Nay, more. Tliey may even be reduced to one. Verbs do not, in reality, express actions ; but 
they are intrinsically the mere names of actions." — lb., p. 37. 

Philosophical Grammar. — " I have thought proper to intersperse through the pages of this 
work, under the head of 'Philosophical Notes,'' an entire system of grammatical principles, as de- 

* The Latin word for participle is participium, -which makes participio in the dative or the ablative case; 
but the Latin word for partake is participo, and not '■'■participio.'' 1 — G. Bbown. 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 49 

duced from vjliat appears* to me to be the most rational and consistent philosopliical investiga- 
tions." — lb., p. 36. "Johnson, and Blair, and Lowth, would have been laughed at, had they essayed 
to thrust any thing like our modernized philosophical grammar down the throats of their cotempo- 
raries." — lb., p. 143. 

Is it not a pity, that " more than one hundred thousand children and youth" 
should be daily poring over language and logic like this ? 

27. For the sake of those who happily remain ignorant of this successful empiri- 
cism, it is desirable that the record and exposition of it be made brief. There is 
little danger that it will long survive its author. But the present subjects of it are 
sufficiently numerous to deserve some pity. The following is a sample of the gen- 
tleman's method of achieving what he both justly and exultingly supposes, that 
Johnson, or Blair, or Lowth, could not have effected. He scoffs at his own grave 
instructions, as if they had been the production of some other impostor. Can the 
fact be credited, that in the following instances, he speaks of what he himself 
teaches ? — of what he seriously pronounces " most rational and consistent V — of 
what is part and parcel of that philosophy of his, which he declares, " will in general 
he found to accord with the practical theory embraced in the body of his work ?" — 
See JTirkham's Gra?n., p. 36. 

"Call this ' philosophical parsing, on reasoning principles, according to' the original laws of na- 
ture and of thought,' and the pill will be swallowed, by pedants and their dupes, with the greatest 
ease imaginable." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 144. " For the satisfaction of those teachers who prefer 
it, and for their adoption, too, a modernized philosophical theory of the moods and tenses is here 
presented. If it is not quite so convenient and useful as the old one, they need not hesitate to 
adopt it. It has the advantage of being new ; and, moreover, it sounds large, and will make the 
commonalty stare. Let it be distinctly understood that you teach ' [Kirkham's'] philosophical 
grammar, founded on reason and common sense,' and you will pass for a very learned man, and 
make all the good housewives wonder at the rapid march of intellect, and the vast improvements 
of the age."— lb., p. 141. 

28. The pretty promises with which these " Familiar Lectures" abound, are also 
worthy to be noticed here, as being among the peculiar attractions of the perform- 
ance. The following may serve as a specimen : 

" If you proceed according to my instructions, you will be sure to acquire a practical knowledge 
of Grammar in a short time." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 49. " If you have sufficient resolution to do 
this, you will, in a short time, perfectly understand the nature and office of the different parts of 
speech, their various properties and relations, and the rules of syntax that apply to them ; and, 
in a few weeks, be able to speak and write accurately." — lb., p. 62. "You will please to turn 
back and read over again the whole five lectures. You must exercise a Utile patience." — lb., p. 82. 
" By studying these lectures with attention, you will acquire more grammatical knowledge in 
three months, than is commonly obtained in two years.'" — lb., p. 82. " I will conduct you so 
smoothly through the moods and tenses, and the conjugation of verbs, that, instead of finding your- 
self involved in obscurities and deep intricacies, you will scarcely find an obstruction to impede 
your progress." — lb., p. 133. " The supposed Herculean task of learning to conjugate verbs, 
will be transformed into a few hours of pleasant pastime." — lb., p. 142. "By examining carefully 
the conjugation of the verb through this mood, you will find it very easy." — lb., p. 147. "By 
pursuing the following direction, you can, in a very short time, learn to conjugate any verb." — lb., 
p. 147. "Although this mode of procedure may, at first, appear to be laborious, yet, as it is neces- 
sary, I trust you will not hesitate to adopt it. My confidence in your perseverance, induces me to 
recommend any course which I know will tend to facilitate your progress." — lb., p. 148. 

29. The grand boast of this author is, that he has succeeded in " pleasing himself 
and the public." He trusts to have " gained the latter point," to so great an extent, 
and with such security of tenure, that henceforth no man can safely question the 
merit of his performance. Happy mortal ! to whom that success which is the 
ground of his pride, is also the glittering aegis of his sure defence ! To this he 
points with exultation and self-applause, as if the prosperity of the wicked, or the 
popularity of an imposture, had never yet been heard of in this clever world If 
Upon what merit this success has been founded, my readers may judge, when I shall 

* This sentence is manifestly bad English : either the singular verb " appears" should he made plural, or the 
plural noun " investigations" should be made singular. — Gr. Brown. 

t " What ! a book have no merit, and yet be called for at the rate of sixty thousand copies a year ! What a 
Blander is this upon the public taste ! What an insult to the understanding and discrimination of the good people 

4 



50 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. III. 

have finished this slight review of his work. Probably no other grammar was ever 
so industriously spread. Such was the author's perseverance in his measures to in- 
crease the demand for his booh, that even the attainment of such accuracy as he 
was capable of, was less a subject of concern. For in an article designed " to ward 
off some of the arrows of criticism," — an advertisement which, from the eleventh to 
the " one hundred and fifth edition," has been promising " to the publick another 
and a better edition," — he plainly offers this urgent engagement, as " an apology for 
its defects :" 

" The author is apprehensive that his work is not yet as accurate and as much simplified as it 
may he. If, however, the disadvantages of lingering under a broken constitution, and of being 
able to devote to this subject only a small portion of his time, snatched from the active pursuits of 
a business life, (active as far as imperfect health permits him to be,) are any apology for his defects, 
he hopes that the candid will set down the apology to his credit. — Not that he would beg a truce 
with the gentlemen critkks and reviewers. Any compromise with them would betray a want of 
self-confidence and moral courage, which he would by no means, be willing to avow." — Kirkham's 
Gram., (Adv. of 1829,) p. 1. 

30. Now, to this painful struggle, this active contention between business and the 
vapours, let all credit be given, and all sympathy be added ; but, as an aid to the 
studies of healthy children, what better is the book, for any forbearance or favour 
that may have been won by this apology ? It is well known, that, till phrenology 
became the common talk, the author's principal businass was, to commend his own 
method of teaching grammar, and to turn this publication to profit. This honour- 
able industry, aided, as himself suggests, by " not much less than one thousand 
written recommendations," is said to have wrought for him, in a very few years, a 
degree of success and fame, at which both the eulogists of Murray and the friends 
of English grammar may hang their heads. As to a " compromise''' with any critic 
or reviewer whom he cannot bribe, it is enough to say of that, it is morally impos- 
sible. Nor was it necessary for such an author to throw the gauntlet, to prove him- 
self not lacking in " self-confidence ." He can show his " moral courage" only by 
daring do right. 

31. In 1829, after his book had gone through ten editions, and the demand for it 
had become so great as " to call forth twenty thousand copies during the year," the 
prudent author, intending to veer his course according to the trade-wind, thought it 
expedient to retract his former acknowledgement to " our best modern philologists," 
and to profess himself a modifier of the Great Compiler's code. Where then holds 
the anchor of his praise ? Let the reader say, after weighing and comparing his 
various pretensions : 

" Aware that there is, in the publick mind, a strong predilection for the doctrines contained in 
Mr. Murray's grammar, he has thought proper, not merely from motives of policy, but from 
choice, to select his principles chiefly from that work; and, moreover, to adopt, as far as consistent 
with his own views, the language of that eminent philologist. In no instance has he varied from 
him, unless he conceived that, in so doing, some practical advantage would be gained. He hopes, 
therefore, to escape the censure so frequently and so justly awarded to those unfortunate innovators 
who have not scrupled to alter, mutilate, and torture the text of that able writer, merely to 
gratify an itching propensity to figure in the world as authors, and gain an ephemeral popularity 
by arrogating to themselves the credit due to another."* — Kirkharts Gram., 1829, p. 10. 

of these United States ! According to this reasoning, all the inhabitants of our land must be fools, except one 
man, and that man is GOOLD BROWN !" — Kiskham, in the Knickerbocker, Oct., 1837, p. 361. 

Well may the honest critic expect to be called a slanderer of " the public taste," and an insulter of the na- 
tion's "understanding," if both the merit of this vaunted book and the -wisdom of its purchasers are to be 
measured and proved by the author's profits, or*the publishers' account of sales ! But, possibly, between the 
intrinsic merit and the market value of some books there may be a difference. Lord Byron, it is said, received 
from Murray his bookseller, nearly ten dollars a line for the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold, or about as much 
for every two lines, as Milton obtained for the whole of Paradise Lost. Is this the true ratio of the merit of 
these authors, or of the wisdom of the different ages in which they lived? • 

* Kirkham's real opinion of Murray cannot be known from this passage only. How able is that writer who 
is chargeable with the greatest want of taste and discernment? " In regard to the application of the final pause 
in reading blank verse, nothing can betray a greater want of rhetorical taste and philosophical acumen, than 
the directions of Mr. Murray." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 145. Kirkham is indeed no judge either of the merits, 
or of the demerits, of Murray' s writings ; nor is it probable that this criticism originated with himself. But, 
since it appears in his name, let him have the credit of it, and of representing the compiler whom he calls '■'■that 
able writer" and " that eminent philologist," as an untasteful dunce, and a teacher of nonsense : " To say that, 
unless we ' make every line sensible to the ear, 1 we mar the melody, and suppress the numbers of the poet, is 
all nonsense." — Ibid. See Murray's Grammar, on " Poetical Pauses ;" 8vo, p. 260 ; l2mo, 210. 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 51 

32. Now these statements are either true or false ; and I know not on which sup- 
position they are most creditable to the writer. Had any Roman grammatist thus 
profited by the name of Varro or Quintilian, he would have been filled with con- 
stant dread of somewhere meeting the injured author's frowning shade! Surely, 
among the professed admirers of Murray, no other man, whether innovator or 
copyist, unfortunate or successful, is at all to be compared to this gentleman for the 
audacity with which he has " not scrupled to alter, mutilate, and torture, the text of 
that able writer." Murray simply intended to do good, and good that might descend 
to posterity ; and this just and generous intention goes far to excuse even his errors. 
But Kirkbam, speaking of posterity, scruples not to disavow and to renounce all 
care for them, or for any thing which a coming age may think of his character : 
saying, 

"My pretensions reach not so far. To the present generation only, I present my claims. 
Should it lend me a listening ear, and grant me its suffrages, the height of my ambition will be 
attained." — Advertisement, in his Elocution, p. 346. 

His whole design is, therefore, upon the very face of it, a paltry scheme of present 
income. And, seeing his entered classes of boys and girls must soon have done 
with him, he has doubtless acted wisely, and quite in accordance with his own in- 
terest, to have made all possible haste in his career. 

33. Being no rival with him in this race, and having no personal quarrel with 
him on any account, I would, for his sake, fain rejoice at his success, and withhold 
my criticisms ; because he is said to have been liberal with his gains, and because 
he has not, like some others, copied me instead of Murray. But the vindication of 
a greatly injured and perverted science, constrains me to say, on this occasion, that 
pretensions less consistent with themselves, or less sustained by taste and scholarship, 
have seldom, if ever, been promulgated in the name of grammar. I have, certainly, 
no intention to say more than is due to the uninformed and misguided. For some 
who are ungenerous and prejudiced themselves, will not be unwilling to think me 
so ; and even this freedom, backed and guarded as it is by facts and proofs irrefrag- 
able, may still be ingeniously ascribed to an ill motive. To two thirds of the com- 
munity, one grammar is just as good as an other ; because they neither know, nor 
wish to know, more than may be learned from the very worst. An honest expres- 
sion of sentiment against abuses of a literary nature, is little the fashion of these 
times ; and the good people who purchase books upon the recommendations of 
others, may be slow to believe there is no merit where so much has been attributed. 
But facts may well be credited, in opposition to courteous flattery, when there are 
the author's own words and works to vouch for them in the face of day. Though a 
thousaud of our great men may have helped a copier's weak copyist to take " some 
practical advantage" of the world's credulity, it is safe to aver, in the face of dignity 
still greater, that testimonials more fallacious have seldom mocked the cause of 
learniug. They did not read his book. 

34. Notwithstanding the author's change in his professions, the work is now 
essentially the same as it was at first ; except that its errors and contradictions have 
been greatly multiplied, by the addition of new matter inconsistent with the old. 
He evidently cares not what doctrines he teaches, or whose ; but, as various theories 
are noised abroad, seizes upon different opinions, and mixes them together, that his 
books may contain something to suit all parties. " A System of Philosophical Gram- 
mar" though but an idle speculation, even in his own account, and doubly absurd 
in him, as being flatly contradictory to his main text, has been thought worthy of 
insertion. And what his title-page denominates " A New System of Punctuation" 
though mostly in the very words of Murray, was next invented to supply a deficiency 
which he at length discovered. To admit these, and some other additions, the 
"comprehensive system of grammar" was gradually extended from 144 small duo- 
decimo pages, to 228 of the ordinary size. And, in this compass, it was finally 
stereotyped in 1829 ; so that the ninety-four editions published since,. have nothing 
new for history. 



52 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. III. 

35. But the publication of an other work designed for schools, " An Essay on 
Elocution" shows the progress of the author's mind. Nothing can be more radi- 
cally opposite, than are some of the elementary doctrines which this gentleman is 
now teaching ; nothing, more strangely inconsistent, than are some of his declara- 
tions and professions. For instance : " A consonant is a letter that cannot be per- 
fectly sounded without the help of a vowel." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 19. Again: 
" A consonant is not only capable of being perfectly sounded without the help of a 
vowel, but, moreover, of forming, like a vowel, a separate syllable." — Kirkham's 
Elocution, p. 32. Take a second example. He makes " Adjective Pronouns" a 
prominent division and leading title, in treating of the pronouns proper ; defines the 
term in a manner peculiar to himself ; prefers and uses it in all his parsing ; and 
yet, by the third sentence of the story, the learner is conducted to this just conclu- 
sion : " Hence, such a thing as an adjective-pronoun cannot exist." — Grammar, p. 
105. Once more. Upon his own rules, or such as he had borrowed, he comments 
thus, and comments truly, because he had either written them badly or made an ill 
choice : " But some of these rules are foolish, trifling, and unimportant." — Elocution, 
p. 97. Again : "Rules 10 and 11, rest on a sandy foundation. They appear not to 
be based on the principles of the language." — Grammar, p. 59. These are but speci- 
mens of his own frequent testimony against himself ! Nor shall he find refuge in the 
impudent falsehood, that the things which I -quote as his, are not his own.* These 
contradictory texts, and scores of others which might be added to them, are as right- 
fully his own, as any doctrine he has ever yet inculcated. But, upon the credulity 
of ignorance, his high-sounding certificates and unbounded boasting can impose any 
thing. They overrule all in favour of one of the worst grammars extant; — of 
which he says, " it is now studied by more than one hundred thousand children and 
youth ; and is more extensively used than all other English grammars published in 
the United States." — Elocution, p. 347. The booksellers say, he receives from his 
publishers ten cents a copy, on this work, and that he reports the sale of sixty thou- 
sand copies per annum. Such has of late been his public boast. I have once had 
the story from his own lips, and of course congratulated him, though I dislike the 
book. Six thousand dollars a year, on this most miserable modification of Lindley 
Murray's Grammar ! Be it so — or double, if he and the public please. Murray had 
so little originality in his work, or so little selfishness in his design, that he would 
not take any thing ; and his may ultimately prove the better bargain. 

36. A man may boast and bless himself as he pleases, his fortune, surely, can 
never be worthy of an other's envy, so long as he finds it inadequate to his own 
great merits, and unworthy of his own poor gratitude. As a grammarian, Kirkham 
claims to be second only to Lindley Murray ; and says, " Since the days of Lowth, 
no other work on grammar, Murray's only excepted, has been so favourably received 
by the publick as his own. As a proof of this, he would mention, that within the 
last six years it has passed through fifty editions." — Preface to Elocution-, p. 12,. 
And, at the same time, and in the same preface, he complains, that, " Of all the 
labours done under the sun, the labours of the pen meet with the poorest reward." — 
Ibid., p. 5. This too clearly favours the report, that his books were not written by 
himself, but by others whom he hired. Possibly, the anonymous helper may here 
have penned, not his employer's feeling, but a line of his own experience. But I 
choose to ascribe the passage to the professed author, and to hold him answerable 
for the inconsistency. Willing to illustrate by the best and fairest examples these 
fruitful means of grammatical fame, I am glad of his present success, which, through 
this record, shall become yet more famous. It is the only thing which makes him 
worthy of the notice here taken of him. But I cannot sympathize with his com- 
plaint, because he never sought any but " the poorest reward ;" and more than all he 
sought, he found. In his last " Address to Teachers," he says, " He may doubtless 

* "Now, in these instances, I should be fair game, were it not for the trifling difference, that I happen to pre- 
sent the doctrines and notions of other writers, and not my own, as stated by my learned censor." — Kiekham, 
in the Knickerbocker, Oct. 183T, p. 360. If the instructions above cited are not his own, there is not, within the 
lids of either book, a penny's worth that is. His fruitful copy-rights are void in law: the "learned censor's" 
pledge shall guaranty this issue. — G. B. 1838. 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 53 

be permitted emphatically to say with Prospero, ' Your breath has filled my sails. 1 " 
— Elocution, p. 18. If this boasting has any truth in it, he ought to be satisfied. 
But it is written, " He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver ; nor he 
that loveth abundance, with increase." Let him remember this.* He now an- 
nounces three or four other works as forthcoming shortly. What these will achieve, 
the world will see. But I must confine myself to the Grammar. 

37. In this volume, scarcely any thing is found where it might be expected. " The 
author," as he tells us in his preface, " has not followed the common ' artificial and 
unnatural arrangement adopted by most of his predecessors ;' yet he has endeavoured 
to pursue a more judicious one, namely, ' the order of the understanding. 1 " — Gram- 
mar, p. 12. But if this is the order of his understanding, he is greatly to be pitied. 
A book more confused in its plan, more wanting in method, more imperfect in dis- 
tinctness of parts, more deficient in symmetry, or more difficult of reference, shall 
not easily be found in stereotype. Let the reader try to follow us here. Bating 
twelve pages at the beginning, occupied by the title, recommendations, advertise- 
ment, contents, preface, hints to teachers, and advice to lecturers ; and fifty- four at 
the end, embracing syntax, orthography, orthoepy, provincialisms, prosody, punctua- 
tion, versification, rhetoric, figures of speech, and a Key, all in the sequence here 
given ; the work consists of fourteen chapters of grammar, absurdly called " Familiar 
Lectures." The first treats of sundries', under half a dozen titles, but chiefly of 
Orthography ; and the last is three pages and a half, of the most common remarks, 
on Derivation. In the remaining twelve, the Etymology and Syntax of the ten parts 
of speech are commingled; and an attempt is made, to teach simultaneously all that 
the author judged important in either. Hence he gives us, in a strange congeries, 
rules, remarks, illustrations, false syntax, systematic parsing, exercises in parsing, 
two different orders of notes, three different orders of questions, and a variety of other 
titles merely occasional. All these things, being additional to his main text, are to 
be connected, in the mind of the learner, with the parts of speech successively, in 
some new and inexplicable catenation found only in the arrangement of the lectures. 
The author himself could not see through the chaos. He accordingly made his 
table of contents a mere meagre alphabetical index. Having once attempted in 
vain to explain the order of his instructions, he actually gave the matter up in 
despair ! 

38. In length, these pretended lectures vary, from three or four pages, to eight- 
and-thirty. Their subjects run thus: 1. Language, Grammar, Orthography; 2. 
Nouns and Verbs ; 3. Articles; 4. Adjectives; 5. Participles; 6. Adverbs; 7. Pre- 
positions; 8. Pronouns; 9. Conjunctions; 10. Interjections and Nouns ; 11. Moods 
and Tenses; 12. Irregular Verbs; 13. Auxiliary, Passive, and Defective Verbs; 
14. Derivation. Which, now, is " more judicious," such confusion as this, or the 
arrangement which has been common from time immemorial ? Who that has any 
respect for the human intellect, or whose powers of mind deserve any in return, will 
avouch this jumble to be " the order of the understanding ?" Are the methods of 
science to be accounted mere hinderances to instruction ? Has grammar really been 
made easy by this confounding of its parts ? Or are we lured by the name, " Fa- 
miliar Lectures 11 — a term manifestly adopted as a mere decoy, and, with respect to 
the work itself, totally inappropriate ? If these chapters have ever been actually 
delivered as a series of lectures, the reader must have been employed on some occa- 
sions eight or ten times as long as on others! "People," says Dr. Johnson, "have 
now-a-days got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. 
Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as a private reading of the 
books from which the lectures are taken. I know of nothing that can be best taught 
by lectures, except where experiments are to be shown. You may teach chymistry 
by lectures — you might teach the making of shoes by lectures." — BosioelVs Life of 
Johnson. 

* I am sorry to observe that the gentleman, Phrenologist, as he professes to he, has so little reverence i;i his 
crown. He could not read the foregoing suggestion without scoffing at it. Biblical truth is not powerless, 
though the scornful may refuse its correction.— -G. B. 1838. 



54 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. III. 

39. With singular ignorance and untruth, this gentleman claims to have invented 
a better method of analysis than had ever been practised before. Of other gram- 
mars, his preface avers, " They have all overlooked what the author considers a very 
important object; namely, a systematicJc order of parsing." — Grammar, p. 9. And, 
in his " Hints to Teachers," presenting himself as a model, and his book as a para- 
gon, he says : " By pursuing this system, he can, with less labour, advance a pupil 
farther in the practical knowledge of this abstruse science, in two months, than he 
could in one year, when he taught in the old way? — Grammar, p. 12. What his 
" old way" was, does not appear. Doubtless something sufficiently bad. And as to 
his new way, I shall hereafter have occasion to show that that is sufficiently bad 
also. But to this gasconade the simple-minded have given credit — because the 
author showed certificates that testified to his great success, and called him " amiable 
and modest !" But who can look into the book, or into the writer's pretensions in 
regard to his predecessors, and conceive the merit which has made him — "preemi- 
nent by so much odds ?" Was Murray less praiseworthy, less amiable, or less mod- 
est ? In illustration of my topic, and for the sake of literary justice, I have selected 
that honoured " Compiler 1 '' to show the abuses of praise ; let the history of this his 
vaunting modifier cap the climax of vanity. In general, his amendments of " that 
eminent philologist," are not more skillful than the following touch upon an eminent 
dramatist; and here, it is plain, he has mistaken two nouns for adjectives, and con- 
verted into bad English a beautiful passage, the sentiment of which is worthy of aa 
author's recollection : 

" The evil deed or deeds that men do, lives after them ; 
The good deed or deeds is oft interred with their bones."* 

Kirkham? s Grammar, p. 75. 

40. Lord Bacon observes, " Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great per- 
son as his letter ; and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his rep- 
utation." It is to this mischievous facility of recommendation, this prostituted 
influence of great names, that the inconvenieut diversity of school-books, and the 
continued use of bad ones, are in a great measure to be attributed. It belongs to 
those who understand the subjects of which authors profess to treat, to judge fairly 
and fully of their works, and then to let the reasons of their judgement be known. 
For no one will question the fact, that a vast number of the school-books now in 
use are either egregious plagiarisms or productions of no comparative merit. And, 
what is still more surprising and monstrous, presidents, governors, senators, and 
judges ; professors, doctors, clergymen, and lawyers ; a host of titled connoisseurs ; 

* Every schoolboy is familiar with the following lines, and rightly understands the words M evil" and "good" 
to he nouns, and not adjectives : 

" The evil that men do, lives after them ; 
The good is oft interred with their bones." — Shakspeare. 

Julius Ccesar, Act 3: Antony's Funeral Oration over Caesar's Body. 

Kirkham has vehemently censured me for omitting the brackets in which he encloses the words that he sup- 
poses to be understood in this couplet. But he forgets two important circumstances : First, that I was quoting, 
not the bard, but the grammatist ; Second, that a writer uses brackets, to distinguish his oam amendments of 
what he quotes, and not those of an other man. Hence the marks which he has used, would have been improper 
for me. Their insertion does not make his reading of the passage good English, and, consequently, does not 
avert the point of my criticism. 

The foregoing Review of Kirkham* s Grammar, was published as an extract from my manuscript, by the edi- 
tors of the Knickerbocker, in their number for June, 1837. Four months afterwards, with friendships changed, 
they gave him the "justice" of appearing in their pages, in a long and virulent article against me and my works, 
representing me, "with emphatic force," as "a knave, a liar, and apedanV The enmity of that effusion I for- 
gave ; because I bore him no personal ill-will, and was not selfish enough to quarrel for my own sake. Its im- 
becility clearly proved, that in this critique there is nothing with which he could justly find fault. Perceiving 
that no point of this argument could be broken, he changed the ground, and satisfied himself with despising, 
upbraiding, and vilifying the writer. Of what use this was, others may judge. 

This extraordinary grammarian survived the publication of my criticism about ten years; and, it is charitably 
hoped, died happily; while I have had, for a period somewhat longer, all the benefits which his earnest " casti- 
gation" was fit to confer. It is not perceived, that what was written before these events, should now be altered 
or suppressed by reason of them. With his pretended "defence," I shall now concern myself no further than 
simply to deny one remarkable assertion contained in it; which is this — that I, Goold Brown, "at the funeral 
ot Aaron Ely," in 1830, "praised, and highly praised, this self-same Grammar, and declared it to be 'a good 
work!'" — Kirkham, in the Knickerbocker, Oct., 1837, p. 362. I treated him always courteously, and, on this 
solemn occasion, walked with him without disputing on grammar ; but, if this statement of his has any reason- 
able foundation, I know not what it is. — G. B. in 1850. 



CHAP. III.] OF GRAMMATICAL SUCCESS AND FAME. 55 

with incredible facility lend their names, not only to works of inferior merit, but to 
the vilest thefts, and the wildest absurdities, palmed off upon their own and the pub- 
lic credulity, under pretence of improvement. The man who thus prefixes his letter 
of recommendation to an ill-written book, publishes, out of mere courtesy, a direct 
impeachment of his own scholarship or integrity. Yet, how often have we seen the 
honours of a high office, or even of a worthy name, prostituted to give a temporary 
or local currency to a book which it would disgrace any man of letters to quote ! 
With such encouragement, nonsense wrestles for the seat of learning, exploded errors 
are republished as novelties, original writers are plundered by dunces, and men that 
understand nothing well, profess to teach all sciences ! 

41. All praise of excellence must needs be comparative, because the thing itself 
is so. To excel in grammar, is but to know better than others wherein grammatical 
excellence consists. Hence there is no fixed point of perfection beyond which 
such learning may not be carried. The limit to improvement is not so much in the 
nature of the subject, as in the powers of the mind, and in the inducements to exert 
them upon a theme so humble and so uninviting. Dr. Johnson suggests, in his mas- 
terly preface, " that a whole life cannot be spent upon syntax and etymology, and 
that even a whole life would not be sufficient." Who then will suppose, in the face 
of such facts and confessions as have been exhibited, that either in the faulty publi- 
cations of Murray, or among the various modifications of them by other hands, we 
have any such work as deserves to be made a permanent standard of instruction in 
English grammar ? With great sacrifices, both of pleasure and of interest, I have 
humbly endeavoured to supply this desideratum ; and it remains for other men to 
determine, and other times to know, what place shall be given to these my labours, 
in the general story of this branch of learning. Intending to develop not only the 
principles but also the history of grammar, I could not but speak of its authors. 
The writer who looks broadly at the past and the present, to give sound instruction 
to the future, must not judge of men by their shadows. If the truth, honestly told, 
diminish the stature of some, it does it merely by clearing the sight of the beholder. 
Real greatness cannot suffer loss by the dissipating of a vapour. If reputation has 
been raised upon the mist of ignorance, who but the builder shall lament its over- 
throw ? If the works of grammarians are often ungrammatical, whose fault is this 
but their own ? If all grammatical fame is little in itself, how can the abatement 
of what is undeserved of it be much ? If the errors of some have long been tolerated, 
what right of the critic has been lost by nonuser ? If the interests of Science have 
been sacrificed to Mammon, what rebuke can do injustice to the craft ? Kay, let 
the broad-axe of the critic hew up to the line, till every beam in her temple be 
smooth and straight. For, " certainly, next to commending good writers, the great- 
est service to learning is, to expose the bad, who can only in that way be made of 
any use to it."* And if, among the makers of grammars, the scribblings of some, 
and the filchings of others, are discreditable alike to themselves and to their theme, 
let the reader consider, how great must be the intrinsic worth of that study which 
still maintains its credit in spite of all these abuses ! 

* See Notes to Pope's Dunciad, Book II, verse 140. 



56 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IV. 

CHAPTER IV. 

OF THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 



" Tot fallaciis obrutum, tot hallucinationibus demersum, tot adhuc tenebris circumfusum studium hocce 
mihi visum est, ut nihil satis tuto in hac materia prsestari posse arbitratus sim, nisi nova quadam arte critica 
prsemissa." — Scipio Maffeius: Cassiod. Complexiones, p. xxx. 



1. The origin of things is, for many reasons, a peculiarly interesting point in 
their history. Among those who have thought fit to inquire into the prime origin 
of speech, it has been matter of dispute, whether we ought to consider it a special 
gift from Heaven, or an acquisition of industry — a natural endowment, or an artifi- 
cial invention. Nor is any thing that has ever yet been said upon it, sufficient to 
set the question permanently at rest. That there is in some words, and perhaps in 
some of every language, a natural connexion between the sounds uttered and the 
things signified, cannot be denied ; yet, on the other hand, there is, in the use of 
words in general, so much to which nature affords no clew or index, that this whole 
process of communicating thought by speech, seems to be artificial. Under an 
other head, I have already cited from Sanctius some opinions of the ancient gramma- 
rians and philosophers on this point. With the reasoning of that zealous instructor, 
the following sentence from Dr. Blair very obviously accords : " To suppose words 
invented, or names given to things, in a manner purely arbitrary, without any 
ground or reason, is to suppose an effect without a cause. There must have always 
been some motive which led to the assignation of one name rather than an other." 
— Rhet., Lect. vi, p. 55. 

2. But, in their endeavours to exj^lain the origin and early progress of language, 
several learned men, among whom is this celebrated lecturer, have needlessly per- 
plexed both themselves and their readers, with sundry questions, assumptions, and 
reasonings, which are manifestly contrary to what has been made known to us on 
the best of all authority. What signifies it* for a man to tell us how nations rude 
and barbarous invented interjections first,f and then nouns, and then verbs,]; and 
finally the other parts of speech ; when he himself confesses that he does not know 
whether language " can be considered a human invention at all ;" and when he be- 
lieved, or ought to have believed, that the speech of the first man, though probably 
augmented by those who afterwards used it, was, essentially, the one language of the 
earth for more than eighteen centuries ? The task of inventing a language de novo, 
could surely have fallen upon no man but Adam; and he, in the garden of Para- 
dise, had doubtless some aids and facilities not common to every wild man of the 
woods. 

3. The learned Doctor was equally puzzled to conceive, " either how society could 
form itself, previously to language, or how words could rise into a language, previously 
to society formed." — Blair's Rhet., Lect. vi, p. 54. This too was but an idle perplexity, 
though thousands have gravely pored over it since, as a part of the study of rhetoric ; 
for, if neither could be previous to the other, they must have sprung up simulta- 
neously. And it is a sort of slander upon our prime ancestor, to suggest, that, be- 
cause he was " the first" he must have been " the rudest" of his race ; and that, 

* A modern namesake of the Doctor's, the Rev. David Blair, has the following conception of the utility of 
these speculations: " To enable children to comprehend the abstract idea that all the words in a language con- 
sist but of nine kinds, it will be found useful to explain how savage tribes who having no language, would first 
invent one, beginning with interjections and nouns, and proceeding from one part of speech to another, as their 
introduction might successively be called for by necessity or luxury." — Blair's Pract. Gram., Pre/., p. vii. 

t " Interjections, I shewed, or passionate exclamations, were the first elements of speech. Men laboured to 
communicate their feelings to one another, by those expressive cries and gestures which nature taught them." — 
Dr. Hugh Blair's Lectures, p. 57. 

% " It is certain that the verb was invented before the noun, in all the languages of which a tolerable account 
has been procured, either in ancient or modern times." — Dr. Alex. Murray's History of European Languages, 
Vol. I, p» 326. 



CHAP. IV.] OF THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 57 

" consequently, those first rudiments of speech," which alone the supposition allows 
to him or to his family, " must have been poor and narrow." — Blair's Rhet., p. 54. 
It is far more reasonable to think, with a later author, that, " Adam had an insight 
into natural things far beyond the acutest philosopher, as may be gathered from his 
giving of names to all creatures, according to their different constitutions." — Robin- 
son's Scripture Characters, p. 4. 

4. But Dr. Blair is not alone in the view which he here takes. The same thing 
has been suggested by other learned men. Thus Dr. James P. Wilson, of Phila- 
delphia, in an octavo published in 1817, says : " It is difficult to discern how com- 
munities could have existed without language, and equally so to discover how lan- 
guage could have obtained, in a peopled world, prior to society." — Wilson's Essay 
on Gram., p. 1. I know not how so many professed Christians, and some of them 
teachers of religion too, with the Bible in their hands, can reason upon this subject 
as they do. AVe find them, in their speculations, conspiring to represent primeval 
man, to use their own words, as a " savage, whose ' howl at the appearance of dan- 
ger, and whose exclamations of joy at the sight of his prey, reiterated, or varied with 
the change of objects, were probably the origin of language.' — Booth's Analytical 
Dictionary. In the dawn of society, ages may have passed away, with little more 
converse than what these efforts would produce." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 31. 
Here Gardiner quotes Booth with approbation, and the latter, like Wilson, may have 
borrowed his ideas from Blair. Thus are we taught by a multitude of guessers, 
grave, learned, and oracular, that the last of the ten parts of speech was in fact the 
first : " Interjections are exceedingly interesting in one respect. They are, there 
can be little doubt, the oldest words in all languages ; and may be considered the 
elements of speech." — Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 78. On this point, however, Dr. 
Blair seems not to be quite consistent with himself: " Those exclamations, therefore, 
which by grammarians are called interjections, uttered in a strong and passionate 
manner, were, beyond doubt, the first elements or beginnings of speech." — Rhet., 
Lect. vi, p. 55. "The names of sensible objects were, in all languages, the words 
most early introduced." — Rhet., Lect. xiv, p. 135. "The names of sensible objects" 
says Murray too, " were the words most early introduced." — Octavo Gram., p. 336. 
But what says the Bible ? 

5. Revelation informs us that our first progenitor was not only endowed with the 
faculty of speech, but, as it would appear, actually incited by the Deity to exert 
that faculty in giving names to the objects by which he was surrounded. " Out of 
the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air ; 
and brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them : and whatsoever 
Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave 
names to all cattle, and to the fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field ; but 
for Adam there was not found a help meet for him." — Gen., ii, 19, 20. This account 
of the first naming of the other creatures by man, is apparently a parenthesis in the 
story of the creation of woman, with which the second chapter of Genesis concludes. 
But, in the preceding chapter, the Deity is represented not only as calling all things 
into existence by his Word ; but as speaking to the first human pair, with reference 
to their increase in the earth, and to their dominion over it, and over all the living 
creatures formed to inhabit it. So that the order of the events cannot be clearly in- 
ferred from the order of the narration. The manner of this communication to man, 
may also be a subject of doubt. Whether it was, or was not, made by a voice of 
words, may be questioned. But, surely, that Being who, in creating the world and 
its inhabitants, manifested his own infinite wisdom, eternal power, and godhead, does 
not lack words, or any other means of signification, if he will use them. And, in the 
inspired record of his work in the beginning, he is certainly represented, not only as 
naming all things imperatively, when he spoke them into being, but as expressly 
calling the light Day, the darkness Night, the firmament Heaven, the dry land 
Earth, and the gatherings of the mighty waters Seas. 

6. Dr. Thomas Hartwell Home, in commending a work by Dr. Ellis, concerning 
the origin of human wisdom and understanding, says : " It shows satisfactorily, that 



58 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IV. 

religion and language entered the world by divine revelation, without the aid of 
which, man had not been a rational or religious creature." — Study of the Scriptures, 
Vol. i, p. 4. " Plato attributes the primitive words of the first language to a divine 
origin ;" and Dr. Wilson remarks, " The transition from silence to speech, implies an 
effort of the understanding too great for man." — Essay on Gram., p. 1. Dr. Beattie 
says, " Mankind must have spoken in all ages, the young constantly learning to speak 
by imitating those who were older ; and, if so, our first parents must have received 
this art, as well as some others, by inspiration." — Moral Science, p. 27. Home 
Tooke says, " I imagine that it is, in some measure, with the vehicle of our thoughts, 
as with the vehicles for our bodies. Necessity produced both."— Diversions of 
Purley, Vol. i, p. 20. Again : " Language, it is true, is an art, and a glorious one ; 
whose influence extends over all the others, and in which finally all science what- 
ever must centre : but an art springing from necessity, and originally invented by 
artless men, who did not sit down like philosophers to invent it." — lb., Vol. i, 
p. 259. 

7. Milton imagines Adam's first knowledge of speech, to have sprung from the 
hearing of his own voice ; and that voice to have been raised, instinctively, or spon- 
taneously, in an animated inquiry concerning his own origin — an inquiry in which 
he addresses to unintelligent objects, and inferior creatures, such questions as the 
Deity alone could answer : 

" Myself I then perused, and limb by limb 
Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran 
"With supple joints, as lively vigor led : 
But who I was, or where, or from what cause, 
Knew not ; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake ; 
My tongue obeyed, and readily could name 
Whatever I saw. ' Thou Sun,' said I, ' fair light, 
And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay, 
Ye Hills and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plains ; 
And ye that live and move, fair Creatures ! tell, 
Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here ? 
ISTot of myself; by some great Maker then, 
In goodness and in power preeminent : 
Tell me how I may know him, how adore, 
From whom I have that thus I move and live, 
And feel that I am happier than I know.' " 

Paradise Lost, Book viii, 1. 267. 

But, to the imagination of a poet, a freedom is allowed, which belongs not to 
philosophy. We have not always the means of knowing how far he literally believes 
what he states. 

8. My own opinion is, that language is partly natural and partly artificial. And, 
as the following quotation from the Greek of Ammonius will serve in some degree 
to illustrate it, I present the passage in English for the consideration of those who 
may prefer ancient to modern speculations : " In the same manner, therefore, as 
mere motion is from nature, but dancing is something positive ; and as wood exists in 
nature, but a door is something positive ; so is the mere utterance of vocal sound 
founded in nature, but the signification of ideas by nouns or verbs is something posi- 
tive. And hence it is, that, as to the simple power of producing vocal sound — which 
is as it were the organ or instrument of the soul's faculties of knowledge or volition 
— as to this vocal power, I say, man seems to possess it from nature, in like manner 
as irrational animals ; but as to the power of using significantly nouns or verbs, or 
sentences combining these, (which are not natural but positive,) this he possesses by 
way of peculiar eminence ; because he alone of all mortal beings partakes of a soul 
which can move itself, and operate to the production of arts. So that, even in the 
utterance of sounds, the inventive power of the mind is discerned ; as the various 



CHAP. IV.] OF THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 59 

elegant compositions, both in metre, and without metre, abundantly prove." — Am- 
nion, de Interpr., p. 51.* 

9. Man was made for society ; and from the first period of human existence the 
race were social. Monkish seclusion is manifestly unnatural ; and the wild inde- 
pendence of the savage, is properly denominated a state of nature, only in contradis- 
tinction to that state in which the arts are cultivated. But to civilized life, or even 
to that which is in any degree social, language is absolutely necessary. There is 
therefore no danger that the language of any nation shall fall into disuse, till the peo- 
ple by whom it is spoken, shall either adopt some other, or become themselves 
extinct. When the latter event occurs, as is the case with the ancient Hebrew, 
Greek, and Latin, the language, if preserved at all from oblivion, becomes the more 
permanent ; because the causes which are constantly tending to improve or deterior- 
ate every living language, have ceased to operate upon those which are learned only 
from ancient books. The inflections which now compose the declensions and conju- 
gations of the dead languages, and which indeed have ever constituted the peculiar 
characteristics of those forms of speech, must remain forever as they are. 

10. When a nation changes its language, as did our forefathers in Britain, produc- 
ing by a gradual amalgamation of materials drawn from various tongues a new one 
differing from all, the first stages of its grammar will of course be chaotic and rude. 
Uniformity springs from the steady application of rules ; and polish is the work of 
taste and refinement. We may easily err by following the example of our early 
writers with more reverence than judgement; nor is it possible for us to do justice 
to the grammarians, whether early or late, without a knowledge both of the history 
and of the present state of the science which they profess to teach. I therefore think 
it proper rapidly to glance at many things remote indeed in time, yet nearer to my 
present purpose, and abundantly more worthy of the student's consideration, than a 
thousand matters which are taught for grammar by the authors of treatises profess- 
edly elementary. 

11. As we have already seen, some have supposed that the formation of the first 
language must have been very slow and gradual. But of this they offer no proof, 
and from the pen of inspiration we seem to have testimony against it. Did Adam 
give names to all the creatures about him, and then allow those names to be imme- 
diately forgotten ? Did not both he and his family continually use his original 
nouns in their social intercourse ? and how could they use them, without other parts 
of speech to form them into sentences ? Nay, do we not know from the Bible, that 
on several occasions our prime ancestor expressed himself like an intelligent man, 
and used all the parts of speech which are now considered necessary ? What did 
he say, when his fit partner, the fairest and loveliest work of God, was presented to 
him ? " This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called 
Woman, because she was taken out of Man." And again : Had he not other words 
than nouns, when he made answer concerning his transgression : " I heard thy voice 
in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked ; and I hid myself ?" What 
is it, then, but a groundless assumption, to make him and his immediate descend- 
ants ignorant savages, and to affirm, with Dr. Blair, that " their speech must have 
been poor and narrow ?" It is not possible now to ascertain what degree of perfec- 
tion the oral communication of the first age exhibited. But, as languages are now 
known to improve in proportion to the improvement of society in civilization and 
intelligence, and as we cannot reasonably suppose the first inhabitants of the earth 
to have been savages, it seems, I think, a plausible conjecture, that the primeval 
tongue was at least sufficient for all the ordinary intercourse of civilized men, living 
in the simple manner ascribed to our early ancestors in Scripture ; and that, in many 
instances, human speech subsequently declined far below its original standard. 

12. At any rate, let it be remembered that the first language spoken on earth, 
whatever it was, originated in Eden before the fall ; that this " one language," which 
all men understood until the dispersion, is to be traced, not to the cries of savage 

* The Greek of this passage, together with a translation not very different from the foregoing, is given as a 
marginal note, in Harris's Hermes, Book III, Chap. 3d. 



60 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IV. 

hunters, echoed through the wilds and glades where Nimrod planted Babel, but to 
that eastern garden of God's own planting, wherein grew " every tree that is plea- 
sant to the sight and good for food ;" to that paradise into which the Lord God put 
the new-created man, " to dress it and to keep it." It was here that Adam and his 
partner learned to speak, while yet they stood blameless and blessed, entire and 
wanting nothing ; free in the exercise of perfect faculties of body and mind, capable 
of acquiring knowledge through observation and experience, and also favoured with 
immediate communications with their Maker. Yet Adam, having nothing which he 
did not receive, could not originally bring any real knowledge into the world with 
him, any more than men do now : this, in whatever degree attained, must be, and 
must always have been, either an acquisition of reason, or a revelation from God. 
And, according to the understanding of some, even in the beginning, " That was not 
first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; and afterward that which is spirit- 
ual." — 1 Cor., xv, 46. That is, the spirit of Christ, the second Adam, was bestowed 
on the first Adam, after his creation, as the life and the light of the immortal soul. 
For, " In Him was life, and the life was the light of men ;" a life which our first 
parents forfeited and lost on the day of their transgression. " It was undoubtedly 
in the light of this pure influence that Adam had such an intuitive discerning of the 
creation, as enabled him to give names to all creatures according to their several 
natures." — Phipps, on Man, p. 4. A lapse from all this favour, into conscious guilt 
and misery ; a knowledge of good withdrawn, and of evil made too sure ; followed 
the first transgression. Abandoned then in great measure by superhuman aid, and 
left to contend with foes without and foes within, mankind became what history and 
observation prove them to have been ; and henceforth, by painful experience, and 
careful research, and cautious faith, and humble docility, must they gather the fruits 
of knowledge; by a vain desire and false conceit of which, they had forfeited the 
tree of life. So runs the story 

" Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our wo, 
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man 
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat." 

13. The analogy of words in the different languages now known, has been thought 
by many to be sufficiently frequent and clear to suggest the idea of their common 
origin. Their differences are indeed great ; but perhaps not greater, than the differ- 
ences in the several races of men, all of whom, as revelation teaches, sprung from 
one common stock. From the same source we learn, that, till the year of the world 
1844, "The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." — Gen., xi, 1.* 
At that period, the whole world of mankind consisted only of the descendants of 
the eight souls who had been saved in the ark, and so many of the eight as had 
survived the flood one hundred and eighty-eight years. Then occurred that remark- 
able intervention of the Deity, in which he was pleased to confound their language ; 
so that they could not understand one an other's speech, and were consequently 
scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. This, however, in the opinion of many 
learned men, does not provs the immediate formation of any new languages. 

* The Bible does not sav positively that there was no diversity of languages before the flood; but, since tha 
life-time of Adam extended fifty-six years into that of Lamech, the father of Noah, and two hundred and forty- 
three into that of Methuselah, the father of Lamech, with both of whom Noah was contemporary nearlysix hun- 
dred years, it is scarcely possible that there should have occurred any such diversity, either in Noah's day or 
before, except from some extraordinary cause. Lord Bacon regarded the multiplication of languages at Babel 
as a general evil, which had had no parallel but in the curse pronounced after Adam's transgression. When "the 
language of all the earth" was "confounded," Noah was yet alive, and he is computed to have lived 102 years 
afterwards; but whether in his day, or at how early a period, "grammar" was thought of, as a remedy for this 
evil, does not appear. Bacon says, " Concerning speech and words, the consideration of them hath produced 
the science of grammar. For man still striveth to redintegrate himself in those benedictions, of which, by his 
fault, he hath been deprived; and as he hath striven against the first general curse by the invention of all other 
arts, so hath he striven to come forth from the second general curse, which was the confusion of tongues, by the 
art of grammar ; whereof the use in a mother tongue is small, in a foreign tongue more, but most in such for- 
eign tongues as have ceased to be vulgar tongues, and are turned only to learned tongues."— See English Jour- 
nal of Education, Vol. viii, p. 444. 



CHAP. IV.] OF THE OKIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 61 

14. But, whether new languages were thus immediately formed or not, the event, 
in all probability, laid the foundation for that diversity which subsequently obtained 
among the languages of the differeut nations which sprung from the dispersion ; and 
hence it may be regarded as the remote cause of the differences which now exist. 
But for the immediate origin of the peculiar characteristical differences which dis- 
tinguish the various languages now known, we are not able with much certainty to 
account. Nor is there even much plausibility in the speculations of those gramma- 
rians who have attempted to explain the order and manner in which the declensions, 
the moods, the tenses, or other leading features of the languages, were first introduced. 
They came into use before they could be generally known, and the partial introduc- 
tion of them could seldom with propriety be made a subject of instruction or record, 
even if there were letters and learning at hand to do them this honour. And it is 
better to be content with ignorance, than to form such conjectures as imply any 
thing that is absurd or impossible. For instance : Neilson's Theory of the Moods, 
published in the Classical Journal of 1819, though it exhibits ingenuity and learning, 
is liable to this strong objection ; that it proceeds on the supposition, that the moods 
of English verbs, and of several other derivative tongues, were invented in a certain 
order by persons, not speaking a language learned chiefly from their fathers, but 
uttering a new one as necessity prompted. But when or where, since the building 
of Babel, has this ever happened % That no dates are given, or places mentioned, 
the reader regrets, but he cannot marvel. 

15. By what successive changes, our words in general, and especially the minor 
parts of speech, have become what we now find them, and what is their original and 
proper signification according to their derivation, the etymologist may often show to 
our entire satisfaction. Every word must have had its particular origin and history ; 
and he who in such things can explain with certainty what is not commonly known, 
may do some service to science. But even here the utility of his curious inquiries 
may be overrated ; and whenever, for the sake of some favourite theory, he ventures 
into the regions of conjecture, or allows himself to be seduced from the path of prac- 
tical instruction, his errors are obstinate, and his guidance is peculiarly deceptive. 
Men fond of such speculations, and able to support them with some show of learning, 
have done more to unsettle the science of grammar, and to divert ingenious teachers 
from the best methods of instruction, than all other visionaries put together. Ety- 
mological inquiries are important, and I do not mean to censure or discourage them, 
merely as such ; but the folly of supposing that in our language words must needs 
be of the same class, or part of speech, as that to which they may be traced in an 
other, deserves to be rebuked. The words the and an may be articles in English, 
though obviously traceable to something else in Saxon ; and a learned man may, in 
my opinion, be better employed, than in contending that if, though, and although, 
are not conjunctions, but verbs ! 

16. Language is either oral or written; the question of its origin has consequently 
two parts. Having suggested what seemed necessary respecting the origin of speech, 
I now proceed to that of writing. Sheridan says, " We have in use two kinds of 
language, the spoken and the written : the one, the gift of God ; the other, the in- 
vention of man." — Elocution, p. xiv. If this ascription of the two things to their 
sources, were as just as it is clear and emphatical, both part's of our question would 
seem to be resolved. But this great rhetorician either forgot his own doctrine, or 
did not mean what he here says. For he afterwards makes the former kind of lan- 
guage as much a work of art, as any one will suppose the latter to have been. In 
his sixth lecture, he comments on the gift of speech thus : " But still we are to ob- 
serve, that nature did no more than furnish the power and means ; she did not give 
the language, as in the case of the passions, but left it to the industry of men, to find 
out and agree upon such articulate sounds, as they should choose to make the sym- 
bols of their ideas." — lb., p. 147. He even goes farther, and supposes certain tones 
of the voice to be things invented by man : " Accordingly, as she did not furnish the 
words, which were to be the symbols of his ideas ; neither did she furnish the tones, 
which were to manifest, and communicate by their own virtue, the internal exertions 



62 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IV. 

and emotions, of such of his nobler faculties, as chiefly distinguish him from the 
brute species ; but left them also, like words, to the care and invention of man." — 
Ibidem. On this branch of the subject, enough has already been presented. 

17. By most authors, alphabetic writing is not only considered an artificial in- 
vention, but supposed to have been wholly unknown in the early ages of the world. 
Its antiquity, however, is great. Of this art, in which the science of grammar origi- 
nated, we are not able to trace the commencement. Different nations have claimed 
the honour of the invention ; and it is not decided, among the learned, to whom, or 
to what country, it belongs. It probably originated in Egypt. For, " The Egyp- 
tians," it is said, " paid divine honours to the Inventor of Letters, whom they called 
Theuth : and Socrates, when he speaks of him, considers him as a god, or a god-like 
man." — British Gram., p. 32. Charles Bucke has it, " That the first inventor of 
letters is supposed to have been Memnon ; who was, in consequence, fabled to be 
the son of Aurora, goddess of the morning." — Buckets Classical Gram., p. 5. The 
ancients in general seem to have thought Phoenicia the birthplace of Letters : 

" Phoenicians first, if ancient fame be true, 
The sacred mystery of letters knew ; 
They first, by sound, in various lines design'd, 
Express'd the meaning of the thinking mind ; 
The power of words by figures rude conveyed, 
And useful science everlasting made." 

Rowers Lucan, B. iii, I. 334. 

18. Some, however, seem willing to think writing coeval with speech. Thus 
Bicknell, from Martin's Physico-Grammatical Essay : " We are told by Moses, that 
Adam gave names to every living creature /* but how those names were written, or 
what sort of characters he made use of, is not known to us ; nor indeed whether 
Adam ever made use of a written language at all ; since we find no mention made 
of any in the sacred history." — BickneWs Gram., Part ii, p. 5. A certain late 
writer on English grammar, with admirable flippancy, cuts this matter short, as fol- 
lows, — satisfying himself with pronouncing all speech to be natural, and all writing 
artificial : " Of how many primary kinds is language ? It is of two kinds ; natural 
or spoken, and artificial or written." — Oliver B. Peirce's Gram., p. 15. "Natural 
language is, to a limited extent, (the representation of the passions,) common to 
brutes as well as man ; but artificial language, being the work of invention, is pecu- 
liar to man." — lb., p. 16.f 

19. The writings delivered to the Israelites by Moses, are more ancient than any 
others now known. In the thirty-first chapter of Exodus, it is said, that God " gave 
unto Moses, upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with 
the finger of God? And again, in the thirty -second : " The tables were the work 
of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." But these 
divine testimonies, thus miraculously written, do not appear to have been the first 
writing ; for Moses had been previously commanded to write an account of the vic- 
tory over Amalek, "for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of 
Joshua." — Exod., xvii, 14. This first battle of the Israelites occurred in Rephidim, a 
place on the east side of the western gulf of the Red Sea, at or near Horeb, but 
before they came to Sinai, upon the top of which, (on the fiftieth day after their 
departure from Egypt,) Moses received the ten commandments of the law. 

20. Some authors, however, among whom is Dr. Adam Clarke, suppose that in 

* It should be, " to all living creatures;" for each creature had, probably, but one name. — G. Brown. 

t Some recent German authors of note suppose language to have sprung up among men of itself, like sponta- 
neous combustion in oiled cotton ; and seem to think, that people of strong feelings and acute minds must neces- 
sarily or naturally utter their conceptions by words — and even by words both spoken and written. Frederick 
Von Schlegel, admitting " the spontaneous origin of language generally," and referring speech to its " original 
source — a deep feeling, and a clear discriminating intelligence," adds: " The oldest system of writing developed 
itself at the same time, and in the same manner, as the spoken language ; not wearing at first the symbolic form, 
which it subsequently assumed in compliance with the necessities ef a less civilized people, but composed of cer- 
tain signs, which, in accordance with the simplest elements of language, actually conveyed the sentiments of the 
race of men then existing." — Millingtorts Translation of SchlegeVs ^Esthetic Works, p. 455. 



CHAP. IV.] OF THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 63 

this instance the order of the events is not to be inferred from the order of the record, 
or that there is room to doubt whether the use of letters was here intended ; and 
that there consequently remains a strong probability, that the sacred Decalogue, 
which God himself delivered to Moses on Sinai, A. M. 2513, B. C. 1491, was "the 
first writing in alphabetical characters ever exhibited to the world." See Clarke's 
Succession of Sacred Literature, Vol. i, p. 24. Dr. Scott, in his General Preface to 
the Bible, seems likewise to favour the same opinion. " Indeed," says he, " there is 
some probability in the opinion, that the art of writing was first communicated by 
revelation, to Moses, in order to perpetuate, with certainty, those facts, truths, and 
laws, which he was employed to deliver to Israel. Learned men find no traces of 
literary, or alphabetical, writing, in the history of the nations, till long after the 
days of Moses ; unless the book of Job may be regarded as an exception. The art of 
expressing almost an infinite variety of sounds, by the interchanges of a few letters, or 
marks, seems more like a discovery to man from heaven, than a human invention ; 
and its beneficial effects, and almost absolute necessity, for the preservation and com- 
munication of true religion, favour the conjecture." — Scoffs Preface, p. xiv. 

21. The time at which Cadmus, the Phoenician, introduced this art into Greece, 
cannot be precisely ascertained. There is no reason to believe it was antecedent to 
the time of Moses ; some chronologists make it between two and three centuries 
later. Nor is it very probable, that Cadmus invented the sixteen letters of which he 
is said to have made use. His whole story is so wild a fable, that nothing certain 
can be inferred from it. Searching in vain for his stolen sister — his sister Europa, 
carried off by Jupiter — he found a wife in the daughter of Venus ! Sowing the teeth 
of a dragon, winch had devoured his companions, he saw them spring up to his aid a 
squadron of armed soldiers ! In short, after a series of wonderful achievements and 
bitter misfortunes, loaded with grief and infirm with age, he prayed the gods to release 
him from the burden of such a life ; and, in pity from above, both he and his beloved 
Hermione were changed into serpents ! History, however, has made him generous 
amends, by ascribing to him the invention of letters, and accounting him the worthy 
benefactor to whom the world owes all the benefits derived from literature. I would 
not willingly rob him of this honour. But I must confess, there is no feature of the 
story, which I can conceive to give any countenance to his claim ; except that as the 
great progenitor of the race of authors, his sufferings correspond well with the calam- 
ities of which that unfortunate generation have always so largely partaken. 

22. The benefits of this invention, if it may be considered an invention, are cer- 
tainly very great. In oral discourse the graces of elegance are more lively and 
attractive, but well-written books are the grand instructors of mankind, the most 
enduring monuments of human greatness, and the proudest achievements of human 
intellect. " The chief glory of a nation," says Dr. Johnson, " arises from its authors." 
Literature is important, because it is subservient to all objects, even those of the very 
highest concern. Religion and morality, liberty and government, fame and happi- 
ness, are alike interested in the cause of letters. It was a saying of Pope Pius the 
Second, that, " Common men should esteem learning as silver, noblemen value it as 
gold, and princes prize it as jewels." The uses of learning are seen in every thing that 
is not itself useless.* It cannot be overrated, but where it is perverted ; and when- 
ever that occurs, the remedy is to be sought by opposing learning to learning, till the 
truth is manifest, and that which is reprehensible, is made to appear so. 

23. I have said, learning cannot be overrated, but where it is perverted. But men 
may differ in their notions of what learning is ; and, consequently, of what is, or is 
not, a perversion of it. And so far as this point may have reference to theology, and 
the things of God, it would seem that the Spirit of God alone can fully show us its 
bearings. If the illumination of the Spirit is necessary to an understanding and a 
reception of scriptural truth, is it not by an inference more erudite than reasonable, 

* "Modern Europe owes a principal share of its enlightened and moral state to the restoration of learning: 
the advantages which have accrued to history, religion, the philosophy of the mind, and the progress of society ; 
the benefits which have resulted from the models of Greek and Roman taste — in short, all that a knowledge of 
the progress and attainments of man in past ages can bestow on the present, has reached it through the medium 
of philology."— Dr. Murray's History of European Languages, Vol. II, p. 335. 



64 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. V. 

that some great men have presumed to limit to a verbal medium the communications 
of Him who is everywhere His own witness, and who still gives to His own holy oracles 
all their peculiar significance and authority ? Some seem to think the Almighty has 
never given to men any notion of Himself, except by words. " Many ideas," says the 
celebrated Edmund Burke, " have never been at all presented to the senses of any 
men but by words, as God,* angels, devils, heaven, and hell, all of which have how- 
ever a great influence over the passions." — On the Sublime and [the] Beautiful, p. 97. 
That God can never reveal facts or truths except by words, is a position with which 
I am by no means satisfied. Of the great truths of Christianity, Dr. Wayland, in 
his Elements of Moral Science, repeatedly avers, "All these being facts, can never be 
known, except by language, that is, by revelation." — First Edition, p. 132. Again : 
" All of them being of the nature of facts, they could be made known to man in no 
other way than by language? — lb., p. 136. But it should be remembered, that 
these same facts were otherwise made known to the prophets; (1 Pet., i, 11 ;) and 
that which has been done, is not impossible, whether there is reason to expect it 
again or not. So of the Bible, Calvin says, " No man can have the least knowledge of 
true and sound doctrine, without having been a disciple of the Scripture." — Institutes, 
B. i, Ch. 6. Had Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, then, no such knowl- 
edge ? And if such they had, what Scripture taught them ? We ought to value the 
Scriptures too highly to say of them any thing that is unscriptural. I am, however, 
very far from supposing there is any other doctrine which can be safely substituted 
for the truths revealed of old, the truths contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testaments : 

" Left only in those written records pure, 
Though not but by the Spirit understood."! — Milton* 



chapter v. 

OF THE POWER OF LANGUAGE. 



" Quis huic studio literarum, quod profitentur ii, qui grammatici vocantur, penifcus se dedidit, quia omnem 
illarum artiuni psene infmitam vim et materiam scientise cogitatione comprehenderit ?" — Cicebo. De Orator e, 
Lib. i, 3. 

1. The peculiar power of language is another point worthy of particular consider- 
ation. The power of an instrument is virtually the power of him who wields it ; and, 
as language is used in common, by the wise and the foolish, the mighty and the im- 
potent, the candid and the crafty, the righteous and the wicked, it may perhaps seem 
to the reader a difficult matter, to speak intelligibly of its peculiar power. I mean, 
by this phrase, its fitness or efficiency to or for the accomplishment of the purposes 
for which it is used. As it is the nature of an agent, to be the doer of something, so 
it is the nature of an instrument, to be that with which something is effected. To 
make signs, is to do something, and, like all other actions, necessarily implies an 
agent ; so all signs, being things by means of which other things are represented, 
are obviously the instruments of such representation. Words, then, which represent 

* " The idea of God is a development from within, and a matter of faith, not an induction from -without, and 
a matter of proof. When Christianity has developed its correlative principles within us, then we find evidences 
of its truth everywhere ; nature is full of them : but we cannot find them before, simply because we have no eye 
to find them with." — H. N. Hudson: Democratic Review, May, 1845. 

t So far as mind, soul, or spirit, is a subject of natural science, (under whatever name,) it may of course be 
known naturally. To say to what extent theology may be considered a natural science, or how much knowledge 
of any kind may have been opened to men otherwise than by words, is not now in point. Dr. Campbell says, 
" Under the general term [physiology] I also comprehend natural theology and psychology, which, in my opin- 
ion, have been most unnaturally disjoined by philosophers. Spirit, which here comprises only the Supreme 
Being and the human soul, is surely as much included under the notion of natural object as a body is, and is 
knowable to the philosopher purely in the same way, by observation and experience." — Philosophy of Rhetoric^ 
p. 66. It is quite unnecessary for the teacher of languages to lead his pupils into any speculations on this sub- 
ject. It is equally foreign to the history of grammar and to the philosophy of rhetoric. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE POWER OF LANGUAGE. 65 

thoughts, are things in themselves ; but, as signs, they are relative to other things, as 
being the instruments of their communication or preservation. They are relative also 
to him who utters them, as well as to those who may happen to be instructed or de- 
ceived by them. " Was it Mirabeau, Mr. President, or what other master of the 
human passions, who has told us that words are things ? They are indeed things, 
and things of mighty influence, not only in addresses to the passions and high- 
wrought feelings of mankind, but in the discussion of legal and political questions 
also ; because a just conclusion is often avoided, or a false one reached, by the adroit 
substitution of one phrase or one word for an other." — Daniel Webster, in Con- 
gress, 1833. 

2. To speak, is a moral action, the quality of which depends upon the motive, and 
for which we are strictly accountable. " But I say unto you, that every idle word 
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement ; for 
by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." — 
Matt, xii, 36, 37. To listeo, or to refuse to listen, is a moral action also ; and there 
is meaning in the injunction, "Take heed what ye hear." — Mark, iv, 24. But why 
is it, that so much of what is spoken or written, is spoken or written in vain ? Is 
language impotent ? It is sometimes employed for purposes with respect to which 
it is utterly so; and often they that use it, know not how insignificant, absurd, or 
ill-meaning a thing they make of it. What is said, with whatever inherent force or 
dignity, has neither power nor value to him who does not understand it ;* and, as 
Professor Duncan observes, " No word can be to any man the sign of an idea, till 
that idea comes to have a real existence in his mind." — Logic, p. 62. In instruction, 
therefore, speech ought not to be regarded as the foundation or the essence of 
knowledge, but as the sign of it ; for knowledge has its origan in the power of sen- 
sation, or reflection, or consciousness, and not in that of recording or communicating 
thought. Dr. Spurzheim was not the first to suggest, " It is time to abandon the 
immense error of supposing that words and precepts are sufficient to call internal 
feelings and intellectual faculties into active exercise." — Spurzheini's Treatise on 
Education, p. 94. 

3. But to this it may be replied, When God wills, the signs of knowledge are 
knowledge ; and words, when he gives the ability to understand them, may, in some 
sense, become — " spirit and life." See John, vi, 63. Where competent intellectual 
faculties exist, the intelligible signs of thought do move the mind to think ; and to 
think sometimes with deep feelings too, whether of assent or dissent, of admiration 
or contempt. So wonderful a thing is a rational soul, that it is hard to say to what 
ends the language in which it speaks, may, or may not, be sufficient. Let experience 
determine. We are often unable to excite in others the sentiments which we would : 
words succeed or fail, as they are received or resisted. But let a scornful expression 
be addressed to a passionate man, will not the words " call internal feelings" into 
action? And how do feelings differ from thoughts ?f Hear Dr. James Rush: 
" The human mind is the place of representation of all the existences of nature which 
are brought within the scope of the senses. The representatives are called ideas. 
These ideas are the simple passive pictures of things, or [else] they exist with an 
activity, capable of so affecting the physical organs as to induce us to seek the con- 

* " Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye 
shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without 
signification. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh, a barbarian ; 
and he that speaketh, shall be a barbarian unto me." — 1 Cor., xiv, 9, 10, 11. 

" It is impossible that our knowledge of words should outstrip our knowledge of things. It may, and often 
doth, come short of it. Words may be remembered as sounds, but [they] cannot be understood as signs, whilst 
we remain unacquainted with the things signified."— Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 160. 

" Words can excite only ideas already acquired, and if no previous ideas have been formed, they are mere 
unmeaning sounds."— Spurzheim on Education, p. 200. 

t Sheridan the elocutionist makes this distinction: "All that passes in the mind of man, may be reduced to 
two classes, which I call ideas and emotions. By ideas, I mean all thoughts which rise, and pass in succession 
in the mind. By emotions, all exertions of the mind in arranging, combining, and separating its ideas ; as well 
as the effects produced on all the mind itself by those ideas; from the more violent agitation of the passions, to 
the calmer feelings produced by the operation of the intellect and the fancy. In short, thought is the object of 
the one ; internal feeling, of the other. That which serves to express the former, I call the language of ideas ; 
and the latter, the language of emotions. Words are the signs of the one : tones, of the other. Without the 
use of these two sorts of language, it is impossible to communicate through the ear, all that passes in the mind 
of man."— Sheridan's Art of Reading; Blair's Lectures, p. 333. 



66 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. V. 

tinuance of that which produces them, or to avoid it. This active or vivid class of 
ideas comprehends the passions. The functions of the mind here described, exist 
then in different forms and degrees, from the simple idea, to the highest energy of 
passion : and the terms, thought, sentiment, emotion, feeling, and passion, are but 
the verbal signs of these degrees and forms. Nor does there appear to be any line 
of classification, for separating thought from passion : since simple thoughts, without 
changing their nature, do, from interest or incitement, often assume the colour of 
passion." — Philosophy of the Human Voice, p. 328. 

4. Lord Karnes, in the Appendix to his Elements of Criticism, divides the senses 
into external and internal, defining perception to be the act by which through the 
former we know outward objects, and consciousness the act by which through the 
latter we know what is within the mind. An idea, according to his definition, (which 
he says is precise and accurate,) is, " That perception of a real object which is raised 
in the mind by the power of memory? But among the real objects from which 
memory may raise ideas, he includes the workings of the mind itself, or whatever we 
remember of our former passions, emotions, thoughts, or designs. Such a definition, 
he imagines, might have saved Locke, Berkley, and their followers, from much vain 
speculation ; for with the ideal systems of these philosophers, or with those of Aristotle 
and Des Cartes, he by no means coincides. This author says, " As ideas are the 
chief materials employed in reasoning and reflecting, it is of consequence that their 
nature and differences be understood. It appears now that ideas may be distinguished 
into three kinds : first, Ideas derived from original perceptions, properly termed ideas 
of memory ; second, Ideas communicated by language or other signs ; and third, 
Ideas of imagination. These ideas differ from each other in many respects ; but 
chiefly in respect to their proceeding from different causes. The first kind is derived 
from real existences that have been objects of our senses ; language is the cause of 
the second, or any other sign that has the same power with language ; and a man's 
imagination is to himself the cause of the third. It is scarce [ly] necessary to add, 
that an idea, originally of imagination, being conveyed to others by language or any 
other vehicle, becomes in their mind an idea of the second kind ; and again, that an 
idea of this kind, being afterwards recalled to the mind, becomes in that circum- 
stance an idea of memory." — El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 384. 

5. Whether, or how far, language is to the mind itself the instrument of thought, 
is a question of great importance in the philosophy of both. Our literature contains 
occasional assertions bearing upon this point, but I know of no full or able discussion 
of it.* Cardell's instructions proceed upon the supposition, that neither the reason 
of men, nor even that of superior intelligences, can ever operate independently of 
words. " Speech," says he, " is to the mind what action is to animal bodies. Its 
improvement is the improvement of our intellectual nature, and a duty to God who 
gave it." — Essay on Language, p. 3. Again : "An attentive investigation will show, 
that there is no way in which the individual mind can, within itself, to any extent, 
combine its ideas, but by the intervention of words. Every process of the reasoning 
powers, beyond the immediate perception of sensible objects, depends on the structure 
<of speech ; and, in a great degree, according to the excellence of this chief instru- 
ment of all mental operations, will be the means of personal improvement, of the 
eocial transmission of thought, and the elevation of national character. From this, 
it may be laid down as a broad principle, that no individual can make great advances 
*n intellectual improvement, beyond the bounds of a ready-formed language, as the 
necessary means of his progress." — lb., p. 9. These positions might easily be offset 
by contrary speculations of minds of equal rank; but I submit them to the reader, 
with the single suggestion, that the author is not remarkable for that sobriety of 
judgement which gives weight to opinions. 

6. We have seen, among the citations in a former chapter, that Sanctius says, 
Names are the signs, and as it were the instruments, of things." But what he 
xneant by " instrumenta rerum," is not very apparent. Dr. Adam says, "The pnn- 

* " Language is the great instrument, by which all the faculties of the mind are brought forward, moulded, 
polished, and exerted." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. xiv. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE POWER OF LANGUAGE. 67 

ciples of grammar may be traced from the progress of the mind in the acquisition 
of language. Children first express their feelings by motions and gestures of the 
body, by cries and tears. This is* the language of nature, and therefore universal. 
It fitly represents^ the quickness of sentiment and thought, which are as instantane- 
ous as the impression of light on the eye. Hence we always express our stronger 
feelings by these natural signs. But when we want to make known to others the 
particular conceptions of the mind, we must represent them by parts, we must divide 
and analyze them. We express each part by certain signs, \ and join these together, 
according to the order of their relations. Thus words are both the instrument and 
signs§ of the division of thought." — Preface to Latin Gram. 

7. The utterance of words, or the making of signs of any sort, requires time ;'[ 
but it is here suggested by Dr. Adam, that sentiment and thought, though suscep- 
tible of being retained or recalled, naturally flash upon the mind with immeasurable 
quickness.^" If so, they must originate in something more spiritual than language. 
The Doctor does not affirm that words are the instruments of thought, but of the 
division of thought. But it is manifest, that if they effect this, they are not the 
only instruments by means of which the same thing may be done. The deaf and 
dumb, though uninstructed and utterly ignorant of language, can think ; and can, 
by rude signs of their own inventing, manifest a similar division, corresponding to 
the individuality of things. And what else can be meant by " the division of 
thought" than our notion of objects, as existing severally, or as being distinguishable 
into parts ? There can, I think, be no such division respecting that which is per- 
fectly pure and indivisible in its essence ; and, I would ask, is not simple continuity 
apt to exclude it from our conception of every thing which appears with uniform 
coherence ? Dr. Beattie says, " It appears to me, that, as all things are individuals, 
all thoughts must be so too." — Moral Science, Chap, i, Sec. 1. If, then, our thoughts 
are thus divided, and consequently, as this author infers, have not in themselves any 
of that generality which belongs to the signification of common nouns, there is little 
need of any instrument to divide them further : the mind rather needs help, as Car- 
dell suofo-ests, " to combine its ideas."** 

8. So far as language is a work of art, and not a thing conferred or imposed upon 
us by nature, there surely can be in it neither division nor union that was not first 
in the intellect for the manifestation of which it was formed. First, with respect to 
generalization. " The human mind," says Harris, " by an energy as spontaneous 
and familiar to its nature, as the seeing of colour is familiar to the eye, discerns at 
once what in many is one, what in things dissimilar and diiferent is similar and the 
same." — Hermes, p. 362. Secondly, with respect to division. Mechanical separa- 
tions are limited : " But the mind surmounts all power of concretion ; and can place 
in the simplest manner every attribute by itself ; convex without concave ; colour 

* It should be, " These are." — G. B. t It should be, " They fitly represent." — G. B. 

% This is badly expressed ; for, according to his own deduction, each part has but one sign. It should be, 
"We express the several parts by as many several signs." — G. Brown. 

§ It would be better English to say, " the instruments and the signs." — G. Beown. 

II " Good speakers do not pronounce above three syllables in a second of time ; and generally only two and a 
half, taking in the necessary pauses." — Steele's Melody of Speech. 

H The same idea is also conveyed in the following sentence from Dr. Campbell : " Whatever regards the 
analysis of the operations of the mind, which is quicker than lightning in all her energies., must in a great 
measure be abstruse and dark." — Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 289. Yet this philosopher has given it as his 
opinion, " that we really think by signs as well as speak by them." — lb., p. 284. To reconcile these two posi- 
tions with each other, we must suppose that thinking by signs, or words, is a process infinitely more rapid than 
Bpeech. 

** That generalization or abstraction which gives to similar things a common name, is certainly no laborious 
exercise of intellect ; nor does any mind find difficulty in applying such a name to an individual by means of the 
article. The general sense and the particular are alike easy to the understanding, and I know not whether it is 
worth while to inquire which is first in order. Dr. Alexander Murray says, " It must be attentively remem- 
bered, that all terms run from a general to a particular sense. The work of abstraction, the ascent from individ- 
ual feelings to classes of these, was finished before terms were invented. Man was silent till he had formed 
some ideas to communicate ; and association of his perceptions soon led him to think and reason in ordinary mat- 
ters." — Hist, of European Languages, Vol. i, p. 94. And, in a note upon this passage, he adds : " This is to be 
understood of primitive or radical terms. By the assertion that man was silent till he had formed ideas to com- 
municate, is not meant, that any of our species were originally destitute of the natural expressions of feeling or 
thought. All that it implies, is, that man had been subjected, during an uncertain period of time, to the impres- 
sions made on his senses by the material world, before he began to express the natural varieties of these by 
articulated sounds. ****** Though the abstraction which formed such classes, might be greatly aided 
or supported by the signs ; yet it were absurd to suppose that the sign was invented, till the. sense demanded 
it."— lb., p. 399. 



6*8 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. V. 

without superficies ; superficies without bo:ly ; and body without its accidents : 
as distinctly each one, as though they had never been united. And thus it is, 
that it penetrates into the recesses of all things, not only dividing them as wholes, 
into their more conspicuous parts, but persisting till it even separate those ele- 
mentary principles which, being blended together after a more mysterious manner, 
are united in the minutest part as much as in the mightiest whole." — Harris's 
Hermes, p. 30 7. 

9. It is remarkable that this philosopher, who had so sublime conceptions of the 
powers of the human mind, and who has displayed such extraordinary acuteness in 
his investigations, has represented the formation of words, or the utterance of lan- 
guage, as equalling in speed the progress of our very thoughts ; while, as we have 
seen, an other author, of great name, avers, that thought is " as instantaneous as the 
impression of light on the eye." Philosophy here too evidently nods. In showing 
the advantage of words, as compared with pictures, Harris says, " If we consider the 
ease and speed with which words are formed, — an ease which knows no trouble or 
fatigue, and a speed which equals the progress of our very thoughts* — we may 
plainly perceive an answer to the question here proposed, Why, in the common in- 
tercourse of men with men, imitations have been rejected, and symbols preferred." — 
Hermes, p. 336. Let us hear a third man, of equal note : " Words have been called 
ivinyed ; and they well deserve that name, when their abbreviations are compared 
with the progress which speech could make without these inventions ; but, compared 
with the rapidity of thought, they have not the smallest claim to that title. 'Philo- 
sophers have calculated the difference of velocity between sound and light ; but who 
will attempt to calculate the difference between speech and thought !" — Home 
Toohe's Epea Pteroenta, Yol. i, p. 23. 

10. It is certain, that, in the admirable economy of the creation, natures subordi- 
nate are made, in a wonderful manner, subservient to the operations of the higher ; 
and that, accordingly, our first ideas are such as are conceived of things external 
and sensible. Hence all men whose intellect appeals only to external sense, are 
prone to a philosophy which reverses the order of things pertaining to the mind, 
and tends to materialism, if not to atheism. " But" — to refer again to Harris — 
"the intellectual scheme which never forgets Deity, postpones every thing corporeal 
to the primary mental Cause. It is here it looks for the origin of intelligible ideas, 
even of those which exist in human capacities. For though sensible objects may be 
the destined medium to awaken the dormant energies of man's understanding, yet 
are those energies themselves no more contained in sense, than the explosion of a 
cannon, in the spark which gave it fire. In short, all minds that are, are similar and 
congenial ; and so too are their ideas, or intelligible forms. Were it otherwise, there 
couid be no intercourse between man and man, or (what is more important) between 
man and God." — Hermes, p. 393. 

11. A doctrine somewhat like this, is found in the Meditations of the emperor 
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, though apparently repugnant to the polytheism com- 
monly admitted by the Stoics, to whom he belonged : " The world, take it all to- 
gether, is but one ; there is but one sort of matter to make it of, one God to govern 
it, and one law to guide it. For, run through the whole system of rational beings, 
and you will find reason and truth but single and the same. And thus beings of the 
same kind, and endued with the same reason, are made happy by the same exercises 
of it." — Book vii, Sec. 9. Again : " Let your soul receive the Deity as your blood 
does the air ; for the influences of the one are no less vital, than those of the other. 
This correspondence is very practicable : for there is an ambient omnipresent Spirit, 
which lies as open and pervious to your mind, as the air you breathe does to your 
lungs : but then you must remember to be disposed to draw it." — Book viii, Sec. 
54 ; Collier's Translation. 

* Dr. Alexander Murray too, in accounting for the frequent abbreviations of words, seems to suggest the 
possibility of giving them the celerity of thought: " Contraction is a change which results from a propensity to 
make the signs as rapid as the thoughts which they express. Harsh combinations soon suffer contraction. 
Very long words preserve only the principal, that is, the accented part. If a nation accents its words on the 
last syllable, the preceding ones will often be short, and liable to contraction. If it follow a contrary practice, 
the terminations are apt to decay. 1 '— History of European Languages, Vol. I, p. 1T2. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE POWER OF LANGUAGE. 69 

12. Agreeably to these views, except that he makes a distinction between a natural 
and a supernatural idea of God, we find Barclay, the early defender of the Quakers, 
in an argument with a certain Dutch nobleman, philosophizing thus : " If the Scrip- 
ture then be true, there is in men a supernatural idea of God, which altogether dif- 
fers from this natural idea — I say, in all men ; because all men are capable of salva- 
tion, and consequently of enjoying this divine vision. Now this capacity consisteth 
herein, that they have such a supernatural idea in themselves.* For if there were 
no such idea in them, it were impossible they should so know God ; for whatsoever 
is clearly and distinctly known, is known by its proper idea ; neither can it other- 
wise be clearly and distinctly known. For the ideas of all things are divinely 
planted in our souls ; for, as the better philosophy teacheth, they are not begotten 
in us by outward objects or outward causes, but only are by these outward things 
excited or stirred up. And this is true, not only in supernatural ideas of God and 
things divine, and in natural ideas of the natural principles of human understanding, 
and conclusions thence deduced by the strength of human reason ; but even in the 
ideas of outward objects, which are perceived by the outward senses : as that noble 
Christian philosopher Boethius hath well observed ; to which also the Cartesian 
philosophy agreeth." I quote only to show the concurrence of others, with Harris's 
position. Barclay carries on his argument with much more of a similar import. 
See SeiveTs History, folio, p. 620. 

13. But the doctrine of ideas existing primarily in God, and being divinely planted 
in our souls, did not originate with Boethius : it may be traced back a thousand 
years from his time, through the philosophy of Proclus, Zeno, Aristotle,f Plato, So- 
crates, Parmenides, and Pythagoras. It is absurd to suppose any production or effect 
to be more excellent than its cause. That which really produces motion, cannot 
itself be inert ; and that which actually causes the human mind to think and reason, 
cannot itself be devoid of intelligence. " For knowledge can alone produce knowl- 
edge.";]; A doctrine apparently at variance with this, has recently been taught, 
with great confidence, among the professed discoveries of Phrenology. How much 
truth there may be in this new " science" as it is called, I am not prepared to say ; 
but, as sometimes held forth, it seems to me not only to clash with some of the most 
important principles of mental philosophy, but to make the power of thought the 
result of that which is in itself inert and unthinking. Assuming that the primitive 
faculties of the human understanding have not been known in earlier times, it pro- 
fesses to have discovered, in the physical organization of the brain, their proper 
source, or essential condition, and the true index to their measure, number, aud dis- 
tribution. In short, the leading phrenologists, by acknowledging no spiritual sub- 
stance, virtually deny that ancient doctrine, "It is not in flesh to think, or bones to 
reason,"§ and make the mind either a material substance, or a mere mode without 
substantial beino;. 

14. " The doctrine of immaterial substances" says Dr. Spurzheim, " is not suffi- 
ciently amenable to the test of observation ; it is founded on belief, and only sup- 
ported by hypothesis." — Phrenology, Vol. i, p. 20. But it should be remembered, 
that our notion of material substance, is just as much a matter of hypothesis. All 
accidents, whether they be qualities or actions, we necessarily suppose to have some 
support ; and this we call substance, deriving the term from the Latin, or hypostasis, 
if we choose to borrow from the Greek. But what this substance, or hypostasis, is, 
independently of its qualities or actions, we know not. This is clearly proved by 
Locke. What do we mean by matter ? and what by mind ? Matter is that which 
is solid, extended, divisible, movable, and occupies space. Mind is that which thinks, 

* " We cannot form a distinct idea of any moral or intellectual quality, unless we find some trace of it in 
ourselves." — Beattie's Moral Science, Part Second, Natural Theology, Chap. II, No. 424. 

t " Aristotle tells us that the world is a copy or transcript of those ideas which are in the mind of the first 
Being, and that those ideas which are in the mind of man, are a transcript of the world. To this we may add, 
that words are the transcripts of those ideas which are in the mind of man, and that writing or printing are Lis] 
the transcript of words." — Addison, Sped., Xo. 166. 

% Bolingbroke en Retirement and Study, Letters on History, p. 364. 
^ § See this passage in " The Economy of Human Life," p. 105 — a work feigned to be a compend of Chinese 
maxims, but now generally understood to have been written or compiled by Robert Dodsley, an eminent and in- 
genious bookseller in London. 



70 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. v'. 

and wills, and reasons, and remembers, and worships. Here are qualities in the 
one case ; operations in the other. Here are two definitions as totally distinct as 
any two can be ; and he that sees not in them a difference of substance, sees it no- 
where : to him all natures are one ; and that one, an absurd supposition. 

15. In favour of what is urged by the phrenologists, it may perhaps be admitted, 
as a natural law, that, " If a picture of a visible object be formed upon the retina, 
and the impression be communicated, by the nerves, to the brain, the result will be 
an act of perception." — Waylancfs Moral Science, p. 4. But it does not follow, 
nor did the writer of this sentence believe, that perception is a mere act or attribute 
of the organized matter of the brain. A material object can only occasion in our 
sensible organs a corporeal motion, which has not in it the nature of thought or 
perception ; and upon what principle of causation, shall a man believe, in respect to 
vision, that the thing which he sees, is more properly the cause of the idea conceived 
of it, than is the light by which he beholds it, or the mind in which that idea is 
formed ? Lord Kames avers, that, " Colour, which appears to the eye as spread upon 
a substance, has no existence but in the mind of the spectator." — Elements of Criti- 
cism, i, 178. And Cicero placed the perception, not only of colour, but of taste, of 
sound, of smell, and of touch, in the mind, rather than in the senses. " Illud est 
album, hoc dulce, canorum illud, hoc bene olens, hoc asperum : animo jam hsec 
tenemus comprehensa, non sensibus." — Ciceronis Acad. Lib. ii, 7. Dr. Beattie, 
however, says : " Colours inhere not in the coloured body, but in the light that falls 
upon it ; * * * and the word colour denotes, an external thing, and never a sensa- 
tion of the mind." — Moral Science, i, 54. Here is some difference of opinion ; but 
however the thing may be, it does not affect my argument ; which is, that to per- 
ceive or think is an act or attribute of our immaterial substance or nature, and 
not to be supposed the effect either of the objects perceived or of our own corporeal 
organization. 

16. Divine wisdom has established the senses as the avenues through which our 
minds shall receive notices of the forms and qualities of external things ; but the 
sublime conception of the ancients, that these forms and qualities had an abstract 
preexist ence in the divine mind, is a common doctrine of many English authors, as 
Milton, Cowper, Akenside, and others. For example : " Now if Ens primum be the 
cause of entia a primo, then he hath the idea of them in him : for he made them 
by counsel, and not by necessity ; for then he should have needed them, and they 
have a parhelion of that wisdom that is in his Idea." — Richardson's Logic, p. 1 6 : 
Lond. 1657. 

" Then the Great Spirit, whom his works adore, 
"Within his own deep essence view'd the forms, 
The forms eternal of created things." — Akenside. 

Pleasures of the Imagination, Book i. 

" And in the school of sacred wisdom taught, 
To read his wonders, in whose thought the world, 
Fair as it is, existed ere it was." — Cowper. 

Task: Winter Morning Walk, p. 150. 

u Thence to behold this new-created world, 
The addition of his empire, how it show'd 
In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair, 
Answering his great idea." — Milton. 

Paradise Lost, Book vii, line 554. 

" Thought shines from God as shines the morn ; 
Language from kindling thought is born." 

Anon. : a Poem in imitation of Coleridge. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE POWER OF LANGUAGE. ■ 71 

17. "Original Truth,"* says Harris, "having the most intimate connection with 
the Supreme Intelligence, may be said (as it were) to shine with unchangeable splen- 
dor, enlightening throughout the universe every possible subject, by nature suscepti- 
ble of its benign influence. Passions and other obstacles may prevent indeed its 
efficacy, as clouds and vapours may obscure the sun ; but itself neither admits dimi- 
nution, nor change, because the darkness respects only particular percipients. Among 
these therefore we must look for ignorance and error, and for that subordination of 
intelligence which is their natural consequence. Partial views, the imperfections of 
sense ; inattention, idleness, the turbulence of passions ; education, local sentiments, 
opinions, and belief; conspire in many instances to furnish us with ideas, some too 
partial, and (what is worse than all this) with many that are erroneous, and contrary 
to truth. These it behoves us to correct as far as possible, by cool suspense and 
candid examination. Thus by a connection perhaps little expected, the cause of 
Letters, aud that of Virtue, appear to coincide ; it being the business of both, to ex- 
amine our ideas, and to amend them by the standard of nature and of truth." — See 
Hermes, p. 406. 

18. Although it seems plain from our own consciousness, that the mind is an 
active self-moving principle or essence, yet capable of being moved, after its own 
manner, by other causes outward as well as inward ; and although it must be ob- 
vious to reflection, that all its ideas, perceptions, and emotions, are, with respect to 
itself, of a spiritual nature — bearing such a relation to the spiritual substance in 
which alone they appear, as bodily motion is seen to bear to material substances ; 
yet we know, from experience and observation, that they who are acquainted with 
words, are apt to think in words — that is, mentally to associate their internal con- 
ceptions with the verbal signs which they have learned to use. And though I do 
not conceive the position to be generally true, that words are to the mind itself the 
necessary instruments of thought, yet, in my apprehension, it cannot well be denied, 
that in some of its operations and intellectual reaches, the mind is greatly assisted 
by its own contrivances with respect to language. I refer not now to the communi- 
cation of knowledge ; for, of this, language is admitted to be properly the instrument. 
But there seem to be some processes of thought, or calculation, in which the mind, 
by a wonderful artifice in the combination of terms, contrives to prevent embarrass- 
ment, and help itself forward in its conceptions, when the objects before it are in 
themselves perhaps infinite in number or variety. 

19. We have an instance of this in numeration. No idea is more obvious or 
simple than that of unity, or one. By the continual addition of this, first to itself 
to make two, and then to each higher combination successively, we form a series of 
different numbers, which may go on to infinity. In the consideration of these, the 
mind would not be able to go far without the help of words, and those peculiarly 
fitted to the purpose. The understanding would lose itself in the multiplicity, were 
it not aided by that curious concatenation of names, which has been contrived for 
the several parts of the succession. As far as twelve we make use of simple unre- 
lated terms. Thenceforward we apply derivatives and compounds, formed from 
these in their regular order, till we arrive at a hundred. This one new word, hun- 
dred, introduced to prevent confusion, has nine hundred and ninety-nine distinct 
repetitions in connexion with the preceding terms, and thus brings us to a thousand. 
Here the computation begins anew, runs through all the former combinations, and 
then extends forward, till the word thousand has been used nine hundred and ninety- 
nine thousand times ; and then, for ten hundred thousand, we introduce the new 
word million. With this name we begin again as before, and proceed tiil we have 
used it a million of times, each combination denoting a number clearly distinguished 

* "Those philosophers whose ideas of being and knowledge are derived from body and sensation, have a short 
method to explain the nature of Truth. It is a factitious thing, made by every man for himself ; which comes 
and goes, just as it is remembered and forgot: which in the order of things makes its appearance the last of all, 
being not only subsequent to sensible objects, but even to our sensations of them! According to this hypo- 
thesis, there are many truths, which have been, and are no longer ; others, that will be, and have not been yet ; 
and multitudes, that possibly may never exist at all. But there are other reasoners, who must surely have had 
very different notions ; those, I mean, who represent Truth not as the last, but as the first of beings ; who call 
it immutable, eternal, omnipresent; attributes that all indicate something more than human." — Harris's 
Hermes, p. 403. 



72 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. V. 

from every other ; and then, in like manner, we begin and proceed, with billions, 
trillions, quadrillions, quintillions, etc., to any extent we please. 

20. Now can any one suppose that words are not here, in some true sense, the 
instruments of thought, or of the intellectual process thus carried on ? Were all 
these different numbers to be distinguished directly by the mind itself, and denomi- 
nated by terms destitute of this artificial connexion, it may well be doubted whether 
the greatest genius in the world would ever be able to do what any child may now 
effect by this orderly arrangement of words ; that is, to distinguish exactly the sev- 
eral stages of this long progression, and see at a glance how far it is from the begin- 
ning of the series. "The great art of knowledge," says Duncan, "lies in managing 
with skill the capacity of the intellect, and contriving such helps, as, if they strengthen 
not its natural powers, may yet expose them to no unnecessary fatigue. When 
ideas become very complex, and by the multiplicity of their parts grow too un- 
wieldy to be dealt with in the lump, we must ease the view of the mind by taking 
them to pieces, and setting before it the several portions separately, one after an 
other. I3y this leisurely survey we are enabled to take in the whole ; and if we can 
draw it into such an orderly combination as will naturally lead the attention, step by 
step, in any succeeding consideration of the same idea, we shall have it ever at com- 
mand, and with a single glance of thought be able to run over all its parts." — Dun- 
can's Logic, p. 37. Hence we may infer the great importance of method in 
grammar ; the particulars of which, as Quintilian says, are infinite.* 

21. Words are in themselves but audible or visible signs, mere arbitrary symbols, 
used, according to common practice and consent, as significant of our ideas or 
thoughts.f But so well are they fitted to be made at will the medium of mental 
conference, that nothing else can be conceived to equal them for this purpose. Yet 
it does not follow that they who have the greatest knowledge and command of 
words, have all they could desire in this respect. For language is in its own nature 
but an imperfect instrument, and even when tuned with the greatest skill, will often 
be found inadequate to convey the impression with which the mind may labour. 
Cicero, that great master of eloquence, frequently confessed, or declared, that words 
failed him. This, however, may be thought to have been uttered as a mere figure 
of speech ; and some may say, that the imperfection I speak of, is but an incident 
of the common weakness or ignorance of human nature ; and that if a man always 
knew what to say to an other in order to persuade or confute, to encourage or terrify 
him, he would always succeed, and no insufficiency of this land would ever be felt 
or imagined. This also is plausible ; but is the imperfection less, for being some- 
times traceable to an ulterior source ? Or is it certain that human languages used 
by perfect wisdom, would all be perfectly competent to their common purpose ? 
And if some would be found less so than others, may there not be an insufficiency 
in the very nature of them all ? 

* Of the best method of teaching grammar, I shall discourse in an other chapter. That methods radically 
different must lead to different results, is no more than every intelligent person will suppose. The formation 
of just methods of instruction, or true systems of science, is ■work for those minds which are capable of the most 
accurate and comprehensive views of the things to be taught. He that is capable of "originating and produc- 
ing" truth, or true "ideas," if any but the Divine Being is so, has surely no need to be trained into such truth 
by any factitious scheme of education. In all that he thus originates, he is himself a Novum Organon of know- 
ledge, and capable of teaching others, especially those officious men who would help him with their second-hand 
authorship, and their paltry catechisms of common-places. I allude here to the fundamental principle of what 
in some books is called " 2 he Productive System of Instruction,'" and to those schemes of grammar which are 
professedly founded on it. We are told that, " The leadiny principle of this system, is that which its name indi- 
cates — that the child should be regarded not as a mere recipient of the ideas of others, but as an agent capable 
of collecting, and originating, and producing most of the ideas which are necessary for its education, when pre- 
sented witli the objects or the facts from which they may be derived." — Smith's New Gram., Pref, p. 5: Amer. 
Journal of Education, New Series, Vol. I, No. 6, Art. 1. It ought to be enough for any teacher, or for any 
writer, if he finds his readers or his pupils ready recipients of the ideas which he aims to convey. What more 
they know, they can never owe to him, unless they learn it from him against his will ; and what they happen to 
Lack, of understanding or believing him, may very possibly be more his fault than theirs. 

t Lindley Murray, anonymously copying somebody, I know not whom, says: "Words derive their meaning 
from the consent and practice of those who use them. There is no necessary connexion between words and ideas. 
The association between the sign and the thing signified, is purely arbitrary." — Octavo Gram., Vol. i, p. 139. 
The second assertion here made, is very far from being literally true. However arbitrary may be the use or 
application of words, their connexion with ideas is so necessary, that they cannot be words without it. Signifi- 
cation, as I shall hereafter prove, is a part of the very essence of a word, the most important element of its 
nature. And Murray himself says, " Tne understanding and language have a strict connexion." — lb., Vol. i, p. 
356. In this, he changes without amendment the words of Blair: "Logic and rhetoric have here, as in many 
other cases, a strict connexion." — Blair's Rhet., p. 120. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE POWER OP LANGUAGE. 73 

22. If there is imperfection in any instrument, there is so much the more need 
of care and skill in the use of it. Duncan, in concluding his chapter about words 
as signs of our ideas, says, " It is apparent, that we are sufficiently provided with 
the means of communicating our thoughts one to another ; and that the mistakes 
so frequently complained of on this head, are wholly owing to ourselves, in not 
sufficiently defining the terms we use, or perhaps not connecting them with clear 
and determinate ideas." — Logic, p. 69. On the other hand, we find that some of 
the best and wisest of men confess the inadequacy of language, while they also 
deplore its misuse. But, whatever may be its inherent defects, or its culpable abuses, 
it is still to be honoured as almost the only medium for the communication of 
thought and the diffusion of knowledge. Bishop Butler remarks, in his Analogy 
of Religion, (a most valuable work, though defective in style,) "So likewise the im- 
perfections attending the only method by which nature enables and directs us to 
communicate our thoughts to each other, are innumerable. Language is, in its very 
nature, inadequate, ambiguous, liable to infinite abuse, even from negligence ; and so 
liable to it from design, that every man can deceive and betray by it." — Part ii, Chap. 
3. Lord Karnes, too, seconds this complaint, at least in part : " Lamentable is the 
imperfection of language, almost in every particular that falls not under external 
sense. I am talking of a matter exceedingly clear in the perception, and yet I find 
no small difficulty to express it clearly in words." — Elements of Criticism, Vol. i, p. 
86. "All writers," says Sheridan, "seem to be under the influence of one common 
delusion, that by the help of words alone, they can communicate all that passes in 
their minds." — Lectures on Elocution, p. xi. 

23. Addison also, in apologizing for Milton's frequent use of old words and foreign 
idioms, says, " I may further add, that Milton's sentiments and ideas were so wonder- 
fully sublime, that it would have been impossible for him to have represented them 
in their full strength and beauty, without having recourse to these foreign assist- 
ances. Our language sunk under him, and was unequal to that greatness of soul 
which furnished him with such glorious conceptions." — Spectator, No. 297. This, 
however, Dr. Johnson seems to regard as a mere compliment to genius ; for of Mil- 
ton he says, " The truth is, that both in prose and verse, he had formed his style by 
a perverse and pedantick principle." But the grandeur of his thoughts is not denied 
by the critic ; nor is his language censured without qualification. " Whatever be 
the faults of his diction, he cannot want the praise of copiousness and variety : he 
was master of his language in its full extent ; and has selected the melodious words 
with such diligence, that from his book alone the Art of English Poetry might be 
learned." — Johnson's Life of Milton: Lives, p. 92. 

24. As words abstractly considered are empty and vain, being in their nature 
mere signs, or tokens, which derive all their value from the ideas and feelings which 
they suggest ; it is evident that he who would either speak or write well, must be 
furnished with something more than a knowledge of sounds and letters. Words 
fitly spoken are indeed both precious and beautiful — " like apples of gold in pictures 
of silver." But it is not for him whose soul is dark, whose designs are selfish, whose 
affections are dead, or whose thoughts are vain, to say with the son of Amram, " My 
doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain 
upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." — Deut., xxxii, 2. It is 
not for him to exhibit the true excellency of speech, because he cannot feel its 
power. It is not for him, whatever be the theme, to convince the judgement with 
deductions of reason, to fire the imagination with glowing imagery, or win with 
graceful words the willing ear of taste. His wisdom shall be silence, when men are 
present ; for the soul of manly language, is the soul that thinks and feels as best 
becomes a man. 



74 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VI. 

CHAPTER VI. 

OF THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 



" Non mediocres enim tenebrse in sylva, ubi htec captanda : neque eo, quo pervenire volumns semitse tritse : 
neque non in tramitibus quaedam objecta, quae euntem retinere possent." — Vakko. De Lingua Latina, Lib. 
iv, p. 4. ' 

1. In order that we may set a just value upon the literary labours of those who, 
in former times, gave particular attention to the culture of the English language, and 
that we may the better judge of the credibility of modern pretensions to further 
improvements, it seems necessary that we should know something of the course of 
events through which its acknowledged melioration in earlier days took place. For, 
in this case, the extent of a man's knowledge is the strength of his argument. As 
Bacon quotes Aristotle, " Qui respiciunt ad pauca, de facili pronunciant." He that 
takes a narrow view, easily makes up his mind. But what is any opinion worth, if 
further knowledge of facts can confute it ? 

2. Whatsoever is successively varied, or has such a manner of existence as time 
can affect, must have had both an origin and a progress ; and may have also its par- 
ticular history, if the opportunity for writing it be not neglected. But such is the 
levity of mankind, that things of great moment are often left without memorial, 
while the hand of Literature is busy to beguile the world with trifles or with fictions, 
with fancies or with lies. The rude and cursory languages of barbarous nations, 
till the genius of Grammar arise to their rescue, are among those transitory things 
which unsparing time is ever hurrying away, irrecoverably, to oblivion. Tradition 
knows not what they were ; for of their changes she takes no account. Philosophy 
tells us, they are resolved into the variable, fleeting breath of the successive genera- 
tions of those by whom they were spoken ; whose kindred fate it was, to pass away 
unnoticed and nameless, lost in the elements from which they sprung. 

3. Upon the history of the English language, darkness thickens as we tread back 
the course of time. The subject of our inquiry becomes, at every step, more diffi- 
cult and less worthy. We have now a tract of English literature, both extensive 
and luminous ; and though many modern writers, and no few even of our writers 
on grammar, are comparatively very deficient in style, it is safe to affirm that the 
English language in general has never been written or spoken with more propriety 
and elegance, than it is at the present day. Modern English we read with facility ; 
and that which was good two centuries ago, though considerably antiquated, is still 
easily understood. The best way, therefore, to gain a practical knowledge of the 
changes which our language has undergone, is, to read some of our older authors in 
retrograde order, till the style employed at times more and more remote, becomes in 
some degree familiar. Pursued in this manner, the study will be less difficult, and 
the labour of the curious inquirer, which may be suspended or resumed at pleasure, 
will be better repaid, than if he proceed in the order of history, and attempt at first 
the Saxon remains. 

4. The value of a language as an object of study, depends chiefly on the character 
of the books which it contains ; and, secondarily, on its connexion with others more 
worthy to be thoroughly known. In this instance, there are several circumstances 
which are calculated soon to discourage research. As our language took its rise 
during the barbarism of the dark ages, the books through which its early history 
must be traced, are not only few and meagre, but, in respect to grammar, unsettled 
and diverse. It is not to be expected that inquiries of this kind will ever engage the 
attention of any very considerable number of persons. Over the minds of the read- 
ing public, the attractions of novelty hold a much greater influence, than any thing 
that is to be discovered in the dusk of antiquity. All old books contain a greater 



CHAP. VI.] OF THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 75 

or less number of obsolete words, and antiquated modes of expression, which puzzle the 
reader, and call him too frequently to his glossary. And even the most common 
terms, when they appear in their ancient, unsettled orthography, are often so disguised 
as not to be readily recognized. 

5. These circumstances (the last of which should be a caution to us against inno- 
vations in spelling) retard the progress of the reader, impose a labour too great for 
the ardour of his curiosity, and soon dispose him to rest satisfied with an ignorance, 
which, being general, is not likely to expose him to censure. For these reasons, an- 
cient authors are little read ; and the real antiquary is considered a man of odd 
habits, who, by a singular propensity, is led into studies both unfashionable and 
fruitless — a man who ought to have been born in the days of old, that he might 
have spoken the language he is so curious to know, and have appeared in the costume 
of an aa^e better suited to his taste. 

6. But Learning is ever curious to explore the records of time, as well as the 
regions of space ; and wherever her institutions flourish, she will amass her trea- 
sures, and spread them before her votaries. Difference of languages she easily over- 
comes ; but the leaden reign of unlettered Ignorance defies her scrutiny. Hence, of 
one period of the world's history, she ever speaks with horror — that " long night of 
apostasy," during which, like a lone Sibyl, she hid her precious relics in solitary cells, 
and fleeing from degraded Christendom, sought refuge with the eastern caliphs. 
" This awful decline of true religion in the world carried with it almost every vestige 
of civil liberty, of classical literature, and of scientific knowledge ; and it will gen- 
erally be found in experience that they must all stand or fall together." — Hints on 
Toleration, p. 263. In the tenth century, beyond which we find nothing that bears 
much resemblance to the English language as now written, this mental darkness ap- 
pears to have gathered to its deepest obscuration ; and, at that period, England was 
sunk as low in ignorance, superstition, and depravity, as any other part of Europe. 

7. The English language gradually varies as we trace it back, and becomes at length 
identified with the Anglo-Saxon; that is, with the dialect spoken by the Saxons after 
their settlement in England. These Saxons were a fierce, warlike, unlettered people 
from Germany ; whom the ancient Britons had invited to their assistance against the 
Picts and Scots. Cruel and ignorant, like their Gothic kindred, who had but lately 
overrun the Roman empire, they came, not for the good of others, but to accommo- 
date themselves. They accordingly seized the country ; destroyed or enslaved the 
ancient inhabitants ; or, more probably, drove the remnant of them into the moun- 
tains of Wales. Of Welsh or ancient British words, Charles Bucke, who says in his 
grammar that he took great pains to be accurate in his scale of derivation, enume- 
rates but one hundred and eleven, as now found in our language ; and Dr. Johnson, 
who makes them but ninety-five, argues from their paucity, or almost total absence, 
that the Saxons could not have mingled at all with these people, or even have retained 
them in vassalage. 

8. The ancient languages of France and of the British isles are said to have pro- 
ceeded from an other language yet more ancient, called the Celtic ; so that, from one 
common source, are supposed to have sprung the present Welsh, the present Irish, 
and the present Highland Scotch.* The term Celtic Dr. Webster defines, as a noun, 
" The language of the Celts ;" and, as an adjective, " Pertaining to the primitive in- 
habitants of the south and west of Europe, or to the *early inhabitants of Italy, Gaul, 
Spain, and Britain." What unity, according to this, there was, or could have been, 
in the ancient Celtic tongue, does not appear from books, nor is it easy to be 

* " The language which is, at present, spoken throughout Great Britain, is neither the ancient primitive speech 
of the island, nor derived from it; but is altogether of foreign origin. The language of the first inhabitants of 
our island, beyond doubt, was the Celtic, or Gaelic, common to them with Gaul ; from which country, it appears, 
by many circumstances, that Great Britain was peopled. This Celtic tongue, which is said to be very expressive 
and copious, and is, probably, one of the most ancient languages in the world, obtained once in most of the western 
regions of Europe. It was the language of Gaul, of Great Britain, of Ireland, and very probably, of Spain also ; 
till, in the course of those revolutions which by means of the conquests, first, of the Komans, and afterwards, 
of the northern nations, changed the government, speech, and, in a manner, the whole face of Europe, this tongue 
was gradually obliterated; and now subsists only in the mountains of Wales, in the Highlands of Scotland, and 
among the wild Irish. For the Irish, the Welsh, and the Erse, are no other than different dialects of the same 
tongue, the ancient Celtic."— Blair's Rhetoric, Lect. IX, p. 85. 



76 INTRODUCTION. • [CHAP. VI. 

conjectured.* Many ancient writers sustain this broad application of the term Celtce 
or Celts ; which, according to Strabo's etymology of it, means horsemen, and seems 
to have been almost as general as our word Indians. But Caesar informs us that 
the name was more particularly claimed by the people who, in his day, lived in 
France between the Seine and the Garonne, and who by the Romans were called 
Galli, or Gauls. 

9. The Celtic tribes are said to have been the descendants of Gomer, the son of 
Japhet. The English historians agree that the first inhabitants of their island owed 
their origin and their language to the Celtce, or Gauls, who settled on the opposite 
shore. Julius Caesar, who invaded Britain about half a century before the Christian 
era, found the inhabitants ignorant of letters, and destitute of any history but oral 
tradition. To this, however, they paid great attention, teaching every thing in verse. 
Some of the Druids, it is said in Caesar's Commentaries, spent twenty years in learn- 
ing to repeat songs and hymns that were never committed to writing. These ancient 
priests, or diviners, are represented as having great power, and as exercising it in 
some respects beneficially ; but their horrid rites, with human sacrifices, provoked the 
Romans to destroy them. Smollett says, " Tiberius suppressed those human sacrifices 
in Gaul ; and Claudius destroyed the Druids of that country ; but they subsisted in 
Britain till the reign of Nero, when Paulus Suetonius reduced the island of Anglesey, 
which was the place of their retreat, and overwhelmed them with such unexpected 
and sudden destruction, that all their knowledge and tradition, conveyed to them in 
the songs of their predecessors, perished at once." — Smolletfs Hist, of Eng., 4to, 
B. i, Ch. i, § 1. 

10. The Romans considered Britain a province of their empire, for a period of 
about five hundred years ; but the northern part of the island was never entirely 
subdued by them, and not till Anno Domini 78, a hundred and thirty-three years 
after their first invasion of the country, had they completed their conquest of England. 
Letters and arts, so far at least as these are necessary to the purposes of war or gov- 
ernment, the victors carried with them ; and under their auspices some knowledge of 
Christianity was, at a very early period, introduced into Britain. But it seems strange, 
that after all that is related of their conquests, settlements, cities, fortifications, build- 
ings, seminaries, churches, laws, &c, they should at last have left the Britons in so 
helpless, degraded, and forlorn a condition. They did not sow among them the seeds 
of any permanent improvement. 

11. The Roman government, being unable to sustain itself at home, withdrew its 
forces finally from Britain in the year 446, leaving the wretched inhabitants almost 
as savage as it found them, and in a situation even less desirable. Deprived of their 
native resources, their ancient independence of spirit, as well as of the laws, customs, 
institutions, and leaders, that had kept them together under their old dynasties, and 
now deserted by their foreign protectors, they were apparently left at the mercy of 
blind fortune, the wretched vicissitudes of which there was none to foresee, none to 
resist. The glory of the Romans now passed away. The mighty fabric of their 
own proud empire crumbled into ruins. Civil liberty gave place to barbarism ; 
Christian truth, to papal superstition ; and the lights of science were put out by both. 
The shades of night gathered over all ; settling and condensing, " till almost every 
point of that wide horizon, over which the Sun of Righteousness had diffused his 
cheering rays, was enveloped in a darkness more awful and more portentous than 
that which of old descended upon rebellious Pharaoh and the callous sons of 
Ham." — Hints on Toleration, p. 310. 

12. The Saxons entered Britain in the year 449. But what was the form of their 
language at that time, cannot now be known. It was a dialect of the Gothic or 

* With some writers, the Celtic language is the Welsh; as may be seen by the following extract: " By this he 
requires an Impossibility, since much the greater Part of Mankind can by no means spare 10 or 11 Years of 
their Lives in learning those dead Languages, to arrive at a perfect Knowledge of their own. But by this Gen- 
tleman's way of Arguing, we ought not only to be Masters of Latin and Greek, but of Spanish, Italian, High- 
Dutch, Low-Dutch, French, the Old Saxon, Welsh, Runic, Gothic, and Islandic ; since much the greater number 
of Words of common and general Use are derived from those Tongues. Nay, by the same way of Reasoning 
we may prove, that the Romans and Greeks did not understand their own Tongues, because they were not ac- 
quainted with the Welsh, or ancient Celtic, there being above 020 radical Greek Words derived from the Celtic, 
and of the Latin a much greater Number." — Preface to Brightland's Grammar, p. 5. 



CHAP. VI.] OF THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 77 

Teutonic ; which is considered the parent of all the northern tongues of Europe, ex- 
cept some few of Sclavonian origin. The only remaining monument of the Gothic 
language is a copy of the Gospels, translated by Ulphilas ; which is preserved at 
Upsal, and called, from its embellishments, the Silver Book. This old work has been 
three times printed in England. We possess not yet in America all the advantages 
which may be enjoyed by literary men in the land of our ancestors ; but the stores 
of literature, both ancient and modern, are somewhat more familiar to us, than is 
there supposed ; and the art of printing is fast equalizing, to all nations that cultivate 
learning, the privilege of drinking at its ancient fountains. 

13. It is neither liberal nor just to argue unfavourably of the intellectual or the 
moral condition of any remote age or country, merely from our own ignorance of it. 
It is true, we can derive from no quarter a favourable opinion of the state of England 
after the Saxon invasion, and during the tumultuous and bloody government of the 
heptarchy. But I will not darken the picture through design. If justice were done 
to the few names — to Gildas the wise, the memorialist of his country's sufferings and 
censor of the nation's depravity, who appears a solitary star in the night of the sixth 
century — to the venerable Bede, the greatest theologian, best scholar, and only his- 
torian of the seventh — to Alcuin, the abbot of Canterbury, the luminary of the 
eighth — to Alfred the great, the glory of the ninth, great as a prince, and greater as 
a scholar, seen in the evening twilight of an age in which the clergy could not read ; — 
if justice were done to all such, we might find something, even in these dark and 
rugged times, if not to soften the grimness of the portrait, at least to give greater 
distinctness of feature. 

14. In tracing the history of our language, Dr. Johnson, who does little more than 
give examples, cites as his first specimen of ancient English, a portion of king Alfred's 
paraphrase in imitation of Boethius. But this language of Alfred's is not English ; 
but rather, as the learned doctor himself considered it, an example of the Anglo- 
Saxon in its highest state of purity. This dialect was first changed by admixture 
with words derived from the Danish and the Norman ; and, still being comparatively 
rude and meagre, afterwards received large accessions from the Latin, the French, 
the Greek, the Dutch — till, by gradual changes, which the etymologist may exhibit, 
there was at length produced a language bearing a sufficient resemblance to the pres- 
ent English, to deserve to be called English at this day. 

15. The formation of our language cannot with propriety be dated earlier than the 
thirteenth century. It was then that a free and voluntary amalgamation of its chief 
constituent materials took place ; and this was somewhat earlier than we date the 
revival of learning. The English of the thirteenth century is scarcely intelligible to 
the modern reader. Dr. Johnson calls it " a kind of intermediate diction, neither 
Saxon nor English ;" and says, that Sir John Gower, who wrote in the latter part 
of the fourteenth century, was " the first of our authors who can be properly said 
to have written English." Contemporary with Gower, the father of English poetry, 
was the still greater poet, his disciple Chaucer ; who embraced many of the tenets 
of Wickliffe, and imbibed something of the spirit of the reformation, which was 
now begun. 

16. The literary history of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is full of interest ; 
for it is delightful to trace the progress of great and obvious improvement. The 
reformation of religion and the revival of learning were nearly simultaneous. Yet 
individuals may have acted a conspicuous part in the latter, who had little to do with 
the former ; for great learning does not necessarily imply great piety, though, as Dr. 
Johnson observes, " the Christian religion always implies or produces a certain degree 
of civility and learning." — Hist. Eng. Lang, before his 4to Diet "The ordinary 
instructions of the clergy, both philosophical and religious, gradually fell into con- 
tempt, as the Classics superseded the one, and the Holy Scriptures expelled the other. 
The first of these changes was effected by the early grammarians of Europe ; and 
it gave considerable aid to the reformation, though it had no immediate connexion 
with that event. The revival of the English Bible, however, completed the work *. 
and though its appearance was late, and its progress was retarded in every possible 



78 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VI. 

manner, yet its dispersion was at length equally rapid, extensive, and effectual."-— 
Constable's Miscellany, Vol. xx, p. 75. 

17. Peculiar honour is due to those who lead the way in whatever advances 
human happiness. And, surely, our just admiration of the character of the reform- 
ers must be not a little enhanced, when we consider what they did for letters as 
well as for the church. Learning does not consist in useless jargon, in a multitude 
of mere words, or in acute speculations remote from practice ; else the seventeen 
folios of St. Thomas Aquinas, the angelical doctor of the thirteenth century, and 
the profound disputations of his great rival, Duns Scotus the subtle, for which they 
were revered in their own age, had not gained them the contempt of all posterity. 
From such learning the lucid reasoning of the reformers delivered the halls of instruc- 
tion. The school divinity of the middle ages passed away before the presence of that 
which these men learned from the Bible, as did in a later age the Aristotelian philoso- 
phy before that which Bacon drew from nature. 

18. Towards the latter part of the fourteenth century, Wickliffe furnished the first 
entire translation of the Bible into English. In like manner did the Germans, a 
hundred and fifty years after, receive it in their tongue from the hands of Luther; 
who says, that at twenty years of age, he himself had not seen it in any language. 
Wickliffe's English style is elegant for the age in which he lived, yet very different 
from what is elegant now. This first English translation of the Bible, being made 
about a hundred years before the introduction of printing into England, could not 
have been very extensively circulated. A large specimen of it may be seen in Dr. 
Johnson's History of the English Language. Wickliffe died in 1384. The art of 
printing was invented about 1440, and first introduced into England, in 1468 ; but 
the first printed edition of the Bible in English, was executed in Germany. It was 
completed, October 5th, 1535. 

19. "Martin Luther, about the year 1517, first introduced metrical psalmody into 
the service of the church, which not only kept alive the enthusiasm of the reformers, 
but formed a rallying point for his followers. This practice spread in all directions ; 
and it was not long ere six thousand persons were heard singing together at St. 
Paul's Cross in London. Luther was a poet and musician ; but the same talent ex- 
isted not in his followers. Thirty years afterwards, Sternhold versified fifty-one of 
the Psalms; and in 1562, with the help of Hopkins, he completed the Psalter. 
These poetical effusions were chiefly sung to German melodies, which the good taste 
of Luther supplied : but the Puritans, in a subsequent age, nearly destroyed these 
germs of melody, assigning as a reason, that music should be so simplified as to suit 
all persons, and that all may join." — Dr. Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 283. 

20. " The schools and colleges of England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
were not governed by a system of education which would render their students very 
eminent either as scholars or as gentlemen : and the monasteries, which were used as 
seminaries, even until the reformation, taught only the corrupt Latin used by the ec- 
clesiastics. The time however was approaching, when the united efforts of Stan- 
bridge, Linacre, Sir John Cheke, Dean Colet, Erasmus, William Lily, Roger Ascham, 
&c, were successful in reviving the Latin tongue in all its purity ; and even in excit- 
ing a taste for Greek in a nation the clergy of which opposed its introduction with 
the same vehemence which characterized their enmity to a reformation in religion. 
The very learned Erasmus, the first who undertook the teaching of the Greek lan- 
guage at Oxford, met with few friends to support him ; notwithstanding Oxford was 
the seat of nearly all the learning in England." — Constable's Miscellany,^ ol. xx, 
p. 146. 

21. " The priests preached against it, as a very recent invention of the arch-enemy ; 
and confounding in their misguided zeal, the very foundation of their faith, with the 
object of their resentment, they represented the New Testament itself as 'an impious 
and dangerous book,' because it was written in that heretical language. Even after 
the accession of Henry VIII, when Erasmus, who had quitted Oxford in disgust, 
returned under his especial patronage, with the support of several eminent scholars 
and powerful persons, his progress was still impeded, and the language opposed. The 



CHAP. VI.] OF THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 79 

University was divided into parties, called Greeks and Trojans, the latter being the 
strongest, from being favoured by the monks ; and the Greeks were driven from the 
streets, with hisses and other expressions of contempt. It was not therefore until 
Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey gave it their positive and powerful protection, that 
this persecuted language was allowed to be quietly studied, even in the institutions 
dedicated to learning." — lb., p. 147. 

22. These curious extracts are adduced to show the spirit of the times, and the 
obstacles then to be surmounted in the cause of learning. This popular opposition 
to Greek, did not spring from a patriotic design to prefer and encourage English lite- 
lature ; for the improvement of this was still later, and the great promoters of it were 
all of them classical scholars. They wrote in English, not because they preferred it, 
but because none but those who were bred in colleges, could read any thing else ; 
and, even to this very day, the grammatical study of the English language is shame- 
fully neglected in what are called the higher institutions of learning. In alleging 
this neglect, I speak comparatively. Every student, on entering upon the practical 
business of life, will find it of far more importance to him, to be skillful in the lan- 
guage of his own country than to be distinguished for any knowledge which the 
learned only can appreciate. " Will the greatest Mastership in Greek and Latin, or 
[the] translating [of] these Languages into English, avail for the Purpose of acquiring 
an elegant English Style ? ~No — we know just the Reverse from woeful Experience ! 
And, as Mr. Locke and the Spectator observe, Men who have threshed hard at Greek 
and Latin for ten or eleven years together, are very often deficient in their own Lan- 
guage." — Preface to the British Gram., 8vo, 1*784, p. xxi. 

23. That the progress of English literature in early times was slow, will not seem 
wonderful to those who consider what is affirmed of the progress of other arts, more 
immediately connected with the comforts of life. " Down to the reign of Elizabeth, 
the greater part of the houses in considerable towns, had no chimneys : the fire was 
kindled against the wall, and the smoke found its way out as well as it could, by the 
roof, the door, or the windows. The houses were mostly built of wattling, plastered 
over with clay ; and the beds were only straw pallets, with a log of wood for a pil- 
low. In this respect, even the king fared no better than his subjects ; for, in Henry 
the Eighth's time, we find directions, 'to examine every night the straw of the king's 
bed, that no daggers might be concealed therein.' A writer in 1577, speaking of the 
progress of luxury, mentions three things especially, that were ' marvellously altered 
for the worse in England ;' the multitude of chimneys lately erected, the increase of 
lodgings, and the exchange of treen platters into pewter, and wooden spoons into sil- 
ver and tin; and. he complains bitterly that oak instead of willow was employed in 
the building of houses." — Rev. Royal Robbixs : Outlines of History, p. 377. 

24. Sliakspeare appeared in the reign of Elizabeth ; outlived her thirteen years ; 
and died in 1616", aged 52. The English language in his hands did not lack power 
or compass of expression. His writings are now more extensively read, than any 
others of that age ; nor has any very considerable part of his phraseology yet become 
obsolete. But it ought to be known, that the printers or editors of the editions which 
are now read, have taken extensive liberty in modernizing his orthography, as well as 
that of other old authors still popular. How far such liberty is justifiable, it is diffi- 
cult to say. Modern readers doubtless find a convenience in it. It is very desirable 
that the orthography of our language should be made uniform, and remain perma- 
nent. Great alterations cannot be suddenly introduced ; and there is, in stability, an 
advantage which will counterbalance that of a slow approximation to regularity. An- 
alogy may sometimes decide the form of variable words, but the concurrent usage of 
the learned must ever be respected, in this, as in every other part of grammar. 

25. Among the earliest of the English grammarians, was Ben Jonson, the poet ; 
who died in the year 1637, at the age of sixty-three. His grammar, (which Home 
Tooke mistakingly calls " the first as well as the best English grammar,") is still ex- 
tant, being published in the several editions of his works. It is a small treatise, and 
worthy of atteution only as a matter of curiosity. It is written in prose, and designed 
chiefly for the aid of foreigners. Grammar is an unpoetical subject, and therefore 



80 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VI. 

not wisely treated, as it once very generally was, in verse. But every poet should 
be familiar with the art, because the formal principles of his own have always been 
considered as embraced in it. To its poets, too, every language must needs be par- 
ticularly indebted ; because their compositions, being in general more highlv finished 
than works in prose, are supposed to present the language in its most agreeable form. 
In the preface to the Poems of Edmund Waller, published in 1690, the editor ven- 
tures to say, " He was, indeed, the Parent of English Verse, and the first that shewed 
us our Tongue had Beauty and Numbers in it. Our Language owes more to Him, 
than the French does to Cardinal Richelieu and the whole Academy. * * * * The 
Tongue came into His hands a rough diamond : he polished it first; and to that de- 
gree, that all artists since him have admired the workmanship, without pretendino* to 
mend it." — British Poets, Vol. ii, Lond., 1800 : Waller's Poems, p. 4. 

26. Dr. Johnson, however, in his Lives of the Poets, abates this praise, that he may 
transfer the greater part of it to Dryden and Pope. He admits that, " After about 

t half a century of forced thoughts and rugged metre, some advances towards nature 
and harmony had been already made by Waller and Denham ;" but, in distributing 
the praise of this improvement, he adds, " It may be doubted whether Waller and 
Denham could have over-born [overborne] the prejudices which had long prevailed, 
and which even then were sheltered by the protection of Cowley. The new versifi- 
cation, as it was called, may be considered as owing its establishment to Dryden ; 
from whose time it is apparent that English poetry has had no tendency to relapse 
to its former savageness." — Johnson's Life of Dryden : Lives, p. 206. To Pope, as 
the translator of Homer, he gives this praise : " His version may be said to have 
tuned the English tongue ; for since its appearance no writer, however deficient in 
other powers, has wanted melody." — Life of Pope : Lives, p. 567. Such was the 
opinion of Johnson ; but there are other critics who object to the versification of 
Pope, that it is " monotonous and cloying." See, in Leigh Hunt's Feast of the Poets, 
the following couplet, and a note upon it : 

" But ever since Pope spoil'd the ears of the town 
With his cuckoo-song verses half up and half down." 

27. The unfortunate Charles I, as well as his father James I, was a lover and pro- 
moter of letters. He was himself a good scholar, and wrote well in English, for his 
time: he ascended the throne in 1625, and was beheaded in 1648. Nor was Crom- 
well himself, with all his religious and military enthusiasm, wholly insensible to literary 
merit. This century was distinguished by the writings of Milton, Dryden, Waller, 
Cowley, Denham, Locke, and others ; and the reign of Charles II, which is embraced 
in it, has been considered by some " the Augustan age of English literature." But 
that honour, if it may well be bestowed on any, belongs rather to a later period. The 
best works produced in the eighteenth century, are so generally known and so highly 
esteemed, that it would be lavish of the narrow space allowed to this introduction, to 
speak particularly of their merits. Some grammatical errors may be found in almost 
all books; but our language was, in general, written with great purity and propriety 
by Addison, Swift, Pope, Johnson, Lowth, Hume, Home, and many other celebrated 
authors who flourished in the last century. Nor was it much before this period, that 
the British writers took any great pains to be accurate in the use of their own language : 

" Late, very late, correctness grew our care, 
When the tir'd nation breath'd from civil war." — Pope. 

28. English books began to be printed in the early part of the sixteenth century ; 
and, as soon as a taste for reading was formed, the press threw open the flood-gates 
of general knowledge, the streams of which are now pouring forth, in a copious, in- 
creasing, but too often turbid tide, upon all the civilized nations of the earth. This 
mighty engine afforded a means by which superior minds could act more efficiently 
and more extensively upon society in general. And thus, by the exertions of genius 
adorned with learning, our native tongue has been made the polished vehicle of the 



CHAP. VII.] CHANGES AND SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 81 

most interesting truths, and of the most important discoveries ; and has become a 
language copious, strong, refined, and capable of no inconsiderable degree of har- 
mony. Nay, it is esteemed by some who claim to be competent judges, to be the 
strongest, the richest, the most elegant, and the most susceptible of sublime imagery, 
of all the languages in the world. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CHANGES AND SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 



" Quot enira verba, et nonnunquam in detenus, hoc, quo vivimus, saeculo, partim aliqua, partim nulla necea. 
eitate cogente, mutata sunt?" — Rob. Ainswobtu: Lat. Diet, 4to; Prasf., p. xi. 



1. In the use of language, every one chooses his words from that common stock 
which he has learned, and applies them in practice according to his own habits and 
notions. If the style of different writers of the same age is various, much greater is 
the variety which appears in the productions of different ages. Hence the date of a 
book may often be very plausibly conjectured from the peculiarities of its style. As 
to what is best in itself, or best adapted to the subject in hand, every writer must en- 
deavour to become his own judge. He who, in any sort of composition, would write 
with a master's hand, must first apply himself to books with a scholar's diligence. 
He must think it worth his while to inform himself, that he may be critical. Desir- 
ing to give the student all the advantage, entertainment, and satisfaction, that can be 
expected from a work of this kind, I shall subjoin a few brief specimens in illustration 
of what has been said in the foregoing chapter. The order of time will be followed 
inversely ; and, as Saxon characters are not very easily obtained, or very apt to be 
read, the Roman letters will be employed for the few examples to which the others 
would be more appropriate. But there are some peculiarities of ancient usage in 
English, which, for the information of the young reader, it is proper in the first place 
to explain. 

2. With respect to the letters, there are several changes to be mentioned. (1.) The 
pages of old books are often crowded with capitals : it was at one time the custom to 
distinguish all nouns, and frequently verbs, or any other important words, by heading 
them with a great letter. (2.) The letter Ess, of the lower case, had till lately two 
forms, the long and the short, as f and s ; the former very nearly resembling the 
small f, and the latter, its own capital. The short s was used at the end of words, 
and the long^ in other places ; but the latter is now laid aside, in favour of the more 
distinctive form. (3.) The letters / and J were formerly considered as one and the 
same. Hence we find hallelujah for halleluiah, John for John, iudgement for judge- 
ment, &c. And in many dictionaries, the words beginning with J are still mixed 
with those which begin with I. (4.) The letters U and V were mixed in like 
manner, and for the same reason ; the latter being a consonant power given to the 
former, and at length distinguished from it by a different form. Or rather, the figure 
of the capital seems to have been at last appropriated to the one, and that of the small 
letter to the other. But in old books the forms of these two letters are continually 
confounded or transposed. Hence it is, that our Double-u is composed of two Vees ; 
which, as we see in old books, were sometimes printed separately : as, W, for W ; 
or w, for w. 

3. The orthography of our language, rude and unsettled as it still is in many 
respects, was formerly much more variable and diverse. In books a hundred years 
old or more, we often find the most common words spelled variously by the same 
writer, and even upon the very same page. With respect to the forms of words, a 
few particulars may here be noticed : (1.) The article an, from which the n was 

6 



82 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VII. 

dropped before words beginning with a consonant sound, is often found in old books 
where a would be more proper ; as, an heart, an help, an hill, an one, an use. (2.) 
Till the seventeenth century, the possessive case was written without the apostrophe; 
being formed at different times, in es, is, ys, or s, like the plural ; and apparently 
without rule or uniformity in respect to the doubling of the final consonant : as 
Goddes, Godes, Godis, Godys, or Gods, for God's ; so mannes, mannis, mannys or 
mans, for man's. Dr. Ash, whose English Grammar was in some repute in the latter 
part of the eighteenth century, argued against the use of the apostrophe, alleging 
that it was seldom used to distinguish the possessive case till about the beginning of 
that century ; and he then prophesied that the time would come, when correct writ- 
ers would lay it aside again, as a strange corruption, an improper " departure from 
the original formation" of that case of English nouns. And, among the speculations 
of these latter days, I have somewhere seen an attempt to disparage this useful sign, 
and explode it, as an unsightly thing never well established. It does not indeed, like 
a syllabic sign, inform the ear or affect the sound ; but still it is useful, because it 
distinguishes to the eye, not only the case, but the number, of the nouns thus marked. 
Pronouns, being different in their declension, do not need it, and should therefore 
always be written without it. 

4. The common usage of those who have spoken English, has always inclined rather 
to brevity than to melody ; contraction and elision of the ancient terminations of 
words, constitute no small part of the change which has taken place, or of the differ- 
ence which perhaps always existed between the solemn and the familiar style. In 
respect to euphony, however, these terminations have certainly nothing to boast ; nor 
does the earliest period of the language appear to be that in which they were the 
most generally used without contraction. That degree of smoothness of which the 
tongue was anciently susceptible, had certainly no alliance with these additional syl- 
lables. The long sonorous endings which constitute the declensions and conjugations 
of the most admired languages, and which seem to chime so well with the sublimity 
of the Greek, the majesty of the Latin, the sweetness of the Italian, the dignity of the 
Spanish, or the polish of the French, never had any place in English. The inflections 
given to our words never embraced any other vowel power than that of the short e 
or i ; and even this we are inclined to dispense with, whenever we can ; so that most 
of our grammatical inflections are, to the ear, nothing but consonants blended with 
the final syllables of the words to which they are added. Ing for the first participle, 
er for the comparative degree, and est for the superlative, are indeed added as whole 
syllables ; but the rest, as d or ed for preterits and perfect participles, s or es for the 
plural number of nouns, or for the third person singular of verbs, and st or est for 
the second person singular of verbs, nine times in ten, Ml into the sound or syllable 
with which the primitive word terminates. English verbs, as they are now commonly 
used, run through their entire conjugation without acquiring a single syllable from 
inflection, except sometimes when the sound of d, s, or st cannot be added to them. 

5. This simplicity, so characteristic of our modern English, as well as of the Saxon 
tongue, its proper parent, is attended with advantages that go far to compensate for 
all that is consequently lost in euphony, or in the liberty of transposition. Our 
formation of the moods and tenses, by means of a few separate auxiliaries, all mono- 
syllabic, and mostly without inflection, is not only simple and easy, but beautiful, 
chaste, and strong. In my opinion, our grammarians have shown far more affection 
for the obsolete or obsolescent terminations en, eth, est, and edst, than they really 
deserve. Till the beginning of the sixteenth century, en was used to mark the plural 
number of verbs, as, they say en for they say ; after which, it appears to have been 
dropped. Before the beginning of the seventeenth century, s or es began to dispute 
with th or eth the right of forming the third person singular of verbs ; and, as the 
Bible and other grave books used only the latter, a clear distinction obtained, be- 
tween the solemn and the familiar style, which distinction is well known at this day. 
Thus we have, He runs, walks, rides, reaches, &c, for the one ; and, He runneth, 
walketh, rideth, reacheth, &c, for the other. About the same time, or perhaps ear- 
lier, the use of the second person singular began to be avoided in polite conversation, 



CHAP. VII.] CHANGES AND SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 83 

by the substitution of the plural verb and pronoun ; and, when used in poetry, it 
was often contracted, so as to prevent any syllabic increase. In old books, all verbs 
and participles that were intended to be contracted in pronunciation, were contracted 
also, in some way, by the writer: as, " calVd, carry* d, sacrificed ;" u fiy y st, ascritfst, 
cryiVst ;" " tost, curst, blest, finisht ;" and others innumerable. All these, and such, 
as are like them, we now pronounce in the same way, but usually write differently ; 
as, called, carried, sacrificed ; fiiest, ascribest, criedst ; tossed, cursed, blessed, finished. 
Most of these topics will be further noticed in the Grammar. 

I. ENGLISH OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

6. Queen 'Victoria'' s Ansicer to an Address. — Example written in 1837. 

" I thank you for your condolence upon the death of his late Majesty, for the justice which you 
render to his character, and to the measures of his reign, and for your warm congratulations upon 
my accession to the throne. I join in your prayers for the prosperity of my reign, the best 
security for which is to be found in reverence for our holy religion, and in the observance of its 
duties." — Victoria, to the Friends' Society. 

V. From President Adamses Eulogy on Lafayette. — "Written in 1834. 

" Pronounce him one of the first men of his age, and you have yet not clone him justice. Try 
him by that test to which he sought in vain to stimulate the vulgar and selfish spirit of Napoleon ; 
class him among the men who, to compare and seat themselves, must take in the compass of all 
ages; turn back your eyes upon the records of time; summon from the creation of the world to 
this day the mighty dead of every age and every clime ; and where, among the race of merely 
mortal men, shall one be found, who, as the benefactor of his kind, shall claim to take precedence 
of Lafayette ?" — John Quincy Adams. 

8. From President Jackson' s Proclamation against Nullification. — 1832. 

"No, we have not erred! The Constitution is still the object of our reverence, the bond of our 
Union, our defence in danger, the source of our prosperity in peace. It shall descend, as we have 
received it, uncorrupted by sophistical construction, to our posterity : and the sacrifices of local 
interest, of State prejudices, of personal animosities, that were made to bring it into existence, 
will again be patriotically offered for its support." — Andrew Jackson. 

9. From a Note on one of Robert HalPs Sermons. — Written about 1831. 

"After he had written down the striking apostrophe which occurs at about page 16 of most 
of the editions — ' Eternal God ! on what are thine enemies intent ! what are those enterprises of 
guilt and horror, that, for the safety of their performers, require to be enveloped in a darkness 
which the eye of Heaven must not penetrate /' — he asked, ' Did I say penetrate, sir, when I preached 
it ?' ' Yes.' ' Do you think, sir, I may venture to alter it ? for no man who considered the force 
of the English language, would use a word of three syllables there, but from absolute necessity.' 
1 You are doubtless at liberty to alter it, if you think well.' ' Then be so good, sir, as to take 
your pencil, and for penetrate put pierce ; pierce is the word, sir, and the only word to be used 
there.' " — Olinthus Gregory. 

10. King William's Answer to an Address. — Example written in 1830. 

" I thank you sincerely for your condolence with me, on account of the loss which I have sus- 
tained, in common with my people, by the death of my lamented brother, his late Majesty. The 
assurances which you have conveyed to me, of loyalty and affectionate attachment to my person, 
are very gratifying to my feelings. You may rely upon my favour and protection, and upon my 
anxious endeavours to promote morality and true piety among all classes of my subjects." — Wil- 
liam IV, to the Friends. 

11. Reign of George IV] 1830 back to 1820. — Example written in 1827. 

" That morning, thou, that slumbered* not before, 
Nor slept, great Ocean ! laid thy waves to rest, 

* The author of this specimen, through a solemn and sublime poem in ten hooks, generally simplified the pre- 
terit verb of the second person singular, by omitting the termination st or est, whenever his measure did not 
require the additional syllable. But his tuneless editors have, in many instances, taken the rude liberty both to 
spoil his versification, and to publish under his name what he did not write. They have given him bad prosody, 
or unutterable harshness of phraseology, for the sake of what they conceived to be grammar. So Kirkham, in 



84 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VII. 

And hushed thy mighty minstrelsy. No breath 
Thy deep composure stirred, no fin, no oar ; 
Like beauty newly dead, so calm, so still, 
So lovely, thou, beneath the light that fell 
'From angel-chariots sentinelled on high, 
Eeposed, and listened, and saw thy living change, 
Thy dead arise. Charybdis listened, and Scylla ; 
And savage Euxine on the Thracian beach 
Lay motionless : and every battle ship 
Stood still ; and every ship of merchandise, 
And all that sailed, of every name, stood still." 

Robert Pollok: Course of Time, Book VII, line 634 — 64?. 

II. ENGLISH OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

12. Reign of George III, 1820 back to 1760. — Example written in 1800. 

" There is, it will be confessed, a delicate sensibility to character, a sober desire of reputation, a 
wish to possess the esteem of the wise and good, felt by the purest minds, which is at the farthest 
remove from arrogance or vanity. The humility of a noble mind scarcely dares approve of itself, 
until it has secured the approbation of others. Very different is that restless desire of distinction, 
that passion for theatrical display, which inflames the heart and occupies the whole attention of 
vain men. * * * The truly good man is jealous over himself, lest the notoriety of his best 
actions, by blending itself with their motive, should diminish their value ; the vain man performs 
the same actions for the sake of that notoriety. The good man quietly discharges his duty, and 
shuns ostentation ; the vain man considers every good deed lost that is not publickly displayed. 
The one is intent upon realities, the other upon semblances: the one aims to be virtuous, the other 
to appear so." — Robert Hall : Sermon on Modem Infidelity. 

13. From 'Washington's Far evjell Address. — Example tcritten in 1796. 

" Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are 
indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should la- 
bour to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men 
and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. 
A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and publick felicity. Let it simply 
be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obli- 
gation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let 
us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. What- 
ever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of a peculiar structure ; 
reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of 
religious principle." — George "Washington. 

14. From Dr. Johnson's Life of Addison. — Example written about 1780. 

" That he always wrote as he would think it necessary to write now, cannot be affirmed; his 
instructions were such as the character of his readers made proper. That general knowledge 
which now circulates in common talk, was in his time rarely to be found. Men not professing 
learning, were not ashamed of ignorance ; and in the female world, any acquaintance with books 
was distinguished only to be censured. His purpose was to infuse literary curiosity, by gentle 
and unsuspected conveyance, into the gay, the idle, and the wealthy; he therefore presented 
knowledge in the most alluring form, not lofty and austere, but accessible and familiar. When 
he shewed them their defects, he shewed them likewise that they might easily be supplied. His 
attempt succeeded; inquiry was awakened, and comprehension expanded. An emulation of in- 
tellectual elegance was excited, and from this time to our own, life has been gradually exalted, 
and conversation purified and enlarged." — Samuel Johnson: Lives, p. 321. 

15. Heign of George II, 1760 bach to 1727. — Example written in 1751. 

"We Britons in our time have been remarkable borrowers, as our multiform Language may 
sufficiently shew. Our Terms in polite Literature prove, that this came from Greece ; our terms 
in Music and Painting, that these came from Italy ; our Phrases in Cookery and War, that we 

copying the foregoing passage, alters it as he will ; and alters it differently, when he happens to write some part 
of it twice : as, 

" That morning, thou, that slumberedst not hefore, 
Nor slept, great Ocean ! laidst thy waves at rest, 
And hushed thy mighty minstrelsy. 1 ' — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 203. 

Again; "That morning, thou, that slumber' dst not hefore, 

Nor sleptst, great Ocean, laidst thy waves at rest, 
And hush? dst thy mighty minstrelsy." — Kirkharn's Elocution, p. 44. 



CHAP. VII.] CHANGES AND SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 85 

learnt these from the French ; and our phrases in Navigation, that we were taught by the Flem- 
ings and Low Dutch. These many and very different Sources of our Language may be the cause, 
why it is so deficient in Regularity and Analogy. Yet we have this advantage to compensate the 
defect, that what we want in Elegance, we gain in Copiousness, in which last respect few Lan- 
guages will be found superior to our own." — James Harris : Hermes, Book in, ChC v, p. 408. 

16. Reign of George I, 1727 back to 1714. — Example written about 1718. 

" There is a certain coldness and indifference in the phrases of our European languages, when 
they are compared with the Oriental forms of speech: and it happens very luckily, that the He- 
brew idioms run into the English tongue, with a particular grace and beauty. Our language has 
received innumerable elegancies and improvements from that infusion of Hebraisms, which are 
derived to it out of the poetical passages in holy writ. They give a force and energy to our ex- 
pressions, warm and animate our language, and convey our thoughts in more ardent and intense 
phrases, than any that are to be met with in our tongue." — Joseph Addison : Evidences, p. 192. 

17. Reign of Queen Anne, 1714 to 1702. — Example written in 1708. 

" Some by old words to Fame have made pretence, 

Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense ; 

Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style, 

Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile.' 1 
"In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; 

Alike fantastick, if too new or old : 

Be not the first by whom the new are try'd, 

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." 

Alexander Pope : Essay on Criticism, 1. 324 — 336. 

IIL ENGLISH OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

18. Reign of William III, 1702 to 1689. — Example published in 1700. 

" And when we fee a Man of Milton's "Wit Chime in with fuch a Herd, and Help on the Cry 
againft Hirelings ! We find How Eafie it is for Folly and Knavery to Meet, and that they are 
Near of Kin, tho they bear Different Afpects. Therefor since Milton has put himfelf upon a Level 
with the Quakers in this, I will let them go together. And take as little Notice of his Buffoonry, 
as of their Dulnefs againft Tythes. Ther is nothing worth Quoting in his Lampoon againft the 
Hirelings. But what ther is of Argument in it, is fully Confider'd in what follows." — Charles 
Leslie : Divine Right of Tithes, Pref., p. xi. 

19. Reign of James II, 1689 back to 1685. — Example written in 1685. 

" His conversation, wit, and parts, 
His knowledge in the noblest useful arts, 

"Were such, dead authors could not give ; 

But habitudes of those who five ; 
"Who, lighting him, did greater lights receive : 

He drain'd from all, and all they knew ; 
His apprehension quick, his judgment true : 

That the most learn'd with shame confess 
His knowledge more, his reading only less." 

John Dryden : Ode to the, Memory of Charles II; Poems, p. 84. 

20. Reign of Charles II, 1685 to 1660. — Example from a Letter to the Earl 
of Sunderland, dated, "Philadelphia, 28th 5th mo. July, 1683." 

" And I will venture to say, that by the help of Ood, and such noble Friends, I will show a 
Province in seven years, equal to her neighbours of forty years planting. I have lay'd out the 
Province into Countys. Six are begun to be seated ; they lye oji the great river, and are planted 
about six miles back. The town platt is a mile long, and two deep, — has a navigable river on 
each side, the least as broad as the Thames at Woolwych, from three to eight fathom water. 
There is built about eighty houses, and I have settled at least three hundred farmes contiguous 
to it." — "William Penn. The Friend, VoL vii, p. 179. 

21. From an Address or Dedication to Charles II. — Written in 1675. 

" There is no [other] king in the world, who can so experimentally testify of God's providence 
and goodness ; neither is there any [other], who rules so many free people, so many true Chris- 
tians : which thing renders thy government more honourable, thyself more considerable, than the 
accession of many nations filled with slavish and superstitious souls." — Robert Barclay ; Apo- 
logy, p. viil 



86 INTKODUCTION. [CHAP. VII. 

22. The following example, from the commencement of Paradise Lost, first 
published in 1667, has been cited by several authors, to show how large a proportion 
of our language is of Saxon origin. The thirteen words in Italics are the only ones 
in this passage, which seem to have been derived from any other source. 

" Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
"With loss of Eden ; tdl one greater Man 
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, 
Sing, heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top 
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed, 
In the beginning, how the Heav'ns and Earth 
Eose out of Chaos." — Milton ; Paradise Lost, Book I. 

23. Ecamples written during CromioeWs Protectorate, 1660 to 1650. 

"The Queene was pleased to shew me the letter, the sealebeinge a Roman eagle, havinge cha- 
racters about it almost like the Greeke. This day, in the afternoone, the vice-chauncellor came 
to me and stayed about four hours with me ; in which ty me we conversed upon the longe debates." 
— Whttelocke. Buckets Glass. Gram., p. 149. 

"I am yet heere, and have the States of Holland ingaged in a more than ordnary maner, to 
procure me audience of the States G-enerall. Whatever happen, the effects must needes be good." 
— Strickland: Buckets Classical Gram., p. 14*9. 

24. Peign of Charles I, 1648 to 1625. — Example from J^en Jbnson's 
Grammar, written about 1634 ; but the orthography is more modern. 

*' The second and third person singular of the present are made of the first, by adding est and 
elh ; which last is sometimes shortened into s. It seemeth to have been poetical licence which 
first introduced this abbreviation of the third person into use ; but our best grammarians have 
condemned it upon some occasions, though perhaps not to be absolutely banished the common 
and familiar style." 

" The persons plural keep the termination of the first person singular. In former times, till 
about the reign of Henry the eighth, they were wont to be formed by adding en ; thus, loven, 
sayen, complainen. But now (whatever is the cause) it hath quite grown out of use, and that 
other so generally prevailed, that I dare not presume to set this afoot again : albeit (to tell you 
my opinion) I am persuaded that the lack hereof well considered, will be found a great blemish 
to our tongue. For seeing time and person be, as it were, the right and left hand of a verb, what 
can the maiming bring else, but a lameness to the whole body ?" — Book i, Chap. xvi. 

25. Peign of James I, 1625 to 1603. — From an Advertisement, dated 1Q0S % 

" I svppose it altogether needlesse (Christian Reader) by commending M. William Perkins, 
the Author of this booke, to wooe your holy affection, which either himselfe in his life time by 
his Christian conversation hath woon in you, or sithence his death, the neuer-dying memorie of his 
excellent knowledge, his great humilitie, his sound religion, his feruent zeale, his painefull labours, 
in the Church of God, doe most iustly challenge at your hands : onely in one word, I dare be bold 
to say of him as in times past Ndzianzen spake of Athanasius. His life was a good definition of 
a true minister and preacher of the Gospell." — T/ie Printer to the Reader. 

26. Mcamples written about the end of Elizabeths reign — 1603. 

" Some say, That euer 'gainst that season comes 
"Wherein our Saviour's Birth is celebrated, 
The Bird of Dawning singeth all night long ; 
And then, say they, no Spirit dares walk abroad: 
The nights are wholsom, then no Planets strike, 
No Fairy takes, nor Witch hath pow'r to charm ; 
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time." 

Shakspeaee : Edmlet. 

" The sea, with such a storme as his bare head 
In hell-blacke night indur'd, would haue buoy'd up 
And quench'd the stelled fires. 
Yet, poore old heart, he holpe the heuens to raine. 
If wolues had at thy gate howl'd that sterne time, 
Thou shouldst haue said, Good porter, turne the key." 

Shakspeare: Lear. 



CHAP. VII.] CHANGES AND SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 87 

IV. ENGLISH OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTUKY. 

27. Reign of Elizabeth, 1603 back to 1558. — Example written in 1592. 

" As for the soule, it is no accidentane qualitie, but a spirituall and inuisible essence or nature, 
subsisting by it selfe. Which plainely appeares in that the soules of men haue beeing and con- 
tinuance as well forth of the bodies of men as in the same ; and are as wel subiect to torments 
as the bodie is. And whereas we can and doe put in practise sundrie actions of life, sense, mo- 
tion, vnderstanding, we doe it onely by the power and vertue of the soule. Hence ariseth the 
ditference betweene the soules of men, and beasts. The soules of men are substances : but the 
soules of other creatures seeme not to be substances ; because they haue no beeing out of the 
bodies in which they are." — William Perkins: Theol. Works, folio, p. 155. 

28. Examples written about the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. — 1558. 

" Who can perswade, when treason is aboue reason ; and mighte ruleth righte ; and it is had 
for lawfull, whatsoever is lustfull ; and commotioners are better than commissioners ; and common 
woe is named common weale ?" — Sir John Cheke. 

"If a yong jentleman will venture him selfe into the companie of ruffians, it is over great a 
jeopardie, lest their facions, maners, thoughts, taulke, and dedes, will verie sone be over like." — 
Roger Ascham. 

29. Reign of Mary the Bigot, 1558 to 1553. — Example written about 1555. 

11 And after that Philosophy had spoken these wordes the said companye of the musys poeti- 
call beynge rebukyd and sad, caste downe their countenaunce to the grounde, and by blussyng 
confessed their sharnefastnes, and went out of the dores. But I (that had my syght dull and 
blynd wyth wepyng, so that I knew not what woman this was hauyng soo great aucthoritie) was 
amasyd or astonyed, and lokyng downeward, towarde the ground, I began pryvyle to look what 
thyng she would saye ferther." — Colville : Version from Boethius : Johnson's Hist, of E. L., p. 29. 

30. Example referred by Dr. Johnson to the year 1553. 

" Pronunciation is an apte orderinge bothe of the voyce, countenaunce, and all the whole 
bodye, accordynge to the worthines of such woordes and mater as by speache are declared. 
The vse hereof is suche for anye one that hketh to haue prayse for tellynge his tale in open 
assemblie, that hauing a good tongue, and a comelye countenaunce, he shal be thought to passe all 
other that haue not the like vtteraunce: thoughe they have muche better learning." — Dr. Wil- 
son: Johnson's Hist. E. L., p. 45. 

31. Reign of Edward VI, 1553 to 1547. — Example written about 1550. 

"Who that will followe the graces manyfolde 
Which are in vertue, shall finde auauncement : 
Wherefore ye fooles that in your sinne are bolde, 
Ensue ye wisdome, and leaue your lewde intent, 
Wisdome is the way of men most excellent: 
Therefore haue done, and shortly spede your pace, 
To quaynt your self and company with grace." 

Alexander Barclay : Johnsoris Hist E. L., p. 44. 

32. Reign of Henry VIII, 1547 to 1509. — Example dated 1541. 

" Let hym that is angry euen at the fyrste consyder one of these thinges, that like as he is a 
man, so is also the other, with whom he is angry, and therefore it is as lefull for the other to be 
angry, as unto hym : and if he so be, than shall that anger be to hym displeasant, and stere hym 
more to be angrye." — Sir Thomas Elliott : Castd of Helthe. 

33. Example of the earliest English Blank Verse; written about 1540. 
The supposed author died in 1541, aged 38. The piece from which these lines are 
taken describes the death of Zoroas, an Egyptian astronomer, slain in Alexander's 
first battle with the Persians. 

" The Persians waild such sapience to foregoe ; 
And very sone the Macedonians wisht 
He would have lived; kino^ Alexander selfe 
Demde him a man unmete to dye at all ; 
Who wonne like praise for conquest of his yre, 
As for stoute men in field that day subdued, 
Who princes taught how to discerne a man, 
That in his head so rare a jewel beares ; 
But over all those same Camenes,* those same 

• Camenes, the Muses, whom Horace called Camcenm. The former is an English plural from the latter, or 
from the Latin word camena, a muse or song. These lines are copied from Dr. Johnson's History of the En- 
glish Language ; their orthography is, in some respects, too modern for the age to which they are assigned. 



88 INTRODUCTION". [CHAP. VII. 

Divine Camenes, whose honour he procurde, 
As tender parent doth his daughters weale, 
Lamented, and for thankes, all that they can, 
Do cherish hym deceast, and sett hym free, 
From dark oblivion of devouring death." 

Probably written by Sir Thomas "Wyat. 

34. A Letter written from prison, with a coal. The writer, Sir Thomas More, 
whose works, both in prose and verse, were considered models of pure and elegant 
style, had been Chancellor of England, and the familiar confidant of Henry VIII, 
by whose order he was beheaded in 1535. 

" Myne own good doughter, our Lorde be thanked I am in good helthe of bodye, and in good 
quiet of minde: and of worldly thynges I no more desyer then I haue. I beseche hym make you 
all mery in the hope of heauen. And such thynges as I somewhat longed to talke with you all, 
concerning the worlde to come, our Lorde put theim into your myndes, as I truste he doth and 
better to by hys holy spirite : who blesse you and preseme you all. Written wyth a cole by your 
tender louing father, who in hys pore prayers forgetteth none of you all, nor your babes, nor your 
nources, nor your good husbandes, nor your good husbandes shrewde wyues, nor your fathers 
shrewde Avyfe neither, nor our other frendes. And thus fare ye hartely well for lacke of paper. 
Thomas More, knight." — Johnson's Hist. E. Lang., p. 42. 

35. From More* s Description of Richard III. — Probably written about 1520. 

" Richarde the third sonne, of whom we nowe entreate, was in witte and courage egall with 
either of them, in bodye and prowesse farre vnder them bothe, little of stature, ill fetured of 
limmes, croke backed, his left shoulder much higher than his right, hard fauoured of visage, and 
such as is in states called warlye, in other menne otherwise, he was malicious, wrathfull, enuious, 
and from afore his birth euer frowardc. * * * Hee was close and secrete, a deep dissimuler, 
lowlye of counteynaunce, arrogant of heart — dispitious and cruell, not for euill will alway, but 
after for ambicion, and either for the suretie and encrease of his estate. Frende and foo was muche 
what indifferent, where his aduauntage grew, he spared no mans deathe, whose life withstoode 
his purpose. He slew with his owne handes king Henry the sixt, being prisoner in the Tower." — 
Sir Thomas More : Johnson's History of the English Language, p. 39. 

36. From his description of Fortune, toritten about the year 1500. 

"Fortune is stately, solemne, prowde, and hye: 
And rychesse geueth, to haue seruyce therefore. 
The nedy begger catcheth an half peny : 
Some manne a thousande pounde, some lesse some more-. 
But for all that she kepeth euer in store, 
From euery manne some parcell of his wyll, 
That he may pray therefore and serve her styll. 

Some manne hath good, but chyldren hath he none. 
Some manne hath both, but he can get none health. 
Some hath al thre, but vp to honours trone, 
Can he not crepe, by no maner of stelth. 
To some she sendeth chyldren, ryches, welthe, 
Honour, woorshyp, and reuerence all hys lyfe: 
But yet she pyncheth hym with a shrewde wife." 

Sir Thomas More. 

V. ENGLISH OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

37. Example for the reign of Henry VII, who was crowned on JBosworth 

field, 1485, a?id who died in 1509. 

" Wherefor and forasmoche as we haue sent for our derrest wif, and for our derrest moder, to 
come unto us, and that we wold have your advis and counsail also in soche matiers as we haue to 
doo for the subduying of the rebelles, we praie you, that, yeving your due attendaunce vppon our 
said derrest wif and lady moder, ye come with thaym unto us ; not failing herof as ye purpose 
to doo us plaisir. Yeven undre our signett, at our Castell of Kenelworth, the xiij daie of 
Maye." — -Henry VII: Letter to the Earl of Ormond: Buckets Classical Gram., p. 14*7. 

38. Example for the short reign of Uichard III,— from 1485 to 1483. 

" Right reverend fader in God, right trusty and right wel-beloved, we grete yow wele, and wol 
and charge you that under oure greate seale, being in your warde, ye do make in all haist our 
lettres of proclamation severally to be directed unto the shirrefs of everie countie within this oure 
royaume." — Richard III : Letter to his Chancellor. 



CHAP. VII.] CHANGES AND SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 89 

39. Reign of Edward IV,— from 1483 to 1461. — Example written in 1463. 

" Forasmoche as we by divers meanes bene credebly enformed and undarstand for certyne, that 
owr greate adversary Henry, naminge hym selfe kynge of England, by the maliceous counseyle 
and exitacion of Margaret his wife, namynge hir selfe queane of England, have conspired," &c. — 
Edward IV : Letter of Privy Seal. 

40. Examples for the reign of Henry VI, — from 1461 back to 1422. 

" When Nembroth [i. e. Nimrod] by Might, for his own Glorye, made and incorporate the first 
Realme, and subduyd it to hymself by Tyrannye, he would not have it governyd by any other 
Rule or Lawe, but by his own "Will ; by which and for th' accomplishment thereof he made it. 
And therefor, though he had thus made a Realme, holy Scripture denyd to cal hym a Kyng, Quia 
Bex dicitur a Begendo ; Whych thyng he did not, but oppressyd the People by Myght." — Sir John 
Fortescue. 

41. Example from lydgate, a poetical Monk, who died in 1440. 

" Our life here short of wit the great dulnes 
The heuy soule troubled with trauayle, 
And of memorye the glasyng brotelnes, 
Drede and vncunning haue made a strong batail 
With werines my spirite to assayle, 
And with their subtil creping in most queint 
Hath made my spirit in makyng for to feint." 

John Lydgate : Fall of Princes, Book III, Prol. 

42. Example for the reign of Henry V, — from 1422 back to 1413. 

"I wolle that the Due of Orliance be kept stille withy n the Castil of Pontefret, with owte goyng 
to Robertis place, or to any other disport, it is better he lak his disport then we were disceyved. 
Of all the remanant dothe as ye thenketh." — Letter of Henry V. 

43. Example for the reign of Henry IV, — from 1413 back to 1400. 

" Right heigh and myghty Prynce, my goode and gracious Lorde, — I recommaund me to you 
as lowly as I kan or may with all my pouer hert, desiryng to hier goode and gracious tydynges 
of your worshipful astate and welfare." — Lord Grey: Letter to the Prince of Wales: Buckets 
Classical Gram., p. 145. 

VI. ENGLISH OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

44. Reign of Richard II, 1400 back to 1377. — Example written in 1391. 

" Lytel Lowys my sonne, I perceve well by certame evidences thyne abylyte to lerne scyences, 
touching nombres and proporcions, and also well consydre I thy besye prayer in especyal to lerne 
the tretyse of the astrolabye. Than for as moche as a philosopher saithe, he wrapeth hym in his 
frende, that condiscendeth to the ryghtfull prayers of his frende : therefore I have given the a 
sufficient astrolabye for oure orizont, compowned after the latitude of Oxenforde : vpon the whiche 
by meditacion of this lytell tretise, I purpose to teche the a certaine nombre of conclusions, per- 
tainynge to this same instrument." — Geoffrey Chaucer: Of the Astrolabe. 

45. Example written about 1385 — to be compared with that of 1555, on p. 87. 

"And thus this companie of muses iblamed casten wrothly the chere dounward to the yerth, 
and shewing by rednesse their shame, thei passeden sorowfully the thresholde. And I of whom 
the sight plounged in teres was darked, so that I ne might not know what that woman was, of 
so Imperial aucthoritie, I woxe all abashed and stonied, and cast my sight doune to the yerth, 
and began still for to abide what she would doen afterward." — Chaucer: Version from Bo'ethius: 
Johnson's Hist, of K L., p. 29. 

46. Poetical Example — probably written before 1380. 

" Socrates, thou stedfast champion ; 

She ne might nevir be thy turmentour, 
Thou nevir dreddist her oppression, 

Ne in her chere foundin thou no favour, 

Thou knewe wele the disceipt of her colour, 

And that her moste worship is for to he, 
I knowe her eke a false dissimulour, 

For finally Fortune I doe defie." — Chaucer. 



90 



INTRODUCTION. 



[CHAP. VII. 



47. Reign of Edward III, 1377 to 1327. — Example written about 1360. 

" And eke full ofte a littell skare 
Vpon a banke, er men be ware, 
Let in the streme, whiche with gret peine, 
If any man it shall restreine. 
Where lawe failleth, errour groweth ; 
He is not wise, who that ne troweth." — Sir John Gower. 

48. Example from Mdndeville, the English traveller — written in 1356. 

" And this sterre that is toward the Northe, that wee clepen the lode sterre, ne apperethe not 
to hem. For whiche cause, men may wel perceyve, that the lond and the see ben of rownde 
schapp and forme. For the partie of the firmament schewethe in o contree, that schewethe not 
in another contree. And men may well preven be experience and sotyle compassement of wytt, 
that zif a man fond passages be schippes, that wolde go to serchen the world, men mighte go be 
schippe all aboute the world, and aboven and benethen. The whiche thing I prove thus, aftre 
that I have seyn. * * * Be the whiche I seye zou certeynly, that men may envirowne alle the 
erthe of alle the world, as wel undre as aboven, and turnen azen to his contree, that hadde com- 
panye and schippynge and conduyt : and alle weyes he scholde fynde men, londes, and yles, ala 
wel as in this contree." — Sir John Mandeville: Johnson's Hist, oj E. L., p. 26. 

49. Example from Rob. Langland's " Vision of Pierce Ploughman? 1350. 



" In the somer season, 
When hot was the Sun, 
I shope me into shroubs, 
As I a shepe were ; 



In habit as an harmet, 
Vnholy of werkes, 
Went wyde in this world 
Wonders to heare." 



50. Description of a Ship — referred to the reign of Edward II : 1327-1307. 



" Such ne saw they never none, 
For it was so gay begone, 
Every nayle with gold ygrave, 
Of pure gold was his sklave, 
Her mast was of ivory, 
Of samyte her sayle wytly, 



Her robes all of whyte sylk, 
As whyte as ever was ony mylke. 
The noble ship was without 
With clothes of gold spread about 
And her loft and her wyndlace 
All of gold depaynted was." 
Anonymous: Buckets Crram., p. 

51. From an Elegy on Edward I, who reigned till 1307 from 1272. 

" Thah mi tonge were made of stel, 

Ant min herte yzote of bras, 
The goodness myht y never telle, 

That with kyng Edward was: 
Kyng, as thou art cleped conquerour, 

In uch battaille thou hadest prys ; 
God bringe thi soule to the honour, 

That ever wes ant ever ys. 



143. 



Now is Edward of Carnavan 

Kyng of Engelond al aplyght ; 
God lete him never be worse man 

Then his fader, ne lasse myht, 
To holden his pore men to r} r ht, 

Ant understonde good counsail, 
Al Engelond for to wysse and dyht ; 

Of gode knyhtes darh him nout fail." 
Anon.: Percy's Eeliques, Vol. ii, p. 10. 



VII. ENGLISH OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 

52. Reign of Henry III, 1272 to 1216. — Example from an old ballad entitled 
Richard of Almaigne ; which Percy says was " made by one of the adherents of 
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, soon after the battle of Lewes, which was 
fought, May 14, 1264." — Percy's Reliques, Vol. ii. 

" Sitteth alle stille, and herkneth to me ; 
The kyng of Almaigne, bi mi leaute, 
Thritti thousent pound askede he 
For te make the pees in the countre, 
Ant so he dude more. 
Richard, thah thou be ever trichard, 
Trichten shalt thou never more." 

53. In the following examples, I substitute Roman letters for the Saxon. At this 
period, we find the characters mixed. The style here is that which Johnson calls 
" a kind of intermediate diction, neither Saxon nor English." Of these historical 
rhymes, by Robert of Gloucester, the Doctor gives us more than two hundred lines ; 



CHAP. VII.] CHANGES AND SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 91 

but he dates them do further than to say, that the author " is placed by the criticks 
in the thirteenth century." — Hist, of Eng. Lang., p. 24. 

"Alfred thys noble man, as in the ger of grace he nom 
Eygte hondred and syxty and tuelue the kyndom. 
Arst he adde at Rome ybe, and, vor ys grete wysdom, 
The pope Leo hym blessede, tho he thuder com, 
And the kynges croune of hys lond, that in this lond gut ys : 
And he led hym to be kyng, ar he kyng were y wys. 
An he was kyng of Engelond, of alle that ther come, 
That vorst thus ylad was of the pope of Rome, 
An suththe other after hym of the erchebyssopes echon." 

11 Clerc he was god ynou, and gut, as me telleth me, 
He was more than ten ger old, ar he couthe ys abece. 
Ac ys gode moder ofte smale gyftes hym tok, 
Vor to byleue other pie, and loky on ys boke. 
So that by por clergye ys rygt lawes he wonde, 
That neuere er nere y mad to gouerny ys lond." 

Robert of Gloucester: Johnson's Hist, of E. L., p. 25. 

54. Reign of John, 1216 back to 1199. — Subject of ChrisVs Crucifixion. 

" I syke when y singe for sore we that y se 
"When y with wypinge bihold upon the tre, 
Ant se Jhesu the suete ys hert blod for-lete 

For the love of me ; 
Ys woundes waxen wete, thei wepeh, still and mete, 

Marie reweth me." 

Anon. : Buckets Gram., p. 142. 

Till. ENGLISH, OR ANGLO-SAXON, OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 
55. Reign of Richard 1, 1199 back to 1189. — Owl and Nightingale. 



An other again other sval 

I let that wole mod ut al. 

I either seide of otheres custe, 

That alere worste that hi wuste 

I hure and I hure of others songe 

Hi hold plaidung futhe stronge." 

Anon.: Buckets Gram., p. 142. 

56. Reign of Henry II, 1189 back to 1154. — Example dated 1180. 

" And of alle than folke 
The wuneden ther on folde, 
"Wes thisses landes folke 



" Ich was in one sumere dale, 
In one snive digele pale, 
I herde ich hold grete tale, 
An hule and one nightingale. 
That plait was stif I stare and strong, 
Sum wile softe I lud among. 



Leodene hendest itald ; 
And alswa the wimmen 
"Wunliche on heowen." 

Godric : Buckets Gram., p. 141. 

57. Example from the Saxon Chronicle, written about 1160. 

" Micel hadde Henri king gadered gold & syluer, and na god ne dide me for his saule thar of. 
Tha the king Stephne to Engla-land com, tha macod he Ins gadering set Oxene-ford, & thar he 
nam the biscop Roger of Seres-beri, and Alexander biscop of Lincoln, & te Canceler Roger 
hife neues, & dide selle in prisun, til hi jafen up here castles. Tha the suikes undergaaton that he 
milde man was & softe & god, & na justise ne dide; tha diden hi alle wunder." See Johnson's 
Hist, of the Eng. Language, p. 22. 

58. Reign of Stephen, 1154 to 1135 .—Example written about this time. 



1 Fur in see bi west Spaygne. 
Is a lond ihone Cokaygne. 
There nis lond under heuenriche. 
Of wel of godnis hit iliche. 
Thoy paradis be miri and briyt. 
Cokaygne is of fairer siyt. 



"What is ther in paradis. 
Bot grasse and flure and greneris. 
Thoy ther be ioi and gret dute. 
Ther nis met bot aenlic frute. 
Ther nis halle bure no bench. 
Bot watir manis thurst to quench." 
Anon.: Johnson's Hist. Eng. Lang., p. 23. 

59. Reign of Henry I, 1135 to 1100.— Part of an Anglo-Saxon Hymn. 



" Heuene & erthe & all that is, 

Biloken is on his honde. 

He deth al that his wille is, 

On sea and ec on londe. 



He is orde albuten orde, 
And ende albuten ende. 

He one is eure on eche stede, 
"Wende wer thu wende. 



92 



INTRODUCTION. 



[CHAP. VII. 



He is buuen us and binethen, 
Biuoren and ec bihind. 

Se man that Godes wille deth, 
He mai hine aihwar uinde. 

Bche rune he iherth, 

And wot eche dede. 
He durh sighth eches ithanc, 

Wai hwat sel us to rede. 

Se man neure nele don god, 
Ne neure god lif leden, 

Er deth & dom come to his dure, 
He mai him sore adreden. 



Hunger & thurst, hete & chele, 

Ecthe and all unhelthe, 
Durh deth com on this midelard, 

And other uniselthe. 

Ne mai non herte hit ithenche, 

Ne no tunge telle, 
Hu muchele pinum and hu uele, 

Bieth inne helle. 

Louie God mid ure hierte, 

And mid all ure mihte, 
And ure emcristene swo us self, 

Swo us lereth drihte." 
Anon. : Johnson's Hist. Eng. Lang., p. 21. 



IX. ANGLO-SAXON OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, COMPARED WITH 

ENGLISH. 



60. Saxon. — 11th Cen- 
tury.* 

LUCJE, Cap. I. 
" 5. On Herodes dagum Iu- 
dea cynincges, wses sum sacred 
on naman Zacharias, of Abian 
tune : and his wif wses of 
Aarones dohtrum, and hyre 
nama wses Elizabeth. 

6. Sothlice hig wssron butu 
rihtwise beforan Gode, gan- 
gende on eallum his bebo- 
dum and rihtwisnessum, butan 
wrohte. 

7. And hig nsefdon nan 
beam, fortham the Elizabeth 
wses unberende ; and hy on 
hyra dagum butu forth-eodun. 

8. Sothlice wses geworden 
tha Zacharias hys sacerdhades 
breac on his gewrixles ende- 
byrdnesse beforan Gode, 

9. ^Efter gewunan thses sa- 
cerdhades hlotes, he eode that 
he his oflfrunge sette, tha he on 
Godes tempel eode. 

10. Eall werod thses folces 
wses ute gebiddende on thsere 
oflfrunge timan. 

11. Tha aetywde him Driht- 
aes engel standende on thses 
weofodes swithran healfe. 

12. Tha weard Zacharias 
gedrefed that geseonde, and 
him ege onhreas. 

13. Tha cwseth se engel him 
to, Ne ondrsed thu the Zach- 
arias ; fortham thin ben is 
gehyred, and thin wif Eliza- 
beth the sunu centh, and thu 
nemst hys naman Johannes." 
— Saxon Gospels. 



English. — l±th Century. 

LUK, Chap. I. 
"5. In the dayes of Eroude 
kyng of Judee ther was a 
prest Zacarye by name, of the 
sort of Abia : and his wyf was 
of the doughtris of Aaron, and 
hir name was Elizabeth. 

6. And bothe weren juste 
bifore God, goynge in alle the 
maundementis and justifyingis 
of the Lord, withouten playnt. 

7. And thei hadden no child, 
for Elizabeth was bareyn; and 
bothe weren of greet age in her 
dayes. 

8. And it befel that whanne 
Zacarye schould do the office 
of presthod in the ordir of 
his course to fore God, 

9. Aftir the custom of the 
presthood, he wente forth by 
lot, and entride into the temple 
to encensen. 

10. And al the multitude of 
the puple was without forth 
and preyede in the our of en- 
censying. 

11. And an aungel of the 
Lord apperide to him, and stood 
on the right half of the auter 
of encense. 

12. And Zacarye seyinge was 
afrayed, and drede fel upon 
him. 

13. And the aungel sayde 
to him, Zacarye, drede thou 
not ; for thy preier is herd, 
and Elizabeth thi wif schal 
bere to thee a sone, and his 
name schal be clepid Jon." 

Wickliffe's Bible, 1380. 



JEhglish. — 11 th Century. 



LUKE, Chap. I. 
" 5. There was in the days 
of Herod the king of Judea, a 
certain priest named Zacharias, 
of the course of Abia : and hiswife 
was of the daughters of Aaron, 
and her name was Elisabeth. 

6. And they were both right- 
eous before God, walking in all 
the commandments and ordi- 
nances of the Lord, blameless. 

7. And they had no child, 
because that Elisabeth was bar- 
ren ; and they both were now 
well stricken in years. 

8. And it came to pass, that 
while he executed the priest's 
office before God in the order 
of his course, 

9. According to the custom 
of the priest's office, his lot was 
to burn incense when he went 
into the temple of the Lord. 

10. And the whole multi- 
tude of the people were pray- 
ing without at the time of in- 
cense. 

11. And there appeared unto 
him an angel of the Lord, 
standing on the right side of 
the altar of incense. 

12. And when Zacharias saw 
him, he was troubled, and fear 
fell upon him. 

13. But the angel said unto 
him, Fear not, Zacharias; for 
thy prayer is heard, and thy 
wife Elisabeth shall bear thee 
a son, and thou shalt call his 
name John." 

Common Bible, 1610. 



See Dr. Johnson's History of the English Language, in his Quarto Dictionary. 

* The Saxon characters heing known nowadays to but very few readers, I have thought proper to substitute 
for them, in the latter specimens of this chapter, the Roman ; and, as the old use of colons and periods for the 
smallest pauses, is liable to mislead a common observer, the punctuation too has here been modernized. 



CHAP. VIII.] GRAMMATICAL STUDY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 93 

X. ANGLO-SAXON IN THE TIME OF KING ALFRED. 

61. Alfred the Great, who was the youngest son of Ethel wolf, king of the West 
Saxons, succeeded to the crown on the death of his brother Ethelred, in the year 
871, being then twenty -two years old. He had scarcely time to attend the funeral 
of his brother, before he was called to the field to defend his country against the 
Danes. After a reign of. more than twenty-eight years, rendered singularly glorious 
by great achievements under difficult circumstances, he died universally lamented, 
on the 28th of October, A.D. 900. By this prince the university of Oxford was 
founded, and provided with able teachers from the continent. His own great pro- 
ficiency in learning, and his earnest efforts for its promotion, form a striking contrast 
with the ignorance which prevailed before. " In the ninth century, throughout the 
whole kingdom of the West Saxons, no man could be found who was scholar enough 
to instruct the young king Alfred, then a child, even in the first elements of reading : 
so that he was in his twelfth year before he could name the letters of the alphabet. 
When that renowned prince ascended the throne, he made it his study to draw his 
people out of the sloth and stupidity in which they lay ; and became, as much by 
his own example as by the encouragement he gave to learned men, the great restorer 
of arts in his dominions." — Life of Bacon. 

62. The language of eulogy must often be taken with some abatement : it does 
not usually present things in their due proportions. How far the foregoing quota- 
tion is true, I will not pretend to say ; but what is called " the revival of learning," 
must not be supposed to have begun at so early a period as that of Alfred. The 
following is a brief specimen of the language in which that great man wrote ; but, 
printed in Saxon characters, it would appear still less like English. 

" On thsere tide the Gotan of Siththiu msegthe with Romana rice gewin upahofon. and mith 
heora cyningum. Rsedgota and Eallerica wasron hatne. Romane burig abrsecon. and eall Italia 
rice that is betwux tham muntum and Sicilia tham ealondo in anwald gerehton. and tha tegter 
tham foresprecenan cyningum Theodric feng to tham ilcan rice se Theodric waes Amulinga. he 
wses Cristen. theah he on tham Arrianiscan gedwolan durhwunode. He gehet Romanum his 
freondscype. swa that hi mostan heora ealdrichta wyrthe beon." — King Alfred : Johnson's 
Hist, of E. L., 4do Did, p. 17. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

OF THE GRAMMATICAL STUDY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 



" Grammatica quid est? ars recte scribendi recteque loquendi; poetarum enarrationem continens; omnium 
scientiarum fons uberrimus. * * * Nostra setas parum perita rerum vetevum, nimis brevi gyro grammaticum 
sepsit ; at apud antiquos olim tantum auctoritatis hie ordo habuit, ut censores essent et judicea scriptorum omnium 
soli grammatici ; quos ob id etiam Criticos vocabant" — Despauter. Prcef. ad Synt, fol. 1. 



1. Such is the peculiar power of language, that there is scarcely any subject so 
trifling, that it may not thereby be plausibly magnified into something great ; nor 
are there many things which cannot be ingeniously disparaged till they shall seem 
contemptible. Cicero goes further : " Nihil est tarn incredibile quod non dicendo 
fiat probabile ;" — " There is nothing so incredible that it may not by the power of 
language be made probable." The study of grammar has been often overrated, and 
still oftener injuriously decried. I shall neither join with those who would lessen in 
the public esteem that general system of doctrines, which from time immemorial has 
been taught as grammar ; nor attempt, either by magnifying its practical results, or 
by decking it out with my own imaginings, to invest it with any artificial or extra- 
neous importance. 



94 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VIII. 

2. I shall not follow the footsteps of Neef who avers that, " Grammar and incon- 
gruity are identical things," and who, under pretence of reaching the same end by 
better means, scornfully rejects as nonsense every thing that others have taught under 
that name ; because I am convinced, that, of all methods of teaching, none goes far- 
ther than his, to prove the reproachful assertion true. Nor shall I imitate the decla- 
mation of Cardell ; who, at the commencement of his Essay, recommends the general 
study of language on earth, from the consideration that, " The faculty of speech is the 
medium of social bliss for superior intelligences in an eternal world ;"* and who, when 
he has exhausted censure in condemning the practical instruction of others, thus lav- 
ishes praise, in both his grammars, upon that formless, void, and incomprehensible 
theory of his own : " This application of words," says he, " in their endless use, by 
one plain rule, to all things which nouns can name, instead of being the fit subject of 
blind cavil, is the most sublime theme presented to the intellect on earth. It is the 
practical intercourse of the soul at once with its God, and with all parts of his 
works/" — CardelVs Gram., 12mo, p. 87; Gram., 18mo, p. 49. 

3. Here, indeed, a wide prospect opens before us ; but he who traces science, and 
teaches what is practically useful, must check imagination, and be content with sober 
truth. 

" For apt the mind or fancy is to rove 
Uncheck'd, and of her roving is no end." — Milton. 

Restricted within its proper limits, and viewed in its true light, the practical science 
of grammar has an intrinsic dignity and merit sufficient to throw back upon any man 
who dares openly assail it, the lasting stigma of folly and self-conceit. It is true, the 
judgements of men are fallible, and many opinions are liable to be reversed by better 
knowledge : but what has been long established by the unanimous concurrence of the 
learned, it can hardly be the part of a wise instructor now to dispute. The literary 
reformer who, with the last named gentleman, imagines " that the persons to whom 
the civilized world have looked up to for instruction in language were all wrong alike 
in the main points,"f intends no middle course of reformation, and must needs be a 
man either of great merit, or of little modesty. 

4. The English language may now be regarded as the common inheritance of 
about fifty millions of people ; who are at least as highly distinguished for virtue, intel- 
ligence, and enterprise, as any other equal portion of the earth's population. All these 
are more or less interested in the purity, permanency, and right use of that language ; 
inasmuch as it is to be, not only the medium of mental intercourse with others for 
them and their children, but the vehicle of all they value, in the reversion of ances- 
tral honour, or in the transmission of their own. It is even impertinent, to tell a man 
of any respectability, that the study of this his native language is an object of great 
importance and interest : if he does not, from these most obvious considerations, feel 
it to be so, the suggestion will be less likely to convince him, than to give offence, as 
conveying an implicit censure. 

5. Every person who has any ambition to appear respectable among people of edu- 
cation, whether in conversation, in correspondence, in public speaking, or in print, 
must be aware of the absolute necessity of a competent knowledge of the language in 
which he attempts to express his thoughts. Many a ludicrous anecdote is told, of 
persons venturing to use words of which they did not know the proper application ; 
many a ridiculous blunder has been published to the lasting disgrace of the writer; 
and so intimately does every man's reputation for sense depend upon his skill in the 
use of language, that it is scarcely possible to acquire the one without the other. 
Who can tell how much of his own good or ill success, how much of the favour or 
disregard with which he himself has been treated, may have depended upon that 

* Essay on Language, by William S. Cardell, New York, 1825, p. 2. This writer was a great admirer^ of 
Home Tooke, from whom he borrowed many of his notions of grammar, but not this extravagance. Speaking 
of the words right and just, the latter says, " They are applicable only to man; to whom alone language be- 
longs, and of wiiose sensations only words are the representatives." — Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 9. 

t Cabdell : Both Grammars, p. 4. 



CHAP. VIII.] GRAMMATICAL STUDY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 95 

skill or deficiency in grammar, of which, as often as he has either spoken or written, 
he must have afforded a certain and constant evidence ?* 

6. I have before said, that to excel in grammar, is but to know better than others 
wherein grammatical excellence consists ; and, as this excellence, whether in the 
thing itself, or in him that attains to it, is merely comparative, there seems to be no 
fixed point of perfection beyond which such learning may not be carried. In speak- 
ing or writing to different persons, and on different subjects, it is necessary to vary 
one's style with great nicety of address ; and in nothing does true genius more con- 
spicuously appear, than in the facility with which it adopts the most appropriate ex- 
pressions, leaving the critic no fault to expose, no word to amend. Such facility of 
course supposes an intimate knowledge of all words in common use, and also of the 
principles on which they are to be combined. 

V. With a language which we are daily in the practice of hearing, speaking, read- 
ing, and writing, we may certainly acquire no inconsiderable acquaintance, without 
the formal study of its rules. All the true principles of grammar were presumed to 
be known to the learned, before they were written for the aid of learners ; nor have 
they acquired any independent authority, by being recorded in a book, and denom- 
inated grammar. The teaching of them, however, has tended in no small degree to 
settle and establish the construction of the language, to improve the style of our En- 
glish writers, and to enable us to ascertain with more clearness the true standard of 
grammatical purity. He who learns only by rote, may speak the words or phrases 
which he has thus acquired ; and he who has the genius to discern intuitively what 
is regular and proper, may have further aid from the analogies which he thus dis- 
covers ; but he who would add to such acquisitions the satisfaction of knowing what 
is right, must make the principles of language his study. 

8. To produce an able and elegant writer, may require something more than a 
knowledge of grammar rules ; yet it is argument enough in favour of those rules, 
that without a knowledge of them no elegant and able writer is produced. Who 
that considers the infinite number of phrases which words in their various combina- 
tions may form, and the utter impossibility that they should ever be recognized 
individually for the purposes of instruction and criticism, but must see the absolute 
necessity of dividing words into classes, and of showing, by general rules of formation 
and construction, the laws to which custom commonly subjects them, or from which 
she allows them in particular instances to deviate ? Grammar, or the art of writing 
and speaking, must continue to be learned by some persons; because it is of indis- 
pensable use to society. And the only question is, whether children and youth shall 
acquire it by a regular process of study and method of instruction, or be left to glean 
it solely from their own occasional observation of the manner in which other people 
speak and write. 

9. The practical solution of this question belongs chiefly to parents and guardians. 
The opinions of teachers, to whose discretion the decision w r ill sometimes be left, 
must have a certain degree of influence upon the public mind ; and the popular no- 
tions of the age, in respect to the relative value of different studies, will doubtless 
bias many to the adoption or the rejection of this. A consideration of the point 
seems to be appropriate here, and I cannot forbear to commend the study to the 
favour of my readers ; leaving every one, of course, to choose how much he will be 
influenced by my advice, example, or arguments. If past experience and the history 
of education be taken for guides, the study of English grammar will not be neglect- 
ed ; and the method of its inculcation will become an object of particular inquiry and 
solicitude. The English language ought to be learned at school or in colleges, as other 
languages usually are ; by the study of its grammar, accompanied with regular ex- 
ercises of parsing, correcting, pointing, and scanning ; and by the perusal of some of 
its most accurate writers, accompanied with stated exercises in composition and elo- 
cution. In books of criticism, our language is already more abundant than any 
other. Some of the best of these the student should peruse, as soon as he can under- 
stand and relish them. Such a course, pursued with regularity and diligence, will 

* *' Quoties dicimus, toties de nobis judicatur." — Cicero. " As often as we speak, so often are we judged." 



96 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VIII. 

be found the most direct way of acquiring an English style at once pure, correct, and 
elegant. 

10. If any intelligent man will represent English grammar otherwise than as one 
of the most useful branches of study, he may well be suspected of having formed his 
conceptions of the science, not from what it really is in itself, but from some of those 
miserable treatises which only caricature the subject, and of which it is rather an 
advantage to be ignorant. But who is so destitute of good sense as to deny, that a 
graceful and easy conversation in the private circle, a fluent and agreeable delivery 
in public speaking, a ready and natural utterance in reading, a pure and elegant 
style in composition, are accomplishments of a very high order ? And yet of all 
these, the proper study of English grammar is the true foundation. This would 
never be denied or doubted, if young people did not find, under some other name, 
better models and more efficient instruction, than what was practised on them for 
grammar in the school-room. No disciple of an able grammarian can ever speak 
ill of grammar, unless he belong to that class of knaves who vilify what they despair 
to reach. 

11. By taking proper advantage of the ductility of childhood, intelligent parents 
and judicious teachers may exercise over the studies, opinions, and habits of youth 
a strong and salutary control ; and it will seldom be found in experience, that those 
who have been early taught to consider grammatical learning as worthy and manly, 
will change their opinion in after life. But the study of grammar is not so enticing 
that it may be disparaged in the hearing of the young, without injury. What 
would be the natural effect of the following sentence, which I quote from a late well- 
written religious homily ? " The pedagogue and his dunce may exercise their wits 
correctly enough, in the way of grammatical analysis, on some splendid argument, 
or burst of eloquence, or thrilling descant, or poetic rapture, to the strain and soul 
of which not a fibre in their nature would yield a vibration." — New- York Observer, 
Vol. ix, p. 13. 

12. Would not the bright boy who heard this from the lips of his reverend min- 
ister, be apt the next day to grow weary of the parsing lesson required by his school- 
master ? And yet what truth is there in the passage ? One can no more judge of 
the fitness of language, without regard to the meaning conveyed by it, than of the 
fitness of a suit of clothes, without knowing for whom they were intended. The 
grand clew to the proper application of all syntactical rules, is the sense ; and as any 
composition is faulty which does not rightly deliver the author's meaning, so every 
solution of a word or sentence is necessarily erroneous, in which that meaning is not 
carefully noticed and literally preserved. To parse rightly and fully, is nothing else 
than to understand rightly and explain fully ; and whatsoever is well expressed, it is 
a shame either to misunderstand or to misinterpret. 

13. This study, when properly conducted and liberally pursued, has an obvious 
tendency to dignify the whole character. How can he be a man of refined literary 
taste, who cannot speak and write his native language grammatically ? And who 
will deny that every degree of improvement in literary taste tends to brighten and 
embellish the whole intellectual nature ? The several powers of the mi ad are not 
so many distinct and separable agents, which are usually brought into exercise one 
by one ; and even if they were, there might be found, in a judicious prosecution of 
this study, a healthful employment for them all. The imagination, indeed, has 
nothing to do with the elements of grammar ; but in the exercise of composition, 
young fancy may spread her wings as soon as they are fledged ; and for this exer- 
cise the previous course of discipline will have furnished both language and taste, as 
well as sentiment. 

14. The regular grammatical study of our language is a thing of recent origin. 
Fifty or sixty years ago, such an exercise was scarcely attempted in any of the 
schools, either in this country or in England.* Of this fact we have abundant evi- 

* " Nor had he far to seek for the source of our impropriety in the use of words, when he should reflect that 
the study of our own language, has never been made a part of the education of our youth. Consequently, the 
use of words is got wholly by chance, according to the company that we keep, or the books that we read." — 
SHBBiDAM'a Elocution, Introd., p. viii, dated "July 10, 1762," 2d Amer. Ed. 



CHAP. VIII.] GRAMMATICAL STUDY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 97 

deuce both from books, and from the testimony of our venerable fathers yet living. 
How often have these presented this as an apology for their own deficiencies, and 
endeavoured to excite us to greater diligence, by contrasting our opportunities with 
theirs ! Is there not truth, is there not power, in the appeal ? And are we not 
bound to avail ourselves of the privileges which they have provided, to build upon 
the foundations which their wisdom has laid, and to carrv forward the work of irn- 
provemeut ? Institutions can do nothing for us, unless the love of learning preside 
over and prevail in them. The discipline of our schools can never approach perfec- 
tion, till those who conduct, and those who frequent them, are strongly actuated by 
that disposition of mind, which generously aspires to all attainable excellence. 

15. To rouse this laudable spirit in the minds of our youth, and to satisfy its 
demands whenever it appears, ought to be the leading objects with those to whom 
is committed the important business of instruction. A dull teacher, wasting time 
in a school-room with a parcel of stupid or indolent boys, knows nothing of the satis- 
faction either of doing his own duty, or of exciting others to the performance of 
theirs. He settles down in a regular routine of humdrum exercises, dreading as an 
inconvenience even such change as proficiency in his pupils must bring on ; and is 
well content to do little good for little money, in a profession which he honours with 
his services merely to escape starvation. He has, however, one merit : he pleases 
his patrons, and is perhaps the only man that can ; for they must needs be of that 
class to whom moral restraint is tyranny, disobedience to teachers, as often right as 
wrong; and who, dreading the expense, even of a school-book, always judge those 
things to be cheapest, which cost the least and last the longest. What such a man, 
or such a neighbourhood, may think of English grammar, I shall not stop to ask. 

16. To the following opinion from a writer of great merit, I am inclined to afford 
room here, because it deserves refutation, and, I am persuaded, is not so well founded 
as the generality of the doctrines with which it is presented to the public. " Since 
human knowledge is so much more extensive than the opportunity of individuals for 
acquiring it, it becomes of the greatest importance so to economize the opportunity 
as to make it subservient to the acquisition of as large and as valuable a portion as 
we can. It is not enough to show that a given branch of education is useful : you 
must show that it is the most useful that can be selected. Remembering this, I 
think it would be expedient to dispense with the formal study of English grammar, — 
a proposition which I doubt not many a teacher will hear with wonder and disap- 
probation. We learn the grammar in order that we may learn English ; and we 
learn English whether we study grammars or not. Especially we shall acquire a 
competent knowledge of our own language, if other departments of our education 
were improved." 

17. " A boy learns more English grammar by joining in an hour's conversation 
with educated people, than in poring for an hour over Murray or Home Tooke. 
If he is accustomed to such society and to the perusal of well-written books, he will 
learn English grammar, though he never sees a word about syntax ; and if he is not 
accustomed to such society and such reading, the ' grammar books' at a boarding- 
school will not teach it. Men learn their own language by habit, and not by rules : 
and this is just what we might expect ; for the grammar of a language is itself 
formed from the "prevalent habits of speech and writing. A compiler of grammar 
first observes these habits, and then makes his rules: but if a person is himself 
familiar with the habits, why study the rules?. I say nothing of grammar as a gen- 
eral science ; because, although the philosophy of language be a valuable branch of 
human knowledge, it were idle to expect that school-boys should understand it. 
The objection is, to the system of attempting to teach children formally that which 
they will learn practically without teaching." — Jonathan Dymond : Essays on Mo- 
rality, p. 195. 

18. This opinion, proceeding from a man who has written upon human affairs 
with so much ability and practical good sense, is perhaps entitled to as much respect 
as any that has ever been urged against the study in question. And so far as the 
objection bears upon those defective methods of instruction which experience has 



98 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VIII. 

shown to be inefficient, or of little use, I am in no wise concerned to remove it. 
The reader of this treatise will find their faults not only admitted, but to a great 
extent purposely exposed ; while an attempt is here made, as well as in my earlier 
grammars, to introduce a method which it is hoped will better reach the end pro- 
posed. But it may easily be perceived that this author's proposition to dispense 
with the formal study of English grammar is founded upon an untenable assumption. 
Whatever may be the advantages of those purer habite of speech, which the young 
naturally acquire from conversation with educated people, it is not true, that, with- 
out instruction directed to this end, they will of themselves become so well educated 
as to speak and write grammatically. Their language may indeed be comparatively 
accurate and genteel, because it is learned of those who have paid some attention to 
the study ; but, as they cannot always be preserved from hearing vulgar and im- 
proper phraseology, or from seeing it in books, they cannot otherwise be guarded 
from improprieties of diction, than by a knowledge of the rules of grammar. One 
might easily back this position by the citation of some scores of faulty sentences from 
the pen of this very able writer himself. 

19. I imagine there can be no mistake in the opinion, that in exact proportion as 
the rules of grammar are unknown or neglected in any country, will corruptions 
and improprieties of language be there multiplied. The " general science" of gram- 
mar, or " the philosophy of language," the author seems to exempt, and in some sort 
to commend ; and at the same time his proposition of exclusion is applied not 
merely to the school-grammars, but a fortiori to this science, under the notion that 
it is unintelligible to school-boys. But why should any principle of grammar be the 
less intelligible on account of the extent of its application ? Will a boy pretend that 
he cannot understand a rule of English grammar, because he is told that it holds 
good in all languages ? Ancient etymologies, and other facts in literary history, 
must be taken by the young upon the credit of him who states them ; but the doc- 
trines of general grammar are to the learner the easiest and the most important 
principles of the science. And I know of nothing in the true philosophy of lan- 
guage, which, by proper definitions and examples, may not be made as intelligible 
to a boy, as are the principles of most other sciences. The difficulty of instructing 
youth in any thing that pertains to language, lies not so much in the fact that its 
philosophy is above their comprehension, as in our own ignorance of certain parts 
of so vast an inquiry ; — in the great multiplicity of verbal signs ; the frequent con- 
trariety of practice ; the inadequacy of memory ; the inveteracy of ill habits ; and 
the little interest that is felt when we speak merely of words. 

20. The grammatical study of our language was early and strongly recommended 
by Locke,* and other writers on education, whose character gave additional weight 
to an opinion which they enforced by the clearest arguments. But either for want 
of a good grammar, or for lack of teachers skilled in the subject and sensible of its 
importance, the general neglect so long complained of as a grievous imperfection in 
our methods of education, has been but recently and partially obviated. "The 
attainment of a correct and elegant style," says Dr. Blair, " is an object which 
demands application and labour. If any imagine they can catch it merely by the 
ear, or acquire it by the slight perusal of some of our good authors, they will find 
themselves much disappointed. The many errors, even in point of grammar, the 
many offences against purity of language, which are committed by writers who are 
far from being contemptible, demonstrate, that a careful study of the language is 

* "To Write and Speak correctly, gives a Grace, and gains a favourable Attention to what one has to say: 
And since 'tis English, that an English Gentleman will have constant use of, that is the Language he should 
chiefly Cultivate, and wherein most care should be taken to polish and perfect his Stile. To speak or write bet- 
ter Latin than English, may make a Man be talk'd of, but he would find it more to his purpose to Express him- 
self well in his own Tongue, that he uses every moment, than to have the vain Commendation of others for a 
very insignificant quality. This I find universally neglected, and no care taken any where to improve Young 
Men in their own Language, that they may thoroughly understand and be Masters of it. If any one among us 
have a facility or purity more than ordinary in his Mother Tongue, it is owing to Chance, or his Genius, or any 
thing, lather than to his Education or any care of his Teacher. To Mind what English his Pupil speaks or 
writes is below the Dignity of one bred up amongst Greek and Latin, though he have but little of Ihem himself. 
These are the learned Languages fit only for learned Men to meddle with and teach : English is the Language 
of the illiterate Vulgar."— Locke, on Education, p. 339; Fourth Ed., London, 1699. 



CHAP. VIII.] GRAMMATICAL STUDY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 99 

previously requisite, in all who aim at writing it properly." — Blair's Rhetoric, Lect 
ix, p. 91. 

21. "To think justly, to write well, to speak agreeably, are the three great ends 
of academic instruction. The Universities will excuse me, if I observe, that both 
are, in one respect or other, defective in these three capital points of education. 
While in Cambridge the general application is turned altogether on speculative 
knowledge, with little regard to polite letters, taste, or style ; in Oxford the w r hoIe 
attention is directed towards classical correctness, without any sound foundation laid 
in severe reasoning and philosophy. In Cambridge and in Oxford, the art of speak- 
ing agreeably is so far from being taught, that it is hardly talked or thought of. 
These defects naturally produce dry unaffecting compositions in the one ; superficial 
taste and puerile elegance in the other ; ungracious or affected speech in both." 
— Dr. Brown, 1757 : Estimate, Vol. ii, p. 44. 

22. "A grammatical study of our own language makes no part of the ordinary 
method of instruction, which we pass through in our childhood ; and it is very 
seldom we apply ourselves to it afterward. Yet the want of it will not be effectually 
supplied by any other advantages whatsoever. Much practice in the polite world, 
and a general acquaintance with the best authors, are good helps ; but alone [they] 
will hardly be sufficient : We have writers, who have enjoyed these advantages in 
their full extent, and yet cannot be recommended as models of an accurate style. 
Much less then will, what is commonly called learning, serve the purpose ; that is, 
a critical knowledge of ancient languages, and much reading of ancient authors : 
The greatest critic and most able grammarian of the last age, when he came to 
apply his learning and criticism to an English author, was frequently at a loss in 
matters of ordinary use and common construction in his own vernacular idiom." — 
Dr. Lowth, 1763 : Pre/, to Gram., p. vi. 

23. " To the pupils of our public schools the acquisition of their own language, 
whenever it is undertaken, is an easy task. For he who is acquainted with several 
grammars already, finds no difficulty in adding one more to the number. And this, 
no doubt, is one of the reasons why English engages so small a proportion of their 
time and attention. It is not frequently read, and is still less frequently written. 
Its supposed facility, however, or some other cause, seems to have drawn upon it 
such a degree of neglect as certainly cannot be praised. The students in those 
schools are often distinguished by their compositions in the learned languages, before 
they can speak or write their own with correctness, elegance, or fluency. A classi- 
cal scholar too often has his English style to form, when he should communicate 
his acquisitions to the world. In some instances it is never formed with success ; 
and the defects of his expression either deter him from appearing before the public 
at all, or at least counteract in a great degree the influence of his work, and bring 
ridicule upon the author. Surely these evils might easily be prevented: or dimin- 
ished." — Dr. Barrow: Essays on Education, London, 1804; Philad., 1825, p. 87. 

24. "It is also said that those who know Latin and Greek generally express 
themselves wdth more clearness than those who do not receive a liberal education. 
It is indeed natural that those who cultivate their mental powers, write with more 
clearness than the uncultivated individual. The mental cultivation, however, may 
take place in the mother tongue as well as in Latin or Greek. Yet the spirit of the 
ancient languages, further is declared to be superior to that of the modern. I allow 
this to be the case ; but I do not find that the English style is improved by learning 
Greek. It is known that literal translations are miserably bad, and yet young schol- 
ars are taught to translate, word for word, faithful to their dictionaries. Hence 
those who do not make a peculiar study of their own language, will not improve in 
it by learning, in this manner, Greek and Latin. Is it not a pity to hear, what I 
have been told by the managers of one of the first institutions of Ireland, that it 
was easier to find ten teachers for Latin and Greek, than one for the English lan- 
guage, though they proposed double the salary to the latter ? Who can assure us 
that the Greek orators acquired their superiority by their acquaintance with foreign 
languages ; or, is it not obvious, on the other hand, that they learned ideas and 



100 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. VIII. 

expressed them in their mother tongue ?"— Dr. Spurzheim : Treatise on Education, 
1832, p. 107. 

25. " Dictionaries were compiled, which comprised all the words, together with 
their several definitions, or the sense each one expresses and conveys to the mind. 
These words were analyzed and classed according to their essence, attributes, and 
functions. Grammar was made a rudiment leading to the principles of all thoughts, 
and teaching by simple examples, the general classification of words and their sub- 
divisions in expressing the various conceptions of the mind. Grammar is then the 
key to the perfect understanding of languages ; without which we are left to wander 
all our lives in an intricate labyrinth, without being able to trace back again any 
part of our way." — Chazotte's Essay on the Teaching of Languages, p. 45. Again: 
'•Had it not been for his dictionary and his grammar, which taught him the essence 
of all languages, and the natural subdivision of their component parts, he might 
have spent a life as long as Methuselah's, in learning words, without being able to 
attain to a degree of perfection in any of the languages." — lb., p. 50. "Indeed, 
it is not easy to say, to what degree, and in how many different ways, both 
memory and judgement may be improved by an intimate acquaintance with gram- 
mar ; which is therefore, with good reason, made the first and fundamental part of 
literary education. The greatest orators, the most elegant scholars, and the most 
accomplished men of business, that have appeared in the world, of whom I need 
only mention Caesar and Cicero, were not only studious of grammar, but most 
learned grammarians." — Dr. Beattie : Moral Science, Vol. i, p. 107. 

26. Here, as in many other parts of my work, I have chosen to be liberal of quo- 
tations ; not to show my reading, or to save the labour of composition, but to give 
the reader the satisfaction of some other authority than my own. In commending 
the study of English grammar, I do not mean to discountenance that degree of 
attention which in this country is paid to other languages ; but merely to use my 
feeble influence to carry forward a work of improvement, which, in my opinion, has 
been wisely begun, but not sufficiently sustained. In consequence of this improve- 
ment, the study of grammar, which was once prosecuted chiefly through the medium 
of the dead languages, and was regarded as the proper business of those only who 
were to be instructed in Latin and Greek, is now thought to be an appropriate exer- 
cise for children in elementary schools. And the sentiment is now generally admit- 
ted, that even those who are afterwards to learn other languages, may best acquire 
a knowledge of the common principles of speech from the grammar of their ver- 
nacular tongue. This opinion appears to be confirmed by that experience which is 
at once the most satisfactory proof of what is feasible, and the only proper test of 
what is useful. 

27. It must, however, be confessed, that an acquaintance with ancient and foreign 
literature is absolutely necessary for him who would become a thorough philologist 
or an accomplished scholar; and that the Latin language, the source of several 
of the modern tongues of Europe, being remarkably regular in its inflections 
and systematic in its construction, is in itself the most complete exemplar of the 
structure of speech, and the best foundation for the study of grammar in general. 
But, as the general principles of grammar are common to all languages, and as the 
only successful method of learning them, is, to commit to memory the definitions 
and rules which embrace them, it is reasonable to suppose that the language most 
intelligible to the learner, is the most suitable for the commencement of his gram- 
matical studies. A competent knowledge of English grammar is also in itself a 
valuable attainment, which is within the easy reach of many young persons whose 
situation in life debars them from the pursuit of general literature. 

28. The attention which has lately been given to the culture of the English lan- 
guage, by some who, in the character of critics or lexicographers, have laboured 
purposely to improve it, and by many others who, in various branches of knowledge, 
have tastefully adorned it with the works of their genius, has in a great measure 
redeemed it from that contempt in which it was formerly held in the halls of learn- 
ing. But, as I have before suggested, it does not yet appear to be sufficiently 



CHAP. VIII.] GRAMMATICAL STUDY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 101 

attended to in the course of what is called a liberal education. Compared with 
other languages, the English exhibits both excellences and defects ; but its flexibil- 
ity, or power of accommodation to the tastes of different writers, is great ; and when 
it is used with that mastership which belongs to learning and genius, it must be 
acknowledged there are few, if any, to which it ought on the whole to be consid- 
ered inferior. But above all, it is our own ; and, whatever we may know or think 
of other tongues, it can never be either patriotic or wise, for the learned men of the 
United States or of England to pride themselves chiefly upon them. 

29. Our language is worthy to be assiduously studied by all who reside where it 
is spoken, and who have the means and the opportunity to become critically ac- 
quainted with it. To every such student it is vastly more important to be able to 
speak and write well in English, than to be distinguished for proficiency in the learned 
languages and yet ignorant of his own. It is certain that many from whom better 
things might be expected, are found miserably deficient in this respect. And their 
neglect of so desirable an accomplishment is the more remarkable and the more 
censurable on account of the facility with which those who are acquainted with the 
ancient languages may attain to excellence in their English style. " Whatever the 
advantages or defects of the English language be, as it is our own language, it de- 
serves a high degree of our study and attention. * * * Whatever knowledge may 
be acquired by the study of other languages, it can never be communicated with 
advantage, unless by such as can write and speak their own language well." — Dn. 
Blair: Rhetoric, Lect. ix, p. 91. 

30. I am not of opinion that it is expedient to press this study to much extent, 
if at all, on those whom poverty or incapacity may have destined to situations ih 
which they will never hear or think of it afterwards. The course of nature cannot 
be controlled ; and fortune does not permit us to prescribe the same course of dis- 
cipline for all. To speak the language which they have learned without study, and 
to read and write for the most common purposes of life, may be education enough 
for those who can be raised no higher. But it must be the desire of every benevo- 
lent and intelligent man, to see the advantages of literary, as well as of moral cul- 
ture, extended as far as possible among the people. And it is manifest, that in 
proportion as the precepts of the divine Redeemer are obeyed by the nations that 
profess his name, wall all distinctions arising merely from the inequality of fortune 
be lessened or done away, and better opportunities be offered for the children of 
indigence to adorn themselves with the treasures of knowledge. 

31. We may not be able to effect all that is desirable; but, favoured as our 
country is, with great facilities for carrying forward the work of improvement, in 
every thing which can contribute to national glory and prosperity, I w r ould, in con- 
clusion of this topic, submit — that a critical knowledge of our common language is 
a subject worthy of the particular attention of all who have the genius and the op- 
portunity to attain it ; — that on the purity and propriety with w r hich American 
authors write this language, the reputation of our national literature greatly de- 
pends ; — that in the preservation of it from all changes which ignorance may admit 
or affectation invent, we ought to unite as having oue common interest ; — that a 
fixed and settled orthography is of great importance, as a means of preserving the 
etymology, history, and identity of words ; — that a grammar freed from errors and 
defects, and embracing a complete code of definitions and illustrations, rules and ex- 
ercises, is of primary importance to every student and a great aid to teachers ; — 
that as the vices of speech as well as of manners are contagious, it becomes those 
who have the care of youth, to be masters of the language in its purity and elegance, 
and to avoid as much as possible every thing that is reprehensible either in thought 
or expression. 



102 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IX. 

CHAPTER IX. 

OF THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING GRAMMAR. 



" Quomodo different grammaticus et grammatista ? Grammaticus est qui diligenter, acut&, seienterque possit 
ant dicere aut scribere, et poetas enarrare : idem literatus dicitur. Grammatista est qui barbaris Uteris obstre- 
pit, cui abusus pro usu est ; Graecis Latinam dat etymologiam, et totus in nugis est : Latine dicitur literator." — 
Despautek. SynL, fol. 1. 

1. It is hardly to be supposed that any person can have a very clear conviction 
of the best method of doing a thing, who shall not at first have acquired a pretty 
correct and adequate notion of the thing to be done. Arts must be taught by 
artists ; sciences, by learned men ; and, if Grammar is the science of words, the art 
of writing and speaking well, the best speakers and writers will be the best teachers 
of it, if they choose to direct their attention to so humble an employment. For, 
without disparagement of the many worthy men whom choice or necessity has made 
schoolmasters, it may be admitted that the low estimation in which school-keeping 
is commonly held, does mostly exclude from it the first order of talents, and the 
highest acquirements of scholarship. It is one strong proof of this, that we have 
heretofore been content to receive our digests of English grammar, either from men who 
had had no practical experience in the labours of a school-room, or from miserable 
modifiers and abridgers, destitute alike of learning and of industry, of judgement 
and of skill. 

2. But, to have a correct and adequate notion of English grammar, and of the 
best method of learning or teaching it, is no light attainment. The critical knowl- 
edge of this subject lies in no narrow circle of observation ; nor are there any pre- 
cise limits to ; possible improvement. The simple definition in which the general idea 
of the art is embraced, " Grammar is the art of writing and speaking correctly," 
however useful in order to fix the learner's conception, can scarcely give him a better 
knowledge of the thing itself, than he would have of the art of painting, when he 
had learned from Dr. Webster, that it is " the art of representing to the eye, by 
means of figures and colors, any object of sight, and sometimes emotions of the 
mind." The first would no more enable him to write a sonnet, than the second, to 
take his master's likeness. The force of this remark extends to all the technical divi- 
sions, definitions, rules, and arrangements of grammar ; the learner may commit 
them all to memory, and know but very little about the art. 

3. This fact,- too frequently illustrated in practice, has been made the basis of the 
strongest argument ever raised against the study of grammar ; and has been particu- 
larly urged against the ordinary technical method of teaching it, as if the whole of 
that laborious process were useless. It has led some men, even of the highest 
talents, to doubt the expediency of that method, under any circumstances, and 
either to discountenance the whole matter, or invent other schemes by which they 
hoped to be more successful. The utter futility of the old accidence has been in- 
ferred from it, and urged, even in some well-written books, with all the plausibility 
of a fair and legitimate deduction. The hardships of children, compelled to learn 
what they did not understand, have been bewailed in prefaces and reviews ; incredi- 
ble things boasted by literary jugglers, have been believed by men of sense ; and the 
sympathies of nature, with accumulated prejudices, have been excited against that 
method of teaching grammar, which after all will be found in experience to be at 
once the easiest, the shortest, and the best. I mean, essentially, the ancient positive 
method, which aims directly at the inculcation of principles. 

4. It has been already admitted, that definitions and rules committed to memory 
and not reduced to practice, will never enable any one to speak and write correctly. 
But it does not follow, that to study grammar by learning its principles, or to teach 
it technically by formal lessons, is of no real utility. Surely not. For the same 



CHAP. IX.] OF THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING GRAMMAK. 103 

admission must be made with respect to the definitions and rules of every practical 
science in the world ; and the technology of grammar is even more essential to a 
true knowledge of the subject, than that of almost any other art. " To proceed 
upon principles at first," says Dr. Barrow, " is the most compendious method of at- 
taining every branch of knowledge ; and the truths impressed upon the mind in the 
years of childhood, are ever afterwards the most firmly remembered, and the most 
readily applied." — Essays, p. 84. Reading, as I have said, is a part of grammar ; 
and it is a part which must of course precede what is commonly called in the 
schools the study of grammar. Any person who can read, can. learn from a book 
such simple facts as are within his comprehension ; and we have it on the authority 
of Dr. Adam, that, " The principles of grammar are the first abstract truths which 
a young mind can comprehend." — Pre/, to Lat. Gram., p. 4. 

5. It is manifest, that, with respect to this branch of knowledge, the duties of 
the teacher will vary considerably, according to the age and attainments of his 
pupils, or according to each student's ability or* inclination to profit by his printed 
guide. The business lies partly between the master and his scholar, and partly be- 
tween the boy and his book. Among these it may be partitioned variously, and of 
course unwisely ; for no general rule can precisely determine for all occasions what 
may be expected from each. The deficiencies of any one of the three must either be 
supplied by the extraordinary readiness of an other, or the attainment of the purpose 
be proportionably imperfect. What one fails to do, must either be done by an 
other, or left undone. After much observation, it seems to me, that the most proper 
mode of treating this science in* schools, is, to throw the labour of its acquisition 
almost entirely upon the students ; to require from them very accurate rehearsals 
as the only condition on which they shall be listened to ; and to refer them to their 
books for the information which they need, and in general for the solution of all 
their doubts. But then the teacher must see that he does not set them to grope 
their way through a wilderness of absurdities. He must know that they have a 
book, which not only contains the requisite information, but arranges it so that every 
item of it may be readily found. That knowledge may reasonably be required at 
their recitations, which culpable negligence alone could have prevented them from 
obtaining. 

6. Most grammars, and especially those which are designed for the senior class 
of students, to whom a well-written book is a sufficient instructor, contain a large 
proportion of matter which is merely to be read by the learner. This is commonly 
distinguished in type from those more important doctrines which constitute the frame 
of the edifice. It is expected that the latter will receive a greater degree of attention. 
The only successful method of teaching grammar, is, to cause the principal defini- 
tions and rules to be committed thoroughly to memory, that they may ever after- 
wards be readily applied. Oral instruction may smoothe the way, and facilitate the 
labour of the learner ; but the notion of communicating a competent knowledge of 
grammar without imposing this task, is disproved by universal experience. Nor 
will it avail any thing for the student to rehearse definitions and rules of which he 
makes no practical application. In etymology and syntax, he should be alternately 
exercised in learning small portions of his book, and then applying them in parsing, 
till the whole is rendered familiar. To a good reader, the achievement will be 
neither great nor difficult ; and the exercise is well calculated to improve the memory 
and strengthen all the faculties of the mind. 

7. The objection drawn from the alleged inefficiency of this method, lies solely 
against the practice of those teachers who disjoin the principles and the exercises of 
the art ; and who, either through ignorance or negligence, impose only such tasks 
as leave the pupil to suppose, that the committing to memory of definitions and 
rules, constitutes the whole business of grammar.* Such a method is no less absurd 

* A late author, in apologizing for his choice in publishing a grammar without forms of praxis, (that is, with- 
out any provision for a stated application of its principles by the learner,) describes the whole business of 
Parsing as a "dry and uninteresting recapitulation of the disposal of a few parts of speech, and their often 
times told positions and influence;" urges " the unimportance of parsing, generally ;" and represents it to be 
only "a finical and ostentatious parade of practical pedantry." — Wright's Philosophical Gram., pp. 224 and 



104 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IX. 

in itself, than contrary to the practice of the best teachers from the very origin of the 
study. The epistle prefixed to King Henry's Grammar almost three centuries ago, 
and the very, sensible preface to the old British Grammar, au octavo reprinted at 
Boston in 1784, give evidence enough that a better method of teaching has long 
been known. Nay, in my opinion, the very best method cannot be essentially dif- 
ferent from that which has been longest in use, and is probably most known. But 
there is everywhere ample room for improvement. Perfection was never attained 
by the most learned of our ancestors, nor is it found in any of our schemes. En- 
glish grammar can be better taught than it is now, or ever has been. Better scholar- 
ship would naturally produce this improvement, and it is easy to suppose a race of 
teachers more erudite and more zealous, than either we or they. 

8. Where invention and discovery are precluded, there is little room for novelty. 
I have not laboured to introduce a system of grammar essentially new, but to im- 
prove the old and free it from abuses. The mode of instruction here recommended 
is the result of long and successful experience. There is nothing in it, which any 
person of common abilities will find it difficult to understand- or adopt. It is the 
plain didactic method of definition and example, rule and praxis ; which no man 
who means to teach grammar well, will ever desert, with the hope of finding an 
other more rational or more easy. This book itself will make any one a gram- 
marian, who will take the trouble to observe and practise what it teaches ; and even 
if some instructors should not adopt the readiest means of making their pupils fami- 
liar with its contents, they will not fail to instruct by it as effectually as they can by 
any other. A hope is also indulged, that this work will be particularly useful to 
many who have passed the ordinary period allotted to education. Whoever is ac- 
quainted with the grammar of our language, so as to have some tolerable skill in 
teaching it, will here find almost every thing that is true in his own instructions, 
clearly embraced under its proper head, so as to be easy of reference. And perhaps 
there are few, however learned, who, on a perusal of the volume, would not be fur- 
nished with some important rules and facts which had not before occurred to their 
own observation. 

9. The greatest peculiarity of the method is, that it requires the pupil to speak 
or write a great deal, and the teacher very little. But both should constantly re- 
member that grammar is the art of speaking and writing well ; an art which can 
no more be acquired without practice, than that of dancing or swimming. And 
each should ever be careful to perform his part handsomely — without drawling, 
omitting, stopping, hesitating, faltering, miscalling, reiterating, stuttering, hurrying, 
slurring, mouthing, misquoting, mispronouncing, or any of the thousand faults 
which render utterance disagreeable and inelegant. It is the learner's diction that 
is to be improved ; and the system will be found well calculated to effect that ob- 
ject ; because it demands of him, not only to answer questions on grammar, but 
also to make a prompt and practical application of what he has just learned. If 
the class be tolerable readers, and have learned the art of attention, it will not be 
necessary for the teachar to say much ; and in general he ought not to take up the 
time by so doing. He should, however, carefully superintend their rehearsals; 
give the word to the next when any one errs ; and order the exercise in such a man- 
ner that either his own voice, or the example of his best scholars, may gradually 
correct the ill habits of the awkward, till all learn to recite with clearness, under- 
standing well what they say, and making it intelligible to others. 

10. Without oral instruction and oral exercises, a correct habit of speaking our 
language can never be acquired; but written rules, and exercises in writing, are ' 
perhaps quite as necessary, for the formation of a good style. All these should 

226. It would be no great mistake to imagine, that this gentleman's system of grammar, applied in any way to 
practice, could not fail to come under this unflattering description ; but, to entertain this notion of parsing in 
general, is as great an error, as that which some writers have adopted on the other hand, of making this exer- 
cise their sole process of inculcation, and supposing it may profitably supersede both the usual arrangement of 
the principles of grammar and the practice of explaining them by definitions. It is asserted in Parkhurst's 
" English Grammar for Beginners, on the Inductive Method of Instruction, 11 that, " to teach the child a definition 
at the outset, is beginning at the wrong end; that, "with respect to all that goes under the name of etymology 
in grammar, it is learned chiefly by practice in parsing, and scarcely at all by the aid of definitions. 11 — Preface, 
pp. 5 and 6. 



CHAP. IX.] OF THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING GRAMMAR. 105 

therefore be combined in our course of English grammar. And, in order to ac- 
complish two objects at once, the written doctrines, or the definitions and rules of 
grammar, should statedly be made the subject of a critical exercise in utterance ; so 
that the boy who is parsing a w T ord, or correcting a sentence, in the hearing of 
others, may impressively realize, that he is then and there exhibiting his own skill 
or deficiency in oral discourse. Perfect forms of parsing and correcting should be 
given him as models, with the understanding that the text before him is his only 
guide to their right application. It should be shown, that in parsing any particular 
word, or part of speech, there are just so many things to be said of it, and no 
more, and that these are to be said in the best manner : so that whoever tells fewer, 
omits something requisite ; whoever says more, inserts something irrelevant ; and 
whoever proceeds otherwise, either blunders in point of fact, or impairs the beauty 
of the expression. I rely not upon what are called "Parsing Tables" but upon 
the precise forms of expression which are given in the book for the parsing of the 
several sorts of words. Because the questions, or abstract directions, which consti- 
tute the common parsing tables, are less intelligible to the learner than a practical 
example ; and more time must needs be consumed on them, in order to impress 
upon his memory the number and the sequence of the facts to be stated. 

11. If a pupil happen to be naturally timid, there should certainly be no austerity 
of manner to embarrass his diffidence ; for no one can speak well, who feels afraid. 
But a far more common impediment to the true use of speech, is carelessness. He 
who speaks before a school, in an exercise of this kind, should be made to feel that 
he is bound by every consideration of respect for himself, or for those who hear 
him, to proceed with his explanation or rehearsal, in a ready, clear, and intel- 
ligible manner. It should be strongly impressed upon him, that the grand object 
of the whole business, is his own practical improvement ; that a habit of speaking 
clearly and agreeably, is itself one half of the great art of grammar ; that to be 
slow and awkward in parsing, is unpardonable negligence, and a culpable waste of 
time ; that to commit blunders in rehearsing grammar, is to speak badly about the 
art of speaking well ; that his recitations must be limited to such things as he per- 
fectly knows ; that he must apply himself to his book, till he can proceed without 
mistake ; finally, that he must watch and imitate the utterance of those who speak 
well, ever taking that for the best manner, in which there are the fewest things that 
could be mimicked* 

12. The exercise of parsing should be commenced immediately after the first 
lesson of etymology — the lesson in which are contained the definitions of the ten 
parts of speech ; and should be carried on progressively, till it embraces all the doc- 
trines which are applicable to it. If it be performed according to the order pre- 
scribed in the following work, it will soon make the student perfectly familiar with 
all the primary definitions and rules of grammar. It asks no aid from a dictionary, 
if the performer knows the meaning of the words he is parsing ; and very little from 
the teacher, if the forms in the grammar have received any tolerable share of atten- 
tion. It requires just enough of thought to keep the mind attentive to what the 
lips are uttering ; while it advances by such easy gradations and constant repetitions 
as leave the pupil utterly without excuse, if he does not know what to say. Being 
neither wholly extemporaneous nor wholly rehearsed by rote, it has more dignity than 
a school-boy's conversation, and more ease than a formal recitation, or declamation ; 
and is therefore an exercise well calculated to induce a habit of uniting correctness 
with fiuency in ordinary speech — a species of elocution as valuable as any other.f 

* Hesitation in speech may arise from very different causes. If we do not consider this, our efforts to remove 
it may make it worse. In most instances, however, it may be overcome by proper treatment. " Stammering," 
says a late author, "is occasioned by an over-effort to articulate; for when the mind of the speaker is so occu- 
pied with his subject as not to allow him to reflect upon his defect, he will talk without difficulty. All stam- 
merers can sing, owing to the continuous sound, and the slight manner in which the consonants are touched in 
singing ; so a drunken man can run, though he cannot walk or stand still." — Gardiner* s Music of Nature, p. 30. 

" To think rightly, is of knowledge ; to speak fluently, is of nature ; 
To read with profit, is of care ; but to write aptly, is of practice." 

Book of Thoughts, p. 140. 

t " There is nothing more becoming [to] a Gentleman, or more useful in all the occurrences of life, than to be 
able, on any occasion, to speak well, and to the purpose." — Locke, on Education, § 171. "But yet, I think I 



106 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IX. 

13. Thus would I unite the practice with the theory of grammar ; endeavouring 
to express its principles with all possible perspicuity, purity, and propriety of diction ; 
retaining, as necessary parts of the subject, those technicalities which the pupil must 
needs learn in order to understand the disquisitions of grammarians in general ; 
adopting every important feature of that system of doctrines which appears to have 
been longest and most generally taught ; rejecting the multitudinous errors and in- 
consistencies with which unskillful hands have disgraced the science and perplexed 
the schools ; remodelling every ancient definition and rule which it is possible to 
amend, in respect to style, or grammatical correctness ; supplying the numerous and 
great deficiencies with which the most comprehensive treatises published by earlier 
writers, are chargeable ; adapting the code of instruction to the present state of 
English literature, without giving countenance to any innovation not sanctioned by 
reputable use ; labouring at once to extend and to facilitate the study, without for- 
getting the proper limits of the science, or debasing its style by puerilities. 

14. These general views, it is hoped, will be found to have been steadily adhered 
to throughout the following work. The author has not deviated much from the 
principles adopted in the most approved grammars already in use ; nor has he acted 
the part of a servile copyist. It was not his design to introduce novelties, but to 
form a practical digest of established rules. He has not laboured to subvert the gen- 
eral system of grammar, received from time immemorial ; but to improve upon it, 
in its present application to our tongue. That which is excellent, may not be per- 
fect ; and amendment may be desirable, where subversion would be ruinous. Be- 
lieving that no theory can better explain the principles of our language, and no 
contrivance afford greater facilities to the student, the writer has in general adopted 
those doctrines which are already best known ; and has contented himself with 
attempting little more than to supply the deficiencies of the system, and to free it 
from the reproach of being itself ungrammatical. This indeed was task enough ; 
for, to him, all the performances of his predecessors seemed meagre and greatly de- 
ficient, compared with what he thought needful to be done. The scope of his labours 
has been, to define, dispose, and exemplify those doctrines anew ; and, with a scru- 
pulous regard to the best usage, to oiler, on that authority, some further contribu- 
tions to the stock of grammatical knowledge. 

15. Having devoted many years to studies of this nature, and being conversant 
with most of the grammatical treatises already published, the author conceived that 
the objects above referred to, might be better eti'ected than they had been in any 
work within his knowledge. And he persuades himself, that, however this work 
may yet fall short of possible completeness, the improvements here offered are 
neither few nor inconsiderable. He does not mean to conceal in any degree his ob- 
ligations to others, or to indulge in censure without discrimination. He has no dis- 
position to depreciate the labours, or to detract from the merits, of those who have 
written ably upon this topic. He has studiously endeavoured to avail himself of all the 
light they have thrown upon the subject. With a view to further improvements in 
the science, he has also resorted to the original sources of grammatical knowledge, 
and has not only critically considered what he has seen or heard of our vernacular 
tongue, but has sought with some diligence the analogies of speech in the structure 
of several other languages. If, therefore, the work now furnished be thought worthy 
of preference, as exhibiting the best method of teaching grammar ; he trusts it will 
be because it deviates least from sound doctrine, while, by fair criticism upon others, 
it best supplies the means of choosing judiciously. 

may ask my reader, whether he doth not know a great many, who live npon their" estates, and so, with the 
name, should have the qualities of Gentlemen, who cannot so much as tell a story as they should ; much less 
speak clearly and persuasively in any business. This I think not to be so much their fault, as the fault of their 
education. — They have been taught Rhetoric, but yet never taught how to express themselves handsomely with 
their tongues or pens in the language they are always to use; as if the names of the figures that embellish the 
discourses of those who understood the art of speaking, were the very art and skill of speaking well. This, as 
all other things of practice, is to be learned, not by a few, or a great many rules given; but by exercise and 
application according to good rules, or rather patterns, till habits are got, and a facility of doing it well." 
— lb., § 189. The forms of parsing and correcting which the following work supplies, are "2)atterns," for the 
performance of these practical "exercises ;" and such patterns as ought to be implicitly followed, by every one 
who means to be a ready and correct speaker on these subjects. 



CHAP. IX.] OF THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING GRAMMAR. 107 

16. Of all methods of teaching grammar, that which has come nearest to what 
is recommended above, has doubtless been the most successful ; and whatever objec- 
tions may have been raised against it, it will probably be found on examination to 
be the most analogous to nature. It is analytic in respect to the doctrines of gram- 
mar, synthetic in respect to the practice, and logical in respect to both. It assumes 
the language as an object which the learner is capable of conceiving to be one 
whole ; begins with the classification of all its words, according to certain grand 
differences which make the several parts of speech ; then proceeds to divide further, 
according to specific differences and qualities, till all the classes, properties, and rela- 
tions, of the words in any intelligible sentence, become obvious and determinate : 
and he to whom these things are known, so. that he can see at a glance what is the 
construction of each word, and whether it is right or not, is a good grammarian. 
The disposition of the human mind to generalize the objects of thought, and to 
follow broad analogies in the use of words, discovers itself early, and seems to be an 
inherent principle of our nature. Hence, in the language of children and illiterate 
people, many words are regularly inflected even in opposition to the most common 
usage. 

17. It has unfortunately become fashionable to inveigh against the necessary 
labour of learning by heart the essential principles of grammar, as a useless and 
intolerable drudgery. And this notion, with the vain hope of effecting the same 
purpose in an easier way, is giving countenance to modes of teaching well calcu- 
lated to make superficial scholars. When those principles are properly defined, 
disposed, and exemplified, the labour of learning them is far less than has been 
represented ; and the habits of application induced by such a method of studying 
grammar, are of the utmost importance to the learner. Experience shows, that the 
task may be achieved during the years of childhood ; and that, by an early habit of 
study, the memory is so improved, as to render those exercises easy and familiar, 
which, at a later period, would be found very difficult and irksome. Upon this plan, 
and perhaps upon every other, some words will be learned before the ideas repre- 
sented by them are fully comprehended, or the things spoken of are fully under- 
stood. But this seems necessarily to arise from the order of nature in the develop- 
ment of the mental faculties ; and an acquisition cannot be lightly esteemed, which 
has signally augmented and improved that faculty on which the pupil's future pro- 
gress in knowledge depends. 

18. The memory, indeed, should never be cultivated at the expense of the under- 
standing ; as is the case, when the former is tasked with ill-devised lessons by which 
the latter is misled and bewildered. But truth, whether fully comprehended or not, 
has no perplexing inconsistencies. And it is manifest that that which does not in 
some respect surpass the understanding, can never enlighten it — can never awaken 
the spirit of inquiry or satisfy research. How often have men of observation profited 
by the remembrance of words which, at the time they heard them, they did not 
"perfectly understand /" We never study any thing of which we imagine our 
knowledge to be perfect. To learn, and, to understand, are, with respect to any 
science or art, one and the same thing. With respect to difficult or unintelligible 
phraseology alone, are they different. He who by study has once stored his memory 
with the sound and appropriate language of any important doctrine, can never, without 
some folly or conceit akin to madness, repent of the acquisition. Milton, in his 
academy, professed to teach things rather than words ; and many others have made 
plausible profession of the same thing since. But it does not appear, that even in 
the hands of Milton, the attempt was crowned with any remarkable success. See 
Dr. Barrow's Essays, p. 85. 

19. The vain pretensions of several modern simplifiers, contrivers of machines, 
charts, tables, diagrams, vincula, pictures, dialogues, familiar lectures, ocular analyses, 
tabular compendium s, inductive exercises, productive systems, intellectual methods, 
and various new theories, for the purpose of teaching grammar, may serve to deceive 
the ignorant, to amuse the visionary, and to excite the admiration of the credulous ; 
but none of these things has any favourable relation to that improvement which may 



108 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IX. 

justly be boasted as having taken place within the memory of the present genera- 
tion. The definitions and rules which constitute the doctrines of grammar, may be 
variously expressed, arranged, illustrated, and applied ; and in the expression, ar- 
rangement, illustration, and application of them, there may be room for some amend- 
ment ; but no contrivance can ever relieve the pupil from the necessity of committing 
them thoroughly to memory. The experience of all antiquity is added to our own, 
in confirmation of this ; and the judicious teacher, though he will not shut his eyes 
to a real improvement, will be cautious of renouncing the practical lessons of hoary 
experience, for the futile notions of a vain projector. 

20. Some have been beguiled with the idea, that great proficiency in grammar 
was to be made by means of a certain fanciful method of induction. But if the 
scheme does not communicate to those who are instructed by it, a better knowledge 
of grammar than the contrivers themselves seem to have possessed, it will be found 
of little use.* By the happy method of Bacon, to lead philosophy into the com- 
mon walks of life, into the ordinary business and language of men, is to improve the 
condition of humanity ; but, in teaching grammar, to desert the plain didactic 
method of definition and example, rule and praxis, and pretend to lead children by 
philosophic induction into a knowledge of words, is to throw down the ladder of 
learning, that boys may imagine themselves to ascend it, while they are merely stilt- 
ing over the low level upon which its fragments are cast. 

21. The chief argument of these inductive grammarians is founded on the prin- 
ciple, that children cannot be instructed by means of any words which they do not 
perfectly understand. If this principle were strictly true, children could never be 
instructed by words at all. For no child ever fully understands a word the first 
time he hears or sees it ; and it is rather by frequent repetition and use, than by 
any other process, that the meaning of words is commonly learned. Hence most 
people make use of many terms which they cannot very accurately explain, just as 
they do of many things, the real nature of which they do not comprehend. The 
first perception we have of any word, or other thing, when presented to the ear or 
the eye, gives us some knowledge of it. So, to the signs of thought, as older per- 
sons use them, we soon attach some notion of what is meant ; and the difference 
between this knowledge, and that which we call an understanding of the word or 
thing, is, for the most part, only in degree. Definitions and explanations are doubt- 
less highly useful, but induction is not definition, and an understanding of words 
may be acquired without either ; else no man could ever have made a dictionary. 
But, granting the principle to be true, it makes nothing for this puerile method of 
induction ; because the regular process by definitions and examples is both shorter 
and easier, as well as more effectual. In a word, this whole scheme of inductive 
grammar is nothing else than a series of leading questions and manufactured an- 
swers ; the former being generally as unfair as the latter are silly. It is a remarka- 
ble tissue of ill-laid premises and of forced illogical sequences. 

22. Of a similar character is a certain work, entitled, " English Grammar on the 
Productive System : a method of instruction recently adopted in Germany and 
Switzerland." It is a work which certainly will be "productive" of no good to any 
body but the author and his publishers. The book is as destitute of taste, as of 
method ; of authority, as of originality. It commences with " the inductive pro- 
cess," and after forty pages of such matter as is described above, becomes a "produc- 
tive system," by means of a misnamed " Recapitulation ;" which jumbles together 
the etymology and the syntax of the language, through seventy-six pages more. It 
is then made still more "'productive" by the appropriation of a like space to a reprint 
of Murray's Syntax and Exercises, under the inappropriate title, " General Obser- 
vations." To Prosody, including punctuation and the use of capitals, there are 
allotted six pages, at the end ; and to Orthography, four lines, in the middle of the 
volume! (See p. 41.) It is but just, to regard the title of this book, as being at 

* The principal claimants of "the Inductive Method" of Grammar, are Richard W. Green, Roswell C. 
Smith, John L. Parkhurst, Dyer H. Sanborn, Bradford Frazee, and Solomon Barrett, Jr. ; a set of writers, 
differing indeed in their qualifications, hut in general not a little deficient in what constitutes an accurate gram' 
marian. 



CHAP. IX.] OF THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING GRAMMAR. 109 

once a libel and a lie ; a libel upon the learning and good sense of Woodbridge ;* 
and a practical lie, as conveying a false notion of the origin of what the volume 
contains. 

23. What there is in Germany or Switzerland, that bears any resemblance to this 
misnamed system of English Grammar, remains to be shown. It would be prodigal 
of the reader's time, and inconsistent with the studied brevity of this work, to ex- 
pose the fallacy of what is pretended in regard to the origin of this new method. 
Suffice it to say, that the anonymous and questionable account of the " Productive 
System of Instruction," which the author has borrowed from a " valuable periodi- 
cal," to save himself the trouble of writing a preface, and, as he says, to " assist 
[the reader] in forming an opinion of the comparative merits of the system" is not 
only destitute of all authority, but is totally irrelevant, except to the whimsical 
name of his book. If every word of it be true, it is insufficient to give us even the 
slightest reason to suppose, that any thing analogous to his production ever had 
existence in either of those countries ; and yet it is set forth on purpose to convey 
the idea that such a system " now predominates" in the schools of both. (See 
Pre/., p. 5.) The infidel Neef whose new method of education has been tried in 
our country, and with its promulgator forgot, was an accredited disciple of this 
boasted " productive school ;" a zealous coadjutor with Pestalozzi himself, from 
whose halls he emanated to " teach the offspring of a free people" — to teach them 
the nature of things sensible, and a contempt for all the wisdom of books. And 
what similarity is there between his method of teaching and that of Roswell C. 
Smith, except their pretence to a common parentage, and that both are worth- 
less ? 

24. The success of Smith's Inductive and Productive Grammars, and the feme 
perhaps of a certain " Grammar in Familiar Lectures," produced in 1836 a rival 
work from the hands of a gentleman in New Hampshire, entitled, " An Analytical 
Grammar of the Eno-lish Langmao-e, embracing the Inductive and Productive Meth- 
ods of Teaching, with Familiar Explanations in the Lecture Style," &c. This is a 
fair-looking duodecimo volume of three hundred pages, the character and pretensions 
of which, if they could be clearly stated, would throw further light upon the two fal- 
lacious schemes of teaching mentioned above. For the writer says, " This grammar 
professes to combine both the Inductive and Productive methods of imparting instruc- 
tion, of which much has been said within a few years past" — Preface, p. iv. And 
again : " The inductive and productive methods of instruction contain the essence of 
modern improvements." — Gram., p. 139. In what these modern improvements 
consist, he does not inform us; but, it will be seen, that he himself claims the copy- 
right of all the improvements which he allows to English grammar since the ap- 
pearance of Murray in 1795. More than two hundred pretenders to such improve- 
ments, appear however within the time ; nor is the grammarian of Hold gate the 
least positive of the claimants. This new purveyor for the public taste, dislikes the 
catering of his predecessor, who poached in the fields of Murray ; and, with a tacit 
censure upon his productions, has honestly bought the rareties which he has served 
up. In this he has the advantage. He is a better writer too than some who make 
grammars ; though no adept at composition, and a total stranger to method. To 
call his work a " system" is a palpable misnomer ; to tell what it is, an impossibil- 
ity. It is a grammatical chaos, bearing such a resemblance to Smith's or Kirkham's 
&s one mass of confusion naturally bears to an other, yet differing from both in almost 
every thing that looks like order in any of the three. 

25. The claimant of the combination says, " this new system of English grammar 
now offered to the public, embraces the principles of a ' Systematic Introduction to 
English Grammar,' by John L. Parkhurst ; and the present author is indebted to 
Mr. Parkhurst for a knowledge of the manner of applying the principles involved in 
his peculiar method of teaching grammatical science. He is also under obligations 
to Mr. Parkhurst for many useful hints received several years since while under his 

* "William C. Woodbridge edited the Journal, and probably wrote the article, from which the author of 
" English Grammar on the Productive System" took his " Preface.''' / 



110 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IX. 

instruction. — The copy right of Parkhurst's Grammar has been purchased by the 
writer of this, who alone is responsible for the present application of its definitions. 
Parkhurst's Systematic Introduction to English Grammar has passed through two 
editions, and is the first improved system of English grammar that has appeared 
before the public since the first introduction of Lindley Murray's English Grammar." 
— Sanborn's Gram., Preface, p. iii. What, then, is " the Productive System ?" 
and with whom did it originate ? The thousands of gross blunders committed by 
its professors, prove at least that it is no system of writing grammatically ; and, 
whether it originated with Parkhurst or with Pestalozzi, with Sanborn or with 
Smith, as it is confessedly a method but " recently adopted," and, so far as appears, 
never fairly tested, so is it a method that needs only to be known, to be immediately 
and forever exploded. 

26. The best instruction is that which ultimately gives the greatest facility and 
skill in practice ; and grammar is best taught by that process which brings its 
doctrines most directly home to the habits as well as to the thoughts of the pupil — 
which the most effectually conquers inattention, and leaves the deepest impress of 
shame upon blundering ignorance. In the language of some men, there is a vivid- 
ness, an energy, a power of expression, which penetrates even the soul of dullness, 
and leaves an impression both of words unknown and of sentiments unfelt before. 
Such men can teach ; but he who kindly or indolently accommodates himself to 
ignorance, shall never be greatly instrumental in removing it. " The colloquial bar- 
barisms of boys," says Dr. Barrow, "should never be suffered to pass without notice 
and censure. Provincial tones and accents, and all defects in articulation, should be 
corrected whenever they are heard ; lest they grow into established habits, unknown, 
from their familiarity, to him who is guilty of them, and adopted by others, from the 
imitation of his manner, or their respect for his authority." — Barrow's Essays on 
Education, p. 88. 

27. In the whole range of school exercises, there is none of greater importance 
than that of parsing ; and yet perhaps there is none which is, in general, more 
defectively conducted. Scarcely less useful, as a means of instruction, is the practice 
of correcting false syntax orally, by regular and logical forms of argument ; nor 
does this appear to have been more ably directed towards the purposes of discipline. 
There is so much to be done, in order to effect what is desirable in the management 
of these things ; and so little prospect that education will ever be generally raised to 
a just appreciation of that study which, more than all others, forms the mind to 
habits of correct thinking ; that, in reflecting upon the state of the science at the 
present time, and upon the means of its improvement, the author cannot but sympa- 
thize, in some degree, with the sadness of the learned Sanctius ; who tells us, that he 
had " always lamented, and often with tears, that while other branches of learning 
were excellently taught, grammar, which is the foundation of all others, lay so much 
neglected, and that for this neglect there seemed to be no adequate remedy." — Pref. 
to Minerva. The grammatical use of language is in sweet alliance with the moral ; 
and a similar regret seems to have prompted the following exclamation of the Chris- 
tian poet : 

" Sacred Interpreter of human thought, 
How few respect or use thee as they ought !" — Cowper. 

28. No directions, either oral or written, can ever enable the heedless and the* 
unthinking to speak or write well. That must indeed be an admirable book, which 
can attract levity to sober reflection, teach thoughtlessness the true meaning of 
words, raise vulgarity from its fondness for low examples, awaken the spirit which 
attains to excellency of speech, and cause grammatical exercises to be skillfully man- 
aged, where teachers themselves are so often lamentably deficient in them. Yet 
something may be effected by means of better books, if better can be introduced. 
And what withstands ? — Whatever there is of ignorance or error in relation to the 
premises. And is it arrogant to say there is much ? Alas .' in regard to this, as well 
as to many a weightier matter, one may too truly affirm, Multa non sunt sicut mul- 



CHAP. IX.] OF THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING GRAMMAR. Ill 

tis videntur — Many things are not as they seem to many. Common errors are apt 
to conceal themselves from the common mind ; and the appeal to reason and just 
authority is often frustrated, because a wrong head defies both. But, apart from this, 
there are difficulties : multiplicity perplexes choice ; inconvenience attends change ; 
improvement requires effort ; conflicting theories demand examination ; the princi- 
ples of the science are ufiprofitably disputed ; the end is often divorced from the 
means ; and much that belies the title, has been published under the name. 

29. It is certain, that the printed formularies most commonly furnished for the 
important exercises of parsing and correcting, are either so awkwardly written or so 
negligently followed, as to make grammar, in the mouths of our juvenile orators, 
little else than a crude and faltering jargon. Murray evidently intended that his 
book of exercises should be constantly used with his grammar ; but he made the 
examples in the former so dull and prolix, that few learners, if any, have ever gone 
through the series agreeably to his direction. The publishing of them in a separate 
volume, has probably given rise to the absurd practice of endeavouring to teach his 
grammar without them. The forms of parsing and correcting which this author fur- 
nishes, are also misplaced ; and when found by the learner, are of little use. They 
are so verbose, awkward, irregular, and deficient, that the pupil must be either a dull 
boy or utterly ignorant of grammar, if he cannot express the facts extemporaneously 
in better English. They are also very meagre as a whole, and altogether inadequate 
to their purpose ; many things that frequently occur in the language, not being at 
all exemplified in them, or even explained in the grammar itself. When we consider 
how exceedingly important it is, that the business of a school should proceed without 
loss of time, and that, in the oral exercises here spoken of, each pupil should go 
through his part promptly, clearly, correctly, and fully, we cannot think it a light 
objection that these forms, so often to be repeated, are so baJly written. Nor does 
the objection lie against this writer only : " Ab uno disce omnes." But the reader 
may demand some illustrations.* 

30. First — from his etymological parsing : " Virtue ! how amiable thou art 1" 
Here his form for the word Virtue is — " Virtue is a common substantive, of the neuter 
gender, of the third person, in the singular number, and the nominative case." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii, p. 2. It should have been — " Virtue is a common noun, 
personified proper, of the second person, singular number, feminine gender, and nomi- 
native case." And then the definitions of all these things should have followed in 
regular numerical order. He gives the class of this noun wrong, for virtue addressed 
becomes an individual ; he gives the gender wrong, and in direct contradiction to 
what he says of the word in his section on gender ; he gives the person wrong, as 
may be seen by the pronoun thou, which represents it ; he repeats the definite article 
three times unnecessarily, and inserts two needless prepositions, making them differ- 
ent where the relation is precisely the same : and all this, in a sentence of two lines, 

* Many other grammars, later than Murray's, have been published, some in England, some in America, and 
some in both countries ; and among these there are, I think, a few in which a little improvement has been made, 
in the methods prescribed for the exercises of parsing and correcting. In most, however, nothing of the kind 
has been attempted. And, of the formularies which have been given, the best that I have seen, are still miser- 
ably defective, and worthy of all the censure that is expressed in the paragraph above ; while others, that 
appear in works not entirely destitute of merit, are absolutely much xoorse than Murray's, and worthy to con- 
demn to a speedy oblivion the books in which they are printed. In lieu of forms of expression, clear, orderly, 
accurate, and full; such as a young parser might profitably imitate; 6uch as an experienced one would be sure 
to approve; what have we? A chaos of half-formed sentences, for the ignorant pupil to flounder in; an infi- 
nite abyss of blunders, which a world of criticism could not fully expose! See, for example, the seven pages 
of parsing, in the neat little book entitled, "A Practical Grammar of the English Language, by the Rev. David 
Blair: Seventh Edition: London, 1815:" pp. 49 to 57. I cannot consent to quote more than one short paragraph 
of the miserable jumble which these pages contain. Yet the author is evidently a man of learning, and capable 
of writing well on some subjects, if not on this. "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" Form: '■'■Bless, a verb, 
(repeat 97) ; active (repeat 99) ; active voice (102) ; infinitive mood (107) ; third person, soul being the nomina- 
tive (118); present tense (111); conjugate the verb after the pattern (129); its object is Lord (!>9)." — Blair's 
Gram., p. 50. Of the paragraphs referred to, I must take some notice: "107. The imperative mood commands 
or orders or intreats." — lb., p. 19. " 118. The second person is always the pronoun thou or you in the singular, 
and ye or you in the plural." — lb., p. 21. "111. The imperative mood has no distinction of tense; and the 
infinitive has no distinction of persons." — lb., p. 20. Now the author should have said: " Bless is a redundant 
active-transitive verb, from bless, blessed or blest, blessing, blessed or blest; found in the imperative mood, 
present ten6e, second person, and singular number:" and, if he meant to parse the word syntactically, he should 
have added : "and agrees with its nominative thou understood ; according to the rule which says, ' Every finite 
verb must agree with its subject or nominative, in person aud number.' Because the meaning is — Bless thou the 
Lord." This is the whole story. But, in the form above, several things are false; many, superfluous; some, 
deficient; several, misplaced; nothing, right. Not much better are the models furnished by Kirkham, Smith, 
Lennie, Bullions, and other late authors. 



112 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IX. 

to tell the properties of the noun Virtue! — But further: in etymological parsing, 
the definitions explaining the properties of the parts of speech, ought to be regularly 
and rapidly rehearsed by the pupil, till all of them become perfectly familiar ; and 
till he can discern, with the quickness of thought, what alone will be true for the full 
description of any word in any intelligible sentence. All these the author omits; 
and, on account of this omission, his whole method of etymological parsing is miser- 
ably deficient* 

31. Secondly— from his syntactical parsing : "Vice degrades us." Here his form 
for the word" Vice is — " Vice is a common substantive, of the third person, in the sin- 
gular number, and the nominative case." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii, p. 9. Now, 
when the learner is told that this is the syntactical parsing of a noun, and the other 
the etymological, he will of course conclude, that to advance from the etymology to 
the syntax of this part of speech, is merely, to omit the gender — this being the only 
difference between the two forms. But even this difference had no other origin than 
the compiler's carelessness in preparing his octavo book of exercises — the gender 
being inserted in the duodecimo. And what then ? Is the syntactical parsing of a 
noun to be precisely the same as the etymological ? Never. But Murray, and all 
who admire and follow his work, are content to parse many words by halves — 
making, or pretending to make, a necessary distinction, and yet often omittiug, in 
both parts of the exercise, every thing which constitutes the difference. He should 
here; have said — " Vice is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, 
neuter gender, and nominative case : and is the subject of degrades ; according to 
the rule which says, ' A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a verb, must be 
in the nominative case.' Because the meaning is — vice degrades" This is the 
whole description of the word, with its construction ; and to say less, is to leave the 
matter unfinished. 

32. Thirdly — from his " Mode of verbally correcting erroneous sentences:" Take 
his first example : " The man is prudent which speaks little." (How far silence is 
prudence, depends upon circumstances : I waive that question.) The learner is 
here taught to say, " This sentence is incorrect ; because which is a pronoun of the 

* Of Dr. Bullions' s forms of parsing, as exhibited in his English Grammar, which is a modification of Len- 
nie's Grammar, it is difficult to say, whether they are most remarkable for their deficiencies, their redundan- 
cies, or their contrariety to other teachings of the same author or authors. Both Lennie and Bullions adopt the 
rub, that, "An ellipsisis not alloivable when it would obscure the sentence, weaken its force, or be attended 
with an impropriety." — L., p. 91 ; B., p. 130. And the latter strengthens this doctrine with several additional 
observations, the first of which reads thus : " In general, no viord should be omitted that is necessary to the full 
and correct construction, or even harmony of a sentence." — Bullions, E. Gr., 130. Now the parsing above 
alluded to, has been thought particularly commendable for its brevity — a quality certainly desirable, so far as it 
consists with the end of parsing, or with the more needful properties of a good style, clearness, accuracy, ease, 
and elegance. But, if the foregoing rule and observation are true, the models furnished by these writers are 
not commendably brief, but miserably defective. Their brevity is, in fact, such as renders them all bad En- 
glish; and not only so, it makes them obviously inadequate to their purpose, as bringing into use but a part of 
the principles which the learner had studied. It consists only in the omission of what ought to have been 
inserted. For example, this short line, " I lean upon the Lord," is parsed by both of these gentlemen thus: 
"7, the first personal pronoun, masculine, or feminine, singular, the nominative — lean, a verb, neuter, first per- 
8 m singular, present, indicative — upon, a preposition — the, an article, the definite — Lord, a noun, masculine, 
singular, the objective, (governed by upon.)" — Lennie' s Principles of English Gram., p. 51 ; Bullions' s, 74. 
This is a little sample of their etymological parsing, in which exercise they generally omit not only all the defi- 
nitions or "reasons" of the various terms applied, but also all the following particulars: first, the verb is, and 
certain definitives and connectives, which are "necessary to the full and correct construction" of their sen- 
tences; secondly, the distinction of nouns as proper or common; thirdly, the person of nouns, first, second, or 
third; fourthly, the words, number, gender, and case, which are necessary to the sense and construction of cer- 
tain words used ; fifthly, the distinction of adjectives as belonging to different classes; sixthly, the division of 
verbs as being regular or irregular, redundant or defective; seventhly, sometimes, (Lennie excepted,) the divi- 
sion of verbs as active, passive, or neuter; eighthly, the words mood and tense, which Bullions, on page 131, 
pronounces " quite unnecessary," and inserts in his own formule on page 132 ; ninthly, the distinction of ad- 
verbs as expressing time, place, degree, or manner; tenthly, the distinction of conjunctions as copulative or 
disjunctive; lastly, the distinction of interjections as indicating different emotions. All these things does their 
completest specimen of etymological parsing lack, while it is grossly encumbered with parentheses of syntax, 
which' '■'■must be omitted till the pupil get the rules of syntax." — Lennie, p. 51. It is also vitiated with several 
absurdities, contradictions, and improper changes of expression: as, "His, the third personal pronoun;" (B., 
p. 23;) — me, the first personal pronoun;' 1 '' (Id., 74;) — "A, The indefinite article;" (Id., 73;) — "a, an article, the 
indefinite;" (Id., 74;) — "When the verb ispassive, parse thus: '■A verb active, in the passive voice, regular, 
irregular," &c." — Bullions, p. 131. In stead of teaching sufficiently, as elements of etymological parsing, the 
definitions which belong to this exercise, and then dismissing them for the principles of syntax, Dr. Bullions 
encumbers his method of syntactical parsing with such a series of etymological questions and answers as can- 
not but make it one of the slowest, longest, and most tiresome ever invented. He thinks that the pupil, after 
parsing any word syntactically, " should be requested to assign a reason for every thing contained in his state- 
ment!" — Principles of E. Grammar, p. 131. And the teacher is to ask questions as numerous as the reasons! 
Such is the parsing of a text-book which has been pronounced " superior to any other, for use in our common 
school's" — "a, complete grammar of the language, and available for every purpose for which Mr. Brown's can 
possibly be used." — Ralph K. Finch's Report, p. 12. 



CHAP. IX.] OF THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING GRAMMAR. 113 

neuter gender, and does not agree in gender with its antecedent man, which is mas- 
culine. But a pronoun should agree with its antecedent in gender, &c. according 
to the fifth rule of syntax. Which should therefore be who, a relative pronoun, 
agreeing with its antecedent man ; and the sentence should stand thus : ' The man 
is prudent who speaks little.' " — Murray's Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 18; Exercises, 
12mo, p. xii. Again : " 'After I visited Europe, I returned to America.' This sen- 
tence," says Murray, " is not correct ; because the verb visited is in the imperfect 
tense, and yet used here to express an action, not only past, but prior to the time 
referred to by the verb returned, to which it relates. By the thirteenth rule of syn- 
tax, when verbs are used that, in point of time, relate to each other, the order of 
time should be observed. The imperfect tense visited should therefore have been 
had visited, in the pluperfect tense, representing the action of visiting, not only as 
past, but also as prior to the time of returning. The sentence corrected would stand 
thus : 'After I had visited Europe, I returned to America.'" — Gr., ii, p. 19 ; and 
Ex. 12mo, p. xii. These are the first two examples of Murray's verbal corrections, 
and the only ones retained by Alger, in his improved, recopy-righted edition of 
Murray's Exercises. Yet, in each of them, is the argumentation palpably false ! In 
the former, truly, which should be who y but not because which is " of the neuter 
gender ;" but because the application of that relative to persons, is now nearly 
obsolete. Can any grammarian forget that, in speaking of brute animals, male or 
female, we commonly use which, and never who? But if ivhich must needs be 
neuter, the world is wrong in this. — As for the latter example, it is right as it stands ; 
and the correction is, in some sort, tautological. The conjunctive adverb after 
makes one of the actions subsequent to the other, and gives to the visiting all the 
priority that is signified by the pluperfect tense. " After I visited Europe," is equi- 
valent to " When I had visited Europe." The -whole argument is therefore void.* 

33. These few brief illustrations, out of thousands that might be adduced in proof 
of the faultiness of the common manuals, the author has reluctantly introduced, to 
show that even in the most popular books, with all the pretended improvements of 
revisers, the grammar of our language has never been treated with that care and 
ability which its importance demands. It is hardly to be supposed that men un- 
used to a teacher's duties, can be qualified to compose such books as will most 
facilitate his labours. Practice is a better pilot than theory. And while, in respyct 
to grammar, the consciousness of failure is constantly inducing changes from one 
system to another, and almost daily giving birth to new expedients as constantly to end 
in the same disappointment ; perhaps the practical instructions of an experienced 
teacher, long and assiduously devoted to the study, may approve themselves to 
many, as seasonably supplying the aid and guidance which they require. 

34. From the doctrines of grammar, novelty is rigidly excluded. They consist 
of details to which taste can lend no charm, and genius no embellishment. A writer 
may express them with neatness and perspicuity — their importance alone can com- 

* There are many other critics, besides Murray and Alger, who seem not to have observed the import of after 
and before in connexion with the tenses. Dr. Bullions, on page 139th of his English Grammar., copied the fore- 
going example from Lennie, who took it from Murray. Even .Richard Hiley, and William Harvey Wells, gram- 
marians of more than ordinary tact, have been obviously misled by the false criticism above cited. One of 
Hiley's Rules of Syntax, with its illustration, stands thus: "In the use of tlie different tenses, we must particu- 
larly observe to use that tense which clearly and properly conveys the sense intended ; thus, instead of saying, 
'After I visited Europe, I returned to America;' we should say, 'After I had visited Europe, I returned to 
America.'" — Hiley's Gram., p. 90. Upon this he thought it needful to comment thus: "'After I visited 
Europe, I returned to America;' this sentence is incorrect; visited ought to be had visited, because the action 
implied by the verb visited was completed before the other past action returned." — lb., p. 91. See nearly the 
same thing in Wells's School Grammar, 1st Edition, p. 151 ; but his later editions are wisely altered. Since 
" visited and loas completed" are of the same tense, the argument from the latter, if it proves any thing, proves 
the former to be right, and the proposed change needless, or perhaps worse than needless. " I visited Europe 
before I returned to America," or, " I visited Europe, and afterwards returned to America," is good English, 
and not to be improved by any change of tense; yet here too we see the visiting '■'■was completed before" the 
return, or had been completed at the time of the return. I say, " The Pluperfect Tense is that which ex- 
presses what had taken place at some past time mentioned : as, ' I had seen him, when I met you.' " Murray 
says, " The Pluperfect Tense represents a thing not only as past, but also as prior to some other point of time 
specified in the sentence: as, I had finished my letter before he arrived." Hiley says, "The Past-Perfect 
expresses an action or event which teas past before 6ome other past action or event mentioned in the sentence, 
and to which it refers ; as, I had finished my lessons before he came." With this, Wells appears to concur, his 
example being similar. It seems to me, that these last two definitions, and their example too. are bad ; because 
by the help of before or after, " the past before the past" 7/iaybe clearly expressed by the simple past tense: as, 
"lfinislied my letter before he arrived." — " I finished my lessons before he came.'''' " He arrived soon after I 
finished the letter." — " Soon after it was completed, he camein." 

8 



114 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. IX. 

mend them to notice. Yet, in drawing his illustrations from the stores of literature, 
the grammarian may select some gems of thought, which will fasten on the memory 
a worthy sentiment, or relieve the dullness of minute instruction. Such examples 
have been taken from various authors, and interspersed through the following pages. 
The moral effect of early lessons being a point of the utmost importance, it is espe- 
cially incumbent on all those who are endeavouring to confer the benefits of intel- 
lectual culture, to guard against the admission or the inculcation of any principle 
which may have an improper tendency, and be ultimately prejudicial to those whom 
they instruct. In preparing this treatise for publication, the author has been solicit- 
ous to avoid every thing that could be offensive to the most delicate and scrupulous 
reader ; and of the several thousands of quotations introduced for the illustration or 
application of the principles of the science, he trusts that the greater part will be 
considered valuable on account of the sentiments they contain. 

35. The nature of the subject almost entirely precludes invention. The author 
has, however, aimed at that kind and degree of originality which are to be com- 
mended in works of this sort. What these are, according to his view, he has suffi- 
ciently explained in a preceding chapter. And, though he has taken the liberty of 
a grammarian, to think for himself and write in a style of his own, he trusts it will 
be evident that few have excelled him in diligence of research, or have followed 
more implicitly the dictates of that authority which gives law to language. In criti- 
cising the critics and grammatists of the schools, he has taken them upon their own 
ground — showing their errors, for the most part, in contrast with the common prin- 
ciples which they themselves have taught ; and has hoped to escape censure, in his 
turn, not by sheltering himself under the name of a popular master, but by a diligence 
which should secure to his writings at least the humble merit of self-consistency. 
His progress in composing this work has been slow, and not unattended with labour 
and difficulty. Amidst the contrarieties of opinion, that appear in the various trea- 
tises already before the public, and the perplexities inseparable from so complicated 
a subject, he has, after deliberate consideration, adopted those views and explanations 
which appeared to him the least liable to objection, and the most compatible with 
his ultimate object — the production of a work which should show, both extensively 
and accurately, what is, and what is not, good English. 

36. The great art of meritorious authorship lies chiefly in the condensation of 
much valuable thought into few words. Although the author has here allowed 
himself ampler room than before, he has still been no less careful to store it with 
such information as he trusted would prevent the ingenious reader from wishing its 
compass less. He has compressed into this volume the most essential parts of a 
mass of materials in comparison with which the book is still exceedingly small. 
The effort to do this, has greatly multiplied his own labour and long delayed the 
promised publication ; but in proportion as this object has been reached, the time 
and patience of the student must have been saved. Adequate compensation for 
this long toil, has never been expected. Whether from this performance any profit 
shall accrue to the author or not, is a matter of little consequence ; he has neither 
written for bread, nor on the credit of its proceeds built castles in the air. His 
ambition was, to make an acceptable book, by which the higher class of students 
might be thoroughly instructed, and in which the eyes of the critical would find 
little to condemn. He is too well versed in the history of his theme, too well aware 
of the precarious fortune of authors, to indulge in any confident anticipations of ex- 
traordinary success : yet he will not deny that his hopes are large, being conscious 
of having cherished them with a liberality of feeling which cannot fear disappoint- 
ment. In this temper he would invite the reader to a thorough perusal of these 
pages. 

37. A grammar should speak for itself. In a work of this nature, every word or 
tittle which does not recommend the performance to the understanding and taste of 
the skillful, is, so far as it goes, a certificate against it. Yet if some small errors 
shall have escaped detection, let it be recollected that it is almost impossible to com- 
pose and print, with perfect accuracy, a work of this size, in which so many little 



CHAP. X.] OF GRAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS. 115 

tilings should be observed, remembered, and made exactly to correspond. There is 
no human vigilance which multiplicity may not sometimes baffle, and minuteness 
sometimes elude. To most persons grammar seems a dry and difficult subject ; but 
there is a disposition of mind, to which what is arduous, is for that very reason 
alluring. " Quo difficilius, hoc praeclarius," says Cicero ; " The more difficult, the 
more honourable." The merit of casting up a high-way in a rugged land, is propor- 
tionate not merely to the utility of the achievement, but to the magnitude of the 
obstacles to be overcome. The difficulties encountered in boyhood from the use of 
a miserable epitome and the deep impression of a few mortifying blunders made in 
public, first gave the author a fondness for grammar ; circumstances having since 
favoured this turn of his genius, he has voluntarily pursued the study, with an 
assiduity which no man will ever imitate for the sake of pecuniary recompense. 



CHAPTER X. 

OF GRAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS. 



"Scientiam autem nusquam esse censebant, nisi in animi motionibus atqne rationibus: qua de causa defini- 
tiones rerum probabant, et has ad omnia, de quibus disceptabatur, adhibebant." — Cioeeoxis Academica, Lib. 
i, 9- 

1. "The first and highest philosophy," says Puffendorf, "is that which delivers 
the most accurate and comprehensive definitions of things." Had all the writers 
on English grammar been adepts in this philosophy, there would have been much 
less complaint of the difficulty and uncertainty of the study. " It is easy," says 
Murray, " to advance plausible objections against almost every definition, rule, and 
arrangement of grammar." — Gram., 8vo, p. 59. But, if this is true, as regards his, 
or any other work, the reason, I am persuaded, is far less inherent in the nature of 
the subject than many have supposed.* Objectionable definitions and rules are but 
evidences of the ignorance and incapacity of him who frames them. And if the 
science of grammar has been so unskillfully treated that almost all its positions may 
be plausibly impugned, it is time for some attempt at a reformation of the code. 
The language is before us, and he who knows most about it, can best prescribe the 
rules which we ought to observe in the use of it. But how can we expect children 
to deduce from a few particulars an accurate notion of general principles and their 
exceptions, where learned doctors have so often faltered ? Let the abettors of gram- 
matical " induction 1 '' answer. 

2. Nor let it be supposed a light matter to prescribe with certainty the principles 
of grammar. For, what is requisite to the performance ? To know certainly, in 
the first place, what is the best usage. Nor is this all. Sense and memory must 
be keen, and tempered to retain their edge and hold, in spite of any difficulties 
which the subject may present. To understand things exactly as they are ; to dis- 
cern the differences by which they may be distinguished, and the resemblances by 
which they ought to be classified ; to know, through the proper evidences of truth, 

t-h ^muel Kirkham, whose grammar is briefly described in the third chapter of this introduction, boldlv lavs 
the blame of all his philological faults, upon our noble language itself; and even conceives, that a well-written 
and faultless grammar cannot be a good one, because it will not accord with that reasonless jumble which he 
takes every existing language to be ! How diligently he laboured to perfect his work, and with what zeal for 
truth and accuracy, may be guessed from the following citation : " The truth is, after all which can be done to 
render the definitions and rules of grammar comprehensive and accurate, they will still be found, when critically 
examined by men of learning and science, more or less exceptionable. These exceptions and imperfections are 
the unavoidable consequence of the imperfections of the language. Language as well as every thing else of 
human invention, will always be imperfect. Consequently, a perfect system of grammatical principles, ivould 
not suit it. ^ perfect grammar will not be produced, until some perfect being writes it for a perfect language ; 
and a perfect language will not be constructed, until some super-human agency is employed in its production. 
All grammatical principles and systems which are not perfect are exceptionable." —Kirkham' s Grammar, p. 
t \ I 1 ?, un P lausible sophistry of these strange remarks, and the palliation thev afford to the multitudinous de- 
lects ot the book which contains them, may be left, without further comment, to the judgement of the reader. 



116 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. X. 

that our ideas, or conceptions, are rightly conformable to the nature, properties, and 
relations, of the objects of which we think ; to see how that which is complex may 
be resolved into its elements, and that which is simple may enter into combination ; 
to observe how that which is consequent may be traced to its cause, and that which 
is regular be taught by rule ; to learn from the custom of speech the proper con- 
nexion between words and ideas, so as to give to the former a just application, to 
the latter an adequate expression, and to things a just description ; to have that 
penetration which discerns what terms, ideas, or things, are definable, and therefore 
capable of being taught, and what must be left to the teaching of nature : these are 
the essential qualifications for him who would form good definitions ; these are the 
elements of that accuracy and comprehensiveness of thought, to which allusion has 
been made, and which are characteristic of " the first and highest philosophy." 

3. Again, with reference to the cultivation of the mind, I would add : To observe 
accurately the appearances of things, and the significations of words ; to learn first 
principles first, and proceed onward in such a manner that every new truth may 
help to enlighten and strengthen the understanding ; and thus to comprehend grad- 
ually, according to our capacity, whatsoever may be brought within the scope of 
human intellect : — to do these things, I say, is, to ascend by sure steps, so far as we 
may, from the simplest elements of science — which, in fact, are our own, original, 
undefinable notices of things — towards the very topmost height of human wisdom 
and knowledge. The ancient saying, that truth lies hid, or in the bottom of a well, 
must not be taken without qualification ; for " the first and highest philosophy" has 
many principles which even a child may understand. These several suggestions, 
the first of which the Baron de PufTendorf thought not unworthy to introduce his 
great work on the Law of Nature and of Nations, the reader, if he please, may bear 
in mind, as he peruses the following digest of the laws and usages of speech. 

4. " Definitions," says Duncan, in his Elements of Logic, " are intended to make 
known the meaning of words standing for complex ideas ;* and were we always 
careful to form those ideas exactly in our minds, and copy our definitions from that 
appearance, much of the confusion and obscurity complained of in languages might 
be prevented." — P. 70. Again he says : " The writings of the mathematicians are 
a clear proof, how much the advancement of human knowledge depends upon a 
right use of definitions." — P. 72. Mathematical science has been supposed to be, 
in its own nature, that which is best calculated to develop and strengthen the rea- 
soning faculty ; but, as speech is emphatically the discourse of reason, I am per- 
suaded, that had the grammarians been equally clear and logical in their instructions, 
their science would never have been accounted inferior in this respect. Grammar 
is perhaps the most comprehensive of all studies ; but it is chiefly owing to the 
unskillfulness of instructors, and to the errors and defects of the systems in use, that 
it is commonly regarded as the most dry and difficult. 

5. " Poor Scaliger (who well knew what a definition should be) from his own 
melancholy experience exclaimed — L Nihil infelicius grammatico definitore /' No- 
thing is more unhappy than the grammatical definer." — Tooke's Diversions, Vol. i, 
p. 238. Nor do our later teachers appear to have been more fortunate in this mat- 
ter. A majority of all the definitions and rules contained in the great multitude of 
English grammars which I have examined, are, in some respect or other, erroneous. 
The nature of their multitudinous faults, I must in general leave to the discernment 
of the reader, except the passages be such as may be suitably selected for examples 
of false syntax. Enough, however, will be exhibited, in the course of this volume, 
to make the foregoing allegation credible ; and of the rest a more accurate judge- 
ment may perhaps be formed, when they shall have been compared with what this 
work will present as substitutes. The importance of giving correct definitions to 

* The phrase complex ideas, or compound ideas, has heen used for the notions which -we have of things con- 
sisting of different parts, or having various properties, so as to embrace some sort of plurality: thus our ideas 
of all bodies and classes of things are said to be complex or compound. Simple ideas are those in -which the 
mind discovers no parts or plurality : such are the ideas of heat, cold, blueness, redness, pleasure, pain, volition. 
&c. But some writers have contended, that the composition of ideas is a fiction ; and that all the complexity, 
in any case, consists only in the use of a general term in lieu of many particular ones. Locke is on one side of 
this debate, Home Tooke, on the other. 



CHAP. X.] OF GRAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS. 117 

philological terms, and of stating with perfect accuracy whatsoever is to be learned 
as doctrine, has never been duly appreciated. The grand source of the dishearten- 
ing difficulties encountered by boys in the study of grammar, lies in their ignorance 
of the meaning of words. This cause of embarrassment is not to be shunned and 
left untouched ; but, as far as possible, it ought to be removed. In teaching gram- 
mar, or indeed any other science, we cannot avoid the use of many terms to which 
young learners may have attached no ideas. Being little inclined or accustomed 
to reflection, they often hear, read, or even rehearse from memory, the plainest 
language that can be uttered, and yet have no very distinct apprehension of what 
it meaus. What marvel then, that in a study abounding with terms taken in a 
peculiar or technical sense, many of which, in the common manuals, are either left 
undefined, or are explained but loosely or erroneously, they should often be greatly 
puzzled, and sometimes totally discouraged ? 

6. Simple ideas are derived, not from teaching, but from sensation or conscious- 
ness ; but complex ideas, or the notions which we have of such things as consist of 
various parts, or such as stand in any known relations, are definable. A person can 
have no better definition of heat, or of motion, than what he will naturally get by 
moving towards a fire. Not so of our complex or general ideas, which constitute 
science. The proper objects of scientific instruction consist in those genuine per- 
ceptions of pure mind, which form the true meaning of generic names, or common 
nouns ; and he who is properly qualified to teach, can for the most part readily tell 
what should be understood by such words. But are not many teachers too careless 
here ? For instance : a boy commencing the process of calculation, is first told, 
that, " Arithmetic is the art of computing by numbers," which sentence he partly 
understands ; but should he ask his teacher, " What is a number, in arithmetic ?" 
what answer will he get ? Were Goold Brown so asked, he would simply say, 
" A number, in arithmetic, is an expression that tells how many ;" for every expres- 
sion that tells how many, is a number in arithmetic, and nothing else is. But as 
no such definition is contained in the books* there are ten chances to one, that, 
simple as the matter is, the readiest master you shall find, will give an erroneous 
answer. Suppose the teacher should say, " That is a question which I have not 
thought of ; turn to your dictionary." The boy reads from Dr. Webster: "Num- 
ber — the designation of a unit in reference to other units, or in reckoning, counting, 
enumerating." — " Yes," replies the master, " that is it ; Dr. Webster is unrivalled in 
giving definitions." Now, has the boy been instructed, or only puzzled ? Can he 
conceive how the number five can be a unit? or how the ^noyA five, the figure 5, or 
the numeral letter V, is " the designation of a unit V He knows that each of 
these is a number, and that the oral monosyllable five is the same number, in an 
other form ; but is still as much at a loss for a proper answer to his question, as if 
he had never seen either schoolmaster or dictionary. So is it with a vast number 
of the simplest things in grammar. 

V. Since what we denominate scientific terms, are seldom, if ever, such as stand 
for ideas simple and undefinable ; and since many of those which represent general 
ideas, or classes of objects, may be made to stand for more or fewer things, accord- 
ing to the author's notion of classification ; it is sufficiently manifest that the only 
process by which instruction can effectually reach the understanding of the pupil 
and remove the difficulties spoken of, is that of delivering accurate definitions. 
These are requisite for the information and direction of the learner ; and these must 
be thoroughly impressed upon his mind, as the only means by which he can know 
exactly how much and what he is to understand by our words. The power which 
we possess, of making known all our complex or general ideas of things by means 
of definitions, is a faculty wisely contrived in the nature of language, for the increase 

* Dilworth appears to have had a true idea of the thing, but he does not express it as a definition ; " Q. Is 
an Unit or one, a Number ? A. An Unit is a number, because it mat/ properly answer the question hoiv many !" 
— Schoolmaster's Assistant, p. 2. A number in arithmetic, and a number in grammar, are totally different 
things. The plural number, as men or horses, does not tell how many; nor does the word singular mean one, 
as the author of a recent grammar says it does. The plural number is one number, but it is not the singular. 
" The Productive System" teaches thus : " What does the word singular mean ? It means one.'"— Smith's New 
Gram., p. 7. 



118 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. X. 

and spread of science ; and, in the hands of the skillful, it is of vast avail to these 
ends. It is " the first and highest philosophy," instructing mankind, to think clearly 
and speak accurately ; as well as to know definitely, in the unity and permanence 
of a general nature, those things which never could be known or spoken of as the 
individuals of an infinite and fleeting multitude. 

8. And, without contradiction, the shortest and most successful way of teaching 
the young mind to distinguish things according to their proper differences, and to 
name or describe them aright, is, to tell in direct terms what they severally are. 
Cicero intimates that all instruction appealing to reason ought to proceed in this 
manner : " Omnis enim quae a ratione suscipitur de re aliqua institutio, debet a 
definitione proficisci, ut intelligatur quid sit id, de quo disputetur." — Off. Lib. i, p. 4. 
Literally thus : " For all instruction which from reason is undertaken concerning 
any thing, ought to proceed from a definition, that it may be understood what the 
thing is, about which, the speaker is arguing." Little advantage, however, will be 
derived from any definition, which is not, as Quintilian would have it, " Lucida et 
succincta rei descriptio," — " a clear and brief description of the thing." 

9. Let it here be observed that scientific definitions are of things, and not merely 
of words ; or if equally of words and things, they are rather of nouns than of the 
other parts of speech. For a definition, in the proper sense of the term, consists 
not in a mere change or explanation of the verbal sign, but in a direct and true 
answer to the question, What is such or such a thing ? In respect to its extent, it 
must with equal exactness include every thing which comes under the name, and 
exclude every thing which does not come under the name : then will it perfectly 
serve the purpose for which it is intended. To furnish such definitions, (as I have 
suggested,) is work for those who are capable of great accuracy both of thought 
and expression. Those who would quality themselves for teaching any particular 
branch of knowledge, should make it their first concern to acquire clear and accu- 
rate ideas of all things that ouQ-ht to be embraced in their instructions. These ideas 
are to be gained, either by contemplation upon the things themselves as they are 
presented naturally, or by the study of those books in which they are rationally and 
clearly explained. Nor will such study ever be irksome to him whose generous de- 
sire after knowledge, is thus deservedly gratified. 

10. But it must be understood, that although scientific definitions are said to be 
of things, they are not copied immediately from the real essence of the things, but 
are formed from the conceptions of the author's mind concerning that essence. 
Hence, as Duncan justly remarks, " A mistaken idea never fails to occasion a mis- 
take also in the definition." Hence, too, the common distinction of the logicians, 
between definitions of the name and definitions of the thing, seems to have little or 
no foundation. The former term they applied to those definitions which describe 
the objects of pure intellection, such as triangles, and other geometrical figures ; 
the latter, to those which define objects actually existing in external nature. 
The mathematical definitions, so noted for their certainty and completeness, have 
been supposed to have some peculiar preeminence, as belonging to the former class. 
But, in fact the idea of a triangle exists as substantively in the mind, as that of a 
tree, if not indeed more so ; and if I define these two objects, my description will, 
in either case, be equally a definition both of the name and of the thing ; but in 
neither, is it copied from any thing else than that notion which I have conceived, 
of the common properties of all triangles or of all trees. 

11. Infinitives, and some other terms not called nouns, may be taken abstractly 
or substantively, so as to admit of what may be considered a regular definition ; 
thus the question, " What is it to read V is nearly the same as, " W nat is reading V 
" What is it to be wise ?" is little different from, " What is wisdom V and a true 
answer might be, in either case, a true definition. Nor are those mere translations 
or explanations of words, with which our dictionaries and vocabularies abound, to 
be dispensed with in teaching : they prepare the student to read various authors 
with facility, and furnish him with a better choice of terms, when he attempts to 
write. And in making such choice, let him remember, that as affectation of hard 



CHAP. X.] OF GRAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS. 119 

words makes composition ridiculous, so the affectation of easy and common ones may 
make it unmanly. But not to digress. With respect to grammar, we must some- 
times content ourselves with such explications of its customary terms, as cannot 
claim to be perfect definitions ; for the most common and familiar things are not 
always those which it is the most easy to define. When Dr. Johnson was asked, 
" What is poetry P he replied, " Why, sir, it is easier to tell what it is not. We all 
know what light is : but it is not easy to tell what it is" — BoswslVs Life of John- 
son, Vol. iii, p. 402. This was thought by the biographer to have been well and 
ingeniously said. 

12. But whenever we encounter difficulties of this sort, it may be worth while to 
seek for their cause. If we find it, the understanding is no longer puzzled. Dr. 
Johnson seemed to his biographer, to show, by this ready answer, the acuteness of 
his wit and discernment. But did not the wit consist in adroitly excusing himself, 
by an illusory comparison ? What analogy is there between the things which he 
compares? Of the difficulty of defining poetry, and the difficulty of defining light, 
the reasons are as different as are the two things themselves, poetry and light. The 
former is something so various and complex that it is hard to distinguish its essence 
from its accidents ; the latter presents an idea so perfectly simple and unique that 
all men conceive of it exactly in the same way, while none can show wherein it 
essentially consists. But is it true, that, " We all know what light is ?" Is it not 
rather true, that we know nothing at all about it, but what it is just as easy to tell 
as to think ? We know it is that reflexible medium which enables us to see ; and 
this is definition enough for all but the natively blind, to whom no definition per- 
haps can ever convey an adequate notion of its use in respect to sight. 

13. If a person cannot tell what a thing is, it is commonly considered to be a fair 
inference, that he does not know. Will any grammarian say, " I know well enough 
what the thing is, but I cannot tell ?" Yet, taken upon th'is common principle, the 
authors of our English grammars, (if in framing their definitions they have not been 
grossly wanting to themselves in the exercise of their own art,) may be charged, \ 
think, with great ignorance, or great indistinctness of apprehension ; and that, too,, 
in relation to many things among the very simplest elements of their science. For 
example : Is it not a disgrace to a mau of letters, to be unable to tell accurately 
what a letter is? Yet to say, with Lowtb, Murray, Churchill, and a hundred others 
of inferior name, that, "A letter is the first principle or least part of a word," is to 
utter what is neither good English nor true doctrine. The two articles a and the 
are here inconsistent with each other. "^4 letter" is one letter, any letter; but 
" the first principle of a word" is, surely, not one or any principle taken indefinitely. 
Equivocal as the phrase is, it must mean either some particular principle, or some 
particular first principle, of a word ; and, taken either way, the assertion is false. 
For it is manifest, that in no sense can we affirm of each of the letters of a word, 
that it is " the first principle" of that word. Take, for instance, the word man. 
Is m the first priuciple of this word? You may answer, " Yes; for it is the first 
letter." Is a the first principle ? " No ; it is the second." But n too is a letter ; 
and is n the first principle ? "No; it is the last !" This grammatical error might 
have been avoided by saying, " Letters are the first principles, or least parts, of 
words." But still the definition would not be true, nor would it answer the ques- 
tion, What is a letter ? The true answer to which is : "A letter is an alphabetic 
character, which commonly represents some elementary sound of human articulation, 
or speech." 

14. This true definition sufficiently distinguishes letters from the marks used in 
punctuation, because the latter are not alphabetic, and they represent silence, rather 
than sound ; and also from the Arabic figures used for numbers, because these are 
no part of any alphabet, and they represent certain entire words, no one of which 
consists only of one letter, or of a single element of articulation. The same may be 
said of all the characters used for abbreviation ; as, & for and, % for dollars, or the 
marks peculiar to mathematicians, to astronomers, to druggists, &c. None of these 
are alphabetic, and they represent significant words, and not single elementary 



120 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. X. 

sounds : it would be great dullness, to assume that a word and an elementary sound 
are one and the same thing. But the reader will observe that this definition em- 
braces no idea contained in the faulty one to which I am objecting ; neither indeed 
could it, without a blunder. So wide from the mark is that notion of a letter, which 
the popularity of Dr. Lowth and his copyists has made a hundred-fold more com- 
mon than any other !* According to an other erroneous definition given by these 
same gentlemen, " Words are articulate sounds, used by common consent, as signs 
of our ideas." — Murray 1 s Gram., p. 22 ; Kirkham's, 20 ; IngersolVs, 1 ; Alger's, 12 ; 
MusselVs, 7; Merchant's, 9; Fish's, 11; Greenleaf's, 20; and many others. See 
Lowth's Gram., p. 6 ; from which almost all authors have taken the notion, that 
words consist of "sounds" only. But letters are no principles or parts of sounds at 
all ; unless you will either have visible marks to be sounds, or the sign to be a prin- 
ciple or part of the thing signified. Nor are they always principles or parts of 
words : we sometimes write what is not a word ; as when, by letters, we denote 
pronunciation alone, or imitate brute voices. If words were -formed of articulate 
sounds only, they could not exist in books, or be in any wise known to the deaf and 
dumb. These two primary definitions, then, are both false ; and, taken together, 
they involve the absurdity of dividing things acknowledged to be indivisible. In 
utterance, we cannot divide consonants from their vowels ; on paper, we can. Hence 
letters are the least parts of written language only ; but the least parts of spoken 
words are syllables, and not letters. Every definition of a consonant implies this. 

15. They who cannot define a letter or a word, may be expected to err in ex- 
plaining other grammatical terms. In my opinion, nothing is well written, that 
can possibly be misunderstood ; and if any definition be likely to suggest a wrong 
idea, this alone is enough to condemn it : nor does it justify the phraseology, to say, 
that a more reasonable construction can be put upon it. By Murray and others, 
the young learner is told, that, " A vowel is an articulate sound, that can be per- 
fectly uttered by itself ;" as if a vowel were nothing but a sound, and that a sort of 
echo, which can utter itself ; and next, that, " A consonant is an articulate sound, 
which cannot be perfectly uttered without the help of a vowel." Now, by their own 
showing, every letter is either a vowel or a consonant ; hence, according to these 
definitions, all the letters are articulate sounds. And, if so, what is a " silent letter ?" 
It is a silent articulate sound ! Again : ask a boy, " What is a triphthong?" He 
answers in the words of Murray, Weld, Pond, Smith, Adams, Kirkham, Merchant, 
Ingersoll, Bacon, Alger, Worcester, and others : " A triphthong is the union of three 
vowels, pronounced in like manner : as eau in beau, iew in view." He accurately 
cites an entire paragraph from his grammar, but does he well conceive how the three 
vowels in beau or view are "pronounced in like manner V Again : " A syllable is a 
sound, either simple or compound, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice." — 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 22. This definition resolves syllables into sounds ; whereas 
their true elements are letters. It also mistakes the participle compounded for the 
adjective compound ; whereas the latter only is the true reverse of simple. A com- 
pound sound is a sound composed of others which may be separated ; a sound com- 
pounded is properly that which is made an ingredient with others, but which may 
itself be simple. 

16. It is observable, that in their attempts to explain these prime elements of 
grammar, Murray, and many others who have copied him, overlook all written lan- 
guage ; whereas their very science itself took its origin, name, and nature, from the 
invention of writing ; and has consequently no bearing upon any dialect which has 
not been written. Their definitions absurdly resolve letters, vowels, consonants, syl- 
lables, and words, all into sounds ; as if none of these things had any existence on 
paper, or any significance to those who read in silence. Hence, their explanations 
of all these elements, as well as of many other things equally essential to the study, 

* It is truly astonishing that so great a majority of our grammarians could have been so blindly misled, as 
they have been, in this matter; and the more so, because a very good definition of a Letter was both published 
and republished, about the tinieat which Lowth'sfirst appeared: viz., ^ 4 What is a letter? A Letter is the Sign, 
Mark, or Character of a simple or uncoinpounded Sound. Are Letters Sounds ? Mo. Letters are only the Signs 
or Symbols of Sounds, not the Sounds themselves."— The British Grammar, p. 3. See the very same words on 
the second page of Buchanan's "English Syntax" a work which was published as early as 176T. 



CHAP. X.] OF GRAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS. 121 

are palpably erroneous. I attribute this to the carelessness with which men have 
compiled or made up books of grammar ; and that carelessness to those various cir- 
cumstances, already described, which have left diligence in a grammarian no hope 
of praise or reward. Without alluding here to my own books, no one being obliged 
to accuse himself, I doubt whether we have any school grammar that is much less 
objectionable in this respect, than Murray's ; and yet I am greatly mistaken, if nine 
tenths of all the definitions in Murray's system are not faulty. " It was this sort of 
definitions, which made Scaliger say, ' Nihil infelicius definitore grammatico? " — 
See Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 351 ; also Paragraph 5th, above. 

17. Nor can this objection be neutralized by saying, it is a mere matter of opin- 
ion — a mere prejudice originating in rivalry. For, though we have ample choice 
of terms, and may frequently assign to particular words a meaning and an explana- 
tion which are in some degree arbitrary ; yet whenever we attempt to define things 
under the name which custom has positively fixed upon them, we are no longer left 
to arbitrary explications ; but are bound to think and to say that only which shall 
commend itself to the understanding of others, as being altogether true to nature. 
When a word is well understood to denote a particular object or class of objects, 
the definition of it ought to be in strict conformity to what is known of the real 
being and properties of the thing or things contemplated. A definition of this kind 
is a proposition susceptible of proof and illustration ; and therefore whatsoever is 
erroneously assumed to be the proper meaning of such a term, may be refuted. 
But those persons who take every thing upon trust, and choose both to learn and to 
teach mechanically, often become so slavishly habituated to the peculiar phraseology 
of their text-books, that, be the absurdity of a particular expression what it may, 
they can neither discover nor suspect any inaccuracy in it. It is also very natural 
even for minds more independent and acute, to regard with some reverence whatso- 
ever was gravely impressed upon them in childhood. Hence the necessity that all 
school-books should proceed from skillful hands. Instruction should tell things as 
they are, and never falter through negligence. 

18. I have admitted that definitions are not the only means by which a general 
knowledge of the import of language may be acquired ; nor are they the only 
means by which the acquisition of such knowledge may be aided. To exhibit or 
point out things and tell their names, constitutes a large part of that instruction by 
which the meaning # of words is conveyed to the young mind ; and, in many cases, 
a mere change or apposition of terms ma.y sufficiently explain our idea. But when 
we would guard against the possibility of misapprehension, and show precisely what 
is meant by a word, we must fairly define it. There are, however, in every language, 
many words which do not admit of a formal definition. The import of all definitive 
and connecting particles must be learned from usage, translation, or derivation ; and 
nature reserves to herself the power of explaining the objects of our simple original 
perceptions. " All words standing for complex ideas are definable ; but those by 
which we denote simple ideas, are not. For the perceptions of this latter class, 
having no other entrauce into the mind, than by sensation or reflection, can be ac- 
quired only by experience." — Duncan'' s Logic, p. 63. " And thus we see, that as our 
simple ideas are the materials and foundation of knowledge, so the names of simple 
ideas may be considered as the elementary parts of language, beyond which we 
cannot trace the meaning and signification of words. When we come to them, we 
suppose the ideas for which they stand to be already known ; or, if they are not, 
experience alone must be consulted, and not definitions or explications." — Ibid., 
p. 69. 

19. But this is no apology for the defectiveness of any definition which might be 
made correct, or for the defectiveness of our English grammars, in the frequent 
omission of all explanation, and the more frequent adoption of some indirect form 
of expression. It is often much easier to make some loose observation upon what 
is meant hy a given word or term in science, than to frame a faultless definition of 
the thing ; because it is easier to refer to some of the relations, qualities, offices, or 
attributes of things, than to discern wherein their essence consists, so as to be able 



122 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. X. 

to tell directly and clearly what they are. The improvement of our grammatical 
code in this respect, was one of the principal objects which I thought it needful to 
attempt, when I first took up the pen as a grammarian. I cannot pretend to have 
seen, of course, every definition and rule which has been published on this subject ; 
but, if I do not misjudge a service too humble for boasting, I have myself framed a 
greater number of new or improved ones, than all other English grammarians 
together. And not a few of them have, since their first publication in 1823, been 
complimented to a place in other grammars than my own. This is in good keeping 
with the authorship which has been spoken of in an other chapter ; but I am con- 
strained to say, it affords no proof that they were well written. If it did, the defini- 
tions and rules in Murray's grammar must undoubtedly be thought the most correct 
that ever have been given : they have been more frequently copied than any others. 

20. But I have ventured to suggest, that nine tenths of this author's definitions 
are bad, or at least susceptible of some amendment. If this can be shown to the 
satisfaction of the reader, will he hope to find an other English grammar in which 
the eye of criticism may not detect errors and deficiencies with the same ease ? My 
object is, to enforce attention to the proprieties of speech ; and this is the very purpose 
of all grammar. To exhibit here all Murray's definitions, with criticisms upon 
them, would detain us too long. We must therefore be content to take a part of 
them as a sample. And, not to be accused of fixing only upon the worst, we will 
take a series. Let us then consider in their order his definitions of the nine parts 
of s.peeeh ; — for, calling the participle a verb, he reduces the sorts of words to that 
number. And though not one of his nine definitions now stands exactly as it did in 
his early editions, I think it may be said, that not one of them is now, if it ever has 
been, expressed grammatically. 

21. First Definition : — " An Article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point 
them out, and to show how far their* signification extends." — Murray, and others, 
from Lowth 1 s Gram., p. 10. This is obscure. In what manner, or in what respect, 
does an article point out substantives ? To point them out as such, or to show 
which words are substantives, seems at first view to be the meaning intended ; but 
it is said soon after, "A or an is used in a vague sense, to point out one single thing 
of the kind, in other respects indeterminate ; as, ' Give me a book ;' ' Bring me an 
apple.' " — Lowth, p. 11 ; Murray, p. 31. And again : "It is of the nature of both 
the articles to determine or limit the thing spoken of." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 
170. Now to point out nouns among the parts of speech, and to point out things as 
individuals of their class, are very different matters ; and which of these is the pur- 
pose for which articles are used, according to Lowth and Murray ? Their definition 
says the former, their explanations imply the latter ; and I am unable to determine 
which they really meant. The term placed before would have been better than 
'■'•prefixed ;" because the latter commonly implies junction, as well as location. The 
word " indeterminate" is not a very easy one for a boy ; and, when he has found 
out what it means, he may possibly not know to which of the four preceding nouns it 
ought to be referred : — " in a vague sense, to point out one single thing of the kind, 
in other respects indeterminate." What is this " vague sense ?" and what is it, that 
is " indeterminate ?" 

22. Second Definition: — "A Substantive or Noun is the name of anything 
that exists, or of which we have any notion." — Murray, and others. According to 
his own syntax, this sentence of Murray's is wrong ; for he himself suggests, that 
when two or more relative clauses refer to the same antecedent, the same pronoun 
should be used in each. Or clauses connected like these, this is true. He should 
therefore have said, " A Substantive, or Noun, is the name of any thing which exists, 
or of which we have any notion." His rule, however, though good against a text 
like this, is utterly wrong in regard to many others, and not very accurate in taking 
two for a " series," thus : " Whatever relative is used, in one of a series of clauses 
relating to the same antecedent, the same relative ought, generally to be used in 

* In Murray's octavo Grammar, this word is the in the first chapter, and their In the second ; in the duo' 
decimo, it is their in hoth places. 



CHAP. X.] OF GKAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS. 123 

them all. In the following sentence, this rule is violated: ' It is remarkable, that 
Holland, against which the war was undertaken, and that, in the very beginning, 
was reduced to the brink of destruction, lost nothing.' The clause ought to have 
been, ' and which in the very beginning.'" — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 155. But 
both the rule and the example, badly as they correspond, were borrowed from 
Priestley's Grammar, p. 102, where the text stands thus : " Whatever relative be 
used, in one of a series of clauses, relating to the same antecedent, the same ought 
to be used in them all. ' It is remarkable, that Holland,' " &c. 

23. Third Definition: — "An Adjective is a word added to a substantive, to 
express its quality." — Lowth, Murray, Bullions, Pond, and others. Here we have 
the choice of two meanings ; but neither of them is according to truth. It seems 
doubtful whether " its quality" is the adjective's quality, or the substantive's ; but in 
either sense, the phrase is false ; for an adjective is added to a noun, not to express 
any quality either of the adjective or of the noun, but to express some quality of the 
thing signified by the noun. But the definition is too much restricted ; for adjec- 
tives may be added to pronouns as well as to nouns, nor do they always express 
quality. 

24. Fourth Definition : — " A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to 
avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word." — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 25 ; 
Murray's, 28 and 50; Helton's, 18; Alger's, 13; Bacon's, 10; and others. The 
latter part of this sentence is needless, and also contains several errors. 1. The 
verb avoid is certainly very ill-chosen ; because it implies intelligent agency, and 
not that which is merely instrumental. 2. The article the is misemployed for 
a ; for, " the too frequent repetition," should mean some particular too frequent re- 
petition — an idea not intended here, and in itself not far from absurdity. 3. The 
phrase, " the same word," may apply to the pronoun itself as well as to the noun : 
in saying, " / came, I saw, I conquered," there is as frequent a repetition of the 
same word, as in saying, " Ccesar came, Cwsar saw, Caesar conquered." If, there- 
fore, the latter part of this definition must be retained, the whole should be written 
thus : " A Pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun, to prevent too frequent a re- 
petition of it." 

25. Fifth Definition : — " A Verb is a word which signifies to be, to do, or to 
suffer." — Lowth, Murray, and others. Note : — " A verb may generally be distin- 
guished by its making sense with any of the personal pronouns, or the word to be- 
fore it." — Murray, and others. It is confessedly difficult to give a perfect definition 
of a verb ; and if, with Murray, we will have the participles to be verbs, there must 
be no small difficulty in forming one that shall be tolerable. Against the foregoing 
old explanation, it may be objected, that the phrase to suffer, being now understood 
in a more limited sense than formerly, does not well express the nature or import of 
a passive verb. I have said, " A Verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be 
acted upon." Children cannot readily understand, how every thing that is in any 
way acted upon, may be said to suffer. The participle, I think, should be taken as a 
distinct part of speech, and have its own definition. The note added by Murray to 
his definition of a verb, would prove the participle not to be included in this part 
of speech, and thus practically contradict his scheme. It is also objectionable in 
respect to construction. The phrase " by its making sense" is at least very ques- 
tionable English ; for " its making" supposes making to be a noun, and " making 
sense" supposes it to be an active participle. But Lowth says, " Let it be either the 
one or the other, and abide by its own construction." Nay, the author himself, 
though he therein contradicts an other note of his own, virtually condemns the 
phrase, by his caution to the learner against treating words in ing, " as if they were of 
an amphibious species, partly nouns and partly verbs." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 193. 

26. Sixth Definition : — " An Adverb is a part of speech joined to a verb, an 
adjective, and sometimes to another adverb, to express some quality or circumstance 
respecting^." — Murray's Gram., pp. 28 and 114. See Dr. Ash's Gram., -p. 47. 
This definition contains many errors; some of which are gross blunders. 1. The 
first word, " An" is erroneously put for The : an adverb is one adverb, not the 



124 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. X. 

whole class ; and, if, " An adverb is a part of speech,''* any and every adverb is a 
part of speech ; then, how many parts of speech are there ? 2. The word "joined" 
is not well chosen ; for, with the exception of not in cannot, the adverb is very 
rarely joined to the word to which it relates. 3. The want of a comma before joined, 
perverts the construction ; for the phrase, " speech joined to a verb," is nonsense ; 
and to suppose joined to relate to the noun part, is not much better. 4. The word 
"*and" should be or ; because no adverb is ever added to three or four different 
terms at once. 5. The word " sometimes'''' should be omitted ; because it is needless, 
and because it is inconsistent with the only conjunction which will make the defini- 
tion true. 6. The preposition " to" should either be inserted before " an adjective" 
or suppressed before the term w 7 hich follows ; for when several words occur in the 
same construction, uniformity of expression is desirable. 7. For the same reason, 
(if custom may be thus far conformed to analogy,) the article " an" ought, in cases 
like this, if not always, to be separated from the word other ; thus, " An adverb is 
a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb." Were the 
eye not familiar with it, another would be thought as irregular as theother. 8. The 
word " quality" is WTong ; for no adverb ever expresses any quality, as such ; quali- 
ties are expressed by adjectives, and never, in any direct manner, by adverbs. 9. 
The " circumstances" which we express by adverbs never belong to the words, as this 
definition avers that they do, but always to the actions or qualities which the words 
signify. 10. The pronoun it, according to Murray's second rule of syntax, ought to 
be them, and so it stands in his own early editions ; but if arid be changed to or, 
as I have said it should be, the pronoun it will be right. 

27. Seventh Definition : — "Prepositions serve to connect words with one an- 
other, and to show the relation between them." — Lowth, Murray, and others. This 
is only an observation, not a definition, as it ought to have been ; nor does it at all 
distinguish the preposition from the conjunction. It does not reach the thing in 
question. Besides, it contains an actual solecism in the expression. The word 
" between" implies but two things; and the phrase "one another" is not applicable 
where there are but two. It should be, " to connect words with each other, and to 
show the relation between them ;" — or else, " to connect words with one an other, 
and to show the relations among them." But the latter mode of expression would 
not apply to prepositions considered severally, but only to the whole class. 

28. Eighth Definition : — " A Conjunction is apart of speech that is chiefly used 
to connect sentences ; so as, out of two or more sentences, to make but one : it 
sometimes connects only Avords." — Murray, and others. Here are more than thirty 
words, awkwardly and loosely strung together ; and all that is said in them, might 
be much better expressed in half the number. For example : " A Conjunction is a 
word which connects other terms, and commonly of two sentences makes but one." 
But verbosity and want of unity are not the worst faults of this definition. We 
have three others to point out. 1. "A conjunction is" not "a part of speech ;" be- 
cause a conjunction is one conjunction, and a part of speech is a whole class, or sort, 
of w T ords. A similar error was noticed in Murray's definition of an adverb ; and so 
common has this blunder become, that by a comparison of the definitions which 
different authors have given of the parts of speech, probably it will be found, that, 
by some hand or other, every one of the ten has been commenced in this way. 
2. The words " or more" are erroneous, and ought to be omitted ; for no one con- 
junction can connect more than two terms, in that consecutive order which the 
sense requires. Three or more simple sentences may indeed form a compound sen- 
tence; but, as they cannot be joined in a cluster, they must have two or more con- 
nectives. 3. The last clause erroneously suggests, than any or every conjunction 
"sometimes connects only words ;" but the conjunctions which may connect only 
words, are not more than five, whereas those which connect only sentences are four 
times as many. 

29. Ninth Definition : — " Interjections are words thrown in between the parts 
of a sentence, to express the passions or emotions of the speaker ; as, 'O Virtue! 
how amiable thou art !' " — Murray, and many others. This definition, which has 



CHAP. X.] OF GRAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS. 125 

been copied from grammar to grammar, and committed to memory millions of 
times, is obviously erroneous, and directly contradicted by the example. Interjec- 
tions, though often enough thrown in between the parts of a discourse, are very 
rarely " thrown in between the parts of a sentence. 1 '' They more frequently occur at 
the beginning of a sentence than any where else ; and, in such cases, they do not 
come under this narrow definition. The author, at the head of his chapter on inter- 
jections, appends to this definition two other examples ; both of which contradict 
it in like manner : " Oh ! I have alienated my friend." — " Alas ! I fear for life." 
Again : Interjections are used occasionally, in luritten, as well as in oral discourse ; 
nor are they less indicative of the emotions of the writer, than of those " of the 
speaker. 11 

30. I have thus exhibited, with all intentional fairness of criticism, the entire 
series of these nine primary definitions ; and the reader may judge whether they 
sustain the praises which have been bestowed on the book,* or confirm the allega- 
tions which I have made against it. He will understand that my design is, here, 
as well as in the body of this work, to teach grammar practically, by rectifying, so 
far as I may, all sorts of mistakes either in it or respecting it; to compose a book 
which, by a condensed exposition of such errors as are commonly found in other 
grammars, will at once show the need we have of a better, and be itself a fit substi- 
tute for the principal treatises which it censures. Grammatical errors are universally 
considered to be small game for critics. They must therefore be very closely grouped 
together, to be worth their room in this work. Of the tens of thousands who have 
learned for grammar a multitude of ungramrrfatical definitions and rules, compara- 
tively few will ever know what I have to say of their acquisitions. But this I cannot 
help. To the readers of the present volume it is due, that its averments should be 
clearly illustrated by particular examples ; and it is reasonable that these should be 
taken from the most accredited sources, w T hether they do honour to their frainers or 
not. My argument is only made so much the stronger, as the works which furnish 
its proofs, are the more esteemed, the more praised, or the more overrated. 

31. Murray tells us, "There is no necessary connexion between words and ideas." 
— Octavo Gram., Vol. i, p. 139. Though this, as I before observed, is not alto- 
gether true, he doubtless had very good reason to distinguish, in his teaching, " be- 
tween the sign and the thing signified? Yet, in his own definitions and explanations, 
he frequently confounds these very things which he declares to be so widely different 
as not even to have a " necessary connexion." Errors of this kind are very common 
in all our English grammars. Two instances occur in the following sentence ; which 
also contains an error in doctrine, and is moreover obscure, or rather, in its literal 
sense, palpably absurd: "To substantives belong gender, number, and case; and 
they are all of the third person when spoken of, and of the second person when 
spoken to." — Murray's Gram., p. 38; Alger's Murray, 16; Merchant's, 23; Ba- 
con's, 12; Maltby's, 12; Lyon's, V; Guy's, 4; Inger soil's, 26; S.Putnam's, 13; 
T. H. Miller's, 17; Rev. T. Smith's, 13. Who, but a child taught by language 
like this, would ever think of speaking to a noun ? or, that a noun of the second 
person could not be spoken of? or, that a noun cannot be put in the first person, so 
as to agree with / or we ? Murray himself once taught, that, " Pronouns must 
always agree with their antecedents, and the nouns for which they stand, in gender, 
number, and person ;" and he departed from a true and important principle of syn- 
tax, when he altered his rule to its present form. But I have said that the sentence 
above is obscure, or its meaning absurd. What does the pronoun " they" represent ? 
" Substantives," according to the author's intent ; but " gender, number, and case," 
according to the obvious construction of the words. Let us try a parallel : " To 
scriveners belong pen, ink, and paper; and they are all of primary importance when 
there is occasion to use them, and of none at all when they are not needed." Now, 
if this sentence is obscure, the other is not less so ; but, if this is perfectly clear, so 

* "The definitions and the rules throughout the Grammar, are expressed with neatness and perspicuity. They 
are as short and comprehensive as the nature of the subject would admit: and they are well adapted both to 
the understanding and the memory of young persons."— Life of L. Murray, p. 245. "It may truly be said, 
that the language in every part of the work, is simple, correct, and perspicuous."— lb., p. 246. 



126 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. X. 

that what is said is obviously and only what is intended, then it is equally clear, 
that what is said in the former, is gross absurdity, and that the words cannot reason- 
ably be construed into the sense which the writer, and his copyists, designed. 

32. All Murray's grammars, not excepting the two volumes octavo, are as incom- 
plete as they are inaccurate; being deficient in many things which are of so great 
importance that they should not be excluded from the very smallest epitome. For 
example : On the subject of the numbers, he attempted but one definition, and that 
is a fourfold solecism. He speaks of the persons, but gives neither definitions nor 
explanations. In treating of the genders, he gives but one formal definition. His 
section on the cases contains no regular definition. On the comparison of adjectives, 
and on the moods and tenses of verbs, he is also satisfied with a very loose mode of 
teaching. The work as a whole exhibits more industry than literary taste, more 
benevolence of heart than distinctness of apprehension ; and, like all its kindred and 
progeny, fails to give to the principles of grammar that degree of clearness of which 
they are easily susceptible. The student does not know this, but he feels the effects 
of it, in the obscurity of his own views on the subject, and in the conscious uncer- 
tainty with which he applies those principles. In grammar, the terms person, num- 
ber, gender, case, mood, tense, and many others, are used in a technical and peculiar 
sense ; and, in all scientific works, the sense of technical terms should be clearly 
and precisely defined. Nothing can be gained by substituting other names of 
modern invention ; for these also would need definitions as much as the old. We 
want to know the things themselves, and what they are most appropriately called. 
We Avant a book which will tell us, fc in proper order, and in the plainest manner, 
what all the elements of the science are. 

33. What does he know of grammar, who cannot directly and properly answer 
such questions as these % — " What are numbers, in grammar 1 What is the singular 
number? What is the plural number? What are persons, in grammar ? What 
is the first person ? What is the second person ? What is the third person ? What 
are genders, in grammar ? What is the masculine gender ? What is the feminine 
gender ? What is the neuter gender ? What are cases, in grammar ? What is 
the nominative case ? What is the possessive case ? What is the objective case ?" — 
And yet the most complete acquaintance with every sentence or word of Murray's 
tedious compilation, may leave the student at a loss for a proper answer, not only to 
each of these questions, but also to many others equally simple and elementary ! A 
boy may learn by heart all that Murray ever published on the subject of grammar, 
and still be left to confound the numbers in grammar with numbers in arithmetic, 
or the persons in grammar with persons in civil life! Nay, there are among the 
professed improvers of this system of grammar, men who have actually confounded 
these things, which are so totally different in their natures ! In " Smith's New 
Grammar on the Productive System," a work in which Murray is largely copied 
and strangely metamorphosed, there is an abundance of such confusion. For in- 
stance : " What is the meaning of the word number ? Number means a sum that 
may be counted? — R, C. Smith's New Gram., p. 7. From this, by a tissue of half 
a dozen similar absurdities, called inductions, the novice is brought to the conclusion 
that the numbers are two — as if there were in nature but two sums that might be 
counted ! There is no end to the sickening detail of such blunders. How many 
grammars tell us, that, "The first person is the person who speaks ;" that, "The 
second person is the person spoken to f and that, " the third person is the person 
spoken off'' As if the three persons of a verb, or other part of speech, were so 
many intelligent beings ! As if, by exhibiting a word in the three persons, (as go, 
goest, goes,) we put it first into the speaker, then into the hearer, and then into some- 
body else ! Nothing can be more abhorrent to grammar, or to sense, than such 
confusion. The things which are identified in each of these three definitions, are as 
unlike as Socrates and moonshine ! The one is a thinking being; the other, a mere 
form peculiar to certain words. But Chandler, of Philadelphia, (" the Grammar 
King," forsooth !) without mistaking the grammatical persons for rational souls, has 
contrived to crowd into his definition of person more errors of conception and of 



CHAP. X.] OF GRAMMATICAL DEFINITIONS. 127 

language, — more insult to common sense, — than one could have believed it possible 
to put together in such space. And this ridiculous old twaddle, after six and twenty- 
years, he has deliberately re-written and lately republished as something " adapted 
to the schools of America." It stands thus : " Person is a distinction which is made 
in a noun between its representation of its object, either as spoken to, or spoken of." — 
Chandler's E. Grammar; Edition of 1821, p. 16 ; Ed. 1847, p. 21. 

34. Grammarians have often failed in their definitions, because it is impossible to 
define certain terms in the way in which the description has been commonly at- 
tempted. He who undertakes what is impossible must necessarily fail ; and fail too, 
to the discredit of his ingenuity. It is manifest that whenever a generic name in 
the singular number is to be defined, the definition must be founded upon some 
property or properties common to all the particular things included under the term. 
Thus, if I would define a globe, a wheel, or a pyramid, my description must be taken, 
not from what is peculiar to one or an other of these things, but from those proper- 
ties only which are common to all globes, all wheels, or all pyramids. But what 
property has unity in common with plurality^ on which a definition of number may 
be founded ? What common property have the three cases, by which we can clearly 
define case ? What have the three persons in common, which, in a definition of 
person, could be made evident to a child ? Thus all the great classes of grammat- 
ical modifications, namely, persons, numbers, genders, cases, moods, and tenses, though 
they admit of easy, accurate, and obvious definitions in the plural, can scarcely be 
defined at all in the singular. I do not say, that the terms person, number, gender, 
case, mood, and tense, in their technical application to grammar, are all of them 
equally and absolutely undefinable in the singular; but I say, that no definition, 
just in sense and suitable for a child, can ever be framed for any one of them. 
Among the thousand varied attempts of grammarians to explain them so, there are 
a hundred gross solecisms for every tolerable definition. For this, as I have shown, 
there is a very simple reason in the nature of the things. 

35. But this reason, as well as many other truths equally important and equally 
clear, our common grammarians, have, so far as I know, every man of them, over- 
looked. Consequently, even when they were aiming at the right thing, they fre- 
quently fell into gross errors of expression ; and, what is still more surprising, such 
errors have been entailed upon the very art of grammar, and the art of authorship 
itself, by the prevalence of an absurd notion, that modern writers on this subject 
can be meritorious authors without originality. Hence many a school- boy is daily 
rehearsing from his grammar-book what he might well be ashamed to have written. 
For example, the following definition from Murray's grammar, is found in perhaps a 
dozen other compends, all professing to teach the art of speaking and writing with 
propriety : " Number is the consideration of an object, as one or more"* Yet this 

* For this definition, Bee Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 40; Duodecimo, 41; Smaller Gram., IS; Aider's, 18; 
Baton's, 15; Frost's, 8, IngersolVs, 17; A Teacher's, S; Maltby's, 14; T. H. Miller's, 20; Fowl's. 18; S. Put- 
nam's, 15.; Russell's, 11; Merchant's Murray, 25; and Worcester's Univ. and Crit. Dictionary. Many other 
grammarians have attempted to define number; with what success a few examples will show: (1.) " Number 
is the distinction of one from many." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 40; Merchant's School Gram., 28; Greenleafs, 
22; Nutting's, 17; Picket's, 19; D. Adams's, 31. (2.) "Number is the distinction of one from more." — 
Fisher's Gram., 51; Alden's, 7. (3.) "Number is the distinction of one from several or many." — Goat's Gram., 
p. 24. (4.) " Number is the distinction of one from more than one." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 24; J. Flint's, 27; 
Wells's, 52. (5.) " Number is the distinction of one from more than one, or many." — Grant's Latin Gram., p. 7. 
(6.) "What is number? Number is the Distinction of one, from two, or many." — British Gram., p. 80; 
Buchanan's, 16. (7.) "You inquire, 'What is number'?' Merely this: the distinction of one from two, or 
many._ Greek substantives have three numbers." — Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 33. All these authors say, 
that, in English, "there are two numbers, the singular and the plural." According to their explanations, 
then, we have two " distinctions of one from two, several, more, or -many;" and the Greeks, by adding a dual 
number, have three 1 Which, then, of the two or three modifications or forms, do they mean, when they say, 
"Number is the distinction," «fcc. ? Or, if none of them, what else is meant? All these definitions had their 
origin in an old Latin one, which, although it is somewhat better, makes doubtful logic in its application: " Nu- 
MEBrjs est, unius et multorum distinctio. Numeri igitur sunt duo; Singularis et Plur.;lis." — Ruddiman's 
Gram., p. 21. This means: (S.) "Number is a distinction of one and many. The numbers therefore are two; 
the Singular and the Plural." But we have yet other examples: as, (9.) "Number is the distinction of objects, 
as one or more."— Kirkham's Gram., p. 39. " The distinction of objects as one," is very much like "the con- 
sideration of an object as more than one!" (10.) "Number distinguishes objects as one or more."— Cooper's 
Murray, p. 21 ; Practical Gram., p. 18. That is, number makes the plural to be either plural or singular for 
distinction's sake! (11.) "Number is the distinction of nouns with regard to the objects signified, as one or 
m °r e -"— ^sfc's ^w*ray, P- 19 * Here, too, number has " regard" to the same confusion ; while, by a gross error, 
its " distinction" is confined to " nouns" only ! (12.) " Number is that property of a noun by which it expresses 
one or more than one." —Bullions' s E. Gram., p. 12; Anahjt. Gram., 25. Here again number is improperly 
limited to "a noicn;" and is said to be one sign of two, or either of two, incompatible ideas! (13.) " Number 



128 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. X. 

short sentence, as I have before suggested, is a fourfold solecism. First, the word 
" number''' is wrong ; because those modifications of language, which distinguish 
unity and plurality, cannot be jointly signified by it. {Secondly, the word " consider- 
ation''' is wrong ; because number is not consideration, in any sense which can be 
put upon the terms : condition, constitution, configuration, or any other word begin- 
ning with con, would have done just as well. Thirdly, " the consideration of an 
object as one," is but idle waste of thought ; for, that one thing is one, — that an 
object is one object, — every child knows by intuition, and not by " consideration." 
Lastly, to consider " an object as more" than one, is impossible ; unless this admi- 
rable definition lead us into a misconception in so plain a case ! So much for the 
art of " the grammatical clefiner." 

36. Many other examples, equally faulty and equally common, might be quoted 
and criticised for the further proof and illustration of what I have alleged. But 
the reader will perhaps judge the foregoing to be sufficient. I have wished to be 
brief, and yet to give my arguments, and the neglected facts upon which they rest, 
their proper force upon the mind. Against such prejudices as may possibly arise 
from the authorship of rival publications, or from any interest in the success of one 
book rather than of an other, let both my judges and me be on our guard. I have 
intended to be fair ; for captiousness is not criticism. If the reader perceives in 
these strictures any improper bias, he has a sort of discernment which it is my mis- 
fortune to lack. Against the compilers of grammars, I urge no conclusions at which 
any man can hesitate, who accedes to my preliminary remarks upon them ; and 
these may be summed up in the following couplet of the poet Churchill : 

" To copy beauties, forfeits all pretence 
To fame ; — to copy faults, is want of sense." 

shows how many are meant, whether one or more." — Smith's New Gram., p. 45. This is not a definition, but 
a false assertion, in which Smith again confounds arithmetic with grammar ! Wheat and oats are of different num- 
bers ; but neither of these numbers " means a sum that may be counted,' 1 '' or really " shows how many are meant." 
So of "Man in general, Horses in general, &c." — Brightland's Gram., p. 77. (14.) " Number is the difference 
in a noun or pronoun, to denote either a single thing or more than one." — Davenport's Gram., p. 14. This ex- 
cludes the numbers of a verb, and makes the singular and the plural to be essentially one thing. (15.) " Number 
is a modification of nouns and verbs, &c. according as the thing spoken of is represented, as, one or more, with 
regard to number." — Burn's Gram., p. 32. This also has many faults, which 1 leave to the discernment of the 
reader. (16.) "What is number? Number shows the distinction of one from many." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 6. 
This is uo answer to the question asked ; besides, it is obviously worse than the first form, which has " is," for 
4t .s/ioms'." (17.) "What is Number? It is the representation of objects with respect to singleness, or plurality." 
— 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 34. If there are two numbers, they are neither of them properly described in this 
definition, or in any of the preceding ones. There is a gross misconception, in taking each or either of them to 
be an alternate representation of two incompatible ideas. And this sort of error is far from being confined to 
the present subject; it runs through a vast number of the various definitions contained in our grammars. (18.) 
4 ' Number is the inflection of a noun, to indicate one object or more than one. Or, Number is ilvi expression of 
unity or of more than unity." — Hiley's Gram., p. 14. How hard this author laboured to think what number is, 
and could not! (19.) "Number is the distinction of unity and plurality." — Hart's E. Gram., p. 40, Why say, 
"distinction;" the numbers, or distinctions, being two? (20.) " Number is the capacity of nouns to represent 
either one or more than one object." — Barrett's Revised Gram., p. 40. (21.) "Number is a property of the 
noun which denotes one or more than one." — Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 55. (22.) " Number is a property of the 
noun or pronoun [,] by which it denotes one, or more than one." — Weld's Gram., Abridged. Ed.., p. 49. (23.) 
44 Number is the property that distinguishes one from more than one." — Weld's Gram., Improved Ed., p. GO. 
This, of course, excludes the plural. (24.) 44 Number is a modification of nouns to denote whether one object 
is meant, or more than one." — Butler's Gram., p. 19. (25.) " Number is that modification of the Noun which 
distinguishes one from more than one." — Spencer's Gram., p. 26. Now, it is plain, that not one of these twenty- 
five definitions comports with the idea that the singular is one number and the plural an other ! Not one of them 
exhibits any tolerable approach to accuracy, either of thought or of expression ! Many of the grammarians have 
not attempted any definition of number, or of the numbers, though they speak of both the singular and the plu- 
ral, and perhaps sometimes apply the term number to the distinction which is in each: for it is the property of 
the singular number, to distinguish unity from plurality; and of the plural, to distinguish plurality from unity. 
Among the authors who are thus silent, are Lily, Colet, Brightland, Harris, Lowth, Ash, Priestley, Bicknell, 
Adam, Gould, Harrison, Comly, Jaudon, Webster, Webber, Churchill, Staniford, Lennie, Dalton, Blair, Cob- 
bett, Cobb, A. Flint, Felch, Guy, Hall, and S. W. Clark. Adam and Gould, however, in explaining the properties 
of verbs, say: "Number marks how many we suppose to be, to act, or to suffer." — A., 80; <?., 78. 



CHAP. XI.] BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 129 

CHAPTER XI. 

BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 



" Sed ut perveniri ad summa nisi ex principiis non potest : ita, procedente jam opere, minima incipiunt esse 
quse prima sunt." — Qtjintilian. De Inst. Orat, Lib. x, Cap. 1, p. 560. 



1. The history of grammar, in the proper sense of the term, has heretofore been 
made no part of the study. I have imagined that many of its details might be 
profitable, not only to teachers, but to that class of learners for whose use this work 
is designed. Accordingly, in the preceding pages, there have been stated numerous 
facts properly historical, relating either to particular grammars, or to the changes 
and progress of this branch of instruction. These various details it is hoped will be 
more entertaining, and perhaps for that reason not less useful, than those explana- 
tions which belong merely to the construction and resolution of sentences. The at- 
tentive reader must have gathered from the foregoing chapters some idea of what 
the science owes to many individuals whose names are connected with it. But it 
seems proper to devote to this subject a few pages more, in order to give some fur- 
ther account of the orio-in and character of certain books. 

2. The manuals by which grammar was first taught in English, were not prop- 
erly English Grammars. They were translations of the Latin Accidence ; and were 
designed to aid British youth in acquiring a knowledge of the Latin language, 
rather than accuracy in the use of their own. The two languages were often com- 
bined in one book, for the purpose of teaching sometimes both together, and some- 
times one through the medium of the other. The study of such works doubtless 
had a tendency to modify, and perhaps at that time to improve, the English style ot 
those who used them. For not only must variety of knowledge have led to copious^ 
ness of expression, but the most cultivated minds would naturally be most apt to ob- 
serve what was orderly in the use of speech. A language, indeed, after its proper 
form is well fixed by letters, must resist all introduction of foreign idioms, or become 
corrupted. Hence it is, that Dr. Johnson avers, " The great pest of speech is fre- 
quency of translation. No book was ever turned from one language into another, 
without imparting something of its native idiom ; this is the most mischievous and 
comprehensive innovation." — Preface to Joh. Diet., 4to, p. 14. Without expressly 
controverting this opinion, or offering any justification of mere metaphrases, or 
literal translations, we may well assert, that the practice of comparing different lan- 
guages, aud seeking the most appropriate terms for a free version of what is ably 
written, is an exercise admirably calculated to familiarize and extend grammatical 
knowledge. 

3. Of the class of books here referrred to, that which I have mentioned in an 
other chapter, as Lily's or King Henry's Grammar, has been by far the most 
celebrated and the most influential. Concerning this treatise, it is stated, that its 
parts were not put together in the present form, until eighteen or twenty years after 
Lily's death. " The time when this work was completed," says the preface of 1793, 
" has been differently related by writers. Thomas Hayne places it in the year 1543, 
and Anthony Wood, in 1545. But neither of these accounts can be right; for I 
have seen a beautiful copy, printed upon vellum, and illuminated, anno 1542, in 
quarto. And it may be doubted whether this was the first edition." — John Ward, 
Pre/., p. vii. In an Introductory Lecture, read before the University of London in 
1828, by Thomas Dale, professor of English literature, I find the following state- 
ment : " In this reign," — the reign of Henry VIII, — " the study of grammar was 
reduced to a system, by the promulgation of many grammatical treatises ; one of 
which was esteemed of sufficient importance to be honoured with a royal name. It 
was called, ' The Grammar of King Henry the Eighth ;' and to this, 'with other 

9 



130 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. XI. 

works, the young Shakspeare was probably indebted for some learning and much 
loyalty.' But the honour of producing the first English grammar is claimed by 
William Bullokar, who published, in the year 1586, ' A Bref Grammar for English,' 
being, to use his own words, ' the first Grammar for English that ever waz, except 
my Grammar at large.' " 

4. Ward's preface to Lily commences thus: "If we look back to the origin of 
our common Latin Grammar, we shall find it was no hasty performance, nor the 
work of a single person ; but composed at different times by several eminent and 
learned men, till the whole was at length finished, and by the order of King Henry 
VIII.[,] brought into that form in which it lias ever since continued. The English, 
introduction was written by the reverend and learned Dr. John Colet, Dean of St. 
PauVs, for the use of the school he had lately founded there ; and was dedicated 
by him to William Lily, the first high master of that school, in the year 1510; 
for which reason it has usually gone by the name of PauVs Accidence. The sub- 
stance of it remains the same, as at first ; though it has been much altered in the 
manner of expression, and sometimes the order, with other improvements. The En- 
glish syntax was the work of Lily, as appeal's by the title in the most ancient edi- 
tions, which runs thus : Gulielmi Lilii Angli Rudimenta.. But it has been greatly 
improved since his time, both with regard to the method, and an enlargement of 
double the quantity." 

5. Paul's Accidence is therefore probably the oldest grammar that can now be 
found in our language. It is not, however, an English grammar ; because, though 
written in antique English, and embracing many things which are as true of our 
language as of any other, it was particularly designed for the teaching of Latin. 
It begins thus : " In speech be these eight parts following : Noun, Pronoun, Verb, 
Participle, declined ; Adverb, Conjunction, Preposition, Interjection, un^eclined." 
This is the old platform of the Latin grammarians ; which differs from that of the 
Greek grammars, only in having no Article, and in separating the Interjection from 
the class of Adverbs. Som3 Greek grammarians, however, separate the Adjective 
from the Noun, and include the Participle with the Verb : thus, " There are in 
Greek eight species of words, called Parts of Speech ; viz. Article, Noun, Adjective, 
Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction." — Anthonys Valpy, p. 18. 
With respect to our language, the plan of the Latin Accidence is manifestly inac- 
curate ; nor can it be applied, without some variation, to the Greek. In both, as 
well as in all other languages that have Articles, the best amendment of it, and the 
nearest adherence to it, is, to make the Parts of Speech ten ; namely, the Article, 
the Noun, the Adjective, the Pronoun, the Verb, the Participle, the Adverb, the 
Conjunction, the Preposition, and the Interjection. 

6. The best Latin grammarians admit that the Adjective ought not to be called a 
Noun ; and the best Greek grammarians, that the Interjections ought not to be in- 
cluded among Adverbs. With respect to Participles, a vast majority of gram- 
marians in general, make them a distinct species, or part of speech ; but, on this 
point, the English grammarians are about equally divided : nearly one half include 
them with the verbs, and a few call them adjectives. In grammar, it is wrong to 
deviate from the old groundwork, except for the sake of truth and improvement ; 
and, in this case, to vary the series of parts, by suppressing one and substituting an 
other, is in fact a greater innovation, than to make the terms ten, by adding one and 
dividing an other. But our men of nine parts of speech innovated yet more : they 
added the Article, as did the Greeks ; divided the Noun into Substantive and Ad- 
jective ; and, without good reason, suppressed the Participle. And, of latter time, 
not a few have thrown the whole into confusion, to show the world " the order of 
[their] understanding." What was grammar fifty years ago, some of these have 
not thought it worth their while to inquire ! And the reader has seen, that, after all 
this, they can complacently talk of " the censure so frequently and so justly awarded 
to unfortunate innovators? — Kirkham's Gram., p. 10. 

7. The old scheme of the Latin grammarians has seldom, if ever, been literally 
followed in English ; because its distribution of the parts of speech, as declined 



CHAP. XI.] BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 131 

and undeclined, would not be true with respect to the English participle. With 
the omission of this unimportant distinction, it was, however, scrupulously retained 
by Dilworth, by the author of the British Grammar, by William Ward, by Bu- 
chanan, and by some others now little known, who chose to include both the arti- 
•cle and the adjective with the noun, rather than to increase the number of the parts 
of speech beyond eight. Dr. Priestley says, " I shall adopt the usual distribution 
of words into eight classes ; viz. Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Pre- 
positions, Conjunctions, and Interjections* I do this in compliance with the prac- 
tice of most Grammarians ; and because, if any number, in a thing so arbitrary, 
must be fixed upon, this seems to be as comprehensive and distinct as any. All the 
innovation I have made hath been to throw out the Participle, and substitute the 
Adjective, as more evidently a distinct part of speech." — Rudiments of English 
Gram., p. 3. All this comports well enough with Dr. Priestley's haste and careless- 
ness ; but it is not true, that he either adopted, " the usual distribution of words," 
or made an other " as comprehensive and distinct as any." His " innovation" too, 
which has since been countenanced by many other writers, I have already shown to 
be greater, than if, by a promotion of the article and the adjective, he had made the 
parts of speech ten. Dr. Beattie, who was Priestley's coeval, and a much better 
scholar, adopted this number without hesitation, and called every one of them by 
what is still its right name : " In English there are ten sorts of words, which are all 
found in the following short sentence ; ' I now see the good man coming ; but, alas ! 
he walks with difficulty.' / and he are pronouns ; now is an adverb ; see and walks 
are verbs ; the is an article ; good, an adjective ; man and difficulty are nouns, the 
former substantive, the latter abstract ; coming is a participle ; but, a conjunction ; 
alas! an interjection ; with, a preposition. That no other sorts of words are neces- 
sary in language, will appear, when we have seen in what respects these are neces- 
sary." — fieattie J s Moral Science, Vol. i, p. 30. This distribution is precisely that 
which the best French grammarians have usually adopted. 

8. Dr. Johnson professes to adopt the division, the order, and the terms, " of the 
common grammarians, without inquiring whether a fitter distribution might not be 
found." — Gram, before 4to Dict.,]>. 1. But, in the Etymology of his Grammar, he 
makes no enumeration of the parts of speech, and treats only of articles, nouns, ad- 
jectives, pronouns, and verbs ; to which if we add the others, according to the com- 
mon grammarians, or according to his own Dictionary, the number will be ten. 
And this distribution, which was adopted by Dr. Ash about 1*765, by Murray the 
schoolmaster about 1790, by Caleb Alexander in 1*795, and approved by Dr. Adam 
in 1793, has since been very extensively followed ; as may be seen in Dr. Crombie's 
treatise, in the Rev. Matt. Harrison's, in Dr. Mandeville's reading-books, and in the 
grammars of Harrison, Stamford, Alden, Coar, John Peirce, E. Devis, C. Adams, D. 
Adams, Chandler, Comly, Jaudon, Ingersoll, Hull, Fuller, Greenleaf, Kirkkam, Ferd. 
H. Miller, Merchant, Mack, Nutting, Bucke, Beck, Barrett, Barnard, Maunder, Web- 
ber, Emmons, Hazen, Bingham, Sanders, and many others. Dr. Lowth's distribu- 
tion is the same, except that he placed the adjective after the pronoun, the con- 
junction after the preposition, and, like Priestley, called the participle a verb, thus 
making the parts of speech nine. He also has been followed by many ; among 
whom are Bicknell, Burn, Lennie, Mennye, Lindley Murray, W. Allen, Guy, Church- 
ill, Wilson, Cobbett, Davis, David Blair, Davenport, Mendenhall, Wilcox, Picket, 
Pond, Russell, Bacon, Bullions, Brace, Hart, Lyon, Tob. H. Miller, Alger, A. Flint, 
Folker, S. Putnam, Cooper, Frost, Goldsbury, Hamlin, T. Smith, R. C. Smith, and 
Woodworth. But a third part of these, and as many more in the preceding list, are 
confessedly mere modifiers of Murray's compilation ; and perhaps, in such a case, 

* These are the parts of speech in some late grammars ; as, Barrett's, of 1854, Butler's, Covell's, Day's, Fra- 
zee's, Fowle's New, Spear's, Weld's, Wells's, and the Well-wishers'. In Frost's Practical Grammar, the words 
of the language are said to he "divided into eight classes," and the names are given thus: "Noun, Article, 
Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection"—?. 29. But the author afterwards 
treats of the Adjective, between the Article and the Pronoun, just as if he had forgotten to name it, and could 
not count nine with accuracy ! In Perley's Grammar, the parts of speech are a different eight : namely, Nouns, 
Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections, and Particles /"—P. 8. S. W. Clark 
has Priestley's classes, but calls Interjections " Exclamations." 



132 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. XL 

those have done best who have deviated least from the track of him whom they 
professed to follow.* 

9. Some seem to have supposed, that by reducing the number of the parts of 
speech, and of the rules for their construction, the study of grammar would be ren- 
dered more easy and more profitable to the learner. But this, as would appear' 
from the history of the science, is a mere retrogression towards the rudeness of its 
earlier stages. It is hardly worth while to dispute, whether there shall be nine parts 
of speech or ten ; and perhaps enough has already been stated, to establish the ex- 
pediency of assuming the latter number. Every word in the language must be 
included in some class, and nothing is gained by making the classes larger and less 
numerous. In all the artificial arrangements of science, distinctions are to be made 
according to the differences in things ; and the simple question here is, what differ- 
ences among words shall be at first regarded. To overlook, in our primary division, 
the difference between a verb and a participle, is merely to reserve for a subdivision, 
or subsequent explanation, a species of words which most grammarians have recog- 
nized as a distinct sort in their original classification. 

10. It should be observed that the early period of grammatical science was far 
remote from the days in which English grammar originated. Many things which 
Ave now teach and defend as grammar, were taught and defended two thousand years 
ago, by the philosophers of Greece and Rome. Of the parts of speech, Quintilian, 
who lived in the first century of our era, gives the following account : " For the an- 
cients, among whom were Aristotlef and Theodectes, treated only of verbs, nouns, 
and conjunctions : as the verb is what we say, and the noun, that of which we say 
it, they judged the power of discourse to be in verbs, and the matter m nouns, but 
the connexion in conjunctions. Little by little, the philosophers, and especially the 
Stoics, increased the number: first, to the conjunctions were added articles ; after- 
wards, 2^ re positions ; to nouns, was added the appellation; then the pronoun; 
afterwards, as belonging to each verb, the participle ; and, to verbs in common, 
adverbs. Our language [i. e., the Latin] does not require articles, wherefore they 
are scattered among the other parts of speech ; but there is added to the foregoing 
the interjection. But some, on the authority of good authors, make the parts only 
eight ; as Aristarchus, and, in our day, Palsemon ; who have included the vocable, 
or appellation, with the noun, as a species of it. But they who make the noun one 
and the vocable an other, reckon nine. But there are also some who divide the 
vocable from the appellation ; making the former to signify any thing manifest to 
sight or touch, as house, bed ; and the latter, any thing to which either or both are 
wanting, as wind, heaven, god, virtue. They have also added the asseveration and 
the attrectation, which I do not approve. Whether the vocable or appellation 
should be included with the noun or not, as it is a matter of little consequence, I 
leave to the decision of others." — See Quintil. de Inst. Orat., Lib. i, Cap. 4, § 24. 

11. Several writers on English grammar, indulging a strange unsettlement of 
plan, seem not to have determined in their own minds, how many parts of speech 
there are, or ought to be. Among these are Home Tooke, "Webster, Dalton, Car- 
dell, Green, and Cobb ; and perhaps, from what he says above, we may add the 
name of Priestley. The present disputation about the sorts of words, has been 
chiefly owing to the writings of Home Tooke, who explains the minor parts of 
speech as mere abbreviations, and rejects, with needless acrimony, the common clas- 
sification. But many have mistaken the nature of his instructions, no less than that 
of the common grammarians. This author, in his third chapter, supposes his audi- 
tor to say, "But you have not all this while informed me how many parts of speech 
you mean to lay down." To whom he replies, " That shall be as you please. Either 
two, or twenty, or more" Such looseness comported well enough with his particular 
purpose ; because he meant to teach the derivation of words, and not to meddle at 

* Felton, who is confessedly a modifier of Murray, claims as a merit, " the rejection of several useless parts 
tf speech" yet acknowledges " nine" and treats of ten ; " viz., Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Participles, Preposi- 
tions, Adjectives, [Articles,] Adverbs, Conjunctions, Exclamations." — 0. C. Felton's Gram. p. 5, and p. 9. 

t Quintilian is at fault here ; for, in some of his writings, if not generally, Aristotle recognized four parts of 
speech; namely, verbs, nouns, conjunctions, and articles. See Aristot. de Poetiea, Cap. xx. 



CHAP. XI.] BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 133 

all with their construction. But who does not see that it is impossible to lay down 
rules for the construction of words, without first dividing them into the classes to 
which such rules apply? For example: if a man means to teach, that, "A verb 
must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number," must he not first 
show the learner what words are verbs? and ought he not to see in this rule a rea- 
son for not calling the participle a verb ? Let the careless followers of Lowth and 
Priestley answer. Tooke did not care to preserve any parts of speech at all. His 
work is not a system of grammar; nor can it be made the basis of any regular 
scheme of grammatical instruction. He who will not grant that the same words 
may possibly be used as different parts of speech, must make his parts of speech 
either very few or very many. This author says, " I do not allow that any words 
change their nature in this manner, so as to belong sometimes to one part of speech, 
and sometimes to another, from the different ways of using them. I never could 
perceive any such fluctuation in any word whatever." — Diversions of Purley, Vol. 
i, p. 68. 

12. From his own positive language, I imagine this ingenious author never well 
considered what constitutes the sameness of words, or wherein lies the difference of 
the parts of speech ; and, without understanding these things, a grammarian can- 
not but fall into errors, unless he will follow somebody that knows them. But Tooke 
confessedly contradicts and outfaces " all other Grammarians" in the passage just 
cited. Yet it is plain, that the whole science of grammar — or at least the whole of 
etymology and syntax, which are its two principal parts — is based upon a division 
of words into the parts of speech ; a division which necessarily refers, in many in- 
stances, the same words to different sections according to the manner in which they 
are used. " Certains mots repondent, ainsi au meme temps, a diverses parties 
d'oraisoa selon que la grammaire les emploie diversement." — Buffier, Art. 150. 
" Some words, from the different ways in which they are used, belong sometimes to 
one part of speech, sometimes to another." — M^CullocKs Gram., p. 37. "And so 
say all other Grammarians." — Tooke, as above. 

13. The history of Dr. Webster, as a grammarian, is singular. He is remarkable 
for his changeableness, yet always positive ; for his inconsistency, yet very learned ; 
for his zeal " to correct popular errors," yet often himself erroneous ; for his fertility 
in resources, yet sometimes meagre; for his success as an author, yet never satisfied; 
for his boldness of innovation, yet fond of appealing to antiquity. His grammars 
are the least judicious, and at present the least popular, of his works. They consist 
of four or five different treatises, which for their mutual credit should never be com- 
pared : it is impossible to place any firm reliance upon the authority of a man who 
contradicts himself so much. Those who imagine that the last opinions of so learned 
a man must needs be right, will do well to wait, and see what will be his last : they 
cannot otherwise know to what his instructions will finally lead. Experience has 
already taught him the folly of many of his pretended improvements, and it is proba- 
ble his last opinions of English grammar will be most conformable to that just au- 
thority with which he has ever been tampering. I do not say that he has not 
exhibited ingenuity as well as learning, or that he is always wrong when he contra- 
dicts a majority of the English grammarians ; but I may venture to say, he was 
wrong when he undertook to disturb the common scheme of the parts of speech, as 
well as when he resolved to spell all words exactly as they are pronounced. 

14. It is not commonly known with how rash a hand this celebrated author has 
sometimes touched the most settled usages of our lano-uao-e. In 1790, which was 
seven years after the appearance of his first grammar, he published au octavo volume 
of more than four hundred pages, consisting of Essays, moral, historical, political, 
and literary, which might have done him credit, had he not spoiled his book by a 
grammatical whim about the reformation of orthography. Not perceiving that Eng- 
lish literature, multiplied as it had been within two or three centuries, had acquired 
a stability in some degree corresponding to its growth, he foolishly imagined it was 
still as susceptible of change and improvement as in the days of its infancy. Let the 
reader pardon the length of this digression, if for the sake of any future schemer 



134 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. XI. 

who may chance to adopt a similar conceit, I cite from the preface to this volume 
a specimen of the author's practice and reasoning. The ingenious attorney had the 
good sense quickly to abandon this project, and content himself with less glaring 
innovations ; else he had never stood as he now does, in the estimation of the pub- 
lic. But there is the more need to record the example, because in one of the south- 
ern states the experiment has recently been tried again. A still abler member of 
the same profession, has renewed it but lately ; and it is said there are yet remain- 
ing some converts to this notion of improvement. I copy literally, leaving all my 
readers and his to guess for themselves why he spelled "writers" with a w and 
" riling" without. • 

15. u During the course of ten or twelv yeers, I hav been laboring to correct popu- 
lar errors, and to assist my yung brethren in the road to truth and virtue ; my pub- 
lications for theze purposes hav been numerous ; much time haz been spent, which 
I do not regret, and much censure incurred, which my hart tells me I do not de- 
zerv." * * * " The reeder wil observ that the orthography of the volum iz not 
uniform. The reezon iz, that many of the essays hav been published before, in the 
common orthography, and it would hav been a laborious task to copy the whole, for 
the sake of changing the spelling. In the essays, ritten within the last yeer, a con- 
siderable change of spelling iz introduced by way of experiment. This liberty waz 
taken by the writers before the age of queen Elizabeth, and to this we are indeted 
for the preference of modern spelling over that of Gower and Chaucer. The man 
who admits that the change of housbonde, mynde, ygone, moneth into husband, mind, 
gone, month, iz an improovment, must acknowlege also the riting of helth, breth, 
rong, tung, munth, to be an improovment. There iz no alternativ. Every possi- 
ble reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in 
full force ; and if a gradual reform should not be made in our language, it wil proov 
that we are less under the influence of reezon than our ancestors." — Noah Webster's 
Essays, Preface, p. xi. 

16. But let us return, with our author, to the question of the parts of speech. I 
have shown that if we do not mean to adopt some less convenient scheme, we must 
count them ten, and preserve their ancient order as well as their ancient names.* 
And, after all his vacillation in consequence of reading Home Tooke, it would not 
be strange if Dr. Webster should come at last to the same conclusion. He was not 
very far from it in 1828, as may be shown by his own testimony, which he then 
took occasion to record. I will give his own words on the point: "There is great 
difficulty in devising a correct classification of the several sorts of words ; and prob- 
ably no classification that shall be simple and at the same time philosophically 
correct, can be invented. There are some words that do not strictly fall under any 
description of any class yet devised. Many attempts have been made and are still 
making to remedy this evil ; but such schemes as I have seen, do not, in my appre- 
hension, correct the defects of the old schemes, nor simplify the subject. On the 
other hand, all that I have seen, serve only to obscure and embarrass the subject, 
by substituting new arrangements and new terms which are as incorrect as the old 
ones, and less intelligible. I have attentively viewed these subjects, in all the lights 
which my opportunities have afforded, and am convinced that the distribution of 
words, most generally received, is the best that can be formed, with some slight 
alterations adapted to the particular construction of the English language." 

17. This passage is taken from the advertisement, or preface, to the Grammar 
which accompanies the author's edition of his great quarto Dictionary. Now the 
several schemes which bear his own name, were doubtless all of them among those 
which he had " seen ;" so that he here condemns them all collectively, as he had 
previously condemned some of them at each reformation. Nor is the last exempted. 
For although he here plainly gives his vote for that common scheme which he first 
condemned, he does not adopt it without " some slight alterations ;" and in con- 
triving these alterations he is inconsistent with his own professions. He makes the 

* " As there are ten different characters or figures in arithmetic to represent all possible quantities, there are 
also ten kinds of -words or parts of speech to represent all possible sentences: viz. : article, noun, adjective, pro- 
noun, verb, participle, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection." — Chauviefs Punctuation, p. 104 



CHAP. XI.] BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 135 

parts of speech eight, thus : " 1. The name or noun ; 2. The pronoun or substitute ; 
3. The adjective, attribute, or attributive ; 4. The verb ; 5. The adverb ; 6. The 
preposition ; 7. The connective or conjunction ; 8. The exclamation or interjection." 
In his Rudiments of English Grammar, published in 1811, "to unfold the true prin- 
ciples of the language," his parts of speech were seven • "viz. 1. Names or nouns; 

2. Substitutes or pronouns ; 3. Attributes or adjectives ; 4. Verbs, with their parti- 
ciples; 5. Modifiers or adverbs; 6. Prepositions ; 7. Connectives or conjunctions." 
In his Philosophical and Practical Grammar, published in 1807, a book which pro- 
fesses to teach " the only legitimate principles, and established usages," of the lan- 
guage, a twofold division of words is adopted ; first, into two general classes, primary 
and secondary ; then into " seven species or parts of speech," the first two belonging 
to the former class, the other five to the latter; thus : " 1. Names or nouns ; 2. Verbs ; 

3. Substitutes ; 4. Attributes ; 5. Modifiers ; 6. Prepositions ; 7. Connectives." In 
his "Improved Grammar of the English Language," published in 1831, the same 
scheme is retained, but the usual names are preferred. 

18. How many different schemes of classification this author invented, I know 
not ; but he might well have saved himself the trouble of inventing any ; for, so far 
as appears, none of his last three grammars ever came to a second edition. In the 
sixth edition of his "Plain and Comprehensive Grammar, grounded on the true 
principles and idioms of the language," a work which his last grammatical preface 
affirms to have been originally fashioned " on the model of Lowth's," the parts of 
speech are reckoned "six; nouns, articles, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, and abbre- 
viations or particles." This work, which he says " was extensively used in the 
schools of this country," and continued to be in demand, he voluntarily suppressed ; 
because, after a profitable experiment of four and twenty years, he found it so far 
from being grounded on " true principles," that the whole scheme then appeared to 
him incorrigibly bad. And, judging from this sixth edition, printed in 1800, the 
only one which I have seen, I cannot but concur with him in the opinion. More 
than one half of the volume is a loose Appendix composed chiefly of notes taken 
from Lowth and Priestley ; and there is a great want of method in what was meant 
for the body of the work. I imagine his several editions must have been different 
grammars Avith the same title ; for such things are of no uncommon occurrence, and 
I cannot otherwise account for the assertion that this book was compiled " on the 
model of LowtJi's, and on the same principles as [those on which] Murray has con- 
structed his." — Advertisement in Webster 's Quarto Diet., 1st Ed. 

19. In a treatise on grammar, a bad scheme is necessarily attended with incon- 
veniences for which no merit in the execution can possibly compensate. The first 
thing, therefore, which a skillful teacher will notice in a work of this kind, is the 
arrangement. If he find any difficulty in discovering, at sight, what it is, he will 
be sure it is bad ; for a lucid order is what he has a right to expect from him who 
pretends to improve upon all the English grammarians. Dr. Webster is not the 
only reader of the Epea Pteroenta, who has been thereby prompted to meddle 
with the common scheme of grammar ; nor is he the only one who has attempted 

■to simplify the subject by reducing the parts of speech to six. John Dalton of 
Manchester, in 1801, in a small grammar which he dedicated to Home Tooke, 
made them six, but not the same six. He would have them to be, nouns, pronouns, 
verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions. This writer, like Brightland, Tooke, 
Fisher, and some others, insists on it that the articles are adjectives. Priestley, too, 
throwing them out of his classification, and leaving the learner to go almost through 
his book in ignorance of their rank, at length assigns them to the same class, in one 
of his notes. And so has Dr. Webster fixed them in his late valuable, but not fault- 
less, dictionaries. But David Booth, an etymologist perhaps equally learned, in his 
" Introduction to an Analytical Dictionary of the English Language," declares them 
to be of the same species as the pronouns ; from which he thinks it strange that 
they were ever separated ! See Booth's Introd., p. 21. 

20. Now, what can be more idle, than for teachers to reject the common classifi- 
cation of words, and puzzle the heads of school-boys with speculations like these ? 



136 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. XI. 

It is easy to admit all that etymology can show to be true, and still justify the old 
arrangement of the elements of grammar. And if we depart from the common 
scheme, where shall we stop ? Some have taught that the parts of speech are only 
five ; as did the latter stoics, whose classes, according to Priscian and Harris, were 
these : articles, nouns appellative, nouns proper, verbs, and conjunctions. Others 
have made them four ; as did Aristotle and the elder stoics, and, more recently, 
Milnes, Brightland, Harris, Ware, Fisher, and the author of a work on Universal 
Grammar, entitled Enclytica. Yet, in naming the four, each of these contrives to 
differ from all the rest ! With Aristotle, they are, " nouns, verbs, articles, and con- 
junctions ;" with Milnes, " nouns, adnouns, verbs, and particles ;". with Brightland, 
" names, qualities, affirmations, and particles ;" with Harris, " substantives, attributives, 
definitives, and connectives ;" with Ware, " the name, the word, the assistant, the 
connective;" with Fisher, "names, qualities, verbs, and particles;" with the author 
of Enclytica, " names, verbs, modes, and connectives." But why make the classes so 
numerous as four ? Many of the ancients, Greeks, Hebrews, and Arabians, accord- 
ing to Quintilian, made them three ; and these three, according to Vossius, were 
nouns, verbs, and particles. " Veteres Arabes, Hebrsei, et Graeci, tres, non amplius, 
classes faciebant ; 1. Nomen, 2. Verbum, 3. Particula seu Dictio." — Voss. de Anal., 
Lib. i, Cap. 1. 

21. Nor is this number, three, quite destitute of modern supporters; though most 
of these come at it in an other way. D. St. Quentin, in his Rudiments of General 
Grammar, published in 1812, divides words into the "three general classes" last 
mentioned ; viz., 1. Nouns, 2. Verbs, 3. Particles." — P. 5. Booth, who published 
the second edition of his etymological work in 1814, examining severally the ten 
parts of speech, and finding what he supposed to be the true origin of all the words 
in some of the classes, was led to throw one into an other, till he had destroyed seven 
of them. Then, resolving that each word ought to be classed according to the 
meaning which its etymology fixes upon it, he refers the number of classes to 
nature, thus : " If, then, each [word] has a meaning, and is capable of raising an 
idea in the mind, that idea must have its prototype m nature. It must either de- 
note an exertion, and is therefore a verb ; or a quality, and is, in that case, an ad- 
jective ; or it must express an assemblage of qualities, such as is observed to belong 
to some individual object, and is, on this supposition, the name of such object, or a 
noun. * * * We have thus given an account of the different divisions of words, 
and have found that the whole may be classed under the three heads of Names, 
Qualities, and Actions; or Nouns, Adjectives, and Verbs." — Introd. to Analyt. 
Diet, p. 22. 

22. This notion of the parts of speech, as the reader will presently see, found an 
advocate also in the author of the popular little story of Jack Halyard. It appears 
in his Philosophic Grammar published in Philadelphia m 1827. Whether the 
writer borrowed it from Booth, or was led into it by the light of " nature," I am 
unable to say : he does not appear to have derived it fiom the ancients. Now, if 
either he or the lexicographer has discovered in " nature" a prototype for this 
scheme of grammar, the discovery is only to be proved, and the schemes of all* 
other grammarians, ancient or modern, must give place to it. For the reader will 
observe that this triad of parts is not that which is mentioned by Vossius and 
Quintilian. But authority may be found for reducing the number of the parts of 
speech yet lower. Plato, according to Harris, and the first inquirers into language, 
according to Home Tooke, made them two ; nouns and verbs * which Crombie, 
Dalton, M'Culloch, and some others, say, are the only parts essentially necessary for 
the communication of our thoughts. Those who know nothing about grammar, re- 
gard all words as of one class. To them, a word is simply a word ; and under 
what other name it may come, is no concern of theirs. 

23. Towards this point, tends every attempt to simplify grammar by suppressing 
any of the ten parts of speech. Nothing is gained by it ; and it is a departure from 
the best authority. We see by what steps this kind of reasoning may descend ; 
and we have an admirable illustration of it in the several grammatical works of 



CHAP. XI.] BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 137 

William S. Cardell. I shall mention them in the order in which they appeared ; 
and the reader may judge whether the author does not ultimately arrive at the con- 
clusion to which the foregoing series is conducted. This writer, in his Essay on Lan- 
guage, reckons seven parts of speech ; in his New- York Grammar, six ; in his Hart- 
ford Grammar, three principal, with three others subordinate ; in his Philadelphia 
Grammar, three only — nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Here he alleges, " The uner- 
ring plan of nature has established three classes of perceptions, and consequently 
three parts of speech." — P. lYl. He says this, as if he meant to abide by it. But, 
on his twenty-third page, we are told, " Every adjective is either a noun or a partici- 
ple." Now, by his own showing, there are no participles : he makes them all ad- 
jectives, in each of his schemes. It follows, therefore, that all his adjectives, in- 
cluding what others call participles, are nouns. And this reduces his three parts of 
speech to two, in spite of " the unerring plan of nature /" But even this number is 
more than he well believed in ; for, on the twenty-first page of the book, he affirms, 
that, " All other terms are but derivative forms and new applications of nouns? 
So simple a thing is this method of grammar ! But Neef, in his zeal for reforma- 
tion, carries the anticlimax fairly off the brink ; and declares, " In the grammar 
which shall be the work of my pupils, there shall be found no nouns, no pronouns, 
no articles, no participles, no verbs, no prepositions, no conjunctions, no adverbs, no 
interjections, no gerunds, not even one single supine. Unmercifully shall they be 
banished from it." — Neefs Method of Education, p. 60. 

24. When Cardell's system appeared, several respectable men, convinced by " his 
powerful demonstrations," admitted that he had made " many things in the estab- 
lished doctrines of the expounders of language appear sufficiently ridiculous ;"* and 
willingly lent him the influence of their names, trusting that his admirable scheme of 
Euglish grammar, in which their ignorance saw nothing but new truth, would be 
speedily " perfected and generally embraced."! Being invited by the author to a 
discussion of his principles, I opposed them in his presence, both privately and pub- 
licly ; defending against him, not unsuccessfully, those doctrines which time and 
custom have sanctioned. And, what is remarkable, that candid opposition which 
Cardell himself had treated with respect, and parried in vain, was afterwards, by 
some of his converts, impeached of all unfairness, and even accused of wanting 
common sense. " No one," says Niebuhr, " ever overthrew a literary idol, without 
provoking the anger of its worshipers." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 489. 
The certificates given in commendation of this " set of opinions," though they had 
no extensive effect on the public, showed full well that the signers knew little of the 
history of grammar ; and it is the continual repetition of such things, that induces 
me now to dwell upon its history, for the information of those who are so liable to 
be deceived by exploded errors republished as novelties. A eulogist says of Cardell, 
" He had adopted a set of opinions, which, to most of his readers, appeared entirely 
new." A reviewer proved, that all his pretended novelties are to be found in certain 
grammars now forgotten, or seldom read. The former replies, Then he [Cardell,] is 
right — and the man is no less stupid than abusive, who finds fault ; for here is proof 
that the former " had highly respectable authority for almost every thing he has ad- 
vanced !" — See The Friend, Vol. ii, pp. 105 and 116, from which all the quotations 
in this paragraph, except one, are taken. 

25. The reader may now be curious to know what these doctrines were. They 
were summed up by the reviewer, thus : " Our author pretends to have drawn prin- 
cipally from his own resources, in making up his books ; and many may have sup- 
posed there is more novelty in them than there really is. For instance : 1. He 
classes the articles with adjectives ; and so did Brightland, Tooke, Fisher, Dalton, 
and Webster. 2. He calls the participles, adjectives ; and so did Brightland and 
Tooke. 3. He make the pronouns, either nouns or adjectives ; and so did Adam, 
Dalton, and others. 4. He distributes the conjunctions among the other parts of 
speech ; and so did Tooke. 5. He rejects the interjections ; and so did Valla, 
Sanctius, and Tooke. 6. He makes the possessive case an adjective ; and so did 

* The Friend, 1829, VoL ii, p. 117. t The Friend, Vol. ii, pi 105. 



138 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. XL 

Briglitland. 7. He says our language has no cases; and so did Han is. 8. He 
calls case, position ; and so did James Brown. 9. He reduces the adjectives to two 
classes, defining and describing ; and so did Dalton. 10. He declares all verbs to 
be active ; and so did Harris, (in his Hermes, Book i, Chap, ix,) though he admit- 
ted the expediency of the common division, and left to our author the absurdity of 
contending about it. Fisher also rejected the class of neuter verbs, and called them 
all active. 11. He reduces the moods to three, and the tenses to three y and so did 
Dalton, in the very same words. Fisher also made the tenses three, but said there 
are no moods in English. 12. He makes the imperative mood always future; 
and so did Harris, in 1751. Nor did the doctrine originate with him ; for Bright- 
land, a hundred years ago, [about 1706,] ascribed it to some of his predecessors. 
13. He reduces the whole of our syntax to about thirty lines ; and two thirds of 
these are useless ; for Dr. Johnson expressed it quite as fully in ten. But their ex- 
planations are both good for nothing ; and Wallis, more wisely, omitted it alto- 
gether." — The Friend, Vol. ii, p. 59. 

26. Dr. Webster says, in a marginal note to the preface of his Philosophical 
Grammar, " Since the days of Wallis, who published a Grammar of the English 
Language, in Latin, in the reign of Charles II. [,] from which Johnson and Lowth 
borrowed most of their rules, little improvement has been made in English gram- 
mar. Lowth supplied some valuable criticisms, most of which however respect ob- 
solete phrases ; but many of his criticisms are extremely erroneous, and they have 
had an ill effect, in perverting the true idioms of our language. Priestley furnished a 
number of new and useful observations on the peculiar phrases of the English lan- 
guage. To which may be added some good remarks of Blair and Campbell, inter- 
spersed with many errors. Murray, not having mounted to the original sources of 
information, and professing only to select and arrange the rules and criticisms of 
preceding writers, has furnished little or nothing new. Of the numerous compila- 
tions of inferior character, it may be affirmed, that they have added nothing to the 
stock of grammatical knowledge." And the concluding sentence of this work, as 
well as of his Improved Grammar, published in 1831, extends the censure as fol- 
lows : " It is not the English language only whose history and principles are yet to 
be illustrated ; but the grammars and dictionaries of all other languages, with which 
I have any acquaintance, must be revised and corrected, before their elements and 
true construction can be fully understood." In an advertisement to the grammar pre- 
fixed to his quarto American Dictionary, the Doctor is yet more severe upon books 
of this sort- " I close," says he, " with the single remark, that from all the observa- 
tions I have been able to make, I am convinced the dictionaries and grammars 
wdiich have been used in our seminaries of learning for the last forty or fifty years, 
are so incorrect and imperfect that they have introduced or sanctioned more errors 
than they have amended ; in other words, had the people of England and of these 
States been left to learn the pronunciation and construction of their vernacular lan- 
guage solely by tradition, and the reading of good authors, the language would 
have been spoken and written with more purity than it has been and now is, by 
those who have learned to adjust their language by the rules which dictionaries 
prescribe." 

27. Little and much are but relative terms ; yet when we look back to the period in 
which English grammar was taught only in Latin, it seems extravagant to say, that 
" little improvement has been made" in it since. I have elsewhere expressed a more 
qualified sentiment. " That the grammar of our language has made considerable 
progress since the days of Swift, who wrote a petty treatise on the subject, is suffi- 
ciently evident ; but whoever considers what remains to be done, cannot but per- 
ceive how ridiculous are many of the boasts and felicitations which we have heard 
on that topic."* Some further notice will now be taken of that progress, and of the 
writers who have been commonly considered the chief promoters of it, but espe- 
cially of such as have not been previously mentioned in a like connexion. Among 

* See the Preface to my Compendious English Grammar in the American editions of the Treasury of Knowl- 
edge, VoL i, p. 8. 



CHAP. XI.] BKIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 139 

these may be noticed William Walker, the preceptor of Sir Isaac Newton, a teacher 
and grammarian of extraordinary learning, who died in 1684. He has left us sun- 
dry monuments of his taste and critical skill : one is his " Treatise of English Parti- 
cles," — a work of great labour and merit, but useless to most people now-a-days, be- 
cause it explains the English in Latin ; an other, his " Art of Teaching Improv'd," 
— which is also an able treatise, and apparently well adapted to its object, "the 
Grounding of a Young Scholar in the Latin Tongue." In the latter, are mentioned 
other works of his, on " Rhetorick, and Logick? which I have not seen. 

28. In 1706, Richard Johnson published an octavo volume of more than four hun- 
dred pages, entitled, " Grammatical Commentaries ; being an Apparatus to a New 
National Grammar : by way of animadversion upon the falsities, obscurities, redun- 
dancies and defects of Lily's System now in use." This is a work of great acuteness, 
labour, and learning ; and might be of signal use to any one who should undertake 
to prepare a new or improved Latin grammar : of which, in my opinion, we have 
yet urgent need. The English grammarian may also peruse it with advantage, if 
he has a good knowledge of Latin — and without such knowledge he must be ill pre- 
pared for his task. This work is spoken of and quoted by some of the early Eng- 
lish grammarians ; but the hopes of the writer do not appear to have been realized. 
His book was not calculated to supply the place of the common one ; for the author 
thought it impracticable to make a new grammar, suitable for boys, and at the same 
time to embrace in it proofs sufficient to remove the prejudices of teachers in favour 
of the old. King Henry's edict in support of Lily, was yet in force, backed by all 
the partiality which long habit creates ; and Johnson's learning, and labour, and 
zeal, were admired, and praised, and soon forgot. 

29. Near the beginning of the last century, some of the generous wits of the 
reign of Queen Anne, seeing the need there was of greater attention to their vernac- 
ular language, and of a grammar more properly English than any then in use, pro- 
duced a book with which the later writers on the same subjects, would have done 
well to have made themselves better acquainted. It is entitled " A Grammar of the 
English Tongue ; with the Arts of Logick, Rhetorick, Poetry, &c. Illustrated with 
useful Notes ; giving the Grounds and Reasons of Grammar in General. The 
Whole making a Compleat System of an English Education. Published by John 
Brightland, for the Use of the Schools of Great Britain and Ireland." It is 
ingeniously recommended in a certificate by Sir Richard Steele, or the Tattler, un- 
der the fictitious name of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., and in a poem of forty-three lines, 
by Nalmm Tate, poet laureate to her Majesty. It is a duodecimo volume of three 
hundred pages ; a work of no inconsiderable merit and originality ; and written in a 
style which, though not faultless, has scarcely been surpassed by any English gram- 
marian since. I quote it as Brightland's :* who were the real authors, does not ap- 
pear. It seems to be the work of more than one, and perhaps the writers of the 
Tattler were the men. My copy is of the seventh edition, London, printed for Henry 
Lintot, 1746. It is evidently the work of very skillful hands; yet is it not in all re- 
spects well planned or well executed. It unwisely reduces the parts of speech to 
four ; gives them new names ; and rejects more of the old system than the schools 
could be made willing to give up. Hence it does not appear to have been very 
extensively adopted. 

30. It is now about a hundred and thirty years, since Dr. Swift, in a public re- 
monstrance addressed to the Earl of Oxford, complained of the imperfect state of our 
language, and alleged in particular, that "in many instances it offended against 
every part of grammar."! Fifty years afterward, Dr. Lowih seconded this com- 

* Some say that Brightland himself -was the -writer of this grammar; but to suppose him the sole author, 
hardly comports with its dedication to the Queen, by her "most Obedient and Dutiful Subjects, the Authors;" 
or with the manner in which these are spoken of, in the following lines, by the laureate : 
" Then say what Thanks, what Praises must attend 
The Gen'rous Wits, who thus could condescend ! 
Skill, that to Art's sublimest Orb can reach, 
Employ'd its humble Elements to Teach! 
Yet worthily Esteem' d, because we know 
To raise Their Country's Fame they stoop'd so low." — Tate. 
t Dr. Campbell, in his Philosophy of Rhetoric, page 153th, makes a difficulty respecting the meaning of this 



140 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. XI. 

plaint, and pressed it home upon the polite and the learned. " Does he mean," 
says the latter, " that the English language, as it is spoken by the politest part of the 
nation, and as it stands in the writings of the most approved authors, often offends 
against every part of grammar ? Thus far, I am afraid the charge is true." — 
LowtKs Grammar, Preface, p. iv. Yet the learned Doctor, to whom much praise 
has been justly ascribed for the encouragement which he gave to this neglected 
study, attempted nothing more than " A Short Introduction to English Grammar ;" 
which, he says, " was calculated for the learner even of the lowest class :" and those 
who would enter more deeply into the subject, he referred to Hams ; whose work 
is not an English grammar, but "A Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal 
Grammar." Lowth's Grammar was first published in 1758. At the commence- 
ment of his preface, the reverend author, after acknowledging the enlargement, 
polish, and refinement, which the language had received during the preceding two 
hundred years, ventures to add, " but, whatever other improvements it may have 
received, it hath made no advances in grammatical accuracy." I do not quote this 
assertion to affirm it literally true, in all its apparent breadth ; but there is less rea- 
son to boast of the correctness even now attained, than to believe that the writers on 
grammar are not the authors who have in general come nearest to it i'n practice. 
Nor have the ablest authors always produced the best compends for the literary in- 
struction of youth. 

31. The treatises of the learned doctors Harris, Lowth, Johnson, Ash, Priestley, 
Home Tooke, Crombie, Coote, and Webster, owe their celebrity not so much to 
their intrinsic fitness for school instruction, as to the literary reputation of the wri- 
ters. Of Harris's Hermes, (which, in comparison with our common grammars, is 
indeed a work of much ingenuity and learning, full of interesting speculations, and 
written with great elegance both of style and method,) Dr. Loivth says, it is " the 
most beautiful and perfect example of analysis, that has been exhibited since the 
days of Aristotle." — Preface to Gram., p. x. But these two authors, if their works 
be taken together, as the latter intended they should be, supply no sufficient course 
of English grammar. The instructions of the one are too limited, and those of the 
other are not specially directed to the subject. 

32. Dr. Johnson, who was practically one of the greatest grammarians that ever 
lived, and who was very nearly coetaneous with both Harris and Lowth, speaks of 
the state of English grammar in the following terms : " I found our speech copious 
without order, and energetick without rules : wherever I turned my view, there was 
perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated." — Preface to Diet, p. 
1. Again : " Having therefore no assistance but from general grammar, I applied 
myself to the perusal of our writers ; and noting whatever might be of use to ascer- 
tain or illustrate any word or phrase, accumulated in time the materials of a diction- 
ary." — Ibid. But it is not given to any one man to do every thing ; else, Johnson 
had done it. His object was, to compile a dictionary, rather than to compose a 
grammar, of our language. To lexicography, grammar is necessary, as a prepara- 
tion ; but, as a purpose, it is merely incidental. Dr. Priestley speaks of Johnson 
thus : " I must not conclude this preface, without making my acknowledgements to 
Mr. Johnson, whose admirable dictionary has been of the greatest use to me in the 
study of our language. It is pity he had not formed as just, and as extensive an 
idea of English grammar. Perhaps this very useful work may still be reserved for 
his distinguished abilities in this way." — Priestley's Grammar, Preface, p. xxiii. 
Dr. Johnson's English Grammar is all comprised in fourteen pages, and of course it 
is very deficient. The syntax he seems inclined entirely to omit, as (he says) Wal- 

passage; cites it as an instance of the misapplication of the terra grammar; and supposes the writer's notion of 
the thing to have been, "of grammar in the abstract, an universal archetype by which the particular grammars 
of all different tongues ought to be regulated." And adds, "If this was his meaning, I cannot say whether he 
is in the right or in the wrong, in this accusation. I acknowledge myself to be entirely ignorant of this ideal 
grammar." It would be more fair to suppose that Dr. Swift meant by "grammar" the rules and principles 
according to which the English language ought to be spoken and written ; and, (as I shall hereafter show,) it is 
no great hyperbole to affirm, that every part of the code — nay, well-nigh every one of these rules and princi- 
ples — is, in many instances, violated, if not by what may be called the language itself, at least by those speakers 
and writers who are under the strongest obligations to know and observe its true use. 



CHAP. XI.] BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 141 

lis did, and Ben Jonson had better done ; but, for form's sake, he condescends to 
bestow upon it ten short lines. 

33. My point here is, that the best grammarians have left much to be done by 
him who may choose to labour for the further improvement of English grammar ; 
and that a man may well deserve comparative praise, who has not reached perfection 
in a science like this. Johnson himself committed many errors, some of which I 
shall hereafter expose ; yet I cannot conceive that the following judgement of his 
works was penned without some bias of prejudice : " Johnson's merit ought not to 
be denied to him ; but his dictionary is the most imperfect and faulty, and the least 
valuable of any* of his productions ; and that share of merit which it possesses, 
makes it by so much the more hurtful. I rejoice, however, that though the least 
valuable, he found it the most profitable : for I could never read his preface without 
shedding a tear. And yet it must be confessed, that his grammar and history and 
dictionary of what he calls the English language, are in all respects (except the bulk 
of the latter\ ) most truly contemptible performances ; and a reproach to the learn- 
ing and industry of a nation which could receive them with the slightest approbation. 
Nearly one third of this dictionary is as much the language of the Hottentots as of 
the English ; and it would be no difficult matter so to translate any one of the plain- 
est and most popular numbers of the Spectator into the language of this dictionary, 
that no mere Englishman, though well read in his own language, would be able to 
comprehend one sentence of it. It appears to be a work of labour, and yet is in 
truth one of the most idle performances ever offered to the public ; compiled by an 
author who possessed not one single requisite for the undertaking, and (being a pub- 
lication of a set of booksellers) owing its success to that very circumstance which 
alone must make it impossible that it should deserve success."' — TooJce's Diversions 
of Purley, Vol. i, p. 182. 

34. Dr. Ash's "Grammatical Institutes, or Easy Introduction to Dr. Lowth's Eng- 
lish Grammar," is a meagre performance, the ease of which consists in nothing but 
its brevity. Dr. Priestley, who in the preface to his third edition acknowledges his 
obligations to Johnson, and also to Lowth, thought it premature to attempt an Eng- 
lish grammar; and contented himself with publishing a few brief "Rudiments," 
with a loose appendix consisting of " Notes and Observations, for the use of those 
who have made some proficiency in the language." He says, " With respect to our 
own language, there seems to be a kind of claim upon all who make use of it, to do 
something for its improvement ; and the best thing we can do for this purpose at 
present, is, to exhibit its actual structure, and the varieties with which it is used. 
When these are once distinctly pointed out, and generally attended to, the best 
forms of speech, and those which are most agreeable to the analogy of the language, 
will soon recommend themselves, and come into general use ; and when, by this 
means, the language shall be written with sufficient uniformity, we may hope to see 
a complete grammar of it. At present, it is by no means ripe for such a work ;\ 
but we may approximate to it very fast, if all persons who are qualified to make 
remarks upon it, will give a little attention to the subject. In such a case, a few 
years might be sufficient to complete it." — Priestley's Grammar, Preface, p. xv. In 

* The phrase " of any" is here erroneous. These words ought to have been omitted; or the author should 
have said — " the least valuable of all his productions." 

t This word latter should have been last; for three works are here spoken of. 

% With this opinion concurred the learned James White, author of a Grammatical Essay on the English Verb, 
an octavo volume of more than three hundred pages, published in London in 1761. This author says, "Our 
Essays towards forming an English Grammar, have not been very many : from the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to 
that of Queen Ann, there are but Two that the author of the Present knows of; one in English by the renown' d 
Ben Jonson, and one in Latin by the learn' d Dr. Wallis. In the reign of Queen Ann indeed, there seems to have 
arisen a noble Spirit of ingenious Emulation in this Literary way; and to this we owe the treatises compos' d at 
that period for the use of schools, by Brightland, Greenwood, and Maittaire. But, since that time, nothing hath 
appear' d, that hath come to this Essayist's knowledge, deserving to be taken any notice of as tending to illustrate 
our Language by ascertaining the Grammar of it; except Anselm Bayly's Introduction to Languages, Johnson's 
Grammar prefix' d to the Abridgement of his Dictionary, and the late Dr. Ward's Essays upon the English Lan- 
guage. — These are all the Treatises he hath met with, relative to this subject; all which he hath perus'd very 
attentively, and made the best use of them in his power. But notwithstanding all these aids, something still re- 
mains to be done, at least it so appears to him, preparatory to attempting with success the Grammar of our 
Language. All our efforts of this kind seem to have been render' d ineifectual hitherto, chiefly by the preva- 
lency of two false notions : one of which is, that our Verbs have no Moods ; aud the other, that our Language 
hath no Syntax." — White's English Verb, p. viii. 



142 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. XI. 

point of time, both Ash and Priestley expressly claim priority to Lowth, for their 
first editions ; but the former having allowed his work to be afterwards entitled an 
Introduction to Lowth's, and the latter having acknowledged some improvements in 
his from the same source, they have both been regarded as later authors. 

35. The great work of the learned etymologist John Home Tooke, consists of two 
octavo volumes, entitled, " Epea Pteroenta, or the Diversions of Purley." This 
work explains, with admirable sagacity, the origin and primitive import of many of 
the most common yet most obscure English words; and is, for that reason, a valua- 
ble performance. But as it contains nothing respecting the construction of the 
language, and embraces no proper system of grammatical doctrines, it is a great 
error to suppose that the common principles of practical grammar ought to give 
place to such instructions, or even be modelled according to what the author proves 
to be true in respect to the origin of particular words. The common grammarians 
were less confuted by him, than many of his readers have imagined ; and it ought 
not to be forgotten that his purpose was as different from theirs, as are their schemes 
of Grammar from the plan of his critical " Diversions." In this connexion may be 
mentioned an other work of similar size and purpose, but more comprehensive in 
design ; the " History of European Languages," by that astonishing linguist the late 
Dr. Alexander Murray. This work was left unfinished by its lamented author ; but 
it will remain a monument of erudition never surpassed, acquired in spite of wants 
and difficulties as great as diligence ever surmounted. Like Tooke's volumes, it is 
however of little use to the mere English scholar. It can be read to advantage only 
by those who are acquainted with several other languages. The works of Crombie 
and Coote are more properly essays or dissertations, than elementary systems of 
grammar. 

36. The number of English grammars has now become so very great, that not 
even a general idea of the comparative merits or defects of each can here be given. 
I have examined with some diligence all that I have had opportunity to obtain ; but 
have heard of several which I have never yet seen. Whoever is curious to examine 
at large what has been published on this subject, and thus to qualify himself to judge 
the better of any new grammar, may easily make a collection of one or two hundred 
bearing different names. There are also many works not called grammars, from 
which our copyists have taken large portions of their compilations. Thus Murray 
confessedly copied from ten authors ; five of whom are Beattie, Sheridan, Walker, 
Blair, and Campbell. Dr. Beattie, who acquired great celebrity as a teacher, poet, 
philosopher, and logician, was well skilled in grammar; but he treated the subject 
only in critical disquisitions, and not in any distinct elementary work adapted to 
general use. Sheridan and Walker, being lexicographers, confined themselves chiefly 
to orthography and pronunciation. Murray derived sundry principles from the 
writings of each ; but the English Grammar prepared by the latter, was written, I 
think, several years later than Murray's. The learned doctors Blair and Campbell 
wrote on rhetoric, and not on the elementary parts of grammar. Of the two, the 
latter is by far the more accurate writer. Blair is fluent and easy, but he furnishes 
not a little false syntax ; Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric is a very valuable trea- 
tise. To these, and five or six other authors whom I have noticed, was Lindley 
Murray " principally indebted for his materials." Thus far of the famous contribu- 
tors to English grammar. The Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, delivered at 
Harvard University by John Quincy Adams, and published in two octavo volumes 
in 1810, are such as do credit even to that great man ; but they descend less to 
verbal criticism, and enter less into the peculiar province of the grammarian, than 
do most other works of a similar title. 

37. Some of the most respectable authors or compilers of more general systems 
of English grammar for the use of schools, are the writer of the British Grammar, 
Bicknell, Buchanan, William Ward, Alexander Murray the schoolmaster, Mennye, 
Fisher, Lindley Murray, Fenning, W. Allen, Grant, David Blair, Lennie, Guy, 
Churchill. To attempt any thing like a review or comparative estimate of these, 
would protract this introduction beyond all reasonable bounds; and still others 



CHAP. XI.] BRIEF NOTICES OF THE SCHEMES OF CERTAIN GRAMMARS. 143 

would be excluded, which are perhaps better entitled to notice. Of mere modifiers 
and abridgers, the number is so great, and the merit or fame so little, that I will 
not trespass upon the reader's patience by any further mention of them or their 
works. Whoever takes an accurate and comprehensive view of the history and 
present state of this branch of learning, though he may not conclude, with Dr. 
Priestley, that it is premature to attempt a complete grammar of the language, can 
scarcely forbear to coincide with Dr. Barrow, in the opinion that among all the trea- 
tises heretofore produced no such grammar is found. " Some superfluities have been 
expunged, some mistakes have been rectified, and some obscurities have been cleared ; 
still, however, that all the grammars used in our different schools, public as well as 
private, are disgraced by errors or defects, is a complaint as just as it is frequent 
and loud." — Barrow's Essays, p. 83. 

38. Whether, in what I have been enabled to do, there will be found a remedy 
for this complaint, must be referred to the decision of others. Upon the probability 
of effecting this, I have been willing to stake some labour ; how much, and with 
what merit, let the candid and discerning, when they shall have examined for them- 
selves, judge. It is certain that we have hitherto had, of our language, no complete 
grammar. The need of such a work I suppose to be at this time in no small de- 
gree felt, especially by those who conduct our higher institutions of learning ; and 
my ambition has been to produce one which might deservedly stand along side of 
the Port-Royal Latin and Greek Grammars, or of the Grammaire des Grammaires 
of Girault Du Vivier. If this work is unworthy to aspire to such rank, let the pa- 
trons of English literature remember that the achievement of my design is still a 
desideratum. We surely have no other book which might, in any sense, have been 
called " the Grammar of English Grammars ;" none, which, either by excellence, 
or on account of the particular direction of its criticism, might take such a name. 
I have turned the eyes of Grammar, in an especial manner, upon the conduct of her 
own household; and if, from this volume, the reader acquire a more just idea of 
the grammar which is displayed in English grammars, he will discover at least one 
reason for the title which has been bestowed upon the work. Such as the book is, 
I present it to the public, without pride, without self-seeking, and without anxiety : 
knowing that most of my readers will be interested in estimating it justly ; that no 
true service, freely rendered to learning, can fail of its end ; and that no achieve- 
ment merits aught with Him who graciously supplies all ability. The opinions ex- 
pressed in it have Keen formed with candour, and are offered with submission. If 
in any thing they are erroneous, there are those who can detect their faults. In 
the language of an ancient master, the earnest and assiduous Despauter, I invite the 
correction of the candid : " Nos quoque, quantumcunque diligentes, cum a candidis 
turn a lividis carpemur : a candidis interdum juste ; quos oro, ut de erratis omnibus 
amice me admoneant — erro nonnunquain quia homo sum." 

GOOLD BROWN. 
New York, 1836. 



THE 



GEAMMAE 



OF 



ENGLISH GRAMMARS 



Grammar, as an art, is the power of reading, writing, and speaking 
correctly. As an acquisition, it is the essential skill of scholarship. As 
a study, it is the practical science which teaches the right use of lan- 
guage. 

An English Grammar is a book which professes to explain the nature 
and structure of the English language ; and to show, on just authority, 
what is, and what is not, good English. 

English Grammar, in itself, is the art of reading, writing, and speak- 
ing the English language correctly. It implies, in the adept, such knowl- 
edge as enables him to avoid improprieties of speech ; to correct any 
errors that may occur in literary compositions ; and to parse, or explain 
grammatically, whatsoever is rightly written. 

To read is to perceive what is written or printed, so as to understand 
the words, and be able to utter them with their proper sounds. 

To write is to express words and thoughts by letters, or characters, 
made with a pen or other instrument. 

To speak is to utter words orally, in order that they may be heard and 
understood. 

Grammar, like every other liberal art, can be properly taught only by 
a regular analysis, or systematic elucidation, of its component parts or 
principles ; and these parts or principles must be made known chiefly by 
means of definitions and examples, rules and exercises. 

A perfect definition of any thing or class of things is such a description 
of it, as distinguishes that entire thing or class from every thing else, by 
briefly telling what it is. 

An example is a particular instance or model, serving to prove or illus- 
trate some given proposition or truth. 

A rule of grammar is some law, more or less general, by which custom 
regulates and prescribes the right use of language. 

An exercise is some technical performance required of the learner in 
order to bring his knowledge and skill into practice. 

Language, in the primitive s£nse of the term, embraced only vocal 
expression, or human speech uttered by the mouth ; but after letters 
were invented to represent articulate sounds, language became twofold, 
spoken and written, so that the term, language^ now signifies, any series 

10 



146 THE GKAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

of sounds or letters formed into words and employed for the expression 
of thought. 

Of the composition of language we have also two kinds, prose and 
verse; the latter requiring a certain number and variety of syllables in 
each line, but the former being free from any such restraint. 

The least parts of written language are letters ; of spoken language, 
syllables ; of language significant in each part, words ; of language combin- 
ing thought, phrases; of language subjoining sense, clauses; of language 
coordinating sense, members ; of language completing sense, sentences. 

A discourse, or narration, of any length, is but a series of sentences ; 
which, when written, must be separated by the proper points, that the 
meaning and relation of all the words may be quickly and clearly per- 
ceived by the reader, and the whole be uttered as the sense requires. 

In extended compositions, a sentence is usually less than a paragraph ; 
a paragraph, less than a section ; a section, less than a chapter •; a chap- 
ter, less than a book ; a book, less than a volume ; and a volume, less 
than the entire work. 

The common order of literary division, then, is ; of a large work, into 
volumes ; of volumes, into books ; of books, into chapters ; of chapters, 
into sections ; of sections, into paragraphs ; of paragraphs, into sentences ; 
of sentences, into members ; of members, into clauses ; of clauses, into 
phrases ; of phrases, into words ; of words, into syllables ; of syllables, 
into letters. 

But it rarely happens that any one work requires the use of all these 
divisions ; and we often assume some natural distinction and order of 
parts, naming each as we find it ; and also subdivide into articles, verses, 
cantoes, stanzas, and other portions, as the nature of the subject suggests. 

Grammar is divided into four parts; namely, Orthography, Etymology, 
Syntax, and Prosody. 

Orthography treats of letters, syllables, separate words, and spelling. 

Etymology treats of the different parts of speech, with their classes 
and modifications. 

Syntax treats of the relation, agreement, government, and arrange- 
ment of words in sentences. 

Prosody treats of punctuation, utterance, figures, and versification. 

OBSERVATION'S. 

Obs. 1. — In the Introduction to this work, have been taken many views of the study, or 
general science, of grammar ; many notices of its history, with sundrjr criticisms upon its writers 
or critics ; and thus language has often been presented to the reader's consideration, either as a 
whole, or with broader scope than belongs to the teaching of its particular forms. We come now 
to the work of analyzing our own tongue, and of laying down those special rules and principles 
which should guide us in the use of it, whether in speech or in writing. The author intends to 
dissent from other grammarians no more than they are found to dissent from truth and reason ; 
nor will he expose their errors further than is necessary for the credit of the science and the in- 
formation of the learner. A candid critic can have no satisfaction merely in finding fault with 
other men's performances. But the facts are not to be concealed, that many pretenders to gram- 
mar have shown themselves exceedingly superficial in their knowledge, as well as slovenly in 
their practice ; and that many vain composers of books have proved themselves despisers of this 
study, by the abundance of their inaccuracies, and the obviousness of their solecisms. 

Obs. 2. — Some grammarians have taught that the word language is of much broader significa- 
tion, than that which is given to it in the definition above. I confine it to speech and writing. 
For the propriety of this limitation, and against those authors who describe the thing otherwise, 
I appeal to the common sense of mankind. One l^fe writer defines it thus : " Language is any 
means by which one person communicates his ideas to another." — Sanders's SptUing-Book, p. 7. 
The following is the explanation of an other slack thinker : " One may, by speaking or by writing, 
(and sometimes by motions,) communicate his thoughts to others. The process by which this is 
done, is called Language. — Language is the expression of thought and feeling." — S. W. Clark's 
Practical Gram., p. 7. Dr. Webster goes much further, and says, " Language, in its most ex- 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 147 

tensive sense, is the instrument or means of communicating ideas and affections of the mind and 
body, from one animal to another. In this sense, brutes possess the power of language ; for by various 
inarticulate sounds, they make known their wants, desires, and sufferings." — Philosophical Gram., 
p. 11 ; Improved Gram., p. 5. This latter definition the author of that vain book, " the District 
School," has adopted in his chapter on Grammar. Sheridan, the celebrated actor and orthoepist, 
though he seems to confine language to the human species, gives it such an extension as to make 
words no necessary part of its essence. " The first thought," says he, "that would occur to every 
one, who had not properly considered the point, is, that language is composed of words. And 
yet, this is so far from being an adequate idea of language, that the point in which most men 
think its very essence to consist, is not even a necessary property of language. For language, in 
its full extent, means, any way or method whatsoever, by which cdl thai passes in the mind of one 
man, may be manifested to another." — Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution, p. 129. Again: "I have 
already shown, that words are, in their own nature, no essential part of language, and are only con- 
sidered so through custom." — lb., p. 135. 

Obs. 3. — According to S. Kirkhanfs notion, "Language, in its most extensive sense, implies 
those signs by which men and brides, communicate to each other their thoughts, affections and 
desires." — Kirkham" 1 s English Gram., p. 16. • Again: " The language of brutes consists in the use 
of those inarticulate sounds by which they express their thoughts and affections."— lb. To me it 
seems a shameful abuse of speech, and a vile descent from the dignity of grammar, to make the 
voices of " brutes" any part of language, as taken in a literal sense. We might with far more 
propriety raise our conceptions of it to the spheres above, and construe literally the metaphors of 
David, who ascribes to the starry heavens, both " speech" and "language," "voice" and "words" 
daily "uttered" and everywhere "heard." See Psalm xix. 

Obs. 4. — But, strange as it may seem, Kirkham, commencing his instructions with the fore- 
going definition of language, proceeds to divide it, agreeably to this notion, into two sorts, natural 
and artificial; and affirms that the former " is common both to man and brute," and that the lan- 
guage which is peculiar to man, the language which consists of words, is altogether an artificial 
invention :* thereby contradicting at once a host of the most celebrated grammarians and philoso- 
phers, and that without appearing to know it. But tins is the less strange, since he immediately 
forgets his own definition and division of the subject, and as plainly contradicts himself. Without 
limiting the term at all, without excluding his fanciful "language of brutes," he says, on the next 
leaf, " Language is conventional, and not only invented, but, in its progressive advancement, varied 
for purposes of practical convenience. Hence it assumes any and every form which those who 
make use of it, choose to give it." — Kirkham s Grain., p. 18. This, though scarcely more rational 
than his "natural language of men and brutes" plainly annihilates that questionable section of 
grammatical science, whether brutal or human, by making all language a thing " conventional" 
and " invented." In short, it leaves no ground at all for any grammatical science of a positive 
character, because it resolves all forms of language into the irresponsible will of those who utter 
any words, sounds, or noises. 

Obs. 5. — Xor is this gentleman more fortunate in his explanation of what may really be called 
language. On one page, he says, " Spoken language or speech, is made up of articulate sounds 
uttered by the human voice." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 17. On the next, "The most important use 
of that faculty called speech, is, to convey our thoughts to others." — lb., p. 18. Thus the gram- 
marian who, in the same short paragraph, seems to " defy the ingenuity of man to give his words 
any other meaning than that which he himself intends them to express," (lb., p. 19,) either writes so 
badly as to make any ordinary false syntax appear trivial, or actually conceives man to be the in- 
ventor of one of his own faculties. Nay, does he not make man the contriver of that "natural 
language" which he possesses "in common with the brute3?" a language " The meaning of which" 
he says, "all the different animals perfectly understand f — See his Gram., p. 16. And if this no- 
tion again be true, does it not follow, that a horse knows perfectly well what horned cattle mean 
by their bellowing, or a flock of geese by their gabbling ? I should not have noticed these things, 
had not the book which teaches them, been made popular by a thousand imposing attestations to 
its excellence and accuracy. For grammar has nothing at all to do with inarticulate voices, or 
the imaginary languages of brutes. It is scope enough for one science to explain all the languages, 
dialects, and speeches, that la}' - claim to reason. "We need not enlarge the field, by descending 

" To beasts, whomf God on their creation-day 
Created mute to all articulate sound." — Milton.\ 

* A similar doctrine, however, is taught by no less an author than " the Rev. Alexander Crombie, LL. D., M 
who says, in the first paragraph of his introductiou, " Language consists of intelligible signs, and is the me- 
dium, by which the mind communicates its thoughts. It is either articulate, or inarticulate ; artificial, or nat- 
ural. Tbe former is peculiar to man ; the latter is common to all animals. By inarticulate language, we mean 
tbose instinctive cri-.'S, by which the several tribes of inferior creatures are enabled to express their sensations 
and desires. By articulate language is understood a system of expression, composed of simple sounds, differ- 
ently modified by the organs of speech, and variously combined." — Treatise on tlie Etymology and Syntax of the, 
English Language, p. 1. See the same doctrine also in Hiley's Gram., p. 141. The language whi.h " is com- 
mon to all animals,''' can be no other than that in which iEsop's wolves and weasels, goats and grasshoppers, 
talked — a language quite too unreal for grammar. On the other hand, that Avhich is composed of sounds only, 
and not of letters, includes but a mere fraction of the science. 

t The pronoun whom is not properly applicable to beasts, unless they are personified : the relative which 
would therefore, perhaps, have been preferable here, though whom has a better sound. — G. B. 

£ " The great difference between men and brutes, in the utterance of sound by the mouth, consists in the 
power of articulation in man, and the entire want of it in brutes." — Webster's Improved Gram., p. S. 



148 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

PART I. 

ORTHOGRAPHY. 

Orthography treats of letters, syllables, separate words, and spelling. 

CHAPTER I.— OF LETTERS. 

A Letter is an alphabetic character, which commonly represents some 
elementary sound of the human voice, some element of speech. 

An elementary sound of the human voice, or an element of speech, is 
one of the simple sounds which compose a spoken language. 

The sound of a letter is commonly called its power : when any letter 
of a word is not sounded, it is said to be silent or mute. 

The letters in the English alphabet, are twenty-six ; the simple or 
primary sounds which they represent, are about thirty-six or thirty- 
seven. 

A knowledge of the letters consists in an acquaintance with these four 
sorts of things; their names, their classes, their powers, and their forms. 

The letters are written, or printed, or painted, or engraved, or em- 
bossed, in an infinite variety of shapes and sizes ; and yet are always the 
same, because their essential properties do not change, and their names, 
classes, and powers, are mostly permanent. 

The following are some of the different sorts of types, or styles of let- 
ters, with which every reader should be early acquainted : — 

1. The Eoman : A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, 
L 1, M m, N n, o, P p, Q q, E r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, 
Zz. 

2. The Italic : A a, B b, C c, B d, Be, F f, G g, Hh, I i, Jj, K h, 
L I, M m, N n, o, P p, Q q, B r, 8 s, T t, U u, Vv, W w, X x, Y y, 
Zz. 

3. The Script : ©£ a, &f £ ^S c, £$ ' </, £ e, <S? fi C ^ ^ 

<&?£ of*, fy: Sed, &/ <aT^ ©T «, &*, £Fa 

^y @z*, <&>/<*, &<, w«, w«, w~, m ^ <f y , %j. 

4. The Old English: & a, 23 b, <£ c, D o, QE e, $i;<B 0, § I), 1 i, I J, 
E k, % I, ill tn, N n, 03) 0, fl p, <& <j, E r, 5 s, © t, 11 it, t) », to to, X *, 
ffi fi* 2 V 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — A letter consists not in the figure only, or in the power only, but in the figure and 
power united ; as an embassador consists not in the man only, or in the commission only, but in 
the man commissioned. The figure and tbe power, therefore, are necessary to constitute the 
letter ; and a name is as necessary, to call it by, teach it, or tell what it is. The class of a letter 
is determined by the nature of its power, or sound ; as the embassador is plenipotentiary or other- 
wise, according to the extent of his commission. To all but the deaf and dumb, written language 
is the representative of that which is spoken; so that, in the view of people in general, the powers 
of the letters are habitually identified with their sounds, and are conceived to be nothing else. 
Hence any given sound, or modification of sound, which all men can produce at pleasure, when 
arbitrarily associated with a written sign, or conventional character, constitutes what is called a 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. LETTERS. THEIR NATURE. 149 

letter. Thus we may produce the sounds of a, e, o, then, by a particular compression of the organs 
of utterance, modify them all, into ba, be, bo, or fa, fe, fo ; and we shall see that a, e, and o, are 
letters of one sort, and b and/ of an other. By elementary or articulate sounds* then, we mean 
not only the simple tones of the voice itself, but the modifying stops and turns which are given 
them in speech, and marked by letters : the real voices constituting vowels ; and their modifica- 
tions, consonants. 

Obs. 2. — A mere mark to which no sound or power is ever given, cannot be a letter ; though it 
may, like the marks used for punctuation, deserve a name and a place in grammar. Commas, 
semicolons, and the like, represent silence, rather than sounds, and are therefore not letters. Nor 
are the Arabic figures, which represent entire words, nor again any symbols standing for things, 
(as the astronomic marks for the sun, the moon, the planets,) to be confounded with letters ; be- 
cause the representative of any word or number, of any name or thing, differs widely in its power, 
from the sign of a simple elementary sound : i. e., from any constituent part of a written word. 
The first letter of a word or name does indeed sometimes stand for the whole, and is still a letter ; 
but it is so, as being the first element of the word, and not as being the representative of the 
whole. 

Obs. 3. — In their definitions of vowels and consonants, many grammarians have resolved letters 
into sounds only; as, "A Yowel is an articulate sound," &c. — "A Consonant is an articulate 
sound," &c, — L. Murray's Gram., p. 7. But this confounding of the visible signs with the things 
which they signify, is very far from being a true account of either. Besides, letters combined are 
capable of a certain mysterious power which is independent of all sound, though speech, doubt- 
less, is what they properly represent. In practice, almost all the letters may occasionally happen 
to be silent ; yet are they not, in these cases, necessarily useless. The deaf and dumb also, to 
whom none of the letters express or represent sounds, may be taught to read and write under- 
standingly. They even learn in some way to distinguish the accented from the unaccented sylla- 
bles, and to have some notion of quantity, or of something else equivalent to it; for some of them, 
it is said, can compose verses according to the rules of prosody. Hence it would appear, that the 
powers of the letters are not, of necessity, identified with their sounds; the things being in some 
respect distinguishable, though the terms are commonly taken as synonymous. The fact is, that 
a word, whether spoken or written, is of itself significant, whether its corresponding f :>rm be known 
or not. Hence, in the one form, it may be perfectly intelligible to the illiterate, and in the other, 
to the educated deaf and dumb ; while, to the learned who hear and speak, either form immedi- 
ately suggests the other, with the meaning common to both. 

Obs. 4. — Our knowledge of letters rises no higher than to the forms used by the ancient He- 
brews and Phoenicians. Moses is supposed to have written in characters which were nearly the 
same as those called Samaritan, but his writings have come to us in an alphabet more beautiful 
and regular, called the Chaldee or Chaldaic, which is said to have been made by Ezra the scribe, 
when he wrote out a new copy of the law, after the rebuilding of the temple. Cadmus carried 
the Phoenician alphabet into Greece, where it was subsequently altered and enlarged. The small 
letters were not invented till about the seventh century of our era. The Latins, or Romans, de- 
rived most of their capitals from the Greeks ; but their small letters, if they had any, were made 
afterwards among themselves. This alphabet underwent various changes, and received very great 
improvements, before it became that beautiful series of characters which we now use, under the 
name of Roman letters. Indeed these particular forms, which are now justly preferred by many 
nations, are said to have been adopted after the invention of printing. "The Eoman letters were 
first used by Sweynheim and Pannartz, printers who settled at Rome, in 1467. The earliest work 
printed wholly in this character in England, is said to have been Lily's or Paul's Accidence, 
printed by Richard Pinson, 1518. The Italic letters were invented by Aldus Manutius at Rome, 
towards the close of the fifteenth century, and were first used in an edition of Yirgil, in 1501." — 
Constables Miscellany, Yol. xx, p. 147. The Saxon alphabet was mostly Roman. Not more 
than one quarter of the letters have other forms. But the changes, though few, give to a printed 
page a very different appearance. Under TV'illiam the Conqueror, this alphabet was superseded 
by the modern Gothic, Old English, or Black letter ; which, in its turn, happily gave place to the 
present Roman. The Germans still use a type similar to the Old English, but not so heavy. 

Obs. 5. — I have suggested that a true knowledge of the letters implies an acquaintance with 
their names, their classes, their powers, and their forms. Under these four heads, therefore, I shall 
briefly present what seems most worthy of the learner's attention at first, and shall reserve for 
the appendix a more particular account of these important elements. The most common and the 
most useful things are not those about which we are in general most inquisitive. Hence many, 
who think themselves sufficiently acquainted with the letters, do in fact know but very little 

* Strictly speaking, an articulate sound is not a simple element of speech, bnt rather a complex one, whether 
syllable or word ; for articulate literally means jointeh But our grammarians in general, have applied the term 
to the sound of a letter, a syllable, or a word, indiscriminately: for which reason, it seems not very suitable to 
be used alone in describing any of the three. Sheridan says, " The essence of a syllable consists in articulation 
only, for every articulate sound of course forms a syllable." — Lectures on Elocution, p. 6'2. If he is right in 
this not many of our letters — or, perhaps more properly, none of them — can singly represent articulate sounds. 
The looseness of this term induces me tc add or prefer an other. " The Rev. W. Allen," who comes as near as 
auy of our grammarians, to the true definition of a letter, says: 1. " The sounds used in language are called ar- 
ticulate sounds." 2. "A letter is a character used in printing or writing, to represent an articulate sound." — 
Allen's Elements of E. Gram., p. 2. Dr. Adam says : 1. "A letter is the mark of a sound, or of an articulation 
of sound." 2. " A vowel is properly called a simple sound; and the sounds formed by the concourse of vowels 
and consonants, articulate sounds." — Latin and English Gram., pp. 1 and 2. 



150 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

about them. If a person is able to read some easy book, he is apt to suppose he has no more to 
learn respecting the letters ; or he neglects the minute study of these elements, because he sees 
what words they make, and can amuse himself with stories of things more interesting. But 
merely to understand common English, is a very small qualification for him who aspires to scholar- 
ship, and especially for a teacher. For one may do this, and even be a great reader, without ever 
being able to name the letters properly, or to pronounce such syllables as ca, ce, ci, co, cu, cy, 
without getting half of them wrong. No one can ever teach an art more perfectly than he has 
learned it; and if we neglect the elements of grammar, our attainments must needs be proportion- 
ately unsettled and superficial. 

I. NAMES OF THE LETTERS. 

The names of the letters, as now commonly spoken and written in Eng- 
lish, are A, Bee, Oee, Dee, E, Eff, Gee, Aitcli, I, Jay, Kay, Ell, Em, 
En, 0, Pee, Kue, At, Ess, Tee, U, Vee, Double-u, Ex, Wy, Zee. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — With the learning and application of these names, our literary education begins ; with 
a continual rehearsal of them in spelling, it is for a long time carried on; nor can we ever dis- 
pense with them, but by substituting others, or by ceasing to mention the things thus named. 
What is obviously indispensable, needs no proof of its importance. But I know not whether it 
has ever been noticed, that these names, like those of the days of the week, are worthy of parti- 
cular distinction, for their own nature. They are words of a very peculiar kind, being nouns that 
are at once both proper and common. For, in respect to rank, character, and design, each letter 
is a thing strictly individual and identical — that is, it is ever one and the same ; yet, in an other 
respect, it is a comprehensive sort, embracing individuals both various and numberless. Thus 
every B is a &, make it as you will ; and can be nothing else than that same letter b, though you 
make it in a thousand different fashions, and multiply it after each pattern innumerably. Here, 
then, we see individuality combined at once with great diversity, and infinite multiplicity; and it 
is to this combination, that letters owe their wonderful power of transmitting thought. Their 
names, therefore, should always be written with capitals, as proper nouns, at least in the singular 
number; and should form the plural regularly, as ordinary appellatives. Thus: (if we adopt the 
names now most generally used in English schools :) A, Aes; Bee, Bees; Gee, Cees ; Due, Dees; 
E, Ees ; Ejf, Effs; Gee, Gees; Aitch, Aitches; I, Ies; Jay, Jays; Kay, Kays; Ell, Ells; Em, 
Ems; En, Ens; 0, Oes ; Pee, Pees; Kue, Kues ; Ar, Ars; Ess, Esses; Tee, Tees; TJ, Ues; Vee, 
Vees; Double-u, Double-ues; Ex, Exes; Wy, Wies; Zee, Zees. 

Obs. 2. — The names of the letters, as expressed in the modern languages, are mostly framed 
with reference to their powers, or sounds. Yet is there in English no letter of which the name is 
always identical with its power : for A, E, I, 0, and TJ, are the only letters which can name 
themselves, and all these have other sounds than those which their names express. The simple 
powers of the other letters are so manifestly insufficient to form any name, and so palpable is the 
difference between the nature and the name of each, that did we not know how education has 
been trifled with, it would be hard to believe even Murray, when he says, " They are frequently 
confounded by writers on grammar. Observations and reasonings on the name, are often applied 
to explain the nature of a consonant ; and by this means the student is led into error and perplex- 
ity." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 8. The confounding of names with the things for which they 
stand, implies, unquestionably, great carelessness in the use of speech, and great indistinctness of 
apprehension in respect to things ; yet so common is this error, that Murray himself has many 
times fallen into it.* Let the learner therefore be on his guard, remembering that grammar, both 
in its study and in its practice, requires the constant exercise of a rational discernment. Those 
letters which name themselves, take for their names those sounds which they usually represent at 
the end of an accented syllable ; thus the names, A, E, I, 0, U, are uttered with the sounds given 
to the same letters in the first syllables of the other names, Abel, Enoch, Isaac, Obed, TJrim ; or 
in the first syllables of the common words, 'paper, penal, pilot, potent, pupil. The other letters, 
most of which can never be perfectly sounded alone, have names in which their powers are com- 
bined with other sounds more vocal ; as, Bee, Gee, Dee, — Ell, Em, En, — Jay, Kay, Kue. But in 
this respect the terms Aitch and Double-u are irregular; because they have no obvious reference 
to the powers of the letters thus named. 

Obs. 3. — Letters, like all other tilings, must be learned and spoken of by their names ; nor can 

* Of this sort of blunder, the following false definition is an instance : " A Vowel is a letter, the name of which 
makes a full open sound." — Lennie's Gram., p. 5; Brace's, 7: Hazerts, 10. All this is just as true of a conso- 
nant as of a vowel. The comma too, used in this sentence, defeats even the sense which the writers intended. 
It is surely no description either of a vowel or of a consonant, to say, that it is a letter, and that the name of a 
letter makes a full open sound. Again, a late grammarian teaches, that the names of all the letters are nothing 
but Roman capitals, and then seems to inquire which of these names are vowels, thus: " Q. How many letters 
are in the alphabet? A. Twenty-six. Q. What are their names? A. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, 
N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Q. Which of these are called Vowels?"— Fowle's Common School 
Gram. , Part First, p. 7. If my worthy friend Fowle had known or considered what are the names of the letters 
iu English, he might have made a better beginning to his grammar than this. 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. LETTERS. THEIR NAMES. 151 

they be spoken of otherwise; yet, as the simple characters are better known and more easily ex- 
hibited than their written names, the former are often substituted for the latter, and are read as 
the words for which they are assumed. Hence the orthography of these words has hitherto been 
left too much to mere fancy or caprice. Our dictionaries, by a strange oversight or negligence, do 
not recognize them as words ; and writers have in general spelled them with very little regard to 
either authority or analogy. "What they are, or ought to be, has therefore been treated as a tri- 
fling question : and, what is still more surprising, several authors of spelling-books make no men- 
tion at all of them ; while others, here at the very threshold of instruction, teach falsely — giving 
"he" for Aitch, " er" for Ar, "oo" or " uu" for Double-u, "ye" for Wy, and writing almost all the 
rest improperly. So that many persons who think themselves well educated, would be greatly 
puzzled to name on paper these simple elements of all learning. Nay, there can be found a hun- 
dred men who can readily write the alphabetic names which were in use two or three thousand 
years ago in Greece or Palestine, for one who can do the same thing with propriety, respecting 
those which we now employ so constantly in English :* and yet the words themselves are as 
familiar to every school-boy's lips as are the characters to his eye. This fact may help to convince 
us, that the grammar of our language has never yet been sufficiently taught. Among all the par- 
ticulars which constitute this subject, there are none which better deserve to be everywhere 
known, by proper and determinate names, than these prime elements of all written language. 

Obs. 4. — Should it happen to be asked a hundred lustrums hence, what were the names of the 
letters in " the Augustan age of English literature," or in the days of William the Fourth and Andrew 
Jackson, I fear the learned of that day will be as much at a loss for an answer, as would most of 
our college tutors now, were they asked, by what series of names the Roman youth were taught 
to spell. Might not Quintilian or Yarro have obliged many, by recording these ? As it is, we are 
indebted to Priscian, a grammarian of the sixth century, for almost all we know about them. But 
even the information which may be had, on this point, has been strangely overlooked by our com- 
mon Latin grammarians. f What, but the greater care of earlier writers, has made the Greek 
names better known or more important than the Latin ? In every nation that is not totally illit- 
erate, custom must have established for the letters a certain set of names, which are the only true 
ones, and which are of course to be preferred to such as are local or unauthorized. In this, how- 
ever, as in other things, use may sometimes vary, and possibly improve ; but when its decisions 
are clear, no feeble reason should be allowed to disturb them. Every parent, therefore, who 
would have his children instructed to read and write the English language, should see that in the 
first place they learn to name the letters as they are commonly named in English. A Scotch 
gentleman of good education informs me, that the names of the letters, as he first learned them in a 
school in his own country, were these : " A, lb, Ec, Id, E, Iff, Ig, Ich, I, Ij, Ik, 111. Im, In, 0, Ip, Kue, 
Ir, Iss, It, U, Iv, Double-u, Ix, Wy, Iz ;" but that in the same school the English names are now 
used. It is to be hoped, that all teachers will in time abandon every such local usage, and name 
the letters as they ought to be named ; and that the day will come, in which the regular English 
orthography of these terms, shall be steadily preferred, ignorance of it be thought a disgrace, and 
the makers of school-books feel no longer at liberty to alter names that are a thousand times bet- 
ter known than their own. 

Obs. 5. — It is not in respect to their orthography alone, that these first words in literature 
demand inquiry and reflection: the pronunciation of some of them has often been taught errone- 
ously, and. with respect to three or four of them, some writers have attempted to make an entire 
ehange from the customary forms which I have recorded. Whether the name of the first letter 
should be pronounced " Aye" as it is in England, " Ah" as it is in Ireland, or "Aw," as it is in 
Scotland, is a question which Walker has largely discussed, and clearly decided in favour of the 
first sound; and this decision accords with the universal practice of the schools in America. It is 
remarkable that this able critic, though he treated minutely of the letters, naming them all in tho 
outset of his "Principles," subsequently neglected the names of them all, except the first and the 

* By the colloquial phrase, "to a Tee," we mean, " to a nicety, to a tittle, a jot, an iota." Had the British 
poet Gawthorn, himself a noted schoolmaster, known how to write the name of " T," he would probably have 
preferred it in the following couplet : 

"And swore by Varro's shade that he 
Conceived the medal to a T." — British Poets, Vol. VII, p. 65. 

Here the name would certainly be much fitter than the letter, because the text does not in reality speak of the 
letter. With the names of the Greek letters, the author was better acquainted ; the same poem exhibits two of 
them, where the characters themselves are spoken of: 

" My eye can trace divinely true, 
In this dark curve a little Mu ; 
And here, you see, there seems to lie 
The! ruins of a Doric Xi." — Ibidem. 

The critical reader will see that '•'■seems 1 '' should be seem, to agree with its nominative "ruins." 

t Lily, reckoning without the H, J, or V, speaks of the Latin letters as " twenty-two ;" but says nothing concern- 
ing their names. Ruddiman, Adam, Grant, Gould, and others, who include the H, J, and V, rightly state the 
number to be "twenty-five;" but, concerning their names, are likewise entirely silent. Andrews and Stoddard, 
not admitting the K, teach thus: "The letters of the Latin language are twenty-four. They have the same 
names as the corresponding characters in English." — Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Gram., p. 1. A later au- 
thor speaks thus: " The Latin Alphabet consists of twenty-five letters, the same in name and form as the Eng- 
lish, but without the w." — Bullions'.? Latin Gram., p. 1. It would probably be nearer to the truth, to say, 
" The Latin Alphabet, like the French, has no W; it consists of twenty-five letters, which are the same in name 
and form as the French." Will it be pretended that the French names and the English do not differ ? 



152 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

last. Of Zee, (which has also been called Zed, Zad, Izzard, Uzzard, Izzet, and Iz,)* he says, " Its 
common name is izzard, which Dr. Johnson explains into s hard ; if, however, this is the meaning, 
it is a gross misnomer ; for the z is not the hard, but the soft s ;\ but as it has a less sharp, and 
therefore not so audible a sound, it is not impossible but it may mean s surd. Zed, borrowed from 
the French, is the more fashionable name of this letter ; but, in my opinion, not to be admitted, be- 
cause the names of the letters ought to have no diversity. ." — Walker's Principles, No. 483. It is true, 
the name of a letter ought to be one, and in no respect diverse ; but where diversity has already 
obtained, and become firmly rooted in custom, is it to be obviated by insisting upon what is old- 
fashioned, awkward, and inconvenient ? Shall the better usage give place to the worse ? Uni- 
formity cannot be so reached. In this country, both Zed and Izzard, as well as the worse forms 
Zad and Uzzard, are now fairly superseded by the softer and better term Zee; and whoever will 
spell aloud, with each of these names, a few such words as dizzy, mizzen, gizzard, may easily per- 
ceive why none of the former can ever be brought again into use. The other two, Iz and Izzet, being 
localisms, and not authorized English, I give up all six; Zed to the French, and the rest to oblivion. 

Obs. 6. — By way of apology for noticing the name of the first letter, Walker observes, "If a 
diversity of names to vowels did not confound us in our spelling, or declaring to each other the 
component letters of a word, it would be entirely needless to enter into so trifling a question as the 
mere name of a letter; but when we find ourselves unable to convey signs to each other on ac- 
count of this diversity of names, and that words themselves are endangered by an improper 
utterance of their component parts, it seems highly incumbent on us to attempt a uniformity in 
this point, which, insignificant as it may seem, is undoubtedly the foundation of a just and regular 
pronunciation." — Diet, under A. If diversity in this matter is so perplexing, what shall we say 
to those who are attempting innovations without assigning reasons, or even pretending authority? 
and if a knowledge of these names is the basis of a just pronunciation, what shall we think of him 
who will take no pains to ascertain how he ought to speak and write them ? He who pretends 
to teach the proper fashion of speaking and writing, cannot deal honestly, if ever he silently prefer 
a suggested improvement, to any established and undisturbed usage of the language; for, in 
grammar, no individual authority can be a counterpoise to general custom. The best usage can 
never be that which is little known, nor can it be well ascertained and taught by him who knows 
little. Inquisitive minds are ever curious to learn the nature, origin, and causes of things ; and 
that instruction is the most useful, which is best calculated to gratify this rational curiosity. This 
is my apology for dwelling so long upon the present topic. 

Obs. 7. — The names originally given to the letters were not mere notations of sound, intended 
solely to express or make known the powers of the several characters then in use ; nor ought 
even the modern names of our present letters, though formed .with special reference to their 
sounds, to be considered such. Expressions of mere sound, such as the notations in a pronounc- 
ing dictionary, having no reference to what is meant by the sound, do not constitute words at all ; 
because they are not those acknowledged signs to which a meaning has been attached, and are 
consequently without that significance which is an essential property of words. But, in every 
language, there must be a series of sounds by which the alphabetical characters are commonly 
known in speech ; and which, as they are the acknowledged names of these particular objects, 
must be entitled to a place among the words of the language. It is a great error to judge other- 
wise; and a greater to make it a "trifling question" in grammar, whether a given letter shall be 
called by one name or by an other. "Who shall say that Daleth, Delta, and Dee, are not three 
real words, each equally important in the language to which it properly belongs? Such names 
have always been in use wherever literature has been cultivated ; and as the forms and powers 
of the letters have been changed by the nations, and have become different in different languages, 
there has necessarily followed a change of the names. For, whatever inconvenience scholars may 
find in the diversity which has thence arisen, to name these elements in a set of foreign terms, 
inconsistent with the genius of the language to be learned, would surely be attended with a ten- 
fold greater. We derived our letters, and their names too, from the Romans ; but this is no good 
reason why the latter should be spelled and pronounced as we suppose they were spelled and 
pronounced in Rome. 

Obs. 8. — The names of the twenty-two letters in Hebrew, are, without dispute, proper words; 
for they are not only significant of the letters thus named, but have in general, if not in every in- 
stance, some other meaning in that language. Thus the mysterious ciphers which the English 
reader meets with, and wonders over, as he reads the 119th Psalm, may be resolved, according 
to some of the Hebrew grammars, as follows : — 

n Aleph, A, an ox, or a leader ; a Beth, Bee, a house ; a Gimel, Gee, a camel ; -t 

* The Scotch Iz and the Craven Izzet, if still in use anywhere, are names strictly local, not properly Eng- 
lish, nor likely to spread. " IZZET, the letter Z. This is probably the corruption of izzard, the old and com- 
mon name for the letter, though I know not, says Nares, on what authority." — Glossary of Craven, to. Izzet. 
" Z z, zed, more commonly called izzard or uzzard, that is, s hard." — Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 1. 
"And how she sooth'd me when with study sad 
I labour'd on to reach the final Zad." — Crabbers Borough, p. 228. 

t William Bolles, in his new Dictionary, says of the letter Z : "Its sound is uniformly that of a hard S." The 
name, however, he pronounces as I do ; though he writes it not Zee but ze ; giving not the orthography of the 
name, as he should have done, but a mere index of its pronunciation. Walker proves by citations from Profes- 
sor Ward and Dr. Wallis, that these authors considered the sharp or hissing sound of s the " hard" sound; and 
the flat sound, like that of z, its " soft" sound. See his Dictionary, 8vo, p. 53. 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. LETTERS. THEIR NAMES. 153 

Daleth, Dee, a door ; n He, E, she, or behold ; 1 Vau, U, a hook, or a nail ; \ Zain, 
Zee, armour ; n Cheth, or Heth, Aitch, a hedge ; ta Teth, Tee, a serpent, or a 
scroll ; i Jod, or Yod, I, or Wy, a hand shut ; 3 Caph, Cee, a hollow hand, or a cup ; 
V Lamed, Ell, an ox-goad ; to Mem, Em, a stain, or spot ; 5 Nun, En, a fish, or a 
snake ; 6 Samech, Ess, a basis, or support ; y Ain, or Oin, O, an eye, or a well ; s 
Pe, Pee, a lip, or mouth ; i: Tzaddi, or Tsadhe, Tee-zee, (i. e. tz, or ts,) a hunter's 
pole ; j? Koph, Kue, or Kay, an ape ; ~> Resch, or Resh, Ar, a head ; ty Schin, or 
Sin, Ess-aitch, or Ess, a tooth ; n Tau, or Thau, Tee, or Tee- aitch, a cross, or mark. 

These English names of the Hebrew letters are written with much less uniformity than those 
of the Greek, because there has been more dispute respecting their powers. This is directly con- 
trary to what one would have expected ; since the Hebrew names are words originally significant 
of other things than the letters, and the Greek are not. The original pronunciation of both lan- 
guages is admitted to be lost, or involved in so much obscurity that little can be positively affirmed 
about it; and yet, where least was known, grammarians have produced the most diversity; 
aiming at disputed sounds in the one case, but generally preferring a correspondence of letters in 
the other. 

Obs. 9. — The word alphabet is derived from the first two names in the following series. The 
Greek letters are twenty-four; which are formed, named, and sounded, thus: — 

A a, Alpha, a ; B /?, Beta, b ; r y, Gamma, g hard ; 4 d, Delta, d ; E s, Epsilon, 
e short ; Z c, Zeta, z ; Hrj, Eta, e long ; & & d, Thcta, th ; / 1, Iota, i ; Kx, Kappa, 
k ; A I, Lambda, 1 ; M /;, Mu, m ; N v, Nu, n ; Z I, Xi, x ; o, Omicron, o short ; 
II 7r ? Pi, p ; P q, Rho, r ; 2 a g, Sigma, s ; Tt, Tau, t ; T u, Upsilon, u ; ( I J cp, Phi, 
ph ; X x, Chi, ch ; W y>, Psi, ps ; SI a>, Omega, o long. 

Of these names, our English dictionaries explain the first and the last ; and Webster has defined 
Iota, and Zeta, but without reference to the meaning of the former in Greek. Beta, Delta, Lambda, 
and perhaps some others, are also found in the etymologies or definitions of Johnson and "Webster, 
both of whom spell the word Lambda and its derivative lambdoidal without the silent b, which is 
commonly, if not always, inserted by the authors of our Greek grammars, and which Worcester, 
more properly, retains. 

Obs. 10. — The reader will observe that the foregoing names, whether Greek or Hebrew, are in 
general much less simple than those which our letters now bear ; and if he has ever attempted to 
spell aloud in either of those languages, he cannot but be sensible of the great advantage which 
was gained when to each letter there was given a short name, expressive, as ours mostly are, of 
its ordinary power. This improvement appears to have been introduced by the Romans, whose 
names for the letters were even more simple than our own. But so negligent in respect to them 
have been the Latin grammarians, both ancient and modern, that few even of the learned can tell 
what they really were in that language ; or how they differed, either in orthography or sound, 
from those of the English or the French, the Hebrew or the Greek. Most of them, however, may 
yet be ascertained from Priscian, and some others of note among the ancient philologists; so that 
by taking from later authors the names of those letters which were not used in old times, we can 
still furnish an entire list, concerning the accuracy of which there is not much room to dispute. 
It is probable that in the ancient pronunciation of Latin, a was commonly sounded as in father ; e 
like the English a ; i mostly like e long ; y like i short ; c generally and g always hard, as in 
come and go. But, as the original, native, or just pronunciation of a language is not necessary to 
an understanding of it when written, the existing nations have severally, in a great measure, ac- 
commodated themselves, in their manner of reading this and other ancient tongues. 

Obs. 11. — As the Latin language is now printed, its letters are twenty-five. Like the French, 
it has all that belong to the English alphabet, except the Double-u. But, till the first Punic war, 
the Romans wrote for G, and doubtless gave it the power as well as the place of the Gamma 
or Gimel. It then seems to have slid into K ; but they used it also for S, as we do now. The 
ancient Saxons, generally pronounced C as K, but sometimes as Ch. Their Gwas either guttural, 
or like our Y. In some of the early English grammars the name of the latter is vTitten Ghee. 
The letter F, when first invented, was called, from its shape, Digamma, and afterwards Ef. J, 
when it was first distinguished from I, was called by the Hebrew name Joel, and afterwards Je. 
Y, when first distinguished from U, was called Vau, then Va, then Ve. Y, when the Romans 
first borrowed it from the Greeks, was called Ypsilon ; and Z, from the same source, was called 
Zeta ; and, as these two letters were used only in words of Greek origin, I know not whether 
they ever received from the Romans any shorter names. In Schneider's Latin Grammar, the 
letters are named in the following manner ; except Je and Ye, which are omitted by this author : 
"A, Be, Ce, De, E, Ef, Ge, Ha, I, [Je,] Ka, El, Em, En, 0, Pe, Cu, Er, Es, Te, U, [Ye,] Ix, 
Ypsilon, Zeta." And this I suppose to be the most proper way of writing their names in Latin, 
unless we have sufficient authority for shortening Ypsilon into Y, sounded as short i, and for 
changing Zeta into Ez. 

Obs. 12. — In many, if not in all languages, the five vowels, A, E, I, 0, U, name themselves-, 
but they name themselves differently to the ear, according to the different ways of uttering them 



154 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

in different languages. And as the name of a consonant necessarily requires one or more vowels, 
that also may be affected in the same manner. But in every language there should he a known 
way both of writing and of speaking every name in the series ; and that, if there is nothing to 
hinder, should be made conformable to the genius of the language. I do not say that the names 
above can be regularly declined in Latin ; but in English it is as easy to speak of two Dees as of 
two trees, of two Kays as of two days, of two Exes as of two foxes, of two Effs as of two skiffs; 
and there ought to be no more difficulty about the correct way of writing the word in the one 
case, than in the other. In Dr. Sam. Prat's Latin Grammar, (an elaborate octavo, all Latin, pub- 
lished in London, 1722,) nine of the consonants are reckoned mutes; b, c, d, g, p, q, t, j, and v; 
and eight, semivowels; f, 1, m, n, r, s, x, z. "All the mutes," says this author, "are named by 
placing e after them; as, be, ce, de, ge, except q, which ends in u." See p. 8. "The semivowels, 
beginning with e, end in themselves ; as, ef* ach, el, em, en, er, es, ex, (or, as Priscian will have 
it, ix,) els." See p. 9. This mostly accords with the names given in the preceding paragraph; 
and so far as it does not, I judge the author to be wrong. The reader will observe that the Doc- 
tor's explanation is neither very exact nor quite complete : K is a mute which is not enumerated, 
and the rule would make the name of it Ke, and not Ka ; — H is not one of his eight semivowels, 
nor does the name Ach accord with his rule or seem like a Latin word ; — the name of Z, accord- 
ing to his principle, would be Ez and not "Eds," although the latter may better indicate the 
sound which was then given to this letter. 

Obs. 13. — If the history of these names exhibits diversity, so does that of almost all other 
terms ; and yet there is some way of writing every word with correctness, and correctness tends 
to permanence. But Time, that establishes authority, destroys it also, when he fairly sanctions 
newer customs. To all names worthy to be known, it is natural to wish a perpetual uniformity; 
but if any one thinks the variableness of these to be peculiar, let him open the English Bible of the 
fourteenth century, and read a few verses, observing the names. For instance: "Forsothe 
whanne Eroude was to bringynge forth hym, in that nigt Petir was slepynge bitwixe tweyne 
knytis." — Dedis, (i. e., Acts,) xii, 6. " Crist Ihesu that is to demynge the quyke and deed." — 2 
Tim., iv, 1. Since this was written for English, our language has changed much, and at the same 
time acquired, by means of the press, some aids to stability. I have recorded above the true 
names of the letters, as they are now used, with something of their history ; and if there could be 
in human works any thing unchangeable, I should wish, (with due deference to all schemers and 
fault-finders,) that these names might remain the same forever. 

Obs. 14. — If any change is desirable in our present names of the letters, it is that we may 
have a shorter and simpler term in stead of Double-u. But can we change this well known name? 
I imagine it would be about as easy to change Alpha, Upsilon, or Omega ; and perhaps it would 
be as useful. Let Dr. Webster, or any defender of his spelling, try it. He never named the 
English letters rightly ; long ago discarded the term Double-u ; and is not yet tired of his experi- 
ment with "oo;" but thinks still to make the vowel sound of this letter its name. Tet he writes 
his new name wrong ; has no authority for it but his own ; and is, most certainly, reprehensible 
for the innovation* If W is to be named as a vowel, it ought to name itself, as other vowels do, 
and not to take two Oes for its written name. Who that knows what it is, to name a letter, can 
think of naming w by double o F That it is possible for an ingenious man to misconceive this 
simple affair of naming the letters, may appear not only from the foregoing instance, but from 
the following quotation : " Among the thousand mismanagements of literary instruction, there is 
at the outset in the hornbook, the pretence to represent elementary sounds by syllables composed 
of two or more elements ; as, Be, Kay, Zed, Double-u, and Aitch. These words are used in in- 
fancy, and through life, as simple elements in the process of synthetic spelling. If the definition 
of a consonant was made by the master from the practice of the child, it might suggest pity for 
the pedagogue, but should not make us forget the realities of nature." — Dr. Rush, on the Philo- 
soplnj of the Human Voice, p. 52. This is a strange allegation to come from such a source. If I 
bid a boy spell the word why, he says, "Double-u, Aitch, Wy, hwif and knows that he has 
spelled and pronounced the word correctly. But if he conceives that the five syllables which 
form the three words, Double-u, and Aitch, and Wy, are the three simple sounds which he utters in 
pronouncing the word why, it is not because the hornbook, or the teacher of the hornbook, ever 
made any such blunder or "pretence ;" but because, like some great philosophers, he is capable 
of misconceiving very plain things. Suppose he should take it into his head to follow Dr. "Web- 
ster's books, and to say, "Oo, he, ye, hwif who, but these doctors, would imagine, that such 
spelling was supported either by "the realities of nature," or by the authority of custom ? I 
shall retain both the old " definition of a consonant," and the usual names of the letters, notwith. 
standing the contemptuous pity it may excite in the minds of such critics. 

II CLASSES OF THE LETTEBS. 

The letters are divided into two general classes, vowels and consonants. 
A vowel is a letter which forms a perfect sound when uttered alone ; 
as, a, e, o. 

* Dr. Webster died in 1843. MoBt of this work was written while he was yet in vigour. 



CHAP. I.J ORTHOGRAPHY. LETTERS. — THEIR CLASSES. 15j 

A consonant is a letter which cannot be perfectly uttered till joined to 
a vowel ; as, b, c, d.* 

The vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes w and y. All the other 
letters are consonants. 

W or y is called a consonant when it precedes a vowel heard in the 
same syllable ; as in wine, twine, whine; ye, yet, youth: in all other 
cases, these letters are vowels ; as in Yssel, Ystadt, yttria; newly, dewy, 
eyebrow. 

CLASSES OF CONSONANTS. 

The consonants are divided, with respect to their powers, into semivowels and 
mutes. 

A semivowel is a consonant which can be imperfectly sounded without a vowel, 
so that at the end of a syllable its sound may be protracted ; as, I, n, z, in al, an, 
az. 

A mute is a consonant which cannot be sounded at all without a vowel, and 
which at the end of a syllable suddenly stops the breath ; as, k, p, t, in ah, ap, at. 

The semivowels are,/, A, j, I, m, n, r, s, v, w, x, y, z, and c and g soft: but w or y 
at the end of a syllabic, is a vowel ; and the sound of c,f, g, h,j, s, or x, can be pro- 
tracted only as an aspirate, or strong breath. 

Four of the semivowels, — I, m, n, and r, — are termed liquids, on account of the 
fluency of their sounds ; and four others, — v, w, y, and z, — are likewise more vocal 
than the aspirates. 

The mutes are eight ; — b, d, k, p, q, t, and c and g hard : three of these, — h, q, 
and c hard, — sound exactly alike : b, d, and g hard, stop the voice less suddenly 
than the rest. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The foregoing division of the letters is of very great antiquity, and, in respect to its 
principal features, sanctioned by almost universal authority ; yet if we examine it minutely, either 
with reference to the various opinions of the learned, or with regard to the essential differences 
among the things of which it speaks, it will not perhaps be found in all respects indisputably 
certain. It will however be of use, as a basis for some subsequent rules, and as a means of call- 
ing the attention of the learner to the manner in which he utters the sounds of the letters. A 
knowledge of about three dozen different elementary sounds is implied in the faculty of speech. 
The power of producing these sounds with distinctness, and of adapting them to the purposes for 
which language is used, constitutes perfection of utterance. Had we a perfect alphabet, consist- 
ing of one symbol, and only one, for each elementary sound ; and a perfect method of spelling, 
freed from silent letters, and precisely adjusted to the most correct pronunciation of words ; the 
process of learning to read would doubtless be greatly facilitated. And yet any attempt toward 
such a reformation, any change short of the introduction of some entirely new mode of writing, 
would be both unwise and impracticable. It would involve our laws and literature in utter con- 
fusion ; because pronunciation is the least permanent part of language ; and if the orthography 
of words were conformed entirely to this standard, their origin and meaning would, in many in- 
stances, be soon lost. We must therefore content ourselves to learn languages as they are, and 
to make the best use we can of our present imperfect system of alphabetic characters ; and we 
may be the better satisfied to do this, because the deficiencies and redundancies of this alphabet 
are not yet so well ascertained, as to make it certain what a perfect one would be. 

Obs. 2. — In order to have a right understanding of the letters, it is necessary to enumerate, as 
accurately as we can, the elementary sounds of the language ; and to attend carefully to the man- 
ner in winch these sounds are enunciated, as well as to the characters by which they are repre- 
sented. The most unconcerned observer cannot but perceive that there are certain differences in 
the sounds, as well as in the shapes, of the letters; and yet under what heads they ought sever- 
ally to be classed, or how many of them will fall under some particular name, it may occasionally 
puzzle a philosopher to tell. The student must consider what is proposed or asked, use his own 
senses, and judge for himself. With our lower-case alphabet before him, he can tell by his own 
eye, which are the long letters, and which the short ones ; so let him learn by his own ear, which 
are the vowels, and which, the consonants. The processes are alike simple ; and, if he be neither 
blind nor deaf, he can do both about equally well. Thus he may know for a certainty, that a is 

* This old definition John L. Parkhurst disputes ; — says it "is ambiguous;" — questions whether it means, 
"that the name of such a letter, or the simple sound" requires a vowel ! " If the latter," says he, " the as- 
sertion is false. The simple sounds, represented by the consonants, can be uttered separately, distinctly, and 
perfectly. It can be done with the utmost ease, even by a little child." — Parkhursf s Inductive Gram, for 
Beginners, p. 164. He must be one of those modern philosophers who delight to make moxttlis of these voice- 
less elements, to show how much may be done without sound from the larynx. 



156 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

a short letter, and b a long one ; the former a vowel, the latter a consonant : and so of others. 
Yet as he may doubt whether t is a long letter or a short one, so he may be puzzled to say 
whether w and y, as heard in we and ye, are vowels or consonants : but neither of these difficulties 
should impair his confidence in any of his other decisions. If he attain by observation and prac- 
tice a clear and perfect pronunciation of the letters, he will be able to class them for himself with 
as much accuracy as he will find in books. 

Obs. 3. — Grammarians have generally agreed that every letter is either a vowel or a consonant ; 
and also that there are among the latter some semivowels, some mutes, some aspirates, some liquids, 
some sharps, some flats, some labials, some dentals, some nasals, some palatals, and perhaps yet 
other species ; but in enumerating the letters which belong to these several classes, they disagree 
so much as to make it no easy matter to ascertain what particular classification is best supported 
by their authority. I have adopted what I conceive to be the best authorized, and at the same 
time the most intelligible. He that dislikes the scheme, may do better, if he can. But let him 
with modesty determine what sort of discoveries may render our ancient authorities questionable. 
Aristotle, three hundred and thirty years before Christ, divided the Greek letters into vowels, semi- 
vowels, and mutes, and declared that no syllable could be formed without a vowel. In the opinion 
of some neoterics, it has been reserved to our age, to detect the fallacy of this. But I would fain 
believe that the Stagirite knew as well what he was saying, as did Dr. James Rush, when, in 
1827, he declared the doctrine of vowels and consonants to be "a misrepresentation." The latter 
philosopher resolves the letters into " tonics, subtonics, and atonies;" and avers that " consonants 
alone may form syllables." Indeed, I cannot but think the ancient doctrine better. For, to say 
that " consonants alone may form syllables," is as much as to say that consonants are not conso- 
nants, but vowels ! To be consistent, the attempters of this reformation should never speak of 
vowels or consonants, semivowels or mutes ; because they judge the terms inappropriate, and the 
classification absurd. They should therefore adhere strictly to their "tonics, subtonics, and 
atonies;" which classes, though apparently the same as vowels, semivowels, and mutes, are bet- 
ter adapted to their new and peculiar division of these elements. Thus, by reforming both lan- 
guage and philosophy at once, they may make what they will of either ! 

Obs. 4. — Some teach that w and y are always vowels: conceiving the former to be equivalent 
to oo, and the latter to iov e. Dr. Lowth says, "7 is always a vowel," and "IF is either a vowel 
or a diphthong." Dr. Webster supposes w to be always "a vowel, a simple sound ;" but admits that, 
" At the beginning of words, y is called an articulation or consonant, and with some propriety per- 
haps, as it brings the root of the tongue in close contact with the lower part of the palate, and 
nearly in the position to which the close g brings it." — American Diet, Octavo. But I follow 
Wallis, Brightland, Johnson, Walker, Murray, Worcester, and others, in considering both of them 
sometimes vowels and sometimes consonants. They are consonants at the beginning of words in 
English, because their sounds take the article a, and not an, before them ; as, a wall, a yard, and 
not, an wall, an yard. But oo or the sound of e, requires an, and not a; as, an eel, an oozy bog* 
At the end of a syllable we know they are vowels ; but at the beginning, they are so squeezed in 
their pronunciation, as to follow a vowel without any hiatus, or difficulty of utterance; as, "0 
worthy youth! so young, so wise!" 

Obs. 5. — Murray's rule, "IF and y are consonants when they begin a word or syllable, but in 
every other situation they are vowels," which is found in Comly's book, Kirkham' s, Merchant's, 
Ingersolfs, Fisk's. Hart's, Hiley's, Alger's, Bullions's, Pond's, S. Putnam's, Weld's, and in sundry 
other grammars, is favourable to my doctrine, but too badly conceived to be quoted here as 
authority. It undesignedly makes w a consonant in wine, and a vowel in twine ; and y a conso- 
nant when it forms a syllable, as in dewy : for a letter that forms a syllable, "begins" it. But 
Kirkham has lately learned his letters anew ; and, supposing he had Dr. Rush on his side, has 
philosophically taken their names for their sounds. He now calls y a " diphthong." But he is 
wrong here by his own showing : he should rather have called it a triphthong. He says, " By 
pronouncing in a very deliberate and perfectly natural manner, the letter y, (which is a diphthong,) 
the unpractised student will perceive, that the sound produced, is compound ; being formed, at its 
opening, of the obscure sound of oo as heard in oo-ze, which sound rapidly slides into that of i, 
and then advances to that of ee as heard in e-ve, and on which it gradually passes off into silence." 
— Kirkham 's Elocution, p. 15. Thus the " unpractised student" is taught that b-y spells bwy ; or, if 
pronounced " very deliberately, boo-i-ee /" Nay, this grammatist makes b, not a labial mute, as 
Walker. Webster, Cobb, and others, have called it, but a nasal subtonic, or semivowel. He de- 
lights in protracting its "guttural murmur;" perhaps, in assuming its name for its sound ; and, 
having proved, that "consonants are capable of forming syllables," finds no difficulty in mouthing 
this little monosyllable by into b-oo-i-ee ! In this way, it is the easiest thing in the world, for such 

* This test of what is, or is not, a vowel sound or a consonant sound, is often appealed to, and is generally 
admitted to be a just one. Errors in the application of an or a are not unfrequent, but they do not affect the 
argument. It cannot be denied, that it is proper to use a, and not proper to use an, before the initial sound of w or 
?/ with a vowel following. And this rule holds good, whether the sound be expressed by these particular letters, 
or by others ; as in the phrases, " a wonder, a one, a yew, a use, a ewer, a humour, a yielding temper.'"'' But 
I have heard it contended, that these are vowel sounds, notwithstanding they require a; and that the w and y 
are always vowels, because even a vowel sound (it was said) requires a and not an, whenever an other vowel 
sound immediately follows it. Of this notion, the following examples are a sufficient refutation : an aeronaut, 
an aiirial tour, an oziliad, an eyewink, an eyas, an iambus, an oasis, an oversight, an oil, an oyster, an otvl, an 
ounce. The initial sound of yielding requires a, and not an ; but those who call the y a vowel, say, it is equiv- 
alent to the unaccented long e. This does not seem to me to be exactly true ; because the latter sound requires 
an, and not a ; as, "Athens, as well as Thebes, had an Ettion." 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. LETTERS. THEIR CLASSES. 157 

a man to outface Aristotle, or any other divider of the letters ; for he makes the sounds by which 
he judges. "Boy," says the teacher of Kirkham's Elocution, "describe the protracted sound of 
y." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 110. The pupil may answer, "That letter, sir, has no longer or 
more complex sound, than what is heard in the word eye, or in the vowel *; but the book which 
I study, describes it otherwise. I know not whether I can make you understand it, but I will 
tr-oo-t-ee." If the word try, which the author uses as an example, does not exhibit his "pro- 
tracted sound of y," there is no word that does: the sound is a mere fiction, originating in 
strange ignorance. 

Obs. 6. — In the large print above, I have explained the principal classes of the letters, but 
not all that are spoken of in books. It is proper to inform the learner that the sharp consonants 
are t, and all others after which our contracted preterits and participles require that d should be 
sounded like t; as in the words faced, reached, stuffed, laughed, triumphed, croaked, cracked, 
houghed, reaped, nipped, piqued, missed, wished, earthed, betrothed, fixed. The flat or smooth con- 
sonants are d, and all others with which the proper sound of d may be united ; as in the words, 
daubed, judged, hugged, thronged, sealed, filled, aimed, crammed, pained, planned, feared, marred, 
soothed, loved, dozed, buzzed. The labials are those consonants which are articulated chiefly by 
the lips ; among which, Dr. Webster reckons b, f, m, p, and v. But Dr. Rush says, b and m are 
nasals, the latter, " purely nasal."* The dentals are those consonants which are referred to the 
teeth ; the nasals are those which are affected by the nose ; and the palatals are those which com- 
press the palate, as k and hard g. But these last-named classes are not of much importance ; nor 
have I thought it worth while to notice minutely the opinions of writers respecting the others, as 
whether h is a semivowel, or a mute, or neither. 

Obs. 1. — The Cherokee alphabet, which was invented in 1821, by See-quo-yah, or George 
Guess, an ingenious but wholly illiterate Indian, contains eighty-five letters, or characters. But 
the sounds of the language are much fewer than ours ; for the characters represent, not simple 
tones and articulations, but syllabic sounds, and this number is said to be sufficient to denote them 
all. But the different syllabic sounds in our language amount to some thousands. I suppose, 
from the account, that See-quo-yah writes Ms name, in his own language, with three letters ; and 
that characters so used, would not require, and probably would not admit, such a division as that 
of vowels and consonants. One of the Cherokees, in a letter to the American Lyceum, states, 
that a knowledge of this mode of writing is so easily acquired, that one who understands and 
speaks the language, "can learn to read in a day; and, indeed," continues the writer, "I have 
known some to acquire the art hi a single evening. It is only necessary to learn the different 
sounds of the characters, to be enabled to read at once. In the English language, we must not 
only first learn the letters, but to spell, before reading ; but in Cherokee, all that is required, is, to 
learn the letters ; for they have syllabic sounds, and by connecting different ones together, a word 
is formed : in which there is no art. All who understand the language can do so, and both read 
and write, so soon as they can learn to trace with their fingers the forms of the characters. I 
suppose that more than one half of the Cherokees can read then own language, and are thereby 
enabled to acquire much valuable information, with which they otherwise would never have been 
blessed."— W. S. Coodey, 1831. 

Obs. 8. — From the foregoing account, it would appear that the Cherokee language is a very 
peculiar one : its words must either be very few, or the proportion of polysyllables very great. 
The characters used in China and Japan, stand severally for ivords ; and their number is said to 
be not less than seventy thousand ; so that the study of a whole life is scarcely sufficient to make 
a man thoroughly master of them. Syllabic writing is represented by Dr. Blair as a great im- 
provement upon the Chinese method, and yet as being far inferior to that which is properly al- 
phabetic, like ours. "The first step, in this new progress," says he, "was the invention of an 
alphabet of syllables, which probably preceded the invention of an alphabet of letters, among 
some of the ancient nations ; and which is said to be retained to this day, in Ethiopia, and some 
countries of India. By fixing upon a particular mark, or character, for every syllable in the lan- 
guage, the number of characters, necessary to be used in writing, was reduced within a much smaller 
compass than the number of words in the language. Still, however, the number of characters was 
great ; and must have continued to render both reading and writing very laborious arts. Till, at 
last, some happy genius arose, and tracing the sounds made by the human voice, to their most 
simple elements, reduced them to a very few vowels and consonants ; and, by affixing to each of 
these, the signs which we now call letters, taught men how, by their combinations, to put in 
writing all the different words, or combinations of sound, which they employed in speech. By 
being reduced to this simplicity, the art of writing was brought to its highest state of perfection ; 
and, in this state, we now enjoy it in all the countries of Europe." — Blair s Rhetoric, Lect. VII, 
p. 68. 

Obs. 9. — All certain knowledge of the sounds given to the letters by Moses and the prophets 
having been long ago lost, a strange dispute has arisen, and been carried on for centuries, concern- 
ing this question, "Whether the Hebrew letters are, or are not, all consonants :" the vowels being 

* Dr. Rush, in his Philosophy of the Human Yoice, has exhibited some acuteness of observation, and has 
•written with commendable originality. But his accuracy is certainly not greater than his confidence. On page 
57th, he says, " The m, n, and ng, are purely nasal;" on page 401s"t, " Some of the tonic elements, and one of 
the subtonics, are made by the assistance of the lips; they are o-we, oo-ze, ou-t, and m." Of the intrinsic 
value of his work, I am not prepared or inclined to offer any opinion ; I criticise him only so far as he strikes 
at grammatical principles long established, and -worthy still to be maintained. 



158 THE GRAMMAK OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

supposed by some to be suppressed and understood ; and not written, except by points of com- 
paratively late invention. The discussion of such a question does not properly belong to English 
grammar ; but, on account of its curiosity, as well as of its analogy to some of our present disputes, 
I mention it. Dr. Charles "Wilson says, " After we have sufficiently known the figures and names 
of the letters, the next step is, to learn to enunciate or to pronounce them, so as to produce artic- 
ulate sounds. On this subject, which appears at first sight very plain and simple, numberless 
contentions and varieties of opinion meet us at the threshold. From the earliest period of the 
invention of written characters to represent human language, however more or less remote that 
time may be, it seems absolutely certain, that the distinction of letters into vowels and consonants 
must have obtained. All the speculations of the G-reek grammarians assume this as a first prin- 
ciple." Again : "I beg leave only to premise this observation, that I absolutely and unequivocally 
deny the position, that all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are consonants; and, after the most 
careful and minute inquiry, give it as my opinion, that of the twenty-two letters of which the 
Hebrew alphabet consists, five are vowels and seventeen are consonants. The five vowels by 
name are, Aleph, He, Vau, Yod, and Aim" — Wilson's Heb. Gram., pp. 6 and 8. 

III. POWEES OF THE LETTERS. 

The powers of the letters are properly those elementary sounds which 
their figures are used to represent ; but letters formed into words, are 
capable of communicating thought independently of sound. 

The simple elementary sounds of any language are few, commonly not 
more than thirty-six;* but they may be variously combined, so as to form 
words innumerable 

Different vowel sounds, or vocal elements, are produced by opening the 
mouth differently, and placing the tongue in a peculiar manner for each ; 
but the voice may vary in loudness, pitch, or time, and still utter the same 
vowel power. 

The vowel sounds which form the basis of the English language, and 
which ought therefore to be perfectly familiar to every one who speaks it, 
are those which are heard at the beginning of the words, ate, at, ah, all, 
eel, ell, isle, ill, old, on, ooze, use, us, and that of u in bull. 

In the formation of syllables, some of these fourteen primary sounds may 
be joined together, as in ay, oil, out, owl; and all of them may be preceded 
or followed by certain motions and positions of the lips and tongue, which 
will severally convert them into other terms in speech. Thus the same 
essential sounds may be changed into a new series of words by an// as, 
fate, fat, far, fall, feel, fell, file, fill, fold, fond, fool, fuse, fuss, full. 
Again, into as many more with a^>; as, pate, pat, par, pall, peel, pell, 
pile, pill, pole, pond, pool, pule, purl, pull. 

Each of the vowel sounds may be variously expressed by letters. About 
half of them are sometimes words : the rest are seldom, if ever, used alone 
even to form syllables. But the reader may easily learn to utter them all, 
separately, according to the foregoing series. Let us -note them as plainly 
as possible : cigh, a, ah, awe, eh, e, eye, i, oh, 6, oo, yew, u, u. 

Thus the eight long sounds, eigh, ah, awe, eh, eye, oh, ooh, yew, are, or 
may be, words ; but the six less vocal, called the short vowel sounds, as 
in at, et, it, ot, ut, put, are commonly heard only in connexion with con- 
sonants ; except the first, which is perhaps the most frequent sound of 
the vowel A or a — a sound sometimes given to the word a, perhaps most 
generally ; as in the phrase, " twice a day." 

The simple consonant sounds in English are twenty-two : they are 
marked by b, d, f, g hard, h, k, I, m, n, ng, p, r, s, sh, t, th sharp, thflat, 
v, to, y, z, and zh. But zh is written only to show the sound of other 
letters ; as of s in pleasure, or z in azure. 

* Dr. Comstock, by enumerating as elementary the sound of the diphthong <m, as in our, and the complex 
power of wh, as in ivhat, (which sounds ought not to be so reckoned,) makes the whole number of vocal elements 
in English to be " thirty-eighth See Comstock'' s Elocution, p. 19. 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGKAPHY. — LETTERS. THEIR POWERS. 159 

All these sounds are heard distinctly in the following words : buy, die, 
fie, guy, high, kie, lie, my, nigh, eying, pie, rye, sigh, shy, tie, thigh, thy, 
vie, we, ye, zebra, seizure. Again : most of them may be repeated in the 
same word, if not in the same syllable ; as in bibber, diddle, fifty, giggle, 
high-hung, cackle, lily, mimic, ninny, singing, pippin, mirror, hissest, 
flesh-brush, tittle, thinketh, thither, vivid, toitival, union,* dizzies, vision. 

With us, the consonants J and X represent, not simple, but complex 
sounds : hence they are never doubled. J is equivalent to dzh; and X, 
either to ks or to gz. The former ends no English word, and the latter 
begins none. To the initial X of foreign words, we always give the sim- 
ple sound of Z; as in Xerxes, xebec. 

The consonants C and Q have no sounds j)eculiar to themselves. Q 
has always the power of k. C is hard, like k, before a, o, and u; and 
soft, like s, before e, i, and y: thus the syllables, ca, ce, ci, co, cu, cy, are 
pronounced, ka, se, si, ko, ku, sy. S before c preserves the former sound, 
but coalesces with the latter ; hence the syllables, sea, see, sci, sco, scu, 
scy, are sounded, ska, se, si, sko, sku, sy. Ce and ci have sometimes the 
sound of sh; as in ocean, social. Ch commonly represents the compound 
sound oitsh; as in church. 

G, as well as C, has different sounds before different vowels. G is al- 
ways hard, or guttural, before a, o, and u; and generally soft, likey, be- 
fore e, i, or y: thus the syllables, ga, ge, gi, go, gu, gy, are pronounced 
gajeji, go, gu,jy. 

The possible combinations and mutations of the twenty-six letters of 
our alphabet, are many millions of millions. But those clusters which 
are unpronounceable, are useless. Of such as may be easily uttered, 
there are more than enough for all the purposes of useful writing, or the 
recording of speech. 

Thus it is, that from principles so few and simple as about six or seven 
and thirty plain elementary sounds, represented by characters still fewer, 
we derive such a variety of oral and written signs, as may suffice to ex- 
plain or record all the sentiments and transactions of all men in all ages. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — A knowledge of sounds can be acquired, in the first instance, only by the ear. No 
description of the manner of their production, or of the differences which distinguish them, can bo 
at all intelligible to him who has not already, by the sense of hearing, acquired a knowledge of 
both. What I here say of the sounds of the letters, must of course be addressed to those persons 
only who are able both to speak and to read English. Why then attempt instruction by a method 
which both ignorance and knowledge on the part of the pupil, must alike render useless ? I have 
supposed some readers to have such an acquaiutance with the powers of the letters, as is but 
loose and imperfect ; sufficient for the accurate pronunciation of some words or syllables, but leav- 
ing them liable to mistakes in others ; extending perhaps to all the sounds of the language, but 
not to a ready analysis or enumeration of them. Such persons may profit by a written description 
of the powers of the letters, though no such description can equal the clear impression of the liv- 
ing voice. ' Teachers, too, whose business it is to aid the articulation of the young, and, by a 
patient inculcation of elementary principles, to lay the foundation of an accurate pronunciation, 
may derive some assistance from any notation of these principles, which will help their memory, 
or that of the learner. The connexion between letters and sounds is altogether arbitrary ; but a 
few positions, being assumed and made known, in respect to some characters, become easy stan- 
dards for further instruction in respect to others of similar sound. 

Obs. 2. — The importance of being instructed at an early age, to pronounce with distinctness 
and facility all the elementary sounds of one's native language, has been so frequently urged, and 
is so obvious in itself, that none but those who have been themselves neglected, will be likely to 
disregard the claims of their children in this respect. f But surely an accurate knowledge of the 

* This word is commonly heard in two syllables, yune'yun ; but if Walker is right in making it three, im'ne-un, 
the sound of y consonant is heard in it but once. Worcester's notation is " yun'ywn." The long sound of u is yu ; 
hence Walker calls the letter, when thus sounded, a " semi-consonant diphthong." 

t Children ought to be accustomed to speak loud, and to pronounce all possible sounds and articulations, even 
those of such foreign languages as they will be obliged to learn ; for almost every language has its particular 



160 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

ordinary powers of the letters would be vastly more common, were there not much hereditary 
negligence respecting the manner in which these important rudiments are learned. The utter- 
ance of the illiterate may exhibit wit and native talent, but it is always more or less barbarous, 
because it is not aided by a knowledge of orthography. For pronunciation and orthography, how- 
ever they may seem, in our language especially, to be often at variance, are certainly correlative : a 
true knowledge of either tends to the preservation of both. Each of the letters represents some 
one or more of the elementary sounds, exclusive of the rest; and each of the elementary sounds, 
though several of them are occasionally transferred, has some one or two letters to which it most 
properly or most frequently belongs. But borrowed, as our language has been, from a great va- 
riety of sources, to which it is desirable ever to retain the means of tracing it, there is certainly 
much apparent lack of correspondence between its oral and its written form. Still the discrepan- 
cies are few, when compared with the instances of exact conformity; and, if they are, as I suppose 
they are, unavoidable, it is as useless to complain of the trouble they occasion, as it is to think of 
forcing a reconciliation. The wranglers in this controversy, can never agree among themselves, 
whether orthography shall conform to pronunciation, or pronunciation to orthography. Nor does 
any one of them well know how our language would either sound or look, were he himself ap- 
pointed sole arbiter of all variances between our spelling and our speech. 

Obs. 3. — "Language," says Dr. Rush, "was long ago analyzed into its alphabetic elements. 
"Wherever this analysis is known, the art of teaching language has, with the best success, been 
conducted upon the rudimental method." * * * "The art of reading consists in having all 
the vocal elements under complete command, that they may be properly applied, for the vivid and 
elegant delineation of the sense and sentiment of discourse." — PhilosopJiy of the Voice, p. 34G. 
Again, of "the pronunciation of the alphabetic elements," he says, "The least deviation from the 
assumed standard converts the listener into the critic ; and I am surely speaking within bounds 
when I say, that for every miscalled element in discourse, ten succeeding words are lost to the 
greater part of an audience." — Ibid., p. 350. These quotations plainly imply both the practicability 
and the importance of teaching the pronunciation of our language analytically by means of its 
present orthography, and agreeably to the standard assumed by the grammarians. The first of 
them affirms that it has been done, "with the best success," according to some ancient method of 
dividing the letters and explaining their sounds. And yet, both before and afterwards, we find 
this same author complaining of our alphabet and its subdivisions, as if sense or philosophy must 
utterly repudiate both ; and of our orthography, as if a ploughman might teach us to spell better : 
and, at the same time, he speaks of softening his censure through modesty. " The deficiencies, 
redundancies, and confusion, of the system of alphabetic characters in this language, prevent the 
adoption of its subdivisions in this essay." — II)., p. 52. Of the specific sounds given to the letters, 
he says, "The first of these matters is under the rule of everybody, and therefore is very properly 
to be excluded from the discussions of that philosophy which desires to be effectual in its instruc- 
tion. How can we hope to establish a system of elemental pronunciation in a language, when 
great masters in criticism condemn at once every attempt, in so simple and useful a labour as tho 
correction of its orthography!" — P. 256. Again: "I deprecate noticing the faults of speakers, in 
the pronunciation of the alphabetic elements. It is better for criticism to be modest on this point, 
till it has the sense or independence to make our alphabet and its uses, look more like the work 
of what is called — wise and transcendent humanity : till the pardonable variety of pronunciation, 
and the true spelling by the vulgar, have satirized into reformation that pen-craft which keeps up 
the troubles of orthography for no other purpose, as one can divine, than to boast of a very ques- 
tionable merit as a criterion of education." — lb., p. 383. 

Obs. 4. — How far these views are compatible, the reader will judge. And it is hoped he will 
excuse the length of the extracts, from a consideration of the fact, that a great master of the 
"pen-craft" here ridiculed, a noted stickler for needless Kays and Ues, now commonly rejected, 
while he boasts that his grammar, which he mostly copied from Murray's, is teaching the old ex- 
planation of the alphabetic elements to "more than one hundred thousand children and youth," 
is also vending under his own name an abstract of the new scheme of " tonicks, subtonicks, and 
atonicks ;" and, in one breath, bestowing superlative praise on both, in order, as it would seem, to 
monopolize ail inconsistency. " Among those who have successfully laboured in the philological 
field, Mr. IAndley Murray stands forth in bold relief, as undeniably at the head of the list." — 
Kirkham's Elocution, p. 12. "The modern candidate for oratorical fame, stands on very different, 
and far more advantageous, ground, than that occupied by the young and aspiring Athenian; 
especially since a correct analysis of the vocal organs, and a faithful record of their operations, have 
been given to the world by Dr. James Rush, of Philadelphia — a name that will outlive the un- 
quarried marble of our mountains." — Ibid., p. 29. "But what is to be said when presumption 
pushes itself into the front ranks of elocution, and thoughtless friends undertake to support it ? 
The fraud must go on, till presumption quarrels, as often happens, with its own friends, or with 
itself, and thus dissolves the spell of its merits." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 405. 

Obs. 5. — The question respecting the number of simple or elementary sounds in our language, 
presents a remarkable puzzle : and it is idle, if not ridiculous, for any man to declaim about the 
imperfection of our alphabet and orthography, who does not show himself able to solve it. All 

sounds which we pronounce with difficulty, if we have not been early accustomed to them. Accordingly, nations 
who have the greatest number of sounds in their speech, learn the most easily to pronounce foreign languages, 
6ince they know their articulations by having met with similar sounds in their own language." — Spurzheim^ on 
Education, p. 159. 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — LETTERS. — THEIR POWERS. 161 

these sounds may easily be -written in a plain sentence of three or four lines upon almost any sub- 
ject ; and every one who can read, is familiar with them all, and with all the letters. Now it is 
either easy to count them, or it is difficult. If difficult, wherein does the difficulty lie ? and how 
shall he who knows not what and how many they are, think himself capable of reforming our 
system of their alphabetic signs ? If easy, why do so few pretend to know their number ? and 
of those who do pretend to this knowledge, why are there so few that agree ? A certain verse in 
the seventh chapter of Ezra, has been said to contain all the letters. It however contains no^' ; 
and, with respect to the sounds, it lacks that of f, that of th sharp, and that of u in bull. I will 
suggest a few additional words for these ; and then both all the letters, and all the sounds, of the 
English language, will be found in the example; and most of them, raanj times over: " 'And 
I, even I, Artaxerxes, the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers' who ' are beyond the 
river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the G-od of heaven, shall require 
of you, it be done speedily' and faithfully, according to that which he shall enjoin." Some letters, 
and some sounds, are here used much more frequently than others ; but, on an average, we have, 
in this short passage, each sound five times, and each letter eight. How often, then, does a man 
speak all the elements of his language, who reads well but one hour 1 

Obs. 6. — Of the number of elementary sounds in our language, different orthoepists report dif- 
ferently ; because they cannot always agree among themselves, wherein the identity or the sim- 
plicity, the sameness or the singleness, even of well-known sounds, consists ; or because, if each 
is allowed to determine these points for himself, no one of them adheres strictly to his own deci- 
sion. They may also, each for Jnmself, have some peculiar way of utterance, which will confound 
some sounds which other men distinguish, or distinguish some which other men confound. Eor, 
as a man may write a very bad hand which shall still be legible, so he may utter many sounds 
improperly and still be understood. One may, in this way, make out a scheme of the alphabetic 
elements, which shall be true of his own pronunciation, and yet have obvious faults when tried 
by the best usage of English speech. It is desirable not to multiply these sounds bej'ond the 
number which a correct and elegant pronunciation of the language obviously requires. And what 
that number is, it seeps to me not very difficult to ascertain ; at least, I think we may fix it with 
sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes. But let it be remembered, that all who have hith- 
erto attempted the enumeration, have deviated more or less from their own decisions concerning 
either the simplicity or the identity of sounds; but, most commonly, it appears to have been 
thought expedient to admit some exceptions concerning both. Thus the long or diphthongal 
sounds of / and U, are admitted by some, and excluded by others ; the sound of j, or soft g, is 
reckoned as simple by some, and rejected as compound by others ; so a part, if not all, of what 
are called the long and the short vowels, as heard in ale and ell, arm and am, all and on, isle or 
eel and ill, tone and tun, pule or pool and pull, have been declared essentially the same by some, 
and essentially different by others. Were we to recognize as elementary, no sounds but such as 
are unquestionably simple in themselves, and indisputably different in quality from all others, we 
should not have more sounds than letters : and this is a proof that we have characters enough, 
though the sounds are perhaps badly distributed among them. 

Obs. 7. — I have enumerated thirty-six weU known sounds, which, in compliance with general 
custom, and for convenience in teaching, I choose to regard as the oral elements of our language. 
There may be found some reputable authority for adding four or five more, and other authority 
as reputable, for striking from the list seven or eight of those already mentioned. Eor the sake 
of the general principle, which we always regard in writing, a principle of universal grammar, 
that there can be no syllable without a vowel, I am inclined to teach, with Brightland, Dr. Johnson, 
L. Murray, and others, that, in English, as in French, there is given to the vowel e a certain 
very obscure sound which approaches, but amounts not to an absolute suppression, though it is 
commonly so regarded by the writers of dictionaries. It may be exemplified in the words oven, 
shovel, able ;* or in the unemphatic article the before a consonant, as in the sentence, " Take the 
nearest:" we do not hear it as " thee nearest," nor as " then earest," but more obscurely. There is 
also a feeble sound of i or y unaccented, which is equivalent to ee uttered feebly, as in the word 
diversity. This is the most common sound of i and of y. The vulgar are apt to let it fall into the 
more obscure sound of short u. As elegance of utterance depends much upon the preservation 
of this sound from such obtuseness, perhaps Walker and others have done well to mark it as e in 
me; though some suppose it to be peculiar, and others identify it with the short i in fit. Thirdly, 
a distinction is made by some writers, between the vowel sounds heard in hate and bear, which 
Sheridan and Walker consider to be the same. The apparent difference may perhaps result from 
the following consonant r, which is apt to affect the sound of the vowel which precedes it. Such 
words as bear, care, dare, careful, parent, are very liable to be corrupted in pronunciation, by too 

* If it be admitted that the two semivowels I and n have vocality enough of their own to form a very feeble 
syllable, it will prove only that there are these exceptions to an important general rule. If the name of Haydn 
rhymes with maiden, it makes one exception to the rule of writing; but it is no part of the English language. 
The obscure sound of which I speak, is sometimes improperly confounded with that of short u ; thus a recent 
writer, who professes great skill in respect to such matters, says, " One of the most common sounds in our lan- 
guage is that of the vowel u, as in the word urn, or as the diphthong ea in the word earth, for which we have no 
character. Writers have made various efforts to express it, as in earth, berth, mirth, toorth, turf, in which all 
the vowels are indiscriminately used in turn. %gT~ This defect has led to the absurd method of placing the 
vowel after the consonants, instead of between them, when a word terminates with this sound ; as in the follow- 
ing, Bible, pure, centre, circle, instead of Bibel, puer, center, dried." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 498. 
" It would be a great step towards perfection to spell our words as they are pronounced I" — Ibid., p. 499. How 
often do the reformers of language multiply the irregularities of which they complain I 

11 



162 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

broad a sound of the a ; and, as the multiplication of needless distinctions should be avoided, I do 
not approve of adding an other sound to a vowel which has already quite too many. Worcester, 
however, in his new Dictionary, and Wells, in his new Grammar, give to the vowel a six or seven 
sounds in lieu of four ; and Dr. Mandeville, in his Course of Reading, says, "A has eight sounds." 
—P. 9. 

Obs. 8. — Sheridan made the elements of his oratory twenty-eight Jones followed him implicitly, 
and adopted the same number.* Walker recognized several more, but I know not whether he 
has anywhere told us how many there are. Lindley Murray enumerates thirty-six, and the same 
thirty-six that are given in the main text above. The eight sounds not counted by Sheridan are 
these: 1. The Italian a, as in far, father, which he reckoned but a lengthening of the - a in hat; 
2. The short o, as in hot, which he supposed to be but a shortening of the a in hall; 3. The diph- 
thongal i, as in isle, which he thought but a quicker union of the sounds of the diphthong oi, but 
which, in my opinion, is rather a very quick union of the sounds ah and ee into ay, I;\ 4. The 
long u, which is acknowledged to be equal to yu or yew, though perhaps a little different from 
you or yoo,% the sound given it by Walker; 5. The u heard in pull, which he considered but a 
shortening of oo ; 6. The consonant w, which he conceived to be always a vowel and equivalent 
to oo ; t. The consonant y, which he made equal to a short ee; 8. The consonant h, which he de- 
clared to be no letter, but a mere breathing, In all other respects, his scheme of the alphabetic 
elements agrees with that which is adopted in this work, and which is now most commonly 
taught. 

Obs. 9. — The effect of Quantity in the prolation of the vowels, is a matter with which every 
reader ought to be experimentally acquainted. Quantity is simply the time of utterance, whether 
long or short. It is commonly spoken of with reference to syllables, because it belongs severally 
to all the distinct or numerable impulses of the voice, and to these only ; but, as vowels or diph- 
thongs may be uttered alone, the notion of quantity is of course as applicable to them, as to any 
of the more complex sounds in which consonants are joined with them. All sounds imply time ; 
because they are the transient effects of certain percussions which temporarily agitate the air, an 
element that tends to silence. When mighty winds have swept over sea and land, and the voice 
of the Ocean is raised, he speaks to the towering cliffs in the deep tones of a long quantity ; the 
rolling billows, as they meet the shore, pronounce the long-drawn syllables of his majestic elocu- 
tion. But see him again in gentler mood ; stand upon the beach and listen to the rippling of his 
more frequent waves : he will teach you short quantity, as well as long. In common parlance, to 
avoid tediousness, to save time, and to adapt language to circumstances, we usually utter words 
with great rapidity, and in comparatively short quantity. But in oratory, and sometimes in ordi- 
nary reading, those sounds which are best fitted to fill and gratify the ear, should be sensibly 
protracted, especially in emphatic words; and even the shortest syllable, must be so lengthened 
as to be uttered with perfect clearness: otherwise the performance will be judged defective. 

Obs. 10. — Some of the vowels are usually uttered in longer time than others; but whether the 
former are naturally long, and the latter naturally short, may be doubted : the common opinion 
is, that they are. But one author at least denies it ; and says, " We must explode the pretended* 
natural epithets short and long given to our vowels, independent on accent : and we must observe 
that our silent e final lengthens not its syllable, unless the preceding vowel be accented." — MacJc- 
intosh's Essay on E. Gram., p. 232. The distinction of long and short vowels which has generally 
obtained, and the correspondences which some writers have laboured to establish betv/cen them, 
have always been to me sources of much embarrassment. It would appear, that in one or two 
instances, sounds that differ only in length, or time, are commonly recognized as different ele- 
ments; and that grammarians and orthospists, perceiving this, have attempted to carry out the 
analogy, and to find among what they call the long vowels a parent sound for each of the short 
ones. In doing this, they have either neglected to consult the ear, or have not chosen to abide 
by its verdict. I suppose the vowels heard in pull and pool would be necessarily identified, if the 
former were protracted or the latter shortened ; and perhaps there would be a Mice coalescence of 
those heard in of and all, were they tried in the same way, though I am not sure of it. In pro- 

* " The number of simple sounds in our tongue is twenty-eight, 9 Vowels and 19 Consonants. H is no letter, 
but merely a mark of aspiration." — Jones's Prosodial Gram, before his Diet., p. 14. 

" The number of simple vowel and consonant sounds in our tongue is twenty-eight, and one pure aspiration h, 
making in all twenty-nine."— Bolles's Octavo Diet, Introd., p. 9. 

" The number of letters in the English language is twenty-six ; but the number of elements is thirty-eight." — 
Comstock's Elocution, p. 18. " There are thirty-eight elements in the English alphabet, and to represent those 
elements by appropriate characters, we should have thirty-eight letters. There is, then, a deficiency in our al- 
phabet of twelve letters — and he who shall supply this imperfection, will be one of the greatest benefactors of 
the human race." — 76., p. 19. " Our alphabet is both redundant and defective. C, q. and x, are respectively 
represented by k or s, k, and ks, or gz ; and the remaining twenty-three letters are employed to represent forty- 
one elementary sounds." — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 36. 

*' The simple sounds were in no wise to be reckoned of any certain number : by the first men they were deter- 
mined to no more than ten, as some suppose ; as others, fifteen or twenty ; it is however certain that mankind in 
general never exceed twenty simple sounds; and of these only five are reckoned strictly such." — BicknelVs 
Grammar, Part ii, p. 4. 

t " When these sounds are openly pronounced, they produce the familiar assent ay : which, by the old English 
dramatic writers, was often expressed by J." — Walker. We still hear it so among the vulgar ; as, " I, 1, sir, 
presently!" for "Ay, ay, sir, presently!" Shakspeare wrote, 

" To sleepe, perchance to dreame; J, there's the rub." — Buckets Classical Gram., p. 148. 

% Walker pronounces yew and you precisely alike, "yoo;" but, certainly, ew is not commonly equivalent to 
oo, though some make it so : thus Gardiner, in his scheme of the vowels, says, " ew equals oo, as in new, noo."— 
Music of Nature, p. 483. Noo for new, is a vulgarism, to my ear.— -G. Bbown. 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — LETTERS. — THEIR POWERS. 163 

tracting the e in met, and the i in ship, ignorance or carelessness might perhaps, with the help of 
our orthoepists, convert the former word into mate and the latter into sheep ; and, as this would 
breed confusion in the language, the avoiding of the similarity may perhaps be a sufficient reason 
for confining these two sounds of e and i, to that short quantity in which they cannot be mistaken. 
But to suppose, as some do, that the protraction of u in tun would identify it with the o in tone, 
surpasses any notion I have of what stupidity may misconceive. "With one or two exceptions, 
therefore, it appears to me that each of the pure vowel sounds is of such a nature, that it may be 
readily recognized by its own peculiar quality or tone, though it be made as long or as short as it 
is possible for any sound of the human voice to be. It is manifest that each of the vowel sounds 
heard in ate, at, arm, all, eel, old, ooze, us, may be protracted to the entire extent of a full breath 
slowly expended, and still be precisely the same one simple sound ;* and, on the contrary, that 
all but one may be shortened to the very minimum of vocality, and still be severally known with- 
out danger of mistake. The prolation of a pure vowel places the organs of utterance in that 
particular position which the sound of the letter requires, and then holds them unmoved till we have 
given to it all the length we choose. 

Obs. 11. — In treating of the quantity and quality of the vowels, Walker says, " The first dis- 
tinction of sound that seems to obtrude itself upon us when we utter the vowels, is a long and a 
short sound, according to the greater or less duration of time taken up in pronouncing them. 
This distinction is so obvious as to have been adopted in all languages, and is that to which we 
annex clearer ideas than to any other ; and though the short sounds of some vowels have not in 
our language been classed with sufficient accuracy with their parent long ones, yet this has bred 
but little confusion, as vowels long and short are always sufficiently distinguishable." — Principles, 
No. 63. Again : " But though the terms long and short, as applied to vowels, are pretty gene- 
rally understood, an accurate ear will easily perceive that these terms do not always mean the 
long and short sounds of the respective vowels to which they are applied ; for, if we choose to 
be directed by the ear, in denominating vowels long or short, we must certainly give these appel- 
lations to those sounds only which have exactly the same radical tone, and differ only in the long 
or short emission of that tone." — lb., No. 66. He then proceeds to state his opinion that the 
vowel sounds heard in the following words are thus correspondent : tame, them ; car, carry ; wall, 
want ; dawn, gone ; theme, him ; tone, nearly tun ; pool, pull. As to the long sounds of i or y, and 
of w, these two being diphthongal, he supposes the short sound of each to be no other than the 
short sound of its latter element ee or oo. Now to me most of this is exceedingly unsatisfactory ; 
and I have shown why. 

Obs. 12. — If men's notions of the length and shortness of vowels are the clearest ideas they 
have in relation to the elements of speech, how comes it to pass that of all the disputable points 
in grammar, this is the most perplexed with contrarieties of opinion ? In coming before the world 
as an author, no man intends to place himself clearly in the wrong ; yet, on the simple powers 
of the letters, we have volumes of irreconcilable doctrines. A great connoisseur in tilings of this 
sort, who professes to have been long " in the habit of listening to sounds of every description, 
and that with more than ordinary attention," declares in a recent and expensive work, that " in 
every language we find the vowels incorrectly classed;''' 1 and, in order to give to "the simple ele- 
ments of English utterance" a better explanation than others have furnished, he devotes to a new 
analysis of our alphabet the ample space of twenty octavo pages, besides having several chapters 
on subjects connected with it. And what do his twenty pages amount to ? I will give the sub- 
stance of them in ten lines, and the reader may judge. He does not tell us how many elementary 
sounds there are ; but, professing to arrange the vowels, long and short, " in the order in which 
they are naturally found," as well as to show of the consonants that the mutes and liquids form 
correspondents in regular pairs, he presents a scheme which I abbreviate as follows. Vowels : 
1. A, as in all and luhat, or o, as in orifice and not ; 2. U- — urn and hut, or love and come ; 3. — 
vote and echo ; 4. A — ah and hat; 5. A — hazy, no short sound; 6. E- — eel and it; 1. E — mercy 
andmetf; 8. — prove and ado; 9. 00 — tool and foot; 10. W- — vow and laid; 11. T- — (like the 
first e — ) syntax and duty. Diphthongs: 1. I- — as ah-ee ; 2. U- — as ee-oo ; 3. OTJ- — as au-oo. Con- 
sonants: 1. Mutes, — cot s, f, h, k or q, p, t, th sharp, sh; 2. Liquids, — I, which has no corre- 
sponding mute, and z, v, r, ng, m, n, th flat and j, which severally correspond to the eight mutes 
in their order ; 3. Subliquids, — g hard, b, and d. See " Music of Nature, " by William Gardiner, 
p. 480, and after. 

Obs. 13. — Dr. Rush comes to the explanation of the powers of the letters as the confident first 
revealer of nature's management and wisdom ; and hopes to have laid the foundation of a system 
of instruction in reading and oratory, which, if adopted and perfected, " will beget a similarity of 
opinion and practice," and " be found to possess an excellence which must grow into sure and ir- 
reversible favour." — Phil, of the Voice, p. 404 "We have been willing," he says, "to believe, on 
faith alone, that nature is wise in the contrivance of speech. Let us now show, by our works of 
analysis, how she manages the simple elements of the voice, in the production of their unbounded 
combinations." — Ibid., p. 44. Again : " Every one, with peculiar self-satisfaction, thinks he 
reads well and yet all read differently : there is, however, but one mode of reading well." — lb., p. 
403. That one mode, some say, his philosophy alone teaches. Of that, others may judge, I 

* " As harmony is an inherent property of sound, the ear should he first called to the attention of simple 
sounds; though, in reality, all are composed of three, so nicely blended as to appear but as one."— Gardiner's 
JHusic of Nature, p. 8. "Every sound is a mixture of three tones; as much as a ray of light is composed of 
three prismatic colours." — lb., p. S8T. 



164 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

shall only notice here what seems to he his fundamental position, that, on all the vocal elements 
of language, nature has stamped duplicity. To establish this extraordinary doctrine, he first at- 
tempts to prove, that "the letter a, as heard in the word day," combines two distinguishable yet 
inseparable sounds ; that it is a compound of what he calls, with reference to vowels and sylla- 
bles in general "the radical and the vanishing movement of the voice," — a single and indivisible 
element in which "two sounds are heard continuously successive," the sounds of a and e as in 
ale and eve. He does not know that some grammarians have contended that ay in day is a proper 
diphthong, in which both the vowels are heard ; but, so pronouncing it himself, infers from the 
experiment, that there is no simpler sound of the vowel a. If this inference is not wrong, the 
word shape is to be pronounced sha-epe ; and, in like manner, a multitude of other words will ac- 
quire a new element not commonly heard in them. 

Obs. 14. — But the doctrine stops not here. The philosopher examines, in some similar way, 
the other simple vowel sounds, and finds a beginning and an end, a base and an apex, a radical 
and a vanishing movement, to them all ; and imagines a sufficient warrant from nature to divide 
them all " into two parts," and to convert most of them into diphthongs, as well as to include all 
diphthongs with them, as being altogether as simple and elementary. Thus he begins with con- 
founding all distinction between diphthongs and simple vowels ; except that which he makes for 
himself when he admits "the radical and the vanish," the first half of a sound and the last, to 
have no difference in quality. This admission is made with respect to the vowels heard in ooze, 
eel, err, end, and in, which he calls, not diphthongs, but " monothongs." But in the a of ale, he 
hears d'-ee ; in that of an, d'-e ; (that is, the short a followed by something of the sound of e in 
err ;) in that of art, ah'-e ; in that of all, awe'-e ; in the i of isle, I'-ee; in the o of old, o'-oo ; in 
the proper diphthong ou, ou'-oo ; in the oy of hoy, he knows not what. After his explanation of 
these mysteries, he says, " The seven radical sounds with their vanishes, which have been de- 
scribed, include, as far as I can perceive, all the elementary diphthongs of the English language." 
— lb., p. 60. But all the sounds of the vowel u, whether diphthongal or simple, are excluded 
from his list, unless he means to represent one of them by the e in err ; and the complex vowel 
sound heard in voice and boy, is confessedly omitted on account of a doubt whether it consists of 
two sounds or of three ! The elements which he enumerates are thirty-five ; but if oi is not 
a triphthong, they are to be thirty-six. Twelve are called " Tonics ; and are heard in the usual 
sound of the separated Italics, in the following words : A -11, a-rt, a-n, a-le, ou-r, isle, o-ld, ee-\ 
oo-ze, e-rr, e-nd, «'-n," — lb., p. 53. Fourteen are called " Subtonics ; and are marked by the sepa- 
rated Italics, in the following words : i?-ow, rf-are, g-ive, v-ile, z-one, y-e, w-o, th-en, a-z-ure, si-ng, 
Z-ove, m-Sbj, n-ot, r-oe." — lb., p. 54. Nine are called " Atonies ; they are heard in the words, 
JJ-p, ou-t, a,T-k, \-f, ye-s, h-e, wft-eat, th-in, pu-sft." — lb., p. 56. My opinion of this scheme of the 
alphabet the reader will have anticipated. 

IV. FORMS OF THE LETTERS. 

In printed books of the English language, the Roman characters are 
generally employed ; sometimes, the Italic; and occasionally, the (£)i& 

(JEttglis!) : hut in handwriting, (Qsczifel /ettetd are used, the forms of which 

are peculiarly adapted to the pen. 

Characters of different sorts or sizes should never be needlessly mixed; 
because facility of reading, as well as the beauty of a book, depends much 
upon the regularity of its letters. 

In the ordinary forms of the Roman letters, every thick stroke that 
slants, slants from the left to the right downwards, except the middle 
stroke in Z ; and every thin stroke that slants, slants from the left to the 
right upwards. 

Italics are chiefly used to distinguish emphatic or remarkable words : 
in the Bible, they show what words were supplied by the translators. 

In manuscripts, a single line drawn under a word is meant for Italics ; 
a double line, for small capitals ; a triple line, for full capitals. 

In every kind of type or character, the letters have severally two forms, 
by which they are distinguished as capitals and small letters. Small let- 
ters constitute the body of every work ; and capitals are used for the 
sake of eminence and distinction. 

The titles of books, and the heads of their principal divisions, are 
printed wholly in capitals. Showbills, painted signs, and short inscrip- 
tions, commonly appear best in full capitals. 

Some of these are so copied in books ; as, " I found an altar with this 



CHAP. I.] OKTHOGRAPHY. — LETTERS. — THEIR FORMS. — RULES. 165 

inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD."— Acts, xvii, 23. "And 
they set up over his head, his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS, 
THE KING OF THE JEWS."— Matt, xxvii, 37. 

RULES FOR THE USE OF CAPITALS 

Rule I. — Of Books. 

"When particular books are mentioned by their names, the chief words in their 
titles begin with capitals, and the other letters are small ; as, " Pope's Essay on 
Man" — "the Book of Common Prayer" — "the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments."* 

Rule II. — First Words. 

The first word of every distinct sentence, or of any clause separately numbered or 
paragraphed, should begin with a capital ; as, " Rejoice evermore. Pray without 
ceasing. In every thing give thanks : for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus 
concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all 
things : hold fast that which is good." — 1 Thess., v, 16 — 21. 
" 14. He has given his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : 

15. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : 

16. For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for murders : 

17. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : 

18. For imposing taxes on us without our consent :" &c. 

Declaration of American Independence. 

Rule III. — Of the Deity. 

All names of the Deity, and sometimes their emphatic substitutes, should begin 
with capitals ; as, " God, Jehovah, the Almighty, the Supreme Being, Divine Provi- 
dence, the Messiah, the Comforter, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Lord 
of Sabaoth." 

" The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee." — Moore. 

Rule TV. — Proper Names. 

Proper names, of every description, should always begin with capitals ; as, " Saul 
of Tarsus, Simon Peter, Judas Iscariot, England, London, the Strand, the Thames, 
the Pyrenees, the Vatican, the Greeks, the Argo and the Argonauts." 

Rule V. — Of Titles. 

Titles of office or honour, and epithets of distinction, applied to persons, begin 
usually with capitals ; as, " His Majesty William the Fourth, Chief Justice Marshall, 
Sir Matthew Hale, Dr. Johnson, the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, Lewis the Bold, Charles 
the Second, James the Less, St. Bartholomew, Pliny the Younger, Noah Webster, 
Jun., Esq." 

Rule VI. — One Capital. 

Those compound proper names which by analogy incline to a union of their parts 
without a hyphen, should be so written, and have but one capital : as, " Eastport, 
Eastville, Westborough, Westfield, Westtown, Whitehall, Whitechurch, White- 
haven, Whiteplains, Mountmellick, Mountpleasant, Germantown, Germanflats, 
Blackrock, Redhook, Kinderhook, Newfoundland, Statenland, Newcastle, North- 
castle, Southbridge, Fairhaven, Dekalb, Deruyter, Lafayette, Macpherson." 

Rule VII. — Two Capitals. 

The compounding of a name under one capital should be avoided when the gen- 
eral analogy of other similar terms suggests a separation under two ; as, " The chief 

* The titulary name of the sacred volume is " The Holy Bible." The word Scripture or Scriptures, is a com- 
mon name for the writings contained in this inestimable volume, and, in the book itself, is seldom distinguished 
by a capital ; but, in other works, it seems proper in general to write it so, by way of eminence. 



166 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

mountains of Ross-shire are Ben Chat, Benchasker, Ben Golich, Ben Nore, Ben 
Foskarg, and Ben Wyvis." — Glasgow Geog., Vol. ii, p. 311. Write Ben Chasker. 
So, when the word East, West, North, or South, as part of a name, denotes relative 
position, or when the word New distinguishes a place by contrast, we have gene- 
rally separate words and two capitals ; as, " East Greenwich, "West Greenwich, 
North Bridge water, South Bridge water, New Jersey, New Hampshire." 

Rule VHI. — Compounds. 

When any adjective or common noun is made a distinct part of a compound 
proper name, it ought to begin with a capital ; as, " The United States, the Argen- 
tine Republic, the Peak of TenerhTe, the Blue Ridge, the Little Pedee, Long Island, 
Jersey City, Lower Canada, Green Bay, Gretna Green, Land's End, the Gold Coast." 

Rule IX. — Apposition. 

When a common and a proper name are associated merely to explain each other, 
it is in general sufficient, if the proper name begin with a capital, and the appella- 
tive, with a small letter ; as, " The prophet Elisha, Matthew the publican, the brook 
Cherith, the river Euphrates, the Ohio river, Warren county, Flatbush village, 
New York city." 

Rule X. — Personifications. 

The name of an object personified, when it conveys an idea strictly individual, 
should begin with a capital ; as, " Upon this, Fancy began again to bestir herself." 
— Addison. " Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come." — Thomson. 

Rule XL — Derivatives. 

Words derived from proper names, and having direct reference to particular per- 
sons, places, sects, or nations, should begin with capitals ; as, " Platonic, Newtonian, 
Greek, or Grecian, Romish, or Roman, Italic, or Italian, German, or Germanic, 
Swedish, Turkish, Chinese, Genoese, French, Dutch, Scotch, Welsh :" so, perhaps, 
" to Platonize, Grecize, Romanize, Italicize, Latinize, or Frenchify." 

Rule XIL— Of I and O. 

The words I and should always be capitals ; as, " Praise the Lord, Jerusa- 
lem ; praise thy God, O Zion." — Psalm cxlvii. " O wretched man that I am !" — 
" For that which I do, I allow not : for what I would, that do I not ; but what I 
hate, that do I." — Rom., vii, 24 and 15. 

Rule XIII. — Of Poetry. 

Every line in poetry, except what is regarded as making but one verse with the 
line preceding, should begin with a capital ; as, 

" Our sons their fathers' failing language see, 
And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be." — Pope. 
Of the exception, some editions of the Psalms in Metre are full of examples ; as, 
" Happy the man whose tender care 
relieves the poor distress'd ! 
When troubles compass him around, 
the Lord shall give him rest." 

Psalms with Com. Prayer, N. Y., 1819, Ps. xli. 

Rule XIV. — Of Examples. 

The first word of a full example, of a distinct speech, or of a direct quotation, 
should begin with a capital ; as, " Remember this maxim : ' Know thyself.' " — 
" Virgil says, ' Labour conquers all things.' " — " Jesus answered them, Is it not 
written in your law, I said, Ye are gods ?" — John, x, 34. " Thou knowest the com- 
mandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false 
witness, Honour thy father and thy mother." — Luke, xviii, 20. 



CHAP. I.] OKTHOGRAPHY. — LETTEKS. THEIR FORMS. RULES. 167 

Kule XV. — Chief Words. 

Other words of particular importance, and such as denote the principal subjects 
treated of, may be distinguished by capitals ; and names subscribed frequently have 
capitals throughout : as, " In its application to the Executive, with reference to the 
Legislative branch of the Government, the same rule of action should make the 
President ever anxious to avoid the exercise of any discretionary authority which 
can be regulated by Congress." — Andrew Jackson, 1835. 

Rule XVI. — Needless Capitals. 

Capitals are improper wherever there is not some special rule or reason for their 
use : a century ago books were disfigured by their frequency ; as, " Many a Noble 
Genius is lost for want of Education. Which wou'd then be Much More Liberal. 
As it was when the Church Enjoy'd her Possessions. And Learning was, in the 
Dark Ages, PreserVd almost only among the Clergy." — Charles Leslie, 1700 ; 
Divine Right of Tythes, p. 228. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The letters of the alphabet, read by their names, are equivalent to words. They are 
a sort of universal signs, by which we may mark and particularize objects of any sort, named or 
nameless ; as, " To say, therefore, that while A and B are both quadrangular, A is more or less 
quadrangular than B, is absurd." — Murray's Gram., p. 50. Hence they are used in the sciences 
as symbols of an infinite variety of things or ideas, being construed both substantively and adjec- 
tively ; as, " In ascending from the note C to D, the interval is equal to an inch ; and from D to 
E, the same." — Music of Nature, p. 293. "We have only to imagine the G- clef placed below it." 
— lb. Any of their forms may be used for such purposes, but the custom of each science deter- 
mines our choice. Thus Algebra employs small Italics ; Music, Roman capitals ; Geometry, for 
the most part, the same ; Astronomy, Greek characters ; and Grammar, in some part or other, 
every sort. Examples: "Then comes answer like an ABC book." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 97. 
"Then comes question like an a, b, c, book. — Shakspeare." See A, B, C, in Johnson's quarto Did. 
Better: — "like an A-Bee-Cee book." 

" For A, his magic pen evokes an 0, 
And turns the tide of Europe on the foe." — Young. 

Obs. 2. — A lavish use of capitals defeats the very purpose for which the letters were distin- 
guished in rank ; and carelessness in respect to the rules which govern them, may sometimes 
misrepresent the writer's meaning. On many occasions, however, their use or disuse is arbitrary, 
and must be left to the judgement and taste of authors and printers. Instances of this kind will, 
for the most part, concern chief words, and come under the fifteenth rule above. In this grammar, 
the number of rules is increased; but the foregoing are still perhaps too few to establish an accu- 
rate uniformity. They will however tend to this desirable result ; and if doubts arise in their 
application, the difficulties will be in particular examples only, and not in the general principles 
of the rules. For instance: In 1 Chron., xxix, 10th, some of our Bibles say, "Blessed be thou, 
Lord God of Israel our father, for ever and ever." Others say, "Blessed be thou, Lord God of 
Israel, our Father, for ever and ever." And others, "Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our 
Father, for ever and ever." The last is wrong, either in the capital F, or for lack of a comma 
after Israel. The others differ in meaning ; because they construe the word father, or Father, 
differently. "Which is right I know not. The first agrees with the Latin Yulgate, and the second, 
with the Greek text of the Septuagint ; which two famous versions here disagree, without ambi- 
guity in either.* 

Obs. 3. — The innumerable discrepancies in respect to capitals, which, to a greater or less extent, 
disgrace the very best editions of our most popular books, are a sufficient evidence of the want of 
better directions on this point. In amending the rules for this purpose, I have not been able 
entirely to satisfy myself; and therefore must needs fail to satisfy the very critical reader. But 
the public shall have the best instructions I can give. On Rule 1st, concerning Books, it may be 
observed, that when particular books or writings are mentioned by other terms than their real 
titles, the principle of the rule does not apply. Thus, one may call Paradise Lost, " Milton's great 
poem;" or the Diversions of Purley, "the etymological investigations of Home Tooke." So it is 
written in the Bible, "And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias." — Luke, 
iv, 17. Because the name of Esaias, or Isaiah, seems to be the only proper title of his book. 

Obs. 4. — On Rule 2d, concerning First Words, it may be observed, that the using of other points 
than the period, to separate sentences that are totally distinct in sense, as is sometimes practised 
in quoting, is no reason for the omission of capitals at the beginning of such sentences ; but, 

* " Benedictus es Domine Deus Israel patris nostri ab eterno in eternum." — Vulgate. "O Eternel! Dieu 
d'lsrael, notre pere, tu es beni de tout temps et a toujours." — Common French Bible. " EvXoyrjTds e? Kipic b 
Qeos 'laparjX b irarfip rjjxwv and tov aloiyos /cat cwg tov dttivos" — Septuagint. 



168 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

rather, an obvious reason for their use. Our grammarians frequently manufacture a parcel of 
puerile examples, and, with the formality of apparent quotation, throw them together in the fol- 
lowing manner : "He is above disguise;" "we serve under a good master;" " he rules over a will- 
ing people;" "we should do nothing beneath our character." — Murray's Gram., p. 118. These 
sentences, and all others so related, should, unquestionably, begin with capitals. Of themselves, 
they are distinct enough to be separated by the period and a dash. "With examples of one's own 
making, the quotation points may be used or not, as the writer pleases ; but not on their insertion 
or omission, nor even on the quality of the separating point, depends in all cases the propriety or 
impropriety of using initial capitals. For example : ' ' The Future Tense is the form of the verb 
which denotes future thne ; as, John will come, you shall go, they will learn, the sun will rise 
to-morrow, he will return next week." — Frazee's Improved Gram., p. 38 ; Old Edition, 35. To 
say nothing of the punctuation here used, it is certain that the initial words, you, they, the, and he, 
should have commenced with capitals. 

Obs. 5. — On Rule 3d, concerning Names of Deity, it may be observed, that the words Lord 
and God take the nature of proper names, only when they are used in reference to the Eternal 
Divinity. The former, as a title of honour to men, is usually written with a capital ; but, as a com- 
mon appellative, with a small letter. The latter, when used with reference to any fabulous deity, 
or when made plural to speak of many, should seldom, if ever, begin with a capital ; for we do 
not write with a capital any common name which we do not mean to honour : as, " Though there 
be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth — as there be gods many, and lords many." 
— 1 Cor., viii, 5. But a diversity of design or conception in respect to this kind of distinction, 
has produced great diversity concerning capitals, not only in original writings, but also in reprints 
and quotations, not excepting even the sacred books. Example : " The Lord is a great God, and 
a great King above all Gods.'''' — Gurney's Essays, p. 88. Perhaps the writer here exalts the infe- 
rior beings called gods, that he may honour the one true God the more ; but the Bible, in four 
editions to which I have turned, gives the word gods no capital. See Psalms, xcv, 3. The word 
Heaven put for God, begins with a capital ; but when taken literally, it commonly begins with a 
small letter. Several nouns occasionally connected with names of the Deity, are written with a 
very puzzling diversity: as, " The Lord of Sabaoih; 11 — " The Lord God of hosts ;" — " The God of 
armies; 11 — "The Father of goodness;' 1 — "The Giver of all good; 11 — "The Lord, the righteous 
Judge. 11 All these, and many more like them, are found sometimes with a capital, and sometimes 
without. Sabaoth, being a foreign word, and used only in this particular connexion, usually takes 
a capital; but the equivalent English words do not seem to require it. For " Judge, 11 in the last 
example, I would use a capital; for " good 11 and "goodness, 11 in the preceding ones, the small 
letter: the one is an eminent name, the others are mere attributes. Alger writes, "the Son of 
Man, 11 with two capitals; others, perhaps more properly, "the Son of man, 11 with one — 
wherever that phrase occurs in the New Testament. But, in some editions, it has no capital 
at ah. 

Obs. 6 — On Rule 4th, concerning Proper Names, it may be observed, that the application of 
this principle supposes the learner to be able to distinguish between proper names and common 
appellatives. Of the difference between these two classes of words, almost every child that can 
speak, must have formed some idea. I once noticed that a very little boy, who knew no better 
than to call a pigeon a turkey because the creature had feathers, was sufficiently master of this 
distinction, to call many individuals by their several names, and to apply the common words, 
man, woman, hoy, girl, &c, with that generality which belongs to them. There is, therefore, 
some very plain ground for this rule. But not all is plain, and I will not veil the cause of embar- 
rassment. It is only an act of imposture, to pretend that grammar is easy, in stead of making it so. 
Innumerable instances occur, in which the following assertion is by no means true : " The dis- 
tinction between a common and a proper noun is very obvious. 11 — Kirkham 1 s Gram., p 32. Nor 
do the remarks of this author, or those of any other that I am acquainted with, remove any part 
of the difficulty. We are told by this gentleman, (in language incorrigibly bad,) that, "Nouns 
which denote the genus, species, or variety of beings or things, are always common ; as, tree, the 
genus ; oak, ash, chestnut, poplar, different species ; and red oak, white oak, black oak, varieties." — 
lb., p. 32. Now, as it requires but one noun to denote either a genus or a species, I know not how 
to conceive of those "nouns which denote the genus of things," except as of other confusion and 
nonsense ; and, as for the three varieties of oak, there are surely no " nouns* 1 here to denote them, 
unless he will have red, white, and black to be nouns. But what shall we say of—" the Red 
sea, the White sea, the Black sea;" or, with two capitals, "Red Sea, White Sea, Black Sea," and 
a thousand other similar terms, which are neither proper names unless they are written with cap- 
itals, nor written with capitals unless they are first judged to be proper names ? The simple 
phrase, "the united states," has nothing of the nature of a proper name; but what is the character 
of the term, when written with two capitals, "the United States?" If we contend that it is not 
then a proper name, we make our country anonymous. And what shall we say to those gramma- 
rians who contend, that "Heaven, Hell, Earth, Sun, and Moon, are proper names;" and that, as 
such, they should be written with capitals? See Churchill 1 s Gram., p. 380. 

Obs. 7. — It would seem that most, if not all, proper names had originally some common signi- 
fication, and that very many of our ordinary words and phrases have been converted into proper 
names, merely by being applied to particular persons, places, or objects, and receiving the distinc- 
tion of capitals. How many of the oceans, seas, lakes, capes, islands, mountains, states, counties, 
streets, institutions, buildings, and other things, which we constantly particularize, have no other 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. LETTERS. THEIR FORMS. RULES. 169 

proper names than such as are thus formed, and such as are still perhaps, in many instances, 
essentially appellative ! The difficulties respecting these will be further noticed below. A proper 
noun is the name of some particular individual, group, or people ; as, Adam, Boston, the Hudson, 
the Azores, the Andes, the Romans, the Jews, the Jesuits, the Cherokees. This is as good a defi- 
nition as I can give of a proper noun or name. Thus we commonly distinguish the names of par- 
ticular persons, places, nations, tribes, or sects, with capitals. Yet we name the sun, the moon, 
the equator, and many other particular objects, without a capital ; for the word the may give a 
particular meaning to a common noun, without converting it into a proper name : but if we say 
Sol, for the sun, or Luna, for the moon, we write it with a capital. With some apparent inconsis- 
tency, we commonly write the word Gentiles with a capital, but -pagans, heathens, and negroes, 
without : thus custom has marked these names with degradation. The names of the days of the 
week, and those of the months, however expressed, appear to me to partake of the nature qf 
proper names, and to require capitals : as, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Tliursday, Fri- 
day, Saturday ; or, as the Friends denominate them, Firstday, Secondday, Thirdday, Fourthday, 
Fifthday, Sixthday, Seventhday. So, if they will not use January, February, &c, they should 
write as proper names their Firstmonth, Secondmonth, &c. The Hebrew names for the months, 
were also proper nouns : to wit, Abib, Zif, Sivan, Thamuz, Ab, Elul, Tisri, Marchesvan, Chisleu, 
Tebeth, Shebat, Adar ; the year, with the ancient Jews, beginning, as ours once did, in March. 

Obs. 8. — On Rule 5th, concerning Titles of Honour, it may be observed, that names of office or rank, 
however high, do not require capitals merely as such ; for, when we use them alone in their ordinary 
sense, or simply place them in apposition with proper names, without intending any particular 
honour, we begin them with a small letter : as, " the emperor Augustus ;" — " our mighty sovereign, 
Abbas Carascan;" — "David the king;'' — "Tidal king of nations;' 1 — "Bonner, bishop of London;" 
— " The sons of Eliphaz, the first-born son of Esau ; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke 
Kenaz, duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek." — Gen., xxxvi, 15. So, sometimes, in 
addresses in which even the greatest respect is intended to be shown : as, " sir, we came indeed 
down at the first time to buy food." — Gen., xliii, 20. "0 my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, 
speak a word in my lord's ears." — Gen., xliv, 18. The Bible, winch makes small account of 
worldly honours, seldom uses capitals under this rule ; but, in some editions, we find " Nehemiah. 
the Tirshatha," and "Herod the Teirarch," each with a needless capital. Murray, in whose illus- 
trations the word king occurs nearly one hundred times, seldom honours his Majesty with a cap- 
ital ; and, what is more, in all this mawkish mentioning of royalty, nothing is said of it that is 
•worth knowing. Examples : " The king and the queen had put on their robes." — Murray's Gram., 
p. 154. "The king, with his life-guard, has just passed through the village." — lb., 150. "The 
king of Great Britain's dominions." — lb., 45. "On a sudden appeared the king.'' — lb., 146. 
"Long live the King!" — lb., 146. "On which side soever the king cast his eyes." — lb., 156. 
" It is the king of Great Britain's."— /&., 176. " He desired to be their king:'— lb., 181. " They 
desired him to be their king." — lb., 181. "He caused himself to be proclaimed king." — lb., 182. 
These examples, and thousands more as simple and worthless, are among the pretended 
quotations by which this excellent man, thought "to promote the cause of virtue, as well as of 
learning!" 

Obs. 9. — On Rule 6th, concerning One Capital for Compounds, I would observe, that perhaps 
there is nothing more puzzling in grammar, than to find out, amidst all the diversity of random 
writing, and wild guess-work in printing, the true way in which the compound names of places 
should be written. For example: What in Greek was " ho Areios Pagos" the Martial Hill, occurs 
twice in the New Testament : once, in the accusative case, " ton Areion Pagon," which is rendered 
Areopagus ; and once, in the genitive, " tou Areiou Pagou," which, in different copies of the Eng- 
lish Bible is made Mars' Hill, Mars' hill, Mars' -hill, Marshill, Mars Hill, and perhaps Mars hill. 
But if Mars must needs be put in the possessive case, (which I doubt,) they are all wrong: for 
then it should be Mars' s Hill; as the name Campus Martius is rendered u Mars' s Field," in Col- 
lier's Life of Marcus Antoninus. We often use nouns adjectively ; and Areios is an adjective : I 
would therefore write this name Mars Hill, as we write Bunker Hill. Again : Whitehaven and 
Fairhaven are commonly written with single capitals ; but, of six or seven towns called Newhaven 
or New Haven, some have the name in one word and some in two. Haven means a harbour, and 
the words, New Haven, written separately, would naturally be understood of a harbour : the closo 
compound is obviously more suitable for t'he name of a city or town. In England, compounds of 
this kind are more used than in America ; and in both countries the tendency of common usage 
seems to be, to contract and consolidate such terms. Hence the British counties are almost all 
named by compounds ending with the word shire ; as, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, 
Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, &c. But the best books we have, 
are full of discrepancies and errors in respect to names, whether foreign or domestic; as, " Ulsicater 
is somewhat smaller. The handsomest is Derwentwater." — Balbi's Geog., p. 212. " Ullswater, a lake 
of England," &c. " Derwent- Water, a lake in Cumberland," &c. — Univ. Gazetteer. " Ulleswater, 
lake, Eng. situated partly in Westmoreland," &c. — Worcester's Gaz. " Derwent Water, lake, Eng. 
in Cumberland.'' — Ibid. These words, I suppose, should be written Ullsivater and Derwentwater. 
Obs. 1 0. — An affix, or termination, differs from a distinct word ; and is commonly understood 
otherwise, though it may consist of the same letters and have the same sound. Thus, if I were to 
write Stow Bridge, it would be understood of a bridge; if Stowbridge, of a town: or the latter 
might even be the name of a family. SoBelleisle is the proper name of a strait; and Belle Isle of 
several different islands in France and America. L T pon this plain distinction, and the manifest 



170 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

inconvenience of any violation of so clear an analogy of the language, depends the propriety of 
most of the corrections which I shall offer under Rule 6th. But if the inhabitants of any place 
choose to call their town a creek, a river, a harbour, or a bridge, and to think it officious in other 
men to pretend to know better, they may do as they please. If between them and their correct- 
ors there lie a mutual charge of misnomer, it is for the literary world to determine who is right. 
Important names are sometimes acquired by mere accident. Those which are totally inappropri- 
ate, no reasonable design can have bestowed. Thus a fancied resemblance between the island of 
Aquidneck, in Narraganset Bay, and that of Rhodes, in the iEgean Sea, has at length given to a 
state, or republic, which lies chiefly on the main land, the absurd name of Rhode Island; so that 
now, to distinguish Aquidneck itself, geographers resort to the strange phrase, u the Island of 
Rhode Island." — Balbi. The official title of this little republic, is, " tJte State of Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations." But this name is not only too long for popular use, but it is doubtful in its 
construction and meaning. It is capable of being understood in four different ways. 1. A stranger 
to the fact, would not learn from this phrase, that the "Providence Plantations" are included 
in the " State of Rhode Island," but would naturally infer the contrary. 2. The phrase, "Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations," may be supposed to mean "Rhode Island [Plantations] and 
Providence Plantations." 3. It may be understood to mean "Rhode Island and Providence [i. e., 
two] Plantations." 4. It may be taken for "Rhode Island" [i. e., as an island,] and the "Provi- 
dence Plantations." Which, now, of all these did Charles the Second mean, when he gave the 
colony this name, with his charter, in 1663 ? It happened that he meant the last; but I doubt 
whether any man in the state, except perhaps some learned lawyer, can parse the phrase, with 
any certainty of its true construction and meaning. This old title can never be used, except in 
law. To write the popular name " Rlwdeisland," as Dr. "Webster has it in his American Spelling- 
Book, p. 121, would be some improvement upon it; but to make it Rhodeland, or simply Rhode, 
would be much more appropriate. As for Rhode Island, it ought to mean nothing but the island ; 
and it is, in fact, an abuse of language, to apply it otherwise. In one of his parsing lessons, 
Sanborn gives us for good English the following tautology : " RJiode Island derived its name from 
the island of Rhode Island." — Analytical Gram., p. 37. Think of that sentence! 

Obs. 11. — On Rules 7th and 8th, concerning Two Capitals for Compounds, I would observe, 
with a general reference to those compound terms which designate particular places or things, that 
it is often no easy matter to determine, either from custom or from analogy, whether such com- 
mon words as may happen to be embraced in them, are to be accounted parts of compound 
proper names and written with capitals, or to be regarded as appellatives, requiring small letters 
according to Rule 9th. Again the question may be, whether they ought not to be joined to the 
foregoing word, according to Rule 6th. Let the numerous examples under these four rules be 
duly considered : for usage, in respect to each of them, is diverse ; so much so, that we not un- 
frequently find it contradictory, in the very same page, paragraph, or even sentence. Perhaps we 
may reach some principles of uniformity and consistency, by observing the several different kinds 
of phrases thus used. 1. "We often add an adjective to an old proper name to make a new one, 
or to serve the purpose of distinction : as, New York, New Orleans, New England, New Bedford ; 
North America, South America; Upper Canada, Lower Canada; Great Pedee, Little Pedee; 
East Cambridge, West Cambridge ; Troy, West Troy. All names of this class require two capi- 
tals : except a few which are joined together ; as Northampton, which is sometimes more analogi- 
cally written North Hampton. 2. We often use the possessive case with some common noun after 
it; as, Behring's Straits, Baffin's Bay, Cook's Inlet, Van Diemen's Land, Martha's Vineyard, 
Sacket's Harbour, Glenn's Palls. Names of this class generally have more than one capital; and 
perhaps all of them should be written so, except such as coalesce ; as, Gravesend, Moorestown, 
the Crowsnest. 3. We sometimes use two common nouns with of between them ; as, the Cape 
of Good Hope, the Isle of Man, the Isles of Shoals, the Lake of the Woods, the Mountains of the 
Moon. Such nouns are usually written with more than one capital. I would therefore write 
" the Mount of Olives" in this manner, though it is not commonly found so in the Bible. 4. We 
often use an adjective and a common noun ; as, the Yellow sea, the Indian ocean, the White hills, 
Crooked lake, the Red river ; or, with two capitals, the Yellow Sea, the Indian Ocean, the White 
Hills, Crooked Lake, the Red River. In this class of names the adjective is the distinctive word, 
and always has a capital ; respecting the other term, usage is divided, but seems rather to favour 
two capitals. 5. We frequently put an appellative, or common noun, before or after a proper 
name; as, New York city, "Washington street, Plymouth county, Greenwich village. "The 
Carondelet canal extends from the city of New Orleans to the bayou St. John, connecting lake Pont- 
chartrain with the Mississippi river." — Balbi's Geog. This is apposition. In phrases of this kind, 
the common noun often has a capital, but it seldom absolutely requires it ; and in general a small 
letter is more correct, except in some few instances in which the common noun is regarded as a 
permanent part of the name ; as in Washington City, Jersey City. The words Mount, Cape, Lake, 
and Bay, are now generally written with capitals when connected with their proper names ; as, 
Mount Hope, Cape Cod, Lake Erie, Casco Bay. But they are not always so written, even in 
modern books ; and in the Bible we read of " mount Horeb, mount Sinai, mount Zion, mount 
Olivet," and many others, always with a single capital. 

Obs. 12. — In modern compound names, the hyphen is now less frequently used than it was a few 
years ago. They seldom, if ever, need it, unless they are employed as adjectives ; and then there 
is a manifest propriety in inserting it. Thus the phrase, "the New London Bridge," can be un- 
derstood only of a new bridge in London ; and if we intend by it a bridge in New London, wo 



CHAP. I.] OKTHOGEAPHY. LETTERS. THEIR FORMS. RULES. 171 

must say, "the New-London Bridge." So "the New York Directory" is not properly a directory 
for New York, but a new directory for York. I have seen several books with titles which, for this 
reason, were evidently erroneous. "With respect to the ancient Scripture names, of this class, we 
find, in different editions of the Bible, as well as in other books, many discrepancies. The reader 
may see a very fair specimen of them, by comparing together the last two vocabularies of Walker's 
Key. He will there meet with an abundance of examples like these : " Uz'zen She rah, Uzzen- 
sherah; Talitha Cumi, Talithacumi; Nathan Melech, Nathan'-melech ; A'bel Meholath, Abel- 
meholah ; Hazel Elponi, Hazeleponi ; Az'noth Tabor, Asnoth-tabor ; Baal Ham'on, Baal- 
hamon; Hamon Gog, Ham'ongog; Baal Zebub, Baal'zebub; Shethar Boz'nai, Shether-boz'nai ; 
Merodach Bal'adan, Merodach-bal'adan." All these glaring inconsistencies, and many more, has 
Dr. Webster restereotyped from Walker, in his octavo Dictionary! I see no more need of the 
hyphen in such names, than in those of modern times. They ought, in some instances, to be 
joined together without it ; and, in others, to be written separately, with double capitals. But 
special regard should be had to the ancient text. The phrase, "Talitha, cumi," — i. e., "Damsel, 
arise," — is found in some Bibles, " Tahtha-cumi;" but this form of it is no more correct than either 
of those quoted above. See Mark, v, 41st, in GriesbacKs Greek Testament, where a comma divides 
this expression. 

Obs. 13. — On Bule 10th, concerning Personifications, it may be well to observe, that not every 
noun which is the name of an object personified, must begin with a capital, but only such as have 
a resemblance to proper nouns ; for the word person itself, or persons, or any other common noun 
denoting persons or a person, demands no such distinction. And proper names of persons are so 
marked, not with any reference to personality, but because they are proper nouns — or names of 
individuals, and not names of sorts. Thus, JSsop's viper and file are both personified, where it is 
recorded, " 'What ails thee, fool ?' says the file to the viper ;"bui the fable gives to these names no 
capitals, except in the title of the story. It may here be added, that, according to their defini- 
tions of personification, our grammarians and the teachers of rhetoric have hitherto formed no very 
accurate idea of what constitutes the figure. Lindley Murray says, " Personification [,] or 
Prosopopoeia, is that figure by which we attribute life and action to inanimate objects." — Octavo 
Gram., p. 346 ; Duodecimo, p. 271. Now this is all wrong, doubly wrong, — wrong in relation to 
what personification is, and wrong too in its specification of the objects which may be personified. 
For " life and action" not being peculiar to persons, there must be something else than these 
ascribed, to form the figure ; and, surely, the objects which Fancy thinks it right to personify, are 
not always "inanimate" I have elsewhere defined the thing as follows: " Personification is a 
figure by which, in imagination, we ascribe intelligence and personality to unintelligent beings or 
abstract qualities." — Inst, p. 234. 

Obs. 14. — On Rule 11th, concerning Derivatives, I would observe, that not only the proper 
adjectives, to which this rule more particularly refers, but also nouns, and even verbs, derived 
from such adjectives, are frequently, if not generally, written with an initial capital. Thus, from 
Greece, we have Greek, Greeks, Greekish, Greekling, Grecise, Grecism, Grecian, Grecians, Grecian* 
ize. So Murray, copying Blair, speaks of "Latinised English;'''' and, again, of style strictly 
" English, without Scotticisms or Gallicisms." — Mur. Gram., 8vo, p. 295 ; Blair's Led., pp. 93 and 
94. But it is questionable, how far this principle respecting capitals ought to be carried. The 
examples in Dr. Johnson's quarto Dictionary exhibit the words, gallicisms, anglicisms, hebrician, 
latinize, latinized, judaized, and christianized, without capitals ; and the words Latinisms, Grecisms, 
Hebraisms, and Frenchified, under like circumstances, with them. Dr. Webster also defines 
Romanize, " To Latinize; to conform to Romish opinions." In the examples of Johnson, there is 
a manifest inconsistenc}'. Now, with respect to adjectives from proper names, and also to the 
nouns formed immediately from such adjectives, it is clear that they ought to have capitals : no 
one will contend that the words American and Americans should be written with a small a. 
With respect to Americanism, Gallicism, and other similar words, there may be some room to 
doubt. But I prefer a capital for these. And, that we may have a uniform rule to go by, I 
would not stop here, but would write Americanize and Americanized with a capital also ; for it 
appears that custom is in favour of thus distinguishing nearly all verbs and participles of this kind, 
so long as they retain an o bvious reference to their particular origin. But when any such word 
ceases to be understood as referring directly to the proper name, it may properly be written with- 
out a capital. Thus we write jalap from Jalapa, hermetical from Hermes, hymeneal from Hymen, 
simony, from Simon, philippic from Philip ; the verbs, to hector, to romance, to japan, to christen, 
to philippize, to galvanize; and the adverbs hermetically and jesuitically, all without a capital : and per- 
haps judaize, christianize, and their derivatives, may join this class. Dr. Webster's octavo Dictionary 
mentions " theprussic acid" and u prussian blue," without a capital; and so does Worcester's. 

Obs. 15. — On Rule 12th, concerning i" and 0, it may be observed, that although many who 
occasionally write, are ignorant enough to violate this, as well as every other rule of grammar, 
yet no printer ever commits blunders of this sort. Consequently, the few erroneous examples 
which will be exhibited for correction under it, will not be undesigned mistakes. Among the 
errors of books, we do not find the printing of the words / and in small characters ; but the 
confounding of with the other interjection oh, is not uncommon even among grammarians. 
The latter has no concern with this rule, nor is it equivalent to the former, as a sign : is a note 
of wishing, earnestness, and vocative address ; but oh is, properly, a sign of s<3rrow, pain, or sur- 
prise. In the following example, therefore, a line from Milton is perverted : — 

" Oh thou! that with surpassing glory crowned!" — Buckets Gram., p. 88. 



172 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

Obs. 16. — On Rule 13th, concerning Poetry, it may be observed, that the principle applies only 
to regular versification, which is the common form, if not the distinguishing mark, of poetical 
composition. And, in this, the practice of beginning every fine with a capital is almost universal ; 
but I have seen some books in whicb it was whimsically disregarded. Such poetry as that of 
Macpherson's Ossian, or such as the common translation of the Psalms, is subjected neither to this 
rule, nor to the common laws of verse. 

Obs. IT. — On Rule 14th, concerning Examples, Speeches, and Quotations, it may be observed, 
that the propriety of beginning these with a capital or otherwise, depends in some measure upon 
their form. One may suggest certain words by way of example, (as see, saw, seeing, seen,) and 
they will require no capital ; or he may sometimes write one half of a sentence in his own words, 
and quote the other with the guillemets and no capital ; but whatsoever is cited as being said 
with other relations of what is called person, requires something to distinguish it from the text 
into which it is woven. Thus Cobbett observes, that, " The French, in their Bible, say Le Verbe, 
where we say The Word.' 1 ' 1 — E. Gram., p. 21. Cobbett says the whole of this ; but he here refers 
one short phrase to the French nation, and an other to the English, not improperly beginning 
each with a capital, and further distinguishing them by Italics. Our common Bibles make no use 
of the quotation points, but rely solely upon capitals and the common points, to show where any 
particular speech begins or ends. In some instances, the insufficiency of these means is greatly 
felt, notwithstanding the extraordinary care of the original writers, in the use of introductory 
phrases. Murray says, " "When a quotation is brought in obliquely after a comma, a capital is un- 
necessary: as, "Solomon observes, 'that pride goes before destruction.'" — Octavo Gram., p. 284. 
But, as the word ' that belongs not to Solomon, and the next word begins his assertion, I think 
we ought to write it, "Solomon observes, that, ' Pride goeth before destruction.' " Or, if we do 
not mean to quote him literally, we may omit the guillemets, and say, " Solomon observes that 
pride goes before destruction." 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS RESPECTING CAPITALS. 

B3P""[The improprieties in the following examples are to be corrected orally by the learner, according to the 
formules given, or according to others framed from them with such slight changes as the several quotations may 
require. A correct example will occasionally be admitted for the sake of contrast, or that the learner may see 
the quoted author's inconsistency. It will also serve as a block over which Btupidity may 6tumble and wake up. 
But a full explanation of what is intended, will be afforded in the Key.] 

Under Rule I. — Op Books. 

"Many a reader of the bible knows not who wrote the acts of the apostles." — G. B. 

[Fobmtjxe of Correction. — Not proper, because the words, bible, acts, and apostles, here begin with small 
letters. But, according to Rule 1st, " When particular books are mentioned by their names, the chief words in 
their titles begin with capitals, and the other letters are small." Therefore, "Bible" should begin with a capital 
B; and "Acts" and "Apostles," each with a large A.] 

" The sons of Levi, the chief of the fathers, were written in the book of the chronicles." — Scott's 
Bible: Neh., xii, 23. "Are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?" — Scott, 
Alger: 1 Kings, xi, 41. "Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of 
Israel?" — Alger: 1 Kings, xxii, 39. "Are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the 
kings of Judah?" — Scott: ib., ver. 45. "Which were written in the law of Moses, and in the 
prophets, and in the psalms." — Scott: Luke, xxiv, 44. " The narrative of which may be seen in 
Josephus's History of the Jewish wars." — Scotts Preface, p. ix. " This history of the Jewish 
war was Josephus's first work, and published about A. D. 75." — Note to Josephus. " ' I have read,' 
says Photius, 'the chronology of Justus of Tiberias.' " — lb., Jos. Life. "A philosophical grammar, 
written by James Harris, Esquire." — Murray's Gram., p. 34. " The reader is referred to Stroud's 
sketch of the slave laws." — Anti-Slavery Mag., i, 25. "But God has so made the bible that it 
interprets itself." — lb., i, 78. "In 1562, with the help of Hopkins, he completed the psalter." — 
Music of Nature, p. 283. " Gardiner says this of Sternhold; of whom the universal biographical 
dictionary and the American encyclopedia affirm, that he died in 1549." — Author. "The title of 
a Book, to wit: 'English Grammar in familiar lectures,'" &c. — Kirkham's Gram., p. 2. ""We 
had not, at that time, seen Mr. Kir"kham's ' Grammar in familiar Lectures.' " — lb., p. 3. " When 
you parse, you may spread the Compendium before you." — lb., p. 53. " Whenever you parse, 
you may spread the compendium before you." — lb., p. 113. "Adelung was the author of a 
grammatical and critical dictionary of the German language, and other works." — Univ. Biog. Diet. 
"Alley, William, author of 'the poor man's library,' and a translation of the Pentateuch, died in 
1570."— Ib. 

Under Rule II. — Op First Words. 

"Depart instantly: improve your time: forgive us our sins." — Murray's Gram., p. 61. 

[Fobmtjle — Not proper, because the words improve and forgive begin with small letters. But, according to 
Rule 2nd, " The first word of every distinct sentence should begin with a capital." Therefore, " Improve" 
6hould begin with a capital I ; and " Forgive," with a capital F.] 

Examples: " Gold is corrupting ; the sea is green ; a lion is bold." — Mur. Gram., p. 170; etal. 
Again : "It may rain ; he may go or stay ; he would walk ; they should learn." — lb., p. 64 ; et al. 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — LETTERS. — CAPITALS. — ERRORS. 173 

Again: "Oh! I have alienated my friend; alas! I fear for life." — lb., p. 128; et al. Again: 
" He went from London to York ;" " she is above disguise ;" " they are supported by industry." — 
lb., p. 28; et al. "On the foregoing examples, I have a word to say. they are better than a fair 
specimen of their kind, our grammars abound with worse illustrations, their models of English are 
generally spurious quotations, few of their proof-texts have any just parentage, goose-eyes are 
abundant, but names scarce, who fathers the foundlings ? nobody, then let their merit be no- 
body's, and their defects his who could write no better." — Author, "goose-eyes /" says a bright 
boy; " pray, what are they ? does this Mr. Author make new words when he pleases ? dead-eyes 
are in a ship, they are blocks, with holes in them, but what are goose-eyes in grammar?" 
Answer: "goose-eyes are quotation points, some of the G-ermans gave them this name, making a 
jest of their form, the French call them guillemets, from the name of their inventor." — Author, "it 
is a personal pronoun, of the third person singular." — Gomly's Gram., 12th Ed., p. 126. "our- 
selves is a personal pronoun, of the first person plural." — lb., 138. " thee is a personal pronoun, of 
the second person singular." — lb., 126. " contentment is a noun common, of the third person sin- 
gular." — lb., 128. "were is a neuter verb, of the indicative mood, imperfect tense." — lb., 129. 

Under Rule HE. — Of Deity. 

"0 thou dispenser of life! thy mercies are boundless." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 449. 

[F02MT7LE. — Not proper, because the -word dispenser begins -with a 6mall letter. But, according to Rule 3d, 
"All names of the Deity, and sometimes their emphatic substitutes, should begin with capitals." Therefore, 
" Dispenser" should here begin with a capital D.] 

"Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" — Scott: Gen,, xviii, 25. "And the spirit of 
God moved upon the face of the waters." — Murray's Gram., p. 330. "It is the gift of him, who is 
the great author of good, and the Father of mercies." — lb., 287. "This is thy god that brought 
thee up out of Egypt." — Scott, Alger : Neh., ix, 18. " For the lord is our defence ; and the holy 
one of Israel is our king." — See Psalm lxxxix, 18. "By making him the responsible steward of 
heaven's bounties." — Anti-Slavery Mag., i, 29. ""Which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give 
me at that day." — Scott, Friends : 2 Tim., iv, 8. " The cries of them * * * entered into 
the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." — Scott: James, v, 4. "In Horeb ,the deity revealed himself to 
Moses, as the eternal I am, the self-existent one ; and, after the first discouraging interview of his 
messengers with Pharaoh, he renewed his promise to them, by the awful name, jehovah — a name 
till then unknown, and one which the Jews always held it a fearful profanation to pronounce." — 
Author. " And god spake unto Moses, and said unto Mm, I am the lord : and I appeared unto 
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of god almighty; but by my name jehovah 
was I not known to them." — See* Exod., vi, 2. " Thus saith the lord the king of Israel, and his 
redeemer the lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no god." — 
See Jsa., xliv, 6. 

" His impious race their blasphemy renew 1 d, 
And nature's king through nature's optics view'd." — Dryden, p. 90. 

Under Eule IV. — Of Proper Names. 

" Islamism prescribes fasting during the month ramazan." — Balbi's Geog., p. It. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because the word ramazan here begins with a small letter. But, according to Rule 
4th, "Proper names, of every description, should always begin with capitals." Therefore, "Ramazan" should 
begin with a capital R. The word is also misspelled : it should rather be Eamadan.] 

"Near mecca, in arabia, is jebel nor, or the mountain of light, on the top of which the mussul- 
mans erected a mosque, that they might perform their devotions where, according to their belief, 
mohammed received from the angel gabriel the first chapter of the Koran." — Author. "In the 
kaaba at mecca, there is a celebrated block of volcanic basalt, which the mohammedans venerate 
as the gift of gabriel to abraham, but their ancestors once held it to be an image of remphan, or 
saturn; so 'the image which fell down from jupiter,' to share with diana the homage of the ephe- 
sians, was probably nothing more than a meteoric stone." — Id. " When the lycaonians, at lystra, 
took paul and barnabas to be gods, they called the former mercury, on account of his eloquence, 
and the latter jupiter, for the greater dignity of his appearance." — Id. " Of the writings of the 
apostolic fathers of the first century, but few have come down to us ; yet we have in those of bar- 
nabas, clement of rome, hennas, ignatius, and polycarp, very certain evidence of the authenticity 
of the New Testament, and the New Testament is a voucher for the old." — Id. 

"It is said by tatian, that theagenes of rhegium, in the time of cambyses, stesimbrotus the thra- 
cian, antimachus the colophonian, herodotus of halicarnassus, dionysius the olynthian, ephorus of 
cumae, philochorus the athenian, metaclides and chamaeleon the peripatetics, and zenodotus, aris- 
tophanes, callimachus, crates, eratosthenes, aristarchus, and apollodorus, the grammarians, all wrote 
concerning the poetry, the birth, and the age of homer." See Coleridge's Introd., p. 57. " Yet, for 
aught that now appears, the life of homer is as fabulous as that of hercules ; and some have even 

* "Where tbe word " See" accompanies the reference, the reader may generally understand that the. citation, 
whether right or wrong in regard to grammar, is not in all respects exactly as it will be found in the place re- 
ferred to. Cases of this kind, however, will occur but seldom ; and it is hoped the reasons for admitting a few, 
will be sufficiently obvious. Brevity is indispensable ; and some rules are so generally known and observed, that 
one might search long for half a dozen examples of their undesigned violation. Wherever an error is made in- 
tentionally in the Exercises, the true reading and reference are to be expected in the Key. 



174 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

suspected, that, as the son of jupiter and alcmena, has fathered the deeds of forty other herculeses, 
so this unfathered son of critheis, themisto, or whatever dame — this melesigenes, mseonides, ho- 
mer — the blind schoolmaster, and poet, of Smyrna, chios, colophon, salamis, rhodes, argos, athens, 
or whatever place — has, by the help of lycurgus, solon, pisistratus, and other learned ancients, 
been made up of many poets or homers, and set so far aloft and aloof on old parnassus, as to be- 
come a god in the eyes of all greece, a wonder in those of all Christendom." — Author. 

" Why so sagacious in your guesses ? 
Your effs, and tees, and arrs, and esses f — Swift. 

Under Rule V. — Of Titles. 

"The king has conferred on him the title of duke." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 193. 

[Foemule.— Not proper, because the word duke begins with a small letter. But, according to Rule 5th, 
44 Titles of office or honour, and epithets of distinction, applied to persons, begin usually -with capitals." There- 
fore, " Duke" should here begin with a capital D.] 

"At the court of queen Elizabeth." — Murray's Gram.; 8vo, p. 15? ; 12mo, p. 126; Fistis, 115; 
et al. " The laws of nature are, truly, what lord Bacon styles his aphorisms, laws of laws." — 
Murray's Key, p. 260. "Sixtus the fourth was, if I mistake not, a great collector of books." — 
lb., p. 25V. "Who at that time made up the court of king Charles the second." — Murray's 
Gram., p. 314. " In case of his majesty's dying without issue." — KirJcham's Gram., p. 181. 
"King Charles the first was beheaded in 1649." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 45. "He can no more 
impart or (to use lord Bacon's word,) transmit convictions." — KirJcham's Eloc, p. 220. "I reside 
at lord Stormont's, my old patron and benefactor." — 31urrai/s Gram., p. 176. "We staid a month 
at lord Lyttleton's, the ornament of his country." — lb., p. 177. " Whose prerogative is it? It is 
the king of Great Britain's;' 1 " That is the duke of Bridgewater's canal;" " The bishop of Lan- 
daff's excellent book;" "The Lord mayor of London's authority." — lb., p. 176. "Why call ye 
me lord, lord, and do not the things which I say?" — See Griesbach: Luke, vi, 46. "And of 
them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles." — Scott: Luke, vi, 13. " And forthwith he 
came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master ; and kissed him." — See the Greek : Matt., xxvi, 49. " And 
he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." — 
Luke, xvi, 30. 

Under Rule VI. — Of One Capital. 

" Fall River, a village in Massachusetts, population 3431." — See Univ. Gaz., p. 416. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because the name Fall River is here written in two parts, and with two capitals. But, 
according to Rule 6th, " Those compound proper names which by analogy incline to a union of their parts with- 
out a hyphen, should be so written, and have but one capital." Therefore, Fallriver, as the name of a town t 
should be one word, and retain but one capital.] 

"Dr. Anderson died at West Ham, in Essex, in 1808." — Biog. Did. "Mad River, [the name 
of] two towns in Clark and Champaign counties, Ohio." — Williams's Universal Gazetteer. "White 
Creek, town of Washington county, N. York." — lb. " Salt Creek, the name of four towns in dif- 
ferent parts of Ohio." — lb. "Salt Lick, a town of Fayette county, Pennsylvania." — lb. "Yellow 
Creek, a town of Columbiana county, Ohio." — lb. " White Clay, a hundred of New Castle county, 
Delaware." — lb. " Newcastle, town and halfshire of Newcastle county, Delaware." — lb. " Sing- 
Sing, a village of West Chester county, New York, situated in the town of Mount Pleasant." — lb. 
"West Chester, a county of New York; also a town in Westchester county." — lb. "West 
Town, a village of Orange county, New York." — lb. "White Water, a town of Hamilton county, 
Ohio." — lb. "White Water River, a considerable stream that rises in Indiana, and flowing 
southeasterly, unites with the Miami, in Ohio." — lb. " Black Water, a village of Hampshire, in 
England, and a town in Ireland." — lb. " Black Water, the name of seven different rivers in Eng- 
land, Ireland, and the United States." — lb. "Red Hook, a town of Dutchess county, New 
York, on the Hudson." — lb. " Kinderhook, a town of Columbia county, New York, on the Hud- 
son." — lb. " New Fane, a town of Niagara county, New York." — lb. "Lake Port, a town of 
Chicot county, Arkansas." — lb. " Moose Head Lake, the chief source of the Kennebeck, in 
Maine."— lb. "Macdonough, a county of Illinois, population (in 1830) 2,959." — lb., p. 408. 
" Mc Donough, a county of Illinois, with a courthouse, at Macomb." — lb., p. 185. "Half-Moon, 
the name of two towns, in New York and Pennsylvania ; also of two bays in the West Indies." 
— See Worcester's Gaz. " Le Bceuf, a town of Erie county, Pennsylvania, near a small lake of 
the same name." — lb. " Charles City, James City, Elizabeth City, names of counties in Virginia, 
not cities, nor towns." — See Univ. Gaz. "The superior qualities of the waters of the Frome, her© 
called Stroud water." — BalWs Geog., p. 223. 

Under Rule VII. — Two Capitals. 

" The Forth rises on the north side of Benlomond, and runs easterly." — Glas. Geog. 

[Foemttle. — Not proper, because the name " Benlomond is compounded under one capital, contrary to the 
general analogy of other similar terms. But, according to Rule 7th, " The compounding of a name under one 
capital should be avoided when the general analogy of other similar terms suggests a separation under two." 
Therefore, " Ben Lomond" 6hould be written with two capitals and no hyphen.] 

"The red granite of Ben-nevis is said to be the finest in the world." — lb., ii, 311. "Ben-more, 
in Perthshire, is 3,915 feet above the level of the sea."— -id., 313. " The height of Bencleugh is 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. LETTERS. — CAPITALS. — ERRORS. 175 

2,420 feet." — lb. "In Sutherland and Caithness, are Ben Ormod, Ben Clibeg, Ben Grin, Ben 
Hope, and Ben LugaL "—lb., 311. "Benvrackyis 2,756 feet high; Ben-ledi, 3,009; and Ben- 
voirlich, 3,300." — lb., 313. "The river Docharc gives the name of Glendochart to the vale 
through which it runs." — lb., 314. " About ten miles from its source, the Tay diffuses itself into 
Lochdochart." — Geog. altered. Lakes: — "Lochard, Loch-Achray, Loch-Con, Loch-Doine, Loch- 
Katrine, Loch-Lomond, Loch-Voil." — Scott's Lady of the Lake. Glens : — Glenfinlas, Glen Fruin, 
Glen Luss, Ross-dhu, Leven-glen, Strath-Endrick, Strath-Gartney, Strath-Ire." — lb. Mountains : 
— " Ben-an, Benharrow, Benledi, Ben-Lomond, Benvoirlich, Ben-venue, and sometimes Benvenue." 
— lb. "Fenelon died in 1715, deeply lamented by all the inhabitants of the Low-countries." — 
Murray's Sequel, p. 322. "And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king." — Scott, 
Friends : 2 Kings, xxiii, 34. " Those who seem so merry and well pleased, call her Good For- 
tune; but the others, who weep and wring their hands, Bad-fortune" — Collier's Tablet of Cebes. 

Under Rule VHT. — Of Compounds. 

""When Joab returned, and smote Edom in the valley of salt." — Scott: Ps. lx, title. 

[Formuxe. — Not proper, because the words valley and salt begin with small letters. But, according to Rule 
8th, "When any adjective or common noun is made a distinct part of a compound proper name, it ought to be- 
gin with a capital. Therefore, " Valley" should here begin with a capital V, and " Salt" with a capital S.] 

" Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill and said," &c. — Scott: Acts, xvii, 22. "And at 
night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives." — Luke, xxi, 37. 
" Abgillus, son of the king of the Fiisii, sumamed Prester John, was in the Holy land with 
Charlemagne." — Univ. Biog. Diet. " Cape Palmas, in Africa, divides the Grain coast from the 
Ivory coast." — Diet of Geog., p. 125. " The North Esk, flowing from Loch-lee, falls into the sea 
three miles north of Montrose." — lb., p. 232. "At Queen's ferry, the channel of the Forth is con- 
tracted by promontories on both coasts." — lb., p. 233. "The Chestnut ridge is about twenty-five 
miles west of the Alleghanies, and Laurel ridge, ten miles further west." — Balbi's Geog., p. 65. 
""Washington City, the metropolis of the United States of America." — W.'s Univ. Gaz., p. 380. 
"Washington city, in the District of Columbia, population (in 1830) 18,826."— lb., p. 408. "The 
loftiest peak of the white mountains, in new Hampshire, is called mount Washington." — Author. 
" Mount's bay, in the west of England, lies between the land's end and lizard point." — Id. " Sala- 
mis, an island of the Egean Sea, off the southern coast of the ancient Attica." — Did. of Geog. 
"Rhodes, an island of the Egean sea, the largest and most easterly of the Cyclades." — lb. "But 
he overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea." — Bruce's Bible: Ps. exxxvi, 15. "But 
they provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea." — Scott: Ps. cvi, 7.* 

Under Rule IX. — Of Apposition. 

" At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus." — Alger: Matt, xiv, 1. 

[FoEMtrLr. — Not proper, because the word Tetrarch begins with a capital letter. But, according to Rule 8th, 
" When a common and a proper name are associated merely to explain each other, it is in general sufficient, if 
the proper name begin with a capital, and the appellative, with a small letter." Therefore, " tetrarch" should 
here begin with a small £.] 

" Who has been more detested than Judas the Traitor ?" — Author. "St. Luke, the Evangelist, 
was a physician of Antioch, and one of the converts of St. Paul" — Id. " Luther, the Reformer, 
began his bold career by preaching against papal indulgences." — Id. " The Poet Lydgate was a 
disciple and admirer of Chaucer: he died in 1440." — Id. "The Grammarian Varro, 'the most 
learned of the Romans,' wrote three books when he was eighty years old." — Id. "JohnDe- 
spauter, the great Grammarian of Flanders, whose works are still valued, died in 1520." — Id. 
"Nero, the Emperor and Tyrant of Rome, slew himself to avoid a worse death." — Id. "Cicero 
the Orator, 'the Father of his Country,' was assassinated at the age of 64." — Id. "Euripides, the 
Greek Tragedian, was born in the Island of Salamis, B. C. 476." — Id. "I will say unto God my 
Rock, Why hast thou forgotten me?" — Scott: Ps. xlh, 9. "Staten Island, an island of New 
York, nine miles below New York City." — Univ. Gaz. "When the son of Atreus, King of Men, 
and the noble Achilles first separated." — Coleridge's Introd., p. 83. 

"Hermes, his Patron-God, those gifts bestow'd, 
Whose shrine with weaning lambs he wont to load." — Pope : Odys., B. 19. 

Under Rule X. — Of Personifications. 

"But wisdom is justified of all her children." — Scott, Alger: Luke, vii, 35. 

[Formtjxe. — Not proper, because the word wisdom begins with a small letter. But, according to Rule 10th, 
" The name of an object personified, when it conveys an idea strictly individual, should begin with a capital." 
Therefore, " Wisdom" should here begin with a capital W.] 

" Fortune and the church are generally put in the feminine gender." — Murray's Gram., i, p. 37. 
"Go to your natural religion; lay before her Mahomet, and his disciples." — Blair's Rhetoric, p. 
157: see also Murray's Gram., i, 347. " O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy 
victory?" — 1 Cor., xv, 55; Murray's Gram., p. 348; English Reader, 31; Merchant's Gram-, 212. 
" Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." — Scott, Friends, et al. : Matt, vi, 24. " Ye cannot 

* " Et irritaverunt ascendentes in mare, Mare rubrum." — Latin Vulgate, folio, Psal. cv, 7. This, I think, 
should have been " Mare Rubrum," with two capitals. — G. Bbown. 



176 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

serve God and mammon." — Iidem: Luke, xvi, 13. "This house was built as if suspicion herself 
had dictated the plan." — See Key. " Poetry distinguishes herself from prose, by 3'ielding to a music- 
al law." — See Key. " My beauteous deliverer thus uttered her divine instructions: 'My name 
is religion. I am the offspring of truth and love, and the parent of benevolence, hope, and joy. 
That monster, from whose power I have freed you, is called superstition : she is the child of dis- 
content, and her followers are fear and sorrow.' " — See Key. "Neither hope nor fear could enter 
the retreats; and habit had so absolute a power, that even conscience, if religion had employed 
her in their favour, would not have been able to force an entrance." — See Key. 

" In colleges and halls in ancient days, 
There dwelt a sage called discipline." — Wayland's M. Sci, p. 368. 

Under Rule XL — Of Derivatives. 

"In English, I would have gallicisms avoided." — Felton: Johnson's Bid. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because the word gallicisms here begins with a small letter. But, according to Rule 
11th, " Words derived from proper names, and having direct reference to particular persons, places, sects, or 
nations, should begin with capitals." Therefore, " Gallicisms" should begin with a capital G-.] 

" Sallust was born in Italy, 85 years before the christian era." — Murray's Seq., p. 35*7. " Dr. 
Doddridge was not only a great man, but one of the most excellent and useful christians, and 
christian ministers." — lb., 319. "They corrupt their style with untutored anglicisms." — Milton: 
in Johnson's Bid. " Albert of Stade, author of a chronicle from the creation to 1286, a benedict- 
ine of the 13th century." — Universal Biog. Bid. "G-raffio, a Jesuit of Capua in the 16th century, 
author of two volumes on moral subjects." — lb. "They frenchify and italianize words whenever 
they can." — See Key. " He who sells a christian, sells the grace of God." — Anti-Slavery Mag., p. 
77. " The first persecution against the christians, under Nero, began A. D. 64." — Gregory's Bid. 
"P. Rapin, the Jesuit, uniformly decides in favour of the Roman writers." — Gobbett's E. Gram., 
\ 171. "The Roman poet and epicurean philosopher Lucretius has said," &c. — Cohen's Florida, 
p. 107. Spell " calvinistic, atticism, gothicism, epicurism, Jesuitism, sabianism, socinianism, angli- 
can, anglicism, anglicize, vandalism, gallicism, romanize." — Webster's El. Spelling -Book, 130-133. 
"The large ternatebat." — Webster's Bid. w. Rosset; Bolles's Bid.,w. Roset. 

" Church-ladders are not always mounted best 
By learned clerks, and latinists profess'd." — Gowper. 

Under Rule XII. — Of I and 0. 

" Fall back, fall back; i have not room: — 1 methinks i see a couple whom i should know."— 
Lucian, varied. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because the word J, which occurs three times, and the word 0, which occurs once, 
are here printed in letters of the lower case.* But, according to Rule 12th, " The words /and should always 
be capitals." Therefore, each should be changed to a capital, as often as it occurs.] 

" Nay, i live as i did, i think as i did, i love you as i did ; but all these are to no purpose : the 
world will not live, think, or love, as i do." — Swift, varied. "Whither, ol whither shall i fly? o 
wretched prince ! o cruel reverse of fortune 1 o father Micipsa ! is this the consequence of thy 
generosity ?" — Sallust, varied. " When i was a child, i spake as a child, i understood as a child, 
i thought as a child; but when i became a man, i put away childish things." — 1 Cor., xiii, 11, 
varied. " And i heard, but i understood not : then said i, o my Lord, what shall be the end of 
these things ?" — Ban., xii, 8, varied. " Here am i ; i think i am very good, and i am quite sure i 
am very happy, yet i never wrote a treatise in my hfe." — Few Bays in Athens, varied. " Singular, 
Vocative, master ; Plural, Vocative, masters." — Bicknell's Gram., p. 30. 

" I, i am he ; o father ! rise, behold 
Thy son, with twenty winters now grown old!" — See Pope's Odyssey. 

Under Rule XIII. — Of Poetry. 

" Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, 
lie in three words — health, peace, and competence ; 
but health consists with temperance alone, 
and peace, O Virtue 1 peace is all thy own." 

Pope's Essay on Man, a fine London Edition. 

rFoBMTTLE. — Not proper, because the last three lines of this example begin with small letters. But, according 
to Rule 13th, " Every line in poetry, except what is regarded as making but one verse with the preceding line, 
should begin with a capital." Therefore, the words, " Lie," " But," and " And," at the commencement of these 
lines, should severally begin with the capitals L, B, and A.] 

" Observe the language well in all you write, 
and swerve not from it in your loftiest flight. 
The smoothest verse and the exactest sense 
displease us, if ill English give offence: 

* The printers, from the manner in which they place their types before them, call the small letters " lower- 
case letters" or " letters of the lower case" 



CHAP. I.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — LETTERS. — CAPITALS. — ERRORS. 177 

a barbarous phrase no reader can approve ; 

nor bombast, noise, or affectation love. 

In short, without pure language, what you write 

can never yield us profit or delight. 

Take time for thinking, never work in haste ; 

and value not yourself for writing fast." 

See Dryden's Art of Poetry : — British Poets, Vol in, p. 74. 

Under Rule XIV. — Of Examples. 

" The word rather is very properly used to express a small degree or excess of a quality : as, 
'she is rather profuse in her expenses.' " — Murray's Gram., p. 47. 

[Fobmuxe. — Not proper, because the word she begins with a small letter. But, according to Rule 14th, " The 
first word of a full example, of a distinct speech, or of a direct quotation, should begin with a capital." There- 
fore, the word " She" should here begin with a capital S.] 

" Neither imports not either ; that is, not one nor the other : as, ' neither of my friends was 
there.' " — Murray's Gram., p. 56. ""When we say, 'he is a tall man,' 'this is a fair day,' we 
make some reference to the ordinary size of men, and to different weather." — lb., p. 47. " We 
more readily say, 'A million of men,' than 'a thousand of men.'" — lb., p. 169. "So in the 
instances, ' two and two are four ;' ' the fifth and sixth volumes will complete the set of books.' " — 
lb., p. 124. "The adjective may frequently either precede or follow it [the verb] : as, 'the man 
is happy ;' or, ' happy is the man:' ' The interview was delightful;'' or, ' delightful was the inter- 
view.' " — lb., p. 168. "If we say, 'he writes a pen,' 'they ran the river,' 'the tower fell the 
Greeks,' 'Lambeth is "Westminster-abbey,' [we speak absurdly;] and, it is evident, there is a 
vacancy which must be filled up by some connecting word: as thus, ' He writes with a pen ;' ' they 
ran towards the river ;' ' the tower fell upon the Greeks ;' 'Lambeth is over against "Westminster- 
abbey.' " — lb., p. 118. " Let me repeat it; — he only is great, who has the habits of greatness." — 
Murray's Key, 241. " I say not unto thee, until seven times; but, until seventy times seven." — 
See Matt, xviii, 22. 

" The Panther smil'd at this ; and when, said she, 
"Were those first councils disallow'd by me ?" — Dryden, p. 95. 

Under Rule XV. — Of Chief Words. 

"The supreme council of the nation is called the divan." — Balbi's Geog., p. 360. 

[Fokmcxe. — Not proper, because the word divan begins with a small letter. But, according to Rule 15th, 
* 4 Other words of particular importance, and such as denote the principal subjects treated of, may be distin- 
guished by capitals." Therefore, " Divan" should here begin with a capital D.] 

"The British parliament is composed of kings, lords, and commons." — Murray's Key, p. 184. 
" A popular orator in the House of Commons has a sort of patent for coining as many new terms 
as he pleases." — See Campbell's Bhet., p. 169 ; Murray's Gram., 364. " They may all be taken 
together, as one name; as, the house of commons." — Merchant's School Gram., p. 25. "Intrusted 
to persons in whom the parliament could confide." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 202. " For ' The 
Lords' house,' it were certainly better to say, ' The house of lords;' and, in stead of 'The commons' 
vote,' to say, 'The votes of the commons.'" — See ib., p. 177, 4th Amer. Ed. ; also Priestley's 
Gram., p. 69. "The house of lords were so much influenced by these reasons." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 152 ; Priestley's Gram., 188. " Rhetoricians commonly divide them into two 
great classes; figures of words, and figures of thought. The former, figures of words, are com- 
monly called tropes." — Blair's Bhet, p. 132. " Perhaps figures of imagination, and figures of 
passion, might be a more useful distribution." — lb., p. 133. " Hitherto we have considered sen- 
tences, under the heads of perspicuity, unity, and strength." — lb., p. 120. 

" The word is then depos'd, and in this view, 
Tou rule the scripture, not the scripture you." — Dryden, p. 95. 

Under Rule XVI. — Of Needless Capitals. 

" Be of good cheer: It is I; be not afraid." — Alger : Matt, xiv, 27. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because the word It begins with a capital Z, for which there appears to be neither 
rule nor reason. But, according to Rule 16th, " Capitals are improper wherever there is not some special rule 
or reason for their use." Therefore, 'it 1 should here begin with a small letter, as Dr. Scott has it.] 

"Between passion and lying, there is not a Finger's breadth." — Murray's Key, p. 240. " Can 
our Solicitude alter the course, or unravel the intricacy, of human events?" — lb., p. 242. " The 
last edition was carefully compared with the Original M. S." — lb., p. 239. " And the governor 
asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews?" — Alger: Matt, xxvii, 11. "Let them be 
turned back for a reward of their shame, that say, Aha, Aha!" — Friends' Bible: Ps., lxx, 3. 
" Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame, that say unto me, Aha, aha!" — Ib. : Ps., xl, 15. 
" "What think ye of Christ ? whose Son is he ? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith 
unto them, How then doth David in Spirit call him Lord ?" — Scott : Matt., xxii, 42, 43. " Among 
all Things in the Universe, direct your Worship to the Greatest ; And which is that ? 'T is that 
Being which Manages and Governs all the Rest." — Meditations of M. Aurelius Antoninus, p. 76. 

12 



178 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

" As for Modesty and Good Faith, Truth and Justice, they have left this wicked "World and retired 
to Heaven: And now what is it that can keep you here ?" — lb., p. 81. 
" If Pulse of Yerse, a Nation's Temper shows, 
In keen Iambics English Metre flows." — Brightland's Gram., p. 151. 

PROMISCUOUS ERRORS RESPECTING CAPITALS. 
Lesson I. — Mixed. 

" Come, gentle spring, Ethereal mildness, come." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 411. 

[Foemules. — 1. Not proper, because the word spring begins with a small letter. But, according to Rule 10th, 
" The name of an object personified, when it conveys an idea strictly individual, should begin with a capital." 
Therefore " Spring" should here begin with a capital S. 

2. Not proper again, because the word Ethereal begins with a capital E, for which there appears to be neither 
rule nor reason. But, according to Rule 16th, " Capit ils are improper whenever there is not some special rule 
or reason for their use." Therefore, "ethereal" should here begin with a small letter.] 

As, " He is the Cicero of his age ; he is reading the lives of the Twelve Cassars." — Murray's 
Gram., p. 36. "In the History of Henry the fourth, by father Daniel, we are surprized at not 
finding him the great man." — Priestley's Gram., p. 151. "In the history of Henry the fourth, by 
Father Daniel, we are surprised at not finding him the great man." — Murray's Gram., p. 172; 
Ingersoll's, 187 ; Fish's, 99. "Do not those same poor peasants use the Lever and the "Wedge, and 
many other instruments ?" — Murray, 288; from Harris, 293. "Arithmetic is excellent for the 
gauging of Liquors ; Geometry, for the measuring of Estates ; Astronomy, for the making of 
Almanacks; and Grammar, perhaps, for the drawing of Bonds and Conveyances." — Harris's Hermes, 
p. 295. " The wars of Flanders, written in Latin by Famianus Strada, is a book of some note." 
— Blair's Rhet., p. 364. "William is a noun. — why? was is a verb. — why? a is an article. — 
why? very is an adverb. — why?" &c. — Merchant's School Gram., p. 20. "In the beginning 
was the word, and that word was with God, and God was that word." — Gwilt's Saxon Gram., p. 
49. "The greeks are numerous in thessaly, macedonia, romelia, and albania." — Balbi, varied. 
" He is styled by the Turks, Sultan (Mighty) or Padishah (lord)."— Balbi's Geog., p. 360. " I will 
ransom them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death : death, I will be 
thy plagues;* grave, I will be thy destruction." — Scott, Alger, et al. : Hosea, xiii, 14. 
" Silver and Gold have I none ; but such as I have, give I unto thee." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 
321. "Return, we beseech thee, God of Hosts, look down from heaven, and behold, and visit 
this vine." — lb., p. 342. " In the Attic Commonwealth, it was the privilege of every citizen to 
rail in public." — lb., p. 316. " They assert that, in the phrases, ' give me that,' ' this is John's,' 
and ' such were some of you,' the words in italics are pronouns: but that, in the following phrases, 
they are not pronouns ; l this book is instructive,' ' some boys are ingenious,' 'my health is decli- 
ning,' l our hearts are deceitful,' &c." — lb., p. 58. "And the coast bends again to the northwest, 
as far as Far Out head." — Glasgow Geog., Yol. ii, p. 308. Dr. Webster, and other makers of 
spelling-books, very improperly write " Sunday, monday, tuesday, Wednesday, thursday, friday, 
Saturday," without capitals. — See Webster's Elementary Spelling-Book p. 85. " The commander in 
chief of the Turkish navy is styled the capitan-pasha." — Balbi's Geog., p. 360. " Shall we not 
much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits, and live ?" — Scott's Bible : Heb., xii, 9. 
"Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits, and live?" — Friends' 
Bible: Heb., xii, 9. "He was more anxious to attain the character of a christian hero." — 
Murray's Sequel, p. 308. " Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion." — 
Psalms, xlviii, 2. " The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." — 
Scott : Heb., xiii, 6. " Make haste to help me, O Lord my Salvation." — Scott : Ps., xxxvih, 22. 

" The City, which Thou seest, no other deem 
Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth." 

Harris's Hermes, p. 49. 

Lesson II. — Mixed. 

" That range of hills, known under the general name of mount Jura." — Priestley's Gram., p. 
170. " He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up." — Scott: Ps., cvi, 9. "Jesus went 
unto the mount of Olives." — John, viii, 1. " Milton's book, in reply to the Defence of the king, by 
Salmasius, gained him a thousand pounds from the parliament, and killed his antagonist with 
vexation." — See Murray's Sequel, 343. "Mandeville, sir John, an Englishman, famous for his 
travels, born about 1300, died in 1372." — Biog. Diet. "Ettrick pen, a mountain in Selkirkshire, 
Scotland, height 2,200 feet." — Glasgow Geog., Yol. ii, p. 312. "The coast bends from Dungsby- 
head in a northwest direction to the promontory of Dunnet head." — lb., p. 307. " Gen. Gaines 
ordered a detachment of near 300 men, under vhe command of Major Twiggs, to surround and 
take an Indian Yillage, called Fowl Town, about fourteen miles from fort Scott." — Cohen's Florida, 
p. 41. "And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha Cumi." — Alger: 
Mark, v, 4. "On religious subjects, a frequent recurrence of scripture-language is attended with 
peculiar force."— Murray's Gram., p. 318. "Contemplated with grat;4ude to their Author, the 
Giver of all Good."— lb., p. 289. " When he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into 

* I imagine that "plagues" should here he plague, in tl e singular number, and not plural. " Ero mor* tua, * 
mors; morsus tuus ero, inferne." — Vulgate. " Ilov h diKn aov, dapare-.nov to kIvtoov cov, a6u;"—Septuaginty 
ibid. ' 



CHAP. II.] ORTHOGRAPHY.— SYLLABLES.— DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS. 179 

all truth." — lb., p. Ill; Fisk, 98 ; Ingersoll, 186. "See the lecture on verbs, rule XV. note 4." 
— Fish's F. Gram., p. 117. "At the commencement of lecture II. I informed you that Ety- 
mology treats, 3dly, of derivation." — Kirkkam's Gram., p. 171. "ThisYIII. lecture is a very 
important one." — lb., p. 113. " Now read the XI. and XII. lectures four or five times over." — 
lb., p. 152. " In 1752, he was advanced to the bench, under the title of lord Karnes." — Murray's 
Sequel, p. 331. " One of his maxims was, 'know thyself.'" — Lempriere's Diet, n. Chilo. "G-ood 
master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ?" — See Matt, xix, 16. " His 
best known works, however, are ' anecdotes of the earl of Chatham,' 2 vols. 4to., 3 vols. 8vo., and 
' biographical, literary, and political anecdotes of several of the most eminent persons of the present 
age; never before printed,' 3 vols. 8vo. 1797." — Univ. Biog. Diet, n. Almon. "0 gentle sleep, 
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee?" — Merchant's School Gram., p. 172. "0 sleep, 
gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse," &c. — Singer's Shak. Sec. Part of Fen. IV, Act hi. "Sleep, 
gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse," &c. — DodoVs Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 129. 

" And Peace, 0, Virtue ! Peace is all thy own." — Pope's Works, p. 379. 
"And peace, virtue! peace is all thy own." — Murray's Gram., ii, 16. 

Lesson III. — Mixed. 

" Fenelon united the characters of a nobleman and a christian pastor. His book entitled ' An 
explication of the Maxims of the Saints concerning the interior life,' gave considerable offence to 
the guardians of orthodoxy." — Murray's Sequel, p. 321. " When natural religion, who before 
was only a spectator, is introduced as speaking by the centurion's voice." — Blair's Bhet, p. 157. 
" You cannot deny, that the great mover and author of nature constantly explaineth himself to 
the eyes of men, by the sensible intervention of arbitrary signs, which have no similitude, or con- 
nexion, with the things signified." — Berkley's Minute Philosopher, p. 169. "The name of this 
letter is double IT, its form, that of a double V." — Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 19. " Murray, in 
his spelling book, wrote ' Charles-Town' with a Hyphen and two Capitals." — See p. 101. " He 
also wrote ' european' without a capital." — See p. 86. " They profess themselves to be pharisees, 
who are to be heard and not imitated." — Calvin's Institutes, Ded., p. 55. "Dr. Webster wrote 
both 'Newhaven' and 'Newyork' with single capitals." — See his American Spelling-Book, p. 111. 
" Gayhead, the west point of Martha's Vineyard." — Williams's Univ. Gaz. Write " Craborchard, 
Eggharbor, Longisland, Perthamboy, Westhampton, Littlecompton, Newpaltz, Crownpoint. Fells- 
point, Sandyhook, Portpenn, Portroyal. Portobello, and Portorico." — Webster's American Spelling- 
Book, 127-140. Write the names of the months: "January, february, march, april, may, June, 
July, august, September, October, november, december." — Cobb's Standard Spelling-Book, 21-40. 
Write the following names and words properly: "tuesday, Wednesday, thursday, friday, Saturday, 
saturn ; — christ, christian, Christmas, Christendom, michaelmas, indian, bacchanals ; — Easthampton, 
omega, Johannes, aonian, leviticaL deuteronomy, european." — Cobb's Standard Spelling- Book, 
sundry places. 

" Eight Letters in some Syllables we find, 
And no more Syllables in Words are joined." 

Brightland's Gram., p. 61. 



CHAPTER II.— OF SYLLABLES. 

A Syllable is one or more letters pronounced in one sound ; and is 
either a word, as, a, an, ant; or a part of a word, as di in dial. 

In every word there are as many syllahles as there are distinct sounds, 
or separate impulses of the voice ; as, gram-ma-ri-an. 

A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; a word of two syllables, 
a dissyllable', a word of three syllables, a trissyllable; and a word of four 
or more syllables, a polysyllable. 

Every vowel, except w, may form a syllable of itself ; but the consonants 
belong to the vowels or diphthongs ; and without a vowel no syllable can 
be formed. 

DIPHTHONGS AND TKIPHTHONGS. 

A diphthong is two vowels joined in one syllable ; as, ea in beat, ou in 
sound. In 03 or ce, old or foreign, the characters often unite. 

A proper diphthong is a diphthong in which both the vowels are 
sounded ; as, oi in voice, ow in vow. 



180 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

An improper diphthong is a diphthong in which only one of the vowels 
is sounded ; as, oa in loaf, eo in people. 

A triphthong is three vowels joined in one syllable ; as, eau in beau, iew 
in view, ceu in manoeuvre. 

A proper triphthong is a triphthong in which all the vowels are sounded ; 
as, uoy in buoy. 

An improper triphthong is a triphthong in which only one or two of the 
vowels are sounded ; as, eau in beauty, iou in anxious. 

The diphthongs in English are twenty-nine ; embracing all but six of 
the thirty-five possible combinations of two vowels : aa, ae, ai, ao, au, aw, 
ay, — ea, ee, ei, eo, eu, ew, ey, — ia, ie, (ii,) io, (iu, iw, iy,) — oa, oe, oi, 
oo, ou, ow, oy, — ua, ue, ui, uo, (uu, uw,) uy. 

Ten of these diphthongs, being variously sounded, may be either proper 
or improper ; to wit, ay, — ie, — oi, ou, ow, — ua, ue, ui, uo, uy. 

The proper diphthongs appear to be thirteen ; ay, — ia, ie, io, — oi, ou, 
ow, oy, — ua, ue, ui, uo, uy: of which combinations, only three, ia, io, 
and oy, are invariably of this class. 

The improper diphthongs are twenty-six ; aa, ae, ai, ao, au, aw, ay, — 
ea, ee, ei, eo, eu, ew, ey, — ie, — oa, oe, oi, oo, ou, ow, — ua, ue, ui, uo, uy. 

The only proper triphthong in English is uoy, as in buoy, buoyant, 
buoyancy ; unless uoi in quoit may be considered a parallel instance. 

The improper triphthongs are sixteen ; awe, aye, — eau, eou, ewe, eye, — 
ieu, iew, iou, — oeu, owe, — uai, uaw, uay, uea, uee. 

SYLLABICATION. 

In dividing words into syllables, we are to be directed chiefly by the 
ear ; it may however be proper to observe, as far as practicable, the fol- 
lowing rules. 

Rule I. — Consonants. 

Consonants should generally be joined to the vowels or diphthongs which they 
modify in utterance ; as, An-ax-ag' -o-ras, ap-os-tol'-i-cal.* 

Rule II. — Vowels. 

Two vowels, coming together, if they make not a diphthong, must be parted in 
dividing the syllables ; as, A-cha'-i-a, A-o'-ni-an, a-e'-ri-al. 

Rule III. — Terminations. 

Derivative and grammatical terminations should generally be separated from the 
radical words to which they have been added ; as, harm-less, great-ly, connect-ed : 
thus count-er and coun-ter are different words. 

Rule IV. — Prefixes. 

Prefixes, in general, form separate syllables ; as, mis-place, out-ride, up-lift : but 
if their own primitive meaning be disregarded, the case may be otherwise ; thus, 
re-create, and rec'-reate, re-formation, and ref-ormation, are words of different im- 
port. 

* It is hoped that not many persons -will be so much puzzled as are Dr. Latham and Professor Fowler, about 
the application of this rule. In their recent works on The English Language, these gentlemen say, " In certain 
■words of more than one syllable, it is difficult to say to which syllable the intervening Consonant belongs. For 
instance, does the v in river and the v in fever belong to the first or to the second syllable ? Are the words to be 
divided thus, ri-ver, fe-ver t or thus, riv-er, fev-erV — Fowler's E. Gram., 1850, § 85; Latham's Hand- Book, 
p. 95. Now I suppose it plain, that, by the rule given above, fever is to be divided in the former way, and river 
in the latter; thus, fe-ver, riv-er. But this paragraph of Latham's or Fowler's is written, not to disembarrass 
the learner, but just as if it were a grammarian's business to confound his readers with fictitious dilemmas — and 
those expressed ungrammatically 1 Of the two Vees, so illogically associated in one question, and so solecistically 
spoken of by the singular verb " does,'"' one belongs to the former syllable, and the other, to the latter ; nor do I 
discover that " it is difficult to say" this, or to be well assured that it is right. What an admirable passage for 
one great linguist to steal from an other ! 



CHAP. II.] OKTHOGRAPHY.— SYLLABLES. — RULES. — OBSERVATIONS. 181 

Rule V. — Compounds. 

Compounds, when divided, should be divided into the simple words which com- 
pose them ; as, boat-swain, foot-hold, never-the-less. 

Eule VI. — Lines Full. 

At the end of a line, a word may be divided, if necessary ; but a syllable must 
never be broken. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The doctrine of English syllabication is attended with some difficulties ; because its 
purposes are various, and its principles, often contradictory. The old rules, borrowed chiefly from, 
grammars of other languages, and still retained in some of our own, are liable to very strong ob- 
jections.* By aiming to divide on the vowels, and to force the consonants, as much as possible, 
into the beginning of syllables, they often pervert or misrepresent our pronunciation. Thus Mur- 
ray, in his Spelling-Book, has " gra-vel, Ji-nish, me-lon, bro-ther, bo-dy, wi-dow, prison, a-va-rice, 
e-ve-ry, o-ran-ges, e-ne-my, me-di-cine, re-present, reso-lu-tion," and a multitude of other words, 
divided upon a principle by which the young learner can scarcely fail to be led into error respect- 
ing their sounds. This method of division is therefore particularly reprehensible in such books as 
are designed to teach the true pronunciation of words ; for which reason, it has been generally 
abandoned in our modern spelling-books and dictionaries : the authors of which have severally 
aimed at some sort of compromise between etymology and pronunciation ; but they disagree so 
much, as to the manner of effecting it, that no two of them will be found alike, and very few, if 
any, entirely consistent with themselves. 

Obs. 2. — The object of syllabication may be any one of the following four : 1. To enable a child 
to read unfamiliar words by spelling them ; 2. To show the derivation or composition of words ; 
3. To exhibit the exact pronunciation of words ; 4. To divide words properly, when it is necessary 
to break them at the ends of lines. "With respect to the first of these objects, "Walker observes, 
''"When a child has made certain advances in reading, but is ignorant of the sound of many of the 
longer words, it may not be improper to lay down the common general rule to him, that a conso- 
nant between two vowels must go to the latter, and that two consonants coming together must be 
divided. Farther than this it would be absurd to go with a child." — Walker's Principles, No. 539. 
Yet, as a caution be it recorded, that, in 1833, an itinerant lecturer from the South, who made it 
his business to teach what he calls in his title-page, " An Abridgment of "Walker's Rules on the 
Sounds of the Letters," — an Abridgement, which, he says in his preface, " will be found to contain, 
it is believed, all the important rules that are established by "Walker, and to carry his principles 
farther than he himself has done" — befooled the Legislature of Massachusetts, the School Commit- 
tee and Common Council of Boston, the professor of elocution at Harvard University, and many 
other equally wise men of the east, into the notion that English pronunciation could be con- 
veniently taught to children, in " four or five days," by means of some three or four hundred rules 
of which the following is a specimen: " Rule 282. "When a single consonant is preceded by a 
vowel under the preantepenultimate accent, and is followed by a vowel that is succeeded by a 
consonant, it belongs to the accented vowel." — Hulkei/s Abridgement of Walker's Rules, p. 34. 

Obs. 3. — A grosser specimen of literary quackery, than is the publication which I have just 
quoted, can scarcely be found in the world of letters. It censures " the principles laid down and 
illustrated by "Walker," as "so elaborate and so verbose as to be wearisome to the scholar and use- 
less to the child;" and yet declares them to be, "for the most part, the true rules of pronunci- 
ation, according to the analogy of the language." — Mulkey's Preface, p. 3. It professes to be an 
abridgement and simplification of those principles, especially adapted to the wants and capacities 
of children ; and, at the same time, imposes upon the memory of the young learner twenty-nine 
rules for syllabication, similar to that which I have quoted above ; whereas "Walker himself, with 
all his verbosity, expressly declares it "absurd," to offer more than one or two, and those of the 
very simplest character. It is to be observed that the author teaches nothing but the elements 
of reading ; nothing but the sounds of letters and syllables ; nothing but a few simple fractions of 
the great science of grammar : and, for this purpose, he would conduct the learner through the 
following particulars, and have him remember them all: 1. Fifteen distinctions respecting the 
" classification and organic formation of the letters." 2. Sixty-three rules for ' ; the sounds of the 
vowels, according to their relative positions." 3. Sixty-four explanations of "the different sounds 
of the diphthongs." 4. Eighty -nine rules for " the sounds of the consonants, according to position." 
5. Twenty-three heads, embracing a hundred and fifty-six principles of accent. 6. Twenty-nine 
"rules for dividing words into syllables." 7. Tiiirty -three "additional principles;" which are 
thrown together promiscuously, because he could not class them. 8. Fifty-two pages of "irregular 
words," forming particular exceptions to the foregoing rules. 9. Twenty-eight pages of notes 

* " The usual rules for dividing [words in.to] syllables, are not only arbitrary but false and absurd. They 
contradict the very definition of a syllable given by the authors themselves. * * * * A syllable in pronuncia- 
tion is an indivisible thing ; and strange as it may appear, -what is indivisible in utterance, is divided in 'writing ; 
when the very purpose of dividing words into syllables in writing, is to lead the learner to a just pronunciation." 
— Webster's Improved Oram., p. 156; Philosophical Gram., 221. 



182 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

extracted from Walker's Dictionar} r , and very prettily called " The Beauties of "Walker." All this 
is Walker simplified for children ! 

Obs. 4. — Such is a brief sketch of Mulkey's system of orthoepy ; a work in which " he claims 
to have devised what has heretofore been a desideratum — a mode by which children in our com- 
mon schools may be taught the rules for the pronunciation of their mother tongue." — Preface, p. 
4. The faults of the book are so exceedingly numerous, that to point them out, would be more 
toil, than to write an accurate volume of twice the size. And is it possible, that a system like this 
could find patronage in the metropolis of New England, in that proud centre of arts and sciences, and 
in the proudest halls of learning and of legislation ? Examine the gentleman's credentials, and 
take your choice between the adoption of his plan, as a great improvement in the management of 
syllables, and the certain conclusion that great men may be greatly duped respecting them. 
Unless the public has been imposed upon by a worse fraud than mere literary quackery, the 
authorities I have mentioned did extensively patronize the scheme ; and the Common Council of that 
learned city did order, November 14th, 1833, "That the School Committee be and they are hereby 
authorized to employ Mr. William Mulkey to give a course of Lectures on Orthoepy to the several 
instructors of the public schools, and that the sum of five hundred dollars is hereby appropriated 
for that purpose, and that the same amount be withdrawn from the reserved fund." — See Mulkey 's 
Circular. 

Obs. 5. — Pronunciation is best taught to children by means of a good spelling-book ; a book in 
which the words are arranged according to their analogies, and divided according to their proper 
sounds. Vocabularies, dictionaries, and glossaries, may also be serviceable to those who are suf- 
ficiently advanced to learn how to use them. With regard to the first of the abovenamed pur- 
poses of syllabication, I am almost ready to dissent even from the modest opinion of Walker 
himself; for ignorance can only guess at the pronunciation of words, till positive instruction comes 
in to give assurance ; and it may be doubted whether even the simple rule or rules suggested by 
Walker would not about as often mislead the young reader as correct him. With regard to the 
second purpose, that of showing the derivation or composition of words, it is plain, that etymology, 
and not pronunciation, must here govern the division ; and that it should go no further than to 
separate the constituent parts of each word ; as, ortho-graphy, theo-logy. But when we divide for 
the third purpose, and intend to show what is the pronunciation of a word, we must, if possible, 
divide into such syllabic sounds as will exactly recompose the word, when put together again ; 
as, or-thog-ra-phy, the-ol-o-gy. This being the most common purpose of syllabication, perhaps it 
would be well to give it a general preference ; and adopt it whenever we can, not only in the 
composing of spelling-books and dictionaries, but also in the dividing of words at the ends of 
lines. 

Obs. 6. — Dr. Lowth says, " The best and easiest rule, for dividing the syllables in spelling, is, 
to divide them as they are naturally divided in a right pronunciation ; without regard to the 
derivation of words, or the possible combination of consonants at the beginning of a syllable." — 
LowiJi's Gram., p. 5. And Walker approves of the principle, with respect to the third purpose 
mentioned above: " This," says that celebrated orthoepist, " is the method adopted by those who 
would convey the whole sound, by giving distinctly every part ; and, when this is the object of 
syllabication, Dr. Lowth's rule is certainly to be followed." — Walker's Principles, No. 541. But 
this rule, which no one can apply till he has found out the pronunciation, will not always be 
practicable where that is known, and perhaps not always expedient where it is practicable. For 
example: the words colonel, venison, transition, propitious, cannot be so divided as to exhibit their 
pronunciation ; and, in such as acid, magic, pacify, legible, liquidate, it may not be best to follow 
the rule, because there is some reasonable objection to terminating the first syllables of these 
words with c, g, and q, especially at the end of a line. The rule for terminations may also inter- 
fere with this, called "Lowth's;" as in sizable, rising, dronish. 

Obs. 7. — For the dividing of words into syllables, I have given six rules, which are perhaps as 
many as will be useful. They are to be understood as general principles ; and, as to the excep- 
tions to be made in their application, or the settling of their conflicting claims to attention, these 
may be left to the judgement of each writer. The old principle of dividing by the eye, and not 
by the ear, I have rejected ; and, with it, all but one of the five rules which the old grammarians 
gave for the purpose. " The divisions of the letters into syllables, should, unquestionably, be the 
same in written, as in spoken language ; otherwise the learner is misguided, and seduced by false 
representations into injurious errors." — Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 37. Through the influence 
of books in which the words are divided according to their sounds, the pronunciation of the 
language is daily becoming more and more uniform; and it may perhaps be reasonably hoped, that 
the general adoption of this method of syllabication, and a proper exposition of the occasional 
errors of ignorance, will one day obviate entirely the objection arising from the instability of the 
principle. For the old grammarians urged, that the scholar who had learned their rules should 
" strictly conform to them ; and that he should industriously avoid thai random^ Method of dividing 
by the Ear, which is subject to mere jumble, as it must be continually fluctuating according to the 
various Dialects of different Countries." — British Grammar, p. 47. 

Obs. 8. — The important exercise of oral speUing is often very absurdly conducted. In many 
of our schools, it may be observed that the teacher, in giving out the words to be spelled, is not 
always careful to utter them with what he knows to be their true sounds, but frequently accom- 
modates his pronunciation to the known or supposed ignorance of the scholar ; and the latter is 
still more frequently allowed to hurry through the process, without putting the syllables together 



CHAP. II.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — SYLLABLES. — ERRORS. 183 

as he proceeds ; and, sometimes, without forming or distinguishing the syllables at all. Merely to 
pronounce a word and then name its letters, is an exceedingly imperfect mode of spelling; a mode 
in which far more is lost in respect to accuracy of speech, than is gained in respect to time. The 
syllables should not only be distinctly formed and pronounced, but pronounced as they are heard 
in the whole word ; and each should be successively added to the preceding syllables, till the 
whole sound is formed by the reunion of all its parts. For example : divisibility. The scholar 
should say, ''Dee I, de; Vee I Ess, viz, de-viz; I, de-viz-e; Bee I Ell, bil, de-viz-e-bil ; 
I, de-viz-e-bil-e ; Tee Wy, te, de-viz-e-bil-e-te." Again : chicanery. " Cee Aitch I, she ; Cee A, ka, 
she-ka; En E Ar, nur, she-ka-nur; Wy, she-ka-nur-e." One of the chief advantages of oral 
spelling, is its tendency to promote accuracy of pronunciation; and this end it will reach, in pro- 
portion to the care and skill with which it is conducted. But oral spelling should not be relied 
on as the sole means of teaching orthography. It will not be found sufficient. The method of 
giving out words for practical spelling on slates or paper, or of reading something which is to be 
written again by the learner, is much to be commended, as a means of exercising those scholars 
who are so far advanced as to write legibly. This is called, in the schools, dictation. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
ERRORS IX SYLLABICATION. 

Lesson I. — Consonants. 

1. Correct the division of the following words of two syllables: " ci-vil, co-lour, co-py, da- 
mask, do-zen, e-ver, fea-ther, ga-ther, hea-ven, hea-vy, ho-ney, le-mon, li-nen, mea-dow, mo-ney, 
ne-ver, o-live, o-range, o-ther, phea-sant, plea-sant, pu-nish, ra-ther, rea-dy, ri-ver, ro-bin, scho-lar, 
sho-vel, sto-mach, ti-mid, whe-ther." — Murray's Spelling- Book, N. Y., 1819, p. 43-50. 

[Formttle. — Not proper, because the v in ci-vil, the I in co-lour, \hep in co-py, &c, are written with the fol- 
lowing vowel, but spoken with that which precedes. But, according to Rule 1st, " Consonants should generally 
be joined to the vowels or diphthongs which they modify in utterance." Therefore, these words should be 
divided thus: civ-il, col-our, cop-y, &c] 

2. Correct the division of the following words of three syllables: "be-ne-fit, ca-bi-net, ca-nis- 
ter, ca-ta-logue, cha-rac-ter, cha-ri-ty, co-vet-ous, di-li-gence, di-mi-ty, e-le-phant, e-vi-dent, e-ver- 
green, fri-vo-lous, ga-ther-ing, ge-ne-rous, go-vern-ess, go-vern-or, ho-nes-ty, ka-len-dar, la-ven-der, 
le-ve-ret, li-be-ral, me-mo-ry, mi-nis-ter, mo-dest-ly, no-vel-ty, no-bo-dy, pa-ra-dise, po-ver-ty, pre- 
sent-ly, pro-vi-dence, pro-per-Jy, pri-son-er, ra-ven-ous, sa-tis-fy, se-ve-ral, se-pa-rate, tra-vel-ler, 
va-ga-bond; — con-si-der, con-ti-nue, de-li-ver, dis-co-ver, dis-fl-gure, dis-ho-nest, dis-tri-bute, in-ha- 
bit, me-cha-nic, what-e-ver; — re-com-mend, re-fu-gee, re-pri-mand." — Murray: ib., p. 67-83. 

3. Correct the division of the following words of four syllables: " ca-ter-pil-lar, cha-ri-ta-ble, 
di-li-gent-ly, mi-se-ra-ble, pro-fit-a-ble, to-le-ra-ble ; — be-ne-vo-lent, con-si-der-ate, di-mi-nu-tive, 
ex-pe-ri-ment, ex-tra-va-gant, in-ha-bi-tant, no-bi-li-ty, par-ti-cu-lar, pros-pe-ri-ty, ri-di-cu-lous, sin- 
ce-ri-ty; — de-mon-stra-tion, e-du-ca-tion, e-mu-la-tion, e-pi-de-mic, ma-le-fac-tor, ma-nu-fac-ture, 
me-mo-ran-dum, mo-de-ra-tor, pa-ra-ly-tic, pe-ni-ten-tial, re-sig-na-tion, sa-tis-fac-tion, se-mi-co-lon." 
— Murray: ib., p. 84-87. 

4. Correct the division of the following words of five syllables : " a-bo-mi-na-blo, a-po-the-ca- 
ry, con-sid-e-ra-ble, ex-pla-na-to-ry, pre-pa-ra-to-ry ; — a-ca-de-mi-cal, cu-ri-o-si-ty, ge-o-gra-phi-caL 
ma-nu-fac-to-ry, sa-tis-fac-to-ry, me-ri-to-ri-ous ; — cha-rac-te-ris-tic, e-pi-gram-ma-tic, ex-pe-ri- 
ment-al, po-ly-syl-la-ble, con-sid-e-ra-tion." — Murray: ib., p. 87-89. 

5. Correct the division of the following proper names: "He-len, Leo-nard, Phi-lip, Ro-bert, 
Ho-race, Tho-mas ; — Ca-ro-line, Ca-tha-rine, Da-ni-el, De-bo-rah, Do-ro-thy, Fre-de-rick, I-sa-bel, 
Jo-na-than, Ly-di-a, Ni-cho-las, O-li-ver, Sa-mu-el, Si-me-on, So-lo-mon, Ti-mo-thy, Va-len-tine; — 
A-me-ri-ca, Bar-tho-lo-mew, E-li-za-beth, Na-tha-ni-cl, Pe-ne-lo-pe, The-o-phi-lus." — Murray: ib., 
p. 98-101. 

Lesson II. — Mixed. 

1. Correct the division of the following words, by Rule 1st : " cap-rice, es-teem, dis-es-teem, 
ob-lige ; — az-ure, mat-ron, pat-ron, phal-anx, sir-en, trait-or, trench-er, barb-er, burn-ish, garn-ish, 
tarn-ish, varn-ish, mark-et, musk-et, pamph-let; — brave-ry, knave-ry, siave-ry, eve-ning, scene-ry, 
bribe-ry, nice-ty, chi-cane-ry, ma-chine-ry, im-age-ry; — as-y-lum, hor-i-zon, — fi-nan-cier, he-ro-ism, 
— sar-don-yx, scur-ril-ous, — com-e-di-an, post-e-ri-or." — Webster's Spelling- Books. 

2. Correct the division of the following words by Rule 2d : " oy-er, fol-io, gen-ial, gen-ius, 
jun-ior, sa-tiate, vi-tiate ; — am-bro-sia, cha-mel-ion, par-hel-ion, con-ven-ient, in-gen-ious, om-nis- 
cience, pe-cul-iar, so-cia-ble, par-tial-i-ty, pe-cun-ia-ry ; — an-nun ciate, e-nun-ciate, ap-pre-ciate, as- 
so-ciate, ex-pa-tiate, in-gra-tiate, in-i-tiate, li-cen-tiate, ne-go-tiate, no-vi-ciate, of-li-ciate, pro-pi- 
tiate, sub-stan-tiate." — Webster: Old Spelling-Book, 86 — 91; jVew,121 — 128. 

3. Correct the division of the following words by Rule 3d: "dres-ser, has-ty, pas- try, sei-zure, 
rol-ler, jes-ter, wea-ver, vam-per, han-dy, dros-sy, glos-sy, mo-ver, mo-ving, oo-zy, ful-ler, trus-ty, 
weigh-ty, noi-sy, drow-sy, swar-thy." — Cobb's Standard Spelling- Book. Again: "eas-tern, full-y, 
pull-et, rill-et, scan-ty, nee-dy." — Webster. 

4. Correct the division of the following words by Rule 4th: "aw-ry," — Webster's Old Book, 
52; " ath-wart,"— lb., 93; "pros-pect-ive,"— lb., 66; " pa-renth-e-sis,"— lb., 93; " res-ist-i-bil-i- 



184 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

ty," — Webster's New Book, 93; "hem-is-pher-ic," — lb., 130; " mo-nos-tich, he-mis-tick,"* — 

Walker's Did, 8vo; Cobb, 33; "tow-ards,"— Cobb, 48. 

5. Correct the division of the following words by Rule 5th: "E'n-gland," — Murray's Spelling- 
Book, p. 100 ; "a-no-ther," — lb., 71; "a-noth-er," — Emerson, 16; " Be-thes-da, Beth-a-ba-ra," — 

Webster, 141; Cobb, 159. 

Lesson III. — Mixed. 

1. Correct the division of the following* words, according to their derivation: "ben-der, bles- 
sing, bras-sy, chaf-fy, chan-ter, clas-per, craf-ty, cur-dy, fen-der, fil-my, fus-ty, glas-sy, graf-ter, 
gras-sy, gus-ty, han-ded, mas-sy, mus-ky, rus-ty, swel-ling, tel-ler, tes-ted, thrif-ty, ves-ture." — 
Cobb's Standard Spelling-Book. 

2. Correct the division of the following words, so as to give no wrong notion of their derivation 
and meaning : " barb-er, burn-ish, brisk-et, cank-er, chart-er, cuck-oo, furn-ish, garn-ish, guil-ty, 
hank-er, lust-y, port-al, tarn-ish, test-ate, test-y, trait-or, treat-y, varn-ish, vest-al, di-urn-al, e-tern- 
al, in-fern-al, in-tern-al, ma-tern-al, noc-turn-al, pa-tern-al." — Webster's Elementary Spelling- Book. 

3. Correct the division of the following words, so as to convey no wrong idea of their pronun- 
ciation: "ar-mo-ry, ar-te-ry, butch-er-y, cook-e-ry, eb-o-ny, em-e-ry, ev-e-ry, fel-o-ny, fop-pe-ry, 
frip-pe-ry, gal-le-ry, his-to-ry, liv-e-ry, lot-te-ry, mock-e-ry, mys-te-ry, nun-ne-ry, or-re-ry, pil-lo-ry, 
quack-e-ry, sor-ce-ry, witch-e-ry." — lb., 41-42. 

4. Correct the division of the following words, and give to n before k the sound of ng : " ank-le, 
bask-et, blank-et, buck-le, cack-le, crank-le, crink-le, east-er, fick-le, freck-le, knuck-le, mark-et, 
monk-ey, port-ress, pick-le, poult-ice, punch-eon, qua-drant, qua-drate, squa-dron, rank-le, shack-le, 
sprink-le, tink-le, twink-le, wrink-le." — Cobb's Standard Spelling-Book. 

5. Correct the division of the following words, with a proper regard to Rules 1st and 3d : 
"a-scribe, bland-ish, bran-chy, clou-dy, dus-ty, drea-ry, eve-ning, faul-ty, fil-thy, fros-ty, gau-dy, 
gloo-my, heal-thy, hear-ken, hear-ty, hoa-ry, lea-ky, loung-er, mar-shy, migh-ty, mil-ky, naugh-ty, 
pas-sing, pit-cher, rea-dy, roc-ky, spee-dy, stea-dy, stor-my, thirs-ty, thor-ny, trus-ty, ves-try, wes- 
tern, weal-thy." — Emerson's Spelling-Book, 17-44. 



CHAPTER III— OF WORDS. 

A Word is one or more syllables spoken or written as the sign of some 
idea, or of some manner of thought. Words are distinguished as prim- 
itive or derivative, and as simple or compound. The former division is 
called their species; the latter, their figure. 

A primitive word is one that is not formed from any simpler word in 
the language ; as, harm, great, connect. 

A derivative word is one that is formed from some simpler word in the 
language ; as, harmless, greatly, connected, disconnect, unconnected. 

A simple word is one that is not compounded, not composed of other 
words ; as, watch, man, house, tower, never, the, less. 

A compound word is one that is composed of two or more simple 
words ; as, watchman, watchhouse, watchtower, nevertheless. 

Permanent compounds are consolidated ; as, bookseller, schoolmaster: 
others, which may be called temporary compounds, are formed by the 
hyphen ; as, good-natured, negro-merchant 

RULES FOR THE FIGURE OF WORDS. 

Eule I. — Compounds. 

Words regularly or analogically united, and commonly known as forming a com- 
pound, should never be needlessly broken apart. Thus, steamboat, railroad, red-hot, 
well-being, new-coined, are preferable to the phrases, steam boat, rail road, red hot, 
well being, new coined ; and toward us is better than the old phrase, to us ward. 

* This word, like distich and morwstich, is from the Greek stichos, a verse ; and is improperly spelled hy 
Walker with a final k. It should be hemistich, with the accent on the first syllable. See Webster, Scott, Perry, 
Worcester, and others. 



CHAP. III.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — WORDS. — FIGURE. — RULES. 185 

Rule II. — Simples. 

"When the simple words would only form a regular phrase, of the same meaning, 
the compounding of any of them ought to be avoided. Thus, the compound instead 
is not to be commended, because the simple phrase, in stead of is exactly like the 
other phrases, in lieu of, in place of in room of, in which we write no compound. 

Rule III. — The Sense. 

Words otherwise liable to be misunderstood, must be joined together or written 
separately, as the sense and construction may happen to require. Thus, a glass 
house is a house made of glass, but a glasshouse is a house in which glass is made ; 
so a negro merchant is a coloured trader, but a negro-merchant is a man who buys 
and sells negroes. 

Rule IV. — Ellipses. 

"When two or more compounds are connected in one sentence, none of them 
should be split to make an ellipsis of half a word. Thus, " six or seventeen" should 
not be said for " sixteen or seventeen ;" nor ought we to say, " calf goat, and sheep- 
skins" for " calfskins, goatskins, and sheepskins" * In the latter instance, however, 
it might be right to separate all the words ; as in the phrase, " soup, coffee, and tea 
houses." — Liberator, x, 40. 

Rule V. — The Hyphen. 

When the parts of a compound do not fully coalesce, as to-day, to-night, to- 
morrow ; or when each retains its original accent, so that the compound has more 
than one, or one that is movable, as first-born, hanger-on, laughter-loving, garlic- 
eater, butterfly -shell, the hyphen should be inserted between them. 

Rule VI. — No Hyphen. 

When a compound has but one accented syllable in pronunciation, as watchword, 
statesman, gentleman, and the parts are such as admit of a complete coalescence, no 
hyphen should be inserted between them. Churchill, after much attention to this 
subject, writes thus : " The practical instruction of the countinghouse imparts a 
more thorough knowledge of bookkeeping, than all the fictitious transactions of a 
mere schoolbook, however carefully constructed to suit particular purposes." — New 
Gram., p. vii. But counting-house, having more stress on the last syllable than on 
the middle one, is usually written with the hyphen ; and book-keeping and school- 
book, though they may not need it, are oftener so formed than otherwise. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — "Words are the least parts of significant language ; that is, of language significant in 
each part; for, to syllables, taken merely as syllables, no meaning belongs. But, to a word, 
signification of some sort or other, is essential ; there can be no word without it ; for a sign or 
symbol must needs represent or signify something. And as I cannot suppose words to represent 
external things, I have said " A Word is one or more syllables spoken or written as the sign of 
some ideaP But of what ideas are the words of our language significant ? Are we to say, " Of 
all ideas;" and to recognize as an English word every syllable, or combination of syllables, to 
which we know a meaning is attached ? No. For this, in the first place, would confound one 
language with an other ; and destroy a distinction which must ever be practically recognized, till all 
men shall again speak one language. In the next place, it would compel us to embrace among 
our words an infinitude of terms that are significant only of local ideas, such as men any where 
or at any time may have had concerning any of the individuals they have known, whether persons, 
places, or things. But, however important they may be in the eyes of men, the names of 
particular persons, places, or things, because they convey only particular ideas, do not properly 
belong to what we call our language. Lexicographers do not collect and define proper names, 
because they are beyond the limits of their art, and can be explained only from history. I do not 
say that proper names are to be excluded from grammar ; but I would show wherein consists the 
superiority of general terms over these. For if our common words did not differ essentially from 
proper names, we could demonstrate nothing in science : we could not frame from them any 
general or affirmative proposition at all ; because all our terms would be particular, and not 
general ; and because every individual thing in nature must necessarily be for ever itself only, and 
not an other. 



186 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

Obs. 2. — Our common words, then, are the symbols neither of external particulars, nor merely 
of the sensible ideas which external particulars excite in our minds, but mainly of those general 
or universal ideas which belong rather to the intellect than to the senses. For intellection differs 
from sensation, somewhat as the understanding of a man differs from the perceptive faculty of a 
brute; and language, being framed for the reciprocal commerce of human minds, whose percep- 
tions include both, is made to consist of signs of ideas both general and particular, yet without 
placing them on equal ground. Our general ideas — that is, our ideas conceived as common to 
many individuals, existing in any part of time, past, present, or future — such, for example, as be- 
long to the words man, horse, tree, cedar, wave, motion, strength, resist — such ideas, I say, consti- 
tute that most excellent significance which belongs to words primarily, essentially, and im- 
mediately ; whereas, our particular ideas, such as are conceived only of individual objects, which are 
infinite in number and ever fleeting, constitute a significance which belongs to language only 
secondarily, accidentally, and mediately. If we express the latter at all, we do it either by proper 
names, of which but very few ever become generally known, or by means of certain changeable 
limitations which are added to our general terms ; whereby language, as Harris observes, "with- 
out wandering into infinitude, contrives how to denote things infinite." — Hermes, p. 346. Th» 
particular manner in which this is done, I shall show hereafter, in Etymology, when I come to 
treat of articles and definitives. 

Obs. 3. — If we examine the structure of proper names, we shall find that most of them are 
compounds, the parts of which have, in very many instances, some general signification. Now a 
complete phrase commonly conveys some particular notion or conception of the mind ; but, in this 
case, the signification of the general terms is restricted by the other words which are added to 
them. Thus smith is a more general term than goldsmith ; and goldsmith is more general than a 
goldsmith; a goldsmith, than the goldsmith; the goldsmith, than one Goldsmith ; one Goldsmith, than 
Mr. Goldsmith ; Mr. Goldsmith, than Oliver Goldsmith. Thus we see that the simplest mode of 
designating particular persons or objects, is that of giving them proper names ; but proper names 
must needs be so written, that they may be known as proper names, and not be mistaken for 
common terms. I have before observed, that we have some names which are both proper and 
common ; and that these should be written with capitals, and should form the plural regularly. 
It is surprising that the Friends, who are in some respects particularly scrupulous about language, 
should so generally have overlooked the necessity there is, of compounding their numerical 
names of the months and days, and writing them uniformly with capitals, as proper names. For 
proper names they certainly are, in every thing but the form, whenever they are used without the 
article, and without those other terms which render their general idea particular. And the com- 
pound form with a capital, is as necessary for Firstday, Secondday, TJiirdday, &c, as for Sunday, 
Monday, Tuesday, &c. "The first day of the week," — "The seventh day of the month," — " Tho 
second month of summer," — "The second month in the year,"&c., are good English phrases, in 
which any compounding of the terms, or any additional use of capitals, would be improper ; but, 
for common use, these phrases are found too long and too artificial. "We must have a less cum- 
bersome mode of specifying the months of the year and the days of the week. "What then ? Shall 
we merely throw away the terms of j)articulaiity, and, without substituting in their place the form 
of proper names, apply general terms to particular thoughts, and insist on it that this is right ? 
And is not this precisely what is done by those who reject as heathenish the ordinary names of 
the months and days, and write " first day, 1 ' for Sunday, in stead of "the first day of the week;" 
or " second moiith," for February, in stead of " the second month in the year;" and so forth ? This 
phraseology may perhaps be well understood by those to whom it is familiar, but still it is an 
abuse of language, because it is inconsistent with the common acceptation of tho terms. Ex- 
ample : " The departure of a ship will take place every sixth day with punctuality." — Philadelphia 
Weekly Messenger. The writer of this did not mean, "every Friday ;" and it is absurd for the 
Friends so to understand it, or so to write, when that is what they mean. 

Obs. 4. — In the ordinary business of life, it is generally desirable to express our meaning as 
briefly as possible ; but legal phraseology is always full to the letter, and often redundant. Hence 
a merchant will write, " Nov. 24, 1837," or, "11 mo. 24th, 1837 ;" but a conveyancer will have it, 
"On the twenty-fourth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven ;" — or, per- 
haps, " On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and thirty-seven." Accordingly we find that, in common daily use, all the names 
of the months, except March, May, June, and July, are abbreviated; thus, Jan., Feb., Apr., Aug., 
Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. And sometimes even the Arabic number of the year is made yet shorter; 
as '37 for 1837 ; or 1835-6-7, for 1835, 1836, and 1837. In like manner, in constructing tables 
of time, we sometimes denote the days of the week by the simple initials of their names ; as, S. 
for Sunday, M. for Monday, &c. But, for facility of abbreviation, the numerical names, whether 
of the months or of the days, are perhaps still more convenient. For, if we please, we may put 
the simple Arabic figures for them ; though it is better to add d. for day, and mo. for ■month : as, 
1 d., 2 d., 3 d., &c. ; — 1 mo., 2 mo., 3 mo., &c. : — or more compactly thus : Id., 2d., 3d., &c. ; — 
lmo.. 2mo., 3mo., &c. But, take which mode of naming we will, our ordinary expression of these 
things should be in neither extreme, but should avoid alike too great brevity and too great pro- 
lixity ; and, therefore, it is best to make it a general rule in our literary compositions, to use the 
full form of proper names for the months and days, and to denote the years by Arabic figures 
written in full. 

Obs. 5. — In considering the nature of words, I was once a little puzzled with a curious specula- 



CHAP. III.] ORTHOGRAPHY.— FIGURE OF WORDS. OBSERVATIONS. 187 

tion, if I may not term it an important inquiry, ^concerning the principle of their identity. "We 
often speak of " the same words, 11 and of " different words ;" but wherein does the sameness or the 
difference of words consist ? Not in their pronunciation ; for the same word may be differently 
pronounced ; as, pdt'ron or pd'tron, mdt'ron or md'tron. Not in their orthography ; for the same 
word may be differently spelled ; as, favour or favor, oniric or musick, connexion or connection. 
Not in their form of presentation ; for the same word may be either spoken or written ; and speech 
and writing present what we call the same words, in two ways totally different. Not in their 
meaning ; for the same word may have different meanings, and different words may signify .pre- 
cisely the same thing. This sameness of words, then, must consist in something which is to be 
reconciled with great diversity. Yet every word is itsell, and not an other ; and every word must 
necessarily have some property peculiar to itself, by which it may be easily distinguished from 
every other. Were it not so, language would be unintelligible. But it is so ; and, therefore, to 
mistake one word for an other, is universally thought to betray great ignorance or great negli- 
gence, though such mistakes are by no means of uncommon occurrence. But that the question 
about the identity of words is not a very easy one, may appear from the fact, that the learned often 
disagree about it in practice ; as when one grammarian will have an and a to be two words, and 
an other will affirm them to be only different forms of one and the same word. 

Obs. 6. — Let us see, then, if amidst all this diversity we can find that principle of sameness, by 
which a dispute of this kind ought to be settled. Now, although different words do generally 
differ in orthography, in pronunciation, and in meaning, so that an entire sameness implies one 
orthography, one pronunciation, and one meaning; yet some diversity is allowed in each of 
these respects, so that a sign differing from an other only in one, is not therefore a different word, 
or a sign agreeing with an other only in one, is not therefore the same word. It follows thence, 
that the principle of verbal identity, the principle which distinguishes every word from every 
other, lies in neither extreme : it lies in a narrower compass than in all three, and yet not singly 
in any one, but jointly in any two. So that signs differing in any two of these characteristics of a 
word, are different words ; and signs agreeing in any two, are the same word. Consequently, if 
to any difference either of spelling or of sound we add a difference of signification everybody will 
immediately say, that we speak or write different words, and not the same : thus dear, beloved, 
and deer, an animal, are two such words as no one would think to be the same ; and, in like man- 
ner, use, advantage, and use, to employ, will readily be called different words. Upon this prin- 
ciple, an and a are different words ; yet, in conformity to old usage, and because the latter is in 
fact but an abridgement of the former, I have always treated them as one and the same article, 
though I have nowhere expressly called them the same word. But, to establish the principle 
above named, which appears to me the only one on which any such question can be resolved, 
or the identity of words be fixed at all, we must assume that every word has one right pro- 
nunciation, and only one ; one just orthography, and only one ; and some proper signification, 
which, though perhaps not always the same, is always a part of its essence. For when two 
words of different meaning are spelled or pronounced alike, not to maintain the second point of 
difference, against the double orthography or the double pronunciation of either, is to confound 
their identity at once, and to prove by the rule that two different words are one and the same, by 
first absurdly making them so. 

Obs. 7. — In no part of grammar is usage more unsettled and variable than in that which relates 
to the figure of words. It is a point of which modern writers have taken but very little notice. 
Lily, and other ancient Latin grammarians, reckoned both species and figure among the gram- 
matical accidents of nearly all the different parts of speech ; and accordingly noticed them, in 
their Etymology, as things worthy to be thus made distinct topics, like numbers, genders, cases, 
moods, tenses, &c. But the manner of compounding words in Latin, and also in Greek, is always 
by consolidation. No use appears to have been made of the hyphen, in joining the words of those 
languages, though the name of the mark is a Greek compound, meaning "under one. 1 '' The com- 
pounding of words is one principal means of increasing their number ; and the arbitrariness with 
which that is done or neglected in English, is sufficient of itself to make the number of our words 
a matter of great uncertaintj^. Such terms, however, having the advantage of explaining them- 
selves in a much greater degree than others, have little need of definition ; and when new things 
are formed, it is very natural and proper to give them new names of this sort : as, steamboat, rail- 
road. The propriety or impropriety of these additions to the language, is not to be determined by 
dictionaries ; for that must be settled by usage before any lexicographer will insert them. And 
so numerous, after all, are the discrepancies found in our best dictionaries, that many a word may 
have its day and grow obsolete, before a nation can learn from them the right way of spelling it ; 
and many a fashionable thing may go entirely out of use, before a man can thus determine how to 
name it. Railroads are of so recent invention that I find the word in only one dictionary ; and 
that one is wrong, in giving the word a hyphen, while half our printers are wrong, in keeping the 
words separate because Johnson did not compound them. But is it not more important, to know 
whether we ought to write railroad, or rail-road, or rail road, which we cannot learn from any of 
our dictionaries, than to find out whether we ought to write rocJclo, or roquelo, or roquelaur, or 
roquelaure, which, in some form or other, is found in them all ? The duke of Boquelaure is now 
forgotten, and his cloak is out of fashion. 

Obs. 8. — No regular phrase, as I have taught in the second rule above, should be needlessly 
converted into a compound word, either by tacking its parts together with the hyphen, or by 
uniting them without a hyphen ; for, in general, a phrase is one thing, and a word is an other : 



188 THE GRAMMAR OP ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

and they ought to be kept as distinct as possible.* But, when a whole phrase takes the relation 
of an adjective, the words must be compounded, and the hyphen becomes necessary ; as, " An inex- 
pressibly apt bottle-of-small-beer comparison." — Peter Pindar. The occasions for the compounding 
of words, are in general sufficiently plain, to any one who knows what is intended to be said ; 
but, as we compound words, sometimes with the hyphen, and sometimes without, there is no 
small difficulty in ascertaining when to use this mark, and when to omit it. " Some settled rule 
for the use of the hyphen on these occasions, is much wanted. Modern printers have a strange 
predilection for it ; using it on almost every possible occasion. Mr. L. Murray, who has only 
three lines on the subject, seems inclined to countenance this practice ; which is, no doubt, con- 
venient enough for those who do not like trouble. His words are : ' A Hyphen, marked thus - is 
employed in connecting compounded words : as, Lap-dog, tea-pot, pre-existence, self-love, to- 
morrow, mother-in-law.' Of his six examples, Johnson, our only acknowledged standard, gives the 
first and third without any separation between the syllables, lapdog, preexistence ; his second and 
fifth as two distinct words each, tea pot, to morrow ; and his sixth as three words, mother in law : 
so that only his fourth has the sanction of the lexicographer. There certainly can be no more 
reason for putting a hyphen after the common prefixes, than before the common affixes, ness, ly t 
and the rest." — Churchill's Gram., p. 374. 

Obs. 9. — Again : " While it would be absurd, to sacrifice the established practice of all good 
authors to the ignorance of such readers [as could possibly mistake for a diphthong the two con- 
tiguous vowels in such words as preexistence, cooperate, and reenter] ; it would unquestionably bo 
advantageous, to have some principle to guide us in that labyrinth of words, in which the hyphen 
appears to have been admitted or rejected arbitrarily, or at hap-hazard. Thus, though we find in 
Johnson, alms-basket, alms-giver, with the hyphen ; we have almsdeed, almshouse, almsman, with- 
out : and many similar examples of an unsettled practice might be adduced, sufficient to fill sev- 
eral pages. In this perplexity, is not the pronunciation of the words the best guide ? In the 
English language, every word of more than one syllable is marked by an accent on some par- 
ticular syllable. Some very long words indeed admit a secondary accent on another syllable ; but 
still this is much inferior, and leaves one leading accent prominent: as in expos' tulatory. Accord- 
ingly, when a compound has but one accented syllable in pronunciation, as night'cap, bed 1 stead, 
broad! sword, the two words have coalesced completely into one, and no hyphen should be admit- 
ted. On the other hand, when each of the radical words has an accent, as Chris' tian-name', 
broad '-shouldered, I think the hyphen should be used. Good'-na'tured is a compound epithet with 
two accents, and therefore requires the hyphen : in good nature, good will, and similar expressions, 
good is used simply as an adjective, and of course should remain distinct from the noun. Thus, 
too, when a noun is used adjectively, it should remain separate from the noun it modifies ; as, a 
gold ring, a silver buckle. When two numerals are employed to express a number, without a 
conjunction between them, it is usual to connect them by a hyphen ; as, twenty-jive, eighty-four : 
but when the conjunction is inserted, the hyphen is as improper as it would be between other 
words connected by the conjunction. This, however, is a common abuse ; and we often meet 
with jive- &-twenty, six-&-thirty, and the like." — lb., p. 376. Thus far Churchill: who appears to 
me, however, too hasty about the hyphen in compound numerals. For we write one hundred, 
two hundred, three thousand, &c, without either hyphen or conjunction ; and as jive-and-twenty is 
equivalent to twenty-jive, and virtually but one word, the hyphen, if not absolutely necessary to 
the sense, is certainly not so very improper as he alleges. " Christian name" is as often written 
without the hyphen as with it, and perhaps as accurately. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
ERRORS IN THE FIGURE, OR FORM, OF WORDS. 

Under Rule I. — Of Compounds. 

"Professing to imitate Timon, the man hater." — Goldsmith's Rome, p. 161. 

[Fobmttlk. — Not proper, because the compound term manhater is here made two words. But, according to 
Rule 1st, " Words regularly or analogically united, and commonly known as forming a compound, should never 
be needlessly broken apart." Therefore, manhater should be written as one word.] 

"Men load hay with a pitch fork." — Webster's New Spelling- Book, p. 40. "A pear tree grows 
from the seed of a pear." — lb., p. 33. "A tooth brush is good to brush your teeth." — lb., p. 85. 
"The mail is opened at the post office." — lb., p. 151. "The error seems to me two fold." — San- 
born 1 s Gram., p. 230. "To pre-engage means to engage before hand." — Webster's New Spelling- 
Book, p. 82. "It is a mean act to deface the figures on a mile stone." — lb., p. 88. "A grange is 
a farm and farm house." — lb., p. 118. "It is no more right to steal apples or water melons, than 
money." — lb., p. 118. "The awl is a tool used by shoemakers, and harness makers." — lb., p. 
150. "Twenty five cents are equal to one quarter of a dollar." — lb., p. 107. "The blowing up 
of the Fulton at New York was a terrible disaster." — lb., p. 54. " The elders also, and the 
bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu." — Scott: 2 Kings, x, 5. "Not with eye service, as 

* According to Aristotle, the compounding of terms, or the writing of them as separate words, must needs be 
a matter of great importance to the sense. For he will have the parts of a compound noun, or of a compound 
verb, to be, like other syllables, destitute of any distinct signification in themselves, whatever may be their 
meaning when written separately. See his definitions of the parts of speech, iu his Poetics, Chapter 20th of the 
Greek ; or Goulston's Version in Latin, Chapter 12th. 



CHAP. III.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — FIGURE OF WORDS. — ERRORS. 189 

men pleasers." — Bickersieth, on Prayer, p. 64. " A good natured and equitable construction of 
cases." — Astis Gram.,^. 138. "And purify your hearts, ye double minded." — Gurney's Portable 
Evidences, p. 115. "It is a mean spirited action to steal; i. e. to steal is a mean spirited action." 
— Grammar of Alex. Murray, the schoolmaster, p. 124. "There is, indeed, one form of orthogra- 
phy which is a kin to the subjunctive mood of the Latin tongue." — Booth's Introd. to Diet, p. 71. 
" To bring him into nearer connexion with real and everyday life." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, 
p. 459. " The common place, stale declamation of its revilers would be silenced." — lb., i, 494. 
"She formed a very singular and unheard of project." — Goldsmith's Rome, p. 160. "He had 
many vigilant, though feeble talented, and mean spirited enemies." — Roberts Vaux : The Friend, 
Vol. vii, p. 74. " These old fashioned people would level our psalmody," &c. — Music of Nature, 
p. 292. "This slow shifting scenery in the theatre of harmony." — lb., p. 398. "So we are 
assured from Scripture it self." — Harris's Hermes, p. 300. "The mind, being disheartened, then 
betakes its self to trifling." — R. Johnson's Pref. to Gram. Com. ""Whose soever sins ye remit, they 
are remitted unto them." — Beacon, p. 115: Scott, Alger, Friends: John, xx, 23. "Tarry we 
our selves how we will." — Walker's English Particles, p. 161. "Manage your credit so, that you 
need neither swear your self, nor want a voucher." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 33. "Whereas song 
never conveys any of the above named sentiments." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 424. " I go on horse 
back." — Guy's Gram., p. 54. "This requires purity, in opposition to barbarous, obsolete, or new 
coined words." — Adam's Gram., p. 242 ; Gould's, 234. " May the Plough share shine." — White's 
Eng. Verb, p. 161. "Which way ever we consider it." — Locke, on Ed., p. 83. 

" Where e'er the silent (e) a Place obtains, 
The Voice foregoing, Length and softness gains." — Brightland's Gr., p. 15. 

Under Rule II. — Of Simples. 

"It qualifies any of the four parts of speech abovenamed." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 83. 

[Fobmttle. — Not proper, because abovenamed is here unnecessarily made a compound. But, according to Rule 
2d, " When the simple words would only form a regular phrase, of the same meaning, the compounding 
of any of them ought to he avoided." Therefore, above and named should here have been written as two 
words.] 

"After awhile they put us out among the rude multitude." — Fox's Journal, Vol. i, p. 169. " It 
would be ashame, if your mind should falter and give in." — Collier's Meditations of Antoninus, p. 
94. "They stared awhile in silence one upon another." — Rasselas, p. 73. "After passion has 
for awhile exercised its tyrannical sway." — Murray's Gram., ii, 135 and 267. " Though set 
within the same general-frame of intonation." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 339. "Which do not carry 
any of the natural vocal-signs of expression." — lb., p. 329. "The measurable constructive- 
powers of a few associable constituents." — lb., p. 343. " Before each accented syllable or emphatic 
monosyllabic- word." — lb., p. 364. " One should not think too favourably of oneself." — See Mur- 
ray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 154. " Know ye not your ownselves, how that Jesus Christ is in you." — 
Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 355. "I judge not my ownself, for I know nothing of my ownself." — 
Wayland's Moral Science, p. 84. " Though they were in such a rage, I desired them to tarry 
awhile." — Josephus, Vol. v, p. 179. "A instead of an is now used before words beginning with 
u long." — Murray's Gram., p. 31. "John will have earned his wages the next new-year's day." 
— Murray's Gram., p. 82. "A new-year's-gift is a present made on the first day of the year." — 
See Johnson, Walker, Webster, et al. " When he sat on the throne, distributing new-year's-gifts." 
— Stillingfleet, in Johnson's Diet. " St. Paul admonishes Timothy to refuse old-wives'-fables." 
— Autlwr. "The world, take it altogether, is but one." — Collier's Antoninus, B. vii, Sec. 9. "In 
writings of this stamp we must accept of sound instead of sense." — Murray's Gram., p. 298. "A 
male-child, A female-child, Male-descendants, Female-descendants." — Goldsbury's C. S. Gram., p. 
13; Rev. T. Smith's Gram., p. 15. "Male-servants, Female-servants. Male-relations, Female- 
relations." — Felton's Gram., p. 15. 

" Reserved and cautious, with no partial aim, 
My muse e'er sought to blast another's fame." — Lloyd, p. 162. 

Under Rule III. — The Sense. 

" Our discriminations of this matter have been but four footed instincts." — Rush, on the Voice, 

p. 291. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the term four footed is made two words, as if the instincts were four and 
footed. But, according to Rule 3d, "Words otherwise liable to be misunderstood, must be joined together, or 
written separately, as the sense and construction may happen to require." Therefore, four-footed, as it here 
means quadruped, or having four feet, should be one word.] 

" He is in the right, (says Clytus,) not to bear free born men at his table." — Goldsmith's Greece, 
Vol. ii, p. 128. "To the short seeing eye of man, the progress may appear little." — The Friend, 
Vol ix, p. 377. "Knowledge and virtue are, emphatically, the stepping stone to individual dis- 
tinction." — Toiun's Analysis, p. 5. " A tin peddler will sell tin vessels as he travels." — Webster's 
New Spelling-Book, p. 44. "The beams of a wood-house are held up by the posts and joists." — 
lb., p. 39. " What you mean by future tense adjective, I can easily understand." — Tooke's Diver- 
sions, Vol. ii, p. 450. " The town has been for several days very well behaved." — Spectator, No. 
532. "A rounce is the handle of a printing press." — Webster's Diet; also El. Spelling- Book, p. 



190 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

118. "The phraseology we call thee and thouing is not in so common use with us, as the tutoyant 
among the French." — Walker's Diet, w. Thy. " Hunting, and other out door sports, are generally 
pursued." — Balbi's Geog., p. 227. " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." — 
Scott, Alger, Friends: Matt, xi, 28. " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son to save it." — Barclay's Works, i, p. 71. See Scott's Bible: John, iii, 16. "Jehovah is a 
prayer hearing God: Nineveh repented, and was spared." — N Y. Observer, Vol. x, p. 90. 
"These are well pleasing to God, in all ranks and relations." — Barclay's Works, Yol. i, p. 73. 
" Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle." — Numb., xvii, 13. " The words coalesce, 
when they have a long established association." — Murray's Gram., p. 169. " Open to me the 
gates of righteousness : I will go in to them." — Old Bible : Ps., cxviii, 19. " He saw an angel of 
God coming into him." — See Acts, x, 3. " The consequences of any action are to be considered 
in a two fold light." — Way land's Moral Science, p. 108. "We commonly write two fold, three 
fold, four fold, and so on up to ten fold, without a hyphen; and, after that, we use one." — Autlwr. 
See Matt., xiii, 8. " When the first mark is going off, he cries turn ! the glass holder answers 
done!" — Boivditch's Nov., p. 128. "It is a kind of familiar shaking hands with all the vices." — 
Maturin's Sermons, p. 170. "She is a good natured woman;" "James is self opinionated;" "He 
is broken hearted." — Wright's Gram., p. 147. " These three examples apply to the present tense 
construction only." — lb., p. 65. " So that it was like a game of hide and go seek." — Edward's 
First Lessons in Grammar, p. 90. 

" That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, 
Whereto the climber upward turns his face." — Bucke's Gram., p. 97. 

Under Rule IV. — Of Ellipses. 

"This building serves yet for a school and a meeting-house." 

[Formtjxe. — Not proper, because the compound word schoolhouse is here divided to avoid a repetition of the 
last half. But, according to Rule 4th, " When two or more compounds are connected in one sentence, none of 
them should be split to make an ellipsis of half a -word." Therefore, " school" should be "schoolhouse ;" thus, 
" This building serves yet for a schoolhouse and a meeting-house."] 

"Schoolmasters and mistresses of honest friends [are] to be encouraged." — N. E. Discipline, p. 
xv. " We never assumed to ourselves a faith or worship-making-power." — Barclay's Works, Vol. 
i, p. 83. " Pot and pearl ashes are made from common ashes." — Webster's New Spelling- Book, p. 
69. "Both the ten and eight syllable verses are iambics." — Blair's Gram., p. 121. "I say to 
myself, thou, he says to thy, to his self; &c." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Eur op. Lang., Vol. ii, p. 121. 
" Or those who have esteemed themselves skilful, have tried for the mastery in two or four horse 
chariots." — Zenobia, Vol. i, p. 152. "I remember him barefooted and headed, running through 
the streets." — Castle Rackrent, p. 68. " Friends have the entire control of the school and dwell- 
ing-houses." — The Friend, Vol. vii, p. 231. " The meeting is held at the first mentioned place in 
the first month, at the last in the second, and so on." — lb., p. 167. "Meetings for worship are 
held at the same hour on first and fourth days." — lb., p. 230. " Every part of it, inside and out, 
is covered with gold leaf." — lb., p. 404. " The Eastern Quarterly Meeting is held on the last 
seventh day in second, fifth, eighth, and eleventh month." — lb., p. 87. "Trenton Preparative 
Meeting is held on the third fifth day in each month, at ten o'clock ; meetings for worship at the 
same hour on first and fifth days." — lb., p. 231. " Ketch, a vessel with two masts, a main and 
mizzen-mast." — Webster's Diet., " I only mean to suggest a doubt, whether nature has enlisted 
herself as a Cis or Trans- Atlantic partisan?" — Jefferson's Notes, p. 97. "By large hammers, like 
those used for paper and fullingmills, they beat their hemp."— Mortimer: in Johnson's Diet. 
" Ant-hill, or Hillock, n. s. The small protuberances of earth, in which ants make their nests." — 
lb. " It became necessary to substitute simple indicative terms called pro-names or nouns." — 
Enclytica, p. 16. 

" Obscur'd, where highest woods, impenetrable 
To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad." — Milton. 

Under Rule V. — The Hyphen. 

" Evilthinking ; a noun, compounded of the noun evil and the imperfect participle thinking; sin- 
gular number;" &c. — Churchill's Gram., p. 180. 

[Formttle. — Not proper, because the word evilthinking, which has more than one accented syllable, is here 
compounded without the hyphen. But, according to Rule 5th, "When the parts of a compound do not fully 
coalesce, or when each retains its original accent, so that the compound has more than one, or one that is movable, 
the hyphen should be inserted between them." Therefore, the hyphen should be used in this word; thus, 
evil-thinking. ] 

" Evilspeaking ; a noun, compounded of the noun evil and. the imperfect participle speaking." — 
lb. "I am a tall, broadshouldered, impudent, black fellow." — Spectator: in Johnson's Diet. 
" Ingratitude ! thou marblehearted fiend." — Shak. : ib. " A popular licence is indeed the 
manyheaded tyranny." — Sidney : ib. " He from the manypeopled city flies." — Sandys: ib. " He 
manylanguaged nations has surveyed." — Pope : ib. " The horsecucumber is the large green 
cucumber, and the best for the table." — Mortimer : ib. " The bird of night did sit, even at noon- 
day, upon the market-place." — Shak. : ib. " These make a general gaoldelivery of souls, not for 
punishment." — South: ib. " Thy air, thou other goldbound brow, is like the first." — Shak. : ib. 



CHAP. III.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — FIGURE OF WORDS. — ERRORS. 191 

" His person was deformed to the highest degree; flatnosed, and blobberlipped."^L'EsTRANGE: 
ib. "He that defraudeth the labourer of his hire, is a bloodshedder." — Ecclus^' xxxiv, 22 : ib. 
" Bloodyminded, adj. from bloody and mind. Cruel; inclined to blood-shed." — See Johnson's Diet. 
"Bluntwitted lord, ignoble in demeanour." — Shak. : ib. "A young fellow with a bobwig and a 
black silken bag tied to it." — Spectator: ib. " I have seen enough to confute all the boldfaced 
atheists of this age." — Bramhall : ib. " Before milkwhite, now purple with love's wound." — 
Shak.: ib. "For what else is a redhot iron than fire? and what else is a burning coal than 
redhot wood ?" — Newton: ib. " Pollevil is a large swelling, inflammation, or imposthume in the 
horse's poll or nape of the neck just between the ears." — Farrier: ib. 
" Quick-witted, brazenfae'd, with fluent tongues, 
Patient of labours, and dissembling wrongs." — Dryden: ib. 

Under Rule VI. — No Hyphen. 

"From his fond parent's eye a tear-drop fell." — Smiling' s Gift for Scribblers, p. 43. 

[Formttle. — Not proper, because the word tear-drop, which has never any other than a full accent on the first 
syllable, is here compounded with the hyphen. But, according to Rule 6th, "When a compound has but one 
accented syllable in pronunciation, and the parts are such as admit of a complete coalescence, no hyphen should 
be inserted between them." Therefore, teardrop should be made a close compound.] 

"How great, poor jack-daw, would thy sufferings be!" — lb., p. 29. "Placed like a scare-crow 
in a field of corn." — lb., p. 39. "Soup for the alms-house at a cent a quart." — lb., p. 23. " Up 
into the watch-tower get, and see all things despoiled of fallacies." — Doxxe : Johnson's Diet, w. 
Lattice. " In the day-time she sitteth in a watchtower, and flieth most by night." — Bacon: ib., 
vj. Watchtower. " In the daytime Fame sitteth in a watch-tower, and flieth most by night." — 
Id. : ib., w. Daytime. " The moral is the first business of the poet, as being the ground-work of 
his instruction." — Dryden : ib., w. Moral. " Madam's own hand the mouse-trap baited." — Prior : 
ib., w. Mouse-trap. " By the sinking of the air-shaft the air hath liberty to circulate.'' — Ray : ib., 
vj. Airshaft. " The multiform and amazing operations of the air-pump and the loadstone." — 
"Watts: ib., w. Multiform. "Many of the fire-arms are named from animals." — lb., w. Musket. 
"You might have trussed him and all his apparel into an eel-skin." — Shak.: ib., w. Truss. 
" They may serve as land-marks to shew what lies in the direct way of truth." — Locke : ib., w. 
Landmark. " A pack-horse is driven constantly in a narrow lane and dirty road." — Id. ib., w. 
Lane. " A mill-horse, still bound to go in one circle." — Sidney : ib., w. Mill-horse. " Of singing 
birds they have linnets, goldfinches, ruddocks, Canary-birds, black-birds, thrushes, and divers 
others." — Carew : ib., w. Goldfinch. " Of singing birds, they have linnets, gold- finches, blackbirds, 
thrushes, and divers others." — Id. : ib., w. Blackbird. " Of singing birds, they have linnets, gold- 
finches, ruddocks, canary birds, blackbirds, thrushes, and divers other." — Id. : ib., w. Canary bird. 
" Cartrage, or Cartridge, a case of paper or parchment filled with gun-powder." — Johnson's 
Diet., 4to. 

" Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, 

The time of night when Troy was set on fire, 

The time when screech-owls cry, and ban-dogs howl." 

Shakspeare: ib., w. Silent 

" The time when screech-owls cry, and bandogs howl." 

Idem. : ib., w. Bandog. 

PROMISCUOUS ERRORS IX THE FIGURE OF WORDS. 

Lesson I. — Mixed. 

"They that five in glass-houses, should not throw stones." — Old Adage. "If a man profess 
Christianity in any manner or form soever." — Watts, p. 5. " For Cassius is a weary of the world." 
— Shakspeare : in Kirkham's Elocution, p. 61. " By the coming together of more, the chains 
were fastened on." — Walker's Particles, p. 223. "Unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive 
in the fifth month." — Jer., i, 3. " And the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad." — Num- 
bers, xxxiv, 8. "And the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan." — lb., ver. 9. " For the taking 
place of effects, in a certain particular series." — Dr. West, on Agency, p. 39. " The letting go of 
which was the occasion of all that corruption." — Dr. J. Owen. " A falling off at the end always 
hurts greatly." — Blair 's Lect, p. 126. " A falling off at the end is always injurious." — Jamieson's 
Rhetoric, p. 127. " As all holdings forth were courteously supposed to be trains of reasoning." — 
Dr. Murray's Hist, of Europ. Lang., Yol. i, p. 333. " YVTiose goings forth have been from of old, 
from everlasting." — Micah, v, 2. " Some times the adjective becomes a substantive." — Bradley's 
Gram., p. 104. "It is very plain, I consider man as visited a new." — Barclay's Works, Yol. iii, 
p. 331. "Nor do I any where say, as he falsely insinuates." — lb., p. 331. "Every where, any 
where, some where, no where." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 55. " The world hurries off a pace, 
and time is like a rapid river." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 58. " But to new model the paradoxes of 
ancient skepticism." — Brown's Estimate, Yol. i, p. 102. " The south east winds from the ocean 
invariably produce rain." — Webster's Essays, p. 369. "North west winds from the highlands 
produce cold clear weather." — Ib. "The greatest part of such tables would be of little use to 
English men." — Priestley's Gram., p. 155. " The ground floor of the east wing of Mulberry street 



192 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

meeting house was filled." — The Friend, vii, 232. " Prince Kupert's Drop. This singular pro- 
duction is made at the glass houses." — Red Book, p. 131. 
"The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife 
Gives all the strength and colour of our life." — Murray's Gram., p. 54; Fish's, 65. 

Lesson II. — Mixed. 

"In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah." 
— 1 Kings, xvi, 15. " In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah, began Omri to reign over 
Israel." — lb., xvi, 23. " He cannot so deceive himself as to fancy that he is able to do a rule of 
three sum." — Foreign Quarterly Review. " The best cod are those known under the name of Isle 
of Shoals dun fish." — Balbi's Geog., p. 26. "The soldiers, with down cast eyes, seemed to beg for 
mercy." — Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. ii, p. 142. "His head was covered with a coarse worn out 
piece of cloth." — lb., p. 124. " Though they had lately received a reinforcement of a thousand 
heavy armed Spartans." — lb., p. 38. " But he laid them by unopened ; and, with a smile, said, 
1 Business to morrow.' " — lb., p. 7. " Chester monthly meeting is held at Moore's town, the third 
day following the second second day." — The Friend, Vol. vii, p. 124. " Eggharbour monthly meet- 
ing is held the first second day." — lb., p. 124. " Little Egg Harbour Monthly Meeting is held at 
Tuckerton on the second fifth day in each month." — lb., p. 231. "At three o'clock, on first day 
morning the 24th of eleventh month, 1834," &c. — lb., p. 64. " In less than one-fourth part of the 
time usually devoted." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 4. "The pupil will not have occasion to use it 
one-tenth part as much." — lb., p. 11. " The painter dips his paint brush in paint, to paint the 
carriage." — lb., p. 28. " In an ancient English version of the New-Testament." — lb., p. 74. 
"The little boy was bare headed." — Red Book, p. 36. " The man, being a little short sighted, did 
not immediately know him." — lb., p. 40. "Picture frames are gilt with gold." — lb., p. 44. 
" The park keeper killed one of the deer." — lb., p. 44. "The fox was killed near the brick kiln." 
— lb., p. 46. "Here comes Esther, with her mfik pail." — lb., p. 50. "The cabinet maker would 
not tell us." — lb., p. 60. " A fine thorn hedge extended along the edge of the hill." — lb., p. 65. 
" If their private interests should be ever so little affected." — lb., p. 73. " Unios are fresh water 
shells, vulgarly called fresh water clams." — lb., p. 102. 

" Did not each poet mourn his luckless doom, 
Jostled by pedants out of elbow room." — Lloyd, p. 163. 

Lesson III. — Mixed. 

" The captive hovers a-while upon the sad remains." — Prior : in Johnson's Diet, w. Hover. 
"Constantia saw that the hand writing agreed with the contents of the letter." — Addison: ib., 
w. Hand. " They have put me in a silk night-gown, and a gaudy fool's cap." — Id. : ib., w. Night- 
gown. " Have you no more manners than to rail at Hocus, that has saved that clod-pated, num- 
skull'd ninnyhammer of yours from ruin, and all his family?" — Arbuthnot: ib., w. Ninnyhammer. 
" A noble, that is, six shillings and eightpence, is, and usually hath been paid." — Bacon : ib., w. 
Noble. " The king of birds thick feather'd and with full-summed wings, fastened his talons east 
and west." — Howell : ib., w. Full-summed. " To morrow. This is an idiom of the same kind, 
supposing morrow to mean originally morning : as, to night, to day." — Johnson's Diet, 4to. "To- 
day goes away and to-morrow comes." — Id., ib., w. Go, No. 70. "Young children, who are try'd 
in Go carts, to keep their steps from sliding." — Prior : ib., w. Go-cart. " "Which, followed well, 
would demonstrate them but goers backward." — Shak. : ib., w. Goer. " Heaven's golden winged 
herald late he saw, to a poor Galilean virgin sent." — Crashaw: ib., w. Golden. " My penthouse 
eye-brows and my shaggy beard offend your sight." — Dryden: ib., w. Penthouse. " The hungry 
lion would fain have been dealing with good horse-flesh." — L'Estrange : ib., w. Nag. "A broad 
brimmed hat ensconced each careful head." — Spelling's Gift, p. 63. " With harsh vibrations of his 
three stringed lute." — lb., p. 42. " They magnify a hundred fold an author's merit." — lb., p. 14. 
" I'll nail them fast to some oft opened door." — lb., p. 10. " Glossed over only with a saint-like 
show, still thou art bound to vice." — Dryden: in Johnson's Diet., w. Gloss. "Take of aqua- 
fortis two ounces, of quick-silver two drachms." — Bacon: ib., w. Charge. " This rainbow never 
appears but when it rains in the sun-shine." — Newton: ib., w. Rainbow. 

" Not but there are, who merit other palms ; 
Hopkins and Stern hold glad the heart with Psalms." 

British Poets, Lond., 1800, Vol. vi, p, 405. 



CHAPTER IV.— OF SPELLING. 

Spelling is the art of expressing words by their proper letters. This 
important art is to be acquired rather by means of the spelling-book or 
dictionary, and by observation in reading, than by the study of written 
rules ; because what is proper or improper, depends chiefly upon usage. 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. SPELLING. — RULES AND EXCEPTIOXS. 193 

The orthography of our language is attended with much uncertainty 
and perplexity : many words are variously spelled by the best scholars, 
and many others are not usually written according to the analogy of 
similar words. But to be ignorant of the orthography of such words as 
are spelled with uniformity, and frequently used, is justly considered dis- 
graceful. 

The following rules may prevent some embarrassment, and thus be of 
service to those who wish to be accurate. 

RULES FOR SPELLING. 
Rule I. — Final F, L, or S. 

Monosyllables ending in/, I, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the final 
consonant ; as staff, mill, pass — muff, knell, gloss — off, hiss, puss. 

Exceptions. — The words clef, if, and of, are written with single^; and as, gas, has, was, yes, 
his, is, this, its, pus, and thus, with single s. So bul, for the flounder ; nul, for no, in law ; sol, for 
sou or sun ; a»d sal, for salt, in chemistry, have but the single I. 

Obs. — Because sal, salis, in Latin, doubles not the I, the chemists write salify, salifiable, salifica- 
tion, saliferous, saline, salinous, saliniform, salifying, &c, with single I, contrary to Rule 3d. But 
in gas they ought to double the s; for this is a word of their own inventing. Neither have they 
any plea for allowing it to form gases and gaseous with the s still single ; for so they make it vio- 
late two general rules at once. If the singular cannot now be written gass, the plural should 
nevertheless be gasses, and the adjective should be gasseous, according to Rule 3d. 

Rule II. — Other Finals. 

Words ending in any other consonant than/, I, or s, do not double the final let- 
ter ; as, mob, nod, dog, sum, sun, cup, cur, cut, fix, whiz. 

Exceptions. — "We double the consonant in abb, ebb, add, odd, egg, jagg, ragg, inn, err, burr, 
purr, butt, buzz, fuzz, yarr, and some proper names. But we have also ab {from) and ad (to) for 
prefixes; andj'a^, rag, in, bur, and but, are other words that conform to the rule. 

Rule III. — Doubling. 

Monosyllables, and words accented on the last syllable, when they end with a 
single consonant preceded by a single vowel, or by a vowel after qu, double their 
final consonant before an additional syllable that begins with a vowel : as, rob, 
robbed, robber ; fop, foppish, foppery ; squat, squatter, squatting; thin, thinner, 
thinnest ; swim, swimmer, swimming ; commit, committeth, committing, committed, 
committer, committee ; acquit, acquittal, acquittance, acquitted, acquitting, acquit- 
teih. 

Exceptions. — 1. X final, being equivalent to hs, is never doubled : thus, from mix, we have 
mixed, mixing, and mixer. 2. When the derivative retains not the accent of the root, the final 
consonant is not always doubled : as, prefer', preference, preferable ; refer', reference, referable, 
or refer' rible ; infer', inference, inferable, or infer' rible ; transfer', a transfer, transferable, or trans- 
fer'rible. 3. But letters doubled in Latin, are usually doubled in English, without regard to ac- 
cent, or to any other principle : as, Britain, Britan'nic, Britannia ; appeal appel'lant ; argil, argil' - 
lous, argillaceous ; cavil, cav'illous, cavilla'tion; excel', ex'cellent, excellence; inflame', infiam'mable, 
inflammation. See Observations 13 and 14, p. 199. 

Rule IV. — No Doubling. 

A final consonant, when it is not preceded by a single vowel, or when the ac- 
cent is not on the last syllable, should remain single before an additional syllable : 
as, toil, toiling; oil, oily; visit, visited; differ, differing; peril, perilous; viol, 
violist ; real, realize, realist ; dial, dialing, dialist ; equal, equalize, equality ; vit- 
riol, vitriolic, vitriolate. 

Exceptions. — 1. The final I of words ending in el, must be doubled before an other vowel, lest 
the power of the e be mistaken, and a syllable be lost : as, travel, traveller ; duel, duellist ; revel, 
revelling ; gravel, gravelly ; marvel, marvellous. Yet the word parallel, having three Ells already, 
conforms to the rule in forming its derivatives ; as, paralleling, paralleled, and unparalleled. 2. 
Contrary to the preceding rule, the preterits, participles, and derivative nouns, of the few verbs 

13 



194 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

ending in al, il, or ol, unaccented, — namely, equal, rival, vial, marshal, victual, cavil, pencil, carol, 
gambol, and pistol, — are usually allowed to double the I, though some dissent from the practice: 
as, equalled, equalling ; rivalled, rivalling ; cavilled, cavilling, caviller ; carolled, carolling, caroller. 
3. When ly follows I, we have two Ells of course, but in fact no doubling : as, real, really ; oral, 
orally ; cruel, cruelly ; civil, civilly ; cool, coolly ; wool, woolly. 4. Compounds, though they often 
remove the principal accent from the point of duplication, always retain the double letter: as, 
wit' snapper, kid'napper,* grass 1 hopper, duck' -legged, spur' galled, hot' spurred, broad 1 -brimmed, hare'- 
lipped, lidlf '-wilted. So, compromilted and 'manumitted ; but benefited is different. 

Rule V.— Final CK. 

Monosyllables and English verbs end not with c, but take ck for double c ; as, 
rack, wreck, rock, attack : but, in general, words derived from the learned languages 
need not the k, and common use discards it ; as, Italic, maniac, music, public. 

Exceptions. — The words arc, part of a circle ; ore, the name of a fish ; lac, a gum or resin ; 
and sac, or soc, a privilege, in old English law, are ended with c only. Zinc is, perhaps, better 
spelled zink ; marc, mark ; disc, disk ; and talc, talck. 

Rule VI. — Retaining. 

Words ending with any double letter, preserve it double before any additional 
termination, not beginning with the same letter ;f as in the following derivatives: 
wooer, seeing, blissful, oddly, gruffly, equally, shelly, hilly, stiffness, illness, stillness, 
shrillness, fellness, smallness, drollness, freeness, grassless, passless, carelessness, reck- 
lessness, embarrassment, enfeoffment, agreement, agreeable. 

Exceptions. — 1. Certain irregular derivatives in d or t, from verbs ending in ee, 11, or ss, (as fled 
from flee, sold from sell, told from tell, dwelt from dwell, spelt from spell, spilt from spill, shalt from 
shall, wilt from will, blest from bless, past from pass,) are exceptions to the foregoing rule. 2. If the 
word pontiff is properly spelled with two Effs, its eight derivatives are also exceptions to this rule ; 
for they are severally spelled with one ; as, pontific, pontifical, pontificate, &c. 3. The words skillful, 
skillfully, willful, willfully, dullness, tallness, dullness, and fullness, have generally been allowed to 
drop the second I, though all of them might well be made to conform to the general rule, agreeably 
to the orthography of Webster. 

Rule VII. — Retaining. 

Words ending with any double letter, preserve it double in all derivatives formed 
from them by means of prefixes: as, see, foresee ; feoff, enfeoff ; pass, repass ; press, 
depress ; miss, amiss ; call, recall ; stdl, forestall ; thrall, inthrall ; spell, misspell; 
tell, foretell ; sell, undersell ; add, superadd ; snuff, besnuff; siuell, overswell. 

Observation. — The words enroll, unroll, miscall, befall, befell, bethrall, reinstall, disinthrall, fulfill, 
and twibill, are very commonly written with one I, and made exceptions to this rule ; but those 
authors are in the right who retain the double letter. 

Rule Vin.— Final LL. 

Final 11 is peculiar to monosyllables and tbeir compounds, with the few deriva- 
tives formed from such roots by prefixes ; consequently, all other words that end in 
I, must be terminated with a single I : as, cabal, logical, appal, excel, rebel, refel, 
dispel, extol, control, mogul, jackal, rascal, damsel, handsel, tinsel, tendril, tranquil, 
gambol, consul. 

* Whether worshipper should follow this principls, or not, is questionable. If Dr. Webster is Tight in making 
worship a compound of worth and ship, he furnishes a reason against his own practice of using a single p in wor- 
shiper, ivorshijied, and worshiping. The Saxon word appears to have been weortkseype. But words ending in 
ship are derivatives, rather than compounds; and therefore they seem to belong to the rule, rather than to the 
exception : as, " So wefelloioshiped him." — Herald of Freedom: Liberator, Vol. ix, p. 6S. 

t When ee comes before e, or may be supposed to do so, or when II comes before I, one of the letters is dropped 
that three of the same kind may not meet : &r,free, freer, freest, freeth, freed; skill, slcilless; full, full//; droll, 
drolly. And, as burgess-ship, hos f ess-ship, Md mistress-ship are derivatives, and not compounds, I think they 
ought to follow the same principle, and r* written burgesship, hostesship, mistresship. The proper form of 
gall-less is perhaps more doubtful. It ought not to be yallless, as Dr. Webster has it; and galless, the analogical 
form, is yet, so far as 2 know, withoa* authority. But is it not preferable to the hyphened form, with three Ells, 
which has authority ? " Gall-less, a. Without gall or bitterness. Cleaveland." — Chalmers, Bolles, Worcester. 
" Ah ! mild and gall-less dove, 
Which dost the purs and candid dwollinsjs love, 

Canst thou in Albion still delight?" — Cowley's Odes. 
Worcester's Dictionary has also the questionable word bellless." Treen, for trees, or for an adjective meaning 
a tree's, or made of a tree, is exhibited inse7>ralof our dictionaries, and pronounced as a monosyllable ; but Dr. 
Beattie, in his Poems, p. 84, has made it a dissyllable, with three like letters divided by a hyphen, thus : — 

" Plucking //opu tree-en bough her simple food." 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — SPELLING. — RULES AND EXCEPTIONS. 195 

Observation. — The words annul, until, distil, extil, and instil, are also properly spelled with one 
I ; for the monosyllables null, till, and still are not really their roots, but rather derivatives, or con- 
tractions of later growth. "Webster, however, prefers distill, extill, and instill with 11 ; and some 
have been disposed to add the other two. 

Rule IX.— Final E. 

The final e of a primitive word, when this letter is mute or obscure, is generally 
omitted before an addilional termination beginning with a vowel : as, remove, re- 
moval ; rate, ratable ; force, forcible ; true, truism ; rave, raving ; sue, suing ; eye, 
eying • idle, idling ; centre, centring. 

Exceptions. — 1. Words ending in ce or ge, retain the e before able or ous, to preserve the soft 
sounds of c and g : as, trace, traceable ; change, changeable ; outrage, outrageous. 2. So, from shoe, 
we write shoeing, to preserve the sound of the root ; from hoe, hoeing, by apparent analogy ; and, 
from singe, singeing ; from swinge, swingeing ; from tinge, tingeing ; that they may not be confounded 
with singing, swinging, and tinging. 3. To compounds and prefixes, as firearms, forearm, anteact, 
viceagent, the rule does not apply ; and final ee remains double, by Rule 6th, as in disagreeable, 
disagreeing. 

Rule X. — Final E. 

The final e of a primitive word is generally retained before an additional termi- 
nation beginning with a consonant : as, pale, paleness ; edge, edgelcss ; judge, judge- 
ship ; lodge, lodgement ; change, changeful ; infringe, infringement. 

Exceptions. — 1. "When the e is preceded by a vowel, it is sometimes omitted ; as in duly, truly, 
awful, argument; but much more frequently retained; as in dueness, trueness, blueness, bluely, 
rueful, dueful, shoeless, eyeless. 2. The word wholly is also an exception to the rule, for nobody 
writes it wholely. 3. Some will have judgment, abridgment, and acknowledgment, to be irre- 
claimable exceptions ; but I write them with the e, upon the authority of Lowth, Beattie, Ains- 
worth, Walker, Cobb, Chalmers, and others: the French " jugement," judgement, always retains 
the e. 

Rule XL— Final Y. 

The final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a consonant, is generally 
changed into i before an additional termination : as, merry, merrier, merriest, 
merrily, merriment ; pity, pitied, pities, pitiest, pitiless, pitiful, pitiable ; contrary, 
contrariness, contrarily. 

Exceptions. — 1. This rule applies to derivatives, but not to compounds : thus, we write 
merciful, and mercy-seat; penniless, and pennyworth; scurviness, and scurvy-grass; &c. But 
ladyship and goodyship, being unlike secretariship and suretiship ; handicraft and handiwork,* un- 
like handy gripe and handystroke; babyship and babyhood, unlike stateliness and likelihood; the 
distinction between derivatives and compounds, we see, is too nice a point to have been always 
accurately observed. 2. Before ing or ish, the y is retained to prevent the doubling of i: as, pity, 
pitying ; baby, babyish. 3. Words ending in ie, dropping the e by Rule 9th, change the i into y, 
for the same reason : as, die, dying ; vie, vying ; lie, lying. 

Rule XE.— Final Y. 

The final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a vowel, should not be changed 
into i before any additional termination : as, day, days ; key, keys ; guy, guys ; 
valley, valleys ; coy, coyly ; cloy, cloys, cloyed ; boy, boyish, boyhood ; annoy, an- 
noy er, annoyance ; joy, joyless, joyful. 

Exceptions. — 1. From lay, pay, say, and stay, are formed laid, paid, said, and staid; but the 
regular words, layed, payed, stayed, are sometimes used. 2. Raiment, contracted from arrayment, 
is never written with the y. 3. Daily is more common than the regular form dayly ; but gayly, 
gayety, and gayness, are justly superseding gaily and gaiety. 

Rule XILT.— IZE and ISE. 

Words ending in ize or ise sounded alike, as in wise and size, generally take the 
z in all such as are essentially formed by means of the termination ; and the s in 

* Handiwork, handicraft, and handicraftsman, appear to have been corruptly written for handwork, hand- 
craft, and Tvandcraftsman. They were formerly in good use, and consequently obtained a place in our vocab- 
ulary, from which no lexicographer, so far as I know, has yet thought fit to discard them ; but, being irregular, 
they are manifestly becoming obsolete, or at least showing a tendency to throw off these questionable forms. 
Handcraft and handicraftsman are now exhibited in some dictionaries ; and handiwork seems likely to be 
resolved into handy and work, from which Johnson supposes it to have been formed. See Psalm xix, 1. 
The text is varied thus : " And the firmament sheweth his handiwork." — Johnson's Diet. "And the firmament 
sheweth his handy-work." — Scott's Bible; Bruce" s Bible; Harrison's Gram., p. 83. "And the firmament 
showeth his handy work." —Alger' s Bible; Friends' Bible; Harrison's Gram., p. 103. 



196 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

monosyllables, and all such as are essentially formed by means of prefixes : as, 
gormandize, apologize, brutalize, canonize, pilgrimize, philosophize, cauterize, 
anathematize, sympathize, disorganize, with z ;* rise, arise, disguise, advise, devise, 
supervise, circumcise, despise, surmise, surprise, comprise, compromise, enterprise, 
presurmise, with s. 

Exceptions. — 1. Advertise, catechise, chastise, criticise,\ exercise, exorcise, and merchandise, 
are most commonly written with 5 ; and size, assize, capsize, analyze, overprize, detonize, and 
recognize, with z. How many of them are real exceptions to the rule, it is difficult to say. 2. 
Prise, a thing taken, and prize, to esteem ; apprise, to inform, and apprize, to value, or appraise, 
are often written either way, without this distinction of meaning, which some wish to establish. 
3. The want of the foregoing rule has also made many words variable, which ought, unquestion- 
ably, to conform to the general principle. 

Rule XIV. — Compounds. 

Compounds generally retain the orthography of the simple words which compose 
them : as, wherein, horseman, uphill, shellfish, knee-deep, kneedgrass, kneading- 
trough, innkeeper, skylight, plumtree, mandrill. 

Exceptions. — 1. In permanent compounds, or in any derivatives of which they are not the 
roots, the words full and all drop one I; as, handful, careful, fulfill, always, although, withal: in 
temporary compounds, they retain both; as, full-eyed, chock-full, % all-wise, save-all. 2. So the 
prefix mis, (if from miss, to err,) drops one s; but it is wrong to drop them both, as in Johnson's 
"mispell" and u mispend, v for misspell and misspend. 3. In the names of days, the word mass 
also drops one s ; as, Christmas, Candlemas, Lammas. 4. The possessive case often drops the 
apostrophe ; as in herdsman, kitesfoot 5. One letter is dropped, if three of the same kind como 
together: as, Rosshire, chaffinch; or else a hyphen is used: as, Ross-shire, ill-looking, still-life. 
6. Chilblain, welcome, and welfare, drop one I. 7. Pastime drops an s. 8. Shepherd, wherever, and 
whosever, drop an e; and wherefore and therefore assume one. 

Rule XV. — Usage. 

Any word for the spelling of which we have no rule but usage, is written wrong 
if not spelled according to the usage which is most common among the learned : 
as, " The brewer grinds his malt before he brues his beer." — Red Book, p. 38. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The foregoing rules aim at no wild and impracticable reformation of our orthography; 
but, if carefully applied, they will do much to obviate its chief difficulties. Being made variable 
by the ignorance of some writers and the caprice of others, our spelling is now, and always has 
been, exceedingly irregular and unsettled. Uniformity and consistency can be attained in no 
other way, than by the steady application of rules and principles ; and these must be made as few 
and as general as the case will admit, that the memory of the learner may not be overmatched by 
their number or complexity. Rules founded on the analogy of similar words, and sanctioned by 
the usage of careful writers, must be taken as our guides ; because common practice is often 
found to be capricious, contradictory, and uncertain. That errors and inconsistencies abound, even 
in the books which are proposed to the world as standards of English orthography, is a position 
which scarcely needs proof. It is true, to a greater or less extent, of all the spelling-books and 
dictionaries that I have seen, and probably of all that have ever been published. And as all 
authors are liable to mistakes, which others may copy, general rules should have more weight 
than particular examples to the contrary. " The right spelling of a word may be said to be that 
which agrees the best with its pronunciation, it3 etymology, and with the analogy of the particular 
class of words to which it belongs." — Philological Museum, Yol. i, p. 647. 

* Here a word, formed from its root by means of the termination ize, afterwards assumes a prefix, to make a 
secondary derivative : thus, organ, organize, disorganize. In such a case, the latter derivative must of course 
be like the former ; and I assume that the essential or primary formation of both from the word organ is by the 
termination ize; but it is easy to see that disguise, demise, surmise, and the like, are essentially or primarily 
formed by means of the prefixes, dis, de, and sur. As to advertise, exercise, detonize, and recognize, which I 
have noted among the exceptions, it is "not easy to discover by which method we ought to suppose them to 
have been formed ; but with respect to nearly all others, the distinction is very plain ; and though there may be 
no natural reason for founding upon it such a rule as the foregoing, the voice of general custom is as clear 
in this as in most other points or principles of orthography, and, surely, some rule in this case is greatly needed. 

t Criticise, with s, is the orthography of Johnson, Walker, Webster, Jones, Scott, Bolles, Chalmers, Cobb, 
and others ; and so did Worcester spell it in his Comprehensive Dictionary of 1831, but, in his Universal and 
Critical Dictionary of 1846, he wrote it with z, as did Bailey in his folio, about a hundred years ago. Here the 
z conforms to the foregoing rule, and the s does not. 

% Like this, the compound brim-full ought to be written with a hyphen and accented on the last syll tble ; but 
all our lexicographers have corrupted it into brim'ful, and, contrary to the authorities they quote, accented it 
on the first. Their noun brim' fulness, with a like accent, is also a corruption ; and the text of Shakspeare, 
which they quote for it, is nonsense, unless brim be there made a separate adjective : — 
" With ample and brimfulness of his force." — Johnson's Diet, et al. 
" With ample and brim fullness of his force," would be better. 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — SPELLING. — RULES. — OBSERVATIONS. 197 

Obs. 2. — I do not deny that great respect is due to the authority of our lexicographers, or that 
great improvement was made in the orthography of our language when Dr. Johnson put his hand 
to the work. But sometimes one man's authority may offset an other's ; and he that is inconsistent 
with himself, destroys his own : for, surely, his example cannot be paramount to his principles. 
Much has been idly said, both for and against the adoption of Johnson's Dictionary, or "Webster's, 
as tlie criterion of what is right or wrong in spelling ; but it would seem that no one man's learning 
is sufficiently extensive, or his memory sufficiently accurate, to be solely relied on to furnish a 
standard by which we may in all cases be governed. Johnson was generally right ; but, like 
other men, he was sometimes wrong. He erred sometimes in his, principles, or in their application ; 
as when he adopted the k in such words as rJietorick, and demoniack ; or when he inserted the u in 
such words as governour, warriour, superiour. Neither of these modes of spelling was ever 
generally adopted, in any thing like the number of words to which he applied them ; or ever will 
be ; though some indiscreet compilers are still zealously endeavouring to impose them upon the 
public, as the true way of speUing. He also erred sometimes by accident, or oversight ; as when 
he spelled thus: " recall and miscal, inthrall and bethral, windfall and downfal, laystall and thumb- 
stal, waterfall and overfal, molehill and dunghil, windmill and twibil, uphill and doumhiV This 
occasional excision of the letter I is reprehensible, because it is contrary to general analogy, and 
because both letters are necessary to preserve the sound, and show the derivation of the com- 
pound. "Walker censures it as a " ridiculous irregularity," and lays the blame of it on the "printers" 
and yet does not venture to correct it ! See Johnson's Dictionary, first American edition, quarto ; 
Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary, under the word Dunghil ; and his Rhyming Dictionary, Introd., 
p. xv. 

Obs. 3. — "Dr. Johnson's Dictionary" has been represented by some as having "nearly fixed 
the external form of our language." But Murray, who quotes this from Dr. ISTares, admits, at the 
same time, that, " The orthography of a great number of English words, is far from being uniform, 
even amongst writers of distinction." — Gram., p. 25. And, after commending this work of John- 
son's, as a standard, from which, "it is earnestly to be hoped, that no author will henceforth, on 
light grounds, bo tempted to innovate," he adds, "This Dictionary, however, contains some 
orthographical inconsistencies which ought to be rectified: such as, immovable, moveable; chastely, 
chastness ; fertileness, fertdy ; sliness, slyly; fearlessly, fearlesness ; heedlessness, needlesly." — lb. 
In respect to the final ck and our, he also intentionally departs from the standard which he thus 
commends; preferring, in that, the authority of Walker's Rhyming Dictionary, from which he 
borrowed his rules for spelling. For, against the use of k at the end of words from the learned 
languages, and against the u in many words in which Johnson used it, we have the authority, 
not only of general usage now, but of many grammarians who were contemporary with Johnson, 
and of more than a dozen lexicographers, ancient or modern, among whom is Walker himself. 
In this, therefore, Murray's practice is right, and his commended standard dictionary, wrong. 

Obs. 4. — Of words ending in or or our, we have about three hundred and twenty ; of which 
not more than forty can now with any propriety be written with the latter termination. Aiming 
to write according to the best usage of the present day, I insert the u in so many of these words 
as now seem most familiar to the eye when so written ; but I have no partiality for any letters 
that can well be spared ; and if this book should ever, by any good fortune, happen to be re- 
printed, after lionour, labour, favour, behaviour, and endeavour, shall have become as unfashionable 
as autlwur, err our, terrour, and emperour, are now, let the proof-reader strike out the useless letter 
not only from these w r ords, but from all others which shall bear an equally antiquated appearance. 

Obs. 5. — I have suggested the above-mentioned imperfections in Dr. Johnson's orthography, 
merely to justify the liberty which I take of spelling otherwise ; and not with any view to give a 
preference to that of Dr. Webster, who is now contending for the honour of having furnished a 
more correct standard. For the latter author, though right in some things in which the former 
was wrong, is, on the whole, still more erroneous and inconsistent. In his various attempts at 
reformation in our orthography, he has spelled many hundreds of words in such a variety of ways, 
that he knows not at last which of them is right, and which are wrong. But in respect to defi- 
nitions,\\Q has done good service to our literature ; nor have his critics been sufficiently just respect- 
ing what they call his " innovations." See Cobb's Critical Review of the Orthography of Webster. 
To omit the k from such words as publick, or the u from such as superiour, is certainly no innova- 
tion; it is but ignorance that censures the general practice, under that name. The advocates for 
Johnson and opponents of Webster, who are now so zealously stickling for the k and the u in 
these cases, ought to know that they are contending for what was obsolete, or obsolescent, when 
Dr. Johnson was a boy. 

Obs. 6. — I have before observed that some of the grammarians who were contemporary with 
Johnson, did not adopt his practice respecting the k or the u, in publick, critick, errour, superiour, 
&c. And indeed I am not sure there w r ere any who did. Dr. Johnson was born in 1709. and he 
died in 1784. But Brightland's Grammar, which was written during the reign of Queen Anne, 
who died in 1714, in treating of the letter C, says, "If in any Word the harder Sound precedes 
(e), (i), or (?/), (k) is either added or put in its Place ; as, Skill, Skin, Publick : And tho' the 
additional (k) in the foregoing Word be an old Way of Spelling, yet it is now very justly left off, 
as being a superfluous Letter; for (c) at the End is always hard." — Seventh Edition, Lond., 1746, 
p. 37. 

Obs. 7. — The three grammars of Ash, Priestley, and Lowth, all appeared, in their first editions, 
about one time; all, if I mistake not, in the year 1763; and none of these learned doctors, it 



198 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

would seem, used the mode of spelling now in question. In Ash, of 1*799, we have such orthography 
as this: "Italics, public, domestic, our traffic, music, quick; error, superior, warrior, authors, 
honour, humour, favour, behaviour. 5 ' In Priestley, of 1772: "Iambics, dactyls, dactylic, ana- 
paestic, monosyllabic, electric, public, critic; author, emperor's, superior; favour, labours, neigh- 
bours, laboured, vigour, endeavour; meagre, hillock, bailiwick, bishoprick, control, travelling." 
In Lowtli, of 1799: "Comic, critic, characteristic, domestic; author, favor, favored, endeavored, 
alledging, foretells." Now all these are words in the spelling of which Johnson and Webster 
contradict each other ; and if they are not all right, surely they would not, on the whole, be 
made more nearly right, by being conformed to either of these authorities exclusively. Tor the 
best usage is the ultimate rule of grammar. 

Obs. 8. — The old British Grammar, written before the American Revolution, and even before 
*' the learned Mr. Samuel Johnson" was doctorated, though it thus respectfully quotes that great 
scholar, does not follow him in the spelling of which I am treating. On the contrary, it abounds 
with examples of words ending in ic and or, and not in ick and our, as he wrote them ; and I am 
confident, that, from that time to this, the former orthography has continued to be more common 
than his. Walker, the orthoepist, who died in 1807. yielded the point respecting the It, and ended 
about four hundred and fifty words with c in his Rhyming Dictionary ; but he thought it more of 
an innovation than it really was. In his Pronouncing Dictionarj-, he says, "It has been a custom, 
within these twenty years, to omit the k at the end of words, when preceded by c. This has in- 
troduced a novelty into the language, which is that of ending a word with an unusual letter," &c. 
" This omission of k is, however, too general to be counteracted, even by the authority of John- 
son; but it is to be hoped it will be confined to words from the learned languages." — Walker's 
Principles of Pronunciation, No. 400. The tenth edition of Burn's Grammar, dated 1810, says, 
" It has become customary to omit k after c at the end of dissyllables and tn> syllables, &c. as 
music, arithmetic, logic ; but the k is retained in monosyllables; as, back, deck, rick, &c." — P. 25. 
James Buchanan, of whose English Syntax there had been five American editions in 1792, added 
no k to such words as didactic, critic, classic, of which he made frequent use ; and though he 
wrote honour, labour, and the like, with u, as they are perhaps most generally written now, he 
inserted no u in error, author, or any of those words in which that letter would now be incon- 
sistent with good taste. 

Obs. 9. — Bicknelfs Grammar, of 1790, treating of the letter k, sa3'S, " And for the same reason 
we have dropt it at the end of words after c, which is there always hard ; as in publick, logick, See. 
which are more elegantly written public, logic." — Part ii, p. 13. Again : "It has heretofore joined 
with c at the end of words ; as publick, logick ; but, as before observed, being there quite super- 
fluous, it is now left out." — lb., p. 16. Home Tooke's orthography was also agreeable to the rule 
which I have given on this subject. So is the usage of David Booth: "Formerly a k was added, 
as, rustick, politick, Arithmetick, &c. but this is now in disuse." — Booth's Introd. to Diet., Lond., 
1814, p. 80. 

Obs. 10. — As the authors of many recent spelling-books — Cobb, Emerson, Burhans, Bolles, 
Sears, Marshall, Mott, and others — are now contending for this "superfluous letter" in spite of all 
the authority against it, it seems proper briefly to notice their argument, lest the student be mis- 
led by it. It is summed up by one of them in the following words : " In regard to k after c at 
the end of words, it may be sufficient to sa3 r , that its omission has never been attempted, except 
in a small portion of the cases where it occurs; and that it tends to an erroneous pronunciation of 
derivatives, as in mimick, mimicking, where, if the k were omitted, it would read mimicing; and 
as c before % is always sounded like s, it must be pronounced mimising. Now, since it is never 
omitted in monosyllables, where it most frequently occurs, as in block, clock, &c, and can be in a 
part only of polysyllables, it is thought better to preserve it in all cases, by which we have one 
general rule, in place of several irregularities and exceptions that must follow its partial omission." 
— Bolles's Spelling -Book, p. 2. I need not tell the reader that these two sentences evince great 
want of care or skill in the art of grammar. But it is proper to inform him, that we have in our 
language eighty-six monosyllables which end with ck, and from them about fifty compounds or 
derivatives, which of course keep the same termination. To these may be added a dozen or more 
which seem to be of doubtful formation, such as huckaback, pickapack, gimcrack, ticktack, picknick, 
barrack, knapsack, hollyhock, shamrock, hammock, hillock, hommock, bullock, roebuck. But the 
verbs on which this argument is founded are only six ; attack, ransack, traffick, frolick, mimick, 
axxdphysick; and these, unquestionably, must either be spelled with the k, or must assume it in 
their derivatives. Now that useful class of words which are generally and properly written with 
final c, are about four hundred and fifty in number, and are all of them either adjectives or nouns 
of regular derivation from the learned languages, being words of more than one syllable; wmich 
have come to us from Greek or Latin roots. But what has the doubling of c by k, in our 
native monosyllables and their derivatives, to do with all these words of foreign origin ? For the 
reason of the matter, we might as well double the I, as our ancestors did, in naturall, temporall, 
spirituall, &c. 

Obs. 11. — The learner should observe that some letters incline much to a duplication, wdiile 
some others are doubled but seldom, and some, never. Thus, among the vowels, ee and oo occur 
frequently ; aa is used sometimes ; ii, never — except in certain Latin words, (wherein the vowels 
are separately uttered,) such as Horatii, Veii, iidem, genii. Again, the doubling of u is precluded 
by the fact that we have a distinct letter called Double-u, which was made by joining two Vees, 
or two Ues, when the form for u was v. So, among the consonants, /, I, and s, incline more to 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. SPELLING. — RULES. — OBSERVATIONS. 199 

duplication, than any others. These letters are double, not only at the end of those monosyllables 
which have but one vowel, as staff, mill, pass ; but also under some other circumstances. Accord- 
ing to general usage, final /is doubled after a single vowel, in almost all cases; as in bailiff, caitiff, 
'plaintiff midriff, sheriff, tariff, mastiff: yet not in calif, which is perhaps better written caliph. 
Final I, as may be seen by Eule 8th, admits not now of a duplication like this ; but, by the 
exceptions to Rule 4th, it is frequently doubled when no other consonant would be ; as in travel' 
ling, grovelling; unless, (contrary to the opinion of Lowth, Walker, and "Webster,) we will have 
fillip>ping,.gossipping, and worshipping, to be needful exceptions also. 

Obs. 12. — Finals sometimes occurs single, as in alas, atlas, bias; and especially in Latin words, 
as virus, impetus ; and when it is added to form plurals, as verse, verses : but this letter, too, is 
generally doubled at the end of primitive words of more than one syllable ; as in carcass, compass, 
cuirass, harass, trespass, embarrass. On the contrary, the other consonants are seldom doubled, 
except when they come under Rule 3d. The letter p, however, is commonly doubled, in some 
words, even when it forms a needless exception to Rule 4th; as in the derivatives from JUlip, 
gossip, and perhaps also worship. This letter, too, was very frequently doubled in Greek; whence 
we have, from the name of Philip of Macedon, the words Philippic and Philippize, which, if 
spelled according to our rule for such derivatives, would, like galloped and galloper, sirwped and 
sirupy, have but one p. We find them so written in some late dictionaries. But if fillipped, 
gossipped, and worshipped, with the other derivatives from the same roots, are just and necessary 
exceptions to Rule 4th, (which I do not admit,) so are these ; and for a much stronger reason, 
as the classical scholar will think. In our language, or in words purely English, the letters h, i, 
j, k, q, v, w, x, and y, are, properly speaking, never doubled. Yet, in the forming of compounds, it 
may possibly happen, that two Aitchcs, two Kays, or even two Double-ues or Wies, shall come 
together; as in withhold, brickkiln, sloioworm, bay yarn. 

Obs. 13. — There are some words — as those which come from metal, medal, coral, crystal, 
argil, axil, cavil, tranquil, pupil, papil — in which the classical scholar .is apt to violate the analogy 
of English derivation, by doubling the letter I, because he remembers the II of their loreign roots, 
or their foreign correspondents. But let him also remember, that, if a knowledge of etymology 
may be shown by spelling metallic, metalliferous, metallography, metallurgic. metallurgist, metal- 
lurgy, medallic, medallion, crystallize, crystalline, argillous, argillaceous, axillar. axillary, cavillous, 
cavillation, papillate, papulous, papillary, tranquillity, and pupillary, with double I, ignorance of it 
must needs be implied in spelling metaline, metalist, metaloid, metaloidal, medalist, coralaceous, 
coraline, coralite, coralinite, coraloid, coral oidal, crystalite, argilite, argilitic, tranquilize, and pupil- 
age, in like manner. But we cannot well double the I in the former, and not in the latter words. 
Here is a choice of difficulties. Etymology must govern orthography. But what etymology? 
our own, or that which is foreign? If we say, both, they disagree ; and the mere English scholar 
cannot know when, or how far, to be guided by the latter. If a Latin diminutive, as papilla from 
papida ov papa, pupillus ixova. pupus, or tranquillus from trans and quietus, happen to double an I, 
must we forever cling to the reduplication, and that, in spite of our own rules to the contrary ? 
Why is it more objectionable to change pupillaris to pupilary, than pupillus to pupil f or, to change 
tranquillitas to tranquility^ than tranquillus to tranquil ? And since papilous, pupilage, and tran- 
quilize are formed from the English words, and not directly from the Latin, why is it not as 
improper to write them with double I, as to write perilous, vassalage, and civilize, in the same 
manner ? 

Obs. 14. — If the practice of the learned would allow us to follow the English rule here, I should 
incline to the opinion, that all the words which I have mentioned above, ought to be written with 
single I. Ainsworth exhibits the Latin word for coral in four forms, and the Greek word in three. 
Two of the Latin and two of the Greek have the I single; the others double it. He also spells 
" corallticus' ) with one I, and defines it "A sort of white marble, called coraline.'''* The Spaniards, 
from whose medalla, we have medal; whose argil\ is arcilla, from the Latin argilla; and to whose 
cavilar, Webster traces cavil; in all their derivatives from these Latin roots, metallum, metal — 
coralium, corallium, curalium, or corallum, coral — crystallus or crystallum. crystal — pupillus, pupil 
— and tranquillus, tranquil — follow their own rules, and write mostly with single I: as, pupite.ro, 
a teacher; metalico, metalic ; coralina (fern.) coraline ; cristalino, crystaline ; crystalizar, crystalize ; 
traquilizar, tranquilize ; and tranquilidad, tranquility. And if we follow not ours, when or how 
shall the English scholar ever know why we spell as we do ? For example, what can he make 
of the orthography of the following words, which I copy from our best dictionaries: equip, 
eq'uipage; wor'ship, wor'shipper; — peril, perilous; cavil, cavillous;:}: — libel, libellous; quarrel, 
quarrelous; — opal, opaline; metal, metalline ;§ — coral, coralhform; crystal, crystalform; — dial 

* According to Littleton, the coraliticus Zapiswas a kind of Phrygian marble, "called Coralius. or by an other 
name Sangarius." But this substance seems to be different from all that are described by Webster, under the 
names of li coralline" " corallinite," and " coralli te." See Webster's Octavo Diet. 

t The Greek word for argil is maj iX<>?, or apyiWjs, (from apyos, white,) meaning pure white earth; and is as 
often spelled with one Lambda as with two. 

X Dr. Webster, with apparent propriety, writes caviling and cavilous with one I, like dialing and perilous ; 
but he has in general no more uniformity than Johnson, in respect to the doubling of I final. He also, in some 
instances, accents similar words variously; as, cor' alii form, upon the first syllable, metal' li form, upon the 
second ; cav'ilous and pa/p'iUous, upon the first, argil'lous, upon the second ; ax'illar, upon the first, medul'lar, 
upon the second. See Webster's Octavo Diet. 

§ Perry wrote crystaline, crystalize, crystalization, metaline, metalist, metallurgist, and metalurgy ; and these 
forms, as well as cry sialography, metalic, metalography, and metaliferous, are noticed and preferred by the au- 
thors of the Red Book, on pp. 2(58 and 302. 



200 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

dialist; medal, medallist ; — rascal, rascalion ; medal, medallion; — moral, moralist, morality ; metal, 
metallist, metallurgy; — civil, civilize, civility; tranquil, tranquillize, tianquillity ; — novel, novel- 
ism, novelist, novelize; grovel, grovelling, grovelled, groveller? 

Obs. 15. — The second clause of Murray's or Walker's 5th Rule for spelling, gives only a single 
I to each of the derivatives above named.* But it also treats in like manner many hundreds of 
words in which the I must certainly be doubled. And, as neither "the Compiler," nor any of his 
copiers, have paid any regard to their own principle, neither their doctrine nor their practice can 
be of much weight either way. Yet it is important to know to what words the rule is, or is not, 
applicable. In considering this vexatious question about the duplication of I, I was at first inclined 
to admit that, whenever final I has become single in English by dropping the second I of a foreign 
root, the word shall resume the 11 in all derivatives formed from it by adding a termination begin- 
ning with a vowel ; as, beryllus, beryl, berylline. This would, of course, double the I in .nearly all 
the derivatives from metal, medal, &c. But what says Custom ? She constantly doubles the I in 
most of them ; but wavers in respect to some, and in a few will have it single. Hence the diffi- 
culty of drawing a fine by which we may abide without censure. Pu'pillage and pu'pillary, with 
11, are according to Walker's Rhyming Dictionary ; but Johnson spells them pu'pilage and pu'pilary, 
with single I ; and Walker, in his Pronouncing Dictionary, has pupilage with one I, and pupillary 
with two. Again: both Johnson's and the Pronouncing Dictionary, give us medallist and metallist 
with 11, and are sustained by Webster and others ; but Walker, in his Rhyming Dictionary, writes 
them 'medalist and metalist, with single I, like dialist, formalist, cabalist, herbalist, and twenty other 
such words. Further: Webster doubles the I in all the derivatives of metal, medal, coral, axil, argil, 
andpapil; but writes it single in all those of crystal, cavil, pupil, and tranquil — except tranquillity. 

Obs. 16. — Dr. Webster also attempts, or pretends, to put in practice the hasty proposition of 
Walker, to spell with single I all derivatives from words ending in I not under the accent. " No 
letter," says Walker, "seems to be more frequently doubled improperly than I. Why we should 
write libelling, levelling, revelling, and yet offering, suffering, reasoning, I am totally at a loss to 
determine ; and, unless I can give a better plea than any other letter in the alphabet, for being 
doubled in this situation, I must, in the style of Lucian, in his trial of the letter T, declare for an 
expulsion." — Rhyming Diet, p. x. This rash conception, being adopted by some men of still less 
caution, has wrought great mischief in our orthography. With respect to words ending in el, it 
is a good and sufficient reason for doubling the I, that the e may otherwise be supposed servile 
and silent. I have therefore made this termination a general exception to the rule against 
doubling. Besides, a large number of these words, being derived from foreign words in which 
the I was doubled, have a second reason for the duplication, as strong as that which has often 
induced these same authors to double that letter, as noticed above. Such are bordel, chapel, 
duel, fardel, gabel, gospel, gravel, lamel, label, libel, marvel, model, novel, parcel, quarrel, and 
spinel. Accordingly we find, that, in his work of expulsion, Dr. Webster has not unfrequently 
contradicted himself, and conformed to usage, by doubling the I where he probably intended to 
write it single. Thus, in the words bordeller, chapellany, chapelling, gospellary, gospeller, gravelly, 
lamellate, lamellar, lamellarly, lamelliform, and spinellane, he has written the I double, while he 
has grossly corrupted many other similar words by forbearing the reduplication ; as, traveler, 
groveling, duelist, marvelous, and the like. In cases of such difficulty, we can never arrive at 
uniformity and consistency of practice, unless we resort to principles, and such principles as can 
be made intelligible to the English scholar. If any one is dissatisfied with the rules and excep- 
tions which I have laid down, let him study the subject till he can furnish the schools with better. 

Obs. 17. — We have in our language a very numerous class of adjectives ending in able or ible, 
as affable, arable, tolerable admissible, credible, infallible, to the number of nine hundred or more. 
In respect to the proper form and signification of some of these, there occurs no small difficuhy. 
Able is a common English word, the meaning of which is much better understood than its origin. 
Home Tooke supposes it to have come from the Gothic noun abal, signifying strength; and con- 
sequently avers, that it " has nothing to do with the Latin adjective habilis, fit, or able, from 
which our etymologists erroneously derive it.' 1 — Diversions of Parley, Yol. ii, p. 450. This I sup- 
pose the etymologists will dispute with him. But whatever may be its true derivation, no one 
can well deny that able, as a suffix, belongs most properly, if not exclusively, to verbs ; for most 
of the woi'ds formed by it, are plainly a sort of verbal adjectives. And it is evident that this 
author is right in supposing that English words of this termination, like the Latin verbals in bilis, 
have, or ought to have, such a signification as may justify the name which he gives them, of 
" potential passive adjectives ;" a signification in which the English and the Latin derivatives ex- 
actly correspond. Thus dis' soluble or dissolv'able does not mean able to dissolve, but capable of being 
dissolved; and divisible or dividable does not mean able to divide, but capable of being divided. 

Obs. 18. — As to the application of this suffix to nouns, when we consider the signification of 
the words thus formed, its propriety may well be doubted. It is true, however, that nouns do 
sometimes assume something of the nature of verbs, so as to give rise to adjectives that are of a 
participial character; such, for instance, as sainted, bigoted, conceited, gifted, tufted. Again, of such 
as hard-hearted, good-natured, cold-blooded, we have an indefinite number. And perhaps, upon 
the same principle, the formation of such words as actionable, companionable, exceptionable, mark- 
etable, merchantable, pasturable, treasonable, and so forth, may be justified, if care be taken to use 
them in a sense analogous to that of the real verbals. But, surely, the meaning which is com- 

* " But if a diphthong precedes, or the accent is on the preceding syllable, the consonant remains single: as, 
to toil, toiling; to offer, an offering. 1 ' — Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 24; Walker* s Rhym. Diet, Introd., p. is. 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — SPELLING. — RULES. — OBSERVATIONS. 201 

monly attached to the words amicable, changeable, fashionable, favourable, peaceable, reasonable, 
pleasurable, seasonable, suitable, and some others, would never be guessed from their formation. 
Thus, suitable means fitting or suiting, and not able to suit, or capable of being suited. 

Obs. 19. — Though all words that terminate in able, used as a suffix, are properly reckoned 
derivatives, rather than compounds, and in the former class the separate meaning of the parts 
united is much less regarded than in the latter ; yet, in the use of words of this formation, it would 
be well to have some respect to the general analogy of their signification as stated above ; and 
not to make derivatives of the same fashion convey meanings so very different as do some of 
these. Perhaps it is from some general notion of their impropriety, that several words of this 
doubtful character have already become obsolete, or are gradually falling into disuse : as, accustom- 
able, chanceable, concordable, conusable, customable, behoovable, leisurable, medicinable, personable, power- 
able, razorable, shapable, semblable, vengeable, veritable. Still, there are several others, yet currently 
employed, which might better perhaps, for the same reason, give place to more regular terms : as, 
amicable, for friendly or kind; charitable, for benevolent or liberal; colourable, for apparent or 
specious; peaceable, for peaceful or unhostile; pleasurable, for pleasing or delightful; profitable, for 
gainful or lucrative; sociable, for social or affable; reasonable, for rational or just. 

Obs. 20. — In respect to the orthography of words ending in able or ible, it is sometimes diffi- 
cult to determine which of these endings ought to be preferred ; as whether we ought to write 
tenable or tenible, reversable or reversible, addable or addible. In Latin, the termination is bilis, and 
the preceding vowel is determined by the conjugation to which the verb belongs. Thus, for verbs 
of the first conjugation, it is a; as, from arare, to plough, arabilis, arable, tillable. For the sec- 
ond conjugation, it is i; as, from docere, to teach, docibilis, or docilis, docible or docile, teachable. 
For the third conjugation, it is i; as, from vendcre, to sell, vendibilis, vendible, salable. And, for the 
fourth conjugation, it is i; as, from sepelire, to bury, sepelibilis, sep'elible* buriable. But from solvo 
and volvo, of the third conjugation, we have ubilis, uble ; as, solubilis, soluble, solvible or solvable ; 
volubilis, vol' uble, Tollable. Hence the English words, rev'oluble, resoluble, irrcs' oluble, dis'soluble, 
indis soluble, and insoluble. Thus the Latin verbals in bills, are a sufficient guide to the orthog- 
raphy of ah such words as are traceable to them ; but the mere English scholar cannot avail 
himself of this aid ; and of this sort of words we have a much greater number than were ever 
known in Latin. A few we have borrowed from the French : as, tenable, capable, preferable, con- 
vertible ; and these we write as they are written in French. But the difficulty lies chiefly in those 
which are of English growth. For some of them are formed according to the model of the Latin 
verbals in ibilis ; as forcible, coercible, reducible, discernible : and others are made by simply adding 
the suffix able ; as traceable, pronounceable, manageable, advisable, returnable. The last are purely 
English ; and yet they correspond in form with such as come from Latin verbals in abilis. 

Obs. 21. — From these different modes of formation, with the choice of different roots, we have 
sometimes two or three words, differing in orthography and pronunciation, but conveying the same 
meaning; as, divisible and divi'dable, des'picable and despi' sable, referable and refer' r ible, mis r - 
cible and mix' able, dis soluble, dissol vible, and dissolvable. Hence, too, we have some words which 
seem to the mere English scholar to be spelled in a very contradictory manner, though each, per- 
haps, obej'S the law of its own derivation ; as, peaceable and forcible, impierceable and coercible, 
marriageable and corrigible, damageable and eligible, changeable and tangible, chargeable and fran- 
gible, fencible and defensible, preferable and referrible, conversable and reversible, deftndable and 
descendible, amendable and extendible, bendable and vendible, dividoble and corrodible, returnable 
and discernible, indispensable and responsible, advisable and fusible, respectable and compatible, 
delectable and collectible, taxable and flexible. 

Obs. 22. — The American editor of the Red Book, to whom all these apparent inconsistencies 
seemed real blunders, has greatly exaggerated this difficulty in our orthography, and charged 
Johnson and Walker with having written all these words and many more, in this contradictory 
manner, "without any apparent reason!" He boldly avers, that, "The perpetual contradictions 
of the same or like words, in all the books, show that the authors had no distinct ideas of what is 
right, and what is wrong;" and ignorantly imagines, that, "The use of ible rather than able, in 
any case, originated in the necessity of keeping the soft sound of c and g, in the derivatives ; and 
if ible was confined to that use, it would be an easy and simple rule.'" — Red Book, p. 170. Hence, 
he proposes to write peacible for peaceable, tracible for tractable, changible for changeable, managible 
for manageable ; and so for all the rest that come from words ending in ce or ge. But, whatever 
advantage there might be in this, his " easy and simple rule" would work a revolution for which 
the world is not yet prepared. It would make audible audable, fallible fallable, feasible feasable, 
terrible terrable, horrible horrable, &c. No tyro can spell in a worse manner than this, even if he 
have no rule at all. And those who do not know enough of Latin grammar to profit by what I 
have said in the preceding observation, may console themselves with the reflection, that, in spell- 
ing these difficult words entirely by guess, they will not miss the way more than some have done 
who pretended to be critics. The rule given by John Burn, for able and ible, is less objection- 
able ; but it is rendered useless by the great number of its exceptions. 

Obs. 23. — As most of the rules for spelling refer to the final letters of our primitive words, it 
may be proper for the learner to know and remember, that not all the letters of the alphabet can 
assume that situation, and that some of them terminate words much more frequently than others. 
Thus, in "Walker's Rhyming Dictionary, the letter a ends about 220 words ; b, 160 ; c, 450 ; e£ 

* Johnson. Walker, and Webster, all spell this word sej/ilible; which is obviously wrong- ; as is Johnson's 
derivation of it from sejrio, to hedge in. Sepio would make, not this word, but sepibilis and sepible, hedgeable. 



202 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

1550; e, 7000; /, 140; g, 280; h, 400; i, 29; j, none; 7c, 550; I, 1900; m, 550; %, 3300; o, 
200; p, 450; 5, none; r, 2750; 5, 3250; £, 3100; u, 14; v, none; w, 200; jc, 100; y, 5000; 
z, 5. We have, then, three consonants, /, g, and v, which never end a word. And why not ? 
With respect to 7' and v, the reason is plain from their history. These letters were formerly iden- 
tified with i and u, which are not terminational letters. The vowel i ends no pure English word, 
except that which is formed of its own capital /; and the few words which end with u are all 
foreign, except thou and you. And not only so, the letter j is what was formerly called % con- 
sonant ; and v is what was called u consonant. But it was the initial i and u, or the i and u which 
preceded an other vowel, and not those which followed one, that were converted into the con- 
sonants j and v. Hence, neither of these letters ever ends any English word, or ia ever doubled. 
Nor do they unite with other consonants before or after a vowel : except that v is joined with 
r in a few words of French origin, as livre, manoeuvre; or with I in some Dutch names, as Wat- 
ervleit. Q ends no English word, because it is always followed by u. The French termination 
que, which is commonly retained in pique, antique, critique, opaque, oblique, burlesque, and grotesque, 
is equivalent to k ; hence we write packet, lackey, checker, risk, mask, and mosk, rather than paquet, 
laquey, chequer, risque, masque, and mosque. And some authors write burlesk and grotcsk, prefer- 
ring k to que. 

Obs. 24. — Thus we see that 3, q, and v, are, for the most part, initial consonants only. Hence 
there is a harshness, if not an impropriety, in that syllabication which some have recently adopted, 
wherein they accommodate to the ear the division of such words as maj-es4y, proj-ect, traj-ect, — 
eq-ui-ty, liq-ui-date, ex-cheq-uer. But v, in a similar situation, has now become familiar; as in 
ev-er-y, ev-i-dence : and it may also stand with I or r, in the division of such words as solv-ing and serv- 
ing. Of words ending in ive, Walker exhibits four hundred and fifty — exactly the same number 
that he spells with ic. And Home Tooke, who derives ive from the Latin ivus, (q. d. vis,) and ic 
from the Greek lkoc, (q. d. taxvc,) both implying power, has well observed that there is a general 
correspondence of meaning between these two classes of adjectives — both being of "a potential 
active signification; as purgative, vomitive, operative, &c. ; cathartic, emetic, energetic, &c." — Di- 
versions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 445. I have before observed, that Tooke spelled all this latter class 
of words without the final k ; but he left it to Dr. Webster to suggest the reformation of striking 
the final e from the former. 

Obs. 25. — In Dr. Webster's " Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Peeces," published in 1790, we 
find, among other equally ingenious improvements of our orthography, a general omission of the 
final e in all words ending in ive, or rather of all words ending in ve, preceded by a short vowel ; 
as, u primitiv, clerivativ, extensiv, positiv, deserv, twelv, prow, luv, hav, giv, liv." This mode of 
spelling, had it been adopted by other learned men, would not only have made v a very frequent 
final consonant, but would have placed it in an other new and strange predicament, as being 
subject to reduplication. For he that will write hav, giv, and liv, must also, by a general rule of 
grammar, write hawing, givving, and livving. And not only so, there will follow also, in the 
solemn style of the Bible, a change of givest, livest, giveth, and liveth, into givvest, livvest, givveth, 
and livveth. From all this it may appear, that a silent final e is not always quite so useless a 
thing as some may imagine. With a levity no less remarkable, does the author of the lied Book 
propose at once two different ways of reforming the orthography of such words as pierceable, 
manageable, and so forth ; in one of which, the letter / would be brought into a new position, 
and subjected sometimes to reduplication. " It would be a useful improvement to change this c 
into 5, and g into/;" as, piersable, manajable, &c. " Or they might assume i ;" as, piercible, man- 
agible, &c. — Bed Book, p. 170. Now would not this " useful improvement" give us such a word 
as allejjaUe ? and would not one such monster be more offensive than all our present exceptions 
to Rule 9th? Out upon all such tampering with orthography 1 

Obs. 26. — If any thing could arrest the folly of innovators and dabbling reformers, it would be 
the history of former attempts to effect improvements similar to theirs. With this sort of history 
every one would do well to acquaint himself, before he proceeds to disfigure words by placing 
their written elements in any new predicament. If the orthography of the English language is 
ever reduced to greater regularity than it now exhibits, the reformation must be wrought by 
those who have no disposition either to exaggerate its present defects, or to undertake too much. 
Regard must be had to the origin, as well as to the sounds, of words. To many people, all silent 
letters seem superfluous ; and all indirect modes of spelling, absurd. Hence, as the learner may 
perceive, a very large proportion of the variations and disputed points in spelling, are such as 
refer to the silent letters, which are retained by some waiters and omitted by others. It is de- 
sirable that such as are useless and irregular should be always omitted ; and such as are useful and 
regular always retained. The rules which I have laid down as principles of discrimination, are 
such as almost every reader will know to be generally true, and agreeable to present usage, 
though several of them have never before been printed in any grammar. Their application will 
strike out some letters which are often written, and retain some which are often omitted ; but, if 
they err on either hand, I am confident they err less than any other set of rules ever yet formed 
for the same purpose. Walker, from whom Murray borrowed his rules for spelling, declares for 
an expulsion of the second I from traveller, gambolled, grovelling, equalling, cavilling, and all sim- 
ilar words ; seems more willing to drop an I from illness, stillness, shrillness, fellness, and drollness, 
than to retain both in smallness, tallness, chillness, dullness, and fullness ; makes it one of his 
orthographical aphorisms, that, " Words taken into composition often drop those letters which 
were superfluous in their simples; as, Christmas, dunghil, handful;" and, at the same time, 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — SPELLING. — RULES. — OBSERVATIONS. 203 

chooses rather to restore the silent e to the ten derivatives from move and prove, from which John- 
son dropped it, than to drop it from the ten similar words in which that author retained it ! And 
not only so, he argues against the principle of his own aphorism ; and says, " It is certainly to be 
feared that, if this pruning of our words of all the superfluous letters, as they are called, should 
be much farther indulged, we shall quickly antiquate our most respectable authors, and irrepar- 
ably maim our language." — Walker's Rhyming Diet, p. xvii. 

Obs. 27. — No attempt to subject our orthography to a system of phonetics, seems likely to 
meet with general favour, or to be free from objection, if it should. For words are not mere 
sounds, and in their orthography more is implied than in phonetics, or phonography. Ideographic 
forms have, in general, the advantage of preserving the identity, history, and lineage of words ; 
and these are important matters in respect to which phonetic writing is very liable to be deficient. 
Dr. Johnson, about a century ago, observed, " There have been many schemes offered for the 
emendation and settlement of our orthography, which, like that of other nations, being formed 
by chance, or according to the fancy of the earliest writers in rude ages, was at first very various 
and uncertain, and [is] as yet sufficiently irregular. Of these reformers some have endeavoured 
to accommodate orthography better to the pronunciation, without considering that this is to 
measure by a shadow, to take that for a model or standard which is changing while they apply 
it. Others, less absurdly indeed, but with equal unlikelihood of success, have endeavoured to 
proportion the number of letters to that of sounds, that every sound may have its own character, 
and every character a single sound. Such would be the orthography of a new language to be 
formed by a synod of grammarians upon principles of science. But who can hope to prevail on 
nations to change their practice, and make all their old books useless ? or what advantage would 
a new orthography procure equivalent to the confusion and perplexity of such an alteration ?" — 
Johnson's Grammar before Quarto Diet, p. 4. 

Obs. 28. — Among these reformers of our alphabet and orthography, of whose schemes he gives 
examples, the Doctor mentions, first, "Sir T/tomas Smith, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, a 
man of real learning, and much practised in grammatical disquisitions;" who died in 1597 ; — 
next, "Dr. Gill, the celebrated master of St. Paul's School in London;" who died in 1635 ; — 
then, " Charles Butler, a man who did not want an understanding which might have qualified 
him for better employment;" who died in 1647; — and, lastly, "Bishop Wilkins, of Chester, a 
learned and ingenious critic, who is said to have proposed his scheme, without expecting to be 
followed ;" he died in 1672. 

Obs. 29. — From this time, there was, so far as I know, no noticeable renewal of such efforts, 
till about the year 1790, when, as it is shown above on page 134 of my Introduction, Dr. Web- 
ster, (who was then only "Noah Webster, Jun., attorney at law,") attempted to spell all words as 
they are spoken, without revising the alphabet — a scheme which his subsequent experience be- 
fore many years led him to abandon. Such a reformation was again attempted, about forty years 
after, by an other young lawyer, the late lamented Thomas S. Grimke, of South Carolina, but 
with no more success. More recently, phonography, or phonetic writing, has been revived, and 
to some extent spread, by the publications of Isaac Pitman, of Bath, England, and of Dr. Andrew 
Corn-stock, of Philadelphia. The system of the former has been made known in America chiefly 
by the lectures and other efforts of Andrews and Boyle, of Dr. Stone, a citizen of Boston, and of 
E. Webster, a publisher in Philadelphia. 

Obs. 30. — The pronunciation of words being evidently as deficient in regularity, in uniformity, 
and in stability, as is their orthography, if not more so, cannot be conveniently made the measure 
of their written expression. Concerning the principle of writing and printing by sounds alone, 
a recent writer delivers his opinion thus : " Let me here observe, as something not remote from 
our subject, but, on the contrary, directly bearing upon it, that I can conceive no [other] method 
of so effectually defacing and barbarizing our English tongue, no [other] scheme that would go 
so far to empty it, practically at least and for us, of all the hoarded wit, wisdom, imagination, and 
history which it contains, to cut the vital nerve which connects its present with the past, as 
the introduction of the scheme of ' phonetic spelling,' which some have lately been zealously ad- 
vocating among us ; the principle of which is, that all words should be spelt according as they 
are sounded, that the writing should be, in every case, subordinated to the speaking. The tacit 
assumption that it ought so to be, is the pervading error running through the whole system." — 
R. C. Trench, on the Study of Words, p. 177. 

Obs. 31. — The phonographic system of stenography, tachygraphy, or short-hand writing, is, I 
incline to believe, a very great improvement upon the earlier methods. It is perhaps the most 
reliable mode of taking down speeches, sermons, or arguments, during their delivery, and report- 
ing them for the press ; though I cannot pronounce upon this from any experience of my own in 
the practice of the art. And it seems highly probable, if it has not been fully proved, that chil- 
dren may at first be taught to read more readily, and with better articulation, from phonetic 
print, or phonotypy, as it has been called, than from books that exhibit words in their current or 
established orthography. But still it is questionable whether it is not best for them to learn each 
word at first by its peculiar or ideographic form — the form in which they must ultimately learn 
to read it, and which indeed constitutes its only orthography. 



204 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS m SPELLING. 
Under Rule I. — Of Final F, L, or S. 

"He wil observe the moral law, in hiz conduct." — Webster's Essays, p. 320. 

[Foemttl.es. — 1. Not proper, because the word " wil" is here spelled with one I. But, according to Rule 1st, 
"Monosyllables ending in/, I, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant." Therefore, this I 
should be doubled ; thus, will. 

2. Not proper again, because the word li hiz" is here spelled with z. But, according to the exceptions to 
Rule 1st, " The words as, gas, has, teas, yes, his, &c, are written with single s." Therefore, this z should be 
s; thus, his.] 

" A clif is a steep bank, or a precipitous rock." — See Rhyming Diet " A needy man's budget 
is ful of schemes." — Old Adage. "Few large publications in this country wil pay a printer." — 
Noah Webster's Essays, p. x. "I shal, with cheerfulness, resign my other papers to oblivion." — 
lb., p. x. " The proposition waz suspended til the next session of the legislature." — lb., p. 362. 
" Tenants for life wil make the most of lands for themselves." — lb., p. 366. "While every thing 
iz left to lazy negroes, a state wil never be wel cultivated." — lb., p. 367. "The heirs of the orig- 
inal proprietors stil hold the soil." — lb., p. 349. " Say my annual prolit on money loaned shal be 
six per cent." — lb., p. 308. "No man would submit to the drudgery of business, if he could 
make money az fast by lying stil." — lb., p. 310. "A man may az wel feed himself with a bodkin, 
az with a knife of the present fashion." — lb., p. 400. " The clothes wil be ill washed, the food 
wil be badly cooked ; and you wil be ashamed of your wife, if she iz not ashamed of herself." — 
lb., p. 404. " He wil submit to the laws of the state, while he iz a member of it." — lb., p. 320. 
" But wil our sage writers on law forever think by tradition ?" — lb., p. 318. " Some stil retain a 
sovereign power in their territories." — lb., p. 298. " They sel images, prayers, the sound of 
bels, remission of sins, &c." — Perkins's Theology, p. 401. "And the law had sacrifices offered 
every day for the sins of al the people." — lb., p. 406. " Then it may please the Lord, they shal 
find it to be a restorative." — lb., p. 420. "Perdition is repentance put of til a future day." — Old 
Maxim. " The angels of God, which wil good and cannot wil eviL have nevertheless perfect lib- 
erty of wil." — Perkins" s Theology, p. 716. "Secondly, this doctrine cuts off the excuse of al 
sin." — lb., p. 717. " Knel, the sound of a bell rung at a funeral." — Johnson and Walker. 

" If gold with dros or grain with chaf you find, 
Select — and leave the chaf and dros behind." — Author. 

Under Rule II. — Of Other Finals. 

" The mobb hath many heads, but no brains." — Old Maxim. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because the word " mobb" is here spelled with double b. But, according to Rule 2d, 
" Words ending in any other consonant than/, I, or s, do not double the final letter." Therefore, this & should 
be single ; thus, mob.] 

" Clamrh, to clog with any glutinous or viscous matter." — Johnson's Diet. " Whurr, to pro- 
nounce the letter r with too much force." — lb. " Flipp, a mixed liquor, consisting of beer and 
spirits sweetened." — lb. "Glynn, a hollow between two mountains, a glen." — GhwchiWs Gram- 
mar, p. 22. "Lamm, to beat soundly with a cudgel or bludgeon." — Walkers Diet. " Bunn, a 
small cake, a simnel, a kind of sweet bread." — See ib. " Brunett, a woman with a brown com- 
plexion." — Ib. and Johnson's Diet. "Wad' sett, an ancient tenure or lease of land in the Highlands 
of Scotland." — Webster's Diet. " To dodd sheep, is to cut the wool away about their tails." — R). 
"In aliquem arietare, Cic. To run full but at one." — Walker's Particles, p. 95. "Neither your 
policy nor your temper would permitt you to kill me." — Philological Museum, Yol. i, p. 427. 
" And admitt none but his own offspring to fulfill them." — lb., i, 437. " The summ of all 
this Dispute is, that some make them Participles," &c. — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 352. " As, the 
whistling of winds, the buz and hum of insects, the hiss of serpents, the crash of falling timber." 
— Blair's EheL, p. 129 ; Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 247 ; Gould's, 238. " Vann, to winnow, or a fan 
for winnowing." — Walker's Rhyming Diet. " Creatures that buz, are very commonly such as will 
sting." — Author "Begg, buy, or borrow; butt beware how you find." — Id. "It is better to 
have a house to lett, than a house to gett." — Id. "Let not your tongue cutt your throat." — Old 
Precept. "A little witt will save a fortunate man." — Old Adage. " There is many a slipp 'twixt 
the cup and the lipp." — Id. " Mothers' darlings make but milksopp heroes." — Id. " One eye- 
witness is worth tenn hearsays." — Id. 

" The judge shall jobb, the bishop bite the town, 
And mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown." — Pope: in Joh. Diet., w. Pack. 

Under Rule III.— Of Doubling. 

"Friz, to curl; frized, curled; frizing, curling." — Webster's Diet, 8vo. Ed. of 1829. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the words "frized" and "frizing" are here spelled with the single z, of 
their primitive friz. But, according to Rule 3d, " Monosyllables, and words accented on the last syllable, when 
they end with a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, double their final consonant before an additional 
syllable that begins with a vowel." Therefore, this z should be doubled ; thus, frizzed, frizzing.] 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. SPELLING. — ERRORS. 205 

" The commercial interests served to foster the principles of Whigism." — Payne's Geog., Vol. 
ii, p. 511. "Their extreme indolence shuned every species of labour." — Robertson's Amer., Vol. 
i, p. 341. "In poverty and stripedness they attend their little meetings.*' — Tlie Friend, Vol. vii, 
p. 256. "In guiding and controling* the power you have thus obtained." — Abbotts Teacher, p. 
15. "I began, Thou beganest, He began; "We began, You began, They began." — Alex. Hurray's 
Gram., p. 92. " Why does began change its ending ; as, I began, Thou beganest ?" — lb., p. 93. 
"Truth and conscience cannot be controled by any methods of coercion." — Hints on Toleration, 
p. xvi. " Dr. Webster noded, when he wrote ' knit, kniter, and knitingneedle' without doubling 
the t." — See El. Spelling-Book, 1st Ed., p. 136. " A wag should have wit enough to know when 
other wags are quizing him." — G. Brown. "Bon'y, handsome, beautiful, merry." — Walker's 
Rhyming Diet. " Coquetish, practicing coquetry; after the manner of a jilt." — Webster's Diet 
" Potage, a species of food, made of meat and vegetables boiled to softness in water." — See ib. 
"Potager, from potage, a porringer, a small vessel for children's food." — See ib., and Worcester's. 
" Compromit, compromited, compromiting ; manumit, manumitted, manumitting." — Webster. 
"Inferible; that maybe inferred or deduced from premises." — Red Book, p. 228. "Acids are 
either solid, liquid, or gaseous." — Gregory's Diet., art. Chemistry. "The spark will pass through 
the interrupted space between the two wires, and explode the gases." — Ib. "Do we sound gases 
and gaseous like cases and caseous f "No : they are more like glasses and osseous." — G. Brown. 
" I shall not need here to mention Svjiming, when he is of an age able to learn." — Locke, on Ed., 
p. 12. " Why do lexicographers spell ihinnish and mannish with two Ens, and dimish and ram- 
ish with one Em, each?" — See Johnson and Webster. " Gas forms the plural regularly, gases." — 
0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 38. "Singular, Gas; Plural, Gases." — S. W. Clark's Gram., p. 47. 
" These are contractions from sheded, bursted" — Riley s Grammar, p. 45. " The Present Tense 
denotes what is occuring at the present time." — Days Gram., p. 36, and p. 61. "The verb end- 
ing in eth is of the solemn or antiquated style; as, he loveth, he walketh, he runeth." — P. Davis's 
Gram., p. 34. 

" Thro' freedom's sons no more remonstrance rings, 
Degrading nobles ax:d cor.troling kings." — Hurray's Sequel, p. 292. 

Under Rule IY. — Xo Doubling. 

"A bigotted and tyrannical clergy will be feared. - ' — Brown's Estimate, Yol. ii, p. 78. 

[Foemut-e. — Not proper, because the final t of bigot is here doubled iu " bigotted.'''' But, according to Rule 
4th, "A final consonant, when it is not preceded by a single vowel, or when the accent is not on the last syllable, 
should remain single before an additional syllable." Therefore, this t should be single ; thus, bigoted.] 

"Jacob worshipped his Creator, leaning on the top of his staff." — Key in Merchant's Gram., 
p. 185. "For it is all marvelously destitute of interest." — Merchant's Criticisms. "As, box, 
boxes; church, churches; lash, lashes; kiss, kisses; rebus, rebusses." — Murray's Gram., 12mo, p. 
42. " Gossipping and lying go hand in hand." — Old Maxim. "The substance of the Criticisms 
on the Diversions of Purley was, with singular industry, gossipped by the present precious secre- 
tary of war, in Payne the bookseller's shop." — See Key. " Worship makes worshipped, worship- 
per, worshipping; gossip, gossipped, gossipper, gossipping; fillip, hllipped, fillipper, Shipping. " — 
Nixon's Parser, p. 72. "I became as hdgetty as a fly in a milk-jug." — Blackwood's Mag., Vol. xl, 
p. 674. " That enormous error seems to be rivetted in popular opinion." — Webster's Essays, p. 
364. " Whose mind iz not biassed by personal attachments to a sovereign." — lb., p. 318. " Laws 
against usury originated in a bigotted prejudice against the Jews." — lb., p. 315. "The most 
criticcal period of life iz usually between thirteen and seventeen." — lb., p. 388. " Generalhssimo, 
the chief commander of an army or military force." — See El. Spelling-Book, p. 93. " Tranquillize, 
to quiet, to make calm and peaceful." — lb., p. 133. "Pommeled, beaten, bruised; having pom- 
mels, as a sword or dagger." — Webster and Chalmers. " From what a height does the jeweler 
look down upon his shoemaker!" — Red Book, p. 108. " You will have a verbal account from my 
friend and fellow traveler." — lb., p. 155. "I observe that you have written the word counseled 
with one I only." — lb., p. 173. " They were offended at such as combatted these notions." — 
Robertson's America, Vol. ii, p. 437. "From libel, come libeled, libeler, libeling, libelous; from 
grovel, groveled, groveler, groveling ; from gravel, graveled and graveling." — See Webster's Diet. 
"Wooliness, the state of being woolly." — Ib. "Yet he has spelled chappelhng, bordeller, 
medallist, metalline, metaUist, metallize, clavellated, &c. with 11, contrary to his rule." — Cobb's 
Review of Webster, p. 11. "Again, he has spelled cancelation and snively with single I, and 
cupellation, pannellation, wittolly, with 11" — Ib. " Oilly, fatty, greasy, containing oil, glib." — 
Rhyming Diet. "Medallist, one curious in medals; Metallist, one skilled in metals." — Johnson, 
Webster, Worcester, Cobb, et al. " He is benefitted." — Town's Spelling- Book, p. 5. " They traveled 
for pleasure." — & W. Clark's Gram., p. 101. 

"Without you, what were man? A groveling herd, 
In darkness, wretchedness, and want enchain'd." — Beattie's Minstrel, p. 40. 

Under Rule V.— Of Final CK. 

"He hopes, therefore, to be pardoned by the critick." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 10. 

* If the variable word control, confront, or controll, is from con and troul or troll, it should be spelled witk 
U, by Rule 7th, and retain the 11 by Rule 6th. Dr. Webster has it so, but he gives control also. 



206 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the -word " criUck" is here spelled with a final k. But, according to Rule 5th, 
" Monosyllables and English verbs end not with c, but take ck for double c; as, rack, wreck, rock, attack : but, 
in general, words derived from the learned languages need not the k, and common use discards it." Therefore, 
this k should be omitted ; thus, eritiC] 

" The leading object of every publick speaker should be to persuade." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 
153. "May not four feet be as poetick as five; or fifteen feet, as poetick as fifty?" — lb., p. 146. 
"Avoid all theatrical trick and mimickry, and especially all scholastick stiffness." — lb., p. 154. 
" No one thinks of becoming skilled in dancing, or in musick, or in mathematicks, or logick, with- 
out long and close application to the subject." — lb., p. 152. " Caspar's sense of feeling, and sus- 
ceptibility of metallick and magnetick excitement were also very extraordinary." — lb., p. 238. 
" Authorship has become a mania, or, perhaps I should say, an epidemick." — lb., p. 6. " What 
can prevent this republick from soon raising a literary standard ?" — lb., p. 10. " Courteous reader, 
you may think me garrulous upon topicks quite foreign to the subject before me." — lb., p. 11. 
"Of the Tonick, Subtonick, and Atonick elements." — lb., p. 15. "The subtonick elements are 
inferiour to the tonicks in all the emphatick and elegant purposes of speech." — lb., p. 32. " The nine 
atonicks, and the three abrupt subtonicks cause an interruption to the continuity of the syllabick 
impulse." — lb., p. 37. " On scientifick principles, conjunctions and prepositions are but one part 
of speech." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 120. " That some inferior animals should be able to mimic 
human articulation, will not seem wonderful." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. i, p. 2. 
" "When young, you led a life monastick, 

And wore a vest ecclesiastick ; 

Now, in your age, you grow fantastick." — Johnson's Did. 

Under Rule VI. — Of Retaining. 

" Fearlesness, exemption from fear, intrepidity." — Johnson's Did. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the word " fearlesness' " is here allowed to drop one s of fearless. But, ac- 
cording to Rule 6th, " Words ending with any double letter, preserve it double before any additional termina- 
tion not beginning with the same letter." Therefore, the other s should be inserted ; thus, fearlessness.} 

" Dreadlesness ; fearlesness, intrepidity, undauntedness." — Johnson's Did. " Regardlesly, with- 
out heed ; Regardlesness, heedlessness, inattention." — lb. " Blamelesly, innocently ; Blamlesness, 
innocence." — lb. " That is better than to be flattered into pride and carelesness." — Taylor : 
Joh. Did. "Good fortunes began to breed a proud recklesness in them." — Sidney: ib. "See 
whether he lazily and listlesly dreams away his time." — Locke: ib. " It may be, the palate of 
the soul is indisposed by listlesness or sorrow." — Taylor: ib. "Pitilesly, without mercy; 
Pitilesness, unmercifulness." — Johnson. " What say you to such as these ? abominable, ac- 
cordable, agreable, &c." — Tooke's Diversions, Vol. ii, p. 432. "Artlesly; naturally, sincerely, 
without craft." — Johnson. "A chilness, or shivering of the body, generally precedes a fever." — 
Hurray's Key, p. 167. " Smalness ; littleness, minuteness, weakness." — Rhyming Did. " Grall- 
less, a. free from gall or bitterness." — Webster's Diet. "Talness; height of stature, upright 
length with comparative slenderness." — See Johnson et al. "Wilful; stubborn, contumacious, 
perverse, inflexible." — Id. " He guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." — Psal. lxxviii, 72. 
" The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof" — Murray's Key, p. 172. " What is now, is but 
an amasment of imaginary conceptions." — Glanville: Joh. Did. " Embarrasment ; perplexity, 
entanglement." — See Littleton's Did. " The second is slothfulness, whereby they are performed 
slackly and carelesly." — Perkins's Theology, p. 729. "Instalment; induction into office ; part of a 
large sum of money, to be paid at a particular time." — See Johnson's Diet. " Inthralment ; servi- 
tude, slavery." — Ib. 

" I, who at some times spend, at others spare, 
Divided between carelesness and care." — Pope. 

Under Rule VII. — Or Retaining. 

" Shall, on the contrary, in the first person, simply foretels." — Murray's Gram., p. 88 ; Inger- 
soll's, 136; Fisk's, 78; Jaudon's, 59; A. Flint's, 42; Wright's, 90; Bullions's, 32. 

[Foemxile. — Not proper, because the word '■'■foretels''' does not here retain the double I of tell. But, according 
to Rule 7th, " Words ending with any double letter, preserve it double in all derivatives formed from them by 
means of prefixes." Therefore, the other I should be inserted ; thus, foretells.} 

"There are a few compound irregular verbs, as befal, bespeak, &c." — Ash's Gram., p. 46. 
"That we might frequently recal it to our memory." — Calvin's Institutes,]). 112. "The angels 
exercise a constant solicitude that no evil befal us." — lb., p. 107. "Inthral; to enslave, to 
shackle, to reduce to servitude." — Walker's Did. "He makes resolutions, and fulfils them by 
new ones." — Bed Book, p. 138. "To enrol my humble name upon the list of authors on Elocu- 
tion." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 12. "Eorestal; to anticipate, to take up beforehand." — 
Walker's Bhym. Did. "Miscal; to call wrong, to name improperly." — Johnson. "Bethral; to 
enslave, to reduce to bondage." — See id. "Befal; to happen to, to come to pass." — Bhym. Did. 
"Unrol; to open what is rolled or convolved." — Johnson. "Counterrol; to keep copies of ac- 
counts to prevent frauds." — See id. " As Sisyphus uprols a rock, which constantly overpowers 
him at the summit." — Author. "Unwel; not well, indisposed, not in good health." — See Bed 
Book, p. 336. " Undersel; to defeat by selling for less, to sell cheaper than an other." — See id., 
p. 332. "Inwal; to enclose or fortify with a wall." — See id., p. 295. "Twibil; an instrument 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — SPELLING. — ERRORS. 207 

with two bills, or with a point and a blade ; a pickaxe, a mattock, a halberd, a battle-axe." — See 
Diet " What you miscal their folly, is their care."— Dryden. " My heart will sigh when I mis- 
cal it so." — Shakspeare. " But if the arrangement recal one set of ideas more readily than 
another." — Blair 's Bhet, p. 130. 

" 'Tis done ; and since 'tis done, 'tis past recal ; 
And since 'tis past recal, must be forgotten."— Dryden. 

Under Rule VIII. — Of Final LL. 

"The righteous is taken away from the evill to come." — Perkins's Works, p. 41 7. 

[Fokmtjle.— Not proper, because the -word " evill" is here written with final 11. But, according to Rule 8th, 
" Final 11 is peculiar to monosyllables and their compounds, with the few derivatives formed from such roots 
by prefixes ; consequently, all other words that end in I, must be terminated with a single I." Therefore, one I 
should be here omitted; thus, evil.] 

" Patroll ; to go the rounds in a camp or garrison, to march about and observe what passes." — 
Webster's Amer. Diet, 8vo. "Marshall; the chief officer of arms, one who regulates rank and 
order." — See Bailey's Diet "Weevill; a destructive grub that gets among corn." — See BJiym. 
Diet. "It much excells all other studies and arts." — Walker's Particles, p. 217. "It is essen- 
tial! to all magnitudes, to be in one place." — Perkins's Works, p. 403. "By nature I was thy 
vassah, but Christ hath redeemed me." — lb., p. 404. " Some, being in want, pray for temporall 
blessings." — lb., p. 412. "And this the Lord doth, either in temporall or spirituall benefits." — 
lb., p. 415. " He makes an idoll of them, by setting his heart on them." — lb., p. 416. " This 
triall by desertion serveth for two purposes." — Do., p. 420. " Moreover, this destruction is both 
perpetuall and terrible." — lb., p. 726. "Giving to severall men several gifts, according to his 
good pleasure." — lb., p. 731. "Untill; to some time, place, or degree, mentioned." — See Red 
Book, p. 330. "Annull; to make void, to nullify, to abrogate, to abolish." "Nitric acid com- 
bined with argill, forms the nitrate of argill." — Gregory's Diet, art Chemistry. 
" Let modest Foster, if he will, excell 
Ten Metropolitans in preaching welL" — Pope, p. 414. 

Under Rule IX. — Of Final E. 

"Adjectives ending in able signify capacity; as, comfortable, tenable, improveable." — Priestley's 

Gram., p. 33. 

[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the word " irrvproveable" here retains the final e of imjyrove. But, accord- 
ing to Rule 9th, " The frnal e of a primitive word is generally omitted before an additional termination begin- 
ning with a vowel." Therefore, this e should be omitted ; thus, improvable.'] 

" Their mildness and hospitality are ascribeable to a general administration of religious ordi- 
nances." — Webster's Essays, p. 336. " Retrench as much as possible without obscureing the sense." 
— James Browns Amer. Gram., 1821, p. 11. "Changable, subject to change; Unchangeable, 
immutable." — Walker's Rhym. Diet. "Tameable, susceptive of taming ; Untameable, not to be 
tamed." — lb. " Reconcileable, Unreconcileable, Reconcileableness ; Irreconcilable, Irreconcilably, 
Irreconcilableness. " — Johnson's Diet " We have thought it most adviseable to pay him some little 
attention." — Merchant's Criticisms. "Proveable, that may be proved; Reprovable, blameable, 
worthy of reprehension." — Walker's Diet " Moveable and Immovable, Moveably and Immov- 
ably, Moveables and Removal, Moveableness and Improvableness, Unremoveable and Unimprov- 
able, Unremoveably and Removable, Proveable and Approvable, Irreproveable and Reprovable, 
Unreproveable and Improvable, Unimproveableness and Improvably." — Johnson's Diet " And 
with this cruelty you are chargable in some measure yourself." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 94. 
" Mothers would certainly resent it, as judge ing it proceeded from a low opinion of the genius of 
their sex." — British Gram., Pre/., p. xxv. "Titheable, subject to the payment of tithes; Saleable, 
vendible, fit for sale ; Loseable, possible to be lost; Sizeable, of reasonable bulk or size." — Walk- 
er's Rhyming Diet "When he began this custom, he was puleing and very tender." — Locke, on 
Ed., p. 8. 

" The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables, 
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd." — Shak. 

Under Rule X. — Of Final E. 

" Diversly ; in different ways, differently, variously." — Rhym. Diet, and Webster's. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because the word '■'■Diversly''' here omits the final e of its primitive word, diverse. 
But, according to Rule 10th, " The final e of a primitive word is generally retained before an additional termi- 
nation beginning with a consonant." Therefore, this e should be retained ; thus, Diversely.] 

" The event thereof contains a wholsome instruction." — Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients, p. 
17. "Whence Scaliger falsly concluded that articles were useless." — Brightland's Gram., p. 94. 
"The child that we have just seen is wholesomly fed." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 187. "Indeed, 
falshood and legerdemain sink the character of a prince." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 5. "In earn- 
est, at this rate of managment, thou usest thyself very coarsly." — lb., p. 19. "To give them an 
arrangment and diversity, as agreeable as the nature of the subject would admit." — Murray's 
Pref. to Ex., p. vi. "Alger's Grammar is only a trifling enlargment of Murray's little Abridgment." 
— Author. " You ask whether you are to retain or omit the mute e in the word judgment, abridg- 



208 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. I. 

ment, acknowledgment, lodgment, adjudgment, and prejudgment." — Red Boole, p. 172. "Fertile- 
ness, fruitfulness ; Fertily, fruitfully, abundantly." — Johnson's Diet. "Ghastly, purely, without 
contamination; Chastness, chastity, purity." — lb., and Walker's. "Rhymster, n. One who 
makes rhymes; a versifier; a mean poet." — Johnson and Webster. "It is therefore an heroical 
achievment to dispossess this imaginary monarch." — Berkley's Minute Phibs., p. 151. "Where- 
by, is not meant the Present Time, as he imagins, but the Time Past." — Johnson's Gram. Com., 
p. 344. "So far is this word from affecting the noun, in regard to its definitness, that its own 
character of definitness or indefinitness, depends upon the name to which it is prefixed." — 
Webster s Philosophical Gram., p. 20. 

" Satire, by wholsome Lessons, wou'cl reclaim, 
And heal their Vices to secure their Fame." — Brightland's Gr., p. 171. 

Under Rule XL — Of Final Y. 

" Solon's the veryest fool in all the play." — Dryden, from Persius, p. 475. 

[Foemitle. — Not proper, because the word " veryest" here retains the finnl y of its primitive very. But, ac- 
cording to Rule 11th, " The final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a consonant, is generally changed 
into i before an additional termination." Therefore, this y should be changed to i; thus, veriest.] 

" Our author prides himself upon his great slyness and shrewdness." — Merchant's Criticisms. 
" This tense, then, implys also the signification of Debeo." — R. Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 300. 
"That may be apply'd to a Subject, with respect to something accidental." — lb., p. 133. "This 
latter accompanys his Note with a distinction." — lb., p. 196. "This Rule is defective, and none 
of the Annotators have sufficiently supply'd it." — Po., p. 204. "Though the fancy'd Supplement 
of Sanctius, Scioppius, Vossius, and Mariangelus, may take place." — lb., p. 276. "Yet as to the 
commutableness of these two Tenses, which is deny'd likewise, they are all one." — lb., p. 311. 
"Both these Tenses may represent a Futurity imptyed by the dependence of the Clause." — lb., p. 
332. "Cry, cries, crying, cried, crier, decrial; Shy, shyer, shyest, shyly, shyness; Fly, flies, fly- 
ing, flier, high-flier ; Sly, slyer, slyest, slyly, slyness ; Spy, spies, spying, spied, espial ; Dry, 
drier, driest, dryly, dryness." — Cobb's Diet. "Cry, cried, crying, crier, cryer, decried, decrier, 
decrial; Shy, shyly, shily, shyness, shiness; Fly, flier, flyer, high-flyer; Sly, slily, slyly, sliness, 
slyness; Ply, plyer, plying, pliers, complied, compiler; Dry, drier, dryer, dryly, dryness." — Web- 
ster'.s Diet, 8vo. "Cry, crier, decrier, decrial; Shy, shily, shyly, shiness, shyness; Fly, flier, 
flyer, high-flier ; Sly, slily, slyly, sliness, slyness ; Ply, pliers, plyers, plying, complier ; Dry, drier, 
dryer, dryly, dryness." — Chalmers's Abridgement of Todd's Johnson. " I would sooner listen to 
the thrumming of a dandyzette at her piano." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 24. " Send her away; 
for she cryeth after us." — Felton's Gram., p. 140. "Ivyed, a. Overgrown with ivy." — Todd's 
Diet., and Webster's. 

"Some dryly plain, without invention's aid, 
"Write dull receipts how poems may be made." — Pope. 

Under Rule XII. — Of Final Y. 

"The gaiety of youth should be tempered by the precepts of age." — Mur. Key, p. 175. 

[Formule. — Not proper, because the word "gaiety" does not here retain the final y of the primitive word 
gay. But, according to Rule 12th, " The final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a vowel, should not be 
changed into i before an additional termination." Therefore, this y should be retained; thus, gayety.] 

" In the storm of 1703, two thousand stacks of chimnies were blown down, in and about Lon- 
don." — See Red Book, p. 112. " And the vexation was not abated by the hacknied plea of 
haste." — lb., p. 142. "The fourth sin of our daies is lukewarmness." — Perkins's Works, p. 725. 
" God hates the workers of iniquity, and destroies them that speak lies." — lb., p. 723. " For, 
when he laies his hand upon us, we may not fret." — lb., p. 726. "Care not for it; but if thou 
maiest be free, choose it rather." — lb., p. 736. "Alexander Severus saith, 'He that buieth, must 
sell: I will not suffer buyers and sellers of offices.' " — lb., p. 737. "With these measures fell in 
all monied men." — Swift: Johnson's Diet. "But rattling nonsense in full vollies breaks." — 
Pope: ib.,w. Volley. " Tallies are the intervals betwixt mountains." — "Woodward: ib. "The 
Hebrews had fifty-two journies or marches." — Wood's Diet. "It was not possible to manage or 
steer the gallies thus fastened together." — Goldsmith's Greece, Vol, ii, p. 106. "Turkies were 
not known to naturalists till after the discovery of America." — See Gregory's Diet. " I would 
not have given it for a wilderness of monkies." — See Key. "Men worked at embroidery, es- 
pecially in abbies." — Constable's Miscellany, Vol. xxi, p. 101. "Bj r which all purchasers or mort- 
gagees may be secured of all monies they lay out." — Temple : Johnson's Diet. " He would fly to 
the mines and the gallies for his recreation." — South: lb. 

" Here pullies make the pond'rous oak ascend." — Gay : ib. 

" You need my help, and you say, 

Shylock, we would have monies." — Shakspeake : ib. 

Under Rule XIII.— Of LZE and ISE. 

" "Will any able writer authorise other men to revize his works ?" — Author. 

[Fobmules. — 1. Not proper, because the word '■'■authorise," is here written with s in the last syllable, in stead 
of z. But, according to Rule 13th, "Words ending in ize or ise sounded alike, as in wise and size, generally 
take the z in all such as are essentially formed by means of the termination." Therefore, this s should be z; 
thus, authorize.] 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. SPELLING. ERRORS. 209 

2. Not proper again, because the word " revize" is here written with z in the last syllable, in lieu of s. But, 
according to Rule 13th, " Words ending in ize or ise sounded alike, as in wise and size, generally take the s, in 
monosyllables, and all such as are essentially formed by means of prefixes." Therefore, this z should be s; 
thus, revise.] 

"It can be made as strong and expressive as this Latinised English." — Murray's Gram., p. 
295. " Governed by the success or the failure of an enterprize." — lb., Yol. iL, pp. 128 and 259. 
"Who have patronised the cause of justice against powerful oppressors." — lb., pp. 94 and 228; 
Merchant, p. 199. "Yet custom authorises this use of it." — Priestley's Gram., p. 148. " They 
surprize myself, * * * and I even think the writers themselves will be surprized." — lb., Pref , 
p. xl "Let the interest rize to any sum which can be obtained." — Webster's Essays, p. 310. 
"To determin what interest shall arize on the use of money." — lb., p. 313. "To direct the 
popular councils and check a rizing opposition." — lb., p. 335. "Five were appointed to the im- 
mediate exercize of the office." — lb., p. 340. "No man ever offers himself [as] a candidate by 
advertizing." — lb., p. 344. " They are honest and economical but indolent, and destitute of 
enterprize." — lb., p. 347. " I would however advize you to be cautious." — lb., p. 404. " We are 
accountable for whatever we patronise in others." — Murray's Key, p. 175. "After he was bap- 
tised, and was solemnly admitted into the office." — Perkins's Works, p. 732. "He will find all, 
or most of them, comprized in the Exercises." — British Gram., Pref, p. v. " A quick and ready 
habit of methodising and regulating their thoughts." — lb., p. xviii. "To tyrannise over the time 
and patience of his reader." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. iii. " Writers of dull books, however, if 
patronised at all, are rewarded beyond their deserts." — lb., p. v. " A little reflection, will show 
the reader the propriety and the reason for emphasising the words marked." — lb., p. 163. " The 
English Chronicle contains an account of a surprizing cure." — Bed Book, p. 61. " Dogmatise, to 
assert positively ; Dogmatizer, an asserter, a magisterial teacher." — Chalmers's Diet. " And their 
inflections might now have been easily analysed." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, Yol. i, p. 113. "Au- 
thorize, disauthorise, and unauthorized; Temporize, contemporise, and extemporize." — Walker's 
Diet. "Legalize, equalise, methodise, sluggardize, womanise, humanize, patronise, cantonize, 
gluttonise, epitomise, anatomize, phlebotomise, sanctuarise, characterize, synonymise, recognise, 
detonize, colonise." — Ibid. 

" This Beauty Sweetness always must comprize, 
Which from the Subject, well express' d will rise." — Brightland's Gr., p. 164. 

Under Rule XIY. — Of Compounds. 

" The glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward." — Common Bibles : Isa., lviii, 8. 

[Foemttle. — Not proper, because the compound word " rereward" has not here the orthography of the two 
simple words rear and ward, which compose it. But, according to Rule 14th, " Compounds generally retain the 
orthography of the simple words which compose them." And, the accent being here unfixed, a hyphen is 
proper. Therefore, this word should be spelled thus, rear-ward.] 

"A mere vaunt-courier to announce the coming of liis master." — Tooke's Diversions, Yol. i, p. 
49. " The parti-coloured shutter appeared to come close up before him." — Kirkham's Elocution, 
p. 233. " When the day broke upon this handfull of forlorn but dauntless spirits." — lb., p. 245. 
" If, upon a plumbtree, peaches and apricots are ingrafted, no body will say they are the natural 
growth of the plumbtree." — Berkley's Minute Philos., p. 45. "The channel between Newfound- 
land and Labrador is called the Straits of Bellisle." — Worcester's Gaz. " There being nothing 
that more exposes to Headach." * — Locke, on Education, p. 6. " And, by a sleep, to say we end 
the heartach." — Shak. : in Joh. Diet. " He that sleeps, feels not the toothach." — Id., ibid. 
"That the shoe must fit him, because it fitted his father and granfather." — Philological Museum, 
Yol. i, p. 431. "A single word, mispelt, in a letter, is sufficient to show, that you have received 
a defective education." — Bucke's Gram., p. 3. "Which mistatement the committee attributed to 
a failure of memory." — Professors' Beasons, p. 14. "Then he went through the Banquetting- 
House to the scaffold." — Smollett's England, Yol. iii, p. 345. " For the purpose of maintaining a 
clergyman and skoolmaster." — Webster's Essays, p. 355. "They however knew that the lands 
were claimed by Pensylvania." — lb., p. 357. "But if you ask a reason, they immediately bid 
farewel to argument." — Bed Book, p. SO. "Whom resist stedfast in the faith." — Scott : 1 Peter, 
v, 9. "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine. "— Acts, ii, 42. "Beware lest ye 
also fall from your own stedfastness." — 2 Peter, iii, 17. " Galiot, or gattiott, a Dutch vessel, 
carrying a main-mast and a mizen-mast." — Web. Diet. "Infinitive, to overflow; Preterit, over- 
flowed; Participle, overflown." — Cobbeti's E. Gram., (1818,) p. 61. "After they have mispent so 
much precious Time." — British Gram., p. xv. "Some say, two handsfull; some, two handfulls ; 
and others, two handfull." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 106. "Lapfull, as much as the lap can 
contain." — Webster's Octavo Diet. "Darefull, full of defiance." — Walker's Bhym. Diet. "The 
road to the blissfull regions, is as open to the peasant as to the king." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 167. 
"Mis-spel is mis-spelt in every Dictionary which I have seen." — Barnes's Bed Book, p. 303. 
"Downfal; ruin, calamity, fall from rank or state." — Johnson's Diet. "The whole legislature 
likewize acts az a court." — Webster's Essays, p. 340. " It were better a milstone were hanged 

* Ache, and its plural, aches, appear to have been formerly pronounced like the name of the eighth letter, 
with its plural, Aitch, and Aitches; for the old poets made "aches" two syllables. But Johnson says of 
ache, a pain, it is " now generally written ake, and in the plural akes, of one syllable." — See his Quarto Diet. 
So Walker : " It is now almost universally written ake and akes." — See Walker's Principles, No. 355. So 
Webster: "Ake, less properly written ache." — See his Octavo Diet. But Worcester seems rather to prefer 
ache G. B. 

14 



210 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

about his neck." — Perkins's Works, p. 731. " Flum-tree, a tree that produces plums; Hog- 
plumbtree, a tree." — Webster's Diet. " Trisyllables ending in re or le, accent the first syllable." — 
Murray 's Gram., p. 238. 

" It happen'd on a summer's holiday, 
That to the greenwood shade he took his way." — Churchill's Gf., p. 135. 

Under Rule XV. — Of Usage. 

"Nor are the modes of the Greek tongue more uniform." — Hurray's Gram., p. 112. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the -word "modes" is here written for moods, which is more common among 
the learned, and usually preferred by Murray himself. But, according to Rule 15th, "Any word for the 
spelling of which we have no rule but usage, is written wrong if not swelled according to the usage which is 
most common among the learned." Therefore, the latter form should be preferred ; thus, moods, and not 
modes.'] 

"If we analize a conjunctive preterite, the rule will not appear to hold." — Priestley's Gram., 
p. 118. "No landholder would have been at that expence." — lb., p. 116. "I went to see tho 
child whilst they were putting on its cloaths." — lb., p. 125. "This stile is ostentatious, and doth 
not suit grave writing." — lb., p. 82. "The king of Israel, and Jehosophat the king of Judah, 
sat each on his throne." — Mur. Gram., p. 165, twice; Merchant's, 89; Churchill's, 300. "The 
king of Israel, and Jehosaphat tho king of Judah, sat each on his throne." — Lowth's Gram., p. 
90 ; Harrison's, 99 ; Churchill's, 138 ; Wright's, 148. " Lisias, speaking of his friends, promised 
to his father, never to abandon them." — Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, pp. 121 and 253. " Some, to avoid 
this errour, run into it's opposite." — Churchill's Gram., p. 199. "Hope, the balm of life, sooths 
us under every misfortune." — Merchants Key, p. 204. " Any judgement or decree might be heerd 
and reversed by the legislature." — Webster's Essays, p. 340. "A pathetic harang wil skreen 
from punishment any knave." — lb., p. 341. " For the same reezon, the wimen would be im- 
proper judges." — Ibid. "Every person iz indulged in worshiping az ho pleezes." — lb., p. 345. 
" Most or ah teechers are excluded from genteel company." — lb., p. 362. "The Kristian religion, 
in its purity, iz the best institution on erth." — lb., p. 364. " Neether clergymen nor human laws 
hav the leest authority over the conscience." — lb., p. 363. " A gild is a society, fraternity, or 
corporation." — Red Book, p. 83. " Phillis was not able to unty the knot, and so she cut it." — lb., 
p. 46. " An aker of land is the quantity of one hundred and sixty perches." — lb., p. 93. 
" Oker is a fossil earth combined with the oxid of some metal." — lb., p. 96. " Genii, when 
denoting serial spirits : Geniuses, when signifying persons of genius." — Mur.'s Gram., i, p. 42. 
' " Genii, when denoting eeriel spirits ; Geniuses, when signifying persons of genius." — Frost's 
Gram., p. 9. " Genius, Plu. geniuses, men of wit ; but genii, aerial beings." — Nutting's Gram., p. 
18. " Acrisius, king of Argos, had a beautiful daughter, whose name was Danse." — Classic Tales, 
p. 109. " Phseton was the son of Apollo and Clymene." — lb., p. 152. " But, after all. I may 
not have reached the intended Gaol." — Buchanan's Syntax, Pref., p. xxvii. " ' Pitticus was 
offered a large sum.' Better: 'A large sum was offered to Pitticus.'" — Kirkham's Gram., p. 
187. " King Missipsi charged his sons to respect the senate and people of Rome." — See ib., p. 
161. "For example: Gallileo invented the telescope." — lb., pp. 54 and 67. " Cathmor's war- 
riours sleep in death." — lb., p. 54. " For parsing will enable you to detect and correct errours in 
composition." — lb., p. 50. t 

" O'er barren mountains, o'er the flow'ry plain, 
Extends thy uncontroul'd and boundless reign." — Dryden. 

PROMISCUOUS ERRORS IN SPELLING. 
Lesson I. — Mixed. 

" A bad author deserves better usage than a bad critick." — Pope : Johnson's Diet, w. Former. 
" Produce a single passage superiour to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, delivered to Lord 
Dunmore, when governour of Virginia." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 247. " We have none synoni- 
mous to supply its place." — Jamieson's Rhetoric, p. 48. " There is a probability that the effect 
wiU be accellerated." — lb., p. 48. " Nay, a regard to sound hath controuled the public choice." 
— Ib., p. 46. " Though learnt from the uninterrupted use of gutterel sounds." — lb., p. 5. " It is 
by carefully filing off all roughness and inequaleties, that languages, like metals, must be pol- 
ished." — lb., p. 48. "That I have not mispent my time in the service of the community," — 
Buchanan's Syntax, Pref., p. xxviii. "The leaves of maiz are also called blades." — Webster's El. 
Spelling- Book, p. 43. " Who boast that they know what is past, and can foretel what is to come." 
— Robertson's Amer., Vol. i, p. 360. "Its tasteless dullness is interrupted by nothing but its per- 
plexities." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 18. "Sentences constructed with the Johnsonian fullness and 
swell." — Jamieson's RheL, p. 130. "The privilege of escaping from his prefatory dullness and 
prolixit} r ." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. iv. " But in poetry this characteristick of dulness attains 
its full growth." — lb., p. 72. "The leading characteristick consists in an increase of the force 
and fullness." — lb., p. 71. " The character of this opening fulness and feebler vanish." — lb., p. 31. 
"Who, in the fullness of unequalled power, would not believe himself the favourite of heaven?" 
— Ib., p. 181. "They marr one another, and distract him." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 433. 
"Let a deaf worshipper of antiquity and an English prosodist settle this." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 
140. "This phillipic gave rise to my satirical reply in self-defence." — Merchant's Criticisms. 



CHAP. IV.] ORTHOGRAPHY. SPELLING. ERRORS. 211 

,: We here saw no inuendoes, no new sophistry, no falsehoods." — Ib. " A witty and humourous 
vein has often produced enemies." — Murray's Key, p. 173. " Cry holla! to thy tongue, I pr'ythee : 
it eurvetts unseasonably." — Sliak. " I said, in my slyest manner, ' Tour health, sir.' " — Black- 
v;ood's Mag., Vol. xl, p. 679. "And attornies also travel the circuit in pursute of business." — 
Red Book, p. 83. " Some whole counties in Virginia would hardly sel for the valu of the dets du 
from the inhabitants." — Webster s Essays, p. 361. " They were called the court of assistants, 
and exercized all powers legislativ and judicial." — lb., p. 340. " Arithmetic is excellent for the 
guaging of liquors." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 288. "Most of the inflections may be analysed in 
a way somewhat similar." — lb., p. 112. 

" To epithets allots emphatic state, 
"Whilst principals, ungracd, like lacquies wait." — C. Churchill's Eos., p. 8. 

Lesson II. — Mixed. 

"Hence it [less] is a privative word, denoting destitution; as, fatherless, faithless, penny less.". — 
Webster's Diet., w. Less. " Bay ; red, or reddish, inclining to a chesnut color." — Same. " To 
mimick, to imitate or ape for sport; a mimic, one who imitates or mimics." — lb. " Counterroll, 
a counterpart or copy of the roils; Counterrolment, a counter account." — lb. "Millenium, the 
thousand 3-ears during which Satan shall be bound." — lb. "Millenial, pertaining to the millen- 
ium, or to a thousand years." — lb. "Thraldom; slavery, bondage, a state of servitude." — See 
Johnson's Diet. " Brier, a prickly bush ; Briery, rough, prickly, full of briers ; Sweetbriar, a fra- 
grant shrub." — See Johnson, Walker, Chalmers, Webster, and others. " WiU, in the second and 
third Persons, barely foretels." — British Gram., p. 132. " And therefor there is no Word false, 
but what is distinguished by Italics." — lb., Pref, p. v. "What should be repeted is left to their 
Discretion." — lb., p. iv. "Because they are abstracted or seperated from material Substances." — 
Ej., p. ix. " All Motion is in Time, and therefor, where-ever it exists, implies Time as its Con- 
commitant." — lb., p. 140. " And illiterate grown persons are guilty of blameable spelling." — lb., 
Pref, p. xiv. "They wil always be ignorant, and of ruf uncivil manners." — Webster's Essays, 
p. 346. " This fact wil hardly be beleeved in the northern states." — Eo., p. 367. " The province 
however waz harrassed with disputes." — lb., -p. 352. "So little concern haz the legislature for 
the interest of lerning." — lb., p. 349. "The gentlemen wil not admit that a skoolmaster can be 
a gentleman." — lb., p. 362. "Such absurd qui-pro-quoes cannot be too strenuously avoided." — 
Churchill's Gram., p. 205. "When we say, 'a man looks slyly ;' we signify, that he assumes a 
sly look." — E>., p. 339. " Eeep ; to look through a crevice; to look narrowly, closely, or slyly." 
— Webster's Diet. "ITence the confession has become a hacknied proverb." — Wayland's Moral 
Science, p. 110. "Not to mention the more ornamental parts of guilding, varnish, &c." — Tooke's 
Diversions, Vol. i, p. 20. "After this system of self-interest had been rivetted." — Brown's Esti- 
mate, Vol. ii, p. 136. "Prejudice might have prevented the cordial approbation of a bigotted 
Jew." — Scott : on Luke, x. 

"All twinkling with the dew-drop sheen, 
The briar-rose foil in streamers green." — Lady of the Lake, p. 16. 

Lesson III. — Mixed. 

"The infinitive mode has commonly the sign to before it." — Harrison's Gram., p. 25. " Thus, it 
is adviseable to write singeing, from the verb to singe, by way of distinction from singing, the par- 
ticiple of the verb to sing." — Eo., p. 27. "Many verbs form both the preterite tense and the 
preterite participle irregularly." — Lb., p. 28. "Much must be left to every one's taste and 
judgment." — Lb., p. 67. "Verses of different lengths intermixed form a Pindarick poem." — 
Eriestley's Gram., p. 44. "He'll surprize you." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 88. " Unequalled 
archer! why was this concealed?" — Enowles: ib., p. 102. "So gaily curl the waves before 
each dashing prow." — Byron: ib., p. 104. "When is a dipthong called a proper dipthong?" — 
Infant School Gram., p. 11. "How many ss would goodness then end with? Three." — lb., p. 
33. " Q. What is a tripthong ? A. A tripthong is the union of three vowels, pronounced in 
like manner." — Bacon's Gram., p. 7. "The verb, noun, or pronoun, is referred to the preceding 
terms taken seperately." — lb., p. 47. " The cubic foot of matter which occupies the center of 
the globe." — Cardell's Gram., 18mo, p. 47. "The wine imbibes oxigen, or the acidifying princi- 
ple, from the air." — Lb., p. 62. "Charcoal, sulphur, and niter, make gun powder." — Lb., p. 90. 
" It would be readily understood, that the thing so labeled, was a bottle of Madeira wine." — Lb., 
p. 99. " They went their ways, one to his farm, an other to his merchandize." — lb., p. 130. 
"A dipthong is the union of two vowels, sounded by a single impulse of the voice." — RusseWs 
Gram., p. 7. " The professors of the Mahommedan religion are called Mussulmans." — Maltby's 
Gram., p. 73. "This shews that let is not a sign of the imperative mood, but a real verb." — 
lb., p. 51. "Those preterites and participles, which are first mentioned in the fist, seem to be 
the most eligible." — lb., p. 47. "Monosyllables, for the most part, are compared by er and est; 
and dyssyllables by more and most." — lb., p. 19. " This termination, added to a noun, or adjec- 
tive, changes it into a verb : as modern, to modernise ; a symbol, to symbolize." — Churchill's Gram., 
p. 24. " An Abridgment of Murray's Grammar, with additions from Webster, Ash, Tooke, and 
others." — Maltby's title-page. " For the sake of occupying the room more advantagously, the sub- 
ject of Orthography is merely glanced at." — Nutting's Gram., p. 5. " So contended the accusers 



212 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

of Gallileo." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., 12mo, 1839, p. 380. "Murray says, 'They were traveling 
past when we met them.'" — Peirce, ib., p. 361. "They fulfil the only purposes for which they 
are designed." — lb., p. 359. "On the fulfillment of the event." — lb., p. 175. "Fullness consists 
hi expressing every idea." — lb., p. 291. " Consistently with fulness and perspicuity." — lb., p. 
33*7. " The word verriest is a gross corruption; as, 'He is the verriest fool on earth.' " — Wright' 's 
Gram., p. 202. " The sound will recal the idea of the object." — Hiley's Gram., p. 142. " Formed 
for great enterprizes." — Bullions 's Prin. of E. Gram., p. 153. "The most important rules and 
definitions are printed in large type, italicised." — Hart's Gram., p. 3. "Hamletted, a. Accus- 
tomed to a hamlet ; countrified." — Bolles's Diet, and Chalmers's. " Singular, spoonful, cup-full, 
coach-full, handful ; plural, spoonfuls, cup-fulls, coach-fulls, handfuls." — Bullions's Analyt. and Praci, 
Gram., p. 27. 

"Between Superlatives and following Names, 
OF, by Grammatick Right, a Station claims." — Brightlandi's Gram., p. 146. 



CHAPTER V.— QUESTIONS. 

ORDER OF REHEARSAL, AND METHOD OF EXAMINATION. 

%W [The student ought to be able to answer with readiness, and in the words of the book, all the following 
questions on grammar. And if he has but lately commenced the study, it may be well to require of him a 
general rehearsal of this kind, before he proceeds to the correction of any pax't of the false grammar quoted in 
the foregoing chapters. At any rate, he should be master of so many of the definitions and rules as precede 
the part which he attempts to correct ; because this knowledge is necessary to a creditable performance of the 
exercise. But those who are very quick at reading, may perform it tolerably, by consulting the book at the 
time, for what they do not remember. The answer* to these questions will embrace all the main text of the 
work ; and, if any further examination be thought necessary, extemporaneous questions may be framed for 
the purpose.] 

Lesson I. — Grammar. 

1. "What is the name, or title, of this book ? 2. "What is Grammar ? 3. "What is an English 
Grammar ? 4. "What is English Grammar, in itself? and what knowledge does it imply ? 5. If 
grammar is the art of reading, writing, and speaking, define these actions. "What is it, to read ? 
6. "What is it, to write? 7. What is it, to speak? 8. How is grammar to be taught, and by what 
means are its principles to be made known? 9. What is a perfect definition? 10. What is an 
example, as used in teaching? 11. What is a rule of grammar? 12. What is an exercise ? 13. 
What was language at first, and what is it now? 14. Of what two kinds does the composition of 
language consist? and how do they differ ? 15. What are the least parts of language? 16. 
What has discourse to do with sentences? or sentences, with points? 17. In extended compo- 
sitions, what is the order of the parts, upwards from a sentence? 18. What, then, is the com- 
mon order of literary division, downwards, throughout? 19. Are all literary works divided ex- 
actly in this way ? 20. How is Grammar divided? 21. Of what does Orthography treat? 22. 
Of what does Etymology treat ? 23. Of what does Syntax treat ? 24. Of what does Prosody 
treat ? 

PAKT FIRST, ORTHOGRAPHY. 

Lesson II. — Letters. 

1. Of what does Orthography treat? 2. What is a letter? 3. What is an elementary sound 
of human voice, or speech ? 4. What name is given to the sound of a letter ? and what epithet, 
to a letter not sounded ? 5. How many letters are there in English ? and how many sounds do 
they represent? 6. In what does a knowledge of the letters consist? 7. What variety is there 
in the letters ? and how are they always the same ? 8. What different sorts of types, or stjdes 
of letters, are used in English ? 9. What are the names of the letters in English ? 10. What are 
their names in both rmmbers, singular and plural ? 11. Into what general classes are the letters 
divided? 12. What is a vowel? 13. What is a consonant? 14. What letters are vowels? and 
what, consonants? 15. When are w and y consonants? and when, vowels? 16. How are the 
consonants divided? 17. What is a semivowel? 18. What is a mute? 19. What letters are 
reckoned semivowels ? and how many of these are aspirates ? 20. What letters are called liquids? 
and why? 21. What letters are reckoned mutes? and which of them are imperfect mutes? 

Lesson III. — Sounds. 

1. What is meant, when we speak of the powers of the letters ? 2. Are the sounds of a 
language fewer than its words? 3. How are different vowel sounds produced? 4. What are the 
vowel sounds in English ? 5. How may these sounds be modified in the formation of syllables ? 
6. Can you form a word upon each by means of an /? 7. Will you try the series again with a 
p ? 8. How may the vowel sounds be written ? and how uttered when they are not words ? 9. 
Which of the vowel sounds form words? and what of the rest? 10. How many and what are 
the consonant sounds in English? 11. In what series of words may all these sounds be heard? 



CHAP. V.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — QUESTIONS. 213 

12. In what series of words may each of them be heard two or three times? 13. What is said 
of the sounds of j and xl 14. What is said of the sounds of c and q ? 15. What is said of sc, ors 
before c ? 16. What, of ce, ci, and cht 17. What sounds has the consonant g ? 18. In how many 
different ways can the letters of the alphabet be combined ? 19. What do we derive from these 
combinations of sounds and characters? 

Lesson IV. — Capitals. 

1. What characters are employed in English? 2. Why should the different sorts of letters be 

kept distinct ? 3. What is said of the slanting strokes in Roman letters ? 4. For what purpose 

are Italics chiefly used? 5. In preparing a manuscript, how do we mark these things for the 

printer? 6. What distinction of form belongs to each of the letters? 7. What is said of small 

letters ? and why are capitals used ? 8. What things are commonly exhibited wholly in capitals ? 

9. How many rules for capitals are given in this book ? and what are their titles ? 10. What 

says Rule 1st of books? 11. What says Rule 2d of first words? 12. What says Rule 3d of names 

of Deity? 13. What says Rule 4th of proper nam es ? 14. What says Rule 5th of titles f 15. 

What says Rule 6th of one capital? 16. What says Rule 7th of two capitals? 17. What says 

Rule 8th of compounds? 18. What says Rule 9th of apposition? 19. What says Rule 10th of 

personifications? 20. What says Rule 11th of derivatives? 21. What says Rule 12th of I and 

0? 22. What says Rule 13th of poetry? 23. What says Rule 14th of examples? 24. What 

says Rule 15th of chief words? 25. What says Rule 16th of needless capitals ? 

[Now turn to the first chapter of Orthography, and correct the improprieties there quoted for the practical 
application of these rules.] 

Lesson V. — Syllables. 

1. What is a syllable ? 2. Can the syllables of a word be perceived by the ear? 3. Under 
what names are words classed according to the number of their S3*llables ? 4. Which of the let- 
ters can form syllables of themselves ? and which cannot? 5. What is a diphthong? 6. What 
is a proper diphthong? 7. What is an improper diphthong? 8. What is a triphthong. 9. What 
is a proper triphthong? 10. What is an improper triphthong? 11. How many and what are the 
diphthongs in English? 12. How many and which of these are so variable in sound that they 
may be either proper or improper diphthongs? 13. How many and what are the proper diph- 
thongs? 14. How many and what are the improper diphthongs? 15. Are proper triphthongs 
numerous in our language? 16. How many and what are the improper triphthongs ? 17. What 
guide have we for dividing words into syllables ? 18. How many special rules of syllabication 
are given in this book? and what are their titles, or subjects? 19. What says Rule 1st of con- 
sonants? 20. What says Rule 2d of- vowels? 21. What says Rule 3d of terminations? 22. 
What says Rule 4th of prefixes ? 23. What says Rule 5th of compounds ? 24. What says Rule 
6th of lines full? 

[Now turn to the second chapter of Orthography, and correct the improprieties there quoted for the practical 
application of these rules.] 

Lesson VI. — Words. 

1. What is a word? 2. How are words distinguished in regard to species and figure? 3. 
What is a primitive word ? 4. What is a derivative word ? 5. What is a simple word ? 6. What 
i« a compound word? 7. How do permanent compounds differ from others? 8. How many 
rules for the figure of words are given in this book ? and what are their titles, or subjects ? 9. 
What says Rule 1st of compounds? 10. What says Rule 2d of simples? 11. What says Rule 
3d of the sense? 12. What says Rule 4th of ellipses? 13. What says Rule 5th of the hyphen? 
14. What says Rule 6th of no hyphen ? 

[Now turn to the third chapter of Orthography, and correct the improprieties there quoted for the practical 
' application of these rules.] 

Lesson VII. — Spelling. 

1. What is spelling? 2. How is this art to be acquired? and why so? 3. Why is it difficult 
to learn to spell accurately ? 4. Is it then any disgrace to spell words erroneously ? 5. What 
benefit may be expected from the rules for spelling ? 6. How many rules for spelling are given 
in this book ? and what are their titles, or subjects ? 7. What says Rule 1st of final f I, or s ? 8. 
Can you mention the principal exceptions to this rule? 9. What Says Rule 2d of other finals? 
10. Are there any exceptions to this rule? 11. What says Rule 3d of the doubling of consonants ? 
12. Under what three heads are the exceptions to this rule noticed ? 13. What says Rule 4th 
against the doubling of consonants ? 14. Under what four heads are the apparent exceptions to 
this Rule noticed? 15. What says Rule 5th of final ck? 16. What monosyllables, contrary to 
this rule, end with c only? 17. What says Rule 6th of the retaining of double letters before 
affixes? 18. Under what three heads are the exceptions to this rule noticed? 19. What says 
Rule 7th of the retaining of double letters after prefixes? 20. What observation is made re- 
specting exceptions to this rule ? ' 

Lesson VIII. — Spelling. 

21. What says Rule 8th of final II, and of final I single ? 22. What words does this rule claim, 
which might seem to come under Rule 7th? and why? 23. What says Rule 9th of finale 



214 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

omitted? 24. Under what three heads are the exceptions, real or apparent, here noticed? 25. 
What says Rule 10th of final e retained ? 26. Under what three heads are the exceptions to 
this rule noticed? 27. What says Rule 11th of final y changed? 28. Under what three heads 
are the limits and exceptions to this rule noticed? 29. What says Rule 12th of final y un- 
changed? 30. Under what three heads are the exceptions to this rule noticed? 31. What says 
Rule 13th of the terminations ize and ise? 32. Under what three heads are the apparent ex- 
ceptions to this rule noticed ? 33. What says Rule 14th of compounds ? 34. Under what seven 
heads are the exceptions to this rule noticed? 35. What says Rule 15th of usage, as a law of 
spelling ? 

[Now turn to the fourth chapter of Orthography, and correct the improprieties there quoted for the practical 
application of these rules and their exceptions.] 



CHAPTER VI.— FOR WRITING. 

EXERCISES IN ORTHOGRAPHY. 

g^F" [The following examples of false orthography are inserted here, and not explained in the general Key, 
that they may be corrected by the pupil in writing. Some of the examples here quoted are less inaccurate 
than others, but all of them, except a few shown in contrast, are, in some respect or other, erroneous. It is 
supposed, that every student who can answer the questions contained in the preceding chapter, will readily dis- 
cern wherein the errors lie, and be able to make the necessary corrections.] 

EXERCISE I.— CAPITALS. 

" Alexander the great killed his friend Clitus." — Harrison's Gram., p. 68. " The words in 
italics are parsed in the same manner." — Malthy's Gram., p. 69. " It may be read by those who 
do not understand latin." — Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 262. "A roman s being added to a word 
in italics or small capitals." — Churchill's Gram., p. 215. ''This is not simply a gallicism, but a 
corruption of the French on; itself a corruption." — lb., p. 228. "The Gallicism, l itis me,' is 
perpetually striking the ear in London." — lb., p. 316. " ' Almost nothing,' is a common Scotticism, 
equally improper: it should be, 'scarcely any thing.' " — lb., p. 333. "To use learn for teach, is 
a common Scotticism, that ought to be carefully avoided." — See ib., p. 261. " A few observations 
on the subjunctive mood as it appears in our English bible." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 40. "The 
translators of the bible, have confounded two tenses, which in the original are uniformly kept dis- 
tinct." — lb., p. 40. " More like heaven on earth, than the holy land would have been." — Anti- 
Slavery Mag., Yol. i, p. 72. " There is now extant a poetical composition, called the golden 
verses of Pythagoras." — Lempriere's Diet. " Exercise of the Mind upon Theorems of Science, 
like generous and manly Exercise of the Body, tends to call forth and strengthen Nature's original 
Vigour." — Harris's Hermes, p. 295. " that I could prevail on Christians to melt down, under 
the warm influence of brotherly love, all the distinctions of methodists, independents, baptists, 
anabaptists, arians, trinitarians, unitarians, in the glorious name of christians." — Knox: Church- 
ill's Gram., p. 173. "Pythagoras long ago remarked, 'that ability and necessity dwell near 
each other.' " — Student's Manual, p. 285. 

" The Latin Writers Decency neglect, 
But modern Readers challenge more Respect." — Brightland's Gram., p. 172. 

EXERCISE II.— SYLLABLES. 

1. Correct Bolles, in the division of the following words: "Del-ia, Jul-ia, Lyd-ia, heigh-ten, 
pat-ron, ad-roit, worth-y, fath-er, fath-er-ly, mar-chi-o-ness, i-dent-ic-al, out-ra-ge-ous, ob-nox-i- 
ous, pro-di-gi-ous, tre-mend-ous, ob-liv-i-on, pe-cul-i-ar." — Revised Spelling-Booh : New London, 
1831. 

2. Correct Sears, in the division of the following words : " A-quil-a, hear-ty, drea-ry, wor-my, 
hai-ry, thor-ny, phil-os-o-phy, dis-cov-e-ry, re-cov-e-ry, ad-diti-on, am-biti-on, au-spici-ous, fac- 
titious, fla-giti-ous, fru-iti-on, sol-stiti-al, ab-o-liti-on." — Standard Spelling- Book : "New Haven," 
1826. 

3. Correct Bradley, in thetdivision of the following words : " Jes-ter, rai-ny, forg-e-ry, fin-e-ry, 
spic-e-ry, brib-e-ry, groc-e-ry, chi-can-e-ry, fer-riage, line-age; cri-ed, tri-ed, su-ed, slic-ed, forc-ed, 
pledg-ed, sav-ed, dup-ed, strip-ed, touch-ed, trounc-ed." — Improved Spelling-Book : Windsor, 
1815. 

4. Correct Bicrhans, in the division of the following words: "Boar-der, brigh-ten, cei-ling, 
frigh-ten, glea-ner, lea-kage, suc-ker, mos-sy, fros-ty, twop-ence, pu-pill-ar-y, crit-i-call-y, gen- 
er-all-y, lit-er-all-y, log-i-call-y, trag-i-call-y, ar-ti-fici-al, po-liti-call-y, sloth-full-y, spite-full-y, re-all-y, 
sui-ta-ble, ta-mea-ble, fiumm-er-y, nesc-i-ence, shep-her-dess, trav-ell-er, re-pea-ter, re-pressi-on, 
suc-cessi-on, un-lear-ned." — Critical Pronouncing Spelling-Book :* Philadelphia, 1823. 

* This book has, probably, more recommenders than any other of the sort. I have not patience to count 
them accurately, bxit it would seem that more than a thousand of the great and learned have certified to the 
world, that they never before had seen so good a spelling-book ! With personal knowledge of more than fifty 
cf the signers, G. B. refused to add his poor name, being ashamed of the mischievous facility with which very 
res lectable men had loaned their signatures. 



CHAP. VI.] ORTHOGRAPHY. EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 215 

5. Correct Marshall, in the division of the following words : " Trench-er, trunch-eon, dros-sy, 
glos-sy, glas-sy, gras-sy, dres-ses, pres-ses, cal-hng, chan-ging, en-chan-ging, con-ver-sing, mois- 
ture, join-ture, qua-drant, qua-drate, trans-gres-sor, dis-es-teem." — New Spelling -Book : New York, 
1836. 

6. Correct Emerson, in the division of the following words : " Dus-ty mis-ty, mar-shy, mil-ky, 
wes-tern, stor-my, nee-dy spee-dy, drea-ry, fros-ty, pas-sing, roc-ky, bran-chy, bland-ish, pru-disli, 
eve-ning, a-noth-er." — National Spelling-Book : Boston, 1828. 

" Two Vowels meeting, each with its full Sound, 
Always to make Two Syllables are bound." — Brighiland's Gram., p. 64. 

EXERCISE III.— FIGURE OF W ORDS. 

" I was surprised by the return of my long lost brother." — Parker's Exercises in English Com- 
position, p. 5. " Such singular and unheard of clemency cannot be passed over by me in silence." 
— lb., p. 10. " I perceive my whole system excited by the potent stimulus of sun-shine." — lb., 
p. 11. " To preserve the unity of a sentence, it is sometimes necessary to employ the case abso- 
lute, instead of the verb and conjunction." — lb., p. 17. " Severity and hard hearted opinions ac- 
cord with the temper of the times." — lb., p. 18. " That poor man was put into the mad house." 
— lb., p. 22. " This fellow must be put into the poor house." — lb. p. 22. " I have seen the 
breast works and other defences of earth, that were thrown up." — lb., p. 24. " Cloven footed 
animals are enabled to walk more easily on uneven ground." — lb., p. 25. " Self conceit blasts 
the prospects of many a youth." — lb., p. 26. "Not a moment should elapse without bringing 
some thing to pass." — lb., p. 36. "A school master decoyed the children of the principal citizens 
into the Roman camp." — lb., p. 39. " The pupil may now write a description of the following 
objects. A school room. A steam boat. A writing desk. A dwehing house. A meeting 
house. A paper mill. A grist mill. A wind mill." — lb., p. 45. " Every metaphor should be 
founded on a resemblance winch is clear and striking ; not far fetched, nor difficult to be discov- 
ered." — lb., p. 49. " I was reclining in an arbour overhung with honey suckle and jessamine of 
the most exquisite fragrance." — lb., p. 51. " The author of the following extract is speaking of 
the slave trade." — lb., p. 60. " The all wise and benevolent Author of nature has so framed the 
soul of man, that he cannot but approve of virtue." — lb., p. 74. " There is something of self 
denial in the very idea of it." — lb., p. 75. "Age therefore requires a well spent youth to render 
it happy." — lb., p. 76. "Pearl-ash requires much labour in its extraction from ashes." — 
lb., p. 91. " Club, or crump, footed, Loripes ; Rough, or feather, footed, Plumipes." — Ainsworth's 
Diet. 

11 The honey-bags steal from the humble bees, 
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs." — Shak. : Joh.'s Diet, w. Glowworm. 

" The honey bags steal from the bumblebees, 
And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs." — Shak. : Joh.'s Diet, w. Humblebee. 

"The honey bags steal from the humble-bees, 
And, for night tapers crop their waxen thighs." — Dodd's Beauties of Shak., p. 51. 

EXERCISE TV.— SPELLING-. 

"His antichamber, and room of audience, are little square chambers wainscoted." — Addison: 
Johnson's Diet., w. Antechamber. " Nobody will deem the quicksighted amongst them to have 
very enlarged views of ethicks." — Locke : ib., w. Quicksighted. " At the rate of this thick- 
skulled blunderhead, every plow-jobber shall take upon him to read upon divinity." — 
L'Estrange : ib., to. Blunderhead. " On the topmast, the yards, and boltsprit would I flame 
distinctly." — Shak. : ib., w. Bowsprit. " This is the tune of our catch plaid by the picture of no- 
body." — Id. : ib., w. Nobody. "Thy fall hath left a kind of blot to mark the fulfraught man." — 
Id. : ib., w. Fulfraught " Till blinded by some Jack o'Lanthorn sprite." — Snelling's Gift, p. 62. 
"The beauties jon would have me eulogise." — lb., p. 14. "They rail at me — I gaily laugh at 
them." — lb., p. 13. " Which the king and his sister had intrusted to him withall." — Josephus, 
Vol. v, p. 143. " The terms of these emotions are by no means synonimous." — Rush, on the 
Voice, p. 336. " Lillied, adj. Embellished with lilies." — Chalmers's Diet "They seize the com- 
pendious blessing without exertion and without reflexion." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 428. 
" The first cry that rouses them from their torpour, is the cry that demands their blood." — lb., p. 
433. "It meets the wants of elementary schools and deserves to be patronised." — Kirkham's 
Gram., p. 5. "Whose attempts were paralysed by the hallowed sound." — Music of Nature, p. 
270. "It would be an amusing investigation to analyse their language." — lb., p. 200. "It is my 
father's will that I should take on me the hostess-ship of the day." — Shak. : in Johnson's Diet 
"To retain the full apprehension of them undiminisht." — Phil. Museum., Vol. i, p. 458. "The ayes 
and noes were taken in the House of Commons." — Anti-Slavery Mag., Vol. i, p. 11. "Derivative 
words are formed by adding letters or syllables to primatives." — Davenports Gram., p. 7. "The 
minister never was thus harrassed himself." — Nelson, on Infidelity, p. 6. "The most vehement 
politician thinks himself unbiassed in his judgment." — lb., p. 17. " Mistress-ship, n. Female 
rule or dominion." — Webster's Diet. 

" Tims forced to kneel, thus groveling to embrace, 
The scourge and ruin of my realm and race." — Pope : Ash's Gram., p. 83. 



216 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

EXERCISE V.— MIXED ERRORS. 

" The quince tree is of a low stature ; the branches are diffused and crooked." — Miller : 
Johnson's Diet. " The greater slow worm, called also the blind worm, is commonly thought to be 
blind, because of the littleness of his eyes." — Grew: ib. "Oh Hocus! where art thou? It 
used to go in another guess manner in thy time." — Arbuthnot : ib. " One would not make a 
hotheaded crackbrained coxcomb forward for a scheme of moderation." — Id. : ib. " As for you, 
colonel huff-cap, we shall try before a civil magistrate who's the greatest plotter." — Dryden : t&., 
w. Huff. "In like manner, Actions co-alesce with their Agents, and Passions with their Patients." 
— Harris's Hermes, p. 263. " These Sentiments are not unusual even with the Philosopher now 
a days." — lb., p. 350. "As if the Marble were to fashion the Chizzle, and not the Chizzle the 
Marble." — lb., p. 353. "I would not be understood, in what I have said, to under value Experi- 
ment." — lb., p. 352. " How therefore is it that they approach nearly to Non-Entitys ?" — lb., p. 
431. " Gluttonise, modernise, epitomise, barbarise, tyranise." — ChurcMWs Gram., pp. 31 and 42. 
" Now fair befal thee and thy noble house !"— 'Shak. : ib., p. 241. " Nor do I think the error 
above-mentioned would have been so long indulged," &c. — AsKs Gram., p. 4. "The editor of 
the two editions above mentioned was pleased to give this little manuel to the public," &c. — lb., 
p. 7. " A Note of Admiration denotes a modelation of the voice suited to the expression." — lb., 
p. 16. " It always has some respect to the power of the agent ; and is therefore properly stiled 
the potential mode." — lb., p. 29. " Both these are supposed to be synonomous expressions." — 
lb., p. 105. "An expence bej'ond what my circumstances admit." — Doddridge: ib., p. 138. 
"There are four of them : the Full-Point, or Period; the Colon; the Semi- Colon; the Comma." 
— Cobbett's E. Gram., N. Y., 1818, p. 77. "There are many men, who have been at Latin- 
Schools for years, and who, at last, cannot write six sentences in English correctly." — lb., p. 39. 
"But, figures of rhetorick are edge tools, and two edge tools too." — lb., p. 182. "The horse- 
chesnut grows into a goodly standard." — Mortimer : Johnson's Diet. " Whereever if is to be 
used." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 175. 

" Peel'd, patch'd, and pyebald, linsey-woolsey brothers." — Pope : Joh. Diet, to., Mummer. 
" Peel'd, patch'd, and piebald, linsey-woolsey brothers." — Id. : ib., w. Piebald. 

EXERCISE VI.— MIXED ERRORS. 

"Pied, adj. \fvom pie.~] Variegated; partycoloured." — Johnson's Diet. "Pie, [pica, Lat.] A 
magpie; a party-coloured bird." — lb. "G-luy, adj. [from glue.] Viscous ; tenacious ; glutinous." 
— Ib. "Gluey, a. Viscous, glutinous. Glueyness. n. The quality of being gluey." — Webster's 
Diet. " Old Euelio, seeing a crow-scrat* upon the muck-hill, returned in all haste, taking it for 
an ill sign." — Burton: Johnson's Diet. " Wars are begun by hairbrainedf dissolute captains." — 
Id.: ib. "A carot is a well known garden root." — Red Book, p. 60. "Natural philosophy, 
metaphysicks, ethicks, history, theology, and politicks, were familiar to him." — Kirkham's Elocu- 
tion, p. 209. "The words in Italicks and capitals, are emphatick." — lb., p. 210. "It is still 
more exceptionable ; Candles, Cherrys, Eigs, and other sorts of Plumbs, being sold by "Weight, 
and being Plurals." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 135. "If the End of Grammar be not to save 
that Trouble, and Expence of Time, I know not what it is good for." — lb., p. 161. " Caulce, 
Sheep Penns, or the like, has no Singular, according to Charisius."— Ib., p. 194. " These busi- 
bodies are like to such as reade bookes with intent onely to spie out the faults thereof." — Perkins's 
Works, p. 741. "I think it every man's indispensible duty, to do all the service he can to his 
country." — Locke, on Ed., p. 4. " Either fretting it self into a troublesome Excess, or flaging 
into a downright want of Appetite." — lb., p. 23. "And nobody would have a child cramed at 
breakfast." — lb., p. 23. "Judgeship and judgment, lodgable and alledgeable, alledgement and 
abridgment, lodgment and infringement, enlargement and acknowledgment." — Webster's Diet, 
8vo. " Huckster, n. s. One who sells goods by retail, or in small quantities ; a pedler." — John- 
son's Diet 

"He seeks bye-streets, and saves th' expensive coach." — Gay: ib., w. Mortgage. 
"He seeks by-streets, and saves th' expensive coach." — Gay: ib., w. By -street 

EXERCISE VII.— MIXED ERRORS. 
"Boys like a warm fire in a wintry day." — Webster's El. Spelling-Book, p. 62. "The lilly is a 
very pretty flower." — lb., p. 62. "The potatoe is a native plant of America." — lb., p. 60. "An 
anglicism is a peculiar mode of speech among the English." — lb., p. 136. " Black berries and 
raspberries grow on briars." — lb., p. 150. "You can broil a beef steak over the coals of fire." — 
lb., p. 38. " Beef -steak, n. A steak or slice of beef for broiling." — Webster's Diet "Beefsteak, 
s. a slice of beef for broiling." — Treasury of Knowledge. "As he must suffer in case of the fall of 
merchandize, he is entitled to the corresponding gain if merchandize rises." — Wayland's Moral 
Science, p. 258. " He is the worshipper of an hour, but the worldling for life." — Maturin's Ser- 
mons, p. 424. " Slyly hinting something to the disadvantage of great and honest men." — Web- 
ster's Essays, p. 329. "'Tis by this therefore that I Define the Verb; namely, that it is a Part 
of Speech, by which something is apply'd to another, as to its Subject." — Johnson's Gram. Com., 

* Scrat, for scratch. The -word is now obsolete, and may be altered by taking ch in the correction, 
t " Hair brained, adj. This should rather be written harebrained; unconstant, unsettled, wild as a hare."— 
Johnson's Diet. Webster writes it harebrained, as from Itare and brain. Worcester, too, prefers this form. 



CHAP. VI.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 217 

p. 255. "It may sometimes throw a passing cloud over the bright hour of gaiety." — Kirkham's 
Elocution, p. 178. " To criticize, is to discover errors ; and to crystalize implies to freeze or con- 
gele" — Bed Book, p. 68. "The affectation of using the preterite instead of the participle, is 
peculiarly aukward; as, he has came." — Priestley's Grammar, p. 125. " They are moraly respon- 
sible for their individual conduct." — CardelVs El. Giram., p. 21. "An engine of sixty horse 
power, is deemed of equal force with a team of sixty horses." — Bed Book, p. 113. "This, at four- 
pence per ounce, is two shillings and fourpence a week, or six pounds, one shilling and four 
pence a vear." — lb., p. 122. "The tru meening of parliament iz a meeting of barons or peers." 
— Webster's Essays, p. 276. "Several authorities seem at leest to favor this opinion." — lb., p. 
277. " That iz, az I hav explained the tru primitiv meening of the word." — lb., p. 276. "The 
lords are peers of the relm; that iz, the ancient prescriptiv judges or barons." — lb., p. 274. 

" Falshood is folly, and 'tis just -to own 
The fault committed ; this was mine alone." — Pope, Odys., B. xxii, 1. 168. 

EXERCISE YIIL— MIXED ERRORS. 

" A second verb so nearly synonimous with the first, is at best superfluous." — Churchill's Gram., 
p. 332. " Indicate it, by some mark opposite [to] the word misspelt." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 74. 
"And succesfully controling the tendencies of mind." — lb., p. 24. "It [the Monastick Life] 
looks very like what we call Childrens-Play." — [Leslie's] Bight of Tythes, p. 236. " It seems 
rather lik Playing of Booty, to Please those Pools and Knaves." — lb., Pref, p. vi. " And first I 
Name Milton, only for his Name, lest the Party should say, that I had not Consider'd his Per- 
formance against Tythes." — P., p. iv. "His Fancy was too Predominant for his Judgment. His 
Talent lay so much in Satyr that he hated Reasoning." — Po., p. iv. "He has thrown away some 
of his Railery against Tythes, and the Church then underfoot." — Po.. p. v. "They Yey'd with 
one another in these things." — Po., p. 220. " Epamanondas was far the most accomplished of 
the Thebans." — Cooper's New Gram., p. 27. " Whoever and Whichever, are thus declined. Sing, 
and Plur. nom. whoever, poss. whoseever, obj. whomever. Sing, and Plu. nom. whichever, poss. 
whoseever, obj. whichever." — Po., p. 38. " Whereever, adv. [where and ever.] At whatever 
place." — Webster's Diet. " The3 r at length took possession of all the country south of the Welch 
mountains." — Dobson's Comp. Gram., p. 7. " Those Britains, who refused to submit to the for- 
eign yoke, retired into Wales." — Po., p. 6. " Religion is the most chearful thing in the world." — 
lb., p. 43. " Two means the number two compleatly, whereas second means only the last of two, 
and so of all the rest." — lb., p. 44. " Now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose 
sirname is Peter." — P., p. 96. (See Acts, x, 5.) " In French words, we use enter instead of inter ; 
as, entertain, enterlace, enterprize." — P., p. 101. "Amphiology, i. e. a speech of uncertain or 
doubtful meaning." — lb., p. 103. "Surprize; as, hah! hey day! what! strange!" — lb., p. 109. 
"Names of the letters: ai bee see dee ee ef jee aitch eye jay kay el em en o pee cue ar ess tee 
you vee double u eks wi zed." — Bev. W. Allen's Gram., p. 3. 

"I, 0, and U, at th' End of Words require, 
The silent (e), the same do's (va) desire." — Brightland's Gram., p. 15. 

EXERCISE IX.— MIXED ERRORS. 

" And is written for eacend, adding, ekeing." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Europ. Lang., Yol. i, p. 
222. "The Hindus have changed ai into e, sounded like e in where." — lb., Yol. ii, p. 121. 
" And therefor I would rather see the crudest usurper than the mildest despot." — Philological 
Museum, Yol. i, p. 430. "Sufficiently distinct to prevent our marveling." — lb., i, 477. "Pos- 
sessed of this preheminence he disregarded the clamours of the people." — Smollett's England, 
Yol. iii, p. 222. "He himself, having communicated, administered the sacrament to some of the 
bye-standers." — lb., p. 222. "The high fed astrology which it nurtured, is reduced to a skeleton 
on the leaf of an almanac." — CardeWs Gram., p. 6. "Fulton was an eminent engineer: he 
invented steam boats." — lb., p. 30. "Then, in comes the benign latitude of the doctrine of good- 
will." — South: in Johnson's Diet. "Being very lucky in a pair of long lanthom-jaws, he wrung 
his face into a hideous grimace." — Spectator: ib. "Who had lived almost four-and-twenty 
years under so politick a king as his father." — Bacox: ib., w. Lowness. "The children will 
answer ; John's, or William's, or whose ever it may be." — Infant School Gram., p. 32. " It is 
found tolerably easy to apply them, by practising a little guess work." — CardelVs Gram., p. 91. 
" For between which two links could speech makers draw the division fine ?" — lb., p. 50. "The 
wonderful activity of the rope dancer who stands on his head." — P., p. 56. " The brilliancy 
which the sun displays on its own disk, is sun shine." — lb., p. 63. " A word of three syllables is 
termed a trisyllable." — Murray's Gram., p. 23 ; Coar's, 17 ; Jaudon's, 13 ; Comly's, 8 ; Cooper's, 
New Gr., 8 ; Kirkham's, 20 ; Picket's, 10 ; Alger's, 12 ; Blair's, 7 ; Guy's, 2 ; Bolles's Spelling- 
Book, 161. See Johnson's Diet. " A word of three syllables is termed a trissyllable." — British 
Gram., p. 33; Comprehensive Gram., 23; BickneWs, 17; Allen's, 31; John Peirce's, 149; Len- 
nie's, 5; Maltby's, 8; Ingersoll's, 7; Bradley's, 66; Davenport's, 7; Bucke's, 16; Bolles's Spelling- 
Book, 91. See Littleton's Lat. Diet. (1.) " Will, in the first Persons, promises or threatens : But 
in the second and third Persons, it barely foretels." — British Gram., p. 132. (2.) " Will, in the 
first Persons, promises or threatens ; but in the second and third Persons, it barely foretells." — 
Buchanan's Gram., p. 41. (3.) " Will, in the first person, promises, engages, or threatens. In. 



218 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART I. 

the second and third persons, it merely foretels." — Jaudon's Gram., p. 59. (4.) " Will, in the 
first person singular and plural, promises or threatens ; in the second and third persons, only 
foretells." — Lowth's Gram., p. 41. (5.) " Will, in the first person singular and plural, intimates 
resolution and promising ; in the second and third person, only foretels." — Murray's Gram., p. 
88; Ingersoll's, 136; Fish's, 18; A. Flint's, 42; Bullions' s, 32; Hamlin's, 41; Cooper 3 Murray, 
50. jg^* Murray's Second Edition has it "foretells." (6.) " Will, in the first person singular and 
plural, expresses resolution and promising. In the second and third persons it only foretells." — 
Comly's Gram., p. 38 ; E. Devis's, 51 ; Lennie's, 22. (7.) " Will, in the first person, promises. 
In the second and third persons, it simply foretels." — Maltby's Gram., p. 24. (8.) " Will, in the 
first person implies resolution and promising; in the second and third, it foretells." — Cooper's 
New Gram., p. 51. (9.) " Will, in the first person singular and plural, promises or threatens ; in 
the second and third persons, only foretels : shall, on the contrary, in the first person, simply fore- 
tels ; in the second and third persons, promises, commands, or threatens." — Adam's Lat. and 
Eng. Gram., p. 83. (10.) "In the first person shall foretels, and will promises or threatens ; b"t 
in the second and third persons will foretels, and shall promises or threatens." — Blair's Gram., 
p. 65. 

" If Msevius scribble in Apollo's spight, 
There are who judge still worse than he can write." — Pope. 

EXERCISE X.— MIXED ERRORS. 

"I am liable to be charged that I latinize too much." — Dryden: in Johnson's Diet "To 
mould him platonically to his own idea." — Wotton: ib. "I will marry a wife as beautiful as 
the houries, and as wise as Zobeide." — Murray's E. Header, p. 148. "I will marry a wife, 
beautiful as the Houries." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 65. " The words in italics are all in the imperative 
mood." — Maltby's Gram.,]). 71. "Words Italicised, are emphatick, in various degrees." — Kirk' 
ham's Elocution, p. 173. "Wherever two gg's come together, they are both hard." — Buchanan's 
Gram., p. 5. " But these are rather silent (o) 's than obscure (u) 's." — Brightland's Gram., p. 19. 
" That can be G-uest at by us, only from the Consequences." — Right of Tythes, p. viii. " He says 
he was glad that he had Baptized so few ; And asks them, Were ye Baptised in the Name of 
Paul?" — lb., p. ix. "Therefor he Charg'd the Clergy with the Name of Hirelings." — lb., p. viiL 
" On the fourth day before the first second day in each month." — The Friend, Vol. vii, p. 230. 
" We are not bound to adhere for ever to the terms, or to the meaning of terms, which were 
established by our ancestors." — Murray's Gram., p: 140. "01 learn from him to station quick 
eyed Prudence at the helm." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 104. "Itpourtrays the serene landscape 
of a retired village." — Music of Nature, p. 421. "By stating the fact, in a circumlocutary man- 
ner." — Booth's Introd. to Diet, p. 33. " Time as an abstract being is a non-entity." — lb., p. 29. 
"From the difficulty of analysing the multiplied combinations of words." — lb., p. 19. "Drop 
those letters that are superfluous, as: handful, foretel." — Cooper's Plain & Pract Gram., p. 10. 
"Shall, in the first person, simply foretells." — lb., p. 51. "And the latter must evidently be so 
too, or, at least, cotemporary, with the act." — lb., p. 60. " The man has been traveling for five 
years." — lb., p. 77. "I shall not take up time in combatting their scruples." — Blair's Bhet, p. 
320. "In several of the chorusses of Euripides and Sophocles, we have the same kind of lyric 
poetry as in Pindar." — lb., p. 398. "Until the Statesman and Divine shall unite their efforts in 
forming the human mind, rather than in loping its excressences, after it has been neglected." — 
Webster's Essays, p. 26. " Where conviction could be followed only by a bigotted persistence in 
error." — lb., p. 78. "All the barons were entitled to a seet in the national council, in right of 
their baronys." — lb., p. 260. "Some knowledge of arithmetic is necessary for every lady." — lb., 
p. 29. " Upon this, [the system of chivalry,] were founded those romances of night-errantry." — 
Blair's Bhet, p. 374. " The subject is, the atchievements of Charlemagne and his Peers, or 
Paladins." — lb., p. 374. "Aye, a,je ; this slice to be sure outweighs the other." — Blair's Reader, 
p. 31. "In the common phrase, good-bye, bye signifies passing, going. The phrase signifies, a 
good going, a prosperous passage, and is equivalent to farewell." — Webster's Diet "Good-by, 
adv. — a contraction of good be with you — a familiar way of bidding farewell." — See Chalmers's 
Diet " Off he sprung, and did not so much as stop to say good bye to you." — Blair's Reader, p. 
16. " It no longer recals the notion of the action." — Barnard's Gram., p. 69. 

"Good-nature and good-sense must ever join; 
To err, is human ; to forgive, divine." — Pope, Ess. on Crit 

EXERCISE XI.— MIXED ERRORS. 

" The practices in the art of carpentry are called planeing, sawing, mortising, scribing, mould- 
ing, &c." — Blair's Reader, p. 118. "With her left hand, she guides the thread round the spindle, 
or rather round a spole which goes on the spindle." — lb., p. 134. "Much suff'ring heroes next 
their honours claim." — Pope: Johnson's Diet, w. Much. " Vein healing verven, and head purging 
dill." — Spenser: ib., w. Head. " An, in old English, signifies if; as, ' an it please your honor.' " — 
Webster's Diet " What, then, was the moral worth of these renouned leaders ?" — MPlvaine's 
Lect, p. 460. " Behold how every form of human misery is met by the self denying diligence of 
the benevolent." — lb., p. 411. " Reptiles, bats, and doleful creatures — jackalls, hyenas, and 
lions — inhabit the holes, and caverns, and marshes of the desolate city." — lb., p. 270. " Adays, 



CHAP. VI.] ORTHOGRAPHY. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 219 

adv. On or in days; as, in the phrase, now adays." — Webster's Did. "Referee, one to whom 
a thing is referred; Transferree, the person to whom a transfer is made." — Ib. " The Hospital- 
lers were an order of knights who built a hospital at Jerusalem for pilgrims." — Ib. " Gerard, 
Tom, or Tung, was the institutor and first grand master of the knights hospitalers : he died in 
1120." — Biog. Diet "I had a purpose now to lead our many to the holy land." — Shak. : in 
Johnsons Did. " He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants." — 
Psalms, cv, 25. "In Dryden's ode of Alexander's Feast, the line, k Fain, fain, fain, fain, 1 repre- 
sents a gradual sinking of the mind." — Karnes, El. of Grit., Vol. ii, p. 11. "The first of these 
lines is marvelously nonsensical." — Jamieson's Rhel, p. 117. " We have the nicely chiseled forms 
of an Apollo and a Venus, but it is the same cold marble still." — Christian Sped., Vol. viii, p. 201. 
" Death waves his mighty wand and paralyses all." — Bucke's Gram., p. 35. "Fear God. Honor 
the patriot. Respect virtue." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 216. " Pontius Pilate being Governour of 
Judea, and Herod» being Tetrarch of Galilee." — lb., p. 189. See Luke, iii, 1. " Auctionier, n. s. 
The person that manages an auction." — Johnsons Did. " The earth put forth her primroses and 
days-eyes, to behold him." — Howel: ib. " Mussel man, not being a compound of man, is mus~ 
selmans in the plural." — Lennie's Gram., p. 9. " The absurdity of fatigueing them with a need- 
less heap of grammar rules." — Burgh's Dignity, Vol. i, p. 147. "John was forced to sit with his 
arms a kimbo, to keep them asunder." — Arbuthnot: Joh. Did. " To set the arms a kimbo, is 
to set the hands on the hips, with the elbows projecting outward." — Webster's Did. "We almost 
uniformly confine the inflexion to the last or the latter noun." — Maunder 's Gram., p. 2. " This is 
ah souls day, fellows! Is it not?" — Shak.: in Joh. Did. "The english physicians make use 
of troy-weight." — Johnson's Did. "There is a certain number of ranks allowed to dukes, mar- 
quisses, and earls." — Peacham: ib., w. Marquis. 

" How could you chide the j r oung good natur'd prince, 
And drive him from you with so stern an ah." — Addison - : ib., w. Good, 25. 

EXERCISE XII.— MIXED ERRORS. 

"In reading, every appearance of sing-song should be avoided." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 75. 
"If you are thoroughly acquainted with the inflexions of the verb." — lb., p. 53. "The preterite 
of read is pronounced red." — lb., p. 48. " Humility opens a high way to dignity." — lb., p. 15. 
" "What is intricate must be unraveled." — lb., p. 275. " Roger Bacon invented gun powder, A. D. 
1280." — lb., p. 277. "On which ever word we lay the emphasis." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 
243; 12mo, p. 195. "Each of the leaders was apprized of the Roman invasion." — Nixon's 
Parser, p. 123. " If I say, 'I gallopped from Islington to Holloway ;' the verb is intransitive : if, 
'I gallopped my horse from Islington to Holloway;' it is transitive." — Churchill's Gram., p. 238. 
" The reasonableness of setting a part one day in seven." — Hie Friend, Vol. iv, p. 240. " The 
promoters of paper money making reprobated this act." — Webster's Essays, p. 196. " There are 
five compound personal pronouns, which are derived from the five simple personal pionouns by 
adding to some of their cases the syllable self; as, my-self, thy-self, him-self, her-self, it-self." — 
Perley's Gram., p. 16. " Possessives, my-own, thy-own, his-own, her-own, its-own, our-own, 
your-own, their-own." — lb., Dedensions. " Thy man servant and thy maid servant may rest, aa 
well as thou." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 160. "How many right angles has an acute angled 
triangle?" — lb., p. 220. "In the days of Jorum, king of Israel, flourished the prophet Elisha." — 
lb., p. 148. " In the days of Jorum, king of Israel, Elisha, the prophet flourished." — lb., p. 133. 
"Lodgable, a. Capable of affording a temporary abode." — Webster's Octavo Did. — "Win me into 
the easy hearted man." — Johnson's Quarto Did. " And then to end life, is the same as to dye." — 
Milnes's Greek Gram., p. 176. "Those usurping hectors who pretend to honour without 
religion, think the charge of a he a blot not to be washed out but by blood." — South: Joh. Did. 
" His gallies attending him, he pursues the unfortunate." — Nixon's Parser, p. 91. "This cannot 
fail to make us shyer of yielding our assent." — Campbell's Phet., p. 117. " When he comes to the 
Italicised word, he should give it such a definition as its connection with the sentence may re- 
quire." — Claggetts Expositor, p. vii. " Learn to distil from your lips all the honies of persuasion." 
— Adams's Rhetoric, Vol. i, p. 31. "To instill ideas of disgust and abhorrence against the 
Americans." — lb., ii, 300. " Where prejudice has not acquired an uncontroled ascendency." — 
lb., i, 31. " The uncontrolable propensity of his mind was undoubtedly to oratory." — lb., i, 100. 
"The Brutus is a practical commentary upon the dialogues and the orator." — lb., i, 120. "The 
oratorical partitions are a short elementary compendium." — lb., i, 130. " You shall find hundreds 
of persons able to produce a crowd of good ideas upon any subject, for one that can marshall 
them to the best advantage." — lb., i, 169. " In this lecture, you have the outline of all that the 
whole course will comprize." — lb., i, 182. "He would have been stopped by a hint from the 
bench, that he was traveling out of the record." — lb., i, 289. " To tell them that which should 
befal them in the last days." — lb., ii, 308. " Where all is present, there is nothing past to recal." 
— Ib., h, 358. " Whose due it is to drink the brimfull cup of God's eternal vengeance." — Law 
and Grace, p. 36. 

" There, from the dead, centurions see him rise, 

See, but struck down with horrible surprize !" — Savage. 
"With seed of woes my heart brimful is charged." — Sidney : Joh. Did. 
" Our legions are brimful, our cause is ripe." — Shakspeare : ib. 



220 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

PART II. 

ETYMOLOGY. 

Etymology treats of the different parts of speech, with their classes 
and modifications. 

The Parts of Speech are the several kinds, or principal classes, into 
which words are divided by grammarians. • 

Classes, under the parts of speech, are the particular sorts into which 
the several kinds of words are subdivided. 

Modifications are inflections, or changes, in the terminations, forms, or 
senses, of some kinds of words. 

CHAPTER I.— PARTS OF SPEECH. 

The Parts of Speech, or sorts of words, in English, are ten ; namely, 
the Article, the Noun, the Adjective, the Pronoun, the Verb, the Parti- 
ciple, the Adverb, the Conjunction, the Preposition, and the Interjec- 
tion. 

1. The Article. 

An Article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to 
limit their signification : as, The air, the stars ; an island, a ship. 

2. The Noun. 

A Noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known 
or mentioned : as, George, York, man, apple, truth. 

3. The Adjective. 

An Adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally 
expresses quality : as, A ivise man ; a new book. You two are diligent. 

4. The Pronoun. 

A Pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun : as, The boy loves his 
book ; he has long lessons, and he learns them well. 

5. The Verb. 

A Verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon : as, I 
am, I ride, I am ruled ; I love, thou lovest, he loves. 

6. The Participle. 

A Participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the proper- 
ties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun ; and is generally formed by 
adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb : thus, from the verb rule, are formed 
three participles, two simple and one compound ; as, 1. ruling, 2. ruled, 
3. having ruled. 

7. The Adverb. 

An Adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an 
other adverb ; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner : as, 
They are now here, studying very diligently. 



chap. i.] etymology. parts of speech. — definitions. 221 

8. The Conjunction. 

A Conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in con- 
struction, and to show the dependence of the terms so connected : as, 
" Thou and he are happy, because you are good." — L. Murray. 

9. The Preposition. 

A Preposition is a word used to express some relation of different 
things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun 
or a pronoun : as, The paper lies before me on the desk. 

10. The Interjection. 

An Interjection is a word that is uttered merely to indicate some strong 
or sudden emotion of the mind : as, Oh ! alas I all ! poh ! pshaw ! 
avaunt! aha! hurrah! 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Oes. 1. — The first thing to be learned in the study of this the second part of grammar, is the 
distribution of the words of the language into those principal sorts, or classes, which are denom- 
inated the Parts of Speech. This is a matter of some difficulty. And as no scheme which can be 
adopted, will be in all cases so plain that young beginners will not occasionally falter in its appli- 
cation, the teacher may sometimes find it expedient to refer his pupils to the following simple 
explanations, which are designed to aid their first and most difficult steps. 

How can we know to what class, or part of speech, any word belongs ? By learning the defi- 
nitions of the ten parts of speech, and then observing how the word is written, and in what sense 
it is used. It is necessary also to observe, so far as we can, with what other words each particu- 
lar one is capable of making sense. 

1. Is it easy to distinguish an Article ? If not always easy, it is generally so : the, an, and a, 
are the only English words called articles, and these are rarely any thing else. Because an and 
a have the same import, and are supposed to have the same origin, the articles are commonly 
reckoned two, but some count them as three. 

2. How can we distinguish a Noun ? By means of the article before it, if there is one ; as, the 
house, an apple, a book; or, by adding it to the phrase, " 1 mentioned ;" as, "I mentioned peace; 11 
— "I mentioned war ;" — "I mentioned slumber." Any word which thus makes complete sense, 
is, in that sense, a noun ; because a noun is the name of any thing which can thus be mentioned 
by a name. Of English nouns, there are said to be as many as twenty-five or thirty thousand. 

3. How can we distinguish an Adjective ? By putting a noun after it, to see if the phrase 
will be sense. The noun thing, or its plural things, will suit almost any adjective ; as, A good 
thing — A bad thing — A little thing — A great thing — Few things — Many things — Some tilings — 
Fifty things. Of adjectives, there are perhaps nine or ten thousand. 

4. How can we distinguish a Pronoun ? By observing that its noun repeated makes the same 
sense. Thus, the example of the pronoun above, " The boy loves his book ; he has long lessons, 
and he learns them well," — very clearly means, " The boy loves the boy's book ; the boy has long les- 
sons, and tlie boy learns those lessons well." Here then, by a disagreeable repetition of two nouns, 
we have the same sense without any pronoun ; but it is obvious that the pronouns form a better 
mode of expression, because they prevent this awkward repetition. The different pronouns in 
English are twenty-four ; and their variations in declension are thirty-two : so that the number 
of words of this class, is fifty-six. 

5. How can we distinguish a Verb ? By observing that it is usually the principal word in the 
sentence, and that without it there would be no assertion. It is the word which expresses what 
is affirmed or said of the person or thing mentioned; as, "Jesus wepV — "Felix trembled.' 1 '' — 
" The just shall live by faith." It will make sense when inflected with the pronouns ; as, I write, 
thou wrifst, he writes ; we write, you write, they write. — I walk, thou walks!, he walks ; we walk, 
you walk, they walk. Of English verbs, some recent grammarians compute the number at eight 
thousand ; others formerly reckoned them to be no more than four thousand three hundred.* 

* " The whole number of verbs in the English language, regular and irregular, simple and compounded, taken 
together, is about 4,300. See, in Dr. Ward's Essays on the English language, the catalogue of English verbs. 
The whole number of irregular verbs, the defective included, is about 176." — LowtKs Gram., Philad., 1799, p. 
59. Lindley Murray copied the first and the last of these three sentences, but made the latter number " about 
177." — Octavo Gram., p. 109 ; Duodecimo, p. 98. In the latter work, he has this note : " The whole number of 
words, in the JSnglish language, is about thirty-five thousand." — lb. Churchill says, " The whole number of 
verbs in the*English language, according to Dr. Ward, is about 4,300. The irregulars, including the aux- 
ilaries, scarcely exceed 200." — New Gram., p. 113. An other late author has the following enumeration : " There 
are in the English language about twenty thousand five hundred nouns, forty pronouns, eight thousand verbs, 
nine thousand two hundred adnouns, two thousand six hundred adverbs, sixty-nine prepositions, nineteen con- 
junctions, and sixty-eight interjections ; in all, above forty thousand words." — Rev. David Blair's Gram., p. 10. 
William Ward, M. A., in an old grammar undated, which speaks of Dr. Lowth's as one with. which the public 
had " very lately been favoured," says: " There ai-e four Thousand and about five Hundred Verbs in the Eng- 
lish [language]." — Ward's Practical Gram., p. 52. 



222 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

6. How can we distinguish a Participle ? By observing its derivation from the verb, and 
then placing it after to be or having; as, To be writing, Having written — To be walking, Having 
walked — To be weeping, Having viept — To be studying, Having studied. Of simple participles, 
there are twice as many as there are of simple or radical verbs ; and the possible compounds are 
not less numerous than the simples, but they are much less frequently used. 

T. How can we distinguish an Adverb ? By observing that it answers to the question, When ? 
Where ? How much ? or How ? — or serves to ask it; as, " He spoke fluently." How did he speak? 
Fluently. This word fluently is therefore an adverb : it tells how he spoke. Of adverbs, there are 
about two thousand six hundred ; and four fifths of them end in ly. 

8. How can we distinguish a Conjunction ? By observing what words or ternHs it joins to- 
gether, or to what other conjunction it corresponds; as, " Neither wealth nor honor can heal a 
wounded conscience." — Dillwyn's Be/., p. 16. Or, it may be well to learn the whole list at once: 
And, as, both, because, even, for, if, that, then, since, seeing, so : Or, nor, either, neither, than, tlwugh, 
although, yet, but, except, whether, lest, unless, save, provided, notwithstanding, ivhereas. Of conjunc- 
tions, there are these twenty-nine in common use, and a few others now obsolete. 

9. How can we distinguish a Preposition? By observing that it will govern the pronoun 
them, and is not a verb or a participle ; as, About them — above them — across them — after them — 
against them — amidst them — among them — around them — at them — Before them — behind them 
— below them — beneath them — beside them — between them — beyond them — by them — For them 
— from them — In them — into them, &c. Of the prepositions, there are about sixty now in com- 
mon use. 

10. How can we distinguish an Interjection ? By observing that it is an independent word 
or sound, uttered earnestly, and very often written with the note of exclamation ; as Lo ! behold! 
look! see! hark! hush! hist! mum! Of interjections, there are sixty or seventy in common 
use, some of which are seldom found in books. 

Obs. 2. — An accurate knowledge of words, and of their changes, is indispensable to a clear 
discernment of their proper combinations in sentences, according to the usage of the learned. 
Etymology, therefore, should be taught before syntax ; but it should be chiefly taught by a direct 
analysis of entire sentences, and those so plainly written that the particular effect of every word 
may be clearly distinguished, and the meaning, whether intrinsic or relative, be discovered with 
precision. The parts of speech are usually named and defined with reference to the use of words 
in sentences; and, as the same word not unfrequently stands for several different parts of speech, 
the learner should be early taught to make for himself the proper application of the foregoing 
distribution, without recurrence to a dictionary, and without aid from his teacher. He who is 
endeavouring to acquaint himself with the grammar of a language which he can already read 
and understand, is placed in circumstancss very different from those which attend the school-boy 
who is just beginning to construe some sentences of a foreign tongue. A frequent use of the 
dictionary may facilitate the progress of the one, while it delays that of the other. English 
grammar, it is hoped, may be learned directly from this book alone, with better success than 
can be expected when the attention of the learner is divided among several or many different 
works. 

Obs. 3. — Dr. James P. "Wilson, in speaking of the classification of words, observes, "The names 
of the distributive parts should either express, distinctly, the influence, which each class produces 
on sentences ; or some other characteristic trait, by which the respective species of words may be 
distinguished, without danger of confusion. It is at least probable, that no distribution, suffi- 
ciently minute, can ever be made, of the parts of speech, which shall be wholly free from all ob- 
jection. Hasty innovations, therefore, and crude conjectures, should not be permitted to disturb 
that course of grammatical instruction, which has been advancing in melioration, by the unre- 
mitting labours of thousands, through a series of ages." — Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 66. Again : 
" The number of the parts of speech may be reduced, or enlarged, at pleasure ; and the rules of 
syntax may be accommodated to such new arrangement. The best grammarians find it difficult, 
in practice, to distinguish, in some instances, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions ; yet their 
effects are generally distinct. This inconvenience should be submitted to, since a less compre- 
hensive distribution would be very unfavourable to a rational investigation of the meaning of 
English sentences." — lb., p. 68. Again : " As and so have been also deemed substitutes, and re- 
solved into other words. But if all abbreviations are to be restored to their primitive parts of 
speech, there will be a general revolution in the present systems of grammar ; and the various 
improvements, which have sprung from convenience, or necessity, and been sanctioned by the 
usage of ancient times, must be retrenched, and anarchy in letters universally prevail." — lb., p. 
114. 

Obs. 4. — I have elsewhere sufficiently shown why ten parts of speech are to be preferred to 
any other number, in English ; and whatever diversity of opinion there may be, respecting the 
class to which some particular words ought to be referred, I trust to make it obvious to good 
sense, that I have seldom erred from the course which is most expedient. 1. Articles are used 
with appellative nouns, sometimes to denote emphatically the species, but generally *> designate 
individuals. 2. Nouns stand in discourse for persons, things, or abstract qualities. 3. Adjectives 
commonly express the concrete qualities of persons or things ; but sometimes, their situation or 
number. 4. Pronouns are substitutes for names, or nouns ; but they sometimes represent sen- 
tences. 5. Verbs assert, ask, or say something ; and, for the most part, express action or motion. 
6. Participles contain the essential meaning of their verbs, and commonly denote action, and 



CHAP. I.] ETYMOLOGY. — PARTS OF SPEECH. OBSERVATIONS. 223 

imply time ; but, apart from auxiliaries, they express that meaning either adjectively or substan- 
tiveby, and not with assertion. 1. Adverbs express the circumstances of time, of place, of 
degree, and of manner ; the when, the where, the how much, and the how. 8. Conjunctions con- 
nect, sometimes words, and sometimes sentences, rarely phrases ; and always show, either the 
manner in which one sentence or one phrase depends upon an other, or what connexion there is 
between two words that refer to a third. 9. Prepositions express the correspondent relations 
of things to things, of thoughts to thoughts, or of words to words ; for these, if we speak truly, 
must be all the same in expression. 10. Interjections are either natural sounds or exclama- 
tory words, used independently, and serving briefly to indicate the wishes or feelings of the 
speaker. 

Obs. 5. — In the following passage, all the parts of speech are exemplified, and each is pointed 
out by the figure placed over the word : — 

1 292 512 39212 6 9494 3 

"The power of speech is a faculty peculiar to man; a faculty bestowed on him by his beneficent 

2 91 3 87 3 2 8 10 77545 491 

Creator, for the greatest and most excellent uses ; but, alas ! how often do we pervert it to the 

3 9 2 

worst of purposes!" — See LowtHs Gram., p. 1. 

In this sentence, which has been adopted by Murray, Churchill, and others, we have the fol- 
lowing parts of speech : 1. The words the, a, and an, are articles. 2. The words power, speech, 
faculty, man, faculty, Creator, uses, and purposes, are nouns. 3. The words peculiar, beneficent, 
greatest, excellent, and worst, are adjectives. 4. The words him, his, vje, and it, are pronouns. 5. 
The words is, do, and pervert, are verbs. 6. The word bestowed is a participle. 7. The words 
most, how, and often, are adverbs. 8. The words and and but are conjunctions. 9. The words 
of, on, to, by, for, to, and of, are prepositions. 10. The word alas ! is an interjection. 

Obs. 6. — In speaking or writing, we of course bring together the different parts of speech just 
as they happen to be needed. Though a sentence of ordinary length usually embraces more than 
one half of them, it is not often that we find them all in so small a compass. Sentences some- 
times abound in words of a particular kind, and are quite destitute of those of some other sort. 
The following examples will illustrate these remarks. (1) Articles : " A square is less beautiful 
than a circle ; and the reason seems to be, that the attention is divided among the sides and angles 
of a square, whereas the circumference of a circle, being a single object, makes one entire impres- 
sion." — Karnes, Elements of Criticism, Vol. i, p. 175. (2.) Nouns: "A number of things destined 
for the same use, such as windows, chairs, spoons, button?, cannot be too uniform ; for, supposing 
their figure to be good, utility requires uniformity." — lb., i, 176. (3.) Adjectives: "Hence 
nothing just, proper, decent, beautiful, proportioned, or grand,, is risible:' — lb., i, 229. (4.) Pro- 
nouns : " /must entreat the courteous reader to suspend his curiosity, and rather to consider what 
is written than who they are that write it." — Addison, Sped., No. 556. (5.) Verbs : " The least 
consideration will inform us how easy it is to put an ill-natured construction upon a word ; and 
what perverse turns and expressions spring from an evil temper. Nothing can be explained to 
him who will not understand, nor will any thing appear right to the unreasonable." — Cecil. (6.) 
Participles : " The Scriptures are an authoritative voice, reproving, instructing, and warning the 
world ; and declaring the only means ordained and provided for escaping the awful penalties of 
sin." — G. B. (7.) Adverbs: "The light of Scripture shines steadily, purely, benignly, certainly, 
superlatively." — Dr. S. H. Cox. (8.) Conjunctions: "Quietness and silence both become and 
befriend religious exercises. Clamour and violence often hinder, but never further, the work of 
God." — Henry's Exposition. (9.) Prepositions: "He has kept among us, in times of peace, 
standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures." — Dec. of Indep. (10.) Interjections: 
" Oh, my dear strong-box ! Oh, my lost guineas ! Oh, poor, ruined, beggared old man ! Hoo ! 
hoo! Iwo /" — Moliere: Burgh's Art of Speaking, p. 266. 

EXAMPLES FOB PARSING. 

Parsing is the resolving or explaining of a sentence, or of some related 
word or words, according to the definitions and rules of grammar. Pars- 
ing is to grammar what ciphering is to arithmetic. 

A Praxis is a method of exercise, or a form of grammatical resolution, 
showing the learner how to proceed. The word is Greek, and literally 
signifies action, doing, practice, or formal use. 

PRAXIS I.— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the First Praxis, it is required of the pupil — merely to distinguish and define 

the different parts of speech. 
The definitions to be given in the First Praxis, are one, and only one, for each word, 

or part of speech. Thus : — 



224 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. II. 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 

"The patient ox submits to the yoke, and meekly performs the labour required of 
him." 

The is an article. 1.* An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their signifi- 
cation. 

Patient is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses 
quality. 

Ox is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 

Submits is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

To is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

The is an article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their signifi- 
cation. 

Yoke is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 

And is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used t'o connect words or sentences in construction, and to 
show the dependence of the terms so connected. 

Meekly is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; 
and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Performs is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

The is an article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their signifi- 
cation. 

Labour is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 

Required is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, 
and of an adjective or a noun ; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 

Of is a preposition. 1 . A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Him is a pronoun. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

"A nimble tongue often trips. The rule of the tongue is a great attainment. 
The language of truth is direct and plain. Truth is never evasive. Flattery is the 
food of vanity. A virtuous mind loathes flattery. Vain persons are an easy prey 
to parasites. Vanity easily mistakes sneers for smiles. The smiles of the world are 
deceitful. True friendship hath eternal views. A faithful friend is iuvaluable. 
Constancy in friendship denotes a generous mind. Adversity is the criterion of 
friendship. Love and fidelity are inseparable. Few know the value of a friend till 
they lose him. Justice is the first of all moral virtues. Let justice hold, and mercy 
turn, the scale. A judge is guilty who connives at guilt. Justice delayed is little 
better than justice denied. Vice is the deformity of man. Virtue is a source of 
constant cheerfulness. One vice is more expensive than many virtues. Wisdom, 
though serious, is never sullen. Youth is the season of improvement." — DillwyrCs 
Reflections, pp. 4-27. 

" Oh ! my ill-chang'd condition ! oh, my fate ! 
Did I lose heaven for this V — Cowley's Davideis. 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

" So prone is man to society, and so happy in it, that, to relish perpetual solitude, 
one must be an angel or a brute. In a solitary state, no creature is more timid than 
man ; in society, none more bold. The number of offenders lessens the disgrace of 
the crime ; for a common reproach is no reproach. A man is more unhappy in 
reproaching himself when guilty, than in being reproached by others when innocent. 
The pains of the mind are harder to bear than those of the body. Hope, in this 
mixed state of good and ill, is a blessing from heaven : the gift of prescieuce would 
be a curse. The first step towards vice, is, to make a mystery of what is innocent : 
whoever loves to hide, will soon or late have reason to hide. A man who gives his 
children a habit of industry, provides for them better than by giving them a stock 
of money. Our good and evil proceed from ourselves : death appeared terrible to 

* These definitions are numbered here, because each of them is the first of a series now begun. In class 
rehearsals, the pupils may be required to give the definitions in turn ; and, to prevent any from losing the 
place, it is important that the numbers be mentioned. When all have become sufficiently familiar with the 
definitions, the exercise may be performed without them. They are to be read or repeated till faults disappear 
— or till the teacher is satisfied with the performance. He may then save time, by commanding his class to 
proceed more briefly; making such distinctions as are required in the praxis, but ceasing to explain the terms 
employed ; that is, omitting all the definitions, for brevity's sake. This remark is applicable likewise to all the 
subsequent praxes of etymological parsing. 



CHAP. II.] ETYMOLOGY.— PARTS OF SPEECH.— PARSING.— ARTICLES. 225 

Cicero, indifferent to Socrates, desirable to . Cato."— Home's Art of Thinking pp. 

" thou most high transcendent gift of age ! 
Youth from its folly thus to disengage."— Denham's Age. 

Lesson LIT. — Parsing. 

"Calm was the day, and the scene, delightful. We may expect a calm after a 
storm, lo prevent passion is easier than to calm it."— Murray's Ex. p 5 " Better 
is a little with content, than a great deal with anxiety. A little attention will 
rectify some errors. Unthinking persons care little for the future."— See ib " Still 
waters are commonly deepest. He laboured to still the tumult. Thouo-h he is out 
of danger, he is still afraid."— Ib. " Damp air is unwholesome. Guil? often casts 
a damp over our spnghtliest hours. Soft bodies damp the sound much more than 
hard ones. --Ib. « The hail was very destructive. Hail, virtue ! source of every 
good We hail you as friends."— Ib., p. 6. " Much money makes no man happy 
lmnk much, and speak little. He has seen much of the world."— See ib " Every 
being loves its like. We must make a like space between the hues. Behave like 
men. We are apt to like pernicious company."— Ib. "Give me more love or 
more disdain."— Cam*. "He loved Kachel more than Leah"— Genesis "But 
how much that more is, he hatb no distinct notion."— locke. 

" And my more having would be as a sauce 
To make me hunger more." — Shakspeare. 



CHAPTER II.— ARTICLES. 

An Article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to 
limit their signification : as, The air, the stars ; an island, a ship. 

An and a, being equivalent in meaning, are commonly reckoned one and the 
same article. An is used in preference to a, whenever the following WO rd begins 
with a vowel sound; as, An art, an end, an heir, an inch, an ounce, an hour an 
urn. A is used in preference to an, whenever the following word begins with a 
consonant sound; as, A man, a house, a wonder, a one, a yew, a u°se, a ewer, 
lnus the consonant sounds of w and y, even when expressed by other letters reauire 
a and not an before them. ' ^ 

A common noun, when taken in its widest sense, usually admits no article : as 
A candid temper is proper for man ; that is, for all mankind:'' —Murray 
In English, nouns without any article, or other definitive, are often used in a 
sense indefinitely partitive : as, " He took bread, and gave thanks."— Acts That is 
sow bread:' "To buy food are thy servants come."— Genesis. That is, -some 
food. There are fishes that have wings, and are not strangers to the airy region " 
— Locke's Essay, p. 322. That is, " some fishes." 

" Words in which nothing but the mere being of any thing is implied, are used 
without articles : as, < This is not beer, but water ;' ' This is not brass, but steel ' "— 
feee Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 5. 

An or a before the genus, may refer to a whole species ; and the before the species, 
may denote that whole species emphatically : as, " A certain bird is termed the 
cuckoo, from the sound which it emits." — Blair. 

But an or a is commonly used to denote individuals as unknown, or as not 
specially distinguished from others : as, " I see an object pass by, which I never saw 
till now ; and I say, ' There goes a beggar with a long beard.' "—Harris. 

And the is commonly used to denote individuals as known, or as specially distin- 
guished from others: as, " The man departs, and returns a week after: and I say, 
lhere goes the beggar with the long beard.'" — Id. 

15 



226 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IX 

The article the is applied to nouns of either number : as, " The man, the men ;'" 
"The good boy, the good boys." 

The is commonly required before adjectives that are used by ellipsis as nouns : as, 
" The young are slaves to novelty ; the old, to custom."--— Id. Karnes. 

The article an or a implies unity, or one, and of course belongs to nouns of the 
singular number only ; as, A man, — An old man, — A good boy. 

An or a, like one, sometimes gives a collective meaning to an adjective of num- 
ber, when the noun following is plural ; as, A few days^-A hundred men, — One 
hundred pounds sterling. 

Articles should be inserted as often as the sense requires them ; as, " Repeat the 
preterit and [the] perfect participle of the verb to abide" — Error in Merchant's 
American School Grammar, p. 66. 

Needless articles should be omitted ; they seldom fail to pervert the sense : as, 
'•'•The Rhine, the Danube, the Tanais, the Po, the Wolga, the Ganges, like many 
hundreds of similar names, rose not from any obscure jargon or irrational dialect." 
— Error in Dr. Murray's Hist, of Eurojp. Lang., Vol. i, p. 327. 

The articles can seldom be put one for the other, without gross impropriety ; and 
of course either is to be preferred to the other, as it better suits the sense : as, " The 
violation of this rule never fails to hurt and displease a reader." — Error in Blair's 
Lectures, p. 107. Say, "A violation of this rule never fails to displease the reader." 

CLASSES. 

The articles are distinguished as the definite and the indefinite. 

I. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or 
things ; as, The boy, the oranges. 

II. The indefinite article is an or a, which denotes one thing of a kind, 
but not any particular one ; as, A boy, an orange. 

MODIFICATIONS.* 
The English articles have no modifications, except that an is shortened 
into a before the sound of a consonant ; as, " In an epic poem, or a 
poem upon an elevated subject, a writer ought to avoid raising a simile 
on a low image/' — Ld. Karnes. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — No other words are so often employed as the articles. And, by reason of the various 
and very frequent occasions on which these definitives are required, no words are oftener misapplied ; 
none, oftener omitted or inserted erroneously. I shall therefore copiously illustrate both their 
uses and their abuses ; with the hope that every reader of this volume will think it worth his while 
to gain that knowledge which is requisite to the true use of these small but important words. Some 
parts of the explanation, however, must be deferred till we come to Syntax. 

Obs. 2.— With the attempts of Tooke, Dalton, Webster, Cardell, Fowle, Wells, f Weld, Butler, 

* The modifications which belong to the different parts of speech consist chiefly of the inflections or changes 
to which certain words are subject. But I use the term sometimes in a rather broader sense, as including not 
only variations of words, but, in certain instances, their original forms, and also such of their relations as serve 
to indicate peculiar properties. This is no questionable license in the use of the term ; for when the position of 
a word modifies its meaning, or changes its person or case, this effect is clearly a grammatical modification, 
though there be no absolute inflection. Lord Karnes observes, " That quality, which distinguishes one genus, 
one species, or even one individual, from an other, is termed a modification: thus the same particular that is 
termed a property or quality, when considered as belonging to an individual, or a class of individuals, is termed 
a 'modification, when considered as distinguishing the individual or the class from an other." — Elements of 
Criticism, Vol. ii, p. 392. 

t Wells, having put the articles into the class of adjectives, produces authority as follows : " ' The words a 
or an, and the, are reckoned by some grammarians a separate part of speech ; but, as they in all respects come 
under the definition of the adjective, it is unnecessary, as well as improper, to rank them as a class by them- 
selves.'— Connon." To this he adds, " The articles are also ranked with adjectives by Priestley, E. Oliver, Bell, 
Elphinston, M'Culloch, D'Orsey, Lindsay, Joel, Greenwood, Smetham, Dalton, King, Hort, Buchanan, Crane, 
J. Russell, Frazee, Cutler, Perley, Swett, Day, Goodenow, Willard, Robbins, Felton, Snyder, Butler, S. Barrett, 
Badgley, Howe, Whiting, Davenport, Fowle, Weld, and others."— Wells's School Gram., p. 69. In this way, he 
may have made it seem to many, that, after thorough investigation, he had decided the point discreetly, and with 
preponderance of authority. For it is claimed as a "peculiar merit" of this grammar, that, " Every point of 
practical importance is thoroughly investigated, and reference is carefully made to the researches of preceding 
writers, in all cases which admit of being determined by weight of authority." — William Russell, on the cover. 
But, in this instance, as in sundry others, wherein he opposes the more common doctrine, and cites concurrent 
authors, both he and all his authorities are demonstrably in the wrong. For how can they be right, while reason, 



CHAP. II.] ETYMOLOGY. — ARTICLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 227 

Frazce, Perley, Mulligan, Plnneo, S. S. Greene, and other writers, to degrade the article from its 
ancient rank among the parts of speech, no judicious reader, duly acquainted with the subject, can, 
I think, be well pleased. An article is not properly an "adjective" as they would have it to be ; 
but it is a word of a peculiar sort — a customary index to the sense of nouns. It serves not merely 
to show the extent of signification, in which nouns are to be taken, but is often the principal, and 
sometimes the only mark, by which a word is known to have the sense and construction of a noun. 
There is just as much reason to deny and degrade the Greek or French article, (or that of any 
other language,) as the English ; and, if those who are so zealous to reform our the, an, and a into 
adjectives, cared at aU to appear consistent in the view of Comparative or General Grammar, they 
would either set about a wider reformation or back out soon from the pettiness of this. 

Obs. 3. — First let it be understood, that an or a is nearly equivalent in meaning to the numeral 
adjective one, but less emphatic ; and that the is nearly equivalent in meaning to the pronominal 
adjective that or those, but less emphatic. On some occasions, these adjectives may well be sub- 
stituted for the articles; but not generally. If the articles were generally equivalent to adjectives, 
or even if they were generally like them, they would be adjectives ; but, that adjectives may 
occasionally supply their places, is no argument at all for confounding the two parts of speech. 
Distinctions must be made, where differences exist ; and, that a, an, and the, do differ considerably 
from the other words which they most resemble, is shown even by some who judge "the dis- 
tinctive name of article to be useless." See Crombie's Treatise, Chap. 2. The articles therefore must 
be distinguished, not only from adjectives, but from each other. For, though both are articles, 
each is an index sui generis ; the one definite, the other indefinite. And as the words that and one 
cannot often be interchanged without a difference of meaning, so the definite article and the 
indefinite are seldom, if ever, interchangeable. To put one for the other, is therefore, in general, 
to put one meaning for an other: "A daughter of a poor man" — " The daughter of the poor man" 
— "A daughter of the poor man" — and, " Tlie daughter of a poor man," are four phrases which 
certainly have four different and distinct significations. This difference between the two articles 
may be further illustrated by the following example: "That Jesus was a prophet sent from God, 
is one proposition ; that Jesus was the prophet, the Messiah, is an other ; and, though he certainly 
was both a prophet and the prophet, yet the foundations of the proof of these propositions are 
separate and distinct." — Watson's Apology, p. 105. 

Obs. 4. — Common nouns are, for the most part, names of large classes of objects ; and. though 
what really constitutes the species must always be found entire in every individual, the several 
objects thus arranged under one general name or idea, are in most instances susceptible of such 
a numerical distribution as gives rise to an other form of the noun, expressive of plurality ; as, horse, 
horses. Proper nouns in their ordinary application, are, for the most part, names of particular 
individuals ; and as there is no plurality to a particular idea, or to an individual person or thing 
as distinguished from ah others, so there is in general none to this class of nouns ; and no room 
for furtJier restriction by articles. But we sometimes divert such nouns from their usual sig- 
nification, and consequently employ them with articles or in the plural form; as, "I endeavoured 
to retain it nakedly in my mind, without regarding whether I had it from an Aristotle or a Zoilus, 
a Newton or a Descartes." — ChurchilTs Gram., Pref, p. 8. " It is not enough to have Yitruviuses, 
we must also have Augustuses to employ them." — BicknelVs Gram., Part ii, p. 61. 
"A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!" — Shak. Shylock. 
" Great Homer, in th 1 Achilles, whom he drew, 
Sets not that one sole Person in our View." — Brightland's Gram., p. 183. 

Obs. 5. — The article an or a usually denotes one out of several or many ; one of a sort of which 
there are more ; any one of that name, no matter which. Hence its effect upon a particular name, 
or proper noun, is directly the reverse of that which it has upon a common noun. It varies and 
fixes the meaning of both ; but while it restricts that of the latter, it enlarges that of the former. 
It reduces the general idea of the common noun to anyone individual of the class: as, " A man;" 
that is, " One man, or any man." On the contrary, it extends the particular idea of the proper 
noun, and makes the word significant of a class, by supposing others to whom it will apply : as, 
"A Nero;" that is, " Any Nero, or any cruel tyrant" Sometimes, however, this article before a 
proper name, seems to leave the idea still particular ; but, if it really does so, the propriety of 
using it may be doubted : as, " No, not by a John the Baptist risen from the dead." — Henry's 
Expos., Mark, vi. "It was not solely owing to the madness and depravity of a Tiberius, a 
Caligula, a Nero, or a Caracalla, that a cruel and sanguinary spirit, in their day, was so universal." 
— Mllvaine's Evid, p. 398. 

Obs. 6. — "With the definite article, the noun is applied, sometimes specifically, sometimes in- 
dividually, but always definitely, always distinctively. This article is demonstrative. It marks 

usage, and the prevailing opinion, are still against them ? If we have forty grammars which reject the articles 
as a part of speech, we have more than twice as many which recognize them as such ; among which are those of 
the following authors: viz., Adam, D. Adams, Ainsworth, Alden, Alger, W. Allen, Ash, Bacon, Barnard, Beattie, 
Beck, Bicknell, Bingham, Blair, J. H. Brown, Bucke, Bullions, Burn, Burr, Chandler, Churchill, Coar, Cobbett, 
Cobbin, Comly, Cooper, Davis, Dearborn, Ensell, Everett, Farnum, Fisk, A. Flint, Folker, Fowler, Frost, B. G. 
Greene, Greenleaf, Guy, Hall, Hallock, Hart, Harrison, Matt. Harrison, Hazen, Hendrick, Hiley, Hull, Ingersoll, 
Jaudon, Johnson, Kirkham, Latham, Lennie, A. Lewis, Lowth, Maltby, Maunder, Mennye, Merchant, T. H. 
Miller, Murray, Nixon, Nutting, Parker and Fox, John Peirce, Picket, Pond, S. Putnam, Eussell. Sanborn, 
Sanders, E. C. Smith, Eev. T. Smith, Spencer, Tower, Tucker, Walker, Webber, Wilcox, Wilson, Woodworth, 
J. E. Worcester, S. Worcester, Wright. The articles characterize our language more than some of the other 
parts of speech, and are worthy of distinction for many reasons, one of which is the very great frequency of 
their use. 



228 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART. II. 

either the particular individual, or the particular species, — or, (if the noun be plural,) some par- 
ticular individuals of the species, — as being distinguished from all others. It sometimes refers to a 
thing as having been previously mentioned ; sometimes presumes upon the hearer's familiarity 
with the thing ; and sometimes indicates a limitation which is made by subsequent words con- 
nected with tiie noun. Such is the import of this article, that with it the singular number of the 
noun is often more comprehensive, and at the same time more specific, than the plural. Thus, 
if I say, " The horse is a noble animal," without otherwise intimating that I speak of some particular 
horse, the sentence will be understood to embrace collectively that species of animal ; and I shall 
be thought to mean, " Horses are noble animals." But if I sa} r , " The horses are noble animals," 
I use an expression so much more limited, as to include only a few ; it must mean some particular 
horses, which I distinguish from all the rest of the species. Such limitations should be made, 
whenever there is occasion for them; but needless restrictions displease the imagination, and 
ought to be avoided ; because the mind naturally delights in terms as comprehensive as they may 
be, if also specific. Lindley Murray, though not uniform in his practice respecting this, seems to 
have thought it necessary to use the plural in many sentences in which I should decidedly prefer 
the singular; as, " That the learners may have no doubts." — Murray's Octavo Gram., Yol. i, p. 81. 
" The business will not be tedious to the scholars." — lb., 81. " For the information of the learners." 
— lb., 81. " It may afford instruction to the learners." — lb., 110. " That this is the case, the learners 
will perceive by the following examples." — lb., 326. " Some knowledge of it appears to be indis- 
pensable to the scholars." — lb., 335. 

Obs. 7. — Proper names of a plural form and signification, are almost always preceded by the 
definite article; as, " Tlie Wesley s," — " The twelve Ccesars," — u All the Howards." So the names oi 
particular nations, tribes, and sects ; as, The Romans, the Jews, the Levites, the Stoics. Likewise 
the plural names of mountains ; as, The Atys, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, the Andes. Of plural 
names like these, and especially of such as designate tribes and sects, there is a very great number. 
Like other proper names, they must be distinguished from the ordinary words of the language, 
and accordingly they are always written wdth capitals ; but they partake so largely of the nature 
of common nouns, that it seems doubtful to which class they most properly belong. Hence they 
not only admit, but require the article ; while most other proper names are so definite in them- 
selves, that the article, if put before them, would be needless, and therefore improper. 

"Nash, Rutledge, Jefferson, in council great, 
And Jay, and Laurens oped the rolls of fate ; 
The Livingstons, fair freedoms generous band, 
The Lees, the Houstons, fathers of the land." — Barlow. 

Obs. 8. — In prose, the definite article is always used before names of rivers, unless the word 
river, be added ; as, The Delaware, the Hudson, the Connecticut. But if the word river be added, 
the article becomes needless; as, Delaware river, Hudson river, Connecticut river. Yet there 
seems to be no impropriety in using both ; as, The Delaware river, the Hudson river, the Connecticut 
river. And if the common noun be placed before the proper name, the article is again necessary ; 
as, The river Delaware, the river Hudson, the river Connecticut. In the first form of expression, 
however, the article has not usually been resolved by grammarians as relating to the proper name ; 
but these examples, and others of a similar character, have been supposed elliptical: as, " The 
[river] Potomac" — " The [ship] Constitution," — " The [steamboat] Fulton." Upon this supposition, 
the words in the first and fourth forms are to be parsed alike ; the article relating to the common 
noun, expressed or understood, and the proper noun being in apposition with the appellative. 
But in the second form, the apposition is reversed ; and, in the third, the proper name appears to 
be taken adjectively. Without the article, some names of rivers could not be understood; as, 

" No more the Varus and the Atax feel 

" The lordly burden of the Latian keel." — Rowers Lucan, B. i. 1. 722. 

Obs. 9. — The definite article is often used by way of eminence, to distinguish some particular 
individual emphatically, or to apply to him some characteristic name or quality : as, " The Stagi- 
rite," — that is, Aristotle; " The Psalmist," that is, David; " Alexander the Great" — that is, (per- 
haps,) Alexander the Great Monarch, or Great Hero. So, sometimes, when the phrase relates to 
a collective body of men: as, " The Honourable, tlie Legislature" — The Honourable, the Senate;" — 
that is. " The Honourable Body, the Legislature," &c. A similar application of the article in the 
following sentences, makes a most beautiful and expressive form of compliment: "These are the 
sacred feelings of thy heart, Lyttleton, the friend." — Thomson. " The pride of swains Palemon 
was, the generous and the rich." — Id. In this last example, the noun man is understood after 
"generous," and again after "rich;" for, the article being an index to the noun, I conceive it to be 
improper ever to construe two articles as having reference to one unrepeated word. Dr. Priestley 
says, " We sometimes repeat the article, when the epithet precedes the substantive ; as He was 
met by the worshipful the magistrates." — Gram., p. 148. It is true, we occasionally meet with 
such fulsome phraseology as this ; but the question is, how is it to be explained ? I imagine that 
the word personages, or something equivalent, must be understood after worshipful, and that the 
Doctor ought to have inserted a comma there. 

Obs. 10. — In Greek, there is no article corresponding to our an or a, consequently man and a 
man are rendered alike ; the word, avd-puirog may mean either. See, in the original, these texts : 
"There was a man sent from God," {John, i, 6,) and, "What is man, that thou art mindful of 
him?" — Heb., ii, 6. So of other nouns. But the definite article of that language, which is ex- 



CHAP. II.] ETYMOLOGY. ARTICLES. OBSERVATIONS. 229 

actly equivalent to our the, is a declinable word, making no small figure in grammar. It is varied 
by numbers, genders, and cases ; so that it assumes more than twenty different forms, and becomes 
susceptible of six and thirty different ways of agreement. But this article in English is perfectly 
simple, being entirely destitute of grammatical modifications, and consequently incapable of any 
form of grammatical agreement or disagreement — a circumstance of which many of our gramma- 
rians seem to be ignorant; since they prescribe a rule, wherein they say, it "agrees" "may 
agree" or "must agree" with its noun. Nor has the indefinite article any variation of form, 
except the change from an to a, which has been made for the sake of brevity or euphony. 

Obs. 11. — As an or a conveys the idea of unity, of course it applies to no other than nouns of 
the singular number. An eagle is one eagle, and the plural word eagles denotes more than one ; 
but what could possibly be meant by "ans eagles" if such a phrase were invented? Harris very 
strangely says, " The Greeks have no article correspondent to an or a, but supply its place by a 
negation of their article. And even in English, where the article a cannot be used, as in plurals, 
its force is exprest by the same negation." — Harris's Hermes, p. 218. What a sample of gram- 
mar is this ! Besides several minor faults, we have here a nonentity, a negation of the Greek 
article, made to occupy a place in language, and to express force! The force* of what? Of a 
plural an or a ! of such a word as ans or aes ! The error of the first of these sentences, Dr. Blair 
has copied entire into his eighth lecture. 

Obs. 12. — The following rules of agreement, though found in many English grammars, are not 
only objectionable with respect to the sense intended, but so badly written as to be scarcely intel- 
ligible in any sense : 1. " The article a or an agrees with nouns in the singular number only, indi- 
vidually, or collectively : as, A Christian, an infidel, a score, a thousand." 2. "The definite article 
the may agree with nouns in the singular and* plural number : as, The garden, the houses, the 
stars." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 170; 12mo, 139; Fish's Murray, 98; a Teacher's, 45. For the 
purpose of preventing any erroneous construction of the articles, these rules are utterly useless ; 
and for the purpose of syntactical parsing, or the grammatical resolution of this part of speech, 
they are awkward and inconvenient. The syntax of the articles may be much better expressed 
in this manner: "Articles relate to the nouns which they limit;" for, in English, the bearing of the 
articles upon other words is properly tbat of simple relation, or dependence, according to the 
sense, and not that of agreement, not a similarity of distinctive modifications. 

Obs. 13. — Among all the works of earlier grammarians, I have never yet found a book which 
taught correctly the application of the two forms of the indefinite article cm or a. Murray, con- 
trary to Johnson and Webster, considers a to be the original word, and an the euphonic derivative. 
He says: "A becomes an before a vowel, and before a silent h. But if the h be sounded, the a 
only is to be used." — Murray's Gram., p. 31. To this he adds, in a marginal note, "A instead of 
an is now used before words beginning with u long. It is used before one. An must be used be- 
fore vjords avhere the h is not silent, if the accent is on the second syllable ; as, an heroic action, 
an historical account." — lb. This explanation, clumsy as it is, in the whole conception; broken, 
prolix, deficient, and inaccurate as it is, both in style and doctrine; has been copied and copied 
from grammar to grammar, as if no one could possibly better it. Besides several other faults, it 
contains a palpable misuse of the article itself: "the h" which is specified in the second and fifth 
sentences, is the " silent h" of the first sentence; and this inaccurate specification gives us the 
two obvious solecisms of supposing, "if the \silent\ h be sounded," and of locating "words where 
the [silent] h is not silent!" In the word humour, and its derivatives, the h is silent, by all au- 
thority except Webster's ; and yet these words require a and not an before them. 

Obs. 14. — It is the sound only, that governs the form of the article, and not the letter itself; as, 
"Those which admit of the regular form, are marked with an R." — Murray's Gram., p. 107. "A 
heroic poem, written by Virgil." — Webster's Diet. "Every poem of the kind has no doubt a his- 
torical groundwork." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 457. " A poet must be a naturalist and a his- 
torian." — Coleridge's Introduction, p. 111. Before h in an unaccented syllable, either form of the 
article may be used without offence to the ear ; and either may be made to appear preferable to 
the other, by merely aspirating the letter in a greater or less degree. But as the h, though ever so 
feebly aspirated has something of a consonant sound, I incline to think the article in this case 
ought to conform to the general principle : as, " A historical introduction has, generally, a happy 
effect to rouse attention." — Blair's Rhet, p. 311. "He who would write heroic poems, should 
make his whole life a heroic poem." — See Life of Schiller, p. 56. Within two lines of this quota- 
tion, the biographer speaks of "an heroic multitude!" The suppression of the sound of h being 
with Englishmen a very common fault in pronunciation, it is not desirable to increase the error, 
by using a form of the article which naturally leads to it. "How often do we hear an air meta- 
morphosed into a hair, a hat into a gnat, and a hero into a Nero!" — Churchill's Gram., p. 205. 
Thus : " Neither of them had that bold and adventurous ambition which makes a conqueror an 
hero." — Bolingbrohe, on History, p. 174. 

Obs. 15. — Some later grammarians are still more faulty than Murray, in their rules for the ap- 
plication of an or a. Thus Sanborn: " The vowels are a, e, i, o, and u. An should be used before 
words beginning icith any of these letters, or with a silent h." — Analytical Gram., p. 11. "An is 
used before words beginning with u long or with h not silent, when the accent is on the second 

* In Murray's Abridgement, and in his " Second Edition," 12mo, the connective in this place is "or;" and so 
is it given by most of his amenders ; as in Alger's Murray, p. 58 ; Alden's, 89 ; Bacon's., 4S ; Cooper's, 111 ; A. 
Flint's, 65; Maltby's, 60; Miller's, 67; S. Putnam's, 74; Russell's, 52; T. Smith's, 61. All these, and many 
more, repeat both of these ill-devised rules. 



230 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

syllable ; as, an united people, an historical account, an heroic action." — lb., p. 85. " A is used 
when the next word begins with a consonant; an, when it begins with a vowel or silent h." — lb* 
p. 129. If these rules were believed and followed, they would greatly multiply errors. 

Obs. 16. — Whether the word a has been formed from an, or an from a, is a disputed point — or 
rather, a point on which our grammarians dogmatize differently. This, if it be worth the search, 
must be settled by consulting some genuine writings of the twelfth century. In the pure Saxon 
of an earlier date, the words seldom occur ; and in that ancient dialect an, I believe, is used only 
as a declinable numerical adjective, and a only as a preposition. In the thirteenth century, both 
forms were in common use, in the sense now given them, as may be seen in the writings of Rob- 
ert of Gloucester ; though some writers of a much later date — or, at any rate, one, the celebrated 
Gawin Douglas, a Scottish bishop, who died of the plague in London, in 1522 — constantly wrote 
ane for both an and a : as, 

"Be not ouer studyous to spy ane mote in myn e, 
That in gour awin ane ferrye bot can not se." — Tookis Diversions, Vol. i, p. 124. 

" Ane uthir mache to him was socht and sperit ; 
Bot thare was nane of all the rout that sterit." — lb., Vol. i, p. 160. 

Obs. 1*7. — This, however, was a Scotticism; as is also the use of ae for a: Gower and Chaucer 
used an and a as we now use them. The Rev. J. M. M'Culloch, in an English grammar published 
lately in Edinburgh, says, U A and an were originally ae and ane, and were probably used at first 
simply to convey the idea of unity; as, ae man, ane ox." — Manual of E. Gram., p. 30. For thi3 
idea, and indeed for a great part of his book, he is indebted to Dr. Crombie; who says, "To sig- 
nify unity, or one of a class, our forefathers employed ae or ane; as, ae man, ane ox." — Treatise 
on Etym. and Synt., p. 53. These authors, like Webster, will have a and an to be adjectives. Dr. 
Johnson says, "A, an article set before nouns of the singular number ; as, a man, a tree. This 
article has no plural signification. Before a word beginning with a vowel, it is written an ; as, 
an ox, an egg; of which a is the contraction." — Quarto Diet, w. A. 

Obs. 18. — Dr. Webster says, " A is also an abbreviation of the Saxon an or ane, one, used before 
words beginning with an articulation ; as, a table, instead of an table, or one table. Tliis is a 
modern change ; for, in Saxon, an was used before articulations as well as vowels ; as, an tid, a 
time, an gear, a year." — Webster's Octavo Diet., w. A. A modern change, indeed! By his own 
showing in other works, it was made long before the English language existed ! He says, " An, 
therefore, is the original English adjective or ordinal number one; and was never written a until 
after the Conquest." — Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 20; Improved Gram., 14. " The Conquest,'" 1 
means the Norman Conquest, in 1066; but English was not written till the thirteenth century. 
This author has long been idly contending, that an or a is not an article, but an adjective; and 
that it is not properly distinguished by the term " indefinite." Murray has answered him well 
enough, but he will not be convinced.* See Murray's Gram., pp. 34 and 35. "If a and one 
were equal, we could not say, " Such a one," — " What a one," — "Many a one" — " Tliis one thing;" 
and surely these are all good English, though a and one here admit no interchange. Nay, a is 
sometimes found before one when the latter is used adjectively ; as, " There is no record in Holy 
Writ of the institution of a one all-controlling monarchy." — Supremacy of the Pope Disproved, p. 
9. " If not to a one Sole Arbiter." — lb., p. 19. 

Obs. 19. — An is sometimes a conjunction, signifying if; as, "Nay, an thou'lt mouthe, I'll rant a3 
well as thou." — Shah. "An I have not ballads made on you all, and sung to fifty tunes, may a 
cup of sack be my poison." — Id., Falstaff. "But, an it were to do again, I should write again." 
— Lord Byron's Letters. " But an it be a long part, I can't remember it." — Shakspeare : Burgh's 
Speaker, p. 136. 

Obs. 20. — In the New Testament, we meet with several such expressions as the following : 
" And his disciples were an hungred." — Scott's Bible : Matt, xii, 1. " When he was an hungred." — 
lb. xii, 3. "When he had need and was an hungered." — lb. Mark, ii, 25. Alger, the improver of 
Murray's Grammar, and editor of the Pronouncing Bible, taking this an to be the indefinite arti- 
cle, and perceiving that the h is sounded in hungered, changed the particle to a in all these pass- 
ages ; as, " And his disciples were a hungered." But what sense he thought he had made of the 
sacred record, I know not. The Greek text, rendered word for word, is simply this: "And his 
disciples hungered." And that the sentences above, taken either way, are not good English, must 
be obvious to every intelligent reader. An, as I apprehend, is here a mere prefix, which has some- 
how been mistaken in form, and erroneously disjoined from the following word. If so, the cor- 
rection ought to be made after the fashion of the following passage from Bishop M'llvaine : " On 
a certain occasion, our Saviour was followed by five thousand men, into a desert place, where 
they were enhungered." — Lectures on Christianity, p. 210. 

Obs. 21. — The word a, when it does not denote one thing of a kind, is not an article, but a 
genuine preposition ; being probably the same as the French a, signifying to, at, on, in, or of: as, 
" Who hath it ? He that died a Wednesday." — Shah. That is, on Wednesday. So sometimes be- 
fore plurals ; as, " He carves a Sundays." — Swift. That is, on Sundays. " He is let out a nights." 
— Id. That is, on nights — like the following example : "A pack of rascals that walk the streets 
m nights." — Id. "He will knap the spears a pieces with his teeth." — More's Antid. That 
is, in pieces, or to pieces. So in the compound word now-a-days, where it means on; and 

* When this was •written, Dr. Webster was living. 



CHAP. II. J ETYMOLOGY. — ARTICLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 231 

in the proper names, Thomas a, Becket, Thomas a Kempis, Anthony a "Wood, where it means 
at or of. 

" Bot certainly the daisit blude now on day is 
Waxis dolf and dull throw myne unwieldy age." — Douglas. 

Obs. 22. — As a preposition, a has now most generally become a prefix, or what the gramma- 
rians call an inseparable preposition ; as in abed, in bed ; aboard, on board ; abroad, at large ; 
afire, on fire ; afore, in front ; afoul, in contact ; aloft, on high ; aloud, with loudness ; amain, at 
main strength ; amidst, in the midst ; akin, of kin ; ajar, unfastened ; ahead, onward ; afield, to 
the field ; alee, to the leeward ; anew, of new, with renewal. " A-nights, he was in the practice 
of sleeping, &c; but a-days he kept looking on the barren ocean, shedding tears." — Dr. Murray 's 
Hist, of Eur op. Lang., Vol. ii, p. 162. Compounds of this kind, in most instances, follow verbs, 
and are consequently reckoned adverbs; as, To go astray, — To turn aside, — To soar aloft, — To fall 
asleep. But sometimes the antecedent term is a noun or a pronoun, and then they are as clearly 
adjectives; as, "Imagination is like to work better upon sleeping men, than men awake." — Lord 
Bacon. " Man alive, did you ever make a hornet afraid, or catch a weasel asleep V And some- 
times the compound governs a noun or a pronoun after it, and then it is a preposition; as, "A 
bridge is laid across a river." — Webster's Diet. " To break his bridge athwart the Hellespont." — 
Bacon's Essays. 

" Where Ufens glides along the lowly lands, 
Or the black water of Pomptina stands." — Dry den. 

Obs. 23. — In several phrases, not yet to be accounted obsolete, this old preposition a still re- 
tains its place as a separate word ; and none have been more perplexing to superficial gramma- 
rians, than those which are formed by using it before participles in ing ; in which instances, tho 
participles are in fact governed by it : for nothing is more common in our language, than for 
participles of this form to be governed by prepositions. For example, " You have set the cask 
a leaking," and, "You have set the cask to leaking," are exactly equivalent, both in meaning and 
construction. "Forty and six years was this temple in building." — John, ii, 20. Building is not 
here a noun, but a participle ; and in is here better than a, only because the phrase, a building, 
might be taken for an article and a noun, meaning an edifice.* Yet, in almost all cases, other 
prepositions are, I think, to be preferred to a, if others equivalent to it can be found. Examples : 
"Lastly, they go about to apologize for the long time their book hath been a coming out :" i. e., 
in coming out. — Barclay's Works, Vol. hi, p. IT 9. "And, for want of reason, he falls a railing ;" 
i. e., to railing. — lb., hi, 35*7. " That the soul should be this moment busy a thinking :" i. e., at or 
in thinking. — Locke's Essay, p. *78. " "Which, once set a going, continue in the same steps:" i. e., 
to going. — lb., p. 284. " Those who contend for four per .cent, have set men's mouths a watering 
for money:" i. e., to watering. — Locke : in Johnson's Diet. "An other falls a ringing a Pescen- 
nius Niger:" i.e., to ringing. — xIddison: ib. "At least to set others a thinking upon the sub- 
ject :" i. e., to thinking. — Johnson's Qram. Com., p. 300. " Every one that could reach it, cut 
off a piece, and fell a eating:" i.e., to eating. — Newspaper. "To go a mother 'ing, f is to visit 
parents on Midlent Sunday." — Webster's Diet, w. Mothering. "Which we may find when we 
come a fishing here." — Wotton. " They go a begging to a bankrupt's door." — Dryden. " A hunt- 
ing Chloe went." — Prior. "They burst out a laughing." — M. Edgeworth. In the last six sen- 

* In French, the preposition a, (to,) is always carefully distinguished from the verb a, (has,) by means of the 
grave accent, which is placed over the former for that purpose. And in general also the Latin word a, (from,) is 
marked in the same way. But, with us, no appropriate sign has hitherto been adopted to distinguish the preposi- 
tion a from the article a; though the Saxon a, (to,) is given by Johnson with an acute, even where no other a is 
found. Hence, in their ignorance, thousands of vulgar readers, and among them the authors of sundry gram- 
mars, have constantly mistaken this preposition for an article. Examples : " Some adverbs are composed of the 
article a prefixed to nouns ; as a-side, a-thirst, a-sleep, a-shore, a-ground, &c." — Comly's Gram., p. 67. " Re- 
peat some [adverbs] that are composed of the article a and nouns." — Kirkham's Oram., p. 89. " To go a fish- 
ing;" "To go a hunting;" i. e. "to go on a fishing voyage or business ;" " to goonahunting^arfy." — Murray's 
Gram., p. 221 ; Fish's, 147 ; Ingersoll's, 157 ; Smith's, 184; Bullions' s, 129 ; Merchant's, 101 ; Weld's, 102, and 
others. That this interpretation is false and absurd, may bo seen at once by any body who can read Latin ; for, 
a hunting, a fishing, &c, are expressed by the supine in um: as, " Venatum ire." — Virg. JEn. I. e., "To go a 
hunting." " Abeo piscatum." — Beza. I. e., "I go a fishing." — John, xxi, 3. Every school-boy ought to know 
better than to call this a an article. A fishing is equivalent to the infinitive to fish. For the Greek of the fore- 
goingtextis ' Ynaycij aXicveu', which is rendered by Montanus, " Vadop>iscari ;" i. e., " I go to fish." Oneauthor 
ignorantly says, " The article a seems to have no "particular meaning, and is hardly proper in such expressions 
as these. ' He went a-hunting,' ' She lies a-bed all day.' " — Wilcox's Gram., p. 59. No marvel, that he could 
not find the meaning of an article in this a ! With doltish and double inconsistency, Weld first calls this " The 
article a employed in thesense of a preposition," (E. Gram., p. 177,) and afterwards adopts Murray's interpre- 
tation as above cited! Some, too, have an absurd practice of joining this preposition to the participle ; gener- 
ally with the hyphen, but sometimes without: thus, " A-goixg, In motion ; as, to set a mill agoing." — Webster's 
Diet. The doctor does not tell us what part of speech agoing is ; but, certainly, " to set the mill to going," 
expresses just the same meaning, and is about as often heard. In the burial-service of the Common Prayer 
Book, we read, " They are even as asleep ;" but, in the ninetieth Psalm, from which this is taken, we find the 
text thus : " They are as a sleep:" that is, as a dream that is fled. Now these are very different readings, and 
cannot both be right. 

t Here the lexicographer forgets his false etymology of a before the participle, and writes the words separately, 
as the generality of authors always have done. A was used as a preposition long before the article a appeared 
in the language ; and I doubt whether there is any truth at all in the common notions of its origin. Webster 
says, " In the words abed, ashore, &c, and before the participles acoming, agoing, ashooting, [he should have 
said, 'and before participles; as, a coming, agoing, a shooting,'] a has been supposed a contraction of on or 
at. It may be so in some cases; but with the participles, it is sometimes a contraction of the Saxon prefix ge, 
and sometimes perhaps of the Celtic ag." — Improved Gram., p. 1T5. See Philos. Gram., p. 244. What 
admirable learning is this ! A, forsooth, is a contraction of ge ! And this is the doctor's reason for joining it 
to the participle ! 



OQ 



2 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 



tences, a seems more suitable than any other preposition would be : all it needs, is an accent to 
distinguish it from the article ; as, d. 

Obs. 24. — Dr. Alexander Murray says, " To be a-seeking, is the relic of the Saxon to be on or 
an seeking. What are you a-seeking ? is different from, What are you seeking ? It means more 
fully the going on with the process." — Hist Euro]). Lang., Vol. ii, p. 149. I disapprove of the 
hyphen in such terms as "d. seeking" because it converts the preposition and participle into I 
know not what; and it may be observed, in passing, that the want of it, in such as "the going 
on" leaves us a loose and questionable word, which, by the conversion of the participle into a 
noun, becomes a nondescript in grammar. I dissent also from Dr. Murray, concerning the use of 
the preposition or prefix a, in examples like that which he has here chosen. After a neuter vera, 
this particle is unnecessary to the sense, and, I think, injurious to the construction. Except in 
poetry, which is measured by syllables, it may be omitted without any substitute ; as, "I am a 
walking." — Johnson's Diet, w. A. "He had one only daughter, and she lay a dying." — Luke, 
vih, 42. "In the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." — 1 Pet, hi, 20. " Though his 
unattentive thoughts be elsewhere a wandering." — Locke's Essay, p. 284. Say — "be wandering 
elsewhere ;" and omit the a, in all such cases. 

" And — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a ripening — nips his root." — Shak. 

Obs. 25. — " A has a peculiar signification, denoting the proportion of one thing to an other. 
Thus we say, The landlord hath a hundred a year ; the ship's crew gained a thousand pounds a 
man." — Johnson's Diet "After the rate of twenty leagues a day." — Addison. "And corn was 
at two sesterces a bushel." — Duncan's Cicero, p. 82. Whether a in this construction is the article 
or the preposition, seems to be questionable. Merchants are very much in the habit of supplying 
its place by the Latin preposition per, by; as, "Board, at $2 per week." — Preston's Book-Keeping, 
p. 44. " Long lawn, at $12 per piece." — Dilworth's, p. 63. " Cotton, at 2s. 6d. per pound." — 
Morrison's, p. 75. " Exchange, at 12d. per livre." — Jackson's, p. 73. It is to be observed that 
an, as well as a, is used in this manner ; as, " The price is one doUar an ounce." Hence, I think, 
we may infer, that this is not the old preposition a, but the article an or a, used in the distribu- 
tive sense of each or every, and that the noun is governed by a preposition understood ; as, " He 
demands a doUar an hour ;" i. e., a dollar for each hour. — " He comes twice a year :" i. e., twice 
in every year. — " He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses :" (1 Kings, v, 14 :) 
i. e., ten thousand, monthly; or, as our merchants say, " per month." Some grammarians have 
also remarked, that, " In mercantile accounts, we frequently see a put for to, in a very odd sort 
of way; as, 'Six bales marked 1 a 6.' The merchant means, 'marked from 1 to 6.' This is 
taken to be a relic of the Norman Erench, which was once the law and mercantile language of 
England; for, in Erench, a, with an accent, signifies to or at" — Emmons's Gram., p. 73. Modern 
merchants, in stead of accenting the a, commonly turn the end of it back ; as, @. 

Obs. 26. — Sometimes a numeral word with the indefinite article — as a few, a great many, a 
dozen, a hundred, a thousand — denotes an aggregate of several or many taken collectively, and 
yet is followed by a plural noun, denoting the sort or species of which this particular aggregate 
is a part : as, " A few small fishes," — " A great many mistakes," — " A dozen bottles of wine," — 
"A hundred lighted candles," — " A thousand miles off." Eespecting the proper manner of ex- 
plaining these phrases, grammarians differ in opinion. That the article relates not to the plural 
noun, but to the numerical word only, is very evident ; but whether, in these instances, the words 
few, many, dozen, hundred, and thousand, are to be called nouns or adjectives, is matter of dispute. 
Lowth, Murray, and many others, call them adjectives, and suppose a peculiarity of construction 
in the article ; — -like that of the singular adjectives every and one in the phrases, " Every ten days," 
— " One seven times more." — Dan., iii, 19. Churchill and others call them nouns, and suppose 
the plurals which follow, to be always in the objective case governed by of, understood : as, " A 
few [of j years," — " A thousand [of] doors ;" — like the phrases, " A couple of fowls," — " A score 
of fat bullocks." — Churchill's Gram., p. 279. Neither solution is free from difficulty. Eor ex- 
ample: " There are a great many adjectives." — Dr. Adam. Now, if many is here a singular 
nominative, and the only subject of the verb, what shall we do with are f and if it is a plural 
adjective, what shall we do with a and great? Taken in either of these ways, the construction is 
anomalous. One can hardly think the word " adjectives" to be here in the objective case, because 
the supposed ellipsis of the word of cannot be proved ; and if many is a noun, the two words are 
perhaps in apposition, in the nominative. If I say, " A thousand men are on their way," the men 
are the thousand, and the thousand is nothing but the men ; so that I see not why the relation of 
the terms may not be that of apposition. But if authorities are to decide the question, doubtless 
we must yield it to those who suppose the whole numeral phrase to be taken adjectively ; as, 
" Most young Christians have, in the course of half a dozen years, time to read a great many 
pages." — Young Christian, p. 6. 

" Eor harbour at a thousand doors they knock'd; 
Not one of all the thousand but was lock'd." — Dryden. 
Obs. 27. — The numeral words considered above, seem to have been originally adjectives, and 
such may be their most proper construction now ; but all of them are susceptible of being con- 
strued as nouns, even if they are not such in the examples which have been cited. Dozen, or 
hundred, or thousand, when taken abstractly, is unquestionably a noun ; for we often speak of 
dozens, hundreds, and thousands. Few and many never assume the plural form, because they have 



CHAP. II.] ETYMOLOGY. — AETICLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 233 

naturally a plural signification ; and a few or a great many is not a collection so definite that we 
can well conceive offeivs and manies ; but both are sometimes construed substantively, though in 
modern English* it seems to be mostly by ellipsis of the noun. Example : "The praise of the 
judicious few is an ample compensation for the neglect of the illiterate many? — Churchill's Gram., 
p. 218. Dr. Johnson says, the word many is remarkable in Saxon for its frequent use. The 
following are some of the examples in which he calls it a substantive, or noun : "After him the 
rascal many ran." — Spenser. " thou fond many." — Shakspeare. " A care-craz'd mother of a 
many children." — Id. " And for thy sake have I shed many a tear." — Id. " The vulgar and the 
many are fit only to be led or driven." — South. " He is liable to a great many inconveniences 
every moment of his life." — TLlhlson. " Seeing a great many in rich gowns, he was amazed." — 
Addison. 

" There parting from the king, the chiefs divide, 
And wheeling east and west, before their many ride." — Dryden. 

Obs. 28. — "On the principle here laid down, we may account for a peculiar use of the article 
with the adjective feuj, and some other diminutives. In saying, ' A few of his adherents remained 
with him;' we insinuate, that they constituted a number sufficiently important to be formed into 
an aggregate: While, if the article be omitted, as, ' Few of his adherents remained with him;' this 
implies, that he was nearly deserted, by representing them as individuals not worth reckoning up. 
A similar difference occurs between the phrases: 'He exhibited a little regard for his character;' 
and 'He exhibited little regard for his character.' " — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 279. The word little, in 
its most proper construction, is an adjective, signifying small ; as, " He was little of stature." — Luke. 
"Is it not a little one?" — Genesis. And in sentences like the following, it is also reckoned an 
adjective, though the article seems to relate to it, rather than to the subsequent noun ; or perhaps 
it may be taken as relating to them both: "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the 
hands to sleep." — Prov., vi, 10 ; xxiv, 33. But by a common ellipsis, it is used as a noun, both 
with and without the article; as, " A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of 
many wicked." — Psalms, xxxvii, 16. " Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure 
and trouble therewith." — Prov., xv, 16. "He that despiseth little things, shall perish by little and 
little." — Ecclesiasticus. It is also used adverbially, both alone and with the article a; as, "The 
poor sleep little." — Otway. "Though they are a little astringent." — Arbuthnot. "When he had 
gone a little farther thence." — Mark, i, 19. " Let us vary the phrase [in] a very little" [degree]. 
— Karnes, Yol. ii, p. 163. 

Obs. 29. — "As it is the nature of the articles to limit the signification of a word, they are ap- 
plicable only to words expressing ideas capable of being individualized, or conceived of as single 
things or acts ; and nouns implying a general state, condition, or habit, must be used without the 
article. It is not vaguely therefore, but on fixed principles, that the article is omitted, or inserted, 
in such phrases as the following : ' in terror, in fear, in dread, in haste, in sickness, in pain, in 
trouble ; in a fright, in a hurry, in a consumption ; the pain of his wound was great ; her son's dis- 
sipated life was a great trouble to her." — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 127. 

Obs. 30. — Though the, an, and a, are the only articles in our language, they are far from being 
the only definitives. Hence, while some have objected to the peculiar distinction bestowed upon 
these little words, firmly insisting on throwing them in among the common mass of adjectives ; 
others have taught, that the definitive adjectives — I know not how many — such as, this, that, 
these, those, any, other, some, all, both, each, every, either, neither — "are much more properly articles 
than any thing else." — Hermes, p. 234. But, in spite of this opinion, it has somehow happened, 
that these definitive adjectives have very generally, and very absurdly, acquired the name of pro- 
nouns. Hence, we find Booth, who certainly excelled most other grammarians in learning and acute- 
ness, marvelling that the articles "were ever separated from the class of pronouns." . To all this I 
reply, that the, an, and a, are worthy to be distinguished as the only articles, because they are not 
only used with much greater frequency than any other definitives, but are specially restricted to 
the limiting of the signification of nouns. Whereas the other definitives above mentioned are very 
often used to supply the place of their nouns ; that is, to represent them understood. For, in 
general, it is only by ellipsis of the noun after it, and not as the representative of a noun going 
before, that any one of these words assumes the appearance of a pronoun. Hence, they are not 
pronouns, but adjectives. Nor are they "more properly articles than any thing else;" for, "if the 
essence of an article be to define and ascertain" the meaning of a noun, this very conception of 
the thing necessarily supposes the noun to be used with it. 

Obs. 31. — The following example, or explanation, may show what is meant by definitives. Let 
the general term be man, the plural of which is men : A man — one unknown or indefinite ; TJie 
man — one known or particular ; The men — some particular ones ; Any man — one indefinitely ; 
A certain man — one definitely; TJiisman — one near; That man— one distant; TJiesemen — several 
near; Those men — several distant; Such a man — one like some other; Such men — some like 
others ; Many a man — a multitude taken singly ; Many men — an indefinite multitude taken plu- 
rally ; A thousand men — a definite multitude ; Every man — all or each without exception ; Each 
man — both or all taken separately ; Some man — one, as opposed to none ; Some men — an indefi- 
nite number or part; All men — the whole taken plurally; No men — none of the sex; No man — 
never one of the race. 

* The following construction may be considered an archaism, or a form of expression that is now obsolete : 
"You have bestowed a many of kindnesses upon me." — Walker's English Particles, p. 278. 



234 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. 

PRAXIS H.— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Second Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the 
different parts of speech, and to explain the Articles as definite or indefinite. 

The definitions to be given in the Second Praxis, are two for an article, and one for 
a noun, an adjective, a pronoun, a verb, a participle, an adverb, a conjunction, a 
preposition, or an interjection. Thus: — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 

" The task of a schoolmaster laboriously prompting and urging an indolent class, 
is worse than his who drives lazy horses along a sandy road." — G. Brown. 

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the -word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things. 

Task is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can'be known or mentioned. 

O/is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

A is the indefinite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The indefinite article is an or a, which denotes one thing of a kind, but not any particular one. 

Schoolmaster is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 

Laboriously is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other ad- 
verb ; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Prompting is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, 
and of an adjective or a noun ; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 

And is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to 
show the dependence of the tr-rms so connected. 

Urging is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and 
of an adjective or a noun ; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 

An is the indefinite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their 
signification. 2. The indefinite article is an or a, which denotes one thing of a kind, but not any particular 
one. 

Indolent is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 

Class is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned! 

Is is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. • 

Worse is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 

Than is a conj unction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and t<f 
show the dependence of the terms so connected. 

His is a pronoun. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 

Who is a pronoun. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 

Drives is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

Lazy is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 

Horses is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 

Along is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts 
to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

A is the indefinite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The indefinite article is an or a, which denotes one thing of a kind, but not any particular one. 

Sandy is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 

Road is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

" The Honourable, the Corporation of the city, granted the use of the common 
council chamber, for holding the Convention ; generously adding the privilege of 
occupying the rotunda, or the new court-room, if either would better suit the wishes 
of the committee." — Journal of Literary Convention, "N. Y., 1830. 

" When the whole is put for a part, or a part for the whole ; the genus for a species, 
or a species for the genus ; the singular number for the plural, or the plural for the 
singular ; and, in general, when any thing less, or any thing more, is put for the 
precise object meant ; the figure is called a Synecdoche." — See Blair's Rhet., 
p. 141. 

"♦The truth is, a representative, as an individual, is on a footing with other people ; 
but, as a representative of a State, he is invested with a share of the sovereign 
authority, and is so far a governor of the people." — See Webster's Essays, p. 50. 

u Knowledge is the fruit of mental labour — the food and the feast of the mind. 
In the pursuit of knowledge, the greater the excellence of the subject of inquiry, the 
deeper ought to be the interest, the more ardent the investigation, and the dearer to 
the mind the acquisition of the truth." — Keith's Evidences, p. 15. 

" Canst thou, O partial Sleep ! give thy repose 
To the wet seaboy in an hour so rude ?" — Shakspeare. 



CHAP. II.] ETYMOLOGY. — ARTICLES. ERRORS. 235 

Lesson II. — Parsing-. 

" Every family has a master ; (or a mistress — I beg the ladies' pardon ;) a ship 
has a master ; when a house is to be built, there is a master ; when the highways 
are repairing, there is a master ; every little school has a master : the continent is a 
great school ; the boys are numerous, and full of roguish tricks ; and there is no 
master. The boys in this great school play truant, and there is no person to chastise 
them." — See Webster's Essays, p. 128. 

" A man who purposely rushes down a precipice and breaks his arm, has no right 
to say, that surgeons are an evil in society. A legislature may unjustly limit the 
surgeon's fee ; but the broken arm must be healed, and a surgeon is the only man to 
restore it." — See ib., p. 135. 

" But what new sympathies sprung up immediately where the gospel prevailed ! 
It was made the duty of the whole Christian community to provide for the stranger, 
the poor, the sick, the aged, the widow, and the orphan." — M'Uvaine's Evi., p. 408. 

" In the English language, the same word is often employed both as a noun and 
as a verb ; and sometimes as an adjective, and even as an adverb and a preposition 
also. Of this, round is an example." — See Churchill's Gram., p. 24. 

" The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, 
The moss-covered bucket, arose from the well." — Woodworth. 

Lesson III. — Parsing. 

" Most of the objects in a natural laudscape are beautiful, and some of them are 
grand : a flowing river, a spreading oak, a round hill, an extended plain, are delight- 
ful ; and even a rugged rock, and a barren heath, though in themselves disagreeable, 
contribute by contrast to the beauty of the whole." — See Karnes's El. of Grit., i, 185. 

J An animal body is still more admirable, in the disposition of its several parts, 
and in their order and symmetry : there is not a bone, a muscle, a blood-vessel, a 
nerve, that hath not one corresponding to it on the opposite side ; and the same 
order is carried through the most minute parts." — See ib., i, 271. " The con- 
stituent parts of a plant, the roots, the stem, the branches, the leaves, the fruit, are 
really different systems, united by a mutual dependence on each other." — lb., i, 
272. 

" With respect to the form of this ornament, I observe, that a circle is a more 
agreeable figure than a square, a globe than a cube, and a cylinder than a parallelo- 
pip'edon. A column is a more agreeable figure than a pilaster ; and, for that 
reason, it ought to be preferred, all other circumstances being equal. An other 
reason concurs, that a column connected with a wall, which is a plain surface, 
makes a greater variety than a pilaster." — See ib., ii, 352. 

" But ah ! what myriads claim the bended knee ! 
Go, count the busy drops that swell the sea." — Rogers. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS RESPECTING ARTICLES. 

Lesson I. — Adapt the Articles. 
11 Honour is an useful distinction in life." — Milnes's Greek Grammar, p. vii. 

[Fokmtjlb. — Not proper, because the article an is used before useful, which begins with the sound of yu. 
But, according to a principle expressed on page 225th, " A is to be used whenever the following word begins 
with a consonant sound." Therefore, an should here be changed to a: thus, "Honour is a useful distinction 
in life."] 

" No writer, therefore, ought to foment an humour of innovation." — Jamiesori's Rhet., p. 55. 
"Conjunctions require a situation between the things of which they form an union." — lb., p. 83. 
"Nothing is more easy than to mistake an u for ana." — lookers Diversions, i, 130. "From 
making so ill an use of our innocent expressions." — Wm. Penn. " To grant thee an heavenly and 
incorruptible crown of glory." — SeweVs Hist, Bed., p. iv. "It in no wise follows, that such an 
one was able to predict." — lb., p. viii. "With an harmless patience they have borne most heavy 
oppressions." — lb., p. x. "My attendance was to make me an happier man."— Spect, No. 480. 
" On the wonderful nature of an human mind." — lb., 554. "I have got an hussy of a maid, who 
is most craftily given to this." — lb., No. 534. " Argus is said to have had an hundred eyes, some of 



236 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

which were always awake." — Classic Stories, p. 148. "Centiped, an hundred feet; centennial, 
consisting of a hundred years." — Town's Analysis, p. 19. "ISTo good man, he thought, could be 
an heretic." — Gilpin's Lives, p. 72. "As, a Christian, an infidel, an heathen." — Ash's Gram., p. 
50. " Of two or more words, usually joined by an hyphen." — Blair's Gram., p. 7. "We may 
consider the whole space of an hundred years as time present." — Beattie : Murray's Gram., p. 
69. " In guarding against such an use of meats and drinks." — Ash's Gram., p. 138. "Worship 
is an homage due from man to his Creator." — Annual Monitor for 1836. "Then, an eulogium on 
the deceased was pronounced." — Grimshaw's U. S., p. 92. " But for Adam there was not found 
an help meet for him." — Gen., ii, 20. "My days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are 
burned as an hearth." — Psalms, cii, 3. "A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof." 
— Exod., xii, 45. " The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan ; an high hill, as the hill of Bashan." 
— Psalms, lxviii, 15. " But I do declare it to have been an holy offering, and such an one too as 
was to be once for all." — Wm. Penn. " An hope that does not make ashamed those that have it." 
— Barclay's Works, Yol. i, p. 75. "Where there is not an unity, we may exercise true charity." 
— lb., i, 96. " Tell me, if in any of these such an union can be found ?" — Brown's Estimate, ii, 16. 

" Such holy drops her tresses steeped, 
Though 'twas an hero's eye that weeped." — Sir W. Scott. 

Lesson II. — Insert Articles. 

" This veil of flesh parts the visible and invisible world." — Sherlock. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the article the is omitted before invisiMe, where the sense requires it. But, 
according to a suggestion on page 225th, "Articles should be inserted as often as the sense requires them." 
Therefore, the should be here supplied ; thus, " This veil of flesh parts the visible and the invisible -world."] 

"The copulative and disjunctive conjunctions operate differently on the verb." — Murray's 
Gram., Yol. ii, p. 286. " Every combination of a preposition and article with the noun." — lb., 
i, 44. " Either signifies, ' the one or the other ;' neither imports not either, that is, ' not one nor 
the other.' " — lb., i, 56. " A noun of multitude may have a pronoun, or verb, agreeing with it, 
either of the singular or plural number." — Bucke's Gram., p. 90. "Copulative conjunctions are, 
principally, and, as, both, because, for, if, that, then, since, &c." — See ib., 28. " The two real 
genders are the masculine and feminine." — lb., 34. " In which a mute and liquid are represented 
by the same character, th." — Music of Nature, p. 481. " They said, John Baptist hath sent us 
unto thee." — Luke, vii, 20. "They indeed remember the names of abundance of places."— Sped., 
No. 414. "Which created a great dispute between the young and old men." — Goldsmith's 
Greece, Yol. ii, p. 127. "Then shall be read the Apostles' or Nicene Creed." — Com. Prayer, p. 
119. "The rules concerning the perfect tenses and supines of verbs are Lily's." — King Henry's 
Gram., p. iv. "It was read by the high and the low, the learned and illiterate." — Johnson's Life 
of Swift. " Most commonly, both the pronoun and verb are understood." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 
vih. " To signify the thick and slender enunciation of tone." — Knight, on the Greek Alph., p. 9. 
"The difference between a palatial and guttural aspirate is very small." — Po., p. 12. "Leaving it 
to waver between the figurative and literal sense." — Jamieson's Ehet., p. 154. " Whatever verb 
will not admit of both an active and passive signification." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 31. " TJie 
is often set before adverbs* in the comparative or superlative degree." — lb., p. 15; Kirkham's 
Gram., 66. " Lest any should fear the effect of such a change upon the present or succeeding 
age of writers." — Fowle's Common School Gram., p. 5. " In all these measures, the accents are to 
be placed on even syllables ; and every line is, in general, more melodious, as this rule is more 
strictly observed." — L. Murray's Octavo Gram,., p. 256 ; Jamieson's Ehet., 307. " How many 
numbers do nouns appear to have ? Two, the singular and plural." — Smith's New Gram., p. 8. 
" How many persons ? Three persons — the first, second, and third." — Ib. : p. 10. " How many 
cases? Three — the nominative, possessive and objective." — lb., p. 12. 
" Ah ! what avails it me, the flocks to keep, 
Who lost my heart while I preserv'd sheep." 

Pope's Works: British Poets, Vol. vi,"p. 309: Lond., 1800. 

Lesson III. — Omit Articles. 

" The negroes are all the descendants of Africans." — Morse's Geog. 

[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the article the before descendants, is useless to the construction, and inju- 
rious to the sense. But, according to a principle on page 225fch, "Needless articles should be omitted; they 
seldom fail to pervert the sense." Therefore, the should be here omitted; thus, " The negroes are all descend- 
ants of Africans."] 

" A Sybarite was applied as a term of reproach to a man of dissolute manners." — Morse's 
Ancient Geog., p. 4. "The original signification of knave was a boy." — Webster's El. Spell, p. 
136. " The meaning of these will be explained, for the greater clearness and precision." — Bucke's 
Gram., p. 58. "What Sort of a Noun is Man? A Noun Substantive common." — Buchanan's 
Gram., p. 166. "Is what ever used as three kinds of a pronoun?" — Kirkham's Gram., p. 117. 
" They delighted in the having done it, as well as in the doing of it." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 
• 344. "Both the parts of this rule are exemplified in the following sentences." — Murray's Gram., 
p. 174. " He has taught them to hope for another and a better world." — S. L. Knapp. " It was 
itself only preparatory to a future, abetter, and perfect revelation." — Keith's Evid., p. 23. " Es 
then makes another and a distinct syllable." — Brightland's Gram., p. 17. "The eternal clamours 



CHAP. II.] ETYMOLOGY. — ARTICLES. — ERRORS. 237 

of a selfish and a factious people." — Brown's Estimate, i, 74. "To those "whose taste in Elocution 
is but a little cultivated." — Kirkliams Eloc, p. 65. " They considered they had but a Sort of 
a Gourd to rejoice in." — Bennet's Memorial, p. 333. " Now there w T as but one only such a bough, in 
a spacious and shady grove." — Bacon's Wisdom, p. 75. " Now the absurdity of this latter supposi- 
tion will go a great way towards the making a man easy." — Colliers Antoninus p. 131. "This 
is true of the mathematics, where the taste has but httle to do." — Todd's Student's Manual, p. 331. 
"To stand prompter to a pausing, yet a ready comprehension." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 251. 
"Such an obedience as the yoked and the tortured negro is compelled to yield to the whip of the 
overseer." — Chalmers's Serm., p. 90. " For the gratification of a momentary and an unholy desire." 
— Wayland's Mor. Sci., p. 288. " The body is slenderly put together ; the mind a rambling sort of 
a tiling." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 26. " The only nominative to the verb, is, the officer." — Murray's 
Gram., ii, 22. "And though in the general it ought to be admitted, &c." — Blair's Rhet., p. 376. 
"Philosophical writing admits of a polished, a neat, and elegant style." — lb., p. 367. " But not- 
withstanding this defect, Thomson is a strong and a beautiful clescriber." — lb., p. 405. " So should 
he be sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved." — Shak. : Hen. v. 
" Who felt the wrong, or fear'd it, took the alarm, 
Appeal'dto Law, and Justice lent her arm." — Pope, p. 406. 

Lesson IV. — Change Articles. 

"To enable us to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word." — Bucke's Gr., p. 52. 

[Fobmxjxe. — Not proper, because the article the is used to limit the meaning of "repetition," or "too fre- 
quent repetition," where a would better suit the sense. But, according to a principle on page 225th, "The arti- 
cles cr.n seldom be put one for the other, without gross impropriety ; and either is of course to be preferred to 
the other, as it better suits the sense." Therefore, " the" should be a, which, in this instance, ought to be 
placed after the adjective; thus, " To enable us to avoid too frequent a repetition of the same word."] 

" The former is commonly acquired in the third part of the time." — Burn's Gram., p. xi. 
" Sometimes the adjective becomes a substantive, and has another adjective joined to it : as, ' The 
chief good.' " — L. Murray's Gram., i, 169. " An articulate sound is the sound of the human 
voice, formed by the organs of speech." — lb., i. 2 ; Lowth's Gram., 2 ; T. Smith's, 5. " Tense is 
the distinction of time : there are six tenses." — Maunder's Gram., p. 6. " In this case, the 
ellipsis of the last article would be improper." — L. Murray's Gram., i, p. 218. "Contrast has 
always the effect to make each of the contrasted objects appear in the stronger light." — lb., i, 
349 ; Blair's Rhet, p. 167. " These remarks may serve to shew the great importance of the 
proper use of the article." — Lowth's Gram., p. 12; Murray's, i, 171. "'Archbishop Tillotson,' 
says an author of the History of England, 'died in this year.' " — Blair's Rhet., p. 107. "Pro- 
nouns are used instead of substantives, to prevent the too frequent repetition of them." — Alex. 
Murray's Gram., p. 22. " That, as a relative, seems to be introduced to save the too frequent 
repetition of who and which." — lb., p. 23. " A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun to 
avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word." — L. Murray's Gram., i, p. 28. " Tliat is 
often used as a relative, to prevent the too frequent repetition of who and which." — Kirkham's 
Gram., p. 109 ; L. Murray's, i, 53 ; Hiley's, 84. " His knees smote one against an other." — 
Logan's Sermons. " They stand now on one foot, then on another." — Walker's Particles, p. 259. 
"The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another." — Gen., xxxi, 
49. " Some have enumerated ten [parts of speech], making a participle a distinct part." — L. 
Murray's Gram, i, p. 29. " Nernesis rides upon an Hart, because a Hart is a most lively Crea- 
ture." — Bacon's Wisdom, p. 50. " The transition of the voice from one vowel of the diphthong 
to another." — Wilson's Essay on Gram,, p. 29. "So difficult it is to separate these two things 
from one another." — Blair's Rhet, p. 92. "Without the material breach of any rule." — lb., p. 
101. " The great source of a loose style, in opposition to precision, is the injudicious use of those 
words termed synonymous." — lb., p. 97. " The great source of a loose style, in opposition to 
precision, is the injudicious use of the words termed synonymous." — Murray's Gram., i, p. 302. 
"Sometimes one article is improperly used for another." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 197. 

" Satire of sense, alas ! can Sporus feel ? 
"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" — Pope, p. 396. 

Lesson V. — Mixed Examples. 

"He hath no delight in the strength of an horse." — Maturin's Sermons, p. 311. "The head 
of it would be an universal monarch." — Butler's Analogy, p. 98. "Here they confound the mate- 
rial and formal object of faith." — Barclay's Works, Yol. hi, p. 57. "The Irish and Scotish Celtic 
are one language ; the "Welsh, Cornish, and Armorican, are another." — Dr. Murray's Hist., Yol. ii, 
p. 316. "In an uniform and perspicuous manner." — lb., i 49. "Scripture, n. Appropriately, 
and by way of distinction, the books of the Old and New Testament; the Bible." — Webster' s Diet. 
"In two separate volumes, entitled the Old and the New Testaments." — Wayland's Mor. Sci., p. 
139. " The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain a revelation." — lb. " Q has ever 
an u after it; which is not sounded in words derived from the French." — Wilson's Essay, p. 32. 
" Yfhat should we say of such an one ? That he is regenerate ? No." — Hopkins's Prim, Ch., p. 
22. " Some grammarians subdivide vowels into the simple and the compound." — Murray's Gram., 
i, p. 8. " Emphasis has been farther distinguished into the weaker and stronger, emphasis." — Bo., 
i, 244. " Emphasis has also been divided into superior and the inferior emphasis." — Bo., i, 245, 



238 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

" Pronouns must agree with their antecedents, or nouns which they represent, in gender, number, 
and person." — Merchant's Gram., pp. 86, 111, and 130. " The adverb where, is often improperly 
used, for the relative pronoun and preposition." — lb., 94. "The termination ish imports diminu- 
tion, or lessening the quality." — lb., 79. " In this train all their verses proceed : the one half of 
the line always answering to the other." — Blair's Rhet., p. 384. "To an height of prosperity and 
glory, unknown to any former age." — Murray's Sequel, p. 352. " Hwilc, who, which, such as, 
such an one, is declined as follows." — Gwilt's Saxon Gram., p. 15. "When a vowel precedes y, 
an s only is required to form a plural." — Bucke's Gram., p. 40. "He is asked what sort of a word 
each is, whether a primitive, derivative, or compound." — British Gram., p. vii. " It is obvious, 
that neither the 2d, 3d, nor 4th chapter of Matthew is the first ; consequently, there are not four 
first chapters." — Churchill's Gram., p. 306. "Some thought, which a writer wants art to intro- 
duce in its proper place." — Blair's Rhet., p. 109. " Groves and meadows are most pleasing in the 
spring." — lb., p. 207. " The conflict between the carnal and spiritual mind, is often long." — Gur- 
ney's Fort. Ev., p. 146. " A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime 
and Beautiful." — Burke's Title-page. 

" Silence, my muse ! make not these jewels cheap, 
Exposing to the world too large an heap." — Waller, p. 113. 



CHAPTER III.— NOUNS. 

A Noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known 
or mentioned : as, George, York, man, apple, truth. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1.— All words and signs taken technically, ~ (thai is, independently of their meaning, and 
merely as things spoken of,) are nouns ; or, rather, are things read and construed as nouns ; be- 
cause, in such a use, they temporarily assume the syntax of nouns : as, " For this reason, I pre- 
fer contemporary to cotemporary." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 175; Murray's Gram., i, p. 368. "I and 
J were formerly expressed by the same character; as were U and V." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 3. 
" Us is a personal pronoun." — Murray. " Th has two sounds." — Id. " The 's cannot be a con- 
traction of his, because 's is put to female [feminine] nouns ; as, Woman's beauty, the Virgin's 
delicacy." — Dr. Johnson's G?~am. " TJteir and theirs are the possessives likewise of they, when 
they is the plural of it." — lb. " Let B be a now or instant." — Harris's Hermes, p. 103. " In such 
case, I say that the instant B is the end of the time A B." — lb., 103. " A is sometimes a noun : 
as, a great A." — Todd's Johnson. " Formerly sp was cast in a piece, as st's are now." — Hist, of 
Printing, 1770. "I write to others than he will perhaps include in his we." — Barclay's Works, 
Vol. hi, p. 455. " Here are no fewer than eight ands in one sentence." — Blair's Rhet, p. 112 ; 
Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 319. "Within this wooden O ;" i. e., circle. — Shak. 

Obs. 2. — In parsing, the learner must observe the sense and use of each word, and class it ac- 
cordingly. Many words commonly belonging to other parts of speech are occasionally used as 
nouns ; and, since it is the manner of its use, that determines any word to be of one part of 
speech rather than of an other, whatever word is used directly as a noun, must of course be parsed 
as such. 

1. Adjectives made nouns : " The Ancient of days did sit." — Bible. " Of the ancients" — Sioift. 
"For such imperiinents." — Steele. "He is an ignorant in it." — Id. "In the luxuriance of an 
unbounded picturesque." — Jamieson. " A source of the sublime ;" i. e., of sublimity. — Burke. 
"The vast immense of space:" i. e., immensity. — Murray. "There is none his like." — Job, xli, 
33. " A little more than a little, is by much too much." — Shakspeare. " And gladly make much 
of that entertainment." — Sidney. " A covetous man makes the most of what he has." — L' Estrange. 
"It has done enough for me." — Pope. " He had enough to do." — Bacon. 

" All withers here ; who most possess, are losers by their gain, 
Stung by full proof, that bad at best, life's idle all is vain." — Young. 
" Nor grudge I thee the much the Grecians give, 
Nor murm'ring take the little I receive." — Dryden. 

2. Pronouns made nouns : " A love of seeing the what and how of all about him." — Story's 
Life of Flaxman : Pioneer, Vol. i, p. 133. " The nameless HE, whose nod is Nature's birth." — 
Young, Night iv. " I was wont to load my she with knacks." — Shak. Winter's Tale. " Or any 
he, the proudest of thy sort." — Shak. " I am the happiest she in Kent." — Steele. " The shes of 
Italy." — Shak. " The hes in birds." — Bacon. " We should soon have as many hes and shes as 
the French." — Cobbett's E. Gram., ^[ 42. "If, for instance, we call a nation a she, or the sun a 
he." — lb., "|y 198. " When I see many its in a page, I always tremble for the writer." — lb., % 196. 
" Let those two questionary petitioners try to do this with their whos and their whiches." — Spect : 
Ash's Gr., p. 131. 

" Such mortal drugs I have ; but Mantua's law 
Is death to any he that utters them." — Shak. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUXS. — CLASSES. 239 

3. Yerbs made nouns: "Avaunt all attitude, and stare, and start theatric." — Cowper. "A 
may-be of mercy is sufficient." — Bridge. "Which cuts are reckoned among the fractures." — 
Wiseman, " The officer erred in granting a permit." — " Feel darts and charms, attracts and 
flames." — Eudibras. " You may know by the falling off of the come, or sprout." — Mortimer. 
" And thou hast talk'd of sallies and retires." — Shak. 

" For all that else did come, were sure to fail ; 
Yet would he further none, but for avail." — Spenser. 

4. Participles made nouns : " For the producing of real happiness. " — Crabb. " For the crying 
of the poor and the sighing of the needy, I will arise." — Bible. " Surely the churning of milk 
bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood ; so the forcing of wrath 
bringeth forth strife." — Prov., xsx, 33. " Reading, writing, and ciphering, are indispensable to 
civilized man." — "Hence was invented the distinction between doing and permitting." — Calvin's 
Inst., p. 131. "Knowledge of the past comes next." — Hermes, p. 113. "I am my beloved's, 
and his desire is toward me." — Sol. Song, vn, 10. " Here's — a simple coming-in for one man." — 
Shak. 

" What are thy rents ? What are thy comings-in? 
Ceremony, show me but thy worth." — Id. 

5. Adverbs made nouns : " In these cases we examine the why, the what, and the how of 
things." — L 1 Estrange. "If a point or now were extended, each of them would contain within 
itself infinite other points or noius." — Serines, p. 101. "The why is plain as way to parish church." 
— Shak. " 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter." — Addison. " The dread of a here- 
after." — Fuller. " The murmur of the deep amen." — Sir W. Scott. " For their whereabouts lieth 
in a mystery." — Book of Thoughts, p. 14. Better: " Their whereabout lieth," or, " Their whereabouts 
lie," &c. 

"Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind ; 
Thou losest here a better where to find." — Shak. 

6. Conjunctions made nouns : " The if, which is here employed, converts the sentence into 
a supposition." — Blair's Rhet. "Your if is the only peacemaker; much virtue is in if." — 
Shak. 

" So his Lordship decreed with a grave solemn tone, 
Decisive and clear, without one if or but — 
That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on, 

By daylight or candlehght — Eyes should be shut." — Cowper. 

7. Prepositions made nouns: "0, not like me; for mine's beyond beyond." — Shakspeare : 
Cymb., hi, 2. "I. e., her longing is further than beyond; beyond any thing that desire can be said 
to be beyond." — Singer's Notes. " You whirled them to the back of beyont to look at the auld 
Roman camp." — Antiquary, i, 37. 

8. Interjections or phrases made nouns: "Come away from all the lo-heres ! and h-theres!" — 
Sermon. "Will cuts him short with a ' What thenf" — Addison. "With hark and whoop, and 
wild halloo." — Scott. "And made apish at chance and sufferance." — Shak. 

" A single look more marks th' internal wo, 
Than all the windings of the lengthen'd oh." — Lbyd. 

CLASSES. 
Nouns are divided into two general classes ; proper and common. 

I. A proper noun is the name of some particular individual, or people, 
or group ; as, Adam, Boston, the Hudson, the Romans, the Azores, the 
Alps. 

II. A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or 
things ; as, Beast, bird, fish, insect, — creatures, persons, children. 

The particular classes, collective, abstract, and verbal, or participial, are usually 
included among common nouns. The name of a thing sui generis is also called 
common. 

1. A collective noun, or noun of multitude, is the name of many individuals 
together ; as, Council, meeting, committee, flock. 

2. An abstract noun is the name of some particular quality considered apart from 
its substance ; as, Goodness, hardness, pride, frailty. 

3. A verbal or participial noun is the name of some action, or state of being ; and 
is formed from a verb, like a participle, but employed as a noun : as, " The triumph- 
ing of the wicked is short." — Job, xx, 5. 

4. A thing sui generis, (i. e., of its own peculiar kind,) is something which is dis- 
tinguished, not as an individual of a species, but as a sort by itself, without plurality 
in either the noun or the sort of thing ; as, Galvanism, music, geometry. 



240 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Through the influence of an article, a proper name sometimes acquires the import ol 
a common noun: as, " He is the Cicero of his age ;" that is, the great orator. " Many a fiery Alp ;" 
that is, high volcanic mountain. "Such is the following application of famous names; a Solomon 
for a wise man, a Crossus for a rich man, a Judas foi» a traitor, a Demosthenes for an orator, and 
a Homer for a poet." — CampbelVs Rhei, p. 326. 

"Consideration, like an angel, came, 
And whipp'd iti offending Adam out of him." — Shdk. 

Obs. 2. — A common noun, with the definite article before it, sometimes becomes proper : as, 
Tlie Park; the Strand; the Channel; the Downs ; the United States. 

Obs. 3. — The common name of a thing or quality personified, often becomes proper ; our con- 
ception of the object being changed by the figure of speech: as, ' : My power," said Reason, "is to 
advise, not to compel." — Johnson. " Fair Peace her olive branch extends." For such a word, 
the form of parsing should be like this: " Peace is a common noun, personified proper ; of the third, 
person, singular number, feminine gender, and nominative case." Here the construction of the 
word as a proper noun, and of the feminine gender, is the result of the personification, and contrary 
to the literal usage. 

MODIFICATIONS. 

Nouns have modifications of four kinds ; namely, Persons, Numbers, 
Genders, and Cases. 

PERSONS. 

Persons, in grammar, are modifications that distinguish the speaker, the 
hearer, and the person or thing merely spoken of. 

There are three persons ; the first, the second, and the third. 

The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer ; as, " i" 
Paul have written it." 

The second person is that which denotes the hearer, or the person ad- 
dressed ; as, " Robert, who did this ?" 

The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely 
spoken of ; as, " James loves his booh" 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The distinction of persons is founded on the different relations which the objects men- 
tioned in any discourse may bear to the discourse itself. The speaker or writer, being the mover 
and maker of the communication, of course stands in the nearest or first of these relations. The 
hearer or hearers, being personally present and directly addressed, evidently sustain the next or 
second of these relations; this relation is also that of the reader, when he peruses what is addressed 
to himself in print or writing. Lastly, whatsoever or whosoever is merely mentioned in the dis- 
course, bears to it that more remote relation which constitutes the third person. The distinction 
of persons belongs to nouns, pronouns, and finite verbs ; and to these it is always applied, either 
by peculiarity of form or construction, or by inference from the principles of concord. Pronouns 
are like their antecedents, and verbs are like their subjects, in person. 

Obs. 2. — Of the persons, numbers, genders, cases, and some other grammatical modifications of 
words, it should be observed that they belong not exclusively to any one part of speech, but jointly 
and equally, to two or three. Hence, it is necessary that our definitions of these things be such 
as will apply to each of them in full, or under all circumstances ; for the definitions ought to be as 
general in their application as are the things or properties defined. Any person, number, gender, 
case, or other grammatical modification, is really but one and the same thing, in whatever part of 
speech it may be found. This is plainly implied in the very nature of every form of syntactical 
agreement ; and as plainly contradicted in one half, and probably more, of the definitions usually 
given of these things. 

Obs. 3. — Let it be understood, that persons, in grammar, are not words, but mere forms, rela- 
tions, or modifications of words ; that they are things, thus named by a figure; things of the neuter 
gender, and not living souls. But persons, in common parlance, or in ordinary fife, are intelligent 
beings, of one or the other sex. These objects, different as they are in their nature, are continually 
confounded by the makers of English grammars: as, "The first person is the person who speaks." 
— Comltfs Gram., p. 17. So Bicknell, of London: "The first person speaks of himself ; as, I John 
take thee Elizabeth. The second person has the speech directed to him, and is supposed to be 
present ; as, Thou Harry art a wicked fellow. The third person is spoken of, or described, and 
supposed to be absent ; as, That Tiiomas is a good man. And in the same manner the plural pro- 
nouns are used, when more than one are spoken of." — BicknelVs Grammatical Wreath, p. 50. "The 
person speaking is the first person ; the person spoken to, the second ; and the person spoken of,. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — PERSONS. 241 

the third." — Russell's Gram., p. 16. "The first person is the speaker." — Parker & Fox's Gram., 
Part i, p. 6. " Person is that, which distinguishes a noun, that speaks, one spoken to, or one spoken 
about." — S. R. Hall's Gram., p. 6. "A noun that speaks !" A noun ''spoken to !" If ever one 
of Father Hall's nouns shall speak for itself, or answer when "spoken to," will it not reprove 
him? And how can the first person be "the person who speaks," when every word of this 
phrase is of the third person ? Most certainly, it is not he, nor any one of his sort. If any body 
can boast of being " the first person in grammar,'' 1 I pray, Who is it? Is it not 1, even I? Many 
grammarians say so. But nay : such authors know not what the first person in grammar is. The 
Kev. Charles Adams, with infinite absurdity, makes the three persons in grammar to be never any 
thing but three nouns, which hold a confabulation thus: " Person is defined to be that which dis- 
tinguishes a noun that speaks, one spoken to, or one spoken of. The noun that speaks [,] is the first 
person ; as, I, James, was present. The noun that is spoken to, is the second person ; as, James, 
were you present? The noun that is spoken of is the third person; as, James was present."' — 
Adams's System of English Gram., p. 9. What can be a greater blunder, than to call the first 
person of a verb, of a pronoun, or even of a noun, u the noun that speaks?" What can be more 
absurd than are the following assertions ? " Nouns are in the first person when speaking. Nouns 
are o/the second person when addressed or spoken to." — 0. C. Fdton's Gram., p. 9. 

Obs. 4. — An other error, scarcely less gros3 than that which has just been noticed, is the very 
common one of identifying the three grammatical persons with certain words, called personal pro- 
nouns: as, " / is the first person, thou the second, he, she or it, the third." — Smith's Productive 
Gram., p. 53. " I is the first person, singular. Thou is the second person, singular. He, she, or 
it, is the third person, singular. We is the first person, plural. Ye or you is the second person, 
plural. They is the third person, plural." — L.Murray's Grammar, p. 51 ; IngersoWs, 54; D. 
Adams's, 37 ; A. Flint's, 18; Kirkham's, 98; Cooper's, 34; T. H. Miller's, 26; Hull's, 21 ; Frost's, 
13; Wilcox's, 18; Bacon's, 19; Alger's, 22; Maltby's, 19; Perley's, 15; S. Putnam's, 22. Now 
there is no more propriety in affirming, that "7 is the first person," than in declaring that me, we, 
its, am, ourselves, we think, I write, or any other word or phrase of the first person, is the first 
person. Yet Murray has given us no other definitions or explanations of the persons than the 
foregoing erroneous assertions ; and, if I mistake not, all the rest who are here named, have been 
content to define them only as he did. Some others, however, have done still worse : as, " There are 
three personal pronouns; so called, because they denote the three persons, who are the subjects of 
a discourse, viz. 1st. I, who is the person speaking ; 2d thou, who is spoken to; 3d he, she, or it, 
u-ho is spoken of, and their plurals, we, ye or you, they." — Bingham's Accidence, 20th Ed., p. 7. 
Here the two kinds of error which I have just pointed out, are jumbled together. It is impossible 
to write worse English than this ! Nor is the following much better : " Of the personal pronouns 
there are five, viz. I, in the first person, speaking; Thou, in the second person, spoken to ; and He, 
she, it, in the third person, spoken of." — Nutting's Gram., p. 25. 

Obs. 5. — In written language, the first person denotes the writer or author; and the second, tho 
reader or person addressed: except when the writer describes not himself, but some one else, as 
uttering to an other the words which he records. This exception takes place more particularly in 
the writing of dialogues and dramas ; in which the first and second persons are abundantly used, 
not as the representatives of the author and his reader, but as denoting the fictitious speakers and 
hearers that figure in each scene. But, in discourse, the grammatical persons may be changed 
without a change of the living subject. In the following sentence, the three grammatical persons 
are all of them used with reference to one and the same individual : " Say ye of Him whom the 
Pather hath sanctified and sent into the world, TJiou Uasphemest, because I said I am the Son of 
God f— John, x, 36. 

Obs. 6. — The speaker seldom refers to himself by name, as the speaker ; and, of the objects 
which there is occasion to name in discourse, but comparatively few are such as can ever be sup- 
posed to speak. Consequently, nouns are rarely used in tho first person ; and when they do 
assume this relation, a pronoun is commonly associated with them: as, " I John" — " We Britons" 
These words I conceive to agree throughout, in person, number, gender, and case; though it must 
be confessed, that agreement like this is not always required between words in apposition. But 
some grammarians deny the first person to nouns altogether ; others, with much more consistency, 
ascribe it ;* while very many are entirely silent on the subject. Yet it is plain that both the doc- 
trine of concords, and the analogy of general grammar, require its admission. The reason of this 
maybe seen in the following examples : " Tliemislocles .ad te veni." "I Themistocles have come 
to you." — Grant's Latin Gram., p. 72. u Adsum Troius HSneas." — Virgil. " Romulus Rexregia 
arma offero." — Livy. " Annibal peto pacem." — Id. " Callopius recensui." — See Terence's Comedies, 

* " If J or we is set before a name, it [the name] is of the first person': as, I, N— JV— , declare ; we, N— and 
M — do promise." — Ward's Gram., p. 83. "Nouns which relate to the person or persons speaking, are said to 
be of the first person; as, I, William, speak to you." — Fowle's Common School Gram,., Part ii^ p. 22. The 
first person of nouns is admitted by Ainsworth, R. W. Bailey, Barnard, Brightland, J. H. Brown, Bullions, 
Butler, Cardell, Chandler, S. W. Clark, Cooper, Day, Emmons, Farnum, Felton, Fisk, John Flint, Fowle, 
Frazee, Gilbert, Goldsbury, R. G. Greene, S. S. Greene, Hall, Hallock, Hamlin, Hart, Hendrick, Hiley, Perley, 
Picket, Pinneo, Russell, Sanborn, Sanders, Smart, R. C. Smith, Spear, Weld, Wells, Wilcox, and others. It is 
denied, either expressly or virtually, by Alger, Bacon, Comly, Davis, Dilworth, Greenleaf, Guy, Hazen, Inger- 
soll, Jaudon, Kirkham, Latham, L. Murray, Maltby, Merchant, Miller, Nutting, Parkhurst, S. Putnam, Rev. 
T. Smith, and others. Among the grammarians who do not appear to have noticed the persons of nouns at all, 
areAlden, W. Allen, D. C. Allen, Ash, Bicknell, Bingham, Blair, Buchanan, Bucke, Burn, Burr, Churchill, 
Coar, Cobb, Dalton, Dearborn, Abel Flint, R. W. Green, Harrison, Johnson, Leonie, Lowth, Mennye, Mulli. 
gan, Priestley, Staniford, Ware, Webber, and Webster. 

16 



242 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

at the end. " Paul, an apostle, &c, unto Timothy, my own son in the faith." — 1 Tim., i, 2. Again, 
if the word God is of the second person, in the text, " Thou, God, seest me," why should any one 
deny that Paul is of the first person, in this one? u I Paul have written it." — Philemon, 19. Or 
this? "The salutation by the hand of me Paul." — Col, iv, 18. And so of the plural: "Of you 
'builders.' 1 '' — Acts, iv, 11. " Of us the apostles." — 2 Pet, hi, 2. How can it be pretended, that, in the 
phrase, u I Paul" /is of the first person, as denoting the speaker, and Paul, of some other person, 
as denoting something or somebody that is not the speaker ? Let the admirers of Murray, Kirk- 
ham, Ingersoll, R. C. Smith, Comly, Greenleaf, Parkhurst, or of any others who teach this absurd- 
ity, answer. 

Obs. 7. — As, in the direct application of what are called Christian names, there is a kind of 
familiarity, which on many occasions would seem to indicate a lack of proper respect ; so in a 
frequent and familiar use of the second person, as it is the placing of an other in the more intimate 
relation of the hearer, and one's self in that of the speaker, there is a sort of assumption which 
may seem less modest and respectful than to use the third person. In the following example, 
the patriarch Jacob uses both forms ; applying the term servant to himself, and to his brother 
Esau the term lord: " Let my lord, /pray thee, pass over before his servant: and /will lead on 
softly." — Gen., xxxiii, 14. For when a speaker or writer does not choose to declare himself in the 
first person, or to address his hearer or reader in the second, he speaks of both or either in the 
third. Thus Moses relates what Hoses did, and Caesar records the achievements of Cozsar. So 
Judah humbly beseeches Joseph: "Let thy servant abide in stead of the lad a bondman to my 
lord." — Gen., xliv, 33. And Abraham reverently intercedes with God: " Oh ! let not the Lord be 
angry, and I will speak." — Gen., xviii, 30. And the Psalmist prays: " God be merciful unto us, 
and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us." — Ps., lxvii, 1. So, on more common occa- 
sions: — 

" As will the rest, so vnlleth Winchester." — Shak. 
"Richard of York, how fares our dearest brother?" — /d* 

Obs. 8. — When inanimate things are spoken to, they are personified ; and their names are put 
in the second person, because by the figure the objects are supposed to be capable of hearing : as, 
"What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye 
mountain?, that ye skipped like rams ; and ye little hills, like lambs ? Tremble, thou earth, at the 
presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." — Psalms, cxiv, 5-7. 

NUMBEKS. 

Numbers, in grammar, are modifications that distinguish unity and 
plurality. 

There are two numbers ; the singular and the 'plural. 

The singular number is that which denotes but one ; as, " The boy 
learns." 

The plural number is that which denotes more than one ; as, " The 
boys learn." 

The plural number of no.uns is regularly formed by adding s or es to 
the singular : as, book, books; box, boxes; sofa, sofas; hero, heroes. 

When the singular ends in a sound which will unite with that of s, the 
plural is generally formed by adding s only, and the number of syllables 
is not increased : as, pen, pens; grape, grapes. 

But when the sound of s cannot be united with that of the primitive 
word, the regular plural adds s to final e, and es to other terminations, 
and forms a separate syllable : as, page, pages ; fox, foxes. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The distinction of numbers serves merely to show whether we speak of one object, or 
of more. In some languages, as the Greek and the Arabic, there is a dual number, which denotes 
two, or a pair • but in ours, this property of words, or class of modifications, extends no farther 
than to distinguish unity from plurality, and plurality from unity. It belongs to nouns, pronouns, 
and finite verbs ; and to these it is always applied, either by peculiarity of form, or by inference 
from the principles of concord. Pronouns are like their antecedents, and verbs are like their sub- 
jects, in number. 

Obs. 2. — The most common way of forming the plural of English nouns, is that- of simply add- 
ing to them an s; which,' when it unites with a sharp consonant, is always sharp, or hissing ; and 
when it follows a vowel or a flat mute, is generally flat, like z : thus, in the words, ships, skifi's, 

* Prof. S. S. Greene most absurdly and erroneously teaches, that, "When the speaker wishes to represent 
himself, he cannot use his name, but must use some other word, as, I; [and] when he wishes to represent the 
hearer, he must use thou or you." — Greene 1 s Elements of E. Oram., 1853, p. xxxiv. The examples given above 
sufficiently show the falsity of all this. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — NUMBERS. 243 

pits, rocks, depths, lakes, gulfs, it is sharp ; but in seas, lays, rivers, hills, ponds, paths, rovjs, wets, 
flags, it is fiat. The terminations which always make the regular plural in es, with increase of 
syllables, are twelve; namely, ce, ge, ch soft, che soft, sh, ss, s, se, x, xe, z, andze: as in face, faces ; 
age, ages; torch, torches; niche, niches; dish, dishes; kiss, kisses; rebus, rebuses; lens, lenses; 
chaise, chaises; corpse, corpses; nurse, nurses; box, boxes; axe, axes; phiz, phizzes ; maze, mazes. 
All other endings readily unite in sound either with the sharp or with the flat s, as they them- 
selves are sharp or flat ; and, to avoid an increase of syllables, we allow the final e mute to remain 
mute after that letter is added : thus, we always pronounce as monosyllables the words babes, 
blades, strifes, tithes, yokes, scales, names, canes, ropes, shores, plates, doves, and the like. 

Obs. 3. — Though the irregular plurals of our language appear considerably numerous when 
brought together, they are in fact very few in comparison with the many thousands that are per- 
fectly simple and regular. In some instances, however, usage is various in writing, though uni- 
form in speech ; an unsettlement peculiar to certain words that terminate in vowels : as, Rabbis, 
or rabbies; octavos, or octavoes; attornies, or attorneys. There are also some other difficulties 
respecting the plurals of nouns, and especially respecting those of foreign words ; of compound 
terms ; of names and titles ; and of words redundant or deficient in regard to the numbers. 
What is most worthy of notice, respecting all these puzzling points of English grammar, is briefly 
contained in the following observations. 

Obs. 4. — It is a general rule of English grammar, that all singular nouns ending with a vowel 
preceded by an other vowel, shall form the plural by simply assuming an s: &s,Plea, pleas ; idea, 
ideas ; hernia, hernias; bee, bees; lie, lies; foe, foes; shoe, shoes; cue, cues; eye, eyes; folio, folios; 
bamboo, bamboos; cuckoo, cuckoos; embryo, embryos; bureau, bureaus; purlieu, purlieus ; sou, sous; 
view, views ; straw, straws ; play, plays ; key, keys ; medley, medleys ; viceroy, viceroys ; guy, guys. 
To this rule, the plurals of words ending in guy, as alloquies, colloquies, obloquies, soliloquies, are 
commonly made exceptions ; because many have conceived that the u, in such instances, is a mere 
appendage to the q, or is a consonant having the power of w, and not a vowel forming a diphthong 
with the y. All other deviations from the rule, as monies for moneys, allies for alleys, rallies for 
valleys, chimnies for chimneys, &c, are now usually condemned as errors. See Eule 12th for 
Spelling. 

Obs. 5. — It is also a general principle, that nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant, change 
the y into i, and add es for the plural, without increase of syllables : as, fly, flies ; ally, allies ; city, 
cities; colony, colonies. So nouns in i, (so far as we have any that are susceptible of a change of 
number,) form the plural regularly by assuming es : as, alkali, alkalies ; salmagundi, salmagundies. 
Common nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant, are numerous ; and none of them deviate 
from the foregoing rule of forming the plural : thus, duty, duties. The termination added is es, 
and the y is changed into i, according to the general principle expressed in Eule 11th for Spell- 
ing. But, to this principle, or rule, some writers have supposed that proper nouns were to be 
accounted exceptions. And accordingly Tve sometimes find such names made jDlural by the mere 
addition of an s, : as, "How come the Pythagoras 1 , [it should be, the Pythagorases,] the Aris- 
totles, the Tullys, the Livys, to appear, even to us at this distance, as stars of the first magnitude 
in the vast fields of ether?" — Burgli's Dignity, Yol. i, p. 131. This doctrine, adopted from some 
of our older grammars, I was myself, at one period, inclined to countenance ; (see Institutes of 
English Grammar, p. 33, at the bottom ;) but further observation having led me to suspect, there 
is more authority for changing the y than for retaining it, I shall by-and-by exhibit some examples 
of this change, and leave the reader to take his choice of the two forms, or principles. 

Obs. 6. — The vowel a, at the end of a word, (except in the questionable term huzza, or when 
silent, as in guinea,) has always its Itahan or middle sound, as heard in the interjection aha! a 
sound which readily unites with that of s flat, and which ought, in deliberate speech, to be care- 
fully preserved in plurals from this ending: as, Canada, the Canadas ; cupola, cupolas; comma, 
commas ; anathema, anathemas. To pronounce the final a flat, as Africay for Africa, is a mark 
of vulgar ignorance. 

Obs. 7. — The vowel e at the end of a word, is generally silent ; and, even when otherwise, it 
remains single in plurals from this ending; the es, whenever the e is vocal, being sounded eez, or 
like the word ease : as, apost? , ophe, apostrophes ; epitome, epitomes ; simile, similes. This class of 
words being anomalous in respect to pronunciation, some authors have attempted to reform them, 
by changing the e to jf in the singular, and writing ies for the plural : as, apostrophy, apostrophies ; 
epitonny, epitomies ; simily, similies. A reformation of some sort seems desirable here, and this 
has the advantage of being first proposed; but it is not extensively adopted, and perhaps never 
will be ; for the vowel sound in question, is not exactly that of the terminations y and ies, but one 
which seems to require ee — a stronger sound than that of y, though similar to it. 

Obs. 8. — For nouns ending in open o preceded by a consonant, the regular method of forming 
the plural seems to be that of adding es ; as in bilboes, umboes, buboes, calicoes, moriscoes, gam- 
badoes, barricadoes, fumadoes, carbonadoes, tornadoes, bravadoes, torpedoes, innuendoes, viragoes, 
mangoes, embargoes, cargoes, potargoes, echoes, buffaloes, volcanoes, heroes, negroes, potatoes, mani- 
festoes, mulattoes, stilettoes, woes. In words of this class, the e appears to be useful as a means of 
preserving the right sound of the o ; consequently, such of them as are the most frequently used, 
have become the most firmly fixed in this orthography. In practice, however, we find many sim- 
ilar nouns very frequently, if not uniformly, written with s only ; as, cantos, juntos, grottos, solos, 
quartos, octavos, duodecimos, tyros. So that even the best scholars seem to have frequently doubted 
which termination they ought to regard as the regular one. The whole class includes more than 



244 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

one hundred words. Some, however, are seldom used in the plural ; and others, never. Wo and 
potato are sometimes written woe and potatoe. This may have sprung from a notion, that such as 
have the e in the plural, should have it also in the singular. But this principle has never been 
carried out ; and, being repugnant to derivation, it probably never will be. The only English 
appellatives that are established in oe, are the following fourteen : seven monosyllables, doe, foe, 
roe, shoe, sloe, soe, toe ; and seven longer words, rocMoe, aloe, felloe, canoe, misletoe, tiptoe, diploe. 
The last is pronounced dip'-lo-e by Worcester ; but Webster, Bolles, and some others, give it as a 
word of two syllables only.* 

Obs. 9. — Established exceptions ought to be enumerated and treated as exceptions ; but it is 
impossible to remember how to write some scores of words, so nearly alike as fumadoes and gre- 
nados, stilettoes and palmettos, if they are allowed to differ in termination, as these examples do in 
Johnson's Dictionary. Nay, for lack of a rule to guide his pen, even Johnson himself could not 
remember the orthography of the common word mangoes well enough to copy it twice without in- 
consistency. This may be seen by his example from King, under the words mango and potargo. 
Since, therefore, either termination is preferable to the uncertainty which must attend a division 
of this class of words between the two ; and since es has some claim to the preference, as being 
a better index to the sound ; I shall make no exceptions to the principle, that common nouns 
ending in o preceded by a consonant take es for the plural. Murray says, "Nouns which end in o 
have sometimes es added, to form the plural ; as, cargo, echo, hero, negro, manifesto, potato, 
volcano, wo: and sometimes only s ; as, folio, nuncio, punctilio, seraglio." — Octavo Gram., p. 40. 
This amounts to nothing, unless it is to be inferred from his examples, that others like them in 
form are to take s or es accordingly; and tins is what I teach, though it cannot be said that Murray 
maintains the principle. 

Obs. 10. — Proper names of individuals, strictly used as such, have no plural. But when several 
persons of the same name are spoken of, the noun becomes in some degree common, and admits 
of the plural form and an article; as, " The Stuarts, the Ccesars." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 41. 
These, however, may still be called proper nouns, in parsing ; because they are only inflections, 
peculiarly applied, of certain names which are indisputably such. So likewise when such nouns 
are used to denote character : as, " Solomons, for wise men; Neros, for tyrants." — lb. " Here we 
see it becomes a doubt which of the two Herculeses, was the monster-queller." — Notes to Pope's 
Dunciad, iv, 492. The proper names of nations, tribes, and societies, are generally plural; and, 
except in a direct address, they are usually construed with the definite article : as, " The Greeks, 
the Athenians, the Jeivs, the Jesuits." But such words may take the singular form with the indefi- 
nite article, as often as we have occasion to speak of an individual of such a people; as, "i Greek, 
an Athenian, a Jew, a Jesuit." These, too, maybe called proper nouns ; because they are national, 
patrial, or tribal names, each referring to some place or people, and are not appellatives, which 
refer to actual sorts or kinds, not considered local. 

Obs. 11. — Proper names, when they form the plural, for the most part form it regularly, by as- 
suming s or es according to the termination : as, Carolina, the Carolinas ; James, the Jameses. 
And those which are only or chiefly plural, have, or ought to have, such terminations as are proper 
to distinguish them as plurals, so that the form for the singular may be inferred: as, " The Tun- 
gooses occupy nearly a third of Siberia." — BalWs Geog., p. 379. Here the singular must certainly 
be a Tungoose. " The principal tribes are the Pawnees, the Arrapahoes, and the Cumanches, who 
roam through the regions of the Platte, the Arkansaw, and the Norte." — lb., p. 179. Here the 
singulars may be supposed to be a Pawnee, an Arrapaho, and a Cumanche. *' The Southern or 
Eloridian family comprised the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Seminoles, and Natchez. 11 
— lb., p. 179. Here all are regular plurals, except the last ; and this probably ought to be Natchezes, 
but Jefferson spells it Notches, the singular of which I do not know. Sometimea foreign words or 
foreign terminations have been improperly preferred to our own ; which last are more intelligible, 
and therefore better : as, Esquimaux, to Esquimaus ; Knistenaux, to Knislenaus, or Crees ; Sioux, 
to Sious, or Dahcotahs ; Iroquois, to Iroquoys, or Hurons. 

Obs. 12. — Respecting the plural of nouns ending in i, o, u, or y, preceded by a consonant, there 
is in present usage much uncertainty. As any vowel sound may be uttered with an s, many 
writers suppose these letters to require for plurals strictly regular, the s only ; and to take es oc- 
casionally, by way of exception. Others, (perhaps with more reason,) assume, that the most usual 
regular, and proper endings for the plural, in these instances, are ies, oes, and ues : as, alkali, alkalies ; 
halo, haloes ; gnu, gnues ; enemy, enemies. This, I think, is right for common nouns. How far 
proper names are to be made exceptions, because they are proper names, is an other question. It 
is certain that some of them are not to be excepted: as, ioi- instance, Alleghany, the Alleghanies ; 
Sicily, the Two Sicilies ; Ptolemy, the Ptolemies ; Jehu, the Jehues. So the names of tribes ; as, 
The Missouries, the Otoes, the Winnebagoes. Likewise, the houries and the harpies ; which words, 
though not strictly proper names, are often written with a capital as such. Like these are rabbies, 
cadies, mufties, sophies, from which some writers omit the e. Johnson, Walker, and others, write 
gipsy and gipsies ; Webster, now writes Gipsey and Gipseys ; Worcester prefers Gypsy, and proba- 

* In shoe and shoes, canoe and canoes, the o is sounded slenderly, like oo; but in doe or does, foe or foes, and 
the rest of the fourteen nouns above, whether singular or plural, it retains the full sound of its own name, 0. 
Whether the plural of two should be "twoes," as Churchill writes it, or '■'■twos" which is more common, is 
questionable. According to Dr. Ash and the Spectator, the plural of wJw, taken substantively, is "whos." — 
. ^-s.Vs Gram., p. 131. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — NUMBERS. 245 

bly Gypsies: Webster ouce wrote the plural gypsies; (see his Essays, p. 333;) and Johnson cites 
the following line : — 

"I, near yon stile, three sallow gypsies met." — Gay. 

Obs. 13. — Proper names in o are commonly made plural by s only. Yet there seems to be the 
same reason for inserting the e in these, as in other nouns of the same ending ; namely, to prevent 
the o from acquiring a short sound. "I apprehend," says Churchill, "it has been from an erro- 
neous notion of proper names being unchangeable, that some, feeling the necessity of obviating this 
mispronunciation, have put an apostrophe between the o and the s in the plural, in stead of an e ; 
writing Go-id's, Nerd's ; and on a similar principle, Ajax's, Venus' s ; thus using the possessive case 
singular for the nominative or objective plural. Harris says very properly, ' "We have our Marks 
and our Antonies :' Hermes, B. 2, Ch. 4 ; for which these would have given us Mark's and Antony's.' 1 '' 
— New Gram., p. 206. Whatever may have been the motive for it, such a use of the apostrophe 
is a gross impropriety. " In this quotation, [' From the Socrates's, the Plato's, and the Confucius's 
of the age,'] the proper names should have been pluralized like common nouns; thus, From the 
Socraieses, the Platoes, and the Confuciuses of the age." — Lennie's Gram., p. 126 ; Bullions's, 142. 

Obs. 14. — The following are some examples of the plurals of proper names, which I submit to 
the judgement of the reader, in connexion with the foregoing observations : " The Eomans had 
their plurals Marci and Antonii, as we in later days have our Marks and our Anthonies." — Harris's 
Hermes, p. 40. " There seems to be more reason for such plurals, as the Ptolemies, Scipios, Catos: 
or, to instance in more modern names, the Howards, Pelhams, and Montagues." — lb., 40. " Near 
the family seat of the Montgomeries of Coil's-field." — Burns's Poems, Note, p. 7. " Tryphon, a sur- 
name of one of the Ptolemies." — Lempriere's Diet. " Sixteen of the Tuberos, with their wives and 
children, lived in a small house." — lb. " What are the Jupiter s and Junos of the heathens to such 
a God ?" — Burgh's Dignity, i, 234. " Also when we speak of more than one person of the same 
name ; as, the Henries, the Edwards? — Cobbett's E. Gram., ^[40. " She was descended from the 
Percies and the Stanleys." — Loves of the Poets, h, 102. "Naples, or the Two Sicilies.'" — BalMs 
Geog., p. 273. The word India, commonly makes the plural Indies, not Indias ; and, for Ajaxes, 
the poets write Ajaces. But Richard Hiley says, " Proper nouns, when pluralized, follow the 
same rules as common nouns ; as, Venus, the Venuses ; Ajax, the Ajaxes ; Cato, the Catoes ; Henry, 
the Henries." — Hiley' s E. Gram., p. 18. 

" He ev'ry day from King to King can walk, 
Of all our Harries, all our Edwards talk." — Pope's Satires, iv. 

Obs. 15. — When a name and a title are to be used together in a plural sense, many persons are 
puzzled to determine whether the name, or the title, or both, should be in the plural form. For 
example — in speaking of two young ladies whose family name is Bell — whether to call them the 
Miss Bells, the Misses Bell, or the Misses Bells. To an inquiry on this point, a learned editor, who 
prefers the last, lately gave his answer thus : " There are two young ladies ; of course they are 
'the Misses.' Their name is Bell; of course there are two 'Bells.' Ergo, the correct phrase, in 
speaking of them, is — 'the Misses Bells.' " — N. Y. Com. Adv. This puts the words in apposition ; 
and there is no question, that it is formally correct. But still it is less agreeable to the ear, less 
frequently heard, and less approved by grammarians, than the first phrase ; which, if we may be 
allowed to assume that the two words may be taken together as a sort of compound, is correct 
also. Dr. Priestley says, " When a name has a title prefixed to it, as Doctor, Miss, Master, &c, 
the plural termination affects only the latter of the two words ; as, ' The two Doctor Netlietons' — 
' The two Miss TJwmsons ;' though a strict analogy would plead for the alteration of the former 
word, and lead Us to say, ' The two Doctors Nettleton' — ' The two Misses Thomson.' " — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 59. The following quotations show the opinions of some other grammarians : " Two or 
more nouns in concordance, and forming one complex name, or a name and a. title, have the plural 
termination annexed to the last only ; as, ' The Miss Smiths! — ' The three Doctor Simpsons' — 
' The two Master Wigginses.' With a few exceptions, and those not parallel to the examples just 
given, we almost uniformly, in complex names, confine the inflection to the last or the latter 
noun." — Dr. Crombie. The foregoing opinion from Crombie, is quoted and seconded by Maunder, 
who adds the following examples: "Thus, Dr. Watts: ' May there not be Sir Isaac Newtons in 
every science?' — ' You must not suppose that the world is made up of Lady Aurora Granvilles.' " 
— Maunder's Gram., p. 2. 

Obs. 16. — These writers do not seem to accord with W. L. Stone, the editor above quoted, nor 
would his reasoning apply weU to several of their examples. Yet both opinions are right, if 
neither be carried too far. For when the words are in apposition, rather than in composition, the 
first name or title must be made plural, if it refers to more than one: as, "The Misses Bell and 
Brown." — " Messrs. Lambert and Son," — " The Lords Calthorpe and Erskine," — " The Lords Bishops 
of Durham and St. David's,"— " The Knights Hospitalers,"— "The Knights TemjJlars,"—" The 
Knights Baronets." But this does not prove the other construction, which varies the last word 
only, to be irregular; and, if it did, there is abundant authority for it. Nor is that which varies 
the first only, to be altogether condemned, though Dr. Priestley is unquestionably wrong respect- 
ing the " strict analogy" of which he speaks. The joining of a plural title to one singular noun, as, 
" Misses Roy," — " The Misses Bell," — " The two Misses Thomson," produces a phrase which is in 
itself the least analogous of the three; but, " The Misses Jane and Eliza Bell," is a phrase which 
nobody perhaps will undertake to amend. It appears, then, that each of these forms of expression 



246 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

may be right in some cases ; and each of them may be wrong, if improperly substituted for either 
of the others. 

Obs. 17. — The following statements, though erroneous in several particulars, will show the opin- 
ions of some other grammarians, upon the foregoing point: "Proper nouns have the plural only 
when they refer to a race or family; as, The Campbells ; or to several persons of the same name; 
as, The eight Henrys ; the two Mr. Bells ; the two Miss Browns ; or, without the numeral, the Miss 
Boys. But in addressing letters in which both or all are equally concerned, and also when the 
names are different, we pluralize the title, (Mr. or Miss,) and write, Misses Brown ; Misses Roy ; 
Messrs. (for Messieurs, Fr.) Guthrie and Tait." — Lennie's Gram., p. 7. "If we wish to distinguish 
the unmarried from the married How ards, we call them the Miss Howards. If we wish to dis- 
tinguish these Misses from other Misses, we call them the Misses Howard." — Fowle's Gram. "To 
distinguish several persons of the same name and family from others of a different name and 
family, the title, and not the proper name, is varied to express the distinction ;• as, the Misses Story, 
the Messrs. Story. The elliptical meaning is, the Misses and Messrs. who are named Story. To 
distinguish unmarried from married ladies, the proper name, and not the title, should be varied ; 
as, the Miss Clarks. "When we mention more than one person of different names, the title should 
be expressed before each; as, Miss Burns, Miss Parker, and Mas Hopkinson, were present." — 
Sanborn's Gram., p. 79. In the following examples from Pope's Works, the last word only is 
varied: "He paragons himself to two Lord Chancellors for law." — Vol. iii, p. 61. Yearly pane- 
gyrics upon the Lord Mayors." 1 — lb., p. 83. 

"Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris 
Of wrongs from Duchesses and Lady Maries." — Bunciad, B. ii, 1. 135. 

Obs. 18. — The following eleven nouns in /, change the / into v and assume es for the plural: 
sheaf, sheaves; leaf, leaves; loaf, loaves; beef, beeves; thief, thieves; calf, calves; half, halves; elf, 
elves; shelf shelves; self, selves; wolf, wolves Three others in fe are similar: life, lives; knife, 
knives ; ivife, wives. These are specific exceptions to the general rule for plurals, and not a series 
of examples coming under a particular rule ; for, contrary to the instructions of nearly all our 
grammarians, there are more than twice as many words of the same endings, which take s only : 
as, chiefs, kerchiefs, handkerchiefs, mischiefs, beliefs, misbeliefs, reliefs, bassreliefs, briefs, feifs, griefs, 
clefs, semibrefs, oafs, waifs, coifs, gulfs, hoofs, roofs, proofs, reproofs, woofs, califs, turfs, scarfs, 
dwarfs, wharfs, fifes, strifes, safes. The plural of wharf is sometimes written wharves; but per- 
haps as frequently, and, if so, more accurately, ivharfs. Examples and authorities : " Wharf 
wharfs." — Brightland's Gram., p. 80; Ward's, 24; Coar's, 26; Lennie's, 7; Bucke's, 39. "There 
were not in London so many ivharfs, or keys, for the landing of merchants' goods." — Child : in 
Johnson's Diet. "The wharfs of Boston are also worthy of notice." — Balbi's Geog., p. 37. "Be- 
tween banks thickly clad with dwelling-houses, manufactories, and wharfs." — London Morn. 
Chronicle, 1833. Nouns in ff take s only; as, skiffs, stuffs, gaffs. But the plural of staff has 
hitherto been generally written staves; a puzzling and useless anomaly, both in form and 
sound : for all the compounds of staff are regular ; as, distaffs, whipstaffs, tipstaffs, flagstaff's, 
quartersiaffs : and staves is the regular plural of stave, a word now in very common use with a 
different meaning, as every cooper and every musician knows. Staffs is now sometimes used ; as, 
" I saw the husbandmen bending over their staffs." — Lord Carnarvon. " With their staffs in their 
hands for very age." — Hope of Israel, p. 16. " To distinguish between the two staffs." — Comstock's 
Elocution, p. 43. In one instance, I observe, a very excellent scholar has written selfs for selves, 
but the latter is the established plural of self: 

" Self-love would cease, or be dilated, when 
We should behold as many selfs as men." — Waller's Poems, p. 55. 

Obs. 19. — Of nouns purely English, the following thirteen are the only simple words that form 
distinct plurals not ending in s or es, and four of these are often regular : man, men ; woman, wo- 
men ; child, children ; brother, brethren or brothers ; ox, oxen ; goose, geese ; foot, feet ; tooth, teeth ; 
louse, lice ; mouse, mice ; die, dice or dies ; penny, pence or pennies ; pea, pease or peas. The word 
brethren is now applied only to fellow-members of the same church or fraternity ; for sons of the 
same parents we always use brothers ; and this form is sometimes employed in the other sense. 
Dice are spotted cubes for gaming ; dies are stamps for coining money, or for impressing metals. 
Pence, as six pence, refers to the amount of money in value ; pennies denotes the coins themselves. 
" We write peas, for two or more individual seeds ; but pease, for an indefinite number in quan- 
tity or bulk." — Webster's Diet. This last anomaly, I think, might well enough be spared; the 
sound of the word being the same, and the distinction to the eye not always regarded. Why 
is it not as proper, to write an order for " a bushel of peas," as for " a bushel of beans V " Peas 
and beans may be severed from the ground before they be quite dry." — Cobbetfs E. Gram., If 31. 

Obs. 20. — When a compound, ending with any of the foregoing irregular words, is made 
plural, it follows the fashion of the word with which it ends : as, Gentleman, gentlemen ; bond- 
woman, bondwomen ; foster-child, foster-children ; solan-goose, solan-geese ; eyetooth, eyetteth ; 
woodlouse, woodlice ;* dormouse, dormice ; half-penny, half-pence, half-pennies. In this way, these 
irregularities extend to many words ; though some of the metaphorical class, as kite 's-foot, colt's- 

* There are some singular compounds of the plural -word pence, which form their own plurals regularly ; as, 
sixpence, sixpences. " If you do not all show like gilt twopences to me." — Shakspeake. " The sweepstakes oi 
which are to be composed of the disputed difference in the value of two doubtful sixpences." — Goodell's Lect. : 
Liberator, Vol. Lx, p. 145. 



CHAP. *EII.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — NUMBERS. 247 

foot, beards-foot, lion's-fooi, being names of plants, have no plural. The word man, which is 
used the most frequently in this way, makes more than seventy such compounds. But there are 
some words of this ending, which, not being compounds of man, are regular : as, German, Germans; 
Turcoman, Turcomans; Mussulman, Mussulmans; talisman, talismans; leman, lemans ; caiman, 
caimans. 

Obs. 21. — Compounds, in general, admit but one variation to form the plural, and that must be 
made in the principal word, rather than in the adjunct ; but where the terms differ little in impor- 
tance, the genius of the language obviously inclines to a variation of the last only. Thus we 
mite fathers-in-law, sons-in-law, knights-errant, courts-martial, cousins-german, hangers-on, comings- 
in, goings-out, goings-forth, varying the first ; and manhaters, manstealers, manslayers, mantatcrs, 
mandrills, handfuls, spoonfuls, moutlifuls, pailftds, outpourings, ingatherings, downsittings, overflow- 
ings, varying the last. So, in many instances, when there is a less intimate connexion of the 
parts, and the words are written with a hyphen, if not separately, we choose to vary the latter or 
last: as, fellovj-servants, queen-consorts, three-per-cents, he-goats, she-bears, jack-a-dandies, jack-a- 
lanterns, pianofortes. The following mode of writing is irregular in two respects ; first, because 
the words are separated, and secondly, because both are varied : " Is it unreasonable to say with 
John "Wesley, that ' men buyers are exactly on a level with men stealers f " — Goodell's Lect. ii : 
Liberator, ix, 65. According to analogy, it ought to be : " Manbuyers are exactly on a level 
with manstealers." J. W. Wright alleges, that, " The phrase, ' I want two spoonfuls or handfuls? 
though common, is improperly constructed;" and that, "we should say, 'Two spoons or hands 
fulV " — Philos. Gram., p. 222. From this opinion, I dissent: both authority and analogy favour 
the former mode of expressing the plural of such quantities. 

Obs. 22. — There is neither difficulty nor uncertainty respecting the proper forms for the plurals 
of compound nouns in general ; but the two irregular words man and woman are often varied at 
the beginning of the looser kind of compounds, contrary to what appears to be the general 
analogy of similar words. Of the propriety of this, the reader may judge, when I shall havo 
quoted a few examples: "Besides their man-servants and their maid-servants" — Nehemiah, vii, 
67. "And I have oxen and asses, flocks, and men-servants, and women-servants." — Gen., xxxii, 
5. " I gat me men-singers, and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men." — Ecclesi- 
astes, ii, 8. " And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of 
iron." — Rev., xii, 5. " Why have ye done this, and saved the men-children alive?" — Eo:od., i, 18. 
Such terms as these, if thought objectionable, may easily be avoided, by substituting for the 
former part of the compound the separate adjective male or female; as, male child, male children. 
Or, for those of the third example, one might say, " singing men and singing women," as in 
Nehemiah, vii, 67 ; for, in the ancient languages, the words are the same. Alger compounds 
" singing-men and singing-women." 

Obs. 23. — Some foreign compound terms, consisting of what are usually, in the language from 
which they come, distinct words and different parts of speech, are made plural in English, by the 
addition of e or es at the end. But, in all such cases, I think the hyphen should be inserted in 
the compound, though it is the practice of many to omit it. Of this odd sort of words, I quote 
the following examples from Churchill ; taking the liberty to insert the hyphen, which he omits : 
" Ave- Maries, Te-Deums, camera-obscuras, agnus-casiuses, habeas-corpuses, scire-faciases, hiccius- 
docciuses, hocus-pocuses, ignisfatuuses, chef-dz-ceuvres, conge-cV -elires, flower-de-luces, louis-d'-ores, 
tete-d-tetes." — ChurchUVs G-ram., p. 62. 

Obs. 24. — Some nouns, from the nature of the things meant, have no plural. For, as there 
ought to be no word, or inflection of a word, for which we cannot conceive an appropriate 
meaning or use, it follows that whatever is of such a species that it cannot be taken in any 
plural sense, must naturally be named by a word which is singular only: as, perry, cider, coffee, 
flax, hemp, fennel, tallow, pitch, gold, sloth, pride, meekness, eloquence. But there are some things, 
which have in fact neither a comprehensible unity, nor any distinguishable plurality, and which 
may therefore be spoken of in either number ; for the distinction of unity and plurality is, in 
such instances, merely verbal; and, whichever number we take, the word will be apt to want 
the other: as, dregs, or sediment; riches, or wealth; pains, or toil; ethics, or moral philosophy ; 
politics, or the science of government; belles-lettres, or polite literature. So darkness, which in 
English appears to have no plural, is expressed in Latin by tentbroe, in French by ienebres, 
which have no singular. It is necessary that every noun should be understood to be of one num- 
ber or the other ; for, in connecting it with a verb, or in supplying its place by a pronoun, wo 
must assume it to bo either singular or plural. And it is desirable that singulars and plurals 
should always abide by their appropriate forms, so that they may be thereby distinguished with 
readiness. But custom, which regulates this, as every thing else of the like nature, does not 
always adjust it well ; or, at least, not always upon principles uniform in themselves and obvious 
to every intellect. 

Obs. 25. — Nouns of multitude, when taken collectively, generally admit the regular plural 
form ; which of course is understood with reference to the individuality of the whole collection, 
considered as one tiling : but, when taken distributively, they have a plural signification without 
the form ; and, in this case, their plurality refers to the individuals that compose the assemblage. 
Thus, a council, a committee, a jury, a meeting, a society, a flock, or a herd, is singular ; and the 
regular plurals are councils, committees, juries, meetings, societies, flocks, herds. But these, and 
many similar words, may be taken plurally without the s, because a collective noun is the name 
of many individuals together. ' Hence we may say, " The council were unanimous. 1 ' — " The com- 



248 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IT. 

mittee are in consultation." — " The jury vicre unable to agree." — " The meeting have shown their 
discretion." — " The society have settled their dispute." — " The flock are widely scattered." — " The 
whole herd were drowned in the sea." The propriety of the last example seems questionable ; 
because whole implies unity, and were drowned is plural. "Where a purer concord can be effected, 
it may be well to avoid such a construction, though examples like it are not uncommon : as, 
" Cloiius was acquitted by a corrupt jury, that had palpably taken shares of money before they 
gave their verdict." — Bacon. "And the 'whole multitude of the people were praying without, at 
the time of incense." — Luke, i, 10. 

Obs. 26. — Nouns have, in some instances, a unity or plurality of meaning, which seems to be 
directly at variance with their form. Thus, cattle, for beasts of pasture, and pulse, for peas and 
beans, though in appearance singulars" only, are generally, if not always, plural; and summons, 
gallows, drill's, series, superficies, molasses, suds, hunks, jakes, trapes, and corps, with the appear- 
ance of plurals, are generally, if not always, singular. Dr. Webster says that cattle is of both 
numbers ; but wherein the oneness of cattle can consist, I know not. The Bible says, " God 
male — ;attle after their kind." — Gen., i, 25. Here kind is indeed singular, as if cattle were a natural 
genus of which one must be a cattle; as sheep are a natural genus of which one is a sheep : but 
whether properly expressed so or not, is questionable ; perhaps it ought to be, " and cattle after 
their kinis." Dr. Gillies says, in his History of Greece, " Cattle was regarded as the most conve- 
nient measure of value." This seems to me to be more inaccurate and unintelligible, than to say, 
" Sheep was regarded as the most convenient measure of value." And what would this mean ? 
Sheep is not singular, unless limited to that number by some definitive word ; and cattle I conceive 
to be incapable of any such limitation. 

Obs. 27. — Of the last class of words above cited, some may assume an additional es, when 
taken plurally ; as, summonses, gallowses, chintses : the rest either want the plural, or have ic 
seldom and without change of form. Corps, a body of troops, is a Drench word, which, when 
singular, is pronouuced core, and when plural, cores. But corpse, a dead body, is an English word, 
pronounced korps, and making the plural in two syllables, corpses. Summonses is given in Cobb's 
Dictionary as the plural of summons; but some authors have used the latter with a plural verb : 
as, "But Love's first summons seldom are obey'd." — Waller's Poems, p. 8. Dr. Johnson says this 
noun is from the verb to summon; and, if this is its origin, the singular ought to be a summon, 
and then summons would be a regular plural. But this " singular noun with a plural termina- 
tion," as Webster describes it, more probably originated from the Latin verb submoneas, used in 
the writ, and came to us through the jargon of law, in which we sometimes hear men talk cf 
" summonsing witnesses." The authorities • for it, however, are good enough; as, " This present 
summons.''' — Siiak. : Joh. Diet. " This summons he resolved to disobey." — Fell : ib. CJrints is 
called by Cobb a ' ; substantive plural,'" and defined as "cotton cloths, made in India;" but other 
lexicographers define it as singular, and Worcester (perhaps more properly) writes it chintz. 
Johnson cites Pope as speaking of "a charming chints" and I have somewhere seen the plural 
formed by adding es. " Of the Construction of single Words, or Serieses of Words." — Ward's 
Gram., p. 114. Walker, in his Elements of Elocution, makes frequent use of the word "serieses," 
and of the phrase " series of serieses." But most writers, I suppose, would doubt the propriety 
of this practice ; because, in Latin, all nouns of the fifth declension, such as caries, congeries, 
series, species, superficies, make their nominative and vocative cases alike in both numbers. This, 
however, is no rule for writing English. Dr. Blair has used the word species in a plural sense ; 
though I think he ought rather to have preferred the regular English word kinds : " The higher 
species of poetry seldom admit it." — Rhet, p. 403. Specie, meaning hard money, though derived 
or corrupted from species, is not the singular of that word ; nor has it any occasion for a plural 
form, because we never speak of a specie. The plural of gallows, according to Dr. Webster, is 
gallowses ; nor is that form without other authority, though some say, gallows is of both numbers 
and not to be varied : " Gallowses were occasionally put in order by the side of my windows." — 
Leigh Hani's Byron, p. 369. 

" Who would not guess there might be hopes, 

The fear of gallowses and ropes, 

Before their eyes, might reconcile 

Their animosities a while ?" — Hudibras, p. 90. 
Obs. 28. — Though the plural number is generally derived from the singular, and of course 
must as generally imply its existence, we have examples, and those not a few, in which the case 
is otherwise. Some nouns, because they signify such things as nature or art has made plural or 
double ; some, because they have been formed from other parts of speech by means of the plural 
ending which belongs to nouns ; and some, because they are compounds in which a plural word 
is principal, and put last, are commonly used in the plural number only, and have, in strict pro- 
priety, no singular. Though these three classes of plurals may not be perfectly separable, I shall 
endeavour to exhibit them in the order of this explanation. 

1. Piurals in meaning and form : analects, annals* archives, ashes, assets, billiards, bowels, 
breeches, calends, cates, chops, clothes, compasses, crants, eaves, embers, estovers, forceps, giblets, 
QOjjL:s, greaves, hards or hurds, hemorrhoids, ides, matins, nippers, nones, obsequies, orgies,\ piles t 

* In the third canto of Lord Byron's Prophecy of Dante, this noun is used in the singular number: — 

"And ocean written o'er would not afford 
Space for the annal, yet it shall go forth.' 1 
t "They never yet had separated for their daylight beds, without a climax to their orgy, something like the 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. NOUNS. NUMBERS. 249 

pincers or pinchers, pliers, reins, scissors, shears, skittles, snuffers, spectacles, teens, tongs, trowsers, 
tweezers, umbles, vespers, victuals. 

2. Plurals by formation, derived chiefly from adjectives : acoustics, aeronautics, analytics, hitters, 
catoptrics, commons, conies, credentials, delicates, dioptrics, economics, ethics, extraordinaries, filings, 
fives, freshes, glanders, gnomonics, goods, hermeneutics, hustings, hydrodynamics, hydrostatics, hy- 
draulics, hysterics, inwards, leavings, magnetics, mathematics, measles, mechanics, mnemonics, 
merits, metaphysics, middlings, movables, mumps, nuptials, optics, phonics, phonetics, physics* 
pneumatics, poetics, politics, riches, rickets, settlings, shatters, skimmings, spherics, staggers, statics, 
statistics, stays, strangles, sundries, sweepings, tactics, thanks, tidings, trappings, vives, vitals, wages,\ 
witliers, yellows. 

3. Plurals by composition : backstairs, cocldestairs, firearms, \ headquarters, hotcockles, spatter- 
dashes, self-affairs. To these may be added the Latin words, aborigines, antipodes, antes, antozci, 
amphiscii, anthropophagi, antiscii, ascii, literati, fauces, regalia, and credenda, with the Italian 
vermicelli, and the French belles-lettres and entremets. 

Obs. 29. — There are several nouns which are set down by some writers as wanting the singu- 
lar, and by others as having it. Of this class are the foUowing: amends,^ ancients, awns, bots, 
catacombs, chives, cloves, cresses, dogsears, downs, dregs,\ entrails, fetters, fireworks, greens, gyves, 
hatches, intestines, lees,°ft lungs, malanders, mallows, moderns, oats, oris, pleiads, premises, relics, 
remains, shackles, shambles,'** stilts, stairs, tares, vetches. The fact is, that these words have, or 
ought to have, the singular, as often as there is any occasion to use it ; and the same may, in 
general terms, be said of other nouns, respecting the formation of the plural.\\ For where the 
idea of unity or plurality comes clearly before the mind, we are very apt to shape the word ac- 
cordingly, without thinking much about the authorities we can quote for it. 

Obs. 30. — In general, where both numbers exist in common use, there is some palpable one- 
ness or individuality, to which the article a or an is applicable ; the nature of the species is found 
entire in every individual of it ; and a multiplication of the individuals gives rise to plurality in 
the name. But the nature of a mass, or of an indefinite multitude taken collectively, is not 
found in individuals as such ; nor is the name, whether singular, as gold, or plural, as ashes, so 
understood. Hence, though every noun must be of one number or the other, there are many 
which have little or no need of both. Thus we commonly speak of ivheat, barley, or oats, col- 
lectively ; and very seldom find occasion for any other forms of these words. But chafferers at 
the corn-market, in spite of Cobbett,^ will talk about wheats and barleys, meaning different kinds§§ 
or qualities ; and a gardener, if he pleases, will tell of an oat, (as does Milton, in his Lycidas,) 
meaning a single seed or plant. But, because wheat or barley generally means that sort of grain 
in mass, if he will mention a single kernel, he must call it a grain of wheat or a barleycorn. And 
these he may readily make plural, to specify any particular number ; as, five grains of wheat, or 
three barleycorns. 

Obs. 31. — My chief concern is with general principles, but the illustration of these requires 

present scene." — The Crock of Gold, p. 13. "And straps never called upon to diminish that lone whity-brown 
interval between shoe and trow&er." — lb., p. 24. "And he gave them victual in abundance." — 2 Chron., xi, 23. 
"Store of victual." — lb., verse 11. 

* The noun physic properly signifies medicine, or the science of medicine ; in -which sense, it seems to have 
no plural. But Crombie and others cite one or two instances in which, physic and metaphysic are used, not very 
accurately, in the sense of the singular of physics and metaphysics. Several grammarians also quote some 
examples in -which physics, metaphysics, politics, optics, and other similar names of sciences are used with 
verbs or pronouns of the singular number ; but Dr. Crombie justly says, the plural construction of such words, 
"is more common, and more agreeable to analogy." — On Etym. and Syntax, p. 27. 

t "Benjamin Franklin, following the occupation of a compositor in a printing-office, at a limited weekly 
wage," &c. — Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, No. 232. "WAGE, Wages, hire. The singular number is still 
frequently used, though Dr. Johnson thought it obsolete."— Glossary of Craven, 1S2S. 

X Our lexicographers generally treat the word firearms as a close compound that has no singular. But some 
write it with a hyphen, as fire-arms. In fact the singular is sometimes used, but the way of writing it is unset- 
tled. Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines a carbine as, "a small sort of fire arm;'''' Webster has it, "a short 
gun, or firearm;" Worcester, "a small fire-arm;" Cobb, "a sort of small firearms." Webster uses 
'■'•fire-arm," iu defining "stock." 

% "But, soon afterwards, he made a glorious amend for his fault, at the battle of Plataja." — Hist. Reader, 
p. 48. 

U " There not a dreg of guilt denies." — Watts" s Lyrics, p. 27. 

IT In Young's Night Thoughts, (N. vii, 1. 475,) lee, the singular of lees, is found ; Churchill says, (Gram., p. 
211,) "Prior has used lee, as the singular of lees;" Webster and Bolles have also both forms in their diction- 
aries : — 

" Refine, exalt, throw clown their poisonous lee, 
And make them sparkle in the bowl of bliss." — Young. 

** " The ' Procrustean bed 1 has been a myth heretofore ; it promises soon to be a shamble and a slaughter- 
house in reality." — St. Louis Democrat, 1855. 

ft J. W. Wright remarks, "Some nouns admit of no plural distinctions: as, wine, wood, beer, sugar, tea, 
timber, fruit, meat, goodness, happiness, and perhaps all nouns ending in ness."" — Philos. Gram., p. 139. If 
this learned author had been brought up in the woods, and had never read of Murray's "richer wines," or 
heard of Solomon's "dainty meats," — never chaffered in the market about sugars and teas, or read in Isaiah 
that " all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," or avowed, like Timothy, "a good profession before many wit- 
nesses" — he might still have hewed the timbers of some rude cabin, and partaken of the wild fruits which 
nature affords. If these nine plurals are right, his assertion is nine times wrong, or misapplied by himself seven 
times in the ten. 

Xt " I will not suppose it possible for my dear James to fall into either the company or the language of those 
persons who talk, and even write, about barleys, wheats, clovers, flours, grasses, and malts." — CobbeWs E. 
Gram., p. 29. 

§§ " It is a general rule, that all names of things measured or weighed, have no plural ; for in them not num- 
ber, but quantity, is regarded : as, wool, wine, oil. When we speak, however, of different kinds, we use the 
plural: as, the coarser wools, the richer wines, the finer oils." — Murray's Gram., p. 41. 



250 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

many particular examples — even far more than I have room to quote. The word amends is 
represented by Murray and others, as being singular as well as plural ; but "Webster's late dic- 
tionaries exhibit amend as singular, and amends as plural, with definitions that needlessly dilFer, 
though not much. I judge " an amends 11 to be bad English ; and prefer the regular singular, an 
amend. The word is of French origin, and is sometimes written in English with a needless final 
e ; as, " But only to make a kind of honourable amende to G-od." — Rollings Ancient Hist, Vol. ii, p. 
24. The word remains Dr. "Webster puts down as plural only, and yet uses it himself in the 
singular: " The creation of a Dictator, even for a few months, would have buried every remain 
of freedom." — Webster's Essays, p. 70. There are also other authorities for this usage, and also 
for some other nouns that are commonly thought to have no singular ; as, " But Duelling is un- 
lawful and murderous, a remain of the ancient Gothic barbarity." — Brown's Divinity, p. 26. " I 
grieve with the old, for so many additional inconveniences, more than their small remain of life 
seemed destined to undergo." — Pope: in Jdh. Did. "A disjunctive syllogism is one whose 
major premise is disjunctive." — Hedge's Logic. "Where should he have this gold? It is some 
poor fragment, some slender ort of his remainder." — Siiak. : Timon of Athens. 

Obs. 32. — There are several nouns which are usually alike in both numbers. Thus, deer, folk, 
fry, gentry, grouse, hose, neat, sheep, swine, vermin, and rest, (i. e. the rest, the others, the residue,) 
are regular singulars, but they are used also as plurals, and that more frequently. Again, alms, 
aloes, bellows, means, news, odds, shambles, and species, are proper plurals, but most of them are 
oftener construed as singulars. Folk and fry are collective nouns. Folk means people ; a folk, 
a people: as, "The ants are a people not strong;" — "The conies are but a feeble folk.'" — Prov., 
xxx, 25, 26. "He laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them.'' 1 — Mark, vi, 5. Folks, 
which ought to be the plural of folk, and equivalent to peoples, is now used with reference to a 
plurality of individuals, and the collective word seems liable to be entirely superseded by it. A 
fry is a swarm of young fishes, or of any other little creatures living in water : so called, perhaps, 
because their motions often make the surface fry. Several such swarms might properly be 
called fries ; but this form can never be applied to the individuals, without interfering with the 
other. "So numerous was the fry." — Cowper. "The fry betake themselves to the neighbouring 
pools." — Quarterly Review. " You cannot think more contemptuously of these gentry than they were 
thought of by the true prophets." — Watson's Apology, p. 93. "Grouse, a heathcock." — Johnson. 

" The 'squires in scorn will fly the house 
For better game, and look for grouse." — Swift. 

"Here's an English tailor, come hither for stealing out of a French hose." — Shak. "He, being 
in love, could not see to garter his hose." — Id. Formerly, the plural was hosen: "Then these 
men were bound, in their coats, their hosen, and their hats." — Dan., hi, 21. Of sheep, Shakspeare 
has used the regular plural: "Two hot sheeps, marry !" — Love's Labour Lost, Act ii, Sc. 1. 

" Who both by his calf and his lamb will be known, 
May well kill a neat and a sheep of his own."— ^-Tusser. 

" His droves of asses, camels, herds of neat, ■ 
And flocks of sheep, grew shortly twice as great." — Sandys. 

"As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout." — Prov., xi, 22. "A herd of many swine, feeding." 
— Matt, viii, 30. "An idle person only lives to spend his time, and eat the fruits of the earth, 
like a vermin or a wolf." — Taylor. " The head of a wolf, dried and hanged up, will scare away 
vermin." — Bacon. " Cheslip, a small vermin that lies under stones or tiles." — Skinner : in Joh. 
and in Web. Diet. " This is flour, the rest is bran." — " And the rest were blinded." — Rom., xi, 7. 
"The poor beggar hath a just demand of ara alms." — Swift. "Thine alms are come up for a 
memorial before G-od." — Acts, x, 4. " The draught of air performed the function of a bellows." — 
Robertson's Amer., ii, 223. "As the bellows do" — Bicknell's Gram., ii, 11. "The bellows are 
burned." — Jer., vi, 29. " Let a gallows be made." — Esther, v, 14. "Mallows are very useful in 
medicine." — Wood's Diet. "News" says Johnson, "is without the singular, unless it be consid- 
ered as singular." — Diet. " So is good news from a far country." — Prov., xxv, 25. " Evil news 
rides fast, while good news bails." — Milton. "When Rhea heard these news, she fled." — Raleigh. 
" News were brought to the queen." — Hume's Hist., iv, 426. " The news I bring are afflicting, but 
the consolation with which they are attended, ought to moderate your grief." — Gil Bias, Vol. ii, 
p. 20. "Between these two cases there are great odds." — Hooker. "Where the odds is consider- 
able." — Campbell. "Determining on which side the odds lie." — Locke. "The greater are the 
odds that he mistakes his author." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 1. "Though thus an odds unequally 
they meet." — Rowe's Lucan, B. iv, 1. 789. " Preeminent by so much odds." — Milton. " To make 
a shambles of the parliament house." — Shah " The earth has been, from the beginning, a great 
Aceldama, a shambles of blood." — Christian's Vade-Mecum, p. 6. "A shambles" sounds so incon- 
sistent, I should rather say, " A shamble." Johnson says, the etymology of the word is uncer- 
tain; Webster refers it to the Saxon scamel: it means a butcher's stall, a meat-market; and there 
would seem to be no good reason for the s, unless more than one such place is intended. " Who 
sells his subjects to the shambles of a foreign power." — Pitt. "A special idea is called by the 
schools a species." — Watts. "He intendeth the care of species, or common natures." — Brown. 
u Aloe, (al'o) n. ; plu. Aloes." — Webster's Diet, and Worcester's. "But it was aloe itself to lose 
the reward." — Tupper's Crock of Gold, p. 16. 

" But high in amphitheatre above, 
His arms the everlasting aloes threw." — Campbell, G. of W., ii, 10. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — NUMBERS. 251 

q bs _ 33. — There are some nouns, which, though really regular in respect to possessing the two 
forms for the two numbers, are not free from irregularity in the manner of their application. Thus 
means is the regular plural of mean; and, when the word is put for mediocrity, middle point, place, 
or degree, it takes both forms, each in its proper sense ; but when it signifies things instrumental, 
or that which is used to effect an object, most writers use means for the singular as well as for the 
plural:* as, " By this means" — "By that means" with reference to one mediating cause; and, 
" By these means ," — "By those means," with reference to more than one. Dr. Johnson says the 
use of means for mean is not very grammatical; and, among his examples for the true use of the 
word, he has the following: "Pamela's noble heart would needs gratefully make known the 
valiant mean of her safety." — Sidney. " Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the 
heathens' conversion." — Hooker. "Whether his wits should by that mean have been taken from 
Mm." — Id. " I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor out of the way." — Shah. "No place will 
please me so, no mean of death." — Id. "Nature is made better by no mean, but nature makes 
that mean." — Id. Dr. Lowth also questioned the propriety of construing means as singular, and 
referred to these same authors as authorities for preferring the regular form. Buchanan insists 
that means is right in the plural only; and that, "The singular should be used as perfectly anal- 
ogous; by this mean, by that mean." — English Syntax, p. 103. Lord Karnes, likewise, appears 
by his practice to have been of the same opinion: " Of this the child must be sensible intuitively, 
for it has no other mean of knowledge." — Elements of Criticism, Yol. i, p. 357. "And in both the 
same mean is employed." — lb. ii, 271. Caleb Alexander, too, declares "this means" "that 
means," and "a means," to be "ungrammatical." — Gram., p. 58. But common usage has gone 
against the suggestions of these critics, and later grammarians have rather confirmed the irregu- 
larity, than attempted to reform it. 

Obs. 34. — Murray quotes sixteen good authorities to prove that means may be singular; but 
whether it ought to be so or not, is still a disputable point. Principle is for the regular word 
mean, and good practice favours the irregularity, but is still divided. Cobbett, to the disgrace of 
grammar, says, "Mean, as a noun, is never used in the singular. It, like some other words, has 
broken loose from all principle and rule. By universal consent, it is become always a plural, 
whether used with singular or plural pronouns and articles, or not." — E. Gram., p. 144. This 
is as ungrammatical, as it is untrue. Both mean and means are sufficiently authorized in the 
singular: "The prospect which by this mean is opened to 3'ou." — Melmoth-s Cicero. "Faith in 
this doctrine never terminates in itself, but is a mean to holiness as an end." — Dr. Chalmers, Ser- 
mons, p. v. "The mean of basely affronting him." — Brown's Divinity, p. 19. "They used every 
mean to prevent the re-establishment of their religion." — Dr Jamieson's Sacred Hist, i, p. 20. 
"As a necessary mean to prepare men for the discharge of that duty." — Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 
153. "Greatest is the power of a mean, when its power is least suspected." — flipper's Book of 
Tlioughts, p. 37. " To the deliberative orator the reputation of unsullied virtue is not only useful, 
as a mean of promoting his general influence, it is also among his most efficient engines of per- 
suasion, upon every individual occasion." — J. Q. Adams's Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, i, 
352. " I would urge it upon you, as the most effectual mean of extending your respectability 
and usefulness in the world." — lb., ii, 395. "Exercise will be admitted to be a necessary mean 
of improvement." — Blair's Rhet, p. 343. " And by that means we have now an early prepos- 
session in their favour." — lb., p. 34S. " To abolish all sacrifice by revealing a better mean of 
reconciliation." — Keith's Evidences, p. 46. "As a mean of destroying the distinction." — lb., p. 
3. ""Which however is by no mean universally the case." — Religious World Displayed, Yol. iii, 
p. 155. 

Obs. 35. — Again, there are some nouns, which, though they do not lack the regular plural form, 
are sometimes used in a plural sense without the plural termination. Thus manner makes the 
plural manners, which last is now generally used in the peculiar sense of behaviour, or deport- 
ment, but not always : it sometimes means methods, modes, or ways ; as, " At sundry times and 
in divers manners." — Heb., i, 1. "In the manners above mentioned." — Butler's Analogy, p. 100. 
"There be three manners of trials in England." — Cowell: Joh. Diet., w. Jury. "These two 
manners of representation." — Loivth's Gram., p. 15. "These are the three primary modes, or 
manners, of expression." — Lowth's Gram., p. 83. " In arrangement, too, various manners suit 
various styles." — Campbell's Phil, of Rhet., p. 172. "Between the two manners." — Bolingbroke, 
on Hist., p. 35. " Here are three different manners of asserting." — Barnard's Gram., p. 59. But 
manner has often been put for sorts, without the s; as, " The tree of life, which bare twelve manner 
'of fruits." — Rev., xxii, 2. "All manner of men assembled here in arms." — Shak. "All manner 
of outward advantages." — Atterbury. Milton used kind in the same way, but not very properly; 
as, " All kind of living creatures." — P. Lost, B. iv, 1. 286. This irregularity it would be well to 
avoid. Manners may still, perhaps, be proper for modes or ways; and all manner, if allowed, 

* So pains is the regular plural of pain, and, by Johnson, Webster, and other lexicographers, is recognized 
only as plural; but Worcester inserts it among his stock words, with a comment, thus: "Pains, n. Labor; 
work ; toil ; care ; trouble. <ZW According to the best usage, the wordpow'ns, though of plural form, is used in 
these senses as singular, and is joined with a singular verb ; as, ' The pains they had taken was very great.' 
Clarendon. ' No pains is taken.' Pope. ' Great pains is taken.' Priestley. '■Much pains.' Bolingbroke." — 
Univ. and Crit. Diet. The multiplication of anomalies of this kind is so undesirable, that nothing short of a 
very clear decision of Custom, against the use of the regular concord, can well justify the exception. Many 
such examples may be cited, but are they not examples of false syntax? I incline to think "the best usage" 
would still make all these verbs plural. Dr. Johnson cites the first example thus : " The pains they had taken 
were very great. Clarendon." — Quarto Diet, iv. Pain. And the following recent example is unquestionably 
right: "Pains have beeu taken to collect the information required." — President Fillmore's Message, 1S52. 



252 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART H 

must be taken in the sense of a collective noun ; but for sorts, kinds, classes, or species, I would 
use neither the plural nor the singular of this word. The word heathen, too, makes the regular 
plural heathens, and yet is often used in a plural sense without the s; as, " Why do the heathen 
rage?" — Psalms, ii, 1. "Christianity was formerly propagated among the heathens." — Murray's 
Key, 8vo, p. 217. The word youth, likewise, has the same peculiarities. 

Obs. 36. — Under the present head come names of fishes, birds, or other things, when the appli- 
cation of the singular is extended from the individual to the species, so as to supersede the plural 
by assuming its construction: as, Sing. "A great fish J 1 — Jonah, i, 1*7. Plur. "For the multi- 
tude of fishes." — John, xxi, 6. "A very great multitude offish." — Ezekiel, xlvii, 9.* The name 
of the genus being liable to this last construction, men seem to have thought that the species 
should follow ; consequently, the regular plurals of some very common names of fishes are 
scarcely known at all. Hence some grammarians affirm, that salmon, mackerel, herring, perch, 
tench, and several others, are alike in both numbers, and ought never to be used in the plural 
form. I am not so fond of honouring these anomalies. Usage is here as unsettled, as it is arbi- 
trary ; and, if the expression of plurality is to be limited to either form exclusively, the regular 
plural ought certainly to be preferred. But, for fish taken in bulk, the singular form seems more 
appropriate ; as, " These vessels take from thirty-eight to forty-five quintals of cod and pollock, and 
six thousand barrels of mackerel, yearly." — Balbi's Geog., p. 28. 

Obs. 37. — The following examples will illustrate the unsettled usage just mentioned, and from 
them the reader may judge for himself what is right. In quoting, at second-hand, I generally 
think it proper to make double references ; and especially in citing authorities after Johnson, 
because he so often gives the same passages variously. But he himself is reckoned good authority 
in things literary. Be it so. I regret the many proofs of his fallibility. " Hear you this Triton 
of the minnows?" — Shak. "The shoal of herrings was of an immense extent." — Hurray's Key, 
p. 185. "Buy my herring fresh." — Swift: in Joh. Diet. "In the fisheries of Maine, cod, her- 
ring, mackerel alewives, salmon, and other fish, are taken." — Balbi's Geog., p. 23. "Mease, n. 
The quantity of 500 ; as, a mease of herrings." — Webster's Diet. ""We shall have plenty of mack- 
erel this season." — Addison - : in Joh. Diet. • " Mackarel is the same in both numbers. Gay has 
improperly mackarels." — CJiurchill's Gram., p. 208. " They take salmon and trouts by groping and 
tickling them under the bellies." — Carew : in Joh. Diet. " The pond will keep trout and salmon 
in their seasonable plight." — Id., ib., w. Trout. "Some fish are preserved fresh in vinegar, as 
turbot." — Id., ib., to. Turbot. " Some fish are boiled and preserved fresh in vinegar, as tunny and 
turbot." — Id., ib., to. Tunny. "Of round fish, there are brit, sprat, barn, smelts." — Id., ib., w. Smelt. 
"For sprats and spurlings for your house." — Tusser: ib., to. Spurting. "The coast is plentifully 
stored with pilchards, herrings, and haddock." — Carew: ib., w. Haddock. "The coast is plenti- 
fully stored with round fish, pilchard, herring, mackerel, and cod." — Id., ib., to. Herring. " The 
coast is plentifully stored with shellfish, sea-hedgehogs, scallops, pilcherd, herring, and pollock." — Id., 
ib., w. Pollock. "A roach is a fish of no great imputation for his dainty taste. It is noted that 
roaches recover strength and grow a fortnight after spawning." — Walton: ib., to. Poach. "A 
friend of mine stored a pond of three or four acres with carps and tench." — Hale: ib., to. Carp. 
" Having stored a very great pond with carps, tench, and other pond-fish, and only put in two 
small pikes, this pair of tyrants in seven years devoured the whole." — Id., ib., w. Tench. "Sin- 
gular, tench; plural, tenches." — Brightland's Gram., p. 78. "The polar bear preys upon seals, fish, 
and the carcasses of whales." — Bcdbi's Geog., p. 172. " Trouts and salmons swim against the 
stream." — Bacon: Ward's Gram., p. 130. 

" 'Tis true no turbots dignify my boards, 
But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords." — Pope. 

Obs. 38. — From the foregoing examples it would seem, if fish or fishes are often spoken of 
without a regular distinction of the grammatical numbers, it is not because the words are not 
susceptible of the inflection, but because there is some difference of meaning between the mere 
name of the sort and the distinct modification in regard to number. There are also other nouns 
in which a like difference may be observed. Some names of building materials, as brick, stone, 
plank, joist, though not destitute of regular plurals, as bricks, stones, planks, joists, and not un- 
adapted to ideas distinctly singular, as a brick, a stone, a plank, a joist, are nevertheless some- 
times used in a plural sense without the s, and sometimes in a sense which seems hardly to 
embrace the idea of either number; as, "Let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly." — Gen., 
xi, 3. " And they had brick for stone." — Ib. "The tale of bricks." — Kxod., v, 8 and 18. "Make 
brick." — lb., v, 16. "From your bricks." — lb., v, 19. "Upon altars of brick." — Isaiah, lxv, 3. 
"The bricks are fallen down." — lb., ix, 1.0. The same variety of usage occurs in respect to a few 
other words, and sometimes perhaps without good reason ; as, " Yast numbers of sea fowl fre- 
quent the rocky cliffs." — Balbi's Geog., p. 231. "Bullocks, sheep, and fowls." — lb., p. 439. 
" Cannon is used alike in both numbers." — Everest's Gram., p. 48. " Cannon and shot may be 
used in the singular or plural sense." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 37. "The column in the Place 
Vendome is one hundred and thirty-four feet high, and is made of the brass of the cannons taken 

* "And the fish that is in the river shall die." — Ezod., vii, IS. " And the fish that was in the river died." — 
lb., 21. Here the construction is altogether in the singular, and yet the meaning seems to be plural. This 
construction appears to he more objectionable, than the use of the word fish with a plural verb. The French 
Bible here corresponds with ours; but the Latin Vulgate, and the Greek Septuagint, have both the noun and 
the verb in the plural : as, "• The fishes that are in the river," — " The fishes that were" &c. In our Bible, fowl, 
as well as fish, is sometimes plural ; and yet both words, in some passages, have the plural form : as, " And fowl 
that may fly," &c. — Gen., i, 20. " I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea." — Zeph., i, 3. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. NOUNS. — NUMBERS. 253 

from the Austrians and Prussians." — BalMs Geog., p. 249. "As his cannons roar." — Dry den's 
Poems, p. 81. "Twenty shot of his greatest cannon." — Clarendon: JoTi. Diet. " Twenty shots' 11 
would here, I think, be more proper, though the word is not made plural when it means little 
balls of lead. "And cannons conquer armies." — Hudibras, Part III, Canto hi, 1. 249. 
" Healths to both kings, attended with the roar 
Of cannons echoed from th' affrighted shore." — Waller, p. *l. 
Obs. 39. — Of foreign nouns, many retain their original plural ; a few are defective ; and some 
are redundant, because the English form is also in use. Our writers have laid many languages 
under contribution, and thus furnished an abundance of irregular w T ords, necessary to be ex- 
plained, but never to be acknowledged as English till they conform to our own rules. 

1. Of nouns in a, saliva, spittle, and scoria, dross, have no occasion for the plural ; lamina, a 
thin plate, makes lamince; macula, a spot, macules; minutia, a little thing, minutiae; nebula, a 
mist, nebulas ; siliqua, a pod, siliquce. Dogma makes dogmas or dogmata ; exanthema, exanthemas 
or exanthemata,; miasm or miasma, miasms or miasmata; stigma, stigmas or stigmata. 

2. Of nouns in um, some have no need of the plural ; as, bdellium, decorum, elysium, equilibrium, 
guaiacum, laudanum, odium, opium, 'petroleum, serum, viaticum. Some form it regularly; as, 
asylums, compendium^, craniums, emporiums, encomiums, forums, frustums, lustrums, mausoleums, 
museums, pendulums, nostrums, rostrums, residuums, vacuums. Others take either the English or 
the Latin plural; as, desideratums or desiderata, mediums or media, menstruums or menstrua, 
memorandums or memoranda, spectrums or spectra, speculums or specula, stratums or strata, suc- 
cedaneums or succedanea, trapeziums or trapezia, vinculums or vincula. A few seem to have the 
Latin plural only: as, arcanum, arcana; datum, data; effluvium, effluvia; erratum, errata; 
scholium; scholia. 

3. Of nouns in us, a few have no plural ; as, asparagus, calamus, mucus. Some have only the 
Latin plural, which usually changes us to i; as, alumnus, alumni; androgynus, androgyni; 
calculus, calculi; dracunculus, dracunculi; echinus, echini; magus, magi. But such as have prop- 
erly become English words, may form the plural regularly in es; as, chorus, choruses : so, appar- 
atus, bolus, callus, circles, fetus, focus, fucus, fungus, hiatus, ignoramus, impetus, incubus, isthmus, 
nautilus, nucleus, prospectus, rebus, sinus, surplus. Five of these make the Latin plural like the 
singular; but the mere English scholar has no occasion to be told which they are. Radius 
makes the plural radii or radmses. Genius has genii, for imaginary spirits, and geniuses, for men 
of wit. Genus, a sort, becomes genera in Latin, and genuses in English. Denarius makes, in the 
plural, denarii or denariuses. 

4. Of nouns in is, some are regular; as, trellis, trellises: so, annolis, butler is, caddis, dervis, 
iris, marquis, metropolis, portcullis, proboscis. Some seem to have no need of the plural ; as, am- 
bergris, aqua-fortis, arthritis, brewis, crasis, elephantiasis, genesis, orris, siriasis, tennis. But most 
nouns of this ending follow the Greek or Latin form, which simply changes is to es : as, aman- 
uensis, amanuenses ; analysis, analyses ; antithesis, antitheses ; axis, axes ; basis, bases ; crisis, crises ; 
diozresis, diosreses ; diesis, dieses ; ellipsis, ellipses ; emphasis, emphases ; fascis, fasces ; hypothesis, 
hypotheses ; metamorphosis, metamorphoses; oasis, oases; parenthesis, parentheses ; phasis, phases ; 
praxis, praxes; synopsis, synopses; synthesis, syntheses; syrtis, syrtes; thesis, theses. In some, 
however, the original plural is not so formed ; but is made by changing is to ides ; as, aphis, 
aphides ; apsis, apsides; ascaris, ascarides; bolis, bolides; cantharis, cantharides ; chrysalis, chrysa- 
lides; ephemeris, ephemerides; epidermis, epidermides. So iris and proboscis, which we make 
regular ; and perhaps some of the foregoing may be made so too. Eisher writes Praxises for 
praxes, though not very properly. See his Gram, p. v. Eques, a Roman knight, makes equites 
in the plural. 

5. Of nouns in x, there are few, if any, which ought not to form the plural regularly, when 
used as English words ; though the Latins changed x to ces, and ex to ices, making the i some- 
times long and sometimes short: as, apex, apices, for apexes ; appendix, appendices, for appendixes; 
calix, calices, for calixes; calx, calces, for calxes; calyx, calyces, for calyxes; caudex, caudices, for 
caudexes ; cicatrix, cicatrices, for cicatrixes; helix, helices, for helixes; index, indices, for indexes; 
matrix, matrices, for matrixes; quincunx, quincunces, for quincunxes; radix, radices, for radixes; 
varix, varices, forvarixes; vertex, vertices, for vertexes; vortex, vortices, for vortexes. Some Greek 
words in x change that letter to ges ; as, larynx, larynges, for larinxes ; phalanx, phalanges, for 
phalanxes. Billet-doux, from the French, is billets-doux in the plural. 

6. Of nouns in on, derived from Greek, the greater part always form the plural regularly ; as, 
etymons, gnomons, ichneumons, myrmidons, phlegmons, trigone, tetragons, pentagons, hexagons, 
heptagons, octagons, enneagons, decagons, hendecagons, dodecagons, polygons. So trihedrons, tetra- 
hedrons, pentahedrons, &c, though some say, these last may end in dra, which I think improper. 
For a few words of this class, however, there are double plurals in use ; as, automata or automa- 
tons, criteria or criterions, parhelia or parhelions ; and the plural of phenomenon appears to be al- 
ways phenomena. 

1. The plural of legumen is legumens or legumina ; of stamen, stamens or stamina; of cherub, 
cherubs or cherubim; of seraph, seraphs or seraphim ; of beau, beaus or beaux; of bandit, bandits 
or banditti. The regular forms are in general preferable. The Hebrew plurals cherubim and 
seraphim, being sometimes mistaken for singulars, other plurals have been formed from them; as, 
" And over it the cherubims of glory." — Heb. ix, 5. " Then flew one of the seraphims unto 
me." — Isaiah, vi, 6. Dr. Campbell remarks : " We are authorized, both by use and by analogy, 
to say either cherubs and seraphs, according to the English idiom, or cherubim and seraphim, ac« 



254 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

cording to the oriental. The former suits better the familiar, the latter the solemn style. I 
shall add to this remark," says he, " that, as the words cherubim and seraphim are plural, the 
terms cherubims and seraphims, as expressing the plural, are quite improper." — Phil, of Bhet., 
p. 201. 

Obs. 40. — "When other parts of speech become nouns, they either want the plural, or form it 
regularly,* like common nouns of the same endings ; as, "His affairs went on at sixes and sevens." 
— Arbuthnot. "Some mathematicians have proposed to compute by twoes; others, by fours; 
others, by twelves." — Churchill's Gram., p. 81. " Three fourths, nine tenths." — lb., p. 230. "Time's 
takings and leavings." — Barton. "The yeas and nays." — Newspaper. "The ays and noes." — lb. 
" Oes and spangles." — Bacon. " The ins and the outs." — Newspaper. " We find it more safe against 
outs and doubles." — Printer's Gram. " His ands and his ors." — Matt. " One of the buts." — Fowle. 
"In raising the mirth of stupids." — Steele. "Eatings, drinkings, wakings, sleepings, walkings, 
talkings, sayings, doings — all were for the good of the public; there was not such a things as a 
secret in the town." — Landon : Keepsake, 1833. " Her innocent forsooths and yesses." — Sped., 
No. 266. 

" Henceforth my wooing mind shall be expressed 
In russet yeas and honest kersey noes." — Shak. See Johnson's Diet, w. Kersey. 

GENDERS. 

Genders, in grammar, are modifications that distinguish objects in 
regard to sex. 

There are three genders ; the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter. 

The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the 
male kind ; as, man, father, king. 

The feminine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the 
female kind ; as, woman, mother, queen. 

The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male 
nor female ; as, pen, ink, paper. 

Hence, names of males are masculine ; names of females, feminine ; 
and names of things inanimate, literally, neuter. 

Masculine nouns make regular feminines, when their termination is 
changed to ess : as, hunter, huntress; prince, princess; lion, lioness. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The different genders in grammar are founded on the natural distinction of sex in 
animals, and on the absence of sex in other things. In English, they belong only to nouns and 
pronouns ; and to these they are usually applied, not arbitrarily, as in some other languages, but 
agreeably to the order of nature. From this we derive a very striking advantage over those who 
use the gender differently, or without such rule ; which is, that our pronouns are easy of applica- 
tion, and have a fine effect when objects are personified. Pronouns are of the same gender as 
the nouns for which they stand. 

Obs. 2. — Many nouns are equally applicable to both sexes; as, cousin, friend, neighbour, parent, 
person, servant. The gender of these is usually determined by the context ; and they are to be 
called masculine or feminine accordingly. To such words, some grammarians have applied the 
unnecessary and improper term common gender. Murray justly observes, " There is no such 
gender belonging to the language. The business of parsing can be effectually performed, without 
having recourse to a common gender." — Gram., 8vo, p. 39. The term is more useful, and less 
liable to objection, as applied to the learned languages ; but with us, whose genders distinguish 
objects in regard to sex, it is plainly a solecism. 

Obs. 3. — A great many of our grammars define gender to be " the distinction of sex," and 
then speak of a common gender, in which the two sexes are left undistinguished; and of the neuter 
gender, in which objects are treated as being of neither sex. These views of the matter are ob- 
viously inconsistent. Not genders, or a gender, do the writers undertake to define, but "gender" 
as a whole ; and absurdly enough, too ; because this whole of gender they immediately 

* Some authors, when they give to mere words the construction of plural nouns, are in the habit of writing 
them in the form of possessives singular; as, "They have of late, 'tis true, reformed, in some measure, the 
gouty joints and darning work of whereunto's, whereby' s, thereof s, therewith' s, and the rest of this kind." — 
Shaftesbury. "Here," says Dr. Crombie, "the genitive singular is improperly used for the objective case 
plural. It should be, whereuntos, zvherebys, thereof s, therewiths." — Treatise on JEtym. and Synt, p. 338. Ac- 
cording to our rules, these words should rather be, whereuntoes, icherebies, thereof s, therewiths. "Any word, 
when used as the name of itself, becomes a noun." — Goodenoio's Gram., p. 26. But some grammarians say, 
"The plural of words, considered as words merely, is formed by the apostrophe and s; as, 'Who, that has any 
taste, can endure the incessant, quick returns of the also's, and the likewise 1 s, and the moreover' s, and the how- 
ever' s, and the notwithstanding' sV — Campbell." — Wells's School Gram., p. 54. Practice is not altogether in 
favour of this principle, and perhaps it would be better to decide with Crombie that such a use of the apostrophe 
is improper. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — GENDERS. 255 

distribute into certain otlier genders, into genders of gender, or kinds of gender, and these 
not compatible with their definition. Thus Wells : " Gender is tie distinction of objects, with 
regard to sex. There are four genders ; — the masculine, the feminine, the common, and the 
neuter." — School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 49. [Those] " Nouns which are applicable alike to both sexes, 
are of the common gender." — lb. This then is manifestly no gender under the foregoing definition, 
and the term neuter is made somewhat less appropriate by the adoption of a third denomination 
before it. Nor is there less absurdity in the phraseology with which Murray proposes to avoid 
the recognition of the common gender : " Thus we may say, Parents is a noun of the masculine 
and feminine gender; Parent, if doubtful, is of the masculine or feminine gender; and Parent, if 
the gender is known by the construction, is of the gender so ascertained." — Gram., 8vo, p. 39. 
According to this, we must have/tve genders, exclusive of that which is called common; namely, 
the masculine, the feminine, the neuter, the androgynal, and the doubtful. 

Obs. 4. — It is plain that many writers on grammar have had but a confused notion of what a 
gender really is. Some of them, confounding gender with sex, deny that there are more than 
two genders, because there are only two sexes. Others, under a like mistake, resort occasion- 
ally, (as in the foregoing instance.) to an androgynal, and also to a doubtful gender: both of 
which are more objectionable than the common gender of the old grammarians ; though this 
common " distinction with regard to sex," is, in our language, confessedly, no distinction at all. 
I assume, that there are in English the three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter, and no 
more; and that every noun and every pronoun must needs be of some gender; consequently, 
of some one of these three. A gender is, literally, a sort, a kind, a sex. But genders, in gram- 
mar, are attributes of words, rather than of persons, or animals, or things ; whereas sexes are 
attributes, not of words, but of living creatures. He who understands this, wdl perceive that the 
absence of sex in some things, is as good a basis for a grammatical distinction, as the presence 
or the difference of it in others ; nor can it be denied, that the neuter, according to my definition, 
is a gender, is a distinction " in regard to sex," though it does not embrace either of the sexes. 
There are therefore three genders, and only three. 

Ous. 5. — Generic names, even when construed as masculine or feminine, often virtually in- 
clude both sexes ; as, " Hast thou given Vie horse strength ? hast thou clothed his neck with 
thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible." — 
Job, xxxix, 19. Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? 
Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?" — lb., ver. 26. These 
were called, by the old grammarians, epicene nouns — that is, supercommon ; but they are to be 
parsed each according to the gender of the pronoun which is put for it. 

Obs. 6. — The gender of words, in many instances, is to be determined by the following prin- 
ciple of universal grammar. Those terms which are equally applicable to both sexes, (if they 
are not expressly applied to females,) and those plurals which are known to include both sexes, 
should be called masculine in parsing ; for, in all languages, the masculine gender is considered 
the most worthy,* and is generally employed when both sexes are included under one common 
term. Thus parents is always masculine, and must be represented by a masculine pronoun, for 
the gender of a word is a property indivisible, and that which refers tq the male sex, always takes 
the lead in such cases. If one say, " Joseph took the young child and his mother by night, and 
fled with them into Egypt." the pronoun them will be masculine; but let " his" be changed to its, 
and the plural pronoun that follows, will be feminine. For the feminine gender takes precedence 
of the neuter, but not of the masculine ; and it is not improper to speak of a young child with- 
out designating the sex. As for such singulars as parent, friend, neighbour, thief slave, and many 
others, they are feminine when expressly applied to any of the female sex ; but otherwise, 
masculine. 

Obs. 7. — Nouns of multitude, when they convey the idea of unity or take the plural form, are 
of the neuter gender ; but when they convey the idea of plurality without the form, they follow 
the gender of the individuals winch compose the assemblage. Thus a congress, a council, a com- 
mittee, a jury, a sort, or a sex, if taken collectively, is neuter ; being represented in discourse by 
the neuter pronoun it : and the formal plurals, congresses, councils, committees, juries, sorts, sexes, 
of course, are neuter also. But, if I say, " The committee disgraced themselves," the noun and 
pronoun are presumed to be masculine, unless it be known that I am speaking of a committee of 
females. Again : " The fair sex, whose task is not to mingle in the labours of public life, have 
their own part assigned them to act." — Comhfs Gram., p. 132. Here sex, and the three pronouns 
which have that word for their antecedent, are all feminine. Again : " Each sex, dressing them- 
selves in the clothes of the other." — Wood's Dictionary, v. Feast of Purim. Here sex, and the 
pronoun which follows, are masculine; because, the male sex, as well as the female, is here 
spoken of plurally. 

Obs. 8. — To persons, of every description, known or unknown, real or imaginary, we uniformly 
ascribe sex.f But, as personality implies intelligence, and sex supposes some obvious difference, 

* "The Supreme Being (God, Qeo<,, Deus, Dieu, &c.) is, in all languages, masculine ; in as much as the mas- 
culine sex is the superior and more excellent ; and as He is the Creator of all, the Father of gods aud men." — 
Harris's Hermes,]). 54. This remark applies to all the direct names of the Deity, but the abstract idea of Deity 
itself, To fchi >i/, Numen, Godhead, or Divinity, is not masculine, but neuter. On this point, some notions have 
been published for grammar, that are too heterodox to be cited or criticised here. See O. B. Peirce's Gram., 
p. 208. 

t That is, we give them sex, if we mean to represent them as persons. In the following example, a charac- 
ter commonly esteemed feminine is represented as neuter, because the author would seem to doubt both the sex 
and the personality: "I don't know what a witch is, or what it was then." — X. P. Rogers's Writings, p. 154. 



256 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

a young child may be spoken of with distinction of sex or without, according to the notion of the 
speaker; as, "I went to see the child whilst they were putting on its cloaths." — Priestley 's Gram., 
p. 125. " Because the child has no idea of any nurse besides his own." — lb., p. 153. To brute 
animals also, the same distinction is generally applied, though with less uniformity. Some that 
are very small, have a gender which seems to be merely occasional and figurative ; as, " Go 
to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise." — Prov., vi, 6. "The spider taketh 
hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." — Prov., xxx, 28. So the bee is usually made 
feminine, being a little creature of admirable industry and economy. But, in general, irrational 
creatures whose sex is unknown, or unnecessary to be regarded, are spoken of as neuter ; as, 
"And it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, 
Pat forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and 
it became a rod in his hand." — Exod., iv, 3, 4. Here, although the word serpent is sometimes 
masculine, the neuter pronoun seems to be more proper. So of some imaginary creatures : as, 
"Phenix, the fowl which is said to exist single, and to rise again from its own ashes." — Web- 
ster's Diet. " So shall the Phcenix escape, with no stain on its plumage." — Dr. Bartlelfs Led., 
p. 10. 

Obs. 9. — But this liberty of representing animals as of no sex, is often carried to a very ques- 
tionable extent ; as, " The hare sleeps with its eyes open." — Barbauld. " The hedgehog, as soon 
as it perceives itself attacked, rolls itself into a kind of ball, and presents nothing but its prickles 
to the foe." — Blair's Reader, p. 138. "The p>anther is a ferocious creature: like the tiger it 
seizes its prey by surprise." — lb., p. 102. " The leopard, in its chace of prey, spares neither man 
nor beast." — lb., p. 103, "If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it." — Exod., 
xxii, 1. " A dog resists its instinct to run after a hare, because it recollects the beating it has 
previously received on that account. The horse avoids the stone at which it once has stumbled." 
— Spurzheim, on Education, p. 3. " The racehorse is looked upon with pleasure ; but it is the 
warliorse, that carries grandeur in its idea." — Blair's Rliet., p. 30. 

Obs. 10. — The sexes are distinguished by ivords, in four different ways. First, by the use of 
different terminations: as, Jew, Jewess; Julius, Julia; hero, heroine. Secondly, by the use of 
entirely different names : as, Henry, Mary ; king, queen. Thirdly, by compounds or phrases in- 
cluding some distinctive term : as, Mr. Murray, Mrs. Murray ; Englishman, Englishivoman ; grand- 
father, grandmother; landlord, landlady; merman, mermaid; servingman, servingmaid; man- 
servant, maid-servant; schoolmaster, schoolmistress; school-boy, school-girl ; peacock, peahen ; cock- 
sparrow, hen-sparrow; he-goat, she-goat; buck-rabbit, doe-rabbit; male- elephant, female elephant; 
male convicts, female convicts. Fourthly, by the pronouns he, his, him, put for nouns masculine ; 
and she, her, hers, for nouns feminine : as, " Ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, 
"What is done ?" — Jer., xlviii, 19. 

" O happy peasant ! Oh unhappy bard! 
His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward." — Cowper. 

Obs. 11. — For feminine nouns formed by inflection, the regular termination is ess; but the 
manner in which this ending is applied to the original or masculine noun, is not uniform: — 

1. In some instances the" syllable ess is simply added : as, accuser, accuseress ; advocate, advo- 
catess ; archer, archeress; author, authoress ; avenger, avengeress ; barber, barberess; baron, baron- 
ess; canon, canoness ; cit, cittess ;* coheir, coheiress; count, countess; deacon, deaconess; demon, 
demoness ; diviner, divineress ; doctor, doctoress ; giant, giantess ; god, goddess ; guardian, guardi- 
aness; Hebrew, Hebrew ess; heir, heiress; herd, herdess; hermit, hermitess; host, hostess; Jesuit, 
Jesuiiess ; Jew, Jeioess ; mayor, mayoress ; Moabite, Moabitess ; monarch, monarchess ; pape, papess 
or, pope, popess ; patron, patroness ; peer, peeress ; poet, poetess ; priest, priestess ; prior, prioress 
prophet, prophetess ; regent, regentess ; saint, saintess ; shepherd, shepherdess ; soldier, soldieress 
tailor, tailor ess ; viscount, viscountess; warrior, ivarrioress. 

2. In other instances, the termination is changed, and there is no increase of syllables : as 
abbot, abbess; actor, actress; adulator, adulatress ; adulterer, adulteress; adventurer, adventuress 
advoutrer, advoutress ; ambassador, ambassadress; anchorite, anchoress; or, anachoret, anaclwress 
arbiter, arbitress ; auditor, auditress; benefactor, benefactress; caterer, cateress ; chanter, chantress 
cloisterer, cloister ess ; commander, commandress ; conductor, conductress; creator, creatress; de 
mander, demandress ; detractor, detractress ; eagle, eagless ; editor, editress ; elector, electress 
emperor, emperess, or empress; emulator, emulatress ; enchanter, enchantress; exactor, exactress 
fautor, fautress ; fornicator, fornicatress ; fosterer, foster ess, or fostress ; founder, foundress; gover 
nor, governess; huckster, huckstress ; or, hucksterer, hucksteress ; idolater, idolatress; inhabiter 
inhabitress ; instructor, instructress ; inventor, inventress ; launderer, launderess, or laundress 
minister, ministress ; monitor, monitress ; murderer, murderess; negro, negress ; offender, offen 
dress ; ogre, ogress ; porter, portress ; progenitor, progenitress ; protector, protectress ; proprietor 
proprietress ; pythonist, pythoness ; seamster, seamstress ; solicitor, soliciiress ; songster, songstress 
sorcerer, sorceress ; suitor, suitress ; tiger, tigress ; traitor, traitress ; victor, victress ; votary 
votaress. 

3. In a few instances the feminine is formed as in Latin, by changing or to rix ; but some of 
these have also the regular form, which ought to be preferred : as, adjutor, adjutrix ; adminis- 
trator, administratrix; arbitrator, arbitratrix; coadjutor, coadjutrix ; competitor, competitress, or 

* There is the same reason for doubling the t in cittess, as for doubling the d in goddess. See Rule 3d foi 
Spelling. Yet Johnson, Todd, Webster, Bolles, Worcester, and others, spell it citess, with one t. 
" Cits and citesses raise a joyful strain." — Deyden : Joh. Diet. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — GENDERS. 257 

competitrix ; creditor, creditrix ; director, directress, or directrix ; executor, execvtress, or executrix ; 
inheritor, inheritress, or inlieritrix ; mediator, mediatress, or mediatrix ; orator, oratress, or oratrix ; 
rector, redress, or rectrix ; spectator, spectatress, or spectatrix ; testator, testatrix ; tutor, tutoress, or 
tutress, or tutrix ; deserter, desertress, or desertrice, or desertrix. 

4. The following are irregular words, in which the distinction of sex is chiefly made by the 
termination : amoroso, amorosa : archduke, archduchess ; chamberlain, chambermaid ; duke, duch- 
ess ; gaffer, gammer; goodman, goody; hero, heroine; landgrave, landgravine; margrave, mar- 
gravine ; marquis, marchioness ; palsgrave, palsgravine ; sakeret, sakerhawk ; sewer, sewster ; sultan, 
sultana; tzar, tzarina; tyrant, tyranness ; widower, widow. 

Obs. 12. — The proper names of persons almost always designate their sex ; for it has been 
found convenient to make the names of women different from those of men. We have also some 
appellatives which correspond to each other, distinguishing the sexes by their distinct application 
to each : as, bachelor, maid ; beau, belle ; boy, girl ; bridegroom, bride ; brother, sister ; buck, doe ; 
boar, sow; bull, cow; cock, hen; colt, filly ; dog, bitch; drake, duck; earl, countess; father, mother; 
friar, nun ; gander, goose; grandsire, granclam ; hart, roe; horse, mare ; husband, wife ; king, 
queen ; lad, lass ; lord, lady ; male, female ; man, woman ; master, mistress ; Mister, Missis ; (Mr., 
Mrs.;) milter, spawner ; monk, nun; nephew, niece; papa, mamma; rake, jilt; ram, ewe; ruff, 
reeve; sire, dam; sir, madam; sloven, slut; son, daughter; stag, hind; steer, heifer; swain, 
nymph ; uncle, aunt ; wizard, witch ; youth, damsel ; young man, maiden. 

Obs. 13. — The people of a particular country are commonly distinguished by some namo 
derived from that of their country ; as, Americans, Africans, Egyptians, Russians, Turks. Such 
words are sometimes called gentile names. There are also adjectives, of the same origin, if not the 
same form, which correspond with them. " Gentile names are for the most part considered as 
masculine, and the feminine is denoted by the gentile adjective and the noun woman : as, a 
Spaniard, a Spanish woman ; a Pole, or Polander, a Polish woman. But, in a few instances, we 
always use a compound of the adjective with man or woman: as, an Englishman, an English- 
woman; a Welshman, a Welshwoman; an Irishman, an Irishwoman; a Frenchman, a French- 
woman; a Dutchman, a Dutchiooman: and in these cases the adjective is employed as the collec- 
tive noun ; as, the Dutch, the French, &c. A Scotchman, and a Scot, are both in use ; but the 
latter is not common in prose writers : though some employ it. and these generally adopt the 
plural, Scots, with the definite article, as the collective term." — GhurchUVs New Gram., p. 70. 

Obs. 14. — The names of things without life, used literally, are always of the neuter gender: as, 
" YHien Cleopatra fled, Antony pursued her in a five-oared galley; and, coming along side of 
her ship, entered it without being seen by her." — Goldsmith's Rome, p. 160. "The sun, high as 
it is, has its business assigned; and so havo the stars." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 138. But inani- 
mate objects are often represented figuratively as having sex. Things remarkable for power, 
greatness, or sublimity, are spoken of as masculine ; as, the sun, time, death, sleep, fear, anger, 
winter, war. Things beautiful, amiable, or prolific, are spoken of as feminine ; as, a ship, the 
moon, the earth, ncdure, fortune, knowledge, hope, spring, peace. Figurative gender is indicated 
only by the personal pronouns of the singular number : as, " When we say of the sun, He is 
setting ; or of a ship, She sails well." — L. Murray. For these two objects, the sun and a 
ship, this phraseology is so common, that the literal construction quoted above is rarely met 
with. 

Obs. 15. — "When any inanimate object or abstract quality is distinctly personified, and presented 
to the imagination in the character of a living and intelligent being, there is necessarily a change 
of the gender of the word ; for, whenever personality is thus ascribed to what is literally neuter, 
there must be an assumption of one or the other sex: as, " The Genius of Liberty is awakened, 
and springs up ; she sheds her divine light and creative powers upon the two hemispheres. A 
great nation, astonished at seeing herself free, stretches her arms from one extremity of the earth 
to the other, and embraces the first nation that became so." — Abbe Fauchet. But there is an infe- 
rior kind of personification, or of what is called such, in which, so far as appears, the gender remains 
neuter: as, "The following is an instance of personification and apostrophe united: '0 thou 
sword of the Lord ! how long will it be ere thou be quiet ? put thyself up into thy scabbard, rest, 
and be still! How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ask elon, 
and against the sea-shore? there hath he appointed iV " — Murray's Gram., p. 348. SeeJer., 
xlvii, 6. 

Obs. 16. — If what is called personification, does not always imply a change of gender and an 
ascription of sex, neither does a mere ascription of sex to what is literally of no sex, necessarily 
imply a personification ; for there may be sex without personality, as we see in brute animals. 
Hence the gender of a brute animal personified in a fable, may be taken literally as before ; and 
the gender which is figuratively ascribed to the sun, the moon, or a ship, is merely metaphorical. 
In the following sentence, nature is animated and made feminine by a metaphor, while a lifeless 
object bearing the name of Venus, is spoken of as neuter: " Like that conceit of old, which 
declared that the Venus of Gnidos was not the work of Praxiteles, since nature herself had con- 
creted the boundary surface of its beauty." — Rush, on the Voice, p. xxv. 

Obs. 11. — " In personifications regard must be had to propriety in determining the gender. Of 
most of the passions and moral qualities of man the ancients formed deities, as they did of various 
other things : and, when these are personified, they are usually made male or female, according 
as they were gods or goddesses in the pagan mythology. The same rule applies in other cases : 
and thus the planet Jupiter will be masculine ; Yenus, feminine : the ocean, Ocednus, masculine : 

17 



258 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

rivers, months, and winds, the same : the names of places, countries, and islands, feminine. " — 
Churchill's Gram., p. 71. 

Obs. 18. — These suggestions are worthy of consideration, but, for the gender which ought to 
be adopted in personifications, there seems to be no absolute general rule, or none which English 
writers have observed with much uniformity. It is well, however, to consider what is most com- 
mon in each particular case, and abide by it. In the following examples, the sex ascribed is not 
that under which these several objects are commonly figured ; for which reason, the sentences 
are perhaps erroneous: — 

" Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much ; 

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." — Cowper. 
"But hoary Winter, unadorned and bare, 

Dwells in the dire retreat, and freezes there ; 

There she assembles all her blackest storms, 

And the rude hail in rattling tempests forms." — Addison. 
11 Her pow'r extends o'er all things that have breath, 

A cruel tyrant, and her name is Death." — Sheffield. 

CASES. 

Cases, in grammar, are modifications that distinguish the relations of 
nouns or pronouns to other words. 

There are three cases ; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective. 

The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which 
usually denotes the subject of a finite verb : as, The boy runs ; i" run. 

The subject of a finite verb is that which answers to who or what be- 
fore it; as, "The boy runs." — Who runs? "The boy." Boy is there- 
fore here in the nominative case. 

The possessive case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which 
usually denotes the relation of property : as, The boy's hat ; my hat. 

The possessive case of nouns is formed, in the singular number, by 
adding to the nominative s preceded by an apostrophe; and, in the plu- 
ral, when the nominative ends in s, by adding an apostrophe only : as, 
singular, boy's; plural, boys' ; — sounded alike, but written differently. 

The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which 
usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition : as, I 
know the boy, having seen him at school ; and he knows me. 

The object of a verb, participle, or preposition, is that which answers 
to whom or what after it ; as, " I know the boy/' — I know whom ? " The 
boy." Boy is therefore here in the objective case. 

The nominative and the objective of nouns, are always alike in form, 
being distinguishable from each other only by their place in a sentence, 
or by their simple dependence according to the sense. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The cases, in grammar, are founded on the different relations under which things are 
represented in discourse ; and from which the words acquire correspondent relations ; or connex- 
ions and dependences according to the sense. In Latin, there are six cases ; and in Greek, five. 
Consequently, the nouns and pronouns of those languages, and also their adjectives and parti- 
ciples, (which last are still farther inflected by the three genders,) are varied by many different 
terminations unknown to our tongue. In English, those modifications or relations which we call 
cases, belong only to nouns and pronouns ; nor are there ever more than three. Pronouns are 
not necessarily like their antecedents in case. 

Obs. 2. — Because the infinitive mood, a phrase, or a sentence, may in some instances be made 
the subject of a verb, so as to stand in that relation in which the nominative case is most com- 
monly found ; very many of our grammarians have deliberately represented all terms used in this 
manner, as being "in the nominative case:" as if, to sustain any one of the relations which are 
usually distinguished by a particular case, must necessarily constitute that modification itself. 
Many also will have participles, infinitives, phrases, and sentences, to be occasionally "in the 
objective case :" whereas it must be plain to every reader, that they are, all of them, indeclinable 
terms ; and that, if used in any relation common to nouns or pronouns, they assume that office, 
as participles, as infinitives, as phrases, or as sentences, and not as causes. They no more take 
the nature of cases, than they become nouns or pronouns. Yet Nixon, by assuming that of, with 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — CASES. 259 

the word governed by it, constitutes a possessive case, contrives to give to participles, and even 
to the infinitive mood, all three of the cases. Of the infinitive, he says, " An examination of the 
first and second methods of parsing this mood, must naturally lead to the inference that it is a 
substantive; and that, if it has the nominative case, it must also have the possessive and objective 
cases of a substantive. The fourth method proves its [capacity of] being in the possessive case: 
thus, ' A desire to learn ;' that is, ' of learning.' 1 When it follows a participle, or a verb, as by the 
fifth or [the] seventh method, it is in the objective case. Method sixth is analogous to the Case 
Absolute of a substantive." — Nixon's Parser, p. 83. If the infinitive mood is really a declinable 
substantive, none of our grammarians have placed it in the right chapter ; except that bold con- 
temner of all grammatical and literary authority, Oliver B. Peirce. When will the cause of 
learning cease to have assailants and underminers among those who profess to serve it ? Thus 
every new grammatist, has some grand absurdity or other, peculiar to himself; and what can be 
more gross, than to talk of English infinitives and participles as being in the possessive case ? 

Obs. 3. — It was long a subject of dispute among the grammarians, what number of cases an 
English noun should be supposed to have. Some, taking the Latin language for their model, 
and turning certain phrases into cases to fill up the deficits, were for having six in each num- 
ber; namely, the nominative, the genitive, the dative, the accusative, the vocative, and the ab- 
lative. Others, contending that a case in grammar could be nothing else than a terrninational 
inflection, and observing that English nouns have but one case that differs from the nominative 
in form, denied that there were more than two, the nominative and the possessive. This was 
certainly an important question, touching a fundamental principle of our grammar ; and any 
erroneous opinion concerning it, might well go far to condemn the book that avouched it. Every 
intelligent teacher must see this. For what sense could be made of parsing, without supposing 
an objective case to nouns ? or what propriety could there be in making the words, of, and to, and 
from, govern or compose three different cases ? Again, with what truth can it be said, that nouns 
have no cases in English ? or what reason can be assigned for making more than three ? 

Obs. 4. — Public opinion is now clear in the decision, that it is expedient to assign to English 
nouns three cases, and no more ; and, in a matter of this kind, what is expedient for the pur- 
pose of instruction, is right. Yet, from the works of our grammarians, may be quoted every 
conceivable notion, right or wrong, upon this point. Cardell, with Tooke and Gilchrist on his 
side, contends that English nouns have no cases. Brightland averred that they have neither 
cases nor genders.* Buchanan, and the author of the old British Grammar, assigned to them 
one case only, the possessive, or genitive. Dr. Adam also says, " In English, nouns have only 
one case, namely, the genitive, or possessive case." — Latin and Eng. Gram., p. 7. W. B. Fowle 
has two cases, but rejects the word case : " We use the simple term agent for a noun that acts, and 
object for the object of an action." — Fowle's True Eng. Gram., Part II, p. 68. Spencer too dis- 
cards the word case, preferring "form," that he may merge in one the nominative and the objec- 
tive, giving to nouns two cases, but neither of these. " Nouns have two Forms, called the Simple 
and [the] Possessive." — Spencer's E. Gram., p. 30. Webber's Grammar, published at Cambridge 
in 1832, recognizes but two cases of nouns, declaring the objective to be "altogether superfluous." 
— P. 22. "Our substantives have no more cases than two." — Jamieson's JRhet., p. 14. "A Sub- 
stantive doth not properly admit of more than two cases: the Nominative, and the Genitive." — 
Ellen Devis's Gram, p. 19. Dr. Webster, in his Philosophical Grammar, of 180*7, and in his Im- 
proved Grammar, of 1831, teaches the same doctrine, but less positively. This assumption has 
also had the support of Lowth, Johnson, Priestley, Ash, Bicknell, Fisher, Dalton, and our cele- 
brated Lindley Murray. f In Child's or Latham's English Grammar, 1852, it is said, "The cases 
in the present English are three : — 1. Nominative ; 2. Objective ; 3. Possessive." But this seems 
to be meant of pronouns only; for the next section affirms, "The substantives in English have 
only two out of the three cases." — See pp. 79 and 80. Reckless of the current usage of gram- 
marians, and even of self-consistency, both author and reviser will have no objective case of nouns, 
because this is like the nominative; yet, finding an objective set after "the adjective like" they 
will recognize it as "a dative still existing in English!" — See p. 156. Thus do they forsake their 
own enumeration of cases, as they had before, in all their declensions, forsaken the new order in 
which they had at first so carefully set them ! 

Obs. 5. — For the true doctrine of three cases, we have the authority of Murray, in his later 
editions; of Webster, in his "Plain and Comp. Grammar, grounded on True Principles.' " 1790; 

* "But in the English we have no Genders, as has heen seen in the foregoing Notes. The same may he said 
of Cases." — Brightland' s Gram., Seventh Edition, Lond., 1746, p. 85. 

t The Rev. David Blair so palpably contradicts himself in respect to this matter, that I know not which he 
favours most, two cases or three. In his main text, he adopts no objective, but says : "According to the sense 
or relation ia which nouns are used, they are in the nominative or [the] possessive case, thus, nom. man ; 
poss. man's." To this he adds the following marginal note: "In the English language, the distinction of the 
objective case is observable only in the pronouns. Cases being nothing but inflections, where inflections do not 
exist, there can be no grammatical distinction of cases, for the terms inflection and case are perfectly synony- 
•mous and convertible. As the English noun has only one change of termination, so no other case is here 
adopted. The objective case is noticed in the pronouns; and in parsing nouns it is easy to distinguish subjects 
from objects. A noun which governs the verb may be described as in the nominative case, and one governed by 
the verb, or following a preposition, as in the objective case." — Blair's Practical Gram., Seventh Edition, 
London, 1815, p. 11. The terms inflection and case are not practically synonymous, and never were so in the 
grammars of the language from which they are derived. The man who rejects the objective case of English 
nouns, because it has not a form peculiar to itself alone, must reject the accusative and the vocative of all neu- 
ter nouns in Latin, for the same reason ; and the ablative, too, must in general be discarded on the same princi- 
ple. In some other parts of his book, Blair speaks of the objective case of nouns as familiarly as do other 
authors ! 



260 THE GRAMMAK OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

also in his " Rudiments of English Grammar," 1811 ; together with the united authority of 
Adams, Ainsworth, Alden, Alger, Bacon, Barnard, Bingham, Burr, Bullions, Butler, Churchill, 
Chandler, Cobbett, Cobbin, Comly, Cooper, Crombie, Davenport, Davis, Fisk, A. Flint, Frost, Guy, 
Hart, Hiley, Hull, Ingersoll, Jaudon, Kirkham, Lennie, Mack, M'Culloch, Maunder, Merchant, 
Nixon, Nutting, John Peirce, Perley, Picket, Russell, Smart, R. C. Smith, Rev. T. Smith, "Wilcox, 
and I know not how many others. 

Obs. 6. — Dearborn, in 1795, recognized four cases: "the nominative, the possessive, the ob- 
jective, and the absolute." — Columbian Gram., pp. 16 and 20. Charles Bucke, in his work mis- 
named "A Classical Grammar of the English Language," published in London in 1829, asserts, 
that. "Substantives in English do not vary their terminations ;" yet he gives them four cases ; 
" the nominative, the genitive, the accusative, and the vocative." So did Allen, in a grammar 
much more classical, dated, London, 1813. Hazen, in 1842, adopted "four cases; namely, the 
nominative, the possessive, the objective, and the independent." — Hazen's Practical Gram., p. 35. 
Mulligan, since, has chosen these four: "Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative." — Structure 
of E. Lang., p. 185. And yet his case after to or for is not "dative," but "accusative!" — lb., p. 
239. So too, Goodenow, of Maine, makes the cases four: "the subjective,'*- the possessive, the 
objective, and the absolute.''' 1 — Text-Book, p. 31. Goldsbury, of Cambridge, has also four: "the 
Nominative, the Possessive, the Objective, and the Vocative." — Com. S. Gram., p. 13. Three 
other recent grammarians, — "Wells, of Andover, — Weld, of Portland, — and Clark, of Bloomfield, 
N. Y.,— also adopt " four cases; — the nominative, the possessive, the objective, and the independ- 
ent." — Wells's Gram., p. 57 ; Weld's, 60 ; Clark's, 49. The first of these gentlemen argues, that, 
" Since a noun or pronoun, used independently, cannot at the same time be employed as 'the sub- 
ject of a verb,' there is a manifest impropriety in regarding it as a nominative." It might as well 
be urged, that a nominative after a verb, or in apposition with an other, is, for this reason, not a 
nominative. He also cites this argument : " ' Is there not as much difference between the nomina- 
tive and [the] independent case, as there is between the nominative and [the] objective ? If so, 
why class them together as one case?' — S. B. Hall." — Wells's Scl tool Gram., p. 57. To this I an- 
swer. No. " The nominative is that case which primely denotes the name of any person or thing ;" 
(Burn's Gram., p. 36 ;) and this only it is, that can be absolute, or independent, in English. This 
scheme of four cases is, in fact, a grave innovation. As authority for it, Wells cites Felton ; and 
bids his readers, " See also Kennion, Parkhurst, Fowle, Flint, Goodenow, Buck, Hazen, Golds- 
bury, Chapin, S. Alexander, and P. Smith." — Page 57. But is the fourth case of these authors 
the same as his ? Is it a case which " has usually the nominative form," but admits occasionally 
of" me" and " him," and embraces objective nouns of " time, measure, distance, direction, or place?" 
No. Certainly one half of them, and probably more, give little or no countenance to such an in- 
dependent case as he has adopted. Parkhurst admitted but three cases ; though he thought two 
others "might be an improvement." What Fowle has said in support of Wells's four cases, I 
have sought with diligence, and not found. Felton's " independent case" is only what he absurdly 
calls, " The noun or pronoun addressed." — Page 91. Bucke and Goldsbury acknowledge "the 
nominative case absolute;" and none of the twelve, so far as I know, admit any objective word, 
or what others call objective, to be independent or absolute, except perhaps Goldsbury. 

Obs. 7. — S. R. Hall, formerly principal of the Seminary for Teachers at Andover, (but no great 
grammarian,) in 1832, published a manual, called "The Grammatical Assistant;" in which he 
says, " There are at least five cases, belonging to English nouns, differing as much from each other, 
as the cases of Latin and Greek nouns. They may be called Nominative, Possessive, Objective, In- 
dependent and Absolute." — P. 7. 0. B. Peirce will have both nouns and pronouns to be used in 
five cases, which he thus enumerates : " Four simple cases ; the Subjective, Possessive, Ob- 
jective, and the Independent ; and the Twofold case." — Gram., p. 42. But, on page 56th, he speaks 
of a " twofold subjective case." "the twofold objective case," and shows how the possessive may be 
twofold also ; so that, without taking any of the Latin cases, or even all of Hall's, he really 
recognizes as many as seven, if not eight. Among the English grammars which assume all the 
six cases of the Latin Language, are Burn's, Coar's, Dilworth's, Mackintosh's, Memrve's, Wm. 
Ward's, and the " Comprehensive Grammar," a respectable little book, published by Dobson of 
Philadelphia, in 1789, but written by somebody in England. 

Obs. 8. — Of the English grammars which can properly be said to be now in use, a very great 
majority agree in ascribing to nouns three cases, and three only. This, I am persuaded, is the 
best number, and susceptible of the best defence, whether we appeal to authority, or to other ar- 
gument. The disputes of grammarians make no small part of the history of grammar ; and in 
submitting to be guided by their decisions, it is proper for us to consider what degree of certainty 
there is in the rule, and what difference or concurrence there is among them: for, the teaching of 
any other than the best opinions, is not the teaching of science, come from what quarter it may. 
On the question respecting the objective case of nouns, Murray and Webster changed sides with 
each other; and that, long after they first appeared as grammarians. ' Nor was this the only, or 

* This author says, "We choose to use the term subjective rather than nominative, hecause it is shorter, and 
because it conveys its meaning by its sound, whereas the latter -word means, indeed, little or nothing in itself." — 
Text-Book, p. 83. This appears to me a foolish innovation, too much in the spirit of Oliver B. Peirce, who also 
adopts it. The person who knows not the meaning of the word -iwminative, will not be very likely to find out 
what is meant by subjective ; especially as some learned grammarians, even such men as Dr. Crombie and Pro- 
fessor Bullions, often erroneously call the word which is governed by the verb its subject. Besides, if we say 
subjective and objective, in stead of nominative and objective, we shall inevitably change the accent of both, and 
give them a pronunciation hitherto uukuown to the words. — G. Beown. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — CASES. 261 

the most important instance, in which the different editions of the works of these two gentlemen, 
present them in opposition, both to themselves and to each other. " What cases are there in 
English ? The nominative, which usually stands before a verb ; as, the boy writes : The possessive, 
which takes an s with a comma, and denotes property ; as, John's hat : The objective, which fol- 
lows a verb or preposition; as, he honors virtue, or it is an honor to him." — Webster's Plain and 
Comp. Gram., Sixth Edition, 1800, p. 9. "But for convenience, the two positions of nouns, one 
before, the other after the verb, are called cases. There are then three cases, the nominative, pos- 
sessive, and objective." — Webster's Rudiments of Gram., 1811, p. 12. "In English therefore 
names have two cases only, the nominative or simple name, and the possessive." — Webster's Phi- 
losoph. Gram., 1807, p. 32 : also his Improved Gram., 1831, p. 24. 

Obs. 9. — Murray altered his opinion after the tenth or eleventh edition of his duodecimo Gram- 
mar. His instructions stand thus : "In English, substantives have but two cases, the nomina- 
tive, and [the] possessive or genitive." — Murray's Gram, 12mo, Second Edition, 1796, p. 35. 
" For the assertion, that there are in English but two cases of nouns, and three of pronouns, we 
have the authority of Lowth, Johnson, Priestley, &c. names which are sufficient to decide this 
point." — lb., p. 36. "In English, substantives have three cases, the nominative, the possessive, 
and the objective." — Murray's Gram., 12 wo, Twenty-third Edition, 1816, p. 44. "The author of 
this work long doubted the propriety of assigning to English substantives an objective case : but 
a renewed critical examination of the subject ; an examination to which he was prompted by the 
extensive and increasing demand for the grammar, has produced in his mind a, full persuasion, 
that the nouns of our language are entitled to this comprehensive objective case." — lb., p. 46. If 
there is any credit in changing one's opinions, it is, doubtless, in changing them for the better ; 
but, of all authors, a grammarian has the most need critically to examine his subject before he 
goes to the printer. " This case was adopted in the twelfth edition of the Grammar." — Murray's 
Exercises, 12mo, N. Y., 1818, p. viii. 

Obs. 10. — The possessive case has occasioned no less dispute than the objective. On this vexed 
article of our grammar, custom has now become much more uniform than it was a century ago ; 
and public opinion may be said to have settled most of the questions which have been agitated 
about it. Some individuals, however, are still dissatisfied. In the first place, against those who 
have thought otherwise, it is determined, by infinite odds of authority, that there is such a case, 
both of nouns and of pronouns. Many a common reader will wonder, who can have been igno- 
rant enough to deny it. " The learned and sagacious Wallis, to whom every English gramma- 
rian owes a tribute of reverence, calls this modification of the noun an adjective possessive ; I think, 
with no more propriety than he might have applied the same to the Latin genitive." — Dr. John- 
son's Gram., p. 5. Brightland also, who gave to adjectives the name of qualities, included all pos- 
sessives among them, calling them " Possessive Qualities, or Qualities of Possession." — Brightland' s 
Gram., p. 90. 

Obs. 11. — This exploded error, "William S. Cardell, a few years ago, republished as a novelty; 
for which, among other pretended improvements of a like sort, he received the ephemeral praise 
of some of our modern literati William B. Fowle also teaches the same thing. See his Com- 
mon School Gram., Part II, p. 104. In Felch's Grammar, too, published in Boston in 1837, an 
attempt is made, to revive this old doctrine ; but the author takes no notice of any of the above- 
named authorities, being probably ignorant of them all. His reasoning upon the point, does not 
appear to me to be worthy of a detailed answer.* That the possessive case of nouns is not an 
adjective, is demonstrable; because it may have adjectives of various kinds, relating to it: as, 
" This old man's daughter." — Shak. It may also govern an other possessive; as, "Peter's wife's 
mother." — Bible. Here the former possessive is governed by the latter; but, if both were adjec- 
tives, they would both relate to the noun mother, and so produce a confusion of ideas. Again, 
nouns of the possessive case have a distinction of number, which adjectives have not. In gender 
also, there lies a difference. Adjectives, whenever they are varied by gender or number, agree with 
their nouns in these respects. Not so with possessives; as, "In the Jews' religion." — Gal., i, 13. 
"The children's bread." — Mark, vii, 27. "Some men's sins." — 1 Tim., v, 24. "Other men's 
sins." — 76., ver. 22. 

Obs. 12. — Secondly, general custom has clearly determined that the possessive case of nouns is 
always to be written with an apostrophe : except in those few instances in which it is not gov- 
erned singly by the noun following, but so connected with an other that both are governed 

* The authorities cited by Felch, for his doctrine of "possessive adnouns" amount to nothing. They are 
ostensibly two. The first is a remark of Dr. Adam's: " 'John's book was formerly written Johnis book. Some 
have thought the 's a contraction of his, but improperly. Others have imagined, with more justness, that, by 
the addition of the 's, the substantive is changed into a possessive adjective." — Adam's Latin and English 
Grammar, p. 7." — Felch's Comp. Grain., p. 26. Here Dr. Adam by no means concurs with what these "others 
have imagined;"" for, in the very same place, he declares the possessive case of nouns to be their only case. 
The second is a dogmatical and inconsistent remark of some anonymous writer in some part of the "American 
Journal of Education," a work respectable indeed, but, on the subject of grammar, too often fantastical and 
heterodox. Felch thinks it not improper, to use the possessive case before participles ; in which situation, it 
denotes, not the owner of something, but the agent, subject, or recipient, of the action, being, or change. And 
what a jumble does he make, where he attempts to resolve this ungrammatical construction ! — telling us, in 
almost the same breath, that, "The agent of a nounal verb [i. e. participle] is never expressed," but that, 
"Sometimes it [the nounal or gerundial verb~\ is qualified, in its nounal capacity, by a possessive adnoun 
indicative of its agent as a verb ; as, there is nothing like one's ckixg useful he doubted tJieir having it:" 
and then concluding, " Hence it appears, that the present participle may be used as agent or object, and yet 
retain its character as a verb." — Felch's Comprehensive Gram., p. 81. Alas for the schools, if the wise men of 
the East receive for grammar such utter confusion, and palpable self-contradiction, as this i 



262 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

jointly; as, " Cato the Censor's doctrine," — "Sir Walter ScoWs "Works," — "Beaumont and 
Fletcher's Plays." This custom of using the apostrophe, however, has been opposed by many. 
Brightland, and Buchanan, and the author of the British Grammar, and some late writers in the 
Philological Museum, are among those who have successively taught, that the possessive case should 
be formed like the nominative plural, by adding s when the pronunciation admits the sound, and es 
when the word acquires an additional syllable. Some of these approve of the apostrophe, and 
others do not. Thus Brightland gives some examples, which are contrary to his rule, adopting 
that strange custom of putting the s in Roman, and the name in Italic ; " as, King Charles's 
Court, and St. James's Park." — Gram, of the English Tongue, p. 91. 

Obs. 13. — "The genitive case, in my opinion," says Dr. Ash, "might be much more properly 
formed by adding s, or when the pronunciation requires it, es, without an Apostrophe : as, men, 
mens; Ox, Oxes ; Horse, Horses; Ass, Asses." — Ash's Gram., p. 23. "To write Ox's, Ass's, Fox's, 
and at the same time pronounce it Oxes, Asses, Foxes, is such a departure from the original for- 
mation, at least in writing, and such an inconsistent use of the Apostrophe, as cannot be equalled 
perhaps in any other language." — lb. Lowth, too, gives some countenance to this objection : 
"It [i. e., ' God's grace'] was formerly written ' Godis grace; 1 we now always shorten it with an 
apostrophe ; often very improperly, when we are obliged to pronounce it fully ; as, ' Thomas's 
book,' that is, ' Thomasis book,' not ' Thomas his book,' as it is commonly supposed." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. IT. Whatever weight there may be in this argument, the objection has been overruled 
by general custom. The convenience of distinguishing, even to the eye alone, the numbers and 
cases of the noun, is found too great to be relinquished. If the declension of English nouns is 
ever to be amended, it cannot be done in this way. It is understood by every reader, that the 
apostrophic s adds a syllable to the noun, whenever it will not unite with the sound in which the 
nominative ends ; as, torch's, pronounced torchiz. 

" Yet time ennobles or degrades each line ; 
It brightened Craggs's, and may darken thine." — Pope. 

Obs. 14. — The English possessive case unquestionably originated in that form of the Saxon 
genitive which terminates in es, examples of which may be found in almost any specimen of the 
Saxon tongue: as, " On Herodes dagum," — "In Herod's days;" — "Of Aarones dohtrum," — "Of 
Aaron's daughters." — Luke, i, 5. This ending was sometimes the same as that of the plural; 
and both were changed to is or ys, before they became what we now find them. This termina- 
tion added a syllable to the word ; and Lowth suggests, in the quotation above, that the apos- 
trophe was introduced to shorten it. But some contend, that the use of this mark originated in a 
mistake. It appears from the testimony of Brightland, Johnson, Lowth, Priestley, and others, 
who have noticed the error in order to correct it, that an opinion was long entertained, that the 
termination 's was a contraction of the word his. It is certain that Addison thought so ; for he 
expressly says it, in the 135th number of the Spectator. Accordingly he wrote, in lieu of the 
regular possessive, "My paper is Ulysses his bow." — Guardian, No. 98. "Of Socrates his rules 
of prayer." — Sped., No. 207. So Lowth quotes Pope: "By young Telemachus his blooming 
years." — Lowth's Gram., p. 17.* There is also one late author who says, "The 's is a contraction 
of his, and was formerly written in full; as, William Russell his book." — Goodenow's Gram., p. 
32. This is undoubtedly bad English ; and always was so, however common may have been the 
erroneous notion which gave rise to it. But the apostrophe, whatever may have been its origin, 
is now the acknowledged distinctive mark of the possessive case of English nouns. The applica- 
tion of the 's, frequently to feminines, and sometimes to plurals, is proof positive that it is not a 
contraction of the pronoun his; as, 

" Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air, 
Weighs the men's wits against the Lady's hair." — Pope, R. of L., C. v, 1. 72. 

Obs. 15. — Many of the old grammarians, and Guy, Pinneo, and Spencer, among the moderns, 
represent the regular formation of the possessive case as being the same in both numbers, sup- 
posing generally in the plural an abbreviation of the word by the omission of the second or 
syllabic s. That is, they suppose that such terms as eagles' wings, angels' visits, were written 
for eagles' s wings, angels' s visits, &c. This odd view of the matter accounts well enough for the 
fashion of such plurals as men's, women's, children's, and makes them regular. But I find no 
evidence at all of the fact on which these authors presume ; nor do I believe that the regular 
possessive plural was ever, in general, a syllable longer than the nominative. If it ever had been 
so, it would still be easy to prove the point, by citations from ancient books. The general prin- 
ciple then is, that the apostrophe forms the possessive case, with an s in the singular, and without it 
in the plural ; but there are some exceptions to this rule, on either hand ; and these must be duly 
noticed. 

Obs. 16. — The chief exceptions, or irregularities, in the formation of the possessive singular, 
are, I think, to be accounted mere poetic licenses ; and seldom, if ever, to be allowed in prose. 
Churchill, (closely copying Lowth,) speaks of them thus : " In poetry the s is frequently omitted 
after proper names ending in s otx; as, 'The wrath of Peleus r son.' Pope. This is scarcely 
allowable in prose, though instances of it occur : as, ' Moses' minister.' Josh., i, 1. ' Phinehas' 

* A critic's accuracy is sometimes liable to be brought into doubt, by subsequent alterations of the texts which 
he quotes. Many an error cited in this volume of criticism, may possibly not be found in some future edition 
of the book referred to ; as several of those which were pointed out by Lowth, have disappeared from th j 
places named for them. Churchill also cites this line as above ; (New Gram., p. 214;) but, in my edition of the 
Olyssey, by Pope, the reading is this: " By lov'd Telemachus" s blooming years I" — Book xi, L 84. 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — CASES. 263 

wife.' 1 Sam., iv, 19. 'Festus came into Felix 1 room.' Acts, xxiv, 27. It was done in prose 
evidently to avoid the recurrence of a sibilant sound at the end of two following syllables ; but 
this may as readily be obviated by using the preposition of, which is now commonly substituted . 
for the possessive case in most instances." — ChurchilVs New Gram., p. 215. In Scott's Bible, 
Philadelphia, 1814, the texts here quoted are all of them corrected, thus : " Moses's minister," — 
" Phinehas's wife," — "Felix's room." But the phrase, " for conscience sake," (Rom., xiii, 5,) is 
there given without the apostrophe. Alger prints it, "for conscience 1 sake," which is better; and 
though not regular, it is a common form for this particular expression. Our common Bibles have 
this text : " And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice'' den." — Isaiah, xi, 8. 
Alger, seeing this to be wrong, wrote it, " on the cockatrice-den." — Pronouncing Bible. Dr. Scott, 
in his Reference Bible, makes this possessive regular, "on the cockatrice's den." This is right. 
The Vulgate has it, " in caverna reguli;" which, however, is not classic Latin. After z also, the 
poets sometimes drop the s : as, 

" Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day, 
"When first from Shiraz' walls I bent my way." — Collins. 

Obs. 11. — A recent critic, who, I think, has not yet learned to speak or write the possessive 
case of his own name properly, assumes that the foregoing occasional or poetical forms are the 
only true ones for the possessive singular of such words. He says, " When the name does end 
with the sound of s or z, (no matter what letter represents the sound,) the possessive form is made 
by annexing only an apostrophe." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 44. Agreeably to this rule, he 
letters his work, "Pence 1 Grammar," and condemns, as bad English, the following examples and 
all others like them : " James Otis' s letters, General Gates's command, General Knox's appoint- 
ment, Gov. Meigs's promptness, Mr. Williams's oration, The witness's deposition." — lb., p. 60. It 
is obvious that this gentleman's doctrine and criticism are as contrary to the common practice of 
all good authors, as they are to the common grammars, which he ridicules. Surely, such expres- 
sions as, " Harris's Hermes, Philips's Poems, Prince's Bay, Prince's Island, Fox's Journal, King 
James's edict, a, justice's warrant. Sphinx's riddle, the lynx's beam, the lass's beauty," have author- 
ity enough to refute the cavil of this writer ; who, being himself wrong, falsely charges the older 
grammarians, that, " their theories vary from the principles of the language correctly spoken or 
written." — lb., p. 60. A much more judicious author treats this point of grammar as follows : 
" When the possessive noun is singular, and terminates with an s, another s is requisite after it, 
and the apostrophe must be placed between the two ; as, ' Dickens's works,' — ' Harris's wit.' " — 
Bay's Punctuation, Third London Edition, p. 136. The following example, too, is right: "I 
would not yield to be your house's guest." — Shakespeare. 

Obs. 18. — All plural nouns that differ from the singular without ending in s, form the posses- 
sive case in the same manner as the singular: as, man's, men's; woman's, women's; child's, chil- 
dren's ; brother's, brothers' or brethren's ; ox's, oxen's ; goose, geese's. In two or three words which 
are otherwise alike in both numbers, the apostrophe ought to follow the 5 in the plural, to distin- 
guish it from the singular : as, the sheep's fleece, the sheeps' fleeces ; a neat's tongue, ntats 3 
tongues ; a deer's horns, a load of deers' horns. 

Obs. 19. — Dr. Ash says, " Nouns of the plural number that end in s, will not very properly 
admit of the genitive case." — Ash's Gram., p. 54. And Dr. Priestley appears to have been of 
the same opinion. See his Gram., p. 69. Lowth too avers, that the sign of the possessive case 
is "never added to the plural number ending in s." — Gram., p. 18. Perhaps he thought the 
plural sign must involve an other s, like the singular. This however is not true, neither is Dr. 
Ash's assertion true ; for the New Testament speaks as properly of " the soldiers' counsel," as of 
the " centurion's servant ;" of "the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part," as of " Paul's sister's 
son." It would appear, however, that the possessive plural is less frequently used than the 
possessive singular ; its place being much oftener supplied by the preposition of and the objec- 
tive. We cannot say that either of them is absolutely necessary to the language ; but they are 
both worthy to be commended, as furnishing an agreeable variety of expression. 

" Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend 
His actions', passions', being's use and end." — Pope. 

Obs. 20. — The apostrophe was introduced into the possessive case, at least for the singular 
number, in some part of the seventeenth century. Its adoption for the plural, appears to have 
been later : it is not much used in books a hundred years old. In Buchanan's " Regular English 
Syntax," which was written, I know not exactly when, but near the middle of the eighteenth 
century, I find the following paragraph : " We have certainly a Genitive Plural, though there 
has been no Mark to distinguish it. The Warriors Arms, i. e. the Arms of the Warriors, is as 
much a Genitive Plural, as the Warrior's Arms, for the Arms of the Warrior is a Genitive Sin- 
gular. To distinguish this Genitive Plural, especially to Foreigners, we might use the Apos- 
trophe reversed, thus, the Warrior's Arms, the Stone's End, for the End of the Stones, the 
Grocer's, Taylor's, Haberdasher's, &c. Company; for the Company of Grocers, Taylors, &c. 
The Surgeon's Hall, for the Hall of the Surgeons; the Rider's Names, for the Names of the 
Riders ; and so of all Plural Possessives." — See Buchan. Synt, p. 111. Our present form of the 
possessive plural, being unknown to this grammarian, must have had a later origin ; nor can it 
have been, as some imagine it was, an abbreviation of a longer and more ancient form. 

Obs. 21. — The apostrophic s has often been added to nouns improperly ; the words formed by it 
not being intended for the possessive singular, but for the nominative or objective plural. Thus 



264 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

we find such authors as Addison and Swift, writing Jacobus's and genius's, for Jacobuses and 
geniuses ; idea's, toga's, and tunica's, for ideas, togas, and tunicas ; enamorato 's and virtuoso's, for 
enamoratoes and virtuosoes. Errors of this kind, should be carefully avoided. 

Obs. 22. — The apostrophe and s are sometimes added to mere characters, to denote plurality, 
and not tli3 possessive case; as, two a's, three b's, four 9's. These we cannot avoid, except by using 
the names of the things: as, two Aes, three Bees, four Nines. " Laced down the sides with little 
c's." — Steele. "Whenever two gg's come together, they are both hard." — Buchanan. The names 
of c and g, plural, are Gees and Gees. Did these authors know the words, or did they not ? To 
have learned the names of the letters, will be found on many occasions a great convenience, 
especially to critics. For example : " The pronunciation of these two consecutive s's is hard." — 
Webber's Gram., p. 21. Better: "Esses." " S and x, however, are exceptions. They are plura- 
lyzed by adding es preceded by a hyphen [-], as the s-es ; the x-es." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 40. 
Better, use the names, Ess and Ex, and pluralize thus : "the Esses ; the Exes." 

" Make Q's of answers, to waylay 
What th' other party 's like to say." — Hudibras, P. in, C. ii, 1. 951. 

Here the cipher is to be read Kues, but it has not the meaning of this name merely. It is put 
either for the plural of Q., a Question, like D. D.'s, (read Dee-Dees,) for Doctors of Divinity ; or 
else, more erroneously, for cues, the plural of cue, a turn which the next speaker catches. 

Obs. 23. — In the following example, the apostrophe and s are used to give the sound of a 
verb's termination, to words which the writer supposed were not properly verbs : " When a 
man in a soliloquy reasons with himself, and pro's and con's, and weighs all his designs." — 
Congreve. But here, "proes and cons," would have been more accurate. "We put the ordered 
number of m's into our composing-stick." — Printer's Gram. Here " Ems" would have done as 
well. " All measures for folio's and quarto's, should be made to m's of the English body ; all 
measures for octavo's, to Pica m's." — Ibid. Here regularity requires, "folios, quartoes, octavoes," 
and "pica Ems." The verb is, when contracted, sometimes gives to its nominative the same 
form as that of the possessive case, it not being always spaced off for distinction, as it may 
be ; as, 

" A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod ; 
An honest man's the noblest work of God." — Pope, on Man, Ep. iv, 1. 247. 

Obs. 24. — As the objective case of nouns is to be distinguished from the nominative, only by the 
sense, relation, and position, of words in a sentence, the learner must acquire a habit of attend- 
ing to these several things. Nor ought it to be a hardship to any reader to understand that 
which he thinks worth reading. It is seldom possible to mistake one of these cases for the other, 
without a total misconception of the author's meaning. The nominative denotes the agent, actor, 
or doer; the person or thing that is made the subject of an affirmation, negation, question, or 
supposition : its place, except in a question, is commonly before the verb. The objective, when 
governed by a verb or a participle, denotes the person on whom, or the thing on which, the action 
falls and terminates : it is commonly placed after the verb, participle, or preposition, which gov- 
erns it. Nouns, then, by changing places, may change cases: as, "Jonathan loved David;" 
"David loved Jonathan." Yet the case depends not entirely upon position; for any order in 
which the words cannot be misunderstood, is allowable : as, " Such tricks hath strong imagina- 
tion." — Shale. Here the cases are known, because the meaning is plainly this: "Strong imagin- 
ation hath such tricks." "To him give all the prophets witness." — Acts, x, 43. This is 
intelligible enough, and more forcible than the same meaning expressed thus : " All the prophets 
give witness to him." The order of the words never can affect the explanation to be given of 
them in parsing, unless it change the sense, and form them into a different sentence. 

THE DECLENSION OF NOUNS. 

The declension of a noun is a regular arrangement of its numbers and cases. 
Thus :■— 

EXAMPLE I. FRIEND. 



Sing. Nom. 


friend, 


Plur. Nom. 


friends, 


Poss. 


friend's, 


Poss. 


friends', 


Obj. 


friend ; 


Obj. 

EXAMPLE II. MAN. 


friends. 


Sing. Nom. 


man, 


Plur. Nom. 


men, 


Poss. 


man's, 


Poss. 


men's, 


Obj. 


man; 


Obj. 

EXAMPLE III. FOX. 


men. 


Sing. Nom. 


fox, 


Plur. Nom. 


foxes, 


Poss. 


fox's, 


Poss. 


foxes', 


Obj. 


fox; 


Obj. 


foxes* 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. — PARSING. — PRAXIS III. 265 

EXAMPLE IV. FLY. 

Sing. Nom. fly, Plur. Norn, flies, 

Poss. fly's, Poss. flies', 

Obj. fly; Obj. flies. 

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. 

PRAXIS IE.— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Third Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the 
different parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the Articles and 
Nouns. 

The definitions to be given in the Third Praxis, are two for an article, six for a 
noun, and one for an adjective, a pronoun, a verb, a participle, an adverb, a con- 
junction, a preposition, or an interjection. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 
" The writings of Hannah More appear to me more praiseworthy than Scott's." 

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things. 

Writings is a common noun, of the third person, plural number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is 
the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person 
or thing merely spoken of. 4. The plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The neuter gen- 
der is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or 
state of a nouu or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

O/is a preposition. 1. A prepositiou is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Hannah More is a proper noun, of the third person, singular number, feminine gender, and objective case. 1. 
A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A proper noun is 
the name of some particular individual, or people, or group. 3. The third person is that which denotes the 
person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The femi- 
nine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the female kind. 6. The objective case is that form 
or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Appear is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

To is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Me is a pronoun. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 

More is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and 
generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Praiseworthy is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses 
quality. 

Than is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to 
show the dependence of the terms so connected. 

Scott's is a proper noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and possessive case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A proper noun is the 
name of some particular individual, or people, or group. 3. The third person is that which denotes the 
person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The mascu- 
line gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. The possessive case is that form 
or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the relation of property. 

Lesson I, — Parsing. 

" The virtue of Alexander appears to me less vigorous than that of Socrates. 
Socrates in Alexander's place I can readily conceive : Alexander in that of Socrates 
I cannot. Alexander will tell you, he can subdue the world : it was a greater work 
in Socrates to fulfill the duties of life. Worth consists most, not in great, but in 
good actions." — Karnes's Art of Thinking, p. 70. 

"No one should ever rise to speak in public, without forming to himself a just 
and strict idea of what suits his own age and character ; what suits the subject, the 
hearers, the place, the occasion." — Blair's Rhetoric, p. 260. 

" In the short space of little more than a century, the Greeks became such states- 
men, warriors, orators, historians, physicians, poets, critics, painters, sculptors, archi- 
tects, and, last of all, philosophers, that one can hardly help considering that golden 
period, as a providential event in honour of human nature, to show to what perfec- 
tion the species might ascend." — Harris's Hermes, p. 417. 

" Is genius yours ? Be yours a glorious end, 
Be your king's, country's, truth's, religion's friend." — Young. 



266 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

" He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman : likewise 
also, he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant." — 1 Cor., vii, 22. 

" What will remain to the Alexanders, and the Csesars, and the Jenghizes, and 
the Louises, and the Charleses, and the Napoleons, with whose ' glories' the idle 
voice of fame is filled ?" — J. Dymond. 

"Good sense, clear ideas, perspicuity of language, and proper arrangement of 
words and thoughts, will always command attention." — Blair's Rhet., p. 174. 

" A mother's tenderness and a father's care are nature's gifts for man's advantage. 
— Wisdom's precepts form the good man's interest and happiness." — Murray's 
Key, p. 194. 

"A dancing-school among the Tuscaroras, is not a greater absurdity than a 
masquerade in America. A theatre, under, the best regulations, is not essential to 
our happiness. It may afford entertainment to individuals ; but it is at the expense 
of private taste and public morals." — Webster's Essays, p. 86. 
" Where dancing sunbeams on the waters played, 
And verdant alders form'd a quivering shade." — Pope. 

Lesson III. — Parsing. 

" I have ever thought that advice to the young, unaccompanied by the routine of 
honest employments, is like an attempt to make a shrub grow in a certain direction, 
by blowing it with a bellows." — Webster's Essays, p. 247. 

" The Arabic characters for the writing of numbers, were introduced into Europe 
by Pope Sylvester II, in the eleventh century." — Constable's Miscellany. 

" Emotions raised by inanimate objects, trees, rivers, buildings, pictures, arrive at 
perfection almost instantaneously ; and they have a long endurance, a second view 
producing nearly the same pleasure with the first." — Karnes's Elements, i, 108. 

" There is great variety in the same plant, by the different appearances of its 
stem, branches, leaves, blossoms, fruit, size, and colour ; and yet, when we trace that 
variety through different plants, especially of the same kind, there is discovered a 
surprising uniformity." — lb., i, 273. 

" Attitude, action, air, pause, start, sigh, groan, 
He borrow'd, and made use of as his own." — Churchill. 

" I dread thee, fate, relentless and severe, 
With all a poet's, husband's, father's fear !" — Burns. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS OF NOUNS. 

Lesson L — Numbers. 
"All the ablest of the Jewish Rabbis acknowledge it." — Wilson 1 s Heb. Gram., p. 7. 

[Formuxe. — Not proper, because the word Rabbi is here made plural by the addition of s only. But, accord- 
ing to Observation 12th on the Numbers, nouns in i ought rather to form the plural in ies. The capital R, too, 
is not necessary. Therefore, Rabbis should be rabbies, with ies and a small r.] 

"Who has thoroughly imbibed the system of one or other of our Christian rabbis." — Camp- 
bell's Rhet., p. 378. "The seeming singularitys of reason soon wear off." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 
47. " The chiefs and arikis or priests have the power of declaring a place or object taboo." — 
Balbi's Geog., p. 460. "Among the various tribes of this family, are the Pottawatomies, the Sacs 
and Foxes, or Saukis and Ottogamis." — lb., p. 178. "The Shawnees, Kickapoos, Menomonies, 
Miamis and Dela wares, are of the same region." — lb., p. 178. "The Mohegans and Abenaquis 
belonged also to this family." — lb., p. 178. " One tribe of this family, the Winnebagos, formerly 
resided near lake Michigan." — lb., p. 179. "The other tribes are the Ioways, the Otoes, the 
Missouris, the Quapaws." — lb., p. 179. "The great Mexican family comprises the Aztecs, Tol- 
tecs, and Tarascos." — lb., p. 179. "The Mulattoes are born of negro and white parents; the 
Zambos, of Indians and negroes." — lb., p. 165. " To have a place among the Alexanders, the 
Caesars, the Lewis', or the Charles', the scourges and butchers of their fellow-creatures." — Burgh's 
Dignity, i, 132. "Which was the notion of the Platonic Philosophers and Jewish rabbii." — lb., 
p. 248. " That they should relate to the whole body of virtuosos." — Cobbett's K Gram.,*^ 212. 
"What thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them." — Luke, vi, 32. "There are 



CHAP. III.] ETYMOLOGY.— NOUNS. — ERRORS. 267 

five ranks of nobility; dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons." — Balbi's Geog., p. 228. 
"Acts, which were so well known to the two Charles's." — Payne's Geog., ii, 511. "Court Mar- 
tials are held in all parts, for the trial of the blacks." — Observer, No. 458. "It becomes a com- 
mon noun, and may have a plural number; as, the two Davids; the two Scipios. the two 
Pompies." — Stamford's Gram., p. 8. " The food of the rattlesnake is birds, squirrels, hare, rat3, 
and reptiles." — Balbi's Geog., p. 17V. "And let fowl multiply in the earth." — Genesis, i, 22. 
" Then we reached the hill-side where eight buffalo were grazing." — Martineau's Araer., i, 202. 
" Corset, n. a pair of bodice for a woman." — Worcester's Diet, 12mo. "As the be's ; the ce's, the 
doubleyu's." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., p. 40. "Simplicity is the means between ostentation and 
rusticity." — Pope's Pref. to Homer. " You have disguised yourselves like tipstaves." — Gil Bias, 
i, 111. " But who, that hath any taste, can endure the incessant quick returns of the also' 3, and 
the likewise 's, and the moreover'^, and the however'^, and the notwithstanding 's?" — Campbell's 
Rhet, p. 439. 

"Sometimes, in mutual sly disguise, 
Let Aye's seem No's, and No's seem Aye's." — Gay, p. 431. 

Lesson II. — Cases. 

" For whose name sake, I have been made willing." — Wm. Perm. 

[Foemuxe. — Not proper, because the noun name, which is here meant for the possessive case singular, has not 
the true form of that case. But, according to a principle on page 253th, " The possessive case of nouns is 
formed, in the singular number, by adding to the nominative 8 preceded by an apoHtroi>he ; and, in the plural, 
when the nominative ends in *, by adding an apostroplie only.'" Therefore, name should be name's; thus, 
" For whose name's sake, I have been made willing. 1 '] 

"Be governed by your conscience, and never ask anybodies leave to be honest." — Collier's 
Antoninus, p. 105. " To overlook nobodies merit or misbehaviour." — lb., p. 9. " And Hector at 
last fights his way to the stern of Ajax' ship." — Coleridge's Introd., p. 91. "Nothing is lazier, 
than to keep ones eye upon words without heeding their meaning." — Philological Museum, i, 645. 
" Sir William Joneses division of the day." — lb., Contents. " I need only refer here to Tosses 
excellent account of it." — lb, i, 465. "The beginning of Stesichoruses palinode has been pre- 
served." — lb., i, 442. "Though we have Tibulluses elegies, there is not a word in them about 
Glycera." — lb., p. 446. "That Horace was at Thaliarchuses country-house." — lb., i, 451. "That 
Sisyphuses foot-tub should have been still in existence." — lb., i. 468. " How every thing went 
on in Horace's closet, and in Mecenases antechamber." — lb., i, 458. "Who, for elegant brevities 
sake, put a participle for a verb." — Wallwrs Particles, p. 42. " The countries liberty being op- 
pressed, we have no more to hope." — lb., p. 73. "A brief but true account of this peoples' 
principles." — Barclay's Pref. "As, the Churche's Peace, or the Peace of the Church; Virgil's 
Eneid, or the Eneid of VirgiL" — British Gram., p. 93. "As, Virgil's iEneid, for the JEneid of 
Virgil; the Church'es Peace, for the Peace of the Church." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 18. "Which, 
with Hubner's Compend, and Wells' Geographia Classica, "will be sufficient.'' — Burgh's Dignity, i, 
155. " Witness Homer's speaking horses, scolding goddesses, and Jupiter enchanted with Venus' 
girdle." — lb., i, 184. "Dr. Watts' Logic may with success be read and commented on to them." 
— lb., p. 156. " Potter's Greek, and Kennet's Roman Antiquities, Strauchius' and Helvicus' Chro- 
nology." — lb., p. 161. " Sing. Alice' friends, Felix' property; Plur. The Alices' friends, The 
Felixes' property." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., p. 46. "Such as Bacchus'es company," — "at Bac- 
chus'es festivals." — Ainsworth's Diet, w. Thyrsus. " Burn's inimitable Tarn o'Shanttr turns en- 
tirely upon such a circumstance." — Scott's Lay, Notes, p. 201. "Nominative, Men. Genitive, 
Mens. Objective, Men." — Cutler's Gram., p. 20. "Mens Happiness or Misery is most part of 
their own making." — Locke, on Education, p. 1. "That your Sons Cloths be never made strait, 
especially about the Breast." — lb., p. 15. "Childrens Minds are narrow and weak." — Bo., p. 297. 
"I would not have little Children much tormented about Punctilio's, or Niceties of Breeding." — 
lb., p. 90. "To fill his Head with suitable Idea's." — lb., p. 113. "The Burgusdiscius's and the 
Scheiblers did not swarm in those Days, as they do now." — lb., p. 163. "To see the various 
ways of dressing — a calve's head!" — Shenstone, Brit. Poets, Vol. vii, p. 143. 

"He puts it on, and for decorum sake 
Can wear it e'en as gracefully as she." — Cowper's Task. 

Lesson III. — Mixed. 

" Simon the witch was of this religion too." — Bunyan's P. P., p. 123. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because the feminine name witch is here applied to a man. But, according to the 
doctrine of genders, on page 254th, "Names of males are masculine; names of femaleB, feminine;" &c. There- 
fore, witch should be wizard; thus, " Simon the wizard" &c] 

"Mammodis, n. Coarse, plain India muslins." — Webster's Dcct. "Go on from single persons 
to families, that of the Pompeyes for instance." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 142. "By which the 
ancients were not able to account for phsenomenas." — Bailey's Ovid, p. vi. " After this I mar- 
ried a wife who had lived at Crete, but a Jew by birth." — Josephus's Life, p. 194. " The very 
heathen are inexcusable for not worshipping him." — Student's Manual, p. 328. "Such poems as 
Camoen's Lusiad, Voltaire's Henriade, &c." — Blair's Rhet, p. 422. "My learned correspondent 
writes a word in defence of large scarves." — Spect. : in Joh. Diet " The forerunners of an apo- 
plexy are dulness, vertigos, tremblings." — Arbuthxot: ib. "Vertigo changes the o into ines, 



268 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IL 

making the plural vertigines." — ChurcliiWs Gram., p. 59. " Nbctambulo changes the o into ones, 
making the plural noctambulones." — lb., p. 59. " What shall we say of noctambulos ?" — Arbuth- 
NOT: in Joh. Diet. "In the curious fretwork of rocks and grottos." — Blair's Rhet., p. 220. 
" Wharf makes the plural wharves." — Smith's Gram., p. 45; Merchant's, 2*9; Picket's, 21 ; Frost's, 
8. "A few cent's worth of maccaroni supplies all their wants." — Balbi's Geog., p. 275. "0 
sounds hard, like k, at the end of a word or syllables." — Blair's Gram., p. 4. "By which the 
virtuosi try The magnitude of every lie." — Hudibras. Quartos, octavos, shape the lessening 
py re ." — Pope's Dunciad, B. i, 1. 162. " Perching within square royal rooves." — Sidney : in Joh. 
Diet. "Similies should, even in poetry, be used with moderation." — Blair's Rhet, p. 166. 
"Similies should never be taken from low or mean objects." — lb., p. 167. " It were certainly 
better to say, 'The house of lords,' than 'the Lord's house.'" — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 177. 
"Read your answers. Unit figure? 'Five.' Ten's? 'Six.' Hundreds? 'Seven.'" — Abbott's 
Teacher, p. 79. "Alexander conquered Darius' army." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 58. "Three days 
time was requisite, to prepare matters." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 156. " So we say that Ciceros 
stile and Sallusts, were not one, nor Cesars and Livies, nor Homers and Hesiodus, nor Herodotus 
and Theucidides, nor Euripides and Aristophanes, nor Erasmus and Budeus stiles." — Puttenham's 
Arte of English Poesie, iii, 5. " Lex (i. e. legs) is no other than our ancestors past participle Iceg, 
laid down." — Tooke's Diversions, ii, 7. "Achaia's sons at Ilium slain for the Atridae' sake." — 
Cowper's Iliad. " The corpse* of half her senate manure the fields of Thessaly." — Addison's 
Cato. 

"Poisoning, without regard of fame or fear: 
And spotted corpse are frequent on the bier." — Dryden. 



CHAPTER IV.— ADJECTIVES. 

An Adjective is a word added t,o a noun or pronoun, and generally ex- 
presses quality : as, A wise man ; a new book. You two are diligent. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Adjectives have been otherwise called attributes, attributives, qualities, adnouns ; but 
none of these names is any better than the common one. Some writers have classed adjectives 
with verbs ; because, with a neuter verb for the copula, they often form logical predicates : as, 
" Vices are contagious." The Latin grammarians usually class them with nouns ; consequently 
their nouns are divided into nouns substantive and nouns adjective. With us, substantives are 
nouns ; and adjectives form a part of speech by themselves. This is generally acknowledged to 
be a much better distribution. Adjectives cannot with propriety be called nouns, in any lan- 
guage ; because they are not the names of the qualities which they signify. They must be 
added to nouns or pronouns in order to make sense. But if, in a just distribution of words, the 
term "adjective nouns" is needless and improper, the term "adjective pronouns" is, certainly, not 
less so : most of the words which Murray and others caU by this name, are not pronouns, but 
adjectives. 

Obs. 2. — The noun, or substantive, is a name, which makes sense of itself. The adjective is 
an adjunct to the noun or pronoun. It is a word added to denote quality, situation, quantity, 
number, form, tendency, or whatever else may characterize and distinguish the thing or things 
spoken of. Adjectives, therefore, are distinguished from nouns by their relation to them ; a rela- 
tion corresponding to that which qualities bear to things : so that no part of speech is more easily 
discriminated than the adjective. Again : English adjectives, as such, are all indeclinable. 
When, therefore, any words usually belonging to this class, are found to take either the plural or 
the possessive form, like substantive nouns, they are to be parsed as nouns. To abbreviate ex- 
pression, we not unfrequently, in this manner, convert adjectives into nouns. Thus, in grammar, 
we often speak of nominatives, possessives, or objectives, meaning nouns or pronouns of the nom- 
inative, the possessive, or the objective case ; of positives, comparatives, or superlatives, meaning 
adjectives of the positive, the comparative, or the superlative degree ; of infinitives, subjunctives, 
or imperatives, meaning verbs of the infinitive, the subjunctive, or the imperative mood ; and of 
singulars, plurals, and many other such things, in the same way. So a man's superiors or inferi- 
ors are persons superior or inferior to himself. His betters are persons better than he. Others are 
any persons or things distinguished from some that are named or referred to; as, "If you want 
enemies, excel others; if you want friends, let others excel you." — Lacon. All adjectives thus 
taken substantively, become nouns, and ought to be parsed as such, unless this word others is to 
be made an exception, and called a "pronoun." 

" Th' event is fear'd ; should we again provoke 
Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find." — Milton, P. L., B. ii, 1. 82. 

* Corpse forms the plural regularly, corpses; as in 2 Kings, xix, 35: "In the morning, behold, they were all 
dead corpses.''* 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 269 

Obs. 3. — Murray says, " Perhaps the words former and latter may be properly ranked amongst 
the demonstrative pronouns, especially in many of their applications. The following sentence may 
serve as an example : ' It was happy for the state, that Fabius continued in the command with 
Minutius: the former's phlegm was a check upon the tatter's vivacity.' " — Gram., 8vo, p. bl. 
This I take to be bad English. Former and latter ought to be adjectives only ; except when for- 
mer means maker. And, if not so, it is too easy a way of multiplying pronouns, to manufacture 
two out of one single anonymous sentence. If it were said, " The deliberation of the former 
was a seasonable check upon the fiery temper of the latter," the words former and latter would 
seem to me not to be pronouns, but adjectives, each relating to the noun commander understood 
after it. 

Obs. 4. — The sense and relation of words in sentences, as well as their particular form aDd 
meaning, must be considered in parsing, before the learner can say, with certainty, to what class 
they belong. Other parts of speech, and especially nouns and participles, by a change in their 
construction, may become adjectives. Thus, to denote the material of which a thing is formed, 
we very commonly make the name of the substantive an adjective to that of the thing : as, A 
gold chain, a silver spoon, a glass pitcher, a tin basin, an oak plank, a basswcod slab, a whalebone 
rod. This construction is in general correct, whenever the former word may be predicated of the 
latter; as, " The chain is gold." — "The spoon is silver." But we do not write gold beater fo^ 
goldbeater, or silver smith for silversmith ; because the beater is not gold, nor is the smith silver. 
This principle, however, is not universally observed ; for we write snowball, whitewash, and many 
similar compounds, though the ball is snow and the wash is white ; and linseed oil, or Newark 
cider, may be a good phrase, though the former word cannot well be predicated of the latter. 
So in the following examples : " Let these conversation tones be the foundation of public pro- 
nunciation." — Blair's Rhet., p. 334. " A muslin flounce, made veiy full, would give a very 
agreeable flirtation air." — Pope: Priestley 's Gram., p. 79. 

" Come, calm Content, serene and sweet, 
gently guide my pilgrim feet 

To find thy hermit cell." — Barbauld. 

Obs. 5. — Murray says, "Various nouns placed before other nouns assume the nature of adjec- 
tives: as, sea fish, wine vessel, corn field, meadow ground, &c." — Octavo Gram., p. 48. This is, 
certainly, very lame instruction. If there is not palpable error in all his examples, the propriety 
of them all is at least questionable ; and, to adopt and follow out their principle, would be, to 
tear apart some thousands of our most familiar compounds. " Meadow ground" may perhaps be 
a correct phrase, since the ground is meadow ; it seems therefore preferable to the compound 
word meadow-ground. What he meant by " wine vessel" is doubtful : that is, whether a ship or a 
cask, a flagon or a decanter. If we turn to our dictionaries, Webster has sea-fish and wine-cask 
with a hyphen, and cornfield without ; while Johnson and others have corn-field with a hyphen, 
and seafish without. According to the rules for the figure of words, we ought to write them 
seafish, winecask, cornfield. What then becomes of the thousands of "adjectives" embraced in the 
" &c." quoted above ? 

Obs. 6. — The pronouns he and she, when placed before or prefixed to nouns merely to denote 
their gender, appear to be used adjectively ; as, " The male or he animals offered in sacrifice." — 
Wood's Diet, w. Males. "The most usual term is he or she, male or female, employed as an 
adjective: as, a he bear, a she bear; a male elephant, a female elephant." — Churchill's Gram., p. 
69. Most writers, however, think proper to insert a hyphen in the terms here referred to : as, 
he-bear, she-bear, the plurals of which are he-bears and she-bears. And, judging by the foregoing 
rule of predication, we must assume that this practice only is right. In the first example, the 
word he is useless ; for the term " male animals" is sufficiently clear without it, It has been 
shown in the third chapter, that he and she are sometimes used as nouns ; and that, as such, 
they may take the regular declension of nouns, making the plurals lies and shes. But whenever 
these words are used adjectively to denote gender, whether we choose to insert the hyphen or 
not, they are, without question, indeclinable, like other adjectives. In the following example, 
Sanborn will have he to be a noun in the objective case ; but I consider it rather, to be an adjec- 
tive, signifying masculine : 

" {Philosophy, I say, and call it He ; 
For, whatsoe'er the painter's fancy be, 
It a male-virtue seems to me.") — Cowley, Brit. Poets, Vol. ii, p. 54. 

Obs. 7. — Though verbs give rise to many adjectives, they seldom, if ever, become such by a 
mere change of construction. It is mostly by assuming an additional termination, that any verb 
is formed into an adjective : as in teachable, moveable, oppressive, diffusive, prohibitory. There are, 
however, about forty words ending in ate, which, without difference of form, are either verbs or 
adjectives ; as, aggregate, animate, appropriate, articulate, aspirate, associate, complicate, confed- 
erate, consummate, deliberate, desolate, effeminate, elate, incarnate, intimate, legitimate, moderate, 
ordinate, precipitate, prostrate, regenerate, reprobate, separate, sophisticate, subordinate. This class 
of adjectives seems to be lessening. The participials in ed, are superseding some of them, at least 
in popular practice : as, contaminated, for contaminate, defiled ; reiterated, for reiterate, repeated ; 
situated, for situate, placed; attenuated, for attenuate, made thin or slender. Devote, exhaust, and 
some other verbal forms, are occasionally used by the poets, in lieu of the participial forms, 
devoted, exhausted, &c. 



270 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Obs. 8. — Participles, which have naturally much resemblance to this part of speech, often drop 
their distinctive character, and become adjectives. This is usually the case whenever they stand 
immediately before the nouns to which they relate ; as, A pleasing countenance, a piercing eye, an 
accomplished scholar, an exalted station. Many participial adjectives are derivatives formed from 
participles by the negative prefix un, which reverses the meaning of the primitive word ; as, 
undisturbed, undivided, unenlightened. Most words of this kind differ of course from participles, 
because there are no such verbs as to undisturb, to undivide, &c. Yet they may be called 
participial adjectives, because they have the termination, and embrace the form, of participles. 
Nor should any participial adjective be needlessly varied from the true orthography of the par- 
ticiple : a distinction is, however, observed by some writers, between past and passed, staid 
and stayed ; and some old words, as drunken, stricken, shotten, rotten, now obsolete as participles, 
are still retained as adjectives. This sort of words will be further noticed in the chapter on 
participles. 

Obs. 9. — Adverbs are generally distinguished from adjectives, by the form, as well as by the 
construction, of the words. Yet, in instances not a few, the same word is capable of being used 
both adjectively and adverbially. In these cases, the scholar must determine the part of speech, 
by the construction alone ; remembering that adjectives belong to nouns or pronouns only ; and 
adverbs, to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs, only. The following examples from 
^ripture, will partially illustrate this point, which will be noticed again under the head of 
syntax: u Is your father wellf — Gen., xliii, 21. "Thou hast well said." — John, iv, 11. "He 
separateth very friends." — Prov., xvii, 9. "Esaias is very bold." — Bom., x, 20. "For a pretence, 
ye make long prayer." — Matt., xxiii, 14. " They that tarry long at the wine." — Prov., xxiii, 30. 
"It had not much earth." — Mark, iv, 5. "For she loved much." — Luke, vii, 4T. 

Obs. 10. — Prepositions, in regard to their construction, differ from adjectives, almost exactly as 
active-transitive participles differ syntactically from adjectives : that is, in stead of being mere 
adjuncts to the words which follow them, they govern those words, and refer back to some other 
term ; which, in the usual order of speech, stands before them. Thus, if I say, " A spreading 
oak," spreading is an adjective relating to oak; if, " A boy spreading hay," spreading is a partici- 
ple, governing hay, and relating to boy, because the boy is the agent of the action. So, when 
Dr. Webster says, " The off horse in a team," off is an adjective, relating to the noun horse ; but, 
in the phrase, "A man off his, guard," off is a preposition, showing the relation between man and 
guard, and governing the latter. The following are other examples : "From the above specula- 
tions." — Harris's Hermes, p. 194. "An after period of life." — Marshall: in Web. Diet. "With 
some other of the after Judaical rites." — Right of Tythes, p. 86. " Whom this beneath world 
doth embrace and hug." — Shak. " Especially is over exertion made." — Journal of Lit. Gonv., 
p. 119. " To both the under worlds." — Hudibras. " Please to pay to A. B. the amount of the 
within bill." Whether properly used or not, the words above, after, beneath, over, under, and 
within, are here unquestionably made adjectives ; yet every scholar knows, that they are generally 
prepositions, though sometimes adverbs. 

CLASSES. 
Adjectives may be divided into six classes ; namely, common, proper, 
numeral, pronominal, participial, and compound. 

I. A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting 
quality or situation ; as, Good, bad, peaceful, warlike — eastern, western, 
outer, inner. 

II. A proper adjective is an adjective formed from a proper name ; as, 
American, English, Platonic, Genoese. 

III. A numeral adjective is an adjective that expresses a definite num- 
ber ; as, One, two, three, four, five, six, &c. 

IV. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may either ac- 
company its noun, or represent it understood ; as, "All join to guard 
what each desires to gain." — Pope. That is, " All men join to guard 
what each man desires to gain." 

V. A participial adjective is one that has the form of a participle, but 
differs from it by rejecting the idea of time ; as, " An amusing story," — 
" A lying divination." 

VI. A compound adjective is one that consists of two or more words 
joined together, either by the hyphen or solidly : as, Nut-brown, laughter- 
loving, four-footed; threefold, lordlike, lovesick. 

OBSERVATIONS. 
Obs. 1. — This distribution of the adjectives is no less easy to be applied, than necessary to a 
proper explanation in parsing. How many adjectives there are in the language, it is difficult to 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — CLASSES. 271 

say ; none of our dictionaries profess to exhibit all that are embraced in some of the foregoing 
classes. Of the Common Adjectives, there are probably not fewer than six thousand, exclusive 
of the common nouns which we refer to this class when they are used adjectively. "Walker's 
Ehyming Dictionary contains five thousand or more, the greater part of which may be readily 
distinguished by their peculiar endings. Of those which end in oils, as generous, there are about 
850. Of those in y or ly, as shaggy, homely, there are about 550. Of those in ive, as deceptive, 
there are about 400. Of those in al, as autumnal, there are about 550. Of those in ical, as 
mechanical, there are about 350. Of those in able, as valuable, there are about 600. Of those in ible, 
as credible, there are about 200. Of those in ent, as different, there are about 300. Of those in 
ant, as abundant, there are about 1*70. Of those in less, as ceaseless, there are about 220. Of those 
in Jul, as useful, there are about 130. Of those in ory, as explanatory, there are about 200. Of 
those in ish, as childish, there are about 100. Of those in ine, as masculine, there are about 70. 
Of those in en, as wooden, there are about 50. Of those in some, as quarrelsome, there are about 
30. These sixteen numbers added together, make 4770. 

Obs. 2. — The Proper Adjectives are, in many instances, capable of being converted into declina- 
ble nouns: as, European, a European, the Europeans; Greek, a Greek, the Greeks; Asiatic, an 
Asiatic, the Asiatics. But with the words English, French, Butch, Scotch, Welsh, Irish, and in gen- 
eral all such as would acquire an additional syllable in their declension, the case is otherwise. 
The gentile noun has frequently fewer syllables than the adjective, but seldom more, unless de- 
rived from some different root. Examples : Arabic, an Arab, the Arabs ; Gallic, a Gaul, the 
Gauls ; Danish, a Dane, the Danes; Moorish, a Moor, the Moors ; Polish, a Pole, or Polander, the 
Poles; Swedish, a Swede, the Swedes ; Turkish, a Turk, the Turks. When we say, the English, 
the French, the Dutch, the Scotch, the Welsh, the Irish, — meaning, the English people, the French 
people, &c, many grammarians conceive that English, French, &c, are indeclinable nouns. But 
in my opinion, it is better to reckon them adjectives, relating to the noun men or people understood. 
For if these words are nouns, so are a thousand others, after which there is the same ellipsis ; as 
when we say, the good, the great, the wise, the learned* The principle would involve the incon- 
venience of multiplying our nouns of the singular form and a plural meaning, indefinitely. If 
they are nouns, they are, in this sense, plural only; and, in an other, they are singular only. For 
we can no more say, an English, an Irish, or a French, for an Englishman, an Irishman, or a 
Frenchman; than we can say, an old, a selfish, or a rich, for an old man, a selfish man, or a rich 
man. Yet, in distinguishing the languages, we call them English, French, Dutch, Scotch, Welsh, 
Irish ; using the words, certainly, in no plural sense ; and preferring always the fine of adjec- 
tives, where the gentile noun is different: as, Arabic, and not Arab; Danish, and not Dane; 
Swedish, and not Swede. In this sense, as well as in the former, Webster, Chalmers, and other 
modern lexicographers, call the words nouns ; and the reader will perceive, that the objections 
offered before do not apply here. But Johnson, in his two quarto volumes, gives only two words 
of this sort, English and Latin; and both of these he calls adjectives: "English, adj. Belonging 
to England ; hence Englishf is the language of England." The word Latin, however, he makes 
a noun, when it means a schoolboy's exercise; for which usage he quotes, the following inac- 
curate example from Ascham : " He shall not use the common order in schools for making of 
Latins ." 

Obs. 3. — Dr. Webster gives us explanations like these: " Chinese, n. sing, and plu. A native 
of China; also the language of China." — "Japanese, n. A native of Japan; or the language of 
the inhabitants." — " Genoese, n. pi. the people of Genoa in Italy. Addison." — " Danish, n. The 
language of the Danes." — "Irish, n. 1. A native of Ireland. 2. The language of the Irish; the 
Hiberno-Celtic." According to him, then, it is proper to say, a Chinese, a Japanese, or an Irish ; 
but not, a Genoese, because he will have this word to be plural only ! Again, if with him we call 
a native of Ireland an Irish, will not more than one be Irishes 1% If a native of Japan be a Jap- 
anese, will not more than one be Japaneses ? In short, is it not plain, that the words, Chinese, 
Japanese, Portuguese, Maltese, Genoese, Milanese, and all others of like formation, should follow 
one and the same rule ? And if so, what is that rule ? Is it not this ; — that, like English, 

* Murray says, "An adjective put without a substantive, with the definite article before it, becomes a sub- 
stantive in sense and meaning, and is written as a substantive: as, 'Providence rewards the good, and punishes 
the bad.'' " If I understand this, it is very erroneous, and plainly contrary to the fact. I suppose the author to 
speak of good persons and bad persons ; and, if he does, is there not an ellipsis in his language ? How can it he 
said, that good and bad are here substantives, since they have a plural meaning and refuse the plural form? A 
word " written as a substantive," unquestionably is a substantive ; but neither of these is here entitled to that 
name. Yet Smith, and other satellites of Murray, endorse his doctrine ; and say, that good and bad in this ex- 
ample, and all adjectives similarly circumstanced, " may be considered nouns in parsing." — Smith's New Gram., 
p. 52. "An adjective with the definite article before it, becomes a noun, (of the third person, plural number,) 
and must be parsed as such." — R. G. Greene's Grammatical Text-Book, p. 65. 

t Here the word English appears to be used substantively, not by reason of the article, but rather because it 
has no article; for, when the definite article is used before such a word taken in the singular number, it seems to 
6how that the noun language is understood. And it is remarkable, that before the names or epithets by which 
we distinguish the languages, this article may, in many instances, be either used or not used, repeated or not 
repeated, without any apparent impropriety: as, "This is the case with the Hebrew, French, Italian, and Span- 
ish." — Murray's Gram., i, p. 38. Better, perhaps: " This is the case with the Hebrew, the French, the Italian, 
and the Spanish." But we may say: "This is the case with Hebrew, French, Italian, and Spanish." In the 
first of these forms, there appears to be an ellipsis of the plural noun languages, at the end of the sentence ; in 
the second, an ellipsis of the singular noun language, after each of the national epithets ; in the last, no ellipsis, 
but rather a substantive use of the words in question. 

X The Doctor may, for aught I know, have taken his notion of this " noun," from the language " of Dugald 
Dalgetty, boasting of his '5000 Irishes' in the prison of Argyle." See Letter of Wendell Phillips, in the Lith 
vrator, Vol. xi, p. 211. 



272 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

French, &c., they are always adjectives ; except, perhaps, when they denote languages f There 
may possibly be some real authority from usage, for calling a native of China a Chinese, — of 
Japan a Japanese, — &c. ; as there is also for the regular plurals, Chineses, Japaneses, &c. ; but is it, 
in either case, good and sufficient authority ? The like forms, it is acknowledged, are, on somo 
occasions, mere adjectives ; and, in modern usage, we do not find these words inflected, as they 
were formerly. Examples : " The Chinese are by no means a cleanly people, either in person or 
dress." — Balbi's Geog., p. 415. " The Japanese excel in working in copper, iron, and steel." — lb., 
p. 419. " The Portuguese are of the same origin with the Spaniards." — lb., p. 272. "By whom 
the undaunted Tyrolese are led." — Wordsworth's Poems, p. 122. Again: "Amongst the Portu- 
gueses, 'tis so much a Fashion, and Emulation, amongst their Children, to learn to Read, and 
Write, that they cannot hinder them from it." — Locke, on Education, p. 271. " The Malteses do so, 
who harden the Bodies of their Children, and reconcile them to the Heat, by making them go 
stark Naked." — Idem, Edition q/1669, p. 5. "Chinese, n. s. Used elliptically for the language 
and people of China : plural, Chineses. Sir T. Herbert." — Abridgement of Todd's Johnson. This 
is certainly absurd. For if Chinese is used elliptically for the people of China, it is an adjective, 
and does not form the plural, Chineses ; which is precisely what I urge concerning the whole 
class. These plural forms ought not to be imitated. Home Tooke quotes some friend of his, as 
saying, " No, I will never descend with him beneath even a Japanese : and I remember what 
Voltaire remarks of that country.'''' — Diversions of Purley, i, 187. In this case, he ought, unques- 
tionably, to have said — " beneath even a native of Japan;" because, whether Japanese be a noun 
or not, it is absurd to call a Japanese, " that country. 11 Butler, in his Hudibras, somewhere uses 
the word Chineses ; and it was, perhaps, in his da}', common ; but still, I say, it is contrary to 
analogy, and therefore wrong. Milton, too, has it : 

" But in his way lights on the barren plains 
Of Sericana, where Chineses'*' drive 
"With sails and wind their cany waggons light." — Paradise Lost, B. iii, 1. 437. 

Obs. 4. — The Numeral Adjectives are of three kinds , namely, cardinal, ordinal, and multi~ 
plicative : each kind running on in a series indefinitely. Thus : — 

1. Cardinal; One two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, 
fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, &c. 

2. Ordinal; First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, 
twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, 
twenty-first, twenty-second, &c. 

3. Multiplicative ; Single or alone, double or twofold, triple or threefold, quadruple or fourfold, 
quintuple or fivefold, sextuple or sixfold, septuple or sevenfold, octuple or eightfold, &c. But; 
high terms of this series are seldom used. AH that occur above decuple or tenfold, are written 
with a hyphen, and are usually of round numbers only ; as, thirty-fold, sixty-fold, hundred-fold. 

Obs. 5. — A cardinal numeral denotes the whole • number, but the corresponding ordinal denotes 
only the last one of that number, or, at the beginning of a series, the first of several or many. 
Thus: " One denotes simply the number one, without any regard to more ; but first has respect to 
more, and so denotes only the first one of a greater number; and two means the number two com- 
pletely; but second, the last one of two : and so of all the rest." — Burn's Gram., p. 54. A cardinal 
number answers to the question, " Bow many ?" An ordinal number answers to the question, 
" Which one ?" or, " What one ?" All the ordinal numbers, except first, second, third, and the com- 
pounds of these, as twenty-first, twenty -second, twenty-third, are formed directly from the cardinal 
numbers by means of the termination th. And as the primitives, in this case, are many of them 
either compound words, or phrases consisting of several words, it is to be observed, that the addi- 
tion is made to the last term only. That is, of every compound ordinal number, the last term 
only is ordinal in form. Thus we say, forty-ninth, and not fortieth-ninth ; nor could the meaning'' 
of the phrase, four hundred and fiftieth, be expressed by saying, fourth hundredth and fifti^hrfrnv 
this, if it means any thing, speaks of three different numbers. 

Obs. 6. — Some of the numerals are often used as nouns ; and, as such, are regularly declined : 
as, Ones, twoes, threes, fours, fives, &c. So, Fifths, sixths, sevenths, eighths, ninths, tenths, &c. 
" The seventy's translation." — Wilson's Hebrew Gram., p. 32. " I will not do it for forty's sake." — 
Gen., xviii, 29. "I will not destroy it for twenty's sake." — lb., ver. 31. "For ten's sake." — lb., 
ver. 32. " They sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties." — Mark, vi, 40. " There are 
millions of truths that a man is not concerned to know." — Locke. "With the compound numerals, 
such a construction is less common ; yet the denominator of a fraction may be a number of this 
sort : as, seven twenty-fifths. And here it may be observed, that, in stead of the ancient phrase- 
ology, as in 1 Chron., xxiv, 17th, "The one and twentieth to Jachin, the two and twentieth to 
Gamul, the three and twentieth to Delaiah, the four and twentieth to Maaziah," we now generally 

* Lindley Murray, or some ignorant printer of his octavo Grammar, has omitted this s; and thereby spoiled 
the prosody, if not the sense, of the line : 

"Of Sericana, where Chinese drive, 1 ' &c. — Fourth American Ed., p. 345. 

If there was a design to correct the error of Milton's -word, something should have been inserted. The common 
phrase, " the Chinese" would give the sense, and the right number of syllables, but not the right accent. It 
would be sufficiently analogous with our mode of forming the words, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Scotchmen, 
Dutchmen, and Irishmen, and perhaps not unpoetical, to say : 

" Of Sericana, where Chinese-men drive, 
With sails and wind, their cany wagons light." 



► 

\ 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. ADJECTIVES. CLASSES. 273 

say, the twenty-first, the twenty -second, &c. ; using the hyphen in all compounds till we arrive at 
one hundred, or one hundredth, and then first introducing the word and; as, one hundred and one, 
or one hundred and first, Sec. 

Obs. 7. — The Pronominal Adjectives are comparatively very few ; but frequency of use gives 
them great importance in grammar. The following words are perhaps all that properly belong to 
this class, and several of these are much oftener something else : All, any, both, certain, divers, each, 
either, else, enough, every, few, fewer, fewest, former, first, latter, last, little, less, least, many, more, 
most, much, neither, no or none, one, other, own, only, same, several, some, such, sundry, that, this, 
these, those, what, whatever, whatsoever, which, whichever, whichsoever* Of these forty-six words, 
seven are always singular, if the word one is not an exception • namely, each, either, every, neither, 
one, that, this : and nine or ten others are always plural, if the word many is not an exception ; 
namely, both, divers, few, fewer, fewest, many, several, sundry, these, these. All the rest, like our 
common adjectives, are applicable to nouns of either number. Else, every, only, no, and none, are 
definitive words, which I have thought proper to call pronominal adjectives, though only the last 
can now with propriety be made to represent its noun understood. " Nor has Vossius, or any 
else that I know oij observed it." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 279. Say, " or any one else." Dr. 
"Webster explains this word else thus: "Else, a. or pron. [Sax. elles] Other; one or something 
beside; as, Who else is coming?" — Octavo Diet. " Each and every of them," is an old phrase in 
which every is used pronominally, or with ellipsis of the word to which it refers ; but, in com- 
mon discourse, we now say, every one, every man, Sec, never using the word every alone to sug- 
gest its noun. Only is perhaps most commonly an adverb ; but it is still in frequent use as an 
adjective ; and in old books we sometimes find an ellipsis of the noun to which it belongs ; as, 
" Neither are they the only [verbs] in which it is read." — Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries, 
p. 373. "But I think he is the only [one] of these Authors." — lb., p. 193. No and none seem 
to be only different forms of the same adjective ; the former being used before a noun expressed, 
and the latter when the noun is understood, or not placed after the adjective; as, "For none of 
us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." — Romans, xiv, 7. None was anciently used 
for no before all words beginning with a vowel sound; as, " They are sottish children; and they 
have none understanding." — Jeremiah, iv, 22. This practice is now obsolete. None is still used, 
when its noun precedes it ; as, 

" Fools I who from hence into the notion fall, 
That vice or virtue there is none at all." — Pope. 

Obs. 8. — Of the words given in the foregoing fist as pronominal adjectives, about one third are 
sometimes used adverbially. They are the followiug: All, when it means totally ; any, for in any 
degree; else, meaning otherwise; enough, signifying sufficiently; first, for in the first place ; last, for 
in the last place ; little, for in a small degree ; less, for in a smaller degree ; least, for in the smallest 
degree ; much, for in a great degree ; more, for in a greater degree ; most, for in the greatest degree ; 
no, or none, for in no degree ; only, for singly, merely, barely ; what, for in what degree, or in how 
great a degree.\ To these may perhaps be added the word other, when used as an alternative to 

* The last six -words are perhaps more frequently pronouns ; and some writers will have -well-nigh all the rest 
to be pronouns also. "In like manner, in the English, there have been rescued from the adjectives, and classed 
•with the pronouns, any, aught, each, every, many, none, one, other, some, such, that, those, this, these ; and by 
other writers, all, another, both, either, few, first, last, neither, and several." — Wilsoii's Essay on Gram., p. 106. 
Had the author said wrested, in stead of " rescued," he would have taught a much better doctrine. These words 
are what Dr. Lowth correctly called " Pronominal Adjectives.'" — Lowth's Gram., p. 24. This class of adjectives 
includes most of the words which Murray, Lennie, Bullions, Kirkham, and others, so absurdly denominate " Ad- 
jective Pronouns." Their " Distributive Adjective Pronouns, each, every, either, neither;" their " Demonstrative 
Adjective Pronouns, this, that, these, those;" and their "Indefinite Adjective Pronouns, some, other, any, one, 
all, such, &c," are every one of them here ; for they all are Adjectives, and not Pronouns. And it is obvious, that 
the corresponding words in Latin, Greek, or French, are adjectives likewise, and are, for the most part, so called ; 
so that, from General Grammar, or "the usages of other languages," arises an argument for ranking them as 
adjectives, rather than as pronouns. But the learned Dr. Bullions, after improperly assuming that every ad- 
jective must " express the quality of a noun" and thence arguing that no such definitives can rightly be called 
adjectives, most absurdly suggests, that '•'•other languages" or '■'■the usages of other languages," generally 
assign to these English ivords the place of substitutes ! But so remarkable for self-contradiction, as well as 
other errors, is this- gentleman' s short note upon the classification of these words, that I shall present the whole 
of it for the reader's consideration. 

"Note. The distributives, demonstratives, and indefinites, cannot strictly be called pronouns; since they 
never stand instead of nouns, but always agree with a noun expressed or understood : Neither can they be prop- 
erly called adjectives, since they never express the quality of a noun. They are here classed with pronouns, in 
accordance with the usages of other languages, which generally assign them this place. All these, together with 
the possessives, in parsing, may with sufficient propriety be termed adjectives, being uniformly regarded as 
such in syntax." — Bullions' s Principles of English Gram., p. 27. (See also his Appendix in, E. Gram., p. 
199.) 

What a sample of grammatical instruction is here! The pronominal adjectives " cannot properly be called 
adjectives," but "they may with sufficient propriety be termed adjectives !" And so may " the possessives" 
or the personal pronouns in the x>ossessive case! " Here," i. e., in Etymology, they are all " classed with pro- 
nouns;" but, "in Syntax," they are " uniformly regarded as adjectives !" Precious MODEL for the "Series 
of Grammars, English, Latin, and Greek, all on the same plan !" 

t Some, for somewhat, or in some degree, appears to me a vulgarism ; as, " This pause is generally some 
longer than that of a period." — Sanborn's Gram. } p. 271. The word what seems to have been used adverbially 
in several different senses ; in none of which is it much to "be commended: as, " Though I forbear, tvhat am I 
eased?" — Job, xvi, 6. " What advantageth it me?" — 1 Cor., xv, 32. Here what means in what degree? how 
much? or wherein? "For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?" — 1 Cor., vii, 
16. Here how would have been better. " The enemy, having his country wasted, what by himself and ichat by 
the soldiers, findeth succour in no place." — Spenser. Here what means partly; — "wasted partly by himself 
and partly by the soldiers." This use ofivhat was formerly very common, but is now, I think, obsolete. What 
before an adjective 6eems sometimes to denote with admiration the degree of the quality ; and is called, by 

18 



274 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

somehow ; as, " Somehow or other he will be favoured." — Butler's Analogy, p. 89. Here other 
seems to be put for otherwise; and yet the latter word would not be agreeable in such a sen- 
tence. " Somewhere or other" is a kindred phrase equally common, and equally good ; or, rather, 
equally irregular and puzzling. "Would it not be better, always to avoid both, by saying, in their 
stead, " In some way or other," — " In someplace or other I" In the following examples, however, 
other seems to be used for otherwise, without such a connexion : " How is that used, other than 
as a Conjunction ?" — AinswortVs Gram., p 88. 

" Will it not be receiv'd that they have done 't ? 

— Who dares receive it other ?" — Shak. : Joh. Diet, w. Other. 
Obs. 9. — All and enough, little and much, more and less, sometimes suggest the idea of quan- 
tity so abstractly, that we can hardly consider them as adjuncts to any other words ; for which 
reason, they are, in this absolute sense, put down in our dictionaries as nouns. If nouns, how- 
ever, they are never inflected by cases or numbers ; nor do they in general admit the usual ad- 
juncts or definitives of nouns.* Thus, we can neither say, the all, for the whole, nor an enough, 
for a sufficiency. And though a little, the more, and the less, are common phrases, the article does 
not here prove the following word to be a noun ; because the expression may either be elliptical, 
or have the construction of an adverb: as, "Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be 
loved." — 2 Cor., xii, 15. Dr. Johnson seems to suppose that the partitive use of these words 
makes them nouns ; as, " They have much of the poetry of Mecasnas, but little of his liberality." 
— Dryden: in Joh. Diet. Upon this principle, however, adjectives innumerable would be made 
nouns ; for we can just as well say, " Some of the poetry," — " Any of the poetry," — " The best of 
Poetry," &c. In all such expressions, the name of the thing divided, is understood in the partitive 
word ; for a part of any thing must needs be of the same species as the whole. Nor was this 
great grammarian sufficiently attentive to adjuncts, in determining the parts of speech. Nearly 
all, quite enough, so little, too much, vastly more, rather less, and an abundance of similar phrases, 
are familiar to every body ; in none of which, can any of these words of quantity, however ab- 
stract, be very properly reckoned nouns ; because the preceding word is an adverb, and adverbs 
do not relate to any words that are literally nouns. All these may also be used partitively ; as, 
"Nearly all of us." 

Obs. 10. — The following are some of Dr. Johnson's " nouns;" which, in connexion with the 
foregoing remarks, I would submit to the judgement of the reader: "'Then shall we be news- 
crammed.' — ' All the better ; we shall be the more remarkable.' " — Shak. : in Joh. Diet. " All the 
fitter, Lentulus; our coming is not for salutation; we have business." — Ben Jonson: ib. '"Tis 
enough forme to have endeavoured the union of my country." — Temple: ib. " Ye take too 
much upon you." — Numbers: ib. "The fate of love is such, that still it sees too little or too 
much." — Dryden : ib. "He thought not much to clothe his enemies." — Milton: ib. "There 
remained not so much as one of them." — lb., Exod., xiv, 28. " We will cut wood out of Lebanon, 
as much as thou shalt need." — lb., 2 Chronicles. " The matter of the universe was created before 
the flood ; if any more was created, then there must be as much annihilated to make room for 
it." — Burnet: ib. "The Lord do so, and much more, to Jonathan." — 1 Samuel: ib. "They 
that would have more and more, can never have enough ; no, not if a miracle should interpose to 
gratify their avarice." — L'Estrange: ib. " They gathered some more, some less." — Exodus: ib. 
" Thy servant knew nothing of this, less or more." — 1 Samuel: ib. The first two examples above, 
Johnson explains thus : "That is, " Every thing is the better." — Every thing is the fitter." — Quarto 
Diet. The propriety of this solution may well be doubted ; because the similar phrases, " So 
much the batter," — " None the fitter," would certainly be perverted, if resolved in the same way: 
much and none are here, very clearly, adverbs. 

Obs. 11. — Whatever disposition may be made of the terms cited above, there are instances in 
which some of the same words can hardly be any thing else than nouns. Thus all, when it sig- 
nifies the whole, or every thing, may be reckoned a noun; as, " Our all is at stake, and irretrievably- 
lost, if we fail of success." — Addison. "A torch, snuff and all, goes out in a moment, when dip- 
ped in the vapour." — Id. " The first blast of wind laid it flat on the ground ; nest, eagles, and 
all." — L Estrange. 

" Finding, the wretched all they here can have, 
But present food, and but a future grave." — Prior. 

" And will she yet debase her eyes on me ; 
On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety ?" — Shak. 

" Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee, 
Forever ; and in me all whom thou lov'st." — Milton. 

Obs. 12. — There are yet some other words, which, by their construction alone, are to be dis- 
tinguished from the pronominal adjectives. Both, when it stands as a correspondent to and, is 
reckoned a conjunction ; as, " For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of 
one." — Hib., ii, 11. But, in sentences like the following, it seems to be an adjective, referring to 
the nouns which precede : " Language and manners are both established by the usage of people 
of fashion." — Amer. Chesterfield, p. 83. So either, corresponding to or, and neither, referring to 

some, an adverb; as, " Wliat partial judges are our love and hate! 11 — Dryden. But here I take what to be an 
adjective; as when we say, such partial judges, some partial judges, &c. " What need I be forward with Death, 
that calls not on me? 11 — Shakspeare. Here what seems to be improperly put in place of why. 

* Dr. Blair, in his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres, often uses the phrase "this much;" but it is, I 
think, more common to say " thus much" even when the term is used substantively. 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. ADJECTIVES. CLASSES. 275 

nor, are conjunctions, and not adjectives. Which and what, with their compounds, whichever or 
vjhichsoever, whatever or whatsoever, though sometimes put before nouns as adjectives, are, for the 
most part, relative or interrogative pronouns. When the noun is used after them, they are adjec- 
tives; when it is omitted, they are pronouns: as, "There is a witness of God, wMch witness 
gives true judgement." — I. Penington. Here the word witness might be omitted, and which would 
become a relative pronoun. Dr. Lowth says, " Thy, my, her, our, your, their, are pronominal 
adjectives." — Gram., p. 23. This I deny; and the reader may see my reasons, in the observa- 
tions upon the declension of pronouns. 

Obs. 13. — The words one and other, besides their primitive uses as adjectives, in which they 
still remain without inflection, are frequently employed as nouns, or as substitutes for nouns ; and, 
in this substantive or pronominal character, they commonly have the regular declension of nouns, 
and are reckoned such by some grammarians ; though others call them indefinite pronouns, and 
some, (among whom are Lowth and Comly.) leave them with the pronominal adjectives, even 
when they are declined in both numbers. Each of them may be preceded by either of the articles ; 
and so general is the signification of the former, that almost any adjective may likewise come be- 
fore it : as, Any one, some one, such a one, many a one, a neiv one, an old one, an other one, the 
same one, the young ones, the little ones, the mighty ones, the vjicked one, the Holy One, the Everlast- 
ing One. So, like the French on, or Von, the word one, without any adjective, is now very 
frequently used as a general or indefinite term for any man, or any person. In this sense, it is 
sometimes, unquestionably, to be preferred to a personal pronoun applied indefinitely: as. " Pure 
religion, and undcfiled before God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in 
their affliction, and to keep himself [better, ones self~\ unspotted from the world." — James, i, 27. 
But, as its generality of meaning seems to afford a sort of covering for egotism, some writers are 
tempted to make too frequent a use of it. Churchill ridicules this practice, by framing, or anony- 
mously citing, the following sentence : "If one did but dare to abide by one's own judgement, 
one's language would be much more refined ; but one fancies one's self obliged to follow, where- 
ever the many choose to lead one." — See GhurchilVs Gram., p. 229. Here every scholar will 
concur with the critic in thinking, it would be better to say : " If we did but dare to abide by 
our own judgement, our language would be much more refined. ; but we fancy ourselves obliged 
to follow wherever the many choose to lead us." — See ib. 

Obs. 14. — Of the pronominal adjectives the following distribution has been made : " Each, 
every, and either, are called distributives ; because, though they imply all the persons or things 
that make up a number, they consider them, not as one whole, but as taken separately. Tliis, 
that, former, latter, both, neither, are termed demonstratives; because they point out precisely the 
subjects to which they relate. Tliis has these for its plural ; that has those. This and that are 
frequently put in opposition to each other; this, to express what is nearer in place or time ; that, 
what is more remote. All, any, one, other, some, such, are termed indefinite. Another is merely 
other in the singular, with the indefinite article not kept separate from it.* Other, when not ! 
joined with a noun, is occasionally used both in the possessive case, and in the plural num- 
ber : as, 

1 Teach me to feel an other's wo, to hide the fault I see ; 
That mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.' — Pope. 

Each other and one another, when used in conjunction, may be termed reciprocals ; as they are 
employed to express a reciprocal action ; the former, between two persons or things ; the latter, 
betvjeen\ more than two. The possessive cases of the personal pronouns have been also ranked 
under the head of pronominal adjectives, and styled possessives ; but for this I see no good rea- 
son." — GhurchilVs Gram., p. 76. 

Obs. 15. — The reciprocal terms each other and one an other divide, according to some mutual act 
or interchangeable relation, the persons or things spoken of, and are commonly of the singular 
number only. Each other, if rightly used, supposes two, and only two, to be acting and acted 
upon reciprocally ; one an other, if not misapplied, supposes more than two, under like circum- 
stances, and has an indefinite reference to all taken distributive!}- : as, " Brutus and Aruns killed 
each other." That is, Each combatant killed the other. " The disciples were commanded to love 
one an other, and to be willing to wash one an other's feet." That is, All the disciples were com- 
manded to love mutually ; for both terms, one and other, or one disciple and an other disciple, 
must be here understood as taken indefinitely. The reader will observe, that the two terms thus 
brought together, if taken substantively or pronominahy in parsing, must be represented as being 

* There seems to be no good reason for joining an and other: on the contrary, the phrase an other is always as 
properly two words, as the phrase the other, and more so. The latter, being long ago vulgarly contracted into 
V other, probably gave rise to the apparent contraction another; which many people nowadays are ignorant 
enough to divide wrong, and mispronounce. See " a-no-ther" in Murray's Spelling-Book, p. 71; and 
" a-noth-er" in Emerson' s, p. 76. An here excludes any other article ; and both analogy and consistency require 
that the words be separated. Their union, like that of the words the and other, has led sometimes to an im- 
proper repetition of the article; as, "Another such a man," for, "An other such man." — " Bind my hair up. 
As 'twas yesterday? No, nor the t'other day." — Bes Jonsox : in Joh. Diet. " He can not tell when he should 
take the tone, and when the father." — Sir T. Moobe : Tooke's D. P., Vol. ii, p. 448. That is — " when he should 
take the one and when the other." Besides, the word other is declined, like a noun, and has the plural others; 
but the compounding of another constrains our grammarians to say, that this word "has no plural." All these 
difficulties will be removed by writing an other as two words. The printers chiefly rule this matter. To them, 
therefore, I refer it; with directions, not to unite these words forme, except where it has been done in the manu- 
script, for the sake of exactness in quotation. — G. Bbown. 

t This is a misapplication of the word between, which cannot have reference to more than two things or 
parties: the term should have been among. — G. Bbowh. 



276 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS [PART II. 

of different cases ; or, if we take them adjectively tue noun, which is twice to be supplied, will 
necessarily be so. 

Obs. 16. — Misapplications of the foregoing reciprocal terms are very frequent in books, though 
it is strange that phrases so very common should not be rightly understood. Dr. "Webster, among 
his explanations of the word other, Has the following : " Correlative to each, and applicable to any 
number of individuals." — Octavo Diet. " Other is used as a substitute for a noun, and in this use 
has the plural number and the sign of the possessive case." — lb. Now it is plain, that the word 
other, as a " correlative to each" may be so far " a substitute for a noun" as to take the form of 
the possessive case singular, and perhaps also the plural ; as, " Lock'd in each other's arms they 
lay." But, that the objective other, in any such relation, can convey a plural idea, or be so 
loosely applicable — ''to any number of individuals," I must here deny. If it were so, there 
would be occasion, by the foregoing rule, to make it plural in form; as, "The ambitious strive 
to excel each others. 11 But this is not English. Nor can it be correct to say of more than two, 
" They all strive to excel each other." Because the explanation must be, " Each strives to excel 
other;" and such a construction of the word other is not agreeable to modern usage. Each other 
is therefore not equivalent to one an other, but nearer perhaps to the one the other: as, "The two 
generals are independent the one of the other." — Voltaire's Charles XII, p. 6"7. "And these are 
contrary the one to the other." — Gal., v, 1*7. "The necessary connexion of the one with the other." 
— Blair's Rhet., p. 304. The latter phraseology, being definite and formal, is now seldom used, 
except the terms be separated by a verb or a preposition. It is a literal version of the French 
Vun V autre, and in some instances to be preferred to each other ; as, 

" So fellest foes, whose plots have broke their sleep, 
To take the one the other, by some chance." — Shak. 

Obs. IT. — The G-reek term for the reciprocals each other and one an other, is a certain plural 
derivative from u?Jkoe, other; and is used in three cases, the genitive, dX?J/2,cov, the dative, 
ak'krj'koiq, the accusative, uWrfkovc : these being all the cases which the nature of the expression 
admits ; and for all these we commonly use the objective ; — that is, we put each or one before the 
objective other. Now these English terms, taken in a reciprocal sense, seldom, if ever, have any 
plural form ; because the article in one an other admits of none ; and each other, when applied to 
two persons or things, (as it almost always is,) does not require any. I have indeed seen, in 
some narrative, such an example as this : " The two men were ready to cut each others 1 throats." 
But the meaning could not be, that each was ready to cut " others 1 throats ;" and since, between 
the two, there was but one throat for each to cut, it would doubtless be more correct to say, 
" each other's throat." So Burns, in touching a gentler passion, has an inaccurate elliptical ex- 
pression : 

" 'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair, 
In others 1 arms, breathe out the tender tale." — Cotter's Sat. Night. 

He meant, "In each other's arms;" the apostrophe being misplaced, and the metre improperly 
allowed to exclude' a word which the sense requires. Now, as to the plural of each other, although 
we do not use the objective, and say of many, " They love each others,' 1 there appear to be some 
instances in which the possessive plural, each others 1 , would not be improper; as, "Sixteen minis- 
ters, who meet weekly at each other's houses." — Johnson's Life of Swift. Here the singular is 
wrong, because the governing noun implies a plurality of owners. " The citizens of different 
states should know each others characters." — Webster's Essays, p. 35. This also is wrong, be- 
cause no possessive sign is used. Either write, "each others' characters," or say, "one an other's 
character." 

Obs. 18. — One and other are, in many instances, terms relative and partitive, rather than reci- 
procal; and, in this use, there seems to be an occasional demand for the plural form. In 
French, two parties are contrasted by les uns — les autres ; a mode of expression seldom, if ever 
imitated in English. Thus : "II les separera les uns d'avec les autres." That is, " He shall sepa- 
rate them some from others ;" — or, literally, " the ones from the others." Our version is : " He 
shall separate them one from an other." — Matt., xxv, 32. Beza has it : "Separabit eos alteros ab 
alteris." The Vulgate: "Separabit eos ab invicem." The Greek: "'AQopiel avrovc dif aAfopMv." 
To separate many " one from an other," seems, literally, to leave none of them together ; and this 
is not, " as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." To express such an idea with perfect 
propriety, in our language, therefore, we must resort to some other phraseology. In Campbell's 
version, we read: "And out of them he will separate the good from the bad, as a shepherd sepa- 
rated the sheep from the goats." Better, perhaps, thus : " And he shall separate them, the 
righteous from the wicked, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." 

Obs. 19. — Dr. Bullions says, " One and other refer to the singular only." — Eng. Gram., p. 98. 
Of ones and others he takes no notice ; nor is he sufficiently attentive to usage in respect to the 
roots. If there is any absurdity in giving a plural meaning to the singulars one and other, the 
following sentences need amendment : " The one preach Christ of contention ; but the other, of 
love." — Philippians, i, 16. Here " the one" is put for "the one class," and "the other," for "the 
other class;" the ellipsis in the first instance not being a very proper one. " The confusion arises, 
when the one will put their sickle into the other's harvest." — Lesley : in Joh. Diet. This may be 
corrected by saying, " the one party," or, "the one nation," in stead of "the one." "It is clear 
from Scripture, that Antichrist shall be permitted to work false miracles, and that they shall so 
counterfeit the true, that it will be hard to discern the one from the other." — Barclay's Works, hi, 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — CLASSES. 277 

93. If in any case we may adopt the French construction above, "the ones from the others," it 
•will be proper here. Again : ." I have seen children at a table, who, whatever was there, 
never asked for any thing, but contentedly took what was given them : and, at an other place, I 
have seen others cry for every thing they saw ; they must be served out of every dish, and that 
first too. What made this vast difference, but this : That one was accustomed to have what they 
called or cried for; the other to go without it?" — Locke, on Education, p. 55. Here, (with were 
for was,) the terms of contrast ought rather to have been, the ones — the others; the latter — the 
former; or, the importunate — the modest. "Those nice shades, by which virtues and vices approach 
each one another." — Hurrays Gram., i, p. 350. This expression should be any thing, rather than 
what it is. Say, " By which virtue and vice approach each other." Or : " By which certain 
virtues and vices approximate — blend — become difficult of distinction." 

Obs. 20. — "Most authors have given the name of pronoun adjectives, ['pronouns adjective,' or 
'pronominal adjectives,'] to my, mine; our, ours; thy, thine; your, yours; his, her, hers; their, 
theirs: perhaps because they are followed by, or refer to, some substantive [expressed or 
understood after them]. But, were they adjectives, they must either express the quality of their 
substantive, or limit its extent : adjectives properly so called, do the first ; definitive pronouns do 
the last. AH adjectives [that are either singular or plural,] agree with their substantives in num- 
ber ,**bu1; I can say, ' They are my books? my is singular, and books plural ; therefore my is not an 
adjective. Besides, my does not express the quality of the books, but only ascertains the pos- 
sessor, the same as the genitive or substantive does, to which it is similar. Examples : ' They 
are my books;' — 'They are John's books;' &c." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 108. 

Obs. 21. — To the class of Participial Adjectives, should be referred all such words as the follow- 
ing: (1.) The simple participles made adjectives by position ; as, "A roaring lion," — " A raging 
bear," — " A brawling woman," — " A flattering mouth," — "An understanding heart," — "Burning 
coals," — "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye." — Bible, "^troubled fountain," — " A wounded 
spirit," — "An appointed time." — lb. (2.) Words of a participial appearance, formed from nouns 
by adding ed; as, "The eve thy sainted mother died." — W. Scott. "What you write of me, 
would make me more conceited, than what I scribble myself." — Pope. (3.) Participles, or parti- 
cipial adjectives, reversed in sense by the prefix un ; as, unaspiring, unavailing, unbelieving, unbat- 
tered, uninjured, unbefriended. (4.) Words of a participial form construed elliptically, as if they 
were nouns; as, " Among the dying and the dead." — " The called of Jesus Christ." — Rom., i, 6. 
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you." — 1 Pet, ii, 11. " The redeemed of the Lord shall return." — Isaiah, 
li, 11. " They talk, to the grief of thy wounded." — Psalms, lxix, 26: Margin. 

Obs. 22. — In the text, Pro v., vii, 26, " She hath cast down many wounded," wounded is a participle; 
because the meaning is, " many men wounded," and not, "many ivounded men." Our Participial Ad- 
jectives are exceedingly numerous. It is not easy to ascertain how many there are of them ; because 
almost any simple participle may be set before a noun, and thus become an adjective : as, 

" Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid, 
And parting summer's lingering blooms delay'd." — Goldsmith. 

Obs. 23. — Compound Adjectives, being formed at pleasure, are both numerous and various. In 
their formation, however, certain analogies may be traced: (1.) Many of them are formed by join- 
ing an adjective to its noun, and giving to the latter the participial termination ed; as, aMe-bodied, 
sharp-sighted, left-handed, full-faced, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, cloven-footed, high-heeled. (2.) In some, 
two nouns are joined, the latter assuming ed, as above ; as, bell-shapted, hawk-nosed, eagle-sighted, 
lion-hearted, web-footed. (3.) In some, the object of an active participle is placed before it ; as, 
money -getting, time-serving, self -consuming, cloud-compelling, fortune-hunting, sleep-disturbing. (4.) 
Some, embracing numerals, form a series, though it is seldom carried far ; as, one-legged, two-legged, 
three-legged, four-legged. So, one-leaved, two-leaved, three-leaved, four-leaved : or, perhaps better as 
Webster will have them, one-leafed, two-leafed, &c. But, upon the same principle, short-lived, 
should be short-lifed, and long-lived, long-lifed. (5.) In some, there is a combination of an adjec- 
tive and a participle ; as, noble-looking, high-sounding, slovj-moving, thorough-going, hard-finished, 
free-born, heavy-laden, only-begotten. (6.) In some, we find an adverb and a participle united ; as, 
ever-living, ill-judging, well-pleasing, far-shooting, forth-issuing, back-sliding, ill-trained, down-trodden, 
above-mentioned. (7.) Some consist of a noun and a participle which might be reversed with a 
preposition between them ; as, church-going, care-crazed, travel-soiled, blood-bespotted, dew-sprinkled. 
(8.) A few, and those inelegant, terminate with a preposition; as, unlooked-for, long-looked-for, 
unthmg&fcyf, unheard-of. (9.) Some are phrases of many words, converted into one part of speech 
by tilBBphen ; as, "Where is the ever-to-be-honoured Chaucer ?" — Wordsworth. 

id, with God-only-knows-how-gotten light, 
)rms the nation what is wrong or right." — Smiling" 1 s Gift for Scribblers, p. 49. 

Obs. 24. — Nouns derived from compound adjectives, are generally disapproved by good writers; 
yet We sometimes meet with them : as, hard-heartedness, for hardness of heart, or cruelty ; quick- 
sightedness, for quickness of sight, or perspicacity ; worldly -mindedness, for devotion to the world, 
or love of gain ; heavenly -mindedness, for the love of God, or true piety. In speaking of ancestors 
or descendants, we take the noun, father, mother, son, daughter, or child; prefix the adjective 
grand, for the second generation ; great, for the third ; and then, sometimes, repeat the same, for 
degrees more remote : as,, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather. "What 
would my great-grandmother say, thought I, could she know that thou art to be chopped up for 
fuel to warm the frigid fingers of her great-great-great-granddaughters!" — T. H. Bayley. 



278 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

MODIFICATIONS. 

Adjectives have, commonly, no modifications but the forms of com- 
parison. 

Comparison is a variation of the adjective, to express quality in differ- 
ent degrees : as, hard, harder, hardest; soft, softer, softest. 

There are three degrees of comparison ; the positive, the comparative, 
and the superlative. 

The positive degree is that which is expressed by the adjective in its 
simple form : as, "An elephant is large; a mouse, small; a lion, ^erce, 
active, bold, and strong. 7 ' 

The comparative degree is that which is more or less than something 
contrasted with it : as, " A whale is larger than an elephant ; a mouse 
is a much smaller animal than a rat." 

The superlative degree is that which is most or least of all included with 
it : as, " The whale is the largest of the animals that inhabit this globe ; 
the mouse is the smallest of all beasts." — Dr. Johnson. 

Those adjectives whose signification does not admit of different degrees, 
cannot be compared ; as, two, second, all, every, immortal, infinite. 

Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, but not in form, are 
compared by means of adverbs ; as, fruitful, more fruitful, most fruitful — 
fruitful, less fruitful, least fruitful. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — " Some scruple to call the positive a degree of comparison ; on the ground, that it does 
not imply either comparison, or degree. But no quality can exist, without existing in some de- 
gree : and, though the positive is very frequently used without reference to any other degree ; as 
it is the standard, with which other degrees of the quality are compared, it is certainly an essential 
object of the comparison. "While these critics allow only two degrees, we might in fact with more 
propriety say, that there are five : 1, the quality in its standard state, or positive degree ; as wise : 
2, in a higher state, or the comparative ascending; more wise: 3, in a lower, or the comparative 
descending ; less wise : 4, in the highest state, or superlative ascending ; most wise : 5, in the lowest 
state, or superlative descending ; least wise. All grammarians, however, agree about the things 
themselves, and the forms used to express them ; though they differ about the names, by which 
these forms should be called : and as those names are practically best, which tend least to perplex 
the learner, I see no good reason here for deviating from what has been established by long cus- 
tom." — Churchill's Gram., p. 231. 

Obs. 2. — Churchill here writes plausibly enough, but it will be seen, both from his explanation, 
and from the foregoing definitions of the degrees of comparison, that there are but three. The 
comparative and the superlative may each be distinguishable into the ascending and the descend- 
ing, as often as we prefer the adverbial form to the regular variation of the adjective itself; but 
this imposes no necessity of classing and defining them otherwise than simply as the comparative 
and the superlative. The assumption of two comparatives and two superlatives, is not only con- 
trary to the universal practice of the teachers of grammar ; but there is this conclusive argument 
against it — that the regular method of comparison has no degrees of diminution, and the form 
which has such degrees, is no inflection of the adjective. If there is any exception, it is in the 
words, small, smaller, smallest, and little, less, least. But of the smallness or littleness, considered 
abstractly, these, like all others, are degrees of increase, and not of diminution. Smaller is as 
completely opposite to less small, as wiser is to less wise. Less itself is a comparative descending, 
only when it diminishes some other quality: less little, if the phrase were proper, must needs be 
nearly equivalent to greater or more. Churchill, however, may be quite right in the following 
remark : " The comparative ascending of an adjective, and the comparative descending of an adjec- 
tive expressing the opposite quality, are often considered synonymous, by those who do not dis- 
criminate nicely between ideas. But less imprudent does not imply precisely the same thing as 
more prudent; or more brave, the same as less cowardly.'" — New Gram., p. 231. 

Obs. 3. — The definitions which I have given of the three degrees of comparison, are new. In 
short, I know not whether any other grammarian has ever given what may justly be called a 
definition, of any one of them. Here, as in most other parts of grammar, loose remarks, ill- written 
and Untrue assertions, have sufficed. The explanations found in many English grammars are the 
following: "The positive state expresses the quality of an object, without any increase or diminu- 
tion ; as, good, wise, great. The comparative degree increases or lessens the positive in significa- 
tion ; as, wiser, greater, less wise. The superlative degree increases or lessens the positive to the 
highest or [the] lowest degree ; as, wisest, greatest, least wise. The simple word, or positive, 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — DEGREES. 279 

becomes [the] comparative by adding r or er; and the superlative by adding st or est, to the end 
of it. And the adverbs more and most, placed before the adjective, have the same effect ; as, wise, 
more wise, most wise." — Murray's Grammar, 2d Ed., 1796, p. 47. If a man wished to select seme 
striking example of bad writing — of thoughts ill conceived, and not well expressed — he could not 
do better than take the foregoing : provided his auditors knew enough of grammar to answer the 
four simple questions here involved ; namely, What is the positive degree? "What is l he compara- 
tive degree ? What is the superlative degree ? How are adjectives regularly compared ? To 
these questions I shall furnish direct answers, which the reader may compare with such as he can 
derive from the foregoing citation: the last two sentences of which Murray ought to have credited 
to Dr. Lowth ; for he copied them literally, except that he says, "the adverbs more akd most," for 
the Doctor's phrase, " the adverbs more OR most" See the whole also in Kirlhum's Grammar, p. 
72 ; in IngersolVs, p. 35 ; in Alger's, p. 21 ; in Bacon's, p. 18 ; in IiusselVs, p. 14; in Ban din's, p. 22 ; 
in J. M. Putnam's, p. 33; in S. Putnam's, p. 20 ; in R. C. Smith's, p. 51 ; in Rev. T. Smith's, p. 20. 
Obs. 4. — In the rive short sentences quoted above, there are more errors, than can possibly be 
enumerated in ten times the space. For example: (1.) If one should say of a piece of iron, " It 
grows cold or hot very rapidly," cold and hot could not be in the "positive state," as they define it: 
because, either the "quality" or the "object," (I know not which,) is represented by them as 
"without any increase or diminution;" and this would not, in the present case, be true of either; 
for iron changes in bulk, by a change of temperature. (2.) What, in the first sentence, is errone- 
ously called "the positive state," in the second and the thud, is called, "the positive degree;' and 
this again, in the fourth, is falsely identified with "the simple word." Now, if we suppose the 
meaning to be, that "the positive state," "the positive degree," or "the simple word," is "with- 
out any increase or diminution;" this is expressly contradicted by three sentences out of the five, 
and implicitly, by one of the others. (3.) Not one of these sentences is hue, in the most obvious 
sense of the words, if in any other; and yet the doctrines they were designed to teach, may have 
been, in general, correctly gathered from the examples. (4.) The phrase, " positive in signification," 
is not intelligible in the sense intended, without a comma after positive; and yet, in an aimful of 
different English grammars which contain the passage, I find not one that has a point in that 
place. (5.) It is not more correct to say, that the comparative or the superlative degree, "in- 
creases or lessens the positive," than it would be to aver, that the plural number increases or less- 
ens the singular, or the feminine gender, the masculine. Nor does the superlative mean, what a 
certain learned Doctor understands by it— namely, " the greatest or hast possible degree." If it did, 
"the thickest parts of his skull," for example, would imply small room for brains ; " the thinnest" 
protect them ill, if there were any. (6.) It is improper to say, " Tlie simple word becomes [the] 
comparative by adding r or er; and the superlative by adding st or est." The thought is wrong; 
and nearly all the words are misapplied ; as, simple for primitive, adding for assuming, &c. (7.) 
Nor is it very wise to say, "the adverbs more and most, placed before the adjective, have the same 
effect :" because it ought to be known, that the effect of the one is very different from that of the other ! 
" The same effect," cannot here be taken for any effect previously described ; unless we will have 
it to be, that these words, more and most, " become comparative by adding r or er ; and the super- 
lative by adding st or est, to the end of them :" all of which is grossly absurd. (8.) The repetition 
of the word degree, in saying, " The superlative degree increases or lessens the positive to the highest 
or lowest degree," is a disagreeable tautology. Besides, unless it involves the additional error of 
presenting the same word in different senses, it makes one degree swell or diminish an other to 
itself; whereas, in the very next sentence, this singular agenc} r is forgotten, and a second equally 
strange takes its place: "The positive becomes the superlative by adding st or est, to the end of 
it;" i. e.,to the end of itself. Nothing can be more un grammatical, than is much of the language 
by which grammar itself is now professedly taught ! 

Obs. 5. — It has been almost universally assumed by grammarians, that the positive degree is 
the only standard to which the other degrees can refer ; though many seem to think, that the 
superlative always implies or includes the comparative, and is consequently inapplicable when 
only two things are spoken of. Neither of these positions is involved in any of the definitions 
which I have given above. The reader may think what he will about these points, after observ- 
ing the several ways in which each form may be used. In the phrases, "greater than Solcmon," 
— "more than a bushel," — "later than one o'clock," it is not immediately obvious that th3 
positives great, much, and late, are the real terms of contrast. And how is it in the Latin phrases, 
"Dulcior melle, sweeter than honey," — " Prcestantior auro, better than gold?" These authors 
will resolve all such phrases thus: "greater, than Solomon was great," — "more, than a bushel is 
much," &c. As the conjunction than never governs the objective case, it seems necessary to sup- 
pose an ellipsis of some verb after the noun which follows it as above ; and possibly the fore- 
going solution, uncouth as it seems, may, for the English idiom, be the true one : as, " My Father 
is greater than I."— John, xiv, 28. That is, "My Father is greater than I am ;"— - or, perhaps, 
" than I am great." But if it appear that some degree of the same quality must always be con- 
trasted with the comparative, there is still room to question whether this degree must always be 
that which we call the positive. Cicero, in exile, wrote to his wife : " Ego autem hoc miserior 
sum, qud.m tu, quae es miserrima, quod ipsa calamitas communis est utriusque nostrum, sed culpa 
mea propria est." — Epist ad Fam., xiv, 3. "But in this I am more wretched, than thou, who art 
most wretched, that the calamity itself is common to us both, but the fault is all my own." 

Obs. 6. — In my Institutes and First Lines of English Grammar, I used the following brief defini- 
tions: "The comparative degree is that which exceeds the positive ; as, harder, softer, better."—- 



280 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

" The superlative degree is that which is not exceeded ; as, hardest, softest, best." And it is rather 
for the sake of suggesting to the learner the peculiar application of each of these degrees, than 
from any decided dissatisfaction with these expressions, that I now present others. The first, 
however, proceeds upon the common supposition, that the comparative degree of a quality, 
ascribed to any object, must needs be contrasted with the positive in some other, or with the 
positive in the same at an other time. This idea may be plausibly maintained, though it is cer- 
tain that the positive term referred to, is seldom, if ever, allowed to appear. Besides, the compara- 
tive or the superlative may appear, and in such a manner as to be, or seem to be, in the point 
of contrast. Thus : " Objects near our view are apt to be thought greater than those of a larger 
size, that are more remote." — Locke's Essay, p. 186. Upon the principle above, the explanation 
here must be, that the meaning is — " greater than those of a larger size are thought great." " The 
•poor man that loveth Christ, is richer than the richest man in the world, that hates him." — Bun- 
y art's Pilgrim's Progress, p. 86. This must be " richer than the richest man is rich." The 
riches contemplated here, are of different sorts ; and the comparative or the superlative of one sort, 
may be exceeded by either of these degrees of an other sort, though the same epithet be used for 
both. So in the following instances : " He that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there 
be higher than they." — Eccl, v, 8. That is, " He that is higher than the highest earthly dignita- 
ries, regardeth; and there are higher authorities than these." " Fairer than aught imagined else 
fairest." — Pollok. " Sadder than saddest night." — Byron. It is evident that the superlative de- 
gree is not, ia general, that which cannot he exceeded, but that which, in the actual state of the 
things included, "is not exceeded." Again, as soon as any given comparative or superlative is, 
by a further elevation or intension of the quality, surpassed and exceeded, that particular degree, 
whatever it was, becomes merely positive ; for the positive degree of a quality, though it com- 
monly includes the very lowest measure, and is understood to exceed nothing, may at any time 
equal the very highest. There is no paradox in all this, which is not also in the following simple 
examples: " Easier, indeed, I was, but far from easy" — Compels Life, p. 50. 
" Who canst the wisest wiser make, 
And babes as wise as they." — Comperes Poems. 

Obs. 1. — The relative nature of these degrees deserves to be further illustrated. (1.) It is plain, 
that the greatest degree of a quality in one thing, may be less than the least in an other ; and, 
consequently, that the least degree in one thing, may be greater than the greatest in an other. 
Thus, the heaviest wood is less heavy than the lightest of the metals ; and the least valuable of the 
metals is perhaps of more value than the choicest wood. (2.) The comparative degree may increase 
upon itself, and be repeated to show the gradation. Thus, a man may ascend into the air with a 
balloon, and rise higher, airl. higher, and higher, and higher, till he is out of sight. This is no un- 
common form of expression, and the intension is from comparative to comparative. (3.) If a ladder 
be set up for use, one of its rounds will be the highest, and one other will be the lowest, or least high. 
And as that which is highest, is higher than all the rest, so every one will be higher than all below 
it. The higher rounds, if spoken of generally, and without definite contrast, will be those in the 
upper half; the lower rounds, referred to in like manner, will be those in the lower half, or those 
not far from the ground. The highest rounds, or the lowest, if we indulge such latitude of speech, 
will be those near the top or the bottom; there being, absolutely, or in strictness of language, but 
one of each. (4.) If the highest round be removed, or left uncounted, the next becomes the high- 
est, though not so high as the former. For every one is the highest of the number which it com- 
pletes. All admit this, till we come to three. And, as the third is the highest of the three, I see not 
why the second is not properly the highest of the two. Yet nearly all our grammarians condemn 
this phrase, and prefer " the higher of the tivo." But can they give a reason for their preference ? 
That the comparative degree is implied between the positive and the superlative, so that there 
must needs be three terms before the latter is applicable, is a doctrine which I deny. And if the 
second is the higher of the two, because it is higher than the first ; is it not also the highest of the two, 
because it completes the number ? (5.) It is to be observed, too, that as our ordinal numeral first, 
denoting the one which begins a series, and having reference of course to more, is an adjective 
of the superlative degree, equivalent to foremost, of which it is perhaps a contraction ; so last 
likewise, though no numeral, is a superlative also. (6.) These, like other superlatives, admit of a 
looser application, and may possibly include more than one thing at the beginning or at the end 
of a series : as, " The last years of man are often helpless, like the first." (1.) With undoubted 
propriety, we may speak of the first two, the last two, the first three, the last three, &c. ; but to say, 
the two first, the two last, &c, with this meaning, is obviously and needlessly inaccurate. " The two 
first men in the nation," may, I admit, be good English ; but it can properly be meant only of the 
two most eminent. In specifying any part of a series, we ought rather to place the cardinal num- 
ber after the ordinal. (8.) Many of the foregoing positions apply generally, to almost all adjec- 
tives that are susceptible of comparison. Thus, it is a common saying, " Take the best first, and 
all will be best." That is, remove that degree which is now superlative, and the epithet will de- 
scend to an other, " the next best." 

Obs. 8. — It is a common assumption, maintained by almost all our grammarians, that the 
degrees which add to the adjective the terminations er and est, as well as those which are ex- 
pressed by more and most, indicate an increase, or heightening, of the quality expressed by the 
positive. If such must needs be their import, it is certainly very improper, to apply them, as many 
do, to what can be only an approximation to the positive. Thus Dr. Blair: "Nothing that be- 
longs to human nature, is more universal than the relish of beauty of one kind or other." — Lee- 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — DEGREES. 281 

tures, p. 16. "In architecture, the Grecian models were long esteemed the most perfect." — lb., p. 
20. Again: In his reprehension of Capernaum, the Saviour said, "It shall be more tolerable for 
the land of Sodom, in the day of judgement, than for thee." — Matt., xi, 24. Now, although 
uveKTorepov, more tolerable, is in itself a good comparative, who would dare infer from this text, 
that in the day of judgement Capernaum shall fare tolerably, and Sodom, still better f There is 
much reason to think, that the essential nature of these grammatical degrees has not been well 
understood by those who have heretofore pretended to explain them. If we except those few 
approximations to sensible qualities, which are signified by such words as whitish, greenish, &c, 
there will be found no actual measure, or inherent degree of any quality, to which the simple 
form of the adjective is not applicable ; or which, by the help of intensive adverbs of a positive 
character, it may not be made to express ; and that, too, without becoming either comparative or 
superlative, in the technical sense of those terms. Thus very white, exceedingly white, perfectly 
white, are terms quite as significant as whiter and whitest, if not more so. Some grammarians, 
observing this, and knowing that the Romans often used their superlative in a sense merely in- 
tensive, as altissimus for very high, have needlessly divided our English superlative into two, " the 
definite, and the indefinite ;" giving the latter name to that degree which we mark by the adverb 
very, and the former to that which alone is properly called the superlative. Churchill does 
this: while, (as we have seen above,) in naming the degrees, he pretends to prefer "what has 
been established by long custom." — New Gram., p. 231. By a strange oversight also, he failed 
to notice, that this doctrine interferes with his scheme of five degrees, and would clearly furnish 
him with six: to which if he had chosen to add the "imperfect degree" of Dr. Webster, (as whit- 
ish, greenish, &c.) which is recognized by Johnson, Murray, and others, he might have had seven. 
But I hope my readers will by-and-by believe there is no need of more than three. 

Obs, 9. — The true nature of the Comparative degree is this : it denotes either some excess or 
some relative deficiency of the quality, when one thing or party is compared with an other, in 
respect to what is in both: as, "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weak- 
ness of God is stronger than men." — 1 Cor., i, 25. "Few languages are, in fact, more copious than 
the English." — Blair's Ehet., p. 87. "Our style is less compact than that of the ancients." — lb., p. 
88. "They are counted to him less than nothing and vanity." — Isaiah, xl, 17. As the compara- 
tives in a long series are necessarily many, and some of them higher than others, it may be asked, 
" How can the comparative degree, in this case, be merely ' that which exceeds the positive V " 
Or, as our common grammarians prompt me here to say, "May not the comparative degree in- 
crease or lessen the comparative, in signification ?" The latter form of the question they may 
answer for themselves ; remembering that the comparative may advance from the comparative, 
step by step, from the second article in the series to the utmost. Thus, three is a higher or 
greater number than two ; but four is higher than three ; five, than four ; and so on, ad infinitum. 
My own form of the question I answer thus: "The highest of the higher is not higher than the 
rest are higher, but simply higher than they are high." 

Obs. 10. — The true nature of the Superlative degree is this : it denotes, in a quality, some ex- 
treme or unsurpassed extent. It may be used either absolutely, as being without bounds ; or rela- 
tively, as being confined within any limits we choose to give it. It is equally applicable to that 
which is naturally unsurpassable, and to that which stands within the narrowest limits of com- 
parison. The heaviest of three feathers would scarcely be thought a heavy thing, and yet the 
expression is proper ; because the weight, whatever it is, is relatively the greatest. The youngest 
of three persons, may not be very young ; nor need we suppose the oldest in a whole college to 
have arrived at the greatest conceivable age. "What then shall be thought of the explanations 
which our grammarians have given of this degree of comparison ? That of Murray I have 
already criticised. It is ascribed to him, not upon the supposition that he invented it ; but be- 
cause common sense continues to give place to the authority of his name in support of it. 
Comly, Russell, Alger, Ingersoll, Greenleaf, Fisk, Merchant, Kirkham, T. Smith, R. C. Smith, 
Hall, Hiley, and many others, have copied it into their grammars, as being better than any defini- 
tion they could devise. Murray himself unquestionably took it from some obscure pedagogue 
among the old grammarians. Buchanan, who long preceded him, has nearly the same words : 
" The Superlative increases or diminishes 'the Positive in Signification, to the highest or [the] 
lowest Degree of all." — English Syntax, p. 28. If this is to be taken for a grammatical definition, 
what definition shall grammar itself bear ? 

Obs. 11. — Let us see whether our later authors have done better. " The superlative expresses 
a quality in the greatest or [the] least possible degree; as, wisest, coldest, least ivise." — Webster's 
Old Gram., p. 13. In his later speculations, this author conceives that the termination ish forms 
the first degree of comparison; as, "Imperfect, dankish," Pos. dank, Comp. danker, Superl. dank- 
est. "There are therefore four degrees of comparison." — Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 65. 
" The fourth denotes the utmost or [the] least degree of a quality ; as, bravest, wisest, poorest, 
smallest. This is called the superlative degree." — lb. ; also his Improved Gram., 1831, p. 47. 
"This degree is called the Superlative degree, from its raising the amount of the 'quality above 
that of all others." — Webber's Gram., 1832, p. 26. It is not easy to quote, from any source, a 
worse sentence than this; if, indeed, so strange a jumble of words can be called a sentence. 
"From its raising the amount," is in itself a vicious and untranslatable phrase, here put for 
" because it raises the amount ;" and who can conceive of the superlative degree, as " raising the 
amount of the quality above that of all other qualities f Or, if it be supposed to mean, " above 
the amount of all other degrees," what is this amount? Is it that of one and one, the positive 



282 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS, [PART II. 

and the comparative added numerically ? or is it the sura of all the quantities which these may 
indicate? Perhaps the author meant, "above the amount of all other amounts. 11 If none of these 
absurdities is here taught, nothing is taught, and the words are nonsense. Again : " The super- 
lative degree increases or diminishes the positive to the highest or [the] lowest degree of which it 
is susceptible." — Buckets Classical Gram., p. 49. "The superlative degree is generally formed by 
adding st or est to the positive ; and denotes the greatest excess." — Nutting's Gram., p. 33. " The 
Superlative increases or diminishes the Signification of the Positive or Adjective, to a very high or 
a very low Degree." — British Gram., p. 97. What excess of skill, or what very high degree of 
acuteness, have the brightest and best of these grammarians exhibited ? There must be some, if 
their dehnitions are true. 

Obs. 12. — The common assertion of the grammarians, that the superlative degree is not appli- 
cable to two objects,* is not only unsupported by any reason in the nature of things, but it is 
contradicted in practice by almost every man who affirms it. Thus Maunder : " When only two 
persons or things are spoken of comparatively, to use the superlative is improper : as, ' Deborah, 
my dear, give those two boys a lump of sugar each ; and let Dick's be the largest, because he 
spoke first.' This," says the critic, "should have been 'larger.'" — Maunder 1 s Gram., p. 4. It is 
true, the comparative might here have been used ; but the superlative is clearer, and more agree- 
able to custom. And how can " largest 1 be wrong, if "first 11 is right ? " Let Dick's be the 
larger, because he spoke sooner, 11 borders too much upon a different idea, that of proportion; a3 
when we say, " The sooner the better, 11 — " The more the merrier. 1 '' So Blair : " When only two 
things are compared, the comparative degree should be used, and not the superlative." — Practical 
Gram., p. 81. "A Trochee has the first syllable accented, and the last unaccented." — lb., p. 118. 
" An Iambus has the first syllable unaccented, and the last accented." — Ibid. These two exam- 
ples are found also in Jamieson 1 s Rlietoric, p. 305; Murray's Gram., p. 253; Kirkhamls, 219; 
Bullions 1 s, 169 ; Guy's, 120 ; Merchants, 166. So Hiley : " When two persons or things are com- 
pared, the comparative degree must be employed. When three or 'more persons or things are 
compared, the superlative must be used." — Treatise on English Gram., p. 78. Contradiction in 
practice: "Thomas is iviser than his brothers. 11 — lb., p. 79. Are not " three or more persons" here 
compared by "the comparative" wiser? "In an Iambus the first syllable is unaccented." — lb., 
p. 123. An iambus has but two syllables; and this author expressly teaches that " first 11 is 
"superlative." — lb., p. 21. So Sanborn: "The positive degree denotes the simple form of an 
adjective without any variation of meaning. The comparative degree increases or lessens the 
meaning of the positive, and denotes a comparison between two persons or things. The superlative 
degree increases or lessens the positive to the greatest extent, and denotes a comparison between 
more than two persons or things." — Analytical Gram., p. 30 and p. 86. These pretended defini- 
tions of the degrees of comparison embrace not only the absurdities which I have already cen- 
sured in those of our common grammars, but several new ones peculiar to this author. Of the 
inconsistency of his doctrine and practice, take the following examples : " Which of two bodies, 
that move with the same velocity, will exercise the greatest power?" — lb., p. 93; and again, 
p. 203, "'/was offered a dollar; 1 — 'A dollar was offered (to) me. 1 The first form should 
always be avoided." — lb., p. 127. "Nouns in apposition generally annex the sign of the pos- 
sessive case to the last; as, 'For David my servants sake.' — 'John the Baptists head.' Bible. 11 — 
lb., p. 197. 

Obs. 13. — So Murray: " We commonly say, ' This is the weaker of the two ;' or, 'The weakest 
of the two;'f but the former is the regular mode of expression, because there are only two 
things compared." — Octavo Gram., i, 167. What then of the following example: "Which of 
those two persons has most distinguished himself?" — lb., Key, ii, 187. Again, in treating of the 
adjectives this and that, the same hand writes thus : " This refers to the nearest person or thing, 
and that to the most distant : as, ' This man is more intelligent than that. 1 This indicates the latter, 
or last mentioned; that, the former, or first mentioned : as, 'Both wealth and poverty are temp- 
tations; that tends to excite pride, this, discontent.'" — Murray 1 s Gram., i, 56. In the former 
part of this example, the superlative is twice applied where only two things are spoken of; and, 
in the latter, it is twice made equivalent to the comparative, with a like reference. The follow- 
ing example shows the same equivalence : " This refers to the last mentioned or nearer thing, that 
to the first m3ntioned or more distant thing." — Webbers Gram., p. 31. So Churchill : "The su- 
perlative should not be used, when only two persons or things are compared." — New Gram., p. 

* I suppose that, in a comparison of two, any of the degrees may be accurately employed. The common 
usage is, to construe the positive with as, the comparative with than, and the superlative with of. But here 
custom allows us also to use the comparative with of, after the manner of the superlative ; as, " This is the 
batter of the two." It was but an odd whim of some old pedant, to find in this a reason for declaring it ungram- 
matical to say "This is the best of the two." In one grammar, I find the former construction condemned, and 
the latter approved, thus: " This is the better book of the two. Not correct, because the comparative state of 
tiie adjective, (better,) can not correspond with the preposition, of. The definite article, the, is likewise improp- 
erly applied to the comparative state ; the sentence should stand thus, This is the best book of the two." — Chand- 
ler's Gram., Ed: of 1831, p. 130; Ed. of 1847, p. 154. 

t This example appears to have been borrowed from Campbell; who, however, teaches a different doctrine 
from Murray, and clearly sustains my position; "Both degrees are in such cases used indiscriminately. We 
say rightly, either ' This is the weaker of the two,' or — ' the weakest of the two.' " — Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 202. 
How positively do some other men contradict this! " In comparing two persons or things, by means of an ad- 
jective, care must be taken, that the superlative state be not employed : We properly say, 'John is the taller of 
the two;' but we should not say, 'John is the tallest of the two.' The reason is plain: we compare but two per- 
sons, and must therefore use the comparative state." — Wright's Philosophical Gram., p. 143. Rev. Matt. Har- 
rison, too, insists on it, that the superlative must " have reference to more than two," and censures Dr. Johnson 
for not observing the rule. See Harrison's English Language, p. 255. 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — REGULAR COMPARISON. 283 

80. " In the first of these two sentences." — lb., p. 162 ; Lowth, p. 120. According to the rule, 
it should have been, "In the former of these two sentences ;'' but this would be here ambiguous, 
because former might mean maker. ""When our sentence consists of two members, the longest 
should, generally, be the concluding one." — Blair's Rhet, p. 117 : and Jamieson's, p. 99. "The 
shortest member being placed first, we carry it more readily in our memory as we proceed to the 
second." — lb., & lb. " Pray consider us, in this respect, as the weakest sex." — Sped., No. 533. 
In this last sentence, the comparative, weaker, would perhaps have been better ; because, not an 
absolute, but merely a comparative weakness is meant. So Latham and Child : "It is better, in 
speaking of only two objects, to use the comparative degree rather than the superlative, even 
where we use the article the. This is the better of the two, is preferable to this is the best of the 
two.' 1 '' — Elementary Gram., p. 155. Such is their rule; but very soon they forget it, and write 
thus : " In this case the relative refers to the last of the two." — lb., p. 163. 

Obs. 14. — Hyperboles are very commonly expressed by comparatives or superlatives ; as, " My 
little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins." — 1 Kings, xii, 10. "Unto me, who am less 
than the least of all saints, is this grace given." — Ephesians, iii, 8. Sometimes, in thus heightening 
or lowering the object of his conception, the writer falls into a catachresis, solecism, or abuse of 
the grammatical degrees; as, "Mustard -seed — which is less than all the seeds that be in the 
earth." — Mark, iv, 31. This expression is objectionable, because mustard-seed is a seed, and 
cannot be less than itself; though that which is here spoken of, may perhaps have been " the 
least of all seeds :" and it is the same Greek phrase, that is thus rendered in Matt, xiii, 32. Mur- 
ray has inserted in his Exercises, among " unintelligible and inconsistent words and phrases," the 
following example from Milton : 

" And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep 
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide." — Exercises, p. 122. 

For this supposed inconsistency, he proposes in his Key the following amendment : 

" And, in the loiver deep, another deep 
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide." — Key, p. 254. 

But, in an other part of his book, he copies from Dr. Blair the same passage, with commendation : 
saying, " The following sentiments of Satan in Milton, as strongly as they are described, contain 
nothing but what is natural and proper : 

" Me miserable ! which way shall I fly 

Infinite wrath, and infinite despair ? 

"Which way I fly is Hell ; myself am Hell ; 

And in the lowest depth, a lower deep, 

Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide, 

To which the Hell I sutler seems a Heaven.' P. Lost, B. iv, 1. 73." 
Blair's Lectures, p. 153 ; Murray's Grammar, p. 352. 
Obs. 15. — Milton's word, in the fourth line above, is deep, and not depth, as these authors here 
give it : nor was it very polite in them, to use a phraseology which comes so near to saying, the 
devil was in the poet. Alas for grammar ! accuracy in its teachers has become the most rare of 
all qualifications. As for Murray's correction above, I see not how it can please any one who 
chooses to think Hell a place of great depth. A descent into his " lower deep" and " other 
deep," might be a plunge less horrible than two or three successive slides in one of our western 
caverns ! But Milton supposes the arch-fiend might descend to the lowest imaginable depth of 
Hell, and there be liable to a still further fall of more tremendous extent. Fall whither ? Into 
the horrid and inconceivable profundity of the bottomless pit ! What signifies it. to object to his 
language as " unintelligible," if it conveys his idea better than any other could? In no human 
conception of what is infinite, can there be any real exaggeration. To amplify beyond the truth, 
is here impossible. Nor is there any superlation which can fix a limit to the idea of more and 
more in infinitude. Whatever literal absurdity there may be in it, the duplication seems greatly 
to augment what was even our greatest conception of the thing. Homer, with a like figure, 
though expressed in the positive degree, makes Jupiter threaten any rebel god, that he shall be 
thrown down from Olympus, to suffer the burning pains of the Tartarean gulf; not in the centre, 
but, 

" As deep beneath th' infernal centre hurl'd, 
As from that centre to th' ethereal world." — Pope's Iliad, B. viii, L 19. 

REGULAR COMPARISON. 

Adjectives are regularly compared, when the comparative degree is expressed by 
adding er, and the superlative, by adding est to them : as, Pos., great, Comp., greater, 
Superl., greatest; ~Pos.,mild, Com]).,mildcr, Super]., mildest. 

In the variation of adjectives, final consonants are doubled, final e is omitted, and 
final y is changed to i, agreeably to the rules for spelling: as, hot, hotter, hottest; 
wide, wider, widest ; happy, happier, happiest. 

The regular method of comparison belongs almost exclusively to monosyllables, 
with dissyllables ending in w or y, and such others as receive it and still have but 



284 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

one syllable after the accent : as, fierce, fiercer, fiercest ; narrow, narrower, nar- 
rowest ; gloomy, gloomier, gloomiest ; serene, serener, serenest ; noble, nobler, noblest ; 
gentle, gentler, gentlest. 

COMPARISON BY ADVERBS. 

The two degrees of superiority may also be expressed with precisely the same im- 
port as above, by prefixing to the adjective the adverbs more and most : as, wise, 
more wise, most wise ; famous, more famous, most famous ; amiable, more amiable, 
most amiable. 

The degrees of inferiority are expressed, in like manner, by the adverbs less and 
least : as, wise, less wise, least wise ; famous, less famous, least famous ; amiable, 
less amiable, least amiable. The regular method of comparison has, properly speak- 
ing, no degrees of this kind. 

Nearly all adjectives that admit of different degrees, may be compared by means 
of the adverbs ; but, for short words, the regular method is generally preferable : as, 
quick, quicker, quickest ; rather than, quick, more quick, most quick. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The genius of our language is particularly averse to the lengthening of long words by- 
additional syllables ; and, in the comparison of adjectives, er and est always add a syllable to the 
word, except it end in le after a mute. Thus, free, freer, freest, increases syllabically ; but ample, 
ampler, amplest, does not. Whether any particular adjective admits of comparison or not, is a 
matter of reasoning from the sense of the term ; by which method it shall be compared, is in some 
degree a matter of taste ; though custom has decided that long words shall not be inflected, and 
for the shorter, there is generally an obvious bias in favour of one form rather than the other. 
Dr. Johnson says, " The comparison of adjectives is very uncertain ; and being much regulated 
by commodiousness of utterance, or agreeableness of sound, is not easily reduced to rules. 
Monosyllables are commonly compared. Polysyllables, or words of more than two syllables, are 
seldom compared otherwise than by more and most. Dissyllables are seldom compared if they 
terminate in full, less, ing, ous, ed, id, al, ent, ain, or ive." — Gram, of the English Tongue, p. 6. 
" When the positive contains but one syllable, the degrees are usually formed by adding er or est. 
When the positive contains two syllables, it is matter of taste which method you shall use in 
forming the degrees. The ear is, in this case, the best guide. But, when the positive contains 
more than two syllables, the degrees must be formed by the use of more and most. We may say, 
tenderer and tenderest, pleasanter and pleasantest, prettier and prettiest ; but who could endure 
delicater and delicatest?" — Oobbetfs E. Gram., 9 ^ 81. Quiet, bitter, clever, sober, and perhaps some 
others like them, are still regularly compared ; but such words as secretest, famousest, virtuousest, 
powerfulest, which were used by Milton, have gone out of fashion. The following, though not 
very commonly used, are perhaps allowable. "Yet these are the two commonest occupations of 
mankind." — Philological Museum, i, 431. "Their pleasantest walks throughout life must be 
guarded by armed men." — lb., i, 437. "Franklin possessed the rare talent of drawing useful les- 
sons from the commonest occurrences." — Murray 's Sequel, p. 323. "Unbidden guests are often 
welcomest when they are gone." — Shak. : in Joh. Diet. 

" There was a lad, th' unluckiest of his crew, 
Was still contriving something bad, but new." — King-: ib. 

Obs. 2. — I make a distinction between the regular comparison by er and est, and the compari- 
son by adverbs ; because, in a grammatical point of view, these two methods are totally different : 
the meaning, though the same, being expressed in the one case, by an inflection of the adjec- 
tive ; and in the other, by a phrase consisting of two different parts of speech. If the placing of 
an adverb before an adjective is to be called a grammatical modification or variation of the latter 
word, we shall have many other degrees than those which are enumerated above. The words 
may with much more propriety be parsed separately, the degree being ascribed to the adverb — or, 
if you please, to both words, for both are varied in sense by the inflection of the former. The 
degrees in which qualities may exist in nature, are infinitely various ; but the only degrees with 
which the grammarian is concerned, are those which our variation of the adjective or adverb en- 
ables us to express — including, as of course we must, the state or sense of the primitive word, aa 
one. The reasoning which would make the positive degree to be no degree, would also make the 
nominative case, or the casus rectus of the Latins, to be no case. 

Obs. 3. — Whenever the adjective itself denotes these degrees, and is duly varied in form to 
express them, they properly belong to it; as, worthy, worthier, worthiest (Though no apology 
can be made for the frequent error of confounding the degree of a quality, with the verbal sign 
which expresses it.) If an adverb is employed for this purpose, that also is compared, and the two 
degrees thus formed or expressed, are properly its own ; as, worthy, more worthy, most worthy. 
But these same degrees may be yet otherwise expressed ; as, worthy, in a higher degree worthy, 
in the highest degree worthy. Here also the adjective worthy is virtually compared, as before ; but 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — REGULAR COMPARISON. 285 

only the adjective high is grammatically modified. Again, we may form three degrees with sev- 
eral adverbs to each, thus: Pos., very truly worthy; Comp., much more truly worthy; Sup., 
much the most truly worthy. There are also other adverbs, which, though not varied in them- 
selves like much, 'more, most, may nevertheless have* nearly the same effect upon the adjective ; 
as, worthy, comparatively worthy, superlatively worthy. I make these remarks, because many 
grammarians have erroneously parsed the adverbs more and most, less and least, as parts of the 
adjective. 

Obs. 4. — Harris, in his Hermes, or Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar, has 
very unceremoniously pronounced the doctrine of three degrees of comparison, to be absurd ; and 
the author of the British Grammar, as he quotes the whole passage without offering any defence 
of that doctrine, seems to second the allegation. " Mr. Harris observes, that, 'There cannot well 
be more than two degrees ; one to denote simple excess, and one to denote superlative. Were 
we indeed to introduce more degrees, we ought perhaps to introduce infinite, which is absurd. 
Por why stop at a limited number, when in all subjects, susceptible of intension, the intermediate 
excesses are in a manner infinite ? There are infinite degrees of more white between the first 
simple white and the superlative whitest ; the same may be said of more great, more strong, more 
minute, &c. The doctrine of grammarians about three such degrees, which they call the Positive, 
the Comparative, and the Superlative, must needs be absurd ; both because in their Positive 
there is no comparison at all, and because their Superlative is a Comparative as much as their 
Comparative itself.' Hermes, p. 19V." — Brit. Gram., p. 9S. This objection is rashly urged. No 
comparison can be imagined without bringing together as many as two terms, and if the positive 
is one of these, it is a degree of comparison ; though neither this nor the superlative is, for that 
reason, " a Comparative'' Why we stop at three degrees, I have already shown : we have three 
forms, and only three. 

Obs. 5. — " The termination ish may be accounted in some-sort a degree of comparison, by 
which the signification is diminished below the positive, as black, blackish, or tending to black- 
ness; salt, saltish, or having a little taste Of salt:* they therefore admit of no comparison. This 
termination is seldom added but to words expressing sensible qualities, nor often to words of 
above one syllable, and is scarcely used in the solemn or sublime style." — Dr. Johnson's Gram. 
"The first [degree] denotes a slight degree of the quality, and is expressed by the termination 
ish ; as, reddish, brovmish, yellowish. This may be denominated the imperfect degree of the attri- 
bute." — Dr. Webster's Improved Gram., p. 47. I doubt the correctness of the view taken above 
by Johnson, and dissent entirely from Webster, about his "first degree of comparison." Of ad- 
jectives in ish we have perhaps a hundred ; but nine out of ten of them are derived clearly from 
nouns, as, boyish, girlish; and who can prove that blackish, saltish, reddish, brownish, and yellow- 
ish, are not also from the nouns, black, salt, red, brown, and yellow? or that "a more reddish tinge," 
— "a more saltish taste," are not correct phrases? There is, I am persuaded, no good reason for 
noticing this termination as constituting a degree of comparison. All "double comparisons" are 
said to be ungrammatical ; but, if ish forms a degree, it is such a degree as may be compared 
again: as, 

"And seem more learnedish than those 
That at a greater charge compose." — Butler. 

Obs. 6. — Among the degrees of comparison, some have enumerated that of equality ; as when 
we say, "It is as sweet as honey." Here is indeed a comparison, but it is altogether in the posi- 
tive degree, and needs no other name. This again refutes Harris ; who says, that in the positive 
there is no comparison at all. But further : it is plain, that in this degree there may be compari- 
sons of inequality also ; as, " Molasses is not so sweet as honey." — " Civility is not so slight a mat- 
ter as it is commonly thought." — Art of Thinking, p. 92. Nay. such comparisons may equal any 
superlative. Thus it is said, I think, in the Life of Robert Hall: "Probably no human being 
ever before suffered so much bodily pain." What a preeminence is here! and yet the form of 
the adjective is only that of the positive degree. "Nothing so uncertain as general reputation." 
— Art of Thinking, p. 50. "Nothing so nauseous as undistinguishing civility." — lb., p. 88. These, 
likewise, would be strong expressions, if they were correct English. But, to my apprehension, 
every such comparison of equality involves a solecism, when, as it here happens, the former 
term includes the latter. The word nothing is a general negative, and reputation is a particular 
affirmative. The comparison of equality between them, is therefore certainly improper : because 
nothing cannot be equal to something ; and, reputation being something, and of course equal to 
itself, the proposition is evidently untrue. It ought to be, " Nothing is more uncertain than gen- 
eral reputation." This is the same as to say, " General reputation is as uncertain as any thing 
that can be named." " Or else the former term should exempt the latter; as, " Nothing else — or, 

* L. Murray copied this passage literally, (though anonymously,) as far as the colon ; and of course his hook 
teaches us to account '■'■the termination ish, in some sort, a degree of compariso?!.." — Octavo Gram., p. 47. But 
what is more absurd, than to think of accounting this, or any other suffix, " a degree of comxjarison?" The 
inaccuracy of the language is a sufficient proof of the haste with which Johnson adopted this notion, and of the 
blindness with which he has been followed. The passage is now found in most of our English grammars. 
Sanborn expresses the doctrine thus: "Adjectives terminating with ish, denote a degree of comparison less 
thau the positive; as, saltish, whitish, blackish." — Analytical Gram., p. 87. But who does not know, that 
most adjectives of this ending are derived from nouns, and are compared only by adverbs, as childish, foolish, 
and so forth? Wilcox says, "Words ending in ish, generally express a slight degree; as, reddish, bookish." — 
Practical Gram., p. 17. But who will suppose that foolish denotes but a slight degree of folly, or bookish but 
a slight fondness for books? And, with such an interpretation, what must be the meaning of .more bookish or 
most foolish f 



286 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

" No other thing, is so uncertain as" this popular honour, public esteem, or " general reputation" 
And so of all similar examples. 

Obs. 7. — In all comparisons, care must bo taken to adapt the terms to the degree which is ex- 
pressed by the adjective or adverb. The superlative degree requires that the object to which it 
relates, be one of those with which it is compared; as, " Eve was the fairest of women" The 
comparative degree, on the contrary, requires that the object spoken of be not included among 
those with which it is compared; as, " Eve was fairer than any of her daughters." To take the 
inclusive term here, and say, " Eve was fairer than any woman" would be no less absurd, than 
Milton's assertion, that "Eve was the fairest of her daughters:" the former supposes that she was 
not a woman ; the latter, that she was one of her own daughters. But Milton's solecism is double ; 
he makes Adam one of his own sons : — 

" Adam the goodliest man of men since born 
His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve." — P. Lost, B. iv, L 324. 

Obs. 8. — " Such adjectives," says Churchill, "as have in themselves a superlative signification, 
or express qualities not susceptible of degrees, do not properly admit either the comparative or 
[the] superlative form. Under this rule may be included all adjectives with a negative prefix." — 
New Gram., p. 80. Again : " As immediate signifies instant, present with regard to time, Prior 
should not have written i more immediate.' Dr. Johnson." — lb., p. 233. "Hooker has unaptest; 
Locke, more uncorrupted ; Holder, more undeceivable : for these the proper expressions would have 
been the opposite signs without the negation : least apt, less corrupted, less deceivable. Watts 
speaks of ' a most unpassable barrier.' If he had simply said ' an unpassable barrier,' we should 
have understood it at once in the strongest sense, as a barrier impossible to be surmounted : but, 
by attempting to express something more, he gives an idea of something less ; we perceive, that 
his unpassable means difficult to pass. This is the mischief of the propensity to exaggeration ; 
which, striving after strength, sinks into weakness." — lb., p. 234. 

Obs. 9. — The foregoing remarks from Churchill appear in general to have been dictated by good 
sense ; but, if his own practice is right, there must be some exceptions to his rule respecting the 
comparison of adjectives with a negative prefix; for, in the phrase " less imprudent," which, ac- 
cording to a passage quoted before, he will have to be different from " more prudent" he himself 
furnishes an example of such comparison. In fact, very many words of that class are compared 
by good writers : as, " Nothing is more unnecessary." — LowthUs Gram., Pref, p. v. " What is yet 
more unaccountable." — Rogers : in Joh. Diet. " It is hard to determine which is most uneligible." 
— Id., ib. " Where it appears the most unbecoming and unnatural." — Addison : ib. " Men of 
the best sense and of the most unblemislied lives." — Id., ib. " March and September are the 
most unsettled and unequable of seasons." — Bentley : ib. " Barcelona was taken by a most 
unexpected accident." — Swift: ib. u The most barren and unpleasant." — Woodward: ib. "0 
good, but most unwise patricians!" — Shak. : ib. "More unconstant than the wind." — Id., ib. 
"We may say more or less imperfect." — Murray's Gram., p. 168. "Some of those [passions] 
which act with the most irresistible energy upon the hearts of mankind, are altogether omitted in 
the catalogue of Aristotle." — Adams's Rhet., i, 380. " The wrong of him who presumes to talk 
of owning me, is too unmeasured to be softened by kindness." — Ghanning, on Emancipation, p. 52. 
" Which, we are sensible, are more inconclusive than the rest." — Blair's Rhet, p. 319. 
" Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears 
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes." — ShaJc. 

Obs. 10. — Comparison must not be considered a general property of adjectives. It belongs 
chiefly to the class which I call common adjectives, and is by no means applicable to all of these. 
Common adjectives, or epithets denoting quality, are perhaps more numerous than all the other 
classes put together. Many of these, and a few that are pronominal, may be varied by compari- 
son ; and some participial adjectives may be compared by means of the adverbs. But adjectives 
formed from proper names, all the numerals, and most of the compounds, are in no way susceptible 
of comparison. All nouns used adjectively, as an iron bar, an evening school, a mahogany chair, 
a South- Sea dream, are also incapable of comparison. In the title of " His Most Christian Ma- 
jesty," the superlative adverb is applied to a proper adjective; but who will pretend that we 
ought to understand by it " the highest degree" of Christian attainment? It might seem uncourtly 
to suggest that this is " an abuse of the king's English," I shall therefore say no such thing. 
Pope compares the word Christian, in the following couplet : — 
" Go, purified by flames ascend the sky, 
My better and more Christian progeny." — Dunciad, B. i, 1. 227. 

IRREGULAR COMPARISON. 

The following adjectives are compared irregularly : good, better, best ; bad, evil, or 
ill, worse, worst ; little, less, least ; much, more, most ; many, more, most. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — In English, and also in Latin, most adjectives that denote place or situation, not 
only form the superlative irregularly, but are also either defective or redundant in comparison. 
Thus: 

I. The following nine have more than one superlative : far, farther, farthest, farmost, or farther' 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — IRREGULAR COMPARISON. 287 

most; near, nearer, nearest or next ; fore, former, foremost or first; hind, hinder, hindmost or hin- 
dermost ; in, inner, inmost or innermost ; out, outer, or utter, outmost or utmost, outermost or utter- 
most ; up, upper, upmost or uppermost ; low, lower, lowest or lowermost ; late, later or latter, latest 
or last. 

II. The following five want the positive : [aft, adv.,] after, aftmost or aftermost ; [forth, adv., 
formerly furth*] further, furthest or furthermost ; hither, hithtrmost ; nether, nethermost ; under, un- 
dermost. 

III. The following want the comparative: front, frontmost ; rear, rearmost; head, headmost; 
end, endmost; top, topmost; bottom, bottommost; mid or middle, midst, f midmost or middlemost; 
north, northmost; south, southmost; east, eastmost; west, westmost ; northern, northernmost; southern, 
southernmost; eastern, easternmost; western, westernmost. 

Obs. 2. — Many of these irregular words are not always used as adjectives, but oftener as nouns, 
adverbs, or prepositions. The sense in which they are employed, will show to what class they 
belong. The terms fore and hind, front and rear, right and left, in and out, high and low, top and 
bottom, up and down, upper and under, mid and after, all but the last pair, are in direct contrast 
with each other. Many of them are often joined in composition with other words ; and some, 
when used as adjectives of place, are rarely separated from their nouns : as, inland, outhouse, 
mid-sea, after-ages. Practice is here so capricious, I find it difficult to determine whether the 
compounding of these terms is proper or not. It is a case about which he that inquires most, 
may perhaps be most in doubt. If the joining of the words prevents the possibility of mistak- 
ing the adjective for a preposition, it prevents also the separate classification of the adjective and 
the noun, and thus in some sense destroys the former by making the whole a noun. Dr. "Webster 
writes thus : " Froxtroom, n. A room or apartment in the forepart of a house. Backroom, n. 
A room behind the front room, or in the back part of the house." — Octa/vo Diet. So of many 
phrases by which people tell of turning things, or changing the position of their parts ; as, 
mside out, outside in; upside down, dovmside up; wrong end foremost, but-end foremost; fore- 
part back, fore-end aft; hind side before, backside before. Here all these contrasted particles seem 
to be adjectives of place or situation. What grammarians in general would choose to call 
them, it is hard to say ; probably, many would satisfy themselves with calling the whole " an 
adverbial phrase," — the common way of disposing of every thing which it is difficult to analyze. 
These, and the following examples from Scott, are a fair specimen of the uncertainty of present 
usage : 

" The herds without a keeper strayed, 

The plough was in mid-furrow staid." — Lady of the Lake. 
"The eager huntsman knew his bound, 
And in mid chase called off his hound." — Ibidem. 

Obs. 3. — For the chief points of the compass, we have so many adjectives, and so many modes 
of varying or comparing them, that it is difficult to tell their number, or to know which to choose 
in practice. (1.) North, south, east, and west, are familiarly used both as nouns and as adjectives. 
From these it seems not improper to form superlatives, as above, by adding most ; as, "From 
Aroar to Nebo, and the wild of southmost Abarim." — Milton. " There are no rivulets or springs 
in the island of Feror, the westmost of the Canaries." — White's Nat. Hist. (2.) These primitive 
terms may also be compared, in all three of the degrees, by the adverbs farther and farthest, or 
further and farthest; as, "Which is jet farther west." — Bacon. (3.) Though we never employ 
as separate words the comparatives norther, souther, easier, wester, we have northerly, southerly, 
easterly, and vjesterly, which seem to have been formed from such comparatives, by adding ly ; 
and these four may bo compared by the adverbs more and most, or less and least : as, " These 
hills give us a view of the most easterly, southerly, and vjesterly parts of England." — Graunt : in 
Joh. Diet. (4.) From these supposed comparatives likewise, some authors form the superlatives 
northermost, southermost, eastermost, and westermost; as, "From the vjestermost part of Oyster 
bay.* 1 — Dr. Webster's Hist. U. S., p. 126. "And three miles southward of the southermost part 
of said bay." — TrumbulTs Hist, of Amer., Vol. i, p. 88. " Pockanocket was on the westermost 
line of Plymouth Colony." — lb., p. 44. " As far as the northermost branch of the said bay or 
river." — lb., p. 127. The propriety of these is at least questionable; and, as they are neither 
very necessary to the language, nor recognized by any of our lexicographers, I forbear to 
approve them. (5.) From the four primitives we have also a third series of positives, ending in 
em ; as, northern, southern, eastern, western. These, though they have no comparatives of their 
own, not only form superlatives by assuming the termination most, but are sometimes com- 
pared, perhaps in both degrees, by a separate use of the adverbs: as, " Southernmost, a. Furthest 
towards the south." — Webster's Diet. "Until it shall intersect the northernmost part of the 
thirty -first degree of north latitude." — Articles of Peace. " To the north-westernmost head of 
Connecticut river." — lb. " Thence through the said lake to the most north-vjestern point thereof" 
— lb. 

Obs. 4. — It may be remarked of the comparatives former and latter or hinder, upper and under 
or nether, inner and outer or utter, after and hither ; as well as of the Latin superior and inferior, 

* " ' A rodde shall come furth of the stocke of Jesse.' Primer, Hen. VIII." — Craven Glossary. 

f Midst is a contraction of the regular superlative middest, used by Spenser, but now obsolete. Midst, also, 
seems to be obsolete as an adjective, though still frequently used as a noun; as, " In the midst." — Webster. It 
is often a poetic contraction for the preposition amidst. In some cases it appears to be an adverb. In the fol- 
lowing example it is equivalent to middlemost, and therefore an adjective: "Still greatest he the midst, Now 
dragon grown." — Paradise Lost, B. x, 1. 528. 



288 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

anterior and posterior, interior and exterior, prior and ulterior, senior and junior, major and minor; 
that they cannot, like other comparatives, be construed with the conjunction than. After all 
genuine English comparatives, this conjunction may occur, because it is the only fit word for in- 
troducing tho latter term of comparison ; but we never say one thing is former or latter, superior 
or inferior, than an other. And so of all the rest here named. Again, no real comparative or 
superlative can ever need an other superadded to it ; but inferior and superior convey ideas that 
do not always preclude the additional conception of more or less : as, " With iespect to high and 
low notes, pronunciation is still more inferior to singing." — Karnes, Elements of Criticism, Vol. ii, 
p. 73. "The mistakes which the most superior understanding is apt to fall into." — West's Letters 
to a Young Lady, p. 117. 

Obs. 5. — Double comparatives and double superlatives, being in general awkward and un- 
fashionable, as well as tautological, ought to be avoided. Examples : " The Duke of Milan, and 
Ms more braver daughter, could control thee." — Shak., Tempest. Say, " his more gallant daugh- 
ter." "What in me was purchased, falls upon thee in a more fairer sort." — Ld., Henry IV. Say, 
"fairer," or, " more honest ;" for "purchased" here means stolen. "Changed to a worser shape 
thou canst not be." — Id., 1 Hen. VI. Say, " a worse shape" — or, "an uglier shape." "After the 
most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." — Acts, xxvi, 5. Say, " tho strictest sect." 
" Some say he 's mad ; others, that lesser hate him, do call it valiant ftiry." — Shak. Say, 
" others, that hate him less." In this last example, lesser is used adverbially; in which construc- 
tion it is certainly incorrect. But against lesser as an adjective, some grammarians have spoken 
with more severity, than comports with a proper respect for authority. Dr. Johnson says, 
" Lesser, adj. A barbarous corruption of less, formed by the vulgar from the .habit of terminat- 
ing comparatives in er ; afterward adopted by poets, and then by writers of prose, till it has all the 
authority which a mode originally erroneous can derive from custom.''' 1 — Quarto Diet. With no 
great fairness, Churchill quotes this passage as far as the semicolon, and there stops. The 
position thus taken, he further endeavours to strengthen, by saying, " Worser, though not more 
barbarous, offends the ear in a much greater degree, because it has not been so frequently used." 
— New Gram., p. 232. Example : " And God made two great lights ; the greater light to rulo 
the day, and the lesser light to rulo the night." — Gen., i, 16. Kirkham, after making an imitation 
of this passage, remarks upon it : " Lesser is as incorrect as badder, gooder, worser." — Gram., p. 
77. The judgement of any critic who is ignorant enough to say this, is worthy only of con- 
tempt. Lesser is still frequently used by the most tasteful authors, both in verse and prose : as, 
" It is the glowing style of a man who is negligent of lesser graces." — Blair's Ehet., p. 189. 

"Athos, Olympus, iEtna, Atlas, made 
These hills seem things of lesser dignity." — Byron. 

Obs. 6. — The adjective little is used in different senses ; for it contrasts sometimes with great, 
and sometimes with much. Lesser appears to refer only to size. Hence less and lesser are not 
always equivalent terms. Lesser means smaller, and contrasts only with greater. Less contrasts 
sometimes with greater, but oftener with more, the comparative of much ; for, though it may mean 
not so large, its most common meaning is not so much. It ought to be observed, likewise, that 
less is not an adjective of number* though not unfrequently used as such. It does not mean 
fewer, and is therefore not properly employed in sentences like the following: "In all verbs, 
there are no less than three things implied at once." — Blair's Rhet., p. 81. " Smaller things than 
three," is nonsense; and so, in reality, is what the Doctor here says. Less is not the proper op- 
posite to more, when more is the comparative of many : few, fewer, fewest, are the only words 
which contrast regularly with many, more, most. In the following text, these comparatives are 
rightly employed: " And to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall 
give the less inheritance." — Numbers, xxxiii, 54. But if writers will continue to use less for fewer, so 
that " less cattle," for instance, may mean " fewer cattle;" we shall be under a sort of necessity to 
retain lesser, in order to speak intelligibly: as, "It shall be for the sending-forth of oxen, and for 
the treading of lesser cattle." — Isaiah, vii, 25. I have no partiality for the word lesser, neither 
will I make myself ridiculous by flouting at its rudeness. " This word," says Webster, " is a cor- 
ruption, but [it is] too well established to be discarded. Authors always write the Lesser Asia." 
— Octavo Diet. " By the same reason, may a man punish the lesser breaches of that law." — Locke. 
" When we speak of the lesser differences among the tastes of men." — Blair's Rhet, p. 20. " In 
greater or lesser degrees of complexity." — Burke, on Sublime, p. 94. "The greater ought not to 
succumb to the lesser." — Dillwyn's Reflections, p. 128. "To such productions, lesser composers 
must resort for ideas." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 413. 

" The larger here, and there the lesser lambs, 
The new-fall'n young herd bleating for their dams." — Pope. 

Obs. 7. — Our grammarians deny the comparison of many adjectives, from a false notion that 

* What I here say, accords with the teaching of all our lexicographers and grammarians, except one dauntless 
critic, who has taken particular pains to put me, and some three or four others, on the defensive. This gentle- 
man not only supposes less and fewer, least and fewest, to he sometimes equivalent in meaning, but actually 
exhibits them as being also etymologically of the same stock. Less and least, however, he refers to three dif- 
ferent positives, and more and most, to four. And since, in once instance, he traces less and more, least and 
most, to the same primitive word, it follows of course, if he is right, that more is there equivalent to less, and 
most is equivalent to least! The following is a copy of this remarkable "Declenbion ON Indefinite Speci- 
fying Adnames," and just one half of the table is wrong: " Som,e, more, most; Some, less, least; Little, less, 
least; Few, fewer or less, fewest or least; Several, more, most ; Much, more, most; Many, more, most." — 
Oliver B. Peirce'a Gram., p. 144. 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — IRREGULAR COMPARISON. 289 

they are already superlatives. Thus "W. Allen : " Adjectives compounded with the Latin preposi- 
tion per, are already superlative: as, perfect, perennial, permanent, &c." — Elements of E. Gram., p. 
52. In reply to this, I would say, that nothing is really superlative, in English, but what has the 
form and construction of the superlative ; as, " The most permanent of ah dyes." No word be- 
ginning with per, is superlative by virtue of this Latin prefix. " Separate spirits, which are 
beings that have perfecter knowledge and greater happiness than we, must needs have also a per- 
fecter way of communicating their thoughts than we have." — Locke's Essay, B. ii, Ch. 24, § 36. 
This mode of comparison is not now good, but it shows that perfect is no superlative. Thus 
Kirkham: "The following adjectives, and many others, are always in the superlative degree; be- 
cause, by expressing a quality in the highest degree, they carry in themselves a superlative signifi- 
cation : chief, extreme, perfect, right, wrong, honest, just, true, correct, sincere, vast, immense, cease- 
less, infinite, endless, unparalleled, universal, supreme, unlimited, omnipotent, all-vAse, eternal."* — 
Gram., p. 73. So the Rev. David Blair: "The words perfect, certain, infinite, universal, chief 
supreme, right, true, extreme, superior, and some others, which express a perfect and superlative 
sense in themselves, do not admit of comparison." — English Gram., p. 81. Now, according to 
Murray's definition, which Kirkham adopts, none of these words can be at all in the superlative 
degree. On the contrary, there are several among them, from which true superiatives are fre- 
quently and correctly formed. Where are the positives which are here supposed to be "increased 
to the highest degree ?" Every real superlative in our language, except best and worst, most and 
least, first and last, with the still more irregular word next, is a derivative, formed from some other 
English word, by adding est or most; as, truest, hindmost. The propriety or impropriety' of com- 
paring the foregoing words, or any of the " many others" of which this author speaks, is to be 
determined according to their meaning, and according to the usage of good writers, and not by the 
dictation of a feeble pedant, or upon the supposition that if compared they would form " double 
superlatives." 

Obs. 8. — Chief is from the French word chef, the head : chiefest is therefore no more a double 
superlative than headmost: " But when the headmost foes appeared." — Scott. Nor are chief and 
chiefest equivalent terms : " Doeg an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen." — 1 Samuel, xxi, 7. 
"The chief of the herdsmen," would convey a different meaning; it would be either the leader 
of the herdsmen, or the principal part of them. Chiefest, however, has often been used where 
chief would have been better; as, " He sometimes denied admission to the chiefest officers of the 
army." — Clarendon. Let us look further at Kirkham's list of absolute "superlatives." 

Obs. 9. — Extreme is from the Latin superlative extremus, and of course its literal signification is 
not really susceptible of increase. Yet extremest has been used, and is still used, by some of the 
very best writers ; as, " They thought it the extremest of evils." — Bacon. "That on the sea's ex- 
tremest border stood." — Addison. "How, to extremest thrill of agony." — Pollok, B. viii, 1. 270. 
" I go th' extremest remedy to prove." — Dry den. " In extremest poverty." — Swift. " The hairy 
fool stood on th' extremest verge of the swift brook, augmenting it with tears." — Shak. " While 
the extremest parts of the earth were meditating submission." — Atterbury. " His writings are poeti- 
cal to the extremest boundaries of pot-cry. " — Adams's Rhetoric, i, 87. In prose, this superlative 
is not now very common; but the poets still occasionally use it, for the sake of their measure; 
and it ought to be noticed that the simple adjective is not partitive. If we say, for the first ex- 
ample, "the extreme of evils ;" we make the word a noun, and do not convey exactly the same 
idea that is there expressed. 

Obs. 10. — Perfect, if taken in its strictest sense, must not be compared; but this word, like 
many others which mean most in the positive, is often used with a certain latitude of meaning, 
which renders its comparison by the adverbs not altogether inadmissible; nor is it destitute of 
authority, as I have already shown. (See Obs. 8th, p. 280.) " Erom the first rough sketches, to 
the more perfect draughts." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 152. "The most perfect." — Adams's Led. on 
Llhet., i, 99 and 136; ii, 17 and 57 : Blair's Led, pp. 20 and 399. " The most beautiful and per- 
fect example of analysis." — Lowth's Gram., Prefi, p. 10. " The plainest, most perfect, and most 
useful manual." — Bullions 'sE. Gram., Rev., p. 7. " Our sight is the most perfect, and the most de- 

* Murray himself had the same false notion concerning six of these adjectives, and perhaps all the rest ; for 
his indefinite andsoforths may embrace just what the reader pleases to imagine. Let the following paragraph 
be compared with the observations and proofs which I shall offer : " Adjectives that have in themselves a super- 
lative signification, do not properly admit of the superlative or [the] comparative form superadded : such as, 
' Chief, extreme, perfect, right, universal, supreme, 1 &c. ; which are sometimes improperly written, ' Chiefest, 
extremest, perfectest, rightest, most universal, most supreme,' &c. The following expressions are therefore 
improper. ' He sometimes claims admission to the chiefest offices ;' ' The quarrel became so universal and 
national ;' ' A method of attaining the rightest and greatest happiness.' The phrases, so perfect, so right, so 
extreme, so universal, &c, are incorrect; because they imply that one thing is less perfect, less extreme, &c. 
than another, which is not possible." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. i, p. 167. For himself, a man may do as he 
pleases about comparing these adjectives ; but whoever corrects others, on such principles as the foregoing, will 
have work enough on his hands. But the writer who seems to exceed all others, in error on this point, is Joseph 
W. Wright. In his " Philosophical Grammar," p. 51st, this author gives a list of seventy-two adjectives, which, 
he says, "admit of no variation of state;" i. e., are not compared. Among them are round, fat, wet, dry, 
clear, pure, odd, free, plain, fair, chaste, blind, and more than forty others, which are compared about as often 
as any words in the language. Dr. Blair is hypercritically censured by him, for saying " most excellent," " more 
false," " the chastest kind," '•'■more per feet" "fuller, more full, fullest, most full, truest and most true ;" Murray, 
for using " quite wrong;" and Cobbett, for the phrase, " perfect correctness." "Correctness," says the critic, 
"does not admit of degrees of perfection." — lb., pp. 143 and 151. But what does such a thinker know about 
correctness? If this excellent quality cannot be perfect, surely nothing can. The words which Dr. Bullions 
thinks it "improper to compare," because he judges them to have " an absolute or superlative signification," 
are " true, perfect, universal, chief, extreme, supreme, &c." — no body knows how many. See Principles of E. 
Gram., p. 19 and p. 115. 

19 



290 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

lightfiil, of all our senses." — Addison, Sped., No. 411; Blair 's Led., pp. 115 and 194; Murray's 
Gram., i, 322. Here Murray anonymously copied Blair. "And to render natives more perfect in 
the knowledge of it." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 171; Murray's Gram., p. 366. Here Murray copied 
Campbell, the most accurate of all his masters. "Whom did he copy when he said, " The phrases, 
more perfect, and most perfect, are improper?" — Octavo Gram., p. 168. But if these are wrong, 
so is the following sentence : " No poet has ever attained a greater perfection than Horace." — 
Blair s Led., p. 398. And also this : " Why are we brought into the world less perfect in respect 
to our nature ?" — Wests Letters to a Young Lady, p. 220. 

Obs. 11. — Right and wrong are not often compared by good writers; though we sometimes see 
such phrases as more right and more wrong, and such words as Tightest and wrongest: "'Tis al- 
ways in the wrongest sense." — Butler. " A method of attaining the righest and greatest hap- 
piness." — Price : Priestley's Gram., p. 78. " It is no more right to steal apples, than it is to steal 
money." — Webster's New Spelling-Book, p. 118. There are equivalent expressions which seem 
preferable ; as, more proper, more erroneous, most proper, most erroneous. 

Obs. 12. — Honest, just, true, correct, sincere, and vast, may all be compared at pleasure. Pope's 
Essay on Criticism is more correct than any thing this modest pretender can write ; and in it he 
may find the comparative juster, the superlatives justest, truest, sincerest, and the phrases, " So 
vast a throng," — " So vast is art :" all of which are contrary to his teaching. " Unjuster dealing Is 
used in buying than in selling." — Butler's Poems, p. 163. " Iniquissimam pacem justissimo bello 
antefero." — Cicero. "I prefer the unjustest peace before the justest war." — Walker's English 
Particles, p. 68. The poet Cowley used the word honestest ; which is not now very common. 
So Swift: " What honester folks never durst for their ears." — The Yahoo's Overthrow. So Junius: 
"The honestest and ablest men." — Letter XY1II. "The sentence would be more correct in the 
following form." — Murray's Gram., i, p. 223. "Elegance is chiefly gained by studying the 
corredest writers." — Holmes's Rhetoric, p. 27. Honest and correct, for the sake of euphony, 
require the adverbs ; as, more honest, " most correct." — Lowth's Gram., Pref, p. iv. Vast, vaster, 
vastest, are words as smooth, as fast, faster, fastest ; and more vast is certainly as good English as 
more just: " Shall mortal man be more just than God?" — Job, iv, 17. " Wilt thou condemn him 
that is most just?" — lb., xxxiv, 17. "More wise, more learn'd, more just, more-everything." — 
Pope. Universal is often compared by the adverbs, but certainly with no reenforcement of mean- 
ing: as, " One of the most universal precepts, is, that the orator himself should feel the passion." 
— Adams's Rhet, i, 379. " Though not so universal." — lb., ii, 311. " This experience is general, 
though not so universal, as the absence of memory in childhood." — lb., ii, 362. " We can suppose 
no motive which would more universally operate." — Dr. Blair's Rhet, p. 55. " Music is known to 
have been more universally studied." — lb., p. 123. " We shall not wonder, that his grammar 
has been so universally applauded." — Walker's Recommendation in Murray's Gram., ii, 306. 
"The pronoun it is the most universal of all the pronouns." — Cutler's Gram., p. 66. Thus much 
for one half of this critic's twenty-two " superlatives." The rest are simply adjectives that are not 
susceptible of comparison : they are not " superlatives" at all. A man might just as well teach, 
that good is a superlative, and not susceptible of comparison, because " there is none good but one." 

Obs. 13. — Pronominal adjectives, when their nouns are expressed, simply relate to them, and 
have no modifications : except this and that, which form the plurals these and those ; and much, 
mawy, and a few others, which are compared. Examples: ""Whence hath this man this wisdom, 
and these mighty works ?" — Matt, xiii, 54. " But some man will say, How are the dead raised 
up? and with what body do they come?" — 1 Cor., xv, 35. "The first man Adam was made a 
living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." — 76., 45. So, when one pronominal 
adjective " precedes an other, the former must be taken simply as an adjective ;" as, 

"Those suns are set. rise some other suchl" — Cowper's Task, B. ii, 1. 252. 

Obs. 14. — Pronominal adjectives, when their nouns are not expressed, may be parsed as repre- 
senting them in person, number, gender, and case ; but those who prefer it, may supply the ellipsis, 
and parse the adjective, simply as an adjective. Example : " He threatens many, who injures 
one." — Karnes. Here it may be said, " Many is a pronominal adjective, meaning many persons ; 
of the third person, plural number, masculine gender, and objective case." Or those who will 
take the word simply as an adjective, may say, " Many is a pronominal adjective, of the positive 
degree, compared many, more, most, and relating to persons understood." And so of u one," 
which represents, or relates to, person understood. Either say, " One is a pronominal adjective, 
not compared," and give the three definitions accordingly; or else say, " One is a pronominal ad- 
jective, relating to person understood ; of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, 
and objective case," and give the six definitions accordingly. 

Obs. 15. — Elder for older, and eldest for oldest, are still frequently used ; though the ancient 
positive, eld for old, is now obsolete. Hence some have represented old as having a two-fold com- 
parison; and have placed it, not very properly, among the irregular adjectives. The comparatives 
elder and better, are often used as nouns ; so are the Latin comparatives superior and inferior, in- 
terior and exterior, senior and junior, major and minor : as, The elder's advice, — One of the elders, 
— His betters, — Our superiors, — The interior of the country, — A handsome exterior, — Your seniors, 
— My juniors, — A major in the army, — He is yet a minor. The word other, which has some- 
thing of the nature of a comparative, likewise takes the form of a noun, as before suggested ; 
and, in that form, the reader, if he will, may call it a noun: as, " "What do ye more than others f" 
— Bible. " G-od in thus much is bounded, that the evil hath he left unto an other; and that Bark 
Other hath usurped the evil which Omnipotence laid down." — Tupper's Book of Thoughts, p. 45. 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — PARSING. — PRAXIS IV. 291 

Some call it a pronoun. But it seems to be pronominal, merely by ellipsis of the noun after it ; 
although, unlike a mere adjective, it assumes the ending of the noun, to mark that ellipsis. Per- 
haps, therefore, the best explanation of it would be this: " Others is a pronominal adjective, 
having the form of a noun, and put for other men ; in the third person, plural number, masculine' 
gender, and nominative case." The gender of this word varies, according to that of the contrasted 
term ; and the case, according to the relation it bears to other words. In the following example, 
it is neuter and objective: "The fibres of this muscle act as those of others." — Cheyne. Here, 
"as those of others," means, "as the fibres of other muscles." 

Obs.»16. — "Comparatives and superlatives seem sometimes to part with their relative nature, 
and only to retain their intensive, especially those which are formed by the superlative adverb 
most ; as, 'A most learned man,' — ' A most brave man :' i.e. not the bravest or the most learned 
man that ever was, but a man possessing bravery or learning in a very eminent degree." — See 
Alexander Murray's Gram., p. 110. This use of the terms of comparison is thought by some not 
to be very grammatical. 

Obs. 17. — Contractions of the superlative termination est, as highest for highest, biggest for big- 
gest, though sometimes used by the poets, are always inelegant, and may justly be considered 
grammatically improper. They occur most frequently in doggerel verse, like that of Eudibras ; 
the author of which work, wrote, in his droll fashion, not only the foregoing monosyllables, but 
learned'si for most learned, activist for most active, desperat'st for most desperate, epidemical st for 
most epidemical, Sec. 

"And th' activist fancies share as loose alloys, 

For want of equal weight to counterpoise." — Butler's Poems. 
" "Who therefore finds the artificial 'st fools 
Have not been chang'd i' th' cradle, but the schools." — lb., p. 143. 

Obs. 18. — Nouns used adjectively are not varied in number to agree with the nouns to which 
they relate, but what is singular or plural when used substantively, is without number when 
taken as an adjective: as, " One of the nine sister goddesses." — Webster's Diet, w. Muse. "He 
has money in a savings bank." The latter mode of expression is uncommon, and the term 
savings-bank is sometimes compounded, but the hyphen does not really affect the nature of the 
former word. It is doubtful, however, whether a plural noun can ever properly assume the charac- 
ter of an adjective ; because, if it is not then really the same as the possessive case, it will always 
be liable to be thought a false form of that case. What Johnson wrote "fullers earth" and 
"fullers thistle," Chalmers has "fullers earth" and "fuller's thistle ;" Webster, " fuller 's-earth" 
and " fuller' s-thistU;" Ainsworth, "fuller's earth" and "fuller's thistle;" Walker has only 
"fullers-earth;" Worcester, " fuller' s-earth ;" Cobb, "fullers earth;" the Treasury of Knowledge, 
"fullers' -earth." So unsettled is this part of our grammar, that in many such cases it is diffi- 
cult to say whether we ought to use the apostrophe, or the hyphen, or both, or neither. To 
insert neither, unless we make a close compound, is to use a plural noun adjectively ; which form, 
I think, is the most objectionable of all. See "All souls day" — "All-fools-day," — " All-saints - 
day," &c, in the dictionaries. These may well be written " All Souls' Day" &c. 

EXAMPLES FOE PAKSING. 
PRAXIS IV.— ETYMOLOGICAL, 

In the Fourth Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the 
different parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the Articles, 
Nouns, and Adjectives. 

The definitions to be given in the Fourth Praxis, are two for an article, six for a 
noun, three for an adjective, and one for a pronoun, a verb, a participle, an ad- 
verb, a conjunction, a preposition, or an interjection. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 

" The best and most effectual method of teaching grammar, is precisely that of 
which the careless are least fond : teach learnedly, rebuking whatsoever is false, 
blundering, or unmannerly." — G. Brown. 

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put hefore nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things. 

Best is a common adjective, of the superlative degree ; compared irregularly, good, better, best. 1. An adjective 
is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordi- 
nary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. The superlative degree is that which is most or 
least of all included with it. 

And is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to 
show the dependence of the terms so connected. 

Most is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; and 
generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Effectual is a common adjective, compared by means of the adverbs ; effectual, more effectual, most effectual; 
or, effectual, less effectual, least effectual. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and gen- 
erally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or 
situation. 3. Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, but not in form, are compared by means of 
adverbs. 



292 t'he grammar of English grammars. [part ii. 

Method is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A noun 
is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the 
name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person, is that which denotes the person 
or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender 
is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state 
of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Of is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Teaching is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, 
and of an adjective or a noun ; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 

Grammar is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noufi is the 
name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or 
thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is 
that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a 
noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Is is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

Precisely is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; 
and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

That is a pronominal adjective, not compared ; standing for that method, in the third person, singular number, 
neuter gender, and nominative case. [See One. 14th, p. 200.] 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or 
pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may either 
accompany its noun or represent it understood. 3. The third perscn is that which denotes the person or 
thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is 
that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of 
a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Of is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Which is a pronoun. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes Bome particular thing or things. 

Careless is a common adjective, compared by means of the adverbs; careless, more careless, most careless; or, 
careless, less careless, least careless. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally 
expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situa- 
tion. 3. Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, but not in form, are compared by means of ad- 
verbs. 

Are is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

Least is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; and 
generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Fond is a common adjective, compared regularly, fond, fonder, fondest; but here made superlative by the ad- 
verb least. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A 
common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. The superlative 
degree is that which is most or least of all included with it. 

Teaih is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

Learnedly is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; 
and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Rebuking is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, 
and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 

Whatsoever ia a pronoun. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 

Is is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

False is a common adjective, of the positive degree ; compared regularly, false, falser, falsest. 1. An adjective 
is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordi- 
nai-y epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. The positive degree is that which is expressed 
by the adjective in its simple form. 

Blundering is a participial adjective, compared by means of the adverbs; blundering, more blundering, most 
blundering ; or, blundering, less blundering, least blundering. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun 
or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A participial adjective is one that has the form of a part- 
iciple, but differs from it by rejecting the idea of time. 3. Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, 
but not in form, are compared by means of adverbs. 
Or is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to show 

the dependence of the terms so connected. 
Unmannerly is a common adjective, compared by means of the adverbs ; unmannerly, more unmannerly, most 
unmannerly; or, unmannerly, less unmannerly, least unmannerly. 1. An adjective is a word added to a 
noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or ad- 
jective denoting quality or situation. 3. Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, tout not in form, 
are compared by means of adverbs. 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

" The noblest arid most beneficial invention of which human ingenuity can boast, 
is that of writing." — Robertson's America, Vol. II, p. 193. 

" Charlemagne was the tallest, the handsomest, and the strongest man of his time ; 
his appearance was truly majestic, and he had surprising agility in all sorts of manly 
exercises." — Stories of France, p. 19. 

" Money, like other things, is more or less valuable, as it is less or more plentiful." 
— Beanie's Moral Science, p. 378. 

" The right way of acting, is, in a moral sense, as much a reality, in the mind of an 
ordinary man, as the straight or the right road." — Dr. Murray's Hist. Lang., i, 118. 

" The full period of several members possesses most dignity and modulation, and 
conveys also the greatest degree of force, by admitting the closest compression of 
thought." — JamiesorCs Rhet., p. 79. 

" His great master, Demosthenes, in addressing popular audiences, never had re- 
course to a similar expedient. He avoided redundancies, as equivocal and feeble, 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — PARSING. — PRAXIS IV. 293 

He aimed only to make the deepest and most efficient impression ; and he employed 
for this purpose, the plainest, the fewest, and the most emphatic words." — lb., p. 68. 
" The high eloquence which I have last mentioned, is always the offspring of pas- 
sion. A man actuated by a strong passion, becomes much greater than he is at 
other times. He is conscious of more strength and force ; he utters greater senti- 
ments, conceives higher designs, and executes them with a boldness and felicity, of 
which, on other occasions, he could not think himself capable." — Blair'' 8 Rhet., 
p. 236. 

" His words bore sterling weight, nervous and strong, 
In manly tides of sense they roll'd along." — Churchill. 

" To make the humble proud, the proud submiss, 
Wiser the wisest, and the brave more brave." — W. S. Landor. 

Lesson H. — Parsing. 

" I am satisfied that in this, as in all cases, it is best, safest, as well as most right 
and honorable, to speak freely and plainly." — C harming* s Letter to Clay, p. 4. 

" The gospel, when preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, through 
the wonder-working power of God, can make the proud humble, the selfish disinter- 
ested, the worldly heavenly, the sensual pure." — Christian Experience, p. 399. 

" I am so much the better, as I am the liker* the best ; and so much the holier, 
as I am more conformable to the holiest, or rather to Him who is holiness itself." — 
Bp. Beveridge. 

u Whether any thing in Christianity appears to them probable, or improbable ; 
consistent, or inconsistent ; agreeable to what they should have expected, or the con- 
trary ; wise and good, or ridiculous and useless ; is perfectly irrelevant." — M'llvaine's 
Evidences, p. 523. 

" God's providence is higher, and deeper, and larger, and stronger, than all the 
skill of his adversaries ; and his pleasure shall be accomplished in their overthrow, 
except they repent and become his friends." — Cox, on Christianity, p. 445. 

"A just relish of what is beautiful, proper, elegant, and ornamental, in writing or 
painting, in architecture or gardening, is a fine preparation for the same just relish 
of these qualities in character and behaviour. To the man who has acquired a taste 
so acute and accomplished, every action wrong or improper must be highly disgust- 
ful : if, in any instance, the overbearing power of passion sway him from his duty, 
he returns to it with redoubled resolution never to be swayed a second time." — 
Karnes, Elements of Criticism, Vol. i, p. 25. 

" In grave Quintilian's copious work, we find 
The justest rules and clearest method join'd." — Pope, on Crit. 

Lesson III. — Parsing. 

" There are several sorts of scandalous tempers ; some malicious, and some effemi- 
nate ; others obstinate, brutish, and savage. Some humours are childish and silly ; 
some, false, and others, scurrilous ; some, mercenary, and some, tyrannical." — Col- 
lier's Antoninus, p. 52. 

" Words are obviously voluntary signs : and they are also arbitrary ; excepting a 
few simple sounds expressive of certain internal emotions, which sounds being the 
same in all languages, must be the work of nature : thus the unpremeditated tones 
of admiration are the same in all men." — Karnes, Elements of Crit., i, 347. 

" A stately and majestic air requires sumptuous apparel, which ought not to be 
gaudy, nor crowded with little ornaments. A woman of consummate beauty can 
bear to be highly adorned, and yet shows best in a plain dress." — lb., p. 279. " Of 
all external objects a graceful person is the most agreeable. But in vain will a per- 
son attempt to be graceful, who is deficient in amiable qualities." — lb., p. 299. 

* The regular comparison of this word, (like, liker, likest,) seems to be obsolete, or nearly so. It is seldom 
met with, except in old books: yet we say, more like, or most like, less like, or least like. " To say the flock 
with whom he is, is likest to Christ." — Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 180. "Of Godlike pow'r? for likest Gods 
they seem'd."— Milton, P. L. B. vi, 1. 301. 



294 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

" The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because 
the influence of his example is more extensive ; and the interest of learning requires 
that they should be discovered and stigmatized, before they have the sanction of an- 
tiquity bestowed upon them, and become precedents of indisputable authority." — 
Dr. Johnson, Rambler, Vol. ii, No. 93. 

" Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and 
more advised than confident ; above all things, integrity is their portion and proper 
virtue." — Bacon's Essays, p. 145. 

" The wisest nations, having the most and best ideas, will consequently have the 
best and most copious languages." — Harrises Hermes, p. 408. 

" Here we trace the operation of powerful causes, while we remain ignorant of 
their nature ; but everything goes on with such regularity and harmony, as to give 
a striking and convincing proof of a combining directing intelligence." — Life of W. 
Allen, Vol. i, p. 170. 

" The wisest, unexperienced, will be ever 
Timorous and loth, with novice modesty, 
Irresolute, unhardy, un adventurous." — Milton. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS OF ADJECTIVES. 

Lesson I. — Degrees. 

"I have the real excuse of the honestest sort of bankrupts." — Cowley } s Preface, p. viii. 

[Foemttlb. — Not proper, because the adjective honestest is harshly compared by est. But, according to a prin- 
ciple stated on page 283d concerning the regular degrees, " This method of comparison is to be applied only to 
monosyllables, and to dissyllables of a smooth termination, or such as receive it and still have but one syllable 
after the accent." Therefore, honestest 6hould be most honest; thus, " I have the real excuse of the most hon- 
est sort of bankrupts."] 

"The honourablest part of talk, is, to give the occasion." — Bacon's Essays, p. 90. "To give him 
one of his own modestest proverbs." — Barclay's Works, iii, 340. "Our language is now certainly 
properer and more natural, than it was formerly." — Bp. Burnet " Which will be of most and fre- 
quentest use to him in the world." — Locke, on Education, p. 163. "The same is notified in the 
notablest places in the diocese." — Whitgift. "But it was the dreadfullest sight that ever I saw." 
— Pilgrim's Progress, p. 10. "Four of the ancientest, soberest, and discreetest of the brethren, 
chosen for the occasion, shall regulate it." — Locke, on Church Gov. "Nor can there be any clear 
understanding of any Roman author, especially of ancienter time, without this skill." — Walker's 
Particles, p. x. " Far the learnedest of the Greeks. ' — lb., p. 120. " Thelearneder thou art, the 
humbler be thou." — lb., p. 228. "He is none of the best or honestest." — lb., p. 274. "The 
properest methods of communicating it to others." — Burn's Gram., Fret, p. viii. " "What heaven's 
great King hath powerfullest to send against us." — Paradise Lost. " Benedict is not the unhope- 
fullest husband that I know." — Shak. : in Joh. Diet. "That he should immediately do all the 
meanest and triflingest things himself." — Ray : in Johnson's Gram., p. 6. " I shall be named 
among the famousest of women." — Milton's Samson Agonistes : ib. " Those have the inventivest 
heads for all purposes." — Asgham: ib. " The wretcheder are the contemners of all helps." — Ben 
Jonson : ib. " I will now deliver a few of the properest and naturallest considerations that be- 
long to this piece." — Wotton: ib. " The mortalest poisons practised by the West Indians, have 
some mixture of the blood, fat, or flesh of man." — Bacon: ib. "He so won upon him, that he 
rendered him one of the faithfulest and most affectionate allies the Medes ever had." — Rollin, ii, 
71. " 'You see before you,' says he to him, ' the most devoted servant, and the faithfullest ally, 
you ever had.' " — lb., ii, 79. "I chose the flourishing'st tree in all the park." — Cowley. " Which 
he placed, I think, some centuries backwarder than Julius Africanus thought fit to place it after- 
wards." — Bolingbroke, on History, p. 53. " The Tiber, the notedest river of Italy." — Littleton's 
Diet. 

"To fartherest shores the ambrosial spirit flies." — Cutler's Gram., p. 140. 

" That what she wills to do or say, 

Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best." — Milton, B. viii, 1. 550. 

Lesson II. — Mixed. 
" During the three or four first years of its existence." — Taylor's District School, p. 27. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because the cardinal numbers, three and/owr are put before the ordinal first. But, 
according to the 7th part of Obs. 7th, page 280th, " In specifying any part of a series, we ought to place the car- 
dinal number after the ordinal." Therefore the words three and four should be placed after first; thus, " Dur- 
ing the first three or four years of its existence."] 

" To the first of these divisions, my ten last lectures have been devoted." — Adams's Rhet, Vol. 
i, p. 391. " There are in the twenty-four states not less than sixty thousand common schools." — 



CHAP. IV.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADJECTIVES. — ERRORS. . * 295 

Taylor's District School, p. 38. " I know of nothing which gives teachers so much trouble as this 
want of firmness." — lb., p. 57. "I know of nothing that throws such darkness over the line 
which separates right from wrong." — lb., p. 58. "None need this purity and simplicity of 
language and thought so much as the common school instructor." — lb., p. 64. " I know of no 
periodical that is so valuable to the teacher as the Annals of Education." — lb., p. 67. " Are not 
these schools of the highest importance ? Should not every individual feel tbe deepest interest in 
their character and condition?" — lb., p. 78. " If instruction were made a profession, teachers 
would feel a sympathy for each other." — lb., p. 93. "Nothing is so likely to interest children as 
novelty and change." — lb., p. 131. "I know of no labour which affords so much happiness as 
that of the teacher's." — lb., p. 136. " Their school exercises are the most pleasant and agreeable 
of any that they engage in." — lb., p. 136. "I know of no exercise so beneficial to the pupil as 
that of drawing maps." — lb., p. 176. "I know of nothing in which our district schools are so 
defective as they are in the art of teaching grammar." — lb., p. 196. "I know of nothing so 
easily acquired as history." — lb., p. 206. "I know of nothing for which scholars usually have 
such an abhorrence, as composition." — lb., p. 210. " There is nothing in our fellow-men that we 
should respect with so much sacredness as their good name." — lb., p. 307. " Sure never any 
thing was so unbred as that odious man." — Congreve : in Joh. Diet. " In the dialogue between 
the mariner and the shade of the deceast." — Philological Museum, i, 466. " These master-works 
would still be less excellent and finisht." — lb., i, 469. " Every attempt to staylace the language 
of polisht conversation, renders our phraseology inelegant and clumsy." — lb., i, 678. "Here are 
a few of the unpleasant' st words that ever blotted paper." — Shak. : in Joh. Diet. " With the 
most easy, undisobliging transitions." — Broome: ib. "Fear is, of all affections, the unaptest to 
admit any conference with reason." — Hooker : ib. " Most chymists think glass a body more 
undestroyable than gold itself." — Boyle : ib. " To part with unhackt edges, and bear back our 
barge undinted." — Shak. : ib. " Erasmus, who was an unbigotted Roman Catholic, was trans- 
ported with this passage." — Addison : ib. " There are no less than five words, with any of 
which the sentence might have terminated." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 397. "The one preach Christ 
of contention ; but the other, of love." — Philippians, i, 16. "Hence we find less discontent and 
heart-burnings, than where the subjects are unequally burdened." — Art of Thinking, p. 56. 
" The serpent, subtil' st beast of all the field, 
I knew; but not with human voice indu'd." — Milton: Joh. Diet, w. Human. 
" How much more grievous would our lives appear, 
To reach th' eighth hundred, than the eightieth year?" — Denhaii : B. P., h, 244. 

Lesson III. — Mixed. 

" Brutus engaged with Aruns ; and so fierce was the attack, that they pierced one another at 

the same time." — Lempriere!s Diet. 

[Foemttle. — Not proper, because the phrase one another is here applied to two persons only, the -words an 
and other being needlessly compounded. But, according to Observation 15th, on the Classes of Adjectives, each 
other must be applied to two persons or things, and one an other to more than two. Therefore one another 
should here be each other; thus, "Brutus engaged with Aruns; and so fierce was the attack, that they pierced 
each other at the same time."] 

"Her two brothers were one after another turned into stone." — Art of Thinking, p. 194. 
" Nouns are often used as adjectives ; as, A gold-ring, a silver-cap." — Lennie's Gram., p. 14. 
"Eire and water destroy one another." — WanostrocMs Gram., p. 82. " Two negatives hi Eng- 
lish destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative." — Lowth's Gram., p. 94; E. Devis's, 
111 ; Mack's, 147 ; Murray's, 198 ; Churchill's, 148 ; Putnam's, 135 ; C. Adams's, 102 ; Hamlin's, 
79; Alger's, 66; Fisk's, 140; Ingersoll's, 207; and many others. "Two negatives destroy one 
another, and are generally equivalent to an affirmative." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 191 ; Felton's, 85. 
"Two negatives destroy one another and make an affirmative." — J. Flint's Gram., p. 79. "Two 
negatives destroy one another, being equivalent to an affirmative." — Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. 
48. "Two objects, resembling one another, are presented to the imagination." — Parker's Exer- 
cises in Camp., p. 47. "Mankind, in order to hold converse with each other, found it necessary 
to give names to objects." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 42. " "Words are derived from each other* in 
various ways." — Cooper's Grain., p. 108. "There are many other ways of deriving words from 
one another." — Murray's Gram., p. 131. " When several verbs connected by conjunctions, suc- 
ceed each other in a sentence, the auxiliary is usually omitted except with the first." — Frost's 
Gram., p. 91. " Two or more verbs, having the same nominative case, and immediately follow- 
ing one another, are also separated by commas. "f — Murray's Gram., p. 270; C. Adams's, 126; 
Russell's, 113; and others. "Two or more adverbs immediately succeeding each other, must be 
separated by commas." — Same Grammars. " If, however, the members succeeding each other, 
are very closely connected, the comma is unnecessary." — Murray's Gram., p. 273 ; Comly's, 152 ; 

This example, and several others that follow it, are no ordinary solecisms; they are downright Irish bulls, 
making actions or relations reciprocal, where reciprocity is utterly unimaginable. Two words c;>n no more be 
" derived from each other," than two living creatures can have received their existence from each other. So, 
two things can never '■'■succeed each other," 1 except they alternate or move, in a circle; and a greater number in 
train can "follow one an other"'' only in some imperfect sense, not at all reciprocal. In some instances, there- 
fore, the best form of correction will be, to reject the reciprocal terms altogether. — G. Bbown. 

t This doctrine of punctuation, if not absolutely false in itself, is here very badly taught. When only two 
words, of any sort, occur in the same construction^ they seldom require the comma ; and never can they need 
more than one, whereas these grammarians, by their plural word "■commas" suggest a constant demand for 
two or more. — G. Bbown. 



296 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

and others. " Gratitude, when exerted towards one another, naturally produces a very pleasing 
sensation in the mind of a grateful man." — Mar., p. 287. "Several verbs in the infinitive mood, 
having a common dependence, and succeeding one another, are also divided by commas." — 
Comly's Gram., p. 153. " The several words of which it consists, have so near a relation to each 
other." — Murray's Gram., p. 268; Comly's, 144; RusseWs, 111; and others. "When two or 
more verbs have the same nominative, and immediately follow one another, or two or more ad- 
verbs immediately succeed one another, they must be separated by commas." — Comly's Gram., 
p. 145. " Nouns frequently succeed each other, meaning the same thing." — Sanborn's Gram., 
p. 63. " And these two tenses may thus answer one another." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 322. 
" Or some other relation which two objects bear to one another." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 149. 
"That the heathens tolerated each other, is allowed." — Gospel its own Witness, p. 76. "And yet 
these two persons love one another tenderly." — Murray's E. Reader, p. 112. "In the six hun- 
dredth aid first year." — Gen., viii, 13. "Nor is this arguing of his but a reiterate clamour." — Bar- 
clay's Worh>, i, 250. "In severals of them the inward life of Christianity is to be found." — lb., 
hi, 272. " Though Alvarez, Despauterius, and other, allow it not to be Plural." — Johnson's Gram. 
Com., p. 169. " Even the most dissipate and shameless blushed at the sight." — Lemp. Did., w. 
Antiochus. " We feel a superior satisfaction in surveying the life of animals, than that of vegeta- 
bles." — Jamieson's Rhet., 172. "But this man is so full fraughted with malice." — Barclay's 
Works, iii, 265. "That I suggest some things concerning the properest means." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 337. 

" So hand in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair 
That ever since in love's embraces met." — Milton, P. L., B. iv, 1. 321. 

" Aim at the high'est without the high'est attain'd 
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long." — Id., P. R,., B. iv, 1. 106. 



CHAPTER V.— PRONOUN'S. 

A Pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun : as, The boy loves his 
book ; he has long lessons, and he learns them well. 

The jjronouns in our language are twenty-four ; and their variations 
are thirty-two : so that the number of words of this class, is fifty-six. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The word for which a pronoun stands, is called its antecedent, because it usually pre- 
cedes the pronoun. But some have limited the term antecedent to the word represented by a 
relative pronoun. There can be no propriety in this, unless we will have every pronoun to be a 
relative, when it stands for a noun which precedes it ; and, if so, it should be called something 
else, wli3n the noun is to be found elsewhere. In the example above, his and he represent boy, 
and them represents lessons ; and these nouns are as truly the antecedents to the pronouns, as any 
can be. Yet his, he, and them, in our most approved grammars, are not called relative pronouns, 
but personal. 

Obs. 2. — Every pronoun may be explained as standing for the name of something, for the thing 
itself unnamed, or for & former pronoun; and, with the noun, pronoun, or thing, for which it stands, 
every pronoun must agree in person, number, and gender. The exceptions to this, whether ap- 
parent or real, are very few ; and, as their occurrence is unfrequent, there will be little occasion 
to notice them till we come to syntax. But if the student will observe the use and import of 
pronouns, he may easily see, that soma of them are put substantively, for nouns not previously 
introduced ; some, relatively, for noun3 or pronouns going before; some, adjectively, for nouns that 
must follow them in any explanation which can be made of the sense. These three modes of 
substitution, are very different, each from the others. Yet they do not serve for an accurate 
division of the pronouns ; because it often happens, that a substitute which commonly represents 
the noun in one of these ways, will sometimes represent it in an other. 

Obs. 3. — The pronouns /and thou, in their different modifications, stand immediately for per- 
sons that are, in general, sufficiently known without being named ; (7 meaning the speaker, and 
thou, the hearer;) their antecedents, or nouns, are therefore generally understood. The other 
personal pronouns, also, are sometimes taken in a general and demonstrative sense, to denote 
persons or tilings not previously mentioned; as, " Re that hath knowledge, spareth his words." — 
Bible. Here he is equivalent to the man, or the person. " The care of posterity is most in them 
that have no posterity." — Bacon. Here them is equivalent to those persons. "How far do you 
call it to such a place ?" — Priestley's Gram., p. 85. Here it, according to Priestley, is put for the 
distance. " For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his 
mouth." — Malachi, ii, 7. Here they is put indefinitely for men or people. So who and which, 
though called relatives, do not always relate to a noun or pronoun going before them; for who 
may be a direct substitute for what person ; and which may mean which person, or which thing : as, 
"And he that was healed, wist not who it was." — John, v, 13. That is, " The man who was 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — OBSERVATIONS. — CLASSES. 297 

healed, knew not what person it was." " I care not which you take ; they are so much alike, one 
cannot tell which is which." 

Obs. 4. — A pronoun with which a question is asked, usually stands for some person or thing 
unknown to the speaker ; the noun, therefore, cannot occur before it, but may be used after it or 
in place of it. Examples: "In the grave, who shall give thee thanks?" — Ps., vi, 5. Here the 
word who is equivalent to what person, taken interrogatively. " Which of you convinceth me of 
sin?" — John, viii, 46. That is, " Which man of you?" "Master, what shall we do?" — Luke, hi, 
12. That is, " What act, or thing?" These solutions, however, convert which and what into 
adjectives : and, in fact, as they have no inflections for the numbers and cases, there is reason to 
think them at all times essentially such. "We call them pronouns, to avoid the inconvenience of 
supposing and supplying an infinite multitude of ellipses. But who, though often equivalent (as 
above) to an adjective and a noun, is never itself used adjectively; it is always a pronoun. 

Obs. 5. — In respect to who or whom, it sometimes makes little or no difference to the sense, 
whether we take it as a demonstrative pronoun equivalent to what person, or suppose it to relate 
to an antecedent understood before it: as, "Even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." — John, 
v, 21. That is — "what persons he will," or, "those persons whom he will;" for the Greek word 
for whom, is, in this instance, plural. The former is a shorter explanation of the meaning, but 
the latter I take to be the true account of the construction ; for, by the other, we make whom a 
double relative, and the object of two governing words at once. So, perhaps, of the following 
example, which Dr. Johnson cites under the word who, to show what he calls its " disjunctive 
sense:" — 

" There thou tellst of kings, and who aspire ; 
Who fall who rise, who triumph, wlw do moan." — Daniel. 

Obs. 6. — It sometimes happens that the real antecedent, or the term which in the order of the 
sense must stand before the pronoun, is not placed antecedently to it, in the order given to the 
words: as, "It is written, To whom he was not spoken of, th*y shall see; and they that have not 
heard, shall understand." — Romans, xv, 21. Here the sense is, " They to vjhom he was not spoken, 
of, shall see." "Whoever takes the passage otherwise, totally misunderstands it. And yet the 
same order of the words might be used to signify, "They shall see to whom (that is, to what per- 
sons) he was not spoken of." Transpositions of this kind, as well as of every other, occur most 
frequently in poetry. The following example is from an Essay on Satire, printed with Pope's 
"Works, but written by one of his friends: — 

" Wwse is the crime, the scandal too be theirs ; 
The knave and fool are their own libellers." — J. Brown. 

Obs. 7. — The personal and the interrogative pronouns often stand in construction as the ante- 
cedents to other pronouns : as, " He also that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a 
great waster." — Prov., xviii. 9. Here he and him are each equivalent to the man, and each is 
taken as the antecedent to the relative which follows it. " For both he that sanctifieth, and they 
who are sanctified, are all of one : for which cause, he is not ashamed to call them brethren." — 
Heb., ii, 11. Here he and they may be considered the antecedents to that and who, of the first 
clause, and also to he and them, of the second. So the interrogative who may be the antecedent 
to the relative that; as, " Wlio that has any moral sense, dares tell lies?" Here who, being equiv- 
alent to what person, is the term with which the other pronoun agrees. Nay, an interrogative 
pronoun, (or the noun which is implied in it,) may be the antecedent to a personal pronoun; as, 
" Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again?" — Romans, xi, 35. 
Here the idea is, " What person hath first given any thing to the Lord, so that it ought to be re- 
paid him V that is, " so that the gift ought to be recompensed from Heaven to the giver f n In the 
following example, the first pronoun is the antecedent to all the rest: — 

"And he that never doubted of his state, 
Me may perhaps — perhaps he may — too late." — Gowper. 

Obs. 8. — So the personal pronouns of the p> ossess i ve case, (which some call adjectives,) are 
sometimes represented by relatives, though less frequently than their primitives: as, "How 
different, Ortogrul, is thy condition, who art doomed to the perpetual torments of unsatisfied 
desire!" — Dr. Johnson. Here who is of the second person, singular, masculine; and repre- 
sents the antecedent pronoun thy : for thy is a pronoun, and not (as some writers will have it) 
an adjective. Examples like this, disprove the doctrine of those grammarians who say that my, 
thy, his, her, its, and their plurals, our, your, their, are adjectives. For, if they were mere adjec- 
tives, they could not thus be made antecedents. Examples of this construction are sufficiently 
common, and sufficiently clear, to settle that point, unless they can be better explained in some 
other way. Take an instance or two more: "And they are written for our admonition, upon 
whom the ends of the world are come." — 1 Cor., x, 11. 

"Be thou the first true merit to befriend; 
His praise is lost, who stays till all commend." — Pope. 

CLASSES. 

Pronouns are divided into three classes ; personal, relative, and inter- 
rogative. 



298 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

I. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of what 
person it is ; as, " Whether it® were I or they, so we preach, and so ye be- 
lieved." — 1 Cor., xv, 11. 

The simple personal pronouns are five : namely, I, of the first person ; 
thou, of the second person ; he, she, and it, of the third person. 

The compound personal pronouns are also five : namely, myself, of the 
first person ; thyself, of the second person ; himself, herself, and itself, 
of the third person. 

II. A relative pronoun is a pronoun that represents an antecedent word 
or phrase, and connects different clauses of a sentence ; as, "No people 
can be great, who have ceased to be virtuous/' — Dr. Johnson. 

The relative pronouns are who, which, what, that, as, and the com- 
pounds whoever or whosoever, ivhichever or whichsoever, whatever or 
whatsoever. \ 

What is a kind of double relative, equivalent to that which or those which ; 
and is to be parsed, first as antecedent, and then as relative : as, " This is 
what I wanted ; that is to say, the thing which I wanted." — -L. Murray. 

III. An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun with which a question is 
asked ; as, " Who touched my clothes ?" — Mark, v, 30. 

The interrogative pronouns are ivho, which, and what ; being the same 
in form as relatives. 

Who demands a person's name ; ichich, that a person or thing be dis- 
tinguished from others ; what, the name of a thing, or a person's occu- 
pation and character. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The pronouns /and myself, thou and thyself with their inflections, are literally appli- 
cable to persons only; but, figuratively, they represent brutes, or whatever else the human 
imagination invests with speech and reason. The latter use of them, though literal perhaps in 
every thing out 'person, constitutes the purest kind of personification. For example: "The trees 
went forth on a time to anoint a king over them: and they said unto the olive-tree, 'Reign thou 
over us. 1 But the olive-tree said unto them, ' Should / leave ray fatness, wherewith by me they 
honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?' " See Judges, ix, from 8 to 16. 

Obs. 2. — The pronouns he and himself, she and herself with their inflections, are literally appli- 
cable to persons and to brutes, and to these only ; if applied to lifeless objects, they animate 
them, and are figurative in gender, though literal perhaps in every other respect. For example : 
" A diamond of beauty and lustre, observing at his side in the same cabinet, not only many other 
gem3, but even a loadstone, began to question the latter how he came there — he, who appeared to 
be no better than a mere flint, a sorry rusty-looking pebble, without the least shining quality to 
advance him to such honour ; and concluded with desiring him to keep his distance, and to pay 
a proper respect to his superiors." — Karnes's Art of Thinking, p. 226. 

Obs. 3. — The pronoun it, as it carries in itself no such idea as that of personality, or sex, or life, 
is chiefly used with reference to things inanimate ; yet the word is, in a certain way, applicable to 
animals, or even to persons ; though it does not, in itself, present them as such. Thus we say, 
11 It is /;" — " It was they ;"-l" It was you;"" — "It was your agent f — " It is your hull that has 
killed one of my oxen." In examples of this kind, the word it is simply demonstrative; meaning, 
the thing or subject spoken of. That subject, whatever it be in itself, may be introduced again after 
the verb, in any person, number, or gender, that suits it. But, as the verb agrees with the pro- 
noun it, the word which follows, can in no sense be made, as Dr. Priestley will have it to be, the 
antecedent to that pronoun. Besides, it is contrary to the nature of what is primarily demonstra- 
tive, to represent a preceding word of any kind. The Doctor absurdly says, "Not only things, 
but persons, may be the antecedent to this pronoun ; as, Who is it ? Is it not Thomas f i. e. Who 
is the person f Is not he Thomas V — Priestley's Gram., p. 85. In these examples, the terms are 
transposed by interrogation ; but that circumstance, though it may have helped to deceive this 
author and his copiers, affects not my assertion. 

* Some grammarians exclude the word it from the list of personal pronouns, heeanse it does not convey the 
idea of that personality which consists in individual intelligence. On the other hand, they will have who to be 
a personal pronoun, because it is literally applied to persons only, or intelligent beings. But I judge them to be 
wrong in respect to both; ami, bad they given definitions of their several classes of pronouns, they might per- 
haps have found out that the word it is always personal, in a grammatical sense, and who, either relative or 
interrogative. 

t " Whoso and tohatso are found in old authors, but are now out of use." — ChnrchilVs Gram., p. 76. These 
antiquated words are equivalent in import to whosoever and whatsoever. The former, tohoso, being used many 
times in the Bible, and occasionally also by the poets, as by Cowper, Whittier, and others, can hardly be said to 
be obsolete ; though Wells, like Churchill, pronounced it bo, in his first edition. 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PKONOUNS. — CLASSES. 299 

Obs. 4. — The pronoun who is usually applied only to persons. Its application to brutes or to 
things is improper, unless we mean to personify them. But whose, the possessive case of this 
relative, is sometimes used to supply the place of the possessive case, otherwise wanting, to the 
relative which. Examples: "The mutes are those consonants whose sounds cannot be pro- 
tracted." — Murray's Gram., p. 9. "Philosophy, whose end is, to instruct us in the knowledge of 
nature." — lb., p. 54; Campbell 's Bhel., 421. " Those adverbs are compared whose primitives are 
obsolete." — Adam's Latin Gram., p. 150. "After a sentence whose sense is complete in itself, a 
period is used." — Nutting's Gram., -p. 124. "We remember best those things whose parts are 
methodically disposed, and mutuaUy connected." — Beattie's Moral Science, i, 59. "Is there any 
other doctrine whose followers are punished?" — Addison: Murray's Gram., p. 54; Lowth's, p. 25. 
" The question, whose solution I require, 
Is, what the sex of women most desire." — Dryden: Lowtli, p. 25. 

Obs. 5. — Buchanan, as well as Lowth, condemns the foregoing use of whose, except in grave 
poetry : saying, " This manner of personification adds an air of dignity to the higher and more 
solemn kind of poetry, but it is highly improper in the lower kind, or in prose." — Buchanan's 
English Syntax, p. 73. And, of the last two examples above quoted, he says, " It ought to be of 
which, in both places: i. e. The followers of which ; the solution of which." — lb., p. 73. The 
truth is, that no personification is here intended. Hence it may be better to avoid, if we can, this 
use of whose, as seeming to imply what we do not mean. But Buchanan himself (stealing the 
text of an older author) has furnished at least one example as objectionable as any of the fore- 
going : " Prepositions are naturally placed betwixt the Words whose Relation and Dependence 
each of them is to express." — English Syntax, p. 90 ; British Gram., p. 201. I dislike this con- 
struction, and yet sometimes adopt it, for want of another as good. It is too much, to say with 
Churchill, that " this practice is now discountenanced by all correct writers." — Nevj Gram., p. 226. 
Grammarians would perhaps differ less, if they would read more. Dr. Campbell commends the 
use of whose for of which, as an improvement suggested by good taste, and established by abun- 
dant authority. See Bhilosophy of Rhetoric, p. 420. " Whose, the possessive or genitive case of 
who or which ; applied to persons or tilings." — Webster's Octavo Diet. " Whose is well authorized 
by good usage, as the possessive of which." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 69. "Nor is any language 
complete, whose verbs have not tenses." — Harris's Hermes. 

" 'Past and future, are the wings 

On whose support, harmoniously conjoined, 

Moves the great spirit of human knowledge.' — MS." 

Wordsworth's Preface to his Poems, p. xviii. 

Obs. 6. — The relative which, though formerly applied to persons and made equivalent to vjho, 
is now confined to brute animals and inanimate things. Thus, " Our Father which art in heaven," 
is not now reckoned good English ; it should be, "Our Father who art in heaven." In this, as 
well as in many other things, the custom of speech has changed ; so that what was once right, is 
now ungrammatical. The use of which for who is very common in the Bible, and in other books 
of the seventeenth century ; but all good writers now avoid the construction. It occurs seventy- 
five times in the third chapter of Luke ; as, " Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which was the 
son of Matthat," &c. &c. After a personal term taken by metonymy for a thing, which is not 
improper; as, "Of the particular author which he is studying." — Gallaudet. And as an interro- 
gative or a demonstrative pronoun or adjective, the word which is still applicable to persons, as 
formerly; as, " Which of you all?" — " Which man of you all?" — "There arose a reasoning 
among them, which of them should be the greatest." — Luke, ix, 46. " Two fair twins — the puzzled 
strangers, which is which, inquire." — Tickell. 

Obs. 7. — If which, as a direct relative, is inapplicable to persons, who ought to be preferred to 
it in all personifications : as, 

" The seal is set. Now welcome thou dread power, 
Nameless, yet thus omnipotent, which here 
Walk'st in the shadow of the midnight hour." 

Byron: Ghilde Harold's Pilgrimage, Cant, iv, st. 138. 

What sort of personage is here imagined and addressed, I will not pretend to say ; but it should 
seem, that who would be more proper than which, though less agreeable in sound before the word 
here. In one of his notes on this word, Churchill has fallen into a strange error. He will have 
who to represent a horse ! and that, in such a sense, as would require which and not who, even for 
a person. As he prints the masculine pronoun in Italics, perhaps he thought, with Murray and 
Webster, that which must needs be "of the neuter gender."* He says, " In the following passage, 
which seems to be used instead of who : — 

1 Between two horses, vjhich doth bear him best ; 
I have, perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgment' 

Shaks., 1 Hen. YI."—ChurchiWs Gram., p. 226. 

* " ' The man is prudent -which speaks little.' This sentence is incorrect, hecause which is a pronoun of the 
neuter gender." — Murray's Exercises, p. 18. " Which is also a relative, but it is of [the] neuter gender. It is 
also interrogative." — Webster's Improved Gram., p. 26. For oversights like these, I cannot account. The rela- 
tive which is of all the genders, as every body ought to know, who has ever heard of the horse which Alexander 
rode, of the ass which spoke to Balaam, or of any of the animals and things lohich Noah. had with him in the 
ark. 



300 THE GRAMMAR OP ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [p ART II. 

Obs. 8. — The pronoun what is usually applied to things only. It has a twofold relation, and is 
often used (by ellipsis of the noun) both as antecedent and as relative, in the form of a single word ; 
being equivalent to that which, or the thing which, — those which, or the things which. In this double 
relation, what represents two cases at the same time : as, " He is ashamed of what he has done;" 
that is, "of what [thing or action] he has done;" — or, "of that [thing or action] which he has 
done." Here are two objectives. The two cases are sometimes alike, sometimes different ; for 
either of them may be the nominative, and either, the objective. Examples: " The dread of cen- 
sure ought not to prevail over what is proper." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 252. "The public 
ear will not easily bear what is slovenly and incorrect." — Blair's Rliet., p. 12. "He who buys 
what he does not need, will often need what he cannot buy." — Students Manual, p. 290. " What 
is just, is honest; and again, what is honest, is just." — Cicero. "He that hath an ear, let him 
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." — Rev., ii, 7, 11, 1*7, 29 ; hi, 6, 13, 22. 

Obs. 9. — This pronoun, what, is usually of the singular number, though sometimes plural : as, 
" I must turn to the faults, or what appear such to me." — Byron. " All distortions and mimic- 
ries, as such, are what raise aversion instead of pleasure." — Steele. " Purified indeed from what 
appear to be its real defects." — Wordsworth's Pre/., p. xix. " Every single impression, made even 
by the same object, is distinguishable from what have gone before, and from what succeed." — 
Karnes, El. of Grit., Vol. i, p. 107. " Sensible people express no thoughts but what make some 
figure." — lb., Vol. i, p. 399. The following example, which makes what both singular and plural 
at once, is a manifest solecism: " What has since followed are but natural consequences." — J. C. 
Calhoun, Speech in IT. S. Senate, March 4, 1850. Here has should be have ; or else the form 
should be this: " What has since followed, is but a natural consequence." 

Obs. 10. — The common import of this remarkable pronoun, what, is, as we see in the foregoing 
examples, twofold ; but some instances occur, in which it does not appear to have this double con- 
struction, but to be simply declaratory ; and many, in which the word is simply an adjective : as, 
" What a strange run of luck I have had to-day 1" — Columbian Orator, p. 293. Here what is a 
mere adjective ; and, in the following examples, a pronoun indefinite : — 
" I tell thee what, corporal, I could tear her." — ShaJc. 
" He knows ivhat's what, and that 's as high 
As metaphysic wit can fly." — Hudibras. 

Obs. 11. — What is sometimes used both as an adjective and as a relative at the same time, and 
is placed before the noun which it represents ; being equivalent to the adjective any or all, and 
the simple relative who, which,* or that: as, " What money we had, was taken away." That is, 
" All the money that we had, was taken away." " What man but enters, dies." That is, " Any 
man who enters, dies." " It was agreed that what goods were aboard his vessels, should be landed." 
— Mickle's India, p. 89. " What appearances of worth afterwards succeeded, were drawn from 
thence." — Internal Policy of Great Britain, p. 196. That is, " All the appearances of worth, which 
afterwards succeeded." — Priestley's Gram., p. 93. Indeed, this pronoun does not admit of being 
construed after a noun, as a simple relative : none but the most iUiterate ever seriously use it so. 
What put for who or which, is therefore a ludicrous vulgarism ; as, " The aspiring youth what 
fired the Ephesian dome." — Jester. The word used as above, however, does not always preclude 
the introduction of a personal pronoun before the subsequent verb ; as,f 
" What god but enters yon forbidden field, 
Who yields assistance, or but wills to yield, 
Back to the skies with shame he shall be driven, 
G-ash'd with dishonest wounds, the scorn of heaven." — Pope's Homer. 

Obs. 12. — The compound whatever or whatsoever has the same peculiarities of construction as 
has the simpler word what : as, " Whatever word expresses an affirmation, or assertion, is a verb ; 
or thus, Whatever word, with a noun or pronoun before or after it, makes full sense, is a verb." — 
Adam's Latin Gram., p. 78. That is, " Any word which expresses," &c. " We will certainly do 
whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth." — Jeremiah, xliv, 17. That is — " any thing, 
or every thing, which." " Whatever sounds are difficult in pronunciation, are, in the same propor- 
tion, harsh and painful to the ear." — Blair's Rhet., p. 121 ; Murray's Gram., p. 325. " Whatsoever 
things were written aforetime, were written for our learning." — Romans, xv, 4. In all these ex- 
amples, the word whatever or whatsoever appears to be used both adjectively and relatively. There 
are instances, however, in which the relation of this term is not twofold, but simple : as, " What- 
ever useful or engaging endowments we possess, virtue is requisite in order to their shining with 
proper lustre." — English Reader, p. 23. Here whatever is simply an adjective. " The declarations 
contained in them [the Scriptures] rest on the authority of God himself; and there can be no ap- 

* The word which also, when taken in its discriminative sense, (i. e. to distinguish some persons or things 
from others,) may have a construction of this sort ; and, by ellipsis of the noun after it, it may likewise bear a 
resemblance to the double relative what: as, "I shall now give you two passages; and request you to point 
out which words are mono-syllables, which dis-syllables, which tris-syllables, and which poly-syllables." — 
Bucfce's Gram., p. 16. Here, indeed, the word what might be substituted for which; because that also has a 
discriminative sense. Either would be right ; but the author might have presented the same words and thoughts 
rather more accurately, thus: " I shall now give you two passages; and request you to point out which words 
are monosyllables; which, dissyllables; which, trissyllables ; and which, polysyllables." 

t The relative what, being equivalent to that which, sometimes has the demonstrative word that set after it, 
by way of pleonasm ; as, " What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light , and what ye hear in the ear, 
that preach ye upon the house-tops."— Matt., x, 27. In CovelVs Digest, this text is presented as "false syntax," 
under the new and needless rule, " Double relatives always supply'two cases."— Digest of E. Gram., p. 143. In 
my opinion, to strike out the word that, would greatly weaken the expression : and so thought our translators ; 
for no equivalent term is used in the original. 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PKONOUNS. — CLASSES. 301 

peal from them to any other authority whatsoever.' 1 '' — London Epistle, 1836. Here whatsoever may 
be parsed either as an adjective relating to authority, or as an emphatic pronoun in apposition 
with its noun, like himself in the preceding clause. In this general explanatory sense, whatsoever 
may be applied to persons as well as to things ; as, "I should be sony if it entered into the ima- 
gination of any person whatsoever, that I was preferred to all other patrons." — Duncan's Cicero, 
p. 11. Here the word whomsoever might have been used. 

Obs. 13. — But there is an other construction to be here explained, in which whatever or whatso- 
ever appears to be a double relative, or a term which includes both antecedent and relative ; as, 
"Whatever purifies, fortifies also the heart." — English Reader, p. 23. That is, "All that purifies — 
or, Everything which purifies — fortifies also the heart." "Whatsoever he doeth, shall prosper." — 
Psal, i, 3. That is, "All that he doeth — or, All the things which he doeth — shall prosper." This 
construction, however, may be supposed elliptical. The Latin expression is, " Omnia guozcumque 
faciei prosper abuntur" — Vulgate. The Greek is similar: "Kal Truvra oaauv notr} naTevodu$?j- 
cerai." — Septuagint. It is doubtless by some sort of ellipsis which familiarity of use inclines us 
to overlook, that what, whatever, and whatsoever, which are essentially adjectives, have become 
susceptible of this double construction as pronouns. But it is questionable what particular ellipsis 
we ought here to suppose, or whether any ; and certainly, we ought always to avoid the supposing 
of an ellipsis, if we can.* Now if we say the meaning is, " Whatsoever things he doeth, shall 
prosper ;" this, though analogous to other expressions, does not simplify the construction. If we 
will have it to be, "Whatsoever things he doeth, they shall prosper;" the pronoun they appears to 
be pleonastic. So is the word it, in the text, " Whatsoever he saith unto you. do if' — John, ii, 5. 
If we say the full phrase is, " All things whatsoever he doeth, shall prosper ;" this presents, to an 
English ear, a still more obvious pleonasm. It may be, too, a borrowed idiom, found nowhere but 
in translations ; as, "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." — 
Matt, xxi, 22. From these views, there seems to be some objection to any and every method of 
parsing the above-mentioned construction as elliptical. The learner may therefore say, in such in- 
stances, that whatever or whatsoever is a double relative, including both antecedent and relative ; 
and parse it, first as antecedent, in connexion with the latter verb, and then as relative, in con- 
nexion with the former. But let him observe that the order of the verbs may be the reverse of 
the foregoing; as, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." — John, xv, 14. 
That is, according to the Greek, " If ye do whatsoever I command to you ;" though it would be 
better English to say, "If ye do whatsoever I command you to do." In the following example, 
however, it seems proper to recognize an ellipsis ; nay, the omissions in the construction of the 
last fine, are as many as three or four : — 

- Expatiate with glad step, and choose at will 

Whatever bright spoils the florid earth contains, 

Whatever the waters, or the liquid air." — Akenside. 

* As for Butler' s method of parsing these words by always recognizing a noun as being " understood" before 
them, — a method by which, according to his publishers' notice, " The ordinary unphilosophical explanation of 
this class of words is discarded, and a simple, intelligible, common-sense view of the matter now for the first 
time substituted," — I know not what novelty there is in it, that is not also just so much error. "Compare," 
says he, "these two sentences: 'I saw whom I wanted to 6ee;' 'I saw what I wanted to see.' If what in the 
latter is equivalent to that which, or the thing which, ivhom in the former is equivalent to him whom, or the 
person ivhom." — Butler's Practical Gram., p. 51. The former example being simply elliptical of the antece- 
dent, he judges the latter to be so too; and infers, "that what is nothing more than a relative pronoun, and 
includes nothing else." — lb. This conclusion is not well drawn, because the two examples are not analogous; 
and whoever thus finds " that wliat is nothing more than a relative," ought also to find it is something less, — a 
mere adjective. " I saw the person whom I wanted to see," is a sentence that can scarcely spare the antecedent 
and retain the sense; "I saw what I wanted to see," is one which cannot receive an antecedent, without chang- 
ing both the sense and the construction. One may say, " I saw what things I wanted to see;" but this, in stead 
of giving what an antecedent, makes it an adjective, while it retains the force of a relative. Or he may insert a 
noun before what, agreeably to the solution of Butler ; as, " I saw tJie things, what I wanted to see:" or, if he 
please, both before and after; as, "I saw the things, what things I wanted to see." But still, in either case, 
what is no " simple relative ;" for it here seems equivalent to the phrase, so many as. Or, again, he may omit 
the comma, and say, " I saw the thing what I wanted to see ;" but this, if it be not a vulgarism, will only mean, 
" I saw the thing to be what I wanted to see." So that this method of parsing the pronoun what, is manifestly 
no improvement, but rather a perversion and misinterpretation. 

But, for further proof of his position, Butler adduces instances of what he calls " the relative that with the 
antecedent omitted. A few examples of this," he says, " will help us to ascertain the nature of what. ' We 
speak that we do know.' Bible. Uohn, iii, 11.] ' I am itet I am.' Bible. [Ezod., iii, 14.] ' Eschewe that 
wicked is.' Oower. l Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that he is V Shakspeare. ' Gather the 
sequel by that went before.' Id. In these examples," continues he, " that is a relative ; and is exactly synony- 
mous with what. No one would contend that that stands for itself and its antecedent at the same time. The 
antecedent is omitted, because it is indefinite, or easily supplied." — Butler's Practical Gram., p. 52; Bul- 
lions' s Analytical and Practical Gram., p. 233. Converted at his wisest age, by these false arguments, so as to 
renounce and gainsay the doctrine taught almost universally, and hitherto spread industriously by himself, in 
the words of Lennie, that, " What is a compound relative, including both the relative and the antecedent," Dr. 
Bullions now most absurdly urges, that, " The truth is, what is a simple relative, having, wherever used, like 
all other relatives, Birr one case ; but * * * that it always refers to a general antecedent, omitted, lut easily 
supplied by the mind," though "not understood, in the ordinary sense of that expression." — Analyt. and 
Pract. Gram, of 1849, p. 51. Accordingly, though he differs from Butler about this matter of "the ordinary 
sense," he cites the foregoing suggestions of this author, with the following compliment : "These remarks ap- 
pear to me just, and conclusive on this point." — lb., p. 233. But there must, I think, be many to whom they 
will appear far otherwise. These elliptical uses of that are fu of them bad or questionable English ; because, 
the ellipsis being such as may be supplied in two or three diffei 'nt ways, the true construction is doubtful, the 
true meaning not exactly determined by the words. It is quite a ?asy and natural to take " that" to be here a 
demonstrative term, having the relative which understood after i s as to suppose it "a relative," with an ante- 
cedent to be supplied before it. Since there would not be the same uncertainty, it what were in these cases sub- 
stituted for that, it is evident that the terms are not "exactly synonymous;" but, even if they were so, exact 
synonymy would not evince a sameness of construction. 



302 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Obs. 14. — As the simple word who differs from which and what, in being always a declinable 
pronoun ; so its compounds differ from theirs, in being incapable of either of the double con- 
structions above described. Yet whoever and whoso or whosoever, as well as whichever and which- 
soever, whatever and whatsoever, derive, from the affix which is added, or from the pecuharity of 
their syntax, an unlimited signification — or a signification which is limited only by the following 
verb ; and, as some general term, such as any person, or all persons, is implied as the antecedent, 
they are commonly connected with other words as if they stood for two cases at once: as, "Who- 
ever seeks, shall find." That is, "Any person who seeks, shall find." But as the case of this 
compound, like that of the simple word who, whose, or whom, is known and determined by its 
form, it is necessary, in parsing, to treat this phraseology as being elliptical. The compounds of 
who do not, therefore, actually stand for two cases, though some grammarians affirm that they 
do.* Example : " The soldiers made proclamation, that they would sell the empire to whoever 
would purchase it at the highest price." — Goldsmith's Rome, p. 231. That is — "to any man who 
would purchase it." The affix ever or soever becomes unnecessary when the eUipsis is supplied ; 
and this fact, it must be confessed, is a plausible argument against the supposition of an ellipsis. 
But the supposing of an antecedent understood, is here unavoidable ; because the preposition to 
cannot govern the nominative case, and the word whoever cannot be an objective. And so in all 
other instances in which the two cases are different: as, " He bids whoever is athirst, to come." — 
Jeriks's Devotions, p. 151. " Elizabeth publicly threatened, that she would have the head of who- 
ever had advised it." — Hume: in Priestley's Gram., p. 104. 

Obs. 15. — If it is necessary in parsing to supply the antecedent to whoever or whosoever, when 
two different cases are represented, it is but analogous and reasonable to supply it also when two 
similar cases occur : as, " Whoever borrows money, is bound in conscience to repay it." — Paley. 
"Whoever is eager to find excuses for vice and folly, will find his own backwardness to practise 
them much diminished." — Ghapone. "Wlwever examines his own imperfections, will cease to be 
fastidious; whoever restrains humour and caprice, will cease to be squeamish." — CraWs Syno- 
nymes. In all these examples, we have the word in the third person, singular number, masculine 
gender, and nominative case. And here it is most commonly found. It is always of the third 
person ; and, though its number may be plural ; its gender, feminine ; its case, possessive or 
objective ; we do not often use it in any of these ways. In some instances, the latter verb is 
attended with an other pronoun, which represents the same person or persons; as, "And whoso- 
ever will, let him take of the water of life freely." — Rev., xxii, 17. The case of this compound 
relative always depends upon what follows it, and not upon what precedes; as, "Or ask of whom- 
soever he has taught." — Gowper. That is — " of any person whom he has taught." In the follow- 
ing text, we have the possessive plural : " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.' 1 ' 1 
— John, xx, 23. That is, "Whatever persons' sins." 

Obs. 16. — In such phraseology as the following, there is a stiffness which ought to be avoided : 
" For whomever God loves, he loves them in Christ, and no otherways." — Barclay's Works, Vol. hi, 
•p. 215. Better: "For all whom God loves, he loves in Christ, and no otherwise.' 1 '' "When the 
Father draws, whomever he draws, may come." — Penington. Better : " When the Father draws, 
all whom he draws, (or, every one whom he draws,) may come." A modern critic of immense 
promise cites the following clause as being found in the Bible : " But he loveth whomsoever fol- 
loweth after righteousness." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., p. 72. It is lamentable to see the unfaithful- 
ness of this gentleman's quotations. About half of them are spurious ; and I am confident that 
this one is neither Scripture nor good English. The compound relative, being the subject of 
followeth, should be in the nominative case; for the object of the verb loveth is the antecedent 
every one, understood. But the idea may be better expressed, without any ellipsis, thus : " He 
loveth every one who foUoweth after righteousness." The following example from the same hand 
is also wrong, and the author's rule and reasoning connected with it, are utterly fallacious : "I 
will give the reward to whomsoever will apprehend the rogue." — lb., p. 256. Much better say, 
" to any one who ;" but, if you choose the compound word, by all analogy, and all good authority, 
it must here be whoever or whosoever. The shorter compound whoso, which occurs very frequently 
in the Bible, is now almost obsolete in prose, but still sometimes used by the poets. It has the 
same meaning as whosoever, but appears to have been confined to the nominative singular ; and 
whatso is still more rare : as, "Whoso diggeth a pit, shall fall therein." — Prov., xxvi, 27. 

"Which whoso tastes, can be enslaved no more." — Gowper. 
" On their intended journey to proceed, 
And over night whatso thereto did need." — Hubbard. 

Obs. 17. — The relative that is applied indifferently to persons, to brute animals, and to inani- 
mate things. But the word that is not always a relative pronoun. It is sometimes a pronoun, 
sometimes an adjective, and sometimes a conjunction. I call it not a demonstrative pronoun and 
also a relative ; because, in the sense in which Murray and others have styled it a " demonstrative 

* See this erroneous doctrine in Kirkham's Grammar^ p. 112; in Wells's, p. 74; in Sanborn's, p. 71, p. 96, and 
p. 177 ;^ in Cooper's, p. 38 ; in O. B. Peirce's, p. 70. These writers show a great fondness for this complex mode 
of parsing. But, in fact, no pronoun, not even thr. Word what, has any double construction of cases from a real 
or absolute necessity ; but merely because, the noun being suppressed, yet having a representative, we choose 
rather to understand and parse its representative doubly, than to supply the ellipsis. No pronoun includes 
" both the antecedent and the relative," by virtfae of its own composition, or of its own derivation, as a word, 
No pronoun can properly be called " compound'' 1 merely because it has a double construction, and is equivalent 
to two other words. These positions, if tr-ue, as I am sure they are, will refute sundry assertions that are con- 
tained in the above-named grammars. / 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — CLASSES. 303 

adjective pronoun" it is a pronominal adjective, and it is better to call it so. (1.) It is a relative 
pronoun whenever it is equivalent to who, whom, or which : as, " There is not a just man upon 
earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." — Eccl., vii, 20. " It was diverse from all the beasts that 
were before it." — Ban., vii, 7. " And he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself!" 
— Rev., xix, 12. (2.) It is a pronominal adjective whenever it relates to a noun expressed or un- 
derstood after it : as, " Thus with violence shall that great city, Babylon, be thrown down." — 
Rev., xviii, 21. "Behold that [thing] which I have seen."— Eccl, v, 18. "And they said, 
'What is that* [matter] to us? See thou to thai 1 [matter]." — Matt., xxvii, 4. (3.) In its ether 
uses, it is a conjunction, and, as such, it most commonly makes what follows it, the purpose, ob- 
ject, or final cause, of what precedes it: as, "I read that I may learn." — Dr. Adam. " Ye men 
of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious." — St. Raul. " Live well, that 
you may die well." — Anon. " Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob." — -Genesis. " Judge not, 
that ye be not judged." — Matthew. 

Ocs. 18. — The word that, or indeed any other word, should never be so used as to leave the 
part of speech uncertain ; as, " For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." — 
Gen., ii, 17. Here that seems to be a relative pronoun, representing day, in the third person, sin- 
gular, neuter ; yet, in other respects, it seems to be a conjunction, because there is nothing to de- 
termine its case. Better: "For in the day on which thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." 
This mongrel construction of the word that, were its justification possible, is common enough in 
our language to be made good English. But it must needs be condemned, because it renders the 
character of the term ambiguous, and is such a grammatical difficulty as puts the parser at a dead 
nonplus. Examples: (1.) "But at the same time that men are giving their orders, God on his 
part is likewise giving his." — Rollings Hist., ii, 106. Here the phrase, " at the same time that," is 
only equivalent to the adverb while; and yet it is incomplete, because it means, " at the tame time 
at which" or, "at the very time at which." (2.) " The author of this work, at the same time that 
he has endeavoured to avoid a plan, which may be too concise or too extensive, defective in its 
parts or irregular in the disposition of them, has studied to render his subject sufficiently easy, 
intelligible, and comprehensive." — Murray's Gram., Introd., p. 1. This sentence, which is no un- 
fair specimen of its author's original style, needs three corrections : 1. For u at the same time that," 
say while : 2. Drop the phrase, " which may be," because it is at least useless : 3. For " subject," 
read treatise, or compilation. You will thus have tolerable diction. Again : (3.) "The participles 
of active verbs act upon objects and govern them in the objective case, in the same manner that 
the verbs do, from which they are derived. A participle in the nature of an adjective, belongs 
or refers to nouns or pronouns in the same manner that adjectives do ; and when it will admit the 
degrees of comparison, it is called a participial adjective." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 38. This is the style 
of a gentleman of no ordinary pretensions, one who thinks he has produced the best grammar 
that has ever appeared in our language. To me, however, his work suggests an abundance of 
questions like these ; each of which would palpably involve him in a dilemma : What is here 
meant by " objects," the words, or the things f if the former, how are they acted upon ? if the lat- 
ter, how are they governed? If " a participle is called an adjective," which is it, an adjective, or a 
participle ? If " a participle refers to nouns or pronouns," how many of these are required by the 
relation ? When does a participle " admit the degrees of comparison ?" How shall we parse the 
word that in the foregoing sentences ? 

Obs. 19. — The word as, though usually a conjunction or an adverb, has sometimes the con- 
struction of a relative pronoun, especially after such, so many, or as many ; and, whatever the 
antecedent noun may be, this is the only fit relative to follow any of these terms in a restrictive 
sense. Examples : " We have been accustomed to repose on its veracity with such humble con- 
fidence as suppresses curiosity." — Johnsons Life of Cowley. " The malcontents made such de- 
mands as none but a tyrant could refuse." — Bolingbroke, on Hist., Let. 7. " The Lord added to 
the church daily such [persons] as should be saved." — Acts, ii, 47. " And as many as were or- 
dained to eternal life, believed." — Acts, xiii, 48. " As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." — 
Rev., iii, 19. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were bap- 
tized into his death?" — Rom., vi, 3. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, 
have put on Christ." — Gal, iii, 27. "A syllable is so many letters as are spoken with one mo- 
tion of the voice." — Perley's Gram., p. 8. " The compound tenses are such as cannot be formed 
without an auxiliary verb." — Murray's Gram., p. 91. "Send him such books as will please him." 
— Webster's Improved Gram., p. 37. " In referring to such a division of the day as is past, we 
use the imperfect." — Murray's Gram., p. 70. "Participles have the same government as the verbs 
from which they are derived." — lb., Rule xiv. " Participles have the same government as the 
verbs have from which they are derived." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 94. In some of these examples, 
as is in the nominative case, and in others, in the objective ; in some, it is of the masculine gen- 
der, and in others, it is neuter ; in some, it is of the plural number, and in others, it is singular : 
but in all, it is of the third person ; and in all, its person, number, gender, and case, are as obvious 
as those of any invariable pronoun can be. 

* Here the demonstrative word that, as -well as the phrase that matter, which I form to explain its construc- 
tion, unquestionably refers back to Judas's confession, that he had sinned ; but still, as the word has not the 
connecting power of a relative pronoun, its true character is that of an adjective, and not that of a pronoun. 
This pronominal adjective is very often mixed with some such ellipsis, and that to repeat the import of various 
kinds of words and phrases; as, "God shall help her, and that right early." — Psal., xlvi, 5. "Nay, ye do 
wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren." — 1 Cor., vi, 8. "I'll know your business, that I will." — Shak- 
speare. 



304 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Obs. 20. — Some -writers — (the most popular are "Webster, Bullions, Wells, and Chandler — ) 
imagine that as, in such sentences as the foregoing, can be made a conjunction, and not a pro- 
noun, if we will allow them to consider the phraseology elliptical. Of the example for which I 
am indebted to him, Dr. "Webster says, "As must be considered as the nominative to will please, 
or we must suppose an ellipsis of several words : as, ' Send him such books as the books which 
will please him, or as those which will please him.' " — Improved Gram., p. 37. This pretended 
explanation must be rejected as an absurdity. In either form of it, two nominatives are idly ima- 
gined between as and its verb ; and, I ask, of what is the first one the subject ? If you say, " Of 
are understood," making the phrase, "such books as the books are;" does not as bear the same 
relation to this new verb are, that is found in the pronoun who, when one says, " TeU him who 
you are?" If so, as is a pronoun still; so that, thus far, you gain nothing. And if you will 
have the whole explanation to be, " Send him such books as the books are books which will please 
him ;" you multiply words, and finally arrive at nothing, but tautology and nonsense. Wells, not 
condescending to show his pupils what he would supply after this as, thinks it sufficient to say, 
the word is " followed by an ellipsis of one or more words required to complete the construction; 
as, 'He was the father of all such as [ ] handle the harp and organ.' — Gen. 4: 21." — Wells's 
School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 164 ; 3d Ed., p. 172. 

Obs. 21. — Chandler exhibits the sentence, " These are not such as are worn;" and, in parsing it, 
expounds the words as and are, thus ; the crotchets being his, not mine : " as . . . . is an adverb, 
connecting the two sentences in comparing them. [It is a fault of some, that they make as a pro- 
noun, when, in a comparative sentence, it corresponds with such, and is immediately followed by 
a verb, as in the sentence now given. This is probably done from an ignorance of the real nomi- 
native to the verb. The sentence should stand thus : ' These {perhaps bonnets) are not such 
(bonnets) as (those bonnets) are (which are) worn.' Then] are .... is the substantive verb, 
third person, plural number, indicative mood, present tense, and agrees with the noun bonnets, 
understood." — Chandler's Common School Gram., p. 162. All this bears the marks of shallow 
flippancy. No part of it is accurate. " Are worn" which the critic unwarrantably divides by 
his misplaced curves and uncouth impletions, is a passive verb, agreeing with the pronoun as. But 
the text itself is faulty, being unintelligible through lack of a noun ; for, of things that "may be 
" worn," there are a thousand different sorts. Is it not ridiculous, for a great grammarian to offer, 
as a model for parsing, what he himself, "from an ignorance of the real nominative," can only 
interpret with a "perhaps V But the noun which this author supplies, the meaning which he 
guesses that he had, he here very improperly stows away within a pair of crotchets. Nor is it 
true, that " the sentence should stand" as above exhibited ; for the tautological correction not only 
has the very extreme of awkwardness, but still makes as a pronoun, a nominative, belonging 
after are : so that the phrase, " as are worn," is only encumbered and perverted by the verbose 
addition made. So of an other example given by this expounder, in which as is an objective : 
"He is exactly such a man as I saw." — Chandler's Com. Sch. Gram., p. 163. Here as is the 
object of saw. But the author says, " The sentence, however, should stand thus : ' He is exactly 
such a man as that person was whom I saw.' " — Ibid. This inelegant alteration makes as a 
nominative dependent on was. 

Obs. 22. — The use of as for a relative pronoun, is almost entirely confined to those connexions 
in which no other relative would be proper ; hence few instances occur, of its absolute equiva- 
lence to who, which, or that, by which to establish its claim to the same rank. Examples like the 
following, however, go far to prove it, if proof be necessary ; because who and which are here 
employed, where as is certainly now required by all good usage : "It is not only convenient, but 
absolutely needful, that there be certain meetings at certain places and times, as may best suit 
the convenience of such, who may be most particularly concerned in them." — Barclay's Works, 
Vol. i, p. 495. " Which, no doubt, will be found obligatory upon all such, who have a sense and 
feeling of the mind of the Spirit." — lb., i, p. 578. " Condemning or removing such things, which 
in themselves are evil." — lb., i, p. 511. In these citations, not only are wJio and which improperly 
used for as, but the commas before them are also improper, because the relatives are intended to 
be taken in a restrictive sense. " If there be such that walk disorderly now." — lb., i, p. 488. 
Here that ought to be as ; or else such ought to be persons, or those. " When such virtues, as 
which still accompany the truth, are necessarily supposed to be wanting." — lb., i, p. 502. Here 
which, and the comma before as, should both be expunged. " I shall raise in their minds the 
same course of thought as has taken possession of my own." — Duncan's Logic, p. 61. " The 
pronoun must be in the same case as the antecedent would be in, if substituted for it." — Hurray's 
Gram., p. 181. " The verb must therefore have the same construction as it has in the following 
sentence." — Murray's Key, p. 190. Here as is exactly equivalent to the relative that, and either 
may be used with equal propriety. We cannot avoid the conclusion, therefore, that, as the latter 
word is sometimes a conjunction and sometimes a pronoun, so is the former. 

Obs. 23. — The relatives that and as have this peculiarity ; that, unlike whom and which, they 
never follow the word on which their case depends : nor indeed can any simple relative be so 
placed, except it be governed by a preposition or an infinitive. Thus, it is said, (John, xiii, 29th,) 
" Buy those things that we have need of;" so we may say, " Buy such things as we have need 
of" But we cannot say, " Buy those things of that we have need ;" or, "Buy such things of as 
we have need." Though we may say, " Buy those things of which we have need," as well as, 
" Buy those things which we have need of;" or, "Admit those persons of whom we have need," 
as well as, " Admit those persens whom we have need of." By this it appears that that and as 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS.— CLASSES. 305 

have a closer connexion with their antecedents than the other relatives require : a circumstance 
worthy to have been better remembered by some critics. " Again, that and as are used rather 
differently. When that is used, the verb must be repeated ; as, ' Participles require the same 
government, that their verbs require.'' — 'James showed the same credulity, that his minister 
showed.' But when as is used, the verb generally may, or may not be repeated; as, 'Par- 
ticiples require the same government as their verbs;' or, ' as their verbs require.' — 'James 
showed the same credulity as his minister;' or, ' as his minister showed:' the second nominative 
minister being parsed as the nominative to the same verb slwwed understood." — Nixon's Parser, 
p. 140.* 

Obs. 24. — The terminating of a sentence with a preposition, or other small particle, is in gen- 
eral undignified, though perhaps not otherwise improper. Hence the above-named inflexibility 
in the construction of that and as, sometimes induces an ellipsis of the governing word designed ; 
and is occasionally attended with some difficulty respecting the choice of our terms. Examples : 
"The answer is always in the same case that the interrogative word is." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 
70. Here is a faulty termination ; and with it a more faulty ellipsis. In stead of ending the 
sentence with is in, say, " The answer always agrees in case with the interrogative word." 
Again : "The relative is of the same person with the antecedent." — Lowth's Gram., p. 101. This 
sentence is wrong, because the person of the relative is not really identical with the antecedent. 
"The relative is of the same person as the antecedent." — Murray's Gram., p. 154. Here the 
writer means — " as the antecedent is of." " A neuter verb becomes active, when followed by a 
noun of the same signification with its own." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 127. Here same is wrong, 
or else the last three words are useless. It would therefore be improper to say — " of the same 
signification as its own." The expression ought to be — " of a signification similar to its own." 
" Ode is, in Greek, the same with song or hymn." — Blair's Ehet., p. 396. Song being no Greek 
word, I cannot think the foregoing expression accurate, though one might say, " Ode is identical 
with song or hymn." Would it not be better to say, "Ode is the same as song or hymn ?" 
That is, " Ode is, literally, the same thing that song or hymn is f" " Treatises of philosophy, 
ought not to be composed in the same style with orations." — Blair's Bhet, p. 175. Here neither 
with nor as can be proper; because orations are not a style. Expunge same ; and say — "in the 
style of orations." 

Obs. 25. — Few writers are sufficiently careful in their choice and management of relatives. In 
the following instance, Murray and others violate a special rule of their own grammars, by using 
whom for that "after an adjective of the superlative degree:" "Modifying them according to the 
genius of that tongue, and the established practice of the best speakers and writers by whom it is 
used." — Octavo Gram., p. 1; Fish's, p. 11; et al. According to Priestley and himself, the great 
Compiler is here in an error. The rule is perhaps too stringent ; but whoever teaches it, should 
keep it. If he did not like to say, "the best speakers and writers that it is used by ;" he ought to 
have said, " the best speakers and writers that use it." Or, rather, he ought to have said nothing 
after the word "writers;" because the whole relative clause. is here weak and useless. Yet how 
many of the amenders of this grammar have not had perspicacity enough, either to omit the 
expression, or to correct it according to the author's own rule ! 

Obs. 26. — Relative pronouns are capable of being taken in two very different senses: the one, 
restrictive of the general idea suggested by the antecedent; the other, resumptive of that idea, in 
the full import of the term — or, in whatever extent the previous definitives allow. The distinc- 
tion between these two senses, important as it is, is frequently made to depend solely upon the 
insertion or the omission of a comma. Thus, if I say, " Men who grasp after riches, are never 
satisfied;" the relative who is taken restrictively, and I am understood to speak only of the ava- 
ricious. But, if I say, "Men, who grasp after riches, are never satisfied;" by separating the 
terms men and who, I declare all men to be covetous and unsatisfied. For the former sense, the 
relative that is preferable to who ; and I shall presently show why. This example, in the latter 
form, is found in Sanborn's Grammar, page 142d ; but whether the author meant what he says, or 
not, I doubt. Like many other unskillful writers, he has paid little regard to the above-men- 
tioned distinction ; and, in some instances, his meaning cannot have been what his words declare : 
as, " A prism is a solid, whose sides are all parallelograms." — Analytical Gram., p. 142. This, 
as it stands, is no definition of a prism, but an assertion of two things ; that a prism is a solid, and 
that all the sides of a solid are parallelograms. Erase the comma, and the words will describe 
the prism as a peculiar kind of solid ; because whose will then be taken in the restrictive sense. 
This sense, however, may be conveyed even with a comma before the relative ; as, " Some ficti- 
tious histories yet remain, that were composed during the decline of the Roman empire." — Blair's 
Bhet., p. 374. This does not suggest that there are no other fictitious histories now extant, than 
such as were composed during the decline of the Roman empire ; but I submit it to the reader, 
whether the word which, if here put for that, would not convey this idea. 

Obs. 27. — Upon this point, many philologists are open to criticism ; and none more so, than the 
recent author above cited. By his own plain showing, this grammarian has no conception of the 
difference of meaning, upon which the foregoing distinction is founded. What marvel, then, that 

* Dr. Bullions has undertaken to prove, " That the word as should not be considered a relative in any circum- 
stances." The force of his five great arguments to this end, the reader may well conceive of, when he has com- 
pared the following one with what is shown in the 22d and 23d observations above : " 3. As can never be used as 
a substitute for another relative pronoun, nor another relative pronoun as a substitute for it. If, then, it is a 
relative pronoun, it is, to say the least, a very unaccommodating one." — Bullions' s Analytical and Practical 
Oram, of 1849, p. 233. 

20 



306 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

lie falls into errors, both of doctrine and of practice ? But, if no such difference exists, or none that 
is worthy of a critic's notice ; then the error is mine, and it is vain to distinguish between the 
restrictive and the resumptive sense of relative pronouns. For example : " The boy that desires 
to assist his companions, deserves respect." — 67. Brown. "That boy, who desires to assist his 
companions, -deserves respect." — D. H. Sanborn. According to my notion, these two sentences 
clearly convey two very different meanings ; the relative, in the former, being restrictive, but, in 
the latter, resumptive of the sense of the antecedent. But of the latter example this author says, 
"The clause, ' who desires to assist his companions,' with the relative who at its head, explains 
or tells what boy deserves respect; and, like a conjunction, connects this clause to the noun boy." 
— Analytical Gram., p. 69. He therefore takes it in a restrictive sense, as if this sentence were 
exactly equivalent to the former. But he adds, " A relative pronoun is resolvable into a personal 
pronoun and a conjunction. The sentence would then read, ' That boy desires to assist his com- 
panions, and he deserves respect.' The relative pronoun governs the nearer verb, and the 
antecedent the more distant one." — lb., p. 69. Now, concerning the restrictive relative, this 
doctrine of equivalence does not hold good; and, besides, the explanation here given, not only 
contradicts his former declaration of the sense he intended, but, with other seeming contradiction, 
joins the antecedent to the nearer verb, and the substituted pronoun to the more distant. 

Obs. 28. — Again, the following principles of this author's punctuation are no less indicative of 
his false views of this matter: "Rule xiv. — Relative pronouns in the nominative or [the] objec- 
tive case, are preceded by commas, when the clause which the relative connects [,] ends a sentence ; 
as, ' Sweetness of temper is a quality, which reflects a lustre on every accomplishment.' — B. 
Greenleaf. ' Self [-] denial is the sacrifice [,] which virtue must make.' [ — L. Murray.] The comma 
is omitted before the relative, when the verb which the antecedent governs, follows the relative 
clause ; as, ' He that suffers by imposture, has too often his virtue more impaired than his fortune. ' 
— Johnson." See Sanborn's Analytical Gram., p. 269. Such are some of our author's princi- 
ples — "the essence of modern improvements." His practice, though often wrong, is none the 
worse for contradicting these doctrines. Nay, his proudest boast is ungrammatical, though per- 
adventure not the less believed: " No [other] grammar in the language probably contains so great 
a quantity of condensed and useful matter with so little superfluity." — Sanborn's Preface, p. v. 

Obs. 29. — Murray's rule for the punctuation of relatives, (a rule which he chiefly copied from 
Lowth,) recognizes virtually the distinction which I have made above; but, in assuming that 
relatives "generally" require a comma before them, it erroneously suggests that the resumptive 
sense is more common than the restrictive. Churchill, on the contrary, as wrongly makes it an 
essential characteristic of all relatives, " to limit or explain the words to which they refer." See 
his New Gram., p. 74. The fact is, that relatives are so generally restrictive, that not one half of 
them are thus pointed ; though some that do restrict their antecedent, nevertheless admit the 
point. This may be seen by the first example given us by Murray : " Relative pronouns are con- 
nective words, and generally admit a comma before them: as, 'Ho preaches sublimely, who lives 
a sober, righteous, and pious life.' But when two members, or phrases, [say clauses,] are closely 
connected by a relative, restraining the general notion of the antecedent to a particular sense, the 
comma should be omitted : as, ' Self-denial is the sacrifice which virtue must make;' ' A man who 
is of a detracting spirit, will misconstrue the most innocent words that can be put together.' In 
the latter example, the assertion is not of ' a man in general,' but of ' a man who is of a detracting 
spirit;' and therefore they [say the pronoun and its antecedent] should not be separated." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., Odavo, p. 273; IngersoWs, 285; Comly's, 152. This reasoning, strictly applied, 
would exclude the comma before who in the first example above ; but, as the pronoun does not 
"closely" or immediately follow its antecedent, the comma is allowed, though it is not much 
needed. Not so, when the sense is resumptive: as, "The additions, which are very considerable, 
are chiefly such as are calculated to obviate objections." See Murray's Gram., p. ix. Here the 
comma is essential to the meaning. Without it, which would be equivalent to that ; with it, which 
is equivalent to and they. But this latter meaning, as I imagine, cannot be expressed by the rel- 
ative that. 

Obs. 30. — Into the unfortunate example which Sanborn took from Murray, I have inserted the 
comma for him; not because it is necessary or right, but because his rule requires it: " Self- 
denial is the sacrifice," &c. The author of "a complete system of grammar," might better con- 
tradict even Murray, than himself. But why was this text admired ? and why have Greene, 
Bullions, Hiley, Hart, and others, also copied it? A sacrifice is something devoted and lost, for 
the sake of a greater good ; and, if Virtue sacrifice self-denial, what will she do, but run into in- 
dulgence ? The great sacrifice which she demands of men, is rather that of their self-love. Wm. 
E. Russell has it, " Self defence is the sacrifice which virtue must make!" — Russell's Abridgement 
of Murray's Gram., p. 116. Bishop Butler tells us, "It is indeed ridiculous to assert, that self- 
denial is essential to virtue and piety ; but it would have been nearer the truth, though not strictly 
the truth itself, to have said, that it is essential to discipline and improvement." — Analogy of Reli- 
gion, p. 123. 

Obs. 31. — The relative that, though usually reckoned equivalent to who or which, evidently 
differs from both, in being more generally, and perhaps more appropriately, taken in the restrict- 
ive sense. It ought therefore, for distinction's sake, to be preferred to who or which, whenever an 
antecedent not otherwise limited, is to be restrioted by the relative clause ; as, " Men that grasp 
after riches, are never satisfied." — " I love wisdom that is gay and civilized." — Art of Thinking, 
p. 34. This phraseology leaves not the limitation of the meaning to depend solely upon the 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — CLASSES. 307 

absence of a pause after the antecedent; because the relative that is seldom, if ever, used by good 
writers in any other than a restrictive sense. Again: " A man of a polite imagination is let into 
a great many pleasures that the vulgar are not capable of receiving." — Addison, Sped, No. 411. 
Here, too, according to my notion, that is obviously preferable to vjhich; though a great critic, 
Very widely known, has taken some pains to establish a different opinion. The " many pleas- 
ures" here spoken of, are no otherwise defined, than as being such as " the vulgar are not capable 
of receiving." The writer did not mean to deny that the vulgar are capable of receiving a great 
many pleasures ; but, certainly, if that were changed to which, this would be the meaning con- 
veyed, unless the reader were very careful to avoid a pause where he would be apt to make one. 
I therefore prefer Addison's expression to that which Dr. Blair would substitute. 

Obs. 32. — The style of Addison is more than once censured by Dr. Blair, for the frequency with 
which the relative that occurs in it, where the learned lecturer would have used which. The rea- 
sons assigned by the critic are these : " WJiich is a much more definitive word than that, being 
never employed in any other way than as a relative ; whereas that is a word of many senses ; 
sometimes a demonstrative pronoun, often a conjunction. In some cases we are indeed obliged 
to use that for a relative, in order to avoid the ungraceful repetition of which in the same s»ntence. 
But when we are laid under no necessity of this kind, which is always the preferable word, and 
certainly was so in this sentence: ' Pleasures which the vulgar are not capable of receiving,' is 
much better than 'pleasures that the vulgar are not capable of receiving.' " — Blair\s Rhetoric, 
Lect. xx, p. 200. Now the facts are these: (1.) That that is the more definitive or restrictive 
word of the two. (2.) That the word vShich has as many different senses and uses as the word 
that. (3.) That not the repetition of which or ivho in a series of clauses, but a need/ess change of 
the relative, is ungraceful. (4.) That the necessity of using that rather than which or who, de- 
pends, not upon what is here supposed, but upon the different senses which these words usually 
convey. (5.) That as there is always some reason of choice, that is sometimes to be preferred ; 
which, sometimes; and who, sometimes: as, "It is not the man ivho has merely taught, or who 
has taught long, or who is able to point out defects in authors, that is capable of enlightening the 
world in the respective sciences vjhich have engaged his attention ; but the man ivho has taught 
well"—KirkharrJs Elocution, p. 7. 

Obs. 33. — Blair's Rhetoric consists of forty-seven lectures ; four of which are devoted to a crit- 
ical examination of the style of Addison, as exhibited in- four successive papers of the Spectator. 
The remarks of the professor are in general judicious ; but, seeing his work is made a common 
textbook for students of " Belles Lettres," it is a pity to find it so liable to reprehension on the 
score of inaccuracy. Among the passages which are criticised in the twenty-first lecture, there 
is one in which the essayist speaks of the effects of novelty as follows : 

' It is this which bestows charms on a monster, and makes even the imperfections of nature 
please us. It is this that recommends variety, where the mind is every instant called off to some- 
thing new, and the attention not suffered to dwell too long and waste itself on any particular 
object. It is this, likewise, that improves what is great or beautiful, and makes it afford the mind 
a double entertainment.' — Spectator, No. 412. 

This passage is deservedly praised by the critic, for its "perspicuity, grace, and harrnony;" but, 
in using different relatives under like circumstances, the writer has hardly done justice to his own 
good taste. Blair's remark is this: "His frequent use of that, instead of which, is another pecu- 
liarity of his style ; but, on this occasion in particular, [it] cannot be much commended, as. ' It 
is this which, 1 seems, in every view, to be better than, 'It is this that,'' three times repeated." — 
Lect. xxi, p. 207. What is here meant by "every vieio," may, I suppose, be seen in the corre- 
sponding criticism which is noticed in my last observation above ; and I am greatly deceived, if, 
in this instance also, the relative that is not better than which, and more agreeable to polite usage. 
The direct relative which corresponds to the introductory pronoun it and an other antecedent, 
should, I think, be that, and not who or which: as, "It is not ye that speak." — Matt, x, 20. "It 
is thou, Lord, who hast the hearts of all men in thy hands, that turnest the hearts of any to show 
me favour." — Jenks's Prayers, p. 278. Here who has reference to thou or Lord only ; but that 
has some respect to the pronoun it though it agrees in person and gender with thou. A similar 
example is cited at the close of the preceding observation ; and I submit it to the reader, whether 
the word that, as it there occurs, is not the only fit word for the place it occupies. So in the fol- 
lowing examples : " There are Words, which are not Verbs, that signify actions and passions, and 
even things transient." — Brightland's Gram., p. 100. " It is the universal taste of mankind, 
which is subject to no such changing modes, that alone is entitled to possess any authority." — 
Blair 's Rhetoric, p. 286. 

Obs. 34. — Sometimes the broad import of an antecedent is doubly restricted, first by one relative 
clause, and then by an other; as, "And all that dwell upon the earth, shall worship him, ivhose 
names are not written in the book of life? — Rev., xiii, 8. "And then, like true Thames- Watermen, 
they abuse every man that passes by, who is better dressed than themselves." — Brown's Estimate, 
Vol. ii, p. 10. Here and, or if he, would be as good as u who ;" for the connective only serves to 
carry the restriction into narrower limits. Sometimes the limit fixed by one clause is extended by 
an other; as, " There is no evil that you may suffer, or that you may expect to suffer, which prayer 
is not the appointed means to alleviate." — Bickersteth, on Prayer, p. 16. Here which resumes the 
idea of " evil,'' 1 in the extent last determined; or rather, in that which is fixed by either clause, 
since the limits of both are embraced in the assertion. And, in the two limiting clauses, the 
same pronoun was requisite, on account of their joint relation ; but the clause which assumes a 



308 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

different relation, is rightly introduced by a different pronoun. This is also the case in the fol- 
lowing examples : " For there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ. Jesus, who walk 
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." — Barclay's Works, Yol. i, p. 432. " I will tell thee the 
mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten 
horns." — Rev., xvii, 7. Here the restrictive sense is well expressed by one relative, and the re- 
sumptive by an other. "When neither of these senses is intended by the writer, any form of the 
relative must needs be improper : as, " The greatest genius which runs through the arts and 
sciences, takes a kind of tincture from them, and falls unavoidably into imitation." — Addison, 
Sped, No. 160. Here, as I suppose, which runs should be in running. What else can the 
author have meant ? 

Obs. 35. — Having now, as I imagine, clearly shown the difference between the restrictive and 
the resumptive sense of a relative pronoun, and the absolute necessity of making such a choice 
of words as will express that sense only which we intend ; I hope the learner will see, by these 
observations, not merely that clearness requires the occasional use of each of our five relatives, 
who, which, what, that, and as ; but that this distinction in the meaning, is a very common principle 
by which to determine what is, and what is not, good English. Thus that and as are appropri- 
ately our restrictive relatives, though who and which are sometimes used restrictively ; but, in a 
resumptive sense, who or which is required, and required even after those terms which usually de- 
mand that or as : thus, " We are vexed at the unlucky chance, and go away dissatisfied. Such 
impressions, ivhich ought not to be cherished, are a sufficient reason for excluding stories of that kind 
from the theatre." — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 279. Here which is proper to the sense intended; 
but such requires as, when the latter term limits the meaning of the former. In sentences like 
the following, wJio or which may be used in lieu of that ; whether with any advantage or not, the 
reader may judge : "You seize the critical moment that is favorable to emotion." — Bair's Rhet, 
p. 321. " An historian that would instruct us, must know when to be concise." — lb., p. 359. 
" Seneca has been censured for the affectation that appears in his style." — lb., p. 367. " Such as 
the prodigies that attended the death of Julius Caesar." — lb., p. 401. " By unfolding those prin- 
ciples that ought to govern the taste of every individual." — Karnes 's Dedication to El. of Crit. 
" But I am sure he has that that i3 better than an estate." — Sped., No. 475. " There are two 
properties, that characterize and essentially distinguish relative pronouns." — GhurchilVs Gram., p. 
74. By these examples, it may be seen, that Dr. Blair often forgot or disregarded his own doe- 
trine respecting the use of this relative ; though he was oftener led, by the error of that doctrine, 
to substitute which for that improperly. 

03S. 36. — Whether was formerly used as an interrogative pronoun, in which sense it always 
referred to one of two things ; as, "Ye fools and blind I for whether is greater, the gold, or the 
temple that sanctifieth the gold?" — Matt, xxiii, 17. This usage is now obsolete; and, in stead 
of it, we say, li Which is greater?" But as a disjunctive conjunction, corresponding to or, the 
word whether is still in good repute ; as, " Resolve whether you will go or not." — Webster 's Diet. 
In this sense of the term, some choose to call whether an adverb. 

Obs. 37. — In the view of some writers, interrogative pronouns differ from relatives chiefly in 
this ; that, as the subject referred to is unknown to the speaker, they do not relate to a preceding 
noun, but to something which is to be expressed in the answer to the question. It is certain 
that their person, number, and gender, are not regulated by an antecedent noun ; but by what tha 
speaker supposes or knows of a subject which may, or may not, agree with them in these re- 
spects : as, iC What lies there?" Answer, "Two men asleep." Here what, standing for what 
thing, is of the third person, singular number, and neuter gender ; but men, which is the term 
that answers to it, is of the third person, plural, masculine. There is therefore no necessary 
agreement between the question and the answer, in any of those properties in which a pronoun 
usually agrees with its noun. Yet some grammarians will have interrogatives to agree with 
these " subsequents," as relatives agree with their antecedents. The answer, it must be granted, 
commonly contains a noun, corresponding in some respects to the interrogative pronoun, and 
agreeing with it in case ; but this noun cannot be supposed to control the interrogation, nor is it, 
in any sense, the word for which the pronoun stands. For every pronoun must needs stand for 
something that is uttered or conceived by the same speaker; nor can any question be an- 
swered, until its meaning is understood. Interrogative pronouns must therefore be explained as 
direct substitutes for such other terms as one might use in stead of them. Thus who means what 
person ? 

" Who taught that heav'n-directed spire to rise ? 
The Man of Ross, each lisping babe replies." — Pope. 

Oca. 38. — In the classification of the pronouns, and indeed in the whole treatment of them, 
almost all our English grammars are miserably faulty, as well as greatly at variance. In some 
forty or fifty, which I have examined on this point, the few words which constitute this part of 
speech, have more than twenty different modes of distribution. (1.) Cardell says, " There is but 
one kind of pronouns " — Elements of Gram., p. 30. (2.) D. Adams, Greenleaf, Nutting, and 
Weld, will have two kinds; . u personal and relative.' 1 ' 1 (3.) Dr. Webster's "Substitutes, or pro- 
nouns, are of two kinds:" the one, " called personal ;" the other, without name, or number. See 
his Improved Gram., p. 24. (4.) Many have fixed upon three sorts; "personal, relative, and 
adjective ;" with a subdivision of the last. Of these is Lindley Murray, in his late editions, with 
his amenders, Ainsworth, Alger, Bacon, Bullions, Fisk, A. Flint, Frost, Guy, Hall, Kirkham, 
Lennie, Merchant, Picket, Pond, and S. Putnam. (5.) Kirkham, however, changes the order of 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — MODIFICATIONS. 309 

the classes; thus, "'personal, adjective, and relative;" and, with ridiculous absurdity, makes 
mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, and theirs to be " compounds." (6.) Churchill adopts the plan of 
"personal, relative, and adjective pronouns;" and then destroys it by a valid argument. (7.) 
Comly, Wilcox, Wells, and Perley, have these three classes; "personal, relative, and interroga- 
tive:" and this division is right. (8.) Sanborn makes the following bull : " The general divisions 
of pronouns are into personal, relative, interrogative, and several sub-divisions." — Analytical Gram. 
p. 91. (9.) Jaudon has these three kinds; "personal, relative, and distributive." (10.) Robbing, 
these; "simple, conjunctive, and interrogative." (11.) Lindley Murray, in his early editions, had 
these four ; "personal, possessive, relative, and adjective." (12.) Bucke has these ; "personal, rela- 
tive, interrogative, and adjective." (13.) Ingersoll, these ; "personal, adjective, relative, and inter- 
rogative." (14.) Buchanan; "personal, demonstrative, relative, and interrogative." (15.) Coar; 
" personal, possessive or pronominal adjectives, demonstrative, and relative." (16.) Bickneh: "per- 
sonal, possessive, relative, and demonstrative." (17.) Cobbett ; "personal, relative, demonstrative, 
and indefinite." (18.) M'Culloch; "personal, possessive, relative, and reciprocal." (19.) Staniford 
has five; "personal, relative, interrogative, definitive, and distributive." (20.) Alexander, six; 
"personal, relative, demonstrative, interrogative, definitive, and adjective." (21.) Cooper, in 1828, 
had five ; "personal, relative, possessive, definite, and indefinite." (22.) Cooper, in 1831. six ; "personal, 
relative, definite, indefinite, possessive, and possessive pronominal adjectives." (23.) Dr. Crombie 
says: "Pronouns may be divided into Substantive, and Adjective; Personal, and Impersonal; 
Relative, and Interrogative." (24.) Alden has seven sorts ; "personal, possessive, relative, interroga- 
tive, distributive, demonstrative, and indefinite." (25.) R. C. Smith has many kinds, and treats 
them so badly that nobody can count them. In respect to definitions, too, most of these writers 
are shamefully inaccurate, or deficient. Hence the filling up of their classes is often as bad as 
the arrangement. For instance, four and twenty of them will have interrogative pronouns to be 
relatives ; but who that knows what a relative pronoun is, can coincide with them in opinion ? Dr. 
Crombie thinks, " that interrogatives are strictly relatives ;" and yet divides the two classes with 
his own hand ! 

MODIFICATIONS. 

Pronouns have the same modifications as nouns ; namely, Persons, 
Numbers, Genders, and Cases. Definitions universally applicable have 
already been given of all these things ; it is therefore unnecessary to 
define them again in this place. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — In the personal pronouns, most of these properties are distinguished by the words 
themselves ; in the relative and the interrogative pronouns, they are ascertained chiefly by means 
of the antecedent and the verb. Interrogative pronouns, however, as well as the relatives 
which, what, as, and all the compounds of who, which, and ivhat, are always of the third person. 
Even in etymological parsing, some regard must be had to the syntactical relations of words. 
By modifications, we commonly mean actual changes in the forms of words, by which their gram- 
matical properties are inherently distinguished ; but, in all languages, the distinguishable properties 
of words are somewhat more numerous than their actual variations of form ; there being certain 
principles of universal grammar, which cause the person, number, gender, or case, of some words, 
to be inferred from their relation to others ; or, what is nearly the same thing, from the sense 
which is conveyed by the sentence. Hence, if in a particular instance it happen, that some, or 
even all, of these properties, are without any index in the form of the pronoun itself, they are 
still to be ascribed in parsing, because they may be easily and certainly discovered from the con- 
struction. For example : in the following text, it is just as easy to discern the genders of the 
pronouns, as the cases of the nouns ; and both are known and asserted to be what they are, upon 
principles of mere inference : " For what knowest thou, wife, whether thou shalt save thy hus- 
band? or how knowest thou, man, whether thou shalt save thy wife f" — 1 Cor., vii, 16. Again: 
" Who betrayed her companion? Not I." — Murray's Key, p. 211. Here her being of the femi- 
nine gender, it is the inference of every reader, that vjho and / are so too ; but whether the word 
companion is masculine or feminine, is not so obvious. 

Obs. 2. — The personal pronouns of the first and second persons, are equally applicable to both 
sexes ; and should be considered masculine or feminine, according to the known application of 
them. [See Levizac's French Gram., p. 73.] The speaker and the hearer, being present to each 
other, of course know the sex to which they respectively belong ; and, whenever they appear in 
narrative or dialogue, we are told who they are. In Latin, an adjective or a participle relating to 
these pronouns, is varied to agree with them in number, gender, and case. This is a sufficient 
proof that ego, I, and tu, thou, are not destitute of gender, though neither the Latin words nor the 
English are themselves varied to express it : — 

" Miserce hoc tamen unum 
Exequere, Anna, mihi : solam nam perfidus ille 
Te colere, arcanos etiam tibi credere sensus ; 
Sola viri molles aditus et tempora noras." — Virgil. 



310 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [FART II. 

Obs. 3. — Many English grammarians, and Murray at their head, deny the first person of nouns, 
and the gender of pronouns of the first and second persons ; and at the same time teach, that, 
" Pronouns must always agree with their antecedents, and the nouns for which they stand, in 
gender, number, and person :" {Murray's Gh\, 2d Ed., p. Ill; Rev. T. Smith's, p. 60:) and further, 
with redundance of expression, that, " The relative is of the same person with the antecedent, 
and the verb agrees with it accordingly." — Same. These quotations form Murray's fifth rule of 
syntax, as it stands in his early editions.* In some of his revisings, the author erased the word 
person from the former sentence, and changed with to as in the latter. But other pronouns than 
relatives, agree with their nouns in person ; so that his first alteration was not for the better, 
though Ingersoll, Kirkham, Alger, Bacon, J. Greenleaf, and some others, have been very careful 
to follow him in it. And why did he never discern, that the above-named principles of his ety- 
mology are both of them contradicted by this rule of his syntax, and one of them by his rule as it 
now stands ? It is manifest, that no two words can possibly agree in any property which belongs 
not to both. Else what is agreement ? Nay, no two things in nature, can in any wise agree, 
accord, or be alike, but by having some quality or accident in common. How strange a con- 
tradiction then is this 1 And what a compliment to learning, that it is still found in well-nigh all 
our grammars! 

Obs. 4. — If there were truth in what Murray and others affirm, that "Gender has respect only 
to the third person singular of the pronouns, he, she, it,"\ no two words could ever agree in gen- 
der ; because there can be no such agreement between any two of the words here mentioned, 
and the assertion is, that gender has respect to no others. But, admitting that neither the author 
nor the numerous copiers of this false sentence ever meant to deny that gender has respect to 
nouns, they do deny that it has respect to any other pronouns than these; whereas I affirm 
that it ought to be recognized as a property of all pronouns, as well as of all nouns. Not that the 
gender of either is in all instances invariably fixed by the forms of the particular words ; but there 
is in general, if not in every possible case, some principle of grammar, on which the gender of any 
noun or pronoun in a sentence may be readily ascertained. Is it not plain, that if we know who 
speaks or writes, who hears or is addressed, we know also the gender of the pronouns which are 
applied to these persons ? The poet of The Task looked upon his mother's picture, and expressed 
his tender recollections of a deceased parent by way of address ; and will any one pretend, that 
the pronouns which he applied to himself and to her, are either of the same gender, or of no gen- 
der ? If we take neither of these assumptions, must we not say, they are of different genders ? 
In this instance, then, let the parser call those of the first person, masculine ; and those of the 
second, feminine: — 

" My mother ! when / learned that thou wast dead, 
Say, wast thou conscious of the tears 1 shed ?" — Cowper. 

Obs. 5. — That the pronouns of the first and second persons are sometimes masculine. and some- 
times feminine, is perfectly certain ; but whether they can or cannot be neuter, is a question diffi- 
cult to be decided. To things inanimate they are applied only -figuratively ; and the question is, 
whether the figure always necessarily changes the gender of the antecedent noun. We assume 
the general principle, that the noun and its pronoun are always of the same gender ; and we know 
that when inanimate objects are personified in the third person, they are usually represented 
as masculine or feminine, the gender being changed by the figure. But when a lifeless object is 
spokeu to in the second person, or represented as speaking in the first, as the pronouns here em- 
ployed are in themselves without distiuction of gender, no such change can be proved by the mere 
words ; and, if we allow that it would be needless to imagine it where the words do not prove it, 
the gender of these pronouns must in such cases be neuter, because we have no ground to think 
it otherwise. Examples: "And Jesus answered and said unto it, [the barren figtree,~] No man 
eat fruit oFthee hereafter forever." — Mark, xi, 14. " earth, cover not thou my blood." — Job, xvi, 
18. •' thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet?" — Jeremiah, xlvii, 6. In 
these instances, the objects addressed do not appear to be figuratively invested with the attribute 
of sex. So likewise with respect to the first person. If, in the following example, gold and dia- 
mond are neuter, so is the pronoun me ; and, if not neuter, of what gender are they ? The per- 
sonification indicates or discriminates no other. 

" Where thy true treasure ? Gold says, ' Not in me ; y 
And, ' Not in me,' the diamond. Gold is poor." — Young. 

THE DECLENSION OF PRONOUNS. 
The declension of a pronoun is a regular arrangement of its numbers and cases. 

* The latter part of this awkward and complex rule was copied from Lowth's Grammar, p. 101. Dr. Ash's 
rule is, " Pronouns must always agree with the nouns for which they stand, or to which they refer, in Number, 
•person, and gender." — Grammatical Institutes, p. 54. I quote this exactly as it stands in the book : the Italics 
are his, not mine. Roswell C. Smith appears to be ignorant of the change which Murray made in his fifth ruin : 
for he still publishes as Murray's a principle of concord which the latter rejected as early as 1806: "Rule V. 
Corresponding with Murray's Grammar, Rule V. Pronouns must agree with the nouns for which they stand, 
in gender, number, and person." — Smith's New Gram.,y. 130. So Allen Fisk, in his "Murray's English 
Grammar Simplified," p. Ill ; Aaron M. Merchant, in his '■'■Abridgment of Murray's English Grammar, Re- 
vised, Enlarged and Improved," p. 70; and the Rev. J. G. Cooper, in his "Abridgment of Murray's English 
Grammar," p. 113 ; where, from the titles, every reader would expect to find the latest doctrines of Murray, 
and not what he had so long ago renounced or changed. 

t L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 51; 12mo, 51; 18mo, 22; D. Adams's, 3T; Alger's, 21 ; Bacon's, 19; Fisk's, 20; 
Kirkham' s, 97; Merchant's Murray, 35; Merchant's American Gram., 40; F. H. Miller's Gram., 26; Pond's, 
28; S. Putnam's, 22; Russell's, 16; Rev. T. Smith's, 22. 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — DECLENSIONS. 311 

I. SIMPLE PERSONALS. 

The simple personal pronouns are thus declined : — 

I, of the first person, any of the genders.* 
Sing. Nom. I, Plur. Nom. we, 

Poss. my, or mine,f Poss. our, or ours, 

Obj. me ; Obj. us. 

Thou, of the second person, any of the genders. 
Sing. Nom. thou, J Plur. Nom. ye, or you, 

Poss. thy, or thine, Poss. your, or yours, 

Obj. thee ; Obj. you, or ye.§ 

He, of the third person, masculine gender. 
Sing. Nom. he, Plur. Nom. they, 

Poss. his, Poss. their, or theirs, 

Obj. him; Obj. them. 

She, of the third person, feminine gender. 

Sing. Nom. she, Plur. Nom. they, 

Poss. her, or hers, Poss. their, or theirs, 

Obj. her; Obj. them. 

It, of the third person, neuter gender. 

Sing. Nom. it, Plur. Nom. they, 

Poss. its, Poss. their, or theirs, 

Obj. it; Obj. them. 

ii. compound personals. 
The word self added to the simple personal pronouns, forms the class of compound 
personal pronouns ; which are used when an action reverts upon the agent, and also 
when some persons are to be distinguished from others : as, sing, myself plur. our- 
selves ; sing, thyself plur. yourselves ; sing, himself plur. themselves ; sing, herself 
plur. themselves ; sing, itself plur. themselves. They all want the possessive case, 
and are alike in the nominative and objective. Thus : — 

Myself, of the first person, |j any of the genders. 
Sing. Nom. myself, Plur. Nom. ourselves, 

Poss. , Poss. , 

Obj. myself; Obj. ourselves. 

* Dr. Crombie, and some others, represent I and thou, •with their inflections, as being "masculine and femi- 
nine." Lennie, M'Culloch, and others, represent them as being "masculine or feminine." But. if either of 
them can have an antecedent that is neuter, neither of these views is strictly correct. (See Obs. 5th, above.) 
Mackintosh says, " We use our, your, their, in speaking of a thing or things belonging to plural nouns of any 
gender." — Essay on English Gram., p. 149. So William Barnes says, "J, thou, ice, ye or you, and they, are 
of all genders." — Philosophical Gram., p. 196. 

t "It is perfectly plain, then, that my and mine are but different forms of the same word, as are a and an. 
Mine, for the sake of euphony, or from custom, stands for the possessive case without a noun ; but must be 
changed for my when the noun is expressed: and my, for a similar reason, stands before a noun, but must be 
changed for mine when the noun is dropped. * * * Mine and my, thine and thy, will, therefore, be considered 
in this book, as different forms of the possessive case from i" and Thou. And the same rule will be extended to 
her and hers, our and ours, your and yours, their and theirs. 1 " — Barnard's Analytic Grammar, p. 142. 

X It has long been fashionable, in the ordinary intercourse of the world, to substitute the plural form of this 
pronoun for the singular through all the cases. Thus, by the figure Enallage, '■'■you are" for instance, is com- 
monly put for " thou art." See Observations 20th and 21st, below ; also Figures of Syntax, in Part IV. 

§ The original nominative was ye, which is still the only nominative of the solemn style ; and the original ob- 
jective was you, which is still the only objective that our grammarians in general acknowledge. But, whether 
grammatical or not, ye is now very often used, in a familiar way, for the objective case. (See Observations 22d 
and 23d, upon the declensions of pronouns.) T. Dilworth gave both cases alike: " Nom. Ye or you ;" "Ace. 
[or Obj.'] Ye or you." — His New Guide, p. 98. Latham gives these forms: "Nom. ye or you; Obj. you or ye." 
— Elementary Gram., p. 90. Dr. Campbell says, "I am inclined to prefer that use which makes ye invariably 
the. nominative plural of the personal pronoun thou, and you the accusative, when applied to an actual plural- 
ity." — Philosojyhji of Rhetoric, p. 174. Professor Fowler touches the case, rather blindly, thus: "Instead of 
the true nominative ye, we use, with few exceptions, the objective, case; as, ' yotj speak? 'yotj tioo are speak- 
ing.'' In this we substitute one case for another." — Folder's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 478. No other gram- 
marian, however, discards you as a nominative of "actual plurality;" and the present casual practice of putting 
ye in the objective, has prevailed to some extent for at least two centuries: as, 
" Your change approaches, when all these delights 
Will vanish and deliver ye to woe." — Milton, P. L., B. iv, L 367. 

II Dr. Young has, in one instance, and with very doubtful propriety, converted this pronoun into the second 
person, by addressing himself thus : — 

" O thou, myself I abroad our counsels roam 
And, like ill husbands, take no care at home." — Love of Fame, Sat. II, 1. 271. 



312 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART II. 



Thyself, of the second 

Sing*. Nom. thyself,* 

Poss. , 

Obj. thyself; 

Himself, of the third 

Sing. Nom. himself, 

Poss. , 

Obj. himself ; 

Herself, of the third 
Sing. Nom. herself, 

Poss. , 

Obj. herself; 

Itself, of the third 
Sing. Nom. itself, 



Poss. 

Obj. 



itself; 



person, any of the genders. 

Plur. Nom. yourselves 

Poss. 

Obj. yourselves 

person, masculine gender. 

Plur. Nom. themselves 
Poss. 

Obj. themselves 

person, feminine gender. 

Plur. Nom. themselves 

Poss. 

Obj. themselves 

person, neuter gender. 

Plur. Nom. themselves, 

Poss. 

Obj. themselves. 



in. relatives and interrogatives. 



The relative and the interrogative pronouns are thus declined : — 
Who, literally applied to persons only. 
Sing. Nom. who, Plur. Nom. who, 

Poss. whose, Poss. whose, 

Obj. whom ; Obj. whom. 



Sing. Nom 



Which, applied to animals and things. 
which, Plur. Nom. 

Poss. f , Poss. 

Obj. which ; Obj. 



which, 



which. 



Sing. Nom. 



Poss. 
Obj. 



What, applied ordinarily to things only.\ 

what, Plur. Nom. what, 

, Poss. , 

what ; Obj. what. 



* The fashion of using the plural number for the singular, or you for thou, has also substituted yourself for 
thyself, in common discourse. In poetry, in prayer, in Scripture, and in the familiar language of the Friends, 
the original compound is still retained ; but the poets use either term, according to the gravity or the lightness 
of their style. But yourself, like the regal comp und ourself, though apparently of the singular number, 
and always applied to one person only, is, in its very nature, an anomalous and ungrammatical word ; for it 
can neither mean more than one, nor agree with a pronoun or a verb that is singular. Swift indeed wrote : 
" Conversation is but carving; carve for all, yourself is starving." But he wrote erroneously, and his meaning 
is doubtful : probably he meant, " To carve for all, is, to starve yourself." The compound personals, when they 
are nominatives before the verb, are commonly associated with the simple; as, "I myself also am a man." — 
Acts, x, 16. "That thou thyself art a guide." — Rom., ii, 19. "If it stand, as you yourself still do." — Shak- 
speare. "That you yourself are much condemned." — Id. And, if the simple pronoun be omitted, the com- 
pound still requires the same form of the verb; as, "Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell." — Milton. The 
following example is different : "I love mankind; and in a monarchy myself is all that I can love." — Life of 
Schiller, Fallen's Pref., p. x. Dr. Follen objects to the British version, " Myself were all that I could love ;" 
and, if his own is good English, the verb is agrees with all, and not with myself. Is is of the third person : 
hence, " myself is," or, " yourself is," cannot be good syntax; nor does any one say, " yourself art," or, '■'■our- 
self am," but rather, " yourself are :" as, " Captain, yourself are the fittest." — Dryden. But to call this a '■'•con- 
cord," is to turn a third part of the language upsidedown; because, by analogy, it confounds, to such extent at 
least, the plural number with the singular through all our verbs ; that is, if ourself and yourself are singulars, 
and not rather plurals put for singulars by a figure of syntax. But the words are, in some few instances, writ- 
ten separately ; and then both the meaning and the construction are different; as, "Your self is sacred, profane 
it not." — The Dial, Vol. i, p. 86. Perhaps the word myself above ought rather to have been two words; thus, 
"And, in a monarchy, my self is all that I can love." The two words here differ in person and case, perhaps 
also in gender; and, in the preceding instance, they differ in person, number, gender, and case. But the com- 
pound always follows the person, number, and gender ol its first part, and only the case of its last. The notion 
of some grammarians, (to wit, of Wells, and the sixty-eight others whom he cites for it,) that you and your are 
actually made singular by nsage, is demonstrably untrue. Do we, our, and us, become actually singular, as 
often as a king or a critic applies them to himself? No ; for nothing can be worse syntax than, we am, we was, 
or you was, though some contend for this last construction. 

t Whose is sometimes used as the possessive case of which ; as, " A religion whose origin is divine." — Blair. 
See Observations 4th and 5th, on the Classes of Pronouns. 

% After but, as in the following sentence, the double relative what is sometimes applied to persons; and it is 
here equivalent to the friend who: — 

" Lorenzo, pride repress; nor hope to find 
A friend, but what has found a friend in thee." — Young. 



CHAP. V.] 



ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — DECLENSIONS. 



313 



That, applied to persons, animals, and things. 

Sing. Norn. that, Plur. Nom. that, 

Poss. 
Obj. 



Poss. 

Obj. 



that; Obj. that. 

As, applied to persons, animals, and things. 

Sing. Nom. as, Plur. Nom. as, 

Poss. — , Poss. , 

Obj. as; Obj. as. 

IV. COMPOUND RELATIVES. 

The compound relative pronouns, whoever or whosoever, whichever or whichsoever. 
and whatever or whatsoever* are declined in the same manner as the simples, who 
which, what. Thus : — 

Whoever or Whosoever, applied only to persons. 

Sing. Nom. whoever, Plur. Nom. whoever, 

whosever, Poss. 

whomever; Obj. 

whosoever, Plur. Nom. 

whosesoever, Poss. 

whomsoever ; ■ Obj. 

Whichever or Whichsoever, applied to persons, animals, and things. 

Sing. Nom. whichever, Plur. Nom. whichever, 

, Poss. . 

whichever; Obj. 

whichsoever, Plur. Nom. 

, Poss. 

whichsoever; Obj. 



Poss. 
Obj. 

Sing. Nom. 
Poss. 
Obj. 



Poss. 
Obj. 
Sing. Nom. 
Poss. 
Obj. 



whosever, 
whomever. 

whosoever, 

whosesoever, 

whomsoever. 



whichever, 
whichsoever. 



whichsoever. 

Whatever or Whatsoever, applied ordinarily to things only. 
Sing. Nom. whatever, Plur. Nom. whatever. 



Poss. 
Obj. 

Sinn;. Nom. 
Poss. 
Obj. 



whatever ; 
whatsoever, 

whatsoever ; 



Plur. Nom. 
Poss. 
Obj. 

Plur. Nom. 
Poss. 
Obj. 



whatever, 
whatsoever, 

whatsoever. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Obs. 1. — Most of the personal pronouns have two forms of the possessive case, in each num- 
ber : as, my or mine, our or ours ; thy or thine, your or yours ; her or hers, their or theirs. The 
former is used before a noun expressed, or when nothing but an adjective intervenes ; the latter, 
when the governing* noun is understood, or is so placed that a repetition of it is implied in or 
after the pronoun: as, " My powers are thine; be fTurce alone The glory of my song." — Montgomery. 
" State what mine and your principles are." — Legh Richmond, to his Daughters. Better, perhaps: 
"State what my principles and yours are;" — " State what your principles and mine are;" — or, 
" State what are my principles and your own." 

" Resign'd he fell ; superior to the dart 
That quench'd its rage in yours and Britain's heart." — J. Brown. 

"Behold ! to yours and my surprise, 
These trifles to a volume rise." — Lloyd, p. 186. 

Obs. 2. — Possibly, when the same persons or things stand in a joint relation of this kind to 
different individuals or parties, it may be proper to connect two of the simple possessives to 

* Of all these compounds, L. Murray very improperly says, " They are seldom, used in modern style." — Oc- 
tavo Gram., p. 54; also Fish's, p. 65. None of them are yet obsolete, though the shorter forms seem to he now 
generally preferred. The following suggestion of Cobhett's is erroneous; because it implies that the shorter 
forms are innovations and faults; and because the author carelessly speaks of them as one thing only: "We 
8ometim.es omit the so, and sav, whoever, whomever, whatever, and even whosever. It is a mere abbreviation. 
The m is understood ; and. it is best not to omit to write it."— Eno. Gram.,^ 209. R. C. Smith dismisses the 
compound relatives with three lines; and these he closes with the following notion: " They are mat often used .'" 
—New Gram. , p. 61. 



314 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

express it ; though this construction can seldom, if ever, be necessary, because any such expres- 
sion as thy and her sister, my and his duty, if not erroneous, can mean nothing but your sister, our 
duty, &c. But some examples occur, the propriety of which it is worth while to consider : as, 
" I am sure it will be a pleasure to you to hear that she proves worthy of her father, worthy of 
you, and of your and her ancestors." — Spectator, No. 525. This sentence is from a version of 
Pliny's letter to his wife's aunt ; and, as the ancestors of the two individuals are here the same, 
the phraseology maybe allowable. But had the aunt commended her niece to Pliny, she should 
have said, "worthy of you and of your ancestors and hers." "Is it her or his honour that is tar- 
nished ? It is not hers, but his." — Murray's Gram., p. 175. This question I take to be bad Eng- 
lish. It ought to be, " Is it her honour or his, that is tarnished ?" Her honour and his honour 
cannot be one and the same thing. This example was framed by Murray to illustrate that idle 
and puzzling distinction which he and some others make between " possessive adjective pronouns" 
and "the genitive case of the personal pronouns;" and, if I understand him, the author will here 
have her and his to be of the former class, and hers and his of the latter. It were a better use 
of time, to learn how to employ such words correctly. Unquestionably, they are of the same 
class and the same case, and would be every way equivalent, if the first form were fit to be used 
elliptically. For example : " The same phrenzy had hindered the Dutch from improving to their 
and to the common advantage the public misfortunes of France." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 309. 
Here the possessive case their appears to be governed by advantage understood, and therefore it 
would perhaps be better to say, theirs, or their own. But in the following instance, our may be 
proper, because both possessives appear to be governed by one and the same noun : — 
" Although 'twas our and their opinion 
Each other's church was but a Binmion." — Hudibras. 

Obs. 3. — Mine and thine were formerly preferred to my and thy, before all words beginning with 
a vowel sound ; or rather, mine and, thine were the original forms,* and my and thy were first 
substituted for them before consonants, and afterwards before vowels : as, " But it was thou, a man 
mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance." — Psalms, lv, 13. "Thy prayers and thine alma 
are come up for a memorial before God." — Acts, x, 4. When the Bible was translated, either 
form appears to have been used before the letter h; as, "Hath not my hand made all these 
tilings?" — Acts, vii, 50. " By stretching forth thine hand to heal." — Acts, iv, 30. According to 
present practice, my and thy are in general to be preferred before all nouns, without regard to the 
sounds of letters. The use of the other forms, in the manner here noticed, has now become obso- 
lete ; or, at least, antiquated, and peculiar to the poets. We occasionally meet with it in modern 
verse, though not very frequently, and only where the melody of the line seems to require it : as, 

"Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow." — Byron. 
" Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes." — Johnson. 
" Mine eyes beheld the messenger divine." — Lusiad. 
11 Thine ardent symphony sublime and high." — Sir W. Scott. 

Obs. 4. — The possessives mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, theirs, usually denote possession, or the 
relation of property, with an ellipsis of the name of the thing possessed; as, "My sword and 
yours are kin." — Shakspeare. Here yours means your sword. " You may imagine what kind 
of faith theirs was." — Bacon. Here theirs means their faith. " He ran headlong into his own 
ruin whilst he endeavoured to precipitate ours." — Bolingbroke. Here ours means our ruin. 
"Every one that heareth these saying of mine." — Matt, vii, 26. Here mine means my sayings. 
" Sing unto the Lord, ye saints of his." — Psalms, xxx, 4. Here his means his saints. The 
noun which governs the possessive, is here understood after it, being inferred from that which pre- 
cedes, as it is in all the foregoing instances. " And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off 
from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart." — 1 Samuel, ii, 33. 
Here thine, in the first phrase, means thy men ; but, in the subsequent parts of the sentence, both 
mine and thine mean neither more nor less than thy and my, because there is no ellipsis. Of be- 
fore the possessive case, governs the noun which is understood after this case ; and is always 
taken in a partitive sense, and not as the sign of the possessive relation : as, " When we say, ' a 
soldier of the king's 1 , we mean, l one of the king's soldiers.' " — Webster's Improved Gram., p. 29. 
There is therefore an ellipsis of the word soldiers, in the former phrase. So, in the following ex- 
ample, mine is used elliptically for my feet ; or rather, feet is understood after mine, though mine 
feet is no longer good English, for reasons before stated : — 

" Ere I absolve thee, stoop ! that on thy neck 
Levelled with earth this foot of mine may tread." — Wordsworth. 

Obs. 5. — Respecting the possessive case of the simple personal pronouns, there appears among 
our grammarians a strange diversity of sentiment. Yet is there but one view of the matter, that 
has in it either truth or reason, consistency or plausibility. And, in the opinion of any judicious 
teacher, an erroneous classification of words so common and so important as these, may well go 
far to condemn any system of grammar in which it is found. A pronoun agrees in person, num- 

* Sanborn, with strange ignorance of the history of these words, teaches thus: "Mine and thine appear to 
have been formed from my and thy by changing y into i and adding n, and then subjoining e to retain the long 
sound of the vowel."— Analytical Gram., p. 92. This false notion, as we learn from his guillemets and a re- 
mark in his preface, he borrowed from " Parkhnrst's Systematic Introduction." Dr. Lowth says, " The Saxon 
1c hath the possessive case Min ; Thu, possessive Thin ; He, possessive His : From which our possessive cases 
of the same pronouns are taken without alteration." — LowtKs Oram., p. 23. 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — DECLENSIONS. 315 

ber, and gender, with the noun for which it is a substitute; and, if it is in the possessive case, it 
is usually governed by an other noun expressed or implied after it. That is, if it denotes possession, 
it stands for the name of the possessor, and is governed by the name of the thing possessed. 
Now do not my, thy, his, her, our, your, their, and mine, thine, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, all 
equally denote possession ? and do they not severally show by their forms the person, the num- 
ber, and sometimes also the gender, of whomever or whatever they make to be the possessor? If 
they do, they are all of them pronouns, and nothing else ; all found in the possessive case, and no- 
where else. It is true, that in Latin, Greek, and some other languages, there are not only geni- 
tive cases corresponding to these possessives, but also certain declinable adjectives which we 
render in English by these same words : that is, by my or mine, our or ours ; thy or thine, your 
or yours ; &c. But this circumstance affords no valid argument for considering any of these Eng- 
lish terms to be mere adjectives ; and, say what we will, it is plain that they have not the signi- 
fication of adjectives, nor can we ascribe to them the construction of adjectives, without making 
their grammatical agreement to be what it very manifestly is not. They never agree, in any 
respect, with the nouns which follovj them, unless it be by mere accident. This view of the mat- 
ter is sustained by the authority of many of our English grammars ; as may be seen by the de- 
clensions given by Ash, C. Adams, Ainsworth, R. TV. Bailey, Barnard, Buchanan, Bicknell, Blair, 
Burn, Butler, Comly, Churchill, Cobbett, Dalton, Davenport, Dearborn, Farnum, A. Elint, Fowler, 
Frost, Gilbert, S. S. Greene, Greenleaf, Hamlin, Hiley, Kirkham, Merchant, Murray the school- 
master, Parkhurst, Picket, Russell, Sanborn, Sanders, R. C. Smith, Wilcox. 

Obs. 6. — In opposition to the classification and doctrine adopted above, many of our gramma- 
rians teach, that my, thy, his, her, our, your, their, are adjectives or " adjective pronouns ;" and 
that mine, thine, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, are personal pronouns in the possessive case. Among 
the supporters of this notion, are D. Adams, Alden, Alger, Allen, Bacon, Barrett, Bingham, Bucke, 
Bullions, Cutler, Fisk, Frost, (in his small Grammar.) Guy, Hall, Hart, Harrison, IngersoU, Jaudon, 
Lennie, Lowth, Miller, L. Murray, Pond, T. Smith, Spear, Spencer, Staniford, Webber, Wood- 
worth. The authority of all these names, however, amounts to little more than that of one man ; 
for Murray pretended to follow Lowth, and nearly all the rest copied Murray. Dr. Lowth says, 
" Thy, my, her, our, your, their, are pronominal adjectives; but his, (that is, he's,) her's, our's, 
your's, their's, have evidently the form of the possessive case : And, by analogy, mine, thine, may 
be esteemed of the same rank." — Lowth' s Gram., p. 23.* But why did he not see, that by the 
same analogy, and also by the sense and meaning of the words, as well as by their distinctions 
of person, number, and gender, ah the other six are entitled to " the same rank ?" Are not the forms 
of my, thy, her, our, your, their, as fit to denote the relation of property, and to be called the pos- 
sessive case, as mine, thine, his, or any others ? In grammar, all needless distinctions are repre- 
hensible. And where shall we find a more blamable one than this? It seems to have been 
based merely upon the false notion, that the possessive case of pronouns ought to be formed like 
that of nouns ; whereas custom has clearly decided that they shall always be different : the former 
must never be written with an apostrophe ; and the latter, never without it. Contrary to all good 
usage, however, the Doctor here writes " her's, out's, your's, their's," each with a needless apos- 
trophe. Perhaps he thought it would serve to strengthen his position ; and help to refute what 
some affirmed, that all these words are adjectives. 

Obs. 1. — Respecting mine, thine, and his, Lowth and L. Murray disagree. The latter will 
have them to be sometimes " possessive pronouns,'" and sometimes "possessive cases." An ad- 
mirable distinction this for a great author to make I too slippery for even the inventor's own hold, 
and utterly unintelligible to those who do not know its history ! In short, these authors disagree 
also concerning my, thy, her, our, your, their ; and where two leaders of a party are at odds with 
each other, and each is in the wrong, what is to be expected from their followers ? Perceiving 
that Lowth was wrong in calling these words "pronominal adjectives," Murray changed the term 
to " possessive pronouns," stiU retaining the class entire ; and accordingly taught, in his early edi- 
tions, that, " There are four kinds of pronouns, viz., the personal, the possessive, the relative, and 
the adjective pronouns." — Murray's Gram., 2d Edition, p. 37. "The Possessive Pronouns are 
such as principally relate to possession or property. There are seven of them ; viz. my, thy, his, her, 
our, your, their. The possessives his, mine, thine, may be accounted either possessive pronouns, or 
the possessive cases of their respective personal pronouns." — lb., p. 40. He next idly demon- 
strates that these seven words may come before nouns of any number or case, without variation ; 
then, forgetting his own distinction, adds, "When they are separated from the noun, all of them, 

* Latham, with a singularity quite remarkable, reverses this doctrine in respect to the two classes, and says, 
" My, thy, our, your, her, and their signify possession, because they are possessive cases. * * * Mine, thine, 
ours, yours, hers, theirs, signify possession for a different reason. They partake of the nature of adjectives, 
and in all the allied languages are declined as such." — Latham's Elementary E. Gram., p. 94. Weld, like 
Wells, with a few more whose doctrine will be criticised by-and-by, adopting here an other odd opinion, takes 
the former class only for forms of the possessive case; the latter he disposes of thus: '■'■Ours, yours, theirs, 
hers, and generally mine and thine, are possessive peoxotjks, used in either the nominative or objective case." 
— Weld's Gram., Improved Ed., p. 68. Not only denying the possessives with ellipsis to be instances of the 
possessive case, but stupidly mistaking at once two dissimilar things for a third which is totally unlike to either, 
— i. e., assuming together for substitution both an ellipsis of one word and an equivalence to two — (as some 
others more learned have very strangely done — ) he supposes all this class of pronouns to have forsaken every prop- 
erty of their legitimate roots, — their person, their number, their gender, their case, — and to have assumed other 
properties, such as belong to " the thing possessed !" In the example, " Your house is on the plain, ours is on 
the hill," he supposes ours to be of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case ; and 
not, as it plainly is, of the first person, plural number, masculine gender, and possessive, case. Such parsing 
should condemn forever any book that teaches it. 



316 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

except his, vary their terminations; as, this hat is mine, and the other is thine; those trinkets 
are hers ; this house is ours, and that is yours ; theirs is more commodious than ours. 11 — lb., p. 40. 
Thus all his personal pronouns of the possessive case, he then made to be inflections of pronouns 
of a different class ! "What are they now ? Seek the answer under the head of that gross 
solecism, " Adjective Pronouns." You may find it in one half of our English grammars. 

Obs. 8. — Any considerable error in the classing of words, does not stand alone ; it naturally 
brings others in its train. Murray's " Adjective Pronouns" (which he now subdivides into four 
little classes, possessive, distributive, demonstrative, and indefinite,) being all of them misnamed and 
misplaced in his etymology, have led both him and many others into strange errors in syntax. 
The possessives only are "pronouns;" and these are pronouns of the possessive case. As such, 
they agree with the antecedent nouns for which they stand, in person, number, and gender ; and 
are governed, like all other possessives, by the nouns which follow them. The rest are not pro- 
nouns, but pronominal adjectives ; and, as such, they relate to nouns expressed or understood 
after them. Accordingly, they have none of the above-mentioned qualities, except that the 
words this and that form the plurals these and those. Or, if we choose to ascribe to a pronominal 
adjective all the properties of the noun understood, it is merely for the sake of brevity in parsing. 
TI13 difference, then, between a "pronominal adjective" and an "adjective pronoun," should seem 
to be this ; that the one is an adjective, and the other a pronoun : it is like the difference be- 
tween a horserace and a racehorse. "What can be hoped from the grammarian who cannot discern 
it? And what can be made of rules and examples like the following? "Adjective pronouns 
must agree, in number, with their substantives: as, ' This book, these books; that sort, those sorts; 
another road, other roads.'" — Murray's Gram., Rule viii, Late Editions ; Alger'' s Murray, p. 56; 
Alden's, 85; Bacon's, 48; Maltby's, 59;* Miller's, 66; Merchant's, 81; S. Putnam's, 10; and others. 
11 Pronominal adjectives must agree with their nouns in gender, number, and person ; thus, ' My 
son, hear the instructions of thy father.' ' Call the labourers, and give them their hire.' " — Maun- 
der' s Gram., Rule xvii. Here Murray gives a rule for pronouns, and illustrates it by adjectives ; 
and Maunder, as ingeniously blunders in reverse : he gives a rule for adjectives, and iUustrates it 
by pronouns. But what do they mean by " their substantives," or " their nouns?" As applicable 
to pronouns, the phrase should mean nouns antecedent ; as applicable to adjectives, it should mean 
nouns subsequent. Both these rules are therefore false, and fit only to bewilder ; and the exam- 
ples to both are totally inapplicable. Murray's was once essentially right, but he afterwards cor- 
rupted it, and a multitude of his admirers have since copied the perversion. It formerly stood 
thus : " The pronominal adjectives this and that, &c. and the numbers* one, two, &c, must agree 
in number with their substantives : as, ' This book, these books ; that sort, those sorts ; one girl, 
ten girls ; another road, other roads.' " — Murray's Gram., Rule viii, 2d Ed., 1796. 

Obs. 9. — Among our grammarians, some of considerable note have contended, that the personal 
pronouns have but two cases, the nominative and the objective. Of this class, may be reckoned 
Brightland, Dr. Johnson, Fisher, Mennye, Cardell, Cooper, Dr. Jas. P. "Wilson, W. B. Fowle. and, 
according to his late grammars, Dr. Webster. But, in contriving what to make of my or mine, 
our or ours, thy or thine, your or yours, his, her or hers, its, and their or theirs, they are as far from 
any agreement, or even from self-consistency, as the cleverest of them could ever imagine. To 
the person, the number, the gender, and the case, of each of these words, they either profess 
themselves to be total strangers, or else prove themselves so, by the absurdities they teach. 
Brightland calls them " Possessive Qualities, or Qualities of Possession ;" in which class he also 
embraces all nouns of the possessive case. Johnson calls them pronouns ; and then says of them, 
" The possessive pronouns, like other adjectives, are without cases or change of termination." — 
Gram., p. 6. Fisher calls them " Personal Possessive Qualities ;" admits the person of my, our, 
&c. ; but supposes mine, ours, &c. to supply the place of the nouns which govern them ! Mennye 
makes them one of his three classes of pronouns, "personal, possessive, and relative;" giving to 
both forms the rank which Murray once gave, and which Allen now gives, to the first form only. 
Cardell places them among his " defining adjectives." With Fowle, these, and all other posses- 
sives, are "possessive adjectives." Cooper, in his grammar of 1828. copies the last scheme of 
Murray: in that of 1831, he avers that the personal pronouns "want the possessive case." Now, 
like Webster and Wilson, he will have mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, and theirs, to be pronouns of 
the nominative or the objective case. Dividing the pronouns into six general classes, he makes 
these the fifth; calling them "Possessive Pronouns," but preferring in a note the monstrous 
name, "Possessive Pronouns Substitute." His sixth class are what he calls, "The Possessive Pro- 
nominal Adjectives;" namely, " my, thy, his, her, our f your, their, its, own, and sometimes mine 
and thine." — Cooper's PI. and Pr. Gram., p. 43. But all these he has, unquestionably, either 
misplaced or misnamed ; while he tells us, that, " Simplicity of arrangement should be the object 
of every compiler." — lb., p. 33. Dr. Perley, (in whose scheme of grammar all the pronouns are 
nouns,) will have my, thy, his, her, its, our, your, and their, to be in the possessive case; but of 
mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, and theirs, he says, " These may be called Desiderative Personal 
Pronouns." — Perley's Gram., p. 15. 

Obs. 10. — Kirkham, though he professes to follow Murray, declines the simple personal pro- 
nouns as I have declined them; and argues admirably, that my, thy, his, &c, are pronouns of the 
possessive case, because, "They always stand for nouns in the possessive case." But he afterwards 
contradicts both himself and the common opinion of all former grammarians, in referring mine, 

* This word should have been numerals, for two or three reasons. The author speaks of the numeral adjec- 
tives; and to say " the numbers must agree in number with their substantives," is tautological. — G. Bkown. 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — DECLENSIONS. 317 

thine, hers, &c, to the class of " Compound Personal Pronouns:'' Nay, as if to outdo even him- 
self in absurdity, he first makes mine, thine, hers, ours, &c., to be compounds, by assuming that, 
" These pluralizing adjuncts, ne and 5, were, no doubt, formerly detached from the pronouns with 
which they now coalesce;" and then, because he finds in each of his supposed compounds the 
signification of a pronoun and its governing noun, reassumes, in parsing them, the very principle 
of error, on which he condemns their common classification. He says, " They should be parsed 
as two words." He also supposes them to represent the nouns which govern them — nouns with 
which they do not agree in any respect ! Thus is he wrong in almost every thing he says about 
them. See Kirkham's Gram., p. 99, p. 101, and p. 104. Goodenow, too, a stili later writer, 
adopts the major part of all this absurdity. He will have my, thy, his, her, its. our, your, their, 
for the possessive case of his personal pronouns; but mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, theirs, he calls 
" compound possessive pronouns, in the subjective or [the] objective ease."— Text-Book of E. Gram,, 
p. 33. Thus he introduces a new class, unknown to his primary division of the pronouns, and 
not included in his scheme of their declension. Fuller, too, hi a grammar produced at Plymouth, 
Mass., in 1822. did nearly the same thing. He called / thou, he, she, and it, with their plurals, 
"antecedent pronouns;" took my, thy, his, her, &c, for their only possessive forms in his declen- 
sion ; and, having passed from them by the space of just half his book, added : " Sometimes, to 
prevent the repetition of the same word, an antecedent pronoun in the possessive case, is made to 
represent, both the pronoun and a noun; as, ' That book is mine" 1 — i. e. l my look.' Mine is a 
compound antecedent pronoun, and is equivalent to my look. Then parse my, and look, as though 
they were both expressed." — Fidler's Gram., p. 71. 

Obs. 11. — Amidst all this diversity of doctrine at the very centre of grammar, who shall so fix 
its principles that our schoolmasters and schoolmistresses may know what to believe and teach f 
Not he that speculates without regard to other men's views ; nor yet he that makes it a merit to 
follow implicitly "the footsteps of" one only. The true principles of grammar are with the 
learned; and that man is in the wrong, with whom the most learned will not. in general, coin- 
cide. Contradiction of falsities, is necessary to the maintenance of truth ; correction of errors, to 
the success of science. But not every man's errors can be so considerable as to deserve correc- 
tion from other hands than his own. Misinstruction in grammar has for this reason generally 
escaped censure. I do not wish any one to coincida with me merely through ignorance of what 
others inculcate. If doctors of divinity and doctors of laws will contradict themselves in teach- 
ing grammar, so for as they do so, the lovers of consistency wiU find it necessary to deviate from 
their track. Respecting these pronouns, I learned in ehilelhood, from Webster, a doctrine which 
he now declares to be false. This was nearly the same as Lowth's. which is quoted in the sixth 
observation above. But, in stead of correcting its faults, this zealous reformer has but run into 
others still greater. Now, with equal reproach to his etymology, his syntax, and his logic, he 
denies that our pronouns have any form of the possessive case at all. But grant the obvious 
fact, that substitution is one thing, and ellipsis an other, and his whole argument is easily over- 
thrown ; for it is only by confounding thVse, that he reaches his absurd conclusion. 

Obs. 12. — Dr. "Webster's doctrine now is, that none of the English pronouns have more than 
two cases. He says, "mine, thine, his, hers, yours, and (heirs, are usually considered as [heing of] 
the possessive case. But the three first are either attributes, and used with nouns, or they 
are substitutes. The three last are always substitutes, usee! in the place of names which 
are understood." — "That mine, thine, his, [ours,] yours, Jar*, and theirs, do not constitute a 
possessive case, is demonstrable; for they are constantly used as the nominatives to verbs and as 
the objectives after verbs and prepositions, as in the following passages. ' Whether it could per- 
form its operations of thinking and memory out of a body organized as curs is. 1 — Locke. ' The 
reason is, that his subject is generally things ; theirs, on the contrary, is persons.' — Camp. Rhet. 
'Therefore leave your forest of beasts for ours of brutes, called men.' — Wycherky to Pope. It 
is needless to multiply proofs. We observe these pretended p , ossessives uniformly used as nomi- 
natives or objectives.* Should it be said that a noun is understood ; I reply, this cannot be true" 

* Cardell assails the common doctrine of the grammarians on this point, -with similar assertions, and still 
more earnestness. See his Essay on Langiuvjc, p. 30. The notion that " these pretended possessi ves [are] uni- 
formly used as nominatives or objectives" — though demonstrably absurd, and confessedly repugnant to what is 
" usually considered" to be their true explanation — was adopted by Jaudon, in 1812; and has recently found 
several new advocates ; among whom are Davis, Felch, Goodenow, Hazen, Smart, Weld, and Wells. There is, 
however, much diversity, as well as much inaccuracy, in their sever-1 expositions of the matter. Smart inserts 
in his declensions, as the only forms of the possessive case, the words of which he afterwards speaks thus: 
" # The following 2>ossessive cases of the personal pronouns, (See page vii,) must be called peesoxal peoxouxs 
possessive: mine, thine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs. For these words are always used substantively, so as 
to include the meaning of some noun in the third person singular or plural, in the nominative or the objective 
case. Thus, if we are speakiny of books, and say [,] '■Mine are here,' mine means my books, [d™] and it must 
be deemed a personal pronoun possessive in the third person plural, and nominative to the verb are." — Smart's 
Accidence, p. xxii. If to say, these " 2)ossessive cases must be called a class of pronouns, used substantively, 
and deemed nomirtatives or objectives" is not absurd, then nothing can be. Nor is any thing in grammar more 
certain, than that the pronoun "■mine"' can only be used by the speaker or writer, to denote himself or herself 
as the owner of something. It is therefore of the first person, singular number, masculine (or feminine) gen- 
der, and possessive case; being governed by the name of the thing or tilings possessed. This name is. of course, 
always known; and, if known and not expressed, it is "understood." For sometimes a word is repeated to the 
mind, and clearly understood, where "it cannot properly be" expressed; as, "And he came and sought fruit 
thereon, and found none.'''' — Luke, xiii. 6. Wells opposes this doctrine, citing a passage from Webster, as abnve, 
and also imitating his argument. This author acknowledges three classes of pronouns — "personal, relative, 
and interrogative;" and then, excluding these words fiom their true place among personals of the possessive 
case, absurdly makes them a supernumerary class of possessive nominatives or objectives ! . '■'■Mine, thine, his, 
ours, yours, and theirs, are possessive peonouss, used iu construction either as nominatives or objectives; as, 



318 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

&c. — Philosophical Gram., p. 35 ; Improved Gram., p. 26. Now, whether it be true or not, this 
very position is expressly affirmed by the Doctor himself, in the citation above ; though he is, 
unquestionably, wrong in suggesting that the pronouns are " used in the place of [those] names 
which are understood." They are used in the place of other names — the names of the posses- 
sors ; and are governed by those which he here both admits and denies to be "understood." 

Obs. 13. — The other arguments of Dr. Webster against the possessive case of pronouns, may 
perhaps be more easily answered than some readers imagine. The first is drawn from the fact 
that conjunctions connect like cases. " Besides, in three passages just quoted, the word yours is 
joined by a connective to a name in the same case; 'To ensure yours and their immortality. 1 'The 
easiest part of yours and my design. 1 '■My sword and yours are kin.' Will any person pretend 
that the connective here joins different cases ?" — Improved Gram., p. 28; Philosophical Gram., 
p. 36. I answer, No. But it is falsely assumed that yours is here connected by and to immor- 
tality, to design, or to sword ; because these words are again severally understood after yours : or, 
if otherwise, the two pronouns alone are connected by and, so that the proof is rather, that their 
and my are in the possessive case. The second argument is drawn from the use of the preposition 
of before the possessive. " For we say correctly, ' an acquaintance of yours, ours, or theirs 1 — of 
being the sign of the possessive ; but if the words in themselves are possessives, then there must 
be two signs of the same case, which is absurd." — Improved Gram., p. 28 ; Phil. Gr., 36. I deny 
that of is here the sign of the possessive, and affirm that it is taken partitively, in all examples of 
this sort. " I know my sheep, and am known of mine, 11 is not of this kind ; because of here means 
by — a sense in which the word is antiquated. In recurring afterwards to this argument, the Doctor 
misquotes the following texts, and avers that they " are evidently meant to include the whole num- 
ber : 'Sing to the Lord, all ye saints ofhis. 1 — Ps. 30, 4. ' He that heareth these sayings of mine. 1 
— Matt. 7." — Improved Gram., p. 29; Phil. Gr., 38. If he is right about the meaning, however, 
the passages are mistranslated, as well as misquoted : they ought to be, " Sing unto the Lord, ye 
his Saints." — " Every one that heareth these my sayings. 11 But when a definitive particle precedes 
the noun, it is very common with us, to introduce the possessive elliptically after it ; and what 
Dr. Wilson means by suggesting that it is erroneous, I know not: " When the preposition of pre- 
cedes mine, ours, yours, &c. the errour lies, not in this, that there are double possessive cases, but 
in forming an implication of a noun, which the substitute already denotes, together with the per- 
sons." — Essay on Gram., p. 110. 

Obs. 14. — In his Syllabus of English Grammar, Dr. Wilson teaches thus: "My, our, thy, your, 
his, her, its, their, whose, and whosesoever are possessive pronominal adjectives. Ours, yours, hers, 
and theirs are pronoun substantives, used either as subjects, or [as] objects ; as singulars, or [as] 
plurals ; and are substituted both for [the names of] the possessors, and [for those of the] things 
possessed. His, its, whose, mine, and thine, are sometimes used as such substantives; but also are 
at other times pronominal possessive adjectives." — Wilson's Syllabus, p. x. Now compare with 
these three positions, the following three from the same learned author. " In Hebrew, the adject- 
ive generally agrees with its noun in gender and number, but pronouns follow the gender of their 
antecedents, and not of the nouns with which they stand. So in English, my, thy, his, her, its, 
our, your, and their, agree with the nouns they represent, in number, gender, and person. But 
adjectives, having no change expressive of number, gender, or case, cannot accord with their 
nouns." — Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 192. " Ours, yours, hers, and theirs, are most usually con- 
sidered possessive cases of personal pronouns ; but they are, more probably, possessive substi- 
tutes, not adjectives, but nouns. 11 — lb., p. 109. " Nor can mine or thine, with any more propriety 
than ours, yours, &c. be joined to any noun, as possessive adjectives and possessive cases may." — 
lb., p. 110. Whoever understands these instructions, cannot but see their inconsistency. 

Obs. 15. — Murray argues at soms length, without naming his opponents, that the words which 

' Your pleasures are past, mine are to corns.' Here the word mine, which is used as a substitute for my pleas- 
ures, is the subject of the verb are."— Wells's School Gram., p. 71 ; 113 Ed., p. 78. Now the question to find 
the subject of the verb are, is, " My what are to come '?" Ans. '■'■pleasures." But the author proceeds to argue 
in a note thus ; " Mine, thine, etc. are often narsed as pronouns in the possessive case, and governed by nouns"n- 
derstood. Thus, in the sentence, 'This book is mine,' the ivord mine is said to possess book. That the w -d 
book is not hire understood, is obvious from the fact, that, when it is supplied, the phrase becomes not 'mine 
book,' but ' my book,' the pronoun being changed from mine to my; so that we are made, by this practice, to 
parse mine as possessing a word understood, before which it cannot properly be used. The word mine is here 
evidently employed as a substitute for the two words, my and book." — Wells, ibid. This note appears to me to 
be, in many respects, faulty. In the first place, its whole design was, to disprove what is true. For, bating the 
mere difference of person, the author's example above is equal to this: "Your pleasures are past, W. H. Wells's 
are to come." The ellipsis of " pleasures" is evident in both. But ellipsis is not substitution; no, nor is 
equivalence. Mine, when it suggests an ellipsis of the governing noun, is equivalent to my and that noun; 
but certainly, not " a substitute for the two toords." It is a substitute, or pronoun, for the name of the speaker 
or writer; and so is my; both forms representing, and always agreeing with, that name or person only. No 
possessive agrees with what governs it ; but every pronoun ought to agree with that for which it stands. Sec- 
ondly, if the note above cited does not aver, in its first sentence, that the pronouns in question are "governed by 
nouns understood," it comes much nearer to saying this, than a writer should who meant to deny it. In the 
third place, the example, "This book is mine," is not a good one for its purpose. The word "mine" may be 
regularly parsed as a possessive, without supposing any ellipsis; for "book" the name of the thing possessed, 
is given, and in obvious connexion with it. And further, the matter affirmed is otonership, requiring different 
cases; and not the identity of something under different names, which must be put in the same case. In the 
fourth place, to mistake regimen for possession, and thence speak of one word " as possessing" an other, a mode 
of expression occurring twice in the foregoing note, is not only unscholarlike, but positively absurd. But, pos- 
sibly, the author may have meant by it, to ridicule the choice phraseology of the following Rule: " A noun or 
pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the noun it possesses." —Kirkhani s Oram., p. 181 ; Frazee's, 
1844, p. 25. v 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — DECLENSIONS. 319 

he assumes to be such, are really personal pronouns standing rightfully in the possessive case; 
and that, " they should not, on the slight pretence of their differing from nouns, be dispossessed 
of the right and privilege, which, from time immemorial they have enjoyed.' 1 — Octavo Gram., 
p. 53. Churchill as ably shows, that the corresponding terms, which Lowth calls pronominal ad- 
jectives, and which Murray and others will have to be pronouns of no case, are justly entitled to 
the same rank. "If mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, theirs, be the possessive case ; my, thy, her, our, 
your, their, must be the same. Whether we say, ' It is Johns book, ' or, 'The book is John's ;' 
John's is not less the possessive case in one instance, than it is in the other. If we say, ' It is his 
book,' or, 'The book is his;' 'It is her book,' or, 'The book is hers ;' 'It is my book,' or, 'The 
book is mine;' ' It is your book.' or, ' The book is yours ;' are not these paraUel instances? Cus- 
tom has established it as a law, that this case of the pronoun shah drop its original termination, 
for the sake of euphony, when it precedes the noun that governs it ; retaining it only where the 
noun is understood : but this certainly makes no alteration in the nature of the word ; so that 
either my is as much a possessive case as mine ; or mine and my are equally pronominal adjectives." 
— ChurchilVs New Gram., p. 221. "Mr. Murray considers the phrases, '■our desire,'' '■your inten- 
tion, 1 ' their resignation," 1 as instances of plural adjectives agreeing with singular nouns ; and conse- 
quently exceptions to the general (may we not say universal ?) rule : but if they [the words our, 
your, their,] be, as is attempted to be proved above, the possessive cases of pronouns, no rule is 
here violated." — lb., p. 224. 

Obs. 16. — One strong argument, touching this much-disputed point of grammar, was inci- 
dentally noticed in the observations upon antecedents : an adjective cannot give person, number, 
and gender, to a relative pronoun ; because, in our language, adjectives do not possess these 
qualities ; nor indeed in any other, except as they take them by immediate agreement with nouns 
or pronouns in the same clause. But it is undeniable, that my, thy, his, her, our, your, their, do 
sometimes stand as antecedents, and give person, number, and gender to relatives, which head 
other clauses. For the learner should remember, that, " When a relative pronoun is used, the 
sentence is divided into two parts ; viz. the antecedent sentence, or that which contains the antece- 
dent; and the relative sentence, containing the relative.'" — Nixon's Parser, p. 123. We need not 
here deny, that Terence's Latin, as quoted in the grammars, " Omnes laudare fortunas meas, qui 
haberem gnatum tali ingenio praeditum," is quite as intelligible syntax, as can literally be made of 
it in English — " That all would praise my fortunes, who had a son endued with such a genius." 
For, whether the Latin be good or not, it affords no argument against us, except that of a sup- 
posed analogy ; nor does the literality of the version prove, at all points, either the accuracy or 
the sameness of the construction. 

Obs. 17. — Surely, without some imperative reason, we ought not, in English, to resort to such 
an assumption as is contained in the following Rule : " Sometimes the relative agrees in person 
with that pronoun substantive, from which the possessive pronoun adjective is derived ; as, Pity 
my condition, icho am so destitute. I rejoice at thy lot, who art so fortunate. We lament his 
fate, who is so unwary. Beware of her cunning, who is so deceitful. Commiserate our condition, 
who are so poor. Tremble at your negligence, who are so careless. It shall be their property, 
who are so diligent. We are rejoicing at thy lot, who hast been so fortunate." — Nixon's Parser, 
p. 142. In his explanation of the last of these sentences, the author says, " Who is a relative 
pronoun ; in the masculine gender, singular number, second person, and agrees with thee, implied 
in the adjective thy. Rule. — Sometimes the relative agrees in person, &c. And it is the nomi- 
native to the verb hast been. Rule. — When no nominative comes between the relative and the 
verb, the relative is the nominative to the verb." — lb., p. 143. A pupil of G-. Brown's would 
have said, " Who is a relative pronoun, representing 'thy,' or the person addressed, in the second 
person, singular number, and masculine gender ; according to the rule which says, ' A pronoun 
must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it represents, in person, number, 
and gender:' and is in the nominative case, being the subject of hast been; according to the rule 
which says, ' A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative 
case.' Because the meaning is — who hast been ; that is, thy lot, or the lot of thee, who hast been." 

( (bs. 18. — Because the possessive case of a noun or pronoun is usually equivalent in meaning to 
the' preposition o/and the objective case, some grammarians, mistaking this equivalence of mean- 
ing for sameness of case, have asserted that ah our possessives have a double form. Thus Nixon : 
" When the particle of comes between two substantives signifying different things, it is not to be 
considered a preposition, but the sign of the substantive's being in the possessive case, equally as if 
the apostrophic s had been affixed to it; as, 'The skill of Cossar,' or Cozsar's skill.' " — English 
Parser, p. 38. "When the apostrophic s is used, the genitive is the former of the two substan- 
tives; as, 'John 's house:' but when the particle of is used, it is the latter; as, 'The house of 
John.' " — lb., p. 46. The work here quoted is adapted to two different grammars; namely, Mur- 
ray's and Allen's. These the author doubtless conceived to be the best English grammars extant. 
And it is not a little remarkable, that both of these authors, as weU as many others, teach in such 
a faulty manner, that their intentions upon this point may be matter of dispute. " When Mur- 
ray, Allen, and others, say, 'we make use of the particle of to express the relation of the genitive,' 
the ambiguity of their assertion leaves it in doubt whether or not they considered the substantive 
which is preceded by of and an other substantive, as in the genitive case." — Nixon's English Parser, 
p. 38. Resolving this doubt according to his own fancy, Nixon makes the possessive case of our 
personal pronouns to be as follows: u mine or of me, ours or of us ; thine or of thee, yours or of 
you ; his or of him, theirs or of them ; hers or of her, theirs qv of them ; its or of it, theirs or of 



320 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

them." — English Parser, p. 43. This doctrine gives us a form of declension that is both complex 
and deficient. It is therefore more objectionable than almost any of those which are criticised 
above. The arguments and authorities on which the author rests his position, are not thought 
likely to gain many converts ; for which reason, I dismiss the subject, without citing or answering 
them. 

Obs. 19. — In old books, we sometimes find the word I written for the adverb ay, yes : as, " To 
dye, to sleepe ; To sleepe, perchance to dreame ; I, there's the rub." — Shakspeare, Old Copies. 
The British Grammar, printed in 1784, and the Grammar of Murray the schoolmaster, published 
some years earlier than Lindley Murray's, say : " We use / as an Answer, in a familiar, careless, 
or merry Way; as, ' I, I, Sir, I, I;' but to use ay, is accounted rude, especially to our Betters." 
See Brit. Gram., p. 198. The age of this rudeness, or incivility, if it ever existed, has long 
passed away ; and the fashion seems to be so changed, that to write or utter / for ay, would now 
in its turn be " accounted rude" — the rudeness of ignorance — a false orthography, or a false pro- 
nunciation. In the word ay, the two sounds of ah-ee are plainly heard ; in the sound of I, the 
same elements are more quickly blended. (See a note at the foot of page 162.) When this 
sound is suddenly repeated, some writers make a new word of it, which must be called an inter- 
jection : as, " ' Pray, answer me a question or two.' ' Ey, ey, as many as you please, cousin 
Bridget, an they be not too hard.' " — BurgKs Speaker, p. 99. " Ey, ey, 'tis so ; she's out of her 
head, poor thing." — lb., p. 100. This is probably a corruption of ay, which is often doubled in 
the same manner : thus, 

"Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange, and frown." — Shakspeare. 

Obs. 20. — The common fashion of address being nowadays altogether in the plural form, the 
pronouns thou, thy, thine, thee, and thyself, have become unfamiliar to most people, especially to 
the vulgar and uneducated. These words are now confined almost exclusively to the writings of 
the posts, to the language of the Friends, to the Holy Scriptures, and to the solemn services of 
religion. They are, however, the only genuine representatives of the second person singular, in 
English ; and to displace them from that rank in grammar, or to present you, your, and yours, as 
being literally singular, though countenanced by several late writers, is a useless and pernicious 
innovation. It is sufficient for the information of the learner, and far more consistent with learn- 
ing and taste, to say, that the plural is fashionably used for the singular, by a figure of syntax ; 
for, in all correct usage of this sort, the verb is plural, as well as the pronoun — Dr. Webster's 
fourteen authorities to the contrary notwithstanding. For, surely, " You was" cannot be consid- 
ered good English, merely because that number of respectable writers have happened, on some 
particular occasions, to adopt the phrase ; and even if we must needs concede this point, and 
grant to the Doctor and his converts, that " You was is primitive and correct," the example no 
more proves that you is singular, than that was is plural. And what is one singular irregular 
preterit, compared with all the verbs in the language ? 

Obs. 21. — In our present authorized version of the Bible, the numbers and cases of the second 
person are kept remarkably distinct,* the pronouns being always used in the following manner : 
thou for the nominative, thy or thine for the possessive, and thee for the objective, singular ; ye for 
the nominative, your or yours for the possessive, and you for the objective, plural. Yet. before 
that version was made, fashionable usage had commonly substituted you for ye, making the for- 
mer word nominative as well as objective, and applying it to one hearer as well as to more. 
And subsequently, as it appears, the religious sect that entertained a scruple about applying you 
to an individual, fell for the most part into an ungrammatical practice of putting thee for thou ; 
making, in like manner, the objective pronoun to be both nominative and objective ; or, at least, 
using it very commonly so in their conversation. Their manner of speaking, however, was not — 
or, certainly, with the present generation of their successors, is not — as some grammarians repre- 
sent it to be, that formal and antique phraseology which we call the solemn style.\ They make 
no more use of the pronoun ye, or of the verbal termination eth, than do people of fashion ; nor 
do they, in using the pronoun thou, or their improper nominative thee, ordinarily inflect with st or 
est the preterits or the auxiliaries of the accompanying verbs, as is done in the solemn style. In- 
deed, to use the solemn style familiarly, would be, to turn it into burlesque ; as when Peter 
Pindar " telleth what he troweth"\ And let those who think with Murray, that our present ver- 

* In respect to the numbers, the folio-wing text is an uncouth exception: " Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of 
Saphir." — Micah, i, 11. The singular and the plural are here strangely confounded. Perhaps the reading 
should be, " Pass thou away, inhabitant of Saphir." Nor is the Bible free from abrupt transitions from one 
number to the other, or from one person to an other, "which are neither agreeable nor strictly grammatical ; as, 
" Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which [who} are spiritual, restore such an [a] one in the spirit 
of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." — Gal., vi, 1. " Ye that put far away the evil 
day, and cause the seat of violence to come near ; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their 
couches," &c. — Amos, vi, 3. 

t " The solemn style is used, chiefly, in the Bible and in prayer. The Society of Friends retain it in common 
parlance. It consists in using thou in the singular number, and ye in the plural, instead of using you in 
both numbers as in the familiar style. * » * The third person singular [of verbs] ends with th or eth, 
which affects only the present indicative, and hath of the perfect. The second person, singular, ends with st, 
est, or t only." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 58. "In [the] solemn and poetic styles, mine, thine, and thy, are used; 
and this is the stifle adopted by the Friends' society. In common discourse it appears veiy stiff and affected." — 
Bartlett's C. S. Man 1 1, Part II, p. 72. 

% " And of the History of his being tost in a Blanket, he saith, ' Here, Scriblerus, thou leesest in what thou 
assertest concerning the blanket: it was not a blanket, but a rug. — Curlliad, p. 25." — Notes to Pojj<j's Dunciad, 
B. ii, verse 3. A vulgar idea solemnly expressed, is ludicrous. Uttered in familiar terms, it is simply vulgar: 
as, " You lie, Scriblerus, in what you say about the blanket." 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY.— PRONOUNS. — DECLENSIONS. 321 

Bion of the Scriptures is the best standard of English grammar,* remember that in it they have no 
warrant for substituting s or es for the old termination eth, any more than for ceasing to use the 
solemn style of the second person familiarly. That version was good in its day, yet it shows but 
very imperfectly what the English language now is. Can we consistently take for our present 
standard, a style which does not allow us to use you in the nominative case, or its for the posses- 
sive ? And again, is not a simplification of the verb as necessary and proper in the familiar use 
of the second person singular, as in that of the third ? This latter question I shall discuss in a 
future chapter. 

Obs. 22. — The use of the pronoun ye in the nominative case, is now mostly confined to the 
solemn style ;f but the use of it in the objective, which is disallowed in the solemn style, and no- 
where approved by our grammarians, is nevertheless common when no emphasis falls upon the 
word: as, 

" When you're unmarried, never load ye 
With jewels ; they may incommode ye." — Dr. King, p. 384. 

Upon this point, Dr. Lowth observes, " Some writers have used ye as the objective case plural 
of the pronoun of the second person, very improperly and ungrammatically ; [as,] 

' The more shame for ye ; holy men I thought ye.' Shak. Hen. VIII. 

1 But tyrants dread ye, lest your just decree 
Transfer the pow'r, and set the people free.' Prior. 

'His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both.' Milt. P. L. ii T34. 

Milton uses the same manner of expression in a few other places of his Paradise Lost, and 
more frequently in his [smaller] poems. It may, perhaps, be allowed in the comic and burlesque 
style, which often imitates a vulgar and incorrect pronunciation ; but in the serious and solemn 
style, no authority is sufficient to justify so manifest a solecism." — Lovjttis Gram., p. 22. Churchill 
copies this remark, and adds; "Dryden has you as the nominative, and ye as the objective, in the 
same passage::}: 

' What gain you, by forbidding it to tease ye ? 
It now can neither trouble ye, nor please ye.' 

Was this from a notion, that you and ye, thus employed, were more analogous to thou and thee 
in the singular number?" — GhurchilVs Gh-am., p. 25. I answer, No; but, more probably, from 
a notion, that the two words, being now confessedly equivalent in the one case, might as well be 
made so in the other : just as the Friends, in using thee for you, are carelessly converting the for- 
mer word into a nominative, to the exclusion of thou ; because the latter has generally been made 
so, to the exclusion of ye. When the confounding of such distinctions is begun, who knows 
where it will end ? With like ignorance, some w T riters suppose, that the fashion of using the 
plural for the singular is a sufficient warrant for putting the singular for the plural : as, 

" The joys of love, are they not doubly thine, 
Ye poor! whose health, whose spirits ne'er decline?" — Southwick's Pleas, of Poverty. 
" But, Neatherds, go look to the kine, 
Their cribs with fresh fodder supply ; 
The task of compassion be thine, 

For herbage the pastures deny." — Perfect's Poems, p. 5. 

Obs. 23. — When used in a burlesque or ludicrous manner, the pronoun ye is sometimes a 
mere expletive ; or, perhaps, intended rather as an objective governed by a preposition un- 
derstood. But, in such a construction, I see no reason to prefer it to the regular objective you : 
as, 

" He'll laugh ye, dance ye, sing ye, vault, look gay, 
And ruffle all the ladies in his play." — King, p. 574. 

Some grammarians, who will have you to be singular as well as plural, ignorantly tell us, that 
"ye always means more than one." But the fact is, that when ye was in common use, it was as 
frequently applied to one person as you : thus, 

"Farewell my doughter lady Margarete, 
God wotte full oft it grieued hath my mynde, 
That ye should go where we should seldome mete : 
Now am I gone, and haue left you behynde." — Sir T. More, 1503. 

* " Notwithstanding these verbal mistakes, the Bible, for the size of it, is the most accurate grammatical 
composition that we have in the English language. The authority of several eminent grammariaus might be 
adduced in support of this assertion, but it may be sufficient to mention only that of Dr. Lowth, who says, ' The 
present translation of the Bible, is the best standard of the English language.' " — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 166. 
I revere the Bible vastly too much to be pleased with an imitation of its peculiar style, in any man's ordinary 
speech or writing. — G-. Beown. 

t " Ye, except in the solemn style, is obsolete; but it is used in the language of tragedy, to express contempt: 
as, ' When ye shall know what Margaret knows, ye may not be so thankful.' Franklin." — W. Allen's Gram., 
p. 5T. " The second person plural had formerly ye both in the nominative and the objective. This form is now 
obsolete in the objective, and nearly obsolete in the nominative." — Rarfs Gram., p. 55. 
% So has Milton : — 

" To waste it all myself, and leave ye none ! 
So disinherited how would you bless me 1" — Par. Lost, B. x, 1. 820. 

21 



322 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

In the following example, ye is used for thee, the objective singular ; and that by one whose 
knowledge of the English language, is said to have been unsurpassed : — 
" Proud Baronet of Nova Scotia ! 
The Dean and Spaniard must reproach ye." — Swift. 

So in the story of the Chameleon : — 

" 'Tis green, 'tis green, Sir, I assure ye." — Merrick 

Thus we have ye not only for the nominative in both numbers, but at length for the objective 
in both; ye and you being made everywhere equivalent, by very many writers. Indeed this 
pronoun has been so frequently used for the objective case, that one may well doubt any gram- 
marian's authority to condemn it in that construction. Yet I cannot but think it ill-chosen in the 
third line below, though right in the first : — 

" Ye ! who have traced the Pilgrim to the scene 

"Which is his last, if in your memories dwell 

A thought which once was his, if on ye swell 

A single recollection, not in vain 

He wore his sandal-shoon, and scallop-shell." — Byron. 

Obs. 24. — The three pronouns of the third person, he, she, and it, have always formed their 
plural number after one and the same manner, they, their or theirs, them. Or, rather, these plural 
words, which appear not to be regular derivatives from any of the singulars, have ever been ap- 
plied alike to them all. But it, the neuter pronoun singular, had formerly no variation of cases, 
and is still alike in the nominative and the objective. The possessive its is of comparatively re- 
cent origin. In our common Bible, the word is not found, except by misprint ; nor do other 
writings of the same age contain it. The phrase, of it, was often used as an equivalent ; as, " And 
it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it." — Ban., vii, 5. That is — " in its 
mouth, between its teeth." But, as a possessive case was sometimes necessary, our ancestors 
used to borrow one ; commonly from the masculine, though sometimes from the feminine. This 
produced what now appears a strange confusion of the genders: as, "Learning hath his in- 
fancy, when it is but beginning, and almost childish ; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and 
juvenile ; then his strength of years, when it is solid and reduced ; and lastly his old age, when 
it waxeth dry and exhaust." — Bacon's Essays, p. 58. "Of beaten work shall the candlestick be 
made : his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same." — 
Exodus, xxv, 31. "They came and emptied the chest, and took it and carried it to his place 
again." — 2 Ghron., xxiv, 11. " Look not thou upon the wine, when it is red, when it giveth his 
colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright." — Prov., xxiii, 31. "The tree is known by his 
fruit." — Matt, xii, 33. " When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her 
strength." — Gen., iv, 12. " He that pricketh the heart, maketh it to showier knowledge." — Eccl, 
xxii, 19. Shakspeare rarely, if ever, used its; and his style is sometimes obscure for the want 
of it : as, 

" There is no vice so simple, but assumes 
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts." — Merch. of Venice. 

" The name of Cassius honours this corruption, 
And chastisement doth therefore hide his head." — Jul. Cces., Act iv. 

Obs. 25. — The possessive case of pronouns should never be written with an apostrophe. A 
few pronominal adjectives taken substantively receive it ; but the construction which it gives 
them, seems to make them nouns : as, one's, other's, and, according to Murray, former's and lat- 
ter 's. The real pronouns that end in s, as his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, though true possessives 
after their kind, have no occasion for this mark, nor does good usage admit it. Churchill, with 
equal disregard of consistency and authority, gives it to one of them, and denies it to the rest. 
Referring to the classification of these words as possessives, and of my, thy, her, our, your, their, 
as adjectives, he says : " It seems as if the termination in s had led to the distinction : but no 
one will contend, that ours is the possessive case of our, or theirs of their; though ours, yours, 
hers, and theirs, are often very improperly spelt with an apostrophe, a fault not always imputable 
to the printer ; while in it's, which is unquestionably the possessive case of it, the apostrophe, by 
a strange perverseness, is almost always omitted." — GhurchilVs Gram., p. 222. The charge of 
strange perverseness may, in this instance, I think, be retorted upon the critic ; and that, to the 
fair exculpation of those who choose to conform to the general usage which offends him. 

Obs. 26.— Of the compound personal pronouns, this author gives the foUowing account: " Self 
in the plural selves, a noun, is often combined with the personal pronouns, in order to express em- 
phasis, or opposition, or the identity of the subject and [the] object of a verb ; and thus forms a 
pronoun relative : as, ' I did it myself f ' he was not himself, when he said so ;' 'the envious tor- 
ment themselves more than others.' Formerly self and selves were used simply as nouns, and gov- 
erned the pronoun, which was kept distinct from it [them] in the possessive case : but since they 
[the pronoun and the noun] have coalesced into one word, they [the compounds] are used only 
in the following forms : for the first person, myself, ourselves ; for the second, thyself, or yourself, 
yourselves ; for the third, himself, herself, itself, themselves : except in the regal style, in which, as 
generally in the second person, the singular noun is added to the plural pronoun, [making] our- 
self Each of these is the same in all three cases." — GhurchilVs Gram., p. 75. In a note referring 
to the close of this explanation, he adds ; " Gwn also is often employed with the possessive cases 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — DECLENSIONS. 323 

of the personal pronouns by way of emphasis, or opposition ; but separately, as an adjective, 
and not combining with them to form a relative : as, ' I did it of my own free will :' ' Did he do it 
with his own hand?' " — lb., p. 227. 

Obs. 27. — The preceding instructions, faulty and ungrammatical as they are, seem to be the best 
that our writers have furnished upon this point. To detect falsities and blunders, is half the 
grammarian's duty. The pronouns of which the term self or selves forms a part, are used, not for 
the connecting of different clauses of a sentence, but for the purpose of emphatic distinction in 
the sense. In calling them "relatives" Churchill is wrong, even by his own showing. They 
have not the characteristics which he himself ascribes to relatives ; but are compound personal 
pronouns, and nothing else. He is also manifestly wrong in asserting, that they are severally 
" the same in all three cases." From the very nature of their composition, the possessive case is 
alike impossible to them all. To express ownership with emphasis or distinction, we employ 
neither these compounds nor any others ; but always use the simple possessives with the separate 
adjective own : as, " "With my own* eyes," — " By thy ovm confession," — " To his own house," — " For 
her own father," — " By its own weight," — " To save our own lives," — " For your own sake," — " In 
their own cause." 

Obs. 28. — The phrases, my own, thy ovm, his own, and so forth, Dr. Perley, in his little Gram- 
mar, has improperly converted by the hyphen into compound words : calling them the possessive 
forms of myself, thyself, himself, and so forth ; as if one set of compounds could constitute the pos- 
sessive case of an other ! And again, as if the making of eight new pronouns for two great 
nations, were as slight a feat, as the inserting of so many hyphens ! The word ovm, anciently 
written owen, is an adjective; from an old form of the perfect participle of the verb to owe; which 
verb, according to Lowth and others, once signified to possess. It is equivalent to due, proper, or 
peculiar ; and, in its present use as an adjective, it stands nowhere else than between the pos- 
sessive case and the name of the thing possessed; as, "The Boy's Ovm Book," — " Christ's own 
words," — " Solomon's own and only son." Dr. Johnson, while he acknowledges the above- 
mentioned derivation, very strangely calls own a noun substantive ; and, with not more accuracy, 
says: "This is a word of no other use than as it is added to the possessive pronouns, my, thy, 
his, our, your, their." — Quarto Diet., w. Own. 0. B. Peirce, with obvious untruth, says, " Own is 
used in combination with a name or substitute, and as a part of it, to constitute it emphatic." — 
Gmm., p. 63. He writes it separately, but parses it as a part of the possessive noun or pronoun 
which precedes it 1 

Obs. 29. — The word self was originally an adjective, signifying same, very, or particular; but, 
when used alone, it is now generally a noun. This may have occasioned the diversity which ap- 
pears in the formation of the compound personal pronouns. Dr. Johnson, in his great Dictionary, 
calls self a pronoun ; but he explains it as being both adjective and substantive, admitting that, 
"Its primary signification seems to be that of an adjective." — Again he observes, "Myself, him- 
self themselves, and the rest, may, contrary to the analogy of my, him, them, be used as nomina- 
tives." Hisself itsself and themselves, would be more analogical than himself, itself, themselves ; 
but custom has rejected the former, and established the latter. When an adjective qualifies the 
term self, the pronouns are written separately in the possessive case ; as, My single self — My own 
self, — His own self — Their own selves. So, anciently, without an adjective: as, "A man shall 
have diffused Ms life, his self, and his whole concernments so far, that he can weep his sorrows 
with an other's eyes." — South. "Something valuable for its self without view to anything 
farther." — Harris's Herm.es, p. 293. "That they would willingly, and of their selves endeavour to 
keep a perpetual chastity." — Stat. Ed. VI. in Loivth's Gram., p. 26. "Why I should either im- 
ploy my self in that study or put others upon it." — Walker's English Particles, p. xiv. "It is 
no matter whether you do it by your proctor, or by your self." — lb., p. 96. The compound one- 
self is sometimes written in stead of the phrase one's self; but the latter is preferable, and more 
common. Even his self, when written as two words, may possibly be right in some instances ; as, 

" Scorn'd be the wretch that quits his genial bowl, 
His loves, his friendships, ev'n his self, resigns ; 
Perverts the sacred instinct of his soul, 
And to a ducat's dirty sphere confines." — Shenstone : Brit. Poets, Vol. vii, p. 107. 

Obs. 30. — In poetry, and even in some compositions not woven into regular numbers, the sim- 
ple personal pronouns are not unfrequently used, for brevity's sake, in a reciprocal sense ; that is, 
in stead of the compound personal pronouns, which are the proper reciprocals: as, "Wash you, 
make you clean." — Isaiah, i, 16. "I made me great works ; I builded me houses ; I planted me 
vineyards; I made me gardens and orchards." — Ecclesiastes, ii, 4. "Thou shalt surely clothe thee 
with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on tliee as a bride doeth." — Isaiah, xlix, 18. 
Compare with these the more regular expression : " As a bridegroom decketh himself with orna- 
ments, and as a bride adorneth herself -with jewels." — Isaiah, lxi, 10. This phraseology is almost 
always preferable in prose ; the other is a poetical license, or peculiarity : as, 

" I turn me from the martial roar." — Scott's L. L., p. 97. 

" Hush thee, poor maiden, and be still." — Bo., p. 110. 

" Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow." — lb., p. 49. 
Obs. 31. — To accommodate the writers of verse, the word ever is frequently contracted into 
e'er, pronounced like the monosyllable air. An easy extension of this license, gives us similar 
contractions of all the compound relative pronouns ; as, whoe'er or whosoe'er, whose 'er or whoseso- 



324 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

e'er, whomever or whomsoever, whichever or whichsoever, whatever or whatsoe'er. The character and 
properties of these compounds are explained, perhaps sufficiently, in the observations upon the 
classes of pronouns. Some of them are commonly parsed as representing two cases at once ; 
there being, in fact, an ellipsis of the noun, before or after them : as, 
" Each art he prompts, each charm he can create, 
Whatever he gives, are given for you to hate." — Pope's Dunciad. 

Obs. 32. — For a form of parsing the double relative what, or its compound whatever or whatso- 
ever, it is the custom of some teachers, to suggest equivalent words, and then proceed to explain 
these, in lieu of the word in question. This is the method of RusselVs Gram., p. 99 ; of Mer- 
chant's, p. 110; of Kirkham's, p. Ill ; of Gilbert's, p. 92. But it should be remembered that equiv- 
alence of meaning is not sameness of grammatical construction ; and, even if the construction 
be the same, to parse other equivalent words, is not really to parse the text that is given. A 
good parser, with the liberty to supply obvious ellipses, should know how to explain all good 
English as it stands ; and for a teacher to pervert good English into false doctrine, must needs 
seem the very worst kind of ignorance. What can be more fantastical than the following ety- 
mology, or more absurd than the following directions for parsing ? " What is compounded of 
which that. These words have been contracted and made to coalesce, a part of the orthography 
of both being still retained : what — wh\ich — t\hat ; (which-that.) Anciently it appeared in the 
varying forms, fha qua, qua tha, qu'tha, quthat, quhat, hwat, and finally what." — Kirkham's Gram., 
p. 111. This bald pedantry of " tha qua, qua tha," was secretly borrowed from the grammatical 
speculations of "William S. Cardell :* the " which-that" notion contradicts it, and is partly of the 
borrower's own invention. If what is a compound, it was compounded more than a thousand 
years ago ; and, of course, long before any part of the English language existed as such. King 
Alfred used it, as he found it, in the Saxon form of hwozt. The Scotch afterwards spelled it 
quhat. Our English grammarians have improperly called it a compound ; and Kirkham, still 
more absurdly, calls the word others a compound, and mine, thine, ours, yours, &c. compounds.f 

Obs. 33. — According to this gentleman's notion of things, there is, within the little circle of the 
word what, a very curious play of antecedent parts and parts relative — a dodging contra-dance of 
which that and that which, with things which, and so forth. Thus : " When what is a compound 
relative you must always parse it as two words ; that is, you must parse the antecedent part as a 
noun, and give it case ; the relative part } r ou may analyze like any other relative, giving it a case 
likewise. Example : ' I will try what (that which) can be found in female delicacy.' Here that, 
the antecedent part of what, is in the obj. case, governed by the verb ■ will try ;' which, the rela- 
tive part, is in the nom. case to 'can be found.' 'I have heard what (i. e. that which, or the thing 
which) has been alleged.' " — Kirkham's Gram., p. 111. Here, we see, the author's "which-that" 
becomes that which, or something else. But this is not a full view of his method. The following 
vile rigmarole is a further sample of that "Neiv Sgstematick Order of Parsing," by virtue of which 
he so very complacently and successfully sets himself above all other grammarians : " ' From 
what is recorded, he appears, &c.' What is a comp. rel. pron. including both the antecedent and 
the relative, and is equivalent to that which, or the thing which. — Thing, the antecedent part of 
what, is a noun, the name of a thing — com. the name of a species — neuter gender, it has no sex 
— third person, spoken of — sing, number, it implies but one — and in the obj. case, it is the object 
of the relation expressed by the prep. ' from,' and gov. by it: Rule 31. (Repeat the Rule, and 
every other Rule to which I refer.) Which, the relative part of what, is a pronoun, a word used 
instead of a noun — relative, it relates to ' thing' for it3 antecedent — neut. gender, third person, 
sing, number, because the antecedent is with which it agrees, according to Rule 14. Rel. 
pron. &c. Which is in the nom. case to the verb ' is recorded,' agreeably to Rule 15. The rela- 
tive is the nominative case to the verb, when no nominative comes between it and the verb." — Kirk- 
ham's Gram., p. 113. 

* " The word what is a compound of two specifying adjectives, each, of course, referring to a noun, expressed 
or understood. It is equivalent to the which; that which; which that; or that that; used also in the plural. 
At different periods, and in different authors, it appears in the varying forms, tha qua, qua tha, qu'tha, quthat, 
quhat, hioat, and what. This word is found in other forms; but it is needless to multiply them." — Cardell's 
Essay on Language, p. 86. 

t This author's distribution of the pronouns, of which I have taken some notice in Obs. 10th above, is remark- 
able for its inconsistencies and absurdities. First he avers, " Pronouns are generally divided into three kinds, 
the Personal, the Adjective, and the Relative pronouns. They are all known by the lists.' 1 '' — Kirkham's Grain., 
p. 96. These short sentences are far from being accurate, clear, or true. He should have made the several kinds 
known, by a good definition of each. But this was work to which he did not find himself adequate. And if we 
look to his lists for the particular words of each kind, we shall get little satisfaction. Of the Personal pronouns, 
he says, "There are five of them ; 2, thou, he, she, it." — lb., p. 97. These ar* simple words, and in their de- 
clension they are properly multiplied to forty. (See lb., p. 99.) Next he seems to double the number, thus: 
" When self is added to the personal pronouns, as himself, myself, itself, themselves, <fcc. they are called Com' 
pound Personal Pronouns." — lb., p. 99. Then he asserts that mine, thine, his, hers, ours, yours, and theirs, 
are compounds of ne or s with mi, thi, hi, &c. ; that their application invariably " gives them a compound char- 
acter;" and that, " They may, therefore, be properly denominated Compound Personal Pronouns." — lb., p. 
101. Next he comes to his Adjective pronouns ; and, after proving that he has grossly misplaced and misnamed 
every one of them, he gives his lists of the three kinds of these. His Relative pronouns are who, which, and 
that. " What is generally a compound relative."— lb., p. 111. The compounds of who, which, and what, with 
ever or soever, he calls "compound pronouns, but not compound relatives." — lb., pp. 110 and 112. Lastly he 
discovers, that, " Truth and simplicity" have been shamefully neglected in this his third section of pronouns; 
that, "Of the words called '■relatives,' who only is a pronoun, and this is strictly personal ;" that, "It ought to 
be classed with the personal pronouns ;" and that, " Which, that, and what, are always adjectives. They never 
stand for, but always belong to nouns, either expressed or implied." — lb., p. 114. What admirable teachings 
are these I 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — DECLENSIONS. 323 

Obs. 34 — The distinction which has been made by Murray and others, between etymological 
parsing and syntactical — or, between that exercise which simply classifies and describes the 
words of a sentence, and that which adds to this the principles of their construction — is rejected 
by Kirkham, and also by Ingersoll, Fuller, Smith, Sanborn, Mack, and some others, it being 
altogether irreconcilable with their several modes of confounding the two main parts of gram- 
mar. If such a distinction is serviceable, the want of it is one of the inherent faults of the 
schemes which they have adopted. But, since "grammar is the art of speaking and- writing with 
propriety" who that really values clearness and accuracy of expression, can think the want of 
them excusable in modtU prescribed for the exercise of parsing ? And is it not better to main- 
tain the distinction above named, than to interlace our syntactical parsing with broken allusions 
to the definitions which pertain to etymology ? If it is, this new mode of parsing, which Kirk- 
ham claims to have invented, and Smith pretends to have got from Germany, whatever boast 
may be made of it, is essentially defective and very unmethodical.* This remark applies not 
merely to the forms above cited, respecting the pronoun what, but to the whole method of parsing 
adopted by the author of " English Grammar in Familiar Lectures" 

Obs. 35. — The forms of etymological parsing which I have adopted, being designed to train 
the pupil, in the first place, by a succession of easy steps, to a rapid and accurate description of 
the several species of words, and a ready habit of fully defining the technical terms employed in 
such descriptions, will be found to differ more from the forms of syntactical parsing, than do those 
of perhaps any other grammarian. The definitions, which constitute so large a portion of the 
former, being omitted as soon as they are thoroughly learned, give place in the latter, to the facts 
and principles of syntax. Thus have we fullness in the one part, conciseness in the other, order 
and distinctness in both. The separation of etymology from syntax, however, though judiciously 
adopted by almost all grammarians, is in itself a mere matter of convenience. No one will pre- 
tend that these two parts of grammar are in their nature totally distinct and independent. 
Hence, though a due regard to method demands the maintenance of this ancient and still usual 
division of the subject, we not unfrequently, in treating of the classes and modifications of 
words, exhibit contingently some of the principles of their construction. This, however, is very 
different from a purposed blending of the two parts, than which nothing can be more unwise. 

Obs. 36. — The great peculiarity of the pronoun what, or of its compound whatever or whatso- 
ever, is a peculiarity of construction, rather than of etymology. Hence, in etymological parsing, 
it may be sufficient to notice it only as a relative, though the construction be double. It is in 
fact a relative ; but it is one that reverses the order of the antecedent, whenever the noun is in- 
serted with it. But as the noun is usually suppressed, and as the supplying of it is attended 
with an obvious difficulty, arising from the transposition, we cut the matter short, by declaring 
the word to have, as it appears to have, a double syntactical relation. Of the foregoing example, 
therefore — viz., " From vohat is recorded," &c, — a pupil of mine, in parsing etymologically, would 
say thus : " What is a relative pronoun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and 
nominative case. 1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A relative pronoun is a 
pronoun that represents an antecedent word or phrase, and connects different clauses of a sen- 
tence. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The 
singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes 
things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun 
or pronoun, which denotes the subject of a verb." In parsing syntactically, he would say thus : 
" Wliat is a double relative, including both antecedent and relative, being equivalent to that 
which. As antecedent, it is of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective 
case ; being governed by from ; according to the rule which says, ' A Noun or a Pronoun made 
the object of a preposition, is goverved by it in the objective case.' Because the meaning is — 
from what. As relative, it is of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative 
case ; being the subject of is recorded ; according to the rule which says, ' A Noun or a Pronoun 
which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative case.' Because the meaning is — 
what is recorded." 

Obs. 37. — The word what, when uttered independently as a mark of surprise, or as the pre- 
lude to an emphatic question which it does not ask, becomes an interjection ; and, as such, is to 

* " It is now proper to give some examples of the manner in which the learners should be exercised, in order 
to improve their knowledge, and to render it familiar to them. This is called parsing. The nature of the sub- 
ject, as well as the adaptation of it to learners, requires that it should be divided into two parts : viz. parsing, 
as it respects etymology alone; and parsing, as it respects both etymology and syntax." — Murray's Gram., Oc- 
tavo, Vol. i, p. 225. How very little real respect for the opinions of Murray, has been entertained by these self- 
seeking magnifiers and modifiers of his work ! 

What Murray calls " Syntactical Parsing" is sometimes called " Construing" especially by those who will 
have Parsing to be nothing more than an etymological exercise. A late author says, " The practice of Con- 
struing differs from that of parsing, in the extension of its objects. Parsing merely indicates tbe parts of 
speech and their accidents, but construing 6earches for and points out their syntactical relations." — D. Blair's 
Gram., p. 49. 

Here the distinction which Murray judged to be necessary, is still more strongly marked and insisted on. 
And though I see no utility in restricting the word Parsing to a mere description of the parts of speech with 
■their accidents, and no impropriety in calling the latter branch of the exercise " Syntactical Parsing;" I cannot 
but think there is such a necessity for the division, as forms a very grave argument against those tangled 
schemes of grammar which do not admit of it. Blair is grossly inconsistent with himself. For, after drawing 
his distinction between Parsing and Construing, as above, he takes no further notice of the latter ; but, having 
filled up seven pages with his most wretched mode of "Passing," adds, in an emphatic note: '■'■The Teacher 
should direct the Pupil to CONSTRUE, in the same manner, any passage from my Cla6S-book, or other 
Work, at the rate of three or four lines per day." — D. Blair's Gram., p. 56. 



326 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS, [PART II. 

be parsed merely as other interjections are parsed : as, " What! came the word of God out from 
you? or came it unto you only?" — 1 Cor., xiv, 36. " What ! know ye not that your body is the 
temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?" — 1 Cor., vi, 19. "But what! 
is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" — 2 Kings, viii, 13. " What! are you 
so ambitious of a man's good word, who perhaps in an hour's time shall curse himself to the pit 
of hell?" — Cottier's Antoninus, p. 152. 

" What! up and down, carv'd like an apple-tart?" — Shakspeare. 
" What! can you lull the winged winds asleep ?" — Campbell* 

EXAMPLES FOE PAKSINGL 

PRAXIS V.— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Fifth Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the dif- 
ferent parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the Articles, Nouns, 
Adjectives, and Pronouns. 

The definitions to be given in the Fifth Praxis, are two for an article, six for a 
noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun, and one for a verb, a participle, 
an adverb, a conjunction, a preposition, or an interjection. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 

" Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing 
formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus." — Bom., ix, 20. 

Nay is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; and 
generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

But is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to 
show the dependence of the terms so connected. 

O is an interjection. 1. An interjection is a word that is uttered merely to indicate some strong or sudden emo- 
tion of the mind. 

Man is a common noun, of the second person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is 
the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The second person is that which denotes the 
hearer, or the person addressed. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The masculine 
gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. The nominative case is that form or 
state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Who is an interrogative pronoun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case. 
1. A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun with which a 
question is asked. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The 
singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or 
animals of the male kind. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which usually 
denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Art is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

Thou is a personal pronoun, of the second person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case. 1. 
A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, 
of what person it is. 3. The second person is that which denotes the hearer, or the person addressed. 4. 
The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes per- 
sons or animals of the male kind. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which 
usually d' notes the subject of a finite verb. 

That is a relative pronoun, of the second person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case. 1. 
A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A relative pronoun is a pronoun that represents an ante- 
cedent word or phrase, and connects different clauses of a sentence. 3. The second person is that which 
denotes the hearer, or the person addressed. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. 
The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. The nominative case 
is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Repliest is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

Against is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or 
thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

God is a proper noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and objective case. 1. A noun 
is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A proper noun is the name 
of some particular individual, or people, or group. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or 
thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The masculine gender 
is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 0. The objective case is that form or state of a 
noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Shall is a verb, auxiliary to say, and may be taken with it. 

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
_ nification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things. 

Thing is a common noun of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A noun 
is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the 
name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or 
thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is 
that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state 
of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Formed is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, 
and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 

Say, or shall say, is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

To is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Him is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and objective case. 1. A 
pronoun is a word used in 6tead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, cf 



CHAP. V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — PARSING. — PRAXIS V. 327 

•what person it is. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The 
singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or 
animals of the male kind. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which usually 
denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

That is a relative pronoun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case. 1. A 
pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A relative pronoun is a pronoun that represents an antece- 
dent word or phrase, and connects different clauses of a sentence. 3. The third person is that which denotes 
the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The mas- 
culine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. The nominative case is that 
form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Formed is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

It is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A pro- 
noun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of 
what person it is. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The 
singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are 
neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually 
denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Why is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; and 
generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Hast is a verb, auxiliary to made, and may be taken with it. 

Thou is a personal pronoun, of the second person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case. 1. 
A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, 
of what person it is. 3. The second person is that which denotes the hearer, or the person addressed. 4. 
The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes per- 
sons or animals of the male kind. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which 
usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Made, or hast made, is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 

Me is a personal pronoun, of the first person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A pro- 
noun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of 
what person it is. 3. The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer. 4. The singular num- 
ber is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither 
male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which usually denotes 
the object of a verb, participle, or preposition 

Thus is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; and 
generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

" Every man has undoubtedly an inward perception of the celestial goodness by 
which he is quickened. But, if to obtain some ideas of God, it be not necessary for 
us to go beyond ourselves, what an unpardonable indolence it is in those who will 
not descend into themselves that they may find him?" — Calvin's Institutes, B. i, 
Ch. 5. 

" Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing : it is my Father that 
honoureth me ; of whom ye say, that he is your God : yet ye have not known him ; 
but I know him." — John, viii, 54. 

" "What ! have ye not houses to eat and to drink in ? or despise ye the church of 
God, and shame them that have not ? What shall I say to you ? shall I praise you 
in this ? I praise you not." — 1 Cor., xi, 22. 

" We know not what we ought to wish for, but He who made us, knows." — 
Burgh's Dignity, Vol. ii, p. 20. 

" And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good ?" — 
1 Peter, hi, 13. 

" For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some 
that commend themselves : but they, measuring themselves by themselves, and com- 
paring themselves among themselves, are not wise." — 2 Cor., x, 12. 

" Whatever is humane, is wise ; whatever is wise, is just ; whatever is wise, just, 
and humane, will be found the true interest of states." — Dr. Rush, on Punishments, 
p. 19. 

" But, methinks, we cannot answer it to ourselves, as-well-as to our Maker, that 
we should live and die ignorant of ourselves, and thereby of him, and of the obliga- 
tions which we are under to him for ourselves." — William Pernio 

" But where shall wisdom be found ? and where is the place of understanding ? 
The depth saith, ' It is not in me ;' and the sea saith, ' It is not with me.' Destruc- 
tion and death say, ' We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.' " — See Joh 
xxviii, 12, 14, 22 ; and Blair's Led., p. 41 7. 

" I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown, 
Amidst these humble bow'rs to lay me down." — Goldsmith. 

" Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust, 
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art ?" — Milton, P. R. 



328 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

"I would, methinks, have so much to say for myself, that if I fell into the hands 
of him who treated me ill, he should be sensible when he did so : his conscience 
should be on my side, whatever became of his inclination." — Steele, Spect., No. 522. 

" A boy should understand his mother tongue well before he enters upon the 
study of a dead language ; or, at any rate, he should be made perfect master of the 
meaning of all the words which are necessary to furnish him with a translation of 
the particular author which he is studying." — Gallaudet, Lit. Conv., p. 206. 

" No discipline is more suitable to man, or more congruous to the dignity of his 
nature, than that which refines his taste, and leads him to distinguish, in every sub- 
ject, what is regular, what is orderly, what is suitable, and what is fit and proper." 
— Karnes's El. of Crit., i, 275. 

" Simple thoughts are what arise naturally ; what the occasion or the subject sug- 
gests unsought ; and what, when once suggested, are easily apprehended by all. 
Refinement in writing, expresses a less natural and [less] obvious train of thought." 
— Blair 1 s Rhet., p. 184. 

" Where the story of an epic poem is founded on truth, no circumstances must be 
added, but such as connect naturally with what are known to be true : history may 
be supplied, but it must not be contradicted." — See Karnes's El. of Crit, ii, 280. 

" Others, I am told, pretend to have been once his friends. Surely they are their 
enemies, who say so ; for nothing can be more odious than to treat a friend as they 
have treated him. But of this I cannot persuade myself, when I consider the con- 
stant and eternal aversion of all bad writers to a good one." — Cleland, in Defence 
of Pope. 

" From side to side, he struts, he smiles, he prates, 

And seems to wonder what's become of Yates." — ChurchilL 
" Alas ! what sorrows gloom'd that parting day, 
That call'd them from their native walks away !" — Goldsmith. 

Lesson III. — Parsing. 

" It is involved in the nature of man, that he cannot be indifferent to an event that 
concerns him or any of his connexions : if it be fortunate, it gives him joy ; if unfor- 
tunate, it gives him sorrow." — Karnes's El. of Crit., i, 62. 

" I knew a man who had relinquished the sea for a country life : in the corner of 
his garden he reared an artificial mount with a level summit, resembling most accu- 
rately a quarter-deck, not only in shape, but in size ; and here he generally walked." 
—lb., p. 328. 

" I mean, when we are angry with our Maker. For against whom else is it that 
our displeasure is pointed, when we murmur at the distribution of things here, either 
because our own condition is' less agreeable than we would have it, or because that 
of others is more prosperous thafi we imagine they deserve ?" — Archbishop Seeker. 

" Things cannot charge into the soul, or force us upon any opinions about them ; 
they stand aloof and are quiet. It is our fancy that makes them operate and gall 
us ; it is we that rate them, and give them their bulk and value." — Collier's Antoninus, 
p. 212. 

" What is your opinion of truth, good-nature, and sobriety ? Do any of these vir- 
tues stand in need of a good word ; or are they the worse for a bad one ? I hope 
a diamond will shine ne'er the less for a man's silence about the worth of it." — lb., 
p. 49. 

" Those words which were formerly current and proper, have now become obso- 
lete and barbarous. Alas ! this is not all : fame tarnishes in time too ; and men 
grow out of fashion, as well as languages." — lb., p. 55. 
" O Luxury ! thou curs'd by Heaven's decree, 

How ill exchang'd are things like these for thee." — Goldsmith. 
u O, then, how blind to all that truth requires, 
Who think it freedom when a part aspires !" — Id. 



CHAP, V.] ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. — ERRORS. 329 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS OF PRONOUNS. 

Lesson I. — Relatives. 

" At the same time that we attend to this pause, every appearance of sing-song and tone must 
be carefully guarded against." — Murray 's English Reader, p. xx. 

[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the word that has not clearly the construction either of a pronoun or of a 
conjunction. But, according to Observation 18th, on the Classes of Pronouns, " The word that, or indeed any 
other word, should never be 60 used as to leave the part of speech uncertain." Therefore, the expression 
should be altered: thus, " While we attend to this pause, every appearance of singsong must be carefully 
avoided."] 

"For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee." — Jeremiah, i, 7 ; Gurney's Cbs., p. 223. 
" Ah ! how happy would it have been for me, had I spent in retirement these twenty -three years 
that I have possessed my kingdom." — See Sanborn's Gram., p. 242. " In the same manner that 
relative pronouns and their antecedents are usually parsed." — lb., p. 11. "Parse or mention all 
the other nouns in the parsing examples, in the same manner that you do the word in the form 
of parsing." — lb., p. 8. "The passive verb will always be of the person and number that the 
verb be is, of which it is in part composed." — lb., p. 53. "You have been taught that a verb 
must always be of the same person and number that its nominative is." — lb., p. 68. " A relative 
pronoun, also, must always be of the same person, number, and even gender that its antecedent 
is." — lb., p. 68. " The subsequent is always in the same case that the word is, which asks the 
question." — lb., p. 95. " One sometimes represents an antecedent noun in the same definite man- 
ner that personal pronouns do." — lb., p. 98. "The mind being carried forward to the time that 
an event happens, easily conceives it to be present." — lb., p. 107. " Save and saving are parsed 
in the same manner that except and excepting are." — lb., p. 123. "Adverbs describe, qualify, or 
modify the meaning of a verb in the same manner that adjectives do nouns." — lb., p. 16. "The 
third person singular of verbs, is formed in the same manner, that the plural number of nouns is." 
— lb., p. 41. "He saith further: 'that the apostles did not anew baptize such persons, that had 
been baptized with the baptism of John.' " — Barclay's Works, i, 292. "For we which live, are 
always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake." — 2 Cor., iv, 11. "For they, which believe in God, 
must be careful to maintain good works." — Barclay's Works, i, 431. "Nor yet of those which 
teach things which they ought not, for filth}' - lucre's sake." — lb., i, 435. "So as to hold such 
bound in heaven, whom tbey bind on earth, and such loosed in heaven, whom they loose on 
earth." — lb., i, 478. "Now, if it be an evil to do any thing out of strife ; then such things that 
are seen so to be done, are they not to be avoided and forsaken?" — lb., i, 522. "All such who 
satisfy themselves not with the superficies of religion." — lb., ii, 23. " And he is the same in sub- 
stance, what he was upon earth, both in spirit, soul and body." — lb., iii, 98. "And those that 
do not thus, are such, to whom the Church of Rome can have no charity." — lb., iii, 204. " Before 
his book he placeth a great list of that he accounts the blasphemous assertions of the Quakers." — 
lb., iii, 257. "And this is that he should have proved." — lb., iii, 322. "Three of which were 
at that time actual students of philosophy in the university." — lb., iii, 180. "Therefore it is not 
lawful for any whatsoever * * * to force the consciences of others." — lb., ii, 13. " What is the 
cause that the former days were better than these ?" — Eccl, vii, 10. "In the same manner that 
the term my depends on the name books." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 54. "In the same manner 
as the term house depends on the relative near." — lb., p. 58. " James died on the day that Henry 
returned." — lb., p. 177. 

Lesson II. — Declensions. 

" Other makes the plural others, when it is found without it's substantive." — Priestley's Gram., 
p. 12. 

[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the pronoun it's is written with an apostrophe. But, according to Observa- 
tion 25th, on the Declensions of Pronouns, " The possessive case of pronouns should never be written with an 
apostrophe." Therefore, this apostrophe should be omitted; thus, " Other makes the plural others, when it is 
found without its substantive."] 

" But his, her's, our's, your's, their 's, have evidently the form of the possessive case." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. 23. "To the Saxon possessive cases, hire, ure, eower, hira, (that is, her's, our's, your's, 
their' s.) we have added the s, the characteristic of the possessive case of nouns." — Po., p. 2.3- 
" Upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's." — Friends' Bible : 1 Cor., i, 
2. " In this Place His Hand is clearly preferable either to Her's or It's."* — Harris's Hermes, p. 
59. " That roguish leer of your's makes a pretty woman's heart ake." — Addison : in Joh. Diet. 
" Lest by any means this liberty of your's become a stumbling-block." — Friends' Bible: 1 Cor., 
viii, 9. "First person: Sing. I, mine, me; Plur. we, our's, us." — Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., 
p. 16. "Second person: Sing, thou, thine, thee; Plur. ye or you, your's, you." — lb. "Third 
person : Sing, she, her's, her ; Plur. they, their's, them." — lb. " So shall ye serve strangers in a 

* This is a comment upon the following quotation from Milton, where Hers for His would be a gross bar- 
barism: — 

" Should intermitted vengeance arm again 
His red light hand to plague us." — Par. Lost, B. ii, 1. 174, 



330 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

land that is not your's." — Scott et al. : Jer., v, 19. " Second person, Singular : Nom. thou or 
you, Poss. thine or yours, Obj. thee or you." — Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. 13. " Second person, 
Dual : Nom. Gyt, ye two ; Gen. Incer, of ye two ; Dat. Inc, incrum, to ye two ; Ace. Inc, ye 
two; Yoc. Eala inc, ye two; Abl. Inc, incrum, from ye two." — GwiWs Saxon Gram., p. 12. 
" Second person, Plural : Nom. Ge, ye ; Gen. Eower, of ye ; Dat. Eow, to ye ; Ace. Eow, ye ; 
Yoc. Eala ge, ye; Abl. Eow, from ye." — lb. {written in 1829.) "These words are, mine, 
thine, his, her's, our's, your's, their' s, and whose." — CardelVs Essay, p. 88. "This house is our's, 
and that is your's. Their' s is very commodious." — lb., p. 90. " And they shall eat up thine har- 
vest, and thy bread : they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds." — Jeremiah, v, 17. " Who- 
ever and Whichever are thus declined. Sing, and Plu. nom. whoever, poss. whoseever, obj. whom- 
ever. Sing, and Plu. nom. whichever, poss. whoseever, obj. whichever." — Cooper's Plain and 
Practical Gram., p. 38. " The compound personal pronouns are thus declined ; Sing. K Myself, 
P. my-own, 0. myself; Plur. N. ourselves, P. our-own, 0. ourselves. Sing. N. Thyself or your- 
self, P. thy-own or your-own, 0. thyself or yourself;" &c. — Perley's Gram., p. 16. " Every one 
of us, each for hisself, laboured how to recover him." — Sidney : in Priestley's Gram., p. 96. 
"Unless when ideas of their opposites manifestly suggest their selves." — Wright's Gram., p. 49. 
"It not only exists in time, but is time its self." — lb., p. 75. "A position which the action its 
self will palpably deny." — lb., p. 102. "A difficulty sometimes presents its self." — lb., p. 165. 
"They are sometimes explanations in their selves." — lb., p. 249. "Our's, Tour's, Their's, Her's, 
It's." — S. Barrett's Gram., p. 24. 

" Their's the wild chace of false felicities ; 
His, the compos'd possession of the true." — Murray's E. Header, p. 216. 

Lesson III. — Mixed. 

" It is the boast of Americans, without distinction of parties, that their government is the most 
free and perfect, which exists on the earth." — Dr. Allen's Lectures, p. 18. 

[Foemttle. —Not proper, because the relative which is here intended to he taken in a restrictive sense. But, 
according to Observation 26fch, on the Classes of Pronouns, (and others that follow it,) the word who or which, 
with a comma before it, does not usually limit the preceding term. Therefore, which should be that, and the com- 
ma should be omitted ; thus, — " that their government is the most free and perfect that exists on the earth.";] 

" Children, who are dutiful to their parents, enjoy great prosperity." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 69. 
"The scholar, who improves his time, sets an example worthy of imitation." — lb., p. 69. "Nouns 
and pronouns, which signify the same person, place, or thing, agree in case." — Cooper's Gram., 
p. 115. "An interrogative sentence is one, which asks a question." — lb., p. 114. "In the use 
of words and phrases, which in point of time relate to each other, a due regard to that relation 
should be observed." — lb., p. 146 ; see L. Murray's Rule xiii. " The same observations, which 
have been made respecting the effect of the article and participle, appear to be applicable to the 
pronoun and participle." — Murray's Gram., p. 193. "The reason that they have not the same 
use of them in reading, may be traced to the very defective and erroneous method, in which the 
art of reading is taught." — lb., p. 252. " Since the time that reason began to exert her powers, 
thought, during our waking hours> has been active in every breast, without a moment's suspen- 
sion or pause." — Murray's Key, p. 271 ; Merchant's Gram., p. 212. "In speaking of such who 
greatly delight in the same." — Notes to Lunciad, 177. "Except such to whom the king shall 
hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live." — Esther, iv, 11. "But the same clay that Lot 
went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." — Luke, 
xvii, 29. "In the next place I will explain several cases of nouns and pronouns which have 
not yet come under our notice." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 129. " Three natural distinctions of time 
are all which can exist." — Hall's Gram., p. 15. "We have exhibited such only as are obviously 
distinct; and which seem to be sufficient, and not more than sufficient." — Murray's Gram., p. 68; 
Hall's, 14. " This point encloses a part of a sentence which may be omitted without materially 
injuring the connexion of the other members." — Hall's Gram., p. 39. " Consonants are letters, 
which cannot be sounded without the aid of a Towel." — Bucke's Gram., p. 9. " Words are not 
simple sounds, but sounds, which convey a meaning to the mind." — lb., p. 16. "Nature's pos- 
tures are always easy ; and which is more, nothing but your own will can put you out of them." 
— Collier's Antoninus, p. 197. " Therefore ought we to examine our ownselves, and prove our own- 
selves." — Barclay's Works, i, 426. " Certainly it had been much more natural, to have divided 
Active Yerbs into Immanent, or such whose Action is terminated in it self, and Transient, or such 
whose Action is terminated in something without it self." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 273. "This 
is such an advantage which no other lexicon will afford." — Dr. Taylor: in Pike's Lex., p. iv. 
" For these reasons, such liberties are taken in the Hebrew tongue with those words as are of 
the most general and frequent use." — Pike's Heb. Lexicon, p. 184. "At the same time that we 
object to the laws, which the antiquarian in language would impose upon us, we must enter our 
protest against those authors, who are too fond of innovations." — Murray's Gram., Yol. i, p. 136. 



CHAPTER VI.— YERBS. 



A Yerb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon ; as, I 
am, I rule, I am ruled; I love, thou lovest, he loves. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERB?. — CLASSES. 331 

Verbs are so called, from the Latin Verbum, a Word; because the 
verb is that word which most essentially contains what is said in any 
clause or sentence. 

An English verb has four Chief Terms, or Principal Parts, ever 
needful to be ascertained in the first place ; namely, the Present, the 
Preterit, the Imperfect Participle, and the Perfect Participle. 

The Present is that form of the verb, which is the root of all the rest ; 
the verb itself ; or that simple term which we should look for in a dic- 
tionary : as, be, act, rule, love, defend, terminate. 

The Preterit is that simple form of the verb, which denotes time 
past ; and which is always connected with some noun or pronoun, de- 
noting the subject of the assertion : as, / was, I acted, I ruled, I loved, 
I defended. 

The Imperfect Participle is that which ends commonly* in ing, and 
implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion : as, being, acting, 
ruling, loving, defending, terminating. 

The Perfect Participle is that which ends commonly in ed or en, and 
implies a completion of the being, action, or passion : as, been, acted, 
ruled, loved. 

CLASSES. 

Yerbs are divided, with respect to their form, into four classes ; regu- 
lar and irregular, redundant and defective. 

I. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect 
participle by assuming d or ed; as, love, loved, loving, loved. 

II. An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and 
the perfect participle by assuming d or ed; as, see, saw, seeing, seen. 

III. A redundant verb is a verb that forms the preterit or the perfect 
participle in two or more ways, and so as to be both regular and irregu- 
lar ; as, thrive, thrived or throve, thriving, thrived or thriven. 

IV. A defective verb is a verb that forms no participles, and is used in 
but few of the moods and tenses ; as, beware, ought, quoth. 

Verbs are divided again, with respect to their signification, into four 
classes ; active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive, and neuter. 

I. An active-transitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which 
has some person or thing for its object ; as, " Cain slew Abel." — " Cassius 
loved Brutus" 

II. An active-intransitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which 
has no person or thing for its object ; as, " John walks." — " Jesus wept." 

III. A passive verb is a verb that represents its subject, or what the 
nominative expresses, as being acted upon; as, "I am compelled." — 
" Ca3sar was slain." 

IV. A neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, 
but simply being, or a state of being ; as, " There was light." — " The 
babe sleeps." 

observations. 

Obs. 1. — So various have been the views of our grammarians, respecting this complex and 
most important part of speech, that almost every thing that is contained in any theory or dis- 

* The Imperfect Participle, tchen simple, or when taken as one of the four principal terms constituting the 
verb or springing from it, ends alicays in ing. But, in a subsequent chapter, I include under this name the first 
participle of the passive verb ; and this, in our language, is always a compound, and the latter term of it does 
not end in ing: as, "In all languages, indeed, examples are to be found of adjectives being compared whose 
signification admits neither intension nor remission." — Cbombie, on Etijm. and Syntax, p. 106. According to 
most of our writers on English grammar, the Present or Imperfect Participle Passive is always a compound of 
being and the form of the perfect participle; as. being loved, being seen. But some represent it to have too 
forms, one of which is always simple; as, " Present Pa68ive, obeyed or being obeyed." — Sanborn's Analyti- 
cal Gram., p. 55. " Loved or being loved." — Parkhursfs Grammar for Beginners, p. 11 ; Greene's Analysis, 
p. 225. "Loved, or, being loved." — Clark's Practical Gram., p. 83. I here concur with the majority, who in 
no instance take the participle in ed or en, alone, for the Present or Imperfect. 



332 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

tribution of the English verbs, may be considered a matter of opinion and of dispute. Nay, the 
essential nature of a verb, in Universal Grammar, has never yet been determined by any received 
definition that can be considered unobjectionable. The greatest and most acute philologists 
confess that a faultless definition of this part of speech, is difficult, if not impossible, to be formed. 
Home Tooke, at the close of his Diversions of Purley, cites with contempt nearly a dozen differ- 
ent attempts at a definition, some Latin, some English, some French ; then, with the abruptness 
of affected disgust, breaks off the catalogue and the conversation together, leaving his readers to 
guess, if they can, what he conceived a verb to be. He might have added some scores of others, 
and probably would have been as little satisfied with any one of them. A definition like that 
which is given above, may answer in some degree the purpose of distinction ; but, after all, we 
must judge what is, and what is not a verb, chiefly from our own observation of the sense and 
use of words.* 

Obs. 2. — Whether participles ought to be called verbs or not, is a question that has been much 
disputed, and is still variously decided ; nor is it possible to settle it in any way not liable to 
some serious objections. The same may perhaps be said of all the forms called infinitives. If 
the essence of a verb be made to consist in affirmation, predication, or assertion, (as it is in many 
grammars,) neither infinitives nor participles can be reckoned verbs, without a manifest breach of 
the definition. Yet are the former almost universally treated as verbs, and by some as the 
only pure verbs ; nor do all deny them this rank, who say that affirmation is essential to a verb. 
Participles, when unconnected with auxiliaries, are most commonly considered a separate part of 
speech ; but in the formation of many of our moods and tenses, we take them as constituent parts 
of the verb. If there is absurdity in this, there is more in undertaking to avoid it ; and the in- 
convenience should be submitted to, since it amounts to little or nothing in practice. With aux- 
iliaries, then, participles are verbs : without auxiliaries, they are not verbs, but form a separate 
part of speech. 

Obs. 3. — The number of verbs in our language, amounts unquestionably to four or five thou- 
sand ; some say, (perhaps truly,) to eight thousand. All these, whatever be the number, are 
confessedly regular in their formation, except about two hundred. For, though the catalogues in 
our grammars give the number somewhat variously, all the irregular, redundant, and defective 
verbs, put together, are commonly reckoned fewer than two hundred. I admit, in all, two hun- 
dred and nineteen. The regular verbs, therefore, are vastly more numerous than those which 
deviate from the stated form. But, since many of the latter are words of very frequent occur- 
rence, the irregular verbs appear exceedingly numerous in practice, and consequently require a 
great deal of attention. The defective verbs being very few, and most of these few being mere 
auxiliaries, which are never parsed separately, there is little occasion to treat them as a distinct 
class ; though Murray and others have ranked them so, and perhaps it is best to follow their ex- 
ample. The redundant verbs, which are regular in one form and irregular in an other, being of 
course always found written either one way or the other, as each author chooses, may be, and 
commonly have been, referred in parsing to the class of regular or irregular verbs accordingly. 
But, as their number is considerable, and their character peculiar, there may be some advantage 
in making them a separate class. Besides, the definition of an irregular verb, as given in any 
of our grammars, seems to exclude all such as may form the preterit and the perfect participle 
by assuming d or ed. 

Obs. 4. — In most grammars and dictionaries, verbs are divided, with respect to their significa- 
tion, into three classes only ; active, passive, and neuter. In such a division, the class of active 
verbs includes those only which are active-transitive, and all the active-intransitive verbs are called 
neuter. But, in the division adopted above, active-intransitive verbs are made a distinct class ; 
and those only are regarded as neuter, which imply a state of existence without action. When, 
therefore, we speak of verbs without reference to their regimen, we may, if we please, apply the 
simple term active to all those which express action, whether transitive or intransitive. " We act 
whenever we do any thing; but we may act without doing any thing." — CraWs Synonymes. 

Obs. 5. — Among the many English grammars in which verbs are divided, as above mentioned, 
into active, passive, and neuter, only, are those of the following writers : Lowth, Murray, Ains- 

* In the following example, " he" and " she" are converted into verbs ; as " thou" sometimes is, in the writings 
of Saakspeare, and others : " Is it not an impulse of selfishness or of a depraved nature to he and she inanimate 
objects?" — Cutler's English Gram., -p. 1G. Dr. Bullions, who has heretofore published several of the worst 
definitions of the verb anywhere extant, has now perhaps one of the best: " A Vebu is a word used to express 
the act, being, or state of its subject." — Analyt. & Pract. Gram., p. 59. Yet it is not very obvious, that " he" 
and "she" are here verbs under this definition. Dr. Mandeville, perceiving that "the usual definitions of the 
vei-b are extremaly defective," not long ago helped the schools to the following : " A verb is a word which de- 
scribes the state or condition of a noun or pronoun in relation to time." — Course of Reading, p. 24. Now it is 
plain, that under this definition too, Cutler's infinitives, "to he and she," cannot be verbs; and, in my opinion, 
very small is the number of words that can be. No verb "describes the state or condition of a noun or pro- 
noun," except in soma form of parsing ; nor, even in this sort of exercise, do I find any verb "which describes 
the state or condition" of such a word "in relation to time." Hence, I can make of this definition nothing but 
nonsense. Against my definition of a verb, this author urges, that it "excludes neuter verbs, expresses no rela- 
tion to subject or time, and uses terms in a vague or contradictory sense."— lb., p. 25. The first and the last 
of these three allegations do not appear to be well founded ; and the second, if infinitives are verbs, indicates 
an excellence rather than a fault. The definition assumes that the mind as well as the body may " act" or " be 
acted upon." For this cause, Dr. Mandeville, who cannot conceive that "to be loved" is in anywise "to b& 
acted upon," pronounces it " fatally defective !" His argument is a little web of sophistry, not worth unweav- 
ing here. One of the best scholars cited in the reverend Doctor's book says, " Of mental powers we have no 
conception, but as certain capacities of intellectual action." And again, he asks, " Who can be conscious of 
judgment, memory, and reflection, aud doubt that man was made to act?" — Evebett: Course of Reading, 
p. 320. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. CLASSES. 333 

worth, Alden, Allen, Alger, Bacon, Bicknell, Blair, Bullions, (at first,) Charles Adams, Bucke, 
Cobbett, Cobbin, Dilworth, A. Flint, Frost, (at first,) Greenleaf, Hall, Johnson,* Lennie, Picket, 
Pond, Sanborn, R. C. Smith, Rev. T. Smith, and Wright. These authors, and many more, agree, 
that, "A verb neuter expresses neither action nor passion, but being, or a state of being." — L. 
Murray. Yet, according to their scheme, such words as walk, run, fly, strive, struggle, wrestle, 
contend, are verbs neuter. In view of this palpable absurdity, I cannot but think it was a useful 
improvement upon the once popular scheme of English grammar, to make active-intransitive 
verbs a distinct class, and to apply the term neuter to those few only which accord with the fore- 
going definition. This had been done before the days of Lindley Murray, as may be seen in 
Buchanan's English Syntax, p. 56, and in the old British Grammar, p. 153, each published many 
years before the appearance of his work;f and it has often been done since, and is preferred even 
by many of the professed admirers and followers of Murray ; as may be seen in the grammars 
of Comly, Fisk, Merchant, Kirkham, and others. 

Obs. 6. — Murray himself quotes this improved distribution, and with some appearance of ap- 
probation ; but strangely imagines it must needs bo inconvenient in practice. Had he been a 
schoolmaster, he could hardly have so judged. He says, " Verbs have been distinguished by 
some writers, into the following kinds: — 

" 1st. Active-transitive, or those which denote an action that passes from the agent to some 
object : as, Caesar conquered Pompey. 

" 2d. Active-intransitive, or those which express that kind of action, which has no effect upon 
any thing beyond itself: as, Caesar walked. 

"3d. Passive, or those which express, not action, but passion, whether pleasing or painful: as, 
Portia was loved ; Pompey was conquered. 

"4th. Neuter, or those which express an attribute that consists neither in action nor passion: 
as, Caesar stood. 

" This appears to be an orderly arrangement. But if the class of active-intransitive verbs were 
admitted, it would rather perplex than assist the learner : for the difference between verbs active 
and neuter, as transitive and intransitive is easy and obvious : but the difference between verbs 
absolutely neuter and [those which are] intransitively active, is not always clear. It is, indeed, 
often very difficult, if not impossible to be ascertained." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 604 

Obs. 1 • — The following note, from a book written on purpose to apply the principles of Murray's 
Grammar, and of Allen's, (the two best of the foregoing two dozen,) may serve as an offset to the 
reason above assigned for rejecting the class of active-intransitive verbs : "It is possible that 
some teachers may look upon the nice distinction here made, between the active transitive and the 
active intransitive verbs, as totally unnecessary. They may, perhaps, rank the latter with the 
neuter verbs. The author had his choice of difficulties : on the one hand, he was aware that his 

* Dr. Johnson says, " English verbs are active, as 2" love ; or neuter, as I languish. The neuters are formed 
like the actives. The passive voice is formed by joining the participle preterit to the substantive verb, as I am 
loved." He also observes, " Most verbs signifying action may likewise signify condition or habit, and become 
neuters; as, I love, I am in love ; I strike, I am now striking." — Gram, with his Quarto Diet., p. 7. 

t The doctrine here referred to, appears in both works in the very same words: to wit, " English Verbs are 
either Active, Passive, or Neuter. There are two sorts of Active Verbs, viz. active-transitive and active-in- 
transitive Verbs." — British Gram., p. 153 ; Buchanan's, 56. Buchanan was in this case the copyist. 

% " The distinction between verbs absolutely neuter, as to sleep, and verbs active intransitive, as to walk, 
though founded in nature and truth, is of little use in grammar. Indeed it would rather perplex than assist 
the learner ; for the difference between verbs active and [verbs] neuter, as transitive and intransitive, is easy 
and obvious ; but the difference between verbs absolutely neuter and [those which are] intransitively active is 
not always clear. But however these latter may differ in nature, the construction of them both is the same; 
and grammar is not so much concerned with their real, as with their grammatical properties." — Lowth's Gram., 
p. 30. But are not "truth, nature, and reality," worthy to be preferred to any instructions that contradict 
them ? If they are, the good doctor and his worthy copyist have here made an ill choice. It is not only for the 
sake of these properties, that I retain a distinction -which these grammarians, and others above named, reject; 
but for the sake of avoiding the untruth, confusion, and absurdity, into which one must fall by calling all active- 
intransitive verbs neuter. The distinction of active verbs, as being either transitive or intransitive, is also 
necessarily retained. But the suggestion, that this distinction is more " easy and ob vious" than the other, is 
altogether an error. The really neuter verbs, being very few, occasion little or no difficulty. But very many act- 
ive verbs, perhaps a large majority, are sometimes used intransitively; and of those which our lexicographers 
record as being always transitive, not a few are occasionally found without any object, either expressed or 
clearly suggested: as, "He convinces, but he does not elevate nor animate." — Blair's Rhet.,~p. 242. "The 
child imitates, and commits to memory ; whilst the riper age digests, and thinks independently." — Dr. Lieber, 
Lit. Conv., p. 313. Of examples like these, three different views maybe taken; and it is very questionable 
which is the right one : First, that these verbs are here intransitive, though they are not commonly so ; Second, 
that they are transitive, and have objects understood ; Third, that they are used improperly, because no deter- 
minate objects are given them. If we assume the second opinion or the last, the full or the correct expressions 
may be these : " He convinces the judgement, but he does not elevate the imagination, or animate the feelings." 
— " The child imitates others, and commits words to memory; whilst the riper age digests facts or truths, and 
thinks independently." These verbs are here transitive, but are they so above *? Those grammarians who, 
supposing no other distinction important, make of verbs but two classes, transitive and intransitive, are still as 
much at variance, and as much at fault, as others, (and often more so,) when they come to draw the line of this 
distinction. To '•'•require" an objective, to '■'■govern" an objective, to '■'•admit" an objective, and to '•'•have" an 
objective, are criterions considerably different. Then it is questionable, whether infinitives, participles, or sen- 
tences, must or can have the effect of objectives. One author says, " If a verb has any objective case expressed, 
it is transitive : if it has none, it is intransitive. Verbs which appear transitive in their nature, may frequently 
be used intransitively." — Chandler's Old Gram., p. 32; his Common School Gram., p. 48. An other says, "A 
transitive verb asserts action which does or can, terminate on some object." — Frazee's Gram., p. 29. An other 
avers, "There are two classes of verbs perfectly distinct from each other, viz: Those which do, and those 
which do not, govern an objective case." And his definition is, " A Transitive Verbis one which requires an. 
objective case after it." — Hart's E. Gram., p. 62. Both Frazee and Hart reckon the passive verb transitive ! 
And the latter teaches, that, " Transitive verbs in English, are sometimes used witlxout an objective case; as, 
The apple tastes sweet V— Hart's Gram., p, 73. 



334 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

arrangement might not suit the views of the above-mentioned persons ; and, on the other, he was 
bo sensible of the inaccuracy of their system, and of its clashing with the definitions, as well as 
rules, laid down in almost every grammar, that he was unwilling to bring before the public a 
work containing so well-known and manifest an error. Of what use can Murray's definition of' 
the active verb be, to one who endeavours to prove the propriety of thus assigning an epithet to 
the various parts of speech, in the course of parsing ? He says, ' A verb active expresses an ac- 
tion, and necessarily implies an agent, and an object acted upon.' In the sentence, ' William 
. hastens away,' the active intransitive verb hastens has indeed an agent, 'William,' but where is 
the object? Again, he says, 'Active verbs govern the objective case;' although it is clear it is 
not the active meaning of the verb which requires the objective case, but the transitive, and that 
only. He adds, ' A verb neuter expresses neither action, nor passion, but being, or a state of 
being;' and the accuracy of this definition is borne out by the assent of perhaps every other gram- 
marian. If, with this clear and forcible definition before our eyes, we proceed to class active in- 
transitive verbs with neuter verbs, and direct our pupils to prove such a classification by reciting 
Murray's definition of the neuter verb, we may indeed expect from a thinking pupil the remon- 
strance which was actually made to a teacher on that system, while parsing the verb ' to run. 1 
' Sir,' asks the boy, ' does not to run imply action, for it always makes me perspire?' " — Nixon 1 s 
English Parser, p. 9. 

Obs. 8. — For the consideration of those classical scholars who may think we are bound by the 
authority of general usage, to adhere to the old division of verbs into active, passive, and neuter, it 
may be proper to say, that the distribution of the verbs in Latin, has been as much a matter of 
dispute among the great grammarians of that language, as has the distribution of English verbs, 
more recently, among ourselves ; and often the points at issue were precisely the same.* To ex- 
plain here the different views of the very old grammarians, as Charisius, Donatus, Servius, 
Priscian; or even to notice the opinions of later critics, as Sanctius, Scioppius, Yossius, Peri- 
zonius ; might seem perhaps a needless departure from what the student of mere English gram- 
mar is concerned to know. The curious, however, may find interesting citations from all these 
authors, under the corresponding head, in some of our Latin grammars. See Prat's Grammatica 
Latina, 8vo, London, 1722. It is certain that the division of active verbs, into transitive and 
intransitive — or, (what is the same thing,) into " absolute and transitive' 1 '' — or, into "immanent and 
transient" — is of a very ancient date. The notion of calling passive verbs transitive, when used in 
their ordinary and proper construction, as some now do, is, I think, a modern one, and no small 
error. 

Obs. 9. — Dr. Adam's distribution of verbs, is apparently the same as the first part of Murray's ; 
and his definitions are also in nearly the same words. But he adds, "The verb Active is also 
called Transitive, when the action passeth over to the object, or hath an effect on some other thing; 
as, scribo literas, I write letters : but when the action is confined within the agent, and passeth 
not over to any object, it is called Intransitive ; as, ambulo, I walk; curro, I run: ^^ which are 
likewise called Neuter Verbs" — Adam's Latin and English Gram., p. 79. But he had just before 
said, " A Neuter verb properly expresses neither action nor passion, but simply the being, state, or 
condition of things ; as, dormio, I sleep ; sedeo, I sit." — Ibid,. Verbs of motion or action, then, 
must needs be as improperly called neuter, in Latin, as in English. Nor is this author's arrange- 
ment orderly in other respects; for he treats of "Deponent and Common Verbs," of " Irregular 
Verbs," of " Defective Verbs," and of " Impersonal Verbs," none of which had he mentioned in 
his distribution. Nor are the late revisers of his grammar any more methodical. 

Obs. 10. — The division of our verbs into active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive, and neuter, 
must be understood to have reference not only to their signification as of themselves, but also to 
their construction with respect to the government of an objective word after them. The latter is 
in fact their most important distinction, though made with reference to a different part of speech. 
The classical scholar, too, being familiar with the forms of Latin and Greek verbs, will doubtless 
think it a convenience, to have the arrangement as nearly correspondent to those ancient forms, 
as the nature of our language will admit. This is perhaps the strongest argument for the recog- 
nition of the class of passive verbs in English. Some grammarians, choosing to parse the passive 
participle separately, reject this class of verbs altogether; and, forming their division of the rest 
with reference to the construction alone, make but two classes, transitive and intransitive. Such 
is the distribution adopted by 0. Alexander, D. Adams, Bingham, Chandler, E. Cobb, Harrison, 
Nutting, and John Peirce; and supported also by some British writers, among whom are 

* In the hands of some gentlemen, " the Principles of Latin Grammar," and " the Principles of English Gram- 
mar," — are equally pliable, or changeable ; and, what is very remarkable, a comparison of different editions 
will show, that the fundamental doctrines of a whole " Series of Grammars, English, Latin, and Greek," may 
eo change in a single lustrum, as to rest upcn authorities altogether different. Dr. Bullions' s grammars, a few 
years ago, like those of his great oracles, Adam, Murray, and Lennie, divided verbs into "three kinds, Active, 
Passive, and Neuter" Now they divide them into two only, " Transitive and Intransitive;" and absurdly aver, 
that, " Verbs in tfis passive form are as really transitive as in the active form." — Prin. of E. Gram., 1843, p. 
200. Now, as if no verb could be plural, and no transitive act could be future, conditional, in progress, or left 
undone, they define thus : "A Transitive verb expresses an act done by one person or thing to another."— lb., 
p. 29; Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 60; Latin Gram., 77. Now, the division which so lately as 1842 was pro- 
nounced by the Doctor to be "more useful than any other," and advantageously accordant with " most diction- 
aries of the English language," (see his Fourth Edition, p. 30,) is wholly rejected from this notable " Series." 
Now, the " vexed question" about " the classification of verbs," which, at some revision still later, drew from 
this author whole pages of weak arguments for his faulty changes, is complacently supposed to have been well 
settled in his favour! Of this matter, now, in 1849, he speaks thus: " The division of verbs into transitive and 
intransitive has been so generally adopted and approved by the best grammarians, that any discussion of th» 
subject is now unnecessary." — Bullions^ Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 59. 



CHAP, vi.] ETYMOLOGY.— VERBS. — CLASSES. 335 

M'Culloch and Grant. Such too was the distribution of "Webster, in his Plain and Comprehensive 
Grammar, as published in 1800. He then taught: "We have no passive verb in the language; 
and those which are called neuter are mostly active." — Page 14. But subsequently, in his Philo- 
sophical, Abridged, and Improved Grammars, he recognized " a more natural and comprehensive 
division' of verbs, " tramitive, intransitive, and passive." — Webster's Rudiments, p. 20. This, in 
reality, differs but little from the old division into active, passive, and neuter. In some grammars 
of recent date, as Churchill's, E, W. Bailey's, J. E. Brown's, Butler's, S. "W. Clark's, Prazee's, 
Hart's, Hendrick's, Perley's, Pinneo's, Weld's, Wells's, Mulligan's, and the improved treatises of 
Bullions and Frost, verbs are said to be of two kinds only, transitive and intransitive ; but these 
authors allow to transitive verbs a " passive form," or " passive voice," — absurdly making all 
passive verbs transitive, and all neuters intransitive, as if action were expressed by both. For 
this most faulty classification, Dr. Bullions pretends the authority of " Mr. Webster ;" and Frazee, 
that of " Webster, Bullions, and others." — Prazee's Gram., Ster. Ed., p. 30. But if Dr. Webster 
ever taught the absurd doctrine that passive verbs are transitive, he has contradicted it far too 
much to have any weight in its favour. 

Obs. 11. — Dalton makes only two classes; and these he will have to be active and passive: an 
arrangement for which he might have quoted Scaliger, Sanctius, and Scioppius. Ash and Coar 
recognize but two, which they call active and neuter. This was also the scheme of Bullions, in his 
Principles of E. Gram., 4th Edition, 1842. Priestley and Maunder have two, which they call 
transitive and neuter; but Maunder, like some named above, will have transitive verbs to be sus- 
ceptible of an active and a passive voice, and Priestley virtually asserts the same. Cooper, Day, 
Davis, Hazen, Hiley, Webster, Wells, (in his 1st Edition,) and Wilcox, have three classes ; trans- 
itive, intransitive, and passive. Sanders's Grammar has three ; " Transitive, Intransitive, and 
Neuter;" and two voices, both transitive ! Jaudon has four : transitive, intransitive, auxiliary, 
and passive. Burn has four; active, passive, neuter, and substantive. Cardell labours hard to 
prove that all verbs are both active and transitive ; and for this, had he desired their aid, he might 
have cited several ancient authorities.* Cutler avers, " All verbs are active;" yet he divides them 
"into active transitive, active intransitive, and participial verbs." — Grammar and Parser, p. 31. 
Some grammarians, appearing to think all the foregoing modes of division useless, attempt 
nothing of the kind. William W^ard, in 1765, rejected all such classification, but recognized three 
voices; "Active, Passive, and Middle; as, I call, I am called, lam calling." Famum, in 1842, 
acknowledged the first two of these voices, but made no division of verbs into classes. 

Obs. 12. — If we admit the class of active-intransitive verbs, that of verbs neuter wiU unquestion- 
ably be very small. And this refutes Murray's objection, that the learner will " often" be puzzled 
to know which is which. Nor can it be of any consequence, if he happen in some instances to 
decide wrong. To be, to exist, to remain, to seem, to lie, to sleep, to rest, to belong, to appertain, and 
perhaps a few more, may best be called neuter ; though some grammarians, as may be inferred 
from what is said above, deny that there are any neuter verbs in any language. " Verba Neutra, 
ait Sanctius, nullo pacto esse possunt ; quia, teste Aristotele, omnis motus, actio, vel passio, nihil 
medium est." — Prat's Latin Gram., p. 117. John Grant, in his Institutes of Latin Grammar, 
recognizes in the verbs of that language the distinction which Murray supposes to be so "very 
difficult" in those of our own ; and, without falling into the error of Sanctius, or of Lily,f re- 
specting neuter verbs, judiciously confines the term to such as are neuter in reality. 

Obs. 13. — Active-transitive verbs, in English, generally require, that the agent or doer of the 
action be expressed before them in the nominative case, and the object or receiver of the action, 
after them in the objective ; as, " Cagsar conquered Pompey." Passwe verbs, which are never 
primitives, but always derived from active-transitive verbs, (in order to form sentences of like 
import from natural opposites in voice and sense,) reverse this order, change the cases of the 
nouns, and denote that the subject, named before them, is affected by the action ; while the agent 
follows, being introduced by the preposition by : as, "Pompey was conquered by Caesar." But, as 
our passive verb always consists of two or more separable parts, this order is liable to be varied, 
especially in poetry ; as, 

" How many things by season seasoned are 

To their right praise and true perfection!" — Shakspeare. 
" Experience is by industry achieved, 
And perfected by the swift course of time." — Id. 

Obs. 14. — Most active verbs may be used either transitively or intransitively. Active verbs 
are transitive whenever there is any person or thing expressed or clearly implied on which the 
action terminates; as, "I knew him well, and every truant knew." — Goldsmith. When they do 
not govern such an object, they are intransitive, whatever may be their power on other occa- 

* This late writer Beems to have published his doctrine on this point as a novelty; and several teachers igno- 
rantly received and admired it as such : I have briefly shown, in the Introduction to this work, how easily they 
were deceived. "By this, that Question may be resolv'd, whether every Verb not Passive governs always an 
Accusative, at least understood : ' Tis the Opinion of some very able Grammarians, but for our Parts we dont 
think it." — Grammar published by John Brightland, 7th Ed., London, 1746, p. 115. 

t Upon this point, Richard Johnson cites and criticises Lily's system thus: " ' A Verb Neuter endeth in o or 
m, and cannot take r to make him a Passive ; as, Curro, I run ; Sum, I am.' — Grammar, Eng. p. 13. This 
Definition, is founded upon the Notion abovementioned, viz. That none but Transitives are Verbs Active, 
which is contrary to the reason of Things, and the common sense of Mankind. And what can shock a Child 
more, of any Ingenuity, than to be told, That Ambulo and Curro are Verbs Neuter; that is, to speak according 
to the common Apprehensions of Mankind, that they signifie neither to do, nor suffer." — Johnson" 8 Grammati' 
cat Commentaries, Svo, London, 1706, p. 273. 



I 



336 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

sions ; as, " The grand elementary principles of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives, 
and moves.'''' — Wordsworth's Pre/., p. xxiii. "The Father originates and elects. The Son mediates 
and atones. The Holy Spirit regenerates and sanctifies." — Gurney's Portable Evidences, p. 66. 
"Spectators remark, judges decide, parties watch." — Blair's Ehet., p. 271. "In a sermon, a 
preacher may explain, demonstrate, infer, exhort, admonish, comfort." — Alexander's E. Gram., 
p. 91. 

Obs. 15. — Some verbs may be used in either an active or a neuter sense. In the sentence, 
"Here I rest," rest is a neuter verb; but in the sentence, "Here I rest my hopes," rest is an 
active-transitive verb, and governs hopes. And a few that are always active in a grammatical sense, 
as necessarily requiring an object after them, do not always indicate such an exertion of force as 
we commonly call action. Such perhaps are the verbs to have, to possess, to owe, to cost; as, 
"They have no wine." — "The house has a portico." — " The man possesses no real estate." — "A 
son owes help and honour to his father." — Holy day. "The picture cost a crown." — Wright, p. 
181. Yet possibly even these may be sometimes rather active-intransitive ; as, " I can bear my 
part; 'tis my occupation : have at it with you." — Shakspeare. "Kings have to deal with their 
neighbours." — Bacon. " She will let her instructions enter where fohy now possesses." — Shak- 
speare. 

" Thou hast deserv'd more love than I can show ; 
But 'tis thy fate to give, and mine to owe." — Dryden. 

Obs. 16. — An active-intransitive verb, followed by a preposition and its object, will. sometimes 
admit of being put into the passive form : the object of the preposition being assumed for the 
nominative, and the preposition itself being retained with the verb, as an adverb : as, {Active,) 
" They laughed at him." — {Passive,) " He was laughed at." " For some time the nonconformists 
were connived at." — Eobertson's America, Vol. ii, p. 414. " Every man shall be dealt equitably 
with." — Butler's Analogy, p. 212. "If a church would be looked up to, it must stand high." — 
Parker's Idea, p. 15. 

Obs. 11. — In some instances, what is commonly considered the active fo*rm of the verb, is used 
in a passive sense ; and, still oftener, as we have no other passive form that so well denotes con- 
tinuance, we employ the participle in ing in that sense also : as, " I'll teach you all what's owing 
to your Queen." — Dryden. That is — what is due, or owed. "The books continue selling ; i. e. 
upon the sale, or to be sold." — Priestley 's Gram., p. 111. "So we say the brass is forging ; i. e. at 
the forging, or in [being forged."'] — lb. "They are to blame; i. e. to be blamed." — lb. Hence 
some grammarians seem to think, that in our language the distinction between active and passive 
verbs is of little consequence : " Mr. Grant, however, observes, p. 65, ' The component parts of 
the English verb, or name of action, are few, simple, and natural ; they consist of three words, 
as plough, ploughing, ploughed. Now these words, and their inflections, may be employed either 
actively or passively. Actively, ' They plough the fields ; they are ploughing the fields ; they 
ploughed, or have ploughed, the fields.' Passively, ' The fields plough well ; the fields are plough- 
ing ; the fields are ploughed.' This passive use of the present tense and participle is, however, 
restricted to what he denominates ' verbs of external, material, or mechanical action ;' and not to 
be extended to verbs of sensation and perception ; e. g. love, feel, see, &c." — Nutting's Gram., p. 40. 

MODIFICATIONS. 

Verbs have modifications of four kinds ; namely, Moods, Tenses, Per- 
sons, and Numbers. 

MOODS. 

Moods* are different forms of the verb, each of which expresses the 
being, action, or passion, in some particular manner. 

There are five moods ; the Infinitive, the Indicative, the Potential, 
the Subjunctive, and the Imperative. 

The Infinitive mood is that form of the verb, which expresses the be- 
ing, action, or passion, in an unlimited manner, and without person or 
cumber : as, " To die, — to sleep; — To sleep ! — perchance, to dream!" 

The Indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates 
or declares a thing : as, I write; you know : or asks a question ; as, 
"Do you know V — "Know ye not ?" 

The Potential mood is that form of the verb which expresses the 

_ * Murray says, " Mood or Mode is a particular form of the verb, showing the manner in which the being, ac- 
tion, or passion is represented.'* — Octavo Gram., p. 63. By many grammarians, the term Mode is preferred to 
Mood; but the latter is, for this use, the more distinctive, and by far the more common word. In some trea- 
tises on grammar, as well as in books of logic, certain parts of speech, as adjectives and adverbs, are called 
Modes, because they qualify or modify other terms. E. g., " Thus all the parts of speech are reducible to four; 
viz., Names, Verbs, Modes, Connectives." — Enclytica, or Universal Gram., p. 8. " Modes are naturally divided, 
by their attribution to names or verbs, into adnames and adverbs. 1 '' — Ibid., p. 24. After making this applica- 
tion of the name modes, was it not improper for the learned author to call the moods also il modest" 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. YEEBS. — MOODS. 337 

power, liberty, possibility, or necessity, of the being, action, or passion : 
as, " I can walk; he may ride; we must go." 

The Subjunctive mood is that form of the verb, which represents the 
being, action, or passion, as conditional, doubtful, and contingent : as, 
" If thou go, see that thou offend not." — " See thou do it not/' — Rev., 
xix, 10. 

The Imperative mood is that form of the verb which is used in com- 
manding, exhorting, entreating, or permitting: as, " Depart thou." — 
"Be comforted." — " Forgive me." — " Go in peace." 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The Infinitive mood is so called in opposition to the other moods, in which the verb is 
said to be finite. In all the other moods, the verb has a strict connexion, and necessary agree- 
ment in person and number, with some subject or nominative, expressed or understood ; but the 
infinitive is the mere verb, without any such agreement, and has no power of completing sense 
with a noun. In the nature of things, however, ah being, action, or passion, not contemplated 
abstractly as a thing, belongs to something that is, or acts, or is acted upon. Accordingly infini- 
tives have, in most instances, a reference to some subject of this kind ; though their grammatical 
dependence connects them more frequently with some other term. The infinitive mood, in Eng- 
lish, is distinguished by the preposition to ; which, with a few exceptions, immediately precedes 
it, and may be said to govern it. In dictionaries, and grammars, to is often used as a mere index, 
to distinguish verbs from the other parts of speech. But this little word has no more claim to be 
ranked as a part of the verb, than has the conjunction if, which is the sign of the subjunctive. 
It is the nature of a preposition, to show the relation of different things, thoughts, or words, to 
each other; and this "sign of the infinitive" may well be parsed separately as a preposition, 
since in most instances it manifestly shows the relation between the infinitive verb and some 
other term. Besides, by most of our grammarians, the present tense of the infinitive mood is 
declared to be the radical form of the verb ; but this doctrine must be plainly untrue, upon the 
supposition that tins tense is a compound. 

Obs. 2. — The Indicative mood is so called because its chief use is, to indicate, or declare posi- 
tively, whatever one wishes to say. It is that form of the verb, which we always employ when 
we affirm or deny any thing in a direct and independent manner. It is more frequently used, 
and has a greater number of tenses, than any other mood ; and is also, in our language, the only 
one in which the principal verb is varied in termination. It is not, however, on all occasions, 
confined to its primary use ; else it would be simply and only declarative. But we use it some- 
times interrogatively, sometimes conditionally ; and each of these uses is different from a simple 
declaration. Indeed, the difference between a question and an assertion is practically very great. 
Hence some of the old grammarians made the form of inquiry a separate mood, which they called 
the Interrogative Mood. But, as these different expressions are distinguished, not by any differ- 
ence of form in the verb itself, but merely by a different order, choice, or delivery of the words, 
it has been found most convenient in practice, to treat them as one mood susceptible of different 
senses. So, in every conditional sentence, the prot'asis, or condition, differs considerably from the 
apod'osis, or principal clause, even where both are expressed as facts. Hence some of our mod- 
ern grammarians, by the help of a few connectives, absurdly merge a great multitude of Indica- 
tive or Potential expressions in what they call the Subjunctive Mood. But here again it is better 
to refer still to the Indicative or Potential mood whatsoever has any proper sign of such mood, 
even though it occur in a dependent clause. 

Obs. 3. — The Potential mood is so called because the leading idea expressed by it, is that of the 
power of performing some action. This mood is known by the signs may, can, must, might, could, 
would, and should. Some of these auxiliaries convey other ideas than that of power in the agent ; 
but there is no occasion to explain them severally here. The potential mood, like the indicative, 
may be used in asking a question ; as, " Must I budge ? must I observe you ? must I stand and 
crouch under your testy humour?" — Shakspeare. No question can be asked in any other mood 
than these two. By some grammarians, the potential mood has been included in the subjunctive, 
because its meaning is often expressed in Latin by what in that language is called the subjunctive. 
By others, it has been entirely rejected, because all its tenses are compound, and it has been 
thought the words could as veil be parsed separately. Neither of these opinions is sufficiently 
prevalent, or sufficiently plausible, to deserve a laboured refutation. On the other hand, James 
White, in his Essay on the English Yerb, (London, 1761,) divided this mood into the following 
five: " the Elective," denoted by may or might; "the Potential," \>j can or could ; "the Deter- 
minative" by would; "the Obligative" by should; and "the Compulsive," by must. Such a dis- 
tribution is needlessly minute. Most of these can as well be spared as those other "moods, Inter- 
rogative, Optative, Promissive, Hortative, Precative, &c", which Murray mentions only to reject. 
See his Octavo Gram., p. 68. 

Obs. 4. — The Subjunctive mood is so called because it is always subjoined to an other verb. It 
usually denotes some doubtful contingency, or some supposition contrary to fact. The manner of 
its dependence is commonly denoted by one of the following conjunctions ; if that, though, lest, 

22 



338 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

unless. The indicative and potential moods, in all their tenses, may be used in the same depen- 
dent manner, to express any positive or potential condition ; but this seems not to be a sufficient 
reason for considering them as parts of the subjunctive mood. In short, the idea of a "subjunc- 
tive mood in the indicative form," (which is adopted by Chandler, Frazee, Fisk, S. S. Greene, Comly, 
Ingersoll, R. C. Smith, Sanborn, Mack, Butler, Hart, Weld, Pinneo, and others,) is utterly incon- 
sistent with any just notion of what a mood is ; and the suggestion, which we frequently meet 
with, that the regular indicative or potential mood may be thrown into the subjunctive by merely 
prefixing a conjunction, is something worse than nonsense. Indeed, no mood can ever be made a 
part of an other, without the grossest confusion and absurdity. Yet, strange as it is, some cele- 
brated authors, misled by an if, have tangled together three of them, producing such a snarl of 
tenses as never yet can have been understood without being thought ridiculous. See Murray's 
Grammar, and others that agree with his late editions. 

Obs. 5. — In regard to the number and form of the tenses which should constitute the subjunctive 
mood in English, our grammarians are greatly at variance ; and some, supposing its distinctive 
parts to be but elliptical forms of the indicative or the potential,* even deny the existence of such 
a mood altogether. On this point, the instructions published by Lindley Murray, however com- 
mended and copied, are most remarkably vague and inconsistent. f The early editions of his 
Grammar gave to this mood six tenses, none of which had any of the personal inflections ; conse- 
quently there was, in all the tenses, some difference between it and the indicative. His later edi- 
tions, on the contrary, make the subjunctive exactly like the indicative, except in the present 
tense, and in the choice of auxiliaries for the second-future. Both ways, he goes too far. And while 
at last he restricts the distinctive form of the subjunctive to narrower bounds than he ought, and 
argues against, "If thou loved, If thou knew," &c, he gives to this mood not only the last five 
tenses of the indicative, but also all those of the potential, with its multiplied auxiliaries ; alleging, 
" that as the indicative mood is converted into the subjunctive, by the expression of a condition, 
motive, wish, supposition, &c.+ being superadded to it, so the potential mood may, in like manner, 
be turned into the subjunctive." — Octavo Gram., p. 82. According to this, the subjunctive mood 
of every regular verb embraces, in one voice, as many as one hundred and thirty-eight different 
expressions ; and it may happen, that in one single tense a verb shall have no fewer than fifteen 
different forms in each person and number. Six times fifteen are ninety ; and so many are the 
several phrases which now compose Murray's pluperfect tense of the subjunctive mood of the verb 
to strow — a tense which most grammarians very properly reject as needless ! But this is not all. 
The scheme not only confounds the moods, and utterly overwhelms the learner with its multi- 
plicity, but condemns as bad English what the author himself once adopted and taught for the im- 
perfect tense of the subjunctive mood, "If thou loved, If thou knew," &c, wherein he was sustained 
by Dr. Priestley, by Harrison, by Caleb Alexander, by John Burn, by Alexander Murray, the 
schoolmaster, and by others of high authority. Dr. Johnson, indeed, made the preterit subjunc- 
tive like the indicative ; and this may have induced the author to change his plan, and inflect this 
part of the verb with st. But Dr. Alexander Murray, a greater linguist than either of them, very 
positively declares this to be wrong: " When such words as if though, unless, except, whether, and 
the like, are used before verbs, they lose their terminations of est, eth, and s, in those persons 
which commonly have them. No speaker of good English, expressing himself conditionally, says, 
Though thou f attest, or Though he falls, but, Though thou fall, and Though he fall; nor, Though 
thou earnest, but, Though, or although, thou came." — History of European Languages, Vol. i, p. 55. 

Obs. 6. — Nothing is more important in the grammar of any language, than a knowledge of the 
true forms of its verbs. Nothing is more difficult in the grammar of our own, than to learn, in this 
instance and some others, what forms we ought to prefer. Yet some authors tell us, and Dr. 
Lowth among the rest, that our language is wonderfully simple and easy. Perhaps it is so. But 
do not its " simplicity and facility" appear greatest to those who know least about it? — i. e., least 
of its grammar, and least of its history ? In citing a passage from the eighteenth chapter of Eze- 
kiel, Lord Karnes has taken the liberty to change the word hath to have seven times in one sen- 
tence. This he did, upon the supposition that the subjunctive mood has a perfect tense which 
differs from that of the indicative ; and for such an idea he had the authority of Dr. Johnson's 
Grammar, and others. The sentence is this: "But if he be a robber, a shedder of blood; if he 

* " We have, in English, no genuine subjunctive mood, except the preterimperfect, if I were, if thou wert, 
&c. of the verb to be. [See Notes and Observations on the Third Example of Conjugation, in this chapter.] 
The phrase termed the subjunctive mood, is elliptical ; shall, may, &c. being understood ; as, ' Though hand 
(shall) join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.' 'If it (may) be possible, live peaceably with all.' 
Scriptures." — Rev. W. Allen's Gram., p. 61. Such expressions as, "If thou do love, If he do love," appear to 
disprove this doctrine. [See Notes and Remarks on the Subjunctive of the First Example conjugated below.] 

t "Mr. Murray has changed his opinion, as often as Laban changed Jacob's wages. In the edition we print 
from, we find shall and will used in each person of the first and second future tenses of the subjunctive, but he 
now states that in the second future tense, shalt, shall, should be used instead of wilt, will. Perhaps this is the 
only improvement he has made in his Grammar since 1796." — Rev. T. Smith's Edition of Lindley Hurray's 
English Grammar, p. 61. 

% Notwithstanding this expression, Murray did not teach, as do many modern grammarians, that inflected 
forms of the present tense, such as, "If he thinks so," "Unless he deceives me," "If thou lov'st me," are of 
the subjunctive mood ; though, when he rejected his changeless forms of the other tenses of this mood, he im- 
properly put as many indicatives in their places. With him, and his numerous followers, the ending deter- 
mines the mood in one tense, while the conjunction controls it in the other five ! In his syntax, he argues, "that 
in cases wherein contingency and futurity do not occur, it is not proper to turn the verb from its signification 
of present time, nor to vary [he means, or to forbear to change} its form or termination. VWThe verb would 
then be in the indicative mood, whatever conjunctions might attend it." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 208; 
12mo, p. 16T. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — MOODS. 339 

have eaten upon the mountains, and denied his neighbour's wife ; if he have oppressed the poor 
and needy, have spoiled by violence, have not restored the pledge, have lift up his eyes to idols, 
have given forth upon usury, and have taken increase : shall he live ? he shall not live." — Elements 
of Criticism, Vol. ii, p. 261. Now, is this good English, or is it not? One might cite about half 
of our grammarians in favour of this reading, and the other half against it ; with Murray, the most 
noted of all, first on one side, and then on the other. Similar puzzles may be presented concerning 
three or four other tenses, which are sometimes ascribed, and sometimes denied, to this mood. It 
seems 'to me, after much examination, that the subjunctive mood in English should have two 
tenses, and no more ; the present and the imperfect. The present tense of this mood naturally im- 
plies contingency and futurity, while the imperfect here becomes an aorist, and serves to suppose 
a case as a mere supposition, a case contrary to fact. Consequently the foregoing sentence, if ex- 
pressed by the subjunctive at all, ought to be written thus: "But if he be a robber, a shedder of 
blood ; if he eat upon the mountains, and defile his neighbour's wife ; if he oppress the poor and 
needy, spoil by violence, restore not the pledge, lift up his eyes to idols, give forth upon usury, and 
take increase ; shall he live ? he shall not live." 

Obs. 7. — " Grammarians generally make a present and a past time under the subjunctive mode." 
— Cobbett's E. Gram., % 100. These are the tenses which are given to the subjunctive by Blair, 
in his "Practical Grammar" If any one will give to tins mood more tenses than these, the five 
which are adopted by Staniford, are perhaps the least objectionable: namely, "Present, If thou 
love, or do love ; Imperfect, If thou loved, or did love ; Perfect, If thou have loved ; Pluperfect, If 
thou had loved ; Future, If thou should or would love." — Stamford's Gram., p. 22. But there are 
no sufficient reasons for even this extension of its tenses. — Fisk, speaking of this mood, says : 
" Lowth restricts it entirely to the present tense." — " Uniformity on this point is highly desirable." 
— "On this subject, we adopt the opinion of Dr. Lowth." — English Grammar Simplified, p. 70. 
His desire of uniformity he has both heralded and backed by a palpable misstatement. The learned 
Doctor's subjunctive mood, in the second person singular, is this : " Present time. Thou love ; and, 
Thou mayest love. Past time. Thou mightest love ; and. Thou coiddst, &c. love ; and have loved." — 
Lowth's Gram., p. 38. But Fisk's subjunctive runs thus: "Indie, form, If thou lovest; varied 
form, If thou love." And again: " Present tense, If thou art, If thou be ; Imperfect tense, If thcu 
wast. If thou wert." — Fish's Grammar Simplified, p. TO. His very definition of the subjunctive 
mood is illustrated only by the indicative ; as, "If thou walkest." — " I will perform the operation, 
if he desires it." — lb., p. 69. Comly's subjunctive mood, except in some of his early editions, 
stands thus : " Present tense, If thou lovest ; Imperfect tense, If thou lovedst or loved ; First f 
tense, If thou (shalt) love." — Eleventh Ed., p. 41. This author teaches, that the indicative or po- 
tential, when preceded by an if " should be parsed in the subjunctive mood." — lb., p. 42. Of 
what is in fact the true subjunctive, he says: " Some writers use the singular number in the pres- 
ent tense of the subjunctive mood, without any variation; as, 'if I love, if thou love, if he love.' 
But this usage must be ranked amongst tJie anomalies of our language." — lb., p. 41. Cooper, in 
his pretended "Abridgment of Murray's Grammar, Philad., 1828," gave to the subjunctive mood 
the following form, which contains all six of the tenses : " 2d pers. If thou love, If thou do love, 
If thou loved, If thou did love, If thou have loved, If thou had loved, If thou shall (or will) love, 
If thou shall (or will) have loved." This is almost exactly what Murray at first adopted, and after- 
wards rejected ; though it is probable, from the abridger's preface, that the latter was ignorant of 
this fact. Soon afterwards, a perusal of Dr. Wilson's Essay on Grammar dashed from the reverend 
gentleman's mind the whole of this fabric; and in his " Plain and Practical Grammar. Philad., 
1831," he acknowledges but four moods, and concludes some pages of argument thus: "From 
the above considerations, it will appear to every sound grammarian, that our language does not 
admit a subjunctive mode, at least, separate and distinct from the indicative and potential." — 
Cooper's New Gram., p. 63. 

Obs. 8. — The true Subjunctive mood, in English, is virtually rejected by some later gram- 
marians, who nevertheless acknowledge under that name a greater number and variety of forms 
than have ever been claimed for it in any other tongue. All that is peculiar to the Subjunctive, 
all that should constitute it a distinct mood, they represent as an archaism, an obsolete or anti- 
quated mode of expression, while they willingly give to it every form of both the indicative and 
the potential, the two other moods which sometimes follow an if. Thus Wells, in his strange 
entanglement of the moods, not only gives to the subjunctive, as well as to the indicative, a 
"Simple" or "Common Form," and a "Potential Form;" not only recognizes in each an 
"Auxiliary Form," and a "Progressive Form;" but encumbers the whole with distinctions of 
style, — with what he calls the "Common Style," and the "Ancient Style;" or the "Solemn 
Style," and the "Familiar Style:" yet, after all, his own example of the Subjunctive, "Take 
heed, lest any man deceive you," is obviously different from all these, and not explainable under 
any of his paradigms ! Nor is it truly consonant with any part of his theory, which is this : 
" The* subjunctive of all verbs except be, takes the same form as the indicative. Good writers were 
formerly much accustomed to drop the personal termination in the subjunctive present, and write 
'If he have,' 'If he deny,' etc., for 'If he has,' ' If he denies,' etc.; but this termination is now 
generally retained, unless an auxiliary is understood. Thus, ' If he hear,' may properly be used for 
' If he shall hear' or ' If he should hear,' but not for ' If he hears.' " — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., 
p. 83 ; 3d Ed., p. 87. Now every position here taken is demonstrably absurd. How could 
"good writers" indite "much" bad English by dropping from the subjunctive an indicative ending 
which never belonged to it? And how can a needless " auxiliary" be "understood," on the prin- 



340 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [rART II. 

ciple of equivalence, where, by awkwardly changing a mood or tense, it only helps some gram- 
matical theorist to convert good English into bad, or to pervert a text ? The phrases above may 
all be right, or all be wrong, according to the correctness or incorrectness of their application : 
when each is used as best it may be, there is no exact equivalence. And this is true of half a 
dozen more of the same sort; as, "If he does hear," — "If he do hear" — "If he is hearing," — "If 
he be hearing," — " If he shall be hearing," — "If he should be hearing." 

Obs. 9. — Similar to "Wells's, are the subjunctive forms of Allen H. "Weld. Mistaking annex to 
signify prefix, this author teaches thus : " Annex if, though, unless, suppose, admit, grant, allow, 
or any word implying a condition, to each tense of the Indicative and Potential modes, to form the 
subjunctive ; as, If thou lovest or love. If he loves, or love. Formerly it was customary to omit 
the terminations in the second and third persons of the present tense of the Subjunctive mode. 
But now the terminations are generally retained, except when the ellipsis of shall or shoidd is im- 
plied; as, If he obey, i. e., if he shall, or should obey." — Weld's Grammar, Abridged Edition, p. 71. 
Again : "In general, the form of the verb in the Subjunctive, is the same as that of the Indicative ; 
but an elliptical form in the second and third person [persons] singular, is used in the following 
instances: (1.) Future contingency is expressed by the omission of the Indicative termination; as, 
If he go, for, if he shall go. Though he slay me, i. e., though he should slay me. (2.) Lest and 
that annexed to a command are followed by the elliptical form of the Subjunctive ; as, Love not 
sleep [,] lest thou come to poverty. (3.) If with but following it, when futurity is denoted, re- 
quires the elliptical form; as, If he do but touch the hills, they shall smoke." — lb., p. 126. As 
for this scheme, errors and inconsistencies mark every part of it. First, the rule for forming the 
subjunctive is false, and is plainly contradicted by all that is true in the examples : " If thou love," 
or, "If he love," contains not the form of the indicative. Secondly, no terminations have ever 
been "generally" omitted from, or retained in, the form of the subjunctive present; because that 
part of the mood, as commonly exhibited, is well known to be made of the radical verb, without 
inflection. One might as well talk of suffixes for the imperative, " Love thou," or " Do thou love." 
Thirdly, shall or shoidd can never be really implied in the subjunctive present ; because the sup- 
posed ellipsis, needless and unexampled, would change the tense, the mood, and commonly also 
the meaning. "If he shall," properly implies a condition of future certainty ; "If he should," a 
supposition of duty : the true subjunctive suggests neither of these. Fourthly, " the ellipsis of 
shall, or should," is most absurdly called above, " the omission of the Indicative termination." 
Fifthly, it is very strangely supposed, that to omit what pertains to the indicative or the potential 
mood, will produce an " elliptical form of the Subjunctive." Sixthly, such examples as the last, 
" If he do but touch the hills," having the auxiliary do not inflected as in the indicative, disprove the 
whole theory. 

Obs. 10. — In J. R. Chandler's grammars, are taken nearly the same views of the " Subjunctive 
or Conditional Mood," that have just been noticed. "This mood," we are told, "is only the in- 
dicative or potential mood, with the word ^/•placed before the nominative case." — Gram, c/1821, 
p. 48 ; Gram, of 1847, p. 73. Yet, of even this, the author has said, in the former edition, " It 
would, perhaps, be better to abolish the use of the subjunctive mood entirely. Its use is a con- 
tinual source of dispute among grammarians, and of perplexity to scholars. 1 " — Page 33. The 
suppositive verb were, — (as, "Were I a king," — "If I were a king," — ) which this author formerly 
rejected, preferring was, is now, after six and twenty years, replaced in his own examples ; and 
yet he still attempts to disgrace it, by falsely representing it as being only "the indicative plural" 
very grossly misapplied! See Chandler's Common School Gram., p. 77. 

Obs. 11. — The Imperative mood is so called because it is chiefly used in commanding. It is that 
brief form of the verb, by which we directly urge upon others our claims and wishes. But the 
nature of this urging varies according to the relation of the parties. We command inferiors ; ex- 
hort equals ; entreat superiors ; permit whom we will ; — and all by this same imperative form of 
the verb. In answer to a request, the imperative implies nothing more than permission. The 
will of a superior may also be urged imperatively by the indicative future. This form is particu- 
larly common in solemn prohibitions ; as, " Thou shalt not kill. * * * Thou shalt not steal." — 
Exodus, xx, 13 and 15. Of the ten commandments, eight are negative, and all these are indica- 
tive in form. The other two are in the imperative mood: " Remember the sabbath day to keep it 
holy. Honour thy father and thy mother." — lb. But the imperative form may also be negative: 
as, " Touch not; taste not; handle not." — Colossians, ii, 21. 

TENSES. 

Tenses are those modifications of the verb, which distinguish time. 

There are six tenses ; the Present, the Imperfect, the Perfect, the Plu- 
perfect, the First-future, and the Second-future. 

The Present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking 
place : as, " I hear a noise ; somebody is coming." 

The Imperfect tense is that which expresses what took place, or was 
occurring, in time fully past : as, " I saw him yesterday, and hailed 
him as he was passing." 

The Perfect tense is that which expresses what has taken place, within 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. VERBS. TENSES. 341 

some period of time not yet fully past : as, " I have seen him to-day ; 
something must have detained him/' 

The Pluperfect tense is that which expresses what had taken place, at 
some past time mentioned : as, " I had seen him, when I met you." 

The First-future tense is that which expresses what will take place 
hereafter : as, u I shall see him again, and I will inform him." 

The Second-future tense is that which expresses what will have taken 
place, at some future time mentioned : as, " I shall have seen him by to- 
morrow noon." 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The terms here defined are the names usually given to those parts of the verb to which 
they are in this work applied ; and though some of them are not so strictly appropriate as 
scientific names ought to be, it is thought inexpedient to change them. In many old grammars, 
and even in the early editions of Murray, the three past tenses are called the Preterimperfect, 
Preterperfect, and Preterpluperfect. From these names, the term Prefer, (which is from the Latin 
preposition prceter, meaning beside, beyond, or past,) has been well dropped for the sake of brevity.* 

Obs. 2. — The distinctive epithet Imperfect, or Preterimperfect, appears to have been much less 
accurately employed by the explainers of our language, than it was by the Latin grammarians 
from whom it was borrowed. That tense which passes in our schools for the Imperfect, (as, I 
slept, did sleep, or was sleeping,) is in fact, so far as the indicative mood is concerned, more completely 
past, than that which we call the Perfect. Murray indeed has attempted to show that the name 
is right ; and, for the sake of consistency, one could wish he had succeeded. But every scholar 
must observe, that the simple preterit, which is the first form of this tense, and is never found in 
any other, as often as the sentence is declarative, tells what happened within some period of time 
fully past, as last week, last year ; whereas the perfect tense is used to express what has happened 
within some period of time not yet fully past, as this week, this year. As to the completeness of 
the action, there is no difference; for what has been done to-day, is as completely done, as what 
was achieved a year ago. Hence it is obvious that the term Imperfect has no other applicability 
to the English tense so called, than what it may have derived from the participle in ing, which we 
use in translating the Latin imperfect tense : as, Dormiebam, I was sleeping ; Legebam, I was 
reading ; Docebam, I was teaching. And if for this reason the whole English tense, with all its 
variety of forms in tho different moods, "may, with propriety, be denominated imperfect:" surely, 
the participle itself should be so denominated a fortiori : for it always conveys this same idea, of 
"action not finished," be the tense of its accompanying auxiliary what it may. 

Obs. 3. — The tenses do not all express time with equal precision; nor can the whole number 
in any language supersede the necessity of adverbs of time, much less of dates, and of nouns 
that express periods of duration. The tenses of the indicative mood, are the most definite ; and, 
for this reason, as well as for some others, the explanations of all these modifications of the verb, 
are made with particular reference to that mood. Some suppose the compound or participial 

* Some grammarians — (among whom are Lowth, Dalton, Cobbett, and Cardell — ) recognize only three tenses, 
or "times?' of English verbs; namely, the present, the past, and the future. A few, lfke Latham and Child, 
denying all the compound tenses to be tenses, acknowledge only the first two, the present and the past; and these 
they will have to consist only of the simple or radical verb and the simple preterit. Some others, who acknowl- 
edge six tenses, such as are above described, have endeavoured of late to change the names of a majority of 
them; though with too little agreement among themselves, as may be seen by the following citations: (i.) " We 
have six tenses; three, the Present, Past, and Future, to represent time in a general way; and three, the 
Present Perfect, Past Perfect, and Future Perfect, to represent the precise time of finishing the action." — 
Perley's Gram., 1834, p. 25. (2.) "There are six tenses; the present, the past, the present-perfect, the past- 
perfect, the future, and the future-perfect" — Riley's Gram., 1840, p. 28. (3.) "There are six tenses; the 
Present and Present Perfect, the Past and Past Perfect, and the Future and Future Perfect.'" — Farnum's 
Gram., 1S42, p. 34. (4.) "The names of the tenses will then be, Present, Present Perfect; Past, Past Perfect; 
Future, Future Perfect. They are usually named as fallows: Present, Perfect, Imperfect, Pluperfect, Fu- 
ture, Second Future.'" — X. Butler's Gram, 1845, p. 60. (5.) "We have six tenses ; — the present, the past, the 
future, the present perfect, the past perfect, and the future perfect."" — Wells's ScJiool Gram., 1846, p. 82. 
(6.) " The tenses in English are six — the Present, the Present-perfect, the Past, the Past-perfect, the Future, 
and the Future-perfect.'" — Bullions' s Gram., 1849. p. 71. (7.) "Verbs have Six Tenses, called the Present, the 
Perfect- Present, the Past, the Perfect-Past, the Future, and the Perfect-Future." — Spencer's Gram., 1852, p. 
53. (S.) " There are six tenses: the present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect." 
— Covell's Gram., 1853, p. 62. (9.) "The tenses are — the present, the present perfect; thepast, the jtast perfect; 
the future, the future perfect." — S. S. Greene's Gram., 1853, p. 65. flfO "There arc six tenses; one present, 
and but one, three past, and two future." They are named thus: " The Present, the First Past, the Second 
Past, the Third Past, the First Future, the Second Future."—" For the sake of symmetry, to call two of them 
present, and two only past, while one only is present, and three are past tenses, is" to sacrifice truth to beauty." 
— Pinneo's Gram., 1S53, pp. 60 and 70. "The old names, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect," which, in 1845, 
Butler justly admitted to be the usual names of the three past tenses, Dr. Pinneo, who dates his copy-right 
from 1850, most unwarrantably declares to be " now generally discarded !" — Analytical Gram., p. 76; Same 
Revised, p. 81. These terms, still predominant in use, he strangely supposes to have been suddenly superseded 
by others which are no better, if so good : imagining that the scheme which Perley or Hiley introduced, of " two 
present, two past, and two future tenses," — a scheme which, he says, "has no foundation in truth, and is there- 
fore to be rejected," — had prepared the way for the above-cited innovation of his own, which merely presents 
the old ideas under new terms, or terms partly new, and wholly unlikely to prevail. William Ward, one of the 
ablest of our old grammarians, rejecting in 1765 the two terms imperfect and perfect, adopted ethers which 
resemble Pinneo's ; but few, if any, have .since named the tenses as he did, thus : " The Present, the First Pre- 
terite, the Second Preterite, the Pluperfect, the First Future, the Second Future." — Ward's Gram., p. 47. 



342 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

form, as I am writing, to be more definite in time, than the simple form, as I write, or the em- 
phatic form, as / do lurite ; and accordingly they divide all the tenses into Indefinite and Definite. 
Of this division Dr. Webster seems to claim the invention ; for he gravely accuses Murray of 
copying it unjustly from him, though the latter acknowledges in a note upon his text, it " is, in 
■part, taken from Webster's Grammar. " — Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 13. The distribution, as it 
stands in either work, is not worth quarrelling about : it is evidently more cumbersome than use- 
ful. Nor, after all, is it true that the compound form is more definite in time than the other. For 
example ; " Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, was always betraying his unhappiness." — Art of Think- 
ing, p. 123. Now, if ivas betraying were a more definite tense than betrayed, surely the adverb 
" always" would require the latter, rather than the former. 

Obs. 4. — The present tense, of the indicative mood, expresses not only what is now actually 
going on, but general truths, and customary actions: as, " Vice produces misery." — "He hastens 
to repent, who gives sentence quickly." — Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 11. "Among the Parthians, the 
signal is given by the drum, and not by the trumpet." — Justin. Deceased authors may be spoken 
of in the present tense, because they seem to live in their works; as, "Seneca reasons and 
moralizes well." — Murray. "Women talk better than men, from the superior shape of their 
tongues: an ancient writer speaks of their loquacity three thousand years ago." — Gardiner s 
Music of Nature, p. 21. 

Obs. 5. — The text, John, viii, 58, "Before Abraham loas, I am" is a literal Grecism, and not 
to be cited as an example of pure English : our idiom would seem to require, " Before Abraham 
was, I existed." In animated narrative, however, the present tense is often substituted for the 
past, by the figure enallage. In such cases, past tenses and present may occur together ; because 
the latter are used merely to bring past events more vividly before us : as, " Ulysses wakes, not 
knowing where he tuas." — Pope. "The dictator flies forward to the cavalry, beseeching them to 
dismount from their horses. They obeyed; they dismount, rush onward, and for vancouriers show 
their bucklers." — Livy. On this principle, perhaps, the following couplet, which Murray con- 
demns as bad English, may be justified : — 

" Him portion'd maids, apprentie'd orphans blest, 
The young who labour, and the old who rest." See Murray's Key, R. 13. 

Obs. 6. — The present tense of the subjunctive mood, and that of the indicative when preceded 
by as soon as, after, before, till, or when, is generally used with reference to future time ; as, " If 
he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?" — Matt., vii, 10. " If I will that he tarry till I come, 
what is that to thee? Follow thou me." — John, xxi, 22. "When ha arrives, I will send for 
you." The imperative mood has but one tense, and that is always present with regard to the 
giving of the command ; though what is commanded, must be done in the future, if done at all. 
So the subjunctive may convey a present supposition of what the will of an other may make un- 
certain : as, " If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself." — St Paul to Philemon, 
11. The perfect indicative, like the present, is sometimes used with reference to time that is 
relatively future ; as, " He will be fatigued before he has walked a mile." — " My lips shall utter 
praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes." — Psalms, cxix, 111. "Marvel not at this: for 
the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves, shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto 
the resurrection of damnation." — John, v, 28. 

Obs. 1. — What is called the present infinitive, can scarcely be said to express any particular 
time.* It is usually dependent on an other verb, and therefore relative in time. It may be con- 
nected with any tense of any mood : as, " I intend to do it; I intended to do it; I have intended to 
do it; I had intended to do it;" &c. For want of a better mode of expression, we often use the 
infinitive to denote futurity, especially when it seems to be taken adjectively ; as, " The time to 
come," — "The world to come," — "Rapture yet to be." This, sometimes with the awkward ad- 
dition of about, is the only substitute we have for the Latin future participle in rus, as venturus, to 
come, or about to come. This phraseology, according to Home Tooke, (see Diversions of Purley, 
Yol. ii, p. 451,) is no fitter than that of our ancestors, who for this purpose used the same prepo- 
sition, but put the participle in ing after it, in lieu of the radical verb, which we choose to employ: 
as, " Generations of eddris, who shewide to you to fie fro wraththe to comyngef — Matt, iii, 1. 
Common Version : " generation of vipers! who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to 
come ?" " Art thou that art to comynge, ether abiden we an other ?" — Matt, xi, 3. Common 
Version : " Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" " Sotheli there the ship 
was to puttyng out the charge." — Dedis, xxi, 3. Common Version : " For there the ship was to 
unlade her burden." — Acts, xxi, 3. Churchill, after changing the names of the two infinitive 
tenses to " Future imperfect" and " Future perfect" adds the following note: "The tenses of the 
infinitive mood are usually termed present and preterperfect : but this is certainly improper ; for 
they are so completely future, that what is called the present tense of the infinitive mood is often 
employed simply to express futurity ; as, ' The life to come.' " — New Gram., p. 249. 

Obs. 8. — The pluperfect tense, when used conditionally, in, stead of expressing what actually 
had taken place at a past time, almost always implies that the action thus supposed never was per- 
formed; on the coutrary, if the supposition be made in a negative form, it suggests that the event 

* " The infinitive mood, as ' to shine,' may be called the name of the verb ; it carries neither time nor affirma- 
tion; but simply expresses that attribute, action, or state of things, which is to be the subject of the other 
moods and ter ^g/* — Blair's Lectures, p. 81. By the word " subject" the Doctor does not here mean the nomi- 
native to the other moods and tenses, but the "material of them, or that which is formed into them. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 343 

had occurred: as, " Lord, if thou liadst been here, my brother had not died." — John, xi, 32. " If I 
had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak for their 
sin." — John, xv, 22. "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which 
belong unto thy peace ! But now they are hid from thine eyes." — Luke, xix, 42. The supposi- 
tion is sometimes indicated by a mere transposition of the verb and its subject ; in which case, 
the conjunction if is omitted ; as, " Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me." — John, 
v, 46. 

" Had 1 but fought as wont, one thrust 
Had laid De "Wilton in the dust." — Scott. 

Obs. 9. — In the language of prophecy we find the past tenses very often substituted for the 
future, especially when the prediction is remarkably clear and specific. Man is a creature of 
present knowledge only ; but it is certain, that He who sees the end from the beginning, has 
sometimes revealed to him, and by bim, things deep in futurity. Thus the sacred seer who is 
esteemed the most eloquent of the ancient prophets, more than seven hundred .years before the 
events occurred, spoke of the vicarious sufferings of Christ as of things already past, and even then 
described them in the phraseology of historical facts : " Surely he hath borne our griefs, and car' 
ried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was 
wounded for our transgressions ; he was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him ; and by his stripes we are healed." — Isaiah, liii, 4 and 5. Multiplied instances of 
a similar application of the past tenses to future events, occur in the Bible, especially in the writ- 
ings of this prophet. 

PEKSONS AND NUMBERS. 

The person and number of a verb are those modifications in which it 
agrees with its subject or nominative. 

In each number, there are three persons ; and in each person, two 
numbers : thus, 

Singular. Plural. 

1st per. I love, 1st per. We love, 

2d per. Thou lovest, 2d per. You love, 

3d per. He loves ; 3d per. They love. 

Definitions universally applicable have already been given of all these 
things ; it is therefore unnecessary to define them again in this place. 

Where the verb is varied, the second person singular is regularly 
formed by adding st or est to the first person ; and the third person sin- 
gular, in like manner, by adding s or es: as, I see, thou seest, he sees; 
I give, thou givest, he gives; I go, thou goest, he goes; I fly, thou fliest, 
he flies; I vex, thou vexest, he vexes; I lose, thou losest, he loses. 

Where the verb is not varied to denote its person and number, these 
properties are inferred from its subject or nominative : as, If I love, if 
thou love, if he love; if we love, if you love, if they love. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — It is considered a principle of Universal Grammar, that a finite verb must agree with 
its subject or nominative in person and number. Upon this principle, we ascribe to every such 
verb the person and number of the nominative word, whether the verb itself be literally modi- 
fied by the relation or not. The doctrine must be constantly taught and observed, in every 
language in which the verbs have any variations of this kind. But suppose an instance of a 
language in which ah the verbs were entirely destitute of such inflections ; the principle, as 
regards that language, must drop. Finite verbs, in such a case, would still relate to their sub- 
jects, or nominatives, agreeably to the sense ; but they would certainly be rendered incapable 
of adding to this relation any agreement or disagreement. So the concords which belong to 
adjectives and participles in Latin and Greek, are rejected in English, and there remains to these 
parts of speech nothing but a simple relation to their nouns according to the sense. And by 
the fashionable substitution of you for thou, the concord of English verbs with their nomina- 
tives, is made to depend, in common practice, on little more than one single terminational s, 
which is used to mark one person of one number of one tense of one mood of each verb. So 
near does this practice bring us to the dropping of what is yet called a universal principle of 
grammar.* 

* Some grammarians absurdly deny that persons and numbers are properties of verbs at all : not indeed be- 
cause our verbs have so few inflections, or because these authors -wish to discard the little distinction that re- 
mains ; hub because they have some fanciful conception, that these properties cannot pertain to a verb. Yet, 
when they come to their syntax, they all forget, that if a verb has no person and number, it cannot agree with 
a nominative in these respects. Thus KiBKHAii : " Person, strictly speaking, is a quality that belongs not to verbs, 



34i THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Obs. 2. — In most languages, there are in each tense, through all the moods of every verb, six 
different terminations to distinguish the different persons and numbers. This will be well under- 
stood by every one who has ever glanced at the verbs as exhibited in any Latin, Greek, French, 
Spanish, or Italian grammar. To explain it to others, a brief example shall be given : (with the 
remark, that the Latin pronouns, here inserted, are seldom expressed, except for emphasis:) 
"Ego amo, I love ; Tu amas, Thoulovest; Me amat, He loves; Nos amamus, We love; Vos 
amatis, You love; Illi amant, They love." Hence it may be perceived, that the paucity of vari- 
ations in the English verb, is a very striking peculiarity of our language. "Whether we are gain- 
ers or losers by this simplicity, is a question for learned idleness to discuss. The common people 
who speak English, have far less inclination to add new endings to our verbs, than to drop or 
avoid all the remains of the old. Lowth and Murray tell us, " This scanty provision of termina- 
tions is sufficient for all the purposes of discourse ; and that, " For this reason, the plural termina- 
tion en, (they loven, they weren,) formerly in use, was laid aside as unnecessary, and has long been 
obsolete." — Lowth 1 s Gram., p. 31 ; Murray's, 63. 

Obs. 3. — Though modern usage, especially in common conversation, evidently inclines to drop 
or shun all unnecessary suffixes and inflections, still it is true, that the English verb in some of 
its parts, varies its termination, to distinguish, or agree with, the different persons and numbers. 
The change is, however, principally confined to the second and third persons singular of the pres- 
ent tense of the indicative mood, and to the auxiliaries hast and has of the perfect. In the 
ancient biblical style, now used only on solemn occasions, the second person singular is distin- 
guished through ah the tenses of the indicative and potential moods. And as the use of the pro- 
noun thou is now mostly confined to the solemn style, the terminations of that style are retained 
in connexion with it, through all the following examples of the conjugation of verbs. In the 
plural number, there is no variation of ending, to denote the different persons ; and the verb in 
the three persons plural, (with the two exceptions are and were, from am and was,) is the same as 
in the first person singular. Nor does the use of you for the singular, warrant its connexion 
with any other than the plural form of the verb. This strange and needless confusion of the 
numbers, is, in all languages that indulge it, a practical inconvenience. It would doubtless have 
been much better, had thou and you still kept their respective places — the one, nominative singu- 
lar — the other, objective plural — as they appear in the Bible. But as the English verb is always 
attended by a noun or a pronoun, expressing the subject of the affirmation, no ambiguity arises 
from the want of particular terminations in the verb, to distinguish the different persons and 
numbers. 

Obs. 4. — Although our language, in its ordinary use, exhibits the verbs in such forms only, as 
will make, when put together, but a very simple conjugation ; there is probably no other language 
on earth, in which it would be so difficult for a learned grammarian to fix, settle, and exhibit, to 
the satisfaction of himself and others, the principles, paradigms, rules, and exceptions, which are 
necessary for a full and just exhibition of this part of speech. This difficulty is owing, partly to 
incompatibilities or unsettled boundaries between the solemn and the familiar style ; partly to 
differences in the same style between ancient usage and modern ; partly to interfering claims of 
new and old forms of the preterit and the perfect participle ; partly to the conflicting notions of 
different grammarians respecting the subjunctive mood; and partly to the blind tenacity with 
which many writers adhere to rugged derivatives, and prefer unutterable contractions to smooth 
and easy abbreviations. For example: a clergyman says to a luckj'- gamester, (1.) " You dwell 
in a house which you neither planned nor built." A member of the Society of Friends would say, 
(2.) " Thou dwelist in a house which thou neither planned nor built." Or, if not a. scholar, as likely 
as not, (3.) " Thee dwells in a house which thee neither planned nor built." The old or solemn ' 
style would b ', (4.) " Thou dwellest in a house which thou neither plannedst nor buildedst." Some 
untasteful and overgrammatical poet will have it, (5.) " ThoudwelVst in halls thou neither plannedst 
nor build'drf." The doctrine of Murray's Grammar, and of most others, would require, (6.) " Thou 
dwellest in a house which thou neither plannedst nor buillest." Or, (according to this author's 

but to nouns and pronouns. We say, however, that the verb must agree with its nominative in person, as well 
as in number. 1 ' — Gram, in Familiar Leot., p. 46. So J. W. Weight: "In truth, number and person are not 
properties of verbs. Mr. Murray grants, that, 'in philosophical strictness, both number and person might (.say, 
rnay) be excluded from every verb, as they are, in fact, the properties of substantives, not a part of the essence 
of the verb.' 1 ' — Philosophical Gram., p. 63. This author's rule of syntax for verbs, makes them agree with 
their nominatives, not in person and number, but in termination, or else in nobody knoivs what: " A verb must 
vary its terminations, so as to agree with the nominative to which it is connected." — lb., p. 163. But Murray's 
rule is, " A verb must agree with its nominative case in number and person:" and this doctrine is directly 
repugnant to that interpretation of his words above, by which these gentlemen have so egregiously misled them- 
selves and others. Undoubtedly, both the numbers and the persons of all English verbs might be abolished, 
and the language would still be intelligible. But while any such distinctions remain, and the verb is actually 
modified to form them, they belong as properly to this part of speech as they can to any other. De Sacy says, 
" The distinction of number occtirs in the verb ;" and then adds, " yet this distinction does not properly belong 
to the verb, as it signifies nothing which can be numbered." — Fosdick"s Version, p. 64. This deceptive reason 
is only a new form of the blunder which I have once exposed, of confounding the numbers in grammar with 
numbers in arithmetic. J. M. Putnam, after repeating what is above cited from Murray, adds: "The terms 
number and. person, as applied to the verb are figurative. The pi-operties which belong to one thing, for con- 
venience' sake are ascribed to another." — Gram., p. 41). Kirkham imagines, if ten men build a house, or navi- 
gate a ship round the world, they perform just "ten actions," and no more. "Common sense teaches you,' 1 
says he, " that there must be as 'many actions as there are actors; and that the verb when it has no form or 
ending to show it, is as strictly plural, as when it has. So, in the phrase, ' We walk,' the verb walk is [of the] 
first person, because it expresses the a.tions performed by the speakers. The verb, then, when correctly writ- 
ten, always agrees, in sense, with its nominative in number and person." — Kirklmm? s Gram., p. 47. It seems 
to me, that these authors do not very well know what persons or numbers, in grammar, are. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 345 

method of avoiding unpleasant sounds,) the more complex form, (7.) " Thou dost dwell in a house 
which thou neither didst plan nor didst build.'' 1 Out of these an other poet will make the line, 
(8.) "Dost dwell in halls which thou nor plann'dst nor builfst." An other, more tastefully, would 
drop the st of the preterit, and contract the present, as in the second instance above : thus, 

(9.) " Thou dwellst in halls thou neither planned nor built, 
And revelst there in riches won by guilt." 

Obs. 5. — Now let all these nine different forms of saying the same thing, by the same verbs, in 
the same mood, and the same two tenses, be considered. Let it also be noticed, that for these 
same verbs within these limits, there are yet other forms, of a complex kind ; as, " You do dwell," 
or, " You are dwelling ;" used in lieu of, " Thou dost dwell" or, " Thou art dwelling :" so, " You did 
plan" or, " You were planning ;" used in lieu of, " Thou didst plan" or, "Thou wast planning." 
Take into the account the opinion of Dr. "Webster and others, that, " You was planning" or, 
" You was building" is a still better form for the singular number; and well " established by 
national usage, both here and in England." — Improved Gram., p. 25. Add the less inaccurate 
practice of some, who use was and did familiarly with thou ; as, " Thou was planning, did thou 
build?" Multiply all this variety tenfold, with a view to the other moods and tenses of these 
three verbs, -dwell, plan, and build; then extend the product, whatever it is, from these three 
common words, to all the verbs in the English language. You will thus begin to have some idea 
of the difficulty mentioned in the preceding observation. But this is only a part of it ; for all these 
things relate only to the second person singular of the verb. The double question is, Which of 
these forms ought to be approved and taught for that person and number ? and which of them 
ought to be censured and rejected as bad English ? This question is perhaps as important, as any 
that can arise in English grammar. With a few candid observations by way of illustration, it will 
be left to the judgement of the reader. 

Obs. 6. — The history of youyouing and thowtheeing appears to be this. Persons in high stations, 
being usually surrounded by attendants, it became, many centuries ago, a species of court flattery, 
to address individuals of this class, in the plural number, as if a great man were something more 
than one person. In this way, the notion of greatness was agreeably multiplied, and those who 
laid claim to such honour, soon began to think themselves insulted whenever they were addressed 
with any other than the plural pronoun.* Humbler people yielded through fear of offence ; and 
the practice extended, in time, to all ranks of society : so that at present the customary mode of 
familiar as well as complimentary address, is altogether plural ; both the verb and the pronoun 
being used in that form.f This practice, which confounds one of the most important distinctions of 
the language, affords a striking instance of the power of fashion. It has made propriety itself seem 
improper. But shall it be allowed, in the present state of things, to confound our conjugations 
and overturn our grammar ? Is it right to introduce it into our paradigms, as the only form of 
the second person singular, that modern usage acknowledges? Or is it expedient to augment by 
it that multiplicity of other forms, which must either take this same place or be utterly rejected? 
With due deference to those grammarians who have adopted one or the other of these methods, 
the author of this work answers all these questions decidedly in the negative. It is not to be 
denied, that the use of the plural for the singular is now so common as to form the customary mode 
of address to individuals of every rank. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, however, con- 
tinue to employ the singular number in familiar discourse ; and custom, which has now destroyed 
the compliment of the plural, has removed also the supposed opprobrium of the singular, and placed 
it on an equality with the plural in point of respect. The singular is universally employed in 
reference to the Supreme Being ; and is generally preferred in poetry. It is the language of 
Scripture, and of the Prayer-Book ; and is consistently retained in nearly all our grammars ; though 
not always, . perhaps, consistently treated. 

Obs. 7. — Whatever is fashionable in speech, the mere disciples of fashion will always approve; 
and, probably, they will think it justifiable to despise or neglect all that is otherwise. These may 
be contented with the sole use of such forms of address as, " You, you, sir ;" — " You, you, madam. 
But the literati who so neglect all the services of religion, as to forget that these are yet conducted 
in English independently of all this fashionable j-ouyouing, must needs be poor judges of what 
belongs to their own justification, either as grammarians or as moral agents. A fashion by virtue 
of which millions of youths are now growing up in ignorance of that form of address which, in 
their own tongue, is most appropriate to poetry, and alone adapted to prayer, is perhaps not quite 
so light a matter as some people imagine. It is at least so far from being a good reason for dis- 
placing that form from the paradigms of our verbs in a grammar, that indeed no better needs be 
offered for tenaciously retaining it. Many children may thus learn at school what all should know, 

* John Despauter, whose ample Grammar of the Latin language appeared in its third edition in 1517. repre- 
sents this practice as a corruption originating in false pride, and maintained by the wickedness of hungry flat- 
terers. On the twentieth leaf of his Syntax, he says, "Videntur hodie Christiani superhiores, quam olim 
ethnici imperatores, qui dii haberi voluernnt; nam hi nunquam inviti audierunt pronomina tu, tibi, tuns. Quse 
ei hodie alicui monachorum antistiti, aut decano, aut pontifici dicantur aut scribantur, videbitur ita loquens aut 
scribens bl.isphemasse, et anathemate dignus : nee tamen Abbas, aut pontifex, tam segre feret, quam Malchi, 
aut famelici gnathones, his assistentes, et vociferantes, Sic loqueris, aut scribis, pontifici t Quintiliauus et 
Donatus dicunt barbarismum, aut soloecismum esse, siquis uni dicat. Salvete." The learned Erasmus also ridi- 
culed this practice, calling those who adopted it, "voscitatores" or youyouers. 

t " By a perversion of language the pronoun you is almost invariably used for the second person singular, as 
•well as plural ; always, however, retaining the plural verb ; as, ' My friend, you write a good hand. 1 Thou is 
confined to a solemn style, or [to] poetical compositions." — Cliandler's Grammar, Edition of 1821, p. 41; Ed. 
of 1S47, p. 66. 



346 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

and what there is little chance for them to learn elsewhere. Not all that presume to minister in 
religion, are well acquainted with what is caUed the solemn style. Not all that presume to explain 
it in grammars, do know what it is. A late work, which boasted the patronage of De Witt Clinton, 
and through the influence of false praise came nigh to be imposed by a law of New York on all 
the common schools of that State ; and which, being subsequently sold in Philadelphia for a great 
price, was there republished under the name of the "National School Manual;" gives the follow- 
ing account of this part of grammar : " In the solemn and poetic styles, the second person sin- 
gular, in both the above tenses, is thou ; and the second person plural, is ye, or you. The verb, 
to agree with the second person singular, changes its termination. Thus : 2d person, sing. Pre?. 
Tense, Thou walkest, or Thou walketh. Imperfect Tense, Thou walkedst. In the third person 
singular, in the above styles, the verb has sometimes a different termination ; as, Present Tense, 
He, she, or it walks or walketh. The above form of inflection may be applied to all verbs used in 
the solemn or poetic styles ; but for ordinary purposes, I have supposed it proper to employ the 
form of the verb, adopted in common conversation, as least perplexing to young minds." — Bari- 
letfs Common School Manual, Part ii, p. 114. What can be hoped from an author who is ignorant 
enough to think " Thou walketh" is good English? or from one who tells us, that "It walks" is 
of the solemn style ? or from one who does not know that you is never a nominative in the stylo 
of the Bible ? 

Obs. 8. — Nowhere on earth is fashion more completely mistress of all the tastes and usages of 
society, than in France. Though the common French Bible still retains the form of the second 
person singular, which in that language is shorter and perhaps smoother than the plural ; yet 
even that sacred book, or at least the New Testament, and that by different persons, has been 
translated into more fashionable French, and printed at Paris, and also at New York, with the 
form of address everywhere plural; as, "Jesus anticipated him, saying, 'What do you think, 
Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take taxes and tribute?' " — Matt, xvii, 24. "And, 
going to prayers, they said, ' Lord, you who know the hearts of all men, show which of these 
two you have chosen.'' " — Acts, i, 24. This is one step further in the progress of politeness, than 
has yet been taken in English. The French grammarians, however, as far as I can perceive, have 
never yet disturbed the ancient order of their conjugations and declensions, by inserting the 
plural verb and pronoun in place of the singular ; and, in the familiarity of friendship, or of 
domestic life, the practice which is denominated tutoyant, or thoutheeing, is far more prevalent in 
France than in England. Also, in the prayers of the French, the second person singular appears 
to be yet generally preserved, as it is in those of the English and the Americans. The less fre- 
quent use of it in the familiar conversation of the latter, is very probably owing to the general 
impression, that it cannot be used with propriety, except in the solemn style. Of this matter, 
those who have laid it aside themselves, cannot with much modesty pretend to judge for those 
who have not ; or, if they may, there is still a question how far it is right to lay it aside. The 
following lines are a sort of translation from Horace ; and I submit it to the reader, whether it 
is comely for a Christian divine to be less reverent toward God, than a heathen poet ; and whether 
the plural language here used, does not lack the reverence of the original, which is singular: — 

" Preserve, Almighty Providence! 
Just what you gave me, competence." — Swift 

Obs. 9. — The terms, solemn style, familiar style, modern style, ancient style, legal style, regal 
style, nautic style, common style, and the like, as used in grammar, imply no certain divisions of 
the language ; but are designed merely to distinguish, in a general way, the occasions on which 
some particular forms of expression may be considered proper, or the times to which they belong. 
For what is grammatical sometimes, may not be so always. It would not be easy to tell, definitely, 
in what any one of these styles consists ; because they all belong to one language, and the num- 
ber or nature of the peculiarities of each is not precisely fixed. But whatever is acknowledged 
to be peculiar to any one, is consequently understood to be improper for any other : or, at least, 
the same phraseology cannot belong to styles of an opposite character; and words of general use 
belong to no particular style.* For example: " So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him 
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." — Rom., ix, 16. If the termination etJi is not obso- 
lete, as some say it is, all verbs to which this ending is added, are of the solemn style ; for the 
common or familiar expression would here be this : " So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him 
that runs, but of God that shows mercy." Ben Jonson, in Ins grammar, endeavoured to arrest 
this change of eth to s; and, according to Lindley Murray, (Octavo Gram., p. 90,) Addison also 
injudiciously disapproved it. In spite of all such objections, however, some future grammarian 

* In regard to the inflection of our verbs, William B. Fowle, who is something of an antiquarian in grammar, 
and who professes now to be " conservative" of the popular system, makes a threefold distinction of style, thus: 
" English verbs have three Styles [,] or Modes, [;] called [the] Familiar, [the] Solemn [,] and [the] Ancient. 
The familiar style, or mode, is that used in common conversation; as, you see, he fears. The solemn style, or 
mode, is that used in the Bible, and in prayer; as, Thou seest, he feareth. The ancient style, or mode, now 
little used, allows no change in the second and third person, [persons,] singular, of the verb, and generally fol- 
lows the word if, though, lest, or whether; as, if thou see; though he fear; lest he be angry; whether he go or 
stay.'" — FowWs Common School Grammar, Part Second, p. 44. Among his subsequent examples of the Solemn 
style, he gives the following: "Thou lovest, Thou lovedst, Thou art, Thou roast, Thou hast, Thou hadst, Thou 
doest or dost, Thou didsV And, as corresponding examples of the Ancient style, he has these forms : " Thou 
love, Thou loved, Thou or you be, Thou wert, Thou have, Thou had, Thou do, Thou did." — lb., pp. 44-50. 
This distinction and this arrangement do not appear to me to be altogether warranted by facts. The necessary 
distinction of moods, this author rejects; confounding the Subjunctive with the Indicative, in order to fur- 
nish out this useless and fanciful contrast of his Solemn and Ancient styles. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. VEKBS. PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 347 

will probably have to say of tbe singular ending eth, as Lowth and Murray have already said of 
the plural en: "It was laid aside as unnecessary." 

Obs. 10. — Of the origin of the personal terminations of English verbs, that eminent etymologist 
Dr. Alexander Murray, gives the following account: "The readers of our modern tongue may 
be reminded, that the terminations, est, eth, and s, in our verbs, as in layest, layeth, and laid'st, 
or laidest; are the laded remains of the pronouns which were formerly joined to the verb itself, 
and placed the language, in respect of concise expression, on a level with the Greek, Latin, and 
Sanscrit, its sister dialects." — History of European Languages, Vol. i, p. 52. According to this, 
since other signs of the persons and numbers are now employed with the verb, it is not strange 
that there should appear a tendency to lay aside such of these endings as are least agreeable and 
least necessary. Any change of this kind will of course occur first in the familiar style. For 
example: "Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them." — Acts, xi, 3. 
"These things write I unto thee, that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in 
the house of God." — 1 Tim., hi, 15. These forms, by universal consent, are now of the solemn 
style ; and, consequently, are really good English in no other. For nobody, I suppose, will yet 
pretend that the inflection of our preterits and auxiliaries by st or est, is entirely obsolete ;* and 
surely no person of any literary taste ever uses the foregoing forms familiarly. The termination 
est, however, has in some instances become obsolete ; or has faded into st or t, even in the solemn 
st}de. Thus, (if indeed, such forms ever were in good use.) cliddest has become didst; havest, 
hast; haddest, hadst; shallest, shalt; wiliest, wilt; and cannest, canst. May est, mightest, couldest, 
wouldest, and shouldest, are occasionally found in books not ancient ; but mayst, mightst, couldst, 
wouldst, and shouldst, are abundantly more common, and all are peculiar to the solemn style. 
" Must, burst, durst, thrust, blest, curst, past, lost, list, crept, kept, girt, built, felt, divelt, left, bereft, 
and many other verbs of similar endings, are seldom, if ever, found encumbered with an addi- 
tional est. For the rule which requires this ending, has always had many exceptions that have 
not been noticed by grammarians. f Thus Shakspeare wrote even in the present tense, "Do as 
thou list," and not "Do as thou listest." Possibly, however, list may here be reckoned of the 
subjunctive mood ; but the following example from Byron is certainly in the indicative : — 

"And thou, who never yet of human wrong 
Lost the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis!" — Harold, C. iv, st. 132. 

Obs. 11. — Any phraseology that is really obsolete, is no longer fit to be imitated even in the 
solemn style ; and what was never good English, is no more to be respected in that style, than 
in any other. Thus: "Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days modest an uproar, 
and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers ?" — Acts, xxi, 38. 
Here, (I think.) the version ought to be, " Art not thou that Egyptian, who a while ago made an 
uproar, and led out into the wilderness four thousand men, that were murderers ?" If so, there is 
in this no occasion to make a difference between the solemn and the familiar style. But what is 
the familiar form of expression for the texts cited before ? The fashionable will say, it is this : 
"You went in to men uncircumcised, and did eat with them." — " I write these things to you, that 
you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God." But this is not literally 
of the singular number : it is no more singular, than vos in Latin, or vous in French, or we used 
for 1 in English, is singular. And if there remains to us any other form, that is both singular 
and grammatical, it is unquestionably the following: " Thou went in to men uncircumcised, and 
did eat with them." — " I write these tilings to thee, that thou may know how thou ought to behave 
thyself in the house of God." The acknowledged doctrine of ah the teachers of English gram- 
mar, that the inflection of our auxiliaries and preterits by st or est is peculiar to " the solemn 
style," leaves us no other alternative, than either to grant the propriety of here dropping the 
suffix for the familiar style, or to rob our language of any familiar use of the pronoun thou forever. 
Who, then, are here the neologists, the innovators, the impairers of the language ? And which is 
the greater innovation, merely to drop, on familiar occasions, or when it suits our style, one obsolescent 

* In that monstrous jumble and perversion of Murray's doctrines, entitled, " English Grammar on the Pro- 
ductive System, by Roswell C. Smith," you is everywhere preferred to thou, and the verbs are conjugated with- 
out the latter pronoun. At the close of his paradigms, however, the author inserts a few lines respecting 
" these obsolete conjugations" with the pronoun thou; for a further account of which, he refers the learner, 
with a sneer, to the common grammars in the schools. See the work, p. 79. He must needs be a remarkable 
grammarian, with whom Scripture, poetry, and prayer, are all " obsolete /" Again: " Thou in the singular is 
obsolete, except among the Society of Friends; and ye is an obsolete plural!" — Guy's School Gram., p. 25. In 
an other late grammar, professedly "constructed upon the basis of Murray's, by the Rev. Charles Adams, A. 
M., Principal of Newbury Seminary," the second person singular is everywhere superseded by the plural; the 
former being silently dropped from all his twenty pages of conjugations, without so much as a hint, or a sav- 
ing clause, respecting it; and the latter, which is put in its stead, is falsely called singular. By his pupils, all 
forms of the verb that agree only with thou, will of course be conceived to be either obsolete or barbarous, and 
consequently ungrammatical. Whether or not the reverend gentleman makes any account of the Bible or of 
prayer, does not appear ; he cites some poetry, in which there are examples that cannot be reconciled with his 
" System of English Grammar." Parkhurst, in his late " Grammar for Beginners," tells us that, " Such words 
as are used in the Bible, and not used in common books, are called obsolete /" — P. 146. Among these, he reckons 
all the distinctive forms of the second person singular, and all the "peculiarities" which " constitute what is 
commonly called the Solemn Style." — Tb., p. 148. Yet, with no great consistency, he adds: "This style is 
always used in prayer, and is frequently used in poetry." — Ibid. Joab Brace, Jnr., may be supposed to have 
the same notion of what is obsolete: for "he too has perverted all Lennie's examples of the verb, as Smith and 
Adams did Murray's. 

t Coar gives durst in the " Indicative mood," thus : " I durst, thou durst, he durst ;" &c. — Coar's E. Gram., 
p. 115. But when he comes to roist, he does not know what the second person singular shonld be, and so he 
leaves it out: " I wist, , he wist; we wist, ye wist, they wist." — Coafs E. Gram., p. 116. 



348 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

verbal termination, — a termination often dropped of old as well as now,— or to strike from the 
conjugations of all our verbs one sixth part of their entire scheme ?* 

" mother myn, that cleaped were Argyue, 
Wo worth that day that thou me bare on lyue."— Chaucer. 

Obs. 12. — The grammatical propriety of distinguishing from the solemn style both of the forms 
presented above, must be evident to every one who considers with candour the reasons, analogies, 
and authorities, for this distinction. The support of the latter is very far from resting solely on 
the practice of a particular sect ; though this, if they would forbear to corrupt the pronoun while 
they simplify the verb, would deserve much more consideration than has ever been allowed it. 
Which of these modes of address is the more grammatical, it is useless to dispute ; since fashion 
rules the one, and a scruple of conscience is sometimes alleged for the other. A candid critic 
will consequently allow aU to take their choice. It is enough for him, if he can demonstrate to 
the candid inquirer, what phraseology is in any view allowable, and what is for any good reason 
reprehensible. That the use of the plural for the singular is ungrammatical, it is neither discreet 
nor available to affirm ; yet, surely, it did not originate in any regard to grammar rules. Murray 
the schoolmaster, whose English Grammar appeared some years before that of Lindley Murray, 
speaks of it as follows : " T/iou, the second person singular, though strictly grammatical, is sel- 
dom used, except iu addresses to God, in poetry, and by the people called Quakers. In all other 
cases, a, fondness for foreign manners,\ and the power of custom, have given a sanction to the use 
of you, for the second person singular, though contrary to grammar, % and attended with this par- 
ticular inconveniency, that a plural verb must be used to agree with the pronoun in number, and 
both applied to a single person; as, you are, or you were, — not you wast, or you was." — Third 
Edition, Lond., 1793, p. 34. This author everywhere exhibits the auxiliaries, mayst, mightst, 
couldst, wouldst, and shouldst, as words of one syllable ; and also observes, in a marginal note, 
"Some writers begin to say, ' Thou may, thou might," 1 &c." — lb., p. 36. Examples of this are not 
very uncommon: "Thou shall want ere I want." — Old Motto; Scott's Lay, Note 1st to Canto 3. 
41 Thyself the mournful tale shall tell." — Felton's Gram., p. 20. 

"One sole condition would I dare suggest, 
That thou would save me from my own request." — Jane Taylor. 

Obs. 13. — In respect to the second person singular, the grammar of Lindley Murray makes no 
distinction between the solemn and the familiar style ; recognizes in no way the fashionable sub- 
stitution of you for thou ; and, so far as I perceive, takes it for granted, that every one who pre- 
tends to speak or write grammatically, must always, in addressing an individual, employ the 
singular pronoun, and inflect the verb with st or est, except in the imperative mood and, the sub- 
junctive present. This is the more remarkable, because the author was a valued member of the 
Society of Friends; and doubtless his own daily practice contradicted his doctrine, as palpably as 
does that of every other member of the Society. And many a schoolmaster, taking that work for 
his text-book, or some other as faulty, is now doing precisely the same thing. But what a 
teacher is he, who dares not justify as a grammarian that which he constantly practices as a man ! 
What a scholar is he, who can be led by a false criticism or a false custom, to condemn his own 
usage and that of every body else ! What a casuist is he, who dares pretend conscience for 
practising that which he knows and acknowledges to be wrong ! If to speak in the second per- 
son singular without inflecting our preterits and auxiliaries, is a censurable corruption of the lan- 
guage, the Friends have no alternative but to relinquish their scruple about the application of you 
to one person ; for none but the adult and learned can ever speak after the manner of ancient 

* Dr. Latham, who, oftener perhaps than any other modern writer, corrupts the grammar of our language by 
efforts to revive ia it things really and deservedly obsolete, most 6trangely avers that " The words thou and 
thee are, except in the months of Quakers, obsolete. The plural forms, ye and you,, have replaced them.'' — Hand- 
Book, p. 284. Ignoring also any current or "vital" process of forming English verbs in the second person sin- 
gular, he gravely tails us that the old form, as " callest" (which is still the true form for the 6olemn style,) "is 
becoming obsolete." — lb., p. 210. "In phrases like yon are speaking, &c," says he righrlier, "even when ap- 
plied to a single individual, the idea, is really plural ; i i other words, the courtesy consists iu treating one per- 
son as more than owe, and addressing him as such, rather than in using a plural form in a singular sense. It is 
certain that, grammatically considered, you— thou is a plural, since the verb with which it agrees is plural." — 
lb., p. 163. If these things be so, the English language owes much to the scrupulous conservatism of the 
Quakers ; for, had their courtesy consented to the grammar of the fashionables, the singular number would now 
have had but two persons! 

t For the substitution of you for thou, our grammarians assign various causes. That which is most commonly 
given in modern books, is certainly not the original one. because it concerns no other language than ours: "In 
order to avoid the unpleasant formality which accompanies the use of thou with a correspondent verb, its plu- 
ral you, is usually adopted in familiar conversation ; as, Charles, will yoit walk? instead of— wilt thou walk? 
You read too fast, instead of— thou readest too fast." — Jaudori's Gram., p. 33. 

% This position, as may be seen above, I do not suppose it competent for any critic to maintain. The use of 
you for thou is no more " contrary to grammar," than the use of we for /; which, it seems, is grammatical 
enough for all editors, compilers, and crowned heads, if not for others. But both are figures of syntax; and, 
as such, they stand upon the same footing. Their only contrariety to grammar consists in this, that the words 
are not the literal representatives of the number for which they are put. But in what a posture does the gram- 
mariau place himself, who condemns, as bad English, that phraseology which he constantly and purposely uses? 
The author of the following remark, as well as all who have praised his work, ought immediately to adopt the 
style of the Friends, or Quakers: "The word thou, in grammatical construction, is preferable to you, in the 
second perso i singular: however, custom has familiarized the latter, and consequently made it more general, 
though had gbammae. To say, ' You are a man,' is not geammatical language; the word you having refer- 
ence to a plural noun only. It should be, 'Thou art a man.'' " — Wright's Philo$o]>h. Gram., p. 55. This 
author, like Lindley Murray and many others, continually calls himself we; and it is probable, that neither he, 
nor any one of his sixty reverend commenders, dares address any man otherwise than by the above-mentioned 
"bad gkammab!" 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. VERBS. PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 349 

books: children and common people can no more be brought to speak agreeably to any antiquated 
forms of the English language, than according to the imperishable models of Greek and Latin. 
He who traces the history of our vernacular tongue, will find it has either simplified or entirely 
dropped several of its ancient terminations ; and that the st or est of the second person singular, 
never was adopted in any thing like the extent to which our modern grammarians have attempted 
to impose it. "Thus becoming unused to inflections, we lost the perception of their meaning and 
nature." — Philological Museum, i, 669. ; 'You cannot make a whole people all at once talk in 
a different tongue from that which it has been used to talk in : you cannot force it to unlearn the 
words it has learnt from its fathers, in order to learn a set of newfangled words out of [a gram- 
mar or] a dictionary." — lb., i, 650. Nor can you, in this instance, restrain our poets from trans- 
gressing the doctrine of Lowth and Murray : — 

" Come, thou pure Light, which first in Eden glowed. 
And threw thy splendor round man's calm abode." — Ahnzo Lewis. 

Obs. 14. — That which has passed away from familiar practice, may still be right in the solemn 
style, and may there remain till it becomes obsolete. But no obsolescent termination has ever 
yet been recalled into the popular service. This is as true in other languages as in our own : " In 
almost every word of the Greek," says a learned author, " we meet with contractions and abbrevi- 
ations ; but, I believe, the flexions of no language allow of extension or amplification. In our 
own we may write steeped or slept, as the metre of a fine or the rhythm of a period may require ; 
but by no license may we write sleepeedP — Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, 4to, p. 107. But, if 
after contracting steeped into slept, we add an est and make sleptest, is there not here an extension 
of the word from one syllable to two ? Is there not an amplification that is at once novel, dis- 
agreeable, unauthorized, and unnecessary ? Nay, even in the regular and established change, as 
of loved to lovedst, is there not a syllabic increase, which is unpleasant to the ear, and unsuited 
to familiar speech ? Now, to "what extent do these questions apply to the verbs in our language ? 
Lindley Murray, it is presumed, had no conception of that extent ; or of the weight of the objec- 
tion which is implied in the second. With respect to a vast number of our most common verbs, 
he himself never knew, nor does the greatest grammarian now living know, in what way he 
ought to form the simple past tense in the second person singular, otherwise than by the mere 
uninflected preterit with the pronoun thou. Is thou sleepedst or thou slej)test, thou leavedst or thou 
leftest, thou feeledst or thou feltest, thou dealedst or thou dealtest, thou tossedst or thou tostest, thou 
hsedst or thou lostest, thou payedst or thou paidest, thou layedst or thou laidest, better English than 
thou slept, thou left, thou felt, thou dealt, thou tossed, thou lost, thou paid, thou laid ? And, if so, of 
the two forms in each instance, which is the right one ? and why? The Bible has "saidsf 1 and 
"layedst;" Dr. Alexander Murray, "laicfst" and "laidest!" Since the inflection of our preterits 
has never been orderly, and is now decaying and waxing old, shall we labour to recall what is 
so nearly ready to vanish away ? 

" Tremendous Sea ! what time thou lifted up 
Thy waves on high, and with thy winds and storms 
Strange pastime took, and shook thy mighty sides 
Indignantly, the pride of navies fell." — Pollok, B. vii, 1. 611. 
Obs. 15. — "Whatever difficulty there is in ascertaining the true form of the preterit itself, not 
only remains, but is augmented, wdien st or est is to be added for the second person of it. For, 
since we use sometimes one and sometimes the other of these endings ; (as, saidsY, s&west, bids£, 
knewestf, lovedst, vrentest ;) there is yet need of some rule to show which w r e ought to prefer. 
The variable formation or orthography of verbs in the simple past tense, has always been one of 
the greatest difficulties that the learners of our language have had to encounter. At present, 
there is a strong tendency to terminate as many as we can of them in ed. wdiich is the only regu- 
lar ending. The pronunciation of this ending, however, is at least threefold ; as in remembered, 
repented, relinquished. Here the added sounds are, first d, then ed. then t ; and the effect of add- 
ing st, whenever the ed is sounded like t, will certainly be a perversion of what is established as 
the true pronunciation of the language. For the solemn and the familiar pronunciation of ed 
unquestionably differ. The present tendency to a regular orthography, ought rather to be encour- 
aged than thwarted; but the preferring of mixed to mixi, whipped to whipt, ivorked to wrought, 
kneeled to knelt, and so forth, does not make mixedst, vihippedst, ivorkedst, kneeledst, and the like, 
any more fit for modern English, than are mixtest, whiptest, wroughtest, kneltest, burntest, dvjeitest, 
heldest, giltest, and many more of the like stamp. And what can be more absurd than for a gram- 
marian to insist upon forming a great parcel of these strange and crabbed words for which he can 
quote no good authority? Nothing; except it be for a poet or a rhetorician to huddle together 
great parcels of consonants which no mortal man can utter,* (as lov'dst, lurk'dst, shru'jg'dit,) and 

* "We are always given to cut our words short; and, with very few exceptions, you find people writing lov'd, 
mov'd, walk'd; instead of loved, moved, walked. They wish to make the pen correspond with the tongue. 
From lov'd, mov'd, walk'd, it is very easy to slide into lovt, movt, walkt. And this has heen the case with 
regard to rurst, dealt, dwelt, leapt, helpt, and many others in the last inserted list. It is just as proper to say 
jumpt, as it is to say leapt; and just, as proper to say walkt as either; and thus we might go on till the orthog- 
raphy of the whole language were changed. When the love of contraction came to operate on such verhs as to 
burst and to light, it found such a clump of consonants already at the end of the words, that it could add none. 
It could not enable the organs even of English speech to pronounce bursfd, lighfd. It, therefore, made really 
6hort work of it. and dropping the last syllable altogether, wrote, burst, light, [rather, lit,'} in the past time and 
passive participle." — Cobbett's English Gram., If 109. How could the man who saw all this, insist on adding st 
for the second person, where not even the d of the past tense could be articulated ? Am I to be called an inuo- 



350 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

call them " words." Example : " The clump of subtonick and atonick elements at the termination 
of such words as the following, is frequently, to the no small injury of articulation, particularly 
slighted : couldst, wouldst, hadst, prob'st, prob'dst, hurl'st, hurfdst, arm'st, arm'dst, want'st, 
wanfdst, burn'st, burn'dst, bark'st, bark'dst, Bubbl'st, bubbVdst, troubbVst, troubbVdst." — Kirkham's 
Elocution, p. 42. The word trouble may receive the additional sound of st, but this gentlemaD 
does not here spell so accurately as a great author should. Nor did they who penned the follow- 
ing lines, write here as poets should : — 

" Of old thou build? st thy throne on righteousness." — PolhVs C. of T., B. vi, 1. 638. 
" For though thou worttdst my mother's ill." — Byron's Parasina. 
"Thou thyself doat'dst on womankind, admiring." — Milton's P. E., B. ii, 1. 175. 
"But he, the sev'nth from thee, whom thou beheldst." — Id., P. L., B. xi, 1. 700. 
" Shall build a wondrous ark, as thou beheldst.'" — Id., ib., B. xi, 1. 819. 
" Thou, who inform'd'st this clay with active fire !" — Savage's Poems, p. 247. 
" Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me." — Shah, Coriol., Act iii. 
" This cloth thou dipp'dst in blood of my sweet boy." — Id., Henry VI, P. i. 
" Great Queen of arms, whose favour Tydeus won ; 
As thou defend'st the sire, defend the son." — Pope, Iliad, B. x, 1. 337. 

Obs. 16. — Dr. Lowth, whose popular little Grammar was written in or about 1758, made no 
scruple to hem up both the poets and the Friends at once, by a criticism which I must needs 
consider more dogmatical than true ; and which, from the suppression of what is least objection- 
able in it, has become, in other hands, the source of still greater errors : " Thou in the polite, and 
even in the familiar style, is disused, and the plural you is employed instead of it ; we say, you 
have, not thou hast. Though in this case, we apply you to a single person, yet the verb too must 
agree with it in the plural number ; it must necessarily be, you have, not you hast. You was is an 
enormous solecism,* and yet authors of the first rank have inadvertently fallen into it. * * * On 
the contrary, the solemn style admit3 not of you for a single person. This hath led Mr. Pope into 
a great impropriety in the beginning of his Messiah : — 

' thou my voice inspire, 
Who touctid Isaiah's hallo w'd lips with fire !' 

The solemnity of the style would not admit of you for thou, in the pronoun ; nor the measure of 
the verse touchedst, or didst touch, in the verb, as it indispensably ought to be, in the one or the 
other of these two forms ; you, who touched, or thou, who touchedst, or didst touch. 

1 Just of thy word, in every thought sincere ; 
"Who knew no wish, but what the world might hear.' — Pope. 

It ought to be your in the first line, or knewest in the second. In order to avoid this grammatical 
inconvenience, the two distinct forms of thou and you, are often used promiscuously by our modern 
poets, in the same paragraph, and even in the same sentence, very inelegantly and improperly : — 

' Now, now, I seize, I clasp thy charms ; 
And now you burst, ah cruel! from my arms.' — Pope." — LowtVs English Gram., p. 34. 

Obs. 17. — The points of Dr. Lowth's doctrine which are not sufficiently true, are the following: 
First, it is not true, that thou, in the familiar style, is totally disused, and the plural you employed 
universally in its stead ; though Churchill, and others, besides the good bishop, seem to represent 
it so. It is now nearly two hundred years since the rise of the Society of Friends : and, whatever 
may have been the practice of others before or since, it is certain, that from their rise to the present 
day, there have been, at every point of time, many thousands who made no use of you for thou ; 
and, but for the clumsy forms which most grammarians hold to be indispensable to verbs of the 
second person singular, the beautiful, distinctive, and poetical words, thou, thyself, thy, thine, and 
thee, would certainly be in no danger yet of becoming obsolete. Nor can they, indeed, at any 
rate, become so, till the fairest branches of the Christian Church shall wither ; or, what should 
seem no gracious omen, her bishops and clergy learn to pray in the plural number, for fashion's sake. 
Secondly, it is not true, that, " thou, who touched," ought indispensably to be, " thou, who touchedst, 
or didst touch." It is far better to dispense with the inflection, in such a case, than either to 
impose it, or to resort to the plural pronoun. The "grammatical inconvenience" of dropping the 
st or est of a preterit, even in the solemn style, cannot be great, and may be altogether imaginary ; 
that of imposing it, except in solemn prose, is not only real, but is often insuperable. It is not 
very agreeable, however, to see it added to some verbs, and dropped from others, in the same 
sentence : as, 

" Thou, who didst call the Furies from the abyss, 

And round Oresies bade them howl and hiss." — Byron's Ghilde Harold, Canto iv, st. 132. 
" Thou sattst from age to age insatiate, 

And drank the blood of men, and gorged their flesh." — Pollohs Course of Time, B. vii, 1. 700. 

vator, because I do not like in conversation such new and unauthorized -words as littest, leaptest, curstestf 
or a corrupter of the language, because I do not admire in poetry such unutterable monstrosities as, lighfdst, 
leap'dst, curs' dst? The novelism, with the corruption too, is wholly tbeirs who stickle for these awkward 
forms. 

* " You were, not you was, for you was seems to be as ungrammatical, as you hast would be. For the pro- 
noun you being confessedly plural, its correspondent verb ought to be plural." — John Burn's Gram., 10th Ed., 
p. 72. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 351 

Obs. 18. — We see then, that, according to Dr. Lowth and others, the only good English in which 
one can address an individual on any ordinary occasion, is you with a plural verb ; and that, ac- 
cording to Lindley Murray and others, the only good English for the same purpose, is thou with a 
verb inflected with st or est. Both parties to this pointed contradiction, are more or less in the 
wrong. The respect of the Friends for those systems of grammar which deny them the familiar 
use of the pronoun thou, is certainly not more remarkable, than the respect of the world for those 
which condemn the substitution of the plural you. Let grammar be a true record of existing facts, 
and all such contradictions must vanish. And, certainly, these great masters here contradict each 
other, in what every one who reads English, ought to know. They agree, however, in requiring, 
as indispensable to grammar, what is not only inconvenient, but absolutely impossible. For what 
"the measure of verse will not admit" cannot be used in poetry; and what may possibly be 
crowded into it, will often be far from ornamental. Yet our youth have been taught to spoil the 
versification of Pope and others, after the following manner : " Who touched Isaiah's hallow'd 
lips with fire." Say, " Who touchedst or didst touch.' 1 ' 1 — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 180. " For thee 
that ever felt another's wo." Say, " Didst feel." — lb. " Who knew no wish but what the world 
might hear." Say, "Who Jcnewest or didst know." — lb. "Who all my sense confined." Say, 
" Confinedst or didst confine." — lb., p. 186. "Yet gave me in this dark estate." Say, " Gavedst 
or didst give." — lb. " Left free the human will." — Pope. Murray's criticism extends not to this 
fine, but by the analogy we must say, " Leavedst or leftest." Now it would be easier to fill a 
volume with such quotations, and such corrections, than to find sufficient authority to prove one 
such word as gavedst, leavedst, or leftest, to be really good English. If Lord Byron is authority 
for " work J dst," he is authority also for dropping the st, even where it might be added: — 

" Thou, who with thy frown 

Annihilated senates." — Ghilde Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iv, st. 83. 

Obs. 19. — According to Dr. Lowth, as well as Coar and some others, those preterits in which ed 
is sounded like t, "admit the change of ed into t; as, snacht, checkt, snapt, miott, dropping also 
one of the double letters, dwelt, past." — Lowtlvs Gram., p. 46. If this principle were generally 
adopted, the number of our regular verbs would bo greatly diminished, and irregularities would be 
indefinitely increased. What confusion the practice must make in the language, especially when 
we come to inflect this part of the verb with st or est, has already been suggested. Yet an inge- 
nious and learned writer, an able contributor to the Philological Museum, published at Cambridge, 
England, in 1832; tracing the history of this class of derivatives, and finding that after the ed, 
was contracted in pronunciation, several eminent writers, as Spenser, Milton, and others, adopted 
in most instances a contracted form of orthography ; has seriously endeavoured to bring us back 
to their practice. From these authors, he cites an abundance of such contractions as the follow- 
ing: 1. " Stowd, hewd, subdewd, joyd, cald, expeld, compeld, spoild, kild, seemd, benumbd, armd, 
redeemd, staind, shund, paynd, stird, appeard, perceivd, resolvd, obeyd, equalcl, foyld, hurld, 
ruind, joynd, scattercl, witherd," and others ending in d. 2. " Clapt, whipt, worshipt, lopt, stopt, 
stampt, pickt, knockt, linkt, puft, stuft, hist, kist, abasht, brusht, astonisht, vanquisht, confest, 
talkt, twicht," and many others ending in t. This scheme divides our regular verbs into three 
classes; leaving but very few of them to be written as they now are. It proceeds upon the 
principle of accommodating our orthography to the familiar, rather than to* the solemn pronun- 
ciation of the language. "This," as Dr. Johnson observes, "is to measure by a shadow." It is, 
whatever show of learning or authority may support it, a pernicious innovation. The critic says, 
" I have not ventured to follow the example of Spenser and Milton throughout, but have merely 
attempted to revive the old form of the preterit in t." — Phil. Museum, Vol. i, p. 663. "We ought 
not however to stop here," he thinks; and suggests that it would be no small improvement, "to 
write leveld for levelled, enameld for enamelled, reformd for reformed," &c. 

Obs. 20. — If the multiplication of irregular preterits, as above described, is a grammatical error 
of great magnitude ; the forcing of our old and well-known irregular verbs into regular forms that 
are seldom if ever used, is an opposite error nearly as great. And, in either case, there is the 
same embarrassment respecting the formation of the second person. Thus Cobbett, in his English 
Grammar in a Series of Letters, has dogmatically given us a list of seventy verbs, which, he says, 
are, "by some persons, erroneously deemed irregular ;" and has included in it the words, blow, 
build, cast, cling, creep, freeze, dravo, throw, and the like, to the number of sixty ; so that he is 
really right in no more than one seventh part of his catalogue. And, what is more strange, for 
several of the irregularities which he censures, his own authority may be quoted from the early 
editions of this very book: as, "For you could have thrown about seeds." — Edition of 1818, p. 13. 
" For you could have throwed about seeds." — Edition of 1832, p. 13. "A tree is blown down." — 
Ed. of 1818, p. 27. "A tree is bloioed down."— Ed. of 1832, p. 25. " It froze hard last night. 
Now, what was it that froze so hard?" — Ed. of 1818, p. 38. "It freezed hard last night. Now, 
what was it that freezed so hard?" — Ed. of 1832, p. 35. A whole page of such contradictions 
may be quoted from this one grammarian, showing that he did not know what form of the preterit 
he ought to prefer. From such an instructor, who can find out what is good English, and what 
is not? Respecting the inflections of the verb, this author says, " There are three persons ; but, 
our verbs have no variation in their spelling, except for the third person singular." — Cobbetfs E. 
Gram., ^[ 88. Again : " Observe, however, that, in our language, there is no very great use in 
this distinction of modes ; because, for the most part, our little signs do the business, and they 
never vary in the letters of which they are composed." — lb.,^ 95. One would suppose, from these 
remarks, that Cobbett meant to dismiss the pronoun thou entirely from his conjugations. Not so 



352 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

at all. In direct contradiction to himself, he proceeds to inflect the verb as follows : " I work, Thou 
workest, He works ; &c. I worked, Thou workedst, He worked ; &c. I shall or will work, T)wu 
shalt or wilt work, He shall or will work;" &c. — lb., ^[ 98. All the compound tenses, except the 
future, he rejects, as things which "can only serve to fill up a book." 

Obs. 21. — It is a common but erroneous opinion of our grammarians, that the unsyllabic suffix 
st, wherever found, is a modern contraction of the syllable est. No writer, however, thinks it 
always necessary to remind his readers of this, by inserting the sign of contraction ; though Eng- 
lish books are not a little disfigured by questionable apostrophes inserted for no other reason. 
Dr. Lowth says, "The nature of our language, the accent and pronunciation of it, inclines [incline] 
us to contract even all our regular verbs : thus loved, turned, are commonly pronounced in one 
syllable lotfd, turned : and the second person, which was originally in three syllables, lovedest, 
turnedest, is [say has] now become a dissyllable, lovedst, turnedsV — LowtKs Gram., p. 45 ; Hiley's, 
45; Churchill's, 104. See also Priestley's Gram., p. 114; and Coar's, p. 102. This latter doc- 
trine, with all its vouchers, still needs confirmation. What is it but an idle conjecture ? If it 
were true, a few quotations might easily prove it ; but when, and by whom, have any such words 
as lovedest, turnedest, ever been used ? For aught I see, the simple st is as complete and as old a 
termination for the second person singular of an English verb, as est; indeed, it appears to be 
older : and, for the preterit, it is, and (I believe) always has been, the most regular, if not the only 
regular, addition. If suffer edest, ivoundedest, and killedest, are words more regular than sufferedst, 
woundedst, killedst, then are heardest, knewest, slewest, sawest, rannesl, metest, swammest, and the 
like, more regular than heardst, knewst, slewst, sawst, ranst, metst, swamst, satst, saidst, ledst, 
fledst, toldst, and so forth ; but not otherwise.* So, in the solemn style, we write seemest, deemest, 
swimmest, like seemeth, deemeth, swimmeth, and so forth ; but, when we use the form which has 
no increase of syllables, why is an apostrophe more necessary in the second person, than in the 
third? — in seemst, deemst, swimst, than in seems, deems, swims? When final e is dropped from the 
verb, the case is different ;. as, 

" Thou cutst my head off with a golden axe, 
And smiVst upon the stroke that murders me." — Shakspeare. 

Obs. 22. — Dr. Lowth supposes the verbal termination s or es to have come from a contraction 
of eth. He says, " Sometimes, by the rapidity of our pronunciation, the vowels are shortened or 
lost ; and the consonants, which are thrown together, do not coalesce with one another, and are 
therefore changed into others of the same organ, or of a kindred species. This occasions a far- 
ther deviation from the regular form : thus, loveth, turneth, are contracted into lovHh, turnHh, and 
these, for easier pronunciation, immediately become loves, turns." — LowtKs Gram., p. 46 ; Hdeifs, 
45. This etymology may possibly be just, but certainly such contractions as are here spoken of, 
were not very common in Lowth's age, or even in that of Ben Jonson, who resisted the s. Nor 
is the sound of sharp th very obviously akin to flat s. The change would have been less violent, 
if lov'st and turnst had become loves and turns ; as some people nowadays are apt to change them, 
though doubtless this is a grammatical error : as, 

" And wheresoe'er thou casts thy view." — Coiuley. 

" Nor thou that flings me floundering from thy back." — Bat. of Frogs and Mice, 1. 123. 

" Thou^ittfst on high, and measures destinies." — Pollok, Course of Time, B. vi, 1. 668. 

Obs. 23. — Possibly, those personal terminations of the verb which do not form syllables, are 
mere contractions or relics of est and eth, which are syllables ; but it is perhaps not quite so easy 

* Among grammarians, as well as among other -writers, there is some diversity of usage concerning the per- 
sonal inflections of verbs ; while nearly all, nowadays, remove the chief occasion for any such diversity, by de- 
nying with a fashionable bigotry the possibility of any grammatical use of the pronoun thou in a familiar style. 
To illustrate this, I will cite Cooper and "Wells — two modern authors who earnestly agree to account you and its 
verb literally singular, and thou altogether erroneous, in common discourse: except that Wells allows the phrase, 
" If thou art," for " Common style." — School Gram., p. 100. 

1. Cooper, improperly referring all inflection of the verb to the grave or solemn style, says: "In the collo- 
quial or familiar style, we observe no change. The same is the case in the plural number." He then proceeds 
thus: "In the second person of the present of the indicative, in the solemn style, the verb takes st or est; and 
in the third person th or eth, as: thou hast, thou lovest, thou teachest; he hath, he loveth, he goeth. In the collo- 
quial or familiar style, the verb does not vary in the second person ; and in the third person, it ends in s or es, 
as : he loves, he teaches, he does. The indefinite, [i. e. the preterit,] in the second person singular of the indica- 
tive, in the grave style, ends in est, as: thou taughtest, thou wentest. IW But, in those verbs, where the sound 
of st will unite with the last syllable of the verb, the vowel is omitted, as: thou lovedst, thou heardst, thou 
didst." — Cooper's Murray, p. 60 ; Plain and Practical Gram., p. 59. This, the reader will see, is somewhat 
contradictory; for the colloquial style varies the verb by "s or es," and taught' st may be uttered without the e. 
As for " lovedst," I deny that any vowel "is omitted" from it; but possibly one may be, as lov'dst. 

2. Wells's account of the same thing is this: "In the simple form of the present and past indicative, the sec- 
ond person singular of the solemn style ends regularly in st or est, as, thou seest, thou hearest, thou sawest, thou 
heardest;^ and the third person singular of the present, in s or es, as, he hears, he wishes, and also in th or eth, 
as, he saith, he loveth. In the simple form of the present indicative, the third person singular of the common 
or familiar style, ends ins or es; as, he sleeps; he rises. The first person singular of the solemn style, and the 
first and second persons singular of the common style, have the same form as the three persons plural." — Wells's 
School Grammar, 1st Ed. p. 83; 3d Ed. p. 86. This, too, is both defective and inconsistent. It does not 1 . 11 
when to add est, and when, st only. It does not show what the regular preterit, as freed or loved, should make 
with thou: whether freedest and lovedest, by assuming the syllable est; fre-edst and lov-edst, by increasing 
Byllabically from assuming st only; or freedst and loVdst, or lovedst, still to be uttered as monosyll ibles. It 
absurdly makes " s or es" a 6ign of two opposite styles. (See Oi;s. 9th, above.) And it does not except "lam, 
J was, If I am, If I was, If thou art, I am loved," and so forth, from requiring " the same form, {are or were,~\ as 
the three persons plural." This author prefers " heardest;" the other, " heardst" which I think better warranted : 

" And heardst thou why he drew his blade ? 
Heardst thou that shameful word and blow 
Brought Roderick's vengeance on Ms foe?"— Scott, L. L., C. v, st. 6. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 353 

to prove them so, as some authors imagine. In the oldest specimens given by Dr. Johnson in his 
History of the English Language, — specimens bearing a much earlier date than the English lan- 
guage can claim, — even in what he calls " Saxon in its highest state of purity," both st and th 
are often added to verbs, without forming additional syllables, and without any sign of contrac- 
tion. Nor were verbs of the second person singular always inflected of old, in those parts to 
which est was afterwards very commonly added. Examples : " Luton ic wat thset thu hcefst thara 
waepna." — King Alfred. " But I know that thou hast those weapons.'' " Thast thu oncnawe 
thara worda sothfsestnesse. of tham the thu gehzred earl." — Lucce, i, 4. "That thou mightest 
know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast teen instructed." — Luke, i, 4. " And thu 
nemsi his naman Johannes." — Lucce, i, 13. "And his name schal be clepid Jon." — Wickliffe's 
Version. "And thou shall call his name John." — Luke, i, 13. "And he ne drincth win ne beor." 
— Lucce, i, 15. " He schal not drinke wyn ne sydyr." — Wickliffe. "And shall drink neither wine 
nor strong drink." — Luke, i, 15. "And nu thu bisi suwigende. and thu sprecan ne miht oth thone 
dseg the thas thing gewurthath. fortham thu minum wordum ne gelyfdest. tha beoth on hyra timan 
gefyllede" — Luck, i, 20. "And lo, thou schalt be doumbe, and thou schalt not mowe speke, til into 
the day in which these thingis schulen be don, for thou hast not beleved to my wordis, whiche 
schulen be fulfild in her tyme." — Wickliffe. "And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to 
speak, until the day that* these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, 
which shall be fulfilled in their season." — Luke, i, 20. 

" In chaungyng of her course, the chaunge shewth tins, 
Vp startth a knaue, and downe there faith a knight." — Sir Thomas More. 
Obs. 24. — The corollary towards which the foregoing observations are directed, is tins. As 
most of the peculiar terminations by which the second person singular is properly distinguished 
in the solemn style, are not only difficult of utterance, but are quaint and formal in conversation ; 
the preterits and auxiliaries of our verbs are seldom varied in familiar discourse, and the present 
is generally simplified by contraction, or by the adding of st without increase of syllables. A 
distinction between the solemn and the familiar style has long been admitted, in the pronuncia- 
tion of the termination ed, and in the ending of the verb in the third person singular ; and it is 
evidently according to good taste and the best usage, to admit such a distinction in the second 
person singular. In the familiar use of the second person singular,- the verb is usually varied 
only in the present tense of the indicative mood, and in the auxiliary hast of the perfect, This 
method of varying the verb renders the second person singular analogous to the third, and accords 
with the practice of the most intelligent of those who retain the common use of this distinctive 
and consistent mode of address. It disencumbers their familiar dialect of a multitude of harsh 
and useless terminations, which serve only, when uttered, to give an uncouth prominency to 
words not often emphatic ; and, without impairing the strength or perspicuity of the language, 
increases its harmony, and reduces the form of the verb in the second person singular nearly to 
the same simplicity as in the other persons and numbers. It may serve also, in some instances, 
to justify the poets, in those abbreviations for which they have been so unreasonably censured by 
Lowth, Murray, and some other grammarians : as, 

" And thou their natures knoivst, and gave them names, 

Needless to thee repeated." — Milton, P. L., Book vii, fine 494. 

Obs. 25. — The writings of the Friends, being mostly of a grave cast, afford but few examples 
of their customary manner of forming the verb in connexion with the pronoun thou, in familiar 
discourse. The following may serve to illustrate it : " Suitable to the office thou laysl claim to." 
— R. Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 2*7. " Notwithstanding thou may have sentiments opposite to 
mine." — Thomas Story. " To devote all thou had to his service ;" — "If thou should come;" — 
" "What thou said;" — " Thou kindly contributed ;" — " The epistle which thou sent me ;" — " Thou 
would perhaps aUow ;" — "If thou submitted;" — " Since thou lift;" — " Should thou act;" — " Thou 
maybe ready;" — "That thou had met;" — "That thou had intimated;" — "Before thou puts" 
[putst] ; — "What thou meets" [meetst] ; — "If thou had made;" — "I observed thou was;" — 
"That thou might put thy trust ;" — "Thou had been at my house." — John ELekd all. "Thou 
may be plundered ;" — " That thou may feel;" — " Though thou vjaited long, and sought him ;" — "I 
hope thou will bear my style;" — "Thou also knows" [knowst] ; — "Thou grew up;"' — "I wish 
thou would yet take my counsel." — Stephen Crisp. " Thou manifested thy tender regard, 
stretched forth thy delivering hand, and fed and sustained us." — Samuel Fothergill. The writer 
has met with thousands that used the second person singular in conversation, but never with any 
one that employed, on ordinary occasions, all the regular endings of the solemn style. The 
simplification of the second person singular, which, to a greater or less extent, is everywhere 
adopted by the Friends, and which is here defined and explained, removes from each verb 
eighteen of these peculiar terminations ; and, (if the number of English verbs be, as stated by 
several grammarians, 8000,) disburdens their familiar dialect of 144,000 of these awkward and 
useless appendages, f This simplification is supported by usage as extensive as the familiar use 

* Better, as Wickliffe has it, " the day in which f though, after nouns o^ time, the relative that is often used, 
like the Latin ablative quo or qua, as being equivalent to in which or on which. 

t It is not a little strange, that some men, who never have seen or heard such words as their own rules would 
produce for the second person singular of many hundreds of our most common verbs, will nevertheless pertina- 
ciously insist, that it is wrong to countenance in this matter any departure from the style of King James's Bible. 
One of the very rashest and wildest of modern innovators, — a critic who, but for the sake of those who still 
speak in this person and number, would gladly consizn the pronoun thou, and all its attendant verbal forms, to 
utter oblivion, — thus treats this subject and me: "The Quakers, or Friends, however, use thou, and its attend- 

23 



354 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

of the pronoun thou ; and is also in accordance with the canons of criticism : " The first canon 
on this subject is, All words and phrases which are remarkably harsh and unharmonious, and not 
absolutely necessary, should be rejected." See ' Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, B. ii, Ch. ii, 
Sec. 2, Canon Sixth, p. 181. See also, in the same work, (B. iii, Ch. iv, Sec. 2d,) an express de- 
fence of "those elisions whereby the sound is improved ;" especially of the suppression of the 
" feeble vowel in the last syllable of the preterits of our regular verbs;" and of " such abbrevia- 
tions" as "the eagerness of conveying one's sentiments, the rapidity and ease of utterance, neces- 
sarily produce, in the dialect of conversation." — Pages 426 and 427. Lord Karnes says, "That 
the English tongue, originally harsh, is at present much softened by dropping many redundant 
consonants, is undoubtedly true : that it is not capable of being further mellowed without suffer- 
ing in its force and energy, will scarce be thought by any one who possesses an ear." — Elements 
of Criticism, Vol. ii, p. 12. 

Obs. 26. — The following examples are from a letter of an African Prince, translated by Dr. 
Desaguillier of Cambridge, England, in 1743, and published in a London newspaper : "I Me there 
too upon the bed thou presented me ;" — " After thou left me, in thy swimming house ;" — " Those 
good things thou presented me ;" — " When thou spake to the Great Spirit and his Son." If it is 
desirable that our language should retain this power of a simple literal version of what in others 
may be familiarly expressed by the second person singular, it is clear that our grammarians must 
not continue to dogmatize according to the letter of some authors hitherto popular. But not every 
popular grammar condemns such phraseology as the foregoing. " I improved, Thou improvedsif, 
&c. This termination of the second person preterit, on account of its harshness, is seldom used, 
and especially in the irregular verbs." — Harrison's Gram., p. 26. "The termination est, annexed 
to the preter tenses of verbs, is, at best, a very harsh one, when it is contracted, according to our 
general custom of throwing out the e ; as learnedst, for learnedest ; and especially, if it be again 
contracted into one syllable, as it is commonly pronounced, and made learndst. * * * I believe 
a writer or speaker would have recourse to any periphrasis rather than say keptest, or keptst. * * * 
Indeed this harsh termination est is generally quite dropped in common conversation, and some- 
times by the poets, in writing." — 'Priestley's Gram., p. 115. The fact is, it never was added 
with much uniformity. Examples : " But like the hell hounde thou waxed full furious, expressing 
thy malice when thou to honour stied." — Fabian's Chronicle, V. ii, p. 522 : in Tooke's Divers., 
T. ii, p. 232. 

" Thou from the arctic regions came. Perhaps 

Thou noticed on thy way a little orb, 

Attended by one moon — her lamp by night." — Pollok, B. ii, 1. 5. 
'"So I believ'd.'— No, Abel ! to thy grief, 

So thou relinquished all that was belief." — Crabbe, Borough, p. 279. 

Obs. 27. — L. Murray, and his numerous copyists, Ingersoll, G-reenleaf, Kirkham, Fisk, Flint, 
Comly, Alger, and the rest ; though they insist on it, that the st of the second person can never 
be dispensed with, except in the imperative mood and some parts of the subjunctive ; are not 
altogether insensible of that monstrous harshness which their doctrine imposes upon the language. 
Some of them tell us to avoid this by preferring the auxiliaries dost and didst : as dost burst, for 
burstest ; didst check, for checkedst. This recommendation proceeds on the supposition that dost 
and didst are smoother syllables than est and edst ; which is not true : didst learn is harsher than 
either learnedst or learntest ; and all three of them are intolerable in common discourse. Nor is 
the " energy, or positiveness" which grammarians ascribe to these auxiliaries, always appropriate. 
Except in a question, dost and didst, like do, does, and did, are usually signs of emphasis ; and 
therefore unfit to be substituted for the st, est, or edst, of an unemphatic verb. Kirkham, who, as 
we have seen, graces his Elocution with, such unutterable things, as "prob'dst, hurVdst, arm'dst, 
wanfdst, burndst, bark'dst, bubbVdst, troubbVdst," attributes the use of the plural for the singular, 
to a design of avoiding the ruggednes3 of the latter. " In order to avoid the disagreeable harsh- 
ness of sound, occasioned by the frequent recurrence of the termination est, edst, in the adaptation 
of our verbs to the nominative thou, a modern innovation which substitutes you for thou, in famil- 
iar style, has generally been adopted. This innovation contributes greatly to the harmony of our 
colloquial style. You was formerly restricted to the plural number ; but now it is employed to 
represent either a singular or a plural noun." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 99. A modern innovation, 
forsooth ! Does not every body know it was current four hundred years ago, or more ? Cer- 
tainly, both ye and you were applied in this manner, to the great, as early as the fourteenth 

ant form of the asserter, in conversation. Foe theib benefit, thou is priven, in this work, in all the varieties 
of inflection; (in some of which it could not properly be used in an address to the Deity;) for they ebb most 
egreoiously in the use of thou, with the form of the asserter which follows he or they, and are countenanced in 
their errors by G-. Brown, who, instead of ' disburdening the language of 144,000 useless distinctions? increases 
their number just 144,000." — Oliver B. Peirce's Gram., p. 85. Among people of sense, converts are made by 
teaching, and reasoning, and proving; but this man's disciples must yield to the balderdash of a, false speller, 
false quoter, and false assertor ! This author says, that "dropt" is the past tense of "drop;" (p. 118;) let him 
prove, for example, that droptest is not a clumsy innovation, and that droppedst is not a formal archaism, and 
then tell of the egregious error of adopting neither of these forms in common conversation. The following, 
with its many common contractions, is the language of Pope ; and I ask this, or any other opponent of my doc- 
trine, to show how suoh veeus ABE bightly FOEMED, either for poetry or for conversation, in the second 
person singular. 

" It fled, I follow 1 d; now in hope, now pain ; 

It stopt, I stopt; it motfd, I mov'd again. 

At last it fixt, 'twas on what plant it pleas' d, 

And where ityte'd, the beauteous bird I seized" — Dunciad, B. IV, I. 427. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. VERBS. — PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 355 

century. Chaucer sometimes used them so, and he died in 1400. Sir T. More uses them so, in 
a piece dated 1503. 

" dere cosyn, Dan Johan, she sayde, 
"What eyleth you so rathe to aryse?" — Chaucer. 

Shakspeare most commonly uses thou, but he sometimes has you in stead of it. Thus, he makes 
Portia say to Brutus : 

" You suddenly arose, and walk'd about, 
Musing, and sighing, with your arms across ; 
And when I ask'd you what the matter was, 
You star'd upon me with ungentle looks." — J. Ccesar, Act ii, Sc. 2. 
Obs. 28. — "There is a natural tendency in all languages to throw out the rugged parts which 
improper consonants produce, and to preserve those which are melodious and agreeable to the 
ear." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 29. "The English tongue, so remarkable for its gram- 
matical simplicity, is loaded with a great variety of dull unmeaning terminations. Mr. Sheridan 
attributes this defect, to an utter inattention to what is easy to the organs of speech and agree- 
able to the ear; and further adds, that, 'the French having been adopted as the language of the 
court, no notice was taken of the spelling or pronunciation of our words, until the reign of queen 
Anne.' So little was spelling attended to in the time of Elizabeth, that Dr. Johnson informs us, 
that on referring to Shakspeare's will, to determine how his name was spelt, he was found to 
have written it himself [in] no less [fewer] than three different ways." — lb., p. 477. In old books, 
our participial or verbal termination ed, is found written in about a dozen different ways ; as, ed, 
de, d, t, id, it, yd, yt, ede, od, ud. For est and eth, we find sometimes the consonants only ; some- 
times, ist or yst, ith or yth ; sometimes, for the latter, oth or ath; and sometimes the ending was 
omitted altogether. In early times also the th was an ending for verbs of the third person plural, 
as well as for those of the third person singular;* and, in the imperative mood, it was applied to 
the second person, both singular and plural : as, 

" Demith thyself, that demist other's dede; 
And trouthe the shall deliver, it's no drede." — Chaucer. 

Obs. 29. — It must be obvious to every one who has much acquaintance with the history of our 
language, that this part of its grammar has always been quite as unsettled as it is now ; and, 
however we may wish to establish its principles, it is idle to teach for absolute certainty that 
which every man's knowledge may confute. Let those who desire to see our forms of conjuga- 
tion as sure as those of other tongues, study to exemplify in their own practice what tends to 
uniformity. The best that can be done by the author of a grammar, is, to exhibit usage, as it 
has been, and as it is ; pointing out to the learner what is most fashionable, as well as what is 
most orderly and agreeable. If by these means the usage of writers and speakers cannot be 
fixed to what is fittest for their occasions, and therefore most grammatical, there is in grammar 
no remedy for their inaccuracies ; as there is none for the blunders of dull opinionists, none for 
the absurdities of Ignorance stalled in the seats of Learning. Some grammarians say, that, when- 
ever the preterit of an irregular verb is like the present, it should take edst for the second person 
singular. This rule, (which is adopted by Walker, in his Principles, No. 372,) gives us such words 
as cast-edst, cost-edst, bid-dedst, burst-edst, cut-tedst, hit-tedst, let-tedst, pzd-tedst, huri-edst, rid-dedst, 
shed-dedst, &c. But the rule is groundless. The few examples which may be adduced from 
ancient writings, in support of this principle, are undoubtedly formed in the usual manner from 
regular preterits now obsolete ; and if this were not the case, no person of taste could think of 
employing, on any occasion, derivatives so uncouth. Dr. Johnson has justly remarked, that 
"the chief defect of our language, is ruggedness and asperity." And this defect, as some of 
the foregoing remarks have shown, is peculiarly obvious, when even the regular termination of 
the second person singular is added to our preterits. Accordingly, we find numerous instances 
among the poets, both ancient and modern, in which that termination is omitted. See Percy's 
Reliques of Ancient Poetry, everywhere. 

"Thou, who of old the prophet's eye unsealed." — Pollok. 
"Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste." — Burns. \ 

* The Rev. W. Allen, in his English Grammar, p. 132, says: " Yth and eth (from the Saxon lab) were for- 
merly, plural terminations; as, ' Manners makyth man.' William of Wykeham's motto. 'After long advise- 
ment, they taketh upon them to try the matter. 1 Stapleton's Translation of Bede. 'Doctrine and discourse 
maketh nature less importune.' Bacon." The use of eth as a plural termination of verbs, was evidently ear- 
lier than the use of en for the same purpose. Even the latter is utterly obsolete, and the former can scarcely 
have been English. The Anglo-Saxon verb lufixin, or lujigean, to love, appears to have been inflected with the 
several pronouns thus: Ic lufige, Thu lufast, He lufafh,"We lufiath, Ge lufiath, Hi lufiath. Tbe form in Old 
English was this : I love, Thou lovest, He loveth, We loven, Ye loven, They loven. Dr. Priestley remarks, 
(though in my opinion unadvisedly,) that, "Nouns of a plural form, but of a singular signification, require a 
singular construction; as, mathematicks is a useful study. This observation will likewise," says he, " in some 
measure, vindicate tbe grammatical propriety of the famous saying of William of Wykeham, Manners maketh 
man." — Priestley's Gram., p. 189. I know not what half-way vindication there can be, for any such construc- 
tion. Manners and mathematics are not nouns of the singular number, and therefore both is and maketh are 
wrong. I judge it better English to say, " Mathematics are a useful study." — " Manners make the man." But 
perhaps both ideas may be still better expressed by a change of the nominative, thus: "The study of mathe- 
matics is useful." — " Behaviour makes the man." 

t What the state of our literature would have been, had no author attempted any thing on English grammar, 
must of course be a matter of mere conjecture, and not of any positive "conviction." It is my opinion, that, 
with all their faults, most of the books and essays in which this subject has been handled, have been in some 
degree beneficial, and a few of them highly so ; and that, without their influence, our language must have been. 



356 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Obs. 30. — With the familiar form of the second person singular, those who constantly put you 
for thou can have no concern ; and many may think it unworthy of notice, because Murray has 
said nothing about it : others will hastily pronounce it bad English, because they have learned at 
school some scheme of the verb, which implies that this must needs be wrong. It is this partial 
learning which makes so much explanation here necessary. The formation of this part of speech, 
form it as you will, is central to grammar, and cannot but be very important. Our language can 
never entirely drop the pronoun thou, and its derivatives, thy, thine, thee, thyself, without great 
injury, especially to its poetry. Nor can the distinct syllabic utterance of the termination ed be 
now generally practised, except in solemn prose. It is therefore better, not to insist on those old 
verbal forms against which there are so many objections, than to exclude the pronoun of the sec- 
ond person singular from all such usage, whether familiar or poetical, as will not admit them. It 
is true that on most occasions you may be substituted for thou, without much inconvenience ; and 
so may we be substituted for I, with just as much propriety ; though Dr. Perley thinks the latter 
usage "is not to be encouraged." — Gram., p. 28. Our authors and editors, like kings and em- 
perors, are making we for / their most common mode of expression. They renounce their indi- 
viduality to avoid egotism. And when all men shall have adopted this enallage, the fault indeed 
will be banished, or metamorphosed, but with it will go an other sixth part of every English con- 
jugation. The pronouns in the following couplet are put for the first person singular, the second 
person singular, and the second person plural ; yet nobody will understand them so, but by their 
antecedents : 

" Right trusty, and so forth — we let you to know 
We are very ill used by you mortals below." — Swift. 

Obs. 31. — It is remarkable that some, who forbear to use the plural for the singular in the sec- 
ond person, adopt it without scruple, in the first. The figure is the same in both ; and in both, 
sufficiently common. Neither practice is worthy to be made more general than it now is. If 
thou should not be totally sacrificed to what was once a vain compliment, neither should I, to 
what is now an occasional, and perhaps a vain assumption. Lindley Murray, who does not ap- 
pear to have used you for thou, and who was sometimes singularly careful to periphrase and avoid 
the latter, nowhere in his grammar speaks of himself in the first person singular. He is often 
"the Compiler ;" rarely, "the Author;" generally, "We:" as, " We have distributed these parts 
of grammar, in the mode which we think most correct and intelligible." — Octavo Gram., p. 58. 
" We shall not pursue this subject any further." — lb., p. 62. "We shall close these remarks on 
the tenses." — lb., p. 76. "We presume no solid objection can be made." — lb., p. 78. "The ob- 
servations which we have made." — lb., p. 100. "We shall produce a remarkable example of this 
beauty from Milton." — lb., p. 331. " We have now given sufficient openings into this subject." — 
lb., p. 334. This usage has authority enough ; for it was not uncommon even among the old 
Latin grammarians ; but he must be a slender scholar, who thinks the pronoun we thereby be- 
comes singular. "What advantage or fitness there is in thus putting we for /, the reader may 
judge. Dr. Blair did not hesitate to use I, as often as he had occasion; neither did Lowth, or 
Johnson, or Walker, or Webster : as, " / shall produce a remarkable example of this beauty from 
Milton." — Blair's Rhet., p. 129. "/have now given sufficient openings into this subject." — lb., 
p. 131. So in Lowth's Preface: "/believe," — " /am persuaded," — "/ am sure," — "/think," — 
'•/am afraid," — "/will not take upon me to say." 

Obs. 32. — Intending to be critical without hostility, and explicit without partiality, I write not 
for or against any sect, or any man ; but to teach all who desire to know the grammar of our 
tongue. The student must distinctly understand, that it is necessary to speak and write differ- 
ently, according to the different circumstances or occasions of writing. Who is he that will pre- 
tend that the solemn style of the Bible may be used in familiar discourse, without a mouthing 
affectation ? In preaching, or in praying, the ancient terminations of est for the second person 
singular and eih for the third, as well as eel pronounced as a separate syllable for the preterit, are 
admitted to be gene rally in better taste than the smoother forms of the familiar style : because 
the latter, though now frequently heard in religious assemblies, are not so well suited to the dig- 
nity and gravity of a sermon or a prayer. In grave poetry also, especially when it treats of scrip- 
tural subjects, to which you put for thou is obviously unsuitable, the personal terminations of the 
verb, though from the earliest times to the present day they have usually been contracted and 

much more chaotic and indeterminable than it now is. But a late -writer says, and, -with respect to some of our 
verbal terminations, says wisely: "It is my sincere conviction that fewer irregularities would have crept into 
the language had no grammars existed, than have been authorized by grammarians ; for it should be under- 
stood that the first of our grammarians, finding that good writers differed upon many points, instead of endeav- 
ouring to reconcile these discrepancies, absolutely perpetuated them by citing opposite usages, and giving high 
authorities for both. To this we owe all the irregularity which exists in thie personal terminations of verbs, 
some of the best early writers using them promiscuously, some using them uniformly, and others making no 
use of them ; and really tliey are of no use but to puzzle children and foreigners, perplex poets, and furnish an 
awkward dialect to that exemplary sect of Christians, who in every thing else study simplicity." — FowWs True 
E. Gram., Part II, p. 26. Wells, a still later writer, gives this unsafe rule: " When the past tense is a mono- 
sylUibli not ending in a single vowel, the second person singular of the solemn style is generally formed by the 
addition of est; as heardest, fleddest, tookest. Hadst, wast, saidst, and didst, are exceptions." — Wells's School 
Gram., 1st Ed., p. 106; 3d Ed., p. 110; 113th Ed., p. 115. Now the termination d or ed commonly adds no 
syllable ; so that the regular past tense of any monosyllabic verb is, with a few exceptions, a monosyllable still ; 
as, freed feed, loved, feared, planned, turned: and how would these sound with est added, which Lowth, Hiley, 
Churchill, and some others erroneously claim as having pertained to such preterits anciently? Again, if heard 
is a contraction of heared, and fled, of fleed, as seems probable; then are heardst and fledst, which are some- 
times used, more regular than heardest, fleddest : bo of many other preterits. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 357 

often omitted by the poets, ought still perhaps to be considered grammatically necessary, whenever 
they can be uttered, agreeably to the notion of our tuneless critics. The critical objection to 
their elision, however, can have no very firm foundation while it is admitted by some of the ob- 
jectors themselves, that, "Writers generally have recourse to this mode of expression, that they 
may avoid harsh terminations." — Irvinfs Elements of English Composition, p. 12. But if writers 
of good authority, such as Pope, Byron, and Pollok, have sometimes had recourse to this method 
of simplifying the verb, even in compositions of a grave cast, the elision may, with tenfold 
stronger reason, be admitted in familiar writing or discourse, on the authority of general custom 
among those who choose to employ the pronoun thou in conversation. 

"But thou, false Arcite, never shall obtain," &c. — Dry den, Fables. 

"These goods thyself can on thyself bestow." — Id., in Joh. Did. 

""What I show, thy self may freely on thyself bestow." — Id., Lowth's Gram., p. 26. 

"That thou might Fortune to thy side engage." — Prior. 

"Of all thou ever conquered, none was left." — Pollok, B. vii, L 760. 

"And touch me trembling, as thou touched the man," — &c. — Id., B. x, 1. 60. 

Obs. 33. — Some of the Friends (perhaps from an idea that it is less formal) misemploy thee for 
thou ; and often join it to the third person of the verb in stead of the second. Such expressions 
as, thee does, thee is, thee has, thee thinks, &c, are double solecisms ; they set all grammar at de- 
fiance. Again, many persons who are not ignorant of grammar, and who employ the pronoun 
aright, sometimes improperly sacrifice concord to a slight improvement in sound, and give to the 
verb the ending of the third person, for that of the second. Three or four instances of this, oc- 
cur in the examples which have been already quoted. See also the following, and many more, 
in the works of the poet Burns ; who says of himself, " Though it cost the schoolmaster some 
thrashings, I made an excellent English scholar ; and, by the time I was ten or eleven years of 
age, I was a critic in substantives, verbs, and particles:" — "But when thou pours;" — "There 
thou shines chief;" — "Thou clears the head;" — "Thou strings the nerves;" — "Thou brightens 
black despair;" — "Thou comes;" — "Thou travels far;" — "Now thou's turned out;" — "Unseen 
thou lurks;" — "0 thou pale orb that silent shines." This mode of simplifying the verb, con- 
founds the persons ; and, as it has little advantage in sound, over the regular contracted form of 
the second person, it ought to be avoided. With this author it may be, perhaps, a Scotticism : as, 

" Thou paints auld nature to the nines, 
In thy sweet Caledonian lines." — Burns to Ramsay. 

"Thou paintst old nature," would be about as smooth poetry, and certainly much better English. 
This confounding of the persons of the verb, however, is no modern peculiarity. It appears to 
be about as old as the use of 5 for th or eth. Spenser, the great English poet of the sixteenth 
century, may be cited in proof: as, 

" Siker, thou's but a lazy loord, 
And rekes much of thy swinke." — Joh. Diet, w. Loord. 

Obs. 34. — In the solemn style, (except in poetry, which usually contracts these forms,) the sec- 
ond person singular of the present indicative, and that of the irregular preterits, commonly end 
in est, pronounced as a separate syllable, and requiring the duplication of the final consonant, 
according to Bule 3d for Spelling: as, I run, thou runnest; I ran, thou rannest. But as the ter- 
mination ed, in solemn discourse, constitutes a syllable, the regular preterits form the second per- 
son singular by assuming st, without further increase of syllables : as, I loved, thou lovedst ; not, 
u lovedest" as Chandler made it in his English Grammar, p. 41, Edition of 1821 ; and as Wells's 
rule, above cited, if literally taken, would make it. Dost and hast, and the three irregular pre- 
terits, wast, didst, and hadst, are permanently contracted; though doest and diddest are some- 
times seen in old books. Saidst is more common, and perhaps more regular, than saidest. 
Werest has long been contracted into wert: "I would thou werest either cold or hot." — W. Perk- 
ins, 1608.* The auxiliaries shall and will change the final I to t, and become shall and wilt. To 
the auxiliaries, may, can, might, could, would, and should, the termination est was formerly added ; 
but they are now generally written with st only, and pronounced as monosyllables, even in 
solemn discourse. Murray, in quoting the Scriptures, very often changes mayest to mayst, 
mightest to mightst, &c. Some other permanent contractions are occasionally met with, in what 
many grammarians call the solemn style; as bidst for biddest, fiedst for fleddest, satst for sattest: 

" Biding sublime, thou bidst the world adore, 

And humblest nature with thy northern blast." — Thomson. 
"Fly thither whence thou fiedst."— Milton, P. L., B. iv, 1. 963. 
"Unspeakable, who sitst above these heavens." — Id., ib., B. v, 1. 156. 
"Why satst thou like an enemy in wait?" — Id., ib., B. iv, 1. 825. 

Obs. 35. — The formation of the third person singular of verbs, is now precisely the same as that 
of the plural number of nouns : as, love, loves ; show, shows ; boast, boasts ; fly, flies ; reach, reaches. 

* Chaucer appears not to have inflected this word in the second person : "Also ryght as thou were ensample 
of moche folde errour, righte so thou must he ensample of manifold correction." — Testament of Love. " Ren- 
nin and crie as thou ivere wode." — House of Fame. So others: "I wolde thou toere cold or hoot." — Wick- 
liffe' s Version of The Apocalypse. "I wolde thou were cold or hote." — Version of Edward VI: Tooke, 
Vol. ii, p. 276. See Rev., iii, 15: "I would thou wert cold or hot." — Common Version. 



353 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

This form began to be used about the beginning of the sixteenth century. The ending seems 
once to have been es, sounded as s or z : as, 

" And thus I see among these pleasant thynges 

Eche care decay es, and yet my sorrow sprynges." — Earl of Surry. 
"With throte yrent, he roares, he lyeth along." — Sir T. Wyat. 
"He dyeth, he is all dead, he pantes, he resies." — Id., 1540. 

In all these instances, the e before the s has become improper. The es does not here form a 
syllable; neither does the eth, in "lyeth" and "dyeth." In very ancient times, the third person 
singular appears to have been formed by adding th or eth nearly as we now add s or es.* After- 
wards, as in our common Bible, it was formed by adding th to verbs ending in e, and eth to all 
others; as, "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to him- 
self." — 1 Cor., xi, 29. "He qvickeneth man, who is dead in trespasses and sins; he keepeth alive 
the quickened soul, and Itadeth it in the paths of life ; he scattereth, subdueth, and conquereth 
the enemies of the soul." — /. Penington. This method of inflection, as now pronounced, always 
adds a syllable to the verb. It is entirely confined to the solemn style, and is little used. Doth, 
hath, and saith, appear to be permanent contractions of verbs thus formed. In the days of Shak- 
speare, both terminations were common, and he often mixed them, in a way which is not very 
proper now : as, 

" The quality of mercy is not strained ; 

It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven 

Upon the place beneath : it is twice bless'd ; 

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." — Merchant of Venice. 

Obs. 36. — When the second person singular is employed in familiar discourse, with any regard 
to correctness, it is usually formed in a manner strictly analogous to that which is now adopted 
in the third person singular. When the verb ends with a sound which will unite with that of st 
or s, the second person singular is formed by adding st only, and the third, by adding s only ; and 
the number of syllables is not increased : as, I read, thou readst, he rea.ds ; I know, thou knowst, 
he knows ; I take, thou takest, he takes ; I free, thou freest, he frees. For, when the verb ends in 
mute e, no termination renders this e vocal in the familiar style, if a synseresis can take place. 
To prevent their readers from ignorantly assuming the pronunciation of the solemn style, the 
poets have generally marked such words with an apostrophe : as, 

"Look what thy soul holds dear, imagine it 
To he the way thou go'st, not whence thou corrCst." — Shak. 

Obs. 3L — But when the verb ends in a sound which will not unite with that of st or s, the sec- 
ond and third persons are formed by adding est and es ; or, if the first person end in mute e, the 
si and s render that e vocal ; so that the verb acquires an additional syllable : as, I trace, thou 
tracest, he traces ; I pass, thou passest, he passes ; I fix, thou fixest, he fixes ; I preach, thou 
preachest, he preaches ; I blush, thou blushest, he blushes ; I judge, thou judgest, he judges. But 
verbs ending in o or y preceded by a consonant, do not exactly follow either of the foregoing 
rules. In these, y is changed into i; and, to both o and i, est and es are added without increase 
of syllables: as, I go, thou goest, he goes ; I undo, thou undoest,\ he undoes; I fly, thou Uiest, 
he flies ; I pity, thou pitiest, he pities. Thus, in the following lines, goest must be pronounced like 
ghost ; otherwise, we spoil the measure of the verse : 

" Thou goest not now with battle, and the voice 
Of war, as once against the rebel hosts ; 
Thou goest a Judge, and Jindst the guilty bound : 
Thou goest to prove, condemn, acquit, reward." — Pollok, B. x. 

In solemn prose, however, the termination is here made a separate syllable : as, I go, thou goest, 
he goeth ; I undo, thou undoest, he undoeih ; I fly, thou fliest, he flieth ; I pity, thou pitiest, he 
pitieth. 

Obs. 38. — The auxiliaries do, dost, does, — (pronounced doo, dust, duz; and not as the words 
dough, dosed, doze, — ) am, art, is, — have, hast, has, — being also in frequent use as principal verbs 
of the present tense, retain their peculiar forms, with distinction of person and number, when 
they help to form the compound tenses of other verbs. The other auxiliaries are not varied, or 
ought not to be varied, except in the solemn style. Example of the familiar use : " That thou 
may be found truly owning it." — Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 234. 

Obs. 39. — The only regular terminations that are added to English verbs, are ing, d or ed, st or 

* See evidences of the antiquity of this practice, in the examples under the twenty-third observation above. 
According to Churchill, it ha6 had some local continuance even to the present time. For, in a remark upon 
Lowth's contractions, lov'th, turrtth, this author says, "These are still in use in some country places, the third 
person singular of verbs in general being formed by the addition of the sound th simply, no't making an addi- 
tional syllable." — Churchill's Gram., p. 255. So the eth in the following example adds no syllable: — 
" Death goeth about the field, rejoicing mickle 
To see a sword that so surpass'd his sickle." 

Harrington's Ariosto, B. xiii: see Singer's Shak., Vol. ii, p. 296. 
t The second person singular of the simple verb do, is now usually written dost, and read dust; being perma- 
nently contracted in orthography, as well as in pronunciation. And perhaps the compounds may follow; as, 
Thou undost, outdost, misdost, overdost, &c. But exceptions to exceptions are puzzling, even when they con* 
form to the general rule. The Bible has dost and doth for auxiliaries, and doest and doeth for principal verbs. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VEKBS. — PERSONS AND NUMBERS. 359 

est, s or es, th or eth* Ing, and th or eth, always add a syllable to the verb ; except in doth, hath, 
saith.j The rest, whenever their sound will unite with that of the final syllable of the verb, are 
usually added without increasing the number of syllables ; otherwise, they are separately pro- 
nounced. In solemn discourse, however, ed and est are by most speakers uttered distinctly in all 
cases ; except sometimes when a vowel precedes : as in sanctified, glorified, which are pronounced 
as three syllables only. Yet, in spite of this analogy, many readers will have sanctifiest and glori- 
fiesl to be words of four syUables. If this pronunciation is proper, it is only so in solemn prose. 
The prosody of verse will show how many syllables the poets make : as, 

"Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy!" — Shah, Cymb., Act iv, sc. 2. 
" Had not a voice thus warn'd me : What thou seest, 

"What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself." — Milton, B. iv, 1. 467. 
"By those thou wooedst from death to endless life." — Pollok, B. ix, L 1. 
" Attend : that thou art happy, owe to God ; 

That thou continuest such, owe to thyself" — Milton, B. v, 1. 520. 

Obs. 40. — If the grave and full form of the second person singular must needs be supposed to 
end rather with the syllable est than with st only, it is certain that this form may be contracted, 
whenever the verb ends in a sound which will unite with that of st. The poets generally employ 
the briefer or contracted forms ; but they seem not to have adopted a uniform and consistent 
method of writing them. Some usually insert the apostrophe, and, after a single vowel, double 
the final consonant before st; as, hold'st, biddst, said\st, ledd'st, wedd'st, trimmest, maifst, might st, 
and so forth : others, in numerous instances, add st only, and form permanent contractions ; as, 
holdst, bidst, saidst, ledst, wedst, trimst, mayst, mightst, and so forth. Some retain the vowel e, in 
the termination of certain words, and suppress a preceding one ; as, quick'nest, happ'nest, scaWrest, 
rend' rest, rend'redst, slumbWest, slumV redst : others contract the termination of such words, and insert 
the apostrophe; as, quicken ] st, happen 1 st, scatter' st, render' st, render' 'dst, slumber 'st, slumber 'dst. The 
nature and idiom of our language, "the accent and pronunciation of it," incline us to abbreviate 
or "contract even all our regular verbs;" so as to avoid, if possible, an increase of syllables in 
the inflection of them. Accordingly, several terminations which formerly constituted distinct 
syllables, have been either wholly dropped, or blended with the final syllables of the verbs to 
which they are added. Thus the plural termination en has become entirely obsolete ; th or eth is 
no longer in common use ; ed is c< >i itracted in pronunciation ; the ancient ys or is, of the third 
person singular, is changed to s or es, and is usually added without increase of syllables; and st 
or est has, in part, adopted the analogy. So that the proper mode of forming these contractions 
of the second person singular, seems to be, to add st only ; and to insert no apostrophe, unless a 
vowel is suppressed from the verb to which this termination is added : as, thinkst, sayst : bidst, siist, 
satst, lov'st, lov'dst, slumberst, slumber'dst. 

" And know, for that thou slumberst on the guard, 
Thou shalt be made to answer at the bar." — Cotton. 

Obs. 41. — No man deserves more praise for his attention to English pronunciation, than John 
Walker. His Pronouncing Dictionary was, for a long period, the best standard of orthoepy, that 
our schools possessed. But he seems to me to have missed a figure, in preferring such words as 
quick'nest, strength 1 nest, to the smoother and more regular forms, quickenst, strengthenst. It is true 
that these are rough words, in any form you can give them ; but let us remember, that needless 
apostrophes are as rough to the eye, as needless sfs to the ear. Our common grammarians are 
disposed to encumber the language with as many of both as they can find any excuse for, and 
vastly more than can be sustained by any good argument. In words that are well understood to 
be contracted in pronunciation, the apostrophe is now less frequently used than it was formerly. 
Walker says, " This contraction of the participial ed, and the verbal en, is so fixed an idiom of 

* N. Butler avers, " The only regular terminations added to verbs are est, s, ed, edst, and ing.'" — Btitler's 
Practical Gram., p. 81. But he adds, in a marginal note, this information: "The third person singular of 
the present formerly ended in eth. This termination is still sometimes used in the tolemn style. Contractions 
sometimes take place; as, sayst for sayest." — Ibid. This statement not only imposes avast deal of needless 
irregularity upon the few inflections admitted by the English verb, but is, so far as it disagrees with mine, a 
causeless innovation. The terminations rejected, or here regarded as irregular, are d, st, es, th, and eth ; while 
edst, which is plainly a combination of ed and st, — the past ending of the verb with the personal inflection, — is 
assumed to be one single and regular termination which I had overlooked ! It has long been an almost univer- 
sal doctrine of our grammarians, that regular verbs form their preterits and perfect participles by adding d to 
final e, and ed to any other radical ending. Such is the teaching of Blair, Brishtland, Bullions, Churchill, 
Coar, Comly, Cooper, Fowle, Frazee, Ingersoll, Kirkham, Lennie, Murray, Weld, Wells, Sanborn, and others, 
a great multitude. But this author alleges, that, '■'■Loved is not formed by adding d to love, but by adding ed, 
and dropping e from love." — Butler's Answer to Brown. Any one is at liberty to think this, if he will. But I 
see not the use of playing thus with mute Ees, adding one to drop an other, and often pretending to drop two 
under one apostrophe, as in lov'd, lov'st ! To suppose that the second person of \he regular preterit, as lovedst, 
is not formed by adding st to the first person, is contrary to the analogy of other verbs, and is something worse 
than an idle whim. And why should the formation of the third person be called irregular when it requires es, 
as in flies, denies, (joes, vetoes, wishes, preaches, and so forth? In forming Hies from fly, Butler changes "y 
into ie," on page 20th, adding s only ; and, on page 11th, "into £" only, adding es. Uniformity would be better. 

t Cooper says, " The termination eth is commonly contracted into th, to prevent the addition of a syllable to 
the verb, as: doeth, doth." — Plain and Practical Gram., p. 50. This, with reference to modern usuge, is 
plainly erroneous. For, when s or es was substituted for th or eth, and the familiar use of the latter ceased, 
this mode of inflecting the verb without increasing its syllables, ceased also, or at least became unusual. It ap- 
pears that the inflecting of verbs with th without a vowel, as well as with st without a vowel, was more common 
in very ancient times than subsequently. Our grammarians of the last century 6eem to have been more willing 
to encumber the language with syllabic endings, than to simplify it by avoiding them. See Observations, 21st, 
22d, and 23d, above. 



360 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMxMARS. [PART II. 

our pronunciation, that to alter it, would be to alter the sound of the -whole language. It must, 
however, be regretted that it subjects our tongue to some of the most hissing, snapping, clashing, 
grinding sounds that ever grated the ears of a Vandal : thus, rasped, scratched, wrenched, Iridled, 
/angled, birchen, hardened, strengthened, quickened, &c. almost frighten us when written as they 
are actually pronounced, as rapt, scratcht, wrencht, bridl'd, fangVd, birchen, strengthen' d, quick'n'd, 
&c. : they become still more formidable when used contractedly in the solemn style, which never 
ought to be the case ; for here instead of thou strength n'st or strength n'd'st, thou quick' 'n'st or 
quick 'n'd'st, we ought to pronounce thou strength nest or strength nedst, thou quick'nest or quick'nedst, 
which are sufficiently harsh of all conscience." — Principles, No. 359. Here are too man}*- apos- 
trophes ; for it does not appear that such words as strengthenedest and quickenedest ever existed, 
except in the imagination of certain grammarians. In solemn prose one may write, thou quickenest, 
thou strengthenest, or thou quickenedst, thou strengthenedst ; but, in the familiar style, or in poetry, 
it is better to write, thou quickenst, thou strengthenst, thou quickened, thou strengthened. This is lan- 
guage which it is possible to utter ; and it is foolish to strangle ourselves with strings of rough 
consonants, merely because they are insisted on by some superficial grammarians. Is it not 
strange, is it not incredible, that the same hand should have written the two following lines, in 
the same sentence ? Surely, the printer has been at fault. 

" "With noiseless foot, thou walkedst the vales of earth" — 
" Most honourable thou appeared, and most 
To be desired." — Pollok's Course of Time, B. ix, 1. 18, and 1. 24. 

Obs. 42. — It was once a very common practice, to retain the final y, in contractions of the pre- 
terit or of the second person of most verbs that end in y, and to add the consonant terminations 
d, st, and dst, with an apostrophe before each ; as, try'd for tritd, reply* d for replied, try'st for triest, 
try' dst for triedst. Thus Milton : — 

" Thou following cry' dst aloud, Return, fair Eve ; 
Whom fly'st thou? whom thou fly'st, of him thou art." — P. L., B. iv, 1. 481. 

This usage, though it may have been of some advantage as an index to the pronunciation of the 
words, is a palpable departure from the common rule for spelling such derivatives. That rule is, 
" The final y of a primitive word, when preceded by a consonant, is changed into i before an ad- 
ditional termination." The works of the British poets, except those of the present century, 
abound with contractions like the foregoing ; but late authors, or their printers, have returned to 
the rule ; and the former practice is wearing out and becoming obsolete. Of regular verbs that 
end in ay, ey, or oy, we have more than half a hundred ; all of which usually retain the y in their 
derivatives, agreeably to an other of the rules for spelling. The preterits of these we form by 
adding ed without increase of syllables ; as, display, displayed ; survey, surveyed ; enjoy, enjoyed. 
These also, in both tenses, may take st without increase of syllables; as, display' st, display dst; 
survey' st, survey' dst; enjoy' st, enjoy' dst. All these forms, and such as these, are still commonly 
considered contractions, and therefore written with the apostrophe ; but if the termination st is 
sufficient of itself to mark the second person singular, as it certainly is considered to be as regards 
one half of them, and as it certainly was in the Saxon tongue still more generally, then for the 
other half there is no need of the apostrophe, because nothing is omitted. Est, like es, is gener- 
ally a syllabic termination ; but st, like s, is not. As signs of the third person, the s and the es 
are always considered equivalent ; and, as signs of the second person, the st and the est aro 
sometimes, and ought to be always, considered so too. To all verbs that admit the sound, we 
add the s without marking it as a contraction for es ; and there seems to be no reason at all 
against adding the st in like manner, whenever we choose to form the second person without 
adding a syllable to the verb. The foregoing observations I commend to the particular attention 
of all those who hope to write such English as shall do them honour — to every one who, from a 
spark of literary ambition, may say of himself, 

" I twine 

My hopes of being remembered in my line 

With my land's language." — Byron's Childe Harold, Canto iv, st. 9. 

THE CONJUGATION OF VERBS. 

The conjugation of a verb is a regular arrangement of its moods, 
tenses, persons, numbers, and participles. 

There are four Principal Parts in the conjugation of every simple 
and complete verb ; namely, the Present, the Preterit, the Imperfect 
Participle, and the Perfect Participle* A verb which wants any of 
these parts, is called defective: such are most of the auxiliaries. 

* These are what William Ward, in his Practical Grammar, written about 1765, denominated "the Capital 
Fobms, or Roots, of the English Verb." Their number too is the same. "And these Roots," says he, "are 
considered as Four in each verb ; although in many verbs two of them are alike, and in some few three are 
alike." — P. 50. Few modern grammarians have been careful to display these Chief Terms, or Principal Parts, 
properly. Many s;iy nothing about them. Some speak of three, and name them faultily. Thus Wells: "The 
throe principal parts of a verb are the present tense, the past tense, and the perfect participle.'" 1 — School 
Gram.., LISth Ed., p. D2. Now a whole "tense" is something more than one verbal form, and Wells's "perfect 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. VERBS. CONJUGATION. 361 

An auxiliary is a short verb prefixed to one of the principal parts of 
an other verb, to express some particular mode and time of the being, 
action, or passion. The auxiliaries are do, be, have, shall, will, may, 
can, and must, with their variations. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The present, or the verb in the present tense, is radically the same in all the moods, 
and is the part from which all the rest are formed. The present infinitive is commonly considered 
the root, or simplest form, of the English verb. "We usually place the preposition TO before it; but 
never when with an auxiliary it forms a compound tense that is not infinitive : there are also 
some other exceptions, which plainly show, that the word to is neither a part of the verb, aa 
Cobbett, R. C. Smith, S. Kirkham, and Wells, say it is ; nor a part of the infinitive mood, as 
Hart and many others will have it to be, but a distinct preposition. (See, in the Syntax of this 
work, Observations on Rule 18th.) The preterit and the perfect participle are regularly formed by 
adding d or ed, and the imperfect participle, by adding ing, to the present. 

Obs. 2. — The moods and tenses, in English, are formed partly by inflections, or changes made 
in the verb itself, and partly by the combination of the verb or its participle, with a few short 
verbs, called auxiliaries, or helping verbs. This view of the subject, though disputed by some, 
is sustained by such a preponderance both of authority and of reason, that I shall not trouble 
the reader with any refutation of those who object to it. Murray the schoolmaster observes, 
"In the English language, the times and modes of verbs are expressed in a perfect, easy, and 
beautiful manner, by the aid of a few little words called auxiliaries, or helping verbs. The possi- 
bility of a thing is expressed by can or could; the liberty to do a thing, by may or might; the 
inclination of the will, by will or would; the necessity of a thing, by must or ought, shall or should. 
The preposition to is never expressed after the helping verbs, except after ought.' 1 ' 1 — Alex. Murray's 
Gram., p. 112. See nearly the same words in Buchanan's English Syntax, p. 36 ; and in the Brit- 
ish Gram., p. 125. 

Obs. 3. — These authors are wrong in calling ought a helping verb, and so is Oliver B. Peirce, in 
calling "ought to," and " ought to have" auxiliaries; for no auxiliary ever admits the preposition 
to after it or into it: and Murray of Holdgate is no less in fault, for calling let an auxiliary; be- 
cause no mere auxiliary ever governs the objective case. The sentences, "He ought to help you," 
and, " Let him help you," severally involve two different moods : they are equivalent to, "It i8 
his duty to help you ;" — " Permit him to help you." Hence ought and let are not auxiliaries, but 
principal verbs. 

Obs. 4. — Though most of the auxiliaries are defective, when compared with other verbs ; yet 
these three, do, be, and have, being also principal verbs, are complete : but the participles of do 
and have are not used as auxiliaries ; unless having, which helps to form the third or "compound 
perfect" participle, (as having loved,) may be considered such. The other auxiliaries have no par- 
ticiples. 

Obs. 5. — English verbs are principally conjugated by means of auxiliaries ; the only tenses 
which can be formed by the simple verb, being the present and the imperfect ; as, I love, I loved. 
And even here an auxiliary is usually preferred in questions and negations ; as, " Bo you love ?" 
— " You do not love." " Bid he love ?"—" He did not love." " Bo I not yet grieve ?"— " Bid she 
not die V All the other tenses, even in their simplest form, are compounds. 

Obs. 6. — Dr. Johnson says, " Bo is sometimes used superfluously, as /do love, 1 did love; 
simply for Hove, or I loved; but this is considered as a vitious mode of speech." — Gram., in 4tto 
Bid., p. 8. He also somewhere tells us, that these auxiliaries " are not proper before be and 
have;" as, " I do be," for I am; " I did have," for / had. The latter remark is generally true, 
and it ought to be remembered ;* but, in the imperative mood, be and have will perhaps admit 
the emphatic word do before them, in a colloquial style : as, " Now do be careful ;" — "Bo have a 
little discretion." Sanborn repeatedly puts do before be, in this mood : as, " Bo you be. Bo you 
be guarded. Bo thou be. Bo thou be guarded." — Analytical Gram., p. 150. " Bo thou be 
watchful." — lb., p. 155. In these instances, he must have forgotten that he had elsewhere said 
positively, that, " Bo, as an auxiliary, is never used with the verb be or am." — lb., p. 112. In the 
other moods, it is seldom, if ever, proper before be ; but it is sometimes used before have, especially 
with a negative : as, "Those modes of charity which do not have in view the cultivation of moral 
excellence, are essentially defective." — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 428. "Surely, the law of 
God, whether natural or revealed, does not have respect merely to the external conduct of men." 
— Stuart's Commentary on Romans, p. 158. " And each day of our lives do we have occasion to 
see and lament it." — Br. BartletVs Lecture on Health, p. 5. "Verbs, in themselves considered, do 

participle" includes the auxiliary "having." Hence, in stead of write, wrote, writing, written, (the true prin- 
cipal parts of a certain verb,) one might take, under Wells's description, either of these threes, both entirely 
false : am writing, did write, and having written; or, do write, wrotest, and having written. But writing, being 
the root of the " Progressive Form of the Verb," is far more worthy to be here counted a chief term, than 
wrote, the preterit, which occurs only in one tense, and never receives an auxiliary. So of other verbs. This 
Bort of treatment of the Principal Parts, is a very grave defect, in sundry schemes of grammar. 

* A grammarian should know better, than to exhibit, as a paradigm for school-boys, such English as the fol- 
lowing: "I do have, Thou dost have. He does have; We do have, You do have, They do have." — Everest's 
Gram., p. 106. "I did have, Thou didst have, He did have: We did have, You did have, They did have." — 
lb., p. 107. I know not whether any one has yet thought of conjugating the verb be after this fashion ; but the 
attempt to introduce, "am being, is being" &c, is an innovation much worse. 



362 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

not have person and number." — R. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 21. [This notion of Smith's is ab- 
surd. Kirkham taught the same as regards " person."] In the following example, does be is used 
for is, — the auxiliary is, — and perhaps allowably : " It is certain from scripture, that the same 
person does in the course of life many times offend and be forgiven." — West's Letters to a Young 
Lady, p. 182. 

Obs. 7. — In the compound tenses, there is never any variation of ending for the different per- 
sons and numbers, except in the first auxiliary: as, "Thou wilt have finished it;" not, "Thou 
wilt hast finishedst it;" for this is nonsense. And even for the former, it is better to say, in the 
familiar style, " Thou will have finished it;" for it is characteristic of many of the auxiliaries, that, 
unlike other verbs, they are not varied by 5 or eth, in the third person singular, and never by st 
or est, in the second person singular, except in the solemn style. Thus all the auxiliaries of the 
potential mood, as well as shall and will of the indicative, are without inflection in the third per- 
son singular, though will, as a principal verb, makes wills or willeth, as well as wiliest, in the 
indicative present. Henee there appears a tendency in the language, to confine the inflection of 
its verbs to this tense only ; and to the auxiliary have, hast, has, which is essentially present, 
though used with a participle to form the perfect. Do, dost, does, and am, art, is, whether used 
as auxiliaries or as principal verbs, are always of the indicative present. 

Obs. 8. — The word need, — (though, as a principal verb and transitive, it is unquestionably both 
regular and complete, — having all the requisite parts, need, needed, needing, needed, — and being 
necessarily inflected in the indicative present, as, I need, thou needst or needest, he needs or need- 
eth, — ) is so frequently used without inflection, when placed before an other verb to express a 
necessity of the being, action, or passion, that one may well question whether it has not become, 
under these circumstances, an auxiliary of the potential mood ; and therefore proper to be used, 
like all the other auxiliaries of this mood, without change of termination. I have not yet know- 
ingly used it so myself, nor does it appear to have been classed with the auxiliaries, by any of 
our grammarians, except Webster.* I shall therefore not presume to say now, with positive- 
ness, that it deserves this rank ; (though I incline to think it does ;) but rather quote such in- 
stances as have occurred to me in reading, and leave the student to take his choice, whether to 
condemn as bad English the uninflected examples, or to justify them in this manner. " He that 
can swim, need not despair to fly." — Johnson's Rasselas, p. 29. "One therefore needs not expect 
to do it." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 155. "In so doing I should only record some vain opinions 
of this age, which a future one med not know." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 345. "That a boy needs 
not be kept at school." — Lixdsey : in Kirkham's Elocution, p. 164. " No man need promise, un- 
less he please." — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 312. "What better reason needs be given?" — 
Campbell's Rhit, p. 51. "He need assign no other reason for his conduct." — Wayland, ib., p. 
214. " Now there is nothing that a man needs be ashamed of in all this." — Collier's Antoninus, 
p. 45. "No notice need be taken of tho advantages." — Walker's Rhyming Diet, Vol. ii, p. 304. 
" Yet it needs not be repeated." — Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 51. " He need not be anxious." — 
Greenleafs Gram. Simplified, p. 38. " He needs not be afraid." — Fisk's Gram. Simplified, p. 
124. "He who will not learn to spell, needs not learn to write." — Red Book, p. 22. "The 
heeder need be under no fear." — Greenleafs Gram., p. 38.f "More need not be said about it." — 
Cobbetfs E. Gram., ^[272. "The object needs not be expressed." — Booth's Introduct. to Diet, 
p. 37. "Indeed, there need be no such thing." — Fosdick's De Sacy, p. 71. "This needs to he 
illustrat3d." — lb., p. 81. "And no part of the sentence need be omitted." — Parkhurst's Grammar 
for Beginners, p. 114. "The learner needs to know what sort of words are called verbs." — lb. p. 
6. "No one need be apprehensive of suffering by faults of this kind." — Sheridan's Elocution, 
p. 171. " The student who has bought any of tho former copies needs not repent." — Dr. Johnson, 
Adv. to Diet " He need not enumerate their names." — Edward's First Lessons in Grammar, p. 
38. "A quotation consisting of a word or two only need not begin with a capital." — Churchill's 
Gram., p. 383. "Their sex is commonly known, and needs not to be marked." — lb., p. 72; Mur- 
ray's Octavo Gram., 51. "One need only open Lord Clarendon's history, to find examples every 
where." — Blair's Rhet, p. 108. "Their sex is commonly known, and needs not be marked." — 
Lowth's Gram., p. 21; Murray's Duodecimo Gram., p. 51. "Nobody need be afraid he shall not 
have scope enough." — Locke: in Sanborn's Gram., p. 168. "No part of the science of lan- 
guage, needs to be ever uninteresting to the pursuer." — Nutting's Gram., p. vii. "The exact 
amount of knowledge is not, and need not be, great." — Todd's Student's Manual, p. 44. " He 
needs to act under a motive which is all-pervading." — lb., p. 375. "What need be said, will not 
occupy a long space." — lb., p. 244. "The sign to needs not always be used." — Bucke's Gram., 
p. 96. " Such as he need not be ashamed of." — Snelling's Gift for Scribblers, p. 23. 

"Needst thou — need any one on earth — despair?" — lb., p. 32. 
" Take timely counsel ; if your dire disease 
Admits no cure, it needs not to displease." — lb., p. 14. 
Obs. 9. — If need is to be recognized as an auxiliary of the potential mood, it must be under- 

* Hiley borrows from Webster the remark, that, " Need, when intransitive, is formed like an auxiliary, ana 
is followed by a verb, without the prefix to; as, 'He need go no farther.' " — Hiley' s Gram., p. 90; Webster's 
Imp. Gram., p. 127; Philos. Gram., p. 178. But he forbears to class it with the auxiliaries, and even contradicts 
himself, by a subsequent remark taken from Dr. Campbell, that, for the sake of " analogy, ' he needs,' ' he 
dares,' are preferable to ' he need,' ' he dare.' " — Hiley' s Gram., p. 145 ; Campbell's Rhet, p. 175. 

t This grammarian here uses need for the third person singular, designedly, and makes a remark for the justifi- 
cation of the practice; but he neither calls the word an auxiliary, nor cites any other than anonymous exam- 
ples, which are, perhaps, of his own invention. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VEKBS. — CONJUGATION. 363 

stood to belong to two tenses; the present and the perfect; like may, can, and must: as, "He 
need not go, He need not have gone; Thou need not go, Thou need not have gone;" or, in the sol- 
emn style, "Thou needst not go, Thou needst not have gone." If, On the contrary, we will have it 
to be always a principal verb, the distinction of time should belong to itself, and also the dis- 
tinction of person and number, in the parts which require it: as, "He needs not go. He needed 
not go; Thou needst not go, Thou needed not go ;" or, in the solemn style, " Thou needest not go, 
Thou neededst not go." "Whether it can be right to say, " He needed not have gone," is at least 
questionable. From the observations of Murray, upon relative tenses, under his thirteenth rule 
of syntax, it seems fair to infer that he would have judged this phraseology erroneous. Again, 
" He needs not have gone," appears to be yet more objectionable, though for the same reason. 
And if, " He need not have gone," is a correct expression, need is clearly proved to be an auxiliary, 
and the three words taken together must form the potential perfect. And so of the plural ; for 
the argument is from the connexion of the tenses, and not merely from the tendency of auxil- 
iaries to reject inflection : as, " They need not have been under great concern about their public 
affairs." — Hutchinson's History, i, 194. From these examples, it may be seen that an auxiliary 
and a principal verb have some essential difference; though those who dislike the doctrine of com- 
pound tenses, pretend not to discern any. Take some further citations ; a few of which are 
erroneous in respect to time. And observe also that the regular verb sometimes admits the prep- 
osition to after it : " 'There is great dignity in being waited for,' said one who had the habit of 
tardiness, aud who had not much else of which he need be vain." — Students Manual, p. 64. 
"But he needed not have gone so far for more instances." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 143. "He 
need not have said, 'perhaps the virtue.'" — Sedgwick's Economy, p. 196. "I needed not to ask 
how she felt." — Abbotts Young Christian, p. 84. " It need not have been so." — lb., p. 111. " The 
most unaccommodating politician need not absolutely want friends." — Hunts Feast of the Poets, 
p. hi. "Which therefore needs not be introduced with much precaution." — Campbell's BheL, 
p. 326. "When an obscurer term needs to be explained by one that is clearer." — lb., p. 367. 
"Though, if she had died younger, she need not have known it." — Wests Letters, p. 120. "Noth- 
ing need be said, but that they were the most perfect barbarisms." — Blair's BheL, p. 470. " He 
need not go." — Goodenow's Gram., p. 36. "He needed but use the word body." — Locke: in 
Joh. Diet. " He need not be required to use them." — Parker's Eng. Composition, p. 50. " The last 
consonant of appear need not be doubled." — Dr. Webster. " It needs the less to be inforccd." — 
Brown's Estimate, ii, 158. "Of these pieces of his, we shall not need to give any particular ac- 
count." — Seneca's Morals, p. vi "And therefore I shall need say the less of them." — Scougal, p. 
101. "This compounding of words need occasion no surprise." — Carddts Essay on Language, 
p. 87. 

"Therefore stay, thou needst not to be eono." — Shakspeare. 

" Thou need na start awa sae hasty." — Burns, Poems, p. 15. 

"Thou need na jouk behint the hallan." — Id., ib., p. 67. 

Obs. 10. — The auxiliaries, except must, which is invariable, have severally two forms in respect 
to tense, or time ; and when inflected in the second and third persons singular, are usually varied 
in the following manner : — 

TO DO. 

Present Tense; and sign of the Indicative Present. 
Sing. I do, thou dost, he does ; Blur. We do, you do, they do. 

Imperfect Tense; and sign of the Indicative Imperfect. 
S' Ji I did, thou didst, he did; Plur. We did, you did, they did. 

TO BE. 

Present Tense; and sign of the Indicative Present. 
Sing. I am, thou art, he is ; Plur. We are, you are, they are. 

Imperfect Tense ; and sign of the Indicative Imperfect. 
Sing. I was, thou wast, he was ; Plur. We were, you were, they were. 

TO HAVE. 

Present Tense; but sign of the Indicative Perfect. 

Sing. I have, thou hast, he has ; Plur. We have, you have, they have. 

Imperfect Tense; but sign of the Indicative Pluperfect. 
Sing. I had, thou hadst, he had ; Plur. We had, you had, they had. 

SHALL and WILL. 

These auxiliaries have distinct meanings, and, as signs of the future, they are interchanged 
thus: 

Present Tense; but signs of the Indicative First-future. 

1. Simply to express a future action or event: — 

Sing. I shall, thou wilt, he will ; Plur. We shall, you will, they will. 

2. To express a promise, command, or threat : — 

Sing. I will, thou shalt, he shall ; Plur. "We will, you shall, they shall. 



364 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Imperfect Tense; but, as signs, Aorist, or Indefinite. 

1. Used with reference to duty or expediency : — 
Sing. I should, thou shouldst, he should ; Plur. We should, you should, they should. 

2. Used with reference to volition or desire : — 
Sing. I would, thou wouldst, he would ; Plur. "We would, you would, they would. 

MAY. 

Present Tense ; and sign of the Potential Present. 

Sing. I may, thou mayst, he may ; Plur. We may, you may, they may. 

Imperfect Tense ; and sign of the Potential Imperfect. 

Sing. I might, thou mightst, he might ; Plur. We might, you might, they might, 

CAN. 

Present Tense; and sign of the Potential Present. 

Sing. I can, thou canst, he can ; Plur. We can, you can, they can. 

Imperfect Tense ; and sign of the Potential Imperfect. 

Sing. I could, thou couldst, he could ; Plur. We could, you could, they could, 

MUST. 

Present Tense ; and sign of the Potential Present. 
Sing. I must, thou must, he must ; Plur. We must, you must, they must. 

If must is ever used in the sense of the Imperfect tense, or Preterit, the form is the same as 
that of the Present : this word is entirely invariable. 

Obs. 11. — Several of the auxiliaries are occasionally used as mere expletives, being quite un- 
necessary to the sense : as, 1. Do and Did : " And it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest 
do creep forth. "—Psalms, civ, 20. " And ye, that on the sands with printless foot do chase the 
ebbing Neptune, and do fly him when he comes back." — Shak. " And if a man did need a 
poison now." — Id. This needless use of do and did is now avoided by good writers. 2. Shall, 
Should, and Could : " ' Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, which after-hours give leisure to 
repent of I should advise you to proceed. I should think it would succeed. He, it should 
seem, thinks otherwise." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 65. "I could wish you to go." — lb., p. 71. 3. 
Will, &c. The following are nearly of the same character, but not exactly : " The isle is full of 
noises; sometimes a thousand twanging instruments will hum about % mine ears." — Shak. "In 
their evening sports she would steal in amongst them." — Barbauld. 

" His listless length at noontide would he stretch." — Gray. 

Obs. 12. — As our old writers often formed the infinitive in en, so they sometimes dropped the 
termination of the perfect participle. Hence we find, in the infancy of the language, done used 
for do, and do for done; and that by the same hand, with like changes in other verbs : as, " Thou 
canst nothing done." — Chaucer. "As he was wont to done." — Id. " The treson that to women 
hath be do." — Id. " For to ben honourable and free." — Id. "I am sworn to holden it secre." — 
Id. " Our nature GTod hath to him unyte." — Douglas. " None otherwise negligent than I you 
saie haue I not bee." — Id. See W. Allen's E. Gram., p. 97. 

" But netheless the thynge is do, 
That fals god was soone go." — Gower: H. Tooke, Vol. i, p. 376. 

Obs. 13. — " May is from the Anglo-Saxon, maigan, to be able. In the parent language also, it 
is used as an auxiliary. It is exhibited by Fortescue, as a principal verb ; ' They shall may do 
it:' i. e. they shall be able (to) do it." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 70. " May not, was formerly used 
for must not; as, ' Graces for which we may not cease to sue.' Hooker." — lb., p. 91. " May fre- 
quently expresses doubt of the fact ; as, ' I may have the book in my library, but I think I have 
not.' It is used also, to express doubt, or a consequence, with a future signification ; as, ' I may 
recover the use of my limbs, but I see little probability of it.' — ' That they may receive me into 
their houses.' Luke, xvi, 4." — GhurchilVs Gram., p. 247. In these latter instances, the potential 
present is akin to the subjunctive. Hence Lowth and others improperly call " I may love," &c. 
the subjunctive mood. Others, for the same reason, and with as little propriety, deny that we 
have any subjunctive mood; alleging an ellipsis in every thing that bears that name : as, " 'If 
it {may) be possible, live peaceably with all men.' Scriptures." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 61. May 
is also a sign of wishing, and consequently occurs often in prayer : as, " May it be thy good 
pleasure;" — " that it may please thee;" — "Mayst thou be pleased." Hence the potential is 
akin also to the imperative: the phrases, "Thy will be done,"— "May thy will be done," — 
" Be thy will done," — " Let thy will be done,"— are alike in meaning, but not in mood or con- 
struction. 

Obs. 14. — Can, to be able, is etymologically the same as the regular verbs ken, to see, and con, 
to learn ; all of them being derived from the Saxon connan or cunnan, to know : whence also the 
adjective cunning, which was formerly a participle. In the following example will and can are 
principal verbs : " In evil, the best condition is, not to will ; the second, not to can." — Ld. Bacon. 
" That a verb which signifies knowledge, may also signify power, appears from these examples : 
Je ne saurois, I should not know how, (i. e. could not.) 'Aa^a?itaaa-&E uc oldare, Strengthen it as 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. CONJUGATIONS. 365 

you know how, (i. e. as you can.) Nescio mentiri. I know not how to (i. e. 1 cannot) lie." — W. 
Allen's Gram., p. 11. Shall, Saxon sceal, originally signified to owe; for which reason should 
literally means ought. In the following example from Chaucer, shall is a principal verb, with its 
original meaning : 

" For, by the faith I shall to God, I wene, 
Was neuer straungir none in hir degre." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 64. 

Obs. 15. — Do and did are auxiliary only to the present infinitive, or the radical verb ; as, do 
throw, did throw : thus the mood of do throw or to throw is marked by do or to. Be, in all its 
parts, is auxiliary to either of the simple participles ; as, to be throwing, to be thrown ; I am throw- 
ing, 1 am thrown : and so, through the whole conjugation. Have and had, in their literal use, are 
auxiliary to the perfect participle only ; as, have thrown, had thrown. Have is from the Saxon 
habban, to possess ; and, from the nature of the perfect participle, the tenses thus formed, sug- 
gest in general a completion of the action. The French idiom is similar to this : as, Pai vu, I 
have seen. Shall and should, will and would, may and might, can and could, must, and also need, 
(if we call the last a helping verb,) are severally auxiliary to both forms of the infinitive, and to 
these only: as, shall throw, shall have thrown; should throw, should have thrown; and so of all the 
rest. 

Obs. 16. — The form of the indicative pluperfect is sometimes used in lieu of the potential plu- 
perfect; as, " If all the world could have seen it, the wo had been universal." — Shakspeare. That 
is, — " would have been universal." " I had been drowned, but that the shore was shelvy and shal- 
low." — Id. That is, — " I should have been drowned." This mode of expression may be referred 
to the . figure enallage, in which one word or one modification is used for an other. Similar to 
this is the use of were for would be : "It were injustice to deny the execution of the law to any 
individual ;" that is, " it would be injustice." — Murray's Grammar, p. 89. In some instances, 
were and had been seem to have the same import ; as, " Good were it for that man if he had 
never been born." — Mark, xiv, 21. " It had been good for that man if he had not been born." — 
Matt., xxvi, 24. In prose, all these licenses are needless, if not absolutely improper. In poetry, 
their brevity may commend them to preference ; but to this style, I think, they ought to be con- 
fined: as, 

" That had been just, replied the reverend bard ; 
But done, fair youth, thou ne'er hadst met me here." — Pollok. 

" The keystones of the arch! — though all were o'er, 
For us repeopled were the solitary shore." — Byron. 

Obs. 11. — "With an adverb of comparison or preference, as better, rather, best, as lief, or as lieve, 
the auxiliary had seems sometimes to be used before the infinitive to form the potential imperfect 
or pluperfect: as, "He that loses by getting, had better lose than get." — Pernios Maxims. "Other 
prepositions had better have been substituted." — Priestley's Gram., p. 166. "I had as lief say." — 
Lowth: ib., p. 110. "It compels me to think of that which I had rather forget." — Bickersteth, 
on Prayer, p. 25. "You had much better say nothing upon the subject." — Webster's Essays, p. 
147. " I had much rather show thee what hopes thou hast before thee." — Baxter. " I had rather 
speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." — 1 
Cor., xiv, 19. " I knew a gentleman in America who told me how much rather he had be a wo- 
man than the man he is." — Martineau's Society in America, Vol. i, p. 153. "I had as lief go as 
not." — Webster's Diet, w. Lirf. "I had as lieve the town crier spoke my lines." — Shak. : Hamlet. 
"We had best leave nature to her own operations." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 310. "What 
method had he best take f" — Harris's Hermes, p. ix. These are equivalent to the phrases, might 
better lose — might better have been substituted — would as lief say — would rather forget — might 
much better say — would much rather show — would rather speak — how much rather he would be 
— would as lief go — should best leave — might he best take ; and, for the sake of regularity, these 
latter forms ought to be preferred, as they sometimes are : thus, " For my own part, I would 
rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy." — Addison, Sped., No. 414; Blair's Bhet., p. 223. 
The following construction is different: " Augustus had like to have been slain." — S. Butler. Here 
had is a principal verb of the indicative imperfect. The following examples appear to be posi- 
tively erroneous : " Much that was said, had better remained unsaid." — N. Y. Observer. Say, 
" might better have remained." " A man that is lifting a weight, if he put not sufficient strength 
to it, had as good put none at all." — Baxter. Say, " might as well put." " You were better pour 
off the first infusion, and use the latter." — Bacon. Say, "might better pour ;" or, if you prefer it, 
" had better pour." Shakspeare has an expression which is still worse : — 

" Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, 
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog." — Beauties, p. 295. 
Obs. 18. — The form of conjugating the active verb, is often called the Active Voice, and that 
of the passive verb, the Passive Voice. These terms are borrowed from the Latin and Greek 
grammars, and, except as serving to diversify expression, are of little or no use in English gram- 
mar. Some grammarians deny that there is any propriety in them, with respect to any language. 
De Sacy, after showing that the import of the verb does not always follow its form of voice, 
adds : " We must, therefore, carefully distinguish the Voice of a Verb from its signification. To 
facilitate the distinction, I denominate that an Active Verb which contains an Attribute in which 
the action is considered as performed by the Subject ; and that a Passive A r erb which contains 
an Attribute in which the action is considered as suffered by the Subject, and performed upon it 



366 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

by some agent. I call that voice a Subjective Voice which is generally appropriated to the Act- 
ive Verb, and that an Objective Voice which is generally appropriated to the Passive Verb. As 
to the Neuter Verbs, if they possess a peculiar form, I call it a Neuter Voice." — Fosdick's Trans- 
lation, p. 99. 

Obs. 19. — A recognition of the difference between actives and passives, in our original classifi- 
cation of verbs with respect to their signification, — a principle of division very properly adopted 
in a great majority of our grammars and dictionaries, but opinionately rejected by "Webster, 
Bolles, and sundry late grammarians, — renders it unnecessary, if not improper, to place Voices, 
the Active Voice and the Passive, among the modifications of our verbs, or to speak of them as 
such in the conjugations. So must it be in respect to "a Neuter Voice," or any other distinction 
which the classification involves. The significant characteristic is not overlooked ; the distinction 
is not neglected as nonessential ; but it is transferred to a different category. Hence I cannot 
exactly approve of the following remark, which "the Rev. W. Allen" appears to cite with appro- 
bation: " ' The distinction of active or passive,' says the accurate Mr. Jones, ' is not essential to 
verbs. In the infancy of language, it was, in all probability, not known. In Hebrew, the differ- 
ence but imperfectly exists, and, in the early periods of it, probably did not exist at all. In 
Arabic, the only distinction which obtains, arises from the vowel points, a late invention com- 
pared with the antiquity of that language. And in our own tongue, the names of active and 
passive would have remained unknown, if they had not been learnt in Latin.' " — Allen's Elements 
of English Gram., p. 96. 

Obs. 20. — By the conjugation of a verb, some teachers choose to understand nothing more than 
the naming of its principal parts ; giving to the arrangement of its numbers and persons, through 
all the moods and tenses, the name of declension. This is a misapplication of terms, and the dis- 
tinction is as needless, as it is contrary to general usage. Dr. Bullions, long silent concerning 
principal parts, seems now to make a singular distinction between "conjugating" and "conju- 
gation" His conjugations include the moods, tenses, and inflections of verbs ; but he teaches also, 
with some inaccuracy, as follows: "The principal parts of the verb are the Present indicative, 
the Past indicative and the Past participle. The mentioning of these parts is called conjugating 
the verb." — Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 1849, p. 80. 

Obs. 21. — English verbs having but very few inflections to indicate to what part of the scheme 
of moods and tenses they pertain, it is found convenient to insert in our conjugations the prepo- 
sition to, to mark the infinitive ; personal pronouns, to distinguish the persons and numbers ; the 
conjunction if, to denote the subjunctive mood ; and the adverb not, to show the form of negation. 
"With these additions, or indexes, a verb may be conjugated in four ways : — 

1. Affirmatively ; as, I write, I do write, or, I am writing ; and so on. 

2. Negatively ; as, I write not, I do not write, or, I am not writing. 

3. Interrogatively ; as, Write I ? Do I write ? or, Am I writing ? 

4. Interrogatively and negatively ; as, "Write I not ? Do I not write ? or, Am I not writing ? 

I. SIMPLE FORM, ACTIVE OR NEUTER. 

The simplest form of an English conjugation, is that which makes the 
present and imperfect tenses without auxiliaries ; but, even in these, 
auxiliaries are required for the potential mood, and are often preferred 
for the indicative. 

FIKST EXAMPLE. 

The regular active verb LO VE, conjugated affirmatively. 

Principal Parts. 

Present. Preterit. Imperfect Participle. Perfect Participle. 

Love. Loved. Loving. Loved. 

INFINITIVE MOOD* 
The infinitive mood is that form of the verb, which expresses the being, action, or passion, in 
an unlimited manner, and without person or number. It is used only in the present and perfect 
tenses. 

Present Tense. 
This tense is the root, or radical verb ; and is usually preceded by the preposition to, which 
shows its relation to some other word : thus, 

To love. 

Perfect Tense. 
This tense prefixes the auxiliary have to the perfect participle ; and, like the infinitive present, 
is usually preceded by the preposition to : thus, 

To have loved. 

* " The substantive form, or, as it is commonly termed, infinitive mood, contains at the same time the essence 
of verbal meaning, and the literal boot on which all inflections of the verb are to be grafted. This character 
being common to the infinitive in all languages, it [this mood] ought to precede the [other] moods of verbs, 
instead of being made to follow them, as is absurdly practised in almost all grammatical systems." — Enclytica, 
p. 14. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 367 

INDICATIVE MOOD. 

The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or 
asks a question. It is used in all the tenses. 

Present Tense. 

The present indicative, in its simple form, is essentially the same as the present infinitive, or 
radical verb ; except that the verb be has am in the indicative. 

1. The simple form of the present tense is varied thus : — 
Singular. Plural. 

1st person, I love, 1st person, We love, 

2d person, Thou lovest, 2d person, You love, 

3d person, He loves; 3d person, They love. 

2. This tense may also be formed by prefixing the auxiliary do to the verb : thus, 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I do love, 1. We do love, 

2. Thou dost love, 2. You do love, 

3. He does love; 3. They do love. 

Imperfect Tense. 

This tense, in its simple form is the preterit ; which, in all regular verbs, adds d or ed to th« 
present, but in others is formed variously. 

1. The simple form of the imperfect tense is varied thus : — 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I loved, 1. We loved, 

2. Thou lovedst, 2. You loved, 

3. He loved; 3. They loved. 

2. This tense may also be formed by prefixing the auxiliary did to the present : thus, 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I did love, 1. We did love, 

2. Thou didst love, 2. You did love, 

3. He did love ; 3. They did love. 

Perfect Tense. 
This tense prefixes the auxiliary have to the perfect participle : thus, 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I have loved, 1. We have loved, 

2. Thou hast loved, 2. You have loved, 

3. He has loved ; 3. They have loved. 

Pluperfect Tense. 
This tense prefixes the auxiliary had to the perfect participle : thus, 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I had loved, 1. We had loved, 

2. Thou hadst loved, 2. You had loved, 

3. He had loved ; 3. They had loved. 

First-future Tense. 
This tense prefixes the auxiliary shall or will to the present : thus, 

1. Simply to express a future action or event : — 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I shall love, 1. We shall love, 

2. Thou wilt love, 2. You will love, 

3. He will love; 3. They will love. 

2. To express a promise, volition, command, or threat : — 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I will love, 1. We will love, 

2. Thou shalt love, 2. You shall love, 

3. He shall love ; 3. They shall love. 



368 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Second-future Tense. 

This tense prefixes the auxiliaries shall have or will have to the perfect participle : thus, 

Singular. Plural. 

1. I shall have loved, 1. We shall have loved, 

2. Thou wilt have loved, 2. You will have loved, 

3. He will have loved; 3. They will have loved. 

Obs. — The auxiliary shall may also be used in the second and third persons of this tense, when 
preceded by a conjunction expressing condition or contingency; as, "If he shall have completed 
the work by midsummer." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 80. So, with the conjunctive adverb when ; 
as, " Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; 
when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power." — 1 Cor., xv, 24. And perhaps 
will may here be used in the first person to express a promise, though such usage, I think, seldom 
occurs Professor Fowler has given to this tense, first, the "Predictive" form, as exhibited above, 
and then a form which he calls " Promissive," and in which the auxiliaries are varied thus: 
" Singular. 1. I will have taken. 2. Thou shalt have taken, you shall have taken. 3. He shall 
have taken. Plural. 1. We will have taken. 2. Ye or you shall have taken. 3. He [say 
They,] shall have taken." — Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo., N. Y., 1850, p. 281. But the other instances 
just cited show that such a form is not always promissory. 

POTENTIAL MOOD. 

The potential mood is that form of the verb, which expresses the power, liberty, possibility, or 
necessity of the being, action, or passion. It is used in the first four tenses ; but the potential 
imperfect is properly an aorist : its time is very indeterminate ; as, " He would be devoid of sensi- 
bility were he not greatly satisfied." — Lord Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 11. 

Present Tense. 

This tense prefixes the auxiliary may, can, or must, to the radical verb : thus, 

Singular. Plural. 

1. I may love, 1. We may love, 

2. Thou mayst love, 2. You may love, 

3. He may love ; 3. They may love. 

Imperfect Tense. 

This tense prefixes the auxiliary might, could, would, or should, to the radical verb: thus, 

Singular. Plural. 

1. I might love, 1. We might love, 

2. Thou mightst love, 2. You might love, 

3. He might love ; 3. They might love. 

Perfect Tense. 
This tense prefixes the auxiliaries, may have, can have, or must have, to the perfect participle : 
thus, 

Singular. ' Plural. 

1. I may have loved, 1. We may have loved, 

2. Thou mayst have loved, 2. You may )iave loved, 

3. He may have loved ; 3. They may have loved. 

Pluperfect Tense. 
This tense prefixes the auxiliaries, might have, could have, would have, or should have, to the per- 
fect participle: thus, 

Singular. Plural. 

1. I might have loved, 1. We might have loved, 

2. Thou mightst have loved, 2. You might have loved, 

3. He might have loved ; 3. They might have loved. 

SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 

The subjunctive mood is that form of the verb, which represents the being, action, or passion, 
as conditional, doubtful, or contingent. This mood is generally preceded by a conjunction ; as, if, 
that, though, lest, unless, except. But sometimes, especially in poetry, it is formed by a mere placing 
of the verb before the nominative; as, " Were I" for, " If I were;" — " Had he," for, "If he had;" 
— i; Fall we," for, "If we fall;" — " Knew they," for, "If they knew" It does not vary its termi- 
nation at all, in the different persons.* It is used in the present, and sometimes in the imperfect 

* By this, I mean, that the verb in all the persons, both singular and plural, is the same inform. But Lind- 
ley Murray, when he speaks of not varying or not changing the termination of the verb, most absurdly means 
by it, that the verb is inflected, just as it is in the indicative or the potential mood ; and when he speaks of 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 369 

tense ; rarely — and perhaps never properly — in any other. As this mood can be used only in a 
dependent clause, the time implied in its tenses is always relative, and generally indefinite ; as, 
" It shall be in eternal restless change, 
Self-fed, and self-consum'd : if this fail, 
The pillar'd firmament is rottenness." — Milton, Comics, 1. 596. 

Present Tense. 
This tense is generally used to express some condition on which a future action or event is 
affirmed. It is therefore erroneously considered by some grammarians, as an elliptical form of the 
future. 

Singular. Plural. 

1. If I love, 1. If we love, 

2. If Thou love, 2. If you love, 

3. If He love ; 3. If they love. 

Obs. — In this tense, the auxiliary do is sometimes employed ; as, " If thou do prosper my way." 
— Genesis, xxiv, 42. "If he do not utter it" — Leviticus, v, 1. "If he do but intimate his desire." 
— Murray's Key, p. 20*7. "If he do promise, he will certainly perform." — lb., p. 208. "An 
event which, if it ever do occur, must occur in some future period." — Hiley's Gram., (3d Ed., 
Lond.,) p. 89. "If he do but promise, thou art safe." — lb., 89. 
"Till old experience do attain 
To something like prophetic strain." — Milton: llPenseroso. 
These examples, if they are right, prove the tense to be present, and not future, as Hiley and some 
others suppose it to be. 

Imperfect Tense. 
This tense, like the imperfect of the potential mood, with which it is frequently connected, is 
properly an aorist, or indefinite tense; for it may refer to time past, present, or future: as, "If 
therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, what further need ivas there that an other 
priest should rise?" — Heb., vii, 11. "They must be viewed exactly in the same light, as if the in- 
tention to purchase now existed." — Murray's Parsing Exercises, p. 24. " If it were possible, they 
shall deceive the very elect." — Matt, xxiv, 24. " If the whole body were an eye, where were the 
hearing?" — 1 Corinthians, xii, 17. " If the thankful refrained, it would be pain and grief to them." 
— Atterbury. 

Singular. Plural. 

1. If I loved, 1. If we loved, 

2. If thou loved, 2. If you loved, 

3. If he loved ; 3. If they loved. 

Obs. — In this tense, the auxiliary did is sometimes employed. The subjunctive may here be 
distinguished from the indicative, by these circumstances ; namely, that the time is indefinite, and 
that the supposition is always contrary to the fact: as, " Great is the number of those who might 
attain to true wisdom, if they did not already think themselves wise." — Dillwyn's Reflections, p. 36. 
This implies that they do think themselves wise ; but an indicative supposition or concession — (as, 
" Though they did not think themselves wise, they were so — ") accords with the fact, and with the 
literal time of the tense, — here time past. The subjunctive imperfect, suggesting the idea of what 
is not, and known by the sense, is sometimes introduced without any of the usual signs; as, "In a 
society of perfect men, where all understood what was morally right, and were determined to act 
accordingly, it is obvious, that human laws, or even human organization to enforce God's laws, 
would be altogether unnecessary, and could serve no valuable purpose." — Pres. Shannon: 
Examiner, No. 78. 

IMPERATIVE MOOD. 

The imperative mood is that form of the verb, which is used in commanding, exhorting, en- 
treating, or permitting. It is commonly used only in the second person of the present tense. 

changes or variations of termination, he means, that the verb remains the same as in the first person singular! 
For example: " The second person singular of the imperfect tense in the subjunctive mood, is also very fre- 
quently varied in its termination : as, l If thou loved him truly, thou wouldst obey him.' " — Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 209. "The auxiliaries of the potential mood, 'when applied to the subjunctive, do not change the termi- 
nation of the second person singular; as, "If thou mayst or canst go." — lb., p. 210. "Some authors think, 
that the termination of these auxiliaries should be varied: as, I advise thee, that thou may beware." — lb., p. 
210. " When the circumstances of contingency and futurity concur, it is proper to vary the terminations of the 
second and third persons singular." — lb., 210. "It may be considered as a rule, that the changes of termina- 
tion are necessary, when these two circumstances concur." — lb., p. 207. " It may be considered as a rule, that 
no changes of termination are necessary, when these two circumstances concur." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 264. 
Now Murray and Ingersoll here mean precisely the same thing! Whose fault is that ? If Murray's, he has 
committed many such. But, in this matter, he is contradicted not only by Ingersoll, but, on one occasion, by 
himself. For he declares it to be an opinion in which he concurs. " That the definition and nature of the sub- 
junctive mood, have no reference to change of termination." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 211. And yet, amidst 
his strange blunders, he seems to have ascribed the meaning which a verb has in this mood, to the inflections 
which it receives in the indicative: saying, " That part of the verb which grammarians call the present tense 
of th i subjunctive mood, has a future sienifioation. This is effected by varying the terminations of the second 
and third persons singular of the indicative /" — lb., p. 207. But the absurdity which he really means to teach, 
is, that the subjunctive mood is derived from the indicative, — the primitive or radical verb, from its deriva- 
tives or branches ! 

24 



370 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Present Tense. 

Singular. 2. Love [thou,] or Do thou love ; 

Plural. 2. Love [ye or you,] or Do you love. 

Obs. — In the Greek language, which has three numbers, the imperative mood is used in the 
second and third persons of them all ; and has also several different tenses, some of which cannot 
be clearly rendered in English. In Latin, this mood has a distinct form for the third person, both 
singular and plural. In Italian, Spanish, and French, the first person plural is also given it. 
Imitations of some of these forms are occasionally employed in English, particularly by the 
poets. Such imitations must be referred to this mood, unless by ellipsis and transposition we 
make them out to be something else ; and against this there are strong objections. Again, as 
imprecation on one's self is not impossible, the first person singular may be added ; so that this 
mood may 'possibly have all the persons and numbers. Examples : " Come we now to his trans- 
lation of the Iliad." — Pope's Pref. to Dunciad. " Proceed we therefore in our subject." — lb. 
" Blessed be he that blesseth thee." — Gen., xxvii, 29. " Thy kingdom come.' 1 ' 1 — Matt., vi, 10. " But 
pass we that." — W. Scott. " Third person : Be he, Be they" — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 92. 

"My soul, turn from them — turn we to survey," &c. — Goldsmith. 
" Then turn we to her latest tribune's name." — Byron. 
" Where'er the eye could fight these words you read: 
'Who comes this way — behold, and fear to sin!' " — Polloh. 
" Fall he that must, beneath his rival's arms, 

And live the rest, secure of future harms." — Pope. 
" Cursed be I that did so ! — All the charms 

Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you !" — ShaJcspeare. 
u Have done thy charms, thou hateful wither'd hag!" — Idem. 

PARTICIPLES. 

1. The Imperfect. 2. The Perfect. 3. The Preperfect. 

Loving. Loved. Having loved. 

SYNOPSIS OF THE FIRST EXAMPLE. 

First Person Singular. 

Ind. I love or do love, I loved or did love, I have loved, I had loved, I shall or 

will love, I shall or will have loved. Pot. I may, can, or must love ; I might, 

could, would, or should love ; I may, can, or must have loved ; I might, could, would, 

or should have loved. Subj. If I love, If I loved. 

Second Person Singular. 
Ind. Thou lovest or dost love, Thou lovedst or didst love, Thou hast loved, Thou 
hadst loved, Thou shalt or wilt love, Thou shalt or wilt have loved. Pot. Thou 
niayst, canst, or must love ; Thou mightst, couldst, wouldst, or shouldst love ; Thou 
mayst, canst, or must have loved ; Thou mightst, couldst, wouldst, or shouldst have 
loved. Subj. If thou love, If thou loved. Imp. Love [thou,] or Do tbou love. 

Third Person Singular. 
Ind. He loves or does love, He loved or did love, He has loved, He had loved, 
He shall or will love, He shall or will have loved. Pot. He may, can, or must love ; 
He might, could, would, or should love ; He may, can, or must have loved ; He 
might, could, would, or should have loved. Subj. If he love, If he loved. 

First Person Plural. 
Ind. We love or do love, We loved or did love, We have loved, We had loved, 
We shall or will love, We shall or will have loved. Pot. We may, can, or must 
love, We might, could, would, or should love ; We may, can, or must have loved ; 
We might, could, would, or should have loved. Subj. If we love, If we loved. 

Second Person Plural. 
Ind. You love or do love, You loved or did love, You have loved, You had loved, 
You shall or will love, You shall or will have loved. Pot. You may, can, or must 
love ; You might, could, would, or should love ; You may, can, or must have loved ; 
You might, could, would, or should have loved. Subj. If you love, If you loved. 
Imp. Love [ye or you,] or Do you love. 



CHAP. VI.] 



ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 



371 



Third Person Plural. 

Ind. They love or do love, They loved or did love, They have loved, They had 
loved, They shall or will love, They shall or will have loved. Pot. They may, can, 
or must love ; They might, could, would, or should love ; They may, can, or must 
have loved ; They might, could, would, or should have loved. Subj. If they love, 
If they loved. 

Familiar Form with 'Thou.' 

Note. — In the familiar style, the second person singular of this verb, is usually and more prop- 
erly formed thus : Ind. Thou lov'st or dost love, Thou loved or did love, Thou hast loved, Thou 
had loved, Thou shall or will love, Thou shall or will have loved. Pot. Thou may, can, or must 
love ; Thou might, could, would, or should love ; Thou may, can, or must have loved ; Thou 
might, could, would, or should have loved. Subj. If thou love, If thou loved. Imp. Love 
[thou,] or Do thou love. 

SECOND EXAMPLE. 

The irregular active verb SEE, conjugated affirmatively. 
Principal Parts. 
Present. Preterit. Imp. Participle. Per/. Participle. 

See. Saw. Seeing. Seen. 

INFINITIVE MOOD. 

Present Tense. 

To see. 

Perfect Tense. 
To have seen. 



INDICATIVE MOOD. 
Present Tense. 



Singular. 

1. I see, 

2. Thou seest, 

3. He sees; 

Singular. 

1. I saw, 

2. Thou sawest, 

3. He saw ; 

Singular. 

1. I have seen, 

2. Thou hast seen, 

3. He has seen ; 

Singular. 

1. I had seen, 

2. Thou hadst seen, 

3. He had seen; 

Singular. 

1. I shall see, 

2. Thou wilt see, 

3. He will see ; 

Singular. 

1. I shall have seen, 

2. Thou wilt have seen, 

3. He will have seen ; 



Imperfect Tense. 



Perfect Tense. 



Pluperfect Tense. 



Flrst-future Tense. 



Second-future Tense. 





Plural. 


1. 


We see, 


2. 


You see, 


3. 


They see. 




Plural. 


1. 


We saw, 


2, 


You saw, 


3. 


They saw. 



Plural. 

1. We have seen, 

2. You have seen, 

3. They have seen. 

Plural. 

1. We had seen, 

2. You had seen, 

3. They had seen. 

Plural. 

1. We shall see, 

2. You will see, 

3. They will see. 

Plural. 

1. We shall have seen, 

2. You will have seen, 

3. They will have seen. 



372 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART II. 



Singular. 

1. I may see, 

2. Thou mayst see, 

3. He may see ; 

Singular. 

1. I might see, 

2. Thou mightst see, 

3. He might see; 



POTENTIAL MOOD. 

Present Tense. 



Imperfect Tense. 



Perfect Tense. 



Singular. 

1. I may have seen, 

2. Thou mayst have seen, 

3. He may have seen; 

Pluperfect Tense. 
Singular. 

1. I might have seen, 

2. Thou mightst have seen, 

3. He might have seen ; 



Singular. 

1. If I see, 

2. If thou see, 

3. If he see 



Singular. 

1. If I saw, 

2. If thou saw, 

3. If he saw : 



SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 

Present Tense. 



Imperfect Tense. 



Plural. 

1. We may see, 

2. You may see, 

3. They may see. 

Plural. 

1. We might see, 

2. You might see, 

3. They might see. 

Plural. 

1. We may have seen, 

2. You may have seen, 

3. They may have seen. 



Plural. 

1. We might have seen, 

2. You might have seen, 

3. They might have seen. 



Plural. 

1. If we see, 

2. If you see, 

3. If they see. 

Plural. 

1. If we saw, 

2. If you saw, 

3. If they saw. 



Singular. 
Plural. 



1. The Imperfect. 

Seeing. 



IMPERATIVE MOOD. 
Present Tense. 
2. See [thou,] or Do thou see ; 

2. See [ye or you,] or Do you see. 



PARTICIPLES. 

2. The Perfect. 
Seen. 



NOTES. 



3. The Preperfect. 
Having seen. 



Note 1. — The student ought to be able to rehearse the form of a verb, not only according to 
the order of the entire conjugation, but also according to the synopsis of the several persons and 
numbers. One sixth part of the paradigm, thus recited, gives in general a fair sample of the 
whole; and, in class recitations, this mode of rehearsal will save much time: as, Ind. I see or do 
see, I saw or did see, I have seen, I had seen, I shall or will see, I shall or will have seen. Pot. 
I may, can, or must see ; I might, could, would, or should see ; I may, can, or must have seen ; 
I might, could, wo»ld, or should have seen. Subj. If I see, If I saw. 

Note II. — In the familiar style, the second person singular of this verb is usually and more 
properly formed thus : Ind. Thou seest or dost see, Thou saw or did see, Thou hast seen, Thou 
had seen, Thou shall or will see, Thou shall or will have seen. Pot. Thou may, can, or must 
see ; Thou might, could, would, or should see ; Thou may, can, or must have seen ; Thou might, 
could, would, or should have seen. Subj. If thou see, If thou saw. Imp. See [thou,] or Do 
thou see. 



CHAP. VI.] 



ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 



373 



THIRD EXAMPLE. 

The irregular neuter verb BE, conjugated affirmatively. 
Principal Parts. 



Present. Preterit 
Be. Was. 


Imp. Participle. 
Being. 

INFINITIVE MOOD. 

Present Tense. 

To be. 

Perfect Tense. 
To have been. 

INDICATIVE MOOD. 




Per/. Participle. 
Been. 


Singular. 

1. I am, 

2. Thou art, 

3. He is; 


Present Tense. 


1. 

2. 
3. 


Plural. 
We are, 
You are, 
They are. 


Imperfect Tense. 
Singular. 

1. I was, 

2. Thou wast, (or wert,)* 

3. He was; 


1. 

2. 
3. 


Plural. 
We were, 
You were, 
They were. 


Singular. 

1. I have been, 

2. Thou hast been, 

3. He has been ; 


Perfect Tense. 


1. 

2. 
3. 


Plural. 

We have been, 
You have been, 
They have been. 


Singular. 

1. I had been, 

2. Thou hadst been, 

3. He had been ; 


Pluperfect Tense. 


1. 
2. 
3. 


Plural. 

We had been, 
You had been, 
They had been. 


Singular. 

1. I shall be, 

2. Thou wilt be, 

3. He will be; 


ElRST-FUTURE TENSE. 


1. 

2. 
3. 


Plural. 
We shall be, 
You will be, 
They will be. 


Second-future Tense. 
Singular. 

1. I shall have been, 

2. Thou wilt have been, 

3. He will have been; 


1. 
2. 
3. 


Plural. 

We shall have been, 
You will have been, 
They will have been. 



Singular. 

1. I may be, 

2. Thou mayst be, 

3. He may be, 



POTENTIAL MOOD. 

Present Tense. 



Plural. 

1. We may be, 

2. You may be, 

3. They may be. 



* Wert is sometimes used in lieu of wast ; and, in such instances, both by authority and by analogy, it ap- 
pears to belong here, if anywhere. See Obs. 2d and 3d, below. 



374 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART II. 



Singular. 

1. I might be, 

2. Thou mightst be, 

3. He might be; 



Imperfect Tense. 



Perfect Tense. 



Singular. 

1. I may have been, 

2. Thou mayst have been, 

3. He may have been ; 

Pluperfect Tense. 
Singular. 

1. I might have been, 

2. Thou mightst have been, 

3. He might have been ; 



SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 

Present Tense. 





Singular. 




1. 


If I be, 




2. 


If thou be, 




3. 


If he be ; 
Singular. 


Impe 


1. 


If I were,* 




2. 


If thou were, {or 


wert,)f 


3. 


If he were : 





Imperfect Tense. 



Singular. 
Plural. 



1. The Imperfect. 
Being. 



IMPERATIVE MOOD. 
Present Tense. 
2. Be [thou,] 
2. Be [ye or youj 

PARTICIPLES. 
2. The Perfect. 
Been. 



Plural. 

1. "We might be, 

2. You might be, 

3. They might be. 

Plural. 

1. "We may have been, 

2. You may have been, 

3. They may have been. 

Plural. 

1. "We might have been, 

2. You might have been, 

3. They might have been. 



Plural. 

1. If we be, 

2. If you be 

3. If they be. 

Plural. 

1. If we were, 

2. If you were, 

3. If they were. 



or Do thou be ; 
or Do you be. 



3. The Preperfeet. 
Having been. 



Familiar Form with '•Thou? 

Note. — In the familiar style, the second person singular of this verb, is usually and more 
properly formed thus : Ind. Thou art, Thou was, Thou hast been, Thou had been, Thou shall or 
will be, Thou shall or will have been. Pot. Thou may, can, or must be ; Thou might, could, 
would, or should be ; Thou may, can, or must have been ; Thou might, could, would, or should 
have been. Subj. If thou be, If thou were. Imp. Be [thou,] or Do thou be. 

* Some grammarians, regardless of the general usage of authors, prefer was to were in the singular number 
of this tense of the subjunctive mood. In the following remark, the tense is named " present," and this prefer- 
ence is urged with some critical extravagance : " Was, though the past tense of the indicative mood, expresses 
the present of the hypothetical ; as, 'I wish that I was well.' The use of this hypothetical form of the sub- 
junctive mood, has given rise to a form of expression wholly unwarranted by the rules of grammar. When the 
verb was is to be used in the present tense singular, in this form of the subjunctive mood, the ear is often pained 
with a plural were, as, ' Were I your master 1 — ' Were he compelled to do it,' &c. This has become so com- 
mon that some of the best grammars of the language furnish authority for the barbarism, and even in the sec- 
ond person supply wert, as a convenient accompaniment. If such a conjugation is admitted, we may expect to 
see Shakspeare's 'thou beesV in full use." — Chandler's Gram., Ed. of 1821, p. 55. In " Chandler' s Common 
School Grammar," of 1S47, the language of this paragraph is somewhat softened, but the substance is still 
retained. See the latter work, p. 80. 

t "If I were, If thou were, If he were." — Harrison's Gram., p. 31. "If, or though, I were loved. If, or 
though, thou were, or wert loved. If, or though, he were loved." — Bicknell's Gram., Part i, p. 69. "If, 
though, &c. I were burned, thou were burned or you were burned, he were burned." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 
53. "Though thou were. Some say, 'though thou wert.'" — Mackintosh's Gram., p. 178. "If or though I 
were. If or though thou were. If or though he were." — St. Quentin's General Gram., p. 86. "If I was, 
Thou wast, or You was or were, He was. Or thus : If I were, Thou wert, or you was or were, He were." — 
Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 95; Improved Gram., p. 64. "Pbesent Texse. Before, &c. I be; thou 
beest, or you be; he, she, or it, be: "We, you or ye, they, be. Past Tense. Before, &c. I were; thou wert, or 
you were ; he, she, or it, were ; We, you or ye, theyi were.'"' — White, on the English Verb, p. 52. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VEKBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 375 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — It appears that be, as well as am, was formerly used for the indicative present : as, " I 
be, Thou beest, He be; We be, Ye be, They be." See Brightland's Gram., p. 114. Dr. Lowth, 
whose Grammar is still preferred at Harvard University, gives both forms, thus : "I am, Thou 
art, He is ; We are, Ye are, They are. Or, I be, Thou beest, He is ; We be, Ye be, They be." 
To the third person singular, he subjoins the foUowing example and remark : " 'I think it oe thine 
indeed, for thou liest in it.' Shak. Hamlet. Be, in the singular number of this time and mode, 
especially in the third person, is obsolete ; and is become somewhat antiquated in the plural." — 
Lowth 1 s Gram., p. 36. Dr. Johnson gives this tense thus: " Sing. I am; thou art; he is; Plur. 
We are, or be ; ye are, or be ; they are, or be." And adds, " The plural be is now little in use." 
— Gram, in Johnson 's Bid., p. 8. The Bible commonly has am, art, is, and are, but not always; 
the indicative be occurs in some places: as, "We be twelve brethren." — Gen., xlii, 32. "What 
be these two olive branches ?" — Zech., iv, 12. Some traces of this usage still occur in poetry: as, 

" There be more things to greet the heart and eyes 
In Arno's dome of Art's most princely shrine, 
Where Sculpture with her rainbow sister vies ; 
There be more marvels yet — but not for mine." — Byron 1 s Childe Harold, Canto iv, st. 61. 

Obs. 2. — Respecting the verb wert, it is not easy to determine whether it is most properly of the 
indicative mood only, or of the subjunctive mood only, or of both, or of neither. The regular and. 
analogical form for the indicative, is "Thou wast; 1 ' and for the subjunctive, " If thou were. 11 
Brightland exhibits, " I was or were, Thou wast or wert, He was or were, 11 without distinction of 
mood, for the three persons singular ; and, for the plural, tuere only. Dr. Johnson gives us, for 
the indicative, " Thou wast, or wert;" with the remark, "Wert is properly of the conjunctive 
mood, and ought not to be used in the indicative." — Johnson's Gram., p. 8. In his conjunctive 
(or subjunctive) mood, he has, " Thou beest, 11 and " Thou wert. 11 So Milton wrote, " If thou beest 
he." — P. Lost, B. i, L 84. Likewise Shakspeare : "If thou beest Stephano." — Tempest. This 
inflection of be is obsolete : all now say, " If thou be. 11 But wert is still in use, to some extent, for 
both moods ; being generally placed by the grammarians in the subjunctive only, but much oftener 
written for the indicative: as, "Whate'er thou art or wert." — Byron's Harold. Canto iv, st. 115. 
" thou that wert so happy V'—Ib., st. 109. " Vainly wert thou wed." — lb., st. 169. 

Obs. 3. — Dr. Lowth gave to this verb, Be, that form of the subjunctive mood, which it now has 
in most of our grammars ; appending to it the following examples and questions: "'Before the 
sun, Before the Heavens, thou wert. 1 — Milton. ' Remember what thou wert. 1 — Dry den. ' I knew 
thou wert not slow to hear.' — Addison. 'Thou who of old wert sent to Israel's court.' — Prior. 
' All this thou wert. 1 — Pope. 'Thou, Stella, wert no longer young.' — Swift. Shall we, in defer- 
ence to these great authorities," asks the Doctor, " allow wert to be the same with wast, and 
common to the indicative and [the] subjunctive mood ? or rather abide by the practice of our best 
ancient writers ; the propriety of the language, which requires, as far as may be, distinct forms, 
for different moods ; and the analogy of formation in each mood ; I was, thou wast ; I were, thou 
loert? all which conspire to make wert peculiar to the subjunctive mood." — Lowth 1 s Gram., p. 37 ; 
ChurchiWs, p. 251. I have before shown, that several of the "best ancient writers" did not inflect 
the verb were, but wrote " thou ivere; 11 and, surely, "the analogy of formation," requires that 
the subjunctive be not inflected. Hence "the propriety which requires distinct forms," requires 
not wert, in either mood. Why then should we make this contraction of the old indicative ibrm 
werest, a solitary exception, by fixing it in the subjunctive only, and that in opposition to the best 
authorities that ever used it ? It is worthier to take rank with its kindred beest, and be called an 
archaism. 

Obs. 4. — The chief characteristical difference between the indicative and the subjunctive mood, 
is, that in the latter the verb is not inflected at all, in the different persons: Ind. "Thou mag- 
nifiest his work." Subj. " Remember that thou magnify his work." — Job, xxxvi, 24. Ind. "He 
enfeoff, shuts up, and gathers together." Subj. "If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, 
then who can hinder him ?" — Job, xi, 10. There is also a difference of meaning. The Indicative, 
"If he was, 11 admits the fact; the Subjunctive, " If he were, 11 supposes that he was not. These 
moods may therefore be distinguished by the sense, even when their forms are alike : as, "Though 
it thundered, it did not rain." — " Though it thundered, he would not hear it." The indicative 
assumption here is, "Though it did thunder, 11 or, " Though there teas thunder ;" the subjunctive, 
" Though it should thunder, 11 or, "Though there were thunder." These senses are clearly differ- 
ent. Writers however are continually confounding these moods ; some in one way, some in an 
other. Thus S. R. Hall, the teacher of a Seminary for Teachers: " Subj. Present Tense. 1. If 
I be, or am, 2. If thou be, or art, 3. If he be, or is ; 1. If we be, or are, 2. If ye or you be, or are, 
3. If they be, or are. Imperfect Tense. 1. If I were, or was, 2. If thou wert, or wast, 3. If he 
were, or was ; 1. If we were, 2. If ye or you were, 3. If they were." — Halt's Grammatical Assist- 
ant, p. 17. Again: Subj. Present Tense. 1. If I love, 2. If thou lovest, 3. If he love," &c. " The 
remaining tenses of this mode, are, in general, similar to the correspondent tenses of the Indicative 
mode, only with the conjunction prefixed." — lb., p. 20. Dr. Johnson observes, " The indicative 
and conjunctive moods are by modern writers frequently confounded ; or rather the conjunctive 
is wholly neglected, when some convenience of versification does not invite its revival. It is used 
among the purer writers of former times ; as, ' Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be 



376 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not.' " — Gram, in Joh. Diet, p. 9. To neglect the sub- 
junctive mood, or to confound it with the indicative, is to augment several of the worst faults of 
the language. 

II. COMPOUND OR PROGRESSIVE PORM. 

Active and neuter verbs may also be conjugated, by adding the Im- 
perfect Participle to the auxiliary verb Be, through all its changes ; as, 
u I am writing a letter." — " He is sitting idle/' — " They are going." 
This form of the verb denotes a continuance of the action or state of 
being, and is, on many occasions, preferable to the simple form of the 
verb. 

FOURTH EXAMPLE. 

The irregular active verb READ, conjugated affirmatively, in the Compound Form. 

Principal Parts of the Simple Yerb. 
Present. Preterit. Imp. Participle. Per/. Participle. 
Read. Read. Reading. Read. 

INFINITIVE MOOD. 
Present Tense. 
To be reading. 

Perfect Tense. 
To have been reading. 

INDICATIVE MOOD. 
Present Tense. 
i Singular. Plural. 

1. I am reading, 1. We are reading, 

2. Thou art reading, 2. You are reading, 

3. He is reading; 3. They are reading. 

* Imperfect Tense. 

Singular. Plural. 

1. I was reading, 1. We were reading, 

2. Thou wast reading, 2. You were reading, 

3. He was reading; 3. They were reading. 

Perfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I have been reading, 1. We have been reading, 

2. Thou hast been reading, 2. You have been reading, 

3. He has been reading ; 3. They have been reading. 

Pluperfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I had been reading, 1. We had been reading, 

2. Thou badst been reading, 2. You had been reading, 

3. He had been reading ; 3. They had been reading. 

First-future Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I shall be reading, 1. We shall be reading, 

2. Thou wilt be reading, 2. You will be reading, 

3. He will be reading ; 3. They will be reading. 

Second-future Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I shall have been reading, 1. We shall have been reading, 

2. Thou wilt have been reading, 2. You will have been reading, 

3. He will have been reading; 3. They will have been reading. 



CHAP. VI.] 



ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 



377 



Singular. 

1. I may be reading, 

2. Thou mayst be reading, 

3. He may be reading ; 



POTENTIAL MOOD. 

Present Tense. 

Plural. 

1. We may be reading, 

2. You may be reading, 

3. They may be reading. 



Singular. 

1. I might be reading, 

2. Thou mightst be reading, 

3. He might be reading ; 



Imperfect Tense. 



Plural. 

1. We might be reading, 

2. You might be reading, 

3. They might be reading. 



Perfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I may have been reading, 1. We may have been reading, 

2. Thou mayst have been reading, 2. You may have been reading, 

3. He may have been reading ; 3. They may have been reading. 

Pluperfect Tense. 



Singular. 

1. I might have been reading, 

2. Thou mightst have been reading, 

3. He might have been reading ; 



Plural. 

1. We might have been reading, 

2. You might have been reading, 

3. They might have been reading. 



Singular. 

1. If I be reading, 

2. If thou be reading, 

3. If he be reading ; 



Singular. 

1. If I were reading, 

2. If thou were reading, 

3. If he were reading ; 



SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 
Present Tense. 

Plural. 

1. If we be reading, 

2. If you be reading, 

3. If they be reading. 

Imperfect Tense. 

Plural. 

1. If we were reading, 

2. If you were reading, 

3. If they were reading. 



IMPERATIVE MOOD. 



Sing. 2. 
Plur. 2. 



Be 
Be 



thou] reading, 

ye or you] reading, 



1. The Imperfect. 
Being reading. 



PARTICIPLES. 
2. The Perfect. 



or Do thou be reading ; 
or Do you be reading. 



3. The Preperfect. 

Having been reading. 



Familiar Form with 'Thou. 



Note. — In the familiar style, the second person singular of this verb, is usually and more 
properly formed thus : Ind. Thou art reading, Thou was reading, Thou hast been reading, Thou 
had been reading, Thou shall or will be reading, Thou shall or will have been reading. Pot. 
Thou may, can, or must be reading ; Thou might, could, would, or should be reading ; Thou may, 
can, or must have been reading ; Thou might, could, would, or should have been reading. Subj. 
If thou be reading, If thou were reading. Imp. Be [thou,] reading, or Do thou be reading. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Those verbs which, in their simple form, imply continuance, do not admit the com- 
pound form : thus we say, " I respect him ;" but not, " I am respecting him." This compound form 
seems to imply that kind of action, which is susceptible of intermissions and renewals. Affections 
of the mind or "heart are supposed to last ; or, rather, actions of this kind are complete as soon as 
they exist. Hence, to love, to hate, to desire, to fear, to forget, to remember, and many other such 



378 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

verbs, are incapable of this method of conjugation.* It is true, we often find in grammars such 
models, as, "I was loving, Thou wast loving, He was loving," &c. But this language, to express 
what the authors intend by it, is not English. "He was loving," can only mean, "He was 
affectionate :" in which sense, loving is an adjective, and susceptible of comparison. "Who, in 
common parlance, has ever said, "He was loving me," or any thing like it? Yet some have 
improperly published various examples, or even whole conjugations, of this spurious sort. See 
such in Adam's Gram., p. 91 ; Gould's Adam, 83; Bullions 1 s English Gram., 52 ; his Analyt. and 
Pract. Gram., 92 ; Chandler's New Gram., 85 and 86; Clark's, 80 ; Cooper's Plain and Practical, 
70; Frazee's Improved, 66 and 69 ; S. S. Greene's, 234; Guy's, 25; Hallock's, 103; Hart's, 88; 
Hendrick's, 38; Lennie's, 31; Lowth's, 40; Harrison's, 34; Parley's, 36; Pinneo's Primary, 101. 

Obs. 2. — Verbs of this form have sometimes a passive signification ; as, " The books are now sell- 
ing." — Allen's Gram., p. 82. "As the money was paying down." — Ainsworth's Diet, w. As. "It 
requires no motion in the organs whilst it is forming." — Murray's Gram., p. 8. " Those works 
are long forming which must always last." — Br. Chetwood. "While the work of the temple was 
carrying on." — Br. J. Owen. " The designs of Providence are carrying on." — Bp. Butler. "A 
scheme, which has been carrying on, and is still carrying on." — Id., Analogy, p. 188. "We are 
permitted to know nothing of what is transacting in the regions above us." — Br. Blair. "While 
these things were transacting in Germany." — Russell's Modern Europe, Part First, Let. 59. " As 
he was carrying to execution, he demanded to be heard." — Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. i, p. 163. " To 
declare that the action was doing or done." — Booth's Introd., p. 28. "It is doing by thousands 
now." — Abbott's Young Christian, p. 121. "While the experiment was making, he was watching 
every movement." — lb., p. 309. " A series of communications from heaven, which had been making 
for fifteen hundred years." — lb., p. 166. " Plutarch's Lives are re-printing." — L. Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 64. " My Lives are reprinting." — Dr. Johnson': Worcester's Univ. and Grit. Bid., p. xlvi. 
"All this has been transacting within 130 miles of London." — Byron: Perley's Gram., p. 37. 
" When the heart is corroding by vexations." — Student's Manual, p. 336. "The padlocks for our 
lips are forging." — Whittier: Liberator, No. 993. "When his throat is cutting." — Collier's 
Antoninus. " While your story is telling." — Adams's Rhet., i, 425. " But the seeds of it were 
sowing som3 time before." — Bolingbroke, on History, p. 168. " As soon as it was formed, nay even 
whilst it was forming." — lb., p. 163. " Strange schemes of private ambition were formed and form- 
ing there." — lb., p. 291. "Even when it was making and made." — lb., 299. "Which have been 
made and are making." — Henry Clay: Liberator, ix, p. 141. "And they are in measure 
sanctift'id, or sanctifying, by the power thereof." — Barclay's Works, i, 537. "Which is now accom- 
plishing amongst the uncivilized countries of the earth." — Chalmers, Sermons, p. 281. "Who 
are ruining, or ruined, [in] this way." — Locke, on Ed., p. 155. "Whilst they were undoing." — 
Ibid. " Whether he was employing fire to consume [something,] or ivas himself consuming by 
fire." — Crombie, on Etym. and Syntax, p. 148. "At home, the greatest exertions are making to 
promote its progress." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. iv. " With those [sounds] which are uttering." 1 — 
lb., p. 125. "Orders are now concerting for the dismissal of all officers of the Revenue marine." — 
Providence Journal, Feb. 1, 1850. Expressions of this kind are condemned by some critics, under 
the notion that the participle in ing must never be passive ; but the usage is unquestionably of 
fir better authority, and, according to my apprehension, in far better tasto, than the more complex 
phraseology which some late writers adopt in its stead ; as, " The books are now being sold." — 
"In all the towns about Cork, the whiskey shops are being closed, and soup, coffee, and tea houses 
[are] establishing generally." — Bublin Evening Post, 1840. 

Obs. 3. — The question here i3, Which is the most correct expression, " While the bridge was 
building," — "While the bridge was a building," — or, "While the bridge was being built f" And 
again, Are they all wrong? If none of these is right, we must reject them all, and say, "While 
they were building the bridge ;" — " While the bridge was in process of erection ;" — or resort to some 
other equivalent phrase. Dr. Johnson, after noticing the compound form of active-intransitives, 
as, " I am going," — " She is dying," — " The tempest is raging," — " I have been walking," and so 
forth, adds: "There is another manner of using the active participle, which gives it a passive 
signification:! as, The grammar i3 now printing, Grammatica jam nunc chartis imprimitur. The 

* The text in Acts, xxii, 20th, " I also wan standing by, and consenting onto his death," ought rather to be, 
"I also stool by, and consented to his death;" but the present reading is, thus far, a literal version from the 
Greek, though the verb "kept" that follows, is not. Montanus renders it literally : "Et ipse eram astans, et 
consentient intereraptioni ejus, et custodiens vestimenta interficientium ilium." Beza makes it better Latin 
thus : " Ego quoque a Istabain, et una assentiebar caedi ipsius, et custodiebam pallia eorum qui interimebant 
earn." Oth jr -examples of a questionable or improper use of the progressive form may occasionally be found 
in good authors ; as, " A promising boy of six years of age, was missing by his parents." — Whittier, Stranger 
in Lowell, p. 100. Missing, wanting, and willing, after the verb to be, are commonly reckoned participial ad- 
jectives; but here "wxh missing" is made a passive verb, equivalent to was missed, which, perhaps, would bet- 
ter express the meaning. To miss, to perceive the absence of, is such an act of the mind, as seems unsuited to 
the compound form, to be missing; and, if we cannot say, "The mother was missing her son," I think we 
ought not to use the same form passively, as above. 

t Some grammarians, contrary to the common opinion, suppose the verbs here spoken of, to have, not a pas- 
sive, but a neuter signification. Thus, Joseph Guy, Jun., of London : '■'■Active verbs often take a neuter sense ; 
as, A house is building ; here, is building is used in a neuter signification, because it has no object after it. By 
this rule are explained such sentences as, Application is wanting; The grammar is printing; The lottery is draw- 
ing; It is flying, &c." — Guy's English Gram., p. 21. '■'■Neuter," here, as in many other places, is meant to 
include the active-intransitives. " Is flying" is of this class ; and " is wanting" corresponding to the Latin caret, 
appears to be neuter ; but the rest seem rather to be passives. Tried, however, by the usual criterion, — the 
naming of the "agent," which, it is said, "a verb passive necessarily implies," — what may at first seem pro- 
gressive passives, may not always be found such. "Most verbs signifying action," says Dr. Johnson, '"may 
likewise signify condition, or habit, and become neuters, [i. e. active-intransitives ;] as, I love, I am in love ; 1 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 379 

brass is forging, JEra excuduniur. This is, in my opinion," says he, "a vitious expression, proba- 
bly corrupted from a phrase more pure, but now somewhat obsolete : The book is a printing, 
The brass is a forging ; a being properly at, and printing and forging verbal nouns signifying 
action, according to the analogy of this language." — Gram, in Joh. Diet, p. 9. 

Obs. 4. — A is certainly sometimes a preposition ; and, as such, it may govern a participle, and 
that without converting it into a "verbal noun." But that such phraseology ought to be preferred 
to what is exhibited with so many authorities, in a preceding paragraph, and with an example 
from Johnson among the rest, I am not prepared to concede. As to the notion of introducing a 
new and more complex passive form of conjugation, as, "The bridge is being built" " The bridge 
was being built" and so forth, it is one of the most absurd and monstrous innovations ever thought 
of. Yet some two or three men, who seem to delight in huge absurdities, declare that this 
"modern innovation is likely to supersede" the simpler mode of expression. Thus, in stead of, 
"The work is now publishing" they choose to say, "The work is now being published." — Kirk- 
ham's Gram., p. 82. This is certainly no better English than, " The work was being published, 
has been being published, had been being published, shall or will be being published, shall or will have 
been being published;" and so on, through all the moods and tenses. What a language shall we 
have when our verbs are thus conjugated ! 

Obs. 5. — A certain Irish critic, who even outdoes in rashness the above-cited American, having 
recently arrived in New York, has republished a grammar, in which he not only repudiates the 
passive use of the participle in ing, but denies the usual passive form of the present tense, " J am 
loved, lam smitten" &c, as taught by Murray and others, to be good English ; and tells us that 
the true form is, "1 am being loved, lam being smitten," &c. See the 98th and 103d pages of 
Joseph W. Wright 1 s Philosophical Grammar, (Edition of 1838,) dedicated " to common sense!"* 
But both are offset, if not refuted, by the following observations from a source decidedly better : 
" It has lately become common to use the present participle passive [,] to express the suffering of 
an action as continuing, instead of the participle in -ing in the passive sense ; thus, instead of, 
'The house is building, 1 we now very frequently hear, 'The house is being built. 1 This mode of 
expression, besides being* awkward, is incorrect, and does not express the idea intended. This will 
be obvious, I think, from the following considerations. 

"1. The expression, 'is being, 1 is equivalent to '&,' and expresses no more; just as, l is loving, 1 
is equivalent to, ' loves. 1 Hence, l is being built, 1 is precisely equivalent to, l is built. 1 

" 2. ' Built, 1 is a perfect participle; and therefore cannot, in any connexion, express an action, 
or the suffering of an action, now in progress. The verb to be, signifies to exist ; ' being, 1 therefore, 
is equivalent to ' existing. 1 If then we substitute the sjmonyme, the nature of the expression 
will be obvious; thus, 'the house is being built, 1 is, in other words, 'the house is existing built, 1 
or more simply as before, ' the house is built ;' plainly importing an action not progressing, but 
now existing in a finished state. 

"3. If the expression, 'is being built, 1 be a correct form of the present indicative passive, then 
it must be equally correct to say in the perfect, ' has been being built;' in the past perfect, ' had 
been being built ;' in the present infinitive, ' to be being built ;' in the perfect infinitive, ' to have 
been being built ;' and in the present participle, ' being being built ;' which all will admit to be ex- 
pressions as incorrect as they are inelegant, but precisely analogous to that which now begins to 
prevail." — Bullions's Principles of English Gram., p. 58. 

Obs. 6. — It may be replied, that the verbs to be and to exist are not always synonymous ; be- 
cause the former is often a mere auxiliary, or a mere copula, whereas the latter alwaj r s means 
something positive, as to be in being, to be extant. Thus we may speak of a thing as being de- 
stroyed, or may say, it is annihilated ; but we can by no means speak of it as existing destroyed, 
or say, it exists annihilated. The first argument above is also nugatory. These drawbacks, how- 
ever, do not wholly destroy the force of the foregoing criticism, or at all extenuate the obvious 
tautology and impropriety of such phrases as, is being, was being, &c. The gentlemen who affirm 
that this new form of conjugation "is being introduced into the language," (since they allow par- 
ticiples to follow possessive pronouns) may very fairly be asked, " What evidence have you of 
its being being introduced?" Nor can they, on their own principles, either object to the monstrous 
phraseology of this question, or tell how to better it!f 

Obs. 1. — D. H. Sanborn, an other recent writer, has very emphatically censured this innovation, 
as follows: " English and American writers have Of late introduced a new kind of phraseology, 
which has become quite prevalent in the periodical and popular publications of the day. Their 

strike, I am now striking." — Gram, before Quarto Diet, p. T. So sell, form, make, and many others, usually 
transitive, have sometimes an active-intransitive sense which nearly approaches the passive, and of which are 
selling, is forming, are making, and the like, may be only equivalent expressions* For example : "It is cold, 
and ice forms rapidly — is forming rapidly — or is formed rapidly." — Here, with little difference of meaning, is 
the appearance of both voices, the Active and the Passive; while " is forming," which some will have for an 
example of "the Mi ddle voice," may be referred to either. If the following passive construction is right, is 
wanting or are wanting may be a verb of three or four different sorts : " Reflections that may drive away de- 
spair, cannot be wanting by him, who considers," &c. — Johnson's Rambler, No. 129: Wright's Gram., p. 106. 

* Dr. Bullions, in his grammar of 1840, says, " Nobody would think of saying, 'He is being loved' — 'This 
result is being desired. 1 " — Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 237. But, according to J. W. Wright, whose superior- 
ity in grammar has sixty-two titled vouchers, this unheard-of barbarism is, for the present passive, precisely 
and solely what one ought to say ! Nor is it, in fact, any more barbarous, or more foreign from usage, than the 
spurious example which the Doctor himself takes for a model in the active voice : " I am loving, Thou art lov- 
ing, &c. ; I ham been looing, Thou hast been loving, &V — A. and P. Gr., p. 92. So: "James is loving me." 
—lb., p. 235. 

t "The predicate in the form, ' The house is being built,' would be, according to our view, 'being belnq 
built,' 1 which is manifestly an absurd tautology. 11 — Mulligan's Gram., 1852, p. 151. 



380 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

intention, doubtless, is, to supersede the use of the verb in the definite form, when it has a passive 
signification. They say, 'The ship is being built,' — 'time is being wasted,'' — 'the work is being 
advanced,' 1 instead of, 'the ship is building, time is wasting, the work is advancing. 1 Such a 
phraseology is a solecism too palpable to receive any favor ; it is at war with the practice of the 
most distinguished writers in the English language, such as Dr. Johnson and Addison. When 
an individual says, 'a house is being burned,' he declares that a house is existing, burned, which is 
impossible; for being means existing, and burned, consumed by fire. The house ceases to exist as 
such, after it is consumed by fire. But when he says, 'a house is burning,' we understand that 
it is consuming by fire ; instead of inaccuracy, doubt, and ambiguity, we have a form of expres- 
sion perfectly intelligible, beautiful, definite, and appropriate." — Sanborn's Analytical Gram., 
p. 102. 

Obs. 8. — Dr. Perley speaks of this usage thus: "An attempt has been made of late to intro- 
duce a kind of passive participial voice ; as, ' The temple is being built.' This ought not to be 
encouraged. For, besides being an innovation, it is less convenient than the use of the present 
participle in the passive sense. Being built signifies action finished; and how can, Is being built, 
signify an action unfinished ?" — Perley's Gram., p. 37. 

Obs. 9. — The question now before us has drawn forth, on either side, a deal of ill scholarship 
and false logic, of which it would be tedious to give even a synopsis. Concerning the import of 
some of our most common words and phrases, these ingenious masters, — Bullions, Sanborn, and 
Perley, — severally assert some things which seem not to be exactly true. It is remarkable that 
critics can err in expounding terms so central to the language, and so familiar to all ears, as 
"be, being, being built, burned, being burned, is, is burned, to be burned" and the like. That to be 
and to exist, or their like derivatives, such as being and existing, is and exists, cannot always ex- 
plain each other, is sufficiently shown above ; and thereby is refuted Sanborn's chief argument, 
that, "is being burned," involves the contradiction of "existing, burned," or "consumed by fire." 
According to his reasoning, as well as that of Bullions, is burned must mean exists consumed; 
was burned, existed consumed; and thus our whole passive conjugation would often be found 
made up of bald absurdities ! That this new unco-passive form conflicts with the older and better 
usage of taking the progressive form sometimes passively, is doubtless a good argument against 
the innovation ; but that " Johnson and Addison" are fit representatives of the older " practice" 
in this case, may be doubted. I know not that the latter has any.vhere made use of such 
phraseology ; and one or two examples from the former are scarcely an offset to his positive ver- 
dict against the usage. See Obs. 3rd, above. 

Obs. 10. — As to what is caUed "the present or the imperfect participle passive" — as, "being 
burned," or " being burnt," — if it is rightly interpreted in any of the foregoing citations, it is, 
beyond question, very improperly thus named. In participles, ing denotes continuance : thus be- 
ing usually means continuing to be ; loving, continuing to love ; building, continuing to build, — or 
(as taken passively) continuing to be built : i. e., (in words which express the sense more precisely 
and certainly,) continuing to be in process of construction. What then is "being built," but "con- 
tinuing to be built," the same, or nearly the same, as "building" taken passively? True it is, 
that built, when alone, being a perfect participle, does not mean " in process of construction," but 
rather, "constructed," which intimates completion; yet, in the foregoing passive phrases, and others 
like them, as well as in all examples of this unco-passive voice, continuance of the passive state 
being first suggested, and cessation of the act being either regarded as future or disregarded, the 
imperfect participle passive is for the most part received as equivalent to the simple imperfect 
used in a passive sense. But Dr. Bullions, who, after making " is being built precisely equivalent 
to is built," classes the two participles differently, and both erroneously, — the one as a "present 
participle," and the other, of late, as a "past," — has also said above, " i Built,'' is a perfect parti- 
ciple : and therefore cannot, in any connexion, express an action, or the suffering of an action, 
now in progress." And Dr. Perley, who also calls the compound of being a "present participle," 
argues thus: "Being built signifies an action finished ; and how can Is being built, signify an action 
unfinished?" To expound & passive term actively, or as "signifying action," is, at any rate, a near 
approach to absurdity ; and I shall presently show that the fore-cited notion of " a perfect partici- 
ple," now half abandoned by Bullions himself, has been the seed of the very worst form of that 
ridiculous neology which the good Doctor was opposing. 

Obs. 11. — These criticisms being based upon the meaning of certain participles, either alone or 
in phrases, and the particular terms spoken of being chiefly meant to represent classes, what is 
said of them may be understood of their kinds. Hence the appropriate naming of the kinds, so as 
to convey no false idea of any participle's import, is justly brought into view ; and I may be 
allowed to say here, that, for the first participle passive, which begins with "being" the epithet 
"Imperfect" is better than "Present," because this compound participle denotes, not always what 
is present, but always the state of something by which an action is, or was, or will be, undergone or 
undergoing — a state continuing, or so regarded, though perhaps the action causative may be ended 
—or sometimes perhaps imagined only, and not yet really begun. With a marvellous instabil- 
ity of doctrine, for the professed systematizer of different languages and grammars, Dr. Bullions 
has recently changed his names of the second and third participles, in both voices, from "Perfect" 
and " Compound Perfect," to "Past" and "Perfect." His notion now is, that, " The Perfect parti- 
ciple is always compound; as, Having finished, Having been finished." — Bullions 's Analyt. and Pract. 
Grammar, 1849, p. 11. And what was the "Perfect" before, in his several books, is now called 
the " Past ;" though, with this change, he has deliberately made an other which is repugnant to 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. VERBS. CONJUGATIONS. 381 

it : this participle, being the basis of three tenses always, and of all the tenses sometimes, is now- 
allowed by the Doctor to lend the term "perfect" to the three, — "Present-perfect, Past-perfect, 
Future-perfect" — even when itself is named otherwise ! 

Obs. 12. — From the erroneous conception, that a perfect participle must, in every connexion, 
express " action finished" action past, — or perhaps from only a moiety of this great error, — the 
notion that such a participle cannot, in connexion with an auxiliary, constitute a passive verb of 
the present tense, — J. W. Wright, above-mentioned, has not very unnaturally reasoned, that, 
"The expression, 1 1 am loved, 1 which Mr. Murray has employed to exhibit the passive conjuga- 
tion of the present tense, may much more feasibly represent past than present time." — See Wright's 
Philosophical Gram., p. 99. Accordingly, in his own paradigm of the passive verb, he has 
formed this tense solely from what he calls the participle present, thus : " I am being smitten, Thou 
art being smitten," &c. — lb., p. 98. His " Passed Tense," too, for some reason which I do not dis- 
cover, he distinguishes above the rest by a double form, thus: "I was smitten, or being smitten; 
Thou wast smitten, or being smitten ;" &c. — P. 99. In his opinion, "Few will object to the pro- 
priety of the more familiar phraseology, ' I am in the act, — or, suffering the action of being 
smitten;' and yet," says he, "in substance and effect, it is wholly the same as, l I am being 
smitten, 1 which is the true form of the verb in the present tense of the passive voice!" — Ibid. 
Had we not met with some similar expressions of English or American blunderers, "the act or 
action of being smitten, 11 would be accounted a downright Irish bull ; and as to this ultra notion 
of neologizing all our passive verbs, by the addition of " being," — with the author's cool talk 
of " the presentation of this theory, and \the\ consequent suppression of that hitherto employed" 
— there is a transcendency in it, worthy of the most sublime aspirant among grammatical new- 
fanglers. 

Obs. 13. — But, with all its boldness of innovation, Wright's Philosophical Grammar is not a 
little self-contradictory in its treatment of the passive verb. The entire " suppression" of the 
usual form of its present tense, did not always appear, even to this author, quite so easy and 
reasonable a matter, as the foregoing citations would seem to represent it. The passive use of 
the participle in ing, he has easily disposed of: despite innumerable authorities for it, one false 
assertion, of seven syllables, suffices to make it quite impossible.* But the usual passive form, 
which, with some show of truth, is accused of not having always precisely the same meaning as 
the progressive used passively, — that is, of not always denoting continuance in the state of receiv- 
ing continued action, — and which is, for that remarkable reason, judged worthy of rejection, is 
nevertheless admitted to have, in very many instances, a conformity to this idea, and therefore to 
"belong [thus far] to the present tense." — P. 103. This contradicts to an indefinite extent, the 
proposition for its rejection. It is observable also, that the same examples, ' 1 am loved 1 and ' J 
am smitten, 1 — the same " tolerated, but erroneous forms," (so called on page 103,) that are given as 
specimens of what he would reject, — though at first pronounced " equivalent in grammatical con- 
struction," censured for the same pretended error, and proposed to be changed alike to " the trut 
form 11 by the insertion of "being" — are subsequently declared to "belong to" different classes 
and different tenses. "lam loved," is referred to that "numerous" class of verbs, which "detail 
action of prior, but retained, endured, and continued existence ; and therefore, in this sense, belong 
to the present tense." But "I am smitten," is idly reckoned of an opposite class, (said by Dr. Bub 
lions to be " perhaps the greater number,") whose " actions described are neither continuous m. 
their nature, nor progressive in their duration; but, on the contrary, completed and perfected; 
and [which] are consequently descriptive of passed time and action." — Wright's Gram., p. 103. 
Again : " In what instance soever this latter form and signification can be introduced, their im> 
port should be, and, indeed, ought to be, supplied by the perfect tense construction : — for example, ' I 
am smitten, 1 [should] be, 'i have been smitten. 1 " — lb. Here is self-contradiction indefinitely ex- 
tended in an other way. Many a good phrase, if not every one, that the author's first suggestion 
would turn to the unco-passive form, his present " remedy" would about as absurdly convert inta 
" the perfect tense." 

Obs. 14. — But Wright's inconsistency, about this matter, ends not here : it runs through all he 
says of it ; for, in this instance, error and inconsistency constitute his whole story. In one 
place, he anticipates and answers a question thus: " To what tense do the constructions, 'I am 
pleased;' 'He is expected:' 1 1 am smitten; 1 'He is bound;' belong?" "We answer: — So far as 
these and like constructions are applicable to the delineation of continuous and retained action, 
they express present time ; and must be treated accordingly." — P. 103. This seems to intimate 
that even, " I am smitten," and its likes, as they stand, may have some good claim to be of the 
present tense ; which suggestion is contrary to several others made by the author. To expound 
this, or any other passive term, passively, never enters Ms mind : with him, as with sundry others, 
"action," "finished action," or "progressive action," is all any passive verb or participle ever 
means ! No marvel, that awkward perversions of the forms of utterance and the principles of 
grammar should follow such interpretation. In Wright's syntax a very queer distinction is ap- 

* " Suppose a criminal to be enduring the operation of binding : — Shall we say, -with Mr. Murray, — ' Thg 
criminal is binding?' If so, he must be binding something, — a circumstance, in effect, quite opposed to the 
fact presented. Shall we then say, as he does, in the present tense conjugation of his passive verb, — ' The crim- 
inal is bound ?' If so, the action of binding, which the criminal is suffering, will be represented as completed, 
— a position which the action its self will palpably deny." See Wright's Phil. Gram., p. 102. It is folly for a 
man to puzzle himself or others thus, with fictitious examples, imagined on purpose to make good usage seem 
wrong. There is bad grammar enough, for all useful purposes, in the actual writings of valued authors ; but 
who can show, by any proofs, that the English language, as heretofore written, is so miserably inadequate to 
our wants, that we need use the strange neologism, " The criminal i$ being bound" or any thing similar? 



382 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

parently made between a passive verb, and the participle chiefly constituting it ; and here, too, 
through a fancied ellipsis of " being" before the latter, most, if not all, of his other positions con- 
cerning passives, are again disastrously overthrown by something worse — a word " imperceptibly 
understood." " 1 1 am smitten ;' 'Iwas smitten ;' &c, are," he says, "the universally acknowledged 
forms of the verbs in these tenses, in the passive voice : — not of the participle. In all verbal 
constructions of the character of which we have hitherto treated, (see page 103) and, where the 
actions described are continuous in their operations, — the participle being is imperceptibly omit- 
ted, by ellipsis." — P. 144. 

Obs. 15. — Dr. Bullions has stated, that, " The present participle active, and the present parti- 
ciple passive, are not counterparts to each other in signification ; [,] the one signifying the present 
doing, and the other the present suffering of an action, [;] for the latter always intimates the pres- 
ent being of an act, not in progress, but completed" — Prin. of Eng. Gram., p. 58. In this, he errs 
no less grossly than in his idea of the " action or the suffering" expressed by "a perfect parti- 
ciple," as cited in Obs. &th above; namely, that it must have ceased. Worse interpretation, or 
balder absurdity, is scarcely to be met with ; and yet the reverend Doctor, great linguist as he 
should be, was here only trying to think and tell the common import of a very common sort of 
English participles ; such as, " being loved" and " being seen." In grammar, " an act," that has 
"present being," can be nothing else than an act now doing, or " in progress ;" and if, " the pres- 
ent being of an act not in progress," were here a possible thought, it surely could not be intimated 
by any such participle. In Acts, i, 3 and 4, it is stated, that our Saviour showed himself to the 
apostles, " alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and 
speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God : and, being assembled together with 
them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem." Now, of these misnamed 
"present participles," we have here one "active" one "passive," and two others — (one in each 
form — ) that are neuter ; but no present time, except what is in the indefinite date of "pertaining." 
The events are past, and were so in the days of St. Luke. Yet each of the participles denotes 
continuance: not, indeed, in or to the present time, but for a time. "Being seen" means continuing 
to be seen; and, in this instance, the period of the continuance was "forty days" of time past. 
But, according to the above-cited "principle of English Grammar," so long and so widely incul- 
cated by "the Rev. Peter Bullions, D. D., Professor of Languages," &c, — a central principle of 
interpretation, presumed by him to hold "always" — this participle must intimate " the present 
being of an act, not in progress, but completed;" — that is, " the present being o/" the apostles' 1 act in 
formerly seeing the risen Saviour ! 

Obs. 16. — This grammarian has lately taken a deal of needless pains to sustain, by a studied 
division of verbs into two classes, similar to those which are mentioned in Obs. 13th above, a 
part of the philosophy of J. W. Wright, concerning our usual form of passives in the present 
tense. But, as he now will have it, that the two voices sometimes tally as counterparts, it is 
plain that he adheres but partially to his former erroneous conception of a perfect or " past" par- 
ticiple, and the terms which hold it "in any connexion." The awkward substitutes proposed by 
the Irish critic, he does not indeed countenance ; but argues against them still, and, in some re- 
spects, very justly. The doctrine now common to these authors, on this point, is the highly im- 
portant one, that, in respect to half our verbs, what we commonly take for the passive present, 
is not such — that, in " the second class, (perhaps the greater number,) the present-passive implies 
that the ad expressed by the active voice has ceased. Thus, ' The house is built.' * * * Strictly 
speaking, then," says the Doctor, " the past participle with the verb to be is not the present 
tense in the passive voice of verbs thus used ; that is, this form does not express passively the doing 
of the act." — Bullions^ Analyt. and Pract. Grammar, Ed. of 1849, p. 235. Thus far these two 
authors agree ; except that Wright seems to have avoided the incongruity of calling that " the 
present-passive" which he denies to be such. But the Doctor, approving none of this practitioner's 
" remedies," and being less solicitous to provide other treatment than expulsion for the thousands 
of present passives which both deem spurious, adds, as from .the chair, this verdict : "These 
verbs either have no present-passive, or it is made by annexing the participle in ing, in its passive 
sense, to the verb to be ; as, ' The house is building.'' " — lb., p. 236. 

Obs. 11. — It would seem, that Dr. Bullions thinks, and in reality Wright also, that nothing can 
be a present passive, but what " expresses passively the doing of the act." This is about as wise, 
as to try to imagine every active verb to express actively the receiving of an act ! It borders ex- 
ceedingly hard upon absurdity ; it very much resembles the nonsense of " expressing receptively 
the giving of something !" Besides, the word "doing," being used substantively, does not deter- 
mine well what is here meant ; which is, I suppose, continuance, or an unfinished state of the act 
received — an idea which seems adapted to the participle in ing, but which it is certainly no fault 
of a participle ending in d, t, or n, not to suggest. To " express passively the doing of the act" if 
the language means any thing rational, may be, simply to say, that the act is or was done. For 
"doings" are, as often as any- wise, "things done," as buildings are fabrics built; and "is built," 
and " am smitten," the gentlemen's choice examples of false passives, and of " actions finished" 
— though neither of them necessarily intimates either continuance or cessation of the act suffered, 
or, if it did, would be the less or the more passive or present, — may, in such a sense, " express 
the doing of the act," if any passives can : — nay, the " finished act" has such completion as may 
be stated with degrees of progress or of frequency ; as, " The house is partly built." — " I am 
oftener smitten." There is, undoubtedly, some difference between the assertions, "The house is 
building," — and, "The house is partly built;" though, for practical purposes, perhaps, we need 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 383 

not always be very nice in choosing between them. For the sake of variety, however, if for 
nothing else, it is to be hoped, the doctrine above-cited, which limits half our passive verbs of the 
present tense, to the progressive form only, will not soon be generally approved. It impairs the 
language more than unco- passives are likely ever to corrupt it. 

Obs. 18. — " No startling novelties have been introduced," says the preface to the "Analytical 
and Practical Grammar of the English Language." To have shunned all shocking innovations, 
is only to have exercised common prudence. It is not pretended, that any of the Doctor's errors 
here remarked upon, or elsewhere in this treatise, will startle any body ; but, if errors exist, even 
in plausible guise, it may not be amiss, if I tell of them. To suppose every verb or participle to 
be either "transitive" or "intransitive" setting all passives with the former sort, all neuters with 
the latter ; (p. 59 ;) — to define the transitive verb or participle as expressing always " an act 
done by one person or thing to another ;" (p. 60 ;) — to say, after making passive verbs transitive, 
"The object of a transitive verb is in the objective case," and, "A verb that does not make sense 
with an objective after it, is intransitive ;" (p. 60 ;) — to insist upon a precise and almost universal 
identity of " meaning" in terms so obviously contrasted as are the two voices, " active" and "pas- 
sive;" (pp. 95 and 235 ;) — to allege, as a general principle, "that whether we use the active, or 
the passive voice, the meaning is the same, except in some cases in the present tense;" (p. 67 ;) — 
to attribute to the forms naturally opposite in voice and sense, that sameness of meaning which 
is observable only in certain whole, sentences formed from them; (pp. 67, 95, and 235 ;) — to assume 
that each "Voice is a particular form of the verb," yet make it include two cases, and often a 
preposition before one of them; (pp. 66, 67, and 95 ;) — to pretend from the words, " The passive 
voice represents the subject of the verb as acted upon," (p. 67,) that, "According to the definition, 
the passive voice expresses, passively, the same thing that the active does actively;" (p. 235 ;) — to 
affirm that, " 'Caesar conquered Gaul,' and 'Gaul vjas conquered by Caesar.' express precisely the 
same idea," — and then say, "It will be felt at once that the expressions, ' Caesar conquers Gaul,' 
and 'Gaul is conquered by Caesar,' do not express the same thing ;" (p. 235 ;) — to deny that passive 
verbs or neuter are worthy to constitute a distinct class, yet profess to find, in one single tense of 
the former, such a difference of meaning as warrants a general division of verbs in respect to it ; 
(ib. ;) — to announce, in bad English, that, "In regard to this matter [,] there are evidently Two 
Classes of verbs ; namely, those whose present-passive expresses precisely the same thing, pass- 
ively, as the active voice does actively, and those in which it does not:" (ib.:) — to do these 
several things, as they have been done, is, to set forth, not " novelties" only, but errors and 
inconsistencies. 

Obs. 19. — Dr. Bullions still adheres to his old argument, that being after its own verb must be 
devoid of meaning; or, in his own words, "that is being built, if it mean anything, can mean 
nothing more than is built, which is not the idea .intended to be expressed." — Analyt. and Pract 
Gram., p. 237. He had said, (as cited in Obs. 5th above.) " The expression, ' is being, 1 is equiv- 
alent to is, and expresses no more; just as, l is loving,'' is equivalent to 'loves. 1 Hence, 'is being 
built,' is precisely equivalent to l is builV " — Principles of E. Gram., p. 58. He has now discovered 
"that there is no progressive form of the verb to be, and no need of it:" and that, "hence, 
there is no such expression in English as is being." — Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 236. He should 
have noticed also, that " is loving" is not an authorized "equivalent to loves ;" and, further, that 
the error of saying "is being built," is only in the relation of the first two vjords to each other. If 
• "is being," and "is loving," are left unused for the same reason, the truth may be, that is itself, 
like loves, commonly denotes " continuance ;" and that being after it, in stead of being necessary 
or proper, can only be awkwardly tautologous. This is, in fact, the grand objection to the 
new phraseology — "is being practised" — "am being smitten" — and the like. Were there no 
danger that petty writers would one day seize upon it with like avidity, an other innovation, 
exactly similar to this in every thing but tense — similar in awkwardness, in tautology, in unmis- 
takeableness — might here be uttered for the sake of illustration. Some men conceive, that "The 
perfect participle is always compound ; as, having seen, having written;" — and that the simple 
word, seen or vjritten, had originally, and still ought to have, only a passive construction. For 
such views, they find authorities. Hence, in lieu of the common phrases, " had we seen," "we 
have written," they adopt such English as this; "Had we having seen you, we should have 
stopped." — " We have having written but just now, to our correspondent." Now, " We are being 
smitten," is no better grammar than this ; — and no worse: "The idea intended" is in no great 
jeopardy in either case. 

Obs. 20. — J. R. Chandler, of Philadelphia, in his Common School Grammar of 1S47, has earnestly 
undertaken the defence of this new and much-mooted passive expression : which he calls " the 
Definite Passive Joke," or " the Passive Voice of the Definite Form." He admits it, however, to be 
a form that " does not sound well, " — a " novelty that strikes the ear unpleasantly;" but he will 
have the defect to be, not in the tautologous conceit of "is being," "was being," " has been being," 
and the like, but in everybody's organ of hearing, — supposing all ears corrupted, " from infancy," 
to a distaste for correct speech, by "the habit of hearing and using words ungrammatically /" — 
See p. 89. Claiming this new form as " the true passive," in just contrast with the progressive 
active, he not only rebukes all attempts "to evade" the use of it, "by some real or supposed 
equivalent," but also declares, that, " The attempt to deprive the transitive definite verb of [this] 
its passive voice, is to strike at the foundation of the language, and to strip it of one of its most important 
qualities ; that of making both actor and sufferer, each in turn and at pleasure, the subject of con- 
versation." — Ibid. Concerning equivalents, he evidently argues fallaciously; for he urges, that the 



384 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

using of them " does not dispense with the necessity of the definite passive voice." — P. 88. But it is 
plain, that, of the many fair substitutes which may in most cases be found, if any one is preferred, 
this form, and all the rest, are of course rejected for the time. 

Obs. 21. — By Chandler, as well as others, this new passive form is justified only on the suppo- 
sition, that the simple participle in ing can never with propriety be used passively. No plausible 
argument, indeed, can be framed for it, without the assumption, that the simpler form, when used 
in the same sense, is ungrammatical. But this is, in fact, a begging of the main question ; and 
that, in opposition to abundant authority for the usage condemned. (See Obs. 3d, above.) This 
author pretends that, " The rule of all grammarians declares the verb is, and & present participle 
(is building, or is writing), to be in the active voice" only. — P. 88. (I add the word " only," but 
this is what he means, else he merely quibbles.) Now in this idea he is wrong, and so are the 
several grammarians who support the principle of this imaginary " rule." The opinion of critics in 
general would be better represented by the following suggestions of the Rev. W. Allen: " When 
the English verb does not signify mental affection, the distinction of voice is often disregarded: 
thus we say, actively, they were selling fruit ; and, passively, the books are now selling. The samo 
remark applies to the participle used as a noun : as, actively, drawing is an. elegant amusement, 
building is expensive ; and, passively, his drawings are good, this is a fine building." — Allen's 
Elements of E. Gram., p. 82. 

Obs. 22. — Chandler admits, that, ""When it is said, 'The house is building, 1 the meaning is 
easily obtained; though," he strangely insists, "it is exactly opposite to the assertion." — P. 89. He 
endeavours to show, moreover, by a fictitious example made for the purpose, that the progressive 
form, if used in both voices, will be liable to ambiguity. It may, perhaps, be so in some instances ; 
but, were there weight enough in the objection to condemn the passive usage altogether, ono 
would suppose there might be found, somewhere, an actual example or two of the abuse. Not 
concurring with Dr. Bullions in the notion that the active voice and the passive usually " express 
precisely the same thing," this critic concludes his argument with the following sentence: "There 
is an important difference between doing and suffering ; and that difference is grammatically shown 
by the appropriate use of the active and passive voices of a verb." — Chandler's Common School 
Gram., p. 89. 

Obs. 23. — The opinion given at the close of Obs. 2d above, was first published in 1833. An 
opposite doctrine, with the suggestion that it is " improper to say, 'the house is building,'' instead 
of ' the house is being built,'' " — is found on page 64th of the Rev. David Blair's Grammar, of 1815, 
— " Seventh Edition," with a preface dated, " October 20th, 1814." To any grammarian who wrote 
at a period much earlier than that, the question about unco-passives never occurred. Many critics 
have passed judgement upon them since, and so generally with reprobation, that the man must 
have more hardihood than sense, who will yet disgust his readers or hearers with them.* That 
"This new form has been used by some respectable writers," we need not deny; but let us look 
at the given " instances of it: ' For those who are being educated in our seminaries.' R. Southey. 
— ' It was being uttered.' Coleridge. — 'The foundation was being laid. 1 Brit. Critic." — English 
Grammir with Worcester's Univ. and Crit. Diet., p. xlvi. Here, for the first example, it would 
be much better to say, " For those who are educated,"]- — or, "who are receiving their education;" 
for the others, " It was uttering " — " was uttered," — or, " was in uttering." — "The foundation was 
laying," — u was laid," — or, " was about being laid." Worcester's opinion of the "new form" is to 
be inferred from his manner of naming it in the following sentence : " "Within a few years, a 
strange and awkward neologism has been introduced, by which the present passive participle is 
substituted, in such cases as the above, for the participle in ing." — Ibid. He has two instances 
more, in each of which the phrase is linked with an expression of disapprobation ; " ' It [tetv/u- 
fievoc] signifies properly, though in uncouth English, one who is being beaten.' Abp. Whately. — 
' The bridge is being built, and other phrases of the like kind, have pained the eye.' D. Booth." 
—Ibid.% 

* It is a very strange event in the history of English grammar, that such a controversy as this should have 
arisen; but a stranger one still, that, after all that has been said, more argument is needed. Some men, who 
hope to be valued as scholars, yet stickle for an odd phrase, -which critics have denounced as follows: "But the 
history of the language scarcely affords a parallel to the innovation, at once unphilosophical and hypercritical, 
pedantic and illiterate, which has lately appeared in the excruciating refinement ' is being,'' and its unmerciful 
variations. We hope, and indeed believe, that it has not received the sanction of any grammar adopted in our 
popular education, as it certainly never will of any writer of just pretensions to scholarship." — The True Sun, 
N. Y., April 16, 1846. 

t Education is a work of continuance, yet completed, like many others, as fast as it goes on. It is not, like 
the act of lovi'ig or hating, so ooraplete at the first moment as not to admit the progressive form of the verb ; for 
one may say of a lad, " I am educating him for the law ;" and possibly, " He is educating for the law ;" though 
not so well as," He is to be educated for the law." But, to suppose that "is educated"' or "are educated" im- 
plies necessarily a cessation of the educating, is a mistake. That conception is right, only when educated is 
taken adjectively. The phrase, " those who are educated in our seminaries," hardly includes such as have been 
educated there in times past; much less does it apply to these exclusively, as some seem to think. " Being" as 
inserted by Southey, is therefore quite needless: so is it often, in this new phraseology, the best correction being 
its mere omission. 

X Worcester has also this citation : "The Eclectic Review remarks, ' That a need of this phrase, or an equiv- 
alent one, is felt, is sufficiently proved by the extent to which it is used by educated persons and respectable 
writers.' "—Gram, before Diet., p. xlvi. Sundry phrases, equivalent in sense to this new voice, have long been 
in use, and are, of course, still needed ; something from among them being always, by every accurate writer, 
still preferred. But this awkward innovation, use it who will, can no more be justified by a plea of "need," 
than can every other hackneyed solecism extant. Even the Archbishop, if quoted right by Worcester, has de- 
scended to " uncouth English," without either necessity or propriety, having thereby onlv misexpounded a very 
common Greek word — a "perfect or pluperfect" participle, which means "beaten, struck, or having been beat- 
en." — Q. Brown. 



chap, vi.] etyaiolooy. — verbs. — conjugations. 385 

Obs. 24. — Richard niley, in the third edition of his Grammar, published in London, in 1840, 
after showing the passive use of the participle in ing, proceeds thus : " No ambiguity arises, we 
presume, from the use of the participle in this manner. To avoid, however, affixing a passive 
signification to the participle in ing, an attempt has lately been made to substitute the passive 
participle in its place. Thus instead of 'The house was building, 1 ' The work is printing^ we 
sometimes hear, 'The house was being built, 1 'The work is being printed.'' But this mode is con- 
trary to the English idiom, and has not yet obtained the sanction of reputable authority." — Riley's 
Gram., p. 30. 

Obs. 25. — Professor Hart, of Philadelphia, whose English Grammar was first published in 1845, 
justly prefers the usage which takes the progressive form occasionally in a passive sense ; but, in 
arguing against the new substitute, he evidently remoulds the early reasoning of Dr. Bullions, 
errors and all ; a part of which he introduces thus : "I know the correctness of this mode of 
expression has lately been very much assailed, and an attempt, to some extent successful, has 
been made [,] to introduce the form [,] 'is being builV But, in the first place, the old mode of 
expression is a well established usage of the language, being found in our best and most correct 
writers. Secondly, is being built does not convey the idea intended, [;] namely [,] that of progres- 
sive action. Is being, taken together, means simply is, just as is uniting means writes ; therefore, 
is being built means is built, a perfect and not a progressive action. Or, if being [and] built be 
taken together, they signify an action" complete, and the phrase means, as before, the house is 
(exists) being built. 11 — Barfs Gram., p. 76. The last three sentences here are liable to many 
objections, some of which are suggested above. 

Obs. 26. — It is important, that the central phraseology of our language be so understood, as not 
to be misinterpreted with credit, or falsely expounded by pcpular critics and teachers. Eence 
errors of exposition are the more particularly noticed in these observations. In "being built," 
Prof. Hart, like sundry authors named above, finds nothing but " action complete." Without 
doubt, Butler interprets better, when he says, "'The house is built, 1 denotes an existing state, 
rather than a completed action. 11 But this author, too, in his next three sentences, utters as many 
errors; for he adds: " The name of the agent cannot be expressed in phrases of this kind. We 
cannot say, 'The house is built by John. 1 When we say, 'The house is built by mechanics,' we 
do not express an existing state. 11 — Butler 1 s Practical Gram., p. 80. Unquestionably, "is built by 
mechanics, 11 expresses nothing else than the " existing state' 1 of being " built by mechanics," 
together with an affirmation: — that is, the "existing state" of receiving the action of mechanics, 
is affirmed of " the house." And, in my judgement, one may very well say, " TJie house is built by 
John; 11 meaning, "John is building the house. 11 St. Paul says, "Every house is builded by some 
man." — Beb., iii, 4. In this text, the common "name of the agent" is "expressed." 

Obs. 27. — Wells and Weld, whose grammars date from 1846, being remarkably chary of finding 
anything wrong in "respectable writers," hazard no opinion of their own, concerning the correct- 
ness or incorrectness of either of the usages under discussion. They do not always see absurdity 
in the approbation of opposites; yet one should here, perhaps, count them with the majorities 
they allow. The latter says, " The participle in ing is sometimes used passively; as, forty and six 
years was this temple in building; not in being built. 11 — Weld's English Gram., 2d Ed., p. 170. 
Here, if he means to suggest, that "in being built 11 would "not" be good English, he teaches very 
erroneously; if his thought is, that this phrase would "not" express the sense of the former one, 
"in building, 11 he palpably contradicts his own position 1 But he proceeds, in a note, thus: "The 
form of expression, is being built, is being committed, &c, is almost universally condemned by 
grammarians; but it is sometimes met with in respectable writers. It occurs most frequently in 
newspaper paragraphs, and in hasty compositions." — Void. Wells comments thus: J 4 Different 
opinions have long existed among critics respecting this passive use of the imperfect participle. 
Many respectable writers substitute the compound passive participle ; as, ' The house is being 
built; 1 'The book is being printed. 1 But the prevailing practice of the best authors is in favor of 
the simple form ; as, 'The house is building. 111 — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 148; 113th 
Ed., p. 161 * 

Obs. 28. — S. W. Clark, in the second edition of his Practical Grammar, stereotyped and pub- 
lished in New York in 1848, appears to favour the insertion of " being 11 into passive verbs ; but 
his instructions are so obscure, so often inaccurate, and so incompatible one with an other, that it 

* Wells has also the following citations, which most probably accord with his own opinions, though the first is 
rather extravagant: "The propriety of these imperfect passive tenses has been doubted by almost all our 
grammarians ; though I believe but few of them have written many pages without condescending to make use 
of them. Dr. Beattie says, ' One of the greatest defects of the English tongue, with regard to the verb, seems 
to be the want of an imperfect passive participle.'' And yet he uses the imperfect partible in a passive sense 
as often as most writers." — Pickboum" s Dissertation on the English Verb. 

" Several other expressions of this sort now and then occur, such as the new-fangled and most uncouth sole- 
cism, ' is being done,' for the good old English idiomatic expression, ' is doing,' — an absurd periphrasis, driving 
out a pointed and pithy turn of the English language." — K A. Review. See Wells's Grammar, 1850, p. 161. 

The term, "imperfect passive tenses," seems not a very accurate one; because the present, the perfect, &c, 
are included. Pickbourn applies it to any passive tenses formed from the simple " imperfect participle ;" but 
the phrase, "passive verbs in the progressive form," would better express the meaning. The term, " com- 
pound passive participle,' 1 '' which Wells applies above to " being built," " being printed" and the like, is also 
both unusual and inaccurate. Most readers would sooner understand by it the form, having been built, having 
been printed, &c. This author's mode of naming participles is always either very awkward or not distinctive. 
His scheme makes it necessary to add here, for each of these forms, a third epithet, referring to his main dis- 
tinction, of "imperfect and perfect;" as, "the compound imperfect participle passive," and "the compound 
perfect participle passive." What is "beiwy built" or "beinq printed" but "an imperfect passive, parti- 
ciple?" Was this, or something else, the desideratum of Beattie? 

25 



886 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

is hard to say, with certainty, what he approves. In one place, he has this position : " The Pas- 
sive Voice of a verb is formed by adding the Passive Participle of that verb, to the verb be. 
Examples — To be loved. I am feared. They are worshipped." — Page 69. In an other, he has 
this: " When the Subject is to be represented as receiving the action, the Passive Participle should 
be used. Example — Henry's lesson is being recited." — P. 132. Now these two positions 
utterly confound each other; for they are equally general, and u the Passive Participle 11 is first one 
thing, and then an other. Again, he has the following assertions, both false : " The Present (or 
First) Participle always ends in ing, and is limited to the Active Voice. The Past (or Second) Par- 
ticiple of Regular Verbs ends in d or ed, and is limited to the Passive Voice. 11 — P. 131. After- 
wards, in spite of the fancied limitation, he acknowledges the passive use of the participle in ing, 
and that there is " authority 11 for it; but, at the same time, most absurdly supposes the word to 
predicate "action, 11 and also to be wrong: saying, " Action is sometimes predicated of a passive 
subject. Example — 'The house is building, . . for . . ' The house is being built, 1 . . which means . . 
The hou^e is becoming built. 11 On this, he remarks thus : " This is one of the instances in which 
Authority is against Philosophy. For an act cannot properly be predicated of a passive agent. 
Mauy good writers properly reject this idiom. ' Mansfield's prophecy is being realized. 1 — Michelet's 
Luther. " — Clark's Practical Gram., p. 133. It may require some study to learn from this which 
idiom it is, that these "many good writers reject:" but the grammarian who can talk of " a pas- 
sive agent, 11 without perceiving that the phrase is self-contradictory and absurd, may well be 
expected to entertain a " Philosophy" which is against " Authority," and likewise to prefer a 
ridiculous innovation to good and established usage. 

Obs. 29. — As most verbs are susceptible of both forms, the simple active and the compound or 
progressive, and likewise of a transitive and an intransitive sense in each ; and as many, when 
taken intransitively, may have a meaning which is scarcely distinguishable from that of the pas- 
sive form ; it often happens that this substitution of the imperfect participle passive for the 
simple imperfect in ing, is quite needless, even when the latter is not considered passive. For 
example: "See by the following paragraph, how widely the bane is being circulated! 11 — 
Liberator, No. 999, p. 34. Here is circulating would be better ; and so would is circulated. Nor 
would either of these much vary the sense, if at all ; for " circulate 11 may mean,- according to 
"Webster, u to be diffused 11 or, as Johnson and Worcester have it, " to be dispersed. 11 See the second 
marginal note on p. 378. 

Obs. 30. — R. Gr. Parker appears to have formed a just opinion of the "modern innovation," the 
arguments for which are so largely examined in the foregoing observations; but the "principle" 
which he adduces as "conclusive" against it, if principle it can be called, has scarcely any bearing 
on the question ; certainly no more than has the simple assertion of one reputable critic, that our 
participle in ing may occasionally be used passively. " Such expressions as the following," says 
he, " have recently become very common, not only in the periodical publications of the day, but 
are likewise finding favor with popular writers; as, ' The house is being built. 1 ' The street is being 
pived. 1 ' The actions that are now being performed,' 1 &c. 'The patents are being prepared. 1 The 
usage of the best writers does not sanction these expressions ; and Mr. Pickbourn lays down the 
following principle, which is conclusive upon the subject. ' Whenever the participle in ing is joined 
by an auxiliary verb to a nominative capable of the action, it is taken actively ; but, when joined 
to one incapable of the action, it becomes passive. If we say, The men are building a house, 
the participle building is evidently used in an active sense ; because the men are capable of the 
action. But when we say, The house is building, or, Patents are preparing, the participles building 
and preparing must necessarily be understood in a passive sense ; because neither the house nor 
the patents are capable of action.' — See Pickbourn on the English Verb, pp. 78-80." — Parkers 
Aids to English Composition, p. 105. Pickbourn wrote his Dissertation before the question arose 
which he is here supposed to decide. Nor is he right in assuming that the common Progressive 
Form, of which he speaks, must be either active-transitive or passive : I have shown above that it 
may be active-intransitive, and perhaps, in a few instances, neuter. The class of the verb is 
determined by something else than the mere capableness of the " nominative. 11 

• 
III. FORM OF PASSIVE VERBS. 

Passive verbs, in English, are always of a compound form ; being made 
from active-transitive verbs, by adding the Perfect Participle to the 
auxiliary verb Be, through all its changes : thus from the active-transi- 
tive verb love, is formed the passive verb be loved. 

FIFTH EXAMPLE. 

The regular passive verb BE LOVED, conjugated affirmatively. 

Principal Parts op the Acttve Verb. 
Present. Preterit. Imp. Participle. Per/. Participle. 

Love. Loved. Loving. Loved. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VEKBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 387 



INFINITIVE MOOD. 

Present Tense. 

To be loved. 

Perfect Tense. 
To have been loved. 

INDICATIVE MOOD. 

Present Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I am loved, 1. We are loved, 

2. Thou art loved, 2. You are loved, 

3. He is loved ; 3. They are loved. 

Imperfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I was loved, 1. We were loved, 

2. Thou wast loved, 2. You were loved, 

3. He was loved; 3. They were loved. 

Perfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I have been loved, 1. We have been loved, 

2. Thou hast been loved, 2. You have been loved, 

3. He has been loved; 3. They have been loved. 

Pluperfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I had been loved, 1. We had been loved, 

2. Thou hadst been loved, 2. You had been loved, 

3. He had been loved; 3. They had been loved. 

First-future Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I shall be loved, 1. We shall be loved, 

2. Thou wilt be loved, 2. You will be loved, 

3. He will be loved ; 3. They will be loved. 

Second-future Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I shall have been loved, 1. We shall have been loved, 

2. Thou wilt have been loved, 2. You will have been loved, 

3. He will have been loved ; 3. They will have been loved. 

POTENTIAL MOOD. 

Present Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I may be loved, 1. We may be loved, 

2. Thou mayst be loved, 2. You may be loved, 

3. He may be loved ; 3. They may be loved. 

Imperfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I might be loved, 1. We might be loved, 

2. Thou mightst be loved, 2. You might be loved, 

3. He might be loved ; 3. They might be loved. 

Perfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1. I may have been loved, 1. We may have been loved, 

2. Thou mayst have been loved, 2. You may have been loved, 

3. He may have been loved ; 3. They may have been loved. 






388 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART II. 



Pluperfect Tense. 
Singular, Plural. 

1. I might have been loved, 1. We might have been loved, 

2. Thou mightst have been loved, 2. You might have been loved, 



3. He might have been loved 



3. They might have been loved. 



Singular. 

1. If I be loved, 

2. If thou be loved, 

3. If he be loved ; 

Singular. 

1. If I were loved, 

2. If thou were loved, 

3. If he were loved ; 



SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 

Present Tense. 

Plural. 

1. If we be loved, 

2. If you be loved, 

3. If they be loved. 

Imperfect Tense. 

Plural. 

1. If we were loved, 

2. If you were loved, 

3. If they were loved. 



Singular. 
Plural. 



IMPERATIVE MOOD. 
Present Tense. 

2. Be [thou] loved, 
2. Be [ye or you] loved, 



1. The Imperfect. 
Being loved. 



PARTICIPLES. 

2. The Perfect. 
Loved. 



or Do thou be loved ; 
or Do you be loved. 



3. The Preperfect. 
Having been loved. 



Familiar Form with 'Thou.' 



Note. — In the familiar style, the second person singular of this verb, is usually and more 
properly formed thus : Ind. Thou art loved, Thou was loved, Thou hast been loved, Thou had 
been loved, Thou shall or will be loved, Thou shall or will have been loved. Pot. Thou may, 
can, or must be loved; Thou might, could, would, or should be loved; Thou may, can, or must 
have been loved ; Thou might, could, would, or should have been loved. Subj. If thou be loved, 
If thou were loved. Imp. Be [thou] loved, or Do thou be loved. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — A few active-intransitive verbs, that signify mere motion, change of place, or change 
of condition, may be put into this form, with a neuter signification ; making not passive but neuter 
verbs, which express nothing more than the state which results from the change : as, "lam 
come." — u She is gone." — "He is risen." — "They are fallen." These are what Dr. Johnson and 
some others call " neuter passives ;" a name which never was very proper, and for which we have 
no frequent use. 

Obs. 2. — Most neuter verbs of the passive form, such as, " am grown, art become, is lain, are 
flown, are vanished, are departed, was sat, were arrived," may now be considered errors of con- 
jugation, or perhaps of syntax. In the verb, to be mistaken, there is an irregularity which ought 
to be particularly noticed. When applied to persons, this verb is commonly taken in a neuter 
sense, and signifies, to be in error, to be wrong; as, "I am mistaken, thou art mistaken, he is 
mistaken " But, when used of things, it is a proper passive verb, and signifies to be misunder- 
stood, or to be taken wrong; as, "The sense of the passage is mistaken; that is, not rightly under- 
stood." See Webster's Bid., w. Mistaken. "I have known a shadow across a brook to be mis- 
taken for a footbridge." 

Obs. 3. — Passive verbs may be easily distinguished from neuter verbs of the same form, by a 
reference to the agent or instrument, common to the former class, but not to the latter. This 
frequently is, and always may be, expressed after passive verbs ; but never is, and never can be, 
expressed after neuter verbs : as, " The thief has been caught by the officer." — " Pens are made 
with a knife." Here the verbs are passive ; but, " 1 am not yet ascended," (John, xx, 11,) is not 
passive, because it does not convey the idea of being ascended by some one's agency. 

Obs. 4. — Our ancient writers, after the manner of the French, very frequently employed this 
mode of conjugation in a neuter sense ; but, with a very few exceptions, present usage is clearly 
in favour of the auxiliary have in preference to be, whenever the verb formed with the perfect par- 
ticiple is not passive; as, "They have arrived," — not, "They are arrived." Hence such ex- 
amples as the following, are not now good English : "All these reasons are now ceased." — But- 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 389 

ler's Analogy, p. 157. Say, "have now ceased." "Whether he were not got beyond the reach 
of his faculties." — lb., p. 158. Say, " had not got." "Which is now grown wholly obsolete." — 
Churchill s Gram., p. 330. Say, "has now grown." "And when he was entered into a ship." — 
Bible. Say, " had entered." — " What is become of decency and virtue?" — Murray's Key, p. 196. 
Say, " has become." 

Obs. 5. — Dr. Priestley says, " It seems not to have been determined by the English grammarians, 
whether the passive participles of verbs neuter require the auxiliary am or have before them. 
The French, in this case, confine themselves strictly to the former. ' What has become of national 
liberty?' Hume's History, VoL 6. p. 254. The French would say, what is become; and, in this 
instance, perhaps, with more propriety." — Priestley's Gram., p. 128. It is no marvel that those 
writers who have not rightly made up their minds upon this point of English' grammar, should 
consequently fall into many mistakes. The perfect participle of a neuter verb is not "passive,' 1 ' 1 
as the doctor seems to suppose it to be ; and the mode of conjugation which he here inclines to 
prefer, is a mere Gallicism, which is fast wearing out from our language, and is even now but 
little countenanced by good writers. 

Obs. 6. — There are a few verbs of the passive form which seem to imply that a person's own 
mind is the agent that actuates him; as, "The editor is rejoiced to think," &c. — Juvenile Keep- 
sake. " I am resolved what to do." — Luke, xvi, 4. " He was resolved on going to the city to re- 
side." — Comly's Gram., p. 114. " James was resolved not to indulge himself." — Murray's Key, ii, 
220. " He is inclined to go." — "He is determined to go." — "He is bent ongoing." These are 
properly passive verbs, notwithstanding there are active forms which are nearly equivalent to 
most of them; as, "The editor rejoices to think." — "I know what to do." — "He had resolved on 
going." — "James resolved not to indulge himself." So in the phrase, "lam ashamed to beg," 
we seem to have a passive verb of this sort; but, the verb to ashame being now obsolete, 
ashamed is commonly reckoned an adjective. Yet we cannot put it before a noun, after the usual 
manner of adjectives. To be indebted, is an other expression of the same kind. In the following 
example, "am remembered" is used for do remember, and, in my opinion, inaccurately : 

" He said mine eyes were black, and my hair black ; 
And, now I am remembered, scorn'd at me." — Shakspeare. 

IV. FORM OF NEGATION. 

A verb is conjugated negatively, by placing the adverb not after it, or 
after the first auxiliary ; but the infinitive and participles take the nega- 
tive first : as, Not to love, Not to have loved ; Not loving, Not loved, 
Not having loved. 

First Person Singular. 

Ind. I love not, or I do not love ; I loved not, or I did not love ; I have not loved ; 
I had not loved ; I shall not, or will not, love ; I shall not, or will not, have loved. 
Pot. I may, can, or must not love ; I might, could, would, or should not love ; I 
may, can, or must not have loved ; I might, could, would, or should not have loved. 
Subj. If I love not, If I loved not. 

Second Person Singular. 

Solemn Style : — Ind. Thou lovest not, or Thou dost not love ; Thou lovedst not, 
or Thou didst not love ; Thou hast not loved ; Thou hadst not loved ; Thou shalt 
not, or wilt not, love ; Thou shalt not, or wilt not, have loved. Pot. Thou mayst, 
canst, or must not love; Thou mightst, couldst, wouldst, or shouldst not love ; Thou 
mayst, canst, or must not have loved ; Thou mightst, couldst, wouldst, or shouldst 
not have loved. Subj. If thou love not, If thou loved not. Imp. Love [thou] not, 
or Do thou not love. 

Familiar Style : — Ind. Thou lov'st not, or Thou dost not love ; Thou loved not, 
or Thou did not love ; Thou hast not loved ; Thou had not loved ; Thou shall not, 
or will not, love ; Thou shall not, or will not, have loved. Pot. Thou may, can, or 
must not love ; Thou might, could, would, or should not love ; Thou may, can, 
or must not have loved ; Thou might, could, would, or should not have loved. 
Subj. If thou love not, If thou loved not. Imp. Love [thou] not, or Do [thou] not 
love. 

Third Person Singular. 

Ind. He loves not, or He does not love ; He loved not, or He did not love ; He 
has not loved ; He had not loved ; He shall not, or will not, love ; He shall not, or 
will not, have loved. Pot. He may, can, or must not love .; He might, could, would, 



390 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

or should not love ; He may, can, or must not have loved ; He might, could, would, 
or should not have loved. Subj. If he love not, If he loved not. 

V. FORM OF QUESTION. 

A verb is conjugated interrogatively ', in the indicative and potential 
moods, by placing the nominative after it, or after the first auxiliary : 

as, 

First Person Singular. 

Ind. Love I ? or Do I love ? Loved I ? or Did I love ? Have I loved ? Had I 
loved ? Shall I love ? Shall I have loved ? Pot. May, can, or must I love ? Might, 
could, would, or should I love ? May, can, or must I have loved ? Might, could, 
would, or should I have loved ? 

Second Person Singular. 

Solemn Style : — Ind. Lovest thou ? or Dost thou love ? Lovedst thou ? or Didst 
thou love ? Hast thou loved ? Hadst thou loved ? Wilt thou love ? Wilt thou have 
loved ? Pot. Mayst, canst, or must thou love ? Mightst, couldst, wouldst, or 
shouldst thou love ? Mayst, canst, or must thou have loved ? Mightst, couldst, 
wouldst, or shouldst thou have loved ? 

Familiar Style : — Ind. Lov'st thou ? or Dost thou love ? Loved thou ? or Did 
thou love ? Hast thou loved ? Had thou loved ? Will thou love ? Will thou have 
loved ? Pot. May, can, or must thou love ? Might, could, would, or should thou 
love ? May, can, or must thou have loved ? Might, could, would, or should thou 
have loved ? 

Third Person Singular. 

Ind. Loves he ? or Does he love ? Loved he ? or Did he love ? Has he loved ? 
Had he loved ? Shall or will he love ? Will he have loved ? Pot. May, can, or 
must he love ? Might, could, would, or should he love ? May, can, or must he 
have loved ? Might, could, would, or should he have loved ? 

VI. FORM OF QUESTION WITH NEGATION". 
A verb is conjugated interrogatively and negatively, in the indicative 
and potential moods, by placing the nominative and the adverb not after 
the verb, or after the first auxiliary : as, 

First Person Plural. 
Ind. Love we not ? or Do we not love ? Loved we not ? or Did we not love ? 
Have we not loved % Had we not loved ? Shall we not love ? Shall we not have 
loved ? Pot. May, can, or must we not love ? Might, could, would, or should we 
not love ? May, can, or must we not have loved ? Might, could, would, or should we 
not have loved ? 

Second Person Plural. 

Ind. See ye not ? or Do you not see ? Saw ye not ? or Did you not see ? Have 
you not seen ? Had you not seen ? Will you not see ? Will you not have seen ? 
Pot. May, can, or must you not see ? Might, could, would, or should you not see ? 
May, can, or must you not have seen 1 Might, could, would, or should you not have 
seen? 

Third Person Plurai* 

Ind. Are they not loved ? Were they not loved ? Have they not been loved ? 
Had they not been loved ? Shall or will they not be loved ? Will they not have 
been loved 1 May, can, or must they not be loved ? Might, could, would, or should 
they not be loved ? May, can, or must they not have been loved ? Might, could, 
would, or should they not have been loved ? 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — In a familiar question or negation, the compound or auxiliary form of the verb is, in 
general, preferable to the simple : as, "No man lives to purpose, who does not live for posterity." 
— Dr. Wayland. It is indeed so much more common, as "to seem the only proper mode of ex- 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. —VERBS. — CONJUGATIONS. 391 

pression : as, "Do I say these things as a man ?" — "Do you think that we excuse ourselves ?" — 
"Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump ?" — " Dost thou revile ?" &c. But 
in the solemn or the poetic style, though either may be used, the simple form is more dignified, 
and perhaps more graceful : as, " Say I these things as a man?" — 1 Cor., ix, 8. " Think ye 
that we excuse ourselves?" — 2 Cor., xii, 19. " Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the 
whole lump?" — 1 Cor., v, 6. "Eevilest thou God's high priest?" — Acts. "King Agrippa, be- 
lievest thou the prophets?" — lb. " Understandest thou what thou readest?" — lb. "Of whom 
speaketh the prophet this ?" — Id. " And the man of God said, Where fell it?" — 2 Kings, vi, 6. 

" What ! heard ye not of lowland war ?" — Sir W. Scott, L. L. 

" Seems he not, Malise, like a ghost ?" — Id., L. of Lake. 

" Where thinkst thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? 
Or does he walk ? or is he on his horse?" — Shak., Ant. and Cleop. 

Obs. 2. — In interrogative sentences, the auxiliaries shall and will are not always capable of 
being applied to the different persons agreeably to their use in simple declarations : thus, " Will 
I go?" is a question which there never can be any occasion to ask in its literal sense ; because 
none knows better than I, what my will or wish is. But " Shcdl I go?" may properly be asked ; 
because shall here refers to duty, and asks to know what is agreeable to the will of an other. 
In questions, the first person generally requires shall ; the second, will ; the third admits of both : 
but, in the second-future, the third, used interrogatively, seems to require will only. Yet, in that 
figurative kind of interrogation which is sometimes used to declare a negative, there may be oc- 
casional exceptions to these principles ; as, " Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of 
goats?" — Psalms, L 13. That is, I will not eat, &c. 

Obs. 3. — Cannot is not properly one word, but two : in parsing, the adverb must be taken sepa- 
rately, and the auxiliary be explained with its principal. When power is denied, can and not 
are now generally united- — perhaps in order to prevent ambiguity ; as, " I cannot go." But when 
the power is affirmed, and something else is denied, the words are written separately; as, "The 
Christian apologist can not merely expose the utter baseness of the infidel assertion, but he has 
positive ground for erecting an opposite and confronting assertion in its place." — Dr. Chalmers. 
The junction of these terms, however, is not of much importance to the sense ; and, as it is 
plainly contrary to analogy, some writers, — (as Dr. Webster, in his late or " improved" works ; 
Dr. Bullions, in his; Prof. W. C. Fowler, in his new " English Grammar," 8vo; B. C. Trench, in 
his "Study of Words;" T. S. Pinneo, in his "revised" grammars; J. E. Chandler, W. S. CardelL 
0. B. Peirce, — ) always separate them. And, indeed, why should we write, " I cannot go, Thou 
canst not go, He cannot go ?" Apart from the custom, we have just as good reason to join not to 
oanst as to can ; and sometimes its union with the latter is a gross error: as, "He cannot only 
make a way to escape, but with the injunction to duty can infuse the power to perform." — Matu- 
rings Sermons, p. 287. The fear of ambiguity never prevents us from disjoining can and not 
whenever we wish to put a word between them : as, " Though the waves thereof toss themselves, 
yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it." — Jeremiah, v, 22. 
" Which then I can resist not" — Byron's Manfred, p. 1. 

" Can I not mountain maiden spy, 
But she must bear the Douglas eye ?" — Scott. 

Obs. 4. — In negative questions, the adverb not is sometimes placed before the nominative, and 
sometimes after it: as, " Told not I thee ?" — Numb., xxiii, 26. "Spake / not also to thy mes- 
sengers ?" — lb., xxiv, 12. " Cannot I do with you as this potter ?" — Jer., xviii, 6. " Art not 
thou a seer ?" — 2 Sam., xv, 27. " Did not Israel know ?" — Rom., x, 19. " Have they not heard ?" 
— lb., 18. " Do not they blaspheme that worthy name?" — James, ii, 7. This adverb, like every 
other, should be placed where it will sound most agreeably, and best suit the sense. Dr. Priest- 
ley imagined that it could not properly come before the nominative. He says, " When the nom- 
inative case is put after the verb, on account of an interrogation, no other word should be inter- 
posed between them. [Examples:] 'May not we here say with Lucretius?' — Addison on Medals, 
p. 29. May we not say? ' Is not it he.' [?] Smollett's Voltaire, Vol. 18, p. 152. Is it not he. [?]" 
— Priestley's Gram., p. 177. 

Obs. 5. — In grave discourse, or in oratory, the adverb not is spoken as distinctly as other 
words ; but, ordinarily, when placed before the nominative, it is rapidly slurred over in utter- 
ance and the o is not heard. In fact, it is generally (though inelegantly) contracted in familiar 
conversation, and joined to the auxiliary : as, Ind. Don't they do it ? Didn't they do it ? Haven't 
they done it? Hadn't they done it? Shan't, or won't they do it? Won't they have done it? 
Pot, Mayn't, can't, or mustn't they do it ? Mightn't, couldn't, wouldn't, or shouldn't they do it ? 
Mayn't, can't, or mustn't they have done it ? Mightn't, couldn't, wouldn't, or shouldn't they have 
done it ? 

Obs. 6. — Well-educated people commonly utter their words with more distinctness and fullness 
than the vulgar, yet without adopting ordinarily the long-drawn syllables of poets and orators, or 
the solemn phraseology of preachers and prophets. Whatever may be thought of the grammati- 
cal propriety of such contractions as the foregoing, no one who has ever observed how the English 
language is usually spoken, will doubt their commonness, or their antiquity. And it may be ob- 
served, that, in the use of these forms, the distinction of persons and numbers in the verb, is 
almost, if not entirely, dropped. Thus don't is used for dost not or does not, as properly as for do 
"mot; and, " Tlwu can't do it, or shan't do it," is as good English as, " He can't do it, or shan't do 



392 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

it." Will, according to "Webster, was anciently written woU: hence won't acquired the o, which 
is long in Walker's orthoepy. Haven't, which cannot be used for has not or hast not, is still further 
contracted by the vulgar, and spoken ha'nt, which serves for all three. These forms are some- 
times found in books; as, "Wont, a contraction of woll not, that is, will not." — Webster's Diet. 
"Ha'nt, a contraction oihave not or hasnoV — Id. "Wont, (wont or wunt,) A contraction of 
would not: — used for will not." — Worcester's Did. " Han't, (hant or hant,) A vulgar contraction 
for has not, or have not." — Id. In the writing of such contractions, the apostrophe is not always 
used; though some think it necessary for distinction's sake: as, ""Which is equivalent, because 
what can't be done wont be done." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 312. 

IKKEGULAR VERBS. 

An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the 
perfect participle by assuming d or ed; as, see, saiu, seeing, seen. Of 
this class of verbs there are about one hundred and ten, beside their 
several derivatives and compounds. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Regular verbs form their preterits and perfect participles, by adding d to final e, and 
ed to all other terminations ; the final consonant of the verb being sometimes doubled, (as in 
dropped,) and final y sometimes changed into *, (as in cried,) agreeably to the rules for spelling in 
such cases. The verb hear, heard, hearing, heard, adds d to r } and is therefore irregular. Heard 
is pronounced herd by all our lexicographers, except Webster : who formerly wrote it heerd, and 
still pronounces it so; alleging, in despite of universal usage against him, that it is written "more 
correctly heared." — Octavo Diet., 1829. Such pronunciation would doubtless require this last 
orthography, "heared;" but both are, in fact, about as fanciful as his former mode of spelling, 
which ran thus : " Az I had heerd suggested byfrends or indifferent reeders." — Dr. Webster's Essays, 
Preface, p. 10. 

Obs. 2. — When a verb ends in a sharp consonant, t is sometimes improperly substituted for ed, 
making the preterit and the perfect participle irregular in spelling, when they are not so in sound ; 
as, distrest for distressed, tost for tossed, mixt for mixed, cract for cracked. These contractions are 
now generally treated as errors in writing ; and the verbs are accordingly (with a few exceptions) 
accounted regular. Lord Karnes commends Dean Swift for having done " all in his power to re- 
store the syllable ed;" says, he "possessed, if any man ever did, the true genius of the English 
tongue;" and thinks that in rejecting these ugly contractions, "he well deserves to be imitated." 
— Elements of Criticism, Vol. ii, p. 12. The regular orthography is indeed to be preferred in all 
such cases ; but the writing of ed restores no syllable, except in solemn discourse ; and, after all, 
the poems of Swift have so very many of these irregular contractions in t, that one can hardly be- 
lieve his lordship had ever read them. Since the days of these critics still more has been done 
towards the restoration of the ed, in orthography, though not in sound ; but, even at this present 
time, our poets not unfrequently write, est for essed or ess'd, in forming the preterits or participles 
of verbs that end in the syUable ess. This is an ill practice, which needlessly multiplies our re- 
dundant verbs, and greatly embarrasses what it seems at first to simplify : as, 

" friend ! I know not which way I must look 
For comfort, being, as I am, opprest, 
To think that now our life is only drest 
For show." — Wordsworth's Poetical Works, 8vo, p. 119. 

Obs. 3. — When the verb ends with a smooth consonant, the substitution of t for ed produces 
an irregularity in sound as well as in writing. In some such irregularities, the poets are indulged 
for the sake of rhyme; but the best speakers and writers of prose prefer the regular form, 
wherever good use has sanctioned it: thus learned is better than learnt; burned, than burnt; 
penned, tlv^n pent; absorbed, than absorbt; spelled, than spelt; smelted, than smelt. So many of 
this sort of words as are allowably contracted, belong to the class of redundant verbs, among 
which they may be seen in a subsequent table. 

Obs. 4. — Several of the irregular verbs are variously used by the best authors ; redundant forms 
are occasionally given to some verbs, without sufficient authority ; and many preterits and parti- 
ciples which were formerly in good use, are now obsolete, or becoming so. The simple irregular 
verbs in English are about one hundred and ten, and they are nearly all monosyllables. They 
are derived from the Saxon, in which language they are also, for the most part, irregular. 

Obs. 5. — The following alphabetical list exhibits the simple irregular verbs, as they are now 
generally used. In this list, those preterits and participles which are supposed to be preferable, 
and best supported by authorities, are placed first. Nearly all compounds that follow the form 
of their simple verbs, or derivatives that follow their primitives, are here purposely omitted. 
Welcome and behave are always regular, and therefore belong not here. Some words which are 
obsolete, have also been omitted, that the learner might not mistake them for words in present 
use. Some of those which are placed last, are now little used. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — LIST OF THE IRREGULAR VERBS. 



393 



LIST OF THE IRREGULAR VERBS. 



Present. 


Preterit. 




Imperfect Participle. 


Perfect Participle. 


Arise, 


arose, 




arising, 


arisen. 


Be, 


was, 




being, 


been. 


Bear, 


bore or 


bare, 


bearing, 


borne or born.* 


Beat, 


beat, 




beating, 


beaten or beat. 


Begin, 


began or begun,! 


beginning, 


begun. 


Behold, 


beheld, 




beholding, 


beheld. 


Beset, 


beset, 




besetting, 


beset. 


Bestead, 


bestead, 




besteading, 


bestead. J 


Bid, 


bid or bade, 


bidding, 


bidden or bid. 


Bind, 


bound, 




binding, 


bound. 


Bite, 


bit, 




biting, 


bitten or bit. 


Bleed, 


bled, 




bleeding, 


bled. 


Break, 


broke, § 




breaking, 


broken. 


Breed, 


bred, 




breeding, 


bred. 


Bring, 


brought 




bringing, 


brought. 


Buy, 


bought, 




buying, 


bought. 


Cast, 


cast, 




casting, 


cast. 


Chide, 


chid, 




chiding, 


chidden or chid. 


Choose, 


chose, 




choosing, 


chosen. 


Cleave, || 


cleft or 


elove, 


cleaving, 


cleft or cloven. 


Cling, 


clung, 




clingipg, 


clung. 


Come, 


came, 




coming, 


come. 


Cost, 


cost, 




costing, 


cost. 


Cut, 


cut, 




cutting, 


cut. 


Do, 


did, 




doing, 


done. 


Draw, 


drew, 




drawing, 


drawn. 


Drink, 


drank, 




drinking, 


drunk, or drank.^[* 


Drive, 


drove, 




driving, 


driven. 



* Borne usually signifies carried ; bom signifies brought forth. J. E. Worcester, the lexicographer, speaks 
of these two participles thus: " Ct2F~The participle born is used in the passive form, and borne in the active form, 
[with reference to birth] ; as, ' He was born blind, 1 John ix. ; ' The barren hath borne seven,' 1 Sam. ii. This 
distinction between bom and borne, though not recognized by grammarians, is in accordance with common 
usage, at least in this country. In many editions of the Bible it is recognized ; and in many it is not. It seems 
to have been more commonly recognized in American, than in English, editions." — Worcester" s Universal and 
Critical Diet., w. Bear. In five, out of seven good American editions of the Bible among my books, the latter 
text is, " The barren hath born seven ;" in two, it is as above, " hath borne.'" In Johnson's Quarto Dictionary, 
the perfect participle of bear is given erroneously, " bore, or born ;'" and that of forbear, which Bhould be for- 
borne, is found, both in his columns and in his preface, "forborn." 

t According to Murray, Lennie, Bullions, and some others, to use begun for began or run for ran, is improper ; 
but Webster gives run as well as ran for the preterit, and begun may be used in like manner, on the authority 
of Dryden, Pope, and Parnell. 

% "And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead, and hungry." — Isaiah, viii, 21. 

§ " Brake [for the preterit of Break] seems now obsolescent." — Dr. Crombie, Etymol. and Syntax, p. 193. 
Some recent grammarians, however, retain it; among whom are Bullions and M'Culloch. Wells retains it, but 
marks it as, " Obsolete;" as he does also the preterits bare, clave, drave, gat, slang, spake, span, spat, sware, 
tare, writ; and the participles hoven, loaden, rid from ride, spitten, stricken, and writ. In this he is not alto- 
gether consistent. Forms really obsolete belong not to any modern list of irregular verbs; and even such as are 
archaic and obsolescent, it is sometimes better to omit. If " loaden,' 1 '' for example, is now out of use, why 
should " load, unload, and overload,'" be placed, as they are by this author, among "irregular verbs;" while 
freight and distract, in spite of fraught and distraught, are reckoned regular? "ifo'd," for rode or ridden, 
though admitted by Worcester, appears to me a low vulgarism. 

H Cleave, to split, is most commonly, if not always, irregular, as above ; cleave, to stick, or adhere, is usually 
considered regular, but clave was formerly used in the preterit, and clove still may be: as. " The men of Judah 
clave unto their king." — Samuel. " The tongue of the public prosecutor clove to the roof of his mouth." — Bos- 
ton Atlas, 1S55. 

IT Respecting the preterit and the perfect participle of this verb, drink, our grammarians are greatly at vari- 
ance. Dr. Johnson says, "preter. drank or drunk; part. pass, drunk or drunken." Dr. Webster: "pret. and 
pD. drank. Old pret. and pp. drunk; pp. drunken." Lowth: "pret. drank; part, drunk or drunken." So 
Staniford, Webber, and others. Murray has it: " Imperf. drank, Perf. Part, drunk." So Comly, Lennie, Bul- 
lions, Blair, Butler, Frost, Felton, Golnsbury, and many others. Churchill cites the text, " Serve me till I have 
eaten and drunken;" and observes, '■'■Drunken is now used only as an adjective. The impropriety of using the 
preterimperlVct \_drank~) for the participle of this verb is very common." — New Gram., p. 261. Sanborn gives 
both forms for the participle, preferring drank to drunk. Kirkham prefers drunk to drank; but contradicts 
Mmself in a note, by unconsciously making drunk an adjective : " The men were drunk; i. e. inebriated. The 
toasts were drank." — Gram., p. 149. Cardell, in his Grammar, gives, '■'■drink, drank, drunk;"' but in his story 
of Jack Halyard, on paee 59, he wrote, "had drinked:" and this, according to Fowle's True Enerlish Gram- 
mar, is not incorrect. The preponderance of authority is yet in favour of saying, "had drunk;'" but drank 
seems to be a word of greater delicacy, and perhaps it is sufficiently authorized. A hundred late writers may 
be quoted for it, and some that were popular in the days of Johnson. " In the choice of what is fit to be eaten 



394 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART II. 



Present. 
Eat, 
Fall, 
Feed, 
Feel, 
Fight, 
Find, 
Flee, 
Fling, 

Fly, 

Forbear, 

Forsake, 

Get, 

Give, 

Go, 

Grow, 

Have, 

Hear, 

Hide, 

Hit, 

Hold, 

Hurt, 

Keep, 

Know, 

Lead, 

Leave, 

Lend, 

Let, 

Lie,§ 

Lose, 

Make, 

Meet, 

Outdo, 

Put, 

Read, 

Rend, 

Rid, 

Ride, 

Ring, 

Rise, 

Run, 

Say, 



Preterit. 
ate or eat, 
fell, 
fed, 
felt, 
fought, 
found, 
fled, 
flung, 
flew, 
forbore, 
forsook, 

g ot , 

gave, 

went, 

grew, 

had, 

heard, 

hid, 

hit, 

held, 

Jiurt, 

kept,{ 

knew, 

led, 

left, 

lent, 

let, 

la y, 

lost, 

made, 

met, 

outdid, 

put, 

read, 

rent, 

rid, 

rode, 

rung or rang, 

rose, 

ran or run. 

said, 



Imperfect Participle. 


Perfect Participle, 


eating, 


eaten or eat. 


falling, 


fallen. 


feeding, 


fed. 


feeling, 


felt. 


fighting, 


fought. 


finding, 


found. 


fleeing, 


fled. 


flinging, 


flung. 


flying, 


flown. 


forbearing, 


forborne. 


forsaking, 


forsaken. 


getting, 


got or gotten. 


giving, 


given. 


going, 


gone. 


growing, 


grown. 


having, 


had. 


hearing, 


heard. 


hiding, 


hidden or hid. 


hitting, 


hit, 


holding, 


held or holden.* 


hurting, 


hurt.f 


keeping, 


kept. 


knowing, 


known. 


leading, 


led. 


leaving, 


left. 


lending, 


lent. 


letting, 


let. 


tyi^ 


lain. 


losing, 


lost. 


making, 


made. 


meeting, 


met. 


outdoing, 


outdone. 


putting, 


put. 


reading, 


read. 


rending, 


rent.| 


ridding, 


rid. 


riding, 


ridden or rode. 


ringing, 


rung. 


rising, 


risen. 


running, 


run. 


saying, 


said.^" 


1. "Which I had no soonei 


• drank." — Addison, Tattli 



and drank." — Beattie's Moral Science, Vol. i, 
No. 131. 

" Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drank, 
Broach' d with the steely point of Clifford's lance." — Shakspeare. 
* " Holden is not in general use ; and is chiefly employed by attorneys." — Crombie, on Etymology and Synt, 
p. 196. Wells marks this word as, " Obsolescent." — School Gram., p. 103. L. Murray rejected it; but Lowth 
gave it alone, as a participle, and held only as a preterit, 
t " I have been found guilty of killing cats I never hurted." — Roderick Random, Vol. i, p. 8. 
j "They keeped aloof as they passed her bye." — J. Hogg, Pilgrims of the Sun, p. 19. 

§ Lie, to be at rest, is irregular, as above ; but lie, to utter falsehood, is regular, as follows: lie, lied, lying, 
lied. 

" Thus said, at least, my mountain guide, 
Though deep, perchance, the villain lied." — Scott's Lady of the Lake. 

II Perhaps there is authority sufficient to place the verb rend among those which are redundant. 
" Where'er its cloudy veil was rended." — Whittier's Moll Pitcher. 
" Mortal, my message is for thee; thy chain to earth is rended; 

I bear thee to eternity; prepare ! thy course is ended." — The Amulet. 
" Come as the winds come, when forests are rended." — Sir W. Scott. 

"The hunger pangs her sons which rended." — New Qtjaktebi.y Review : Examiner, No. 119. 
IT We find now and then an instance in which gainsay is made regular: as, "It can neither be rivalled nor 
gainsayed." — Chapman's Sermons to Presbyterians, p. 36. Perhaps it would be as well to follow Webster 
here, in writing rivaled with one I ; and the analogy of the simple verb say, in forming this compound irregu- 
larly, gainsaid. Usage warrants the latter, however, better than the former. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — LIST OF THE IRREGULAR VERBS. 



395 



Present. 
See, 
Seek, 
Sell, 
Send, 
Set, 
Shed, 
Shoe, 
Shoot, 
Shut, 
Shred, 
Shrink, 
Sing, 
Sink, 
Sit, 
Slay, 
Sling, 
Slink, 
Smite, 
Speak, 
Spend, 
Spin, 
Spit, 
Spread, 
Spring, 
Stand, 
Steal, 
Stick, 
Sting, 
Stink, 
Stride, 
Strike, 
Swear, 
Swim, 
Swing, 
Take, 
Teach, 
Tear, 
Tell, 
Think, 

• "Shoe, 8hoed or 6hod, shoeing, shoed or shod." — Old Gram., by W. Ward, p. 64; and FowWa True English 
Gram., p. 46. 

t "A. Murray has rejected sung as the Preterite, and L. Murray has rejected sang. Each Preterite, however, 
rests on good authority. The same observation may be made, respecting sank and sunk. Respecting the pre- 
terites which have a or u, as slang, or slung, sank, or sunk, it would be better were the former only to be used, 
as the Preterite and Participle would thus be discriminated." — Dr. Crombie, on Etymology and Syntax, p. 199. 
The preterits which this critic thus prefers, are rang, sang, slang, sprang, swung, sank, shrank, slunk, stank, 
swan, and span for spun. In respect to them all, I think he makes an ill choice. According to his own show- 
ing, fiing, string, and sting, always make the preterit and the participle alike ; and this is the obvious tendency 
of the language, in all these words. I reject slang and span, as derivatives from sling and spin; because, in 
such a sense, they are obsolete, and the words have other uses. Lindley Murray, in his early editions, rejected 
sang, sank, slang, swang, shrank, slank, stank, and span; and, at the same time, preferred rang, sprang, and 
swam, to rung, sprung, and swum. In his later copies, he gave the preference to the u, in all these words ; but 
restored sang and sank, which Crombie names above, still omitting the other six, which did not happen to be 
mentioned to him. 

$ Sate for the preterit of sit, and sitten for the perfect participle, are, in my opinion, obsolete, or no longer in 
good use. Yet several recent grammarians prefer sitten to sat ; among whom are Crombie, Lennie, Bullions, 
and M'Culloch. Dr. Crombie says, " Sitten, though formerly in use, is now obsolescent. Laudable attempts, 
however, have been made to restore it." — On Etymol. and Syntax, p. 199. Lennie says, " Many authors, both 
here and in America, use sate as the Past time of sit; but this is improper, for it is apt to be confounded with 
sate to glut. Sitten and spitten are preferable [to sat and spit,'] though obsolescent." — Principles of E. Gram., 
p. 45. Bullions says, " Sitten and spitten are nearly obsolete, though preferable to sat and spit. ,, — Principles 
of E. Gram., p. 64. M'Culloch gives these verbs in the following form: " Sit, sat, sitten or sat. Spit, spit or 
spat, spit or spitten." — Manual of E. Gram., p. 65. 

§ " He will find the political hobby which he has bestrided no child's nag." — The Vanguard, a Newspaper. 
" Through the pressed nostril, spectacle-&es£rtftf." — Cowper. 
"A lank haired hunter strided." — Whittiefs Sabbath Scene. 



Preterit. 


Imperfect Participle. 


Perfect Participle. 


saw, 


seeing, 


seen. 


sought, 


seeking, 


sought. 


sold, 


selling, 


sold. 


sent, 


sending, 


sent. 


set, 


setting, 


set. 


shed, 


shedding, 


shed. 


shod, 


shoeing, 


shod* 


shot, 


shooting, 


shot. 


shut, 


shutting, 


shut. 


shred, 


shredding, 


shred. 


shrunk or shrank, 


shrinking, 


shrunk or shrunken. 


sung or sang,f 


singing, 


sung. 


sunk or sank, 


sinking, 


sunk. 


sat, 


sitting, 


sat.J 


slew, 


slaying, 


slain. 


slung, 


slinging, 


slung. 


slunk or slank, 


slinking, 


slunk. 


smote, 


smiting, 


smitten or smit. 


spoke, 


speaking, 


spoken. 


spent, 


spending, 


spent. 


spun, 


spinning, 


spun. 


spit or spat, 


spitting, 


spit or spitten. 


spread, 


spreading, 


spread. 


sprung or sprang, 


springing, 


sprung. 


stood, 


standing, 


stood, 


stole, 


stealing, 


stolen. 


stuck, 


sticking, 


stuck. 


stung, 


stinging, 


stung. 


stunk or stank, 


stinking, 


stunk. 


strode or strid, 


striding, 


stridden or strid.§ 


struck, 


striking, 


struck or stricken. 


swore, 


swearing, 


sw r orn. 


swum or swam, 


swimming, 


swum. 


swung or swang, 


swinging, 


swung. 


took, 


taking, 


taken. 


taught, 


teaching, 


taught. 


tore, 


tearing, 


torn. 


told, 


telling, 


told. 


thought, 


thinking, 


thought. 



Present. 


Preterit. 


Thrust, 


thrust, 


Tread, 


trod, 


Wear, 


wore, 


Win, 


won, 


Write, 


wrote, 



396 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Imperfect Participle. Perfect Participle. 
thrusting, thrust, 

treading, trodden or trod, 

wearing, worn, 

winning, won. 

writing, written.* 

KEDUNDANT VERBS. 

A redundant verb is a verb that forms the preterit or the perfect 
participle in two or more ways, and so as to be both regular and irregular ; 
as, thrive, thrived or throve, thriving, thrived or thriven. Of this class 
of verbs, there are about ninety-five, beside sundry derivatives and com- 
pounds. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Those irregular verbs which have more than one form for the preterit or for the perfect 
participle, are in some sense redundant ; but, as there is no occasion to make a distinct class of 
such as have double forms that are never regular, these redundancies are either included in the pre- 
ceding list of the simple irregular verbs, or omitted as being improper to be now recognized for good 
English. Several examples of the latter kind, including both innovations and archaisms, will 
appear among the improprieties for correction, at the end of this chapter. A few old preterits or 
participles may perhaps be accounted good English in the solemn style, which are not so in the 
familiar: as, " And none spake a word unto him." — Job, ii, 13. "When I brake the five loaves." 
— Mark, viii, 19. "And he drave them from the judgement-seat." — Acts, xviii, 16. "Serve me 
till I have eaten and drunken." — Luke, xvii, 8. " It was not possible that he should be holden of 
it." — Acts, ii, 24. "Thou castedst them down into destruction." — Psal, lxxiii, 18. "Behold, I 
was shapen in iniquity." — lb., Ii, 5. "A meat-offering baken in the oven." — Leviticus, ii, 4. 

"With casted slough, and fresh celerity." — Shak., Henry V. 
"Thy dreadful vow, loaden with death." — Addison: in Joh. Diet 

Obs. 2. — The verb bet is given in Worcester's Dictionary, as being always regular : " Bet, v. a. 
[Abetted; pp. betting, betted.] To wager; to lay a wager or bet. Shak." — Octavo Diet. 
In Ainsworth's Grammar, it is given as being always irregular: "Present, Bet; Imperfect, Bet; 
Participle, Bet." — Page 36. On the authority of these, and of some others cited in Obs. 6th 
below, I have put it with the redundant verbs. The verb prove is redundant, if proven, which is 
noticed by Webster, Bolles, and Worcester, is an admissible word. " The participle proven is 
used in Scotland and in some parts of the United States, and sometimes, though rarely, in Eng- 
land. — ' There is a mighty ditference between not proven and disproven? Dr. Th. Chalmers. 
'Not proven. 1 Qu. Rev." — Worcester's Universal and Critical Diet. The verbs bless and dress 
are to be considered redundant, according to the authority of Worcester, Webster, Bolles, and 
others. Cobbett will have the verbs, cast, chide, cling, draw, grow, shred, sling, slink, spring, sting, 
stride, swim, swing, and thrust, to be always regular ; but I find no sufficient authority for allow- 
ing to any of them a regular form ; and therefore leave them, where they always have been, in 
the list of simple irregulars. These fourteen verbs are a part of the long list of seventy which this 
author says, "are, by some persons, erroneously deemed irregular." Of the following nine only, 
is his assertion true ; namely, dip, help, load, overflow, slip, snow, stamp, strip, whip. These nine 
ought always to be formed regularly ; for all their irregularities may well be reckoned obsolete. 
After these deductions from this most erroneous catalogue, there remain forty-five other very 
common verbs, to be disposed of contrary to this author's instructions. All but two of these I 
shall place in the list of redundant verbs ; though for the use of throwed I find no written author- 
ity but his and William B. Fowle's. The two which I do not consider redundant are spit and 
strew, of which it may be proper to take more particular notice. 

Obs. 3. — Spit, to stab, or to put upon a spit, is regular; as, "I spitted frogs, I crushed a heap of 
emmets." — Dry den. Spit, to throw put saliva, is irregular, and most properly formed thus : spit, 
spit, spitting, spit. '''Spat is obsolete." — Webster's Diet. It is used in the Bible; as, " He spat on 
the ground, and made clay of the spittle.'' — John, ix, 6. L. Murray gives this verb thus: " Pres. 
Spit; Imp. spit, spat; Perf. Part, spit, spitten." Note: " Spitten is nearly obsolete." — Octavo 
Gram., p. 106. Sanborn has it thus : " Pres. Spit; Imp. spit; Pres. Part, spitting; Perf. Part. 
•spit, spat." — Analytical Gram., p. 48. Cobbett, at first, taking it in the form, "to spit, I spat, 
Spitten," placed it among the seventy which he so erroneously thought should be made regular; 
afterwards he left it only in his list of irregulars, thus: "to spit, I spit, spitten." — Cobbett 's E. 

* In the age of Pope, writ was frequently used both for the participle and for the preterit of this verb. It is 
now either obsolete or peculiar to the poets. In prose it seems vulgar: as, " He writ it, at least, published it, in 
1670."— Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 77. 

" He, who, supreme in judgement, as in wit. 
Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ." — Pope, Ess. on Crit. 

Dr. Crombie remarked, more than thirty years ago, that, " Wrote as the Participle [of Write.} is generally 
disused, and likewise writ." — Treatise on Etym. and Synt., p. 202. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — REDUNDANT VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 397 

Gram., of 1832, p. 54. Churchill, in 1823, preferring the older forms, gave it thus: "Spit, spat 
or spit, spitten or spit." — New Gram., p. 111. Note: — " Johnson gives spat as the preterimper- 
fect, and spit or spitted as the participle of this verb, when it means to pierce through with a 
pointed instrument : but in this sense, I believe, it is always regular ; while, on the other hand, 
the regular form is now never used, when it signifies to eject from the mouth ; though we find in 
Luke, xviii, 32, 'He shall be spitted on.' " — Churchill's New Gram., p. 264. This text ought to 
have been, " He shall be spit upon." 

Obs. 4. — To strew is in fact nothing else than an other mode of spelling the verb to strow; as 
shew is an obsolete form for shoio ; but if we pronounce the two forms differently, we make them 
different words. "Walker, and some others, pronounce them alike, stro : Sheridan, Jones, Jameson, 
and "Webster, distinguish them in utterance, stroo and stro. This is convenient for the sake of 
rhyme, and perhaps therefore preferable. But strew, I incline to think, is properly a regular verb 
only, though Wells and Worcester give it otherwise : if strewn has ever been proper, it seems 
now to be obsolete. Examples : " Others cut down brandies from the trees, and sinewed them 
in the way." — Matt., xxi, 8. " Gathering where thou hast not strewed." — Matt, xxv, 24. 

" Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse, 
The place of fame and elegy supply ; 
And many a holy text around she strews, 

That teach the rustic moralist to die." — Gray. 

Obs. 5. — The list which I give below, prepared with great care, exhibits the redundant verbs, 
as they are now generally used, or as they may be used without grammatical impropriety.* 
Those forms which are supposed to be preferable, and best supported by authorities, are placed 
first. No words are inserted here, but such as some modern authors countenance. L. Murray 
recognizes bereaved, catched, dealed, digged, dwelled, hanged, Initted, shined, spilled; and, in his 
early editions, he approved of bended, budded, creeped, iveaved, worked, wringed. His two larger 
books now tell us, " The Compiler has not inserted such verbs as learnt, spelt, spilt, &c. which are 
improperly terminated by t, instead of ed." — Octavo Gram., p. 107 ; Duodecimo, p. 97. But if he 
did not, in all his grammars, insert, " Spill, spilt, R. spilt, R.," (pp. 106, 96,) preferring the irregular 
form to the regular, somebody else has done it for him. And, what is remarkable, many of his 
amenders, as if misled by some evil genius, have contradicted themselves in precisely the same 
way ! Ingersoll, Fisk, Merchant, and Hart, republish exactly the foregoing words, and severally 
become " The Compiler" of the same erroneous catalogue ! Kirkham prefers spilt to spilled, and 
then declares the word to be "improperly terminated by t instead of ed." — Gram., p. 151. 
Greenleaf who condemns learnt and spelt, thinks dwelt and spilt are "the only established forms;" 
yet he will have dwell and spill to be "regular" verbs, as well as " irregular 7" — Gram. Simp., 
p. 29. Webber prefers spilled to spilt; but Picket admits only the latter. Cobbett and Sanborn 
prefer bereaved, builded, dealed, digged, dreamed, hanged, and knitted, to bereft, built, dtalt, dug, 
dreamt, hung, and knit. The former prefers creeped to crept, and freezed to froze ; the latter, slitted 
to slit, wringed to wrung: and both consider, "I bended," "I bursted" and " I Mowed," to be 
good modern English. W. Allen acknowledges freezed and slided; and, like Webster, prefers 
hove to hoven : but the latter justly prefers heaved to both. Examp. : " The supple kinsman slided 
to the helm." — New Timon. "The rogues slided me into the river." — Shak. " And the sand 
elided from beneath my feet." — Dr. Johnson: in Murray's Sequel, p. 179. ""When with she 
freezed her foes to congeal'd stone." — Milton's Comus, 1. 449. "It freezed hard last night. Now, 
what was it that freezed so hard?" — Emmons's Gram., p. 25. "Far hence lies, ever freez'd, the 
northern main." — Savage's Wanderer, 1. 57. "Has he not taught, beseeched, and shed abroad the 
Spirit unconfined?" — Pollok's Course of Time, B. x, 1. 275. 

Obs. 6. — D. Blair supposes catched to be an "erroneous" word and unauthorized: "I catch'd 
it," for "I caught it," he sets down for a "vulgarism." — E. Gram., p. 111. But catched is used 
by some of the most celebrated authors. Dearborn prefers the regular form of creep : " creep, 
creeped or crept, creeped or crept." — Columbian Gram., p. 38. I adopt no man's opinions 
implicitly ; copy nothing without examination ; but, to prove all my decisions to be right, would 
be an endless task. I shall do as much as ought to be expected, toward showing that they are 
so. It is to be remembered, that the poets, as well as the vulgar, use some forms which a gentle- 
man would be likely to avoid, unless he meant to quote or imitate ; as, 

" So clomb the first grand thief into God's fold; 

So since into his church lewd hirelings climb." — Milton, P. L., B. iv, 1. 192. 
"He shore his sheep, and, having packed the wool, 

Sent them unguarded to the hill of wolves."— Pollok, C. of T, B. vi, 1. 306. 
" The King of heav'n 

Bar'd his red arm, and launching from the sky 

His writhen bolt, not shaking empty smoke, 

Down to the deep abyss the flaming felon strook." — Dry den. 

Obs. 7. — The following are examples in proof of some of the forms acknowledged below: 
"Where etiquette and precedence abided far away." — Paulding's WestwardrHo! p. 6. "But 
there were no secrets where Mrs. Judith Paddock abided." — lb., p. 8. " They abided by the 

* A word is not necessarily unqrammatical by reason of having a rival form that is more common. The reg- 
ular words, beseeched, blowed, bursted, digged, freezed, bereaved, hanged, meaned, saived, showed, stringed, 
weeped, I admit for good English, though we find them all condemned by some critics. 



398 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

forms of government established by the charters." — John Quincy Adams, Oration, 1831. 
"I have abode consequences often enough in the course of my life." — Id, Speech, 1839. 
"Present, bide, or abide; Past, bode, or abode." — Coat's Gram., p. 104. "I awaked up last 
of all." — Ecclus., xxxiii, 16. " For this are my knees bended before the God of the spirits 
of all flesh." — Wm. Penn. "There was never a prince bereaved of his dependencies," 
&c. — Bacon. " Madam, you have bereft me of all words." — Shakspeare. " Reave, reaved 
or reft, reaving, reaved or reft. Bereave is similar." — Ward's Practical Gram., p. 65. "And 
let them tell their tales of woful ages, long ago betid." — Shak. " Of every nation blent, 
and every age." — Pollok, 0. of T., B. vii, p. 153. "Rider and horse, — friend, foe, — in one red 
burial blent /" — Byron, Harold, 0. iii, st. 28. "1 builded me houses." — Ecclesiastes, ii, 4. "For 
every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God." — Heb. iii, 4. "What 
thy hands builded not, thy wisdom gained." — Milton's P. L., x, 373. "Present, bet; Past, bet; 
Participle, bet." — Mackintosh's Gram., p. 197 ; Alexander's, 38. "John of Gaunt loved him well, 
and betted much upon his head." — Shakspeare: Joh. Diet, w. Bet. "He lost every earthly 
thing he betted." — Prior : ib. " A seraph kneeled." — Pollok, 0. T., p. 95. 

" At first, he declared he himself would be blowed, 
Ere his conscience with such a foul crime he would load." — J. R. Lowell. 

" They are catched without art or industry." — Robertson's Amer., Vol. i, p. 302. " Apt to be 
catched and dazzled." — Blair's Rhet, p. 26. " The lion being catched in a net." — Art of Thinking, 
p. 232. " In their self-will they digged down a wall." — Gen., xlix, 6. " The royal mother in- 
stantly dove to the bottom and brought up her babe unharmed." — Trumbull's America, i, 144. 
" The learned have diven into the secrets of nature." — Carnot: Columbian Orator, p. 82. " They 
have awoke from that ignorance in which they had slept." — London Encyclopedia. "And he slept 
and dreamed the second time." — Gen., xli, 5. "So I awoke." — lb., 21. "But he hanged the 
chief baker." — Gen., xl, 22. "Make as if you hanged yourself." — Arbuthnot: in Joh. Diet. 
" Graven by art and man's device." — Acts, xvii, 29. " Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged 
thorn." — Gray. " That the tooth of usury may he grinded." — Lord Bacon. "MILN-EE, The hole 
from which the grinded corn falls into the chest below." — Glossary of Craven, London, 1828. 
" UNlxRUND, Not grinded." — Ibid. "And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed 
stone." — 1 Kings, vi, 36. " A thing by which matter is hewed." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Europ. 
Lang., Vol. i, p. 378. Scagd or scad meaned distinction, dividing." — lb., i, 114. "He only 
meaned to acknowledge him to be an extraordinary person." — Lowih's Gram., p. 12. " The 
determines what particular thing is meaned." — lb., p. 11. " If Hermia mean' d to say Lysander 
lied." — Shak. "As if I meaned not the first but the second creation." — Barclay's Works, iii, 289. 
"From some stones have rivers bursted forth." — Sale's Koran, Vol. i, p. 14. 

" So move we on ; I only meant 
To show the reed on which you leant." — Scott, L. L., C. v, st. 11. 

Obs. 8 — Layed, payed, and stayed, are now less common than laid, paid, and staid; but 
perhaps not less correct, since they are the same words in a more regular and not uncommon 
orthography: "Thou takest up that [which] thou layedst not down." — Friends' Bible, Smith's, 
Bruce's: Luke, xix, 21. Scott's Bible, in this place, has u layest," which is wrong in tense. 
"Thou layedst affliction upon our loins." — Friends' Bible: Psalms, lxvi, 11. "Thou laidest 
affliction upon our loins." — Scott's Bible, and Bruce's. " Thou laidst affliction upon our loins." 
— Smith's Bible, Stereotyped by J. Howe. " Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder." 
— Singer's Shakspeare: Richard II, Act i, Sc. 1. "But no regard was payed to his remon- 
strance." — Smollett's England, Vol. iii, p. 212. " Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from 
dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit." — Haggai, i, 10. "Stay, i. stayed or staid; pp. 
staying, stayed or staid." — Worcester's Univ. and Crit. Diet. " Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz 
stayed by Eu-rogel." — 2 Sam., xvii, 17. " This day have I payed my vows." — Friends' Bible : 
Prov., vii, 14. Scott's Bible has "paid." "They not only stayed for their resort, but discharged 
divers." — Hayward: in Joh. Diet. "I stayed till the latest grapes were ripe." — Waller's Dedi- 
cation. " To lay is regular, and has in the past time and participle layed or laid." — Lowth's Gram., 
p. 54. "To the flood, that stay'd her flight." — Milton's Comus, 1. 832. "All rude, all waste, 
and desolate is lay'd." — Rowe's Lucan, B. ix, 1. 1636. " And he smote thrice, and stayed." — 2 
Kings, xiii, 18. 

" When Cobham, generous as the noble peer 
That wears his honours, pay'd the fatal price 
Of virtue blooming, ere the storms were laid." — Shenstone, p. 167. 

Obs. 9. — By the foregoing citations, lay, pay, and stay, are clearly proved to be redundant. 
But, in nearly all our English grammars, lay and pay are represented as being always irregular ; 
and stay is as often, and as improperly, supposed to be always regular. Other examples in proof 
of the hst: " I lit my pipe with the paper." — Addison* 

" While he whom learning, habits, all prevent, 

Is largely mulct for each impediment." — Crabbe, Bor., p. 102. 
" And then the chapel— night and morn to pray, 
Or mulct and threaten'd if he kept away." — lb., p. 162. 
" A small space is formed, in which the breath is pent up." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 493. 
" Pen, when it means to write, is always regular. Boyle has penned in the sense of confined." — 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — REDUNDANT VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 399 

ChurcMWs Gram., p. 261. " So far as it was now pled." — Anderson : Annals of the Bible, p. 25. 
"Rapped with admiration." — Hooker: Joh. Bid. " And being rapt with the love of his beauty." 
— Id., ib. "And rapt in secret studies." — Shak. : ib. "I'm rapt with joy." — Addison: ib. 
" Boast with fire." — Friends' Bible : Exod., xii, 8 and 9. " Roasted with fire." — Scott's Bible: 
Exod., xii, 8 and 9. "Upon them hath the light shined." — Isaiah, ix, 2. "The earth shined 
with his glory." — Ezekiel, xliii, 2. " After that he had showed wonders." — Acts, vii, 36. " Those 
things which God before had showed." — Acts, iii, 18. "As shall be shewed in Syntax." — Johnson's 
Gram. Com., p. 28. "I have shown you, that the two first maybe dismissed." — Cobbett's E. 
Gram., ^[ 10. " And in this struggle were sowed the seeds of the revolution." — Everett s Address, 
p. 16. " Your favour showed to the performance, has given me boldness." — Jenks's Prayers, Bed. 
" Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel." — Rom., xv, 20. " Art thou, like the adder, waxen 
deaf?" — Shakspeare. " Hamstring' d behind, unhappy Gyges died." — Bryden. " In Syracusa was 
I born and wed." — Shakspeare. " And thou art wedded to calamity." — Id. " I saw thee first, and 
wedded thee." — Milton. " Sprung the rank weed, and thrived with large increase." — Pope. 
" Some errors never would have thriven, had it not been for learned refutation." — Book of Thoughts, 
p. 34. " Under your care they have thriven." — Junius, p. 5. " Fixed by being rolled closely, 
compacted, knitted." — Br. Murray's Hist, Vol. i, p. 374. ""With kind converse and skill has 
weaved." — Prior. "Though I shall be wetted to the skin." — Sandford and Merton, p. 64. "I 
speeded hither with the very extreraest inch of possibility." — Shakspeare. " And pure grief shore his 
old thread in twain." — Id. "And must I ravel out my weaved-up follies?" — Id., Rich. II. 
" Tells how the drudging Goblin swet" — Milton's L Allegro. " Weave, wove or weaved, weaving, 
wove, weaved, or woven." — Ward's Gram., p. 67. . 

" Thou who beneath the frown of fate hast stood, 
And in thy dreadful agony sweat blood." — Young, p. 238. 
Obs. 10. — The verb to shake is now seldom used in any other than the irregular form, shake, 
shook, shaking, shaken ; and, in this form only, is it recognized by our principal grammarians and 
lexicographers, except that Johnson improperly acknowledges shook as well as shaken for 
the perfect participle : as, " I've shook it off." — Dryden: Joh. Bid. But the regular form, shake, 
shaked, shaking, shaked, appears to have been used by some writers of high reputation ; and, if 
the verb is not now properly redundant, it formerly was so. Examples regular: " The frame 
and huge foundation of the earth shak'd like a coward." — Shakspeare: Hen. IV. "I am he 
that is so love-shaked." — Id. : As You Bike it. "A sly and constant knave, not to be shak'd." — 
Id.: Cymbeline: Joh. Bid. "I thought he would have shaked it off." — Tattler: ib. " To the 
very point I shaked my head at." — Spectator, No. 4. " From the ruin'd roof of shak'd Olympus." 
— Milton's Poems. "None hath shak'd it off." — Walker' s English Particles, p. 89. "They shaked 
their heads." — Psalms, cix, 25. Dr. Crombie says, "Story, in his Grammar, has, most unwar- 
rantably, asserted, that the Participle of this Verb should be shaked." — On Etymology and 
Syntax, p. 198. Fowle, on the contrary, pronounces shaked to be right. See True English 
Gram., p. 46. 

Obs. 11. — All former lists of our irregular and redundant verbs are, in many respects, defective 
and erroneous ; nor is it claimed for those which are here presented, that they are absolutely per- 
fect. I trust, however, they are much nearer to perfection, than are any earlier ones. Among 
the many individuals who have published schemes of these verbs, none have been more 
respected and followed than Lowth, Murray, and Crombie ; yet are these authors' lists severally 
faulty in respect to as many as sixty or seventy of the words in question, though the whole 
number but little exceeds two hundred, and is commonly reckoned less than one hundred and 
eighty. By Lowth, eight verbs are made redundant, which I think are now regular only : 
namely, bake, climb, fold, help, load, owe, icash. By Crombie, as many: to wit, bake, climb, 
freight, help, lift, load, shape, writhe. By Murray, two: load and shape. With Crombie, and in 
general with the others too, twenty-seven verbs are always irregular, which I think are some- 
times regular, and therefore redundant : abide, beseech, blow, burst, creep, freeze, grind, lade, lay, pay, 
rive, seethe, shake, show, sleep, slide, speed, string, strive, strow, sweat, thrive, throw, weave, weep, 
wind, \oring. Again, there are, I think, more than twenty redundant verbs which are treated by 
Crombie, — and, with one or two exceptions, by Lowth and Murray also, — as if they were always 
regular : namely, betide, blend, bless, burn, dive, dream, dress, geld, kneel, lean, leap, learn, mean, 
mulct, pass, pen, plead, prove, reave, smell, spell, stave, stay, sweep, wake, whet, wont. Crombie's list 
contains the auxiliaries, which properly belong to a different table. Erroneous as it is, in all 
these things, and more, it is introduced by the author with the following praise, in bad English : 
" Verbs, which depart from this rule, are called Irregular, of which I believe the subsequent enumera- 
tion to be nearly complete." — Treatise on Etym. and Synt., p. 192. 

Obs. 12. — Dr. Johnson, in his Grammar of the English Tongue, recognizes two forms which 
would make teach and reach redundant. But teached is now " obsolete," and rought is " old," ac- 
cording to his own Dictionary. Of loaded and loaden, which he gives as participles of load, the 
regular form only appears to be now in good use. For the redundant forms of many words in 
the foregoing list, as of abode or abided, awaked or awoke, besought or beseeched, caught or caiched, 
hewed or hewn, mowed or mown, laded or laden, seethed or sod, sheared or shore, sowed or sown, 
waked or woke, wove or weaved, his authority may be added to that of others already cited. In 
Dearborn's Columbian Grammar, published in Boston in 1795, the year in which Lindley Mur- 
ray's Grammar first appeared in York, no fewer than thirty verbs are made redundant, which are 
not so represented by Murray. Of these I have retained nineteen in the following list, and left 



400 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART II. 



the other eleven to be now considered always regular. The thirty are these : " bake, bend, build, 
bum, climb, creep, dream, fold, freight, geld, heat, heave, help, lay, leap, lift, light, melt, owe, quit, 
rent, rot, seethe, spell, split, strive, wash, weave, wet, work." See Dearborn's Gram., p. 37 — 45. 

LIST OF THE REDUNDANT VERBS. 



Perfect Participle. 
abode or abided, 
awaked or awoke, 
belayed or belaid, 
bent or bended, 
bereft or bereaved, 
besought or beseeched. 
betted or bet. 
betided or betid, 
bode or bided, 
blended or blent, 
blessed or blest, 
blown or blowed. 
built or builded. 
burned or burnt, 
burst or bursted. 
caught or catched. 
clothed or clad, 
crept or creeped. 
crowed. 

cursed or curst, 
dared. 

dealt or dealed. 
dug or digged, 
dived or diven. 
dreamed or dreamt, 
dressed or drest. 
dwelt or dwelled, 
frozen or freezed. 
gelded or gelt, 
gilded or gilt, 
girded or girt, 
graved or graven, 
ground or grinded, 
hung or hanged, 
heated or het. 
heaved or hoven. 
hewed or hewn, 
kneeled or knelt, 
knit or knitted. ' 
laded or laden, 
laid or layed. 
leaned or leant, 
leaped or leapt.* 
learned or learnt, 
lighted or lit. 
meant or meaned. 
mowed or mown, 
mulcted or mulct. 

* "And the man in -whom the evil spirit was, leapt on them." — Friends' Bible: Acts, xix, 16. In Scott's 
Bible, and several others, the word is " leaped." Walker says, " The past time of this verb is generally heard 
with the diphthong short; and if so, it ought to be spelled leapt, rhyming with kept." — Walker's Pron. Diet., 
w. Leap. Worcester, who improperly pronounces leaped in two ways, "lept or lept," misquotes Walker, 
as saying, "it ought to be spelled lept." — Universal and Critical Diet, w. Leap. In the solemn style, leaped 
is, of course, two syllables. As for leapedst or leaptest, I know not that either can be found. 



Present. 


Preterit. Im d 


Abide, 


abode or abided, 


Awake, 


awaked or awoke, 


Belay, 
Bend, 


belayed or belaid, 
bent or bended, 


Bereave, 


bereft or bereaved, 


Beseech, 


besought or beseeched, 


Bet, 


betted or bet, 


Betide, 


betided or betid, 


Bide, 


bode or bided, 


Blend, 


blended or blent, 


Bless, 
Blow, 


blessed or blest, 
■ blew or blowed, 


Build, 


built or builded, 


Burn, 


burned or burnt, 


Burst, 


burst or bursted, 


Catch, 


caught or catched, 


Clothe, 


clothed or clad, 


Creep, 
Crow, 


crept or creeped, 
crowed or crew, 


Curse, 


cursed or curst, 


Dare, 


dared or durst, 


Deal, 


dealt or dealed, 


Dig, 
Dive, 


dug or digged, 
dived or dove, 


Dream, 


dreamed or dreamt, 


Dress, 


dressed or drest, 


Dwell, 


dwelt or dwelled, 


Freeze, 


froze or freezed, 


Geld, 


gelded or gelt, 


Gild, 
Gird, 
Grave, 


gilded or gilt, 
girded or girt, 
graved, 


Grind, 


ground or grinded, 


Hang, 
Heat, 


hung or hanged, 
heated or het, 


Heave, 


heaved or hove, 


Hew, 


hewed, 


Kneel, 


kneeled or knelt, 


Knit, 
Lade, 


knit or knitted, 
laded, 


Lay, 

Lean, 


laid or layed, 
leaned or leant, 


Leap, 
Learn, 


leaped or leapt, 
learned or learnt, 


Light, 


lighted or lit, 


Mean, 


meant or meaned, 


Mow, 


mowed, 


Mulct, 


mulcted or mulct, 



Imperfect Participle. 
abiding, 
awaking, 
belaying, . 
bending, 
bereaving, 
beseeching, 
betting, 
betiding, 
biding, 
blending, 
blessing, 
blowiug, 
building, 
burnino- 
bursting, 
catching, 
clothing, 
creeping, 
crowing, 
cursing, 
daring, 
dealing, 
digging, 
diving, 
dreaming, 
dressing, 
dwelling, 
freezing, 
gelding, 
gilding, 
girding, 
graving, 
grinding, 
hanging, 
heating, 
heaving, 
hewing, 
kneeling, 
knitting, 
lading, 
laying, 
leaning, 
leaping, 
learning, 
lighting, 
meaning, 
mowing, 
mulcting, 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. LIST OF THE REDUNDANT VERBS. 



401 



Present. 


Preterit. Imperfect Participle. 


Perfect Participle. 


Pass, 


passed or past, 


passing, 


passed or past. 


Pay, 


paid or payed, 


paying, 


paid or payed. 


Pen, (to coop,) 


penned or pent, 


penning, 


penned or pent. 


Plead, 


pleaded or pled, 


pleading, 


pleaded or pled. 


Prove, 


proved, 


proving, 


proved or proven. 


Quit, 


quitted or quit, 


quitting, 


quitted or quit.* 


Rap, 


rapped or rapt, 


rapping, 


rapped or rapt. 


Reave, 


reft or reaved, 


reaving, 


reft or reaved. 


Rive, 


rived, 


riving, 


riven or rived. 


Roast, 


roasted or roast, 


roasting, 


roasted or roast. 


Saw, 


sawed, 


sawing, 


sawed or sawn. 


Seethe, 


seethed or sod, 


seething, 


seethed or sodden. 


Shake, 


shook or shaked, 


shaking, 


shaken or shaked. 


Shape, 


shaped, 


shaping, 


shaped or shapen. 


Shave, 


shaved, 


shaving, 


shaved or shaven. 


Shear, 


sheared or shore, 


shearing, 


sheared or shorn. 


Shine, 


shined or shone, 


shining, 


shined or shone. 


Show, 


showed, 


showing, 


showed or shown. 


Sleep, 


slept or sleeped, 


sleeping, 


slept or sleeped. 


Slide, 


slid or slided, 


sliding, 


slidden, slid, or slided 


Slit, 


slitted or slit, 


slitting, 


slitted or slit. 


Smell, 


smelled or smelt, 


smelling, 


smelled or smelt. 


Sow, 


sowed, 


sowing, 


sowed or sown. 


Speed, 


sped or speeded, 


speeding, 


sped or speeded. 


Spell, 


spelled or spelt, 


spelling, 


spelled or spelt. 


Spill, 


spilled or spilt, 


spilling, 


spilled or spilt. 


Split, 


split or splitted, 


splitting, 


split or splitted. f 


Spoil, 


spoiled or spoilt, 


spoiling, 


spoiled or spoilt. 


Stave, 


stove or staved, 


staving, 


stove or staved. 


Stay, 


staid or stayed, 


staying, 


staid or stayed. 


String, 


strung or stringed, 


stringing, 


strung or stringed. 


Strive, 


strived or strove, 


striving, 


strived or striven. 


Strow, 


strowed, 


strowing, 


strowed or strown. 


Sweat, 


sweated or sweat, 


sweating, 


sweated or sweat. 


Sweep, 


swept or sweeped, 


sweeping, 


swept or sweeped. 


Swell, 


swelled, 


swelling, 


swelled or swollen. 


Thrive, 


thrived or throve, 


thriving, 


thrived or thriven. 


Throw, 


threw or throwed, 


throwing, 


thrown or throwed. 


Wake, 


waked or woke, 


waking, 


waked or woke. 


Wax, 


waxed, 


waxing, 


waxed cr waxen. 


Weave, 


wove or weaved, 


weaving, 


woven or weaved. 


Wed, 


wedded or wed, 


wedding, 


wedded or wed. 


Weep, 


wept or weeped, 


weeping, 


wept or w r eeped. 


Wet, ' 


wet or wetted, 


wetting, 


wet or wetted. 


Whet, 


whetted or whet, 


whetting, 


whetted or whet. $ 


Wind, 


wound or winded, 


winding, 


wound or winded. 


Wont, 


wont or wonted, 


wonting, 


wont or wonted. 


Work, 


worked or wrought, 


working, 


worked or wrought. 


Wring, 


wringed or wrung, 


wringing, 


wringed or wrung.§ 



* Acquit is almost always formed regularly, thus: acquit, acquitted, acquitting, acquitted. But, like quit, it 
is sometimes found in an irregular form also; which, if it be allowable, will make it redundant: as, "To be 
acquit from my continual smart." — Spencer : Johnson's Diet. " The writer holds himself acquit of all charges 
in this regard." — Judd, on the Revolutionary War, p. 5. "I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box." — 
Shak. 

t "Not know my voice! O, time's extremity! 

Hast thou so crack' d and splitted my poor tongue?" — Shak. : Com. of Er. 

% Whet is made redundant in Webster's American Dictionary, as well as in Wells's Grammar; but I can 
hardly affirm that the irregular form of it is well authorized. . 

§ In S. W. Clark's Practical Grammar, first published in 1847 — a work of high pretensions, and prepared 
expressly "for the education of Teachers" — sixty-three out of the foregoing ninety-five Redundant Verbs, are 

26 



402 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

DEFECTIVE VEBBS. 

A defective verb is a verb that forms no participles, and is used in but 
few of the moods and tenses ; as, beware, ought, quoth. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — When any of the principal parts of a verb are wanting, the tenses usually derived from 
those parts are also, of course, wanting. All the auxiliaries, except do, be, and have, if we com- 
pare them with other verbs, are defective ; but, as auxiliaries, they lack nothing ; for no complete 
verb is used throughout as an auxiliary, except be. And since an auxiliary differs essentially 
from a principal verb, the propriety of referring may. can, must, and shall, to the class of defective 
verbs, is at least questionable. In parsing there is never any occasion to call them defective 
verbs, because they are always taken together with their principals. And though we may tech- 
nically say, that their participles are " wanting,'''' it is manifest that none are needed. 

Obs. 2. — Will is sometimes used as a principal verb, and as such it is regular and complete ; 
will, willed, willing, willed: as, "His Majesty willed that they should attend." — Clarendon. "He 
wills for them a happiness of a far more exalted and enduring nature." — Gurney. "Whether 
thou wiliest it to be a minister to our pleasure." — Harris. " I will; be thou clean." — Luke, v, 13. 
"Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." — Matt., xxvi, 39. " To will is present with me." 
— Rom., vii, 18. But would is sometimes also a principal verb; as, "What would this man?" — 
Pope. " Would GTod that all the Lord's people were prophets." — Numb., xi, 29. "And Israel 
toould none of me." — Psalm, lxxxi, 11. If we refer this indefinite preterit to the same root, will 
becomes redundant ; will, willed or toould, willing, willed. In respect to time, would is less definite 
than willed, though both are called preterits. It is common, and perhaps best, to consider them 
distinct verbs. The latter only can be a participle : as, 

" How rarely does it meet with this time's guise, 
When man was wilVd to love his enemies!" — Shakspeare. 

Obs. 3. — The remaining defective verbs are only five or six questionable terms, which our 
grammarians know not well how else to explain; some of them being now nearly obsolete, and 
others never having been very proper. Begone is a needless coalition of be and gone, better written 
separately, unless Dr. Johnson is right in calling the compound an interjection : as, 

"Begone! the goddess cries with stern disdain, 
Begone! nor dare the hallow'd stream to stain!" — Addison. 
Beware also seems to be a needless compound of be and the old adjective ware, wary, aware, cau- 
tious. Both these are, of course, used only in those forms of expression in which be is proper ; 
as, " Beivare of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision." — Philippians, iii, 2. "But 
we must beware* of carrying our attention to this beauty too far." — Blair's Ehet., p. 119. These 
words were formerly separated: as, " Of whom be thou ware also." — 1 Tim., iv, 15. " They were 
ware of it." — Friends' Bible, and Alger's: Acts, xiii, 6. "They were aware of it." — Scott's 
Bible: ib. "And in an hour that he is not ware of him." — Johnson's Bid., w. Ware. "And in 
an hour that he is not aware of." — Common Bibles: Matt., xxiv, 50. "Bid her well be ware and 
still erect." — Milton: in Johnson's Bid. " That even Silence was took ere she ivas ware." — Id., 
Gomus, line 558*. The adjective ware is now said to be "obsolete;" but the propriety of this as- 
sertion depends upon that of forming such a defective verb. What is the use of doing so ? 

" This to disclose is all thy guardian can ; 
Beware of all, but most beware of man." — Pope. 

The words written separately will always have the same meaning, unless we omit the preposition 
of, and suppose the compound to be a transitive verb. In this case, the argument for com- 
pounding the terms appears to be valid ; as, 

" Beware the public laughter of the town ; 
Thou springst a-leak already in thy crown." — Dry den. 

Obs. 4. — The words ought and own, without question, were originally parts of the redundant 
verb to owe ; thus : owe, owed or ought, owing, owed or own. But both have long been disjoined 

treated as having no regular or no irregular forms. (1.) The following twenty-nine are omitted by this author, 
as if they were always regular: belay, bet, betide, blend, bless, curse, dive, dress, geld, lean, leap, learn, mulct, 
pass, pen, plead, prove, rap, reave, roast, seethe, smell, spoil, stave, stay, wake, wed, whet, wont. (2.) The fol- 
lowing thirty-four are given by him as being always irregular; abide, bend, beseech, blow, burst, catch, chide, 
creep, deal, freeze, grind, hang, knit, lade, lay, mean, pay, shake, sleep, slide, speed, spell, spill, split, string, 
strive, sweat, sweep, thrive, throw, weave, weep, wet, wind. Thirty-two of the ninety-five are made redundant 
by him, though not so called in his book. 

In Wells's School Grammar, " the 113th Thousand," dated 1850, the deficiencies of the foregoing kinds, if I 
am^ right, are about fifty. This author's "List of Irregular Verbs" has forty-four Redundants, to which he 
assigns a regular form as well as an irregular. He is here about as much nearer right than Clark, as this num- 
ber surpasses thirty-two, and comes towards ninety-five. The words about which they differ, are— pen, seethe, 
and whet, of the former number ; and catch, deal, hang, knit, s%>ell, spill, sweat, and thrive, of the latter. 

* In the following example, there is a different phraseology, which seems not so well suited to the sense: 
"But we must be aware of imagining, that we render style strong and expressive, by a constant and multiplied 
use of epithets." — Blair's Rhet., p. 287. Here, in stead of "6e aware,"" the author should have said, " be- 
ware,'" or "be ware:" that is, be wary, or cautious; for aware means apprised, or informed, a sense very 
different from the other. 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — DEFECTIVE VERBS. OBSERVATIONS. 403 

from this connexion, and hence owe has become regular. Chvn, as now used, is either a pronom- 
inal adjective, as, "my own hand," or a regular verb thence derived, as, "to own a, house." Ought, 
under the name of a defective verb, is now generally thought to be properly used, in this one form, 
in all the persons and numbers of the present and the imperfect tense of the indicative and sub- 
junctive moods. Or, if it is really of one tense only, it is plainly an aorist; and hence the time 
must be specified by the infinitive that follows: as, "He ought to go; He ought to have gone." 
"If thou ought to go; If thou ought to have gone." Being originally a preterit, it never occurs in 
the infinitive mood, and is entirely invariable, except in the solemn style, where we find oughtest 
in both tenses ; as, "How thou oughtest to behave thyself." — 1 Tim., iii, 15. "Thou oughtest 
therefore to have put my money to the exchangers." — Matt, xxiv, 27. "We never say, or have 
said, "He, she, or it, oughts or oughteth." Yet we manifestly use this verb in the present tense, 
and in the third person singular ; as, " Discourse ought always to begin with a clear proposition." — 
Blair's Rhet., p. 217. I have already observed that some grammarians improperly call ought an 
auxiliary. The learned authors of Brightland's Grammar, (which is dedicated to Queen Anne.) 
did so ; and also affirmed that must and ought "have only the present time," and are alike invari- 
able. "It is now quite obsolete to say, thou oughtest; for ought now changes its ending no more 
than must." — Brightland's Gram., (approved by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.,) p. 112. 

" Do, will, and shall, must, ought, and may, 
Have, am, or be, this Doctrine will display." — lb., p. 107. 

Obs. 5. — Wis, preterit wist, to know, to think, to suppose, to imagine, appears to be now nearly 
or quite obsolete; but it may be proper to explain it, because it is lbund in the Bible: as, "I wist 
not, brethren, that he was the high priest." — Acts, xxiii, 5. " He himself ' vnst not that his face 
shone.' " — Life of Schiller, p. iv. Wit, to know, and wot, knew, are also obsolete, except in the 
phrase to wit; which, being taken abstractly, is equivalent to the adverb namely, or to the 
phrase, that is to say. The phrase, "we do you tovnt," (in 2 Cor., viii, 1st,) means, "we inform 
you." Churchill gives the present tense of this verb three forms, weet, wit, and wot; and there 
seems to have been some authority for them all: as, "He was, to weet, a little roguish page." — 
Thomson. "But little wotteth he the might of the means his folly despiseth." — Tupper's Book of 
Thoughts, p. 35. To wit, used alone, to indicate a thing spoken of, (as the French use their in- 
finitive, savoir, a savoir, or the phrase, c'est a savoir^) is undoubtedly an elliptical expression : 
probably for, "/ give you to wit;" i. e., "I give you to know." Trow, to think, occurs in the 
Bible ; as, "I trow not." — V. Test. And Coar gives it as a defective verb; and only in the first 
person singular of the present indicative, " I trow." "Webster and "Worcester mark the words as 
obsolete; but Sir W. Scott, in the Lady of the Lake, has this line: 

" Thinkst thou he trow'd thine omen ought?" — Canto iv, stanza 10. 

Quoth and quod, for say, saith, or said, are obsolete, or used only in ludicrous language. Webster 
supposes these words to be equivalent, and each confined to the first and third persons of the 
present and imperfect tenses of the indicative mood. Johnson says, that, " quoth you," as used 
by Sidney, is irregular; but Tooke assures us, that " The th in quoth, does not designate the third 
person." — Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 323. They are each invariable, and always placed be- 
fore the nominative : as, quoth I, quoth he. 

"Yea, so sayst thou, {quod Troylus,) alas!" — Chaucer. 
" I feare, quod he, it wyll not be." — Sir T. More. 
" Stranger, go! Heaven be thy guide ! 
Quod the beadsman of Nith-side." — Burns. 

Obs. 6. — Methinks, (i. e., to me it thinks,) for I think, or, it seems to me, with its preterit me- 
ihought, (i. e., to me it thought,) is called by Dr. Johnson an " ungrammatical word." He 
imagined it to be "a Norman corruption, the French being apt to confound me and I." — Joh. 
Diet. It is indeed a puzzling anomaly in our language, though not without some Anglo-Saxon 
or Latin parallels; and, like its kindred, "me seemeth," or "meseems," is little worthy to be 
countenanced, though often used by Dryden, Pope, Addison, and other good writers. Our lexi- 
cographers call it an impersonal verb, because, being compounded with an objective, it cannot have 
a nominative expressed. It is nearly equivalent to the adverb apparently ; and if impersonal, it 
is also defective; for it has no participles, no " methinking," and no participial construction of 
" methought ;" though "Webster's American Dictionary, whether quarto or octavo, absurdly suggests 
that the latter word may be used as a participle. In the Bible, we find the following text : "Me 
thinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz." — 2 Sam., xviii, 27. And 
Milton improperly makes thought an impersonal verb, apparently governing the separate objective 
pronoun him ; as, 

"■Him thought he by the brook of Cherith stood."— P. B., B. ii, 1. 264. 

Obs. 7. — Some verbs from the nature of the subjects to which they refer, are chiefly confined to 
the third person singular; as, "It rains; it snows; it freezes; it hails ; it lightens; it thunders." 
These have been called impersonal verbs; because the neuter pronoun it, which is commonly used 
before them, does not seem to represent any noun, but, in connexion with the verb, merely to 
express a state of things. They are however, in fact, neither impersonal nor defective. Some, or 
all of them, may possibly take some other nominative, if not a different person; as, "The Lord 
rained upon Sodom, and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire." — Gen., xix, 24. "The God of 
glory thundereth." — Psalms, xxix, 3. " Canst thou thunder with a voice like Mm?" — Job, xL 9. 



404 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART II. 



la short, as Harris observes, " The doctrine of Impersonal Verbs has been justly rejected by the 
best grammarians, both ancient and modern." — Hermes, p. 175. 

Obs. 8. — By some writers, words of this kind are called Monopersonal Verbs ; that is, verbs of 
one person. This name, though not very properly compounded, is perhaps more fit than the other; 
but wo have little occasion to speak of these verbs as a distinct class in our language. Dr. Mur- 
ray says, "What is called an impersonal verb, is not so ; for lic-et, juv-at, and oport-et, have Tha, 
that thing, or it, in their composition." — History of European Languages, Vol. ii, p. 146. Ail, irk, 
and behoove, are regular verbs and transitive ; but they are used only in the third person singular : 
as, " What ails you?" — "It irks me." — "It behooves you." The last two are obsolescent, or at 
least not in very common use. In Latin, passive verbs, or neuters of the passive form, are often 
used impersonally, or without an obvious nominative ; and this elliptical construction is some- 
times imitated in English, especially by the poets: as, 

" Meanwhile, ere thus was sinn'd and judged on earth, 
Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death." — Milton, P. L., B. x, 1. 230. 

"Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run 
By angels many and strong, who interpos'd." — Id., B. vi, 1. 335. 



LIST OF THE DEFECTIVE VERBS. 



Present. 


Preterit. 


Beware, 
Can, 




could. 


May, 


might. 


Methinks, 


me thought. 


Must, 


must.* 


Ought, 


ouo-ht.* 



Present. 


Preterit, 


Shall, 


should. 


Will,} 


would. 


Quoth, 


quoth. 


Wis, 


wist.J 


Wit, 


wot. 



EXAMPLES FOE PABSING. 
PRAXIS VI.— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Sixth Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the dif- 
ferent parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the Articles, Nouns, 
Adjectives, Pronouns, and Verbs. 

The definitions to be given in the Sixth Praxis, are two for an article, six for a noun, 
three for an adjective, six for a pro noun, seven for a verb finite, five for an infini- 
tive, and one for a participle, an adverb, a conjunction, a preposition, or an 
interjection. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 
" The freedom of choice seems essential to happiness ; because, properly speaking, 

that is not our own which is imposed upon us." — Dillwynh Reflections, p. 109. 

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things. 

Freedom is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known < r mentioned. 2. A common noun is 
the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the per- 
son or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gen- 
der is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or 
state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Of is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Choice is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A noun 
is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the 
name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or 
thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is 
that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a 
■ noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Seems is a regular neuter verb, from seem, seemed, seeming, seemed; found in the indicative mood, present 
tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted 
upon. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 

3. A neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being. 

4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a ques- 

* Dr. Crombie contends that must and ought are used only in the present tense. (See his Treatise, p. 204.) 
In this he is wrong, especially with regard to the latter word. Lennie, and his copyist Bullions, adopt the same 
notion; but Murray, and many others, suppose them to "have both a present and [a] past signification." 

t Dr. Crombie says, "This Verb, as an auxiliary, is inflexible; thus we say, 'he will go;' and 'he wills to 
go.' "—Treatise on Etym. and Syntax, p. 203. He should have confined his remarks to the familiar style, in 
which all the auxiliaries, except do, be, and have, are inflexible. For, in the solemn style, we do not say, " Thou 
will go," but, " Thou wilt go." 

X "HAD-I-WIST. A proverbial expression, Oh that I had known. Goioer." — Chalmers's Diet., also Web- 
ster's. In this phrase, which is here needlessly compounded, and not very properly explained, we see wist used 
as a perfect participle. But the word is obsolete. '■'Had I wist" is therefore an obsolete phrase, meaning. If I 
had known, or, " O that I had known." 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS.— PAUSING. — PRAXIS VI. 405 

tion. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third per- 
son is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is that which 
denotes but one. 

Essential is a common adjective, compared by means of the adverbs; essential, "more essential, most essential; 
or, essential, less essential, least essential. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and 
generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality 
or situation. 3. Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, but not in form, are compared by means 
of adverbs. 

To is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Happiness is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is 
the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the per- 
son or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gen- 
der is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or 
state of a noun or pronoun which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Because is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and 
to show the dependence of the terms so connected. 

Properly is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; 
and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Speaking is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, 
and of an adjective or a noun ; and. is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ted, to the verb. 

That is a pronominal adjective, not compared ; standing for that thing, in the third person, singular number, 
neuter gender, and nominative case. [See Obs. 14th, p. 290.] 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun 
or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may 
either accompany its noun, or represent it understood. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person 
or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gen- 
der is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or 
state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finitfl verb. 

Is is an irregular neuter verb, from be, toas, being, been ; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third 
person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. An 
irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. 
A neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being. 4. 
The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a ques- 
tion. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third per- 
son is that which denotes the person or thiug merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is that which 
denotes but one. 

Not is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; and 
generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Cur is a personal pronoun, of the first person, plural number, masculine gender, and possessive case. 1. A 
pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of 
what person it is. 3. The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer. 4. The plural number 
is that which denotes more than one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of 
the male kind. 6. The possessive case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes 
the relation of property. 

Own is a pronominal adjective, not compared. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and gen- 
erally expresses quality. 2. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may either accompany its 
noun, or represent it understood. 3. Those adjectives whose signification does not admit of different de- 
grees cannot be compared. 

Which is a relative pronoun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A 
pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A relative pronoun is a pronoun that represents an antece- 
dent word or phrase, and connects different clauses of a sentence. 3. The third person is that which denotes 
the person or thing merely spoken .of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The 
neuter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that 
form or state of a noun or pronoun which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Is imposed is a regular passive verb, from the active verb, impose, imposed, imposing, imposed, — passive, to 
be imposed; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb 
is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit 
and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. A passive verb is a verb that represents the subject, or 
what the nominative expresses, as being acted upon. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb 
which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a question. 5. The present tense is that which expresses 
what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely 
spoken of. 7. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 

Upon is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word useu to express some relation of different things or thoughts 
to each other, and is generally placed before a noun oi a pronoun. 

Us is a personal pronoun, of the first person, plural number, masculine gender, and objective case. 1. A pro- 
noun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of 
what person it is. 3. The first person is that which denotes the speaker or writer. 4. The plural number 
is that which denotes more than one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of 
the male kind. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the 
object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

" He has desires after the kingdom, and makes no question but it shall be his ; he 
wills, runs, strives, believes, hopes, prays, reads scriptures, observes duties, and re- 
gards ordinances." — Penington, ii, 124. 

" Wo uuto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge : ye «nter 
not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." — Luke, xi, 52. 

" Above all other liberties, give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue 
freely, according to my conscience." — Milton. 

" Eloquence is to be looked for only in free states. Longinus illustrates this 
observation with a great deal of beauty. ' Liberty,' he remarks, ' is the nurse of 
true genius ; it animates the spirit, and invigorates the hopes, of men ; it excites 



406 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

honourable emulation, and a desire of excelling in every art.' " — Blair's Rhet., 
p. 237. 

" None of the faculties common to man and the lower animals, conceive the idea 
of civil liberty, any more than that of religion." — Spurzheim, on Education, p. 259. 
" Whoever is not able, or does not dare, to think, or does not feel contradictions and 
absurdities, is unfit for a refined religion and civil liberty." — lb., p. 258. 

" The too great number of journals, and the extreme partiality of their authors, have 
much discredited them. A man must have great talents to please all sorts of readers ; 
and it is impossible to please all authors, who, generally speaking, cannot bear with 
the most judicious and most decent criticisms." — Formeifs Belles-Lettres, p. 1*70. 

" Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt ; and, lo, it shall 
not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold 
the sword." — Ezekiel, xxx, 21. 

" Yet he was lyimble, kind, forgiving, meek, 
Easy to be entreated, gracious, mild ; 
And, with all patience and affection, taught, 
Rebuked, persuaded, solaced, counselled, warned." — PolloJc, B. ix. 

* Lesson II. — Parsing. 

"What is coming, will come ; what is proceeding onward, verges towards com- 
pletion." — Dr. Murray's Europ. Lang., i, 324. " Sir, if it had not been for the art 
of printing, we should now have had no learning at all ; for books would have 
perished faster than they could have been transcribed." — Dr. Johnson's Life, hi, 400. 

" Passionate reproofs are like medicines given scalding hot : the patient cannot 
take them. If we wish to do good to those whom we rebuke, we should labour for 
meekness of wisdom, and use soft words and hard arguments." — Dodd. 

" My prayer for you is, that God may guide you by his counsel, and in the end 
bring you to glory : to this purpose, attend diligently to the dictates of his good 
spirit, which you may hear within you ; for Christ saith, ' He that dwelleth with 
you, shall be in you.' And, as you hear and obey him, he will conduct you 
through this troublous world, in ways of truth and righteousness, and land you at 
last in the habitations of everlasting rest and peace with the Lord, to praise him for 
ever and ever." — T. Gwin. 

"By matter, we mean, that which is tangible, extended, and divisible; by mind, 
that which perceives, reflects, wills, and reasons. These properties are wholly dis- 
similar and admit of no comparison. To pretend that mind is matter, is to propose 
a contradiction in terms ; and is just as absurd, as to pretend that matter is mind." 
— Gurney's Portable Evidence, p. 78. 

" If any one should think all this to be of little importance, I desire him to con- 
sider what he would think, if vice had, essentially, and in its nature, these advan- 
tageous tendencies, or if virtue had essentially the direct contrary ones." — Butler, 
p. 99. 

" ~No man can write simpler and stronger English than the celebrated Boz, and 
this renders us the more annoyed at those manifold vulgarities and slipshod errors, 
which unhappily have of late years disfigured his productions." — Living- Authors 
of England : The Examiner, No. 119. 

" Here Havard, all serene, in the same strains, 

Loves, hates, and rages, triumphs, and complains." — Churchill, p. 3. 
" Let Satire, then, her proper object know, 
And ere she strike, be sure she strike a foe." — John Brown. 

Lesson HI. — Parsing. 

"The Author of nature has as truly directed that vicious actions, considered as 
mischievous to society, should be punished, and has as clearly put mankind under a 
necessity of thus punishing them, as he has directed and necessitated us to preserve 
our lives by food." — Butler's Analogy, p. 88. 

" An author may injure his works by altering, and even amending, the successive 



CHAP. VI.] ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. ERRORS. 407 

editions : the first impression sinks the deepest, and with the credulous it can 
rarely be effaced ; nay, he will be vainly employed who endeavours to eradicate it." 
— Werter, p. 82. 

"It is well ordered, that even the most innocent blunder is not committed with 
impunity ; because, were errors licensed where they do no hurt, inattention would 
grow into habit, and be the occasion of much hurt." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 285. 

" The force of language consists in raising complete images ; which have the effect 
to transport the reader, as by magic, into the very place of the important action, 
and to convert him as it were into a spectator, beholding every thing that passes." 
— Id., ib., ii, 241. 

" An orator should not put forth all his strength at the beginning, but should rise 
and grow upon us, as his discourse advances." — Blair's Rhet., p. 309. 

" When a talent is given to any one, an account is open with the giver of it, who 
appoints a day in which he will arrive and ' redemand his own with usury.' " — - 
West's Letters to a Young Lady, p. 74. 

" Go, and reclaim the sinner, instruct the ignorant, soften the obdurate, and (as 
occasion shall demand) cheer, depress, repel, allure, disturb, assuage, console, or ter- 
rify." — Jerningham 's Essay on Eloquence, p. 97. 

" If all the year were playing holydays, 
To sport would be as tedious as to work : 
But when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come, 
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents." — Shak., Hen. V. 
" The man that once did sell the lion's skin 
While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him." — Id., Joh. Diet., w. Beast. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS OF VERBS. 
Lesson I. — Preterits. 
"In speaking on a matter which toucht their hearts." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 441. 

[FoEiitTLE. — Not proper, because the verb toucht is terminated iu t. But, according to Observation 2nd, on 
the irregular verbs, touch is regular. Therefore, this I should be changed to ed ; thus, "In speaking on a mat- 
ter which touched their hearts."] 

" Though Horace publisht it some time after." — Po., i, 444. " The best subjects with which the 
Greek models furnisht him." — lb., i, 444. " Since he attacht no thought to it." — lb., i, 645. 
"By what slow steps the Greek alphabet reacht its perfection." — lb., i, 651. "Because Goethe 
wisht to erect an affectionate memorial." — lb., i, 469. " But the Saxon forms soon dropt away." 
— lb., i, 668. "It speaks of all the towns that perisht in the age of Philip." — lb., i, 252. 
" This enricht the written language with new words." — lb., i, 668. " He merely furnisht his 
friend with matter for laughter." — lb., i, 479. "A cloud arose and stopt the light." — Swifts 
Poems, p. 313. "She slipt spaditto in her breast." — lb., p. 371. "I guest the hand." — lb., p. 
372. " The tyrant stript me to the skin : My skin he flay'd, my hah he cropt; At head and foot 
my body lopt." — lb., On a Pen, p. 338. "I see the greatest owls in you, That ever screecht or 
ever flew." — lb., p. 403. "I sate with delight, Erom morning till night." — A, p. 367. "Dick 
nimbly skipt the gutter." — lb., p. 375. "In at the pantry door this morn I slipt." — lb., p. 369. 
" Nobody living ever toucht me but you." — Walker's Particles, p. 92. " Present, I ship ; Past, I 
shipped or shipt ; Participle, shipped or shipt." — Murray the schoolmaster. Gram., p. 31. "Then 
the king arose, and tare his garments." — 2 Sam., xiii, 31. " When he lift up his foot, he knew 
not where he should set it next." — Bunyan. " He lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom 
he slew at one time." — 2 Sam. : in Joh. Diet. " Upon this chaos rid the distressed ark." — 
Burnet : ib. " On whose foolish honesty, my practices rid easy." — Shak. : ib. " That form of 
the first or primogenial Earth, which rise immediately out of chaos." — Burnet : ib. " Sir, how 
come it you have holp to make this rescue ?" — Shak. : in Joh. Diet. " He sware he had rather 
lose all his father's images than that table." — Peach am: ib. "When our language dropt its an- 
cient terminations." — Dr. Murray's Hist, ii, 5. "When themselves they vilify'd." — Milton, P. L., 
xi, 515. "But I choosed rather to do thus." — Barclay's Works, i, 456. "When he plead 
against the parsons." — School History, p. 168. "And he that saw it, bear record." — Cutler's 
Gram., p. 72. "An irregular verb has one more variation, as drive, drivest, drives, drivedst, 
drove, driving, driven." — Rev. Matt. Harrison, on the English Language, p. 260. " Beside that 
village Hannibal pitcht his camp." — Walker's Particles, p. 79. "He fetcht it even from 
Tmolus." — lb., p. 114. " He supt with his morning gown on." — lb., p. 285. " There stamp! 
her sacred name." — Barlovfs Columbiad, B. i, 1. 233. 

"Fixt on the view the great discoverer stood, 
And thus addrest the messenger of good." — Barlow, B, i, L 658. 



408 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Lesson II. — Mixed. 

" Three freemen were being tried at the date of our last information." — Newspaper. 

[Fokmxjle. — Not proper, because the participle being is used after its own verb were. But, according to Ob- 
servation 4th, on the compound form of conjugation, this complex passive form is an absurd innovation. There- 
fore, the expression should be changed ; thus, " Three freemen were on triaV — or, " were receiving their trial 
— at the date of our last information."] 

"While the house was being built, many of the tribe arrived." — Ross Cox's Travels, p. 102. 
" But a foundation has been laid in Zion, and the church is being built upon it." — The Friend, ix, 
377. " And one fourth of the people are being educated." — East India Magazine. " The present, 
or that which is now being done." — Beck's Gram., p. 13. " A new church, called the Pantheon, 
is just being completed in an expensive style." — G. A. Thompson's Guatemala, p. 467. "When 
I last saw him, he was grown considerably." — Murray's Key, p. 223 ; Merchant's, 198. " I know 
what a rugged and dangerous path I am got into." — Duncan's Cicero, p. 83. "You were as 
good preach ease to one on the rack." — Locke's Essay, p. 285. "Thou hast heard me, and art 
become my salvation." — Psal, cxviii, 21. "While the Elementary Spelling-Book was being pre- 
pared for the press." — L. Cobb's Review, p. vi. "Language is become, in modern times, more 
correct and accurate." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 16. " If the plan have been executed in any 
measure answerable to the author's wishes." — Robbins's Hist., p. 3. "The vial of wrath is still 
being poured out on the seat of the beast." — Christian Experience, p. 409. " Christianity was 
become the generally adopted and established religion of the whole Roman Empire." — Gumey's 
Essays, p. 35. " Who wrote before the first century was elapsed." — lb., p. 13. "The original 
and analogical form is grown quite obsolete." — Lowth's Gram., p. 56. "Their love, and their 
hatred, and their envy, are perished." — Murray's Gram., i, 149. " The poems were got abroad 
and in a great many hands." — Pref. to Waller. " It is more harmonious, as well as more correct, 
to say, ' the bubble is almost bursted.' " — Cobbett's E. Gram., % 109. "I drave my suitor from 
his mad humour of love." — Shah. " Se viriliter expedivit. {Cicero) He hath plaid the man." — 
Walker's Particles, p. 214. "Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday." — 
Friends' Bible: Ads, vii, 28. "And we, methoughts, look'd up t'him from our hill." — Cowley's 
Davideis, B. iii, 1. 386. "I fear thou doest not think as much of best things as thou oughtest." 
— Memoir of M. C. Thomas,^. 34. "When this work was being commenced." — Wright's Gram., 
p. 10. " Exercises and Key to this work are being prepared." — lb., p. 12. "James is loved, or 
being loved by John." — lb., p. 64. " Or that which is being exhibited." — lb., p. 77. " He was 
being smitten." — lb., p. 78. "In the passive state we say, 'I am being loved.'" — lb., p. 80. 
"Subjunctive Mood : If I am being smitten, If thou art being smitten, If he is being smitten."— 
lb., p. 100. " I will not be able to convince you how superficial the reformation is." — Chalmers's 
Sermons, p. 88. "I said to myself, I will be obliged to expose the folly." — Chazotte's Essay, p. 3. 
" When Clodius, had he meant to return that day to Rome, must have been arrived." — Adams's 
Rhetoric, i, 418. "That the fact has been done, is being done, or shall or will be done." — O. B. 
Peirce's Gram., pp. 347 and 356. "Am I being instructed?" — Wright's Gram., p. 70. "I am 
choosing him." — lb., p. 112. " John, who was respecting his father, was obedient to his com- 
mands." — Barrett's Revised Gram., p. 69. " The region echos to the clash of arms." — Beattie's 
Poems, p. 63. 

" And sitt' st on high, and m^l.'st creation's top 
Thy footstool; and behold'st below thee, all"— Polloh, B. vi, 1. 663. 

"And see if thou can'st punish sin, and let 
Mankind go free. Thou fail'st — be not surprised." — Id., B. ii, 1. 118. 

Lesson IJI. — Mixed. 

"What follows, had better been wanting altogether." — Blair's Rhet, p. 201. 

[FoRMtrLE. — Not proper, because the phrase had Letter been, is used in the sense of the potential pluperfect 
But, according to Obsei'vation 17th, on the conjugations, this substitution of one form for another is of question- 
able propriety. Therefore, the regular form should here be preferred ; thus, '' What follows, might better have 
been wanting altogether."] 

"This member of the sentence had much better have been omitted altogether." — lb., p. 212. 
"One or [the] other of them, therefore, had better have been omitted." — lb., p. 212. "The 
whole of this last member of the sentence had better have been dropped." — lb., p. 112. " In 
this case, they had much better be omitted." — lb., p. 173. " He had better have said, ' the pro- 
ductions' " — lb., p. 220. "The Greeks have ascribed the origin of poetry to Orpheus, Linus, and 
Musseus." — lb., p. 377. " It has been noticed long ago, that all these fictitious names have the 
same number of syllables." — Phil. Museum, i, 471. "When I found that he had committed 
nothing worthy of death, I have determined to send him." — Acts, xxv, 25. "I had rather be a 
door-keeper in the house of my God." — Ps., lxxxiv, 10. "As for such, I wish the Lord open 
their eyes." — Barclay's Works, iii. 263. "It would a made our passidge over the river very 
difficult." — Walley, in 1692. " We should not a been able to have carried our great guns." — Id. 
" Others would a questioned our prudence, if wee had." — Id. See Hutchinson's Hist, of Mass., 
i, 478. " Beware thou bee'st not bec^sar'd ; i. e. Beware that thou dost not dwindle into a mere 
Osesar." — Harris's Hermes, p. 183. "Thou raisedest thy voice to record the stratagems of needy 
heroes." — Arbuthnot: in Joh. Diet, w. Scalade. "Life hurrys off apace: thine is almost up 
already." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 19. "'How unfortunate has this accident made me!' crya 



CHAP. VII.] ETYMOLOGY. — PARTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 409 

such a one." — lb., p. 60. "The muse that soft and sickly wooes the ear." — Pollok, i, 13. "A 
man were better relate himself to a statue." — Bacon. " I heard thee say but now, thou lik'dst 
not that." — Shah. " In my whole course of wooing, thou cried'st, Indeed! " — Id. " But our ears 
are grown familiar with I have wrote, I have drank, &c, which are altogether as ungrammatical." — 
Lowth's Gram., p. 63 ; Churchill's, 114. "The court was sat before Sir Roger came." — Addison, 
Sped, No. 122. "She need be no more with the jaundice possest." — Swiff s Poems, p. 346. 
"Besides, j r ou found fault with our victuals one day that you was here." — lb., p. 333. "If spirit 
of other sort, So minded, have o'erleap'd these earthy bounds." — Milton, P. L., B. iv, 1. 582. " It 
should have been more rational to have forborn this." — Barclay's Works, Vol. hi, p. 265. "A 
student is not master of it till he have seen all these." — Dr. Murray's Life, p. 55. "The said 
justice shall summons the party." — Brevard's Digest. " Now what is become of thy former wit 
and humour?" — Sped., No. 532. "Young stranger, whither wand'rest thou?" — Burns, p. 29. 
" Sub j. : Pres. If I love, If thou lovest, If he love. Imp, If I loved, If thou lovedst, If he 
loved." — Merchant's Gram., p. 51. " Subj. : If I do not love, If thou dost not love, If he does not 
love ;" &c. — lb., p. 56. "If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." — James, v, 15. 
"Subjunctive Mood of the verb to call, second person singular: If Thou callest. If Thou calledst. 
If Thou hast called. If Thou hadst called. If Thou call. If Thou shalt or wilt have called." — 
Hiley's Gram., p. 41. "Subjunctive Mood of the verb to love, second person singular: If thou 
love. If thou do love. If thou lovedst. If thou didst love. If thou hast loved. If thou hadst 
loved. If thou shalt or wilt love. If thou shalt or wilt have loved." — Bullions's E. Gram., p. 46. 
"I was; thou wast, or you was; he. she, or it was: We, you or ye, they, were." — White, on the 
English Verb, p. 51. "I taught, thou taughtedst, he taught." — Coar's English Gram., p. 66. 
" We say, if it rains, suppose it rains, lest it should rain, unless it rains. This manner of speaking 
is called the subjunctive mode." — Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 72; Abridged Ed., 59. "He is 
arrived at what is deemed the age of manhood." — Priestley's Gram., 163. " He had much better have 
let it alone." — Tooke's Diversions, i, 43. "He were better be without it." — Locke, on Education, p. 
105. "Hadest not thou been by." — Beauties of Shak., p. 107. "I learned geography. Thou 
learnedest arithmetick. He learned grammar." — Fuller's Gram., p. 34. "Till the sound is 
ceased." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 126. "Present, die; Preterit, died; Perf. Participle, dead." — 
— British Gram., p. 158; Buchanan's, 58; Priestley's, 48; Ash's, 45; Fisher's, 71; Bicknell's, 73. 

"Thou bowed'st thy glorious head to none, feared'st none." — Pollok, B. viii, 1. 603. 
"Thou look'st upon thy boy as though thou guessedst it." — N. A. Reader, p. 320. 
"As once thou slept'st, while she to life was form'd " — Milt., P. L., B. xi, 1. 369. 

" Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, 
But may imagine how the bird was dead ? " — Shak:. : Joh. Diet. 

"Which might have well becom'd the best of men." — Id., Ant. and Chop. 



CHAPTER VII.— PARTICIPLES. 

A Participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the proper- 
ties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun ; and is generally formed by 
adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb : thus, from the verb rule, are formed 
three participles, two simple and one compound ; as, 1. riding, 2. ruled, 
3. having ruled. I 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Almost all verbs and participles seem to have their very essence in motion, or the 
privation of motion — in acting, or ceasing to act. And to all motion and rest, time and place are 
necessary concomitants ; nor are the ideas of degree and manner often irrelevant. Hence the use 
of tenses and of adverbs. For whatsoever comes to pass, must come to pass sometime and some- 
vjhere ; and, in every event, something must be affected somewhat and somehow. Hence it is evident 
that those grammarians are right, who say, that " all participles imply time." But it does not 
follow, that the English participles divide time, like the tenses of a verb, and specify the period of 
action ; on the contrary, it is certain and manifest, that they do not. The phrase, " men labouring," 
conveys no other idea than that of labourers at work ; it no more suggests the time, than the place, 
degree, or manner, of their work. All these circumstances require other words to express them ; 
as, " Men now here awkwardly labouring much to little purpose." Again: " Tltenceforward will 
men, there labouring hard and honourably, be looked down upon by dronish lordlings." 

Obs. 2. — Participles retain the essential meaning of their verbs ; and, like verbs, are either active- 
transitive, active-intransitive, passive, or neuter, in their signification. For this reason, many have 
classed them with the verbs. But their formal meaning is obviously different. They convey no 
affirmation, but usually relate to nouns or pronouns, like adjectives, except when they are joined 
with auxiliaries to form the compound tenses of their verbs ; or when they have in part the nature 
of substantives, like the Latin gerunds. Hence some have injudiciously ranked them with the 
adjectives. The most discreet writers have commonly assigned them a separate place among the 



410 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

parts of speech ; because, in spite of all opposite usages, experience lias shown that it is expedient 
to do so. 

Obs. 3. — According to the doctrine of Harris, all words denoting the attributes of things, are 
either verbs, or participles, or adjectives.* Some attributes have their essence in motion : as, to 
walk, to run, to fly, to strike, to live ; or, walking, running, flying, striking, living. Others have it 
in the privation of motion : as, to stop, to rest, to cease, to die ; or, stopping, resting, ceasing, dying. 
And there are others which have nothing to do with either motion or its privation ; but have 
their essence in the quantity, quality, or situation of things ; as, great and small, white and black, 
wise and foolish, eastern and western. These last terms are adjectives ; and those which denote 
motion or its privation, are either verbs or participles, according to their formal meaning ; that is, 
according to their manner of attribution. See Hermes, p. 95. Yerbs commonly say or affirm 
something of their subjects; as, u The babe wept." Participles suggest the action or attribute 
without affirmation; as, U A babe weeping," — "An act regretted." 

Obs. 4. — A verb, then, being expressive of some attribute, which it ascribes to the thing or 
person named as its subject ; of time, which it divides and specifies by the tenses ; and also, 
(with the exception of the infinitive,) of an assertion or affirmation; if we take away the affirma- 
tion and the distinction of tenses, there will remain the attribute and the general notion of time ; 
and these form the essence of an English participle. So that a participle is something less than a 
verb, though derived immediately from it ; and something more than an adjective, or mere attri- 
bute, though its manner of attribution is commonly the same. Hence, though the participle by 
rejecting the idea of time may pass almost insensibly into an adjective, and become truly a parti- 
cipial adjective ; yet the participle and the adjective are by no means one and the same part of 
speech, as some will have them to be. There is always an essential difference in their meaning. 
For instance : there is a difference between a thinking man and a man thinking ; between a 
bragging fellow and a fellow bragging ; between a fast-sailing ship and a ship sailing fast. A 
thinking man, a bragging fellow, or a fast-sailing ship, is contemplated as being habitually or per- 
manently such ; a man thinking, a fellow bragging, or a ship sailing fast, is contemplated as per- 
forming a particular act ; and this must embrace a period of time, whether that time be specified or 
not. John Locke was a thinking man ; but we should directly contradict his own doctrine, to 
suppose him always thinking. 

Obs. 5. — The English participles are all derived from the roots of their respective verbs, and do 
not, like those of some other languages, take their names from the tenses. On the contrary, they 
are reckoned among the principal parts in the conjugation of their verbs, and many of the tenses 
are formed from them. In the compound forms of conjugation, they are found alike in all the 
tenses. They do not therefore, of themselves, express any particular time ; but they denote the 
state of the being, action, or passion, in regard to its progress or completion. This I conceive to 
be their principal distinction. Respecting the participles in Latin, it has been matter of dispute, 
whether those which are called the present and the perfect, are really so in respect to time or not. 
Sanctius denies it. In Greek, the distinction of tenses in the participles is more apparent, yet 
even here the time to which they refer, does not always correspond to their names. See remarks 
on the Participles in the Port Royal Latin and Greek Grammars. 

Obs. 6. — Home Tooke supposes our participles in ed to express time past, and those in ing to 
have no signification of time. He says, " I did not mean to deny the adsignification of time to all 
the participles ; though I continue to withhold it from that which is called the participle present." 
— Diversions of Parley, Yol. ii, p. 415. Upon the same point, he -afterwards adds, " I am neither 
new nor singular; for Sanctius both asserted and proved it by numerous instances in the Latin. 
Such as, ' Et abfui proficiscens in Greeciam.' Cicero. ' Sed postquam amans accessit pretium 
pollicens. 1 Terent. ' Ultro ad earn venies indicans te amare.' Terent. l Turnum fugientem hsec 
terra videbit.' Virg." — Tooke's Div., ii, 420. Again: "And thus I have given } 7 ou my opinion 
concerning what is called the present participle. Which I think improperly so called ; because I 
take it to be merely the simple verb adjectived, without any adsignification of manner or time." — 
Tooke's Div., Yol. ii, p. 423. 

Obs. 7. — I do not agree with this author, either in limiting participles in ed to time past, or in 
denying all signification of time to those in ing; but I admit that what is commonly called the 
present participle, is not very properly so denominated, either in English or in Latin, or perhaps in 
any language. With us, however, this participle is certainly, in very many instances, something 
else than "merely the simple verb adjectived." For, in the first place, it is often of a complex 
character, as being loved, being seen, in which' two verbs are " adjectived" together, and that by 
different terminations. Yet do these words as perfectly coalesce in respect to time, as to every- 
thing else; and being loved or being seen is confessedly as much a " present" participle, as being, 
or loving, or seeing — neither form being solely confined to what now is. Again, our participle in 
ing stands not only for the present participle of the Latin or- Greek grammarians, but also for the 
Latin gerund, and often for the Greek infinitive used substantively ; so that by this ending, the 
English verb is not only adjectived, but also substantived, if one may so speak. For the participle 
when governed by a preposition, partakes not of the qualities "of a verb and an adjective," but 
rather of those of a verb and a noun. 

CLASSES. 
English verbs, not defective, have severally three participles ;* which 

* That is, passive verbs, as well as others, have three participles for each ; so that, from one active-transitive 



CHAP. VII.] ETYMOLOGY. PARTICIPLES. CLASSES. — NAMES. 411 

have been very variously denominated, perhaps the most accurately thus : 
the Imperfect, the Perfect, and the Preperfect. Or, as their order is 
undisputed, they may be conveniently called the First, the Second, and 
the Third. 

I. The Imperfect participle is that which ends commonly in ing, and 
implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion : as, being, acting, 
ruling, loving, defending, terminating. 

II. The Perfect participle is that which ends commonly in ed or en, 
and implies a completion of the being, action, or passion : as, been, acted, 
ruled, loved, defended, terminated. 

III. The Preperfect participle is that which takes the sign having, 
and implies a previous completion of the being, action, or passion : as, 
having loved, having seen, having written; having been loved, having 
been xoriting, having been zuritten. 

The First or Imperfect Participle, when simple, is always formed by 
adding ing to the radical verb ; as, look, looking: when compound, it is 
formed by prefixing being to some other simple participle ; as, being 
reading, being read, being completed. 

The Second or Perfect Participle is always simple, and is regularly 
formed by adding d or ed to the radical verb : those verbs from which it 
is formed otherwise, are either irregular or redundant. 

The Third or Preperfect ParticijxLe is always compound, and is formed 
by prefixing having to the perfect, when the compound is double, and 
having been to the perfect or the imperfect, when the compound is triple : 
as, having spoken, having been spoken, having been speaking. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Some have supposed that both the simple participles denote present time; some have 
supposed that the one denotes present, and the other, past time ; some have supposed that the 
first denotes no time, and the second time past ; some have supposed that neither has any regard 
to time ; and some have supposed that both are of all times. In regard to the distinction of voice, 
or the manner of their signification, some have supposed the one to be active, and the other to be 
passive ; some have supposed the participle in ing to be active or neuter, and the other active or 
passive ; and some have supposed that either of them may be active, passive, or neuter. Nor is 
there any more unanimity among grammarians, in respect to the compounds. Hence several 
different names have been loosely given to each of the participles : and sometimes with manifest 
impropriety; as when Buchanan, in his conjugations, calls being, "Active," — and been, having 
been, having had, "Passive." Learned men may differ in opinion respecting the nature of words, 
but grammar can never well deserve the name of science, till at least an ordinary share of reason 
and knowledge appears in the language of those who teach it. 

Obs. 2. — The First participle has been called the Present, the Progressive, the Imperfect, the 
Simple Imperfect, the Indefinite, the Active, the Present Active, the Present Passive, the Present 
Neuter, and, in the passive voice, the Preterimperfect, the Compound Imperfect, the Compound 
Passive, the Passive. The Second, which, though it is always but one word, some authors treat 
as being two participles, or three, has been called the Perfect, the Preter, the Preterperfect, the 
Imperfect, the Simple Perfect, the Past, the Simple Past, the First Past, the Preterit, the Passive, 
the Present Passive, the Perfect Active, the Past Active, the Auxiliary Perfect, the Perfect 
Passive, the Perfect Neuter, the Simple Perfect Active, the Simple Perfect Passive. The Third 
has been called the Compound, the Compound Active, the Compound Passive, the Compound 
Perfect, the Compound Perfect Active, the Compound Perfect Passive, the Compound Preter, the 
Present, the Present Perfect, the Past, the Second Past, the Past Compound, the Compound Past, 

root, there come six participles — three active, and three passive. Those numerous grammarians who, like 
Lindley Murray, make passive verbs a distinct class, for the most part, very properly state the participles of a 
verb to be "three;" but, to represent the two voices as modifications of one species of verbs, and then say, 
" The Participles are three" as many recent writers do, is manifestly absurd : because two threes should^ be six. 
Thus, for example, Dr. Bullions: "In English [,] the transitive verb has always two voices, the Active and 
[the] Passive."— Prin. of E. Gram., p. 33. "The Participles are three, [;] the Present, the Perfect, and the 
Compound Perfect." — lb., p. 57. Again: " Transitive verbs have two voices, called the Active and the Pas- 
sive." —Bullions'" s Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 66. Verbs have three participles— the present, the past, and 
the perfect; as, loving, loved, having loved, in the active voice: and being loved, loved, having been loved, m 
the passive." — lb., p. 76. Now either not all these are the participles of one verb, or that verb has more than 
three. Take your choice. Redundant verbs usually have duplicate forms of all the participles except the Im- 
perfect Active; as, lighting, lighted or lit, having lighted or having lit; so again, being lighted or being lit, 
lighted or lit, having been lighted or having been lit. 



412 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

the Prior-perfect, the Prior-present, the Perfect, the Pluperfect, the Preterperfect, the Preperfect.* 
In teaching others to speak and write well, it becomes us to express our doctrines in the most 
suitable terms ; but the application of a name is of no great consequence, so that the thing itself 
be rightly understood by the learner. Grammar should be taught in a style at once neat and 
plain, clear and brief. Upon the choice of his terms, the writer of this work has bestowed much 
reflection ; yet he finds it impossible either to please everybody, or to explain, without intolerable 
prolixity, all the reasons for preference. 

Obs. 3. — The participle in ing represents the action or state as continuing and ever incomplete ; 
it is therefore rightly termed the Imperfect participle : whereas the participle in ed always, or 
at least usually, has reference to the action as done and complete ; and is, by proper contradistinc- 
tion, called the Perfect participle. It is hardly necessary to add, that the terms perfect and im- 
perfect, as thus applied to the English participles, have no reference to time, or to those tenses of 
the verb which are usually (but not very accurately) named by these epithets. The terms pres- 
ent and past, which some still prefer to imperfect and perfect, do denote time, and are in a kind 
of oblique contradistinction ; but how well they apply to the participles, may be seen by the fol- 
lowing texts : "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." — "We pray you in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God." — St. Paul : 2 Cor., v, 19, 20. Here reconciling refers to the 
death of Christ, and reconciled, to the desired conversion of the Corinthians ; and if we call the 
former a present participle, and the latter a past, (as do Bullions, Burn, Clark, Felton, S. S. Greene, 

* The diversity in the application of these names, and in the number or nature of the participles recognized 
in different grammars, is quite as remarkable as that of the names themselves. To prepare a general synop- 
sis of this discordant teaching, no man will probably think it worth his while. The following are a few exam- 
ples of it : 

1. " How many Participles, are there ; There are two, the Active Participle which ends in (ing), as burning, 
and the Passive Participle which ends in <ed) as, burned." — The British Grammar, p. 140. In this book, the 
participles of Be are named thus: "Active. Being. Passive. Been, having been." — lb., p. 138. 

2. "How many Sorts of Participles are there? A. Two; the Active Participle, that ends always in ing; as, 
loving, and the Passive Participle, that ends always in ed, t, or n; as, loved, taught, slain." — Fisher's Practi- 
cal New Gram., p. 75. 

3. " Active Voice. Participles. Present, calling. Past, having called. Future, being about to call. Pas- 
sive Voice. Present, being called. Past, having been called. Future, being about to be called." — Ward's 
Practical Gram., pp. 55 and 59. 

4. Act. "Present, loving; Perfect, loved; Past, having loved." — Lowth's Gram., p. 39. The participles 
passive are not given by Lowth; but, by inference from his rule for forming "the passive verb," they must be 
these: "Present, being loved; Perfect, loved, or been loved; Past, having been loved." See Lowth's Gram., 
p. 44. 

5. "Act. V. Present, Loving. Past, Loved. Perfect, Having loved. Pas. V. Pres. Being loved. Past, 
Loved. Per/. Having been loved." — Lennie's Gram., pp. 25 and 33; Greene's Analysis, p. 225; Bullions' s 
Analyt. and Pract. Gram., pp. 81 and 95. This is Bullions' s revised scheme, and much worse than his former 
one copied from Murray. 

6. Act. " Present. Loving. Perfect. Loved. Compound Perfect, Having loved." Pas. " Present. Being 
loved. Perfect or Passive. Loved. Compound Perfect. Having been loved." — L. Murray's late editions, pp. 
93 and 99 ; Hart's Gram., pp. 85 and 88 ; Bullions' s Principles of E. Gram., pp. 47 and 55. No form or name 
of the first participle passive was adopted, by Murray in his early editions. 

7. Act. "Present. Pursuing. Perfect. Pursued. Compound perfect. Having pursued." Pas. '■'■Present 
and Perfect. Pursued, or being pursued. Compound Perfect. Having been pursued." — Rev. W. Allen's 
Gram., pp. 88 and 93. Here the first two passive forms, and their names too, are thrown together ; the former 
as equivalents, the latter as coalescents. 

8. "Teansitive. Pres. Loving, Perf. Having loved. Passive. Pres. Loved or Being loved, Perf. Hav- 
ing been loved." — Parkhurst's Gram, for Beginners, p. 110. Here the second active form is wanting ; and the 
second passive is confounded with the first. 

9. Act. " Imperfect," Loving [;] Perfect, Having loved [.]" Pas. "Imperfect, Being loved [;] Perfect, 
Loved, Having been loved." — Wells's School Gram., pp. 99 and 101. Here, too, the second active is not given; 
the third is called by the name of the second ; and the second passive is confounded with the third, as if they 
were but forms of the same thing. 

10. Act. '■'Imperfect, (Present,} Loving. Perfect. Having loved. Auxiliary Perfect, Loved." Pas. "Im- 
perfect, (Present,) Being loved. Perfect, Having been loved. Passive, Loved." — A'. Butler's Pract. Gram., 
pp. 84 and 91. Here the common order of most of the participles is very improperly disturbed, and as many 
are misnamed. 

11. Act. "Present, Loving [;] Perfect, Loved [;] Comp. Perf. Having loved [.]" Pas. "Present, Being 
loved [;] Perfect, Loved, or been loved [;] Compound Perfect, Having been loved." — Frazee's Improved 
Gram., 63 aud 73. Here the second participle passive has two forms, one of which, " been loved," is not com- 
monly recognized, except as part of some passive verb or preperfect participle. 

12. Act. V. "Imperfect, Seeing. Perfect, Seen. Compound, Having seen." Pas. V. " Preterimperfect, 
Being seen. Preterperfect, Having been 6een. ,f — Churchill' s New Gram., p. 102. Here the chief and radical 
passive participle is lacking, and neither of the compounds is well named. 

13. Act. "Present, Loving, [;] Past, Loved, [;] Com. Past, Having loved." Pas. "Present, Being loved. [;] 
Past, Loved. [;] Com. Past. [,] Having been loved." — Felton's Analyt. and Pract. Gram., of 1843, pp. 37 
and 50. 

14. Act. "Present. [,] Loving. [;] Perfect. [,] Loved. [;] Compound Perfect. [,] Having loved." Pas. "Per- 
fect or Passive. Loved. Compound Perfect. Having been loved."— BickneW 8 Gram. Lond., 1790, Part I, pp. 
66 and TO ; L. Murray's 2d Edition, York, 1796, pp. 72 and 77. Here "Being loved," is not noticed. 

15. "Particles. Active Voice. Present. Loving. Past. Loved, or having loved. Participles. Passive Voice. 
Present. Being loved. Past. Having been loved." — John Burn's Practical Gram,, p. 70. Here the chief Pas- 
sive term, " Loved," is omitted, and two of the active forms are confounded. 

16. "Present, loving, Past, loved, Compound, having loved." — S. W. Clark's Practical Gram., of 1S48, p. 

71. "Act. Voice. — Present. . . Loving [;] Compound [,] Having loved Having been loving." — lb., p. 

81. "Pas. Voice. — Present Loved, or, being loved [;] Compound Having been loved." — lb., p. 83. 

" The Compound Participle consists of the Participle of a principal verb, added to the word having, or being, or 
to the two words having been. Examples — Having loved — being loved — having been loved." — lb., p. 71. Here 
the second extract is deficient, as may be seen by comparing it with the first; and the fourth is grossly erroneous, 
as is shown by the third. The participles, too, are misnamed throughout. 

The reader may observe that the punctuation of the foregoing examples is very discrepant. I have, in brack- 
ets, suggested some corrections, but have not attempted a general adjustment of it. 



CHAP. VII.] ETYMOLOGY. PARTICIPLES.—- CLASSES. NAMES. 413 

Lennie, Pinneo, and perhaps others,) we nominally reverse the order of time in respect to the 
events, and egregiously misapply both terms. 

Obs. 4. — Though the participle in ing has, by many, been called the Present participle, it is as 
applicable to past or future, as to present time ; otherwise, such expressions as, "I had been 
writing" — " I shall he. writing" would be solecisms. It has also been called, almost as frequently, 
the Active participle. But it is not always active, even when derived from an active verb ; for 
such expressions as, " The goods are selling" — " The ships are now building" are in use, and not 
without good authority : as, " And hope to allay, by rational discourse, the pains of his joints 
tearing asunder." — Locke's Essay, p. 285. "Insensible of the designs now forming by Philip." — 
Goldsmith's Greece, ii, 48. "The improved edition now publishing." — Bp. Halifax: Pref. to 
Butler. " The present tense expresses an action now doing." — Emmons's Gram., p. 40. The 
distinguishing characteristic of this participle is, that it denotes an unfinished and progressive 
state of the being, action, or passion ; it is therefore properly denominated the Imperfect parti- 
ciple. If the term were applied with reference to time, it would be no more objectionable than 
the word present, and would be equally supported by the usage of the Greek linguists. I am no 
more inclined to " innovation," than are the pedants who, for the choice here made, have igno- 
rantly brought the false charge against me. This name, authorized by Beattie and Pickbourn, is 
approved by Lindley Murray,* and adopted by several of the more recent grammarians. See 
the works of Dr. Crombie, J. Grant, T. 0. Churchill, R. Hiley, B. H. Smart, M. Harrison, and W. G-. 
Lewis, published in London ; and J. M. M'Culloclys Grammar, published in Edinburgh ; also some 
American grammars, as E. Hazen's, N. Butler's, D. B. Tower's, W. H. "Wells's, the Sanderses'. 

Obs. 5. — The participle in ed, as is mentioned above, usually denotes a completion of the being, 
action, or passion, and should therefore be denominated the Perfect participle. But this com- 
pletion may be spoken of as present, past, or future ; for the participle itself has no tenses, and 
makes no distinction of time, nor should the name be supposed to refer to the perfect tense. 
The conjugation of any passive verb, is a sufficient proof of all this : nor is the proof invalidated 
by resolving verbs of this kind into their component parts. Of the participles in ed applied to 
present time, the following is an example : " Such a course would be less likely to produce injury 
to health, than the present course pursued at our colleges." — Literary Convention, p. 118. Tooke's 
notion of grammatical time, appears to have been in several respects a strange one : he accords 
with those who call this a past participle, and denies to the other not only the name and notion of a 
tense, but even the general idea of time. In speaking of the old participial termination and or ende,\ 
which our Anglo-Saxon ancestors used where we write ing, he says, " I do not allow that there 
are any present participles, or any present tense of the verb.":}: — Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 41. 

Obs. 6. — The Perfect participle of transitive verbs, being used in the formation of passive verbs, 
is sometimes called the Passive participle. It usually has in itself a passive signification, except 
when it is used in forming the compound tenses of the active verb. Hence the difference be- 
tween the sentences, " I have written a letter," and, " I have a letter written ;" the former being 
equivalent to Scripsi literas, and the latter to Sunt mihi literce scriptoe. But there are many per- 
fect participles winch cannot with any propriety be called passive. Such are all those which 
come from intransitive or neuter verbs ; and also those which so often occur in the tenses of 
verbs not passive. I have already noticed some instances of this misnomer ; and it is better to 
preclude it altogether, by adhering to the true name of this Participle, the Perfect. Xor is 
that entirely true which some assert "that this participle in the active is only found in combina- 
tion;" that, "Whenever it stands alone to be parsed as a participle, it is passive." — Hart's Eng- 
lish Gram., p. 75. See also Bullions' s Arialyt. and Prod. Gram., p. 77 ; and Greene's Analysis, or 
Gram., p. 225. " Rebelled," in the following examples, cannot with any propriety be called a 
passive participle : 

" Rebelled, did I not send them terms of peace, 

Which not my justice, but my mercy asked? " — Pollok, x, 253. 
" Arm'd with thy might, rid Heav'n of these rebell'd, 
To their prepar'd ill mansion driven down." — Jlilton, vi, 737. 

* " The most unexceptionable distinction which grammarians make between the participles, is, that the one 
points to the continuation of the action, passion, or state denoted by the verb; and the other, to the completion 
of it. Thus, the present participle signifies imperfect actian. or action begun and not ended : as, 'I am writing 
a letter.' The past participle signifies action perfected, or finished : as, ' I have written a letter.' — ' The letter 
is written.' " — Murray's Grammar, Svo, p. 65. "The first [participle] expresses a continuation; the other, a 
completion.'" — W. Allen's Grammar, 12mo, London, 1813. "The idea which this participle [e. g. '■tearing'] 
really expresses, is simply that of the continuance of au action in an incomplete or unfinished state. The 
action may belong to time present, to time j»a.s£, or to time future. The participle which denotes the completion 
of an action, as torn, is called the perfect participle ; because it represents the action as perfect or finished.''' — 
Barnard's Analytic Gram., p. 51. Emmons stealthily copies from my Institutes as many as ten lines in defence 
of the term '■Imperfect,' and yet in his conjugations, he calls the participle in ing, "Present." This seems 
inconsistent. See his " Grammatical Instructor," p. 61. 

t "The ancient termination (from the Ar.glo-Saxon) was and: as. 'His schynand sword.' Douglas. And 
sometimes ende : as, 'She, between the deth and life, Swounende lay full ofte.' Gower." — W. Allen's Gram., 
p. 88. " The present Participle, in Saxon, was formed by ande, e?ide,'ov onde; and, by cutting off the final e, it 
acquired a Substantive signification, and extended the idea to the agent: as, alysende, freeing, and alysend, a 
redeemer; freonde, loving or friendly, and freond, a lover or a friend." — Booth' slnt rod. to Diet, p. T5. 

% William B. Fowle, a modern disciple of Tooke, treats the subject of grammatical time rather more strangely 
than his master. Thus: " How many times or tenses have verbs? Two, [the] present and [the] past." To 
this he immediately adds in a note: "We do not believe in a past any more than a future tense of verbs." — 
The True English Gram., p. 30. So, between these two authors, our verbs will retain no tenses at all. Indeed, 
by his two tenses, Fowle only meant to recognize the two simple forms of an English verb. For he says, in an 
other place, "We repeat our conviction that no verb in itself expresses time of any sort." — lb., p. 69. 



414 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Oss. 7. — The third participle has most generally been called the Compound or the Compound 
perfect The latter of these terms seomg to be rather objectionable on account of its length; and 
against the former it may be urged that, in the compound forms of conjugation, the first or imper- 
fect participle is a compound : as, being writing, being seen. Tfv. Adam calls having loved the 
perfect participle active, which ho says must be rendered in Latin by the pluperfect of the subjunc- 
tive ; as, he having loved, quum amavisset ;" {Lot. and Eng. Gram., p. 140 ;) but it is manifest that 
the perfect participle of the verb to love, whether active or passive, is the simple word loved, and 
not this compound. Dr. Adam, in fact, if he denies this, only contradicts himself ; for, in his 
paradigms of the English Active Yoice, he gives the participles as two only, and both simple, 
thus: " Present, Loving ; Perfect, Loved:" — "Present, Having; Perfect, Had." So of the Neuter 
"Verb: "Present, Being; Perfect, Been." — lb., pp. 81 and 82. His scheme of either names or 
forms is no model of accuracy. On the very next page, unless there is a misprint in several 
editions, he calls the Second participle the "imperfect ;" saying, " The whole of the passive voice 
in English is formed by the auxiliary verb to be, and the participle imperfect ; as, 1 am loved, 1 
was loved, &c." Further: "In many verbs," ho adds, "the present participle also is used in a 
passive S3nse ; as, These things are doing, were doing, &c. ; The house is building, was building, 
&c." — lb., p. 83. N. Butler, in his Practical Grammar, of 1845, names, and counts, and orders, 
the participles very oddly: " Every verb," he says, " has two participles — the imperfect and the 
perfects — P. 78. Yet, for the verb love, ho finds these six: two "Imperfect, Loving and Being 
laved; 11 two "Perfect, Having loved, and Having been loved ;",one " Auxiliary Perfect, Loved," 
of the "Active Voice;" and one "Passive, Loved," of the "Passive Voice." Many old writers 
erroneously represent the participle in ing as always active, and the participle in ed or en as always 
passive ; and some, among whom is Buchanan, making no distinction between the simple perfect 
loved and the compound having loved, placo the latter with the former, and call it passive also. 
The absurdity of this is manifest : for having loved or having seen is active ; having been or having 
sat is neuter ; and having been loved or having been seen is passive. Again, the triple compound, 
having been writing, is active ; and having been sitting is neuter ; but if one speak of goods as 
having been selliny low, a similar compound is passive. 

Obs. 8. — Now all the compound participles which begin with having are essentially, alike; and, 
as a class of terms, they ought to have a name adapted to their nature, and expressive of their 
leading characteristic. Having loved differs from the simple participle loved, in signification as 
well as in form ; and, if this participle is to be named with reference to its meaning, there is no 
more suitable term for it than the epithet Preperfect, — a word which explains itself, like prepaid 
or prerequisite. Of the many other names, the most correct one is Pluperfect, — which is a term 
of very nearly the same meaning. Not because this compound is really of the pluperfect tense, 
but because it always denotes being, action, or passion, that is, or was, or will be, completed before 
the doing or being of something else ; and, of course, when the latter thing is represented as 
past, the participle must correspond to the pluperfect tense of its verb ; as, "Having explained her 
views, it was n3cessary she should expatiate on the vanity and futility of the enjoyments promised 
by Pleasure." — Jamieson's Bhet., p. 181. Here having explained is exactly equivalent to when she 
had explained. Again : " I may say, He had commanded, and we obeyed ; or, He having commanded, 
we obeyed." — FelcWs Comprehensive Gram., p. ix. Here the two phrases in Italics correspond 
in import, though not in construction. 

Obs. 9.— Pluperfect is a derivative contracted from the Latin plusquam-perfectum, and literally sig- 
nifies more than complete, or beyond the perfect ; i. e., (as confirmed by use,) antecedently finished, or 
completed before. It is the usual name of our fourth tense ; is likewise applicable to a corresponding 
tense in other tongues ; and is a word familiar to every scholar. Yet several grammarians, — too 
ready, perhaps, for innovation, — have shown their willingness to discard it altogether. Bullions, 
Butler, Hiley, Perley, Wells, and some others, call the English pluperfect tense, the past-perfect, and 
understand either epithet to mean — "completed at or before a certain past time;" (Bullions's E. 
Gram., p. 39 ;) that is — "finished or past, at some past time." — Butler's Pract. Gram., p. 72. The 
relation of the tense is before the past, but the epithet pluperfect is not necessarily limited to this 
relation, any more than what is perfect is necessarily past. Butler has urged, that, " Pluperfect 
does not mean completed before," but is only "a technical name of a particular tense ;" and, 
arguing from this erroneous assumption, has convinced himself, "It would be as correct to call 
this the second future participle, a 3 the pluperfect." — lb., p. 79. The technical name, as limited to 
the past, is preterpluperfect, from the older term proeteritum plusquam perfectum ; so preterperfect, 
from proeteritum perfectum, i. e. part perfect, is the name of an other tense, now called the perfect: 
wherefore the substitution of past-perfect for pluperfect is the less to bo commended. There may 
be a convenience in having the name of the tense to differ from that of the participle, and this alone 
induces me to prefer preperfect to pluperfect for the name of the latter. 

Obs. 10. — From the participle in ed or en, we form three tenses, which the above-named authors 
call perfect; — " the present-perfect, the past-perfect, and the future-perfect ;" — as, have seen, had seen, 
will have seen. Now it is, doubtless, the participle, that gives to these their perfectness ; while 
diversity in the auxiliaries makes their difference of time. Yet it is assumed by Butler, that, in 
general, the simple participle in ed or en, "does not denote an action done and completed," and is 
not to be called perfect ; (p. 80 ;) — that, " If we wish to express by a participle, an action completed 
at any time, we use the compound form, and this is the perfec-t participle ;" (p. 79 ;) — that, " The 
characteristic of the participle in ed is, that it implies the reception of an action;" (p. 79;) — that, 
hence, it should be caUed the passive, though it "is usually called the perfect participle ;" (p. 79;) 



CHAP. VII.] ETYMOLOGY. — PARTICIPLES. — CLASSES. NAMES. 415 

— that, " The use of this participle in the perfect tenses of the active voice should not be taken into 
consideration in giving it a name or a definition;" (p. 80 ;) — that its active, neuter, or intransitive 
use is not a primitive idiom of the language, but the result of a gradual change of the term from 
the passive to the active voice ; (p. 80 ;) — that, " the participle has changed its mode of signification, 
so that, instead of being passive, it is now active in sense ;" (p. 105 ;) — that, " having changed its 
original meaning so entirely, it should not be considered the same participle ;" (p. 78 ;) — that, "in 
such cases, it is a perfect participle," and, "for the sake of distinction [,] this may be called the 
auxiliary perfect participle. " — lb. These speculations I briefly throw before the reader, without 
designing much comment upon them. It will be perceived that they are, in several respects, 
contradictory one to an other. The author himself names the participle in reference to- a usage 
which he says, " should not be taken into consideration;" and names it absurdly too ; for he calls 
that "the auxiliary" which is manifestly the principal term. He also identifies as one what he 
professes to distinguish as two. 

Obs. 11. — Participles often become adjectives, and are construed before nouns to denote quality. 
The terms so converted form the class of participial adjectives. Words of a participial form may 
be regarded as adjectives, under the following circumstances : 1. When they reject the idea of 
time, and denote something customary or habitual, rather than a transient act or state; as, "A 
lying rogue," — i. e., one that is addicted to lying. 2. When they admit adverbs of comparison; 
as, " A more learned man." 3. When they are compounded with something that does not belong 
to the verb; as, " unfeeling, unfelt:" there is no verb to unfeel, therefore these words cannot be 
participles. Adjectives are generally placed before their nouns; participles, after them. The words 
beginning with un, in the following lines may be classed with participial adjectives : 

" No king, no subject was ; unscutcheoned all; 
Uncrowned, unplumed, unhelmed, unpedigreed ; 
Unlaced, uncoroneted, unbestarred." — Pollok, C. of T., B. viii, L 89. 

Obs. 12. — Participles in ing often become nouns. When preceded by an article, an adjective 
or a noun or pronoun of the possessive case, they are construed as nouns ; and, if wholly such, 
have neither adverbs nor active regimen : as, "He laugheth at the shaking of a spear." — Job, xli, 
29. "There is no searching of his understanding." — Isaiah, xL 28. "In their setting of their 
threshold by my threshold." — Ezekiel, xliii, 8. " That any man should make my glorying void." 
— 1 Cor., ix, 15. The terms so converted form the class of verbal or participial nouns. But some 
late authors — (J. S. Hart, S. S. Greene, W. H. Wells, and others — ) have given the name of par- 
ticipial nouns to many participles, — such participles, often, as retain all their verbal properties and 
adjuncts, and merely partake of some syntactical resemblance to nouns. Now, since the chief 
characteristics of such words are from the verb, and are incompatible with the specific nature of 
a noun, it is clearly improper to call them nouns. There are, in the popular use of participles, 
certain mixed constructions which are reprehensible ; yet it is the peculiar nature of a participle, 
to participate the properties of other parts of speech, — of the verb and adjective, — of the verb and 
noun, — or sometimes, perhaps, of all three. A participle immediately preceded by a preposition, 
is not converted into a noun, but remains a participle, and therefore retains its adverb, and 
also its government of the objective case ; as, " I thank you for helping him so seasonably.' 1 ' 1 Parti- 
ciples in this construction correspond with the Latin gerund, and are sometimes called gerundives. 

Obs. 13. — To distinguish the participle from the participial noun, the learner should observe the 
following four things : 1. Nouns take articles and adjectives before them ; participles, as such, do not. 
2. Nouns may govern the possessive case before them, but not the objective after them; participles 
may govern the objective case, but not so properly the possessive. 3. Nouns, if they have adverbs, 
require the hyphen; participles take adverbs separately, as do their verbs. 4. Participial nouns 
express actions as things, and are sometimes declined like other nouns ; participles usually refer 
actions to their agents or recipients, and have in English no grammatical modifications of any kind. 

Obs. 14. — To distinguish the perfect participle from the preterit of the same form, observe the 
sense, and see which of the auxiliary forms will express it : thus, loved for being loved, is a par- 
ticiple; but loved for did love, is a preterit verb. So held for did hold, stung for did sting, taught 
for did teach, and the like, are irregular verbs; but held for being held, stung for being stung, taught 
for being taught, and the like, are perfect participles. 

Obs. 15. — Though the English participles have no inflections, and are consequently incapable 
of any grammatical agreement or disagreement, those which are simple, are sometimes elegantly 
taken in a plural sense, with the apparent construction of nouns ; but, under these circumstances, 
they are in reality neither nouns nor participles, but participial adjectives construed elliptically, as 
other adjectives often are, and relating to plural nouns understood. The ellipsis is sometimes of 
a singular noun, though very rarely, and much less properly. Examples: "To them who are 
the called according to his purpose." — Rom., x, 28. That is — " the called ones or persons." "God 
is not the God of ^the dead, but oHhe living." — Matt., xxii, 32. "Neither is it found in the land 
of the living." — Job, xxviii, 13. " The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day." — 
Isaiah, xxxviii, 19. "Till we are made fit to live and reign with him and all his redeemed, in 
the heavenly glory forever." — Jenks's Prayers, p. 18. 

" Ye blessed of my Father, come, ye just, 
Enter the joy eternal of your Lord." — Pollok, B. x, 1. 591. 

" Depart from me, ye cursed, into the fire 
Prepared eternal in the gulf of Hell." — Id., B. x, 1. 449. 



416 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. 

PRAXIS VIL— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Seventh Praxis it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the 
different parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the Articles, 
Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns, Verbs, and Participles. 

The definitions to be given in the Seventh Praxis, are two for an article, six for a 
noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun, seven for a verb finite, five for an 
infinitive, two for a participle, — and one for an adverb, a conjunction, a preposi- 
tion, or an interjection. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 
" Religion, rightly understood and practised, has the purest of all joys attending it." 

Religion is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is 
the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the per- 
son or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter 
gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form 
or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Rightly is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb ; 
and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 

Understood is a perfect participle, from the irregular active-transitive verb, understayid, understood, under- 
standing, understood. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, 
and of an adjective or a noun ; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 2. The per- 
fect participle is that which ends commonly in ed or en, and implies a completion of the being, action, or 
passion. 

Ani is a co junction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to 
show the dependence of the terms so connected. 

PraMsed is a perfect participle, from the regular active-transitive verb, practise, practised, practising, prac- 
tised. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an adjec- 
tive or a noun; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 2. The perfect participle is 
that which ends commonly in ed or en, and implies a completion of the being, action, or passion. 

Has is an irregular active-transitive verb, from have, had, having, hud; found in the indicative mood, present 
tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted 
upon. 2. Au irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assum- 
ing d or ed. 3. An active-transitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has some person or thing 
for its object. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, 
or asks a question. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. 
The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is 
that which denotes but one. 

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
niiication. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things. 

Purest is a common adjective, of the superlative degree ; compared regularly, pure, purer, purest. 1. An 
adjective is a word added to a noun, or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective 
is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. The superlative degree is that which 
is most or least of all included, with it. 

O/is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

All is a pronominal adjective, not compared. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and gen- 
erally expresses quality. 2. A pronominal adjective is a definitive word which may either accompany its 
noun or represent it understood. 3. Those adjectives whose signification does not admit of different de- 
grees, cannot be compared. 

Joys is a common noun, of the third person, plural number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A noun is 
the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the name 
of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing 
mirely spoken of. 4. The plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The neuter gender is 
that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of 
a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Attending is an imperfect participle, from the regular active-transitive verb, attend, attended, attending, 
attended. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties of a verb, and of an 
adjective or a noun ; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed, to the verb. 2. The imperfect parti- 
ciple is that which'ends commonly in ing, and implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion. 

It is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A pro- 
noun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of 
what person it is. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The 
singular nnmber is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are 
neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a nouu or pronoun, which usually 
denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

" A Verb is a word whereby something or other is represented as existing, possess- 
ing, acting, or being acted upon, at some particular time, past, present, or future ; 
and this in various manners." — White, on the English Verb, p. 1. 

" Error is a savage, lurking about on the twilight borders of the circle illuminated 
by truth, ready to rush in and take possession, the moment her lamp grows dim." — 
Beecher. 

" The science of criticism may be considered as a middle link, connecting the 



CHAP. VII.] ETYMOLOGY. PARTICIPLES. PARSING. PRAXIS VII. 417 

different parts of education into a regular chain." — Ld. Karnes, El. of CriL, 
p. xxii. 

" When I see a man walking, a tree growing, or cattle grazing, I cannot doubt 
but that these objects are really what they appear to be. Nature determines us to 
rely on the veracity of our senses ; for otherwise they could not in any degree 
answer their end, that of laying open things existing and passing around us." — Id., 
ib., i, 85. 

" But, advancing farther in life, and inured by degrees to the crooked ways of 
men ; pressing through the crowd, and the bustle of the world ; obliged to contend 
with this man's craft, and that man's scorn ; accustomed, sometimes, to conceal their 
sentiments, and often to stifle their feelings; they become at last hardened in 
heart, and familiar with corruption." — Blair : Murray's Sequel, p. 140. 

" Laugh'd at, he laughs again ; and stricken hard, 
Turns to his stroke his adamantine scales, 
That fear no discipline of human hands." — Cowper's Task, p. 47. 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

" Thus shame and remorse united in the ungrateful person, and indignation united 
with hatred in the hearts of others, are the punishments provided by nature for 
injustice." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 288. 

" Viewing man as under the influence of novelty, would one suspect that custom 
also should influence him ? — Human nature, diversified with many and various 
springs of action, is wonderfully, and, indulging the expression, intricately con- 
structed."— Jd, ib., i, 325. ' 

" Dryden frequently introduces three or four persons speaking upon the same 
subject, each throwing out his own notions separately, without regarding what is 
said by the rest." — Id., ib., ii, 294. 

" Nothing is more studied in Chinese gardens, than to raise wonaer and sur- 
prise. Sometimes one is led insensibly into a dark cavern, terminating unexpectedly 
in a landscape enriched with all that nature affords the most delicious." — Id., ib., 
ii, 334. 

" The answer to the objection here implied, is obvious, even on the supposition of 
the questions put being answered in the affirmative." — Prof. Veihahe. 

" As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem ; defending also, he 
will deliver it ; and, passing over, he will preserve it." — Isaiah, xxxi, 5. 

" Here, by the bonds of nature feebly held, 
Minds combat minds, repelling and repell'd." — Goldsmith. 

" Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over, 
Comes to him where in gore he lay insteeped." — Shakspeare. 

Lesson III. — Parsing. 

" Every change in the state of things is considered as an effect, indicating the 
agency, characterizing the kind, and measuring the degree, of its cause." — Dr. Mur- 
ray, Hist, of Eu. L., i, 179. 

" Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. 
And supper being ended, (the devil having now put it into the heart of Judas 
Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,) Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all 
things into his hand, and that he had come from God and was going to God, arose 
from supper, and laid aside his coat, and, taking a towel, girded himself: then he 
poured some water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe 
them with the towel with which he was girded." — See John, xiii. 

" Spiritual desertion is naturally and judicially incurred by sin. It is the with- 
drawal of that divine unction which enriches the acquiescent soul with moral power 
and pleasure. The subtraction leaves the mind enervated, obscured, confused, de- 
graded, and distracted." — Homo : N. Y. Observer. 

"Giving no offence in any thing, but in all things approving ourselves as the 

27 



418 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

ministers of God : as unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and, behold, we 
live ; as chastened, and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as poor, yet 
making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." — 2 Cor., vi. 

" O may th' indulgence of a father's love, 
Pour'd forth on me, be doubled from above." — Young. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERROKS OF PARTICIPLES. 

tW [As the principles upon which our participles ought to be formed, were necessarily anticipated in the pre- 
ceding chapter on verbs, the reader must recur to that chapter for the doctrines by which the following errors 
are to be corrected. The great length of that chapter seemed a good reason for separating these examples from 
it, and it was also thought, that such words as are erroneously written for participles, should, for the sake of 
order, be chiefly noticed in this place. In many of these examples, however, the participle is not really a sep- 
arate part of speech, but is in fact taken with an auxiliary to form some compound tense of its verb.] 

Lesson I. — Irregulars. 

" Many of your readers have mistook that passage." — Steele, Sped., No. 544. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because the preterit verb mistook is here used for the perfect participle. But, ac- 
cording to the table of irregular verbs, we ought to say, mistake, mistook, mistaking, mistaken; after the 
form of the simple verb, take, took, taking, taken. Therefore, the sentence should be amended thus: "Many 
of your readers have mistaken that passage."] 

" Had not my dog of a steward ran away." — Addison, Sped. " None should be admitted, 
except he had broke his collar-bone thrice." — Sped., No. 474. "We could not know what was 
wrote at twenty." — Pre/, to Waller. " I have wrote, thou hast wrote, he has wrote ; we have 
wrote, ye have wrote, they have wrote." — Ash's Gram., p. 62. "As if God had spoke his last 
words there to his people." — Barday's Works, i, 462. " I had like to have came in that ship my- 
self." — N. T. Observer, No. 453. " Our ships and vessels being drove out of the harbour by a 
storm." — Hutchinson's Hist, of Mass., i, 470. " He will endeavour to write as the ancient author 
would have wrote, had he writ in the same language." — BolingbroTce, on Hist, i, 68. "When his 
doctrines grew too strong to be shook by his enemies." — Atterbury. "The immortal mind that 
hath forsook Her mansion." — Milton. " Grease that's sweaten from the murderer's gibbet, throw 
into the flame." — Shah, Macbeth. "The court also was chided for allowing such questions to be 
put." — Got. Stone, on Freemasonry, p. 470. "He would have spoke." — Milton, P. L., B. x, 1. 
517. " Words interwove with sighs found out their way." — Id., ib., i, 621. "Those kings and 
potentates who have strove." — Id., Eiconoclast, xvii. " That even Silence was took." — Id., Gomus, 
1. 557. "And envious Darkness, ere they could return, had stole them from me." — Id., Gomus, 1. 
195. "I have chose this perfect man." — Id., P. R., B. i, 1. 165. "I will scarce think you have 
swam in a gondola." — Shak., As You Like It. " The fragrant brier was wove between." — Dry den, 
Fables. "Then finish what you have began." — Id., Poems, ii, 172. "But now the years a 
numerous train have ran." — Pope's Odyssey, B. xi, 1. 555. "Repeats your verses wrote on 
glasses." — Prior. " Who by turns have rose." — Id. " Which from great authors I have took." — 
Id., Alma. " Ev'n there he should have fell." — Id., Solomon. 

" The sun has rose, and gone to bed, 

Just as if Partridge were not dead." — Swift. 
" And though no marriage words are spoke, 

They part not till the ring is broke." — Id., Riddles. 

Lesson II. — Regulars. 

"When the word is stript of all the terminations." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Eu. L., i, 319. 

[Foemttle. — Not proper, because the participle stript is terminated in t. But, according to Observation 2d, 
on the irregular verbs, stript is regular. Therefore, this t should be changed to ed ; and the final p should be 
doubled, according to Rule 3d for Spelling : thus, " When the word is stripped of all the terminations."] 

" Forgive him, Tom ; his head is crackt." — Swift's Poems, p. 397. " For 'tis the sport, to have 
the engineer hoist with his own petar." — Hamlet, Act 3. " As great as they are, I was nurst 
by their mother." — Swift's Poems, p. 310. " If he should now be cry'd down since his change." 
— Ib., p. 306. " Dipt over head and ears — in debt." — lb., p. 312. " We see the nation's credit 
crackt."— Ib., p. 312. "Because they find their pockets pickt."— Ib., p. 338. "0 what a 
pleasure mixt with pain!" — lb., p. 373. "And only with her Brother linkt." — lb., p. 387. 
"Because he ne'er a thought allow'd, That might not be confest,"— lb., p. 361. "My love to 
Sheelah is more firmly fixt."— i&., p. 369. "The observations annext to them will be intelli- 
gible." — Philological Museum, Yol. i, p. 457. " Those eyes are always fixt on the general princi- 
ples." — lb., i, 458. " Laborious conjectures will be banisht from our commentaries." — Do., i, 459. 
" Tiridates was dethroned, and Phraates was reestablisht in his stead." — lb., i, 462. " A Boman 
who was attacht to Augustus." — lb., i, 466. " Nor should I have spoken of it, unless Baxter had 
talkt about two such." — lb., i, 467. " And the reformers of language have generally rusht on." — 
lb., i, 649. " Three centuries and a half had then elapst since the date." — lb., i, 249. " Of such 
criteria, as has been remarkt already, there is an abundance." — lb., i, 261. "The English have 
surpast every other nation in their services." — lb., i, 306. " The party addrest is next in dignity 



CHAP. VIII.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADVEEBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 419 

to the speaker." — Harris's Hermes, p. 66. "To which we are many times helpt." — Walker's 
Particles, p. 13. " But for him, I should have lookt well enough to myself." — lb., p. 88. " Why 
are you vext, Lady? why do frown?" — Milton, Comus, 1. 66*7. "Obtruding false rules prankt in 
reason's garb." — lb., 1. 759. "But, like David equipt in Saul's armour, it is encumbered and 
oppressed." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 378. 

"And when their merchants are blown up, and crackt, 
Whole towns are cast away in storms, and wreckt." — Butler, p. 163. 

Lesson III. — Mixed. 

" The lands are holden in free and common soccage." — Trumbull's Hist, i, 133. 

[Foemtjxe. — Not proper, because the participle holden is not in that form which present usage authorizes. 
But, according to the table of irregular verbs, the four parts of the verb to hold, as now used, are hold, held, 
holding, held. Therefore, holden should be held; thus, " The lands are held in free and common soccage. 1 '] 

"A stroke is drawed under such words." — Cobbett's E. Grammar, Edition of 1832, ^[ 154. 
"It is striked even, with a strickle." — Walker's Particles, p. 115. "Whilst I was wandring, with- 
out any care, beyond my bounds." — lb., p. 83. "When one would do something, unless hindred 
by something present." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 311. "It is used potentially, but not so as 
to be rendred by these signs." — lb., p. 320. "Now who would dote upon things hurryed down 
the stream thus fast?" — Collier's Antoninus, p. 89. "Heaven hath timely try'd their growth." — 
Milton, Comus, 1. 970. "0 ! ye mistook, ye should have snatcht his wand." — lb., p. 815. "Of 
true virgin here distrest." — lb., p. 905. " So that they have at last come to be substitute in the 
stead of it." — Barclay's Works, i, 339. "Though ye have hen among the pots." — Psal., lxviii, 
13. " And, lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf pluckt off." — Friends' Bible, and Bruce's: Gen., 
viii, 11. " Brutus and Cassius Are rid like madmen, through the gates of Some." — Shak. " He 
shah be spitted on." — Luke, xviii, 32. " And are not the countries so overflown still situate be- 
tween the tropics T' — Bentley's Sermons. " Not trickt and frounc't as she was wont, But kercheft 
in a comely cloud." — Milton, It Penseroso, 1. 123. " To satisfy his rigor, Satisfy'd never." — Id., 
P. L., B. x, 1. 804. "With 'him there crucify' d."— Id., P. L., B. xii, 1. 417. "Th' earth cum- 
ber'd, and the wing'd air darkt with plumes." — Id., Comus, 1. 730. "And now their way to 
Earth they had descry'd." — Id., P. L., B. x, 1. 325. " Not so thick swarm'd once the soil Bedropt 
with blood of Grorgon." — lb., B. x. 1. 527. " And in a troubled sea of passion tost." — lb., B. x, 
1. 718. " The cause, alas, is quickly guest." — Swift's Poems, p. 404. "The kettle to the top was 
hoist." — lb., p. 274. "In chains thy syllables are linkt." — lb., p. 318. "Bather than thus be 
overtopt, Would you not wish their laurels cropt ?" — lb., p. 415. " The hyphen, or conjoiner, is 
a little line, drawed to connect words, or parts of words." — Cobbett's E. Gram., 1832, ^f 150. 
"In the other manners of dependence, this general rule is sometimes broke." — Joh. Gram. Com., 
p. 334 " Some intransitive verbs may be rendered transitive by means of a preposition prefixt 
to them." — Grant's Lot. Gram., p. 66. "Whoever now should place, the accent on the first 
syllable of Valerius, would set every body a-laughing." — Walker's Diet. "Being mocked, 
scourged, spitted on, and crucified." — Gurney's Essays, p. 40. 

" For rhyme in Greece or Rome was never known, 
Till by barbarian deluges o'erflown." — Roscommon. 

" In my own Thames may I be drownded, 
If e'er I stoop beneath a crown' d-head." — Swift. 



CHAPTER VIII.— ADVERBS. 

An Adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an 
other adverb ; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner : 
as, They are now here, studying very diligently. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Adverbs briefly express what would otherwise require several words : as Now, for at 
this time ; — Here, for in this place ; — Very, for in a high degree ; — Diligently, for in an industrious 
manner. Thus the meaning of almost any adverb, may be explained by some phrase beginning 
with a preposition and ending with a noun. 

Obs. 2. — There are several customary combinations of short words, which are used adverbially, 
and which some grammarians do not analyze in parsing ; as, not at all, at length, in fine, in 
full, at least, at present, at once, this once, in vain, no doubt, on board. But all words that convey 
distinct ideas, and rightly retain their individuahty, ought to be taken separately in parsing. 
With the liberty of supposing a few ellipses, an ingenious parser -will seldom find occasion to 
speak of " adverbial phrases." In these instances, length, doubt, fine, and board, are unquestion- 
ably nouns ; once, too, is used as a noun ; full and aU may be parsed either as nouns, or as adjec- 



420 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

tives whose nouns are understood ; at least, is, at the least measure ; at present, is, at the present 
time ; and in vain, is, in a vain course, or manner. 

Obs. 3. — A phrase is a combination of two or more separable parts of speech, the parsing of 
which of course implies their separation. And though the division of our language into words, 
and the division of its words into parts of speech, have never yet been made exactly to corres- 
pond, it is certainly desirable to bring them as near together as possible. Hence such terms as 
everywhere, anywhere, nowadays, forever, everso, to-day, to-morrow, by-and-by, inside-out, upside- 
down, if they are to be parsed simply as adverbs, ought to be compounded, and not written as 
phrases. 

Obs. 4. — Under nearly all the different classes of words, some particular instances may be 
quoted, in winch other parts of speech seem to take the nature of adverbs, so as either to become 
such, or to be apparently used for them. (1.) Articles: " This may appear incredible, but it is 
not the less true." — Dr. Murray's Hist., i, 337. "The other party was a little coy." — D. Webster. 
(2.) Nouns: "And scrutiny became stone* blind." — Gowper. "He will come home to-morrow." 
— OlarJc. "They were travelling post when he met them." — Murray's Gram., p. 69. "And 
with a vengeance sent from Media post to Egypt." — Milton, P. L., B. iv, 1. 1*70. "That I should 
care a groat whether he likes the work or not." — Kirkham. "It has snowed terribly all night, 
and is vengeance cold." — Swift. (3.) Adjectives: " Drink deep, or taste not." — Pope. "A place 
wondrous deep." — Webster's Diet. "That fools should be so deep contemplative." — Shak. "A 
man may speak louder or softer in the same key ; when he speaks higher or lower, he changes his 
key." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 116. (4.) Pronouns: " What am I eased?" — Job. " What have 
I offended thee?" — Gen., xx, 9. " He is somewhat arrogant." — Dryden. (5.) Verbs: " Smack 
went the whip, round went the wheels." — Gowper. "For then the farmers came jog, jog, 
along the miry road." — Id. " Crack! went something on deck." — Robinson Crusoe. "Then 
straight went the yard slap over their noddle." — Arbuihnot. (6.) Participles: " Like medicines 
given scalding hot." — Dodd. "My clothes are almost dripping wet." — "In came Squire South, 
stark, staring ma,d." — Arbuthnot. "An exceeding high mountain." — Matt, iv, 8. "How sweet, 
how passing sweet, the hour to me!" — Gh. Observer. "When we act according to our duty." — 
Dr. Johnson. " A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees." — 
Psal, lxxiv, 5. (7.) Conjunctions: "Look, as I blow this feather from my face." — Shak. "Not 
at all, or but very gently." — Locke. " He was but born to try the lot of man." — Pope. (8.) Prep- 
ositions: "They shall go in and out." — Bible. "From going to and fro in the earth, and walk- 
ing up and down in it." — lb. These are actually adverbs, and not prepositions, because they 
govern nothing. (9.) Interjections are never used as adverbs, though the Greek grammarians 
refer them nearly all to this class. The using of other words for adverbs, (i. e., the adverbial use 
of any words that we do not actually call adverbs,) may be referred to the figure enallage :f as, 

" Tramp, tramp, across the land they speed, 
Splash, splash, across the sea." — Burger. 

Obs. 5. — As other parts of speech seem sometimes to take the nature of adverbs, so adverbs 
sometimes, either really or apparently, assume the nature of other parts of speech. (1.) Of nouns : 
as, "A committee is not needed merely to say Yes or No; that will do very little good; the yes 
or the no must be accompanied and supported by reasons." — Dr. MCartee. "Shall I tell you 
why 1 Ay, sir, and wherefore ; for, they say, every why hath a wherefore." — Shak. (2.) Of ad- 
jectives : as, " Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, and reduced it to an almost desert." — Wood's 
Diet, w. Moab. "The then bishop of London, Dr. Laud, attended on his Majesty." — Clarendon. 
" "With upward speed his agile wings he spread." — Prior. "She lights the downward heaven, 
and rises there." — Dryden. (3.) Of pronouns: as, "He liked the ground whereon she trod." — 
Milton. " Wherein have you been galled by the king?" — Shak. "0 how unlike the place from 
whence they fell!" — Par. Lost, B. i, 1. 15. Here whereon is exactly equivalent in sense to on 
which ; wherein, to in what ; and whence, to which : but none of them are actually reckoned pro- 
nouns. (4.) Of verbs: as, "If he be hungry, more than wanton, bread alone will down." — Locke. 
" To down proud hearts that would not willing die." — Sidney. " She never could away with 
me." — Shak. " Away, and glister like the god of war." — Id. " Up, get ye out of this place." — 
Gen,, xix, 14. (5.) Of conjunctions : as, "I, even I, am he." — Isaiah, xliii, 25. "If I will that 
he tarry till I come." — John, xxi, 22. "I will go and see him before I die." — Gen., xlv, 28. 
"Before I go whence I shall not return." — Job, x, 21. (6 ) Of prepositions : as, "Superior to 
any that are dug out the ground." — Eames's Led., p. 28. "Who act so counter heavenly mercy's 
plan." — Burns. Better perhaps, " out of" and " counter to." (1.) Of interjections: as, " Up, 
up, G-lentarkin! rouse thee, ho!" — Scott. " Down, down, dried Mar, your lances down!" — Id. 
" Off! or I fly for ever from thy sight." — Smith. 

Obs. 6. — In these last examples, up, and down, and off, have perhaps as much resemblance to 
imperative verbs, as to interjections ; but they need not be referred to either of these classes, be- 

* " Stone'-blind," " Stone'-oold," and " Stone'-dead," are given in Worcester' s Dictionary, as compound 
adjectives; and this is perhaps their best classification; but, if I mistake not, they are usually accented quite as 
strongly on the latter syllable, as on the former, being spoken rather as two emphatic words. A similar exam- 
ple from Sigourney, "I saw an infant marble cold,'"' is given by Frazee under this Note : "Adjectives some- 
times belong to other adjectives ; as, '■red hot iron.'" — Improved Gram.,\>. 141. But Webster himself, from 
whom this doctrine and the example are borrowed, (see his Rule XIX,) makes " Red'-hot" but one word in his 
Dictionary; and Worcester gives it as one word, in a less proper form, even without a hyphen, " Red'hot." 

t "Of Enallage. — The construction which may be reduced to this figure in English, chiefly appears when 
one part of speech is used with the power and effect of another." — Ward's English Oram., p. 150. 



CHAP. VIII.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADVERBS. — CLASSES. 421 

cause by supplying a verb we may easily parse them as adverbs. I neither adopt the notion of 
Home Tooke, that the same word cannot belong to different parts of speech, nor refer every word 
to that class to which it may at first sight appear to belong ; for both of these methods are im- 
practicable and absurd. The essential nature of each part of speech, and every important peculi- 
arity of its individual terms, it is hoped, will be sufficiently explained in some part or other of this 
work ; but, as the classification of words often depends upon their construction, some explanations 
that go to determine the parts of speech, must be looked for under the head of Syntax. 

Obs. 1. — The proper classification, or subdivision, of adverbs, though it does not appear to have 
been discovered by any of our earlier grammarians, is certainly very clearly indicated by the 
meaning and nature of the words themselves. The four important circumstances of any event or 
assertion, are the when, the where, the how-much, and the how ; or the time, the place, the degree, 
and the manner. These four are the things which we usually express by adverbs. And seldom, 
if ever, do we find any adverb the notion of which does not correspond to that of sometime, some- 
where, somewhat, or somehovj. Hence the general classes of this sort of words ought to be formed 
under these four heads. The classification, heretofore most commonly adopted in English gram- 
mars, has every fault which the spirit of awkwardness could possibly give it. The head of it is 
this: "Adverbs, though very numerous, maybe reduced to certain classes, the chief of which are 
those of Number, Order, Place, Time, Quantity, Manner or Quality, Doubt, Affirmation, Negation, 
Interrogation, and Comparison." — Murray's Gram., p. 115; Gomly's, 66; Kirkhani's, 86; R. G 
Smith's, 34; HalVs, 26; and others. 

CLASSES. 
Adverbs may be reduced to four general classes ; namely, adverbs of 
time, of place, of degree, and of manner. Besides these, it is proper to 
distinguish the particular class of conjunctive adverbs. 

I. Adverbs of time are those which answer to the question, When ? 
How long ? How soon ? or, How often ? including these which ask. 

Obs. — Adverbs of time may be subdivided as follows : — 

1. Of time present ; as, Now, yet, to-day, nowadays, presently, instantly, immediately, straight- 
way, directly, forthwith. 

2. Of time past; as, Already, just now, lately, recently, yesterday, formerly, anciently, once, here- 
tofore, hitherto, since, till now, long ago, erewhile, erst. 

3. Of time to come ; as, To-morrow, hereafter, henceforth, henceforward, by-and-by, soon, erelong, 
shortly. 

4. Of time relative ; as, When, then, first, just, before, after, while, whilst, meanwhile, as, till, 
until, seasonably, betimes, early, late, whenever, afterward, afterwards, otherwhile, otherwhiles. 

5. Of time absolute ; as, Always, ever, never, aye, eternally, forever, perpetually, continually, in- 
cessantly, endlessly, evermore, everlastingly. 

6. Of time repeated ; as, Often, oft, again, occasionally, frequently, sometimes, seldom, rarely, 
daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, annually, once, twice, thrice, or three times. Above this, we use 
only the phrases four times, five times, six times, &c. Whether these ought to be reckoned adverbs, 
or not, is questionable : times, for repetitions, or instances, may be supposed a noun ; but such 
phrases often appear to be used adverbially. 

II. Adverbs of place are those which answer to the question, Where ? 
Whither ? Whence ? or, Whereabout ? including these which ask. 

Obs. — Adverbs of place may be subdivided as follows: — 

1. Of place in which ; as, Where, here, there, yonder, above, below, about, around, somewhere, 
anywhere, elsewhere, otherwhere, everywhere, nowhere, wherever, wheresoever, within, without, where- 
about, whereabouts, hereabout, hereabouts, thereabout, thereabouts. 

2. Of place to which ; as, Wliither, hither, thither, in, up, down, bad; forth, aside, ashore, abroad, 
aloft, home, homewards, inwards, upwards, downwards, backivards, forioards. Inward, homeward, 
upward, downward, backward, and forward, are also adverbs, as well as adjectives ; but some 
critics, for distinction's sake, choose to use these only as adjectives. 

3. Of place from which ; as, Whence, hence, thence, away, out, off, far, remotely. 

4. Of the order of place ; as, First, secondly, thirdly, fourthly, &c. Thus, secondly means in the 
second place ; thirdly, in the third place; &c. Por order, or rank, implies place, though it may 
consist of relative degrees. 

III. Adverbs of degree are those which answer to the question, How 
much ? How little ? or, to the idea of more or less. 

Obs. — Adverbs of degree may be subdivided as follows : — 

1. Of excess or abundance; as, Much, more, most, too, very, greatly, far, besides; chief ly, prin- 
cipally, mainly, mostly, generally ; entirely, full, fully, completely, perfectly, wholly, totally, altogether, 
all, quite, clear, stark; exceedingly, excessively, extravagantly, intolerably; immeasurably, inconceiv- 
ably, infinitely. 

2. Of equality or sufficiency ; as, Enough, sufficiently, competently, adequately, proportionally, 
equally, so, as, even, just, exactly, precisely. 



422 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

3. Of deficiency or abatement; as, Little, less, least, scarcely, hardly, scantly, scantily merely, 
barely, only, out, partly, partially, nearly, almost, well-nigh, not quite. 

4. Of quantity in the abstract ; as, How, (meaning, in what degree,) however, howsoever, everso, 
something, anything, nothing, a groat, a sixpence, a sou-markee, and other nouns of quantity used 
adverbially. 

IV. Adverbs of maimer are those which answer to the question, 
How t or, by affirming, denying, or doubting, show how a subject is 
regarded. 

Obs. — Adverbs of manner may be subdivided as follows : — 

1. Of manner from quality ; as, Well, ill, wisely, foolishly, justly, wickedly, and many others 
formed by adding ly to adjectives of quality. Ly is a contraction of like ; and is the most com- 
mon termination of English adverbs. When added to nouns, it forms adjectives ; but some few 
of these are also used adverbially ; as, daily, weekly, monthly, which denote time. 

2. Of affirmation or assent; as, Yes, yea, ay, verily, truly, indeed, surely, certainly, doubtless, 
undoubtedly, assuredly, certes, forsooth* amen. 

3. Of negation ; as, No, nay, not, nowise, noway, noways, nohow. 

4. Of doubt or uncertainty ; as, Perhaps, haply, possibly, perchance, peradventure, may -be. 

5. Of mode or way ; as, Thus, so, how, somehow, nohow, anyhow, however, howsoever, like, else, 
otherwise, across, together, apart, asunder, namely, particularly, necessarily, hesitatingly, trippingly, 
extempore, headlong, lengthwise. 

V. Conjunctive adverbs are those which perform the office of conjunc- 
tions, and serve to connect sentences, as well as to express some circum- 
stance of time, place, degree, or the like. This class embraces a few 
words not strictly belonging to any of the others : as, (1.) The adverbs 
of cause ; why, ivherefore, therefore; but the last two of these are often 
called conjunctions. (2.) The pronominal compounds ; herein, therein, 
wherein, &c. ; in which the former term is a substitute, and virtually 
governed by the enclitic particle. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Conjunctive adverbs often relate equally to two verbs in different clauses, on which 
account it is the more necessary to distinguish them from others ; as, " And they feared when 
they heard that they were Romans." — Acts, xvi, 38. Here when is a conjunctive adverb of time, 
and relates equally to feared and to heard. " The right of coming on the shore for their purposes 
in general, as and when they please." — Holroyd. Here as is a conjunctive adverb of manner, and 
when, of time ; both relating equally to coming and to please. 

Obs. 2. — The following words are the most frequently used as conjunctive adverbs: after, 
again, also, as, before, besides, consequently, else, ere, even, furthermore, hence, how, however, more- 
over, nevertheless, otherwise, since, so, still, till, then, thence, therefore, too, until, when, where, where- 
fore, whither, and while, or whilst. 

Obs. 3. — Adverbs of time, place, and manner, are generally connected with verbs or participles; 
those of degree are more frequently placed before adjectives or adverbs : the latter, however, 
sometimes denote the measure of actions or effects ; as, " And I wept much. 11 — Rev., v, 4. " And 
Isaac trembled very exceedingly." — Gen., xxvii, 33. " Writers who had felt less, would have said 
more.'''' — Fuller. 

" Victors and vanquished, in the various field, 
Nor vjholly overcome, nor wholly yield." — Dry den. 

Obs. 4. — The adverbs here, there, and ivhere, when compounded with prepositions, have the 
force of pronouns, or of pronominal adjectives : as, Hereby, for by this ; thereby, for by that ; 
whereby, for by which, or by what. The prepositions which ma} r be subjoined in this manner, are 
only the short words, at, by, for, from, in, into, of, on, to, unto, under, upon, and with. Compounds 
of this kind, although they partake of the nature of pronouns with respect to the nouns going 
before, are .still properly reckoned adverbs, because they relate as such to the verbs which follow 
them; as, "You take my life, when you do take the means whereby I live." — Shak. Here 
vjhereby is a conjunctive adverb, representing means, and relating to the verb live.\ This mode 
of expression is now somewhat antiquated, though still frequently used by good authors, and 
especially by the poets. 

* Forsooth is literally a -word of affirmation or absent, meaning for truth, but it is now almost always used 
ironically: as, "In those gentlemen whom the world forsooth calls wise and solid, there is generally either a 
moroseness that persecutes, or a dullness that tires yon." — Rome's Art of Thinking, p. 24. 

t In most instances, however, the words hereof, thereof, and whereof, are placed after nouns, and have 
nothing to do with any verb. They are therefore not properly adverbs, though all our grammarians and lexico- 
graphers call them so. Nor are they adjectives ; because they are not used adjeetively, but rather in the sense 
of a pronoun governed by of; or, what is nearly the same thing, in the sense of the possessive or genitive case. 
Example: "And the fame hereof went abroad." — Matt., is, 26. That is, "the fame of this miracle;" which 
last is a better expression, the other being obsolete, or worthy to be so, on account of its irregularity. 



CHAP. VIII.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADVERBS. — CLASSES. 423 

Obs. 5 — The adverbs, when, where, whither, whence, how, why, wherefore, wherein, whereof, 
whereby, and other like compounds of where, are sometimes used as interrogatives ; "but, as such, 
they still severally belong to the classes under which they are placed in the foregoing distribu- 
tion, except that words of interrogation are not at the same time connectives. These adverbs, 
and the three pronouns, who, which, and what, are the only interrogative words in the lan- 
guage ; but questions may be asked without any of them, and all have other uses than to ask 
questions. 

Obs. 6. — The conjunctive adverbs, when, where, whither, whence, how, and why, are sometimes 
so employed as to partake of the nature of pronouns, being used as a sort of special relatives, 
which refer back to antecedent nouns of time, place, manner, or cause, according to their own re- 
spective meanings ; yet being adverbs, because they relate as such, to the verbs which follow 
them: as, "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men." — Rom., ii, 16. "In a time 
when thou mayest be found." — Psdl., xxxii, 6. " I sought for some time what I at length found 
here, a place where all real wants might be easily supplied." — Dr. Johnson. "To that part of the 
mountain where the declivity began to grow craggy." — Id. " At Canterbury, whither some voice 
had run before." — Wotton. "Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit 
whence ye are digged." — Isaiah, li, 1. ""We may remark three different sources whence it 
arises." — Blair's Ehet., p. 163. " I'll tell you a way how you may live your time over again." — 
Collier's Antoninus, p. 108. "A crude account of the method hoio they perceive truth." — Harris's 
Hermes, p. 404. " The order how the Psalter is appointed to be read." — Common Prayer. " In 
the same reasoning we see the cause, why no substantive is susceptible of these comparative de- 
grees." — Hermes, p. 201. " There seems no reason why it should not work prosperously." — 
Society in America, p. 68. " There are strong reasons why an extension of her territory would 
be injurious to her." — lb. "An other reason ivhy it deserved to be more studied." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 123. " The end why God hath ordained faith, is, that his free grace might be glorified." 
— Goodwin. 

Obs. 7. — The direct use of adverbs for pronouns, is often, if not generally, inelegant ; and, 
except the expression may be thereby agreeably shortened, it ought to be considered ungram- 
matical. The following examples, and perhaps also some of the foregoing, are susceptible of 
improvement : "Youth is the time, when we are young." — Sanborn's Gram.., p. 120. Say rather, 
"Youth is that part of life which succeeds to childhood." "The boy gave a satisfactory 
reason why he was tardy." — Ibid. Say rather, " The boy gave a satisfactory reason for his 
tardiness." "The several sources from whence these pleasures are derived." — Murray's Key, p. 
258. Say rather — "sources from which." "In cases where it is only said, that a question has 
been asked." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 117. Say, "In those cases in which." "To the false rhet- 
oric of the age when he lived." — Harris's Hermes, p. 415. Say rather — "of the age in which he 
lived." 

Obs. 8. — When a conjunctive adverb is equivalent to both an antecedent and a relative, the 
construction seems to be less objectionable, and the brevity of the expression affords an additional 
reason for preferring it, especially in poetry: as, " But the Son of man hath not where to lay his 
head." — Matt., viii, 20. " There might they see whence Po and Ister came." — Hook's Tasso. 
"Tell how he formed your shining frame." — Ogilvie. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." — John, 
iii, 8. In this construction, the adverb is sometimes preceded by a preposition ; the noun being, 
in fact, understood: as, 

" Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose." — Byron. 
"Here Machiavelli's earth return'd to whence it rose." — Id. 

Obs. 9. — The conjunctive adverb so, very often expresses the sense of some word or phrase 
going before; as, ""Wheresoever the speech is corrupted, so is the mind." — Seneca's Morals, p. 
267. That is, the mind is also corrupted. " I consider grandeur and sublimity, as terms synony- 
mous, or nearly so." — Blair's Rhet, p. 29. The following sentence is grossly wrong, because the 
import of this adverb was not well observed by the writer : " We have now come to far the most 
complicated part of speech ; and one which is sometimes rendered still more so, than the nature 
of our language requires." — Nutting's Gram., p. 38. So, in some instances, repeats the import 
of a preceding noun, and consequently partakes the nature of a pronoun ; as, 

" "We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow ; 
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so." — Pope, on Grit. 

Obs. 10. — " Since is often improperly used for ago : as, ' When were you in France ? — Twenty 
years since.' It ought to be, ' Twenty years ago.' Since may be admitted to supply the place of 
ago that : it being equally correct to say, ' It is twenty years since I was in France ;' and, ' It is 
twenty years ago, that I was in France'.'" — ChurchilTs Gram., p. 337. The difference between 
since and ago is clearly this: the former, being either a preposition or a conjunctive adverb, can- 
not with strict propriety be used adjectively ; the latter, being in reality an old participle, natu- 
rally comes after a noun, in the sense of an adjective ; as, a year ago, a month ago, a week ago. 
" Go, ago, ygo, gon, agon, gone, agone, are all used indiscriminately by our old English writers as 
the past participle of the verb to go."—Tooke's Diversions, Vol. i, p. 376. "Three days agone, 
I fell sick." — 1 Samuel, xxx, 13. 



42-i- THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

MODIFICATIONS. 

Adverbs have no modifications, except that a few are compared, after 
the manner of adjectives : as ? soon, sooner, soonest ; often, oftener, 
oftenest;* long, longer, longest; fast, faster, fastest. 

The following are irregularly compared : well, better, best; badly or ill, 
worse, worst; little less, least; much, more, most ; far, farther, farthest ; 
forth, further, furthest. Bath, rather, rathest, is now used only in the 
comparative. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Most adverbs that are formed from adjectives by the addition of ly, will admit the 
comparative adverbs more and most, less and least, before them : as, wisely, more wisely, most 
wisely ; culpably, less culpably, least culpably. This is virtually a comparison of the latter adverb, 
but the grammatical inflection, or degree, belongs only to the former ; and the words being written 
separately, it is certainly most proper to parse them separately, ascribing the degree of comparison 
to the word which expresses it. As comparison does not belong to adverbs in general, it should 
not be mentioned in parsing, except in the case of those few which are varied by it. 

Obs. 2. — In the works of Milton, and occasionally in those of some other poets of his age,f 
adverbs of two syllables, ending in ly, are not only compared regularly like adjectives of the same 
ending, but are used in the measure of iambic verse as if they still formed only two syllables. 
Examples: — 

" But God hath wisdier arm'd his vengeful ire." — P. Lost, B. x, 1. 1022. 
" Destroyers rightlier call'd and plagues of men." — lb., B. xi, 1. 699. 
"And on his quest, where likeliest he might find:" — lb., B. ix, 1. 414. 
' ; Now amplier known thy Saviour and thy Lord." — lb., B. xii, 1. 544. 
" Though thou wert firmlier fasten'd than a rock." — Sam. Agon., 1. 1398. 
" Not rustic, as before, but seemlier clad." — P. Reg., B. ii, 1. 299. 

" Whereof to thee anon 

Plainlier shall be reveal'd." — Paradise Lost, B. xii, 1. 150. 

" To show what coast thy sluggish crare 

Might easiliest harbour in," — Shakspeare, Gymb., Act IV. 
" Shall not rnj r self be kindlier mov'd than thou art ?"— Id., Tempest, Act V. 
' : But earihlier happy is the rose distill'd." — Id., M. S. N. Dream, Act I. 

Obs. 3. — The usage just cited is clearly analogical, and has the obvious advantage of adding to 
the flexibility of the language, while it also multiplies its distinctive forms. If carried out as it 
might be, it would furnish to poets and orators an ampler choice of phraseology, and at the same 
time, obviate in a great measure the necessity of using the same words both adjectively and ad- 
verbially. The words which are now commonly used in this twofold character, are principally 
monosyllables ; and, of adjectives, monosyllables are the class which we oftenest compare by er 
anddsL- next to which come dissyllables ending in y; as, holy, happy, lovely. But if to any 
monosyllable we add ly to form an adverb, we have of course a dissyllable ending in y ; and if 
adverbs of this class maybe compared regularly, after the manner of adjectives, there can be little 
or no occasion to use the primitive word otherwise than as an adjective-. But, according to pres- 
ent usage, few alverbs are ever compared by inflection, except such words as may also be used 
adjectively. For example : chardy, comely, deadly, early, kindly, kingly, likely, lively, princely, 
seemly, weakly, may all be thus compared; and, according to Johnson and Webster, they may all 
be used either a Ijectively or adverbially. Again: late, later, latest, is commonly contrasted in both 
senses, witii early, earlier, earliest; but if latdy, latelier, lateliest, were 'adopted in the adverbial 
contrast, early and late, earlier and later, earliest and latest, might be contrasted as adjectives only. 

Obs. 4. — The using of adjectives for adverbs, is in general a plain violation of grammar. Ex- 
ample: " To is a preposition, governing the verb sell, in the infinitive mood, agreeable to Eule 18, 
which says, The preposition to governs the infinitive mood." — Gomhfs Gram., p. -137. Here 
agreeable ought to be agreeably; an adverb, relating to the participle governing. Again, the using 
of adverbs for adjectives, is a fault as gross. Example: " Apprehending the nominative to be 
put absolutely '." — Murray's Gram., p. 155. Here absolutely ought to be absolute; an adjective, 
relating to the word nominative. But, in poetry, there is not only a frequent substitution of quality 
for manner, in such a way that the adjective may still be parsed adjectively ; but sometimes also 
what appears to be (whether right or wrong) a direct use of adjectives for adverbs, especially in 
the higher degrees of comparison : as, 

* Seldom is sometimes comparer! in this manner, thoue.h not frequently; ps, "This kind of verse occurs the 
seldomsst, but has a happy effect iti diversify! ia; the melody. "—Blair's Rhi-L, p. 385. In former days, this 
•word, as well as its correlative often, was sometimes used adjectively; as, "-Thine often infirmities."— 1 Tim., 
v, 23. "I hope God's Book hath not been my seldomest lectures."— Qiseew Elizabeth, 15S5. John Walker has 
regularly compared the adverb forward : i'i describing the letter L, he speaks of the tip of the tongue as being 
"brought a. little, forwarder to the teeth." — Pron. Diet, Principles, No. 55. 

t A few instances of the regular inflection of adverbs ending in ly, may be met with in modem compositions, 
as in the following comparisons: "As melodies will sometimes ring sweetlier in the echo." — The Dial, Vol. i, 
p. 6. "I remember no poet whose writings would safelier stand the test." — Coleridge's Biog. Lit., Vol. ii, 
p. 53. 



CHAP. VIII.] ETYMOLOGY.— ADVERBS. — PARSING. — PRAXIS VIII. 425 

" Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow." — Scott, L. of L., C. ii, st. 19. 
" True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, 

As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance." — Pope, Ess. on Crit. 
"And also now the sluggard soundest slept." — Polhk, C. of T., B. vi, 1. 251. 
" In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt, 
What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so." — Milton, P. E., B. iv, 1. 361. 

Obs. 5. — No use of words can be right, that actually confounds the parts of speech ; but in 
many instances, according to present practice, the same words may be used either adjectively or 
adverbially. Fir) tier and ruder are not adverbs, but adjectives. In the example above, they 
may, I think, be ranked with the instances in which quahty is poetically substituted for manner, 
and be parsed as relating to the pronouns which follow them. A similar usage occurs in Latin, 
and is considered elegant. Easiest, as used above by Pope, may perhaps be parsed upon the 
same principle ; that is, as relating to those, or to persons understood before the verb move. But 
soundest, plainest, and easiest, as in the latter quotations, cannot be otherwise explained than as 
being adverbs. Plain and sound, according to our dictionaries, are used both adjectively and ad- 
verbially ; and, if their superlatives are not misapplied in these instances, it is because the words 
are adverbs, and regularly compared as such. Easy, though sometimes used adverbially by re- 
putable writers, is presented by our lexicographers as an adjective only ; and if the latter are 
right, Milton's use of easiest in the sense and construction of most easily, must be considered an 
error in grammar. And besides, according to his own practice, he ought to have preferred plain- 
liest to plainest, in the adverbial sense of most plainly. 

Obs. 6. — Beside the instances already mentioned, of words used both adjectively and adverbially, 
our dictionaries exhibit many primitive terms which are to be referred to the one class or the 
other, according to their construction; as, soon, late, high, low, quick, slack, hard, soft, wide, close, 
clear, thick, full, scant, long, short, clean, near, scarce, sure, fast; to which may as well be added, 
slow, loud, and deep; all susceptible of the regular form of comparison, and all regularly convertible 
into adverbs in ly ; though soonly and longly are now obsolete, and fastly, which means firmly, is 
seldom used. In short, it is, probably, from an idea, that no adverbs are to be compared by er 
and est unless the same words may also be used adjectively, that we do not thus compare lately, 
highly, quickly, loudly, &c, after the example of Milton. But, however custom may sanction the 
adverbial construction of the foregoing simple terms, the distinctive form of the adverb is in 
general to be preferred, especially in prose. For example: " The more it was complained of, the 
louder it was praised." — Daniel Webster, in Congress, 1837. If it would seem quaint to say, " The 
loudlier it was praised," it would perhaps be better to say, "The mere loudly it was praised;" for 
our critics have not acknowledged loud or louder to be an adverb. ISTor have slow and deep been 
so called. Dr. Johnson cites the following line to illustrate the latter as an adjective : 

" Drink hellebore, my boy! drink deep, and scour thy brain. Dryden." — Joh. Diet, w. Peep. 
"Drink hellebore, my boy! drink deep, and purge thy brain." — Dryd. IV. Sat. of Persius. 

Obs. 7. — In some instances, even in prose, it makes little or no difference to the sense, whether 
we use adjectives referring to the nouns, or adverbs of like import, having reference to the verbs : 
as, "The whole conception is conveyed clear and strong to the mind." — Blair's Rhet, p. 138. 
Here clear and strong are adjectives, referring to conception ; but we might as well say, " The 
whole conception is conveyed clearly and strongly to the mind." "Against a power that 
exists independent of their own choice." — Webster's Essays, p. 46. Here we might as well 
say, " exists independently ;" for the independence of the power, in whichever way it is expressed, 
is nothing but the manner of its existence. "This work goeth fast on and prospereth." — Ezra. 
" Skill comes so slow, and life so fast doth fly." — Davies. Dr. Johnson here takes fast and slow to 
be adjectives, but he might as well have called them adverbs, so far as their meaning or construc- 
tion is concerned. For what here qualifies the things spoken of. is nothing but the manner of their 
motion; and this might as well be expressed by the words, rapidly, slowly, swiftly. Yet it ought 
to be observed, that this does not prove the equivalent words to be adverbs, and not adjectives. 
Our philologists have often been led into errors by the argument of equivalence. 

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. 

PRAXIS Vin.— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Eighth Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the dif- 
ferent parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the Articles, Nouns, 
Adjectives, Pronouns, Verbs, Participles, and Adverbs. 
The definitions to be given in the Eighth Praxis, are two for an article, six for a 
noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun, seven for a verb finite, five for an 
infinitive, tivo for a participle, two {and sometimes three) for an adverb, — and one 
for a conjunction, a preposition, or an interjection. Thus: — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 
" When was it that Rome attracted most strongly the admiration of mankind ?" — 
P. G. Harper. 

JVhen is an adverb of time. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an otber ad- 



426 THE GKAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

verb ; and generally expresses time, place, degree or manner. 2. Adverbs of time are those which answer 
to the question, When? How long? How soon? or, How often? including these which ask. 
Was is an irregular neuter verb, from be, was, being, been; found in the indicative mood, imperfect tense, third 
person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. An 
irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. 
A neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being. 4. 
The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a ques- 
tion. 5. The imperfect tense is that which expresses what took place, or was occurring, in time fully past. 

6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 7. The singular number is 
that which denotes but one. 

It ia a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A pro- 
noun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of 
what person it is. 8. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The 
singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are 
neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually 
denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

That is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to 
show the dependence of the terms so connected. 

Romz is a proper noun, of th3 third person, singular number, personified feminine, and nominative case. 1. A 
noun is the aami of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A proper noun is the 
name of some particular individual, or people, or group. 3. The third person is that which denotes the 
persnn or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The feminine 
gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the female kind. 6. The nominative case is that form or 
state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Attracted is a regular active-transitive verb, from attract, attracted, attracting, attracted; found in the indica- 
tive m >od, imperfect tense, third person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to 
ait, or to be a del upon. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by 
assuming d or ed. 3. An active-transitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has some person or 
thing for its object. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a 
thing, or asks a question. 5. The imperfect tense is that which expresses what took place, or was occur- 
ring, in time fully past. 6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 

7. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 

Most is an adverb of degree, compared, much, more, most, and found in the superlative. 1. An adverb is a 
word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, 
degree, or manner. 2. Adverbs of degree are those which answer to the question, How much? How lit- 
tle ? or to the idea of more or less. 3. The superlative degree is that which is most or least of all included 
with it. ^ 

Strongly is an adverb of manner. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an 
other adverb ; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 2. Adverbs of manner are those 
which answer to the question, How? or, by affirming, denying, or doubting, show how a subject is regarded. 

The is the definite article. 1. An article is the word ths, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things. 

Admiration, is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, pi ac% or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is 
the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the per- 
son or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gen- 
der is that which, denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or 
state of a noun or pronouu, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

O/is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Mankind is a commun noun, collective, of the third person, conveying the idea of plurality, masculine gender, 
and objective case. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 
2. A collective noun, or noun of multitude, is the name of many individuals together. 3. The third person 
is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The plural number is that which denotes 
more than one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes persons or animals of the male kind. 6. 
The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, 
participle, or preposition. 

Lesson I. — Pausing. 
"Wisely, therefore, is it ordered, and agreeably to the system of Providence, that 
we should have nature for our instructor." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 358. 

" It is surprising, how quickly, and for the most part how correctly, we judge of 
character from external appearance." — Id., ib., i, 359. 

" The members of a period connected by proper copulatives, glide smoothly and gently 
along, and are a proof of sedateness and leisure in the speaker." — Id., ib., ii, 33. 

" Autithesis ought only to be occasionally studied, when it is naturally demanded 
by the comparison or opposition of objects." — Jamiesori's Rhet., p. 102. 

" Did men always think clearly, and were they at the same time fully masters of 

the language in which they write, there would be occasion for few rules." — lb., 102. 

" Rhetoric, or oratory, is the art of speaking justly, methodically, floridly, and 

copiously, upon any subject, in order to touch the passions, and to persuade." — 

Bradley's Literary Guide, p. 155. 

"The more closely we follow the natural order of any subject we may be investi- 
gating, the more satisfactorily and explicitly will that subject be opened to our 
understanding." — Gurnetfs Essays, p. 160. 

" Why should we doubt of that, whereof our sense 
Finds demonstration- from experience ? 
Our minds are here, and there, below, above ; 
Nothing that's mortal, can so swiftly move." — Denham. 



CHAP. VIII.] ETYMOLOGY. — ADVERBS. — ERRORS. 427 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

" If we can discern particularly and precisely what it is, which is most directly 
obedience or disobedience to the will and commands of God ; what is truly morally 
beautiful, or really and absolutely deformed ; the question concerning liberty, as far 
as it respects ethics, or morality, will be sufficiently decided." — West, on Agency, 
p. xiii. 

" Thus it was true, historically, individually, philosophically, and universally, 
that they did not like to retain God in their knowledge." — Cox, on Christianity, 
p. 327. 

" We refer to Jeremiah Evarts and Gordon Hall. They had their imperfections, 
and against them they struggled discreetly, constantly, successfully, until they were 
fitted to ascend to their rest" — 1ST. Y. Observer, Feb. 2d, 1833. 

" Seek not proud riches ; but such as thou mayst get justly, use soberly, distribute 
cheerfully and leave contentedly." — Ld. Bacon. 

" There are also some particularly grievous sins, of which conscience justly accuses 
us ; sins committed more or less presumptuously and willingly, deliberately and 
repeatedly." — BicJcersteth, on Prayer, p. 59. 

"And herein I apprehend myself now to suffer wrongfully, being slanderously re- 
ported, falsely accused, shamefully and despitefully used, and hated without a cause." 
— Jenks's Prayers, p. 173. 

" Of perfect knowledge, see, the dawning light 
Foretells a noon most exquisitely bright ! 
Here, springs of endless joy are breaking forth ! 
There, buds the promise of celestial worth I" — Young. 

Lesson IH. — Parsing. 

" A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, 
takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably." — 
Penn's Maxims. 

" That mind must be wonderfully narrow, that is wholly wrapped up in itself ; 
but this is too visibly the character of most human minds." — Burgh's Dignity, ii, 35. 

" There is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan 
adopted for the abolition of slavery ; but there is only one proper and effectual mode 
by which it can be accomplished, and that is, by legislative authority." — Geo. 
Washington, 1786. 

" Sloth has frequently and justly been denominated the rust of the soul. The 
habit is easily acquired ; or, rather, it is a part of our very nature to be indolent." — 
Student's Manual, p. 176. 

" I am aware how improper it is to talk much of my wife ; never reflecting how 
much more improper it is to talk much of myself." — Home's Art of Thinking, p. 89. 

" Howbeit whereiusoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. Are 
they Hebrews ? so am I. Are they Israelites ? so am I. Are they the seed of 
Abraham ? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ ? (I speak as a fool,) I am more." 
— 2 Cor., xi. 

" Oh, speak the wondrous man ! how mild, how calm, 
How greatly humble, how divinely good, 
How firm established on eternal truth." — Thomson. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS RESPECTING ADVERBS. 
"We can much easier form the conception of a fierce combat." — Blair's Rhet., p. 167. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the adjective easier is used as an adverb, to qualify the verb can form. 
But, according to Observation 4th on the Modifications of Adverbs, " The using of adjectives for adverbs, is in 
general a plain violation of grammar." Therefore, easier should be more easily ; thus, " We can much more 
easily form the conception of a fierce combat."] 

" When he was restored, agreeable to the treaty, he was a perfect savage." — Webster's Essays, p. 
235. "How I shall acquit myself suitable to the importance of the trial." — Duncan's Cic, p. 85. 



428 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

" Can any thing show your holiness how unworthy you treat mankind ?" — Sped., No. 497. " In 
What other [language,] consistent with reason and common sense, can you go about to explain it 
to him?" — Lowttis Gram., Pre/., p. viii. "Agreeable to this rule, the short vowel Sheva has 
two characters. 1 ' — Wilson's Hebrew Gram., p. 46. " We shall give a remarkable fine example of 
this figure.'' — Murray's Gram., p. 347. "All of which is most abominable false." — Barclay^ 
Works, hi, 431. "He heaped up great riches, but passed his time miserable." — Murray's Key, 
8vo, ii, 202. " He is never satisfied with expressing any thing clearly and simple." — Blair's 
Ehet, p. 96. "Attentive only to exhibit his ideas clear and exact, he appears dry." — lb., p. 100. 
"Such words as have the most liquids and vowels, glide the softest." — lb., p. 129. "The sim- 
plest points, such as are easiest apprehended." — lb., p. 312. "Too historical, to be accounted a 
perfect regular epic poem." — lb., p. 441. "Putting after them the oblique case, agreeable to the 
French construction." — Priestley's Gram., p. 108. " Where the train proceeds with an extreme 
slow pace." — Karnes, El. of Grit, i, 151. " So as scarce to give an appearance of succession." — 
lb., i, 152. "That concord between sound and sense, which is perceived in some expressions in- 
dependent of artfal pronunciation." — lb., ii, 63. " Cornaro had become very corpulent, previous 
to the adoption of his temperate habits." — Hitchcock, on Dysp., p. 396. " Bread, which is a solid 
and tolerable hard substance." — Sandford and Merton, p. 38. "To command everybody that 
was not dressed as fine as himself." — lb., p. 19. "Many of them have scarce outlived their 
authors." — Pre/, to Lily's Gram., p. ix. "Their labour, indeed, did not penetrate very deep." — 
Wilson's Heb. Gram., p. 30. "The people are miserable poor, and subsist on fish." — Hume's Hist, 
ii, 433. "A scale, which I took great pains, some years since, to make." — Buckets Gram., p. 81. 
"There is no truth on earth so weft established as the truth of the Bible." — Taylor's District 
School, p. 288. "I know of no work so much wanted as the one Mr. Taylor has now furnished." 
— Dr. Nott: ib., p. ii.' " And therefore their requests are seldom and reasonable." — Taylor : ib., 
p. 58. " Questions are easier proposed than rightly answered." — Billwyn's Reflections, p. 19. 
" Often reflect on the advantages you possess, and on the source from whence they are all 
derived." — Murray^s Gram., p. 374. "If there be no special Rule which requires it to be put 
forwarder." — Milnes's Greek Gram., p. 234. "The Masculine and Neuter have the same Dialect 
in all Numbers, especially when they end the same." — lb., p. 259. 

" And children are more busy in their play 
Than those that wisely 'st pass their time away." — Butler, p. 163. 



CHAPTER IX.— CONJUNCTIONS. 

A Conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in con- 
struction, and to show the dependence of the terms so connected : as, 
" Thou and he are happy, because you are good." — Murray. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Our connective words are of four kinds ; namely, relative pronouns, conjunctive ad- 
verbs,* conjunctions, and prepositions. These have a certain resemblance to one an other, so far 
as they are all of them connectives ; yet there are also characteristical differences by winch they 
may in general be easily distinguished. Relative pronouns represent antecedents, and stand in 
those relations which we call cases; conjunctive adverbs assume the connective power in addition 
to their adverbial character, and consequently sustain a double relation; conjunctions, (except 
the introductory correspondents,) join words or sentences together, showing their relation either 
to each other or to something else ; prepositions, though naturally subject themselves to some- 
thing going before, assume the government of the terms which follow them, and in this they 
differ from all the rest. 

Obs. 2. — Conjunctions do not express any of the real objects of the understanding, whether 
things, qualities, or actions, but rather the several modes of connexion or contrast under which 
these objects are contemplated. Hence conjunctions were said by Aristotle and his followers to 
be in themselves "devoid of signification;" a notion which Harris, with no great propriety, has 
adopted in his faulty definitionf of this part of speech. It is the office of this class of particles, 
to fink together words, phrases, or sentences, that would otherwise appear as loose shreds, or un- 

* De Sacy, in his Principles of General Grammar, calls the relative pronouns " Conjunctive Adjectives." 
See Fosdick" s Translation, p. 57. He also says, "The words xoho, which, etc. are not the only words which 
connect the function of a Conjunction with another design. There are Conjunctive Nouns and Adverbs, as well 
as Adjectives ; and a characteristic of these words is, that we can substitute for them another form of expres- 
sion in which shall be found the words who, ivhich, etc. Thus, when, where, tohat, how, as, and many others, 
are Conjunctive words : [as,] ' I shall finish when I please ;' that is, ' I shall finish at the time at which I please.' 
— ' I know not where I am :' i. e. ' I know not the place in which I am.' "—Ib., p. 58. In respect to the conjunc- 
tive adverbs, this is well enough, so far as it goes; but the word who appears to me to be a pronoun, and not an 
adjective ; and of his " Conjunctive Norms," he ought to have given us some examples, if he knew of any 

t " Now the Definition of a Conjunction is as follows— a Part of Speech, void of Signification itself, but so 
formed as to help Signification by making two or more significant Sentences to be one significant Sentence." 
r— Harris's Hermes, 6th Edition, London, p. 238. 



CHAP. IX.] ETYMOLOGY. — CONJUNCTIONS. — OBSERVATIONS. 429 

connected aphorisms ; and thus, by various forms of dependence, to give to discourse such 
continuity as may fit it to convey a connected train of thought or reasoning. The skill or 
inability of a writer may as strikingly appear in his management of these little connectives, as in 
that of the longest and most significant words in the language. 
" The current is often evinced by the straws, 

And the course of the wind by the flight of a feather ; 
So a speaker is known by his ands and his ors, 

Those stitches that fasten his patchwork together." — Robert F. Mott. 

Obs. 3. — Conjunctions sometimes connect entire sentences, and sometimes particular words or 
phrases only. "When one whole sentence is closely linked with an other, both become clauses or 
members of a more complex sentence ; and when one word or phrase is coupled with an other, 
both have in general a common dependence upon some other woi d in the same sentence. In 
etymological parsing, it may be sufficient to name the conjunction as such, and repeat the defini- 
tion above ; but, in syntactical parsing, the learner should always specify the terms connected. 
In many instances, however, he may conveniently abbreviate his explanation, by parsing the 
conjunction as connecting "what precedes and what follows;" or, if the terms are transposed, 
as connecting its own clause to the second, to the third, or to some other clause in the 
context. • 

Obs. 4. — However easy it may appear, for even the young parser to name the terms which in 
any given instance are connected by the conjunction, and of course to know for himself what 
these terms are, — that is, to know what the conjunction does or does not, connect, — it is certain 
that a multitude of grammarians and philosophers, great and small, from Aristotle down to the 
latest modifier of Murray, or borrower from his text, have been constantly contradicting one an 
other, if not themselves, in relation to this matter. Harris avers, that "the Conjunction connects, 
not Words, but Sentences ;" and frames his definition accordingly. See Hermes, p. 237. This 
doctrine is true of some of the conjunctions, but it is by no means true of them all. He adds, in 
a note, " Grammarians have usually considered the Conjunction as connecting rather single Parts 
of Speech, than whole Sentences, and that too with the addition of like with like, Tense with 
Tense, Number with Number, Case with Case, &c. This Sanctius justly explodes." — lb., p. 238. 
If such - has been the usual doctrine of the grammarians, they have erred on the one side, as 
much as our philosopher, and his learned authorities, on the other. Por, in this instance, 
Harris's quotations of Latin and Greek writers, prove only that Sanctius, Scaliger, Apollonius, 
and Aristotle, held the same error that he himself had adopted ; — the error which Latham and 
others now inculcate, that, " There are always two propositions where there is one Conjunction." 
— Fowler's E. Gram,., 8vo, 1850, p. 557. 

Obs. 5. — The common doctrine of L. Murray and others, that, " Conjunctions connect the same 
moods and tenses of verbs, and cases of nouns and pronouns," is not only badly expressed, but 
is pointedly at variance with their previous doctrine, that, " Conjunctions very often unite sen- 
tences, when. they appear to unite only words ; as in the following instances : ' Duty and interest 
forbid vicious indulgences;' 'Wisdom or folly governs us.' Each of these forms of expression," 
they absurdly say, " contains two sentences." — Murray's Gram., p. 124; Smith's, 95; Fish's, 84; 
IngersoWs, 81. By "the same moods, tenses, or cases," we must needs here understand some 
one mood, tense, or case, in which the connected words agree; and, if the conjunction has anything 
to do with this agreement, or sameness of mood, tense, or case, it must be because words only, 
and not sentences, are connected by it. Now, if, that, though, lest, unless, or any other conjunc- 
tion that introduces the subjunctive, will almost always be found to connect different moods, or 
rather to subjoin one sentence to another in which there is a different mood. On the contrary, 
and, as, even, than, or, and nor, though they may be used to connect sentences, do, in very many 
instances, connect words only; as, "The king and queen are an amiable pair." — Murray. " And 
a being of more than human dignity stood before me." — Br. Johnson. It cannot be plausibly pre- 
tended, that and and than, in these two examples, connect clauses or sentences. So and and or, 
in the examples above, connect the nouns only, and not "sentences:" else our common rules for 
the agreement of verbs or pronouns with words connected, are nothing but bald absurdities. It 
is idle to say, that the construction and meaning are not what they appear to be ; and it is certainly 
absurd to contend, that conjunctions always connect sentences; or always, words only. One 
author very strangely conceives, that, " Conjunctions may be said either always to connect words 
only, or always to connect sentences, according to the view which may be taken of them in 
analyzing." — Nutting's Gram., p. 77. 

Obs. 6. — "Several words belonging to other parts of speech, are occasionally used as conjunc- 
tions. Such are the following: provided, except, verbs; both, an adjective; either, neither, that, 
pronouns ; being, seeing, participles ; before, since, for, prepositions. I will do it, provided you lend 
some help. Here provided is a conjunction, that connects the two sentences. ' Paul said, Except 
these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.' Here except is a conjunction. Excepting is also 
used as a participle and conjunction. ' Being this reception of the gospel was so anciently fore- 
told.' — Bishop Pearson. ' Seeing all the congregation are holy.' — Bible. Here being and seeing 
are used as conjunctions." — Alexander's Gram., p. 50. The foregoing remark, though worthy of 
some attention, is not altogether accurate. Before, when it connects sentences, is not a conjunc- 
tion, but a conjunctive adverb. Provided, as cited above, resembles not the verb, but the perfect 
participle. Either and neither, when they are not conjunctions, are pronominal adjectives, rather 
than pronouns. And, to say, that, "words belonging to other parts of speech, are used as conjunc- 



430 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

tions," is a sort of solecism, which leaves the learner in doubt to what class they really belong. 
Being, and being that, were formerly used in the sense of because, since, or seeing that; (Lat. cum, 
quoniam, or quando ;) but this usage is now obsolete. So there is an uncommon or obsolete use 
of without, in the sense of unless, or except ; (Lat. nisi;) as, " He cannot rise without he be helped." 
Walker's Particles, p. 425. " Non potest nisi adjutus exsurgere." — Seneca. 

CLASSES. 

Conjunctions are divided into two general classes, copulative and dis- 
junctive; and a few of each class are particularly distinguished from the 
rest, as being corresponsive. 

I. A copulative conjunction is a conjunction that denotes an addition, 
a cause, a consequence, or a supposition : as, " He and I shall not dis- 
pute ; for, if he has any choice, I shall readily grant it." 

II. A disjunctive conjunction is a conjunction that denotes opposition 
of meaning : as, " Though he were dead, yet shall he live." — St. John's 
Gospel. " Be not faithless, but believing." — Id.' 

III. The corresponsive conjunctions are those which are used in pairs, 
so that one refers or answers to the other : as, " John came neither eat- 
ing nor drinking." — Matt., xi, 18. " But if I cast out devils by the 
Spirit of G-od, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." — lb., xii, 28. 

Obs. — Not all terms which stand in the relation of correspondents, or corresponsives, are there- 
fore to be reckoned conjunctions ; nor are both words in each pair always of the same part of 
speech : some are adverbs; one or two are adjectives; and sometimes a conjunction answers to a 
preceding adverb. But, if a word is seen to be the mere precursor, index, introductory sign, or 
counterpart, of a conjunction, and has no relation or import which should fix it in any other of 
the ten classes called parts of speech, it is, clearly, a conjunction, — a corresponding or correspon- 
sive conjunction. It is a word used preparatively, " to connect words or sentences in construction, 
and to show the dependence of the terms so connected." 

LIST OF THE CONJUNCTIONS. 

1. The Copulatives; And, as, both, because, even, for, if that, then, since, seeing, so. 

2. The Disjunctives ; Or, nor, either, neither, than, though, although, get, but, 
except, whether, lest, unless, save, provided, notwithstanding, whereas. 

3. The Corresponsives ; Both — and ; as — as ; as — so ; if — then ; either — or ; 
neither — nor * whether — or ; though, or although — get. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — By some writers, the words, also, since, too, then, therefore, and wherefore, are placed 
among the copulative conjunctions ; and as, so, still, however, and albeit, among the disjunctive ; 
but Johnson and Webster have marked most of these terms as adverbs only. It is perhaps of 
little moment, by which name they are called ; for, in some instances, conjunctions and conjunc- 
tive adverbs do not differ very essentially. As, so, even, then, yet, and but, seem to belong some- 
times to the one part of speech, and sometimes to the other. I call them adverbs when they 
chiefly express time, manner, or degree ; and conjunctions when they appear to be mere con- 
nectives. As, yet, and but, are generally conjunctions ; but so, even, and then, are almost always 
adverbs. Seeing and provided, when used as connectives, are more properly conjunctions than 
any thing else ; though Johnson ranks them with the adverbs, and Webster, by supposing many 
awkward ellipses, keeps them with the participles. Examples: " For these are not drunken, as 
ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day." — Acts, ii, 15. "The senate shall have 
power to adjourn themselves, provided such adjournment shall not exceed two days at a time." — 
Constitution of New Hampshire. 

Obs. 2. — Since, when it governs a noun after it, is a preposition: as, " Hast thou commanded 
the morning since thy days?" — Job. Albeit is equivalent in sense to although, and is properly a 
conjunction ; but this old compound is now nearly or quite obsolete. As is sometimes a relative 
pronoun, sometimes a conjunctive adverb, and sometimes a copulative conjunction. Example of 
the last: "We present ourselves as petitioners." If as is ever disjunctive, it is not so here; nor 
can we parse it as an adverb, because it comes between two words that are essentially in appo- 
sition. The equivalent Latin term quasi is called an adverb, but, in such a case, not very 
properly: as, "Et colles quasi pulverem pones;" — "And thou shalt make the hills as chaff." — 
Isaiah, xli, 15. So even, which in English is frequently a sign of emphatic repetition, seems some- 
times to be rather a conjunction than an adverb: as, "I, even I, am the Lord." — Isaiah, xliii, 11. 

Obs. 3. — Save and saving, when they denote exception, are not adverbs, as Johnson denomin- 
ates them, or a verb and a participle, as Webster supposes them to be, or prepositions, as Covell 
esteems them, but disjunctive conjunctions ; and, as such, they take the same case after as before 



CHAP. IX.] ETYMOLOGY. — CONJUNCTIONS. — CLASSES. 431 

them; as, "All the conspirators, save only he, did that they did, in envy of great Cassar." — Shah 
" All this world's glory seemeth vain, and aft their shows but shadows, saving she." — Spenser. 
"Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only." — Joshua, xi, 13. "And none of them was 
cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian." — Luke, iv, 27. Save is not here a transitive verb, for 
Hazor was not saved in any sense, but utterly destroyed ; nor is Naaman here spoken of as being 
saved by an other leper, but as being cleansed when others were not. These two conjunctions are 
now little used ; and therefore the propriety of setting the nominative after them and treating 
them as conjunctions, is the more apt to be doubted. The Rev. Matt. Harrison, after citing five 
examples, four of which have the nominative with save, adds, without naming the part of speech, 
or assigning any reason, this decision, which I think erroneous : " In all these passages, save re- 
quires after it the objective case." His five examples are these: "All, save I, were at rest, and 
enjoyment." — Frankenstein. "There was no stranger with us, in the house, save we two." — 1 
Kings, iii, 18. 

"And nothing wanting is, save she, alas!" — Drummokd of Hawthornden. 
"When all slept sound, save she, who bore them both." — Rogers, Italy, p. 108. 
" And all were gone, save him, who now kept guard." — Ibid., p. 185. 

Obs. 4. — The conjunction if is sometimes used in the Bible to express, not a supposition of 
what follows it, but an emphatic negation : as, " I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter 
into my rest." — Heb., iv, 3. That is, that they shall not enter. The same peculiarity is found in 
the Greek text, and also in the Latin, and other versions. Or, in the obsolete phrase, " or ever" 
is not properly a conjunction, but a conjunctive adverb of time, meaning before. It is supposed 
to be a corruption of ere: as, "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the 
earth was." — Prov., viii, 23. "And we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him." — Acts, 
xxiii, 15. This term derives no support from the original text. 

Obs. 5. — There are some peculiar phrases, or combinations of words, which have the force of 
conjunctions, and which it is not very easy to analyze satisfactorily in parsing: as, "And for aU 
there were so many, yet was not the net broken." — John, xxi, 11. Here for all is equivalent to 
although, or notwithstanding ; either of which words would have been more elegant. Nevertheless 
is composed of three words, and is usually reckoned a conjunctive adverb ; but it might as 
well be called a disjunctive conjunction, for it is obviously equivalent to yet, but, or notwith- 
standing ; as, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I five; yet not I, but Christ liveth 
in me." — Gal., ii, 20. Here, for nevertheless and but, we have in the Greek the same particle 
6L "Each man's mind has some peculiarity, as well as his face." — Locke. "Relative pronouns, 
as well as conjunctions, serve to connect sentences." — Murray's Grain., p. 124. Here the first as 
corresponds to the second, but well not being used in the literal sense of an adverb, some judi- 
cious grammarians take the whole phrase as a conjunction. It is, however, susceptible of 
division : as, " It is adorned with admirable pieces of sculpture, as well modern as ancient." — 
Addison. 

Obs. 6. — So the phrases, for as much as, in as much as, in so much that, if taken collectively, 
have the nature of conjunctions ; yet they contain within themselves correspondent terms and 
several different parts of speech. The words are sometimes printed separately, and sometimes 
partly together. Of late years, forasmuch, inasmuch, insomuch, have been usually compounded, 
and called adverbs. They might as well, perhaps, be called conjunctions, as they were by some 
of our old grammarians ; for two conjunctions sometimes come together : as, " Answering their 
questions, as if* it were a matter that needed it." — Locke. "These should be at first gently 
treated, as though we expected an imposthumation," — Sharp. " But there are many things which 
we must acknowledge to be true, notwithstanding that we cannot comprehend them." — Beattie's 
Moral Science, p. 211. "There is no difference, except that some are heavier than others." — "We 
may be playful, and yet innocent ; grave, and yet corrupt." — Murray's Key, p. 166. 

Obs. 7. — Conjunctions have no grammatical modifications, and are consequently incapable of 
any formal agreement or disagreement with other words ; yet their import as connectives, copu- 
lative or disjunctive, must be carefully observed, lest we write or speak them improperly. Ex- 
ample of error: "Prepositions are generally set before nouns and pronouns." — Wilbur's Gram., p. 
20. Here and should be or; because, although a preposition usually governs a noun or a pro- 
noun, it seldom governs both at once. And besides, the assertion above seems very naturally to 
mean, that nouns and pronouns are generally preceded by prepositions — as gross an error as dull- 
ness could invent! L. Murray also says of prepositions : "They are, for the most part, put before 
nouns and pronouns." — Gram., p. 117. So Felton : " They generally stand before nouns and pro- 
nouns." — Analytic and Prac. Gram., p. 61. The blunder however came originally from Lowth, and 
out of the following admirable enigma : " Prepositions, standing by themselves in construction, are put 
before nouns and pronouns ; and sometimes after verbs ; but in this sort of composition they are 
shiefly prefixed to verbs: as, to outgo, to overcome." — Lowth 's Gram., p. 66. 

Obs. 8. — The opposition suggested by the disjunctive particle or, is sometimes merely 

* Whether these, or any other conjunctions that come together, ought to he parsed together, is doubtful. I 
am not in favour of taking any words together, that can -well be parsed separately. Goodenow, who defines a 
phrase to be "the union of two or more words having the nature and construcion of a single word,'"'' finds an 
immense number of these unions, which he cannot, or does not, analyze. As examples of "a conjunctional 
phrase," he gives "as if" and "as though." — Gram., p. 25. But when he comes to speak of ellipsis, he says: 
"After the Conjunctions titan, as, but, &c, some words are generally understood ; as, 'We have more than 
[that is which.-] will suffice;' 'He acted as [he would act] if he were mad.' "—lb., p. 41. This doctrine is 
plainly repugnant to the other. 



432 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

nominal, or verbal: as, "That object is a triangle, or figure contained under tliree right lines." — 
Harris. " So if we say, that figure is a sphere, or a globe, or a ball." — Id., Hermes, p. 258. In these 
cases, the disjunction consists in nothing but an alternative of words; for the terms connected 
describe or name the same thing. For this sense of or, the Latins had a peculiar particle, sive, 
which they called Subdisjundiva, a Subdisjunctive : as, "Alexander sive Paris; Mars sive Mavors." 
— Harris's Hermes, p. 258. In English, the conjunction or is very frequently equivocal : as, 
" They were both more ancient than Zoroaster or Zerdusht." — Campbell's Ehet, p. 250 ; Murray's 
Gram., p. 297. Here, if the reader does not happen to know that Zoroaster and Zerdusht mean 
the same person, he will be very likely to mistake the sense. To avoid this ambiguity, we sub- 
stitute, (in judicial proceedings,) the Latin adverb alias, otherwise; using it as a conjunction sub- 
disjunctive, in lieu of or, or the Latin sive: as, "Alexander, alias Ellick." — "Simson, alias Smith, 
alias Baker." — Johnson's Did. 

EXAMPLES FOE PAUSING. 
PRAXIS IX.— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Ninth Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the 
different parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the Articles, 
Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns, Verbs, Participles, Adverbs, and Con- 
junctions. 

The definitions to be given in the Ninth Praxis, are tioo for an article, six for a 
noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun, seven for a verb finite, five for 
an infinitive, two for a participle, two (and sometimes three) for an adverb, two 
for a conjunction, — and one for a preposition, or an interjection. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 
" If thou hast done a good deed, boast not of it." — Maxims. 

If is a copulative conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, 
and to show the dependence of the terms so connected. 2. A copulative conjunction is a conjunction that 
denotes an addition, a cause, a consequence, or a supposition. 

Thou is a personal pronoun, of the second person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case. 1. 
A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that 6hows, by its form, 
of what person it is. 3. The second person is that which denotes the hearer, or the person addressed. 4. 
The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The masculine gender is that which denotes per- 
sons or animals of the male kind. 6. The nominative case is that form or 6tate of a noun or pronoun, which 
usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Hast done is an irregular active-transitive verb, from do, did, doing, done; found in the indicative mood, per- 
fect tense, second person, and siugular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be 
acted upon. 2. An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by 
assuming d or ed. 3. An active-transitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has some person or 
thing for its object. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a 
thing, or asks a question. 5. The perfect tense is that which expresses what has taken place, within some 
period of time not yet fully past. 6. The second person is that which denotes the hearer, or the person ad- 
dressed. 7. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 

A is the indefinite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The indefinite article is an or a, which denotes one thing of a kind, but not any particular 
one. 

Good is a common adjective, of the positive degree ; compared irregularly, good, better, best. 1. An adjective 
is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjective is any ordi- 
nary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. The positive degree is that which is expressed 
by the adjective in its simple form. 

Deed is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A noun 
is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the 
name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or 
thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is 
that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of 
a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Boast is a regular active-intransitive verb, from boast, boasted, boasting, boasted; found in the imperative mood, 
present tense, second person, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be 
acted upon. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or 
ed. 3. An active-intransitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has no person or thing for its 
object. 4. The imperative mood is that form of the verb, which is used in commanding, exhorting, en- 
treating, or permitting. 5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 
6. The second person is that which denotes the hearer, or the person addressed. 7. The singular number 
is that which denotes but one. 

Not is an adverb of manner, expressing negation. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an 
adjective, or an other adverb ; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 2. Adverbs of 
manner are those which answer to the question, How t or, by affirming, denying, or doubting, show how a 
subject is regarded. 

O/is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

It is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A pro- 
noun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of 
what person it is. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The 
singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is that which denotes things that are 
neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which usually 
denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 



CHAP. IX.] ETYMOLOGY. — CONJUNCTIONS. — PARSING. — PRAXIS IX. 433 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

" In all gratifications, disgust ever lies nearest to the highest pleasures ; and there- 
fore let us not marvel, if this is peculiarly the case in eloquence. By glancing at 
either poets or orators, we may easily satisfy ourselves, that neither a poem nor an 
oration which aims continually at what is fine, showy, and sparkling, can please us 
lono\ Wherefore, though we may wish for the frequent praise of having expressed 
ourselves well and properly, we should not covet repeated applause for being bright 
and splendid." — Cicero, de Oratore. 

" The foundation of eloquence, as well as of every other high attainment, is prac- 
tical wisdom. For it happens in oratory, as in life, that nothing is more difficult, 
than to discern what is proper and becoming. Through lack of such discernment, 
gross faults are very often committed. For neither to all ranks, fortunes, and ages, 
nor to every time, place, and auditory, can the same style either of language or of 
sentiment be adapted. In every part of a discourse, as in every part of life, we must 
consider* what is suitable and decent ; and this must be determined with reference 
both to the matter in question, and to the personal character of those who speak 
and those who hear." — Cicero, Orator ad Brutum. 

" So spake th' Omnipotent, and with his words 
All seem'd well pleas'd ; all seem'd, but were not all." — Milton. 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

" A square, though not more regular than a hexagon or an octagon, is more 
beautiful than either: for what reason, but that a square is more simple, and the at- 
tention is less divided ?" — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 175. 

" We see the material universe in motion ; but matter is inert ; and, so far as 
we know, nothing can move it but mind : therefore God is a spirit. We do not 
mean that his nature is the same as that of our soul ; for it is infinitely more 
excellent. But we mean, that he possesses intelligence and active power in supreme 
perfection ; and, as these qualities do not belong to matter, which is neither active 
nor intelligent, we must refer them to that which is not matter, but mind." — 
BeaUi^s Moral Science, p. 210. 

" Men are generally permitted to publish books, and contradict others, and even 
themselves, as they please, with as little danger of being confuted, as of being under- 
stood." — Boyle. 

" Common reports, if ridiculous rather than dangerous, are best refuted by neglect." — 
Karnes's Thinking, p. 76. " No man is so foolish, but that he may give good counsel at 
a time ; no man so wise, but he may err, if he take no counsel but his own." — lb., p. 97. 
" Young heads are giddy, and young hearts are warm, 
And make mistakes for manhood to reform." — Cowper. 

Lesson III. — Parsing. 
" The Nouns denote substances, and those either natural, artificial, or abstract. 
They moreover denote things either general, or special, or particular. The Pronouns, 
their substitutes, are either prepositive, or subjunctive." — Harris's Hermes, p. 85. 

" In a thought, generally speaking, there is at least one capital object considered 
as acting or as suffering. This object is expressed by a substantive noun : its action 
is expressed by an active verb ; and the thing affected by the action is expressed by 
an other substantive noun : its suffering, or passive state, is expressed by a passive 
verb ; and the thing that acts upon it, by a substantive noun. Beside these, which 
are the capital parts of a sentence, or period, there are generally underparts ; each 
of the substantives, as well as the verb, may be qualified : time, place, purpose, 
motive, means, instrument, and a thousand other circumstances, may be necessary to 
complete the thought." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 34. 

" Yet those whom pride and dullness join to blind, 
To narrow cares and narrow space confined, 
Though with big titles each his fellow greets, 
Are but to wits, as scavengers to streets." — Mallet. 

28 



434 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS RESPECTING CONJUNCTIONS. 

"A Verb is so called from the Latin verbum, or word" — Buckets Classical Gram., p. 56. 
[Fosmule. — Not proper, because the conjunction or, connecting verbum and word, supposes the latter to be 
Latin. Bat, according to Observation 7th, on the Classes of Conjunctions, "The import of connectives, copu- 
lative or disjunctive, must be carefully observed, lest we write or speak them improperly." In this instance, or 
should ha changed to a; thus, "A Verb is so called from the Latin verbum, a word:" that is, "which means, 
a word."] 

"References are often marked by letters and figures." — Gould's Adam's Gram., p. 283. (1.) 
" A Conjunction is a word which joins words and sentences together." — Lennie's E. Gram., p. 51 ; 
Bullions' s, 70; Brace's, 57. (2.) "A conjunction is used to connect words and sentences to- 
gether." — Smith's New Gram., p. 37. (3.) "A conjunction is used to connect words and sen- 
tences." — Maunder's Gram., p. 1. (-4.) " Conjunctions are words used to join words and sen- 
tences." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 3. (5.) "A Conjunction is a word used to connect words and 
sentences." — MCulloch's Gram., p. 36; Hart's, 92; Days, 10. (6.) " A Conjunction joins words 
and sentences together." — Mackintosh's Gram., p. 115; Hiley's, 10 and 53. (7.) "The Conjunc- 
tion joins words and sentences together." — L. Murray's Gram., 2d Edition, p. 28. (8.) "Conjunc- 
tions connect words and sentences to each other." — Wright's Gram., p. 35. (9.) "Conjunctions 
connect words and sentences." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 80; Wells's, 1st Ed., 159 and 168. (10.) 
" The conjunction is a part of speech used to connect words and sentences." — Weld's Gram., 2d 
Ed., p. 49. (11.) " A conjunction is a word used to connect words and sentences together." — 
Fowlir's E. Gram., § 329. (12.) " Connectives are words which unite words and sentences in 
construction." — Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 123; Improved Gram., 81. " English Grammar is 
miserably taught in our district schools ; the teachers know but little or nothing about it." — Tay- 
lor's District School, p. 48. " Least, instead of preventing, you draw on Diseases." — Locke, on 
EL, p. 40. " The definite article the is frequently applied to adverbs in the comparative and 
superlative degree." — Murray s Gram., p. 33 ; Ingersoll's, 33 ; Lennie's, 6 ; Bullions's, 8 ; Fisk's, 
53 , and others. " When nouns naturally neuter are converted into masculine and feminine." — 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 38. " This form of the perfect tense represents an action completely 
past, and often at no great distance, but not specified." — lb., p. 74. " The Conjunction Copula- 
tive serves to connect or to continue a sentence, by expressing an addition, a supposition, a 
cause, &c." — lb., p. 123. "The Conjunction Disjunctive serves, not only to connect and continue 
the sent3U3e, but also to express opposition of meaning in different degrees." — lb., p. 123. 
" Whether we open the volumes of our divines, philosophers, historians, or artists, we shall find 
that they abound with all the terms necessary to communicate their observations and discov- 
eries." — Lb., p. 138. "When a disjunctive occurs between a singular noun, or pronoun, and a 
plural one, the verb is made to agree with the plural noun and pronoun." — Lb., p. 152 : R. C. 
Smith, Alger, Cimly, Merchant, Picket, et&l. "Pronouns must always agree with their antece- 
dents, and the nouns for which they stand, in gender and number." — Murray's Gram., p. 154. 
"Verbs neuter do not act upon, or govern, nouns and pronouns."— Lb., p. 179. "And the aux- 
iliary both of the present and past imperfect times." — Lb., p. 72. "If this rule should not appear 
to apply to every example, which has been produced, nor to others which might be adduced." — 
lb., p. 216. " An emphatical pause is made, after something has been said of peculiar moment, 
and on which we desire to fix the hearer's attention." — Lb., p. 248; Hart's Gram., 175. "An 
imperfect phrase contains no assertion, or does not amount to a proposition or sentence." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., p. 267. " The word was in the mouth of every one, but for all that, the subject 
may still be a secret." — Lb., p. 213. " A word it was in the mouth of every one, but for all that, 
as to its precise and definite idea, this may still be a secret." — Harris's Tfiree Treatises, p. 5. "It 
cannot be otherwise, in regard that the French prosody differs from that of every other country 
in Europe." — Smollett's Voltaire, ix, 306. " So gradually as to allow its being engrafted on a 
subtonic." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 255. "Where the Chelsea or Maiden bridges now are." — 
Judge Parker. " Adverbs are words joined to verbs, participles, adjectives, and other adverbs." 
— Smith's Productive Gram., p. 92. " I could not have told you, who the hermit was, nor on 
what mountain he lived." — Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 32. " Am, or be (for they are the same) 
naturally, or in themselves signify being." — Brightland's Gram., p. 113. "Words are distinct 
sounds, by which we express our thoughts and ideas." — Lnfant School Gram., p. 13. "His fears 
will detect him, but he shall not escape." — Comly's Gram., p. 64. " Whose is equally applicable 
to persons or things." — Webster in Sanborn's Gram., p. 95. " One negative destroys another, 
or is equivalent to an affirmative." — Bullions, Eng. Gram., p. 118. 
"No sooner does he peep into 
The world, but he has done his do." — Hudibras. 



CHAPTER X.— PREPOSITIONS. 

A Preposition is a word used to express some relation of different 
things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun 
or a pronoun : as, " The paper lies before me on the desk/' 



CHAP. X.] ETYMOLOGY. PREPOSITIONS. — THEIR NATURE. 435 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The relations of things to things in nature, or of words to words in discourse, are in- 
finite in number, if not also in variety. But just classification may make even infinites the sub- 
jects of sure science. Every relation of course implies more objects, and more terms, than one ; 
for any one thing, considered merely in itself, is taken independently, abstractly, irrelatively, as 
if it had no relation or dependence. In all correct language, the grammatical relation of the 
words corresponds exactly to the relation of the things or ideas expressed ; for the relation of 
words, is their dependence, or connexion, according to the sense. This relation is oftentimes im- 
mediate, as of one word to an other, without the intervention of a preposition ; but it is seldom, 
if ever, reciprocally equal ; because dependence implies subordination ; and mere adjunction is a 
sort of inferiority. 

Obs. 2. — To a preposition, the prior or antecedent term may be a noun, an adjective, a pro- 
noun, a verb, a participle, or an adverb ; and the subsequent or governed term may be a noun, a 
pronoun, a pronominal adjective, an infinitive verb, or a participle. In some instances, also, as 
in the phrases, in vain, on high, at once, till now, for ever, by how much, until then, from, thence, 
from above, we find adjectives used elliptically, and adverbs substantively, after the preposition. 
But, in phrases of an adverbial character, what is elsewhere a preposition often becomes an 
adverb. Now, if prepositions are concerned in expressing the various relations of so many 
of the different parts of speech, multiplied, as these relations must be, by that endless variety of 
combinations which may be given to the terms ; and if the sense of the writer or speaker is 
necessarily mistaken, as often as any of these relations are misunderstood, or their terms miscon- 
ceived ; how shall we estimate the importance of a right explanation, and a right use, of this 
part of speech ? 

Obs. 3. — The grammarian whom Lovrth compliments, as excelling all others, in " acuteness of 
investigation, perspicuity of explication, and elegance of method;" and as surpassing all but 
Aristotle, in the beauty and perfectness of his philological analysis ; commences his chapter on 
conjunctions in the following manner : " Connectives are the subject of what follows ; which, 
according as they connect either Sentences or Words, are called by the different Karnes of Conjunc- 
tions or Prepositions. Of these Names, that of the Preposition is taken from a mere accident, as 
it commonly stands in connection before the Part, which it connects. The name of the Conjunc- 
tion, as is evident, has reference to its essential character. Of these two we shall consider the 
Conjunction first, because it connects, not Words, but Sentences. 1 ' — Harrises Hermes, p. 23 V. 

Obs. 4. — In point of order, it is not amiss to treat conjunctions before prepositions ; though 
this is not the method of Lowth, or of Murray. But, to any one who is well acquainted with 
these two parts of speech, the foregoing passage cannot but appear, in three sentences out of the 
four, both defective in style and erroneous in doctrine. It is true, that conjunctions generally 
connect sentences, and that prepositions as generally express relations between particular words: 
but it is true also, that conjunctions often connect v^ords only ; and that prepositions, by govern- 
ing antecedents, relatives, or even personal pronouns, may serve to subjoin sentences to sen- 
tences, as well as to determine the relation and construction of the particular words which 
they govern. Example: u The path seems now plain and even, but there are asperities and 
pitfalls, over which Religion only can conduct you." — Dr. Johnson. Here are three simpl9 
sentences, which are made members of one compound sentence, by means of but and over which ; 
while two of these members, clauses, or subdivisions, contain particular words connected by 
and. 

Obs. 5. — In one respect, the preposition is the simplest of all the parts of speech : in our com- 
mon schemes of grammar, it has neither classes nor modifications. Every connective word that 
governs an object after it, is called a preposition, because it does so{ and in etymological parsing, 
to name the preposition as such, and define the name, is, perhaps, all that is necessary. But in 
syntactical parsing, in which we are to omit the definitions, and state the construction, we ought 
to explain what terms the preposition connects, and to give a rule adapted to this office of the 
particle. It is a palpable defect in nearly all our grammars, that their syntax contains XO such 
rule. "Prepositions govern the objective case," is a rule for the objective case, and not for the 
syntax of prepositions. " Prepositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts 
expressed by them," is the principle for the latter ; a principle which we cannot neglect without 
a shameful lameness in our interpretation ; — that is, when we pretend to parse syntactically. 

Obs. 6. — Prepositions and their objects very often precede the words on which they depend, 
and sometimes at a great distance. Of this we have an example, at the opening of Milton - 
Paradise Lost; where " Of" the first word, depends upon "Sing," in the sixth line below • 
the meaning is — " Sing of man's first disobedience," &c. To find the terms of the relation, is * 
the meaning of the passage ; a very useful exercise, provided the words have a meaning- 
worth knowing. The following text has for centuries afforded ground of dispute, be 
doubtful in the original, as well as in many of the versions, whether the preposition in ( 
the regeneration") refers back to have followed, or forward to the last verb shall sit " \ i 
unto you that ye who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son o f 
throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twe 1 
Matt., xix, 28 The second in is manifestly wrong: the Greek word ifl ; i. e 

"upon the throne of his glory." 

Obs. 7. — The prepositions have, from their own nature, or fro- gtom, sue i an adaptation 
to particular terms and relations, that they can seldom be used one for an other /ithoit manifest 




436 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

impropriety. Example of error: " Proper seasons should be allotted for retirement." — Murray's 
Key, p. 173. We do not say " allotted for" but " allotted to :" hence for is either wrong in itself 
or misplaced. Such errors always vex an intelligent reader. He sees the terms mismatched, the 
intended connexion doubtful, the sense obscured, and wishes the author could have valued his 
own meaning enough to have made it intelligible ; — that is, (to speak technically,) enough to have 
made it a certain clew to his syntax. We can neither parse nor correct what we do not under- 
stand. Did the writer mean, "Proper seasons should be albtted to retirement?" — or, "Proper 
seasons for retirement should be allotted ?" — or, " Seasons proper for retirement should be alloted ?" 
Every expression is incorrigibly bad, the meaning of which cannot be known. Expression ? 
Nay, expression it is not, but only a mock utterance or an abortive attempt at expression. 

Obs. 8. — Harris observes, in substance, though in other words, that almost all the prepositions 
were originally formed to denote relations of place ; that this class of relations is primary, being 
that which natural bodies maintain at all times one to an other; that in the continuity of place 
these bodies form the universe, or visible whole ; that we have some prepositions to denote the 
contiguous relation of bodies, and others for the detached relation ; and that both have, by degrees, 
been extended from local relations, to the relations of subjects incorporeal. He appears also to 
assume, that, in such examples as the following, — "Caius walketh with a staff;" — "The statue 
stood upon a pedestal;" — "The river ran over a sand;" — "He is going to Italy ;" — "The sun is 
risen above the hills ;" — " These figs came from Turkey ;" — the antecedent term of the relation is 
not the verb, bat the noun or pronoun before it. See Hermes, pp. 266 and 267. Now the true 
antecedent is, unquestionably, that word which, in the order of the sense, the preposition should 
immediately follow: and a verb, a participle, or an adjective, may sustain this relation, just as 
well as a substantive. " The man spoke of colour," does not mean, " The man of colour spoke;" 
nor does, " The member from Delaware replied," mean, " The member replied from Delaware" 

Obs. 9. — To make thi3 matter more clear, it may be proper to observe further, that what I call 
the order of the sense, is not always that order of the words which is fittest to express the sense 
of a whole period ; and that the true antecedent is that word to which the preposition and its ob- 
ject would naturally be subjoined, were there nothing to interfere with such an arrangement. 
In practice it often happens, that the preposition and its object cannot be placed immediately 
after the word on which they depend, and which they would naturally follow. For example : 
"She hates the means by which she lives." That is, " She hates the means which she lives by." 
Here we cannot say, " She hates the means she lives by which;" and yet, in regard to the prepo- 
sition by, this is really the order of the sense. Again : " Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a 
mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." — Prov., xxvii, 
22. Here is no transposition to affect our understanding of the propositions, yet there is a liability 
to error, because the words which immediately precede some of them, are not their true ante- 
cedents : the text does not really speak of " a mortar among wheat" or of " wheat with a pestle" 
To what then are the mortar, the wheat, and the pestle, to be mentally subjoined? If all of them, 
to any one thing, it must be to the action suggested by the verb bray, and not to its object foci ; 
for the text does not speak of " a fool with apedle," though it does seem to speak of "a fool in a 
mortar, and among wheat." Indeed, in this instance, as in many others, the verb and its object 
are so closely associated that it makes but little difference in regard to the sense, whether you 
take both of them together, or either of them separately, as the antecedent to the preposition. 
But, as the instrument of an action is with the agent rather than with the object, if you will have 
the substantives alone for antecedents, the natural order of the sense must be supposed to be 
this: " Though thou with a pestle shouldest bray a fool in a mortar [and] among wheat, yet will 
not his foolishness from him depart." This gives to each of the prepositions an antecedent dif- 
ferent from that which I should assign. Sanborn observes, " There seem to be two kinds of de- 
lation expressed by prepositions, — an existing and a connecting relation." — Analyt. Gram., p. 225. 
The latter, he adds, "is the most important." — lb., p. 226. But it is the former that admit3 
nothing but nouns for antecedents. Others besides Harris may have adopted this notion, but I 
have never '.een one of the number, though a certain author scruples not to charge the error upon 
me. See 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 165. 

Obs. 10. — It is a very common error among grammarians, and the source of innumerable dis- 
crepancies in doctrine, as well as one of the chief means of maintaining their interminable disputes, 
that they suppose ellipses at their own pleasure, and supply in every given instance just what 
words their fancies may suggest. In this work, I adopt for myself, and also recommend to others, 
the contrary course of avoiding on all occasions the supposition of any needless ellipses. Not only 
may the same preposition govern more than one object, but there may also be more than one an- 
tecedent word, bearing a joint relation to that which is governed by the preposition. (1.) Exam- 
ples of joint objects: "There is an inseparable connexion between piety and virtue." — Murray's 
"In the conduct of Parmenio, a mixture of wisdom and folly was very con- 
spicuous." — lb. p. 179. "True happiness is an enemy to pomp and noise." — lb., p. 171. (2.) 
j of joint antecedents: "In unity consist the welfare and security of every society." — 

EB2! " It is our duty to he just and kind to our fellow-creatures, and to be pious and faith- 
' us." — lb., p. 181. " If the author did not mean to speak of being pious 
to Q , iihful to Him, he has written incorrectly : a comma after pious, would alter both 

the sense and the construction. So the text, "For I am meek, and lowly in heart," is commonly 
perverted in our' Bibles, for want of a comma after meek. The Saviour did not say, he was meek 
in heart : the G-reek may be very literally rendered thus : " For gentle am I, and humble in heart." 



CHAP. X.] ETYMOLOGY. PREPOSITIONS. — THEIR NATURE. 437 

Obs. 11. — Many writers seem to suppose, that no preposition can govern more than one object. 
Thus L. Murray, and his followers: "The ellipsis of the preposition, as well as of the verb, is 
seen in the following instances: 'He went into the abbeys, halls, and public buildings ;' that is, 
' He went into the abbeys, he went into the halls, and he went into the public buildings.' — 'He 
also went through all the streets, and lanes of the city;' that is, 'Through all the streets, and 
through all the lanes,' &c." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 219. See the same interpretations in Inger- 
soWs Gram., p. 155 ; Merchant's, 100; Pickets, 211 ; Alger's, 73 ; Fish's, 147 ; Guy's, 91 ; Adams's, 
82; R. C. Smith's, 183; Hamlin's, 105; Putnam's, 139; Weld's, 292. Now it is plain, that in 
neither of these examples is there any such ellipsis at all. Of the three prepositions, the first 
governs three nouns ; the second, two ; and the third, one only. But the last, (which is of,) has 
two antecedents, streets and lanes, the comma after streets being wrong ; for the author does not 
speak of all the streets in the world, but of all the streets and lanes of a particular city. Dr. Ash 
has the same example without the comma, and supposes it only an ellipsis of the preposition 
through, and even that supposition is absurd. He also furnished the former example, to show an 
ellipsis, not of the verb went, but only of the preposition into ; and in this too he was utterly 
wrong. See Ash's Gram., p. 100. Bicknell also, whose grammar appeared five years before 
Murray's, confessedly copied the same examples from Ash ; and repeated, not the verb and its 
nominative, but only the prepositions through and into, agreeably to Ash's erroneous notion. See 
his Gi'ammatical Wreath, Part i, p. 124. Again the principles of Murray's supposed ellipses, are 
as inconsistent with each other, as they are severally absurd. Had the author explained the 
second example according to his notion of the first, he should have made it to mean, ' He also 
ivent through all the streets of the city, and he also went through all the lanes of the city.' What 
a pretty idea is this for a principle of grammar ! And what a multitude of admirers are pre- 
tending to carry it out in parsing! One of the latest writer? cn\ grammar says, that, " Behveen 
him and me," signifies, " Between him, and between me ighfs Philosphical Gram., p. 206. 

And an other absurdly resolves a simple sentence impound one, thus: " 'There was a 

difficulty between John, and his brother.' That a difficulty between John, and 

there was a difficulty between his brother." — Jame jlish Syntax, p. 127; and again, 

p. 130. 

Obs. 12. — Two prepositions are not unfrequently con iccted by a conjunction, and that for 
different purposes, thus: (1.) To express two different relations at once; as, "The picture of my 
travels in and around Michigan." — Society in Amti I. (2.) To suggest an alternative in 

the relation affirmed; as, "The action will be fully accomp ! ished at or before the time." — Murray's 
Gram., i, 72. Again: "The First Future Tense represen. s the action as yet to come, either with 
or without respect to the precise time." — lb. ; and Felton's Gram., p. 23. With and without 
being direct opposites, this alternative is a thing of course, and the phrase is an idle truism. (3.) 
To express two relations so as to affirm the one and deny the other; as, "Captain, yourself are 
the fittest to live and reign not over, but next and immediately under the people." — Dryden. 
Here, perhaps, " the people" may be understood after over. (4.) To suggest a mere alternative of 
words; as, " Negatively, adv. With or by denial." — Webster's Diet (5.) To add a similar word, 
for aid or force ; as, " Hence adverbs of time were necessar}-. over and above the tenses." — See 
Murray's Gram., p. 116. " To take effect from and after the first day of May." — Newspaper. 

Obs. 13. — In some instances, two prepositions come directly together, so as jointly to express 
a sort of compound relation between what precedes the one and what follows the other : as, 
"And they shall sever the wicked from among the just." — Matt, xiii, 49. "Moses brought out 
all the rods from before the Lord." — Numb., xvii, 9. " Come out from among them " — 2 Cor., vi, 
17. "From Judea, and from beyond Jordan." — Matt, iv, 25. "Nor a lawgiver from between his 
feet." — Gen., xlix, 10. Thus the preposition from, being itself adapted to the ideas of motion 
and separation, easily coincides with any preposition of place, to express this sort of relation ; the 
terms however have a limited application, being used only between a verb and a noun, because 
the relation itself is between motion and the pMce of its beginning: as, "The sand slidedfrom, 
beneath my feet." — Dr. Johnson. In this manner, we may form complex prepositions beginning 
with from, to the number of about thirty; as, from amidst, from around, from before, from 
behind, &c. Besides these, there are several others, of a more questionable character, which are 
sometimes referred to the same class ; as, according to, as to, as for, because of, instead of off of 
out of, over against, and round about Most or all of these are sometimes resolved in a different 
way, upon the assumption that the former word is an adverb ; yet we occasionally find some of 
them compounded by the hyphen: as, "Pompey's lieutenants, Afranius and Petreius, who lay 
over-against him, decamp suddenly." — Roioe's Lucan, Argument to B. iv. But the common 
fashion is, to write them separately ; as, " One thing is set over against an other." — Bible. 

Obs. 14. — It is not easy to fix a principle by which prepositions may in all cases be distin- 
guished from adverbs. The latter, we say, do not govern the objective case; and if we add. that 
the former do severally require some object after them, it is clear that any word which precedes a 
preposition, must needs be something else than a preposition. But this destroys all the doctrine 
of the preceding paragraph, and admits of no such thing as a complex preposition ; whereas that 
doctrine is acknowledged, to some extent or other, by every one of our grammarians, not except- 
ing even those whose counter-assertions leave no room for it. Under these circumstances, I see 
no better way, than to refer the student to the definitions- of these parts of speech, to exhibit ex- 
amples in all needful variety, and then let him judge for himself what disposition ought to be 
made of those words which different grammarians parse differently. 



438 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

0b3. 15. — If our prepositions were to be divided into classes, the most useful distinction would 
bo, to divide them into Single and Double. The distinction which some writers make, who divide 
them into " Separable and Inseparable" is of no use at all in parsing, because the latter are mere 
syllables; and the idea of S. R. Hall, who divides them into " Possessive and Relative,'' 1 is 
positively absurd ; for he can show us only one of the former kind, and that one, (the word of,) 
is not always such. A Double Preposition, if such a thing is admissible, is one that consists of 
two words which in syntactical parsing must be taken together, because they jointly express the 
relation between two other terms; as, "The waters were dried up from off the earth." — Gen., 
viii, 13. "The clergy kept this charge from off us." — Leslie, on 'Tithes, p. 221. "Confidence in 
an unfaithful man in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint." — Prov., xxv, 19. 
" Tlu bean out o/the timber shall answer it." — Hdb., ii, 11. Off and out are most commonly 
adverbs, but neither of them can be called an adverb here. 

Obs. 16. — Again, if according to or as to is a preposition, then is according or as a preposition 
also, although it does not of itself govern the objective case. As, thus used, is called a conjunc- 
tion by some, an adverb by others. Dr. Webster considers according to be always a participle, 
and expressly says, " It is never a preposition." — Octavo Diet. The following is an instance in which, 
if it is not a preposition, it is a participle: "This is a construction not according to the rules of 
grammar." — Murray 's Gram., Vol. ii, p. 22. But according to and contrary to are expressed in 
Latin and Greek by single prepositions ; and if to alone is the preposition in English, then both 
according and contrary must, in many instances, be adverbs. Example : " For dost thou sit as 
judging me according to the law, and contrary to law command me to bo smitten?" (See the 
Greek of Acts, xxiii, 3.) Contrary, though literally an adjective, is often made either an adverb, 
or a part of a complex preposition, unless the grammarians are generally in error respecting it: 
as, " He dires not act contrary to his instructions." — Murray 's Key, p. 179. 

Os3. 17. — J. W. Wright, wicn somo appearance of analogy on his side, but none of usage, 
everywhere adds ly to the questionable v ord according ; as, " We are usually estimated accord- 
ingly to our company." — Philosophical Gr m.. p. 127. "Accordingly to the forms in which they are 
employed." — lb., p. 137. " Accon /■ to the above principles, the adjective according (or 
agreeable) is frequently, but improperly, substituted for the adverb accordingly (or agreeably.)" — 
lb., p. 145. The word contrary he docs not notice; but, on the same principle, he would doubt- 
less say, "He dares not act contrarihj to his instructions." We say indeed, "He acted agreeably 
to his instructions;" — and not, "He acted agreeable to his instructions." It must also be 
admitted, that the adverbs accordingly and contrarily are both of them good English words. If 
these were adopted, where the character of according and contrary is disputable, there would 
indeed be no longer any occasion to call these latter either adverbs or prepositions. But the fact 
is, that no good writers have yet preferred them, in such phrases ; and the adverbial ending ly gives 
an additional syllable to a word that seems already quite too long. 

Obs. 18. — Instead is reckoned an adverb by some, a preposition by others; and a few write 
instead-of with a needless hyphen. The best way of settling the grammatical question respecting 
this term, is, to write the noun stead as a separate word, governed by in. Bating the respect 
that i3 due to anomalous usage, there would be more propriety in compounding in quest of in 
lieu of, and many similar phrases. For stead is not always followed by of, nor always preceded 
by in, nor always made part of a compound. We say, in our stead, in your stead, in their stead, 
&c. ; but lieu, which has the same meaning as stead, is much more limited in construction. Ex- 
amples: "In the stead of sinners, He, a divine and human person, suffered." — Barnes's Notes. 
" Christ suffered in the place and stead of sinners." — Po. " For, in its primary sense, is pro, loco 
alteriuSy in the stead or place of another." — LoiotKs Gram., p. 65. 

"If it may stand him more in stead to lie." — Milt., P. L., B. i, 1. 473. 
"But here thy sword can do thee little stead." — Id., Gomus, 1. 611. 

Obs. 19. — From forth and/rom. out are two poetical phrases, apparently synonymous, in which 
there is a fanciful transposition of tli3 terms, and perhaps a change of forth and out from adverbs 
to prepositions. Each phrase is equivabnt in meaning to out of or out from. Forth, under other 
circumstances, is never a preposition ; though out, perhaps, may be. We speak as familiarly of 
going out doors, as of going upstairs, or down cellar. Hence from out maybe parsed as a complex 
preposition, though the other phrase should seem to be a mere example of hyperbaton : 

"I saw from out the wave her structures rise." — Byron. 
■ " Feeding from forth their alleys green." — Collins. 

Obs. 20. — " Out of and as to" says one grammarian, "are properly prepositions, although they 
are double words. They may be called compound prepositions." — Cooper's Gram., p. 103. I 
have called the complex prepositions double rather than compound, because several of the single 
prepositions are compound words ; as, into, notwithstanding, overthwart, throughout, upon, within, 
without. And even some of these may follow the preposition from; as, "If he shall have 
removed from within the limits of this state." But in and to, up and on, with and in, are not 
always compounded when they come together, because the sense may positively demand that the 
former be taken as an adverb, and the latter only as a preposition: as, "I will come in to him, 
and will sup with him." — Rev., iii, 20. " A statue of Venus was set up on Mount Calvary." — 
Mllvaine's Lectures, p. 332. " The troubles which we meet with in the world." — Blair. And 
even two prepositions may be brought together without union or coalescence ; because the object 
of the first one may be expressed or understood before it: as s " The man whom you spoke with 



CHAP. X.] ETYMOLOGY. — PREPOSITIONS. — THE LIST. 439 

in the street;" — " The treatment you complain of on this occasion ;" — " The house that you live m 
in the summer;" — "Such a dress as she had on in the evening." 

Obs. 21. — Some grammarians assume, that, " Two prepositions in immediate succession require 
a noun to be understood between them ; as, ' Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes, From betwixt 
two aged oaks.' — 'The mingling notes came softened from, below.' " — Nutting's Gram., p. 105. 
This author would probably understand here — "From the space betwixt two aged oaks;" — 
" came softened from the region below its." But he did not consider all the examples that are 
included in his proposition; nor did he rightly regard even those which he cites. The doctrine 
will be found a very awkward one in practice ; and an other objection to it is, that most of the 
ellipses which it supposes, are entirely imaginary. If There were truth in his assumption, the 
compounding of prepositions would be positively precluded. The terms over-against and round- 
about are sometimes written with the hyphen, and perhaps it would be well if all the complex 
prepositions were regularly compounded; but, as I before suggested, such is not the present 
fashion of writing them, and the general usage is not to be controlled by what any individual may 
think. 

Obs. 22. — Instances may, doubtless, occur, in which the object of a preposition is suppressed 
by ellipsis, when an other preposition follows, so as to bring together two that do not denote a 
compound relation, and do not, in any wise, form one complex preposition. Of such suppression, 
the following is an example; and, I think, a double one : " They take pronouns after instead of 
before them." — Fowler, E. Gram., § 521. This may be interpreted to mean, and probably does 
mean — " They take pronouns after them in stead of taking them before them." 

Obs. 23. — In some instances, the words in, on, of, for, to, with, and others commonly reckoned 
**k prepositions, are used after infinitives or participles, in a sort of adverbial construction, because 
they do not govern any objective ; yet not exactly in the usual sense of adverbs, because they 
evidently express the relation between the verb or participle and a nominative or objective going 
before. Examples: "Houses are built to live in, and not to look on; therefore let use be pre- 
ferred before uniformity, except where both may be had." — Ld. Karnes. " These are not mysteries 
for ordinary readers to be let into." — Addison: Joh. Diet, w. Let. " Heaven is worth dying for, 
though earth is not worth living for." — E. Hall. " What! have ye not houses to eat and to drink 
in?" — 1 Cor., xi, 22. This is a very peculiar idiom of our language ; and if we say, " Have ye 
not houses in which to eat and to drink?" we form an other which is not much less so. Greek : 
"M# yup alulae ovk e^ere etc to hdietv ical 7rh>etv ;" Latin: "Num enim domos non habetis ad 
manducandum et bibendum ?" — Leitsden. " N'avez vous pas des maisons pour manger et pour 
boire?" — French Bible* 

Obs. 24. — In Obs. 10th, of Chapter Fourth, on Adjectives, it was shown that words of place, 
(such as, above, below, beneath, under, and the like.) are sometimes set before nouns in the character 
of adjectives, and not of prepositions : as, " In the above list," — " From the above list." — Bullions', 
E. Gram., p. 70. To the class of adjectives also, rather than to that of adverbs, may some such 
words be referred, when, without governing the objective case, they are put after nouns to signify 
place: as, " The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath." — Prov., 
xv, 24. "Of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath." — Exod., xx, 4. 

" Say first, of God above or man beloio, 
What can we reason but from what we know?" — Pope. 

LIST OF THE PREPOSITIONS. 
The following are the principal prepositions, arranged alphabetically : Aboard, 
about, above, across, after, against, along, amid or amidst, among or amongst, around, 
at, athwart ; — Bating, before, behind, below, beneath, beside or besides, between or be- 
twixt, beyond, by ; — Concerning ; — Down, during ; — Ere, except, excepting ; — For, 
from; — In, into; — Mid or midst ; — Notwithstanding ; — Of, off,\ on, out, over, 
overthwart ; — Past, pending ; — Regarding, respecting, round ; — Since ; — Through, 
throughout, till, to, touching, toward or toivards ; — Under, underneath, until, unto, 
up, upon ; — With, within, without. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Grammarians differ considerably in their tables of the English prepositions. Nor are 
they all of one opinion, concerning either the characteristics of this part of speech, or the partic- 
ular instances in which the acknowledged properties of a preposition are to be found. Some teach 
that, " Every preposition requires an objective case after it." — Lennie, p. 50; Bullions, Prin. of E. 

* Of the construction noticed in this observation, the Rev. M\tt. Harrison cites a good example ; pronounces 
it elliptical; and scarcely forbears to condemn it as bad English : "In the following sentence, the relative pro- 
noun is three times omitted: — 'Is there a God to swear by, and is there none to believe in, none to trust to?' — 
Letters and Essays, Anonymous. By, in, and to, as prepositions, stand alone, denuded of the relatives to 
which they apply. The sentence presents no attractions worthy of imitation. It exhibits a license carried to 
the extreme point of endurance." — Harrison' s English Lanaxane, p. 196. 

t " An ellipsis of from after the adverb of has caused the latter word sometimes to be inserted incorrectly 
among the prepositions. Ex. ' off (from) his horse.' "—Harts Gram., p. 96. Of and on are opposites : and. in 
a sentence like the following, I see no more need of inserting "from" after the former, than to after the latter: 
" Thou shalt not come down of that bed on which thou art gone up." — 2 Kings, i, 16. 



440 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Gram., p. 63. In opposition to this, I suppose that the preposition to may take an infinitive verb 
after it; that about also may be a preposition, in the phrase, " about to write ;" that about, above, 
after, against, by, for, from, in, of, and some other prepositions, may govern participles, as such ; 
(i. e. without making them nouns, or cases ;) and, lastly, that after a preposition an adverb is 
sometimes construed substantively, and yet is indeclinable ; as, for once, from afar, from above, at 
unawares. 

Obs. 2. — The writers just quoted, proceed to say: "When a, preposition does not govern an ob- 
jective case, it becomes an adverb ; as, ' He rides about.' But in such phrases as, cast up, hold 
out, fall on, the words up, out, and on, must be considered as a part of the verb, rather than as 
prepositions or adverbs." — Lennie's Prin. of E. Gram., p. 50; Bullions's, p. 59 ; his Analyt. and P. 
Gram., p. 109. Both these sentences are erroneous : the one, more particularly so, in expression; 
the other, in doctrine. As the preposition is chiefly distinguished by its regimen, it is absurd to 
speak of it as governing nothing ; yet it does not always govern the objective case, for participles 
and infinitives have no cases. About, up, out, and on, as here cited, are all of them adverbs ; and 
so are all other particles that thus qualify verbs, without governing any thing. L. Murray grossly 
errs when he assumes, that, " The distinct component parts of such phrases as, to cast up, to fall 
on, to bear out, to give over, &c, are no guide to the sense of the whole." Surely, "to cast up" is 
to cast somehow, though the meaning of the phrase may be " to compute." By this author, and some 
others, all such adverbs are absurdly called prepositions, and are also as absurdly declared to be 
parts of the preceding verbs! See Murray's Gram., p. 117; W. Allen's, 179; Kirkham's, 95; 
R. C. Smith's, 93; Fish's, 86; Butler's, 63; Wells's, 146. 

Obs. 3 — In comparing the different English grammars now in use, we often find the primary 
distinction of the parts of speech, and every thing that depends upon it, greatly perplexed by the 
fancied ellipses, and forced constructions, to which their authors resort. ThusKirkham: "Prep- 
ositions are sometimes erroneously called adverbs, when their nouns are understood. ' He rides 
about ;' that is, about the town, country, or some-thing else. ' She was near [the act or misfortune 
of J falling;' 'But do not after [that time or event] lay the blame on me.' 'He came down [the 
ascent] from the hill;' 'They lifted him up [the ascent] out of the pit.' 'The angels above;' — above 
us — 'Above these lower heavens, to us invisible, or dimly seen.' " — Gram., p. 89. The errors of 
this passage are almost as numerous as the words ; and those to which the doctrine leads are 
absolutely innumerable. That up and down, with verbs of motion, imply ascent and descent, a3 
wisely and foolishly imply wisdom and folly, is not to be denied ; but the grammatical bathos of 
coming "down [the ascent] from the lull" of science, should startle those whose faces are directed 
upward ! Downward ascent is a movement worthy only of Kirkham, and his Irish rival, Joseph 
W. Wright. The brackets here used are Kirkham's, not mine. 

Obs. 4. — " Some of the prepositions," says L. Murray, "have the appearance and effect of con- 
junctions: as, '■After their prisons were thrown open,' &c. ' Before I die;' 'They made haste to 
be prepared against their friends arrived:' but if the noun time, which is understood, be added, 
they will lose their conjunctive form : as, ' After [the time when] their prisons,' &c." — Octavo Gram., 
p. 119. Here, after, before, and against, are neither conjunctions nor prepositions, but conjunctive 
adverbs of time, referring to the verbs which follow them, and also, when the sentences are com- 
pleted, to others antecedent. The awkward addition of "the time when," is a sheer perversion. 
If after, before, and the like, can ever bo adverbs, they are so here, and not conjunctions, or prep- 
ositions. 

Obs. 5. — But the great Compiler proceeds : " The prepositions, after, before, above, beneath, and 
several others, sometimes appear to be adverbs, and may be so considered : as, ' They had their 
reward soon after ;' ' He died not long before ;' ' He dwells above ;' but if the nouns time and place 
be added, they will lose their adverbial form: as, 'He died not long before that time,' &c." — lb. 
Now, I say, when any of the foregoing words "appear to be adverbs," they are adverbs, and, if 
adverbs, then not prepositions. But to consider prepositions to be adverbs, as Murray here does, 
or seems to do ; and to suppose " the nouns time and place" to be understood in the several exam- 
ples here cited, as he also does, or seems to do ; are singly such absurdities as no grammarian should 
fail to detect, and together such a knot of blunders, as ought to be wondered at, even in the 
Compiler's humblest copyist. In the following text, there is neither preposition nor eUipsis : 

"Above, below, without, within, around, 
Confus'd, unnumber'd multitudes are found." — Pope, on Fame. 

Obs. 6. — It comports with the name and design of this work, which is a broad synopsis of 
grammatical criticism, to notice here one other absurdity; namely, the doctrine of "sentential 
nouns." There is something of this in several late grammars: as, "The prepositions, after, before, 
ere, since, till, and until, frequently govern sentential nouns ; and after, before, since, notwithstand- 
ing, and some others, frequently govern a noun or pronoun understood. A preposition governing 
a sentential noun, is, by Murray and others, considered a conjunction; and a preposition govern- 
ing a noun understood, an adverb." — J. L. Parkhurst: in Sanborn's Gram., p. 123. "Exam- 
ple : ' He will, before he dies, sway the sceptre.' He dies is a sentential noun, third person, 
singular number ; and is governed by before ; before he dies, being equivalent in meaning to before 
Ids death." — Sanborn, Gram., p. 176. " After they had waited a long time, they departed.' 
After waiting." — lb. This last solution supposes the phrase, "waiting a long time," or at least 
the participle waiting, to be a noun; for, upon the author's principle of equivalence, "they had 
waited," will otherwise be a "sentential" participle — a thing however as good and as classical as 
the other 1 



CHAP. X.] ETYMOLOGY. — PREPOSITIONS. — OF THE LIST. 441 

Obs. t. — If a preposition can ever be justly said to take a sentence for its object, it is chiefly in 
certain ancient expressions, like the following: " For in that he died, he died unto sin once ; but 
in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." — Rom., vi, 10. " My Spirit shall not always strive with 
man, for that he also is flesh." — Gen., vi, 3. "For, after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by 
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 
— 1 Cor., i, 21. Here, in, for, and after, are all followed by the word that ; which Tooke, Web- 
ster, Frazee, and some others, will have to be "a substitute," or "pronoun," representing the 
sentence which follows it, and. governed by the preposition. But that, in this sense, is usually, 
and perhaps more properly, reckoned a conjunction. And if we take it so, in, for, and after, 
(unless the latter be an adverb,) must either be reckoned conjunctions also, or be supposed to 
govern sentences. The expressions however are little used; because "m that 11 is nearly equiv- 
alent to as ; u for that " can be better expressed by because; and " after that, 11 which is equivalent 
to kneidrj, postquam, may well be rendered by the term, seeing that, or since. " Before that Philip 
called thee," is a similar example; but " that 11 is here needless, and " before' 1 may be parsed as a 
conjunctive adverb of time. I have one example more: "But, besides that he attempted it 
formerly with no success, it is certain the Venetians keep too watchful an eye," &c. — Addison. 
This is good English, but the word " besides, 11 if it be not a conjunction, may as well be called an 
adverb, as a preposition. 

Obs. 8. — There are but few words in the list of prepositions, that are not sometimes used as 
being of some other part of speech. Thus bating, excepting, concerning, touching, respecting, during, 
•pending, and a part of the compound notivithstanding, are literally participles ; and some writers, 
in opposition to general custom, refer them alwa3~s to their original class. Unlike most other 
prepositions, they do not refer to place, but rather to action, state, or duration ; for, even as prep- 
ositions, they are still allied to participles. Yet to suppose them always participles, as would 
Dr. Webster and some others, is impracticable. Examples : " They speak concerning virtue." — 
Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 69. Here concerning cannot be a participle, because its antecedent 
term is a verb, and the meaning is, " they speak of virtue." "They are bound during life: 11 that 
is, durante vital, life continuing, or, as long as life lasts. So, " Notwithstanding this, 11 i. e.. " hoc non 
obstante, 11 this not hindering. Here the nature of the construction seems to depend on the order 
of the words. " Since he had succeeded, notwithstanding them, peaceably to the throne." — Boling- 
broke, on Hist, p. 31. "This is a correct English idiom, Dr. Lowth's criticism to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 11 — Webster^ Improved Gram., p. 85. In the phrase, "notwithstanding them, 11 
the former word is clearly a preposition governing the latter ; but Dr. Webster doubtless sup- 
posed the word " criticism 11 to be in the nominative case, put absolute with the participle : and 
so it would have been, had he written not withstanding as two words, like " non obstante ;" but 
the compound word notwithstanding is not a participle, because there is no verb to notwithstand. 
But notwithstanding, when placed before a nominative, or before the conjunction that, is a con- 
junction, and, as such, must be rendered in Latin by tamen, yet, quamvis, although, or nihilomi- 
nus, nevertheless. 

Obs. 9. — For, when it signifies because, is a conjunction : as, " Boast not thyself of to-morrow ; 
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." — Prov., xxvii, 1. For has this meaning, and, 
according to Dr. Johnson, is a conjunction, when it precedes that ; as, "Yet for that the worst 
men are most ready to remove, I would wish them chosen by discretion of wise men." — Spenser. 
The phrase, as I have before suggested, is almost obsolete ; but Murray, in one place, adopts it 
from Dr. Beattie : " For that those parts of the verb are not properly caUed tenses." — Octavo 
Gram., p. 75. How he would have parsed it, does not appear. But both words are connectives. 
And, from the analogy of those terms which serve as links to other terms, I should incline to take 
for that, in that, after that, and besides that, (in which a known conjunction is put last.) as complex 
conjunctions ; and also, to take as for, as to, and because of, (in which a known preposition is put 
last,) as complex prepositions. But there are other regular and equivalent expressions that ought 
in general to be preferred to any or all of these. 

Obs. 10. — Several words besides those contained in the list above, are (or have been) occasion- 
ally employed in English as prepositions: as, A, (chiefly used before participles,) abaft, adown, 
afore, aloft, aloof, alongside, anear, aneath, aneni, aslant, aslope, astride, atween, atwixi, besouth, 
by west, cross, dehors, despite, inside, left-hand, maugre, minus, onto, opposite, outside, per, plus, sans, 
spite, thorough, traverse, versus, via, withal, withinside. 

Obs. 11. — Dr. Lowth says, "The particle a before participles, in the phrases a coming, a going, 
a walking, a shooting, &c. and before nouns, as a-bed, a-board, a-shore, a-foot, &c. seems to be 
a true and genuine preposition, a little disguised by familiar use and quick pronunciation. Dr. 
Wallis supposes it to be the preposition at. I rather think it is the preposition on. 11 — LouiJis 
Gram., p. 65 ; GhurchilVs, 268. There is no need of supposing it to be either. It is not from on; 
for in Saxon it sometimes accompanied on : as in the phrase, " on d weoruld ;" that is, a onto 
ages; 11 or, as Wickliffe rendered it, " into worldis :" or, as our version has it, "/or ever. 11 See Luke, 
i, 55. This preposition was in use long before either a or an, as an article, appeared in its present 
form in the language ; and, for ought I can discover, it may be as old as either on or at. An, too, 
is found to have had at times the sense and construction of in or on ; and this usage is, beyond 
doubt, older than that which makes it an article. On, however, was an exceedingly common 
preposition in Saxon, being used almost always where we now put on, in, into, upon, or among, 
and sometimes, for with or by ; so, sometimes, where a was afterwards used : thus, " What in the 
Saxon Gospel of John, is, 'Ic wylle gan on fixoth,' is, in the English version, 'I go a fishing.' 



442 THE GBAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Chap, xxi, ver. 3." See Lowth's Gram., p. 65 ; Churchill's, 269. And a is now sometimes 
equivalent to on ; as, " He would have a learned University make Barbarisms a purpose." — 
Benttey, Diss, on Phalaris, p. 223. That is, — "on purpose." How absurdly then do some gram- 
marians interpret the foregoing text! — "I go on a fishing." — Alden's Gram., p. 117. " I go on a 
fishing voyage or business." — Murray's Gram., p. 221; Merchant's, 101. "It may not be im- 
proper," says Churchill in another place, "to observe here, that the preposition on, is too fre- 
quently pronounced as if it were the vowel a, in ordinary conversation ; and this corruption is 
[has] become so prevalent, that I have even met with ' laid it a oneside ' in a periodical publica- 
tion. It should have been ' on one side,' if the expression were meant to be particular; ' aside, 1 
if general." — New Gram., p. 345. By these writers, a is also supposed to be sometimes a cor- 
ruption of of: as, " Much in the same manner, Thomas of Becket, by very frequent and familiar 
use, became Thomas a Becket ; and one of the clock, or perhaps on the clock, is written ono 
o'clock, but pronounced one a clock. The phrases with a before a participle are out of use in the 
solemn style ; but still prevail in familiar discourse. They are established by long usage, and 
good authority ; and there seems to be no reason, why they should be utterly rejected." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. 66. " Much in the same manner, John of Nokes, and John of Styles, become John a 
Nokes, and John a Styles : and one of the clock, or rather on the clock, is written one o'clock, but 
pronounced one a clock. The phrases with a beforo participles, are out of use in the solemn style ; 
but still prevail in familiar discourse." — (Jhurchill's New Gram., p. 269. 

Obs. 12. — The following are examples of the less usual prepositions, a, and others that begin 
with a: " And he set — three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work." — 
2 Ghron., ii, 18. "Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?" — 1 Cor., ix, 7. "And 
the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting." — Num., xi, 4. 

" And sweet Billy Dimond, a patting his hair up." — Feast of the Poets, p. 17. 

" The god fell a laughing to see his mistake." — lb., p. 18. 

"You'd have thought 'twas the bishops or judges a coming." — lb., p. 22. 

"A place on the lower deck, abaft the mainmast." — Gregory's Diet. "A moment gazed adown 
the dale." — Scott, L. L., p. 10. " Adown Strath-G-artney's valley broad." — lb., p. 84. "For afore 
the harvest, when the bud is perfect," &c. — Isaiah, xviii, 5. "Where the great luminary aloof 
the vulgar const ellatio ns thick." — Sao Milton's Paradise Lost, B. hi, 1. 576. "The great luminary 
aloft the vulgar constellations thick." — Johnson's Diet., w. Aloft. " Captain Falconer having pre- 
viously gone alongside the Constitution." — Newspaper. " Seventeen ships sailed for New England, 
and aboard these above fifteen hundred persons." — Robertson's Amer., ii, 429. "There is a willow 
grows askant the brook:" Or, as in some editions: "There is a willow grows aslant the brook." — 
Shak.,- Hamlet, Act iv, 7. " Aslant the dew-bright earth." — Thomson. "Swift as meteors glide 
aslope a summer eve." — Fmton. " Aneaih the heavy rain." — James Hogg, "With his magic 
spectacles astride his nose." — Merchant's Criticisms. 

" Atween his downy wings be furnished, there." — Wordsworth's Poems, p. 147. 

"And there a season atween June and May." — Castle of Indolence, C. i, st. 2. 

Obs. 13. — The following are examples of rather unusual prepositions beginning with o, c, or d: 
" Or where wild-meeting oceans boil besouih Magellan." — Burns. "Whereupon grew that by- 
word, used by the Irish, that they dwelt by-west the law, which dwelt beyond the river of the 
Barrow." — Davies : in Joh. Diet. Here Johnson calls by-west a noun substantive, and Webster, 
as improperly, marks it for an adverb. No hyphen is needed in byword or by west. The first syl- 
lable of the latter is pronounced be, and ought to be written so, if " besouth" is right. 
" From Cephalonia cross the surgy main 

Philaetius late arrived, a faithful swain." — Pope, Odys., B. xx, 1. 234. 
" And cross their limits cut a sloping way, 
Which the twelve signs in beauteous order sway." — Dry den's Virgil. 

" A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village." — L' Estrange. "The enemy had cut down 
great trees cross the ways." — Knolles. "Dehors, prep. [Fr.] Without: as, ' dehors the land.' 
Blackstone." — Worcester's Diet., 8vo. "You have believed, despite too our physical conforma- 
tion." — Bulwer. 

" And Roderick shall his welcome make, 
Despite old spleen, for Douglas' sake." — Scott, L. L., C. ii, st. 26. 

Obs. 14. — The following quotations illustrate further the list of unusual prepositions: "And 
she would be often weeping inside the room while George was amusing himself without." — Anna 
Boss, p. 81. " Several nuts grow closely together, inside this prickly covering." — Jacob Abbot. 
"An other boy asked why the peachstone was not outside the peach." — Id. " As if listening to 
the sounds withinside it." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 214. "Sir Knight, you well might 
mark the mound, Left hand the town." — Scott's Marmion. " Thus Butler, maugre his wicked in- 
tention, sent them home again." — Sewel's Hist., p. 256. " And, maugre all that can be said in its 
favour." — Stone, on Freemasonry, p. 121. "And, maugre the authority of Sterne, I even doubt 
its benevolence." — West's Letters, p. 29. 

" I through the ample air in triumph high 
Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell." — Milton's P. L., B. iii, 1. 255. 
"When Mr. Seaman arose in the morning, he found himself minus his coat, vest, pocket-handker- 
chief, and tobacco-box." — Newspaper. "Throw some coals onto the fire." — Forby: Worcester's 



CHAP. X.] ETYMOLOGY. — PREPOSITIONS. PARSING. — PRAXIS X. 443 

Diet, w. Onto. " Flour, at $4 per barrel." — Preston's Book-Keeping. " Which amount, per invoice, 
to $4000. r — lb. " To Smiths is the substantive Smiths, plus the preposition fo." — Fowler's E. 
Gram., § 33. "The Mayor of Lynn versus Turner.'' — Cowper's Reports, p. 86. "Slaves were 
imported from Africa, via Cuba." — Society in America, L 327. "Pending the discussion of this 
subject, a memorial was presented." — Gov. Everett. 

" Darts his experienced eye and soon traverse 
The whole battalion views their order due." — Milton. 

" Because, when thorough deserts vast 
And regions desolate they past." — Hudibras. 

Obs. 15. — Minus, less, plus, more, per. by, versus, towards, or against, and via, by the way of, 
are Latin words ; and it is not very consistent with ttte purity of our tongue, to use them as above. 
Sans, without, is French, and not now heard with us. Afore for before, atween for between, trav- 
erse for across, thorough for through, and vjithal for with, are obsolete. Withal was never placed 
before its object, but was once very common at the end of a sentence. I think it not properly a 
preposition, but rather an adverb. It occurs in Shakspeare, and so does sans ; as, 

" I did laugh, sans intermission, an hour by his dial." — As You Like It. 

" I pr'ythee, whom doth he trot vMhal V — lb. 

" Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing." — lb. 

Obs. 16. — Of the propriety and the nature of such expressions as the following, the reader may 
now judge for himself: "In consideration of what passes sometimes within-side of those vehicles." 
— Spectator, No. 533. ""Watch over yourself, and let nothing throw you off from your guard." — 
District School, p. 54. " The windows broken, the door off from the hinges, the roof open and 
leaky."' — lb., p. 71. " He was always a shrewd observer of men, in and out of power." — Knapp's 
Life of Burr, p. viii. " Who had never been broken in to the experience of sea voyages." — 
Timothy Flint. " And there came a fire out from before the Lord." — Leviticus, ix, 24. " Because 
eight readers out often, it is believed, forget it." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 32. " Fifty days after the 
Passover, and their coming out of Egypt." — Watts' s Script. Hist., p. 57. "As the mountains are 
round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people." — Psal., exxv, 2. "Literally, 'I 
proceeded forth from out o/G-od and am come.' " — Gurney's Essays, p. 161. "But he that came 
down from (or from out of) heaven." — Ibid. 

" Here none the last funereal rights receive ; 
To be cast forth the camp, is all their friends can give." — Rowe's Lucan, vi, 166. 

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. 
PRAXIS X— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Tenth Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the dif- 
ferent parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the Articles, Nouns, 
Adjectives, Pronouns, Verbs, Participles, Adverbs, Conjunctions, and 
Prepositions. 

The definitions to be given in the Tenth Praxis, are, two for an article, six for a 
noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun, seven for a verb finite, five for an 
infinitive, two for a participle, two [and sometimes three) for an adverb, two for a 
conjunction, one for a preposition, and one for an interjection. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED 
" Never adventure on too near an approach to what is evil." — Maxims. 

Never is an adverb of time. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other 
adverb ; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 2. Adverbs of time are those which an- 
swer to the question, When? How long? How soon? or, How often? including these which ask. 

Adventure is a regular active-intransitive verb, from adventure, adventured, adventuring, adventured; found 
in the imperative mood, present tense, 6econd person, singular (or it may be plural) number. 1. A verb is 
a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit 
and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. An active-intransitive verb is a verb that expresses an 
action that has no person or thing for its object. 4. The imperative mood is that form of the verb which is 
used in commanding, exhorting, entreating, or permitting. 5. The present tense is that which expresses 
what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The second person is that which denotes the hearer, or the person 
addressed. 7. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 

On is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Too is an adverb of degree. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an a djective, or an other 
adverb ; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner. 2. Adverbs of deer; ree are those which 
answer to the question, How much ? How little ? or to the idea of more or less. 

Near is a common adjective, of the positive degree; compared, near, nearer \;2.nearest or nex*. 1. An adjective 
is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. A common adjective is any ordi- 

nary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. The positive degree is that which is expressed 
by the adjective in its simple form. 

An is" the indefinite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their 
signification. 2. The indefinite article is an or a, which denotes one thing of a kind, but not any particular 
one. 



444 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Approach is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the 
name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or 
thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is 
that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a 
noun or pronoun which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

To is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to 
each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

What is a relative pronoun, of the third person, siugular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A 
pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun. 2. A relative pronoun is a pronoun that represents an antece- 
dent word or phrase, and connects different clauses of a sentence. 3. The third person is that which denotes 
the person or thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neu- 
ter gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that 
form or state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Is is an irregular neuter verb, from be, teas, being* been; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third per- 
son, and singular number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon. 2. An irreg- 
ular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed. 3. A 
neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being. 4, 
The indicative mood is that form of a verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a question. 
5. The present tense is that which expresses what now exists, or is taking place. 6. The third person is 
that which denotes the person or thing merely 6poken of. 7. The singular number is that which denotes 
but one. 

Evil is a common adjective, of the positive degree ; compared irregularly, bad, evil, or ill, worse, worst. 1. 
An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality. 2. A common adjec- 
tive is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation. 3. The positive degree is that which 
is expressed by the adjective in its simple form. 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

" My Lord, I do here, in the name of all the learned and polite persons of the 
nation, complain to your Lordship, as first minister, that our language is imperfect ; 
that its daily improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily corruptions ; 
that the pretenders to polish and refine it, have chiefly multiplied abuses and ab- 
surdities ; and that, in many instances, it offends against every part of grammar." — 
Dean Swift, to the Earl of Oxford. 

" Swift must be allowed to have been a good judge of this matter ; to which he 
was himself very attentive, both in his own writings, and in his remarks upon those 
of his friends : He is one of the most correct, and perhaps [he is] the best, of our 
prose writers. Indeed the justness of this complaint, as far as I can find, hath never 
yet been questioned ; and yet no effectual method hath hitherto been taken to re- 
dress the grievance which was the object of it." — LowtJCs Gram., p. iv. 

" The only proper use to be made of the blemishes which occur in the writings of 
such authors, [as Addison and Swift — authors whose 'faults are overbalanced by 
high beauties' — ] is, to point out to those who apply themselves to the study of com- 
position, some of the rules which they ought to observe for avoiding such errors ; 
and to render them sensible of the necessity of strict attention to language and 
style." — Blair's Rhet, p. 233. 

" Thee, therefore, and with thee myself I weep, 
For thee and me I mourn in anguish deep." — Pope's Homer. 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

"The southern corner of Europe, comprehended between the thirty-sixth and 
fortieth degrees of latitude, bordering on Epirus and Macedonia towards the north, 
and on other sides surrounded by the sea, was inhabited, above eighteen centuries 
before the Christian era, by many small tribes of hunters and shepherds, among 
whom the Pelasgi and Hellenes were the most numerous and powerful." — Gillies, 
Gr., p. 12. 

" In a vigorous exertion of memory, ideal presence is exceedingly distinct : thus, 
when a man, entirely occupied with some event that made a deep impression, forgets 
himself, he perceives every thing as passing before him, and has a consciousness of 
presence, similar to that of a spectator." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 88. 

" Each planet revolves about its own axis in a given time ; and each moves round 
the sun, in an orbit nearly circular, and in a time proportioned to its distance. Their 
velocities, directed by an established law, are perpetually changing by regular accel- 
erations and retardations." — lb., i, 271. 

" You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice by fanning in his face with a 
peacock's feather." — Shak. 



CHAP. X.] ETYMOLOGY. PREPOSITIONS. ERRORS. 445 

u Ch. Justice. I sent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, 
to come speak with me. Falstaff. As I was then advised by my learned counsel 
in the laws of this land-service, I did not come." — Id., 2. Hen. IV, Act i, Sc. 2. 

" It is surprising to see the images of the mind stamped upon the aspect ; to see 
the cheeks take the die of the passions and appear in all the colors of thought." — ■ 
Collier. 

" Even from out thy slime 

The monsters of the deep are made." — Byron. 

Lesson III. — Parsing. 

" With a mind weary of conjecture, fatigued by doubt, sick of disputation, eager 
for knowledge, anxious for certainty, and unable to attain it by the best use of my 
reason in matters of the utmost importance, I have long ago turned my thoughts 
to an impartial examination of the proofs on which revealed religion is grounded, 
and I am convinced of its truth." — Bp. Watson's Apology, p. 69. 

" The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, 
until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." — Gen., 
xlix, 10. 

" Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt 
not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto 
vou, Swear not at all : neither by heaven ; for it is God's throne : nor by the earth ; 
for it is his footstool : neither by Jerusalem ; for it is the city of the great King. 
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head ; because thou canst not make one hair white 
or black."— Matt, v, 33—36. 

" Refined manners, and polite behaviour, must not be deemed altogether artificial : 
men who, inured to the sweets of society, cultivate humanity, find an elegant pleasure 
in preferring others, and making them happy, of which the proud, the selfish, scarcely 
have a conception." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 105. 

" Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape 
Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine." — Milton. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS RESPECTING- PREPOSITIONS.' 
"Nouns are often formed by participles." — L. Murray's Index, Octavo Gram.; ii, 290. 

[Foumttle. — Not proper, because the relation here intended, between are formed and participles, is not -well 
signified by the preposition by. But, according to Observation 7th, on this part of speech, "The prepositions 
have, from their own nature, or from custom, such an adaptation to particular terms and relations, that they 
can seldom be used one for an other without manifest impropriety." This relation would be better expressed 
by from; thus, " Nouns are often formed from participles."] 

"What tenses are formed on the perfect participle?" — IngersolVs Gram., p. 104. "Which 
tense is formed on the present ?" — Ibid. " When a noun or pronoun is placed before a participle, 
independently on the rest of the sentence," &c. — lb., p. 150; Murray, 145; and others. "If the 
addition consists in two or more words." — Murray's Gram., p. 176; IngersolVs, 177. "The in- 
finitive mood is often made absolute, or used independent!}' on the rest of the sentence." — Mur., 
p. 184; Ing., 244; and others. "For the great satisfaction of the reader, we shall present him 
with a variety of false constructions." — Murray's Gram., p. 189. "Eoryour satisfaction, I shall 
present you with a variety of false constructions." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 258. " I shall here present 
you with a scale of derivation." — Buckes Gram., p. 81. " These two manners of representation in 
respect of number." — Lowth's Gram., p. 15 ; Churchill's, 57. " There are certain adjectives, which 
seem to be derived without any variation from verbs." — LowtlVs Gram., p. 89. " Or disqualify us 
for receiving instruction or reproof of others." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 253. " Por being more studi- 
ous than any other pupil of the school." — lb., p. 226. "From misunderstanding the directions, 
we lost our way." — lb., p. 201. "These people reduced the greater part of the island to their 
own power." — lb., p. 261.* "The principal accent distinguishes one syllable in a word from the 
rest." — Murray's Gram., p. 236. " Just numbers are in unison to the human mind." — lb., p. 
298. " We must accept of sound instead of sense." — lb., p. 298. " Also, instead for consultation, 
he uses consult." — Priestley's Gram., p. 143. "This ablative seems to be governed of a preposi- 
tion understood." — Walker's Particles, p. 268. "That my father may not hear on't by some 
means or other." — lb., p. 257. " And, besides, my wife would hear on't by some means." — lb., 
p. 81. "For insisting in a requisition so odious to them." — Robertson's Amer., i. 206. "Based 

* " Who consequently reduced the greatest part of the island to their own power." — Swift, on the English 
Tongue. '-We can say, that one nation redtices another to subjection. But when dominion or power is used, 
•we always, as [so] far as I know, say, reduce undee their power" [or dominion], — Blair's Rhet., p. 229. 



446 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

in the great self-evident truths of liberty and equality." — Scholar's Manual. "Very little know- 
ledge of their nature is acquired by the spelling book." — Murray's Gram., p. 21. "They do not 
cut it off: except in a few words; as, due, duly, &c." — lb., p. 24. "Whether passing in such 
time, or then finished." — Lowth's Gram., p. 31. "It hath disgusted hundreds of that confession." 
— Barclay's Works, m, 269. "But they have egregiously fallen in that inconveniency." — i7>., 
iii, 73. "For is not this to set nature a work?" — lb., i, 2*70. "And surely that which should 
set all its springs a-work, is G-od." — Atterbury: in Blair's Rhet., p. 298. "He could not end 
his treatise without a panegyric of modern learning." — Temple: ib., p. 110. "These are entirely 
independent on the modulation of the voice." — Walker's Elocution, p. 308. " It is dear of a penny. 
It is cheap of twenty pounds." — Walker's Particles, p. 274. "It will be despatched, in most oc- 
casions, without resting." — Locke. " ' 0, the pain the bliss in dying.' " — Kirkham's Gram., p. 
129. " When [he is] presented with the objects or the facts." — Smith's Productive Gram., p. 5. 
"I will now present you with a synopsis." — lb., p. 25. "The conjunction disjunctive connects 
sentences, by expressing opposition of meaning in various degrees." — lb., p. 38. "I shall now 
present you with a few linas." — Bucke's Classical Gram, p. 13. " Common names of Substantives 
are those, which stand for thing.? generally." — lb., p. 31. "Adjectives in the English language 
admit no variety in gender, number, or case whatever, except that of the degrees of comparison." 
— Ib., p. 48. "Participles are adjectives formed of verbs." — lb., p. G3. "I do love to walk 
out of a fine summer's evening." — lb., p. 97. "An Ellipsis, when applied to grammar, is the 
elegant omission of one or more words in a sentence." — Merchant's Gram., p. 99. "The prefix 
to is generally placed before verbs in the infinitive mood, but before the following verbs it ia 
properly omitted; (viz.) bid, make, see, dare, need, hear, feel, and let; as, He bid me do it; He 
made me learn; &c." — 76., Stereotype Edition, p. 91 ; Old Edition, 85. " The infinitive sometimes 
follows than, after a comparison; as, I wish nothing more, than to know his fate." — lb., p. 92. 
See Murray's Gram., 8vo, i, 184. " Or by prefixing the adverbs more or less, in the comparative, 
and most or least, in the superlative." — Merchant's Grain., p. 36. "A pronoun is a word used in- 
stead of a noun." — lb., p. 17; Comly, 15. "In monosyllables the Comparative is regularly 
formed by adding r or er." — Perley's Gram., p. 21. "He has particularly named these, in dis- 
tinction to others." — Harris's Hermes, p. vi. " To revive the decaying taste of antient Literature." 
— lb., p. xv. " He found the greatest difficulty of writing." — Hume : in Priestley's Gram., p. 159. 
" And the tear that is wip'd with a little address 
May be followed perhaps with a smile." 
Webster' 's American Spelling- Book, p. 78; and Murray's E. Reader, p. 212. 



CHAPTER XL— INTERJECTIONS. 

An Interjection is a word that is uttered merely to indicate some 
strong or sudden emotion of the mind : as, Oh! alas! ah! po7i! pshaw! 
avaunt! aha! hurrah! 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Of pure interjections but few are admitted into books. Unimpassioned writings reject 
this part of speech altogether. As words or sounds of this kind serve rather to indicate feeling 
than to express thought, they seldom have any definable signification. Their use also is so vari- 
able, that there can be no very accurate classification of them. Some significant words, perhaps 
more properly belonging to other classes, are sometimes ranked with interjections, when uttered 
with emotion and in an unconnected manner; as, strange! prodigious! indeed! WeUs says, 
" Other parts of speech, used by way of exclamation, are properly regarded as interjections ; as, 
hark! surprising! mercy!" — School Gram., 1846, p. 110. This is an evident absurdity ; because 
it directly confounds the classes which it speaks of a3 being different. Nor is it right to say, 
" Other parts of speech are frequently used to perform the office of interjections." — Wells, 1850, p. 
120. 

Obs. 2. — The word interjection comes to us from the Latin name inter jectio, the root of which is 
the verb interjicio, to throw between, to interject. Interjections are so called because they are 
usually thrown in between the parts of discourse, without any syntactical connexion with other 
words. Dr. Lowth, in his haste, happened to describe them as a kind of natural sounds "thrown 
in between the parts of a sentence ;" and this strange blunder has been copied into almost every 
definition that has been given of the Interjection since. See Murray's Grammar and others. 
Webster's Dictionary defines it as, "A word thrown in between words connected in construction;" 
but of all the parts of speech none are less frequently found in this situation. 

Obs. 3. — The following is a fair sample of " Smith's New Grammar," — i. e., of " English Gram- 
mar on the Productive System," — a new effort of quackery to scarf up with cobwebs the eyes of 
common sense: "Q. When I exclaim, 'Oh! I have ruined my friend,' 'Alas! I fear for life,' 
which words here appear to be thrown in betvjeen the sentences, to express passion or feeling? 
Ans. Oh! Alas! Q. What does interjection mean? Ans. Thrown between. Q. What name, 



CHAP. XI.] ETYMOLOGY. — INTERJECTIONS. — THE LIST. 447 

then, shall we give such words as oh ! alas ! &c. ? Ans. Interjections. Q. What, then, are 
interjections ? Ans. Interjections are words thrown in between the parts of sentences, to express 
the passions or sudden feelings of the speaker. Q. How may an interjection generally be known ? 
Ans. By its taking an exclamation point after it: [as,] ' Oh! I have alienated my friend.' " — R. 
C. Smith's New Gram., p. 39. Of the interjection, this author gives, in his examples for parsing, 
fifteen other instances ; but nothing can be more obvious, than that not more than one of the 
whole fifteen stands either " between sentences" or between the parts of any sentence ! (See 
New Gram., pp. 40 and 96.) Can he be a competent grammarian, who does not know the mean- 
ing of between ; or who, knowing it, misapplies so very plain a word ? 

Obs. 4. — The Interjection, which is idly claimed by sundry writers to have been the first of 
words at the origin of language, is now very constantly set down, among the parts of speech, as 
the last of the series. But, for the name of this the last of the ten sorts of words, some of our 
grammarians have adopted the term exclamation. Of the old and usual term interjection, a recent 
writer justly says, " This name is preferable to that of exclamation, for some exclamations are not 
interjections, and some interjections are not exclamations." — Gibbs: Fowler's E. Gram., § 333. 

LIST OF THE INTERJECTIONS. 

The following are the principal interjections, arranged according to the emotions 
which they are generally intended to indicate: — 1. Of joy ; eigh ! hey! iof — 2. 
Of sorrow ; oh ! ah ! hoo ! alas ! alack ! lackaday ! wclladay ! or wtlaway! — 3. 
Of wonder ; heigh ! ha ! strange ! indeed ! — 4. Of wishing, earnestness, or vocative 
address; (often with a noun or pronoun in the nominative absolute ;) Of — 5. Of 
praise ; ivell-done ! good ! bravo ! — 6. Of surprise with disapproval ; ivhew ! hoity- 
toity ! hoida ! zounds ! what ! — 7. Of pain or fear ; oh ! ooh ! ah ! eh ! dear ! — 
8. Of contempt; fudge! pugh ! poh ! pshaw! pish! tush! tut! humph! — 9. 
Of aversion ; foh ! faugh ! fie ! fy ! foy /* — 10. Of expulsion ; out ! off ! shoo ! 
whew! begone! avaunt ! aroynt ! — 11. Of calling aloud; ho! soho ! what-ho ! 
hollo! holla! hallo! halloo! hoy ! ahoy ! — 12. Of exultation ; ah! aha! huzza! 
hey! heyday! hurrah! — 13, Of laughter; ha, ha, ha; ho, he, he; te-hee,te-hee. 
— 14. Of salutation ; welcome! hail! all-hail! — 15. Of calling to attention ; ho! 
lo ! la! law !\ look! see! behold! hark! — 16. Of calling to silence ; hush ! hist ! 
whist! 'st ! aw! mum! — 17. Of dread or horror; oh! ha! hah! ivhat ! — 18. 
Of languor or weariness ; heigh-ho! heigh-ho-hum ! — 19. Of stopping; hold! soft! 
avast! whoh ! — 20. Of parting ; farewell ! adieu! good-by ! good-day! — 21, Of 
knowing cr detecting ; oho! ahah! ay-ay! — 22. Of interrogating ; eh? ha? hey ?\ 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — With the interjections, may perhaps be reckoned hau and gee, the imperative words 
of teamsters driving cattle ; and other similar sounds, useful under certain circumstances, but 
seldom found in books. Besides these, and all the foregoing, there are several others, too often 
heard, which are unworthy to be considered parts of a cultivated language. The frequent use of 
interjections savours more of thoughtlessness than of sensibility. Philosophical writing and dis- 
passionate discourse exclude them altogether. Yet are there several words of this kind, which 
in earnest utterance, animated poetry, or impassioned declamation, are not only natural, but ex- 
ceedingly expressive : as, " Lift up thy voice, daughter of Gallim ; cause it to be heard unto 
Laish, poor Anathoth." — Isaiah, x, 30. " Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty 
city ! for in one hour is thy judgement come." — Rev., xviii, 10. 

" Ah me ! forbear, returns the queen, forbear; 
Oh! talk not, talk not of vain beauty's care." — Odyssey, B. xviii, 1. 310. 

Obs. 2. — Interjections, being in general little else than mere natural voices or cries, must of 
course be adapted to the sentiments which are uttered with them, and never carelessly confound- 
ed one with an other when we express them on paper. The adverb ay is sometimes improperly 

* " O fop, don't misapprehend me ; I don't say so." — Double Dealer: Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 305. 

t According to Walker and Webster, la is pronounced law; and, if they are right in this, the latter is only a 
false mode of spelling. But I set down both, because both are found in books, and because I incline to think 
the former is from the French la, which is pronounced lah. Johnson and Webster make la and lo synonymous ; 
deriving lo from the Saxon la, and la either from lo or from the French la. "Law, how you joke, cousin." — 
Columbian Orator, p. 17S. "Law me I the very ghosts are come now!" — Ibid. " Law, sister Betty! lam 
glad to see you!" — Ibid. 

" La you ! if you speak ill of the devil, 
How he takes it at heart!" — Shakspeaee: Joh. Diet., u: La. 

X The interjection of interrogating, being placed independently, either after a question, or after something 
■which it converts into a question, i^ usually marked with its own separate erotenie ; as. " But this is even so: 
eh?" — Newspajyer. " Is' t not drown' d i' the last rain? Ha?" — Shakspeare. "Does Bridget paint still, Pom- 
pey? Ha?" — Id. "Suits my complexion — hep, gal ? so I think." — Yankee Schoolmaster. Sometimes we see 
it divided only by a comma, from the preceding question ; as, " What dost thou think of this doctrine, Friend 
Gurth, ha ?" — Scott's Ivajshoe : Fowler's & Gram., § 29, 



448 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

written for the interjection ah ; as, ay me ! for ah me ! and still oftener we find oh, an interjec- 
tion of sorrow, pain, or surprise,* written in stead of 0, the proper sign of wishing, earnestness, 
or vocative address : as, 

" Oh Happiness ! our being's end and aim 1" — Pope, Ess. Ep. iv, 1. 1. 

" And peace, oh Virtue ! peace is all thy own." — Id., ib., Ep. iv, 1. 82. 

" Oh stay, pride of Greece ! Ulysses, stay I 
cease thy course, and listen to our lay 1" — Odys., B. xii, 1. 222. 

Obs. 3. — The chief characteristics of the interjection are independence, exclamation, and the 
want of any definable signification. Yet not all the words or signs which we refer to this class, 
will be found to coincide in all these marks of an interjection. Indeed the last, (the want of a 
rational meaning,) would seem to exclude them from the language ; for words must needs be 
significant of something. Hence many grammarians deny that mere sounds of the voice have 
any more claim to be reckoned among the parts of speech, than the neighing of a horse, or the 
lowing of a cow. There is some reason in this ; but in fact the reference which these sounds 
have to the feelings of those who utter them, is to some extent instinctively understood ; and 
does constitute a sort of significance, though we cannot really define it. And, as their use in 
language, or in connexion with language, makes it necessary to assign them a place in grammar, 
it is certainly more proper to treat them as above, than to follow the plan of the Greek gramma- 
rians, most of whom throw all the interjections into the class of adverbs. 

Obs. 4. — Significant words uttered independently, after the manner of interjections, ought in 
general, perhaps, to be referred to their original classes ; for all such expressions may be sup- 
posed elliptical: as, " Order! gentlemen, order!" i. e., "Come to order," — or, "Keep order." 
"Silence!" i. e., "Preserve silence." "Out! out!" i. e., "Get out," — or, "Clear out!" (See 
Obs. 5th and 6th, upon Adverbs.) 

"Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on! 
"Were the last words of Marmion." — Scott. 

Obs. 5. — In some instances, interjections seem to be taken substantively and made nouns ; as, 
" I may sit in a corner, and cry hey-ho for a husband." — Skak. 
So, according to James White, in his Essay on the Verb, is the word fie, in the following ex- 
ample : 

" If you deny me, fie upon your law." — Shak. : White's Verb, p. 1G3. 

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. 
PRAXIS XL— ETYMOLOGICAL. 

In the Eleventh Praxis, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish and define the 
different parts of sp>eech, and all their classes and modifications. 

The definitions to be given in the Eleventh Praxis, are, two for an article, six for a 
noun, three for an adjective, six for a pronoun, seven for a verb finite, five for an 
infinitive, two for a participle, two (and sometimes three) for an adverb, two for 
a conjunction, one for a preposition, and two for an interjection. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 
" ! sooner shall the earth and stars fall into chaos !" — Brown's Inst., p. 92. 

O is an interjection, indicating earnestness. 1. An interjection is a word that is uttered merely to indicate 
some strong or sudden emotion of the mind. 2. The interjection of wishing, earnestness, or vocative ad- 
dress, is O. 

Sooner is an advert) of time, of the comparative degree; compared, soon, sooner, soonest. 1. An adverb is a 
word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, 
degree, or manner. 2. Adverbs of time are those which answer to the question, When? How long? How 
soon? or, How often? including these which ask. 3. The comparative degree is that which is more or less 
than something contrasted with it. 

Shall is an auxiliary to fall. 1. An auxiliary is a short verb prefixed to one of the principal parts of an other 
verb, to express some particular mode and time of the being, action, or passion. 

The. is the definite article. 1. An article is the word the, an, or a, which we put before nouns to limit their sig- 
nification. 2. The definite article is the, which denotes some particular thing or things. 

Earth is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A 
noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known r mentioned. 2. A common noun is 
the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the per- 
son or thing merely spoken of. 4 The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gen- 
der is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form or 
state of a noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

And is a copulative conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, 
and to show the dependence of the terms so connected. 2. A copulative conjunction is a conjunction that 
denotes an addition, a cause, a consequence, or a supposition. 

• Though oh and ah are most commonly used as signs of these depressing passions, it must be confessed that 
they are sometimes employed by reputable writers, as marks of cheerfulness or exultation; as, "Ah, pleasant 
proof," &c. — Cowper's Task, -p. 179. "Merrily oh! merrily oh /" — Moore's Tyrolese Song. "Cheerily oh! 
cheerily oft/" — Ib. But even if this usage be supposed to be right, there is still' some difference between these 
words and the interjection 0: if there were not, we might dispense with the latter, and substitute one of the 
former ; but this would certainly change the import of many an invocation. 



CHAP. XI.] ETYMOLOGY. — INTEKJECTTONS. — PAUSING. — PRAXIS XI. 449 

Stars is a common noun, of the third person, plural number, neuter gender, and nominative case. 1. A noun 
is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can he known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is 
the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the per- 
son or thing merely spoken of. 4. Tbe plural number is that which denotes more than one. 5. The neuter 
gender is that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The nominative case is that form 
or state of a noun or pronoun which usually denotes the subject of a finite verb. 

Fall, or Shall fall, is an irregular active-intransitive verb, from fall, fell, falling, fallen; found in the indica- 
tive mood, first-future tense, third person, and plural number. 1. A verb is a word that signifies to be, 
to act, or to be acted upon. 2. An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect 
participle by assuming d or ed. 3. An active-intransitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has 
no person or thing for its object. 4. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates 
or declares a thing, or asks a question. 5. The first-future tense is that which expresses what will take place 
hereafter. 6. The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of. T. The plu- 
ral number is that which denotes more than one. 

Into is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts 
to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a pronoun. 

Chaos is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case. 1. A noun 
is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned. 2. A common noun is the 
name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or things. 3. The third person is that which denotes the person or 
thing merely spoken of. 4. The singular number is that which denotes but one. 5. The neuter gender is 
that which denotes things that are neither male nor female. 6. The objective case is that form or state of a 
noun or pronoun, which usually denotes the object of a verb, participle, or preposition. 

Lesson I. — Parsing. 

" All ! St. Anthony preserve me ! — Ah — ah — eh — eh ! — Why — why — after all, 
your hand is not so co-o-o-old, neither. Of the two, it is rather warmer than my 
own. Can it be, though, that you are not dead ?" " Not I." — Moliere : in Burgtis 
Speaker, p. 232. 

" I'll make you change your cuckoo note, you old philosophical humdrum, you — 
[Beats him] — I will — [Beats him]. I'll make you say somewhat else than, 'All 
things are doubtful ; all things are uncertain ;' — [Beats him] — I will, you old fusty 
pedant." " Ah ! — oh ! — eh ! — What, beat a philosopher ! — Ah ! — oh ! — eh !" — 
Moliere : ib., p. 247. 

" What ! will these hands never be clean ? — Xo more of that, my lord ; no more 
of that. You mar all with this starting;." * * * " Here is the smell of blood still. 
— All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh ! oh ! oh !" — 
Shah., Macbeth, Act V, Sc. 1. 

" Ha ! at the gates what grisly forms appear ! 
What dismal shrieks of laughter wound the ear !" — Merry. 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

" Yet this mny be the situation of some now known to us. — frightful thought ! 
horrible image ! Forbid it, O Father of mercy ! If it be possible, let no crea- 
ture of thine ever be the object of that wrath, against which the strength of thy 
whole creation united, would stand but as the moth against the thunderbolt !" — 
Bur [ill's Speaker, p. 289. 

" If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning 
fiery furnace ; and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it 
known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden 
image which thou hast set up." — Daniel, iii, 17 and 18. 

" Grant me patience, just Heaven ! — Of all the cants which are canted in this 
canting world — though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst — the cant of criti- 
cism is the most tormenting !" — Sterne. 

" Ah, no ! Achilles meets a shameful fate, 
Oh ! how unworthy of the brave and great." — Pope. 

Lesson III. — Parsing. 

" O let not thy heart despise me ! thou whom experience has not taught that it is 
misery to lose that which it is not happiness to possess." — Dr. Johnson. 

" Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery ! still thou art a bitter draught ; and 
though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less 
bitter on that account." — Sterne. 

" Put it out of the power of truth to give you an ill character ; and if any body 
reports you not to be an honest or a good man, let your practice give him the lie. 
This is all very feasible." — Antoninus. 

29 



450 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

" Oil that men should put an enemy into their mouths to steal away their brains ! 
that we should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into 
beasts !" — Shakspeare. 

" All these afar off stood, crying, Alas ! 
Alas ! and wept, and gnashed their teeth, and groaned ; 
And with the owl, that on her ruins sat, 
Made dolorous concert in the ear of Night." — Pollok. 

" Snatch'd in thy prime ! alas, the stroke were mild, 
Had my frail form obey'd the fate's decree ! 
Blest were my lot, O Cynthio ! my child ! 

Had Heaven so pleas'd, and I had died for thee !" — Shenstone. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

ERRORS RESPECTING INTERJECTIONS. 
" Of chance or change, oh let not man complain." — Buckets Classical Gram., p. 85. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the interjection oh, a sign of sorrow, pain, or surprise, is here used to indi- 
cate mere earnestness. But, according to the list of interjections, or Ons. 2d under it, the interjection of wish- 
ing, earnestness, or vocative address, is 0, and not oh. Therefore, oh should here be 0; thus, " Of chance or 
change, let not man complain." — Beattie's Minstrel, B. ii, 1. 1.] 

" thou persecutor ! Oh ye hypocrites." — Merchants Gram., p. 99: et at. "Oh! thou, who 
touchedst Isaiah's hallowed lips with lire." — lb., {Key,) p. 197. "Oh! happy we, surrounded by 
so many blessings." — lb., {Exercises,) p. 138. "Oh! thou, who art so unmindful of thy duty." — 
lb., {Key,) p. 196. "If I am wrong, oh teach my heart To find that better way." — Pope's Works. 
"Heus! evocate hue Davum. Ter. Hoe! call Davus out hither." — Walker's Particles, p. 155. 
"'It was represented by an analogy, (Oh, how inadequate !) which was borrowed from the religion 
of paganism." — Murray's Gram., p. 281. "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!" — Alger's 
Bible : Gen., xvii, 18. "And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak." 
— Friends' Bible : Gen., xviii, 30. " And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry." — Id., and 
Scott's : ib., ver. 32. " Oh, my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word." — Friends' 
Bible, and Alger's: Gen., xliv, 18. " Oh, Virtue! how amiable thou art! I fear, alas! for my 
life." — Fisk's Gram., p. 89. " Ay me, they little know How dearly I abide that boast so vain." 
— Milton's P. L., B. iv, 1. 86. "Oh! that I had digged myself a cave." — Fletcher: in Bucke's 
Gram., p. 78. "0, my good lord ! thy comfort comes too late." — Shak. : ib., p. 78. " The voca- 
tive takes no article; it is distinguished thus: Pedro, Oh Peter! Bios, Oh God !" — Bucke's 
Gram., p. 43. "Oh, o! But, the relative is always the same." — Cobbett's Eng. Gram., 1st Ed., 
p. 127. "Oh, oh! But, the relative is always the same."— id, Edition of 1832, p. 116. " Ah 
hail, ye happy men!" — Jaudon's Gram., p. 116. "Oh that I had wings like a dove!" — Friends' 
Bible, and Alger's: Ps., Iv, 6. "Oh Glorious hope! Blessed abode!" — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., 
p. 183. "Alas, Friends, how joyous is your presence." — Rev. T. Smith's Gram., p. 87. "Oh, 
blissful days! Ah me! how soon ye pass!" — Parker and Fox's Gram., Part I, p. 16; Part 
III, p. 29. 

" Oh golden days ! oh bright unvalued hours ! 
"What bliss (did ye but know that bliss) were yours I" — Barbauld. 

"Ay me! what perils do eviron 
The man that meddles with cold iron." — Hudibras. 



CHAPTER XII.— QUESTIONS. 

ORDER OF REHEARSAL, AND METHOD OF EXAMINATION. 
PAKT SECOND, ETYMOLOGY. 

B^° [The following questions refer almost wholly to the main text of the Etymology of this work, and are such 
as every student should be able to answer with readiness and accuracy, before he proceeds to any subsequent 
part of the study or the exercises of English grammar.] 

Lesson I. — Parts op Speech. 
1. Of what does Etymology treat ? 2. What is meant by the term, " Parts of Speech?" 3. 
What are Classes, under the parts of speech ? 4. What are Modifications f 5. How many and 
what are the parts of speech? 6. What is an article? 1. What is a noun? 8. What is an 
adjective? 9. What is a pronoun? 10. What is a verb? 11. What is a participle? 12. 
What is an adverb ? 13. What is a conjunction? 14. What is a preposition? 15. What is an 
interjection ? 



CHAP. XII.] ETYMOLOGY. — QUESTIONS. 451 

Lesson II. — Parsing. 

1. What is Parsing ? and what relation does it bear to grammar ? 2. What is a Praxis ? and 
what is said of the word ? 3. What is required of the pupil in the First Praxis ? 4. How 
many definitions are here to be given for each part of speech? 5. How is the following 
example parsed ? " The patient ox submits to the yoke, and meekly performs the labour re- 
quired of him." 
[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the First Chapter, or the First Praxis.] 

Lesson III. — Articles. 

1. What is an Article ? 2. Are an and a different articles, or the same ? 3. When ought an 
to be used, and what are the examples ? 4. When should a be used, and what are the exam- 
ples ? 5. What form of the article do the sounds of w and y require ? 6. Can you repeat the 
alphabet, with an or a before the name of each letter? 7. Will you name the ten parts of 
speech, with an or a before each name ? 8. When does a common noun not admit an article ? 
0. How is the sense of nouns commonly made indefinitely partitive? 10. Does the mere being 
of a thing demand the use of articles ? 11. Can articles ever be used when we mean to speak 
!)f a whole species? 12. But how does an or a commonly limit the sense? 13. And how does 
\he commonly limit the sense ? 14. Which number does the limit, the singular or the plural ? 
15. When is the required before adjectives ? 16. Why is an or a not applicable to plurals ? 17. 
What is said of an or a before an adjective of number? 18. When, or how often, should articles 
be inserted? 19. What is said of needless articles? 20. What is the effect of putting one 
article for the other, and how shall we know which to choose? 21. How are the two articles 
distinguished in grammar? 22. Which is the definite article, and what does it denote? 23. 
Which is the indefinite article, and what does it denote? 24. What modifications have the 
articles ? 

Lesson IV. — Parsing-. 

1. What is required of the pupil in the Second Praxis? 2. How many definitions are here 
to be given for each part of speech? 3. How is the following example parsed? "The task of a 
schoolmaster laboriously prompting and urging an indolent class, is worse than his who drives 
lazy horses along a sandy road." 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Second Chapter, or the Second Praxis; and then, if you 
please, you may correct orally the five lessons of had English, with which the Second Chapter concludes.] 

Lesson Y. — Nouns. 

1. What is a Noun, and what are the examples given? 2. Into what general classes are 
nouns divided? 3. What is a proper noun ? 4. What is a common noun ? 5. What particular 
classes are included among common nouns? 6. What is a collective noun ? 7. What is an ab- 
stract noun ? 8. What is a verbal or participial noun ? 9. What modifications have nouns? 10. 
What are Persons, in grammar? 11. How many persons are there, and what are they called? 
12. What is the first person? 13. What is the second person ? 14. What is the third person? 
15. What are Numbers, in grammar ? 16. How many numbers are there, and what are they 
called? 17. What is the singular number? 18. What is the plural number? 19. How is the 
plural number of nouns regularly formed? 20. How is the regular plural formed without 
increase of syllables ? 21. How is the regular plural formed when the word gains a syllable ? 

Lesson YI. — Nouns. 

1. What are Genders, in grammar ? 2. How many genders are there, and what are they 
called? 8. What is the masculine gender ? 4. What is the feminine gender? 5. What is the 
neuter gender? 6. What nouns, then, are masculine? what, feminine? and what, neuter? 7. 
What inflection of English nouns regularly changes their gender ? 8. On what are the different 
genders founded, and to what parts of speech do they belong? 9. When the noun is such as 
may be applied to either sex, how is the gender usually determined ? 10. What principle of 
universal grammar determines the gender when both sexes are taken together ? 11. What is 
said of the gender of nouns of multitude ? 12. Under what circumstances is it common to dis- 
regard the distinction of sex? 13. In how many ways are the sexes distinguished in grammar? 
14. When the gender is figurative, how is it indicated? 15. What are Cases, in grammar? 16. 
How many cases are there, and what are they called? 17. What is the nominative case? 18. 
What is the subject of a verb? 19. What is the possessive case ? 20. How is the possessive 
case of nouns formed? 21. What is the objective case? 22. What is the object of a verb, par- 
ticiple, or preposition? 23. What two cases of nouns are alike in form, and how are they dis- 
tinguished? 24. What is the declension of a noun? 25. How do you decline the nouns, friend, 
man, fox, and fly f 

Lesson YIT. — Parsing. 

1. What is required of the pupil in the Third Praxis? 2. How many definitions are here to 
be given for each part of speech? 3. How is the following example to be parsed? " The writ- 
ings of Hannah More appear to me more praise-worthy than Scott's." 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Third Chapter, or the Third Praxis; and then, if you 
please, you may correct orally the three lessons of had English, with which the Third Chapter concludes.] 



452 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

Lesson VIII. — Adjectives. 

1. "What is an Adjective, and what are the examples given ? 2. Into what classes may 
adjectives be divided ? 3. What is a common adjective ? 4. What is a proper adjective ? 5. 
What is a numeral adjective ? 6. What is a pronominal adjective? 7. What is a participial 
adjective? 8. What is a compound adjective? 9. What modifications have adjectives? 10. 
What is comparison, in grammar ? 11. How many and what are the degrees of comparison ? 12. 
What is the positive degree ? 13. What is the comparative degree ? 14. What is the superla- 
tive degree? 15. What adjectives cannot be compared ? 16. What adjectives are compared by 
means of adverbs? 17. How are adjectives regularly compared ? 18. What principles of spelling 
must be observed in the comparing of adjectives ? 19. To what adjectives is the regular method 
of comparison, by er and est, applicable ? 20. Is there any other method of expressing the degrees 
of comparison ? 21. How are the degrees of diminution, or inferiority, expressed? 22. Has the 
regular method of comparison any degrees of this kind? 23. Do we ever compare by adverbs 
those adjectives which can be compared by er and est? 24. How do you compare good? bad, 
evil, or ill? little? much? many? 25. How do you compare far? near? fore? hind? in? out? 
up? low? late? 26. What words want the positive? 27. What words want the comparative? 

Lesson IX. — Parsing. 
1. What is required of the pupil in the Fourth Praxis? 2. How many definitions are here 
to be given for each part of speech ? 3. How is the following example parsed ? "The best and 
most effectual method, of teaching grammar, is precisely that of which the careless are least fond: 
teach learnedly, rebuking whatsoever is fals3, blundering, or unmannerly." 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Fourth Chapter, or the Fourth Praxis; and then, if you 
please, you may correct orally the three lesons of bad English, with which the Fourth Chapter concludes.] 

Lesson X. — Pronouns. 
1. What is a Pronoun, and what is the example given ? 2. How many pronouns are there ? 
3. How are pronouns divided? 4. W tat is a personal pronoun ? 5. How many and what are 
the simple personal pronouns? 6. How many and what are the compound personal pronouns? 
7. What is a relative pronoun? 8. Which are the relative pronouns? 9. What peculiarity has 
the relative what? 10. What is an interrogative pronoun ? 11. Which are the interrogative pro- 
nouns? 12. Do who, which, and what, all ask the same question? 13. What modifications have 
pronouns? 14. Why are not these thing3 defined under the head of pronouns? 15. What is the 
declension of a pronoun ? 16. How do you decline the pronoun/? Thou? He? She? It? 17. 
What is said of the compound personal pronouns ? 18. How do you decline the pronoun Myself? 
Thyself? Himself? Herself? Itself? 19. Are the interrogative pronouns declined like the simple 
relatives? 20. How do you decline Who? Which? What? Thai? As? 21. Have the compound 
relative pronouns any declension? 22. How do you decline Whoever? Whosoever? Which- 
ever ? Whichsoever ? Whatever ? Whatsoever ? 

Lesson XI. — Parsing-. 

1. What is required of the pupil in the Fifth Praxis? 2. How many definitions are here to 
be given for each part of speech ? 3. How is the following example parsed ? " Nay but, man, 
who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why 
hast thou made me thus ?" 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Fifth Chapter, or the Fifth Praxis; and then, if you 
please, you may correct orally the three lessons of bad English, with which the Fifth Chapter concludes.] 

Lesson XII. — Verbs. 
1. What is a Verb, and what are the examples given ? 2. Why are verbs called by that name? 
3. Respecting an English verb, what things are to be sought in the first place ? 4. What is the 
Present ? 5. What is the Preterit ? 6. What is the Imperfect Participle ? 7. What is the Perfect 
Participle? 8. How are verbs divided, with respect to their form ? 9. What is a regular verb ? 
10. What is an irregular verb ? 11. What is a redundant verb? 12. What is a defective verb ? 
13. How are verbs divided, with respect to their signification ? 14. What is an active-transitive 
verb? 15. What is an active-intransitive verb? 16. What is a passive verb? 17. What is a 
neuter verb? 18. What modifications have verbs? 19. What are Moods, in grammar? 20. 
How many moods are there, and what are they called? 21. What is the infinitive mood? 22. 
Whit is the indicative mood? 23. What is the potential mood? 24. What is the subjunctive 
mood? 25. What is the imperative mood? 

Lesson XIII. — Verbs. 
1. What are Tenses, in grammar? 2. How many tenses are there, and what are they called? 
3. What is the present tense ? 4. What is the imperfect tense ? 5. What is the perfect tense ? 
6. What is the pluperfect tense ? 7. What is the first-future tense 1 8. What is the second-future 
tense? 9. What are the Person and Number of a verb? 10. How many persons and numbers 
belong to verbs? 11. Why are not these things defined under the head of verbs? 12. How are 
the second and third persons singular distinctively formed ? 13. How are the person and number 
of a verb ascertained, where no peculiar ending is employed to mark them? 14. What is the 



CHAP. XII.] ETYMOLOGY. — QUESTIONS. 453 

conjugation of a verb? 15. "What are the principal parts in the conjugation of a verb? 16. 
What is a verb called which wants some of these parts ? 17. What is an auxiliary, in grammar? 
18. W r hat verbs are used as auxiliaries ? 19. What are the inflections of the verb do, in its simple 
tenses? 20. What are the inflections of the verb be, in its simple, tenses? 21. What are the 
inflections of the verb have, in its simple tenses? 22. What are the inflections and uses of shall 
and will ? 23. What are the inflections and uses of may ? 24. What are the inflections and 
uses of can? 25. What are the uses of must, which is uninflected? 26. To what style is the 
inflecting of shall, will, may, can, should, would, might, and could, now restricted? 

Lesson XIV. — Verbs. 
1. What is the simplest form of an English conjugation ? 2. What is the first example of con- 
jugation ? 3. What are the principal parts of the verb Love ? 4. How many and what tenses 
has the infinitive mood ? — the indicative ? — the potential ? — the subjunctive ? — the imperative ? 9. 
What is the verb Love in the Infinitive, present ? — perfect ? — Indicative, present ? — imperfect ? — 
perfect ? — pluperfect ? — first-future ? — second-future ? — Potential, present ? — imperfect ? — perfect ? 
— pluperfect ? — Subjunctive, present ? — imperfect ? — Imperative, present ? 24. What are its par- 
ticiples ? 

Lesson XV. — Verbs. 

1. What is the synopsis of the verb Love, in the first person singular ? — second person singu- 
lar, solemn style? — third person singular? — first person plural? — second person plural? — third 
person plural? 7. If the second person singular of this verb be used familiarly, how should it be 
formed ? 

Lesson XVI. — Verbs. 

1. What is the second example of conjugation? 2. What are the principal parts ? 3. How is 
the verb See conjugated throughout? 4. How do you form a synopsis of the verb see, with the pro- 
noun It thou? he? we? you? they? 

Lesson XVn. — Verbs. 
1. What is the third example of conjugation? 2. What are the principal parts ? 3. How is 
the verb Be conjugated ? 4. How do you form a synopsis of the verb be, with the nominative I? 
thou ? he ? we ? you ? they ? the man ? the men ? 

Lesson XVIII. — Verbs. 

1. What is the compound form of conjugating active or neuter verbs ? 2. What peculiar mean- 
ing does this form convey ? 3. What is the fourth example of conjugation ? 4. What are the 
principal parts of the simple verb Read ? 5. How is the verb Read conjugated in the compound 
form? 6. How do you form a synopsis of the verb Be Reading, with the nominative I? thou? 
he? we? you ? they ? the boy ? the boys ? 

Lesson XIX. — Verbs. 
1. How are passive verbs formed? 2. What is the fifth example of conjugation ? 3. How is 
the passive verb Be Loved conjugated tnroughout ? 4. How do you form a synopsis of the verb 
Be Loved, with the nominative I? thou? he? we? you? they? the child? the children? 

Lesson XX. — Verbs. 

1. How is a verb conjugated negatively ? 2. How is the form of negation exemplified by the 
verb love in the first person singular ? 3. What is the form of negation for the solemn style, second 
person singular? 4. What is the form for the familiar style? 5. What is the negative form of 
the verb love with the pronoun lie ? 6. How is the verb conjugated interrogatively ? 7. What 
is the interrogative form of the verb love with the pronoun I? 8. What is the form of question in 
the solemn style, with this verb in the second person singular? 9. How are such questions asked 
in the familiar style? 10. What is the interrogative form of the verb love with the pronoun he? 
11. How is a verb conjugated interrogatively and negatively? 12. How is the negative question 
exemplified in the first person plural? 13. How is the negative question exemplified in the 
second person plural ? 14. How is the like synopsis formed in the third person plural ? 

Lesson XXI. — Verbs. 

1. What is an irregular verb ? 2. How many simple irregular verbs are there ? 3. What are 
the principal parts of the following verbs : Arise, be, bear, beat, begin, behold, beset, bestead, 
bid, bind, bite, bleed, break, breed, bring, buy, cast, chide, choose, cleave, cling, come, cost, cut, 
do, draw, drink, drive, eat, fall, feed, feel, fight, find, flee, fling, fly, forbear, forsake, get, give, go, 
grow, have, hear, hide, hit, hold, hurt, keep, know, lead, leave, lend, let, lie, lose, make, meet, 
outdo, put, read, rend, rid, ride, ring, rise, run, say, see, seek, sell, send, set, shed, shoe, shoot, 
shut, shred, shrink, sing, sink, sit, slay, sling, slink, smite, speak, spend, spin, spit, spread, spring, 
stand, steal, stick, sting, stink, stride, strike, swear, swim, swing, take, teach, tear, tell, think, 
thrust, fread, wear, win, write ? 

Lesson XXII. — Vebrs. 

1. What is a redundant verb? 2. How many redundant verbs are there? 3. What are the 
principal parts of the following verbs : Abide, awake, belay, bend, bereave, beseech, bet, betide, 



454 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

blend, bless, blow, build, burn, burst, catch, clothe, creep, crow, curse, dare, deal, dig, dive, 
dream, dress, dwell, freeze, geld, gild, gird, giave, grind, hang, heave, hew, kneel, knit, lade, lay, 
lean, leap, learn, light, mean, mow, mulct, pass, pay, pen, plead, prove, quit, rap, reave, rive, 
roast, saw, seethe, shake, shape, shave, shear, shine, show, sleep, slide, slit, smell, sow, speed, 
spell, spill, split, spoil, stave, stay, string, strive, strow, sweat, sweep, swell, thrive, throw, wake, 
wax, weave, wed, weep, wet, whet, wind, wont, work, wring ? 4. What is a defective verb ? 
5. "What verbs are defective ? 

Lesson XXIII. — Parsing. 

1. "What is required of the pupil in the Sixth Praxis? 2. How many definitions are here to 

be given for each part of speech? 3. How is the following example pafsed? "The freedom 

of choice seems essential to happiness ; because, properly speaking, that is not our own which is 

imposed upon us." 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Sixth Chapter, or the Sixth Praxis; and then, if you 
please, you may correct orally the three lessonB of tad English, with which the Sixth Chapter concludes.] 

Lesson XXIV. — Participles. 

1. What is a Participle, and how is it generally formed ? 2. How many kinds of participles 
are there, and what are they called ? 3. What is the imperfect participle ? 4. What is the per- 
fect participle ? 5. What is the preperfect participle ? 6. How is the first or imperfect participle 
formed ? 7. How is the second or perfect participle formed? 8. How is the third or preperfect 
participle formed ? 9. What are the participles of the following verbs, according to the simplest 
form of conjugation : Repeat, study, return, mourn, seem, rejoice, appear, approach, suppose, 
think, set, come, rain, stand, know, deceive ? 

Lesson XXY. — Parsing. 

1. What is required of tho pupil in the Seventh Praxis? 2. How many definitions are here 
to be given for each part of speech ? 3. How is the following example parsed : " Religion, rightly 
understood and practised, has the purest of all joys attending it." 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Seventh Chapter, or the Seventh Praxis; and then, if 
you please, you may correct orally the three lessons of tad English, with which the Seventh Chapter con- 
cludes.] 

Lesson XXVI. — Adverbs. 

1. What is an Adverb, and what is the example given ? 2. To what general classes may ad- 
verbs be reduced ? 3. What are adverbs of time ? 4. What are adverbs of place ? 5. What aro 
adverbs of degree ? 6. What are adverbs of manner ? 7. What are conjunctive adverbs? 8. 
Are all the conjunctive adverbs included in the first four classes? 9. How may the adverbs of 
time be subdivided? 10. How may the adverbs of place be subdivided ? 11. How may the ad- 
verbs of degree be subdivided? 12. How may the adverbs of manner be subdivided? 13. 
What modifications have adverbs ? 14. How do we compare well, badly or ill, little, 'much, far, 
and forth? 15. Of what degree is the adverb rather? 16. What is said of the comparison of 
adverbs by more and most, less and least ? 

Lesson XXVII. — Parsing.. 

1. What is required of the pupil in the Eighth Praxis ? 2. How many definitions are here to 

be given for each part of speech ? 3. How is the following example parsed? "When was it 

that Rome attracted most strongly the admiration of mankind?" 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Eighth Chapter, or the Eighth Praxis; and then, if you 
please, you may correct orally the lesson of Lad English, with which the Eighth Chapter concludes.] 

Lesson XXVIII. — Conjunctions. 

1. What is a Conjunction, and what is the example given ? 2. Have we any connective words 
besides the conjunctions? 3. How do relative pronouns differ from other connectives? 4. How 
do conjunctive adverbs differ from other connectives? 5. How do conjunctions differ from other 
connectives? 6. How do prepositions differ from other connectives? 7. How are the con- 
junctions divided ? 8. What is a copulative conjunction ? 9. What is a disjunctive conjunction ? 
10. What are corresponsive conjunctions? 11. Which are the copulative conjunctions? 12. 
Which are the disjunctive conjunctions ? 13. Which are the corresponsive conjunctions ? 

Lesson XXIX. — Parsing. 
1. What is required of the pupil in the Ninth Praxis? 2. How many definitions are here to 
be given for each part of speech ? 3. How is the following example parsed ? "If thou hast done 
a good deed, boast not of it." 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Ninth Chapter, or the Ninth Praxis; and then, if you 
please, you may correct orally the lesson of bad English, with which the Ninth Chapter concludes.] , 

Lesson XXX. — Prepositions. 
1. What is a Preposition, and what is the example given ? 2. Are the prepositions divided 
into classes? 3. Have prepositions any grammatical modifications ? 4. How are the prepositions 



CHAP. XIII.] ETYMOLOGY. — QUESTIONS. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 455 

arranged in the list ? 5. What are the prepositions beginning with a 1 — with b ? — with c ? — with 

d f — w ith e ? — with ff — with i ? — with m ? — with n ? — with o f — with p ? — with r ? — with s ? 

with tf — with uf — with w? 21. Does this list contain all the words that are ever used in Eng- 
lish as prepositions ? 

Lesson XXXI. — Parsing. 

1. What is required of the pupil in the Tenth Praxis ? 2. How many definitions are here to 
be given for each part of speech ? 3. How is the following example parsed? " Never adventure 
on too near an approach to what is evil ?" 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Tenth Chapter, or the Tenth Praxis; and then, if you 
please, you may correct orally the lesson of bad English, with which the Tenth Chapter concludes.] 

Lesson XXXII. — Interjections. 

1. What is an Interjection, and what are the examples given? 2. Why are interjections so 
called? 3. How are the interjections arranged in the list? 4. What are the interjections of joy? 
— of praise ? — of sorrow ? — of wonder ? — of wishing or earnestness ? — of pain or fear ? — of con- 
tempt ? — of aversion ? — of calling aloud ? — of exultation ? — of laughter ? — of salutation ? — of call- 
ing to attention? — of calling to silence? — of surprise or horror? — of languor? — of stopping? — of 
parting ? — of knowing or detecting ? — of interrogating ? 

Lesson XXXIII. — Parsing. 

1. What is required of the pupil in the Eleventh Praxis ? How many definitions are here 
given for each part of speech? 3. How is the following example parsed? " ! sooner shall the 
earth and stars fall into chaos!" 

[Now parse, in like manner, the three lessons of the Eleventh Chapter, or the Eleventh Praxis; and then, if 
you please, you may correct orally the lesson of bad English, with which the Eleventh Chapter concludes.] 



CHAPTER XIII.— FOR WRITING. 

EXERCISES IN ETYMOLOGY. 

DSP" [When the pupil has become familiar with the different parts of speech, and their classes and modifica- 
tions, and has been sufficiently exercised in etymological parsing and correcting, he 6hould write out the follow- 
ing exercises ; for speech and writing afford us different modes of testing the proficiency of students, and 
exercises in both are necessary to a complete course of English Grammar.] 

EXERCISE I.— ARTICLES. 

1. Prefix the definite article to each of the following nouns : path, paths ; loss, losses ; name, 
names; page, pages; want, wants; doubt, doubts; votary, votaries. 

2. Prefix the indefinite article to each of the following nouns: age, error, idea, omen, urn, arch, 
bird, cage, dream, empire, farm, grain, horse, idol, jay, king, lady, man, novice, opinion, pony, 
quail, raven, sample, trade, uncle, vessel, window, youth, zone, whirlwind, union, onion, unit, 
eagle, house, honour, hour, herald, habitation, hospital, harper, harpoon, ewer, eye, humour. 

3. Insert the definite article rightly in the following phrases : George Second — fair appearance 
— part first — reasons most obvious — good man — wide circle — man of honour — man of world — 
old books — common people — same person — smaller piece — rich and poor — first and last — all time 
— great excess — nine muses — how rich reward — so small number — all ancient writers — in nature 
of things — much better course. 

4. Insert the indefinite article rightly in each of the following phrases : new name — very quick 
motion — other sheep — such power — what instance — great weight — such worthy cause — to great 
difference— high honour — humble station — universal law — what strange event — so deep inter- 
est — as firm hope — so great wit — humorous story — such person — few dollars — little reflection. 

EXERCISE II.— NOUNS. 

1. Write the plurals of the following nouns: town, country, case, pin, needle, harp, pen, sex, 
rush, arch, marsh, monarch, blemish, distich, princess, gas, bias, stigma, wo, grotto, folio, 
punctilio, ally, duty, toy, money, entry, valley, volley, half, dwarf, strife, knife, roof, muff, staff, 
chief, sheaf, mouse, penny, ox, foot, erratum, axis, thesis, criterion, bolus, rebus, son-in-law, pail- 
ful, man-servant, fellow-citizen. 

2. Write the feminines corresponding to the following nouns: earl, friar, stag, lord, duke, 
marquis, hero, executor, nephew, heir, actor, enchanter, hunter, prince, traitor, lion, arbiter, tutor, 
songster, abbot, master, uncle, widower, son, landgrave. 

3. Write the possessive case singular, of the following nouns: table, leaf, boy, torch, park, 
porch, portico, lynx, calf, sheep, wolf, echo, folly, cavern, father-in-law, court-martial, precipice, 
countess, lordship. 

4. Write the possessive case plural, of the following nouns : priest, tutor, scholar, mountain, 
city, courtier, judge, citizen, woman, servant, writer, grandmother. 



45 G THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART II. 

5. Write the possessive case, both singular and plural, of the following nouns : body, fancy, 
lady, attorney, negro, nuncio, life, brother, deer, child, wife, goose, beau, envoy, distaff, hero, 
thief, wretch. 

EXERCISE III.— ADJECTIVES. 

1. Annex a suitable noun to each of the following adjectives, without repeating any word: 
good, great, tall, wise, strong, dark, dangerous, dismal, drowsy, twenty, true, difficult, pale, livid, 
ripe, delicious, stormy, rainy, convenient, heavy, disastrous, terrible, necessary. Thus — good 
manners, &c. 

2. Place a suitable adjective before each of the following nouns, without repeating any word : 
man, son, merchant, work, fence, fear, poverty, picture, prince, delay, suspense, devices, follies, 
actions. Thus — wise man, &c. 

3. Write the forms in which the following adjectives are compared by inflection, or change of 
form : black, bright, short, white, old, high, wet, big, few, lovely, dry, fat, good, bad, little, much, 
many, far, true, just, vast. 

4. Write the forms in which the following adjectives are compared, using the adverbs of in- 
crease: delightful, comfortable, agreeable, pleasant, fortunate, valuable, wretched, vivid, timid, 
poignant, excellent, sincere, honest, correct. 

5. Write the forms in which the following adjectives are compared, using the comparative 
adverbs of inferiority or diminution : objectionable, formidable, forcible, comely, pleasing, obvious, 
censurable, prudent, imprudent, imperfect, pleasant, unpleasant. 

EXERCISE IV.— PRONOUNS. 

1. Write the nominative plural of the following pronouns : I, thou, he, she, it, who, which, 
what, that, as. 

2. Write the objective singular of the following pronouns: I, thou, he, she, it, who, which, 
what, that, as. 

3. Write the following words in their customary and proper forms: he's, her's, it's, our's, your's, 
their's, who's, meself. hisself, theirselves. 

4. Write together in declension the following pronouns, according to the agreement of each 
two : I myself, thou thyself, he himself, she herself, it itself. 

5. Re-write the following sentences, and make them good English: "Nor is the criminal bind- 
ing any thing: but was, hisself, being bound." — Wright's Gram., p. 193. "The writer surely 
did not mean, that the work was preparing its self." — lb. " May, or can, in its self, denotes pos- 
sibility." — lb., p. 216. "Consequently those in connection with the remaining pronouns respect- 
ively, should be written, — he, his self; — she, her self; — ye or you, your selves ; they, their selves.^ 
— lb., p. 154. "Lest their beacons be lost to the view, and their selves wrecked on the shoals 
of destruction." — lb., p. 155. "In the regal style, as generally in the second person, the singular 
noun is added to the plural pronoun, ourself." — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 76. "Each has it's peculiar 
advantages." — lb., p. 283. "Who his ownself bare our sins in his own body on the tree." — The 
Friend, iv, 302. "It is difficult to look inwardly on oneself." — Journal of N. T. Lit. Convention, 
p. 267. 

EXERCISE V.— VERBS. 

1. Write the four principal parts of each of the following verbs : slip, thrill, caress, force, 
release, crop, try, die, obey, delay, destroy, deny, buy, come, do, feed, he, say, huzza, pretend, 
deliver, arrest. 

2. Write the following preterits each in its appropriate form : exprest, stript, dropt, jumpt, 
prest, topt, whipt, linkt, propt, fixt, crost, stept, distrest, gusht, confest, snapt, skipt, kist, discust, 
tackt. 

3. Write the following verbs in the indicative mood, present tense, second person singular : 
move, strive, please, reach, confess, fix, deny, survive, know, go, outdo, close, lose, pursue, defend, 
surpass, conquer, deliver, enlighten, protect, polish. 

4. Write the following verbs in the indicative mood, present tense, third person singular : leave, 
seem, search, impeach, fear, redress, comply, bestow, do, woo, sue, view, allure, rely, beset, re- 
lease, be, bias, compel, degrade, efface, garnish, handle, induce. 

5. Write the following verbs in the subjunctive mood, present tense, in the three persons 
singular: serve, shun, turn, learn, find, wish, throw, dream, possess, detest, disarm, allow, pre- 
tend, expose, alarm, deprive, transgress. 

EXERCISE VI.— VERBS. 

1. Write a synopsis of the first person singular of the active verb amuse, conjugated affirma- 
tively. 

2. Write a synopsis of the second person singular of the neuter verb sit, conjugated affirmatively 
in the solemn style. 

3. Write a synopsis of the third person singular of the active verb speak, conjugated affirma- 
tively in the compound form. 

4. Write a synopsis of the first person plural of the passive verb be reduced, conjugated affirma- 
tively. 

5. Write a synopsis of the second person plural of the active verb lose, conjugated negatively. 



CHAP. 1.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — DEFINITIONS. 457 

6. "Write a synopsis of the third person plural of the neuter verb stand, conjugated interrog- 
atively. 

7. Write a synopsis of the first person singular of the active verb derive, conjugated interrog- 
atively and negatively. 

EXERCISE YIL— PARTICIPLES. 

1. Write the simple imperfect participles of the following verbs: belong, provoke, degrade 
impress, fly, do, survey, vie, coo, let, hit, put, defer, difier, remember. 

2. Write the perfect participles of the following verbs: turn, burn, learn, deem, crowd, choose 
draw, hear, lend, sweep, tear, thrust, steal, write, delay, imply, exist. 

3. Write the preperfect participles of the following verbs : depend, dare, deny, value, forsake, 
bear, set, sit, lay, mix, speak, sleep, allot. 

4. Write the following participles each in its appropriate form : dipt, deckt, markt, equipt, in- 
gulft, embarrast, astonisht, tost, embost, absorpt, attackt, gasht, soakt, hackt. 

5. Write the regular participles which are now generally preferred to the following irregular 
ones: blent, blest, clad, curst, diven, drest, graven, hoven, hewn, knelt, leant, leapt, learnt, fit, 
mown, mulct, past, pent, quit, riven, roast, sawn, sodden, shaven, shorn, sown, striven, strown, 
sweat, swollen, thriven, waxen. 

6. Write the irregular participles which are commonly preferred to the following regular ones : 
abided, bended, builded, bursted, catched, creeped, dealed, digged, dwelled, freezed, grinded, 
knitted, layed, meaned, payed, reaved, slided, speeded, splitted, stringed, sweeped, throwed, 
weaved, weeped, winded. 

EXERCISE YIIL— ADYERBS, &c. 

1. Compare the following adverbs : soon, often, long, fast, near, early, well, badly or ill, little, 
much, far, forth. 

2. Place the comparative adverbs of increase before each of the following adverbs : purely, 
fairly, sweetly, earnestly, patiently, completely, fortunately, profitably, easily. 

3. Place the comparative adverbs of diminution before each of the following adverbs : secretly, 
slily, liberally, favourably, powerfully, solemnly. 

4. Insert suitable conjunctions in place of the following dashes : Love — fidelity are inseparable. 
Be shy of parties — factions. Do well — boast not. Improve time — it flies. There would be few 
paupers — no time were lost. Be not proud — thou art human. I saw — it was necessary. Wis- 
dom is better — wealth. Neither he — I can do it. Wisdom — folly governs us. Take care — thou 
fall. Though I should boast — am I nothing. 

5. Insert suitable prepositions in place of the following dashes : Plead — the dumb. Qualify 
thyself — action — study. Think often — the worth — time. Live — peace — all men. Keep — com- 
pass. Jest not — serious subjects. Take no part — slander. Guilt starts — its own shadow. Grudge 
not — giving. Go not — sleep — malice. Debate not — temptation. Depend not — the stores — 
others. Contend not — trifles. Many fall — grasping — things — their reach. Be deaf — detraction. 

6. Correct the following sentences, and adapt the interjections to the emotions expressed by 
the other words : Aha ! aha ! I am undone. Hey ! io ! I am tired. Ho ! be still. A vaunt ! this 
way. Ah! what nonsense. Heigh-ho! I am delighted. Hist! it is contemptible. Oh! for that 
sympathetic glow ! Ah ! what withering phantoms glare ! 



PART III. 

SYNTAX. 

Syntax treats of the relation, agreement, government, and arrange- 
ment, of words in sentences. 

The relation of words is their reference to other words, or their depen- 
dence according to the sense. 

The agreement of words is their similarity in person, number, gender, 
case, mood, tense, or form. 

The government of words is that power which one word has over an 
other, to cause it to assume some particular modification. 

The arrangement of words is their collocation, or relative position, in 
a sentence. 

CHAPTER I.— SENTENCES. 

A Sentence is an assemblage of words, making complete sense, and al- 
wavs containing a nominative and a verb ; as, "Reward sweetens labour." 



458 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

The principal parts of a sentence are usually three ; namely, the sub- 
ject, or nominative, — the attribute, or finite verb, — and the case put 
after, or the object* governed by the verb : as, " Crimes deserve pun- 
ishment." 

The other or subordinate parts depend upon these, either as primary 
or as secondary adjuncts; as, "High crimes justly deserve very severe 
punishments." 

Sentences are usually said to be of two kinds, simple and compound.^ 

A simple sentence is a sentence which consists of one single assertion, 
supposition, command, question, or exclamation ; as, " David and 
Jonathan loved each other." — " If thine enemy hunger." — " Do violence 
to no man." — " Am I not an apostle ?" — 1 Cor., ix, 1. " What immortal 
glory shall I have acquired !" — Hooke : Mur. Seq., p. 71. 

A compound sentence is a sentence which consists of two or more sim- 
ple ones either expressly or tacitly connected ; as, " Send men to Joppa, 
and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter ; ivho shall tell thee words, 
whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." — Acts, xi, 13. " The 
more the works of Cowper are read, the more his readers will find reason 
to admire the variety and the extent, the graces and the energy, of his 
literary talents." — Hayley : Mur. Seq., p. 250. 

A clause, or member, is a subdivision of a compound sentence ; and 
is itself a sentence, either simple or compound : as, " If thine enemy be 
hungry, give him bread to eat ; if he be thirsty, give him water to drink." 
— Prov., xxv, 21.J 

A phrase is two or more words which express some relation of different 
ideas, but no entire proposition ; as, " By the means appointed." — " To 
be plain with you." — " Having loved his own." 

Words that are omitted by ellipsis, and that are necessarily understood 

* This position is denied by some grammarians. One recent author says, " The object cannot properly be 
called one of the principal parts of a sentence ; as it belongs only to some sentences, and then is dependent on 
the verb, which it modifies or explains." — Goodenow's Gram., p. 87. This is consistent enough with the notion, 
that, " An infinitive, with or without a substantive, may be the object of a transitive verb ; as, ' I wish to ride;'' 
4 1 wish you to ride.'"'' — lb., p. 87. Or, with the contrary notion, that, "An infinitive may be the object of a 
preposition, expressed or understood; as, 'I wish for you to ride."' — Ibid. But if the object governed by 
the verb, is always a mere qualifying adjunct, a mere " explanation of the attribute," (lb., p. '28,) how differs it 
from an adverb '? " Adverbs are words added to verbs, and sometimes to other words, to qualify their mean- 
ing."— lb., p. 23. And if infinitives and other mere adjuncts, may be the objects which make verbs transitive, 
how shall a transitive verb be known ? The fact is, that the true object of the transitive verb is one of the prin- 
cipal parts of the sentence, and that the infinitive mood cannot properly be reckoned such an object. 

t Some writers distinguish sentences as being of three kinds, simple, and complex, and compound; but, in 
this work, care has not in general been taken to discriminate between complex sentences and compound. A late 
author states the difference thus: "A sentence containing but one proposition is simjrte; a sentence containing 
two propositions, one of which modifies the other, is complex; a sentence containing two propositions which in 
no way modify each other, is compound." — Greene's Analysis, p. 3. The term compound, as applied to sen- 
tences, is not usually so restricted. An other, using the same terms for a very different division, explains them 
thus : " A Simple Sentence contains but one subject and one attribute ; as, ' The sun shines.' A Complex Sen- 
tence contains two or more subjects of the same attribute, or two or more attributes of the same subject; as, 
' The sun and the stars shine. 1 ' The sun rises and sets.' ' The sun and the stars rise and set.' A Compound Sen- 
tence is composed of two or more simple or complex sentences united ; as, ' The sun shines, and the stars twinkle.' 
' The sun rises and sets, as the earth revolves.' " — Pinneo's Enalish Teacher, p. 10; Analytical Gram., pp. 128, 
142, and 146. This notion of a complex sentence is not more common than Greene's; nor is it yet apparent, that 
the usual division of sentences into two kinds ought to give place to any tripartite distribution. 

% The terms clause and member, in grammar, appear to have been generally used as words synonymous ; but 
some authors have thought it convenient to discriminate them, as having different senses. Hiley says, " Those 
parts of a sentence which are separated by commas, are called clauses; and those separated by semicolons, are 
called members." — Hiley' s Gram., p. 66. W. Allen too confines the former term to simple members: " A com- 
pound sentence is formed by uniting two or more simple sentences ; as, Man is mortal, and life is uncertain. 
Each of these simple sentences is called a clause. When the members of a compound sentence are complex, they are 
subdivided into clauses ; as, Virtue leads to honor, and insures true happiness; but vice degrades the under- 
standing, and is succeeded by infamy." — Allen's Gram., p. 128. By some authors, the terms clause and phrase 
are often carelessly confounded, each being applied with no sort of regard to its proper import. Thus, where 
L. Murray and his copyists expound their text about "the pupil's composing frequently," even the minor 
phrase, " composing frequently," is absurdly called a clause; "an entire clause of a sentence." — See Murray's 
Gram., p. 179; Alger's, 61 ; Fish's, 108 ; Ingersoll's, 180; Merchant's, 84; R. C. Smith's, 152; Weld's, 2d Ed., 
150. The term sentence also is sometimes grossly misapplied. Thus, by R. O. Smith, the phrases "James and 
William," " Thomas and John," and others similar, are called "sentences." — Smith's New Gram., pp. and 
10. So Weld absurdly writes as follows ; " A whole sentence is frequently the object of a preposition ; as, ' The 
crime of being a young man.' Being a young man, is the object of the preposition of." — Weld's E. Gram., 2d 
Edition, p. 42. The phrase, " being a young man," here depends upon " of;" but this preposition governs 
nothing but the participle " being.' 1 The construction of the word "man" is explained below, in Obs. 7th on 
Rule 6th, of Same Cases. 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — KULES. 459 

in order to complete the construction, (and only such,) must be supplied 
in parsing. 

The leading principles to be observed in the construction of sentences, 
are embraced in the following twenty- four rules, which are arranged, as 
nearly as possible, in the order of the parts of speech. 

THE KULES OF SYNTAX. 
Rule I. — Articles. 
Articles relate to the nouns which they limit. 

Rule II. — Nominatives. 

A Noun or a Pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in 
the nominative case. 

Rule III. — Apposition. 

A Noun or a personal Pronoun used to explain a preceding noun or 
pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the same case. 

Rule IV. — Possessives. 

A Noun or a Pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the name 
of the thing possessed. 

Rule V. — Objectives. 

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of an active-transitive verb or 
participle, is governed by it in the objective case. 

Rule VI. — Same Cases. 

A Noun or a Pronoun put after a verb or participle not transitive, 
agrees in case with a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the same 
thing. 

Rule VII. — Objectives. 

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of a preposition, is governed by 
it in the objective case. 

Rule VIII. — Nom. Absolute. 

A Noun or a Pronoun is put absolute in the nominative, when its case 
depends on no other word. 

Rule IX. — Adjectives. 
Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns. 

Rule X. — Pronouns. 
A Pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun 
which it represents, in person, number, and gender. 

Rule XI. — Pronouns. 

When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plural- 
ity, the Pronoun must agree with it in the plural number. 

Rule XII. — Pronouns. 

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, it 
must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken 
together. 

Rule XIII. — Pronouns. 

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by or or nor, 
it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together. 



460 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Rule XIV. — Finite Veri?.s. 
Every finite Verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person 
and number. 

Rule XV. — Finite Verbs. 

When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of 
plurality, the Verb must agree with it in the plural number. 

Rule XVI. — Finite Verbs 

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must 
agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together. 

Rule XVII. — Finite Verbs. 
When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by or or nor, it 
must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together. 

Rule XVIII. — Infinitives. 
The Infinitive Mood is governed in general by the preposition to, 
which commonly connects it to a finite verb. 

Rule XIX. — Infinitives. 
The active verbs, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see, and their 
participles, usually take the Infinitive after them witho'ut the preposi- 
tion TO. 

Rule XX. — Participles. 

Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by prep- 
ositions. 

Rule XXI. — Adverbs. 

Adverbs relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs. 

Rule XXII. — Conjunctions. 
Conjunctions connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences. 

Rule XXIIL — Prepositions. 
Prepositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts 
expressed by them. 

Rule XXIV. — Interjections. 

Interjections have no dependent construction ; they are put absolute, 
either alone, or with other words. 

GENERAL OR CRITICAL OBSERVATION'S ON" SYNTAX. 

Obs. 1. — An explanation of the relation, agreement, government, and arrangement, of words 
in sentences, constitutes that part of grammar which we call Syntax. But many grammarians, 
representing this branch of their subject as consisting of two parts only, " concord and government ," 
say little or nothing of the relation and arrangement of words, except as these are involved in the 
others. The four things are essentially different in their nature, as may be seen by the definitions 
given above, yet not so distinct in practice that they can well be made the basis of any perfect 
division of the rules of syntax. I have therefore, on this occasion, preferred the order of the parts 
of speech ; each of which will form a chapter in the Syntax of this work, as each forms a chapter 
in the Etymology. 

Obs. 2. — Agreement and concord are one and the same thing. Relation and agreement, though 
different, may yet coincide, and be taken together. The latter is moreover naturally allied to the 
former. Seven of the ten parts of speech are, with a few exceptions, incapable of any agreement . 
of these the relation and use must be explained in parsing; and all requisite agreement between 
any of the rest, is confined to words that relate to each other. For one jvord mav relate to an 
other and not agree with it ; but there is never any necessary agreement between words that have 
not a relation one to the other, or a connexion according to the sense. Any similarity happening 
between unconnected words, is no syntactical concord, "though it may rank the terms in the same 
class etymologically. 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — RULES. — OBSERVATIONS. 461 

Obs. 3. — From these observations it may be seen, that the most important and most compre- 
hensive principle of English syntax, is the simple Relation of words, according to the sense. To 
this head alone, ought to be referred all the rules of construction by which our articles, our nomina- 
tives, our adjectives, our participles, our adverbs, our conjunctions, our prepositions, and our in- 
terjections, are to be parsed. To the ordinary syntactical use of any of these, no rules of concord, 
government, or position, can at all apply. Tet so defective and erroneous are the schemes of 
syntax which are commonly found in our English grammars, that no rules of simple relation, none 
by which any of the above-named parts of speech can be consistently parsed, are in general to be 
found in them. If there are any exceptions to this censure, they are very few, and in treatises 
still marked with glaring defects in regard to the syntax of some of these parts of speech. 

Obs. 4. — Grammarians, of course, do not utter falsehoods intentionally ; but it is lamentable to 
see how often they pervert doctrine by untruths uttered ignorantly. It is the design of this 
pandect, to make every one who reads it, an intelligent judge of the perversions, as well as of the 
true doctrines, of English grammar. The following citations will show him the scope and parts 
which have commonly been assigned to our syntax: "The construction of sentences depends 
principally upon the concord or agreement, and the regimen or government, of words." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. 68; Churchill's, 120. "Words in sentences have & twofold relation to one another; 
namely, that of Concord or Agreement; and that of Government or Influence." — Dr. Adam's 
Latin and English Grammar, p. 151. "The third part of Grammar is Syntax, wmich treats of 
the agreement and construction of words in a sentence." — R. G. Greene's Grammatical Text-Booh, 
p. 15. " Syntax principally consists of two parts, Concord and Government." — Murray's Gram., 
p. 142 ; IngersolVs, 110; Alger's, 51; R. C. Smith's, 119; and many others. " Syntax consists 
of two parts, Concord and Government." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 175; Wright's, 124. "The Rules 
of Syntax may all be included under three heads, Concord, Government, and Position." — Bullions^ 
E. Gram., p. 81. " Position means the place which a word occupies in a sentence." — lb. " These 
rules may be mostly ranked under the two heads of agreement and government; the remainder 
may be termed miscellaneous." — Nutting's Gram., p. 92. "Syntax treats of the agreement, gov- 
ernment and proper arrangement of words in a sentence." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 43. This 
last-named author, in touching the text of my books, has often corrupted it, as he does here ; but 
my definitions of the tenses he copied without marring them much. The borrowing occurred as 
early as 1828, and I add this notice now, lest any should suppose me the plagiarist. 

Obs. 5. — Most of our English grammars have more rules of syntax than are needed, and yet 
are very deficient in such as are needed. To say, as some do, that articles, adjectives, and parti- 
ciples, agree, with nouns, is to teach Greek or Latin syntax, and not English. To throw, as 
Nutting does, the whole syntax of adverbs into a remark on such a ride of agreement, is to choose 
disorder for its own sake. To say, with Frost, Hall, Smith, Perley, Kirkham, Sanborn, Rand, and 
others, " The nominative case governs the verb in number and person," and again, " A verb must 
agree with its nominative case in number and person," is to confound the meaning of government 
and agreement, to say the same thing in different words, and to leave the subject of a verb still 
without a rule : for rules of government are applicable only to the words governed, and nothing 
ever agrees with that which governs it.* To say, with Murray and others, " Participles have the 
same government as the verbs from which they are derived," is to say nothing by which either 
verbs or participles may be parsed, or any of their errors corrected : those many grammarians, 
therefore, who make this their only rule for participles, leave them all without any syntax. To 
say, with Murray, Alger, and others, "Adverbs, though they have no government of case, tense, &c, 
require an appropriate situation in the sentence," is to squander words at random, and leave the 
important question unanswered, " To what do adverbs relate?" To say again, with the same 
gentlemen, " Conjunctions connect the same moods and tenses of verbs, and cases of nouns and pro- 
nouns," is to put an ungrammatical, obscure, and useless assertion, in the place of an important 
rule. To say merely, "Prepositions govern the objective case," is to rest all the syntax of prep- 
ositions on a rule that never applies to them, but which is meant only for one of the constructions 
of the objective case. To say, as many do, "Interjections require the objective case of a pronoun 
of the first person after them, and the nominative case of the second," is to tell what is utterly 
false as the words stand, and by no means true in the sense which the authors intend. Finally, 
to suppose, with Murray, that, "the Interjection does not require a distinct, appropriate rule," is in 

* In the very nature of things, all agreement consists in concurrence, correspondence, conformity, similarity, 
simeness, equality; but government is direction, control, regulation, restraint, influence, authoritative requisi- 
tion, with the implication of inequality. That these properties ought to be so far distinguished in grammar, as 
never to be supposed to co-exisi in the same terms and under the same circumstances, must be manifest to every 
reasoner. Some grammarians who seem to have been not always unaware of this, have nevertheless egregiously 
forgotten it at times. Thus Nutting, in the following remark, expresses a true doctrine, though he hns written 
it with no great accuracy: "A word in parsing: never governs the same word which it qualifies, or with which 
it agrees." — Practical Gram,., p. 108. Yet, in his syntax, in which he pretends to separate agreement from gov- 
ernment, he frames his first rule under the latter head thus: "The nominative case governs a verb." — lb., p. 
96. Lindley Murray recognizes no su n h government as this; but seems to suppose his rule for the agreement 
of a verb with its nominative to he sufficient for both verb nd nominative. He appears, however, not to have 
known that a word does not agree syntactically with an other that governs it; for, in his Exercises, he has given 
us. apparently from his own uen. the following untrue, but otherwise not very objectionable sentence: "On 
these o^nsinns, the pronoun is governed by, and consequently a,grees with, the preceding word .." — Exercises. 
8vo, ii, 70. This he corrects thus: ; ' On these occasions, the pronoun is governed by the preceding word, and 
consequently aorees with iV — Key, 8vo, ii, 204. The amendments most needed be overlooks; for the thought 
is not just, and the two verbs which are here connected with one and the same nominative, are different in form. 
See the same example, with the same variation of it, in Smith's New Oram., p. 167; and, without the change, 
in IngersolVs, p. 233 ; and Fisk's, 141. . 



462 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

admirable keeping with all the foregoing quotations, and especially with his notion of what it does 
require; namely, "the objective case of the first person:" but who dares deny that the following 
exclamation is good English ? 

" wretched we! why were we hurried down 
This lubric and adulterate age !" — Dry den. 

Obs. 6. — The truth of any doctrine in science, can be nothing else than its conformity to facts, 
or to the nature of things ; and chiefly by what he knows of the things themselves, must any one 
judge of what others say concerning them. Erroneous or inadequate views, confused or incon- 
sistent statements, are the peculiar property of those who advance them; they have, in reality, 
no relationship to science itself, because they originate in ignorance ; but all science is knowledge 
— it is knowledge methodized. What general rules are requisite for the syntactical parsing of tho 
several parts of speech in English, may be seen at once by any one who will consider for a mo- 
ment the usual construction of each. The correction of false syntax, in its various forms, will 
require more — yes, five times as many ; but such of these as answer only the latter purpose, are, 
I think, better reserved for notes under the principal rules. The doctrines which I conceive 
most worthy to form the leading canons of our syntax, are those which are expressed in the 
twenty-four rules above. If other authors prefer more, or fewer, or different principles for their 
chief rules, I must suppose, it is because they have studied the subject less. Biased, as we may 
be, both by our knowledge and by our ignorance, it is easy for men to differ respecting matters 
of expediency ; but that clearness, order, and consistency, are both expedient, and requisite, in 
didactic compositions, is what none can doubt. 

Obs. 7. — Those English grammarians who tell us, as above, that syntax is divided into parts, or 
included under a certain number of heads, have almost universally contradicted themselves by 
treating the subject without any regard to such a division ; and, at the same time, not a few 
have somehow been led into the gross error of supposing broad principles of concord or govern- 
ment where no such things exist. For example, they have invented general rules like these : 
" The adjective agrees with its noun in number, case, and gender." — Bingham's English Gram., 
p. 40. "Interjections govern the nominative case, and sometimes the objective: as, 'Othou! 
alas me /' " — lb., p. 43. "Adjectives agree with their nouns in number." — Wilbur and Livingston's 
Gram., p. 22. " Participles agree with their nouns in number." — lb., p. 23. " Every adjective 
agrees in number with some substantive expressed or understood." — Riley's Gram., Rule 8th, p. 
"77. "The article the agrees with nouns in either number: as, Tnewood, the woods." — Buckets 
Classical Grammar of the English Language, p. 84. "0! oh! ah! require the accusative case of 
a pronoun in the first person after them : as ' Ah me /' But when the second person is used, it 
requires a nominative case: as, ' thou!' " — lb., p. 87. "Two or more Nominatives in the singu- 
lar number, connected by the Conjunction or, nor, either, neither, govern a singular Verb. But 
Pronouns singular, of different persons, joined by or, either, nor, neither, govern a plural 
Verb." — lb., p. 94. "One Nominative frequently governs many Verbs." — lb., p. 95. "Parti- 
ciples are sometimes governed by the article." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 192. "An adverb, an 
adjective, or a participle, may involve in itself the force of a preposition, and govern the objective 
case." — Nutting 's Gram., p. 99. "The nominative case governs the verb."* — Greenleafs Gram., 
p. 32; Kirkham's, 176; and others. "The nominative case comes before the verb." — Bingham's 
Gram., p. 38; Wilbur and Livingston's, 23. "The Verb to be, always governs a Nominative, 
unless it be of the Infinitive Mood." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 94. "A verb in the infinitive mood 
may be governed by a verb, noun, adjective, participle, or pronoun." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 187. 
Or, (as a substitute for the foregoing rule,) say, according to this author: "A verb in the infini- 
tive mood, refers to some noun or pronoun, as its subject or actor." — lb., p. 188. Now what does 
he know of English grammar, who supposes any of these rules to be worthy of the place which 
they hold, or have held, in the halls of instruction ? 

Obs. 8. — It is a very common fault with the compilers of English grammars, to join together 
in the same rule the syntax of different parts of speech, uniting laws that must ever be applied 
separately in parsing. For example : " Rule xi. Articles and adjectives relate to nouns ex- 
pressed or understood ; and the adjectives this, that, one, two, must agree in number with the 
nouns to which they relate." — Gomly's Gram., p. 87. Now, in parsing an article, why should the 
learner have to tell all this story about adjectives f Such a mode of expressing the rule, is cer- 
tainly in bad taste ; and, after all, the syntax of adjectives is not here comprised, for they often 
relate to pronouns. " Rule hi. Every adjective and participle belongs to some noun or pronoun 
expressed or understood." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 44. Here a compiler who in his etymology 
supposes participles to be verbs, allows them no other construction than that of adjectives. His 
rule implicitly denies that they can either be parts of their verbs in the formation of tenses, or be 
governed by prepositions in the character of gerunds. To suppose that a noun may govern the 
objective case, is both absurd in itself, and contrary to all authority ; yet, among his forty-nine 

* It has been the notion of some grammarians, that the verb governs the nominative before it. This is an old 
rule, -which seems to have been very much forgotten by modern authors ; though doubtless it is as true, and as 
worthy to be perpetuated, as that which supposes the nominative to govern the verb : " Omne verbum personale 
finiti modi regit ante se expresse vel subaudife ejusdem numeri et persona? nomiuativum vel aliquid pro nomina- 
tivo: ut, ego swibo, tu legis, ille auscultaV — Despauterii Synt. fol. xvi. This Despauter was a laborious 
author, who. within fifty years after the introduction of printing, complains that he found his task heavy, on 
account of the immense number of books and opinions which he had to consult: " Necdum tamen huic operi 
ultimam manum aliter imposui, quam Apelles olim picturis : siquidem aptius exire, quum in multis turn in hac 
arte est dimcillimum, propter librorum legendorum imme7isitatem, et opinionum innumeram diversitatem."— 
Ibid., Epist. Apologelica, A. D. 1513. But if, for this reason, the task was heavy then, what is it now I 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. RULES. OBSERVATIONS. 463 

rules, this author has the following : " Rule xxv. A participial noun is sometimes governed by 
a preposition, and may govern an objective case ; as, ' George is too fond of wasting time in 
trifles.' " — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 47. Here again is the fault of which I am speaking, two 
rules in one ; and this fault is combined with an other still worse. Wasting is a participle, gov- 
erned by of; and time is a noun, governed by wasting. The latter is a declinable word, and 
found in the objective case ; the former is indeclinable, and found in no case. It is an error to 
suppose that cases are the only tilings which are susceptible of being governed ; nor is the 
brief rule, "Prepositions govern the objective case," so very clear a maxim as never to be mis- 
apprehended. If the learner infer from it, that all prepositions must necessarily govern the ob- 
jective case, or that the objective case is ahvays governed by a preposition, he will be led into a 
great mistake. 

Obs. 9. — This error of crowding things together, is still more conspicuous in the following ex- 
amples : " Rule iv. Every article, adjective, and participle, must qualify some noun, or pro- 
noun, either expressed or understood." — Nutting's Gram., p. 94. " Rule ix. The objective case 
is governed by a transitive verb or a preposition, usually coming before it." — lb., p. 98. Here 
an author who separates participles from verbs, has attempted first to compress the entire syntax 
of three different parts of speech into one short rule ; and, secondly, to embrace all the forms of 
dependence, incident to objective nouns and pronouns, in an other as short. This brevity is a 
poor exchange for the order and distribution which it prevents — especially as none of its objects 
are here reached. Articles do not relate to pronouns, unless the obsolete phrase the which is to 
be revived;* participles have other constructions than those which adjectives admit ; there are 
exceptions to the rules which tie articles to nouns, and adjectives to nouns or pronouns ; and the 
objective case may not only be governed by a participle, but may be put in apposition with an 
other objective. The objective case in English usually stands for the Latin genitive, dative, accu- 
sative, and ablative ; hence any rule that shall embrace the whole construction of this one case, 
will be the sole counterpart to four fifths of all the rules in any code of Latin syntax. Eor I 
imagine the construction of these four oblique cases, will be found to occupy at least that propor- 
tion of the syntactical rules and notes in any Latin grammar that can be found. Such rules, 
however, are often placed under false or equivocal titles ;f as if they contained the construction 
of the governing words, rather than that of the governed. And this latter error, again, has been 
transferred to most of our English grammars, to the exclusion of any rule for the proper con- 
struction of participles, of adverbs, of conjunctions, cf prepositions, or of interjections. See the 
syntax of Murray and his copyists, whose treatment of these parts of speech is noticed in the 
fifth observation above. 

Obs. 10. — It is doubtless most convenient, that, in all rules for the construction of cases, nouns 
end pronouns be taken together ; because the very same doctrines apply equally well to both, 
and a case is as distinct a thing in the mind, as a part of speech. This method, therefore, I have 
myself pursued ; and it has indeed the authority of all grammarians — not excepting those who 
violate its principles by adopting two special rules for the relative pronoun, which are not needed. 
These special rules, which I shall notice again hereafter, may be seen in Murray's Rule 6th, 
which is double, and contains them both. The most complex rule that I have admitted, is that 
which embraces the government of objectives by verbs and participles. The regimen by verbs, 
and the regimen by participles, may not improperly be reckoned distinct principles ; but the near 
alliance of participles to their verbs, seems to be a sufficient reason for preferring one rule to two, 
in this instance. 

Obs. 11. — An other common fault in the treatment of this part of grammar, is the practice of 
making many of the rules double, or even triple, in their form. Of L. Murray's twenty-two rules, 
for instance, there are six which severally consist of two distinct paragraphs ; and one is composed 
of three such parts, with examples under each. Five others, though simple in their form, are 
complex in their doctrine, and liable to the objections which have been urged above against this 
characteristic. These twelve, therefore, I either reject entirely from my catalogue, or divide and 
simplify to fit them for their purpose. In short, by comparing the twenty-two rules which were 
adopted by this popular grammarian, with the twenty-four which are given in this work, the 
reader may see, that twelve of the former have pleased me too little to have any place at all 

* Nutting's rule certainly implies that articles may relate to pronouns, though he gives no example, nor can 
he give any that is now good English ; but he may, if he pleases, quote some other modern grammatists, who 
teach the same false doctrine : as, " Rule ii. The article refers to its noun (oe peonoun) to limit its significa- 
tion." — R. G. Greene's Grammatical Text-Book, p. 18. Greene's two grammars are used extensively in the 
state of Maine, but they appear to be little known anywhere else. This author professes to inculcate " the prin- 
ciples established by Lindley Murray." If veracity, on this point, is worth any thing, it is a pity that in both 
books there are so many points which, like the foregoing parenthesis, belie this profession. He followed here 
IngersolVs Rule rv, which is this : " The article refers to a noun oe pbonoux, expressed or understood, to limit 
its signification." — Conversations on E. Gram., p. 185. 

t It is truly a matter of surprise to find under what titles or heads, many of the rules of syntax have been 
set, by some of the best scholars that have ever written on grammar. In this respect, the Latin and Greek 
grammarians are particularly censurable : but it better suits my purpose to give an example or two from one of 
the ablest of the English. Thus that elegant scholar the Rev. W. Allen: " SYNTAX OF NOUNS. 325. A 
verb agrees with its nominative case in number and person." — Elements of E. Gram., p. 131. This is in no wise 
the syntax of Xouns, but rather that of the Verb. Again : " SYNTAX OF VERBS. 405. Active Verbs gov- 
ern the accusative case ; as, I love him. "We saw them. God rules the xoorld." — lb., p. 161. This is not prop- 
erly the syntax of Verbs, but rather that of Xouns or Pronouns in the accusative or objective case. Any one 
who has but the least sense of order, must see the propriety of referring the rule to that sort of words to which 
it is applied in parsing, and not some other. Verbs are never parsed or construed by the Latter of these rules 
tor nouns by the former. 



464 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

among the latter, and that none of the remaining ten have been thought worthy to be copied 
without considerable alteration. Nor are the rules which I adopt, more nearly coincident with 
those of any other writer. I do not proffer to the schools the second-hand instructions of a mere 
compiler. In his twenty-two rules, independently of their examples, Murray has used six hun- 
dred and seventeen words, thus giving an average of twenty-eight to each rule ; whereas in the 
twenty-four rules which are presented above, the words are but four hundred and thirty-six, 
making the average less than nineteen. And yet I have not only divided some of his proposi- 
tions and extended others, but, by rejecting what was useless or erroneous, and filling up the de- 
ficiencies which mark his code, I have delivered twice the amount of doctrine in two thirds of 
the space, and furnished eleven important rules which are not contained in his grammar. Thus 
much, in this place, to those who so frequently ask, " Wherein does your book differ from Mur- 
ray's ?" 

Obs. 1 2. — Of all the systems of syntax, or of grammar, which it has been my fortune to ex- 
amine, a book which was first published by Robinson and Franklin of New York in 1839, a fair- 
looking duodecimo volume of 384 pages, under the brief but rather ostentatious title, "Tub 
Grammar of the English Language" is, I think, the most faulty, — the most remarkable for the 
magnitude, multitude, and variety, of its strange errors, inconsistencies, and defects. This singular 
performance is the work of Oliver B. Peirce, an itinerant lecturer on grammar, who dates his pre- 
face at " Rome, N. T., December 29th, 1838." Its leading characteristic is boastful innovation; 
it being full of acknowledged " contempt lor the works of other writers." — P. 379. It lays " claim 
to singularity" as a merit, and boasts of a new thing under the sun — "in a theory Radically 
New, a Grammar of the English Language; something which I believe," says the author, "has 
never before been found." — P. 9. The old scholastic notion, that because Custom is the 
arbitress of speech, novelty is excluded from grammar, this hopeful reformer thoroughly con- 
demns; "repudiating this sentiment to the full extent of it," (ib.) and "writing his theory as 
though he had never seen a book, entitled an English Grammar." — lb. And, for all the ends of 
good learning, it would have been as well or better, if he never had. His passion for novelty 
has led him not only to abandon or misapply, in an unprecedented degree, the usual terms of the 
art, but to disregard in many instances its most unquestionable principles, universal as well as 
particular. His parts of speech are- the following ten : " Names, Substitutes, Asserters, Adnames, 
Modifiers, Relatives, Connectives, Interrogatives, Replicrs, and Exclamations." — The Gram., p. 
20. His names are nouns ; his substitutes are pronouns, and any adjectives whose nouns are not 
expressed ; his asserters are verbs and participles, though the latter assert nothing ; his adnames 
are articles, adjectives whose nouns or pronouns are expressed, and adverbs that relate to adjec- 
tives; his modifiers are such adverbs as "modify the sense or sound of a whole sentence;" his 
relatives are prepositions, some of which govern no object ; his connectives are conjunctions, with 
certain adverbs and phrases ; his interrogatives and repliers are new parts of speech, very lamely 
explained; his exclamations are interjections, and "jihrases used independently; as, hapless 
choice!" — The Gram., p. 22. In parsing, he finds a world of " accommodatives ;" as, "John is 
more than five years older than William." — lb., p. 202. Here he calls the whole phrase "more 
than five years" "a secondary adname;" i. e., adjective. But, in the phrase, "more than five 
years afterwards," he would call the same words "a secondary modifier;" i. e., adverb. — lb., p. 
203. And, in the phrase, " more than five years before the war," he would call them " a secondary 
relative;" i. e., preposition. — lb., p. 204. And so of other phrases innumerable. His cases are 
five, two of which are now, " the Independent" and " the Twofold case." His " independent case" 
is somethnes the nominative in form, as "thou" and " she;" (p. 62;) sometimes the objective, as, 
"me" and "him;" (p. 62 and p. 199;) sometimes erroneously supposed to be the subject of a 
finite verb ; while his nominative is sometimes as erroneously said to have no verb. His code of 
syntax has two sorts of rules, Analytical and Synthetical. The former are professedly seventeen 
in number ; but, many of them consisting of two, three, or four distinct parts, their real number 
is more properly thirty-four. The latter are reckoned forty -five ; but if we count their separato 
parts, they are fifty-six: and these with the others make ninety. I shall not particularize their 
faults. All of them are whimsically conceived and badly written. In short, had the author art- 
fully designed to turn English grammar into a subject of contempt and ridicule, by as ugly a 
caricature of it as he could possibly invent, he could never have hit the mark more exactly than 
he has done in this "new theory," — this rash production, on which he so sincerely prides himself. 
Alone as he is, in well-nigh all his opinions, behold how prettify he talks of " common sense, the 
only sure foundation of any theory!" and says, "On this imperishable foundation — this rock of 
eternal endurance — I rear my superstructure, the edifice of scientific truth, the temple of Gram- 
matical consistency!" — Pence's Preface, p. 7. 

Obs. 13. — For the teaching of different languages, it has been thought very desirable to have 
" a Series of grammars, Greek, Latin, English, &c, all, so far as general principles are concerned, 
upon the same plan, and as nearly in the same words as the genius of the languages would per- 
mit." — See Bullions's Principles of E. Gram., 2d Ed., pp. iv and vi. This scheme necessarily 
demands a minute comparison not only of the several languages themselves, but also of the 
various grammars in which their principles, whether general or particular, are developed. For 
by no other means can it be ascertained to what extent uniformity of this kind will be either 
profitable to the learner, or consistent with truth. Some books have been published, which, it is 
pretended, are thus accommodated to one an other, and to the languages of which they treat. 
But, in view of the fact, that the Latin or the Greek grammars now extant, (to say nothing of 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. KULES. OBSERVATIONS. 455 

the French, Spanish, and others,) are almost as various and as faulty as the English, I am appre- 
hensive that this is a desideratum not soon to be realized, — a design more plausible in the pros- 
pectus, than feasible in the attempt. At any rate, the grammars of different languages must 
needs differ as much as do the languages themselves, otherwise some of their principles will of 
course be false ; and we have already seen that the nonobservance of this has been a fruitful 
source of error in respect to English syntax. The achievement, however, is not altogether im- 
possible, if a man of competent learning will devote to it a sufficient degree of labour. But the 
mere revising or altering of some one grammar in each language, can scarcely amount to any 
thing more than a pretence of improvement. Waiving the pettiness of compiling upon the basis 
of an other man's compilation, the foundation of a good grammar for any language, must be both 
deeper and broader than all the works which Professor Bullions has selected to build upon : for 
the Greek, than Dr. Moor's " Elementa Lingua Grozcoe,;" for the Latin, than Dr. Adam's "Rudi- 
ments of Latin and English Grammar ;" for the English, than Murray's "English Grammar" or 
Lennie's "Principles of English Grammar ;" which last work, in fact, the learned gentleman pre- 
ferred, though he pretends to have mended the code of Murray. But, certainly, Lennie never 
supposed himself a copyist of Murray ; nor was he to much extent an imitator of him, either in 
method or in style. 

Obs. 14. — "We have, then, in this now American form of " The Principles of English Grammar" 
Lennie's very compact little book, altered, enlarged, and bearing on its title-page (which is other- 
wise in the very words of Lennie) an other author's name, and, in its early editions, the false 
and self-accusing inscription, " (On the Plan of Murray's Grammar.) " And this work, 
claiming to have been approved "by the most competent judges," now challenges the praise not 
only of being "better adapted to the use of academies and schools than any yet published" but 
of so presenting " the rules and principles of general grammar, as that they may apply to, and be 
in perfect harmony with, the grammars of the dead languages." — Recommendations, p. iv. These 
are admirable professions for a critical author to publish ; especially, as every rule or principle of 
General Grammar, condemning as it must whoever violates it, cannot but "be in perfect harmony 
with" every tiling that is true. In this model for all grammars, Latin, Greek, &c, the doctrines 
of punctuation, of abbreviations, and of capital letters, and also sections on the rhetorical divi- 
sions of a discourse, the different kinds of composition, the different kinds of prose composition, 
and the different kinds of poetry, are made parts of the Syntax; while bis hints for correct and 
elegant writing, and his section on the composition of letters and themes, which other writers 
suppose to belong rather to syntax, are here subjoined as parts of Prosody. In the exercises for 
parsing appended to his Etymology, the Doctor furnishes twenty -five Pules of Syntax, which, he 
says, " are not intended to be committed to memory, but to be used as directions to the beginner 
in parsing the exercises under them." — E. Gram., p. 15. Then, for his syntax proper, he copies 
from Lennie, with some alterations, thirty-four other rules, nine of which are double, and all are 
jumbled together by both authors, without any regard to the distinction of concord and govern- 
ment, so common in the grammars of the dead languages, and even, so far as I can discover, 
without any principle of arrangement whatever. They profess indeed to have placed those rules 
first, which are eaisest to learn, and oftenest to bo applied ; but the syntax of articles, which 
even on this principle should have formed the first of the series, is placed by Lennie as the thirty- 
fourth rule, and by his amender as the thirty-second. To all this complexity the latter adds 
twenty-two Special Pules, with an abundance of "Notes," " Observations," and "Remarks" dis- 
tinguished by these titles, on some principle which no one but the author can understand. 
Lastly, his method of syntactical parsing is not only mixed up with etymological questions and 
answers, but his directions for it, with their exemplification, are perplcxingly at variance with 
his own specimen of the performance. See his book, pages 131 and 133. So much for this grand 
scheme. 

Ods. 15. — Strictures like the foregoing, did they not involve the defence of grammar itself, so 
as to bear upon interests more important than the success or failure of an elementary book, might 
well be withheld through motives of charity, economy, and peace. There is many a grammar 
now extant, concerning which a truly critical reader may know more at first sight, than ever did 
he that made it. What such a reader will be inclined to rate beneath criticism, an other perhaps 
will confidently pronounce above it. If my remarks are just, let the one approve them for the 
other's sake. For what becomes of the teaching of grammar, when that which is received as the 
most excellent method, must be exempted from censure by reason of its utter worthlessness ? 
And what becomes of Universal Syntax, when the imperfect systems of the Latin and Greek 
grammars, in stead of being amended, are modelled to the grossest faults of what is worthless in 
our own ?* 

* What " the Series of Grammars, English, Latin, and Greek, on the Same Plan," will ultimately be, — new- 
many treatises for each or any of the languages it will probably contain, — what uniformity will be found in the 
distribution of their several sorts and sizes, — or what sameness they will have, except that which is bestowed 
by the binders, — cannot yet be stated with any certainty. It appears now, in 1S50, that the scheme has thus far 
resulted in the production of three remarkably different grammars, for the English part of the series, and two 
more, a Latin grammar and a Greek, which resemble each other, or any of these, as little. In these works, 
abound changes and discrepances, sometimes indicating a great unsettlement of "principles" or "plan," and 
often exciting our special wonder at the extraordinary variety of teaching, which has been claimed to be, " as 
nearly in the same words as the genius of the languages would permit!" In what should have been uniform, 
and easily might have been so, these grammars are rather remarkably diverse ! Uniformity in the order, num- 
ber, or phraseology of the Rules of Syntax, even for our own language, seems scarcely yet to have entered this 
" Same Plan" at all ! The " onward progress of English grammar," or, rather, of the author's studies therein, 
has already, within "fifteen years," greatly varied, from the first model of the " Series,'" his own idea of a good 

30 



468 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 16. — What arrangement of Latin or Greek syntax may be best in itself, I am not now 
concerned to show. Lily did not divide his, as others have divided the subject since ; but first 
stated briefly his three concords, and then proceeded to what he caUed the construction of the 
several parts of speech, taking them in their order. The three concords of Lily are the following : 
(1.) Of the Nominative and Verb; to which the accusative before an infinitive, and the collective 
noun with a plural verb, are reckoned exceptions ; while the agreement of a verb or pronoun 
with two or more nouns, is referred to the figure syllepsis. (2.) Of the Substantive and Adjective; 
under which the agreement of participles, and of some pronouns, is placed in the form of a note. 
(3.) Of the Relative and Antecedent ; after which the two special rules for the cases of relatives 
are given as underparts. Dr. Adam divided his syntax into two parts ; of Simple Sentences, and 
of Compound Sentences. His three concords are the following: (1.) Of one Substantive with an 
Other ; which construction is placed by Lily and many others among the figures of syntax, and 
is called apposition. (2.) Of an Adjective with a Substantive; under which principle, we are told 
to take adjective pronouas and participles. (3.) Of a Verb with a Nominative ; under which, the 
collective noun with a verb of either number, is noticed in an observation. The construction of 
relatives, of conjunctions, of comparatives, and of words put absolute, this author reserves for the 
second part of his syntax ; and the agreement of plural verbs or pronouns with joint nominatives 
or antecedents, which Ruddiuian places in an observation on his four concords, is here absurdly 
reckoned a part of the construction of conjunctions. Various divisions and subdivisions of the 
Latin syntax, with special dispositions of some particular principles of it, may be . seen in the 
elaborate grammars of Despauter, Prat, Ruddiman, Grant, and other writers. And here it may 
be proper to observe, that, the mixing of syntax with etymology, after the manner of Ingersoll, 
Kirkham, R. W. Green, R. C. Smith, Sanborn, Pelton, Hazen, Parkhurst, Parker and Pox, Weld, 
and others, is a modern innovation, pernicious to both ; either topic being sufficiently comprehen- 
sive, and sufficiently difficult, when they are treated separately ; and each having, in some in- 
stances, employed the pens of able writers almost to the exclusion of the other. 

Obs. 17* — The syntax of any language must needs conform to the peculiarities of its etymology, 
and also be consistent with itself; for all will expect better things of a scholar, than to lay down 
positions in one part of his grammar, that are irreconcilable with what he has stated in an other. 
The English language, having few inflections, has also few concords or agreements, and still fewer 
governments. Articles, adjectives, and participles, which in many other languages agree with 
their nouns in gender, number, and case, have usually, in English, no modifications in which they 
can agree with their nouns. Yet Lowth says, " The adjective in English, having no variation of 
gender and number, cannot but agree with the substantive in these respects." — Short Introd. to 
Gram., p. 86. What then is the agreement of words? Can it be anything else than their 
similarity in some common property or modification? And is it not obvious, that no two things 
in nature can at all agree, or be alike, except in some quality or accident which belongs to each 
of them ? Yet how often have Murray and others, as well as Lowth, forgotten this 1 To give 
one instance out of many: " Gender has respect only to the third person singular of the pronouns, 
he, she, it" — Murray, J. Peirce, Flint, Lyon, Bacon, Russell, Fish, Maltby, Alger, Miller, Merchant, 
Kirkham, and other careless copyists. Yet, according to these same gentlemen, " Gender is the 
distinction of nouns, with regard to sex;" and, "Pronouns must always agree with their ante- 
cedents, and the nouns for which they stand, in gender." Now, not one of these three careless 
assertions can possibly be reconciled with either of the others ! 

Obs. 18. — Government has respect only to nouns, pronouns, verbs, participles, and preposi- 
tions ; the other five parts of speech neither govern nor are governed. The governing words may 
be either nouns, or verbs, or participles, or prepositions ; the words governed are either nouns, or 
pronouns, or verbs, or participles. In parsing, the learner must remember that the rules of 
government are not to be applied to the governing words, but to those which are governed; and 
which, for the sake of brevity, are often technically named after the particular form or modifica- 
tion assumed; as, possessives, objectives, infinitives, gerundives. These are the only things in 
English, that can properly be said to be subject to government ; and these are always so, in their 
own names ; unless we except such infinitives as stand in the place of nominatives. Gerundives 
are participles governed by prepositions ; but, there being little or no occasion to distinguish these 
from other participles, we seldom use this name. The Latin Gerund differs from a participle, and 
the English Gerundive differs from a participial noun. The participial noun may be the sub- 
ject or the object of a verb, or may govern the possessive case before it, like any other noun ; but 
the true English gerundive, being essentially a participle, and governing an object after it, like 

grammar ; and, though such changes har consistency, a future progress, real or imaginary, may likewise, with 
as good reason, vary it yet as much more. In the preface to the work of 1849, it is said: " This, though not 
essentially different from the former, is yet in some respects a new work. It has been almost entirely rewrit- 
ten." And again: "The Syntax is much fuller than in the former work; and though the rules are not differ- 
ent, they are arranged in a different order." So it is proved, that the model needed remodelling; and that the 
Syntax, especially, was defective, in matter as well as in order. The suggestions, that " the rules are not differ- 
ent" and the works, " not essentially" so, will sound best to those who shall never compare them. The old 
code has thirty-four chief, and twenty-two " special rules;" the new has twenty chief, thirty-six " special," and 
one " general rule." Among all these, we shall scarcely find exact sameness preserved in so many as half a 
dozen instances. Of the old thirty-four, fourteen only were judged worthy to remain as principal rules; and 
two of these have no claim at all to such rank, one of them being quite useless. Of the twenty now made chief, 
five are new to " the Series of Grammars," and three of these exceedingly resemble as many of mine; five are 
slightly altered, and five greatly, from their predecessors among the old ; one is the first half of an old rule ; 
one is an old subordinate rule, altered and elevated ; and three are as they were before, their numbers and rela- 
tive positions excepted ! 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — RULES. — OBSERVATIONS. 467 

any other participle, is itself governed only by a preposition. At least, this is its usual and 
allowed construction, and no other is acknowledged to be indisputably right. 

Obs. 19. — The simple Relations of words in English, (or those several uses of the parts of 
speech which we may refer to this head,) are the following nine : (1.) Of Articles to nouns, by 
Rule 1st ; (2.) Of Nominatives to verbs, by Rule 2d ; (3.) Of Nominatives- absolute or indepen- 
dent, by Rule 8th ; (4.) Of Adjectives to nouns or pronouns, by Rule 9th ; (5 ) Of Participles to 
nouns or pronouns, by Rule 20th; (6.) Of Adverbs to verbs, participles, &c, by Rule 21st; (7.) 
Of Conjunctions as connecting words, phrases, or sentences, by Rule 22nd; (8.) Of Prepositions 
as showing the relations of things, by Rule 23d ; (9.) Of Interjections as being used indepen- 
dently, by Rule 24th. 

Obs. 20. — The syntactical Agreements in English, though actually much fewer than those 
which occur in Latin, Greek, or French, may easily be so reckoned as to amount to double, or 
even triple, the number usually spoken of by the old grammarians. The twenty -four rules above, 
embrace the following ten heads, which may not improperly be taken for so many distinct con- 
cords: (1.) Of a Noun or Pronoun in direct apposition with another, by Rule 3d; (2.) Of a Noun 
or Pronoun after a verb or participle not transitive, by Rule 6th; (3.) Of a Pronoun with its 
antecedent, by Rule 10th; (4.) Of a Pronoun with a collective noun, by Rule 11th; (5.) Of a 
Pronoun with joint antecedents, by Rule 12th; (6.) Of a Pronoun with disjunct antecedents, by 
Rule 13th; (7.) Of a Verb with its nominative, by Rule 14th; (8.) Of a Verb with a collective 
noun, by Rule 15th; (9.) Of a Verb with joint nominatives, by Rule 16th; (10.) Of a Verb with 
disjunct nominatives, by Rule 17th. To these may be added two other special concords, less 
common and less important, which will be explained in notes under the rules: (11.) Of one Verb 
with an other, in mood, tense, and form, when two are connected so as to agree with the same 
nominative; (12.) Of Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, with their nouns, in number. 

Obs. 21. — Again, by a different mode of reckoning them, the concords or the general principles 
of agreement, in our language, may be made to be only three or four ; and some of these much 
less general, than they are in other languages : (1.) Words in apposition agree in case, according 
to Rule 3d; of which principle, Rule 6th may be considered a modification. (2.) Pronouns agree 
with their nouns, in person, number, and gender, according to Rule 10th; of which principle, Rules 
11th, 12th, and 13th, may be reckoned modifications. (3.) Verbs agree with their nominatives, in 
person and number, according to Rule 14th; of which principle Rules 15th, 16th, and 17th, and 
the occasional agreement of one verb with an other, may be esteemed mere modifications. (4.) 
Some adjectives agree with their nouns in number. These make up the twelve concords above 
enumerated. 

Obs. 22. — The rules of Government in the best Latin grammars are about sixty; and these are 
usually distributed (though not very properly) under three heads ; "1. Of Nouns. 2. Of Verbs. 
3. Of Words indeclinable." — Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 170. " Regimen est triplex ; 1. Norninum. 
2. Verborum. 3. Vocum indeclinab ilium." — Ruddiman's Gram., p. 138. This division of the 
subject brings all the titles of the rules wrong. For example, if the rule be, " Active verbs 
govern the accusative case," this is not properly "the government of verbs," but rather the gov- 
ernment of the accusative by verbs. At least, such titles are equivocal, and likely to mislead the 
learner. The governments in English are only seven, and these are expressed, perhaps with 
sufficient distinctness, in six of the foregoing rules : (1.) Of Possessives by nouns, in Rule 4th ; 
(2.) Of Objectives by verbs, in Rule 5th; (3.) Of Objectives by participles, in Rule 5th; (4.) Of 
Objectives by prepositions, in Rule 7th; (5.) Of Infinitives by the preposition to, in Rule 18th; 
(6.) Of Infinitives by the verbs bid, dare, &c, in Rule 19th ; (7.) Of Participles by prepositions, 
in Rule 20th. 

Obs. 23. — The Arrangement of words, (which will be sufficiently treated of in the observations 
hereafter to be made on the several rules of construction.) is an important part of syntax, in 
which not only the beauty but the propriety of language is intimately concerned, and to which 
particular attention should therefore be paid in composition. But it is to be remembered, that 
the mere collocation of words in a sentence never affects the method of parsing them : on the 
contrary, the same words, however placed, are always to be parsed in precisely the same way, so 
long as they express precisely the same meaning. In order to show that we have parsed any 
part of an inverted or difficult sentence rightly, we are at liberty to declare the meaning by any 
arrangement which will make the construction more obvious, provided we retain both the sense 
and all the words unaltered ; but to drop or alter any word, is to pervert the text under pre- 
tence of resolving it, and to make a mockery of parsing. Grammar rightly learned, enables 
one to understand both the sense and the construction of whatsoever is rightly written; 
and he who reads what he does not understand, reads to little purpose. With great indignity 
to the muses, several pretenders to grammar have foolishly taught, that, "In parsing poetry, in 
order to come at the meaning of the author, the learner will find it necessary to transpose 
his language." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 166. See also the books of Merchant, Wilcox, 0. B. 
Peirce, Hull, Smith, Felton, and others, to the same effect. To what purpose can he transpose the 
words of a sentence, who does not first see what they mean, and how to explain or parse them 
as they stand ? 

Obs. 24. — Errors innumerable have been introduced into the common modes of parsing, through 
a false notion of what constitutes a simple sentence. Lowth, Adam, Murray, Gould, Smith, 
Ingersoll, Comly, Lennie, Hiley, Bullions, Wells, and many others, say, " A simple sentence has 
in it but one subject, and one finite verb: as, 'Life is short.' " — L. Murray's Gram., p. 141. In ac- 



468 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

cordance with this assertion, some assume, that, " Every nominative has its own verb expressed or 
understood;" and that, " Every verb (except in the infinitive mood and participie) has its own 
nominative expressed or understood/' — Bullions' s E. Gram., p. 87. The adopters of these 
dogmas, of course think it right to supply a nominative whenever they do not find a separate one 
expressed for every finite verb, and a verb whenever they do not find a separate one expressed for 
every nominative. This mode of interpretation not only precludes the agreement of a verb with 
two or more nominatives, so as to render nugatory two of the most important rules of these very 
gentlemen's syntax ; but, what is worse, it perverts many a plain, simple, and perfect sentence, 
to a form which its author did not choose, and a meaning which he never intended. Suppose, 
for example, the text to be, "A good constitution and good laws make good subjects." — Web- 
ster' 1 s Essays, p. 152. Does not the verb make agree with constitution and laws, taken conjointly? 
and is it not a perversion of the sentence to interpret it otherwise ? Away then with all this 
needless subaudition! Bat while we thus deny that there can be a true ellipsis of what is not 
necessary to the construction, it is not to bo denied that there are true ellipses, and in some men's 
style very many. The assumption of 0. B. Peirce, that no correct sentence is elliptical, and his 
impracticable project of a grammar founded on this principle, are among the grossest of possible 
absurdities. 

Obs. 25. — Dr. "Wilson says, "There maybe several subjects to the same verb, several verbs to 
the same subject, or several objects to the same verb, and the sentence be simple. But when the 
sentence remains simple, the same verb must be differently affected by its several adjuncts, or the 
sense liable to be altered by a separation. If the verb or the subject be affected in the same man- 
ner, or the sentence is resolvable into more, it is compounded. Thus, ' Violet, indigo, blue, green, 
yellow, orange, and red, mixed in due proportion, produce white,' is a simple sentence, for the 
subject is indivisible. But, ' Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red, are refrangible 
rays of light,' is a compound sentence, and may be separated into seven." — Essay on Gram., p. 
186. The propriety of the distinction here made, is at least questionable ; and I incline to con- 
sider the second example a simple sentence, as weU as the first ; because what the writer calls a 
separation into seven, involves a change of are to is, and of rays to ray, as well as a sevenfold 
repetition of this altered predicate, "is a refrangible ray of light." But the parser, in interpreting 
the words of others, and expounding the construction of what is written, has no right to alter 
anything in this manner. Nor do I admit that he has a right to insert or repeat anything 
needlessly ; for the nature of a sentence, or the syntax of some of its words, may often be altered 
without change of the sense, or of any word for an other: as, " ' A wall seven feet high;' that is, 
'A wall which is seven feet high.' " — Hiley's Gram., p. 109. " ' He spoke and acted prudently;' 
that is, ' He spoke prudently, and he acted prudently.' " — Ibid. "'He spoke and acted wisely;' 
that is, 'He spoke wisely, and he acted wisely.'" — Murray's Gram., p. 219; Alger's, 70; R. G. 
Smith's, 183; Weld's, 192; and others. By this notion of ellipsis, the connexion or joint relation 
of words is destroyed. 

Obs. 26. — Dr. Adam, who thought the division of sentences into simple and compound, of 
sufficient importance to be made the basis of a general division of syntax into two parts, has de- 
fined a simple sentence to be, " that which has but one nominative, and one finite verb ;" and a 
compound sentence, "that which has more than one nominative, or one finite verb." And of the 
latter he gives the following erroneous and self-contradictory account : " A compound sentence is 
made up of two or more simple sentences or phrases, and is commonly called a Period. The parts 
of which a compound sentence consists, are called Members or Clauses. In every compound sen- 
tence there are either several subjects and one attribute, or several attributes and one subject, or 
both several subjects and several attributes ; that is, there are either several nominatives applied 
to the same verb, or several verbs applied to the same nominative, or both. Every verb marks a 
judgment or attribute, and every attribute must have a subject. There must, therefore, be in 
every sentence or period, as many propositions as there are verbs of a finite mode. Sentences are 
compounded by means of relatives and conjunctions ; as, Happy is the man who loveth religion, 
and practiseth virtue." — Adam's Gram., p. 202; Gould's, 199; and others. 

Obs. 27. — Now if every compound sentence consists of such parts, members, or clauses, as are 
in themselves sentences, either simple or compound, either elliptical or complete ; it is plain, in the 
first place, that the term "phrases'" is misapplied above, because a phrase is properly only a part 
of some simple sentence. And if " a simple sentence is that which has but one nominative and 
one finite verb," and "a compound sentence is made up of two or more simple sentences," it fol- 
lows, since " all sentences are either simple or compound," that, in no sentence, can there be " either 
several nominatives applied to the same verb, or several verbs applied to the same nominative." 
What, therefore, this author regarded as the characteristic of all compound sentences, is, according 
to his own previous positions, utterly impossible to any sentence. Nor is it less repugnant to his 
subsequent doctrine, that, " Sentences are compounded by means of relatives and conjunctions ;" 
for, according to his notion, " A conjunction is an indeclinable word, which serves to join sentences 
together." — Adam's Gram., p. 149. It is assumed, that, "In every sentence there must be a verb 
and a nominative expressed or understood." — lb., p. 151. Now if there happen to be two nom- 
inatives to one verb, as when it was said, "Even the winds and the sea obey him ;" this cannot 
be anything more than a simple sentence; because one single verb is a thing indivisible, and how 
can we suppose it to form the most essential part of two different sentences at once ? 

Obs. 28. — The distinction, or real difference, between those simple sentences in which two or 
more nominatives or verbs are taken conjointly, and those compound sentences in which there is 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — METHODS OF ANALYSIS. 469 

an ellipsis of some of the nominatives or verbs, is not always easy to be known or fixed ; because, 
in many instances, a supposed ellipsis, without at all affecting the sense, may obviously change 
the construction, and consequently the nature of the sentence. For example: "And they all for- 
sook him, and [they all] fled." — Mark, xiv, 50. Some will say, that the words in brackets are 
here understood. I may deny it, because they are needless ; and nothing needless can form a true 
ellipsis. To the supplying of useless words, if we admit the principle, there may be no end ; and 
the notion that conjunctions join sentences only, opens a wide door for it. For example : " And 
that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared G-od, and eschewed evil." — Job, i, 1. No 
additional words will make this clause any plainer, and none are really necessary to the construc- 
tion; yet some grammarians will parse it with the following impletions, or more : "And that man 
was a perfect man, and he was an upright man, and he ivas one man that feared God, and thai 
eschewed evil things." It is easy to see how tins liberty of interpretation, or of interpolation, will 
change simple sentences to compound sentences, as well as alter the nature and relation of many 
particular words ; and at the same time, it takes away totally those peculiarities of construction 
by which Dr. Adam and others would recognize a sentence as being compound. What then ? are 
there not two kinds of sentences ? Yes, truly; but these authors are wrong in their notions and 
definitions of both. Joint nominatives or joint verbs may occur in either ; but they belong pri- 
marily to some simple sentences, and only for that reason are found in any that are compound. 
A sentence, too, may possibly be made compound, when a simple one would express the whole 
meaning as well or better ; as, " And [David] smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to 
Gazer." — 2 Sam., v, 25. Here, if we omit the words in Italics, the sentence will become simple, 
not elliptical. 

THE ANALYZING OF SENTENCES. 

To analyze a sentence, is, to resolve it into some species of constituent 
parts, but most properly into words, its first significant elements, and to 
point out their several relations and powers in the given connexion. 

The component parts of a sentence are members, clauses, phrases, or 
ivords. Some sentences, which are short and simple, can only be divided 
into their words ; others, which are long and complex, may be resolved 
into parts again and again divisible. 

Of analysis applicable to sentences, there are several different methods ; 
and, so far as their difference may compatibly aid the application of dif- 
ferent principles of the science of grammar, there may be an advantage 
in the occasional use of each. 

FIRST METHOD OF ANALYSIS. 

Sentences not simple may be reduced to their constituent members, clauses, or 
simple sentences ; and the means by which these are united, may be shown. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE ANALYZED. 
" Even the Atheist, who tells us that the universe is self-existent and indestructible 
— even he, who, iustead of seeing the traces of a manifold wisdom in its manifold 
varieties, sees nothing in them all but the exquisite structures and the lofty dimen- 
sions of materialism — even he, who would despoil creation of its God, cannot look 
upon its golden suns, and their accompanying systems, without the solemn impres- 
sion of a magnificence that fixes and overpowers him." — Dr. Chalmers, Discourses 
on Revelation and Astronomy, p. 231. 

Analysis. — This is a compound sentence, consisting of three complex members, which are separated by the 
two dashes. The three members are united in one sentence, by a suspension of the sense at each dash, and by 
two virtual repetitions of the subject, " Atheist" through the pronoun " he" put in the same case, and repre- 
senting this noun. The sense mainly intended is not brought out till the period ends. Each of the three mem- 
bers is complex, because each has not only a relative clause, commencing with " ivho" but also an antecedent 
word which makes sense with " cannot look" &c. The first of these relative clauses involves also a subordi- 
nate, supplementary clause, — " the universe is self-existent and indestructible" — introduced after the verb 
'■'•tells" by the conjunction "that." The last phrase, "without the solemn impression" &c, which is sub- 
joined by " ivithout" to "cannot look" embraces likewise a subordinate, relative clause, — "that fixes and over- 
powers him" — which has two verbs; the whole, antecedent and all, being but an adjunct of an adjunct, yet an 
essential element of the sentence. 

SECOND METHOD OF ANALYSIS. 
Simple sentences, or the simple members of compound sentences, may be resolved 
into their principal and their subordinate parts ; the subject, the verb, and the 
case put after or governed by the verb, being first pointed out as the principal 



470 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

parts ; and the other words being then detailed as adjuncts to these, according to 
the sense, or as adjuncts to adjuncts. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE ANALYZED. 
" Fear naturally quickens the flight of guilt. Rasselas could not catch the fugi- 
tive, with his utmost efforts ; but, resolving to weary, by perseverance, him whom 
he could not surpass in speed, he pressed on till the foot of the mountain stopped 
his course." — Dr. Johnson, Rasselas, p. 23. 

Analysis. — The first period here is a simple sentence. Its principal parts are — Fear, quickens, flight; Fear 
being the subject, quickens the verb, and flight the object. Fear has no adjunct ; naturally is an adjunct of 
quickens; the and of guilt are adjuncts of flight. The second period is composed of several clauses, or simple 
members, united. The first of these is also a simple sentence, having three principal parts — Rasselas, could 
catch, and fugitive; the subject, the verb, and its object, in their order. Not is added to could catch, reversing 
the meaning; the is an adjunct to fugitive; with joins its phrase to could not catch; but his and utmost are 
adjuncts of efforts. The word but connects the two chief members as parts of one sentence. " Resolving to 
wear?/," is an adjunct to the prououu he, which stands before pressed. " By perseverance," is an adjunct to 
weary. Him is governed by weary, and is the antecedent to whom, " Whom he could not surpass in speed," 
is a relative clause, or subordinate simple member, having three principal parts — he, could surpass, and whom. 
Not and in speed are adjuucts to the verb could surpass. " He pressed on," is an other simple member, or sen- 
tence, and the chief clause here used, the others being subjoined to this. Its principal parts are two, he and 
pressed ; the latter taking the particle on as an adjunct, and being intransitive. The words dependent on the 
nominative he, (to wit, resolving, &c.,) have already been mentioned. Till is a conjunctive adverb of time, 
connecting the concluding clause to pressed on. '■'•The foot of the mountain stopped his course,'" is a subordi- 
nate clause and simple member, whosj principal parts are — the subject foot, the verb stopped, and the object 
course. The adjuncts of foot are the and of the mountain; the verb in this sentence has no adjunct but course, 
which is better reckoned a principal word ; lastly, his is an adjunct to course, and governed by it. 

THIRD METHOD OF ANALYSTS. 
Sentences may he 'partially analyzed by a resolution into their subjects and their 
predicates, a method which some late grammarians have borrowed from the logi- 
cians ; the grammatical subject with its adjuncts, being taken for the logical subject ; 
and the finite verb, which some call the grammatical predicate* being, with its sub- 
sequent case and the adjuncts of both, denominated the predicate, or the logical pre- 
dicate. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE ANALYZED. 

" Such is the emptiness of human enjoyment, that we are always impatient of the 
present. Attainment is followed by neglect, and possession, by disgust. Few mo- 
ments are more pleasing than those in which the mind is concerting measures for a 
new undertaking. From the first hint that wakens the fancy, to the hour of actual 
execution, all is improvement and progress, triumph and felicity." — Dr. Johnson, 
RamMer. 

Analysis. — Here the fir6t period is a compound sentence, containing two clauses, which are connected by that. 
In the first clause, emptiness is the grammatical subject, and " the emptiness of human enjoyment" is the logi- 
cal. Is some would call the grammatical predicate, and " Such is," or is such, the logical ; but the latter consists, 
as the majority teach, of " the copula" is, and " the attribute," or "predicate," such. In the second clause, 
(which explains the import of '•'•Such,") the subject is we; which is unmodified, and in which therefore the logical 
form and the grammatical coincide and are the same. Are may here be called the grammatical predicate ; and 
" are always impatient of the present," the logical. The second period, too, is a compound sentence, having 
two clauses, which are connected by and. Attainment is the subject of the former; and, "is followed by neg- 
lect," is the predicate. In the latter, 2>°ssession alone is the subject ; and, u [is followed'] by disgust," is the 
predicate ; the verb is followed being understood at the comma. The third period, likewise, is a compound, 

* "The grammatical predicate is a verb." — Butler's Pract. Gram., 1845, p. 135. "The grammatical predi- 
cate is a finite verb." — Wells's School Gram., 1850, p. 185. " The grammatical predicate is either a verb alone, 
or the copula sum [some part of the verb be] with a noun or adjective." — Andrews and Stoddard's Lot. Gram., 
p. 162. " The predicate consists of two parts, — the verb, or copula, and that which is asserted by it, called the 
attribute; as, ' Snow is white.'' " — Greene's Analysis, p. 15. " The grammatical predicate consists of the attri- 
bute and copula, not modified by other words." — Bullions, Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 129. "The logical 
predicate is the grammatical, with all the words or phrases that modify it." — lb., p. 130. "The Grammatical 
predicate is the word or words containing the simple affirmation, made respecting the subject."— Bullions, 
Latin Gram., p. 269. " Every proposition necessarily consists of these three parts ; [the subject, the predicate, 
and the copula;] but then it is not alike needful, that they be all severally expressed in words ; because the 
copula is often included in the term of the predicate ; as when we say, he sits : which imports the same as, he 
is sitting" — Duncan's Logic, p. 105. In respect to this Third Method of Analysis, it is questionable, whether 
a noun or an adjective which follows the verb and forms part of the assertion, is to be included in " the gram- 
matical predicate" or not. Wells says, No: " It would destroy at once all distinction between the grammatical 
and the logical predicate." — School Gram., p. 185. An other question is, whether the copula, (is, was, or the 
like,) which the logicians discriminate, should be included as part of the logical predicate, when it occurs as a 
distinct word. The prevalent practice of the grammatical analyzers is, so to include it, — a practice which in 
itself is not very "logical." The distinction of subjects and predicates as "grammatical and logical," is but a 
recent one. In some grammars, the partition used in logic is copied without change, except perhaps of words: 
as, "There are, in sentences, a subject, a predicate, and a copula."— Jos. R. Chandler: Gram, of 1821, p. 
103 ; Gram, of 1847, p. 110. The logicians, however, and those who copy them, may have been hitherto at fault 
in recognizing and specifying their " copula." Mulligan forcibly argues that the verb of being is no more en- 
titled to this name than is every other verb. (See his " Exposition," § 46.) If he is right in this, the " copula" 
of the logicians (and, in my opinion, his own also) is a mere figment of the brain, there being nothing that an- 
swers to the definition of the thing or to the true use of the word. 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — METHODS OF ANALYSIS. 471 

having three parts, with the two connectives than and which. Here we have moments for the first grammatical 
subject, and Few moments for the logical ; then, are for the grammatical predicate, and are more pleasing for 
the logical ; or, if we choose to say so, for " the copula and the attribute." " Than those" is an elliptical mem- 
ber, meaning, "than are those moments" or, "than those moments are pleasi ng;" both subject and predicate 
are wholly suppressed, except that those is reckoned a part of the logical subject. In which is an adjunct of is 
concerting, and serves well to connect the members, because which represents those, i e. those moments. Mind, 
or the mind, is the next subject of affirmation ; and is concerting, or, "is concerting measures for a new under- 
taking" is the predicate or matter affirmed. Lastly, the fourth period, like the rest, is compound. The phrases 
commencing with From and to, describe a period of time, and are adjuncts of the verb is. The former contains 
a subordinate relative clause, of which that (representing hint) is the subject, and wakens, or wakens the fancy, 
the predicate. Of the principal clause, the word all, taken as a noun, is the subject, whether grammatical or 
logical; and "the copula," or " grammatical predicate," is, becomes, with its adjuncts and the nominatives 
following, the logical predicate. 

FOURTH METHOD OF ANALYSIS. 

All syntax is founded on the relation of words one to an other, and the connex- 
ion of clauses and phrases, according to the sense. Hence sentences may be, in 
some sort, analyzed, and perhaps profitably, by the tracing of such relation or con- 
nexion, from link to link, through a series of words, beginning and ending with such 
as are somewhat remote from each other, yet within the period. Thus : — 

EXAMPLES ANALYZED. 

1. "Swift would say, 'The thing has not life enough in it to keep it sweet ;' John- 
son, ' The creature possesses not vitality sufficient to preserve it from putrefaction.' " 
— Matt. Harrison, on the English Language, p. 102. 

Analysis. — What is the general sense of this passage ? and what, the chain of connexion between the words 
Swift and putrefaction t The period is designed to show, that Swift preferred words of Saxon origin ; and 
Johnson, of Latin. It has in contrast two coordinate members, tacitly connected ; the verb would say being 
understood after Johnson, and perhaps also the particle but, after the semicolon. Swift is the subject of would 
say ; and toould say introduces the clause after it, as what would be said. The relates to thing ; thing is the 
subject of has; has, which is qualified by not, governs life; life is qualified by the adjective enough, and by 
the phrase, in it ; enough is the prior term of to ; to governs keep; keep governs it, which stands for the thing; 
and it, in lieu of the thing, is qualified by sweet. The chief members are connected either by standing in con- 
trast as members, or by but, understood before Johnson. Johnson is the subject of would say, understood : 
and this would say, again introduces a clause, as what would be said. The relates to creature; creature is the 
subject of possesses; possesses, which is qualified by not, governs vitality; vitality is qualified by sufficient ; 
sufficient is the prior term of to; to governs preserve; preserve governs it, and is the prior term of from; and 
from governs putrefaction. 

2. " There is one Being to whom we can look with a perfect conviction of finding 
that security, which nothing about us can give, and which nothing about us can take 
away." — Greenwood; Wells's School Gram., p. 192.* 

Analysis. — What is the general structure of this passage ? and what, the chain of connexion " between the 
words away and is t" The period is a complex sentence, having four clauses, all connected together by relativps ; 
the second, by whom, to the first and chief clause, " Tliere is one Being ;' ' the third and the fourth, to the second, 
by which and which; but the last two, having the same antecedent, security, and being coordinate, are also 
connected one to the other by and. As to " the chain of connexion," Away relates to can take ; can take agrees 
with its nominative nothing, and governs which ; which represents security; security is governed by finding; 
finding is governed by of; of refers back to conviction ; conviction is governed by ivith; xuith refers back to 
can look ; can look agrees with we, and is, in sense, the antecedent of lo ; to governs whom ; whom represents 
Being; and Being is the subject of is. 

FIFTH METHOD OF ANALYSIS. 
The best and most thorough method of analysis is that of Complete Syntactical 
Parsing ; a method which, for the sake of order and brevity, should ever be kept 
free from all mixture of etymological definitions or reasons, but which may be pre- 
ceded or followed by any of the foregoing schemes of resolution, if the teacher choose 
to require any such preliminary or subsidiary exposition. This method is fully 
illustrated in the Twelfth Praxis below. 

OBSERVATIONS ON METHODS OF ANALYSIS. 

Obs. 1. — The almost infinite variety in the forms of sentences, will sometimes throw difficulty 
in the way of the analyzer, be his scheme or his skill what it may. The last four or five observa- 
tions of the preceding series have shown, that the distinction of sentences as simple or compound, 

* I cite this example from Wells, for the purpose of explaining it without the several errors which that gen- 
tleman's '■'■Model" incidentally inculcates. He suggests that and connects, not the two relative clauses, as such, 
but the two verbs can give and can take; and that the connexion between away and is must be traced through 
the former, and its object which. These positions, I think, are wrong. He also uses here, as elsewhere, the 
expressions, '■'■which relates it" and, '■'■which is related by" each in a very unusual, and perhaps an unauthor- 
ized, sense. His formule reads thus : " Away modifies can take ; can take is connected with can give by and ; 
which is governed by can give, and relates to security ; security is the object of finding, ichich is belated by 
of to conviction ; conviction is the object of with, which relates it to can look; to expresses the relation be- 
tween whom and can look, and whom relates to Being, which is the subject of is." — Wells's School Gram., 113th 
Ed., p. 19:>. Neither this nor the subsequent method has been often called "analysis;" for, in grammar, each 
user of this term has commonly applied it to some one method only, — the method preferred by himself. 



472 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

which constitutes the chief point of the First Method of Analysis above, is not always plain, even 
to the learned. The definitions and examples which I have given, will make it generally so ; and, 
where it is otherwise, the question or puzzle, it is presumed, cannot often be of much practical 
importance. If the difference be not obvious, it can hardly be a momentous error, to mistake a 
phrase for an elliptical clause, or to call such a clause a phrase. 

Obs. 2. — The Second Method above is, I think, easier of application than any of the rest ; and, 
if other analysis than the regular method of parsing seem desirable, this will probably be found as 
useful as any. There is, in many of our popular grammars, some recognition of the principles of 
this analysis — some mention of " the principal parts of a sentence," in accordance with what are 
so called above, — and also, in a few, some succinct account of the parts called " adjuncts ;" but 
there seems to have been no prevalent practice of applying these principles, in any stated or well- 
digested manner. Lowth, Murray, Alger, W. Allen, Hart, Hiley, Ingersoll, Wells, and others, 
tell of these " Principal Parts ;" — Lowth calling them, "the agent, the attribute, and the object;" 
(Gram., p. *72;) — Murray, and his copyists, Alger, Ingersoll, and others, calling them, "the 
subject, the attribute, and the object;" — Hiley and Hart calling them, " the subject or nominative, 
the attribute or verb, and the object;" — Allen calling them, "the nominative, the verb, and (if the 
verb is active,) the accusative governed by the verb ;" and also saying, "The nominative is some- 
times called the subject ; the verb, the attribute ; and the accusative, the object ;" — Wells calling 
them, " the subject or nominative, the verb, and the object ;" and also recognizing the " adjuncts," 
as a species which " embraces all the words of a simple sentence [,] except the principal parts;" 
— yet not more than two of them all appearing to have taken any thought, and they but little, 
about the formal application of their common doctrine. In Allen's English Grammar, which is 
one of the best, and likewise in Wells's, which is equally prized, this reduction of all connected 
words, or parts of speech, into "the principal parts" and "the adjuncts," is fully recognized; the 
adjuncts, too, are discriminated by Allen, as "either primary or secondary," nor are their more 
particular species or relations overlooked ; but I find no method prescribed for the analysis in- 
tended, except what Wells adopted in his early editions but has since changed to an other or 
abandoned, and no other allusion to it by Allen, than this Note, which, with some appearance of 
intrusion, is appended to his " Method of Parsing the Infinitive Mood:" — "The pupil may now 
begin to analyse [analyze] tho sentences, by distinguishing the principal words and their adjuncts." 
— W. Allen's K Gram., p. 258. 

Obs. 3. — These authors in general, and many more, tell us, with some variation of words, that 
the agent, subject, or nominative, is that of which something is said, affirmed, or denied ; that 
the attribute, verb, or predicate, is that which is said, affirmed, or denied, of the subject; and that 
the object, accusative, or case sequent, is that which is introduced by the finite verb, or affected 
by the action affirmed. Lowth says, " In English the nominative case, denoting the agent, 
usually goes before the verb, or attribution ; and the objective case, denoting the object, follows 
the verb active." — Short Introd., p. 72. Murray copies, but not literally, thus: " The nominative 
denotes the subject, and usually goes before the verb [,] or attribute; and the word or phrase, 
denoting the object, follows the verb : as, 'A wise man governs his passions.' Here, a wise man 
is the subject; governs, the attribute, or thing affirmed; and his passions, the object." — Murray's 
Octavo, p. 142 ; Duodecimo, 115. To include thus the adjuncts with their principals, as the logi- 
cians do, is here manifestly improper ; because it unites what the grammatical analyzer is chiefly 
concerned to separate, and tends to defeat the main purpose for which "the Principal Parts" 
are so named and distinguished. 

Obs. 4. — The Third Method of Analysis, described above, is an attempt very briefly to epito- 
mize the chief elements of a great scheme, — to give, in a nutshell, the substance of what our 
grammarians have borrowed from the logicians, then mixed with something of their own, next 
amplified with small details, and, in some instances, branched out and extended to enormous 
bulk and length. Of course, they have not failed to set forth the comparative merits of this 
scheme in a sufficiently favourable light. The two ingenious gentlemen who seem to have been 
chiefly instrumental in making it popular, say in their preface, " The rules of syntax contained in 
this work result directly from the analysis of propositions, and of compound sentences ; and for 
this reason the student should make himself perfectly familiar with the sections relating to sub- 
ject and predicate, and should be able readily to analyze sentences, whether simple or compound, 
and to explain their structure and connection. * * * This exercise should always precede the 
more minute and subsidiary labor of parsing. If the latter be conducted, as it often is, inde- 
pendently of previous analysis, the principal advantage to be derived from the study of language, 
as an intellectual exercise, will inevitably be lost." — Latin Grammar of Andrews and Stoddard, 
p. vi. N. Butler, who bestows upon this subject about a dozen duodecimo pages, says in his 
preface, " The rules for the analysis of sentences, which is a very useful and interesting exercise, 
have been taken from Andrews' and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, some changes and additions being 
made." — Butlers Practical Gram., p. iv.* 

* The possessive phrase here should be, "Andrews and Stoddard's,'" as Wells and others write it. The add- 
ing of the apostrophe to the former name is wrong, even by the better half of Butler's own absurd and srlf- 
contra'lictory Rule : to wit, " When two or more nouns in the possessive case are connected by and, the possessive 
termination should be added to each of them ; as, ' These are John's and Eliza's books.' But, if objects are 
possessed in common by two or more, and the nouns are closely connected without any intervening words, the 
possessive termination is added to the last noun only; as, ' These are John and Eliza's books. 1 " — Butler' s Prac- 
tical Gram., p. 1G3. The sign twice used implies two governing nouns: "John's and Eliza's books," = " John's 
books and Eliza's;" "Andrews' and Stoddard's Latin Grarnmar,"=" Andrews' (or Andrews' s) Latin Grammar 
and Stoddard's." 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — METHODS OF ANALYSIS. 473 

Obs. 5. — "Wells, in the early copies of his School Grammar, as has been hinted, adopted a 
inethod of analysis similar to the Second one prescribed above ; yet referred, even from the first, 
to " Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar," and to "De Saey's General Grammar," as if these 
were authorities for what he then inculcated. Subsequently, he changed his scheme, from that of 
Parts Principal and Adjuncts, to one of Subjects and Predicates, " either grammatical or logical," 
also "either simple or compound;" — to one resembling Andrews and Stoddard's, yet differing 
from it, often, as to what constitutes a " grammatical predicate ;" — to one resenbling the Third 
Method above, yet differing from it, (as does Andrews and Stoddard's,) in taking the logical sub- 
ject and predicate before the grammatical. " The chapter on Analysis," said he then, "has been 
revised and enlarged with great care, and will be found to embody all the most important princi- 
ples on this subject [,] which are contained in the works of De Sacy, Andrews and Stoddard, 
Kuhner, Crosby, and Crane. It is gratifying to observe that the attention of teachers is now so 
generally directed to this important mode of investigating the structure of our language, in connec- 
tion with the ordinary exercises of etymological and syntactical parsing.'' — Wells's School Gram., 
New Ed., 1850, p. iv. 

Obs. 6. — In view of the fact, that "Wells's chief mode of sentential analysis had just under- 
gone an almost total metamorphosis, a change plausible perhaps, but of doubtful utility, — that, 
up to the date of the words just cited, and afterwards, so far and so long as any copies of his 
early "Thousands" remain in use, the author himself has earnestly directed attention to a method 
winch he now means henceforth to abandon, — in this view, the praise and gratulation expressed 
above seem singular. If it has been found practicable, to slide "the attention of teachers," and 
their approbation too, adroitly over from one "important mode of investigating the structure of 
our language," to an other; — if " it is gratifying to observe," that the direction thus given to pub- 
he opinion sustains itself so well, and "is so generally" acquiesced in; — if it is proved, that the 
stereotyped praise of one system of analysis may, without alteration, be so transferred to an 
other, as to answer the double purpose of commending and superseding; — it is not improbable 
that the author's next new plates will bear the stamp of yet other "most important principles" 
of analysis. This process is here recommended to be used " in connection with the ordinary exer- 
cises of etymological and syntactical parsing," — exercises, which, in Wells's Grammar, are gener- 
ally, and very improperly, commingled ; and if, to these, may be profitably conjoined either his 
present or his former scheme of analysis, it were well, had he somewhere put them together and 
shown how. , 

Obs. T. — But there are other passages of the School Grammar, so little suited to this notion of 
"connection" that one can hardly believe the word ought to be taken in what seems its only 
sense. "Advanced classes should attend less to the common Order of Parsing, and more to the 
Analysis of language." — Wells's Grammar, "3d Thousand," p. 125; "113th Thousand," p. 132. 
This implies, what is probably true of the etymological exercise, that parsing is more ruclimental 
than the other forms of analysis. It also intimates, what is not so clear, that pupils rightly in- 
structed must advance from the former to the latter, as to something more worthy of their intel- 
lectual powers. The passage is used with reference to either form of analysis adopted by the 
author. So the following comparison, in which Parsing is plainly disparaged, stands permanently 
at the head of " the chapter on Analysis," to commend first one mode, and then an other : " It is 
particularly desirable that pupils should pass as early as practicable from the formalities of common 
parsing, to the more important exercise of analyzing critically the structure of language. The 
mechanical routine of technical parsing is peculiarly liable to become monotonous and dull, while 
the practice of explaining the various relations and offices of words in a sentence, is adapted to call 
the mind of the learner into constant and vigorous action, and can hardly fail of exciting the 
deepest interest."— Wells's Gram., 3d Th., p. 181 ; 113th Th., p. 184. 

Obs. 8. — An ill scheme of parsing, or an ill use of a good one, is almost as unlucky in gram- 
mar, as an ill method of ciphering, or an ill use of a good one, would be in arithmetic. From the 
strong contrast cited above, one might suspect that, in selecting, devising, or using, a technical 
process for the exercising of learners in the principles of etymology and syntax, this author had 
been less fortunate than the generality of his fellows. Not only is it implied, that parsing is no 
critical analysis, but even what is set in opposition to the "mechanical routine," may very well 
serve for a definition of Syntactical Parsing — " the practice of explaining the various relations and 
offices of words in a sentence!" If this "practice," well ordered, can be at once interesting and 
profitable to the learner, so may parsing. Nor, after all, is even this author's mode of parsing, 
defective though it is in several respects, less " important" to the users of his book, or less valued 
by teachers, than the analysis which he sets above it. 

Obs. 9. — S. S. Greene, a public teacher in Boston, who, in answer to a supposed " demand for 
a more philosophical plan of teaching the English language," has entered in earnest upon the 
" Analysis of Sentences," having devoted to one method of it more than the space of two hun- 
dred duodecimo pages, speaks of analysis and of parsing, thus : " The resolving of a sentence 
into its elements, or of any complex element into the parts which compose it, is called analysis." 
— Greene's Analysis, p. 14. "Parsing consists in naming a part of speech, giving its modifica- 
tions, relation, agreement or dependence, and the rule for its construction. Analysis consists in 
pointing out the words or groups of words which constitute the elements of a sentence. Analy- 
sis should precede parsing." — lb., p. 26. "A large proportion of the elements of sentences are 
not single words, but combinations or groups of words. These groups perform the office of the 
substantive, the adjective, or the adverb, and, in some one of these relations, enter in as the com- 



474 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

ponent parts of a sentence. The pupil who learns to determine the elements of a sentence, 
must, therefore, learn the force of these combinations before he separates them into the single words 
which compose them. This advantage is wholly lost in the ordinary methods of parsing." — lb., 
p. 3. 

Obs. 10. — On these passages, it may be remarked in the first place, that the distinction 
attempted between analysis and parsing is by no means clear, or weU drawn. Nor indeed could 
it be ; because parsing is a species of analysis. The first assertion would be just as true as it 
is now, were the former word substituted for the latter : thus, " The resolving of a sentence into 
its elements, or of any complex element into the parts which compose it, is called parsing." 
Next, the "Parsing" spoken of in the second sentence, is Syntactical Parsing only ; and, without 
a limitation of the species, neither this assertion nor the one concerning precedence is sufficiently 
true. Again, the suggestion, that, " Analysis consists in pointing out the words or groups of 
words which constitute the elements of a sentence," has nothing distinctive in it; and, without 
some idea of the author's peculiar system of "elements," previously impressed upon the mind, is 
scarcely, if at all, intelligible. Lastly, that a pupil must understand a sentence, — or, what is the 
same thing, " learn the force of the words combined," — before he can be sure of parsing each word 
rightly, is a very plain and certain truth; but what "advantage" over parsing this truth gives 
to the lesser analysis, which deals with " groups," it is not easy to discover. If the author had 
any clear idea of " this advantage," he has conveyed no such conception to his readers. 

Obs. 11. — Greene's Analysis is the most expanded form of the Third Method above.* Its 
nucleus, or germinating kernel, was the old partition of subject and predicate, derived from the art 
of logic. Its chief principles may be briefly stated thus : Sentences, which are simple, or complex, 
or compound, are made up of words, phrases, and clauses — three grand classes of elements, called 
the first, the second, and the third class. From these, each sentence must have two elements ; 
the Subject, or Substantive element, and the Predicate, or Predicative element, which are princi- 
pal ; and a sentence may have five, the subordinates being the Adjective element, the Objective 
element, and the Adverbial element. The five elements have sundry modifications and subdi- 
visions. Each of the five may, like a sentence, be simple, or complex, or compound ; and each 
may be of any of the three grand classes. The development of this scheme forms a volume, not 
small. The system is plausible, ingenious, methodical, mostly true, and somewhat elaborate ; but 
it is neither very useful nor very accurate. It seems too much like a great tree, beautiful, sym- 
metrical, and full of leaves, but raised or desired only for fruit, yet bearing little, and some of that 
little not of good quality, but knurly or bitter. The chief end of a grammar, designed for our 
tongue, is, to show what is, and what is not, good English. To this end, the system in question 
does not appear to be well adapted. 

Obs. 12. — Dr. Bullions, the projector of the " Series of Grammars, English, Latin, and Greek, 
all on the same plan," inserted in his Latin Grammar, of 1841, a short sketch of the new analysis 
by "subjects and predicates," "grammatical and logical," the scheme used by Andrews and Stod- 
dard ; but his English Grammar, which appeared in 1834, was too early for this " new and im- 
proved method of investigating" language. In his later English Grammar, of 1849, however, 
paying little regard to sameness of " plan," or conformity of definitions, he carefully devoted to 
this matter the space of fifteen pages, placing the topic, not injudiciously, in the first part of his 
syntax, and referring to it thus in his Preface : " The subject of Analysis, wholly omitted in the 
former work, is here introduced in its proper place ; and to an extent in accordance with its im- 
portance." — Bullions, Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 3. 

Obs. 13. — In applying any of the different methods of analysis, as a school exercise, it will in 
general perhaps be best to use each separately ; the teacher directing which one is to be applied, 
and to what examples. The selections prepared for the stated praxes of this work, will be found 
as suitable as any. Analysis of sentences is a central and essential matter in the teaching or the 
study of grammar ; but the truest and the most important of the sentential analyses is parsing ; 
which, because it is a method distinguished by a technical name of its own, is not commonly de- 
nominated analysis. The relation which other methods should bear to parsing, is, as we have 
seen, variously stated by different authors. Etymological parsing and Syntactical are, or ought to 
be, distinct exercises. The former, being the most simple, the most elementary, and also requi- 
site to be used before the pupil is prepared for the latter, should, without doubt, take precedence 
of all the rest, and be made familiar in the first place. Those who say, " Analysis should 
precede parsing," will scarcely find the application of other analysis practicable, till this is 
somewhat known. But Syntactical Parsing being, when complete in form, the most thorough 
process of grammatical resolution, it seems proper to have introduced the other methods be- 
fore it, as above. It can hardly be said that any of these are necessary to this exercise, or to 
one an other ; yet in, a full course of grammatical instruction, each may at times be usefully 
employed. 

Obs. 14. — Dr. Bullions suggests, that, " Analysis should precede Syntactical parsing, because, 
till we know the parts and elements of a sentence, we can not understand their relations, nor intel- 
ligently combine them into one consistent whole." — Analytical and Pract. Gram., p. 114. This 

* In Mulligan's recent "Exposition of the Grammatical Structure of the English Language," — the work of 
an able hand, — this kind of " Analysis," being most improperly pronounced " the chief business of the gram- 
•marian" is swelled by copious explanation under minute heads, to a volume containing more than three times 
as much matter as Greene's ; but, since school-boys have little relish for long arguments, and prolixity had 
here already reached to satiety and disgust, it is very doubtful whether the practical utility of this "Improved 
Method of Teaching Grammar," will be greater in proportion to this increase of bulk. — G. B., 1853. 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — ANALYSIS. — PARSING. — PRAXIS XII. 475 

reason is entirely fictitious and truthless ; for the words of a sentence are intuitively known to be 
its "parts and elements;" and, to " understand their relations," is as necessary to one form of 
analysis as to an other ; but, " intelligently to combine them," is no part of the parser's duty: this 
belongs to the writer ; and where he has not done it, he must be criticised and censured, as one that 
knows not well what he says. In W. Allen's Grammar, as in Wells's, Syntactical parsing and 
Etymological are not divided. Wells intersperses his "Exercises in Parsing," at seven points of 
his Syntax, and places "the chapter on Analysis," at the end of it. Allen treats first of the 
several parts of grammar, didactically ; then presents a series of exercises adapted to the various 
heads of the whole. At the beginning of these, are fourteen " Methods of Parsing," which show, 
successively, the properties and construction of his nine parts of speech ; and, at the ninth method, 
which resolves infinitives, it is proposed that the pupil begin to apply a method of analysis s imil ar 
to the Second one above. 

EXAMPLES FOE PAKSING. 
PRAXIS XII.— SYNTACTICAL. 

The grand clew to all syntactical parsing is the sense ; and as any composition is 
faulty which does not rightly deliver the author's meaning, so every solution of a 
word or sentence is necessarily erroneous, in which that meaning is not carefully 
noticed and literally preserved. 

In all complete syntactical parsing, it is required of the pupil — to distinguish the 
different parts of speech and their classes ; to mention their modifications in order ; 
to point out their relation, agreement, or government ; and to apply the Rules of 
Syntax. Thus : — 

EXAMPLE PARSED. 

" A young man studious to know his duty, and honestly bent on doing it, will 
find himself led away from the sin or folly in which the multitude thoughtlessly in- 
dulge themselves ; but, ah ! poor fallen human nature ! what conflicts are thy por- 
tion, when inclination and habit — a rebel and a traitor— exert their sway against 
our only saving principle !" — G. Brown. 

A is the indefinite article: and relates to man, or young man; according to Rule 1st, which says, "Articles 
relate to the nouns which they limit." Because the meaning is — a man — a young man. 

Young is a common, adjective, of the positive degree, compared regularly, young, younger, youngest: and re- 
lates to man; according to Rule 9th, which says, "Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns." Because the 
meaning is — young man. 

Man is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case : and is 
the subject of will find; according to Rule 2d, which says, " A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a 
finite verb, must be in the nominative case." Because the meaning is — man will find. 

Studious is a common adjective, compared by means of the adverbs ; studious, more studious, most studious; 
or, studious, less studious, least studious: and relates to man; according to Rule 9th, which says, "Ad- 
jectives relate to nouns or pronouns." Because the meaning is — man studious. 

To is a preposition : and shows the relation between studious and know; according to Rule 23d, which says, 
" Prepositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts expressed by them." Because the 
meaning is — studious to know. 

Know is an irregular active-transitive verb, from know, knew, knowing, known; found in the infinitive mood, 
present tense — no person, or number: and is governed by to; according to Rule 18th, which says, "The 
infinitive mood is governed in general by the preposition to, which commonly connects it to a finite verb." 
Because the meaning is — to know. 

His is a personal pronoun, representing man, in the third person, singular number, and masculine gender; ac- 
cording to Rule 10th, which says, "A pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun 
which it represents, in person, number, and gender :" and is in the possessive case, being governed by duty; 
according to Rule 4th, which says, " A noun or a pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the name 
of the thing possessed." Because the meaning is — his duty; — i. e., the young man's duty. 

Duty is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case : and is gov- 
erned by know ; according to Rule 5th, which says, "A noun or a pronoun made the object of an active- 
transitive verb or participle, is governed by it in the objective case." Because the meaning is — to know his 
duty. 

And is a copulative conjunction : and connects the phrase which follows it, to that which precedes ; according 
to Rule 22d, which says, " Conjunctions connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences." Because the 
meaning is — studious to know his duty, and honestly bent, &c. 

Honestly is an adverb of manner: and relates to bent ; according to Rule 21st, which says, "Adverbs relate to 
verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs." Because the meaning is — honestly bent. 

Bent is a perfect participle, from the redundant active-transitive verb, bend, bent or bended, bending, bent or 
bended: and relates to man; according to Rule 20th, which says, "Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, 
or else are governed by prepositions." Because the meaning is — man bent. 

On is a preposition: and shows the relation between bent and doing; according to Rule 23d, which says, "Prep- 
ositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts expressed by them." Because the mean- 
ing is — bent on doing. 

Doing is an imperfect participle, from the irregular active-transitive verb, do, did, doing, done : and is governed 
by on; according to Rule 20th, which says, "Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed 
by prepositions." Because the meaning is — on doing. 

It is a personal pronoun, representing duty, in the third person, singular number, and neuter gender; accord- 
ing to Rule 10th, which says, "A pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it 
represents, in person, number, and gender:" and is in the objective case, being governed by doing; accord- 
ing to Rule 5th, which says, " A noun or a pronoun made the object of an active-transitive verb or parti- 
ciple, is governed by it in the objective case." Because the meaning is— doing it; — i. e., doing hit, duty. 



476 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Will find is an irregular active-transitive verb, from find, found, finding, found ; found in the indicative mood, 
first-future tense, third person, and singular number : and agrees with its nominative man; according to 
Rule 14th, which says, " Every finite verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and num- 
ber." Because the meaning is — man will find. 

Himself is a compound personal pronoun, representing man, in the third person, singular number, and mas- 
culine gender ; according to Rule 10th, which says, "A pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun 
or pronoun which it represents, in person, number, and gender ;" and is in the objective case, being gov- 
erned by will find; according to Rule 5th, which says, " A noun or a pronoun made the object of an active- 
transitive verb or participle, is governed by it in the objective case." Because the meaning is — will find 
himself; — i. e., his own mind or person. 

Led is a perfect participle, from the irregular active-transitive verb, lead, led, leading, led : and relates to him- 
self; according to Rule 20th, which says, " Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by 
prepositions." Because the meaning is — himself led. 

Away is an adverb of place: and relates to led; according to Rule 21st, which says, "Adverbs relate to verbs, 
participles, adjectives, or other adverbs." Because the meaning is — led away. 

From, is a preposition: and shows the relation between led and sin or folly ; according to Rule 23d, which says, 
" Prepositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts expressed by them." Because the 
meaning is — led from sin or folly. 

The is the definite article : and relates to sin and follij ; according to Rule 1st, which says, " Articles relate to the 
nouns which they limit." Because the meaning is— the sin or folly. 

Sin is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case: and is governed 
by from; according to Rule Tth, which says, "A noun or a pronoun made the object of a preposition, is 
governed by it in the objective case." Because the meaning is— from sin. 

Or is a disjunctive conjunction: and connects sin and folly ; according to Rule 22d, which says, " Conjunctions 
connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences." Because the meaning is — sin or folly. 

Folly is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case; and is con- 
nected by or to sin, and governed by the same preposition from ; according to Rule Tth, which says, " A noun 
or a pronoun made the object of a preposition, is governed by it iu the objective case." Because the meaning 
is — f/om sin or folly. 

In is a preposition: and shows the relation between indulge and which; according to Rule 23d, which says, 
"Prepositions show the relatio is of words, and of the things or thoughts expressed by them." Because 
the meaning is — indulge in which — or, which they indulge in. 

Which is a relative pronoun, representing sin or folly, in the third person, singular number, and neuter gender; 
according to Rule 13th, which says, " AVhen a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by or or nor, 
it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together :" and is in the objective case, being governed 
by in; according to RuIj Tth, which says, "A noun or a pronoun made the object of a preposition, is gov- 
erned by it in the objective case." Because the meaning is — in which; — i. e., in which sin or folly. 

The is the definite article: and relates to multitude ; according to Rule 1st, which says, "Articles relate to the 
nouns which they limit." Because. the meaning is — the multitude. 

Multitude is a common noun, collective, of the third person, conveying the idea of plurality, masculine gender, 
and nominative case : ana is the subject of indulge ; according to Rule 2d, which says, " A noun or a pronoun 
which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative case." Because the meaning is — multitude 
indulge. 

Thoughtlessly is an adverb of manner: and relates to indulge; according to Rule 21st, which says, "Adverbs 
relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs." Because the meaning is — thoughtlessly indulge. 

Indulge is a regular active-transitive verb, from indulge, indulged, indulging, indulged; found in the indica- 
tive mood, present tense, third person, and plural number: and agrees with its nominative multitude ; 
according to Rule 15th, which says, "When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plu- 
rality, the verb must agree with it in the pkual number.'" Because the meaning is — multitude indulge. 

Themselves is a compound personal pronoun, representing multitude, in the third person, plural number, and 
masculine gender; according to Rule 11th, which says, " When the antecedent is a collective noun convey- 
ing the idea of plurality, the pronoun must agree with it in the plural number :" and is in the objective case, 
being governed by indulge; according to Rule 5th, which says, "A noun or a pronoun made the object of 
an active-transitive verb or participle, is governed by it in the objective case." Because the meaning is— - 
indulge themselves ; — i. e., the individuals of the multitude iudulge themselves. 

But is a disj unctive conjunction: and connects what precedes and what follows ; according to Rule 22d, which 
says, " Conjunctions connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences." Because the meaning is — A young 
man, &c. , b ut, ah ! &c. 

Ah is an interjection, indicating sorrow: and is used independently; according to Rule 24th, which says, "In- 
terjections have no dependent construction; they are put absolute, either alone, or with other words." 
Because the meaning is — ah ! — unconnected with the rest of the sentence. 

Poor is a common adjective, of the positive degree, compared regularly, poor, poorer, poorest: and relates to 
nature ; according to Rule 9th, which says, " Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns." Because the mean- 
ing is— poor human nature. 

Fallen is a participial adjective, compared (perhaps) by adverbs : and relates to nature ; according to Rule 9th, 
which says, " Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns." Because the meaning is — fallen nature. 

Human in a common adjective, not compared: and relates to nature; according to Rule 9th, which says, "Ad- 
jectives relate to nouns or pronouns." Because the meaning is — human nature. 

Nature is a common noun, of the second person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case: and is 
put absolute by direct address ; according to Rule 8th, which says, "A noun or a pronoun is put absolute in 
the nominative, when its case depends on no other word." Because the meaning is— poor fallen hurrcan 
nature I — the noun being unconnected with any verb. 

What is a pronominal adjective, not compared: and relates to conflicts; according to Rule 9th, which says, 
"Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns." Because the meaning is — what conflicts. 

Conflicts is a common noun, of the third person, plural number, neuter gender, and nominative case : and is 
the subject of are; according to Rule 2d, which says, "A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a finite 
verb, must be in the nominative case." Because the meaning is — conflicts are. 

Are is an irregular neuter verb, from be, was, being, been; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third 
person, and plural number : and agrees with its nominative conflicts ; according to Rule 14th, which saysj 
" Every finite verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number." Because the mean- 
ing is — eonflicts are. 

Thy is a personal pronoun, representing nature, in the second person, singular number, and neuter gender ; 
according to Rule 10th, which says, "A pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun 
which it represents, in person, number, and gender:" and is in the possessive case, being governed by por- 
tion; according to Rule 4th, which says, "A noun or a pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the 
name of the thing possessed." Because the meaning is — thy portion. 

Portion is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case : and is 
put after are, in agreement with conflicts; according to Rule 6th, which says, "A noun or a pronoun put 
after a verb or participle not transitive, agrees in case with a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the 
same thing." Because the meaning is — conflicts are thy portion. 

When is a conjunctive adverb of time: and relates to the two verbs, are and exert; according to Rule 21st, 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — PARSING. — PKAXIS XII. 477 

which says, "Adverbs relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs." Because the meaning is 
— what conflicts are thy portion, when inclination and habit exert, &c. 

Inclination is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case : and 
is one of the subjects of exert; according to Rule 2d, which says, "A noun or a pronoun which is the 
subject of a finite verb, must be in the nommative case." Because the meaning is — inclination and habit 
exert. 

And is a copulative conjunction: and connects inclination and habit; according to Rule 22d, which says, 
" Conjunctions connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences." Because the meaning is — inclination and 
habit. 

Habit is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case : and is one 
of the subjects of exert; according to Rule 2d, which says, "A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a 
finite verb, must be in the nominative case." Because the meaning is — inclination and habit exert. 

A is the indefinite article: and relates to rebel; according to Rule 1st, which says, "Articles relate to the 
nouns which they limit." Because the meaning is — a rebel. 

Rebel is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case: and is 
put in apposition with inclination ; according to Rule 3d, which says, "A noun or a personal pronoun used 
to explain a preceding noun or pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the same case." Because the meaning is — 
inclination, a rebel. 

And is a copulative conjunction: and connects relcl and traitor; according to Rule 22d, which says, "Conjunc- 
tions connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences." Because the meaning is — a rebel and a traitor. 

A is the indefinite article: and relates to traitor; according to Rule 1st, which says, " Articles relate to the 
nouns which they limit." Because the moaning is — a traitor. 

Traitor is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and nominative case: and 
is put in apposition with liabit ; according to Rule 3d, which says, "A noun or a personal pronoun used to 
explain a preceding noun or pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the same case." Because the meaning is — 
habit, a traitor. 

Exert is a regular active-transitive verb, from exert, exerted, exerting, exerted; found in the indicative mood, 
present tense, third person, and plural number: and agrees with its two nominatives inclination and habit; 
according to Rule lGth, which says, " When a verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must 
agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together." Because the meaning is — inclina- 
tion and habit exert. 

Their is a personal pronoun, representing inclination and habit, in the third person, plural number, and neuter 
gender; according to Rule 12th, which says, "When a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by 
and, it must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together:" and is in the posses- 
sive case, being governed by sway; according to Rule 4th, which says, "A noun or a pronoun in the posses- 
sive case, is governed by the name of the thing possessed." Because the meaning is — their sway; — i. e., 
the sway of inclination and habit. 

Sway is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case; and is gov- 
erned by exert ; according to Rule 5th, which says, "A noun or a pronoun made the object of an active- 
transitive verb or participle, is governed by it in the objective case." Because the meaning is — exert sway. 

Against is a preposition: and shows the relation between exert and principle; according to Rule 23d, which 
says, " Prepositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts expressed by them." Be- 
cause the meaning is — exert against principle. 

Our is a personal pronoun, representing the speakers, in the first person, plural number, and masculine gender ; 
according to Rule 10th, which says, "A pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun 
which it represents, in person, number, and gender:" and is in the possessive case, being governed by prin- 
ciple; according to Rule 4th, which says, " A noun or a pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the 
name of the thing possessed." Because the meaning is — our principle ; — i. e., the speakers' principle. 

Only is a pronominal adjective, not compared: and relates to principle; according to Rule 9th, which says, 
"Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns." Because the meaning is — only principle. 

Saving is a participial adjective, compared by adverbs when it means frugal, but not compared in the sense 
here intended: and relates to principle ; according to Rule 9 th, which says, "Adjectives relate to nouns or 
pronouns." Because the meaning is — saving principle. 

Principle is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case: and is 
governed by against; according to Rule 7th, which says, " A noun or a pronoun made the object of a prep- 
osition, is governed by it in the objective case." Because the meaning is — against principle. 

Lesson I. — Articles. 

"In English heroic verse, the capital pause of every line, is determined by the 
sense to be after the fourth, the fifth, the sixth or the seventh syllable." — Karnes, 
El. of Grit., ii, 105. 

" When, in considering the structure of a tree or a plant, we observe how all the 
parts, the roots, the stem, the bark, and the leaves, are suited to the growth and 
nutriment of the whole ; when we survey all the parts and members of a living 
animal ; or when we examine any of the curious works of art — such as a clock, a ship, 
or any nice machine ; the pleasure which we have in the survey, is wholly founded 
on this sense of beauty." — Blair's Rhet., p. 49. 

" It never can proceed from a good taste, to make a teaspoon resemble the leaf of 
a tree; for such a form is inconsistent with the destination of a teaspoon." — Karnes, 
El. of Crit., ii, 351. 

" In an epic poem, a history, an oration, or any work of genius, we always require 
a fitness, or an adjustment of means to the end which the author is supposed to have 
in view." — Blair's JRhet., p. 50. 

" Rhetoric, Logic, and Grammar, are three arts that should always walk hand in 
hand. The first is the art of speaking eloquently ; the second, that of thinking well ; 
and the third, that of speaking with propriety." — Formers Belles-Lettres, p, 114. 

" Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, 
Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze." — Cowper. 



478 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Lesson II. — Nouns. 

" There goes a rumour that I am to be banished. And let the sentence come, if 
God so will. The other side of the sea is my Father's ground, as well as this side." 
— Rutherford. 

" Gentlemen, there is something on earth greater than arbitrary or despotic power. 
The lightning has its power, and the whirlwind has its power, and the earthquake has 
its power. But there is something among men more capable of shaking despotic 
power than lightning, whirlwind, or earthquake ; that is — the threatened indigna- 
tion of the whole civilized world." — Daniel Webster. 

" And Isaac sent away Jacob ; and he went to Padan Aram, unto Laban, son of 
Bethuel the Syrian, and brother of Rebecca, Jacob's and Esau's mother." — See Gen,, 
xxviii, 5. 

" The purpose you undertake is dangerous." " Why that is certain : it is dan- 
gerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink ; but I tell you, my Lord fool, out of this 
nettle danger, we pluck this flower safety." — Shakspeare. 

" And towards the Jews alone, one of the noblest charters of liberty on earth — 
Magna Charta, the Briton's boast — legalized an act of injustice." — Keith's Evidences, 
p. 74. 

" Were Demosthenes's Philippics spoken in a British assembly, in a similar con- 
juncture of affairs, they would convince and persuade at this day. The rapid style, 
the vehement reasoning, the disdain, anger, boldness, freedom, which perpetually 
animate them, would render their success infallible over any modern assembly. I 
question whether the same can be said of Cicero's orations ; whose eloquence, how- 
ever beautiful, and however well suited to the Roman taste, yet borders oftener on 
declamation, and is more remote from the manner in which we now expect to hear 
real business and causes of importance treated." — Blair's Rhet., p. 248. 

" In fact, every attempt to present on paper the splendid effects of impassioned 
eloquence, is like gathering up dewdrops, which appear jewels and pearls on the 
grass, but run to water in the hand ; the essence and the elements remain, but the 
grace, the sparkle, and the form, are gone." — Montgomery's Life of Spencer. 

" As in life true dignity must be founded on character, not on dress and appear- 
ance ; so in language the dignity of composition must arise from sentiment and 
thought, not from ornament." — Blair'' s Rhet., p. 144. 

" And man, whose heaven-erected face the smiles of love adorn, 
Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." — Burns. 

" Ah wretched man ! unmindful of thy end ! 
A moment's glory ! and what fates attend." — Pope, Iliad, B. xvii, 1. 231. 

Lesson III. — Adjectives. 

" Embarrassed, obscure, and feeble sentences, are generally, if not always, the re- 
sult of embarrassed, obscure, and feeble thought." — Blair's Rhet., p. 120. 

" Upon this ground, we prefer a simple and natural, to an artificial and affected 
style ; a regular and well-connected story, to loose and scattered narratives; a catas- 
trophe which is tender and pathetic, to one which leaves us unmoved." — lb., p. 23. 

" A thorough good taste may well be considered as a power compounded of 
natural sensibility to beauty, and of improved understanding." — lb., p. 18. 

" Of all writings, ancient or modern, the sacred Scriptures afford us the highest 
instances of the sublime. The descriptions of the Deity, in them, are wonderfully 
noble ; both from the grandeur of the object, and the manner of representing it." — 
lb., p. 36. 

" It is not the authority of any one person, or of a few, be they ever so eminent, 
that can establish one form of speech in preference to another. Nothing but the 
general practice of good writers and good speakers can do it." — Priestley's Gram., 
p. 107. 

" What other means are there to attract love and esteem so effectual as a virtu- 
ous course of life ? If a man be just and beneficent, if he be temperate, modest, 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — PAESING. — PRAXIS XII. 479 

and prudent, he will infallibly gain the esteem and love of all who know him." — 
Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 167. 

"But there are likewise, it must be owned, people in the world, whom it is easy 
to make worse by rough usage, and not easy to make better by any other." — Abp. 
Seeker. 

" The great comprehensive truth written in letters of living light on every page 
of our history — the language addressed by every past age of New England to all 
future ages, is this : Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom ; — free- 
dom, none but virtue ; — virtue, none but knowledge : and neither freedom, nor virtue, 
nor knowledge, has any vigour or immortal hope, except in the principles of the 
Christian faith, and in the sanctions of the Christian religion." — President Quincy. 

" For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss ; 
Tedious, unshared with thee, and odious soon." — P. Lost, B. ix, 1. 880. 

Lesson IV. — Pronouns. 

" There is but one governor whose sight we cannot escape, whose power we cannot 
resist : a sense of His presence and of duty to Him, will accomplish more than all 
the laws and penalties which can be devised without it." — Woodbridge, Lit. (7., 
p. 154. 

" Every voluntary society must judge who shall be members of their body, and 
enjoy fellowship with them in their peculiar privileges." — Watts. 

" Poetry and impassioned eloquence are the only sources from which the living 
growth of a language springs ; and even if in their vehemence they bring down 
some mountain rubbish along with them, this sinks to the bottom, and the pure 
stream flows along over it." — Philological Museum, i, 645. 

" This use is bounded by the province, county, or district, which gives name to 
the dialect, and beyond which its peculiarities are sometimes unintelligible, and 
always ridiculous." — CampbelVs Rhet., p. 163. 

" Every thing that happens, is both a cause and an effect ; being the effect of 
what goes before, and the cause of what follows." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 297. 

" Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of 
thine hand to do it." — Prov., iii, 27. 

" Yet there is no difficulty at all in ascertaining the idea. * * * By reflecting 
upon that which is myself now, and that which was myself twenty years ago, I dis- 
cern they are not two, but one and the same self." — Butler's Analogy, p. 271. 

" If you will replace what has been long expunged from the language, and extir- 
pate what is firmly rooted, undoubtedly you yourself become an innovator." — Camp- 
belVs Rhet.,^. 167; Murray 's Gram., 364. 

" To speak as others speak, is one of those tacit obligations, annexed to the con- 
dition of living in society, which we are bound in conscience to fulfill, though we 
have never ratified them by any express promise ; because, if they were disregarded, 
society would be impossible, ancl human happiness at an end." — See Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 139. 

" In England thou was in current use until, perhaps, near the commencement of 
the seventeenth century, though it was getting to be regarded as somewhat disre- 
spectful. At Walter Raleigh's trial, Coke, when argument and evidence failed him, 
insulted the defendant by applying to him the term thou. ' All that Lord Cobham 
did,' he cried, ' was at thy instigation, thou viper ! for I thou thee, thou traitor !' " — 
Fowler's E. Gram., § 220. 

" Th' Egyptian crown I to your hands remit ; 
And with it take his heart who offers it." — Shakspeare. 

Lesson V. — Verbs. 

" Sensuality contaminates the body, depresses the understanding, deadens the 
moral feelings of the heart, and degrades man from his rank in the creation." — 
Murray's Key, ii, p. 231. 



480 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

" When a writer reasons, we look only for perspicuity ; when he describes, we 
expect embellishment ; when he divides, or relates, we desire plainness and sim- 
plicity." — Blair 1 s Rhet., p. 144. 

" Livy and Herodotus are diffuse ; Thucydides and Sallust are succinct ; yet all 
of them are agreeable." — lb., p. 178. 

" Whenever petulant ignorance, pride, malice, malignity, or envy, interposes to 
cloud or sully his fame, I will take upon me to pronounce that the eclipse will not 
last long." — Dr. Delany. 

" She said she had nothing to say, for she was resigned, and I knew all she knew 
that concerned us in this world ; but she desired to be alone, that in the presence of 
God only, she might without interruption do her last duty to me." — Sped., No. 520. 

" Wisdom and truth, the offspring of the sky, are immortal ; while cunning and 
deception, the meteors of the earth, after glittering for a moment, must pass away." 
— Robert Hall. " See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the king- 
doms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, 
and to plant." — Jeremiah, i, 10. 

" God might command the stones to be made bread, or the clouds to rain it ; but 
he chooses rather to leave mankind to till, to sow, to reap, to gather into barns, to 
grind, to knead, to bake, and then to eat." — London Quarterly Review. 

"Eloquence is no invention of the schools. Nature teaches every man to be elo- 
quent, when he is much in earnest. Place him in some critical situation, let him 
have some great interest at stake, and you will see him lay hold of the most effectual 
means of persuasion." — Blair 's Rhet., p. 235. 

a It is difficult to possess great fame and great ease at the same time. Fame, like 
fire, is with difficulty kindled, is easily increased, but dies away if not continually 
fed. To preserve fame alive, every enterprise ought to be a pledge of others, so as 
to keep mankind in constant expectation." — Art of Thinking, p. 50. 

" Pope, finding little advantage from external help, resolved thenceforward to 
direct himself, and at twelve formed a plan of study which he completed with little 
other incitement than the desire of excellence." — Johnson's Lives of Poets, p. 498. 

" Loose, then, from earth the grasp of fond desire, 
Weigh anchor, and some happier clime explore." — Young. 

Lesson VI. — Participles. 

" The child, affrighted with the view of his father's helmet and crest, and clinging 
to the nurse ; Hector, putting off his helmet, taking the child into his arms, and 
offering up a prayer for him ; Andromache, receiving back the child with a smile of 
pleasure, and at the same instant bursting into tears ; form the most natural and 
affecting picture that can possibly be imagined." — Blair's Rhet., p. 435. 

" The truth of being, and the truth of knowing are one ; differing no more than 
the direct beam and the beam reflected." — Ld. Bacon. " Verbs denote states of 
being, considered as beginning, continuing, ending, being renewed, destroyed, and 
again repeated, so as to suit any occasion." — William Ward's Gram., p. 41. 

" We take it for granted, that we have a competent knowledge and skill, and that 
we are able to acquit ourselves properly, in our own native tongue ; a faculty, solely 
acquired by use, conducted by habit, and tried by the ear, carries us on without 
reflection." — LowtlCs Gram., p. vi. 

" I mean the teacher himself ; who, stunned with the hum, and suffocated with 
the closeness of his school-room, has spent the whole day in controlling petulance, 
exciting indifference to action, striving to enlighten stupidity, and labouring to soften 
obstinacy." — Sir W. Scott. 

" The inquisitive mind, beginning with criticism, the most agreeable of all amuse- 
ments, and finding no obstruction in its progress, advances far into the sensitive part 
of our nature ; and gains imperceptibly a thorough knowledge of the human heart 3 
of its desires, and of every motive to action." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 42. 

a They please, are pleased ; they give to get esteem ; 
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem." — Goldsmith. 



CHAP. I.] SYNTAX. — SENTENCES. — PARSING. — PRAXIS XII. 481 

Lesson VII. — Adverbs. 

" How cheerfully, how freely, how regularly, how constantly, how imweariedly, 
how powerfully, how extensively, he communicateth his convincing, his enlightening, 
his heart-penetrating, warming, and melting ; his soul-quickening, healing, refresh- 
ing, directing, and fructifying influence !" — JBrowrfs Metaphors, p. 96. 

" The passage, I grant, requires to be well and naturally read, in order to be 
promptly comprehended ; but surely there are very few passages worth comprehend- 
ing, either of verse or prose, that can be promptly understood, when they are read 
unnaturally and ill." — ThelwalVs Led. " They waste life in what are called good 
resolutions — partial efforts at reformation, feebly commenced, heartlessly conducted, 
and hopelessly concluded." — Maturings Sermons, p. 262. 

" A man may, in respect of grammatical purity, speak unexceptionably, and yet 
speak obscurely and ambiguously ; and though we cannot say, that a man may 
speak properly, and at the same time speak unintelligibly, yet this last case falls 
more naturally to be considered as an offence against perspicuity, than as a violation 
of propriety." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 104. 

" Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblamably we be- 
haved ourselves among you that believe." — 1 Thes., ii, 10. 

" The question is not, whether they know what is said of Christ in the Scriptures ; 
but whether they know it savingly, truly, livingly, powerfully." — Penington's 
Works, iii, 28. 

" How gladly would the man recall to life 
The boy's neglected sire ! a mother too, 
That softer friend, perhaps more gladly still, 
Might he demand them at the gates of death !" — Cowper. 

Lesson VIII. — Conjunctions. 

" Every person's safety requires that he should submit to be governed ; for if one 
man may d'o harm without suffering punishment, every man has the same right, and 
no person can be safe." — Webster's Essays, p. 38. 

" When it becomes a practice to collect debts by law, it is a proof of corruption 
and degeneracy among the people. Laws and courts are necessary, to settle contro- 
verted points between man and man ; but a man should pay an acknowledged debt, 
not because there is a law to oblige him, but because it is just and honest, and be- 
cause he has promised to pay it." — lb., p. 42. 

" The liar, and only the liar, is invariably and universally despised, abandoned, and 
disowned. It is therefore natural to expect, that a crime thus generally detested, 
should be generally avoided." — Hawkesworth. 

" When a man swears to the truth of his tale, he tacitly acknowledges that his 
bare word does not deserve credit. A swearer will lie, and a liar is not to be be- 
lieved even upon his oath ; nor is he believed, when he happens to speak the truth." 
— Red Book, p. 108. 

" Johu Adams replied, ' I know Great Britain has determined on her system, and 
that very determination determines me on mine. You know I have been constant 
and uniform in opposition to her measures. The die is now cast. I have passed the 
Rubicon. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish with my country, is my unal- 
terable determination.' " — Seward's Life of John Quincy Adams, p. 26. 

" I returned, and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle 
to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, 
nor yet favour to men of skill ; but time and chance happen to them all." — Eccle^ 
siastes, ix, 11. 

" Little, alas ! is all the good I can ; 
A man oppress'd, dependent, yet a man." — Pope, Odys., B. xiv, p. 70. 

Lesson IX. — Prepositions. 
" He who legislates only for a party, is engraving his name on the adamantine 

31 



482 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

pillar of his country's history, to be gazed on forever as an object of universal detesta- 
tion." — Way land) 's Moral Science, p. 401. 

" The Greek language, in the hands of the orator, the poet, and the historian, 
must be allowed to bear away the palm from every other known in the world ; but 
to that only, in my opinion, need our own yield the precedence." — Barrow's Essays, 
p. 91. 

" For my part, I am convinced that the method of teaching which approaches 
most nearly to the method of investigation, is incomparably the best ; since, not con- 
tent with serving up a few barren and lifeless truths, it leads to the stock on which 
they grew." — Burke, on Taste, p. 37. Better — "on which truths grow." 

"All that I have done in this difficult part of grammar, concerning the proper use 
of prepositions, has been to make a few general remarks upon the subject ; and then 
to give a collection of instances, that have occurred to me, of the improper use of 
some of them." — Priestley's Gram., p. 155. 

" This is not an age of encouragement for works of elaborate research and real 
utility. The genius of the trade of literature is necessarily unfriendly to such pro- 
ductions." — ThelwalVs Led., p. 102. 

" At length, at the end of a range of trees, I saw three figures seated on a bank of 
moss, with a silent brook creeping at their feet." — Steele. 

" Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulph'rous bolt, 
Splitst the unweclgeable and gnarled oak." — Shakspeare. 

Lesson X. — Interjections. 
u Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of 
Pavid ; thou, and thy servants, and thy people, that enter in by these gates : thus 
saith the Lord, Execute ye judgement and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out 
of the hand of the oppressor." — Jeremiah, xxii, 2, 3. 

"Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of 
Judah, They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother ! or, Ah sister ! they 
shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord ! or, Ah his glory ! He shall be buried 
with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." — 
Jer., xxii, 18, 19. 

" thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay 
thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires." — Isaiah, 
liv, 11. 

" O prince ! friend ! lo ! here thy Medon stands ; 

Ah 1 stop the hero's unresisted hands." — Pope, Odys., B. xxii, 1. 417. 
" When, lo ! descending to our hero's aid, 

Jove's daughter Pallas, war's triumphant maid !" — lb., B. xxii, 1. 222. 
" O friends ! oh ever exercised in care ! 

Hear Heaven's commands, and reverence what ye hear ! " — lb., B. xii, 1. 324. 
" Too daring prince ! ah, whither dost thou run ? 
Ah, too forgetful of thy wife and son I" — Pope's Iliad, B. vi, 1. 510. 



CHAPTER II.— ARTICLES. 

In this chapter, and those which follow it, the Kules of Syntax are 
again exhibited, in the order of the parts of speech, with Examples, Ex- 
ceptions, Observations, Notes, and False Syntax. The Notes are all of 
them, in form and character, subordinate rules of syntax, designed for 
the detection of errors. The correction of the False Syntax placed under 
the rules and notes, will form an oral exercise, similar to that of parsing, 
and perhaps more useful.* 

* " I will not take upon me to say, whether we have any Grammar that sufficiently instructs us by rule and 
example ; but I am sure we have none, that in the manner here attempted, teaehes us what is right, by showing 



CHAP. II.] SYNTAX. — RULE I. — ARTICLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 483 

KULE I.— AETICLES. 
Articles relate to the nouns which they limit :* as, "At a little dis- 
tance from the ruins of the abbey, stands an aged elm." 
" See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing, 
The sot a hero, lunatic a king." — Pope's Essay, Ep. ii, 1. 268. 

"\ Exception First. 

The definite article used intensively, may relate to an adjective or adverb of the comparative or 
the superlative degree ; as, " A land which was the mightiest." — Byron. " The farther they pro- 
ceeded, the greater appeared their alacrity." — Dr. Johnson. "He chooses it the rather." — Cowper. 
See Obs. 10th, below. 

Exception Second. 

The indefinite article is sometimes used to give a collective meaning to what seems a plural 
adjective of number ; as, "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis." — Rev., iii, 4. "There are a 
thousand things which crowd into my memory." — Spectator, No. 468. " The centurion com- 
manded a hundred men." — Webster. See Etymology, Articles, Obs. 26. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE I. 

Obs. 1. — The article is a kind of index, usually pointing to some noun ; and it is a general, if 
not a universal, principle, that no one noun admits of more than one article. Hence, two or more 
articles in a sentence are signs of two or more nouns ; and hence too. by a very convenient ellipsis, 
an article before an adjective is often made to relate to a noun understood ; as, " The grave [peopZe] 
rebuke the gay [people'], and the gay [pcojrfe] mock the grave" [people]. — Maturin's Sermons, 
p. 103. " The wise [persons] shall inherit glory." — Prov., iii, 35. " The vile [person] will talk 
villainy." — Coleridge's Lay Sermons, p. 105: see Isaiah, xxxii, 6. "The testimony of the Lord 
is sure, making wise the simple" [owes]. — Psal, xix, 1. " The Old [Testament] and the New Tes- 
tament are alike authentic." — " The animal [world] and the vegetable world are adapted to each 
other." — "An epic [poem] and a dramatic poem are the same in substance." — Ld. Karnes, El. of 
Grit., ii, 274. "The neuter verb is conjugated like the active" [rerfr]. — Murray's Gram., p. 99. 
" Each section is supposed to contain a heavy [portion] and a light portion ; the heavy [pcrtlori] 
being the accented syllable, and the light [portion] the unaccented" [syllable]. — Rush, on the 
Voice, p. 364. 

Obs. 2.- — Our language does not, like the French, require a repetition of the article before every 
noun in a series; because the same article may serve to limit the signification of several nouns, 
provided they all stand in the same construction. Hence the following sentence is bad English : 
"The understanding and language have a strict connexion." — Murray's Gram., i, p. 356. The 
sense of the former noun only was meant to be limited. The expression therefore should have 
been, " Language and the understanding have a strict connexion," or, "The understanding has a 
strict connexion with language" In some instances, one article seems to limit the sense of several 
nouns that are not all in the same construction, thus : " As it proves a greater or smaller obstruc- 
tion to the speaker's or tor iter's aim.'' — Campbell's Rhet, p. 200. That is — "to the aim of the 
speaker or the wri'er." It is, in fact, the possessive, that limits the other nouns ; for, "a man's 
foes," means, "the foes of a man;" and, " man's wisdom," means, "the wisdom of man." The 
governing noun cannot have an article immediately before it. Yet the omission of articles, when it 
occurs, is not properly by ellipsis, as some grammarians declare it to be ; for there never can be a 
proper ellipsis of an article, when there is not also an ellipsis of its noun. Ellipsis supposes the 
omitted words to be necessary to the construction, when they are not so to the sense ; and this, 
it would seem, cannot be the case with a mere article. If such a sign be in any wise necessary, 
it ought to be used ; and if not needed in any respect, it cannot be said to be understood. The 
definite article being generally required before adjectives that are used by ellipsis as nouns, we in 
this case repeat it before every term in a series; as, "They are singled out ftom among their fel- 
lows, as the kind, the amiable, the sweet-tempered, the upright." — I)r. Chalmers. 
" The great, the gay, shall they partake 
The heav'n that thou alone canst make ?" — Cowper. 

•what is wrong ; though this perhaps may prove the more useful and effectual method of Instruction." — Loicth's 
Gram. , Pre/. , p. viii. 

* With the possessive case and its governing noun, we use but one article; and sometimes it seems question- 
able, to which of the two that article properly relates: as, '-This is one of the Hebrews' children." — Exodus, 
ii, 6. The sentence is plainly equivalent to the following, which has two articles: "This is one of the children 
of the Hebrews." Not because the one article is equivalent to the two, or because it relates to both of the 
nouns ; but because the possessive relation itself makes one of the nouns sufficiently definite. Now, if we change 
the latter construction back into the former, it is the noun children that drops its article ; it is therefore the 
other to which the remaining article relates. But we sometimes find examples in which the same analogy does 
not hold. Thus, "a summer's day" means, " a day of summer ;" and we should hardly pronounce it equiv- 
alent to " the day of a summer.'" So the questionable phrase, " a three days' journey,'''' means, " a journey 
of three days ;" and, whether the construction be right or wrong, the article a cannot be said to relate to the 
plural noun. Possibly such a phrase as, '■'■the three years' war," might mean, " the war of three years;" so that 
the article must relate to the latter noun. But in general it is the latter noun that is rendered definite by the 
possessive relation : thus the phrase, " man' s works" is equivalent to " the works of man," not to "works of 
the man;" so, " the man's works," is equivalent, not to "the works of man," but to " the works of the man." 



484 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 3. — The article precedes its noun, and is never, by itself, placed after it ; as, "Passion is 

the drunkenness of the mind." — Southey. When an adjective likewise precedes the noun, the article 

is usually placed before the adjective, that its power of limitation may extend over that also ; as, 

"A concise writer compresses his thoughts into the fewest possible words." — Blair 1 s Rhet, p. 176. 

" The private path, the secret acts of men, 

If noble, far the noblest of their lives." — Young. 

Obs. 4. — The relative position of the article and the adjective is seldom a matter of indifference. 
Thus, it is good English to say, " both the mien" or, " the two men;" but we can by no means say, 
" the both men" or, u two the men." Again, the two phrases, " half a 'dollar" and " a half dollar ," 
though both good, are by no means equivalent. Of the pronominal adjectives, some exclude the 
article; some precede it; and some follow it, like other adjectives. The word same is seldom, if 
ever used without the definite article or some stronger definitive before it; as, " On the same 
day," — ' : In that same hour," — " These same gentlemen." After the adjective both, the definite 
article may be used, but it is generally unnecessary, and this is a sufficient reason for omitting it : 
as, "The following sentences will fully exemplify to the young grammarian, both the parts of this 
rule." — Murray's Gram., i, p. 192. Say, "both parts." The adjective few may be used either 
with or without an article, but not with the same import: as, " The few who were present, were 
in the secret;" i. e., All then present knew the thing. "Few that were present, were in the 
secret;" i. e., Not many then present knew the thing. "When I say, ' There were few men with 
hii^/ I speak diminutively, and mean to represent them as inconsiderable; whereas, when I say, 
: '.There were a few men with him,' I evidently intend to make the most of them." — Murray's 
Gram., p. 171. See Etymology, Articles, Obs. 28. 

Obs. 5. — The pronominal adjectives which exclude the article, are any, each, either, every, much, 
neither, no, or none, some, this, that, these, those. The pronominal adjectives which precede the 
article, are all, both, many, such, and what; as, "All the world," — "Both the judges," — "Many a* 
mile," — " Such a chasm," — " What a freak." In like manner, any adjective of quality, when its 
meaning is limited by the adverb too, so, as, or how, is put before the article; as, " Too great a 
study of strength, is found to betray writers into a harsh manner." — Blair's Rhet., p. 179. "Like 
many an other poor wretch, I now suffer all the ill consequences of so foolish an indulgence." 
" Such a gift is too small a reward for so great a labour." — Brightland's Gram., p. 95. " Here 
flows as clear a stream as any in Greece. How beautiful a prospect is here!" — Bicknell's Gram., 
Part ii, p. 52. The pronominal adjectives which follow the article, are few, former, first, latter, 
last, little, one, other, and same ; as, " An author might lean either to the one [style'] or to the other, 
and yet be beautiful." — Blair's Rhet, p. 179. Many, like few, sometimes follows the article; as, 
" The many favours which wo have received." — " In conversation, for many a man, they say, a 
many men." — Johnson's Diet In this order of the words, a seems awkward and needless; as, 
" Told of a many thousand warlike French." — Shah 

Obs. 6. — When the adjective is preceded by any other adverb than too, so, as, or how, tho article 
is almost always placed before the adverb : as, " One of the most complete models ;" — " An equally 
important question ;" — " An exceedingly rough passage ;" — " A very important difference." The 
adverb quite, however, may be placed either before or after the article, though perhaps with a dif- 
ference of construction : as, " This is quite a different thing ;" — or, " This is a quite different thing." 
" Finding it quite an other thing ;" — or, " Finding it a quite other thing." — Locke, on Ed., p. 153. 
Sometimes two adverbs intervene between the article and the adjective ; as, " We had a rather 
more explicit account of the Novii." — Philol. Museum, i, 458. But when an other adverb follows 
too, so, as, or how, the three words should be placed either before the article or after the noun ; 
as, "Who stands there in so purely poetical a light." — lb., i, 449. Better, perhaps: "In a light 
so purely poetical." 

Obs. 7. — The definitives this, that, and some others, though they supersede the article an or a, 
may be followed by the adjective one; for we say, "this one thing," but not, "this a thing." Tet, 
in the following sentence, this and a being separated by other words, appear to relate to the same 
noun: " For who is able to judge this thy so great a people?" — 1 Kings, hi, 9. But we may sup- 
pose the noun people to be understood after this. Again, the following example, if it is not wrong, 
has an ellipsis of the word use after the first a : 

" For highest cordials all their virtue lose, 
By a too frequent and too bold a use." — Pomfret. 

Obs. 8. — When the adjective is placed after the noun, the article generally retains its place 
before the noun, and is not repeated before the adjective : as, " A man ignorant of astronomy ;" — 
" The primrose pale." In Greek, when an adjective is placed after its noun, if the article is applied 
to the noun, it is repeated before the adjective ; as, "' Hitolig rj \itydXn" — " The city the great;" 
i. e., " The great city."f 

Obs. 9. — Articles, according to their own definition and nature, come before their nouns ; but 
the definite article and an adjective seem sometimes to be placed after the noun to which they 

* Home Tooke says, " The use of a after the word many is a corruption for of; and has no connection •what- 
ever with the article a, i. e. one." — Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 324. "With this conjecture of the learned 
etymologist, I do not concur : it is hardly worth while to state here, what may he urged pro and con. 

t " Nothing can be more certain than that [in Greek syntax] all words used for the purpose of definition, 
either stand between the article and the noun, or have their own article prefixed. Yet it may sometimes happen 
that an apposition [with an article] is parenthetically inserted instead of being affixed."— -J. W. Donaldson: 
Jownal of Philology \ No. 2, p. 223. 



CHAP. II.] SYNTAX. EULE I. — 7ARTICLES. OBSERVATIONS. 485 

both relate : as, " Section the Fourth ;" — " Henry the Eighth" Such examples, however, may possibly 
be supposed elliptical; as, " Section, the fourth division of the chapter;" — "Henry, the eighth king 
of that name:" and, if they are so, the article, in English, can never be placed after its noun, nor 
can two articles ever properly relate to one noun, in any particular construction of it. Priestley 
observes, " Some writers affect to transpose these words, and place the numeral adjective first; 
[as,] ' The first Henry.'' Hume's History, Vol. i, p. 497. This construction is common with this 
writer, but there seems to be a want of dignity in it." — Rudiments of E. Gram., p. 150. Dr. "Web- 
ster cites the word Great, in "Alexander the Great" as a name, or part of a name; that is, he 
gives it as an instance of " cognomination." See his American Diet, 8vo. And if this is right, 
the article may be said to relate to the epithet only, as it appears to do. For, if the word is taken 
substantively, there is certainly no ellipsis ; neither is there any transposition in putting it last, but 
rather, as Priestley suggests, in putting it first. 

Obs. 10. — The definite article is often prefixed to comparatives and superlatives ; and its effect is, 
as Murray observes, (in the words of Lowth,) " to mark the degree the more strongly, and to de- 
fine it the more precisely: as, ' The more I examine it, the better I like it.' ' I like this the least of 
any.'" — Murray's Gram., p. 33; Louth's, 14. "For neither if we eat, are we the better; neither 
if we eat not, are we the worse." — 1 Cor., viii, 8. "One is not the more agreeable to me for loving 
beef, as I do; nor the less agreeable for preferring mutton." — Karnes, El of Crit, Vol. ii, p. 365. 
"They are not the men in the nation, the most difficult to be replaced." — Priestley 's Gram., p. 148. 
In these instances, the article seems to be used adverbially, and to relate only to the adjective or 
adverb following it. (See observation fourth, on the Etymology of Adverbs. ) Tet none of our 
grammarians have actually reckoned the an adverb. After the adjective, the noun might perhaps 
be supplied ; but when the word the is added to an adverb, we must either call it an adverb, or 
make an exception to Rule 1st above : and if an exception is to be made, the brief form which I 
have given, cannot well be improved. For even if a noun be understood, it may not appear that 
the article relates to it, rather than to the degree of the quality. Thus : " The deeper the well, 
the clearer the water." This Dr. Ash supposes to mean, "The deeper well the well is, the clearer 
water the water is." — Ash's Gram., p. 107. But does the text specify a, particular "deeper well"' 
or " clearer water?" I think not. To what then does the refer, but to the proportionate degree 
of deeper and clearer ? 

Obs. 11. — The article the is sometimes elegantly used, after an idiom common in the French 
language, in lieu of a possessive pronoun ; as, " He looked him full in the face ; i. e. in his face." 
— Priestley's Gram., p. 150. "Men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." — Rom., 
xi, 4. That is, their knees. 

Obs. 12. — The article an or a, because it implies unity, is applicable to nouns of the singular 
number only ; yet a collective noun, being singular in form, is sometimes preceded by this article 
even when it conveys the idea of plurality and takes a plural verb : as, " There are a very great 
number [of adverbs] ending in ly." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 63. " A plurality of them are some- 
times felt at the same instant." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 114. In support of this construc- 
tion, it would be easy to adduce a great multitude of examples from the most reputable writers ; 
but still, as it seems not very consistent, to take any word plurally after restricting it to the 
singular, we ought rather to avoid this if we can, and prefer words that literally agree in num- 
ber: as, "Of adverbs there are very many ending in ly." — " More than one of them are some- 
times felt at the same instant." The word plurality, like other collective nouns, is literally singu- 
lar : as, " To produce the latter, a plurality of objects is necessary." — Karnes, El. of Crit, Vol. i, 
p. 224. 

Obs. 13. — Respecting the form of the indefinite article, present practice differs a little from 
that of our ancient writers. An was formerly used before all words beginning with h, and before 
several other words which are now pronounced in such a manner as to require a : thus, we read 
in the Bible, " An help," — "an house," — "an hundred," — "an one," — "an ewer," — "an usu- 
rer;" whereas we now say, " A help," — " a house," — "a hundred," — " a one," — " a ewer," — " a 
usurer." 

Obs. 14. — Before the word humble, with its compounds and derivatives, some use an, and 
others, « ; according to their practice, in this instance, of sounding or suppressing the aspiration. 
"Webster and Jameson sound the h, and consequently prefer a; as, "But a humbling image is not 
always necessary to produce that effect." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 205. " what a blessing is a 
humble mind I" — Christian Experience, p. 342. But Sheridan, Walker, Perry, Jones, and perhaps 
a majority of fashionable speakers, leave the h silent, and would consequently say, "An humbling 
image," — "an humble mind," — &c. 

Obs. 15. — An observance of the principles on which the article is to be repeated or not repeated 
in a sentence, is of very great moment in respect to accuracy of composition. These principles 
are briefly stated in the notes below, but it is proper that the learner should know the reasons of 
the distinctions which are there made. By a repetition of the article before several adjectives in 
the same construction, a repetition of the noun is implied ; but without a repetition of the article, 
the adjectives, in all fairness of interpretation, are confined to one and the same noun : as, " No 
figures will render a cold or an empty composition interesting." — Blair's Rhet, p. 134. Here the 
author speaks of a cold composition and an empty composition as different things. " The meta- 
phorical and the literal meaning are improperly mixed." — Murray's Gram., p. 339. Here the 
verb are has two nominatives, one of which is expressed, and the other understood. " But the 
third and the last of these [forms] are seldom used." — Adam's Lot. Gram., p. 186. Here the 



486 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

verb " are used" has two nominatives, both of which are understood; namely, " the third form" 
aud "the last form." Again: " The original and present signification & always retained." — Dr. 
Murray 's Hist, of Lang., Vol. ii, p. 149. Here one signification is characterized as being both orig- 
inal and present. " A loose and verbose manner never fails to create disgust." — Blair's Rhet, p. 
261. That is, one manner, loose and verbose. "To give a short and yet clear and plain answer 
to this proposition." — Barclay's Works, "Vol. i, p. 533. That is, one answer, short, clear, and plain; 
for the conjunctions in the text connect nothing but the adjectives. 

Obs. 16. — To avoid repetition, even of the little word the, we sometimes, with one article, join 
inconsistent qualities to a plural noun ; — that is, when the adjectives so differ as to individualize 
the things, we sometimes make the noun plural, in stead of repeating the article: as, " The 
north and south poles ;" iu stead of, " The north and the south pole." — " The indicative and po- 
tential moods-" in stead of, " The indicative and the potential mood" — " The Old and New Testa- 
ments-" in stead of, " The Old and the New Testament" But, in any such case, to repeat the 
article when the noun is made plural, is a huge blunder ; because it implies a repetition of the 
plural noun. And again, not to repeat the article when the noun is singu lar, is also w rong ; be- 
cause it forces the adjectives" to coalesce m^describing one and the same thingT Thus, to sa} r , 
" The north and south pole," is certainly wrong, unless we mean by it, one pole, or slender stick of 
wood, pointing north and south; and again, to say, " The north and the south poles," is also wrong, 
unless we maan by it, several poles at the north and others at the south. So the phrase, " The Old 
and New Testament," is wrong, because wo have not one Testament that is both Old and New; and 
again, " The Old and the New Testaments," is wrong, because we have not several Old Testaments 
and several New ones : at least we have them not in the Bible. 

Obs. 17. — Sometimes a noun that admits no article, is preceded by adjectives that do not de- 
scribe the same thing; as, "Never to jumble metaphorical and plain language together." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 146. This means, " metaphorical language and plain language;" and, for the sake of 
perfect clearness, it would perhaps be better to express it so. "For as intrinsic and relative 
beauty must often be blended in the same building, it becomes a difficult task to attain both in 
any perfection." — Karnes, El. of Grit, Vol. ii, p. 330. That is, " intrinsic beauty and relative 
beauty" must often be blended ; and this phraseology would be better. " In correspondence to 
that distinction of male and female sex." — Blair's Rhet, p. 74. This may be expressed as weU or 
better, in half a dozen other ways ; for the article may be added, or the noun may be made plu- 
ral, with or without the article, and before or after the adjectives. "They make no distinction 
between causes of civil and criminal jurisdiction." — Adams's Rhet, Vol. i, p. 302. This means — 
" between causes of civil and causes of criminal jurisdiction ;" and, for the sake of perspicuity, it 
ought to have been so written, — or, still better, thus : " They make no distinction between civil 
causes and criminal." 

NOTES TO RULE I. 

Note I. — When the indefinite article is required, a should always be used before 
the sound of a consonant, and an, before that of a vowel ; as, " AVith the talents of 
an angel, a man may be a fool." — Young. 

Note II. — The article an or a must never be so used as to relate, or even seem 
to relate, to a plural noun. The following sentence is therefore faulty : " I invited 
her to spend a day in viewing a seat and gardens" — Rambler, No. 34. Say, " a 
seat and its gardens." 

Note III. — When nouns are joined in construction, with different adjuncts, dif- 
ferent dependence, or positive contrast, the article, if it belong at all to the latter, 
must be repeated. The following sentence is therefore inaccurate: "She never 
•considered the quality, but merit of her visitors." — Wm. Penn. Say, " the merit." 
So the article in brackets is absolutely necessary to the sense and propriety of the 
following phrase, though not inserted by the learned author : " The Latin introduced 
between the Conquest and [the] reign of Henry the Eighth." — Fowler's E. Gram., 
8vo, 1850, p. 42. 

Note IV. — When adjectives are connected, and the qualities belong to things 
individually different, though of the same name, the article should be repeated : as, 
" A black and a white horse ;" — i. e., two horses, one black and the other white. 
" The north and the south line ;" — i. e., two lines, running east and west. 

Note V. — When adjectives are connected, and the qualities all belong to the 
same thing or things, the article should not be repeated : as, " A black and white 
horse;" — i. e., one horse, piebald. " The north and south line;" — i. e., one line, 
running north and south, like a meridian. 

Note VI. — -When two or more individual things of the same name are distin- 
guished by adjectives that cannot unite to describe the same thing, the article must 
be added to each if the noun be singular, and to the first only if the noun follow 



CHAP. II.] SYNTAX. — RULE I. — ARTICLES. — NOTES. 487 

them in the plural: as, " TJie nominative and the objective case ;" or, " The nomi- 
native and objective cases" — " The third, the fifth, the seventh, and the eighth chap- 
ter ;" or, " The third, fifth^ seventh, and eighth chapters?* 

Note VII. — When two phrases of the same sentence have any special correspond- 
ence with each other, the article, if used in the former, is in general required also in 
the latter : as, " For ye know neither the day nor the hour." — Matt., xxv, 13. " Neither 
the cold nor the fervid are formed for friendship." — Murray } s Key, p. 209. "The vail 
of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom." — Matt., xxvii, 51. 

Note VIII. — When a special correspondence is formed between individual epi- 
thets, the noun which follows must not be made plural ; because the article, in such 
a case, cannot be repeated as the construction of correspondents requires. Thus, it 
is' improper to say, "Both the first and second editions" or, " Both the first and the 
second editions" for the accurate phrase, " Both the Erst and the second edition ;" 
and still worse to say, " Neither the Old nor New Testaments," or, " Neither the 
Old nor the New Testaments" for the just expression, " Neither the Old nor the 
New Testament." Yet we may say, "Neither the old nor the new statutes" or, 
" Both the early and the late editions ;" for here the epithets severally apply to more 
than one thing. 

Note IX. — In a series of three or more terms, if the article is used with any, it 
should in general be added either to every one, or else to the first only. The fol- 
lowing phrase is therefore inaccurate : " Through their attention to the helm, the 
sails, or rigging." — Brown's Estimate, Vol. i, p. 11. Say," the rigging." 

Note X. — As the article an or a denotes " one thing of a kind," it should not be 
used as we use the, to denote emphatically a ivhole kind ; and again, when the 
species is said to be of the genus, no article should be used to limit the latter. Thus 
some will say, " A jay is a sort of a bird ;" whereas they ought to say, " The jay is 
a sort of bird." Because it is absurd to suggest, that one jay is a sort of one bird. 
Yet we may say, " The jay is a bird," or, " A jay is a bird ;" because, as every 
species is one under the genus, so every individual is one under both. 

Note XI. — The article should not be used before the names of virtues, vices, 
passions, arts, or sciences, in their general sense ; before terms that are strictly 
limited by other definitives ; or before any noun whose signification is sufficiently 
definite without it : as, " Falsehood is odious." — " Iron is useful." — " Beauty is vain." 
— " Admiration is useless, when it is not supported by domestic worth." — Webster's 
Essays, p. 30. 

Note XII. — When titles are mentioned merely as titles ; or names of things, 
merely as names or words ; the article should not be used before them : as, " He is 
styled Marquis ;" not, " the Marquis," or, " a Marquis." — " Ought a teacher to 
call his pupil Master ?" — " Thames is derived from the Latin name Tamesis." 

Note XIII. — When a comparison or an alternative is made w r ith two nouns, if 
both of them refer to the same subject, the article should not be inserted before the 
latter; if to different subjects, it should not.be omitted: thus, if we say, "He is a 
better teacher than poet," we compare different qualifications of the same man ; but 
if we say, " He is a better teacher than a poet," we speak of different men, in regard 
to the same qualification. 

* Churchill rashly condemns this construction, and still more rashly proposes to make the noun singular with- 
out repeating the article. See his New Gram., p. 311. But he sometimes happily forgets his own doctrine ; as, 
"In fact, the second and fourth lines here stamp the character of the measure." — lb., p. 391. O. B. Peirce 
says, " ' Joram's second and third daughters,' must mean, if it means any thing, his second daughters and third 
daughters ; and, ' the first and second verses,' if it means any thing, must represent the first verses and the second 
verses." — Peirce' s English Gram., p. 263. According to my notion, this interpretation is as false and hypercrit- 
ical, as is the rule by which the author professes to show what is right. He might have been better employed in 
explaining some of his own phraseology, such as, " the indefinite-past and present of the declarative mode." — lb., 
p. 100. The critic who writes such stuff as this, may well be a misinterpreter of good common English. It is 
plain, that the two examples which he thus distorts, are neither obscure nor inelegant. But, in an alternative 
of single things, the article must be repeated, and a plural noun is improper; as, "But they do not receive the 
Nicene or the Athanasian creeds." — Adam's Religious World, Vol. ii, p. 105. Say, "creed." So in an enumer- 
ation ; as, " There are three participles : the present, the perfect, and the compound perfect participles." — Inger- 
solVs Grcvm., p. 4 - 2. Expunge this last word, "participles." Sometimes a sentence is wrong, not as being in 
itself a solecism, but as being unadapted to the author's thought. Example: " Other tendencies will be noticed 
in the Etymological and Syntactical part," — Fowler's E. Gram., N. Y., 1850, p. 75. This implies, what appears 
not to be true, that the author meant to treat Etymology and Syntax together in a single part of his work. 
Had he put an s to the noun "part," he might have been understood in either of two other ways, but not in this. 
To make sure of his meaning, therefore, he should have said — "in the Etymological Part and the Syntactical." 



488 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III, 

Note XIV. — The definite article, or some other definitive, (as this, that, these, 
those,) is generally required before the antecedent to the pronoun who or which in a 
restrictive clause ; as, rt All the men who were present, agreed to it." — W. Allen's 
Gram., p. 145. " The thoughts which passion suggests are always plain and obvious 
ones."— Blair's Rhet., p. 468. " The things which are impossible with men, are pos- 
sible with God." — Luke, xviii, 27. See Etymology, Chap. V, Obs. 26th, &c, on 
Classes of Pronouns. 

Note XV. — The article is generally required in that construction which converts 
a participle into, a verbal or participial noun; as, " The completing of this, by the 
working-out of sin inherent, must be by the power and spirit of Christ in the heart." 
— Wm. Penn. "They shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." — Isaiah, Ixvi, 24. 
"For the dedicating of the altar." — Numb., vii, 11. 

Note XVI. — The article should not be added to any participle that is not taken 
in all other respects as a noun ; as, " For the dedicating the altar." — " He made a 
mistake in the giving out the text." Expunge the, and let dedicating and giving 
here stand as participles only ; for in the construction of nouns, they must have not 
only a definitive before them, but the preposition of after them. 

Note XVII. — The false syntax of articles properly includes every passage in 
which there is any faulty insertion, omission, choice, or position, of this part of 
speech. For example : " When the verb is a passive, the agent and object change 
places." — LowtK 1 s Gram., p. 73. Better: " When the verb is passive, the agent and 
the object change places." " Comparisons used by the sacred poets, are generally 
short." — Russell's Gram., p. 87. Better: " The comparisons," &c. "Pronoun 
means/or noun, and is used to avoid the too frequent repetition of the noun." — In- 
fant School Gram., p. 89. Say rather : " The pronoun is put for a noun, and is 
used to prevent too frequent a repetition of the noun." Or : " The word pronoun 
means for noun ; and a pronoun is used to prevent too frequent a repetition of some 
noun." 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE I. 

B3T" [The examples of False Syntax placed under the nil- s and notes, are to be corrected orally by the pupil, 
according to the formules given, or according to others framed in like manner, and adapted to the several 
notes.] 

Examples Under Note I. — AN or A. 
"I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel." — Hosea, vi, 10. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the article an is used before horrible, which begins with the sound of the 
consonant h. But, according to Note 1st, under Rule 1st, "When the indefinite article is required, a should 
always be used before the sound of a consonant, and an, before that of a vowel." Therefore, an should be a; 
thus, " I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel."] 

" There is an harshness in the following sentences." — Priestley's Gram., p. 188. " Indeed, 
such an one is not to be looked for." — Blair's Rhet, p. 27. " If each of you will be disposed to 
approve himself an useful citizen." — lb., p. 263. " Land with them had acquired almost an 
European value." — Webster's Essays, p. 325. " He endeavoured to find out an wholesome remedy." 
— Neefs Method of Ed., p. 3. " At no time have we attended an Yearly Meeting more to our own 
satisfaction." — The Friend, v, 224. " Addison was not an humourist in character." — Karnes, El. 
of Grit, i, 303. " Ah mel what an one was he ?" — Lily's Gram., p. 49. " He was such an one 
as I never saw." — lb. " No man can be a good preacher, who is not an useful one." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 283. "An usage which is too frequent with Mr. Addison." — lb., p. 200. "Nobody joins the 
voice of a sheep with the shape of an horse." — Locke's Essay, p. 298. "An universality seems 
to be aimed at by the omission of the article." — Priestley's Gram., p. 154. " Architecture is an 
useful as well as a fine art." — Karnes, El. of Crit, ii, 335. " Because the same individual con- 
junctions do not preserve an uniform signification." — Nutting's Gram., p. 78. "Such a work 
required the patience and assiduity of an hermit." — Johnson's Life of Morin. " Resentment is an 
union of sorrow with malignity." — Rambler, No. 185. " His bravery, we know, was an high 
courage of blasphemy." — Pope. " Hyssop ; a herb of bitter taste." — Pike's Heb. Lex., p. 3. 
" On each enervate string they taught the note 
To pant, or tremble through an Eunuch's throat." — Pope. 

Under Note II. — AN or A with Plurals. 

"At a sessions of the court in March, it was moved," &c. — Hutchinson's Hist of Jlass., i, 61. 

" I shall relate my conversations, of which I kept a memoranda," — Duchess D'Abrantes, p. 26. 

"I took another dictionary, and with a scissors cut out, for instance, the word Abacus." — A. B. 

Johnson's Plan of a Diet, p. 12. "A person very meet seemed he for the purpose, of a forty-five 



CHAP. II.] SYNTAX. — RULE I. — ARTICLES. — ERRORS. 489 

years old." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 338. " And it came to pass about an eight days after 
these sayings." — Luke, ix, 28. " There were slain of them upon a three thousand men." — 1 Mac, 
iv 15. "Until I had gained the top of these white mountains, which seemed cmother Alps of snow." 
Addison, Tat, No. 161. "To make them a satisfactory amends for all the losses they had sus- 
tained." — Goldsmith's Greece, p. 187. "As a first fruits of many more that shall be gathered." — 
Barclay's Works, i, 506. " It makes indeed a little amends, by inciting us to oblige people." — 
Sheffield's Works, ii, 229. "A large and lightsome back-stairs leads up to an entry above." — lb., 
p. 260. "Peace of mind is an honourable amends for the sacrifices of interest." — Murray's Gram., 
p. 162; Smith's, 138. ""With such a spirit and sentiments were hostilities carried on." — 
Robertson's America, i, 166. "In the midst of a thick woods, he had long lived a voluntary 
recluse." — G. B. "The flats look almost like a young woods." — Morning Chronicle. "As 
we went on, the country for a little ways improved, but scantily." — Essex County Freeman, YoL 
ii, No. 11. " Whereby the Jews were permitted to return into their own country; after a seventy 
years captivity at Babylon." — Rollin's An. Mist.., Yol. ii, p. 20. "He did not go a great ways 
into the country." — Gilbert's Gram., p. 85. 

"A large amends by fortune's hand is made, 
And the lost Punic blood is weU repay'd." — Howe's Lucan, iv, 1241. 

Under Note III. — Nouns Connected. 

"As where a landscape is conjoined with the music of birds and odour of flowers." — Karnes, El. 
of Grit, i, 117. "The last order resembles the second in the mildness of its accent, and softness 
of its pause." — lb., ii, 113. " Before the use of the loadstone or knowledge of the compass." — 
Bryden. "The perfect participle and imperfect tense ought not to be confounded." — Murray's 
Gram., ii, 292. " In proportion as the taste of a poet, or orator, becomes more refined." — Blair's 
BJiet, p. 27. " A situation can never be intricate, as long as there is an angel, devil, or musician, 
to lend a helping hand." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 285. "Avoid rude sports: an eye is soon lost, 
or bone broken." — " Not a word was uttered, nor sign given." — Brown's Inst, p. 125. "I despise 
not the doer, but deed." — Ibid. "For the sake of an easier pronunciation and more agreeable 
sound." — Lowth. " The levity as well as loquacity of the Greeks made them incapable of keep- 
ing up the true standard of history." — Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 115. 

Under Note IY. — Adjectives Connected. 

" It is proper that the vowels be along and short one." — Murray's Gram., p. 327. "Whether 
the person mentioned was seen by the speaker a long or short time before." — lb., p. 70 ; Fisk's, 
72. "There are three genders, Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter." — Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 8. 
"The numbers are two; Singular and Plural." — lb., p. 80; Gould's, 77. "The persons are 
three ; First, Second, [and] Third." — Adam, et al. " Nouns and pronouns have three cases ; the 
nominative, possessive, and objective." — Comly's Gram., p. 19; Ingersoll's, 21. "Yerbs have 
five moods; namely, the Indicative, Potential, Subjunctive, Imperative, and Infinitive." — Bullions's 
E. Gram., p. 35 ; Lennie's, 20. "How many numbers have pronouns? Two, the singular and 
plural." — Bradley's Gram., p. 82. " To distinguish between an interrogative and exclamatory 
sentence." — Murray's Gram., p. 280; Comly's, 163; Ingersoll's, 292. "The first and last of 
which are compounded members." — Lowth' s Gram., p. 123. " In the last lecture, I treated of the 
concise and diffuse, the nervous and feeble manner." — Blair's Rhtt, p. 183. "The passive and 
neuter verbs, I shall reserve for some future conversation." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 69. " There 
are two voices; the Active and Passive." — Adam's Gram., p. 59; Gould's, 87. " Whose is 
rather the poetical than regular genitive of which." — Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 7. "To feel the 
force of a compound, or derivative word." — Town's Analysis, p. 4. " To preserve the distinctive 
uses of the copulative and disjunctive conjunctions." — Murray's Gram., p. 150 ; Ingersoll's, 233. 
" E has a long and short sound in most languages." — Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 13. "When 
the figurative and literal sense are mixed and jumbled together." — Blair's Rhet, p. 151. " The 
Hebrew, with which the Canaanitish and Phoenician stand in connection." — Conant : Fowler's E. 
Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 28. "The languages of Scandinavia proper, the Norwegian and Swedish." 
— Foiuler, ib., p. 31. 

Under Note Y — Adjectives Connected. 

"The path of truth is a plain and a safe path." — Murray's Key, p. 236. "Directions for ac- 
quiring a just and a happy elocution." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 144. "Its leading object is to 
adopt a correct and an easy method." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 9. " How can it choose but wither 
in a long and a sharp winter." — Cowley's Pref, p. vi. "Into a dark and a distant unknown." — 
Chalmers, on Astronomy, p. 230. " When the bold and the strong enslaved his fellow man." — 
Chazotte's Essay, p. 21. "We now proceed to consider the things most essential to an accurate 
and a perfect sentence." — Murray's Gram., p. 306. "And hence arises a second and a very con- 
siderable source of the improvement of taste." — Blair's Rhet, p. 18. " Novelty produces in the 
mind a vivid and an agreeable emotion." — lb., p. 50. " The deepest and the bitterest feeling still 
is, the separation." — Dr. MRie. "A great and a good man looks beyond time." — Brown's In- 
stitutes, p. 125. "They made but a weak and an ineffectual resistance." — Ib. "The fight and 
the worthless kernels will float." — Ib. " I rejoice that there is an other and a better world." — Bo. 
For he is determined to revise his work, and present to the publick another and a better edition." 



490 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

— Kirkham's Gram., p. 7. " He hoped that this title would secure him an ample and an inde- 
pendent authority." — Murray's Gram., p. 172: see Priestley's, 147. " There is however another 
and a more limited sense." — Adams's lihet., Vol. ii, p. 232. 

Under Note VI. — Articles or Plurals. 

"This distinction forms, what are called the diffuse and the concise styles." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 176. " Two different modes of speaking, distinguished at first by the denominations of the 
Attic and the Asiatic manners." — Adams's Ehet., Vol. i, p. 83. " But the great design of uniting 
the Spanish and the French monarchies under the former was laid." — Bolingbroke, on History, p. 
180. "In the solemn and the poetic styles, it [do or did] is often rejected." — W. Allen's Gram., 
p. 68. "They cannot be at the same time in the objective and the nominative cases." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 151; Ingersoll's, 239; R. C. Smith's, 127. "They are named the positive, the 
comparative, and the superlative degrees." — Smart's Accidence, p. 27. " Certain Adverbs are 
capable of taking an Inflection, namely, that of the comparative and the superlative degrees." — 
Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 321. "In the subjunctive mood, the present and the imperfect 
tenses often carry with them a future sense." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 187; Fish's, 131. "The 
imperfect, the perfect, the pluperfect, and the first future tenses of this mood, are conjugated like 
the same tenses of the indicative." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 145. " What rules apply in parsing 
personal pronouns of the second and third person ?" — lb., p. 116. " Nouns are sometimes in the 
nominative or objective case after the neuter verb to be, or after an active-intransitive or passive 
verb." — lb., p. 55. " The verb varies its endings in the singular in order to agree in form with 
the first, second, and third person of its nominative." — lb., p. 47. " They are identical in effect, 
with the radical and the vanishing stresses." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 339. " In a sonnet the first, 
fourth, fifth, and eighth fine rhyme to each other : so do the second, third, sixth, and seventh 
line ; the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth line ; and the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth line." — 
Churchill's Gram., p. 311. "The iron and the golden ages are run; youth and manhood are de- 
parted." — Wright's Athens, p. 74. "If, as you say, the iron and the golden ages are past, the 
youth and the manhood of the world." — lb. " An Exposition of the Old and New Testament." — 
Matthew Henry's Title-page. " The names and order of the books of the Old and New Testament." 
— Friends' Bible, p. 2 ; Bruce' s, p. 2 ; et al. " In the second and third person of that tense." — 
L. Murray's Gram., p. 81. "And who still unites in himself the human and the divine natures." 
— Gurney's Evidences, p. 59. "Among whom arose the Italian, the Spanish, the French, and the 
English languages." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 111. ""Whence arise these two, the singular 
and the plural Numbers." — Burn's Gram., p. 32. 

Under Note VII. — Correspondent Terms. 

"Neither the definitions, nor examples, are entirely the same with his." — Ward's Pre/, to Lily's 
Gram., p. vi. " Because it makes a discordance between the thought and expression." — Karnes, 
El. of Grit., ii, 24. "Between the adjective and following substantive." — lb. ii, 104. "Thus, 
Athens became both the repository and nursery of learning." — Chazotte's Essay, p. 28. "But the 
French pilfered from both the Greek and Latin." — lb., p. 102. "He shows that Christ is both 
the power and wisdom of G-od." — The Friend, x, 414. " That he might be Lord both of the dead 
and living." — Rom., xiv, 9. " This is neither the obvious nor grammatical meaning of his words." 
— Blair's Rhet, p. 209. "Sometimes both the accusative and infinitive are understood." — Adam's 
Gram., p. 155 ; Gould's, 158. "In some cases we can use either the nominative or accusative 
promiscuously." — Adam, p. 156; Gould, 159. "Both the former and latter substantive are some- 
times to be understood." — Adam, p. 157; Gould, 160. " Many whereof have escaped both the 
commentator and poet himself." — Pope. " The verbs must and ought have both a present and 
past signification." — Murray's Gram., p. 108. " How shall we distinguish between the friends 
and enemies of the government ?" — Webster's Essays, p. 352. " Both the ecclesiastical and 
secular powers concurred in those measures." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 260. "As the period has a 
beginning and end within itself it implies an inflexion." — Adams's Rhet, ii, 245. " Such as 
ought to subsist between a principal and accessory." — Karnes, on Grit, ii, 39. 

Under Note VIII. — Correspondence Peculiar. 

"When both the upward and the downward slides occur in pronouncing a syllable, they are 
called a Circumflex ox Wave." — Kirkham's Elocution, pp. 75 and 104. "The word that is used 
both in the nominative and objective cases." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 69. " But all the other moods 
and tenses of the verbs, both in the active and passive voices, are conjugated at large." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 81. " Some writers on Grammar object to the propriety of admitting the second 
future, in both the indicative and subjunctive moods." — lb., p. 82. " The same conjunction gov- 
erning both the indicative and the subjunctive moods, in the same sentence, and in the same cir- 
cumstances, seems to be a great impropriety." — lb., p. 207. "The true distinction between the 
subjunctive and the indicative moods in this tense." — lb., p. 208. " I doubt of his capacity to 
teach either the French or English languages." — Chazotte's Essay, p. 7. "It is as necessary to 
make a distinction between the active transitive and the active intransitive forms of the verb, as 
between the active and passive forms." — Nixon's Parser, p. 13. 



CHAP. II.] SYNTAX. — RULE I. ARTICLES. ERRORS. 491 

Under Note IX. — A Series of Terms. 

"As comprehending the terms uttered by the artist, the mechanic, and husbandman." — 
Chazotte's Essay, p. 24. '.' They may be divided into four classes — the Humanists, Philanthropists, 
Pestalozzian and the Productive Schools." — Smith's New Gram., p. iii. " Verbs have six tenses, 
the Present, the Imperfect, the Perfect, the Pluperfect, and the First and Second Future tenses." — 
Kirkham's Gram., p. 138; L. Murray's, 68; R. C. Smith's, 27; Alger's, 28. "Is is an irregular 
verb neuter, indicative mood, present tense, and the third person singular." — Murray's Gram., 
Yol. ii, p. 2. " Should give is an irregular verb active, in the potential mood, the imperfect tense, 
and the first person plural." — Ibid. " Us is a personal pronoun, first person plural, and in the 
objective case." — Ibid. " Them is a personal pronoun, of the third person, the plural number, 
and in the objective case." — Ibid. " It is surprising that the Jewish critics, with all their skill in 
dots, points, and accents, never had the ingenuity to invent a point of interrogation, of admira- 
tion, or a parenthesis." — Wilson's Hebrew Gram., p. 47. "The fifth, sixth, seventh, and the 
eighth verse." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 263. "Substitutes have three persons; the First, 
Second, and the Third." — lb., p. 34. "John's is a proper noun, of the masculine gender, the 
third person, singular number, possessive case, and governed by wife, by Pule I." — Smith's New 
Gram., p. 48. " Nouns in the English language have three cases ; the nominative, the possessive, 
and objective." — Barrett's Gram., p. 13; Alexander's, 11. "The Potential [mood] has four 
[tenses], viz. the Present, the Imperfect, the Perfect, and Pluperfect." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 96. 

" Where Science, Law, and Liberty depend, 
And own the patron, patriot, and the friend." — Savage, to Walpole. 

Under Note X. — Species and Genus. 

"A pronoun is a part of speech put for a noun." — Paul's Accidence, p. 11. " A verb is a part of 
speech declined with mood and tense." — lb., p. 15. "A participle is a part of speech derived of 
a verb." — lb., p. 38. "An adverb is a part of speech joined to verbs to declare their significa- 
tion." — lb., p. 40. " A conjunction is a part of speech that joineth sentences together." — lb., p. 
41. "A preposition is a part of speech most commonly set before other parts." — Po., p. 42. 
" An interjection is a part of speech which betokeneth a sudden motion or passion of the mind." 
— lb., p. 44. "An enigma or riddle is also a species of allegory." — Blair's Ehet., p. 151 ; Mur- 
ray's Gram., 343. "We may take from the Scriptures a veiy fine example of an allegory." — lb. ; 
Blair, 151 ; Mur., 341. "And thus have you exhibited a sort of a sketch of art." — Harris : in 
Priestley's Gram., p. 176. "We may 'imagine a subtle kind of a reasoning,' as Mr. Harris 
acutely observes." — Churchill's Gram., p. 71. "But, before entering on these, I shall give one 
instance of a very beautiful metaphor, that I may show the figure to full advantage." — Blair's 
Ehet., p. 143. " Aristotle, in his Poetics, uses metaphor in this extended sense, for any figurative 
meaning imposed upon a word ; as a whole put for the part, or a part for a whole ; the species 
for the genus, or a genus for the species." — Po., p. 142. " It shows what kind of an apple it is 
of which we are speaking." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 69. "Cleon was another sort of a man." — 
Goldsmith's Greece, Yol. i, p. 124. " To keep off his right wing, as a kind of a reserved body." — 
lb., ii, 12. "This part of speech is called a verb." — Mack's Gram., p. 70. "What sort of a thing 
is it?" — Riley's Gram., p. 20. "What sort of a charm do they possess?" — Bullions' s Principles 
of E. Gram., p. 73. 

" Dear Welsted, mark, in dirty hole, 
That painful animal, a Mole." — Note to Dunciad, B. h, 1. 207. 

Under Note XI. — Articles not Eequisite. 

"Either thou or the boys were in the fault." — Comly's Key, in Gram., p. 174. "It may, at 
the first view, appear to be too general." — Murray's Gram., p. 222; Ingersoll's, 275. "When 
the verb has a reference to future time." — lb. : M., p. 207 ; lag., 264. " No ; they are the lan- 
guage of imagination rather than of a passion." — Blair's Rhet., p. 165. " The dislike of the Eng- 
lish Grammar, which has so generally prevailed, can only be attributed to the intricacy of syntax." 
— Russell's Gram., p. iv. "Is that ornament in a good taste?" — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 326. 
" There are not many fountains in a good taste." — Pj., ii, 329. " And I persecuted this way unto 
the death." — Acts, xxii, 4. " The sense of the feeling can, indeed, give us the idea of extension." 
— Blair s Rhet., p. 196. " The distributive adjective pronouns, each, every, either, agree with the 
nouns, pronouns, and verbs, of the singular number only." — Murray's Gram., p. 165; Lowth's, 
89. " Expressing by one word, what might, by a circumlocution, be resolved into two or more 
words belonging to the other parts of speech." — Blair's Rhet., p. 84. "By the certain muscles 
which operate all at the same time." — Murray's Gram., p. 19. " It is sufficient here to have 
observed thus much in the general concerning them." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 112. "Nothing dis- 
gusts us sooner than the empty pomp of language." — Murray's Gram., p. 319. 

Under Note XII. — Titles and Names. 

"He is entitled to the appellation of a gentleman." — Brown's Inst, p. 126. "Cromwell 

assumed the title of a Protector." — lb. " Her father is honoured with the title of an Earl." — lb. 

" The chief magistrate is styled a President." — lb. " The highest title in the state is that of the 

Governor." — lb. " That boy is known by the name of the" Idler." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 205. 



492 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

" The one styled the Mufti, is the head of the ministers of law and religion." — Balbi's Geog., p. 
360. " Ranging all that possessed them under one class, he called that whole class a tree." — 
Blair's Bhet, p. 73. " For the oak, the pine, and the ash, were names of whole classes of objects." 
— B)., p. 73. "It is of little importance whether we give to some particular mode of expression 
the name of a trope, or of a figure." — lb., p. 133. " The collision of a vowel with itself is the 
most ungracious of all combinations, and has been doomed to peculiar reprobation under the 
name of an hiatus." — J. Q. Adams's Bhet, Vol. ii, p. 217. "We hesitate to determine, whether 
the Tyrant alone, is the nominative, or whether the nominative includes the spy." — Cobbett's E. 
Gram., ^[ 246. " Hence originated the customary abbreviation of twelve months into a twelve- 
month; seven nights into sennight; fourteen nights into & fortnight." — Webster's Improved Gram., 
p. 105. 

Under Note XIII. — Comparisons and Alternatives. 

"He is a better writer than a reader." — W. Allen's False Syntax, Gram., p. 332. " He was an 
abler mathematician than a linguist." — lb. "I should rather have an orange than apple." — 
Brown's Inst, p. 126. "He was no less able a negotiator, than a courageous warrior." — Smollett's 
Voltaire, Vol. i, p. 181. " In an epic poem we pardon many negligences that would not be per- 
mitted in a sonnet or epigram." — Karnes, El. of Crit, Vol. i, p. 186. " That figure is a sphere, or 
a globe, or a ball." — Harris's Hermes, p. 258. 

Under Note XIV. — Antecedents to Who or Which. 

" Carriages which were formerly in use, were very clumsy." — Inst, p. 126. "The place is not 
mentioned by geographers who wrote at that time." — lb. " Questions which a person asks him- 
self in contemplation, ought to be terminated by points of interrogation." — Murray's Gram., p. 
279 ; Comly's, 162 ; Ingersoll's, 291. " The work is designed for the use of persons, who may 
think it merits a place in their Libraries." — Murray's Gram,., 8vo., p. iii. That persons who 
think confusedly, should express themselves obscurely, is not to be wondered at." — lb., p. 298. 
" Grammarians who limit the number to two, or at most to three, do not reflect." — lb., p. 75. 
" Substantives which end in tan, are those that signify profession." — lb., p. 132. " To these may 
be added verbs, which chiefly among the poets govern the dative." — Adam's Gram., p. 170 ; 
Gould's, 171. "Consonants are letters, which cannot be sounded without the aid of a vowel." — 
BucJce's Gram., p. 9. "To employ the curiosity of persons who are skilled in grammar." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., Bref, p. iii. "This rule refers only to nouns and pronouns, which have the same 
bearing or relation." — lb., i, p. 204. "So that things which are seen, were not made of things 
which do appear." — Heb., xi, 3. " Man is an imitative creature; he may utter sounds, which he 
has heard." — Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 21. "But men, whose business is wholly domestic, 
have little or no use for any language but their own." — Webster's Essays, p. 5. 

Under Note XV. — Participial Nouns. 

" Great benefit may be reaped from reading of histories." — Sewel's Hist, p. iii. "And some 
attempts were made towards writing of history." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 110. " It is Invading 
of the Priest's Office for any other to Offer it." — Bight of Tythes, p. 200. "And thus far of form- 
ing of verbs." — Walker's Art of Teaching, p. 35. " And without shedding of blood is no remission." 
— Heb., ix, 22. "For making of measures we have the best method here in England." — Brinter's 
Gram. " This is really both admitting and denying, at once." — Butler's Analogy, p. 72. " And 
hence the origin of making of parliaments." — Brown's Estimate, Vol. i, p. 71. " Next thou ob- 
jectest, that having of saving light and grace presupposes conversion. But that I deny : for, on 
the contrary, conversion presupposeth having light and grace." — Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 143. 
"They cried down wearing of rings and other superfluities as we do." — lb., i, 236. "Whose 
adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of 
putting on of apparel." — 1 Feter, iii, 3. " In spelling of derivative Words, the Primitive must be 
kept whole." — British Gram., p. 50; Buchanan's Syntax, 9. "And the princes offered for dedi- 
cating of the altar." — Numbers, vii, 10. " Boasting is not only telling of lies, but also many 
unseemly truths." — Sheffield's Works, ii, 244. " We freely confess that forbearing of prayer in 
the wicked is sinful." — Barclay, i, 316. "For revealing of a secret, there is no remedy." — Inst 
E. Gram., p. 126. "He turned all his thoughts to composing of laws for the good of the state." 
— Bollin's Ancient Hist, Vol. ii, p. 38. 

Under Note XVI. — Participles, not Nouns. 

" It is salvation to be kept from falling into a pit, as truly as to be taken out of it after the falling 
in." — Barclay <, i, 210. " For in the receiving and embracing the testimony of truth, they felt 
eased." — lb., i, 469. "True regularity does not consist in the having but a single rule, and 
forcing every thing to conform to it." — Bhilol. Museum, i, 664. " To the man of the world, this 
sound of glad tidings appears only an idle tale, and not worth the attending to." — Life of Tho. 
Say, p. 144. " To be the deliverer of the captive Jews, by the ordering their temple to be re- 
built," &c. — Bollin, ii, 124. " And for the preserving them from being defiled." — N. E. Discipline, 
p. 133. " A wise man will avoid the showing any excellence in trifles." — Art of Thinking, p. 80. 
" Hirsutus had no other reason for the valuing a book." — Bambler, No. 177 ; Wright's Gram., p. 
190. " To the being heard with satisfaction, it is necessary that the speaker should deliver him- 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE I. — ARTICLES. — RULE II. — NOMINATIVES. 493 

self with ease." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 114. "And to the being well heard, and clearly under- 
stood, a good and distinct articulation contributes more, than power of voice." — lb., p. 117. 
" Potential means the having power or will; 
As, If you would improve, you should be still." — Tobiit's Gram., p. 31. 

Under Note XYII. — Various Errors. 
" For the same reason, a neuter verb cannot become a passive." — Lowth's Gram., p. 74. " The 
period is the whole sentence complete in itself." — lb., p. 115. "The colon or member is a chief 
constructive part, or greater division of a sentence." — lb. "The semicolon or half member, is a 
less constructive part or subdivision, of a sentence or member." — lb. "A sentence or member is 
again subdivided into commas or segments." — lb., p. 116. "The first error that I would men- 
tion, is, a too general attention to the dead languages, with a neglect of our own." — Webster's 
Essays, p. 3. "€)ne third of the importations would supply the demands of people." — lb., p. 119. 
"And especially in grave stile." — Priestley's Gram., p. 72. "By too eager pursuit, he ran a great 
risk of being disappointed." — Murray's Key, Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 201. "Letters are divided 
into vowels and consonants." — Murray's Gram., i, p. 7 ; and others. " Consonants are divided 
into mutes and semi- vowels." — lb., i, 8 ; and others. " The first of these forms is most agreeable 
to the English idiom." — lb., i, 176. "If they gain, it is a too dear rate." — Barclay's Works, i, 
504. "A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to prevent a too frequent repetition of it." — 
Maunder' s Gram., p. 1. "This vulgar error might perhaps arise from a too partial fondness for 
the Latin." — Dr. Ash's Gram., Pre/., p. iv. "The groans which a too heavy load extorts from 
her." — Hitchcock, on Dyspepsy, p. 50. " The numbers [of a verb] are, of course, singular and 
plural." — Bucke's Gram. p. 58. "To brook no meanness, and to stoop to no dissimulation, are 
the indications of a great mind." — Murray's Key, ii, 236. " This mode of expression rather suits 
familiar than grave style." — Murray's Gram., i, 198. " This use of the word rather suits familiar 
and low style." — Priestley's Gram., -p. 134. "According to the nature of the composition the 
one or other may be predominant." — Blair's Bhet., p. 102. "Yet the commonness of such sen- 
tences prevents in a great measure a too early expectation of the end." — Campbell's Bhet, p. 411. 
"An eulogy or a philippic may be pronounced by an individual of one nation upon the subject of 
another." — Adams's Rhet., i, 298. "A French sermon, is for most part, a warm animated ex- 
hortation." — Blair's Bhet, p. 288. " I do not envy those who think slavery no very pitiable a 
lot." — Channing, on Emancipation, p. 52. "The auxiliary and principal united, constitute a 
tense." — Murray's Gram., i, 75. "There are some verbs which are defective with respect to 
persons." — lb., i, 109. "In youth, the habits of industry are most easily acquired." — Murray's 
Key, ii, 235. " Apostrophe ( ' ) is used in place of a letter left out." — Bullions's Eng. Gram., p. 156. 



CHAPTER III.— CASES, OR NOUNS. 

The rules for the construction of Nouns, or Cases, are seven ; hence this 
chapter, according to the order adopted above, reviews the series of rules 
from the second rule to the eighth, inclusively. Though Nouns are here 
the topic, all these seven rules apply alike to Nouns and to Pronouns ; 
that is, to all the words of our language which are susceptible of Cases. 

RULE II.— NOMINATIVES. 

A Noun or a Pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the 
nominative case : as, " The Pharisees also, ivho were covetous, heard all 
these things ; and they derided him." — Luke, xvi, 14. " But where the 
meekness of self-knowledge veileth the front of self-respect, there look thou 
for the man whom none can know but they will honour." — Book of 
Thoughts, p. 66. 

" Dost thou mourn Philander's fate? 
I know thou sayst it : says thy life the same ?" — Young, N. ii, 1. 22. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE II. 

Obs. 1. — To this rule, there are no exceptions; and nearly all nominatives, or far the greater 
part, are to be parsed by it. There are however four different ways of disposing of the nominative 
case. First, it is generally the subject of a verb, according to Rule 2d. Secondly, it may be put 
in apposition with an other nominative, according to Rule 3d. Thirdly, it may be put after a verb 
or a participle not transitive, according to Rule 6th. Fourthly, it may be put absolute, or may help 
to form a phrase that is independent of the rest of the sentence, according to Rule 8th. 



494 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 2. — The subject, or nominative, is generally placed "before the verb ; as, " Peace dawned 
upon his mind." — Johnson. " What is written in the law?" — Bible. But, in the following nino 
cases, the subject of the verb is usually placed after it, or after the first auxiliary : 

1. When a question is asked without an interrogative pronoun in the nominative case ; as, 
"Shall mortals be implacable?" — Hooke. "What art thou doing f — Id. "How many loaves 
have ye?" — Bible. " Are they Israelites? so am J." — lb. 

2. When the verb is in the imperative mood ; as, " Go thou. 11 — " Gome ye." But, with this 
mood, the pronoun is very often omitted and understood; as, " Pliilip saith unto him, Gome and 
see." — John, 1, 46. " And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted." — Mark, xvi, 5. 

3. When an earnest wish, or other strong feeling, is expressed; as, " May she be happy!" — 
"How were we struck!" — Young. "Not as the world giveth, give Junto you." — Bible. 

4. When a supposition is made without the conjunction if; as, "Had they known it;" for, "If 
they had known it." — " Were it true ;" for, " If it were true." — " Could we draw by the covering 
of the grave;" for, "If we could draw," &c. 

5. When neither or nor, signifying and not, precedes the verb; as, "This was his fear; nor was 
his apprehension groundless." — "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it." — Gen., iii, 3. 

6. When, for the sake of emphasis, some word or words are placed before the verb, which more 
naturally come after it; as, " Here am I" — "Narrow is the way." — "Silver and gold have I 
none; but such as I have, give /thee." — Bible. 

1. When the verb has no regimen, and is itself emphatical ; as, " Echo the mountains round." — 
Thomson. "After the Light Infantry marched the Grenadiers, then followed the Horse." — 
Buchanan's Syntax, p. 11. 

8. When the verbs, say, answer, reply, and the like, introduce the parts of a dialogue ; as, 
" 'Son of affliction,' said Omar, 'who art thou?' 'My name,' replied the stranger, 'is Hassan.' " 
— Dr. Johnson. 

9. When the adverb there precedes the verb; as, " There lived sx man." — Montgomery. "In all 
worldly joys, there is a secret wound." — Owen. This use of there, the general introductory adverb 
of place, is idiomatic, and somewhat different from the use of the same word in reference to a par- 
ticular locality; as, " Because there was not much water there." — John, iii, 23. 

Obs. 3. — In exclamations, and some other forms of expression, a few verbs are liable to be sup- 
pressed, the ellipsis being obvious ; as, " How different [is] this from the philosophy of Greece 
and Rome!" — Dr. Beattib: Murray's Sequel, p. 127. " What a lively picture [is here] of the 
most disinterested and active benevolence!" — Hervey: ib., p. 94. "When Adam [spake] thus 
to Eve." — Milton: Paradise Lost, B. iv, 1. 610. 

Obs. 4. — Though we often use nouns in the nominative case to show whom we address, yet the 
imperative verb takes no other nominative of the second person, than the simple personal pro- 
noun, thou, ye, or you, expressed or understood. It would seem that some, who ought to know 
better, are liable to mistake for the subject of such a verb, the noun which we put absolute in the 
nominative by direct address. Of this gross error, the foUowing is an example: " Study boys. In 
this sentencs," (says its author,) "study is a verb of the second person, plural number, and agrees 
with its nominative case, boys — according to the rule : A verb must agree with its nominative 
case in number and person. Boys is a noun of the second person, plural number, masculine gen- 
der, in the nominative case to the verb study." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 17.* Now the fact is, that 
this laconic address, of three syUables, is written wrong; being made bad English for want of a 
comma between the two words. Without this mark, boys must be an objective, governed by 
study ; and with it, a nominative, put absolute by direct address. But, in either case, study agrees 
with ye or you understood, and has not the noun for its subject, or nominative. 

Obs. 5. — Some authors say, and if the first person be no exception, say truly: " The nominative 
case to a verb, unless it be a pronoun, is always of the third person." — Churchill's Gram., p. 141. 
But W. B. Powle will have all pronouns to be adjectives. Consequently all his verbs, of every 
sort, agree with nouns "expressed or understood." This, and every other absurd theory of lan- 
guage, can easily be made out, by means of a few perversions, which may be called corrections, 
and a sufficient number of interpolations, made under pretence of filling up ellipses. Thus, accord- 
ing to this author, " They fear," means, "They things spoken of fear." — True Eng. Gram., p, 33. 
And, "John, open the door," or, " Boys, stop your noise," admits no comma. And, " Be grateful, 
ye children," and, "Be ye grateful children," are, in his view, every way equivalent : the comma 
in the former being, in his opinion, needless. See ib., p. 39. 

Obs. 6. — Though the nominative and objective cases of nouns do not differ in form, it is never- 
theless, in the opinion of many of our grammarians, improper to place any noun in both relations 
at once, because this produces a confusion in the syntax of the word. Examples: " He then goes 

* Oliver B. Peirce, in his new theory of grammar, not only adopts Ingersoll's error, but adds others to it. 
He supposes no ellipsis, and declares it grossly improper ever to insert the pronoun. According to him, the 
following text is -wrong: "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord." — Heb., xii, 5. See Peirce" 8 
Gram., p. 255. Of this gentleman's book I shall say the less, because its faults are so many and so obvious. 
Yet this is " Th". Grammar of the English Language''' and claims to be the only work which is worthy to be 
called an English Grammar. " The first and only' Grammar of the English Language !" — lb., p. 10. In punc- 
tuation, it is a vary chaos, as one might guess from the following Rule : " A word of the second person, and in 
the subjective case, must have a semicolon after it; as, John; hear me." — lb., p. 282. Behold his practice! 
"John,'beware."— P. 84. "Children, study."— P. SO. "Henry; study."— P. 249. "Pupil: parse."— P. 211; 
and many other places. "Be thou, or do thou be writing? Be ye or you, or do ye or you b,e writing?" — P. 
110. According to his Rule, this tense requires six semicolons; but the author points it with two commas and 
two notes of interrogation I 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX.— RULE II. NOMINATIVES'. — OBSERVATIONS. 495 

on to declare that there are, and distinguish of, four manners of saying Per se." — Walker 's Trea- 
tise of Particles, p. xii. Better : " He then proceeds to show, that per se is susceptible of four 
different senses." "In just allegory and similitude there is always a propriety, or, if you choose 
to call it, congruity, in the literal sense, as well as a distinct meaning or sentiment suggested, 
which is called the figurative sense." — GampbelVs Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 291. Better: "In 
just allegory or similitude, there is always a propriety — or, if you choose to call it so, a congruity 
— in the literal sense," &c. "It must then be meant of his sins who makes, not of his who be- 
comes, the convert." — Atterbury's Sermons, i, 2. Better: "It must then be meant of his sins 
who makes the convert, not of his who becomes converted." "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the tilings which God hath prepared for them that love 
him. — 1 Cor., ii, 9. A more regular construction would be: " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which G-od hath prepared for 
them that love him." The following example, from Pope, may perhaps be conceded to the poet, 
as an allowable ellipsis of the words " a friend," after is : 

""In who obtain defence, or who defend ; 
In him who is, or him who finds, a friend." — Essay on Man, Ep. iv, 1. 60. 
Dr. Lowth cites the last three examples, without suggesting any forms of correction ; and says 
of them, " There seems to be an impropriety in these sentences, in which the same noun stands 
in a double capacity, performing at the same time the offices both of the nominative and objective 
case." — Lowth) s Gram., p. 73. He should have said — "of both the nominative and the objective 
case." Dr. Webster, citing the line, "In him who is, and him who finds, a friend," adds, "Lowth 
condemns this use of the noun in the nominative and objective at the same time ; but without 
reason, as the cases are not distinguished in English." — Improved Gram., p. 175. 

Obs. 7. — In Latin and Greek, the accusative before the infinitive, is often reckoned the subject 
of the latter verb ; and is accordingly parsed by a sort of exception to the foregoing rule — or 
rather, to that general rule of concord which the grammarians apply to the verb and its nomina- 
tive. This construction is translated into English, and other modern tongues, sometimes literally, 
or nearly so, but much oftener, by a nominative and a finite verb. Example : " EItvsv avrbv 
tj)0)vnd~/vai" — Mark, x, 49. "Ait ilium vocari." — Leusden. " Jussit eum vocari." — Beza. "Prae- 
cepit ilium vocari." — Vulgate. " He commanded him to be called." — English Bible. " He com- 
manded that he should be called." — Milnes\s Gr. Gram., p. 143. " II clit qu'on l'appelat." — 
French Bible. " He bid that somebody should call him." " II commanda qu'on lo fit venir." — 
Nouveau Test, Paris, 1812. "He commanded that they should make him come-" that is, "lead 
Mm, or bring him." " II commanda qu'on rappelat." — Be Sacy's N. Test. 

Obs. 8. — In English, the objective case before the infinitive mood, although it may truly de- 
note the agent of the infinitive action, or the subject of the infinitive passion, is nevertheless 
taken as the object of the preceding verb, participle, or preposition. Accordingly our language 
does not admit a literal translation of the above-mentioned construction, except the preceding 
verb be such as can be interpreted transitively. " Gaudeo te valere," "I am glad that thou art 
well," cannot bo translated more literally; because, "I am glad thee to be well," would not be 
good English. " Aiunt regem adventare," "They say the king is coming," may be otherwise 
rendered " They declare the king to be coming ;" but neither version is entirely literal ; the 
objective being retained only by a change of aiunt, say, into such a verb as will govern the 
noun. 

Obs. 9. — Tho following sentence is a literal imitation of the Latin accusative before the infini- 
tive, and for that reason it is not good English : " But experience teacheth us, both these opinions 
to be alike ridiculous." — Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 262. It should be, " But experience teaches 
us, that both these opinions are alike ridiculous." The verbs believe, think, imagine, and others 
expressing mental action, I suppose to be capable of governing nouns or pronouns in the objec- 
tive case, and consequently of being interpreted transitively. Hence I deny the correctness of 
the following explanation : " Rule xxiv. The objective case precedes the infinitive mode ; [as,] 
'I believe your brother to be a good man.' Here believe does not govern brother, in the objective 
case, because it is not the object after it. Brother, in the objective case, third person singular, 
precedes the neuter verb to be, in the infinitive mode, present time, third person singular." — 
S. Barrett's Gram., p. 135. This author teaches that, "The infinitive mode agrees with the ob- 
jective case in number and person." — Ibid. "Which doctrine is denied ; because the infinitive has 
no number or person, in any language. Nor do I see why the noun brother, in the foregoing 
example, may not be both the object of the active verb believe, and the subject of the neuter 
infinitive to be, at the same time ; for the subject of the infinitive, if the infinitive can be said to 
have a subject, is not necessarily in the nominative case, or necessarily independent of what 
precedes. 

Obs. 10. — There are many teachers of English grammar, who still adhere to the principle of the 
Latin and Greek grammarians, which refers the accusative or objective to the latter verb, and 
supposes the former to be intransitive, or to govern only the infinitive. Thus Nixon : " The 
objective case is frequently put before the infinitive mood, as its subject ; as, ' Suffer me to de- 
part.' "* — English Parser, p. 34. " When an objective case stands before an infinitive mood, as 

* In Butler's Practical Grammar, first published in 1845, this doctrine is taught as a novelty. His publishers, 
in their circular letter, speak of it as one of " the peculiar advantages of this grammar over preceding works," 
and as an important matter, " heretofore altogether omitted by grammarians .'" Wells cites Butler in support 
of his false principle : " A verb in the infinitive is often preceded by a noun or pronoun in the objective, -which 



496 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

'I understood it to be him,' ' Suffer me to depart,' such objective should be parsed, not as gov- 
erned by the preceding verb, but as the objective case before the infinitive ; that is, the subject of 
it. The reason of this is — the former verb can govern one object only, and that is (in such sen- 
tences) the infinitive mood ; the intervening objective being the subject of the infinitive follow- 
ing, and not governed by the former verb ; as, in that instance, it would be governing two objects." 
—lb., Note.* 

Obs. 11. — The notion that one verb governs an other in the infinitive, just as a transitive verb 
governs a noun, and so that it cannot also govern an objective case, is not only contradictory to 
my scheme of parsing the infinitive mood, but is also false in itself, and repugnant to the princi- 
ples of General Grammar. In Greek and Latin, it is certainly no uncommon thing for a verb to 
govern two cases at once ; and even the accusative before the infinitive is sometimes governed by 
the preceding verb, as the objective before the infinitive naturally is in English. But, in regard 
to construction, every language differs more or less from every other ; hence each must have its 
own syntax, and abide by its own rules. In regard to the point here in question, the reader 
may compare the following examples: ""E^q uvdyicnv e^e?i-&elv." — Luke, xiv, 18. " Habeo ne- 
cesse exire." — Leusden. English: " I have occasion to go away." Again: " ' O tjwv ura (Ikovelv, 
ukhsto)." — Luke, xiv, 35. " Habeas aures audiendi, audiat." — Leusden. " Qui habet aures ad 
audiendum, audiat." — Beza. English: "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear*." But our most 
frequent use of the infinitive after the objective, is in sentences that must not be similarly con- 
structed in Latin or Greek ;f as, " And he commanded the porter to watch." — Mark, xiii, 34. 
"And he delivered Jesus to be crucified." — Mark, xv, 15. "And they led him out to crucify him." 
— Mark, xv, 20. "We heard him say." — Mark, xiv, 58. "That I might make thee know." — 
Prov., xxii, 21. 

Obs. 12. — If our language does really admit any thing like the accusative before the infinitive, 
in the sense of a positive subject at the head of a clause, it is only in some prospective descrip- 
tions like the following: "Let certain studies be prescribed to be pursued during the freshman 
year ; some of these to be attended to by the whole class ; with regard to others, a choice to be 
allowed; which, when made by the student, (the parent or guardian sanctioning it,) to be bind- 
ing during the freshman year : the same plan to be adopted with regard to the studies of the 
succeeding years." — Gallaudet: Journal of the N. Y. Literary Convention, p. 118. Here the 
four words, some, choice, which, and plan, may appear to a Latinist to be so many objectives, or 
accusatives, placed before infinitives, and used to describe that state of things which the author 
would promote. If objectives they are, we may still suppose them to be governed by let, would 
have, or something of the kind, understood: as, " Let some of these be attended to;" or, "Some 
of these I would have to be attended to," &c. The relative which might with more propriety be 
made nominative, by changing " to be binding" to " shall be binding;" and as to the rest, it is 
very doubtful whether they are not now nominatives, rather than objectives. The infinitive, as 
used above, is a mere substitute for the Latin future participle ; and any English noun or pro- 
noun put absolute with a participle, is in the nominative case. English relatives are rarely, if 
ever, put absolute in this manner : and this may be the reason why the construction of which, 
in the sentence above, seems awkward. Besides, it is certain that the other pronouns are 
sometimes put absolute with the infinitive ; and that, in the nominative case, not the objective : 
as, 

" And I to be a corporal in his field, 

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop ! 

"What? // 1 love I I sue I 1 seek a wife!" — Shah, Love's Labour Lost 

has no direct dependence on any other word. Examples: — 'Columbus ordered a strong fortress of wood and 
plaster to be erected.'' — Irving. ' Its favors here should make us tremble? — Young." See Wells's School Gram., 
p. 147. 

* " Sometimes indeed the verb hath two regimens, and then the preposition is necessary to one of them ; as, 
'I address myself to my judges. 1 " — Campbell' s Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 178. Here the verb address governs 
the pronoun myself, and is also the antecedent to the preposition to; and the construction would be similar, if 
the preposition governed the infinitive or a participle : as, " I prepared myself to swim ;" or, " I prepared 
myself for swimming." But, in any of these cases, it is not very accurate to say, "the verb has two regi- 
mens ;" for the latter term is properly the regimen of the preposition. Cardell, by robbing the prepositions, 
and supposing ellipses, found two regimens for every verb. W. Allen, on the contrary, (from whom N ixon 
gathered his doctrine above,) by giving the " accusative" to the infinitive, makes a multitude of our active- 
transitive verbs "neuter." See Allen's Gram., p. 166. But Ni^on absurdly calls the verb " active-transitive," 
because it governs the infinitive ; i. e. as he supposes — and, except when to is not used, erroneously supposes. 

t A certain new theorist, who very innocently fogs himself and his credulous readers with a deal of imperti- 
nent pedantry, after denouncing my doctrine that to before the infinitive is a preposition, appeals to me thus : 
" Let me ask you, G. B. — is not the infinitive in Latin the same as in the English ? Thus, I desire to teach 
Latin — Ego Cupio docere. I saw Abel come — Ego videbam Abelem venire. The same principle is recognized 
by the Greek grammars and those of most of the modern languages." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 358. Of this 
gentleman I know nothing but from what appears in his book — a work of immeasurable and ill-founded vanity — 
a whimsical, dogmatical, blundering performance. This short sample of his Latin, (with six puerile errors in 
seven words,) is proof positive that he knows nothing of that language, whatever may be his attainments in 
Greek, or the other tongues of which he tells. To his question I answer emphatically, NO. In Latin, " One 
verb governs an other in the infinitive; as, Cupio discere, I desire to learn." — Adam's Gram., p. 181. This 
government never admits the intervention of a preposition. "I saw Abel come," has no preposition; but the 
Latin of it is, "Vidi Abelem venientem," and not what is given above: or, according to St. Jerome and others, 
who wrote, "Abel," without declension, we ought rather to say, "Vidi Abel venientem." If they are right, 
"Ego videbam Abelem venire," is every word of it wrong ! 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. RULE II. — ERRORS. — RULE III. — APPOSITION. 497 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE II. 
The Subject op a Finite Verb. 
" The whole need not a physician, but them that are sick." — Buny art's Law and Gr., p. iv. 

[Fokmttle. — Not proper, because the objective pronoun them is here made the subject of the verb need, under- 
stood. But, according to Rule 2d, " A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the 
nominative case." Therefore, them should be they ; thus, " The whole need not a physician, but they that are 
sick."] 

" He will in no wise cast out whomsoever cometh unto him." — Robert Hall. " He feared the 
enemy might fall upon his men, whom he saw were off their guard." — Hutchinson's Massachusetts, 
ii, 133. " Whomsoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." — DymonoVs Essays, 
p. 48. " The idea's of the author have been conversant with the faults of other writers." — 
Swiff s T. T., p. 55. "You are a much greater loser than me by his death." — Swift to Pope, 1. 
63. " Such peccadillo's pass with him for pious frauds." — Barclay's Works, Yol. hi, p. 279. ''In 
whom I am nearly concerned, and whom I know would be very apt to justify my whole proce- 
dure." — lb., i, 560. " Do not think such a man as me contemptible for my garb." — Addison. 
" His wealth and him bid adieu to each other." — Priestley's Gram., p. 107. " So that, ' He is 
greater than me,' will be more grammatical than, ' He is greater than /.' " — lb., p. 106. " The 
Jesuits had more interests at court than him." — Smollett: in Pr. Gram., p. 106.* "Tell 
the Cardinal that I understand poetry better than him." — Id., ib. " An inhabitant of Crim Tar- 
tary was far more happy than him." — Id., ib. " My father and him have been very intimate 
since." — Fair American, ii, 53. " Who was the agent, and whom the object struck or kissed ?" 
— Infant School Gram., p. 32. " To find the person whom he imagined was concealed there." — 
Kirkham's Elocution, p. 225. " He offered a great recompense to whomsoever would help him." 
— Hume: in Pr. Gram., p. 104. "They would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, 
of whomsoever might exercise the right of judgement." — Gov. Haynes's Speech, in 1832. "They 
had promised to accept whomsoever should be born in Wales." — Stories by Croker. "We sorrow 
not as them that have no hope." — Maturings Sermons, p. 27. "If he suffers, he suffers as them 
that have no hope." — lb., p. 32. "We acknowledge that he, and him only, hath been our peace- 
maker." — Gratton. "And what can be better than him that made it?" — Jenks's Prayers, p. 329. 
"None of his school-fellows is more beloved than him." — Cooper's Gram., p. 42. "Solomon, 
who was wiser than them all." — Watson's Apology, p. 76. "Those whom the Jews thought 
were the last to be saved, first entered the kingdom of God." — Eleventh Hour, Tract, No. 4. "A 
stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both." — Prov., 
xxvii, 3. " A man of business, in good company, is hardly more insupportable than her they 
call a notable woman." — Steele, Sped. " The king of the Sarmatians. whom we may imagine 
was no small prince, restored him a hundred thousand Roman prisoners." — Life of Antoninus, p. 
83. " Such notions would be avowed at this time by none but rosicrucians, and fanatics as mad 
as them." — Bolingbroke's Ph. Tr., p. 24. "Unless, as I said, Messieurs, you are the masters, and 
not me." — Basil Hall: Harrison's E. Lang., p. 173. "We had drawn up against peaceable 
travellers, who must have been as glad as us to escape."— Burnes's Travels: ibid. "Stimu- 
lated, in turn, by their approbation, and that of better judges than them, she turned to their 
literature with redoubled energy." — Quarterly Review : Life of H. More : ibid. "I know not 
whom else are expected." — Scott's Pirate : ibid. " He is great, but truth is greater than us 
all." — Horace Mann, in Congress, 1850. " Him I accuse has entered." — Foioltr's E. Gram., § 482: 
see Shakspeare's Coriolanus, Act Y, sc. 5. 

"Scotland and thee did each in other live." — Dryden's Po., Yol. ii, p. 220. 

"We are alone; here's none but thee and I." — Shah, 2 Hen. YI. 

" Me rather had, my heart might feel your love, 

"Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy." — Idem: Joh. Diet. 

" Tell me, in sadness, whom is she you love? — Id., Borneo and Juliet, A. I, sc. 1. 

"Better leave undone, than by our deeds acquire 
Too high a fame, when him we serve's away." — Shak., Ant. and Cleop. 

RULE III.— APPOSITION. 

A Noun or a personal Pronoun used to explain a preceding noun or 
pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the same case : as, " But it is really 
I, your old friend and neighbour, Piso, late a (livelier upon the Coelian 
hill, who am now basking in the warm skies of Palmyra." — Zenobia. 

" But he, our gracious Master, kind as just, 
Knowing our frame, remembers we are dust." — Barbauld. 

* Priestley cites these examples as authorities, not as false syntax. The errors which I thus quote at second- 
hand from other grammarians, and mark with double references, are in general such as the first quoters have 
allowed, and made themselves responsible for ; but this is not the case in every instance. Such credit has 
sometimes, though rarely, been given, where the expression was disapproved. — G-. Bbown. 

32 



498 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE III. 

Obs. 1. — Apposition is that peculiar relation which one noun or pronoun bears to an other, when 
two or more are placed together in the same case, and used to designate the same person or 
thing: as, " Gicero the orator;" — "The prophet Joel;''' 1 — u He of Gath, Goliah;" — "Which ye 
yourselves do know;" — "To make him king ;" — "To give Ms life a, ransom for many;" — "I made 
the ground my bed ;" — " 1, thy schoolmaster ;" — " We the People of the United States." This 
placing-together of nouns and pronouns in the same case, was reckoned by the old grammarians 
a figure of syntax ; and from them it received, in their elaborate detail of the grammatical and 
rhetorical figures, its present name of apposition. They reckoned it a species of ellipsis, and sup- 
plied between the words, the participle being, the infinitive to be, or some other part of their 
" substantive verb ;" as, " Cicero being the orator;" — "To make him to be king ;" — "I who am thy 
schoolmaster." But the later Latin grammarians have usually placed it among their regular con- 
cords ; some calling it the first concord, while others make it the last, in the series ; and some, 
with no great regard to consistency, treating it both as a figure and as a regular concord, at the 
same time. 

Obs. 2. — Some English grammarians teach, " that the words in the cases preceding and follow- 
ing the verb to be, may be said to be in apposition to each other." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 181; 
R. G. Smith's, 155; Fisk's, 126; IngersoWs, 146; Merchant's, 91. But this is entirely repugnant 
to the doctrine, that apposition is & figure; nor is it at all consistent with the original meaning of 
the word apposition; because it assumes that the literal reading, when the supposed ellipsis is 
supplied, is apposition still. The old distinction, however, between apposition and same- cases, is 
generally preserved in our grammars, and is worthy ever to be so. The rule for same cases ap- 
plies to all nouns or pronouns that are put after verbs or participles not transitive, and that are 
made to agree in case with other nouns or pronouns going before, and meaning the same thing. 
But some teachers who observe this distinction with reference to the neuter verb be, and to cer- 
tain passive verbs of naming, appointing, and the like, absurdly break it down in relation to other 
verbs, neuter or active-intransitive. Thus Nixon: " Nouns in apposition are in the same case; 
as, ' Hortensius died a martyr ;' ' Sydney lived the shepherd's friend.' " — English Parser, p. 55. 
It is remarkable that all this author's examples of "nominatives in apposition," (and he gives 
eighteen in the exercise,) are precisely of this sort, in which there is really no apposition at all 

Obs. 3. — In the exercise of parsing, rule third should be applied only to the explanatory term ; 
because the case of the principal term depends on its relation to the rest of the sentence, and 
comes under some other rule. In certain instances, too, it is better to waive the analysis which 
might be made under rule third, and to take both or all the terms together, under the rule for the 
main relation. Thus, the several proper names which distinguish an individual, are always in ap- 
position, and should be taken together in parsing ; as, William Pitt — Marcus Tullius Gicero. It 
may, I think, be proper to include with the personal names, some titles also ; as, Lord Bacon — 
Sir Isaac Newton. William E. Russell and Jonathan Ware, (two American authors of no great 
note,) in parsing the name of " George Washington," absurdly take the former word as an adjective 
belonging to the latter. See Russell's Gram., p. 100; and Ware's, IT. R. C. Smith does the 
same, both with honorary titles, and with baptismal or Christian names. See his Neiu Gram., 
p. 97. And one English writer, in explaining the phrases, " John Wickliffe's influence," " Robert 
Bruce' s exertions," and the like, will have the first nouns to be governed by the last, and the inter- 
mediate ones te be distinct possessives in apposition with the former. See Nixon's English Parser, 
p. 59. Win. B. Powle, in his "True English Grammar," takes ah titles, all given names, all pos- 
sessives, and all pronouns, to be adjectives. According to him, this class embraces more than 
half the words in the language. A later writer than any of these says, " The proper noun is 
philosophically an adjective. Nouns common or proper, of similar or dissimilar import, may be 
parsed as adjectives, when they become qualifying or distinguishing words ; as, President Madison, 
— Doctor Johnson, — Mr. Webster, — Esq. Carleton, — Miss Gould, — Professor Ware, — lake Erie, — the 
Pacific ocean, — Franklin House, — Union street." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 134. I dissent from all 
these views, at least so far as not to divide a man's name in parsing it. A person will sometimes 
have such a multitude of names, that it would be a flagrant waste of time, to parse them all sepa- 
rately: for example, that wonderful doctor, Paracelsus, who called himself, " Aureolus Philippus 
Theophrastus Bimbastus Paracelsus de Hoenheim." — Univ. Biog. Diet. 

Obs. 4. — Avery common rule for appositiou in Latin, is this: "Substantives signifying the 
same thing, agree in case." — Adam's Latin Gram., p. 156. The same has also been applied to 
our language: "Substantives denoting the same person or thing, agree in case." — Bullions' s E. 
Gram., p. 102. This rule is, for two reasons, very faulty: first, because the apposition of pronouns 
seems not to be included it ; secondly, because two nouns that are not in the same case, do some- 
times "signify" or "denote" the same thing. Thus, "the city of London," means only the city 
London; " the land of Egypt," is only Egypt; and "the person of Richard," is Richard himself. 
Dr. Webster defines apposition to be, " The placing of two nouns in the same case, without a con- 
necting word between them." — Octavo Diet. This, too, excludes the pronouns, and has excep- 
tions, both various and numerous. In the first place, the apposition may be of more than two 
nouns, without any connective; as, "Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law." — Ezra, vii, 21. Sec- 
ondly, two nouns connected by a conjunction, may both be put in apposition with a preceding noun 
or pronoun; as, "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and 
Christ." — Acts, ii, 36. " Who made me a, judge or a divider over you." — Luke, xii, 14. Thirdly, 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE III. — APPOSITION. — OBSERVATIONS. 409 

the apposition may be of two nouns immediately connected by and, provided the two words de- 
note but one person or thing; as, " This great philosopher and statesman was bred a printer.'' 
Fourthly, it may be of two words connected by as, expressing the idea of a partial or assumed 
identity; as, " Yet count Mm not as an enemy, but admonish Am as a brother." — 2 Thess., hi, 15. 
" So that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God." — lb., ii, 4. Fifthly, it may perhaps be of two 
words connected by than ; as, "He left them no more than dead men." — Law and Grace, p. 28. 
Lastly, there is a near resemblance to apposition, when two equivalent nouns are connected by 
or ; as, ''The back of the hedgehog is covered with prickles, or spines.'' — Webster's Diet. 

Obs. 5. — To the rule for apposition, as I have expressed it, there are properly no exceptions. 
But there are many puzzling examples of construction under it, some of which are but little short 
of exceptions ; and upon such of these as are most likely to embarrass the learner, some farther 
observations shall be made. The rule supposes the first word to be the principal term, with which 
the other word, or subsequent noun or pronoun, is in apposition ; and it generally is so : but the 
explanatory word is sometimes placed first, especially among the poets ; as, 

" From bright'ning fields of ether fair disclos'd, 
Child of the sun, refulgent Summer comes." — Thomson. 

Obs. 6. — The pronouns of the first and second persons are often placed before nouns merely to 
distinguish their person ; as, " / John saw these things." — Bible. " But what is this to you re- 
ceivers?" — Glarkson's Essay on Slavery, p. 108. "His praise, ye brooks, attune." — Thomson. In 
this case of apposition, the words are in general closely united, and either of them may be taken 
as the explanatory term. The learner will find it easier to parse the noun by rule third ; or both 
nouns, if there be two: as, "1" thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee." — Exod., xviii, 6. There 
are many other examples, in which it is of no moment, which of the terms we take for the prin- 
cipal ; and to all such the rule may be applied literally : as, " Thy son Benhadad king of Syria hath 
sent me to thee." — 2 Kings, viii, 9. 

Obs. *7. — When two or more nouns of the possessive case are put in apposition, the possessive 
termination added to one, denotes the case of both or all ; as, " For Ilerodias' sake, his brother 
Philip's wife." — Matt, xiv, 3 ; Mark, vi, 17. Herewz/e is in apposition with Herodias', and brother 
with Philip's ; consequently all these words are reckoned to be in the possessive case. The 
Greek text, which is better, stands essentially thus: " For the sake of Ilerodias, the wife of Philip 
his brother." "For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect." — Isaiah, xlv, 4. Here, as 
Jacob and Israel are only different names for the same person or nation, the four nouns in Italics 
are. according to the rule, ah made possessives by the one sign used ; but the construction is not 
to be commended: it would be better to say, " For the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel mine 
elect." "With Hyrcanus the high priest's consent." — Wood's Diet, w. Herod. "I called at 
Smith's, the bookseller; or, at Smith the bookseller's." — Bullions'' s E. Gram., p. 103. Two words, 
each having the possessive sign, can never be in apposition one with the other ; because that sign 
has immediate reference to the governing noun expressed or understood after it ; and if it be re- 
peated, separate governing nouns will be implied, and the apposition will be destroyed.* 

Obs. 8. — If the foregoing remark is just, the apposition of two nouns in the possessive case, re- 
quires the possessive sign to be added to that noun which immediately precedes the govu 
word, whether expressed or understood, and positively excludes it from the other. The sign of 
the case is added, sometimes to the former, and sometimes to the latter noun, but never to both : 
or, if added to both, the two words are no longer in apposition. Example : " And for that reason 
they ascribe to him a great part of his father Nimrod's, or Belus's actions." — Rollin's An. Hist, 
Vol. ii, p. 6. Here father and Nimrod's are in strict apposition ; but if actions governs Belus's, the 
same word is implied to govern Nimrod's, and the two names are not in apposition, though they 
are in the same case and mean the same person. 

Obs. 9. — Dr. Priestley says, " Some would say, ' I left the parcel at Mr. Smith's, the bookseller ;' 
others, 'at Mr. Smith the bookseller's ;' and perhaps others, at ' Mr. Smith's the bookseller's.' The 
last of these forms is most agreeable to the Latin idiom, but the first seems to be more natural in 

* Lindley Murray thought it not impracticable to put two or more nouus in apposition and add the possessive 
sign to each ; nor did he imagine there would often be any positive impropriety in so doing. His words, on this 
point, are these : " On the other hand, the application of the genitive sign to both or all of the nouns in apposi- 
tion, would be generally harsh and displeasing, and 2>erhaj)S in some cases incorrect: as, 'The Emperor's Leo- 
pold's; King's George's; Charles's the Second's; The parcel was left at Smith's, the bookseller's and station- 
er's.' " — Octavo Gram., p. 177. Whether he imagined any of these to be "incorrect" or not, does not appear! 
Under the next rule, I shall give a short note which will show them all to be so. The author, however, after 
presenting these uncouth fictions, which show nothing but his own deficiency in grammar, has done the world 
the favour not to pronounce them very convenient phrases ; for he continues the paragraph as follows : "The 
rules which toe have endeavoured to elucidate, will prevent the inconveniences of both these modes of express- 
ion ; and they appear to be simjrie, perspicuous, and consistent with the idiom of the language." — lb. This 
undeserved praise of his own rules, he might as well have left to some other hand. Tbey have had the fortune, 
however, to please sundry critics, and to become the prey of many thieves; but are certainly very deficient in the 
three qualities here named ; and, taken together with their illustrations, they form little else than a tissue of 
errors, partly his own, and partly copied from Lowth and Priestley. 

Dr. Latham, too, and Prof. Child, whose erroneous teaching on this point is still more marvellous, not only 
inculcate the idea that possessives in form may be in apposition, but seem to suppose that two possessive end- 
ings are essential to the relation. Forgetting all such English as we have in the phrases, " John the Baptist's 
head,'" — " For Jacob my servant" s sake^" — " Julius Ccesar' s Commentaries" — they invent sham expressions, 
too awkward ever to have come to their knowledge from any actual use, — such as, "John's the farmer's wife" 
■ — " Oliver's the spy's evidence," — and then end their section with the general truth, " For words to be in appo- 
sition with each other, they must be in the same case." — Elementary Grammar, Revised Edition,^. 152. What 
sort of scholarship is that in which fictitious examples mislead even their inventors? 



500 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

ours ; and if the addition consist [consists, says Murray,] of two or more words, the case seems to 
be very clear ; as, ' I left the parcel at Mr. Smith's the bookseller and stationer ;' i. e. at Mr. Smith's, 
who is a bookseller and stationer." — Priestley's Gram., p. 70. Here the examples, if rightly 
pointed, would all be right ; but the ellipsis supposed, not only destroys the apposition, but con- 
verts the explanatory noun into a nominative. And in the phrase, " at Mr. Smith's, the book- 
seller's," there is no apposition, except that of Mr. with Smith's ; for the governing noun house or 
store is understood as clearly after the one possessive sign as after the other. Churchill imagines 
that in Murray's example, "I reside at Lord Stormont's, my old patron and benefactor," the last 
two nouns are in the nominative after " who was," understood; and also erroneously suggests, 
that their joint apposition with Stormont's might be secured, by saying, less elegantly, "I reside at 
Lord Stormont's, my old patron and benefactor's." — Churchill's New Gram., p. 285. Lindley Mur- 
ray, who tacitly takes from Priestley all that is quoted above, except the term " Mr.," and the 
notion of an ellipsis of " who is," assumes each of the three forms as an instance of apposition, but 
pronounces the first only to be "correct and proper." If, then, the first is elliptical, as Priestley 
suggests, and the others are ungrammatical, as Murray pretends to prove, we cannot have in 
reality any such construction as the apposition of two possessives ; for the sign of the case cannot 
possibly be added in more than these three ways. But Murray does not adhere at all to his own 
decision, as may be seen by his subsequent remarks and examples, on the same page ; as, " The 
emperor Leopold's;" — " Dionysius the tyrant's;" — "For David my servant's sake;" — "Give me 
here John the Baptist's head ;" — " Paul the apostle's advice." See Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 176 ; 
Smith's New Gram., p. 150; and others. 

Obs. 10. — An explanatory noun without the possessive sign, seems sometimes to be put in 
apposition with a pronoun of the possessive case ; and, if introduced by the conjunction as, it may 
either precede or follow the pronoun: thus, " I rejoice in your success as an instructer." — San- 
born's Gram., p. 244. " As an author, his ' Adventurer' is his capital work." — Murray's Sequel, 
p. 329. 

" Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, 
The promised father of a future age." — Pope. 

But possibly such examples may be otherwise explained on the principle of ellipsis; as, [He 
being] "the promised father," &c. " As [he was] an author," &c. "As [you are] an instructer." 
Obs. 11. — When a noun or pronoun is repeated for the sake of emphasis, or for the adding of an 
epithet, the word which is repeated may properly be said to be in apposition with that which is first 
introduced ; or, if not, the repetition itself implies sameness of case : as, ," They have forsaken 
me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no 
water." — Jer., ii, 13. 

"I find the total of their hopes and fears 
Dreams, empty dreams." — Gowper's Task, p. 71. 

Obs. 12. — A noun is sometimes put, as it were, in apposition to a sentence; being used (perhaps 
elliptically) to sum up the whole idea in one emphatic word, or short phrase. But, in such 
instances, the noun can seldom be said to have any positive relation that may determine its case ; 
and, if alone, it will of course be in the nominative, by reason of its independence. Examples: 
"He permitted me to consult his library — a kindness which I shall not forget." — W. Allen's Gram., 
p. 148. " I have offended reputation — a most unnoble swerving." — Shakspeare. " I want a hero, 
— an uncommon want." — Byron. " Lopez took up the sonnet, and after reading it several times, 
frankly acknowledged that he did not understand it himself; a discovery which the poet probably 
never made before." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 280. 

'- In Christian hearts O for a pagan zeal ! 
A needful, but opprobrious prayer !" — Young, N. ix, 1. 995. 

" G-reat standing miracle, that Heav'n assign'd 
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind." — Pope. 
Obs. 13. — A distributive term in the singular number, is frequently construed in apposition 
with a comprehensive plural ; as, " TheyxQapp vanity, every one with his neighbour." — Bible. " Go 
ye every man unto his city." — Ibid. So likewise with two or more singular nouns which are 
taken conjointly ; as, " The Son and Spirit have each his proper office." — Butler's Analogy, p. 163. 
And sometimes & plural word is emphatically put after a series of particulars comprehended under 
it; as, "Ambition, interest, glory, all concurred." — Letters on Chivalry, p. 11. "Royalists, re- 
publicans, churchmen, sectaries, courtiers, patriots, all parties concurred in the illusion." — Hume's 
History, Vol. viii, p. 73. The foregoing examples are plain, but similar expressions sometimes 
require care, lest the distributive or collective term be so placed that its construction and meaning 
may be misapprehended. Examples : " We have turned every one to his own way." — Isaiah, liii, 6. 
Better : " We have every one turned to his own way." " For in many things we offend all." — 
James, iii, 2. Better : " For in many things we all offend." The latter readings doubtless con- 
vey the true sense of these texts. To the relation of apposition, it may be proper also to refer the 
construction of a singular noun taken in a distributive sense and repeated after by to denote order-, 
as, " They went out one by one." — Bible. " Our whole company, man by man, ventured in." — . 
Goldsmith. "To examine & book, page by page; to search a, place, house by house." — Ward's 
Gram., p. 106. So too, perhaps, when the parts of a thing explain the whole ; as, 
" But those that sleep, and think not on their sins, 
Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins." — Shak. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE III. — APPOSITION. — OBSERVATIONS. 501 

Obs. 14. — To express a reciprocal action or relation, the pronominal adjectives each other and 
one an other are employed: as, " They love each other ;" — " They love one an other" The words, 
separately considered, are singular; but, taken together, they imply plurality; and they can be 
properly construed only after plurals, or singulars taken conjointly. Each other is usually applied 
to two persons or things ; and one an other, to more than two. The impropriety of applying them 
otherwise, is noticed elsewhere; (see, in Part II, Obs. 15th, on the Classes of Adjectives ;) so that 
we have here to examine only their relations of case. The terms, though reciprocal and closely 
united, are seldom or never in the same construction. If such expressions be analyzed, each and 
one will generally appear to be in the nominative case, and other in the objective ; as, " They love 
each other;" i. e. each loves the other. " They love one an other;" i. e. any or every one loves any 
or every other. Each and one ( — if the words be taken as cases, and not adjectively — ) are prop- 
erly in agreement or apposition with they, and other is governed by the verb. The terms, how- 
ever, admit of other constructions ; as, " Be ye helpers one of an other." — Bible. Here one is in 
apposition with ye, and other is governed by of. " Ye are one an other's joy." — lb. Here one 
is in apposition with ye, and other's is in the possessive case, being governed by jcy. " Love will 
make you one an other's joy." Here one is in the objective case, being in apposition with you, 
and other's is governed as before. " Men's confidence in one an other;" — " Their dependence one 
upon an other." Here the word one appears to be in apposition with the possessive going before ; 
for it has already been shown, that words standing in that relation never take the possessive sign. 
But if its location after the preposition must make it objective, the whole object is the complex 
term, " one an other." "Grudge not one against an other." — James, v, 9. "Ne vous plaignez 
point les uns des autres." — French Bible. " No suspirate alius adversus alium." — Btza. " Ne 
ingemiscite adversus alii alios. — Leusden. "M// arevu&re /car' d?iAij?,ov." — Greek New Testament. 

Obs. 15.— The construction of the Latin terms alius alium,, alii alios, &c, with that of the 
French Vu% I 'autre, Vun de I 'autre, &c, appears, at first view, sufficiently to confirm the doctrine 
of the preceding observation ; but, besides the frequent use, in Latin and Greek, of a reciprocal 
adverb to express the meaning of one an other or each other, there are, from each of these lan- 
guages, some analogical arguments for taking the English terms together as compounds. The 
most common term in Greek for one another, ('A?iA7/?.g)v. dat. uXkifkoic, ate, oic, ace. d?iA7]?.ove : 
ab aAAoc, alius,) is a single derivative word, the case of which is known by its termination ; and 
each other is sometimes expressed in Latin by a compound : as, "Et osculantes se alierutrum, 
fleverunt pariter." — Vulgate. That is: "And kissing each other, they wept together." As this 
text speaks of but two persons, our translators have not expressed it well in the common ver- 
sion : " And they kissed one an other, and wept one with an other." — 1 Sam., xx, 41. Alter-utrum 
is composed of a nominative and an accusative, like each-other ; and, in the nature of things, there is 
no reason why the former should be compounded, and the latter not. Ordinarily, there seems to 
be no need of compounding either of them. But some examples occur, in which it is not easy 
to parse each other and one an other otherwise than as compounds : as, " He only recommended 
this, and not the washing of one another's feet." — Barclay's Works, Vol. hi, p. 143. 

" The Temple late two brother sergeants saw, 
Who deem'd each other oracles, of law." — Pope, B. ii, Ep. 2.* 

Obs. 16. — The common and the proper name of an object are very often associated, and put in 
apposition; as, " The river Thames," — " The ship Albion," — " The poet Couper," — " Lake Erie" 
— " Gape May," — " Mount Atlas." But, in English, the proper name of a place, when accom- 
panied by the common name, is generally put in the objective case, and preceded by of; as, 
"The city o/New York,"— "The land of Canaan,"—" The island of Cuba,"—" The peninsula of 
Yucatan." Yet in some instances, even of this kind, the immediate apposition is preferred ; as, 
"That the city Sepphoris should be subordinate to the city Tiberias." — Life of Josephus, p. 142. 
In the following sentence, the preposition of is at least needless : "The law delighteth herself in 
the number of twelve; and the number of twelve is much respected in holy writ." — Coke, on 
Juries. Two or tliree late grammarians, supposing of always to indicate a possessive relation be- 

* In Professor Fowler's recent and copious work, "The English Language in its Elements and Forms," our 
present Reciprocals are called, not Pronominal Adjectives, but "Pronouns," and are spoken of, in the first 
instance, thus : " § 248. A Reciprocal Pronoun is one that implies the mutual action of different agents. 
Each other, and one another, are our reciprocal forms, which are treated exactly as if they were compound 
pronouns, taking for their genitives, each other's, one another's. Each other is properly used of two, and one 
another of more-.'''' The definition here given takes for granted what is at least disputable, that "each other," 
or "one another" is not & phrase, but is merely " one pronoun." But, to none of his three important positions 
here taken, does the author himself at all adhere. In § 451, at Note 3, he teaches thus: "'They love each 
other.' Here each is in the nominative case in apposition with they, and other is in the objective case. ' They 
helped one another. 1 Here one is in apposition with they, and another is in the objective case." Now, Ly this 
mode of parsing, the reciprocal terms "are treated," not as "compound pronouns," but as phrases consisting 
of distinct or separable words : and, as being separate or separable words, whether they be Adjectives or Pro- 
nouns, they conform not to his definition above. Out of the sundry instances in which, according to his own 
showing, he has misapplied one or the other of these phrases, I cite the following: (1.) "The two ideas of Sci- 
ence and Art differ from one another as the understanding differs from the will." — Fowler's Gram., 1850, § 130. 
Say, — "from each other;" or, — "one from the other." (2.) "Thoe, Thy, Thee, are etymologically related to 
each other." — J6.,§216. Say, — " to one an other ;" because there are " more" than "two." (3.) "Till within 
some centuries, the Germans, like the French and the English, addressed each other in familiar conversation by 
the Second Person Singular." — lb., § 221. Say, — "addressed one an other." (4.) "Two sentences are, on the 
other hand, connected in the way of co-ordination [,] when they are not thus dependent one upon another." — 
lb., § 332. Say, — " upon each other;" or, — "one upon the other;" because there are but two. (5.) "These 
two rivers are at a great distance from one another." — lb., § 617. Say, — " from each other ;" or,— "one from 
the other." (6.1 " The trees [in the Forest of Bombast] are close, spreading, and twined into each other." — lb., 
| 617. Say, — " into one an other." 



502 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

tween one thing and an other, contend that it is no less improper, to say, "The city of London, 
the city of New Haven, the month of March, the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola, the towns of 
Exeter and Dover," than to say, "King of Solomon, Titus of the Roman Emperor, Paul of the 
apostle, or, Cicero of the orator." — See Barretts Gram., p. 101 ; Emmons's, 16. I cannot but 
think there is some mistake in their mode of finding out what is proper or improper in grammar. 
Emmons scarcely achieved two pages more, before he forgot his criticism, and adopted the phrase, 
"in the city o/New Haven." — Gram., p. 19. 

Obs. 17. — When an object acquires a new name or character from the action of a verb, the new 
appellation is put in apposition with the object of the active verb, and in the nominative after the 
passive: as, " They named the child John;" — "The child was named John." — "They elected him 
president;" — " He was elected president." After the active verb, the acquired name must be 
parsed by Rule 3d; after the passive, by Rule 6th. In the following example, the pronominal 
adjective some, or the noun men understood after it, is the direct object of the verb gave, and the 
nouns expressed are in apposition with it : "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; 
and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers." — Ephesians, iv, 11. That is, "He be- 
stowed some [men] as apostles; and some as prophets; and some as evangelists; and some 
as pastors and teachers." The common reader might easily mistake the meaning and construction 
of this text in two different ways ; for he might take some to be either a dative case, meaning to 
some persons, or an adjective to the nouns which are here expressed. The punctuation, however, 
is calculated to show that the nouns are in apposition with some, or some men, in what the Latins 
call the accusative case. But the version ought to be amended by the insertion of as, which 
would here be an express sign of the apposition intended. 

Obs. 18. — Some authors teach that words in apposition must agree in person, number, and 
gender, as well as in case ; but such agreement the following examples show not to he always 
necessary: " The Franks, a people of Germany." — W. Allen's Gram. "The Kenite trwe, the de- 
scendants of Hobab." — Milman's Hist, of the Jews. "But how can you a soul, still either hunger 
or thirst?" — Lucian's Dialogues, p. 14. " Who seized the wife of we his host, and fled." — lb., p. 16. 

" Thy gloomy grandeurs (Nature's most august, 
Inspiring aspect!) claim a grateful verse." — Young, N. ix, 1. 566. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE III. 

Errors of Words in Apposition. 
"Now, therefore, come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou." — Gen., xxxi, 44. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because the pronouns J and thou, of the nominative case, are here put in apposition 
■with the preceding pronoun us, which is objective. But, according to Rule 3d, "A noun or a personal pronoun, 
used to explain a preceding noun or pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the same case." Therefore, I and thou 
should be thee and me; (the first person, iu our idiom, being usually put last;) thus, "Now, therefore, come 
thou, let us make a covenant, thee and me."'} 

"Now, therefore, come thou, we will make a covenant, thee and me." — Variation of Gen. 
" The word came not to Esau, the hunter, that stayed not at home ; but to Jacob, the plain man, 
he that d-.velt in tents." — Wm. Penn. "Not to every man, but to the man of God, (i. e.) he that 
is led by the spirit of God." — Barclay's Works, i, 266. " For, admitting God to be a creditor, or 
he to whom the debt should be paid, and Christ he that satisfies or pays it on behalf of man the 
debtor, this question will arise, whether he paid that debt as God, or man, or both ?" — Wm. Penn. 
"This Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly Man, the Emmanuel, God with us, we own and believe 
in: he whom the high priests raged against," &c. — George Fox. "Christ, and Him crucified, was 
the Alpha and Omega of all his addresses, the fountain and foundation of his hope and trust." — 
Experience of Paid, p. 399. " ' Christ and Him crucified' is the head, and only head, of the 
church." — Deniso/fs Sermon. "But if ' Christ and Him crucified' are the burden of the ministry, 
such disastrous results are all avoided." — lb. " He never let fall the least intimation, that him- 
self, or any other person, whomsoever, was the object of worship." — Hannah Adams's View, p. 
250. " Let the elders that rule well, be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who 
labour in the word and doctrine." — 1 Tim., v, 17. "Our Shepherd, him who is styled King of 
saints, will assuredly give his saints the victory." — Sermon. "It may seem odd to talk of we 
subscribers." — Fowle's True Eng. Gram., p. 20. " And they shall have none to bury them, them, 
their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters ; for I will pour their wickedness upon them." — 
Jeremiah, xiv, 16. "Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and 
companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants." 
— Philippians, ii, 25. 

" Amidst the tumult of the routed train, 

The sons of false Antimachus were slain ; 

He, who for bribes his faithless counsels sold, 

And voted Helen's stay for Paris' gold." — Pope, Mad, B. xi, 1. 161. 
" See the vile King his iron sceptre bear — 

His only praise attends the pious Heir; 

He, in whose soul the virtues all conspire, 

The best good son, from the worst wicked sire." — Dr. Lowth: Union Poems, p. 19. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE IY. — POSSESSIYES. OBSERVATIONS. 503 

" Then from thy lips poured forth a joyful song 
To thy Redeemer ! — yea, it poured along 
In most melodious energy of praise, 
To God, the Saviour, he of ancient days." — Arm Chair, p. 15. 

RULE IY.— POSSESSIVES. 

A Noun or a Pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the name 
of the thing possessed: as, " God's mercy prolongs man's life." — Allen. 
" Theirs is the vanity, the learning thine; 
Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories shine." — Pojie. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE IV. 

Obs. 1. — Though the ordinary syntax of the possessive case is sufficiently plain and easy, there 
is perhaps, among all the puzzling and disputable points of grammar, nothing more difficult of 
decision, than are some questions that occur respecting the right management of this case. 
That its usual construction is both clearly and properly stated in the foregoing rule, is what none 
will doubt or deny. But how many and what exceptions to this rule ought to be allowed, or 
whether any are justly demanded or not, are matters about which there may be much diversity 
of opinion. Having heretofore published the rule without any express exceptions, I am not now 
convinced that it is best to add any ; yet are there three different modes of expression which 
might be plausibly exhibited in that character. Two of these would concern only the parser ; 
and, for that reason, they seem not to be very important. The other involves the approval or 
reprehension of a great multitude of very common expressions, concerning which our ablest 
grammarians differ in opinion, and our most popular digest plainly contradicts itself. These points 
are; first, the apposition of possessives, and the supposed ellipses which may affect that construc- 
tion ; secondly, the government of the possessive case after is, uas, &c, when the ownership of a 
thing is simply affirmed or denied ; thirdly, the government of the possessive by a participle, as 
such — that is, while it retains the government and adjuncts of a participle. 

Obs. 2. — The apposition of one possessive with an other, (as, "For David my servants sake,") 
might doubtless be consistently made a formal exception to the direct government of the posses- 
sive by its controlling noun. But this apposition is only a sameness of construction, so that what 
governs the one, virtually governs the other. And if the case of any noun or pronoun is known 
and determined by the rule or relation of apposition, there can be no need of an exception to the 
foregoing rule for the purpose of parsing it, since that purpose is already answered by rule third. 
If the reader, by supposing an ellipsis which I should not, will resolve any given instance of this 
kind into something else than apposition, I have already shown him that some great grammarians 
have differed in the same way before. L T seless ellipses, however, should never be supposed ; and 
such perhaps is the following: "At Mr. Smith's \ivho is~\ the bookseller." — See I)r. Priestley's 
Gram., p. 11. 

Obs. B. — In all our Latin grammars, the verb sum, fui, esse, to be, is said (thoush not with 
strict propriety) sometimes to signify possession, property, or duty, and in that sense to govern 
the genitive case : as, "Est regis;" — "It is the king's." — " Hominis est errare ;" — "It is man's 
to err." — " Pecus est Melibozi ;" — "The flock is Melibceus's." And sometimes, with like import, 
this verb, expressed or understood, may govern the dative; as, u Ego [sum] dilecto raeo, etdilectus 
meus [est] mihi." — Vulgate. "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." — Solomon's Song, 
vi, 3. Here, as both the genitive and the dative are expressed in English by the possessive, if 
the former are governed by the verb, there seems to be precisely the same reason from the nature 
of the expression, and an additional one from analogy, for considering the latter to be so too. 
But all the annotato r s upon the Latin syntax suggest, that the genitive thus put after sum or 
est, is really governed, not by the verb, but by some noun understood; and with this idea, of an 
ellipsis in the construction, all our English grammarians appear to unite. They might not, how- 
ever, find it very easy to tell by what noun the word beloved's or mine is governed, in the last ex- 
ample above ; and so of many others, which are used in the same way: as, "There shall nothing 
die of all that is the children's of Israel." — Exod., ix, 4. The Latin here is, "Ut nihil omnino 
pereat ex his quce pertinent ad Alios Israel." — Vulgate. That is, — " of ah those which belong to the 
children of Israel." 

" For thou art Freedom' 's now — and Fame's, 
One of the few, the immortal names, 

That were not born to die." — Halleck: Marco Bozzaris. 

Obs. 4. — Although the possessive case is always intrinsically an adjunct and therefore incapable 
of being used or comprehended in any sense that is positively abstract ; yet we see that there 
are instances in which it is used with a certain degree of abstraction, — that is, with an actual 
separation from the name of the thing possessed ; and that accordingly there are, in the simple 
personal pronouns, (where such a distinction is most needed,) two different forms of the case; 
the one adapted to the concrete, and the other to the abstract construction. That form of the 
pronoun, however, which is equivalent in sense to the concrete and the noun, is still the posses- 
sive case, and nothing more; as, "All mine are thine, and thine are mine." — John, xvii, 10. For 



504 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

if we suppose this equivalence to prove such a pronoun to be something more than the possessive 
case, as do some grammarians, we must suppose the same thing respecting the possessive ease of 
a noun, whenever the relation of ownership or possession is simply affirmed or denied with such 
a noun put last : as, "For all things are yours; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's. — 1 Cor., 
iii, 21. By the second example placed under the rule, I meant to suggest, that the possessive 
case, when placed before or after this verb, (be,) might be parsed as being governed by the nomi- 
native ; as we may suppose "theirs" to be governed by "vanity," and "thine" by "learning" 
these nouns being the names of the things possessed. But then we encounter a difficulty, when- 
ever a pronoun happens to be the nominative ; as, " Therefore glorify God in your body, and in 
your spirit, which are God's." — 1 Cor., vi, 20. Here the common resort would be to some ellip- 
sis; and yet it must be confessed, that this mode of interpretation cannot but make some differ- 
ence in the sense: as, "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed." — Gal, iii, 29. Here some 
may think the meaning to be, "If ye be Christ's seed, or children. 1 ' But a truer version of the 
text would be, "If ye are of Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed." — " Que si vous etes a Christ, 
vous etes done la posterity d' Abraham." — French Bible. 

Obs. 5. — Possession is the having of something, and if the possessive case is always an adjunct, 
referring either directly or indirectly to that which constitutes it a possessive, it would seem but 
reasonable, to limit the government of this case to that part of speech which is understood sub- 
stantively — that is, to " the name of the thing possessed." Yet, in violation of this restriction, 
many grammarians admit, that a participle, with the regimen and adjuncts of a participle, may 
govern the possessive case ; and some of them, at the same time, with astonishing inconsistency, 
aver, that the possessive case before a participle converts the latter into a noun, and necessarily 
deprives it of its regimen. Whether participles are worthy to form an exception to my rule or 
not, this palpable contradiction is one of the gravest faults of L. Murray's code of syntax. After 
copying from Lowth the doctrine that a participle with an article before it becomes a noun, and 
must drop the government and adjuncts of a participle, this author informs us, that the same 
principles are applicable to the pronoun and participle : as, " Much depends on their observing of 
the rule, and error will be the consequence of their neglecting of it ;" in stead of, " their observing 
the rule" and " their neglecting it." And this doctrine he applies, with yet more positiveness, to 
the noun and participle ; as if the error were still more glaring, to make an active participle gov- 
ern a possessive noun: saying, "We shall perceive this more clearly, if we substitute a noun for the 
pronoun: as, 'Much depends upon Tyro's observing of the rule,' &c. ; which is the same as, 
' Much depends on Tyro's observance of the rule.' But, as this construction sounds rather harshly, 
it would, in general, b9 better to express the sentiment in the following, or some other form : 
'Much depends on the rule's being observed; and error will be the consequence of its being neg- 
lected:' or — ' on observing the rule; and — of neglecting it.' " — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 193; Inger- 
soll's, 199; and others. 

Obs. 6. — Here it is assumed, that "their observing the rule" or " Tyro's observing the rule" is an 
ungrammatical phrase ; and, several different methods being suggested for its correction, a prefer- 
ence is at length given to what is perhaps not less objectionable than the original phrase itself. 
The last form offered, " on observing the rule ," &c, is indeed correct enough in itself; but, as a 
substitute for the other, it is both inaccurate and insufficient. It merely omits the possessive case, 
and leaves the action of the participle undetermined in respect to the agent. For the possessive 
case before a real participle, denotes not the possessor of something, as in other instances, but the 
agent of the action, or the subject of the being or passion ; and the simple question here is, 
whether [his extraordinary use of the possessive case is, or is not, such an idiom of our language 
as ought to be justified. Participles may become noun3, if we choose to use them substantively ; 
but can they govern the possessive case before them, while they govern also the objective after 
them, or while they have a participial meaning which is qualified by adverbs ? If they can, 
Lowth, Murray, and others, are wrong in supposing the foregoing phrases to be ungrammatical, 
and in teaching that the possessive case before a participle converts it into a noun ; and if they 
cannot, Priestley, Murray, Hiley, Wells, Weld, and others, are wrong in supposing that a par- 
ticiple, or a phrase beginning with a participle, may properly govern the possessive case. Com- 
pare Murray's seventh note under his Rule 10th, with the second under his Rule 14th. The same 
contradiction is taught by many other compilers. See Smith's New Grammar, pp. 152 and 162 ; 
Comly's Gram., 91 and 108; Ingersoll's, 180 and 199. 

Obs. 7. — Concerning one of the forms of expression which Murray approves and prefers, among 
his corrections above, the learned doctors Lowth and Campbell appear to have formed very differ- 
ent opinions. The latter, in the chapter which, in his Philosophy of Rhetoric, he devotes to 
disputed points in syntax, says : " There is only one other observation of Dr. Lowth, on which, 
before I conclude this article, I must' beg leave to offer some remarks. 'Phrases like the follow- 
ing, though very common, are improper : Much depends upon the rule's being observed ; and error 
will be the consequence of its being neglected. For here is a noun and a pronoun representing it, 
each in the possessive case, that is, under the government of another noun, but without other 
noun to govern it: for being observed, and being neglected, are not nouns: nor can you supply the 
place of the possessive case by the preposition of before the noun or pronoun.' * For my part," 
continues Campbell, " notwithstanding what is here very speciously urged, I am not satisfied that 

* For this quotation, Dr. Campbell gives, in his margin, the following reference : "Introduction, &c, Sentences, 
Note on the 6th Phrase." But in my edition of Dr. Lowth' s Introduction to English Grammar, (a Philadelphia 
edition of 1799,) I do not find the passage. Perhaps it has been omitted in consequence of Campbell's criticism, 
of which I here cite but a part. — Gr. Beown. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE IV. — POSSESSIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 505 

there is any fault in the phrases censured. They appear to me to be perfectly in the idiom of our 
tongue, and such as on some occasions could not easily be avoided, unless by recurring to cir- 
cumlocution, an expedient which invariably tends to enervate the expression." — Philosophy of 
Rhetoric, B. ii, Ch. iv, p. 234. 

Obs. 8. — Dr. Campbell, if I understand his argument, defends the foregoing expressions against 
the objections of Dr. Low th, not on the ground that participles as such may govern the possessive 
case, but on the supposition that as the simple active participle may become a noun, and in that 
character govern the possessive case, so may the passive participle, and with equal propriety, not- 
withstanding it consists of two or more words, which must in this construction be considered as 
forming " one compound noun." I am not sure that he means to confine himself strictly to this 
latter ground, but if he does, his position cannot be said in any respect to contravene my rule for 
the possessive case. I do not, however, agree with him, either in the opinion which he offers, or 
in the negative which he attempts to prove. In view of the two examples, " Much depends upon 
the rule's being observed," and, " Much depends upon their observing of the rule," he says: "Now, 
although I allow both the modes of expression to be good, I think the first simpler and better than 
the second." Then, denying all faults, he proceeds : " Let us consider whether the former be 
liable to any objections, which do not equally affect the latter." But in his argument, he considers 
only the objections offered by Lowth, which indeed he sufficiently refutes. Now to me there 
appear to be other objections, which are better founded. In the first place, the two sentences 
are not equivalent in meaning ; hence the preference suggested by this critic and others, is absurd. 
Secondly, a compound noun formed of two or three words without any hyphen, is at best such 
an anomaly, as we ought rather to avoid than to prefer. If these considerations do not positively 
condemn the former construction, they ought at least to prevent it from displacing the latter ; 
and seldom is either to be preferred to the regular noun, which we can limit by the article or the 
possessive at pleasure: as, "Much depends on an observance of the rule." — " Much depends on 
their observance of the rule." Now these two sentences are equivalent to the two former, but not 
to each other ; and, vice versa : that is, the two former are equivalent to these, but not to each 
other.* 

Obs. 9. — From Dr. Campbell's commendation of Lowth, as having "given some excellent 
directions for preserving a proper distinction between the noun and the gerund," — that is, between 
the participial noun and the participle, — it is fair to infer that he meant to preserve it himself; and 
yet, in the argument above mentioned, he appears to have carelessly framed one ambiguous or 
very erroneous sentence, from which, as I magine, his views of this matter have been miscon- 
ceived, and by which Murray and all his modifiers have been furnished with an example where- 
with to confound this distinction, and also to contradict themselves. The sentence is this: "Much 
will depend on your pupil's composing, but more on his reading frequently." — Philos. of JRhet, p. 
235. Volumes innumerable have gone abroad, into our schools and elsewhere, which pronounce 
this sentence to be "correct and proper." But after all, what does it mean? Does the adverb 
"frequently" qualify the verb "will depend," expressed in the sentence? or "will depend," under- 
stood after more f or both? or neither? Or does this adverb qualify the action of " reading f" 
or the action of " composing ?" or both ? or neither ? But composing and reading, if they are 
mere nouns, cannot properly be qualified by any adverb ; and, if they are called participles, the 
question recurs respecting the possessives. Besides, composing, as a participle, is commonly tran- 
sitive; nor is it very fit for a noun, without some adjunct. And, when participles become nouns, 
their government (it is said) falls upon of, and their adverbs are usually converted into adjectives ; 
as, "Much will depend on your pupiVs composing of th.nes ; but more, on his frequent reading." 
This may not be the author's meaning, for the example was originally composed as a mere mock 
sentence, or by way of "experiment;" and one may doubt whether its meaning was ever at 
all thought of by the philosopher. But, to make it a respectable example, some correction 
there must be; for, surely, no man can have any clear idea to communicate, which he cannot 
better express, than by imitating this loose phraseology. It is scarcely more correct, than to say, 
"Much will depend on an author's using, but more on his learning frequently." Yet is it com- 
mended as a model, either entire or in part, by Murray, Ingersoll, Fisk, R. C. Smith, Cooper, 
Lennie, Hiley, Bullions, C. Adams, A. H. Weld, and I know not how many other school critics. 

Obs. 10. — That singular notion, so common in our grammars, that a participle and its adjuncts 
may form "one name," or "substantive phrase," and so govern the possessive case, where it is 
presumed the participle itself could not, is an invention worthy to have been always ascribed to 
its true author. For this doctrine, as I suppose, our grammarians are indebted to Dr. Priestley. 
In his grammar it stands thus: " When an entire clause of a sentence, beginning with a partici- 
ple of the present tense, is used as one name, or to express one idea, or circumstance, the noun 

* By some grammarians it is pi'esumed to be consistent with the nature of participles to govern the possessive 
case; and Hiley, if he is to be understood literally, assumes it as an " established principle" that they all do 
so ! " Participles govern nouns and pronouns in the possessive case, and at the same time, if derived from 
transitive verbs, require the noun or pronoun following to be in the objective case, without the intervention of 
the preposition of ; as, 'Much depends on William's observing the rule, and error will be the coi'sequence of 
his neglecting it;' or, 'MuchwiM depend on the rule's being observed by William, and error will be the con- 
sequence of its being neglected.'" — Hiley's Gram., p. 94. These sentences, without doubt, are nearly equiv- 
alent to each other in meaning. To make them exactly so, '■'■depends" or '■'•will depend " must be changed in 
tense, and "its being neglected" must be "its being neglected by him." But who that has looked at the facts 
in the case, or informed himself on the points here in dispute, will maintain that either the awkward phrase- 
ology of the latter example, or the mixed and questionable construction of the former, or the extensive rule 
under which they are here presented, is among '• the established principles and best usages of the English 
language?" — lb., p. 1. 



X 



506 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

on which it depends may be put in the genitive case. Thus, instead of saying, What is the mean- 
ing of this lady holding up her train, i. e. what is the meaning of the lady in holding up her train, 
we may say, What is the meaning of this lady's holding up her train; just as we &-a.y, What is the 
meaning of this lady's dress, &c. So we may either say, / remember it being reckoned a great ex- 
ploit; or, perhaps more elegantly, I remember its being reckoned, &c." — Priestley's Gram., p. 69. 
Now, to say nothing of errors in punctuation, capitals, &c, there is scarcely any thing in all this 
passage, that is either conceived or worded properly. Yet, coming from a Doctor of Laws, and 
Fellow of the Royal Society, it is readily adopted by Murray, and for his sake by others ; and so, 
with all its blunders, the vain gloss passes uncensured into the schools, as a rule and model for 
elegant composition. Dr. Priestley pretends to appreciate the difference between participles and 
participial nouns, but he rather contrives a fanciful distinction in the sense, than a real one in the 
construction. His only note on this point, — a note about the " horse running to-day," and the 
u horse's running to-day," — I shall leave till we come to the syntax of participles. 

Obs. 11. — Having prepared the reader to understand the origin of what is to follow, I now 
cite from L. Murray's code a paragraph which appears to be contradictory to his own doctrine, as 
suggested in the fifth observation above ; and not only so, it is irreconcilable with any proper 
distinction between the participle and the participial noun. " "When an entire clause of a sen- 
tence, beginning with a participle of the present tense, is used as one name, or to express one 
idea or circumstance, the noun on which it depends may bo put in the genitive case ; thus, instead 
of saying, 'What is the reason of this person dismissing his servant so hastily?' that is, ' What 
is the reason of this person, in dismissing his servant so hastily?' we may say, and perhaps 
ought to say, 'What is the reason of this person's dismissing of his servant so hastily f Just as 
we say, ' What is the reason of this person's hasty dismission of his servant?' So also, we say, 
' I remember it being reckoned a great exploit ;' or more properly, ' I remember its being reck- 
oned,' &c. The following sentence is correct and proper : ' Much will depend on the pupil 's com- 
posing, but more on his reading frequently. ' It would not be accurate to say, ' Much will depend 
on the pupil composing, 1 &c. We also properly say; 'This will be the effect of the pupiVs com- 
posing frequently;' instead of, ' Of the pupil composing frequently.' The participle, in such con- 
structions, does the office of a substantive ; and it should therefore have a correspondent 
regimen." — Murray's Gram., Rule 10th, Note 1 ; Ingersoll's, p. 180 ; Fish's, 108 ; R. 0. 
Smith's, 152; Alger's, 61; Merchant's, 84. See also Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 150; "Abridged 
Ed.," 117.* 

Obs. 12. — Now, if it were as easy to prove that a participle, as such, or (what amounts to the 
same thing) a phrase beginning with a participle, ought never to govern the possessive case, as 
it is to show that every part and parcel of the foregoing citations from Priestley, Murray, and 
others, is both weakly conceived and badly written, I should neither have detained the reader so 
long on this topic, nor ever have placed it among the most puzzling points of grammar. Let it 
be observed, that what these writers absurdly call u an entire clause of a sentence," is found on 
examination to be some short phrase, the participle with its adjuncts, or even the participle 
alone, or with a single adverb only ; as, " holding up her train," — " dismissing his servant so 
hastily," — " composing," — " reading frequently," — " composing frequently." And each of these, 
with an opposite error as great, they will have to be " one name," and to convey but " one idea;" 
supposing that by virtue of this imaginary oneness, it may govern the possessive case, and signify 
something which a "lady," or a "person," or a "pupil," may consistently possess. And then, to 
be wrong in every thing, they suggest that any noun on which such a participle, with its adjuncts, 
" depends, may be put in the genitive case;" whereas, such a change is seldom, if ever, admissible, 

* What, in Weld's "Abridged Edition," is improperly called a "participial noun" was, in his "original 
work," still more erroneously termed " a participial clause." This gentleman, who has lately amended his 
general rule for possessives by wrongfully copying or imitating mine, has also as widely varied his conception 
of the participial — " of ijict possessed;" but, in my judgement, a change still greater might not be amiss. "The 
possessive is often governed by a participial clause; as, much will depend on the pupil's composing frequently. 
Pupil' sis governed by the clause, '■composing frequently.' Note. — The sign ('s) should be annexed to the 
word governed by the pi trticipial clause following it" — Weld's Gram., 2d Edition, p. 150. Again: "The pos- 
sessive is often governed by a participial noun; as, Much will depend on the pujril's composing frequently. 
Pupil's is governed by the participial noun composing. Note. — The sign ('s) should be annexed to the word 
governed by the participial noun following it." — Weld's Gram., Abridged, p. 117. Choosing the possessive 
case, where, both by analogy and by authority, the objective would be quite as grammatical, if not more so ; 
destroying, as far as possible, all syntactical' distinction between the participle and the participial noun, by con- 
founding them purposely, even in name; this author, like Wells, whom he too often imitates, takes no notice of 
the question here discussed, and seems quite unconscious that participles partly made nouns can produce false 
syntax. To the foregoing instructions, he subjoins the following comment, as a marginal note: " The participle 
used as a noun, still retains its verbal properties, and may govern the objective case, or be modified by an ad- 
verb or adjunct, like the verb from which it is derived." — Ibid. When one part of speech is said to be used as 
another, the learner may be greatly puzzled to understand to which class the given word belongs. If "the 
participle used as a noun, still retains its verbal properties," it is, manifestly, not a noun, but a participle still ; 
not a participial noun, but a nounal participle, whether the thing be allowable or not. Hence the teachings 
just cited are inconsistent. Wells says, " Participles are often used in the sense of nouns; as, " There was 
again the smaaking of whips, the clattering of hoofs, and the glittering of harness.' — Irving."— School Gram., 
p. 154. This is not well stated ; because these are participial nouns, and not "participles." What Wells calls 
" participial nouns," differ from these, and are all spurious, all mongrels, all participles rather than nouns. la 
regard to possessives before participles, no instructions appear to be more defective than those of this gentle- 
man. His sole rule supposes the pupil always to know when and why the possessive is proper, and only in- 
structs him not to form it without the sign! It is this: " When a noun or a pronoun, preceding a participle 
used as a noun, is properly in the possessive case, the sign of possession should not be omitted." — School 
Gram., p. 121. All the examples put under this rule, are inappropriate: each will mislead the learner. Those 
which are called " Correct," are, I think erroneous ; and those which are called " False Syntax,'" the adding 
of the possessive sign will not amend. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE IV. — POSSESSIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 507 

and in our language, no participle ever can depend on any other than the nominative or the objec- 
tive case. Every participle so depending is an adjunct to the noun ; and every possessive, in its 
turn, is an adjunct to the word which governs it. In respect to construction, no terms differ 
more than a participle which governs the possessive case, and a participle which does not. These 
different constructions the contrivers of the foregoing rule, here take to be equivalent in meaning ; 
whereas they elsewhere pretend to find in them quite different significations. The meaning is 
sometimes very different, and sometimes very similar ; but seldom, if ever, are the terms con- 
vertible. And even if they were so, and the difference were nothing, would it not be better to 
adhere, where we can, to the analogy of General Grammar ? In Greek and Latin, a participle 
may agree with a noun in the genitive case ; but, if Ave regard analogy, that genitive must be 
Englished, not by the possessive case, but by o/and the objective ; as, " 'l$7rei donifjTjv QnTElre tov 
iv Eftoi laTiovvrog Xpiarov." — " Quandoquidem experimentum quaeritis in me loquentis Christi." — 
Beza. " Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me." — 2 Cor., xiii, 3. We might here, per- 
haps, say, "of Christ's speaking in me," but is not the other form better? The French version is, 
" Puisque vous cherchez une preuve que Christ parle par moi ;" and this, too, might be imitated 
in English : " Since ye seek a proof that Christ speaks by me." 

Oes. 13. — As prepositions very naturally govern any of our participles except the simple per- 
fect, it undoubtedly seems agreeable to our idiom not to disturb this government, when we would 
express the subject or agent of the being, action, or passion, between the preposition and the 
participle. Hence we find that the doer or the sufferer of the action is usually made its possessor, 
whenever the sense does not positively demand a different reading. Against this construction 
there is seldom any objection, if the participle be taken entirely as a noun, so that it may be 
called a participial noun ; as, " Much depends on their observing of the rule." — Lcwth, Campbell, 
and L. Murray. On the other hand, the participle after the objective is unobjectionable, if the 
noun or pronoun be the leading word in sense; as, "It would be idle to profess an apprehension 
of serious evil resulting in any respect from the utmost publicity being given to its contents." — 
London Eclectic Review, 1816. "The following is a beautiful instance of the sound of words 
corresponding to motion."- — Murray's Gram., i, p. 333. "We shall discover many things par- 
taking of both those characters." — West's Letters, p. 182. " To a person following the vulgar mode 
of omitting the comma." — Churchill's Gram., p. 3G5. But, in comparing the different construc- 
tions above noticed, writers are frequently puzzled to determine, and frequently too do they err 
in determining, which word shall be made the adjunct, and which the leading teim. Now, 
wherever there is much doubt which of the two forms ought to be preferred, I think we may well 
conclude that both are wrong ; especially, if there can easily be found for the idea an other ex- 
pression that is undoubtedly clear and correct. Examples: "These appear to be instances of 
the present participle being used passively." — Murray's Gram., p. 64. " These are examples of 
the past participle being applied in an active sense." — lb., 64 "Wo have some examples of ad* 
verbs being used for substantives." — Priestley's Gram., p. 134; Murray's, 198; Inger soils, 206; 
Fisk's, 140; Smith's, 165. "By a noun, pronoun, or adjective, being prefixed to the substantive." 
— Murray's Gram., p. 39 ; also IngersolVs, Fisk's, Alger's, Maltby's, Merchant's, Bacon's, and 
others. Here, if their own rule is good for any thing, these authors ought rather to have pre- 
ferred the possessive case ; but strike out the word being, which is not necessary to the sense, and 
all question about the construction vanishes. Or if any body will justify these examples as they 
stand, let him observe that there are others, without number, to be justified on the same princi- 
ple ; as, " Much depends on the rule being observed." — " Much will depend on the pupil composing 
frequently." Again: "Cyrus did not wait for the Babylonians coming to attack him." — Rollin, 
ii, 86. "Cyrus did not wait for the Babylonians' coming to attack him." That is — "for their 
coming," and not, "for them coming;" but much better than either: "Cyrus did not wait for 
the Babylonians to come and attack him." Again: "To prevent his army's being enclosed and 
hemmed in." — Rollin, ii, 89. " To prevent his army being enclosed and hemmed in." Both 
are wrong. Say, "To prevent his army from being enclosed and hemmed in." Again: "As a 
sign of God's fulfilling the promise." — Rollin, ii, -23. "As a sign of God fulfilling the promise." 
Both are objectionable. Say, "As a sign that God would fulfill the promise." Again: "There 
is affirmative evidence for Moses's being the author of these books." — Bp. Watson's Apology, p. 
28. "The first argument you produce against Moses being the author of these books." — lb., 
p. 29. Both are bad. Say, — "for Moses as being the author," — "against Moses as being the 
author," &c 

Obs. 14. — Now, although thousands of sentences might easily be quoted, in which the posses- 
sive case is actually governed by a participle, and that participle not taken in every respect as a 
noun ; yet I imagine, there are, of this kind, few examples, if any, the meaning of which might 
not be better expressed in some other way. There are surely none among all the examples which 
are presented by Priestley, Murray, and others, under their rule above. Nor would a thousand 
such as are there given, amount to any proof of the rule. They are all of them unreal or feigned 
sentences, made up for the occasion, and, like most others that are produced in the same way, 
made up badly — made up after some ungrammatical model. If a gentleman could possibly de- 
mand a lady's meaning in such an act as the holding-up of her train, he certainly would use none 
of Priestley's three questions, which, with such ridiculous and uninstructive pedantry, are repeated 
and expounded by Latham, in his Hand-Book, § 481 ; but would probably say, "Madam, what 
do you mean by holding up your train?" It was folly for the doctor to ask another person, as if 
an other could guess her meaning better than he. The text with the possessive is therefore not 



508 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

to be corrected by inserting a hyphen and an of, after Murray's doctrine before cited ; as, ""What 
is the meaning of this lady's holding-up of her train ?" Murray did well to reject this example, 
but am a specimen of English, his own is no better. The question which he asks, ought to have 
been, " Why did this person dismiss his servant so hastily ?" Fisk has it in the following form : 
" What is the reason of this person's dismissing his servant so hastily ?" — English Grammar 
Simplified, p. 108. This amender of grammars omits the of which Murray and others scrupu- 
lously insert to govern the noun servant, and boldly avows at once, what their rule implies, that, 
-<\ " Participles are sometimes used both as verbs and as nouns at the same time ; as, ' By the 
*" mind's changing the object,'' &c." — lb., p. 134; so Emmons's Gram., p. 64. But he errs as much 
as they, and contradicts both himself and them. For one ought rather to say, " By the mind's 
changing of the object;" else changing, which "does the office of a noun," has not truly "a cor- 
respondent regimen." Yet of is useless after dismissing, unless we take away the adverb by 
which the participle is prevented from becoming a noun. "Dismissing of his servant so hastily," 
is in itself an ungrammatical phrase ; and nothing but to omit either the preposition, or the two 
adverbs, can possibly make it right. Without the latter, it may follow the possessive ; but with- 
out the former, our most approved grammars say it cannot. Some critics, however, object to the 
of, because the dismissing is not the servant's act; but this, as I shall hereafter show, is no valid 
objection : they stickle for a false rule. 

Obs. 15. — Thus these authors, differing from one an other as they do, and each contradicting 
himsalf and some of the rest, are, as it would seem, all wrong in respect to the whole matter at 
issue. For whether the phrase in question be like Priestley's, or like Murray's, or like Fisk's, it 
is still, according to the best authorities, unfit to govern the possessive case ; because, in stead 
of being a substantive, it is something mor.e than a participle, and yet they take it substantively. 
They form this phrase in many different fashions, and yet each man"of them pretends that what 
he approves, is just like the construction of a regular noun : " Just as we say, ' What is the 
reason of this person's hasty dismission of his servant.' " — Murray, Fisk, and others. " Just as 
we say, 'What is the meaning of this lady's dress,' &c." — Priestley. The meaning of a lady's 
di'ess, forsooth ! The illustration is worthy of the doctrine taught. " An entire clause of a sen- 
tence," substantively possessed, is sufficiently like " the meaning of a lady's dress, &c." Cobbett 
despised andsoforths, for their lack of meaning ; and I find none in this one, unless it be, " of 
tinsel and of fustian." This gloss therefore I wholly disapprove, judging the position more tena- 
ble, to deny, if we consequently must, that either a phrase or a participle, as such, can con- 
sistently govern the possessive case. For whatever word or term gives rise to the direct relation 
of property, and' is rightly made to govern the possessive case, ought in reason to be a noun — 
ought to be the name of some substance, quality, state, action, passion, being, or thing. When 
therefore other parts of speech assume this relation, they naturally become nouns ; as, "Against 
the day of my burying." — John, xii, 7. " Till the day of his showing unto Israel." — Luke, 
i, 80. "By my own showing." — Gowper, Life, p. 22. "By a fortune of my own getting." — 
lb. " Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay." — James, v, 12. " Prate of my whereabout." — Shah 
Obs. 16. — The government of possessives by " entire clauses," or " substantive phrases," as they 
are sometimes called, I am persuaded, may best be disposed of, in almost every instance, by 
charging the construction with impropriety or awkwardness, and substituting for it some better 
phraseology. For example, our grammars abound with sentences like the following, and call 
them good English : (1.) " So we may either say, ' I remember it being reckoned a great exploit ;' 
or perhaps more elegantly, ' I remember its being reckoned a great exploit.' " — Priestley, Murray, 
and others. Here both modes are wrong ; the latter, especially ; because it violates a general 
rule of syntax, in regard to the case of the noun exploit. Say, " I remember it was reckoned a 
great exploit." Again: (2.) " We also properly say, 'This will be the effect of the pupil's com- 
posing frequently.' " — Murray's Gram., p. 179 ; and others. Better, " This will be the effect, if 
the pupil compose frequently." But this sentence is fictitious, and one may doubt whether good 
authors can be found who use compose or composing as being intransitive. (3.) " What can be 
the reason of the committee's having delayed this business?" — Murray's Key, p. 223. Say, " Why 
have the committee delayed this business ?" (4.) " What can be the cause of the parliament's neg- 
lecting so important a business?" — lb., p. 195. Sa,y, " WJiy does the parliament neglect so im- 
portant a business ?" (5.) " The time of William's making the experiment, at length arrived." 
— lb., p. 195. Say, "The time for William to make the experiment, at length arrived." (6.) "I 
hope this is the last time of my acting so imprudently." — lb., p. 263. Say, " I hope I shall never 
again act so imprudently." (7.) "If I were to give a reason for their looking so well, it would be, 
that they rise early." — lb., p 263. Say, "I should attribute their healthful appearance to their 
early rising." (8.) "The tutor said, that diligence and application to study were necessary to 
our becoming good scholars." — Cooper's Gram., p. 145. Here is an anomaly in the construction 
of the noun scholars. Say, " The tutor said, that diligent application to study was necessary to 
our success in learning." (9.) " The reason of his having acted in the manner he did, was not fully 
explained." — Murray's Key, p. 263. This author has a very singular mode of giving "strength" 
to weak sentences. The faulty text here was, " The reason why he acted in the manner he did, 
was not fully explained." — Murray's Exercises, p. 131. This is much better than the other, but 
I should choose to say, " The reason of his conduct was not fully explained." For, surely, the 
"one idea or circumstance" of his "having acted in the manner in which he did act," may be 
quite as forcibly named by the one word conduct, as by all this verbiage, this " substantive phrase," 
or " entire, clause," of such cumbrous length. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE IV.— POSSESSIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 509 

Obs. IT. — The foregoing observations tend to show, that the government of possessives by 
participles, is in general a construction little to be commended, if at all allowed. I thus narrow 
down the application of the principle, but do not hereby determine it to be altogether wrong. 
There are other arguments, both for and against the doctrine, which must be taken into the ac- 
count, before we can fully decide the question. The double construction which may be given to 
infinitive verbs ; the Greek idiom which allows to such verbs an article before them and an 
objective after them ; the mixed character of the Latin gerund, part noun, part verb ; the use or 
substitution of the participle in English for the gerund in Latin; — all these afford so many reasons 
by analogy, for allowing that our participle — except it be the perfect — since it participates the 
properties of a verb and a noun, as well as those of a verb and an adjective, may unite in itself 
a double construction, and be taken substantively in one relation, and participially in an other. 
Accordingly some grammarians so define it ; and many writers so use it ; both parties disregard- 
ing the distinction between the participle and the participial noun, and justifying the construction 
of the former, not only as a proper participle after its noun, and as a gerundive after its prep- 
osition ; not only as a participial adjective before its noun, and as a participial noun, in the 
regular syntax of a noun ; but also as a mixed term, in the double character of noun and parti- 
ciple at once. Nor are these its only uses ; for, after an auxiliary, it is the main verb ; and in a 
few instances, it passes into a preposition, an adverb, or something else. Thus have we from the 
verb a single derivative, which fairly ranks with about half the different parts of speech, and 
takes distinct constructions even more numerous ; and yet these authors scruple not to make of 
it a hybridous thing, neither participle nor noun, but constructively both. "But this," says 
Lowth, "is inconsistent; let it be either the one or the other, and abide by its proper construc- 
tion." — Gram., p. 82. And so say I — as asserting the general principle, and leaving the reader 
to judge of its exceptions. Because, without this mongrel character, the participle in our language 
has a multiplicity of uses unparalleled in any other ; and because it seldom happens that the idea 
intended by this double construction may not be otherwise expressed more elegantly. But if it 
sometimes seem proper that the gerundive participle should be allowed to govern the possessive 
case, no exception to my rule is needed for the parsing of such possessive ; because whatever is 
invested with such government, whether rightly or wrongly, is assumed as " the name of some- 
thing possessed." 

Obs. 18. — The reader .may have observed, that in the use of participial nouns, the distinction 
of voice in the participle is sometimes disregarded. Thus, " Against the day of my burying" 
means, " Against the day of my being buried." But in this instance the usual noun burial or 
funeral would have been better than either: " Against the day of my burial." I. e., " In diem 
funerationis mece." — Beza. " In diem sepultures meoz." — Leusden. " ' E^c tt)v r/ju^pav tov kvrafyLaa- 
/uov jxov." — John, xii, 1. In an other text, this noun is very properly used for the Greek infini- 
tive, and the Latin gerund; as, "For my burial." — Matt., xxvi, 12. "Ad funerandum me." — 
Beza. " Ad sepeliendum me." — Leusden. Literahy: " For burying me." "Tipbgrb ivrcKpidoai fie." 
Nearly: " For to have me buried." Not all that is allowable, is commendable ; and if either of 
the uncompounded terms be found a fit substitute for the compound participial noun, it is better 
to dispense with the latter, on account of its dissimilarity to other nouns: as, "Which only pro- 
ceed upon the question's being begged." — Barclay's Works, Vol. hi, p. 361. Better, "Which only 
proceed upon a begging of the question." " The king's having conquered in the battle, established 
his throne." — Nixon's Parser, p. 128. Better, "The king's conquering in the battle;" for, in the 
participial noun, the distinction of tense, or of previous completion, is as needless as that of voice. 
"The fleet's having sailed prevented mutiny." — lb., p. 18. Better, " The sailing of the fleet," — or, 
"The fleet's sailing," &c. " The prince's being murdered excited their pity." — Ibid. Better, "The 
prince's murder excited their indignation." 

Obs. 19. — In some instances, as it appears, not a little difficulty is experienced by our gram- 
marians, respecting the addition or the omission of the possessive sign, the terminational apos- 
trophic s, which in nouns is the ordinary index of the possessive case. Let it be remembered 
that every possessive is governed, or ought to be governed, by some noun expressed or under- 
stood, except such as (without the possessive sign) are put in apposition with others so governed; 
and for every possessive termination there must be a separate governing word, which, if it is not 
expressed, is shown by the possessive sign to be understood. The possessive sign itself may 
and must be omitted in certain cases ; but, because it can never be inserted or discarded without 
suggesting or discarding a governing noun, it is never omitted by ellipsis, as Buchanan, Murray, 
Nixon, and many others, erroneously teach. The four lines of Note 2d below, are sufficient to 
show, in every instance, when it must be used, and when omitted ; but Murray, after as many 
octavo pages on the point, still leaves it perplexed and undetermined. If a person knows what 
he means to say, let him express it according to the Note, and he will not fail to use just as many 
apostrophes and Esses as he ought. How absurd then is that common doctrine of ignorance, 
which Nixon has gathered from Allen and Murray, his chief oracles ! " If several nouns in the 
genitive case, are immediately connected by a conjunction, the apostrophic s is annexed to the last, 
but understood to the rest ; as, Neither John (i. e. John's) nor Eliza's books." — English Parser, p. 
115. The author gives fifteen other examples like this, all of them bad English, or at any rate, 
not adapted to the sense which he intends ! 

Obs. 20. — The possessive case generally comes immediately before the governing noun, ex- 
pressed or understood ; as, " All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace." — Pope. "Lady! 
be thine (i. e., thy walk) the Christian's walk." — Chr. Observer. "Some of jEschylus's [plays] 



510 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

and Euripides plays are opened in this manner." — Blair's BheL, p. 459. And in this order one 
possessive sometimes governs an other: as, "Peter's wife's mother ;" — "Paul's sister's son." — Bible. 
But, to th»s general principle of arrangement, there are some exceptions : as, 

1. When the governing noun has an adjective, this may intervene; as, "Flora's earliest smells." 
— Milton. " Of man's first disobedience." — Id. In the following phrase from the Spectator, 
"Of Willi last night's lecture." it is not very clear, whether Will's is governed by night's or by 
lecture; yet it violates a general principle of our grammar, to suppose the latter ; because, ou this 
supposition, two possessives, each having the sign, will be governed by one noun. 

2. When the possessive is affirmed or denied; as, " The book is mine, and not John's." But 
here the governing noun may be supplied in its proper place ; and, in some such instances, it must 
be, else a pronoun or the verb will be the only governing word: as, " Ye are Christ's [disciples, 
or people] ; and Christ is God's" [son]. — St. Paul. Whether this phraseology is thus elliptical or 
not, is queetionable. See Obs. 4th, in this series. 

3. When the case occurs without the sign, either by apposition or by connexion; as, "In her 
brother Absalom's house." — Bible. "David and Jonathan's friendship." — Allen. "Adam and 
Eve's morning hymn." — Dr. Ash. " Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, is the Lord's 
thy God."—~Deut., x, 14. "For peace and quiet's sake." — Cowper. " To the beginning of King 
James the First's reign." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 32. 

Obs. 2>. — The possessive case is in general (though not always) equivalent to the preposition 
of and the objective; as, " Of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son." — John, xiii, 2. "To Judas Iscariot, 
the son of Simon." — lb., xiii, 26. On account of this one-sided equivalence, many grammarians 
erroneously reckon the latter to be a " genitive case" as well as the former. But they ought to 
remember, that the preposition is used more frequently than the possessive, and in a variety of 
senses that cannot be interpreted by this case; as, " 0/some of the books of each of these classes 
of literature, a catalogue will be given at the end o/.the work." — L. Murray's Gram., to. 118. 
Murray calls this a " laborious mode of expression," and doubtless it might be a little improved 
by substituting in for the third of; but my argument is, that the meaning conveyed cannot be 
expressed by possessives. The notion that of forms a genitive case, led Priestley to suggest, that 
our language admits a "double genitive;" as, "This book of ray friend's." — Priestley's Gram., p. 
11. " It is a discovery of Sir Isaac Nevjton's." — lb., p. 72. " This exactness of his." — Sterne: 
ib. The doctrine has since passed into nearly all our grammars ; yet is there no double case here, 
as I shall presently show. 

Obs. 22. — Where the governing noun cannot be easily mistaken, it is often omitted by ellipsis: 
as, " At the alderman's" [house] ; — " St. Pauls" [church]; — " A book of my brother's" [books] ; — 
" A subject of the emperor's" [subjects] ; — "A friend of mine;" i. e., one of my friends. "Shall 
we say that Sacrificing was a pure invention of Adam's, or of Gain or Abel's f — Leslie, on Tythes, 
p. 93. That is — of Adam's inventions, or of Cain or Abel's inventions. The Rev. David Blair, 
unable to resolve this phraseology to his own satisfaction, absurdly sets it down among what he 
calls " erroneous OR vulgar phrases." His examples are these : " A poem of Pope's;" — " A 
soldier of the king's;" — "That is a horse of my father's." — Blair's Practical Gram., p. 110, 111. 
He ought to have supplied the plural nouns, poems, soldiers, horses. This is the true explanation 
of all the "double genitives" which our grammarians discover; for when the first noun is parti- 
tive, it naturally suggests more or other things of the same kind, belonging to this possessor ; and 
when such is not the meaning, this construction is improper. In the following example, the noun 
eyes is understood after his : 

" Bv'n his, the warrior's eyes, were forced to yield, 
That saw, without a tear, Pharsalia's field." — Rome's Lucan, B. viii, 1. 144. 

Obs. 23. — When two or more nouns of the possessive form are in any way connected, they 
usually refer to things individually different but of the same name ; and when such is the mean- 
ing, the governing noun, which we always suppress somewhere to avoid tautology, is understood 
wherever the sign is added without it; as, "A father's or mother's sister is an aunt." — Dr. 
Webster. That is, " A father's sister or a mother's sister is an aunt." "In the same com- 
memorative acts of the senate, were thy name, thy father's, thy brother's, and the emperor's." — 
Zenobia, Vol. i, p. 231. 

"From Stiles's pocket into Nbkes's" [pocket]. — Tludibras, B. iii, C. iii, 1. 715. 
Add Nature's, Custom's, Reason's, Passion's strife." — Pope, Brit. Poets, Yol. vi, p. 383. 

It will be observed that in all these examples the governing noun is singular; and, certainly, it 
must be so, if, with more than one possessive sign, we mean to represent each possessor as having 
or possessing but one object. If the noun be made plural where it is expressed, it will also be 
plural where it is implied. It is good English to say, " A father's or mother's sisters are aunts;" 
but the meaning is, " A father's sisters or a mother's sisters are aunts." But a recent school critic 
teaches differently, thus: " When different things of the same name belong to different possessors, 
the sign should be annexed to each ; as, Adams', Dames', and Perkins' Arithmetics; i. e., three differ- 
ent books." — Spencer's Gram., p. 47. Here the example is fictitious, and has almost as many errors 
as words. It would be much better English to say, " Adams's, Davies's, and Perkins's Arithmetic ;" 
though the objective form with of would, perhaps, be still more agreeable for these peculiar names. 
Spencer, whose Grammar abounds with useless repetitions, repeats his note elsewhere, with the 
following illustrations: "E. g. Olmstead's and Comstock's Philosophies. Gould's Adam's Latin 
Grammar." — lb., p. 106. The latter example is no better suited to his text, than " Peter's wife's 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE IV. — POSSESSIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 511 

mother ;" and the former is fit only to mean, " Olmstead's Philosophies and Comstock's Philosophies." 
To speak of the two books only, say, " Olmstead's Philosophy and Comstock's." 

Obs. 24. — The possessive sign is sometimes annexed to that part of a compound name, which 
is, of itself, in the objective case ; as, " At his father-in-law's residence." Here, "At the residence 
of his father-in-law," would be quite as agreeable; and, as for the plural, one would hardly think 
of saying, "Men's wedding parties are usually held at their fathers-in-law's houses." "When the 
compound is formed with of to prevent a repetition of this particle, the possessive sign is some- 
times added as above ; and yet the hyphen is not commonly inserted in the phrase, as I think it 
ought to be. Examples: " The duke of Bridgewater's canal;" — "The bishop of'Landaff's excel- 
lent book ;" — " The Lord mayor of London's authority ;" — " The captain of the guard's house." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 176. "The Bishop of Cambray's writings on eloquence." — Blair's Phet.,ip. 
345. "The bard of Lomond's lay is done." — Queen's Wake, p. 99. "For the kingdom of God's 
sake." — Luke, xviii, 29. "Of the children of Israel's half." — Numbers, xxxi, 30. From these ex- 
amples it would seem, that the possessive sign has a less intimate alliance with the possessive 
case, than with the governing noun ; or, at any rate, a dependence less close than that of the 
objective noun which here assumes it. And since the two nouns here so intimately joined by of, 
cannot be explained separately as forming two cases, but must be parsed together as one name 
governed in the usual way, I should either adopt some other phraseology, or write the compound 
terms with hyphens, thus : " The Duke-of- Bridgewater's canal ;" — " The Bishop-of-Landajf's excel- 
lent book;" — " The Bar d-of- Lomond's lay is done." But there is commonly some better mode of 
correcting such phrases. With deference to Murray and others, " Tlxe King of Great Britain's 
prerogative.''* is but an untoward way of saying, " The prerogative of the British King ;" and, 
" TJie Lord mayor of London's authority'' may quite as well be written, " The authority of Lon- 
don's Lord Mayor." Blair, who for brevity robs the ^Ircftbishop of half his title, might as well 
have said, " Fenelon's writings on eloquence." "Propter regnum Dei," might have been rendered, 
"For the kingdom of God;" — "For the sake of the kingdom of God;" — or, "For the sake of 
God's kingdom." And in lieu of the other text, we might say, " Of*the Israelites' half." 

Obs. 25. — "Little explanatory circumstances," says Priestley, "are particularly awkward be- 
tween the genitive case, and the word which usually follows it ; as, ' She began to extol the 
farmer's, o,s she called him, excellent understanding.' Harriet W^atson, Vol. i, p. 27." — Priestley's 
Gram., p 174. Murray assumes this remark, and adds respecting the example, "It ought to be, 
'the excellent understanding of the farmer, as she called him.' " — Murray's Gram., p. 175. 
Intersertions of this kind are as uncommon as they are uncoirth. Murray, it seems, found none 
for his Exercises, but made up a couple to suit his purpose. The following might have answered 
as well for an other: "Monsieur D'aeier observes, that Zeno's (the Founder of the Sect,) opinion 
was Fair and Defensible in these Points." — Collier's Antoninus, p. ii. 

Obs. 26. — It is so usual a practice in our language, to put the possessive sign always and only 
where the two terms of the possessive relation meet, that this ending is liable to be added to any 
adjunct which can be taken as a part of the former noun or name; as, (1.) " The court-martial' s 
violent proceedings." Here the plural would be courts-martial ; but the possessive sign must be' 
at the end. (2.) "In Henry the Eighth's time." — Walker's Key, Introd., p. 11. This phrase can 
be justified only by supposing the adjective a part of the name. Better, " In the time of Henry 
the Eighth." (3.) "And strengthened with a year or two's age." — Locke, on Education, p. 6. 
Here two's is put for two years ; and. I think, improperly : because the sign is such as suits the 
former noun, and not the plural. Better, " And strengthened with a year's age or more." The 
word two however is declinable as a noun, and possibly it may be so taken in Locke's phrase. 
(4.) " This rule is often infringed, by the ca.se absolute's not being properly distinguished from cer- 
tain forms of expression apparently similar to it." — Murray's Gram., p. 155 ; Fisk's, 113 ; Inger- 
solVs, 210. Here the possessive sign, being appended to a distinct adjective, and followed by 
nothing that can be called a noun, is employed as absurdly as it well can be. Say, " This rule is 
often infringed by an improper use of the nominative absolute;" for this is precisely what these 
authors mean. (5.) "The participle is distinguished from the adjective by the former's expressing 
the idea of time, and the tatter's denoting only a quality." — Murray's Gram., p. 65 ; Fisk's, 82 ; 
Ingersoll's, 45; Emmons's, 64; Alger's, 28. This is liable to. nearly the same objections. Say, 
"The participle differs from an adjective by expressing the idea of time, whereas the adjective 
denotes only a quality." (6.) " The relatives that and as differ from who and which in the former's 
not being immediately joined to the governing word." — Nixon's Parser, p. 140. This is still worse, 
because former's, which is like a singular noun, has here a plural meaning; namely, "in the 
former terms' not being," &c. Say — "in that the former never follow the governing word." 

Obs. 27. — The possessive termination is so far from being liable to suppression by ellipsis, 
agreeably to the nonsense of those interpreters who will have it to be " understood" wherever the 

* It is remarkable, that Lindley Murray, with nil his care in revising his -work, did not see the inconsistency 
of his instructions in relation to phrases of this kind. First he copies Lowth's doctrine, literally and anony- 
mously, from the Doctor's 17th page, thus : "When the thing to which another is said to lelong, is expressed 
by a circumlocution, or by many terms, the sign of the possessive case is commonly added to the last term: as, 
"The king of Great Britain's dominions.'" — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 45. Afterwards he condemns this: 
"The word in the genitive case is frequently placed impeopeely: as, 'This fact appears from Dr. Pearson of 
Birmingham'' s experiments.' It should be, 'from the experiments of Dr. Pearson of Birmingham. 1 " — lb., p. 
175. And again he makes it necessary: " A phrase in which the words are so connected and dependent, as to 
admit of no pause before the conclusion, necessarily requires the genitive sign at or near the end of the phrase: 
as, ' Whose prerogative is it ? It is the king of Great Britain's;'' ' That is the duke of Bridgewater's canal;' " 
&c. — lb., p. 276. Is there not contradiction in these instructions? 



5i2 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

case occurs without it, that on the contrary it is sometimes retained where there is an actual sup- 
pression of the noun to which it belongs. This appears to be the case whenever the pronominal 
adjectives former and latter are inflected, as above. The inflection of these, however, seems to be 
needless, and may well be reckoned improper. But, in the following line, the adjective elegantly 
takes the sign ; because there is an ellipsis of both nouns ; poor's being put for poor man's, and 
the governing noun joys being understood after it: "The rich man's j'oys increase, the poor's 
decay." — Goldsmith. So, in the following example, guilty' 's is put for guilty person's : 
" Yet, wise and righteous ever, scorns to hear 
The fool's fond wishes, or the guilty's prayer." — Rome's Lucan, B. v, 1. 155. 

This is a poetical license ; and others of a like nature are sometimes met with. Our poets use 
the possessive case much more frequently than prose writers, and occasionally inflect words that 
are altogether invariable in prose ; as, 

" Eager that last great chance of war he waits, 
Where either's fall determines both their fates." — Ibid., B. vi, 1. 13. 
Obs. 28. — To avoid a concurrence of hissing sounds, the s of the possessive singular is some- 
times omitted, and the apostrophe alone retained to mark the case : as, "For conscience' sake." — 
Bible. "Moses' minister." — lb. "Felix' room." — lb. "Achilles' wrath." — Pope. " Shiraz' 
walls." — Collins. "Epicurus' sty." — Beattie. "Douglas' daughter." — Scott. "For Douglas' 
sake." — lb. " To his mistress' eyebrow." — Shah. This is a sort of poetic license, as is suggested 
in the 16th Observation upon the Cases of Nouns, in the Etymology. But in prose the elision 
should be very sparingly indulged ; it is in general less agreeable, as well as less proper, than the 
regular form. Where is the propriety of saying, Hicks' Sermons, Barnes' Notes, Karnes' Elements, 
Adams' Lectures, Josephus' Works, while we so uniformly say, in Charles's reign, St. James's 
Palace, and the like? The following examples are right: " At Westminster and Hicks's Hall." — 
Hudibras. "Lord Karnes's Elements of Criticism." — Murray's Sequel, p. 331. "Of Rubens's 
allegorical pictures." — HazlM. "With respect to Burns's early education." — Dugald Stewart. 
" Isocrates's pomp ;" — " Demosthenes' s life." — Blair's Rhet., p. 242. " The repose of Epicurus's 
gods." — Wilson's Heb. Gram., p. 93. 

"To Douglas's obscure abode." — Scott, L. L., C. hi, st. 28. 
Such was the Douglas's command." — Id., ib., C. ii, st. 36. 

Obs. 29. — Some of our grammarians, drawing broad conclusions from a few particular exam- 
ples, falsely teach as follows: "When a singular noun ends in ss, the apostrophe only is added; 
as, ' For goodness' sake:' except the word witness; as, 'The witness's testimony.' When a noun 
in the possessive case ends in ence, the s is omitted, but the apostrophe is retained ; as, ' For con- 
science' sake.'" — Kirkham's Gram., p. 49; Hamlin's, 16; Smith's New Gram., 47.* Of principles 
or inferences very much like these, is the whole system of " Inductive Grammar" essentially 
made up. But is it not plain that heiress's, abbess's, peeress's, countess's, and many other words of 
the same form, are as good English as witness's? Did not Jane West write justly, "She made 
an attempt to look in at the dear dutchess's ?" — Letters to a Lady, p. 95. Does not the Bible speak 
correctly of "an ass's head," sold at a great price? — 2 Kings, vi, 25. Is Burns also wrong, about 
"miss's fine lunardi," and "miss's bonnet?" — Poems, p. 44. Or did Scott write inaccurately, 
whose guide " Led slowly through the pass's jaws?" — Lady of the Lake, p. 121. So much for the 
ss; nor is the rule for the termination ence, or (as Smith has it) nee, more true. Prince's and 
dunce's are as good possessives as any ; and so are the following : 

" That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey; 

This sprung some doubt of Providence's sway." — Parnell. 
" And sweet Benevolence's mild command." — Lord Lyttleton. 
" I heard the lance's shivering crash, 

As when the whirlwind rends the ash." — Sir Walter Scott. 

Obs. 30. — The most common rule now in use for the construction of the possessive case, is a 
shred from the old code of Latin grammar : " One substantive governs another, signifying a differ- 
ent thing, in the possessive or genitive case." — L. Murray's Rule X. This canon not only leaves 
occasion for an additional one respecting pronouns of the possessive case, but it is also obscure in 
its phraseology, and too negligent of the various modes in which nouns may come together in 
English. All nouns used adjectively, and many that are compounded together, seem to form ex- 
ceptions to it. But who can limit or enumerate these exceptions ? Different combinations of 
nouns have so often little or no difference of meaning, or of relation to each othei» and so frequently 
is the very same vocal expression written variously by our best scholars, and ablest lexicographers, 
that in many ordinary instances it seems scarcely possible to determine who or what is right. 
Thus, on the authority of Johnson, one might write, a stone's cast, or stone's throw ; but Webster 
has it, stones-cast, or stones-throw ; Maunder, stonecast, stonethrow ; Chalmers, stonescast ; Worces- 
ter, stone 's-cast. So Johnson and Chalmers write stonesmickle, a bird ; Webster has it, stone' s- 
mickle ; yet, all three refer to Ainsworth as their authority, and his word is stonesmickle : Little- 
ton has it stone-smich. Johnson and Chalmers write, popeseye and sheep's eye ; Walker, Maunder, 

* A late grammarian tells us: "In nouns ending in es and ss, the other s is not added; as, Charles' hat. 
Goodness" 1 sake." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 11. He should rather have 6aid, " To nouns ending in es or ss, the other 
8 is not added." But his doctrine is worse than his syntax ; and, what is remarkable, he himself forgets it in 
the course of a few minutes, thus: "Decline Charles. Nom. Charles, Poss. Charles's, Ob.i. Charles." — lb., p. 
12. See the like doctrine in Mulligan's recent work on the " Structure of Language," p. 182. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE IV. — POSSESSIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 513 

and Worcester, popeseye and sheep' s-eye ; Scott has pope' s-eye and sheepseye ; Webster, pope' s-eye 
and sheep' s-eye, bird-eye, and birds-eye. Ainsworth has goafs beard, for the name of a plant ; 
Johnson, goatbeard; Webster, goat-beard and goafs-beard. Ainsworth has prince's feather, for the 
amaranth; Johnson, Chalmers, Walker, and Maunder, write it princes-feather ; Webster and Wor- 
cester, princes 1 -feather ; Bolles has it princesfeather : and here they are all wrong, for the word 
should be prince 's-feather. There are hundreds more of such terms; all as uncertain in their 
orthography as these. 

Obs. 31. — While discrepances like the foregoing abound in our best dictionaries, none of our 
grammars supply any hints tending to show which of these various forms we ought to prefer. 
Perhaps the following suggestions, together with the six Rules for the Figure of Words, in Part 
First, may enable the reader to decide these questions with sufficient accuracy. (1.) Two sloit 
radical nouns are apt to unite in a permanent compound, when the former, taking the sole accent, 
expresses the main purpose or chief characteristic of the thing named by the latter ; as, teacup, 
sunbeam, daystar, horseman, sheepfold, houndfish, hourglass. (2.) Temporary compounds of a like 
nature may be formed with the hyphen, when there remain two accented syllables ; as, castle-wall, 
bosom-friend, fellow -servant, horse-chestnut, goat-marjoram, marsh-marigold. (3.) The former of 
two nouns, if it be not plural, may be taken adjectively, in any relation that differs from apposi- 
tion and from possession ; as, " The silver cup," — " The parent birds," — " My pilgrim feet," — " Thy 
hermit cell," — "Two brother sergeants." (4.) The possessive case and its governing noun, com- 
bining to form a literal name, may be joined together without either hyphen or apostrophe : as, 
tradesman, ratsbane, doomsday, kinswoman, craftsmaster. (5.) The possessive case and its govern- 
ing noun, combining to form a metaphorical name, should be written with both apostro} he and 
hyphen; as, Job's-tears, Jew's-ear, bear's-foot, colfs-tooth, sheep's-head, crane's-bill, crab's-tyts, 
hound' s-tongue, king's-spear, lady's- slipper, lady's-be.dstraw, &c. (6.) The possessive case and its 
governing noun, combining to form an adjective, whether literal or metaphorical, should generally 
be written with both apostrophe and hyphen; as, u Xeafs-foot oil," — "Calfs-foot jelly," — "A 
carp's-tongue drill," — "A bird's-eye view," — "The states' -rights party," — "A cameVs-hair shawl." 
But a triple compound noun may be formed with one hyphen only : as, " In doomsday-book ;" 
( — Joh. Diet. ;) " An armsend-lift." Cardell, who will have all possessives to be adjectives, writes 
an example thus: "John's camel's hair girdle." — Elements of Eng. Gram., p. 39. That is as if 
John's camel had a hair girdle ! (7.) When the possessive case and its governing noun merely 
help to form a regular phrase, the compounding of them in any fashion may be reckoned improper ; 
thus the phrases, a day's work, at death's door, on New Tear's Day, a new year's gift, All Souls' 
Day, All Saints' Day, All Fools' Day, the saints' bell, the heart's blood, for dog's meat, though often 
written otherwise, may best stand as they do here. 

Obs. 32. — The existence of a permanent compound of any two words, does not necessarily pre- 
clude the use of the possessive relation between the same words. Thus, we may speak of a horse's 
shoe or a goat's skin, notwithstanding there are such words as horseshoe and goatskin. E. g., 
"That preach ye upon the housetops." — Alger's Bible: Matt., x, 27. " Unpeg the basket on 
the house's top." — Beauties of Shah., p. 238. Webster defines frostnail, (which, under the word 
cork, he erroneously writes frost nail,) "A nail driven into a horse-slwe, to prevent the horse from 
slipping on ice." Worcester has it, "A nail driven into a horse's shoe, to prevent his slipping on 
the ice." Johnson, "A nail with & prominent head driven into the horse's shoes, that it may pierce 
the ice." " Maunder, " A nail with a sharp head driven into the horses' shoes in frosty weather." 
None of these descriptions is very well written. Say rather, " A spur -headed nail driven into a 
horse's shoe to prevent him from slipping." There is commonly some difference, and sometimes a 
very great one, between the compound noun and the possessive relation, and also between the 
radical compound and that of the possessive. Thus a harelip) is not a hare's lip, nor is a head- 
man a headsman, or heart-ease heart' s-ease. So, according to the books, a cat-head, a cafs-head, 
and a cat's head, are three very different things; yet what Webster writes, cat-tail, Johnson, 
cats-tail, Walker and others, cafs-tail, means but the same thing, though not a cat's toil. John- 
son's " kingspear, Jeivs-ear, lady-mantle, and lady-bedstraw," are no more proper, than Webster's 
" bear 's-wort, lion's foot, lady's mantle, and lady's bed-straw." All these are w 7 rong. 

Obs. 33. — Particular examples, both of proper distinction, and of blind irregularity, under all 
the heads above suggested, may be quoted and multiplied indefinitely, even from our highest liter- 
ary authorities ; but, since nothing can be settled but by the force of principles, he who would be 
accurate, must resort to rules, — must consider what is analogical, and, in all doubtful cases, give 
this the preference. But, in grammar, particular analogies are to be respected, as well as those 
which are more general. For example, the noun side, in that relation which should seem to re- 
quire the preceding noun to be in the possessive case, is usually compounded with it, the hyphen 
being used where the compound has more than two syllables, but not with two only ; as, bedside, 
hillside, roadside, wayside, seaside, river-side, water-side, mountain-side. Some instances of the 
separate construction occur, but they are rare : as, " And her maidens walked along by the river's 
side." — Exodus, ii, 5. After this noun also, the possessive preposition of is sometimes omitted ; 
as, " On this side the river ;" ( — Bible ;) " On this side Trent." — Cowell. Better, " On this side of 
the river," &c. " Blind Bartimeus sat by the highway side, begging." — Mark, x, 46. Here Alger 
more properly writes " highway-side." In Rev., xiv, 20th, we have the unusual compound, 
"horse-bridles." The text ought to have been rendered, "even unto the horses' bridles." Latin, 
"usque ad fra?nos equorum." Greek, " a%pi ru>v xalivuv tCjv 'tTv-rruv." 

Obs. 34. — Correlatives, as father and son, husband and wife, naturally possess each other;. 

33 



514 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

hence such combinations as father's son, and sorts father, though correct enough in thought, are 
redundant in expression. The whole and a part are a sort of correlatives, but the whole seems to 
possess its parts, more properly than any of the parts, the whole. Yet we seldom put the whole 
in the possessive case before its part, or parts, but rather express the relation by of; as, "a quar- 
ter of a dollar," rather than, "a dollar's quarter." After the noun half, we usually suppress this 
preposition, if an article intervene; as, " half a dollar," rather than, "half of a dollar," or "a 
dollar's half." So we may say, " half the way," for "half of the way;" but we cannot say, 
"half us" for "half of us." In the phrase, " a half dollar," the word half is an adjective, and 
a very different meaning is conveyed. Yet the compounds half-pint and half-penny are sometimes 
used to signify, the quantity of half a pint, the value of half a penny. In weight, measure, or time, 
the part is sometimes made possessive of the whole ; as, "a pound's weight, a yard's length, an 
hour's time." On the contrary, we do not say, "weight's pound, length's yard, or time's hour;" 
nor yet, " a pound of weight, a yard of length ; " and rarely do we say, " an hour of time." Pound 
and yard having other uses, we sometimes say, "a pound in weight, a yard in length ;" though 
scarcely, " an hour in time." 

Obs. 35. — Between a portion of time and its correlative action, passion, or being, the possessive 
relation is interchangeable; so that either term may be the principal, and either, the adjunct: as, 
" Three years' hard work," or, "Three years of hard wor k." Sometimes we may even put either 
term in either form ; as, " During the ten years' war," — " During the ten years of war," — " During 
the war of ten years," — " During the war's ten years." Hence some writers, not perceiving why 
either word should make the other its governed adjunct, place both upon a par, as if they were 
in apposition ; as, " Three days time." — Brown's Estimate, Vol. ii, p. 156. "By a few years prep- 
aration." — Blair's JRhet, p. 341. " Of forty years planting." — Wm. Perm. "An account, of five 
years standing." If these phrases were correct, it would also be correct to say, "one day time," — 
" one year preparation," — " one year planting," — " of one year standing ;" but all these are mani- 
festly bad English ; and, by analogy, so are the others. 

Obs. 36. — Any noun of weight, measure, or time, put immediately before an other, if it be not 
in the possessive case, will naturally be understood adjectively ; as, " No person can, by words 
only, give to an other an adequate idea of a pound weight, or [a] foot rule." — Gregory's Diet. This 
phraseology can, with propriety, refer only to the weight or the rule with which we weigh or 
measure; it cannot signify a pound in weight, or afoot in length, though it is very probable that 
the author intended the latter. When the noun times is used before an other noun by way of mul- 
tiplication, there may be supposed an ellipsis of the preposition of between the two, just as when 
we divide by the word half; as, "An hour is sixty times the length of a minute." — Murray's 
Grain., p. 48. " Thirty seconds are half the length of a minute." That is, — " half of the length," 
— " sixty times of the length." 

NOTES TO RULE IV. 

Note I. — In the syntax of the possessive case, its appropriate form, singular or 
plural, should be observed, agreeably to the sense and declension of the word. Thus, 
write John's, men's, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs ; and not, Johns, mens', her's, it's, 
our's, your's, their 's. 

Note II. — When nouns of the possessive case are connected by conjunctions or put 
in apposition, the sign of possession must always be annexed to such, and such only, 
as immediately precede the governing noun, expressed or understood ; as, " John and 
JZliza's teacher is a man of more learning than James's or Andreiv's." — " For David 
my servant's sake." — Bible. " For my sake and the gospel's." — lb. " Lost in love's 
and friendship's smile." — Scott. 

Note III. — The relation of property may also be expressed by the preposition of 
and the objective ; as, " The will of man" for " man's will." Of these forms, we 
should adopt that which will render the sentence the most perspicuous and agree- 
able ; and, by the use of both, avoid an unpleasant repetition of either. 

Note IV. — A noun governing the possessive plural, should not, by a forced agree- 
ment, be made plural, when its own sense does not require it; as, " For our parts" 
— " Were I in your places :" for we may with propriety say, " Our part, your place, 
or your condition ;" as well as, " Our desire, your intention, their resignation." — 
L. Murray's Gram., p. 169. A noun taken figuratively may also be singular, when 
the literal meaning would require the plural : such expressions as, " their face" — 
" their neck" — " their hand" — " their head" — " their heart" — " our mouth" — " our 
life," — are frequent in the Scriptures, and not improper. 

Note V. — The possessive case should not be needlessly used before a participle 
that is not taken in other respects as a noun. The following phrase is therefore 
wrong : " Adopted by the Goths in their pronouncing the Greek." — Walker's Key, 
p. 17. Expunge their. Again : " Here we speak of their becoming both in form 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — KULE IV. — POSSESSIVES. ERRORS. 515 

and signification passive."— Campbell's Rhet., p. 226. Say rather, " Here we speak 
of them as becoming passive, both in form and signification." 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE IV. 
Examples under Note I. — The Possessive Form. 
" Mans chief good is an upright mind." See Brown's Institutes of E. Gram., p. 179. 

[Formttle. — Not proper, because the noun mans, which is intended for the possessive singular of man, has 
not the appropriate form of that case and number. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 4th, " In the syntax 
of the possessive case, its appropriate form, singular or plural, should be observed, agreeably to the sense and 
declension of the -word." Therefore, mans should be man's, with the apostrophe before the s; thus, "Man's 
chief good is an upright mind."] 

'• The translator of Mallets History haz the following note." — Webster's Essays, p. 263. " The 
act, while it gave five years full pay to the officers, allowed but one year's pay to the privates." — 
Lb., p. 184. " For the study of Enghsh is preceded by several 3-ears attention to Latin and Greek." 
— lb., p. 7. "The first, the Court Baron, is the freeholders or freemens court." — Coke, Litt., p. 74. 
"I affirm, that Yaugelas' definition labours under an essential defect." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 163. 
" I affirm, that Yangelas's definition labours under an essential defect." — Murray's Octavo Gram., 
Fourth Amer. Ed., Vol. ii, p. 360.* " There is a chorus in Aristophane's plays." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 480. " It denotes the same perception in my mind as in their's." — Duncan's Logic, p. 65. "This 
afterwards enabled him to read Hicke's Saxon Grammar." — Life of Dr. Murray, p. 76. "I will 
not do it for tens sake." — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 56. "I arose, and asked if those charming infants were 
her's." — Werter, p. 21. " They divide their time between milliners shops and taverns." — Brown's 
Estimate, Vol. i, p. 65. "The angels adoring of Adam is also mentioned in the Talmud." — Sale's 
Koran, p. 6. " Quarrels arose from the winners insulting of those who lost." — lb., p. 171. " The 
vacancy, occasioned by Mr. Adams' resignation." — Adams's Rhet, Tol. i, p. vii. " Read for in- 
stance Junius' address, commonly called his letter to the king." — lb., i. 225. "A perpetual 
struggle against the tide of Hortensius' influence." — lb., ii, 23. " Which, for distinction sake, I 
shall put down severally." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 302. " The fifth case is in a clause signi- 
fying the matter of ones fear." — Lb., p. 312. "And they took counsel, and bought with them 
the potters' field." — Alger's Bible : Matt, xxvii, 7. " Arise for thy servant's help, and redeem 
them for thy mercy's sake." — JenJcs's Prayers, p. 265. " Shall not their cattle, and their substance, 
and every beast of their's be ours?" — Scott's Bible: Gen., xxxiv, 23. "And every beast of 
their's, be our's?" — Friends' Bible: ib. "It's regular plural, bullaces, is used by Bacon." — 
Churchill's Gram., p. 213. "Mordecai walked every day before the court of the womens house." 
— Scott's Bible : Esther, ii, 11. "Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses." 
— Ib. and Friends' Bible: Matt, xi, 8: also Webster's Lmp. Gram., p. 173. "Then Jethro, 
Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, and her two sons ; and Jethro, Moses' father-in- 
law, came, with his sons and his wife, unto Moses." — Alger's Bible, and the Friends' : Exod., 
xviii, 2 — 5. "King James' translators merely revised former translations." — Rev. B. Frazee's 
Gram., p. 137. "May they be like corn on houses tops." — White, on the English Verb., p. 160. 

" And for his Maker's image sake exempt." — Par. Lost, B. xi, 1. 514. 
"By all the fame acquir'd in ten years war." — Rowe's Lucan, B. i, 1. 674. 
"Nor glad vile poets with true critics gore." — Pope's Dunicad, p. 175. 
" Man only of a softer mold is made, 
Not for his fellow's ruin, but their aid." — Dry den's Poems, p. 92. 

Under Note II. — Possessives Connected. 

" It was necessary to have both the physician, and the surgeon's advice." — Cooper's PI. and Pr. 
Gram., p. 140. " This out-side fashionableness of the Taylor on Tire-woman's making." — Locke, 
on Education, p. 49. " Some pretending to be of Paul's party, others of Apollos, others of Cephas, 
and others, pretending yet higher, to be of Christ's." — Wood's Diet, w. Apollos. " Nor is it less 
certain that Spenser's and Milton's spelling agrees better with our pronunciation." — Philol. Mu- 
seum, i, 661. "Law's, Edwards', and "Watts' surveys of the Divine Dispensations." — Burgh's Dig- 
nity, Yol. i, p. 193. " And who was Enoch's Saviour, and the Prophets ?" — Bayly's Works, p. 600. 
"Without any impediment but his own, or his parents or guardians will." — Literary Convention, 
p. 145. "James relieves neither the boyf nor the girl's distress." — Nixon's Parser, p. 116. "John 
regards neither the master nor the pupil's advantage." — lb., p. 117. " You reward neither the 
man nor the woman's labours." — Lb. " She examines neither James nor John's conduct." — lb. 
" Thou pitiest neither the servant nor the master's injuries." — Lb. " We promote England or Ire- 
land's happiness." — Lb. " Were Cain and Abel's occupation the same?" — Brown's Lnst, p. 179. 
"Were Cain's and Abel's occupations the same?" — Lb. "What was Simon's and Andrew's em- 

* Vat/gelas was a noted French critic, who died in 1650. In Murray's Grammar, the name is more than once 
mistaken. On page 359th, of the edition ahove cited, it is printed " Vangelas." — G. Bbown. 

t Nixon parses boy, as being "in the possessive case, governed by distress understood;" and girl's, as being 
"coupled by nor to boy" according to the Rule, "Conjunctions connect the same cases." Thus one word is 
written wrong ; the other, parsed wrong : and so of all his examples above. — G. Beowx. 



516 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

ployment ?" — Author. " Till he can read himself Sanctii Minerva with Scioppius and Perizonius's 
Notes." — Locke, on Education, p. 295. 

" And love's and friendship's finely-pointed dart 
Falls blunted from each indurated heart." — Goldsmith. 

Under Note III. — Choice of Forms. 

"But some degree of trouble is all men's portion." — Murray's Key, p. 218; Merchants, 19*7. 
"With his father's and mother's names upon the blank leaf." — Corner- Stone, p. 144. "The gen- 
eral, in the army's name, published a declaration." — Hume: in Priestley's Gram., p. 69. "The 
Commons' vote." — Id, ib. "The Lords' house." — Id., ib. "A collection of writers faults." — 
Swift : ib., p. 68. " After ten years wars." — Id., ib. " Professing his detestation of such prac- 
tices as his predecessors." — Notes to the Dunciad. "By that time I shall have ended my years 
office." — Walker's Particles, p. 104. "For Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife." — Mark, vi, 
17. " For Herodias's sake, his brother Philip's wife." — Murray's Key, p. 194. " I endure all 
things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain salvation." — Friends' Bible : 2 Tim., ii, 10. 
" For the elects' sakes." — Scott's Bible. "For the elect's sake." — Alger's Bible, and Bruce's. 
"He was Louis the Sixteenth's son's heir." — W. Allen's Exercises, Gram., p. 329. "The throne 
we honour is the choice of the people." — " An account of the proceedings of the court of Alex- 
ander." — "An excellent tutor of a person of fashion's child!" — Gil Bias, Vol. i, p. 20. " It is 
curious enough, that this sentence of the Bishop is, itself, ungrammatical !" — Cobbett's E. Gram., 
^f 201. " The troops broke into Leopold the emperor's palace." — Nixon's Parser, p. 59. " The 
meeting was called by Eldon the judge's desire." — Ibid. "Peter's, John's, and Andrew's occupa- 
tion was that of fishermen." — Brace's Gram., p. 79. "The venerable president of the Boyal 
Academy's debility has lately increased." — Maunder 's Gram., p. 12. 

Under Note IV. — Nouns with Possessives Plural. 
" G-od hath not given us our reasons to no purpose." — Barclay's Works, Yol. i, p. 496. "For 
our sakes, no doubt, this is written." — 1 Cor., ix, 10. " Are not health and strength of body 
desirable for their own sakes?" — Hermes, p. 296; Murray's Gram., 289. "Some sailors who 
were boiling their dinners upon the shore." — Day's Sandford and Merton, p. 99. "And they in 
their turns were subdued by others." — Pinnock's Geography, p. 12. " Industry on our parts is 
not superseded by G-od's grace." — Arrowsmith. " Their Healths perhaps may be pretty well 
secur'd." — Locke, on Education, p. 51. " Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor." 
— Murray's Gram., p. 211. "It were to be wished, his correctors had been as wise on their 
parts." — Harris's Hermes, p. 60. "The Arabs are commended by the ancients for being most 
exact to their words, and respectful to their kindred." — Sale's Koran. " That is, as a reward of 
some exertion on our parts." — Gurney's Evidences, p. 86. "So that it went ill with Moses for 
their sakes." — Psalms, cvi, 32. " All liars shall have their parts in the burning lake." — Watts, 
p. 33. " For our own sakes as well as for thine." — Pref. to Waller's Poems, p. 3. "By discover- 
ing their abilities to detect and amend errors." — Murray's Gram., Yol. ii, p. iv. 
" This world I do renounce ; and, in your sights, 

Shake patiently my great affliction off." — Beauties of Shdk., p. 268. 
" If your relenting angers yield to treat, 
Pompey and thou, in safety, here may meet." — Rowe's Lucan, B. iii, 1. 500. 

Under Note Y. — Possessives with Participles. 
" This will encourage him to proceed without his acquiring the prejudice." — Smith's Gram., 
p. 5. " And the notice which they give of an action's being completed or not completed." — L. 
Murray's Gram., p. 72 ; Alger's, 30. " Some obstacle or impediment that prevents its taking 
place." — Priestley's Gram., p. 38; Alex. Murray's, 37. "They have apostolical authority for their 
so frequently urging the seeking of the Spirit." — The Friend, Yol. xii, p. 54. " Here then is a 
wide field for reason's exerting its powers in relation to the objects of taste." — Blair's Rhet., p. 18. 
" Now this they derive altogether from their having a greater capacity of imitation and descrip- 
tion." — lb., p. 51. " This is one clear reason of their paying a greater attention to that construc- 
tion." — lb., p. 123. " The dialogue part had also a modulation of its own, which was capable of 
its being set to notes." — lb., p. 471. " What is the reason of our being often so frigid and unper- 
suasive in public discourse ?" — lb., p. 334. " Which is only a preparation for his leading his forces 
directly upon us." — lb., p. 264. " The nonsense about which's relating to things only, and having 
no declension, needs no refutation." — Fowle's True E. Gram., p. 18. "Who, upon his breaking 
it open, found nothing but the following inscription." — Rollin, Yol. ii, p. 33. "A prince will 
quickly have reason to repent his having exalted one person so high." — Id., ii, 116. " Notwith- 
standing it's being the immediate subject of his discourse." — Churchill's Gram., p. 294. "With 
our definition of its being synonymous with time." — Booth's Introd., p. 29. " It will considerably 
increase the danger of our being deceived." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 293. "His beauties can never 
be mentioned without their suggesting his blemishes also." — Blair's Rhet, p. 442. "No example 
has ever been adduced of a man's conscientiously approving of an action, because of its badness." 
— Gurney's Evidences, p. 90. "The last episode of the angel's shewing Adam the fate of his pos- 
terity, is happily imagined." — Blair's Rhet, p. 452. "And the news came to my son, of his and 
the bride being in Dublin." — Castle Rackrent, p. 44. "There is no room for the mind's exerting 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. RULE V. OBJECTIVES. OBSERVATIONS. 517 

any great effort." — Blair's Ehet., p. 32. " One would imagine, that these criticks never so much 
as heard of Homer's having written first." — Pope's Preface to Homer. " Condemn the book, for its 
not being a geography." — 0. B. Pence's Gram,., p. 317. " There will be in many words a tran- 
sition from their being the figurative to their being the proper signs of certain ideas." — Campbells 
Ehet, p. 322. " The doctrine of the Pope's being the only source of ecclesiastical power." — Re- 
ligious World, ii, 290. " This has been the more expedient from the work's being designed for 
the benefit of private learners." — Murray's Exercises, Introd., p. v. " This was occasioned by the 
Grammar's having been set up, and not admitting of enlargement." — lb., Advertisement, p. ix. 

KULE V.— OBJECTIVES. 

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of an active- transitive verb or 
participle, is governed by it in the objective case : as, " I found her as- 
sisting him" — " Having finished the work, I submit it." 
u Preventing fame, misfortune lends him wings, 
AndPompey's self his own sad story brings." — Rowe'sLucan, B.viii, 1. 66. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE V. 

Obs. 1. — To this rule there are no exceptions ; but to the old one adopted by Murray and 
others, "Active verbs govern the objective case," there are more than any writer will ever think 
it worth his while to enumerate. In point of brevity, the latter has the advantage, but in noth- 
ing else ; for, as a general rule for nouns and pronouns, this old brief assertion is very defec- 
tive; and, as a rule for " the syntax of verbs," under which head it has been oftener ranked, 
it is entirely useless and inapplicable. As there are four different constructions to which the 
nominative case is liable, so there are four in which the objective may be found ; and two of 
these are common to both; namely, apposition, and sameness of case. Every objective is governed 
by some verb or participle, according to Rule 5th, or by some preposition, according to Rule 7th ; 
except such as are put in apposition with others, according to Rule 3d, or after an infinitive or a 
participle not transitive, according to Rule 6th : as, " Mistaking one for the other, they took him, 
a sturdy fellow, called Red Billy, to be me" Here is every construction which the objective case 
can have ; except, perhaps, that in which, as an expression of time, place, measure, or manner, 
it is taken after the fashion of an adverb, the governing preposition being suppressed, or, as some 
say, no governing word being needed. Of this exception, the following quotations may serve 
for examples : " It holds on by a single button round my neck, cloak-fashion." — Edgeworth's 
Castle Rack-rent, p. 17. A man quite at leisure to parse all his words, would have said, "in the 
fashion of a cloak." Again : " He does not care the rind of a lemon for her all the while." — lb., 
p. 108. ""We turn our eyes this way ore that way." — Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 172; Frazee's 
Gram., 157. Among his instances of " the objective case restrictive,' 1 '' or of the noun " used in the 
objective, without a governing word," Dr. Bullions gives this: "Let us go home." But, accord- 
ing to the better opinion of Worcester, home is here an adverb, and not a noun. See Obs. 6th on 
Rule 7th. 

Obs. 2. — The objective case generally follows the governing word: as, "And Joseph knew his 
brethren, but they knew not him." — Gen., xlii, 8. But when it is emphatic, it often precedes the 
nominative; as, " Me he restored to mine office, and him he hanged." — Gen., xli, 13. " John 
have I beheaded." — Luke, ix, 9. "But me ye have not always." — Matt, xxvi, 11. " Him walk- 
ing on a sunny hill he found." — Milton. In poetry, the objective is sometimes placed between the 
nominative and the verb ; as, 

" His daring foe securely him- defied." — Milton. 

" Much he the place admired, the person more." — Id. 

u The broom its yellow Zea/hath shed." — Langhorne. 
If the nominative be a pronoun which cannot be mistaken for an objective, the words may possi- 
bly change places; as, " Silver and gold have I none." — Acts, hi, 6. " Created thing nought val- 
ued he nor shunn'd." — Milton, B. ii, 1. 679. But such a transposition of two nouns can scarcely 
fail to render the meaning doubtful or obscure ; as, 

"This pow'r has praise, that virtue scarce can warm, 
Till fame supplies the universal charm." — Br. Johnson. 

A relative or an interrogative pronoun is commonly placed at the head of its clause, and of course 
it precedes the verb which governs it; as, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutes!." — Acts, ix, 5. 
" Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" — Po., vii, 52. 

" Before their Clauses plac'd, by settled use, 
The Relatives these Clauses introduce." — Ward's Gram., p. S6. 
Obs. 3. — Every active-transitive verb or participle has some noun or pronoun for its object, or 
some pronominal adjective which assumes the relation of the objective case. Though verbs are 
often followed by the infinitive mood, or a dependent clause, forming a part of the logical predi- 
cate ; yet these terms, being commonly introduced by a connecting particle, do not form such an 
object as is contemplated in our definition of a transitive verb. Its government of the objective, is 



518 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IH. 

the only proper criterion of this sort of verb. If, in the sentence, " Boys love to play," the former 
verb is transitive, as several respectable grammarians affirm ; why not also in a thousand others ; 
as, "Boys like to play;" — "Boys delight to play;" — "Boys long to play;" — "The boys seem to 
play ;" — " The boys cease to play;" — " The boys ought to play;" — " The boys go out to play ;" 
— " The boys are gone out to play ;" — " The boys are allowed to play ;" and the like ? The con- 
struction in all is precisely the same, and the infinitive may follow one kind of verb just as well 
as an other. How then can the mere addition of this mood make any verb transitive ? or 
where, on such a principle, can the line of distinction for transitive verbs be drawn ? The infini- 
tive, in fact, is governed by the preposition to ; and the preceding verb, if it has no other 
object, is intransitive. It must, however, be confessed that some verbs which thus take the in- 
finitive after them, cannot otherwise be intransitive ; as, "A great mind disdains to hold any 
thing by courtesy." — Johnson's Life of Swift. " They require to be distinguished by a comma." — 
Murray 's Gram., p. 272. 

Obs. 4. — A transitive verb, as I have elsewhere shown, may both govern the objective case, 
and be followed by an infinitive also ; as, " What have I to do with thee ?" — John, ii, 4. This 
question, as one would naturally take it, implies, "I have nothing to do with thee;" and, by 
analogy, ivhat is governed by have, and not by do ; so that the latter verb, though not commonly 
intransitive, appears to be so here. Indeed the infinitive mood is often used without an objec- 
tive, when every other part of the same verb would require one. Maunder's rule is, " Transitive 
verbs and participles govern either the objective case or the infinitive mode." — Comprehensive 
Gram., p. 14. Murray teaches, not only that, "The infinitive mood does the office of a substan- 
tive in the objective case ; as, ' Boj-s love to play ;' " but that, " The participle with its adjuncts, 
may be considered as a substantive phrase in the objective case, governed by the preposition or 
verb ; as, ' He studied to avoid expressing himself too severely.' 1 " — See his Octavo Gram., pp. 184 
and 194. And again: " Part of a sentence, as well as a noun or pronoun, may be said to be in 
the objective case, or to be put objectively, governed by the active verb ; as, ' "We sometimes see 
virtue in distress, but we should consider how great will be her ultimate reward.' 1 Sentences or 
phrases under this circumstance, may be termed objective sentences or phrases. 11 — lb., p. 180. 

Obs. 5. — If we admit that sentences, parts of sentences, infinitives, participles with their ad- 
juncts, and other phrases, as well as nouns and pronouns, may be " in the objective case;" it will 
be no easy matter, either to define this case, or to determine what words do, or do not, govern 
it.* The construction of infinitives and participles will be noticed hereafter. But on one of 

* Wells, -whose Grammar, in its first edition, divides verbs into " transitive, intransitive, and passive;" but 
■whose late editions absurdly make all passives transitive ; says, in his third edition, " A transitive verb is a verb 
that has soyne noun or pronoun for its object;" (p. IS ;) adopts, in his syntax, the old dogma, " Transitive verbs 
govern the objective case;" (3d Ed., p. 154;) and to this rule subjoins a series of remarks, so singularly fit to 
puzzle or mislead the learner, and withal so successful in winning the approbation of committees and teachers, 
that it may be worth while to notice most of them here. 

" Rem. 1. — A sentence or phrase often supplies the place of a noun or pronoun in the objective case; as, 'You 
see how few of these men have ■returned.'' " — Wells's School Gram., " Third Thousand," p. 154; late Ed. § 215. 
According to this, must we not suppose verbs to be often transitive, when not made so by the author's defini- 
tion? And if "see" is here transitive, would not other forms, such as are told, have been told, or are aware, 
be just as much so, if put in its place? 

" Rem. 2. — An intransitive verb may be used to govern an objective, when the verb and the noun depending 
upon it are of kindred signification; as, To live a blameless life;' — ' To run a. race.'" — lb. Here verbs are 
absurdly called " intransiti oe" when, both in fact and by the foregoing definition, they are clearly transitive ; 
or, at least, are, by many teachers, supposed to be so. 

" Rem. 3. — Idiomatic expressions sometimes occur in which intransitive verbs are followed by objectives de- 
pending upon them; as, 'To look the subject fully in the face.' — Channing. 'They laughed him to scorn.' — 
Matt. 9: 24. ' And talked the night away.'' — Goldsmith." — lb. Here, again, verbs evidently wade transitive 
by the construction, are, with strange inconsistency, called " intransitive." By these three remarks together, the 
distinction between transitives and intransitives must needs be extensively obscured in the mind of the learner. 

" Rem. 4. — Transitive verbs of asking, giving, teaching, and some others, are often employed to govern two 
objectives; as, ' Ask him his opinion;'' — 'This experience taught me a valuable lesson' — ' Spare me yet this 
bitter cup.' — Remans. 'I thrice presented him a kingly crown.' — Shakspeare." — lb. This rule not only 
jumbles together several different constructions, such as would require different cases in Latin or Greek, but is 
evidently repugnant to the sense of many of the passages to which it is meant to be applied. Wells thinks, the 
practice of supplying a preposition, "is, in many cases, arbitrary, and does violence to an important and well 
established idiom of the language." — lb. But how can any idiom be violated by a mode of parsing, which 
merely expounds its true meaning t If the dative case has the meaning of to, and the ablative has the meaning 
of from, how can they be expounded, in English, but by suggesting the particle, where it is omitted? For 
example: "Spare me yet [from] this bitter cup." — " Spare [to] me yet this joyous cup." This author says, 
" The rule for the government of two objectives by a verb, without the aid of a preposition, is adopted by Web- 
ster, Murray, Alexander, Frazee, Nutting, Perley, Goldsbury, J. M. Putnam, Hamlin, Flower, Crane, Brace, 
and many others." — lb. Yet, if I mistake not, the weight of authority is vastly against it. Such a rule as 
this, is not extensively approved ; and even some of the names here given, are improperly cited. Lindley Mur- 
ray's remark, "Some of our verbs appear to govern two words in the objective case," is applied only to words 
in apj)osition, and wrong even there ; Perley's rule is only of " Some verbs of asking and teaching;" and Nut- 
ting's note, "It sometimes happens that one transitive verb governs two objective cases," is so very loose, that 
one can neither deny it, nor tell how much it means. 

" Rem. 5.— Verbs of asking, giving, teaching, and some others, are often employed in the passive voice to gov- 
ern a noun or pronoun ; as, ' He was asked his opinion:— Johnson. ' He had been refused shelter.'— Irving" 
—lb., p. 155, § 215. Passive governing is not far from absurdity. Here, by way of illustration, we have exam- 
ples of two sorts; the one elliptical, the other solecistical. The former text appears to mean, " He was asked 
for his opinion;" — or, " He was asked to give his opinion:" the latter should have been, '■'•Shelter had been 
refused him ;"— i. e., "to him." Of the seven instances cited by the author, five at least are of the latter kind, 
and therefore to be condemned ; and it is to be observed, that when they are corrected, and the right word is 
made nominative, the passive government, by Wells's own showing, becomes nothing but the ellipsis of a prep- 
osition. Having just given a rule, by which all his various examples are assumed to be regular and right, he 
very inconsistently adds this note: " This form of expression is anomalous, and might, in many cases, be im- 
proved. Thus, instead of saying, ' He was offered a seat in the council,' it would be preferable to say, ' A seat 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX.— KULE V. — OBJECTIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 519 

Murray's examples, I would here observe, that the direct use of the infinitive for an objective 
noun is a manifest Grecism ; as, " For to will is present with me ; but to perform that which is 
good, I find not." — Octavo Gram., p. 184. That is, " the performance o/that which is good. I find 
not." Or perhaps we may supply a noun after the verb, and take this text to mean, " But to 
perform that which is good, I find not the ability.'''' Our Bible has it, " But how to perform that 
which is good. I find not;" as if the manner in which he might do good, was what the apostle 
found not : but Murray cites it differently, omitting the word how, as we see above. All active 
verbs to which something is subjoined by when, where, whence, how, or why, must be accounted 
intransitive, unless we suppose them to govern such nouns of time, place, degree, manner, or 
cause, as correspond to these connectives; as, "I know why she blushed." Here we might sup- 
ply the noun reason, as, " I know the reason why she blushed;" but the word is needless, and I 
should rather parse know as being intransitive. As for "virtue in distress,' 1 if this is an "objective 
phrase," and not to be analyzed, we have millions of the same sort; but, if one should say, " Vir- 
tue in distress excites pity," the same phrase would demonstrate the absurdity of Murraj^'s doc- 
trine, because the two nouns here take two different cases. 

Obs. 6. — The word that, which is often employed to introduce a dependent clause, is, by some 
grammarians, considered as a pronoun, representing the clause which follows it; as, "I know that 
Messias cometh." — John, iv, 25. This text they would explain to mean, "Messias cometh, I know 
that;" and their opinion seems to be warranted both by the origin and by the usual import of 
the particle. But, in conformity to general custom, and to his own views of the practical pur- 
poses of grammatical analysis, the author has ranked it with the conjunctions. And he thinks it 
better, to call those verbs intransitive, which are followed by that and a dependent clause, than 
to supply the very frequent ellipses which the other explanation supposes. To explain it as a 
conjunction, connecting an active-transitive verb and its object, as several respectable gram- 
marians do, appears to involve some inconsistency. If that is a conjunction, it connects what 
precedes and what follows ; but a transitive verb should exercise a direct government, without 
the intervention of a conjunction. On the other hand, the word thai has not, in any such sen- 
tence, the inherent nature of a pronoun. The transposition above, makes it only a pronominal 
adjective: as, "Messias cometh, I know that fact" And in many instances such a solution is 
impracticable; as, "The people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should 
not depart from them." — Luke, tv, 42. Here, to prove that to be a pronoun, the disciples of Tooke 
and Webster must resort to more than one imaginary ellipsis, and to such inversion as will scarcely 
leave the sense in sight. 

Obs. 1. — In some instances the action of a transitive verb gives to its direct object an additional 
name, which is also in the objective case, the two words being in apposition; as, "Thy saints 
proclaim thee king." — Gowper. "And God called the firmament Heaven." — Bible. "Ordering 
them to make themselves masters of a certain steep eminence." — Rollin, ii, 67. And, in such a 
construction, the direct object is sometimes placed before the verb; though the name which re- 
sults from the action, cannot be so placed: as, "And Simon he surnamed Peter." — Mark, hi, 15. 
" Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God." — Rev., hi, 12. Some 
grammarians seem not to have considered this phraseology as coming within the rule of apposi- 
tion. Thus Webster: " We have some verbs which govern two words in the objective case ; as, 

' Did I request thee, maker, from my clay 
To mold me man V — Milton, 10, 144. 

in the council was offered [to] him.' " — lb., p. 155, § 215.. By admitting here the ellipsis of the preposition to, 
he evidently refutes the doctrine of his own text, so far as it relate* to ]ja*sive (government, and, by implication, 
the doctrine of his fourth remark also. For the ellipsis of to, before "/urn," is just as evident in the active 
expression, "I thrice presented him a kingly crown," as in the passive, "A kingly crown ivas thrice presented 
him,." It is absurd to deny it in either. Having offset himself, Wells as ingeniously balances his authorities, 
pro and con; but, the elliptical examples being allowable, he should not have said that I and others '•'•condemn 
this usage altogether." 

" Rem. C. — The passive voice of a verb is sometimes used in connection with a preposition, forming a com- 
pound passive verb; as, ' He was listened to.' — ' Nor is this to be scoffed aV— 1 - This is a tendency to be guarded 
against.' — 'A bitter persecution was carried on.' 1 — Hallam." — lb., p. 155, § 215. The words here called "prep- 
ositions," are adverbs. Prepositions they cannot be ; because they have no subsequent term. Nor is it either 
necessary or proper, to call them parts of the verb: "was carried on" is no more a "compound verb," than 
"was carried off" or "was carried forward," and the like. 

" Rem. 7. — Idiomatic expressions sometimes occur in which a noun in the objective is preceded by a passive 
verb, and followed by a preposition used adverbially. Examples: 'Vocal and instrumental music were made 
use of." — Addison. 'The third, fourth, and fifth, were taken possession of at half past eight.' — Southey. 
' The Pinta was soon lost sight of in the darkness of the night.' — Irving." — lb., p. 155, § 215. As it is by the 
manner of their use, that we distinguish prepositions and adverbs, it seems no more proper to speak of "a prep- 
osition used adverbially," than of " an adverb used prepositionally." But even if the former phrase is right and 
the thing conceivable, here is no instance of it; f >r "o/" here modifies no verb, adjective, or adverb. The con- 
struction is an nnparsable synchysis, a vile snarl, which no grammarian should hesitate to condemn. These 
examples may each be corrected in several ways: 1. Say — " were used;" — "were taken into possession;" — 
"ivas sooyi lost from sight." 2. Say — " Theyradie use of music, both vocal and instrumental." — "Of the third, 
the fourth, and the fifth, theji took possession at half past eight." — " Of the Pinta they soon lost sight," &c. 3. 
Say — "Use teas also made of both vocal and instrumental music." — "Possession of the third, the fourth, and 
the fifth, was taken at half past eight." — "The Pinta soon disajrpeared in the darkness of the night." Here, 
again, Wells puzzles his pupil, with a note which half justifies and half condemns the awkward usage in ques- 
tion. See School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 147 ; 3d Ed., 156 ; late Ed., § 215. 

" Rem. S. — There are some verbs which may be used either transitively or intransitively; as, ' He will return 
in a week,' ' He will return the book.' " — lb., p. 14T ; 150 ; &c. According to Dr. Johnson, this is true of "most 
verbs," and Lindley Murray asserts it of "man;/." There are, I think, but few which may not, in some 
phraseology or other, be used both ways. Hence the rule, " Transitive verbs govern the objective case," or, aa 
Wills now has it, "Transitive verbs, in the active voice, govern the objective case," (§ 215,) rests only upon a 
distinction which itself creates, between transitives and iutraasitives; and therefore it amounts to little. 



520 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

'God seems to have made him what he was.' — Life of Cowper."* — Philosophical Gram., p. 170. 
Improved Gram., p. 120. See also Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 154; "Abridged Ed.," p. 119; .and 
Fowler's E. Gram., § 450. So Murray: "Some of our verbs appear to govern two words in the 
objective case ; as, ' The Author of my being formed me man.'' — ' They desired me to call them 
brethren.' 1 — ' He seems to have made him what he was.' " — Octavo Gram., p. 183. Yet this latter 
writer says, that in the sentence, "They appointed me executor" and others like it, "the verb to 
be is understood." — lb., p. 182. These then, according to his own showing, are instances of ap- 
position ; but I pronounce them such, without either confounding same cases with apposition, or 
making the latter a species of ellipsis. See Obs. 1st and 2d, under Rule 3d. 

Obs. 8. — In general, if not always, when a verb is followed by two objectives which are neither 
in apposition nor connected by a conjunction, one of them is governed by a preposition under- 
stood; as, "I paid [to] him the money." — "They offered [to] me a, seat." — "He asked [of] them 
the question " — " I yielded, and unlock'd [to] her all my heart." — Milton. In expressing such 
sentences passively, the object of the preposition is sometimes erroneously assumed for the nomi- 
native; as, "Hi was paid the money ," in. stead of, " The money was paid [to] him." — "/was 
offered a seat," in stead of, "A seat was offered [to] me." This kind of error is censured by 
Murray more than once, and yet he himself has, in very many instances, fallen into it. His first 
criticism on it, is in the following words : " We sometimes meet with such expressions as these: 
' They were asked a question ;' ' They were offered a pardon ;' ' He hath been left a great estate 
by his father.' In these phrases, verbs passive are made to govern the objective case. This 
license is not to be approved. The expressions should be : 'A question was put to them ;' ' A 
pardon was offered to them;' ' His father left him a great estate.' " — L. Murray's Octavo Gram., 
p. 183. See Obs. 12, below. 

Obs. 9. — In the Latin syntax, verbs of asking and teaching are said to govern two accusatives ; 
as, " Posce Deum veniam, Beg pardon of God." — Grant's Latin Gram., p. 207. " Docuit me gram- 
maiicam, He taught me grammar." — Grant, Adam, and others. And again: " "When a verb in 
the active voice governs two cases, in the passive it retains the latter case ; as, " JDoceor gram- 
matically, I am taught grammar." — Adam's Gram., p. 177. These writers however suggest, that 
in reality the latter accusative is governed, not by the verb, but by a preposition understood. 
" ' Poscere deos veniam' is 'to ask the gods for pardon.'" — Barnes's Philological Gram., p. 116. 
In general the English idiom does not coincide with what occurs in Latin under these rules. We 
commonly insert a preposition to govern one or the other of the terms. But we sometimes leave to 
the verb the objective of the person, and sometimes that of the thing ; and after the two verbs ask and 
teach, we sometimes seem to leave both : as, "When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, and ask 
of thee forgiveness." — Shakspeare. "In long journeys, ask your master leave to give ale to the horses." 
— Swift. " And he asked them of their welfare." — Gen., xliii, 27. "They asked of him the parable." 
— Mark, iv, 10. (" Intirrogarunt eum de parabola." — Beza.) "And asking them questions." — Luke, 
ii, 46. " But teach them thy sons." — Deut, iv, 9. " Teach them diligently unto thy children." — J&, 
vi, 7. " Ye shall teach them your children." — lb., xi, 19. " Shall any teach God knoivledge ?" — Job, 
xxi, 22. "I will teachyou the fear of the Lord." — Psal, xxxiv, 11. "He will teach us of his ways." 
— Isaiah, ii, 3; Mtcah, iv, 2. "Let him that is taught in the word, communicate." — Gal., vi, 6. 

Obs. 10. — After a careful review of the various instances in which more than one noun or pro- 
noun may possibly be supposed to be under the government of a single active verb in English, I 
incline to the opinion that none of our verbs ought to be parsed as actually governing two cases, 
except such as are followed by two objectives connected by a conjunction. Consequently I do 
not admit, that any passive verb can properly govern an objective noun or pronoun. Of the 
ancient Saxon dative case, and of what was once considered the government of two cases, there 
yet appear some evident remains in our language; as, " Give him bread to eat." — " Bread shall 
be given him." — Bible. But here, by almost universal consent, the indirect object is referred to 
the government of a "preposition understood;" and in many instances this sort of ellipsis is cer- 
tainly no elegance : as, " Give \to\ truth and virtue the same arms which you give [to] vice and 
falsehood, and the former are likely to prevail." — -Blair's Bhet, p. 235. The questionable expres- 
sion, " Ask me blessing," if interpreted analogically, must mean, "Ask for me a blessing," which 
is more correct and explicit; or, if me be not supposed a dative, (and it does not appear to be so, 
above,) the sentence is still wrong, and the correction must be, "Ask of me a blessing," or, "Ask 
my blessing" So, "Ask your master leave," ought rather to be, "Ask of your master leave," 
"Ask your master for leave," or, " Ask your master's leave." The example from Mark ought to 
be, " They asked him about the parable." Again, the elliptical sentence, "Teach them thy sons," 
is less perspicuous, and therefore less accurate, than the full expression, " Teach them to thy 
sons." To teach is to tell things to persons, or to instruct persons in tilings ; to ask is to request or 
demand things of or from persons, or to interrogate or solicit persons about or for things. These 
verbs cannot be proved to govern two cases in English, because it is more 'analogical and more 
reasonable to supply a preposition, (if the author omits it,) to govern one or the other of the objects. 

* To these examples, Webster adds two others, of a different sort, with a comment, thus: "'Ask him his 
opinion ,-' ' You have asked me the news.' Will it be ssdd'that the latter phrases are elliptical, for 'ask o/him 
his opinion?' I apprehend this to be a mistake. According to the true idea of the government of a transitive 
verb, him must be the object, in the phrase under consideration, as much as in this, ' Ask him for a guinea ;' or 
in this, 'ask him to go.' "—Ibid, ut supra; Frazee's Gram., p. 152; Fowler's, p. 480. If, for the reason here 
stated, it is a " mistake" to supply of in the foregoing instances, it does not follow that they are not elliptical. 
On the contrary, if they are analogous to, " Ask him for a guinea ;" or, " Ask him to go;" it is manifest that 
the construction must be this: "Ask him [/or] his opinion;" or, "Ask him \to tell] his opinion." So that the 
question resolves itself into this: What is the best way of supplying the ellipsis, when two objectives thus 
occur after askt — G. Baown. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE V. — OBJECTIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 521 

Obs. 11. — Some writers erroneously allow passive verbs to govern the objective in English, not 
only where they imagine our idiom to coincide with the Latin, but even where they know that it 
does not. Thus Dr. Crombie : " Whatever is put in the accusative case after the verb, must be 
the nominative to it in the passive voice, while the other case is retained under the government 
of the verb, and cannot become its nominative. Thus, 'I persuade you to this or of this, 1 Per- 
suadeo hoc tibi. Here, the person persuaded is expressed in the dative case, and cannot, there- 
fore, be the nominative to the passive verb. We must, therefore, say, Hoc tibi persuadetw, ' You 
are persuaded of this;' not, Tu persuaderis. 'He trusted me with this affair, ' or 'He believed 
me in this,' Hoc mihi credidit. — Passively, Hoc rnihi creditum est. ' I told you this,' Hoc tibi dixi. 
'You were told this,' Hoc tibi dictum est; not, Tu dictus es." [No, surely: for, ' Tu dictus es,' 
means, 'You were called,' or, 'Thou art reputed;' — and, if followed by any case, it must be the 
nominative.'] " It is the more necessary to attend to this rule, and to these distinctions, as the 
idioms of the two languages do not always concur. Thus, Hoc tibi dictum est, means not only 
' This was told to you,' but ' You were told this.' Liber mihi a patre promissus est, means both 
' A book was promised (to) me by my father,' and ' I was promised a book.' Is primum rogaius 
est sententiam, ' He was first asked for his opinion,' and ' An opinion was first asked of him;' in 
which last the accusative of the person becomes, in Latin, the nominative in the passive voice." 
See Grant's Latin Gram., p. 210. 

Obs. 12. — Murray's second censure upon passive government, is this: "The following sen- 
tences, which give [to] the passive voice the regimen of an active verb, are very irregular, and by 
no means to be imitated. ' The bishops and abbots were allowed their seats in the house of lords.' 
' Thrasea was forbidden the presence of the emperor.' ' He was shown that very story in one of 
his own books.'* These sentences should have been: ' The bishops and abbots were allowed to 
have (or to take) their seats in the house of lords;' or, ' Seats in the house of lords were allowed 
to the bishops and abbots : ' ' Thrasea was forbidden to approach the presence of the emperor ;' 
or, ' The presence of the emperor was forbidden to Thrasea:' ' That very story was shown to him 
in one of his own books.'" — Octavo Gram., p. 223. See Obs. 8, above. One late grammarian, 
whose style is on the whole highly commendable for its purity and accuracy, forbears to condemn 
the phraseology here spoken of; and, though he does not expressly defend and justify it, he 
seems disposed to let it pass, with the license of the following canon. "For convenience, it may 
be well to state it as a rule, that — Passive verbs govern an objective, when the nominative to the 
passive verb is not the proper object of the active voice." — Barnard's Analytic Gram., p. 134. An 
other asserts the government of two cases by very many of our active verbs, and the government 
of one by almost any passive verb, according to the following rules: "Verbs of teaching, giving, 
and some others of a similar nature, govern two objectives, the one of a person and the other of 
a thing; as, He taught me grammar: His tutor gave him a lesson: He promised me a reward. 
A passive verb may govern an objective, when the words immediately preceding and following it, 
do not refer to the same thing ; as, Henry was offered a dollar by his father to induce him to 
remain." — J. M. Putnam's Gram., pp. 110 and 112. 

Obs. 13. — The common dogmas, that an active verb must govern an object, and that a neuter 
or intransitive verb must not, amount to nothing as directions to the composer; because the 
classification of vertn depends upon this very matter, whether they have, or have not, an object 
after them ; and no general principle has been, or can be, furnished beforehand, by which their 
fitness or unfitness for taking such government can be determined. This must depend upon 
usage, and usage must conform to the sense intended. Very many verbs — probably a vast ma- 
jority — govern an object sometimes, but not always : many that are commonly intransitive or 
neuter, are not in all their uses so ; and many that are commonly transitive, have sometimes no 
apparent regimen. The distinction, then, in our dictionaries, of verbs active and neuter, or 
transitive and intransitive, serves scarcely any other purpose, than to show how the presence or 
absence of the objective case, affects the meaning of the word. In some instances the significa- 
tion of the verb seems almost merged in that of its object ; as, to lay hold, to make use, to take 
care. In others, the transitive character of the word is partial; as, "He paid my board; I 
told you so." Some verbs will govern any objective whatever ; as, to name, to mention. What 
is there that cannot be named or mentioned ? Others again are restricted to one noun, or to a few ; 
as, to transgress a law, or rule. What can be transgressed, but a law, a limit, or something 
equivalent ? Some verbs will govern a kindred noun, or its pronoun, but scarcely any other ; as, 
" He lived a virtuous life." — " Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed" — Gen., xxxvii, 
6. "I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." — Isaiah, v, 6. 

Obs. 14. — Our grammarians, when they come to determine what verbs are properly transitive, 
and what are not so, do not in all instances agree in opinion. In short, plain as they think the 
matter, they are much at odds. Many of them say, that, "In the phrases, 'To dream a dream,' 
'To five a virtuous life,' 'To run a race,' ' To walk ahorse,' ' To dance a child,' the verbs assume 
a transitive character, and in these cases may be denominated active." — See Guy's Gram., p. 21 ; 
Murray's, 180; Ingersoll's, 183; Fisk's, 123; Smith's, 153. This decision is undoubtedly just ; yet 
a late writer has taken a deal of pains to find fault with it, and to persuade his readers, that, " No 
verb is active in any sense, or under any construction, that will not, in every sense, permit the ob- 
jective case of a personal pronoun after it." — Wright's Gram., p. 174. Wells absurdly supposes, 

* These examples Murray borrowed from "Webster, who published tbem, with references, under his 34th 
Rule. With too little faith in the corrective power of grammar, the Doctor remarks upon the constructions as 
follows: "-This idiom is outrageously anomalous, but perhaps incorrigible." — Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 180; 
Imp. G., 128. 



522 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

"An intransitive verb may be used to govern an objective." — Gram., p. 145. Some imagine that 
verbs of mental action, such as conceive, think, believe, &c, are not properly transitive ; and, if they 
find an object after such a verb, they choose to supply a preposition to govern it : as, "I conceived 
it (of it) in that light." — Guy's Gram., p. 21. "Did you conceive (of) him to be me?" — lb., p. 
28. With this idea, few will probably concur. 

Obs. 15. — We sometimes find the pronoun me needlessly thrown in after a verb that either 
governs some other object or is not properly transitive, at least, in respect to this word ; as, "It 
ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish, dull, and crudy vapours." — Shakspeare' 1 s 
Falstaff. " Then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the 
heart." — Id. This is a faulty relic of our old Saxon dative case. So of the second person: "Fare 
you well. Falstaff." — Shak. Here you was written for the objective case, but it seems now to 
have become the nominative to the verb fare. "Fare thee well." — W. Scott. "Farewell to thee." 
— Id. These expressions were once equivalent in syntax; but they are hardly so now; and. in 
lieu of the former, it would seem better English to say, '• Fare thou well." Again : " Turn thee 
aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee 
his armour." — 2 Sam., ii, 21. If any modern author had written this, our critics would have 
guessed he had learned from some of the Quakers to misemploy thee for thou. The construction 
is an imitation of the French reciprocal or reflected verbs. It ought to be thus : " Turn thou 
aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay hold on one of the young men, and take to thyself 
his armour." So of the third person: " The king soon found reason to repent him of his provok- 
ing such dangerous enemies." — Hume : Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 180. Here both of the pro- 
nouns are worse than useless, though Murray discerned but one error. 

"Good Margaret, run thee into the parlour; 
There thou shaft find my cousin Beatrice." — Shak. : Much Ado. 

NOTES' TO RULE V. 

Note I. — Those verbs or participles which require a regimen, or which signify 
action that must terminate transitively, should not be used without an object ; as, 
" She affects [kindness,] in order to ingratiate [lierself] Avith you." — " I must caution 
[you,] at the same time, against a servile imitation of any author whatever." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 192. 

Note II. — Those verbs aud participles which do not admit an object, or which 
express action that terminates in themselves, or with the doer, should not be used 
transitively ; as, " The planters grow cotton." Say raise, produce, or cultivate. 
" Dire you speak lightly of the law, or move that, in a criminal trial, judges should 
advance one step beyond what it permits them to go?" — Blair's Rhet., rj. 278. 
Say, — " beyond the point to which it permits them to go." 

Note III. — No transitive verb or participle should assume a government to which 
its own meaning is not adapted ; as, " Thou is a pronoun, a word used instead of a 
noun — personal, it personates 'man.'" — Kirkhani's Gram., p. 131. Say, "It repre- 
sents manV " Where a string of such sentences succeed each other." — Blair'' s 
Rhet., p. 168. Say, "Where many such sentences come in succession." 

Note IV. — The passive verb should always take for its subject or nominative the 
direct object of the active-transitive verb from which it is derived; as, (Active,) 
" They denied me this privilege." (Passive,) " This privilege was denied me ;" not, 
" / was denied this privilege :" for me may be governed by to understood, but 
privilege cannot, nor can any other regimen be found for it. 

Note V. — Passive verbs should never be made to govern the objective case, be- 
cause the receiving of an action supposes it to terminate on the subject or nomin- 
ative.* Errors : " Sometimes it is made use of to give a small degree of emphasis." 
— L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 197. Say, " Sometimes it is used," &c. " His female 
characters have been found fault with as insipid." — Hazlitfs Beet., p. 111. Say, — 
" have been censured ;" or, — " have been blamed, decried, dispraised, or condemned." 
Note VI. — The perfect participle, as such, should never be made to govern any 
objective term ; because, without an active auxiliary, its signification is almost always 

* This seems to be a reasonable principle of syntax, and yet I find it contradicted, or a principle opposite to it 
set up, by some modern teachers of note, who venture to justify all those abnormal phrases which I here con- 
demn as errors. Thus Fowler : "Note 5. When a Verb with its Accusative case, is equivalent to a single verb, 
it may take this accusative after it in the passive voice; as, 'This has been put an end to.' " — Fowler's English 
Language, 8vo, § 552. Now what is this, but an effort to teach bad English by rule '? — and by such a rule, too, 
as is vastly more general than even the great class of terms which it was designed to include ? And yet this 
rule, broad as it is, does not apply at all to the example given! For '■'■put an end," 1 " 1 without the important word 
" to," is not equivalent to stop or terminate. Nor is the example right. One ought rather to say, " This has 
been ended;" or, " This has been stopped.'''' See the marginal Note to Obs. 5th, above. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE Y. — OBJECTIVES. — ERRORS. 523 

passive : as, " We shall set down the characters made use of to represent all the 
elementary sounds." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 5 ; FisHs, 34. Say, — " the charac- 
ters employed, or used." 

Note VII. — As the different cases in English are not always distinguished by their 
form, care must be taken lest their construction be found equivocal, or ambiguous ; 
as, " And we shall always find our sentences acquire more vigour and energy when 
thus retrenched." — Blair 's Iihet., p. 111. Say, "We shall always find that our 
sentences acquire more vigour," &c. ; or, "We shall always find our sentences to 
acquire more vigour and energy when thus retrenched." 

Note VIII. — In the language of our Bible, rightly quoted or printed, ye is not 
found in the objective case, nor you in the nominative; scriptural texts that preserve 
not this distinction of cases, are consequently to be considered inaccurate. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER. RULE V. 
Under the Rule itself. — The Objective Form. 
"Who should I meet the other day but my old Mend !" — Spectator, No. 32. 

[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the pronoun who is in the nominative case, and is used as the object of the 
active-transitive verb should meet. But, according to Rule 5th, " A noun or a pronoun made the object of an 
active-transitive verb or participle, is governed by it in the objective case. 1 ' Therefore, who should be whom, ; 
thus, " Whom should I meet," &c] 

" Let not him boast that puts on his armour, but he that takes it off." — Barclay's Works, iii, 
262. "Let none touch it, but they who are clean." — Sale's Koran, 95. " Let the sea roar, and 
the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." — Psalms, xcviii, 7. "Pray be 
private, and careful who you trust." — Mrs. Goffers Letter. " How shall the people know who to 
entrust with their property and their liberties?" — District School, p. 301. "The chaplain en- 
treated my comrade and I to dress as well as possible." — World Displayed, i, 163. "He that 
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." — Tract, No. 3, p. 6. "Who, during this preparation, 
they constantly and solemnly invoke." — Hope of Israel, p. 84. "Whoever or whatever owes us, 
is Debtor; whoever or whatever we owe, is Creditor." — Marsh's Book-Keeping, p. 23. " Declaring 
the curricle was his, and he should have who he chose in it." — Anna Boss, p. 147. " The fact is, 
Burke is the only one of all the host of brilliant contemporaries who we can rank as a first-rate 
orator." — The Knickerbocker, May, 1833. " Thus you see, how naturally the Fribbles and the 
Daffodils have produced the Messalina's of our time." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 53. " They would 
find in the Roman list both the Scipio's." — lb., ii, 76. "He found his wife's clothes on fire, and 
she just expiring." — New- York Observer. " To present ye holy, unblameable, and unreproveable 
in his sight." — Barclay's Works, i, 353. "Let the distributer do his duty with simplicity; the 
superintendent, with diligence ; he who performs offices of compassion, with cheerfulness." — 
Stuart's Romans, xii, 9. "If the crew rail at the master of the vessel, who will they mind?" — 
Collier's Antoninus, p. 106. " He having none but them, they having none but hee." — Drayton's 
Polyolbion. 

11 Thou, nature, partial nature, I arraign ! 
Of thy caprice maternal I complain!" — Burns' s Poems, p. 50. 

" Nor knows he who it is his arms pursue 
With eager clasps, but loves he knows not who." — Addison's, p. 218. 

Under Note I. — Op Yerbs Transitive. 

"When it gives that sense, and also connects, it is a conjunction." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 
116. " Though thou wilt not acknowledge, thou canst not deny the fact." — Murray's Key, p. 209. 
"They specify, like many other adjectives, and connect sentences." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 114. 
" The violation of this rule tends so much to perplex and obscure, that it is safer to err by too 
many short sentences." — Murray's Gram., p. 312. "A few Exercises are subjoined to each im- 
portant definition, for him to practice upon as he proceeds in committing." — Nutting's Gram., 3d 
Ed., p. vii. "A verb signifying actively governs the accusative." — Adam's Gram., p. 171; 
Gould's, 172; Grant's, 199; and others. "Or, any word that will conjugate, is a verb." — Kirk- 
ham's Gram., p. 44. "In these two concluding sentences, the author, hastening to finish, appears 
to write rather carelessly." — Blair's Rhet, p. 216. " He simply reasons on one side of the ques- 
tion, and then finishes." — lb., p. 306. " Praise to God teaches to be humble and lowly ourselves." 
— Atterbury: ib., p. 304. "This author has endeavored to surpass." — Green's Inductive Gram., 
p. 54. "Idleness and plezure fateeg az soon az bizziness." — Noah Webster's Essays, p. 402. 
" And, in conjugating, you must pay particular attention to the manner in which these signs are 
applied." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 140. " He said Virginia would have emancipated long ago." — 
The Liberator, ix, 33. " And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience."— 2 Cor., x, 6. 
"However, in these cases, custom generally determines." — Wright's Gram., p. 50. "In proof, 
let the following cases demonstrate." — lb., p. 46. " We must surprise, that he should so speedily 
have forgotten his first principles." —Ib., p. 147. "How should we surprise at the expression, 



524 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

'This is a soft question!'" — lb., p. 219. "And such as prefer, can parse it as a possessive 
adjective." — Goodenow's Gram., p. 89. "To assign all the reasons, that induced to deviate from 
other grammarians, would lead to a needless prolixity." — Alexander's Gram., p. 4. "The Indica- 
tive mood simply indicates or declares." — Farnum's Gram., p. 33. 

Under Note II. — Of Verbs Intransitive. 
" In his seventh chapter he expatiate th himself at great length." — Barclay's Works, iii, 350. 
"He quarrelleth my bringing some testimonies of antiquity, agreeing with what I say." — lb., iii, 
373. "Repenting him of his design." — Hume's Hist, ii, 56. " Henry knew, that an excommu- 
nication could not fail of operating the most dangerous effects." — lb., ii, 165. "The popular lords 
did not fail to enlarge themselves on the subject." — Mrs. Macaulay's Hist., iii, 177. "He is 
always master of his subject; and seems to play himself with it." — Blair's Rhet, p. 445. "But as 
soon as it comes the length of disease, all his secret infirmities shew themselves." — lb., p. 256. 
"No man repented him of his wickedness." — Jeremiah, viii, 6. "Go thee one way or other, 
either on the right hand, or on the left." — Ezekiel, xxi, 16. " He lies him down by the rivers 
side." — Walker's Particles, p. 99. " My desire has been for some years past, to retire myself to 
some of our American plantations." — Cowley's Pref. to Ms Poems, p. vii. "I fear me thou wilt 
shrink from the payment of it." — Zenobia, i, 76. "We never recur an idea, without acquiring 
some combination." — Rippingham's Art of Speaking, p. xxxii. 

" Yet more ; the stroke of death he must abide, 
Then lies him meekly down fast by his brethren's side." — Milton. 

Under Note III. — Of Verbs Misapplied. 
" A parliament forfeited all those who had borne arms against the king." — Hume's Hist, ii, 
223. "The practice of forfeiting ships which had been wrecked." — lb., i, 500. " The nearer his 
military successes approached him to the throne." — lb., v, 383. " In the next example, you per- 
sonifies ladies, therefore it is plural." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 103. " The first its personates vale ; 
the second its represents stream." — lb., p. 103. "Pronouns do not always avoid the repetition 
of nouns." — lb., p. 96. " Very is an adverb of comparison, it compares the adjective good." — lb., 
p. 88. " You will please to commit the following paragraph." — lb., p. 140. "Even the Greek 
and Latin passive verbs require an auxiliary to conjugate some of their tenses." — Murray's Gram., 
p. 100. "The deponent verbs, in Latin, require also an auxiliary to conjugate several of their 
tenses." — lb., p. 100. " I have no doubt he made as wise and true proverbs, as any body has 
done since." — lb., p. 145. " A uniform variety assumes as many set forms as Proteus had 
shapes." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 72. "When words in apposition follow each other in quick 
succession." — Nixon's Parser, p. 57. "Where such sentences frequently succeed each other." — 
L. Murray's Gram., p. 349. " Wisdom leads us to speak and act what is most proper." — Blair's 
Rhet, p. 99; Murray's Gram., i, 303. 

" Jul. Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague ? 
Bom. Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike." — Shak. 

Under Note IV. — Of Passive Verbs. 
" We too must be allowed the privilege of forming our own laws." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 134. 
" For we are not only allowed the use of all the ancient poetic feet," &c. — lb., p. 259 ; Kirkham's 
Elocution. 143; Jamieson's Rhet, 310. " By what code of morals am I denied the right and 
privilege ?" — Dr. Bartlett's Lect, p. 4. " The children of Israel have alone been denied the pos- 
session of it." — Keith's Evidences, p. 68. " At York fifteen hundred Jews were refused all quarter." 
— lb., p. 73. " He would teach the French language in three lessons, provided he was paid fifty- 
five dollars in advance." — Ohazotte's Essay, p. 4. " And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, 
when the kingdom of God should come." — Luke, xvii, 20. "I have been shown a book." — 
Campbell's Rhet, p. 392. " John Home Tooke was refused admission only because he had been 
in holy orders." — Diversions of Purley, i, 60. " Mr. Home Tooke having taken orders, he was 
refused admission to the bar." — Churchill's Gram., p. 145. "Its reference to place is lost sight 
of." — Bullions's E. Gram., p. 116. " What striking lesson are we taught by the tenor of this his- 
tory?" — Bush's Questions, p. 71. "He had been left, by a friend, no less than eighty thousand 
pounds." — Priestley's Gram., p. 112. "Where there are many things to be done, each must be 
allowed its share of time and labour." — Johnson's Pref. to Diet, p. xiii. " Presenting the subject 
in a far more practical form than it has been heretofore given." — Kirkham's Phrenology, p. v. 
" If a being of entire impartiality should be shown the two companies." — Scott's Pref. to Bible, 
p. vii. " He was offered the command of the British army." — Grimshaw's Hist, p. 81. " Who 
had been unexpectedly left a considerable sum." — Johnson's Life of Goldsmith. " Whether a 
maid or a widow may be granted such a privilege." — Spectator, No. 536. " Happily all these 
affected terms have been denied the public suffrage." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 199. "Let him next 
be shewn the parsing table." — Nutting's Gram., p. viii. "Thence, he may be shown the use of 
the Analyzing Table." — lb., p. ix. " Pittacus was offered a great sum of money." — Sanborn's 
Gram., p. 228. "He had been allowed more time for study."— 77;., p. 229. " If the walks were 
a little taken care of that lie between them." — Addison's Sped., No. 414. " Suppose I am offered 
an office or a bribe." — Pierpont's Discourse, Jan. 27, 1839. 
" Am I one chaste, one last embrace deny'd? 
Shall I not lay me by his clay-cold side ?" — Rowe's Lucan, B. ix, 1. 103. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE V. — OBJECTIVES. — ERRORS. 525 

Under Note V. — Passive Verbs Transitive. 

" The preposition to is made use of before nouns of place, when they follow verbs and partici- 
ples of motion." — Murray's Gram., p. 203; Ingersoll's, 231; Greenleafs, 35; Fish's, 143; Smith's, 
170; Guy's, 90; Fowler's, 555. " They r were refused entrance into the house." — Murray's Key, 
ii, 204. "Their separate signification has been lost sight of." — Home Tooke, ii, 422. "But, 
whenever ye is made use of, it must be in the nominative, and never in the objective, case." — 
Cobbett's E. Gram.,^ 58. " It is said, that more persons than one are paid handsome salaries, for 
taking care to see acts of parliament properly worded." — Churchill's Gram., p. 334. "The fol- 
lowing Rudiments of English Grammar, have been made use of in the University of Pennsylva- 
nia." — Dr. Rogers: in Harrison's Gram., p. 2. "It never should be lost sight of" — Newman's 
Rhetoric, p. 19. " A very curious fact hath been taken notice of by those expert metaphysicians." 
— CampbelVs Rhet,, p. 281. "The archbishop interfered that Michelet's lectures might be put a 
stop to." — TJie Friend, ix, 318. " The disturbances in Gottengen have been entirely put an end 
to." — Daily Advertiser. " Besides those that are taken notice of in these exceptions." — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 6. "As one, two, or three auxiliary verbs are made use of." — lb., p. 24. "The argu- 
ments which have been made use of." — Addison's Evidences, p. 32. " The circumstance is prop- 
erly taken notice of by the author." — Blair's Rhet, p. 217. "Patagonia has never been taken 
possession of by any European nation." — Cummwg's Geog., p. 62. "He will be found fault 
withal no more, i. e. not hereafter." — Walker's Particles, p. 226. "The thing was to be put an 
end to somehow." — Leigh Hunt's Byron, p. 15. "In 1798, the Papal Territory was taken posses- 
sion of by the French." — Pinnock's Geog., p. 223. "The idea has not for a moment been lost 
sight of by the Board." — Common School Journal, i, 37. "I shall easily be excused the labour 
of more transcription." — Johnson's Life of Dryden. " If I may be allowed that expression." — 
Campbell's Rhet, p. 259, and 288. "If without offence I may be indulged the observation." — 
lb., p. 295. "There are other characters, which are frequently made use of in composition." — 
Murray's Gram.,^. 281; Ingersoll's, 293. "Such unaccountable infirmities might be in many, 
perhaps in most, cases got the better of." — Beattie's Moral Science, i, 153. "Which ought never 
to be had recourse to." — lb., i, 186. "That the widows may be taken care of." — Barclay's Works, 
i, 499. "Other cavils will yet be taken notice of." — Pope's Pref to Homer. "Which implies, 
that all christians are offered eternal salvation." — West's Letters, p. 149. "Yet even the dogs are 
allowed the crumbs which fall from their master's table." — CampbelVs Gospels, Matt, xv, 27. 
"For we say the light within must be taken heed unto." — Barclay's Works, i, 148. "This 
sound of a is taken notice of in Steele's Grammar." — Walker's Diet, p. 22. "One came to be 
paid ten guineas for a pair of silver buckles." — Castle Rackrent, p. 104. "Let him, therefore, be 
carefully shewn the application of the several questions in the table." — Nutting's Gram., p. 8. 
"After a few times, it is no longer taken notice of by the hearers." — Sheridan's Lect,Y>. 182. "It 
will not admit of the same excuse, nor be allowed the same indulgence, by people of any dis- 
cernment." — Ibid. "Inanimate things may be made property of." — Beattie's M. Sci., p. 355. 
" And, when he's bid a liberaller price, 
Will not be sluggish in the work, nor nice." — Butlers Poems, p. 162. 

Under Note VI. — Of Perfect Participles. 

" All the words made use of to denote spiritual and intellectual things, are in their origin meta- 
phors." — CampbelVs Rhet, p. 330. "A reply to an argument commonly made use of by unbe- 
lievers." — Blair's Rhet, p. 293. "It was heretofore the only form made use of in the preter 
tenses." — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 47. "Of the points, and other characters made use of in writing." 
— lb., p. xv. " If thy be the personal pronoun made use of." — Walker's Diet. " The Conjunction 
is a word made use of to connect sentences." — Burn's Gram., p. 28. "The points made use of 
to answer these purposes are the four following." — Harrison's Gram., p. 67. " Incense signifies 
perfumes exhaled by fire, and made use of in religious ceremonies." — Murray's Key, p. 171. "In 
most of his orations, there is too much art ; even carried the length of ostentation." — Blair's 
RJ et, p. 246. "To illustrate the great truth, so often lost sight of in our times." — Common 
School Journal, i, 88. " The principal figures, made use of to affect the heart, are Exclamation, 
Confession, Deprecation, Commination, and Imprecation." — Formey's Belles- Lettres, p. 133. "Dis- 
gusted at the odious artifices made use of by the Judge." — Junius, p. 13. " The whole reasons 
of our being allotted a condition, out of which so much wickedness and misery would in fact 
arise." — Butler's Analogy, p. 109. " Some characteristical circumstance being generally invented 
or laid hold of." — Karnes, El. of Crit, ii, 246. 

" And by is likewise us'd with Names that shew 
The Means made use of, or the Method how." — Ward's Gram., p. 105. 

Under Note VII. — Constructions Ambiguous. 
" Many adverbs admit of degrees of comparison as well as adjectives." — Priestley's Gram., p. 
133. " But the author, who, by the number and reputation of his works, formed our language 
more than any one, into its present state, is Dryden." — Blair's Rhet, p. 180. "In some States, 
Courts of Admiralty have no juries, nor Courts of Chancery at all." — Webster's Essays, p. 146. 
"I feel myself grateful to my friend." — Murray's Key, p. 276. "This requires a writer to have, 
himself, a very clear apprehension of the object he means to present to us." — Blair's Rhet, p. 94. 
"Sense has its own harmony, as well as sound." — lb., p. 127. "The apostrophe denotes the 



526 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

omission of an i which was formerly inserted, and made an addition of a syllable to the word." — 
Priestley's Gram., p. 67. " There are few, whom I can refer to, with more advantage than Mr. 
Addison." — Blair's Rhet., p. 139. "Death, in theology, [is a] perpetual separation from G-od, 
and eternal torments." — Webster's Diet. "That could inform the traveler as well as the old man 
himself!" — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 345. 

Under Note VIII. — YE and YOU in Scripture. 

"Ye daughters of Rabbah, gird ye with sackcloth." — Alger's Bible: Jer., xlix, 3. "Wash 
ye, make you clean." — Brown's Concordance, w. Wash. " Strip ye, and make ye bare, and gird 
sackcloth upon your loins." — Alger's Bible : Isaiah, xxxii, 11. " You are not ashamed that you 
make yourselves strange to me." — Friends' Bible : Job, xix, 3. " You are not ashamed that 
ye make yourselves strange to me." — Alger's Bible: ib. "If you knew the gift of God." — 
Brown's Concordance, w. Knew. "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I know ye not." — 
Penington's Works, ii, 122. 

EULE YI.— SAME CASES. 

A Noun or a Pronoun put after a verb or participle not transitive, 
agrees in case with a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the same 
thing : as, " It is I." — " These are they." — " The child was named John." 
— " It could not be he." — " The Lord sitteth King forever." — Psalms, 
xxix, 10. 

" What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, 
And he returned & friend, ivho came a, foe." — Pope, Ep. iii, 1. 206. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE VI. 

Obs. 1. — Active-transitive verbs, and their imperfect and preperfect participles, always govern 
the objective case ; but active-intransitive, passive, and neuter verbs, and their participles, take 
the same case after as before them, when both words refer to the same thing. The latter are 
rightly supposed not to govern* any case ; nor are they in general followed by any noun or pro- 
noun. Bat, because they are not transitive, some of them become connectives to such words as 
are in the same case and signify the same thing. That is, their finite tenses may be followed by 
a nominative, and their infinitives and participles by a nominative or an objective, agreeing with 
a noun or a pronoun which precedes them. The cases are the same, because the person or thing 
is one; as, "Jamk" — " Thou art Peter." — "Civil government being the sole object of forming 
societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent." — Jefferson's Notes, p. 129. 
Identity is both the foundation and the characteristic of this construction. We chiefly use it to 
affirm or deny, to suggest or question, the sameness of things ; but sometimes figuratively, to illus- 
trate the relations of persons or things by comparison :f as, " /am the true vine, and my Father 
is the husbandman." — John, xv, 1. "Jam the vine, ye are the branches." — John, xv, 5. Even 
the names of direct opposites, are sometimes put in the same case, under this rule ; as, 

" By such a change thy darkness is made light, 
Thy chaos order, and thy weakness might.'" — Cowper, Vol. i, p. 88. 

Obs. 2. — In this rule, the terms after and preceding refer rather to the order of the sense and 
construction, than to the mere placing of the words ; for the words in fact admit of various posi- 
tions. The proper subject of the verb is the nominative to it, or before it, by Rule 2d; and the 
other nominative, however placed, is understood to be that which comes after it, by Rule 6th. In 
general, however, the proper subject precedes the verb, and the other word follows it, agreeably 
to the literal sense of the rule. But when the proper subject is placed after the verb, as in cer- 
tain instances specified in the second observation under Rule 2d, the explanatory nominative is 
commonly introduced still later; as, "Bat be thou an example of the believers." — 1 Tim. iv, 12. 
" But what 1 is thy servant a dog f" — 2 Kings, viii, 13. " And so would I, were / Parmenio." — 
Goldsmith. "0 Conloch's daughter! is it thou?" — Ossian. But in the following example, on 
the contrary, there is a transposition of the entire lines, and the verb agrees with the two nomi- 
natives in the latter : 

" To thee were solemn toys or empty show, 
The robes of pleasure and the veils of wo." — Dr. Johnson. 

Obs. 3. — In interrogative sentences, the terms are usually transposed^:, or both are placed after 

* Some, however, have conceived the putting of the same case after the verh as before it, to be government; 
as, "Neuter verbs occasionally govern either the nominative or [the] objective case, after them."— Alexander's 
Gram., p. 54. " The verb to be, ahocuis governs a Nominative, unless it be of the Infinitiv > Mood."— Buchan- 
an's Gram., p. 94. This latter assertion is, in fact, monstrously untrue, and also solecistical. 

t Not unfrequently the conjunction as intervenes between these "same cases," as it may also between words 
in apposition ; as, " He then is as the head, and we as the members ; he the vine, and we the branches."— Bar- 
clay's Works, Vol. ii, p. 180. 

X '"Whose house is that?' This sentence, before it is parsed, should be transposed ; thus, 'Whose is that 
house?' The same observation applies to every sentence of a similar construction."— Chandler's old Gram., p. 
93. This instruction is worse than nonsense; for it teaches the pupil to parse every word in the sentence wrong! 
The author proceeds to explain Whose, as "qualifying house, understood;" is, as agreeing "with its noinina- 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — PULE VI. — SAME CASES. — OBSERVATIONS. 527 

the verb; as, "Am /a Jew?" — John, xviii, 35. "Art thou a king then?" — lb., ver. 37. " Wliat 
is truth?"— lb., ver. 38. " Who art thou?"— lb., i, 19. "Art thou Elias?"—Ib., i, 21. "Tell 
me, Alciphron, is not distance a line turned endwise to the eye?" — Berkley's Dialogues, p. 161. 

" Whence, and what art thou, execrable shape ?" — Milton. 
" Art thou that traitor angel ? art thou he?" — Idem. 

Obs. 4. — In a declarative sentence also, there may be a rhetorical or poetical transposition of 
one or both of the terms : as, " And I thy victim now remain." — Francis's Horace, ii, 45. " To 
thy own dogs a prey thou shalt be made." — Pope's Homer, " I was eyes to the blind, and feet 
was / to the lame." — Job, xxix, 15. "Far other scene is Thrasymene now." — Byron. In the 
following sentence, the latter term is palpably misplaced: "It does not clearly appear at first 
v)hat the antecedent is to they." — Blair's Rhet., p. 218. Say rather: "It does not clearly appear at 
first, what is the antecedent to [the pronoun] they." In examples transposed like the following, 
there is an elegant ellipsis of the verb to which the pronoun is nominative ; as, am, art, &c. 

" When pain and anguish wring the brow, 
A ministering angel thou." — Scott's Marmion. 

" The forum's champion, and the people's chief, 
Her new-born Numa thou — with reign, alas ! too brief." — Byron. 

" For this commission'd, I forsook the sky — 
Nay, cease to kneel — thy fellow-servant I." — Parnell. 

Obs. 5. — In some peculiar constructions, both words naturally come before the verb; as, "I 
know not who she is." — " Who did you say it was ?" — " I know not how to tell thee who Jam." — 
Romeo. "Inquire thou whose son the stripling is." — 1 Sam., xvii, 56. "Man would not be the 
creature which he now is." — Blair. " I could not guess who it should be." — Addison. And they 
are sometimes placed in this manner by hyberbaton, or transposition; as, "Yet he it is." — Young. 
"No contemptible orator he was." — Dr. Blair. " He it is to whom I shall give a sop." — John, 
xiii, 26. "And a very noble personage Cato is." — Blair's Rhet, p. 457. " Clouds they are with- 
out water." — Jude, 12. 

" Of worm or serpent kind it something looked, 
But monstrous, with a thousand snaky heads." — Pollok, B. i, 1. 183. 

Obs. 6. — As infinitives and participles have no nominatives of their own, such of them as are 
not transitive in their nature, may take different cases after them ; and, in order to determine 
what case it is that follows them, the learner must carefully observe what preceding word denotes 
the same person or thing, and apply the principle of the rule accordingly. This word being often 
remote, and sometimes understood, the sense is the only clew to the construction. Examples : 
" Who then can bear the thought of being an outcast from his presence?" — Addison. Here out- 
cast agrees with who, and not with thought, "/cannot help being so passionate an admirer as I 
am." — Steele. Here admirer agrees with I. "To recommend what the soberer part of mankind 
look upon to be a trifle." — Steele. Here trifle agrees with what as relative, the objective governed 
by upon. " It would be a romantic madness, for a man to be a lord in his closet." — Id. Here 
madness is in the nominative case, agreeing with it; and lord, in the objective, agreeing with 
man. " To affect to be a lord in one's closet, would be a romantic madness." In this sentence 
also, lord is in the objective, after to be ; and madness, in the nominative, after would be. 

" ' My dear Tibullus /' if that will not do, 

Let me be Horace, and be Ovid you." — Pope, B. ii, Ep. ii, 143. 

Obs. 7. — An active-intransitive or a neuter participle in ing, when governed by a preposition, is 
often followed by a noun or a pronoun the case of which depends not on the preposition, but on the 
case which goes before. Example: "The Jews were in a particular manner ridiculed for being a 
credulous people." — Addison's Evidences, p. 28. Here people is in the nominative case, agreeing 
with Jeius. Again : " The learned pagans ridiculed the Jeivs for being a credulous people." Here 
people is in the objective case, because the preceding noun Jews is so. In both instances the 
preposition for governs the participle being, and nothing else. " The atrocious crime of being a 
young man, I shall neither attempt to palliate or deny." — Pitt: Bullions's E. Gram., p. 82; S. 
S. Greene's, 174. Sanborn has this text, with "nor" for u or." — Analytical Gram., p. 190. This 
example has been erroneously cited, as one in which the case of the noun alter the participle is 
not determined by its relation to any other word. Sanborn absurdly supposes it to be " in the 
nominative independent." Bullions as strangely tells us, "it may correctly be called the objective 
indefinite" — like me in the following example : " He was not sure of its being me." — Bidlions's E. 
Gram,, p. 82. This latter text I take to be bad English. It should be, " He was not sure of it 
as being me;" or, "He was not sure that it was I." But, in the text above, there is an evident 
transposition. The syntactical order is this : " I shall neither deny nor attempt to palliate the 
atrocious crime of being a young man." The words man and / refer to the same person, and are 
therefore in the same case, according to the rule which I have given above. 

Obs. 8. — S. S. Greene, in his late Grammar, improperly denominates this case after the partici- 
ple being, " the predicate-nominative," and imagines that it necessarily remains a nominative even 

tive, house;" that, as " qualifying house ;" and house, as " nominative case to the verb, is" Nothing of this is 
true of the original question. For, in that, Whose is governed by house; ft oyas as-Jiominative after is; is agrees 
■with httuse understood ; and that relates to house understood. The meaning is, " Whose house is that house?" 
or, in the order of a declarative sentence, " That house is whose house ?" 



528 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

when the possessive case precedes the participle. If he were right in this, there would be an im- 
portant exception to Rule 6th above. But so singularly absurd is his doctrine about "abridged 
'predicate*" that in general the abridging shows an increase of syllables, and often a conversion of 
good English into bad. For example: " It [the predicate] remains unchanged in the nominative, 
when, with the participle of the copula, it becomes a verbal noun, limited by the possessive case 
of the subject; as, 'That he was a foreigner prevented his election,' — l His being a foreigner pre- 
vented his election.' " — Greene's Analysis, p. 1G9. Here the number of sj'llables is unaltered; 
but foreigner is very improperly called "a verbal noun," and an example which only lacks a 
comma, is changed to what Wells rightly calls an "anomalous expression," and one wherein that 
author supposes foreigner and his to be necessarily in the same case. But Greene varies this ex- 
ample into other " abridged form?" thus : " I knew that he was a foreigner ," = " I knew his being, 
or of his being a foreigner." "The fact that he was a foreigner, =of his being a foreigner, was un- 
deniable." " When he was first called a foreigner, = on his being first called a foreigner, his anger 
was excited." — lb., p. 171. All these changes enlarge, rather than abridge, the expression; and, 
at the same time, make it questionable English, to say the least of it. 

Obs. 9. — In some examples, the adverb there precedes the participle, and we evidently have 
nothing by which to determine the case that follows; as, " These judges were twelv^ in number. 
"Was this owing to there being twelve primary deities among the Gothic nations?" — Webster's 
Essays, p. 263. Say rather: "Was this because there ivere twelve primary deities among the 
Gothic nations?" " How many are injured by Adam's fall, that know nothing of there ever being 
such a man in the world!" — Barclay's Apology, p. 185. Say rather, — "who know not that there 
ever was such a man in the world!" 

Obs. 10. — In some other examples, we find a possessive before the participle, and a doubtful 
case after it; as, "This our Saviour himself was pleased to make use of as the strongest argument 
of his being the promised Messiah." — Addison's Evidences, p. 81. "But my chief affliction con- 
sisted in my being singled out from all the other boys, by a lad about fifteen years of age, as a 
proper object upon whom he might let loose the cruelty of his temper." — Cowper's Memoir, p. 13. 
" Tou Trarf)\ \ovroc] ovov eu&vc vTtefivfja^rj. He had some sort of recollection of his father's being 
an ass." — Collectanea Grceca Minora, Notai, p. 7. This construction, though not uncommon, is 
anomalous in more respects than one. Whether or not it is worthy to form an exception to the 
rule of same cases, or even to that of possessives, the reader may judge from the observations made 
on it under the latter. I should rather devise some way to avoid it, if any can be found — and I 
believe there can; as, "This our Saviour himself was pleased to advance as the strongest proof 
that he was the promised Messiah." — " But my chief affliction consisted in this, that I was singled 
out," &c. The story of the mule is, "He seemed to recollect on a sudden that his father was an ass." 
This is the proper meaning of the Greek text above ; but the construction is different, the Greek 
nouns being genitives in apposition. 

Obs. 11. — A noun in the nominative case sometimes follows a finite verb, when the equivalent 
subject that stands before the verb, is not a noun or pronoun, but a phrase or a sentence which 
supplies the place of a nominative ; as, " That the barons and freeholders derived their authority 
from kings, is wholly a mistake." — Webster's Essays, p. 277. " To speak of a slave as a member 
of civil society, may, by some, be regarded a solecism." — Stroud's Sketch, p. 65. Here mistake 
and solecism are as plainly nominatives, as if the preceding subjects had been declinable words. 

Obs. 12. — When a noun is put after an abstract infinitive that is not transitive, it appears 
necessarily to be in the objective case,* though not governed by the verb ; for if we supply any 
noun to which such infinitive may be supposed to refer, it must be introduced before the verb by 
the preposition for : as, "To be an Englishman in London, a Frenchman in Paris, a Spaniard in 

* 1. In Latin, the accusative case is used after such a verb, because an other word in the same case is under- 
stood before it ; as, " Fac3re quae libet, id est [hominem] esse reqem." — Sallust. " To do what he pleases, 
that is [for a man] to be a king." If Professor Bullions had understood Latin, or Greek, or English, as well 
as his commenders imagine, he might have discovered what construction of cases we have in the following in- 
stances : " It is an honour [for a man] to be the author of such a work." — Bullions' s Eng. Gram., p. 82. " To be 
suretg for a stranger [,] is dangerous." — lb. " Not to know what happened before you were born, is to be always 
a child." — lb. "Nescire quid accident antequam natus es, est semper esse puerum." — lb. ""Em tmv 
aiaxf)u)P . . . tottcjjv, U)i> Tijxiv itotI Kvpioi (paii>ea§cu npr>'i£jxEvovi. , ' > "It is a shame to be seen giving up countries 
of which we were once masters." — Demosthenes : ib. What support these examples give to this grammarian's 
new notion of "the objective indefinite," or to his still later seizure of Greene's doctrine of " the •predicate-nom- 
inative" the learned reader may judge. All the Latin and Greek grammarians suppose an ellipsis, in such 
instances; but some moderns are careless enough of that, and of the analogy of General Grammar in this case, 
to have seconded the Doctor in his absurdity. See Farnum's Practical Oram., p. 23; and S. W. Clark's, p. 149. 

2. Professor Hart has an indecisive remark on this construction, as follows : " Sometimes a verb in the infini- 
tive mood has a noun after it without any other noun before it; as, ' To be a good man, is not so easy a thing 
as many people imagine.' Here '■mart may be parsed as used indefinitely after the verb to be. It is not easy 
to say in what cass the noun is in such sentences. The analogy of the Latin would seem to indicate the objec- 
tive. — Thus, ' Not to know what happened in past years, is to be always a child' Latin, ' semper esse puerwm.' 
In like manner, in English, we may say, ' Its being me, need make no change in your determination.' " — Hart's 
English Oram., p. 127. 

3. These learned authors thus differ about what certainly admits of no other solution than that which is 
given in the Observation above. To parse the nouns in question, "as used indefinitelij," without case, and to 
call them "objectives indefinite," without agreement or government, are two methods equally repugnant to rea- 
son. The last suggestion of Hart's is also a false argument for a true position. The phrases, "Its beinq me," 
and "To be a good man," are far from being constructed "in like manner." The former is manifestly bad 
English; because its and me are not in the same case. But S. S. Greene would say, " Its being I, is right." 
For in a similar instance, he has this conclusion : " Hence, in abridging the following proposition, ' I was not 
aware thatitioas he,' we should say 'o/ its being he,' not '■his' nor l him."' — Greene' s Analysis, Ist-Ed., p. 
171. When being becomes a noun, no case after it appears to be very pi'oper ; but this author, thus " abridg- 
ing" four syllables into five, produces an anomalous construction which it would be much better to avoid. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE VI. — SAME CASES. — OBSERVATIONS. 529 

Madrid, is no easy matter ; and yet it is necessary." — Home's Art of Thinking, p. 89. That is, 
"For a traveller to be an Englishman in London," &c. "It is certainly as easy to be a scholar, as 
a gamester.' 1 ' 1 — Harris's Hermes, p. 425. That is, " It is as easy for a young man to be a scholar, 
as it is for him to be a gamester." " To be an eloquent speaker, in the proper sense of the word, is 
far from being a common or easy attainments — Blair's Rhet., p. 33*7. Here attainment is in the 
nominative, after is — or, rather after being, for it follows both ; and speaker, in the objective after 
to be. "It is almost as hard a thing [for a man] to be a poet in despite of fortune, as it is [for one 
to be a, poet] in despite of nature." — Cowley's Preface to his Poems, p. vii. 

Obs. 13. — Where precision is necessary, loose or abstract infinitives are improper ; as, " But to 
be precise, signifies, that they express that idea, and no more." — Blair's Bhet., p. 94; Murray's 
Gram., 301 ; Jamieson's Rhet, 64. Say rather : " But, for an author's words to be precise, signi- 
fies, that they express his exact idea, and nothing more or less." 

Obs. 14. — The principal verbs that take the same case after as before them, except those which 
are passive, are the following : to be, to stand, to sit, to lie, to live, to grow, to become, to turn, 
to commence, to die, to expire, to come, to go, to range, to wander, to return, to seem, to appear, 
to remain, to continue, to reign. There are doubtless some others, which admit of such a con- 
struction ; and of some of these, it is to be observed, that they are sometimes transitive, and gov- 
ern the objective : as, " To commence a suit." — Johnson. " continue thy loving kindness unto 
them." — Psalms, xxxvi, 10. "A feather will turn the scale." — Shak. "Return him a trespass 
offering." — 1 Samuel. " For it becomes me so to speak." — Dryden. But their construction with 
like cases is easily distinguished by the sense ; as, " When / commenced author, my aim was to 
amuse." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 286. " Men continue men's destroyers." — Nixon's Parser, p. 56. 
" 'Tis most just, that thou turn rascal." — Shak., Timon of Athens. " He went out mate, but he re- 
turned captain." — Murray's Gram., p. 182. "After this event he became physician to the king." 
— 26. That is, " When I began to be an author," &c. 

" Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine, 
The scale to measure others' wants by thine." — Pope. 

Obs. 15. — The common instructions of our English grammars, in relation to the subject of the 
preceding rule, are exceedingly erroneous and defective. For example : " The verb to be, has 
always a nominative case after it, unless it be in the infinitive mode." — Lowth's Gram., p. 77. 
"The verb to be requires the same case after it as before it." — Churchill's Gram., p. 142. " The 
verb to be, through all its variations, has the same case after it, expressed or understood, as that 
which next precedes it." — Murray's Gram., p. 181; Alger } s, 62; Merchant's, 91; Putnam's, 116; 
Smith's, 97; and many others. "The verb to be has usually the same case after it, as that which 
immediately precedes it." — Hall's Gram., p. 31. "Neuter verbs have the same case after them, as 
that which next precedes them." — Folker's Gram., p. 14. " Passive verbs which signify naming, 
and others of a similar nature, have the same case before and after them." — Murray's Gram., p. 
182. " A Noun or Pronoun used in predication with a verb, is in the Independent Case. Ex- 
amples — ' Thou art a scholar.' ' It is I.' ' God is love.' " — S. W. Clark's Pract. Gram., p. 149. 
So many and monstrous are the faults of these rules, that nothing but very learned and reverend 
authority, could possibly impose such teaching anywhere. The first, though written by Lowth, 
is not a whit wiser than to say, " The preposition to has always an infinitive mood after it, unless 
it be a preposition." And this latter absurdity is even a better rule for all infinitives, than the 
former for all predicated nominatives. Nor is there much more fitness in any of the rest. " The 
verb to be, through all," or even in any, of its parts, has neither " always" nor usually a case 
" expressed or understood" after it ; and, even when there is a noun or a pronoun put after it, the 
case is, in very many instances, not to be determined by that which "next" or "immediately" 
precedes the verb. Examples : " A sect of freethinkers is a sum of ciphers." — Bentley. " And 1 
am this day weak, though anointed king" — 2 Sam., iii, 39. " Wliat made Luther a great man, 
was his unshaken reliance on G-od." — Kortz's Life of Luther, p. 13. "The devil offers his service; 
he is sent with a positive commission to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets." — Cal- 
vin's Institutes, p. 131. It is perfectly certain that in these four texts, the words sum, king, reli- 
ance, and spirit, are nominatives, after the verb or participle ; and not objectives, as they must be, 
if there were any truth in the common assertion, " that the two cases, which, in the construction 
of the sentence, are the next before and after it, must always be alike." — Smith's New G j ram., p. 
98. Not only may the nominative before the verb be followed by an objective, but the nomina- 
tive after it may be preceded by a possessive ; as, " Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, was not a 
prophet's son." — " It is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." — Amos, vii, 13. How igno- 
rant then must that person be, who cannot see the falsity of the instructions above cited ! How 
careless the reader who overlooks it ! 

NOTES TO EULE VI. 
Note I. — The putting of a noun in an unknown case after a participle or a par- 
ticipial noun, produces an anomaly which it seems better to avoid ; for the cases 
ought to be clear, even in exceptions to the common rules of construction. Exam- 
ples : (1.) " Widowhood, n. The state of being a widow. 1 '' — Webster's Diet. Say 
rather, " Widowhood, n. The state of a widow." — Johnson, Walker, Worcester. 
(2.) " I had a suspicion of the fellow 's being a swindler." Say rather, " I had a 

34 



530 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

suspicion that the fellow was a swindler." (3.) " To prevent its being a dry detail 
of terms." — Buck. Better, " To prevent it from being a dry detail of terms."* 

Note II. — The nominative which follows a verb or participle, ought to accord in 
signification, either literally or figuratively, with the preceding term which is taken 
for a sign of the same thing. Errors : (1.) " To be convicted of bribery, was then a 
crime altogether unpardonable." — Blair's JEiliet., p. 265. To be convicted of a crime, 
is not the crime itself ; say, therefore, " Bribery was then a crime altogether unpar- 
donable." (2.) " The second person is the object of the Imperative." — Murray's 
Gram., Index, ii, 292. Say rather, " The second person is the subject of the imper- 
ative ;" for the object of a verb is the word governed by it, and not its nominative. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE YL 
Under the Rule itself. — Of Proper Identity. 
""Who would not say, ' If it be me,' rather than, If it be If" — Priestley's Gram., p. 105. 

[Formule. — Not proper, because the pronoun me, which comes after the neuter verb be, is in the objective case, 
and does not agree with the pronoun it, the verb's nominative,t which refers to the same thing. But, according 
to Rule 6th, " A noun or a pronoun put after a verb or participle not transitive, agrees in case with a preceding 
noun or pronoun referring to the same thing." Therefore, me should be I; thus, " Who would not 6ay, • If it 
be I,' rather than, ' If it be met' "] 

"Who is there? It is me." — Priestley, ib., p. 104. "It is him." — Id., ib., 104. "Are these 
the houses you were speaking of? Yes, they are them."-^-/d, ib., 104. " It is not me you are 
in love with." — Addison's Sped., No. 290; Priestley's Grain., p. 104; and Campbell's Ehet, p. 
203. " It cannot be me." — Swift : Priestley's Gram., p. 104. " To that which once was thee." 
— Prior: ib., 104. " There is but one man that she can have, and that is me." — Clarissa: ib., 
104. "We enter, as it were, into his body, and become, in some measure, him." — Adam Smith: 
ib., p. 105. "Art thou proud yet? Ay, that I am not thee." — Shah, Timon. "He knew not 
whom they were." — Milnes, Greek Gram., p. 234. "Who do you think me to be?" — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 108. "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" — Matt, xvi, 13. "But whom 
say ye that I am?" — lb., xvi, 15. " Whom think ye that I am? I am not he." — Acts, xiii, 25. 
" No ; I am mistaken ; I perceive it is not the person whom I supposed it was." — Winter in Lon- 
don, ii, 66. "And while it is Him I serve, life is not without value." — Zenobia, i, 76. "Without 
ever dreaming it was him." — Life of Charles XII, p. 271. " Or he was not the illiterate person- 
age whom he affected to be." — Montgomery's Led. "Yet was he him, who was to be the great- 
est apostle of the Gentiles." — Barday's Works, i, 540. "Sweet was the thrilhng ecstacy; I 
know not if 'twas love, or thee." — Queen's Wake, p. 14. " Time was, when none would cry, that 
oaf was me." — Dryden, Prol. " No matter where the vanquish'd be, nor whom." — Rowe's Lucan, 
B. i, 1. 676. "No, I little thought it had been him." — Life of Gratton. "That reverence and 
godly fear, whose object is ' Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.' " — Maturin's Ser- 
mons, p. 312. "It is us that they seek to please, or rather to astonish." — West's Letters, p. 28. 
"Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac." — Gen., xxiv, 14. " Al- 
though I knew it to be he." — Dickens's Notes, p. 9. " Dear gentle youth, is't none but thee ?" — 
Dorset's Poems, p. 4. " Whom do they say it is ?" — Fowler's E. Gram., § 493. 
" These are her garb, not her ; they but express 
Her form, her semblance, her appropriate dress." — Hannah More. 

* Parkhurst and Sanborn, by what they call « A New Rule," attempt to determine the doubtful or unknown 
case which this note censures, and to justify the construction as being well-authorized and hardly avoidable. 
Their rule is this: "A noun following a neuter or [a] passive participial noun, is in the nominative independent. 
A noun or pronoun in the possessive case, always precedes the participial noun, either expressed or understood, 
signifying the same thing as the noun does that follows it." To this new and exceptionable dogma, Sanborn 
adds : " This form of expression is one of the most common idioms of the language, and in general composition 
cannot be well avoided. In confirmation of the statement made, various authorities are subjoined. Two gram- 
marians only, to our knowledge, have remarked on this phraseology : ' Participles are sometimes preceded by a 
possessive case and followed by a nominative ; as, There is no doubt of his being a great statesman.' B. Geeen- 
leaf. ' We sometimes find a participle that takes the same case after as before it, converted into a verbal noun, 
aud the latter word retained unchanged in connexion with it ; as, I have some recollection of his father's being 
a. judge.' Goold Brown."— Sanborn's Analytical Oram., p. 189. On what principle the words statesman and 
judge can be affirmed to be in the nominative case, I see not; and certainly they are not nominatives '■'■inde- 
pendent," because the word being, after which they stand, is not itself independent. It is true, the phraseology 
is common enough to be good English : but I dislike it ; and if this citation from me, was meant for a confirma- 
tion of the reasonless dogmatism preceding, it is not made with fairness, because my opinion of the construc- 
tion is omitted by the quoter. See Institutes of English Gram., p. 162. In an other late grammar, — a shameful 
work, because it is in great measure a tissue of petty larcenies from my Institutes, with alterations for the 
worse,— I find the following absurd " Note," or Rule: "An infinitive or participle is often followed by a sub- 
stantive explanatory of an indefinite person or thing. The substantive is then in the objective case, and may be 
called the objective after the infinitive, or participle ; [as,] It is an honor to be the author of such a work. His 
being a great man, did not make him a happy man. By being an obedient child, you will secure the approba- 
tion of your parents." — Farnum's Practical Gram., 1st Ed., p. 25. The first of these examples is elliptical; 
(see Obs. 12th above, and the Marginal Note ;) the second is bad English,— or, at any rate, directly repugnant to 
the rule for same cases; and the third parsed wrong by the rule : " child" is in the nominative case. See Obs. 
7th above. 

t When the preceding case is not " the verb's nominative," this phrase must of course be omitted; and when 
the word which is to be corrected, does not literally follow the verb, it may be proper to say, " constructively 
follows," in lieu of the phrase, " comes after." 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE VI. — SAME CASES. — ERRORS. 531 

Under Note I. — The Case Doubtful. 

"I had no knowledge of there being any connexion between them." — Stone, on Freemasonry, 
p. 25. "To promote iniquity in others, is nearly the same as being the actors of it ourselves." — 
Murray's Key, p. 170. "It must arise from feeling delicately ourselves." — Blair's RheL, p. 330; 
Murray's Gram., 248. " By reason of there not having been exercised a competent physical 
power for their enforcement." — Mass. Legislature, 1839. "Pupilage, n. The state of being a 
scholar." — Johnson, Walker, Webster, Worcester. " Then the other part's being the definition 
would make it include all verbs of every description." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 343. "John's 
being my friend,* saved me from inconvenience." — lb., p. 201. "William's having become a 
judge, changed his whole demeanor." — lb., p. 201. " William's having been a teacher, was the 
cause of the interest which he felt." — lb., p. 216. " The being but one among many stifleth the 
chidings of conscience." — Book of Thoughts, p. 131. " As for its being esteemed a close transla- 
tion, I doubt not many have been led into that error by the shortness of it." — Pope's Pre/, to 
Homer. " All presumption of death's being the destruction of living beings, must go upon sup- 
position that they are compounded, and so discerptible." — Butler's Analogy, p. 63. " This argues 
rather their being proper names." — Churchill's Gram., p. 382. "But may it not be retorted, that 
its being a gratification is that which excites our resentment ?" — Campbell's Phet, p. 145. " Un- 
der the common notion, of its being a system of the whole poetical art." — Blair's Phet, p. 401. 
" Whose time or other circumstances forbid their becoming classical scholars." — Literary Conven- 
tion, p. 113. "It would preclude the notion of his being a merely fictitious personage." — Philo- 
logical Museum, i, 446. "For, or under pretence of their being heretics or infidels." — Tlie Catholic 
Oath; G-eo. Ill, 31st. "We may here add Dr. Home's sermon on Christ's being the Object of 
religious Adoration." — Pelig. World, Yol. ii, p. 200. " To say nothing of Dr. Priestley's being a 
strenuous advocate," &c. — lb., ii, 207. " By virtue of Adam's being their public head." — lb., ii, 
233. " Objections against there being any such moral plan as this." — Butler's Analogy, p. 57. 
"A greater instance of a man's being a blockhead." — Sped., ~No. 520. "We may insure or pro- 
mote its being a happy state of existence to ourselves." — Gurney's Evidences, p. 86. "By its 
often falling a victim to the same kind of unnatural treatment." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 41. 
"Their appearing foolishness is no presumption against this." — Butler's Analogy, p. 189. "But 
what arises from their being offences ; i. e. from their being liable to be perverted." — lb., p. 185. 
"And he entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God." — Acts, 
xviii, 7. . 

Under Note II. — Op False Identification. 

"But to be popular, he observes, is an ambiguous word." — Blair's Phet, p. 307. "The infini- 
tive mood, or part of a sentence, is often the nominative case to a verb." — L. Murray's Jnde . 
Octavo Gram., Yol. ii, p. 290. "When any person, in speaking, introduces his own name, it is 
the first person; as, 'I, James, of the city of Boston.' " — P. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 43. "The 
name of the person spoken to, is the second person; as, : James, come to me.' " — Poid. "The 
name of the person or thing spoken of, or about, is the third person ; as, ' James has come.' " — 
Poid. " The object [of a passive verb] is always its subject or nominative case." — lb., p. 62. 
"When a noun is in the nominative case to an active verb, it is the actor." — Kirkham's Gram., 
p. 44. "And the person commanded, is its nominative." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 120. "The first 
person is that who speaks." — Pasquier's Levizac, p. 91. "The Conjugation of a Yerb is its differ- 
ent variations or inflections throughout the Moods and Tenses." — Wrights Gram., p. 80. "The 
first person is the speaker. The second person is the one spoken to. The third person is the one 
spoken of." — Parker and Fox's Gram., Part i, p. 6 ; Hilt y 's, 18. " The first person is the one that 
speaks, or the speaker." — Sanborn's Gram., pp. 23 and 75. " The second person is the one that is 
spoken to, or addressed." — Ibid. " The third person is the one that is spoken of, or that is the topic 
of conversation." — Ibid. "I, is the first person Singular. We, is the first person Plural." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., p. 51 ; Alger's, Ingersoll's, and many others. " TJiou, is the second person Singular. 
Ye or you, is the second person Plural." — Pjid. "He, she, or it, is the third person Singular. T/iey, 
is the third person Plural." — Ibid. "The nominative case is the actor, or subject of the verb." — 
Kirkham's Gram., p. 43. "The noun John is the actor, therefore John is in the nominative 
case." — Ibid. "The actor is always the nominative case." — Smith's Xew Gram., p. 62. "The 
nominative case is always the agent or actor." — Mack's Gram., p. 67. " Tell the part of speech 
each name is." — J. Flint's Gram., p. 6. "What number is boy? Why? What number is pens? 
Why ?" — lb., p. 27. " The speaker is the first person, the person spoken to, the second person, 
and the person or thing spoken of, is the third person." — Po., p. 26. " What nouns are masculine 
gender ? All males are masculine gender." — Po., p. 28. " An interjection is a sudden emotion of 
the mind." — Barrett's Gram., p. 62. 

* The author of this example supposes friend to be in the nominative case, though John's is in the possessive, 
and both words denote the same person. But this is not only contrary to the general rule for same cases, but 
contrary to his own application of one of his own rules. Example: "Maria's duty, as a teacher, is, to instruct 
her pupils." Here, he says, " Teacher is in the possessive case, from its relation to the name Maria, denoting 
the same object." — Peirce's Gram., p. 211. This explanation, indeed, is scarcely intelligible, on account of its 
grammatical inaccuracy. He means, however, that, " Teacher is in the possessive case, from its relation to the 
name Maria's, the two words denoting the same object." No word can be possessive "from its relation to the 
name Maria," except by standing immediately before it, in the usual manner of possessives; as, '■'■Sterne's 
Maria." 



532 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

EULE VII.-- OBJECTIVES. 

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of a preposition, is governed by 
it in the objective case : as, " The temple of fame stands upon the 
grave : the flame that burns upon its altars, is kindled from the ashes 
of great men." — Hazlitt. 

" Life is His gift, from whom whatever life needs, 
With ev'ry good and perfect gift, proceeds." — Cowjper, Vol. i, p. 95. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE VII. 

Obs. 1. — To this rule there are no exceptions ; for prepositions, in English, govern no other 
case than the objective.* But the learner should observe that most of our prepositions may take 
the imperfect participle for their object, and some, the pluperfect, or preperfect; as, " On opening 
the trial they accused him of having defrauded them." — " A quick wit, a nice judgment, &c, could 
not raise this man above being received only upon the foot of contributing to mirth and diversion." 
— Steele. And the preposition to is often followed by an infinitive verb ; as, " When one sort of 
wind is said to whistle, and an other to roar ; when a serpent is said to hiss, a fly to buzz, and fall- 
ing timber to crash ; when a stream is said to flow, and hail to rattle ; the analogy between the 
word and the thing signified, is plainly discernible." — Blair's Rhet., p. 55. But let it not be sup- 
posed that participles or infinitives, when they are governed by prepositions, are therefore in the 
objective case ; for case is no attribute of either of these classes of words : they are indeclinable 
in English, whatever be the relations they assume. They are governed as participles, or as in- 
finitives, and not as cases. The mere fact of government is so far from creating the modification 
governed, that it necessarily presupposes it to exist, and that it is something cognizable in 
etymology. 

Obs. 2. — The brief assertion, that, " Prepositions govern the objective case," which till very 
lately our grammarians have universally adopted as their sole rule for both terms, the governing 
and the governed, — the preposition and it3 object, — is, in respect to both, somewhat exception- 
able, being but partially and lamely applicable to either. It neither explains the connecting 
nature of the preposition, nor applies to all objectives, nor embraces all the terms whiph a prep- 
osition may govern. It is true, that prepositions, when they introduce declinable words, or words 
that have cases, always govern the objective ; but the rule is liable to be misunderstood, and is 
in fact often misapplied, as if it meant something more than this. Besides, in no other instance 
do grammarians attempt to parse both the governing word and the governed, by one and the 
same rule. I have therefore placed the objects of this government here, where they belong in 
the order of the parts of speech, expressing the rule in such terms as cannot be mistaken ; and 
h ive also given, in its proper place, a distinct rule for the construction of the preposition itself. 
See Rule 23d. 

Obs. 3. — Prepositions are sometimes elliptically construed with adjectives, the real object of the 
relation being thought to be some objective noun understood: as, in vain, in secret, at first, on 
high ; i. e. in a vain manner, in secret places, at the first time, on high places. Such phrases usu- 
ally imply time, place, degree, or manner, and are equivalent to adverbs. In parsing, the learner 
may supply the ellipsis. 

Obs. 4. — In some phrases, a preposition seems to govern a perfect participle; but these expres- 
sions are perhaps rather to be explained as being elliptical: as, "To give it up for lost; 11 — "To 
take that for granted which is disputed." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 109. That is, perhaps, 
" C o give it up for a thing lost;" — "To take that for a thing granted," &c. In the following 
passage the words ought and should are employed in such a manner that it is difficult to say to 
what part of speech they belong : " It is that very character of ought and should which makes 
justice a law to us ; and the same character is applicable to propriety, though perhaps more 
faintly than to justice." — Karnes, EL of Grit., Vol. i, p. 286. The meaning seems to be, "It i3 
that very character of being owed and required, that makes justice a law to us;" and this mode 
of expression, as it is more easy to be parsed, is perhaps more grammatical than his Lordship's. 
But, as preterits are sometimes put by enallage for participles, a reference of them to this figure 
may afford a mode of explanation in parsing, whenever they are introduced by a preposition, and 
not by a nominative : as, "A kind of conquest Caesar made here ; but made not here his brag Of, came, 
and savj, and overcame.'''' — Shak., Gymb., iii, 1. That is, — " of having come, and seen, and overcome. 11 
Here, however, by assuming that a sentence is the object of the preposition, we may suppose the pro- 

* Dr. "Webster, who was ever ready to justify almost any usage for which he could find half a dozen respect- 
able authorities, absurdly supposes, that who may sometimes be rightly preferred to whom, as the object of a 
preposition. His remark is this: "In the use of who as an interrogative, there is an apparent deviation from 
regular construction — it being used without distinction of case; as, ' Who do you speak toV ' Who is she mar- 
ried toT ' Who is this reserved forV ' Who was it made byV This idiom is not merely colloquial: it is 
found in the writings of our best authors." — Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 194; his Improved Gram., p. 
136. " la this phrase, ' Who do you speak to ?' there is a deviation from regular construction ; but the practice 
of thus using who, in certain familiar phrases, seems to be established by the best authors." — Webster's Rudi- 
ments of E. Gram., p. 72. Almost any other solecism may be quite as well justified as this. The present work 
shows, in fact, a great mass of authorities for many of the incongruities which it ventures to rebuke. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE VII. — OBJECTIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 533 

noun I to be understood, as ego is in the bulletin referred to. " Yeni, vidi, vicV For, as a short sen- 
tence is sometimes made the subject of a verb, so is it sometimes made the object of a preposition; as, 
" Earth's highest station ends in, ' here he lies ;' 
And l dust to dust,' concludes her noblest song." — Young. 

Obs. 5. — In some instances, prepositions precede adverbs ; as, at once, at unawares, from thence, 
from above, till now, till very lately, for once, for ever. Here the adverb, though an indeclinable 
word, appears to be made the object of the preposition. It is in fact used substantively, and gov- 
erned by the preposition. The term forever is often written as one word, and, as such, is obviously 
an adverb. The rest are what some writers would call adverbial phrases ; a term not very con- 
sistent with itself, or with the true idea of parsing. If different parts of speech are to be taken 
together as having the nature of an adverb, they ought rather to coalesce and be united ; for the 
verb to parse, being derived from the Latin pars, apart, implies in general a distinct recognition 
of the elements or words of every phrase or sentence. 

Obs. 6. — Nouns of time, measure, distance, or value, have often so direct a relation to verbs or 
adjectives, that the prepositions which are supposed to govern them, are usually suppressed ; as, 
"We rode sixty miles that day." That is, — " through sixty miles on that day." "The country 
is not a farthing richer." — Webster's Essays, p. 122. That is, — "richer by a farthing." "The 
error has been copied times without number." — lb., p. 281. That is, — u on or at times innumer- 
able." " A row of columns ten feet high, and a row twice that height, require different proportions." 
Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 344. That is, — "high to ten feet," and, "a row of twice that height." 
" Alius sex pedes, High on or at six feet." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Europ. Lang., ii, 150. All such 
nouns are in the objective case, and, in parsing them, the learner may supply the ellipsis;* or, 
perhaps it might be as well, to say, as do B. H. Smart and some others, that the noun is an ob- 
jective of time, measure, or value, taken adverbially, and relating directly to the verb or adjective 
qualified by it. Such expressions as, " A board of six feet long," — " A boy of twelve years old," 
are wrong. Either strike out the of, or say, "A board of six feet in length," — "A boy of twelve 
years of age;" because this preposition is not suited to the adjective, nor is the adjective fit to 
qualify the time or measure. 

Obs. 7. — After the adjectives like, near, and nigh, the preposition to or unto is often under- 
stood ;\ as, " It is like [to or unto'] silver." — Allen. "How like the former." — Dryden. "Near 
yonder copse." — Goldsmith. " Nigh this recess." — Garth. As similarity and proximity are rela- 
tions, and not qualities, it might seem proper to call like, near, and nigh, prepositions ; and some 
grammarians have so classed the last two. Dr. Johnson seems to be inconsistent in calling near 
a preposition, in the phrase, " So near thy heart," and an adjective, in the phrase, "Being near 
their master." See his Quarto Diet. I have not placed them with the prepositions, for the fol- 
lowing four reasons: (1.) Because they are sometimes compared; (2.) Because they sometimes 
have adverbs evidently relating to them ; (3.) Because the preposition to or unto is sometimes ex- 
pressed after them ; and (4.) Because the words which usually stand for them in the learned 
languages, are clearly adjectives.% But like, when it expresses similarity of manner, and near and 
nigh, when they express proximity of degree, are adverbs. 

* Grammarians differ much as to the proper mode of parsing such nouns. Wells 6ays, " This is the case in- 
dependent by ellipsis." — School Gram., p. 123. But the idea of such a case is a flat absurdity. Ellipsis occurs 
only where something, not uttered, is implied ; and where a preposition is thus wanting, the noun is, of course, 
its object; and therefore not independent. Webster, with too much contempt for the opinion of " Lowth, fol- 
lowed by the whole tribe of writers on this subject," declares it "a palpable error," to suppose "prepositions to 
be understood before these expressions;" and, by two new rules, his 22d and 28th, teaches, that, "Names of 
measure or dimension, followed by an adjective," and " Names of certain portions of time and space, and 
especially words denoting continuance of time or progression, are used without a governing word." — Philos. 
Oram., pp. 165 and 172 ; Imp. Gram., 116 and 122; Rudiments, 65 and 67. But this is no account at all of the 
construction, or of the case of the noun. As the nominative, or the case which we may use independently, is 
never a subject of government, the phrase, "without a governing word," implies that the case is objective; and 
how can this case be known, except by the discovery of some " governing word," of which it is the object? We 
find, however, many such rules as the following: "Nouns of time, distance, and degree, are put in the objec- 
tive case without a preposition." — Nutting'' s Gram., p. 100. "Nouns which denote time, quantity, measure, 
distance, value, or direction are often put in the objective case without a preposition." — Weld's Gram., p. 153 ; 
"Abridged Ed.," 118. " Names signifying duration, extension, quantity, quality, and valuation, are in the ob- 
jective case without a governing word." — Frazee's Gram., p. 154. BulUons, too, has a similar rule. To esti- 
mate these rules aright, one should observe how often the nouns in question are found with a governing word. 
Weld, of late, contradicts himself by admitting the ellipsis; and then, inconsistently with his admission, most 
absurdly denies the frequent use of the preposition with nouns of time, quantity, &c. " Before words of this 
description, the ellipsis of a preposition is obvious. But it is seldom proper to use the preposition before such 
words." — Weld's "Abridged Edition," p. 118. 

t Professor Fowler absurdly says, " Nigh, near, next, like, when followed by the objective case, may be 
regarded either as Prepositions or as Adjectives, to being understood." — Foivler'sE. Gram., 8vo, 1S50, §453, 
Note 7. Now, " to being understood," it is plain that no one of these words can be accounted a preposition, but 
by supposing the preposition to be complex, and to be partly suppressed. This can be nothing better than an 
idle whim ; and, since the classification of words as parts of speech, is always positive and exclusive, to refer 
any particular word indecisively to "either" of two classes, is certainly no better teaching, than to say, "I do 
not know of which sort it is ; call it what you please !" With decision prompt enough, but with too little regard 
to analogy or consistency, Latham and Child say, " The adjective like governs a case, and it is the only adjective 
that does so." — Elementary Gram., p. 155. In teaching thus, they seem to ignore these facts : that near, nigh, 
or opposite, might just as well be said to be an adjective governing a case ; and that the use of to or unto after 
like has been common enough to prove the ellipsis. The Bible ha6 many examples ; as, " Who is like to thee in 
Israel?" — 1 Samuel, xxvi, 15. "Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first."— Exodus, xxxiv, 1 ; and 
Deut., x, 1. But their great inconsistency here is, that they call the case after like " a dative"— -a case unknown 
to their etymology! See Gram, of E. Gram., p. 259. In grammar, a solitary exception or instance can scarcely 
be a true one. 

X The following examples may illustrate these points: "These verbs, and all others like to them, were like 



534 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 8. — The word worth is often followed by an objective, or a participle, which it appears to 
govern ; as, " If your arguments produce no conviction, they are worth nothing to me." — Beattie. 
" To reign is worth ambition." — Milton. "This is life indeed, life worth preserving." — Addison. 
It is not easy to determine to what part of speech worth here belongs. Dr. Johnson calls it an 
adjective, but says nothing of the object after it, which some suppose to be governed by of under- 
stood. In this supposition, it is gratuitously assumed, that worth is equivalent to worthy, after 
which of should be expressed; as, " Whatsoever is worthy of their love, is worth their anger." — 
Denham. But as worth appears to have no certain characteristic of an adjective, some call it a 
noun, and suppose a double ellipsis; as, " ' My knife is worth a shilling ;' i. e. ' My knife is of the 
worth of a shilling.' " — Kirkham's Gram., p. 163. " ' The book is worth that sum ;' that is, ' The 
book is {the) worth (of) that sum? ' It is worth while;'' that is, 'It is (the) worth (of the) while.' " 
— Nixon's Parser, p. 54. This is still less satisfactory ;* and as the whole appears to be mere 
guess-work, I see no good reason why worth is not a preposition, governing the noun or partici- 
ple, f If an adverb precede 'worth, it may as well be referred to the foregoing verb, as when it 
occurs before any other preposition: as, "It is richly worth the money." — "It lies directly before 
your door." Or if we admit that an adverb sometimes relates to this word, the same thing may 
be as true of other prepositions ; as, " And this is a lesson which, to the greatest part of mankind, 
is, I think, very well worth learning." — Blair's Rhet., p. 303. " He sees let down from the ceiling, 
exactly over his head, a glittering sword, hung by a single hair." — Murray's E. Reader, p. 33. See 
Exception 3d to Rule 21st. 

Obs. 9. — Both Dr. Johnson and Home Tooke, (who never agreed if they could help it,) unite 
in saying that worth, in the phrases, "Wo worth the man," — " Wo worth the day," and the like, 
is from the imperative of the Saxon verb wyrthan or weorthan, to be; i. e., "Wo be [to] the man," 
or, " Wo betide the man," &c. And the latter affirms, that, as the preposition by is from the im- 
perative of beon, to be, so with, (though admitted to be sometimes from withan, to join,) is often 
no other than this same imperative verb wyrth or worth : if so, the three words, by, with, and 
worth, were originally synonymous, and should now be referred at least to one and the same class. 
The dative case, or oblique object, which they governed as Saxon verbs, becomes their proper ob- 
ject, when taken as English prepositions ; and in this also they appear to be alike. Worth, then, 
when it signifies value, is a common noun ; but when it signifies equal in value to, it governs an 
objective, and has the usual characteristics of a preposition. Instances may perhaps be found in 
which worth is an adjective, meaning valuable or useful, as in the following lines: 
" They glow'd, and grew more intimate with G-od, 
More worth to men, more joyous to themselves." — Young, N. ix, 1. 988. 
In one instance, the poet Campbell appears to have used the word worthless as a preposition : 

" Eyes a mutual soul confessing, 
Soon you'll make them grow 
Dim, and worthless your possessing. 
Not with age, but woe!" 

Obs. 10. — After verbs of giving, paying, procuring, and some others, there is usually an ellipsis 
of to ox for before the objective of the person; as, "Give [to] him water to drink." — "Buy [for] 
we a knife." — "Pay [to] them their wages." So in the exclamation, "Wo is me!' 1 meaning, 
" Wo is to me !" This ellipsis occurs chiefly before the personal pronouns, and before -such nouns 
as come between the verb and its direct object ; as, " Whosoever killeth you, will think that h& 
doeth [to] God service." — John, xvi, 2. " Who brought [to] her masters much gain by sooth- 
saying." — Acts, xvi, 16. " Because he gave not [to] God the glory." — lb., xii, 23. " Give [to] m» 
leave to allow [to] myself no respite from labour " — Sped., No. 454. "And the sons of Joseph, 
which were born [to] him in Egypt, were two souls." — Gen., xlvi, 27. This elliptical construction 

timao." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Eur op. Lang., Vol. ii, p. 128. " The old German, and even the modern Ger- 
man, are much like-r to the Visigothic than they are to the dialect of the Edda." — lb., i, 330. " Proximus finem, 
Highest the end." — lb., ii, 150. "Let us now come nearer to our own language." — Dr. Blair' s Rhet. , p. 85. 
" This looks very like a paradox." — Beattie: Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 113. " He was near [to] falling."— - 
lb., p. 116. Murray, who puts near into his list of prepositions, gives this example to show how '•'■prepositions 
become adverbs !" " There was none ever before like unto it." — Stone, on Masonry, p. 5. 
"And earthly power doth then 6how likest God's, 
When mercy seasons justice." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 45. 

* "Wright's notion of this construction is positively absurd and self-contradictory. In the sentence, " My cane 
is worth a shilling," he takes the word toorth to be a noun "in apposition to the word shilling." And to prove 
it so, he puts the sentence successively into these four forms: " My cane is worth or value for a shilling ;" — 
" The worth or value of my cane is a shilling ;" — " My cane is a shilling's worth;" — " My cane is the worth of 
a shilling." — Philosophical Gram., p. 150. In all these transmutations, worth is unquestionably a noun ; but, in 
none of them, is it in apposition with the word shilling; and he is quite mistaken in supposing that they " indis- 
pensably prove the word in question to be a noun." There are other authors, who, with equal confidence, and 
equal absurdity, call worth a verb. For example: "A noun, which signifies the price, is put in the objective 
case, without a preposition ; as, ' my book is worth twenty shillings.' Is worth is a neuter verb, and answers to 
the latin verb valet." — Barrett's Gram., p. 138. I do not deny that the phrase "is worth" is a just version of 
the verb valet ; but this equivalence in import, is no proof at all that worth is a verb. Prodest is a Latin verb, 
which signifies " is profitable to;" but who will thence infer, that profitable to is a verb? 

t In J. R. Chandler's English Grammar, as published in 1821, the word worth appears in the list of preposi- 
tions ; but the revised list, in his edition of 1847, does not contain it. In both books, however, it is expressly 
parsed as a preposition ; and, in expounding the sentence, " The book is worth a dollar," the author makes this 
remark: " Worth has been called an adjective by some, and a noun by others: worth, however, in this sentence 
expresses a relation by value, and is so far a preposition ; and no ellipsis, which may be formed, would change 
the nature of the word, without giving the sentence a different meaning." — Chandler's Gram,., Old Ed., p. 155; 
New Ed., p. 181. 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE VII. — OBJECTIVES. — ERRORS. 535 

of a few objectives, is what remains to us of the ancient Saxon dative case. If the order of the 

words be changed, the preposition must be inserted; as, " Pray do my service to his majesty." 

Shah. The doctrine inculcated by several of our grammarians, that, " Verbs of asking, giving, 
teaching, and some others, are often employed to govern two objectives," ( Wells, § 215,) I have, 
under a preceding rule, discountenanced ; preferring the supposition, which appears to have greater 
weight of authority, as well as stronger support from reason, that, in the instances cited in proof 
of such government, a preposition is, in fact, understood. Upon this question of ellipsis, depends, 
in all such instances, our manner of parsing one of the objective words. 

Obs. 11. — In dates, as they are usually written, there is much abbreviation; and several nouns 
of place and time are set down in the objective case, without the prepositions which govern 
them: as, "New Vork, "Wednesday, 20th October, 1830." — Journal of Literary Convention. That 
is, " At New York, on "Wednesday, the 20th day of October, in the year 1830." 

NOTE TO RULE VII. 

An objective noun of time or measure, if it qualifies a subsequent adjective, must 
not also be made an adjunct to a preceding noun ; as, " To an infant of only two 
or three years old." — Dr. Wayland. Expunge of, or for old write of age. The 
following is right : " The vast army of the Canaanites, nine hundred chariots strong, 
covered the level plain of Esdraelon." — Milman's Jews, Vol. i, p. 159. See Obs. 
6 th above. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE VII. 
Under the Rule itself. — Of the Objective in Form. 
"But I do not remember who they were for." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 265. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because the pronoun who is in the nominative case, and is made the object of the 
preposition for. But, according to Rule Tth, "A noun or a pronoun made the object of a preposition, is gov- 
erned by it in the objective case." Therefore, who should be whom; thus, " But I do not remember whom they 
were for."] 

" But if you can't help it, who do you complain of?" — Collier's Antoninus, p. 137. " "Who was 
it from? and what was it about?" — Edgeworth's Frank, p. 72. "I have plenty of victuals, and, 
between you and I, something in a corner." — Day's Sandford and Merton. " The upper one, 
who I am now about to speak of." — Hunt's Byron, p. 311. "And to poor we, thine enmity"s 
most capital." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 201. " "Which thou dost confess, were fit for thee to 
use, as they to claim." — lb., p. 196. "To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour, than thou of 
them." — lb., p. 197. " There are still a few who, like thou and I, drink nothing but water." — 
Gil Bias, Vol. i, p. 104. "Thus, I shall faU; Thou shalt love thy neighbour; He shall be re- 
warded, express no resolution on the part of I, thou, he." — Lennie's E. Gram., p. 22 ; Bullions 's, 
32. " So saucy with the hand of she here — What's her name ?" — Shak., Ant. and Cleop., Act hi, 
Sc. 11. " All debts are cleared between you and I." — Id., Merchant of Venice, Act hi, Sc. 2. 
" Her price is paid, and she is sold like thou." — Milman's Fall of Jerusalem. "Search through 
all the most flourishing era's of Greece." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 16. " The family of the Rudolph's 
had been long distinguished." — The Friend, Vol. v, p. 54. "It will do well enough for you and 
I." — Castle Rackrent, p. 120. "The public will soon discriminate between him who is the syco- 
phant, and he who is the teacher." — Chazotte's Essay, p. 10. " We are still much at a loss who 
civil power belongs to." — Locke. " What do you call it? and who does it belong to ? — Collier's 
Cebes. "He had received no lessons from the Socrates's, the Plato's, and the Confucius's of the 
age." — Halter's Letters. "I cannot tell who to compare them to." — Bunyan's P. P., p. 128. "I 
see there was some resemblance betwixt this good man and I." — Pilgrim's Progress, p. 298. 
" They by that means have brought themselves into the hands and house of I do not know who." 
— lb., p. 196. "But at length she said there was a great deal of difference between Mr. Cotton 
and we." — Hutchinson's Mass., ii, 430. "So you must ride on horseback after we."* — Mrs. Gil- 
pin : Cowper, i, 275. " A separation must soon take place between our minister and I." — Werter, 
p. 109. "When she exclaimed on Hastings, you, and I." — Shaksp>eare. "To who? to thee? 
What art thou ?" — Id. "That they should always bear the certain marks who they came from." 
— Butler's Analogy, p. 221. 

" This life has joys for you and I, 
And joys that riches ne'er could buy." — Burns. 

Under the Note. — Of Time or Measure. 

" Such as almost every child often years old knows." — Town's Analysis, p. 4. " One winter's 
school of four months, will carry any industrious scholar, of ten or twelve years old, completely 
through this book." — lb., p. 12. " A boy of six years old may be taught to speak as correctly, as 

* Cowper here purposely makes Mrs. Gilpin use bad English ; but this is no reason why a school-boy may 
not be taught to correct it. Dr. Priestley supposed that the word we, in the example, " To poor we, thine 
enmity," &c, was also used by Shakspeare, "in a droll humorous way." — Gram., p. 103. He surply did not 
know the connexion of the text. It is in " Volumnia's pathetic speech" to her victorious son. See Coriolanus, 
Act V, Sc. 3. 



536 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Cicero did before the Roman Senate." — Webster's Essays, p. 27. "A lad of about twelve years old, 
who was taken captive by the Indians." — lb., p. 235. " Of nothing else but that individual white 
figure of five inches long which is before him." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 288. "Where lies the fault, 
that boys of eight or ten years old, are with great difficulty made to understand any of its princi- 
ples." — Guy's Gram.,-p.v. "Where language of three centuries old is employed." — Booth's Introd. 
to Did., p. 21. "Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high." — Esther, v, 14. "I say to this child 
of nine years old bring me that hat, he hastens and brings it me." — Osborn's Key, p. 3. "He laid 
a floor twelve feet long, and nine feet wide ; that is, over the extent of twelve feet long, and of 
nine feet wide." — Merchant's School Gram., p. 95. " The Goulah people are a tribe of about fifty 
thousand strong." — Examiner, No. 71. 

KULE VIII.— NOM. ABSOLUTE. 

A Noun or a Pronoun is put absolute in the nominative, when its case 
depends on no other word : as, " He failing, who shall meet success ?" 
— " Your fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live for- 
ever ?" — Zech., i, 5. " Or / only and Barnabas, have not we power to 
forbear working ?" — 1 Cor., ix, 6. " Nay but, man, who art thou that 
repliest against God ?" — Bom., ix, 20. " rare we!" — Cowper, " Mis- 
erable they !" — Thomson. 

" The hour concealed, and so remote the fear, 
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near."— Bope. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE VIII. 

Obs. 1. — Many grammarians make an idle distinction between the nominative absolute and the 
nominative independent, as if these epithets were not synonymous; and, at the same time, they 
are miserably deficient in directions for disposing of the words so employed. Their two rules do 
not embrace more than one half of those frequent examples in which the case of the noun or pro- 
noun depends on no other word. Of course, the remaining half cannot be parsed by any of the 
rules which they give. The lack of a comprehensive rule, like the one above, is a great and glar- 
ing defect in all the English grammars that the author has seen, except his own, and such as are 
indebted to him for such a rule. It is proper, however, that the different forms of expression 
which are embraced in this general rule, should be discriminated, one from an other, by the scholar : 
let him therefore, in parsing any nominative absolute, tell how it is put so ; whether with a parti- 
ciple, by direct address, by pleonasm, or by exclamation. For, in discourse, a noun or a pronoun is 
put absolute in the nominative, after four modes, or under the following four circumstances : (of 
which Murray's "case absolute," or "nominative absolute," contains only the first:) 

I. When, with a participle, it is used to express a cause, or a concomitant fact ; as, " I say, this 
being so, the law being broken, justice takes place." — Law and Grace, p. 27. "Pontiles Pilate being 
governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea," 
&c. — Luke, iii, 1. " I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren." — 



Gen. t xxiv, 27. 



-"While shame, thou looking on, 



Shame to be overcome or overreach'd, 

Would utmost vigor raise." — Milton, P. L., B. ix, 1. 312. 

II. When, by direct address, it is put in the second person, and set off from the verb, by a 
comma or an exclamation point; as, "At length, Seged, reflect and be wise." — Dr. Johnson. "It 
may be, drunkard, swearer, liar, thief, thou dost not think of this." — Law and Grace, p. 27. 

" This said, he form'd thee, Adam! thee, man! 
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath'd 
The breath of life." — Milton's Paradise Lost, B. vii, 1. 524. 

III. When, by pleonasm, it is introduced abruptly for the sake of emphasis, and is not made the 
subject or the object of any verb; as, " He that hath, to him shall be given." — Mark, iv, 25. "He 
that is holy, let him be holy still." — Rev., xxii, 11. " Gad, a troop shall overcome him." — Gen., 
xlix, 19. " The north and the south, thou hast created them." — Psalms, lxxxix, 12. "And they 
that have believing masters, let them not despise them." — 1 Tim., vi, 2. " And the leper in whom 
the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare." — Levit., xiii, 45. " They who serve me 
with adoration, — I am in them, and they [are] in me." — R. W. Emerson : Liberator, No. 996. 

" What may this mean, 

That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel, 

Revisitst thus the glimpses of the moon, 

Making night hideous ; and, we fools of nature,* 

So horribly to shake our disposition 

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ?" — Shak. Hamlet. 

* Dr. Enfield misunderstood this passage ; and, in copying it into his Speaker, (a very popular school-book,) 
he has perverted the text, by changing we to us: as if the meaning were, " Making us fools of nature." But 



CHAP. III.] SYNTAX. — RULE VIII. — N0M. ABSOLUTE. — OBSERVATIONS. 537 

IV. "When, by mere exclamation, it is used without address, and without other words expressed 
or implied to give it construction ; as, " And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, the 
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." 
Exodus, xxxiv, 6. " the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of GodI" — 
Rom., xi, 33. " I should not like to see her limping back, Poor beast !"—Souihey. 
" Oh ! deep enchanting prelude to repose, 
The dawn of bliss, the twilight of our woes I" — Campbell. 

Obs. 2. — The nominative put absolute with a participle, is often equivalent to a dependent clause 
commencing with when, while, if since, or because. Thus, "I being a child," may be equal to, 
"When I was a child," or, "Because I was a child." Here, in lieu of the nominative, the Greeks 
used the genitive case, and the Latins, the ablative. Thus, the phrase, " Kci vcTeprjcavTog olvov" 
" And the wine failing,'''' is rendered by Montanus, " Et deficiente vino ;" but by Beza, " Et cum de- 
fecisset vinum ;" and in our Bible, " And when they wanted wine." — John, ii, 3. After a noun or a 
pronoun thus put absolute, the participle being is frequently understood, especially if an adjective 
or a like case come after the participle ; as, 

" They left their bones beneath unfriendly skies, 
His worthless absolution [being] all the prize." — Cowper, VoL i, p. 84. 

" Alike in ignorance, his reason [ ] such, 

Whether he thinks too little or too much." — Pope, on Man. 

Obs. 3. — The case which is put absolute in addresses or invocations, is what in the Latin and 
Greek grammars is called the Vocative. Richard Johnson says, "The only use of the Vocative 
Case, is, to call upon a Person, or a thing put Personally, which we speak to, to give notice to 
what we direct our Speech ; and this is therefore, properly speaking, the only Case absolute or 
independent which we may make use of without respect to any other Word." — Gram. Commentaries, 
p. 131. This remark, however, applies not justly to our language; for, with us, the vocative case, 
is unknown, or not distinguished from the nominative. In English, all nouns of the second per- 
son are either put absolute in the nominative, according to Rule 8th, or in apposition with their 
own pronouns placed before them, according to Rule 3d : as, " This is the stone which was set at 
nought otyou builders." — Acts, iv, 11. " How much rather ought you receivers to be considered 
as abandoned and execrable !" — Clarksoris Essay, p. 114. 

" Peace ! minion, peace ! it boots not me to hear 
The selfish counsel otyou hangers-on." — Brown's Inst, p. 189. 

" Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your chief give ear; 
Fays, Faries, Genii, Elves, and Hcemons, hear!" — Pope, B. L., ii, 74. 

Obs. 4. — The case of nouns used in exclamations, or in mottoes and abbreviated sayings, often 
depends, or may be conceived to depend, on something understood ; and, when their construction 
can be satisfactorily explained on the principle of ellipsis, they are not put absolute, unless the 
ellipsis be that of the participle. The following examples may perhaps be resolved in this man- 
ner, though the expressions will lose much of their vivacity : " A horse! a horse ! my kingdom for 
a horse !" — Shak. " And he said unto his father, My head! my head!" — 2 Kings, iv, 19. " And 
Samson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass, have I slain 
a thousand men." — Judges, xv, 16. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, 
and a tooth for a tooth." — Matt, v, 38. " Peace, be still." — Mark, iv, 39. " One God, world with- 
out end. Amen." — Com. Prayer. 

" My fan, let others say, who laugh at toil ; 
Fan ! hood ! glove ! scarf! is her laconic style." — Young. 

Obs. 5. — " Such Expressions as, Hand to Hand, Face to Face, Foot to Foot, are of the nature of 
Adverbs, and are of elliptical Construction : For the Meaning is, Hand opposed to Hand, &c." — 
W. Ward's Gram., p. 100. This learned and ingenious author seems to suppose the former noun 
to be here put absolute with a participle understood ; and this is probably the best way of ex- 
plaining the construction both of that word and of the preposition that follows it. So Samson's 
phrase, " heaps upon heaps," may mean, "heaps being piled upon heaps;" and Scott's, "man to 
man, and steel to steel," may be interpreted, "man being opposed to man, and steel being opposed to 
steel:" 

" Now, man to man, and steel to steel, 
A chieftain's vengeance thou shalt feel." — Lady of the Lake. 

Obs. 6. — Cobbett, after his own hasty and dogmatical manner, rejects the whole theory of 
nominatives absolute, and teaches his "soldiers, sailors, apprentices, and ploughboys," that, 
" The supposition, that there can be a noun, or pronoun, which has reference to no verb, and no 
preposition, is certainly a mistake." — Cobbett' s E. Gram., ^[ 201. To sustain his position, he lays 
violent hands upon the plain truth, and even trips himself up in the act. Thus : " For want of a 
little thought, as to the matter immediately before us, some grammarians have found out ' an 
absolute case,' as they call it; and Mr. Lindley Murray gives an instance of it in these words: 
' Slwme being lost, all virtue is lost.' The full meaning of this sentence is this : ' It being, or the 
state of things being such, that shame is lost, all virtue is lost.'" — Cobbett' s E. Gram., ^[ 191. 

it is plain, that all "fools of nature" must be fools of nature's own making, and not persons temporarily frighted 
out of their wits by a ghost: nor does the meaning of the last two lines comport with any objective construc- 
tion of this pronoun. See Enfield's Speaker, p. 364. 



538 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Again : " There must, you will bear in mind, always be a verb expressed or understood. One 
would think, that this was not the case in [some instances : as,] ' Sir, I beg you to give me a bit 
of bread.' The sentence which foUows the Sir, is complete; but the Sir appears to stand wholly 
without connexion. However, the full meaning is this : ' I beg you, who are a Sir, to give me a 
bit of bread.' Now, if you take time to reflect a little on this matter, you will never be puzzled 
for a moment by those detached words, to suit which grammarians have invented vocative cases 
and cases absolute, and a great many other appellations, with which they puzzle themselves, and 
confusB and bewilder and torment those who read their books." — lb., Let. xix, ^[^[ 225 and 226. 
All this is just like Cobbett. But, let his admirers reflect on the matter as long as they please, 
the two independent nominatives it and state, in the text, " It being, or the state of things being 
such," will forever stand a glaring confutation both of his doctrine and of his censure : " the case 
absolute 11 is there still! He has, in fact, only converted the single example into a double one ! 

Obs. 7. — The Irish philologer, J. "W. Wright, is even more confident than Cobbett, in de- 
nouncing "the case absolute;" and more severe in his reprehension of " Grammarians in general, 
and Lowfch and Murray in particular," for entertaining the idea of such a case. "Surprise must 
cease," says he, "on an acquaintance with the fact, that persons who imbibe such fantastical 
doctrine should be destitute of sterling information on the subject of English grammar. — The 
English language is a stranger to this case. We speak thus, with confidence, conscious of the 
justness of our opinion: — an opinion, not precipitately formed, but one which is the result of 
mature and deliberate inquiry. ' Shame being lost, all virtue is lost:' The meaning of this is, — 
1 Winn shame is being lost, all virtue is lost.' Here, the words is being lost form the true present 
tense of the passive voice; in which voice, all verbs, thus expressed, are unsuspectedly situated: 
thus, agreeing with the noun shame, as the nominative of the first member of the sentence." — 
Wright's Philosophical Gram., p. 192. With all his deliberation, this gentleman has committed 
one oversight here, which, as it goes to contradict his scheme of the passive verb, some of his 
sixty venerable commenders ought to have pointed out to him. My old friend, the " Professor 
of Elocution in Columbia College," who finds by this work of "superior excellence," that "the 
nature of the verb, the most difficult part of grammar, has been, at length, satisfactorily ex- 
plained," ought by no means, after his "very attentive examination" of the book, to have left 
this service to me. In the clause, "all virtue is lost" the passive verb "is lost" has the form 
which Murray gave it — the form which, till within a year or two, all men supposed to be the only 
right one; but, according to this new philosophy of the language, all men have been as much in 
error in this matter, as in their notion of the nominative absolute. If Wright's theory of the verb 
is correct, the only just form of the foregoing expression is, " all virtue is being lost." If this central 
position is untenable, his management of the nominative absolute falls of course. To me, the in- 
serting of the word being into all our passive verbs, seems the most monstrous absurdity ever 
broached in the name of grammar. The threescore certifiers to the accuracy of that theory, have, 
I trow, only recorded themselves as so many ignoramuses ; for there are more than threescore 
myriads of better judgements against them. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE VHI. 

Nouns or Pronouns put Absolute. 
"Him having ended his discourse, the assembly dispersed." — Brown's Inst, p. 190. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because the pronoun him, whose case depends on no other word, is in the objective 
case. But, according to Rule 8th, " A noun or a pronoun is put absolute in the nominative, when its case de- 
pends on no other word." Therefore, him should be he; thus, "£Te having ended his discourse, the assembly 
dispersed."] 

" Me being young, they deceived me." — Inst. E. Gram., p. 190. " Them refusing to comply, I 
withdrew." — lb. " Thee being present, he would not tell what he knew." — lb. " The child is 
lost; and me, whither shall I go ?" — lb. " Oh ! happy us, surrounded with so many blessings." 
— Murray's Key, p. 187 ; Merchant's, 197; Smith's New Gram., 96; Earnum's, 63. "'Thee, 
tool Brutus, my son!' cried Caesar, overcome." — Brown's Inst., p. 190. "Thee I Maria! and 
so late ! and who is thy companion ?" — New- York Mirror, Vol. x, p. 353. " How swiftly our 
time passes away I and ah! us, how little concerned to improve it !" — Comly's Gram., Key, p. 
192. 

" There all thy gifts and graces we display, 
Thee, only thee, directing all our way." 



CHAPTER IV.— ADJECTIVES. 

The syntax of the English Adjective is fully embraced in the follow- 
ing brief rule, together with the exceptions, observations, and notes, 
which are, in due order, subjoined. 



CHAP. IV.] SYNTAX. — RULE IX. — ADJECTIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 539 

KULE IX.— ADJECTIVES. 

Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns : • as, " Miserable comforters 
are ye all" — Job, xvi, 2. " No worldly enjoyments are adequate to the 
high desires and powers of an immortal spirit/' — Blair. 
" Whatever faction's partial notions are, 
No hand is wholly innocent in war." — Rowe's Lucan, B. vii, 1. 191. 

Exception First. 

An adjective sometimes relates to a phrase or sentence which is made the subject of an inter- 
vening verb; as, " To insult the afflicted, is impious." — Dillwyn. " Thai he should refuse, is not 
strange."— -" To err is human." Murray says, " Human belongs to its substantive ' nature' under- 
stood." — Gram., p. 233. From this I dissent. 

Exception Second. 

In combined arithmetical numbers, one adjective often relates to an other, and the whole phrase, 
to a subsequent noun ; as, " One thousand four hundred and fifty-six men." — " Six dollars and 
eighty-seven and a half cents for every five days' service." — " In the one hundred and twenty-second 
year." — u One seven times more than it was wont to be heated." — Daniel, iii, 19. 

Exception Third. 

"With an infinitive or a participle denoting being or action in the abstract, an adjective is some- 
times also taken abstractly ; (that is, without reference to any particular noun, pronoun, or other sub- 
ject;) as, "To be sincere, is to be wise, innocent, and safe." — Hawkesworth. " Capacity marks the 
abstract quality of being able to receive or hold." — Crabb's Synonymes. " Indeed, the main secret 
of being sublime, is to say great things in few and plain words." — Hiley's Gram., p. 215. "Con- 
cerning being free from sin in heaven, there is no question." — Barclay's Works, hi, 43*7. Better: 
" Concerning freedom from sin," &c. 

Exception Fourth. 

Adjectives are sometimes substituted for their corresponding abstract nouns ; (perhaps, in most 
instances, elliptically, like Greek neuters;) as, "The sensations of sublime and beautiful are not 
always distinguished by very distant boundaries." — Blair's Rhet., p. 47. That is, "of sublimity 
and beauty." " The faults opposite to the sublime are chiefly two : the frigid, and the bombast." — 
lb., p. 44. Better : " The faults opposite to sublimity, are chiefly two ; frigidity and bombast." 
" Yet the ruling character of the nation was that of barbarous and cruel." — Browns Estimate, ii, 
26. That is, " of barbarity and cruelty." " In a word, agreeable and disagreeable are qualities of 
the objects we perceive," &c. — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 99. " Polished, or refined, was the idea 
which the author had in view." — Blair's Rhet, p. 219. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE IX 

Obs. 1. — Adjectives often relate to nouns or pronouns understood; as, "A new sorrow recalls 
all the former" [sorrows]. — Art of Thinking, p. 31. [The place] " Farthest from him is best." — 
Milton, P. L. " To whom they all gave heed, from the least [person] to the greatest" [person]. — 
Acts, vhi, 10. "The Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty 
[God], and a terrible" [God]. — Deut, x, 17. " Every one can distinguish an angry from & placid, 
a cheerful from a melancholy, a thoughtful from a thoughtless, and a dull from a penetrating, coun- 
tenance." — Beattie's Moral Science, p. 192. Here the word countenance is understood seven times; 
for eight different countenances are spoken of. " He came unto his own [possessions], and his 
own [men] received him not." — John, i, 11. The Rev. J. G. Cooper, has it: "He came unto his 
own {creatures,) and his own {creatures) received him not." — PI. and Pract. Gram., p. 44. This 
ambitious editor of Virgil, abridger of Murray, expounder of the Bible, and author of several 
"new and improved" grammars, (of different languages,) should have understood this text, not- 
withstanding the obscurity of our version. "E/r ~ti idea riA-de. nat ol idiot avrbv ov TrapeAaflov." 
— " In propria venit, et proprii eum non receperunt." — Montanus. "Ad sua venit, et sui eum 
non exceperunt." — Beza. "II est venu chez soi ; et les siens ne font point recu." — French Bible. 
Sometimes the construction of the adjective involves an ellipsis of several words, and those per- 
haps the principal parts of the clause ; as, " The sea appeared to be agitated more than [in that 
degree which is] usual." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 217. "During the course of the sentence, the 
scene should be changed as little as [in the least] possible" [degree]. — Blair's Rhet, p. 107 ; Mur- 
ray's Gram., 8vo, p. 312. 

" Presumptuous man ! the reason wouldst thou find, 
"Why [thou art] form'd so weak, so little, and so blind." — Pope. 
Obs. 2. — Because qualities belong only to things, most grammarians teach, that, " Adjectives 
are capable of being added to nouns only." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 26. Or, as Murray expresses 
the doctrine: "Every adjective, and every adjective pronoun, belongs to a substantive, expressed 



540 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

or understood." — Octavo Gram., p. 161. "The adjective always relates to a substantive" — lb., p. 
169. This teaching, which is alike repugnant to the true definition of an adjective, to the true rule 
for its construction, and to all the exceptions to this rule, is but a sample of that hasty sort of in- 
duction, which is ever jumping to false conclusions for want of a fair comprehension of the facts 
in point. The position would not be tenable, even if all our pronouns were admitted to be nouns, 
or " substantives ;" and, if these two parts of speech are to be distinguished, the consequence 
must be, that Murray supposes a countless number of unnecessary and absurd ellipses. It is suffi- 
ciently evident, that in the construction of sentences, adjectives often relate immediately to pro- 
nouns, and only through them to the nouns which they represent. Examples: " I should like to 
know who has been carried off, except poor dear me." — Byron. " To poor us there is not much 
hope remaining." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p 204. "It is the final pause which alone, on many occa- 
sions, marks the difference between prose and verse." — Murray's Gram., p. 260. "And some- 
times after them both." — lb., p. 196. " All men hail'd me happy." — Milton. " To receive unhappy 
me." — Dryden. " Superior to them all." — Blair's Bhet., p. 419. " They returned to their own 
country, full of the discoveries which they had made." — lb., p. 350. "All ye are brethren." — 
Matt, xxiii, 8. "And him only shalt thou serve." — Matt, iv, 10. 
" Go wiser thou, and in thy scale of sense 
Weigh thy opinion against Providence." — Pope. 

Obs. 3. — "When an adjective follows a finite verb, and is not followed by a noun, it generally 
relates to the subject of the verb; as, /am glad that the door is made wide." — "An unbounded 
prospect doth not long continue agreeable." — Karnes, El. of Grit, i, 244. " Every thing which is 
false, vicious, or unworthy, is despicable to him, though all the world should approve it." — Spec- 
tator, No. 520. Here false, vicious, and unworthy, relate to which; and despicable relates to thing. 
The practice of Murray and his followers, of supplying a " substantive" in all such cases, is ab- 
surd. " When the Adjective forms the Attribute of a Proposition, it belongs to the noun [or 
pronoun] which serves as the Subject of the Proposition, and cannot be joined to any other noun, 
since it is of the Subject that we affirm the quality expressed by this Adjective." — Be Sacy, on 
General Gram., p. 37. In some peculiar phrases, however, such as, to fall short of, to make bold 
with, to set light by, the adjective has such a connexion with the verb, that it may seem question- 
able how it ought to be explained in parsing. Examples: (1.) "This latter mode of expression 
falls short of the force and vehemence of the former." — B. Murray's Gram., p. 353. Some will 
suppose the word slwrt to be here used adverbially, or to qualify falls only ; but perhaps it may as 
well be parsed as an adjective, forming a predicate with "falls," and relating to " mode," the 
nominative. (2.) "And that I have made so bold with thy glorious Majesty." — Jenks's Prayers, 
p. 156. This expression is perhaps elliptical: it may mean, "that I have made myself so bold," 
&c. (3.) " Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother : and all the people shall 
say, Amen." — Beut, xxvii, 16. This may mean, "that setteth light esteem or estimation," &c. 

Obs. 4. — When an adjective follows an infinitive or a participle, the noun or pronoun to which 
it relates, is sometimes before it, and sometimes after it, and often considerably remote ; as, " A 
real gentleman cannot but practice those virtues which, by an intimate knowledge of mankind, 
he has found to be useful to them." — "He [a melancholy enthusiast] thinks himself obliged in 
duty to be sad and disconsolate." — Addison. "He is scandalized at youth for being lively, and at 
childhood for being playful." — Id. " But growing weary of one who almost walked him out of 
breath, he left him for Horace and Anacreon." — Steele. 

Obs. 5. — Adjectives preceded by the definite article, are often used, by ellipsis, as nouns; as, 
the learned, for learned men. Such phrases usually designate those classes of persons or things, 
which are characterized by the qualities they express ; and this, the reader must observe, is a use 
quite different from that substitution of adjectives for nouns, which is noticed in the fourth ex- 
ception above. In our language, the several senses in which adjectives may thus be taken, are 
not distinguished with that clearness which the inflections of other tongues secure. Thus, the 
noble, the vile, the excellent, or the beautiful, may be put for three extra constructions : first, for 
noble persons, vile persons, &c. ; secondly, for the noble man, the vile man, &c. ; thirdly, for the ab- 
stract qualities, nobility, vileness, excellence, beauty. The last-named usage forms an exception to 
the rule ; in the other two the noun is understood, and should be supplied by the parser. Such 
terms, if elliptical, are most commonly of the plural number, and refer to the word persons or 
things understood; as, " The careless and the imprudent, the giddy and the fickle, the ungrateful and 
the interested, everywhere meet us." — Blair. Here the noun persons is to be six times supplied. 
"Wherever there is taste, the witty and the humorous make themselves perceived." — Campbell's 
Bhet, p. 21. Here the author meant, simply, the qualities wit and humour, and he ought to have 
used these words, because the others are equivocal, and are more naturally conceived to refer to 
persons. In the following couplet, the noun places or things is understood after " open," and again 
after " covert," which last word is sometimes misprinted "coverts:" 

" Together let us beat this ample field, 
Try what the open, what the covert, yield." — Pope, on Man. 

Obs. 6. — The adjective, in English, is generally placed immediately before its noun; as, " Vain 
man ! is grandeur given to gay attire ?" — Beattie. Those adjectives which relate to pronouns, most 
commonly follow them ; as, " They left me weary on a grassy turf." — Milton. But to both these 
general rules there are many exceptions ; for the position of an adjective may be varied by a 
variety of circumstances, not excepting the mere convenience of emphasis: as, "And Jehu said, 



CHAP. IV.] SYNTAX. KULE IX. ADJECTIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 541 

Unto which of all us ?" — 2 Kings, ix, 5. In the following instances the adjective is placed after 
the word to which it relates : • 

1. When other words depend on the adjective, or stand before it to qualify it; as, "A mind 
conscious of right," — "A wall three feet thick,'" — " A body of troops fifty thousand strong." 

2. When the quality results from an action, or receives its application through a verb or parti- 
ciple ; as, " Virtue renders life happy." — " He was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house 
of Arza." — 1 Kings, xvi, 9. " All men agree to call vinegar sour, honey sweet, and aloes hitter." — 
Burke, on Taste, p. 38. " God made thee perfect, not immutable." — Milton. 

3. When the quality excites admiration, and the adjective would thus be more clearly dis- 
tinctive; as, "Goodness infinite," — "Wisdom unsearchable." — Murray. 

4. When a verb comes between the adjective and the noun; as, "Truth stands independent of 
all external things." — Burgh. " Honour is not seemly for a fool." — Solomon. 

5. When the adjective is formed by means of the prefix a; as, afraid, alert, alike, alive, alone, 
asleep, awake, aware, averse, ashamed, askew. To these may be added a few other words : as, else, 
enough, extant, extinct, fraught, pursuant. 

6. When the adjective has the nature, but not the form, of a participle ; as, " A queen regnant," 
— "The prince regent," — " The heir apparent," — "A lion, not rampant, but couchant or dormant," 
— "For the time then present." 

Obs. T. — In some instances, the adjective may either precede or follow its noun; and the writer 
may take his choice, in respect to its position : as, 

1. In poetry — provided the sense be obvious ; as, 

"Wilt thou to the isles 

Atlantic, to the rich Hesperian clime, 

Fly in the train of Autumn?" — Akenside, P. of I., Book i, p. 21. 

" Wilt thou fly 

With laughing Autumn to the Atlantic isles, 

And range with him ffi Hesperian field ?" — Id. Buckets Gram., p. 120. 

2. When technical usage favours one order, and common usage an other ; as, " A notary public," 
or, "A public notary;" — "The heir presumptive," or, "The presumptive heir." — See Johnsons 
Diet, and Webster's. 

3. When an adverb precedes the adjective; as, "A Being infinitely wise" or, "An infinitely 
wise Being." Murray, Comly, and others, here approve only the former order ; but the latter is 
certainly not ungrammatical. 

4. When several adjectives belong to the same noun; as, "A woman, modest, sensible, and 
virtuous," or, " A modest, sensible, and virtuous woman." Here again, Murray, Comly, and others, 
approve only the former order ; but I judge the latter to be quite as good. 

5. When the adjective is emphatic, it may be foremost in the sentence, though the natural order 
of the words would bring it last; as, Weighty is the anger of the righteous." — Bible. "Blessed 
are the pure in heart." — lb. " Great is the earth, high is the heaven, swift is the sun in his 
course." — 1 Esdras, iv, 34. " Tlie more laborious the life is, the less populous is the country." — 
Goldsmith 's Essays, p. 151. 

6. When the adjective and its noun both follow a verb as parts of the predicate, either may pos- 
sibly come before the other, yet the arrangement is fixed by the sense intended : thus there is a 
great difference between the assertions, "We call the boy good," and, " We call the good boy." 

Obs. 8. — By an ellipsis of the noun, an adjective with a preposition before it, is sometimes 
equivalent to an adverb ; as, " In particular ;" that is, " In a particular manner ;" equivalent to 
particularly. So " in general" is equivalent to generally. It has already been suggested, that, 
in parsing, the scholar should here supply the ellipsis. See Obs. 3d, under Bule vii. 

Obs. 9. — Though English adjectives are, for the most part, incapable of any agreement, yet such 
of them as denote unity or plurality, ought in general to have nouns of the same number: as, this 
man, one man, two men, many men* In phrases of this form, the rule is well observed ; but in 
some peculiar ways of numbering things, it is commonly disregarded ; for certain nouns are taken 
in a plural sense without assuming the plural termination. Thus people talk of many stone of 
cheese, — many sail of vessels, — many stand of arms, — many head of cattle, — many dozen of eggs, 
— many brace of partridges, — many pair of shoes. So we read in the Bible of "two hundred 
pennyworth of bread," and " twelve manner of fruits." In all such phraseology, there is, in re- 
gard to the form of the latter word, an evident disagreement of the adjective with its immediate 
noun ; but sometimes, (where the preposition of does not occur,) expressions that seem somewhat 
like these, may be elliptical: as when historians tell of many thousand foot (soldiers), or many 
hundred horse (troops). To denote a collective number, a singular adjective may precede a plural 
one ; as, " One hundred men," — " Every six weeks." And to denote plurality, the adjective many 
may, in like manner, precede an or a with a singular noun ; as, " The Odyssey entertains us with 

* In Clark's Practical Grammar, of 1848, is found this Note : " The Noun should correspond in numher -with 
the Adjectives. Examples — A two feet ruler. A ten feet pole." — P. 165. These examples are wrong: the 
doctrine is misapplied in both. With this author, a, as -well as tivo or ten. is an adjective of number : and. since 
these differ in number, -what sort of concord or construction do the four words in each of these phrases make? 
When a numeral and a noun are united to form a compound adjective, we commonly, if not always, use the 
latter in its primitive or singular form; as, " A twopenny toy," — "a twofold error." — "three-coat plastering," 
— "& threepenny loaf." — " a foursquare figure," — " of twenty-horde power." And no carpenter hesitates to 
say, " a twofoot rule," — "atenfoot pole;" which phrases are right; while Clark's are not only unusual, but 
unanalogical, ungrammatical. 



542 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

many a wonderful adventure, and many a landscape of nature." — Blair's Ehet, p. 436. " There 
starts9Up many a writer." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 306. 

" Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air." — Gray. 

Obs. 10. — Though this and that cannot relate to plurals, many writers do not hesitate to place 
them before singulars taken conjointly, which are equivalent to plurals ; as, " This power and will 
do necessarily produce that which man is empowered to do." — Sale's Koran, i, 229. " That 
sobriety and self-denial which are essential to the support of virtue." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 218. 
" This modesty a,nd decency were looked upon by them as a law of nature." — Rollin's Hist, ii, 45. 
Here the plural forms, these and those, cannot be substituted ; but the singular may be repeated, 
if the repetition be thought necessary. Yet, when these same pronominal adjectives are placed 
after the nouns to suggest the things again, they must be made plural; as, "Modesty and decency 
were thus carefully guarded, for these were looked upon as being enjoined by the law of nature." 

Obs. 11. — In prose, the use of adjectives for adverbs is improper; but, in poetry, an adjective 
relating to the noun or pronoun, is sometimes elegantly used in stead of an adverb qualifying the 
verb or participle ; as, " Gradual sinks the breeze Into a perfect calm." — Thomson's Seasons, p. 34. 
" To Thee I bend the knee ; to Thee my thoughts Continual climb." — lb., p. 48. " As on he 
walks Graceful, and crows defiance." — lb., p. 56. "As through the falling glooms Pensive I 
stray." — lb., p. 80. " They, sportive, wheel ; or, sailing down the stream, Are snatch'd immediate 
by the quick-eyed trout." — lb., p. 82. "Incessant still you flow." — lb., p. 91. "The shatter'd 
clouds Tumultuous rove, the interminable sky Sublimer swells." — lb., p. 116. In order to deter- 
mine, in difficult cases, whether an adjective or an adverb is required, the learner should carefully 
attend to the definitions of these parts of speech, and consider whether, in the case in question, 
quality is to be expressed, or manner : if the former, an adjective is always proper ; if the latter, 
an adverb. That is, in this case, the adverb, though not always required in poetry, is specially 
requisite in prose. The following examples will illustrate this point: " She looks cold ;" — "She 
looks coldly on him." — "I sat silent;" — "I sat silently musing." — " Stand firm; maintain your 
cause firmly." See Etymology, Chap, viii, Obs. 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, on the Modifications of 
Adverbs. 

Obs. 12. — In English, an adjective and its noun are often taken as a sort of compound term, to 
which other adjectives may be added ; as, " An old man; a good old man; a very learned, judi- 
cious, good old man." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 169; Brit. Gram., 195; Buchanan's, 79. "Of an 
other determinate positive new birth, subsequent to baptism, we know nothing." — West's Letters, p. 
183. When adjectives are thus accumulated, the subsequent ones should convey such ideas as the 
former may consistently qualify, otherwise the expression will be objectionable. Thus the ordinal 
adjectives, first, second, third, next, and last, may qualify the cardinal numbers, but they cannot 
very properly be qualified by them. "When, therefore, we specify any part of a series, the cardinal 
adjective ought, by good right, to follow the ordinal, and not, as in the following phrase, be placed 
before it: "In reading the nine last chapters of John." — Fuller. Properly speaking, there is but 
one last chapter in any book. Say, therefore, "the last nine chapters;" for, out of the twenty- 
one chapters in John, a man may select several different nines. (See Etymology, Chap, iv, Obs. 
7th, on the Degrees of Comparison.) When one of the adjectives merely qualifies the other, they 
should be joined together by a hyphen ; as, " A red-hot iron." — " A dead-ripe melon." And when 
both or all refer equally and solely to the noun, they ought either to be connected by a conjunc- 
tion, or to be separated by a comma. The following example is therefore faulty : " It is the 
business of an epic poet, to form a, probable interesting tale." — Blair's Bhet., p. 42*7. Say, "prob- 
able and interesting;" or else insert a comma in lieu of the conjunction. 

" Around him wide a sable army stand, 
A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band." — Dunciad, B. ii, 1. 355. 

Obs. 13. — Dr. Priestley has observed : " There is a remarkable ambiguity in the use of the 
negative adjective no ; and I do not see," says he, " how it can be remedied in any language. If 
I say, l No laws are better than the English,' it is only my known sentiments that can inform a 
person whether I mean to praise, or dispraise them." — Priestley's Gram., p. 136. It may not be 
possible to remove the ambiguity from the phraseology here cited, but it is easy enough to avoid 
the form, and say in stead of it, " The English laws are worse than none," or, " The Englishlaws are 
as good as any ;" and, in neither of these expressions, is there any ambiguity, though the other 
may doubtless be taken in either of these senses. Such an ambiguity is sometimes used on pur- 
pose : as when one man says of an other, " He is no small knave ;" or, " He is no small fool." 
" There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record) 
A worthy member, no small fool, a lord." — Pope, p. 409. 

NOTES TO RULE IX. 

Note I. — Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, must agree with their nouns 
in number : as, " That sort, those sorts ; — " This hand, these hands."* 

* Certain adjectives that differ in number, are sometimes connected disjunctively by or or than, while the 
noun literally agrees with that which immediately precedes it, and with the other merely by implication or sup- 
plement, under the figure which is called zeugma: as, "Two or more nouns joined together by one or wore 
copulative conjunctions." — LowtKa Gram., p. 75; L. Murray's, 2d Ed., p. 106. " He speaks not to one or a 



CHAP. IV.] SYNTAX.— KULE IX. — ADJECTIVES. — NOTES. 543 

Note II. — When the adjective is necessarily plural, or necessarily singular, the 
noun should be made so too : as, " Twenty pounds" not, " Twenty pound ;" — " Four 
feet long," not, u Your foot long;" — " One session" not, "One sessions" 

Note III. — The reciprocal expression, one an other, should not be applied to two 
objects, nor each other, or one the other, to more than two ; as, " Verse and prose, 
on some occasions, run into one another, like light and shade." — Blair's Rhet., p. 
377; Jamiesorfs, 298. Say, "into each other" "For mankind have always been 
butcheriug each other." — Webster 's Essays, p. 151. Say, u one an other" See 
Etymology, Chap, iv, Obs. 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, on the Classes of Adjectives. 

Note IV. — When the comparative degree is employed with than, the latter term 
of comparison should never include the former ; nor the former the latter: as, " Iron 
is more useful than all the metals." — " All the metals are less useful than iron." In 
either case, it should be, " all the other metals." 

Note V. — When the superlative degree is employed, the latter term of comparison, 
which is introduced by of, should never exclude the former ; as, " A fondness for 
show, is, of all other follies, the most vain." Here the word other should be ex- 
punged ; for this latter term must include the former : that is, the fondness for show 
must be one of the follies of which it is the vainest. 

Note VI. — When equality is denied, or inequality affirmed, neither term of the 
comparison should ever include the other ; because every thing must needs be equal 
to itself, and it is absurd to suggest that a part surpasses the whole : as, " No writ- 
ings whatever abound so much with the bold and animated figures, as the sacred 
books." — Blair' 's Rhet., p. 414. Say, "No other writings whatever;" because the 
sacred books are " writings." See Etymology, Chap, iv, Obs. 6th, on Regular Com- 
parison. 

Note VII. — Comparative terminations, and adverbs of degree, should not be 
applied to adjectives that are not susceptible of comparison ; and all double compara- 
tives and double superlatives should be avoided : as, " So universal a complaint :" 
say rather, " So general." — " Some less nobler plunder :" say, " less noble." — " The 
most straitest sect :" expunge most. See Etymology, Chap, iv, from Obs. 5th to 
Obs. 13th, on Irregular Comparison.* 

Note VIII. — When adjectives are connected by and, or, or nor, the shortest and 
simplest should in general be placed first ; as, " He is older and more respectable 
than his brother. To say, " more respectable and older," would be obviously in- 
elegant, as possibly involving the inaccuracy of " more older." 

Note IX. — When one adjective is superadded to an other without a conjunction 
expressed or understood, the most distinguishing quality must be expressed next to 
the noun, and the latter must be such as the former may consistently qualify; as, 
"An agreeable young man," not, "A young agreeable man." — "The art of speaking, 
like all other practical arts, may be facilitated by rules." — Enfield" 1 s Speaker, p. 10. 
Example of error : " The Anglo-Saxon language possessed, for the two first persons, 
a Dual number." — Folder's E. Gram., 1850, p. 59. Say, "the first two persons;" 
for the second of three can hardly be one of the first ; and " two first" with the 
second and third added, will clearly make more than three." See Obs. 12th, above. 

Note X. — In prose, the use of adjectives for adverbs, is a vulgar error ; the adverb 
alone being proper, when manner or degree is to be expressed, and not quality ; as, 
" He writes elegant ;" say, " elegantly." — " It is a remarkable good likeness ;" say, 
" remarkably good." 

Note XL — The pronoun them should never be used as an adjective, in lieu of 
those : say, "I bought those books;" not, " them books." This also is a vulgar error, 
and chiefly confined to the conversation of the unlearned.f 

few judges, but to a large assembly." — Blair's Rhet, p. 280. " More than one object at a time." — Murray's 
Oram., Svo, p. 301. See Obs. 10th on Rule 17th. 

* Double comparatives and double superlatives, such as, " The more serener spirit," — " The most straitest 
sect," — are noticed by Latham and Child, in their syntax, as expressions which " we occasionally find, even in 
good writers," and are truly stated to be "pleonastic ;" but, forbearing to censure them as errors, these critics 
seem rather to justify them as pleonasms allowable. Their indecisive remarks are at fault, not only because 
they are indecisive, but because they are both liable and likely to mislead the learner. — See their Elementary 
Grammar, p. 155. 

t The learned William B. Fowle strangely imagines all pronouns to be adjectives, belonging to nouns ex- 
pressed or understood after them ; as, " We kings require them (subjects) to obey us (kings)." — The True Mig- 



544 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Note XII. — When the pronominal adjectives, this and that, or these and those, 
are contrasted ; this or these should represent the latter of the antecedent terms, and 
that or those the former : as, 

" And, reason raise o'er instinct as you can, 

In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man." — Pope. 
" Farewell my friends ! farewell my foes ! 
My peace with these, my love with those /" — Burns. 

Note XIII. — The pronominal adjectives either and neither, in strict propriety of 
syntax, relate to two things only ; when more are referred to, any and none, or any 
one and no one, should be used in stead of them : as, " Any of the three," or, " Any 
one of the three ;" not, " Either of the three." — " None of the four," or, " No one 
of the four ;" not, " Neither of the four."* 

Note XIV. — The adjective whole must not be used in a plural sense, for all ; 
nor less, in the sense of fewer ; nor more or most, in any ambiguous construction, 
where it may be either an adverb of degree, or an adjective of number or quantity : 
as, " Almost the whole inhabitants were present." — Hume : see Priestley's Gram., 
p. 190.f Say, "Almost all the inhabitants." "No less than three dictionaries 
have been published to correct it." — Dr. Webster. Say, " No fewer.'''' " This trade 
enriched some people more than them." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 215. This 
passage is not clear in its import : it may have either of two meanings. Say, " This 
trade enriched some other people, besides them." Or, " This trade enriched some 
others more than it did them' 1 

Note XV. — Participial adjectives retain the termination, but not the government 
of participles ; when, therefore, they are followed by the objective case, a preposition 
must be inserted to govern it : as, " The man who is most sparing of his words, is 
generally most deserving of attention." 

Note XVI. — When the figure of any adjective affects the syntax and sense of 
the sentence, care must be taken to give to the word or words that form, simple or 
compound, which suits the true meaning and construction. Examples : " He is 
forehead bald, yet he is clean." — Friends' Bible : Lev., xiii, 41. Say, '"''forehead- 
bald''' — Alger's Bible, and Scott's. " From such phrases as, ' New England 
scenery, 1 convenience requires the omission of the hyphen." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 
89. This is a false notion. Without the hyphen, the phrase properly means, 
" New scenery in England ;" but New-England scenery is scenery in New Eng- 
land. " ' Many coloured wings, 1 means many wings which are coloured ; but 
' many-coloured wings,' means wings of many colours." — Blair's Gram., p. 116. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE IX. 

Examples under Note I. — Agreement of Adjectives. 

"I am not recommending these kind of sufferings to your liking." — Bp. Sherlock: Lowth's 
Gram., p. 87. 
[Fobmule. — Not proper, because the adjective these is plural, and does not agree with its noun kind, -which is 

lish Oram., p. 21. " The]/ grammarians, [i. e.] those grammarians. They is an other spelling of the, and of 
course means this, that, these, those, as the case may be." — Ibid. According to him, then, " them gramma- 
rians," for '■'■those grammarians," is perfectly good English ; and so is '■'■they grammarians,' 1 '' though the vul- 
gar do not take care to vary this adjective, "as the case may be." His notion of subjoining a noun to every 
pronoun, is a fit counterpart to that of some other grammarians, who imagine an ellipsis of a pronoun after 
almost every noun. Thus : " The personal Relatives, for the most part, are suppressed when the Noun is ex- 
pressed : as, Man (he) is the Lord of this lower world. Woman (she) is the fairest Part of the Creation. The 
Palace (it) stands on a Hill. Men and Women (they) are rational Creatures."— British Gram., p. 234; Bu- 
chanan's, 131. It would have been worth a great deal to some men, to have known what an Ellipsis is; and the 
man who shall yet make such knowledge common, ought to be forever honoured in the schools. 

* "An illegitimate and ungrammatical use of these words, either and neither, has lately been creeping into 
the language, in the application of these terms to a plurality of objects ; as, ' Twent't ruffians broke into the 
house, but neither of them could be recognized.' ' Here are fift'i pens, you will find that either of them 
will do. '—Matt. Hautusox, on the Enqlish Lanquane, p. 199. " Either and neither, applied to any number 
more than one of two objects, is a mere solecism, and one of late introduction."— lb., p. 200. Say, " Either cm * 
neither," &c— G. B. 

t Dr. Priestley censures this construction, on the ground, that the word whole is an " attribute of unity" and 
therefore improperly added to a plural noun. But, in fact, this adjective is not necessarily singular, nor is all 
necessarily plural. Yet there is a difference between the words: whole is equivalent to all only when the noun 
is singular ; for then only do entireness and totality coincide. A man may say, " the whole thincr," when he 
means, " all the thing;" but he must not call all things, whole' things. In the following example, all is put for 
whole, and taken substantively; but the expression is a quaint one, because the article and preposition seem 
needless: "Which doth encompass and embrace the all of things."— The Dial, Vol. i, p. 59. 



CHAP. IV.] SYNTAX. — RULE IX. ADJECTIVES. — ERRORS. 545 

singular. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 9th, "Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, must agree 
■with their nouns iu number." Therefore, these should be this; thus, "lam not recommending this kind of 
sufferings."] 

" I have not been to London this five years." — Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 152. " These kind 
of verbs are more expressive than their radicals." — Dr. Murray 's Hist, of Lang., Vol. ii, p. 163. 
" Few of us would be less corrupted than kings are, were we, like them, beset with flatterers, 
and poisoned with that vermin." — Art of Thinking, p. 66. " But it seems this literati had been 
very ill rewarded for their ingenious labours." — Roderick Random, Vol. ii, p. 87. "If I had not 
left off troubling myself about those kind of things." — Swift. " For these sort of things are 
usually join'd to the most noted fortune." — Bacon's Essays, p. 101. "The nature of that riches 
and long-suffering is, to lead to repentance." — Barclay's Works, hi, 380. "I fancy they are these 
kind of gods, which Horace mentions." — Addison, on Medals, p. 74. " During that eight days 
they are prohibited from touching the skin." — Hope of Israel, p. 78. "Besides, he had not much 
provisions left for his army." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 86. "Are you not ashamed to have no 
other thoughts than that of amassing wealth, and of acquiring glory, credit, and dignities ?" — lb., 
p. 192. " It distinguished still more remarkably the feelings of the former from that of the lat- 
ter." — Karnes, El. of Crit, Vol. i, p. xvii. "And this good tidings of the reign shall be published 
through all the world." — Campbell's Gospels, Matt, xxiv, 14. " This twenty years have I been 
with thee." — Gen., xxxi, 38. "In these kind of expressions some words seem to be under- 
stood." — Walker's Particles, p. 179. "He thought these kind of excesses indicative of great- 
ness." — Hunt's Byron, p. 117. "These sort of fellows are very numerous." — Sped., No. 486. 
" Whereas these sort of men cannot give account of their faith." — Barclay's Works, i, 444. 
" But the question is, whether that be the words." — lb., hi, 321. " So that these sort of Expres- 
sions are not properly Optative." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 276. "Many things are not that 
which they appear to be." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 176. " So that every possible means are used." 
— Formey's Belles- Lettres, p. iv. 

" We have strict statutes, and most biting laws, 
Which for this nineteen years we have let sleep." — Shak. 

" They could not speak ; and so I left them both, 
To bear this tidings to the bloody king." — Id., Richard III. 

Under Note II. — Of Fixed Numbers. 

"Why, I think she cannot be above six foot two inches high." — Sped, No. 533. " The world 
is pretty regular for about forty rod east and ten west." — lb., No. 535. " The standard being 
more than two foot above it." — Bacon: Joh. Diet., w. Standard. "Supposing (among other 
Things) he saw two Suns, and two Thebes." — Bacon's Wisdom, p. 25. " On the right hand wo 
go into a parlour thirty three foot by thirty nine.'' — Sheffield's Works, ii, 258. " Three pound of 
gold went to one shield." — 1 Kings, x, 17. " Such an assemblage of men as there appears to 
have been at that sessions." — The Friend, x, 3S9. "And, truly, he hath saved me this pains." — 
Barclay's Works, ii, 266. " Within this three mile may you see it coming." — Shak. : Joh. Diet, 
iv. Mile. " Most of the churches, not all, had one or more ruling elder." — Hutchinson's Hist of 
Mass., i, 375. "While a Minute Philosopher, not six foot high, attempts to dethrone the Mon- 
arch of the universe." — Berkley's Alciphron, p. 151. "The waU is ten foot high." — Harrison's 
Gram., p. 50. "The stalls must be ten foot broad." — Walker's Particles, p. 201. "A close 
prisoner in a room twenty foot square, being at the north side of his chamber, is at liberty to 
walk twenty foot southward, not to walk twenty foot northward." — Locke : Joh. Diet, w. North- 
ward. " Nor, after all this pains and industry, did they think themselves qualified." — Columbian 
Orator, p. 13. "No less than thirteen gypsies were condemned at one Suffolk assizes, and exe- 
cuted." — Webster's Essays, p. 333. "The king was petitioned to appoint one, or more, person, or 
persons." — MacAulay: Priestley's Gram., p. 194. " He carries weight! he rides a race! 'Tis 
for a thousand pound !" — Cowper's Poems, i, 279. " They carry three tire of guns at the head, 
and at the stern there are two tire of guns." — Joh. Diet, w. Galleass. " The verses consist of 
two sort of rhymes." — Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 112. "A present of 40 camel's load of the most 
precious things of Syria." — Wood's Diet, Vol. i, p. 162. "A large grammar, that shall extend to 
every minutiae." — S. Barrett's Gram., Tenth Ed., Pref, p. hi. 

" So many spots, like naeves on Venus' soil, 
One jewel set off with so many foil." — Dryden. 

" For, of the lower end, two handful 
It had devour'd, it was so manful." — Hudibras, i, 365. 

Under Note III. — Of Keciprocals. 
" That shall and will might be substituted for one another." — Priestley's Gram., p. 131. " We 
use not shall and will promiscuously for one another." — Brightland's Gram., p. 110. "But I wish 
to distinguish the three high ones from each other also." — Fowle's True Eng. Gram., p. 13. " Or 
on some other relation, which two objects bear to one another." — Blair's Rhet, p. 142. "Yet the 
two words lie so near to one another in meaning, that, in the present case, any one of them, per- 
haps, would have been sufficient." — lb., p. 203. "Both orators use great liberties with one 
another." — lb., p. 244. " That greater separation of the two sexes from one another." — lb., p. 
466. "Most of whom live remote from each other."— Webster's Essays, p. 39. "Teachers like 

35 



546 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

to see their pupils polite to each other." — Webster's El Spelling-Book, p. 28. " In a little time, he 
and I must keep company with one another only." — Sped., No. 474. " Thoughts and circum- 
stauces crowd upon each other." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 32. "They cannot see how the ancient 
Greeks could understand each other." — Literary Convention, p. 96. "The spirit of the poet, the 
patriot, and the prophet, vied with each other in his breast." — Hazlitt's Lect, p. 112. " Athamas 
and Ino loved one another." — Classic Tales, p. 91. "Where two things are compared or con- 
trasted to one another." — Blair's Rhet, p. 119. " Where two things are compared, or contrasted, 
with one another." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 324. "In the classification of words, almost all 
writers differ from each other." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. iv. 

" I will not trouble thee, my child. Farewell ; 
We'll no more meet ; no more see one another." — Shah. Lear. 

Under Note IY. — Of Comparatives. 

" Errours in Education should be less indulged than any." — Locke, on Ed., p. iv. " This was 
less his case than any man's that ever wrote." — Pref. to Waller. " This trade enriched some peo- 
ple more than it enriched them."* — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 215. "The Chaldee alphabet, in 
which the Old Testament has reached us, is more beautiful than any ancient character known." — 
Wilson's Essay, p. 5. " The Christian religion gives a more lovely character of God, than any 
religion ever did." — Murray's Key, p. 169. " The temple of Cholula was deemed more holy than 
any in New Spain." — Robertson's America, ii, 477. " Cibber grants it to be abetter poem of its 
kind than ever was writ." — Pope. " Shakspeare is more faithful to the true language of nature, 
than any writer." — Blair's Rhet., p. 468. "One son I had — one, more than all my sons, the 
strength of Troy." — Cowper's Homer. "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, be- 
cause he was the son of his old age." — Gen., xxxvii, 3. 

Under Note V. — Of Superlatives. 
"Of all other simpletons, he was the greatest." — Nutting's English Idioms. "Of all other 
beings, man has certainly the greatest reason for gratitude." — Ibid., Gram., p. 110. " This lady 
is the prettiest of all her sisters." — Peyton's Elements of Eng. Lang., p. 39. "The relation which, 
of all others, is by far the most fruitful of tropes, I have not yet mentioned." — Blair's Rhet, p. 
141. "He studied Greek the most of any nobleman." — Walker's Particles, p. 231. "And in- 
deed that was the qualification of all others most wanted at that time." — Goldsmith's Greece, ii, 35. 
" Yet we deny that the knowledge of him, as outwardly crucified, is the best of all other know- 
ledge of him." — Barclay's Works, i, 144. " Our ideas of numbers are of all others the most 
accurate and distinct." — Duncan's Logic, p. 35. " This indeed is of all others the case when it 
can be least necessary to name the agent." — J. Q. Adams's Rhet, i, 231. "The period, to which 
you have arrived, is perhaps the most critical and important of any moment of your lives." — lb., 
i, 394. " Perry's royal octavo is esteemed the best of any pronouncing Dictionary yet known." 
— Red Book, p. x. " This is the tenth persecution, and of all the foregoing, the most bloody." — 
Sammes' s Antiquities, Chap. xiii. "The English tongue is the most susceptible of sublime imag- 
ery, of any language in the world." — See Bucke's G'ram., p. 141. "Homer is universally allowed 
to have had the greatest Invention of any writer whatever." — Pope's Preface to Homer. " In a 
version of this particular work, which most of any other seems to require a venerable antique 
cast." — lb. "Because I think him the best informed of any naturalist who has ever written." — 
Jefferson's Notes, p. 82. " Man is capable of being the most social of any animal." — Sheridan's 
Elocution, p. 145. "It is of all others that which most moves us." — lb., p. 158. Which of all 
others, is the most necessary article." — lb., p. 166. 

" Quoth he ' this gambol thou advisest, 
Is, of all others, the unwisest.' " — Hudibras, iii, 316. 

Under Note VI. — Inclusive Terms. 
"Noah and his family outlived all the people who lived before the flood." — Webster's El. Spell- 
ing-Book, p. 101. " I think it superior to any work of that nature we have yet had." — -Dr. Blair's 
Rec. in Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. 300. " We have had no grammarian who has employed so 
much labour and judgment upon our native language, as the author of these volumes." — British 
Critic, ib., ii, 299. "No persons feel so much the distresses of others, as they who have expe- 
rienced distress themselves." — Murray's Key, 8vo., p. 227. "Never was any people so much in- 
fatuated as the Jewish nation." — lb., p. 185 ; Frazee's Gram., p. 135. "No tongue is so full of 
connective particles as the Greek." — Blair's Rhet, p. 85. " Never sovereign was so much be- 
loved by the people." — Murraij's Exercises, R xv, p. 68. " No sovereign was ever so much 
beloved by the people."— Murray's Key, p. 202. "Nothing ever affected her so much as this 
misconduct of her child." — lb., p. 203 ; Merchant's, 195. "Of all the figures of speech, none 
comes so near to painting as metaphor." — Blair's Rhet, p. 142 ; Jamieson's, 149. " I know 
none so happy in his metaphors as Mr. Addison." — Blair's Rhet, p. 150. " Of all the English au- 
thors, none is so happy in his metaphors as Addison." — Jamieson's, Rhet, p. 157. " Perhaps no 
writer in the world was ever so frugal of his words as Aristotle." — Blair, p. 177 ; Jamieson, 251. 
" Never was any writer so happy in that concise spirited style as Mr. Pope." — Blair's Rhet, p. 

* This is not a mere repetition of the last example cited under Note 14th above : but it is Murray's interpre- 
tation of the text there quoted. Both forms are faulty, but not in the same way. — G-. Beown. 



CHAP. IV.] SYNTAX. — RULE IX. — ADJECTIVES. — ERRORS. 547 

403. " In the harmonious structure and disposition of periods, no -writer whatever, ancient or 
modern, equals Cicero." — Blair, 121; Jamieson, 123. "Nothing delights me so much as the 
works of nature." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 150. " No person was ever so perplexed as he 
has been to-day." — Murray's Key, ii, 216. "In no case are writers so apt to err as in the position 
of the word only.'" — Maunder's Gram., p. 15. " For nothing is so tiresome as perpetual uniformi- 
ty."— .tor's Rhet, p. 102. 

" No writing lifts exalted man so high, 
As sacred and soul-moving poesy." — Sheffield. 

Under Note VII. — Extra Comparisons. 

" How much more are ye better than the fowls !" — Luke, xii, 24. " Do not thou hasten above 
the Most Highest." — 2 Esdras, iv, 34. " This word peer is most principally used for the nobility 
of the realm." — Cowell. "Because the same is not only most universally received," &c. — Bar- 
clay's Works, i, 447. "This is, I say, not the best and most principal evidence." — lb., hi, 41. 
" Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most Highest." — The Psalter, Ps. I 14. 
"The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most Highest." — lb., Ps. xlvi, 4. "As boys should be 
educated with temperance, so the first greatest lesson that should be taught them is to admire 
frugality." — Goldsmith's Essays, p. 152. "More universal terms are put for such as are more re- 
stricted." — Brown's Metaphors, p. 11. " This was the most unkindest cut of all." — Dodd's Beauties 
of Shak., p. 251 ; Singer's Shak., ii, 264. "To take the basest and most poorest shape." — Dodds 
Shak., p. 261. " I'll forbear: and am fallen out with my more headier will." — lb., p. 262. " The 
power of the Most Highest guard thee from sin." — Percival, on Apostolic Succession, p. 90. ' 
" Which title had been more truer, if the dictionary had been in Latin and Welch." — Verstegan : 
Harrison's E Lang., p. 254. " The waters are more sooner and harder frozen, than more further 
upward, within the inlands." — Id., ib. "At every descent, the worst may become more worse." 
— H Mann: Louisville Examiner, 8vo, VoL i, p. 149. 

"Or as a moat defensive to a house 
Against the envy of less happier lands." — Shakspeare. 

11 A dreadful quiet felt, and worser far 
Than arms, a sullen interval of war. " — Dryden. 

Under Note VIII. — Adjectives Connected. 

"It breaks forth in its most energetick, impassioned, and highest strain." — Kirkham 's Elocution, 
p. 66. "He has fallen into the most gross and vilest sort of railing." — Barclay's Works, iii, 
261. "To receive that more general and higher instruction which the public affords." — District 
School, p. 281. "If the best things have the perfectest and best operations." — Hooker: Joh. 
Diet. " It became the plainest and most elegant, the most splendid and richest, of all languages." 
— See Bucke's Gram., p. 140. " But the most frequent and the principal use of pauses, is, to mark 
the divisions of the sense." — Blair's Rhet, p. 331; Murray's Gram., 248. "That every thing 
belonging to ourselves is the perfectest and the best." — Clarkson's Prize Essay, p. 189. "And 
to instruct their pupils in the most thorough and best manner." — Report of a School Committee. 

Under Note IX. — Adjectives Superadded. 

"The Father is figured out as an old venerable man." — Dr. Browrileds Controversy. " There 
never was exhibited such another masterpiece of ghostly assurance." — Id. " After the three first 
sentences, the question is entirely lost" — Sped., No. 476. "The four last parts of speech are 
commonly called particles," — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 14. " The two last chapters will not be 
found deficient in this respect." — Student's Manual, p. 6. " Write upon your slates a list of the 
ten first nouns." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 85. "We have a few remains of other two Greek poets in 
the pastoral style, Moschus and Bion." — Blair's Rhet, p. 393. " The nine first chapters of the 
book of Proverbs are highly poetical." — lb., p. 417. "For of these five heads, only the two first 
have any particular relation to the sublime." — lb., p. 35. " The resembling sounds of the two 
last syllables give a ludicrous air to the whole." — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 69. " The three last are 
arbitrary." — lb., p. 72. " But in the phrase ' She hangs the curtains,' the verb hangs is a transitive 
active verb." — Comly's Gram.,]). 30. "If our definition of a verb, and the arrangement of 
transitive or intransitive active, passive, and neuter verbs, are properly understood." — lb., 15th 
Ed., p. 30. " These two last lines have an embarrassing construction." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 
160. " God was provoked to drown them all, but Noah and other seven persons." — Wood's Diet, 
ii, 129. "The six first books of the iEneid are extremely beautiful." — Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 
27. " A few more instances only can be given here." — Murray's Gram., p. 131. "A few more 
years will obliterate every vestige of a subjunctive form." — Nutting's Gram., p. 46. " Some de- 
fine them to be verbs devoid of the two first persons." — Crombie's Treatise, p. 205. "In such 
another Essay -tract as this." — White's English Verb, p. 302. " But we fear that not such another 
man is to be found."— -Rev. Ed. Irving: on Home's Psalms, p. xxiii. 
" Oh such another sleep, that I might see 
But such another man ! " — Shak., Antony and Cleopatra. 



548 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Under Note X. — Adjectives for Adverbs. 

" The is an article, relating to the noun balm, agreeable to Rule 11." — Comly's Gram., p. 133. 
" Wise is an adjective relating to the noun marts, agreeable to Rule 11th." — Ibid., 12th Ed., often. 
"To whom I observed, that the beer was extreme good." — Goldsmith's Essays, p. 127. "He 
writes remarkably elegant." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 152. "John behaves truly civil to all 
men." — jfr^ p. 153. "All the sorts of words hitherto considered have each of them some mean- 
ing, even when taken separate." — Beattie's Moral Science, i, 44. "He behaved himself conform- 
able to that blessed example." — Sprat's Sermons, p. 80. "Marvellous graceful." — Clarendon, 
Life, p. 18. "The Queen having changed her ministry suitable to her wisdom." — Swift, Exam., 
No. 2.1. "The assertions of this author are easier detected." — Swift: censured in Lowth's Gram., 
p. 93. " The characteristic of his sect allowed him to affirm no stronger than that." — Bentley: 
ibid. "If one author had spoken nobler and loftier than an other." — Id., ib. "Xenophon says 
express." — Id., ib. "I can never think so very mean of him." — Id., ib. " To convince all that 
are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed." — Jude, 
15th: ib. "I think it very masterly written." — Swift to Pope, Let. 74: ib. "The whole design 
must refer to the golden age, which it lively represents." — Addison, on Medals: ib. " Agreeable 
to this, we read of names being blotted out of God's book." — Burder : approved in Webster's 
Impr. Gram., p. 107 ; Frazee's, 140 ; Maltby's, 93. " Agreeable to the law of nature, children are 
bound to support their indigent parents." — Webster's Impr. Gram., p. 109. " Words taken inde- 
pendent of their meaning are parsed as nouns of the neuter gender." — Maltby's Gr., 96. 

"Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works." — Beaut, of Shah, p. 236. 

Under Note XL— THEM for THOSE. 

"Though he was not known by them letters, or the name Christ." — Wm. Bayly's Works, p. 94. 
" In a gig, or some of them things." — Edegworth's Castle Rackrent, p. 35. "When cross-examined 
by them lawyers." — lb., p. 98. "As the custom in them cases is." — lb., p. 101. "If you'd 
have listened to them slanders." — lb., p. 115. " The old people were telling stories about them 
fairies, but to the best of my judgment there's nothing in it." — lb., p. 188. " And is it not a pity 
that the Quakers have no better authority to substantiate their principles than the testimony 
of them old Pharisees ?" — Eibbard's Errors of the Quakers, p. 107. 

Under Note XIL— THIS and THAT. 

" Hope is as strong an incentive to action, as fear : this is the anticipation of good, that of 
evil." — Brown's Institutes, p. 135. "The poor want some advantages which the rich enjoy; but 
w© should not therefore account those happy, and these miserable." — Ib. 



" Ellen and Margaret fearfully, 
Sought comfort in each other's eye ; 



Then turned their ghastly look each one, 

This to her sire, that to her son." 

Scott's Lady of the Lake, Canto ii, Stanza 29. 

" Six youthful sons, as many blooming maids, 
In one sad day beheld the Stygian shades ; 
These by Apollo's silver bow were slain, 
Those Cynthia's arrows stretched upon the plain." — Pope, II, xxiv, 760. 

" Memory and forecast just returns engage, 
This pointing back to youth, that on to age." — See Key. 

Under Note XIIL— EITHER and NEITHER. 

" These make the three great subjects of discussion among mankind ; truth, duty, and interest. 
But the arguments directed towards either of them are generically distinct." — Blair's Rhet., p. 318. 
" A thousand other deviations may be made, and still either of them may be correct in principle. 
Eor these divisions and their technical terms, are all arbitrary." — R. W. Green's Inductive Gram., 
p. vi. " Thus it appears, that our alphabet is deficient, as it has but seven vowels to represent 
thirteen different sounds; and has no letter to represent either of five simple consonant sounds." — 
Churchill's Gram., p. 19. " Then neither of these [five] verbs can be neuter." — Oliver B. Peirce's 
Gram., p. 343. "And the asserter is in neither of the four already mentioned." — lb., p. 356. 
" As it is not in either of these four." — lb., p. 356. "See whether or not the word comes within 
the definition of either of the other three simple cases." — lb., p. 51. "Neither of the ten was 
there." — Frazee's Gram., p. 108. " Here are ten oranges, take either of them." — lb., p. 102. 
"There are three modes, by either of which recollection will generally be supplied; inclination, 
practice, and association." — Rippingham's Art of Speaking, p. xxix. "Words not reducible to 
either of the three preceding heads."— Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, pp. 335 and 340. "Now a 
sentence may be analyzed in reference to either of these [four] classes." — lb., p. 577. 

Under Note XIY.— WHOLE, LESS, MORE, and MOST. 

" Does not all proceed from the law, which regulates the whole departments of the state?" — 

Blair's Rhet., p. 278. "A messenger relates to Theseus the whole particulars." — Kam,es. El. of 

Crit., Vol. ii, p. 313. " There are no less than twenty dipthhongs in the English language." — Dr. 

Ash's Gram., p. xil " The Redcross Knight runs through the whole steps of the Christian life." 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. — RULE IX. — ADJECTIVES. — ERRORS. — PRONOUNS. 549 

—Spectator, No. 540. "There were not less than fifty or sixty persons present." — Teachers' Re- 
port. " Greater experience, and more cultivated society, abate the warmth of imagination, and 
chasten the manner of expression." — Blair's Rhet, p. 152 ; Murray's Gram., i, 351. " By which 
means knowledge, much more than oratory, is become the principal requisite." — Blair's Rhet, p. 
254. " No less than seven illustrious cities disputed the right of having given birth to the great- 
est of poets." — Lemp. Diet, n. Homer. " Temperance, more than medicines, is the proper means 
of curing many diseases." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 222. " I do not suppose, that we Britons want 
genius, more than our neighbours." — Po., p. 215. "In which he saith, he has found no less than 
twelve untruths." — Barclay's Works, i, 460. " The several places of rendezvous were concerted, 
and the whole operations fixed." — Hume: see Priestley's Gram., p. 190. "In these rigid opin- 
ions the whole sectaries concurred." — Id., ib. " Out of whose modifications have been made 
most complex modes." — Locke: Sanborn's Gram., p. 148. "The Chinese vary each of their 
words on no less than five different tones." — Blair's Rhet, p. 58. "These people, though they 
possess more shining qualities, are not so proud as he is, nor so vain as she." — Murray's Key, 8vo, 
p. 211. " 'Tis certain, we believe ourselves more, after we have made a thorough Inquiry into 
the Thing." — Brightland's Gram., p. 244. " As well as the whole Course and Reasons of the 
Operation." — Po. " Those rules and principles which are of most practical advantage." — New- 
man's Rhet, p. 4. " And there shall be no more curse." — Rev., xxii, 3. "And there shall be no 
more death." — Rev., xxi, 4. " But in recompense, we have more pleasing pictures of ancient 
manners." — Blair's Rhet, p. 436. "Our language has suffered more injurious changes in Amer- 
ica, since the British army landed on our shores, than it had suffered before, in the period of three 
centuries." — Webster's Essays, Ed. of 1790, p. 96. "The whole conveniences of life are derived 
from mutual aid and support in society." — Karnes, El. of Grit, Vol. i, p. 166. 

Under Note XV. — Participial Adjectives. 

"To such as think the nature of it deserving their attention." — Butler's Analogy, p. 84. "In 
all points, more deserving the approbation of their readers." — Keepsake, 1830. "But to give Way 
to childish sensations was unbecoming our nature." — Lempriere's Diet, n. Zeno. " The following 
extracts are deserving the serious perusal of all." — The Friend, VoL v, p. 135. " No inquiry into 
wisdom, however superficial, is undeserving attention." — Buhver's Disowned, ii, 95. "The opin- 
ions of illustrioiis men are deserving great consideration." — Porter's Family Journal, p. 3. " And 
resolutely keeps its laws, Uncaring consequences." — Burns's Works, ii, 43. "This is an item that 
is deserving more attention." — GoodelVs Lectures. 

" Leave then thy joys, un suiting such an age, 
To a fresh comer, and resign the stage." — Dry den. 

Under Note XVI. — Figure of Adjectives. 

"The tall dark mountains and the deep toned seas." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 278. "O! learn 
from him To station quick eyed Prudence at the helm." — Anon. : Frost's El. of Gram., p. 104. 
"He went in a one horse chaise." — Blair's Gram., p. 113. "It ought to be, 'inaonehorso 
chaise.' " — Dr. Crombie's Treatise, p. 334. " These are marked with the above mentioned letters." 
— Folker's Gram., p. 4. " A many headed faction." — Wares Gram., p. 18. "Lest there should be 
no authority in any popular grammar for the perhaps heaven inspired effort.'* — Fowle's True Eng- 
lish Gram., Part 2d, p. 25. "Common metre stanzas consist of four Iambic lines; one of eight, 
and the next of six syllables. They were formerly written in two fourteen syllable lines." — 
Goodenow's Gram., p. 69. " Short metre stanzas consist of four Iambic lines ; the third of eight, 
and the rest of six syllables." — Ibid. " Particular metre stanzas consist of six Iambic lines ; the third 
and sixth of six syllables, the rest of eight." — Ibid. " Hallelujah metre stanzas consist of six 
Iambic lines ; the last two of eight syllables, and the rest of six." — Ibid. " Long metre stanzas 
are merely the union of four Iambic hues, of ten syllables each." — Ibid. " A majesty more 
commanding than is to be found among the rest of the Old Testament poets." — Blair's Rhet, p. 418. 
" You sulphurous and thought executed fires, 
Vaunt couriers to oak cleaving thunderbolts, 
Singe my white head ! And thou, all shaking thunder 
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!" — Beauties of Shah, p. 264. 



CHAPTER V.— PRONOUNS. 

The rules for the agreement of Pronouns with their antecedents are 
four ; hence this chapter extends from the tenth rule to the thirteenth, 
inclusively. The cases of Pronouns are embraced with those of nouns, in 
the seven rules of the third chapter. 



550 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

KULE X.— PBONOUNS. 

A Pronoun must agree with, its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun 
which it represents, in person, number, and gender :* as, "This is the 
friend of whom /spoke ; he has just arrived.' 7 — " This is the hook which 
I bought ; it is an excellent work." — " Ye, therefore, who love mercy, 
teach your sons to love it too." — Cowper. 

" Speak thou, lohose thoughts at humble peace repine, 
Shall Wolsey's wealth with Wolsey's end be thine V — Br. Johnson. 

Exception - Eirst. 

When a pronoun stands for some person or thing indefinite, or unknown to the speaker, this rule 
is not strictly applicable ; because the person, number, and gender, are rather assumed in the 
pronoun, than regulated by an antecedent : as, "I do not care who knows it." — Steele. " Who 
touched me? Tell me who it was." — "We have no knowledge how, or by whom, it is inhab- 
ited." — Abbot: Joh. Diet 

Exception Second. 

The neuter pronoun it may be applied to a young child, or to other creatures masculine or 
feminine by nature, when they are not obviously distinguishable with regard to sex; as, "Which 
is the real friend to the child, the person who gives it the sweetmeats, or the person who, con- 
sidering only its health, resists its importunities?" — Opie. "He loads the animal he is show- 
ing me, with so many trappings and collars, that I cannot distinctly view iV — Murray's Gram., 
p. 301. " The nightingale sings most sweetly when it sings in the night." — Buckets Gram., p. 52. 

Exception Third. 

The pronoun it is often used without a definite reference to any antecedent, and is sometimes a 
mere expletive, and sometimes the representative of an action expressed afterwards by a verb ; 
as, "Whether she grapple it with the pride of philosophy." — Chalmers. "Seeking to lord it 
over God's heritage." — TJie Friend, vii, 253. "iiis not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to 
drink wine, nor for princes strong drink." — Prov., xxxi, 4. " Having no temptation to it, God 
cannot act unjustly without defiling his nature." — Brown's Divinity, p. 11. 

" Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe." — Milton. 

Exception Fourth. 

A singular antecedent with the adjective many, sometimes admits a plural pronoun, but never 
in the same clause ; as, "Hard has been the fate of many a great genius, that while they have 
conferred immortality on others, they have wanted themselves some Mend to embalm their names 
to posterity." — Welwood's Pre/, to Rowers Lucan. 

" In Hawick twinkled m any a light, 
Behind him soon they set in night." — W. Scott. 

Exception Fifth. 

When a plural pronoun is put by enallage for the singular, it does not agree with its noun in 
number, because it still requires a plural verb ; as, " We [Lindley Murray] have followed those 
authors, who appear to have given them the most natural and intelligible distribution." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., 8vo, p. 29. " We shall close our remarks on this subject, by introducing the senti- 
ments of Dr. Johnson respecting it." — lb. " My lord, you knoio I love you." — Shakspeare. 

Exception Sixth. 

The pronoun sometimes disagrees with its antecedent in one sense, because it takes it in an 
other; as, "I have perused Mr. Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries, and find it\ a very labo- 
rious, learned, and useful Work." — Tho. Knipe, D. D. " Lamps is of the plural number, because 
it means more than one." — Smith's New Gram., p. 8. "Man is of the masculine gender, because 
it is the name of a male." — lb. " The Vtica Sentinel says it has not heard whether the wounds 

* Some authors erroneously say, " A personal pronoun (Toes not always agree in person with its antecedent; 
as, 'John said, I will do it.'" — Goodenow's Gram. "When I say, 'Go, and say to those children, you must 
come in,' you perceive that the noun children is of the third person, hut the pronoun yon is of the second; yet 
you stands for children." — IaaersoWs Gram., p. 54. Here are different speakers, with separate speeches; and 
these critics are manifestly deceived by the circumstance. It is not to he supposed, that the nouns repre- 
sented by one speaker's pronouns, are to be found or sought, in what an other speaker utters. The pronoun I 
does not here stand for the noun John which is of the third person; it is John's own word, representing him- 
self as the speaker. The meaning is, " I myself, John, of the first person, will do it.* 1 Nor does you stand for 
children as spoken of by Ingersoll ; but for children of the second person, uttered or implied in the address of 
his messenger: as, " Children, you must come in." 

t The propriety of this construction is questionable. See Obs. 2d on Rule 14th. 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. — RULE X. — PRONOUNS. OBSERVATIONS. 551 

are dangerous." — Evening Post. (Better: "The editor of the Utica Sentinel says, lie has not 
heard," &e.) "There is little Benjamin with their ruler." — Psalms, lxviii, 27. 

" Her end when emulation misses, 
She turns to envy, stings, and hisses." — Swifts Poems, p. 415. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE X. 
Obs. 1. — Respecting a pronoun, the main thing is, that the reader perceive clearly for what it 
stands ; and next, that he do not misapprehend its relation of case. For the sake of complete- 
ness and uniformity in parsing, it is, I think, expedient to apply the foregoing rule not only to 
those pronouns which have obvious antecedents expressed, but also to such as are not accompa- 
nied by the nouns for which they stand. Even those which are put for persons or things un- 
known or indefinite, may be said to agree with whatever is meant by them ; that is, with such 
nouns as their own properties indicate. For the reader will naturally understand something by 
every pronoun, unless it be a mere expletive, and without any antecedent. For example: "It 
would depend upon who the forty were." — Trial at SteubenviUe, p. 50. Here who is an indefi- 
nite relative, equivalent to what persons ; of the third person, plural, masculine ; and is in the 
nominative case after were, by Rule 6th. For the full construction seems to be this: "It would 
depend upon the persons who the forty were." So which, for which person, or which thing, (if we 
call it a pronoun rather than an adjective,) may be said to have the properties of the noun person 
or thing understood ; as, 

" His notions fitted things so well, 
That which was which he could not tell." — Hudibras. 

Obs. 2. — The pronoun we is used by the speaker or writer to represent himself and others, and 
is therefore plural. But it is sometimes used, by a sort of fiction, in stead of the singular, to in- 
timate that the speaker or writer is not alone in his opinions ; or, perhaps more frequently, to 
evade the charge of egotism ; for this modest assumption of plurality seems most common with 
those who have something else to assume: as, "And so lately as 1809, Pope Pius VII, in ex- 
communicating his 'own dear son,' Napoleon, whom he crowned and blessed, says: ' We, un- 
worthy as we are, represent the God of peace.' " — Dr. Brownlee. "The coat fits us as well as if 
we had been melted and poured into it." — Prentice. Monarchs sometimes prefer ice to I, in 
immediate connexion with a singular noun; as, "We Alexander, Autocrat of all the Russias." — 
"We the Emperor of China," &c. — Economy of Human Life, p. vi. They also employ the anoma- 
lous compound ourself which is not often used by other people ; as, "Witness our self at West- 
minster, 28 day of April, in the tenth year of our reign. Charles." 

" Cces. What touches us ourself shall be last serv'd." — Shak., J. C, Act iii, Sc. 1. 
" Ourself to hoary Nestor will repair." — Pope, Iliad, B. x, 1. 65. 

Obs. 3. — The pronoun you, though originally and properly plural, is now generally applied 
alike to one person or to more. Several observations upon this fashionable substitution of the 
plural number for the singular, will be found in the fifth and sixth chapters of Etymology. This 
usage, however it may seem to involve a solecism, is established by that authority against which 
the mere grammarian has scarcely a right to remonstrate. Alexander Murray, the schoolmaster, 
observes, " When language was plain and simple, the English always said thou, when speaking 
to a single person. But when an affected politeness, and a fondness for continental manners and 
customs began to take place, persons of rank and fashion said you in stead of thou. The innova- 
tion gained ground, and custom gave sanction to the change, and stamped it with the authority 
of law." — English Gram., Third Edition, 1793, p. 107. This respectable grammarian acknow- 
ledged both thou and you to be of the second person singular. I do not, however, think it neces- 
sary or advisable to do this, or to encumber the conjugations, as some have done, by introducing 
the latter pronoun, and the corresponding form of the verb, as singular.* It is manifestly better 
to say, that the plural is used for the singular, by the figure EnaUage. For if you lias literally 
become singular by virtue of this substitution, we also is singular for the same reason, as often as it 
is substituted for /; else the authority of innumerable authors, editors, compilers, and crowned 
heads, is insufficient to make it so. And again, if you and the corresponding form of the verb are 
literally of the second person sirigular, (as Wells contends, with an array of more than sixty names of 
English grammarians to prove it,) then, by their own rule of concord, since thou and its verb are still 
generally retained in the same place by these grammarians, a verb that agrees with one of these 
nominatives, must also agree with the other; so that you hast and thou have, youseest and thou see, 
may be, so far as appears from their instructions, as good a concord as can be made of these words ! 

* Among the authors -who hare committed this great fault, are, Aldeu. W. Allen, D. C. Allen. C. Adams, the 
author of the. British Grammar, Buchanan, Cooper, Cutler, Davis, Dilworth, Felton, Fisher, Fowler, Frazee, 
Goldsbury, Hnllock, Hull, M'Culloch, Morley, Pinnen, J. Putnam, Russell, Sanborn, R. C. Smith, Spencer, 
Weld, Wells, Webster, and White. " You is plural, whether it refer to only one individual, or to more." — Dr. 
Ciombie, on Etyrn,. and SynL, p. 240. " The word ?/ow, even when applied to one person, isplural, and should 
never be connected with a singular verb." — Alexander's Gram., p. 53: Emmons's, 2G. " Yon is of the Plural 
Number, even though used as the Name of a single Person." — W. Ward's Gram., p. 88. "•Altho 1 the Second 
Person Singular in both Times be marked with thou, to distinguish it from the Plural, yet we, out of Complais- 
ance, though we speak but to one particular Person, use the Plural you, and never thou, but when we address 
ourselves to Almighty God, or when we speak in an emphatical Manner, or make a distinct and particular Ap- 
plication to a Person."— British Gram., p. 126; Buchanan' s, 31 . "But you, tho' applied to a single Person, 
requires a Plural Verb, the same as ye ; as, you love, not you lovest or loves; you were, not you was or wast."-' 
Buchanan's Gram., p. 37. 



552 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 4. — The putting of you for thou has introduced the anomalous compound yourself, which 
is now very generally used in stead of thyself. In this instance, as in the less frequent adoption 
of ourself for myself, Fashion so tramples upon the laws of grammar, that it is scarcely possible to 
frame an intelligible exception in her favour. These pronouns are essentially singular, both in 
form and meaning; and yet they cannot be used with /or thou, with me or thee, or with any verb 
that is literally singular; as, " I ourself cum .•" but, on the contrary, they must be connected only 
with such plural terms as are put for the singular; as, " We ourself are king." — "Undoubtedly 
you yourself become an innovator." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 364; Campbell's Met, 167. 

" Try touch, or sight, or smell ; try what you, will. 
You strangely find nought but yourself alone." — Pollok, C. of T., B. i, 1. 162. 
Obs. 5. — Sacu terms of address, as your Majesty, your Highness, your Lordship, your Honour, 
arc sometimes followed by verbs and pronouns of the second person plural, substituted for the 
singular; and sometimes by words literally singular, and of the third person, with no other figure 
than a substitution of who for which: as, " Wherein your Lordship, who shines with so much dis- 
tinction in the noblest assembly in the world, peculiarly excels." — Dedication of Sale's Koran. 
" We have good cause to give your Highness the first place ; who, by a continued series of favours 
have obliged us, not only while you moved in a lower orb, but since the Lord hath called your 
Highness to supreme authority." — Massachusetts to Cromwell, in 1654. 

Obs. 6. — The general usage of the French is like that of the English, you for thou ; but Spanish, 
Portuguese, or German politeness requires that the third person be substituted for the second. 
And when they would be very courteous, the Germans use also the plural for the singular, as they 
for thou. Thus they have a fourfold method of addressing a person : as, they, denoting the highest 
degree of respect; he, a less degree; you, a degree still less; and thou, none at all, or absolute 
reproach. Yet, even among them, the last is used as a term of endearment to children, and of 
veneration to God ! Thou, in English, still retains its place firmly, and without dispute, in all 
addresses to the Supreme Being ; but in respect to the first person, an observant clergyman has 
suggested the following dilemma: "Some men will be pained, if a minister says we in the pulpit; 
and others will quarrel with him, if he says /." — Abbott's Young Christian, p. 268. 

Obs. 7. — Any extensive perversion of the common words of a language from their original and 
proper use, is doubtless a matter of considerable moment. These changes in the use of the pro- 
nouns, being some of them evidently a sort of complimentary fictions, some religious people have 
made it a matter of conscience to abstain from them, and have published their reasons for so 
doing. But the moral objections which may lie against such or any other applications of words, 
do not come within the grammarian's province. Let every one consider for himself the moral 
bearing of what he utters : not forgetting the text, " But I say unto you, that every idle word that 
men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement: for by thy words thou 
shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." — Matt, xii, 36 and 37. What 
scruples this declaration ought to raise, it is not my business to define. But if such be God's law, 
what shall be the reckoning of those who make no conscience of uttering continually, or when 
they will, not idle words only, but expressions the most absurd, insignificant, false, exaggerated, 
vulgar, indecent, injurious, wicked, sophistical, unprincipled, ungentle, and perhaps blasphemous, 
or profane ? 

Obs. 8. — The agreement of pronouns with their antecedents, it is necessary to observe, is liable 
to be controlled or affected by several of the figures of rhetoric. A noun used figurativeby often 
suggests two different senses, the one literal, and the other tropical ; and the agreement of tho 
pronoun must be sometimes with this, and sometimes with that, according to the nature of the 
trope. If the reader be unacquainted with tropes and figures, he should turn to the explanation 
of them in Part Fourth of this work ; but almost every one knows something about them, and 
such as must here be named, will perhaps be made sufficiently intelligible by the examples. 
There seems to be no occasion to introduce under this head more than four ; namely, personifica- 
tion, metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche. 

Obs. 9. — When a pronoun represents the name of an inanimate object person ified, it agrees with 
its antecedent in the figurative, and not in the literal sense ; as, " There were others whose crime 
it was rather to neglect Reason than to disobey her." — Br. Johnson. " Penance dreams her life 
away." — Rogers. " Grim Darkness furls his leaden shroud." — Id. Here if the pronoun were 
made neuter, the personification would be destroyed ; as, "By the progress which England had 
already made in navigation and commerce, it was now prepared for advancing farther." — Robert- 
son's America, Vol. ii, p. 341. If the pronoun it was here intended to represent England, the 
feminine she would have been much better ; and, if such was not the author's meaning, the sen- 
tence has some worse fault than the agreement of a pronoun with its noun in a wrong sense. 

OiiS. 10. — When the antecedent is applied metaphorically, the pronoun usually agrees with it in 
its literal, and not in its figurative sense ; as, " Pitt was the pillar which upheld the state." — 
" The monarch of mountains rears his snowy head." — " The stone which the builders rejected." — 
Matt, xxi, 42. According to this rule, which would be better than whom, in the following text : 
" I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them an other little horn, before 
whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots." — Daniel, vii, 8. In Rom., ix, 
33, there is something similar: " Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and 
whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Here the stone or rock is a metaphor for 
Christ, and the pronoun him may be referred to the sixth exception above; but the construction 
is not agreeable, because it is not regular: it would be more grammatical, to change on him to 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. — KULE X. — PRONOUNS. — OBSERVATIONS. 553 

thereon. In the following example, the noun " wolves," which literally requires which, and not 
who, is used metaphorically for selfish priests ; and, in the relative, the figurative or personal sense 
is allowed to prevail : 

" Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves, 
Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven 

To their own vile advantages shall turn." — Milton, P. L., B. xii, 1. 508. 
This seems to me somewhat forced and catachrestical. So too, and worse, the following; which 
makes a star rise and speak : 

" So spake our Morning Star then in his rise, 
And looking round on every side beheld 
A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades." — Id., P. P., B. i, 1. 294. 

Obs. 11. — When the antecedent is put by metonymy for a noun of different properties, the pro- 
noun sometimes agrees with it in the figurative, and sometimes in the literal sense ; as, " When 
Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so 
they went from them: [i. e., When Moses and the prophets called the Israelites, they often refused 
to hear:] they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burnt incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim 
also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them." — Rosea, xi, 1, 2, 3. 
The mixture and obscurity which are here, ought not to be imitated. The name of a man, put 
for the nation or tribe of his descendants, may have a pronoun of either number, and a nation may 
be figuratively represented as feminine ; but a mingling of different genders or numbers ought to 
be avoided: as, " Moab is spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are 
gone down to the slaughter." — Jeremiah, xlviii, 15. 

" The wolf, who [say that] from the nightly fold, 

Fierce drags the bleating prey, ne'er drunk her milk, 

Nor wore her warming fleece." — Thomson's Seasons. 
" That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven, 

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 

A hero perish or a sparrow fall." — Pope's Essay on Man. 
"And -heaven behold its image in his breast." — lb. 
" Such fate to suffering worth is given, 

Who long with wants and woes has striven." — Burns. 

Obs. 12. — When the antecedent is put by synecdoche for more or less than it literally signifies, 
the pronoun agrees with it in the figurative, and not in the literal sense ; as, 
" A dauntless soul erect, who smiled on death." — Thomson 
"But to the generous still improving mind. 
That gives the hopeless heart to sing for joy, 
To him the long review of ordered life 
Is inward rapture only to be felt." — Id. Seasons. 

Obs. 13. — Pronouns usually follow the words which they represent; but this order is sometimes 
reversed: as, " Whom the cap fits, let him put it on." — "Hark! they whisper; angels say," &c. 
— Pope. " Thou, Lord, art a God full of compassion." — Old Test. And in some cases of appo- 
sition, the pronoun naturally comes first; as, "1 Tertius" — " Ye lawyers." The pronoun it, like- 
wise, very often precedes the clause or phrase which it represents; as, "Is it not manifest, that 
the generality of people speak and write very badly?"' — Campbell's Rhet., p. 160 ; Murray's Gram., 
i, 358. This arrangement is too natural to be called a transposition. The most common form 
of the real inversion is that of the antecedent and relative in poetry ; as, 
" Who stops to plunder at this signal hour, 
The birds shall tear him, and the dogs devour." — Pope : Piad, xv, 400. 

Obs. 14. — A pronoun sometimes represents a phrase or a sentence ; and in this case the pronoun 
is always in the third person singular neuter : as, " Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it 
not." — Gen., xxviii, 10. " Yet men can go on to vilify or disregard Christianity; which is to talk 
and act as if they had a demonstration of its falsehood." — Butler's Analogy, p. 269. "When it is 
asked wherein personal identity consists, the answer should be the same as if it were asked, 
wherein consists similitude or equality." — lb., p. 2^0. " Also, that the soul be without knowledge, 
it is not good." — Prov., xix, 2. In this last example, the pronoun is not really necessary. "That 
the soul be without knowledge, is not good." — Jenks's Prayers, p. 144. Sometimes an infinitive 
verb is taken as an antecedent ; as, " He will not be able to think, without which it is impertinent 
to read; nor to act, without which it is impertinent to think." — Bolingbroke, on History, p. 103. 

Obs. 15. — When a pronoun follows two words, having a neuter verb between them, and both 
referring to the same thing, it may represent either of them, but not often with the same mean- 
ing: as, 1. "I am the man, who command." Here, ivho command belongs to the subject I, and 
the meaning is, " I who command, am the man." (The latter expression places the relative nearer 
to its antecedent, and is therefore preferable.) 2. "I am the man who commands." Here, who 
ccmmands belongs to the predicate man, and the meaning is, "lam the commander." Again: 
"I perceive thou art a pupil, who possessest good talents." — Cooper's PI. and Pract. Gram., p. 136. 
Here the construction corresponds not to the perception, which is, of the pupil's talents. Say, 
therefore, "I perceive thou art a, pupil possessing (or, who possesses) good talents." 

Obs. 16. — After the expletive it, which may be employed to introduce a noun or a pronoun of 



554 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

any person, number, or gender, the above-mentioned distinction is generally disregarded; and the 
relative is most commonly made to agree with the latter word, especially if this word be of the 
first or the second person: as, "It is no more I that do it." — Bom., vii, 20. "For it is not ye that 
speak." — Matt., x, 20. The propriety of this construction is questionable. In the following ex- 
amples, the relative agrees with the it, and not with the subsequent nouns: " It is the combined 
excellencies of all the denominations that gives to her her winning beauty and her powerful charms." 
— Bible Society's Report, 1838, p. 89. "It is purity and neatness of expression which is chiefly to 
be studied." — Blair's Rhet., p. 271. "It is not the difficulty of the language, but on the contrary 
the simplicity and facility of it, that occasions this neglect." — Lowth's Gram., p. vi. "It is a wise 
head and a good heart that constitutes a great man." — Child's Instructor, p. 22. 

Obs. 17. — The pronoun it very frequently refers to something mentioned subsequently in the 
sentence ; as, " It is useless to complain of what is irremediable." This pronoun is a necessary 
expletive at the commencement of any sentence in which the verb is followed by a phrase or a 
clause which, by transposition, might be made the subject of the verb; as, "It is impossible to 
please every one." — W. Allen's Gram. "It was requisite that the papers should be sent." — lb. The 
following example is censured by the Rev. Matt. Harrison: " It is really curious, the course which 
balls will sometimes take." — Abernethy's Lectures. "This awkward expression," says the critic, 
" might have been avoided by saying, ' The course which balls will sometimes take is really curi- 
ous.' " — Harrison, on the English Language, p. 147. If the construction is objectionable, it may, 
ia this instance, be altered thus: "It is really curious, to observe the course which balls will some- 
times take!" So, it appears, we may avoid a pleonasm by an addition. But he finds a worse 
example: saying, "Again, in an article from the 'New Monthly,' No. 103, we meet with the 
same form of expression, but with an aggravated aspect : — ' It is incredible, the number of apothe- 
caries' shops, presenting themselves.' It would be quite as easy to say, ' The number of apothe- 
caries' shops, presenting themselves, is incredible.' " — lb., p. 147. This, too, may take an infini- 
tive, "to tell," or ll to behold;" for there is no more extravagance in doubting one's eyes, than in 
declaring one's own statement " incredible." But I am not sure that the original form is not 
allowable. In the following line, we seem to have something like it : 

" It curled not Tweed alone, that breeze." — Sir W. Scott. 

Obs. 18. — Relative and interrogative pronouns are placed at or near the beginning of their own 
clauses ; and the learner must observe that, through all their cases, they almost invariably retain 
this situation in the sentence, and are found, before their verbs even when the order of the con- 
struction would reverse this arrangement: as, "He who preserves me, to whom I owe my being, 
loliose I am, and whom I serve, is eternal." — Murray, p. 159. " He whom you seek."— Lowth. 

" The good must merit God's peculiar care ; 
But who, but God, can tell us who they are?" — Pope. 

Obs. 19. — A relative pronoun, being the representative of some antecedent word or phrase, 
derives from this relation its person, number, and gender, but not its case. By taking an other 
relation of case, it helps to form an other clause ; and, by retaining the essential meaning of its 
antecedent, serves to connect this clause to that in which the antecedent is found. No relative, 
therefore, can ever be used in an independent simple sentence, or be made the subject of a sub- 
junctive verb, or be put in apposition with any noun or pronoun ; but, like other connectives, this 
pronoun belongs at the head of a clause in a compound sentence, and excludes conjunctions, ex- 
cept when two such clauses are to be joined together, as in the following example: " I should be 
glad, at least, of an easy companion, who may tell me his thoughts, and to whom I may com- 
municate mine." — Goldsmith's Essays, p. 196. 

Obs. 20. — The two special rules commonly given by the grammarians, for the construction of 
relatives, are not only unnecessary,* but faulty. I shall notice them only to show my reasons for 
discarding them. With whom they originated, it is difficult to say. Paul's Accidence has them, 
and if Dean Colet, the supposed writer, did not take them from some earlier author, they must 
have been first taught by him, about the year 1510; and it is certain that they have been copied 
into almost every grammar published since. The first one is faulty, because, " When there cometh 
no nominative case between the relative and the verb, the relative shall [not always] be the nominative 
case to the verb;" as may be seen by the following examples: "Many are the works of human 
industry, which to begin and finish are [say is~\ hardly granted to the same man." — Dr. Johnson's 
Adv. to Diet. " They aim at his removal ; which there is reason to fear they will effect." — 
" Which to avoid, I cut them off." — Shah, Hen. IV. The second rule is faulty, because, " When 
there cometh a nominative case between the relative and the verb, the relative shall [not always] be 
such case as the verb will have after it;" as may be seen by the following examples: " The author 
has not advanced any instances, which he does not think are pertinent." — Murray's Gram., i, 192. 
" Which we have reason to think was the case with the Greek and Latin." — lb., 112. " Is this 
your son, who ye say was born blind?" — John, ix, 19. The case of the relative cannot be accu- 
rately determined by any rules of mere location. It may be nominative to a verb afar off, or it 
may be objective with a verb immediately following; as, " Which I do not find that there ever 
was." — Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 31. "And our chief reason for believing which is that' 

* " Mr. Murray's 6th Rule is unnecessary." — Lennie's English Gram., p. 81 ; Bullions' 8, p. 90. The two 
rules of which I speak, constitute Murray's Rule VI ; Alger's and Bacon's Rule VI ; Merchant's Rule IX; In- 
gersoll's Rule XII; Kirkham's Rules XV and XVI; Jaudon's XXI and XXII; Crombie's X and XI; Nixon's 
Obs. 86th and 87th : and are found in Lowth's Gram., p. 100; Churchill's, 136; Adam's, 203 ; W. Allen's, 156; 
Blair's, 75 ; and many other books. 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. — RULE X. — PRONOUNS. — OBSERVATIONS. 555 

our ancestors did so before us." — Philological Museum, i, 641. Both these particular rules are 
useless, because the general rules for the cases, as given in chapter third above, are applicable to 
relatives, sufficient to all the purpose, and not liable to any exceptions. 

Obs. 21. — In syntactical parsing, each word, in general, is to be resolved by some one rule; 
but the parsing of a pronoun commonly requires two ; one for its agreement with the noun or 
nouns for which it stands, and an other for its case. The rule of agreement will be one of the ' 
four which are embraced in this present chapter ; and the rule for the case will be one of the seven 
which compose chapter third. So that the whole syntax of pronouns requires the application of 
eleven different rules, while that of nouns or verbs is embraced in six or seven, and that of any 
other part of speech, in one only. In respect to their cases, relatives and interrogatives admit of 
every construction common to nouns, or to the personal pronouns, except apposition. This is 
proved by the following examples : 

1. Nominatives by Rule 2d: "I who write; — Thou who writest; — He who writes; — The 
animal vjhich runs." — Dr. Adam. "He that spareth his rod, hateth his son." — Solomon. "He 
who does any thing which he knows is wrong, ventures on dangerous ground." — " What will be- 
come of us without religion?" — Blair. "Here I determined to wait the hand of death ; which, 
I hope, when at last it comes, will fall lightly upon me." — Dr. Johnson. " What is sudden and 
unaccountable, serves to confound." — Crabb. "They only are wise, who are wise to salvation."— 
Goodwin. 

2. Nominatives by Rule 6th : (i. e,, words parsed as nominatives after the verbs, though mostly 
transposed : ) " Who art thou ?" — Bible. " What were we?" — lb. " Do not tell them who I am." 
— " Let him be who he may, he is not the honest fellow that he seemed." — " The general conduct 
of mankind is neither vjhat it was designed, nor what it ought to be." 

3. Nominatives absolute by Rule 8th: "There are certain bounds to imprudence, which being 
transgressed, there remains no place for repentance in the natural course of things." — Bp. Butler. 
" Which being so, it need not be any wonder, why I should." — Walker's Fariicks, Fref., p. xiv. 
"He offered an apology, which not being admitted, he became submissive." — Murray's Key. p. 
202. This construction of the relative is a Latinism, and very seldom used by the best English 
writers. 

4. Possessives by Rule 4th : " The chief man of the island, whose name was Publius." — Acts. 
" Despair, a cruel tyrant, from whose prisons none can escape." — Dr. Johnson. " To contemplate 
on Him ivhose yoke is easy and whose burden is light." — Steele. 

5. Objectives by Rule 5th : " Those whom she persuaded." — Dr. Johnson. " The cloak that I 
left at Troas." — St. Paul. "By the things ivhich he suffered." — Id. "A man whom there is 
reason to suspect." — " What are we to do?" — Burke. "Love refuses nothing that love sends." — 
Gurnall. " The first thing, says he, is. to choose some maxim or point of morality ; to inculcate 
which, is to be the design of his work." — Blair's Rhet., p. 421. " Whomsoever you phase to ap- 
point." — Lowth. " Whatsover he doeth, shall prosper." — Bible. " What we are afraid to do be- 
fore men, we should be afraid to think before God." — Sils. "Shall I hide from Abraham that 
thing which I do?" — Gen., xviii, 32. "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do?" — 
"Call imperfection what thou fanciest such." — Pope. 

6. Objectives by Rule 6th : (i. e., pronouns parsed as objectives after neuter verbs, though they 
stand before them:) "He is not the man that I took him to be." — " Whom did you suppose me 
to be ?" — "If the lad ever become what you wish him to be." 

7. Objectives by Rule 7th : " To whom shall we go?" — Bible. " The laws by which the world 
is governed, are general." — Bp. Butler. " Whom he looks upon as his defender." — Addison. 
" That secret heaviness of heart which unthinking men are subject to." — Id. " I cannot but think 
the loss of such talents as the man of whom I am speaking was master of, a more melancholy in- 
stance." — Steele. "Grammar is the solid foundation upon vjhich all other science rests." — 
Buchanan's Eng. Synt., p. xx. 

Obs. 22. — In familiar language, the relative of the objective case is frequently understood; as, 
" The man [whom] I trust." — Gowper. " Here is the letter [which] I received." So in the fol- 
lowing sentences : " This is the man they hate. These are the goods they bought. Are these 
the Gods they worship? Is this the woman you saw?" — Ash's Gram., p. 96. This ellipsis seems 
allowable only in the familiar stjie. In grave writing, or deliberate discourse, it is much better 
to express this relative. The omission of it is often attended with some obscurity ; as, " The 
next error [that] I shall mention [,] is a capital one." — Karnes, EL of Grit., ii, 157. "It is little 
[that] we know of the divine perfections." — Scougal, p. 94. " The faith [ichich] we give to mem- 
ory, may be thought, on a superficial view, to be resolvable into consciousness, as well as that 
[which] we give to the immediate impressions of sense." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 53. "TVe speak 
that [which] we do know, and testify that [yjhjfh] we have seen." — John, iii, 11. The omission 
of a relative in the nominative case, is almost always inelegant ; as, " This is the worst thing [that] 
could happen." — " There were several things [which] brought it upon me." — Pilgrim's Progress, 
p. 162. The latter ellipsis may occur after but or than, and it is also sometimes allowed in 
poetry; as, [There is] "No person of reflection but [who] must be sensible, that an incident 
makes a stronger impression on an eye-witness, than when heard at second hand." — Karnes, El. 
of Crit., ii, 257". 

" In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man." — Pope, on Man. 

" Abuse on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, spread." — Id., to Arbuthnot. 

" There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools." — Id., to Augustus. 



556 THE GKAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 23. — The antecedent is sometimes suppressed, especially in poetry; as, "Who will, may be 
a judge." — Churchill. "How shall I curse [him or them] whom God hath not cursed?" — Num- 
bers, xxiii, 8. " There are, indeed, [some persons] who seem disposed to extend her authority 
much farther." — Campbell's Philosophy of Rhet., p. 187. 

'He] " Who lives to nature, rarely can be poor; 
He] Who lives to fancy, never can be rich." — Young. 
" Serious should be an author's final views ; 
[They] Who write for pure amusement, ne'er amuse." — Id. 

Obs. 24. — Which, as well as who, was formerly applied to persons ; as, "Our Father which art 
in heaven." — Bible. "Pray for them which despitefully use you." — Luke, vi, 28. And, as to the 
former example here cited, some British critics, still preferring the archaism, have accused " The 
Americans" of "poor criticism," in that they " have changed which into who, as being more con- 
sonant to the rules of Grammar." Falsely imagining, that which and who, with the same ante- 
cedent, can be of different genders, they allege, that, " The use of the neuter pronoun carried with 
it a certain vagueness and sublimity, not inappropriate in reminding us that our worship is ad- 
dressed to a Being, infinite, and superior to all distinctions applicable to material objects." — Men 
and Manners in America : quoted and endorsed by the Rev. Matt. Harrison, in his treatise on 
the English Language, p. 191. This is all fancy; and, in my opinion, absurd. It is just like the 
religious prejudice which could discern "a singular propriety" in "the double superlative most 
highest." — Lowth y s Gram., p. 28. But which may still be applied to a young child, if sex and in- 
telligence be disregarded; as, " The child which died." Or even to adults, when they are spoken 
of without regard to a distinct personality or identity; as, " Which of you will go?" — " Crabb 
knoweth not which is which, himself or his parodist." — Leigh Hunt. 

Obs. 25. — A proper name taken merely as a name, or an appellative taken in any sense not 
strictly personal, must be represented by which, and not by who ; as, " Herod — which is but an 
other name for cruelty." — " In every prescription of duty, God proposeth himself as a rewarder ; 
which he is only to those that please him." — Dr. J. Owen. Which would perhaps be more proper 
than whom, in the following passage : " They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the 
Lord commanded them." — Psalms, cvi, 34. Dr. Blair has preferred it in the following instance: 
" My lion and my pillar are sufficiently interpreted by the mention of Achilles and the minister, 
which I join to them." — Lectures, p. 151. He meant, " whose names I connect with theirs; 11 and 
not, that he joined the person of Achilles to a lion, or that of a minister to a pillar. 

Obs. 26. — When two or more relative clauses pertain to the same antecedent, if they are con- 
nected by a conjunction, the same relative ought to be employed in each, agreeably to the doc- 
trine of the seventh note below; but if no conjunction is expressed or understood between them, 
the pronouns ought rather to be different ; as, " There are many things that you can speak of, 
which cannot be seen." — R. W. G/reen's Gram., p. 11. This distinction is noticed in the fifth 
chapter of Etymology, Obs. 29th, on the Classes of Pronouns. Dr. Priestley says, "Whatever 
relative be used, in a series of clauses, relating to the same antecedent, the same ought to be used 
in them all. ' It is remarkable, that Holland, against which the war was undertaken, and that, 
in the very beginning, was reduced to the brink of destruction, lost nothing.' — Universal History, 
Vol. 25, p. 117. It ought to have been, and which in the very beginning. 11 — Priestley^ Gram., 
p. 102. L. Murray, (as I have shown in the Introduction, Ch. x, ^[ 22,) assumes all this, with- 
out references; adding as a salvo the word "generally, 11 which merely impairs the certainty of 
the rule: — "the same relative ought generally to be used in them all." — Octavo Gram., p. 155. 
And, of who and that, Cobbett says : " Either may do ; but both never ought to be relatives of 
the same antecedent in the same sentence." — Gram., ^[ 202. The inaccuracy of these rules is 
as great as that of the phraseology which is corrected under them. In the following sentence, 
the first relative only is restrictive, and consequently the other may be different : " These were 
the officers that were called Homotimoi, and who signalized themselves afterwards so gloriously 
upon all occasions." — Rollin's Hist, ii, 62. See also in Rev., x, 6th, a similar example without the 
conjunction. 

Obs. 27. — In conversation, the possessive pronoun your is sometimes used in a droll way, being 
shortened into yur in pronunciation, and nothing more being meant by it, than might be ex- 
pressed by the article an or a : as, " Rich honesty dwells, like your miser, sir, in a poor house ; 
as, your pearl in your foul oyster." — Shakspeare. 

NOTES TO RULE X. 

Note I. — A pronoun should not be introduced in connexion with words that 
belong more properly to the antecedent, or to an other pronoun ; as, " And then 
there is good use for Pallas her glass." — Bacon's Wisdom, p. 22. Say — " for Pal- 
las's glass." 

" My banks they are furnish'd with bees, 
Whose murmur invites one to sleep." — Shenstone, p. 284. 

This last instance, however, is only an example of pleonasm ; which is allowable 
and frequent in animated discourse, but inelegant in any other. Our grammarians 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. RULE X. — PRONOUNS. — NOTES. 557 

have condemned it too positively. It occurs sundry times in the Bible ; as, " Know 
ye that the Lord he is God." — Psalms, c, 3. 

Note II. — A change of number in the second person, or even a promiscuous use 
of ye and you in the same case and the same style, is inelegant, and ought to be 
avoided ; as, " You wept, and I for thee" — " Harry, said my lord, don't cry ; I'll 
give you something towards thy loss." — Swifts Poems, p. 267. " Ye sons of sloth, 
you offspring of darkness, awake from your sleep." — Brown's Metaphors, p. 96. 
Our poets have very often adopted the former solecism, to accommodate their meas- 
ure, or to avoid the harshness of the old verb in the second person singular : as, 
" Thy heart is yet blameless, O fly while you may!" — Queen 's Wake, p. 46. 

" Oh ! Peggy, Peggy, when thou goest to brew, 
Consider well what you're about to do." — King's Poems, p. 594. 

" As in that lov'd Athenian bower, 

You learned an all-commanding power, 

Thy mimic soul, O nymph endear'd ! 

Can well recall what then it heard." — Collins, Ode to Music. 

Note III. — The relative who is applied only to persons, and to animals or things 
personified ; and which, to brute animals and inanimate things spoken of literally : 
as, " The judge ivho presided ;" — " The old crab who advised the young one ;" — 
" The horse which ran away ;" — u The book which was given me." 

Note IV. — Nouns of multitude, unless they express persons directly as such, 
should not be represented by the relative who : to say, " The family whom I vis- 
ited," would hardly be proper ; that would here be better. When such nouns are 
strictly of the neuter gender, which may represent them ; as, " The committees which 
were appointed." But where the idea of rationality is predominant, who or whom 
seems not to be improper ; as, " The conclusion of the Iliad is like the exit of a 
great man out of company whom he has entertained magnificently." — Cowper. "A 
law is only the expression of the desire of a multitude who have power to punish." 
— Brown's Philosophy of the Mind. 

Note V. — In general, the pronoun must so agree with its antecedent as to pre- 
sent the same idea, and never in such a manner as to confound the name with the 
thing signified, or any two things with each other. Examples : " Jane is in the 
nomiuative case, because it leads the sentence." — Infant School Grarn., p. 30. Here 
it represents the word " Jane," and not the person Jane. " What mark or sign is 
put after master to show that he is in the possessive case ? Spell it." — lb., p. 32. 
Here the word " master" is most absurdly confounded with the man ; and that to 
accommodate grammar to a child's comprehension ! 

Note VI. — The relative that may be applied either to persons or to things. In 
the following cases, it is more appropriate than who, whom, or which ; and ought to 
be preferred, unless it be necessary to use a preposition before the relative : — (1.) 
After an adjective of the superlative degree, when the relative clause is restrictive ;* 
as, " He was the first that came." — ' : He was the fittest person that could then be 
found." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 422. "The Greeks were the greatest reasoners that 
ever appeared in the world." — Beattie : Murray's Gram., p. 127. (2.) After the 
adjective same, when the relative clause is restrictive ; as, "He is the same man that 
you saw before." — Priestley's Gram., p. 101; Murray's, 156; Campbell's Rhet., 
422. (3.) After the antecedent who ; as, " Who that is a sincere friend to it, can 
look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?" — 
Washington. (4.) After two or more antecedents that demand a relative adapted 
both to persons and to things ; as, " He spoke largely of the men and things that he 
had seen." — " When some particular person or thing is spoken of, that ought to be 
more distinctly marked." — Murray's Gram., p. 51. (5.) After an unlimited ante- 
cedent which the relative clause is designed to restrict; as, " Thoughts that breathe, 

* This rule, in all its parts, is to be applied chiefly, if not solely, to snch relative clauses as are taken in the 
restrictive sense; for, in the resumptive sense of the relative, who or rvhich may he more proper than that: as, 
"Abraham solemnly adjures his most faithful servant, whom he despatches to Charran on this matrimonial 
mission for his son, to discharge his mission with all fidelity." — Milmarts Jews, i, 21. See Etymology, Chap. 
5th, Obs. 23d, 24th, &c, on the Classes of Pronouns. 



558 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

and words that burn." — Gray. "Music that accords with the present tone of mind, 
is, on that account, doubly agreeable." — Karnes, El. of Crit, ii, 311. " For Theo- 
critus descends sometimes into ideas that are gross and mean." — Blair's Rhet., p. 
393. (6.) After any antecedent introduced by the expletive it ; as, " It is you that 
suffer." — " It was I, and not he, that did it." — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 142. "It was 
not he* that they were so angry with." — Murray's Exercises, R. 17. " It was not 
Gavius alone that Verres meant to insult." — Blair's Rhet, p. 325. (7.) And, in 
general, wherever the propriety of who or which is doubtful ; as, " The little child 
that was placed in the midst." 

Note VII. — When two or more relative clauses connected by a conjunction 
have a similar dependence in respect to the antecedent, the same pronoun must be 
employed in each ; as, " O thou, who art, and who wast, and who art to come !" — 
" And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of 
heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they 
have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped." — Jer., 
viii, 2. 

Note VIII. — The relative, and the preposition governing it, should not be omit- 
ted, when they are necessary to the sense intended, or to a proper connexion of the 
parts of the sentence ; as, " He is still in the situation you saw him." Better thus : 
" He is still in the situation in which you saw him." 

Note IX. — After certain nouns, of time, place, manner, or cause, the conjunctive 
adverbs when, where, lohither, whence, how, and why, are a sort of special relatives ; 
but no such adverb should be used where a preposition and a relative pronoun would 
better express the relation of the terms : as, " A cause where justice is so much con- 
cerned." Say, " A cause in which." See Etymology, Obs. 6th, 7th, and 8th, on 
the Classes of Adverbs. 

Note X. — Where a pronoun or a pronominal adjective will not express the mean- 
ing clearly, the noun must be repeated, or inserted in stead of it : as, " We see the 
beautiful variety of colour in the rainbow, and are led to consider the cause of it* 
Say, — "the cause of that variety ;" because the it may mean the variety, the colour, 
or the rainbow. 

Note XI. — To prevent ambiguity or obscurity, the relative should, in general, be 
placed as near as possible to the antecedent. The following sentence is therefore 
faulty : " He is like a beast of prey, that is void of compassion." Better thus : " He 
that is void of compassion, is like a beast of prey." 

Note XII. — The pronoun what should never be used in stead of the conjunction 
that ; as, " Think no man so perfect but what he may err." This is a vulgar fault. 
Say, — " but that he may err." 

Note XIII. — A pronoun should never be used to represent an adjective, — except 
the pronominal adjectives, and others taken substantively ; because a pronoun can 
neither express a concrete quality as such, nor convert it properly into an abstract: 
as, " Be attentive; without which you will learn nothing." Better thus : "Be atten- 
tive ; for without attention you will learn nothing." 

Note XIV. — Though the relative which may in some instances stand for a phrase 
or a sentence, it is seldom, if ever, a fit representative of an indicative assertion ; as, 
"The man opposed me, which was anticipated." — Nixon 's Parser, p. 127. Say, — 
" but his opposition was anticipated." " Or : " The man opposed me, as was antici- 
pated." Or : — " as I expected he would? Again : " The captain disobeys orders, 
which is punished." — lb., p. 128. This is an other factitious sentence, formed after 
the same model, and too erroneous for correction : none but a conceited grammatist 
could ever have framed such a construction. 

Note XV. — The possessive pronouns, my, thy, his, her, its, &c, should be 

* Murray imagined this sentence to be bad English. He very strangely mistook the pronoun he for the ob- 
ject of the preposition with; and accordingly condemned the text, under the rule, "Prepositions govern the 
objective case." So of the following: " It is not I he is engaged with." — Murray's Exercises, R. 17. Better: 
"It is not I that he is engaged with." Here is no violation of the foregoing rule, or of any other; and both 
sentences, with even Murray's form of the latter, are quite as good as his proposed substitutes: "It was not 
with him that they were so angry." — Murray's Key, p. 51. "It is not with me he is engaged." — lb. In these 
fancied corrections, the phrases with him and with me have a very awkward and questionable position : it seems 
doubtful, whether they depend on was and is, or on angry and engaged. 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. RULE X. PRONOUNS. ERRORS. 559 

inserted or repeated as often as the sense or construction cf the sentence requires 
them ; their omission, like that of the articles, can scarcely in any instance constitute 
a proper ellipsis : as, " Of Princeton and vicinity." — Say, " Of Princeton and its 
vicinity." " The man and wife." — Say, " The man and his wife." " Many verbs 
vary both their signification and construction." — Adam's Gram., -p. 170; Gould's, 
171. Say, — "and their construction." 

Note XVI. — In the correcting of any discord between the antecedent and its 
pronoun, if the latter for any sufficient reason is most proper as it stands, the former 
must be changed to accord with it : as, " Let us discuss what relates to each particu- 
lar in their order : — its order." — Priestley's Gram., p. 193. Better thus : " Let us 
discuss what relates to the several particulars, in their order." For the order of 
things implies plurality. 

IMPROPPJETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE X. 

Under the Rule itself. — Of Agreement 
"The subject is to be joined with his predicate." — Bp. Wilklns: Lowth's Gram., p. 42. 

[Fobmule.— 2Not proper, because the pronoun his is of the masculine gender, and does not correctly repre- 
sent its antecedent noun subject, which is of the third person, singular, neuter. But, according to Rule 10th, 
" A pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it represents, in person, number, 
and gender." Therefore, his should be its ; thus, " The subject is to be joined with its predicate."] 

"Every one must judge of their own feelings." — Byroris Letters. "Every one in the family 
should know their duty." — Wm. Penn. "To introduce its possessor into 'that way in which it 
should go.' " — Infant School Gram., p. v. " Do not they say, every true believer has the Spirit 
of God in them ?" — Barclay's Works, hi, 388. " There is none in their natural state righteous, 
no not one." — Wood's Diet, of Bible, ii, 129. " If ye were of the world, the world would love his 
own." — John, xv, 19. "His form had not yet lost all her original brightness.'" — Milton. "No 
one will answer as if I were their friend or companion." — Steele, Sped., No. 534. " But in lowli- 
ness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." — Philippians, ii, 3. "And let none 
of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour." — Zechariah, viii, 17. "For every tree 
is known by his own fruit." — Luke, vi, 44. "But she fell to laughing, like one out of their right 
mind." — Castle Rackrent, p. 51. " Now these systems, so far from having any tendency to make 
men better, have a manifest tendency to make him worse." — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 128. 
" And nobody else would make that city their refuge any more." — Josephus's Life, p. 158. 
" "What is quantity, as it respects syllables or words? It is that time which is occupied in pro- 
nouncing it." — Bradley's Gram., p. 108. "In such expressions the adjective so much resembles 
an adverb in its meaning, that they are usually parsed as such." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 103. 
" The tongue is like a race-horse; which runs the faster the less weight it carries." — Addison: 
Joh. Diet. ; Murray's Key, Rule 8. " As two thoughtless boys were trying to see which could 
lift the greatest weight with their jaws, one of them had several of his firm-set teeth wrenched 
from their sockets." — Newspaper. "Everybody nowadays publishes memoirs; everybody has 
recollections which they think worthy of recording." — Duchess D Abrantes, p. 25. "Every body 
trembled for themselves or their friends." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 171. 
" A steed comes at morning : no rider is there ; 
But it3 bridle is red with the sign of despair." — Campbell. 

Under Note I. — Pronouns Wrong or Needless. 
"Charles loves to study; but John, alas! he is very idle." — Merchant's School Gram., p. 22. 
" Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone ?" — Matt, 
vii, 9. "Who, in stead of going about doing good, they are perpetually intent upon doing mis- 
chief." — Tillotson. " Whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pontius Pilate." — 
Acts, iii, 13. "Whom, when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber." — Acts, ix, 37. 
" Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." — 2 Chron., xxxiii, 13. " Whatever a man 
conceives clearly, he may, if he will be at the trouble, put it into distinct propositions, and express 
it clearly to others." — Murray's Gram,., 8vo, p. 293. " But to that point of time which he has 
chosen, the painter being entirely confined, he cannot exhibit various stages of the same action." — 
Blair's Rhet., p. 52. "It is without any proof at all what he subjoins." — Barclay's Works, i, 301. 
"George Fox his Testimony concerning Robert Barclay." — lb., i, 111. "According to the author 
of the Postscript his advice." — lb., iii, 263. "These things seem as ugly to the Eye of their 
Meditations, as those ^Ethiopians pictur'd in Nemesis her Pitcher." — Bacon's Wisdom of the 
Ancients, p. 49. " Moreover, there is always a twofold Condition propounded with Sphynx her 
^Enigma's." — lb., p. 73. "Whoever believeth not therein, they shall perish." — Sale's Koran, p. 
20. " When, at Sestius his entreaty, I had been at his house." — Walker's Particles, p. 59. 

" There high on Sipylus his shaggy brow, 
She stands, her own sad monument of woe." — Pope's Homer, B. xxiv, 1. 777. 



560 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Under Note II. — Change of Number. 

" So will I send upon you famine, and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee." — Ezekiel, v, IT. 
" "Why do you plead so much for it? why do ye preach it up ?" — Barclay's Works, i, 180. " Since 
thou hast decreed that I shall bear man, your darling." — Edward's First Lesson in Gram., p. 106. 
"You have my book and I have thine; i. e. thy book." — Chandler's Gram., 1821, p. 22. 
" Neither art thou such a one as to be ignorant of what you are." — Bullions, Lat. Gram., p. TO. 
" Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon 
you." — Jeremiah, hi, 12. " The Almighty, unwilling to cut thee off in the fullness of iniquity, 
has sent me to give you warning." — Art of Thinking, p. 278. "Wert thou born only for pleasure? 
wore you never to do any thing?' — Cottier's Antoninus, p. 63. "Thou shalt be required to go to 
God, to die, and give up your account." — Barnes's Notes: on Luke, xii, 20. " And canst thou 
expect to behold the resplendent glory of the Creator ? would not such a sight annihilate you ?" — 
Milton. "If the prophet had commanded thee to do some great thing, would you have refused?" 

— Common School Journal, i, 80. " Art thou a penitent ? Evince 3^our sincerity by bringing forth 
fruits meet for repentance." — Christian's Vade-Mecum, p. 117. "I will call thee my dear son: I 
remember all your tenderness." — Classic Tales, p. 8. " So do thou, my son: open your ears, and 
your eyes." — Wright's Athens, p. 33. "I promise you, this was enough to discourage thee." — 
Pilgrim's Progress, p. 446. " Ere you remark an other's sin, Bid thy own conscience look within." 

— Gay. "Permit that I share in thy woe, The privilege can you refuse?" — Perfect's Poems, p. 6. 
" Ah I Strephon, how can you despise Her who without thy pity dies ?" — Swift's Poems, p. 340. 

" Thy verses, friend, are Kidderminster stuff, 
And I must own, you've measur'd out enough." — Shenstone. 

" This day, dear Bee, is thy nativity ; 
Had Fate a luckier one, she'd give it ye." — Swift. 

Under Note III.— WHO and WHICH. 

" Exactly like so many puppets, who are moved by wires." — Blair's Rhet., p. 462. " They are 
my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt." — Leviticus, xxv, 42. " Behold I 
and the children which God hath given me." — Heb., ii, 13 ; Webster's Bible, and others. " And 
he sent Eliakim which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe." — 2 Kings, xix, 2. " In 
a short time the streets were cleared of the corpses who filled them." — M'llvaine's Lect., p. 411. 
" They are not of those which teach things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." — Bar- 
clay's Works, i, 435. " As a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the 
flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces." — Micah, v, 8. 
"Frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water." — Rasselas, p. 10. 
"He had two sons, one of which was adopted by the family of Maximus." — Lempriere, w. 
JEmylius. "And the ants, who are collected by the smell, are burned by fire." — The Friend, xii, 
49. " They being the agents, to which this thing was trusted." — Nixon's Parser, p. 139. "A 
packhorse who is driven constantly forwards and backwards to market." — Locke: Joh. Diet. 
" By instructing children, the affection of which will be increased." — Nixon's Parser, p. 136. "He 
had a comely young woman which travelled with him." — Hutchinson's Hist, i, 29. " A butterfly, 
which thought himself an accomplished traveller, happened to light upon a beehive." — Inst, p. 143. 
" It is an enormous elephant of stone, who disgorges from his uplifted trunk a vast but graceful 
shower." — Zmobia, i, 150. "He was met by a dolphin, who sometimes swam before him, and 
sometimes behind him." — Edward's First Lessons in Gram., p. 34. 



" That Caesar's horse, who, as fame goes, 
Had corns upon his feet and toes, 



Was not by half so tender-hooft, 

Nor trod upon the ground so soft." — Hudibras, p. 6. 



Under Note IV. — Nouns op Multitude. 

"He instructed and fed the crowds who surrounded him." — Murray's Exercises, p. 52. "The 
court, who gives currency to manners, ought to be exemplary." — Ibid. " Nor does he describe 
classes of sinners who do not exist." — Anti- Slavery Magazine, i, 27. "Because the nations 
among whom they took their rise, were not savage." — Murray's Gram., p. 113. "Among 
nations who are in the first and rude periods of society." — Blair's Rhet, p. 60. " The martial 
spirit of those nations, among whom the feudal government prevailed." — lb., p. 374. "France 
who was in alliance with Sweden." — Smollett's Voltaire, vi, 187. "That faction in England 
who most powerfully opposed his arbitrary pretensions." — Mrs. Macaulay's Hist, iii, 21. "We 
may say, 'the crowd, who was going up the street.' " — Cobbett's Gram., f 204. " Such members 
of the Convention who formed this Lyceum, as have subscribed this Constitution." — New-York 
Lyceum. 

Under Note Y. — Confusion of Senses. 

" The possessor shall take a particular form to show its case." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 53. " Of 
which reasons the principal one is, that no Noun, properly so called, implies its own Presence." 
— Harris's Hermes, p. 76. " Boston is a proper noun, which distinguishes it from other cities." — 
Sanborn's Gram., p. 22. " Conjunction means union, or joining together. It is used to join or 
unite either words or sentences." — lb., p. 20. "The word interjection means throvm among. 
It is interspersed among other words to express sudden or strong emotion." — lb., p. 21. " In^ 
deed, or in very deed, may better be written separately, as they formerly were." — Cardell's Gram. y 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX.— RULE X. — PRONOUNS. — ERRORS. 561 

12mo, p. 89. " Alexander, on the contrary, is a particular name, and is restricted to distinguish 
him alone." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 25. "As an indication that nature itself had changed her 
course." — Hist, of America, p. 9. " Of removing from the United States and her territories the 
free people of colour." — Jenifer. "So that gh may be said not to have their proper sound." — 
Webster's El. Spelling- Book, p. 10. "Are we to welcome the loathsome harlot, and introduce it 
to our children?" — Maturin's Sermons, p. 167. "The first question is this, 'Is reputable, na- 
tional, and present use, which, for brevity's sake, I shall hereafter simply denominate good use, 
always uniform in her decisions?" — Campbells Rhet, p. 171. "Time is always masculine, on 
account of its mighty efficacy. Virtue is feminine from its beauty, and its being the object of 
love." — Murray's Gram., p. 37; Blair's, 125; Sanborn's, 189; Emmons's, 13; Putnam's, 25; 
Fisk's, 57; Ingersolls, 26; Greenleaf's, 21. See also Blair's Rhet., p. 76. " "When you speak to 
a person or thing, it is in the second person." — Bartlett's Manual, Part ii, p. 27. " You now know 
the noun, for it means name." — Ibid. " T. "What do you see? P. A book. T. Spell it." — R. 
W. Green's Gram., p. 12. " T. What do you see now ? P. Two books. T. Spell them." — Ibid. 
" If the United States lose her rights as a nation." — Liberator, Vol. ix, p. 24. " When a person 
or thing is addressed or spoken to, it is in the second person." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 7. " When 
a person or thing is spoken of, it is in the third person." — Ibid. " The ox, that ploughs the 
ground, has the same plural termination also, oxen." — Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 40. 

" Hail, happy States ! thine is the blissful seat, 
Where nature's gifts and art's improvements meet." 

Everett: Columbian Orator, -p. 239. 

Under Note YI. — The Relative THAT. 

(1.) "This is the most useful art which men possess." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 275. "The 
earliest accounts which history gives us concerning all nations, bear testimony to these facts." — 
Blair's Rhet,, p. 379 ; Jamieson's, 300. "Mr. Addison was the first who attempted a regular in- 
quiry" [into the pleasures of taste.] — Blair's Rhet, p. 28. "One of the first who introduced it 
was Montesquieu." — Murray's Gram., p. 125. " Massillon is perhaps the most eloquent writer 
of sermons which modern times have produced." — Blair's Rhet, p. 289. " The greatest barber 
who ever lived, is our guiding star and prototype." — Hart's Figaro, No. 6. 

(2.) " When prepositions are subjoined to nouns, they are generally the same which are sub- 
joined to the verbs, from which the nouns are derived." — Priestley's Gram., p. 157. "The same 
proportions which are agreeable in a model, are not agreeable in a large building." — Karnes, El. 
of Grit, ii, 343. "The same ornaments, which we admire in a private apartment, are unseemly 
in a temple." — Murray's Gram., p. 128. "The same whom John saw also in the sun." — Milton, 
P. L., B. hi, 1. 623. 

(3.) " Who can ever be ^isy, who is reproached with his own ill conduct ?" — Thomas a Kempis, 
p. 72. "Who is she who comes clothed in a robe of green?" — Inst, p. 143. "Who who has 
either sense or civility, does not perceive the vileness of profanity?" 

(I.) " The second person denotes the person or thing which is spoken to." — Compendium in 
Kirkham's Gram. " The third person denotes the person or thing which is spoken of" — Ibid. 
" A passive verb denotes action received or endured by the person or thing which is its nomina- 
tive." — Ibid, and Gram., p. 157. "The princes and states who had neglected or favoured the 
growth of this power." — Bolpigbroke, on History, p. 222. "The nominative expresses the name 
of the person or thing which acts, or which is the subject of discourse." — Hiley's Gram., p. 19. 

(5.) "Authors who deal in long sentences, are very apt to be faulty." — Blair's Rhet, p. 108. 
"Writers who deal in long sentences, are very apt to be faulty." — Murray's Gram., p. 313. " The 
neuter gender denotes objects which are neither male nor female." — Merchant's Gram., p. 26. 
"The neuter gender denotes things which have no sex." — Kirkham's Compendium. "Nouns 
which denote objects neither male nor female, are of the neuter gender." — Wells's Grain., 1st Ed., 
p. 49. " Objects and ideas which have been long familiar, make too faint an impression to give 
an agreeable exercise to our faculties." — Blair's Rhet, p. 50. " Cases which custom has left 
dubious, are certainly within the grammarian's province." — Murray's Gram., p. 164. "Substan- 
tives which end in ery, signify action or habit." — lb., p. 132. " Afte^all which can be done to 
render the definitions and rules of grammar accurate," &c. — lb., p. 36. "Possibly, all which I 
have said, is known and taught." — A. B. Johnson's Plan of a Diet, pt 15. 

(6.) "It is a strong and manly style which should chiefly be studied." — Blair's Rhet, p. 261. 
"It is this which chiefly makes a division appear neat and elegant." — lb., p. 313. "I hope it 
is not I with whom he is displeased." — Murray's Key, R. 17. "When it is this alone which 
renders the sentence obscure." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 242. " This sort of full and ample asser- 
tion, Htis this which,' is fit to be used when a proposition of importance is laid down." — Blair's 
Rhet, p. 197. "She is the person whom I understood it to have been." See Murray's Gram., 
p. 181. "Was it thou, or the wind, who shut the door?" — Inst, p. 143. "It was not I who 
shut it."— lb. 

(7.) "He is not the person who it seemed he was." — Murray's Gram., p. 181 ; Ingersoll's, p. 
147. "He is really the person who he appeared to be." — Same. "She is not now the woman 
whom they represented her to have been." — Same. " An only child, is one who has neither 
brother nor sister; a child alone, is one who l's left by itself" — Blair's Rhet, p. 98; Jamieson's, 
71; Murray's Gram., 303. 

36 



562 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Under Note VII. — Relative Clauses Connected. 

(1.) "A Substantive, or Noun, is the name of a thing ; of whatever we conceive in any way 
to subsist, or of which we have any notion." — Lowth's Gram., p. 14. (2.) " A Substantive or 
noun is the name of any thing that exists, or of which we have any notion." — L. Murray's 
Gram., p. 27; Alger's, 15; Bacon's, 9; E. Devises, 8; A. Flint's, 10; Folker's, 5; Hamuli's, 9; 
Ingersoll's, 14; Merchant's, 25; Pond's, 15; S. Putnam's, 10; Rand's, 9; Russell's, 9; T.Smith's, 
12; and others. (3.) "A substantive or noun is the name of any person, place, or thing that 
exists, or of which we can have an idea." — Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. 6. (4.) "A noun is the 
name of anything that exists, or of which we form an idea." — Hallock's Gram., p. 37. (5.) "A 
Noun is the name of any person, place, object, or thing, that exists, or which we may con- 
ceive to exist." — D. G. Allen's Grammcclic Guide, p. 19. (6.) "The name of everything that 
exists, or of which we cm form any notion, is a noun." — Fish's Murray's Gram., p. 56. (7.) " An 
allegory is the representation of some one thing by an other that resembles it, and which is made 
to stand for it." — Murray's Gram., p. 341. (8.) "Had he exhibited such sentences as contained 
ideas inapplicable to young minds, or which were of a trivial or injurious nature." — Murray's Gram., 
Vol. ii, p. v. (9.) " Man would have others obey him, even his own kind ; but he will not obey God, 
that is so much above him, and who made him." — Penn's Maxims. (10.) " But what we may con- 
sider here, and which few Persons have taken Notice of, is," &c. — Brightland's Gram., p. 117. 
(11.) " The Compiler has not inserted such verbs as are irregular only in familiar writing or dis- 
course, and which are improperly terminated by t, instead of ed."— Murray's Gram., p. 107; 
Fish's, 81; Hart's, 68; Ingersoll's, 104; Merchant's, 63. (12.) " The remaining parts of speech, 
which are called the indeclinable parts, or that admit of no variations, will not detain us long." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 84. 

Under Note VIII. — The Relative and Preposition. 

"In the temper of mind he was then." — Addison, Sped, No. 54. "To bring them into the 
condition I am at present." — Spect, No. 520. "In the posture I lay." — Swift's Gulliver. "In 
the sense it is sometimes taken." — Barclay's Worhs, i, 527. " Tools and utensils are said to be 
right, when they serve for the uses they were made." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 99. "If, in the 
extreme danger I now am, I do not imitate the behaviour of those," &c. — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 
193. " News was brought, that Darius was but twenty miles from the place they then were." — , 
lb., ii, 113. " Alexander, upon hearing this news, continued four days in the place he then was." 
— lb., ii, 113. "To read, in the best manner it is now taught." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 246. 
" It may be expedient to give a few directions as to the manner it should be studied." — Hallock's 
Gram., p. 9. " Participles are words derived from verbs, and convey an idea of the acting of an 
agent, or the suffering of an object, with the time it happens." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 50. 

" Had I but serv'd my GTod with half the zeal 
I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies." — Beauties of Shah., p. 173. . 

Under Note IX. — Adverbs for Relatives. 
"In compositions where pronunciation has no place." — Blair's Rhet, p. 101. " They framed a 
protestation, where they repeated their claims." — Hume's Hist. "Which have reference to Sub- 
stances, where Sex never had existence." — Harris's Hermes, p. 43i " Which denote substances 
where sex never had existence." — Murray's Gram., p. 38; Fish's, 57. "There is no rule given 
how truth may be found out." — Walker's Particles, p. 160. "The nature of the objects whence 
they are taken." — Blair's Rhet, p. 165. " That darkness of character, where we can see no heart." 
— Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 236. " The states where they negotiated." — Formey's Belles- Lettres, p. 
159. " Till the motives whence men act be known." — Beattie's Moral Science, p. 262. " He as- 
signs the principles whence their power of pleasing flows." — Blair's Rhet, p. 19. "But I went 
on, and so finished this History in that form as it now appears." — SeweVs Preface, p. v. "By 
prepositions we express the cause why, the instrument by which, wherewith, or the manner how 
a thing is done." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 128 ; John Burn's, 121. "They are not such in the 
language whence they are derived." — Town's Analysis, p. 13. "I find it very hard to persuade 
several, that their passions are affected by words from whence they have no ideas." — Burke, on the 
Sublime, p. 95. " The known end, then, why we are placed in a state of so much affliction, haz- 
ard, and difficulty, is our improvement in virtue and piety." — Butler's Anal., p. 109. 

" Yet such his acts, as Greeks unborn shall telL 
And curse the battle where their fathers fell." — Pope, ll., B. x, 1. 61. 

Under Note X. — Repeat the Noun. 
"Youth may be thoughtful, but it is not very common." — Webster's El. Spelling-Booh, p. 85. 
"A proper name is that given to one person or thing." — Bartlett's School Manual, ii, 27. "A 
common name is that given to many things of the same sort." — Ibid. " This rule is often vio- 
lated; some instances of which are annexed." — Murray's Gram., p. 149 ; Ingersoll's, 237. "This 
is altogether careless writing. It renders style often obscure, always embarrassed and inelegant." 
— Blair's Rhet, p. 106. "Every inversion which is not governed by this rule, will be disrelished 
by every one of taste." — Karnes, El of Crit, ii, 62. " A proper diphthong is that in which both 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. — RULE X. — PRONOUNS. — ERRORS. 563 

the vowels are sounded." — Murray's Gram., p. 9 ; Alger's, 11 ; Bacon's, 8 ; Merchant's, 9 ; Riley's, 
3 • and others. " An improper Diphthong is one in which only one of the two Yowels is sounded." 
— Lennie's Gram., p. 5. " Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his descendants, are called Hebrews." — 
Wood's Diet. " Every word in our language, of more than one syllable, has one of them distin- 
guished from the rest in this manner." — Murray's Gram., p. 236. "Two consonants proper to 
beo-in a word must not be separated ; as, fa-ble, sti-fle. But when they come between two vow- 
els, and are such as cannot begin a word, they must be divided; as, ut-most, un-der." — lb., p. 22. 
" Shall the intellect alone feel no pleasures in its energy, when we allow them to the grossest en- 
ergies of appetite and sense?" — Harris's Hermes, p. 298 ; Murray's Gram., 289. "No man hath 
a propensity to vice as such : on the contrary, a wicked deed disgusts him, and makes him abhor 
the author." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 66. " The same that belong to nouns, belong also to pro- 
nouns." — Greenleafs Gram., p. 8. ""What is Language? It is the means of communicating 
thoughts from one to another." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 15. "A simple word is that which is 
not made up of more than one." — Adam's Gram., p. 4 ; Gould's, p. 4. " A compound word is 
that which is made up of two or more words." — lb. " When a conjunction is to be supplied, it 
is called Asyndeton." — Adam's Gram., p. 235. 

Under Note XI. — Place op the Relative. 

"It gives a meaning to words, which they would not have." — Murray's Gram., p. 244. "There 
are many words in the English language, that are sometimes used as adjectives, and sometimes 
as adverbs." — lb., p. 114. "Which do not more effectually show the varied intentions of the 
mind, than the auxiliaries do which are used to form the potential mood." — lb., p. 67. "These 
accents make different impressions on the mind, which will be the subject of a following specula- 
tion." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 108. "And others very much differed from the writer's words, 
to whom they were ascribed." — Pref. to Lily's Gram., p. xii. " Where there is nothing in the 
sense which requires the last sound to be elevated, an easy faU will be proper." — Murray's Gram., 
Vol. i, p. 250; Bullions's E. Gram., 167. "There is an ellipsis of the verb in the last clause, 
which, when you supply, you find it necessary to use the adverb not." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 176; 
Murray's Gram., 368. " Study is singular number, because its nominative / is, with which it 
agrees." — Smith's New Gram., p. 22. "John is the person, or, thou art who is in error." — 
Wright's Gram., p. 136. " For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." — 2 Cor., 
v, 21. 

"Take that of me, my friend, who have the power 
To seal the accuser's lips." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 268. 

Under Note XII.— WHAT for THAT. 

" I had no idea but what the story was true." — Brovm's Inst, p. 144. " The post-boy is not so 
weary but what he can whistle." — lb. "He had no intimation but what the men were honest." 
— lb. " Neither Lady Haversham nor Miss Mildmay will ever believe, but what I have been 
entirely to blame." — See Priestley's Gram., p. 93. "I am not satisfied, but what the integrity of 
our friends is more essential to our welfare than their knowledge of the world." — Ibid. "There 
is, indeed, nothing in poetry, so entertaining or descriptive, but what a didactic writer of genius 
may be allowed to introduce in some part of his work." — Blair's Rhet, p. 401. "Brasidas, being 
bit by a mouse he had catched, let it slip out of his fingers : ' No creature, (says he,) is so con- 
temptible but what may provide for its own safety, if it have courage.' " — Plutarch : Karnes, El. 
of Crit, Vol. i, p. 81. 

Under Note XIII. — Adjectives for Antecedents. 

" In narration, Homer is, at all times, remarkably concise, which renders him lively and agree- 
able." — Blair's Rhet, p. 435. " It is usual to talk of a nervous, a feeble, or a spirited style ; 
which are plainly the characters of a writer's manner of thinking." — lb., p. 92. " It is too violent 
an alteration, if any alteration were necessary, which none is." — Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, 
p. 134. " Some men are too ignorant to be humble, without which, there can be no docility." — 
Berkley's Alciphron, p. 385. " Judas declared him innocent ; which he could not be, had he in any 
respect deceived the disciples." — Porteus. " They supposed him to be innocent, which he certainly 
was not." — Murray's Gram., VoL i, p. 50 ; Emmons's, 25. "They accounted him honest, which he 
certainly was not." — Fetch's Comp. Gram., p. 89. " Be accurate in all you say or do ; for it is import- 
ant in all the concerns of life." — Brown's Inst, p. 145. " Every law supposes the transgressor to 
be wicked ; which indeed he is, if the law is just." — lb. " To be pure in heart, pious, and be- 
nevolent, which all may be, constitutes human happiness." — Murray's Gram., p. 232. "To be 
dexterous in danger, is a virtue; but to court danger to show it, is weakness." — Penn's Maxims. 

Under Note XIV. — Sentences for Antecedents. 
" This seems not so allowable in prose ; which the following erroneous examples will demon- 
strate." — Murray's Gram., p. 175. "The accent is laid upon the last syllable of a word; which 
is favourable to the melody." — Karnes, El. of Crit, ii, 86. " Every fine consists of ten syllables, 
five short and five long ; from which there are but two exceptions, both of them rare." — lb., ii, 
89. " The soldiers refused obedience, which has been explained." — Nixon's Parser, p. 128. 
"Caesar overcame Pompey, which was lamented." — lb. "The crowd hailed William, which was 



564 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

expected." — lb. "The tribunes resisted Scipio, which was anticipated." — lb. "The censors re- 
proved vice, which was admired." — lb. "The generals neglected discipline, which has been 
proved." — lb. " There would be two nominatives to the verb was, which is improper." — Adam's 
Lat. Gram., p. 205; Goulds, 202. "His friend bore the abuse very patiently; which served to 
increase his rudeness: it produced, at length, contempt and insolence." — Murray's Gram., Vol. 
i, p. 50; Emmons's, 25. "Almost all compounded sentences, are more or less elliptical; some 
examples of which may be seen under the different parts of speech." — Murray's Gram., p. 217; 
Guy's, 90; B. C. Smith's, 180; Ingersoll's, 153; Fish's, 144; J. M. Putnam's, 137 ; Weld's, 190, 
Weld's Imp. Ed., 214. 

Under Note XV. — Repeat the Pronoun. 

" In things of Nature's workmanship, whether we regard their internal or external structure, 
beauty and design are equally conspicuous." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 269. "It puzzles the reader, 
by making him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper or figurative sense." — 
lb., ii, 231. "Neither my obligations to the muses, nor expectations from them, are so great." — 
Cowley's Preface. " The Fifth Annual Report of the Anti-Slavery Society of Ferrisburgh and 
vicinity." — Liberator, ix, 69. " Meaning taste in its figurative as well as proper sense." — Karnes, 
El. of Grit, ii, 360. " Every measure in which either your personal or political character is con- 
cerned." — Junius, Let. ix. . " A jealous, righteous God has often punished such in themselves or 
offspring." — Extracts, p. 179. " Hence their civil and religious history are inseparable." — Milman's 
Jews, i, 7. " Esau thus carelessly threw away both his civil and religious inheritance." — lb., i, 
24. "This intelligence excited not only our hopes, but fears likewise." — Jaudon's Gram., p. 170. 
" In what manner our defect of principle and ruling manners have completed the ruin of the na- 
tional spirit of union." — Brown's Estimate, i, 77. "Considering her descent, her connexion, and 
present intercourse." — Webster's Essays, p. 85. " His own and wife's wardrobe are packed up in 
a firkin." — Parker and Fox's Gram., Part i, p. 73. 

Under Note XYI. — Change the Antecedent. 

" The sound of e end o long, in their due degrees, will be preserved, and clearly distinguished." 
— Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 242. "If any person should be inclined to think," &c, "the author 
takes the liberty to suggest to them," &c. — lb., Pref, p. iv. " And he walked in all the ways of 
Asa his father; he turned not aside from it." — 1 Kings, xxii, 43. "If ye from your hearts for- 
give not every one his brother their trespasses." — Matt., xviii, 35. " Nobody ever fancied they 
were slighted by him, or had the courage to think themselves his betters." — Collier's Antoninus, 
p. 8. " And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the 
house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son." — Gen., xxvii, 15. " Where all the attention 
of man is given to their own indulgence." — Maturin's Sermons, p. 181. " The idea of & father is 
a notion superinduced to the substance, or man — let man be what it will." — Locke's Essay, i, 219. 
" Leaving every one to do as they list." — Barclay's Works, i, 460. " Each body performed his 
part handsomely." — J. Flint's Gram., p. 15. " This block of marble rests on two layers of stone, 
bound together with lead, which, however, has not prevented the Arabs from forcing out several 
of them." — Parker and Fox's Gram., Part i, p. 72. 

" Love gives to every power a double power, 
Above their functions and their offices." — Shakspeare. 

EULE XI.— PKONOUNS. 

When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plu- 
rality, the Pronoun must agree with it in the plural number : as, " The 
council were divided in their sentiments." — " The Christian ivorld are 
beginning to awake out of their slumber." — G. Simeon. " Whatever 
Adam's posterity lost through him, that and more they gain in Christ." 
— J. Phipps. 

"To this, one pathway gently- winding leads, 

Where march a train with baskets on their heads." 

— Pope, Iliad, B. xviii, 1. 657. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XL 

Obs. 1. — The collective noun, or noun of multitude, being a name that signifies many, may in 
general be taken in either of two ways, according to the intention of the user : that is, either 
with reference to the aggregate as one thing, in which sense it will accord with the neuter pro- 
noun it or which ; or with reference to the individuals, so as to accord with a plural pronoun 
they, their, them, or who, masculine, or feminine, as the individuals of the assemblage may happen 
to be. The noun itself, being literally singular both in form and in fact, has not unfrequently 
some article or adjective before it that implies unity ; so that the interpretation of it in a plural 
sense by the pronoun or verb, was perhaps not improperly regarded by the old grammarians as 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. — KULE XI. — PRONOUNS. — ERRORS. 565 

an example of the figure syllepsis : as, "Liberty should reach every individual of a people, as they 
all share one common nature." — Spectator, No. 287. 

" Thus urg'd the chief; a generous troop appears, 
Who spread their bucklers and advance their spears." — Pope, Iliad, B. xx, 1. 720. 
Obs. 2. — Many of our grammarians say, " When a noun of multitude is preceded by a defini- 
tive word, which clearly limits the sense to an aggregate with an idea of unity, it requires a verb 
and pronoun to agree with it in the singular number." — Murray's Gram., p. 153 ; Ingersoll's, 249 ■ 
Fisk's, 122 ; Fowler's, 528. But this principle, I apprehend, cannot be sustained by an appeal to 
general usage. The instances in practice are not few, in which both these senses are clearly in- 
dicated with regard to the same noun ; as, " Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, 
and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgement require 
secrecy." — Constitution of the United States, Art. i, Sec. 5. "I mean that part of mankind who 
are known by the name of women's men, or beaux." — Addison, Sped., No. 536. " A set of men 
who are common enough in the world." — Ibid. " It is vain for a people to expect to be free, un- 
less they are first willing to be virtuous." — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 397. " For this people's 
heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed." — Matt., 
xiii, 15. " T/iis enemy had now enlarged their confederacy, and made themselves more formidable 
than before." — Life of Antoninus, p. 62. 

" Thus from the tents the fervent legion swarms ; 
So loud their clamour, and so keen their arms." — Pope, Iliad, B. xvi, 1. 320. 

Obs. 3. — Most collective nouns of the neuter gender, may take the regular plural form, and be 
represented by a pronoun in the third person, plural, neuter; as, " The nations will enforce their 
laws." This construction comes under Rule 10th, as does also the singular, "The nation will en- 
force its laws;" for, in either case, the agreement is entirely literal. Half of Murray's Rule 4th 
is therefore needless. To Rule 1 1th above, there are properly no exceptions ; because the num- 
ber of the pronoun is itself the index to the sense in which the antecedent is therein taken. It 
does not follow, however, but that there may be violations of the rule, or of the notes under it, 
by the adoption of one number when the other would be more correct, or in better taste. A 
collection of things inanimate, as a fleet, a heap, a row, a tier, a bundle, is seldom, if ever, taken 
distributively. with a plural pronoun. For a further elucidation of the construction of collective 
nouns, see Rule 15th, and the observations under it. 

NOTES TO RULE XI. 

Note I. — A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a pronoun in 
the third person, singular, neuter ; as, " "When a legislative body makes laws, it 
acts for itself only ; but when it makes grants or contracts, it acts as a party." — 
Webster's Essays, p. 40. "A civilized 'people has no right to violate its solemn 
obligations, because the other party is uncivilized." — WaylancPs Moral Science, 
p. 314. 

Note IT. — When a collective noun is followed by two or more words which must 
each in some sense agree with it, uniformity of number is commonly preferable to 
diversity, and especially to such a mixture as puts the singular both before and after 
the plural ; as, " That ingenious nation who have done so much honour to modern 
literature, possesses, in an emineut degree, the talent of narration." — Blair's Rhet., 
p. 364. Better : " which has done." 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XI. 

Under the Rule itself. — The Idea of Plurality. 

" The jury will be confined till it agrees on a verdict." — Brown's Inst, p. 145. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the pronoun it is of the singular number, and does not correctly represent 
its antecedent jury, which is a collective noun conveying rather the idea of plurality. But, according to Rule 
11th, " When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, tue pronoun must agree with 
it in the plural number." Therefore, it should be they; thus, " The jury will be confined till they agree on a 
verdict."] 

"And mankind directed its first cares towards the needful." — Formey's Belles- Lettres, p. 114. 
"It is difficult to deceive a free people respecting its true interest." — Life of Charles XII, p. 67. 
" All the virtues of mankind are to be counted upon a few fingers, but his follies and vices are 
innumerable." — Swift. "Every sect saith, ' Give me liberty :' but give it him, and to his power, 
he will not yield it to any body else." — Oliver Cromwell. "Behold, the people shall rise up as a 
great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion." — Numbers, xxiii, 24. "For all flesh had cor- 
rupted his way upon the earth." — Gen., vi, 12. " There happened to the army a very strange 
accident, which put it in great consternation." — Goldsmith. 



56$ THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Under Note I. — The Idea of Unity. 

" The meeting went on in their business as a united body." — Foster's Report, i, 69. " Every 
religious association has an undoubted right to adopt a creed for themselves." — Gould's Advocate, 
hi, 405. " It would therefore be extremely difficult to raise an insurrection in that State against 
their own government." — Webster's Essays, p. 104. " The mode in which a Lyceum can apply 
themselves in effecting a reform in common schools." — New York Lyceum. "Hath a nation 
changed their gods, which are yet no gods?" — Jeremiah, ii, 11. " In the holy scriptures each of 
the twelve tribes of Israel is often called by the name of the patriarch, from whom they de- 
scended." — J. Q. Adams's Rhet., ii, 331. 

Under Note II. — Uniformity of Number. 

" A nation, by the reparation of their own wrongs, achieves a triumph more glorious than any 
field of blood can ever give." — J. Q. Adams. " The English nation, from which we descended, 
have been gaining their liberties inch by inch." — Webster's Essays, p. 45. " If a Yearly Meeting 
should undertake to alter its fundamental doctrines, is there any, power in the society to prevent 
their doing so?" — Foster's Report, i, 96. "There is a generation that curseth their father, and 
doth not bless their mother." — Proverbs, xxx, 11. " There is a generation that are pure in their 
own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness." — lb., xxx, 12. "He hath not beheld in- 
iquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel : the Lord his God is with him, and 
the shout of a king is among them." — Numb., xxiii, 21. " My people hath forgotten me, they 
have burnt incense to vanity." — Jer., xviii, 15. "When a quarterly meeting hath come to a 
judgment respecting any difference, relative to any monthly meeting belonging to them," &c. — 
Extracts, p. 195; N. E. Discip., p. 118. " The number of such compositions is every day increas- 
ing, and appear to be limited only by the pleasure or conveniency of the writer." — Booth's Introd. 
to Diet, p. 37. "The church of Christ hath the same power now as ever, and are led by the 
same Spirit into the same practices." — Barclay's Works, i, 477. "The army, whom the chief had 
thus abandoned, pursued meanwhile their miserable march." — Lock-hart's Napoleon, ii, 165. 

KULE XII.— PKONOUNS. 

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, it 
must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken to- 
gether : as, " Minos and TJiales sung to the lyre the laws which they com- 
posed." — Steabo : Blair's Rhet., p. 379. " Saul and Jonathan were 
lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not 
divided."— 2 Sam., i, 23. 

" Rhesus and Rhodius then unite their rills, 
Caresus roaring down the stony hills." — Pope, II. , B. xii, 1. 17. 

Exception First. 

When two or more antecedents connected by and serve merely to describe one person or thing, 
they are either in apposition or equivalent to one name, and do not require a plural pronoun ; as, 
" This great philosopher and statesman continued in public life till his eighty-second year." — 
" The same Spirit, light, and life, which enlighteneth, also sanctifieth, and there is not an other." — 
Penington. "My Constantius and Philetus confesseth me two years older when I writ it." — 
Cowley's Preface. "Remember these, Jacob and Israel! for thou art my servant." — Isaiah, 
xhv, 21. "In that strength and cogency ivhich renders eloquence powerful." — Blair's Rhet., p. 252. 

Exception Second. 

"When two antecedents connected by and are emphatically distinguished, they belong to dif- 
ferent propositions, and, if singular, do not require a plural pronoun; as, " The butler, and not the 
baker, was restored to his office." — " The good man, and the sinner too, shall have his reward." — 
" Truth, and truth only, is worth seeking for its own sake." — "It is the sense in which the word is 
used, and not the letters of which it is composed, that determines what is the part of speech to which 
it belongs." — Gobbett's Gram., ^[130. 

Exception Third. 
When two or more antecedents connected by and are preceded by the adjective each, every, or 
no, they are taken separately, and do not require a plural pronoun; as, " Every plant and every 
tree produces others after its own kind." — " It is the cause of every reproach and distress which 
has attended your government." — Junius, Let. xxxv. But if the latter be a collective noun, the 
pronoun may be plural; as, " Each minister and each church act according to their own impres- 
sions." — Dr. M'Cariee. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XII. 
Obs. 1. — When the antecedents are of different persons, the first person is preferred to the 
second, and the second to the third; as, " John, and thou, and I, are attached to our country." — ' 



CHAP. V.] SYNTAX. — EULE XIII. PRONOUNS. — OBSERVATIONS. 567 

" John and thou are attached to your country." — " The Lord open some light, and show both you 
and me our inheritance !" — Baxter. " Thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your 
priesthood." — Numbers, xviii, 1. 

" For all are friends in heaven ; all faithful friends ; 
And many friendships in the days of Time 
Begun, are lasting here, and growing still : 

So grows ours evermore, both theirs and mine.' 1 ' 1 — Pollok, G. of T., B. v, 1. 335. 
Obs. 2. — The gender of pronouns, except in the third person singular, is distinguished only by 
their antecedents. In expressing that of a pronoun which has antecedents of different genders, 
the masculine should be preferred to the feminine, and the feminine to the neuter. The parser of 
English should remember, that this is a principle of General Grammar. 

Obs 3. — "When two words are taken separately as nominatives, they ought not to be united in 
the same sentence as antecedents. In the following example, therefore, them should be it: " The 
first has a lenis, and the other an asper over them." — Printer's Gram., p. 246. Better thus: "The 
first has a lenis over it, and the other an asper." 

Obs. 4. — Nouns that stand as nominatives or antecedents, are sometimes taken conjointly when 
there is no conjunction expressed; as, "The historian, the orator, the philosopher, address them- 
selves primarily to the understanding: their direct aim is, to inform, to persuade, to instruct." — 
Blair 's Rhet, p. 377. The copulative and may here be said to be understood, because the verb 
and the pronouns are plural ; but it seems better in general, either to introduce the connective 
word, or to take the nouns disjunctively: as, "They have all the copiousness, the fervour, the in- 
culcating method, that is allowable and graceful in an orator; perhaps too much of it for a writer." 
— Blair's Rhet., p. 343. To this, however, there may be exceptions, — cases in which the plural 
form is to be preferred, — especially in poetry ; as, 

" Faith, justice, heaven itself, now quit their hold, 
When to false fame the captive heart is sold." — Brown, on Satire. 

Obs. 5. — "When two or more antecedents connected by and are nominally alike, one or more of 
them may be understood ; and, in such a case, the pronoun must still be plural, as agreeing with 
all the nouns, whether expressed or implied : as, " But intellectual and moral culture ought to 
go hand in hand ; they will greatly help each other." — Dr. Weeks. Here they stands for intellec- 
tual culture and moral culture. The following example is incorrect : " The Commanding and Un- 
limited mode may be used in an absolute sense, or without a name or substitute on which it can 
depend." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 80. Change it to they, or and to or. See Note 6th to Rule 
16th. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XII. 
Pronouns with Antecedents connected by AND. 

" Discontent and sorrow manifested itself in his countenance." — Brown's Inst, p. 146. 

[Foemulb. — Not proper, because the pronoun itself is of the singular number, and does not correctly repre- 
sent its two antecedents discontent and sorrow, which are connected by and, and taken conjointly. But, accord- 
ing to Rule 12th, "When a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, it must agree with then, 
jointly in the plural, because they are taken together." Therefore, itself should be themselves; thus, "Discon- 
tent and sorrow manifested themselves in his countenance."] 

" Both conversation and public speaking became more simple and plain, such as we now find 
it." — Blair's Rhet, p. 59. " Idleness and ignorance, if it be suffered to proceed, &c." — Johnson : 
Priestley's Gram., p. 186. " Avoid questions and strife; it shows a busy and contentious disposi- 
tion." — Wm. Penn. "To receive the gifts and benefits of God with thanksgiving, and witness it 
blessed and sanctified to us by the word and prayer, is owned by us." — Barclay's Works, i, 213. 
" Both minister and magistrate are compelled to choose between his duty and his reputation." — 
Junius, p. 9. " All the sincerity, truth, and faithfulness, or disposition of heart or conscience to 
approve it, found among rational creatures, necessarily originate from God." — Brown's Divinity^ 
p. 12. "Your levity and heedlessness, if it continue, will prevent all substantial improvement." 
— Brown's Inst. p. 14*7. "Poverty and obscurity will oppress him only who esteems it oppres- 
sive." — lb. " Good sense and refined policy are obvious to few, because it cannot be discovered 
but by a train of reflection." — lb. " Avoid haughtiness of behaviour, and affectation of manners : it 
implies a want of solid merit." — lb. " If love and unity continue, it will make you partakers of one 
an other's joy." — lb. "Suffer not jealousy and distrust to enter: it will destroy, like a canker, 
every germ of friendship." — lb. "Hatred and animosity are inconsistent with Christian charity: 
guard, therefore, against the slightest indulgence of it." — lb. " Every man is entitled to liberty 
of conscience, and freedom of opinion, if he does not pervert it to the injury of others." — lb. 

" "With the azure and vermilion 
"Which is mix'd for my pavilion." — Byron's Manfred, p. 9. 

RULE XIII.— PRONOUNS. 

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by or or nor, 
it nmst agree with them singly, and not as if taken together : as ; " James 



568 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

or John will favour us with Ms company/' — " Neither wealth nor honour 
can secure the happiness of its votaries." 

" What virtue or what mental grace, 
But men unqualified and base 

Will boast it their possession ?" — Cowper, on Friendship. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIII. 

Obs. 1. — When two or more singular antecedents are connected by or or nor, the pronoun 
which represents them, ought in general to be singular, because or and nor are disjunctives; and, 
to form a complete concord, the nouns ought also to be of the same person and gender, that the 
pronoun may agree in all respects with each of them. But when plural nouns are connected in 
this manner, the pronoun will of course be plural, though it still agrees with the antecedents 
singly; as, "Neither riches nor honours ever satisfy their pursuers." Sometimes, when different 
numbers occur together, we find the plural noun put last, and the pronoun made plural after both, 
especially if this noun is a mere substitute for the other ; as, 

" What's justice to a man, or laws, 
That never comes within their claws." — Hudibras. 

Obs. 2. — When antecedents of different persons, numbers, or genders, are connected by or or 
nor, they cannot very properly be represented by any pronoun that is not applicable to each of 
them. The following sentences are therefore inaccurate ; or at least they contradict the teach- 
ings of their own authors: " Either thou or 1 am greatly mistaken, in our judgment on this sub- 
ject." — Murray's Key, p. 184. " Your character, which 1, or any other writer, may now value 
ourselves by (upon) drawing." — Swift: Lowttis Gram., p. 96. "Either you or I will be in our 
place in due time." — Cooper's Gram., p. 127. But different pronouns may be so connected as to 
refer to such antecedents taken separately; as. "By requiring greater labour from such slave or 
slaves, than he or she or they are able to perform." — Prince's Digest Or, if the gender only be 
different, the masculine may involve the feminine by implication; as, "If a man smite the eye of 
his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake." — 
Exodus, xxi, 26. 

03S. 3. — It is however very common to resort to the plural number in such instances as the 
foregoing, because our plural pronouns are alike in all the genders ; as, " When cither man or 
woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite." — Numbers, vi, 2. " Then shalt 
thou bring forth that man or that woman unto thy gates, and shalt stone them with stones, till 
they die." — Bzul., xvii, 5. "Not on outward charms could he or she build their pretensions to 
please." — Opie, on Lying, p. 148. "Complimenting either man or woman on agreeable qualities 
which they do not possess, in hopes of imposing on their credulity." — lb., p. 108. " Avidien, or 
his wife, (no matter which,) sell their presented partridges and fruits." — Pope, Sat. ii, 1. 50. 
" Beginning with Latin or Greek hexameter, which are the same." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 79. 

"Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch, 
Transform themselves so strangely as the rich?" — Pope, Ep. i, 1. 152. 

Obs. 4. — "From the obs3rvations and examples above, it may be perceived, that whenever there 
is a difference of p3rson, number, or gender, in antecedents connected disjunctively, there is an 
inherent difficulty respecting the form of the pronoun personal. The best mode of meeting this 
inconvenience, or of avoiding it by a change of the phraseology, may be different on different oc- 
casions The disjunctive connexion of explicit pronouns is the most correct, but it savours too 
much of legal precision and wordiness to be always eligible. Commonly an ingenious mind may 
invent some better expression, and yet avoid any syntactical anomaly. In Latin, when nouns 
are connected by the conjunctions which correspond to or or nor, the pronoun or verb is so often 
made plural, that no such principle as that of the foregoing Rule, or of Rule 17th, is taught by 
the common grammars of that language. How such usage can be logically right, however, it is 
difficult to imagine. Lowth, Murray, Webster, and most other English grammarians, teach, that, 
"The conjunction disjunctive has an effect contrary to that of the copulative ; and, as the verb, 
noun, or pronoun, is referred to the preceding terms taken separately, it must be in the singular 
number." — Lowth 's Gram., p. 75; L. Murray's, 151; Churchill's, 142; W. Allen's, 133; Lennie's, 
83 ; and many others. If there is any allowable exception to this principle, it is for the adoption 
of the plural when the concord cannot be made by any one pronoun singular ; as, " If I value 
my friend's wife or son upon account of their connexion with him." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 73. 
"Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle 
of the congregation." — Tjevit., x, 8. These examples, though they do not accord with the preced- 
ing rule, seem not to be susceptible of any change for the better. There are also some other modes 
of expression, in which nouns that are connected disjunctively, may afterwards be represented to- 
gether; as l Foppery is a sort of folly much more contagious than pedantry ; but as they result 
alike from affectation, they deserve alike to be proscribed." — Campbell's Ehet., p. 211. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. RULE XIV. — VERBS. OBSERVATIONS. 569 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIII. 

Pronouns with Antecedents connected by OR or NOR. 
" Neither prelate nor priest can give their flocks any decisive evidence that you are lawful 
pastors." — Dr. Brownlee. 

[Foemuxe. — Not proper, because the pronoun their is of trie plural number, and does not correctly represent 
its two antecedents prelate and priest, which are connected by nor, and taken disjunctively. But, according to 
Rule 13th, " When a pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by or or nor, it must agree with them 
singly, and not as if taken together." Therefore, their should he his; thus, " Neither prelate nor priest can 
give his flocks any decisive evidence that you are lawful pastors."] 

"And is there a heart of parent or of child, that does not beat and burn within them?" — 
Maturings Sermons, p. 367. "This is just as if an eye or a foot should demand a salary for their 
service to the body." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 178. "If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut 
them off, and cast them from thee." — Matt, xviii, 8. " The same might as well be said of Virgil, 
or any great author, whose general character will infallibly raise many casual additions to 
their reputation." — Pope's Pref. to Homer. " Either James or John, one of them, will come." — 
Smith's New Gram., p. 37.' "Even a rugged rock or barrtn heath, though in themselves disa- 
greeable, contribute by contrast to the beauty of the -whole." — Eames, El. of Grit., i, 185. 
;< That neither Count Rechteren nor Monsieur Mesnager had behaved themselves right in this 
affair." — Sped., No. 481. "If an Aristotle, a Pythagoras, or a Galileo, suffer for their opinions, 
they are ' martyrs.' " — Gospel its own Witness, p. 80. "If an ox gore a man or a woman, that 
they die; then the ox shall be surely stoned." — Exodus, xxi, 28. "She was calling out to one 
or an other, at every step, that a Habit was ensnaring them." — Dr. Johnson : Murray's Sequel, 
181. " Here is a Task put upon Children, that neither this Author, nor any other have yet un- 
dergone themselves." — Johnson's Gram. Com,., p. 162. " Hence, if an adjective or participle be 
subjoined to the verb, when of the singular number, they will agree both in gender and number 
with the collective noun." — Adam's Lot. Gram., p. 154; Gould's, 158. " And if you can find a 
diphthong, or a triphthong, be pleased to point them out too." — Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 16. 
"And if you can find a diphthong or a triphthong, a trissyllable, or a polysyllable, point them re- 
spectively out." — lb., p. 25. "The false refuges in which the atheist or the sceptic have in- 
trenched themselves." — Christian Sped., viii, 185. ""While the man or woman thus assisted by 
art expects their charms will be imputed to nature alone." — Opie, 141. "When you press a 
watch, or pull a clock, they answer your question with precision ; for they repeat exactly the 
hour of the day, and tell you neither more nor less than you desire to know." — Bolingbroke, on 
History, p. 102. 

" Not the Mogul, or Czar of Muscovy, 
Not Prester John, or Cham of Tartary, 
Are in their houses Monarch more than I." — King-: Brit. Poets, Vol. hi, p. 613. 



CHAPTER VI.— VERBS. 

In this work, the syntax of Verbs is embraced in six consecutive rules, 
with the necessary exceptions, notes, and observations, under them ; 
hence this chapter extends from the fourteenth to the twentieth rule in 
the series. 

KULE XIV.— FINITE VEKBS. 

Every finite Verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person 
and number : as, "I know; thou Jcnowst, or knowest; he knoivs, or 
Tcnoweth" — " The bird files; the birds fly." 

" Our fathers' fertile fields by slaves are titt'd, 
And Borne with dregs of foreign lands isfilVd" 

— fiowe's Lucan, B. vii, 1. 600. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XIY. 

Obs. 1 . — To this general rule for the verb, there are properly no exceptions ;* and all the special 
rules that follow, which prescribe the concord of verbs in particular instances, virtually accord 

* In their speculations on the personal pronouns, grammarians sometimes contrive, by a sort of abstraction, 
to reduce all the persons to the third; that is, the author or speaker puts I, not for himself in particular, but 
for any one who utters the word, and thou, not for his particular hearer or reader, but for any one who is ad- 
dressed ; and, conceiving of these as persons merely spoken of by himself, he puts the verb in the third person, 



570 THE GKAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

■with it. Every finite verb, (that is, every verb not in the infinitive mood,) must have some noun, 
pronoun, or phrase equivalent, known as the subject of the being, action, or passion;* and with 
this subject, whether expressed or understood, the verb must agree in person and number. The 
infinitive mood, as it does not unite with a nominative to form an assertion, is of course exempt 
from any such agreement. These may be considered principles of Universal Grammar. The 
Greeks, however, had a strange custom of using a plural noun of the neuter gender, with a verb 
of the third person singular ; and in both Greek and Latin, the infinitive mood with an accusative 
before it was often equivalent to a finite verb with its nominative. . In English we have neither 
of these usages ; and plural nouns, even when they denote no absolute plurality, (as shears, scis- 
sors, trowsers, pantaloons, tongs,) require plural verbs or pronouns: as, "Your shears come too lata 
to clip the bird's wings." — Sidney: Churchill's Gram., p. 30. 

Obs. 2. — "When a book that bears a plural title, is spoken of as one thing, there is sometimes 
presented an apparent exception to the foregoing rule ; as, " The Pleasures of Memory was pub- 
lished in the year 1792, and became at once popular." — Allan Cunningham. " The ' Sentiments 

and not in the first or second: as, "I" is the speaker, thou [is] the hearer, and he, she, or it, is the person or 
thing spoken of. All denote qualities of existence, but such qualities as make different impressions on the 
mind, lis the being of consciousness, thou [is the being] of perception, and he of memory." — Booth's lntrod., 
p. 44. This is such syntax as I should not choose to imitate; nor is it very proper to say, that the three per- 
sons in grammar "denote qualities of existence." But, supposing the phraseology to be correct, it is no rea£ 
exception to the foregoing rule of concord ; for / and thou are here made to be pronouns of the third person. 
So in the following example, which I take to be bad English ; " I, or the person who speaks, is the first person; 
you, is the second ; he, she, or it, is the third person singular." — Bartlett's Manual, Part ii, p. 70. Again, in 
the following; which is perhaps a little better: "The person ' T is spoken o/as acted upon." — Bullions, Prin. 
of E. Gram., 2d Edition, p. 29. But there is a manifest absurdity in saying, with this learned " Professor of 
Languages," that the pronouns of the different persona are those persons: as, '■'■lis the first person, and de- 
notes the speaker. Thou is the second, and denotes the person spoken to." — lb., p. 22. 

* (1.) Concerning the verb need, Dr. Webster has the following note: "In the use of this verb there is 
another irregularity, which is peculiar, the verb being without a nominative, expressed or implied. ' Whereof 
here needs no account.' — Milt., P. L., 4. 235. There is no evidence of the fact, and there needs none. This is an 
established use of need." — Philos. Gram., -p. ITS; Improved Gram., 127; Greenleafs Gram. Simp., p. 38; 
Fowler's E. Gram., p. 537. "Established use ?" To be sure, it is "an established use;" but the learned Doc- 
tor's comment is a most unconscionable blunder, — a pedantic violation of a sure principle of Universal Gram- 
mar, — a perversion worthy oily of the veriest ignoramus. Yet Greenleaf profitably publishes it, with other 
plagiarisms, for "Grammar Simplified!" Now the verb " needs," like the Latin eget, signifying is necessary, 
is here not active, but neuter; and has the nominative set after it, as any verb must, when the adverb there or 
here is before it. The verbs lack and want may have the 6ame construction, and can have no other, when the 
word there, and not a nominative, precedes them ; as, " Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty right- 
eous." — Gin., xviii, 28. There is therefore neither "irregularity," nor any thing '■'■peculiar," in thus placing 
the verb and its nominative. 

(2.) Yet have we other grammarians, who, with astonishing facility, have allowed themselves to be misled, 
and whose books are now misleading the schools, in regard to this very simple matter. Thus Wells: "The 
transitive verbs wed and want, are sometimes employed in a general sense, without a nominative, expressed 
or implied. Examples: — 'There needed & new dispensation.' — Caleb dishing. 'There needs no better pic- 
ture.' — Irving. 'There wanted not patrons to stand up.' — Sparks. ' Nor did there want Cornice, or frieze.' 
— Milton." — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 141: 113th Ed., p. 154. In my edition of Milton, the text is, 
"Nor did they want Coruice or frieze." — P. L., B. i, 1. 715, 716. This reading makes want a "transitive" 
verb, but the other makes it neuter, with the nominative following it. Again, thus Weld: " A verb in the im- 
perative mode, and the transitive verbs need, want, and require, sometimes appear to be used indefinitely, with- 
out a no minctti ve ; as, let there be light; There required haste in the business; There needs no argument for 
proving, &o. There wanted not men who would, &c. The last expressions have an active form with a passive 
sense, and should perhaps rather be considered elliptical than wanting a nominative; as, haste is required, no 
argument is needed, &c." — Weld's English Grammar Illustrated, p. 143. Is there anywhere, in print, viler 
pedantry than this? The only elliptical example, "Let there be light," — a kind of sentence from which the 
nominative is usually suppressed, — is here absurdly represented as being full, yet without a subject for its verb ; 
while other examples, which are full, and in which the nominative must follow the verb, because the adverb 
"there" precedes, are first denied to have nominatives, and then most bunglingly tortured with false ellipses, to 
prove that they have them ! 

(3.) The idea of a command wherein no person or thing is commanded, seems to have originated with Web- 
ster, by whom it has been taught, since 1817, as follows: "In some cases, the imperative verb is used without 
a definite nominative." — Philos. Gram., p. 14L ; Imp. Gram., 96; Rudiments^ 60. See the same words in 
Frazee's Gram., p. 133. Wells has something similar: "A verb in the imperative is sometimes used absolutely, 
having no direct reference to any particular subject expressed or implied; as, 'And God said, Let there be 
light.' " — School Gram., p. 141. But, when this command was uttered to the dark waves of primeval chaos, it 
must have meant, "Do ye let light be there." What else could it mean? There may frequently be difficulty in 
determining what or who is addressed by the imperative let, but there seems to be more in affirming that it has 
no subject. Nutting, puzzled with this word, makes the following dubious and unsatisfactory suggestion: "Per- 
haps it may be, in many cases, equivalent to may ; or it may be termed itself an imperative mode impersonal ; 
that is, containing a command or an entreaty addressed to no particular person." — Nutting's Practical Gram., 
p. 47. 

(4.) These several errors, about the " Imperative used Absolutely," with "no subject addressed," as in " Let 
there be light," and the Indicative "verbs need and want, employed without a nominative, either expressed or 
implied," are again carefully reiterated by the learned Professor Fowler, in his great text-book of philology "in 
its Elements aud Forms," — called, rather extravagantly, an "English Grammar." See, in his edition of 1850, 
§ 5)7, Note 3 and Note 7 ; also § 520, Note 2. Wells's authorities for "Imperatives Absolute," are, " Frazee, 
Allen and Cornwell, Nutting, Lynde, and Chapin;" and, with reference to "need and want," he says, "See 
Webster, Perley, and Ingersoll."— School Gram., 1850, § 209. 

(5.) But, in obvious absurdity most strangely overlooked by the writer, all these blunderers are outdone by a 
later one, who says : " Need and dare are sometimes used in a general sense without a nominative : as, ' There 
needed no prophet to tell us that;' ' There wanted uo advocates to secure the voice of the people.' It is better, 
however, to supply it, as a nominative, than admit an anomala. Sometimes, when intransitive, they have the 
plural form with a singular noun: as, ' He need not fear;' ' He dare not hurt you.' " — Rev. R. W. Bailey's E. 
Gram., 1854, p. 128. The last example — " He dare" — is bad English: dare should be dares. "He need not 
fear," if admitted to be right, is of the potential mood ; in which no verb is inflected in the third peson. 
"He," too, is not a "noun;" nor can it ever rightly have a "plural" verb. "To supply it, as a nominative," 
where the verb is declared to be "without a nominative," and to make "wanted" an example of "dare," ara 
blunders precisely worthy of an author who knows not how to spell anomaly ! 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XIV. — VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 571 

of a Church-of-England Man' is written with great coolness, moderation, ease, and perspicuity." 
— Johnsons Life of Swift. " The ' Pleasures of Hope' is a splendid poem; it was written for per- 
petuity." — Samuel L. Knapp. In these instances, there is, I apprehend, either an agreement of 
the verb, by the figure syllepsis, with the mental conception of the thing spoken of, or an im- 
proper ellipsis of the common noun, with which each sentence ought to commence ; as, " The 
poem entitled," — " The work entitled," &c. But the plural title sometimes controls the form of 
the verb ; as, " My Lives are reprinting." — Dr. Johnson. 

Obs. 3. — In the figurative use of the present tense for the past or imperfect, the vulgar have a 
habit of putting the third person singular with the pronoun /; as, " Thinks I to myself" — -Rev. 
J. Marriott. "0, says I, Jacky, are you at that work?" — Daijs Sandford and Merton. "Huzza! 
huzza! Sir Condy Rackrent forever, was the first thing I h ears in the morning." — Edgeworth's 
Castle Rackrent, p. 97. This vulgarism is to be avoided, not by a simple omission of the termina- 
tional s, but rather by the use of the literal preterit : as. " Thought I to myself;' - — " 0, said I-" — 
" The first thing I heard." The same mode of correction is also proper, when, under like circum- 
stances, there occurs a disagreement in number; as, "After the election was over, there comes 
shoals of people from all parts." — Castle Rackrent, p. 103. "Didn't ye hear it? says they that were 
looking on." — lb., p. 147. Write, " there came," — " said they." 

Obs. 4. — It has already been noticed, that the article a, or a singular adjective, sometimes pre- 
cedes an arithmetical number with a plural noun ; as, " A thousand years in thy sight are but as 
yesterday." — Psalms, xc, 4. So we might say, " One thousand years are," — "Each thousand 
years are," — " Every thousand years are," &c. But it would not be proper to say, " A thousand 
years is," or, " Every thousand years is;" because the noun years is plainly plural, and the 
anomaly of putting a singular verb after it, is both needless and unauthorized. Yet, to this gen- 
eral rule for the verb, the author of a certain "English Grammar on the Productive System," (a 
strange perversion of Murray's compilation, and a mere catch-penny work, now extensively used 
in New England,) is endeavouring to establish, by his own bare word, the following exception : 
" Every is sometimes associated with a plural noun, in which case the verb must be singular ; as, 

1 Every hundred years constitutes a century.' " — Smith's New Gram., p. 103. His reason is this ; that 
the phrase containing the nominative, " signifies a single period of time, and is, therefore, in reality 
singular." — lb. Cutler also, a more recent writer, seems to have imbibed the same notion ; for 
he gives the following sentence as an example of " false construction : Every hundred years are 
called a century." — Cutler's Grammar and Parser, p. 145. But, according to this argument, no 
plural verb could ever be used with any definite number of the parts of time ; for any three 
years, forty years, or threescore years and ten, are as single a period of time, as " every hundred 
years," " every four years," or " every twenty-four hours." Nor is it true, that, " Every is some- 
times associated with a plural noun ;" for " every years," or " every hours" would be worse than 
nonsense. I, therefore, acknowledge no such exception ; but, discarding the principle of the 
note, put this author's pretended corrections among my quotations of false syntax. 

Obs. 5. — Different verbs always have different subjects, expressed or understood; except when 
two or more verbs are connected in the same construction, or when the same word is repeated 
for the sake of emphasis. But let not the reader believe the common doctrine of our grammari- 
ans, respecting either the ellipsis of nominatives or the ellipsis of verbs. In the text, " The man 
was old and crafty," Murray sees no connexion of the ideas of age and craftiness, but thinks the 
text a compound sentence, containing two nominatives and two verbs; i. e., "The man was old, 
and the man was crafty."* And all his other instances of " the ellipsis of the verb" are equally 
fanciful! See his Octavo Gram., p. 219; Duodecimo, 175. In the text, "God loves, protects, 
supports, and rewards the righteous," there are four verbs in the same construction, agreeing with 
the same nominative, and governing the same object ; but Buchanan and others expound it, 
" God loves, and God protects, and God supports, and God rewards the righteous." — English 
Syntax, p. 76 ; British Gram., 192. This also is fanciful and inconsistent. If the nominative is 
here " elegantly understood to each verb," so is the objective, which they do not repeat. " And 
again," they immediately add, "the verb is often understood to its noun or nouns ; as, He dreams 
of gibbets, halters, racks, daggers, &c. i. e. He dreams of gibbets, and he dreams of halters, &c." — 
Same works and places. In none of these examples is there any occasion to suppose an ellipsis, 
if we admit that two or more w r ords can be connected in the same construction ! 

Obs. 6. — Verbs in the imperative mood commonly agree with the pronoun thou, ye, or you, un- 
derstood after them ; as, " Heal [ye'] the sick, cleanse [ye~] the lepers, raise [ye] the dead, cast [ye] 
out devils." — Matt, x, 8. " Trust God and be doing y and leave the rest with him." — Dr. Sibs. 
When the doer of a thing must first proceed to the place of action, we sometimes use go or come 
before an other verb, without any conjunction between the two ; as, " Son, go work to-day in my 
vineyard." — Matt, xxi, 28. " Come see a man who [has] told me all things that ever I did." — 
John, iv, 29. "He ordered his soldiers to go murder every child about Bethlehem, or near it.*' — 
Wood's Diet of Bible, w. Herod. " Take a present in thine hand, and go meet the man of God." — 

2 Kings, viii, 8. " I will go see if he be at home." — Walker's Particles, p. 169. 

Obs. 7. — The place of the verb has reference mainly to that of the subject with which it 
agrees, and that of the object which it governs ; and as the arrangement of these, with the in- 
stances in which they come before or after the verb, hag already been noticed, the position of the 

* This interpretation, and others like it, are given not only by Murray, but by many other grammarians, one 
of whom at least was earlier than he. See BicknelVs Gram., Part i, p. 123 ; IwersolVs, 153 ; Guy's, 91 ; Alger's, 
73; Merchant's, 100; Picket's, 211 ; Fisk's, 146; D. Adams's, SI ; R C. Smith's, 182, 



572 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

latter seems to require no further explanation. See Obs. 2d under Rule 2d, and Obs. 2d under 
Rule 5 th. 

Obs. 8. — The infinitive mood, a phrase, or a sentence, (and, according to some authors, the 
participle in ing, or a phrase beginning with this participle,) is sometimes the proper subject of a 
verb, bein^ equivalent to a nominative of the third person singular ; as, " To play is pleasant." — 
Lowth's Gram., p. 80. "To write well, is difficult; to speak eloquently, is still more difficult." 
— Blair's Rhet, p. 81. "To take men off from prayer, tends to irreligiousness, is granted" — 
Barclay's Works, i, 214. " To educate a child perfectly, requires profounder thought, greater 
wisdom, than to govern a state." — Ghanning's Self - Culture, p. 30. "To determine these points, 
belongs to good sense." — Blair's Rhet, p. 321. " How far the change would contribute to his 
welfare, comes to be considered." — Id., Sermons. " That too much care does hurt in any of our 
tasks, is a doctrine so flattering to indolence, that we ought to receive it with extreme caution." 
— Life of Schiller, p. 148. " That there is no disputing about taste, is a saying so generally re- 
ceived as to have become a proverb." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 360. " For what purpose they 
embarked, is not yet known." — " To live in sin and yet to believe the forgiveness of sin, is utterly 
impossible." — Dr. J. Owen. 

" There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 
But drinking largely sobers us again." — Pope. 

Obs. 9. — The same meaning will be expressed, if the pronoun it be placed before the verb, and 
the infinitive, phrase, or sentence, after it; as, " It is pleasant to play," — "It is difficult to write 
well ,-" &c. The construction of the following sentences is rendered defective by the omission of 
this pronoun : " Why do ye that which [it] is not lawful to do on the sabbath days ?" — Luke, 
vi, 2. " The show-bread, which [it] is not lawful to eat, but for the priests only." — lb., vi, 4. 
"We have done that which [_it] was oar duty to do." — lb., xvii, 10. Here the relative which ought 
to be in the objective case, governed by the infinitives; but the omission of the word it makes 
this relative the nominative to is or was, and leaves to do and to eat without any regimen. This 
is not ellipsis, bat error. It is an accidental gap into which a side piece falls, and leaves a breach 
elsewhere. The following is somewhat like it, though what falls in, appears to leave no chasm: 
" From this deduction, [it] may be easily seen how it comes to pass, that personification makes so 
great a figure." — Blair s Rhet., p. 155. " Whether the author had any meaning in this expression, 
or what it was, [it] is not easy to determine." — Murray's Gram., Yol. i, p. 298. " That warm 
climates should accelerate the growth of the human body, and shorten its duration, [it] is very 
reasomhle to believe." — lb., p. 144. These also need the pronoun, though Murray thought them 
complete without it. 

Obs. 10. — When the infinitive mood is made the subject of a finite verb, it is most commonly 
use! t) express action or state in the abstract; as, " To be contents his natural desire." — Pope. 
Hire to hi stands for simple existence ; or if for the existence of the Indian, of whom the author 
speaks, that relation is msrely implied. " To define ridicule, has puzzled and vexed every critic." 
— Kimzs, El. of Grit., i, 300. Here " to define" expresses an action quite as distinct from any 
agent, as Would the participial noun; as, " The defining of ridicule," &c. In connexion with the 
infinitive, a concrete quality may also be taken as an abstract ; as, " To be good is to be happy." 
Here good and happy express the quality of goodness and the state of happiness considered ab- 
stractly ; anl therefore these adjectives do not relate to any particular noun. So also the passive 
infinitive, or a perfect participle taken in a passive sense ; as, " To be satisfied with a little, is the 
greatest wisdom." — " To appear discouraged, is the way to become so." Here the satisfaction 
and the discouragement are considered abstractly, and without reference to any particular person. 
(See Obs. 12th and 13th on Rale 6th.) So too, apparently, the participles doing and suffering, as 
well a3 the adjective weak, in the following example: 

" Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, 
Doing or suffering." — Milton's Paradise Lost. 

Obs. 11. — When the action or state is to be expressly limited to one class of beings, or to a 
particular person or thing, without making the- verb finite ; the noun or pronoun may be intro- 
duced before the infinitive by the preposition for : as, " For men to search their own glory, is not 
glory." — Prov., xxv, 27. " For a prince to be reduced by villany to my distressful circumstances, 
is calamity enough." — Translation of Sallust. " For holy persons to be humble, is as hard, as for a 
•prince to submit himself to be guided by tutors." — Taylor: Priestley's Gram., p. 132; Murray's, 
184. Bat such a limitation is sometimes implied, when the expression itself is general; as, " Not 
to know me, argues thyself unknown." — Milton. That is, "For thee not to know me." The 
phrase is put for, " Thy ignorance of me;" for an other's ignorance would be no argument in 
regard to the individual addressed. " I, to bear this, that never knew but better, is some burden." 
— Bsauties of Shak., p. 327. Here the infinitive to bear, which is the subject of the verb is, is 
limited in sense by the pronoun 1, which is put absolute in the nominative, though perhaps im- 
properly ; because, "For me to bear this " Sec, will convey the same meaning, in a form much 
more common, and perhaps more grammatical. In the following couplet, there is an ellipsis of 
the infinitive ; for the phrase, " fool with fool," means, "for fool to contend with fool," or, " for ono 
fool to contend with an other:" 

"Blockheads with reason wicked wits abhor, 
But fool with fool is barb'rous civil war." — Pope, Dunciad, B. iii, 1. 175. 
Obs. 12. — The objective noun or pronoun thus introduced by for before the infinitive, was erro- 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XIV.-^-VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 673 

neously called by Priestley, the subject of the affirmation;' 1 '' (Gram., p. 132 ;) and Murray, Inger- 
soll, and others, have blindly copied the blunder. See Murray's Gram., p. 184 ; IngersolVs, 244. 
Again, Ingersoll says, " The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes the subject of a 
verb, and is, therefore, its nominative.'' — Conversations on English Gram., p. 246. To this erro- 
neous deduction, the phraseology used by Murray and others too plainly gives countenance : 

"The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes put as the nominative case to the verb." 

Murray's Gram., p. 144 : Fish's, 123 ; Kirkham's, 188 ; Lennie's, 99 ; BulUons's. 89 ; and many 
more. Now the objective before the infinitive may not improperly be called the subject of this 
form of the verb, as the nominative is, of the finite; but to call it "the subject of the affirmation," 
is plainly absurd ; because no infinitive, in English, ever expresses an affirmation. And again, 
if a whole phrase or sentence is made the subject of a finite verb, or of an affirmation, no one 
word contained in it, can singly claim tnis title. Nor can the whole, by virtue of this relation, be 
said to be "in the nominative case;" because, in the nature of things, neither phrases nor sen- 
tences are capable of being declined by cases. 

Obs. 13. — Any phrase or sentence which is made the subject of a finite verb, must be taken in 
the sense of one thing, and be spoken of as a whole; so that the verb's agreement with it, in the 
third person singular, is not an exception to Rule 14th, but a construction in which the verb may 
be parsed by that rule. For any one thing merely spoken of, is of the third person singular, 
whatever may be the nature of its parts. Not every phrase or sentence, however, is fit to be 
made the subject of a verb; — that is, if its own import, and not the mere expression, is the thing 
whereof we affirm. Thus Dr. Ash's example for this very construction, " a sentence made the 
subject of a verb," is, I think, a palpable solecism : " The King and Queen appearing in public 
was the cause of my going." — Ash's Gram., p. 52. What is here before the verb was, is no " sen- 
tence;" but a mere phrase, and such a one as we should expect to see used independently, if any 
regard were had to its own import. The Doctor would tell us what "was the cause of his 
going:" and here he has two nominatives, which are equivalent to the plural they ; q. d., " They 
appearing in public was the cause." But such a construction is not English. It is an other 
sample of the false illustration which grammar receives from those who invent the proof-texts 
which they ought to quote. 

Obs. 14. — One of Murray's examples of what he erroneously terms " nominative sentences." i. e., 
"sentences or clauses constituting the subject of an affirmation," is the following: " A desire to 
excel others in learning and virtue [.] is commendable." — Gram., 8vo, p. 144. Here the verb is 
agrees regularly with the noun desire, and with that only ; the whole text being merely a simple 
sentence, and totally irrelevant to the doctrine which it accompanies.* But the great "Compiler" 
supposes the adjuncts of this noun to be parts of the nominative, and imagines the verb to agree 
with all that precedes it. Tet, soon after, he expends upon the ninth rule of "Webster's Philo- 
sophical Grammar a whole page of useless criticism, to show that the adjuncts of a noun are not 
to be taken as parts of the nominative ; and that, when objectives are thus subjoined, " the asser- 
tion grammatically respects the first nouns only." — lb., p. 148. I say useless, because the truth 
of the doctrine is so very plain. Some, however, may imagine an example like the following to 
be an exception to it ; but I do not, because I think the true nominative suppressed : 

" By force they could not introduce these gods ; 
For ten to one in former days was odds." — Dryden's Poems, p. 38. 

Obs. 15. — Dr. Webster's ninth ride is this : " When the nominative consists of several words, 
and the last of the names is in the plural number, the verb is commonly in the plural also ; as, 
1 A part of the exports consist of raw silk.' ' The number of oysters increase.'' Goldsmith. l Such 
as the train of our ideas have lodged in our memories.' Locke. ' The greater part of philosophers 
have acknowledged the excellence of this government.' Axacharsis. " — Philos. Gram.^ p. 146; 
Irnpr. Gram.. 100. The last of these examples Murray omits ; the second he changes thus : "A 
number of men and women were present." But all of them his reasoning condemnd as ungram- 
matical. He thinks them wrong, upon the principle, that the verbs, being plural, do not agree 
with the first nouns only. Webster, on the contrary, judges them all to be right ; and, upon this 
same principle, conceives that his rule must be so too. He did not retract or alter the doctrine 

* The same may be said of Dr. Webster's "nominative sentences;" three fourths of which are nothing but 
phrases that include a nominative with which the following verb agrees. And who does not know, that to call 
the adjuncts of any thing "an essential part of it," is a flat absurdity? An adjunct is "something added to 
another, but not essentially a part of it." — Webster's Bid. But, 6ays the Doctor, " Attributes and other words 
often make an essential part of the nominative; [as,] ' Our ideas of eterniti.rc&x be nothing but an infinite 
succession of moments of duration.' — Locke. ' A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish son is the 
heaviness of his mother.' Abstract the name from its attribute, and the proposi.ion cannot always be true. 
* He that gathereth in summer is a wi^e sou.' Take away the description, i that g>/J.hereth in summer' and the 
affirmation ceases to be true, or becomes inapplicable. These sentences or clauses thus constituting the subject 
of an affirmation, may be termed nominative sentences.'''' — Improved Gram., p. Pfi. This teaching reminds me 
of the Doctor's own exclamation : "What strange work has been made with Gvammar!" — lb., p. 94; Philos. 
Gram., 13S. In Nesbit's English Parsing, a book designed mainly for "a Key to Murray's Exercises in Pars- 
ing." the following example is thus expounded: "The smooth stream, the eaiene atmosphere, [and] the mild 
zephyr, are the proper emblems of a gentle temper, and a peaceful life " — Murray's Exercises, p. 8. " The 
smooth stream, the serene atmosphere, the mild zephir, is part of a sentence, which is the nominative case to 
the verb '■are.' Are is an irregular verb neuter, in the indicative mood, the present tense, the third person 
plural, and agrees with the aforementioned part of a sentence, as its nominative case." — Introduction to English 
Parsing, p. 137. On this principle of analysis, all the rules that speak of the nominatives or antecedents con- 
nected by conjunctions, may be dispensed with, as useless ; and the doctrine, that a verb which has a phrase or 
sentence for its subject, must be singular, is palpably contradicted, and supposed erroneous ! 



r- 1 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 



after ho saw the criticism, but republished it verbatim, in his "Improved Grammar," of 1831. 
Both err, and neither convinces the other. 

Obs. 16. — In this instance, as Webster and Murray both teach erroneously, whoever follows 
either, will be led into many mistakes. The fact is, that some of the foregoing examples, though 
perhaps not all, are perfectly right ; and hundreds more, of a similar character, might be quoted, 
which no true grammarian would presume to condemn. But what have these to do with the 
monstrous absurdity of supposing objective adjuncts to be " parts of the actual nominative?" The 
words, " part ,"." number ," "train" and the like, are collective nouns; and,- as such, they often 
have plural verbs in agreement with them. To say, " A number of men and women were present, " 
is as correct as to say, " A very great number of our words are plainly derived from the Latin." — 
Blair 's Bhet., p. 86. Murray's criticism, therefore, since it does not exempt these examples from 
the censure justly laid upon Webster's rule, will certainly mislead the learner. And again the 
rule, being utterly wrong in principle, will justify blunders like these : " The truth of the narra- 
tives have never been disputed ;" — " Tho virtue of these men and women are indeed exemplary." 
— Hurray's Gram., p. 148. In one oThis notes, Murray suggests, that the article an or a before 
a collective noun must confine tho verb to the singular number ; as, " A great number of men and 
women was collected." — lb., p. 153. But this doctrine he sometimes forgot or disregarded ; as, 
"But if a number of interrogative or exclamatory sentences are thrown into one general group." 
—lb., p. 284; Comly, 166; Fish, 160; Ingersoll, 295. 

Obs. 17. — Cobbett, in a long paragraph, (the 245th of his English Grammar,) stoutly denies 
that any relative pronoun can ever be the nominative to a verb ; and, to maintain this absurdity, 
he will have the relative and its antecedent to be always alike in case, the only thing in which 
they are always independent of each other. To prove his point, he first frames these examples : 
"The men who are here, the man who is here; the cocks that crow, the cock that crows;" and 
then asks, " Now, if the relative be tho nominative, why do the verbs change, seeing that here is 
no change in the relative ?" He seems ignorant of the axiom, that two things severally equal to 
a third, are also equal to each other : and accordingly, to answer his own question, resorts to a 
new principle : " The verb is continually varying. Why does it vary ? Because it disregards the 
relative and goes and finds the antecedent, and accommodates its number to that." — Ibid. To 
this wild doctrine, one erratic Irishman yields a full assent ; and, in one American grammatist, we 
find a partial and unintentional concurrence with it.* But the fact is, the relative agrees with the 
antecedent, and the verb agrees with the relative : hence all three of the words are alike in per- 
son and number. But between the case of the relative and that of the antededent, there never 
is, or can be, in our language, an} r sort of connexion or interference. The words belong to differ- 
ent clauses ; and, if both be nominatives, they must be the subjects of different verbs : or, if the 
noun be sometimes put absolute in the nominative, the pronoun is still left to its own verb. But 
Cobbett concludes his observation thus: " You will observe, therefore, that, when I, in the ety- 
mology and S3 r ntax as relating to relative pronouns, speak of relatives as being in the nominative 
case, I mean, that they relate to nouns or to personal pronouns, which are in that case. The same 
observation applies to the other cases." — lb., ^[ 245. This suggestion betrays in the critic an unac- 
countable ignorance of his subject. 

Obs. 18. — Nothing is more certain, than that the relatives, who, which, what, that, and as, are 
often nominatives, and the only subjects of the verbs which follow them : as, " The Lord will show 
who are his, and who is holy." — Numbers, xvi, 5. " Hardly is there any person, but who, on such 
occasions, is disposed to be serious." — Blair's Bhet, p. 469. " Much of the merit of Mr. Addison's 
Cato depends upon that moral turn of thought which distinguishes it." — lb., 469. " Admit not a 
single word but what is necessary." — lb., p. 313. "The pleader must say nothing but what is 
true; and, at the same time, he must avoid saying any thing that will hurt his cause." — lb., 313. 
" I proceed to mention such as appear to me most material." — lb., p. 125. After but or than, 
there is sometimes an ellipsis of the relative, and perhaps also of the antecedent ; as, "There is no 
heart but must feel them." — Blair's Rhei, p. 469. " There is no one but must be sensible of the 
extravagance." — lb., p. 479. "Since we may date from it a more general and a more concerted 
opposition to France than there had been before." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 213. That is, "than 
what there had been before ;" — or, "than any opposition which there had been before." "John 
has more fruit than can be gathered in a week." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., pp. 196 and 331. I sup- 
pose this sentence to mean, " John has more fruit than what can be gathered in a week." But 
the author of it denies that it is elliptical, and seems to suppose that can be gathered agrees with 
John. Part of his comment stands thus : " The above sentence — ' John has more fruit than can 

• "No Relative can become a Nominative to a Verb."— Joseph W. WriaMs Philosophical Grammar, p. 162. 
"A personal pronoun becomes a nominative, though a relative does not."— lb., p. 152. This teacher is criti- 



ency of the former, and accordingly treats who, which, what, whatever, &c, as rolative pronouns of the nom- 
inative case — or, as he calls them, "connective substitutes in the subjective form;" but when what or whatever 
precedes its noun, or when as is preferred to who or which, he refers both verbs to the noun itself, and adopts 
the very principle by which Cobbet and Wright erroneously parse the verbs which belong to the relatives, who, 
which, and that: as, "Whatever man will adhere to strict principles of honesty, will find his reward in him- 
self." — Peirce's Oram., p. 55. Here Peirce considers whatever to be a mere adjective, and man the subject of 
will adhere and will find. " Such persons as write grammar, should, themselves, be grammarians." — lb., p. 330. 
Here he declares as to be no pronoun, but "a modifying connective," i. e., conjunction; and supposes persons 
to be the direct subject of write as well as of should be: as if a conjunction could connect a verb and its nom- 
inative ! 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XIV. — VERBS. — NOTES. 575 

be gathered in a week' — in every respect full and. perfect — must, to be grammatical! according to 
all the ' old theories,' stand, John has more fruit than that fruit is which, or which fruit can be 
gathered in a week ! ! !" — lb., 331. What shall be done with the headlong critic who thus mis- 
takes exclamation points for arguments, and multiplies his confidence in proportion to his fallacies 
and errors ? 

Obs. 19. — In a question, the nominative /or thou put after the verb, controls the agreement, 
in preference to the interrogative who, which, or what, put before it ; as, "Who ami? What am 
I? Who art thou ? What art thou V And, by analogy, this seems to be the case with all plurals ; 
as, " Who are we ? Who are you ? Who are they f What are these?" But sometimes the interroga- 
tive pronoun is the only nominative used ; and then the verb, whether singular or plural, must 
agree with this nominative, in the third person, and not, as Cobbett avers, with an antecedent 
understood : as, " Who is in the house ? Who are in the house ? Who strikes the iron ? Who strike 
the iron? Who was in the street? Who were in the street?" — Cobbett' 's Gram., ^[ 245. All the 
interrogative pronouns may be used in either number, but, in examples like the following, I im- 
agine the singular to be more proper than the plural: "What have become of our previous cus- 
toms?" — Hunts Byron, p. 121. " And what have become of my resolutions to return to God ?" — 
Young Christian, 2d Ed., p. 91. When two nominatives of different properties come after the 
verb, the first controls the agreement, and neither the plural number nor the most worthy person 
is always preferred ; as, " Is it I? Is it thou ? Is it they f" ■ 

Obs. 20. — The verb after a relative sometimes has the appearance of disagreeing with its nomi- 
native, because the writer and his reader disagree in their conceptions of its mood. When a rel- 
ative clause is subjoined to what is itself subjunctive or conditional, some writers suppose that the 
latter verb should be put in the subjunctive mood; as, "If there be any intrigue which stand 
separate and independent." — Blair's Ehet., p. 45*7. " The man also would be of considerable 
use, who should vigilantly attend to every illegal practice that were beginning to prevail." — Camp- 
bell's Rhet., p. 171. But I have elsewhere shown, that relatives, in English, are not compatible 
with the subjunctive mood ; and it is certain, that no other mood than the indicative or the poten- 
tial is commonly used after them. Say therefore, "If there be any intrigue which stands," &c. 
In assuming to himself the other text, Murray's says, " That man also would be of considerable 
use, who should vigilantly attend to every illegal practice that toas beginning to prevail." — Octavo 
Gram., p. 3G6. But this seems too positive. The potential imperfect would be better: viz., 
"that might begin to prevail." 

Obs. 21. — The termination st or est, with which the second person singular of the verb is formed 
in the indicative present, and, for the solemn style, in the imperfect also ; and the termination s 
or es, with which the third person singular is formed in the indicative present, and only there ; 
are signs of the mood and tense, as well as of the person and number, of the verb. They are not 
applicable to a future uncertainty, or to any mere supposition in which we would leave the time 
indefinite and make the action hypothetical ; because they are commonly understood to fix the 
time of the verb to the present or the past, and to, assume the action as either doing or done. 
Eor this reason, our best writers have always omitted those terminations, when they intended to 
represent the action as being doubtful and contingent as well as conditional. And this omission 
constitutes the whole formal difference between the indicative and the subjunctive mood. The 
essential difference has, by almost all grammarians, been conceived to extend somewhat further ; 
for, if it were confined strictly within the limits of the literal variation, the subjunctive mood 
would embrace only two or three words in the whole formation of each verb. After the example 
of Priestley, Dr. Murray, A. Murray, Harrison, Alexander, and others, I have given to it all the 
persons of the two simple tenses, singular and plural ; and, for various reasons, I am decidedly of 
the opinion, that these are its most proper limits. The perfect and pluperfect tenses, being past, 
cannot express what is really contingent or uncertain ; and since, in expressing conditionally 
what may or may not happen, we use the subjunctive present as embracing the future indefinitely, 
there is no need of any formal futures for this mood. The comprehensive brevity of this form of 
the verb, is what chiefly commends it. It is not an elliptical form of the future, as some affirm 
it to be ; nor equivalent to the indicative present, as others will have it ; but a true subjunctive, 
though its distinctive parts are chiefly confined to the second and third persons singular of the 
simple verb: as, "Though thou wash thee with nitre." — Jer., ii, 22. "It is just, great king! 
that a murderer perish." — Corneille. " This single crime, in my judgment, were sufficient to con- 
demn him." — Duncan's Cicero, p. 82. "Beware that thou bring not my son thither." — Bible: 
Ward's Gram., p. 128. " See [that] thou tell no man." — Id., ib. These examples can hardly be 
resolved into any thing else than the subjunctive mood. 

NOTES TO RULE XIV. 
Note I. — When the nominative is a relative pronoun, the verb must agree with 
it in person and number, according to the pronoun's agreement with its true antece- 
dent or antecedents. Example of error : " The second book [of the iEneid] is one 
of the greatest masterpieces that ever was executed by any hand." — Blair's Rhet., 
p. 439. Here the true antecedent is masterpieces, and not the word one ; but was 
executed is singular, and " by any hand" implies but one agent. Either say, "It is 
one of the greatest masterpieces that ever were executed ;" or else, " It is the greatest 



576 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

masterpiece that ever was executed by any hand? But these assertions differ much 
V in their import. 

Note II. — " The adjuncts of the nominative do not control its agreement with the 
verb ; as, Six months' interest was due. The progress of his forces was impeded." 
— W. Allen's Gram., p. 131. "The ship, with all her furniture, was destroyed." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 150. " All appearances of modesty are favourable and prepos- 
sessing." — Blair's Rhet., p. 308. " The power of relishing natural enjoyments is 
soon gone." — Fuller, on the Gospel, p. 135. "/, your master, command you (not 
commands)? — Latham 's Hand-Book, p. 330.* 

Note III. — Any phrase, sentence, mere word, or other sign, taken as one whole, 
and made the subject of an assertion, requires a verb in the third person singular ; 
as, "To lie is base." — Adam's Gram., p. 154. " When, to read and write, was of 
itself an honorary distinction." — Hazlitfs Led., p. 40. " To admit a Gc ;1 and then 
refuse to worship him, is a modern and inconsistent practice." — Fuller, on the Gos- 
pel, p. 30. " We is a personal pronoun." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 227. " Th has 
two sounds." — lb., p. 161. "The '6' is annexed to each." — Buckets Gram., p. 89. 
" Ld. stands for lord? — Webster'' s American Diet., 8vo. 

Note IV. — The pronominal adjectives, each, one,\ either, and neither, are always 
in the third person singular ; and, when they are the leading words in their clauses, 
they require verbs and pronouns to agree w T ith them accordingly : as, " Each of you 
is entitled to his share." — " Let no one deceive himself? 

Note V. — A neuter or a passive verb between two nominatives should be made to 
agree with that which precedes it ;| as, " Words are wind :" except when the terms 
are transposed, and the proper subject is put after the verb by question or hyperba- 
to?i; as, " His pavilion were dark waters and thick clouds of the sky." — Bible. " Who 
art thou ?" — lb. " The wages of sin is death? — lb. Murray, Comly, and others. 
But, of this last example, Churchill says, " Wages are the subject, of which it is 
affirmed, that they are death." — New Gram., p. 314. If so, is ought to be are ; 
unless Dr. Webster is right, who imagines wages to be singular, and cites this ex- 
ample to prove it so. See his Improved Gram., p. 21. 

Note VI. — When the verb cannot well be made singular, the nominative should 
be made plural, that they may agree : or, if the verb cannot be plural, let the 
nominative be singular. Example of error : " For every one of them know their 

* Dr. Latham, conceiving that, of words in apposition, the first must always be the leading one and control 
the verb, gives to his example an other form thus : Your master, I, commands you (not command)." — lb. But 
this I take to be bad English. It is the opinion of many grammarians, perhaps of most, that nouns, which are 
ordinarily of the third person, may be changed in person, by being set in apposition with a prononn of the first 
or second. But even if terms so used do not assimilate in person, the first cannot be subjected to the third, as 
above. It must have the preference, and ought to have the first place. The following study-bred example of 
the Doctor's, is also awkward and ungrammatical : ""1, your master, who commands you to make Jiaste, am 
in a hurry." — Hand-Book, p. 334. 

t Professor Fowler says, " One when contrasted with other, sometimes represents plural nouns; as, 'The 
reason why the one are ordinarily taken for real qualities, and the other for bare powers, seems to be. 1 — Locke." 
Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 242. This doctrine is, [ think, erroneous; and the example, too, is defective. 
For, if one may be plural, we have no distinctive definition or notion of either number. " One" and "otlier" 
are not here to be regarded as the leading words in their clauses ; they are mere adjectives, each referring to 
the collective noun class or species, understood, which should have been expressed after the former. See Etym., 
Obs. 19, p. 276. 

% Dr. Priestley says, "It is a rule, I believe, in all grammars, that when a verb comes between two nouns, 
either of which may be understood as the subject of the affirmation, that it may agree with either of them; but 
some regard must be had to that which is more naturally the subject of it, as also to that which stands next to 
the verb; for if no regard be paid to these circumstances, the construction will be harsh : [as,] Minced pies was 
regarded as a profane and superstitious viand by the sectaries. Hume's Hist. A great cause of the low state 
of industry were the restraints put upon it. lb. By this term was understood, such persons as invented, or 
drew up rules for themselves and the world." — English Oram, tvith Notes, p. 183. The Doctor evidently sup- 
posed all these examples to be bad English, or at least harsh in their construction. And the first two unques- 
tionably are so ; while the last, whether right or wrong, has nothing at all to do with his rule : it has but one 
nominative, and that appears to be part of a definition, and not the true subject of the verb. Nor, indeed, is 
the first any more relevant; because Hume's "viand" cannot possibly be taken " as the subject of the affirma- 
tion." Lindley Murray, who literally copies Priestley's note, (all but the first line and the last,) rejects these 
two examples, substituting for the former, " His meat ivas locusts and wild honey," and for the latter, " The 
wages of sin is death." He very evidently supposes all three of his examples to be good English. In this, ac- 
cording to Churchill, he is at fault in two instances out of the three ; and still more so, in regard to the note, or 
rule, itself. In stead of being " a rule in all grammars," it is (so far as I know) found only in these authors, and 
such as have implicitly copied it from Murray. Among these last, are Alger, Ingersoll, R. C. Smith, Fisk, and 
Merchant. Churchill, who cites it only as Murray's, and yet expends two pages of criticism upon it, very justly 
says : " To make that the nominative case, [or subject of the affirmation,] which happens to stand nearest to the 
verb, appears to me to be on a par with the blunder pointed out in note 204th;" [that is, of making the verb 
agree with an objective case which happens to stand nearer to it, than its subject, or nominative.] — ChurchilVs 
New Oram., p. 313. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XIV. VERBS. — ERRORS. 577 

several duties." — Hope of Israel, p. 72. Say, " For all of them know their several 
duties." 

Note VII. — When the verb has different forms, that form should be adopted, 
which is the most consistent with present and reputable usage in the style employed : 
thus, to say familiarly, " The clock hath stricken ;" — -" Thou laughedst and talkedst, 
when thou oughtest to have been silent ;" — " He readeth and writeth, but he doth 
not cipher," would be no better, than to use don't, won't, can't, shan't, and didn't, 
in preaching. 

Note VIII. — Every finite verb not in the imperative mood, should have a sepa- 
rate nominative expressed ; as, " I came, I saw, I conquered :" except when the verb is 
repeated for the sake of emphasis, or connected to an other in the same construction, 
or put after but or than ; as, " Not an eminent orator has lived but is an example of 
it." — Ware. " Where more is meant than meets the ear." — Milton's Allegro. (See 
Obs. 5th and Obs. 18th above.) 

" They bud, blow, wither, fall, and die'' — Watts. 
" That evermore his teeth they chatter, 
Chatter, chatter, chatter still. — Wordsworth. 

Note IX. — A future contingency is best expressed by a verb in the subjunctive 
present; and a mere supposition, with indefinite time, by a verb in the subjunctive 
imperfect ; but a conditional circumstance assumed as a fact, requires the indicative 
mood :* as, " If thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever." — Bible. " If it 
were not so, I would have told you." — lb. "If thou went, nothing would be gained." 
— " Though he is poor, he is contented." — " Though he ivas rich, yet for your sakes 
he became poor." — 2 Cor., viii, 9. 

Note X. — In general, every such use or extension of the subjunctive mood, as the 
reader will be likely to mistake for a discord between the verb and its nominative, 
ought to be avoided as an impropriety : as, " We are not sensible of disproportion, 
till the difference between the quantities compared become the most striking circum- 
stance." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 341. Say rather, " becomes ;" which is indicative. 
u Till the general preference of certain forms have been declared." — Priestley's 
Gram., Pref, p. xvii. Say, " has been declared;" for "preference" is here the 
nominative, and Dr. Priestley himself recognizes no other subjunctive tenses than 
the present and the imperfect ; as, " If thou love, If thou loved." — lb., p. 16. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIV. 
Under the Rule itself. — Verb after the Nominative. ; 
" Before you left Sicily, you was reconciled to Verres." — Duncan's Cicero, p. 19. 

[Fobmulk. — Not proper, because the passive verb was reconciled is of the singular number, and does not 
agree with its nominative you, which is of the second person plural. But, according to Rule 14th, "Every finite 
verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number." Therefore, was reconciled should be 
were reconciled ; thus, " Before you left Sicily, you were reconciled to Verres."] 

"Knowing that you was my old master's good friend. 1 ' — Sped., No. 51?. "When the judge 
dare not act, where is the loser's remedy?" — Webster 8 Essays, p. 131. "Which extends it no 
farther than the variation of the veib extend." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. i, p. 211. " They 
presently dry without hurt, as myself hath often proved." — Roger Williams. " Whose goings 
forth hath been from of old, from everlasting." — KeitKs Evidences. " You was paid to fight 
against Alexander, not to rail at him." — Porte?-'s Analysis, p. 70. "Where more than one part 
of speech is almost always concerned." — Churchill's Gram., Pref., p. viii. "Nothing less than 
murders, rapines, and conflagrations, employ their thoughts." — Duncan's Cicero, p. 175. "I won- 
dered where you was, my dear." — Lloyd's Poems, p. 1 85. " When thou most sweetly sings." — 
Drummond of HauHhornden. "Who dare, at the present day, avow himself equal to the task?" — 
Music of Nature, p. 11. " Every body are very kind to her, and not discourteous to me." — Byron's 
Letters. " As to what thou says respecting the diversity of opinions." — The Friend, Vol. ix, p. 45. 

* "If the excellence of Dryden's works tvas lessened by his indigence, their number was increased." — Dr. 
Johnson. This is an example of the proper and necessary use of the indicative mood after an if, the matter of 
the condition being regarded as a fact. But Dr. Webster, who prefers the indicative too often, has the follow- 
ing note upon it : " If Johnson had followed the common grammars, or even his own, which is prefixed to his 
Dictionary, he would have written were — ' If the excellence of Dryden's works were lessened' — Fortunately this 
great man, led by usage rather than by books, wrote correct English, instead of grammar." — Philosophical 
Gram., p. 238. Now this is as absurd, as it is characteristic of the grammar from which it is taken. Each 
form is right sometimes, and neither can be used for the other, without error. 

37 



578 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

"Thy nature, immortality, who knowest?" — Everest's Gram., p. 38. "The natural distinction of 
sex in animals gives rise to what, in grammar, is called genders." — lb., p. 51. "Some pains has 
likewise been taken." — Scott's Pre/, to Bible. "And many a steed in his stables were seen." — 
Penw ames Poems, p. 108. " They was forced to eat what never was esteemed food." — Josephus's 
Jewish War, B. i, Ch. i, § 7. "This that yourself hath spoken, I desire that they may take their 
oaths upon." — Hutchinson's Mass., ii, 435. " By men whose experience best qualify them to 
judge." — Committee on Literature, N. Y. Legislature. " He dare venture to kill and destroy sev- 
eral other kinds of fish." — Johnson's Diet, w. Perch. " If a gudgeon meet a roach, He dare not 
venture to approach." — Swift : lb., w. Roach. " Which thou endeavours to establish unto thyself." 
— Barclay s Works, i. 164. " But they pray together much oftener than thou insinuates." — lb., i, 
215. "Of people of all denominations, over whom thou presideth." — Tlie Friend, Vol. v, p. 198. 
" I can produce ladies and gentlemen whose progress have been astonishing." — Chazoite, on Teach- 
ing Lang., p. 62. "Which of these two kinds of vice are more criminal?" — Brown's Estimate, 
ii, 115. " Every twenty-four hours affords to us the vicissitudes of day and night." — Smith's New 
Gram., p. 103. " Every four years adds another day." — lb. " Every error I could find, Have 
my busy muse employed." — Swiff s Poems, p. 335. "A studious scholar deserve the approbation 
of his teacher." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 226. " Perfect submission to the rules of a school indicate 
good breeding." — lb., p. 37. " A comparison in which more than two is concerned." — Bullions, 
E Gram., p. 114. "By the facilities which artificial language afford them." — 0. B. Peirce's 
Gram,., p. 16. " Now thyself hath lost both lop and top." — Spenser: Joh. Diet, w. Lop. "Glad 
tidings is brought to the poor." — Campbell's Gospels: Luke, vii, 23. "Upon which, all that is 
pleasurable, or affecting in elocution, chiefly depend." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 129. "No pains 
has been spared to render this work complete." — Bullions, Lai. Gram., Pre/., p. iv. " The United 
States contains more than a twentieth part of the land of this globe." — De Witt Clinton : Cobb's 
N. Amer. Reader, p. 173. "I am mindful that myself is (or am) strong." — Fowler's E. Gram., § 
500. "Myself is (not am) weak; thyself is (not art) weak." — lb., § 479. 
" How pale each worshipful and reverend guest 
Rise from a clergy or a city feast 1" — Pope, Sat. ii, 1. 75. 

Under the Rule itself. — Verb before the Nominative. 

"Where was you born? In London." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 133. "There is frequent occa- 
sions for commas." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 281. "There necessarily follows from thence, these 
plain and unquestionable consequences." — Priestley's Gram., p. 191. "And to this impression 
contribute the redoubled effort." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 112. " Or if he was, was there no spir- 
itual men then ?" — Barclay's Works, in, 86. " So by these two also is signified their contrary 
principles." — lb., hi, 200. "In the motions made with the hands, consist the chief part of gest- 
ure in speaking." — Blair's Rhet, p. 336. " Dare he assume the name of a popular magistrate?" — 
D'mcan's Cicero, p. 140. "There was no damages as in England, and so Scott lost his wager." 
— Byron. " In fact there exists such resemblances." — Karnes, El. of Crit, ii, 64. " To him 
giveth all the prophets witness." — Crewdson's Beacon, p. 79. " That there was so many witnesses 
and actors." — Addison's Evidences, p. 37. " How does this man's definitions stand affected ?" — 
Collier's Antoninus, p. 136. "Whence comes all the powers and prerogatives of rational beings?" 
— lb., p. 144. " Nor does the Scriptures cited by thee prove thy intent." — Barclay's Works, i, 155. 
" Nor do the Scripture cited by thee prove the contrary." — lb., i, 211. "Why then cite thou 
a Scripture which is so plain and clear for it ?" — lb., i, 163. " But what saith the Scriptures as to 
respect of persons among Christians?" — lb., i, 404. "But in the mind of man, while in the sav- 
age state, there seems to be hardly any ideas but what enter by the senses." — Robertson's Amer- 
ica, i, 289. " What sounds have each of the vowels ?" — Griscom's Questions. " Out of this has 
grown up aristocracies, monarchies, despotisms, tyrannies." — Brownson's Elivood, p. 222. "And 
there wa3 taken up, of fragments that remained to them, twelve baskets." — Luke, ix, 17. "There 
seems to be but two general classes." — Day's Gram., p. 3. " Hence arises the six forms of expres- 
sing time." — lb., p. 37. "There seems to be no other words required." — Chandler's Gram., p. 28. 
"If there-is two, the second increment is the syllable next the last." — Bullions, Lot. Gram., 12th 
Ed., p. 281. "Hence arises the following advantages. "—Id., Analyt. and Pract Gram., 1849, p. 
67. "There is no data by which it can be estimated." — J. C. Calhoun's Speech, March 4, 1850. 
"To this class belong the Chinese [language], in which we have nothing but naked roots." — Fow- 
ler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 27. " There was several other grotesque figures that presented 
themselves." — Spect, No. 173. "In these consist that sovereign good which ancient sages so 
much extol." — PercivaVs Tales, ii, 221. " Here comes those I have done good to against my will." 
— Shak., Shrew. "Where there is more than one auxiliary." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 80. 
" On me to cast those eyes where shine nobility." — Sidney: Joh. Diet 
" Here's half-pence in plenty, for one you'll have twenty." — Swift's Poems, p. 347. 
" Ah, Jockey, ill advises thou, I wis, 
To think of songs at such a time as this." — Churchill, p. 18. 

Under Note I. — The Relative and Verb. 
" Thou who loves us, wilt protect us still." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 67. "To use that en- 
dearing language, Our Father, who is in heaven." — Bates's Doctrines, p. 103. " Resembling the 
passions that produceth these actions." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 157. "Except dwarf, grief, hoof, 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XIV. VERBS. ERRORS. 579 

muff, &c. which takes c to make the plural." — Astis Grain., p. 19. " As the cattle that goeth before 
me and the children be able to endure." — Gen. xxxiii, 14. "Where is the man who dare affirm 
that such an action is mad ?" — Werter. " The ninth book of Livy affords one of the most beautiful 
exemplifications of historical painting, that is any where to be met with." — Blair's Rhet, p. 360. 
"In some studies too, that relate to taste and fine writing, which is our object," &c. — lb., p. 3-49. 
"Of those affecting situations, which makes man's heart feel for man." — lb., p. 464. "We see 
very plainly, that it is neither Osmyn, nor Jane Shore, that speak." — lb., p. 468. " It should as- 
sume that briskness and ease, which is suited to the freedom of dialogue." — lb., p. 469. "Yet 
they grant, that none ought to be admitted into the ministry, but such as is truly pious." — Barclay's 
Works, iii, 147. " This letter is one of the best that has been written about Lord Byron." — 
Hunt's Byron, p. 119. "Thus, besides what was sunk, the Athenians took above two hundred 
ships." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 102. "To have made and declared such orders as was neces- 
sary." — Hutchinson's Hist, i, 470. "The idea of such a collection of men as make an army." — 
Locke's Essay, p. 217. "I'm not the first that have been wretched." — Southern's In. Ad., Act 2. 
"And the faint sparks of it, which is in the angels, are concealed from our view." — Calvin's In- 
stitutes, B. i, Ch. 11. "The subjects are of such a nature, as allow room for much diversity of 
taste and sentiment." — Blair's RheL, Pref., p. 5. "It is in order to propose examples of such 
perfection, as are not to be found in the real examples of society." — Formey's Belles- Lettres, p. 16. 
" I do not believe that he would amuse himself with such fooleries as has been attributed to him." 
— lb., p. 218. "That shepherd, who first taughtst the chosen seed." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., p. 
238. "With respect to the vehemence and warmth which is allowed in popular eloquence." — 
Blair's BheL, p. 261. " Ambition is one of those passions that is never to be satisfied." — Home's 
Art of flunking, p. 36. " Thou wast ho that leddest out and broughtest in Israel." — 2 Samuel, 
v, 2 ; and 1 Chron., xi, 2. " Art thou the man of God that earnest from Judah ?" — 1 Kings, xiii, 14. 
" How beauty is excell'd by manly grace 
And wisdom, which alone is truly fair." — Milton, B. iv, 1. 490. 

" "What art thou, speak, that on designs unknown, 
While others sleep, thus range the camp alone?" — Pcpe, II, x, 90. 

Under Note IT. — Nominative with Adjuncts. 

"The literal sense of the words are, that the action had been done." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of 
Lang., i, 65. "The rapidity of his movements were beyond example." — Wells's Hist., p. 161. 
" Murray's Grammar, together with Ms Exercises and Key, have nearly superseded every thing 
else of the kind." — Evan's Rec.: Murray's Gram., 8vo, ii, 305. "The mechanism of clocks and 
watches were totally unknown." — Hume: Priestley's Gram., p. 193. " The it, together with the 
verb io be, express states of being." — Cobbetfs Eng. Gram., ^[ 190. "Hence it is, that the pro- 
fuse variety of objects in some natural landscapes, neither breed confusion nor fatigue." — Karnes, 
El. of Crit, i, 266. " Such a clatter of sounds indicate rage and ferocity." — Music of Nature, p. 
195. " One of the fields make threescore square yards, and the other only fifty-five." — Duncans 
Logic, p. 8. "The happy effects of this fable is worth attending to." — Bailey s Ovid, p. x. " Yet 
the glorious serenity of its parting rays still finger with us." — Gould's Advocate. " Enough of its 
form and force are retained to render them uneasy.'' — Maturin's Sermons, p. 261. "The works 
of nature, in this respect, is extremely regular." — Dr. Pratt's Werter. " No small addition of ex- 
otic and foreign words and phrases have been made by commerce." — Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 
10. "The dialect of some nouns are taken notice of in the notes." — Milnes, Greek Gra r m.. p. 

255. " It has been said, that a discovery of the full resources of the arts, afford the means of 
debasement, or of perversion." — Rush, on the Voice, p. xxvii. "By which means the Order of 
the Words are disturbed." — Holmes's Rhet, B. i, p. 57. "The twofold influence of these and the 
others require the asserter to be in the plural form." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram,, p. 251. "And each 
of these afford employment." — Percival's Tales, Vol. ii, p. 175. "The pronunciation of the 
vowels are best explained under the rules relative to the consonants." — Coar's Gram,, p. 7. 
"The judicial power of these courts extend to all cases in law and equity." — Hall and Baker's 
School Hist, p. 286. " One of you have stolen my money." — Rational Humorist, p. 45. " Such 
redundancy of epithets, instead of pleasing, produce satiety and disgust," — Kames, El. of Grit, ii, 

256. "It has been alleged, that a compliance with the rules of Rhetoric, tend to cramp the 
mind." — Hiley's Gram., 3d Ed., p. 187. " Each of these are presented to us in different relations." 
— Hendrick's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 34. "The past tense of these verbs, should, would, might, could, 
are very indefinite with respect to time." — Bullions, E. Gram., 2d Ed., p. 33 ; 5th Ed., p. 31. 
" The power of the words, which are said to govern this mood, are distinctly understood." — 
Chandler's Gram., Ed. of 1821, p. 33. 

" And now, at length, the fated term of years 

The world's desire have brought, and lo! the God appears." 

— Dr. Lowth, on " the Genealogy of Christ" 
" Variety of Numbers still belong 

To the soft Melody of Ode or Song." — Brightland's Gram., p. 170. 

Under Note III. — Composite or Converted Subjects. 
"Many are the works of human industry, which to begin and finish are hardly granted to the 
same man." — Johnson, Adv. to Diet "To lay down rules for these are as inefficacious." — Dr. 



580 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Pratt 1 s Wtrter, p. 19. "To profess regard, and to act differently, discover a base mind." — Mur- 
ray's Key, ii, p. 206. See also Bullions'' s E Gram., 82 and 112; Lennie's, 53. "To magnify to 
the height of wonder things great, new, and admirable, extremely please the mind of man." — 
Fisher's Gram., p. 152. "In this passage, according as are used in a manner which is very com- 
mon." — Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 183. " A cause de are called a preposition; a cause 
que, a conjunction." — Dr. Webster: Knickerbocker, 1836. "To these are given to speak in the 
name of the Lord." — The Friend, vii, 256. "While wheat has no plural, oats have seldom any 
singular." — Cohbett's E. Gram., ^[ 41. "He cannot assert that 11 are inserted in fullness to denote 
the sound of u." — Cobb's Review of Webster, p. 11. " ch have the power of k." — Gould's Adam's 
Gram., p. 2. u ti, before a vowel, and unaccented, have the sound of si or ci." — Ibid. "In 
words derived from the French, as chagrin, chicanery, and chaise, ch are sounded like sh." — 
Bucke's Gram., p. 10. "But in the word schism, schismatic, &c, the ch are silent." — Ibid. " Ph 
are always sounded like f at the beginning of words." — Bucke's Gram. " Ph have the sound of / as 
in philosophy." — Webster's El. Spelling- Book, p. 11. " Shh&ve one sound only as in shall." — lb. 
" Th have two sounds." — lb. " Sc have the sound of sk, before a, o, u, and r." — lb. " Aw, 
have the sound of a in hall." — Balks' s Spelling- Book, p. vi. "Ew, sound like u." — lb. " Ow, 
when both sounded, have the sound of ou." — lb. " Ui, when both pronounced in one syllable 
sound like wi in languid." — lb. 

" Hi three several Sorts of Sound express, 
As Guile, rebuild, Bruise and Recruit confess." — Brightland's Gram., p. 34. 

Under Note IV.— EACH, ONE, EITHER, and NEITHER. 

" When each of the letters which compose this word, have been learned." — Dr. Weeks, on 
Orthog., p. 22. "As neither of us deny that both Homer and Virgil have great beauties." — 
Blair's Rhet., p. 21. "Yet neither of them are remarkable for precision." — lb., p. 95. "How 
far each of the three great epic poets have distinguished themselves." — lb., p. 427. "Each of 
these produce a separate agreeable sensation." — lb., p. 48. "On the Lord's day every one of us 
Christians keep the sabbath." — Tr. of Irenceus. "And each of them bear the image of purity 
and holiness." — Hope of Israel, p. 81. "Were either of these meetings ever acknowledged or 
recognized?" — Foster's Report, i, 96. "Whilst neither of these letters exist in the Eugubian in- 
scription." — Knight, on Greek Alph., p. 122. "And neither of them are properly termed indefi- 
nite." — Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 88. "As likewise of the several subjects, which have in 
effect each their verb." — Lowth's Gram., p. 120. " Sometimes when the word ends in s, neither 
of the signs are used." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 21. "And as neither of these manners offend 
the ear." — Walker's Diet, Pref, p. 5. "Neither of these two Tenses are confined to this signifi- 
cation only." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 339. " But neither of these circumstances are intended 
here." — Tooke's Diversions, ii, 237. "So that all are indebted to each, and each are dependent 
upon all." — Am. Bible Society's Rep., 1838, p. 89. "And yet neither of them express any more 
action in this case than they did in the other." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 201. "Each of these ex- 
pressions denote action." — Hallock's Gram., p. 74. "Neither of these moods "seem to be defined 
by distinct boundaries." — Butler's Practical Gram., p. 66. "Neither of these solutions are cor- 
rect." — Bullions, Lat. Gram., p. 236. " Neither bear any sign of case at all." — Fowler's E. Gram., 
8vo, 1850, §217. 

" Each in their turn like Banquo's monarchs stalk." — Byron. 

" And tell what each of them by th'other lose." — Shak., Cori., in, 2. 

Under Note V. — Verb between two Nominatives. 

"The quarrels of lovers is a renewal of love." — Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 156 ; Alexander's, 49 ; 
Gould's, 159 ; Bullions's, 206. " Two dots, one placed above the other, is called Sheva." — Dr. 
Wilson's Heb. Gram., p. 43. "A few centuries, more or less, is a matter of small consequence." 
— lb., p. 31. "Pictures were the first step towards the art of writing. Hieroglyphicks was the 
second step." — Parker's English Composition, p. 27. " The comeliness of youth are modesty and 
frankness; of age, condescension and dignity." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 166. "Merit and good 
works is the end of man's motion." — Lord Bacon. "Divers philosophers hold that the lips is 
parcel of the mind." — Shakspeare. "The clothing of the natives were the skins of wild beasts." 
— Indian Wars, p. 92. " Prepossessions in favor of our nativ town, is not a matter of sur- 
prise." — Webster's Essays, p. 217. " Two shillings and six pence is half a crown, but not a half 
crown." — Priestley's Gram., p. 150; Bicknell's, ii, 53. " Two vowels, pronounced by a single im- 
pulse of the voice, and uniting in one sound, is called a dipthong." — Cooper's PI, and Pr. Gram., 
p. 1. " Two or more sentences united together is called a Compound Sentence." — P. E. Day's 
District School Gram., p. 10.' "Two or more words rightly put together, but not completing an 
entire proposition, is called a Phrase." — Ibid. "But the common Number of Times are five." — 
The British Grammar, p. 122. "Technical terms, injudiciously introduced, is another source of 
darkness in composition." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 107. " The United States is the great middle 
division of North America." — Morse's Geog., p. 44. "A great cause of the low state of industry 
were the restraints put upon it." — Hume: Murray's Gram., p. 145; Ingersoll's, 172; Sanborn's, 
192 ; Smith's, 123 ; and others. " Here two tall ships becomes the victor's prey." — Rowe's 




CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. RULE XIV. VERBS. — ERRORS. 

Lucan, B. ii, L 1003. " Tho expenses incident to an outfit is surely no object." — The Friend, Vol. 
iii, p. 200. 

" Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, 
"Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep." — Milton. 

Under Note VI. — Change the Nominative. 

" Much pains has been taken to explain all the kinds of words." — Infant School Gram. p. 128. 
" Not less [time] than three years are spent in attaining this faculty." — Music of Nature, p. 28. 
""Where this night are met in state Many a friend to gratulate His wish'd presence." — Milton's 
Comus, 1. 948. "Peace! my darling, here's no danger, Here's no oxen near thy bed." — Watts. 
"But everyone of these are mere conjectures, and some of them very unhappy ones." — Coleridge's 
Introduction, p. 61. "The old theorists, calling the Interrogatives and Repliers, adverbs, is only 
a part of their regular system of naming words." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., p. 314. "Where a series 
of sentences occur, place them in the order in which the facts occur." — lb., p. 264. "And that 
the whole in conjunction make a regular chain of causes and effects." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 
275. " The origin of the Grecian, and Roman republics, though equally involved hi the obscuri- 
ties and uncertainties of fabulous events, present one remarkable distinction." — Adams's Ehet, i, 
95. " In these respects, mankind is left by nature an unformed, unfinished creature." — Butler's 
Analogy, p. 144. "The scripture are the oracles of God himself." — Hooker: Joh. Diet, w. 
Oracle. " And at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits." — Solomon's Song, vii, 13. "The 
preterit of pluck, look, and toss are, in speech, pronounced pluckt, lookt, tosst." — Fowler's E. Gram., 
1850, § 68. 

" Severe the doom that length of days impose, 
To stand sad witness of unnumber'd woesl" — Melmoth. 

Under Note VII. — Adapt Form to Style. 
1. Forms not proper for the Common or Familiar Style. 

"Was it thou that buildedst that house ?" — Inst., p. 151. "That boy writeth very elegantly." 
— lb. " Couldest not thou write without blotting thy book?" — lb. " Thinkest thou not it will 
rain to-day?" — lb. "Doth not your cousin intend to visit you?" — lb. "That boy hath torn my 
book." — lb. "Was it thou that spreadest tho hay?" — lb. "Was it James, or thou, that didst 
let him in?" — lb. " He dareth not say a word." — lb. " Thou stoodest in my way and hinderedst 
me."— lb. 

"Whom see I? — Whom seest thou now? — Whom sees he? — Whom lovest thou most? — 
What dost thou to-day? — What person seest thou teaching that boy? — He hath two new knives. 
— Which road takest thou ? — What child teaches he ?" — IngersoWs Gram., p. 66. " Thou, who 
makest my shoes, sellest many more." — lb., p. 67. 

" The English language hath been much cultivated during the last two hundred years. It hath 
been considerably polished and refined." — Loicth's Gram., Pref, p. iii. " This stile is ostentatious, 
and doth not suit grave writing." — Priestley's Gram., p. 82. "But custom hath now appropri- 
ated who to persons, and which to things." — lb., p. 97. "The indicative mood sheweth or de- 
clareth; as, Ego amo, I love: or elseasketh a question; as, Amos tu? Dost thou love?" — Paul's 
Accidence, Ed. of 1793, p. 16. "Though thou canst not do much for the cause, thou mayst and 
shouldst do something." — Murray's Gram., p. 143. " The support of so many of his relations, 
was a heavy task ; but thou knowest he paid it cheerfully." — Murray's Key, R. 1, p. 180. "It 
may, and often doth, come short of it." — CampbelVs Rhetoric, p. 160. 

" 'Twas thou, who, while thou seem'dst to chide, 
To give me all thy pittance tried." — Mitford's Blanch, p. 78. 

2. Forms not proper for the Solemn or Biblical Style. 

" The Lord has prepar'd his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom rules over all." — See Key. 
"Thou answer'd them, O Lord our G-od: thou was a God that forgave them, though thou took 
vengeance of their inventions." — See Key. " Then thou spoke in vision to thy Holy One, and 
said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty." — See Key. " So then, it is not of him that wills, 
nor of him that rnns, but of God that shows mercy ; who dispenses his blessings, whether temporal 
or spiritual, as seems good in his sight." — See Key. 

" Thou, the mean while, was blending with my thought ; 
Yea, with my life, and life's own secret joy." — Coleridge. 

Under Note VIII. — Express the Nominative. 
"Who is here so base, that would be a bondman?" — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 249. "Who 
is here so rude, that would not be a Roman?" — lb. " There is not a sparrow falls to the ground 
without his notice." — Murray's Gram., p. 300. " In order to adjust them so, as shall consist 
equally with the perspicuity and the strength of the period." — lb., p. 324; Blair's Ehet., 118. 
"But sometimes, there is a verb comes in." — Cobbett's English Gram., ■[[ 248. "Mr. Prince has 
a genius would prompt him to better things." — Spectator, No. 466. " It is this removes that im- 
penetrable mist." — Harris's Hermes, p. 362. " By the praise is given him for his courage." — 
Locke, on Education, p. 214. " There is no man would be more welcome here." — Steele, Sped., 



582 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

No. 544. " Between an antecedent and a consequent, or what goes before, and immediately fol- 
lows." — Blair's Rhet, p. 141. " And as connected with what goes before and follows." — lb., p. 
354. "There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake." — Lord Bacon. " All the various 
miseries of life, which people bring upon themselves by negligence and folly, and might have been 
avoided by proper care, are instances of this." — Butter's Analogy, p. 108. "Ancient philosophers 
have taught many tilings in favour of morality, so far at least as respect justice and goodness 
towards our fellow-creatures." — Gospel its own Witness, p. 56. "Indeed, if there be any such, 
have been, or appear to be of us, as suppose, there is not a wise man among us all, nor an honest 
man, that is able to judge betwixt his brethren; we shall not covet to meddle in their matter." — 
Barclay's Works, i, 504. "There were that drew back; there were that made shipwreck of 
faith ; yea, there were that brought in damnable heresies." — lb., i, 466. " The nature of the 
cause rendered this plan altogether proper, and in similar situations is fit to be imitated." — Blair's 
Ehet., p. 274. "This is an idiom to which our language is strongly inclined, and was formerly 
very prevalent." — Churchill's Gram., p. 150. "His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth 
the place of stones." — Job, viii, 17. 

"New York, Fifthmonth 3d, 1823. 
"Dear friend, Am sorry to hear of thy loss ; but hope it may be retrieved. Should be happy to 
render thee any assistance in my power. Shall call to see thee to-morrow morning. Accept 
assurances of my regard. A. B." 

" New York, May 3d, P. M., 1823. 
"Dear Sir, Have just received the kind note favoured mo with this morning; and cannot forbear 
to express my gratitude to you. On further information, find have not lost so much as at first 
supposed; and believe shall still be able to meet all my engagements. Should, however, be 
happy to see you. Accept, dear sir, my most cordial thanks. C. D." 

— See Brown's Institutes, p. 151. 

" "Will martial flames forever fire thy mind, 
And never, never be to Heaven resigned ?" — Pope, Odys., xii, 145. 

Under Note IX. — Application of Moods. 

Fi,rst Clause of the Note. — For the Subjunctive Present. 

"He will not be pardoned, unless he repents." — Brown's Institutes, p. 191. 

[Fokmtjxe. — Not proper, because the verb repents, -which is here used to express a future contingency, is in 
the indicative mood. But, according to the first clause of Note 0th to Rule 14th, " A future contingency is best 
expressed by a verb in the subjunctive present." Therefore, repents should be repent; thus, " He will not be 
pardoned, unless he repent."] 

" If thou findest any kernelwort in this marshy meadow, bring it to me." — Neef's Method of 
Teaching, p. 258. "If thou leavest the room, do not forget to shut that drawer." — lb., p. 246. 
" If thou graspest it stoutly, thou wilt not be hurt." — lb., p. 196. " On condition that he comes, 
I will consent to stay." — Murray's Ezerc, p. 74. " If he is but discreet, he will succeed." — Inst., 
p. 191. " Take heed that thou speakest not to Jacob." — lb. "If thou castest me off, I shall bo 
miserable." — lb. "Send them to me, if thou pleasest." — lb. "Watch the door of thy lips, 
lest thou utterest folly." — lb. " Though a liar speaks the truth, he will hardly be believed." — 
Common School Manual, ii, 124. "I will go unless I should be ill." — Murray's Gram., p. 300. 
"If the word or words understood are supplied, the true construction will be apparent." — Mur- 
ray's Exercises in Parsing, p. 21. " Unless thou shalt see the propriety of the measure, Ave shall 
not desire thy support." — Murray's Key, p. 209. "Unless thou shouldst make a timely retreat, 
the danger will be unavoidable." — lb., p. 209. ""We may live happily, though our possessions are 
small." — lb., p. 202. "If they are carefully studied, they will enable the student to parse all the 
exercises." — lb., Note, p. 165. "If the accent is fairly preserved on the proper syllable, this 
drawling sound will never bo heard." — Murray's Gram., p. 242. "One phrase may, in point of 
sense, be equivalent to another, though its grammatical nature is essentially different." — lb., p. 
108. " If any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note that man." — Br. Webster's Bible. 
" Thy skill will be the greater, if thou hittest it." — Putnam's Analytical Reader, p. 204. " Thy 
skill- will be the greater if thou hit'st it." — Cobb's N. A. Reader, p. 321. "¥e shall overtake him 
though he should run." — Priestley's Gram., p. 118; Murray's, 207; Smith's, 173. "We shall 
be disgusted if he gives us too much." — Blair's Rhet., p. 388. 

" What is't to thee, if he neglect thy urn, 
Or without spices lets thy body burn ?" — Dryden : Jdh. Dict n w. Wliat. 

Second Clause of Note IX. — For the Subjunctive Imperfect. 
" And so would I, if I was he." — Brown's Institutes, p. 191. 

[Fohmule. — Not proper, because the verb ipccs, which is here used to express a mere supposition, with indefi- 
nite time, is in the indicative mood. But, accoiding to the second clause of Note 9th to Rule 14th, "A mere 
supposition, with indefinite time, is best expressed by a verb in the subjunctive imperfect." Therefore, was 
should be were; thus, " And so would I, if I were he."] 

"If I was a Greek, I should resist Turkish despotism." — Cardell's Elements of Gram., p. 80. 
•• If he was to go. he would attend to your business." — lb., p. 81. " If thou feltest as I do, we 
should soon decide." — Inst, p. 191. "Though thou sheddest thy blood in the cause, it would 
but prove thee sincerely a fool." — lb. "If thoulovedet him, there would be more evidence of 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XIV. — VERBS. — ERRORS. 583 

it." — lb. "If thou couldst convince him, he would not act accordingly." — Murray's Key, p. 209. 
"If there was no liberty, there would be no real crime." — Formey's Belles- Lettres, p. 118. "If 
the house was burnt down, the case would be the same." — Foster's Report, i, 89. " As if the 
mind was not always in action, when it prefers any thing!" — West, on Agency, p. 38. ''Suppose 
I was to say, ' Light is a body.' " — Harris's Hermes,^. 78. "If either oxygen or azote was 
omitted, life would be destroyed." — Gurney's Evidences, p. 155. " The verb dare is sometimes 
used as if it was an auxiliary." — Priestley's Gram., p. 132. "A certain lady, whom I could 
name, if it was necessary." — Spectator, No. 536. " If the e was dropped, c and g would assume 
their hard sounds." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 10. " He would no more comprehend it, than if it 
was the speech of a Hottentot." — Neefs Sketch, p. 112. "If thou knewest the gift of God," &c. 
— John, iv, 10. " I wish I was at home." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 260. "Fact alone does not 
constitute right ; if it does, general warrants were lawful." — Junius, Let. xliv, p. 205. " Thou 
look'st upon thy boy as though thou guessest it." — Putnam's Analytical Reader, p. 202. " Thou 
look'st upon thy boy as though thou guessedst it." — Cobb's N. A. Reader, p. 320. "He fought 
as if he had contended for life." — Riley's Gram., p. 92. " He fought as if he had been contend- 
ing for his life."— lb., 92. 



" The dewdrop glistens on thy leaf, 
As if thou seem'st to shed a tear ; 



As if thou knew'st my tale of grief, 
Felt all my sufferings severe." — Alex. Letham. 



Last Clause of Note IX. — For the Indicative Mood. 

" If he know the way, he does not need a guide." — Brown's Institutes, p. 191. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because the verb know, which is used to express a conditional circumstance assumed 
as a fact, is in the subjunctive mood. But, according to the last clause of Note 9th to Rule 14th, "A conditional 
circumstance assumed as a fact, requires the indicative mood." Therefore, know should be knows; thus, "If 
he knows the way, he does not need a guide."] 

" And if there be no difference, one of them must be superfluous, and ought to be rejected." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 149. "I cannot say that I admire this construction, though it be much used." 
— Priestley's Gram., p. 172. ""VVe are disappointed, if the verb do not immediately follow it." — 
lb., p. 177. "If it were they who acted so ungratefully, they are doubly in fault." — Murray's 
Key, 8vo, p. 223. " If art become apparent, it disgusts the reader." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 80. 
"Though perspicuity be more properly a rhetorical than a grammatical quality, I thought it better 
to include it in this book." — CampbeWs Rhet, p. 238. " Although the efficient cause be obscure, 
the final cause of those sensations lies open." — Blair' s Rhet, p. 29. "Although the barrenness 
of language, and the want of words be doubtless one cause of the invention of tropes." — lb., p. 
135. " Though it enforce not its instructions, yet it furnishes us with a greater variety." — lb., 
p. 353. " In other cases, though the idea be one, the words remain quite separate " — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 140. " Though the Form of our language be more simple, and has that peculiar 
Beauty." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. v. " Human works are of no significancy till they be com- 
pleted." — Karnes, El. of Grit, i, 245. " Our disgust lessens gradually till it vanish altogether." — 
lb., i, 338. " And our relish improves by use, till it arrive at perfection." — lb., i, 338. "So long 
as he keep himself in his own proper element." — Coke: ib., i, 233. ""Whether this translation 
were ever published or not I am wholly ignorant." — Sale's Koran, i, 13. "It is false to affirm, 
'As it is day, it is light,' unless it actually be day." — Harris's Hermes, p. 246. "But we may at 
midnight affirm, ' If it be day, it is light.' " — Ibid. " If the Bible be true, it is a volume of un- 
speakable interest." — Dickinson. " Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the 
things which he suffered." — Heb., v, 8. "If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?" — 
Matt, xxii, 45. 

" 'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill 
Appear in writing or in judging ill" — Pope, Ess. on Crit. 

Under Note X. — False Subjunctives. 

"If a man have built a house, the house is his." — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 286. 

[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the verb have built, which extends the subjunctive mood into the perfect 
tense, has the appearance of disagreeing with its nominative man. But. according to Note 10th to Rule 14th, 
"Every such use or extension of the subjunctive mood, as the reader will be likely to mistake for a discord be- 
tween the verb and its nominative, ought to be avoided as an impropriety." Therefore, have built should be has 
built; thus, " If a man has built a house, the house is his."] 

" If God have required them of him, as is the fact, he has time." — lb., p. 351. " Unless a 
previous understanding to the contrary have been had with the Principal." — Berriaris Circular, 
p. 5. "O if thou have Hid them in some flowery cave." — Miltcm's Comus, 1. 239. " O if Jove's 
will Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay." — Milton, Sonnet 1. "Subjunctive Mood: 
If thou love, If thou loved, If thou have loved, If thou had loved, If thou shall or will love, If 
thou shall or will have loved." — L. Murray's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 71 ; Cooper's Murray, 58; D. 
Adams's Gram., 48 ; and others. " Till religion, the pilot of the soul, have lent thee her un- 
fathomable coiL" — Tupper's Thoughts, p. 170. "Whether nature or art contribute most to form 
an orator, is a trifling inquiry." — Blair's Rhet, p. 338. " Year after year steals something from 
us; till the decaying fabric totter of itself, and crumble at length into dust." — Murray s Key, 8v-o, 
p. 225. "If spiritual pride have not entirely vanquished humility." — West's Letters, p. 184. 
" Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter." — Exodus, xxi, 31. " It is doubtful 



584 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

whether the object introduced by way of simile, relate to what goes before, or to what follows." 
— Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 45. 

" And bridle in thy headlong wave, 
Till thou our summons answer'd have." — Milt, Comus, 1. 887. 

KULE XV.— FINITE VEKBS. 

When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plu- 
rality, the Verb must agree with it in the plural number : as ? " The 
council were divided." — " The college of cardinals are the electors of the 
pope." — Murray's Key, p. 176. " Quintus Curtius relates, that a num- 
ber of them were drowned in the river Lycus." — Home's Art of Think- 
ing, p. 125. 

" Yon host come learn'd in academic rules/' — Bowe's Lucan, vii, 401. 
" While heaven's high host on hallelujahs live." — Young's N. Th., iv, 378. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XV. 

Obs. 1. — To this rule there are no exceptions ; because, the collective noun being a name which 
even in the singular number " signifies many," the verb which agrees with it, can never properly 
be singular, unless the collection be taken literally as one aggregate, and not as " conveying the 
idea of plurality." Thus, the collective noun singular being in general susceptible of two senses, 
and consequently admitting two modes of concord, the form of the verb, whether singular or 
plural, becomes the principal index to the particular sense in which the nominative is taken, 
After such a noun, we can use either a singular verb, agreeing with it literally, strictly, formally, 
according to Rule 14th; as, " The whole number was two thousand and six hundred ;" or a plu- 
ral one, agreeing with it figuratively, virtually, ideally, according to Rule 15th; as, " The whole 
number were two thousand and six hundred." — 2 Ghron., xxvi, 12. So, when the collective 
noun is an antecedent, the relative having in itself no distinction of the numbers, its verb bo • 
comes the index to the sense of all three ; as, "Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that 
is left." — Isaiah, xxxvii, 4. ""Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left." — 2 
Kings, xix, 4. Ordinarily the word remnant conveys no idea of plurality ; but. it being here 
applied to persons, and having a meaning to which the mere singular neuter noun is not well 
adapted, the latter construction is preferable to the former. The Greek version varies more 
in the two places here cited ; being plural in Isaiah, and singular in Kings. The Latin Vul- 
gate, in both, is, "pro reliquiis quce repertx sunt:" i. e., "for the remains, or remnants, that are 
found." 

Obs. 2. — Dr. Adam's rule is this: " A collective noun may be joined with a verb either of the 
singular or of the plural number; as, Multitudo stat, or stant; the multitude stands, or stand." 
— Latin and English Gram., p. 154. To this doctrine, Lowth, Murray, and others, add : " Yet 
not without regard to the import of the word, as conveying unity or plurality of idea." — Louoth r p. 
74 ; Murray, 152. If these latter authors mean, that collective nouns are permanently divided 
in import, so that some are invariably determined to the idea of unit} r , and others to that of plu- 
rality, they are wrong in principle ; for, as Dr. Adam remarks, " A collective noun, when joined 
with a verb singular, expresses many considered as one whole ; but when joined with a verb 
plural, it signifies many separately, or as individuals." — Adam's Gram., p. 154. And if this alone 
is what their addition means, it is entirely useless ; and so, for all the purposes of parsing, is the 
singular half of the rule itself. Kirkham divides this rule into two, one for "unity of idea," and 
the other for " plurality of idea," shows how each is to be applied in parsing, according to his 
" systematic^ order;" and then, turning round with a gallant tilt at his own work, condemns 
both, as idle fabrications, which it were " better to reject than to retain ;" alleging that, " The exis- 
tence of such a thing as ' unity or plurality of idea,' as applicable to nouns of this class, is doubt- 
fid." — KirJcham's Gram., p. 59.* How then shall a plural verb or pronoun, after a collective 
noun, be parsed, seeing it does not agree with the noun by the ordinary rule of agreement ? 
Will any on 3 say, that every such construction is bad English? If this cannot be maintained, 
rules eleventh and fifteenth of this series are necessary. But when the noun conveys the idea 
of unity or tikes the plural form, the verb or pronoun has no other than a literal agreement by 
the common rule ; as, 

" A priesthood, such as Baal's was of old, 
A people, such as never was till now." — Gowper. 

Obs. 3. — Of the co d. struction of the verb and collective noun, a late British author gives the 
following account: " Collective nouns are substantives which signify many in the singular num- 
ber. Collective nouns are of two sorts : 1. Those which cannot become plural like other substan- 
tives ; as, nobility, mankind, &c. 2. Those which can be made plural by the usual rules for a 

* Taking this allegation in one sense, the reader may see that Kirkham was not altogether -wrong here ; and 
that, had he condemned the solecisms adopted by himself and others, about "mm'('/ of idea" 1 and "plurality of 
idea,'' 1 in stead of condemning the things intended to be spoken of, he might have made a discovery which would 
have set him wholly right. See a footnote on page 738, under the head of Absurdities. 



CHAP VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XV. — VERBS. OBSERVATIONS. 585 

substantive; as, 'A multitude, multitudes; a crowd, crowds;' &c. Substantives which imply 
plurality in the singular number, and consequently have no other plural, generally require a 
plural verb. They are cattle, cavalry, clergy, commonalty, gentry, laity, mankind, nobility, peas- 
antry, people, populace, public, rabble, &c. [;] as, ' The public are informed.' Collective nouns 
which form a regular plural, such as, number, numbers ; multitude, multitudes ; have, like all 
other substantives, a singular verb, when they are in the singular number ; and a plural verb, 
when they are in the plural number ; as, ' A number of people is assembled ; Numbers are as- 
sembled.' — 'The fleet was dispersed; & part of it was injured; the several parts are now col- 
lected.' " — Nixon's Parser, p. 120. To this, his main text, the author appends a note, from which 
the following passages are extracted : " There are few persons acquainted with Grammar, who 
may not have noticed, in many authors as well as speakers, an irregularity in supposing collec- 
tive nouns to have, at one time, a singular meaning, and consequently to require a singular verb ; 
and, at an other time, to have a plural meaning, and therefore to require a plural verb. This 
irregularity appears to have arisen from the want of a clear idea of the nature of a collective 
noun. This defect the author has endeavoured to supply ; and, upon his definition, he has founded 
the two rules above. It is allowed on all sides that, hitherto, no satisfactory rules have been 
produced to enable the pupil to ascertain, with any degree. of certainty, when a collective noun 
should have a singular verb, and when a plural one. A rule that simply tells its examiner, that 
when a collective noun in the nominative case conveys the idea, of unity, its verb should be sin- 
gular ; and when it implies plurality, its verb should be plural, is of very little value ; for such a 
rule will prove the pupil's being in the right, whether he should put the verb in the singular or the 
plural." — Ibid. 

Obs. 4. — The foregoing explanation has many faults ; and whoever trusts to it, or to any thing 
like it, will certainly be very much misled. In the first place, it is remarkable that an author who 
could suspect in others "the want of a clear idea of the nature of a collective noun," should have 
hoped to supply the defect by a definition so ambiguous and ill-written as is the one above. Sec- 
ondly, his subdivision of this class of nouns into two sorts, is both baseless and nugatory; for that 
plurality which has reference to the individuals of an assemblage, has no manner of connexion or 
affinity with that which refers to more than one such aggregate ; nor is there any interference of 
the one with the other, or any ground at all for supposing that the absence of the latter is, has 
been, or ought to be, the occasion for adopting the former. Hence, thirdly, his two rules, (though, 
so far as they go, they seem not untrue in themselves,) by their limitation under this false division, 
exclude and deny the true construction of the verb with the greater part of our collective nouns. 
For, fourthly, the first of these rules rashly presumes that any collective noun which in the sin- 
gular number implies a plurality of individuals, is consequently destitute of any other plural ; 
and the second accordingly supposes that no such nouns as, council, committee, jur3 r , meeting, 
society, assembly, court, college, company, army, host, band, retinue, train, multitude, number, 
part, half, portion, majority, minority, remainder, set, sort, kind, class, nation, tribe, family, race, 
and a hundred more, can ever be properly used with a plural verb, except when they assume the 
plural form. To prove the falsity of this supposition, is needless. And, finally, the objection 
which this author advances against the common rules, is very far from proving them useless, or 
not greatly preferable to his own. If they do not in every instance enable the student to ascer- 
tain with certainty which form of concord he ought to prefer, it is only because no rules can 
possibly tell a man precisely when he ought to entertain the idea of unity, and when that of 
plurality. In some instances, these ideas are unavoidably mixed or associated, so that it is of lit- 
tle or no consequence which form of the verb we prefer ; as, "Behold, the people is one, and they 
have all one language." — Gen., xi, 6. 

"Well, if a king's a lion, at the least * 
The people are a many-headed beast." — Pope, Epist. i, 1. 120. 
Obs. 5. — Lindley Murray says, " On many occasions, where a noun of multitude is used, it is 
very difficult to decide, whether the verb should be in the singular, or in the plural number ; and 
this difficulty has induced some grammarians to cut the knot at once, and to assert that every 
noun of multitude must always be considered as conveying the idea of unity." — Octavo Gram., 
p. 153. What these occasions, or who these grammarians, are. I know not; but it is certain that 
the difficulty here imagined does not concern the application of such rules as require the verb 
and pronoun to conform to the sense intended ; and, where there is no apparent impropriety in 
adopting either number, there is no occasion to raise a scruple as to which is right. To cut knots 
by dogmatism, and to tie them by sophistry, are employments equally vain. It cannot be denied 
that there are in every multitude both a unity and a plurality, one or the other of which must be 
preferred as the principle of concord for the verb or the pronoun, or for both. Nor is the number 
of nouns small, or their use unfrequent, which, according to our best authors, admit of either 
construction; though Kirkham assails and repudiates his own rules, because, " Their application 
is quite limited." — Grammar in Familiar Lectures, p. 59. 

Obs. 6. — Murray's doctrine seems to be, not that collective nouns are generally susceptible of 
two senses in respect to number, but that some naturally convey the idea of unity, others, that 
of plurality, and a few, either of these senses. The last, which are probably ten times more nu- 
merous than all the rest, he somehow merges or forgets, so as to speak of two classes only : say- 
ing, " Some nouns of multitude certainly convey to the mind an idea of plurality, others, that of 
a whole as one thing, and others again, sometimes that of unity, and sometimes that of plu- 
rality. On this ground, it is warrantable, and consistent with the nature of things, to apply a 



586 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

plural verb and pronoun to the one class, and a singular verb and pronoun to the other. "We shall 
immediately perceive the impropriety of the following constructions : ' The clergy has withdrawn 
itself from the temporal courts;' 'The assembly was divided in its opinion;' &c." — Octavo Gram., 
p. 153. The simple fact is, that clergy, assembly, and perhaps every other collective noun, may 
sometimes convey the idea of unity, and sometimes that of plurality; but an "opinion" or a vol- 
untary "withdrawing" is & personal act or quality; wherefore it is here more consistent to adopt 
the plural sense and construction, in which alone we take the collection as individuals, or 
persons. 

Obs. 7. — Although a uniformity of number is generally preferable to diversity, in the construc- 
tion of words that refer to the same collective noun ; and although many grammarians deny that 
any departure from such uniformity is allowable ; yet, if the singular be put first, a plural pronoun 
may sometimes follow without obvious impropriety: as, " So Judah was carried away out of their 
land." — 2 Kings, xxv, 21. "Israel is reproved and threatened for their impiety and idolatry." 
— Friends' Bible, Hosea, x. "There is the enemy who wait to give us battle." — Murray's Intro- 
ductory Header, p. 36. When the idea of plurality predominates in the author's mind, a plural 
verb is sometimes used before a collective noun that has the singular article an or a ; as, " There 
are a sort of authors, who seem to take up with appearances." — Addison. " Here are a number of 
facts or incidents leading to the end in view." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 296. "There are a great 
number of exceedingly good writers among the French." — Maunders Gram., p. 11. 

" There in the forum swarm a numerous train, 
The subject of debate a townsman slain." — Pope, Iliad, 13. xviii, 1. 578. 

Obs. 8. — Collective nouns, when they are merely partitive of the plural, like the words sort and 
number above, are usually connected with a plural verb, even though they have a singular defin- 
itive; as, "And this sort of adverbs commonly admit of Comparison." — Buchanan's English 
Syntax, p. 64. Here, perhaps, it would be better to say, " Adverbs of this sort commonly admit of 
comparison." " A part of the exports consist of raw silk." — Webster's Improved Gram., p. 100. 
This construction is censured by Murray, in his octavo Oram., p. 148 ; where we are told, that the 
verb should agree with the first noun only. Dr. Webster alludes to this circumstance, in improv- 
ing his grammar, and admits that, " A part of the exports consists, seems to be more correct." — 
Improved Gram., p. 100. Yet he retains his original text, and obviously thinks it a light thing, 
that, "in some cases," his rules or examples "may not be vindicable." (See Obs. 14th, 15th, 
and 16th, on Rule 14th, of this code.) It would, I think, be better to say, "The exports consist 
partly of raw silk." Again : " A multitude of Latin words have, of late, been poured in upon us." — 
Blair's Rhet., p. 94. Better, perhaps: "Latin words, in great multitude, have, of late, been poured 
in upon us." So: "For the bulk of writers are very apt to confound them with each other." — 
lb., p. 97. Better: "For most writers are very apt to confound them with each other." In the 
following example, (here cited as Karnes has it, El. of Grit., ii, 247,) either the verb is, or the 
phrase, " There are some moveless men," might as well have been used: 

" There are a sort of men, whose visages 
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond." — Shak. 

Obs. 9. — Collections of things are much less frequently and less properly regarded as individu- 
als, or under the idea of plurality, than collections of persons. Tins distinction may account for 
the difference of construction in the two clauses of the following example ; though I rather doubt 
whether a plural verb ought to be used in the former: "Tho number of commissioned officers in 
the guards are to the marching regiments as one to eleven : the number of regiments given to tho 
guards, compared with those given to the line, is about three to one." — Junius, p. 147. When- 
ever the multitude is spoken of with reference to a personal act or quality, the verb ought, as I 
before suggested, to be in the plural number; as, "The public are informed." — "The plaintiff's 
counsel have assumed a difficult task." — "The committee were instructed to prepare a remon- 
strance." " The English nation declare they are grossly injured by their representatives." — 
Junius, p. 147. "One particular class of men are permitted to call themselves the King's friends." 
— Id., p. 176. "The Ministry have realized the compendious ideas of Caligula." — Id., p. 177. 
It is in accordance with this principle, that the following sentences have plural verbs and pro- 
nouns, though their definitives are singular, and perhaps ought to be singular: "So depraved were 
that people whom in their history we so much admire." — Hume: Mllvaine's Lect., p. 400. "Oh, 
this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold." — Exodus, xxxii, 31. " Tliis 
people thus gathered have not wanted those trials." — Barclay's Works, i, 460. The following 
examples, among others, are censured by Priestley, Murray, and the copyists of the latter, with- 
out sufficient discrimination, and for a reason which I think fallacious; namely, "because tho 
ideas they represent seem not to be sufficiently divided in the mind:" — "The court of Rome were 
not without solicitude." — Hume. " The house of Lords were so much influenced by these rea- 
sons." — Id. See Priestley's Gram., p. 188; Murray's, 152; R. G. Smith's, 129; Ingersoll's, 248; 
and others. 

Obs. 10. — In general, a collective noun, unless it be made plural in form, no more admits a plu- 
ral adjective before it, than any other singular noun. Hence the impropriety of putting these or 
those before kind or sort; as, " These kind of knaves I know." — Shakspeare. Hence, too, I infer 
that cattle is not a collective noun, as Nixon would have it to be, but an irregular plural which has 
no singular ; because we can say these cattle or those cattle, but neither a bullock nor a herd is ever 
called a cattle, this cattle, or that cattle. AncKf " cavalry, clergy, commonalty," &c, were like this 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — KULE XV. — VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 587 

word, they would all be plurals also, and not " substantives which imply plurality in the singular 
number, and consequently have no other plural." "Whence it appears, that the writer who most 
broadly charges others with not understanding the nature of a collective noun, has most of all mis- 
conceived it himself. If there are not many clergies, it is because the clergy is one body, with one 
Head, and not because it is in a particular sense many. And, since the forms of words are not 
necessarily confined to things that exist, who shall say that the plural word clergies, as I have 
just used it, is not good English ? 

Obs. 11. — If we say, "these people" "these gentry" "these folk" we make people, gentry, and 
folk, not only irregular plurals, but plurals to which there are no correspondent singulars; 
for, by these phrases, we must mean certain individuals, and not more than one people, gently, 
or folk. But these names are sometimes collective nouns singular; and, as such, they may 
have verbs of either number, according to the sense; and may also form regular plurals, as 
peoples, and folks; though we seldom, if ever, speak of gentries ; and folks is now often irregularly 
applied to persons, as if one person were a folk. So troops is sometimes irregularly, if not improp- 
erly, put for soldiers, as if a soldier were a troop ; as, " "While those gallant troops, by whom 
every hazardous, every laborious service is performed, are left to perish." — Junius, p. 147. In 
Genesis, xxvii, 29th, we read, " Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee." But, 
according to the Yulgate, it ought to be, " Let peoples serve thee, and nations bow down to thee ;" 
according to the Septuagint, ''Let nations serve thee, and rulers bow down to thee." Among 
Murray's "instances of false syntax," we find the text, ''This people draweth near to me with 
their mouth," &c. — Octavo Gram., VoL ii, p. 49. This is corrected in his Key, thus : " Tftese peo- 
ple draw near to me with their mouth." — lb , ii, 185. The Bible has it: '"This people draw near 
me with their mouth." — Isaiah, xxix, 13. And again : " This peojjle draweth nigh unto me with 
their mouth," — Matt., xv, 8. Dr. Priestley thought it ought to be, "This people draws nigh unto 
me with their mouths." — Priestley's Gram., p. 63. The second evangelist emits seme words: 
"This people honoureth me with their ftps, but their heart is far from me." — Mark, vii, 6. In my 
opinion, the plural verb is here to be preferred ; because the pronoun their is plural, and the wor- 
ship spoken of was a personal rather than a national act. Yet the adjective this must be 
retained, if the text specify the Jews as a people. As to the words mouth and heart, the}* are to 
be understood figuratively of speech and love ; and I agree not with Priestley, that the plural num- 
ber must necessarily be used. See Note 4th to Rule 4th. 

Obs. 12. — In making an assertion concerning a number or quantity with some indefinite excess 
or allowance, we seem sometimes to take for the subject of the verb what is really the object of a 
preposition; as, "In a sermon, there may be from three to five, or six heads." — Blair's JRheL, p. 
313. "In those of Germany, there are from eight to twelve professors." — JDwight, Lit. Convention, 
p. 138. "About a million and a half ivas subscribed in a few days." — N. Y. Daily Advertiser. 
" About one hundred feet of the Muncy dam has been swept off." — N. T. Observer. "Upwards 
of one hundred thousand dollars have been appropriated.]^— Newspaper. "But I fear there are 
between twenty and thirty of them." — Tookts Diversions, ii, 441. "Besides which, there are up- 
wards of fifty smaller islands." — Balbi's Geog., p. 30. "On board of which embarked upwards of 
three hundred passengers." — Robertson's Amer., ii, 419. The propriety of using above or upwards 
of for more than, is questionable, but the practice is not uncommon. "When there is a preposition 
before what seems at first to be the subject of tho verb, as in the foregoing instances, 1 imagine 
there is an ellipsis of the word number, amount, sum or quantity ; the first of which words is a 
collective noun and may have a verb either singular or plural : as, " In a sermon, there may be 
any number from three to five or six heads." This is awkward, to be sure; but what does the 
Doctor's sentence mean, unless it is, that there may be an optional number of heads, varying from 
three to six ? 

Obs. 13. — Dr. Webster says, " When an aggregate amount is expressed by the plural names of 
the particulars composing that amount, the verb may be in the singular number ; as, ' There was 
more than a hundred and fifty "thousand pounds sterling.' Motors Voyages." To this he adds, 
" However repugnant to the principles of grammar this may seem at first view, the practice is correct ; 
for the affirmation is not made of the individual parts or divisions named, the pounds, but of the 
entire sum or amount." — Philosophical Gram., p. 146 ; Improved Gram., p. 100. The fact is, that 
the Doctor here, as in some other instances, deduces a false rule from a correct usage. It is plain 
that either the word more, taken substantively, or the noun to which it relates as an adjective, is 
the only nominative to the verb was. Mavor does not affirm that there were a hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds; but that there was more — i. e., more money than so many pounds are, or 
amount to. Oliver B. Peirce, too, falls into a multitude of strange errors respecting the nature of 
more than, and the construction of other words that accompany these. See his "Analytical 
Rules," and the manner in which he applies them, in " Tlie Grammar," p. 195 et seg. 

Obs. 14. — Among certain educationists, — grammarians, arithmeticians, schoolmasters, and others, 
— there has been of late not a little dispute concerning the syntax of the phraseology which we 
use, or should use, in expressing multiplication, or in speaking of abstract numbers. For example : 
is it better to say, "Twice one is two," or, " Twice one are two?" — " Two times one is two," or, 
"Two times one are two?" — "Twice two is four," or, " Twice two are four?" — " Thrice one is, 
or are, three?" — " Three times one is, or are, three ?" — " Three times naught is, or are, naught ?" 
— "Thrice three is, or are, nine?" — "Three times four is, or are, twelve?" — " Seven times three 
make, or makes, twenty-one?" — " Three times his age do not, or does not, equal mine?" — "Three 
times the quantity is not, or are not, sufficient ?" — " Three quarters of the men were discharged ; 



588 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

and three quarters of the money was, or were, sent back?" — "As 2 is to 4, so is 6 to 12 ;" or, 
" As two are to four, so are six to twelve ?" 

Obs. 15. — Most of the foregoing expressions, though all are perhaps intelligible enough in com- 
mon practice, are, in some respect, difficult of analysis, or grammatical resolution. I think it pos- 
sible, however, to frame an argument of some plausibility in favour of every one of them. Yet it 
is hardly to be supposed, that any teacher will judge them all to be alike justifiable, or feel no 
interest in the questions which have been raised about them. That the language of arithmetic is 
often defective or questionable in respect to grammar, may be seen not only in many an ill choice 
between the foregoing variant and contrasted modes of expression, but in sundry other examples, 
of a somewhat similar character, for which it may be less easy to find advocates and published 
arguments. What critic will not judge the following phraseolog}' to be faulty? "4 times two 
units is 8 units, and 4 times 5 tens is twenty tens." — phase's Comm.on School Arithmetic, 1848, 
p. 42. Or this? " 1 time 1 is 1. 2 times 1 are 2 ; 1 time 4 is 4, 2 times 4 are 8." — Bay's Arith- 
metic, 1853. Or this? " 8 and 7 is 15, 9's out leaves 6; 3 and 8 is 11, 9's out leaves 2." — Bab- 
cock's Practical Arithmetic, 1829, p. 22. Or this again? "3 times 3 is 9, and 2 we had to carry 
is 11."— lb., p. 20. 

Obs. 16. — There are several different opinions as to what constitutes the grammatical subject 
of the verb in any ordinary English expression of multiplication. Besides this, we have some 
variety in the phraseology which precedes the verb ; so that it is by no means certain, either that 
the multiplying terms are always of the same part of speech, or that the true nominative to the 
verb is not essentially different in different examples. Some absurdly teach, that an abstract 
number ia necessarily expressed by " a singular noun," with only a singular meaning; that such a 
number, when multipli3d, is always, of itself, the subject of the assertion; and, consequently, that 
the verb must be singular, as agreeing only with this "singular noun." Others, not knowing how 
to parse separately the multiplying word or words and the number multiplied, take them both or 
all together as " the grammatical subject" with which the verb must agree. But, among these 
latter expounders, there are two opposite opinions on the very essential point, whether this "entire 
expression" requires a singular verb or a plural one : — as, whether we ought to say, " Twice one 
is two," or, "Twice one are two;" — "Twice two is four, " or, "Twice two are four;" — "Three 
times one is three," or, "Three times one are three;" — "Three times three is nine," or, "Three 
times three are nine." Others, again, according to Dr. Bullions, and possibly according to their 
own notion, find the grammatical subject, sometimes, if not generally, in the multiplying term 
only; as, perhaps, is the case with those who write or speak as follows: "If we say, 'Three 
times one are three,' we make ' times' the subject of the verb." — Bullions, Analyt. and Bract. 
Gram., 1849, p. 39. "Thus, 2 times 1 are 2; 2 times 2 are four; 2 times 3 are 6." — Chase's 0. 
S. Arith., p. 43. " Say, 2 times are ; 2 times 1 are 2." — Bobinson's American Arith., 1825, p. 24. 

Obs. 17. — Dr. Bullions, with a strange blunder of some sort in almost every sentence, propounds 
and defends his opinion on this subject thus: "Numeral adjectives, being also names of numbers, 
are often used as nouns, and so have the inflection and construction of nouns: thus, by twos, by 
tens, by fifties. Two is an even number. Twice two is four. Four is equal to twice two. In 
some arithmetics the language employed in the operation of multiplying — such as ' Twice two are 
four, twice three are six' — is incorrect. It should be, ' Twice two is four,' &c. ; for the word two 
is used as a singular noun — the name of a number. The adverb ' twice' is not in construction with 
it, and consequently does not make it plural. The meaning is, ' The number two taken twice 
is equal to four.' For the same reason we should say, " Three times two is six,' because the 
meaning is, 'Two taken three times is six.' If we say, 'Three times one are three,' we make 
' times' the subject of the verb, whereas the subject of the verb really is 'orae,' and ' times' is in the 
objective of number (§ 828). 2 : 4: : 6 : 12, should be read, 'As 2 is to 4, so is 6 to 12 ;' not 'As 
two are to four, so are six to twelve.' But when numerals denoting more than one, are used as 
adjectives, with a substantive expressed or understood, they must have a plural construction." — 
Bullions, Analyt. and Bract. Gram., 1849, p. 39. 

03S. 18. — Since nouns and adjectives are different parts of speech, the suggestion, that, " Nu- 
meral adjectives are also names, or nouns," is, upon the very face of it, a flat absurdity; and the 
notion that " the name of a number" above unity, conveys only and always the idea of unity, like 
an ordinary " singular noun," is an other. A number in arithmetic is most commonly an adjective 
in grammar; and it is always, in form, an expression that tells how many, or — "denotes how 
many things are spoken of." — Chase, p. 11. But the name of a number is also a number, whenever 
it is not made plural in form. Thus four is a number, but founs is not ; so ten is a number, but 
tens is not. ; Arithmetical numbers, which run on to infinity, severally consist of a definite idea of 
how many ; each is a precise count by the unit; one being the beginning of the series, and the 
measure of 'every successive step. Grammatical numbers are only the verbal forms which distin- 
guish one thing from more of the same sort. Thus the word fours or tens, unless some arith- 
metical number be prefixed to it, signifies nothing but a mere plurality which repeats indefinitely 
the collective idea oifour or ten. 

Obs. 19. — All actual names of numbers calculative, except one, (for naught, though it fills a 
place among numbers, is, in itself, a mere negation of number ; and such terms as oneness, unity, 
duality, are not used in calculation, ) are collective nouns — a circumstance which seems to make the 
discussion of the present topic appropriate to the location which is here given it under Rule 15th. 
Each of them denotes a particular aggregate of units. And if each, as signifying one whole, may 
convey the idea of unity, and take a singular verb ; each, again, as denoting so many units, may 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XV. VERBS. OBSERVATIONS. 589 

quite as naturally take a plural verb, and be made to convey the idea of plurality. For the mere 
abstractness of numbers, or their separation from all "particular objects, 1 ' by no means obliges us 
to limit them alwa}'s to the construction with verbs singular. If it is right to say, " Two is an even 
number ;" it is certainly no error to say, " Two are an even number." If it is allowable to say, 
" As 2 is to 4, so is 6 to 12 ;" it is as well, if not better, to say, "As two are to four, so are six to 
twelve." If it is correct to say, " Four is equal to twice two ;" it is quite as grammatical to say, 
" Four are equal to twice two." Bullions bids say, " Twice two is four," and, " Three times two 
is six;" but I very much prefer to say, "Twice two are four," and, "Three times two are six." 
The Doctor's reasoning, whereby he condemns the latter phraseology, is founded only upon false 
assumptions. This I expect to show ; and more — that the word which he prefers, is wrong. 

Obs. 20. — As to what constitutes the subject of the verb in multiplication, I have already 
noticed three different opinions. There are yet three or four more, which must not be overlooked 
in a general examination of this grammatical dispute. Dr. Bullions's notion on this point, is 
stated with so little consistency, th. t one can hardly say what it is. At first, he seems to find 
his nominative in the multiplicand, "used as a singular noun ;" but, when he ponders a little on 
the text, " Twice two is four,' 11 he finds the leading term not to be the word " two," but the word 
" number" understood. He resolves, indeed, that no one of the four words used, " is in construc- 
tion with" any of the rest; for he thinks, "The meaning is, ' The number two taken twice is equal 
to four.' " Here, then, is a fourth opinion in relation to the subject of the verb : it must be 
"number" understood. Again, it is conceded by the same hand, that, " When numerals denoting 
more than one, are used as adjectives, with a substantive expressed or understood, they must 
have a plural construction." Now who can show that this is not the case in general with the 
numerals of multiplication ? To explain the syntax of " Twice tvjo are four" what can be more 
rational than to say, " The sense is, ' Twice two units, or things, are four ?' " Is it not plain, that 
twice two things, of any sort, are four things of that same sort, and only so ? Twice two cluads 
are how many? Answer: Four duads, or eight units. Here, then, is a fifth opinion. — and a very 
fair one too, — according to which we have for the subject of the verb, not " two," nor " twice," 
nor " twice two" nor " number," understood before " two," but the plural noun " units" or " things" 
implied in or after the multiplicand. 

Obs. 21. — It is a doctrine taught by sundry grammarians, and to some extent true, that a neu- 
ter verb between two nominatives "may agree with either of them." (See Note 5th to Eule 
14th, aud the footnote.) When, therefore, a person who knows this, meets with such examples 
as, "Twice one are two;" — " Twice one unit are two units;' 1 — " Thrice one are three ;" — he will 
of course be apt to refer the verb to the nominative which follows it, rather than to that which 
precedes it; taking the meaning to be, " Two are twice one ;" — " Two units are twice one unit;" 
— " Three are thrice one." Now, if such is the sense, the construction in each of these instances 
is right, because it accords with such sense ; the interpretation is right also, because it is the only 
one adapted to such a construction ; and we have, concerning the subject of the verb, a sixth 
opinion, — a very proper one too, — that it is found, not where it is most natural to look lor it, in 
the expression of the factors, but in a noun which is either uttered or implied in the pircduct. 
But, no doubt, it is better to avoid this construction, by using such a verb as may be said to agree 
with the number multiplied. Again, and lastly, there may be, touching all such cases as, "Twice 
one are two," a seventh opinion, that the subject of the verb is the product taken substantively, and 
not as a numeral adjective. This idea, or the more comprehensive one, that all abstract numbers 
are nouns substantive, settles nothing concerning the main question, What form of the verb is re- 
quired by an abstract number above unity ? If the number be supposed an adjective, referring 
to the implied term units, or things, the verb must of course be plural; but if it be called a collect- 
ive noun, the verb only follows and fixes "the idea ef plurality," or "the idea of unity," as the 
writer or speaker chooses to adopt the one or the ether. 

Obs. 22. — It is marvellous, that four or five monosyllables, uttered together in a common simple 
sentence, could give rise to all this diversity of opinion concerning the subject of the verb ; but, 
after all, the chief difficulty presented by the phraseology of multiplication, is that of ascertaining, 
not "the grammatical subject of the verb," but the grammatical relation between the multiplier 
and the multiplicand — the true way of parsing the terms once, twice, three times, <tc, but especially 
the word times. That there must be some such relation, is obvious; but what is it ? and how is 
it to be known? To most persons, undoubtedly, " Twice two," and, " Three times two," seem to 
be regular phrases, in which the words cannot lack syntactical connexion ; yet Dr. Bullions, who 
is great authority with some thinkers, denies all immediate or direct relation between the word 
" two," and the term before it, preferring to parse both " twice" and "three times" as adjuncts to 
the participle " taken," understood. He says, " The adverb ' twice 1 is not in construetion with 
Hwo 1 and consequently does not make it plural." His first assertion here is, in my opinion, un- 
true ; and the seconel implies the very erroneous doctrine, that the word twice, if it relate to a sin- 
gular term, will " make it plural." From a misconception like this, it probably is, that some who 
ought to be very accurate in speech, are afraid to say, " Twice one is two," or, "Tin ice one is 
three," judging the singular verb to be wrong; and some there are who think, that "usage will 
not permit" a careful scholar so to speak. Now, analysis favours the singular form here ; and it 
is contrary to a plain principle of General Grammar, to suppose that a plural verb can be de- 
manded by any phrase which is made collectively the subject of the assertion. (See Note 3d, and 
Obs. 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, under Rule 14th.) Are is, therefore, not required here; and, if 
allowable, it is so only on the supposition that the leading nominative is put after it 



590 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 23. — In Blanchard's small Arithmetic, published in 1854, the following inculcations occur: 
" "When we say, 3 times 4 trees are 12 trees, we have reference to the objects counted ; but in saying 

3 times 4 is twelve, we mean, that 3 times the number 4, is the number 12. Here we use 4 and 12, 
not as numeral adjectives, but as nouns, the names of particular numbers, and as such, each conveys 
the idea of unity, and the entire expression is the subject of is, and conveys the idea of unity." — 
P. iv. Here we have, with an additional error concerning "the entire expression," a repetition 
of Dr. Bullions's erroneous assumption, that the name of a particular number, as being " a singular 
noun," must " convey the idea of unity," though the number itself be a distinct plurality. These 
men talk as if there were an absurdity in affirming that "the number 4" is plural! But, if four 
be taken as only one thing, how can three multiply this one thing into twelve ? It is by no means 
proper to affirm, that, " Every four, taken three times, is, or are, twelve;" for three instances, or 
" times," of the figure 4, or of the word four, are only three 4's, or three verbal fours. And is it 
not because " the number 4" is plural — is in itself four units — and because the word four, or the 
figure 4, conveys explicitly the idea of this plurality, that the multiplication table is true, where it 
says, " 3 times 4 are 12 ?" It is not right to say, " Three times one quaternion is twelve ;" nor 
is it quite unobjectionable to say, with Blanchard, " 3 times the number 4, is the number 12." Be- 
sides, this pretended interpretation explains nothing. The S} r ntax of the shorter text, " 3 times 

4 is 12," is in no way justified or illustrated by it. "Who does not perceive that the four here 
spoken of must be four units, or four things of some sort; and that no such " four," multiplied by 
3, or till " 3 times," can "convey the idea of unity," or match a singular verb ? Dr. Webster did 
not so conceive of this " abstract number," or of "the entire expression" in which it is multiplied; 
for he says, " Four times four amount to sixteen." — American Diet, w. Time. 

Obs. 24. — In fact no phrase of multiplication is of such a nature that it can, with any plausi- 
bility be reckoned a composite subject of the verb. Once, twice, and thrice, are adverbs; and 
each of thorn may, in general, be parsed as relating directly to the multiplicand. Their construc- 
tion, as well as that of the plural verb, is agreeable to the Latin norm ; as, when Cicero says of 
somebody, " Si, bis bina quot essent, didicisset," — " If he had learned how many twice two are." — 
See Ainsworttts Diet, w. Binus. The phrases, "one time," for once, and "two times," for twice, 
seem puerile expressions : they are not often used by competent teachers. Thrice is a good word, 
but more elegant than popular. Above twice, we use the phrases, three times, four times, and the 
like, which are severally composed of a numeral adjective and the noun times. If these words 
were united, as some think they ought to be, the compounds would be adverbs of time repeated ; 
as, threetimes, fourtimes, &c, analogous to sometimes. Each word would answer, as each phrase 
now does, to the question, How often f These expressions are taken by some as having a direct 
adverbial relation to the terms which they qualify ; but they are perhaps most commonly explained 
as being dependent on some preposition understood. See Obs. 1st on Rule 5th, and Obs. 6th on 
Rule 7th. 

Obs. 25. — In multiplying one only, it is evidently best to use a singular verb : as, "Twice 
naught is naught;" — "Three times one is three." And, in multiplying any number above one, I 
judge a plural verb to be necessary : as, "' Twice two. are four ;" — " Three times two are six :" be- 
cause this number must be just so many in order to give the product. Dr. Bullions says, "We 
should say, ' Three times two is six,' because the meaning is, 'Two taken three times is six.' " 
This is neither reasoning, nor explanation, nor good grammar. The relation between " two" and 
" three," or the syntax of the word " times," or the propriety of the singular verb, is no more ap- 
parent in the latter expression than in the former. It would be better logic to affirm, "We 
should say, 'Three times two are six;' because the meaning is, 'Two (units), taken for, to, or till 
three times, are six.' " The preposition till, or until, is sometimes found in use before an expres- 
sion of times numbered; as, "How oft shall I forgive? till seven times? I say not unto thee, 
Until seven times ; but, Until seventy times seven." — Matt, xviii, 21. But here is still a difficulty 
with repect to the multiplying term, or the word " times." For, unless, by an unallowable ellip- 
sis, " seventy times seven" is presumed to mean, " seventy times of seven, " the preposition Until 
must govern, not this noun " times," expressed, but an other, understood after "seven;" and the 
meaning must be, "Thou shalt forgive him until seventy-times seven times:" or — "until seven 
times taken for, to, or till, seventy times." 

Obs. 26. — With too little regard to consistency, Dr. Bullions suggests that when "we make 
'times' the subject of the verb," it is not "really" such, but "is in the objective of number" He 
is, doubtless, right in preferring to parse this word as an objective case, rather than as a nomina- 
tive, in the construction to which he alludes ;' but to call it an " objective of number,"' is an un- 
couth error, a very strange mistake for so great a grammarian to utter: there being in grammar 
no such thing as " the objective of number ;" nothing of the sort, even under his own "Special 
Rule," to which he refers us for it ! And, if such a thing there were, so that a number could be 
"put in the objective case without a governing word," (see his § 828,) the plural word times, since 
it denotes no particular aggregate of units, could never be an example of it. It is true that 
times, like days, weeks, and other nouns of time, may be, and often is; in the objective case with- 
out a governing word expressed; and, in such instances, it may be called the objective of repeti- 
tion, or of time repeated. But the construction of the word appears to be such as is common to 
many nouns of time, of value, or of measure ; which, in their relation to other words, seem to 
resemble adverbs, but which are usually said to be governed by prepositions understood: as, 
" Three days later ;" i. e., " Later by three days." — " Three shillings cheaper;" i. e., " Cheaper by 
three shillings." — " Seven times hotter ;" i. e., " Hotter by seven times." — " Four feet high;" i. e. f 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. RULE XVI. VERBS. 591 

" High to four feet." — " Ten years old;" i. e., " Old to ten years." — " Five times ten ;" i. e., " Ten 
by five times ;" or, perhaps, " Ten taken till five times." 

NOTE TO RULE XV. 

A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a verb in the third person, 
singular ; and generally admits also the regular plural construction : as, " His army 
was defeated." — " Hi6 armies were defeated." 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XV. 
Under the Rule itself. — The Idea of Plurality. 
"The gentry is punctilious in their etiquette." 

[Formtjle. — Not proper, because the verb is is of the singular number, and does not correctly agree with its 
nominative gentry, which is a collective noun conveying rather the idea of plurality. But, according to Rule 
15th, ''When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the verb must agree "with it in 
the plural number." Therefore, is should be are; thus, " The gentry are punctilious in their etiquette."] 

" In France the peasantry goes barefoot, and the middle sort makes use of wooden shoes." — 
Harvey: Priestley's Gram., p. 188. " The people rejoices in that which should cause sorrow." 
— See Murray's Exercises, p. 49. " My people is foolish, they have not known me." — Jer., iv, 22 ; 
Lowth's Gram., p. 75. "For the people speaks, but does not write." — Philological Museum, i, 
646. "So that all the people that was in the camp, trembled." — Exodus, xix, 16. "No com- 
pany likes to confess that they are ignorant." — Student's Manual, p. 217. " Far the greater part 
of their captives was anciently sacrificed." — Robertson's America, i, 339. " Above one half of 
them was cut off before the return of spring." — lb., ii, 419. " The other class, termed Figures of 
Thought, supposes the words to be used in their proper and literal meaning." — Blair's RheL, p. 
133 ; Murray's Gh'am., 337. " A multitude of words in their dialect approaches to the Teutonic 
form, and therefore afford excellent assistance." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Lang., i, 148. "A great 
majority of our authors is defective in manner." — James Brown's Grit. " The greater part of 
these new-coined words has been rejected." — Tooke's Diversions, ii, 445. " The greater part of 
the words it contains is subject to certain modifications and inflections." — Tlie Friend, ii, 123. 
" While all our youth prefers her to the rest." — Waller's Poems, p. 17. " Mankind is appointed 
to live in a future state." — Butler's Analogy, p. 57. " The greater part of human kind speaks and 
acts wholly by imitation." — Wright's Gram., p. 169. " The greatest part of human gratifications 
approaches so nearly to vice." — Ibid. 

" While still the busy world is treading o'er 
The paths they trod five thousand years before." — Young. 

Under the Note. — The Idea of Unity. 

" In old English this species of words were numerous." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Lang., ii, 6. 
"And a series of exercises in false grammar are introduced towards the end." — Frost's El. of E. 
Gram., p. iv. " And a jury, in conformity with the same idea, were anciently called homagium, 
the homage, or manhood." — Webster's Essays, p. 296. "With respect to the former, there are 
indeed plenty of means." — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 319. " The number of school districts have in- 
creased since the last year." — Governor Throop, 1832. "The Yearly Meeting have purchased 
with its funds these publications." — Foster's Reports, i, 76. " Have the legislature power to prohibit 
assemblies?" — Wm. Sullivan. "So that the whole number of the streets were fifty." — Rollin's 
Ancient Hist., ii, 8. " The number of inhabitants were not more than four millions." — Smollett: 
see Priestley's Gram., p. 193. "The House of Commons were of small weight." — Hume: lb., p. 
188. "The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me." — Psal. xxii, 16; Lowih's Gram., p. 75. 
"Every kind of convenience and comfort are provided." — Com. School Journal, i, 24. "Amidst 
the great decrease of the inhabitants of Spain, the body of the clergy have suffered no diminution; 
but has rather been gradually increasing." — Payne's Geog., ii, 418. " Small as the number of in- 
habitants are, yet their poverty is extreme." — lb., ii, 417. "The number of the names were about 
one hundred and twenty."^- Ware's Gram., p. 12 ; see Acts, i, 15. 

KULE XVI.— FINITE VEKBS. 

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must 
agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together : 
as, " True rhetoric and sound logic are very nearly allied." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 11. " Aggression and injury in no case justify retaliation/' — Way- 
land's Moral Science, p. 406. 

" Judges and senates have been bought for gold, 
Esteem and love were never to be sold." — Pope. 



592 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Exception First. 

When two nominatives connected by and serve merely to describe one person or thing, they are 
either in apposition or equivalent to one name, and do not require a plural verb; as, "Immediately 
comes a hue and cry after a gang of thieves." — L' Estrange. "The hue and cry of the country 
pursues him." — Junius, Letter xxiii. " Flesh and blood [i. e. man, or man's nature,] hath not 
revealed it unto thee." — Matt, xvi, 17. " Descent and fall to us is adverse." — Milton, P. L., ii, 76. 
"This philosopher and poet was banished from his country." — "Such a Saviour and Redeemer is 
actually provided for us." — Gurney's Essays, p. 386. "Let us then declare what great things 
our God and Saviour has done for us." — Br. Scott, on Luke viii. " Toll, tribute, and custom, was 
paid unto them." — Ezra, iv, 20. 

"Whose icy current and compulsive course 
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on." — Shakspeare. 

Exception Second. 

When two nominatives connected by and, are emphatically distinguished, they belong to differ- 
ent propositions, and, if singular, do not require a plural verb; as, "Ambition, and not the safety 
of the state, was concerned" — Goldsmith. " Consanguinity, and not affinity, is the ground of the 
prohibition." — Webster's Essays, p. 324. "But a modification, and oftentimes a total change, takes 
place." — Maunder. " Somewhat, and, in many circumstances, a great deal too, is put upon us." — 
Butler's Analogy, p. 108. "Bisgrace, and perhaps ruin, was the certain consequence of attempt- 
ing the latter." — Robertson's America, i, 434. 

" Ay, and no too, was no good divinity." — Shakspeare. 
"Love, and love only, is the loan for love." — Young. 

Exception Third. 

When two or more nominatives connected by and are preceded by the adjective each, every, or 
no, they are taken separately, and do not require a plural verb ; as, " When no part of their sub- 
stance, and no one of their properties, is the same." — Bp. Butler. " Every limb and feature ap- 
pears with its respective grace." — Steele. " Every person, and every occurrence, is beheld in the 
most favourable light." — Murray's Key, p. 190. " Each worm, and each insect, is a marvel of 
creative power." 

"Whose every look and gesture was a joke 
To clapping theatres and shouting crowds." — Young. 

Exception Fourth. 

When the verb separates its nominatives, it agrees with that which precedes it, and is under- 
stood to the rest; as, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." — Murray's Exercises, 
p. 36. 

" Bisdain forbids me, and my dread of shame." — Milton. 

" Forth in the pleasing spring, 

Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness, and love.'" — Thomson. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XVI. 

Obs. 1. — According to Lindley Murray, (who, in all his compilation, from whatever learned au- 
thorities, refers us to no places in any book but his own,) "Dr. Blair observes, that 'two or more 
substantives, joined by a copulative, must always require the verb or pronoun to which they refer, 
to be placed in the plural number:' and this," continues the great Compiler, "is the general senti- 
ment of English grammarians." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 150. The same thing is stated in 
many other grammars : thus, Ingersoll has the very same words, on the 238th page of his book ; 
and R. G. Smith says, "Dr. Blair very justly observes," &c. — Productive Gram,, p. 126. I there- 
fore doubt not, the learned rhetorician has somewhere made some such remark : though I can 
neither supply the reference which these gentlemen omit, nor vouch for the accuracy of their 
quotation. But I trust to make it very clear, that so many grammarians as hold this sentiment, 
are no great readers, to say the least of them. Murray himself acknowledges one exception to 
this principle, and unconsciously furnishes examples of one or two more ; but, in stead of placing 
the former in his Grammar, and under the rule, where the learner would be likely to notice it, he 
makes it an obscure and almost unintelligible note, in the margin of his Key, referring by an 
asterisk to the following correction : " Every man and every woman was numbered." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii, p. 190. To justify this phraseology, he talks thus: " Whatever number of 
2iouns may be connected by a conjunction with the pronoun every, this pronoun is as applicable to 
the whole mass of them, as to any one of the nouns ; and therefore the verb is correctly put in the 
singular number, and refers to the whole separately and individually considered." — lb. So much, 
then, for " the pronoun every!" But, without other exceptions, what shall bo done with the fol- 
lowing texts from Murray himself? " The flock, and not the fleece, is, or ought to be the object 
of the shepherd's care." — 76, ii, 184. "This prodigy of learning, this scholar, critic, and anti- 
quary, was entirely destitute of breeding and civility." — lb., ii, 217. And, in the following line, 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XVI. — VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 593 

what conjunction appears, or what is the difference between "horror" and "black despair," that 
the verb should be made plural ? 

"What black despair, what horror, fill his mind!" — lb., ii, 183. 

"What black despair, what horror fills his heart!" — Thomson* 

Obs. 2. — Besides the many examples which may justly come under the four exceptions above 
specified, there are several questionable but customary expressions, which have some appearance 
of being deviations from this rule, but which may perhaps be reasonably explained on the prin- 
ciple of ellipsis: as, "All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy." — "Slow and steady often 
outtravels haste." — Dillwyn's Reflections, p. 23. "Little and often fills the purse." — Treasury of 
Knowledge, Part i, p. 446. "Fair and softly goes far." These maxims, by universal custom, lay 
claim to a singular verb ; and, for my part, I know not how they can well be considered either 
real exceptions to the foregoing rule, or real inaccuracies under it ; for, in most of them, the words 
connected are not nouns ; and those which are so, may not be nominatives. And it is clear, 
that every exception must have some specific character by which it may be distinguished ; else 
it destroys the rule, in stead of confirming it. as known exceptions are said to do. Murray appears 
to have thought the singular verb wrong ; for, among his examples for parsing, he has, "Fair and 
softly go far," which instance is no more entitled to a plural verb than the rest. See his Octavo 
Gram., Vol. ii, p. 5. Why not suppose them all to be elliptical? Their meaning may be as fol- 
lows: " To have all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy." — "What is slow and steady, often 
outtravels haste." — " To put in little and often, fills the purse." — " What proceeds fair and softly, 
goes far." The following line from Shakspeare appears to be still more elliptical: 
" Poor and content % rich, and rich enough." — Othello. 

This may be supposed to mean, "He who is poor and content," &c. In the following sentence 
again, we may suppose an ellipsis of the phrase To have, at the beginning; though here, perhaps, 
to have pluralized the verb, would have been as well : 

" One eye on death and one full fix'd on heaven, 
Becomes a mortal and immortal man." — Young. 

Obs. 3. — The names of two persons are not unfrequently used jointly as the name of their story ; 
in which eense, they must have a singular verb, if they have any: as, "Prior's Henry and Emma 
contains an other beautiful example." — Jamieson's Rhetoric, p. 179. I somewhat hesitate to call 
this an exception to the foregoing rule, because here too the phraseology may be supposed ellip- 
tical. The meaning is, "Priors little poem, entitled, 'Henry and Emma,' contains," &c; — or, 
" Prior's story of Henry and Emma contains." &c. And, if the first expression is only an abbrc 
viation of one of these, the construction of the verb contains maybe referred to Rule 14th. See 
Exception 1st to Rule 12th, and Obs. 2d on Rule 14th. 

Obs. 4. — The conjunction and, by which alone we can with propriety connect different words 
to make them joint nominatives or joint antecedents, is sometimes suppressed and understood ; 
but then its effect is the same, as if it were inserted ; though a singular verb might sometimes be 
quite as proper in the same sentences, because it would merely imply a disjunctive conjunction or 
none at all: as, "The high breach cf trust, the notorious corruption, are stated in the strongest 
terms." — Junius, Let. xx. "Envy, self-will, jealousy, pride, often reign there." — Abbott's Corner 
Stone, p. 111. (See Obs. 4th on Rule 12th.) 

" Art, empire, earth itself, to change are doomed." — Beattie. 
"Her heart, her mind, her love, is his alone." — Cowley. 

In all the foregoing examples, a singular verb might have been used without impropriety ; or the 
last, which is singular, might have been plural. But the following couplet evidently requires a 
plural verb, and is therefore correct as the poet wrote it ; both because the latter noun is plural 
and because the conjunction and is understood between the two. Yet a late grammarian, per- 
ceiving no difference between the joys of sense and the pleasure of reason, not only changes " lie" 
to "lies," but uses the perversion for & proof text under a rule which refers the verb to the first 
noun only, and requires it to be singular. See Oliver B. Pence's Gram., p. 250. 

" Reasons whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, 
Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence." — Pope's Ess., Ep. iv, L 80. 
Obs. 5. — When the speaker changes his nominative to take a stronger expression, he commonly 
uses no conjunction ; but, putting the verb in agreement with the noun which is next to it, he 
leaves the other to an implied concord with its proper form of the same verb : as, " The man 
whose designs, whose whole conduct, tends to reduce me to subjection, that man is at war with me, 
though not a blow has yet been given, nor a sword drawn." — Blair's Rhet, p. 265. " All Greece, 
all the barbarian world, is too narrow for this man's ambition." — Ibid. "This self-command, this 
exertion of reason in the midst of passion, has a wonderful effect both to please and to persuade." 
— lb., p. 260. " In the mutual influence of body and soul, there is a wisdom, a wonderful wisdom, 

* In his English Reader, (Part II, Chap. 5th. Sec. 7th.) Murray has this line in its proper form, as it here 
stands in the \rords of Thomson; but. in his Grammar, he corrupted it, first in his Exercises, and then still 
more in his Key. Among his examples of " False Syntax" it stands thus : 

"What black despair, what horror, fills his mind /" — Exercises, Rule 2. 
So the error is propagated in the name of Learning, and this verse sroes from grammar to grammar, as one that 
must have & '■'•plural" verb. See IngersoWs Gram., p. 242; Smith's New Gram., p. 127; Fisk's Gram., p. 
120 ; Weld's E. Gram., 2d Ed., p. 189 ; Imp. Ed., p. 196. 

38 



594 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

which we cannot fathom." — Murray's Gram., Yol. i, p. 150. If the principle here stated is just, 
Murray has written the following models erroneously: "Virtue, honour, nay, even selfinterest, 
conspire to recommend the measure." — lb., p. 150. " Patriotism, morality, every public and private 
consideration, demand our submission to just and lawful government." — Ibid. In this latter 
instance, 1 should prefer the singular verb demands; and in the former, the expression ought to 
be otherwise altered, thus. "Virtue, honour, and interest, all conspire to recommend the mea- 
sure." Or thus: "Virtue, honour — nay, even self-interest, recommends the measure." On this 
principle, too, Thomson was right, and this critic wrong, in the example cited at the close of the 
first observation above. This construction is again recurred to by Murray, in the second chapter 
of his Exercises ; where he explicitly condemns the following sentence because the verb is singu- 
lar: "Prudence, policy, nay, his own true interest, strongly recommends the line of conduct pro- 
posed to him." — Octavo Gram., Vol. h, p. 22. 

Obs. 6. — When two or more nominatives are in apposition with a preceding one which they 
explain, the verb must agree with the first word only, because the others are adjuncts to this, 
and not joint subjects to the verb; as, " Loudd, the ancient Lydda and Diospolis, appears like a 
place lately ravaged by fire and sword." — Keith's Evidences, p. 93. "Beattie, James, — a philoso- 
pher and poet, — was born in Scotland, in the year 1735." — Murray's Sequel, p. 306. "For, the 
quantity, the length, and shortness of our syllables, is not, by any means, so fixed." — Blair's lihet., 
p. 124. This principle, like the preceding one, persuades me again to dissent from Mumiy, who 
corrects or perverts the following sentence, by changing originates to originate: "All that makes a 
figure on the great theatre of the world ; the employments of the busy, the enterprises of the 
ambitious, and the exploits of the warlike ; the virtues whi^h form the happiness, and the crimes 
which occasion the misery of mankind ; originates in that silent and secret recess of thought, 
which is hidden from every human eye." — See Murray's Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 181 ; or his 
Duodecimo Key, p. 21. The true subject of this proposition is the noun all, which is singular; 
and the other nominatives are subordinate to this, and merely explanatory of it. 

Obs. 7. — Dr. Webster says, " Enumeration and addition of numbers are usually expressed in the 
singular number ; [as,] two and two is four ; seven and nine is sixteen ; that is, the sum of seven 
and nine is sixteen. But modern usage inclines to reject the use of the verb in the singular 
number, in these and similar phrases." — Improved Gram., p. 106. Among its many faults, this 
passage exhibits a virtual contradiction. For what " modern usage inclines to reject," can hardly 
be the fashion in which any ideas u are usually expressed." Besides, I may safely aver, that this 
is a kind of phraseology which all correct usage always did reject. It is not only a gross vulgar- 
ism, but a plain and palpable violation of the foregoing rule of syntax ; and, as such it must be 
reputed, if the rule has any propriety at all. What " enumeration" has to do with it, is more 
than I can telL But Dr. Webster once admired and commended this mode of speech, as one of 
the "wonderful proofs of ingenuity in the framers of language;" and laboured to defend it as 
being " correct upon principle;" that is, upon the principle that " the sum of" is understood to be 
the subject of the affirmation, when one says, "Two and two is four," in stead of, "Two and two 
are four." — See Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 153. This seems to me a "wonderful proof" of 
ignorance in a very learned man. 

Obs. 8. — In Greek and Latin, the verb frequently agrees with the nearest nominative, and is 
understood to the rest; and this construction is sometimes imitated in English, especially if the 
nouns follow the verb: as, "Nvvl c5t- MENEI Tiiaru, eattIc dydirn, rd rpia ravra." — "Nunc vero 
manet fides, spes, charitas; tria haec." — " Now dbideth faith, hope, charity; these three." — 1 Cor., 
xiii, 13. " And now dbideth confession, prayer, and praise, these three; but the greatest of these 
is praise." — Atterbury - : Blair's Rhet, p. 300. The propriety of this usage, so far as our lan- 
guage is concerned, I doubt. It seems to open a door for numerous deviations from the foregoing 
rule, and deviations of such a sort, that if they are to be considered exceptions, one can hardly 
tell why. The practice, however, is not uncommon, especially if there are more nouns than two, 
and each is emphatic; as, "Wonderful was the patience, fortitude, self-denial, and bravery of our 
ancestors." — Webster's Hist, of U. S., p. 118. " It is the very thing I would have you make out; 
for therein consists the force, and use, and nature of language." — Berkley's Alciphron, p. 161. 
" There is the proper noun, and the common noun. There is the singular noun, and the plural 
noun." — Emmons's Gram., p. 11. "From him proceeds power, sanctification, truth, grace, and 
every other blessing we can conceive." — Calvin's Institutes, B. i, Ch. 13. "To what purpose 
co meth there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country?" — Jer., vi, 20. 
"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever." — Matt., vi, 13. In all these 
instances, the plural verb might have been used ; and yet perhaps the singular may be justified, 
on the ground that there is a distinct and emphatic enumeration of the nouns. Thus, it would 
be proper to say, " Thine are the kingdom, the power, and the glory ;" but this construction seems 
less emphatic than the preceding, which means, " For thine is the kingdom, thine is the power, 
and thine is the glory, forever;" and this repetition is still more emphatic, and perhaps more 
proper, than the elliptical form. The repetition of the conjunction " and," in the original text as 
above, adds time and emphasis to the reading, and makes the singular verb more proper than it 
would otherwise be ; for which reason, the following form, in which the Rev. Dr. Bullions has set 
the sentence down for bad English, is in some sort a perversion of the Scripture : " Thine is the 
kingdom, the power, and the glory." — Bullions's E. Gram., p. 141. 

Obs. 9. — When the nominatives are of different persons, the verb agrees with the first person 
in preference to the second, and with the second in preference to the third • for thou and I, or he, 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XVI. — VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 595 

thou, and 1, are equivalent to we; and thou and he are equivalent to you: as, " Why speakest 
thou any more of thy matters ? I have said, thou and Ziba divide the land." — 2 Sam., xix, 29. 
That is, " divide ye the land." " And live thou and thy children of the rest." — 2 Kings, iv, 7. 
"That /and thy people have found grace in thy sight." — Exodus, xxxiii, 16. "/and my kingdom 
are guiltless." — 2 Sam., hi, 28. "I, and you, and Piso perhaps too, are in a state of dissatislao- 
tion." — Zenobia, i, 114. 

" Then I, and you, and all of us, /eK down, 
"Whilst bloody treason flourish' d over us." — Shale., J. Cozsar. 

Obs. 10. — "When two or more nominatives connected by and are of the same form but distin- 
guished by adjectives or possessives, one or more of them may be omitted by ellipsis, but the verb 
must be plural, and agree with them aU; as, "A literary, a scientific, a wealthy, and a poor man, 
vjere assembled in one room." — Peirce's Gram., p. 263. Here four different men are clearly spoken 
of " Else the rising and the falling emphasis are the same." — Knoicles's Elocutionist, p. 33. Here 
the noun emphasis is understood after rising. " The singular and [the] plural form seem to be 
confounded.'' — Lowth's Gram., p. 22. Here the noun form is presented to the mind twice; and 
therefore the article should have been repeated. See Obs. 15th on Rule 1st. " My farm and 
William's are adjacent to each other." — Peirce's Gram., p. 220. Here the noun farm is under- 
stood after the possessive William's, though the author of the sentence foolishly attempts to ex- 
plain it otherwise. " Seth's, Richard's and Edmund's farms are those which their fathers left 
them." — -lb., p. 257. Here the noun farms is understood after Seth's, and again after Richard's; 
so that the sentence is written wron^, unless each man has more than one farm. "Was not De- 
mosthenes's style, and his master Plato's, perfectly Attic ; and yet none more lofty?" — Milnes's 
Greek Gram., p. 241. Here style is understood after Plato's ; wherefore was should rather be 
were, or else and should be changed to as well as. But the text, as it stands, is not much unlike 
some of the exceptions noticed above. "The character of a fop, and of a rough warrior, are no 
where more successfully contrasted." — Karnes, El. of Grit.. Vol. i, p. 236. Here the ellipsis is 
not very proper. Say, "the character of a fop, and that of a rough warrior," &c. Again: 
"We may observe, that the eloquence of the bar, of the legislature, and of public assemblies, are 
seldom or ever found united to high perfection in the same person." — J. Q. Adams's Rhet., Vol. i, 
p. 256. Here the ellipsis cannot so well be avoided by means of the pronominal adjective that, 
and therefore it may be thought more excusable ; but I should prefer a repetition of the nomina- 
tive.: as, " We may observe, that the eloquence of the bar, the eloquence of the legislature, and 
the eloquence of public assemblies, are seldom if ever found united, in any high degree, in the same 
person." 

Obs. 11. — The conjunction as, when it connects nominatives that are in apposition, or signifi- 
cant of the same person or thing, is commonly placed at the beginning of a sentence, so that the 
verb agrees with its proper nominative following the explanatory word; thus, "As a poet, he holds 
a high rank." — Murray's Sequel, p. 355. "As a poet, Addison claims a high praise." — lb., p. 304. 
"As a model of English prose, his writings merit the greatest praise." — lb., p. 305. But when 
this conjunction denotes a comparison between different persons or things signified by two nomi- 
natives, there must be two verbs expressed or understood, each agreeing with its own subject ; 
as, " Such writers as he [is,] have no reputation worth any man's envy."* 

" Such men as he [is] be never at heart's ease 
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves." — Shakspeare. 

Obs. 12. — When two nominatives are connected by as well as, but, or save, they must in fact 
have two verbs, though in most instances only one is expressed; as, "Such is the mutual de- 
pendence of words in sentences, that several others, as well as [is] the adjective, are not to be used 
alone." — Dr. Wilson's Essay, p. 99. " The Constitution was to be the one fundamental law of the 
land, to which all, as well States as people, should submit." — W. I. Bowditch: Liberator, No. 984. 
"As well those which history, as those which experience offers to our reflection." — Bolingbroke, 
on History, p. 85. Here the words " offers to our reflection" are understood after " history." "None 
but He who discerns futurity, could have foretold and described all these things." — Keith's Evi- 
dences, p. 62. " That there was in those times no other writer, of any degree of eminence, save 
he himself." — Pope's Works, Vol. hi, p. 43. 

" I do entreat you not a man depart, 
Save / alone, till Antony have spoke." — Shak., J. Ccesar. 

Obs. 13. — Some grammarians say, that but and save, when they denote exception, should govern 
the objective case as prepositions. But this idea is, without doubt, contrary to the current usag9 
of the best authors, either ancient or modern. Wherefore I think it evident that these gramma- 
rians err. The objective case of nouns being like the nominative, the point can be proved only 
by the pronouns ; as, "There is none but he alone." — Perkins's Theology, 1608. "There is none 
other but he." — Mark, xii, 32. (This text is good authority as regards the case, though it is incor- 
rect in an other respect : it should have been, " There is none but he," or else, " There is no other 
than he.") " No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven." — John, 
hi, 13. "Not that any man hath seen the father, save he which is of God." — John, vi, 46. " Few 

* S. W. Clark, by reckoning " as" a "preposition" perverts the construction of sentences like this, and in 
serts a wrong case after the conjunction. See Clark's Practical Grammar, pp. 92 and 178; also this Syntax, 
Obs. 6 and Obs. 18, on Conjunctions. 



596 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

can, save he and J." — Byron's Werner. "There is none justified, but he that is in measure sanc- 
tified." — Isaac Penington. Save, as a conjunction, is nearly obsolete. 

Obs. 14. — In Rev., ii, 11th, we read, "Which no man knoweth, sav ing he that receiveth it;" 
and again, xiii, 17th, " That no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark." The follow- 
ing text is inaccurate, but not in the construction of the nominative they : " All men cannot 
receive this saying, save they to whom it is given." — Matt., xix, 11. The version ought to have 
been, " Not all men can receive this saying, but they only to whom it is given:" i. e., "they only 
can receive it, to whom there is given power to receive it." Of but with a nominative, examples 
may be multiplied indefinitely. The following are as good as any : " There is no God but He." — 
Sale's Koran, p. 27. "The former none but He could execute." — Maturings Sermons, p. 317. 
" There was nobody at home but 1." — Walker's Particles, p. 95. "A fact, of which as none but he 
could be conscious, [so] none but he could be the publisher of it." — Pope's Works, Vol. iii, p. 
117. "Pew but they who are involved in the vices, are involved in the irreligion of the times." 
— Brown's Estimate, i, 101. 

" I claim my right. No Grecian prince but I 
Has power this bow to grant, or to deny." — Pope, Odys., B. xxi, 1. 272. 

" Thus she, and none but she, the insulting rage 
Of heretics oppos'd from age to age." — Dry den's Poems, p. 98. 

In opposition to all these authorities, and many more that might be added, we have, with now 
and then a text of false syntax, the absurd opinion of perhaps a score or two of our grammarians ; 
one of whom imagines he has found in the following couplet from Swift, an example to the 
purpose ; but he forgets that the verb let governs the objective case : 

" Let none but him who rules the thunder, 
Attempt to part these twain asunder." — Perley's Gram., p. 62. 

Obs. 15. — It is truly a wonder, that so many professed critics should not see the absurdity of 
taking but and save for "prepositions" when this can be done only by condemning the current 
usage of nearly all good authors, as well as the common opinion of most grammarians ; and the 
greater is the wonder, because they seem to do it innocently, or to teach it childishly, as not 
knowing that they cannot justify both sides, when the question lies between opposite and con- 
tradictory principles. By this sort of simplicity, which approves of errors, if much practised, and 
of opposites, or essential contraries, when authorities may be found for them, no work, perhaps, is 
more strikingly characterized, than the popular School Grammar of W. H. "Wells. This author 
says, " The use of but as a preposition is approved by J. E. Worcester, John Walker, R. C. Smith, 
Picket, Hiley, Angus, Lynde, Huh, Powers, Spear, Farnum, Fowle, Goldsbury, Perley, Cobb, 
Badgley, Cooper, Jones, Davis, Beall, Hendrick, Hazen, and Goodenow." — School Gram., 1850, 
p. 178. But what if all these authors do prefer, " but him," and " save him," where ten times 
as many would say, ll buthe," "save he?" Is it therefore difficult to determine which party is right ? 
Or is it proper for a grammarian to name sundry authorities on both sides, excite doubt in the 
mind of his reader, and leave the matter unsettled? "The use of but as a preposition," he also 
states, " is discountenanced by G. Brown, Sanborn, Murray, S. Oliver, and several other gramma- 
rians. (See also an able article in the Mass. Common School Journal, Vol. ii, p. 19.)" — School 
Gram., p. 178. 

Obs. 16. — Wells passes no censure on the use of nominatives after but and save ; does not inti- 
mate which case is fittest to follow these words ; gives no false syntax under his rule for the 
regimen of prepositions ; but inserts there the following brief remarks and examples : 

" Rem. 3. — The word save is frequently used to perform the office of a preposition; as, 
' And all desisted, all save him alone.' — Wordsworth." 

" Rem. 4. — Put is sometimes employed as a preposition, in the sense of except; as, 
' The boy stood on the burning deck, 
Whence all but him had fled.' — Hemans." — lb., p. 167. 

Now, "But," says Worcester, as well as Tooke and others, was " originally hot, contracted 
from be out :" and, if this notion of its etymology is just, it must certainly be followed by the 
nominative case, rather than by the objective ; for the imperative be or be out governs no case, 
admits no additional term but a nominative — an obvious and important fact, quite overlooked by 
those who call but a preposition. According to Allen H. Weld, but and save " are commonly 
considered prepositions," but "are more commonly termed conjunctions!" This author repeats 
Wells's examples of "save him," and "but him," as being right; and mixes them with opposite 
examples of " save he," " but he," " save 1" which he thinks to be more right! — Weld's Gram., 
p. 187. 

Obs. 17. — Professor Fowler, too, an other author remarkable for a facility of embracing incom- 
patibles, contraries, or dubieties, not only condemns as " false syntax " the use of save for an 
exceptive conjunction, (§ 587, ^[ 28,) but cites approvingly from Latham the following very strange 
absurdity: "One and the same word, in one and the same sentence, may be a Conjunction or 
[a] Preposition, as the case may be: [as] All fled but John." — Fowler's K Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 
555. This is equivalent to saying, that " one and the same sentence " may be two different sen- 
tences ; may, without error, be understood in two different senses ; may be rightly taken, resolved, 
and parsed in two different ways ! Nay, it is equivalent to a denial of the old logical position, that 
"It is impossible for a thing to be and not be at the same time ;" for it supposes " but," in the in- 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX.— RULE XVI. — VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 597 

stance given, to be at once both a conjunction and not a conjunction, both a preposition and not a 
preposition, "as the case may be!" It is true, that " one and the same word" may sometimes be 
differently parsed by different grammarians, and possibly even an adept may doubt who or what 
is right. But what ambiguity of construction, or what diversity of interpretation, proceeding 
frorn the same hand, can these admissions be supposed to warrant ? The foregoing citation is a 
bojash attempt to justify different modes of parsing the same expression, on the ground that the 
expression itself is equivocal. " All fled but John" is thought to mean equaUy well, " AU fled 
but he" and, " All fled but him;" while these latter expressions are erroneously presumed to be 
alike good English, and to have a difference of meaning corresponding to their difference of con- 
struction. Now, what is equivocal, or ambiguous, being therefore erroneous, is to be corrected, 
rather than parsed in any way. But I deny both the ambiguity and the difference of meaning 
which these critics profess to find among the said phrases. " John fled not, but all the rest fled," 
is virtually what is told us in each of them ; but, in the form, " All fled but him" it is told un- 
grammatically ; in the other two, correctly. 

Obs. 18. — In Latin, cum with an ablative, sometimes has, or is supposed to have, the force of 
the conjunction et with a nominative ; as, " Dux cum aliquot principibus capiuntur. 1 ' — Livy: W. 
Allen's Gram., p. 131. In imitation of this construction, some English writers have substituted 
with for and, and varied the verb accordingly; as, "A long course of time, with a variety of acci- 
dents and circumstances, are requisite to produce those revolutions." — Hume : Allen's Gram., p. 
131; Ware's, 12; Priestley's, 186. This phraseology, though censured by Allen, was .expressly 
approved by Priestley, 'who introduced the present example, as his proof text under the following 
observation: "It is not necessary that the two subjects of an affirmation should stand in the very 
same construction, to require the verb to be in the plural number. If one of them be made to 
depend upon the other by a connecting particle, it may, in some cases, have the same force, as if it 
were independent of it." — Priestley's Gram., p. 186. Lindley Murray, on the contrary, condemns 
this doctrine, and after citing the same example with others, says: "It is however, proper to 
observe that these modes of expression do not appear to be warranted by the just principles of 
construction." — Octavo Gram., p. 150. He then proceeds to prove his point, by alleging that the 
preposition governs the objective case in English, and the ablative in Latin, and that what is so 
governed, cannot be the nominative, or any part of it. All this is true enough, but stiU some men 
who know it perfectly well, will now and then write as if they did not believe it. And so it was 
with the writers of Latin and Greek. They sometimes wrote bad syntax ; and the grammarians 
have not always seen and censured their errors as they ought. Since the preposition makes 
its object only an adjunct of the preceding noun, or of something else, I imagine that any con- 
struction which thus assumes two different cases as joint nominatives or joint antecedents, must 
needs be inherently faulty. 

Obs. 19. — Dr. Adam simply remarks, "The plural is sometimes used after the preposition cum 
put for et; as, Remo cum fratre Quirinus jura dabunt, Virg." — Latin and English Go-am., p. 207 ; 
Gould's Adam's Latin Gram., p. 204; W. Allen' s English Gram., 131. This example is not fairly 
cited ; though many have adopted the perversion, as if they knew no better. Alexander has it 
in a worse form still: "Quirinus, cum fratre, jura dabunt." — Latin Gram., p. 47. Virgil's words 
are, " Cana Fides, et Vesta, Remo cum fratre Quirinus, Jura dabunt," — ^Eneid, B. i, 1. 296. Nor 
is cum here "put for et," unless we suppose also an antiptosis cf Remo fratre for Remus f rater ; 
and then what shall the literal meaning be, and how shall the rules of syntax be accommodated 
to such changes ? Fair examples, that bear upon the point, may, however, be adduced from good 
authors, and in various languages ; but the question is, are they correct in syntax ? Thus Dr. 
Robertson: "The palace of Pizarro, together with the houses of several of his adherents, were 
pillaged by the soldiers." — Hist, of Amer., Vol. ii, p. 133. To me, this appears plainly ungram- 
matical; and, certainly, there are ways enough in which it maybe corrected. First, with the 
present connective retained, "were" ought to be loas. Secondly, if were be retained, " together 
with" ought to be changed to and, or and also. Thirdly, we may well change both, and say, 
"The palace of Pizarro, as well as the houses of several of his adherents, was pillaged by the 
soldiers." Again, in Mark, ix, 4th, we read: "And there appeared unto them Elias, with Moses; 
and they were talking with Jesus." If this text meant that the three disciples were talking with 
Jesus, it would be right as it stands ; but St. Matthew has it, " And, behold, there appeared unto 
them Moses and Elias, talking with him;" and our version in Luke is, "And, behold, there talked 
with him two men, which were Moses and Elias." — Chap, ix, 30. By these corresponding texts, 
then, we learn, that the pronoun they, which our translators inserted, was meant for " Elias with 
Moses;" but the Greek verb for "appeared," as used by Mark, is singular, and agrees only with 
Elias. " Kal u<j)d-n avrolc 'H/ilac avv Mugsc ' Kal rjcav ov~AAa'Aovv-£g tu> 'b]aov." — " Et apparuii 
illis Elias cum Mose, et erant colloquentes Jesu." — Montanus. " Et visus est eis Elias cum Mose, 
qui colloquebantur cum Jesu." — Beza. This is as discrepant as our version, though not so am- 
biguous. The French Bible avoids the incongruity : " Et ils virent paroitre Moyse et Elie, qui 
s'entretenoient avec Jesus." That is, " And there appeared to them Moses and Elias, who were 
talking with Jesus." Perhaps the closest and best version of the Greek would be, "And there 
appeared to them Elias, with Moses;* and these two were talking with Jesus." There is, in our 

* Murray gives us the following text for false grammar, under the head of Strength: " And Elias with Moses 
appeared to them." — Exercises, 8vo, p. 125. This he corrects thus: "And there appeared to them Elias with 
Moses." — Ke>j, Svo, p. 266. He omits the comma after EHas, which some copies of the Bible contain, and. 
others do not. Whether he supposed the verb appeared to he singular or plural, I cannot tell ; and he did not 
extend his quotation to the pronoun they, which immediately follows, and in which alone the incongruity lies. 



598 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Bible, an other instance of the construction now in question ; but it has no support from the 
Septuagint, 'the Vulgate, or the French: to wit, "The second [lot came forth] to Gedahah, who 
with his brethren and sons were twelve." — 1 Chron., xxv, 9. Better: "and he, his brethren, and 
his sons, were twelve." 

Obs. 20. — Cobbett, who, though he wrote several grammars, was but a very superficial gram- 
marian, seems never to have doubted the propriety of putting with for and ; and yet he was 
confessedly not a little puzzled to find out when to use a singular, and when a plural verb, after 
a nominative with such " a sort of addition made to it." The 246th paragraph of his English 
Grammar is a long and fruitless attempt to fix a rule for the guidance of the learner in this matter. 
After dashing off a culpable example, " Sidmouth, with Oliver the spye, have brought Brandreth 
to the block;" or, as his late editions have it, " The Tyrant, with the Spy, have brought Peter to 
the block;" he adds : "We hesitate which to employ, the singular or the plural verb; that is to 
say, has or have. The meaning must be our guide. If we mean, that the act has been done by 
the Tyrant himself, and that the spy has been a mere involuntary agent, then we ought to use 
the singular ; but if we believe that the spy has been a co-operator, an associate, an accomplice, 
then we must use the plural verb." Ay, truly ; but must we not also, in the latter case, use and, 
and not toithf After some further illustrations, he says: "When with means along with, together 
with, in Company with, and the like, it is nearly the same as and ; and then the plural verb must 
be used: [as,] 'He, with his brothers, are able to do much.' Not, l is able to do much.' If the 
pronoun be used instead of brothers, it will bo in the objective case: 'He, with them, are able 
to do much.' But this is no impediment to the including of the noun (represented by them) in the 
nominative." I wonder what would be an impediment to the absurdities of such a dogmatist ! 
The following is his last example: " 'Zeal, with discretion, do much;' and not l does much;' for 
we mean, on the contrary, that it does nothing. It is the meaning that must determine which of 
the numbers we ought to employ." This author's examples are all fictions of his own, and such 
of them as here have a plural verb, are wrong. His rule is also wrong, and contrary to the best 
authority. St. Paul says to Timothy, " Godliness with contentment is great gain:" — 1 Tim., vi, 6. 
This text is right ; but Cobbett's principle would go to prove it erroneous. Is he the only man 
who lias ever had a right notion of its meaning ? or is he not rather at fault in his interpretations ? 

Obs. 21. — There is one other apparent exception to Rule 16th, (or perhaps a real one.) in which 
there is either an ellipsis of the preposition with, or else the verb is made singular because the first 
noun only is its true subject, and the others are explanatory nominatives to which the same verb 
must be understood in the plural number; ' as, " A torch, snuff and all, goes out in a moment, when 
dipped in the vapour." — Addison': in Johnson's Diet., w. All. " Down comes the tree, nest, eagles, 
and all." — See All, ibidem. Here goes and comes are necessarily made singular, the former agree- 
ing with torch and the latter with tree ; and, if the other nouns, which are like an explanatory 
parenthesis, are nominatives, as they appear to me to be, they must be subjects of go and come 
understood. Cobbett teaches us to say, " The bag, with the guineas and dollars in it, were stolen," 
and not, toas stolen. "For," says he, "if we say was stolen, it is possible for us to mean, that 
the bag only was stolen," — English Gram., ^[ 246. And I suppose he would say, " The bag, 
guineas, dollars, and all, were stolen," and not, "was stolen ;" for here a rule of syntax might be 
urged, in addition to his false argument from the sense. But the meaning of the former sentence 
is, " The bag was stolen, with the guineas and dollars in it ;" and the meaning of the latter is, 
" The bag was stolen, guineas, dollars, and all." Nor can there be any doubt about the mean- 
ing, place the words which way you will ; and whatever, in either case, may be the true construc- 
tion of the words in the parenthetical or explanatory phrase, they should not, I think, prevent 
the verb from agreeing with the first noun cfhly. But if the other nouns intervene without affect- 
ing this concord, and without a preposition to govern them, it may be well to distinguish them in 
the punctuation; as, "The bag, (guineas, dollars, and all,) was stolen." 

NOTES TO RULE XVI. 

Note I. — When the conjunction and between two nominatives appears to require 
a plural verb, but such form of the verb is not agreeable, it is better to reject or 
change the connective, that the verb may stand correctly in the singular number; 
as, "There is a peculiar force and beauty in this figure." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 
224. Better : " There is a peculiar force, as well as a peculiar beauty, in this 
figure." u What means this restless stir and commotion of mind ?" — Murray's Key, 
8vo, p. 242. Better : " What means this restless stir, this commotion of mind ?" 

Note II. — When two subjects or antecedents are connected, one of which is taken 
affirmatively, and the other negatively, they belong to different propositions ; and 
the verb or pronoun must agree with the affirmative subject, and be understood to 
the other : as, " Diligent industry, and not mean savings, produces honourable com- 
petence." — " Not a loud voice, but strong proofs bring conviction." — " My poverty, 
but not my will, consents." — Shakspeare. 

Note III. — When two subjects or antecedents are connected by as well as, but, 
or save, they belong to different propositions ; and, (unless one of them is preceded 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — KULE XVI. — VERBS. — NOTES. — EKROES. 599 

by the adverb not,) the verb and pronoun must agree with the former and be under- 
stood to the latter : as, " Veracity, as well as justice, is to be our rule of life." — 
Butler's Analogy, p. 283. "The lowest mechanic, as well as the richest citizen, 
may boast that thousands of his fellow-creatures are employed for him." — Percival's 
Tales, ii, 177. " These principles, as well as every just rule of criticism, are founded 
upon the sensitive part of our nature." — Karnes, El. of Grit., Vol. i, p. xxvi. 
" Nothing but wailings was heard." — " None but thou can aid us." — " No mortal 
man, save he," &c, " had e'er survived to say he saw." — Sir W. Scott. 

Note IV. — When two or more subjects or antecedents are preceded by the ad- 
jective each, every, or no, they are taken separately ; and, (except no be followed by 
a plural noun,) they require the verb and pronoun to be in the singular number : 
as, " No rank, no honour, no fortune, no condition in life, makes the guilty mind 
happy." — " Every phrase and every figure which he uses, tends to render the picture 
more lively and complete." — Blair's Rhet., p. 179. 

" And every sense, and eveiy heart, is joy." — Thomson. 
" Each beast, each insect, happy in its own." — -Pope. 

Note V. — When any words or terms are to be taken conjointly as subjects or 
antecedents, the conjunction and, (in preference to with, or, nor, or any thing else,) 
must connect them. The following sentence is therefore inaccurate ; with should be 
and ; or else were should be was : " One of them, [the] wife of Thomas Cole, with 
her husband, were shot down, the others escaped." — Hutchinson's Hist., Vol. ii, p. 
86. So, in the following couplet, or should be and, or else engines should be 
engine : 

" What if the head, the eye, or ear repined, 
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind ?" — Pope. 

Note VI. — Improper omissions must be supplied ; but when there occurs a true 
ellipsis in the construction of joint nominatives or joint antecedents, the verb or 
pronoun must agree with them in the plural, just as if all the words were expressed : 
as, " The second and the third Epistle of John are each but one short chapter." 
— " The metaphorical and the literal meaning are improperly mixed." — Murray's 
Gram., p. 339. "The Doctrine of Words, separately consider'd, and in a Sentence, 
are Things distinct enough." — ErightlancTs Gram., Pref., p. iv. Better perhaps : 
"The doctrine of words separately considered, and that of words in a sentence, are 
things distinct enough." 

" The Curii's and the Camilli's little field, 
To vast extended territories yield." — Rowe's Lucan, B. i, 1. 320. 

Note VII. — Two or more distinct subject phrases connected by and, require 
a plural verb, and generally a plural noun too, if a nominative follow the verb ; 
as, " To be wise in our own eyes, to be wise in the opinion of the world, and to be 
wise in the sight of our Creator, are three things so very different, as rarely to 
coincide." — Blair. '" This picture of my friend' and ' This picture of my friend's' 
suggest very different ideas." — Priestley's Gram., p. 71 ; Murray's, i, 178. 

" Eead of this burgess — on the stone appear, 
How worthy he ! how virtuous ! and how dear !" — Crabhc. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVI. 
Under the Rule itself. — The Verb after Joint Nomestatives. 
"So much ability and merit is seldom found." — Murray's Key, 12mo, p. 18; Merchants School 
Gram., p. 190. 

[Fohmule. — Not proper, because the verb is is in the singular number, and does v.o% correctly agree with its two 
nominatives, ability and merit, which are connected by and, and taken conjointly. But, according to Rule ICth, 
" When a verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must agree with them jointly in the pluraL, 
because they are taken together." Therefore, is should be are; thus, " So much ability and merit are seldom 
found." Or : " So much ability and so much merit are seldom found."] 

"The syntax and etymology of the language is thus spread before the learner." — Bullions's 
English Gram., 2d Edition, Rec., p. hi. " Dr. Johnson tells us, that in English poetry the accent 



600 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

and the quantity of syllables is the same thing." — J. Q. Adams's Rhet, ii, 213. " Their general 
scope and tendency, having never been clearly apprehended, is not remembered at all." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., i, p. 126. "The soil and sovereignty was not purchased of the natives." — Knapp's 
Led. on Amer. Lit., p. 55. "The boldness, freedom, and variety of our blank verse, is infinitely 
more favourable than rhyme, to all kinds of sublime poetry." — Blair's Bhet, p. 40. " The vi- 
vacity and sensibility of the Greeks seems to have been much greater than ours." — lb., p. 253. 
" For sometimes the Mood and Tense is signified by the Verb, sometimes they are signified of the 
Verb by something else." — Johnson's Oram. Com., p. 254. "The Verb and the Noun making a 
complete Sense, which the Participle and the Noun does not." — lb., p. 255. "The growth and 
decay of passions and emotions, traced through all their mazes, is a subject too extensive for an 
undertaking like the present." — Karnes, El. of Grit, i, 108. "The true meaning and etymology 
of some of his words was lost." — Knight, on the Greek Alph., p. 37. " When the force and direc- 
tion of personal satire is no longer understood." — Junius, p. 5. " The frame and condition of man 
admits of no other principle." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 54. " Some considerable time and care was 
necessary." — lb., ii, 150. " In consequence of this idea, much ridicule and censure has been 
thrown upon Milton." — Blair's Rhet., p. 428. '-With rational beings, nature and reason is the 
same thing." — CMier's Antoninus, p. 111. " And the flax and the barley was smitten." — Exod., 
ix, 31. " The colon, and semicolon, divides a period, this with, and that without a connective." 
— J. Ware's Gram., p. 27. " Consequently wherever space and time is found, there God must also 
be." — Sir Isaac Newton. " As the past tense and perfect participle of love ends in ed, it is regu- 
lar." — Chandler's Gram., p. 40; New Edition, p. 66. "But the usual arrangement and nomen- 
clature prevents this from being readily seen." — Butler's Practical Gram., p. 3. " Do and did 
simply implies opposition or emphasis." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 41. "/and another make we, 
plural ; T\ou and another is as much as ye ; He, she, or it and another make they." — lb., p. 124. 
" I and another, is as much as (we) the first Person Plural ; Thou and another, is as much as (ye) 
the second Person Plural ; He, she, or it, and another, is as much as (they) the third Person Plu- 
ral." — British Gram., p. 193; Buchanan's Syntax, p. 76. "God and thou art two, and thou and 
thy neighbour are two." — The Love Conquest, p. 25. " Just as an and a has arisen out of the 
numeral one." — Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 200. "The tone and style of each of them, 
particularly the first and the last, is very different." — Blair's Rhet, p. 246. " Even as the roe- 
buck and the hart is eaten." — Deut, xiii, 22. " Then I may conclude that two and three makes 
not five." — Barclay's Works, iii, 354. "Which at sundry times thou and thy brethren hast re- 
ceived from us." — lb., i, 165. "Two and two is four, and one is five." — Pope: Lives of the Poets, 
p. 490. " Humility and knowledge with poor apparel, excels pride and ignorance under costly 
array." — Day's Gram., Parsing Lesson, p. 100. "A page and a half has been added to the 
section on composition." — Bullions' s E. Gram., 5th Ed., Pref, p. vii. "Accuracy and expertness 
in this exercise is an important acquisition." — lb., p. 71. 

" Woods and groves are of thy dressing, 
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing." — Milton's Poems, p. 139. 

Under the Rule itself. — The Verb before Joint Nominatives. 

" There is a good and a bad, a right and a wrong in taste, as in other things." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 21. "Whence has arisen much stiffness and affectation." — lb., p. 133. "To this error is 
owing, in a great measure, that intricacy and harshness, in his figurative language, which I be- 
fore remarked." — lb., p. 150; Jamieson's Rhet, 157. "Hence, in his Night Thoughts, there pre- 
vails an obscurity and hardness in his style." — Blair's Rhet, p. 150. " There is, however, in that 
work much good sense, and excellent criticism." — lb., p. 401. "There is too much low wit and 
scurrility in Plautus." — lb., p. 481. "There is too much reasoning and refinement; too much 
pomp and studied beauty in them." — lb., p. 468. " Hence arises the structure and characteristic 
expression of exclamation." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 229. " And such pilots is he and his breth- 
ren, according to their own confession." — Barclay's Works, iii, 314. "Of whom is Hymeneus 
and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred." — 2 Tim., ii, 17. " Of whom is Hymeneus 
and Alexander ; whom I have delivered unto Satan." — 1 Tim., i, 20. " And so was James and 
John, the sons of Zebedee." — Luke, v, 10. " Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and 
cursing." — James, iii, 10. " Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good." 
— Lam., iii, 38. " In which there is most plainly a right and a wrong." — Butler's Analogy, p. 
215. " In this sentence there is both an actor and an object." — Smith's Inductive Gram., p. 14. 
" In the breast-plate was placed the mysterious Urim and Thummim." — Milman's Jews, i, 88. 
" What is the gender, number, and person of those in the first ?" — Smith's Productive Gram., p. 
19. " There seems to be a familiarity and want of dignity in it." — Priestley's Gram., p. 150. 
"It has been often asked, what is Latin and Greek?" — Literary Convention, p. 209. "Eor where 
does beauty and high wit But in your constellation meet?" — Hudibras, p. 134. " Thence to the 
land where flows Ganges and Indus." — Paradise Lost, B. ix, 1. 81. "On these foundations seems 
to rest the midnight riot and dissipation of modern assemblies." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 46. " But 
what has disease, deformity, and filth, upon which the thoughts can be allured to dwell ?" — John- 
son's Life of Swift, p. 492. " How is the gender and number of the relative known ?" — Bullions, 
Practical Lessons, p. 32. 

" High rides the sun, thick rolls the dust, 
And feebler speeds the blow and thrust." — Sir W. Scott. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XVI. — VERBS. — ERRORS. 601 

Under Note I. — Change the Connective. 

" In every language there prevails a certain structure and analogy of parts, which is under- 
stood to give foundation to the most reputable usage." — Blair's Rhet, p. 90. " There runs 
through his whole manner, a stiffness and affectation, which renders him very unfit to be consid- 
ered a general model." — lb., p. 102. " But where declamation and improvement in speech is the 
sole aim." — lb., p. 257. " For it is by these chiefly, that the train of thought, the course of rea- 
soning, and the whole progress of the mind, in continued discourse of all kinds, is laid open." — 
Lowth's Gram., p. 103. " In all writing and discourse, the proper composition and structure of 
sentences is of the highest importance." — Blair's Rhet., p. 101. " Here the wishful look and ex- 
pectation of the beggar naturally leads to a vivid conception of that which was the object of his 
thoughts." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 386. "Who say, that the outward naming of Christ, and sign- 
ing of the cross, puts away devils." — Barclay's Works, i, 146. " By which an oath and penalty 
was to be imposed upon the members." — Junius, p. 6. " Light and knowledge, in what manner 
soever afforded us, is equally from God." — Butler's Analogy, p. 264. " For instance, sickness and 
untimely death is the consequence of intemperance." — lb., p. 78. "When grief, and blood ill- 
tempered vexeth him." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 256. " Does continuity and connexion create 
sympathy and relation in the parts of the body?" — Collier's Antoninus, p. 111. "His greatest 
concern, and highest enjoyment, was to be approved in the sight of his Creator." — Murray's Key, 
p. 224. " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ?" — 2 
Sam., hi, 38. "What is vice and wickedness? No rarity, you may depend on it." — Collier's 
Antoninus, p. 107. " There is also the fear and apprehension of it." — Butler's Analogy, p. 87. 
" The apostrophe and s, (s,) is an abbreviation for is, the termination of the old English genitive." 
— Bullions, E. Gram., p. 17. " Ti, ce, and ci, when followed by a vowel, usually has the sound 
of sh; as in partial, special, ocean." — Weld's Gram., p. 15. 

" Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear 
Compels me to disturb your season due." — Hilton's Lycidas. 

"Debauches and excess, though with less noise, 
As great a portion of mankind destroys." — Waller, p. 55. 

Under Note II. — Affirmation with Negation. 

"Wisdom, and not wealth, procure esteem." — Brown's Inst., p. 156. "Prudence, and not 
pomp, are the basis of his fame." — lb. "Not fear, but labour have overcome him." — lb. "The 
decency, and not the abstinence, make the difference." — lb. " Not her beauty, but her talents 
attracts attention." — lb. "It is her talents, and not her beauty, that attracts attention." — lb. "It 
is her beauty, and not her talents that attract attention." — lb. 

" His belly, not his brains, this impulse give : 
He'll grow immortal; for he cannot live." — Young, to Pope. 

Under Note III.— AS WELL AS, BUT, or SAVE. 

"Common sense as well as piety tell us these are proper." — Family Commentary, p. 64. "For 
without it the critic, as well as the undertaker, ignorant of any rule, have nothing left but to 
abandon themselves to chance." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 42. "And accordingly hatred as well as 
love are extinguished by long absence." — lb., i, 113. " But at every turn the richest melody as well 
as the sublimest sentiments are conspicuous." — lb., ii, 121. "But it, as well as the lines immedi- 
ately subsequent, defy all translation." — Coleridge's Introduction, p. 96. "But their religion, as 
well as their customs, and manners, were strangely misrepresented." — Bolingbroke, on His- 
tory, p. 123: Priestley's Gram., p. 192 ; Murray's Exercises, p. 47. "But his jealous policy, as 
well as the fatal antipathy of Fonseca, were conspicuous." — Robertson's America, i, 191. "When 
their extent as well as their value were unknown." — lb., ii, 138. "The Etymology, as well as 
the Syntax, of the more difficult parts of speech are reserved for his attention [at a later period]." 
— Parker and Fox's E. Gram., Part i, p. 3. "What I myself owe to him, no one but myself 
know." — See Wright's Athens, p. 96. "None, but thou, O mighty prince! canst avert the blow." 
— Inst., p. 156. "Nothing, but frivolous amusements, please the indolent." — lb. 

"Nought, save the gurglings of the rill, were heard." — G. B. 
"All songsters, save the hooting owl, was mute." — G. B. 

Under Note IV.— EACH, EVERT, or NO. 

" Give every word, and every member, their due weight and force." — Blair's Rhet, p. 110. 
" And to one of these belong every noun, and every third person of every verb." — Wilson's 
Essay on Gram., p. 74. "No law, no restraint, no regulation, are required to keep him in 
bounds." — Literary Convention, p. 260. "By that time, every window and every door in the 
street were full of heads." — K Y. Observer, No. 503. " Every system of religion, and every 
school of philosophy, stand back from this field, and leave Jesus Christ alone, the solitary exam- 
ple." — The Corner Stone, p. 17. "Each day, and each hour, bring their portion of duty." — 
Inst., p. 156. "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every 
one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him." — 1 Sam., xxii, 2. " Every private 
Christian and member of the church ought to read and* peruse the Scriptures, that they may 



602 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

know their faith and belief founded upon them." — Barclay's Works, i, 340. "And every moun- 
tain and island were moved out of their places." — Eev., vi, 14. 

" No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, 
No cavern'd hermit rest self-satisfied." 

Under Note V.— WITH, OR, &o. for AND. 

"The side A, with the sides B and C, compose the triangle." — Tobitt's Gram., p. 48; Felch's, 
69 ; Ware's, 12. "The stream, the rock, or the tree, must each of them stand forth, so as to make 
a figure in the imagination." — Blair's RheL, p. 390. "While this, with euphony, constitute, 
finally, the whole." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 293. "The bag, with the guineas and dollars in 
it, were stolen." — Cobbett's E. Gram., ^[ 246. "Sobriety, with great industry and talent, enable 
a man to perform great deeds." — lb., *j[ 246. " The it, together with the verb to be, express states 
of being." — lb., ^[ 190. "Where Leonidas the Spartan king, with his chosen band, fighting for 
their country, were cut off to the last man." — Karnes, El. of Grit, Vol. i, p. 203. "And Leah 
also, with her children, came near and bowed themselves." — Gen., xxxiii, 7. "The First or 
Second will, either of them, by themselves coalesce with the Third, but not with each other." — 
Harris's Hermes, p. 14. "The whole must centre in the query, whether Tragedy or Comedy are 
hurtful and dangerous representations?" — Formey's Belles- Lettres, p. 215. "Grief as well as joy 
are infectious: the emotions they raise in the spectator resemble them perfectly." — Karnes, El. of 
Grit, i, 157. "But in all other words the Qu are both sounded." — EnselVs Gram., p. 16. " Qu 
(which-are always together) have the sound of ku or k, as in queen, opaque." — Goodenow's Gram., 
p. 45. "In this selection the ai form distinct syllables." — Walker's Key, p. 290. "And a con- 
siderable village, with gardens, fields, &c, extend around on each side of the square." — Libera- 
tor, Vol. ix, p. 140. " Affection, or interest, guide our notions and behaviour in the affairs of 
life ; imagination and passion affect the sentiments that we entertain in matters of taste." — Jamie- 
son's Rhet, p. 171. "She heard none of those intimations of her defects, which envy, petulance, 
or anger, produce among children." — Rambler,. No. 189. "The King, with the Lords and Com- 
mons, constitute an excellent form of government." — Grombie's Treatise, p. 242. "If we say, 'I 
am the man, who commands you,' the relative clause, with the antecedent man, form the predi- 
cate."— lb., p. 266. 



" The spacious firmament on high, 
With all the blue ethereal sky, 



And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame, 
Their great Original proclaim." — Addison. 



Murray's Key, p. 174; Bay's Gram., p. 92; Farnum's, 106. 

Under Note VI. — Elliptical Constructions. 

"There is a reputable and a disreputable practice." — Adam,s's Rhet, Vol. i, p. 350. "This 
and this man was born in her." — Milton's Psalms, lxxxvii. "This and that man was born in 
her." — Psal. lxxxvii, 5. "This and that man was born there." — Hendrick's Gram., p. 94. 
"Thus le in lego and legi seem to be sounded equally long." — -Adam's Gram., p. 253; Gould's, 
243. " A distinct and an accurate articulation forms the groundwork of good delivery." — Kirk- 
ham's Elocution, p. 25. "How is vocal and written language understood?" — G. W. Sanders, 
Spelling-Book, p. 7. " The good, the wise, and the learned man is an ornament to human society." 
— Bartlett's Reader. "On some points, the expression of song and speech is identical." — Rush, 
on the Voice, p. 425. "To every room there was an open and secret passage." — Johnson's Ras- 
selas, p. 13. " There iz such a thing az tru and false taste, and the latter az often directs fashion, 
az the former." — Webster's Essays, p. 401. "There is such a thing as a prudent and imprudent 
institution of life, with regard to our health and our affairs." — Butler's Analogy, p. 210. "The 
lot of the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah, however different in one respect, have in 
another corresponded with wonderful exactness." — Hope of Israel, p. 301. "On these final syl- 
lables the radical and vanishing movement is performed." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 64. "To be 
young or old, good, just, or the contrary, are physical or moral events." — Spurzheim: Fetch's 
Gomp. Gram., p. 29. "The eloquence of George Whitfield and of John Wesley was of a very 
different character each from the other." — Dr. Sharp. " The affinity of m for the series b, and 
of n for the series t, give occasion for other Euphonic changes." — Fowler's E. Gram., § 77. 
" Pylades' soul, and mad Orestes', was 
In these, if we believe Pythagoras." — Cowley's Poems, p. 3. 

Under Note VII. — Distinct Subject Phrases. 
" To be moderate in our views, and to proceed temperately in the pursuit of them, is the best 
way to ensure success." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 206. "To be of any species, and to have a right 
to the name of that species, is all one." — Locke's Essay, p. 300. "With whom to will and to do 
is the same." — Jamieson's Sacred History, Vol. ii, p. 22. "To profess, and to possess, is very 
different things." — Inst, p. 156. "To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, 
is duties of universal obligation." — lb. "To be round or square, to be solid or fluid, to be large 
or small, and to be moved swiftly or slowly, is all equally alien from the nature of thought." — lb. 
"The resolving of a sentence into its elements or parts of speech and stating the Accidents which 
belong to these, is called Parsing." — Bidlions, Pract Lessons, p. 9. "To spin and to weave, to 
knit and to sew, was once a girl's employment; but now to dress and catch a beau, is all she 
calls enjoyment." — Lynn News, Vol. 8, No. 1. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. BULE XVII. — VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 603 

EULE XVII.— FINITE VEKBS. 

When a Yerb has two or more nominatives connected by or or nor, it 
must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together : as, " Fear or 
jealousy affects him." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 133. " Nor eye, nor listening 
ear, an object finds ; creation sleeps." — Young. "Neither character nor 
dialogue iocls yet understood." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 151. 

" The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, 
Safest and seemliest by her husband stays." — Milton, P. L., ix^ 267. 

OBSERVATIONS OX BULE XVII. 

Obs. 1. — To this rule, so far as its application is practicable, there are properly no exceptions ; 
for, or and nor being disjunctive conjunctions, the nominatives are of course to assume the verb 
separately, and as agreeing with each. Such agreement seems to be positively required by the 
alternativeness of the expression. Yet the ancieut grammarians seldom, if at all, insisted on it. In 
Latin and Greek, a plural verb is often employed with singular nominatives thus connected ; as, 

" Tunc nee mens mini, nee color 
Certa sede manent." — Horace. See W. Alleris Gram., p. 133. 

" 'Eay Se d5e7»6bc V ddeXoij yvuvol v—dpxooi, Kai AenrofJiEvoi ua tt,q Zonjuepov rpop '~c." — James, 
ii, 15. And the best scholars have sometimes improperly imitated this construction in English ; 
as, "Xeither Virgil nor Homer vjere deficient in any of the former beauties." — Dryden's Pref- 
ace: Brit. Poets, Vol. hi, p. 168. t: Xeither Saxon nor Roman have availed to add any idea to 
his [Plato's] categories." — R. TV Emerson: Liberator, Xo. 996. 

" He comes — nor want nor cold his course delay : 
Hide, blushing Glory I hide Pultowa's day." — Dr. Johnson. 

"Xo monstrous height, or breadth, or length, appear; 
The whole at once is bold and regular." — Pope, on Grit, 1. 250. 

Obs. 2. — When two collective nouns of the singular form are connected by or or nor, the verb 
may agree with them in the plural number, because such agreement is adapted to each of them, 
according to Rule 15th ; as, "Why mankind, or such apart of mankind, are placed in this condi- 
tion." — Butler's Analogy, p. 213. "But neither the Board of Control nor the Court of Directors 
have any scruples about sanctioning the abuses of which I have spoken." — Glory and Shame of 
England, A"ol. ii, p. 70. 

Obs. 3. — When a verb has nominatives of different persons or numbers, connected by or or nor, 
an explicit concord with each is impossible ; because the verb cannot be of different persons or 
numbers at the same time ; nor is it so, even when its form is made the same in aU the persons 
and numbers: thus, "I, thou, [or] he, may affirm; we, ye, or they, may affirm." — Beanie's 
Moral Science, p. 36. Respecting the proper management of the verb when its nominatives thus 
disagree, the views of our grammarians are not exactly coincident. Few however are ignorant 
enough, or rash enough, to deny that there may be an implicit or implied concord in such cases, 
— a zeugma of the verb in English, as well as of the verb or of the adjective in Latin or Greek. 
Of this, the following is a brief example: " But he nor I feel more." — Dr. Young, Xight iii, p. 35. 
And I shah by-and-by add others — enough, I hope, to confute those false critics who condemn all 
such phraseology. 

Obs. 4. — W. Allen's rule is this: "If the nominatives are of different numbers or persons, the 
verb agrees with the last; as, he or his brothers were there; neither you nor 1 am concerned." — 
English Gram., p. 133. Lindley Murray, and others, say: (1.) "When singular pronouns, or a 
noun and pronoun, of different persons, are disjunctively connected, the verb must agree with that 
person which is placed nearest to it : as, ' I or thou art to blame ;' ' Thou or I am in fault ;' ' I, or 
thou, or he, is the author of it;' 'George or I am the person.' But it would be better to say; 
' Either I am to blame, or thou art' &c. (2.) When a disjunctive occurs between a singular noun, 
or pronoun, and a plural one, the verb is made to agree with the plural noun and pronoun : as, 
1 Xeither poverty nor riches ivere injurious to him ;' 'I or they were offended by it.' But in this 
case, the plural noun or pronoun, when it can conveniently be done, should be placed next to the 
verb." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 151; Smith's New Gram., 128; Alger's Gram., 54; Comly's, 
78 and 79; Merchant's, 86 ; Picket's, 175; and many more. There are other grammarians who 
teach, that the verb must agree with the nominative which is placed next to it, whether this be 
singular or plural ; as, " Xeither the servants nor the master is respected;" — " Xeither the master 
nor the servants are respected." — Alexander Murray's Gram., p. 65. " But if neither the writings 
nor the author is in existence, the Imperfect should be used." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 107. 

Obs. 5. — On this point, a new author has just given us the following precept and criticism: 
" Xever connect by or, or nor, two or more names or substitutes that have the same asserter [i. e. 
verb] depending on them for sense, if when taken separately, they require different forms of the 
asserters. Examples. ' Xeither you nor I am concerned. Either he or thou wast there. Either 
they or he is faulty.' These examples are as erroneous as it would be to say, ' Xeither you am 
concerned, nor am I.' ' Either he wast there, or thou wast,' ' Either they is faulty, or he is.' 



604 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

The sentences should stand thus — 'Neither of us is concerned,' or, 'neither are you concerned, 
nor am I.' 'Either he was there, or thou wasV ' Either they are faulty, or he is. 1 They are, 
however, in all their impropriety, writen according to the principles of G-oold Brown's grammar ! 
and the theories of most of the former writers." — Oliver B. Peirce's Gram., p. 252. We shall see 
by-and-by who is right. 

Obs. 6. — Oobbett also — while he approves of such English as, " He, with them, are able to do 
much," for, " He and they are able to do much" — condemns expressly every possible example 
in which the verb has not a full and explicit concord with each of its nominatives, if they are con- 
nected by or or nor. His doctrine is this: "If nominatives of different numbers present them- 
selves, we must not give them a verb which disagrees with either the one or the other. We must 
not say : ' Neither the halter nor the bayonets are sufficient to prevent us from obtaining our 
rights.' We must avoid this bad grammar by using a different form of words : as, ' We are to be 
prevented from obtaining our rights by neither the halter nor the bayonets.' And, why should 
we wish to write bad grammar, if we can express our meaning in good grammar?" — Oobbetfs E. 
Gram., *[[ 242. This question would have more force, if the correction here offered did not convey 
a meaning widely different from that of the sentence corrected. But he goes on: "We cannot 
say, 'They or I am in fault; I, or they, or he, is the author of it; George or I am the person.' 
Mr. Lindley Murray says, that we may use these phrases; and that we have only to take care 
that the verb agree with that person which is placed nearest to it ; but, he says also, that it would 
be better to avoid such phrases by giving a different turn to our words. I do not like to leave any 
thing to chance or to discretion, when we have a clear principle for our guide." — lb., ^[ 243. This 
author's "clear principle" is merely his own confident assumption, that every form of figurative 
or implied agreement, every thing which the old grammarians denominated zeugma, is at once to 
be condemned as a solecism. He is however supported by an other late writer of much greater 
merit. See GhurchilVs New Gram., pp. 142 and 312. 

Obs. 7. — If, in lieu of their fictitious examples, our grammarians would give us actual quota- 
tions from reputable authors, their instructions would doubtless gain something in accuracy, and 
still more in authority. " 1 or they were offended by it," and, " I, or thou, or he, is the author of it," 
are expressions that I shall not defend. They imply an egotistical speaker, who either does not 
know, or will not tell, whether he is offended or not, — whether he is the author or not! Again, 
there are expressions that are unobjectionable, and yet not conformable to any of the rules just 
quoted. That nominatives may be correctly connected by or or nor without an express agree- 
ment of the verb with each of them, is a point which can be proved to as full certainty as almost 
any other in grammar; Churchill, Cobbett, and Peirce to the contrary notwithstanding. But 
with which of the nominatives the verb shall expressly agree, or to which of them it may most 
properly be understood, is a matter not easy to be settled by any sure general rule. Nor is the 
lack of such a rule a very important defect, though the inculcation of a false or imperfect one 
may be. So judged at least the ancient grammarians, who noticed and named almost every pos- 
sible form of the zeugma, without censuring any as being ungrammatical. In the Institutes of 
English Grammar, I noted first the usual form of this concord, and then the allowable excep- 
tions ; but a few late writers, we see, denounce every form of it, exceptions and all : and, stand- 
ing alone in their notions of the figure, value their own authority more than that of all other 
critics together. 

Obs. 8. — In English, as in other languages, when a verb has discordant nominatives connected 
disjunctively, it most commonly agrees expressly with that which is nearest, and only by impli- 
cation, with the more remote ; as, " When some word or words are dependent on the attribute." 
— Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 153. "To the first of these qualities, dulness or refinements are 
dangerous enemies." — Brown's Estimate, Vol. ii, p. 15. "He hazards his own life with that of 
his enemy, and one or both are very honorabhj murdered." — Webster's Essays, p. 235. " The con- 
sequence is, that they frown upon every one whose faults or negligence interrupts or retards their 
lessons." — W. 0. Woodbridge : Lit. Conv., p. 114. " Good intentions, or at least sincerity of pur- 
pose, was never denied her." — West's Letters, p. 43. "Yet this proves not that either he or we 
judge them to be the rule." — Barclay's Works, i, 15 7. "First clear yourselves of popery before 
you or thou dost throw it upon us." — lb., i, 169. "Is the gospel .or glad tidings of this salvation 
brought nigh unto all?" — lb., i, 362. "Being persuaded, that either they, or their cause, is 
naught." — lb., i, 504. " And the reader may judge whether he or I do most fully acknowledge 
man's fall." — lb., iii, 332. " To do justice to the Ministry, they have not yet pretended that any 
one, or any two, of the three Estates, have power to make a new law, without the concurrence 
of the third." — Junius, Letter xvii. "The forest, or hunting-grounds, are deemed the property 
of the tribe." — Robertson's America, i, 313. "Birth or titles confer no preeminence." — lb., ii, 
184. " Neither tobacco nor hides were imported from Caraccas into Spain." — lb., ii, 507. " The 
keys or seed-vessel of the maple has two large side-wings." — The Friend, vii, 97. " An example 
or two are sufficient to illustrate the general observation." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Lang., i, 58. 
" Not thou, nor those thy factious arts engage, 
Shall reap that harvest of rebellious rage." — Dryden, p. 60. 

Obs. 9. — But when the remoter nominative is the principal word, and the nearer one is ex- 
pressed parenthetically, the verb agrees literally with the former, and only by implication, with 
the latter; as, "One example, (or ten,) says nothing against it." — Leigh Hunt. "And we, (or 
future ages,) may possibly have a proof of it." — Bp. Butler. So, when the alternative is merely 
in the vjords, not in the thought, the former term is sometimes considered the principal one, and 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XYII. — VEEBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 605 

is therefore allowed to control the verb ; but there is always a harshness in this mixture of differ- 
ent numbers, and, to render such a construction tolerable, it is necessary to read the latter term 
like a parenthesis, and make the former emphatic : as, " A parenthesis, or brackets, consists of two 
angular strokes, or hooks, enclosing one or more words." — Whiting's Reader, p. 28. " To show 
us that our own schemes, or prudence, have no share in our advancements." — Addison. " The 
Mexican figures, or picture-writing, represent things, not words ; they exhibit images to the eye, 
not ideas to the understanding." — Murray's Gram., p. 243 ; English Reader, p. xiii. " AtTravan- 
core, Koprah, or dried cocoa-nut kernels, is monopolized by government." — Maunder 1 s Gram., p. 
12. " The Scriptures, or Bible, are the only authentic source." — Bp. Tomline's Evidences. 

" Nor foes nor fortune take this power away ; 
And is my Abelard less kind than they f" — Pope, p. 334. 

Obs. 10. — The English adjective being indeclinable, we have no examples of some of the forms 
of zeugma which occur in Latin and Greek. But adjectives differing in number, are sometimes 
connected without a repetition of the noun ; and, in the agreement of the verb, the noun which is 
understood, is less apt to be regarded than that which is expressed, though the latter be more 
remote; as, "There are one or two small irregularities to be noted." — Lowitis Gram., p. 63. 
"There are one or two persons, and but one or two." — Hazlitt's Lectures. " There are one or two 
others." — Crombie's Treatise, p. 206. "There are one or two" — Blair's Rhet, p. 319. "There 
are one or more seminaries in every province." — H. E. JDwight : Lit. Conv., p. 133. " Whether one 
or more of the clauses are to be considered the nominative case." — Murray's Gram. r Yo\. i, p. 150. 
" So that, I believe, there is not more than one genuine example extant," — Knight, on the Greek 
Alphabet, p. 10. " There is, properly, no more than one pause or rest in the sentence." — Murray's 
Gram., Vol. i, p. 329 ; Blair's Rhet, p. 125. " Sometimes a small letter or two is added to the 
capital." — Adam's Lot. Gram., p. 223 ; Gould's, 283. Among the examples in the seventh para- 
graph above, there is one like this last, but with a plural verb ; and if either is objectionable, is 
should here be are. The preceding example, too, is such as I would not imitate. To L. Murray, 
the foUowing sentence seemed false syntax, because one does not agree with persons : " He saw 
one or more persons enter the garden." — Murray's Exercises, Rule 8th, p. 54. In his Key, he has 
it thus: "He saw one person, or more than one, enter the garden." — Oct. Gram., Vol. ii, p. 189. 
To me, this stiff correction, which many later grammarians have copied, seems worse than none. 
And the effect of the principle may be noticed in Murray's style elsewhere ; as, " When a semico- 
lon, or more than one, have preceded." — Octavo Gram., i, p. 277 ; Ingersoll's Gram., p. 288. Here 
a ready writer would be very apt to prefer one of the following phrases : " When a semicolon or 
two have preceded," — " When one or two semicolons have preceded," — "When one or more semico- 
lons have preceded." It is better to write by guess, than to become systematically awkward in 
expression. 

Obs. 11. — In Greek and Latin, the pronoun of the first person, according to our critics, is 
generally* placed first; as, "'Eyo) nai av rdd'ucata Troajao/uev. Xen." — Milnes's Gr. Gram., p. 120. 
That is, " Ego et tu justa faciemus." Again : " Ego et Cicero valemus. Cic." — Buchanan's Pref., 
p. x; Adam's Gram., 206; Gould's, 203. "I and Cicero are well." — Po. But, in English, a 
modest speaker usually gives to others the precedence, and mentions himself last ; as, " He, or 
thou, or I, must go." — "Thou and I will do what is right." — "Cicero and I are well." — Dr. 
Adam.\ Yet, in speaking of himself and his dependants, a person most commonly takes rank 
before them ; as, " Your inestimable letters supported myself, my wife, and children, in adver- 
sity." — Lucien Bonaparte, Charlemagne, p. v. " And I shall be destroyed, 1 and my house." — 
Gen., xxxiv, 30. And in acknowledging a fault, misfortune, or censure, any speaker may assume 
the first place ; as, " Both I and thou are in the fault." — Adam's Gram., p. 207. "Both I and 
you are in fault." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. ix. "Trusty did not do it; I and Robert did it." — 
Edgeworth's Stories. 

" With critic scales, weighs out the partial wit, 
What I, or you, or he, or no one writ." — Lloyd's Poems, p. 162. 

Obs. 12. — According to the theory of this work, verbs themselves are not unfrequently con- 
nected, one to an other, by and r or, or nor ; so that two or more of them, being properly in the 
same construction, may be parsed as agreeing with the same nominative : as, " So that the blind 
and dumb [maw] both spake and saw." — Matt., xii, 22. " That no one might buy or sell." — Rev., 
xiii, 17. "Which see not, nor hear, nor know." — Ban., v, 23. We have certainly very many 
examples like these, in which it is neither convenient nor necessary to suppose an ellipsis of the 
nominative before the latter verb, or before all but the first, as most of our grammarians do, 
whenever they find two or more finite verbs connected in this manner. It is true, the nomina- 

* This order of the persons, is not universally maintained in those languages. The -words of Mary to her 
son, " Thy fat her and 1 have sought thee sorrowing," seem very properly to give the precedence to her hus- 
band ; and this is their arrangement in St. Luke's Greek, and in the Latin versions, as well as in others. 

t The hackneyed example, "land Cicero are well," — "Ego et Cicero valemus" — which makes such a figure 
in the grammars, both Latin and English, and yet is ascribed to Cicero himself, deserves a word of explanation. 
Cicero the orator, having with him his young son Marcus Cicero at Athens, while his beloved daughter Tullia 
was with her mother in Italy, thus wrote to his wife, Terentia: "Si tu, et Tullia, lux nostra, vuletis; ego, et 
suavissimus Cicero, valemus.'" — Epist. ad Fam. Lib. xiv, Ep. v. That is, "If thou, and Tullia, our joy, are 
well; I, and the sweet lad Cicero, are likewise well." This literal translation is good English, and not to be 
amended by inversion; for a father is not expected to give precedence to his child. But, when I was a boy, 
the text and version of Dr. Adam puzzled me not a little ; because I could not conceive how Cicero could 
ever have said, " I and Cicero are viell." The garbled citation is now much oftener read than the original. 
See it in Crombie's Treatise, p. 243 ; M 1 Culloch' s Gram., p. 158 ; and others. 



GOG THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

tive may, in most instances, be repeated without injury to the sense ; but this fact is no proof of 
such an ellipsis ; because many a sentence which is not incomplete, may possibly take additional 
words without change of meaning. But these authors, (as I have already suggested under the 
head of conjunctions,) have not been very careful of their own consistency. If they teach, that, 
" Every finite verb has its own separate nominative, either expressed or implied," which idea 
Murray and others seem to have gathered from Lowth ; or if they say, that, " Conjunctions really 
unite sentences, when they appear to unite only words," which notion they may have acquired 
from Harris ; what room is there for that common assertion, that, " Conjunctions connect the 
same moods and tenses of verbs," which is a part of Murray's eighteenth rule, and found in most 
of our grammars ? For no agreement is usually required between verbs that have separate nom- 
inatives ; and if we supply a nominative wherever we do not find one for each verb, then in fact 
no two verbs will ever be connected by any conjunction. 

Obs. 13. — What agreement there must be, between verbs that are in the same construction, it 
is not easy to determine with certainty. Some of the Latin grammarians tell us, that certain 
conjunctions connect " sometimes similar moods and tenses, and sometimes similar moods but 
different tenses." See Prats Grammatica Latina, Octavo, Part ii, p. 95. Ruddiman, Adam, and 
Grant, omit the concord of tenses, and enumerate certain conjunctions which " couple like cases 
and moods." But all of them acknowledge some exceptions to their rules. The instructions of 
Lindley Murray and others, on this point, may be summed up in the following canon: "When 
verbs are connected by a conjunction, they must either agree in mood, tense, and form, or have 
separate nominatives expressed." This rule, (with a considerable exception to it, which other 
authors had not noticed,) was adopted by myself in the Institutes of English Grammar, and also 
retained in the Brief Abstract of that work, entitled, The First Lines of English Grammar. It 
there stands as the thirteenth in the series of principal rules : but, as there is no occasion to refer 
to it in the exercise of parsing, I now think, a less prominent place may suit it as weU or better. 
The principle may be considered as being less certain and less important than most of the usual 
rules of syntax : I shall therefore both modify the expression of it, and place it among the notes 
of the present code. See Notes 5th and 6th below. 

Obs. 14. — By the agreement of verbs with each other in form, it is meant, that the simple form 
and the compound, the familiar form and the solemn, the affirmative form and the negative, or 
the active form and the passive, are not to be connected without a repetition of the nominative. 
With respect to our language, this part of the rule is doubtless as important, and as true, as any 
other. A thorough agreement, then, in mood, tense, and form, is generally required, when verbs 
are connected by and, or, or nor ; and, under each part of this concord, there may be cited cer- 
tain errors which ought to be avoided, as will by-and-by be shown. But, at the same time, there 
seem to be many allowable violations of the rule, some or other of which may perhaps form ex- 
ceptions to every part of it. For example, the tense may be varied, as it often is in Latin ; thus, 
" As the general state of religion has been, is, or shall be, affected by them." — Butler's Analogy, p. 
241. " Thou art righteous, Lord, which art, and wast, and shall be, because thou hast judged 
thus." — Rev., xvi, 5. In the former of these examples, a repetition of the nominative would not 
be agreeable ; in the latter, it would perhaps be an improvement : as, " who art, and who wast, 
and who shalt be." (I here change the pronoun, because the relative which is not now applied as 
above.) " This dedication may serve for almost any book, that has been, or shall be published." — 
Campbell's Rhet, p. 207; Murray's Gram., p. 222. "It ought to be, l has been, is, or shall be, 
published.'" — Crombie's Treatise, p. 383. "Truth and good sense are firm, and will establish 
themselves." — Blair's Rhet, p. 286. " Whereas Milton followed a different plan, and has given a 
tragic conclusion to a poem otherwise epic in its form." — lb., p. 428. "I am certain, that such 
are not, nor ever were, the tenets of the church of England." — West's Letters, p. 148. " They de- 
serve, and will meet with, no regard." — Blair's Rhet, p. 109. 

" Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, 
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be." — Pope, on Grit 
Obs. 15. — So verbs differing in mood or form may sometimes agree with the same nominative, 
if the simplest verb be placed first — rarely, I think, if the words stand in any other order : as, 
" One may be free from affectation and not have merit." — Blair's Rhet, p. 189. " There is, and 
can be, no other person." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 224. "To see what is, and is allowed to be, the 
plain natural rule." — Butler's Analogy, p. 284. " This great experiment has worked, and is. work- 
ing, well, every way well." — Bradburn : Liberator, ix, 162. " This edition of Mr. Murray's 
works on English Grammar, deserves a place in Libraries, and will not fail to obtain it." — British 
Critic : Murray's Gram., 8vo, ii, 299. 

" What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy." — Pope. 

" Some are, and must be, greater than the rest." — Id. 
Obs. 16. — Since most of the tenses of an English verb are composed of two or more words, to 
prevent a needless or disagreeable repetition of auxiliaries, participles, and principal verbs, those 
parts which are common to two or more verbs in the same sentence, are generally expressed to 
the first, and understood to the rest ; or reserved, and put last, as the common supplement of 
each: as, " To which they do or can extend." — Butler's Analogy, p. 77. " He may, as any one 
may, if he will, incur an infamous execution from the hands of civil justice." — lb., p. 82. " All 
that has usurped the name of virtue, and \has\ deceived us by its semblance, must be a mockery 
and a delusion." — Br. Chalmers. " Human praise, and human eloquence, may acknowledge it, 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XVII. — VERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 607 

but the Discerner of the heart never will" [acknowledge it]. — Id. ""We use thee not so hardly, as 
prouder livers do" [use thee]. — Shak. " Which they might have foreseen and [might have] avoid- 
ed." — Butler. " Every sincere endeavour to amend, shall be assisted, [shall be] accepted, and 
[shall be] rewarded." — Carter. "Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and [will] 
stand and [will] call on the name of the Lord his God, and [will] strike his hand over the place, 
and [will] recover the leper" — 2 Kings, v, 11. "They mean to, and will, hear patiently." — 
Salem Register. That is, " They mean to hear patiently, and they will hear patiently." "He can 
create, and he destroy." — Bible. That is, — " and he can destroy." 

" Virtue may be assail 1 d, but never hurt, 
Surprised by unjust force, but not inthrall'd." — MiUon. 

" Mortals whose pleasures are their only care, 
First wish to be imposed on, and then are." — Cowper. 

Obs. 17. — From the foregoing examples, it may be seen, that the complex and divisible struc- 
ture of the English moods and tenses, produces, when verbs are connected together, a striking 
peculiarity of construction in our language, as compared with the nearest corresponding construc- 
tion in Latin or Greek. For we can connect different auxiliaries, participles, or principal verbs, 
without repeating, and apparently without connecting, the other parts of the mood or tense. 
And although it is commonly supposed that these parts are necessarily understood wherever they 
are not repeated, there are sentences, and those not a few, in which we cannot express them, 
without inserting also an additional nominative, and producing distinct clauses ; as, " Should it 
not be taken up and pursued ?" — Br. Chalmers. " Where thieves do not break through nor steal." 
— Matt, vi, 20. "None present could either read or explain the writing." — Wood's Bid., Vol. i, 
p. 159. Thus we sometimes make a single auxiliary an index to the mood and tense of more 
than one verb. 

Obs. 18. — The verb do, which is sometimes an auxiliary and sometimes a principal verb, is 
thought by some grammarians to be also fitly made a substitute for other verbs, as a pronoun is 
for nouns ; but this doctrine has not been taught with accuracy, and the practice under it will in 
many instances be found to involve a solecism. In this kind of substitution, there must either 
be a true ellipsis of the principal verb, so that do is only an auxiliary ; or else the verb do, with 
its object or adverb, if it need one, must exactly correspond to an action described before ; so that 
to speak of doing this or thus, is merely the shortest way of repeating the idea : as, " He loves 
not plays, as thou dost. Antony." — Shak. That is, "as thou dost love plays." " This fellow is 
wise enough to play the fool ; and, to do that well, craves a kind of wit." — Id. Here, " to do 
that," is, " to play the fool." "I will not do it, if I find thirty there." — Gen., xviii, 30. Do what? 
Destroy the city, as had been threatened. Where do is an auxiliarj^, there is no real substitution ; 
and, in the other instances, it is not properly the verb do, that is the substitute, but rather the 
word that follows it — or perhaps, both. For, since every action consists in doing something or in 
doing somehow, this general verb do, with this, that, it, thus, or so, to identify the action, may as- 
sume the import of many a longer phrase. But care must be taken not to substitute this verb 
for any term to which it is not equivalent ; as, " The a is certainly to be sounded as the English 
do." — Walker's Bid., w. A. Say, "as the English sound it;" for do is here absurd, and grossly 
solecistical. "The duke had not behaved with that loyalty with which he ought to have done." 
— Bowth's Gram., p. Ill; Murray's, i, 212; Churchill's, 355; Fisk's, 137; IngersoWs, 269. Say, 
"with which he ought to have behaved;" for, to have done with loyalty is not what was meant — 
far from it. Clarendon wrote the text thus : " The Duke had not behaved with that loyalty, as 
he ought to have done." This should have been corrected, not by changing "as" to "with which," 
but by saying — " with that loyalty which he ought to have observed;" or, " which would have be- 
come him." 

Obs. 19. — It is little to the credit of our grammarians, to find so many of them thus concurring 
in the same obvious error, and even making bad English worse. The very examples which have 
hitherto been given to prove that do may be a substitute for other verbs, are none of them in 
point, and all of them have been constantly and shamefully misinterpreted. Thus : " They [do 
and did] sometimes also supply the place of another verb, and make the repetition of it, in the same 
or a subsequent sentence, unnecessary: as, 'You attend not to your studies as he does;' (i. e. as 
he attends, &c.) 'I shall come if I can; but if I do not, please to excuse me ;' (i. e. if I come not.)" 
— B. Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 88 ; R. C. Smith's, 88 ; IngersoWs, 135 ; Fisk's, 78 ; A. Flint's, 
41 ; Hiley's, 30. This remark, but not the examples, was taken from Boudh's Gram., p. 41. 
Churchill varies it thus, and retains Lowth's example : "It [i. e., do] is used also, to supply the 
place of another verb, in order to avoid the repetition of it : as, ' He loves not plays, As thou dost, 
Antony.' Shaks." — New Gram., p. 96. Greenleaf says, " To prevent the repetition of one or 
more verbs, in the same, or [a] following sentence, we frequently make use of do and did; as, 
' Jack learns the English language as fast as Henry does;' that is, 'as fast as Henry learns.' 'I 
shall come if I can; but if I do not, please to excuse me;' that is, 'if I come not.'" — 
Gram. Simplified, p. 27. Sanborn says, " Bo is also used instead of another verb, and not unfre- 
quently instead of both the verb and its object ; as, ' he loves work as well as you do ;' that is, as 
well as you lave work." — Analyt. Gram., p. 112. Now all these interpretations are wrong; the 
word do, dost, or does, being simply an auxiliary, after which the principal verb (with its object 
where it has one) is understood. But the first example is bad English, and its explanation is still 
worse. For, " As he attends, &c," means, " As he attends to your studies /" And what good 



608 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

sense is there in this ? The sentence ought to have been, " You do not attend to your studies, as 
he does to his.' 1 ' 1 That is — " as he does attend to his studies." This plainly shows that there is, in 
the text, no real substitution of does for attends. So of all other examples exhibited in our gram- 
mars, under this head : there is nothing to the purpose, in any of them ; the common principle 
of ellipsis resolves them all. Yet, strange to say, in the latest and most learned of this sort of 
text-books, we find the same sham example, fictitious and solecistical as it is, still blindly re- 
peated, to shew that "does" is not in its own place, as an auxiliary, but "supplies the place of 
another verb." — Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 265. 

NOTES TO RULE XVII. 

Note I. — When a verb has nominatives of different persons or numbers,* con- 
nected by or or nor, it must agree with the nearest, (unless an other be the principal 
term,) and must be understood to the rest, in the person and number required ; as, 
" Neither you nor I am concerned." — W. Allen. " That neither they nor ye also 
die." — Numb., xviii, 3. 

" But neither god, nor shrine, nor mystic rite, 
Their city, nor her walls, his soul delight." — Rowers Lucan, B. x, 1. 26. 

Note II. — But, since all nominatives that require different forms of the verb, 
virtually produce separate clauses or propositions, it is better to complete the concord 
whenever we conveniently can, by expressing the verb or its auxiliary in connexion 
with each of them ; as, "Either thou art to blame, or I am." — Comics Gram., p. 
78. "Neither were their numbers, nor was their destination, known." — W. Allen's 
Gram., p. 134. So in clauses connected by and : as, "But declamation is idle, and 
murmurs fruitless." — Webster's Essays, p. 82. Say, — " and murmurs are fruitless." 

Note III. — In English, the speaker should always mention himself last ; unless 
his own superior dignity, or the confessional nature of the expression, warrant him in 
taking the precedence : as, " Thou or /must go." — " He then addressed his discourse 
to my father and me" — " Ellen and I will seek, apart, the refuge of some forest 
cell."— Scott. See Obs. 11th above. 

Note IV. — Two or more distinct subject phrases connected by or or nor, require 
a singular verb ; and, if a nominative come after the verb, that must be singular 
also : as, " That a drunkard should be poor, or that a fop should be ignorant, is not 
strange." — " To give an affront, or to take one tamely, is no mark of a great mind." 
So, when the phrases are unconnected : as, " To spread suspicion, to invent calum- 
nies, to propagate scandal, requires neither labour nor courage." — Rambler, No. 183. 

Note V. — In general, when verbs are connected by and, or, or nor, they must 
either agree in mood, tense, and form, or the simplest in form must be placed first ; 
as, " So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at 
Nineveh." — Isaiah, xxxvii, 37. "For if I be an offender, or have committed any 
thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die." — Acts, xxv, 11. 

Note VI. — In stead of conjoining discordant verbs, it is in general better to re- 
peat the nominative or insert a new one ; as, " He was greatly heated, and [he] 
drank with avidity." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 201. "A person maybe great or rich 
by chance; but cannot be wise or good, without taking pains for it." — lb., p. 200. 
Say, — " but no one can be wise or good, without taking pains for it." 
^ Note VII. — A mixture of the forms of the solemn style and the familiar, is inele- 
gant, whether the verbs refer to the same nominative or have different ones expressed ; 
as, " What appears tottering and in hazard of tumbling, produceth in the spectator 
the painful emotion of fear." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 356. "And the milkmaid 
singeth blithe, And the mower whets his sithe." — Milton's Allegro, 1. 65 and 66. 

Note VIII. — To use different moods under precisely the same circumstances, is 
improper, even if the verbs have separate nominatives ; as, " Bating that one speak 
and an other answers, it is quite the same." — Blair's Rhet., p. 368. Say, — " that 
one speaks ;" for both the speaking and the answering are assumed as facts. 

Note IX. — When two terms are connected, which involve different forms of the 

* Two singulars connected by and, -when they form a part of such a disjunction, are still equivalent to a phu 
ral; and are to be treated as such, in the syntax of the verb. Hence the following construction appears to b» 
inaccurate : "A single consonant or a mute and a liquid before an accented vowel, is joined to that vowel." — 
Dr. Bullions, Lot. Oram., p. xi. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — EULE XVII. — VERBS. — ERRORS. 609 

same verb, such parts of the compound tenses as are not common to both forms, 
should be inserted in full : except sometimes after the auxiliary do ; as, " And then 
he falls, as I do" — ShaJc. That is, "as I do fall." The following sentences are 
therefore faulty: "I think myself highly obliged to make his fortune, as he has 
mine." — Spect., No. 474. Say, — " as he has made mine." " Every attempt to re- 
move them, has, and likely will prove unsuccessful." — Gay's Prosodical Gram., p. 4. 
Say, — " has pi-oved, and likely will prove, unsuccessful." 

Note X. — The verb do must never be substituted for any term to which its own 
meaning is not adapted ; nor is there any use in putting it for a preceding verb that 
is equally short : as, " When we see how confidently men rest on groundless sur- 
mises in reference to their own souls, we cannot w T onder that they do it in reference 
to others." — Simeon. Better : — " that they so rest in reference to the souls of 
others ;" for this repeats the idea with more exactness. 

Note XL — The preterit should not be employed to form the compound tenses of 
the verb ; nor should the perfect participle be used for the preterit or confounded 
with the present. Thus : say, " To have gone" not, " To have went ;" and, " I did 
so," not, " I done so ;" or, " He saw them," not, " He seen them." Again : say 
not, " It was lift or hoist up ;" but, " It was lifted or hoisted up." 

Note XII. — Care should be taken, to give every verb or participle its appropriate 
form, and not to confound those which resemble each other ; as, to flee and to fly, 
to lay and to lie, to sit and to set, to fall and to fell, &c. Thus : say, " He lay by 
the fire ;" not, " He laid by the fire ;" — " He has become rich ;" not, " He is become 
rich ;" — " I would rather stay ;" not, " I had rather stay" 

Note XIII. — In the syntax of words that express time, whether they be verbs, 
adverbs, or nouns, the order and fitness of time should be observed, that the tenses 
may be used according to their import. Thus : in stead of, " I have seen him last 
week/" say, " I saw him last week;" — and, in stead of, "I saw him this week ;" say, 
" I have seen him this week." So, in stead of, " I told you already ;" or, " I have 
told you before ;" say, " I have told you already ;" — " I told you before." 

Note XIV. — Verbs of commanding, desiring, expecting, hoping, intending, per- 
mitting, and some others, in all their tenses, refer to actions or events, relatively pre- 
sent or future : one should therefore say, " I hoped you would come ;" not, " I hoped 
you would have come ;" — and, " I intended to do it ;" not, " I intended to have done 
it ;"— &c. 

Note XV. — Propositions that are as true now as they ever were or will be, should 
generally be expressed in the present tense : as, " He seemed hardly to know, that 
two and two make four ;" not, " made." — Blair's Gram., p. 65. " He will tell you, 
that whatever is, is right." Sometimes the present tense is improper w T ith the con- 
junction that, though it would be quite proper without it ; as, " Others said, That 
it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet." — Mark, vi, 15. Here That 
should be omitted, or else is should be was. The capital T is also improper. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVLT. 
Under the Rule itself. — Nominatives Connected by OR. 
" We do not know in what either reason or instinct consist." — Rambler, No. 41. 

[FOBMTJI.E. — Not proper, because the vei'b consist, is of the plural number, and does not correctly agree with 
its two nominatives, reason and instinct, which are connected by or, and taken disjunctively. But, according to 
Rule 11th, " When a verb has two or more nominatives connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, 
and not as if taken together." Therefore, con sist should be consists; thus, " We do not know in what either 
reason or instinct consists."] 

" A noun or a pronoun joined with a participle, constitute a nominative case absolute." — Bick- 
nelVs Gram., Part ii, p. 50. "The relative will be of that case, which the verb or noun following, 
or the preposition going before, use to govern." — Dr. Adam's Gram., p. 203. " Which the verb 
or noun following, or the preposition going before, usually govern." — Gould's Adam's Gram., 
p. 200.* " In the different modes of pronunciation which habit or caprice give rise to." — Knight, on 
the Greek Alphabet, p. 14. " By which he, or his deputy, were authorized to cut down any trees 
in Whittlebury forest." — Junius, p. 251. " Wherever objects were to be named, in which sound, 

* Murray the schoolmaster has it, '■'■used to govern." — English Gram., p. 64. He puts the verb in a wrong 
tense. Dr. Bullions has it, " usually governs." — hat. Gram", p. 202. This is right. — G-. B. 

39 



610 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

noise, or motion were concerned, the imitation b}' words was abundantly obvious." — Blair's Rhet., 
p. 55. " The pleasure or pain resulting from a train of perceptions in different circumstances, are 
a beautiful contrivance of nature for valuable purposes." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 262. " Because 
their foolish vanity or their criminal ambition represent the principles by which they are influenced, 
as absolutely perfect." — Life of Madame De Stael, p. 2. " Hence naturally arise indifference or 
aversion between the parties." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 37. " A penitent unbeliever, or an impeni- 
tent believer, are characters no where to be found." — Tract, No. 183. " Copying whatever is 
peculiar in the talk of all those whose birth or fortune entitle them to imitation." — Rambler, No. 
194. " Where love, hatred, fear, or contempt, are often of decisive influence." — Duncan's Cicero, 
p. 119. " A lucky anecdote, or an enlivening tale relieve the folio page." — D' Israeli's Curiosities, 
Vol. i, p. 15. " For outward matter or event, fashion not the character within." — Book of Thoughts, 
p. 37. " Yet sometimes we have seen that wine, or chance, have warmed cold brains." — Dry- 
den's Poems, p. 76. "Motion is a Genus; Flight, a Species; this Flight or that Flight are Indi- 
viduals." — Harris's Hermes, p. 38. " "When et, aut, vel, sive, or nee, are joined to different mem- 
bers of the same sentence." — Adam's Lot. and Eng. Gram., p. 206; Gould's Lot. Gram., 203; 
Grant's, 266. " "Wisdom or folly govern us." — Fisk's English Gram., 84. "A or an are styled 
indefinite articles." — Folker's Gtam., p. 4. "A rusty nail, or a crooked pin, shoot up into prodi- 
gies." — Spectator, No. 7. "Are either the subject or the predicate in the second sentence modi- 
fied T'— Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 578, § 589. 

" Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, 
Are lost on hearers that our merits know." — Pope, Iliad, B. x, 1. 293. 

Under the Rule itself. — Nominatives Connected by NOR. 
"Neither he nor she have spoken to him." — Perrin's Gram., p. 237. "For want of a process 
of events, neither knowledge nor elegance preserve the reader from weariness." — Johnson : in 
Crabbs Syn., p. 511. "Neither history nor tradition furnish such information." — Robertson's 
Amer., Vol. i, p. 2. "Neither the form nor power of the liquids have varied materially." — Knight, 
on the Greek Alph., p. 16. " Where neither noise nor motion are concerned." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 55. " Neither Charles nor his brother were qualified to support such a system." — Junius, 
p. 250. "When, therefore, neither the liveliness of representation, nor the warmth of passion, 
serve, as it were, to cover the trespass, it is not safe to leave the beaten track." — Campbell's 
Rhet, p. 381. "In many countries called Christian, neither Christianity, nor its evidence, are 
fairly laid before men." — Butler's Analogy, p. 269. "Neither the intellect nor the heart are 
capable of being driven." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 20. "Throughout this hymn, neither Apollo nor 
Diana are in any way connected with tho Sun or Moon." — Coleridge's Introd., p. 199. " Of which, 
neither he, nor this Grammar, take any notice." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 346. " Neither their 
solicitude nor their foresight extend so far." — Robertson's Amer., Vol. i, p. 287. "Neither Gk>- 
mara, nor Oviedo, nor Herrera, consider Ojeda, or his companion Vespucci, as the first discoverers 
of the continent of America." — lb., Vol. i, p. 471. "Neither the general situation of our colonies, 
nor that particular distress which forced the inhabitants of Boston to take up arms, have been 
thought worthy of a moment's consideration." — Junius, p. 174. 

" Nor War nor Wisdom yield our Jews delight, 

I They will not study, and they dare not fight." — Crabbe's Borough, p. 50. 

"Nor time nor chance breed such confusions yet, 
Nor are the mean so rais'd, nor sunk the great." — Rowe's Lucan, B. iii, 1. 213. 

Under Note I. — Nominatives that Disagree. 

" The definite article the, designates what particular thing or things is meant." — Merchant's 
School Gram., p. 23 and p. 33. " Sometimes a word or words necessary to complete the gram- 
matical construction of a sentence, is not expressed, but omitted by ellipsis." — Burr's Gram., p. 26. 
"Ellipsis, or abbreviations, is the wheels of language." — Maunder' s Gram., p. 12. "The condi- 
tions or tenor of none of them appear at this day." — Hutchinson's Hist of Mass., Vol. i, p. 16. 
"Neither men nor money were wanting for the service." — lb., Vol. i, p. 279. "Either our own 
feelings, or the representation of those of others, require frequent emphatic distinction." — Barber's 
Exercises, p. 13. " Either Atoms and Chance, or Nature are uppermost: now I am for the latter 
part of the disjunction." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 181. "Their riches or poverty are generally 
proportioned to their activity or indolence." — Ross Cox's Narrative. " Concerning the other part 
of him, neither you nor he seem to have entertained an idea." — Bp. Home. " Whose earnings or 
income are so small." — N. E. Discipline, p. 130. "Neither riches nor fame render a man happy." 
— Day's Gram., p. 71. " The references to the pages, always point to the first volume, unless 
the Exercises or Key are mentioned." — Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. 283. 

Under Note II. — Complete the Concord. 
" My lord, you wrong my father ; nor he nor I are capable of harbouring a thought against 
your peace." — Walpole. "There was no division of acts ; no pauses or interval between them; 
but the stage was continually full ; occupied either by the actors, or the chorus." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 463. " Every word ending in B, P, F, as also many in V, are of this order." — Dr. Murray's 
Hist of Lang., i, 73. "As proud as we are of human reason, nothing can be more absurd than 
the general system of human life and human knowledge." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 347. " By 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — KULE XVII. — VERBS. — ERRORS. 611 

which the body of sin and death is done away, and we cleansed." — Barclay's Works, i, 165. 
"And those were already converted, and regeneration begun in them." — lb., hi, 433. "For I am 
an old man, and my wife well stricken in years." — Luke, i, 18. ""Who is my mother, or my 
brethren ?" — Mark, iii, 33. " Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient 
for a burnt-offering." — Isaiah, xl, 16. " Information has been obtained, and some trials made." — 
Society in America, i, 308. " It is as obvious, and its causes more easily understood." — Webster s 
Essays, p. 84. " All languages furnish examples of this kind, and the English as many as any 
other." — Priestley's Gram., p. 157. "The winters are long, and the cold intense." — Morse's Geog., 
p. 39. "How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!" — Prov., v, 12. " The 
vestals were abolished by Theodosius the Great, and the fire of Vesta extinguished." — Lempriere, 
w. Vestales. "Riches beget pride; pride, impatience." — Bullions' s Practical Lessons, p. 89. 
"Grammar is not reasoning, any more than organization is thought, or letters sounds." — Enclytica, 
p. 90. "Words are implements, and grammar a machine." — lb., p. 91. 

Under Note III. — Place op the First Person. 

" I or thou art the person who must undertake the business proposed." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 
184. "I and he were there." — Br. Ash's Gram., p. 51. "And we dreamed a dream in one 
night, I and he." — Gen., xli, 11. " If my views remain the same as mine and his were in 1833." 
— GrOODELL: Liberator, ix, 148. "I and my father were riding out." — Inst., p. 158. "The 
premiums were given to me and George." — lb. " I and Jane are invited." — lb. " They ought 
to invite me and my sister." — lb. "I and you intend going." — Guy's Gram., p. 55. "I and 
John are going to Town." — British Gram., p. 193. " I, and he are sick. I, and thou are well." 
— James Brown's American Gram., Boston Edition of 1841, p. 123. "I, and he is. I, and thou 
art. I, and he writes." — lb., p. 126. "I, and they are well. I, thou, and she were walking." — 
lb., p. 127. 

Under Note IV. — Distinct Subject Phrases. 

"To practise tale-bearing, or even to countenance it, are great injustice." — Brown's Inst., p. 
159. " To reveal secrets, or to betray one's friends, are contemptible perfidy." — lb. " To write 
all substantives with capital letters, or to exclude them from adjectives derived from proper 
names, may perhaps be thought offences too small for animadversion ; but the evil of innovation 
is always something." — Dr. Barrow's Essays, p. 88. "To five in such families, or to have such 
servants, are blessings from God." — Family Commentary, p. 64. " How they portioned out the 
country, what revolutions they experienced, or what wars they maintained, are utterly unknown." 
— Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. i, p. 4. "To speak or to write perspicuously and agreeably, are 
attainments • of the utmost consequence to ah who purpose, either by speech or writing, to ad- 
dress the public." — Blair's Rhet., p. 11. 

Under Note V. — Make the Verbs Agree. 

" Doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and sceketh that which 
is gone astray?" — Matt, xviii, 12. "Did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the 
Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced V'-^Jer., xxvi, 19. "And dost thou 
open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgement with thee ?" — Job, xiv, 3. 
" If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own 
heart, this man's religion is vain." — James, i, 26. "If thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or 
buyest aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one an other." — Leviticus, xxv. 14. 
" And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee, shall have become poor, and be sold to thee, thou 
shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant." — Webster's Bible: Lev., xxv, 39. " If thou 
bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee," &c. 
— Matt., v, 23. " Anthea was content to call a coach, and crossed the brook." — Rambler, No. 34. 
"It is either totally suppressed, or appears in its lowest and most imperfect form." — Blair's Rhet., 
p. 23. "But if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth." — John, ix, 
31. "Whereby his righteousness and obedience, death and sufferings without, become profitable 
unto us, and is made ours." — Barclay's Works, i, 164. "Who ought to have been here before 
thee, and object, if they had aught against me." — Acts, xxiv, 19. 

"Yes! thy proud lords, unpitied land, shall see 
That man hath yet a soul, and dare be free." — Campbell. 

Under Note VI. — Use Separate Nominatives. 
U H is only an aspiration or breathing; and sometimes at the beginning of a word is not 
sounded at all." — Lowth's Gram., p. 4. " Man was made for society, and ought to extend his 
good will to all men." — lb., p. 12; Murray's, i, 170. " There is, and must be, a supreme being, 
of infinite goodness, power, and wisdom, who created and supports them." — Beattie's Moral Sci- 
ence, p. 201. "Were you not affrighted, and mistook a spirit for a body?" — Watson's Apology, 
p. 122. "The latter noun or pronoun is not governed by the conjunction than or as, but agrees 
with the verb, or is governed by the verb or the preposition, expressed or understood." — Murray s 
Gram., p. 214; Russell's, 103; Bacon's, 51; Alger's, 71; R. C. Smith's, 179. " He had mistaken 
his true interests, and found himself forsaken." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 201. "The amputation 
was exceedingly well performed, and saved the patient's life." — lb., p. 191. "The intentions of 



612 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

some of these philosophers, nay, of many [,] might have been, and probably wore good." — Po., p. 
216. " This may be true, and yet will not justify the practice." — Webster's Essays, p. 33. " From 
the practice of those who have had a liberal education, and are therefore presumed to be best 
acquainted with men and things." — Campbell's Bhet, p. 161. "For those energies and bounties 
which created and preserve the universe." — J. Q. Adams's Bhet, i, 327. "I shall make it once 
for all, and hope it will be afterwards remembered." — Blair's Led., p. 45. " This consequence is 
drawn too abruptly, and needed more explanation." — lb., p. 229. " They must be used with 
more caution, and require more preparation." — lb., p. 153. "The apostrophe denotes the omis- 
sion of an i, which was formerly inserted, and made an addition of a syllable to the word." — 
Priestley's Gram., p. 67. "The succession may be rendered more various or more uniform, but 
in one shape or an other is unavoidable." — Karnes, El. of Grit, i. 253. "It excites neither terror 
nor compassion, nor is agreeable in any respect." — lb., ii, 277. 

" Cheap vulgar arts, whose narrowness affords 
No flight for thoughts, but poorly stick at words." — Deriham. 

Under Note YII. — Mixture of Different Styles. 

" Let us read the living page, whose every character delighteth and instructs us." — Maunder 's 
Gram., p. 5. "For if it be in any degree obscure, it puzzles, and doth not please." — Karnes, El. 
of Grit, ii, 357. "When a speaker addresseth himself to the understanding, he proposes the 
instruction of his hearers." — Campbell's Bhet, p. 13. "As the wine which strengthens and 
refresheth the heart." — H. Adams's View, p. 221. "This truth he wrappeth in an allegory, and 
feigns that one of the goddesses had taken up her abode with the other." — Pope's Works, hi, 46. 
"God searcheth and understands the heart." — Thomas a Kempis. "The grace of God, that 
brings salvation hath appeared to all men." — Barclay's Works, i, 366. " Also we speak not in 
the words, which man's wisdom teaches; but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." — Po., i, 388. 
"But he hath an objection, which he urgeth, and by which he thinks to overturn all." — Po., iii, 
327. "In that it gives them not that comfort and joy which it giveth unto them who love it." — 
Po., i, 142. "Thou here misunderstood the place and misappliedst it." — Po., iii, 38. "Like the 
barren heath in the desert, which knoweth not when good comes." — Friends' Extracts, p. 128; 
N. E. Discip., p. 75. "It speaketh of the time past, but shews that something was then doing, 
but not quite finished." — E. Bevis's Gram., p. 42. "It subsists in spite of them; it advanceth 
unobserved." — Pascal: Addison's Evidences, p. 17. 

"But where is he, the Pilgrim of my song? — 
Methinks he cometh late and tarries long." — Byron, Cant, iv, St. 164. 

Under Note YIII. — Confusion of Moods. 

"If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them is gone astray, &c." — Kirkham's Gram., 
p. 227 with 197. "As a speaker advances in his discourse, especially if it be somewhat impas- 
sioned, and increases in energy and earnestness, a higher and louder tone will naturally steal 
upon him." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 68. " If one man esteem a day above another, and another 
esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." — Barclay's Works, 
i, 439. " If there be but one body of legislators, it is no better than a tyranny ; if there are 
only two, there will want a casting voice." — Addison, Spect, No. 287. "Should you come up 
this way, and I am still here, you need not be assured how glad I shall be to see you." — Ld. By- 
ron. " If he repent and becomes holy, let him enjoy God and heaven." — Brownson's Elwood, 
p. 248. " If thy fellow approach thee, naked and destitute, and thou shouldst say unto him, 
'Depart in peace; be you warmed and filled;' and yet shouldst give him not those things that 
are needful to him, what benevolence is there in thy conduct?" — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 108. 
" Get on your nightgown, lest occasion calls us, 

And show us to be watchers." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 278. 
" But if it climb, with your assisting hands, 

The Trojan walls, and in the city stands." — Dryden's Virgil, ii, 145. 

" Though Heaven's king 

Eide on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, 

Us'd to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels." — Milton, B. L., iv, L 973. 
" Us'd to the yoke, draw'dst his triumphant wheels." — Lowth's Gram., p. 106. 

Under Note IX. — Improper Ellipses. 

" Indeed we have seriously wondered that Murray should leave some things as he has." — Edu- 
cation Beporter. "Which they neither have nor can do." — Barclay's Works, iii, 73. " The Lord 
hath, and doth, and will reveal his will to his people, and hath and doth raise up members of his 
body," &c. — Po., i, 484. "We see then, that the Lord hath, and doth give such." — Po., i, 484. 
" Towards those that have or do declare themselves members." — lb., i, 494. " For which we can, 
and have given our sufficient reasons." — lb., i, 507. "When we mention the several properties 
of the different words in sentences, in the same manner as we have those of William's, above, 
what is the exercise called?" — Smith's Nevo Gram., p. 12. "It is, however to be doubted 
wnether this peculiarity of the Greek idiom, ever has or will obtain extensively in the English." 
— Nutting's Gram., p. 47. " Why did not the Greeks and Romans abound in auxiliary words as 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XVII. VERBS. ERRORS. 613 

much as we?" — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 111. ""Who delivers his sentiments in earnest, as 
they ought to be in order to move and persuade." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 151. 

Under Note X. — DO, used as a Substitute. 

"And I would avoid it altogether, if it could be done." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 36. "Such a 
sentiment from a man expiring of his wounds, is truly heroic, and must elevate the mind to the 
greatest height that can be done by a single expression." — lb., i, 204. "Successive images mak- 
ing thus deeper and deeper impressions, must elevate more than any single image can do." — lb., 
i, 205. "Besides making a deeper impression than can be done by cool reasoning." — lb., ii, 2T3. 
"Yet a poet, by the force of genius alone, can rise higher than a public speaker can do." — Blair's 
Rhet, p. 338. "And the very same reason that has induced several grammarians to go so far a3 
they have done, should have induced them to go farther." — Priestley's Gram., Pre/., p. vii. " The 
pupil should commit the first section perfectly, before he does the second part of grammar." — 
Bradley's Gram., p. 11. "The Greek ch was pronounced hard, as we now do in chord." — Booth's 
Introd. to Diet, p. 61. " They pronounce the syllables in a different manner from what they do 
at other times." — Murray's Eng. Reader, p. xi. "And give him the formal cool reception that 
Simon had done." — Dr. Scott, on Luke, vii. " I do not say, as some have done." — Bolingbroke, 
on Hist., p. 271. "If he suppose the first, he may do the last." — Barclay's Works, ii, 406. " Who 
are now despising Christ in his inward appearance, as the Jews of old did him in his outward." 
— lb., i, 506. "That text of Kevelations must not be understood, as he doth it." — lb., iii, 309. 
"Till the mode of parsing the noun is so familiar to him, that he can do it readily." — Smith's New 
Gram., p. 13. "Perhaps it is running the same course which Rome had done before." — Middle- 
ton's Life of Cicero. "It ought even on this ground to be avoided; which may easily be done by 
a different construction." — Churchill's Gram., p. 312. "These two languages are now pro- 
nounced in England as no other nation in Europe does besides." — Creighton's Diet, p. xi " Ger- 
many ran the same risk that Italy had done." — Murray's ]*ey, 8vo, p. 211 : see Priestley's Gram., 
p. 196. 

Under Note XI. — Preterits and Participles. 

"The Beggars themselves will be broke in a trice." — Swift's Poems, p. 347. "The hoop is 
hoist above his nose." — lb., p. 404. " My heart was lift up in the ways of the Lord. 2 Chron." 
— Joh. Diet., w. Lift. "Who sin so oft have mourned, Yet to temptation ran." — Burns. " Who 
would not have let them appeared." — Steele. " He would have had you sought for ease at the 
hands of Mr. Legality." — Pilgrim's Progress, p. 31. " From me his madding mind is start, And 
wooes the widow's daughter of the glen." — Spenser: Joh. Diet, w. Glen. " The man has spoke, 
and still speaks." — Ash's Gram., p. 54. " For you have but mistook me all this while." — 
Beauties of Shak., p. 114. "And will you rent our ancient love asunder." — lb., p. 52. "Mr. 
Birney has plead the inexpediency of passing such resolutions." — Liberator, Vol. xiii, p. 194. 
" Who have wore out their years in such most painful Labours." — Littleton's Diet, Pref. " And in 
the conclusion you were chose probationer." — Spectator, No. 32. 

" How she was lost, took captive, made a slave ; 
And how against him set that should her save."—Bunyan. 

Under Note XII. — Verbs Confounded. 

" But Moses preferred to wile away his time." — Parker's English Composition, p. 15. " His 
face shown with the rays of the sun." — Calvin's Inst, 4to, p. 76. "Whom they had sat at defi- 
ance so lately." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 320. " And when he was set, his disciples came unto 
him." — Matt, v, 1. " When he was set down on the judgement-seat." — lb., xxvii, 19. " And 
when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down 
among them." — Luke, xxii, 55. " So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, 
and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?" — John, xiii, 12. 
" Even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." — Rev., iii, 21. "We 
have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." 
— Heb., viii, 1. " And is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." — lb., xii, 2.* " He sat 
on foot a furious persecution." — Payne's Geog., ii, 418. " There layeth an obligation upon the 
saints, to help such." — Barclay's Works, i, 389. " There let him lay." — Byron's Pilgrimage. C. iv, 
st. 180. " Nothing but moss, and shrubs, and stinted trees, can grow upon it." — Morse's Geog., 
p. 43. "Who had lain out considerable sums purely to distinguish themselves." — Goldsmith's 

* The two verbs to sit and to set are in general quite different in their meaning; but the passive verb to he set 
sometimes comes pretty near to the sense of the former, which is for the most part neuter. Hence, we not only 
find the Latin word sedeo, to git, used in the sense of being set, as, "Ingens ccena sedet," "A huge supper ?'s set" 
Juv., 2, 119; but, in the seven texts above, our translators have used is set, ivas set, &c, with reference to the 
personal posture of sitting. This, in the opinion of Dr. Lowth and some others, is erroneous. "Set" says the 
Doctor, " can be no part of the verb to sit. If it belong to the verb to set, the translation in these passages is 
wrong. For to set, signifies to place, but without any designation of the posture of the person placed ; which is 
a circumstance of importance, expressed by the original." — LovotKs Gram., p. 53; Churchill's, 265. These 
gentlemen cite three of these seven examples, and refer to the other four ; but th«y do not tell us how they would 
amend any of them — except that they prefer sitten to sat, vainly endeavouring to restore an old participle which 
is certainly obsolete. If any critic dislike my version of the last two texts, because I use the present tense for 
what in the Greek is the first aorist ; let him notice that this has been done in both by our translators, and in 
one by those of the Vulgate. In the preceding example, too, the same aorist is rendered, "am set," and by 
Beza, "?edeo,-" though Montanus and the Vulgate render it literally by " sedi," as I do by sat. See Key to 
False Syntax, Rule XVII, Note xii. 



614 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Greece, i, 132. " Whereunto the righteous fly and are safe." — Barclay's Works, i, 146. " He 
raiseth from supper, and laid aside his garments." — lb., i, 438. " Whither — Oh ! whither shall I 
fly?" — Murray's English Reader, p. 123. " Flying from an adopted murderer." — lb., p. 122. " To 
you I fly for refuge." — lb., p. 124. " The sign that should warn his disciples to fly from approach- 
ing ruin." — Keith's Evidences, p. 62. " In one she sets as a prototype for exact imitation." — Rush, 
on the Voice, p. xxiii. " In which some only bleat, bark, mew, winnow, and bray, a little better 
than others." — lb., p. 90. " Who represented to him the unreasonableness of being effected with 
such unmanly fears." — Rollings Hist, ii, 106. "Thou sawedst every action." — Guy's School 
Gram,, p. 46. "I taught, thou taughtedst, he or she taught." — Coar's Gram., p. 79. "Valerian 
is taken by Sapor and flead alive, A. D. 260." — Lempriere's Chron. Table, Diet., p. xix. "What a 
fine vehicle is it now become for all conceptions of the mind!" — Blair's Rhet, p. 139. "What 
are become of so many productions?" — Volney's Ruins, p. 8. "'What are become of those ages 
of abundance and of life?" — Keith's Evidences, p. 107. "The Spartan admiral was sailed to the 
Hellespont." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 150. "As soon as he was landed, the multitude thronged 
about him." — lb., i, 160. "Cyrus was arrived at Sardis." — lb., i, 161. "Whose year was ex- 
pired." — lb., i, 162. "It had better have been, 'that faction which.' " — Priestley's Gram., p. 97. 
" This people is become a great nation." — Murray's Gram., p. 153 ; Ingersoll's, 249. " And here 
we are got into the region of ornament." — Blair's Rhet, p. 181. "The ungraceful parenthesis 
which follows, had far better have been avoided." — lb., p. 215. "Who forced him under water, 
and there held him until drounded." — Indian Wars, p. 55. 

" I had much rather be myself the slave, 
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him." — Cowper. 

Under Note XIII. — Words that Express Time. 

" I had finished my letter before Bay brother arrived." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 139. " I had 
written before I received his letter." — Blair's Rhet, p. 82. "From what has been formerly de- 
livered." — lb., p. 182. "Arts were of late introduced among them." — lb., p. 245. " I am not of 
opinion that such rules can be of much use, unless persons saw them exemplified." — lb., p. 336. 
"If we use the noun itself, we should say, ' This composition is John's.' " — Murray's Gram., p. 
174. "But if the assertion referred to something, that is not always the same, or supposed to be 
so, the past tense must be applied." — lb., p. 191. " They told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth 
by." — Luke, xviii, 37. " There is no particular intimation but that I continued to work, even to 
the present moment." — R. W. Green's Gram., p. 39. "Generally, as was observed already, it is 
but hinted in a single word or phrase." — Campbell" s Rhet, p. 36. " The wittiness of the passage 
was already illustrated." — lb., p. 36. "As was observed already." — lb., p. 56. "It was said 
already in general." — lb., p. 95. "As I hinted already." — lb., p. 134. "What I believe was 
hinted once already." — lb., p. 148. " It is obvious, as hath been hinted formerly, that this is but 
an artificial and arbitrary connexion." — lb., p. 282. " They have done anciently a great deal of 
hurt." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 109. " Then said Paul, I knew not, brethren, that he is the 
High Priest." — Dr. Webster's Bible : Acts, xxiii, 5. " Most prepositions originally denote the re- 
lation of place, and have been thence transferred to denote by similitude other relations." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. 65 ; Churchill's, 116. " His gift was but a poor offering, when we consider his estate." 
— Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 194. " If he should succeed, and should obtain his end, he will not be 
the happier for it." — Murray's Gram., i, p. 207. " These are torrents that swell to-day, and have 
spent themselves by to-morrow." — Blair's Rhet, p. 286. " Who have called that wheat to-day, 
which they have called tares to-morrow." — Barclay's Works, hi, 168. " He thought it had been 
one of his tenants." — lb., i, 11. " But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." — 
Luke, xvi, 30. "Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." — lb., verse 31. 
"But it is while men slept, that the archenemy has always sown his tares." — The Friend, x, 351. 
"Crescens would not fail to have exposed him." — Addison's Evidences, p. 30. 

" Bent was his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound ; 
Fierce as he mov'd, his silver shafts resound." — Pope, Iliad, B. i, 1. 64. 

Under Note XIV. — Verbs of Commanding, &c. 

" Had I commanded you to have done this, you would have thought hard of it." — G. B. " I 
found him better than I expected to have found him." — Priestley's Gram., p. 126. "There are 
several smaller faults, which I at first intended to have enumerated." — Webster's Essays, p. 246. 
" Antithesis, therefore, may, on manjr occasions, be employed to advantage, in order to strengthen 
the impression which we intend that any object should make." — Blair's Rhet, p. 168. " The girl 
said, if her master would but have let her had money, she might have been well long ago." — See 
Priestley's Gram., p. 127. "Nor is there the least ground to fear, that we should be cramped 
here within too narrow limits." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 163; Murray's Gram,, i, 360. "The 
Romans, flushed with success, expected to have retaken it." — Hooke's Hist, p. 37. " I would not 
have let fallen an unseasonable pleasantry in the venerable presence of Misery, to be entitled to all 
the wit that ever Rabelais scattered." — Sterne: Enfield's Speaker, p. 54. "We expected 
that he would have arrived last night." — Inst, p. 192. "Our friends intended to have met 
us." — lb. "We hoped to have seen you." — lb. "He would not have been allowed to have 
entered." — lb. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. RULE XVIII. INFINITIVES. OBSERVATIONS. 615 

Undee Note XV. — Permanent Propositions. 

"Cicero maintained that whatsoever was useful was good." — "I observed that love constituted 
the whole moral character of God." — Dwight " Thinking that one gained nothing by being a 
good man." — Voltaire. "I have already told you that I was a gentleman." — Fontaine. "If I 
should ask, whether ice and water were two distinct species of things." — Locke. " A stranger to 
the poem would not easily discover that this was verse." — Murray's Gram., 12mo. p. 260. "The 
doctor affirmed, that fever always produced thirst." — Inst, p. 192. "The ancients asserted, that 
virtue was its own reward." — lb. " They should not have repeated the error, of insisting that the 
infinitive was a mere noun." — Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 288. "It was observed in Chap. 
Ill, that the distinctive or had a double use." — Churchill's Gram,, p. 154. "Two young gentle- 
men, who have made a discovery that there was no God." — Swift. 

KULE XVIII.— INFINITIVES. 

The Infinitive Mood is governed in general by the preposition to, which 
commonly connects it to a finite verb : as, "I desire to learn." — Dr. 
Adam. " Of me the Koman people have many pledges, which I must 
strive, with my utmost endeavours, to preserve, to defend, to confirm, and 
to redeem." — Duncan's Cicero, p. 41. 

" What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread, 
Or hand to toil, aspir'd to he the head?" — Pope. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XVIII. 

Obs. 1. — No word is more variously explained by grammarians, than this word to, which is 
put before the verb in the infinitive mood. Johnson, "Walker, Scott, Todd, and some other lexi- 
cographers, call it an adverb ; but, in explaining its use, they say it denotes certain relations, which 
it is not the office of an adverb to express. (See the word in Johnson's Quarto Dictionary.) D. 
St. Quentin, in his Rudiments of General Grammar, says, " To, before a verb, is an adverb ;" and 
yet his " Adverbs are words that are joined to verbs or adjectives, and express some circumstance 
or quality." See pp. 33 and 39. Lowth, Priestley, Fisher, L. Murray, Webster, Wilson, S. W. 
Clark, Coar, Comly, Blair, Felch, Pisk, Greenleaf, Hart, Weld, Webber, and others, call it a prep- 
osition; and some of these ascribe to it the government of the verb, while others do not. Lowth 
says, " The preposition to, placed before the verb, makes the infinitive mood." — Short Gram., p. 
42. " Now this," says Home Tooke, " is manifestly not so: for to placed before the verb loveth, 
will not make the infinitive mood. He would have said more truly, that to placed before some 
nouns, makes verbs.'' — Diversions of Purity, Vol. i, p. 287. 

Obs. 2. — Skinner, in his Canones Etymologici, calls this to " an equivocal article." — Tooke, ib., J, 
288. Nutting, a late American grammarian, says: "The sign to is no other than the Greek ar- 
ticle to; as, to agapan [, to love] ; or, as some say, it is the Saxon do." — Practical Gram., p. 66. 
Thus, by suggesting two false and inconsistent derivations, though he uses not the name equiv- 
ocal article, he first makes the word an article, and then equivocal — equivocal in etymology, and 
of course in meaning.* Nixon, in his English Parser, supposes it to be, unequivocally, the Greek 
article to, the. See the work, p. 83. D. Booth says, " To is, by us, applied to Verbs ; but it was 
the neuter Article (the) among the Greeks." — Introd. to Analyt. Diet, p. 60. According to Home 
Tooke, " Minshew also distinguishes between the preposition TO, and the sign of the infinitive TO. 
Of the former he is silent, and of the latter he says : ' To, as to make, to walk, to do, a Grseco 
articulo to.' But Dr. Gregory Sharpe is persuaded, that our language has taken it from the He- 
brew. And Vossius derives the correspondent Latin preposition ad from the same source." — 
Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 293. 

Obs. 3. — Tooke also says, " I observe, that Junius and Skinner and Johnson, have not chosen 

* Nutting, I suppose, did not imagine the Greek article, rfi, the, and the English or Saxon verb do, to be 
equivalent or kindred words. But there is no knowing what terms conjectural etymology may not contrive to 
identify, or at least to approximate and ally. The ingenious David Booth, if he does not actually identify do, 
with ro, the, has discovered synonymes and cognates that are altogether as unapparent to common observers: 
as, "It and the," says he, "when Gender is not attended to, are synonymous. Each is expressive of Being in 
general, and when used Verbally, signifies to bring forth, or to add to what we already see. The, it, and, add, 
at, to, and do, are kindred words. They mark that an addition is made to some collected mass of existence. 
To, which literally signifies add, (like at and the Latin ad,) is merely a different pronunciation of do. It ex- 
presses the junction of an other thing, or circumstance, as appears more evidently from its varied orthography 
of too." — Introd. to Anahit. Diet., p. 45. Home Tooke, it seems, could not persuade this author into his notion 
of the derivation and meaning of the, it, to, or do. But Lin<Uey Murray, and his followers, have been more 
tractable. They were ready to be led without looking. "To," say they, "comes from Saxon and Gothic 
words, which signify action, effect, termination, to act, &c." — Murray'' s Gram., 8vo, p. 133; Fish's, 9?. What 
an admirable explanation is this! and how prettily the great Compiler says on the next leaf: "Etymology, 
when it is guided by judgment, and [when] proper limits are set to it, certainly merits great attention !" — lb., 
p. 135. According to his own express rules for interpreting " a substantive without any article to limit it," and 
the "relative pronoun with a comma before it," he must have meant, that "to comes from Saxon and Gothic 
words" of every sort, and that the words of these two langrmges " signify action, effect, termination, to act, &c." 
The latter assertion is true enough; but, concerning the former, a man of sense may demur. Nor do I see how 
it is possible not to despise such etymology, be the interpretation of the words what it may. For, if to means 
action or to act, then our little infinitive phrase, to be, must mean, action be, or to act be; and. what is this, but 
nonsense ? 



616 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

to give the slightest hint concerning the derivation of to." — Ibid. But, certainly, of his adverb 
to, Johnson gives this hint: " to, Saxon ; te, Dutch." And "Webster, who calls it not an adverb, 
but a preposition, gives the same hint of the source from which it comes to us. This is as much 
as to say, it is etymologically the old Saxon preposition to — which, truly, it is — the very same 
word that, for a thousand years or more, has been used before nouns and pronouns to govern the 
objective case. Tooke himself does not deny this ; but, conceiving that almost all particles, 
whether English or any other, can be traced back to ancient verbs or nouns, he hunts for the 
root of this, in a remoter region, where he pretends to find that to has the same origin as do ; and 
though he detects the former in a Gothic noun, he scruples not to identify it with an auxiliary 
verb I Yet he elsewhere expressly denies, " that any words change their nature by use, so as to 
belong sometimes to one part of speech, and sometimes to another." — Div. of Pur., Yol. i, p. G8. 

Obs. 4. — From this, the fair inference is, that he will have both to and do to be " nouns sub- 
stantive " still 1 "Do (the auxiliary verb, as it has been called) is derived from the same root, 
and is indeed the same word as to." — lb., Yol. i, p. 290. " Since from means commencement or 
beginning, to must mean end or termination." — lb., i, 283. " The preposition to (in Dutch written 
toe and tot, a little nearer to the original) is the Gothic substantive TAnl or TiIjeiIlTS, i. e. 
act, effect, result, consummation. Which Gothic substantive is indeed itself no other than the past 
participle of the verb T|VJl(p;lN, agere. And what is done, is terminated, ended, finished." — lb., 
i, 285. No wonder that Johnson, Skinner, and Junius, gave no hint of this derivation: it is not 
worth the ink it takes, if it cannot be made more sure. But in showing its bearing on the verb, 
the author not unjustly complains of our grammarians, that, " Of all the points which they 
endeavour to shuffle over, there is none in which they do it more grossly than in this of the 
infinitive."— lb., i, 287. 

Obs. 5. — Many are content to call the word to a, prefix, a, particle, a little word, a sign of the in- 
finitive, a part of the infinitive, apart of the verb, and the like, without telling us whence it comes, 
how it diifers from the preposition to, or to what part of speech it belongs. It certainly is not 
what we usually call a, prefix, because we never join it to the verb ; yet there are three instances 
in which it becomes such, before a noun : viz., to-day, to-night, to-mori^ow. If it is a "particle," 
so is any other preposition, as well as every small and invariable word. If it is a " little word," 
the whole bigness of a preposition is unquestionably found in it; and no u word" is so small but 
that it must belong to some one of the ten classes called parts of speech. If it is a "sign of the 
infinitive" because it is used before no other mood ; so is it a sign of the objective case, or of what 
in Latin is called the dative, because it precedes no other case. If we suppose it to be a "part 
of the infinitive," or a "part of the verb," it is certainly no necessary part of either; because there 
is no verb which may not, in several different ways, be properly used in the infinitive without 
it. But if it be a part of the infinitive, it must be a verb, and ought to be classed with the 
auxiliaries. Dr. Ash accordingly placed it among the auxiliaries ; but he says, (inaccurately, 
however,) " The auxiliary sign seems to have the nature of adverbs." — Grammatical Institutes, 
p. 33. " The auxiliary [signs] are, to, do, did, have, had, shall, will, may, can, must, might," &c. 
—lb., p. 31. 

Obs. 6. — It is clear, as I have already shown, that the word to may be a sign of the infinitive, 
and yet not be a part of it. Dr. Ash supposes, it may even be a part of the mood, and yet not be 
a part of the verb. How this can be, I see not, unless the mood consists in something else than 
cither the form or the parts of the verb. This grammarian says, " In parsing, every word should 
be considered as a distinct part of speech : for though two or more words may be united to form a 
mode, a tense, or a comparison ; yet it seems quite improper to unite two or more words to make 
a noun, a verb, an adjective, &c." — Gram. Inst., p. 28. All the auxiliaries, therefore, and the 
particle to among them, he parses separately ; but he follows not his own advice, to make them 
distinct parts of speech ; for he calls them all signs only, and signs are not one of his ten parts 
of speech. And the participle too, which is one of the ten, and which he declares to be " no 
part of the verb," he parses separately ; calling it a verb, and not a participle, as often as it 
accompanies any of his auxiliary signs. This is certainly a greater impropriety than there can 
be in supposing an auxiliary and a participle to constitute a verb ; for the mood and tense are the 
properties of the compound, and ought not to be ascribed to the principal term only. Not so 
with the preposition to before the infinitive, any more than with the conjunction if before the sub- 
junctive. These may well be parsed as separate parts of speech ; for these moods are sometimes 
formed, and are completely distinguished in each of their tenses, without the adding of these 
signs. 

Obs. 7. — xifter a careful examination of what others have taught respecting this disputed point 
in grammar, I have given, in the preceding rule, that explanation which I consider to be the 
most correct and the most simple, and also as well authorized as any. Who first parsed the in- 
finitive in this manner, I know not ; probably those who first called the to a preposition ; among 
whom were Lowth and the author of the old British Grammar. The doctrine did not originate 
with me, or with Comly, or with any American author. In Coar's English Grammar, published 
in London in 1796, the phrase to trample is parsed thus: " To — A preposition, serving for a sign 
of the infinitive mood to the verb Trample — A verb neuter, infinitive mood, present tense, gov- 
erned by the preposition TO before it. Rule. The preposition to before a verb, is the sign of the 
infinitive mood." See the work, p. 263. This was written by a gentleman who speaks of his 
" long habit of teaching the Latin Tongue," and who was certainly partial enough to the principles 
of Latin grammar, since he adopts in English the whole detail of Latin cases. 



CHAP. TI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XVIII. — INFINITIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 617 

Obs. 8. — In Fisher's English Grammar, London, 1800, (of which there had been many earlier 
editions,) we find the following rule of syntax: " When two principal Verbs come together, the 
latter of them expresses an unlimited Sense, with the Preposition to before it ; as he loved to learn ; 
J chuse to dance : and is called the infinitive Verb, which may also follow a Name or Quality ; as, 
a Time to sing ; a Book delightful to read" That this author supposed the infinitive to be governed 
by to, and not by the preceding verb, noun, or adjective, is plain from the following note, which 
he gives in his margin : " The Scholar will best understand this, by being told that infinite or in- 
variable Verbs, having neither Number, Person, nor Nominative Word belonging to them, are 
known or governed by the Preposition to coming before them. The Sign to is often understood ; as, 
Bid Robert and his company (to) tarry." — Fisher's New Gram., p. 95. 

Obs. 9. — The forms of parsing, and also the rules, which are given in the early English gram- 
mars, are so very defective, that it is often impossible to say positively, what their authors did, or 
did not, intend to teach. Dr. Lowth's specimen of " grammatical resolution" contains four infini- 
tives. In his explanation of the first, the preposition and the verb are parsed separately, as 
above ; except that he says nothing about government. In his account of the other three, the 
two words are taken together, and called a u verb, in the infinitive mode" But as he elsewhere 
calls the particle to a preposition, and nowhere speaks of any thing else as governing the infinitive, 
it seems fair to infer, that he conceived the verb to be the regimen of this preposition.* If such 
was his idea, we have the learned Doctor's authority in opposition to that of his professed admi- 
rers and copyists. Of these, Lindley Murray is doubtless the most famous. But Murray's twelfth 
rule of syntax, while it expressly calls to before the infinitive a 'preposition, absurdly takes away 
from it this regimen, and leaves us a preposition that governs nothing, and has apparently nothing 
to do with the relation of the terms between which it occurs. 

Obs. 10. — Many later grammarians, perceiving the absurdity of calling to before the infinitive a 
preposition without supposing it to govern the verb, have studiously avoided this name ; and have 
either made the " little word" a supernumerary part of speech, or treated it as no part of speech at 
all. Among these, if I mistake not, are Allen, Lennie, Bullions, Alger, Guy, Churchill, Hiley, 
Nutting, Mulligan, Spencer, and Wells. Except Comly, the numerous modifiers of Murray's Gram- 
mar are none of them more consistent, on this point, than was Murray himself. Such of them as do 
not follow him literally, either deny, or forbear to affirm, that to before a verb is a preposition ; and 
consequently either tell us not what it is, or tell us falsely; some calling it " a part of the verb," 
while they neither join it to the verb as a prefix, nor include it among the auxiliaries. Thus 
Kirkham: " To is not a preposition when joined to a verb in this mood; thus, to ride, to rule; but 
it should be parsed with the verb, and as a part of it." — Gram, in Familiar Led., p. 137. So R. 

C. Smith: "This little word to when used before verbs in this manner, is not a preposition, but 
forms a part of the verb, and, in parsing, should be so considered." — Productive Grain., p. 65. 
How can that be " apart of the verb," which is a word used before it? or how is to "joined to 
the verb," or made a part of it, in the phrase, " to ride ?" But Smith does not abide by his own 
doctrine ; for, in an other part of his book, he adopts the phraseology of Murray, and makes to a 
preposition: sajing, " The preposii ion to, though generally used before the latter verb, is some- 
times properly omitted ; as, 'I heard him say it;' instead of 'to say it.'" — Productive Gram., p. 
156. See Murray's Pule 12th. 

Obs. 11. — Most English grammarians havo considered the word to as a part of the infinitive, a 
part of the verb ; and, like the teachers of Latin, have referred the government of this mood to a 
preceding verb. But the rule which they give, is partial, and often inapplicable ; and their ex- 
ceptions to it, or the heterogeneous parts into which some of them divide it, are both numerous 
and puzzling. They teach that at least half of the ten different parts of speech " frequently gov- 
ern the infinitive:" if so, there should be a distinct rule for each ; for why should the government 
of one part of speech be made an exception to that of an other? and, if this be done, with re- 
spect to the infinitive, why not also with respect to the objective case ? In all instances to which 
their rule is applicable, the rule which I have given, amounts to the same thing ; and it obviates 
the necessity for their numerous exceptions, and the embarrassment arising from other construc- 
tions of the infinitive not noticed in them. Why then is the simplest solution imaginable still so 
frequently rejected for so much complexity and inconsistency ? Or how can the more common 
rule in question be suitable for a child, if its applicability depends on a relation between the two 
verbs, which the preposition to sometimes expresses, and sometimes does not ? 

Obs. 12. — All authors admit that in some instances, the sign to is "superfluous and improper," 
the construction and government appearing complete without it; and the "Rev. Peter Bullions, 

D. D., Professor of Languages in the Albany Acadenry," has recently published a grammar, in 

* So, from the following language of three modern authors, one cannot but infer, that they would parse the 
verb as governed b." the preposition ; but I do not perceive that they anywhere expressly say so : 

(1.) " The Infinitive is the form of the supplemental verb that always has, or admits, the preposition to before 
it ; as, to move. Its general character is to represent the action in prospect, or to do ; or in retrospect, as to have 
done. As a verb, it signifies to do the action ; and as object of the preposition to, it stands in the place of a 
noun for the doing of it. The infinitive verb and its prefix to are used much like a preposition and its noun ob- 
ject." — Fetch's Comprehensive Gram., p. 62. 

(•-'.) " The action or other signification of a verb may be expressed in its widest and most general sense, with- 
out any limitation by a person or agent, but merely as the end or purpose of some other action, state of being, 
quality, or thing; it is, from this want of limitation, said to be in the Infinitive mode; and is expressed by the 
verb with the preposition to before it, to denote this relation of end or purpose ; as, * He came to see me;' 'The 
man is not fit to die ;' ' It was not right for him to do thus.' " — Dr. S. Webber's English Gram., p. 35. 

(3.) " Rule 3. A verb in the Infinitive Mode, is the object of the preposition to, expressed ot understood." — 
S. W. Clark's Practical Gram., p. 127. 



618 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

which he adopts the common rule, "One verb governs another in the infinitive mood; as, I desire 
to learn;" and then remarks, "The infinitive after a verb is governed by it only when the attribute 
expressed by the infinitive is either the subject or [the] object of the other verb. In such expressions 
as 'i read to learn,' the infinitive is not governed by 'I read,' but depends on the phrase ' in order 
to 1 understood." — Bullions^ Prin. of E. Gram., p. 110. But, " I read l in order to 1 to learn" is not 
English ; though it might be, if either to were any thing else than a preposition : as, " Now set to 
to learn your lesson." This broad exception, therefore, which embraces well-nigh half the in- 
finitives in the language, though it contains some obvious truth, is both carelessly stated, and 
badly resolved. The single particle to is quite sufficient, both to govern the infinitive, and to 
connect it to any antecedent term which can make sense with such an adjunct. But, in fact, the 
reverend author must have meant to use the " little word" but once; and also to deny that it is 
a preposition ; for he elsewhere says expressly, though, beyond question, erroneously, " A prep- 
osition should never be used before the infinitive." — lb., p. 92. And he also says, " The Infini- 
tive mood expresses a thing in a general manner, without distinction of number, person, or time, 
and commonly has to before it." — lb., Second Edition, p. 35. Now if to is "before" the mood, it 
is certainly not apart of it. And again, if this mood had no distinction of il time," our author's 
two tenses of it, and his own two special rules for their application, would be as absurd as is his 
notion of its government. See his Obs. 6 and *7, ib., p. 124. 

Obs. 13. — Richard Hiley, too, a grammarian of perhaps more merit, is equally faulty in his ex- 
planation of the infinitive mood. In the first place, ho absurdly says, "to before the infinitive 
mood, is considered as forming part of the verb ; but in every other situation it is a preposition." — 
Hiley's Gram., Third Edition, p. 28. To teach that a "part of the verb" stands " before the mood," 
is an absurdity manifestly greater, than the very opposite notion of Dr. Ash, that what is not a 
part of the verb, may yet be included in the mood. There is no need of either of these false supposi- 
tions; or of the suggestion, doubly false, that to "in every other situation, is a preposition." 
What does preposition mean ? Is to a preposition when it is placed after a verb, and not a prep- 
osition when it is placed before it? For example: " I rise to shut to the door." — See Luke, xiii, 25. 

Obs. 14. — In his syntax, this author further says, "When two verbs come together, the latter 
must be in the infinitive mood, when it denotes the object of the former ; as, ' Study to improve.' 1 " 
This is his Rule. Now look at his Notes. " 1. "When the latter verb does not express the object, 
but the end, or something remote, the word for, or the words in order to, are understood ; as, ' I 
read to learn f that is, 'I read for to learn,' or, Hn order [to] to learn.' The word for, however, 
is never, in such instances, expressed in good language. 2. The infinitive is frequently governed, 
by adjectives, substantives, and participles ; but in this instance also, a preposition is understood, 
though never expressed ; as, ' Eager to learn ;' that is, ' eager for to learn ;' or, '/or learning;' 'A 
desire to improve ;' that is, ' for to improve.'" — Riley's Gram., p. 89. Here we see the origin of 
some of Bullions's blunders. To is so small a word, it slips through the fingers of these gentlemen. 
"Words utterly needless, and worse than needless, they foist into our language, in instances beyond 
number, to explain infinitives that occur at almost every breath. Their students must see that, 
" 1 read to learn," and, "/ study to improve," with countless other examples of either sort, are 
very different constructions, and not to be parsed by the same rule ! And here the only govern- 
ment of the infinitive which Hiley affirms, is immediately contradicted by the supposition of a 
needless for " understood." 

Obs. 15. — In all such examples as, "I read to learn," — "I strive to learn," — "Someectfto 
live," — "Some live to eat," — " She sings to cheer him," — "I come to aid you," — "I go to prepare 
a place for you," — the action and its purpose are connected by the word to ; and if, in the count- 
less instances of this kind, the former verbs do not govern the latter, it is not because the phrase- 
ology is elliptical, or ever was elliptical,* but because in no case is there any such government, 
except in the construction of those verbs which take the infinitive after them without the preposi- 
tion to. Professor Bullions will have the infinitive to be governed by a finite verb, " when the 
attribute expressed by the infinitive is the subject of the other verb." An infinitive may be made the 
subject of a finite verb ; but this grammarian has mistaken the established meaning of subject, as 
well as of attribute, and therefore written nonsense. Dr. Johnson defines his adverb to, "A par- 
ticle coming between two verbs, and noting the second as the object of the first." But of all the 
words which, according to my opponents and their oracles, govern the infinitive, probably not 
more than a quarter are such verbs as usually have an object after them. Where then is the pro- 
priety of their notion of infinitive government ? And what advantage has it, even where it is 
least objectionable ? 

Obs. 16. — Take for an example of this contrast the terms, " Strive to enter in — many will seek 
to enter in." — Luke, xiii, 24. Why should it be thought more eligible to say, that the verb 
strive or will seek governs the infinitive verb to enter ; than to say, that to is a preposition, show- 
ing the relation between strive and enter, or between will seek and enter, and governing the latter 
verb? (See the exact and only needful form for parsing any such term, in the Twelfth Praxis of 

* Rufus Nutting, A. M., a grammarian of some skill, supposes that in all such sentences there was " anciently''' 
an ellipsis, not of the phrase " in order to" but of the preposition for. He says, "Considering this mode as 
merely a verbal noun, it might he observed, that the infinitive, when it expresses the object, is governed by a 
transitive verb ; and, when it expresses the final cause, is governed by an intransitive verb, ok anciently, «y a 
preposition understood. Of the former kind — 'he learns to read.'' Of the latter — 'he reads to learn' i. e. 
'■for to learn.'" — Practical Gram., p. 101. If for was anciently understood in examples of this sort, it is 
understood now, and to a still greater extent; because we do not now insert the -word, for, as our ancestors some- 
times did ; and an ellipsis can no otherwise grow obsolete, than by a continual use of what was once occasionally 
omitted. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. RULE XVIII. — INFINITIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 619 

this work.) None, I presume, will deny, that in the Greek or the Latin of these phrases, the 
finite verbs govern the infinitive ; or that, in the French, the infinitive entrer is governed first by 
one preposition, and then by an other. " Contendite intrare — multi qucerent intrare." — Montanus. 
" Efforcez-vous d' entrer — plusieurs chercheront d y entrer." — French Bible. In my opinion, to 
before a verb is as fairly a preposition as the French de or d ; and it is the main design of these 
observations, while they candidly show the reader what others teach, to prove it so. The only 
construction which makes it any thing else, is that which puts it after a verb or a participle, in 
the sense of an adverbial supplement ; as, " The infernal idol is bowed down to." — Herald of Free- 
dom. " Going to and fro." — Bible. " At length he came to." — "Tell him to heave to." — "He 
was ready to set to." With singular absurdness of opinion, some grammarians call to a preposi- 
tion, when it thus follows a verb and governs nothing, who resolutely deny it that name, when 
it precedes the verb, and requires it to be in the infinitive mood, as in the last two examples. Now, 
if this is not government, what is ? And if to, without government, is not an adverb, what is ? 
See Obs. 2d on the List of Prepositions. 

Obs. 17. — The infinitive thus admits a simpler solution in English, than in most other lan- 
guages ; because we less frequently use it without a preposition, and seldom, if ever, allow any 
variety in this connecting and governing particle. And yet in no other language has its con- 
struction given rise to a tenth part of that variety of absurd opinions, which the defender of its 
true syntax must refute in ours. In French, the infinitive, though frequently placed in immediate 
dependence on an other verb, may also be governed by several different prepositions, (as, d, de, 
pour, sans, apres,) according to the sense.* In Spanish and Italian, the construction is similar. 
In Latin and Greek, the infinitive is, for the most part, immediately dependent on an other verb. 
But, according to the grammars, it may stand for a noun, in all the six cases ; and many have 
called it an indeclinable noun. See the Port-Royal Latin and Greek grammars ; in which several 
peculiar constructions of the infinitive are referred to the government of a preposition — construc- 
tions that occur frequently in Greek, and sometimes even in Latin. 

Obs. 18. — It is from an improper extension of the principles of these " learned languages" to ours, 
that much of the false teaching which has so greatly and so long embarrassed this part of English 
grammar, has been, and continues to be, derived. A late author, who supposes every infinitive 
to be virtually a noun, and who thinks he finds in ours all the cases of an English noun, not ex- 
cepting the possessive, gives the following account of its origin and nature : " This mood, with 
almost all its properties and uses, has been adopted into our language from the ancient Greek and 
Latin tongues. * * * The definite article ru [,] the, which they [the Greeks] used before the 
infinitive, to mark, in an especial manner, its nature of a substantive, is evidently the same word 
that we use before our infinitive; thus, 'to write,' signifies the writing; that is, the action of 
writing; — and when a verb governs an infinitive, it only governs it as in the objective case." — 
Nixon's English Parser, p. 83. But who will believe, that our old Saxon ancestors borrowed 
from Greek or Latin what is now our construction of the very root of the English verb, when, in 
all likelihood, they could not read a word in either of those languages, or scarcely knew the let- 
ters in their own, and while it is plain that they took not thence even the inflection of a single 
branch of any verb whatever ? 

Obs. 19. — The particle to, being a very common preposition in the Saxon tongue, has been 
generally used before the English infinitive, ever since the English language, or any thing like it, 
existed. And it has always governed the verb, not indeed " as in the objective case," for no verb 
is ever declined by cases, but simply as the infinitive mood. In the Anglo-Saxon version of the 
Gospels, which was made as early as the eleventh century, the infinitive mood is sometimes ex- 
pressed in this manner, and sometimes by the termination an without the preposition. Dr. John- 
son's History of the English Language, prefixed to his large Dictionary, contains, of this version, 
and of Wickliffe's, the whole of the first chapter of Luke ; except that the latter omits the first 
four verses, so that the numbers for reference do not correspond. Putting, for convenience, Eng- 
lish characters for the Saxon, I shall cite here three examples from each ; and these, if he will, 
the reader may compare with the 19th, the 77th, and the 79th verse, in our common* Bible. 
Saxon : " And ic eom asend with the sprecan. and the this bodian." — Lucce, i, 19. Wickliffe: 
" And T am sent to thee to speke and to evangelise to thee these thingis." — Luk, i, 15. Saxon: 

* (1.) "La proposition, est un mot indeclinable, place devant les noma, les pronoms, et les verbes, qu'elle 
regit.'''' — "The preposition is an indeclinable word placed before the nouns, pronouns, and verbs -which it gov- 
erns." — Perrirts Grammar, p. 152. 

(2.) " Every verb placed immediately after an other verb, or after a preposition, ought to be put in the infini- 
tive ; because it is then the regimen of the verb or preposition which precedes." — See La Grammaire des Gram- 
maires, par Girault Du Vivier, p. 774. 

(3.) The American translator of the Elements of General Grammar, by the Baron De Sacy, is naturally led, 
in giving a version of his author's method of analysis, to parse the English infinitive mood essentially as I do; 
calling the word to a preposition, and the exponent, or sign, of a relation between the verb which follows it, 
and some other word which is antecedent to it. Thus, in the phrase, "commanding them to use bis power," 
he says, that " ' to' [is the] Exponent of a relation whose Antecedent is ' commanding. .' and [whose] Consequent 
[is] '•j/.se.'" — Fosdick's De Sacy, p. 131. In short, he expounds the word to in this_ relation, just as he does 
when it stands before the objective case. For example, in the phrase, " belonging to him alone : ' to,' Exponent 
of a relation of which the Antecedent is l belonging,' 1 and the Consequent, '■him alone.'' " — lb., p. 126. My 
solution, in either case, differs from this in scarcely any thing else than the choice of words to express it. 

(4.) It appears that, in sundry dialects of the north of Europe, the preposition at has been preferred for the 
governing of the infinitive : " The use of at for to, as the sign of the infinitive mode, is Norse, not Saxon. It is 
the regular prefix in Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and Feroic. It is also found in the northern dialects of the 
Old English, and in the particular dialect of Westmoreland at the present day."— Fowler, on the English Lan- 
guage, 8vo, 1850, p, 46. 






620 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. . [PART III. 

"To syllene his folce hosle gewit on hyra synna forgyfhesse." — Lucce, i, 77. "Wickliffe: " To 
geve science of heelth to his puple into remissioun of her synnes." — Luk, i, 73. Saxon: " On- 
iyhian tham the on thystrum and on deathes sceade sittath. ure fet to gereccenne on sibbe weg." — 
Lucce, i, 79. "Wickliffe: "To geve light to them that sitten in derknessis, and in schadowe of 
deeth, to dresse oure feet into the we} r o of pees." — Luk, i, 75. "In Anglo-Saxon," says Dr. 
Latham, "the dative of the infinitive verb ended in -nne, and was preceded by the preposition to: 
as, To luflenne = ad amandum [= to loving, or to love] ; To bosrnenne = ad urendum [== to 
burning, or to burn] ; To syUanne= ad dandum [=to giving, or to give]." — Hand-Book, p. 205. 

Obs. 20. — Such, then, has ever been the usual construction of the English infinitive mood; 
and a wilder interpretation than that which supposes to an article, and says, " to write signifies 
the writing" cannot possibly be put upon it. On this supposition, "I am going to write a letter," 
is a pure Grecism; meaning, "I am going the writing a letter," which is utter nonsense. And 
further, the infinitive in Greek and Latin, as well as in Saxon and English, is always in fact gov- 
erned as a mood, rather than as a case, notwithstanding that the Greek article in any of its four 
different cases may, in some instances, be put before it ; for even with an article before it, the 
Greek infinitive usually retains its regimen as a verb, and is therefore not "a substantive" or 
noun. I am well aware that some learned critics, conceiving that the essence of the verb consists 
in predication, have plainly denied that the infinitive is a verb ; and, because it may bo made the 
subject of a finite verb, or may be governed by a verb or a preposition, have chosen to call it "a 
mere noun substantive." Among these is the erudite Richard Johnson, who, with so much ability 
and lost labour, exposed, in his Commentaries, the errors and defects of Lily's Grammar and others. 
This author adduces several reasons for his opinion; one of which is the following: "Thirdly, it 
is found to have a Preposition set before it, an other sure sign of a Substantive ; as, ' Me nihil 
prceter loqui, et ipsum maledice et maligne, didicit. 1 Liv. 1. 45, p. 888. [That is, "He learned 
nothing but to speak, and that slanderously and maliciously."] ' At si quis sibi beneficium dot, 
nihil interest inter dare et accipere. 1 Seneca, de Ben. 1. 5, c. 10." [That is, "If any one bestows a 
benefit on himself, there is no difference between give and take;"* — or, "between bestowing and re- 
ceiving."] — See Johnsons Gram. Com., p. 342. But I deny that a preposition is a "sure sign of 
a substantive." (See Obs. 2d on the Prepositions, and also Obs. 1st on the List of Preposi- 
tions, in the tenth chapter of Etymology.) And if we appeal to philological authorities, to deter- 
mine whether infinitives are nouns or verbs, there will certainly be found more for the latter 
name, than the former; that is, more in number, if not in weight; though it must be confessed, 
that many of the old Latin grammarians did, as Priscian tells us, consider the infinitive a noun, 
calling it Nomen Verbi, the Name of the Verb.f If wo appeal to reasons, there are more also of 
these; — or at least as many, and most of them better: as, 1. That the infinitive is often transi- 
tive ; 2. That it has tenses; 3. That it is qualified by adverbs, rather than by adjectives ; 4. That 
it is never declined like a noun ; 5. That the action or state expressed by it, is not commonly 
abstract, though it may be so sometimes ; 6. That in some languages it is the root from which 
all other parts of the verb are derived, as it is in English. 

Obs. 21. — So far as I know, it has not yet been denied, that to before a participle is a preposi- 
tion, or that a preposition before a participle governs it ; though there are not a few who erron- 
eously suppose that participles, by virtue of such government, are necessarily converted into nouns. 
Against this latter idea, there are many sufficient reasons ; but let them now pass, because they 
belong not here. I am only going to prove, in this place, that to before the infinitive is just such 
a word as it is before the participle ; and this can be done, call either cf them what you will. It 
is plain, that if the infinitive and the participle are ever equivalent to each other, the same word to 
before them both must needs be equivalent to itself. Now I imagine there are some examples of 

* Here is a literal version, in which two infinitives are governed by the preposition between; and though such 
a construction is uncommon, I know not why it should be thought less accurate in the one language than in the 
other. In some exceptive phrases, also, it seems not improper to put the infinitive after some other preposition 
than to: as, " What can she do besides sing?" — "What has she done, except rock herself?" But such expres- 
sions, n allowable, are too unfrequent to be noticed in any general Rule of syntax. In the following example, 
the word of pretty evidently governs the infinitive : " Intemperance characterizes our discussions, that is calcu- 
lated to embitter in stead of conciliate." — Cincinnati Herald: Liberatoi', No. 986. 

t This doctrine has been lately revived in English by William B. Fowle, who quotes Dr. Eees, Beauzee, Har- 
ris, Tracy, and Crombie, as his authorities for it. He is right in supposing the English infinitive to be gener- 
ally governed by the preposition to, but wrong in calling it a noun, or " the name of the verb," except this 
phrase be used in the sense in which every verb may be the name of itself. It is an error too, to suppose with 
Beauzee, " that the infinitive never in any language refers to a subject or nominative ;" or, as Harris has it, that 
infinitives " have no reference at all to persons or substances.'" See Fowle' s True English Gram., Part ii, pp. 
74 and 75. For though the infinitive verb never agrees with a subject or nominative, like a finite verb, it most 
commonly has a very obvious reference to something which is the subject of the being, action, or passion, which 
it expresses ; and this reference is one of the chief points of difference between the infinitive and a noun. S. S. 
Greene, in a recent grammar, absurdly parses infinitives "as nouns" and by the common rules for nouns, 
though he begins with calling them verbs. Thus: " Our honor is to be maintained. To be maintained, is a. 
regular passive veku, infinitive mode, present tense, and is used as a noun in the relation of predicate ; accord- 
ing to Rule II. A noun or pronoun used with the copula to form the predicate, must be in the nominative 
case."— Greene's Gram., 1848, p. 03. (See the Rule, ib. p. 29.) This author admits, " The 'to" seems, like the 
preposition, to perform the office of a connective :" but then he ingeniously imagines, "The infinitive differs 
from the preposition and its object, in that the l to' isthe only preposition used with the verb." And so he con- 
cludes, " The two [or more] parts of the infinitive are taken together, and, thus combined, may become a noun 
in any relation." — lb., 1st Edition, p. 87. S. S. Greene will also have the infinitive to make the verb before it 
transitive; for he says, " The only form [of phrase] used as the direct object of a transitive verb is the infinitive; 
as, 'We intend (What?) to leave [town] to-day;' ' They tried (What?) to conceal their fears.' " — lb., p. 99. One 
might as well find transitive verbs in these equivalents : " It is our purpose to leave town to-day," — " They en- 
deavoured to conceal their fears." Or in this : " They blustered to conceal their fears." 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XVIII. — INFINITIVE S. OBSERVATIONS. 621 

such equivalence ; as, " "When we are habituated to doing [or to do] any thing wrong, we become 
blinded by it." — Young Christian, p. 326. " The lyre, or harp, was best adapted to accompanying 
[or to accompany] their declamations." — Music of Nature, p. 336. " The new beginner should bo 
accustomed to giving [or to give] all the reasons for each part of speech." — Nutting 1 s Gram., p. 88. 
"Which, from infecting our religion and morals, fell to corrupt [say, to corrupting] our language." 
— Swift : Blair 's JRhet., p. 108. Besides these instances of sameness in the particle, there are some 
cases of constructional ambiguity, the noun and the verb having the same form, and the to not 
determining which is meant: as, "He was inclined to sleep." — " It must be a bitter experience, 
to be more accustomed to hate than to love." Here are double doubts for the discriminators : their 
" sign of the infinitive" fails, or becomes uncertain ; because they do not know it from a preposition. 
Cannot my opponents see in these examples an argument against the distinction which they at- 
tempt to draw between to and to f An other argument as good, is also afforded by the fact, that 
our ancestors often used the participle after to, in the very same texts in which we have since 
adopted the infinitive in its stead; as, "And if yee wolen resceyue, he is Elie that is to comynge." 
— Jlatt., xi, 14. "Ihesu that delyucride us fro wraththe to comynge." — 1 Thes.,\, 10. These, 
and seventeen other examples of the same kind, maybe seen in Tooke's Diversions of Purley, Vol. 
ii, pp. 457 and 458. 

Obs. 22. — Dr. James P. Wilson, speaking of the English infinitive, says : " But if the appellation 
of mode be denied it, it is then a verbal noun. This is indeed its truest character, because its idea 
ever represents an object of approach. To supplies the defect of a termination characteristic of the 
infinitive, precedes it, and marks it either as that, towards which the preceding verb is directed;* 
or it signifies act, and shows the word to import an action. When the infinitive is the expression 
of an immediate action, which it must be, after the verbs, bid, can, dare, do, feel, hear, let, make, 
may, must, need, see, shall, and will, the preposition to is omitted." — Essay on Grammar, p. 129. 
That the truest character of the infinitive is that of a verbal noun, is not to be conceded, in weak 
abandonment of all the reasons for a contrary opinion, until it can be shown that the action or 
being expressed by it, must needs assume a substantive character, in order to be " that towards 
t ivhich the preceding verb is directed." But this character is manifestly not supposable of any of 
those infinitives which, according to the foregoing quotation, must follow other verbs without the 
intervention of the preposition to: as, "Bid him come f — "He can walk." And I see no reason 
to suppose it, where the relation of the infinitive to an other word is not " immediate," but marked 
by the preposition, as above described. For example : " And he laboured till the going-down of 
the sun to deliver him." — Dan., vi, 14. Here deliver is governed by to, and connected by it to the 
finite verb laboured; but to tell us, it is to be understood substantively rather than actively, is an 
assumption as false, as it is needless. 

Obs. 23. — To deny to tho infinitive the appellation of mood, no more makes it a verbal noun, 
than does the Doctor's solecism about what "its idea ever represents." " The infinitive therefore," 
as Home Tooko observes, " appears plainly to be what the Stoics called it, the very verb itself, 
pure and uncompounded." — Diversions of Purley , Vol. i, p. 286. Not indeed as including the par- 
ticle to, or as it stands in the English perfect tense, but as it occurs in the simple root. But I 
cited Dr. Wilson, as above, not so much with a design of animadverting again on this point, as 
with reference to the import of the particle to ; of which he furnishes a twofold explanation, leav- 
ing the reader to take which part he will of the contradiction. He at first conceives it to convey 
in general the idea of "towards," and to mark the infinitive as a term " towards which" something 
else " is directed." If this interpretation is the true one, it is plain that to before a verb is no 
other than the common preposition to ; and this idea is confirmed by its ancient usage, and by all 
that is certainly known of its derivation. But if we take the second solution, and say, " it signi- 
fies act," we make it not a preposition, but either a noun or a verb; and then the question arises, 
Which of these is it? Besides, what sense can there be, in supposing to go to mean act go, or 
to be equivalent to do go.\ 

* It is remarkable that the ingenious J. E. Worcester conld discern nothing of the import of this particle be- 
fore a verb. He expounds it, with very little consistency, thus : "To, or To, ad. A particle employed as the 
usual sign or prefix of the infinitive mood of the verb ; and it might, in such use, be deemed a sellable of the 
verb. It is used merely as a sign of the infinitive, without having any distinct or separate meaning : as, ' He 
loves to read. 1 " — Univ. and, Crit. Diet. Now is it not plain, that the action expressed by "read" is " that to- 
wards which" the affection signified by " loves" is directed ? It is only because we can use no other word in lieu 
of this to, that its meaning is not readily seen. For calling it "a syllable of the verb," there is, I think, no 
reason or analogy whatever. There is absurdity in calling it even " a pari of the verb." 

t As there is no point of grammar on which our philologists are more at variance, so there seems to be none 
on which they are more at fault, than in their treatment of the infinitive mood, with its usual sign, or govern- 
ing particle, to. For the information of the reader, I would gladly cite every explanation not consonant with 
my own, and show wherein it is objectionable ; but so numerous are the forms of error under this head, that 
such as cannot be classed together, or are not likely to be repeated, must in general be left to run their course, 
exempt from any criticism of mine. Of these various forms of error, however, I may here add an example or two. 

(1.) " What is the meaning of the word to ? Ans. To means oii Note. — As our verbs and nouns are spelled 
in the same manner, it was formerly thought best to prefix the toord to, to words when used as verbs. For there 
is no difference between the noun, love; and the veeb, to love; but what is shown by the prefix to, which signi- 
fies act; i. e. to act love." — It. W. Greene's Inductive Exercises in English Grammar, N. Y., 1829, p. 52. Now 
all this, positive as the words are, is not only fanciful, but false, utterly false. To no more "means act," than 
from " means act.' , And if it did, it could not be a sign of the infinitive, or of a verb at all ; for, " act love," 
is imperative, and makes the word " love" a noun; and so, "to act love" (where "love" is also a noun,) must 
mean '■'■act act love," which is tautological nonsense. Our nouns and verbs are not, in general, spelled alike; 
nor are the latter, in general, preceded by to ; nor could a particle which may govern either, have been specifi- 
cally intended, at first, to mark their difference. By some, as we have seen, it is argued from the very 6ign, that 
the infinitive is always essentially a noun. 

<2.) " The infinitive mode is the root or simple form of the verb, used to express an action or 6tate indefinite- 



622 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 24. — Though the infinitive is commonly made an adjunct to some finite verb, yet it may 
be connected to almost all the other parts of speech, or even to an other infinitive. The prepo- 
sition to being its only and almost universal index, we seldom find any other preposition put 
before this ; unless the word about, in such a situation, is a preposition, as I incline to think it 
is.* Anciently, the infinitive was sometimes preceded by for as well as to ; as, " I went up to 
Jerusalem for to worship." — Acts, xxiv, 11. "What went ye out for to see?" — Luke, vii, 26. 
"And stood up for to read." — Luke, iv, 16. Here modern usage rejects the former preposition : 
the idiom is left to the uneducated. But it seems practicable to subjoin the infinitive to every 
one of the ten parts of speech, except the article : as, 

1. To a noun ; as, " If there is any precept to obtain felicity." — Hawkesworth. " It is high time 

to awake out of sleep." — Rom., xiii, 11. " To flee from the wrath to come.''' 1 — Matt, hi, 7. 

2. To an adjective; as, "He seemed desirous to speak, yet unwilling to offend." — Hawkesworth. 

"He who is the slowest to promise, is the quickest to perform." — Art of Thinking, p. 35. 

3. To a pronoun; as, "I discovered him to be a scholar." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 166. " Is it 

lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar?" — Luke, xx, 22. "Let me desire you to reflect im- 
partially." — Blair: Murray's Eng. Reader, p. 77. "Whom hast thou then or what f ac- 
cuse ?" — Milton, P. L., iv, 67. 

4. To a finite verb ; as, " Then Peter began to rebuke him." — Matt., xvi, 22. " The Son of man is 

come to seek and to save that which was lost." — Luke, xix, 10. 

5. To an other infinitive; as, " To go to enter into Egypt." — Jer., xli, 17. "We are not often 

willing to wait to consider." — J. Abbott. " For what had he to do to chide at me ?" — Shak. 

6. To a participle ; as, " Still threatening to devour me." — Milton. " Or as a thief bent to unhoard 

the cash of some rich burgher." — Id. 

7. To an adverb; as, " She is old enough to go to school." — "I know not how to act." — Nutting's 

Gram., p. 106. " Tell me when to come, and where to meet you." — " He hath not where to 
lay his head." 

8. To a conjunction; as, " He knows better than to trust you." — "It was so hot as to melt these 

ornaments." — "Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise it." — Dr. Johnson. 

9. To a preposition ; as, " I was about to write." — Rev., x, 4. " Not for to hide it in a hedge." — 

Burns' s Poems, p. 42. " Amatum iri, To be about to be loved." — Adam's Gram., p. 95. f 

10. To an interjection; as, "0 to forget her!" — Young's Night Thoughts. 

Obs. 25. — The infinitive is the mere verb, without affirmation, without person or number, and 
therefore without the agreement peculiar to a finite verb. (See Obs. 8th on Rule 2d.) But, in 
most instances, it is not without limitation of the being, action, or passion, to some particular 
person or persons, thing or things, that are said, supposed, or denied, to be, to act, or to be acted 
upon. Whenever it is not thus limited, it is taken abstractly, and has some resemblance to a 

ly; as, to hear, to speak. It is generally distinguished by the sign to. When the particle to is employed in 
forming the infinitive, it is to be regarded as a part of the verb. In every other case it is a preposition." — Wells's 
School Grammar, 1st Ed., p. 80. "A Preposition is a word which is used to express the relation of a noun or 
pronoun depending upon it, to some other word in the sentence." — lb., pp. 46 and 108. " The passive form of a 
verb is sometimes used in connection with a preposition, forming a compound passive verb. Examples : — ' He 
was listened to without a murmur.' — A. H. Evebett. 'Nor is this enterprise to be scoffed at." 1 — Channing." — 
lb., p. 146. " A verb in the infinitive usually relates to some noun or pronoun. Thus, in the sentence, ' He de- 
sires to improve,' the verb to improve relates to the pronoun he while it is governed by desires." — lb., p. 150. 
" ' The agent to a verb in the infinitive mode must be in the objective case.' — Nutting." — lb., p. 148. These 
citations from Wells, the last of which he quotes approvingly, by way of authority, are in many respects self- 
contradictory, and in nearly all respects untrue. How can the infinitive be only " the root or simple form of the 
verb," and yet consist " generally" of two distinct words, and often of three, four, or five ; as, " to hear," — " to 
have heard," — " to be listened to," — " to have been listened to ?" How can to be a '■'■preposition" in the phrase, 
" He was listened to" and not 60 at all in " to be listened to ?" How does the infinitive " express an action or 
state indefinitely," if it " usually relates to some noun or pronoun ?" Why must its agent " be in the objective 
case," if " to improve relates to the pronoun he?" Is to "in every other case a preposition," and not such be- 
fore a verb or a participle? Must every preposition govern some ''■noun or pronoun?" And yet are there 6ome 
prepositions which govern nothing, precede nothing? " The door banged to behind him." — Blackweix : Prose 
Edda, § 2. What is to here? 

(3.) " The preposition to before a verb is the sign of the Infinitive." — Weld's E. Gram., 2d Ed., p. 74. "The 
preposition is apart of speech used to connect words, and show their relation." — lb., p. 42. " The perfect infin- 
itive is formed of the perfect participle and the auxiliary have preceded by the preposition to." — lb., p. 96. 
" The infinitive mode follows a verb, noun, or adjective." — lb., pp. 75 and 166. " A verb in the Infinitive may 
follow: 1. Verbs or participles ; 2. Nouns or pronouns ; 3. Adjectives; 4. As or tlian; 5. Adverbs; 6. Prepo- 
sitions; 7. The Infinitive is often used independently; 8. The Infinitive mode is often used in the office of a 
verbal noun, as the nominative case to the verb, and as the objective case after verbs and prepositions." — lb., p. 
167. These last two counts are absurdly included among what " the Infinitive 'may follow ;" and is it not rather 
queer, that this mood should be found to '•'■follow" every thing else, and not " the preposition to," which comes 
" before" it, and by which it is "-preceded ?" This author adopts also the following absurd and needless rule : 
" The Infinitive mode has an objective case before it when [the word] that is omitted : as, I believe the sun to 
be the centre of the solar system; I know him to be a man of veracity." — lb., p. 167; Abridged Ed., 124. (See 
Obs. 10th on Rule 2d, above.) " Sun" is here governed by "believe;" and '■'■him," by "know;" and "be," in 
both instances, by " the preposition to :" for this particle is not only " the sign of the Infinitive," but its govern- 
ing word, answering well to the definition of a preposition above cited from Weld. 

* " The infinitive is sometimes governed by a preposition; as, ' The shipmen were about to flee. 1 " — Wells" s 
School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 149 ; 3d Ed., p. 158. Wells has altered this, and for "preposition" put "adverb."-^ 
Ed. of 1850, p. 163. 

t Some grarnmatists, being predetermined that no preposition shall control the infinitive, avoid the conclusion 
by absurdly calling for, a conjunction; ahout, an adverb; and to — no matter what — but generally, nothing. 
Thus : " The conjunction fob, is inelegantly used before verbs in the infinitive mood ; as, ' He came for to study 
Latin.' " — Greenleafs Gram., p. 38. " The infinitive mood is sometimes governed by conjunctions or adverbs; 
as, ' An object so high as to be invisible ;' ' The army is about to march.'' " — Kirkham's Gram., p. 188. This is 
a note to that extra rule which Kirkham proposes for our use, " if we reject the idea of government, as applied 
to the verb ia this mood !" — lb. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XVIII. — INFINITIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 628 

noun ; because it then suggests the being, action, or passion alone : though, even then, the active 
infinitive may still govern the objective case ; and it may also be easy to imagine to whom or to 
what the being, action, or passion, naturally pertains. The uses of the infinitive are so many 
and various, that it is no easy matter to classify them accurately. The following are unquestion- 
ably the chief of the things for which it may stand : 

1. For the supplement to an other verb, to complete the sense ; as, " Loose him, and let him 
go." — John, xi, 44. " They that go to seek mixed wine." — Prov., xxiii, 30. "His hands refuse to 
labour." — lb., xxi, 25. " If you choose to have those terms." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 374. " How our 
old translators first struggled to express this." — 76., ii, 456. " To any one who will please to exam- 
ine our language." — lb., ii, 444. " They are forced to give up at last." — lb., ii, 375. "Which 
ought to be clone." — lb., ii, 451. "Which came to pass." — Acts, xi, 28. "I dare engage to make 
it out."— Swift. 

2. For the purpose, or end, of that to which it is added ; as, " Each has employed his time and 
pains to establish a criterion." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 374. "I shall not stop now, to assist in their 
elucidation." — lb., ii, 75. "Our purposes are not endowed with words to make them known." — 
lb., ii, 74. [A] "tool is some instrument taken up to work with." — lb., ii, 145. "Labour not 
to 5e rich." — Prov., xxiii, 4. "I flee unto thee to hide me." — Ps., cxliii, 9. "Evil shall hunt the 
violent man to overthrow him." — lb., cxl. 11. 

3. For the object of an affection or passion; as, "He loves to ride." — <; I desire to hear her speak 
again." — Shak. "If we wish to avoid important error." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 3. "Who rejoice to 
do evil." — Prov., ii. 14. " All agreeing in earnestness to see Mm." — Shak. " Our curiosity is raised 
to know what lies beyond." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 335. 

4. For the cause of an affection or passion; as, "I rejoice to hear it." — "By which I hope to 
have laid a foundation." &c. — Blair's Rhet., p. 34. " For he made me mad, to see him shine so 
brisk, and smell so sweet." — Beauties of Shak., p. 118. " Thou didst eat strange flesh, which 
some did die to look on." — lb., p. 182. " They grieved to see their best allies at variance." — Rev. 
W. Allen's Gram., p. 165. 

5. For the subject of a proposition, or the chief term in such subject; as, " To steal is sinful." — 
" To do justice and judgement, is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." — Prov., xxi, 3. 
" To do right, is, to do that which is ordered to be done." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 7. " To go to law 
to plague a neighbour, has in it more of malice, than of love to justice." — Beattie's Mor. Sci., i, 177. 

6. For the predicate of a proposition, or the chief term in such predicate ; as. " To enjoy is to 
obey." — Pope. "The property of rain is to wet, and fire, to burn." — Beauties of Shak.. p. 15. " To 
die is to be banished from myself." — lb., p. 82. "The best way is, to slander Valentine." — lb., 
p. 83. "The highway of the upright is to depart from evil." — Prov., xvi, 17. 

7. For a coming event, or what wiR be; as, " A mutilated structure soon to fall" — Cowper. 
" He being dead, and I speedily to follow him." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 111. " She shall rejoice in time 
to come." — Prov., xxxi, 25. "Things present, or things to come." — 1 Cor., hi, 22. 

8. For a necessary event, or what ought to be ; as, "It is to be remembered." — " It is never to be 
forgotten." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 2. " An oversight much to be deplored." — lb., ii, 460. " The sign 
is not to be used by itself, or to stand, alone ; but is to be joined to some other term." — lb., ii, 372. 
" The Lord's name is to be praised." — Ps., cxiii, 3. 

9. For what is previously suggested by another word; as, "I have faith to believe." — "The glos- 
sarist did vjell here not to yield to his inclination." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 329. " It is a good thing to 
give thanks unto the Lord." — Ps., xcii, 1. " It is as sport to a fool to do mischief." — Prov., x, 23. 
" They have the gift to know it." — Shak. " We have no remaining occupation but to take care of 
the public." — Art of Thinking, p. 52. 

10. For a term of comparison or measure ; as, "He was so much affected as to weep." — "Who 
could do no less than furnish him." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 408. " I shall venture no farther than to 
explain the nature and convenience of these abbreviations." — lb., ii, 439. "I have already said 
enough to show what sort of operation that is." — lb., ii, 358. 

Obs. 26. — After dismissing all the examples which may fairly be referred to one or other of the 
ten heads above enumerated, an observant reader may yet find other uses of the infinitive, and 
those so dissimilar that they can hardly be reduced to any one head or rule ; except that all are 
governed by the preposition to, which points towards or to the verb ; as, " A great altar to see to.' 1 
— Joshua, xxii, 10. "Bufibv fieyav rov Ideiv." — Septuagint. That is, " An altar great to behold.' 1 
" Altare infinite magnitudinis." — Vulgate. " Un fort grand autel." — French Bible. "Easy to be 
entreated." — Jas., hi, 17. " There was none to help." — Ps., cvii, 12. " He had rained down 
manna upon them to eat." — Ps., lxxviii, 24. "Remember his commandments to do them." — Ps., 
mi, 18. "Preserve thou those that are appointed to die." — Ps., lxxix, 11. "As coals to burn- 
ing coals, and as wood to fire ; so is a contentious man to kindle strife." — Prov., xxvi, 21. " These 
are far beyond the reach and power of any kings to do away.*' — Tooke's D. P., ii, 126. " I know 
not indeed what to do with those words." — lb., ii, 441. " They will be as little able to justify 
then innovation." — Po., ii, 448. "I leave you to compare them." — lb., ii, 458. " There is no oc- 
casion to attribute it."-^Ib., ii, 375. "There is no day for me to look upon." — Beauties of Shak., 
p. 82. "Having no external thing to lose." — lb., p. 100. "I'll never be a gosling to obey in- 
stinct." — lb, p. 200. "Whereto serves mercy, but to confront the visage of offence?" — Po., p. 
233. " If things do not go to suit him." — Liberator, ix, 182. "And, to be plain, I think there is 
not half a kiss to choose, who loves an other best." — Shak., p. 91. " But to return to R. Johnson's 
instance of good man." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 370. Our common Bibles have this text : " And a certain 



624 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [FART III. 

•woman cast a pioco of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull." — Judges, 
ix, 53. Perhaps the interpretation of this may be, "and so as completely to break his skull." Tho 
octavo edition stereotyped by "the Bible Association of Friends in America," has it, " and all-to 
brake his skull." This, most probably, was supposed by the editors to mean, "and completely 
broke his skull ;" but all-to is no proper compound word, and therefore the change is a perversion. 
The Septuagint, the Yulgate, and the common French version, all accord with the simple indica- 
tive construction, "and broke his skull." 

Obs. 27. — According to Lindley Murray, " The infinitive mood is often made absolute, or used 
independently on [say of] the rest of the sentence, supplying the place of the conjunction that 
with the potential mood: as, ' To confess the truth, I was in fault ;' ' To begin with the first;' 
' To proceed? ' To conclude? that is, ' That I may confess,' &c." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 184 ; 
IngersolVs Gram., p. 244. Some other compilers have adopted the same doctrine. But on what 
ground the substitution of one mood for the other is imagined, I see not. The reader will observe 
that this potential mood is here just as much u made absolute," as is the infinitive; for there is 
nothing expressed to which the conjunction that connects the one phrase, or the preposition to the 
other. But possibly, in either case, there may be an eUipsis of some antecedent term ; and surely, 
if we imagine the construction to be complete without any such term, we make the conjunction 
the more anomalous word of the two. Confession of the truth, is here the aim of speaking, but 
not of what is spoken. The whole sentence may be, " In order to confess the truth, I admit that 
I was in fault." Or, "In order that I may confess the truth, I admit that I was in fault." I do 
not deny, that the infinitive, or a phrase of which the infinitive is a part, is sometimes put abso- 
lute ; for, if it is not so in any of the foregoing examples, it appears to be so in the following : 
"For every object has several faces, so to speak, by which it may be presented to us." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 41. " To declare a thing shall be, long before it is in being, and then to bring about the 
accomplishment of that very thing, according to the same declaration ; this, or nothing, is tho 
work of God." — Justin Martyr. 

" To be, or not to be ; — that is the question." — Shakspeare. 

" To die; — to sleep ; — To sleep ! perchance, to dream!" — Id., Hamlet. 

Obs. 28. — The infinitive usually follows the word on which it depends, or to which the particle 
to connects it; but this order is sometimes reversed : as, "To beg I am ashamed." — Luke, xvi, 3. 
" To keep them no longer in suspense, [I say plainly] Sir Eoger de Coverly is dead." — Addison. 
" To suffer, as to do, Our strength is equal." — Milton. 

" To catch your vivid scenes, too gross her hand." — Thomson. 

Obs. 29. — Though, in respect to its syntax, the infinitive is oftener connected with a verb, a 
participle, or an adjective, than with a noun or a pronoun, it should never be so placed that the 
reader will be liable to mistake the person to whom, or the thing to which, the being, action, or 
passion, pertains. Examples of error: "This system will require a long time to be executed as 
it should be." — Journal of N. Y. Lit. Convention, 1830, p. 91. It is not the time, that is to bo 
executed; therefore say, "This system, to be executed as it should be, will require a longtime." 
" He spoke in a manner distinct enough to be heard by the whole assembly." — Murray's Key, 8vo, 
p. 192. This implies that the orator's manner was heard! But the grammarian interprets his 
own meaning, by the following alternative: "Or — He spoke distinctly enough to be heard by tho 
whole assembly." — Ibid. This suggests that the man himself was heard. "When they hit upon 
a figure that pleases them, they are loth to part with it, and frequently continue it so long, as to 
become tedious and intricate." — Murray's Gram., p. 341. Is it the authors, or their figure, that 
becomes tedious and intricate? If the latter, strike out, "so long, as to become," and say, " till it 
becomes." " Facts are always of the greatest consequence to be remembered during the course of 
the pleading." — Blair's Rhet., p. 272. The rhetorician here meant: "The facts stated in an argu- 
ment, are always those parts of it, which it is most important that the hearers should be made to 
remember." 

Obs. 30. — According to some grammarians, " The Infinitive of the verb to be, is often under- 
stood; as, l I considered it [to be~\ necessary to send the dispatches.' " — W. Allen's Gram., p. 166. 
In this example, as in thousands more, of various forms, the verb to be may be inserted without 
affecting the sense ; but I doubt the necessity of supposing an ellipsis in such sentences. Tho 
adjective or participle that follows, always relates to the preceding objective ; and if a noun is 
used, it is but an other objective in apposition with the former: as, "I considered it an imposi- 
tion." The verb to be, with the perfect participle, forms the passive infinitive ; and the supposition 
of such an ellipsis, extensively affects one's mode of parsing. Thus, " He considered himself in- 
sulted," "I will suppose the work accomplished," and many similar sentences, might be supposed 
to contain passive infinitives. Allen says, " In the following construction, the words in italics 
are (elliptically) passive infinitives ; I saw the bird caught, and the hare killed ; we heard the let- 
ters read." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 168. Dr. Priestley observes, " There is a remarkable ambiguity 
in the use of the participle preterite, as the same word may express a thing either doing, or 
done ; as, I went to see the child dressed." — Priestley's Gram., p. 125. If the Doctor's participle 
is ambiguous, I imagine that Allen's infinitives are just as much so. "The participle which we 
denominate past, often means an action whilst performing : thus, I saw the battle fought, and the 
standard loivered." — Wilson's Essay, p. 158. Sometimes, especially in familiar conversation, an 
infinitive verb is suppressed, and the sign of it retained ; as, " They might have aided us ; they 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XYIII. — IXFIXITIYES. — ERRORS. 625 

ought to" [have aided us]. — Herald of Freedom. " "We have tried to like it. but it's hard to." — 
Lynn News. 

Obs. 31. — After the verb make, some -writers insert the verb be, and suppress the preposition to ; 
as, " He must make every syllable, and even every letter, in the word which he pronounces, be 
heard distinctly." — Blair's Rhet, p. 329; Murray's E. Reader, p. 9. "You must make yourself be 
heard with pleasure and attention." — Duncan's Cicero, p. 84. "To make himself be heo.rdhy all." 
— Blair's Rhet, p. 328. "To make ourselves be heard by one." — Ibid. "Clear enough to make 
me be understood." — Locke, on Ed., p. 198. In my opinion, it would be better, either to insert the 
to, or to use the participle only ; as, " The information which he possessed, made Ms company to 
be courted." — Dr. M'Rie. "Which will both show the importance of this rule, and make the 
application of it to be understood." — Blair's Rhet, p. 103. Or, as in these brief forms: " To make 
himself heard by all" — "Clear enough to make me understood." 

Obs. 32. — In those languages in which the infinitive is distinguished as such by its termina- 
tion, this part of the verb may be used alone as the subject of a finite verb ; but in English it is 
always necessary to retain the sign to before an abstract infinitive, because there is nothing else 
to distinguish the verb from a noun. Here we may see a difference between our language and 
the French, although it has been shown, that in their government of the infinitive they are in 
some degree analogous : — " Hair est un tourment ; aimer est un besoin de l'ame." — M. de Se'gur. 
" To hate is a torment; to love is a requisite of the soul." If from this any will argue that to is 
not here a preposition, the same argument will be as good, to prove that for is not a preposition 
when it governs the objective case ; because that also may be used without any antecedent term 
of relation: as, "They are by no means points of equal importance, for me to be deprived of your 
affections, and for him to be defeated in his prosecution." — Anon., in W. Allen's Gram., p. 16G. I 
said, the sign to must always be put before an abstract infinitive : but possibly a repetition of this 
sign may not always be necessary, when several such infinitives occur in the same construction : 
as, "But, to fill a heart with joy, restore content to the afflicted, or relieve the necessitous, these 
fall not within the reach of their five senses." — Art of TJiinking, p. 66. It may be too much to 
affirm, that this is positively ungrammatical ; yet it would be as well or better, to express it thus : 
"But to relieve the necessitous, to restore content to the afflicted, and to fill a heart with joy, these 
fall not within the reach of their five senses." 

Obs. 33. — In the use of the English infinitive, as well as of the participle in ing, the distinction 
of voice is often disregarded ; the active form being used in what, with respect to the noun before 
it, is a passive sense: as, "There's no time to waste." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 82. "You are to 
blame." — lb. " The humming-bird is delightful to look upon." — lb. " What pain it was to drown." 
—Shak. " The thing's to do."— Id. " When deed of danger was to do."— Scott "The evil I 
bring upon myself, is the hardest to bear." — Rome's Art of Thinking, p. 27. "Pride is worse to 
bear than cruelty." — lb., p. 37. These are in fact active verbs, and not passive. We may suggest 
agents for them, if we please ; as, " There is no time for us to waste." That the simple participle 
in ing may be used passively, has been proved elsewhere. It seems sometimes to have no dis- 
tinction of voice; as, "What is worth doing, is worth doing icell." — Com. Maxim. This is cer- 
tainly much more agreeable, than to say, "What is worth being done, is worth being done well." 
In respect to the voice of the infinitive, and of this participle, many of our grammarians are ob- 
viously hypercritical. For example: " The active voice should not be used for the passive; as, 
I have work to do : a house to sell, to Id, instead of to be done, to be sold, to be let" — Sanborn's 
Gram., p. 220. "Active verbs are often used improperly with a passive signification, as, 'the 
house is building, lodgings to let, he has a house to sell, nothing is wanting ;' in stead of ' the 
house is being built, lodgings to be left, he has a house to be sold, nothing is wanted.' " — Blair's 
Gram., p. 64. In punctuation, orthography, and the use of capitals, here are more errors than 
it is worth while to particularize. With regard to such phraseology as, " The house is being built," 
see, in Part II, sundry Observations on the Compound Form of Conjugation. To say, " I have 
work to do," — "He has a house to sel\" — or, " We have lodgings to let," is just as good English, 
as to say, " I have meat to eat." — John, iv, 32. And who, but some sciolist in grammar, would, 
in all such instances, prefer the passive voice ? 

BIPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XVHI. 
Infinitives demanding the Particle To. 
" "William, please hand me that pencil." — R. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 12. 

[Fobmttle. — Not proper, because the infinitive verb hand is not preceded by the preposition to. But, according 
to Kule 18th, "The preposition to governs the infinitive mood, and commonly connects it to a finite verb." 
Therefore, to should be here inserted ; thus, " "William, please to hand me that pencil."] 

"Please insert points so as to make sense." — Davis's Gram., p. 123. "I have known Lords 
abbreviate almost the half of their words." — Cobbetfs English Gram., ^[153. "We shall find 
the practice perfectly accord with the theory." — Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 23. "But it 
would tend to obscure, rather than elucidate the subject." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 95. " Please 
divide it for them as it should be." — Willett's Arith., p. 193. "So as neither to embarrass, nor 
weaken the sentence." — Blair's Rhet, p. 116; Murray's Gram,, 322. "Carry her to his table, to 
view his poor fare,* and hear his heavenly discourse." — Sheelock : Blair's Rhet, p. 157 ; Mur- 
* After the -word '■•fare," Murray put a semicolon, which shows that he misunderstood the mood of the verb 

40 



G26 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

ray's Gram., 347. "That we need not be surprised to find this hold in eloquence." — Blair's 
Rhet, p. 174. "Where he has no occasion either to divide or explain." — lb., p. 305. "And they 
will find their pupils improve by hasty and pleasant steps." — RusseWs Gram., Pref., p> 4. " The 
teacher however will please observe," &c. — Infant School Gram., p. 8. " Please attend to a few 
rules in what is called syntax." — lb., p. 128. " They may dispense with the laws to favor their 
friends, or secure their office." — Webster's Essays, p. 39. " To take back a gift, or break a con- 
tract, is a wanton abuse." — lb., p. 41. " The legislature haz nothing to do, but let it bear its own 
price." — lb., p. 315. "He is not to form, but copy characters." — Rambler, No. 122. "I have 
known a woman make use of a shoeing-horn." — Sped., No. 536. " Finding this experiment 
answer, in every respect, their wishes." — Sandford and Merton, p. 51. "In fine let him cause 
his argument conclude in the term of the question." — Barclay's Works, YoL iii, p. 443. 

" That he permitted not the winds of heaven 
Visit her face too roughly." — Shakspeare, Hamlet 

KULE XIX.— INFINITIVES. 

The active verbs, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see, and their 
participles, usually take the Infinitive after them without the preposition 
to : as, " If he bade thee depart, how darest thou stay ? " — " I dare not 
let my mind be idle as I walk in the streets." — Cotton Mather. 

u Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep, 
Shall neither hear thee sigh, nor see thee weep." — Pope's Homer. 

OBSERVATIONS ON. RULE XIX. 

Obs. 1. — Respecting the syntax of the infinitive mood when the particle to is not expressed be- 
fore it, our grammarians are almost as much at variance, as I have shown them to be, when they 
find the particle employed. Concerning verbs governed by verbs, Lindley Murray, and some others, 
are the most clear and positive, where their doctrine is the most obviously wrong; and, where 
they might have affirmed with truth, that the former verb governs the latter, they only tell us that 
"the preposition to is sometimes properly omitted,' 1 ' — or that such and such verbs " have commonhj 
other verbs following them without the sign TO." — Murray's Gram., p. 183 ; Alger's, 63 ; W. Allen's, 
167, and others. If these authors meant, that the preposition to is omitted by ellipsis, they ought 
to have said so. Then the many admirers and remodellers of Murray's Grammar might at least 
have understood him alike. Then, too, any proper definition of ellipsis must have proved both 
them and him to be clearly wrong about this construction also. If the word to is really "under- 
stood," whenever it is omitted after bid, dare, feel, &c, as some authors, affirm, then is it here the 
governing word, if anywhere ; and this nineteenth rule, however common, is useless to the pars- 
er.* Then, too, does no English verb ever govern the infinitive without governing also a prep- 
osition, "expressed or understood." Whatever is omitted by ellipsis, and truly "understood," 
really belongs to the grammatical construction ; and therefore, if inserted, it cannot be actually 
improper, though it maybe unnecessary. But all our grammarians admit, that to before the infin- 
itive is sometimes "superfluous and improper." — Murray's Gram., p. 183. I imagine, there can- 
not be any proper ellipsis of to before the infinitive, except in some forms of comparison ; because, 
wherever else it is necessary, either to the sense or to the construction, it ought to be inserted. 
And wherever the to is rightly used, it is properly the governing word ; but where it cannot be 
inserted without impropriety, it is absurd to say, that it is " understood." The infinitive that is 
put after such a verb or participle as excludes the preposition to, is governed by this verb or 
participle, if it is governed by any thing : as, 

" To make them do, undo, eat, drink, stand, move, 
Talk, think, and feel, exactly as he chose." — Pollok, p. 69. 

Obs. 2. — Ingersoll, who converted Murray's Grammar into " Conversations," says, "I will just 
remark to you that the verbs in the infinitive mood, that follow make, need, see, bid, dare, feel, 
fiear, let, and their participles, are always governed by them." — Conv. on Eng. Gram., p. 120. 
Kirkham, who pretended to turn the same book into " Familiar Lectures," says, "To, the sign 
X>f the infinitive mood, is often understood before the verb ; as, ' Let me proceed;' that is, Let me 
to proceed." — Gram. inFam. Led., p. 137. The lecturer, however, does not suppose the infinitive 
to be here governed by the preposition to, or the verb let, but rather by the pronoun me. For, in 
an other place, he avers, that the intinitive may be governed by a noun or a pronoun ; as, " Let 
him do it." — lb., p. 187. Now if the government of the infinitive is to be referred to the objec- 
tive noun or pronoun that intervenes, none of those verbs that take the infinitive after them 
without the preposition, will usually be found to govern it, except dare and need; and if need, in 
euch a case, is an auxiliary, no government pertains to that. E. C. Smith, an other modifier of 

" hear." It is not always necessary to repeat the particle to, when two or more infinitives are connected ; and 
this fact is an other good argument against calling the preposition to " a part of the verb." But in this example, 
and some others here exhibited, the repetition is requisite.— rG-. B. 

* " The Infinitive Mood is not confined to a trunk or nominative, and is always preceded by to, expressed or 
implied/' — S. Barrett" s Oram., 1854, p. 43. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XIX. — INFINITIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 62 7 

Hurray, having the same false notion of ellipsis, says, " To, the usual sign of this mood, is some- 
times understood; as, 'Let me go,' instead of, 'Let me to go.'" — Smith's New Gram., p. 65. 
According to Murray, whom these men profess to follow, let, in all these examples, is an auxiliary, 
and the verb that follows it, is not in the infinitive mood, but in the imperative. So they severally 
contradict their oracle, and all are wrong, both he and they ! The disciples pretend "to correct 
their master, by supposing " Let me to go, 1 ' and "Let me to proceed,' 1 ' good English ! 

Obs. 3. — It is often impossible to say by what the infinitive is governed, according to the in- 
structions of Murray, or according to any author who does not parse it as I do. Nutting says, 
"The infinitive mode sometimes follows the comparative conjunctions, as, than, and how, without 
GOVERNMENT." — Practical Gram., p. 106. Murray's uncertainty* may have led to some part of 
this notion, but the idea that how is a "comparative conjunction," is a blunder entirely new. 
Kirkham is so puzzled by "the language of that eminent philologist," that he bolts outright from 
the course of his guide, and runs he knows not whither; feigning that other able writers have 
well contended, "that this mood is not governed by any particular word." Accordingly he 
leaves his pupils at liberty to "reject the idea of government, as applied to the verb in this mood ;" 
and even frames a rule which refers it always " To some noun or pronoun, as its subject or actor." 
— Kirkham 's Gram., p. 188. Murray teaches, that the object of the active verb sometimes gov- 
erns the infinitive that follows it: as, "They have a desire to improve." — Octavo Gram., p. 184. 
To what extent, in practice, he would carry this doctrine, nobody can tell ; probably to eveiy 
sentence in which this object is the antecedent term to the preposition to, and perhaps further : as, 
" I have a house to sell." — Nutting's Gram., p. 106. " I feel a desire to excel." "I felt my heart 
within me die." — Merrick. 

Obs. 4. — Nutting supposes that the objective case before the infinitive always governs it wher- 
ever it denotes the agent of the infinitive action; as, "He commands me to write a letter." — Prac- 
tical Gram., p. 96. Nixon, on the contrary, contends, that the finite verb, in such a sentence, 
can govern only one object, and that this object is the infinitive. " The objective case preceding 
it," he says, " is the subject or agent of that infinitive, and not governed by the preceding verb." 
His example is, "Let them go." — English Parser, p. 91. "In the examples, 'He is endeavour- 
ing to persuade them to learn,'' — 'It is pleasant to see the sun,' — the pronoun them, the adjective 
-pleasant, and the participle endeavouring, I consider as governing the following verb in the infin- 
itive mode." — Cooper's Plain and Pract. Gram., p. 144. "Some erroneously say that pronouns 
govern the infinitive mode in such examples as this: 'I expected him to be present.' VTe will 
change the expression: ' He was expected to be present.' All will admit that to be is governed 
by was expected. The same verb that governs it in the passive voice, governs it in the active." — 
Sanborn's Gram., p. 144. So do out professed grammarians differ about the government of tho 
infinitive, even in the most common constructions of it ! Often, however, it makes but little differ- 
. ence in regard to the sense, which of the two words is considered the governing or antecedent 
term ; but where the preposition is excluded, the construction seems to imply some immediate 
influence of the finite verb upon the infinitive. 

Obs. 5. — The extent of this influence, or of such government, has never yet been clearly deter- 
mined. " This irregularity," says Murray, " extends only to active or neuter verbs : [' active and 
neuter verbs,' says Fisk:~\ for all the verbs above mentioned, when made passive, require the prep- 
osition to before the following verb : as, ' He was seen to go;' ' He was heard to speak ;' ' They 
were bidden to be upon their guard.' " — Murray's Gram., p. 183. Fisk adds with no great accu- 
racy, "In the past and future tenses of the active voice also, these verbs generally require the 
sign to, to be prefixed to the following verbs ; as, ' You have dared to proceed without authority ;' 
'They will not dare to attack you.' " — Gram. Simplified, p. 125. "What these gentlemen here call 
"neuter verbs," are only the two words dare and need, which are, in most cases, active, though 
not always transitive ; unless the infinitive itself can make them so — an inconsistent doctrine of 

* Lindley Murray, and several of his pretended improvers, say, " The infinitive sometimes follows the word 
as : thus, ' An object so high as to be invisible." The infinitive occasionally follows than after a comparison ; 
as, ' He desired nothing more than to know his own imperfections. 1 " — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 184 ; Fisk's, 125 ; 
Alger's, 63; Merchant's, 92. See this second example in Weld's Gram., p! 1C7 ; Abridg., 124. Merchant, net 
relishing the latter example, changes it thus : " I wish nothing more, than to know bis fate. 1 ' He puts a comma 
after more, and probably means, " I wish nothing else than to know his fate." So does Fisk, in the other ver- 
sion ; and probably means, " He desired nothing else than to know his own imperfections." But Murray, Alger, 
and Weld, accord in punctuation, and their meaning seems rather to be, " He desired nothing more heartily 
than [he desired] to know his own imperfections. 11 And so is this or a similar text interpreted by both Ingersoll 
and Weld, who suppose this infinitive to be " governed by another verb, understood : as, 'He desired nothing 
more than to see his friends ;' that is, ' than he desired to see, 1 &C. 11 — Ingersoll' s Gram., p. 244 ; Weld's Abridged, 
124 But, obvious as is the ambiguity of this fictitious example, in all its forms, not one of these five critics 
perceived the fault at all. Again, in their remark above cited, Ingersoll, Fisk, and Merchant, put a comma be- 
fore the preposition " after,"" and thus make the phrase, " after a comjMrison," describe the place of the infin- 
itive. But Murray and Alger probably meant that this phrase should denote the place of the conjunction " than." 
The great " Compiler' 1 seems to me to have misused the phrase "a comparison,'' for, '■'■an adjective or adverb 
of the comparative degree ;" and the rest, I suppose, have blindly copied him, without thinking or knowing what 
he ought to have said, or meant to say. Either this, or a worse error, is here apparent. Five learned gramma- 
rians severally represent either " than" 1 or " the infinitive,'" as being •' after a comxtarison ;" of which one is the 
copula, and the other but the beginning of the latter term ! Palpable as is the absurdity, no one of the five per- 
ceives it ! And, besides, no one of them says any thing about the government of this infinitive, except Inger- 
soll, and he supplies a verb. "Titan and as," says Greenleaf, "sometimes aj>pcar to govern the infinitive 
mood ; as, 'Nothing makes a man suspect much more, than to know little ;" 'An object so high as to be invisi- 
ble. 1 " — Gram. Simp., p. 38. Here is an other fictitious and ambiguous example, in which the phrase, " to knois 
little,'' is the subject of makes understood. Nixon supposes the infinitive phrase after as to be always the sub- 
ject of a finite verb understood after it ; as, " An object so high as to be invisible is or, implies." See English 
Parser, p. 100. 



628 THE GKAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

theirs which I have elsewhere refuted. (See Obs. 3rd on Rule 5th.) These two verbs take the 
infinitive after them without the preposition, only when they are intransitive ; while all the rest 
seem to have this power, only when they are transitive. If there are any exceptions, they shall 
presently be considered. A more particular examination of the construction proper for the infin- 
itive after each of these eight verbs, seems necessary for a right understanding of the rule. 

Obs. 6. — Of the verb Bid. This verb, in any of its tenses, when it commands an action, usually 
governs an object and also an infinitive, which come together ; as, " Thou bidst the world adore. 11 
— Thomson. " If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing." — 2 Kings, v, 13. But when it 
means, to promise or offer, the infinitive that follows, must be introduced by the preposition to ; 
as, " He bids fair to excel them all." — " Perhaps no person under heaven bids more unlikely to be 
saved." — Brown's Divinity, p. vii. "And each bade high to win him." — Granville: Joh. Did. 
After the compound forbid, the preposition is also necessary; as, " Where honeysuckles forbid the 
sun to enter." — Beauties of Shak., p. 57. In poetry, if the measure happens to require it, the word 
to is sometimes allowed after the simple verb bid, denoting a command ; as, 

" Bid me to strike my dearest brother dead, 
To bring my aged father's hoary head." — Bowe's Lucan, B. i, 1. 677. 

Obs. 7. — Of the verb Dare. This verb, when used intransitively, and its irregular preterit 
durst, which is never transitive, usually take the infinitive after them without to ; as, " I dare do 
all that may become a man: "Who dares do more, is none." — Shakspeare. " If he durst steal any 
thing adventurously." — Id. "Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms." — Milton. "Like one 
who durst his destiny control." — Dry den. In these examples, the former verbs have some resem- 
blance to auxiliaries, and the insertion of the preposition to would be improper. But when we 
take away this resemblance, by giving dare or dared an objective case, the preposition is requisite 
before the infinitive; as, " Time! I dare tltee to discover Such a youth or such a lover." — Dryden. 
"He dares me to enter the lists." — Fisk's Gram., p. 125. So when dare itself is in the infinitive 
mood, or is put after an auxiliary, the preposition is not improper; as, "And let a private man 
dare to say that it will." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 147. " Would its compiler dare to affront the 
Deity?" — West's Letters, p. 151. "What power so great, to dare to disobey V — Pope's Homer. 
" Some would even dare to die." — Bible. " What would dare to molest him ?" — Dr. Johnson. " Do 
you dare to prosecute such a creature as Vaughan?" — Junius, Let. xxxiii. Perhaps these exam- 
ples might l)e considered good English, either with or without the to ; but the last one would be 
still better thus : " Dare you prosecute such a creature as Yaughan ?" Dr. Priestley thinks the 
following sentence would have been better with the preposition inserted : " Who have dared defy 
the worst." — Harris: Priestley's Gram., p. 132. To is sometimes used after the simple verb, in 
the present tense; as, " Those whose words no one dares to repeat." — Opie, on Lying, p. 147. 

"Dare I to leave of humble prose the shore?" — Young, p. 377. 

" Against heaven's endless mercies pour'd, how dar'st thou to rebel?" — Id., p. 380. 

" The man who dares to be a wretch, deserves still greater pain." — Id., p. 381. 

Obs. 8. — Of the verb Feel. This verb, in any of its tenses, may govern the infinitive without 
the sign to; but it does this, only when it is used transitively, and that in regard to a bodily per- 
ception: as, " I feel it move." — "I felt something sting me." If we speak of feeling any mental 
affection, or if we use the verb intransitively, the infinitive that follows, requires the preposition ; 
as, "I feel it to be my duty." — "I felt ashamed to ask." — "I feel afraid to go alone." — "I felt 
about, to find the door." One may say of what is painful to the body, ''■I feel it to be severe." 

Obs. 9. — Of the verb Hear. This verb is often intransitive, but it is usually followed by an 
objective case when it governs the infinitive ; as, " To hear a bird sing." — Webster. "You have 
never heard me say so." For this reason, I am inclined to think that those sentences in which 
it appears to govern the infinitive alone, are elliptical; as, "I have heard tell of such things." — 
"And I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it." — Gen, xli, 15. 
Such examples may be the same as, "I have heard people tell," — "I have heard men say," &c. 

Obs. 10. — Of the verb Let. By many grammarians, this verb has been erroneously called an 
auxiliary of the imperative mood; or, as Dr. Johnson terms it, "a sign of the optative mood:" 
though none deny, that it is sometimes also a principal verb. It is, in fact, always a principal 
verb ; because, as we now apply it, it is always transitive. It commonly governs an objective 
noun or pronoun, and also an infinitive without the sign to ; as, " Rise up, let us go." — Mark. 
" Thou shalt let it rest." — Exodus. But sometimes the infinitive coalesces with it more nearly than 
the objective, so that the latter is placed after both verbs; as, " The solution lets go the mercury." 
— Newton. " One lets slip out of his account a good part of that duration." — Locke. " Back ! on 
your lives ; let be, said he, my prey." — Dryden. The phrase, let go, is sometimes spoken for, let go 
your hold; and let be, for let him be, let it be, &c. In such instances, therefore, the verb let is not 
really intransitive. This verb, even in the passive form, may have the infinitive after it without 
the preposition to; as, "Nothing is let slip." — Walker's English Particles, p. 165. "They were 
let go in peace." — Acts, xv, 33. " The stage was never empty, nor the curtain let fall" — Blair's 
MM., p. 459. " The pye's question was wisely let fall without a reply." — L'Estrange. With re- 
spect to other passives, Murray and Fisk appear to be right; and sometimes the preposition 
is used after this one : as, " There's a letter for you, sir, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to 
know it is." — Shakspeare. Let, when used intransitively, required the preposition to before the 
following infinitive ; as, " He would not let [i. e. forbear] to counsel the king." — Bacon. But this 
use of let is now obsolete. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — EULE XIX. — INFINITIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 629 

Obs. 11. — Of the verb Make. This verb, like most of the others, never immediately governs 
an infinitive, unless it also governs a noun or a pronoun which is the immediate subject of such 
infinitive ; as, " You make me blush." — " This only made the youngster laugh." — Webster's Spelling- 
Book. " "Which soon made the young chap hasten down." — lb. But in very many instances it is 
quite proper to insert the preposition where this verb is transitive ; as, " He maketh both the deaf 
to hear, and the dumb to speak." — Mark, vii, 31. " He makes the excellency of a sentence to 
consist in four things." — Blair's Rhet., p. 122 ; Jamiesorts, 124. "It is this that makes the observ- 
ance of the dramatic unities to be of consequence." — Blair's Ehet, p. 464. "In making some 
tenses of the English verb to consist of principal and auxiliary." — Murray's Gram., p. 76. When 
make is intransitive, it has some qualifying word after it, besides the sign of the infinitive ; as, 
"I think he will make out to pay his debts." Formerly, the preposition to was almost always in- 
serted to govern the infinitive after make or made; as, "Lest I make my brother to offend/' — 1 
Cor., viii, 13. " He made many to fall." — Jer., xlvi, 16. Yet, in the following text, it is omitted, 
even where the verb is meant to be passive : " And it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand 
upon the feet as a man." — Dan., vii, 4. This construction is improper, and not free from ambi- 
guity ; because stand may be a noun, and made, an active verb governing it. There may also be 
uncertainty in the meaning, where the insertion of the preposition leaves none in the construc- 
tion ; for made may signify either created or compelled, and the infinitive after it, may denote either 
the purpose of creation, or the effect of any temporary compulsion: as, "We are made to be ser- 
viceable to others." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 16*7. " Man was made to mourn." — Burns. " Taste 
was never made to cater for vanity." — Blair. The primitive word make seldom, if ever, produces a 
construction that is thus equivocal. The infinitive following it without to, always denotes the effect 
of the making, and not the purpose of the maker; as, " He made his son Skjold be received there as 
king." — North. Antiq., p. 81. But the same meaning may be conveyed when the to is used ; as, 

" The fear of God is freedom, joy, and peace ; 
And makes all ills that vex us here to cease." — Waller, p. 56. 
Obs. 12. — Of the verb Need. I incline to think, that the word need, whenever it is rightly fol- 
lowed by the infinitive without to, is, in reality an auxiliary of the potential mood; and that, 
like may, can, and must, it may properly be used, in both the present and the perfect tense, with- 
out personal inflection: as, " He need not go, He need not have gone;" where, if need is a princi- 
pal verb, and governs the infinitive without to, the expressions must be, "He needs not go, He 
needed not go, or, He has not needed go." But none of these three forms is agreeable; and the 
last two are never used. Wherefore, in stead of placing in my code of false syntax the numer- 
ous examples of the former kind, with which the style of our grammarians and critics has fur- 
nished me, I have exhibited many of them, in contrast with others, in the eighth and ninth ob- 
servations on the Conjugation of Verbs ; in which observations, the reader may see what reasons 
there are for supposing the word need to be sometimes an auxiliary and sometimes a principal 
verb. Because no other author has yet intentionally recognized the propriety of this distinction, 
I have gone no farther than to show on what grounds, and with what authority from usage, it 
might be acknowledged. If we adopt this distinction, perhaps it will be found that the regular 
or principal verb need always requires, or, at least, always admits, the preposition to before the fol- 
lowing infinitive ; as, "They need not to be specially indicated." — Adams's Rhet., i, 302. "We 
need only to remark." — lb., ii, 224. " A young man needed only to ask himself," &c. — lb., i, 117. 
"Nor is it conceivable to me, that the lightning of a Demosthenes could need to be sped upon the 
wings of a semiquaver." — lb., ii, 226. " But these people need to be informed." — Campbell's Bhet., 
p. 220. " No man neededless to be informed." — lb., p. 175. "We need only to mention the diffi- 
culty that arises." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 362. u Can there need to be argument to prove so plain 
a point?" — Graham's Led. "Moral instruction needs to have a more prominent place." — Br. 
Weeks. "Pride, ambition, and selfishness, need to be restrained." — Id. "Articles are sometimes 
omitted, where they need to be used." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 197. "Whose power needs not to be 
dreaded." — Wilson's Hebrew Gram., p. 93. "A workman that needeth not to be ashamed." — 2 
Tim., ii, 15. " The small boys may have needed to be managed according to the school system." — 
T. D. Woolsey. " The difficulty of making variety consistent, needs not to disturb him." — Rambler, 
No. 122. "A more cogent proof needs not to be introduced." — Wright's Gram., p. 66. "No 
person needs to be informed, that you is used in addressing a single person." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 
19. "I hope I need not to advise you further." — Shak., All's Well. 

" Nor me, nor other god, thou needst to fear, 
For thou to all the heavenly host art dear." — Congreve. 

Obs. 13. — If need is ever an auxiliary, the essential difference between an auxiliary and a prin- 
cipal verb, will very well account for the otherwise puzzling fact, that good writers sometimes 
inflect this verb, and sometimes do not; and that they sometimes use to after it, and sometimes 
do not. Nor do I see in what other way a grammarian can treat it, without condemning as bad 
English a great number of very common phrases which he cannot change for the better. On this 
principle, such examples as, "He need not proceed" and "He needs not to proceed," may be 
perfectly right in either form ; though Murray, Crombie,* Fisk, Ingersoll, Smith, C. Adams, and 

* Dr. Crombie, after copying the substance of Campbell's second Canon, that, "In doubtful cases analogy 
should be regarded," remarks: " For the same reason, ' it needs' and ' he dares,' are better than ' he need'' and 
' he dare.' " — On Etym. and Synt., p. 326. Dr. Campbell's language is somewhat stronger: " Tn the verbs to 
dare and to need, many say, in the third person present singular, dare and need, as, ' he need not go ; he dare 
not do it 1 Others say, dares and needs. As the first usage is exceedingly irregular, hardly any thing less thaa 



G30 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

many others, pronounce both these forms to be wrong; and unanimously, (though contrary to 
what is perhaps the best usage,) prefer, " He needs not proceed.'''' — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 180. 

Obs. 14. — On questions of grammar, the practice of authors ought to be of more weight, than 
the dogmatism of grammarians ; but it is often difficult to decide well by either ; because errors 
and contradictions abound in both. For example : Dr. Blair says, (in speaking of the persons 
represented by /and thou,) "Their sex needs not be marked." — Bhet., p. 79. Jamieson abridges 
the work, and says, " needs not to be marked." — Gram, of Bhet., p. 28. Dr. Lowth also says, 
" needs not be marked." — Gram., p. 21. Churchill enlarges the work, and says, " needs not to be 
marked." — New Gram., p. 12. Lindley Murray copies Lowth, and says, " needs not be marked." 
— Gram., 12mo, 2d Ed., p. 39; 23d Ed., p. 51 ; and perhaps all other editions. He afterwards 
enlarges his own work, and says, " needs not to be marked." — Octavo Gram., p. 51. But, accord- 
ing to G-reenleaf they all express the idea ungrammatically; the only true form being, "Their 
sex need not be marked." See Gram. Simplified, p. 48. In the two places in which the etymology 
and the syntax of this verb are examined, I have cited from proper sources more than twenty 
examples in which to is used after it, and more than twenty others in which the verb is not 
inflected in the third person singular. In the latter, need is treated as an auxiliary; in the former, 
it is a principal verb, of the regular construction. If the principal verb need can also govern the 
infinitive without to, as all our grammarians have supposed, then there is a third form which is 
unobjectionable, and my pupils may take their choice of the three. But still there is a fourth 
form which nobody approves, though the hands of some great men have furnished us with exam- 
ples of it: as, " A figure of thought need not to detort the words from their literal sense." — J. Q. 
Adams's Lectures, Vol. ii, p. 254. " Which a man need only to appeal to his own feelings imme- 
diately to evince." — Olarkson's Prize- Essay on Slavery, p. 106. 

Ods. 15. — Webster and Greenleaf seem inclined to justify the use of dare, as well as of need, 
for the third person singular. Their doctrine is this: " 'In popular practice it is used in the third 
person, without the personal termination. Thus, instead of saying, 'He dares not doit;' we 
generally say, ' He dare not do it.' In like manner, need, when an active verb, is regular in its 
inflections; as, 'A man needs more prudence.' But when intransitive, it drops the personal termi- 
nations in the present tense, and is followed by a verb without the prefix to ; as, ' A man need 
not be uneasy.' " — Greenleaf's Grammar Simplified, p. 38 ; Webster' s Philosophical Gram., p. 178 ; 
Improved Gram., 127. Each part of this explanation appears to me erroneous. In popular prac- 
tice, one shall oftener hear, "Ho dares n't do it," or even, " You dares n't do it," than, " He dare 
not do it." But it is only in the trained practice of the schools, that he shall ever hear, "He 
needs n't do it," or, "He needs not do it." If need is sometimes used without inflection, this pe- 
culiarity, or the disuse of to before the subsequent infinitive, is not a necessary result of its 
" intransitive'' 1 character. And as to their latent nominative, "whereof there is no account," or, 
" whereof there needs no account;" their fact, of which "there is no evidence," or of which "there 
needs no evidence ;" I judge it a remarkable phenomenon, that authors of so high pretensions, 
could find, in these transpositions, a nominative to "is," but none to " needs!" See a marginal 
note under Rule 14th, at p. 570. 

Obs. 16. — Of the verb See. This verb, whenever it governs the infinitive without to, governs 
also an objective noun or pronoun; as, " See me do it." — "I saw him do it." — Murray. When- 
ever it is intransitive, the following infinitive must be governed by to; as, "I will see to have it 
done." — Oomhfs Gram., p. 98; Greenleaf's, 38. " How could he see to do them?" — Beauties of 
Shah., p. 43. In the following text, see is transitive, and governs the infinitive ; but the two verbs 
are put so far apart, that it requires some skill in the reader to make their relation apparent : 
" When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 
stolid in the holy place," &c. — Matt, xxiv, 15. An other scripturist uses the participle, and says — 
" standing where it ought not," &c. — Mark, xiii, 14. The Greek word is the same in both ; it is 
a participle, agreeing with the noun for abomination. Sometimes the preposition to seems to be 
admitted on purpose to protract the expression : as, 

"Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move, 
And with her breath she did perfume the air." — Sliak. 
Obs. 17. — A few other verbs, besides the eight which are mentioned in the foregoing rule and 
remarks, sometimes have the infinitive after them without to. W. Allen teaches, that, "The sign 
to is generally omitted," not only after these eight, but also after eight others; namely, "find, have, 
help, mark, observe, perceive, watch, and the old preterit .gan, for began ; and sometimes after behold 
and know." — Elements of Gram., p. 167. Perhaps he may have found some instances of the omis- 
sion of the preposition after all these, but in my opinion his rule gives a very unwarrantable ex- 
tension to this "irregularity," as Murray calls it. The usage belongs only to particular verbs, 
and to them not in all their applications. Other verbs of the same import do not in general 

uniform practice could authorize it." — Philosophy of Rhet, p. 1T5. Dare for dares I suppose to be wrong; but 
if need is an auxiliary of the potential mood, to use it without inflection, is neither "irregular," nor at all incon- 
sistent with the foregoing canon. But the former critic notices these verbs a second time, thus : " ' He dare not,' 
' he need not, 1 may be justly pronounced solecisms, for ' he dares,' ' he needs.' " — Crombie, on Etjjm. and SynL, 
p. 378. He also says, " The verbs bid, dare, need, wake, see, hear, feel, let, are not followed by the sign of the 
infinitive." — 76., p. '277. And yet he writes thus: " These are truths, of which, I am persuaded, the author, to 
whom I allude, needs not to be reminded." — Ib„ p. 123. So Dr. Bullions declares against need in the singular, 
by putting down the following example as bad English : " He need not be in so much haste." — Bullions's E. 
Gram., p. 134. Yet he himself writes thus: "A name more appropriate than the term neuter, need not be de- 
sired." — lb., p. 196. A school-boy may see the inconsistency of this. 



CHAP. VI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XIX. — INFINITIVES. — OBSERVATIONS. 631 

admit the same idiom. But, by a license for the most part peculiar to the poets, the preposition 
to is occasionally omitted, especially after verbs equivalent to those which exclude it; as, "And 
force them sit." — Cowper's Task, p. 46. That is, "And make them sit." According to Churchill, 
" To use ought or cause in this manner, is a Scotticism: [as,] ' Won't you cause them remove the 
hares?' — ' You ought not walk. 1 Shak." — New Gram., p. 317. The verbs, behold, view, observe, 
mark, watch, and spy, are only other words for see; as, "There might you behold one joy crovm 
an other." — Shak. " There I sat, viewing the silver stream glide silently towards the tempestuous 
sea." — Walton. "I beheld Satan as lightning /a M from heaven." — Luke, x, 18. 

" Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them spy 
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie." — Milton. 

"Nor with less dread the loud 

Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow. -11 — Id., P. L., vi, 60. 

Obs. 18. — After have, help, and find, the infinitive sometimes occurs without the preposition 
to, but much oftener with it; as, "When enumerating objects which we wish to have appear 
distinct." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 222. "Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind 
move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth." — Ld. Bacon. "What 
wilt thou have me to do?'' — Acts, ix, 6. "He will have us to acknowledge him." — Scougal, p. 
102. " I had to walk all the way." — Lennie's Gram., p. 85. " Would you have them let go then ? 
No." — Walker's Particles, p. 248. According to Allen's rule, this question is ambiguous ; but 
the learned author explains it in Latin thus: "Placet igitur eoa dimitti ? Minime." That is, 
" Would you have them dismissed then ? No." Had he meant, "Would you have them to let go 
then ?" he would doubtless have said so. Kirkham, by adding help to Murray's list, enumerates 
nine verbs which he will have to exclude the sign of the infinitive ; as, " Help me do it." — Gram., 
p. 188. But good writers sometimes use the particle to after this verb; as, "And Danby's 
matchless impudence helped to support the knave." — Drtden - : Joh. Diet., w. Help. Dr. Priestley 
says, "It must, I suppose, be according to the Scotch idiom that Mrs. Macaulay omits it after the 
verb help : ' To help carry on the new measures of the court.' History, Vol. iv, p. 150." — Priest- 
ley's Gram., p. 133. "You will find the difficulty disappear in a short time." — Cobbett's English 
Gram., "|[16. "We shall always find this distinction obtain." — Blair's Phet, p. 245. Here the 
preposition to might have been inserted with propriety. Without it, a plural noun will render the 
construction equivocal. The sentence, " You will find the difficulties disappear in a short time," 
will probably be understood to mean, " You will find that the difficulties disappear in a short time." 
"I do not find him reject his authority." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 167. Here too the preposi- 
tion might as well have been inserted. But, as this use of the infinitive is a sort of Latinism, 
some critics would choose to say, "I do not find that he rejects his authority." "Cyrus was ex- 
tremely glad to find them have such sentiments of religion." — Pollin, ii, 117. Here the infinitive 
may be varied either by the participle or by the indicative; as, "to find them having," or, "to find 
they had." Of the three expressions, the last, I think, is rather the best. 

Obs. 19. — When two or more infinitives are connected in the same construction, one preposi- 
tion sometimes governs them both or all ; a repetition of the particle not being always necessary, 
unless we mean to make the terms severally emphatical. This fact is one evidence that to is not 
a necessary part of each infinitive verb, as some will have it to be. Examples: " Lord, suffer mo 
first to go and bury my father." — Matt, viii, 21. "To shut the door, means, to throw or cast tho 
door to." — Tooke's D. P., ii, 105. " Most authors expect the printer to spell, point, and digest 
their copy, that it may be intelligible to the reader." — Printer's Grammar. 
" I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, 
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield." — Shak. 

Obs. 20. — An infinitive that explains an other, may sometimes be introduced without the prep- 
osition to; because, the former having it, the construction of the latter is made the same by this 
kind of apposition : as, " The most accomplished way of using books at present is, to serve them 
as some do lords ; learn their titles, and then brag of their acquaintance." — Swift : Karnes, El. 
of Grit., ii, 166. 

Obs. 21. — After than or as, the sign of the infinitive is sometimes required, and sometimes 
excluded ; and in some instances we can either insert it or not. as we please. The latter term of 
a comparison is almost always more or less elliptical ; and as the nature of its ellipsis depends on 
the structure of the former term, so does the necessity of inserting or of omitting the sign of 
the infinitive. Examples: "No desire is more universal than [is the desire] to be exalted and 
honoured." — Karnes, El, of Grit., i, 197. "The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as [is 
the difficulty] to find a friend worth dying for." — Id., Art of Tliinking, p. 42. " It is no more in 
one's power to love or not to love, than [it is in one's power] to be in health or out of order." — 
lb., p. 45. " Men are more likely to be praised into virtue, than [they are likely] to be railed out 
of vice." — lb., p. 48. "It is more tolerable to be always alone, than [it is tolerable] never to bo 
so." — lb., p. 26. "Nothing [is] more easy than to do mischief [is easy] : nothing [is] more diffi- 
cult than to suffer without complaining" [is difficult]. — lb., p. 46. Or: "than [it is easy] to do 
mischief:" &c, "than [it is difficult] to suffer," &c. "It is more agreeable to the nature of most 
men to follow than [it is agreeable to their nature] to lead." — lb., p. 55. In all these examples, 
the preposition to is very properly inserted ; but what excludes it from the former term of a com- 
parison, will exclude it from the latter, if such governing verb be understood there : as, " You no 
more heard me say those words, than [you heard me] talk Greek." It may be equaUy proper to 



632 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

say, "We choose rather to lead than follow" or, "We choose rather to lead than to follow." — 
Art of Thinking, p. 37. The meaning in either case is, " We choose to lead rather than we choose 
to follow." In the following example, there is perhaps an ellipsis of to before cite : "I need do 
nothing more than simply cite the explicit declarations," &c. — Gurnets Peculiarities, p. 4. So 
in these : " Nature did no more than furnish the power and means." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 141. 
"To beg, than work, he better understands; 
Or we perhaps might take him off thy hands." — Pope's Odyssey, xvii, 260. 

Obs. 22. — It has been stated, in Obs. 16th on Rule 17th, that good writers are apt to shun a 
repetition of any part common to two or more verbs in the same sentence ; and among the ex- 
amples there cited is this: " They mean to, and will, hear patiently." — Salem Register. So one 
might say, " Can a man arrive at excellence, who has no desire to f " — "I do not wish to go, nor 
expect to." — " Open the door, if you are going to." Answer: " We want to, and try to, but can't." 
Such ellipses of the infinitive after to, are by no means uncommon, especially in conversation ; 
nor do they appear to me to be alvvaj-s reprehensible, since they prevent repetition, and may con- 
tribute to brevity without obscurity. But Dr. Bullions has lately thought proper to condemn 
them ; for such is presumed to have been the design of the following note : " To, the sign of the 
infinitive, should never be used for the infinitive itself. Thus, 'I have not written, and I do not 
intend to,' is a colloquial vulgarism for, ' I have not written, and I do not intend to write.' 1 " — 
Bullions' s Analyt. and Pr act. Gram., p. 179. His " Exercises to be corrected," nere, are these: 
" Be sure to write yourself and tell him to. And live as God designed me to." — lb., 1st Ed., p. 
180. It being manifest, that to cannot " be used for" — (that is, in place of — ) what is implied after 
it, this is certainly a very awkward way of hinting " there should never be an ellipsis of the infin- 
itive after to." But, from the false syntax furnished, this appears to have been the meaning 
intended. The examples are severally faulty, but not for the reason suggested — not because 
" to" is used for " write" or "live" — not, indeed, for any one reason common to the three — but 
because, in the first, "to write" and "have not written" have nothing in common which we can 
omit; in the second, the mood of "tell" is doubtful, and, without a comma after "yourself," we 
cannot precisely know the meaning ; in the third, the mood, the person, and the number of 
" live," are all unknown. See Note 9th to Rule 17th, above ; and Note 2d to the General Rule, 
below." 

Obs. 23. — Of some infinitives, it is hard to say whether they are transitive or intransitive ; as, 
" Well, then, let us proceed; we have other forced marches to make ; other enemies to subdue ; 
more laurels to acquire ; and more injuries to avenge." — Bonaparte : Columbian Orator, p. 136. 
These, without ellipsis, are intransitive ; but relatives may be inserted. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XIX. 
Infinitives after Bid, Dare, Feel, Hear, Let, &c. 
"I dare not to proceed so hastily, lest I should give offence." — Murray's Exercises, p. 63. 
[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the preposition to is inserted before proceed, which follows the active verb 
dare. But, according to Rule 19th, " The active verbs, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see, and their parti- 
ciples, usually take the infinitive after them without the preposition to;" and this is an instance in which the 
finite verb should immediately govern the infinitive. Therefore, the to should be omitted; thus, "I dare not 
proceed so hastily," &c] 

"Their character is formed, and made appear." — Butler's Analogy, p. 115. 

[Formule. — Not proper, because the preposition to is not inserted between made and appear, the verb is made 
being passive. But, according to Obs. 5th and 10th on Rule 19th, those verbs which in the active form govern 
the infinitive without to, do not so govern it when they are made passive, except the verb let. Therefore, to 
should be here inserted; thus, " Their character is formed, and made to appear."] 

" Let there be but matter and opportunity offered, and you shall see them quickly to revive 
again.'' — Wisdom of the Ancients, p. 53. "It has been made appear, that there is no presump- 
tion against a revelation." — Butler's Analogy, p. 252. "Manifest, v. t. To reveal; to make to 
appear; to show plainly." — Webster's American Diet "Let him to reign like unto good Aure- 
lius, or let him to bleed like unto Socrates." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 169. "To sing I could not; 
to complain I durst not." — S. Fothergill. " If T. M. be not so frequently heard pray by them." — 
Barclay's Works, iii, 132. "How many of your own church members were never heard pray?" 
— lb., iii, 133. "Yea, we are bidden pray one for another." — lb., iii, 145. "He was made be- 
lieve that neither the king's death, nor imprisonment would help him." — Sheffield's Works, ii, 
281. "I felt a chilling sensation to creep over me." — Inst, p. 188. "I dare to say he has not 
got home yet." — lb. " We sometimes see bad men to be honoured." — lb. " I saw him to move." 
1 — Fetch's Comprehensive Gram., p. 62. " For see thou, ah ! see thou a hostile world to raise its 
terrours." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 167. "But that he make him to rehearse so." — Lily's Gram., 
p. xv. " Let us to rise." — Fowle's True Eng. Gram., p. 41. 
" Scripture, you know, exhorts us to it ; 

Bids us to 'seek peace, and ensue it.' " — Swift's Poems, p. 336. 
" Who bade the mud from Dives' wheel 

To spurn the rags of Lazarus? 

Come, brother, in that dust we'll kneel, 

Confessing Heaven that ruled it thus." — Christmas Book. 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. EXCEPTIONS. 633 



CHAPTER VII.— PARTICIPLES. 

The true or regular syntax of the English Participle, as a part of 
speech distinct from the verb, and not converted into a noun or an ad- 
jective, is twofold ; being sometimes that of simple relation to a noun 
or a pronoun that precedes it, and sometimes that of government, or the 
state of being governed by a preposition. In the former construction, 
the participle resembles an adjective ; in the latter, it is more like a 
noun, or like the infinitive mood : for the participle after a preposition 
is governed as a participle, and not as a case* To these two construc- 
tions, some add three others less regular, using the participle sometimes 
as the subject of a finite verb, sometimes as the object of a transitive verb, 
and sometimes as a nominative after a neuter verb. Of these five con- 
structions, the first two, are the legitimate uses of this part of speech ; 
the others are occasional, modern, and of doubtful propriety. 

KULE XX.— PARTICIPLES. 

Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by prepo- 
sitions : as, " Elizabeth's tutor, at one time paying her a visit, found her 
employed in reading Plato/' — Hume. " I have no more pleasure in 
hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying 
to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it." — Dr. Johnson. 

" Now, rais'd on Tyre's sad ruins, Pharaoh's pride 
Soar'd high, his legions threat' ning far and wide." — Dryden. 

Exception - First. 

A participle sometimes relates to a preceding phrase or sentence, of which it forms no part ; as, 
"I then quit the society; to withdraw and leave them to therrt&elves, appearing to me a duty." — 
" It is almost exclusively on the ground we have mentioned, that we have heard his being con- 
tinued in office defended." — Professors' 1 Reasons, p. 23. (Better, "his continuance in office," or, 
"the continuing of him in office." See Obs. 18th on Rule 4th.) 

"But ever to do ill our sole delight, 
As being the contrary to his high will." — Hilton. 

Exception Second. 

"With an infinitive denoting being or action in the abstract, a participle is sometimes also taken 
abstractly ; (that is, without reference to any particular noun, pronoun, or other subject ;) as, " To 
seem compelled, is disagreeable." — "To keep always praying aloud, is plainly impossible." — "It 
must be disagreeable to be left pausing^ on a word which does not, by itself, produce any idea." 
— Murray 's Gram., 8vo, p. 323. 

" To praise him is to serve him, and fulfill, 
Doing and suffring, his unquestion'd will." — Cowper, Yol. i, p. 88. 

Exception Third. 
The participle is often used irregularly in English, as a substitute for the infinitive mood, to 
which it is sometimes equivalent without irregularity; as, "I saw him enter, or entering." — 
Grant's Lai. Gram., p. 230. "He is afraid of trying, or to try," — Ibid. Examples irregular: 
"Sir, said I, if the case stands thus, 'tis dangerous drinking :" i. e., to drink. — Collier's Tablet of 
Cebes. " It will be but ill venturing thy soul upon that:" i. e., to venture. — Bunyaris Law and 
Grace, p. 27. " Describing a past event as present, has a fine effect in language:" i. e., to de- 
scribe. — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 93. " In English likewise it deserves remarking :" i. e., to be 
remarked. — Harris's Hermes, p. 232. "Bishop Atterbury deserves being particularly mentioned:" 

* Some modern grammarians will have it, that a participle governed by a preposition is a "participial noun;" 
and yet, when they come to parse an adverb or an objective following, their "noun''' becomes a "participle''' 
again, and not a " wom»i." To allow words thus to dodge from one class to an other, is not only unphilosophical, 
but ridiculously absurd. Among those who thus treat this construction of the participle, the chief, I think, are 
Butler, Hart, Weld, Wells, and S. S. Greene. 

t Dr. Blair, to whom Murray ought to have acknowledged himself indebted for this sentence, introduced a 
noun, to which, in his work, this infinitive and these participles refer: thus, " It is disagreeable for the mind 
to be left pausina on a word which does not, by itself, produce any idea." — Blair's Rhetoric, p. 118. See Obs. 
10th and 11th onEule 14th. 



G34 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

L e., to be particularly mentioned. — Blair'' s Ehet, p. 291. "Thi3, however, is in effect no more 
than enjoying the sweet that predominates:" i. e., to enjoy. — Campbell's Ehet, p. 43. 

" Habits are soon assum'd ; but when we strive 
To strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive." — Cowper, Vol. i, p. 44 

Exception Fourth. 
An other frequent irregularity in the construction of participles, is the practice of treating them 
essentially as nouns, without taking from them the regimen and adjuncts of participles ; as, 
" Your having been well educated will be a great recommendation." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 171. 
(Better: " Your excellent education" — or, " Tltat you have been well educated, will be," &c.) "It 
arises from sublimity's expressing grandeur in its highest degree." — Blair's Ehet, p. 29. "Con- 
cerning the separating by a circumstance, words intimately connected." — Karnes, El. of Grit, Vol. 
ii, p. 104. "As long as there is any hope of their keeping pace with them." — Literary Convention, 
p. 114. "Which could only arise from his knowing the secrets of all hearts." — West's Letters to a 
Young Lady, p. 180. " But this again is talking quite at random." — Butler's Analogy, p. 146. 

"My being here it is, that holds thee hence." — ShaJc. 
"Such, but by foils, the clearest lustre see, 
And deem aspersing others, praising thee.''' — Savage, to Walpole. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XX. 

ObS. 1. — To this rule, I incline to think, there are properly no other exceptions than the first 
two above ; or, at least, that we ought to avoid, when we can, any additional anomalies. Yet, 
not to condemn with unbecoming positiveness what others receive for good English, I have sub- 
joined two items more, which include certain other irregularities now very common, that, when 
examples of a like form occur, the reader may parse them as exceptions, if he does not choose to 
censure them as errors. The mixed construction in which participles are made to govern the pos- 
sessive case, has already been largely considered in the observations on Rule 4th. Murray, 
Allen, Churchill, and many other grammarians, great and small, admit that participles may be 
made the subjects or the objects of verbs, while they retain the nature, government, and adjuncts, 
of participles ; as, "Not attending to this rule, is the cause of a very common error." — Murray's 
Key, 8vo, p. 200; Comly's Gram., 188; Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., 170. " Polite is employed to 
signify their being highly civilized." — Blair's Ehet, p. 219. "One abhors being in debt." — lb., p. 
98; Jamieson's Ehet, 71; Murray's Gram., 144. "Who affected being a fine gentleman so un- 
mercifully." — Sped., No. 496. "The minister's being attached to the project, prolonged their 
debate." — Nixon's Parser, p. 78. "It finds [i. e., the mind finds,] that acting thus would gratify 
one passion; not acting, or acting otherwise, would gratify another." — Campbell's Ehet, p. 109. 
"But further, cavilling and objecting upon any subject is much easier than clearing up difficulties." 
— Bp. Butlers Charge to the Clergy of Durham, 1751. 

Obs. 2. — W. Allen observes, "The use of the participle as a nominative, is one of the peculi- 
arities bf our language." — Elements of Gram., p. 171. He might have added, that the use of the 
participle as an objective governed by a verb, a3 a nominative after a verb neuter, or as a word 
governing the possessive, is also one of the peculiarities of our language, or at least au idiom adopted 
by no few of its recent writers. But whether any one of these four modern departures from 
General Grammar ought to be countenanced by us, as an idiom that is either elegant or advan- 
tageous, I very much doubt. They are all however sufficiently common in the style of repu- 
table authors ; and, however questionable their character, some of our grammarians seem mightily 
attached to them all. It becomes me therefore to object with submission. These mixed and 
irregular constructions of the participle, ought, in my opinion, to be generally condemned as false 
syntax ; and for this simple reason, that the ideas conveyed by them may generally, if not always, 
be expressed more briefly, and more elegantly, by other phraseology that is in no respect anoma- 
lous. Thus, for the examples above: " Inattention to this rule, is the cause of a very common 
error." — " Polite is employed to signify a high degree of civilization;" or, u that they are highly 
civilized."— " One abhors debt"—" Who affected the fine gentleman so unmercifully."— " The min- 
ister's partiality to the project, prolonged their debate."— " It finds [i. e., the mind finds,] that to 
act thus, would gratify one passion; and that not to act, or to act otherwise, would gratify another." 
— "But further, to cavil and object, upon any subject, is much easier than to clear up difficulties." 
Are not these expressions much better English than the foregoing quotations ? And if so, have 
we not reason to conclude that the adoption of participles in such instances is erroneous and 
ungrammatical ? 

Obs. 3. — In Obs. 17th on Rule 4th, it was suggested, that in English the participle, without 
governing the possessive case, is turned to a greater number and variety of uses, than in any 
other language. This remark applies mainly to the participle in ing. Whether it is expedient to 
make so much of one sort of derivative, and endeavour to justify every possible use of it which 
can be plausibly defended, is a question well worthy of consideration. We have already con- 
verted this participle to such a multiplicity of purposes, and into so many different parts of speech, 
that one can well-nigh write a chapter in it, without any other words. This practice may have 
added something to the copiousness and flexibility of the language, but it certainly has a tendency 
to impair its strength and clearness. Not every use of participles is good, for which there may be 
found precedents in good authors. One may run to great excess in the adoption of such deriva- 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — KULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 635 

tives, without becoming absolutely unintelligible, and without violating any rule of our common 
grammars. For example, I may say of somebody, " This very superficial grammatist, supposing 
empty criticism about the adoption of proper phraseology to be a show of extraordinary erudition, 
was displaying, in spite of ridicule, a very boastful turgid argument concerning the correction of 
false syntax, and about the detection of false logic in debate." Now, in what other language than 
ours, can a string of words anything like the following, come so near to a fair and literal transla- 
tion of this long sentence ? " This exceeding trifling witling, considering ranting criticising 
concerning adopting fitting wording being exhibiting transcending learning, was displaying, 
notwithstanding ridiculing, surpassing boasting swelling reasoning, respecting correcting erring 
writing, and touching detecting deceiving arguing during debating." Here are not all the uses to 
which our writers apply the participle in ing, but there would seem to be enough, without adding 
others that are less proper. 

Obs. 4. — The active participles, admitting, allowing, considering, granting, speaking, supposing, 
and the like, are frequently used in discourse so independently, that they either relate to nothing, 
or to the pronoun /or we understood; as, " Granting this to be true, what is to be inferred from 
it?" — Murray's Gram., p. 195. This may be supposed to mean, "I, granting this to be true, ask 
what is to be inferred from it ? " " The very chin was, modestly speaking, as long as my whole 
face." — Addison. Here the meaning may be, "I, modestly speaking, say." So of the following 
examples: "Properly speaking, there is no such thing as chance." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 172. 
" Because, generally speaking, the figurative sense of a word is derived from its proper sense." — 
Karnes, El. of Grit, i, 190. "But, admitting that two or three of these offend less in their morals 
than in their writings, must poverty make nonsense sacred ? " — Pope's Works, Vol. iii, p. 7. Some 
grammarians suppose such participles to be put absolute in themselves, so as to have no reference 
to any noun or pronoun ; others, among whom are L. Murray and Dr. James P. Wilson, suppose 
them to be put absolute with a pronoun understood. On the former supposition, they form an 
other exception to the foregoing rule ; on the latter, they do not : the participle relates to the 
pronoun, though both be independent of the rest of the sentence. If we supply the ellipsis as 
above, there is nothing put absolute. 

Obs. 5. — Participles are almost always placed after the words on which their construction de- 
pends, and are distinguished from adjectives by this position ; but when other words depend on 
the participle, or when several participles have the same construction, the whole phrase may come 
before the noun or pronoun: as, " Leaning my head upon my hand, I began to figure to myself 
the miseries of confinement." — Sterne. 

" Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells." — Hilton. 
" Brib'd, bought, and bound, they banish shame and fear ; 
Tell you they're stanch, and have a soul sincere." — Crabbe. 

Obs. G. — When participles are compounded with something that does not belong to the verb, 
they become adjectives ; and, as such, they cannot govern an object after them. The following 
construction is therefore inaccurate : " When Caius did any thing unbecoming his dignity." — Jones's 
Church History, i, 87. " Costly and gaudy attire, unbecoming godliness." — Extracts, p. 185. Such 
errors are to be corrected by Note 15th to Rule 9th, or by changing the particle un to not: as, 
"Unbecoming to his dignity;" or, "Kot becoming his dignity." 

Obs. 7. — An imperfect or a preperfect participle, preceded by an article, an adjective, or a noun 
or pronoun of the possessive case, becomes a verbal or participial noun; and, as such, it cannot 
with strict propriety, govern an object after it. A word which maybe the object of the participle 
in its proper construction, requires the preposition of, to connect it with the verbal noun ; as, 1. 
The Participle: "Worshiping idols, the Jews sinned." — " TJius worshiping idols, — In worshiping 
idols, — or, By worshiping idols, they sinned." 2. The Verbal Noun ; " The worshiping of idols, 
— Such worshiping of idols, — or, Tlieir worshiping of idols, was sinful." — "In the worshiping of idols, 
there is sin." 

Obs. 8. — It is commonly supposed that these two modes of expression are, in very many in- 
stances, equivalent to each other in meaning, and consequently interchangeable. How far they 
really are so, is a question to be considered. Example : "But if candour be a confounding of the 
distinctions between sin and holiness, a depreciating of the excellence of the latter, and at the 
same time a diminishing of the evil of the former ; then it must be something openly at variance 
with the letter and the spirit of revelation." — Tlie Friend, iv, 108. Here the nouns, distinctions, 
excellence, and evil, though governed by of, represent the objects of the forenamed actions : and 
therefore they might well be governed by confounding, depreciating, and diminishing, if these 
were participles. But if, to make them such, we remove the article and the preposition, the con- 
struction forsakes our meaning ; for be confounding, (be) depreciating, and (be) diminishing, seem 
rather to be verbs of the compound form ; and our uncertain nominatives after be, thus disappear 
in the shadow of a false sense. But some sensible critics tell us, that this preposition of should 
refer rather to the agent of the preceding action, than to its passive object ; so that such a phrase as, 
"the teaching of boys," should signify rather the instruction which boys give, than that which they 
receive. If, for the sake of this principle, or for any other reason, we wish to avoid the foregoing 
phraseology, the meaning may be expressed thus : "But if your candour confound the distinctions 
between sin and holiness ; if it depreciate the excellence of the latter, and at the same time dimin- 
ish the evil of the former ; then it must be something openly at variance with the letter and the 
spirit of revelation." 

Obs. 9. — When the use of the preposition produces ambiguity or harshness, let a better expres- 



636 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

sion be sought. Thus the sentence, "He mentions Newton 1 s writing of a commentary," is not 
entirely free from either of these faults. If the preposition be omitted, the word writing will have 
a double construction, which is inadmissible, or at least objectionable. Some would say, " He 
mentions Newton writing a commentary." This, though not uncommon, is still more objection- 
able because it makes the leading word in sense the adjunct in construction. The meaning may 
be correctly expressed thus : " He mentions that Newton wrote a commentary." " Mr. Dryden 
makes a very handsome observation on Ovid's writing a letter from Dido to JEneas." — Sped., 
No. 62 ; Campbell's Ehet, p. 265 ; Murray's Key, ii, 253. Here the word writing is partly a noun 
and partly a participle. If we make it wholly a noun, by saying, " on Ovid's writing of a let- 
ter," or wholly a participle, by saying, "on Ovid writing a letter;" it may be doubted, whether 
we have effected any improvement. And again, if we adopt Dr. Lowth's advice, "Let it be 
either the one or the other, and abide by its proper construction;" we must make some change-, 
and therefore ought perhaps to say; " on Ovids conceit of writing a letter from Dido to ^Eneas." 
This is apparently what Addison meant, and what Dryden remarked upon ; the latter did not 
speak of the letter itself, else the former would have said, " on Ovids letter from Dido to ^Eneaa." 

Obs. 10. — "When a needless possessive, or a needless article, is put before the participle, the cor- 
rection is to be made, not by inserting of, but by expunging the article, according to Note 16th 
to Rule 1st, or the possessive, according to Note 5th to Rule 4th. Example: "By his studying 
the Scriptures he became wise." — Lennie's Gram., p. 91. Here his serves only to render the sen- 
tence incorrect ; yet this spurious example is presented by Lennie to prove that a participle may 
take the possessive case before it, when the preposition of is not admissible after it. So, in stead 
of expunging one useless word, our grammarians often add an other and call the twofold error a 
correction ; as, " For his avoiding of that precipice, he is indebted to his friend's care." — Hurray's 
Key, ii, 201. Or worse yet: "It was from our misunderstanding of the directions that we lost 
our way." — Ibid. Here, not our and of only, but four other words, are worse than useless. 
Again: " By the exercising of our judgment, it is improved. Or thus: By exercising our judg- 
ment, it is improved." — Comly's Key in his Gram., 12th Ed., p. 188. Each of these pretended 
corrections is wrong in more respects than one. Say, " By exercising our judgement, we improve 
it? Or, " Our judgement is improved by being exercised? Again: " The loving of our enemies is 
a divine command; Or, loving our enemies [is a divine command]." — Ibid. Both of these are also 
wrong. Say, " ' Love your enemies,' 1 is a divine command." Or, "We are divinely commanded to 
love our enemies." Some are apt to jumble together the active voice and the passive, and thus 
destroy the unity even of a short sentence ; as, " By exercising our memories, they are improved? 
— Kirkham's Gram., p. 226 and 195. "The error might have been avoided by repeating the sub- 
stantive." — Murray's Gram., p. 1*72. " By admitting such violations of established grammatical 
distinctions, confusion would be introduced? — lb., p. 187. In these instances, we have an active 
participle without an agent ; and this, by the preposition by, is made an adjunct to a passive verb. 
Even the participial noun of this form, though it actually drops the distinction of voice, is awkward 
and apparently incongruous in such a relation. 

Obs. 11. — When the verbal noun necessarily retains any adjunct of the verb or participle, it 
seems proper that the two words be made a compound by means of the hyphen ; as, " Their hope 
shall be as the giving-up of the ghost." — Job, xi, 20. "For if the casting-away of them be the 
reconciling of the world." — Rom., xi, 15. "And the gathering-together of the waters called he 
seas." — Gen., i, 10. "If he should offer to stop the runnings-out of his justice." — Law and Grace, 
p. 26. " The stopping-short before the usual pause in the melody, aids the impression that is made 
by the description of the stone's stopping-short? — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 106. I do not find these 
words united in the places referred to, but this is nevertheless their true figure. Our authors 
and printers are lamentably careless, as well as ignorant, respecting the figure of words : for 
which part of grammar, see the whole of the third chapter, in Part First of this work ; also ob- 
servations on the fourth rule of syntax, from the 30th to the 35th. As certain other compounds 
may sometimes be broken by tmesis, so may some of these; as, "Not forsaking the assembling 
of ourselves together, as the manner of some is." — Heb., x, 25. Adverbs mny relate to participles, 
but nouns require adjectives. The following phrase is therefore inaccurate : " For the more easily 
reading of large numbers." Yet if we say, " For reading large numbers the 'more easily," the 
construction is different, and not inaccurate. Some calculator, I think, has it, " For the more 
easily reading large numbers." But Hutton says, " For the more easy reading of large numbers." 
— Sutton's Arith., p. 5; so Babcock's, p. 12. It would be quite as well to say, " For the greater 
ease in reading large numbers." 

Obs. 12. — Many words of a participial form are used directly as nouns, without any article, 
adjective, or possessive case before them, and without any object or adjunct after them. Such is 
commonly the construction of the words spelling, reading, writing, ciphering, surveying, drawing, 
parsing, and many other such names of actions or exercises. They are rightly put by Johnson 
among "nouns derived from verbs? for, "The [name of the] action is the same with the parti- 
ciple present, as loving, frighting, fighting, striking? — Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 10. Thus: "I like 
writing? — W. Allen's Gram., p. 171. "He supposed, with them, that affirming and denying were 
operations of the mind." — Tooke's Diversions, i, 35. " 'Not rendering,' said Polycarp the disciple 
of John, ' evil for evil, or railing for railing, or striking for striking, or cursing for cursing.' " — 
Dymond, on War. Against this practice, there is seldom any objection ; the words are wholly 
nouns, both in sense and construction. We call them participial nouns, only because they resemble 
participles in their derivation ; or if we call them verbal nouns, it is because they are derived from 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — KULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 637 

verbs. But we too frequently find those which retain the government and the adjuncts of parti- 
ciples, used as nouns before or after verbs ; or, more properly speaking, used as mongrels and 
nondescripts, a doubtful species, for which there is seldom any necessity, since the infinitive, the 
verbal or some other noun, or a clause introduced by the conjunction that, will generally express 
the idea in a better manner : as, " Exciting such disturbances, is unlawful." Say rather, " To excite 
such disturbances, — The exciting of such disturbances, — The excitation of such disturbances, — or, 
That one should excite such disturbances, is unlawful." 

Obs. 13. — Murray says, "The word the, before the active participle, in the following sentence, 
and in all others of a similar construction, is improper, and should be omitted : ' The advising, or 
the attempting, to excite such disturbances, is unlawful.' It should be, ' Advising or attempting 
to excite disturbances."' — Octavo Gram., p. 195. But. by his own showing, "the present 
participle, with the definite article the before it, becomes a substantive.'''— lb., p. 192. And sub- 
stantives, or nouns, by an other of his notes, can govern the infinitive mood, just as well as par- 
ticiples ; or just as well as the verbs which he thinks would be very proper here ; namely, " To 
advise or attempt to excite such disturbances." — lb., p. 196. It would be right to say, " Any ad- 
vice, or attempt, to excite such disturbances, is unlawful." And I see not that he has improved 
the text at all, by expunging the article. Advising and attempting, being disjunct nominatives to 
is, are nothing but nouns, whether the article he used or not ; though they are rather less ob- 
viously such without it, and therefore the change is for the worse. 

Obs. 14. — Lennie observes, "When a preposition" — (he should have said, When an other prep- 
osition — ) " follows the participle, of is inadmissible ; as, His depending on promises proved his 
ruin. His neglecting to study when young, rendered him ignorant all Ms life." — Prin. of E. 
Gram., 5th Ed., p. 65 ; 13th Ed., 91. Here on and to, of course, exclude of; but the latter may 
be changed to of which will turn the infinitive into a noun : as, " His neglecting of study," &c. 
" Depending" and " neglecting," being equivalent to dependence and neglect, are participial nouns, 
and not " participles." Professor Bullions, too, has the same faulty remark, examples and all ; 
(for his book, of the same title, is little else than a gross plagiarism from Lennie's ;) though he 
here forgets his other erroneous doctrines, that, " A preposition should never be used before the 
infinitive," and that, " Active verbs do not admit a preposition after them." See Bullions' 's Prin. 
of E. Gram., pp. 91, 92, and 107. 

Obs. 15. — The participle in ing is, on many occasions, equivalent to the infinitive verb, so that 
the speaker or writer may adopt either, just as he pleases: as, "So their gerunds are sometimes 
found having [or to have] an absolute or apparently neuter signification." — Grant's Lat. Gram., 
p. 231. "With tears that ceas'd not flowing" [or to flow]. — Milton. " I would willingly have 
him producing [produce, or to produce] his credentials." — Barclay's Works, iii, 273. There are 
also instances, and according to my notion not a few, in which the one is put improperly for the 
other. The participle however is erroneously used for the infinitive much oftener than the infin- 
itive for the participle. The lawful uses of both are exceedingly numerous ; though the syntax 
of the participle, strictly speaking, does not include its various conversions into other parts of 
speech. The principal instances of regular equivalence between infinitives and participles, may 
be reduced to the following heads: 

1. After the verbs see, hear, and feel, the participle in ing, relating to the objective, is often 
equivalent to the infinitive governed by the verb; as, "I saw him running." — " I heard it howl- 
ing." — W. Allen. " I feel the wind blowing." Here the verbs, run, howl, and blow, might be 
substituted. 

2. After intransitive verbs signifying to begin or to continue, the participle in ing, relating to the 
nominative, maybe used in stead of the infinitive connected to the verb; as, "The ass began 
galloping with all his might." — Sandford and Merton. "It commenced raining very hard." — Sd- 
liman. "The steamboats commenced running on Saturday." — Daily Advertiser. "It is now 
above three years since he began printing.'' — Dr. Adam's Pref. to Rom. Antiq. " So when they 
continued asking him." — John, viii, 7. Greek, " 'Qc 6t ETrefisvov epioruvrec avrbv." Latin, " Cum 
ergo perseverarent interrogates eum." — Vulgate. "Cum autem perseverarent eum interrogare." 
— Beza. "Then shall ye continue following the Lord your God." — 1 Sam., xii, 14. " Eritis 
sequentes Dominum Deum vestrum." — Vulgate. "As she continued praying before the Lord." — 
1 Sain,, i, 12. "Cum ilia multiplicaret preces coram Domino." — Vulgate. "And they went on 
beating down one an other." — 2 Sam., xiv, 16. "Make the members of them go on rising and 
growing in their importance." — Blair's Bhet., p. 116. "Why do you keep teasing me ?" 

3. After for, in, of, or to, and perhaps some other prepositions, the participle may in most cases 
be varied by the infinitive, which is governed by to only; as, "We are better fitted for receiving 
the tenets and obeying the precepts of that faith which will make us wise unto salvation" — West's 
Letters, p. 51. That is — "to receive the tenets and obey the precepts." " Men fit for fighting, 
practised infighting, proud of fighting, accustomed to fighting." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 172. That 
is, "fit to fight," &c. " What isthe right path, few take the trouble of inquiring." — Murray's Key, 
8vo, ii, 235. Better, perhaps: — "few take the trouble to inquire." 

Obs. 16. — One of our best grammarians says, "The infinitive, in the following sentences, should 
be exchanged for the participle : ' I am weary to bear them.' Is. i, 14. ' Hast thou, spirit, per- 
formxlto point the tempest ?' Shak." — Allen's" Gram., p. 172. This suggestion implies, that the 
participle would be here not only equivalent to the infinitive in sense, but better in expression. 
It is true, the preposition to does not well express the relation between weary and bear ; and, 
doubtless, some regard should be had to the meaning of this particle, whenever it is any thing 



638 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

more than an index of the mood. But the critic ought to have told us how he would make these 
corrections. For in neither case does the participle alone appear to be a fit substitute for the in- 
finitive, either with or without the to ; and the latter text will scarcely bear the participle at all, 
unless we change the former verb ; as, " Hast thou, spirit, done pointing the tempest ?" The true 
meaning of the other example seems somewhat uncertain. The Vulgate has it, " Labor -avi sus- 
tinens," "I have laboured bearing them;" the French Bible, " Je suis las de les souffrir," " I am 
tired of bearing them;" the Septuagint, " Ovuetl dvyao rug afxapriag v/iuv," " I will no more for- 
give your sins." 

Obs. 17. — In the following text, the infinitive is used improperly, nor would the participle in 
its stead make pure English: " I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings, to 
have been continually before me." — Ps., 1, 8. According to the French version, " to have been" 
should be " which are ;" but the Septuagint and the Vulgate take the preceding noun for the 
nominative, thus : "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, but thy burnt-offerings are continually 
before me." 

Obs. 18. — As the preposition to before the infinitive shows the latter to be u lhat towards which 
the preceding verb is directed," verbs of desisting, omitting, preventing, and avoiding, are generally 
found to take the participle after them, and not the infinitive ; because, in such instances, the 
direction of effort seems not to be so properly to, or towards, as from the action.* Where the prep- 
osition from is inserted, (as it most commonly is, after some of these verbs,) there is no irregu- 
larity in the construction of the participle; but where the participle immediately follows the verb, 
it is perhaps questionable whether it ought to be considered the object of the verb, or a mere parti- 
ciple relating to the nominative which precedes. If we suppose the latter, the participle may be 
parsed by the common rule ; if the former, it must be referred to the third exception above. For 
example : 

1. After verbs of Desisting ; as, " The Cryer used to proclaim, Dixerunt, i. e. They have done 
speaking." — Harris's Hermes, p. 132. "A friend is advised to put off making love to Lalage." — 
Philological Museum, i, 446. "He forbore doing so, on the ground of expediency." — The Friend, 
iv, 35. "And yet architects never give over attempting to reconcile these two incompatibles." — 
Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 338. " Never to give over seeking and praying for it." — N. Y. Observer. 
"Do not leave off seeking." — President Edwards. "Then Satan hath done flattering and comfort- 
ing." — Baxter. "The princes refrained talking." — Job, xxix, 9. " Principes cessabant loqui." — 

Vulgate. Here it would be better to say, " The princes refrained from talking." But Murray 
says, " From seems to be superfluous after forbear : as, ' He could not forbear from appointing the 
pope,' &c." — Octavo Gram., p. 203. But " forbear to appoint" would be a better correction; for 
this verb is often followed by the infinitive; as, " Forbear to insinuate." — West s Letters, p. 62. 
"And he forbore logo forth." — 1 Sam., xxiii, 13. The reader will observe, that, "never to give 
over," or u no't to leave off," is in fact the same thing as to continue; and I have shown by the anal- 
ogy of other languages, that after verbs of continuing the participle is not an object of govern- 
ment; though possibly it may be so, in these instances, which are somewhat different. 

2. After verbs of Omitting; as, " He omits giving an account of them." — Tooke's Diversions of 
Purley, i, 251. I question the propriety of this construction; and yet, " omits to give" seems still 
more objectionable. Better, "He omits all account of them." Or, " He neglects to give, or forbears 
to give, any account of them." L. Murray twice speaks of apologizing, "for the use he has made 
of his predecessors' labours, and for omitting to insert their names." — Octavo Gram., Pref, p. vii; 
and Note, p. 73. The phrase, " omitting to insert," appears to me a downright solecism; and the 
pronoun their is ambiguous, because there are well-known names both for the men and for their 
labours, and he ought not to have omitted either species wholly, as he did. "Yet they absolutely 
refuse doing so, one with another." — Harris's Hermes, p. 264. Better, " refuse to do so." "I had 
as repeatedly declined going." — Leigh Hunfs Byron, p. 15. 

3. After verbs of Preventing ; as, " Our sex are happily prevented from engaging in these tur- 
bulent scenes." — West's Letters to a Lady, p. 74. " To prevent our frail natures from deviating into 
bye paths [write by-paths] of error." — lb., p. 106. "Prudence, prevents our speaking or acting 
improperly." — Blair's Rhet, p. 99; Murray's Gram., p. 303; Jamieson's Rhet., p. 72. This con- 
struction, though very common, is palpably wrong ; because its most natural interpretation is, 
" Prudence improperly prevents our speech or action." These critics ought to have known enough 
to say, " Prudence prevents us from speaking or acting improperly." " This, however, doth not 
hinder pronunciation to borrow from singing." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 70. Here the infinitive is 
used, merely because it does not sound well to say, "from borrowing from singing ;" but the ex- 
pression might very well be changed thus, "from being indebted to singing." " ' This by no means 
hinders the book to be a useful one.' — Geddes. It should be, 'from being.' " — Churchill's Gram., 
p. 318. 

4. After verbs of Avoiding; as, "He might have avoided treating of the origin of ideas." — 
Tooke's Diversions, i, 28. "We may avoid talking nonsense on these subjects." — Campbell's 
Rhet., p. 281. " But carefully avoid being at any time ostentatious and affected." — Blair's Rhet, 

* The perfect contrast between from and to, when the former governs the participle and the latter the infin- 
itive, is an other proof that this to is the common preposition to. For example : " These are the four spirits of 
the heavens, which go forth from standina before the Lord of all the earth." — Zesh., vi, 5. Now, if this were 
rendered, " which go forth to stand " &c, it is plain that these prepositions would express quite opposite rela- 
tions. Yet, probably from some obscurity in the original, the Greek version has been made to mean, " going 
forth to stand ;" and the Latin, " which go forth, that they man stand :" while the French text conveys nearly the 
same sense as ours, — "which go forth from the place where they stood.' 1 ' 1 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. RULE XX. — PAKTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 639 

p. 233. "Here I cannot avoid mentioning* the assistance I have received." — ChurchilVs Gram., 
p. iv. " It is our duty to avoid leading others into temptation," — West's Letters, p. 33. "Nay, 
such a garden should in some measure avoid imitating nature." — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 251. "I 
can promise no entertainment to those who shun thinking." — lb., i, 36. "We cannot help being 
of opinion." — Encyc. Brit. Murray's Gram., p. 16. *"I cannot help being of opinion." — Blair's 
Rhet, p. 311. "I cannot help mentioning here one character more." — Hughes, Sped, No. 554. 
" These would sometimes very narrowly miss being catched away." — Steele. "Carleton very nar- 
rowly escaped being taken." — Grimshaw's Hist, p. 111. Better, "escaped from being taken;" — 
or, " escaped capture." 

Obs. 19. — In sentences like the following, the participle seems to be improperly made the object 
of the verb: "I intend doing it." — "I remember meeting him." Better, "I intend to do it." — "I 
remember to have met him." According to my notion, it is an error to suppose that verbs in 
general may govern participles. If there are any proper instances of such government, they 
would seem to be chiefly among verbs of quitting or avoiding. And even here the analogy of 
General Grammar gives countenance to a different solution; as, "They left beating of Paul." — 
Acts, xxi, 32. Better, "They left beating Paul;" — or, "They quit beating Paul." Greek, 
"'Enavoavro tv-tovtec tov HavXov." Latin, "Cessaverunt percutientes Paulum." — Montanus. 
" Cessarunt ccedere Paulum." — Beza. " Cessaverunt percutere Paulum." — Vulgate. It is true, the 
English participle in ing differs in some respects from that which usually corresponds to it in 
Latin or Greek ; it has more of a substantive character, and is commonly put for the Latin gerund. 
If this difference does not destroy the argument from analogy, the opinion is still just, that left 
and quit are here intransitive, and that the participle beating relates to the pronoun they. Such is 
unequivocally the construction of the Greek test, and also of the literal Latin of Arias Monta- 
nus. But, to the mere English grammarian, this method of parsing will not be apt to suggest 
itself: because, at first sight, the verbs appear to be transitive, and the participle in ing has 
nothing to prove it an adjunct of the nominative, and not the object of the verb — unless, indeed, 
the mere fact that it is a participle, is proof of this. 

Obs. 20. — Our great Compiler, Murray, not understanding this construction, or not observing 
what verbs admit of it, or require it, has very unskillfully laid it down as a rule, that, " The parti- 
ciple with its adjuncts, may be considered as a substantive phrase in the objective case, governed 
by the preposition or verb, expressed or understood : as, ' By promising much and performing but 
little, we become despicable.' 'He studied to avoid expressing himself too severely.'" — Octavo 
Gram., p. 194.f This very popular author seems never to have known that participles, as such, 
may be governed in English by prepositions. And yet he knew, and said, that " prepositions do 
not, like articles and pronouns, convert the participle itself into the nature of a substantive." — 
Ibid. This he avouches in the same breath in which he gives that "nature" to a participle and 
its adverb ! For, by a false comma after much, he cuts his first " substantive phrase" absurdly in 
two ; and doubtless supposes a false ellipsis of by before the participle performing. Of his method 
of resolving the second example, some notice has already been taken, in Observations 4th and 
5th on Rule 5th. Though he pretends that the whole phrase is in the objective case, " the truth 
is, the assertion grammatically affects the first word only;" which in one aspect he regards as a 
noun, and in an other as a participle : whereas he himself, on the preceding page, had adopted 
from Lowth a different doctrine, and cautioned the learner against treating words in ing, " as if 
they were of an amphibious species, partly nouns and partly verbs;" that is, "partly nouns and 
partly participles;" for, according to Murray, Lowth, and many others, participles are verbs. 
The term, " substantive phrase" itself a solecism, was invented merely to cloak this otherwise bald 
inconsistency. Copying Lowth again, the great Compiler defines a phrase to be " two or more 
words rightly put together;" and, surely, if we have a well-digested system of grammar, whatso- 
ever words are rightly put together, may be regularly parsed by it. But how can one indivisible 
word be consistently made two different parts of speech at once ? And is not this the situation 
of every transitive participle that is made either the subject or the object of a verb ? Adjuncts 
never alter either the nature or the construction of the words on which they depend ; and parti- 
cipial nouns differ from participles in both. The former express actions as things; the latter 
generally attribute them to their agents or recipients. 

Obs. 21. — The Latin gerund is "a kind of verbal noun, partaking of the nature of a participle." 
— Webster's Diet " A gerund is a participial noun, of the neuter gender, and singular number, 
declinable like a substantive, having no vocative, construed like a substantive, and governing the 
case of its verb." — Grant's Lot. Gram., p. 10. In the Latin gerund thus defined, there is an ap- 
pearance of ancient classical authority for that "amphibious species" of words of which so much 
notice has already been taken. Our participle in ing, when governed by a preposition, undoubt- 
edly corresponds very nearly, both in sense and construction, to this Latin gerund ; the principal 
difference being, that the one is declined, like a noun, and the other is not. The analogy, how- 

* Cannot, with a verb of avoiding, or with the negative but, is equivalent to must. Such examples may there- 
fore be varied thus : " I cannot bid mention: 1 '' i. e., " I must mention. 11 — " I cannot help exhorting him to assume 
courage." — Knox. That is, " I cannot but exhort him." 

t See the same thing in Kirkham's Gram, p. 189 ; in IngersolVs, p. 200; in Smith's Neiv Grammar, p. 162; 
and in other modifications and mutilations of Murray's work. Kirkham, in an other place, adopts the doctrine, 
that, " Participles frequently govern nouns and pronouns in the possessive case ; as, ' In case of his majesty's 
dying without issue, &c. ; Upon God's having ended all his works^ &c. ; I remember its being reckoned a great 
exploit; At my coming in he said, 1 &c."— JfrVfc/iamV Gram., p. 181. None of these_ examples are written ac- 
cording to my notion of elegance, or of accuracy. Better: " In case his Majesty die without issue."—" God hav- 
ing ended all his works."—" I remember it was reckoned a great exploit."—" At my entrance, he said," &c. 



640 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

ever, is but lamely maintained, when we come to those irregular constructions in which the parti- 
ciple is made a half-noun in English. It is true, the gerund of the nominative case may be made 
the subject of a verb in Latin ; but we do not translate it by the English participle, but rather by 
the infinitive, or still oftener by the verb with the auxiliary must : as, " Vivendum est mihi rede, I 
must live well." — Grant's L. Gram., p. 232. This is better English than the nearer version, 
" Living correctly is necessary for me ;" and the exact imitation, " Living is to me correctly," i3 
nonsense. Nor does the Latin gerund often govern the genitive like a noun, or ever stand as the 
direct object of a transitive verb, except in some few doubtful instances about which the gram- 
marians dispute. For, in fact, to explain this species of words, has puzzled the Latin gramma- 
rians about as much as the English ; though the former do not appear to have fallen into those 
palpable self-contradictions which embarrass the instructions of the latter. 

Obs. 22. — Dr. Adam says, " The gerund in English becomes a substantive, by prefixing the 
article to it, and then it is always to be construed with the preposition of; as, ' He is employed 
in writing letters,' or, ' in the writing of letters:' but it is improper to eay, 'in the writing letters,' 
or, ' in writing of letters.' " — Latin and English Gram., p. 184. This doctrine is also taught by 
Lowth, Priestley, Murray, Comly, Chandler, and many others; most of whom extend the prin- 
ciple to all participles that govern the possessive case ; and they might as well have added all 
such as are made either the subjects or the objects of verbs, and such as are put for nominatives 
after verbs neuter. But Crombie, Allen, Churchill, S. S. Greene, Hiley, "Wells, Weld, and some 
others, teach that participles may perform these several offices of a substantive, without dropping 
the regimen and adjuncts of participles. This doctrine, too, Murray and his copyists absurdly 
endeavour to reconcile with the other, by resorting to the idle fiction of " substantive phrases" 
endued with all these powers: as, "His being at enmity with Ccesar was the cause of perpetual 
discord." — Crombie 's Treatise, p. 23*7; ChurchilVs Gram., p. 141. "Another fault is allowing it to 
supersede the use of a point." — ChurchiWs Gram., p. 372. "To be sure there is a possibility of 
some ignorant reader's confounding the two vowels in pronunciation." — lb., p. 375. It is much 
better to avoid all such English as this. Say, rather, " His enmity with Cozsar was the cause of 
perpetual discord." — " An other fault is the allovnng of it to supersede the use of a point." — 
" To be sure, there i3 a possibility that some ignorant reader may confound the two vowels, in 
pronunciation." 

Obs. 23. — In French, the infinitive is governed by several different prepositions, and the 
gerundive by one only, the preposition en, — which, however, is sometimes suppressed ; as, " en 
passant, enfaisant, — il alloit courant." — Traite des Participes, p. 2. In English, the gerundive is 
governed by several different prepositions, and the infinitive by one only, the preposition to, — 
which, in like manner, is sometimes suppressed ; as, " to pass, to do, — / saw him run." The 
difficulties in the syntax of the French participle in ant, which corresponds to ours in ing, are 
apparently as great in themselves, as those which the syntax of the English word presents ; but 
they result from entirely different causes, and chiefly from the liability there is of confounding the 
participle with the verbal adjective, which is formed from it. The confounding of it with the 
gerundive is now, in either language, of little or no consequence, since in modern French, as well 
as in English, both are indeclinable. For this reason, I have framed the syntactical rule for 
participles so as to include under that name the gerund, or gerundive, which is a participle gov- 
erned by a preposition The great difficulty with us, is, to determine whether the participle 
ought, or ought not, to be allowed to assume other characteristics of a noun, without dropping 
those of a participle, and without becoming wholly a noun. The liability of confounding the 
English participle with the verbal or participial adjective, amounts to nothing more than the oc- 
casional misnaming of a word in parsing ; or perhaps an occasional ambiguity in the style of some 
writer, as in the following citation: " I am resolved, 'let the newspapers say what they please of 
canvassing beauties, haranguing toasts, and mobbing demireps,' not to believe one svllable." — 
Jane West's Letters to a Young Lady, p. 74. From these words, it is scarcely possible to find out, 
even with the help of the context, whether these three sorts of ladies are spoken of as the can- 
vassers, haranguers, and mobbers, or as being canvassed, harangued, and mobbed. If the pro- 
lixity and multiplicity of these observations transcend the reader's patience, let him consider that 
the questions at issue cannot be settled by the brief enunciation of loose individual opinions, but 
must be examined in the light of all the analogies and facts that bear upon them. So considerable 
are the difficulties of properly distinguishing the participle from the verbal adjective in French, 
that that indefatigable grammarian, G-irault Du Vivier, after completing his Grammaire des Gram- 
maires in two large octavo volumes, thought proper to enlarge his instructions on this head, and 
to publish them in a separate book, (Traite des Participes,) though we have it on his own author- 
ity, that the rule for participles had already given rise to a greater number of dissertations and 
particular treatises than any other point in French grammar. 

Obs. 24. — A participle construed after the nominative or the objective case, is not in general 
equivalent to a verbal noun governing the possessive. There is sometimes a nice distinction to be 
observed in the application of these two constructions. For the leading word in sense, should not 
be made the adjunct in construction. The following sentences exhibit a disregard to this princi- 
ple, and are both inaccurate: " He felt his strength's declining." — " He was sensible of his strength 
declining." In the former sentence, the noun strength should be in the objective case, governed 
by felt ; and in the latter, it should rather be in the possessive, governed by declining. Thus : 
"He felt his strength declining;" i. e., "felt it decline." — "He was sensible of his strength's 
declining;" i. e., " of its decline." These two sentences state the same fact, but, in construction, 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. RULE XX. PARTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. G41 

they are very different ; nor does it appear, that where there is no difference of meaning, the two 
constructions are properly interchangeable. This point has already been briefly noticed in Obs. 
12th and 13th on Rule 4th. But the false and discordant instructions which our grammarians 
deliver respecting possessives before participles ; their strange neglect of this plain principle of 
reason, that the leading word in sense ought to be made the leading or governing word in tho 
construction ; and the difficulties which they and other writers are continually falling into, by 
taking their choice between two errors, in stead of avoiding both : these, as well as their sugges- 
tions of sameness or difference of import between the participle and the participial noun, require 
some further extension of my observations in this place. 

Obs. 25. — Upon the classification of words, as parts of speech, distinguished according to their 
natures and uses, depends the whole scheme of grammatical science. And it is plain, that a bad 
distribution, or a confounding of such things as ought to be separated, must necessarily be attended 
with inconveniences to the student, for which no skill or learning in the expounder of such a 
system can ever compensate. The absurdity of supposing with Home Tooke, that the same 
word can never be used so differently as to belong to different parts of speech, I have already 
alluded to more than once. The absolute necessity of classing words, not according to their 
derivation merely, but rather according to their sense and construction, is too evident to require 
any proof. Yet, different as are the natures and the uses of verbs, participles, and nouns, it is no 
uncommon thing to find these three parts of speech confounded together ; and that too to a very 
great extent, and by some of our very best grammarians, without even an attempt on their part 
to distinguish them. For instances of this glaring fault and perplexing inconsistency, the reader 
may turn to the books of W. Allen and T. 0. Churchill, two of the best authors that have ever 
written on English grammar. Of the participle the latter gives no formal definition, but he repre- 
sents it as " a form, in which the action denoted by the verb is capable of being joined to a noun as 
it's quality, or accident." — ChurchilVs New Gram., p. 85. Again he says, " That the participle is 
a mere mode of the verb is manifest, if our definition of a verb be admitted." — lb., p. 242. 
"While he thus identifies the participle with the verb, this author scruples not to make what he calls 
the imperfect participle perform all the offices of a noun: saying, "Frequently too it is used as a 
noun, admits a preposition or an article before it, becomes a plural by taking s at the end. and 
governs a possessive case : as, ' He who has the comings in of a prince, may be ruined by his own 
gaming, or his wife's squandering.'' " — lb., p. 144. The plural here exhibited, if rightly written, 
would have the s, not at the end, but in the middle ; for comings-in, (an obsolete expression for 
revenues,) is not two words, but one. Nor are gaming and squandering, to be here called parti- 
ciples, but nouns. Yet, among all his rules and annotations, I do not find that Churchill any 
where teaches that participles become nouns when they are used substantively. The following 
example he exhibits for the express purpose of showing that the nominatives to "is" and "may 
be" are not nouns, but participles: "Walking is the best exercise, though riding may be more 
pleasant." — lb., p. 141. And, what is far worse, though his book is professedly an amplification 
of Lowtb's brief grammar, he so completely annuls the advice of Lowth concerning the distin- 
guishing of participles from participial nouns, that he not only misnames the latter when they are 
used correctly, but approves and adopts well-nigh all the various forms of error, with which the 
mixed and irregular construction of participles has filled our language: of these forms, there are, 
I think, not fewer than a dozen. 

Obs. 26. — Allen's account of the participle is no better than Churchill's — and no worse than 
what the reader may find in many an English Grammar now in use. This anther's fault is not 
so much a lack of learning or of comprehension, as of order and discrimination. We see in him, 
that it is possible for a man to be well accpaainted with English authors, ancient as well as mod- 
ern, and to read Greek and Latin, French and Saxon, and yet to falter miserably in describing 
the nature and uses of the English participle. Like many others, he docs not acknowledge this 
sort of words to be one of the parts of speech ; but commences his account of it by the following 
absurdity: "The participles are adjectives derived from the verb ; as, pursuing, pursued, having 
pursued." — Elements of E. Gram., p: 62. This definition not only confounds the participle with 
the participial adjective, but merges the whole of the former species in a part of speech of which 
he had not even recognized the latter as a subdivision : "An adjective shows the quality of a 
thing. Adjectives may be reduced to five classes: 1. Common — 2. Proper — 3. Numeral — 4. 
Pronominal — 5. Compound." — lb., p. 47. Now, if " participles are adjectives," to which of these 
five classes do they belong? But there are participial or verbal adjectives, very many ; a sixth 
class, without which this distribution is false and incomplete : as, " a loving father ; an approved 
copy." The participle differs from these, as much as it does from a noun. But says our anther, 
" Participles, as simple adjectives, belong to a noun ; as, a loving father ; an approved copy ; — 
as parts of the verb, they have the same government as their verbs have ; as, his father, recalling 
the pleasures of past years, joined their party." — lb., p. 170. What confusion is this ! a com- 
plete jumble of adjectives, participles, and "parts of verbs!" Again: "Present participles are 
often construed as substantives ; as, early rising is conducive to health ; I like writing ; we 
depend on seeing you." — lb., p. 171. Here rising and writing are nouns; but seeing is a parti- 
ciple, because it is active and governs you. Compare this second jumble with the definition 
above. Again he proceeds : " To participles thus used, many of our best authors prefix the 
article; as, ' TJie being chosen did not prevent disorderly behaviour.' Bp. Tomline. ' Tfie not know- 
ing how to pass our vacant hours.' Seed." — lb., p. 171. These examples I take to be bad English, 
Say rather, "The state of election did not prevent disorderly behaviour." — "The want of some en-- 

41 



642 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

tertainment for our vacant hours." The author again proceeds: " If a noun limits the meaning 
of a participle thus used, that noun is put in the genitive ; as, your father's coming was unex- 
pected." — lb., p. 171. Here coming is a noun, and no participle at all. But the author has a 
marginal note, " A possessive pronoun is equivalent to a genitive ;" (ibid. ;) and he means to ap- 
prove of possessives before active participles: as, "Some of these irregularities arise from our 
having received the words through a French medium." — lb., p. 116. This brings us again to that 
difficult and apparently unresolvable problem, whether participles as such, by virtue of their 
mixed gerundive character, can, or cannot, govern the possessive case ; a question, about which, 
the more a man examines it, the more he may doubt. 

Ocs. 27. — But, before we say any thing more about the government of this case, let us look at 
our author's next paragraph on participles: "An active participle, preceded by an article or by a 
genitive, is elegantly followed by the preposition of, before the substantive which follows it ; as, the 
compiling o/that book occupied several years; his quitting of the army was unexpected." — 
Allen's Gram., p. 171. Here the participial nouns compiling and quitting are improperly called 
active participles, from which they are certainly as fairly distinguished by the construction, as 
they can be by any means whatever. And this complete distinction the author considers at least 
an elegance, if not an absolute requisite, in English composition. And he immediately adds: 
"When this construction produces ambiguity, the expression must be varied." — lb., p. 171. This 
suggestion is left without illustration ; but it doubtless refers to one of Murray's remarks, in which 
it is said : "A phrase in which the article precedes the present participle and the possessive prep- 
osition follows it, will not, in every instance, convey the same meaning as would be conveyed by 
the participle without the article and preposition. 'He expressed the pleasure he had in the hear- 
ing of the philosopher,' is capable of a different sense from, 'He expressed the pleasure he had in 
hearing the philosopher.'" — Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 193; R. G. Smith's Gram., 161; Inger- 
solVs, 199 ; and others. Here may be seen a manifest difference between the verbal or participial 
noun, and the participle or gerund ; but Murray, in both instances, absurdly calls the word hear- 
ing a " present participle;" and, having robbed the former sentence of a needful comma, still more 
absurdly supposes it ambiguous: whereas the phrase, "in the hearing of the philosopher," means 
only "in the philosopher's hearing;" and not, "in hearing the philosopher," or, "in hearing of the 
philosopher." But the true question is, would it be right to say, " He expressed the pleasure he 
had in the philosopher's hearing him ?" For here it would be equivocal to say, " in the philoso- 
pher's hearing o/him ;" and some aver, that of would be wrong, in any such instance, even if the 
sense were clear. But let us recur to the mixed example from Allen, and compare it with his 
own doctrines. To say, "from our having received of the words through a French medium," 
would certainly be no elegance ; and if it be not an ambiguity, it is something worse. The ex- 
pression, then, "must be varied." But varied how? Is it right without the of, though contrary 
to the author's rule for elegance ? 

Obs. 28. — The observations which have been made on this point, under the rule for the posses- 
sive case, while they show, to some extent, the inconsistencies in doctrine, and the improprieties 
of practice, into which the difficulties of the mixed participle have betrayed some of our principal 
grammarians, bring likewise the weight of much authority and reason against the custom of 
blending without distinction the characteristics of nouns and participles in the same word or 
words; but still they may not be thought sufficient to prove this custom to be altogether wrong; 
nor do they pretend to have fully established the dogma, that such a construction is in no instance 
admissible. They show, however, that possessives before participles are seldom to be approved ; 
and perhaps, in the present instance, the meaning might be quite as well expressed by a common 
substantive, or the regular participial noun: as, " Some of the^e irregularities arise from our recep- 
tion of the words — or our receiving of the words — through a French medium." But there are some 
examples which it is not easy to amend, either in this way, or in any other ; as, " The miscar- 
riages of youth have very much proceeded from their being imprudently indulged, or left to them- 
selves." — Friends' N. E. Discipline, p. 13. And there are instances too, of a similar character, 
in which the possessive case cannot be used. For example : " Nobody will doubt of this being 
a sufficient proof." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 66. "But instead of this being the fact of the case, 
&c." — Butler's Analogy, p. 137. "There is express historical or traditional evidence, as ancient 
as history, of the system of religion being taught mankind by revelation." — Ibid. "From things 
in it appearing to men foolishness." — lb., p.-l75. "As to the consistency of the members of 
our society joining themselves to those called free-masons." — N.- E. Discip., p. 51. "In either of 
these cases happening, the person charging is at liberty to bring the matter before the church, who 
are the only judges now remaining." — lb., p. 36; Extracts, p. 57. "Deriving its efficacy from the 
power of God fulfilling his purpose." — Religious World, Vol. ii, p. 235. "We have no idea of 
any certain portion of time intervening between the time of the action and the time of speaking of 
it." — Priestley's Gram., p. 38; Murray's, i, 70; Emmons's, 41 ; and others. The following exam- 
ple therefore, however the participle may seem to be the leading word in sense, is unquestionably 
wrong; and that in more respects than one: "The reason and time of the Son of God's becoming 
man." — Brown's Divinity, p. xxii. Many writers would here be satisfied with merely omitting the 
possessive sign; as does Churchill, in the following example: "The chief cause of this appears 
to me to lie in grammarians having considered them solely as the signs of tense." — New Gram., p. 
243. But this sort of construction, too, whenever the noun before the participle is not the lead- 
ing word in sense, is ungrammatical. In stead, therefore, of stickling for choice between two 
such errors, we ought to adopt some better expression ; as, " The reason and time of the Saviour's 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. C43 

incarnation." — "The chief cause of this appears to me to be, that grammarians \ave considered 
them solely as signs of tense." 

Obs. 29. — It is certain that the noun or pronoun which " limits the meaning of a participle," can- 
not always be "put in the genitive!'' or possessive case ; for the sense intended sometimes positively 
forbids such a construction, and requires the objective : as, " A syllable consists of one or more 
letters forming one sound." — Allen's Cham., p. 29. The word representing or denoting would here 
be better than forming, because the letters do not, strictly speaking, form the sound. But chiefly 
let it be noticed, that the word letters could not with any propriety have been put in the possessive 
case. Nor is it always necessary or proper, to prefer that case, where the sense may be supposed to 
admit it; as, " 'The example which Mr. Seyer has adduced, of the gerund governing the genitive of 
the agent.' Dr. Crombie." — Grant" 1 s Lat. Gram., p. 23*7. " Which possibly might have been pre- 
vented by parents doing their duty." — N. E. Discipline, p. 18*7. "As to the seeming contradiction 
of One being Three, and Tliree One." — Religious World, Vol. ii, p. 113. "You have watched them 
climbing from chair to chair." — Pierpont: Liberator, Vol. x, p. 22. ""Whether the world came 
into being as it is, by an intelligent Agent forming it thus, or not." — Butler's Analogy, p. 129. " In 
the farther supposition of necessary agents being thus rewarded and punished." — lb., p. 140. " He 
grievously punished the Israelites murmuring for want of water." — Leslie, on Tythes, p. 21. Here 
too the words, gerund, parents, One, Tliree, them Agent, agents, and Israelites, are rightly put in the 
objective case ; yet doubtless some will think, though I do not, that they might as well have been 
put in the possessive. Respectable writers sometimes use the latter case, where the former would 
convey the same meaning, and be more regular; as, "Which is used, as active verbs often are, 
without its regimen's being expressed." — Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 302. Omit the apostrophe and s; 
and, if you please, the word being also. " The daily instances of men's dying around us." — Butler's 
Analogy, p. 113. Say rather, — "of mew dying around us." "To prevent our rashly engaging in 
arduous or dangerous enterprises." — Brown's Divinity, p. 17. Say, "To prevent us from," &c. 
The following example is manifestly inconsistent with itself; and, in my opinion, the three pos- 
sessives are all wrong: "The kitchen too now begins to give 'dreadful note of preparation;' not 
from armourers accomplishing the knights, but from the shop maid's chopping force meat, the 
apprentice's cleaning knives, and the journeyman's receiving a practical lesson in the art of wait- 
ing at table." — West's Letters to a Lady, p. 66. It should be — "not front armorers accomplish- 
ing the knights, but from the shopmaid chopping forcemeat, the apprentice cleaning knives, and 
the journeyman receiving," &c. The nouns are the principal words, and the participles are 
adjuncts. They might be separated by commas, if semicolons were put where the commas now 
are. 

Obs. 30. — Our authors, good and bad, critics and no critics, with few exceptions, write some- 
times the objective case before the participle, and sometimes the possessive, under precisely the 
same circumstances; as, " We should, presently, be sensible of the melody suffering." — Blair's 
Rhet, p. 122. "We should, presently, be sensible of the melody's sufferin»\" — Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 327. "We shall presently be sensible of the melody suffering." — Murray's Exercises, 8vo, 
p. 60. "We shall presently be sensible of the melody's suffering." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 195. 
" And I explain what is meant by the nominative case governing the verb, and by the verb agree- 
ing with its nominative case." — Rand's Gram., p. 31. "Take the verb study, and speak of Johns 
studying his lesson, at different times." — lb., p. 53. "The following are examples of the nomina- 
tive case being used instead of the objective." — J. 31. Putnam's Gram., p. 112. "The following 
are examples of an adverb's qualifying a whole sentence." — lb., p. 128. " Where the noun is the 
name of a person, the cases may also be distinguished by the nominative's answering to who, and 
the objective to whom." — Hart's Gram., p. 46. "This depends chiefly on their being more or less 
emphatic; and on the vowel sound being long or short." — Churchill's Gram., p. 182. "When 
they speak of a monosyllable having the grave or the acute accent." — Walker's Key, p. 328. Here 
some would erroneously prefer the possessive case before "having;" but, if any amendment can 
be effected it is only by inserting as there. "The event of Maria's loving her brother." — 0. B. 
Peirce's Gram., p. 55. "Between that and the man being on it." — lb., p. 59. "The fact of 
James placing himself." — lb., p. 166. " The event of the persons' going." — Bo., p. 165. Here 
persons' is carelessly put for person's, i. e., James's : the author was parsing the puerile text, 
"James went into a store and placed himself beside Horatio." — lb., p. 164. And I may observe, 
in passing, that Murray and Blair are both wrong in using commas with the adverb presently 
above. 

Obs. 31. — It would be easy to fill a page with instances of these two cases, the objective and 
the possessive, used, as I may say, indiscriminately ; nor is there any other principle by which we 
can determine which of them is right, or which preferable, than that the leading word in sense 
ought not to be made the adjunct in the construction, and that the participle, if it remain such, 
ought rather to relate to its noun, as being the adjunct, than to govern it in the possessive, as 
being the principal term. To what extent either of these cases may properly be used before the 
participle, or in what instances either of them may be preferable to the other, it is not very easy 
to determine. Both are used a great deal too often, filling with blemishes the style of many 
authors : the possessive, because the participle is not the name of any thing that can be possessed ; 
the objective, because no construction can be right in which the relation of the terms is not 
formed according to the sense. The former usage I have already criticised to a great extent. Let 
one example suffice here: " There can be no objection to a syllable's being long, on the ground of 
its not being so long, or so much protracted, as some other long syllables are." — Murray's Gram., 



644 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

8vo, p. 242. Some would here prefer syllable to syllable's, but none would be apt to put it for its, 
without some other change. The sentence may be amended thus : "There can be no objection 
to a syllable as being long, on the ground that it is not so long as some other syllables." 

Obs. 32. — It should be observed, that the use of as between the participle and the noun is very 
often better than either the adoption of the possessive sign, or the immediate connexion of the two 
words; as, "Another point constantly brought into the investigation now, is that of military 
success as forming a claim to civil position." — Boston Daily Advertiser. Concerning examples like 
the following, it may be questioned, whether the objective is proper or not ; whether the pos- 
sessive would be preferable or not ; or whether a better construction than either may not be found: 
" There is scarce an instance of any one being clwsen for a pattern." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, 
p. 338. " Instead of its authenticity being shaken, it has been rendered more sure than ever." — 
West's Letters, p. 197. "When there is no longer a possibility of a proper candidate being nomi- 
nated by either party." — Liberator, Vol. x, p. 9. " On the first stone being thrown, it was returned 
by a fire of musketry." — lb., p. 16. " To raise a cry about an innocent person being circumvented 
by bribery." — Blair's Rhet., p. 276., " Whose principles forbid them taking part in the administra- 
tion of the government." — Liberator, Vol. x, p. 15. "It can have no other ground than some 
such imagination, as that of our gross bodies being ourselves." — Butler's Analogy, p. 150. " In con- 
sequence of this revelation being made." — lb., p. 162. If such relations between the participle and 
the objective be disapproved, the substitution of the possessive case is liable to still stronger ob- 
jections; but both may be avoided, by the use of the nominative or otherwise : thus, " Scarcely 
is any one ever chosen for a pattern." — " Its authenticity, instead of being shaken, has been rendered 
more sure than ever." — "When there is no longer a possibility that a proper candidate will be 
nominated by either part}'." — " As soon as the first stone was thrown, there was returned a fire 
of musketry." — "To raise a cry, as if an innocent person had been circumvented by bribery." — 
"Whose principles forbid them to take part in the administration of the government." — "It can 
have no other ground than some such imagination, as that our gross bodies are ourselves." — " In 
consequence of this revelation which is made." 

Obs. 33. — A recent grammarian quotes Dr. Crombie thus: "Some late writers have discarded 
a phraseology which appears unobjectionable, and substituted one that seems less correct ; and 
instead of saying, 'Lady Macbeth' s walking in her sleep is an incident full of tragic horror,' would 
say, ' Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep is an incident full of tragic horror.' This seems to me 
an idle affectation of the Latin idiom, less precise than the common mode of expression, and less 
consonant with the genius of our language ; for, ask what was an incident full of tragic horror, 
and, according to this phraseology, the answer must be, Lady Macbeth ; whereas the meaning is, 
not that Lady Macbeth, but her walking in her sleep, is an incident full of tragic horror. This 
phraseology also, in many instances, conveys not the intended idea ; for, as Priestley remarks, if 
it is said. ' What think you of my horse's running to-day?' it is implied that the horse did actu- 
ally run. If it is said, ' What think you of my horse running to-day ?' it is intended to ask 
whether it be proper for my horse to run to-day. This distinction, though frequently neglected, 
deserves attention; for it is obvious that ambiguity may arise from using the latter only of 
these phraseologies to express both meanings." — Maunder's Compendious Eng. Gram., p. 15. (See 
Crombie's Treatise, p. 288 — 290.) To this, before any comment is offered, let me add an other 
quotation: "Rule. A noun before the present participle is put in the possessive case ; as, Much 
will depend on the pupil's composing frequently. Sometimes, however, the sense forbids it to be 
put in the possessive case ; thus, What do you think of my horse running to-day ? means, Do you 
think I should let him run ? but, What do you think of my horse's running ? means, he has run, 
do you think he ran well?" — Lennie's Gram., p. 91 ; Braces Gram., 94. See Bullions' s Grain., p. 
107; Hiley's, 9±; Murray's, 8vo, 195; Ingersoll's, 201; and many others. 

Obs. 34. — Any phraseology that conveys not the intended idea, or that involves such an ab- 
surdity as that of calling a lacly an "incident," is doubtless sufficiently reprehensible ; but, com- 
pared with a rule of grammar so ill-devised as to mislead the learner nine times in ten, an 
occasional ambiguity or solecism is a mere trifle. The word walking, preceded by a possessive 
and followed by a preposition, as above, is clearly a noun, and not a participle ; but these authors 
probably intend to justify the use of possessives before participles, and even to hold ah phrase- 
ology of this kind " unobjectionable." If such is not their design, they write as badly as they 
reason ; and if it is, their doctrine is both false and inconsistent. That a verbal noun may govern 
the possessive case, is certainly no proof that a participle may do so too ; and, if these parts of 
speech are to be kept distinct, the latter position must be disallowed: each must "abide b} r its 
own construction," as says Lowth. But the practice which these authors speak of, as an innova- 
tion of " some late writers," and "an idle affectation of the Latin idiom," is in fact a practice as 
different from the blunder which they quote, or feign, as their just correction of that blunder is 
different from the thousand errors or irregularities which they intend to shelter under it. To call 
a lady an " incident," is just as far from any Latin idiom, as it is from good English ; whereas the 
very thing which they thus object to at first, they afterwards approve in this text: " What think 
you of my horse running to-day?" This phraseology corresponds with u the Latin idiom;" and 
it is this, that, in fact, they begin with pronouncing to be "less correct" than, " What think you 
of iny horse's running to-day?" 

Obs. 35. — Between these expressions, too, they pretend to fix a distinction of signification; as, 
if "the horse's running to-day," must needs imply a past action, though, (they suppose,) " the 
pupil's co mposing frequently," or, "the horse running to-day," signifies a future one. This dis- 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 645 

tinction of time is altogether imaginary; and the notion, that to prefer the possessive case before 
participles, is merely to withstand an error of "some late writers" is altogether false. The in- 
structions above cited, therefore, determine nothing rightly, except the inaccuracy of one very 
uncommon form of expression. For, according to our best grammarians, the simple mode of cor- 
rection there adopted will scarcely be found applicable to any other text. It will not be right 
where the participle happens to be transitive, or even where it is qualified by an adverb. From 
their subsequent examples, it is plain that these gentlemen think otherwise ; but still, who can 
understand what they mean by " the common mode of expression t " What, for instance, would 
they substitute for the following very inaccurate expression from the critical belles-lettres of Dr. 
Blair? " A mother accusing her son, and accusing him of such actions, as having first bribed 
judges to condemn her husband, and having afterwards poisoned him, were circumstances that 
naturally raised strong prejudices against Cicero's client." — Blair's Lectures, p. 274. Would they 
say, " A mother's accusing her son, &c, were circumstances" &c. ? Is this their " common mode of 
expression?" and if it is, do they not make "common" what is no better English than the Doc- 
tor's ? If, to accuse a son, and to accuse him greatly, can be considered different circumstances 
of the same prosecution, the sentence may be corrected thus: "A mother's accusing of ber son, 
and her charging of him with such actions, as those of having first bribed judges to condemn her 
husband, and having afterwards poisoned him, were circumstances that naturally raised strong 
prejudices against Cicero's client." 

Obs. 36. — On several occasions, as in the tenth and twelfth observations on Rule 4th. and in 
certain parts of the present series, some notice has been taken of the equivalence or difference of 
meaning, real or supposed,between the construction of the possessive, and that of an other case, 
before the participle ; or between the participial and the substantive use of words in ing. Dr. 
Priestley, to whom, as well as to Dr. Lowth, most of our grammarians are indebted for some of 
their doctrines respecting this sort of derivatives, pretends to distinguish them, both as constitut- 
ing different parts of speech, and as conveying different meanings. In one place, he says, 
"When a word ending in ing is preceded by an article, it seems to be used as a noun; and there- 
fore ought not to govern an other word, without the intervention of a preposition." — Priestley s 
Gram., p. 157. And in an other : " Many nouns are derived from verbs, and end in ing, like par- 
ticiples of the present tense. The difference between these nouns and participles is often over- 
looked, and the accurate distinction of the two senses not attended to. If I say, What think 
you of my horse's running to-day, I use the noun running, and suppose the horse to have actually 
run ; for it is the same thing as if I had said, What think you of the running of my horse. But 
if I say, What think you of my horse running to-day, I use the participle, and I mean to ask, 
whether it be proper that my horse should run or not : which, therefore, supposes that he had not 
then run." — lb., p. 122. Whatever our other critics say about the horse running or the horse's 
running, they have in general borrowed from Priestley, with whom the remark originated, as it 
here stands. It appears that Crombie, Murray, Maunder, Lennie, Bullions, Ingersoll, Barnard, 
Hiley, and others, approve the doctrine thus taught, or at least some part of it ; though some of 
them, if not all, thereby contradict themselves. 

Obs. 37. — By the two examples here contrasted, Priestley designed to establish a distinction, 
not for these texts only, but for all similar expressions — a distinction both of the noun from the 
participle, and of the different senses which he supposed these two constructions to exhibit. In 
all this, there is a complete failure. Yet with what remarkable ductility and implicitness do other 
professed critics take for granted what this superficial philologer so hastily prescribes ! By ac- 
knowledging with reference to such an application of them, that the two constructions above are 
both good English, our grammarians do but the more puzzle their disciples respecting the choice 
between them; just as Priestley himself was puzzled, when he said, " So we may either say, I 
remember it being reckoned, a great exploit ; or, perhaps more elegantly, I remember its being reck- 
oned, &c." — Gram., p. 70. Murray and others omit this "perhaps," and while they allow both 
forms to be good, decidedly prefer the latter ; but neither Priestley, nor any of the rest, ever pre- 
tended to discern in these a difference of signification, or even of parts of speech. For my part, 
in stead of approving either of these readings about the "great exploit," I have rejected both, 
for reasons which have already been given; and now as to the first two forms of the horserace 
question, so far as they may strictly be taken for models, I cannot but condemn them also, and 
for the same reasons : to which reasons may be joined the additional one, that neither expression 
is well adapted to the sense which the author himself gives to it in his interpretation. If the 
Doctor. designed to ask, "Do you think my horse ran well to-day?" or, "Do you think it proper 
for my horse to run to-day ?" he ought to have used one or the other of these unequivocal and 
unobjectionable expressions. There is in fact between the others, no such difference of meaning 
as he imagines ; nor does he well distinguish " the noun running " from the participle run- 
ning ; because he apparently allows the word, in both instances, to be qualified by the adverb 
to-day.* 

* We have seen that Priestley's doctrine, as well as Lowth' s, is, that when a participle is taken substantively, 
it " ought not to govern another word ;" and, for the 6ame reason, it ought not to have an adverb relating to it. 
But many of our modern grammarians disregard these principles, and do not restrict their "participial novAis" 
to the construction of nouns, in either of these respects. For example : Because one may say, " To read super- 
ficially, is useless," Barnard supposes it right to say, "Reading superficially is useless." " But the participle" 
says he, "will also take the adjective; as, '■Superficial reading is useless." " — Anabrtic Gram., p. 212. In my 
opinion, this last construction ought to he preferred ; and the second, which is both irregular and unnecessary, 
rejected. Again, this author says: "We have laid it down as a rule, that the possessive case belongs, like an 
adjective, to a noun. What shall be said of the following? ' Since the days of Samson, there has been no 



646 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Obs. 38. — It is clear, that the participle in ing partakes sometimes the nature of its verb and 
an adjective; so that it relates to a noun, like an adjective, and yet implies time, and, if transitive, 
governs an object, like a verb : as, " Horses running a race." Hence, by dropping what here 
distinguishes it as a participle, the word may become an adjective, and stand before its noun ; as, 
"A running brook." So, too, this participle sometimes partakes the nature of its verb and a 
noun; so that it may be governed by a preposition, like a noun, though in itself it has no cases 
or numbers, but is indeclinable : as, "In running a race." Hence, again, by dropping what dis- 
tinguishes it as a participle, it may become a noun ; as, " Running is a safer sport than wrestling." 
Now, if to a participle we prefix something which makes it an adjective, we also take away its 
regimen, by inserting a preposition ; as, " A doctrine undesefving of praise," — "A man uncom- 
promising in his principles." So, if we put before it an article, an adjective, or a possessive, and 
thus give to the participle a substantive character or relation, there is reason to think, that we 
ought, in like manner, to take away its regimen, and its adverb too, if it have any, and be careful 
also to distinguish this noun from the participial adjective ; as, " The running of a race," — " No 
racing of horses," — "Your deserving of praise," — "A man's compromising of his principles." 
"With respect to the articles, or any adjectives, it seems now to be generally conceded, that these 
are signs of substantives ; and that, if added to participles, they must cause them to be taken, in 
all respects, substantively. But with respect to possessives before participles, the common prac- 
tice of our writers very extensively indulges the mixed construction of which I have said so 
much, and concerning the propriety of which, the opinions of our grammarians are so various, so 
confused, and so self-contradictory. 

Obs. 39. — Though the participle with a nominative or an objective before it, is not in general, 
equivalent to the verbal noun or the mixed participle with a possessive before it ; and though the 
significations of the two phrases are often so widely different as to make it palpably absurd to 
put either for the other ; yet the instances are not few in which it makes little or no difference to 
the sense, which of the two forms we prefer, and therefore, in these instances, I would certainly 
choose the more simple and regular construction ; or, where a better than either can readily be 
found, reject both. It is also proper to have some regard to the structure of other languages, and 
to the analogy of General Grammar. If there be " some late writers" who are chargeable with 
"an idle affectation of the Latin idiom," there are perhaps more who as idly affect what they 
suppose " consonant with the genius of our language." I allude to those who would prefer the 
possessive case in a text like the following : " "Wherefore is this noise of the city being in an up- 
roar ?" — 1 Kings, i, 41. " Quid sibi vult clamor civitatis tumultuantis ?" — Vulgate. "Tig g <pov?) 
~~/c TtoABug iixovanr ;" — Septuagint. Literally: "What [means] the clamour of the city resound- 
ing?" "Que veut dire ce bruit de la ville qui est ainsi emue?" — French Bible. Literally: 
" What means this noise of the city which is so moved?" Better English : " What means this 
noise with which the city rings ? " In the following example, there is a seeming imitation of the 
foregoing Latin or Greek construction ; but it may well be doubted whether it would be any im- 
provement to put the word "disciples" in the possessive case ; nor is it easy to find a third form 
which would be better than these : " Their difficulties will not be increased by the intended disci- 
pits having ever resided in a Christian country." — West's Letters, p. 119. 

Obs. 40. — It may be observed of these different relations between participles and other words, 
that nouns are much more apt to be put in the nominative or the objective case, than are pronouns. 
For example : " There is no more of moral principle in the way of abolitionists nominating their 
own candidates, than in that of their voting for those nominated by others." — Gerrit Smith: 
Liberator, Vol. x, p. 17. Indeed, a pronoun of the nominative or the objective case is hardly 
ever used in such a relation, unless it be so obviously the leading word in sense, as to preclude 
all question about the construction.* And this fact seems to make it the more doubtful, whether 

instance of a man's accomplishing a task so stupendous.' The entire clause following man's, is taken as a noun. 
' Of a man's success in a task so stupendous,' would present no difficulty. A part of a sentence, or even a single 
participle, thus often stands for a noun. ' My going will depend on my father's giving his consent,' or ' on my 
father's consenting.' A participle thus used as a noun, may be called a participial noun." — lb., p. 131. I dis- 
like this doctrine also. In the first example, man may well be made the leading word in sense ; and, as such, it 
must be ii the objective case; thus: "There has been no instance of a man accomplishing a task so stupend- 
ous." It is also proper to say, "Jfy going will depend on my father's consenting," or, " on my father's con- 
sent." But an action possessed by the agent, ought not to be transitive. If, therefore, you make this the 
leading idea, insert of; thus, " There has been no instance of a man's accomplishing of a, task so stupendous." 
" My going will depend on my father's giving of Ms consent." — "My brother's acquiring [o/] the French lan- 
guage will be a useful preparation for his travels." — Bernard's Gram., p. 227. If participial nouns retain the 
power of participles, why is it wrong to say, "A superficial reading books is useless?" Again, Barnard ap- 
proves of the question, " What do you think of my horse's running to-day?" and adds, " Between this form of 
expression and the following, 'What do you think of my horse running to-day*?' it is sometimes said, that we 
should make a distinction; because the former implies that the horse had actually run, and the latter, that it is 
in contemplation to have him do so. The difference of meaning certainly exists; but it would seem more judi- 
cious to treat the latter as an improper mode of speaking. What can be more uncouth than to say, ' What do 
you think of me going to Niagara?' We should say my going, notwithstanding the ambiguity. We ought, 
"therefore, to introduce something explanatory ; as, ' What do you think of the propriety of my going to Niag- 
ara .-' " — Anahjtic Oram., p. 227. The propriety of a past action is as proper a subject of remark as that of a 
future one; the explanatory phrase here introduced has therefore nothing to do with Priestley's distinction, 
or with the alleged ambiguity. Nor does the uncouthness of an objective pronoun with the leading word in 
sense improperly taken as an adjunct, prove that a participle may properly take to itself a possessive adjunct, 
and still retain the active nature of a participle. 

* The following is an example, but it is not very intelligible, nor would it be at all amended, if the pronoun 
were put in the possessive case: "I sympathize with my sable brethren, when I hear of them being spared even 
one lash of the cart-whip." — Rev. De. Thompson : Garrison, on Colonization, p. 89. And this is an other, in 
which the possessive pronoun would not be better : " But, if the slaves wish to return to slavery, let them do so; 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 647 

it be proper to use nouns in that manner. But it may safely be held, that if the noun can well 
be considered the leading word in sense, we are at least under no necessity of subjecting it to the 
government of a mere participle. If it be thought desirable to vary the foregoing example, it 
may easily be done, thus : " There is no more of moral principle to prevent abolitionists from nom- 
inating their own candidates, than to prevent them from voting for those nominated by others." 
The following example is much like the preceding, but less justifiable : " We see comfort, secu- 
rity, strength, pleasure, wealth, and prosperity, all flowing from men combining together; and 
misery, weakness, and poverty, ensuing from their acting separately or in opposition to each 
other." — West's Letters, p. 133. Say rather, — "from men's combining- together," or, "from the just 
combination of men in society ;" and, — " from their separate action, or their opposition to one an 
other." Take an other example: "If illorum be governed here of negotii, it must be in this order, 
gratid negotii illorum videndi ; and this is, for the sake of their business being seen, and not, for 
the sake of them being seen." — Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries, p. 352. Eere the learned 
critic, in disputing Perizonius's resolution of the phrase, " illorum videndi gratid," has written 
disputable English. But, had he affected the Latin idiom, a nearer imitation of it would have 
been, — "for the sake of their businesses being seen, and not for the sake of their being seen." Or 
nearer still, — " for the sake of seeing of their business, and not, for the sake of seeing of them." An 
elegant writer would be apt to avoid all these forms, and say, — " for the sake of seeing their busi- 
ness ;" and, — " for the sake of seeing them ;" though the former phrase, being but a version of bad 
Latin, makes no very good sense in any way. 

Obs. 41. — Idioms, or peculiarities of expression, are never to be approved or valued, but accord- 
ing to their convenience, utility, or elegance. By this rule, some phrases that are not positively 
barbarous, may yet be ungrammatical, and a construction that is sometimes allowable, may yet 
be quite unworthy to be made or reckoned, "the common mode of expression." Thus, in Latin, 
the infinitive verb is occasionally put for a noun, and taken to signify a property possessed ; as, 
" Tuum scire, [thy to know,] the same as tua scientia, thy knowledge. Pers." — Adam's Gram., 
p. 153. So, in English, the participle in ing is often taken substantively, when it does not act- 
ually become a substantive or noun; as, " Thy knowing this," — " Our doing so." — West Such 
forms of speech, because they are idiomaticaL seldom admit of any literal translation, and are 
never naturalized by any transfer from one language or dialect into an other ; nor is it proper for 
grammarians to justify them, in vernacular speech, except as figures or anomalies that ought not 
to be generally imitated. It cannot be truly affirmed, that the genius of our language ever re- 
quires that participles, as such, should assume the relations of a noun, or govern the possessive 
case ; nor, on the other hand, can it be truly denied, that very excellent and learned writers do 
sometimes make use of such phraseology. "Without disrespect to the many users and approvers 
of these anomalies, I set down for bad English every mixed construction of the participle, for 
which the language can furnish an equivalent expression that is more simple and more elegant. 
The extent to which these comparative barbarisms now abound in English books, and the ridicu- 
lous fondness for them, which has been shown by some writers on English grammar, in stead of 
amounting to any argument; in their favour, are in fact, plain proofs of the necessity of an 
endeavour to arrest so obvious and so pernicious an innovation. 

Obs. 42. — A late author observes as follows: "That the English gerund, participle, or verbal 
noun, in ing, has both an active and a passive signification, there can be little doubt.* Whether 
the Latin gerund has precisely a similar import, or whether it is only active, it may be difficult, 
and, indeed, after all, it is not of much moment, to ascertain." — Grant's Latin Gram., p. 234. 
The gerund in Latin most commonly governs the case of its own verb, as does the active parti- 
ciple, both in Latin and English: as, " Efferor studio patres vestros videndi. Cic. de sen. 23." — 
Lily's Gram., p. 96. That is, " I am transported with a desire of seeing your fathers." But 
sometimes we find the gerund taken substantively and made to govern the genitive. Or, — to 
adopt the language of an old grammarian: — "Interdum non invenuste additur gerundiis in di 
etiam genitivus pluralis: ut, ' Quum illorum videndi gratia mo in forum contulissem.' — ' Kovarum 
.[qui] spectandi faciunt copiam.' Ter. Iieaut. prol. 29." — Lily's Gram., p. 97. That is, "To ge- 
runds in di there is sometimes not inelegantly added a genitive plural : as, ' When, for the sake 
of seeing of them, I went into the forum.' — 'Who present an opportunity of attending of new 
ones :' i. e., new comedies." Here the of which is inserted after the participle to mark the geni- 
tive case which is added, forms rather an error than an elegance, though some English writers do 
now and then adopt this idiom. The gerund thus governing the genitive, is not analogous to 
our participle governing the possessive ; because this genitive stands, not for the subject of the 

not an abolitionist will turn out to stop them going back." — Antislaverji Reporter, Vol. IV, p. 2'23. Yet it might 
be more accurate to say — " to stop them from going back." In the following example from the pen of Priest- 
ley, the objective is correctly used with as, where some would be apt to adopt the possessive : " It gives us an 
idea of him, as being the only person to whom it can be applied." — Priestley's Gram., p. 151. Is not this better 
English thau to say, " of his being the only person?" The following is from the pen of a good scholar: " This 
made me remember the discourse we had together, at my house, about me drawing constitutions, not as pro- 
posals, but as if fixed to the hand." — William Penn: Letter to Algernon Sidneii, Oct. 13th, 16S1. Here, W 
me is objectionable, my without of would be no less so. It might be better grammar to say, "about my draw 
ing of constitutions." 

* Sometimes the passive form is adopted, when there is no real need of it, and when perhaps the active would 
be better, because it is simpler; as, " Those portions of the grammar are worth the trouble of being eommitte- 
to memory." — Dr. Barrow's Essays, p. 109. Better, perhaps: — "worth the trouble of committing to memory:" 
or, — " worth the trouble of committing them to memory." Again: "What is worth being littered at all, is 
worth being spoken in a proper manner." — Kirhham's Elocution, p. 68. Better, perhaps: "What is worth 
uttering at all, is worth uttering in a proper manner." — G. Beown, 



648 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

being or action, but for what would otherwise be the object of the gerund, or of the participle, as 
may be seen above. The objection to the participle as governing the possessive, is, that it retains 
its object or its adverb ; for when it does not, it becomes fairly a noun, and the objection is re- 
moved. R. Johnson, like many others, erroneously thinks it a noun, even when it governs an 
objective, and has merely a preposition before it; as, "For the sake of seeing them. Where see- 
ing (says he) is a Substantive." — Gram Com., p. 353. 

Obs. 43. — If the Latin gerund were made to govern the genitive of the agent, and allowed at 
the same time to retain its government as a gerund, it would then correspond in cver} r thing but 
declension, to the English participle when made to govern both the possessive case and the ob- 
jective. But I have before observed that no such analogy appears. The following example has 
been quoted by Seyer, as a proof that the gerund may govern the genitive of the agent: " Cujus 
autem in dicendo aliquid reprehensum est — Cic." — Grants Lot. Gram., p. 236. That is, (as I un- 
derstand it,) " But in whose speaking something is reprehended." This seems to me a case in 
point; though Crombie and Grant will not allow it to be so. But a single example is not suffi- 
cient. If the doctrine is true, there must be others. In this solitary instance, it would be easier 
to doubt the accuracy even of Cicero, than to approve the notion of these two critics, that cvjus is 
here governed by aliquid, and not by the gerund. "Here," says Grant, "I am inclined to concur 
in opinion with Dr. Crombie, whose words I take the liberty to use, ' That, for the sake of eupho- 
ny, the gerund is sometimes found governing the genitive of the patient, or subject [say object] 
of the action, is unquestionable : thus, studio videndi patrum vestrorum. [That is, literally, By 
a desire of seeing of your fathers.] But I recollect no example, where the gerund is joined with a 
possessive adjective, or genitive of a noun substantive, where the person is not the patient, but 
the agent ; as, dicendum meum, ejus dicendum, cujus dicendum. [That is, my speaking, his speak- 
ing, whose speaking.] In truth, these phraseologies appear to me, not only repugnant to the 
idiom of the language, but also unfavourable to precision and perspicuity.' " — Grants Latin Gram., 
8vo, p. 236. 

Obs. 44. — Of that particular distinction between the participle and the participial noun, which 
depends on the insertion or omission of the article and the preposition of, a recent grammarian 
of considerable merit adopts the following views: "This double nature of the participle has led 
to much irregularity in its use. Thus we find, 'indulging which,' 'indulging of which,' l ihe 
indulging which,' and l the indulging of which,' used indiscriminately. Low 7 th very properly 
instructs us, either to use both the article and the preposition with the participle ; as, ' the in- 
dulging of which :' or to reject both; as, 'indulging which:' thus keeping the verbal and sub- 
stantive forms distinct. But he is wrong, as Dr. Crombie justly remarks, in considering these 
two modes of expression as perfectly similar. Suppose I am told, 'Bloomfleld spoke warmly of 
the pleasure he had in hearing Fawcet :' I understand at once, that the eloquence of Fawcet gave 
Bloomfleld great pleasure. But were it said, ' Bloomfleld spoke warmly of the pleasure he had 
in the hearing of Fawcet:' I should be led to conclude merely that the orator was within hear- 
ing, when the poet spoke of the pleasure he felt from something, about which I have no infor- 
mation. Accordingly Dr. Crombie suggests as a general rule, conducive at least to perspicuity, 
and perhaps to elegance ; that, when the noun connected with the participle is active, or doing 
something, the article should be inserted before the participle, and the preposition after it ; and, 
when the noun is passive, or represents the object of an action, both the article and the preposi- 
tion should be omitted:* agreeably to the examples just adduced. It is true, that when the 
noun following the participle denotes something incapable of the action the participle expresses, 
no mistake can arise from using either form : as, ' The middle condition seems to be the most ad- 
vantageously situate for the gaining of wisdom. Poverty turns our thoughts too much upon the 
supplying of our wants ; and riches, upon enjoying our superfluities.' Addison, Sped., 464. Yet 
I cannot think it by any means a commendable practice, thus to jumble together different forms; 
and indeed it is certainly better, as the two modes of expression have different significations, to 
confine each to its distinct and proper use, agreeably to Dr. Crombie's rule, even when no mis- 
take could arise from interchanging them." — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 319. 

Obs. 45. — The two modes of expression which these grammarians would thus apply constantly 
to different uses, on the supposition that they have always different significations, are the same 
that Lindley Murray and his copyists suppose to be generally equivalent, and concerning which 
it is merely admitted by the latter, that they do u not in every instance convey the same meaning." 
(See Obs. 27 th above.) If Dr. Lowth considered them "as perfectly similar" he was undoubt- 
edly very wrong in this matter ; though not more so than these gentlemen, who resolve to inter- 
pret them as being perfectly and constantly dissimilar. Dr. Adam says, " There are, both in 
Latin and [in] English, substantives derived from the verb, which so much resemble the Gerund 
in their signification, that frequently they may be substituted in its place. They are generally 
used, however, in a more undetermined sense than the Gerund, and in English, have the article 
always\ prefixed to them. Thus, with the gerund, Delector legendo Ciceronem, I am delighted 
with reading Cicero. But with the substantive, Delector leciione Ciceronis, I am delighted with 
the reading of Cicero." — Lat. and Eng. Gram., p. 142. " Gerunds are so called because they, as 
it were, signify the thing in gerendo, (anciently written gerundo,) in doing ; and, along with the 

* " Rule. — When the participle expresses something of which the noun following is the doee, it should have 
the article and preposition ; as, ' It was said in the hearing of the witness.' When it expresses something of 
which the noun following is not the doer, but, the ok.veot, both should be omitted; as, 'The court spent some 
time in hearing the witness.' " — Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 108 ; Analyt. and Prnct. Gram., 181. 

t This doctrine is far from being true. See Obs. 12th, in this series, above.— G. B. 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — OBSERVATIONS. 649 

action, convey an idea of the agent." — Grant's Lot. Oram., p. 10; Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 353. 
" The reading of Cicero" does not necessarily signify an action of which Cicero is the agent, as 
Crombie, Churchill, and Hiley choose to expound it; and, since the gerundive construction of 
words in ing ought to have a definite reference to the agent or subject of the action or being, one 
may perhaps amend even some of their own phraseology above, by preferring the participial 
noun: as, "No mistake can arise from the using of either form." — "And riches [turn our 
thoughts too much] upon the enjoying o/our superfluities." — " Even when no mistake could arise 
from the interchanging o/them." "Where the agent of the action plainly appears, the gerundive 
form is to be preferred on account of its brevity ; as, " By the observing of truth, you will com- 
mand respect;" or, "By observing truth, &c." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 189. Here the latter 
phraseology is greatly preferable, though this author did not perceive it. " I thought nothing 
was to be done by me before the giving o/you thanks." — Walker's Particles, p. 63. Say, — "be- 
fore giving you thanks;" for otherwise the word thanks has no proper construction, the pronoun 
alone being governed by of — and here again is an error ; for "you" ought to be the object of to. 

Obs. 46. — In Hiley's Treatise, a work far more comprehensive than the generality of grammars, 
"the established principles and best usages of the English" Participle are so adroitly summed up, 
as to occupy only two pages, one in Etymology, and an other in Syntax. The author shows how 
the participle differs from a verb, and how from an adjective ; yet he neither makes it a separate 
part of speech, nor tells us with what other it ought to be included. In lieu of a general rule for 
the parsing of all participles, he presents the remark, "Active transitive participles, like their 
verbs, govern the objective case; as, 'I am desirous of hearing him;' ' Having praised them, he 
sat down.' " — Hiley's Gram., p. 93. This is a rule by which one may parse the few objectives which 
are governed by participles ; but, for the usual construction of participles themselves, it is no rule 
at all; neither does the grammar, full as it is, contain any. "Hearing" is here governed by of, 
and " Having praised" relates to he; but this author teaches neither of these tacts, and the former 
he expressly contradicts by his false definition of a preposition. In his first note, is exhibited, in 
two parts, the false and ill-written rule which Churchill quotes from Crombie. (1.) " When the 
noun, connected with the participle, is active or doing something, the participle must have an article 
before it, and the preposition of after it; as, 'In the hearing of the philosopher;' or, ' In the 
philosopher's hearing;' 'By the preaching of Christ;' or, 'By Christ's preaching.' In these in- 
stances," says Hiley, "the words hearing and preaching are substantives." If so, he ought to have 
corrected this rule, which twice calls them participles ; but, in stead of doing that, he blindly adds, 
by way of alternative, two examples which expressly contradict what the rule asserts. (2.) "But 
when the noun represents the object of an action, the article and the preposition of must be 
omitted; as, ' In hearing the philosopher.' " — lb., p. 94. If this principle is right, my second note 
below, and most of the corrections under it, are wrong. But I am persuaded that the adopters 
of this rule did not observe how common is the phraseology which it condemns ; as, " For if the 
casting-away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but fife 
from the dead?" — Rom., xi, 15. Finally, this author rejects the of which most critics insert 
when a possessive precedes the verbal noun ; justifies and prefers the mixed or double construc- 
tion of the participle ; and, consequently, neither wishes nor attempts to distinguish the participle 
from the verbal noun. Yet ho does not fail to repeat, with some additional inaccuracy, the 
notion, that, "What do you think of my horse's running ? is different to [say/rom,] What do you 
think of my horse running?" — lb., p. 94. 

Obs. 4*7. — That English books in general, and the style of even our best writers, should seldom 
be found exempt from errors in the construction of participles, will not be thought wonderful, 
when we consider the multiplicity of uses to which words of this sort are put, and the strange 
inconsistencies into which all our grammarians have fallen in treating this part of syntax. It is 
useless, and worse than useless, to teach for grammar any thing that is not true ; and no doctrine 
can be true of which one part palpably oversets an other. What has been taught on the present 
topic, has led me into a multitude of critical remarks, designed both for the refutation of the 
principles which I reject, and for the elucidation and defence of those which are presently to be 
summed up in notes, or special rules, for the correction of false syntax. If my decisions do not 
agree with the teaching of our common grammarians, it is chiefly because these authors contra- 
dict themselves. Of this sort of teaching I shall here offer but one example more, and then bring 
these strictures to a close : " When present participles are preceded by an article, or pronoun 
adjective, they become nouns, and must not be followed by objective pronouns, or nouns without 
a preposition ; as, the reading of many books wastes the health. But such nouns, like all others, 
may be used without an article, being sufficiently discovered by the following preposition; as, he 
was sent to prepare the way, by preaching of repentance. Also an article, or pronoun adjective, 
may precede a clause, used as a noun, and commencing with a participle ; as, his teaching children 
was necessary." — Dr. Wilson's Syllabus of English Gram., p. xxx. Here the last position of the 
learned doctor, if it be true, completely annuls the first ; or, if the first be true, the last must 
needs be false. And, according to Lowth, L. Murray, and many others, the second is as bad as 
either. The bishop says, concerning this very example, that by the use of the preposition of 
after the participle preaching, " the phrase is rendered obscure and ambiguous : for the obvious 
meaning of it, in its present form, is, 'by preaching concerning repentance, or on that subject;' 
whereas the sense intended is, ' by publishing the covenant of repentance, and declaring repent- 
ance to be a condition of acceptance with God.' " — Lowth's Gram., p. 82. "It ought to be, 'by 
the preaching of repentance;' or, by preaching repentance." — Murray's Gram,., p. 193. 



650 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

NOTES TO RULE XX. 

Note I. — Active participles have the same government as the verbs from which 
they are derived ; the preposition of, therefore, should never be used after the parti- 
ciple, when the verb does not require it. Thus, in phrases like the following, of is 
improper : " Keeping of one day in seven ;" — " By preaching of repentance ;" — 
" They left beating of Paul." 

Note II. — When a transitive participle is converted into a noun, of must be in- 
serted to govern the object following ; as, " So that there was no withstanding of 
him." — Walker's Particles, p. 252. "The cause of their salvation doth not so 
much arise from their embracing of mercy, as from God's exercising of it." — Pening- 
ton's Works, Vol. ii, p. 91. "Faith is the receiving of Christ with the whole soul." 
— Baxter. " In thy pouring-out of thy fury upon Jerusalem." — Ezekiel, ix, 8. 

Note III. — When the insertion of the word of to complete the conversion of the 
transitive participle into a noun, produces ambiguity or harshness, some better phrase- 
ology must be chosen. Example : " Because the action took place prior to the taking 
place of the other past action." — Kirkha.m's Gram.,Y>. 140. Here the words prior 
and place have no regular construction ; and if we say, " prior to the taking of place 
of the other," we make the jumble still worse. Say therefore, "Because the action 
took place before the other past action ;" — or, " Because the action took place pre- 
viously to the other past action." 

Note IV. — When participles become nouns, their adverbs should either become 
adjectives, or be taken as parts of such nouns, written as compound words : or, if 
neither of these methods be agreeable, a greater change should be made. Examples 
of error : 1. " Rightly understanding a sentence, depends very much on a knowledge 
of its grammatical construction." — Comly's Gram., 12th Ed., p. 3. Say, " The right 
understanding of a sentence," &c. 2. " Elopement is a running away, or private 
departure." — Webster's El. Spelling- Book, p. 102. Write ^ running -away" as one 
word. 3. " If they [Milton's descriptions] have any faults, it is their alluding too 
frequently to matters of learning, and to fables of antiquity." — Blair's Rhet., p. 451. 
Say, "If they have any fault, it is that they allude too frequently," &c. 

Note V. — When the participle is followed by an adjective, its conversion into a 
noun appears to be improper ; because the construction of the adjective becomes 
anomalous, and its relation doubtful : as, " When we speak of ' ambition's being rest- 
less' or, 'a disease's being deceitful.'" — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 346 ; Kirkham's, 
p. 224. This ought to be, " When we speak of ambition as being restless, or a dis- 
ease as being deceitful ;" but Dr.- Blair, from whom the text originally came, appears 
to have written it thus : " When we speak of ambition's being restless, or a disease 
being deceitful." — Lect. xvi, p. 155. This is inconsistent with itself ; for one noun 
is possessive, and the other, objective. 

Note VI. — When a compound participle is converted into a noun, the hyphen 
seems to be necessary, to prevent ambiguity ; but such compound nouns are never 
elegant, and it is in general better to avoid them, by some change in the expression. 
Example : " Even as the being healed of a wound, presupposeth the plaster or salve : 
but not, on the contrary ; for the application of the plaster presupposeth not the 
being healed." — Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 143. The phrase, " the being healed" 
ought to mean only, the creature healed ; and not, the being-healed, or the healing 
received, which is what the writer intended. But the simple word healing might 
have been used in the latter sense ; for, in participial nouns, the distinction of voice 
and of tense are commonly disregarded. 

Note VII. — A participle should not be used where the infinitive mood, the verbal 
noun, a common substantive, or a phrase equivalent, will better express the meaning. 
Examples : 1. "But placing an accent on the second syllable of these words, would 
entirely derange them." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 239. Say rather, " But, to 
place an accent — But the placing o/an accent — or, But an accent placed on the sec- 
ond syllable of these words, would entirely derange them." 2. " To reqmre their 
being in that case." — 76., Vol. ii, p. 21. Say, " To require them to be in that case." 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — NOTES. 651 

3. "She regrets not having read it." — West's Letters, p. 216. Say, "She regrets 
that she has not read it." Or, " She does not regret that she has read it." For the 
text is equivocal, and admits either of these senses. 

Note VIII. — A participle used for a nominative after be, is, was, &c, produces a 
construction which is more naturally understood to be a compound form of the verb ; 
and which is therefore not well adapted to the sense intended, when one tells what 
something is, was, or may be. Examples : 1. "Whose business is shoeing animals." 
— 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 365. Say, " Whose business it is, to shoe animals ;" — 
or, "Whose business is the shoeing of animals." 2. "This was in fact converting 
the deposite to his own use." — Murray's Key, ii, p. 200. Say rather, "This was in 
fact a converting of the deposite to his own use." — lb. 

Note IX. — Verbs of preventing should be made to govern, not the participle in 
ing, nor what are called substantive phrases, but the objective case of a noun or pro- 
noun ; and if a participle follow, it ought to be governed by the preposition from : 
as, " But the admiration due to so eminent a poet, must not prevent us from remark- 
ing some other particulars in which he has failed." — Blair's Mhet., p. 438. Exam- 
ples of error: 1. " I endeavoured to prevent letting him escape." — IngersolVs Gram., 
p. 150. Say, — " to prevent his escape" 2. "To prevent its being connected with 
the nearest noun." — ChurchiWs Gram., p. 367. Say, " To prevent it from being con- 
nected," &o. 3. " To prevent it bursting out with open violence." — Robertson's 
America, Vol. ii, p. 146. Say, "To prevent it from bursting out," &c. 4. "To pre- 
vent their injuring or murdering of others." — Brown's Divinity, p. 26. Say rather, 
"To prevent them from injuring or murdering others." 

Note X. — In the use of participles and of verbal nouns, the leading word in sense 
should always be made the leading or governing word in the construction ; and 
where there is reason to doubt whether the possessive case or some other ought to 
come before the participle, it is better to reject both, and vary the expression. Ex- 
amples : " Any person may easily convince himself of the truth of this, by listening 
to foreigners conversing in a language [which] he does not understand." — Churchill's 
Gram., p. 361. "It is a relic of the ancient style abounding w T ith negatives." — lb., 
p. 367. These forms are right; though the latter might be varied, by the insertion 
of " which abounds," for " abounding." But the celebrated examples before cited, 
about the " lady holding up her train," or the " lady's holding up her train," — the 
"person dismissing his servant," or the "per son's dismissing his servant," — the 
" horse running to-day," or the " horse's running to-day," — and many others which, 
some grammarians suppose to be interchangeable, are equally bad in both forms. 

Note XL — Participles, in general, however construed, should have a clear refer- 
ence to the proper subject of the being, action, or passion. The following sentence 
is therefore faulty : " By establishing good laws, our peace is secured." — Russell's 
Gram., p. 88 ; Folker's, p. 27. Peace not being the establisher of the laws, these 
authors should have said, " By establishing good laws, we secure our peace." " There 
will be no danger of spoiling their faces, or of gaining converts." — Murray's Key, 
ii, p. 201. This sentence is to me utterly unintelligible. If the context were known, 
there might possibly be some sense in saying, " They will be in no danger of spoil- 
ing their faces," &c. " The law is annulled, in the very act of its being made" — 
0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 267. "The act of making a law," is a phrase intelligible ; 
but, " the act of its being made," is a downright solecism — a positive absurdity. 

Note XII. — A needless or indiscriminate use of participles for nouns, or of nouns 
for participles, is inelegant, if not improper, and ought therefore to be avoided. 
Examples: "Of denotes possession or belonging." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 118; 
IngersolVs, 71. " The preposition of, frequently implies possession, property, or 
belonging to." — Cooper's PI. and Pr. Gram., -p. 137. Say," Of frequently denotes 
possession, or the relation of property." " England perceives the folly of the denying 
of such concessions." — Nixon's Parser, p. 149. Expunge the and the last of, that 
denying may stand as a participle. 

Note XIII. — Perfect participles being variously formed, care should be taken to 
express them agreeably to the best usage, and also to distinguish them from the 



652 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

preterits of their verbs, where there is any difference of fonn. Example : " It would 
be well, if all writers who endeavour to be accurate, would be careful to avoid a 
corruption at present so prevalent, of saying, it was wrote, for, it was written ; he 
was drove, for, he was driven ; I have went, for, / have gone, &c, in all which in- 
stances a verb is absurdly used to supply the proper participle, without any necessity 
from the want of such word." — Harris's Hermes, p. 186. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XX. 

Examples Under Note I. — Expunge OP. 

" In forming of his sentences, he was very exact." — Error noticed by Murray, Vol. i, p. 194. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because the preposition of is used after the participle forming, whose verb does not 
require it. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 20th, "Active participles have the same government as the 
verbs from which they are derived ; the preposition of, therefore, should not be used after the participle, when 
the verb does not require it." Therefore, of should be omitted; thus, "In forming his sentences, he was very 
exact."] 

11 For not believing of which I condemn them." — Barclay's Works, hi, 354. " To prohibit his 
hearers from reading of that book." — lb., i, 223. " You will please them exceedingly, in crying 
down of ordinances." — Mitchell: ib., i, 219. "The war-wolf subsequently became an engine 
for casting of stones." — Constable's Miscellany, xxi, 117. "The art of dressing of hides and work- 
ing in leather was practised." — lb., xxi, 101. "In the choice they had made of him, for 
restoring of order." — Rollin's Hist., ii, 37. " The Arabians exercised themselves by composing of 
orations and poems." — Sale's Koran, p. 17. "Behold, the widow- woman was there gathering 
of sticks." — 1 Kings, xvii, 10. "The priests were busied in offering of burnt-offerings." — 2 
Chron., xxxv, 14. "But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him." — 2 Sam., ii, 21. 
" Ho left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah." — 1 Kings, xv, 21. "Those who accuse us 
of denying of it, belie us." — Barclay's Works, iii, 280. "And breaking of bread from house to 
house." — lb., i, 192. "Those that set about repairing of the walls." — lb., i, 459. "And secretly 
begetting of divisions." — lb., i, 521. "Whom he had made use of in gathering of his church." — 
lb., i, 535. " In defining and distinguishing of the acceptions and uses of those particles." — 
Walker's Particles, p. 12. 

" In punishing of this, wo overthrow 
The laws of nations, and of nature too." — JDryden, p. 92. 

Under Note II. — Articles Require OF. 
" The mixing them makes a miserable jumble of truth and fiction." — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 
357. "The same objection lies against the employing statues." — -lb., ii, 358. "More efficacious 
than the venting opulence upon the Fine Arts." — lb., Vol. i, p. viii. "It is the giving dif- 
ferent names to the same object." — lb., ii, 19. " When we have in view the erecting a column." 
■ — lb., ii, 56. " The straining an elevated subject beyond due bounds, is a vice not so frequent." 
— lb., i, 206. "The cutting evergreens in the shape of animals is very ancient." — lb., ii, 327. 
" The keeping juries, without meet, drink or fire, can be accounted for only on the same idea." — 
Webster's Essays, p. 301. " The writing the verbs at length on his slate, will be a very useful ex- 
ercise." — Beck's Gram., p. 20. " The avoiding them is not an object of any moment." — Sheridan's 
Led, p. 180. " Comparison is the increasing or decreasing the Signification of a Word by degrees." 
— British Gram., p. 97. "Comparison is the Increasing or Decreasing the Quality by Degrees." 
— Buchanan's English Syntax, p. 27. " The placing a Circumstance before the Word with which 
it is connected, is the easiest of all Inversion." — lb., p. 140. "What is emphasis? It is the 
emitting a stronger and fuller sound of voice," &c. — Bradley's Gram., p. 108. "Besides, the vary- 
ing the terms will render the use of them more familiar." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 25. " And 
yet the confining themselves to this true principle, has misled them !" — Home Tooke's Diversions, 
Vol. i, p. 15. "What is here commanded, is merely the relieving his misery." — Wayland's 
Moral Science, p. 417. "The accumulating too great a quantity of knowledge at random, over- 
loads the mind instead of adorning it." — Formey's Belles- Lettres, p. 5. " For the compassing his 
point." — Rollin's Hist., ii, 35. " To the introducing such an inverted order of things." — Butler's 
Analogy, p. 95. " Which require only the doing an external action." — lb., p. 185. " The imprison- 
ing my body is to satisfy your wills." — Geo. Fox: Sewel's Hist, p. 47. " Who oppose the con- 
ferring such extensive command on one person." — Duncan's Cicero, p. 130. " Luxury contributed 
not a little to the enervating their forces." — Sale's Koran, p. 49. "The keeping one day of the 
week for a sabbath." — Barclay's Works, i, 202. " The doing a thing is contrary to the forbearing 
of it." — lb., i, 527. "The doubling the Sigma is, however, sometimes regular." — Knight, on the 
Greek Alphabet, p. 29. "The inserting the common aspirate too, is improper." — lb., p. 134. 
" But in Spenser's time the pronouncing the ed seems already to have been something of an 
archaism." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 656. "And to the reconciling the effect of their 
verses on the eye." — lb., i, 659. " When it was not in their power to hinder the taking the 
whole." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 155. "He had indeed given the orders himself for the shutting 
the gates." — Paid. " So his whole life was a doing the will of the Father." — Penington, iv, 99. 
"It signifies the suffering or receiving the action expressed." — Priestley's Gram., p. 37. "The 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. RULE XX. PARTICIPLES. — ERRORS. 653 

pretended crime therefore was the declaring himself to be the Son of God." — West's Letters, p. 
210. '• Parsing is the resolving a sentence into its different parts of speech." — Beck's Gram., p. 26. 

Under Note II. — Adjectives Require OF. 
" There is no expecting the admiration of beholders." — Baxter. " There is no biding you in the 
house." — Shakspeare. "For tbe better regulating government in the province of Massachusetts." 
— British Parliament. " The precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government." 
— J. Q. Adams's Bhet., Vol. ii, p. 6. " [This state of discipline] requires the voluntary foregoing 
many things which we desire, and setting ourselves to what we have no inclination to." — Butler's 
Analogy, p. 115. "This amounts to an active setting themselves against religion." — lb., p. 264. 
" Which engaged our ancient friends to the orderly establishing our Christian discipline." — K E. 
Discip., p. 117. "Some men are so unjust that there is no securing our own property or life, 
but by opposing force to force." — Brown's Divinity, p. 26. "An Act for the better securing the 
Rights and Liberties of the Subject." — Geo. Ill, 31st. "Miraculous curing the sick is discon- 
tinued." — Barclay's Works, iii, 137. "It would have been no transgressing the apostle's rule." — 
lb., p. 116. " As far as consistent with the proper conducting the business of the House." — 
Elmore, in Congress, 1839. "Because he would have no quarrelling at the just condemning them 
at that day." — Law and Grace, p. 42. " That transferring this natural manner — will ensure pro- 
priety." — Bush, on the Voice, p. 372. "If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old 
turning the key." — Macbeth, Act ii, Sc. 3. 

Under Note II. — Possessives Require OF. 
"So very simple a thing as a man's wounding himself." — Blair's Bhet, p. 97 ; Murray's Gram., 
p. 317. " Or with that man's avowing his designs." — Blair, p. 104; Murray, p. 308 ; Barker and 
Fox, Bart HI, p. 88. "On his putting the question." — Adams's Bhet., Yol. ii, p. 111. "The 
importance of teachers' requiring their pupils to read each section many times over." — Kirkham's 
Elocution, p. 169. " Politeness is a kind of forgetting one's self in order to be agreeable to others." 
— Bamsay's Cyrus. "Much, therefore, of the merit, and the agreeableness of epistolary writing, 
will depend on its introducing us into some acquaintance with the writer." — Blair's Bhet, p. 370; 
Mack's Dissertation in his Gram., p. 175. "Richard's restoration to respectability, depends on 
his paying his debts." — 0. B. Beirce's Gram-., p. 176. "Their supplying ellipses where none ever 
existed ; their parsing words of sentences already full and perfect, as though depending on words 
understood." — Bo., p. 375. ."Her veiling herself and shedding tears," &c, "her upbraiding Paris 
for his co wardice, " &c. — Blair's Bhet, p. 433. " A preposition maybe known by its admitting 
after it a personal pronoun, in the objective case." — Murray's Gram., p. 28; Alger's, 14; Bacon's, 
10; Merchant's, 18; and others. "But this forms no just objection to its denoting time." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 65. " Of men's violating or disregarding the relations which God has placed 
them in here." — Butler's Analogy, p. 164. " Success, indeed, no more decides for the right, than a 
man's killing his antagonist in a duel." — Campbells Bhet, p. 295. " His reminding them." — Kirk- 
ham's Elocution, p. 123. " This mistake was corrected by his preceptor's causing him to plant 
some beans." — lb., p. 235. " Their neglecting this was ruinous." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 82. 
"That he was serious, appears from his distinguishing the others as 'finite.' " — Fetch's Gram., p. 
10. "His hearers are not at all sensible of his doing it." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 119. 

Under Note III. — Change the Expression. 

" An allegory is the saying one thing, and meaning another; a double-meaning or dilogyisthe 
saying only one thing, but having two in view." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 461. "A verb 
may generally be distinguished, by its making sense with any of the personal pronouns, or the 
word to before it." — Murray's Gram., p. 2S ; Alger's, 13; Bacon's, 10 ; Comly's, and many others. 
" A noun may, in general, be distinguished by its taking an article before it, or by its making 
sense of itself." — Merchants Gram., p. 17; Murray s, 27; «£c. "An Adjective may usually be 
known by its making sense with the addition of the word thing : as, a good thing ; a bad thing." 
— Same Authors. "It is seen in the objective case, from its denoting the object affected by tho 
act of leaving." — 0. B. Beirces Gram., p. 44. "It is seen in the possessive case, from its denoting 
the possessor of something." — Ibid. "The name man is caused by the adname whatever to bo 
twofold subjective case, from its denoting, of itself, one person as the subject of the two remarks." 
— lb., p. 56. " When, as used in the last line, is a connective, from its joining that line to the 
other part of the sentence." — Bo., p. 59. "From their denoting reciprocation." — lb., p. 64. "To 
allow them the making use of that liberty." — Sale's Koran, p. 116. "The worst efiect of it is, 
the fixing on your mind a habit of indecision." — Todd's Student's Manual, p. 60. "And you 
gipan the more deeply, as you reflect that there is no shaking it off." — lb., p. 47. "I know of 
nothing that can justify the having recourse to a Latin translation of a Greek writer." — Coleridge's 
Introduction, p. 16. "Humour is the making others act or talk absurdly." — Hazlitt's lectures. 
" There are remarkable instances of their not affecting each other.-" — Butler's Analogy, p. 150. 
"The leaving Csesar out of the commission was not from any slight." — Life of Cictro, p. 44. 
"Of the receiving this toleration thankfully I shall say no more." — Dryden's Works, p. 88. 
"Henrietta was delighted with Julia's working lace so very well." — Q. B. Beirce's Gram., p. 255. 
" And it is from their representing each two different words that the confusion has arisen." — 
Booth's Introd., p. 42. " iEschylus died of a fracture of his skull, caused by an eagle's letting fall 



654 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

a tortoise on his head." — Biog. Diet " He doubted their having it." — Fetch's Comp. Gram., p. 
81. " The making ourselves clearly understood, is the chief end of speech." — Sheridan'' s Elocution, 
p. 68. " There is no discovering in their countenances, any signs which are the natural con- 
comitants of the feelings of the heart." — lb., p. 165. " Nothing can be more common or less 
proper than to speak of a river's emptying itself." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 186. " Our not using the 
former expression, is owing to this." — Bullions's E. Gram., p. 59. 

Under Note IV. — Disposal of Adverbs. 
" To this generally succeeds the division, or the laying down the method of the discourse." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 311. " To the pulling down of strong holds." — 2 Cor., x, 4. "Can a mere buck- 
ling on a military weapon infuse courage?" — Brown's Estimate, i, 62. "Living expensively and 
luxuriously destroys health." — Murray's Gram., i, 234. " By living frugally and temperately, 
health is preserved." — Ibid. "By living temperately, our health is promoted." — lb., p. 227. "By 
"the doing away of the necessity." — The Friend, xiii, 157. " He recommended to them, however, 
the immediately calling of the whole community to the church." — Gregory's Diet, w. Ventriloquism. 
" The separation of large numbers in this manner certainly facihtates the reading them rightly." 
— Churchill's Gram., p. 303. "From their merely admitting of a twofold grammatical construe-* 
tion." — Philol. Museum, i, 463. "His gravely le< turing his friend about it." — lb., i, 478. "For 
the blotting out of sin." — Gurney's Evidences, p. 140. "From the not using of water." — Bar- 
clay's Works, i, 189. "By the gentle dropping in of a pebble." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 125. 
"To the carrying on a great part of that general course of nature." — Butler's Analogy, p. 127. 
" Then the not interposing is so far from being a ground of complaint." — lb., p. 147. " The bare 
omission, or rather the not employing of what is used." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 180; Jamieson's, 
48. "Bringing together incongruous adverbs is a very common fault." — Churchill's Gram., p. 
329. " This is a presumptive proof of its not proceeding from them." — Butler's Analogy, p. 186. 
"It represents him in a character to which the acting unjustly is peculiarly unsuitable." — Camp- 
bell's Rhet, p. 372. " They will aim at something higher than merely the dealing out of harmon- 
ious sounds." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 65. "This is intelligible and sufficient; and going farther 
seems beyond the reach of our faculties." — Butler's Analogy, p. 147. " Apostrophe is a turning off 
from the regular course of the subject." — Murray's Gram., p. 348; Jamieson's Rhet, 185. "Even 
Isabella was finally prevailed upon to assent to the sending out a commission to investigate his 
conduct." — Life of Columbus. " For the turning away of the simple shall slay them." — Prov., i, 32. 

"Thick fingers always should command 
Without the stretching out the hand." — King's Poems, p. 585. 

Under Note V. — Participles with Adjectives. 

"Is there any Scripture speaks of the light's being inward?" — Barclay's Works, i, 367. "For 
I believe not the being positive therein essential to salvation." — lb., hi, 330. " Our not being 
able to act an uniform right part without some thought and care." — Butler's Analogy, p. 122. 
" Upon supposition of its being reconcileable with the constitution of nature." — lb., p. 128. 
" Upon account of its not being discoverable by reason or experience." — lb., p. 170. " Upon 
account of their being unlike the known course of nature." — lb., p. 171. " Our being able to 
discern reasons for them, gives a positive credibility to the history of them." — lb., p. 174. " From 
its not being universal." — Po., p. 175. " That they may be turned into the passive participle in 
dus is no decisive argument in favour of their being passive." — Grant's Lat Gram., p. 233. 
" With the implied idea of St. Paul's being then absent from the Corinthians." — Kirkham's Elocu- 
tion, p. 123. "On account of its becoming gradually weaker, until it finally dies away into 
silence." — lb., p. 32. "Not without tho author's being fully aware." — lb., p. 84. "Being witty 
out of season, is one sort of folly." — Sheffield's Works, ii, 172. "Its being generally susceptible 
of a much stronger evidence." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 102. "At least their being such rarely en- 
hanceth our opinion, either of their abilities or of their virtues." — lb., p. 162. " Which were the 
ground of our being one." — Barclay's Works, i, 513. "But they may be distinguished from it 
by their being intransitive." — Murray's Gram., i, .60. " To distinguish the higher degree of our 
persuasion of a thing's being possible." — Churchill's Gram., p. 234. 
"His being idle, and dishonest too, 
Was that which caus'd his utter overthrow." — Tobitt's Gram., p. 61. 

Under Note VI. — Compound Verbal Nouns. 
"When it denotes being subjected to the exertion of another." — Booth's lntrod., p. 37. "In a 
passive sense, it signifies being subjected to the influence of the action." — Fetch's Comp. Gram., 
p. 60. "The being abandoned by our friends is very deplorable." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, lil. 
"Without waiting for their being attacked by the Macedonians." — lb., ii, 97. "In progress of 
time, words were wanted to express men's being connected with certain conditions of fortune." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 135. " Our being made acquainted with pain and sorrow, has a tendency to 
bring us to a settled moderation." — Butler's Analogy, p. 121. "The chancellor's being attached 
to the king secured his crown ; The general's having failed in this enterprise occasioned his dis- 
grace ; John's having been writing a long time had wearied him." — Murray's Gram., p. 66 ; 
Sanborn's, 171; Cooper's, 96; lngersoWs, 46; Fisk's, 83; and others. " The sentence should be, 
'John's having been writing a long time has wearied him.' " — Wright's Gram., p. 186. "Much 



CHAP. VII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — ERRORS. 655 

depends on this rule's being observed." — Murray's Key, ii, 195. "He mentioned a boy's having 
been corrected for his faults; The boy's having been corrected is shameful to him." — Alger's 
Gram., p. 65 ; Merchant's, 93. "The greater the difficulty of remembrance is, and the more im- 
portant the being remembered is to the attainment of the ultimate end." — Campbell's Bhet, p. 
90. "If the parts in the composition of similar objects were always in equal quantity, their being 
compounded would make no odds." — lb., p. 65. " Circumstances, not of such importance as that 
the scope of the relation is affected by their being known." — lb., p. 379. "A passive verb ex- 
presses the receiving of an action or the being acted upon ; as, ' John is beaten.' " — Frost's El. of 
Gram.., p. 16. "So our Language has another great Advantage, namely its not being diversified 
by Genders." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 20. " The having been slandered is no fault of Peter." — 
Frost's El. of Gram., p. 82. "Without being Christ's friends, there is no being justified." — Wil- 
liam Perm. " Being accustomed to danger, begets intrepidity, i. e. lessens fear."— Butler's Analogy, 
p. 112. "It is, not being affected so and so, but acting, which forms those habits." — lb., p. 113. 
"In order to our being satisfied of the truth of the apparent paradox." — Campbell's Bhet., p. 164. 
" Tropes consist in a word's being employed to signify something that is different from its original 
and primitive meaning." — Blair's Bhet, p. 132 ; Jamieson's, 140 ; Murray's Gram., 337 ; Kirk- 
ham's, 222. " A Trope consists in a word's being employed," &c. — Hiley's Gram., p. 133. "The 
scriptural view of our being saved from punishment." — Gurney's Evidences, p. 124. "To submit 
and obey, is not a renouncing a being led by the Spirit." — Barclay's Works, i, 542. 

Under Note VII. — Participles for Infinitives, &c. 
" Teaching little children is a pleasant employment." — Bartletl's School Manual, ii, 68. " De- 
nying or compromising principles of truth is virtually denying their divine Author." — Beformer, 
i, 34. "A severe critic might point out some expressions that would bear being retrenched." — 
Blair's Bhet, p. 206. "Never attempt prolonging the pathetic too much." — lb., p. 323. "I 
now recollect having mentioned a report of that nature." — Wldting's Beader, p. 132. "Nor of 
the necessity which there is for their being restrained in them." — Butler's Analogy, p. 116. "But 
doing what God commands, because he commands it, is obedience, though it proceeds from hope 
or fear." — lb., -p. 124. " Simply closing the nostrils does not so entirely prevent resonance." — 
Music of Nature, p. 484. " Yet they absolutely refuse doing so." — Harris's Hermes, p. 264. 
" But Artaxerxes could not refuse pardoning him." — Goldsmith's Greece, \, 173. "Doing them 
in the best manner is signified by the name of these arts." — Bush, on the Voice, p. 360. " Behav- 
ing well for the time to come, maybe insufficient." — Butler's Analogy, p. 198. "The com- 
piler proposed publishing that part by itself." — Dr. Adam, Bom. Antiq., p. v. " To smile 
upon those we should censure, is bringing guilt upon ourselves." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 108. 
" But it would be doing great injustice to that illustrious orator to bring his genius down to the 
game level." — lb., p. 28. "Doubting things go ill, often hurts more than to be sure they do." — 
Beauties of Siiak., p. 203. "This is called straining a metaphor." — Blair's Bhet, p. 150; Mur- 
ray's Gram., i, 341. "This is what Aristotle calls giving manners to the poem." — Blair's Bhet, 
p. 427. "The painter's being entirely confined to that part of time which he has chosen, de- 
prives him of the power of exhibiting various stages of the same action." — Murray's Gram., i, 
195. "It imports retrenching all superfluities, and pruning the expression." — Blair's Bhet, p. 
94; Jamieson's, 64; Murray's Gram., p. 301; Kirkham's, 220. "The necessity for our being 
thus exempted is further apparent." — West's Letters, p. 40. " Her situation in life does not allow 
of her being genteel in every thing." — lb., p. 57. " Provided 3-ou do not dislike being dirty 
when you are invisible." — lb., p. 58. "There is now an imperious necessity for her being ac- 
quainted with her title to eternity." — lb., p 120. "Discarding the restraints of virtue, is mis- 
named ingenuousness." — lb., p. 105. " The legislature prohibits opening shop of a Sunday." — 
lb., p. 66. "To attempt proving that any thing is right." — 0. B. Beirce's Gram., p. 256. "The 
comma directs making a pause of a second in duration, or less." — lb., p. 280. " The rule which 
directs putting other words into the place of it, is wrong." — lb., p. 326. t " They direct calling 
the specifying adjectives or adnames adjective pronouns." — lb., p. 338. " William dislikes at- 
tending court." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 82. "It may perhaps be worth while remarking that 
Milton makes a distinction." — Bhilological Museum, i, 659. " Professing regard, and acting differ- 
ently, discover a base mind." — Murray's Key, p. 206; Bullions' s E. Gram., pp. 82 and 112; 
Jennie's, 58. " Professing regard and acting indifferently, discover a base mind." — Weld's Gram., 
Improved Edition, p. 59. "You have proved beyond contradiction, that acting thus is the sure 
way to procure such an object." — Campbell's Bhet, p. 92. 

Under Note VIII. — Participles after BE, IS, &c. 
" Irony is expressing ourselves in a manner contrary to our thoughts." — Murray's Gram., p. 
353; Kirkham's, 225; Goldsbury's, 90. " Irony is saying one thing and meaning the reverse of 
what that expression would represent." — O. B. Beirce's Gram., p. 303. "An Irony is dissem- 
bling or changing the proper signification of a word or sentence to quite the contrary." — Fisher's 
Gram., p. 151. "Irony is expressing ourselves contrary to what we mean." — Sanborn's Gram,., 
p. 280. "This is in a great Measure delivering their own Compositions." — Buchanan's Gram., 
p. xxvi. " But purity is using rightly the words of the language." — Jamieson's Bhet, p. 59. 
" But the most important object is settling the English quantity." — Walker's Key, p. 17. "When 
there is no affinity, the transition from one meaning to another is taking a very wide step." — 
Campbell's Bhet, p. 293. " It would be losing time to attempt further to illustrate it." — lb., p. 



656 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

79. " This is leaving the sentence too bare, and making it to be, if not nonsense, hardly sense." 

— Cobbett's Gram., ^[ 220. "This is requiring more labours from every private member." — 
Wests Letters, p. 120. " Is not this using one measure for our neighbours, and another for our- 
selves ?" — lb., p. 200. " Is it not charging God foolishly, when we give these dark colourings to 
human nature?" — lb., p. 171. "This is not enduring the cross as a disciple of Jesus Christ, but 
snatching at it like a partizan of Swift's Jack." — lb., p. 175. " What is Spelling ? It is combin- 
ing letters to form syllables and words." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., p. 18. "It is choosing such 
letters to compose words," &c. — Ibid. "What is Parsing? (1.) It is describing the nature, use, 
and powers of words." — lb., pp. 22 and 192. (2.) "For parsing is describing the words of a 
sentence as they are used." — to., p. 10. (3.) "Parsing is only describing the nature and relations 
of words as they are used." — lb., p. 11. (4.) "Parsing, let the pupil understand and remem- 
ber, is describing facts concerning words ; or representing them in their offices and relations 
as they are." — lb., p. 34. (5.) " Parsing is resolving and explaining words according to the 
rules of grammar." — lb., p. 326. (6.) " Parsing a word, remember, is enumerating and describ- 
ing its various relations and qualities, and its grammatical relations to other words in the sentence." 
— lb., p. 325. (7.) " For parsing a word is enumerating and describing its various properties and 
relations to the sentence." — lb., p. 326. (8.) "Parsing a noun is telling of what person, number, 
gender, and case, it is ; and also telling all its grammatical relations in a sentence with respect to 
other words." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 16. (9.) "Parsing any part of speech is telling all its prop- 
erties and relations.' — Ibid. (10.) "Parsing is resolving a sentence into its elements." — Fowler's 
E. Gram., 1850, § 588. "The highway of the righteous, is, departing from evil." — 0. B. Pence's 
Gram., p. 168. " Besides, the first step towards exhibiting truth should bo removing the veil of 
error." — lb., p. 377. " Punctuation is dividing sentences and the words of sentences, by pauses." 
— lb., p. 280. " Another fault is using the preterimperfect shook instead of the participle sliaken." 

— Churchill s Gram., p. 259. "Her employment is drawing maps." — Alger's Gram., p. 65. 
" Going to the play, according to his notion, is leading a sensual life, and exposing ones self to the 
strongest temptations. This is begging the question, and therefor requires no answer." — For- 
mers Belles- Lettres, p. 217. "It is overvaluing ourselves to reduce every thing to the narrow 
measure of our capacities." — Murray's Gram., i, 193; IngersolVs, 199. "What is vocal language? 
It is speaking ; or expressing ideas by the human voice." — Sanders, Spelling-Book, p. 7. 

Under Note IX. — Verbs of Preventing. 
" The annulling power of the constitution prevented that enactment's becoming a law." — 0. B. 
Pence's Gram., p. 267. " Which prevents the manner's being brief." — 76., p. 365. " This close 
prevents their bearing forward as nominatives." — Bush, on the Voice, p. 153. " Because this pre- 
vents its growing drowzy." — Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 5. " Yet this does not prevent his being 
great." — lb., p. 27. " To prevent its being insipid." — lb., p. 112. " Or whose interruptions did 
not prevent its being continued." — lb., p. 167. " This by no means prevents their being also 
punishments." — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 123. "This hinders not their being also, in the 
strictest sense, punishments." — Ibid. "The noise made by the rain and wind prevented their 
being heard." — Goldsmith's Greece, Yol. i, p. 118. "He endeavoured to prevent its taking ef- 
fect." — lb., i, 128. " So sequestered as to prevent their being explored." — West's Letters, p. 62. 
" Who prevented her making a more pleasant party." — lb., p. 65. " To prevent our being tossed 
about by every wind of doctrine." — lb., p. 123. " After the infirmities of age prevented his 
bearing his part of official duty." — Beligious World, ii, 193. "To prevent splendid trifles passing 
for matters of importance." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 310. "Which prevents his exerting himself 
to any good purpose." — Brattle's Moral Science, i, 146. " The want of the observance of this 
rule, very frequently prevents our being punctual in our duties." — Student's Manual, p. 65. 
"Nothing will prevent his being a student, and his possessing the means of study." — lb., p. 127. 
"Does the present accident hinder your being honest and brave?" — Collier's Antoninus, p. 51. 
"The e is omitted to prevent two es coming together." — Fowle's Gram., p. 34. "A pronoun is 
used for or in place of a noun, — to prevent repeating the noun." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 13. "Di- 
versity in the style relieves the ear, and prevents it being tired with the too frequent recurrence 
of the rhymes." — Campbell's Bhtt., p. 166. "Diversity in the style relieves the ear, and prevents 
its being tired," &c. — Murray's Gram., i, p. 362. " Timidity and false shame prevent our oppos- 
ing vicious customs." — Murray's Key, ii, 236; Sanborn's Gram., 171; Merchant's, 205. "To 
prevent their being moved by such." — Campbell's Bhet., p. 155. " Some obstacle or impediment, 
that prevents its taking place." — Priestley's Gram., p. 38. "Which prevents our making a pro- 
gress towards perfection." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 4. " This method of distinguishing words, 
must prevent any regular proportion of time being settled." — Bj., p. 67. " That nothing but 
affectation can prevent its always taking place." — Po., p. 78. " This did not prevent John's being 
acknowledged and solemnly inaugurated Duke of Normandy." — Henry: Webster's Philos. Gram., 
p. 182; his Improved Gram., 130; Sanborn's Gram., 189; Fowler's, 8vo, 1850, p. 541. 

Under Note X. — The Leading Word in Sense. 
" This would preclude the possibility of a nouns' or any other word's ever being in the posses- 
sive case." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., p. 338. " A great part of our pleasure arises from the plan or 
story being well conducted." — Blair's Bhet., p. 18. "And we have no reason to wonder at this 
being the case." — lb., p. 249. " She objected only, as Cicero says, to Oppianicus having two 
sons by his present wife." — lb., p. 274. "The Britons being subdued by the Saxons, was a 



CHAP. YII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. — ERRORS. 657 

necessary consequence of their having called in these Saxons, to their assistance." — lb., p. 329. 
" What he had there said, concerning the Saxons expelling the Britons, and changing the cus- 
toms, the religion, and the language of the country, is a clear and good reason ibr our present 
language being Saxon rather than British." — lb., p. 230. "The only material difference between 
them, besides the one being short and the other being prolonged, is, that a metaphor always ex- 
plains itself by the words that are connected with it." — lb., p. 151 ; Murray's Gram., p. 342. 
" The description of Death's advancing to meet Satan, on his arrival." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 
156. "Is not the bare fact of God being the witness of it, sufficient ground for its credibility to 
rest upon?" — Chalmers, Serm., p. 288. "As in the case of one entering upon a new study." — 
Beatiies Moral Science, i, 77. "The manner of these affecting the copula is called the imperative 
mode." — Bp. Wilkins : Lowth's Gram., p. 43. " Y\ r e are freed from the trouble, by our nouns 
having no diversity of endings." — Buchanaris Syntax, p. 20. "The Verb is rather indicative of 
the actions being doing, or done, than the time when, but indeed the ideas are undistinguishable." 
— Booth's Introd., p. 69. " Nobody would doubt of this being a sufficient proof." — CampbeWs 
Rhet., p. 66. " Against the doctrine here maintained, of conscience being, as well as reason, a 
natural faculty." — Beattie's M. Sci., i, 263. "It is one cause of the Greek and English languages 
being much more e^sy to learn, than the Latin." — Buckets Classical Gram., p. 25. " I have 
not been able to make out a solitary instance of such being the fact." — Liberator, x, 40. " An 
angel's forming the appearance of a hand, and writing the king's condemnation on the wall, 
checked their mirth, and filled them with terror." — Wood's Diet, w. Belshazzar. "The prisoners' 
having attempted to escape, aroused the keepers." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 357. "I doubt 
not, in the least, of this having been one cause of the multiplication of divinities in the heathen 
world." — Blair's Rhet, p. 155. "From the general rule he lays down, of the verbs being the 
parent word of all language." — Diversions of Purley, Yol. i, p. 227. " He was accused of him- 
self being idle." — Felch's Comp. Gram., p. 52. " Our meeting is generally dissatisfied with him 
so removing." — Wm. Edmondson. "The spectacle is too rare of men's deserving solid fame 
while not seeking it." — Prof. Bush's Lecture on Swedenborg. " What further need was there of 
an other priest rising ?" — See Key. 

Under Note XL — Reference of Participles. 
"Yiewing them separately, different emotions are produced." — Karnes, El. of Crit, ii, 344. 
"But leaving this doubtful, another objection occurs." — lb., ii, 358. "Proceeding from one par- 
ticular to another, the subject grew under his hand." — lb., i, 27. " But this is still an interruption, 
and a link of the chain broken." — lb., ii, 314. "After some days hunting, Cyrus communicated 
his design to his officers." — Rollin, ii, 66. "But it is made, without the appearance of making it 
in form." — Blair's Rhet, p. 358. " These would have had a better effect disjoined thus." 
— lb., p. 119; Murray's Gram., i, 309. "An improper diphthong has but one of the vowels 
sounded." — Murray's Gram., p. 9; Alger's, 12; Merchant's, 9; Smith's, 118; Ingersoll's, 4. "And 
being led to think of both together, my view is rendered unsteady." — Blair's Rhet, p. 95 ; Mur- 
ray's Gram., 302 ; Jamieson's Rhet, 66. " By often doing the same thing, it becomes habitual." 
— Murray's Key, p. 257. "They remain with us in our dark and. solitary hours, no less than 
when surrounded with friends and cheerful society." — lb., p. 238. "Besides shewing what is 
right, the matter may be further explained by pointing out what is wrong." — Lowth's Gram., 
Pref, p. viii. "The former teaches the true pronunciation of words, comprising accent, quantity, 
emphasis, pause, and tone." — Murray's Gram., Yol., i, p. 235. "Persons may be reproved for 
their negligence, by saying; 'You have taken great care indeed.'" — lb., i, 354. "The words 
preceding and following it, are in apposition to each other." — lb., ii, p. 22. " Having finished his 
speech, the assembly dispersed." — Cooper's Pract Gram., p. 97. " Were the voice to fall at the 
close of the last line, as many a reader is in the habit of doing." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 101. 
"The misfortunes of his countrymen were but negatively the effects of his wrath, by depriving 
them of his assistance." — Karnes, El. of Crit, ii, 299. "Taking them as nouns, this construction 
may be explained thus." — Grant's Latin Gram., p. 233. "These have an active signification, 
those which come from neuter verbs being excepted." — lb., p. 233. "From the evidence of it 
not being universal." — Butler's Analogy, p. 84. "And this faith will continually grow, by ac- 
quainting ourselves with our own nature." — Channing's Self- Culture, p. 33. " Monosyllables end- 
ing with any consonant but /, I, or s, and preceded by a single vowel, never double the final 
consonant; excepting add, ebb," &c. — Murray's Gram., p. 23; Picket's, 10; Merchant's, 13; In- 
gersoll's, 8; Fisk's, 44; Blair's, 7. "The relation of being the object of the action is expressed 
by the change of the Noun Maria to Mariam." — Booth's Introd., p. 38. "In analyzing a propo- 
sition, it is first to be divided into its logical subject and predicate." — Andrews and Stoddard's 
Latin Gram., p. 254. " In analyzing a simple sentence, it should first be resolved into its logical 
subject and logical predicate." — Wells's School Gram., 113th Ed., p. 189. 

Under Note XII. — Of Participles and Nouns. 
"The discovering passions instantly at their birth, is essential to our well being." — Karnes, El. 
of Crit, i, 352. "I am now to enter on considering the sources of the pleasures of taste." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 28. "The varieties in using them are, indeed many." — Murray's Gram., i, 319. 
" Changing times and seasons, removing and setting up kings, belong to Providence alone." — lb., 
Key, ii, p. 200. "Adhering to the partitions seemed the cause of France, accepting the will that 
of the house of Bourbon." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 246. "Another source of darkness in com- 

42 



658 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

posing is, the injudicious introduction of technical words and phrases." — Campbell's Bhet., p. 24X. 
" These are the rules of grammar, by the observing of which, you may avoid mistakes." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., i, 192 ; Merchant's, 93 ; Fish's, 135 • Ingersoll's, 198. " By the observing of the 
rules you may avoid mistakes." — Alger's Gram., p. 65. "By the observing of these rules he 
succeeded." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 82. "Being praised was his ruin." — Ibid. "Deceiving is 
not convincing." — Ibid. " He never feared losing a friend." — Ibid. " Making books is his amuse- 
ment." — Alger's Gram., p. 65. "We call it declining a noun." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 22. "Wash- 
ington, however, pursued the same policy of neutrality, and opposed firmly, taking any part in 
the wars of Europe." — Hall and Baker's School Hist, p. 294. " The following is a note of Inter- 
rogation, or asking a question (?)." — Infant School Gram., p. 132. "The following is a note of 
Admiration, or expressing wonder (!)." — lb. "Omitting or using the article a forms a nice dis- 
tinction in the sense." — Murray's Gram., ii, 284. "Placing the preposition before the word it 
governs is more graceful." — Churchill's Gram., p. 150. "Assistance is absolutely necessary to 
their recovery, and retrieving their affairs." — Butler's Analogy, p. 197. "Which termination, 
[ish,~\ when added to adjectives, imports diminution, or lessening the quality." — Murray's Gram., 
i, 131; Kirkham's, 172. "After what is said, will it be thought refining too much to suggest, 
that the different orders are qualified for different purposes?" — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 114. " Who 
has nothing to think of but killing time." — West's Letters, p. 58. "It requires no nicety of ear, 
as in the distinguishing of tones, or measuring time." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 65. " The Pos- 
sessive Case denotes possession, or belonging to." — Hall's Gram., p. 7. 

Under Note XIII. — Perfect Participles. 

" G-arcilasso was master of the language spoke by the Incas." — Robertson's Amer., ii, 459. 
"When an interesting story is broke off in the middle." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 244. "Speak- 
ing of Hannibal's elephants drove back by the enemy." — lb., ii, 32. "If Du Ryer had not wrote 
for bread, he would have equaUed them." — Formey's Belles-Lettres, p. 166. "Pope describes a 
rock broke off from a mountain, and hurling to the plain." — Karnes, ii, 106. "I have wrote or 
have written, Thou hast wrote or hast written. He hath or has wrote, or hath or has written;" 
&c. — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 47 ; Maltby's, 47. "This was spoke by a pagan." — Webster's Improved 
Gram., p. 174. " But I have chose to follow the common arrangement." — lb., p. 10. "The lan- 
guage spoke in Bengal." — lb., p. 78. "And sound Sleep thus broke off, with suddain Alarms, is 
apt enough to discompose any one." — Locke, on Ed., p. 32. "This is not only the Case of those 
Open Sinners, before spoke of." — Right of Tythes, p. 26. " Some Grammarians have wrote a very 
perplexed and difficult doctrine on Punctuation." — Ensell's Gram., p. 340. "There hath a pity 
arose in me towards thee." — Sewel's Hist., fol, p. 324. "Abel is the only man that has under- 
went the awful change of death." — Juvenile Tlieatre, p. 4. 

" Meantime, on Afric's glowing sands, 
Smote with keen heat, the Trav'ler stands." — Union Poems, p. 88. 



CHAPTER VIII.— ADVERBS. 

The syntax of an Adverb consists in its simple relation to a verb, a 
participle, an adjective, or whatever else it qualifies ; just as the syntax 
of an English Adjective, (except in a few instances,) consists in its sim- 
ple relation to a no an or a pronoun. 

KULE XXI.— ADVERBS. 

Adverbs relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs : as, 
" Any passion that habitually discomposes our temper, or unfits us for 
properly discharging the duties of life, has most certainly gained a very 
dangerous ascendency/' — Blair. 

" How bless'd this happy hour, should he appear, 
Dear to us all, to me supremely dear !" — Pope's Homer. 

Exception First. 
The adverbs yes, ay, and yea, expressing a simple affirmation, and the adverbs no and nay, 
expressing a simple negation, are always independent. They generally answer a question, and 
are equivalent to a whole sentence. Is it clear, that they ought to be called adverbs ? No. 
"Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound ? No. 
Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No." — Shak. : First Part of Hen. IV, Act v, 1. 



CHAP. YIII.] SYNTAX. — EULE XXI. ADVERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 659 

Exception Second. 

The word amen, which is commonly called an adverb, is often used independently at the be- 
ginning or end of a declaration or a prayer; and is itself a prayer, meaning, So let it be: as, 
"Surely, I come quickly. Amen: Even so, come Lord Jesus." — Rev., xxii, 20. When it does 
not stand thus alone, it seems in general to be used substantively; as, "The strangers among 
them stood on Gerizim, and echoed amen to the blessings." — Wood's Diet " These things saith 
the Amen." — Rev., iii, 14. 

Exception Third. 

An adverb before a preposition seems sometimes to relate to the latter, rather than to the verb 
or participle to which the preposition connects its object; as, " This mode of pronunciation runs 
considerably beyond ordinary discourse." — Blair's Rhet, p. 334. "Yea, all along the times of the 
apostasy, this was the thing that preserved the witnesses." — Penington's Works, Vol. iv, p. 12. 
[See Obs. 8th on Rule 7th J 

11 Right against the eastern gate, 
Where the great sun begins his state." — Milton, V Allegro. 
Exception Fourth. 

The words much, little, far, and all, being originally adjectives, are sometimes preceded by the 
negative not, or (except the last) by such an adverb as too, how, thus, so, or as, when they are 
taken substantively; as, "Not all that glitters, is gold." — " Too much should not be offered at 
once." — Murray's Gram., p. 140. " Tims far is consistent." — lb., p. 161. " Thus far is right." — 
Loioth's Gram., p. 101. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXI. 

Obs. 1. — On this rule of syntax; Dr. Adam remarks, " Adverbs sometimes likewise qualify sub- 
stantives ;" and gives Latin examples of the following import : " Homer plainly an orator:" — 
" Truly Metellus;" — " To-morrow morning." But this doctrine is not well proved by such imper- 
fect phrases, nor can it ever be very consistently admitted, because it destroys the characteristic 
difference between an adjective and an adverb. To-morrow is here an adjective; and as for tridy 
and plainly, they are not such words as can make sense with nouns. I therefore imagine the 
phrases to be elliptical: " Vere Metellus," may mean, " This is truly Metellus;" and " Homerus 
plane orator," "Homer was plainly an orator." So, in the example, "Behold an Israelite indeed," 
the true construction seems to be, "Behold, here is indeed an Israelite ;" for, in the Greek or Latin. 
the word Israelite is a nominative, thus: " Ecce vere Israelita." — Beza; also Montanus. "T/e 
(Undue 'Iiparjlirnr." — Greek Testament. Behold appears to be here an interjection, like Ecce. If 
we make it a transitive verb, the reading should be, " Behold a true Israelite ;" for the text does 
not mean, " Behold indeed an Israelite." At least, this is not the meaning in our version. W. 
H. Wells, citing as authorities for the doctrine, " Bullions, Allen and Cornwell, Brace, Butler, and 
Webber," has the following remark: "There are, however, certain forms of expression in which 
adverbs bear a special relation to nouns or pronouns; as, 'Behold I, even I, do bring a flood of 
waters.' — Gen. 6: 17. 'For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power.' — 
1 Thes. 1: 5." — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 156; late Ed., 168. And again, in his Punc- 
tuation, we find this: "When, however, the intervening word is an adverb, the comma is more 
commonly omitted ; as, ' It is labor only which gives a relish to pleasure.' " — lb., p. 176. From 
all this, the doctrine receives no better support than from Adam's suggestion above considered. 
The word " only" is often an adjective, and wherever its "special relation" is to a noun or a pro- 
noun, it can be nothing else. " Even," when it introduces a word repeated with emphasis, is a 
conjunction. 

Obs. 2. — When participles become nouns, their adverbs are not unfrequently left standing with 
them in their original relation ; as, " For the fall and rising again of many in Israel." — Luke, ii, 
34. " To denote the carrying forward of the action." — Bamards Gram., p. 52. But in instances 
like these, the hyphen seems to be necessary. This mark would make the terms rising-again and 
carrying-forward compound nouns, and not participial nouns with adverbs relating to them. 
"There is no flying hence, nor tarrying here." — Shak., Macbeth. 
" What ! in ill thoughts again ? men must endure 
Their going hence, ev'n as their coming hither." — Id. 

Obs. 3. — Whenever any of those words which are commonly used adverbially, are made to 
relate directly to nouns or pronouns, they must be reckoned adjectives, and parsed by Rule 9th. 
Examples: "The above verbs." — Dr. Adam. "To the above remarks." — Campbell's Rhet. p. 318. 
"The above instance." — lb., p. 442. "After the above partial illustration." — Dr. Murray's Hist of 
Lang., ii, 62. "The above explanation." — CobbeWs Gram., ^[ 22. "For very age." — Zech., viii, 
4. "From its very greatness." — Phil. Museum, i, 431. "In his then situation." — Jolmson's Life 
of Goldsmith. "This was the then state of Popery." — Id., Life of Dry den, p. 185. " The servant 
becomes the master of his once master." — Shillitoe. "Time when is put in the ablative, time how 
long is put in the accusative." — Adam's Lot. Gram., p. 201 ; Goulds, 198. " Nouns signifying 
the time when or how long, may be put in the objective case without a preposition." — Wilbur and 
Livingston's Gram., p. 24. "I hear the far-off curfew sound." — Milton. "Far on the thither 
side." — Book of Thoughts, p. 58. "My hither way." — "Since my here remain in England." — 
Shak. " But short and seldom truce." — Fell. "An exceeding knave." — Pope. " According to 



660 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

my sometime promise." — Zenobia, i, 176. "Thine often infirmities." — Bible. "A far country." — 
lb. "No wine," — "No new thing," — "No greater joy." — lb. "Nothing else. 11 — Blair. "To- 
morrow noon." — Scott. " Calamity enough. 11 — Tr. Sallust. " For thou only art holy." — Rev., xv, 4. 
Obs. 4. — It is not my design to justify any uncouth substitution of adverbs tor adjectives ; nor 
do I affirm that all the foregoing examples are indisputably good English, though most of them 
are so; but merely, that the words, when they are thus used, are adjectives, and not adverbs. 
Lindley Murray, and his copyists, strongly condemn some of these expressions, and, by implica- 
tion, most or all of them ; but both he and they, as well as others, have repeatedly employed at 
least one of the very models they censure. They are too severe on all those which they specify. 
Their objections stand thus ; " Such expressions as the following, though not destitute of authority, 
are very inelegant, and do not suit the idiom of our language; ' The then ministry,' for, 'the minis- 
try of that time ;' ' The above discourse,' for, ' the preceding discourse.' " — Murray's Gram., i, p. 198 ; 
Grombies, 294 ; IngersolVs, 206. " The following phrases are also exceptionable : ' The then minis- 
try ;' 'The above argument.' " — Kirkham's Gram., p. 190. "Adverbs used as adjectives, as, 'The 
above statement;' 'The then administration;' should be avoided." — Barnard's Gram., p. 285. 
" When and then must not be used for nouns and pronouns ; thus, ' Since when, 1 'since then, 1 'the 
then ministry,' ought to be, 'Since which time, 1 ' since that time, 1 ' the ministry of that period. 1 " — 
Hiley's Gram., p. 96. Dr. Priestley, from whom Murray derived many of his critical remarks, 
noticed these expressions; and, (as I suppose,) approvingly ; thus, "Adverbs are often put for 
adjectives, agreeably to the idiom of the Greek tongue: [as.] ' The action was amiss. 1 — 'The then 
ministry' — 'The idea is alike in both.' — Addison. 'The above discourse.' — Harris." — Priestley 1 s 
Gram., p. 135. Dr. Johnson, as may be seen above, thought it not amiss to use then as Priestley 
here cites it; and for such a use of above, we may quote the objectors themselves : " To support 
the above construction." — Murray 1 s Gram., i, p. 149; IngersolVs, p. 238. "In all the above in- 
stances."— Mur., p. 202; Ing., 230. "To the above rule."— Mur., p. 270; Ing., 283. "The same 
as the above. 11 — Mur., p. 66 ; Ing., 46. "In such instances as the above. 11 — Mur., p. 24; Ing., 9 ; 
Kirkham, 23.* 

Obs. 5. — When words of an adverbial character are used after the manner of nouns, they must 
be parsed as nouns, and not as adverbs ; as, " The Son of God — was not yea and nay, but in him 
was yea. 11 — Bible. "For a great while to come." — lb. "On this perhaps, this peradveniure infa- 
mous for lies." — Young. "From the extremest upward of thine head." — Shak. "There are 
upwards of fifteen millions of inhabitants." — Murray 1 s Key, 8vo, p. 266. "Information has been 
derived from upwards of two hundred volumes." — Worcester's Hist, p. v. "An eternal now does 
always last." — Cowley. " Discourse requires an animated no. 11 — Cowper. " Their hearts no proud 
hereafter swelled." — Sprague. An adverb after a preposition is used substantively, and governed 
by the preposition ; though perhaps it is not necessary to call it a common noun : as, " For up- 
wards of thirteen years." — Hiley's Gram., p. xvi. " That thou mayst curse me them from thence. 11 
— Numb.,, xxiii, 27. " Yet for once we'll try." — Dr. Franklin. But many take such terms to- 
gether, calling them " adverbial phrases. 11 Allen says, "Two adverbs sometimes come together; 
as, 'Thou hast kept the good wine until now. 1 " — Gram., p. 174. But until is here more properly 
a preposition, governing now. 

Obs. 6. — It is plain, that when words of an adverbial form are used either adjectively or sub- 
stantively, they cannot be parsed by the foregoing rule, or explained as having the ordinary rela- 
tion of adverbs ; and if the unusual relation or character which they thus assume, be not thought 
sufficient to fix them in the rank of adjectives or nouns, the parser may describe them as adverbs 
used adjectively, or substantively, and apply the rule which their assumed construction requires. 
But let it be remembered, that adverbs, as such, neither relate to nouns, nor assume the nature 
of cases ; but express the time, place, degree, or manner, of actions or qualities. In some instances 
in which their construction may seem not to be reconcilable with the common rule, there may be 
supposed an ellipsis of a verb or a participle ;f as, " From Monday to Saturday inclusively. 11 — Web- 
ster's Diet. Here, the Doctor ought to have used a comma after Saturday ; for the adverb relates, 
not to that noun, but to the word reckoned, understood. " It was well said by Roscommon, ' too 
faithfully is pedantically. 1 " — Com. Sch. Journal, i, 167. This saying I suppose to mean, " To do 
a thing too faithfully, is, to do it pedantically." "And, [I say] truly, if they had been mindful 
of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned." 
— Neb., xx, 15. 

Obs 7. — To abbreviate expressions, and give them vivacity, verbs of self-motion (such as go, 
come, rise, get, &c.) are sometimes suppressed, being suggested to the mind by an emphatic ad- 
verb, which seems to be put for the verb, but does in fact relate to it understood ; as, 
" I'll hence to London, on a serious matter." — Shak. Supply "go. 11 

* " Dr. Webster considers the use of then and above as adnotjns, [i. e., adjectives,] to be 'well authorized and 
very convenient;' as, the then ministry; the above remarks."— Fetch's Comp. Gram., p. 108. Dr. Webster's 
remark is in the following words: " Then and above are often used as attributes ; [i. e., adjectives; as,] the 
then ministry ; the above remarks ; nor would I proscribe this use. It is well authorized and very convenient." 
—Philos. Gram., p. ?45; Improved Gram., p. 176. Of this use of then. Dr. Crombie has expressed a very 
different opinion: "Here then,'''' says he, "the adverb equivalent to at that time, is solecistically employed as 
an adjective, agreeing with ministry. This error seems to gain ground ; it should therefore be vigilantly op- 
posed, and carefully avoided." — On Etym. and Synt., p. 405. 

t W. Allen supposes, " An adverb s >metimes qualifies a whole sentence : as, Unfortunately for the lovers of 
antiquity, no remains of Grecian paintings have been preserved.' 1 '' — Elements of Eng. Gram., p. 173. But this 
example may be resolved thus : "It happens unfortunately for the lovers of antiquity, that no remains of Gre- 
cian paintings have been preserved." 



CHAP. VIII. j SYNTAX. EULE XXI. ADVERBS. OBSERVATIONS. C61 

" I'll in. I'll in. Follow your friend's counsel. I'll in." — Id. Supply "get." 

" Away, old man; give ine thy hand; away.'' — Id. Supply "come." 

" Love hath wings, and will away." — Waller. Supply "fly." 

" Up, up, Grlentarkin ! rouse thee, ho!" — Scott. Supply "spring." 

" Henry the Fifth is crowned ; up, vanity !" Supply " stand." 

"Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence!" — Shah Supply "fall," and "get you." 

" But up, and enter now into full bliss." — Milton. Supply " rise." 

Obs. 8. — We have, on some occasions, a singular way of expressing a transitive action impera- 
tively, or emphatically, by adding the preposition with to an adverb of direction ; as, up with it, 
down with it, in with it, out with it, over with it, away with it, and the like ; in which construction, 
the adverb seems to be used elliptically as above, though the insertion of the verb would totally 
enervate or greatly alter the expression. Examples: " She up with her fist, and took him on the 
face." — Sydney, in Joh. Dictionary. "Away with him!" — Acts, xxi, 36. "Away with such a 
fellow from the earth." — lb., xxii, 22. " The calling of assemblies I cannot away with." — Isaiah, 
i, 13. " Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse." — Miltor^s Comus. Ingersoll says, " Sometimes 
a whole phrase is used as an interjection, and we call such inter jectional phrases : as, out upon 
him! — away with him! — Alas, what wonder ! &c." — Conversations on Gram., p. 79. This method 
of lumping together several different parts of speech under the notion of one, and calling the 
whole an " adverbial phrase," a " substantive phrase," or an " inter jectional phrase" is but a forced 
put, by which some grammarians would dodge certain difficulties which they know not how to 
meet. It is directly repugnant to the idea of parsing ; for the parser ever deals with the parts of 
speech as such, and not with whole phrases in the lump. The foregoing adverbs when used 
imperatively, have some resemblance to interjections ; but, in some of the examples above cited, 
they certainly are not used in this manner. 

Obs. 9. — A conjunctive adverb usually relates to two verbs at the same time, and thus connects 
two clauses of a compound sentence ; as, " And the rest will I set in order when I come." — 1 Cor., 
xi, 34. Here when is a conjunctive adverb of time, and relates to the two verbs will set and come ; 
the meaning being, "And the rest will I set in order at the time at which I come." This adverb 
when is often used erroneously in lieu of a nominative after is, to which construction of the word, 
such an interpretation as the foregoing would not be applicable ; because the person means to 
tell, not when, but what, the thing is, of which he speaks : as, "Another cause of obscurity is 
when the structure of the sentence is too much complicated, or too artificial ; or when the sense 
is too long suspended by parentheses." — Campbell's Ehet., p. 246. Here the conjunction that 
would be much better than when, but the sentence might advantageously spare them both ; thus, 
" An other cause of obscurity is too much complication, too artificial a structure of the sentence, 
or too long a suspension of the sense by parenthesis." 

Obs. 10. — For the placing of adverbs, no definite general rule can be given; yet is there no 
other part of speech so liable to be misplaced. Those which relate to adjectives, or to other ad- 
verbs, with very few exceptions, immediately precede them ; and those which belong to compound 
verbs, are commonly placed after the first auxiliary ; or, if they be emphatical. after the whole 
verb. Those which relate to simple verbs, or to simple participles, are placed sometimes before 
and sometimes after them. Examples are so very common, I shall cite but one: " A man may, 
in respect to grammatical purity, speak unezceptionably, and yet speak' obscurely, or ambiguously ; 
and though we cannot say, that a man may speak properly, and at the same time speak unintelli- 
gibly, yet this last case falls more naturally to be considered as an offence against perspicuity, than 
as a violation of propriety." — Campbells PJxet., p. 239. 

Obs. 11. — Of the infinitive verb and its preposition to, some grammarians say, that they must 
never be separated by an adverb. It is true, that the adverb is, in general, more elegantly placed 
before the preposition than after it ; but, possibly, the latter position of it may sometimes con- 
tribute to perspicuity, which is more essential than elegance: as, " If any man refuse so to implore, 
and to so receive pardon, let him die the death." — Fuller, on the Gospel, p. 209. The latter word 
so, if placed like the former, might possibly be understood in a different sense from what it now 
bears. But perhaps it would be better to say. " If any man refuse so to implore, and on such 
terms to receive pardon, let him die the death." "Honour teaches us properly to respect our- 
selves." — Murray's Key, ii, 252. Here it is not quite clear, to which verb the adverb "properly" 
relates. Some change of the expression is therefore needful. The right to place an adverb 
sometimes between to and its verb, should, I think, be conceded to the poets : as, 
""Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride." — Burns: C. Sat. N. 

Obs. 12. — The adverb no is used independently, only when it is equivalent to a whole sentence. 
This word is sometimes an adverb of degree ; and as such it has this peculiarity, that it can relate 
only to comparatives : as, " No more," — " No better," — "No greater," — " No sooner." When no 
is set before a noun, it is clearly an adjective, corresponding to the Latin nullus ; as, " No clouds, 
wo vapours intervene." — Dyer. Dr. Johnson, with no great accuracy, remarks, "It seems an 
adjective in these phrases, no longer, no more, no where ; though sometimes it may be so commo- 
diously changed to not, that it seems an adverb; as, 'The days are yet no shorter.' " — Quarto 
Diet. And his first example of what he calls the " adverb no" is this: " ' Our courteous Antony, 
Whom ne'er the word of no woman heard speak.' Shakspeare." — Ibid. Dr. Webster says, 
"When it precedes where, as in no where, it may be considered as adverbial, though originally an 
adjective." — Octavo Diet. The truth is, that no is an adverb, whenever it relates to an adjective; 
an adjective, whenever it relates to a noun ; and a noun, whenever it takes the relation of a case. 



662 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Thus, in what Johnson cites from Shakspeare, it is a noun, and not an adverb ; for the meaning 
is, that a woman never heard Antony speak the word of no — that is, of negation. And there 
ought to be a comma after this word, to make the text intelligible. To read it thus : " the word 
of no woman," makes no an adjective. So, to say, "There are no abler critics than these," is a 
very different thing from saying, " There are critics no abler than these ;" because no is an ad- 
jective in the former sentence, and an adverb in the latter. Somewhere, nowhere, anywhere, else- 
where, and everywhere, are adverbs of place, each of which is composed of the noun where and an 
adjective ; and it is absurd to write a part of them as compound words, and the rest as phrases, 
as many authors do. 

Obs. 13. — In some languages, the more negatives one crowds into a sentence, the stronger is 
the negation ; and this appears to have been formerly the case in English, or in what was anciently 
the language of Britain : as, " He never yet no vilanie ne sayde in alle his lif unto no manere 
wight." — Chaucer. " Ne I ne wol non reherce, yef that I may." — Id. "Give not me counsel-, 
nor let no comforter delight mine ear." — Shakspeare. u She cannot love, nor take no shape nor 
project of affection." — Id. Among people of education, this manner of expression has now 
become wholly obsolete ; though it still prevails, to some extent, in the conversation of the 
vulgar. It is to be observed, however, that the repetition of an independent negative word or 
clause yet strengthens the negation ; as, " No, no, no." — " No, never." — " No, not for an hour." — 
Gal, ii, 5. " There is none righteous, no, not one." — Bom., hi, 10. But two negatives in the 
same clause, if they have any bearing on each other, destroy the negation, and render the meaning 
weakly affirmative ; as, " Nor did they not perceive their evil plight." — Milton. That is, they did 
perceive it. " ' His language, though inelegant, is not ungrammatical ;' that is, it is grammati- 
cal." — Murray's Gram., p. 198. The term not only, or not merely, being a correspondent to but 
or but also, may be followed by an other negative without this effect, because the two negative 
words have no immediate heaving on each other ; as, " Tour brother is not only not present, and 
not assisting in prosecuting your injuries, but is now actually with Verres." — Duncan's Cicero, 
p. 19. "In the latter we have not merely nothing, to denote what the point should be; but no 
indication, that any point at all is wanting." — Churchill s Gram., p. 373. So the word nothing, 
when taken positively for nonentity, or that which does not exist, may be followed by an other 
negative ; as, 

" First, seat him somewhere, and derive his race, 
Or else conclude that nothing has no place." — Dryden, p. 95. 

Obs. 14. — The common rule of our grammars, " Two negatives, in English, destroy each other, 
or are equivalent to an affirmative," is far from being true of all possible examples. A sort of 
informal exception to it, (which is mostly confined to conversation, ) is made by a familiar transfer 
of the word neither from the beginning of the clause to the end of it ; as, " But here is no notice 
taken of that neither." — Johnsons Gram. Com., p. 336. That is, " But neither is any notice here 
taken of that." Indeed a negation may be repeated, by the same word or others, as often as we 
please, if no two of the terms in particular contradict each other ; as, " He will never consent, 
*j-> not he, no, never, nor I neither." " He will not have time, no, nor capacity neither." — Bolingbroke, 
on Host, p. 103. "Many terms and idioms may be common, which, nevertheless, have not the 
general sanction, no, nor even the sanction of those that use them." — CampbelVs RheL, p. 160 ; 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 358. And as to the equivalence spoken of in the same rule, such an 
expression as, "He. did not say nothing," is in fact only a vulgar solecism, take it as you will ; 
whether for, "Hedidwoi say anything '," or for. " He did say something ." The latter indeed is 
what the contradiction amounts to ; but double negatives must be shunned, whenever they seem 
like blunders. The following examples have, for this reason, been thought objectionable ; though 
Allen says, " Two negatives destroy each other, or elegantly form an affirmation." — Grain., p. 174. 

" Nor knew I not 

To be both will and deed created free." — Milton, P. L., B. v, 1. 548. 

" Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale 
From her moist continent to higher orbs." — lb., B. v, 1. 421. 
Obs. 15. — Under the head of double negatives, there appears in our grammars a dispute of some 
importance, concerning the adoption of or or nor, when any other negative than neither or nor 
occurs in the preceding clause or phrase : as, " "We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the 
golden image." — Dan., hi, 18. " Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem." — 
Neh,, ii, 20. " There is no painsworthy difficulty nor dispute about them." — Home Tooke, Div., 
Vol. i, p. 43. "So as not to cloud that principal object, nor to bury it." — Blair's Rhet, p. 115 ; 
Murray's Gram., p. 322. " He did not mention Leonora, nor her father's death." — Murray's Key, 
p. 264. " Thou canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth." — lb., p. 215. The form 
of this text, in John iii, 8th, is — " But canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ;" 
which Murray inserted in his exercises as bad English. I do not see that the copulative and is 
here ungrammatical ; but if we prefer a disjunctive, ought it not to be or rather than nor f It 
appears to be the opinion of some, that in all these examples, and in similar instances innumera- 
ble, nor only is proper. Others suppose, that or only is justifiable ; and others again, that either 
or or nor is perfectly correct. Thus grammar, or what should be grammar, differs in the hands 
of different men ! The principle to be settled here, must determine the correctness or incorrect- 
ness of a vast number of very common expressions. I imagine that none of these opinions is 
warrantable, if taken in all that extent to which each of them has been, or may be, carried. 



CHAP. VIII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXI. — ADVEEBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 663 

Obs. 16. — It was observed by Priestley, and after him by Lindley Murray, from whom others 
again have copied the remark: "Sometimes the particles or and nor, may, either of them, be 
used with nearly equal propriety ; [as,] ' The king, whose character was not sufficiently vigor- 
ous, nor decisive, assented to the measure.' — Hume. Or would perhaps have been better, but 
nor seems to repeat the negation in the former part of the sentence, and therefore gives more 
emphasis to the expression." — Priestley's Gram., p. 138; Murray's, i, 212; IngersolVs, 268; R. 
G. Smith's, 177. The conjunction or might doubtless have been used in this sentence, but not 
with the same meaning that is now convej^ed ; for, if that connective had been employed, the 
adjective decisive would have been qualified by the adverb sufficiently, and would have seemed 
only an alternative for the former epithet, vigorous. As the text now stands, it not only implies 
a distinction between vigour of character and decision of characrer, but denies the latter to the 
king absolutely, the former, with qualification. If the author had meant to suggest such a dis- 
tinction, and also to qualify his denial of both, he ought to have said — "not sufficiently vigorous, 
nor sufficiently decisive." With this meaning, however, he might have used neither for not; or 
with the former, he might have used or for nor, had he transposed the terms — "was not decisive, 
or sufficiently vigorous." 

Obs. 17. — In the tenth edition of John Burn's Practical Grammar, published at Glasgow, in 
1810, are the following suggestions: "It is not uncommon to find the conjunctions or and nor 
used indiscriminately ; but if there be any real distinction in the proper application of them, it is 
to be wished that it were settled. It is attempted thus : — Let the conjunction or be used simply 
to connect the members of a sentence, or to mark distribution, opposition, or choice, without any 
preceding negative particle ; and nor to mark the subsequent part of a negative sentence, with 
some negative particle in the preceding part of it. Examples of or : ' Recreation of one kind or 
other is absolutely necessary to relieve the body or mind from too constant attention to labour or 
study.' — 'After this life, succeeds a state of rewards or punishments.' — 'Shall I come to you with 
a rod, or in love ?' Examples of NOR: ' Let no man be too confident, nor too diffident of his own 
^Y abilities.' — ' Never calumniate any man, nor give the least encouragement to calumniators.' — 
' There is not a christian duty to which providence has not annexed a blessing, nor any affliction 
for which a remedy is not provided.' If the above distinction be just, the following passage seems 
to be faulty : 

1 Seasons return, but not to me returns 
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, 
Or sight of vernal bloom, cr summer's rose, 
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine.' 

Milton, P. L., B. iii, 1. 40."— Burn's Gr., p. 108. 

Obs. 18. — T. 0. Churchill, whose Grammar first appeared in London in 1823, treats this matter 
thus : " As or answers to either, nor, a compound of not or [ne or] by contraction, answers to 
neither, a similar compound of not either [ne either]. The latter however does not constitute that 
double use of the negative, in which one, agreeably to the principles of philosophical grammar, 
destroys the other ; for a part of the first word, neither, cannot be understood before the second, 
nor : and for the same reason a part of it could not be understood before or, which is sometimes 
improperly used in the second clause ; while the whole of it. neither, would be obviously improper 
before or. On the other hand, when not is used in the first clause, nor is improper in the second ; 
since it would involve the impropriety of understanding not before a compound of not [or ne] with 
or. ' I shall not attempt to convince, nor to persuade you. — What will you not attempt ? — To 
convince, nor to persuade you.' The impropriety of nor in this answer is clear : but the answer 
should certainly repeat the words not heard, or not understood. "-fChurchiWs New Gram., p. 330. 

Obs. 19. — "It is probable, that the use of 'nor after not has been introduced, in consequence of 
such improprieties as the following : ' The injustice of inflicting death for crimes, when not of the 
most heinous nature, or attended with extenuating circumstances.' Here it is obviously not the 
intention of the writer, to understand the negative in the last clause : and, if this were good 
English, it would be not merely allowable to employ nor after not, to show the subsequent clause 
to be negative as well as the preceding, but it would always be necessary. In fact, however, the 
sentence quoted is faulty, in not repeating the adverb when in the last clause ; ' or when attend- 
ed:' which would preclude the negative from being understood in it ; for, if an adverb, conjunc- 
tion, or auxiliary verb, preceding a negative,, be understood in the succeeding clause, the negative 
is understood also; if it be repeated, the negative must be repeated likewise, or the clause 
becomes affirmative." — lb., p. 331. 

Obs. 20. — This author, proceeding with his remarks, suggests forms of correction for several 
other common modes of expression, which he conceives to be erroneous. For the information of 
the student, I shall briefly notice a little further the chief points of his criticism, though he teaches 
some principles which I have not thought it necessary always to observe in writing. "'And 
seemed not to understand ceremony, or to despise it.' Goldsmith. Here either ought to be in- 
serted before not. ' It is not the business of virtue, to extirpate the affections of the mind, but 
to regulate them.' Addison. The sentence ought to have been : ' It is the business of virtue, not 
to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them.' 'I do not think, that he was 
averse to the office ; nor do I believe, that it was unsuited to him.' How much better to say : ' I 
do not think, that he was averse to the office, or that it was unsuited to him!' For the same 
reason nor cannot follow never, the negative in the first clause affecting all the rest." — lb. p. 332. 
" Nor is sometimes used improperly after no: [as,] 'I humbly however trust in God, that I have 



664 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

hazarded no conjecture, nor have given any explanation of obscure points, inconsistent with the 
general sense of Scripture, which must be our guide in all dubious passages.' Gilpin. It ought 
to be: ' and have given no explanation;' or, 'I have neither hazarded any conjecture, nor given 
any explanation.' The use of or after neither is as common, as that of nor after no or not* 
' Neither the pencil or poetry are adequate.' Coxe. Properly, ( Neither the pencil nor poetry is 
adequate.' ' The vow of poverty allowed the Jesuits individual^, to have no idea of wealth.' 
Dornford. We cannot allow a nonentity. It should be: 'did not allow, to have any idea.' " — lb., 
p. 333. 

Obs. 21. — Thus we see that Churchill wholly and positively condemns nor after not, no, or never ; 
while Burn totally disapproves of or, under the same circumstances. Both of these critics are 
wrong, because each carries his point too far ; and yet it may not be right, to suppose both parti- 
cles to be often equally good. Undoubtedly, a negation may be repeated in English without 
impropriety, and that in several different ways : as, " There is no living, none, if Bertram be 
away." — Beauties of Shdk., p. 3. '' Great men are not always wise, neither do the aged [always] 
understand judgement." — Job, xxxii, 9. "Will he esteem thy riches ? no, not gold, nor all the 
forces of strength." — Job, xxxiv, 19. Some sentences, too, require or, and others nor, even when 
a negative occurs in a preceding clause ; as, " There was none of you that convinced Job, or that 
answered his words." — Job, xxxii, 12. "How much less to him that accepteth not the persons 
of princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor." — Job, xxxiv, 19. " This day is holy unto 
the Lord your God ; mourn not, nor weep." — Neh., viii, 9. " Men's behaviour should be like their 
apparel, not too straight or point-de-vise, but free for exercise." — Ld. Bacon, Again, the mere 
repetition of a simple negative is, on some occasions, more agreeable than the insertion of any 
connective ; as, " There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may 
hide themselves." — Job, xxxiv, 22. Better: "There is no darkness, no shadow of death, wherein 
the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." " No place nor any object appears to him void of 
beauty." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 255. Better: "No place, no object, appears to him void of 
beauty." That passage from Milton which Burn supposes to be faulty, and that expression of 
Addison's which Churchill dislikes, are, in my opinion, not incorrect as they stand ; though, 
doubtless, the latter admits of the variation proposed. In the former, too, or may twice be 
changed to nor, where the following nouns are nominatives ; but to change it throughout, would 
not be well, because the other nouns are objectives governed by of: 
" Seasons return, but not to me returns 
Day, nor the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, 
Nor sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, 
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine." 

Obs. 22. — Ever and never are directly opposite to each other in sense, and yet they are very 
frequently confounded and misapplied, and that by highly respectable writers ; as, " Seldom, or 
never can we expect," &c. — Blair's Lectures, p. 305. "And seldom, or ever, did any one rise, &c. 
— ift.,p. 272. " Seldom, or never, isf there more than one accented syllable in any English word." 
■ — lb., p. 329. "Which that of the present seldom or ever is understood to be." — Dr. Murray's 
Hist, of Lang., Vol. ii, p. 120. Here never is right, and ever is wrong. It is time, that is here 
spoken of; and the affirmative ever, meaning always, or at any time, in stead of being a fit alter- 
native for seldom, makes nonsense of the sentence, and violates the rule respecting the order and 
fitness of time: unless we change or to if, and say, " seldom, if ever." But in sentences like the 
following, the adverb appears to express, not time, but degree ; and for the latter sense ever is 
preferable to never, because the degree ought to be possible, rather than impossible : " Ever so 
little of the spirit of martyrdom is always a more favourable indication to civilization, than ever so 
much dexterity of party management, or ever so turbulent protestation of immaculate patriotism." 
— Wayland's Moral Science, p. 411. " Now let man reflect but never so little on himself." — Bur- 
lamaqui, on Law, p. 29. " Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so 
wisely." — Ps., lviii, 5. The phrase ever so, (which ought, I think, to be written as one vjord,) is 
now a very common expression to signify in whatsoever degree ; as, " everso little," — " everso much," 
— "everso wise," — "everso wisely." And it is manifestly this, and not time, that is intended by 
the false phraseology above; — "a form of speech handed down by the best writers, but lately 
accused, I think with justice, of solecism. * * * It can only be defended by supplying a very- 
harsh and unprecedented ellipsis." — Johnson's Diet, w. Never. 

Obs. 23. — Dr. Lowth seconds this opinion of Johnson, respecting the phrase, "never so wisely," 
and says, "It should be, ' ever so wisely ;' that is, l how wisely soever.'" To which he adds an 
other example somewhat different: " 'Besides, a slave would not have been admitted into that 
society, had he had never such opportunities.' Bentley." — Lowth's Gram., p. 109. This should 
be, " had he had everso excellent opportunities." But Churchill, mistaking the common explan- 
ation of the meaning of everso for the manner of parsing or resolving it, questions the propriety 
of the term, and thinks it easier to defend the old phrase never so ; in which he supposes never to 
be an adverb of time, and not to relate to so, which is an adverb of degree ; saying, " ' Be it never 
so true,' is resolvable into, 'Be it so true, as never any thing was'\ 'I have had never so much 

* This assertion of Churchill's is very far from the truth. I am confident that the latter construction occurs, 
even among reputable authors, ten times as often as the former can be found in any English books. — G. Brown. 

t Should not the Doctor have said, "are there more" since '■'■more than one"' must needs be plural? See 
Obs. 10th on Rule 17th. 

X This degree of truth is impossible, and therefore not justly supposable. We have also a late American 
grammarian who gives a similar interpretation : " l Though never so justly deserving of iC Comber. Never is 



CHAP. VIII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXI. — ADVERBS. — OBSERVATIONS. 665 

trouble on this occasion,' may be resolved into, 'I have never had so much trouble, as on this 
occasion :' while, ' I have had ever so much trouble on this occasion, cannot be resolved, without 
supplying some very harsh and unprecedented ellipsis indeed." — New Gram., p. 337. Why not? 
I see no occasion at all for supposing any ellipsis. Ever is here an adverb of degree, and relates 
to so ; or, if we take everso as one word, this too is an adverb of degree, and relates to much : 
because the meaning is — " everso much trouble." But the other phraseology, even as it stands in 
Churchill's explanations, is a solecism still ; nor can any resolution which supposes never to be 
here an adverb of time, be otherwise. "We cannot call that a grammatical resolution, which makes 
a different sense from that which the writer intended : as, " A slave would not have been admitted 
into that society, had he never had such opportunities." This would be Churchill's interpretation, 
but it is very unlike what Bentley says above. So, 'I have never had so much trouble,' and, 'I 
have had everso much trouble,' are very different assertions. 

Obs. 24. — On the word never, Dr. Johnson remarks thus : " It seems in some phrases to have 
the sense of an adjective, [meaning,] not any ; but in reality it is not ever: [as,] 'He answered 
him to never a word.' Matthew, xxvii, 14." — Quarto Diet. This mode of expression was for- 
merly very common, and a contracted form of it is still frequently heard among the vulgar : as, 
"Because he'd ne'er an other tub." — Hudibras, p. 102. That is, "Because he had no other tub." 
"Letter nor line know I never a one." — Scott's Lay of L. M., p. 27. This is what the common 
people pronounce " ne'er a one" and use in stead of neither or no one. In like manner they con- 
tract ever a one into " e'er a one;" by which they mean either or any one. These phrases are the 
same that somebody — (I believe it is Smith, in his Inductive Grammar — ) has ignorantly written 
u ary one " and " nary one," calling them vulgarisms.* Under this mode of spelling, the critic had 
an undoubted right to think the terms unauthorized ! In the compounds of whoever or whoe'er, 
whichever or whichever, whatever or vjhate'er, the word ever or e'er, which formerly stood separate, 
appears to be an adjective, rather than an adverb ; though, by becoming part of the pronoun, it 
has now technically ceased to be either. 

Obs. 25. — The same may be said of soever or soever, which is considered as only a part of an 
other word even when it is written separately; as, "On which side soever I cast my eyes." In 
Mark, iii, 28th, wherewithsoever is commonly printed as two words; but Alger, in his Pronoun- 
cing Bible, more properly makes it one. Dr. Webster, in his grammars, calls soever a word ; but, 
in his dictionaries, he does not define it as such. " The word soever may be interposed between 
the attribute and the name; ' how clear soever this idea of infinity,' — 'how remote soever it may 
seem.' — Locke." — Webster's Philosophical Gram., p. 154; Improved Gram., p. 107. "Soever, 
so and ever, found in compounds, as in whosoever, whatsoever, wheresoever. See these words. " — 
Webster's Diet., 8vo. 

Obs. 26. — The word only, (i. e., onely, or onelike,) when it relates to a noun or a pronoun, is a 
definitive adjective, meaning single, alone, exclusive of others; as, "The only man," — "The only 
men," — "Man only," — Men only," — "He only," — "They only." When it relates to a verb or a 
participle, it is an adverb of manner, and means simptly, singly ; merely, barely; as, " We fancy 
that we hate flattery, when we only hate the manner of it." — Art of Tliinking, p. 38. " A disin- 
terested love of one's country can only subsist in small republics." — lb., p. 56. When it stands 
at the head of a clause, it is commonly a connective word, equivalent to but, or except that ; in 
which sense, it must be called a conjunction, or at least a conjunctive adverb, which is nearly the 
same thing; as, " Only they would that we should remember the poor." — Gal., ii, 10. "For 
these signs are prepositions, only they are of more constant use than the rest." — Ward's Gram., 
p. 129. 

Obs. 27. — Among our grammarians, the word " only" often passes for an adverb, when it is in 
fact an adjective. Such a mistake in this single word, has led Churchill to say of the adverb in 
general, " It's place is for the most part before adjectives, after nouns, and after verbs;" &c. — 
New Gram., p. 147. But, properly, the placing of adverbs has nothing to do with "nouns," be- 
cause adverbs do not relate to nouns. In this author's example, " His arm only was bare," there 
is no adverb ; and, where he afterwards speaks of the latitude allowable in the placing of adverbs, 
alleging, " It is indifferent whether we say, ' He bared his arm only ;' or, ' He bared only his 
arm,' " the word only is an adjective, in one instance, if not in both. With this writer, and some 

here an emphatic adverb ; as if it were said, so justly as teas never. Though well authorized, it is disapproved 
by most grammarians of the present day; and the word ever is used instead of never." — FelcKs Corny). Gram., 
p. 107. The text here cited is not necessarily bad English as it stands : but, if the commenter has not mistaken 
its meaning, as well as its construction, it ought certainly to be, " Though everso justly deserving of it." — " So 
justly as was never" is a positive degree that is not imaginable ; and what is this but an absurdity? 

* Since this remark was written, I have read an other grammar, (that of the "Rev. Charles Adams") in 
which the author sets down among " the more frequent imj)roprieties committed, in conversation, ' Ary one' for 
either, and ' nary one" for neither." — Adams's System of Gram., p. 116. Eli Gilbert too betrays the same igno- 
rance. Among his "Improper Pronunciations" he puts down "Nary" and "Ary" and for "Corrections" of 
them, gives "neither" and "either." — Gilbert's Catechetical Gram., p. 128. But these latter terms, either and 
neither, are applicable only to one of two things, and cannot be used where many are spoken of; as, 

" Stealing her soul with many vows of faith, 
And ne'er a true one." — Shakspeare. 
"What sense would there be in expounding this to mean. "And neither a true one ?" So some men both write 
and interpret their mother tongue erroneously through ignorance. But these authors condemn the errors which 
they here falsely suppose to be common. What is yet more strange, no le?s a critic than Prof. William C. 
Fowler, has lately exhibited, tcithout disapprobation, one of these literary blunders, with sundry localisms, 
(often descending to slangs which, he says, are mentioned by " Mr. Bartlett, in his valuable dictionary [Diction- 
ary! °f Americanisms." The brief example, which may doubtless be understood to speak for both phrases and 
both authors, is this: " Aby= either."— Fowler's E. Gram., Svo, N. Y., 1S50, p. 92. 



666 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

others, the syntax of an adverb centres mainly in the suggestion, that, " It's propriety and force 
depend on it's position." — lb., p. 147. Illustration: " Thus people commonly say; 'i only spoke 
three words:' which properly implies, that I, and no other person, spoke three words: when the 
intention of the speaker requires ; ' I spoke only three words ; that is, no more than three words.' " 
— lb., p. 327. One might just as weU say, "I spoke three words only." But the interpretation 
above is hypercritical, and contrary to that which the author himself gives in his note on the 
other example, thus: " Any other situation of the adverb would make a difference. 'He only 
bared his arm ;' would imply, that he did nothing more than bare his arm. ' Only he bared his 
arm ;' must refer to a preceding part of the sentence, stating something, to which the act of baring 
his arm was an exception ; as, ' He did it in the same manner, only he bared his arm.' If only 
were placed immediately before arm ; as, ' He bared his only arm;' it would be an adjective, and 
signify, that he had but one arm." — lb., p. 328. Now are not, " 1 only spoke three words," and, 
" He only bared his arm," analogous expressions ? Is not the former as good English as the latter? 
Only, in both, is most naturally conceived to belong to the verb ; but either may be read in such 
a manner as to make it an adjective belonging to the pronoun. 

Obs. 28. — The term not but is equivalent to two negatives that make an affirmative; as, "Net 
but that it is a wide place." — Walker's Particles, p. 89. " Non quo non latus locus sit." — Cic. Ac, 
iv, 12. It has already been stated, that cannot but is equal to must ; as, "It is an affection which 
cannot but be productive of some distress." — Blair's Bhel., p. 461. It seems questionable, whether 
but is not here an adverb, rather than a conjunction. However this may be, by the customary 
(but faulty) omission of the negative before but, in some other sentences, that conjunction has 
acquired the adverbial sense of only ; and it may, when used with that signification, 'be called an 
adverb. Thus, the text, " He hath not grieved me but in part," (2 Cor., ii, 5,) might drop the neg- 
ative not, and still convey the same meaning: " He hath grieved me but in part ;" i. e., " only in 
part." In the following examples, too, but appears to be an adverb, like only: "Things but 
slightly connected should not be crowded into one sentence." — Murray's Octavo Gmm., Index. 
"The assertion, however, serves but to show their ignorance." — Webster's Essays, p. 96. 

" Reason itself but gives it edge and power." — Pope. 

" Born but to die, and reasoning but to err." — Id. 

Obs. 29. — In some constructions of the word but, there is a remarkable ambiguity; as, " There 
cannot be but one capital musical pause in a line." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 92. " A line admits 
but one capital pause." — Ibid. Thus does a great critic, in the same paragraph, palpably contradict 
himself, and not perceive it. Both expressions are equivocal. He ought rather to have said: 
"A line admits no more than one capital pause." — " There cannot be more than one capital musical 
pause in aline." Some would say — "admits only one" — "there can be only one." But here, 
too, is some ambiguity ; because only may relate either to one, or to the preceding verb. The use 
of only for but or except that, is not noticed by our lexicographers ; nor is it, in my opinion, a prac- 
tice much to be commended, though often adopted by men that pretend to write grammatically: 
as, " Interrogative pronouns are the same as relative, only their antecedents cannot be determined 
till the answer is given to the question." — Gomlys Gram., p. 16. " A diphthong is always long; 
as, Aurum, Ccesar, &c. Only prce in composition before a vowel is commonly short." — Adam's 
Gram., p. 254; Gould's, 246. 

Obs. 30. — It is said by some grammarians, that, " The adverb there is often used as an expletive, 
or as a word that adds nothing to the sense; in which case, it precedes the verb and the nomina- 
tive; as, ' There is a person at the door.' " — Murray's Gram., p. 197 ; Ingersoll's, 205 ; Greenleafs, 
33 ; Nixon's Parser, p. 53. It is true, that in our language the word there is thus used idiomat- 
ically, as an introductory term, when we tell what is taking, or has taken, place; but still it is a 
regular adverb of place, and relates to the verb agreeably to the common rule for adverbs. In 
some instances it is even repeated in the same sentence, because, in its introductory sense, it is 
always unemphatical ; as, "Because there was pasture there for their flocks." — 1 Chron., iv, 41. 
"If there be indistinctness or disorder there, we can have no success." — Blair's Rhet., p. 271. 
" There, there are schools adapted to every age." — Woodbridge, Lit. Conv., p. 78. The import of 
the word is more definite, when emphasis is laid upon it ; but this is no good reason for saying, 
with Dr. Webster, that it is " without signification," when it is without emphasis ; or, with Dr. 
Priestley, that it " seems to have no meaning whatever, except it be thought to give a small de- 
gree of emphasis." — Rudiments of E. Gram., p. 135. 

Obs. 31. — The noun place itself is just as loose and variable in its meaning as the adverb there. 
For example; " There is never any difference;" i.e., "No difference ever takes place." Shall we 
say that "place" in this sense, is not a noun of place? To take place, is, to occur somewhere, or 
anywhere ; and the unemphatic word there is but as indefinite in respect to place, as these other 
adverbs of place, or as the noun itself. S. B. Goodenow accounts it a great error, to say that there 
is an adverb of place, when it is thus indefinite; and he chooses to call it an " indefinite pronoun ." 
as, " ' What is there here ?' — ' There is no peace.' — ' What need was there of it?' " See his Gram., 
p. 3 and p. 11. In treating of the various classes of adverbs, I have admitted and shown, that 
here, there, and where, have sometimes the nature of pronouns, especially in such compounds as 
hereof, thereof, whereof; but, in this instance, I see not what advantage there is in calling there 
a " pronoun:" we have just as much reason to call here and where pronouns — and that, perhaps, 
on all occasions. Barnard says, " In the sentence, ' There is one glory of the sun,' &c, the adverb 
there qualifies the verb is, and seems to have the force of an affirmation, like truly." — Analytical 
Gram., p. 234. But an adverb of the latter kind may be used with the word there, and I perceive 



CHAP. VIII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXI. — ADVERBS. — NOTES. 667 

no particular similarity between them : as, " Verily there is a reward for the righteous." — Psal, lviii, 
11. " Truly there is a glory of the sun." 

Obs. 32. — There is a vulgar error of substituting the adverb most for almost, as in the phrases, 
11 most all," — "most anywhere," — "most every day," — which we sometimes hear for "almost all," 
— "almost anywhere," — "almost every day." The fault is gross, ancr chiefly colloquial, but it is 
sometimes met with in books; as, "But thinking he had replied most too rashly, he said, 'I 
won't answer your question.' " — Wagstaff's History of Friends, Vol. i, p. 207. 

NOTES TO RULE XXI. 

Note I. — Adverbs must be placed in that position which will render the sentence 
the most perspicuous and agreeable. Example of error : " We are in no hazard of 
mistaking the sense of the author, though every word which he uses be not precise 
and exact." — Blair^s Phet., p. 95 ; J'amieson's, 66. Murray says, — " though every 
word which he uses is not precise and exact." — Octavo Gram., p. 302. Better: — 
" though not every word which he uses, is precise and exact." 

Note II. — Adverbs should not be needlessly used for adjectives; nor should they 
be employed when quality is to be expressed, and not manner : as, " That the now 
copies of the original text are entire." — S. Fisher. Say, " the present copies," or, 
" the existing copies." "The arrows of calumny fall harmlessly at the feet of virtue." 
— Murray's Key, p. 167 ; Merchants Gram., 186 ; IngersolVs, 10; KirJchani's, 24. 
Say, "fall harmless ;" as in this example: "The impending black cloud, which is 
regarded with so much dread, may pass by harmless" — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 262. 

Note III. — With a verb of motion, most grammarians prefer hither, thither, and 
whither, to here, there, and where, which are in common use, and perhaps allowable, 
though not so good ; as, " Come hither, Charles," — or, " Come here.' 1 '' 

Note IV. — " To the adverbs hence, thence, and whence, the preposition from is 
frequently (though not with strict propriety) prefixed; as, from hence, from whence." 
— See W. Allerfs Gram., p. 174. Some critics, however, think this construction 
allowable, notwithstanding the former word is implied in the latter. See Priestley's 
Gram., p. 134 ; and L. Murray's, p. 198. It is seldom elegant to use any word 
needlessly. 

Note V. — The adverb how should not be used before the conjunction that, nor in 
stead of it; as, "He said how he would go." — "Ye see how that not many wise 
men are called." Expunge how. This is a vulgar error. Somewhat similar is the 
use of how for lest or that not ; as, "Be cautious how you offend him, i. e., that you 
do not offend him." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 175. 

Note VI. — The adverb when, while, or where, is not fit to follow the verb is in a 
definition, or to introduce a clause taken substantively ; because it expresses identity, 
not of being, but of time or place : as, " Concord, is when one word agrees with an- 
other in some accidents." — Adani's Gram., p. 151 ; Gould's, 155. Say, "Concord 
is the agreement of one word with an other in some accident or accidents." 

Note VII. — The adverb no should not be used with reference to a verb or a parti- 
ciple. Such expressions as, " Tell me wdiether you will go or no" are therefore im- 
proper : no should be not ; because the verb go is understood after it. The meaning 
is, " Tell me whether you will go or will not go ;" but nobody would think of say- 
ing, " Whether you will go or no go" 

Note VIII. — A negation, in English, admits but one negative word ; because two 
negatives in the same clause, usually contradict each other, and make the meaning 
affirmative. The following example is therefore un grammatical : " For my part, I 
love him not, nor hate him not" — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 16. Expunge the last 
not, or else change nor to and. 

Note IX. — The words ever and never should be carefully distinguished according 
to their sense, and not confounded with each other in their application. Example : 
" The Lord reigneth, be the earth never so unquiet." — Experience of St. Paul, p. 
195. Here, I suppose, the sense to require everso, an adverb of degree: "Be the 
earth everso unquiet." That is, — " unquiet in whatever degree? 

Note X. — Adverbs that end in ly, are in general preferable to those forms which, 
for want of this distinction, may seem like adjectives misapplied. Example : " There 
would be scarce any such thing in nature as a folio." — Addison. Better : — " scarcely" 



668 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXL 

Examples under Note I. — The Placing of Adverbs. 
"All that is favoured by good use, is not proper to be retained." — Murray 's Gram., ii, p. 296. 

[Fobmttle. — Not proper, because the adverb not is not put in the most suitable place. But, according to Note 
1st under Rule 21st, " Adverbs must be placed in that position which will render the sentence the most perspic- 
uous and agreeable." The sentence will be improved by placing not before all; thus, " Not all that is favoured 
by good use, is proper to be retained."] 

"Every thing favoured by good use, [is] not on that account worthy to be retained." — lb., i, 
369 ; Campbell's BheL, p. 179. " Most men dream, but all do not." — Beanie's Moral Science, i, 72. 
" By hasty composition, we shall acquire certainly a very bad style." — Blair's Bhet., p. 191. 
"The comparisons are short, touching on one point only of resemblance." — lb., p. 416. " Having 
had once some considerable object set before us." — lb., p. 116. "The positive seems improperly 
to be called a degree." — Adam's Gram., p. 69; Gould's, 68. "In some phrases the genitive is 
only used." — Adam, 159; Gould, 161. "This blunder is said actually to have occurred." — 
Smith's Inductive Gram., p. 5. " Bat every man is not called James, nor every woman Mary." — 
Buchanan's Gram., p. 15. " Crotchets are employed for the same purpose nearly as the paren- 
thesis." — Churchill's Gram., p. 167. "There is still a greater impropriety in a double compara- 
tive." — Briestley's Gram., p. 78. "We have often occasion to speak of time." — Lowth's Gram., 
p. 39. " The following sentence cannot be possibly understood." — Bo., p. 104. " The words 
must be generally separated from the context." — Comly's Gram., p. 155. "Words ending in 
ator have the accent generally on the penultimate." — Murray's Gram., i, 239. "The learned 
languages, with respect to voices, moods, and tenses, are, in general, differently constructed from 
the English tongue." — lb., i, 101. " Adverbs seem originally to have been contrived to express 
compendiously in one word, what must otherwise have required two or more." — lb., i, 114. 
" But it is only so, when the expression can be converted into the regular form of the possessive 
case." — lb., i, 174. " Enter, (says he) boldly, for here too there are gods." — Harris's Hermes, p. 
8. "For none work for ever so little a pittance that some cannot be found to work for less." — 
Sedgwick's Economy, p. 190. " For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again." — 
Luke, vi, 34. "They must be viewed exactly in the same light." — Murray's Gram., ii, 24. "If 
he does but speak to display his abilities, he is unworthy of attention." — lb., Key, ii, 207. 

Under Note II. — Adverbs for Adjectives. 

" Motion upwards is commonly more agreeable than motion downwards." — Blair's Bhet, p. 48. 
"There are but two ways possibly of justification before God." — Dr. Cox, on Quakerism, p. 413. 
"This construction sounds rather harshly." — Murray's Grain, i, 194; Ingersoll's, 199. "A clear 
conception in the mind of the learner, of regularly and well-formed letters." — Com. School Journal, 
i, 66. "He was a great hearer of * * * Attalus, Sotion, Papirius, Fabianus, of whom he 
makes often mention." — Seneca's Morals, p. 11. "It is only the Often doing of a thing that makes 
it a Custom." — Divine Bight of Tythes, p. 72. " Because W. R. takes oft occasion to insinuate his 
jealousies of persons and things." — Barclay's Works, i, 570. " Yet often touching will wear 
gold." — Beauties of Shak., p. 18. " Uneducated persons frequently use an adjective, when they 
ought to use an adverb: as, 'The country looks beautiful;' instead of beautifully." — Bucke's Gram., 
p. 84. "The adjective is put absolutely, or without its substantive." — Ash's Gram., p. 57. "A 
noun or pronoun in the second person, maybe put absolutely in the nominative case." — Harrison's 
Gram., p. 45. "A noun or pronoun, when put absolutely with a participle," &c. — lb., p. 44; 
Jaudon's Gram., 108. " A verb in the infinitive mood absolute, stands independently of the re- 
maining part of the sentence." — Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., p. 24. "At my return lately 
into England, I met a book intituled, ' The Iron Age.' " — Cowley's Breface, p. v. "But he can 
discover no better foundation for any of them, than the practice merely of Homer and Virgil." — 
Karnes, El. of Criticism, Introd., p. xxv. 

Under Note ILL— HERE for HITHER, &c. 

" It is reported that the governour will come here to-morrow." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 196. 
"It has been reported that the governour will come here to-morrow." — lb., Key, p. 227. "To 
catch a prospect of that lovely land where his steps are tending." — Maturin's Sermons, p. 244. 
" Plautus makes one of his characters ask another where he is going with that Vulcan shut up 
in a horn; that is, with a lanthorn in his hand." — Adams's Bhet. ii, 331. " When we left Cam- 
bridge, we intended to return there in a few days." — Anonym. " Duncan comes here to-night." 
— Shak., Macbeth. "They talked of returning here last week." — J. M. Butnam's Gram., p. 116. 

Under Note IV.— FROM HENCE, &c. 

" From hence he concludes that no inference can be drawn from the meaning of the word, that 
a constitution has a higher authority than a law or statute." — Webster's Essays, p. 67. "From 
whence we may likewise date the period of this event." — Murray's Key, ii, p. 202. " From 
hence it becomes evident, that Language, taken in the most comprehensive view, implies certain 



CHAP. VIII.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXI. — ADVERBS — ERRORS. 669 

Sounds, having certain Meanings." — Harris's Hermes, p. 315. "They returned to the city from 
whence they came out." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 135. "Respecting ellipses, some gram- 
marians differ strangely in their ideas ; and from thence has arisen a very whimsical diversity in 
their systems of grammar." — Author. " What am I and from whence ? i. e. what am I, and from 
whence am I?" — Jaudon's Gram., p. 171. 

Under Note V. — The Adverb HOW. 
" It is strange how a writer, so accurate as Dean Swift, should have stumbled on so improper 
an application of this particle." — Blair's Rhet, p. 112. "Ye know how that a good while ago 
God made choice among us," &c. — Acts, xv, 7. "Let us take care how we sin ; i. e. that we do 
not sin." — Priestley's Gram., p. 135. "We see by these instances, how prepositions may be ne- 
cessary to connect those words, which in their signification are not naturally connected." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 118. "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, ex- 
cept ye be reprobates?" — 2 Cor., xiii, 5. " That thou mayest know how that the earth is the 
Lord's."— Exod., ix, 29. 

Under Note VI.— WHEN, WHILE, or WHERE. 

"Ellipsis is when one or more words are wanting, to complete the sense."— Adam's Gram., p. 
235; -Gould's, p. 229 ; B. F. Fisk's Greek Gram., 184. "Pleonasm is when a word more is added 
than is absolutely necessary to express the sense." — Same works. " Hysteron proteron is when 
that is put in the former part of the sentence, which, according to the sense, should be in the lat- 
ter." — Adam, p. 237 ; Gould, 230. " Hysteron proteron, n. A rhetorical figure when that is 
said last which was done first." — Webster's Diet. "A Barbarism is when a foreign or strange 
word is made use of." — Adam's Gram., p. 242 ; Gould's, 234. " A Solecism is when the rules of 
Syntax are transgressed." — Iidem, ib. " An Idiotism is when the manner of expression pecu- 
liar to one language is used in another." — lid., ib. " Tautology is when we either uselessly re- 
peat the same words, or repeat the same sense in different words." — Adam, p. 243 ; Gould, 238. 
" Bombast is when high sounding words are used without meaning, or upon a trifling occasion." 
— lid., ib. "Amphibology is when, by the ambiguity of the construction, the meaning may be 
taken in two different senses." — lid., ib. " Irony is when one means the contrary of what is 
said." — Adam, p. 247 ; Gould, 237. "The Periphrasis, or Circumlocution, is when several words 
are employed to express what might be expressed in fewer." — lid., ib. " Hyperbole is when a 
thing is magnified above the truth." — Adam, p. 249; Gould, 240. "Personification is when we 
ascribe life, sentiments, or actions, to inanimate beings, or to abstract qualities." — lid., ib. "Apos- 
trophe, or Address, is when the speaker breaks off from the series of his discourse, and addresses 
himself to some person present or absent, living or dead, or to inanimate nature, as if endowed 
with sense and reason."- — lid., ib. " A Simile or Comparison is when the resemblance between 
two objects, whether real or imaginary, is expressed in form." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 223. 
" Simile, or Comparison, is when one thing is illustrated or heightened by comparing it to another." 
— Adam's Gram., p. 250; Gould's, 240. "Antithesis, or Opposition, is when things contrary or 
different are contrasted, to make them appear in the more striking light." — lid., ib. " Description, 
or Imagery, [is] when any thing is painted in a lively manner, as if done before our eyes."— • 
Adam's Gram., p. '250. "Emphasis is when a particular stress is laid on some word in a sen- 
tence." — Ib. " Epanorthosis, or Correction, is when the speaker either recalls or corrects what 
he had last said." — Ib. " Paralepsis, or Omission, is when one pretends to omit or pass by, what 
he at the same time declares." — Ib. " Incrementum, or Climax in sense, is when one member 
rises above another to the highest." — lb., p. 251. "A Metonymy is where the cause is put for 
the effect, or the effect for the cause ; the container for the thing contained ; or the sign for the 
thing signified." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 223. " Agreement is when one word is like another in 
number, case, gender, or person." — Frost's Gram., p. 43; Greenleafs, 32. "Government is when 
one word causes another to be in some particular number, person, or case." — Webster's' Imp. 
Gram., p. 89; Greenleafs, 32; Frost's, 43. "Fusion is while some solid substance is converted 
into a fluid by heat." — B. " A Proper Diphthong is where both the Vowels are sounded to- 
gether; as, oi in Voice, ou in House." — Fisher's Gram., p. 10. "An Improper Diphthong is 
where the Sound of but one of the two Vowels is heard; as e in People." —Ib., p. 11. 

Under Note VII. — The Adverb NO for NOT. 

" An adverb is joined to a verb to show how, or whether or no, or when, or where one is, does, 
or suffers." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 62. "We must be immortal, whether we will or no." — 
Maturin's Sermons, p. 33. "He cares not whether the world was made for Caesar or no." — 
American Quarterly Review. "I do not know whether they are out or no." — Byron's Letters. 
" Whether it can be proved or no, is not the thing." — Butler's Analogy, p. 84. "Whether or no 
he makes use of the means commanded by God." — lb., p. 164. "Whether it pleases the world 
or no, the care is taken." — L 'Estrange 's Seneca, p. 5. " How comes this to be never heard of, nor 
in the least questioned, whether the Law was undoubtedly of Moses's writing or no?" — Bp. Tom- 
line's Evidences, p. 44. "Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not." — John, ix, 25. "Can I 
make men live, whether they will or no?" — Shak. 

" Can hearts, not free, be try'd whether they serve 
Willing or no, who will but what they must?" — Milton, P. L. 



670 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Under Note VIII. — Of Double Negatives. 

""We need not, nor do not, confine the purposes of God." — Bentley. "I cannot by no means 
allow him that." — Idem. " We must try whether or no we cannot increase the Attention by the 
Help of the Senses." — Brightland's Gram., p. 263. "There is nothing more admirable nor more 
useful." — Home Tooke, Vol. i, p. 20. " And what in no time to come he can never be said to 
have done, he can never be supposed to do." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 345. " No skill could 
obviate, nor no remedy dispel, the terrible infection." — Goldsmith 's Greece, i, 114. "Prudery 
cannot be an indication neither of sense nor of taste." — Spurzheim, on Education, p. 21. " But 
that scripture, nor no other, speaks not of imperfect faith." — Barclay's Works, i, 172. "But this 
scripture, nor none other, proves not that faith was or is always accompanied with doubting." — 
Ibid.' " The light of Christ is not nor cannot be darkness." — lb., p. 252. "Doth not the Scrip- 
ture, which cannot lie, give none of the saints this testimony?" — lb., p. 379. "Which do not 
continue, nor are not binding." — lb., Vol. iii, p. 79. " It not being perceived directly no more 
than the air." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 331. "Let's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, I pray." — Shah, 
Shrew. "Where there is no marked nor peculiar character in the style." — Blair's Rhet., p. 175. 
" There can be no rules laid down, nor no manner recommended." — Sheridan's Led., p. 163. 

"Bates. ' He hath not told his thought to the king?' 
K. Henry. ' No ; nor it is not meet he should.' " — Shak. 

Under Note IX.— EVER and NEVER. 

" The prayer of Christ is more than sufficient both to strengthen us, be we never so weak ; 
and to overthrow all adversary power, be it never so strong." — Hooker. " He is like to have no 
share in it, or to be ever the better for it." — Law and Grace, p. 23. " In some parts of Chili, it 
seldom or ever rains." — Willetts's Geog. "If Pompey shall but never so little seem to like it." 
— Walker's Particles, p. 346. "Latin: 'Si Pompeius paulum modo ostenderit sibi placere.' Cic. 
i, 5." — lb. " Though never such a power of dogs and hunters pursue him." — Walker, ib. " Latin : 
' Quamlibet magna canum et venantium urgente vi.' Plin. 1. 18, c. 16." — lb. "Though you be 
never so excellent." — Walker, ib. "Latin: ' Quantumvis licet excellas.' Cic. de Amic." — lb. 
"If you do amiss never so little." — Walker, ib. "Latin: 'Si tantillum peccassis.' Plant. Rud. 
4, 4" — Ib. "If we cast our eyes never so little down." — Walker, ib. "Latin: 'Si tantulum 
oculos dejecerimus.' Cic. 7. Ver." — Ib. " A wise man scorneth nothing, be it never so small or 
homely." — Book of Thoughts, p. 37. "Because they have seldom or ever an opportunity of learn- 
ing them at all." — Clarkson's Prize-Essay, p. 170. "We seldom or ever see those forsaken who 
trust in God." — Atterbury. 

"Where, playing with him at bo-peep, 
He solved all problems, ne'er so deep." — Hudibras. 

Under Note X. — Of the Form of Adverbs. 
" One can scarce think that Pope was capable of epic or tragic poetry ; but within a certain 
limited region, he has been outdone by no poet." — Blair's Rhet, p. 403. " I, who now read, 
have near finished this chapter." — Harris's Hermes, p. 82. " And yet, to refine our taste with 
respect to beauties of art or of nature, is scarce endeavoured in any seminary of learning." — 
Karnes, El. of Crit, Vol. i, p. viii. "By the Numbers being confounded, and the Possessives 
wrong applied, the Passage is neither English nor Grammar." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 123. "The 
letter G is wrong named jee." —Creighton's Diet, p. viii. " Last ; Remember that in science, as in 
morals, authority cannot make right, what, in itself, is wrong." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 194. 
" They regulate our taste even where we are scarce sensible of them." — Karnes, El of Crit, ii, 
96. "Slow action, for example, is imitated by words pronounced slow." — lb., ii, 257. "Sure, if 
it be to profit withaL it must be in order to save." — Barclay's Works, i, 366. "Which is scarce 
possible at best." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 67. "Our wealth being near finished." — Harris: 
Priestley's Gram., p. 80. 



CHAPTER IX.— CONJUNCTIONS. 

The syntax of Conjunctions consists, not (as L. Murray and others 
erroneously teach) in " their power of determining the mood of verbs/' 
or the i; cases of nouns and pronouns/' but in the simple fact, that they 
link together such and such terms, and thus " mark the connexions of 
human thought." — Beattie. 

RULE XXII.— CONJUNCTIONS. 

Conjunctions connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences : as, "Let 



CHAP. IX.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXII. CONJUNCTIONS. — OBSERVATIONS. 671 

there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my 
herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we are brethren." — Gen., xiii, 8. 
" Ah ! if she lend not arms as well as rules, 
What can she more than tell us we are fools ?" — Pope. 

Exception First. 

The conjunction that sometimes serves merely to introduce a sentence which is made the sub- 
ject or the object of a finite verb ;* as, " That mind is not matter, is certain." 

" That you have wronged me, doth appear in this." — Shak. 
" That time is mine, Mead ! to thee, I owe." — Young. 

Exception Second. 

When two corresponding conjunctions occur, in their usual order, the former should generally 
be parsed as referring to the latter, which is more properly the connecting word ; as, " Neither 
sun nor stars in many days appeared."— -A cts, xxvii, 20. " Whether that evidence has been 
afforded [or not,] is a matter of investigation." — Keith's Evidences, p. 18. 

Exception Third. 

Either, corresponding to or, and neither, corresponding to nor or not, are sometimes transposed, 
so as to repeat the disjunction or negation at the end of the sentence ; as, " Where then was 
their capacity of standing, or his either?" — Barclay's Works, iii, 359. "It is not dangerous 
neither." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 135. "He is very tall, but not too tall neither." — Sped.. 
No. 475. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXII. 

. Obs. 1. — Conjunctions that connect particular words, generally join similar parts of speech in 
a common dependence on some other term. Hence, if the words connected be such as have cases, 
they will of course be in the same case; as, "For me and thee." — Mait., xvii, 27. "Honour thy 
father and thy mother." — lb., xviii, 19. Here the latter noun or pronoun is connected by and to 
the former, and governed by the same preposition or verb. Conjunctions themselves have no 
government, unless the questionable phrase "than whom" maybe reckoned an exception. See 
Obs. 17th below, and others that follow it. 

Obs. 2. — Those conjunctions which connect sentences or clauses, commonly unite one sentence 
or clause to an other, either as an additional assertion, or as a condition, a cause, or an end, of 
what is asserted. The conjunction is placed between the terms which it connects, except there is 
a transposition, and then it stands before the dependent term, and consequently at the beginning 
of the whole sentence: as, " He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second." — Eeb., 
x, 9. " That he may establish the second, he taketh away the first." 

Obs. 3. — The term that follows a conjunction, is in some instances a phrase of several words, 
yet not therefore a whole clause or member, unless we suppose it elliptical, and supply what will 
make it such: as, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." — 
Col., iii, 23. If we say, this means, "as doing it to the Lord, and not as doing it unto men," the 
terms are still mere phrases ; but if we say, the sense is, " as if ye did it to the Lord, and not as 
if ye did it unto men," they are clauses, or sentences. Churchill says, "The office of the con- 
junction is, to connect one word with an other, or one phrase with an other." — New Gram., p. 
152. But he uses the term phrase in a more extended sense than I suppose it will strictly 
bear : he means by it, a clause, or member ; that is, a sentence which forms a part of a greater 
sentence. 

Obs. 4. — What is the office of this part of speech, according to Lennie, Bullions, Brace, Hart, 
Hiley, Smith, M'Culloch, Webster, Wells, and others, who say that it "joins words and sentences 
together," (see Errors on p. 434 of this work,) it is scarcely possible to conceive. If they imagine 
it to connect " words" on the one side, to " sentences" on the other; this is plainly absurd, and 
contrary to facts. If they suppose it to join sentence to sentence, by merely connecting word to 
word, in a joint relation ; this also is absurd, and self-contradictory. Again, if they mean, that 
the conjunction sometimes connects word with word, and sometimes, sentence with sentence ; this 
sense they have not expressed, but have severally puzzled their readers by an ungrammatical use 
of the word "and." One of the best among them says, "In the sentence, ' He and I must go,' the 
word and unites two sentences, and thus avoids an unnecessary repetition ; thus instead of saying, 
1 He must go,' 'I must go,' we connect the words Re, I, as the same thing is affirmed of both, namely, 
must go." — Hiley's Gram., p. 53. Here is the incongruous suggestion, that by connecting words 
only, the conjunction in fact connects sentences ; and the stranger blunder concerning those words, 
that "the same thing is affirmed of both, namely, [that they] must go." Whereas it is plain, that 
nothing is affirmed of either: for "He and I must go," only affirms of him and me, that "we must 

* The conjunction that, at the head of a sentence or clause, enables us to assume the whole preposition as one 
thing : as, "All arguments whatever are directed to prove one or other of these three things: that something is 
true ; that it is morally right or fit; or tliat it is profitable and good."— Blair's Rhet., p. 318. Here each that 
may be parsed as connecting its own clause to the first clause in the sentence; or, to the word things, with 
which the three clauses are in a sort of apposition. If we conceive it to have no such connecting power, we must 
make this too an exception. 



672 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

go." And again it is plain, that and here connects nothing but the two pronouns ; for no one will 
say, that, "He and I must go together" is a compound sentence, capable of being resolved into 
two simple sentences; and if, "He and 1 must go," is compound because it is equivalent to, "He 
must go, and I must go;" so is, " We must go" for the same reason, though it has but one nomi- 
native and one verb. "He and /were present," is rightly given by Hile} r as an example of two 
pronouns connected together by and. (See his Gram., p. 105.) But, of verbs connected to each 
other, he absurdly supposes the following to be examples: "He spake, and it was done." — "I 
know it, and I can prove it." — " Do you say so, and can you prove it ?" — lb. Here and connects 
sentences, and not particular words. 

Obs. 5. — Two or three conjunctions sometimes come together; as, "What rests, but that the 
mortal sentence pass?" — Milton. " Nor yet that he should offer himself often." — Heb., ix, 25. 
These may be severally parsed as " connecting what precedes and what follows," and the observ- 
ant reader will not fail to notice, that such combinations of connecting particles are sometimes 
required by the sense; but, since nothing that is needless, is really proper, conjunctions should 
not be unnecessarily accumulated: as, " But and «/ that evil servant say in his heart," &c. — Matt., 
xxiv, 48. Greek, " 'E«v 61 eliry 6 icanbe dovlioc iiceivoc" &c. Here is no a^d "But and?/ she 
depart." — 1 Cor., vii, 11. This is almost a literal rendering of the Greek, "'JZuvde ical xcipioftrj" 
— yet either but or and is certainly useless. "In several cases," says Priestley, "we content 
ourselves, now, with fewer conjunctive particles than our ancestors did [say used]-. Example: 
1 So as that his doctrines were embraced by great numbers.' Universal Hist, Vol. 29, p. 501. So 
that would have been much easier, and better." — Priestley's Gram., p. 139. Some of the poets 
have often used the word that as an expletive, to fill the measure of their verse ; as, 
"When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept." — Shakspeare. 
" If that he be a dog, beware his fangs." — Id. 
" That made him pine away and moulder, 
As though that he had been no soldier." — Butler's Poems, p. 164. 

Obs. 6. — W. Allen remarks, that, " And is sometimes introduced to engage our attention to a 
following word or phrase ; as, ' Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer. ' [Pope.] ' I see thee 
fall, and by Achilles' hand.' [Id]." — Allen's E. Gram., p. 184. The like idiom, he says, occurs 
in these passages of Latin : "'Eorsand haec olim meminisse juvabit.' Virg. ' Mors et fugacem 
persequitur virum.' Hot." — Allen's Gram., p. 184. But it seems to me, that and and et are hero 
regular connectives. The former implies a repetition of the preceding verb : as, " Part pays, and 
justly pays, the deserving steer." — "I see thee fall, and fall by Achilles 1 hand." The latter refers 
back to what was said before : thus, " Perhaps it will also hereafter delight you to recount these 
evils." — "And death pursues the man that flees." In the following text, the conjunction is moro 
like an expletive ; but even here it suggests an extension of the discourse then in progress : 
"Lord, and what shall this man do?" — John, xxi, 21. "Kvpte, ovroc <$£ re;" — "Domine, hie 
autem quid ?" — Beza. 

Obs. 7. — The conjunction as often unites words that are in apposition, or in the same case; as, 
"He offered himself as a, journeyman." — "I assume it as a fact." — Webster's Essays, p. 94. "In 
an other example of the same kind, the earth, as a common mother, is animated to give refugo 
against a father's unkindness." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol ii, p. 1G8. "And then to offer himself 
up as a sacrifice and propitiation for them." — Scougal, p. 99. So, likewise, when an intransitive 
verb takes the same case after as before it, by Pule 6th ; as, " Johnson soon after engaged as 
usher in a school." — L. Murray. " He was employed as usher." In all these examples, the case 
that follows as, is determined by that which precedes. If after the verb "engaged" we supply 
himself, usher becomes objective, and is in apposition with the pronoun, and not in agreement 
with Johnson : " He engaged himself as usher." One late writer, ignorant or regardless of the 
analogy of General Grammar, imagines this case to be an " objective governed by the conjunction 
as" according to the following rule: " The conjunction as, when it takes the meaning of for, or 
in the character of, governs the objective case ; as, Addison, as a writer of prose, is highly distin- 
guished." — J. M. Putnam's Gram., p. 113. S. W. Clark, in his grammar published in 1848, sets 
as in his list of prepositions, with this example : " ' That England can spare from her service such 
men as him.' — Lord Brougham." — Clark's Practical Gram., p. 92. And again : " When the second 
term of a Comparison of equality is a Noun, or Pronoun, the Preposition as is commonly used. 
Example — 'He hath died to redeem such a rebel as me.' — Wesley." Undoubtedly, Wesley and 
Brougham here erroneously supposed the as to connect words only, and consequently to require 
them to be in the same case, agreeably to Obs. 1st, above ; but a moment's reflection on the sense, 
should convince any one, that the construction requires the nominative forms he and I, with the 
verbs is and am understood. 

Obs. 8. — The conjunction as may also be used between an adjective or a participle and the 
noun to which the adjective or participle relates ; as, " It does not appear that brutes have the 
least reflex sense of actions as distinguished from events ; or that will and design, which consti- 
tute the very nature of actions as such, are at all an object of their perception." — Butler's Analogy, 
p. 277. 

Obs. 9. — As frequently has the force of a relative pronoun, and when it evidently sustains the 
relation of a case, it ought to be called, and generally is called, a pronoun, rather than a conjunc- 
tion; as, " Avoid such as are vicious " — Anon. " But as many as received him," &c. — John, i, 12. 
" We have reduced the terms into as small a number as was consistent with perspicuity and dis- 
tinction." — Brightland's Gram., p. ix. Here as represents a noun, and while it serves to connect 



CHAP. IX.] SYNTAX. KULE XXII. CONJUNCTIONS. — OBSERVATIONS. 673 

the two parts of the sentence, it is also the subject of a verb. These being the true character- 
istics of a relative pronoun, it is proper to refer the word to that class. But when a clause or a 
sentence is the antecedent, it is better to consider the as a conjunction, and to supply the pronoun 
it, if the writer has not used it ; as, " He is angry, as [it] appears by this letter." Home Tooke 
says, " The truth is, that as is also an article ; and (however and whenever used in English) means 
the same as It, or That, or Which." — Diversions of Furley, Vol. i, p. 223. But what definition 
he would give to "an article," does not appear. 

Obs. 10. — In some examples, it seems questionable whether as ought to be reckoned a pro- 
noun, or ought rather to be parsed as a conjunction after which a nominative is understood ; as, 
"He then read the conditions as follow." — "The conditions are as follow." — Nutting's Gram., p. 
106. "The principal evidences on which this assertion is grounded, are as follow." — Gurney's 
Essays, p. 166. "The Quiescent verbs are as follow." — Pike's Heb. Lex., p. 184. "The other 
numbers are duplications of these, and proceed as follow.'" — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Lang., Vol. ii, 
p. 35. " The most eminent of the kennel are bloodhounds, which lead the van, and are as fol- 
low." — Steele, Tattler, No. 62. "His words are as follow." — Sped., No. 62. "The words are as 
follow." — Addison, Sped, No. 513. " The objections that are raised against it as a tragedy, are 
as follow." — Gay, Pref to What d 1 ye call it. "The particulars are as follow." — Buckets Gram., 
p. 93. "The principal interjections in English are as follow." — Ward's Gram., p. 81. In all 
these instances, one may suppose the final clause to mean, "as they here follow;" — or, supposing 
as to be a pronoun, one may conceive it to mean, " such as follow." But some critical writers, it 
appears, prefer the singular verb, " as follows." Hear Campbell : "When a verb is used imper- 
sonally, it ought undoubtedly to be in the singular number, whether the neuter pronoun be ex- 
pressed or understood ; and when no nominative in the sentence can regularly be construed with 
the verb, it ought to be considered as impersonal. For this reason, analogy as well as usage favour 
[say favours] this mode of expression, ' The conditions of the agreement were as follows ;' 
and not ' as follow.' 1 A few late writers have inconsiderately adopted this last form through a 
mistake of the construction. For the same reason we ought to say, ' I shall consider his censures 
so far only as concerns my friend's conduct;' and not ' so far as concern. 1 " — Philosophy of Rhet., 
p. 229. It is too much to say, at least of one of these sentences, that there is no nominative with 
which the plural verb can be regularly construed. In the former, the word as may be said to bo 
a plural nominative ; or, if we will have this to be a conjunction, the pronoun they, representing 
conditions, may be regularly supplied, as above. In the latter, indeed, as is not a pronoun ; be- 
cause it refers to " so far," which is not a noun. But the sentence is had English; because the 
^erb concern or concerns is improperly left without a nominative. Say therefore, ' I shall consider 
his censures so far only as they concern my friend's conduct;' — or, 'so far only as my friend's 
conduct is concerned.' The following is an other example which I conceive to be wrong; because, 
with an adverb for its antecedent, as is made a nominative : " They ought therefore to be uttered 
as quickly as is consistent with distinct articulation." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 16. Say rather, 
" They ought therefore to be uttered with as much rapidity as is consistent with distinct articula- 
tion." 

Obs. 11. — Lindley Murray was so much puzzled with Tooke's notion of as, and Campbell's doc- 
trine of the impersonal verb, that he has expressly left his pupils to hesitate and doubt, like 
himself, whether one ought to say " as follows" or " as follovj," when the preceding noun is 
plural; or — to furnish an alternative, (if they choose it,) he shows them at last how they may 
dodge the question, by adopting some other phraseology. He begins thus : " Grammarians differ 
in opinion, respecting the propriety of the following modes of expression : 'The arguments 
advanced were nearly as follows;' 'the positions were, as appears, incontrovertible.'" — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 146. Then follows a detail of suggestions from Campbell and others, all the quo- 
tations being anonymous, or at least without definite references. Omitting these, I would hero 
say of the two examples given, that they are not parallel instances. For, " as follows," refers to 
what the arguments were, — to the things themselves, considered plurally, and immediately to be 
exhibited; wherefore the expression ought rather to have been, " as follow," or, " as they here 
follovj." But, " as appears" means " as it appears," or "as the case novo appears;" and one of 
these plain modes of expression would have been much preferable, because the as is here evi- 
dently nothing but a conjunction. 

Obs. 12. — "The diversity of sentiment on this subject," says L. Murray, "and the respecta- 
bility of the different opponents, will naturally induce the readers to pause and reflect, before they 
decide." — Octavo Gram., p. 147. The equivalent expressions by means of which he proposes to 
evade at last the dilemma, are the following : " The arguments advanced were nearly such as fol- 
low;" — "The arguments advanced were nearly of the following nature ; " — "The following are 
nearly the arguments which were advanced;" — "The arguments advanced were nearly those 
which follow:" — "These, or nearly these, were the arguments advanced;" — "The positions were 
such as appear incontrovertible ;" — " It appears that the positions were incontrovertible;" — " That 
the positions were incontrovertible, is apparent ;" — "The positions were apparently incontrovert- 
ible;" — "In appearance, the positions were incontrovertible." — Ibid. If to shun the expression 
will serve our turn, surely here are ways enough! But to those who " pause and reflect" with 
the intention to decide, I would commend the following example: "Reconciliation was offered, 
on conditions as moderate as were consistent with a permanent union." — Murray's Key, under 
Rule 1. Here Murray supposes Li was" to be wrong, and accordingly changes it to "were," by 
the Rule, " A verb must agree with its nominative case in number and person." But the amend- 

43 



674 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

ment is a pointed rejection of Campbell's " impersonal verb," or verb which " has no nomina- 
tive ;" and if the singular is not right here, the rhetorician's respectable authority vouches only for 
a catalogue of errors. Again, if this verb must be were in order to agree with its nominative, it 
is still not clear that as, is, or ought to be, the nominative; because the meaning may perhaps be 
better expressed thus : — " on conditions as moderate as any that were consistent with a permanent 
union." 

Obs. 13. — A late writer expresses his decision of the foregoing question thus: " Of all the dif- 
ferent opinions on a grammatical subject, which have arisen in the literary world, there scarcely 
appears one more indefensible than that of supposing as follows to be an impersonal verb, and to 
be correctly used in such sentences as this, 'The conditions were as follows.' 1 Nay, we are told 
that, " A few late writers have adopted this form, 'The conditions were as follow,' inconsider- 
ately" and, to prove this charge of inconsiderateness, the following sentence is brought forward: 
' I shall consider his censure [censures is the word used by Campbell and by Murray] so far only 
as concern my friend's conduct,' which should be, it is added, ' as concerns, and not as concern. 1 
If analogy, simplicity, or syntactical authority, is of any value in our resolution of the sentence, 
1 The conditions were as follows,' the word as is as evident a relative as language can afford. It 
is undoubtedly equivalent to that or which, and relates to its antecedent those or such understood, 
and should have been the nominative to the verb follow ; the sentence, in rt£ present form, being 
inaccurate. The second sentence is by no means a parallel one. The word as is a conjunction ; 
and though it has, as a relative, a reference to its antecedent so, yet in its capacity of a mere 
conjunction, it cannot possibly be the nominative case to any verb. It should be, ''it concerns.'' 
"Whenever as relates to an adverbial antecedent; as in the sentence, ' So far as it concerns me,' 
it is merely a conjunction ; but when it refers to an adjective antecedent ; as in the sentence, ' The 
business is such as concerns me;' it must be a relative, and susceptible of case, whether its ante- 
cedent is expressed or understood; being, in fact, the nominative to the verb concerns." — Nixon's 
Parser, p. 145. It will be perceived by the preceding remarks, that I do not cite what is here 
said, as believing it to be in all respects well said, though it is mainly so. In regard to the point 
at issue, I shall add but one critical authority more: " 'The circumstances were as follows.' Sev- 
eral grammarians and critics have approved this phraseology : I am inclined, however, to concur 
with those who prefer ' as follow.' " — Crombie, on Etym. and Synt., p. 388. 

Obs. 14. — The conjunction that is frequently understood ; as, " It is seldom [that] their coun- 
sels are listened to." — Robertson's Amer., i, 316. " The truth is, [that] grammar is very much 
neglected among us." — Lowth's Gram., Pref, p. vi. " The Sportsman believes [that] there is 
G-ood in his Chace [chase.]" — Harris's Hermes, p. 296. 

" Thou warnst me [that] I have done amiss ; 
I should have earlier looked to this." — Scott. 

Obs. 15. — After than or as, connecting the terms of a comparison, there is usually an ellipsis 
of some word or words. The construction of the words employed may be seen, when the ellipsis 
is supplied; as, "They are stronger than we" [are.] — Numb., xiii. 31. "Wisdom is better than 
weapons of war" [are.] — Eccl., ix, 18. "He does nothing who endeavours to do more than [what] 
is allowed to humanity." — Dr. Johnson. "My punishment is greater than [what] I can bear." — 
Gen., iv, 13. "Ralph gave him more than 1" [gave him.] — Churchill's Gram., p. 351. "Ralph 
gave him more than [he gave] me." — Ibid. "Revelation, surely, was never intended for such as 
he" [is.] — Campbell's Four Gospels, p. iv. "Let such as him sneer if they will." — Liberator, Yol. 
ix, p. 182. Here him ought to be he, according to Rule 2d, because the text speaks of such as 
he is or ivas. " ' You were as innocent of it as me ;' ' He did it as well as me.' In both places it 
ought to be /; that is, as I was, as I did." — Churchill's Gram., p. 352. 

" Rather let such poor souls as you and 1 
Say that the holidays are drawing nigh." — Swift. 

Obs. 16. — The doctrine above stated, of ellipses after than and as, proceeds on the supposition 
that these words are conjunctions, and that they connect, not particular words merely, but sen- 
tences, or clauses. It is the common doctrine of nearly all our grammarians, and is doubtless 
liable to fewer objections than any other theory that ever has been, or ever can be, devised in 
lieu of it. Yet as is not always a conjunction ; nor, when it is a conjunction, does it always con- 
nect sentences ; nor, when it connects sentences, is there always an ellipsis ; nor, when there is 
an ellipsis, is it always quite certain what that ellipsis is. All these facts have been made plain, 
by observations that have already been bestowed on the word : and, according to some gramma- 
rians, the same things may severally be affirmed of the word than. But most authors consider 
than to be always a conjunction, and generally, if not always, to connect sentences. Johnson and 
Webster, in their dictionaries, mark it for an adverb ; and the latter says of it, " This word signi- 
fies also then, both in English and Dutch." — Webster's Amer. Diet, 8vo, w. Than. But what he 
means by " also," I know not; and surely, in no English of this age, is than equivalent to then, 
or then to than. The ancient practice of putting then for than, is now entirely obsolete ;* and, as 
we have no other term of the same import, most of our expositors merely explain than as " a 
particle used in comparison." — Johnson, Worcester, Maunder. Some absurdly define it thus: 
"Than, adv. Placed in comparison." — Walker, (Rhym. Diet.,) Jcmes, Scott. According to this 

* " Note, &\)tn and than are distinct Particles, but use hath made the using of then for than after a Compar- 
ative Degree at least passable. See Butler's Eng. Gram. Index." — Walker's Eng. Particles, Tenth Ed., 1691, 
p. 333. 



CHAP. IX.] SYNTAX. — EULE XXII. — CONJUNCTIONS. — OBSERVATIONS. 675 

definition, than would be a participle ! But, since an express comparison necessarily implies a 
connexion between different terms, it cannot well be denied that than is a connective word ; 
wherefore, not to detain the reader with any profitless controversy, I shall take it for granted that 
this word is always a conjunction. That it always connects sentences, I do not affirm ; because 
there are instances in which it is difficult to suppose it to connect anything more than particular 
words: as, "Less judgement than wit is more sail than ballast." — Penn's Maxims. "With no 
less eloquence than freedom. 'Pari eloquentui ac libertate.' Tacitus" — Walker's Particles, p. 
200. " Any comparison between these two classes of writers, cannot be other than vague and 
loose." — Blair's Rhet, p. 347. " This far more than compensates all those little negligences." — 
lb., p. 200. 

" Remember Handel ? Who that was not born 
Deaf as the dead to harmony, forgets, 
Or can, the more than Homer of his age?" — Cowper. 

Obs. 17. — "When any two declinable words are connected by than or as, they are almost always, 
according to the true idiom of our language, to be put in the same case, whether we suppose an 
ellipsis in the construction of the latter, or not ; as, " My Father is greater than J." — Bible. 
"What do ye more than others?" — Matt., v, 47. "More men than women were there." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., p. 114. " Entreat him as a father, and the younger men as brethren." — 1 Tim,, v, 
1. " I would that all men were even as 1 myself." — 1 Cor., vii, 7. " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest 
thou me more than these?" — John, xxi, 15. This last text is manifestly ambiguous ; so that 
some readers will doubt whether it means — " more than thou lovest these," or — "more than these 
love me." Is not this because there is an ellipsis in the sentence, and such a one as may be vari- 
ously conceived and supplied? The original too is ambiguous, but not for the same reason: 
" 2,ifj.G)v 'Iwva, dya-xac fie 7v?.elov tovtuv ;" — And so is the Latin of the Vulgate and of Montanus : 
" Simon Jona, diligis me plus his ?" Wherefore Beza expressed it differently : " Simon fili Jonce, 
diligis me plus qudm hi?" The French Bible has it : "Simon, fils de Jona, m'aimes-tu plus que 
ne font ceux-ci?" And the expression in English should rather have been, " Lovest thou me 
more than do these ?" 

Obs. 18. — The comparative degree, in Greek, is said to govern the genitive case ; in Latin, the 
ablative : that is, the genitive or the ablative is sometimes put after this degree without any con- 
necting particle corresponding to than, and without producing a compound sentence. We have 
examples in the phrases, " -xlelov tovtcjv" and u plus his," above. Of such a construction our 
language admits no real example ; that is, no exact parallel. But we have an imitation of it in 
the phrase than whom, as in this hackneyed example from Milton : 

" Which, when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, 
Satan except, none higher sat," &c. — Paradise Lost, B. ii, 1. 300. 

The objective, whom, is here preferred to the nominative, who, because the Latin ablative is com- 
monly rendered by the former case, rather than by the latter ; but this phrase is no more expli- 
cable according to the usual principles of English grammar, than the error of putting the objective 
case for a version of the ablative absolute. If the imitation is to be judged allowable, it is to us 
a figure of syntax — an obvious example of Enallage, and of that form of Enallage, which is com- 
monly called Antiptosis, or the putting of one case for an other. 

Obs. 19. — This use of whom after than has greatly puzzled and misled our grammarians ; many 
of whom have thence concluded that than must needs be, at least in this instance, a preposition * 
and some have extended the principle beyond this, so as to include than which, than whose with 
its following noun, and other nominatives which they will have to be objectives ; as, " I should 
seem guilty of ingratitude, than which nothing is more shameful." See RusseWs Gram., p. 104. 
" Washington, than whose fame naught earthly can be purer." — Peirce's Gram., p. 204. " You 
have given him more than I. You have sent her as much as he." — Buchanans Eng. Syntax, p. 
116. These last two sentences are erroneously called by their author, " false syntax;" not indeed 
with a notion that than and as are prepositions, but on the false supposition that the preposition 

* "When the relative who follows the preposition than, it must be used as in the accusative case." — Buckets 
Gram., p. 93. Dr. Priestley seems to have imagined the word than to be always a preposition; for he cc. tends 
against the common docrine and practice respecting the case after it: " It is, likewise, said, that the nominative 
case ought to follow the 2>reposition than; because the verb to be is understood after it; As, You are taller than 
he, and not taller than him,; because at full length, it would be, You are taller than he is; but since it is allowed, 
that the oblique case should follow prepositions ; and since the comparative degree of an adjective, and the parti- 
cle than have, certainly, between them, the force of a preposition, expressing the relation of one word to another, 
they ought to require "the oblique case of the pronoun following.' 1 — Priestley's Gram., p. 105. If than wt re a 
preposition, this reasoning would certainly be right; but the Doctor begs the question, by assuming that it is a 
preposition. William Ward, an other noted grammarian of the same age, supposes that, "Mr sapientior es, 
may be translated, Thou art wiser than me." He also, in the same place, avers, that, " The best English 
Writers have considered tJian as a Sign of an oblique Case ; as, ' She suffers more than me. 1 Swift, i. e. more 
than I suffer. 

' Thou art a Girl as much brighter than hek, 
As he was a Poet sublimer than me. 1 Prior. 
i. e. Thou art a Girl as much brighter than she was, as he was a Poet sublimer than J awi." — Ward's Practical 
Gram., p. 112. These examples of the objective case after than, were justly regarded by Lowth as bad English. 
The construction, however, has a modern advocate in S. W. Clark, who will have the conjunctions as, but, save, 
saving, and tlwun, as well as the adjectives like, unlike, near, next, nigh, and opposite, to be prepositions. 
"After a Comparative the Preposition than is commonly used. Example — Grammar is more interesting than 
all my other studies."— Clark's Practical Gram., p. 178. "As, like, than, &c, indicate a relation of compari- 
son. Example 'Thou hast been wiser all the while than me.' Southey's Letters." — lb., p. 96., Here correct 
usage undoubtedly requires 2, and not we. Such at least is my opinion. 



676 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

to must necessarily be understood between them and the pronouns, as it is between the preceding 
verbs and the pronouns him and her. Bat, in fact, " You have given him more than I," is per- 
fectly good English ; the last clause of which plainly means — " more than I have given him." 11 
And, "You have sent her as much as he" will of course be understood to mean — " as much as 
he has sent her ;" but here, because the auxiliary implied is different from the one expressed, it 
might have been as well to have inserted it: thus, " You have sent her as much as he has." " She 
reviles you as much as he" is also good English, though found, with the foregoing, among Bu- 
chanan's examples of "false syntax." 

Obs. 20. — Murray's twentieth Rule of syntax avers, that, " "When the qualities of different 
things are compared, the latter noun or pronoun is not governed by the conjunction than or as, but 
agrees with the verb," &c. — Octavo Gram., p. 214; Russell's Gram., 103; Bacon's, 51; Alger's, 
71; Smith's, 179; Fisk's, 138. To this rule, the great Compiler and most of his followers say, 
that than whom, "is an exception," or " seems to form an exception;" to which they add, that, 
"the phrase is, however, avoided by the best modern writers." — Murray, i, 215. This latter as- 
sertion Russell conceives to be untrue : the former he adopts ; and, calling than whom " an excep- 
tion to the general rule," says of it, (with no great consistency,) "Here the conjunction than 
has certainly the force of a preposition, and supplies its place by governing the relative." — 
Russell's Abridgement of Murray's Gram., p. 104. But this is hardly an instance to which one 
would apply the maxim elsewhere adopted by Murray: " Exceptio probat regulam." — Octavo 
Gram., p. 205. To ascribe to a conjunction the governing power of a preposition, is a very wide 
step, and quite too much like straddling the line which separates these parts of speech one from 
the other. 

Obs. 21. — Churchill says, " If there be no ellipsis to supply, as sometimes happens when a pro- 
noun relative occurs after than ; the relative is to be put in the objective case absolute : as, ' Alfred, 
than whom a greater king never reigned, deserves to be held up as a model to all future sove- 
reigns.' " — New Gram., p. 153. Among his Notes, he has one with reference to this "objective 
case absolute," as follows : "It is not governed by the conjunction, for on no other occasion does a 
conjunction govern any case ; or b} r any word understood, for we can insert no word, or words, 
that will reconcile the phrase with any other rule of grammar : and if we employ a pronoun per- 
sonal instead of the relative, as he, which will admit of being resolved elliptically, it must be put 
in the .nominative case." — lb., p. 352. Against this gentleman's doctrine, one may very well 
argue, as he himself does against that of Murray, Russell, and others; that on no other occasion 
do we speak of putting "the objective case absolute;" and if, agreeably to the analogy of our 
own tongue, our distinguished authors would condescend to say than who* surely nobody would 
think of calling this an instance of the nominative case absolute, — except perhaps one swagger- 
ing neio theorist, that most pedantic of all scoffers, Oliver B. Peirce. 

Obs. 22.— The sum of the matter is this: the phrase, than who, is a more regular and more ana- 
logical expression than than whom ; but both are of questionable propriety, and the former is sel- 
dom if ever found, except in some few grammars ; while the latter, which is in some sort a 
Latinism, may be quoted from many of our most distinguished writers. And, since that which is 
irregular cannot be parsed by rule, if out of respect to authority we judge it allowable, it must be 
set down among the figures of grammar; which are, all of them, intentional deviations from the 
ordinary use of words. One late author treats the point pretty well, in this short hint: " After 
the conjunction than, contrary to analogy, whom is used in stead of who." — Nutting's Gram., p. 
106. An other gives his opinion in the following note : "When who immediately follows than, it 
is used improperly in the objective case; as, 'Alfred, than whom a greater king never reigned;' 
— than whom is not grammatical. It ought to be, than who ; because who is the nominative to 
was understood. — Than whom is as bad a phrase as ' he is taller than him.' It is true that some 
of our best writers have used than whom ; but it is also true, that they have used other phrases 
which we have rejected as ungrammatical ; then why not reject this too ?" — Lennie's Gh~ammar, 
Edition of 1830, p. 105. 

Obs. 23. — On this point, Bullions and Brace, two American copyists and plagiarists of Lennie, 
adopt opposite notions. The latter copies the foregoing note, without the last sentence ; that is, 
without admitting that " than whom" has ever been used by good writers. See Brace's Gram., 
p. 90. The former says, "The relative usually follows than in the objective case, even when the 
nominative goes before ; as, ' Alfred, than whom a greater king never reigned.' This anomaly it is 
difficult to explain. Most probably, than, at first had the force of a preposition, which it now re- 
tains only when followed by the relative." — Bullions, E. Gram., of 1843, p. 112. Again: "A 
relative after than is put in the objective case; as, 'Satan, than whom none higher sat.' This 
anomaly has not been satisfactorily explained. In this case, some regard than as a preposition. 
It is probably only a case of simple enallage." — Bullions, Analyi. andPract. Gram., of 1849, p. 191. 
Prof. Fowler, in his great publication, of 1850, says of this example, " The expression should be, 
Satan, than who None higher sat." — Fowler's E. Gram., § 482, Note 2. Thus, by one single 
form of aniiptosis, have our grammarians been as much divided and perplexed, as were the Latin 
grammarians by a vast number of such changes ; and, since there were some among the latter, 
who insisted on a total rejection of the figure, there is no great presumption in discarding, if we 
please, the very little that remains of it in English. 

* In respect to the case, the phrase than who is similar to than he, than they, &c, as has been observed by 
many grammarians; but, since than is a conjunction, and who or whom is a relative, it is doubtful whether it 
can be strictly proper to set two such connectives together, be the case of the latter which it may. See Note 
5th, in the present chapter, below. 



CHAP. IX.] SYNTAX.— RULE XXII. — CONJUNCTIONS. — NOTES. 677 

Obs. 24. — Peirce's new theory of grammar rests mainly on the assumption, that no correct sen- 
tence ever is, or can be, in any wise, elliptical. This is one of the " Two G-rand Principles" on 
which the author says his "work is based." — The Grammar, p. 10. The other is, that grammar 
cannot possibly be taught without a thorough reformation of its nomenclature, a reformation in- 
volving a change of most of the names and technical terms heretofore used for its elucidation. 
I do not give precisely his own words, for one half of this author's system is expressed in such 
language as needs to be translated into English in order to be generally understood ; but this is 
precisely his meaning, and in words more inteUigible. In what estimation he holds these two 
positions, may be judged from the following assertion: " Without these grand points, no work, 
whatever may be its pretensions, can be a Grammar of the Language." — lb. It follows that no 
man who does not despise every other book that is called a grammar, can entertain any favour- 
able opinion of Peirce's. The author however is tolerably consistent. He not only scorns to ap- 
peal, for the confirmation of his own assertions and rules, to the judgement or practice of any 
other writer, but counsels the learner to "spurn the idea of quoting, either as proof or for defence, 
the authority of any man." See p. 13. The notable results of these important premises are too 
numerous for detail even in this general pandect. But it is to be mentioned here, that, according 
to this theory, a nominative coming after than or as, is in general to be accounted a nominative 
absolute; that is, a nominative which is independent of any verb; or, (as the ingenious author 
himself expresses it,) " A word in the subjective case following another subjective, and immedi- 
ately preceded by than, as, or not, may be used vnthout an asserter immediately depending on it 
for sense." — Peirce's Gram., p. 195. See also his " Grammatical Chart, Rule I, Part 2." 

Obs. 25. — " Lowth, Priestley, Murray, and most grammarians say, that hypothetical, conditional, 
concessive, or exceptive conjunctions; as, if, lest, though, unless, except; require, or govern the sub- 
junctive mood. But in this they are certainly wrong: for, as Dr. Crombie rightly observes, 
the verb is put in the subjunctive mood, because the mood expresses contingency, not because it 
follows the conjunction : for these writers themselves allow, that the same conjunctions are to be 
followed by the indicative mood, when the verb is not intended to express a contingency. In the 
following sentence : ' Tlioicgh he be displeased at it, I will bolt my door ; and let him break it open 
if he dare ;' may we not as well affirm, that and governs the imperative mood, as that though and 
if govern the subjunctive?" — ChurchiWs Gram., p. 321. 

Obs. 26. — In the list of correspondents contained in Note 1th below, there are some words which 
ought not to be called conjunctions, by the parser ; for the relation of a word as the proper corre- 
spondent to an other word, does not necessarily determine its part of speech. Thus, such is to be 
parsed as an adjective ; as, sometimes as a pronoun ; so, as a conjunctive adverb. And only, 
merely, also, and even, are sometimes conjunctive adverbs; as, " Nor is this only a matter of con- 
venience to the poet, it is also a source of gratification to the reader." — Campbell's Ehet, p. 166. 
Murray's, Gram., i, 362. Professor Bullions will have it, that these adverbs may relate to nouns 
— a doctrine which I disapprove. He says " Only, solely, chiefly, merely, too, also, and perhaps a 
few others, are sometimes joined to substantives ; as, ' Not only the men, but the women also were 
present.' " — English Gram., p. 116. Only and also are here, I think, conjunctive adverbs; but it 
is not the office of adverbs to qualify nouns ; and, that these words are adjuncts to the nouns men 
and women, rather than the verb were, which is once expressed and once understood, I see no 
sufficient reason to suppose. Some teachers imagine, that an adverb of this kind qualifies the 
whole clause in which it stands. But it would seem, that the relation of such words to verbs, 
participles, or adjectives, according to the common rule for adverbs, is in general sufficiently 
obvious: as, "The perfect tense not only refers to what is past, but also conveys an allusion to 
the present time." — Murray's Gram., p. 70. Is there any question about the true mode of pars- 
ing " only" and "also" here ? and have they not in the other sentence, a relation similar to what 
is seen here ? 

NOTES TO RULE XXII. 

Note I. — When two terms connected are each to be extended and completed in 
sense by a third, they must both, be such as will make sense with it. Thus, in stead 
of saying, " He has made alterations and additions to the work," say, " He has made 
alterations in the work, and additions to it ;" because the relation between altera- 
tions and work is not well expressed by to. 

Note II. — In general, any two terms which we connect by a conjunction, should 
be the same in kind or quality, rather than different or heterogeneous. Example : 
" The assistance was welcome, aud seasonably afforded." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 
249. Better : "The assistance was welcome, and it was seasonably afforded." Or : 
" The assistance was both seasonable and welcome." 

Note III. — The conjunctions, copulative or disjunctive, affirmative or negative, 
must be used with a due regard to their own import, and to the true idiom of the 
language. Thus, say, " The general bent or turn of the language is towards the 
other form ;" and not, with Lowth and Churchill, " The general bent and turn of the 
language is towards the other form." — Short Introd., p. 60, New Gram., p. 113. 
So, say, " I cannot deny that there are perverse jades ;" and not, with Addison, " I 



678 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

cannot deny but there are perverse jades." — Sped., No. 457. Again, say, "I feared 
that I should be deserted ;" not, " lest I should be deserted." 

Note IV. — After else, other* otherwise, rather, and all English comparatives, the 
latter term of an exclusive comparison should be introduced by the conjunction than 
— a word winch is appropriated to this use solely : as, " Style is nothing else than 
that sort of expression which our thoughts most readily assume." — Blair's Rhet., p. 
92. "What we call fables or parables are no other than allegories." — lb., p. 151 ; 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 243. "We judge otherwise of them than of ourselves." 
— R. Ainsworth. " The premeditation should be of things rather than of words." 
— Blair's Rhet., p. 262. "Is not the life more than meat?" — Com. Bible. "Is not 
life a greater gift than food?" — CampbelVs Gospels. 

Note V. — Relative pronouns, being themselves a species of connective words, 
necessarily exclude conjunctions ; except there be two or more relative clauses to be 
connected together ; that is, one to the other. Example of error : " The principal 
and distinguishing excellence of Virgil, and which, in my opinion, he possesses be- 
yond all poets, is tenderness." — Blair" 1 's Rhet., p. 439. Better: "The principal and 
distinguishing excellence of Virgil, an excellence which, in my opinion, he possesses 
beyond all other poets, is tenderness." 

Note VI. — The word that, (as was shown in the fifth chapter of Etymology.) is 
often made a pronoun in respect to what precedes it, and a conjunction in respect to 
what follows it — a construction which, for its anomaly, ought to be rejected. For 
example : " In the mean time that the Muscovites were complaining to St. Nicholas, 
Charles returned thanks to God, and prepared for new victories." — Life of Charles 
XII Better thus : " While the Muscovites were thus complaining to St. Nicholas, 
Charles returned thanks to God, and prepared for new victories." 

Note VII. — The words in each of the following pairs, are the proper corres- 
pondents to each other ; and care should be taken, to give them their right place in 
the sentence : 

1. To though, corresponds yet ; as, " Though he were dead, yet shall he live." — 
John, xi, 25. 

2. To whether, corresponds or; as, " Whether it be greater or less." — Butler's 
Analogy, p. 77. 

3. To either, corresponds or ; as, " The constant indulgence of a declamatory 
manner, is not favourable either to good composition, or [to] good delivery." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 334. 

4. To neither, corresponds nor ; as, " John the Baptist came neither eating bread 
nor drinking wine." — Luke, vii, 33. " Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress 
him." — Exod., xxii, 21. 

5. To both, corresponds and ; as, " I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the 
Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise." — Rom., i, 14. 

6. To such, corresponds as ; (the former being a pronominal adjective, and the 
latter a relative pronoun ;) as, " An assembly such as earth saw never." — Cowper. 

* After else or other, the preposition besides is sometimes used ; and, when it recalls an idea previously sug- 
gested, it appears to be as good as than, or better : as, " Other words, besides the preceding, may begin with 
capitals." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 285. Or perhaps this preposition may be proper, whenever else or other 
denotes what is additional to the object of contrast, and not exclusive of it ; as, "When we speak of any other 
quantity besides bare numbers." — Tooke's Diversions, Vol. i, p. 215. "Because he had no other father besides 
God." — Milton, on Christianity, p. 109. Though w>e sometimes express an addition by more than, the follow- 
ing example appears to me to be bad English, and its interpretation still worse : " ' The secret was communi- 
cated to more men than him.'' That is, (when the ellipsis is duly supplied,) ' The secret was communicated to 
more persons than to him. 1 " — Murray's Key, 12mo, p. 61 ; his Octavo Oram., p. 215; Ingersoll's Gram., 252. 
Say rather, — " to other men besides him." Nor, again, does the following construction appear to be right : " Now 
shew me another Popish rhymester but he." — Dennis: Notes to the Dunciad, B. ii, 1. 208. Say rather, "Now 
shoio me an other popish rhymester besides him." Or thus: "Now show me any popish rhymester except 
Mm." This too is questionable : " Now pain must here be intended to signify something else besides warning." 
— Wayland's Moral Science, p. 121. If "warning" was here intended to be included with " something else," the 
expression is right; if not, besides should be than. Again : " There is seldom any other cardinal in Poland but 
him:'— Life of Charles XII. Here " but him" should be either " besides him,"' or "than fee.;" for but never 
rightly governs the objective case, nor is it proper after other. " Many more examples, besides the foregoing, 
might have been adduced." — Wesbifs Enalish Parsinq, p. xv. Here, in fact, no comparison is expressed ; and 
therefore it is questionable, whether the word "more" is allowably used. Like else ,and other, when construed 
with besides, it signifies additional; and, as this idea is implied in besides, any one of these adjectives going be- 
fore is really pleonastic. In the sense above noticed, the word beside is sometimes written in stead of besides, 
though not very often ; as, " There are other things which pass in the mind of man, beside ideas."— Sheridan's 
Elocution, p. 136. 



CHAP. IX.] SYNTAX. RULE XXII. — CONJUNCTIONS. — ERRORS. 679 

7. To such, corresponds that ; with a finite verb following, to express a conse- 
quence : as, " The difference is such that all will perceive it." 

8. To as, corresponds as ; with an adjective or an adverb, to express equality of 
degree : as, " And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow." — 2 
Kings, v, 27. 

9. To as, corresponds so ; with two verbs, to express proportion or sameness : as, 
" As two are to four, so are six to twelve." — " As the tree falls, so it must lie." 

10. So is used before as; with an adjective or an adverb, to limit the degree by 
a comparison : as, " How can you descend to a thing so base as falsehood ?" 

11. So is used before as ; with a negative preceding, to deny equality of degree: 
as, "No lamb was e'er so mild as he." — Langhorne. "Relatives are not so useful 
in language as conjunctions." — Beattie : Murray's Gram., p. 126. 

12. To so, corresponds as ; with an infinitive following, to express a consequence : 
as, " We ought, certainly, to read blank verse so as to make every line sensible to the 
ear." — Blair's Ehet., p. 332. 

13. To so, corresponds that ; with a finite verb following, to express a conse- 
quence : as, " No man was so poor that he could not make restitution." — Milman's 
Jews, i, 113. " So run that ye may obtain." — 1 Cor., ix, 24. 

14. To not only, or not merely, corresponds but, but also, or but even ; as, "In 
heroic times, smuggling and piracy were deemed not only not infamous, but [even] 
absolutely honourable." — Maunders Gram., p. 15. "These are questions, not of 
prudence merely, but of morals also.' 1 '' — DymoncPs Essay, p. 82. 

Note VIII. — " When correspondent conjunctions are used, the verb, or phrase, 
that precedes the first, applies [also] to the second ; but no word following the for- 
mer, can [by virtue of this correspondence,] be understood after the latter." — 
ChurchilVs Gram., p. 353. Such ellipses as the following ought therefore in gene- 
ral to be avoided : " Tones are different both from emphasis and [/rora] pauses." — 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, i, 250. " Though both the intention and [the] purchase are 
now past." — lb., ii, 24. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXII. 

Examples under Note I. — Two Terms with One. 
"The first proposal was essentially different and inferior to the second." — Inst, p. 171. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the preposition to is used with joint reference to the two adjectives different 
and inferior, which require different prepositions. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 22d, "When two 
terms connected are each to be extended and completed in sense by a third, they must both be such as will 
make sense with it." The sentence may be corrected thus: "The first proposal was essentially different from, 
the second, and inferior to ii."] 

"A neuter verb implies the state a subject is in, without acting upon, or being acted upon, by 
another." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 30. "I answer, you may and ought to use stories and anec- 
dotes." — Students Manual, p. 220. " Oracle, n. Any person or place where certain decisions are 
obtained." — Webster's Bid. "Eorms of government may, and must be occasionally, changed." — 
Ld. Lyttelton. " I have, and pretend to be a tolerable judge." — Sped., No. 555. " Are we 
not lazy in our duties, or make a Christ of them ?" — Baxter's Saints 1 Best. " They may not ex- 
press that idea which the author intends, but some other which only resembles, or is a-kin to it." 
— Blair 's Ehet, p. 94. "We may, we ought therefore to read them with a distinguishing eye." — 
lb., p. 352. "Compare their poverty, with what they might, and ought to possess." — Sedgwick's 
Econ., p. 95. "He is a much better grammarian than they are." — Murray's Key, 8 vo, p. 211. 
" He was more beloved, but not so much admired as Cinthio." — Addison, on Medals : in Briest- 
ley's Gram., p. 200. " Will it be urged, that the four gospels are as old, or even older than tra- 
dition?"— Bolingb. Phil. Es., iv, § 19. "The court of Chancery frequently mitigates, and breaks 
the teeth of the common law."— Spectator, No. 564; Ware's Gram,, p. 16. "Antony, coming 
along side of her ship, entered it without seeing or being seen by her." — Goldsmith's Borne, p. 160. 
"In candid minds, truth finds an entrance, and a welcome too." — Murray's Key, ii. 168. "In 
many designs, we may succeed and be miserable." — lb., p. 169. "In many pursuits, we embark 
with pleasure, and land sorrowfully."— Ik, p. 170. "They are much greater gainers than I am 
by this unexpected event." — lb., p. 211. 

Under Note II. — Heterogeneous Terms. 
" Athens saw them entering her gates and fill her academies." — Chazotte's Essay, p. 30. " We 
have neither forgot his past, nor despair of his future success.'' — Buncan's Cicero, p. 121. " Her 



680 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

monuments and temples had long been shattered or crumbled into dust." — Lit. Conv., p. 15. 
" Competition is excellent, and the vital principle in all these things." — Dr. Lieber : ib., p. 64. 
"Whether provision should or not be made to meet this exigency." — lb., p. 128. "'That our 
Saviour was divinely inspired, and endued with supernatural powers, are positions that are here 
taken for granted." — Murray's Gram., i, 206. "It would be much more eligible, to contract or 
enlarge their extent, by explanatory notes and observations, than by sweeping away our ancient 
landmarks, and setting up others." — lb., i, p. 30. " It is certainly much better, to supply the de- 
fects and abridge superfluities, by occasional notes and observations, than by disorganizing, or 
altering a system which has been so long established." — lb., i, 59. "To have only one tune, or 
measure, is not much better than having none at all." — Blair's Ehtt., p. 126. " Facts too well 
known and obvious to be insisted on." — lb., p. 233. " In proportion as all these circumstances 
are happily chosen, and of a sublime kind." — lb., p. 41. " If the description be too general, and 
divested of circumstances." — Ibid. " lie gained nothing further than to be commended." — Mur- 
ray's Key, ii, 210. "I cannot but think its application somewhat strained, and out of place." — 
Vethake : Lit. Conv., p. 29. " Two negatives in the same clause, or referring to the same thing, 
destroy each other, and leave the sense affirmative." — Maunder 's Gram., p. 15. "Slates are 
stone and used to cover roofs of houses." — Webster's El. Spelling- Book, p. 47. "Every man of 
taste, and possessing an elevated mind, ought to feel almost the necessity of apologizing for the 
power he possesses." — Influence of Literature, Yol. ii, p. 122. "They very seldom trouble them- 
selves with Enquiries, or making useful observations of their own." — Locke, on Ed.., p. 376. 

" We've both the field and honour won ; 
The foe is profligate, and run." — Hudibras, p. 93. 

Under Note III. — Import op Conjunctions. 

" The is sometimes used before adverbs in the comparative and superlative degree." — Lennie's 
Gram., p. 6 ; Bullions' s, 8; Brace's, 9. " The definite article the is frequently applied to adverbs 
in the comparative and superlative degree." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 33 ; Ingersoll's, 33; Lowth's, 
14; Eisk's, 53; Merchant's, 24; and others. "Conjunctions usually connect verbs in the same 
mode or tense." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 137. " Conjunctions connect verbs in the same style, 
and usually in the same mode, tense, or form." — lb. " The ruins of Greece and Rome are but the 
monuments of her former greatness." — Lay's Gram., p. 88. " In many of these cases, it is not 
improbable, but that the articles were used originally." — Priestley's Gram., p. 152. " I cannot 
doubt but that these objects are really what they appear to be." — Karnes, El. of Grit, i, 85. "I 
question not but my reader will be as much pleased with it." — Sped., No. 535. "It is ten to 
one but my friend Peter is among them." — lb., No. 457. "I doubt not but such objections as 
these will be made." — Locke, on Education, p. 1G9. " I doubt not but it will appear in the perusal 
of the following sheets." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. vi. " It is not improbable, but that, in time, 
these different constructions may be appropriated to different uses." — Priestley's Gram., p. 156. 
" But to forget or to remember at pleasure, are equally beyond the power of man." — Idler, No. 72. 
" The nominative case follows the verb, in interrogative and imperative sentences." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii, p. 290. "Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, 
figs?" — James, hi, 12. "Whose characters are too profligate, that the managing of them should 
be of any consequence." — Swift, Examiner, No. 24. "You that are a step higher than a philoso- 
pher, a divine; yet have too much grace and wit than to be a bishop." — Pope, to Swift, Let. 80. 
" The terms rich or poor enter not into their language." — Robertson's America, Yol. i, p. 314. 
"This pause is but seldom or ever sufficiently dwelt upon." — Music of Nature, p. 181. "There 
would be no possibility of any such thing as human life and human happiness." — Butler's Anal., 
p. 110. " The multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace." — Matt., xx, 21. 

Under Note IY. — Of the Conjunction THAN. 
" A metaphor is nothing else but a short comparison." — Adam's Gram., p. 243 ; Goidd's, 236. 
"There being no other dictator here but use." — Camipbell's Bhtt., p. 167. " This Construction is 
no otherwise known in English but by supplying the first or second Person Plural." — Buchan- 
an's Syntax, p. xi. " Cyaxares was no sooner in the throne, but he was engaged in a terrible 
war." — Rollin's Hist, ii, 62. "Those classics contain little else but histories of murders." — Am. 
Museum, v, 526. "Ye shall not worship any other except God." — Sale's Koran, p. 15. "Their 
relation, therefore, is not otherwise to be ascertained but by their place." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 
260. " For he no sooner accosted her, but he gained his point." — Burder's Hist., i, 6. " And all 
the modern writers on this subject have done little else but translate them." — Blair's Rhet, p. 336. 
" One who had no other aim, but to talk copiously and plausibly." — lb., p. 317. "We can refer 
it to no other cause but the structure of the eye." — lb., p. 46. "No more is required but singly 
an act of vision." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 171. "We find no more in its composition, but the 
particulars now mentioned." — lb., i, 48. " He pretends not to say, that it hath any other effect 
but to raise surprise." — lb., ii, 61. "No sooner was the princess dead, but he freed himself." — 
Johnson's Sketch of Morin. " Ought is an imperfect verb, for it has no other modification besides 
this one." — Priestley's Gram., p. 113. " The verb is palpably nothing else but the tie." — Neefs 
Sketch, p. 66. " Does he mean that theism is capable of nothing else except being opposed to 
polytheism or atheism ?" — Blair's Rhet, p. 104. " Is it meant that theism is capable of nothing 
else besides being opposed to polytheism, or atheism?" — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 307. "There 



CHAP. IX.] SYNTAX. RULE XXII. — CONJUNCTIONS. — ERRORS. 681 

is no other method of teaching that of which any one is ignorant, but by means of something already 
known." — Dr. Johnson: Murray's Gram., i, 163 ; IngersoWs, 214. "0 fairest flower, no sooner 
blown but blasted!" — Milton's Poems, p. 132. "Architecture and gardening cannot otherwise 
entertain the mind, but by raising certain agreeable emotions or feelings." — Karnes, El. of Grit, 
ii, 318. " Or, rather, they are nothing else but nouns." — British Gram., p. 95. 

" As if religion were intended 
For nothing else but to be mended." — Hudibras, p. 11. 

Under Note Y. — Relatives Exclude Conjunctions. 
" To prepare the Jews for the reception of a prophet mightier than him, and whose shoes he 
was not worthy to bear." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 214. "Has this word which represents an 
action an object after it, and on which it terminates?" — Osborn's Key, p. 3. " The stores of liter- 
ature lie before him, and from which he may collect, for use, many lessons of wisdom." — Knapp's 
Lectures, p. 31. "Many and various great advantages of this Grammar, and which are wanting 
in others, might be enumerated." — Greenleafs Gram., p. 6. "About the time of Solon, the 
Athenian legislator, the custom is said to have been introduced, and which still prevails, of wri- 
ting in lines from left to right." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 19. " The fundamental rule of the con- 
struction of sentences, and into which all others might be resolved, undoubtedly is, to communi- 
cate, in the clearest and most natural order, the ideas which we mean to transfuse into the minds 
of others." — Blair's Rhet., p. 120; Jamieson's, 102. "He left a son of a singular character, and 
who behaved so ill that he was put in prison." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 221. "He discovered 
some qualities in the youth, of a disagreeable nature, and which to him were wholly unaccounta- 
ble." — lb., p. 213. "An emphatical pause is made, after something has been said of peculiar 
moment, and on which we want [' desire' M.~\ to fix the hearer's attention." — Blair's Rhet, p. 
331; Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 248. "But we have duplicates of each, agreeing in movement, 
though differing in measure, and which make different impressions on the ear." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 259. 

Under Note YI. — Of the word THAT. 

" It will greatly facilitate the labours of the teacher, at the same time that it will relieve the 
pupil of many difficulties." — Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. 4. "At the same time that the pupil is 
engaged in the exercises just mentioned, it will be a proper time to study the whole Grammar in 
course." — Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., Revised Ed., p. viii. "On the same ground that a parti- 
ciple and auxiliary are allowed to form a tense." — Beattie: Murray's Gram., Svo, p. 76. "On 
the same ground that the voices, moods, and tenses, are admitted into the English tongue." — lb., 
p. 101. " The five examples last mentioned, are corrected on the same principle that the pre- 
ceding examples are corrected." — lb., p. 186; IngersoWs Gram., 254. "The brazen age began 
at the death of Trajan, and lasted till the time that Rome was taken by the Goths." — Gould's 
Lat. Gram., p. 277. "The introduction to the Duodecimo Edition, is retained in this volume, for 
the same reason that the original introduction to the Grammar, is retained in the first volume." — 
Murray's Gram., Svo, Yol. ii, p. iv. " The verb must also be of the same person that the nomi- 
native case is." — IngersoWs Gram., p. 16. " The adjective pronoun their, is plural for the same 
reason that who is." — lb., p. 84. " The Sabellians could not justly be called Patripassians, in the 
same sense that the Noetians were so called." — Religious World. Yol. ii, p. 122. " This is one reason 
that we pass over such smooth language, without suspecting that it contains little or no meaning." 
— Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 298. "The first place that both armies came in sight of each other 
was on the opposite banks of the river Apsus." — Goldsmith's Rome, p. 118. "At the very time 
that the author gave him the first book for his perusal." — Campbells Rhetoric, Preface, -p. iv. 
" Peter will sup at the time that Paul will dine." — Fosdick's Be Sacy, p. 81. " Peter will be sup- 
ping at the time that Paul will enter." — Ibid. " These, at the same time that they may serve as 
models to those who may wish to imitate them, will give me an opportunity to cast more light upon 
the principles of this book." — Fo., p. 115. 

" Time was, like thee, they life possest, 
And time shall be, that thou shalt rest." — Parnell : Mur. Seq., p. 241. 

Under Note YII. — Of the Correspondents. 
" Our manners should neither be gross, nor excessively refined." — Merchant's Gram., p. 11. 
" A neuter verb expresses neither action or passion, but being, or a state of being." — 0. B. Peirce's 
Gram., p. 342. " The old books are neither English grammars, or grammars, in any sense of the 
English Language." — lb., p. 378. " The author is apprehensive that his work is not yet as accu- 
rate and as much simplified as it may be." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 7. " The writer could not treat 
some topicks as extensively as was desirable." — lb., p. 10. "Which would be a matter of 
such nicety, as no degree of human wisdom could regulate." — Murray's Gram., i, 26. "No un- 
dertaking is so great or difficult which he cannot direct." — Duncan's Cic, p. 126. " It is a good 
which neither depends on the will of others, nor on the affluence of external fortune." — Harris's 
Hermes, 299; Murray's Gram., i, 289. "Not only his estate, his reputation too has suffered by 
his misconduct." — Murray's Gram., i, 150; IngersoWs, 238. "Neither do they extend as far as 
might be imagined at first view." — Blair's Rhet, p. 350. "There is no language so poor, but it 
hath two or three past tenses." — lb., p. 82. "As far as this system is founded in truth, language 
appears to be not altogether arbitrary in its origin." — lb., p. 56. "I have not that command of 



682 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

these convulsions as is necessary." — Sped., No. 474. " Conversation with such who know no 
arts which polish life." — lb., No. 480. " And which can be neither very lively or very forcible." 
— Jamie-sorts Rhet, p. 78. "To that degree as to give proper names to rivers." — Dr. Murray's 
Hist of Lang., i, 327. "In the utter overthrow of such who hate to be reformed." — Barclay's 
Works, i, 443. " But still so much of it is retained, as greatly injures the uniformity of the 
whole." — Priestley's Gram., Pref., p. vii. "Some of them have gone to that height of extrava- 
gance, as to assert," &c. — lb., p. 91. " A teacher is confined — not more than a merchant, and 
probably not as much." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 27. "It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 
world, neither in the world to come." — Matt., xii, 32. " Which nobody presumes, or is so san- 
guine to hope." — Swift, Drap. Let. v. " For the torrent of the voice, left neither time or power 
in the organs, to shape the words properly." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 118. " That he may neither 
unnecessarily waste his voice by throwing out too much, or diminish his power by using too 
little." — lb., p. 123. "I have retained only such which appear most agreeable to the measures 
of Analogy." — Littleton's Diet, Pref. "He is both a prudent and industrious man." — Day's 
Gram., p. 70. " Conjunctions either connect words or sentences." — lb., pp. 81 and 101. 
" Such silly girls who love to chat and play, 

Deserve no care, their time is thrown away." — Tobitt's Gram., p. 20. 
" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 

As to be hated needs but to be seen." — Pope : Mur. Gram., ii, 17. 
" Justice must punish the rebellious deed ; 

Yet punish so, as pity shall exceed." — Dryden: in Joh. Diet. 

Under Note YIII. — Improper Ellipses. 
" That, whose, and as relate to either persons or things." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 93. u Which 
and what, as adjectives, relate either to persons or things." — lb., p. 70. " Whether of a public or 
private nature." — Adam's Rhet, i, 43. " Which are included both among the public and private 
wrongs." — lb., i, 308. " I might extract both from the old and new testament numberless exam- 
ples of induction." — lb., ii, 66. " Many verbs are used both in an active and neuter signification." 
: — Lowth's Gram., p. 30 ; Alger's, 26 ; Guy's, 21 ; Murray's, 60. " Its influence is likely to be con- 
siderable, both on the morals, and taste of a nation." — Blair's Rhet, p. 373. "The subject af- 
forded a variety of scenes, both of the awful and tender kind." — lb., p. 439. "Restlessness of 
mind disqualifies us, both for the enjoyment of peace, and the performance of our duty." — Mur- 
ray's Key, ii, 166 ; Ingersoll's Gram., p. 10. " Adjective Pronouns are of a mixed nature, parti- 
cipating the properties both of pronouns and adjectives." — Murray's Gram., i, 55 ; Merchant's, 
43 ; Flint's, 22. " Adjective Pronouns have the nature both of the adjective and the pronoun." 
— Frost's EL of Gram., p. 15. "Pronominal adjectives are a kind of compound part of speech, 
partaking the nature both of pronouns and adjectives." — Nutting's Gram,., p. 36. "Nouns are 
used either in the singular or plural number." — Blair's Gram., p. 11. "The question is not, 
whether the nominative or accusative ought to follow the particles than and as ; but, whether 
these particles are, in such particular cases, to bo regarded as conjunctions or prepositions." — 
Campbell's Rhet, p. 204. " In English many verbs are used both as transitives and intransitives." 
— Churchill's Gram., p. 83. "He sendeth rain both on the just and unjust." — Guy's Gram., p. 
56. "A foot consists either of two or three syllables." — Blair's Gram., p. 118. "Because they 
participate the nature both of adverbs and conjunctions." — Murray's Gram., i, 116. "Surely, 
Romans, what I am now about to say, ought neither to be omitted nor pass without notice." — 
Duncan's Cicero, p. 196. "Their language frequently amounts, not only to bad sense, but non- 
sense." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 14. " Hence arises the necessity of a social state to man both for 
the unfolding, and exerting of his nobler faculties." — Sheridan' s Elocution, p. 147. "Whether the 
subject be of the real or feigned kind." — Blair's Rhet, p. 454. "Not only was liberty entirely 
extinguished, but arbitrary power felt in its heaviest and most oppressive weight." — lb., p. 249. 
" This rule is applicable also both to verbal Critics and Grammarians." — Hiley's Gram., p. 144. 
"Both the rules and exceptions of a language must have obtained the sanction of good usage." 
—lb., p. 143. 



CHAPTER X.— PREPOSITIONS. 

The syntax of Prepositions consists, not solely or mainly in their power 
of governing the objective case, (though this alone is the scope which 
most grammarians have given it,) but in their adaptation to the other 
terms between which they express certain relations, such as appear 
by the sense of the words uttered. 

KULE XXIII.— PKEPOSITIONS. 

Prepositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts 
expressed by them : as, " He came from Borne to Paris, in the company 



CHAP. X.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIII. — PREPOSITIONS. — OBSERVATIONS. 683 

of many eminent men, and passed with them through many cities/ 3 — 
Analectic Magazine. 

" Ah ! who can tell the triumphs of the mind, 
By truth illumin'd, and by taste refin'd ?" — Rogers. 

Exception First. 

The preposition to, before an abstract infinitive, and at the head of a phrase which is made the 
subject of a verb, has no proper antecedent term of relation ; as, " To learn to die, is the great 
business of life." — Dillwyn. " Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh, is more needful for you." — St. 
Paul: Phil., i, 24. " To be reduced to poverty, is a great affliction." 

" Too much to know, is, to know nought but fame ; 
And every godfather can give a name." — Shakspeare. 

Exception Second. 

The preposition for, when it introduces its object before an infinitive, and the whole phrase is 
made the subject of a verb, has properly no antecedent term of relation ; as, " For us to learn 
to die, is the great business of life." — "Nevertheless, for me to abide in the flesh, is more needful 
for you." — " For an old man to be reduced to poverty is a very great affliction." 

" For man to tell how human life began, 
Is hard ; for who himself beginning knew ?" — Milton. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXIII. 

Obs. 1. — In parsing any ordinary preposition, the learner should name the two terms of the 
relation, and apply the foregoing rule, after the manner prescribed in Praxis 12th of this work. 
The principle is simple and etymological, being implied in the very definition of a preposition, yet 
not the less necessary to be given as a rule of syntax. Among tolerable writers, the prepositions 
exhibit more errors than any other equal number of words. This is probably owing to the care- 
less manner in which they are usually slurred over in parsing. But the parsers, in general, have 
at least this excuse, that their text-books have taught them no better ; they therefore call the 
preposition a preposition, and leave its use and meaning unexplained. 

Obs. 2. — If the learner be at any loss to discover the true terms of relation, let him ask and 
answer two questions : first, with the interrogative what before the preposition, to find the antece- 
dent; and then, with the same pronoun after the preposition, to find the subsequent term. Theso 
questions answered according to the sense, will always give the true terms. For example: 
"They dashed that rapid torrent through." — Scott. Ques. What through? Ans. "Dashed 
through." Ques. Through ivhat? Ans. "Through that torrent." For the- meaning is — "They 
dashed through that rapid torrent." If one term is perfectly obvious, (as it almost always is,) 
find the other in this way; as, "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth 
knowledge." — Psal., xix, 2. Ques. What unto day? Ans. " Uttereth unto day." Ques. What 
unto night? Ans. " Showeth unto night." For the meaning is — " Day uttereth speech unto day, 
and night showeth knowledge unto night." To parse rightly, is, to understand rightly ; and 
what is well expressed, it is a shame to misunderstand or misinterpret. But sometimes the posi- 
tion of the two nouns is such, that it may require some reflection to find either ; as, 

" Or that choice plant, so grateful to the nose, 
Which in I know not what far country grows." — Clxurchill, p. 18. 

Obs. 3. — "When a preposition begins or ends a sentence or clause, the terms of relation, if both 
are given, are transposed; as, "To a studious man, action is a relief." — Burgh. That is, "Action 
is a relief to a studious man." " Science they [the ladies] do not pretend TO." — Id. That is, 
"They do not pretend to science." "Until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." — 
Gen., xxviii, 15. The word governed by the preposition is always the subsequent term of the 
relation, however it may be placed ; and if this be a relative pronoun, the transposition is per- 
manent. The preposition, however, may be put before any relative, except that and as ; and this 
is commonly thought to be its most appropriate place: as, "Until I have done that of which 1 
have spoken to thee." Of the placing of it last, Lowth says, "This is an idiom which our lan- 
guage is strongly inclined to;" Murray and others, " This is an idiom to vjhich our language is 
strongly inclined :" while they all add, " it prevails in common conversation, and suits very well 
with the familiar style in writing ; but the placing of the preposition before the relative, is more 
graceful, as well as more perspicuous, and agrees much better with the solemn and elevated 
stvle." — Lowth's Gram., p. 95 ; Murray's, 8vo, p. 200 ; Fish's, 141 ; B. C. Smith's, 167 ; Inger- 
soWs, 227 ; GhurcMWs, 150. 

Obs. 4. — -The terms of relation between which a preposition may be used, are very various. 
The former or antecedent term may be a noun, an adjective, a pronoun, a verb, a participle, or an 
adverb : and, in some instances, we find not only one preposition put before an other, but even a 
conjunction or an interjection used on this side ; as, "Because of offences." — " Alas for him !" — 
The loiter or subsequent term, which is the word governed by the preposition, may be a noun, a 
pronoun, a pronominal adjective, an infinitive verb, or an imperfect or preperfect participle : and, 



G84 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

in some instances, prepositions appear to govern adverbs, or even whole phrases. See the obser- 
vations in the tenth chapter of Etymology. 

Obs. 5. — Both terms of the relation are usually expressed ; though either of them may, in 
some instances, be left out, the other being given : as. (1.) The Former — " All shall know me, 
[reckoning] from the least to the greatest." — Heb., viii, 11. [/say] "in a word, it would entirely 
defeat the purpose." — Blair. "When I speak of reputation, I mean not only [reputation] in 
regard to knowledge, but [reputation] in regard to the talent of communicating knowledge." — 
Campbells RheL, p. 163; Murray's Gram., i, 360. (2.) The Latter — "Opinions and ceremonies 
[which] they would die for." — Locke. " In [#iose] who obtain defence, or [in those] who 
defend." — Pope. " Others are more modest than [z/;/ia^J this comes to." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 66. 

Obs. 6. — The only proper exceptions to the foregoing rule, are those which are inserted above, 
unless the abstract infinitive used as a predicate is also to be excepted; as, "In both, to reason 
right, is to submit." — Pope. But here most if not all grammarians would say, the verb " is" is 
the antecedent term, or what their syntax takes to govern the infinitive. The relation, however, 
is not such as when we say, " He is to submit ;" that is, " He must submit, or ought to submit :" 
but, perhaps, to insist on a different mode of parsing the more separable infinitive or its preposi- 
tion, would be a needless refinement. Yet some regard ought to be paid to the different relations 
which the infinitive may bear to this finite verb. For want of a due estimate of this difference, 
the following sentence is, I think, very faulty: " The great business of this life is to prepare, and 
qualify us, for the enjoyment of a better." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 373. If the author meant 
to tell what our great business in this life is, he should rather have said : " The great business 
of this life is, to prepare and qualify ourselves for the enjoyment of a better." 

Obs. 7. — In relation to the infinitive, Dr. Adam remarks, that, " To in English is often taken 
absolutely; as, To confess the truth; To proceed ; lb conclude." — Latin and En g. Gram., p. 182. 
But the assertion is not entirely true ; nor are his examples appropriate : for what he and many 
other grammarians call the infinitive absolute, evidently depends on something understood; and 
the preposition is, surely, in no instance independent of what follows it, and is therefore never 
entirely absolute. Prepositions are not to be supposed to have no antecedent term, merely be- 
cause they stand at the head of a phrase or sentence which is made the subject of a verb ; for 
the phrase or sentence itself often contains that term, as in the following example : " In what 
way mind acts upon matter, is unknown." Here in shows the relation between acts and way; 
because the expression suggests, that mind acts in some way upon matter. 

Obs. 8. — The second exception above, wherever it is found applicable, cancels the first ; be- 
cause it introduces an antecedent term before the preposition to, as may be seen by the exam- 
ples given. It is questionable too, whether both of them may not also be cancelled in an other 
way; that is, by transposition and the introduction of the pronoun it for the nominative : as, " It 
is a great affliction, to be reduced to poverty." — " It is hard for man to tell how human life be- 
gan." — "Nevertheless it is more needful for you, that I should abide in the flesh." We cannot 
so well say, "It is more needful for you, for me to abide in the flesh;" but we may say, " It is, 
on your account, more needful for me to abide in the flesh." If these, and other similar examples, 
are not to be accounted additional instances in which to and for, and also the conjunction that, 
are without any proper antecedent terms, we must suppose these particles to show the relation 
between what precedes and what follows them. 

Obs. 9. — The preposition (as its name implies) p recedes the word which it governs. Yet there 
are some exceptions. In the familiar style, a preposition governing a relative or an interrogative 
pronoun, is often separated from its object, and connected with the other term of relation ; as, 
" Whom did he speak to f" But it is more dignified, and in general more graceful, to place the 
preposition before the pronoun; as, " To whom did he speak?" The relatives that and as, if 
governed by a preposition, must always precede it. In some instances, the pronoun must be 
supplied in parsing; as, "To set off the banquet [that or which] he gives notice of." — Philological 
Museum, i, 454. Sometimes the objective word is put first because it is emphatical ; as, " This 
the great understand, this they pique themselves upon." — Art of Thinking, p. 66. Prepositions 
of more than one syllable, are sometimes put immediately after their objects, especially in poetry ; 
as, "Known all the world over." — Walker's Particles, p. 291. "The thing is known all Lesbos 
over." — Ibid. 

" Wild Carron's lonely woods among." — Langhorne. 
" Thy deep ravines and dells along." — Sir W. Scott. 

Obs. 10. — Two prepositions sometimes come together; as, "Lambeth is over against West- 
minster abbey." — Murray's Gram., i, 118. " And from before the lustre of her face, White break 
the clouds away." — Thomson. " And the meagre fiend Blows mildew from between his shrivell'd 
lips." — Cowper. These, in most instances, though they are not usually written as compounds, 
appear naturally to coalesce in their syntax, as was observed in the tenth chapter of Etymology, 
and to express a sort of compound relation between the other terms with which they are con- 
nected. When such is their character, they ought to be taken together in parsing; for, if we 
parse them separately, we must either call the first an adverb, or suppose some very awkward 
ellipsis. Some instances however occur, in which an object may easily be supplied to the former 
word, and perhaps ought to be ; as, "He is at liberty to sell it at [a price] above a fair remunera- 
tion." — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 258. "And I wish they had been at the bottom of the ditch 
I pulled you out of, instead of [being] upon my back." — Sandford and Merton, p. 29. In such 
examples as the following, the first preposition, of, appears to me to govern the plural noun whick 



CHAP. X.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIII. — PREPOSITIONS. — OBSERVATIONS. 685 

ends the sentence ; and the intermediate ones, from and to, to have both terms of their relation 
understood: " Iambic verse consists of from two to six feet; that is, of from four to twelve sylla- 
bles." — Blair's Gram., p. 119. " Trochaic verse consists of from one to three feet." — Ibid. The 
meaning is — "Iambic verse consists of feet varying in number from two to six; or (it consists) of 
syllables varying from four to twelve." — "Trochaic verse consists of feet varying from one foot to 
three feet" 

Obs. 11. — One antecedent term may have several prepositions depending on it, with one object 
after each, or more than one after any, or only one after both or all; as, "A declaration for virtue 
and against vice." — Butler's Anal, p. 157. "A positive law against all fraud, falsehood, and vio- 
lence, and for, or in favour of all justice and truth." " For of him, and through him, and to him, 
are all things." — Bible. In fact, not only may the relation be simple in regard to all or any of 
the words, but it may also be complex in regard to all or any of them. Hence several different 
prepositions, whether they have different antecedent terms or only one and the same, may refer 
either jointly or severally to one object or to more. This follows, because not only may either 
antecedents or objects be connected by conjunctions, but prepositions also admit of this construc- 
tion, with or without a connecting of their antecedents. Examples: " They are capable of, and 
placed in, different stations in the society of mankind." — Butler's Anal, p. 115. " Our perception 
of vice and ill desert arises from, and is the result of, a comparison of actions with the nature and 
capacities of the agent." — lb., p. 279. " And the design o/this chapter is, to inquire how far thia 
is the case ; how far, over and above the moral nature which God has given us, and our natural 
notion of him, as righteous governor of those his creatures to whom he has given this nature ; I 
say, how far, besides this, the principles and beginnings of a moral government over the world may 
be discerned, notwithstanding and amidst all the confusion and disorder o/it." — lb., p. 85. 

Obs. 12. — The preposition into, expresses a relation produced by motion or change ; and in, the 
same relation, without reference to motion as having produced it: hence, " to walk into the gar- 
den," and, " to walk in the garden," are very different in meaning. " It is disagreeable to find a 
word split into two by a pause." — Karnes, El of Grit, ii, 83. This appears to be right in sense, 
but because brevity is desirable in unemphatic particles, I suppose most persons would say, " split 
in two." In the Bible we have the phrases, "rent in twain," — "cut in pieces," — "brake in 
pieces the rocks," — "brake all their bones in pieces," — "brake them to pieces," — "broken to 
pieces," — " pulled in pieces." In all these, except the first, to may perhaps be considered prefer- 
able to in ; and into would be objectionable only because it is longer and less simple. " Half of 
them dare not shake the snow from off their cassocks, lest they shake themselves to pieces." — 
Shak. : Karnes, ii, 246. 

Obs. 13. — Between, or betwixt, is used in reference to two things or parties; among, or amongst, 
amid, or amidst, in reference to a greater number, or to something by which an other may be 
surrounded: as, "Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear." — Byron. "The host between the 
mountain and the shore." — Id. " To meditate amongst decay, and stand a ruin amidst ruins." — 
Id. In the following examples, the import of these prepositions is not very accurately regarded ; 
"The Greeks wrote in capitals, and left no spaces between their words." — Wilson's Essay, p. 6. 
This construction may perhaps be allowed, because the spaces by which words are now divided, 
occur severally between one word and an other; but the author might as well have said, " and left 
no spaces to distinguish their words." " There was a hunting match agreed upon betwixt a lion, 
an ass, and a fox." — U Estrange. Here by or among would, I think, be better than betwixt, be- 
cause the partners were more than two. " Between two or more authors, different readers will 
differ, exceedingly, as to the preference in point of merit." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 162 ; Jamieson's, 
40; Murray's Gram., i, 360. Say, " Concerning two or more authors," because between is not con- 
sistent with the word more. " Rising one among another in the greatest confusion and disorder." 
— Sped, No. 476. Say, " Rising promiscuously," or, " Rising all at once;" for among is not con- 
sistent with the distiibutive term one an other. 

Obs. 14. — Of two prepositions coming together between the same terms of relation, and some- 
times connected in the same construction, I have given several plain examples in this chapter, 
and in the tenth chapter of Etymology, a very great nmnber, all from sources sufficiently respect- 
able. But, in many of our English grammars, there is a stereotyped remark on this point, origin- 
ally written by Priestley, which it is proper here to cite, as an other specimen of the Doctor's 
hastiness, and of the blind confidence of certain compilers and copyists: " Two different preposi- 
tions must be improper in the same construction, and in the same sentence : [as,] The combat 
between thirty Britons, against twenty English. Smollett's Voltaire, Vol. 2, p. 292." — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 156. Lindley Murray and others have the same remark, with the example altered 
thus : " The combat between thirty French against twenty English." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 
200; Smith's New Gram., 167; Eisk's, 142; Ingersoll's, 228. W. Allen has it thus: "Two dif- 
ferent prepositions in the same construction are improper ; as, a combat between twenty French 
against thirty English " — Elements of E. Gram., p. 179. He gives the odds to the latter party. 
Hiley, with no expense of thought, first takes from Murray, as he from Priestley, the useless re- 
mark, "Different relations, and different senses, must be expressed by different prepositions;" and 
then adds, " One relation must not, therefore, be expressed by two different prepositions in the 
same clause; thus, ' The combat between thirty French against thirty English,' should be. 'The 
combat between thirty French and thirty English.' " — Riley's E. Gram., p 97. It is manifest that 
the error of this example is not in the use of two prepositions, nor is there any truth or fitness in 
the note or notes made on it by all these critics; for had they said, "The combat of thirty French 



Q8Q THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

against twenty English," there would still be two prepositions, but where would be the impro- 
priety, or where the sameness of construction, which they speak of? Bitween is incompatible 
with against, only,because it requires two parties or things for its own regimen ; as, " The combat 
between thirty Frenchmen and twenty Englishmen" This is what Smollett should have written, 
to make sense with the word " between." 

Obs. 15. — With like implicitness, Hiley excepted, these grammarians and others have adopted 
from Lowth an observation in which the learned doctor has censured quite too strongly the joint 
reference of different prepositions to the same objective noun : to wit, " Some writers separate the 
preposition from its noun, in order to connect different prepositions to the same noun ; as, ' To 
suppose the zodiac and planets to be efficient of, and antecedent to, themselves.' Bentley, Serm. 
6. This [construction], whether in the familiar or the solemn style, is always inelegant ; and should 
never be admitted, but in forms of law, and the like ; where fullness and exactness of expression 
must take place of every other consideration." — Lowttis Gram., p. 96; Murray's, i, 200; Smith's, 
167; Fish's, 141; IngersoWs, 228; Alger's, 67; Picket's, 207. Churchill even goes further, both 
strengthening the censure, and disallowing the exception : thus, " This, whether in the solemn or 
in the familiar style, is always inelegant, and should never be admitted. It is an awkward shift for 
avoiding the repetition of a word, tohich might be accomplished without it by any person who has 
the least command of language." — New Gram., p. 341. Yet, with all their command of language, 
not one of these gentlemen has told us how the foregoing sentence from Bentley may be amended; 
while many of their number not only venture to use different prepositions before the same noun, 
but even to add a phrase which puts that noun in the nominative case : as, " Thus, the time of 
the infinitive may be before, after, or the same as, the time of the governing verb, according as the 
thing signified by the infinitive is supposed to be before, after, or present with, the thing denoted 
by the governing verb." — Murray's Gram., i, 191; IngersoWs, 260; R. 0. Smith's, 159. 

Obs. 16. — The structure of this example not only contradicts palpably, and twice over, the doc- 
trine cited above, but one may say of the former part of it, as Lowth, Murray, and others do, (in 
no very accurate English,) of the text 1 Cor., ii, 9 : " There seems to be an impropriety in this 
sentence, in which the same noun serves in a double capacity, performing at the same time the 
offices both of the nominative and objective cases." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 224. See also Lowth's 
G ram., p. 73 ; IngersoWs, 277 ; Fisk's, 149 ; Smith's, 185. Two other examples, exactly like that 
which is so pointedly censured above, are placed by Murray under his thirteenth rule for the 
comma; and these likewise, with all faithfulness, are copied by Ingersoll, Smith, Alger, Kirk- 
ham, Comly, Russell, and I know not how many more. In short, not only does this rule of 
their punctuation include the construction in question ; but the following exception to it, which 
is remarkable for its various faults, or thorough faultiness, is applicable to no other : " Sometimes. 
when the word with which the last preposition agrees, is single, it is better to omit the comma 
before it: as, 'Many states were in alliance with, and under the protection o/Rome.' " — Murray's 
Gram., p. 272; Smith's, 190; IngersoWs, 284; Kirkham's, 215; Alger's, 79; Alden's, 149; Abel 
Flint's, 103 ; Russell's, 115. But the blunders and contradictions on this point, end not here. Dr. 
Blair happened most unlearnedly to say, "What is called splitting of particles, or separating a 
preposition from the noun which it governs, is always to be avoided. As if I should say, ' Though 
virtue borrows no assistance from, yet it may often be accompanied by, the advantages of for- 
tune.' " — Led. XII, p. 112. This too, though the author himself did not always respect the rule, 
has been thought worthy to be copied, or stolen, with all its faults ! See Jamieson's Rhetoric, p. 
93 ; and Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 319. 

Obs. 17. — Dr. Lowth says, "The noun aversion, (that is, a turning away,) as likewise the ad- 
jective averse, seems to require the preposition from after it ; and not so properly to admit of to, 
or for, which are often used with it." — Gram., p. 98. But this doctrine has not been adopted by 
the later grammarians: "The words averse and aversion (says Dr. Campbell) are more properly 
construed with to than with from. The examples in favour of the latter preposition, are beyond 
comparison outnumbered by those in favour of the former." — Murray's Gram., i, 201 ; Fisk's, 142 ; 
IngersoWs, 229. This however must be understood only of mental aversion. The expression of 
Milton, "On the coast averse from entrance," would not be improved, ii from were changed to 
to. So the noun exception, and the verb to except, are sometimes followed by from, which has 
regard to the Latin particle ex, with which the word commences ; but the noun at least is much 
more frequently, and perhaps more properly, followed by to. Examples: " Objects of horror must 
be excepted from the foregoing theory." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 268. " From which there are but 
two exceptions, both of them rare." — lb., ii, 89. " To the rule that fixes the pause after the fifth 
portion, there is one exception, and no more." — lb., ii, 84. " No exception can be taken to the just- 
ness of the figure." — lb., ii, 37. " Originally there was no exception from the rule." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. 58. " From this rule there is mostly an exception." — Murray's Gram., i, 269. "But 
to this rule there are many exceptions." — lb., i, 240. " They are not to be regarded as exceptions 
from the rule." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 363. 

Obs. 18. — After correcting the example, " He knows nothing on [of] it," Churchill remarks, 
" There seems to be a strange perverseness among the London vulgar in perpetually substituting 
on for of, and o/for on." — New Gram., p. 345. And among the expressions which Campbell cen- 
sures under the name of vulgarism, are the following: " 'Tis my humble request you will be par- 
ticular in speaking to the following points." — Guardian, No. 57. "The preposition ought to 
have been on. Precisely of the same stamp is the on't for of it, so much used by one class of 
writers." — Philosophy of Rhet., p. 217. So far as I have observed, the use of of for on has never 



CHAP. X.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIII. — PREPOSITIONS. — NOTES. 687 

been frequent; and that of on for of, or onH for of it, though it may never have been a polite 
custom, is now a manifest archaism, or imitation of ancient usage. "And so my young Master 
whatever comes orii, must have a Wife look'd out for him." — Locke, on Ed., p. 378. In Saxon, 
on was put for more than half a dozen of our present prepositions. The difference between of 
and on or upon, appears in general to be obvious enough ; and yet there are some phrases in 
which it is not easy to determine which of these words ought to be preferred : as, " Many things 
they cannot lay hold on at once." — Hooker : Joh. Diet. " Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark 
of God, and took hold of it." — 2 Sam. : ib. " Rather thou shouldst lay hold upon him." — Ben 
Joxsox : ib. " Let them find courage to lay hold on the occasion." — Milton : ib. " The hand 
is fitted to lay hold of objects." — Ray: ib. "My soul took hold on thee." — Addison : ib. "To 
lay hold of this safe, this only method of cure." — Atterbury: ib. "And give fortune no more 
hold of him." — Dryden: ib. "And his laws take the surest hold of us." — Tdllotson: ib. "It 
■will then be impossible you can have any hold upon him." — Swift: ib. " The court of Rome 
gladly laid hold on all the opportunities." — Murray's Key, ii, p. 198. "Then did the officer lay 
hold of him and execute him." — lb., ii, 219. "When one can lay hold upon some noted fact." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 311. " But when we would lay firm hold o/them." — lb., p. 28. "An advantage 
which every one is glad to lay hold o/." — lb., p. 75. " To have laid fast hold of it in his mind." — 
lb., p. 94 "I would advise them to lay aside their common-places, and to think closely of their 
subject." — lb., p. 317. " Did they not take hold of your fathers?" — Zech., i, 6. " Ten men shall 
take hold o/the skirt of one that is a Jew." — lb., viii, 23. "It is wrong to say, either 'to lay 
hold o/a thing,' or 'to take hold on it.' " — Blair's Gram., p. 101. In the following couplet, on 
seems to have been preferred only for a rhyme : 

"Yet, lo! in me what authors have to brag on! 
Reduc'd at last to hiss in my own dragon." — Pope. 
Obs. 19. — In the allowable uses of prepositions, there may perhaps be some room for choice; 
so that what to the mind of a critic may not appear the fittest word, may yet be judged not pos- 
itively ungrammatical. In this light I incline to view the following examples : " Homer's plan 
is still more defective, upon another account." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 299. Say — "on an other 
account." "It was almost eight of the clock before I could leave that variety of objects." — 
Spectator, No. 454. Present usage requires — "eight o'clock." "The Greek and Latin writers 
had a considerable advantage above us." — Blair's Rhet, p. 114. "The study of oratory has this 
advantage above that of poetry." — lb., p. 338. "A metaphor has frequently an advantage above 
a formal comparison." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 150. This use of above seems to be a sort of Scotti- 
cism: an Englishman, I think, would say — "advantage over us," &c. "Hundreds have all these 
crowding upon them from morning to night." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 33. Better — " from morning 
till night." But Home Tooke observes, "We apply to indifferently to place or time; but till 
to time only, and never to place. Thus we may say, ' From morn TO night th' eternal larum 
rang;' or, 'From morn till night.' &c." — Diversions of Purley, i, 284. 

NOTES TO RULE XXIII. 

Note I. — Prepositions must be chosen and employed agreeably to the usage and 
idiom of the language, so as rightly to express the relations intended. Example of 
error : " By which we arrive to the last division." — Richard W. Green's Gram., p. 
vii. Say, — " arrive at? 

Note II. — Those prepositions which are particularly adapted in meaning to two 
objects, or to more, ought to be confined strictly to the government of such terms 
only as suit them. Example of error : " What is Person? It is the medium of dis- 
tinction between the speaker, the object addressed or spoken to, and the object spoken 
of? — 0. B. Peirce's Gram.,]). 34. "Between three" is an incongruity; and the 
text here cited is bad in several other respects. 

Note III. — An ellipsis or omission of the preposition is inelegant, except where 
long and general use has sanctioned it, and made the relation sufficiently intelligible. 
In the following sentence, of is needed : " I will not flatter you, that all I see in yon 
is worthy love? — Shakspeare. The following requires from : "Ridicule is banished 
Prance, and is losing ground in England." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 106. 

Note IV. — The insertion of a preposition is also inelegant, when the particle is 
needless, or when it only robs a transitive verb of its proper regimen ; as, " The 
people of England may congratulate to themselves." — Dryden : Priestley' s Gram., 
p. 163. "His servants ye are, to whom ye obey." — Rom., vi, 16. 

Note V. — The preposition and its object should have that position in respect to 
other words, which will render the sentence the most perspicuous and agreeable. 
Examples of error : " Gratitude is a forcible and active principle in good and gener- 
ous minds." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 169. Better: "In good and generous minds, 
gratitude is a forcible and active principle." " By a single stroke, he knows how to 



688 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

reach the heart." — Blair's Rhet., p. 439. Better: " He knows how to reach the 
heart bv a single stroke." 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXIII. 
Examples Under Note I. — Choice op Prepositions. 
" You have bestowed jour favours to the most deserving persons." — Swift, on E. Tongue. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper because the relation between have bestowed and persons is not correctly expressed 
by the preposition to. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 23d, " Prepositions must be chosen and employed 
agreeably to the usage and idiom of the language, so as rightly to express the relations intended." This rela- 
tion would be better expressed by upon; thus, "You have bestowed your favours upon the most deserving 
persons."] 

"But to rise beyond that, and overtop the crowd, is given to few." — Blair 's Ehet, p. 351. 
" This also is a good sentence, and gives occasion to no material remark." — lb., p. 20.1. " Though 
Cicero endeavours to give some reputat ; A of the elder Cato, and those who were his cotempora- 
ries." — lb., p. 245. " The change that Was produced on eloquence, is beautifully described in the 
Dialogue." — lb., p. 249. " Without carefully attending to the variation which they make upon 
the idea." — lb., p. 36*7. "All of a sudden, you are transported into a lofty palace." — HazliWs 
Led., p. 70. "Alike independent on one another." — Campbell's Ehet., p. 398. "You will not 
think of them as distinct processes going on independently on each other" — Charming 's Self- 
Culture, p. 15. "Though we say, to depend on, dependent on, and independent on, we say, inde- 
pendently of. 1 ' — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 348. " Independently on the rest of the sentence." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. 78; Guy's, 88; Murray's, i, 145 and 184; IngersolVs, 150; Frosts, 46; Fish's, 125; 
Smith's New Gram., 156; Gould's Lot. Gram., 209; Nixon's Parser, 65. "Because they stand 
independent on the rest of the sentence." — Fish's Gram., p. 111. "When a substantive is joined 
with a participle in English independently in the rest of the sentence." — Adam's Lot. and Eng. 
Gram., Boston Ed. of 1803, p. 213; Albany Ed. of 1820, p. 166. "Conjunction, comes of the 
two Latin words con, together, and jungo, to join." — Merchant's School Gram., p. 19. " How 
different to this is the life of Fulvia!" — Addison's Sped, No. 15. "Loved is a participle or 
adjective, derived of the word love." — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 27. "But I would inquire at him, 
what an office is ?" — Barclay's Worhs, iii, 463. " For the capacity is brought unto action." — lb., 
iii, 420. "In this period, language and taste arrive to purity." — Webster's Essays, p. 94. "And 
should you not aspire at distinction in the republick of letters." — Kirhham's Gram., p. 13. 
" Delivering you up to the synagogues, and in prisons." — Keith's Evidences, p. 55. " One that is 
kept from falling in a ditch, is as truly saved, as he that is taken out of one." — Barclay's Worhs, 
i, 312. "The best on it is, they are but a sort of French Hugonots." — Addison, Sped., No. 62. 
" These last Ten Examples are indeed of a different Nature to the former." — Johnsons Gram. 
Com., p. 333. "For the initiation of students in the principles of the English language." — 
Annual Review: Murray's Gram., ii, 299. "Richelieu profited of every circumstance which 
the conjuncture afforded," — Bolingbrohe, on Hist, p. 177. " In the names of drugs and plants, the 
mistake in a word may endanger life." — Murray's Key, ii, 165. " In order to the carrying on its 
several parts into execution." — Butler's Analogy, p. 192. " His abhorrence to the superstitious 
figure." — Hume : Priestley's Gram., p. 164. " Thy prejudice to my cause." — Dryden: ib., p. 164. 
" Which is found among every species of liberty." — Hume : ib., p. 169. "In a hilly region to the 
north of Jericho." — Milman's Jezos, Vol. i, p. 8. "Two or more singular nouns, coupled with 
and, require a verb and pronoun in the plural." — Lennie's Grain., p. 83. 
" Books should to one of these four ends conduce, 
For wisdom, piety, delight, or use." — Denham, p. 239. 

Under Note II. — Two Objects or More. 
" The Anglo-Saxons, however, soon quarrelled between themselves for precedence." — Consta- 
ble's Miscellany, xx, p. 59. " The distinctions between the principal parts of speech are founded 
in nature." — Webster's Essays, p. 7. "I think I now understand the difference between the 
active, passive, and neuter verbs." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 124. " Thus a figure including a space 
between three lines, is the real as well as nominal essence of a triangle." — Locke's Essay, p. 303. 
" We must distinguish between an imperfect phrase, a simple sentence, and a compound sen- 
tence." — Lowth's Gram., p. 117; Murray's, i, 267; IngersolVs, 280; Guy's, 97. "The Jews are 
strictly forbidden by their law, to exercise usury among one another." — Sale's Koran, p. 177. " All 
the writers have distinguished themselves among one another." — Addison. "This expression 
also better secures the systematic uniformity between the three cases." — Nutting's Gram., p. 98. 
" When a disjunctive occurs between two or more Infinitive Modes, or clauses, the verb must be 
singular." — Jaudon's Gram., p. 95. "Several nouns or pronouns together in the same case, not 
united by and, require a comma between each." — Blair's Gram., p. 115. "The difference be- 
tween the several vowels is produced by opening the mouth differently, and placing the tongue 
in a different manner for each." — Churchill's Gram., p. 2. "Thus feet composed of syllables, 
being pronounced with a sensible interval between each, make a more lively impression than can 
be made by a continued sound." — Karnes, EL of Grit, Vol. ii, p. 32. " The superlative degree 
implies a comparison between three or more." — Smith's Productive Gram., p. 51. " They ar© 
used to mark a distinction between several objects." — Levizac's Gram., p. 85. 



CHAP. X.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIII. — PREPOSITIONS. — ERRORS. 689 

Under Note III. — Omission of Prepositions. 

" This would have been less worthy notice." — Churchill's Gram., p. 197. "But I passed it, as 
a thing unworthy m} r notice.'' — Wetter. "Which, in compliment to me, perhaps, you may, one 
day, think worthy your attention." — Bucke's Gram., p. 81. "To think this small present worthy 
an introduction to the young ladies of your very elegant establishment." — lb., p. iv. "There are 
but a few miles portage." — Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, p. 17. "It is worthy notice, that our 
mountains are not solitary." — lb., p. 26. "It is of about one hundred feet diameter." — lb., 33. 
"Entering a hill a quarter or half a mile." — lb., p. 47. "And herself seems passing to that 
awful dissolution, wdiose issue is not given human foresight to scan." — lb., p. 100. "It was of a 
spheroidical form, of about forty feet diameter at the base, and had been of about twelve feet 
altitude." — lb., p. 143. " Before this it was covered with trees of twelve inches diameter, and 
round the base was an excavation of five feet depth and width." — Ibid. " Then thou mayest eat 
grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure." — JJeut, xxiii, 24. " Then he brought me back the way 
of the gate of the outward sanctuary." — Ezekiel, xliv, 1. "They w 7 ill bless God that he has peo- 
pled one half the world with a race of freemen." — Webster's Essays, p. 94. " What use can 
these words be, till their meaning is known ?" — Town's Analysis, p. 7. "The tents of the Arabs 
now are black, or a very dark colour." — Tlie Friend, Yol. v, p. 265. " They may not be un- 
worthy the attention of young men." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 157. "The pronoun thai is fre- 
quently applied to persons, as well as things." — Merchant's Gram., p. 87. "And who is in the 
same case that man is." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 148. " He saw a flaming stone, apparently about 
four feet diameter." — The Friend, vii, 409. "Pliny informs us, that this stone w r as the size of a 
cart." — Ibid. " Seneca was about twenty years of age in the fifth year of Tiberius, when the 
Jews were expelled Rome." — Seneca's Morals, p. 11. "I was prevented* reading a letter which 
would have undeceived me." — Hawkesworth, Adv., No. 54. "If the problem can be solved, we 
may be pardoned the inaccuracy of its demonstration." — Booth's Introd., p. 25. " The arm} 7 must 
of necessity be the school, not of honour, but effeminacy." — Brown's Estimate, i, 65. " Afraid of 
the virtue of a nation, in its opposing bad measures." — lb., i, 73. " The uniting them in various 
ways, so as to form words, would be easy." — Music of Nature, p. 34. " I might be excused tak- 
ing any more notice of it." — Watson's Apology, p. 65. " Watch therefore; for ye know T not what 
hour your Lord doth come." — Matt., xxiv, 42. "Here, not even infants were spared the sword." 
— Mllvaine's Lectures, p. 313. " To prevent men turning aside to corrupt modes of worship." — 
Calvin's Institutes, B. I, Ch. 12, Sec. 1. "God expelled them the Garden of Eden." — Burder's 
Hist, Yol. i, p. 10. "Nor could he refrain expressing to the senate the agonies of his mind " — 
Art of Thinking, p. 123. "Who now so strenuously opposes the granting him any new powers." 
— Duncan's Cicero, p. 127. " That the laws of the censors have banished him the forum." — lb., p. 
140. " We read not that he was degraded his office any other w T ay." — Barclay's Works, iii, 149. 
" To all whom these presents shall come, Greeting." — Hutchinson's Mass., i, 459. " On the 1st, 
August, 1834." — British Act for the Abolition of Slavery. 

" Whether you had not some time in your life 
Err'd in this point which now you censure him."— Shak. 

Under Note IY. — Of Needless Prepositions. 

"And the apostles and elders came together to consider of this matter." — Barclay's Works, i, 
481. " And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter." — Acts, xv, 6. 
" Adjectives in our Language have neither Case, Gender, nor Number; the only Yariation they 
have is by Comparison." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 27. " 'It is to you, that I am indebted for this 
privilege ;' that is, ' to you am I indebted ;' or, ' It is to you to wdioni I am indebted.' " — Sanborn's 
Gram., p. 232. " Books is a noun, of the third person, plural number, of neuter gender." — Inger- 
soWs Gram., p. 15. " Brother's is a common substantive, of the masculine gender, the third per- 
son, the singular number, and in the possessive case." — Murray's Gram., i, 229. " Virtue's is a 
common substantive, of the third person, the singular number, and in the possessive case." — lb., 
i, 228. "When the authorities on one side greatly preponderate, it is in vain to oppose the pre- 
vailing usage." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 173; Murray's Gram., i, 367. "A captain of a troop of 
banditti, had a mind to be plundering of Rome." — Colliers Antoninus, p. 51. "And, notwith- 
standing of its Yerbal power, we have added the to and other signs of exertion." — Booth's Introd., 
p. 28. " Some of these situations are termed cases, and are expressed by additions to the Noun 
instead of by separate w r ords." — lb., p. 33. " Is it such a fast that I have chosen, that a man 
should afflict his soul for a day, and to bow down his head like a bulrush?" — Bacon's Wisdom, 
p. 65. " And this first emotion comes at last to be awakened by the accidental, instead of, by the 
necessary antecedent." — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 17. "At about the same time, the subjuga- 
tion of the Moors was completed." — Balbi's Geog., p. 269. " God divided between the light and 
between the darkness." — Burder's Hist, i, 1. " Notwithstanding of this, we are not against out-' 
ward significations of honour." — Barclay's WorJcs, i, 242. " Whether these words and practices 
of Job's friends, be for to be our rule." — lb., i, 243. " Such verb cannot admit of an objective 

* A few of the examples under this head might he corrected equally well hy some preceding note of a more 
specific character; for a general note against the improper omission of prepositions, of course includes those 
principles of grammar by which any particular prepositions are to be inserted. So the examples of error which 
were given in the tenth chapter of Etymology, might nearly all of them have been placed under the first note in 
this tenth chapter of Syntax. But it was thought best to illustrate every part of this volume, by some exam- 
ples of false grammar, out of the infinite number and variety with which our literature abounds. 

44 



G90 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

case after it." — Lowth's Gram., p. 13. "For which God is now visibly punishing of these Na- 
tions." — Right of Tythes, p. 139. " In this respect, Tasso yields to no poet, except to Homer." — 
Blair's Rhet., p. 444. "Notwithstanding of the numerous panegyrics on the ancient English 
liberty." — Hume: Priestley's • Gram., p. 161. " Their efforts seemed to anticipate on the spirit, 
which became so general afterwards." — Id., ib., p. 16*7. 

Under Note V. — The Placing of the Words. 
"But how short are my expressions of its excellency!" — Baxter. "There is a remarkable 
union in his style, of harmony with ease." — Blair's Rhet., p. 127. "It disposes in the most arti- 
ficial manner, of the light and shade, for viewing every thing to the best advantage." — lb., p. 139. 
"Aristotle too holds an eminent rank among didactic writers for his brevity." — lb., p. 177. "In 
an introduction, correctness should be carefully studied in the expression." — lb., p. 308. "Pre- 
cision is to be studied, above all things in laying down a method." — lb., p. 313. "Which shall 
make the impression on the mind of something that is one, whole and entire." — lb., p. 353. "At 
the same time, there are some defects which must be acknowledged in the Odyssey." — lb., p. 437. 
"Beauties, however, there are, in the concluding books, of the tragic kind." — lb., p. 452. "These 
forms of conversation by degrees multiplied and grew troublesome." — Spectator, No. 119. "When 
she has made her own choice, for form's sake, she sends a conge-d'-elire to her friends." — lb., No. 
475. "Let us endeavour to establish to ourselves an interest in him who holds the reins of the 
whole creation in his hand." — lb., No. 12. "Let us endeavour to establish to ourselves an in- 
terest in him, who, in his hand, holds the reins of the whole creation." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 
53. " The most frequent measure next to this in English poetry is that of eight syllables." — 
Blair's Gram., p. 121. "To introduce as great a variety as possible of cadences." — Jamieson's 
Rhet, p. 80. " He addressed several exhortations to them suitable to their circumstances." — 
Murray's Key, ii, p. 191. "Habits must be acquired of temperance and self-denial." — lb., p. 
217 "In reducing the rules prescribed to practice." — Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. iv. "But 
these parts must be so closely bound together as to make the impression upon the mind, of one 
object, not of many." — lb., Vol. i, p. 311; Blair's Rhet, p. 106. "Errors are sometimes com- 
mitted by the most distinguished writer, with respect to the use of shall and will." — Butler's Pract. 
Gram., p. 106. 



CHAPTER XL— INTERJECTIONS. 

Interjections, being seldom any thing more than natural sounds or 
short words uttered independently, can hardly be said to have any syn- 
tax ; but since some rule is necessary to show the learner how to dispose 
of them in parsing, a brief axiom for that purpose, is here added, which 
completes our series of rules : and, after several remarks on this canon, 
and on the common treatment of Interjections, this chapter is made to 
embrace Exercises upon all the other parts of speech, that the chapters 
in the Key may correspond to those of the Grammar. 

KULE XXIV.— INTERJECTIONS. 

Interjections have no dependent construction ; they are put absolute, 
either alone, or with other words : as, " 0! let not thy heart despise me/' 
—Dr. Johnson. " cruel thou '"—Pope, Odys., B. xii, 1. 333. " Ah 
wretched we y poets of earth \" — Coivley, p. 28. 

"Ah Dennis ! Gil don ah ! what ill-starr'd rage 
Divides a friendship long confirm' d by age ?" 

Pope, Dunciad, B. iii, 1. 173. 

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXIV. 

Obs. 1. — To this rule, there are properly no exceptions. Though interjections are sometimes 
uttered in close connexion with other words, yet, being mere signs of passion or of feeling, they 
seem not to have any strict grammatical relation, or dependence according to the sense. Being 
destitute alike of relation, agreement, and government, they must be used independently, if used 
at all. Yet an emotion signified in this manner, not being causeless, may be accompanied by 
some object, expressed either by a nominative absolute, or by an objective after for : as, "Alas! 
poor Yorick /" — Shah Here the grief denoted by alas, is certainly for Yorick ; as much so, as 
if the expression were, "Alas for poor Yorick!" But, in either case, alas, I think, has no de- 



CHAP. XI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIV. — INTERJECTION — OBSERVATIONS. 691 

pendent construction ; neither has Yorick, in the former, unless we suppose an ellipsis of some 
governing word. 

Obs. 2. — The interjection is common to many languages, and is frequently uttered, in token 
of earnestness, before nouns or pronouns put absolute by direct address ; as, "Arise, Lord; 
God, lift up thine hand."— Psalms, x, 12. " ye of little faith ! "—Matt., vi, 30. The Latin and 
Greek grammarians, therefore, made this interjection the sign of the vocative case ; which case is 
the same as the nominative put absolute by address in English. But this particle is no positive 
index of the vocative ; because an independent address may be made without that sign, and the 
may be used where there is no address : as, " scandalous want ! shameful omission ! " — 
" Pray, Sir, don't be uneasy." — Burgh's Speaker, p. 86. 

Obs. 3. — Some grammarians ascribe to two or three of our interjections the power of governing 
sometimes the nominative case, and sometimes the objective. First, N lxon ; in an exercise en- 
titled, " Nominative governed by an Interjection," thus: "The interjections 0! Oh! and 
Ah ! require after them the nominative case of a substantive in the second person ; as, ' thou 
persecutor /' — '0 Alexander! thou hast slain thy friend.' is an interjection, governing the 
nominative case Alexander." — English Parser, p. 61. Again, under the title, " Objective case 
governed by an Interjection," he says : "The interjections 0! Oh! and Ah! require after 
them the objective case of a substantive in the first or third person; as, 'Oh meP 'Oh the 
humiliations!' 1 Oh is an interjection, governing the objective case humiliations." — Po., p. 63. 
These two rules are in fact contradictory, while each of them absurdly suggests that 0, oh, and 
ah, are used only with nouns. So J. M. Putnam: "Interjections sometimes govern an objective 
case ; as, Ah me ! the tender ties ! the soft enmity ! me miserable ! wretched prince ! 
cruel reverse of fortune ! When an address is made, the interjection does not perform the office 
of government." — Putnam s Gram., p. 113. So Kirkuam; who, under a rule quite different 
from these, extends the doctrine of government to all interjections : " According to the genius of 
the English language, transitive verbs and prepositions require the objective case of a noun or 
pronoun after them ; and this requisition is all that is meant by government, when wc say that 
these parts of speech govern the objective case. The same principle applies to the interjec- 
tion. ' Interjections require the objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them ; but 
the nominative of a noun or pronoun of the second or third person; as, Ah me! Oh thou! my 
country /' To say, then, that interjections require particular cases after them, is synonymous with 
saying, that they govern those cases ; and this office of the interjection is in perfect accordance 
with that which it performs in the Latin, and many other languages." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 164. 
According to this, every interjection has as much need of an object after it, as has a transitive 
verb or a preposition! The rule has, certainly, no "accordance" with what occurs in Latin, or 
in any other language ; it is wholly a fabrication, though found, in some shape or other, in well- 
nigh all English grammars. 

Obs. 4. — L. Murray's doctrine on this point is thus expressed: "The interjections 0! Oh! 
and Ah ! require the objective case of a pronoun in the first person after them . as, ' me ! oh 
me ! Ah me ! ' But the nominative case in the second person : as, '0 thou persecutor ! ' ' Oh ye 
hypocrites!' '0 thou, who dwellest,' &c." — Octavo Gram., p. 158. Ingersoll copies this most 
faulty note literally, adding these words to its abrupt end, — i. e., to its inexplicable "&c," used 
by Murray; "because the first person is governed by a preposition understood: as, 'Ah for me! ' 
or, ' what will become of me!' &c. , and the second person is in the nominative independent, 
there being a direct address." — Conversations on E. Gram., p. 211. So we see that this gramma- 
rian and Kirkham, both modifiers of Murray, understand their master's false verb*" require " very 
differently. Lennie too, in renouncing a part of Murray's double or threefold error, " Oh! happy 
us!" for, " happy we /" teaches thus : "Interjections sometimes require the objective case 
after them, but they never govern it. In the first edition of this grammar," says he, " I followed 
Mr. Murray and others, in leaving we, in the exercises to be turned into us ; but that it should 
be we, and not us, is obvious ; because it is the nominative to are understood ; thus, Oh happy 
are we, or, Oh we are happy, (being) surrounded with so many blessings." — Lennies Gram., Fifth 
Edition, p. 84, Twelfth, p. 110. Here is an other solution of the construction of this pronoun of 
the first person, contradictory alike to IngersolTs, to Kirkham's, and to Murray's ; while all are 
wrong, and this among the rest. The word should indeed be we, and not us; because we have 
both analogy and good authority for the former case, and nothing but the false conceit of sundry 
grammatists for the latter. But it is a nominative absolute, like any other nominative which we 
use in the same exclamatory manner. For the first person may just as well be put in the nomi- 
native absolute, by exclamation, as any other; as, "Behold /and the children whom God hath 
given me ! " — Heb., ii, 13. " Ecce ego et pueri quos mini dedit Deus ! " — Beza. " brave we ! " 
— Dr. Johnson, often. So Horace: "0 ego kevus," &c. — Ep. ad Pi., 301. 
"Ah! luckless I! who purge in spring my spleen — 
Else sure the first of bards had Horace been." — Francis's Hor., ii, 209. 

Obs. 5. — Whether Murray's remark above, on " 0! Oh! and Ah ! " was originally designed for 
a rule of government or not, it is hardly worth any one's while to inquire. It is too lame and 
inaccurate every way, to deserve any notice, but that which should serve to explode it forever. 
Yet no few, who have since made English grammars, have copied the text literally ; as they have, 
for the public benefit, stolen a thousand other errors from the same quarter. The reader will find 
it, with little or no change, in Smith's New Grammar, p. 96 and 134; Alger's, 56 ; Allen's, 117 ; 
BusseU's, 92; Blair's, 100, G-uy's, 89; Abel Flint's, 59; A Teacher's, 43, Picket's, 210; Coop- 



692 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

er's* Murray. 136; "Wilcox's, 95; Bucke's, 87; Emmons's, 77; and probably in others. Lennie 
varies it indefinitely, thus: "Rule. The interjections Oh! and Ah! &c. generally require the 
objective case of the first personal pronoun, and the nominative of the second ; as, Ah me ! thou 
fool! ye hypocrites!" — Lennie' s Gram., p. 110; Brace's, 88. M'Culloch, after Crombie, thus: 
" Rule XX. Interjections are joined with the objective case of the pronoun of the first person, 
and with the nominative of the pronoun of the second; as, Ah me! ye hypocrites." — Manual 
of E. Gram., p. 145; and Ore-mole's Treatise, p. 315; also Fowler's E. Language, p. 563. Hiley 
makes it a note, thus : " The interjections, ! Oh ! Ah ! are followed by the objective case of a 
pronoun of the first person ; as, ' Oh me!' ' Ah me ! ' but by the nominative case of the pronoun 
in the second person ; as, ' thou, who dwellest.' " — Hiley's Gram., p. 82. This is what the 
same author elsewhere calls " the government of interjections;" though, like some others, he 
had set it in the " Syntax of Pronouns." See lb., p. 108. Murray, in forming his own little 
"Abridgment," omitted it altogether. In his other grammars, it is still a mere note, standing 
where he at first absurdly put it, under his rule for the agreement of pronouns with their antece- 
dents. By many of his sage amenders, it has been placed in the catalogue of principal rules. 
But, that it is no adequate rule for interjections, is manifest ; for, in its usual form, it is limited to 
three, and none of these can ever, with any propriety, be parsed by it. Murray himself has not 
U3ed it in any of his forms of parsing. He conceived, (as I hinted before in Chapter 1st,) that, 
" The syntax of the Interjection is of so very limited a nature, that it does not require a distinct, 
appropriate rule." — Octavo Gram., i, 224. 

Obs. 6. — Against this remark of Murray's, a good argument may be drawn from the ridiculous 
use which has been made of his own suggestion in the other place. For, though that suggestion 
never had in it the least shadow of truth, and was never at all applicable either to the three in- 
terjections, or to pronouns, or to cases, or to the persons, or to any thing else of which it speaks, 
it has not only been often copied literally, and called a " Rule " of syntax, but many have, yet 
more absurdly, made it a general canon which imposes on all interjections a syntax that belongs 
to none of them. For example: " An interjection must be followed by the objective case of a pro- 
noun in the first person ; and by a nominative of the second person ; as — Oh me ! ah me ! oh thou ! 
Ah hail, ye happy men !" — Jaudon's Gram., p. 116. This is as much as to say, that every inter- 
jection must have a pronoun or two after it ! Again : (: Interjections must be followed by the 
objective case of the pronoun in the first person ; as, me! Ah me! and by the nominative case 
of the second person ; as, thou persecutor ! Oh ye hypocrites ! " — Merchant's Murray, p. 80 ; 
Merchant's School Gram., p. 99. I imagine there is a difference between and oh,\ and that this 
author, as well as Murray, in the first and the last of these examples, has misapplied them both. 
Again: " Interjections require the objective case of a pronoun of the first person, and the nomi- 
native case of the second; as, Ah me! thou." — Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. 48. This, too, is 
general, but equivocal ; as if one case or both were necessary to each interjection ! 

Obs. 7. — Of nouns, or of the third person, the three rules last cited say nothing ;\ though it 
appears from other evidence, that their authors supposed them applicable at least to some nouns 

* "The Rev. Joab Goldsmith Cooper, A. M.," was the author of two English grammars, as well as of what he 
called "A New and Improved Latin Grammar," with "An Edition of the Works of Virgil, &c," all published 
in Philadelphia. His first grammar, dated 1828, is entitled, " An Abridgment of Murray's English Grammar, 
and Exercises." But it is no more an abridgement of Murray's work, than of mine ; he having chosen to steal 
from the text of my Institutes, or supply matter of his own, about as often as to copy Murray. His second is 
the Latin Grammar. His third, which is entitled, "A Plain and Practical English Grammar,'" and dated 1831, 
is a book very different from the first, but equally inaccurate and wortbless. In this book, the syntax of inter- 
jections stands thus: "Rule 21. The interjections 0, oh and ah are followed by the objective case of a noun or 
pronoun, as: " O me! ah me! oh me! In the second person, they are a mark or sign of an address, made to a 
person or thing, as : O thou persecutor! Oh, ye hypocrites! O virtue, how amiable thou art!" — Page 157. 
The inaccuracy of all this can scarcely be exceeded. 

t " Oh is used to express the emotion of pain, sorrow, or surjmse. is used to express wishing, exclama- 
tion, or a direct address to a person."— Lennie's Gram., 12th Ed., p. 110. Of this distinction our grammarians 
in general seem to bave no conception ; and, in fact, it is so often disregarded by other authors, that the pro- 
priety of it may be disputed. Since and oh are pronounced alike, or very nearly so, if there is no difference 
in their application, they are only different modes of writing the same word, and one or the other of them is 
useless. If there is a real difference, as I suppose tbere is, it ought to be better observed ; and me ! and oh 
ye! which I believe are found only in grammars, should be regarded as bad English. Both and oh, as well 
as ah, were used in Latin by Terence, who was reckoned an elegant writer ; and his manner of applying them 
favours this distinction: and so do our own dictionaries, though Johnson and Walker do not draw it clearly, for 
oh is as much an "exclamation" as 0. In the works of Virgil, Ovid, and Horace, we find or 6 used fre- 
quently, but nowhere oft. Yet this is no evidence of their sameness, or of the uselessness of the latter; but 
rather of their difference, and of the impropriety of confounding them. 0, oh, ho, and ah, are French words as 
well as English. Boyer, in his Quarto Dictionary, confounds them all; translating; "O!" only by " Oh /" 
"OH! on HO!" by "Hoi Oh!" and "AH!" by "Oh! alas! well-a-day ! ough'.A! ah! hah! ho!" He 
would have done better to have made each one explain itself; and especially, not to have set down "oughT and 
" A I" as English words which correspond to the French ah I 

% This silence is sufficiently accounted for by Murray's; of whose work, most of the authors who have any 
such rule, are either piddling modifiers or servile copyists. And Murray's silence on these matters, is in part 
attributable to the fact, tbat when he wrote his remark, his system of grammar denied that nouns have any first 
person, or any objective case. Of course he supposed that all nouns that were uttered after interjections, whether 
they were of the second person or of the third, were in the nominative case ; for he gave to nouns two cases 
only, the nominative and the possessive. And when he afterwards admitted the objective case of nouns, he did 
not alter his remark, but left all his pupils ignorant of the case of any noun that is used in exclamation or invo- 
cation. In his doctrine of two cases, he followed Dr. Ash ; from whom also he copied the rule which I am crit- 
icising: "The Interjections, 0, Oh, and Ah, require the accusative case of a pronoun in the first Person : as, 
O me, Oh me, Ah me: But the Nominative in the second: as, O thou, O ye." — Ash a Gram., p. 60. Or perhaps 
he had Bicknelf's book, which was later: "The interjections O, oh, and ah, require the accusative case of a 
pronoun in the first person after them; as, O, me! Oh, me! Ah, me! But the nominative case in the second 
person ; as, O, thou that rulest ! O, ye rulers of this land /" — The Grammatical Wreath, Part I, p. 105. 



CHAP. XI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIV. INTERJECTIONS. — OBSERVATIONS. 693 

of the second person. The supposition however was quite needless, because each of their gram- 
mars contains an other Rule, that, " "When an address is made, the noun or pronoun is in the 
nominative case independent;" which, by the by, is far from being universally true, either of the 
noun or of the pronoun. Russell imagines, " The words depending upon interjections, have so 
near a resemblance to those in a direct address, that they may very properly be classed under the 
same general head," and be parsed as being, "in the nominative case independent." See his 
"Abridgment of Murray 1 s Grammar" p. 91. He does not perceive that depending and independ- 
ent are words that contradict each other. Into the same inconsistency, do nearly all those gen- 
tlemen fall, who ascribe to interjections a control over cases. Even Kirkham, who so earnestly 
contends that what any words require after them they must necessarily govern, forgets his whole 
argument, or justly disbelieves it, whenever he parses any noun that is uttered with an interjec- 
tion. In short, he applies his principle to nothing but the word me in the phrases, "Ah me!" 
" Oh me!" and " Me miserable!" and even these he parses falsely. The second person used in 
the vocative, or the nominative put absolute by direct address, whether an interjection be used 
or not, he rightly explains as being " in the nominative case independent;" as, "0 Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem!" — Kirkham's Gram., p. 130. "0 maid of Inistore!" — lb., p. 131. But he is wrong 
in saying that, " Whenever a noun is of the second person, it is in the nominative case independ- 
ent;" (lb., p. 130 ;) and still more so, in supposing that, " The principle contained in the note" 
[which tells what interjections require,] "proves that every noun of the second person is in the 
nominative case." — lb., p. 164. A falsehood proves nothing but the ignorance or the wickedness 
of him who utters it. He is wrong too, as well as many others, in supposing that this nominative 
independent is not a nominative absolute; for, "The vocative is [generally, if not always,] abso- 
lute." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 142. But that nouns of the second person are not always absolute 
or independent, nor always in the nominative case, or the vocative, appears, I think, by the fol- 
lowing example: "This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders." — Acts, iv, 11. 
See Obs. 3d on Rule 8th. 

Obs. 8. — The third person, when uttered in exclamation, with an interjection before it, is parsed 
by Kirkham, not as being governed by the interjection, either in the nominative case, according 
to his own argument and own rule above cited, or in the objective, according to Nixon's notion 
of the construction ; nor yet as being put absolute in the nominative, as I believe it generally, if 
not always is; but as being "the nominative to a verb understood; as, ' Lo,' there is 'the poor 
Indian!' '0, the pain 1 there is! 'the blips' 1 there is 'in dying!'" — Kirkhanis Gram., p. 129. 
Pope's text is, " Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!" and, in ail that is here changed, the gramma- 
rian has perverted it, if not in all that he has added. It is an other principle of Kirkham's 
Grammar, though a false one, that, " Nouns have but two persons, the second and [the] third." — 
P. 3 7. So that, these two being disposed of agreeably to his own methods above, which appear 
to include the second and third persons of pronouns also, there remains to him nothing but the 
objective of the pronoun of the first person to which he can suppose his other rule to apply ; and 
I have shown that there is no truth in it, even in regard to this. Yet, with the strongest pro- 
fessions of adhering to the principles, and even to " the language " of Lindley Murray, this gen- 
tleman, by copying somebody else in preference to " that eminent philologist," has made himself 
one of those by whom Murray's erroneous remark on 0, oh, and ah, with pronouns of the first 
and second persons, is not only stretched into a rule for all interjections, but made to include 
nouns of the second person, and both nouns and pronouns of the third person : as, " Interjec- 
tions require the objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them, but the nominative of 
a noun or pronoun of the second or third person ; as, 'Ah ! me ; Oh ! thou ; ! virtue !' " — Kirk- 
ham's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 134; Stereotype Ed., p. 177. See the same rule, with examples and 
punctuation different, in his Stereotype Edition, p. 1G4; Comly's Gram., 116; Greenleafs, 36; 
and Fisk's, 144. All these authors, except Comly, who comes much nearest to the thing, profess 
to present to us " Murray's Grammar Simplified; and this is a sample of their work of simplifica- 
tion ! — an ignorant piling of errors on errors ! 

" imitatores servum pecus ! ut mihi saepe 
Bilem, saepe jocum vestri movere tumultus !" — Horace. 

Obs. 9. — Since so many of our grammarians conceive that interjections require or govern casesj 
it may be proper to cite some who teach otherwise. " Interjections, in English, have no govern- 
ment." — Lowttis Gram., p. 111. "Interjections have no government, or admit of no construc- 
tion." — Coar's Gram., -p. 189. "Interjections have no connexion with other words." — Fuller's 
Gram., p. 71. "The interjection, in a grammatical sense, is totally unconnected with every 
other word in a sentence. Its arrangement, of course, is altogether arbitrary, and cannot admit 
of any theory." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 83. " Interjections cannot properly have either concord or 
government. They are only mere sounds excited by passion, and have no just connexion with 
any other part of a sentence. Whatever case, therefore, is joined with them, must depend on 
some other word understood, except the vocative, which is always placed absolutely." — Adam's 
Latin Gram., p. 196 ; Gould's, 193. If this is true of the Latin language, a slight variation will 
make it as true of ours. " Interjections, and phrases resembling them, are taken absolutely ; as, 
Oh, world, thy slippery turns! But the phrases Oh me! and Ah me! frequently occur." — W. 
Allen's Gram., p. 188. This passage is, in several respects, wrong ; yet the leading idea is true. 
The author entitles it, " Syntax of Interjections," yet absurdly includes in it I know not what 
phrases! In the phrase, " thy slippery turns !' no word is absolute, or "taken absolutely," but 
this noun " turns ;" and this, without the least hint of its case, the learned author will have us to 



694 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

understand to be absolute, because the phrase resembles an interjection ! But the noun "world" 
which is also absolute, and which still more resembles an interjection, he will have tp be so for a 
different reason — because it is in what he chooses to call the vocative case. But, according to 
custom, he should rather have put his interjection absolute with the noun, and written it, " 
world," and not, " Oh, world." "What he meant to do with " Oh me! and Ah me!" is doubtful. 
If any phrases come fairly under liis rule, these are the very ones ; and yet he seems to introduce 
them as exceptions ! Of these, it can hardly be said, that they "frequently occur." Lowth 
notices only the latter, which he supposes elliptical. The former I do not remember to have 
met with more than three or four times ; except in grammars, which in this case are hardly to be 
called authorities: " Oh ! me, how fared it with me then?" — Job Scott. " Oh me! all the horse 
have got over the river, what shall we do?" — Walton: Joh. Diet. 

" But when he was first seen, oh me! 
What shrieking and what misery!" — Wordsworth 's Works, p. 114. 

Oes. 10. — When a declinable word not in the nominative absolute, follows an interjection, as 
part of an imperfect exclamation, its construction (if the phrase be good English) depends on 
something understood; as, " Ah me /" — that is, "Ah! pity me;" or, "Ah! it grieves me;" or, 
as some will have it, (because the expression in Latin is " Hei mihi!") " Ah for me!" — Ingersoll. 
"Ah! wo is tome." — Lowth. "Ah! sorrow is to me." — Coar. So of "oh me!" for, in these 
expressions, if not generally, oh and ah are exactly equivalent the one to the other. As for " 
me" it is now seldom met with, though Shakspeare has it a few times. From these examples, 
0. B. Peirce erroneously imagines the "independent case" of the pronoun /to be me, and accord- 
ingly parses the word without supposing an ellipsis ; but in the plural he makes that case to be 
we, and not us. So, having found an example of " Ah Him!" which, according to one half of 
our grammarians, is bad English, he conceives the independent case of he to be him ; but in the 
plural, and in both numbers of the words thou and she, he makes it the nominative, or the same 
in form as the nominative. So builds he " the temple of Grammatical consistency 1" — P. 7. 
Nixon and Cooper must of course approve of "Ah him!" because they assume that the interjec- 
tion ah "requires" or "governs" the objective case of the third person. Others must condemn 
the expression, because they teach that ah requires the nominative case of this person. Thus 
Greenleaf sets down for false syntax, " ! happy them, surrounded with so many blessings!" — 
Gram. Simplified, p. 47. Here, undoubtedly, the word should be they ; and, by analogy, (if in- 
deed the instances are analogous,) it would seem more proper to say, " Ah he /" the nominative 
being our only case absolute. But if any will insist that " Ah him !" is good English, they must 
suppose that /m'to is governed by something understood; as, "Ah! i" lament him ;" or, "Ah! I 
mourn for him." And possibly, on this principle, the example referred to may be most correct as 
it stands, with the pronoun in the objective case : " Ah Him ! the first great martyr in this great 
cause." — D. Webster: Peirce 's Gram., p. 199. 

Obs. 11. — If we turn to the Latin syntax, to determine by analogy what case is used, or ought 
to be used, after our English interjections, in stead of finding a " perfect accordance" between that 
syntax and the rule for which such accordance has been claimed, we see at once an utter repug- 
nance, and that the pretence of their agreement is only a sample of Kirkham's unconscionable pe- 
dantry. The rule, in all its modifications, is based on the principle, that the choice of cases de- 
pends on the distinction of parsons — a principle plainly contrary to the usage of the Latin classics, 
and altogether untrue. In Latin, some interjections are construed with the nominative, the accu- 
sative, or the vocative ; some, only with the dative ; some, only with the vocative. But, in 
English, these four cases are all included in two, the nominative and the objective ; and, the 
case independent or absolute being necessarily the nominative, it follows that the objective, if it 
occur after an interjection, must be the object of something which is capable of governing it. If 
any disputant, by supposing ellipses, will make objectives of what I call nominatives absolute, so 
be it ; but I insist that interjections, in fact, never " require" or " govern" one case more than an 
other. So Peirce, and Kirkham, and Ingersoll, with pointed self-contradiction, may continue to 
make "the independent case," whether vocative or merely exclamatory, the subject of a verb, 
expressed or understood ; but I will content myself with endeavouring to establish a syntax not 
liable to this sort of objection. In doing this, it is proper to look at all the facts which go to 
show what is right, or wrong. " Lo, the poor Indian!" is in Latin, " Ecce pauper Indus!" or, 
" Ecce pauperem Indum /" This use of either the nominative or the accusative after ecce, if it 
proves any thing concerning the case of the word Indian, proves it doubtful. Some, it seems, 
pronounce it an objective. Some, like Murray, say nothing about it. Following the analogy of 
our own language, I refer it to the nominative absolute, because there is nothing to determine it 
to be otherwise. In the examples, " Heu me miserum! Ah wretch that I am!" — (Granfs Latin 
Gram., p. 263,) and "Miser ego homo! wretched man that I am!" — (Rom., vii, 24,) if the word 
that is a relative pronoun, as I incline to think it is, the case of the nouns wretch and man does 
not depend on any other words, either expressed or implied. They are therefore nominatives 
absolute, according to Rule 8th, though the Latin words may be most properly explained on the 
principle of ellipsis. 

Obs. 12. — Of some impenetrable blockhead, Horace, telling how himself was vexed, says: " te, 
Bollane, cerebri Felicem! aiebam tacitus." — Lib. i, Sat. ix, 11. Literally: " thee, Bollanus, 
happy of brain ! said I to myself." That is, " ! I envy thee," &c. This shows that does not 
"require the nominative case of the second person" after it, at least in Latin. Neither does oh 



CHAP. XI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIV. INTERJECTIONS. — OBSERVATIONS. 695 

or ah : for, if a governing word be suggested, the objective may be proper ; as, " Whom did he 
injure? Ah! thee, my boy?" — or even the possessive; as, "Whose sobs do I hear? Oh! thine, 
my child?" Kirkham tells us truly, (Gram., p. 126,) that the exclamation " my" is frequently 
heard in conversation. These last resemble Lucan's use of the genitive, with an ellipsis of the 
governing noun: " miserce. sortis!" i. e., " [men] of miserable lot!''' In short, all the Latin 
cases, as well as all the English, may possibly occur after one or other of the interjections. I have 
instanced ah but the ablative, and the following is literally an example of that, though the word 
quanto is construed adverbially: "Ah, quanto satius est!" — Ter. And., ii, 1. "Ah, how much 
better it is!" I have also shown, by good authorities, that the nominative of the first person, 
both in English and in Latin, may be properly used after those interjections which have been 
supposed to require or govern the objective. But how far is analogy alone a justification ? Is 
" thee" good English, because " te" is good Latin ? No: nor is it bad for the reason which 
our grammarians assign, but because our best writers never use it, and because is more prop- 
erly the sign of the vocative. The literal version above should therefore be changed; as, "0 
Bollanus, thou happy numskull ! said I to myself." 

Obs. 13 — Allen Eisk, " author of Adam's Latin Grammar Simplified." and of " Murray's Eng- 
lish Grammar Simplified," sets down for "False Syntax," not only that hackneyed example, 
"Oh! happy we," &c, but, "0! Tou, who love iniquity," and, "Ah! you, who hate the light." 
— Fish's E Gram., p. 144. But, to imagine that either you or we is wrong here, is certainly no 
sign of a great linguist ; and his punctuation is very inconsistent both with his own rule of syn- 
tax and with common practice. An interjection set off by a comma or an exclamation point, is 
of course put absolute singly, or by itself. If it is to be read as being put absolute with some- 
thing else, the separation is improper. One might just as well divide a preposition from its 
object, as an interjection from the case which it is supposed to govern. Yet we find here not 
only such a division as Murray sometimes improperly adopted, but in one instance a total sepa- 
ration, with a capital folio wing ; as, "0! You, who love iniquity," for, "0 you who love iniquity!" 
or, " ye," &c. If a point be here set between the two pronouns, the speaker accuses ah his 
hearers of loving iniquity ; if this point be removed, he addresses only such as do love it. But 
an interjection and a pronoun, each put absolute singly, one after the other, seem to me not to 
constitute a very natural exclamation. The last example above should therefore be, " Ah ! you 
hate the light." The first should be written, " happy we !" 

Obs. 14. — In other grammars, too, there are many instances of some of the errors here pointed 
out. R. C. Smith knows no difference between and oh; takes " Oh! happy us," to be accurate 
English ; sees no impropriety in separating interjections from the pronouns which he supposes 
them to "govern;" writes the same examples variously, even on the same page; inserts or omits 
commas or exclamation points at random ; yet makes the latter the means by which interjections 
are to be known ! See his New Gram,, pp. 40, 96, and 134. Kirkham, who lays claim to " a new 
system of punctuation," and also stoutly asserts the governing power of interjections, writes, 
and rewrites, and finally stereotypes, in one part of his book. " Ah me ! Oh thou ! my country I" 
and in an other, "Ah! me; Oh! thou; 0! virtue." See Obs. 3d and Obs. 8th above. Erom 
such hands, any thing " new" should be received with caution : this last specimen of his scholar- 
ship has more errors than words. 

Obs. 15. — Some few of our interjections seem to admit of a connexion with other words by 
means of a preposition or the conjunction that; as, " to forget her!" — Young. "0 for that 
warning voice !" — Milton. " that they were wise !" — Deut., xxxii, 29. " that my people had 
hearkened unto me !" — Ps., lxxxi, 13. " Alas for Sicily !" — Cowper. " for a world in principle 
as chaste As this is gross and selfish !" — Id, " Hurrah for Jackson !" — Netcspaper. " A bawd, 
sir, fy upon him !" — Shak. : Joh. Bid. " And fy on fortune, mine avowed foe!" — Spencer: ib. 
This connexion, however, even if we parse all the words just as they stand, does not give to the 
interjection itself any dependent construction. It appears indeed to refute Jamieson's assertion, 
that, "The interjection is totally unconnected with every other word in a sentence;" but I did not 
quote this passage, with any averment of its accuracy ; and, ceitainly, many nouns which are put 
absolute themselves, have in like manner a connexion with words that are not put absolute : as, 
"0 Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, God of Jacob. Selah." — Ps., lxxxiv, 8. But 
if any will suppose, that in the foregoing examples something else than the interjection must be 
the antecedent term to the preposition or the conjunction, they ma}' consider the expressions 
elliptical: though it must be confessed, that much of their vivacity will be lost, when the sup- 
posed ellipses are supplied: as, "0! I desire to forget her." — "0! how 1 long for that warning 
voice !" — " ! how 1 wish that they were wise !" — " Alas ! Iivail for Sicily." — " Hurrah ! I shout 
for Jackson." — " Fy ! cry out upon him." Lindley Murray has one example of this kind, and if 
his punctuation of it is not bad in all his editions, there must be an ellipsis in the expression : 
" ! for better times." — Octavo Gram., ii, 6 ; Duodecimo Exercises, p. 10. He also writes it thus: 
"0, for better times." — Octavo Gram., i, 120; IngersoWs Gram,, p. 4*7. According to com- 
mon usage, it should be, " for better times !" 

Obs. 16. — The interjection may be placed at the beginning or the end of a simple sentence, and 
sometimes between its less intimate parts ; but this part of speech is seldom, if ever, allowed to 
interrupt the connexion of any words which are closely united in sense. Murray's definition of 
an interjection, as I have elsewhere shown, is faulty, and directly contradicted by his example : 
" virtue! how amiable thou art!" — Octavo Gram., i, 28 and 128; ii. 2. This was a favourite 
sentence with Murray, and he appears to have written it uniformly in this fashion ; which, un- 



696 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

doubtedly, is altogether right, except that the word "virtue" should have had a capital Yee, be- 
cause the quality is here personified. 

Obs. 17. — Misled by the false notion, that the term interjection is appropriate only to what is 
" thrown in between the parts of a sentence" and perceiving that this is in fact but rarely the 
situation of this part of speech, a recent critic, (to whom I should owe some acknowledgements, if 
he were not wrong in every thing in which he charges me with error,) not only denounces this 
name as " barbarous" preferring Webster's loose term, " exclamation ;" but avers, that, " The 
words called interjection should never be so used — should always stand alone ; as, ' Oh ! virtue, how 
amiable thou art.' 'Oh? Absalom, my son.' G. Brown," continues he, " drags one into the mid- 
dle of a sentence, where it never belonged ; thus, ' This enterprise, alas ! will never compensate us 
for the trouble and expense with which it has been attended.' If Gr. B. meant the enterprize of 
studying grammar, in the old theories, his sentiment is very appropriate; but his alas ! he should 
have known enough to have put into the right place : > — before the sentence representing the fact 
that excites the emotion expressed by alas I See on the Chart part 3, of Rule XYII. An excla- 
mation must always precede the phrase or sentence describing the fact that excites the emotion to 
be expressed by the exclamation ; as, Alas ! I have alienated my friend ! Oh I Glorious hope of 
bliss secure !" — Oliver B. Peirce' s Gram., p. 375. " Glorious hope of bliss secure!" — lb., p. 184. 
"0 glorious hope!"— Ib. } p. 304. 

Obs. 18. — I see no reason to believe, that the class of words which have always, and almost 
universally, been called interjections, can ever be more conveniently explained under any other 
name ; and, as for the term exclamation, which is preferred also by Cutler, Felton, Spencer, and 
S. W. Clark, it appears to me much less suitable than the old one, because it is less specific. Any 
words uttered loudly in the same breath, are an exclamation. This name therefore is too general ; 
it includes other parts of speech than interjections ; and it was but a foolish whim in Dr. Webster, 
to prefer it in his dictionaries. When David " cried with a loud voice, my son Absalom ! Ab- 
salom, my son, my son!'"* he uttered two exclamations, but they included all his words. He did 
not, like my critic above, set off his first word with an interrogation point, or any other point. 
But, says Peirce, " These words are used in exclaiming, and are what all know them to be, excla- 
mations ; as I call them. May I not coll them what they are?" — Ibid. Yes, truly. But to ex- 
claim is to cry out, and consequently every outcry is an exclamation ; though there are two chances 
to one. that no interjection at all be used by the bawler. As good an argument, or better, may be 
framed against every one of this gentleman's professed improvements in grammar ; and as for his 
punctuation and orthography, any reader may be presumed capable of seeing that they are not fit 
to be proposed as models. 

Obs. 19. — I like my position of the word " alas" better than that which Peirce supposes to be 
its only right place ; and, certainly, his rule for the location of words of this sort, as well as his 
notion that they must stand alone, is as false, as it is new. The obvious misstatement of Lowth, 
Adam, Gould, Murray, Churchill, Alger, Smith, Guy, Ingersoll, and others, that, "Interjections 
are words thrown in between the parts of a sentence" I had not only excluded from my grammars, 
but expressly censured in them. It was not, therefore, to prop any error of the old theorists, that 
I happened to set one interjection " where," according to this new oracle, "it never belonged." 
And if any body but he has been practically misled by their mistake, it is not I, but more proba- 
bly some of the following authors, here cited for his refutation : "I fear, alas ! for my life." — Fish's 
Gram., p. 89. "I have been occupied, alas ! with trifles." — Murray's Gr., Ex. for Parsing, p. 5 ; 
Guy's, p. 56. "We eagerly pursue pleasure, but, alas! we often mistake the road." — Smith's 
Neiu Gram., p. 40. "To-morrow, alas! thou mayest be comfortless!" — Wright's Gram., p. 35. 
'Time flies, 0! how swiftly." — Murray's Gram., i, 226. "My friend, alas! is dead." — J. Flint's 
Gram., p. 21. "But John, alas ! he is very idle." — Merchant's Gram., p. 22. " For pale and wan 
he was, alas the while!" — Spenser: Joh. Diet. " But yet, alas! but yet, alas! our haps be 
but hard haps." — Sydney : ib. " Nay, (what's incredible, ) alack ! I hardly hear a woman's clack." 
— Swift: ib. "Thus life is spent (oh fie upon't !) In being touch'd, and crying — Don't!" — Cow- 
per, i, 231. " For whom, alas! dost thou prepare The sweets that I was wont to share?" — Id., 
i, 203. ' But here, alas ! the difference lies." — Id., i, 100. " Their names, alas ! in vain reproach 
an age," fee. — Id., i, 88. " What nature, alas ! has denied," &c. — Id., i, 235. " A. Hail Sternhold, 
then-, and Hopkins, hail! B. Amen." — Id., i, 25. 

" These Fate reserv'd to grace thy reign divine, 
Foreseen by me, but ah! withheld from mine!" — Pope, Dun., hi, 275. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX PROMISCUOUS. 

IPF~ [The following examples of bad grammar, being similar in their character to others already exhibited, 
*re to be corrected, by the pupil, according to formules previously given.] 

Lesson I. — Any Parts of Speech. 
"Such an one I believe yours will be proved to be." — Peet: Farnum's Gram., p. 1. " Of the 
distinction between the imperfect and the perfect tenses, it may be observed," &c. — Ainsworth's 

* See 2 Sam., xix, 4; also xviii, 33. Peirce has many times misquoted this text, or some part of it ; and, what 
is remarkable, he nowhere agrees either with himself or with the Bible! "O! Absalom! my son!" — Gram., 
p. 283. '• O Absalom ! my son, my son! would to God I had died for thee." — lb., p. 304. Pinneo also misquotes 
and perverts a part of it, thus : " Oh, Absalom ! my son!" — Primary Gram., Revised Ed., p. 57. 



CHAP. XI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIV. — INTERJECTIONS. — ERRORS. 697 

Gram., p. 122. "The subject is certainly worthy consideration." — lb., p. 117. "By this means 
all ambiguity and controversy is avoided on this point." — Bullions, Principles of Eng. Gram., 5th 
Ed., Pre/., p. vi. " The perfect participle in English has both an active and passive signification." 
— lb., p. 58. "The old house is at length fallen down." — lb., p. 78. "The king, with the lords 
and commons, constitute the English form of government." — lb., p. 93. " The verb in the singu- 
lar agrees with the person next it." — lb., p. 95. " Jane found Seth's gloves in James' hat." — 
Felton's Gram., p. 15. " Charles' task is too great." — Ibid., 15. " The conjugation of a verb is 
the naming, in regular order, its several modes tenses, numbers and persons."' — lb., p. 24. " The 
long remembered beggar was his guest." — lb., 1st Ed., p. 65. " Participles refer to nouns and 
pronouns." — lb., p. 81. " F has an uniform sound in every position except in of." — Hallock's 
Gram., 1st Ed., p. 15. "There are three genders ; the masculine, the feminine and neuter." — lb., 
p. 43. ""When so that occur together, sometimes the particle so is taken as an adverb." — lb., 
p. 124. " The definition of the articles show that they modify the words to which they belong." 
— lb., p. 138. "The auxiliaries shall, will, or should is implied." — lb., p. 192. "Single rhyme 
trochaic omits the final short syllable." — lb., p. 244. "Agreeable to this, we read of names being 
blotted out of God's book." — Burder: ib., p. 156; Webster's Philos Gram, 155; Improved 
Gram., 107. "The first person is the person speaking." — Goldsburys Common School Gram., 
p. 10. "Accent is the laying a peculiar stress of the voice on a certain letter or syllable in a 
word." — lb., Ed. of 1842, p. 75. "Thomas' horse was caught." — Felton's Gram., p. 64. "You 
was loved." — lb., p. 45. "The nominative and objective end the same." — Rev. T. Smith's Gram., 
p. 18. " The number of pronouns, like those of substantives, are two. the singular and the plural." 
— lb., p. 22. "/is called the pronoun of the first person, which is the person speaking." — Frost's 
Practical Gram., p. 32. " The essential elements of the phrase is an intransitive gerundive and 
an adjective." — Hazen's Practical Gram., p. 141. " Being rich is no justification for such impu- 
dence." — lb., p. 141. " His having been a soldier in the revolution is not doubted." — lb., p. 143. 
" Catching fish is the chief employment of the inhabitants. The chief employment of the inhabi- 
tants is catching fish." — lb., p. 144. " The cold weather did not prevent the work's being finished 
at the time specified." — lb., p. 145. " The former viciousness of that man caused his being sus- 
pected of this crime." — lb., p. 145. "But person and number applied to verbs means, certain 
terminations." — Barrett's Gram., p. 69. " Robert fell a tree." — lb., p. 64. " Charles raised up." 
— Ib., p. 64. "It might not be an useless waste of time." — lb., p. 42. "Neither will you have 
that implicit faith in the writings and works of others which characterise the vulgar." — lb., p. 5. 
"I, is the first person, because it denotes the speaker." — lb., p. 46. " I would refer the student 
to Hedges' or Watts' Logic." — lb., p. 15. "Hedge's, Watt's, Kirwin's, and Collard's Logic." — 
Parker and Fox's Gram., Part III, p. 116. "Letters are called vowels which make a full and 
perfect sound of themselves." — Cutler's Gram., p. 10. " It has both a singular and plural con- 
struction." — lb., p. 23. "For he beholdest thy beams no more." — lb., p. 136. " To this senti- 
ment the Committee has the candour to incline, as it will appear by their summing up." — Jlac- 
pherson's Ossian, Prelim. Disc, p. xviii. " This is reducing the point at issue to a narrow com- 
pass." — lb., p. xxv. " Since the English sat foot upon the soil." — Eo:ihs of Nova Scotia, p. 12. 
" The arrangement of its different parts are easily retained by the memory." — Filey's Gram.. 3d 
Ed., p. 262. " The words employed are the most appropriate which could have been selected." — 
— Ib., p. 182. " To prevent it launching !'' — lb., p. 135. "Webster has been followed in prefer- 
ence to others, where it differs from them." — Frazees Gram., p. 8. " Exclamation and Interro- 
gation are often mistaken for one another." — Buchanan's E. Syntax, p. 160. "When all nature 
is hushed in sleep, and neither love nor guilt keep then vigils." — Felton's Gram., p. 96. 

" When all nature's hushed asleep, 
Nor love, nor guilt, their vigils keep." — lb., p. 95. 

Lesson II. — Ant Parts of Speech. 
"A Yersifyer and Poet are two different Things." — Brightland's Gram.., p. 163. "Those 
Qualities will arise from the well expressing of the Subject." — lb., p. 165. "Therefore the expla- 
nation of network, is taken no notice of here." — Mason's Sujjplement, p. vii. "When empha- 
sis or pathos are necessary to be expressed." — Humphrey's Punctuation, p. 38. "Whether this 
mode of punctuation is correct, and whether it be proper to close the sentence with the mark of 
admiration, may be made a question." — lb., p. 39. "But not every writer in those days were 
thus correct." — lb., p. 59. " The sounds of A, in English orthoepy, are no less than four." — lb., 
p. 69. "Our present code of rules are thought to be generally correct." — lb., p. 70. "To pre- 
vent its running into another." — Humphrey's Prosody, p. 7. "Shakespeare, perhaps, the greatest 
poetical genius which England has produced." — lb., p. 93. " This I will illustrate by example ; 
but prior to which a few preliminary remarks maybe necessary." — lb., p. 107. "All such are 
entitled to two accents each, and some of which to two accents nearly equal." — lb., p. 109. " But 
some cases of the kind are so plain that no one need to exercise his judgment therein." — lb., p. 
122. "I have forbore to use the word." — lb., p. 127. "The propositions, 'He may study,' 
'He might study,' ' He could study,' affirms an ability or power to study." — Hallock's Gram, of 
1842, p. 76. "The divisions of the tenses has occasioned grammarians much trouble and per- 
plexity." — lb., p. 77. "By adopting a familiar, inductive method of presenting this subject, it 
may be rendered highly attractive to young learners." — Wells's Sch. Gram., 1st Ed., p. 1 ; 3d, 9; 
113th, 11. "The definitions and rules of different grammarians were carefully compared with 
each other." — lb., Preface, p. iii. " So as not wholly to prevent some sounds issuing." — Sheri- 



698 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

dan's Elements of English, p. 64. " Letters of the Alphabet not yet taken notice of." — lb., p. 11. 
"It is sad, it is strange, &c, seems to express only that the thing is sad, strange, &c." — Tlie Well- 
Wishers' 1 Gram., p. 68. " The winning is easier than the preserving a conquest." — lb., p. 65. 
" The United States finds itself the owner of a vast region of country at the West." — Horace 
Mann in Congress, 1848. " One or more letters placed before a word is a Prefix." — S. W. Clark's 
Pract. Gram., p. 42. " One or more letters added to a word is a Suffix." — lb., p. 42. " Two- 
thirds of my hair has fallen off." — lb., p. 126. " ' Suspecting,' describes ' we,' by expressing, inci- 
dentally, an act of ' we.' " — lb., p. 130. " Daniel's predictions are now being fulfilled." — lb., p. 136. 
" His being a scholar, entitles him to respect." — lb., p. 141. " I doubted his having been a sol- 
dier." — lb., p. 142. " Taking a madman's sword to prevent his doing mischief, cannot be regarded 
as robbing him." — lb., p. 129. " I thought it to be him ; but it was not him." — lb., p. 149. "It 
was not me that you saw." — lb., p. 149. " Not to know what happened before you was born, 
is always to be a boy." — lb., p. 149. "How long was you going? Three days." — lb., 158. 
" The qualifying Adjective is placed next the Noun." — lb., p. 165. " All went but me." — 
lb., p. 93. "This is parsing their own language, and not the author's." — Wells's School Gram., 
1st Ed., p. 73. " Nouns which denote males, are of the masculine gender." — lb., p. 49. " Nouns 
which denote females, are of the feminine gender." — lb., p. 49. "When a comparison is ex- 
pressed between more than two objects of the same class, the superlative degree is employed." — 
lb., p. 133. " Where d or t go before, the additional letter d or /, in this contracted form, coalesce 
into one letter with the radical d or V — Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 9. " Write words which will 
show what kind of a house you live in — what kind of a book you hold in your hand — what kind of a 
day it is." — Weld's Gram., p. 7. " One word or more is often joined to nouns or pronouns to modify 
their meaning." — lb., 2d Ed., p. 30. "Good is an adjective; it explains the quality or character of 
every person or thing to which it is applied." — lb., p. 33 ; Abridg., 32. "A great public as well 
as private advantage arises from every one's devoting himself to that occupation which he prefers, 
and for which he is specially fitted." — Wayland: Wells's Gram., p. 121; Weld's, 180. "There 
was a chance of his recovering his senses. Not thus : ' There was a chance of him recovering 
his senses.' Macauley." — See Wells's Gram,, 1st Ed., p. 121; 113th, 135. "This may be 
known by its not having any connecting word immediately preceding it." — Weld's Gram., 2d Edi- 
tion, p. 181. "There are irregular expressions occasionally to be met with, which usage or cus- 
tom rather than analogy, sanction." — lb., p. 143. " He added an anecdote of Quinn's relieving 
Thomson from prison." — lb., p. 150. " The daily labor of her hands procure for her all that is 
necessary." — lb., p. 182. " Its being me, need make no change in your determination." — Hart's 
Gram., p. 128. "The classification of words into what is called the Parts of Speech." — Weld's 
Gram., p. 5. " Such licenses may be explained under what is usually termed Figures." — lb., 
p. 212. 

" Liberal, not lavish, is kind nature's hands." — lb., p. 196. 

" They fall successive and successive live." — lb., p. 213. 

Lesson III. — Ant Parts op Speech. 

"A figure of Etymology is the intentional deviation in the usual form of a word." — Weld's 
Gram., 2d Edition, p. 213. "A figure of Syntax is the intentional deviation in the usual con- 
struction of a word." — lb., 213. " Synecdoche is putting the name of the whole of anything for 
a part or a part for the whole." — lb., 215. " Apostrophe is turning off from the regular course 
of the subject to address some person or thing." — lb., 215. "Even young pupils will perform 
such exercises with surprising interest and facility, and will unconsciously gain, in a little time, 
more knowledge of the structure of Language than he can acquire by a drilling of several years in 
the usual routine of parsing." — lb., Preface, p. iv. " A few Rules of construction are employed 
in this Part, to guide in the exercise of parsing." — Ibidem. "The name of every person, 
object, or thing, which can be thought of, or spoken of, is a noun." — lb., p. 18; Abridged Ed., 
19. "A dot, resembling our period, is used between every word, as well as at the close of the 
verses." — W. Day's Punctuation, p. 16 : London, 1847. " Casting types in matrices was invented 
by Peter Schoeffer, in 1452." — lb., p. 23. "On perusing it, he said, that, so far from it showing 
the prisoner's guilt, it positively established his innocence." — lb., p. 37. "By printing the nom- 
inative and verb in Italic letters, the reader will be able to distinguish them at a glance." — lb., p. 
77. " It is well, no doubt, to avoid using unnecessary words." — lb., p. 99. " Meeting a friend 
the other day, he said to me, ' Where are you going ?' " — lb., p. 124. " John was first denied ap* 
pies, then he was promised them, then he was offered them." — Lennie's Gram., 5th Ed., p. 62. 
"He was denied admission." — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 146. " They were offered a par- 
don." — Pond's Murray, p. 118 ; Wells, 146. " I was this day shown a new potatoe." — Darwin : 
Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 179; Imp. Gram., 128; Frazee's Gram., 153; Weld's, 153. "Nouns 
or pronouns which denote males are of the masculine gender." — S. S. Greene's Gram., 1st Ed., 
p. 211. "There are three degrees of comparison — the positive, comparative, and superlative." — • 
lb., p. 216 ; First Les., p. 49. " The first two refer to direction ; the third, to locality." — lb., Gr., 
p. 103. " The following are some of the verbs which take a direct and indirect object." — lb., p. 
62. " I was not aware of his being the judge of the Supreme Court." — lb., p. 86. "An indirect 
question may refer to either of the five elements of a declarative sentence." — lb., p. 123. " I am 
not sure that he will be present = of his being present." — lb., p. 169. " We left on Tuesday." — lb., 
p. 103. "He left, as he told me, before the arrival of the steamer." — lb., p. 143. " We told him 
that he must leave=Wo told him to leave." — lb., p. 168. " Because he was unable to persuade the 



CHAP. XI.] SYNTAX. — RULE XXIV. — PARSING. — PRAXIS XIII. 699 

multitude, he left in disgust." — lb., p. 172. " He left, and took Ills brother with him." — lb., p. 254. 
" This stating, or declaring, or denying any thing, is called the indicative mode, or manner of 
speaking." — Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 72; Abr. Ed., 59. "This took place at our friend Sir 
Joshua Reynold's." — Welds Go-am., 2d Ed., p. 150; Imp. Ed., 154. "The manner of a young 
lady's employing herself usefully in reading will be the subject of another paper." — lb., 150 ; or 
154. "Very little time is necessary for Johnson's concluding a treaty with the bookseller." — lb., 
150 ; or 154. " My father is not now sick, but if he tuas your services would be welcome." — 
Chandler's Grammar, 1821, p. 54. "When we begin to write or speak, we ought previously to 
fix in our minds a clear conception of the end to be aimed at." — Blair's Rhetoric, p. 193. " Length 
of days are in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor." — Bullions' 1 s Analytical and 
Practical Grammar, 1849, p. 59. "The active and passive present express different ideas." — 
lb., p. 235. "An Improper Diphthong, or Digraph, is a diphthong in which only one of the vow- 
els are sounded." — Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, §115. " The real origin of the words are to 
be sought in the Latin." — lb., § 120. " "What sort of an alphabet the Gothic languages possess, 
we know ; what sort of alphabet they require, we can determine." — lb., § 127. " The Runic Al- 
phabet whether borrowed or invented by the early Goths, is of greater antiquity than either the 
oldest Teutonic or the Moeso-Gothic Alphabets." — lb., § 129. " Common to the Masculine and 
the Neuter Genders." — lb., § 222. "In the Anglo-Saxon his was common to both the Masculine 
and Neuter Genders." — lb., § 222. ""When time, number, or dimension are specified, the adjec- 
tive follows the substantive." — lb., § 459. " Nor pairj, nor grief, nor anxious fear Invade thy 
bounds." — lb., § 563. "To Brighton the Pavilion lends a lath and plaster grace." — lb., § 590. 
" Erom this consideration nouns have been given but one person, the third." — D. C. Allen's Gram- 
matic Guide, p. 10. 

"Eor it seems to guard and cherish 
Even the wayward dreamer — I." — Home Journal. 

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. 

PRAXIS XLTL— SYNTACTICxYL. 

In the following Lessons, are exemplified most of the Exceptions, some of the JVotes, 

and many of the Observations, under the preceding Rules of Syntax ; to which 

Exceptions, Notes, or Observations, the learner may recur, for an explanation of 

whatsoever is difficult in the parsing, or peculiar in the construction, of these 

examples or others. 

Lesson I. — Prose. 

" The higher a bird flies, the more out of danger he is ; and the higher a Christian 
soars above the world, the safer are his comforts." — SparJce. 

" In this point of view, and with this explanation, it is supposed by some gram- 
marians, that our .language contains a few Impersonal Verbs ; that is, verbs which 
declare the existence of some action or state, but which do not refer to any animate 
being, or any determinate particluar subject." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 109. 

" Thus in England and France, a great landholder possesses a hundred times the 
property that is necessary for the subsistence of a family ; and each landlord has 
perhaps a hundred families dependent on him for subsistence." — Webster'' s Essays, 
p. 87. 

" It is as possible to become pedantick by fear of pedantry, as to be troublesome 
by ill timed civility." — Johnson's Rambler, No. 173. 

" To commence author, is to claim praise ; and no man can justly aspire to 
honour, but at the hazard of disgrace." — lb., No. 93. 

" For ministers to be silent in the cause of Christ, is to renounce it ; and to fly 
is to desert it." — South : CrabUs Synonymes, p. 7. 

" Such instances shew how much the sublime depends upon a just selection of 
circumstances ; and with how great care every circumstance must be avoided, which 
by bordering in the least upon the mean, or even upon the gay or the trifling, alters 
the tone of the emotion." — Blair's Rhet., p. 43. 

" This great poet and philosopher, the more he contemplated the nature of the 
Deity, found that he waded but the more out of his depth, and that he lost himself 
in the thought instead of finding an end to it." — Addison. 

" Odin, which in Anglo-Saxon was Woden, was the supreme god of the Goths, an- 
swering to the Jupiter of the Greeks." — Webster's Essays, p. 262. 

" Because confidence, that charm and cement of intimacy, is wholly wanting in 
the intercourse." — Opie, on Lying, p. 146. 



700 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

"Objects of hearing may be compared together, as also of taste, of smell, and of 
touch : but the chief fund of comparison are objects of sight." — Karnes, EL of Crit., 
Vol. ii, p. 136. 

" The various relations of the various Objects exhibited by this (I mean relations 
of near and distant, present and absent, same and different, definite and indefinite, 
&c.) made it necessary that here there should not be one, but many Pronouns, such 
as He, This, That, Other, Any, Some, &c." — Hariris *s Hermes, p. 72. 

" Mr. Pope's Ethical Epistles deserve to be mentioned with signal honour, as a 
model, next to perfect, of this kind of poetry." — Blair's Rhet., p. 402. 

"The knowledge of why they so exist, must be the last act of favour which time 
and toil will bestow." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 253. 

" It is unbelief, and not faith, that sinks the sinner into despondency. — Chris- 
tianity disowns such characters." — Fuller, on the Gospel, p. 141. 

" That God created the universe, [and] that men are accountable for their actions, 
are frequently mentioned by logicians, as instances of the mind judging." 

Lesson II. — Prose. 

" To censure works, not men, is the just prerogative of criticism, and accordingly 
all personal censure is here avoided, unless where necessary to illustrate some general 
proposition." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Introduction, p. 27. 

" There remains to show by examples the manner of treating subjects, so as to 
give them a ridiculous appearance." — lb., Vol. i, p. 303. 

" The making of poetry, like any other handicraft, may be learned by industry." 
— Macphersorfs Preface to Ossian, p. xlv. 

" Whatever is found more strange or beautiful than was expected, is judged to be 
more strange or beautiful than it is in reality." — Karnes, El. of Grit., Vol. i, p. 243. 

" Thus the body of an animal, and of a plant, are composed of certain great ves- 
sels ; these [,] of smaller ; and these again [,] of still smaller, without end, as far 
as we can discover." — Id., ib., p. 270. 

" This cause of beauty, is too extensive to be handled as a branch of any other 
subject : for to ascertain with accuracy even the proper meauing of words, not to talk of 
their figurative power, would require a large volume ; an useful work indeed, but not to 
be attempted without a large stock of time, study, and reflection." — Id., Vol. ii, p. 16. 

" O the hourly dangers that we here walk in ! Every sense, and member, is a 
snare ; every creature, and every duty, is a snare to us." — Baxter, Saints 1 Rest. 

" For a man to give his opinion of what he sees but in part, is an unjustifiable 
piece of rashness and folly." — Addison. 

" That the sentiments thus prevalent among the early Jews respecting the divine 
authority of the Old Testament were correct, appears from the testimony of Jesus 
Christ and his apostles." — Gurnefs Essays, p. 69. 

" So in Society we are not our own, but Christ's, and the church's, to good works 
and services, yet all in love." — Barclay 's Works, Vol. i, p. 84. 

" He [Dr. Johnson] sat up in his bed, clapped his hands, and cried, ' O brave 
we /' — a peculiar exclamation of his when he rejoices." — BoswelVs Life of Johnson, 
Vol. iii, p. 56. 

" Single, double, and treble emphasis are nothing but examples of antithesis." — 
Knowles's Elocutionist, p. xxviii. 

"The curious thing, and, what, I would almost say, settles the point, is, that we do 
Horace no service, even according to our view of the matter, by rejecting the 
scholiast's explanation. No two eggs can be more like each other than Horace's 
Malthinus and Seneca's Mecenas? — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 477. 

"Acting, conduct, behaviour, abstracted from all regard to what is, in fact and 
event, the consequence of it, is itself the natural object of this moral discernment, 
as speculative truth and [say or] falsehood is of speculative reason." — Butler's 
Analogy, p. 277. 

" To do what is right, with unperverted faculties, is ten times easier than to undo 
what is wrong." — Porter's Analysis, p. 37. 



CHAP. XI.] SYNTAX. — PARSING. — PRAXIS XIII. — PROSE. 701 

"Some natures the more pains a man takes to reclaim them, the worse they are." 
— L'Estrange : Johnson's Diet., w. Pains. 

" Says John Milton, in that impassioned speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed 
Printing, where every word leaps with intellectual life, ' Who kills a man, kills a 
reasonable creature, God's image ; but who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, 
kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden upon 
the earth ; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed 
and treasured up on purpose for a life beyond life ! ' " — Louisville Examiner, June, 
1850. 

Lesson III. — Prose. 

" The philosopher, the saint, or the hero — the wise, the good, or the great man — 
very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have 
disinterred and brought to light." — Addison. 

" The year before, he had so used the matter, that what by force, what by policy, 
he had taken from the Christians above thirty small castles." — Knolles. 

" It is an important truth, ihat religion, vital religion, the religion of the heart, is 
the most powerful auxiliary of reason, in waging war with the passions, and promoting 
that sweet composure which constitutes the peace of God." — Murray's Key, p. 181. 

" Pray, sir, be pleased to take the part of us beauties and fortunes into your con- 
sideration, and do not let us be flattered out of our senses. Tell people that we fair 
ones expect honest plain answers, as well as other folks." — Spectator, No. 534. 

" Unhappy it would be for us, did not uniformity prevail in morals : that our 
actions should uniformly be directed to what is good and against what is ill, is the 
greatest blessing in society ; and in order to uniformity of action, uniformity of senti- 
ment is indispensable." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 366. 

"Thus the pleasure of all the senses is the same in all, high and low, learned and 
unlearned" — Burke, on Taste, p. 39. 

" Upwards of eight millions of acres have, I believe, been thus disposed of." — 
Society in America, Vol. i, p. 333. 

" The Latin Grammar comes something nearer, but yet does not hit the mark 
neither ." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 281. 

" Of the like nature is the following inaccmacy of Dean Swiff s." — Blair'' s Rhet., 
p. 105. "Thus, Sir, I have given you my own opinion, relating to this weighty 
affair, as well as that of a great majority of both houses here." — lb. 

" A foot is just twelve times as long as an inch ; and an hour is sixty times the 
length of a minute." — Murray's Gram., p. 48. 

" What can we expect, who come a gleaning, not after the first reapers, but after 
the very beggars?" — Cowley's Pref. to Poems, p. x. 

" In our Lord's being betrayed into the hands of the chief-priests and scribes, by 
Judas Iscariot ; in his being by them delivered to the Gentiles ; in his being mocked, 
scourged, spitted on, [say spit upon,] and crucified ; and in his rising from the dead 
after three days ; there was much that was singular, complicated, and not to be 
easily calculated on before hand." — Gurnefs Essays, p. 40. 

" To be morose, implacable, inexorable, and revengeful, is one of th'e greatest 
degeneracies of human nature." — Dr. J. Owen. 

" Now, says he, if tragedy, which is in its nature grand and lofty, will not admit 
of this, who can forbear laughing to hear the historian Gorgias Leontinus styling 
Xerxes, that cowardly Persian king, Jupiter ; and vultures, living sepulchres V — 
Holmes's Rhetoric, Part II, p. 14. 

" O let thy all-seeing eye, and not the eye of the world, be the star to steer my 
course by ; and let thy blessed favour, more than the liking of any sinful men, be 
ever my study and delight." — Jenks's Prayers, p. 156. 

Lesson IV. — Prose. 
" O the Hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof m time of trouble, why shouldest thou 
be as a stranger in the land, and as a way-faring man, that turneth aside to tarry for 
a night ? " — Jeremiah, xiv, 8. 



702 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

" When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark 
was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved." — 1 Peter, iii, 20. 

" Mercy and truth are met together ; righteousness and peace have kissed each 
other." — Psalms, lxxxv, 10. 

" But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of 
men." — Matt., xv, 9. 

" Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon the earth, that the 
triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?" 
— Job, xx, 4, 5. 

" For now we see through a glass darkly ; but then, face to face : now I know in 
part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." — 1 Cor., xiii, 12. 

" For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem : and Jeremiah the 
Prophet was shut up in the court of the prison which was in the king of JudaNs 
house." — Jer., xxxii, 2. 

" For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison, for 
Herodias* sake, his brother Philip's wife." — Matt., xiv, 3. 

" And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my 
father's, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan." — 2 Chron., ii, 13. 

" Bring no more vain oblations : incense is an abomination unto me ; the new 
moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with : it is iniquity 
even the solemn meeting." — Isaiah, i, 13. 

"Fori have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that 
spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now ! for my soul is wearied because of mur- 
derers." — Jer., iv, 31. 

" She saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed 
with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon 
their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of 
Chaldea, the land of their nativity." — Ezekiel, xxiii, 15. 

"And on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with you 
in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly." — Deut., ix, 10. 

" And he charged them that they should tell no man : but the more he charged 
them, so much the more a great deal they published it." — Mark, vii, 36. 

" The results which God has connected with actions, will inevitably occur, all the 
created power in the universe to the contrary notwithstanding" — Wayland's Moral 
Science, p. 5. 

" Am / not an apostle ? am / not free ? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? 
are not ye my work in the Lord ? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless 
I am to you ; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord." — 1 Cor., ix, 1, 2. 

" Not to insist upon this, it is evident, that formality is a term of general import. 
It implies, that in religious exercises of all kinds the outward and [the] inward man 
are at diametrical variance." — Chapman's Sermons to Presbyterians, p. 354. 

Lesson V. — Verse. 

" See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow, 

Which who but feels, can taste, but thinks, can know ; 

Yet, poor with fortune, and with learning blind, 

The bad must miss, the good, untaught, will find." — Pope. 
" There are, who, deaf to mad Ambition's call, 

Would shrink to hear th' obstrep'rous trump of fame ; 

Supremely blest, if to their portion fall 

Health, competence, and peace." — Beattie. 
" High stations tumult, but not bliss, create ; 

None think the great unhappy, but the great. 

Fools gaze and envy : envy darts a sting, 

Which makes a swain as wretched as a king." — Young. 
" Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies ! 

Sink down, ye mountains ; and, ye valleys, rise ; 



CHAP. XI.] SYNTAX. — PARSING. — PRAXIS XIII. — VERSE. 703 

With heads declin'd,2/e cedars, homage pay ; 

Be smooth, ye rocks ; ye rapid floods, give way." — Pope, 
" Amid the forms which this full world presents 

Like rivals to his choice, what human breast 

E'er doubts, before the transient and minute, 

To prize the vast, the stable, and sublime ?" — Akenside. 
" Now fears in dire vicissitude invade ; 

The rustling brake alarms, and quiv'ring shade : 

Nor light nor darkness brings his pain relief; 

One shows the plunder, and one hides the thief." — Johnson, 
" If Merab's choice could have complied with mine, 

Merab, my elder comfort, had been thine : 

And hers, at last, should have with mine complied, 

Had I not thine and Michael's heart descried." — Cowley. 
" The people have as much a negative voice 

To hinder making war without their choice, 

As kings of making laws in parliament : 

' No money'' is as good as ' JVb assent. 1 " — Butler. 
" Full many a gem of purest ray serene 

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear ; 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 

And waste its sweetness on the desert air." — Gray. 
" Oh fool ! to think God hates the worthy mind, 

The lover and the love of human kind, 

Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, 

Because he wants a thousand pounds a year." — Pope. 
" O Freedom ! sovereign boon of Heav'n, 

Great charter, with our being given ; 

For which the patriot and the sage 

Have plann'd, have bled thro' ev'ry age !" — Mallet. 

Lesson VI. — Verse. 

" Am I to set my life upon a throw, 

Because a bear is rude and surly? JVo." — Cowper. 
" Poor, guiltless J ! and can I choose but smile, 

When every coxcomb knows me by my style ?" — Pope. 
" Remote from man, with God he pass'd his days, 

Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praised — Parnell. 
" These are thy blessings, Industry ! rough power ; 

Whom labour still attends, and sweat, and pain" — Thomson. 
" What ho ! thou genius of the clime, what ho ! 

Liest thou asleep beneath these hills of snow ?" — Dryden. 
" What ! canst thou not forbear me half an hour ? 

Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself." — Shak. 
" Then palaces and lofty domes arose ; 

These for devotion, and for pleasure those." — Blackmore. 
" 'Tis very dangerous, tampering with a muse ; 

The profit's small, and you have much to lose." — Roscommon. 
" Lucretius Englished ! 't was a work might shake 

The power of English verse to undertake." — Otway. 
" The best may slip, and the most cautious fall ; 

He's more than mortal, that ne'er err'd at all." — Pomfret. 
" Poets large souls heaven's noblest stamps do bear, 

Poets, the watchful angels' darling care." — Stepney. 
" Sorrow breaks reasons, and reposing hours ; 

Makes the night morning, and the noon-tide night" — -Shak. 
" Nor then the solemn nightingale ceased warbling" — Milton. 



704 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

" And 0, poor hapless nightingale, thought I, 

How sweet thou singst, how near the deadly snare /" — Id. 
" He calls for Famine, and the meagre fiend 

Blows mildew from between his shrivell'd lips." — Cowper. 
" If o'er their lives a refluent glance they cast, 

Theirs is the present who can praise the past? — Shenstone. 
" Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, 

Is but the more a fool, the more a knave." — Pope. 
" Great eldest-born of Dullness, blind and bold ! 

Tyrant ! more cruel than Procrustes old ; 

Who, to his iron bed, by torture, fits, 

Their nobler part, the souls of suffering wits." — Mallei. 
" Parthenia, rise. — What voice alarms my ear ? 

Away. Approach not. Hah ! Alexis there !" — Gay. 
" Nor is it harsh to make, nor hard to find 

A country ivith — ay, or without mankind." — Byron. 
" A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, 

JVb dangers fright him, and no labours tire." — Johnson. 
" Now pall the tasteless meats, and joyless wines, 

And luxury with sighs her slave resigns." — Id. 
" Seems? madam; nay, it is : I know not seems — 

For I have that within which passes show." — Hamlet. 
" Return ? said Hector, fir'd with stern disdain : 

What ! coop whole armies in our walls again ?" — Pope. 
" He whom the fortune of the field shall cast 

From forth his chariot, mount the next in haste." — Id. 
" Yet here, Laertes ? aboard, aboard, for shame !" — Shale. 
" Justice, most gracious Duke ; grant me justice !" — Id. 
" But what a vengeance makes thee fly 

From me too, as thine enemy ?" — Butler. 
" Immortal Peter ! first 'of monarchs ! He 

His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens, 

Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons."— Thomson. 
" arrogance ! Thou liest, thou thread, thou tbimble, 

Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail, 

Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket, thou : — 

Brav'd in mine own house with a skein of thread ! 

Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant ; 

Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard, 

As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st." 

Shak. : Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Sc. 3. 



CHAPTER XII.— GENERAL REVIEW. 

This twelfth chapter of Syntax is devoted to a series of lessons, meth- 
odically digested, wherein are reviewed and reapplied, mostly in the order 
of the parts of speech, all those syntactical principles heretofore given 
which are useful for the correction of errors. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX FOR A GENERAL REVIEW". 

VW [The following examples of false syntax are arranged for a General Review of the doctrines contained in 
the preceding Rules and Notes. Being nearly all of them exact quotations, they are also a sort of syllabus of 
verbal criticism on the various works from which they are taken. What corrections they are supposed to need, 
may be seen by inspection of the twelfth chapter of the Key. It is here expected, that by recurring to the in- 
structions before given, the learner who takes them as an oral exercise, will ascertain for himself the proper 



CHAP. XII.] SYNTAX. — A GENERAL REVIEW. — ERRORS. 705 

form of correcting each example, according to the particular Rule or Note under which it belongs. "When two 
or more errors occur in the same example, they ought to be corrected successively, in their order. The erro- 
neous sentence being read aloud as it stands, the pupil should say, '■'■First, Not proper, because," &c. And when 
the first error has thus been duly corrected by a brief and regular syllogism, either the same pupil or an other 
should immediately proceed, and say, " Secondly, Not proper again, because," &c. And 60 of the third error, 
and the fourth, if there be so many. In this manner, a class may be taught to speak in succession without any 
loss of time, and, after some practice, with a near approach to that perfect accuracy which is the great end 
of grammatical instruction. When time cannot be allowed for this regular exercise, these examples may still 
be profitably rehearsed by a more rapid process, one pupil reading aloud the quoted false grammar, and an 
other responding to each example, by reading the intended correction from the Key.] 

LESSON L— ARTICLES. 

"And they took stones, and made an heap." — Com. Bibles ; Gen., xxxi, 46. "And I do know 
a many fools, that stand in better place." — Beauties of Shak., p. 44. "It is a strong antidote to 
the turbulence of passion, and violence of pursuit." — Karnes, El. of CriL, Vol. i, p. xxiii. "The 
-word news may admit of either a singular or plural application." — Wrights Gram., p. 39. " He has 
gained a fair and a honorable reputation." — lb., p. 140. "There are two general forms, called 
the solemn and familiar style." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 109. "Neither the article nor preposition 
can be omitted." — Wright's Gram,., p. 190. " A close union is also observable between the Sub- 
junctive and Potential Moods." — lb., p. 72. "We should render service, equally, to a friend, 
neighbour, and an enemy." — lb., p. 140. " Till an habit is obtained of aspirating strongly." — 
Sheridan's Elocution, p. 49. " There is an uniform, steady use of the same signs." — lb., p. 163. 
" A traveller remarks the most objects he sees." — Jamieson's BheL, p. 72. "What is the name 
of the river on which London stands? The Thames." — "We sometimes find the last line of a 
couplet or triplet stretched out to twelve syllables." — Adam's Lot. and Eng. Gram., p. 282. 
"Nouns which follow active verbs, are not in the nominative case." — Blair's Gram., p. 14. " It 
is a solemn duty to speak plainly of wrongs, which good men perpetrate." — Channing's Emancip., 
p. 71. "Gathering of riches is a pleasant torment." — Treasury of Knowledge, Diet., p. 446. " It 
[the lamentation of Helen for Hector] is worth the being quoted." — Coleridge's Introd., p. 100. 
" Council is a noun which admits of a singular and plural lbrm." — Wrights Gram., p. 137. "To 
exhibit the connexion between the Old and the New Testaments." — Keith's Evidences, p. 25. 
"An apostrophe discovers the omission of a letter or letters." — Guy's Gram., p. 95. "He is 
immediately ordained, or rather acknowledged an hero." — Bope, Preface to the Bunciad. "Which 
is the same in both the leading and following State." — Brighiland's Gram., p. 86. "Pronouns, 
as will be seen hereafter, have a distinct nominative, possessive, and objective case." — Blair's 
Gram., p. 15. "A word of many syllables is called polysyllable." — Beck's Outline of E. Gram., 
p. 2. " Nouns have two numbers, singular and plural." — lb., p. 6. "They have three genders, 
masculine, feminine, and neuter." — lb., p. 6. "They have three cases, nominative, possessive, 
and objective." — lb., p. 6. " Personal Pronouns have, like Nouns, two numbers, singular and 
plural. Three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Two cases, nominative and objective." 
— Po., p. 10. " He must be wise enough to know the singular from plural." — lb., p. 20. " Though 
they may be able to meet the every reproach which any one of their fellows may prefer." — 
Chalmers, Sermons, p. 104. " Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as 
Paul the aged." — Ep. to Philemon, 9. "Being such one as Paul the aged." — Dr. Webster's Bible. 
"A people that jeoparded their lives unto the death." — Judges, v, 18. "By preventing the too 
great accumulation of seed within a too narrow compass." — The Friend, Vol. vii, p. 97. "Who 
fills up the middle space between the animal and intellectual nature, the visible and invisible 
world."- — Addison, Sped., No. 519. "The Psalms abound with instances of an harmonious 
arrangement of the words." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 339. " On another table were an ewer 
and vase, likewise of gold." — N. Y. Mirror, xi, 307. " Th is said to have two sounds sharp, and 
flat." — Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 33. "Section (£) is used in subdividing of a chapter into 
lesser parts." — Brightland's Gram., p. 152. "Try it in -a Dog or an Horse or any other Crea- 
ture." — Bocke, on Ed., p. 46. "But particularly in learning of Languages there is least occasion 
for poseing of Children." — lb., p. 296. "What kind of a noun is river, and why?" — Smith's New 
Gram., p. 10. "Is William's a proper or common noun?" — lb., p. 12. "What kind of an arti- 
cle, then, shall we call the ?" — lb., p. 13. 

" Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write, 
Or with a rival's or an eunuch's spite." — Pope, on CriL, 1. 30. 

LESSON II.— NOUNS, OR CASES. 

"And there is stamped upon their Imaginations Idea's that follow them with Terror and 
Affrightment." — Bocke, on Ed., p. 251. "There's not a wretch that lives on common charity, 
but's happier than me." — Venice Preserved: Karnes, El. of CriL, i, 63. "But they overwhelm 
whomsoever is ignorant of them." — Common School Journal, i, 115. "I have received a letter 
from my cousin, she that was here last week." — Inst., p. 129. " Gentlemens Houses are seldom 
without Variety of Company." — Bocke, on Ed., p. 107. "Because Fortune has laid them below 
the level of others, at their Masters feet." — lb., p. 221. "We blamed neither John nor Mary's 
delay." — Nixon's Parser, p. 117. "The book was written by Luther the reformer's order." — lb., 
p. 59. " I saw on the table of the saloon Blair's Sermons, and somebody else (I forget who's) 
sermons, and a set of noisy children." — Bord Byron's Betters. " Or saith he it altogether for our 
sakes?" — 1 Cor., ix, 10. "He was not aware of the duke's being his competitor." — Sanborn's 

45 



706 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Gram., p. 190. "It is no condition of a word's being an adjective, that it must be placed before 
a noun." — Fowle: ib., p. 190. "Though their Reason corrected the wrong Idea's they had 
taken in." — Locke, on Ed., p. 251. "It was him, who taught me to hate slavery." — Morris, in 
Congress, 1839. "It is him and his kindred, who live upon the labour of others." — Id., ib. 
" Payment of Tribute is an Acknowledgment of his being King to whom we think it Due." — 
Eight of Tythes, p. 161. "When we comprehend what we are taught." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 14. 
" The following words, and parts of words, must be taken notice of." — Priestley's Gram., p. 96. 
"Hence tears and commiseration are so often made use of." — Blair's Rhet., p. 269. "John-a- 
Nokes, n. s. A fictitious name, made use of in law proceedings." — Chalmers, Eng. Diet. "The 
construction of Matter, and Part taken hold of." — B. F. Fisk's Greek Gram., p. x. " And such 
other names, as carry with them the Idea's of some thing terrible and hurtful." — Locke, on Ed., 
p. 250. " Every learner then would surely be glad to be spared the trouble and fatigue" — Pike's 
Hebrew Lexicon, p. iv. " 'Tis not the owning ones Dissent from another, that I speak against." — 
Locke, on Ed., p. 265. "A man that cannot Fence will be more careful to keep out of Bullies 
and Gamesters Company, and will not be half so apt to stand upon Punctilio's." — lb., p. 357. 
" From such Persons it is, one may learn more in one Day, than in a Years rambling from one 
Inn to another." — lb., p. 377. "A long syllable is generally considered to be twice the length 
of a short one." — Blair's Gram., p. 117. "/ is of the first person, and singular number; Tliou is 
second per. sing. ; He, She, or It, is third per. sing. ; We is first per. plural ; Ye or You is second 
per. plural ; They is third per. plural." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 46. " This actor, doer, or producer 
of the action, is the nominative." — lb., p. 43. " No Body can think a Boy of Three or Seven 
Years old, should be argued with, as a grown Man." — Locke, on Ed., p. 129. " This was in one 
of the Pharisees' houses, not, in Simon the leper's." — Hammond. "Impossible! it can't be me." 
— Swift. "Whose grey top shall tremble, Him descending." — Dr. Bentley. "What gender is 
woman, and why?" — Smith's New Gram., p. 8. "What gender, then, is man, and why?" — Ibid. 
"Who is /; who do you mean when you say If — R. W. Green's Gram., p. 19. "It [Parnas- 
sus] is a pleasant air, but a barren soil." — Locke, on Ed., p. 311. "You may, in three days time, 
go from Galilee to Jerusalem." — Jos&phus, Yol. 5, p. 174. "And that which is left of the meat- 
offering shall be Aaron's and his sons." — Scott's Bible, and Bruce's: Lev., ii, 10. See also ii, 3. 

"For none in all the world, without a lie, 
Can say that this is mine, excepting I." — Bunyan. 

LESSON III.— ADJECTIVES. 

" When he can be their Remembrancer and Advocate every Assises and Sessions." — Right of 
Tythes, p. 244. " Doing, denotes all manner of action ; as, to dance, to play, to write, to read, to 
teach, to fight, &c." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 33. "Seven foot long," — "eight foot long," — "fifty 
foot long." — Walker's Particles, p. 205. "Nearly the whole of this twenty-five millions of dol- 
lars is a dead loss to the nation." — Fowler, on Tobacco, p. 16 "Two negatives destroy one 
another." — R. W. Green's Gram., p. 92. " We are warned against excusing sin in ourselves, or 
in each other." — The Friend, iv, 108. " The Russian empire is more extensive than any govern- 
ment in the world." — School Geog. " You will always have the Satisfaction to think it the Money 
of all other the best laid out." — Locke, on Ed., p. 145. " There is no one passion which all man- 
kind so naturally give into as pride." — Steele, Sped., No. 462. " 0, throw away the worser part 
of it." — Beauties of Shah, p. 237. "He showed us a more agreeable and easier way." — Inst., p. 
134. "And the four last [are] to point out those further improvements." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 
52; Campbell's, 187. "Where he has not distinct and different clear Idea's." — Locke, on Ed., 
p. 353. " Oh, when shall we have such another Rector of Laracor!" — Hazlitt's Lect. "Speech 
must have been absolutely necessary previous to the formation of society." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 2. 
" Go and tell them boys to be still." — Inst., p. 135. " Wrongs are engraved on marble ; benefits, 
on sand : these are apt to be requited ; those, forgot." — B. " Neither of these several interpre- 
tations is the true one." — B. " My friend indulged himself in some freaks unbefitting the gravity 
of a clergyman." — B. "And their Pardon is All that either of their Impropriators will have to 
plead." — Right of Tythes, p. 196. "But the time usually chosen to send young Men abroad, is, I 
think, of all other, that which renders them least capable of reaping those Advantages." — Locke, 
on Ed., p. 372. " It is a mere figment of the human imagination, a rhapsody of the transcendent 
unintelligible." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 120. "It contains a greater assemblage of sublime ideas, 
of bold and daring figures, than is perhaps any where to be met with." — Blair's Rhet, p. 162. 
"The order in which the two last words are placed, should have been reversed." — lb., p. 204. 
" The orders in which the two last words are placed, should have been reversed." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 310. "In Demosthenes, eloquence shown forth with higher splendour, than per- 
haps in any that ever bore the name of an orator." — Blair's Rhet., p. 242. " The circumstance of 
his being poor is decidedly favorable." — Student's Manual, p. 286. " The temptations to dissipation 
are greatly lessened by his being poor." — lb., p. 287. "For with her death that tidings came." 
— Beauties of Shale, p. 257. "The next objection is, that these sort of authors are poor." — 
Cldand. "Presenting Emma as Miss Castlemain to these acquaintance." — Opie's Temper. "I 
doubt not but it will please more than the opera." — Sped., No. 28. " The world knows only 
two, that's Rome and I." — Ben Jonson. "I distinguish these two things from one another." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 29. " And in this case, mankind reciprocally claim, and allow indulgence to each 
other." — Sheridan's Zed., p. 29. " The sixlast books are said not to have received the finishing hand 



CHAP. XII.] SYNTAX. — A GENERAL REVIEW. — ERRORS. 707 

of the author." — Blair's Rhet, p. 438. " The best executed part of the work, is the first six 
books."— lb., p. 447. 

" To reason how can we be said to rise ? 
So many cares attend the being wise." — Sheffield. 

LESSON IV.— PRONOUNS. 

"Once upon a time a goose fed its young by a pond side." — Goldsmith' 's Essays, p. 1*75. "If 
either [work] have a sufficient degree of merit to recommend them to the attention of the public." 
— Walker's Rhyming Bid., p. iii. " Now W. Mitchell his deceit is very remarkable." — Barclay's 
Works, i, 264. "My brother, I did not put the question to thee, for that I doubted of the truth 
of your belief." — Bunyan's P. P., p. 158. " I had two elder brothers, one of which was a 
lieutenant- colonel." — Robinson Crusoe, p. 2. "Though James is here the object of the action, yet, 
he is in the nominative case." — Wright's Gram., p. 64. " Here, John is the actor; and is known 
to be the nominative, by its answering to the question, ' "Who struck Richard ?' " — lb., p. 43. 
" One of the most distinguished privileges which Providence has conferred on mankind, is the 
power of communicating their thoughts to one another." — Blair's Rhet, p. 9. " With some of 
the most refined feelings which belong to our frame." — lb., p. 13. "And the same instructions 
which assist others in composing, will assist them in judging of, and relishing, the beauties of 
composition." — lb., p. 12. "To overthrow all which had been yielded in favour of the army.'' — 
Mrs. Macaulay's Hist, i, 335. "Let your faith stand in the Lord God who changes not, and that 
created all, and gives the increase of all." — Friends' Advices, 1676. " For it is, in truth, the senti- 
ment or passion, which lies under the figured expression, that gives it any merit." — Bloir's Rhet., 
p. 133. " Verbs are words which affirm the being, doing, or suffering of a thing, together with 
the time it happens." — Al. Murray's Gram., p. 29. "The Byass wiU always hang on that side, 
that nature first placed it." — Locke, on Ed., p. 177. "They should be brought to do the things 
are fit for them." — Po., p. 178. "Various sources whence the English language is derived." — 
Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. 286. "This attention to the several cases, when it is proper to omit 
and when to redouble the copulative, is of considerable importance." — Blair's Rhet, p. 113. 
" Cicero, for instance, speaking of the cases where killing another is lawful in self defence, uses 
the following words." — lb., p. 156. "But there is no nation, hardly any person so phlegmatic, as 
not to accompany their words with some actions and gesticulations, on all occasions, when they 
are much in earnest." — lb., p. 335. " William's is said to be governed by coat, because it follows 
William's." — Smith's New Gram., p. 12. "There are many occasions in life, in which silence 
and simplicity are true wisdom." — Murray's Key, ii, 197. "In choosing umpires, the avarice of 
whom is excited." — Nixon's Parser, p 153. "The boroughs sent representatives, which had been 
enacted." — lb., p. 154. "No man believes but what there is some order in the universe." — Anon. 
" The moon is orderly in her changes, which she could not be by accidem." — Id. " Of Sphynx 
her riddles, they are generally two kinds." — Bacon's Wisdom, p. 73. "They must generally find 
either their Friends or Enemies in Power." — Broivn's Estimate, Vol. ii, p. 166. "For of old, 
every one took upon them to write what happened in their own time." — Josephus's Jtivish War, 
Pre/., p. 4. " The Almighty cut off the family of Eli the high priest, for its transgressions." — 
See Key. "The convention then resolved themselves into a committee of the whole." — Inst. p. 
146. "The severity with which this denomination was treated, appeared rather to invite than to 
deter them from flocking to the colony." — H. Adams's View, p. 71. " Many Christians abuse the 
Scriptures and the traditions of the apostles, to uphold things quite contrary to it." — Barclay's 
Works, i, 461. "Thus, a circle, a square, a triangle, or a hexagon, please the eye, by their regu- 
larity, as beautiful figures." — Blair's Rhet, p. 46. "Elba is remakable for its being the place to 
wmich Bonaparte was banished in 1814." — See Sanborn's Gram., p. 190. ".The editor has the 
reputation of his being a good linguist and critic." — See ib. " 'Tis a Pride should be cherished in 
them." — Locke, on Ed., p. 129. "And to restore us the Hopes of Fruits, to reward our Pains in 
its season." — lb., p. 136. " The comick representation of Death's victim relating its own tale." — 
Wright's Gram., p. 103. " As for Scioppius his Grammar, that doth wholly concern the Latin 
Tongue."— Dr. Wilkins: Tooke's D. P., i, 7. 

"And chiefly thee, Spirit, who dost prefer 
Before all temples the upright heart and pure, 
Instruct me, for thou knowest." — Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 45. 

LESSON V.— VERBS. 
" And there was in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field." — Scott's Bible : Luke, 
ii, 8. "Whereof every one bear twins." — Com. Bible: Sol, Sung, iv, 2. "Whereof every one 
bare twins." — Alger's Bible: ib. " Whereof every one beareth twins." — Scott's Bible: ib. 
" He strikes out of his nature one of the most divine principles, that is planted in it." — Addison, 
Sped,, No. 181. " Genii, denote aerial spirits." — 'Wright's Gram., p. 40. "In proportion as the 
long and large prevalence of such corruptions have been obtained by force." — Bp. Halifax : 
Butler's Analogy, p. xvi. " Neither of these are fix'd to a Word of a general Signification, or 
proper Name." — Brightland's Gram., p. 95. " Of which a few of the opening lines is all I shall 
give." — Moore's Life of Byron. " The riches we had in England was the slow result of long in- 
dustry and wisdom." — Davenant: Webster's Imp. Gram., p. 21 ; Phil. Gram,., 29. "The fol- 
lowing expression appears to be correct: — 'Much publick thanks is due.' " — Wright's Gram., p. 



708 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

201. " He hath heen enabled to correct many mistakes." — Lowth's Gram., p. x. ""Which road 
takest thou here?" — lngersolVs Gram., p. 106. "Learnest thou thy lesson?" — Po., p. 105. 
" Learned they their pieces perfectly ?" — Ibid. " Thou learnedst thy task well." — Ibid. " There 
are some can't relish the town, and others can't away with the country." — Way of the World : 
Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 304. " If thou meetest them, thou must put on an intrepid mien." — Neef's 
Method of Ed., p. 201. " Struck with terror, as if Philip was something more than human." — 
Blair 's Bhet, p. 265. "If the personification of the form of Satan was admissible, it should cer- 
tainly have been masculine." — Jamie-son's Bhet, p. 176. "If only one follow, there seems to be 
a defect in the sentence." — Priestley 's Gram, p. 104. " Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell 
me where thou hast laid him." — John, xx, 15. "Blessed be the people that know the joyful 
sound." — Psalms, lxxxix, 15. " Every auditory take in good part those marks of respect and 
awe, which are paid them by one who addresses them." — Blair's Bhet, p. 308. " Private causes 
were still pleaded [in the forum] ; but the public was no longer interested ; nor any general at- 
tention drawn to what passed there." — lb., p. 249. "Nay, what evidence can be brought to 
show, that the Inflection of the Classic tongues were not originally formed out of obsolete aux- 
iliary words?" — Murray's Gram., i, p. 112. "If the student reflects, that the principal and the 
auxiliary forms but one verb, he will have little or no difficulty, in the proper application of the 
present rule." — lb., p. 183. " For the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side." — Jeremiah, 
vi, 26. " Even the Stoics agree that nature and certainty is very hard to come at." — Collier's 
Antoninus, p. 71. " His politeness and obliging behaviour was changed." — Priestley's Gram., p. 
186. " His politeness and obliging behaviour were changed." — Hume's Hist., Vol. vi, p. 14. 
" War and its honours was their employment and ambition." — Goldsmith. " Does a and an mean 
the same thing?" — B. W. Green's Gram., p. 15. " When a number of words come in between 
the discordant parts, the ear does not detect the error." — Oobbett's Gram., ^ 185. "The sen- 
tance should be, 'When a number of words comes in,' &c." — Wright's Gram., p. 170. "The 
nature of our language, the accent and pronunciation of it, inclines us to contract even all our 
regular verbs." — Lowth's Gram., p. 45. "The nature of our language, together with the accent 
and pronunciation of it, incline us to contract even all our Regular Verbs." — Hiley's Gram., p. 
45. "Prompt aid, and not promises, are what we ought to give." — Author. "The position of 
the several organs therefore, as well as their functions are ascertained." — Medical Magazine, 1833, 
p. 5. " Every private company, and almost every public assembly, afford opportunities of re- 
marking the difference batween ajust and graceful, and a faulty and unnatural elocution." — En~ 
field's Speaker, p. 9. "Such submission, together with the active principle of obedience, make 
up the temper and character in us which answers to his sovereignty." — Butler's Analogy, p. 126. 
"In happiness, as in other things, there is a false and a true, an imaginary and a real." — Fuller, 
on the Gospel, p. 134. "To confound things that differ, and to make a distinction where there is 
no difference, is equally unphilosophical." — Author. 

" I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, 
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows." — Beaut, of Shak., p. 51. 

LESSON VI.— VERBS. 
" Whose business or profession prevent their attendance in the morning." — Ogilby. " Ana no 
church or officer have power over one another." — Lechford: in Hutchinson 1 s Hist, i, 373. 
" While neither reason nor experience are sufficiently matured to protect them." — Wbodbridge. 
" Among the Greeks and Romans, every syllable, or the far greatest number at least, was known 
to have a fixed and determined quantity." — Blair's Bhet., p. 383. " Among the Greeks and 
Romans, every syllable, or at least by far the greatest number of syllables, was known to have a 
fixed and datermined quantity." — Jamieson's Bhet.,]). 303. "Their vanity is awakened and 
their passions exalted by the irritation, which their self-love receives from contradiction." — In- 
fluence of Literature, Vol. ii, p. 218. "I and he was neither of us any great swimmer." — Anon. 
" Virtue, honour, nay, even self-interest, conspire to recommend the measure." — Murray's Gram., 
Vol. i, p. 150. " A correct plainness, and elegant simplicity, is the proper character of an intro- 
duction." — Blair's Bhet, p. 308. " In syntax there is what grammarians call concord or agree- 
ment, and government." — Infant School Gram., p. 128. "People find themselves able with- 
out much study to write and speak the English intelligibly, and thus have been led to think 
rules of no utility." — Webster's Essays, p. 6. "But the writer must be one who has studied 
to inform himself well, who has pondered his subject with care, and addresses himself to our judg- 
ment, rather than to our imagination." — Blair's Bhet, p. 353. "But practice hath determined it 
otherwise ; and has, in all the languages with which we are much acquainted, supplied the place 
of an interrogative mode, either by particles of interrogation, or by a peculiar order of the words 
in the sentence." — Lowth's Gram., p. 84. " If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him 
accept an offering." — 1 Sam., xxvi, 19. "But if the priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, 
and have no child, and is returned unto her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her 
father's meat." — Levit, xxii, 13. "Since we never have, nor ever shall study your sublime pro- 
ductions." — Neefs Sketch, p. 62. " Enabling us to form more distinct images of objects, than can 
be done with the utmost attention where these particulars are not found." — Karnes, El. of Grit, 
Vol. i, p. 174. "I hope you will consider what is spoke comes from my love." — Shak., Othello. 
" We will then perceive how the designs of emphasis may be marred." — Bush, on the Voice, p. 
406. " I knew it was Crab, and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs." — Shak: Joh. Diet, 
w. Alb. " The youth was being consumed by a slow malady." — Wright's Gram., p. 192. "If 



CHAP. XII.] SYNTAX. — A GENERAL REVIEW. — ERRORS. 709 

all men thought, spoke, and wrote alike, something resembling a perfect adjustment of these 
points may be accomplished." — lb., p. 240. "If you will replace what has been long since ex- 
punged from the language." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 167; Murray's Gram., i, 364. "As in all 
those faulty instances, I have now been giving." — Blair's Rhet, p. 149. " This mood has also 
been improperly used in the following places." — Murray's Gram., i, 184. "He [Milton] seems 
to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to know what it was that nature had be- 
stowed upon him." — Johnson's Life of Milton. " Of which I already gave one instance, the worst, 
indeed, that occurs in all the poem." — Blair's Rhet, p. 395. "It is strange he never commanded 
you to have done it." — Anon. " History painters would have found it difficult, to have invented 
such a species of beings." — Addison: see Lowth's Gram., p. 87. "Universal Grammar cannot 
be taught abstractedly, it must be done with reference to some language already known." — 
Lowth's Preface, p. viii. " And we might imagine, that if verbs had been so contrived, as simply 
to express these, no more was needful." — Blair's Rhet, p. 82. "To a writer of such a genius as 
Dean Swift, the plain style was most admirably fitted." — lb., p. 181. " Please excuse my son's 
absence." — Inst, p. 188. "Bid the boys to come in immediately." — lb. 

" Gives us the secrets of his Pagan hell, 
Where ghost with ghost in sad communion dwell." — Grabbers Bor., p. 306. 

"Alas! nor faith, nor valour now remain; 
Sighs are but wind, and I must bear my chain." — Walpole's Catal., p. 11. 

LESSON" VIL— PARTICIPLES. 
" Of which the Author considers himself, in compiling the present work, as merely laying of 
the foundation-stone." — Blair's Gram., p. ix. " On the raising such lively and distinct images as 
are here described." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 89. " They are necessary to the avoiding Ambigui- 
ties." — Brighiland's Gram., p. 95. " There is no neglecting it without falling into a dangerous 
error." — Burlamaqui, on Law, p. 41. " The contest resembles Don Quixote's lighting windmills." 
— Webster's Essays, p. 67. " That these verbs associate with verbs in all the tenses, is no proof 
of their having no particular time of their own." — Murray's Gram., i, 190. " To justify my not 
following the tract of the ancient rhetoricians." — Blair's Rhet, p. 122. "The putting letters to- 
gether, so as to make words, is called spelling." — Infant School Gram., p. 11. "What is the 
putting vowels and consonants together called?" — lb, p. 12. " Nobody knows of their being 
charitable but themselves." — Fuller, on the Gospel, p. 29. " Payment was at length made, but no 
reason assigned for its having been so long postponed." — Murray's Gram., i. 186 ; Kirkham's, 
194; Ingersoll's, 254. "Which will bear being brought into comparison with any composition of 
the kind." — Blair's Rhet, p. 396. "To render vice ridiculous, is doing real service to the world." 
— lb., p. 476. "It is copying directly from nature; giving a plain rehearsal of what passed, or 
was supposed to pass, in conversation." — lb., p. 433. " Propriety of pronunciation is giving to 
every word that sound, which the most polite usage of the language appropriates to it."- — Mur- 
ray's Key, 8vo, p. 200. "To occupy the mind, and prevent our regretting the insipidity of an 
uniform plain." — Karnes, El. of Crit, VoL ii, p. 329. " There are a hundred ways of any thing 
happening." — Steele. "Tell me, signor, what was the cause of Antonio's sending Claudio to 
Venice, yesterday." — Bucke's Gram., p. 90. " Looking about for an outlet, some rich prospect 
unexpectedly opens to view." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii. 334. " A hundred volumes of modern 
novels may be read, without acquiring a new idea." — Webster's Essays, p. 29. " Poetry admits 
of greater latitude than prose, with respect to coining, or, at least, new compounding words." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 93. "When laws were wrote on brazen tablets enforced by the sword." — Notes 
to the Dunciad. " A pronoun, which saves the naming a person or thing a second time, ought to 
be placed as near as possible to the name of that person or thing." — Karnes, El. of Crit , ii, 49. 
" The using a preposition in this case, is not always a matter of choice." — lb., ii, 37. " To save 
multiplying words, I would be understood to comprehend both circumstances." — lb., i, 219. 
" Immoderate grief is mute : complaining is struggling for consolation." — R)., i, 398. " On the 
other hand, the accelerating or retarding the natural course, excites a pain." — lb., i, 259. 
" Human affairs require the distributing our attention." — lb., i, 264. " By neglecting this cir- 
cumstance, the following example is defective in neatness." — lb., ii, 29. "And therefore the 
suppressing copulatives must animate a description." — lb., ii, 32. "If the laying aside copulatives 
give force and liveliness, a redundancy of them must render the period languid." — R)., ii, 33. "It 
skills not asking my leave, said Richard." — Scott's Crusaders. "To redeem his credit, he pro- 
posed being sent once more to Sparta." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 129. "Dumas relates his having 
given drink to a dog." — Dr. Stone, on the Stomach, p. 24. " Both are, in a like way, instruments 
of our receiving such ideas from external objects." — Butler's Analogy, p. 66. "In "order to your 
proper handling such a subject." — Spectator, No. 533. " For I do not recollect its being preceded 
by an open vowel." — Knight, on the Greek Alphabet, p. 56. " Such is setting up the form above 
the power of godliness." — Barclay's Works, i, 72. "I remember walking once with my young 
acquaintance." — Hunt's Byron, p. 27. " He [Lord Byron] did not like paying a debt." — lb., p. 
74. " I do not remember seeing Coleridge when I was a child." — lb., p. 318. " In consequence 
of the dry rots having been discovered, the mansion has undergone a thorough repair." — Maun- 
der' s Gram., p. 17. " I would not advise the following entirely the German system." — Dr. 
Lieber: Lit. Conv., p. 66. "Would it not be making the students judges of the professors?" — ■ 
Id., ib., p. 64. " Little time should intervene between their being proposed and decided upon." — 
Prof. Vethake: ib., p. 39. "It would be nothing less than finding fault with the Creator." — 



710 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

lb., p. 116. " Having once been friends is a powerful reason, both of prudence and conscience, 
to restrain us from ever becoming enemies." — Seeker. " By using the word as a conjunction, the 
ambiguity is prevented." — Murray's Gram., i, 216. 

" He forms his schemes the flood of vice to stem, 
But preaching Jesus is not one of them." — J. Taylor. 

LESSON VIII.— ADVERBS. 
"Auxiliaries cannot only be inserted, but are really understood." — Wright's Gram., p. 209. 
" He was since a hired Scribbler in the Daily Courant." — Notes to the Dunciad, ii, 299. " In gar- 
dening, luckily, relative beauty need never stand in opposition to intrinsic beauty." — Karnes, El. 
of Grit., ii, 330. " I doubt much of the propriety of the following examples." — Lowth's Gram., p. 
44. " And [we see] how far they have spread one of the worst Languages possibly in this part 
of the world." — Locke, on Ed., p 341. "And in this manner to merely place him on a level with 
the beast of the forest." — Smith's New Gram., p. 5. " Where, ah ! where, has my darling fled ?" 
• — Anon. " As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." — John, ix, 29. " Ye see then how 
that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." — James, ii, 24. " The Mixt kind is where 
the poet speaks in his own person, and sometimes makes other characters to speak." — Adam's Lat. 
Gram., p. 276; Gould's, 267. "Interrogation is, when the writer or orator raises questions and re- 
turns answers." — Eosher's Gram., p. 154. " Prevention is, when an author starts an objection which 
he foresees may be made, and gives an answer to it." — lb., p. 154. "Will you let me alone, or 
no ?" — Walker's Particles, p. 184. " Neither man nor woman cannot resist an engaging exterior." 
— Chesterfield, Let. lix. "Though the Cup be never so clean." — Locke, on Ed., p. 65. "Seldom, 
or ever, did any one rise to eminence, by being a witty lawyer." — Blair's Rhet., p. 272. " The 
second rule, which I give, respects the choice of subjects, from whence metaphors, and other 
figures, are to be drawn." — Blair's Rhet., p. 144. "In the figures which it uses, it sets mirrors 
before us, where we may behold objects, a second time, in their likeness." — lb., p. 139. " Whose 
Business is to seek the true measures of Right and Wrong, and not the Arts how to avoid doing 
the one, and secure himself in doing the other." — Locke, on Ed., p. 331. " The occasions when 
you ought to personify things, and when you ought not, cannot be stated in any precise rule." — 
Gobb&tt's Eng. Gram., ^[ 182. " They reflect that they have been much diverted, but scarce can 
say about what." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 151. "The eyebrows and shoulders should seldom or 
ever be remarked by any perceptible motion." — Adams's Rhet., ii, 389. " And the left hand or 
arm should seldom or never attempt any motion by itself." — lb., ii, 391. " Every speaker does 
not propose to please the imagination." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 104. "And like Gallio, they care 
little for none of these things." — The Friend, Vol. x, p. 351. " They may inadvertently be imi- 
tated, in casas where the meaning would be obscure." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 272. "Nor a 
man cannot make him laugh." — Shah. " The Athenians, in their present distress, scarce knew 
where to turn." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 156. " I do not remember where ever God delivered his 
oracles by the multitude." — Locke. " The object of this government is twofold, outwards and in- 
wards." — -Barclay's Works, i, 553. " In order to rightly understand what we read." — Johnson's 
Gram. Com., p. 313. " That a design had been formed, to forcibly abduct or kidnap Morgan." — 
Stone, on Masonry, p. 410. "But such imposture can never maintain its ground long." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 10. " But sure it is equally possible to apply the principles of reason and good sense to 
this art, as to any other that is cultivated among men." — Ibid. " It would have been better for 
you, to have remained illiterate, and to have been even hewers of wood." — Murray's Gram., i, 374. 
" Dissyllables that have two vowels, which are separated in the pronunciation, have always the 
accent on the first syllable." — lb., i, 238. " And they all turned their backs without almost draw- 
ing a sword." — Karnes, El. of Grit, i, 224. " The principle of duty takes naturally place of every 
other." — lb., i, 342. " All that glitters is not gold." — Maunder' s Gram., p. 13. "Whether now 
or never so many myriads of ages hence." — Pres. Edwards. 

" England never did, nor never shall, 
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror." — Beaut, of Shak., p. 109. 

LESSON IX.— CONJUNCTIONS. 
" He readily comprehends the rules of Syntax, and their use and applicability in the examples 
before him." — Greenleafs Gram., p. 6. " The works of iEschylus have suffered more by time, 
than any of the ancient tragedians." — Blair's Rhet., p. 470. "There is much more story, more 
bustle, and action, than on the French theatre." — lb., p. 478. "Such an unremitted anxiety and 
perpetual application as engrosses our whole time and thoughts, are forbidden." — Soame Jenyns : 
Tract, p. 12. "It seems to be nothing else but the simple form of the adjective." — Wright's 
Gram., p. 49. "But when I talk of Reasoning, I do not intend any other, but such as is suited 
to the Child's Capacity." — Locke, on Ed., p. 129. " Pronouns have no other use in language, but 
to represent nouns."— -Jamieson's RheL, p. 83. " The speculative relied no farther on their own 
judgment, but to choose a leader, whom they implicitly followed." — Karnes, El, of Grit, Vol i, 
p. xxv. " Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art." 
— Beaut, of Shak., p. 266. "A Parenthesis is a clause introduced into the body of a sentence 
obliquely, and which may be omitted without injuring the grammatical construction." — Murray's 
Gram., i, 280; Ingersoll's, 292; Smith's, 192; Alden's, 162; A. Flint's, 114; Fish's, 158; 
Cooper's, 187 ; Comly's, 163. "A Caret, marked thus is placed where some word happens to 



CHAP. XII.] SYNTAX. —A GENERAL REVIEW. — ERRORS. Til 

be left out in writing, and which is inserted over the line." — Murray's Gram., i, 282 ; IngersolTs 
293 ; and others. " At the time that I visit them they shall be cast down." — Jer., vi, 15. 
" Neither our virtues or vices are all our own." — Dr. Johnson : Sanborn's Gram., p. 167. " I 
could not give him an answer as early as he had desired." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 200. " He 
is not as tall as his brother." — Nixon's Parser, p. 124. " It is difficult to judge when Lord Byron 
is serious or not." — Lady Blessington. " Some nouns are both of the second and third declen- 
sion." — Gould's Lat. Gram., p. 48. "He was discouraged neither by danger or misfortune." — 
Wells's Hist, p. 161. "This is consistent neither with logic nor history." — The Dial, i, 62. 
"Parts of Sentences are simple and compound." — Blair's Gram., p. 114. "English verse is 
regulated rather by the number of syllables than of feet." — lb., p. 120. " I know not what more 
he can do, but pray for him." — Locke, on Ed., p. 140. " Whilst they are learning, and apply 
themselves with Attention, they are to be kept in good Humour." — lb., p. 295. "A man can- 
not have too much of it, nor too perfectly." — lb., p. 322. " That you may so run, as you may ob- 
tain; and so fight, as you may overcome." — Wm. Penn. "It is the case of some, to contrive 
false periods of business, because they may seem men of despatch." — Lord Bacon. " 'A tall man 
and a woman.' In this sentence there is no ellipsis; the adjective or quality respect only the 
man." — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 95. " An abandonment of the policy is neither to be expected or 
desired." — Pres. Jackson's Message, 1830. " Which can be acquired by no other means but fre- 
quent exercise in speaking." — Blair's Bhet., p. 344. " The chief and fundamental rules of syntax 
are common to the English as well as the Latin tongue." — lb., p. 90. " Then I exclaim, that my 
antagonist either is void of all taste, or that his taste is corrupted in a miserable degree." — lb., p. 
21. " I cannot pity any one who is under no distress of body nor of mind." — Karnes, El. of Grit, 
i, 44. " There was much genius in the world, before there were learning or arts to refine it." — 
Blair 's Bhet, p. 391. " Such a Writer can have little else to do, but to new model the Paradoxes 
of ancient Scepticism." — Brown's Estimate, i, 102. "Our ideas of them being nothing else but a 
collection of the ordinary qualities observed in them." — Duncan's Logic, p. 25. "A non-ens or a 
negative can neither give pleasure nor pain." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 63. " So as they shall not 
justle and embarrass one another." — Blair's Lectures, p. 318. "He firmly refused to make use of 
any other voice but his own." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 190. "Tour marching regiments, Sir, will 
not make the guards their example, either as soldiers or subjects." — Junius, Let 35. "Conse- 
quently, they had neither meaning, or beauty, to any but the natives of each country." — 
Sheridan's Elocution, p. 161. 

" The man of worth, and has not left his peer, 
Is in his narrow house for ever darkly laid." — Burns. 

LESSON X.— PREPOSITIONS. 

" These may be carried on progressively above any assignable limits." — Karnes, El. of Grit, i, 
296. "To crowd in a single member of a period different subjects, is still worse than to crowd 
them into one period." — lb., ii, 27. "Nor do we rigidly insist for melodious prose." — lb., ii, 76. 
"The aversion we have at those who differ from us." — lb., ii, 365. "For we cannot bear his 
shifting the scene every line." — Ld. Halifax : ib., ii, 213. "We shall find that we come by it the 
same way." — Locke. " To this he has no better defense than that." — Barnes's Bed Book, p. 347. 
" Searching the person whom he suspects for having stolen his casket." — Blair's Bhet, p. 479. 
"Who are elected as vacancies occur by the whole Board." — Lit Convention, p. 81. "Almost 
the only field of ambition of a German, is science." — Dr. Lieber : ib., p. 66. " The plan of educa- 
tion is very different to the one pursued in the sister country." — Dr. Colet, ib., p. 197. " Some 
writers on grammar have contended that adjectives relate to, and modify the action of verbs." — 
Wilcox's Gram., p. 61. " They are therefore of a mixed nature, participating of the properties 
both of pronouns and adjectives." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 57. " For there is no authority which 
can justify the inserting the aspirate or doubling the vowel." — Knight, on Greek Alph., p. 52. 
" The distinction and arrangement between active, passive, and neuter verbs." — Wright's G^'am., 
p. 176. " And see thou a hostile world to spread its delusive snares." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 167. 
"He may be precaution^, and be made see, how those jojm in the Contempt." — Locke, on Ed., 
p. 155. " The contenting themselves now in the want of what they wish'd for, is a vertue." — lb., 
p. 185. " If the Complaint be of something really worthy your notice." — lb., p. 190. "True 
Fortitude I take to be the quiet Possession of a Man's self, and an undisturb'd doing his Duty." — 
lb., p. 204. " For the custom of tormenting and killing of Beasts will, by degrees, harden their 
Minds even towards Men." — lb., p. 216. "Children are whip'd to it, and made spend many 
Hours of their precious time uneasily in Latin." — lb., p. 289. " The ancient rhetoricians have 
entered into a very minute and particular detail of this subject ; more particular, indeed, than any 
other that regards language." — Jamieson's Bhet, p. 123. " But the one should not be omitted 
without the other." — Bullions's Eng. Gram., p. 108. "In some of the common forms of speech, 
the relative pronoun is usually omitted." — Murray's Gram., i, 218; Weld's, 191. "There are a 
great variety of causes, which disqualify a witness from being received to testify in particular 
cases." — J. Q. Adams's Bhet, ii, 75. "Aside of all regard to interest, we should expect that," 
&c. — Webster's Essays, p. 82. " My opinion was given on a rather cursory perusal of the book." 
— Murray's Key, ii, 202. " And the next day, he was put on board his ship." — lb., ii, 201. 
"Having the command of no emotions but of what are raised by sight." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 
318. "Did these moral attributes exist in some other being beside himself." — Wayland's Moral 



712 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

Science, p. 161. "He did not behave in that manner out of pride or contempt of the tribunal." — 
Goldsmith's Greece, i, 190. " These prosecutions of William seem to have been the most iniquitous 
measures pursued by the court." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 199 ; Priestley's Gram., 126. " To 
restore myself into the good graces of my lair critics." — Dryden. "Objects denominated beauti- 
ful, please not in virtue of any one quality common to them all." — Blair's Rhet, p. 46. " This 
would have been less worthy notice, had not a writer or two of high rank lately adopted it." — 
Churchill's Gram., p. 197. 

" A Grecian youth, with talents rare, 
"Whom Plato's philosophic care," &c. — Felton's Gram., p. 145. 

LESSON XL— PROMISCUOUS. 

"To excel, is become a much less considerable object." — Blair's Rhet, p. 351. " My robe, and 
my integrity to heaven, is all I now dare call mine own." — Beauties of Shak., p. 173. " So thou 
the garland wear'st successively." — lb., p. 134. "For thou the garland wears successively." — 
Enfield's Speaker, p. 341. "If that thou need'st a Roman's, take it forth." — lb., p. 357. "If 
that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth." — Beauties of Shak., p. 256. "If thou provest this to be 
real, thou must be a smart lad, indeed." — Neefs Method of Teaching, p. 210. "And another 
Bridge of four hundred Foot in Length." — Brightland's Gram., p. 242. " Metonomy is putting 
one name for another on account of the near relation there is between them." — Fisher's Gram., 
p. 151. " An Antonomasia is putting an appellative or common name for a proper name." — lb., 
p. 153. " Its being me needs make no difference in your determination." — Bullions, E. Gram., 
p. 89. " The first and second page are torn." — lb., p. 145. " John's being from home occasioned 
the delay." — lb., p. 81. "His having neglected opportunities of improvement, was the cause of 
his disgrace." — lb., p. 81. " He will regret his having neglected opportunities of improvement 
when it may be too late." — lb., p. 81. " His being an expert dancer does not entitle him to our 
regard." — lb., p. 82.* "Caesar went back to Rome to take possession of the public treasure, 
which his opponent, by a most unaccountable oversight, had neglected taking with him." — Gold- 
smith's Rome, p. 116. "And Cassar took out of the treasury, to the amount of three thousand 
pound weight of gold, besides an immense quantity of silver." — Ibid. "Rules and definitions, 
which should always be clear and intelligible as possible, are thus rendered obscure." — Greenleafs 
Gram., p. 5. " So much both of ability and merit is seldom found." — Murray's Key, ii, 179. " If such 
maxims, and such practices prevail, what is become of decency and virtue ?" — Bullions, E. Gram., 
p. 78. " Especially if the subject require not so much pomp." — Blair's Rhet., p. 117. " However, 
the proper mixture of light and shade, in such compositions ; the exact adjustment of all the 
figurative circumstances with the literal sense ; have ever been considered as points of great 
nicety." — Murray's Gram., i, 3-13. "And adding to that hissing in our language, which is taken 
so much notice of by foreigners." — Addison: Dr. Coote: ib., i, 90. "Speaking impatiently to 
servants, or any thing that betrays unkindness or ill-humour, is certainly criminal." — Murray's 
Key, ii, 183 ; Merchant's, 190. " There is here a fulness and grandeur of expression well suited'to 
the subject." — Blair's Rhet, p. 218. "I single Strada out among the moderns, because he had 
the foolish presumption to censure Tacitus." — Murray's Key, ii, 262. "I single him out among 
the moderns, because," &c. — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 116. "This is a rule not always observed, 
even by good writers, as strictly as it ought to be." — Blair's Rhet, p. 103. "But this gravity and 
assurance, which is beyond boyhood, being neither wisdom nor knowledge, do never reach to 
maahood." — Notes to the Dunciad. " The regularity and polish even of a turnpike-road has some 
influence upon the low people in the neighbourhood." — Karnes, El. of Crit, ii, 358. "They be- 
come fond of regularity and neatness ; which is displayed, first upon their yards and little enclo- 
sures, and next within doors." — Ibid. " The phrase, it is impossible to exist, gives us the idea of 
it's being impossible for men, or any body to exist." — Priestley's Gram., p. 85. " I'll give a 
thousand pound to look upon him." — Beauties of Shak., p. 151. " The reader's knowledge, as Dr. 
Campbell observes, may prevent his mistaking it." — Murray's Gram., i, 172; Crombie's, 253. 
" When two woids are set in contrast, or in opposition to one another, they are both emphatic." 
— Murray's Gram., i, 243. "The number of persons, men, women, and children, who were lost 
in the sea, was very great." — lb., ii, 20. " Nor is the resemblance between the primary and re- 
sembling object pointed out'' '^—Jamieson's Rhet, p. 179. "I think it the best book of the kind 
which I have met with." — Dr. Mathews : Greenleafs Gram., p. 2. 

" Why should not we their ancient rites restore, 
And be what Rome or Athens were before." — Roscommon, p. 22. 

* Of this example, Professor Bullions says, " This will be allowed to be a correct English sentence, complete 
in itself, and requiring nothing to be supplied. The phrase, ' being an expert dancer,'' is the subject of the verb 
' does entitle ;' but the word ' dancer' in that phrase is neither the subject of any verb, nor is governed by any 
word in the sentence." — Eng. Oram., p. 82. It is because this word cannot have any regular construction after 
the participle when the possessive c:ise precedes, that I deny his first proposition, and declare the sentence not 
" to be correct English." But the Professor at length reasons himself into the notion, that this indeterminate 
"predicate" as he erroneously calls it, "is properly in the objective case, and in parsing, may correctly be called 
the Objective indefinite;" of which case, he says, "The following are also examples: '■He had the honour of 
being a director for life.' 'By being a diligent student, he soon acquired eminence in his profession.' " — Ib. , p. 
83. But '■'■director'''' and " student" are here manifestly in the nominative case: each agreeing with the pro- 
noun he, which denotes the same person. In the latter sentence, there is a very obvious transposition of the 
first five words. 



CHAP. XII.] SYNTAX. — A GENERAL REVIEW. — ERRORS. 713 

LESSON XII.— TWO ERRORS. 

" It is labour only which gives the relish to pleasure." — Murray's Key, ii, 234. " Groves are never 
so agreeable as in the opening of the spring." — lb., p. 216. " His ' Philosophical Inquiry into the 
Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful ' soon made him known to the literati." — Biog. 
Diet, n. Burke. " An awful precipice or tower whence we look down on the objects which lie 
below." — Blair's BheL, p. 30. " This passage, though very poetical, is, however, harsh and ob- 
scure ; owing to no other cause but this, that three distinct metaphors are crowded together." — 
lb., p. 149. "I propose making some observations." — lb., p. 280. "I shall follow the same 
method here which I have all along pursued." — lb., p. 346. " Mankind never resemble each other 
so much as they do in the beginnings of society." — lb., p. 380. " But no ear is sensible of the 
termination of each foot, in reading an hexameter line." — lb., p. 383. " The first thing, says he, 
which either a writer of fables, or of heroic poems, does, is, to choose some maxim or point of 
morality." — lb., p. 421. "The fourth book has been always most justly admired, and abounds 
with beauties of the highest kind." — lb., p. 439. "There is no attempt towards painting charac- 
ters in the poem." — lb., p. 446. "But the artificial contrasting of characters, and the introducing 
them always in pairs, and by opposites, gives too theatrical and affecte d an air to the piece." — 7&., 
p. 479. "Neither of them are arbitrary nor local." — Karnes, El. of Crit, p. xxi. "If crowding 
figures be bad, it is still worse to graft one figure upon another." — lb., ii, 236. " The crowding 
withal so many objects together, lessens the pleasure." — lb., ii, 324. "This therefore lies not in 
the putting off the Hat, nor making of Compliments." — Locke, on Ed., p. 149. "But the Sama- 
ritan Vau may have been used, as the Jews did the Chaldaic, both for a vowel and consonant." — 
Wilson's Essay, p. 19. " But if a solemn and familiar pronunciation really exists in our language, 
is it not the business of a grammarian to mark both?" — Walker's Bid., Pre/., p. 4. "By ma- 
king sounds follow each other agreeable to certain laws." — Music of Eature, p. 406. "If there 
was no drinking intoxicating draughts, there could be no drunkards." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., 
p. 178. " Socrates knew his own defects, and if he was proud of any thing, it was in the being 
thought to have none." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 188. " Lysander having brought his army to 
Ephesus, erected an arsenal for building of gallics." — lb., i, 161. "The use of these signs are 
worthy remark." — Brightland 's Gram., p. 94. " He received me in the same manner that I 
would you." — Smith's New Gram., p. 113. "Consisting both of the direct and collateral evi- 
dence." — Butler's Analogy, p. 224. " If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them 
relieve them, and let not the church be charged." — 1 Tim., v, 16. "For mens sakes are beasts 
bred." — Walker's Particles, p. 131. "From three a clock there was drinking and gaming." — lb., 
p. 141. "Is this he that I am seeking of, or no ?" — lb., p. 248. " And for the upholding every 
one his own opinion, there is so much ado." — Sewel's Mist., p. 809. "Some of them however 
will be necessarily taken notice of." — Sale's Koran, p. 71. "The boys conducted themselves ex- 
ceedingly indiscreet." — Merchant's Key, p. 195. "Their example, their influence, their fortune, 
every talent they possess, dispense blessings on all around them." — lb., p. 197 ; Murray's Key, ii, 
219. "The two Reynolds reciprocally converted one another." — Johnson's Lives, p. 185. "The 
destroying the two last Tacitus calls an attack upon virtue itself." — Goldsmiths Ecme, p. 194. 
"Monies is your suit." — Beauties of Shak., p. 38. " Ch, is cemmonly sounded like tch ; as in 
church; but in words derived from the Greek, has the sound of k." — Murray's Gram., i, 11. 
" When one is obliged to make some utensil supply purposes to which they were not originally 
destined." — Campbell's Bhet, p. 222. "But that a being baptized with water, is a washing away 
of sin, thou canst not from hence prove." — Barclay's Works, i, 190. " Being but spoke to one, it 
infers no universal command." — Ibid. " For if the laying aside Copulatives gives Force and Live- 
liness, a Redundancy of them must render the Period languid." — Buchanan's Syntax, p. 134. 
" James used to compare him to a cat, who always fell upon her legs." — Adam's Hist, of Eng. : 
Crombie, p. 384. 

" From the low earth aspiring genius springs, 
And sails triumphant born on eagles wings." — Lloyd, p. 162. 

LESSON XIIL— TWO ERRORS. 
"An ostentatious, a feeble, a harsh, or an obscure style, for instance, are always faults." — Blair's 
Bhet.. p. 190. "Yet in this we find the English pronounce perfectly agreeable to rule." — Walk- 
er's Diet., p. 2. "But neither the perception of ideas, nor knowledge of any sort, are habits, 
though absolutely necessary to the forming of them." — Butler's Analogy, 1 ^. 111. "They were 
cast: and an heavy fine imposed upon them." — Goldsmith's Greece, ii, 30. "Without making 
this reflection, he cannot enter into the spirit, nor relish the composition of the author." — Blair's 
Bhet, p. 450. "The scholar should be instructed relative to finding his words." — Osborn's Key, 
p. 4. " And therefore they could neither have forged, or reversified them." — Knight on the Greek 
Alph., p. 30. " A dispensary is the place where medicines are dispensed." — Murray's Key, ii. 172. 
"Both the connexion and number of words is determined by general laws." — Neef's Sketch, p. 73. 
" An Anapasst has the two first syllables unaccented, and the last accented : as, ' Contravene, 
acquiesce.' " — Murray's Gram., i, 254. " An explicative sentence is, when a thing is said to be 
or not to be, to do or not to do, to suffer or not to suffer, in a direct manner." — lb., i, 141 ; 
Lowth's, 84. " But is a conjunction, in all cases when it is neither an adverb nor preposition." — 
Smith s New Gram., p. 109. " He wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the king's 
ring." — Esther, viii, 10. " Camm and Audland were departed the town before this time." — Sew- 



714 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

el's Hist., p. 100. "Previous to their relinquishing the practice, they must be convinced." — Dr. 
Webster, on Slavery, p. 5. " Which he had thrown up previous to his setting out." — Grimshaw's 
Hist. IT. S., p. 84. " He left him to the value of an hundred drachmas in Persian money." — Sped, 
No. 535. " All which the mind can ever contemplate concerning them, must be divided between 
the three." — CardelVs Philad. Gram., p. 80. "Tom Puzzle is one of the most eminent imme- 
thodical disputants of any that has fallen under my observation." — Sped., No. 476. " When you 
have once got him to think himself made amends for his suffering, by the praise is given him for 
his courage." — Locke, on Ed., § 115. "In all matters where simple reason, and mere speculation 
is concerned." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 136. " And therefore he should be spared the troublo 
of attending to any thing else, but his meaning." — lb., p. 105. "It is this kind of phraseology 
which is distinguished by the epithet idiomatical, and hath been originally the spawn, partly of 
ignorance, and partly of affectation." — CampbelVs Rhet., p. 185. Murray has it — "and which has 
been originally," &c. — 0:tavo Gram., i, 370. " That neither the letters nor inflection are such as 
could have been employed by the ancient inhabitants of Latium." — Knight, Gr. Alph., p. 13. "In 
cases where the verb is intended to be applied to any one of the terms." — Murray's Gram., i, 150. 
" But this people which know not the law, are accursed." — John, vii, 49. " And the magnitude 
of the chorusses have weight and sublimity." — Music of Nature, p. 428. " Dare he deny but there 
are some of his fraternity guilty ?" — Barclay's Works, i, 327. " Giving an account of most, if not 
all the papers had passed betwixt them." — lb., i, 235. " In this manner, both as to parsing and 
correcting, all the rules of syntax should be treated, proceeding regularly according to their or- 
der." — Murray's Exercises, 12mo, p. x. " Ovando was allowed a brilliant retinue and a body 
guard." — Sketch of Columbus. "Is it I or he whom you requested to go?" — Kirkham's Gram., 
Key, p. 226. " Let thou and I go on." — Bunyan's P. P., p. 158. " This I no-where affirmed ; 
and do wholly deny." — Barclay's Works, iii, 454. "But that I deny; and remains for him to 
prove." — Ibid. "Our country sinks beneath the yoke; It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a 
gash Is added to her wounds." — Sha-KSPEARE : Joh. Diet., w. Beneath. " Thou art the Lord who 
didst choose Abraham, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees." — Murray's Key, ii, 
189. " He is the exhaustless fountain, from which emanates all these attributes, that exists 
throughout this wide creation." — Wayland's Moral Science, 1st Ed., p. 155. "I am he who have 
communed with the son of Neocles; I am he who have entered the gardens of pleasure." — ■ 
Wright's Athens, p. 66. 

" Such was in ancient times the tales received, 
Such by our good forefathers was believed." — Rowe's Lucan, B. ix, 1. 605. 

LESSON" XIV.— TWO ERRORS. 

"The noun or pronoun that stand before the active verb, maybe called the agent." — Alex. 
Murray's Gram., p. 121. "Such seems to be the musings of our hero of the grammar-quill, 
when he penned the first part of his grammar." — Merchant's Criticisms. " Two dots, the one 
placed above the other [:], is called Sheva, and represents a very short e." — Wilson's Hebreio 
Gram., p. 43. " Great has been, and is, the obscurity and difficulty, in the nature and applica- 
tion of them." — Butler's Analogy, p. 184. " As two is to four, so is four to eight." — Everest's 
Gram., p. 231. " The invention and use of it [arithmetic] reaches back to a period so remote as 
is beyond the knowledge of history." — Robertson's America, i, 288. " What it presents as objects 
of contemplation or enjoyment, fills and satisfies his mind." — lb., i, 377. "If he dare not say 
they are, as I know he dare not, how must I then distinguish?" — Barclay's Works, iii, 311. 
" He was now grown so fond of solitude that all company was become uneasy to him." — Life of 
Cicero, p. 32. " Violence and spoil is heard in her ; before me continually is grief and wounds." 
— Jeremiah, vi, 7. " Bayle's Intelligence from the Republic of Letters, which make eleven volumes 
in duodecimo, are truly a model in this kind." — Formey's Belles- Lettrcs, p. 168. " To render 
pauses pleasing and expressive, they must not only bo made in the right place, but also accom- 
panied with a proper tone of voice." — Murray's Gram., i, 249. " The opposing the opinions, 
and rectifying the mistakes of others, is what truth and sincerity sometimes require of us." — ■ 
Locke, on EL, p. 211. " It is very probable that this assembly was called, to clear some doubt 
which the king had, about the lawfulness of the Hollanders' throwing off the monarchy of Spain, 
and withdrawing, entirely, their allegiance to that crown." — Murray's Key, ii, 195. "Naming 
the cases and numbers of a noun in their order is called declining it." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 
10. " The embodying them is, therefore, only collecting such component parts of words." — 
Town's Analysis, p. 4. " The one is the voice heard at Christ's being baptized ; the other, at his 
being transfigured." — Barclay's Works, i, 267. "Understanding the literal sense would not 
have prevented their condemning the guiltless." — Butler's Analogy, p. 168. " As if this were 
taking the execution of justice out of the hand of G-od, and giving it to nature." — Pj., p. 194. 
" They will say, you must conceal this good opinion of yourself; which yet is allowing the thing, 
though not the showing it." — Sheffield's Works, ii, 244. " So as to signify not only the doing an 
action, but the causing it to be done." — Pike's Hebreio Lexicon, p. 180. "This, certainly, was 
both dividing the unity of God, and limiting his immensity." — Calvin's Institutes, B. i, Ch. 13. 
" Tones being infinite in number, and varying in almost every individual, the arranging them 
under distinct heads, and reducing them to any fixed and permanent rules, may be considered as 
the last refinement in language." — Knight, on Gr. Alph., p. 16. "The fierce anger of the Lord 
shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart." — 
Jeremiah, xxx, 24. " We seek for more heroic and illustrious deeds, for more diversified and 



CHAP. XII.] SYNTAX. — A GENERAL REVIEW. — ERRORS. 715 

surprising events." — Blair's Rhet, p. 3*73. " We distinguish the G-enders, or the Male and Fe- 
male Sex, four different Ways." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 20. "Thus, ch and g, are ever hard. 
It is therefore proper to retain these sounds in Hebrew names, which have not been modernised, 
or changed by public use." — Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 24. "The Substantive or noun is the 
name of any thing conceived to subsist, or of which we have any notion." — Lindley Murray's 
Gram., 2d Ed., p. 26. " The Substantive, or Noun ; being the name of any tiring conceived 
to subsist, or of which we have any notion." — Dr. Lowlh's Gram., p. 6. "The Noun is the 
name of any thing that exists, or of which we have, or can form, an idea." — Maunder' s Gram. 
p. 1. " A noun is the name of any thing in existence, or of which we can form an idea." — lb. 
p. 1. (See False Syntax under Note 7th to Rule 10th.) " The next thing to be taken Care of; 
is to keep him exactly to speaking of Truth." — Locke, on Ed., p. 254. "The material, vegetable, 
and animal world, receive this influence according to their several capacities." — The Dial, i, 59. 
" And yet, it is fairly defensible on the principles of the schoolmen ; if that can be called princi- 
ples which consists merely in words." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 274. 

" Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, 
And fears to die ? famine is in thy cheeks, 
Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes." — Beaut, of Shak., p. 317. 

LESSON XV.— THREE ERRORS. 

" The silver age is reckoned to have commenced on the death of Augustus, and continued to 
the end of Trajan's reign." — Gould's Lot. Gram., p. 277. "Language is become, in modern 
times, more correct, indeed, and accurate." — Blair's Rhet, p. G5. "It is evident, that words are 
most agreeable to the ear which are composed of smooth and liquid sounds, where there is a 
proper intermixture of vowels and consonants." — lb., p. 121. See Murray's Gram., i, 325. "It 
would have had no other effect, but to add a word unnecessarily to the sentence." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 194. " But as rumours arose of the judges having been corrupted by money in this cause, 
these gave occasions to much popular clamour, and had thrown a heavy odium on Cluentius." — 
lb., p. 273. "A Participle is derived of a verb, and partakes of the nature both of the verb and 
the adjective." — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 39 ; E. Devis's, 9. " I will have learned my grammar be- 
fore you learn your's." — Wilbur and Liv. Gram., p. 14. "There is no earthly object capable of 
making such various and such forcible impressions upon the human mind as a complete speaker." — 
Perry's Diet, Pref " It was not the carrying the bag which made Judas a thief and an hire- 
ling." — South. " As the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ." — 
Athanasian Creed. " And I will say to them which were not my people. Thou art my people; 
and they shall say, Thou art my God." — Rosea, ii, 23. "Where there is nothing in the sense 
which requires the last sound to be elevated or emphatical, an easy fall, sufficient to show that 
the sense is finished, will be proper." — Murray's Gram., i, 250. "Each party produces words 
where the letter a is sounded in the manner they contend for." — Walker's Diet, p. 1. "To coun- 
tenance persons who are guilty of bad actions, is scarcely one remove from actually committing 
them." — Murray's Gram., i, 233. " ' To countenance persons who are guilty of bad actions,' is 
part of a sentence, which is the nominative case to the verb 'is.'" — Ibid. "What is called 
splitting of particles, or separating a preposition from the noun which it governs, is always to be 
avoided." — Blair's Rhet, p. 112; Jamieson's, 93. See Murray's Gram., i, 319. "There is, prop- 
erly, no more than one pause or rest in the sentence, falling betwixt the two members into which 
it is divided." — Blair's Rhet, p. 125; Jamieson's, 126; Murray's Gram., i, 329. "Going bare- 
foot does not at all help on the way to heaven." — Steele, Sped., No. 497. "There is no Body but 
condemns this in others, though they overlook it in themselves.'' — Locke, on Ed., § 145. " In 
the same sentence, be careful not to use the same word too frequently, nor in different senses." — 
Murray's Gram., i, 296. " Nothing could have made her so unhappy, as marrying a man who 
possessed such principles." — Murray's Key, ii, 200. "A warlike, various, and a tragical age is 
best to write of, but worst to write in." — Couiey's Pref., p. vi. " When thou instances Peter his 
baptizing Cornelius." — Barclay's Works, i, 188. " To introduce two or more leading thoughts or 
agents, which have no natural relation to, or dependence on one another." — Murray's Gram., i, 
313. "Animals, again, are fitted to one another, and to the elements where they live, and to 
which they are as appendices." — Ibid. " This melody, or varying the sound of each word so 
often, is a proof of nothing, however, but of the fine ear of that people." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 5. 
"They can each in their turns be made use of upon occasion." — Duncan's Logic, p. 191. "In 
this reign lived the poet Chaucer, who, with Gower, are the first authors who can properly be 
said to have written English." — Bucke's Gram., p. 144. " In the translating these kind of ex- 
pressions, consider the it is, as if it were they, or they are." — Walker's Particles, p. 179. "The 
chin has an important office to perform ; for upon its activity we either disclose a polite or vulgar 
pronunciation." — Music of Nature, p. 27. " For no other reason, but his being found in bad com- 
pany." — Webster's Amer. Spelling-Book, p. 96. "It is usual to compare them in the same man- 
ner as Polisyllables." — Priestley's Gram., p. 77. "The infinitive mood is recognised easier than 
any others, because the preposition to precedes it."— Bucke's Gram., p. 95. " Prepositions, you 
recollect, connect words as well as conjunctions: how, then, can you tell the one from the other?" 
— Smith's New Gram., p. 38. 

" No kind of work requires so nice a touch, 
And if well finish'd, nothing shines so much." — Sheffield, Duke of Buck. 



716 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

LESSON XVI.— THREE ERRORS. 

" It is the final pause which alone, on many occasions, marks the difference between prose and 
verse ; which will be evident from the following arrangement of a few poetical lines." — Murray's 
Gram., i, 260. '* I shall do all I can to persuade others to take the same measures for their cure 
which I have." — G-Uardian: see Campbell's Rhet, p. 207. "I shall do all I can, to persuade 
others to take the same measures for their cure which I have taken." — Murray's Key, ii, 215. 
" It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and [or an] it were but 
to roast their eggs." — Ld. Bacon. " Did ever man struggle more earnestly in a cause where both 
his honour and life are concerned?" — Duncan's Cicero, p. 15. " So the rests and pauses, between 
sentences and their parts, are marked by points." — Lowth's Gram., p. 114. "Yet the case and 
mode is not influenced by them, but determined by the nature of the sentence." — lb., p. 113. 
"By not attending to this rule, many errors have been committed: a number of which is sub- 
joined, as a further caution and direction to the learner." — Murray's Gram., i, 114. "Though 
thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though 
thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair." — Jeremiah,, iv, 30. 
" But that the doing good to others will make us happy, is not so evident ; feeding the hungry, 
for example, or clothing the naked." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 161. " There is no other God but 
him, no other light but his." — William Penn. " How little reason to wonder, that a perfect and 
accomplished orator, should be one of the characters that is most rarely found ?" — Blair's JRhet, 
p. 337. "Because they neither express doing nor receiving an action." — Infant School Gram., p. 
53. " To find the answers, will require an effort of mind, and when given, will be the result of 
reflection, showing that the subject is understood." — lb., p. vii. " To say, that ' the sun rises,' is 
trite and common ; but it becomes a magnificent image when expressed as Mr. Thomson has 
done." — Blair's Rhet, p. 137. " Tffe declining a word is the giving it different endings." — 
Ware's Gram-, p. 7. " And so much are they for every one's following their own mind." — Bar- 
clay's Works, i, 462. " More than one overture for a peace was made, but Cleon prevented their 
taking eff3ct." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 121. "Neither in English or in any other language is this 
word, and that which corresponds to it in other languages, any more an article, than two, three, 
four. 11 — Dr. "Webster : Knickerbocker of 1836. " But the most irksome conversation of all 
others I have met within the neighbourhood, has been among two or three of your travellers." — 
Sped, No. 474. " Set down the two first terms of supposition under each other in the first 
place." — Smiley's Arithmetic, p. 79. "It is an useful rule too, to fix our eye on some of the 
most distant persons in the assembly." — Blair's Rhet, p. 328. " He will generally please most, 
when pleasing is not his sole nor chief aim." — lb., p. 336. " At length, the consuls return to the 
camp, and inform them they could receive no other terms but that of surrendering their arms, 
and passing under the yoke." — lb., p. 360. "Nor is mankind so much to blame, in his choice thus 
determining him." — Swift: Crombie's Treatise, p. 360. "These forms are what is called Num- 
ber." — Fosdick's Be Sacy, p. 62. "In languages which admit but two Genders, all Nouns are 
either Masculine or Feminine, even though they designate beings which are neither male or 
female." — lb., p. 66. " It is called a Verb or Word by way of eminence, because it is the most 
essential word in a sentence, without which the other parts of speech can form no complete 
sense." — Gould's Adam's Gram., p. 76. "The sentence will consist of two members, which are 
commonly separated from one another by a comma." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 7. "Loud and soft 
in speaking, is like the forte and piano in music, it only refers to the different degrees of force 
used in the same key ; whereas high and low imply a change of key." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 
116. " They are chiefly three : the acquisition of knowledge ; the assisting the memory to treas- 
ure up this knowledge ; or the communicating it to others." — lb., p. 11. 

" These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness, 
Harbour more craft, and more corrupter ends, 
Than twenty silly ducking observants." — Beauties of Shak., p. 261. 

LESSON XVII.— MANY ERRORS. 
" A man will be forgiven, even great errors, in a foreign language ; but in his own, even the 
least slips are justly laid hold of, and ridiculed." — American Chesterfield, p. 83. " Let does not 
only express permission ; but praying, exhorting, commanding." — Loioth's Gram., p. 41. " Let, 
not only expresses permission, but entreating, exhorting, commanding." — Murray's Gram., p. 88 ; 
Ingersoll's, 135. "That death which is our leaving this world, is nothing else but putting off 
these bodies." — Sherlock. " They differ from the saints recorded both in the Old and New Tes- 
taments." — Newton. " The nature therefore of relation consists in the referring or comparing two 
things one to another ; from which comparison, one or both comes to be denominated " — Locke's 
Essay, i, 220. " It is not credible, that there hath been any one who through the whole course 
of their lives will say, that they have kept themselves undefiled with the least spot or stain of 
sin." — Witsius. "If acting conformably to the will of our Creator; — if promoting the welfare of 
mankind around us ; — if securing our own happiness ; — are objects of the highest moment : — then 
we are loudly called upon to cultivate and extend the great interests of religion and virtue." — 
Murray's Gram., i, 278; Comly's, 163; Ingersoll's, 291. "By the verb being in the plural num- 
ber, it is supposed that it has a plural nominative, which is not the case. The only nominative 
to the verb, is, the officer : the expression his guard, are in the objective case, governed by the 
preposition with; and they cannot consequently form the nominative, or any part of it. The 



.CHAP. XII.] SYNTAX. — A GENERAL REVIEW. — ERRORS. 717 

prominent subject, and the true nominative of the verb, and to which the verb peculiarly refers, is 
the officer" — Slurray's Parsing, Gr. 8vo, ii, 22. ''This is another use, that, in my opinion, con- 
tributes rather to make a man learned than wise ; and is neither capable of pleasing the under- 
standing, or imagination." — Addison: Churchill's Gram., p. 353. "The work is a dull perform- 
ance ; and is capable of pleasing neither the understanding, nor the imagination." — Murray' 's Key, 
ii, 210. u I would recommend the Elements of English Grammar, by Mr. Frost. Its plan is after 
Murray, but his definitions and language is simplified as far as the nature of the subject will admit. 
to meet the understanding of children. It also embraces more copious examples and exercises in 
Parsing than is usual in elementary treatises." — Halls Lectures on School- Keeping, 1st Ed., p. 37. 
" More rain falls in the first two summer months, than in the first two winter ones : but it makes 
a much greater show upon the earth, in these than in those ; because there is a much slowei 
evaporation." — Murray's Key, ii, 189. See Priestley's Gram., p. 90. " They often contribute 
also to the rendering some persons prosperous though wicked : and, which is still worse, to the 
rewarding some actions though vicious, and punishing other actions though virtuous." — Butler's 
Analogy, p. 92. " Prom hence, to such a man, arises naturally a secret satisfaction and sense of 
security, and implicit hope of somewhat further." — lb., p. 93. " So much for the third and last 
cause of illusion that was taken notice of, arising from the abuse of very general and abstract 
terms, which is the principal source of all the nonsense that hath been vented by metaphysicians, 
mystagogues, and theologians." — Campbells Rhet, p. 297. "As to those animals whose use is 
less common, or who on account of the places which they inhabit, fall less under our observation, 
as fishes and birds, or whom their diminutive size removes still further from our observation, we 
generally, in English, employ a single Noun to designate both Genders, Masculine and Feminine." 
— Fosdick's Be Sacy, p. 67. " Adjectives may always be distinguished by their being the word, 
or words, made use of to describe the quality, or condition, of whatever is mentioned." — Emmons's 
Gram,, p. 20. "Adverb signifies a word added to a verb, participle, adjective, or other adverb, 
to describe or qualify their qualities." — lb., p. 64. " The joining together two such grand objects, 
and the representing them both as subject, at one moment, to the command of God, produces a 
noble effect." — Blair's Rhet, p. 37. " T/visted columns, for instance, are undoubtedly orna- 
mental; but as they have an appearance of weakness, they always displease when they are made 
use of to support any part of a building that is massy, and that seems to require a more substan- 
tial prop." — lb., p. 40. " Upon a vast number of inscriptions, some upon rocks, some upon stones 
of a defined shape, is found an Alphabet different from the Greeks, Latins, and Hebrews, and 
also unlike that of any modern nation." — Folder's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, p. 176. 

LESSON XYIIL— MANY ERRORS. 

" ' The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the northeast side of Lilliput, from whence it 
is parted only by a channel of 800 yards wide.' Gulliver s Travels. The ambiguity may be re- 
moved thus: — 'from whence it is parted by a channel of 800 yards wide only.' " — Karnes, El. of 
Grit., ii, 44. " The nominative case is usually the agent or doer, and always the subject of the 
verb." — Smith's New Gram., p. 47. " There is an originality, richness, and variety in his [Spen- 
ser's] allegorical personages, which almost vies with the splendor of the ancient mythology." — 
Hazlitt's Lect, p. 68. " As neither the Jewish nor Christian revelation have been universal, and 
as they have been afforded to a greater or less part of the world at different times ; so likewise, 
at different times, both revelations have had different degrees of evidence." — Butler's Analogy, 
p. 210. "Thus we see, that killing a man with a sword or a hatchet, are looked upon as no dis- 
tinct species of action : but if the point of the sword first enter the body, it passes for a distinct 
species, called stabbing." — Locke's Essay, p. 314. " If a soul sin. and commit a trespass against 
the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or hath deceived 
his neighbour, or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely ; 
in any of all these that a man doeth. sinning therein, then it shall be." &c. — Lev., vi, 2. "As the 
doing and teaching the commandments of God is the great proof of virtue, so the breaking them, 
and the teaching others to break them, is the great proof of vice." — Wayland's Moral Science, 
p. 281. "In Pope's terrific maltreatment of the latter simile, it is neither true to mind or eye." — 
Coleridge's Introd., p. 14. " And the two brothers were seen, transported with rage and fury, 
endeavouring like Eteocles and Polynices to plunge their swords into each other's hearts, and to 
assure themselves of the throne by the death of their rival." — Goldsmith's Greece, i, 176. " Is it 
not plain, therefore, that neither the castle, the planet, nor the cloud, which you see here, are 
those real ones, which you suppose exist at a distance?" — Berkley's Alciphron, p. 166. "I have 
often wondered how it comes to pass, that every Body should love themselves best, and yet value 
their neighbours Opinion about themselves more than their own." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 226. 
"Virtue ('Apery, Virtus) as well as most of its Species, are all Feminine, perhaps from their 
Beauty and amiable Appearance." — Harris's Hermes, p. 55. " Virtue, with most of its Species, 
are all Feminine, from their Beauty and amiable Appearance; and so Vice becomes Feminine of 
Course, as being Virtue's natural opposite.' 1 — British Gram., p. 97. "Virtue, with most of its 
Species, is Feminine, and so is Vice, for being Virtue's opposite." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 22. 
"From this deduction, may be easily seen how it comes to pass, that personification makes so 
great a figure in all compositions, where imagination or passion have any concern." — Blair s Rhet, 
p. 155. "An Article is a word prefixed to a substantive to point them out, and to show how far 
their signification extends." — Folker's Gram,, p. 4. " All men have certain natural, essential, and 
inherent rights — among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty ; acquiring, pos- 



718 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III." 

sessing, and protecting property; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining happiness." — Constitu- 
tion of New Hampshire. "From Grammarians who form their ideas, and make their decisions, 
respecting this part of English Grammar, on the principles and construction of languages, which, 
in these points, do not suit the peculiar nature of our own, but differ considerably from it, we may 
naturally expect grammatical schemes that are not very perspicuous, or perfectly consistent, and 
which will tend more to perplex than inform the learner." — Murray's Gram., p. 68 ; HalVs, 15. 
" There are, indeed, very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a relish of any 
pleasures that are not criminal ; every diversion they take, is at the expense of some one virtue 
or another, and their very first step out of business is into vice or folly." — Addison: Blair's Rhet., 
p. 201 * 

" Hail, holy love ! thou word that sums all bliss ! 
Gives and receives all bliss ; fullest when most 
Thou givest; spring-head of all felicity V'—PoUok, C. of T., B. v, 1. 193. 



CHAPTER XIII.— GENERAL RULE. 

The following comprehensive canon for the correction of all sorts of 
nondescript errors in syntax, and the several critical or general notes 
under it, seem necessary for the completion of my design ; which is, to 
furnish a thorough exposition of the various faults against which the 
student of English grammar has occasion to be put upon his guard. 

GENERAL RULE OF SYNTAX. 
In the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the 
words should be carefully observed ; and a regular, clear, and correspon- 
dent construction should be preserved throughout. 

CRITICAL NOTES TO THE GENERAL RULE. 

Critical Note L — Of the Parts op Speech. 

Words that may constitute different parts of speech, must not be left doubtful 
»s to their classification, or to what part of speech they belong. 

Critical Note II.— Of Doubtful Reference. 
The reference of words to other words, or their syntactical relation according to 
the sense, should never be left doubtful, by any one who means to be understood. 

Critical Note III. — Of Definitions. 
A definition, in order to be perfect, must include the whole thing, or class of 
things, which it pretends to define, and exclude every thing which comes not under 
the name. 

Critical Note IV. — Of Comparisons. 
A comparison is a form of speech which requires some similarity or common 
property in the things compared ; without which, it becomes a solecism. 

Critical Note V. — Of Falsities. 
Sentences that convey a meaning manifestly false, should be changed, rejected, 
or contradicted ; because they distort language from its chief end, or only worthy 
use ; which is, to state facts, and to tell the truth. 

Critical Note VI. — Of Absurdities. 
Absurdities, of every kind, are contrary to grammar, because they are contrary to 
reason, or good sense, which is the foundation of grammar. 

* Faulty as this example is, Dr. Blair says of it: "Nothing can be more elegant, or more finely turned, than 
this sentence. It is neat, clear, and musical. We could hardly alter one word, or disarrange one member, with- 
out spoiling it. Few sentences are to be found, more finished, or more happy."— Lecture XX, p. 201. See the 
six corrections suggested in my Key, and judge whether or not they spoil the sentence.— G. B. 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. 719 

Critical Note VII. — Of Self-Contradiction. 

Every writer or speaker should be careful not to contradict himself; for what is 
self-contradictory, is both null in argument, and bad in style. 

Critical Note VIII. — Of Senseless Jumbling. 

To jumble together words without care for the sense, is an unpardonable negli- 
gence, and an abuse of the human understanding. 

Critical Note IX. — Of Words Needless. 

Words that are entirely needless, and especially such as injure or encumber the 
expression, ought in general to be omitted. 

Critical Note X. — Of Improper Omissions. 

Words necessary to the sense, or even to the melody or beauty of a sentence, 
ought seldom, if ever, to be omitted. 

Critical Note XI. — Of Literary Blunders. 

Grave blunders made in the name of learning, are the strongest of all certificates 
against the books which contain them unreproved. 

Critical Note XII. — Of Perversions. 
Proof-texts in grammar, if not in all argument, should be quoted literally ; and 
even that which needs to be corrected, must never be perverted. 

Critical Note XIII. — Of Awkwardness. 

Awkwardness, or inelegance of expression, is a reprehensible defect in style, 
whether it violate any of the common rules of syntax or not. 

Critical Note XIV. — Of Ignorance. 
Any use of words that implies ignorance of their meaning, or of their proper 
orthography, is particularly unscholarlike ; and, in proportion to the author's pre- 
tensions to learning, disgraceful. 

Critical Note XV. — Of Silliness. 

Silly remarks and idle truisms are traits of a feeble style, and, when their weak- 
ness is positive, or inherent, they ought to be entirely omitted. 

Critical Note XVI. — Of the Incorrigible. 

Passages too erroneous for correction, may be criticised, orally or otherwise, and 
then passed over without any attempt to amend them.* 

* This Note, as -well as all the others, will by-and-hy be amply illustrated by citations from authors of suffi- 
cient repute to give it some value as a grammatical principle ; but one cannot hope such language as is, in real- 
ity, incorrigibly bad, will always appear so to the generality of readers. Tastes, habits, principles, judgements, 
differ ; and, where confidence is gained, many utterances are well received, that are neither well considered nor 
well understood. When a professed critic utters what is incorrect beyond amendment, the fault is the more 
noteworthy, as his professions are louder, or his standing is more eminent. In a recent preface, deliberately 
composed for a very comprehensive work on "English Grammar," and designed to allure both young and old 
to "a thorough and extensive acquaintance with their mother tongue," — in the studied preface of a learned 
writer, who has aimed "to furnish not only a text-book for the higher institutions, but also a reference-book for 
teachers, which may give breadth and exactness to their views," — I find a paragraph of which the following is a 
part: " Unless men, at least occasionally, bestow their attention upon the science and the laws of the language, 
they are in some danger, amid the excitements of professional life, of losing the delicacy of their taste and giv- 
ing sanction to vulgarisms, or to what is worse. On this point, listen to the recent declarations of two leading 
men in the Senate of the United States, both of whom understand the use of the English language in its power : 
' In truth, I must say that, in my opinion, the vernacular tongue of the country has become greatly vitiated, 
depraved, and corrupted by the style of our Congressional debates.' And the other, in courteous response 
remarked, ' There is such a thing as an English and a parliamentary vocabulary, and I have never heard 
a worse, when circumstances called it out, on this side [of] Billingsgate !' " — Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, Pref., 
p. iv. 

Now of these "two leading men," the former was Daniel Webster, who, in a senatorial speech, in the spring 
of 1S50, made such a remark concerning the style of oratory used in Congress. But who replied, or what idea 
the "courteous response," as here given, can be said to convey, I do not know. The language seems to me both 
unintelligible and solecistical ; and. therefore, but a fair sample of the Incorrigible. Some intelligent persons, 
whom I have asked to interpret it, think, as Webster had accused our Congress of corrupting the English lan- 
guage, the respondent meant to accuse the British Parliament of doing the same thing in a greater degree,— of 



720 THE GRAMMAIl OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SYNTAX. 

Obs. 1. — In the foregoing code of syntax, the author has taken the part3 of speech in their 
order, aud comprised all the general principles of relation, agreement, and government, in twenty- 
four leading Rnles. Of these rules, eight — (namely, the 1st, of Articles; the 4th, of Possessives ; 
the 9th, of Adjectives; the 20th, of Participles ; the 21st, of Adverbs; the 22d, of Conjunctions; 
the 23d, of Prepositions ; and the 24th, of Interjections — ) are used only in parsing. The remain- 
ing sixteen, because they embrace principles that are sometimes violated in practice, answer the 
double purpose of parsing and correcting. The Exceptions, of which there are thirty-two, (all 
occasionally applicable in parsing.) belong to nine different rules, and refer to all the parts of 
speech, except nouns and interjections. The Notes, of which there are one hundred and fifty-two, 
are subordinate rules of syntax, not designed to be used in parsing, but formed for the exposition 
and correction of so many different forms of false grammar. The Observations, of which there 
are, in this part of the work, without the present series, four hundred and ninety -seven, are de- 
signed not only to defend and confirm the doctrines adopted by the author, but to explain the 
arrangement of words, and whatever is difficult or peculiar in construction. 

Obs. 2. — The rules in a system of syntax may be more or less comprehensive, as well as more 
or less simple or complex ; consequently they may, without deficiency or redundance, be more or 
less numerous. But either complexity or vagueness, as well as redundance or deficiency, is a 
fault ; and, when all these faults are properly avoided, and the two great ends of methodical 
syntax, parsing and correcting, are duly answered, perhaps the requisite number of syntactical 
rules, or grammatical canons, will no longer appear very indeterminate. In the preceding chap- 
ters, the essential principles of English syntax are supposed to be pretty fully developed ; but 
there are yet to be exhibited some forms of error, which must be corrected under other heads or 
maxims, and for the treatment of which the several dogmas of this chapter are added. Complete- 
ness in the system, however, does not imply that it must have shown the pupil how to correct 
every form of language that is amiss : for there may be in composition many errors of such a na- 
ture that no rule of grammar can show, either what should bo substituted for the faulty expres- 
sion, or what fashion of amendment may be the most eligible. The inaccuracy may be gross and 
obvious, but the correction difficult or impossible. Because the ssntenco may require a change 
throughout ; and a total change is not properly a correction ; it is a substitution of something 
new, for what was, perhaps, in itself incorrigible. 

Obs. 3. — The notes which are above denominated Critical or General, are not all of them obvi- 

descending yet lower into the vileness of slang. But this is hardly a probable conjecture. Webster might be 
right in acknowledging a very depraving abuse of the tongue ia the two Houses of Congress; but couid it be 
" courteous," or proper, for the answerer to jump the Atlantic, and pounce upon the English Lords and Com- 
mons, as a set of worse corrupters? 

The gentleman begins with saying, " There is such a thing" — as if he meant to describe some one thing; and 
proceeds with saying, "as an English and a parliamentary vocabulary," in which phrase, by repeating the arti- 
cle, he speaks of two " things" — two vocabularies ; then goes on, " and I have never heard a worse /" A worse 
what? Does he mean '• a worse vocabulary?" If so, what sense has '■'■vocabulary?" And, again, "a worse" 
than what ? Where and what is this " thing" which is so bad that the leading Senator has " never heard a 
worse?" Is it some " vocabulary" both "English and parliamentary?" If so, whose? If not, what else is 
it? Lest the wisdom of this oraculous "declaration" be lost to the public through the defects of its syntax, — 
and lest more than one rhetorical critic seem hereby "in some danger" of "giving sanction to" nonsense, — it 
may be well for Professor Fowler, in his next editiou, to present some elucidation of this short but remarkable 
passage, which he values so highly! 

An other example, in several respects still more remarkable, — a shorter one, into which an equally successful 
professor of grammar has condensed a much greater number and variety of faults, — is seen in the following cita- 
tion: "The verb is so called, because it means word; and as there can be no sentence without it, it is called, 
emphatically, the word." — Pinneo's Analytical Gram., p. 14. This sentence, in which, perhaps, most readers 
will discover no error, has in fact faults of so many different kinds, that a critic must pause to determine under 
which of more than half a dozen different heads of false syntax it might most fitly be presented for correction 
or criticism. (1.) It might be set down under my Note 5th to Rule 10th; for, ia one or two instances out of the 
three, if not in all, the pronoun '■'■it" gives not the same idea as its antecedent. The faults coming under this 
head might be obviated by three changes, made thus: " The verb is so called, because verb means word ; and, 
as there can be no sentence without a verb, this part of sfjeerh is called, emphatically, the word." Cobbett 
wisely says, " Never put an it upon paper without thinking well of what you are about." — E. Gram., 1 106. 
But (2.) the erroneous text, and this partial correction of it too, might be put under my Critical Note 5th, 
among Falsities; for, in either form, each member affirms what is manifestly untrue. The term "wont" has 
many meanings; but no usage ever makes it, " emphatically" or otherwise, a name for one of the classes called 
"parts of speech;" nor is there nowadays any current usage in which "verb means word." (3.) This text 
might be put under Critical Note 6th, among Absurdities; for whoever will read it, as in fairness he should, 
taking the pronoun "it" ia the exact sense of its antecedent " the verb" will see that the import of each part 
i i absurd— the whole, a two-fold absurdity. (4.) It might be put under Critical Note 7th, among Self -Contra- 
dictions; for, to teach at once that "the verb is so called," and "is called, emphatically," otherwise, — namely, 
" the vrjrd" — is, to contradict one's self. (5.) It might be set down under Critical Note 0th, among examples 
of Words Xeedless; for the author's question is, " Why is the verb so called?" and this may be much better 
a aswered in fewer words, thus: " The verb is so called, because in French it is called le verbe. and in Latin, 
verbu n, which means word." (6.) It might be put under Critical Note 10th, as an example of Improper Omis- 
sion*; for it may be greatly bettered by the addition of some words, thus: "The verb is so called, because [in 
French] it [is called le verbe, and in Latin, verbum, which] means word: as there can be no sentence without a 
vsrb, this [most_ important part of speech] is called, emphatically, [the verb, — q. d.,] the word." (7.) It might 
be put under Critical Note 11th, among Literary Blunders; for there is at least one blunder in each of its mem- 
bers. (8.) It might be set down under Critical Note 18th, as an example of Awkwardness ; for it is but clu By 
work, to teach grammar after this sort. (!).) It might be given under Critical Note 16th, as a sample of the In- 
corrigible ; for it is scarcely possible to eliminate all its defects and retain its essentials. 

These instances may suffice to show, that even gross errors of grammar may lurk where they are least to be 
expected, in the didactic phraseology of professed masters of style or oratory, and may abound where common 
readers or the generality of hearers will discover nothing amiss. 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. —OBSERVATIONS. — ERRORS. 721 

ously different in kind from the other notes ; but they all are such as could not well have been 
placed in any of the earlier chapters of the book. The General Rule of Syntax, since it is not a 
canon to be used in parsing, but one that is to be applied only in the correcting of false syntax, 
might seem perhaps to belong rather to this order of notes ; but I have chosen to treat it with 
some peculiar distinction, because it is not only more comprehensive than any other rule or note, 
but is in one respect more important ; it is the rule which will be cited for the correction of the 
greatest number and variety of errors. Being designed to meet every possible form of inaccu- 
racy in the mere construction of sentences, — or, at least, every corrigible solecism by which any 
principle of syntax can be violated, — it necessarily includes almost all the other rules and notes. 
It is too broad to convey very definite instruction, and therefore ought not in general to be ap- 
plied where a more particular rule or note is clearly applicable. A few examples, not properly 
coming under any other head, will serve to show its use and application : such examples are 
given, in great abundance, in the false syntax below. If, in some of the instances selected, this 
rule is applied to faults that might as well have been corrected by some other, the choice, in such 
cases, is deemed of little or no importance. 

Obs. 4. — The imperfection of ancient writing, especially in regard to division and punctuation, 
has left the syntactical relation of words, and also the sense cf passages, in no few instances, un- 
certain ; and has consequently made, where the text has been thought worthy of it, an abun- 
dance of difficult work for translators, critics, and commentators. Rules of grammar, now made 
and observed, as they ought to be, may free the compositions of this, or a future age, from simi- 
lar embarrassments; and it is both just and useful, to test our authors by them, criticising or 
correcting their known blunders according to the present rules of accurate writing. But the 
readers and expounders of what has come to us from remote time, can be rightly guided only by 
such principles and facts as have the stamp of creditable antiquity. Hence there are, undoubt- 
edly, in books, some errors and defects which have outlived the time in which, and the authority 
by which, they might have been corrected. As we have no right to make a man say that which 
he himself never said or intended to say, so we have in fact none to fix a positive meaning upon 
his language, without knowing for a certainty what he meant by it. Reason, or good sense, 
which, as I have suggested, is the foundation of grammar and of all good writing, is indeed a 
perpetual as well as a universal principle ; but, since the exercises of our reason must, from the 
very nature of the faculty, be limited to what we know and understand, we are not competent to 
the positive correction, or to the sure translation, of what is obscure and disputable in the stand- 
ard books of antiquity. 

Ocs. 5. — Let me cite an example: "For all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all 
this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth 
either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all." — Ecclesiastes, ix, 1. 
Here is, doubtless, one error which any English scholar may point out or correct. The pronoun 
'' them' 1 ' 1 should be him, because its intended antecedent appears to be "man," and not " the right- 
eous and the wise," going before. But are there not other faults in the version ? The common 
French Bible, in this place, has the following import: "Surely I have applied my heart to all 
that, and to unfold all this ; to wit, that the righteous and the wise, and their actions, are in the 
hand of God and love and hatred; and that men know nothing of all that vjhich is before them. 
All happens equally to all." The Latin Vulgate gives this sense : " All these things have I con- 
sidered in my heart, that I might understand them accurately : the righteous and the wise, and 
their works, are in the hand of God; and yet man doth not know, whether by love or by hatred 
he may be worthy: but all things in the future are kept uncertain, so that all may happen alike 
to the righteous man and to the wicked." In the Greek of the Septuagint, the introductory- mem- 
bers of this passage are left at the end of the preceding chapter, and are literally thus: "that all 
this I received into my heart, and my heart understood all this." The rest, commencing a new 
chapter, is as follows: "For the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God, 
and indeed both love and hatred man knoweth not : all things before their face are vanity to all." 
Now, which of these several readings is the nearest to what Solomon meant by the original text, 
or which is the farthest from it, and therefore the most faulty, I leave it to men more learned than 
myself to decide ; but, certainly, there is no inspired authority in any of them, but in so far as 
they convey the sense which he really intended. And if his meaning had not been, by some imper- 
fection in the oldest expression we have of it, obscured and partly lost, there could be neither 
cause nor excuse for these discrepancies. I say this with no willingness to depreciate the general 
authority of the Holy Scriptures, which are for the most part clear in their import, and very ably 
translated into English, as well as into other languages. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER THE GENERAL RULE. 

LESSON I.— ARTICLES. 

(1.) "An article is a part of speech placed before nouns." — Comtys Gram., p. 11. 

[Fobmttle. — Not proper, because the article an is here inconsistent with the term " part of speech ;" for the 
text declares one thing of a kind to he the whole kind. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, " In 
the formation of sentences, the consistency and adaptation of all the words should he carefully observed ; and a 
regular, clear, and correspondent construction should be preserved throughout." The sentence may be cor- 

46 



722 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

rected in two ways, thus: " The article is a part of speech placed before nouns;" — or better, " An article is a 
word placed before nouns."*] 

(2.) "An article is apart of speech used to limit nouns." — Gilbert's Gram., p. 19. (3.) "An 
article is a part of speech set before nouns to fix their vague Signification. " — Ash's Gram., p. 18. 
(4.) "An adjective is a part of speech used to describe a noun." — Gilbert's Gram., p. 19. (5.) 
"A pronoun is a part of speech used instead of a noun." — Ibid. ; and Weld's Gram., pp. 30 and 
50; Abridg., pp. 29 and 46. (6.) "A Pronoun is a Part of Speech which is often used instead 
of a Noun Substantive common, and supplies the Want of a Noun proper." — British Gram., p. 
102 ; Buchanan's Gram., p. 29. (7.) "A verb is a part of speech, which signifies to be, to do, or 
to be acted upon." — Merchant's School Gram., p. 17. (8.) "A verb is a part of speech, which sig- 
nifies to be, to act, or to receive an action." — Gomly's Gram., p. 11. (9.) "A verb is a part of 
speech by which any thing is asserted." — Weld's Gram., p. 50; Abridg., 46 and 58. (10.) "A 
verb is a part of speech which expresses action, or existence, in a direct manner." — Gilbert's 
Gram., p. 20. (11.) "A participle is a part of speech derived from a verb, and expresses action 
or existence in an indirect manner." — Ibid. (12.) "A Participle is a Part of Speech derived 
from a Yerb, and denotes being, doing, or suffering, and implies Time, as a Yerb does." — British 
Gram., p. 139 ; Buchanan's, p. 46. "An adverb is a part of speech used to add to the meaning 
of verbs, adjectives, and participles." — Gilbert's Gram., p. 20. (14.) "An adverb is an indeclin- 
able part of speech, added to a verb, adjective, or other adverb, to express some circumstance, 
quality, or manner of their signification." — Adam's Gram., p. 142; Gould's, 147. (15.) "An 
Adverb is a part of speech joined to a verb, an Adjective, a Participle, and sometimes to another 
Adverb, to express the quality or circumstance of it." — Ash's Gram., p. 47. (16.) "An Adverb 
is a part of speech joined to a Yerb, Adjective, Participle, and sometimes to another Adverb, to 
express some circumstances respecting it." — Beck's Gram., p. 23. (17.) " An Adverb is a Part 
of Speech which is joined to a Yerb, Adjective, Participle, or to another Adverb to express some 
Modification, or Circumstance, Quality, or Manner of their Signification." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 
61. (18.) "An Adverb is a part of speech added to a Yerb (whence the name), and sometimes 
even to another word." — Bucke's Gram., p. 76. (19.) " A conjunction is a part of speech used to 
connect words and sentences." — Gilbert's Gram., p. 20 ; Weld's, 51. (20.) " A Conjunction is a part 
of speech that joins words or sentences together." — Ash's Gram., p. 48. (21.) " A Conjunction is 
that part of speech which connect sentences, or parts of sentences or single words." — Blair's Gram., 
p. 41. (22.) " A Conjunction is a part of speech, that is used principally to connect sentences, so as, 
out of two, three, or more, sentences, to make one." — Bucke's Gram., p. 28. (23.) "A Conjunction 
is a part of speech that is chiefly used to connect sentences, joining two or more simple sentences 
into one compound sentence: it sometimes connects only words." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 118. 
(24.) "A Conjunction is a Part of Speech which joins Sentences together, and shews the Manner 
of their Dependance upon one another." — British Gram., p. 163; Buchanan's, p. 64; E. Devis's, 
103. (25.) " A preposition is a part of Speech used to show the relation between other words." 
— Gilbert's Gram., p. 20. (26.) "A Preposition is a part of speech which serves to connect words 
and show the relation between them." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 42. (27.) " A preposition is a 
part of speech used to connect words and show their relation." — Weld's Gram., p. 51; Abridg., 
47. (28.) " A preposition is that part of speech which shows the position of persons or things, or 
the relation that one noun or pronoun bears toward another." — Blair's Gram., p. 40. (29.) "A 
Preposition is a Part of Speech, which being added to any other Parts of Speech serves to shew 
their State, Relation or Reference to each other." — British Gram., p. 165; Buchanan's, p. 65. 
(30.) "An interjection is a part of speech used to express sudden passion or emotion." — Gilbert's 
Gram., p. 20. (31.) "An interjection is a part of speech used in giving utterance to some sud- 
den feeling or emotion." — Weld's Gram., pp. 49 and 51 ; Abridg., 44 and 47. (32.) "An Inter- 
jection is that part of speech which denotes any sudden affection or emotion of the mind." — Blair's 
Gram., p. 42. (33 ) " An Interjection is a Part of Speech thrown into discourse, and denotes 
some sudden Passion or Emotion of the Soul." — British Gram., p. 172 ; Buchanan's, p. 67. 

(34.) " A scene might tempt some peaceful sage 

To rear him a lone hermitage." — Union Poems, p. 89. 

(35.) " Not all the storms that shake the pole 
Can e'er disturb thy halcyon soul, 
And smooth th' unaltered brow." — Day's Gram., p. 78; E. Reader, 230. 

LESSON II.— NOUNS. 

" The thrones of every monarchy felt the shock." — Frelinghuysen. 

[Formule.— Not proper, because the plural noun thrones has not a clear and regular construction, adapted to 
the author's meaning. But, according to the General Rule of Synttx, "In the formation of sentences, the con- 
sistency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed ; and a regular, clear, and correspondent 
construction should be preserved throughout." The sentence may be corrected thus: "The throne of every 
monarchy felt the shock."] 

* As a mere assertion, this example is here sufficiently corrected ; but, as a definition, (for -which the author 
probably intended it,) it is deficient; and consequently, in that sense, is still inaccurate. I would also observe 
that most of the subsequent examples under the present head, contain other errors than that for which they 
are here introduced ; and, of some of them, the faults are, in my opinion, very many: for example, the several 
definitions of an adverb, cited below. Lindley Murray's definition of this part of speech is not inserted among 
these, because I had elsewhere criticised that. So too of his faulty definition of a conjunction. See the Intro- 
duction, Chap. X, paragraphs 26 and 28. See also Corrections in the Key, under Note 10th to Rule 1st. 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. — ERRORS. 723 

" These principles ought to be deeply impressed upon the minds of every American." — Web- 
ster's Essays, p. 44. " The word church and shire are radically the same." — 3., p. 256. " They 
may not, in their present form, be readily accommodated to every circumstance belonging to the 
possessive cases of nouns." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 53. " Will, in the second and third 
person, only foretels." — lb., p. 88. " Which seem to form the true distinction between the sub- 
junctive and the indicative moods." — lb., p. 208. " The very general approbation, which this 
performance of Walker has received from the public." — lb., p. 241. " Lest she carry her improve- 
ments this way too far." — Campbell: ib., p. 371. "Charles was extravagant, and by this means 
became poor and despicable." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 189. "We should entertain no prejudices 
against simple and rustic persons." — lb., p. 205. "These are indeed the foundations of all solid 
merit." — Blair's Rhet, p. 175. "And his embellishment, by means of musical cadence, figures, 
or other parts of speech." — lb., p. 175. "If he is at no pains to engage us by the employment 
of figures, musical arrangement, or any other art of writing." — lb., p. 181. "The most eminent 
of the sacred poets are, the Author of the book of Job, David and Isaiah." — lb., p. 41 8. " Nothing, 
in any poet, is more beautifully described than the death of old Priam." — lb., p. 439. "When 
two vowels meet together, and are sounded at one breath, they are called diphthongs'' — Infant 
School Gram., p. 10. "How many ss would goodness then end with? Three." — lb., p. 33. 
" Birds is a noun, the name of a thing or creature." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 53. "Adam gave 
names to every living creature." — Bicknell's Gram., Part ii, p. 5. " The steps of a stair ought to 
be accommodated to the human figure." — Karnes, El. of Crit, Vol. ii, p. 337. "Nor ought an 
emblem more than a simile to be founded on low or familiar objects." — lb., Vol. ii. p. 357. 
" Whatever the Latin has not from the Greek, it has from the Goth." — Tooke's Diversions. Vol. ii, 
p. 450. "The mint and secretary of state's offices are neat buildings." — Tlie Friend, Yol. iv, p. 
266. " The scenes of dead and still life are apt to pall upon us." — Blair's Rhet, p. 407. "And 
Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, the angelical and the subtle doctors, are the brightest stars 
in the scholastic constellation." — Literary Hist, p. 244. " The English language has three 
methods of distinguishing the sex." — Murray's Gram., p. 38; Ingersoll's, 27 ; Alger's, 16 ; Bacons, 
13 ; Fisk's, 58 ; Greenleafs, 21. "The English language has three methods of distinguishing sex." 
— Smith's New Gram., p. 44. " In English there are the three following methods of distinguishing 
sex." — Jaudon's Gram., p. 26. "There are three ways of distinguishing the sex." — Bennies 
Gram., p. 10; Picket's, 26; Bullions's, 10. "There are three ways of distinguishing sex." — 
Merchant's School Gram., p. 26. " Gender is distinguished in three ways." — Maunder's Gram., 
p. 2. " Neither discourse in general, nor poetry in particular, can be called altogether imitative 
arts." — Blair's Rhet^ p. 51. 

" Do we for this the gods and conscience brave, 
That one may rule and make the rest a slave?" — Rowe's Lucan, L\ ii, 1. 96. 

LESSON III.— ADJECTIVES. 

"There is a deal of more heads, than either heart or horns." — Barclay's Works, i, 234. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the adjective more has not a clear and regular construction, adapted to the 
author's meaning. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences, the consist- 
ency and adaptation of all the words should be carefully observed ; and a regular, clear, and correspondent con- 
struction should be preserved throughout." The sentence may be corrected thus: " There is a deal more of 
heads, than of either heart or horns."] 

"For, of all villains, I think he has the wrong name." — Bunyan's P. P., p. 86. " Of all the 
men that I met in my pilgrimage, he, I think bears the wrong name.'" — lb., p. 84. "I am sur- 
prized to see so much of the distribution, and technical terms of the Latin grammar, retained in 
the grammar of our tongue." — Priestley's Gram., Pref, p. vi. "Nor did the Duke of Burgundy 
bring him the smallest assistance." — Hume: Priestley's Gram., p. 178. "Else he will find it dif- 
ficult to make one obstinate believe him." — Brightland's Gram,, p. 243. "Are there any adjec- 
tives which form the degrees of comparison peculiar to themselves ?" — Infant School Gram,, p. 
46. " Yet the verbs are all of the indicative mood." — Lowth's Gram., p. 33. " The word candi- 
date'^ in the absolute case." — L. Murray's Gram,, 8vo, p. 155. "An Iambus has the first sylla- 
ble unaccented, and the latter accented." — Russell's Gram., p. 108; Smith's New Gram., 188. 
"A Dactyl has the first syllable accented, and the two latter unaccented." — L. Murray, p. 253 ; 
Bullions's E. Gram., 170; Smith's, 188; Kirkham's, 219; Guy's, 120; Blair's, 118; Merchants, 
167 ; Russell's, 109. " It is proper to begin with a capital the first word of every book, chapter, 
letter, note, or any other piece of writing." — L. Murray, p. 284 ; R. C. Smith's New Gram., 192 ; 
Ingersoll's, 295; Comly's, 166; Merchant's, 1,4; Greenleafs, 42; D. G. Allen's, 85; Fisk's, 159; 
Bullions's, 158; Kirkham's, 219 ; Hiley's, 119; Weld's Abridged, 16 ; Bidlions's Analytand Pract, 
16 ; Fowler's E. Gr., 674. "Five and seven make twelve, and one makes thirteen." — Murray's 
Key, 8vo, p. 227. "I wish to cultivate a farther acquaintance with you." — lb., p. 272. "Let us 
consider the proper means to effect our purpose." — lb., p. 276. " Yet they are of such a similar 
nature, as readily to mix and blend." — Blair's Rhet, p. 48. " The Latin is formed on the same 
model, but more imperfect." — lb., p. 83. " I know very well how much pains have been taken." 
— Sir W. Temple. "The management of the breath requires a good deal of care." — Blair's 
Rhet, p. 331. "Because the mind, during such a momentary stupefaction, is in a good measure, 
if not totally, insensible." — Karnes, El. of Crit, Vol. i, p. 222. "Motives alone of reason and 
interest are not sufficient." — lb., Vol i, p. 232. "To render the composition distinct in its parts, 
and striking on the whole." — lb., Vol. ii, p. 333. " A and an are named indefinite because they 



724 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

denote some one thing of a kind." — Maunders Gram., p. 1. " The is named definite, because it 
points out some particular thing." — Ibid. " So much depends upon the proper construction of 
sentences, that, in every sort of composition, we cannot be too strict in our attention to it." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 103. " All sort of declamation and public speaking, was carried on by them." — 
lb., p. 123. "The first has on many occasions, a sublimity to which the latter never attains." — 
lb., p. 440. " "When the words therefore, consequently, accordingly, and the like are used in con- 
nexion with other conjunctions, they are adverbs." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 88. " Rude nations 
make little or no allusions to the productions of the arts." — Jamieson's Rhet, p. 10. " While 
two of her maids knelt on either side of her." — Mirror, xi, 30V. " The third personal pronouns 
differ from each other in meaning and use, as follows." — Bullions, Lot. Gram., p. 65. " It was 
happy for the state, that Fabius continued in the command with Minucius: the former's phlegm 
was a check upon the latter's vivacity." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 5*7. "If it should be ob- 
jected that the words must and ought, in the preceding sentences, are all in the present tense." — 
lb., p. 108. " But it will be well if you turn to them, every now and then." — Buckets Classical 
Gram., p. 6. " That every part should have a dependence on, and mutually contribute to sup- 
port each other." — Rollings Hist, ii, 115. "The phrase, ' Good, my Lord," 1 is not common, and 
low." — Priestley' 's Gram., p. 110. 

" That brother should not war with brother, 
And worry and devour each other." — Cowper. 

LESSON IV.— PRONOUNS. 
" If I can contribute to your and my country's glory." — Goldsmith. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the pronoun your has not a clear and regular construction, adapted to the 
author's meaning. But, according to the General Rule of Syntax, "In the formation of sentences, the consist- 
ency and adaptation of all the words should he carefully observed ; and a regular, clear, and correspondent con- 
struction should be preserved throughout." The sentence, having a doubtful or double meaning, may be 
corrected in two ways, thus: "If I can contribute to our country's glory;" — or, "If I can contribute to your 
glory and that of ray country."] 

"As likewise of the several subjects, which have in effect each their verb." — Lowth's Gram., 
p. 120. "He is likewise required to make examples himself." — J. Flint' s t Gram., p. 3. "If the 
emphasis be placed wrong, we shall pervert and confound the meaning wholly." — Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 242. "If the emphasis be placed wrong, we pervert and confound the meaning wholly." 
— Blair's Rhet, p. 330. " It was this that characterized the great men of antiquity ; it is this, 
which must distinguish moderns who would tread in their steps." — lb., p. 341. "I am a great 
enemy to implicit faith, as well the Popish as Presbyterian, who in that are much what alike." 
— Barclay's Works, hi, 280. " Will he thence dare. to say the apostle held another Christ than ho 
that died?" — lb., iii, 414. " What need you be anxious about this event ?" — Collier's Anioninus, 
p. 188. " If a substantive can be placed after the verb, it is active." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 31 
" When we see bad men honoured and prosperous in the world, it is some discouragement to vir- 
tue." — L. Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 224. "It is a happiness to young persons, when they are pre- 
served from the snares of the world, as in a garden enclosed." — lb., p. 171. " The court of Queen 
Elizabeth, which was but another name for prudence and economy." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 24. 
" It is no wonder if such a man did not shine at the court of Queen Elizabeth, who was but an- 
other name for prudence and economy. Here which ought to be used, and not who." — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 99 ; Fowler's, § 488. " Better thus; Whose name was but another word for prudence, 
&c." — Murray's Gram., p. 157 ; Fisk's, 115 ; IngersolVs, 221 ; Smith's, 133 ; and others. "A De- 
fective verb is one that wants some of its parts. They are chiefly the Auxiliary and Impersonal 
verbs." — Bullions, F. Gram., p. 31 ; Old Editions, 32. " Some writers have given our moods a 
much greater extent than we have assigned to them." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 67. "The Per- 
sonal Pronouns give information which no other words are capable of conveying." — M' Culloch's 
Gram., p. 37. ; ' When the article a, an, or the precedes the participle, it also becomes a noun." 
— Merchants School Gram., p. 93. " There is a preference to be given to some of these, which 
custom and judgment must determine." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 107. " Many writers affect to 
subjoin to any word the preposition with which it is compounded, or the idea of which it implies." 
— lb., p. 200 ; Priestley's Gram., 157. 

" Say, dost thou know Vectidius ? — Who, the wretch 
Whose lands beyond the Sabines largely stretch ?" — Dryden's IV Sat of Per s. 

LESSON V.— VERBS. 
" We would naturally expect, that the word depend, would require from after it." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 201. "A dish which they pretend to be made of emerald." — Murray's Key, 8vo, 
p. 198. " For the very nature of a sentence implies one proposition to be expressed." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 106. " Without a careful attention to the sense, we would be naturally led, by the rules 
of syntax, to refer it to the rising and setting of the sun." — lb., p. 105. " For any rules that can 
be given, on this subject, are very general." — lb., p. 125. " He is in the right, if eloquence were 
what he conceives it to be." — lb., p. 234. " There I would prefer a more free and diffuse man- 
ner." — lb., p. 178. "Yet that they also agreed and resembled one another, in certain quali- 
ties." — lb., p. 73. "But since he must restore her, he insists to have another in her place." 
— lb., p. 431. " But these are far from being so frequent or so common as has been supposed." — 
lb., p. 445. " We are not misled to assign a wrong place to the pleasant or painful feelings." — 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL EULE. — ERRORS. 725 

Kames, El. of Crit, Introd., p. xviii. " Which are of greater importance than is commonly 
thought." — lb., Vol. ii, p. 92. " Since these qualities are both coarse and common, lets find out 
the mark of a man of probity." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 40. " Cicero did what no man had ever 
done before him, draw up a treatise of consolation for himself." — Life of Cicero. " Then there can 
be no other Doubt remain of the Truth." — BrightlanoVs Gram., p. 245. " I have observed some 
satirists use the term." — Bullions' s Prin. of E. Gram., p. 79. " Such men are ready to despond, 
or commence enemies." — Webster's Essays, p. 83. "Common nouns express names common to 
many things." — Infant School Gram., p. 18. "To make ourselves be heard by one to whom we 
address ourselves." — Blair's Rhet, p. 328. "That, in reading poetry, he may be the better able 
to judge of its correctness, and relish its beauties." — Murray's Gram., p. 252. " On the stretch 
to comprehend, and keep pace with the author." — Blair's Rhet. p. 150. "For it might have been 
sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor." — Mark, xiv, 5. " He 
is a beam that is departed, and left no streak of fight behind." — Ossian: Kames, El. of Crit, ii, 
262. "No part of this incident ought to have been represented, but reserved for a narrative." — 
Kames, El. of Crit, ii, 294. " The rulers and people debauching themselves, brings ruin on a 
country." — Ware's Gram., p. 9. " "When Doctor, Miss, Master, &c, is prefixed to a name, the last 
of the two words is commonly made plural; as, the Doctor Nettletons — the two Miss Eudsons." — 
Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 106. " "Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day." 
— Matt, xxvii, 8. " To comprehend the situations of other countries, which perhaps maybe neces- 
sary for him to explore." — Brown's Estimate, ii, 111. "We content ourselves, now, with fewer 
conjunctive particles than our ancestors did." — Priestley's Gram., p. 139. "And who will be 
chiefly liable to make mistakes where others have been mistaken before them." — lb., p. 156. " The 
voice of nature and revelation unites." — Wayland's Moral Science, 3d Ed., p. 307. 
" This adjective you see we can't admit, 
But changed to worse, will make it just and fit." — Tobitfs Gram., p. 63. 

LESSON VI.— PARTICIPLES. 
" Its application is not arbitrary, depending on the caprice of readers." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, 
Vol. i, p. 246. " This is the more expedient, from the work's being designed for the benefit of 
private learners." — lb., Vol. ii, p. 161. " A man, he tells us, ordered by his will, to have erected 
for him a statue." — Blair's Rhet, p. 106. " From some likeness too remote, and laying too far 
out of the road of ordinary thought." — lb., p. 146. "Money is a fluid in the commercial world, 
rolling from hand to hand." — Webster's Essays, p. 123. " He pays much attention to learning and 
singing songs." — lb., p. 246. " I would not be understood to consider singing songs as criminal." 
— Ibid. "It is a decided case by the Great Master of writing." — Preface to Waller, p. 5. " Did 
they ever bear a testimony against writing books?" — Bates's Misc. Repository. "Exclamations 
are sometimes mistaking for interrogations." — Hist of Printing, 1170. "Which cannot fail prov- 
ing of service." — Smith's Printer's Gram. " Hewn into such figures as would make them easily 
and firmly incorporated." — Beattie: Murray's Gram., i, 126. "Following the rule and example 
are practical inductive questions." — J. Mini's Gram., p. 3. " I think there will be an advantage 
in my having collected examples from modern writings." — Priestley's Gram., Pref , p. xi. '' He 
was eager of recommending it to his fellow-citizens." — Hume: ib., p. 160. "The good lady was 
careful of serving me of every thing." — Ibid. "No revelation would have been given, had the 
light of nature been sufficient in such a sense, as to render one not wanting and useless." — But- 
ler's Analogy, p. 155. " Description, again is the raising in the mind the conception of an object 
by means of some arbitrary or instituted symbols." — Blair's Rhet, p. 52. "Disappointing the 
expectation of the hearers, when they look for our being done." — lb., p. 326. "There is a dis- 
tinction which, in the use of them, is deserving of attention." — Maunders Gram., p. 15. "A 
model has been contrived, which is not very expensive, and easily managed." — Education Reporter. 
" The conspiracy was the more easily discovered, from its being known to many." — Murray's Key, 
ii, 191. "That celebrated work had been nearly ten years published, before its importance was 
at all understood." — lb., p. 220. "The sceptre's being ostensibly grasped by a female hand, does 
not reverse the general order of Government." — West's Letters to a Lady, p. 43. "I have hesita- 
ted signing the Declaration of Sentiments." — Liberator, x, 16. "The prolonging of men's lives 
when the world needed to be peopled, and now shortening them, when that necessity hath ceased 
to exist." — Brown's Divinity, p. 7. " Before the performance commences, we have displayed the 
insipid formalities of the prelusive scene." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 23. "It forbade the lending 
of money, or sending goods, or in any way embarking capital in transactions connected with that 
foreign traffic." — Lord Brougham : B. and F. Anti-Slavery Reporter, Vol. ii, p. 218. " Even ab- 
stract ideas have sometimes conferred upon them the same important prerogative." — Jamieson's 
Rhet, p. 171. "Like other terminations, ment changes y into i, when preceded by a consonant." 
— Walker's Rhyming Diet, p. xiii; Murray's Gram., p. 24: Ingersoll's, 11. "The term proper is 
from being, proper, that is, peculiar to the individual bearing the name. The term common is from 
being common to every individual comprised in the class."— Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 139. 

" Thus oft by mariners are shown (Unless the men of ELent are liars) 
Earl Godwin's castles overflown, And palace-roofs, and steeple-spires." — Swift, p. 313. 

LESSON VIL— ADVERBS. 
"He spoke to every man and woman there." — Murray's Gram., p. 220 ; Fisk's, 147. " Thought 



725 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART HI. 

and language act and react upon each other mutually." — Blair 's RheL, p. 120 ; Murray's Exer- 
cises, 133. •' Thought and expression act upon each other mutually." — See Murray's Key, p. 264. 
'• They have neither the leisure nor the means of attaining scarcely any knowledge, except what 
lies within the contracted circle of their several professions." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 359. 
"Before they are capable of understanding but little, or indeed any thing of many other branches 
of education." — Olney's Introd. to Geoy., p. 5. "There is not more beauty in one of them than in 
another." — Murray's Key, ii, 275. '• Which appear not constructed according to any certain rule." 
— Blair s RheL, p. 47. " The vehement manner of speaking became not so universal." — lb., p. 61. 
" All languages, however, do not agree in this mode of expression." — lb., p. 71. "The great oc- 
casion of setting aside this particular day." — Atterbury: ib., p. 294. "He is much more prom- 
ising now than formerly." — Murray's Gram., Yol. ii, p. 4. "They are placed before a participle, 
independently on the rest of the sentence." — lb., Vol. ii, p. 21. " This opinion appears to be not 
well considered." — lb., Vol. i, p. 153 ; JngersoWs, 249. "Precision in language merits a full ex- 
plication ; and the more, because distinct ideas are, perhaps, not commonly formed about it." — 
Blair's RJieL, p. 94. "In the more sublime parts of poetry, he [Pope] is not so distinguished." 
— lb., p. 403. " How far the author was altogether happy in the choice of his subject, may be 
questioned." — lb., p. 450. "But here also there is a great error in the common practice." — Web- 
ster's Essays, p. 1. " This order is tho very order of the human mind, which makes things we are 
sensible of, a means to come at those that are not so." — Formey's Belles-Lettres, Foreman's Version, 
p. 113. "Now, Who is not Discouraged, and Pears Want, when he has no money?" — Divine 
Right of Tythes, p. 23. " Which the Authors of this work, consider of but little or no use." — 
Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., p. 6. " And here indeed the distinction between these two classes 
begins not to be clear." — Blair's Rhet., p. 152. "But this is a manner which deserves not to be 
imitated." — lb., p. 180. " And in this department a person never effects so little, as when he at- 
tempts too much." — Campbell's RheL, p. 173 ; Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 361. " The verb that sig- 
nifies merely being, is neuter." — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 21. "I hope not much to tire those whom 
I shall not happen to please." — Rambler, No. 1. "Who were utterly unable to pronounce some 
letters, and others very indistinctly." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 32. "The learner may point out 
the active, passive, and neuter verbs in the following examples, and state the reasons why." — C. 
Adams's Gram.,^. 21. "These words are most always conjunctions." — S. Barrett's Revised 
Gram., p. 13. 

" How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue I 
How sweet the periods, neither said, nor sung !" — Dunciad. 

LESSON VIII.— CONJUNCTIONS. 

"Who at least either knew not, nor loved to make, a distinction." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of 
Eur op. Lang., i, 322. " It is childish in the last degree, if this become the ground of estranged 
affection." — L. Murray's Key, ii, 228. "When the regular or the irregular verb is to be preferred, 
p. 101." — Murray's Index, Gram., ii, 296. " The books were to have been sold, as this day." — 
Priestley's E. Gram., p. 138. "Do, an if you will." — Beauties of Sliak., p. 195. "If a man had 
a positive idea of infinite, either duration or space, he could add two infinites together." — . 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 114. " None shall more willingly agree and advance the same nor I." 
— Earl of Morton : Robertson's Scotland, ii, 428. " That it cannot be but hurtful to continue it." 
— Barclay's Works, i, 192. " A conjunction joins words and sentences." — Beck's Gram., pp. 4 
and 25. " The copulative conjunction connects words and sentences together and continues the 
sense." — Frost's EL of Gram., p. 42. " The Conjunction Copulative serves to connect or continue 
a sentence, by expressing an addition, a supposition, a cause, &c." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, i, 123. 
"All Construction is either true or apparent; or in other Words just and figurative." — Buchanan's 
Syntax, p. 130 ; British Gram., 234. "But the divine character is such that none but a divine 
hand could draw." — Tlie Friend, Vol. v, p. 12. " ' Who is so mad, that, on inspecting the heav- 
ens, is insensible of a God?' — Cicero:" — Dr. Gibbons. "It is now submitted to an enlightened 
public, with little desire on the part of the Author, than its general utility." — Town's Analysis, 
9th Ed., p. 5. "This will sufficiently explain the reason, that so many provincials have grown 
old in the capital, without making any change in their original dialect." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 
51. "Of these they had chiefly three in general use, which were denominated accents, and the 
term used in the plural number." — lb., p. 56. "And this is one of the chief reasons, that drama- 
tic representations have ever held the first rank amongst the diversions of mankind." — lb., p. 95. 
" Which is the chief reason that public reading is in general so disgusting." — lb., p. 96. " At the 
same time that they learn to read." — lb., p. 96. " He is always to pronounce his words exactly 
with the same accent that he speaks them." — lb., p.. 98. " In order to know what another 
knows, and in the same manner that be knows it." — lb., p. 136. "For the same reason that it 
is in a more limited state assigned to the several tribes of animals." — lb., p. 145. "Were there 
masters to teach this, in the same manner as other arts are taught." — lb., p. 169. 
" Whose own example strengthens all his laws ; 
And is himself that great Sublime he draws." — Pope, on Orit., 1. 680. 

LESSON IX.— PREPOSITIONS. 
" The word so has, sometimes, the same meaning with also, likewise, the same." — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 131. "The verb use relates not to pleasures of the imagination, but to the terms of 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. — ERRORS. 727 

fancy and imagination, which he was to employ as synonymous." — Blair's Rhet, p. 197. " It 
never can view, clearly and distinctly, above one object at a time." — lb., p. 94. " This figure 
[Euphemism] is often the same with the Periphrasis." — Adam's Gram., p. 247 ; Gould's, 238. 
" All the between time of youth and old age." — Walker's Particles, p. 83. " When one thing is 
said to act upon, or do something to another." — Lowth's Gram., p. 70. " Such a composition has 
as much of meaning in it, as a mummy has life." — Journal of Lit Convention, p. 81. " That 
young men of from fourteen to eighteen were not the best judges." — lb., p. 130. " This day 
is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy." — 2 Kings, xix, 3. " Blank verse has the 
same pauses and accents with rhyme." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 119. "In prosody, long syl- 
lables are distinguishei by f), and short ones by what is called breve (")." — Bucke's Gram., p. 22. 
" Sometimes both articles are left out, especially in poetry." — lb., p. 26. " In the following ex- 
ample, the pronoun and participle are omitted: [He being] ' Conscious of his own weight and 
importance, the aid of others was not solicited.' " — Murray's Gram , 8vo, p. 221. " He was an 
excellent person ; a mirror of ancient faith in early youth." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 172. "The 
carrying on its several parts into execution." — Butler's Analogy, p. 192. " Concord, is the agree- 
ment which one word has over another, in gender, number, case, and person." — Folker's Gram., 
p. 3. " It might perhaps have given me a greater taste of its antiquities." — Addison: Priestley's 
Gram., p. 160. " To call of a person, and to wait of him." — Priestley, ib., p. 161. " The great 
difficulty they found of fixing just sentiments." — Hume: ib., p. 161. " Developing the difference 
between the three." — James Brown's first American Gram., p. 12. " When the substantive sin- 
gular ends in x, ch soft, sh, ss, or s, we add es in the plural." — Murray's Gram., p. 40. " We 
shall present him with a list or specimen of them." — lb., p. 132. " It is very common to hear of 
the evils of pernicious reading, of how it enervates the mind, or how it depraves the principles." 
— Bymond's Essays, p. 168. " In this example, the verb ' arises' is understood before 'curiosity' 
and 'knowledge.'" — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 274; Ingersoll's, 286; Comly's, 155; and others. 
" The connective is frequently omitted between several words." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 81. "Ho 
shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight." — Joshua, xxiii, 5. 
" Who makes his sun shine and his rain to descend upon the just and the unjust." — M'llvaine's 
Lectures, p. 411. 

LESSON X.— MIXED EXAMPLES. 

"This sentence violates the rules of grammar." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, YoL ii, pp. 19 and 21* 
" The words thou and shalt are again reduced to short quantities." — lb., Vol. i, p. 246. " Have 
the greater men always been the most popular ? By no means." — Dr. Lieber : Lit. Conv., p. 
64. " St. Paul positively stated that, ' he who loves one another has fulfilled the law.' " — Spurz- 
heim, on Education, p. 248. " More than one organ is concerned in the utterance of almost every 
consonant." — M'Culloch's Gram., p. 18. " If the reader will pardon my descending so low." — 
Campbell's Rhet, p. 20. " To adjust them so, as shall consist equally with the perspicuity and 
the grace of the period." — Blair's Rhet, p. 118 ; Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 324. " This class ex- 
hibits a lamentable want of simplicity and inefficiency." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 481, 
" Whose style flows always like a limpid stream, where we see to the very bottom." — Blair's Rhet. 
p. 93. " Whose style flows always like a limpid stream, through which we see to the very bottom." — 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 293. "We make use of the ellipsis."* — lb., p. 217. "The ellipsis of 
the article is thus used." — lb., p. 217. " Sometimes the ellipsis is improperly applied to nouns of 
different numbers : as, 'A magnificent house and gardens.'" — lb., p. 218. "In some very em- 
phatic expressions, the ellipsis should not be used." — lb., 218. " The ellipsis of the adjective is 
used in the following manner." — lb., 218. " The following is the ellipsis of the pronoun." — lb., 
218. "The ellipsis of the verb is used in the following instances." — lb., p. 219. "The ellipsis 
of the adverb is used in the following manner." — lb., 219. " The following instances, though 
short, contain much of the ellipsis." — lb., 220. "If no emphasis be placed on any words, not 
only will discourse be rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning often ambiguous." — lb., 
242. See Hart's Gram., p. 172. "If no emphasis be placed on any words, not only is 
discourse, rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning left often ambiguous." — Blair's Rhet, 
p. 330; Murray's Eng. Reader, p. xL "He regards his word, but thou dost not regard it." 
— Bullions's E. Gram., p. 129; his Analytical and Practical Gram., p. 196. "He regards his 
word, but thou dost not: i. e. dost not regard it." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 219; Parker and 
Fox's, p. 96 ; Weld's, 192. " I have learned my task, but yoxx have not ; i. e. have not learned." 
— Ib., Mur., 219; &c. "When the omission of words would obscure the sentence, weaken its 
force, or be attended with an impropriety, they must be expressed." — lb., p. 217 ; Weld's Gram., 
190. " And therefore the verb is correctly put in the singular number, and refers to the whole 
separately and individually considered." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, ii, 24 and 190. "I understood 
him the best of all who spoke on the subject." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 192. " I understood him 
better than any other who spoke on the subject." — Ibid. " The roughness found on our entrance 
into the paths of virtue and learning, grow smoother as we advance." — lb., p. 171. "The 

* In his explanation of Ellipsis, Lindley Murray continually calls it " the ellipsis," and speaks of it as some- 
thing that is "used" — "made use of" — " apjrtied," — " contained in" the examples; which expressions, refer- 
ring, as they there do, to the mere absence of something, appear to me solecistical. The notion too, which this 
author and others have entertained of the figure itself, is in many respects erroneous; and nearly all their ex- 
amples for its illustration are either questionable as to such an application, or obviously inappropriate. The 
absence of what is needless or unsuggested, is no ellipsis, though some grave men have not discerned this ob- 
vious fact. The nine solecisms here quoted concerning "the ellipsis" are all found in many other grammars. 
SeeFisk'sE. Gram., p. 144; Guy' 8,91; Ingersoll's, 153; J. M. Putnam's, 13T; R. C. Smith's, 180; Weld's, 190. 



723 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

roughnesses," &c. — Murray's Key, 12 mo, p. 8. " Nothing promotes knowledge more than steady 
application, and a habit of observation." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 265. "Virtue confers supreme 
dignity on man : and should be his chief desire." — lb., p. 192 ; and Merchant's, 192. " The Su- 
preme author of our being has so formed the soul of man, that nothing but himself can be its 
last, adequate, and proper happiness." — Addison, Sped., No. 413 ; Blair's Rhet., p. 213. "The 
inhabitants of China laugh at the plantations of our Europeans ; because, they say, any one may 
place trees in equal rows and uniform figures." — Ad., Sped., No. 414; Blair's Rhet, p. 222. 
" The divine laws are not reversible by those of men." — Murray's Key, ii, 167. " In both of 
these examples, the relative and the verb which was, are understood." — Murray's Gram., p. 273; 
Comhj's, 152 ; Ingersoll's, 285. "The Greek and Latin languages, though, for many reasons, they 
cannot be called dialects of one another, are nevertheless closely connected." — Dr. Murray's Hist, 
of European Lang., Vol. ii, p. 51. "To ascertain and settle which, of a white rose or a red rose, 
breathes the sweetest fragrance." — J. Q. Adams, Orat., 1831. " To which he can afford to de- 
voto much less of his time and labour." — Blair's Rhet., p. 254. 
" Avoid extremes ; and shun the fault of such, 
Who still are pleas'd too little or too much." — Pope, on Grit, 1. 384. 

LESSON XL— BAD PHRASES. 

"He had as good leave his vessel to the direction of the winds." — South: in Joh. Diet 
,; Without good nature and gratitude, men had as good live in a wilderness as in societ}-." — 
L'Estrangb : ib. " And for this reason such lines almost never occur together." — Blair's Rhet., 
p. 385. " His being a great man did not make him a happy man." — Crombie's Treatise, p. 288. 
" Let that which tends to the making cold your love be judged in all." — S. Crisp. " It is wor- 
thy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak but it mates and masters 
the fear of death." — Bacon's Essays, p. 4. "Accent dignifies the syllable on which it is laid, and 
makes it more distinguished by the ear than the rest." — Sheridan's Led., p. 80 ; Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 244. "Before he proceeds to argue either on one side or other." — Blair's Rhet., p. 313. 
"The change in general of manners throughout all Europe." — lb., p. 375. "The sweetness and 
beauty of Virgil's numbers, throughout his whole works." — lb., p. 440. "The French writers of 
sermons study neatness and elegance in laying down their heads." — lb., p. 13. " This almost 
never fiiils to prove a refrigerant to passion." — lb., p. 321. "At least their fathers, brothers, and 
uncles, cannot, as good relations and good citizens, dispense with their not standing forth to de- 
mand vengeance." — Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. i, p. 191. "Alleging, that their crying down the 
church of Rome, was a joining hand with the Turks." — Barclay's Works, i, 239. "To which is 
added the Assembly of Divines Catechism," — 'New-England Primer, p. 1. "This treachery was 
always present in both their thoughts." — Dr. Robertson. "Thus far both their words agree." 
(" Conveniunt adhuc utriusqwi v^rba. Plaut.") — Walker's Particles, p. 125. " Aparithmesis, or 
Enumeration, is the branching out into several parts of what might be expressed in fewer words." 
— Gould's Gram, p. -241. " Aparithmesis, or Enumeration, is when Avhat might be expressed in 
a few words, is branched out into several parts." — Adam's Gram., -p. 251. "Which may sit from 
time to time where you dwell or in the neighbouring vicinity." — Taylor's District School, 1st Ed., 
p. 281. " Place together a large and a small sized animal of the same species." — Karnes, El. of 
Grit., i, 235. " The weight of the swimming body is equal to that of the weight, of the quantity 
of fluid displaced by it." — PercivaVs Tales, ii, 213. "The Subjunctive mood, in all its tenses, is 
similar to that of the Optative." — Gwilt's Saxon Gram., p. 27. ." No other feeling of obligation 
remains, except that of fidelity." — Wayland's Moral Science, 1st Ed., p. 82. "Who asked him, 
' What could be the reason, that whole audiences should be moved to tears, at the representation 
of some story on the stage.' " — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 175. " Art not thou and you ashamed 
to affirm, that the best works of the Spirit of Christ in his saints are as filthy rags?" — Barclay's 
Works, i, 174. " A neuter verb becomes active, when followed by a noun of the same significa- 
tion with its own." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 127. "But he has judged better, in omitting to repeat 
the article the.'' — Blair's Rhet, p. 194. "Many objects please us as highly beautiful, which have 
almost no variety at all." — lb., p. 46. " Yet notwithstanding, they sometimes follow them." — 
Emmons's Gram., p. 21. " For I know of nothing more material in all the whole Subject, than 
this doctrine of Mood and Tense." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 292. "It is by no means impos- 
sible for an errour to be got rid of or supprest." — Philological Museum., Vol. i, p. 642. " These 
are things of the highest importance to the growing age." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 250. "Pie had 
better have omitted the word many." — Blair's Rhet, p. 205. " Which had better have been sep- 
arated." — lb., p. 225. " Figures and metaphors, therefore, should, on no occasion be stuck on 
too profusely." — lb., p. 144; Jamieson's Rhet, 150. "Metaphors, as well as other figures, should 
on no occasion, be stuck on too profusely." — Murray's Gram., p. 338 ; Russell's, 136. "Some- 
thing like this has been reproached to Tacitus." — Bolingbroke : Priestley's Gram., p. 164. 
" O thou, whom all mankind in vain withstand, 
Each of whose blood must one day stain thy hand !" — Sheffield's Temple of Death. 

LESSON XII.— TWO ERRORS* 

" Pronouns are sometimes made to precede the things which they represent." — Murray's 

* Some of these examples do, in fact, contain more than two errors ; for mistakes in punctuation, or in the 
use of capitals^ are not here reckoned. This remark may also be applicable to some of the other lessons. The 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. — ERRORS. 729 

Gram., p. 160. "Most prepositions originally denote the relation of place." — Lowth's Gram., 
p. 65. " Which is applied to inferior animals and things without life." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 
24; Pract. Lessons, 30. "What noun do they describe or tell the kind?" — Infant School Gram., 
p. 41. "Iron cannon, as well as brass, is now universally cast solid." — Jamieson's Diet. "We 
have philosophers, eminent and conspicuous, perhaps, beyond any nation." — Blair's Rhet., p. 251. 
" This is a question about words alone, and which common sense easily determines." — lb., p. 
320. " The low [pitch of the voice] is, when he approaches to a whisper." — lb., p. 328. 
" Which, as to the elic ct, is just the same with using no such distinctions at all." — lb., p. 33. 
"These two systems, therefore, differ in reality very little from one another." — lb., p. 23. "It 
were needless to give many instances, as they occur so often." — lb., p. 109. "There are many 
occasions when this is neither requisite nor would be proper." — lb., p. 311. "Dramatic poetry 
divides itself into the two forms, of comedy or tragedy." — lb., p. 452. "No man ever rhymed 
truer and evener than he." — Prtf. to Waller, p. 5. "The Doctor did not reap a profit from his 
poetical labours equal to those of his prose." — Johnson's Life of Goldsmith. "We will follow 
that which we found our fathers practice." — Sale's Koran, i, 28. " And I would deeply regret 
having published them." — Infant School Gram., p. vii. " Figures exhibit ideas in a manner more 
vivid and impressive, than could be done by plain language." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 222. " The 
allegory is finely drawn, only the heads various." — Sped., No. 540. "I should not have thought 
it worthy a place here." — Crombie's Treatise, p. 219. "In this style, Tacitus excels all writers, 
ancient and modern." — Karnes, El.ofCrit., ii, 261. "No author, ancient or modern, possesses 
the art of dialogue equal to Shakspeare." — lb., ii, 294. "The names of every thing we hear, 
see, smell, taste, and feel, are nouns." — Infant School Gram., p. 16. "What number are these 
boys? these pictures? &c." — lb., p. 23. "This sentence is faulty, somewhat in the same man- 
ner with the last." — Blair's Rhet., p. 230. "Besides perspicuity, he pursues propriety, purity, 
and precision, in his language; which forms one degree, and no inconsiderable one, of beauty." — 
lb, p. 181. "Many critical terms have unfortunately been emploj r cd in a sense too loose and 
vague; none more so, than that of the sublime." — lb., p. 35. "Hence, no word in the language 
is used in a more vague signification than beauty." — lb., p. 45. "But, still, he made use only 
of general terms in speech." — lb., p. 13. "These give liie, body, and colouring to the recital of 
facts, and enable us to behold them as present, and passing before our eyes." — lb., p. 360. 
" Which carried an ideal chivalry to a still more extravagant height than it had risen in fact." — 
lb., p. 374. "We w r rite much mere supinely, and at our ease, than the ancients."- — lb., p. 351. 
" This appears indeed to form the characteristical difference between the ancient poets, orators, 
and historians, compared with the modern." — lb., p. 350. " To violate this rule, as is too often 
done by the English, shews great incorrectness." — lb., p. 463. "It is impossible, by means of 
any study to avoid their appearing stiff and forced." — lb., p. 335. "Besides its giving the 
speaker the disagreeable appearance of one who endeavours to compel rssent.'" — lb., p. 328. 
" And, on occasions where a light or ludicrous anecdote is proper to be recorded, it is generally 
better to throw it into a note, than to hazard becoming too familiar." — lb., p. 359. "The great 
business of this life is to prepare, and qualify us, for the enjoyment of a better." — Murray's 
Gram.., 8vo, p. 373. "In some dictionaries, accordingly, it was omitted; and in others stig- 
matized as a barbarism." — Crombie's Treatise, p. 322. "You cannot see, or think of a thing, 
unless it be a noun." — Hack's Gram., p. 65. "The fleet are all arrived and moored in safety." — 
Murray's Key, ii, 185. 

LESSON XIII.— TWO ERRORS. 
"They have each their distinct and exactly-limited relation to gravity." — Blaster's Astronomy, 
p. 219. "But in cases which would give too much of the hissing sound, the omission takes place 
even in prose." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 175. "After o it [the w\ is sometimes not sounded at 
all; sometimes like a single u." — Lowth's Gram., p. 3. "It is situation chiefly which decides of 
the fortunes and characters of men." — Hume: Priestley's Gram., p. 159. "It is situation chiefly 
which decides the fortune (or, concerning the fortune) and characters of men." — Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 201. "The vice of covetousness is what enters deeper into the soul than any other." — 
lb., p. 167; Ingersoll's, 193; Fisk's, 103; Campbell's Rhet., 205. "Covetousness, of all vices, 
enters the deepest into the soul." — Murray, 167 ; and others. "Covetousness is what of all vices 
enters the deepest into the soul." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 205. "The vice of covetousness is what 
enters deepest into the soul of any other." — Guardian, No. 19. " Would primarily denotes in- 
clination of will; and should, obligation; but they both vary their import, and are often used to 
express simple event." — Lowth's Gram., p. 43; Murray's, 89; Fisk's, 78; Greenleaf's, 27. "But 
they both vary their import, and are often used to express simple events." — Comly's Gram., p. 
39 ; Ingersoll's, 137. " But they vary their import, and are often used to express simple event." 
— Abel Flint's Gram., p. 42. " A double conjunctive, in two correspondent clauses ot a sentence, 
is sometimes made use of: as, i Had he done this, he had escaped."' — Murray's Gram., Svo. p. 
213 ; Ingersoll's, 269. " The pleasures of the understanding are preferable to those of the imagin- 
ation, or of sense." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 191. "Claudian, in a fragment upon the w r arsof the 
giants, has contrived to render this idea of their thro wing the mountains, which is in itself so grand, 

reader may likewise perceive, that where two, three, or more improprieties occur in one sentence, some one or 
more of them may happen to he such, as he can, if he choose, correct by some rule or note belonging to a pre- 
vious chapter. Great labour has been bestowed on the selection and arrangement of these syntactical exercises ; 
but to give to so great a variety of literary faults, a distribution perfectly distinct, and perfectly adapted to all 
the heads assumed in this digest, is a work not only of great labour, but of great difficulty. I have come as 
near to these two points of perfection in the arrangement, as I well could. — G. Brown. 



730 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

burlesque, and ridiculous." — Blair's Rhet, p. 42. " To which not only no other writings arc to 
be preferred, but even in divers respects not comparable." — Barclay's Works, i, 53. " To distin- 
guish them in the understanding, and treat of their several natures, in the same cool manner as 
we do with regard to other ideas." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 137. " For it has nothing to do with 
parsing or analyzing language." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 19. Or: " For it has nothing to do with 
parsing, or analyzing, language." — Id., Second Edition, p. 16. "Neither was that language [the 
Latin] ever so vulgar in Britain." — Swift: see Blair's Rhet, p. 228. "All that I propose is to 
give some openings into the pleasures of taste." — lb., p. 28. "But it would have been better 
omitted in the following sentences." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 210. "But I think it had better 
be omitted in the following sentence." — Priestley's Gram., p. 102. " They appear, in this case, 
like excrescences jutting out from the body, which had better have been wanted." — Blair's Rhet., 
p. 326. "And therefore, the fable of the Harpies, in the third book of the iEneid, and the alle- 
gory of Sin and Death, in the second book of Paradise Lost, had been better omitted in these 
celebrated poems." — lb., p. 430. " Ellipsis is an elegant Suppression (or the leaving out) of a 
Word, or Words in a Sentence." — British Gram., p. 234; Buchanan's, p. 131. "The article a or 
an had better be omitted in this construction." — Blair's Gram., p. 67. " Now suppose the articles 
had not been left out in these passages." — Bucke's Gram., p. 27. " To give separate names to 
every one of those trees, would have been an endless and impracticable undertaking." — Blair's 
Rhet, p. 72. " Ei, in general, sounds the same as long and slender a." — Murray's Gram., p. 12. 
" Wlien.a conjunction is used apparently redundant it is called Polysyndeton." — Adam's Gram., 
p. 236; Gould's, 229. " Each, every, either, neither, denote the persons or things which make up 
a number, as taken separately or distributively." — M'Culloch's Gram., p. 31. "The Principal 
Sentence must be expressed by verbs in the Indicative, Imperative, or Potential Modes." — Clark's 
Pract. Gram., p. 133. " Hence he is diffuse, where he ought to have been pressing." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 246. "All manner of subjects admit of explaining comparisons." — lb., p. 164; Jamie- 
son's Rhet, 161. " The present or imperfect participle denotes action or being continued, but not 
perfected." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 78. "What are verbs? Those words which express what 
the nouns do " — Fowle's True Eng. Gram., p. 29. 

" Of all those arts in which the wise excel, 
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well." — J. Sheffield, Duke of Buck. 

" Such was that muse whose rules and practice tell 
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well." — Pope, on Criticism. 

LESSON XIV.— THREE ERRORS. 

• 

" In some words the metaphorical sense has justled out the original sense altogether, so that in 
respect of it they are become obsolete." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 323. " Sure never any mortal was 
so overwhelmed with grief as I am at this present." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 138. " All lan- 
guages differ from each other in their mode of inflexion." — Bullions, E. Gram., Pref., p. v. 
"Nouns and verbs are the only indispensable parts of speech — the one to express the subject 
spoken of, and the other the predicate or what is affirmed of it." — MCulloch's Gram., p. 36. 
" The words in italics of the three latter examples, perform the office of substantives." — L. Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 66. "Such a structure of a sentence is always the mark of careless writing." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 231. "Nothing is frequently more hurtful to the grace or vivacity of a period, 
than superfluous dragging words at the conclusion." — lb., p. 205. " When its substantive is not 
joined to it, but referred to, or understood." — Lowth's Gram., p. 24. "Yet they have always 
some substantive belonging to them, either referred to, or understood." — lb., 24. " Because they 
define and limit the extent of the common name, or general term, to which they either refer, or 
are joined." — lb., 24. " Every new object surprises, terrifies, and makes a strong impression on 
their mind." — Blair's Rhet, p. 136. " His argumeut required to have been more fully unfolded, 
in order to make it be distinctly apprehended, and to give it its due force." — lb., p. 230. " Parti- 
ciples which are derived from active verbs, will govern the objective case, the same as the verbs 
from which they are derived" — Emmons's Gram., p. 61. "Where, contrary to the rule, the 
nominative i" precedes, and the objective case whom follows the verb." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 
181. " The same conjunction governing both the indicative and the subjunctive moods, in the 
same sentence, and in the sama circumstances, seems to be a great impropriety." — lb., p. 207 ; 
Smith's New Gram., 173 : see Lowth's Gram., p. 105 ; Fisk's, 128 ; and Ingersoll's, 266. " A nice 
discernment, and accurate attention to the best usage, are necessary to direct us, on these occa- 
sions." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 170. "The Greeks and Romans, the former especially, were, 
in truth, much more musical nations than we; their genius was more turned to delight in the 
melody of speech." — Blair's Rhet, p. 123. "When the sense admits it, the sooner a circum- 
stance is introduced, the better, that the more important and significant words may possess the 
last place, quite disencumbered." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, i, p. 309 ; Parker and Fox's, Part III, 
p. 88. " When the sense admits it, the sooner they are despatched, generally speaking, the bet- 
ter; that the more important and significant words may possess the last place, quite disencum- 
bered."— -Blair's Rhet, p. 118. See also Jamieson's Rhet, p. 101. "Thus we find it, both in the 
Greek and Latin tongues." — Blair's Rhet, p. 74. "A train of sentences, constructed in the same 
manner, and with the same number of members, should never be allowed to succeed one another." 
— lb., p. 102; Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. i, p. 306; Parker and Fox's Gram, Part III, p. 86. 
" I proceed to lay down the rules to be observed in the conduct of metaphors, and which are 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. — ERRORS. 731 

much the same for tropes of every kind." — Blair's Bhei, p. 143. " By a proper choice of words, 
we may produce a resemblance of other sounds which we mean to describe." — lb., p. 129; 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, Yol. i, p. 331. "The disguise can almost never be so perfect, but it is dis- 
covered." — Blair s Bhet, p. 259. " The sense admits of no other pause than after the second 
syllable ' sit,' which therefore must be the only pause made in the reading." — lb., p. 333. "Not 
that I believe North America to be peopled so late as the twelfth century, the period of Madoc's 
migration." — Webster's Essays, p. 212. "Money and commodities wil always flow to that 
country, where they are most wanted and wil command the most profit," — 76., p. 308. " That 
it contains no visible marks, of articles, which are the most important of all others, to a just de- 
livery." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 13. " And of virtue, from its beauty, we call it a fair and 
favourite maid."— Mack's Gram., p. 66. " The definite article may agree with nouns in the sin- 
gular and plural number." — Infant School Gram., p. 130. 

LESSON XY.— MANY ERRORS. 

(1.) " A compound word is included under the head of derivative words." — Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 23. (2.) "An Apostrophe, marked thus ' is used to abbreviate or shorten a word. Its 
chief use is to show the genitive case of nouns." — lb., p. 2S1.* (3.) "A Hyphen, marked thus- 
is employed in connecting compounded words. It is also used when a word is divided." — lb., p. 
282. (4.) " The Acute Accent, marked thus ' : as, ' Fancy.' The Grave thus ' as, ' Favour.' " 
— lb., p. 282. (5.) "The stress is laid on long and short syllables indiscriminately. In order to 
distinguish the one from the other, some writers of dictionaries have placed the grave on the 
former, and the acute on the latter." — lb., 282. (6.) "A Diaeresis, thus marked", consists of 
two points placed over one of the two vowels that would otherwise make a diphthong, and parts 
them into syllables." — lb., 282. (7.) "A Section marked thus §, is the division of a discourse, or 
chapter, into less parts or portions." — lb., 282. (8.) " A Paragraph ^[ denotes the beginning of a 
new subject, or a sentence not connected with the foregoing. This character is chiefly used in 
the Old and in the New Testaments."— lb., 282. (9.) "A Quotation " ". Two inverted 
commas are generally placed at the beginning of a phrase or a passage, which is quoted or tran- 
scribed from the speaker or author in his own words ; and two commas in their direct position, 
are placed at the conclusion." — lb., 282. (10.) "A Brace is used in poetry at the end of a trip- 
let or three lines, which have the same rhyme. Braces are also used to connect a number of 
words with one common term, and are introduced to prevent a repetition in writing or printing." 
— lb., p. 283. (11.) "Two or three asterisks generally denote the omission of some letters in a 
word, or of some bold or indelicate expression, or some defect in the manuscript," — lb., 283. 

(12.) "An Ellipsis is also used, when some letters in a word, or some words in a verse, are 

omitted." — B>., 283. (13.) " An Obelisk, which is marked thus f, and Parallels thus ||, together 
with the letters of the Alphabet, and figures, are used as references to the margin, or bottom of 
the page." — lb., 283. (14.) "A note of interrogation should not be employed, in cases where it 
is only said a question has been asked, and where the words are not used as a question. ' The 
Cyprians asked me why I wept.' " — lb., p. 279 ; Comly, 163 ; Ingersoll, 291 ; Fish, 157 ; Flint, 
113. (15.) "A point of interrogation is improper after sentences which are not questions, but 
only expressions of admiration, or of some other emotion." — Same authors and places. (16.) '"The 
parenthesis incloses in the body of a sentence a member inserted into it, which is neither necessary 
to the sense, nor at all affects the construction." — Lowth's Gram., p. 124. (17.) " Simple mem- 
bers connected by relatives, and comparatives, are for the most part distinguished by a comma. "f 
— lb., p. 121. (18.) " Simple members of sentences connected by comparatives, are, for the most 
part, distinguished by a comma." — L. Murray's Gravi., p. 272; Alden's, 148; Ingersoll' s, 284. 
See the same words without the last two commas, in Comly's Gram., p. 149 ; Alger's, 79 ; 
Merchant's Murray, 143 : — and this again, with a different sense, made by a comma before "con- 
nected," in Smith's New Gram., 190; Abel Flint's, 102. (19.) "Simple members of sentences 
connected by comparatives, are for the most part distinguished by the comma." — Russell's Gram., 
p. 115. (20.) " Simple members of sentences, connected by comparatives, should generally be 
distinguished by a comma." — Merchant's School Gram., p. 150. (21.) " Simple members of sen- 
tences connected by than or so, or that express contrast or comparison, should, generally, be 
divided by a comma." — Jaudon's Gram., p. 185. (22.) " Simple members of sentences, con- 
nected by comparatives, if they be long, are separated by a comma." — Cooper's New Gram., p. 
195. See the same without the first comma, in Cooper's Murray, p. 183. (23.) " Simple mem- 
bers of sentences connected by comparatives, and phrases placed in opposition to, or in contrast 
with, each other, are separated by commas." — Bullions, p. 153; Hiley, 113. (24.) "On which 

* In Murray's sixth chapter of Punctuation, from which this example, and eleven others that follow it, are 
taken, there is scarcely a single sentence that does not contain many errors ; and yet the whole is literally copied 
in InyersolVs Grammar, p. 293; in Fisk's, p. 159; in Abel Flint's, 116; and pro'bahly in some others. I have 
not always been careful to subjoin the great number of references which might be given for blunders selected 
from this hackneyed literature of the schools. For corrections, or improvements, see the Key. 

t This example, or L. Murray's miserable modification of it, traced through the grammars of Alden, Alger, 
Bullions, Comlv, Cooper, Flint, Hiley, Ingersoll. Jaudon, Merchant. Russell. Smith, and others, will be found 
to have a dozen different forms — all of them no less faulty than the original — all of them obscure, untrue, in- 
consistent, and almost incorrigible. It is plain, that " a comma," or one comma, cannot divide more than two 
"simple members;" and these, surely, cannot be connected by more than one relative, or by more than one 
" comparative:" if it be allowable to call than, as, or so. by thisquestionable name. Of the multitude of errors 
into which these pretended critics have so blindly fallen. I shall have space and time to point out only a very 
small part: this text, too justly, may be taken as a pretty fair sample of their scholarship I 



732 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

ever word we lay the emphasis, whether on the first, second, third, or fourth, it strikes out a dif- 
ferent sense." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 243. (25.) " To inform those who do not understand 
sea phrases, that, 'We tacked to the larboard, and stood off to sea,' would be expressing our- 
selves very obscurely." — lb., p. 296; and Hiley's Gram., p. 151. (26.) " Of dissyllables, which 
are at once nouns and verbs, the verb has commonly the accent on the latter, and the noun,. on 
the former syllable." — Murray, ib., p. 237. (27.) " And this gives our language a superior ad- 
vantage to most others, in the poetical and rhetorical style." — Id., ib., p. 38; Iagersoll, 27 ; Fish, 
57. (28.) " And this gives the English an advantage above most other languages in the poetical 
and rhetorical style." — Lowth's Gram., p. 19. (29.) " The second and third scholar may read the 
same sentence; and as many, as it is necessary to learn it perfectly to the whole." — Osborn's 
Key, p. 4. 

(30.) " Bliss is the name in subject as a king, 

In who obtain defence, or who defend." — Bullions, K Gram., p. 178. 

LESSON XYL— MANY ERRORS. 
" The Japanese, the Tonquinese, and the Coraeans, speak different languages from one another, 
and from the inhabitants of China, but use, with these last people, the same written characters ; a 
proof that the Chinese characters are like hieroglyphics, independent of language." — Jamieson's 
Rhet, p. 18. "The Japanese, the Tonquinese, and the Corceans, who speak different languages 
from one another, and from the inhabitants of China, use, however, the same written characters 
with them ; and by this means correspond intelligibly with each other in writing, though ignorant 
of the language spoken in their several countries; a plain proof," &c. — Blair's Rhet, p. 67. " The 
curved line is made square instead of round, for the reason beforementioned." — Knight, on the 
Greek Alphabet, p. 6. " Every one should content himself with the use of those tones only that 
he is habituated to in speech, and to give none other to emphasis, but what he would do to the 
same words in discourse. Thus whatever he utters will be done with ease, and appear natural." 
— Sheridan's Elocution, p. 103. " Stops ? or pauses, are a total cessation of sound during a per- 
ceptible, and in numerous compositions, a measurable space of time." — lb., p. 104. " Pauses or 
rests, in speaking and reading, are a total cessation of the voice during a perceptible, and, in many 
cases, a measurable space of time." — Murray's Gram., p. 248 ; English Reader, p. 13 ; Goldsbury's 
Gr., 76; Kirkham's, 208 ; Felton's, 133 ; et al. " Nouns which express a small one of the kind 
are called Diminutive Nouns ; as, lambkin, hillock, satchel, gosling, from lamb, hill, sack, goose." 
— Bullions, E. Gram., 1837, p. 9. "What is the cause that nonsense so often escapes being de- 
tected, both by the writer and by the reader ?" — Campbell's Rhet., p. xi, and 280. " An Interjection 
is a word used to express sudden emotion. They are so called, because they are generally thrown 
in between the parts of a sentence without reference to the structure of the other parts of it." — 
M' Culloch's Gram., p. 36. " Ought (in duty bound) oughtest, oughtedst, are it's only inflections." 
— Mackintosh's Gram., p. 165. " But the arrangment, government, agreement, and dependence 
of one word upon another, are referred to our reason." — Osborn's Key, Pre/., p. 3. " Me is a per- 
sonal pronoun, first person singular, and the accusative case." — Guy's Gram., p. 20. "The 
substantive self is added to a pronoun ; as, herself, himself, &c. ; and when thus united, is called 
a reciprocal pronoun." — lb., p. 18. " One cannot avoid thinking that our author had done better 
to have begun the first of these three sentences, with saying, it is novelty which bestoios charms on 
a monster, &c." — Blair's Rhet., p. 207. " The idea which they present to us of nature's resembling 
art, of art's being considered as an original, and nature as a copy,* seems not very distinct nor 
well brought out, nor indeed very material to our author's purpose." — lb., p. 220. " The present 
construction of the sentence, has plainly been owing to hasty and careless writing." — lb., p. 220. 
" Adverbs serve to modify, or to denote some circumstance of an action, or of a quality, relative 
to its time, place, order, degree, and the other properties of it, which we have occasion to specify." 
— lb., p. 84. "The more that any nation is improved by science, and the more perfect their lan- 
guage becomes, we may naturally expect that it will abound more with connective particles." — 
lb., p. 85. " Mr. G-reenleaf's book is by far the best adapted for learners of any that has yet ap- 
peared on the subject." — Dr. Feltus and Bp. Onderdonk: Greenleafs Gram., p. 2. "Punctu- 
ation is the art of marking in writing the several pauses, or rests, between sentences, and the 
parts of sentences, according to their proper quantity or proportion, as they are expressed in a 
just and accurate pronunciation." — Lowth's Gram., p. 114. " A compound sentence must be re- 
solved into simple ones, and separated by commas." — Greenleafs Gram., p. 41 ; Allen Fisk's, 155.f 
"Simple sentences should be separated from each other by commas, unless such sentences are 
connected by a conjunction : as, ' Youth is passing away, age is approaching and death is near." 
— Hall's Gram., p. 36. U V has the sound of fiat /, and bears the same relation to it, as b does to p, 
d to t, hard g to k, and z to s. It has one uniform sound." — Murray's Gram., p. 17 ; Fisk's, 42. 
" Fis flat/, and bears the same relation to it as b does to p, d to t, hard g to k, and z to 5. It is 
never irregular." — Walker's Diet, p. 52. "Fhas the sound of flat/; and bears the same relation 

* The '■'■idea" which is here spoken of, Dr. Blair discovers in a passage of Addison's Spectator. It is, in fact, 
as here " brought out" by the critic, a bald and downright absurdity. Dr. Campbell has criticised, under the 
name of marvellous nonsense, a different display of the same '■'■idea" cited from De Piles' s Principles of Paint- 
ing. The passage ends thus: "In this sense it may be asserted, that in Rubens' pieces, Art is above Nature, 
and Nature only a copy of that great master's works." Of this the critic says: " When the expression is stript 
of the absurd meaning, there remains nothing but balderdash." — Philosophy of Rhet., p. 278. 

t All his rules for the comma, Fisk appears to have taken unjustly from Greenleaf. It is a double shame, 
for a grammarian to steal what is so badly vjritten ! — G. Brown. 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. GENERAL RULE. — CRITICAL NOTES. ERRORS. 733 

to it as z does to s. It has one uniform sound " — Greenleafs Gram., p. 20. " The author is explain- 
ing the distinction, between the powers of sense and imagination in the human mind." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, Vol. i, p. 343. [The author is endeavouring] " to explain a very abstract point, the 
distinction between the powers of sense and imagination in the human mind." — Blair's Bhet, p. 
164. * " He (Anglo-Saxon he) is a Personal pronoun, of the Third Person, Masculine Gender (De- 
cline he), of the singular number, in the nominative case." — Fowlers E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 589. 

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER THE CRITICAL NOTES. 
Under Critical Note I. — Of the Parts of Speecii. 
" The passive voice denotes a being acted upon." — Maunders Gram., p. 6. 

[Fokmttle. — Not proper, because the term " being acted upon" as here used, suggests a doubt concerning its 
classification in parsing. But, according to Critical Note 1st, "Words that may constitute different parts of 
speech, must not be left doubtful as to their classification, or to what part of speech they belong." Therefore, 
the. phraseology should be altered ; thus, "The passive voice denotes an action received." Or; "The passive 
voice denotes the receiving of an action."] 

"Milton, in some of his prose works, has very finely turned periods." — Blair's Bhet., p. 127 j 
Jamieson's, 129. "These will be found to be all, or chiefly, of that class." — Blair's Bhet.. p. 32- 
" All appearances of an author's affecting harmony, are disagreeable." — lb., p. 127; Jamieson> 
128. " Some nouns have a double increase, that is, increase by more sjdlables than one; as, Hen 
itineris." — Adam's Gram., p. 255; Gould's, 247. "The powers of man are enlarged by advan- 
cing cultivation." — Gurneifs Essays, -p. 62. "It is always important to begin well ; to make a 
favourable impression at first setting out." — Blair's Bhet, p. 307. "For if one take a wrong 
method at first setting out, it will lead him astray in all that follows." — lb., 313. " His mind is 
full of his subject, and his words are all expressive." — lb., 179. "How exquisitely is this all 
performed in Greek!" — Harries Hermes, p. 422. "How little is all this to satisfy the ambition 
of an immortal soul !" — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 253. " So as to exhibit the object in its full and most 
striking point of view." — Blair's Bhet., p. 41. "And that the author know how to descend with 
propriety to the plain, as well as how to rise to the bold and figured style." — lb., p. 401. " The 
heart can only answer to the heart." — lb., p. 259. "Upon its first being perceived." — Harris's 
Hermes, p. 229. "Call for Samson, that he may make us sport." — Judges, xvi, 25. "And he 
made them sport." — Ibid. "The term suffer in this definition is used in a technical sense, and 
means simply the receiving of an action, or the being acted upon." — Bullions, p. 29. " The Text 
is what is only meant to be taught in Schools." — Brightland, Pre/., p. ix. " The perfect participle 
denotes action or being perfected or finished." — Kirkharn's Gram., p. 78. " Prom the intricacy 
and confusion which are produced by their being blended together." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 
66. " This very circumstance of a word's being employed antithetically, renders it important in 
the sentence." — Kirkharn's Elocution, p. 121. "It [the pronoun that,'] is applied to both persons 
and things." — Murray's Gram., p. 53. " Concerning us, as being every where evil spoken of." — 
Barclay's Works, Vol. ii, p. vi. " Every thing beside was buried in a profound silence." — Steele. 
" They raise more full conviction than any reasonings produce." — Blair s Bhet, p. 367. "It ap- 
pears to me no more than a fanciful refinement." — lb., p. 436. " The regular resolution through- 
out of a complete passage." — Churchill's Gram., p. vii. "The infinitive is known by its being 
immediately preceded by the word to." — Maunder's Gram., p. 6. " It will not be gaining much 
ground to urge that the basket, or vase, is understood to be the capital." — Karnes, El. of Grit., Vol. 
ii, p. 356. " The disgust one has to drink ink in reality, is not to the purpose where the subject 
is drinking ink figuratively." — lb., ii, 231. " That we run not into the extreme of pruning so very 
close." — Blair's Bhet, p. 111. "Being obliged to rest for a little on the preposition by itself." — 
lb., p. 112; Jamieson's Bhet, 93. "Being obliged to rest a little on the preposition by itself." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 319. "Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." 
— 1 Chron., xxix, 15. " There maybe a more particular expression attempted, of certain objects, 
by means of resembling sounds." — Blair's Bhet, p. 129; Jamieson's, 130; Murray's Gram., 331. 
"The right disposition of the shade, makes the light and colouring strike the more." — Blair's 
Bhet., 144. " I observed that a diffuse style inclines most to long periods." — lb., p. 178. " Their 
poor Arguments, which they only Pickt up and down the Highway " — Divine Bight of Tythes, p. 
iii. " Which must be little, but a transcribing out of their writings." — Barclay's Works, iii, 353. 
"That single impulse is a forcing out of almost all the breath." — Bush, on the Voice, p. 254. 
" Picini compares modulation to the turning off from a road." — Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 405. 
"So much has been written, on and off, of almost every subject." — The Friend, ii, 117. "By 
reading books written by the best authors, his mind became highly improved." — Murray's Key, 
8vo, p. 201. "For I never made the being richly provided a token of a spiritual ministry." — 
Barclay's Works, iii, 470. 

Under Critical Note II. — Of Doubtful Reference. 
"However disagreeable, we must resolutely perform our duty." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 171. 

[Fokmv/le. — Not proper, because the adjective disagreeable appears to relate to the pronoun we, though such 
a relation was probably not intended by the author. But, according to Critical Note 2d, "The reference of 
words to other words, or their syntactical relation according to the sense, should never be left doubtful, by any 
one who means to be understood." The sentence may be amended thus: " However disagreeable the task, we 
must resolutely perform our duty."] 

" The formation of verbs in English, both regular and irregular, is derived from the Saxon." — 
Lowth's Gram., p. 47. " Time and chance have an influence on all things human, and on nothing 



734 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

more remarkably than on language."— Ga mpbell's Bhet, p. 180. "Time and chance have an in- 
fluence on all things human, and on nothing more remarkable than on language." — Jarnieson's 
BheL, p. 47. " Archytases being a virtuous man, who happened to perish once upon a time, is 
with him a sufficient ground," &c .— Philological Museum, i, 466. " He will be the better qualified 
to understand, with accuracy, the meaning of a numerous class of words, in which they form a 
material part." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 120. "We should continually have the goal in view, 
which would direct us in the race."— Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 172. "But [Addison's figures] seem 
to rise of their own accord from the subject, and constantly embellish it." — Blair's Bhet, p. 150; 
Jarnieson's, 157. " As far as persons and other animals and things that we can see go, it is very 
easy to distinguish Nouns." — Oobbett's Gram., \ 14. "Dissyllables ending in y, e mute, or ac- 
cented on the last syllable, may be sometimes compared like monosyllables." — Frost's El. of 
Gram., p. 12. " Admitting the above objection, it will not overrule the design." — Bush, on the 
Voice, p. 140. " These philosophical innovators forget, that objects are like men, known only by 
their actions." — Dr. Murray's Hist, of Lang., i, 326. " The connexion between words and ideas 
is arbitrary and conventional, owing to the agreement of men among themselves." — Jarnieson's 
Bhet, p. 1. " The connexion between words and ideas may, in general, be considered as arbi- 
trary and conventional, owing to the agreement of men among themselves." — Blair's Bhet, p. 53. 
" A man whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and had great abilities to manage and multiply 
and defend his corruptions." — Swift. " They have no more control over him than any other 
men." — Wayland's Moral Science, 1st Ed., p. 372. "His old words are all true English, and 
numbers exquisite." — Spectator, No. 540. "It has been said, that not only Jesuits can equivo- 
cate." — Murray's Exercises, 8vo, p. 121. "It has been said, that Jesuits can not only equivo- 
cate." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 253. " The nominative of the first and second person in Latin is 
seldom expressed." — Adam's Gram., p. 154; Gould's, 157. "Some words are the same in both 
numbers." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 40 ; Ingersoll's, 18 ; Fish's, 59 ; Kirkham's, 39 ; W. Allen's, 
42 ; et al. " Some nouns are the same in both numbers." — Merchant's Gram., p. 29 ; Smith's, 
45 ; et al. " Others are the same in both numbers ; as, deer, swine, &c." — Frost's El. of Gram., 
p. 8. " The following list denotes the sounds of the consonants, being in number twenty-two." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 6; Fisk's, 36. "And is the ignorance of these peasants a reason for others 
to remain ignorant; or to render the subject a less becoming inquiry?" — Harris's Hermes, p. 293 ; 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 288. "He is one of the most correct, and perhaps the best, of our prose 
writers." — Lowth's Gram., Pref, p. iv. " The motions of a vortex and a whirlwind are perfectly 
similar." — Jarnieson's Bhet, p. 131, "What I have been saying throws light upon one important 
verse in the Bible, which I should like to have read." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 182. "When there 
are any circumstances of time, place, or other limitations, which the principal object of our sen- 
tence requires to have connected with it." — Blair's Bhet, p. 115; Jarnieson's Bhet, 98; Murray's 
Gram., i, 322. " Interjections are words used to express emotion, affection, or passion, and im- 
ply suddenness." — Bucke's Gram., p. 77. "But the genitive is only used to express the measure 
of things in the plural number." — Adam's Gram., p. 200; Gould's, 198. "The buildings of the 
institution have been enlarged ; the expense of which, added to the increased price of provisions, 
renders it necessary to advance the terms of admission." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 183. "These 
sentences are far less difficult than complex." — S. S. Greene's Analysis, or Grammar, 1st Ed., p. 
179. 

" Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, 
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray." — Gray's Elegy. 

Under Critical Note III. — Of Definitions. 
(1.) " Definition is such a description of things as exactly describes the thing and that thing 
only." — Blair's Gram., p. 135. 

[Foemulk — Not proper, because this definition of a definition is not accurately adapted to the thing. But, 
according to Critical Note 3d, "A definition, in order to be perfect, must include the whole thing, or class of 
things, which it pretends to define, and exclude every thing which comes not under the name."* The example 
may be amended thus: "A definition is a short and lucid description of a thing, or species, according to its 
nature and properties."] 

(2.) "Language, in general, signifies the expression of our ideas by certain articulate sounds, 
which are used as the signs of those ideas." — Blair's Bhet, p. 53. (3.) " A Word is an articulate 
sound used by common consent as the sign of an idea" — Bullions, Analyt. and Pract Gr.. p. 17. 
(4) " A word is a sound, or combination of sounds, which is used in the expression of thought " — 
Hazen's Gram., p. 12. (5.) " Words are articulate sounds, used as signs to convey our ideas." — 
Hiley's Gram., p. 5. (6.) " A word is a number of letters used together to represent some idea." — 

* Bad definitions may have other faults than to include or exclude what they Bhould not, but this is their 
great and peculiar vice. For example : " Persori is that property of nouns and pron-ouns which distinguishes 
the speaker, the person or thing addressed, and the person or thing spoken of." — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., 
p. 51 ; 113th Ed., p. 57. See nearly the same words, in Weld's English Gram., p. 67; and in his Abridgement, 
p. 4*). The three persons of verbs are all improperly excluded from this definition ; which absurdly takes "per- 
son" to be one property that has all the effect of all the persons ; so that each person, in its turn, 6ince each 
cannot have all this effect, is seen to be excluded also : that is, it is not such a property as is described ! Again : 
"An intransitive verb is a verb which does not have a noun or pronoun for its object." — Wells, 1st Ed., p. 76. 
According to Dr. Johnson, "does not Imve" is not a scholarly phrase; but the adoption of a puerile expression 
is a trifling fault, compared with that of including here all passive verbs, and some transitives, which the author 
meant to exclude ; to say nothing of the inconsistency of excluding here the two classes of verbs which he ab- 
surdly calls " intransitive," though he finds them " followed by objectives depending upon them 1" — Id., p. 145. 
Weld imitates these errors too, on pp. 70 and 153. 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. — CRITICAL NOTES. — ERRORS. 735 

Earths E. Gram., p. 28. (7.) "A Word is a combination of letters, used as the sign of an idea." 

S. W. Clark's Practical Gram., p. 9. (8.) " A word is a letter or a combination of letters, used as 
the sign of an idea." — Wells's School Gram., p. 41. (9.) "Words are articulate sounds, by which 
ideas are communicated" — Wright's Gram., p. 28. (10.) "Words are certain articulate sounds 
used by common consent as signs of our ideas." — Bullions, Principles of E. Gram., p. 6 • Lot. 
Gram., 6; see Lowth, Murray, Smith, et al. (11.) "Words are sounds used as signs of our 
ideas." — W.Allen's Gram., p. 30. (12.) " Orthography means word-making or spelling." — Kirk' 
ham's Gram., p. 19 ; Smith's New Gram., p. 41. (13.) " A vowel is a letter, the name of which con- 
stitutes a full, open sound." — Hazeu's Gram., p. 10 ; Lennie's, 5 ; Brace's, 7. (14.) " Spelling is the 
art of reading by naming the letters singly, and rightly dividing words into their syllables. Or in 
writing, it is the expressing of a word by its proper letters." — Lowth's Gram., p. 5 ; Churchill's. 
20. (15.) "Spelling is the art of rightly dividing words into their syllables, or of expressing a 
word by its proper letters." — Murray's Gram., p. 21; lngersoll's, 6; Merchant's, 10; Alger's, 12; 
Greenleaf's, 20; and others. (16) "Spelling is the art of expressing words by their proper 
letters; or of rightly dividing words into syllables." — Comly's Gram., p. 8. (17.) "Spelling is the 
art of expressing a word by its proper letters, and rightly dividing it into syllables." — Bullions's 
Princ. of E. Gram., p. 2. (18.) " Spelling is the art of expressing a word by its proper letters." — 
Kirkham's Gram., p. 23 ; Sanborn's, p. 259. (19.) " A syllable is a sound either simple or com- 
pounded, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice, and constituting a word or part of a word." 
— Lowth, p. 5; Murray, 21; Ingersoll, 6; Fisk, 11; Greenleaf 20; Merchant, 9; Alger, 12; Bucke, 
15; Smith, 118; et al. (20.) " A Syllable is a complete Sound uttered in one Breath." — British 
Gram., p. 32 ; Buchanan's, 5. (21.) " A syllable is a distinct sound, uttered by a single impulse 
of the voice." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 20. (22.) " A Syllable is a distinct sound forming the whole 
of a word, or so much of it as can be sounded at once." — Bullions, E. Gr., p. 2. (23.) " A syllable is 
a word, or part of a word, or as much as can be sounded at once." — Picket's Gram., p. 10. (24.) 
"A diphthong is the union of two Vowels, both of which are pronounced as one: as in bear 
and beat." — Bucke 's Gram., p. 15. (25.) "A diphthong consists of two vowels, forming one syl- 
lable; as, ea, in beat." — Guy's Gram., p. 2. (26.) "A triphthong consists of three vowels form- 
ing one syllable; a?, eau in beauty." — lb. (27.) "But the Triphthong is the union of three 
Vowels, pronounced as one." — Bucke 's Gram., p. 15. (28.) "What is a Noun Substantive? A 
Noun Substantive is the thing itself; as, a Man, a Boy." — British Gram., p. 85; Buchanan's, 26. 
(29.) " An adjective is a word added to nouns to describe them." — Maunder s Gram., p. 1. (30.) 
" An adjective is a word joined to a noun, to describe or define it." — Smith's Neiu Gram., p. 51. 
(31.) "An adjective is a word used to describe or define a noun." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 2. (32.) 
"The adjective is added to the noun, to express the quality of it" — Murray's Gram., 12mo, 2d 
Ed., p. 27 ; Lowth, p. 6. (33.) "An adjective expresses the quality of the noun to which it is 
applied ; and may generally be known by its making sense in connection with it ; as, ' A good 
man,' 'A genteel woman.' " — Wright's Gram., p. 34. (34.) "An adverb is a word used to modify 
the sense of other words." — Wilcox's Gram., p. 2. (35.) "An adverb is a word joined to a verb, 
an adjective, or another adverb, to modify or denote some circumstance respecting it." — Bullions, 
E. Gram., p. 66 ; Lot. Gram., 185. (36.) " A Substantive or Noun is a name given to every 
object which the senses can perceive ; the understanding comprehend; or the imagination enter- 
tain." — Wright's Gram., p. 34. (37.) "Gender means the distinction of nouns with regard to 
sex." — Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., 2d Ed., p. 9. (38.) "Gender is a distinction of nouns w r ith 
regard to sex." — Frost's Gram., p. 7. (39.) " Gender is a distinction of nouns in regard to sex." 
— Perley's Gram., p. 10. (40.) "Gender is the distinction of nouns, in regard to sex." — Cooper's 
Murray, 24; Practical Gram., 21. (41.) "Gender is the distinction of nouns with regard to 
sex." — Murray's Gram., p. 37; Alger's, 16; Bacon's, 12; R. G. Greene's, 16; Bullions, Prin., 5th 
Ed., 9; his New Gr., 22; Fish's, 19; Hull's, 9; lngersoll's, 15. (42.) "Gender is the distinction 
of sex." — Alden's Gram., p. 9 ; Comly's, 20; Dalton's, 11; Davenport's, 15; J. Flint's, 28; A. 
Flint's, 11; Greenleaf's, 21; Guy's, 4; Hart's, 36; Hiley's, 12; Kirkham's, 34; Lennie's, 11; 
Picket's, 25; Smith's, 43; Sanborn's, 25; Wilcox's, 8. (43.) "Gender is the distinction of Sex, 
or the Difference betwixt Male and Female." — British Gram., p. 94; Buchanan's, 18. (44.) 
"Why are nouns divided into genders? To distinguish their sexes." — Fowle's True Eng. Gram., 
p. 10. (45.) "What is meant by Gender'? The different sexes." — Burn's Gram., p. 34. (46) 
"Gender, in grammar, is a difference of termination, to express distinction of sex." — Webster's 
Philos. Gram, p. 20; Improved Gram., 22. (47.) "Gender signifies a distinction of nouns, ac- 
cording to the different sexes of things they denote." — Coar's Gram., p. 32. (48.) "Gender is 
the distinction occasioned by sex. Though there are but two sexes, still nouns necessarily 
admit of/owr distinctions* of gender." — Hall's Gram., p. 6. (49.) " Gender is a term which is 

* S. R. Plall thinks it necessary to recognize "four distinctions" of "the distinction occasioned by sex." In 
general, the other authors here quoted, suppose that we have only "three distinctions" of " the distinction of 
sex." And, as no philosopher has yet discovered more than two sexes, some have thence stoutly argued, that 
it is absurd to speak of more than two genders. Lily makes it out, that in Latin there are seven : yet, with no 
great consistency, he will have a aen'ler to be a or the distinction of sex. " Genus est sexus discretio. Et sunt 
genera numero septem." — Lilii Gram., p. 10. That is, " Gendeb is the distinction of sex. And the genders are 
seven in number." Ruddiman says, " Genus est, discrimen nominis secundum sexum, vel ejus in structura 
grammaticfi imitatio. Genera nominum sunt tria." — Ruddimanni Gram., p. 4. That is, " Genrer is the 
diversity of the noun according to sex, or [it is] the imitation of it in grammatical structure. The genders of 
nouns are three." These old definitions are no better than the newer ones cited above. All of them are miser- 
able failures, full of faults and absurdities. Both the nature and the cause of their defects are in some degree 
explained near the close of the tenth chapter of my Introduction. Their most prominent errors are these: 1. 
They all assume, that gender, taken as oue thing, is in fact two, three, or more, genders. 2. Nearly all of them 



736 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

employed for the distinction of nouns with regard to sex and species." — Wrights Gram., p. 41. 
(50.) "Gender is a Distinction of Sex." — Fisher 1 s Gram., p. 53. (51.) "Gender marks the dis- 
tinction of Sex." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 37. (52.) " Gender means the kind, or sex. There aro 
four genders." — Parker and Fox's, Part I, p. 7. (53.) " Gender is a property of the noun which dis- 
tinguishes sex." — Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 57. (54.) " Gender is a property of the noun or pronoun 
by which it distinguishes sex." — Weld's Grammar Abridged, p. 49. (55.) " Case is the state or con- 
dition of a noun with respect to the other words in a sentence." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 16 ; his 
Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 31. (56.) " Case means the different state or situation of nouns 
with regard to other words." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 55. (57.) " The cases of substantives signify 
their different terminations, which serve to express the relation of one thing to another." — L. 
Murray 's Gram., 12mo, 2d Ed., p. 35. (58.) " Government is the power which one part of speech 
has over another, when it causes it or requires it to be of some particular person, number, gender, 
case, style, or mode." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 126; see Murray's Gram., 142; Smith's, 119; 
Pond's, 88; et al. (59,) "A simple sentence is a sentence which contains only one nominative 
case and one verb to agree with it." — Sanborn, ib. : see Murray's Gram.., et al. (60.) "Declen- 
sion means putting a noun through the different cases." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 58. (61.) "Zeug- 
ma is when two or more substantives have a verb in common, which is applicable only to one of 
them." — B. F. Fisk's Greek Gram., p. 185. (62.) "Anlrregular Verb is that which has its passed 
tense and perfect participle terminating differently; as, smite, smote, smitten." — Wright's Gram., 
p. 92. (63.) "Personal pronouns are employed as substitutes for nouns that denote persons. 11 — 
Riley's Gram., p. 23. 

Under Critical Note IV. — Of Comparisons. 
""We abound more in vowel and diphthong sounds, than most languages." — Blair's Ehet., p. 89. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the terms we and languages, which are here used to form a comparison, ex- 
press things which are totally unlike. But, according to Critical Note 4th, " A comparison is a form of speech 
which requires some similarity or common property in the things compared ; without wliich, it becomes a sole- 
cism." Therefore, the expression ought to be changed; thus, " Our language abounds more in vowel and 
diphthong sounds, than most other tongues." Or: "We abound more in vowel and diphthongal sounds, than 
most nations."'} 

" A line thus accented, has a more spirited air, than when the accent is placed on any other 
syllable." — Karnes, El. of Grit, Vol. ii, p. 86. " Homer introduceth his deities with no greater 
ceremony than as mortals ; and Virgil has still less moderation." — lb., Vol. ii, p. 287. " Which 
the more refined taste of later writers, who had far inferior genius to them, would have taught 
them to avoid." — Blair's Ehet., p. 28. " The poetry, however, of the Book of Job, is not only 
equal to that of any other of the sacred writings, but is superior to them, all, except those of Isaiah 
alone." — lb., p. 419. " On the whole, Paradise Lost is a poem that abounds with beauties of 
every kind, and that justly entitles its author to a degree of fame not inferior to any poet." — lb., 
p. 452. "Most of the French writers compose in short sentences; though their style in general, 
is not concise ; commonly les3 so than the bulk of English writers, whose sentences are much 
longer." — lb., p. 178. " The principles of the Reformation were deeper in the prince's mind than 
to be easily eradicated." — Hume: Cobbett's E. Gram., ^[ 217. "Whether they do not create 
jealousy and animosity more h artful than the benefit derived from them." — Dr. J. Leo Wolf : 
Lit. Gonv., p. 250. " The Scotch have preserved the ancient character of their music more entire 
than any other country." — Music of Nature, p. 461. " When the time or quantity of one syllable 
exceeds the rest, that syllable readily receives the accent." — Rush, on the Voice, p. 277. " What then 
can be more obviously true than that it should be made as just as we can '?" — Dymond's Essays, 
p. 198. " It was not likely that they would criminate themselves more than they could avoid." — 
Clarkson's Hist., Abridged, p. 76. "Their understandings were the most acute of any people who 
have ever lived." — Knapp's Lectures, p. 32. "The patentees have printed it with neat types, and 
upon better paper than was done formerly." — Lily's Gram., Pref, p. xiii. "In reality, its relative 
use is not exactly like any other word." — Fetch's Comprehensive Gram., p. 62. " Thus, instead 
of two books, which are required, (the grammar and the exercises,) the learner finds both in one, 
for a price at least not greater than the others." — Bullions 1 s E. Gram., Recom., p. iii ; New Ed,, 
Recom., p. 6. " They are not improperly regarded as pronouns, though in a sense less strict than 
the others " — lb., p. 199. " We have had the opportunity, as will readily be believed, of becom- 
ing conversant with the case much more particularly, than the generality of our readers can be 
supposed to have had." — The British Friend, llmo. 29th, 1845. 

Under Critical Note V. — Of Falsities. 

"The long sound of i is compounded of the sound of a, as heard in ball, and that of e, as heard 

in be. 11 — Churchill's Gram., p. 3. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the sentence falsely teaches, that the long sound of i is that of the diph- 
thong heard in oil or boy. But, according to Critical Note 5th, " Sentences that convey a meaning manifestly 

seem to say or imply, that words differ from one an other in sex, like animals. 3. Many of them expressly con- 
fine gender, or the genders, to nouns only. 4. Many of them confessedly exclude the neuter gender, though 
their authors afterwards admit this gender. 5. That of Dr. Webster supposes, that words differing in gender 
never have the same "termination." The absurdity of this maybe shown by a multitude of examples; 
as, man and woman, male and female, father and mother, brother and sister. In his Dictionary, the Doctor 
calls Gender, " In grammar, a difference in words to express distinction of sex." This is better, but still not 
free from some other faults which I have mentioned. For the correction of all this great batch of errors, I 
shall simply substitute in the Key one short definition, which appears to me to be exempt from each of these 
inaccuracies. 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. — CRITICAL NOTES. — ERRORS. 737 

false, should be changed, rejected, or contradicted; because they distort language from its chief end, or only 
worthy use; which is, to state facts, and to tell the truth." The error maybe corrected thus: "The long 
sound of i is like a very quick union of the sound of a, as heard in bar, and that of e, as heard in fee."] 

"The omission of a word necessary to grammatical propriety, is called Ellipsis." — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 45. " Every substantive is of the third person." — Alexander Murray's Gram., p. 91. 
" A noun, when the subject is spoken to, is in the second person ; and when spoken of, it is in the 
third person; but never in the first." — Nutting's Gram,, p. IT. "With us, no substantive nouns 
have gender, or are masculine and feminine, except the proper names of male and female crea- 
tures." — Blair's Rhet., p. 156. " Apostrophe is a little mark signifying that something is short- 
ened; as, for "William his hat, we say, William's hat." — Infant School Gram., p. 30. "When a 
word beginning with a vowel is coupled with one beginning with a consonant, the indefinite arti- 
cle must be repeated ; thus, 'Sir Matthew Hale was a noble and an impartial judge;' ' Pope was 
an elegant and a nervous writer.' " — Maunder } s Gram., p. 11. " IF and y are consonants, when 
they begin a word or syllable ; but in every other situation they are vowels." — Murray's Gram., 
p. 7 : Bacon, Comly, Cooper, Fisk, Ingersoll, Kirkham, Smith, et al " The is used before ah ad- 
jectives and substantives, let them begin as they will." — Bucke's Gram., p. 26. "Prepositions 
are also prefixed to words in such manner, as to coalesce with them, and to become a part of 
them." — Lowth's Gram., p. 66. " But h is entirely silent at the beginning of syllables not ac- 
cented, as historian." — Blair's Gram., p. 5. "Any word that will make sense with to before it, is 
a verb." — Kirkham' s Gram., p. 44. " Verbs do not, in reality, express actions ; but they are in- 
trinsically the mere names of actions." — lb., p. 37. " The nominative is the actor or subject, and 
the active verb is the action performed by the nominative." — lb., p. 45. "If, therefore, only one 
creature or thing acts, only one action, at the same instant, can be done ; as, the girl writes." — 
lb., 45. " The verb writes denotes but one action, which the girl performs ; there fore the verb 
writes is of the singular number." — lb., 45. "And when I say, Two men walk, is it not equally 
apparent, that vmlk is plural, because it expresses tvjo actions ?" — lb., p. 47. " The subjunctive 
mood is formed by adding a conjunction to the indicative mood." — Beck's Gram., p. 16. " The 
possessive case should always be distinguished by the apostrophe." — Frost's El, of Gram., Eule 
44th, p. 49. " ' At these proceedings of the commons,' — Here of is the sign of the genitive or pos- 
sessive case, and commons is of that case, governed of proceedings." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 95. 
"Here let it be observed again that, strictly speaking, no verbs have numbers nor persons, neither 
have nouns nor pronouns persons, when they refer to irrational creatures and inanimate things." 
— S. Barrett's Grain., p. 136. " The noun or pronoun denoting the person or thing addressed or 
spoken to, is in the nominative case independent." — Frost's El. of Gram., Eule 8th, p. 44. "Every 
noun, when addressed, becomes of the second person, and is in the nominative case absolute ; as 
— ' Paul, thou art beside thyself.' " — Jaudon's Gram., Eule 19th, p. 108. "Does the Conjunction 
join Words together? No; only Sentences." — British Gram., p. 103. "No; the Conjunction 
only joins sentences together." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 64. " Every Genitive has a Noun to gov- 
ern it, expressed or understood; as, St. James's, Palace is understood ; therefore one Genitive 
cannot govern another." — lb., p. 111. "Every adjective, and every adjective pronoun, belongs 
to a substantive, expressed or understood." — Murray's Gram., p. 161; Bacon's, 48; Alger's, 57; 
et al. " Every adjective qualifies a substantive expressed or understood." — Bullions, E. Gtam., 
p. 97. " Every adjective belongs to some noun expressed or understood." — IngersolVs Gram., 
p. 36. " Adjectives belong to the nouns which they describe." — Smith's New Gram., p. 137. " Ad- 
jectives must agree with the nouns, which they qualify." — Fisk's Murray, p. 101. " The Adjective 
must agree with its Substantive in 'Nnvahev."-r-Buchanan's Gram., p. 94. " Every adjective and 
participle belongs to some noun or pronoun expressed or understood." — Frost's El. of Gram., 
p. 44. " Every Verb of the Infinitive Mood, supposes a verb before it expressed or understood." 
— Buchanan's Gram., p. 94. " Every Adverb has its Yerb expressed or understood." — lb., p. 94. 
" Conjunctions which connect Sentence to Sentence, are always placed betwixt the two Proposi- 
tions or Sentences which they unite." — lb., p. 88. " The words for all that, seem to be too low." 
— Murray's Gram,, p. 213. " For all that seems to be too low and vulgar." — Priestley's Gram,, 
p. 139. " The reader, or hearer, then, understands from and, that he is to add something." — J. 
Brown's E. Syntax, p. 124. "But and never, never connects one thing with another thing, nor 
one word with another word." — Bo., p. 122. "'Six, and six are twelve.' Here it is affirmed 
that, six is twelve!" — lb., p. 120. " 'John, and his wife have six children.' This is an instance 
of gross catachresis. It is here affirmed that John has six children, and that his wife has six 
children." — lb., p. 122. " Nothing which is not right can be great." — Murray's Exercises, 8vo, 
■p. 146 : see Rambler, No. 185. " Nothing can be great which is not right." — Murray's Key, 8vo, 
p. 277. " The highest degree of reverence should be paid to youth."— A, p. 278. " There is, in 
many minds, neither knowledge nor understanding." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 151 ; Russell's, 
84; Alger's, 54; Bacon's, 47; et al. "Formerly, what we call the objective cases of our pro- 
nouns, were employed in the same manner as our present nominatives*are." — Kirkham's Gram., 
p. 164. " As it respects a choice of words and expressions, no rules of grammar can materially 
aid the learner." — S. S. Greene's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 202. "Whatever exists, or is conceived to 
exist, is a Noun." — Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 137. "As all men are not brave, brave is 
itself comparative." — lb., § 190. 

Under Critical Note YI. — Of Absurdities. 
(1.) "And sometimes two unaccented syllables follow each other." — Blair's Rhet, p. 384. 
[Formtjle. — Not proper, because the phrase, '■'■follow each other" is here an absurdity ; it being impossible 

47 



738 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

for two things to "follow each other," except they alternate, or whirl round. But, according to Critical Note 
6th, " Absurdities, of every kind, are contrary to grammar ; because they are contrary to reason, or good sense, 
which is the foundation of grammar." Therefore, a different expression should here be chosen; thus: "And 
sometimes two unaccented syllables come together." Or: "And sometimes one unaccented syllable follows 
an other."] 

(2.) "What nouns frequently succeed each other?" — Sanborn's Gram., p. 65. (3.) "Words 
are derived from one another in various ways." — lb., p. 288; Merchant's Gram., 78; Weld's, 2d 
Edition, 222. (4.) " Prepositions are derived from the two Latin words pros and pono, which sig- 
nify before and place." — Mack's Gram., p. 86. (5.) " He was sadly laughed at for such conduct." 
— Bullions E. Gram., p. 79. (6.) " Every adjective pronoun belongs to some noun or pronoun 
expressed or understood." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 212. (7.) "If he [Addison] fails in anything, 
it is in want of strength and precision, which renders his manner not altogether a proper model." — 
Blair's Rhet., p. 187. (8.) " Indeed, if Horace be deficient in any thing, it is in this, of not being 
sufficiently attentive to juncture and connexion of parts." — lb., p. 401. (9.) "The pupil is now 
supposed to be acquainted with the nine sorts of speech, and their most usual modifications." — 
Taylor's District School, p. 204. (10.) "I could see, hear, taste, and smell the rose." — Sanborn's 
Gram., p. 156. (11.) "The triphthong iou is sometimes pronounced distinctly in two syllables; 
as in bilious, various, abstemious." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 13 ; Walker's Diet, Prin. 292, p. 37. 
(12.) "The diphthong aa generally sounds like a short in proper names; as in Balaam, Canaan, 
Isaac-; bat not in Baal, G-aal." — Murray s Gram., p. 10. (13.) "Participles are sometimes gov- 
erned by the article ; for the present participle, with the definite article the before it, becomes a 
substantive." — lb., p. 192. (14.) " Words ending with y, preceded by a consonant, form the 
plurals of nouns, the persons of verbs, verbal nouns, past participles, comparatives and superla- 
tives, by changing y into i." — Walker's Rhyming Dict.f p. viii; Murray's Gram., 23; Mer- 
chant's Murray, 13; Fisk's, 44; Kirkham's, 23; Greenleaf's, 20; Wright's Gram., 28; et al. 
(15.) " Buty preceded by a vowel, in such instances as the above, is not changed; as boy, boys." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 24; Merchant's, Fisk's, Kirkham's, Greenleaf's, et al. (16.) "But when y is 
preceded by a vowel, it is very rarely* changed in the additional syllable : as coy, coyly." — Mur- 
ray's Gram, again, p. 24; Merchant's, 14; Fisk's, 45; Greenleaf's, 20; Wright's, 29 ; et al. 
(17.) " But when y is preceded by a vowel, in such instances, it is very rarely changed into i; as 
coy, coylbss." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 24. (18.) " Sentences are of a twofold nature : Simple and 
Compound." — Wright's Gram., p. 123. (19.) " The neuter pronoun it is applied to all nouns and 
pronouns: as, It is he; it is she; it is they ; it is the land." — Bucke's Gram., p. 92. (20.) "It is 
and it was, are often used in a plural construction ; as, ' It was the heretics who first began to 
rail.'" — Merchant's Gram., p. 87. (21.) "It is and it was, are often, after the manner of the 
Erench, used in a plural construction, and by some of our best writers: as, ' It was the heretics 
that first began to rail.' Smollett." — Priestley's Gram., p. 190; Murray's, 158; Smith's, 134; 
Ingersoll's, 210; Fisk's, 115; et al. (22.) "wand y, as consonants, have one sound." — Town's 
Spelling-Book, p. 9. (23.) " The conjunction as is frequently used as a relative." — Bucke's Gram., 
p. 93. (24.) " When several clauses succeed each other, the conjunction may be omitted with 
propriety." — Merchant's Gram., p. 97. (25.) "If, however, the members succeeding each other, 
are very closely connected, the comma is unnecessary : as, ' Revelation tells us how we may 
attain happiness.' " — Murray's Gram.,^. 273; Merchant's, 151; Russell's, 115; Comly's, 152; Al- 
ger's,^; Smith's, 190; etal. (26.) " The mind has difficulty in passing readily through so many 
different views given it, in quick succession, of the same object." — Blair's Rhet, p. 149. (27.) 
"The mind has difficulty in passing readily through many different views of the same object, pre- 
sented in quick succession." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 341. (28.) "Adjective pronouns are a 
kind of adjectives which point out nouns by some cistinct specification." — Kirkham's Gram., the 
Oompend, or Table. (29.) "A noun of multitude conveying plurality of idea,f must have a verb 
or pronoun agreeing with it in the plural." — lb., pp. 59 and 181 : see also Lowth's Gram., p. 74; 
L. Murray's, 152; Comly's, 80; Lennie's, 87; Alger's, 54; Jaudon's, 96; Alden's, 81; Parker 
and Fox's, I, 76; II, 26; and others. (30.) "A noun or pronoun signifying possession, is gov- 
erned by the noun it possesses." — Greenleaf's Gram., p. 35. (31.) "A noun signifying possession, 
is governed by the noun which it possesses." — Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., p. 24. (32.) "A 
noun or pronoun in the possessive case is governed by the noun it possesses." — Goldsbury's Gram., 

* Walker states this differently, and even repeats his remark, thus: " But y preceded by a vowel is never 
changed : as coy, coyly, gay, gayly." — Walker's Rhyming Diet., p. x. " Y preceded by a vowel is newer changed, 
as boy, boys, I cloy, he cloys, etc." — lb., p. viii. Walker's twelve " Orthographical Aphorisms," which Murray and 
others republish as their " Rules for Spelling," and which in stead of amending they merely corrupt, happened 
through som;i carelessness to contain two which should have been condensed into one. For " words ending with y 
preceded by a consonant," he has not only the absurd rule or assertion above recited, but an other which is bet- 
ter, with an exception or remark under each, respecting "7/ preceded by a vowel." The grammarians follow 
him in his errors, and add to their number : hence the repetition, or similarity, in the absurdities here quoted. 
By the term " verbal nouns," Walker meant nouns denoting agents, as carrier from carry ; but Kirkham un- 
derstood hiin to mean " participial nouns," as the canning. Or rather, he so mistook "that able philologist" 
Murray; for he probably knew nothing of Walker in the matter ; and accordingly changed the word "verbal" 
to "participial;" thus teaching, through all his hundred editions, except a few of the first, that participial 
nouns from verbs ending in y preceded by a consonant, are formed by merely "changing the y into i." But he 
seems to have known, that this is not the way to form the participle; though he did not know, that "coyless" is 
not a proper English word. 

t The idea of plurality is not "plurality of idea," any more than the idea of icickedness, or the idea of ab- 
surdity, is absurdity or wickedness of idea ; yet, behold, how our grammarians copy the blunder, which Loioth 
(perhaps) first fell into, of putting the one phrase for the other! Even Professor Fowler, (as well as Murray, 
Kirkham, and others,) talks of having regard "to unity or plurality of idea .'" — Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, 
§ 513.— G-. Bbown. 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. — CRITICAL NOTES. — ERRORS. 739 

p. 68. (33.) " The possessive case is governed by the person or tiling possessed ; as, ' this is his 
book.' " — P. E. Bay's Gram., p. 81. (34.) "A noun or pronoun in the possessive case, is gov- 
erned by the noun which it possesses." — Kirkham's Gram,, Rule 12th, pp. 52 and 181; Frazee's 
Gram., 1844, p. 25; F. H. Miller's, 21. (35.) "Here the boy is represented as acting. He is, 
therefore, in the nominative case." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 41. (36.) "Some of the auxiliaries are 
themselves principal verbs, as: have, do, will, and am, or be." — Cooper's Grammars, both, p. 50. 
(37.) "Nouns of the male kind are masculine. Those of the female kind are feminine." — Beck's 
Gram,, p. 6. (38.) " 'To-day's lesson is longer than yesterday's:' here to-day and yesterday are 
substantives." — Murray's Gram., p. 114; Ingersoll's, 50; et al. (39.) "In this example, to-day 
and yesterday are nouns in the possessive case." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 88. (40.) "An Indian in 
Britain would be much surprised to stumble upon an elephant feeding at large in the open fields." — 
Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 219. (41.) "If we were to contrive a new language, we might 
make any articulate sound the sign of any idea : there would be no impropriety in calling oxen 
men, or rational beings by the name of oxen." — Murray's Gram., p. 139. (42.) "All the parts of 
a sentence should correspond to each other." — lb., p. 222; Kirkham's, 193; Ingersoll's, 275; 
Goldsbury's, 74; Hiley's, 110; Weld's, 193; Alger's, 71; Fisk's, 148; S. Putnam's, 95;' Mer- 
chant's, 101 ; Merchant's Murray, 95. 

(43.) " Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped, 

Along the pavement roll'd the mutt'ring head." — Odyssey, xxii, 365. 

Under Critical Note VII. — Of Self-Contradiction. 
(1.) " Though the eonstruction will not admit of a plural verb, the sentence would cer- 
tainly stand better thus : ' The king, the lords, and the commons, form an excellent constitution.' " 
— Murray's Gram., p. 151 ; Ingersoll's, 239. 

[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the first clause here quoted is contradicted by the last. But, according to 
Critical Note 7th, " Every writer or speaker should be careful not to contradict himself; for what is self-con- 
tradictory, is both null in argument, and bad in style." The following change may remove the discrepance: 
" Though ' The king vrith the lords and commons, 1 must have a singular rather than a plural verb, the sen- 
tence would certainly stand better thus: ' The king, the lords, and the commons, /orm an excellent constitu- 
tion.' "] 

(2.) " B has always a soft liquid sound ; as in love, billow, quarreL It is sometimes mute ; as 
in half, talk, psalm." — Murray's Gram., p. 14; Fisk's, 40. (3.) " B has always a soft liquid 
sound; as in love, billow. It is often silent; as in half, talk, almond." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 22. 
(4.) " The words means and amends, though formerly used in the singular, as well as in the 
plural number, are now, by polite writers, restricted to the latter. Our most distinguished 
modern authors say, 'by this means,' as well as, 'by these means' " — Wright's Gram., p. 150. 
(5.) " 'A friend exaggerates a man's virtues: an enemy inflames his crimes.' Better thus: 'A 
friend exaggerates a man's virtues : an enemy his crimes.' " — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 325. " A 
friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes." — lb., Key, VoL ii, p. 173. 
(6.) " The auxiliary have, in the perfect tense of the subjunctive mood, should be avoided." — 
Merchant's Gram., p. 97. "Subjunctive Mood, Perfect Tense, If I have loved, If thou hast 
loved, ' &c. — lb., p. 51. (7.) " There is also an impropriety in governing both the indicative and 
subjunctive moods, with the same conjunction; as, l If a man have a hundred sheep, and if one 
of them be gone astray.' &c. It should be, and one of them is gone astray, &c." — lb., p. 97. 
(8.) " The rising series of contrasts convey inexpressible dignity and energy to the conclusion." — 
Jamieson's Rhet., p. 79. (9.) " A groan or a shriek is instantly rnderstood, as a language ex- 
torted by distress, a language which no art can counterfeit, and which conveys a meaning that 
words are utterly inadequate to express." — Porter's Analysis, p. 127. "A groan or shriek speaks 
to the ear, as the language of distress, with far more thrilling effect than words. Yet these may 
be counterfeited by art." — lb., p. 147. (10.) "These words [book and pert] cannot be put toge- 
ther in such a way as will constitute plurality." — James Brown's English Syntax, p. 125. (11.) 
" Nor can the real pew, and the real book be expressed in two words in such a manner as will consti- 
tute plurality in grammar." — Ibid. (12.) " Our is an adjective pronoun of the possessive kind. 
Decline it." — Murray's Gram., p. 227. (13.) " This and that, and likewise their Plurals, are al- 
ways opposed to each other in a Sentence." — Buchanans Syntax, p. 103. "When this or that 
is used alone, i. e. not opposed to each other, this is written or spoken of Persons or Things im- 
mediately present, and as it were before our Eyes, or nearest with relation to Place or Time. 
That is spoken or written of Persons or Things passed, absent and distant in relation to Time 
and Place." — Ibid. (14.) " Active and neuter verbs may be conjugated hy adding their present 
participle to the auxiliary verb to be, through all its variations." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 159. " Be 
is an auxiliary whenever it is placed before the perfect participle of another verb, but in every 
other situation, it is a principal verb." — lb., p. 155. (15.) "A verb in the imperative mood, is 
always of the second person." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 136. " The verbs, according to an idiom 
of our language, or the poet's license, are used in the imperative, agreeing with a nominative of 
the first or third person." — lb., p. 164. (16.) "Personal Pronouns are distinguished from the 
relative, by their denoting the person of the nouns for which they stand." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 
97. " Pronouns of the first person, do not agree in person with the nouns they represent." — lb., 
p. 98. (17.) "Nouns have three cases, nominative, possessive, and objective." — Beck's Gram,, p. 
6. " Personal pronouns have, like nouns, two cases, nominative and objective." — lb., p. 10. 
(18.). " In some instances the preposition suffers no change, but becomes an adverb merely by 
its application: as, 'He was near falling.'" — Murray's Gram., p. 116. (19.) ".^me x>uns are 



740 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

used only in the plural ; as, ashes, literati, minutice, sheep, deer." — Blair's Gram., p. 43. " Some 
nouns are the same in both numbers, as, alms, couple, deer, series, species, pair, sheep." — Ibid. 
" Among the inferior parts of speech there are some pairs or couples. 11 — lb., p. 94. (20.) " Con- 
cerning the pronominal adjectives, that can and can not, may and may not, represents its noun." — 
0. B. Pence's Gram., p. 336. (21.) " The article a is in a few instances employed in the sense of 
a preposition ; as, Simon Peter said I go a [to] fishing." — Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 177 ; Abridg., 
128. " ' To go a fishing;' i. e. to go on a fishing voyage or business." — Weld's Gram., p. 192. 
(22.) "So also verbs, really transitive, are used intransitively, when they have no object." — Bul- 
lions' s Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 60. 

(23.) " When first young Maro, in his boundless mind, 

A work t' outlast immortal Rome design'd." — Pope, on Grit., 1. 130. 

Under Critical Note YIII. — Of Senseless Jumbling. 
" Number distinguishes them [viz., nouns], as one, or many, of the same kind, called the sin- 
gular and plural." — Br. Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric, p. 74. 

[Formule. — Not proper, because the words of this text appear to be so carelessly put together, as to make 
nothing but jargon, or a sort of scholastic balderdash. But, according to Critical Note 8th, " To jumble to- 
gether words without care for the sense, is an unpardonable negligence, and an abuse of the human understand- 
ing." I think the learned author should rather have said : " There are two numbers called the singular and the 
plural, tvhich distinguish nouns as signifying either one thing, or many of the same kind."] 

" Here the noun James Munroe is addressed, he is spoken to, it is here a noun of the second 
person." — Mack's Gram., p. 66. "The number and case of a verb can never be ascertained un- 
til its nominative is known." — Emmons's Gram., p. 36. "A noun of multitude, or signifying 
many, may have the verb and pronoun agreeing with it either in the singular or plural number; 
yet not without regard to the import of the word, as conveying unity or plurality of idea." — 
Lowth's Gram., p. 75; Murray's, 152; Alger's, 54; EusselVs, 55; IngersolVs, 248; et al. "To 
express the present and past imperfect of the active and neuter verb, the auxiliary do is some- 
times used: I do (now) love; I did (then) love." — Lowth's Gram., p. 40. "If these are perfectly 
committed, they will be able to take twenty lines for a lesson on the secoud day ; and may be 
increased each day." — Osborn's Key, p. 4. "When c is joined with h (cJi), they are generally 
sounded in the same manner : as in Charles, church, cheerfulness, and cheese. But foreign words 
(except in those derived from the French, as chagrin, chicanery, and chaise, in which ch are 
sounded like sh) are pronounced like k ; as in Chaos, character, chorus, and chimera." — Bucke's 
Classical Gram., p. 10. " Some substantives, naturally neuter, are, by a figure of speech, con- 
verted into the masculine or feminine gender." — Murray's Gram., p. 37; Comly's, 20; Bacon's, 
13; A Teacher's, 8; Alger's, 16; Lennie's, 11; Fisk's, 56; Merchant's, 27; Kirkham's, 35; etal. 
" Words in the English language may be classified under ten general heads, the names of which 
classes are usually termed the ten parts of speech." — Nutting's Gram., p. 14. "'Mercy is the 
true badge of nobility.' Nobility is a noun of multitude, mas. and fern, gender, third person, sing. 
and in the obj. case, and governed by ' of:' Rule 31." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 161. " gh, are 
either silent, or have the sound off, as in laugh." — Toion's Spelling- Book, p. 10. "As many 
people as were destroyed, were as many languages or dialects lost and blotted out from the 
general catalogue." — Ohazotte's Essay, p. 25. "The grammars of some languages contain a 
greater number of the moods, than others, and exhibit them in different forms." — Murray's Gram., 
8vo, Vol. i, p. 95. " A comparison or simile, is, when the resemblance between two objects 
is expressed inform, and generally pursued more fully than the nature of a metaphor admits." — 
lb., p. 343. " In some dialects, the word what is improperly used for that, and sometimes we find 
it in this sense in writing." — lb., p. 156; Priestley's Gram., 93; Smith's, 132; Merchant's, 87; 
Pi,sk's, 114; Ingersoll's, 220; etal. " Brown makes great ado concerning the adname principles 
of preceding works, in relation to the gendtr of pronouns." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 323. " The 
nominative precedes and performs the action of the verb." — Beck's Gram., p. 8. " The Primitive 
are those which cannot receive more simple forms than those which they already possess." — 
Wright's Gram., p. 28. " The long sound [of i\ is always marked by the e final in monosylla- 
bles; as, thin, thine; except give, live." — Murray's Gram., p. 13; Fisk's, 39; etal. "But the 
third person or thing spoken of, being absent, and in many respects unknown, it is necessary that 
it should be marked by a distinction of gender." — Lowth's Gram., p. 21 ; L. Murray's, 51 ; et al. 
" Each of the diphthongal letters was, doubtless, originally heard in pronouncing the words 
which contain them. Though this is not the case at present, with respect to many of them, 
these combinations still retain the name of diphthongs ; but, to distinguish them, they are marked 
by the term improper." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 9 ; Fisk's, 37 ; et al. " A Mode is the form of, or 
manner of using a verb, by which the being, action, or passion is expressed." — Alex. Murray's 
Gram., p. 32. "The word that is a demonstrative pronoun when it is followed immediately by a 
substantive, to which it is either joined, or refers, and which it limits or qualifies." — Lindley 
Murray's Gram., p. 54. 

" The guiltless woe of being past, 
Is future glory's deathless heir." — Sumner L. Fairfield. 

Under Critical Note IX. — Of Words Needless. 
" A knowledge of grammar enables us to express ourselves better in conversation and in writ- 
ing composition." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 7. 

[Fosmule. — Not proper, because the word composition is here needless. But, according to Critical Note 9th, 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX.— GENERAL RULE. — CRITICAL NOTES. — ERRORS. 741 

" Words that are entirely needless, and especially such as injure or encumber the expression, ought in general 
to be omitted." The sentence would be better without this word, thus : "A knowledge of grammar enables us 
to express ourselves better in conversation and in writing."] 

" And hence we infer, that there is no other dictator here but use." — Jamiesori's Bhet, p. 42. 
" Whence little else is gained, except correct spelling and pronunciation." — Town's Spelling-Book, 
p. 5. " The man who is faithfully attached to religion, may be relied on, with humble confidence." 
— Merchant's School Gram., p. 76. " Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in ?" — 2 Sam., 
vii, 5. " The house was deemed polluted which was entered into by so abandoned a woman." 
— Blair's JRhet., p. 279. " The farther that he searches, the firmer will be his belief." — Keith's 
Evidences, p. 4. " I deny not, but that religion consists in these things." — Barclay's Works, i, 
321. "Except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name." — Esther, ii, 14. 
"The proper method of reading these lines, is to read them according as the sense dictates." — 
Blair's Bhet, p. 386. "When any words become obsolete, or at least are never used, except as 
constituting part of particular phrases, it is better to dispense with their service entirely, and 
give up the phrases." — Campbell's Bhet, p. 185 ; Murray's Gram., p. 370. "Those savage people 
seemed to have no element but that of war." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 211. " Man is a common 
noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and in the nominative case." — J. 
Flint's Gram., p. 33. " The orator, according as circumstances require, will employ them all." — 
Blair's Bhet, p. 247. " By deferring our repentance, we accumulate our sorrows." — Murray's 
Key, ii, p. 166. " There is no doubt but that public speaking became early an engine of govern- 
ment." — Blair's Bhet, p. 245. " The different meaning of these two first words may not at first 
occur." — lb., p. 225. "The sentiment is well expressed by Plato, but much better by Solomon 
than him."- — Murray's Gram., p. 214; IngersolVs, 251; Smith's, 179; et al. " They have had a 
greater privilege than we have had." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 211. "Every thing should be so 
arranged, as that what goes before may give light and force to what follows." — Blair's Bhet, p. 
311. " So as that his doctrines were embraced by great numbers." — Ukiv. Hist.: Briestley's 
Gram., p. 139. " They have taken another and a shorter cut." — South: Joh. Diet "The Im- 
perfect Tense of a regular verb is formed from the present by adding d or ed to the present ; as, 
'I loved.' " — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 32. " The pronoun their does not agree in gender or num- 
ber with the noun 'man,' for which it stands/' — Kirkham's Gram., p. 182. " This maik denotes 
any thing of wonder, surprise, joy, grief, or sudden emotion." — Bucke's Gram., p. 19. "We are 
all accountable creatures, each for himself." — Murray's Key, p. 204 ; Merchant's, 195. " If he has 
commanded it, then I must obey." — Smith's New Gram., pp. 110 and 112. " I now present him 
with a form of the diatonic scale." — Dr. John Barbers Elocution, p. xi. " One after another of 
their favourite rivers have been reluctantly abandoned." — Hodgson's Tour. " Farticular and 
peculiar are words of different import from each other." — Blair s Bhet, p. 196. "Some adverbs 
admit rules of comparison: as Soon, sooner, soonest." — Bucke's Gram., p. 76. "From having 
exposed himself too freely in different climates, he entirely lost his health." — Murray's Key, p. 200. 
" The Verb must agree with its Nominative before it in Number and Person." — Buchanan's Syntax, 
p. 93. "Write twenty short sentences containing only adjectives." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 102. 
11 This general inclination and tendency of the language seems to have given occasion to the in- 
troducing of a very great corruption." — Loivth's Gram., p. 60. " The second requisite of a per- 
fect sentence, is its Unity." — Murray's Gram., p. 311. "It is scarcely necessary to apologize 
for omitting to insert their names." — lb., p. vii. " The letters of the English Language, called 
the English Alphabet, are twenty-six in number." — lb., p. 2 ; T. Smith's, 5 ; Fisk's, 10 ; Alger's, 
9 ; et al. " A writer who employs antiquated or novel phraseology, must do it with design : he 
cannot err from inadvertence as he may do it with respect to provincial or vulgar expressions." — 
Jamieson's Bhet, p. 56. "The Vocative case, in some Grammars, is wholly omitted; why, if we 
must have cases, I could never understand the propriety of." — Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 45. 
" Active verbs are conjugated with the auxiliary verb / have; passive verbs are conjugated with 
the auxiliary verb 1 am." — lb., p. 57. "What word, then, may and be called ? A Conjunction." 
— Smith's New Gram., p. 37. "Have they ascertained the person who gave the information ?" — 
Bullions' s E. Gram., p. 81. 

Under Critical Note X. — Of Improper Omissions. 
"All qualities of things are called adnouns, or adjectives." — Blair's Gram., p. 10. 

[Foemuxe. — Not proper, because this expression lacks two or three words which are necessary to the sense 
intended. But according to Critical Note 10th, "Words necessary to the sense, or even to the melody or beauty 
of a sentence, ought seldom, if ever, to be omitted." The sentence may be amended thus: "All words signi- 
fying concrete qualities of things, are called adnouns, or adjectives."] 

" The - signifies the long or accented syllable, and the breve indicates a short or unaccented 
syllable." — Blair's Gram., p. 118. "Whose duty is to help young ministers." — N E. Discipline, 
p. 78. "The passage is closely connected with what precedes and follows." — Philological Mu- 
seum, Vol. i, p. 255 " The work is not completed, but soon will be." — Smith's Productive Gram,., 
p. 113. "Of whom hast thou been afraid or feared?" — Isaiah, lvii, 11. "There is a God who 
made and governs the world." — Butler's Analogy, p. 263. " It was this made them so haughty." 
— Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. ii, p. 102. " How far the whole charge affected him is not easy to deter- 
mine." — Bo., i, p. 189. " They saw, and worshipped the God, that made them." — Bucke's Gram., 
p. 157. " The errors frequent in the use of hyperboles, arise either from overstraining, or intro- 
ducing them on unsuitable occasions." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 256. "The preposition in is set 
before countries, cities, and large towns ; as, ' He lives in Prance, in London, or in Birmingham.' 



742 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

But before villages, single houses, and cities which are in distant countries, at is used ; as, ' He 
lives at Hackney.' "—76., p. 204; Dr. Ash's Gram., 60; Ingersoll's, 232; Smith's, 170; Fisk's, 
143 ; et al. " And, in such recollection, the thing is not figured as in our view, nor any image 
formed" — Karnes, El. of Crit, Vol. i, p. 86. "Intrinsic and relative beauty must be handled sep- 
arately." — lb., Vol. ii, p. 336. " He should be on his guard not to do them injustice, by disguis- 
ing, or placing them in a false light." — Blair's Rhet, p. 272. " In that work, we are frequently in- 
terrupted by unnatural thoughts. " ; — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 275. "To this point have tended all 
the rules I have given." — Blair's Ehet., p. 120. " To these points have tended all the rules which 
have been given." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 356. " Language, as written, or oral, is addressed 
to the eye, or to the ear." — Lit. Conv., p. 184. " He will learn, Sir, that to accuse and prove are 
very different." — Walpole. "They crowded around the door so as to prevent others going out." 
— Abbott's Teacher, p. 17. "One person or thing is singular number; more than one person or 
thing is plural number." — John Flint's Gram., p. 27. "According to the sense or relation in 
which nouns are used, they are in the nominative or possessive case, thus, nom. man ; poss. 
man's." — Blair's Gram., p. 11. " Nouns or pronouns in the possessive case are placed before the 
nouns which govern them, to which they belong." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 130. "A teacher is 
explaining the difference between a noun and verb." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 72. "And therefore 
the two ends, or extremities, must directly answer to the north and south pole." — Harris: Joh. 
Diet., w. Gnomon. " Walks or walketh, rides or rideth, stands or standeth. are of the third person 
singular." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 47. "I grew immediately roguish and pleasant to a degree, 
in the same strain." — Swift : Tattler, 31. " An Anapaest has the first syllables unaccented, and 
the last accented." — Blair's Gram., p. 119. " An Anapaest has the first two syllables unaccented, 
and the last accented." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 219; Bullions's Principles, 170. "An Anapaest 
has the two first syllables unaccented, and the last accented." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 254; 
Jamieson's Rhet, 305; Smith's New Gram., 188; Guy's Gram., 120; Merchant's, 167; Russell's, 
109 ; Picket's, 226. "But hearing and vision differ not more than words spoken and written." — 
Wilson's Essay on Gram., p. 21. " They are considered by some prepositions." — Cooper's PI. and 
Pr. Gram., p. 102. "When those powers have been deluded and gone astray." — Philological 
Museum, i, 642. "They will soon understand this, and like it." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 92. " They 
have been expelled their native country Romagna." — Leigh Hunt, on Byron, p. 18. "Future time 
is expressed two different ways." — Adam's Gram., p. 80 ; Gould's, 78. " Such as the borrowing 
from history some noted event." — Karnes, El of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 280. "Every Verb must agree 
with its Nominative in Number and Person." — Bucke's Gram., p. 94. " "We are struck, we know 
not how, with the symmetry of any thing we see." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 268. "Under this 
head, I shall consider every thing necessary to a good delivery." — Sheridan's Lect, p. 26. "A 
good ear is the gift of nature ; it may be much improved, but not acquired by art." — Murray's 
Gram., p. 298. "'Truth,' A noun, neuter, singular, the nominative." — Bullions, E. Gram.,]). 
73. "'Possess,' A verb transitive, present, indicative active, — third person plural." — Ibid., 73. 
'• Fear is a noun, neuter, singular, and is the nominative to (or subject of) is." — Id., ib., p. 133. 
" Is is a verb, intrans., irregular — am, was, been; it is in the present, indicative, third person sin- 
gular, and agrees with its nominative fear. Rule I. 'A verb agrees,' &c." — Ibid., 133. u Ae in 
Gaelic, has the sound of long a." — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 29. 

Under Critical Note XI. — Of Literary Blunders. 

" Repeat some [adverbs] that are composed of the article a and nouns." — Kirkham's Gram., 

p. 89. 

[Fohmuxe. — Not proper, because the grammatist here mistakes for the article a, the prefix or preposition a; 
as in "aside, ashore afoot, astray" &c. But, according to Critical Note 11th, "Grave blunders made in the 
name of learning, are the strongest of all certificates against the books which contain them unreproved." The 
error should be corrected thus : " Repeat some adverbs that are composed of the prefix a, or preposition a, and 
nouns."] 

" Participles are so called, because derived from the Latin word participium, which signifies to 
partake." — Merchant's School Gram., p. 18. " The possessive follows another noun, and is known 
by the sign of 's or of." — Beck's Gram., p. 8. "Reciprocal pronouns are formed by adding self or 
selves to the possessive ; as, myself, yourselves." — 76., p. 10. " The word self, and its plural selves, 
must be considered nouns, as they occupy the places of nouns, and stand for the names of them." 
— Wright's Gram., p. 61. "The Dactyl, rolls round, expresses beautifully the majesty of the sun 
in his course." — Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 231 ; Webster's Imp. Gram., p. 165 ; Frazee's Imp. 
Gram., p. 192. "Prepositions govern the objective case; as, John learned his lesson." — Frazee's 
Gram., p. 153. " Prosody primarily signified punctuation ; and as the name implies, related to 
stopping by the way." — Hendrick's Gram., p. 103. " On such a principle of forming modes, there 
would be as many modes as verbs ; and instead of four modes, we should have forty-three thou- 
sand, which is the number of verbs in the English language, according to Lowth." — Hallock's 
Gram., p. 76. "The following phrases are elliptical: 'To let out blood.' 'To go a hunting;' 
that is, ' To go on a hunting excursion.' " — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 129. "In Rhyme, the last syl- 
lable of every two lines has the same sound." — let, Practical Lessons, p. 129. " The possessive 
case plural, ending in es, has the apostrophe, but omits the 5; as, Eagles' wings." — Weld's Gram., 
p. 62; Abridg., p. 54. "Horses (plural) -mane, [should be written] horses' mane." — Weld, ib., 
pp. 62 and 54. " W takes its written form from the union of two v's, this being the form of the 
Roman capital letter which we call V." — Fowler's E. Gram., 1850, p. 157. "In the sentence, 'I 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. GENERAL RULE. CRITICAL NOTES. ERRORS. 743 

saw the lady who sings,' what word do I say sings ?" — J. Flint's Gram., p. 12. "In the sentence, 
1 this is the pen which John made,' what word do I say John made ?" — Ibid. " ' That we fall 
into no sin:' no, an adverb used idiomatically, instead of we do not fall into any sin." — Blair's 
Gram., p. 54. " ' That all our doings may be ordered by thy governance :' all, a pronoun used 
for the whole." — Ibid. " 'Let him be made to study.' "What causes the sign to to be expressed 
before study ?" Its being used in the passive voice after be made.''' — Sanborn's Gram., p. 145. 
" The following Verbs have neither Preter-Tense nor Passive-Participle, viz. Cast, cut, cost, shut, 
let, bid, shed, hurt, hit, put, &c." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 60. " The agreement, which every word 
has with the others in person, gender, and case, is called concord ; and that power which one 
person of speech has over another, in respect to ruling its case, mood, or tense, is called govern- 
ment." — Bucke's Classical Gram., p. 83. "The word ticks tells what the noun watch does." — 
Sanborn's Gram., p. 15. "Breve (") marks a short vowel or syllable, and the dash ( — ) a 
long." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 157 ; Lennie, 137. " Charles, you, by your diligence, make easy 
work of the task given you by your preceptor.' The first you is used in the nom. poss. and 
obj. case." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 103. " Ouy in bouy is a proper tripthong. Eau in flambeau 
is an improper tripthong." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 255. " ' "While I of things to come, As past 
rehearsing, sing.' Pollok. That is, ' While I sing of things which are to come, as one sings 
of things which are past rehearsing.'" — Kirkham's Gram., p. 169. "A simple sentence has 
in it but one nominative, and one neuter verb." — Folker's Gram., p. 14. " An Irregular Verb is 
that which has its passed tense and perfect participle terminating differently ; as, smite, smote, 
smitten." — Wright's Gram., p. 92. "But when the antecedent is used in a general sense, a 
comma is properly inserted before the relative ; as, ' There is no charm in the female sex, which 
can supply the place of virtue.' " — Kirkham's Gram., p. 213. " Two capitals in this way denote 
the plural number; L. D. Legis Doctor; LL. D. Legum Doctor." — Gould's Lot. Gram., p. 274. 
" Was any person besides the mercer present ? Yes, both he and his clerk." — Murray's Key, 8vo, 
p. 188. "Adnoun, or Adjective, comes from the Latin, ad andjicio, to add to." — Kirkham's Gram., 
p. 69. " Another figure of speech, proper only to animated and warm composition, is what some 
critical writers call vision; wdien, in place of relating some thing that is past, we use the present 
tense, and describe it as actually passing before our eyes. TJcus Cicero, in his fourth oration against 
Cataline : ' I seem to myself to behold this city, the ornament of the earth, and the capital of all 
nations, suddenly involved in one conflagration. I see before me the slaughtered heaps of citi- 
zens lying unburied in the midst of their ruined country. The furious countenance of Cethegus 
rises to my view, while with a savage joy he is triumphing in your miseries.' " — Blair's Rhet., p. 
171. "Vision is another figure of speech, which is proper only in animated and warm composi- 
tion. It is produced when, instead of relating something that is past, we use the present tense," 
&c. — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 352. "W r hen several verbs follow one another, having the same 
nominative, the auxiliary is frequently omitted after the first through an ellipsis, and understood to 
the rest: as, 'He has gone and left me;' that is, 'He has gone, and has left me.' " — Comly's 
Gram., p. 94. ""When I use the word pillar as supporting an edifice, I employ it literally." — 
Eiley's Gram 3d Ed., p. 133. "The conjunction nor is often used for neither; as, 

'Simois nor Xanthus shall be wanting there.' " — lb., p. 129. 

Under Critical Note XII. — Of Perversions. 

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol i, p. 
330; Eallock's Gram., p. 179; Melmoth, on Scripture, p. 16. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because this reading is false in relation to the word "heavens ;" nor is it usual to 
put a comma after the word "beginning." But, according to Critical Note 12th, "Proof-tests in grammar, if 
not in all argument, should be quoted literally; and even that which needs to be corrected, must never be 
perverted." The authorized text is this : "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." — Gen., 
i, 1.] 

"Canst thou, by searching, find out the Lord?" — Murray's Gram., p. 335. "Great is the 
Lord, just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints." — Priestley's Gram., p. 171 ; L. Murray's, 
168; Merchant's, 90; R. G Smith's, 145; Inger soil's, 194; Ensell's, 330; Fisk's, 104; et al 
" Every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." — 
Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 137. " Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor." — L. 
Murray's Gram., p. 211 ; BuUions's, 111 and 113 ; Everest's, 230 ; Smith's, 177 ; et al. " Whose 
foundation was overflown with a flood." — Friends' Bible: Job, xxii, 16. "Take my yoke upon 
ye, for my yoke is easy." — The Friend, Vol. iv, p. 150. " I will to prepare a place for you." — 
Weld's E. Gram., 2d Ed., p. 67. " Ye who are dead hath he quickened." — lb., p. 189 ; Imp. 
Ed., 195. "Go, flee thee away into the land of Judea." — Hart's Gram., p. 115. "Hitherto 
shalt thou come, and no farther." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 222. "Thine is the day and night." — 
Brown's Concordance, p. 82. " Faith worketh patience ; and patience, experience ; and expe- 
rience, hope." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 282. " Soon shall the dust return to dust, and the soul, 
to God who gave it. Bible." — lb., p. 166. " For, in the end, it biteth like a serpent, and stiug- 
eth like an adder. It will lead thee into destruction, and cause thee to utter perverse things. 
Thou wilt be like him who lieth down in the midst of the sea. Bible." — lb., p. 167. "The 
memorj r of the just shall be honored: but the name of the wicked shall rot. Bible." — lb., p. 168. 
" He that is slow in anger, is better than the mighty. He that ruleth his spirit, is better than he 
that taketh a city. Bible." — lb., p. 72. "The Lord loveth whomsoever he correcteth; as the 
father correcteth the son in wiiom he delighteth. Bible." — lb., p. 72. " The first future tense 



744 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

represents what is to take place hereafter. G. B." — lb., p. 366. " Teach me to feel another's 
wo ; [and] To hide what faults I see." — lb., p. 197. " Thy speech bewrayeth thee ; for thou art 
a G-allilean." — Murray's Ex., ii, p. 118. "Thy speech betrays thee ; for thou art a Gallilean." — 
Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 250. " Strait is the gate, and narrow the way, that leads to life eternal." 
— lb., Key, p. 172. "Straight is the gate," kc.—lb., Ex., p. 36. " 'Thou buildest the wall, that 
thou mayst be their king.' Neh., vi, 6." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 210. '"There is forgiveness 
with thee, that thou mayst be feared.' Psalms, cxxx, 4." — lb., p. 210. "But yesterday, the 
word, Caar, might Have stood against the world." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 316. "The north- 
east spends its rage. Thomson. " — Joh. Diet, w. Effusive. "Tells how the drudging goblet 
swet. Milton." — Churchill's Gram., p. 263. "And to his faithful servant hath in place Bore 
witness gloriously. Sam. Agon." — lb., p. 266. "Then, if thou fallest, Cromwell, Thou fallest 
a blessed martyr." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 190. " I see the dagger-crest of Mar, I see the Morays' 
silver star, Waves o'er the cloud of Saxon war, That up the lake came winding far! — Scott." 
— Merchant's School Gram., p. 143. " Each bird, and each insect, is happy in its kind." — lb., p. 
85. " They who are learning to compose and arrange their sentences with accuracy and order, are 
learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order. Blair." — lb., p. 176; L. Murray's 
Gram., Title-page, 8vo and 12mo. " "We, then, as workers together with you, beseech you also, 
that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." — James Brown's Eng. Syntax, p. 129. "And on 
the bounty of thy goodness calls." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 246. "Knowledge dwells In heads 
replete with thoughts of other men ; Wisdom, in minds retentive to their own. Cowper." — Mer- 
chant's School Gram., p. 172. "Oh! let me listen to the word of life. Thomson." — lb., p. 155. 
" Save that from yonder ivy-mantled bower, &c. Gray's Elegy." — Tooke's Div. of Purley, Yol. 
i, p. 116. " Weigh the mens wits against the ladies hairs. Pope." — Br. Johnson's Gram., p. 6. 
"Weigh the men's wits against the women's hairs. Pope." — Churchill's Gram., p. 214. "Prior 
to the publication of Lowth's excellent little grammar, the grammatical study of our own language, 
formed no part of the ordinary method of instruction. Hiley's Preface." — Br. Bullions' s E. 
Gram., 1843, p. 189. "Let there be no strife betwixt me and thee." — Weld's Gram., p. 143. 

" What ! canst thou not bear with me half an hour ? — Sharp." — lb., p. 185. 
"Till then who knew the force of those dire dreams. — Milton." — lb., p. 186. 
" In words, as fashions, the rule will hold, 

Alike fantastic, if too new or old:" — Murray's Gram., p. 136. 
" Be not the first, by whom the new is tried, 
Nor yet the last, to lay the old aside." — Bucke's Gram., p. 104. 

Under Critical Note XIII. — Of Awkwardness. 
" They slew Varus, who was he that I mentioned before." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 194. 

[Formule. — Not proper, because the phrase, " who vias he that" is here prolix and awkward. But, according 
to Critical Note 13th, "Awkwardness, or inelegance of expression, is a reprehensible defect in style, whether it 
violate any of the common rules of syntax or not." This example may be improved thus : " They slew Varus, 
whom I mentioned before."] 

" Maria rejected Valerius, who was he that she had rejected before." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, 
p. 174. " The English in its substantives has but two different terminations for cases." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. 18. "Socrates and Plato were wise; they were the most eminent philosophers of 
Greece." — lb., p. 175; Murray's Gram., 149; et al. "Whether one person or more than one, 
were concerned in the business, does not yet appear." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 184. " And that, 
consequently, the verb and pronoun agreeing with it, cannot with propriety, be ever used in the 
plural number." — Murray's Gram., p. 153; Ingersoll's, 249; et al. "A second help may be the 
conversing frequently and freely with those of your own sex who are like minded." — John Wesley. 
" Pour of the semi-vowels, namely, I, m, n, r, are also distinguished by the name of liquids, from 
their readily uniting with other consonants, and flowing as it were into their sounds." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 8; Churchill's, 5; Alger's, 11; etal. "Some conjunctions have their corre- 
spondent conjunctions belonging to them; so that, in the subsequent member of the sentence the 
latter answers to the former." — Lowth's Gram., p. 109; Adam's, 209; Gould's, 205; L. Murray's, 
211; Ingersoll's, 268; Fish's, 137; Churchill's, 153; Fowler's, 562; etal " The mutes are those 
consonants, whose sounds cannot be protracted. The semi-vowels, such whose sounds can be con- 
tinued at pleasure, partaking of the nature of vowels, from which they derive their name." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., p 9 ; etal. "The pronoun of the third person, of the masculine and feminine gender, 
is sometimes used as a noun, and regularly declined: as, 'The hes in birds.' Bacon. 'The shes 
of Italy.' SffAK." — Ciurchill's Gram., p. 73. "The following examples also of separation of a 
preposition from the word which it governs, is improper in common writings." — C. Adams's Gram., 
p. 103. " The word whose begins likewise to be restricted to persons, but it is not done so gene- 
rally bat that good writers, and even in prose, use it when speaking of things." — Priestley's Gram., 
p. 99; L. Murray's, 157; Fish's, 115; et al. " There are new and surpassing wonders present 
themselves to our views." — Sherlock. "Inaccuracies are often found in the way wherein the 
degrees of comparison are applied and construed." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 202. "Inaccuracies 
are often found in the way in which the degrees of comparison are applied and construed." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 167; Smith's, 144; Ingersoll's, 193; etal. "The connecting circumstance 
is placed too remotely, to be either perspicuous or agreeable." — Murray's Gram., p. 177. "Those 
tenses are called simple tenses, which are formed of the principal without an auxiliary verb." — 
lb., p. 91. "The nearer that men approach to each other, the more numerous are their points of 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. — CRITICAL NOTES. — ERRORS. 745 

contact and the greater will be their pleasures or their pains." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 215. 
" This is the machine that he is the inventor of" — Nixon's Parser, p. 124. " To give this sentence 
the interrogative form, it should be expressed thus." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 279. " Never 
employ those words which may be susceptible of a sense different from the sense you intend to 
be conveyed." — Riley's Gram., p. 152. " Sixty pages are occupied in explaining what would 
not require more than ten or twelve to be explained according to the ordinary method." — lb., 
JPref., p. ix. "The present participle in -ing always expresses an action, or the suffering of an 
action, or the being, state, or condition of a thing as continuing and progressive. 11 — Bullions, E. 
Gram., p. 57. "The Present participle of all active verbs* 1 has an active signification; as, James 
is building the house. In many of these, however, it has also a passive signification ; as, the house 
was building when the wall fell. 1 ' — Id., ib., 2d or 4th Ed., p. 57. " Previous to parsing this sen- 
tence, it may be analyzed to the young pupil by such questions as the following, viz." — Id., ib., 
p. 73. "Subsequent to that period, however, attention has been paid to this important subject." 
— Ib., New Ed, p. 189 ; Riley's Preface, p. vi. "A definition of a word is an explanation in what 
sense the word is used, or what idea or object we mean by it, and which may be expressed by 
any one or more of the properties, effects, or circumstances of that object, so as sufficiently to 
distinguish it from other objects." — Riley's Gram., p. 245. 

Under Critical Note XIV. — Of Ignorance. 
"What is an Asserter? It is the part of speech which asserts." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 20. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the term " Asserter" which is here put for Verb, is both ignorantly mis- 
spelled, and whimsically misapplied. But, according to Critical Note 14th, " Any use of words that implies 
ignorance of their meaning, or of their proper orthography, is particularly unscholarlike ; and, in proportion 
to the author's pretensions to learning, disgraceful." The errors here committed might have been avoided 
thus : " What is a verb ? It is a word which signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon." Or thus : " What is an 
assertor? Ans. ' One who affirms positively ; an affirmer, supporter, or vindicator.' — Webster's Diet."] 

"Virgil wrote the iEnead." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 56. "Which, to a supercilious or incon- 
siderate Japaner, would seem very idle and impertinent." — Locke, on Ed., p. 225. "Will not a 
look of disdain cast upon you, throw you into a foment?" — Life of Th. Say, p. 146. "It may be 
of use to the scholar, to remark in this place, that though only the conjunction if is affixed to the 
verb, any other conjunction proper for the subjunctive mood, may, with equal propriety, be occa- 
sionally annexed." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 93. "When proper names have an article annexed 
to them, they are used as common names." — lb., p. 36; Ingersoll's, 25; et al. "When a proper 
noun has an article annexed to it, it is used as a common noun." — Merchant's Gram., p. 25. 
"Seeming to disenthral the death-field of its terrors." — lb., p. 109. "For the same reason, we 
might, without any disparagement to the language, dispense with the terminations of our verbs in 
the singular." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 50. "It diminishes all possibility of being misunderstood." — 
Abbott's Teacher, p. 175. "Approximation to excellence is all that we can expect." — lb., p. 42. "I 
have often joined in singing with musicianists at Norwich." — Music of Nature, p. 274. "When 
not standing in regular prosic order." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram,., p. 281. " Disregardless of the dog- 
mas and edicts of the philosophical umpire." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 75. "Others begin to talk 
before their mouths are open, affixing the mouth-closing M to most of their words — as M-yes for 
Yes." — Music of Nature, p. 28. "That noted close of his, esse videatur, exposed him to censure 
among his cotemporaries." — Blair's Rhet, p. 127. "Own. Formerly, a man's own was what he 
worked for, own being a past participle of a verb signifying to work." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 71. 
"As [requires] so: expressing a comparison of quality: as, l As the one dieth, so dieth the other.' " 
— Murray's Gram., p. 212; R. G. Smith's, 177; and, many others. "To obey our parents is a 
solemn duty." — Parker and Fox's Gram., Part I, p. 67. " Most all the political papers of the 
kingdom have touched upon these things." — II. C. Wright: Liberator, Vol. xiv, p. 22. "I shall 
take leave to make a few observations upon the subject." — Riley's Gram., p. iii. " His loss I 
have endeavoured to supply, as far as additional vigilance and industry would allow." — lb., p. xi. 
" That they should make vegetation so exhuberant as to anticipate every want." — Frazee's Gram., 
p. 43. " The quotors " " which denote that one or more words are extracted from another au- 
thor." — Bay's District School Gram., p. 112. "Ninevah and Assyria were two of the most noted 
cities of ancient history." — lb., p. 32 and p. 88. "Ninevah, the capital of Assyria, is a celebrated 
ancient city." — lb., p. 88. " It may, however, be rendered definite by introducing some defini- 
tion of time; as, yesterday, last week, &c." — Bullions' s E. Gram., p. 40. " The last is called heroic 
measure, and is the same that is used by Milton, Young, Thompson, Pollock, &c." — Id., Practical 
Lessons, p. 129. "Perrenial ones must be sought in the delightful regions above." — Hallock's 
Gram., p. 194. "Intransitive verbs are those which are inseperable from the effect produced." — 
Cutler's Gram., p. 31. "Femenine gender, belongs to women, and animals of the female kind." — 
lb., p. 15. " Woe! unto you scribes and pharasees." — Day's Gram., p. 74. "A pyrrick, which 
has both its syllables short." — lb., p. 114. "What kind of Jesamine? a Jesamine in flower, or 
a flowery Jesamine." — Barrett's Gram., 10th Ed., p. 53. " Language, derived from l linguce,' the 
tongue, is the facidty of communicating our thoughts to each other, by proper words, used by com- 

* In the Doctor's "New Edition. Revised and Corrected," the text stands thus: "The P>-esent participle of 
the active voioe has an active signification ; as, James is building the house. In many of these, however, it 
has," &c. Here the first sentence is but an idle truism; and the phrase, " In many of these,'" for lack of an 
antecedent to these, is utter nonsense. What is in "the active voice," ought of course to be active in " signifi- 
cation ;" but, in tins author's present scheme of the verb, we find " the active voice," in direct violation of his 
own definition of it, ascribed not only to verbs and pnrticinles either neuter or intransitive, but also, as it would 
eeeiu by this passagj, to " many" that are passive ! — G. Beovvs. 



746 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

mon consent, as signs of our ideas." — lb., p. 9. " Say none, not nara." — Stamford's Gram., p. 
81. "Ary one, for either." — Pond's Larger Gram., p. 194. (See Obs. 24th, on the Syntax of 
Adverbs, and the Note at the bottom of the page.) 

" Earth loses thy patron for ever and aye; 

sailor boy! sailor boyl peace to thy soul." — S. Barretts Gram., 1831, p. 116. 
" His brow was sad, his eye beneath, 
Mashed like a halcyon from its sheath." — Liberator, Yol.' 12, p. 24. 

Under Critical Note XY. — Op Silliness and Truisms. 

" Such is the state of man, that he is never at rest." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 57. 

[Fosmtjle. — This is a remark of no wisdom or force, because it would be nearer the truth, to say, "Such is 
the state of man, that he must often rest." But, according to Critical Note 15th, " Silly remarks and idle tru- 
isms are traits of a feeble style, and when their weakness is positive, or inherent, they ought to be entirely 
omitted." It is useless to attempt a correction of this example, for it is not susceptible of any form worth pre- 
serving.] 

" Participles belong to the nouns or pronouns to which they relate." — Wells' 1 s Gram., 1st Ed., 
p. 153. " Though the measure is mysterious, it is worthy of attention." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 
221. " Though the measure is mysterious, it is not unworthy your attention." — Kirkham's Gram., 
pp. 197 and 227. "The inquietude of his mind made his station and wealth far from being envi- 
able." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 250. "By rules so general and comprehensive as these are [,] the 
clearest ideas are conveyed." — lb., p. 273. "The mind of man cannot be long without some 
food to nourish the activity of its thoughts." — lb., p. 185. "Not having known, or not having 
considered, the measures proposed, he failed of success." — lb., p. 202. "Not having known or 
considered the subject, he made a crude decision." — lb., p. 275. "Not to exasperate him, I 
spoke only a very few words." — lb., p. 257. "These are points too trivial, to be noticed. They 
are objects with which I am totally unacquainted." — lb., p. 275. "Before we close this section, 
it may afford instruction to the learners, to be informed, more particularly than they have been." — 
Murray's Gram., p. 110. "The articles are often properly omitted: when used, they should be 
justly applied, according to their distinct nature." — lb., p. 170; Alger's, 60. "Anything, which 
is done now, is supposed to be done at the present time." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 34. "Any thing 
which was done yesterday is supposed to be done in past time." — lb., 34. "Any thing which 
may be done hereafter, is supposed to be done in future time." — lb., 34. ""When the mind com- 
pares two things in reference to each other, it performs the operation of comparing. " — lb., p. 244. 
" The persons, with whom you dispute, are not of your opinion." — Cooper's PL and Pr. Gram., p. 
124. " But the preposition at is always used when it follows the neuter Verb in the same Case : as, 
' I have been at London.' " — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 60. " But the preposition at is generally used 
after the neuter verb to be: as, 'I have been at London.' " — L. Murray's Gram., p. 203; Inger- 
solVs, 231 ; Fish's, 143; et al. " The article the has sometimes a different effect, in distinguishing 
a person by an epithet." — Murray's Gram., p. 172. " The article the has, sometimes, a fine effect, in 
distinguishing a person by an epithet." — Priestley's Gram., p. 151. " Some nouns have plurals be- 
longing only to themselves." — Infant School Gram., p. 26. "Sentences are either simple or com- 
pound." — Lowth's Gram., p. 68. "All sentences are either simple or compound." — Gould's Adam's 
Gram., p. 155. " The definite article the belongs to nouns in the singular or plural number." — Kirk- 
ham's Gram., Rule 2d, p. 156. " Where a riddle is not intended, it is always a fault in allegory to be 
too dark." — Blair's Rhet, p. 151; Murray's Gram., 343. "There may be an excess in too many 
short sentences also ; by which the sense is split and broken." — Blair's Rhet., p. 101. "Are there 
any nouns you cannot see, hear, or feel, but only think of? Name such a noun." — Infant School 
Gram., p. 17. " Flock is of the singular number, it denotes but one flock — and in the nominative 
case, it is the active agent of the verb." — Kirkham's, Gram., p. 58. " The article THE agrees with 
nouns of the singular or plural number." — Parker and Fox's Gram., p. 8. " The admiral bom- 
barded Algiers, which has been continued." — Nixon's Parser, p. 128. " The world demanded 
freedom, which might have been expected." — Ibid. "The past tense represents an action as past 
and finished, either with or without respect to the time when." — Felton's Gram., p. 22. "That 
boy rode the wicked horse." — Butler's Practical Gram., p. 42. "The snake swallowed itself." — lb., 
p. 57. " Bo is sometimes used when shall or should is omitted; as, ' if thou do repent.' " — lb., p. 
85. " Subjunctive Mood. This mood has the tenses of the indicative." — lb., p. 87. "As nouns 
never speak, they are never in the first person." — Davis's Practical Gram., p. 148 "Nearly all 
parts of speech are used more or less in an elliptical sense." — Day's District School Gram., p. 80. 
" Rule. No word in a period can have any greater extension than the other words or sections in 
the same sentence will give it." — Barrett's Revised Gram., p. 38 and p. 43. "Words used exclu- 
sively as Adverbs, should not be used as adjectives." — Clark's Practical Gram., p. 166. "Ad- 
jectives used in Predication, should not take the Adverbial form." — lb., pp. 167 and 173. 
Under Critical Note XYI. — Of the Incorrigible. 

" And this state of things belonging to the painter governs it in the possessive case." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., p. 195 ; Ingersoll's, 201 ; et al. 

[Fobmuxe. — This composition is incorrigibly bad. The participle " belonging" which seems to relate to 
"things," is improperly meant to qualify "state." And the "state of things,"" (which state really belongs 
only to the things,) is absurdly supposed to belong to a person — i. e., "to the painter."" Then this man, to -whom 
the "state of things" is said to belong, is forthwith called "it,"" and nonsensically declared to be "in the pos- 
sessive case." But, according to Critical Note 16th, " Passages too erroneous for correction, may be criticised, 
orally or otherwise, and then passed over without any attempt to amend them." Therefore, no correction is 
attempted here.] 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — VARIOUS RULES. — PROMISCUOUS ERRORS. 747 

" Nouns or pronouns, following the verb to be ; or the words than, but, as ; or that answer the 
question who? have the same case after as preceded them." — Beck's Gram., p. 29. " The common 
gender is when the noun may be either masculine or feminine." — Frosts Gram., p. 8. " The pos- 
sessive is generally pronounced the same as if the s were added." — Alden's Gram., p. 11. "For, 
assuredly, as soon as men had got beyond simple interjections, and began to communicate them- 
selves by discourse, they would be under a necessity of assigning names to the objects they saw 
around them, which in grammatical language, is called the invention of substantive nouns." — Blair 's 
Rhet, p. 72. "Young children will learn to form letters as soon, if not readier, than they will 
when older." — Taylor's District School, p. 159. "This comparing words with one another, con- 
stitutes what is called the degrees of comparison." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 29. " Whenever a noun 
is immediately annexed to a preceding neuter verb, it expresses either the same notion with the verb, 
or denotes only the circumstance of the action." — Lowth's Gram. y p. 73. "Two or more nouns or 
pronouns joined singular together by the conjunction and, must have verbs agreeing with them in 
the plural number." — Infant School Gram., p. 129. " Possessive and demonstrative pronouns 
agree with their nouns in number and case ; as, ' my brother,' ' this slate,' 'these slates.' " — lb., 
p. 130. " Participles which have no relation to time are used either as adjectives or as substan- 
tives." — Maunders Gram., p. 1. "They are in use only in some of their times and modes: and 
in some of them are a composition of times of several defective verbs, having the same significa- 
tion." — Lowth's Gram., p. 59. "When words of the possessive case that are in apposition, follow 
one another in quick succession, the possessive sign should be annexed to the last only, and un- 
derstood to the rest; as, 'For David, my servant's sake.'" — Comly's Gram., p. 92. "By this 
order, the first nine rules accord with those which respect the rules of concord; and the remainder 
include, though they extend beyond the rules of government." — Murray's Gram., p. 143. " Own 
and self in the plural selves, are joined to the possessives, my, our, thy, your, his, her, their ; as, 
my own hand, myself, yourselves ; both of them expressing emphasis or opposition, as, ' I did it 
my own self that is, and no one else ; the latter also forming the reciprocal pronoun, as, 'he hurt 
himself?" — Lowth's Gram., p. 25. "A. flowing copious style, therefore, is required in all public 
speakers ; guarding, at the same time, against such a degree of diffusion, as renders them languid 
and tiresome ; which will always prove the case, when they inculcate too much, and present the 
same thought under too many different views." — Blair's Rhet., p. 177. "As sentences should be 
cleared of redundant words, so also of redundant members. As every word ought to present a 
new idea, so every member ought to contain a new thought. Opposed to this, stands the fault 
we sometimes meet with, of the last member of a period being no other than the echo of the 
former, or the repetition of it in somewhat a different form."* — lb., p. 111. "Which always refers 
grammatically to the substantive immediately preceding : [as,] ' It is folly to pretend, by heaping 
up treasures, to arm ourselves against the accidents of life, which nothing can protect us against, 
but the good providence of our heavenly Father.' " — Murray's G>'am., p. 311 ; Maunder s, p. 18; 
Blair's Rhet, p. 105. " The English adjectives, having but a very limited syntax, is classed with 
its kindred article, the adjective pronoun, under the eighth rule." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 
143. " When a substantive is put absolutely, and does not agree with the following verb, it re- 
mains independent on the participle, and is called the case absolute, or the nominative absolute." — 
lb., p. 195. " It will, doubtless, sometimes happen, that, on this occasion, as well as on many 
other occasions, a strict adherence to grammatical rules, would render the language stiff and formal : 
but when case9 of this sort occur, it is better to give the expression a different turn, than to violate 
grammar for the sake of ease, or even of elegance." — lb., p. 208. "Number, which distinguishes 
objects as singly or collectively, must have been coeval with the very infancy of language." — 
Jamieson's Rhet, p. 25. "The article a or an agrees with nouns in the singular number only, 
individually or collectively." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 170; and others. "No language is perfect 
because it is a human invention." — Parker and Fox's Grammar, Part III, p. 112. " The partici- 
ples, or as they may properly be termed, forms of the verb in the second infinitive, usually precedes 
another verb, and states some fact, or event, from which an inference is drawn by that verb ; as, 
'the sun having arisen, they departed.' " — Bay's Grammar, 2d Ed., p. 36. " They must describe 
what has happened as having done so in the past or the present time, or as likely to occur in the 
future." — The Well- Wishers' Grammar, Introd., p. 5. " Nouns are either male, female, or neither." 
— Fowle's Common School Grammar, Part Second, p. 12. "Possessive Adjectives express posses- 
sion, and distinguish nouns from each other by showing to what they belong ; as, my hat, John's 
hat."— lb., p. 31. 

PROMISCUOUS EXAMPLES OF FALSE SYNTAX. 

LESSON L— VARIOUS RULES. 
" What is the reason that our language is less refined than that of Italy, Spain, or France ?" — 
Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 185. "What is the reason that our language is less refined than that of 
France?" — Inger soil's Gram., p. 152. "'I believe your Lordship will agree with me, in the 
reason why our language is less refined than those of Italy, Spain, or France.' Dean Swift. 
Even in this short sentence, we may discern an inaccuracy — ' why our language is less refined 
than those of Italy, Spain, or France ;' putting the pronoun those in the plural, when the antece- 

* One objection to these passages is, that they are examples of the very construction which they describe as a 
fault. The first and second sentences ought to have been separated only by a semicolon. This would have 
made tbem "members'" of one and the same sentence. Can it be supposed that one "though?* is sufficient for 
two periods, or for what one chooses to point as such, but not for two members of the same period ? — C-. Beown. 



748 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

dent substantive to which it refers is in the singular, our language." — Blair's Rhet, p. 228. 
" The sentence might have been made to run much better in this way ; ' why our language is less 
refined than the Italian, Spanish, or French.' " — Ibid. " But when arranged in an entire sen- 
tence, which they must be to make a complete sense, they show it still more evidently." — L. 
Murray's Gram., p. 65. " This is a more artificial and refined construction than that, in which 
the common connective is simply made use of." — lb., p. 121. "We shall present the reader with 
a list of Prepositions, which are derived from the Latin and Greek languages." — lb., p. 120. 
"Relatives comprehend the meaning of a pronoun and conjunction copulative." — lb., p. 126. 
" Personal pronouns being used to supply the place of the noun, are not employed in the same 
part of the sentence as the noun which they represent." — lb., p. 155 ; R. G. Smith's Gram., 131. 
" There is very seldom any occasion for a substitute in the same part where the principal word is 
present." — Murray's Gram., p. 155. "We hardly consider little children as persons, because that 
term gives us the idea of reason and reflection." — Priestley's Gram., p. 98 ; Murray's, 157 ; 
Smith's, 133 ; and others. " The occasion of exerting each of these qualities is different." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 95 ; Murray's Gram., 302; Jamieson's Ehet., 66. "I'll tell you who time ambles withal, 
who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal. I pray thee, who 
doth he trot withal ?" — Shakspeare. " By greatness, I do not only mean the bulk of any single 
object, but the largeness of a whole view." — Addison. " The question may then be put, What 
does he more than mean ?" — Blair's Rhet, p. 103. " The question might be put, what more does 
he than only mean ?" — lb., p. 204. "He is surprised to find himself got to so great a distance, 
from the object with which he at first set out." — lb., p. 108. " He is surprised to find himself at 
so great a distance from the object with which he sets out." — Murray's Gram., p. 313. "Few 
precise rules can be given, which will hold without exception in all cases." — lb., p. 267 ; Lowth's 
Gram., p. 115. "Versification is the arrangement of a certain number of syllables accord- 
ing to certain laws." — Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 13. " Versification is the arrangement of a 
certain number and variety of syllables, according to certain laws." — L. Murray's Gram. p. 252 ; 
R. G. Smith's, 187 ; and others. " Charlotte, the friend of Amelia, to whom no one imputed 
blame, was too prompt in her own vindication." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 273. " Mr. Pitt, joining 
the war party in 1793, the most striking and the most fatal instance of this offence, is the one 
which at once presents itself." — Brougham's Sketches, Yol. i, p. 57. " To the framing such a 
sound constitution of mind." — The American Lady, p. 132. " ' I beseech you,' said St. Paul to 
his Ephesian converts, 'that ye walk worthy the vocation wherewith ye are called.'" — lb., p. 
208. " So as to prevent its being equal to that." — Booth's Jntrod., p. 88. " When speaking of 
an action's being performed." — lb., p. 89. " And, in all questions of an action's being so performed, 
est is added to the second person." — lb., p. 72. "No account can be given of this, than that cus- 
tom has blinded their eyes." — Dymond's Essays, p. 269. 

" Design, or chance, make other wive ; 
But nature did this match contrive." — Waller, p. 24. 

LESSON IL— VARIOUS RULES. 

"I suppose each of you think it is your own nail." — Abbott's Teacher, p. 58. " They are useless, 
from their being apparently based upon this supposition." — lb., p. 71. " The form and manner, 
in which this plan may be adopted, is various." — lb., p. 83. " Making intellectual effort, and ac- 
quiring knowledge, are always pleasant to the human mind." — lb., p. 85. " This will do more 
than the best lecture which ever was delivered." — lb., p. 90. " Doing easj^ things is generally 
dull work." — lb., p. 92. " Such is the tone and manner of some teachers." — lb., p. 118. "Well, 
the fault is, being disorderly at prayer time." — lb., p. 153. " Do you remember speaking on this 
subject in school?" — lb., p. 154. "The course above recommended, is not trying lax and ineffi- 
cient measures." — lb., p. 156. " Our community is agreed that there is a God." — lb., p. 163. " It 
prevents their being interested in what is said." — lb., p. 175. " We will also suppose that I call 
another boy to me, who I have reason to believe to be a sincere Christian." — lb., p. 180. "Five 
minutes notice is given by the bell." — lb., p. 211. " The Annals of Education gives notice of it." 
— lb., p. 240. " Teacher's meetings will be interesting and useful." — lb., p. 243. " She thought an 
half hour's study would conquer all the difficulties." — lb., p. 257. "The difference between an 
honest and an hypocritical confession." — lb., p. 263. " There is no point of attainment where wo 
must stop." — lb., p. 267. "Now six hours is as much as is expected of teachers." — lb., p. 268. 
" How much is seven times nine?" — lb., p. 292. "Then the reckoning proceeds till it come to 
ten hundred." — Frost's Practical Gram., p. 170. "Your success will depend on your own exer- 
tions ; see, then, that you are diligent." — lb., p. 142. " Subjunctive Mood, Present Tense : If I 
am known, If thou art known, If he is known ; etc." — lb., p. 91. " If I be loved, If thou be loved, 
If he be loved;" &c. — lb., p. 85. "An Interjection is a word used to express sudden emotion. 
They are so called, because they are generally thrown in between the parts of a sentence without 
any reference to the structure of the other parts of it." — lb., p. 35. " The Cardinals are those 
which simplify or denote number; as one, two, three." — lb., p. 31. "More than one organ is 
concerned in the utterance of almost every consonant." — lb., p. 21. " To extract from them all 
the Terms we make use in our Divisions and Subdivisions of the Art." — Holmes's Rhetoric, Pref. 
"And thore was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe." — Ezelnel, ii, 10. "If I 
were to be judged as to my behaviour, compared with that of John's." — Josephus, Yol. 5, p. 172. 
" When the preposition to signifies in order to, it used to be preceded by for, which is now almost 
obsolete: What went ye out for to see." — Priestley's Gram., p. 132. "This makes the proper 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — VARIOUS RULES. — PROMISCUOUS ERRORS. 749 

perfect tense, which, in English, is always expressed by the help of the auxiliary verb, ' I have 
written.' " — Blair's Rhel, p. 82. " Indeed, in the formation of character, personal exertion is the 
first, the second, and the third virtues." — Sanders, Spelling-Book, p. 93. " The reducing them to 
the condition of the beasts that perish." — Dymond's Essays, p. 67. " Yet this affords no reason 
to deny that the nature of the gift is not the same, or that both are not divine." — lb., p. 68. "If 
God have made known his will." — lb., p. 98. "If Christ have prohibited them, [i. e., oaths,] 
nothing else can prove them right." — lb., p. 150. " That the taking them is wrong, every man 
who simply consults his own heart, will know." — lb., p. 163. " These evils would be spared the 
world, if one did not write." — lb., p. 168. " It is in a great degree our OAvn faults." — lb., p. 200. 
"It is worthy observation that lesson-learning is nearly excluded." — lb., p. 212. "Who spares 
the aggressor's life even to the endangering his own." — lb., p. 227. "Who advocates the taking 
the life of an aggressor." — lb., p. 229. "And thence up to the intentionally and voluntary 
fraudulent." — lb., p. 318. " 'And the contention was so great among them, that they departed 
asunder, one from another.' — Acts, xv. 39." — Rev. Matt. Harrison's English Lang., p. 235. "Here 
the man is John, and John is the man ; so the words are the imagination and the fancy, and the 
imagination and the fancy are the words." — Harrison's E. Lang., p. 227. "The article, which is 
here so emphatic in the Greek, is lost sight of in our translation." — lb., p. 223. " We have no 
less than thirty pronouns." — lb., p. 166. " It will admit of a pronoun being joined to it." — lb., 
p. 137. " From intercourse and from conquest, all the languages of Europe participate with each 
other." — lb., p. 104. " It is not always necessity, therefere, that has been the cause of our intro- 
ducing terms derived from the classical languages." — lb., p. 100. "The man of genius stamps 
upon it any impression that he pleases." — lb., p. 90. " The proportion of names ending in son 
preponderate greatly among the Dano-Saxon population of the North." — lb., p. 43. "As a proof 
of the strong similarity between the English and the Danish languages." — lb., p. 37. " A century 
from the time that Hengist and Horsa landed on the Isle of Thanet." — lb., p. 27. 

"I saw the colours waving in the wind, 
And they within, to mischief how combin'd." — Bunyan. 

LESSON III.— VARIOUS RULES. 
"A ship expected: of whom we say, she sails well.*' — Ben Jonson's Gram., Chap. 10. "Hon- 
esty is reckoned little worth." — PauVs Accidence, p. 58. " Learn to esteem life as it ought." — 
Economy of Human Life, p. 118. " As the soundest health is less perceived than the lightest 
malady, so the highest joy toucheth us less deep than the smallest sorrow." — lb., p. 152. " Being 
young is no apology for being frivolous." — Whiting's Elementary Reader, p. 117. " The porch was 
the same width with the temple." — Milman's Jews, Vol. i, p. 208. " The other tribes neither con- 
tributed to his rise or downfall." — lb., Yol. i, p. 165. " His whole laws and religion would have 
been shaken to its foundation." — lb., Yol. i, p. 109. "The English has most commonly been neg- 
lected, and children taught only the Latin syntax." — Lily's Gram., Pref, p. xi. " They are not 
taken notice of in the notes." — Pa., p. x. " He walks in righteousness, doing what he would be 
done to." — S. Fisher's Works, p. 14. " They stand independently on the rest of the sentence." — 
IngersoiVs Gram., p. 151. "My unele, with his son, were in town yesterday." — Lennit's Gram,., 
p. 142. "She with her sisters are well." — lb., p. 143. " His purse, with its contents, were ab- 
stracted from his pocket." — lb., p. 143. " The great constitutional feature of this institution 
being, that directly the acrimony of the last election is over, the acrimony of the next begins." — 
Dickens's Notes, p. 27. " His disregarding his parents' advice has brought him into disgrace." — 
Farnum's Pract. Gram., 2d Ed., p. 19. "Error: Can you tell me the reason of his father making 
that remark? — Pb., p. 93. Cor. : Can you tell me the reason of his father's making that remark ?" 
— See Farnum's Gram., Rule 12th, p. 76. "Error: What is the reason of our teacher detaining 
us so long? — lb., p. 76. Cor. : What is the reason of our teacher's detaining us so long?'" — See 
lb. ''Error: I am certain of the boy having said so. Correction : I am certain of the boy's hav- 
ing said so." — Exercises in Farnum's Gram., p. 76. " Which means any thing or things before- 
named ; and that may represent any person or persons, thing or things, which have been speak- 
ing, spoken to or spoken of." — Dr. Perley's Gram., p. 9. " A certain number of syllables con- 
nected, form a foot. They are called feet, because it is by their aid that the voice, as it were, steps 
along." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 252; G. Adams's, 121. "Asking questions with a principal 
verb— as, Teach 1? Burns he, &c. are barbarisms, and carefully to be avoided." — Alex. Murray's 
Gram., p. 122. " Tell whether the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, or 23d Rules are to be used, and 
repeat the Rule." — Parker and Fox's Gram., Part I, p. 4. "The resolution was adopted without 
much deliberation, which caused great dissatisfaction." — Do., p. 71. "The man is now taken much 
notice of by the people thereabouts." — Edward's First Lessons in Gram., p. 42. " The sand pre- 
vents their sticking to one another." — lb., p. 84. "Defective Yerbs are those which are used 
only in some of their moods and tenses." — Murray's Gram., p. 108; Guy's, 42; Russell's, 46; 
Bacon's, 42; Frost's, 40; Alger's, 47; S. Putnam's, 47 ; Goldsbury's. 54; Felton's, 59; and others. 
" Defective verbs are those which want some of their moods and tenses." — Lennie's Gram., p. 47 ; 
Bullions, E. Gram., 65 ; Practical Lessons, 75. " Defective Yerbs want some of their parts." — 
Bullions, Lot. Gram., p. 78. "A Defective verb is one that wants some of its parts." — Bullions, 
Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 1849, p. 101. "To the irregular verbs are to be added the defective; 
which are not only for the most part irregular, but also wanting in some of their parts." — Lowth's 
Gram., p. 59. " To the irregular verbs are to be added the defective ; which are not only want- 
ing in some of their parts, but are, when inflected, irregular." — Churchill's Gram., p. 112. "When 



750 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

two or more nouns succeed each other in the possessive case." — Farnum's Gram., 2d Ed,, pp. 20 and 
63. " When several short sentences succeed each other." — lb., p. 113. "Words are divided into 
ten Classes, and are called Parts of Speech." — Ainsworth's Gram., p. 8. " A Passive Verb has 
its agent or doer always in the objective case, and is governed by a preposition." — lb., p. 40. "I 
am surprised at your negligent attention." — lb., p. 43. "Singular: Thou lovest or you love. 
You has always a plural verb." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 43. " How do you know that love is the 
first person ? Ans. Because we is the first personal pronoun." — Id., ib., p. 47 ; Lennie's Gram., 
p. 26. " The lowing herd wind slowly round the lea." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 96. " Iambic 
verses have every second, fourth, and other even syllables accented." — lb., p. 170. " Contractions 
are often made in poetry, which are not allowable in prose." — lb., p. 119. " Yet to their general's 
voice they all obeyed." — lb., p. 179. "It never presents to his mind but one new subject at the 
same time." — Felton's Gram., 1st edition, p. 6. " When the name of a quality is abstracted, that 
is separated from its substance, it is called an abstract noun." — lb., p. 9. "Nouns are in tho first 
person when speaking." — lb., p. 9. "Which of the two brothers are graduates?" — Hallooes 
Gram., p. 59. "I am a linen draper bold, as you and all the world doth know." — lb., p. 60. "O 
the bliss, the pain of dying !" — lb., p. 127. " This do; take you censers, Korah, and all his com- 
pany." — Numbers, xvi, 6. "There are two participles, — the present and perfect ; as, reading, hav- 
ing read. Transitive verbs have an active and passive participle. Examples : Active, Present, 
Loving ; Perfect, Having loved : Passive, Present, Loved or being loved ; Perfect, Having been 
loved." — S. S. Greene's Analysis, 1st Ed., p. 225. 

" O heav'n, in my connubial hour decree 
This man my spouse, or such a spouse as he." — Pope. 

LESSON IV.— VARIOUS RULES. 
"The Past Tenses represent a conditional past fact or event, and of which the speaker is uncer- 
tain." — Haley's Gram., p. 89. "Care also should be taken that they are not introduced too abun- 
dantly." — lb., p. 134. "Till they are become familiar to the mind." — lb., Pref., p. v. "When 
once a particular arrangement and phraseology are become familiar to the mind." — lb., p. vii. " I 
have furnished the student with the plainest and most practical directions which I could devise." — 
lb., p. xiv. "When you are become conversant with the Rules of Grammar, you will then bo 
qualified to commence the study of Style." — lb., p. xxii. " Chas a soft sound like 6- before e, i, 
and y, generally." — Murray's Gram., p. 10. " G before e, i, and y, is soft ; as in genius, ginger, 
Egypt." — lb., p. 12. " G before e, i, and y, generally sounds soft like s." — Hiley's Gram., p. 4. 
" G is soft before e, i, and y, as in genius, ginger, Egypt." — lb., p. 4. " As a perfect Alphabet 
must always contain as many letters as there are elementary sounds in the language, the English 
Alphabet is therefore both defective and redundant." — Hiley's Gram., p. 5. " Common Nouns 
are the names given to a whole class or species, and are applicable to every individual of that 
class." — lb., p. 11. "Thus an adjective has always a noun either expressed or understood." — lb., 
p. 20. " First, let us consider emphasis; by this, is meant a stronger and fuller sound of voice, by 
which we distinguish the accented syllable of some word, on which we design to lay particular stress, 
and to shew how it effects the rest of the sentence." — Blair's Rhet., p. 330. "By emphasis is meant 
a stronger and fuller sound of voice, by which wo distinguish some word or words on which we 
design to lay particular stress, and to show how they affect the rest of the sentence." — Murray's 
Gram., p. 242. " Such a simple question as this: ' Do you ride to town to-day,' is capable of no 
fewer than four different acceptations, according as the emphasis is differently placed on the words." 
— Blair's Rhet., p. 330 ; Murray's Gram., p. 242. "Thus, bravely, or 'in a brave manner,' is de- 
rived from brave-like." — Eiley's Gram., p. 51. "In the same manner, the different parts of speech 
are formed from each other generally by means of some affix." — lb., p. 60. " Words derived from 
each other, are always, more or less, allied in signification." — Bo., p. 60. "When a noun of mul- 
titude conveys unity of idea the verb and pronoun should be singular. But when it conveys 
plurality of idea, the verb and pronoun must be plural." — lliley's Gram., p. 71. " They have spent 
their whole time to make the sacred chronology agree with that of the profane." — lb., p. 87. " 'I 
have studied my lesson, but you have not;' that is, 'but you have not studied it.' " — lb., p. 109. 
" When words follow each other in pairs, there is a comma between each pair." — lb., p. 112 ; 
Bullions, 152 ; Lennie, 132. "When words follow each other in pairs, the pairs should be marked 
by the comma." — Farnum's Gram., p. 111. "His 'Studies of Nature,' is deservedly a popular 
work." — Univ. Biog. Diet, n. St. Pierre. " 'Here lies his head, a youth to fortune and to fame 
unknown.' 'Youth,' here is in the possessive (the sign being omitted), and is in apposition with 
his.' The meaning is, ' the head of him, a youth,' &c." — Hart's E. Gram,., p. 124. "The pro- 
noun I, and the interjection O, should be written with a capital." — Weld's E. Gram., 2d Ed., p. 16. 
" The pronoun /always should be written with a capital letter." — lb., p. 68. "He went from 
England to York." — lb., p. 41. " An adverb is a part of speech joined to verbs, adjectives and 
other adverbs, to modify their meaning." — Bo., p. 51 ; " Abridged Ed." 46. " Singular, signifies 
'one person or thing.' Plural, (Latin plus,) signifies 'more than one.'" — Weld's Gram., p. 55. 
" When the present ends in e, d only is added to form the Imperfect and Perfect participle." — lb., 
p. 82. " Syn^eresis is the contraction of two syllables into one ; as, Seest for see-est, drowned for 
drown-ed." — lb., p. 213. " Words ending in ee drop the final e on receiving an additional syllable 
beginning with e; as, see, seest, agree, agreed." — lb., p. 227. "Monosyllables in/, I. or s. preceded 
by a single vowel are doubled ; as, staff, grass, mill." — ib., p. 226. "Words ending ie drop the 
e and take y ; as die, dying." — Pj., p. 226. "One number may be used for another; as, we for 



CHAP. XIII.] SYNTAX. — VARIOUS RULES. — PROMISCUOUS ERRORS. 751 

/, you for thou. 11 — S. S. (Greene's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 198. " Strob'ile, n. A pericarp made up of 
scales that lie over each other. Smart." — Worcester 's Univ. and Crit. Diet 
"Yet ever from the clearest source have ran 
Some gross allay, some tincture of the man." — Dr. Lowth. 

LESSON V.— VARIOUS RULES. 

" The possessive case is always followed by the noun which is the name of the thing possessed, 
expressed or understood." — Felton's Gram., p. 61 ; Revised Edition, pp. 64 and 86. "Hadmer of 
Aggstein was as pious, devout, and praying a Christian, as were Nelson, "Washington, or Jeffer- 
son; or as are Wellington, Tyler, Clay, or Polk." — H. C. Wright: Liberator, Vol. xv, p. 21. 
"A word in the possessive case is not an independent noun, and cannot stand by its self" — 
Wright's Gram., p. 130. "Mary is not handsome, but she is good-natured, which is better than 
beauty." — St. Quentin's Gram., p. 9. "After the practice of joining words together had ceased, 
notes of distinction were placed at the end of every word." — Murray's Gram., p. 267 ; Hallock's, 
224. "Neither Henry nor Charles dissipate his time." — Hallock's Gram., p. 166. "'He had 
taken from the Christians' abode thirty small castles.' — Knowles." — lb., p. 61. "In whatever 
character Butler was admitted, is unknown." — lb., p. 62. "How is the agent of a passive, and 
the object of an active verb often left?" — lb., p. 88. "By subject is meant the word of which 
something is declared of its object." — Chandler's Gram., 1821, p. 103. "Care should also be 
taken that an intransitive verb is not used instead of a transitive : as, I lay, (the bricks) for, I lie 
down; I raise the house, for I rise; I sit down, for, I set the chair down, &c." — lb., p. 114. "On 
them depend the duration of our Constitution and our country." — J. G. Calhoun at Memphis. 
" In the present sentence neither the sense nor the measure require what." — Chandler's Gram., 
1821, p. 164. "The Irish thought themselves eppress'd by the Law that forbid them to draw 
with their Horses Tails." — Brightlands Gram., Pref., p. iii. " So willingly are adverbs, qualify- 
ing deceives." — Cutler's Gram., p. 90. "Epicurus for experiment sake confined himself to a 
narrower diet than that of the severest prisons." — lb., p. 116. " Derivative words are such as 
are compounded of other words, as common- wealth, good-ness, false-hood." — lb., p. 12. "The 
distinction here insisted on is as old as Aristotle, and should not be lost sight of." — Hart's Gram,, 
p. 61. "The Tenses of the Subjunctive and the Potential Moods." — lb., p. 80. "A triphthong 
is a union of three vowels uttered in like manner: as, uoy in buoy." — P. Davis's Practical Gram., 
p. xvi. "Common nouns are the names of a species or kind." — lb., p. 8. "The superlative 
degree is a comparison between three or more." — lb., p. 14. " An adverb is a word or phrase 
serving to give an additional idea of a verb, and adjective, article, or another adverb." — lb., p. 
36. " When several nouns in the possessive case succeed each other, each showing possession 
of the same noun, it is only necessary to add the sign of the possessive to the last : as, He sells 
men, women, and children's shoes. Dog, cat, and tigers feet are digitated." — lb., p. 72. "A 
rail-road is making should be A rail-road is being made. A school-house is building, should be A 
school-house is being built." — lb., p. 113. "Auxiliaries are not of themselves verbs; they resem- 
ble in their character and use those terminational or other inflections in other languages, which we 
are obliged to use in ours to express the action in the mode, tense, &c, desired." — lb., p. 158. 
"Please hold my horse while I speak to my friend." — lb., p. 159. "If I say, 'Give me the book,' 
I ask for some particular book. " — Butler's Practical Gram., p. 39. "There are five men here." 
— lb., p. 134. "In the active the object may be omitted; in the passive the name of the agent 
may be omitted." — lb., p. 63. "The Progressive and the Emphatic forms give in each case a 
different shade of meaning to the verb.'" — Hart's Gram., p. 80. " That is a Kind of a Eedditive 
Conjunction, when it answers to so and such." — W. Ward's Gram., p. 152. "He attributes to 
negligence your failing to succeed in that business." — Smart's Accidence, p. 36. "Does will and 
go express but our action?" — S. Barrett's Revised Gram., p. 58. "Language is the principle 
vehicle of thought. G. Brown." — James Brown's English Syntax, p. 3. "Much is applied to 
things weighed or measured; many, to those that are numbered. Elder and eldest, to persons 
only; older and oldest, either to persons or things." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 20; Pract. Les., 25. 
"If there are any old maids still extant, while mysogonists are so rare, the fault must be attri- 
butable to themselves." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 286. "The second method used by the Greeks, 
has never been the practice of any part of Europe." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 64. "Neither con- 
sonant, nor vowel, are to be dwelt upon beyond their common quantity, when they close a sen- 
tence." — Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram., p. 54. "Irony is a mode of speech expressing a sense 
contrary to that which the speaker or writer intends to convey." — Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., 
p. 196; 113th Ed., p. 212. 'Irony is the intentional use of words in a sense contrary to that 
which the writer or speaker intends to convey." — Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 215; Imp. Ed., 216. 
"The persons speaking, or spoken to, are supposed to be present." — Wells, p. 68. "The per- 
sons speaking and spoken to are supposed to be present." — Murray's Gram., p. 51. "A Noun 
is a word used to express the name of an object." — Wells's School Gram., pp. 46 and 47. "A 
syllable is a word, or such a part of a word as is uttered by one articulation." — Weld's English 
Gram., p. 15; " Abridged Ed." p. 16. 

" Thus wondrous fair ; thyself how wondrous then ! 
Unspeakable, who sits above these heavens." — Cutler's Gram., p. 131. 

" And feel thy sovereign vital lamp ; but thou 
Revisitest not these eyes, that roll in vain." — Felton's Gram., p. 133. 



752 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

"Before all temples the upright and pure." — Butlers Gram., p. 195. 
"In forest wild, in thicket, break or den." — Cutter's Gram., p. 130. 
" The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise ; 
And e'en the best, by fits, what they despise." — Pope's Ess., iii, 233. 



CHAPTER XIV.— QUESTIONS. 

ORDER OF REHEARSAL, AND METHOD OF EXAMINATION. 
PAET THIRD, SYNTAX. 

IE^~ [The following questions, which embrace nearly all the important particulars of the foregoing code of 
Syntax, are designed not only to direct and facilitate class rehearsals, but also to develop the acquirements of 
those who may answer them at examinations more public] 

Lesson I. — Definitions. 

1. Of what does Syntax treat ? 2. What is the relation of words ? 3. What is the agreement 
of words? 4. What is the government of words? 5. What is the arrangement of words ? 6. 
What is a sentence ? 1. How many and what are the principal parts of a sentence? 8. What 
are the other parts called ? 9. How many kinds of sentences are there? 10. What is a simple 
sentence? 11. What is a compound sentence ? 12. What is a clause, or member ? 13. What is 
a phrase ? 14. What words must be supplied in parsing ? 15. How are the leading principles 
of syntax presented ? 16. In what order are the rules of syntax arranged in this work? 

Lesson II. — The Rules. 

1. To what do articles relate ? 2. What case is employed as the subject of a finite verb ? 3. 
What agreement is required between words in apposition ? 4. By what is the possessive case 
governed? 5. What case does an active-transitive verb or participle govern? 6. What case is 
put after a verb or participle not transitive ? 1. What case do prepositions govern ? 8. When, 
and in what case, is a noun or pronoun put absolute in English ? 9. To what do adjectives re- 
late? 10. How does a pronoun agree with its antecedent? 11. How does a pronoun agree 
with a collective noun ? 12. How does a pronoun agree with joint antecedents ? 13. How does 
a pronoun agree with disjunct antecedents ? 

Lesson III. — The Rules. 

14. How does a finite verb agree with its subject, or nominative ? 15. How does a verb 
agree with a collective noun? 16. How does a verb agree with joint nominatives? 17. How 
does a verb agree with disjunctive nominatives ? 18. What governs the infinitive mood ? 19. 
What verbs take the infinitive after them without the preposition to? 20. What is the regular 
construction of participles, as such ? 21. To what do adverbs relate ? 22. What do conjunctions 
connect? 23. What is the use of prepositions ? 24. What is the syntax of interjections? 

Lesson IY. — The Rules. 

1. What are the several titles, or subjects, of the twenty-four rules of syntax ? 2. What says 
Rule 1st of Articles? 3. What says Rule 2d of Nominatives ? 4. What says Rule 3d of Appo- 
sition? 5. What says Rule 4th of Possessives ? 6. What says Rule 5th of Objectives ? 1. What 
says Rule 6th of Same Cases? 8. What says Rule 7th of Objectives? 9. What says Rule 8th 
of the Nominative Absolute? 10. What says Rule 9th of Adjectives? 11. What says Rule 10th 
of Pronouns? 12. What says Rule 11th of Pronouns? 13. What says Rule 12 th of Pronouns? 
14. What says Rule 13th of Pro nouns ? 15. What says Rule 14th of Finite Verbs? 16. What 
says Rule 15th of Finite Verbs? 17. What says Rule 16th of Finite Verbs? 18. What says 
Rule 17th of Finite Verbs? 19. What says Rule 18th of Infinitives ? 20. What says Rule 19th 
of Infinitives? 21. What says Rule 20th of Participles ? 22. What says Rule 21st of Adverbs? 
23. What says Rule 22d of Conjunctions? 24. What says Rule 23d of Prepositions? 25. What 
says Rule 24th of Interjections ? 

Lesson V. — The Analyzing of Sentences. 
1. What is it, "to analyze a sentence?" 2. What are the component parts of a sentence ? 
3. Can all sentences be divided into clauses ? 4. Are there different methods of analysis, which 
may be useful ? 5. What is the first method of analysis, according to this code of syntax ? 6. 
How is the following example analyzed by this method ? " Even the Atheist, who tells us that 
the universe is self-existent and indestructible — even he, who, instead of seeing the traces of a 
manifold wisdom in its manifold varieties, sees nothing in them all but the exquisite structures 
and the lofty dimensions of materialism — even he, who would despoil creation of its God, cannot 
look upon its golden suns, and their accompanying systems, without the solemn impression of a 
magnificence that fixes and overpowers him." 1. What is the second method of analysis? 8. 



CHAP XIV.] SYNTAX. — QUESTIONS. 753 

How is the following example analyzed by this method ? " Fear naturally quickens the flight of 
guilt. Rasselas could not catch the fugitive, with his utmost efforts ; but, resolving to weary, by 
perseverance, him whom he could not surpass in speed, he pressed on till the foot of the mountain 
stopped his course." 9. What is the third method of analysis ? 10. How is the following exam- 
ple analyzed by this method ? " Such is the emptiness of human enjoyment, that we are always 
impatient of the present. Attainment is followed by neglect, and possession, by disgust. Few 
moments are more pleasing than those in which the mind is concerting measures for a new under- 
taking. From the first hint that wakens the fancy, to the hour of actual execution, all is im- 
provement and progress, triumph and felicity." 11. What is the fourth method of analysis? 12. 
How are the following sentences analyzed by this method ? (1.) " Swift would say, 'The thing 
has not life enough in it to keep it sweet;' Johnson, ' The creature possesses not vitality sufficient 
to preserve it from putrefaction.' " (2.) " There is one Being to whom we can look with a perfect' 
conviction of finding that security, which nothing about us can give, and which nothing about us 
can take away." 13. What is said of the fifth method of analysis ? 

[Now, if the teacher choose to make use of any other method of analysis than full syntactical parsing, he may 
direct his pupils to turn to the next selection of examples, or to any other accurate sentences, and analyze them 
according to the method chosen.] 

Lesson VI. — Of Parsing. 
1. Why is it necessary to observe the sense, or meaning, of what we parse? 2. What is re- 
quired of the pupil in syntactical parsing ? 3. How is the following long example parsed in 
Praxis XII ? "A young man studious to know his duty, and honestly bent on doing it, will find 
himself led away from the sin or folly in which the multitude thoughtlessly indulge themselves ; 
but, ah ! poor fallen human nature ! what conflicts are thy portion, when inclination and habit — 
a rebel and a traitor — exert their sway against our only saving principle !" 

[Now parse, in like manner, and with no needless deviations from the prescribed forms, the ten lessons of the 
Twelfth Praxis ; or such parts of those lessons as the teacher may choose.] 

Lesson VII. — The Rules. 
1. In what chapter are the rules of syntax first presented? 2. In what praxis are these rules 
first applied in parsing ? 3. Which of the ten parts of speech is left without any rule of syntax ? 
4. How many and which of the ten have but one rule apiece ? 5. Then, of the twenty-four rules, 
how many remain for the other three parts. — nouns, pronouns, and verbs ? 6. How many of these 
seventeen speak of cases, and therefore apply equally to nouns and pronouns? 7. Which are these 
seven ? 8. How many rules are there for the agreement of pronouns with their antecedents, and 
which are they? 9. How many rules are there for finite verbs, and which are they? 10. How 
many are there for infinitives, and which are they? 11. What ten chapters of the foregoing code 
of syntax treat of the ten parts of speech in their order? 12. Besides the rules and their exam- 
ples, what sorts of matters are introduced into these chapters ? 13. How many of the twenty-four 
rules of syntax are used both in parsing and in correcting ? 14. Of what use are those which 
cannot be violated in practice? 15. How many such rules are there among the twenty-four? 
16. How many and what parts of speech are usually parsed by such rules only? 

Lesson VIII. — The Notes. 
1. What is the essential character of the Notes which are placed under the rules of syntax? 
2. Are the different forms of false construction as numerous as these notes? 3. Which exercise 
brings into use the greater number of grammatical principles, parsing or correcting ? 4. Are the 
principles or doctrines which are applied in these different exercises usually the same, or are they 
different ? 5. In etymological parsing, we use about seventy definitions ; can these be used also 
In the correcting of errors ? 6. For the correcting cf false syntax, we have a hundred and fiity- 
two notes ; can these be used also in parsing? 7. How many of the rules have no such notes 
under them? 8. What order is observed in the placing of these notes, if some rules have many, 
and others few or none ? 9. How many of them are under the rule for articles ? 10. How many 
of them refer to the construction of nouns ? 11. How many of them belong to the syntax of ad- 
jectives ? 12. How many of them treat of pronouns? 13. How many of them regard the use of 
verbs? 14. How many of them pertain to the syntax of participles? 15. How many of them 
relate to the construction of adverbs? 16. How many of them show the application of conjunc- 
tions? 17. How many of them expose errors in the use of prepositions? 18. How many of 
them speak of interjections ? 

[Now correct orally the examples of False Syntax placed under the several Rules and Notes; or so many 
texts under each head as the teacher may think sufficient.] 

Lesson IX. — The Exceptions. 
1. In what exercise can there be occasion to cite and apply the Exceptions to the rules of syn- 
tax ? 2. Are there exceptions to all the rules, or to how many ? 3. Are there exceptions in 
reference to all the parts of speech, or to how many of the ten ? 4. Do articles always relate to 
nouns ? 5. Can the subject of a finite verb be in any other case than the nominative ? 6. Are 
words in apposition always supposed to be in the same case ? 7. Is the possessive case always 
governed by the name of the thing possessed ? 8. Can an active-transitive verb govern any other 
case than the objective ? 9. Can a verb or participle not transitive take any other case after it 
than that which precedes it ? 10. Can a preposition, in English, govern any other case than the 

48 



754 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

objective? 11. Can "the case absolute," in English, be any other than the nominative? 12. 
Does every adjective "belong to a substantive, expressed or understood," as Murray avers? 13. 
Can an adjective ever relate to any thing else than a noun or pronoun? 14. Can an adjective 
ever be used without relation to any noun, pronoun, or other subject? 15. Can an adjective ever 
be substituted for its kindred abstract noun? 16. Are the person, number, and gender of a pro- 
noun always determined by an antecedent? 17. What pronoun is sometimes applied to animals 
so as not to distinguish their sex ? 18. What pronoun is sometimes an expletive, and sometimes 
used with reference to an infinitive following it ? 

Lesson X. — The Exceptions. 

19. Does a singular antecedent ever admit of a plural pronoun ? 20. Can a pronoun agree 
with its antecedent in one sense and not in an other? 21. If the antecedent is a collective noun 
conveying the idea of plurality, must the pronoun always be plural ? 22. If there are two or 
more antecedents connected by and, must the pronoun always be plural ? 23. If there are ante- 
cedents connected by or or nor, is the pronoun always to take them separately ? 24. Must a 
finite verb always agree with its nominative in number and person ? 25. If the nominative is a 
collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, must the verb alwa} r s be plural ? 26. If there arc 
two or more nominatives connected by and, must the verb always be plural? 27. If there are 
nominatives connected by or or nor, is the verb always to refer to them separately? 28. Does 
the preposition to before the infinitive always govern the verb ? 29. Can the preposition to gov- 
ern or precede any other mood than the infinitive ? 30. Is the preposition to " understood " after 
bid, dare, feel, and so forth, where it is "superfluous and improper?" 31. How many and what 
exceptions are there to rule 20th, concerning participles? 32. How many and what exceptions 
are there to the rule for adverbs ? 33. How many and what exceptions are there to the rule for 
conjunctions? 34. How many and what exceptions are there to the rule for prepositions ? 35. 
Is there any exception t:> the 24th rule, concerning interjections ? 

Lesson XI. — The Observations. 
1. How many of the ten parts of speech in English are in general incapable of any agreement ? 
2. Can there be a syntactical relation of words without either agreement or government? 3. Is 
there ever any needful agreement between unrelated words ? 4. Is the mere relation of words 
according to the sense an element of much importance in English syntax ? 5. What parts of 
speech have no other syntactical property than that of simple relation ? 6. What rules of rela- 
tion are commonly found in grammars? 7. Of what parts is syntax commonly said to consist ? 
8. Is it common to find in grammars, the rules of syntax well adapted to their purpose ? 9. Can 
you specify some that appear to be faulty? 10. Wherein consists the truth of grammatical doc- 
trine, and how can one judge of what others teach? 11. Do those who speak of syntax as being 
divided into two parts, Concord and Government, commonly adhere to such division? 12. What 
false concords and false governments are cited in Obs. 7th of the first chapter? 13. Is it often 
expedient to join in the same rule such principles as must always be applied separately ? 14. 
When one can condense several different principles into one rule, is it not expedient to do so ? 

15. Is it ever convenient to have one and the same rule applicable to different parts of speech? 

16. Is it ever convenient to have rules divided into parts, so as to be double or triple in their 
form? 17. What instance of extravagant innovation in given in Obr;. 12th of the first chapter ? 

Lesson XII. — The Observations. 
18. Can a uniform series of good grammars, Latin, Greek, English, &c, be produced by a mere 
revising of one defective book for each language ? 19. Whose are " The Principles of English 
Grammar" which Dr. Bullions has republished with alterations, " on the plan of Murray's Gram- 
mar?" 20. Can praise and success entitle to critical notice works in themselves unworthy of it? 
21. Do the Latin grammarians agree in their enumeration of the concords in Latin? 22. What 
is said in Obs. 16th, of the plan of mixing syntax with etymology? 23. Do not the principles of 
etymology affect those of syntax ? 24. Can any words agree, or disagree, except in something 
that belongs to each of them ? 25. How many and what parts of speech are concerned in gov- 
ernment ? 26. Are rules of government to be applied to the governing words, or to the governed? 
27. What are gerundives? 28. How many and what are the principles of syntax which belong 
to the head of simple relation? 29. How many agreements, or concords, are there in English 
syntax ? 30. How many rules of government are there in the best Latin grammars? 31. What 
fault is there in the usual distribution of these rules? 32. How many and what arc the govern- 
ments in English syntax? 33. Can the parsing of words be varied by any transposition which 
does not change their import ? 34. Can the parsing of words be affected by the parser's notion 
of what constitutes a simple sentence? 35. What explanation of simple and compound sentences 
is cited from Dr. Wilson, in Obs. 25 ? 36. What notion had Dr. Adam of simple and compound 
sentences ? 37. Is this doctrine consistent either with itself or with Wilson's ? 38. How can 
one's notion of ellipsis affect his mode of parsing, and his distinction of sentences as simple or 
compound ? 

Lesson XIII. — Articles. 
1. Can one noun have more than one article ? 2. Can one article relate to more than one 
noun ? 3. Why cannot the omission of an article constitute a proper ellipsis ? 4. What is the 



CHAP. XIV.] SYNTAX. — QUESTIONS. 755 

position of the article with respect to its noun ? 5. What is the usual position of the article with 
respect to an adjective and a noun ? 6. Can the relative position of the article and adjective be a 
matter of indifference ? 7. "What adjectives exclude, or supersede, the article ? 8. What adjec- 
tives precede the article ? 9. What four adverbs affect the position of the article and adjective ? 
10. Do other adverbs come between the article and the adjective? 11. Can any of the definitives 
which preclude an or a, be used with the adjective onef 12. When the adjective follows its 
noun, where stands the article? 13. Can the article in English, ever be placed after its noun? 
14. What is the effect of the word the before comparatives and superlatives ? 15. What article 
may sometimes be used in lieu of a possessive pronoun? 16. Is the article an or a always sup- 
posed to imply unity ? 1Y. Respecting an or a, how does present usage differ from the usage of 
ancient writers? 18. Can the insertion or omission of an article greatly affect the import of a sen- 
tence ? 19. By a repetition of the article before two or more adjectives, what other repetition is 
implied? 20. How do we sometimes avoid such repetition? 21. Can there ever be an implied 
repetition of the noun when no article is used ? 

Lesson XIV. — Nouns, or Cases. 
1. In how many different ways can the nominative case be used ? 2. What is the usual posi- 
tion of the nominative and verb, and when is it varied ? 3. With what nominatives of the second 
person, does the imperative verb agree ? 4. Why is it thought improper to put a noun in two 
cases at once ? 5. What case in Latin and Greek is reckoned the subject of the infinitive mood? 
6. Can this, in general, be literally imitated in English ? 7. Do any English authors adopt the 
Latin doctrine of the accusative (or objective) before the infinitive? 8. Is the objective, when it 
occurs before the infinitive in English, usually governed by some verb, participle, or preposition ? 

9. What is our nearest approach to the Latin construction of the accusative before the infinitive ? 

10. What is apposition, and from whom did it receive this name ? 11. Is there a construction of 
like cases, that is not apposition? 12. To which of the apposite terms is the rule for apposition 
to be applied? 13. Are words in apposition always to be parsed separately? 14. Wherein are 
the common rule and definition of apposition faulty? 15. Can the explanatory word ever be 
placed first? 16. Is it ever indifferent, which word be called the principal, and which the ex- 
planatory term? 17. Why cannot two nouns, each having the possessive sign, be put in apposi- 
tion with each other? 18. Where must the sign of possession be put, when two or more pos- 
sessives are in apposition? 19. Is it compatible with apposition to supply between the words a 
relative and a verb; as, "At Mr. Smith's [who is] the bookseller?" 20. How can a noun be. or 
seem to be, in apposition with a possessive pronoun? 21. What construction is produced by the 
repetition of a noun or pronoun? 22. What is the construction of a noun, when it emphatically 
repeats the idea suggested by a preceding sentence ? 

Lesson XV. — Nouns, or Cases. 
23. Can words differing in number be in apposition with each other? 24. What is the usual 
construction of each other and one an other ? . 25. Is there any argument from analogy for taking 
each other and one an other for compounds ? '26. Do we often put proper nouns in apposition with 
appellatives? 27. What preposition is often put between nouns that signify the same thing? 
28. When is an active verb followed by two words in apposition ? 29. Does apposition require 
any other agreement than that of case ? 30. What three modes of construction appear like ex- 
ceptions to Rule 4th? 31. In the phrase, "For David my servant's sake," which word is gov- 
erned by sake, and which is to be parsed by the rule of apposition ? 32. In the sentence, " It is 
mans to err," what is supposed to govern man's ? 33. Does the possessive case admit of any 
abstract sense or construction ? 34. Why is it reasonable to limit the government of the possessive 
to nouns only, or to words taken substantively ? 35. Does the possessive case before a real 
participle denote the possessor of something ? 36. What two great authors differ in regard to the 
correctness of the phrases, "upon the rule's being observed" and " of its being neglected?" 37. Is 
either of them right in his argument? 38. Is the distinction between the participial noun and the 
participle well preserved by Murray and his araenders? 39. Who invented the doctrine, that a 
participle and its adjuncts may be used as " one name" and in that capacity govern the possessive ? 
40. Have any popular authors adopted this doctrine ? 41. Is the doctrine well sustained by its 
adopters, or is it consistent with the analogy of general grammar? 42. When one doubts whether 
a participle ought to be the governing word or the adjunct, — that is, whether he ought to use the 
possessive case before it or the objective, — what shall he do? 43. What is objected to the sen- 
tences in which participles govern the possessive case, and particularly to the examples given by 
Priestley, Murray, and others, to prove such a construction right ? 44. Do the teachers of this 
doctrine agree among themselves ? 45. How does the author of this work generally dispose of 
such government ? 46. Does he positively determine, that the participle should never be allowed 
to govern the possessive case ? 

Lesson XVI. — Nouns, or Cases. 
47. Are the distinctions of voice and of time as much regarded in participial nouns as in parti- 
ciples ? 48. Why cannot an omission of the possessive sign be accounted a true eMpsis f 49. 
What is the usual position of the possessive case, and what exceptions are there? 50. In what 
other form can the meaning of the possessive case be expressed? 51. Is the possessive often 
governed by what is not expressed? 52. Does every possessive sign imply a separate governing 



756 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

noun ? 53. How do compounds take the sign of possession ? 54. Do we put the sign of pos- 
session always and only where the two terms of the possessive relation meet? 55. Can the pos- 
sessive sign be ever rightly added to a separate adjective ? 56. What is said of the omission of s 
from the possessive singular on account of its hissing sound? 57. What errors do Kirkham, Smith, 
and others, teach concerning the possessive singular ? 58. Why is Murray's rule for the possessive 
case objectionable? 59. Do compounds embracing the possessive case appear to be written with 
sufficient uniformity? 60. What rules for nouns coming together are inserted in Obs. 31st on 
Rule 4th ? 61. Does the compounding of words necessarily preclude their separate use ? 62. Is 
there a difference worth notice, between such terms or things as heart-ease and hearts-ease ; a 
harelip and a hare's lip ; a headman and a headsman ; a lady' s-slipper and a lady's slipper f 63. 
Where usage is utterly unsettled, what guidance should be sought ? 64. What peculiarities are 
noticed in regard to the noun side ? 65. What peculiarities has the possessive case in regard to 
correlatives? 66. What is remarked of the possessive relation between time and action? 67. 
What is observed of nouns of weight, measure, or time, coming immediately together ? 

Lesson XYII. — Nouns, or Cases. 
68. Are there any exceptions or objections to the old rule, " Active verbs govern the objective 
case ?" 69. Of how many different constructions is the objective case susceptible? 70. What is 
the usual position of the objective case, and what exceptions are there ? 71. Can any thing but 
the governing of an objective noun or pronoun make an active verb transitive? 72. In the 
sentence, "What have I to do with thee?" how are have and do to be parsed? 73. Can infini- 
tives, participles, phrases, sentences, and parts of sentences, be really "in the objective case?" 
74. In the sentence, " I know why she blushed," how is know to be parsed ? 75. In the sentence, 
" I know that Messias cometh," how are know and that to be parsed ? 76. In the sentence, " And 
Simon he surnamed Peter" how are Simon and Peter to be parsed ? 77. In such sentences as, 
"I paid Am the money" — "He asked them the question" how are the two objectives to be 
parsed? 78. Does any verb in English ever govern two objectives that are not coupled? 79. 
Are there any of our passive verbs that can properly govern the objective case ? 80. Is not our 
language like the Latin, in respect to verbs governing two cases, and passives retaining the latter? 

81. How do our grammarians now dispose of what remains to us of the old Saxon dative case ? 

82. Do any reputable writers allow passive verbs to govern the objective case ? 83. What says 
Lindley Murray about this passive government ? 84. Why is the position, " Active verbs govern 
the objective case," of no use to the composer? 85. On what is the construction of same cases 
founded? 86. Does this construction admit of any variety in the position of the words? 87. 
Does an ellipsis of the verb or participle change this construction into apposition ? 88. Is it ever 
right to put both terms before the verb? 89. What kinds of words can take different cases after 
them? 90. Can a participle which is governed by a preposition, have a case after it which is 
governed by neither? 91. How is the word man to be parsed in the following example ? "The 
atrocious crime of being a young man, I shall neither attempt to palliate, nor deny." 

Lesson XYIII. — Nouns, or Cases. 

92. In what kinds of examples do we meet with a doubtful case after a participle? 93. Is the 
case after the verb reckoned doubtful, when the subject going before is a sentence, or something 
not declinable by cases? 94. In the sentence, "It is certainly as easy to be a scholar, as a game- 
ster" what is the case of scholar and gamester, and why? 95. Are there any verbs that some- 
times connect like cases, and sometimes govern the objective ? 96. What faults are there in the 
rules given by Lowth, Murray, Smith, and others, for the construction of like cases? 97. Can a 
preposition ever govern any thing else than a noun or a pronoun ? 98. Is every thing that a prep- 
osition governs, necessarily supposed to have cases, and to be in the objective ? 99. Why or wherein 
is the common rule, "Prepositions govern the objective case," defective or insufficient? 100. 
In such phrases as in vain, at first, in particular, how is the adjective to be parsed ? 101. In such 
expressions as, " I give it up for lost," — " I take it for granted," how is the participle to be parsed ? 
102. In such phrases as, at once, from thence, till now, how is the latter word to be parsed ? 103. 
What peculiarity is there in the construction of nouns of time, measure, distance, or value ? 104. 
What is observed of th9 words like, near, and nigh ? 105. What is observed of the word worth? 

106. According to Johnson and Tooke, what is worth, in such phrases as, " Wo worth the day?" 

107. After verbs of giving, paying, and the like, what ellipsis is apt to occur ? 108. What is ob- 
served of the nouns used in dates? 109. What defect is observable in the common rules for 
" the case absolute," or "the nominative independent?" 110. In how many ways is the nomina- 
tive case put absolute ? 111. What participle is often understood after nouns put absolute ? 112. 
In how many ways can nouns of the second person be employed? 113. What is said of nouns 
used in exclamations, or in mottoes and abbreviated sayings? 114. What is observed of such 
phrases as, u hand to hand," — " face to face?" 115. What authors deny the existence of "the 
case absolute ?" 

Lesson XIX. — Adjectives. 
1. Does the adjective frequently relate to what is not uttered with it ? 2. What is observed 
of those rules which suppose every adjective to relate to some noun ? 3. To what does the adjec- 
tive usually relate, when it stands alone after a finite verb ? 4. Where is the noun or pronoun, 
when an adjective follows an infinitive or a participle ? 5. What is observed of adjectives pre- 
ceded by the and used elliptically ? 6. What is said of the position of the adjective? 7. In 



CHAP. XIV.] SYNTAX. QUESTIONS. 757 

what instances is the adjective placed after its noun ? 8. In what instances may the adjective 
either precede or follow the noun ? 9. "What are the construction and import of the phrases, in 
particular, in general, and the like? 10. "What is said of adjectives as agreeing or disagreeing 
with their nouns in number? 11. What is observed of this and that as referring to two nouns 
connected? 12. What is remarked of the use of adjectives for adverbs? 13. How can one de- 
termine whether an adjective or an adverb is required ? 14. What is remarked of the placing 
of two or more adjectives before one noun? 15. How can one avoid the ambiguity which Dr. 
Priestley notices in the use of the adjective no ? 

Lesson XX. — Pronouns. 
1. Can such pronouns as stand for things not named, be said to agree with the nouns for which 
they are substituted ? 2. Is the pronoun we singular when it is used in lieu of I? 3. Is the 
pronoun you singular when used in lieu of thou or thee ? 4. What is there remarkable in the 
construction of ourself and yourself? 5. Of what person, number, and gender, is the relative, 
when put after such terms of address as, your Majesty, your Highness, your Lordship, your Hon- 
our ? 6. How does the English fashion of putting you for thou, compare with the usage of the 
French, and of other nations? 7. Do any imagine these fashionable substitutions to be morally 
objectionable ? 8. What figures of rhetoric are liable to affect the agreement of pronouns with 
their antecedents ? 9. How does the pronoun agree with its noun in cases of personification ? 
10. How does the pronoun agree with its noun in cases of metaphor? 11. How does the pro- 
noun agree with its noun in cases of metonymy ? 12. How does the pronoun agree with its noun 
in cases of synecdoche ? 13. W T hat is the usual position of pronouns, and what exceptions are 
there ? 14. When a pronoun represents a phrase or sentence, of what person, number, and gen- 
der is it ? 15. Under what circumstances can a pronoun agree with either of two antecedents ? 
16. With what does the relative agree when an other word is introduced by the pronoun it ? 17. 
In the sentence, " It is useless to complain," what does it represent? 18. How are relative and 
interrogative pronouns placed? 19. What are the chief constructional peculiarities of the rela- 
tive pronouns? 20. Why does the author discard the two special rules commonly given for the 
construction of relatives ? 

Lesson XXL — Pronouns. 

21. To what part of speech is the greatest number of rules applied in parsing? 22. Of the 
twenty-four rules in this work, how many are applicable to pronouns ? 23. Of the seven rules 
for cases, how many are applicable to relatives and interrogatives ? 24. What is remarked of the 
ellipsis or omission of the relative? 25. What is said of the suppression of the antecedent? 
26. What is noted of the word which, as applied to persons? 27. What relative is applied to a 
proper noun taken merely as a name ? 28. When do we employ the same relative in successive 
clauses? 29. What odd use is sometimes made of the pronoun your? 30. Under what figure 
of syntax did the old grammarians rank the plural construction of a noun of multitude ? 31. 
Does a collective noun with a singular definitive before it ever admit of a plural verb or pronoun ? 
32. Do collective nouns generally admit of being made literally plural? 33. When joint antece- 
dents are of different persons, with which person docs the pronoun agree ? 34. When joint an- 
tecedents differ in gender, of what gender is the pronoun? 35. Why is it wrong to say, "The 
first has a lenis, and the other an asper over them ?" 36. Can nouns without and be taken jointly, 
as if they had it ? 37. Can singular antecedents be so suggested as to require a plural pronoun, 
when only one of them is uttered ? 38. Why do singular antecedents connected by or or nor 
appear to require a singular pronoun? 39. Con different antecedents connected by or be accu- 
rately represented by differing pronouns connected in the same way? 40. Why are we apt to 
use a plural pronoun after antecedents of different genders ? 41. Do the Latin grammars teach 
the same doctrine as the English, concerning nominatives or antecedents connected disjunctively ? 

Lesson XXII. — Verbs. 
1. What is necessary to every finite verb ? 2. What is remarked of such examples as this: 
" The Pleasures of Memory was published in 1702 ?" 3. What is to be done with " Thinks I to 
myself," and the like ? 4. Is it right to say with Smith, " Every hundred years constitutes a cen- 
tury ?" 5. What needless ellipses both of nominatives and of verbs are commonly supposed by 
our grammarians ? 6. Wliat actual ellipsis usually occurs with the imperative mood ? 7. What 
is observed concerning the place of the verb ? 8. What besides a noun or a pronoun may be 
made the subject of a verb ? 9. What is remarked of the faulty omission of the pronoun it be- 
fore the verb? 10 When an infinitive phrase is made the subject of a verb, do the words remain 
adjuncts, or are they abstract ? 11. How can we introduce a noun or pronoun before the infini- 
tive, and still make the whole phrase the subject of a finite verb? 12. Can an objective before 
the infinitive become " the subject of the affirmation ?" 13. In making a phrase the subject 
of a verb, do we produce an exception to Rule 14th? 14. Why is it wrong to say, with Dr. Ash. 
" The king and queen appearing in public was the cause of my going?" 15. What inconsistency 
is found in Murray, with reference to his " nominative sentences ?" 16. What is Dr. Webster's 
ninth rule of syntax? 17. Why did Murray think all Webster's examples under this rule bad 
English? 18. Why are both parties wrong in this instance ? 19. What strange error is taught 
by Cobbett, and by Wright, in regard to the relative and its verb ? 20. Is it demonstrable that 
verbs often agree with relatives ? 21. What is observed of the agreement of verbs in interroga- 



758 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

tive sentences? 22. Do we ever find the subjunctive mood put after a relative pronoun? 23. 
What is remarked of the difference between the indicative and the subjunctive mood, and of the 
limits of the latter ? 

Lesson XXIII. — Verbs. 

I 

24. In respect to collective nouns, how is it generally determined, whether they convey the 
idea of plurality or not ? 25. What is stated of the rules of Adam, Lowth, Murray, and Kirk- 
ham, concerning collective nouns? 26. What is Nixon's notion of the construction of the verb 
and collective noun? 27. Does this author appear to have gained "a clear idea of the nature of 
a collective noun?" 28. What great difficulty does Murray acknowledge concerning "nouns of 
multitude?" 29. Does Murray's notion, that collective nouns are of different sorts, appear to be 
consistent or warrantable ? 30. Can words that agree with the same collective noun, be of differ- 
ent numbers? 31. What is observed of collective nouns used partitively ? 32. Which are the 
most apt to be taken plurally, collections of persons, or collections of things ? 33. Can a collect- 
ive noun, as such, take a plural adjective before it? 34. What is observed of the expressions, 
these people, these gentry, these folk f 35. What is observed of sentences like the following, in 
which there seems to be no nominative : "There are from eight to twelve professors ?" 36. What 
rule does Dr. Webster give for such examples as the following : " There was more than a hun- 
dred and fifty thousand pounds?" 31. What grammarians teach, that two or more nouns con- 
nected by and, " always require the verb or pronoun to which they refer, to be in the plural 
number?" 38. Does Murray acknowledge or furnish any exceptions to this doctrine? 39. On 
what principle can one justify such an example as this : " All work and no play, makes Jack a dull 
boy?" 40. What is remarked of instances like the following: "Prior's Henry and Emma 
contains an other beautiful example?" 41. What is said of the suppression of the conjunction 
and ? 42. When the speaker changes his nominative, to take a stronger one, what concord has 
the verb ? 43. When two or more nominatives connected by and explain a preceding one, what 
agreement has the verb ? 44. What grammarian approves of such expressions as, "Two and 
two is four ?" 45. What is observed of verbs that agree with the nearest nominative, and are 
understood to the rest ? 46. When the nominatives connected are of different persons, of what 
person is the verb ? 

Lesson XXIV. — Verbs. 

47. What is the syntax of the verb, when one of its nominatives is expressed, and an other or 
others implied ? 48. What is the syntax of the verb, when there are nominatives connected by 
as ? 49. What is the construction when two nominatives are connected by as well as, but, or 
save? 50. Can words connected by with be properly used as joint nominatives? 51. Does the 
analogy of other languages with ours prove any thing on this point? 52. What does Cobbett 
say about with put for and f 53. What is the construction of such expressions as this : " A torch, 
snuff and all, goes out in a moment?" 54. Does our rule for the verb and disjunct nominatives 
derive confirmation from the Latin and Greek syntax ? 55. Why do collective nouns singular, 
when connected by or or nor, admit of a plural verb? 56. In. the expression, " I, thou, or he, 
may affirm" of what person and number is the verb? 57. Who says, "the verb agrees with 
the last nominative?" 58. What authors prefer " the nearest person" and "the plural number ?" 
59. What authors prefer "the nearest nominative, whether singular or plural ?" 60. What author 
declares it improper ever to connect by or or nor any nominatives that require different forms of 
the verb? 61. What is Cobbett's " clear principle " on this head ? 62. Can a zeugma of the verb 
be proved to be right, in spite of these authorities ? 63. When a verb has nominatives of differ- 
ent persons or numbers, connected by or or nor, with which of them does it commonly agree? 
64. When does it agree with the remoter nominative ? 65. When a noun is implied in an adjec- 
tive of a different number, which word is regarded in the formation of the verb ? 66. What is 
remarked concerning the place of the pronoun of the first person singular? 67. When verbs are 
connected by and, or, or nor, do they necessarily agree with the same nominative ? 68. Why is 
the thirteenth rule of the author's Institutes and First Lines, not retained as a rule in this work ? 
69. Are verbs often connected without agreeing in mood, tense, and form ? 

Lesson XXV. — Verbs. 
70. What particular convenience do we find in having most of our tenses composed of separa- 
ble words? 71. Is the connecting of verbs elliptically, or by parts, anything peculiar to our 
language? 72. What faults appear in the teaching of our grammarians concerning do used as a 
" substitute for other verbs ?" 73. What notions have been entertained concerning the word to 
as used before the infinitive verb? 74. How does Dr. Ash parse to before the infinitive? 75. 
What grammarians have taught that the preposition to governs the infinitive mood? 76. Does 
Lowth agree with Murray in the anomaly of supposing to a preposition that governs nothing ? 
77. Why do those teach just as inconsistently, who forbear to call the to a preposition? 78. 
What objections are there to the rule, with its exceptions, " One verb governs an other in the 
infinitive mood?" 79. What large exception to this rule has been recently discovered by Dr. 
Bullions? 80. Are the countless examples of this exception truly elliptical? 81. Is the infini- 
tive ever governed by a preposition in French, Spanish, or Italian ? 82. What whimsical ac- 
count of the English infinitive is given by Nixon ? 83. How was the infinitive expressed in the 
Anglo-Saxon of the eleventh century ? 84. What does Richard Johnson infer from the fact that 
the Latin infinitive is sometimes governed by a preposition? 85. What reasons can be adduced 



CHAP. XIV.] SYNTAX. QUESTIONS. 759 

to show that the infinitive is not a noun ? 86. How can it be proved that to before the infinitive 
is a preposition? 87. "What does Dr. Wilson say of the character and import of the infinitive? 
88. To what other terms can the infinitive be connected ? 89. What is the infinitive, and for 
what things may it stand ? 90. Do these ten heads embrace all the uses of the infinitive ? 91. 
What is observed of Murray's "infinitive made absolute f ' 92. What is said of the position of the 
infinitive ? 93. Is the infinitive ever liable to be misplaced ? 

Lesson XXVI. — Verbs. 
94. What is observed of the frequent ellipses of the verb to be, supposed by Allen and others ? 
95. What is said of the suppression of to and the insertion of be; as, "To make himself be 
heard?" 96. Why is it necessary to use the sign to before an abstract infinitive, where it shows 
no relation? 97. What is observed concerning the distinction of voice in the simple infinitive and 
the first participle ? 98. What do our grammarians teach concerning the omission of to before 
the infinitive, after bid, dare, feel, &c. ? 99. How do Ingersoll, Kirkh'am, and Smith, agree with 
their master Murray, concerning such examples as, '''Let me go?" 100. What is affirmed of the 
difficulties of parsing the infinitive according to the code of Murray? 101. How do Nutting, 
Kirkham, Nixon, Cooper, and Sanborn, agree with Murray, or with one an other, in pointing out 
what governs the infinitive? 102. What do Murray and others mean by "neuter verbs," when 
they tell us that the taking of the infinitive without to " extends only to active and neuter 
verbs?" 103. How is the infinitive used after bid? 104. How, after dare? 105. How, after 
feel? 106. How, after hear? 107. How, after let? 108. How, after make? 109. How, after 
need? 110. Is need ever an auxiliary ? 111. What errors are taught by Greenleaf concerning 
dare and need or needs ? 112. What is said of see, as governing the infinitive? 113. Do any other 
verbs, besides these eight, take the infinitive after them without to ? 114. How is the infinitive 
used after have, help, and find? 115. When two or more infinitives occur in .the same construc- 
tion, must to be used with each? 116. What is said of the sign to after than or as ? 

Lesson XXVII. — Participles. 

1. What questionable uses of participles are commonly admitted by grammarians? 2. Why 
does the author incline to condemn these peculiarities ? 3. What is observed of the multiplicity 
of uses to which the participle in ing may be turned ? 4. What is said of the participles which 
some suppose to be put absolute ? 5. How are participles placed ? 6. W T hat is said of the 
transitive use of such words as unbecoming? 7. What distinction, in respect to government, is 
to be observed between a participle and a participial noun ? 8. What shall we do when of after 
the participial noun is objectionable ? 9. What is said of the correction of those examples in 
which a needless article or possessive is put before the participle? 10. What is stated of the re- 
taining of adverbs with participial nouns ? 11. Can words having the form of the first participle 
be nouns, and clearly known to be such, when they have no adjuncts? 12. What strictures are 
made on Murray, Lennie, and Bullions, with reference to examples in which an infinitive follows 
the participial nouu? 13. In what instances is the first participle equivalent to the infinitive? 
14. What is said of certain infinitives supposed to be erroneously put for participles? 15. What 
verbs take the participle after them, and not the infinitive ? 16. What is said of those examples 
in which participles seem to be made the objects of verbs? 17. What is said of the teaching of 
Murray and others, that, " The participle with its adjuncts may be considered as a substantive 
phrase?" 18. How does the English participle compare with the Latin gerund? 19. How do 
Dr. Adam and others suppose "the gerund in English" to become a " substantive," or noun? 20. 
How does the French construction of participles and infinitives compare with the English ? 

Lesson XXVIII. — Participles. 
21. What difference does it make, whether we use the possessive cage before words in ing, or 
not ? 22. What is said of the distinguishing or confounding of different parts of speech, such as 
verbs, participles, and nouns ? 23. With how many other parts of speech does W. Allen con- 
found the participle ? 24. How is the distinguishing of the participle from the verbal noun in- 
culcated by Allen, and their difference of meaning by Murray? 25. Is it pretended that the 
authorities and reasons which oppose the mixed construction of participles, are sufficient to prove 
such usage altogether inadmissible? 26. Is it proper to teach, in general terms, that the noun or 
pronoun which limits the meaning of a participle should be put in the possessive case ? 27. What 
is remarked of different cases used indiscriminately before the participle or verbal noun? 28. 
What say Crombie and others about this disputable phraseology ? 29. What says Brown of this 
their teaching ? 30. How do Priestley and others pretend to distinguish between the participial 
and the substantive use of verbals in ing ? 31. What does Brown say of this doctrine? 32. If 
when a participle becomes an adjective it drops its regimen, should it not also drop it on becom- 
ing a noun ? 33. Where the sense admits of a choice of construction in respect to the participle, 
is not attention due to the analogy of general grammar ? 34. Does it appear that nouns before 
participles are less frequently subjected to their government than pronouns? 35. Why must a 
grammarian discriminate between idioms, or peculiarities, and the common mode of expression ? 
36. Is the Latin gerund, like the verbal in ing, sometimes active, sometimes passive ; and when 
the former governs the genitive, do we imitate the idiom in English? 37. Is it agreed among 
grammarians, that the Latin gerund may govern the genitive of the agent? 38. What distinc- 



760 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

tion between the participial and the substantive use of verbals in ing do Crombie and others pro- 
pose to make ? 39. How does this accord with the views of Murray, Lowth, Adam, and Brown? 
40. How does Hiley treat the English participle ? 41. What further is remarked concerning 
false teaching in relation to participles ? 

Lesson XXIX. — Adverbs. 
1. "What is replied to Dr. Adam's suggestion, " Adverbs sometimes qualify substantives ?" 2. 
Do not adverbs sometimes relate to participial nouns ? 3. If an adverbial word relates directly 
to a noun or pronoun, does not that fact constitute it an adjective ? 4. Are such expressions as, 
"the then ministry," "the above discourse," good English, or bad — well authorized, or not? 5. 
When words commonly used as adverbs assume the construction of nouns, how are they to be 
parsed? 6. Must not the parser be careful to distinguish adverbs used substantively or adject- 
ively, from such as may be better resolved by the supposing of an ellipsis? 7. How is an adverb 
to be parsed, when it seems to be put for a verb ? 8. How are adverbs to be parsed in such 
expressions as, " Away with him?" 9. What is observed of the relation of conjunctive adverbs, 
and of the misuse of when 1 ? 10. What is said in regard to the placing of adverbs ? 11. What 
suggestions are made concerning the word no? 12. What is remarked of two or more negatives 
in the same sentence? 13. Is that a correct rule which says, "Two negatives, in English, de- 
stroy each other, or are equivalent to an affirmative ?" 14. What is the dispute among gram- 
marians concerning the adoption of or or nor after not or no ? 15. What fault is found with the 
opinion of Priestley, Murray, Ingersoll, and Smith, that "either of them may be used with nearly 
equal propriety?" 16. How does John Burn propose to settle this dispute? 17. How does 
Churchill treat the matter? 18. What does he say of the manner in which "the use of nor after 
not has been introduced?" 19. What other common modes of expression are censured by this 
author under the same head? 20. How does Brown review these criticisms, and attempt to set- 
tle the question ? 21. What critical remark is made on the misuse of ever and never? 22. How 
does Churchill differ from Lowth respecting the phrase, " ever so wisely ," or " never so wisely ?" 
23. What is observed of never and ever as seeming to be adjectives, and being liable to contrac- 
tion? 24. What strictures are made on the classification and placing of the word only? 25. 
What is observed of the term not hut, and of the adverbial use of hut? 26. What is noted of 
the ambiguous use of but or only? 27. What notions are inculcated by different grammarians 
about the introductory word there ? 

Lesson XXX. — Conjunctions. 

1. When two declinable words are connected by a conjunction, why are they of the same case ? 

2. What is the power, and what the position, of a conjunction that connects sentences or clauses? 

3. What further U added concerning the terms which conjunctions connect? 4. What is 
remarked of two or more conjunctions coming together ? 5. What is said of and as supposed to 
be used to call attention ? 6. What relation of case occurs between nouns connected by as ? 7. 
Between what other related terms can as be employed ? 8. What is as when it is made the sub- 
ject or the object of a verb ? 9. What questions are raised among grammarians, about the con- 
struction of as follow or as follows, and other similar phrases? 10. What is said of Murray's 
mode of treating this subject? 11. Has Murray written any thing which goes to show whether 
as follows can be right or not, when the preceding noun is plural ? 12. What is the opinion of 
Nixon, and of Crombie? 13. What conjunction is frequently understood? 14. What is said of 
ellipsis after than or as ? 15. What is suggested concerning the character and import of than 
and as? 16. Does than as well as as usually take the same case after it that occurs before it? 

17. Is the G-reek or Latin construction of the latter term in a comparison usually such as ours? 

18. What inferences have our grammarians made from the phrase than whom? 19. Is than sup- 
posed by Murray to be capable of governing any other objective than whom ? 20. What gram- 
marian supposes whom after than to be "in the objective case absolute?" 21. How does the 
author of this work dispose of the example ? 22. What notice is taken of O. B. Peirce's Gram- 
mar, with reference to his manner of parsing words after than or as ? 23. What says Churchill 
about the notion that certain conjunctions govern the subjunctive mood ? 24. What is said of 
the different parts of speech contained in the list of correspondents ? 

Lesson XXXI. — Prepositions. 
1. What is said of the parsing of a preposition? 2. How can the terms of relation which 
pertain to the preposition be ascertained ? 3. What is said of the transposition of the two 
terms? 4. Between what parts of speech, as terms of the relation, can a preposition be used? 
5. What is said of the ellipsis of one or the other of the terms ? 6. Is to before the infinitive to 
be parsed just as any other preposition? 7. What is said of Dr. Adam's " To taken absolutely?" 
8. What is observed in relation to the exceptions to Rule 23d? 9. What is said of the placing 
of prepositions ? 10. What is told of two prepositions coming together ? 11. In how many and 
what ways does the relation of prepositions admit of complexity? 12. What is the difference 
between in and into? 13. What notice is taken of the application of betiueen, betwixt, among, 
amongst, amid, amidst? 14. What erroneous remark have Priestlej', Murray, and others, about 
two prepositions "in the same construction?" 15. What false doctrine have Lowth, Murray, and 
others, about the separating of the preposition from its noun? 16. What is said of the preposi- 



OHAP. XV.] SYNTAX. — QUESTIONS. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 761 

tions which follow averse and aversion, except and exception? 17. What is remarked concerning 
the use of of, to, on, and upon? 18. Can there be an inelegant use of prepositions which is not 
positively ungrammatical ? 

Lesson XXXII. — Interjections. 
1. Are all interjections to be parsed as being put absolute ? 2. What is said of and the 
vocative case ? 3. What do Nixon and Kirkham erroneously teach about cases governed by 
interjections ? 4. What say Murray, Ingersoll, and Lennie, about interjections and cases ? 5. 
What is shown of the later teaching to which Murray's erroneous and unoriginal remark about 
" 0, oh, and ah," has given rise ? 6. What notice is taken of the application of the rule for " 0, 
oh, and ah," to nouns of the second person? 7. What is observed concerning the further exten- 
sion of this rule to nouns and pronouns of the third person ? 8. What authors teach that inter- 
jections are put absolute, and have no government ? 9. What is the construction of the pronoun 
in "Ah me!" "Ah him /" or any similar exclamation? 10. Is the common rule for interjections, 
as requiring certain cases after them, sustained by any analogy from the Latin syntax? 11. Can 
it be shown, on good authority, that in Latin may be followed by the nominative of the first 
person or the accusative of the second? 12. What errors in the construction and punctuation 
of interjectional phrases are quoted from Fisk, Smith, and Kirkham ? 13. What is said of those 
sentences in which an interjection is followed by a preposition or the conjunction that? 14. What 
is said of the place of the interjection? 15. What says 0. B. Peirce about the name and place 
of the interjection? 16. What is offered in refutation of Peirce's doctrine? 

[Now parse the six lessons of the Thirteenth Praxis; taking, if the teacher please, the Italic or difficult 
■words only; and referring to the exceptions or observations under the rules, as often as there is occasion. Then 
proceed to the correction of the eighteen lessons of False Syntax contained in Chapter Twelfth, or the General 
Review.] 

Lesson XXXIII. — General Rule. 

1. Why were the general rule and the general or critical notes added to the foregoing code of 
syntax? 2. What is the general rule? 3. How many are there of the general or critical notes? 
4. What says Critical Note 1st of the parts of speech ? 5. What says Note 2d of the doubtful refer- 
ence of words ? 6. What says Note 3d of definitions ? 7. What says Note 4th of comparisons ? 
8. What says Note 5th of falsities? 9. What says Note 6th of absurdities? 10. What says 
Note 7th of self-contradiction ? 11. What says Note 8th of senseless jumbling? 12. What says 
Note 9th of words needless? 13. What says Note 10th of improper omissions? 14. What says 
Note 11th of literary blunders? 15. What says Note 12th of literary perversions? 16. What 
says Note 13th of literary awkwardness? 17. What says Note 14th of literary ignorance? 18. 
What says Note 15th of literary silliness ? 19. What says Note 16th of errors incorrigible ? 20. 
In what place are the rules, exceptions, notes, and observations, in the foregoing system of syn- 
tax, enumerated and described? 21. What suggestions are made in relation to the number of 
rules or notes, and the completeness of the system? 22. What is remarked on the place and 
character of the critical notes and the general rule? 23. What is noted in relation to the un- 
amendable imperfections sometimes found in ancient writings ? 

[Now correct — (or at least read, and compare with the Key — ) the sixteen lessons of False Syntax, arranged 
under appropriate heads, for the application of the General Rule ; the sixteen others adapted to the Critical 
Notes ; and the five concluding ones, for which the rules are variousj 



CHAPTER XV.— FOR WRITING. 

EXERCISES IN SYNTAX. 

VW [When the pupil has been sufficiently exercised in syntactical parsing, and has corrected orally, according 
to the formules given, all the examples of false syntax designed for oral exercises, or so many of them as may be 
deemed sufficient; he should write out the following exercises, correcting them according to the principles of 
syntax given in the rules, notes, and observations, contained in the preceding chapters ; but omitting or varying 
the references, because his corrections cannot be ascribed to the books which contain these errors.] 

EXERCISE I.— ARTICLES. 
" They are institutions not merely of an useless, but of an hurtful nature." — Blair's Rhet., p. 
344. " Quintilian prefers the full, the copious, and the amplifying style." — lb., p. 247. " The 
proper application of rules respecting style, will always be best learned by the means of the illus- 
tration which examples afford." — lb., p. 224. " He was even tempted to wish that he had such an 
one." — Infant School Gram., p. 41. " Every limb of the human body has an agreeable and disa- 
greeable motion." — Karnes, El. of Crit., i, 217. " To produce an uniformity of opinion in all men." 
— lb., ii, 365. " A writer that is really an humourist in character, does this without design." — lb., 
i, 303. " Addison was not an humourist in character." — lb., i, 303. " It merits not indeed the title 
of an universal language." — lb., i, 353. " It is unpleasant to find even a negative and affirmative 
proposition connected." — lb., ii, 25. "The sense is left doubtful by wrong arrangement of mem- 
bers." — lb., ii, 44. " As, for example, between the adjective and following substantive." — lb., ii, 
104. "Witness the following hyperbole, too bold even for an Hotspur." — lb., 193. "It is dis- 
posed to carry along the good and bad properties of one to another." — lb., ii, 197. " What a 



762 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

kind of a man such an one is likely to prove, is easy to foresee.' 1 — Locke, on Education, p. 47. 
" In propriety there cannot be such a thing as an universal grammar, unless there were such a 
thing as an universal language." — Campbell's Bhet., p. 47. "The very same process by which 
he gets at the meaning of any ancient author, carries him to a fair and a iaithful rendering of the 
scriptures of the Old and New Testament." — Chalmers, Sermons, p. 16. "But still a predomi- 
nancy of one or other quality in the minister is often visible." — Blair's RUeL, p. 19. "Among 
the ancient critics, Longinus possessed most delicacy; Aristotle, most correctness." — lb., p. 20. 
"He then proceeded to describe an hexameter and pentameter verse." — Ward's Preface to Lily, 
p. vi. "And Alfred, who was no less able a negotiator than courageous a warrior, was unani- 
mously chosen King." — Pinnock's Geog., p. 271. "An useless incident weakens the interest 
which we take in the action." — Blair's Bhet, p. 460. "This will lead into some detail; but I 
hope an useful one." — Bo., p. 234. " When they understand how to write English with due Con- 
nexion, Propriety, and Order, and are pretty well Masters of a tolerable Narrative Stile, they 
may be advanced to writing of Letters." — Locks, on Ed., p. 337. "The Senate is divided into 
the Select and Great Senate." — Howitt's Student-Life in Germany, p. 28. "We see a remains of 
this ceremonial yet in the public solemnities of the universities." — lb., p. 46. 

" Where an huge pollard on the winter fire, 
At an huge distance made them all retire." — Crabbe, Borough, p. 209. 

EXERCISE II.— NOUNS, OR CASES. 

" Childrens Minds are narrow, and weak, and usually susceptible but of one Thought at once." 
— Locke, on Ed., p. 297. "Rather for Example sake, than that ther is any Great Matter in it." — 
Bight of Tythes, p. xvii. " The more that any mans worth is, the greater envy shall he be liable 
to." — Walker's Particles, p. 461. " He who works only for the common welfare is the most noble, 
and no one, but him, deserves the name." — Spurzheim,on Ed., p. 182. "He then got into tho 
carriage, to sit with the man, whom he had been told was Morgan." — Stone, on Masonry, p. 480. 
" But. for such footmen as thee and I are, let us never desire to meet with an enemy." — Bunyan's 
P. P., p. 153. " One of them finds out that she is Tibulfuses Nemesis." — Philological Museum, 
Yol. i, p. 446 " He may be employed in reading such easy books as Corderius, and some of 
Erasmus' Colloques, with an English translation." — Burgh's Dignity, Vol. i, p. 150. "For my 
preface was to show the method of the priests of Aberdeen's procedure against the Quakers." — 
Barclay's Works, Yol. i, p. 235. " They signify no more against us, than Cochlseus' lies against 
Luther." — lb., i, 236. "To justify Moses his doing obeisance to his father in law." — Bo., i, 241. 
"Which sort of clauses are generally included between two comma's." — Johnson's Gram. Com., 
p. 306. "Between you and I, she is but a cutler's wife." — Goldsmith's Essays, p. 187. " In Ed- 
ward the third, King of England's time." — Jaudon's Gram., p. 104. "The nominative case is 
the agent or doer." — Smith's Neiv Gram., p. 11. "Dog is in the nominative case, because it is the 
agent, actor, or doer." — lb. " The actor or doer is considered the naming or leading noun." — lb. 
" The radical form of the principal verb is made use of." — Priestley's Gram., p. 24. " They 
would have the same right to be taken notice of by grammarians." — Bo., p. 30. " I shall not 
quarrel with the friend of twelve years standing." — Liberator, ix, 39. " If there were none living 
but him, John would be against Lilburne, and Lilburne against John." — Biog. Diet., vj. Lilburne. 
"When a personal pronoun is made use of to relate to them." — Cobbett's Eng. Gram., ^[ 179. 
" The town was taken in a few hours time." — Goldsmith's Borne, p. 120. "You must not employ 
such considerations merely as those upon which the author here rests, taken from gratitude's 
being the law of my nature." — Blair's Bhet., p. 296. " Our author's second illustration, is taken 
from praise being the most disinterested act of homage." — lb., p. 301. " The first subdivision 
concerning praise being the most pleasant part of devotion, is very just and well expressed." — B>. 
"It was a cold thought to dwell upon its disburdening the mind of debt." — Bx "The thought 
which runs through all this passage, of man's being the priest of nature, and of his existence being 
calculated chiefly for this end, that he might offer up the praises of the mute part of the creation, is 
an ingenious thought and well expressed." — lb., p. 297. " The mayor of Newyork's portrait."- 
Ware's English Grammar, p. 9. 

" Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake 
Who hunger, and who thirst, for scribbling sake." — Pope, Dunciad, i, 50. 

EXERCISE III.— ADJECTIYES. 
" Plumb down he drops ten thousand fathom deep." — Milton, P. L., B. ii, 1. 933. " In his Night 
Thoughts, there is much energy of expression : in the three first, there are several pathetic passages." 
— Blair's Bhet., p. 403. " Learn to pray, to pray greatly and strong." — The Dial, Yol. ii, p. 215. 
"The good and the bad genius are struggling with one another." — Philological Museum, i, 490. 
" The definitions of the parts of speech, and application of syntax, should be given almost simuh 
taneous." — Wilbur and Livingston's Gram., p. 6. "I had studied grammar previous to his in- 
structing me." — lb., p. 13. " So difficult it is to separate these two things from one another." — > 
Blair's Bhet, p. 92. "New words should never be ventured upon, except by such whose estab- 
fished reputation gives them some degree of dictatorial power over language." — fix, p. 94. " The 
verses necessarily succeed each other." — O B. Peirce's Gram., p. 142 " They saw that it would 
be practicable to express, in writing, the whole combinations of sounds which our words require." 
— Blair's Bhet, p. 68. " There are some Events, the Truth of which cannot appear to any, but 



CHAP. XV.] SYNTAX. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 763 

such whose Minds are first qualify'd by some certain Knowledge." — Brightland's Gram., p. 242. 
" These Sort of Feet are in Latin called Iambics." — Fisher's Gram., p. 134. " And the Words are 
mostly so disposed, tbatthe Accents may fall on every 2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th Syllables." — lb., p. 
135. " If the verse does not sound well and harmonious to the ear." — lb., p. 136. " I gat me men- 
singers and women- singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of 
all sorts." — Ecclesiastes, ii, 8. " No people have so studiously avoided the collision of consonants as 
the Italians." — Campbells Rhet, p. 183. " And these two subjects must destroy one another." — 
lb., p. 42. " Duration and space are two things in some respects the most like, and in some re- 
spects the most unlike to one another." — lb., p. 103. "Nothing ever affected him so much, as 
this misconduct of his friend." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 155. "To see the bearing of the several 
parts of speech on each other." — Greenleaf's Gram., p. 2. "Two or more adjectives following 
each other, either with or without a conjunction, qualify the same word." — Bullions, E. Gram., 
p. 75. " The two chapters which now remain, are by far the most important of any." — Student's 
Manual, p. 293. "That has been the subject of no less than six negotiations." — Pres. Jackson's 
Message, 1830. " His gravity makes him work cautious." — Steele, Sped., No. 534. " Grandeur, 
being an extreme vivid emotion, is not readily produced in perfection but by reiterated impres- 
sions." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 203. " Every object appears less than when viewed separately 
and independent of the series." — lb., ii, 14. " An Organ is the best of all other musical instru- 
ments." — Dilworth's English Tongue, p. 94. 

" Let such teach others who themselves excel, 
And censure freely who have written well." — Pope, on Crit, 1. 15. 

EXERCISE IT.— PRONOUNS. 

"You had musty victuals, and he hath holp to eat it." — Shak.: Joh. Diet, w. Victuals. 
"Sometime am I all wound with adders, who, with cloven tongues, do hiss me into madness." — 
Beauties of Shak, p. 68. "When a letter or syllable is transposed, it is called Metathesis." — 
Adam's Lot. Gram., p. 275. " When a letter or syllable is added to the beginning of a word, it 
is called Prosthesis." — lb. "If a letter or syllable be taken from the beginning of a word, it is 
called Aph^eresis." — lb. "We can examine few, or rather no Substances, so far, as to assure 
ourselves that we have a certain Knowledge of most of its Properties." — Brightland's Gram., p. 
244. "Who do you dine with?" — Fisher's Gram., p. 99. "Who do you speak to?" — Shak- 
speare. "All the objects of prayer are calculated to excite the most active and vivid sentiments, 
which can arise in the heart of man." — Adams's Rhet, i, 328. " It has been my endeavour to 
furnish you with the most useful materials, which contribute to the purposes of eloquence." — 75., 
ii, 28. "All paraphrases are vicious: it is not translating, it is commenting." — Formey's Belles- 
Leitres, p. 163. "Did you never bear false witness against tlry neighbour?" — Sir W. Draper: 
Junius, p. 40. " And they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread : they shall eat up thy flocks 
and thine herds." — Jer., v, 17. "He was the spiritual rock who miraculously supplied the wants 
of the Israelites." — Gurney's Evidences, p. 53. "To cull from the mass of mankind those indi- 
viduals upon which the attention ought to be most employed." — Eambler, No. 4. "His speech 
contains one of the grossest and most infamous calumnies which ever was uttered." — Merchant's 
Gram. Key, p. 198. " Strombus, i. m. A shell-fish of the sea, that has a leader whom they fol- 
low as their king. Plin." — Ainsworth's Diet., 4to. li Whomsoever will, let him come" — Morn- 
ing Star: Lib., xi, 13. " Thy own words have convinced me (stand a little more out of the sun 
if you please) that thou hast not the least notion of true honour." — Fielding. " Whither art going, 
pretty Annette ? Your little feet you'll surely wet." — L. M. Child. "Metellus, who conquered 
Macedon, was carried to the funeral pile by his four sons, one of which was the prcetor." — Ken- 
nett's Roman Ant. p. 332. "That not a soldier which they did not know, should mingle himself 
among them." — Josephus, Yol. v, p. 170. " The Neuter Gender denotes objects which are neither 
males nor females." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 37. "And hence it is, that the most important 
precept, which a rhetorical teacher can inculcate respecting this part of discourse, is negative." — 
Adams's Rhet, ii, 97. "The meanest and most contemptible person whom we behold, is the off- 
spring of heaven, one of the children of the Most High." — Scougal, p. 102. " He shall sit next 
to Darius, because of his wisdom, and shall be called Darius his cousin." — 1 Esdras, hi, 7. "In 
1757, he published his ' Fleece ;' but he did not long survive it." — L. Murray, Seq., p. 252. 
"The sun upon the calmest sea 
Appears not half so bright as thee." — Prior. 

EXERCISE Y.— YERBS. 

" The want of connexion here, as well as in the description of the prodigies that accompanied 
the death of Caesar, are scarce pardonable." — Karnes, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 3S. "The causes of 
the original beauty of language, considered as significant, which is a branch of the present sub- 
ject, will be explained in their order." — lb.. Yol. ii, p. 6. " Neither of these two Definitions do 
rightly adjust the Genuine signification of this Tense." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 280. "In the 
earnest hope that they may prove as beneficial to other teachers as they have to the author." — 
John Flint's Gram., p. 3. " And then an example is given showing the manner in which the 
pupil should be required to classify." — lb., p. 3. " Qu in English words are equivalent to Jew." — 
Sanborn's Gram., p. 258. " Qu has the power of lew, therefore quit doubles the final consonant 
in forming its preterite." — lb., p. 103. " The word pronoun or substantive can be substituted, 



764 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

should any teacher prefer to do it." — lb., p. 132. "The three angles of a right-angled triangle 
were equal to two right angles in the days of Moses, as well as now." — Goodell: Liberator, Vol. 
xi, p. 4. " But now two paces of the vilest earth is room enough." — Beaut, of Shah, p. 126. 
" Latin and French, as the World now goes, is by every one acknowledged to be necessary." — 
Locke,on Ed., p. 351. "These things, that he will thus learn b} 7 sight, and have by roat in his 
Memory, is not all, I confess, that he is to learn upon the Globes." — lb., p. 321. " Henry: if John 
shall meet me, I will hand him your note." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 261. "They pronounce 
the syllables in a different manner from what they do at other times." — Blair's Bhet, p. 329. 
" Cato reminded him of many warnings he had gave him." — Goldsmith'' s Borne, i, 114. "The Wages 
|s small. The Compasses is broken." — Fisher's Gram., p. 95. " Prepare thy heart for prayer, 
Jest thou temptest God." — Life of Luther, p. 83. "That a soldier should fly is a shameful thing." 
r— Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 155. "When there is two verbs which are together." — Woodworth's 
Gram., p. 27. "Interjections are words used to express some passion of the mind; and is fol- 
lowed by a note of admiration!" — Infant School Gram., p. 126. "And the king said, If he be 
Itlone, there is tidings in his mouth." — 2 Samuel, xviii, 25. " The opinions of the few must be 
overruled, and submit to the opinions of the many." — Webster's Essays, p. 56. " One of the prin- 
cipal difficulties which here occurs, has been already hinted." — Blair's Bhet, p. 391. " With 
rnilky blood the heart is overflown." — Thomson, Castle of Ind. " No man dare solicit for the 
votes of hiz nabors." — Webster's Essays, p. 344. "Yet they cannot, and they have no right to 
exercise it." — lb., p. 56. " In order to make it be heard over their vast theatres." — Blair's Bhet, 
p. 471. " Sometimes, however, the relative and its clause is placed before the antecedent and its 
clause." — Bullions, Lat Gram., p. 200. 

" Here thou, great Anna ! whom three realms obey, 
Does sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea." — Karnes, El. of Grit., i, 321. 

EXERCISE YL— PARTICIPLES. 
" On the other hand, the degrading or vilifying an object, is done successfully by ranking it with 
one that is really low." — Karnes, El. of Grit, ii, 50. " The magnifying or diminishing objects by 
means of comparison, proceeds from the same cause." — lb., i, 239. "Gratifying the affection will 
also contribute to my own happiness." — lb., i, 53. "The pronouncing syllables in a high or alow 
tone." — lb., ii, 77. " The crowding into one period or thought different figures of speech, is not 
less faulty than crowding metaphors in that manner." — lb., ii, 234. " To approve is acknowledg- 
ing we ought to do a thing; and to condemn is owning we ought not to do it." — Burlamaqui, on 
Law, p. 39. " To be provoked that God suffers men to act thus, is claiming to govern the word 
in his stead." — Seeker. " Let every subject be well understood before passing on to another." — 
Infant School Gram., p. 18. " Doubling the t in bigotted is apt to lead to an erroneous accentua- 
tion of the word on the second syllable." — Churchill's Gram., p. 22. " Their compelling the man 
to serve was an act of tyranny." — Webster's Essays, p. 54. "One of the greatest misfortunes of 
the French tragedy is, its being always written in rhyme." — Blair's Bhet, p. 469. "Horace enti- 
tles his satire ' Sermones,' and seems not to have intended rising much higher than prose put into 
numbers." — lb., p. 402. "Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the afflicted, yield 
more pleasure than we receive from those actions which respect only ourselves." — Murray's Key, 
8vo, p. 238. " But when we attempt to go a step beyond this, and inquire what is the cause of 
regularity and variety producing in our minds the sensation of beauty, any reason we can assign 
is extremely imperfect." — Blair's Bhet, p. 29. " In an author's writing with propriety, his being 
free of the two former faults seems implied." — lb., p. 94. "To prevent our being carried away 
by that torrent of false and frivolous taste." — lb., p. 12. "When we are unable to assign the 
reasons of our being pleased." — lb., p. 15. "An adjective will not make good sense without join- 
ing it to a noun." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 12. " What is said respecting sentences being inverted?" 
— lb., p. 71. "Though he admits of all the other cases, made use of by the Latins." — BickneWs 
Gram., p. viii. "This indeed, is accounting but feebly for its use in this instance." — Wright's 
Gram., p. 148. " The knowledge of what passes in the mind is necessary for the understanding 
the Principles of Grammar." — Brightland's Gram., p. 73. "By than's being used instead of as, it 
is not asserted that the former has as much fruit as the latter." — 0. B. Beirce's Gram., p. 207. 
" Thus much for the Settling your Authority over your Children." — Locke, on Ed., p. 58. 

EXERCISE VII.— ADVERBS. 
" There can scarce be a greater Defect in a Gentleman, than not to express himself well either 
in Writing or Speaking." — Locke, on Ed., p. 335. " She seldom or ever wore a thing twice in the 
same way." — Castle Backrent, p. 84. "So can I give no reason, nor I will not." — Beauties of 
Shah, p. 45. "Nor I know not where I did lodge last night." — lb., p. 270. "It is to be pre- 
sumed they would become soonest proficient in Latin." — Burn's Gram,., p. xi. "The difficulty of 
which has not been a little increased by that variety." — Ward's Pref. to Lily's Gram., p. xi. 
" That full endeavours be used in every monthly meeting to seasonably end all business or cases 
that come before them." — N. E. Discipline, p. 44. " In minds where they had scarce any footing 
before." — Spectator, No. 566. "The negative form is when the adverb not is used." — Sanborn's 
Gram., p. 61. "The interrogative form is when a question is asked." — Ibid. "The finding out 
the Truth ought to be his whole Aim." — Brightland's Gram., p. 239. "Mention the first instance 
when that is used in preference to who, whom, or which." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 96. " The plot 



CHAP. XV.] SYNTAX.— EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 765 

was always exceeding simple. It admitted of few incidents." — Blair's Rhet, p. 470. "Their 
best tragedies make not a deep enough impression on the heart." — lb., p. 412. "The greatest 
genius on earth, not even a Bacon, can be a perfect master of every branch." — Webster's Essays, 
p. 13. " The verb ought is only used in the indicative [and subjunctive moods]." — Br. Ash's 
Gram., p. 70. "It is still a greater deviation from congruity, to affect not only variety in the 
words, but also in the construction." — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 28. "It has besides been found 
that, generally, students attend those lectures more carefully for which they pay." — Br. Either, 
Lit. Gonv., p. 65. " This book I obtained through a friend, it being not exposed for sale." — 
Woolsey, ib., p. 76. " Here there is no manner of resemblance but in the word drown." — Karnes. 
El. of Grit., ii, 163. "We have had often occasion to inculcate, that the mind passeth easily and 
sweetly along a train of connected objects." — lb., ii, 197. " Observe the periods when the most 
illustrious persons flourished." — Worcester's Hist., p. iv. " For every horse is not called Bucepha- 
lus, nor every dog Turk." — Buchanan's Gram., p. 15. "One can scarce avoid smiling at the 
blindness of a certain critic." — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 257. "Provided always, that we run not 
into the extreme of pruning so very close, so as to give a hardness and dryness to style." — Jamie- 
son's Rhet, p. 92; Blair's, 111. "Agreement is when one word is like another in number, case, 
gender or person." — Frost's Gram., p. 43. " Government is when one word causes another to be 
in some particular number, person or case." — Ibid. "It seems to be nothing more than the sim- 
ple form of the adjective, and to imply not either comparison or degree." — Murray's Gram., 2d 
Ed., p. 47. 

EXERCISE VIII— CONJUNCTIONS. 
"The Indians had neither cows, horses, oxen, or sheep." — Olney's Introd. to Geog., p. 46. 
"Who have no other object in view, but, to make a show of their supposed talents." — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 344. " No other but these, could draw the attention of men in their rude uncivilized 
state." — lb., p. 379. "That he shall stick at nothing, nor nothing stick with him." — Pipe. " To 
enliven it into a passion, no more is required but the real or ideal presence of the object." — Karnes, 
El. of Grit., i, 110. "I see no more to be made of it but to rest upon the final cause first men- 
tioned." — lb., i, 175. "No quality nor circumstance contributes more to grandeur than force." — 
lb., i, 215. "It being a quotation, not from a poet nor orator, but from a grave author, writing an 
institute of law." — lb., i, 233. "And our sympathy cannot be otherwise gratified but by giving 
all the succour in our power." — lb., i, 362. "And to no verse, as far as I know, is a greater 
variety of time necessary." — lb., ii, 79. "English Heroic verse admits no more but four capital 
pauses." — lb., ii, 105. "The former serves for no other purpose but to make harmony." — lb., 
231. "But the plan was not perhaps as new as some might think it." — Literary Conv., p. 85. 
"The impression received would probably be neither confirmed or corrected." — lb., p. 183. 
"Right is nothing else but what reason acknowledges." — Burlamaqui, on Law, p. 32. "Though 
it should be of no other use but this." — Bp. Wilkins: Tooke's B. P., ii, 27. " One hope no sooner 
dies in us but another rises up." — Sped., No. 535. " This rule implies nothing else but the agree- 
ment of an adjective with a substantive." — Adam's Latin Gram., p. 156 ; Gould's, 129. "There 
can be no doubt but the plan of exercise pointed out at page 132, is the best that can be adopted." 
— Blair's Gram., p. viii. " The exertions of this gentleman have done more than any other writer 
on the subject." — Dr. Abercrombie : Rec. in Murray's Gram.., Vol. ii, p 306. "No accidental 
nor unaccountable event ought to be admitted." — Karnes, El. of Grit., ii, 273. "Wherever there 
was much fire and vivacity in the genius of nations." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 5. "I aim at nothing 
else but your safety." — Walker's Particles, p. 90. "There are pains inflicted upon man for other 
purposes except warning." — Way land's Moral Sci., p. 122. "Of whom we have no more but a 
single letter remaining." — Campbell's Pref. to Matthew. " The publisher meant no more but that 
W. Ames was the author." — Seivel's History, Preface, p. xii. " Be neether bashful, nor discuver 
uncommon solicitude." — Webster's Essays, p. 403. "They put Minos to death, by detaining him 
so long in a bath, till he fainted." — Lempriere's Bid. " For who could be so hard-hearted to be 
severe?" — Cowley. "He must neither be a panegyrist nor a satirist." — Blair's Rhet, p. 353. 
" No man unbiassed by philosophical opinions, thinks that life, air, or motion, are precisely the 
same things." — Br. Murray's Hist, of Lang., i, 426. "Which I had no sooner drank, but I found 
a pimple rising in my forehead." — Addison: Sanborn's Gram., p. 182. "This I view very im- 
portant, and ought to be well understood." — Osborn's Key, p. 5. "So that neither emphases, 
tones, or cadences should be the same." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 5. 
" You said no more but that yourselves must be 
The judges of the scripture sense, not we." — Dry den, p. 96. 

EXERCISE IX.— PREPOSITIONS. 

" To be entirely devoid of relish for eloquence, poetry, or any of the fine arts, is justly con- 
strued to be an unpromising symptom of youth." — Blair's Rhet., p. 14. "Well met, George, for 
I was looking of you." — Walker's Partides, p. 441. "There is another fact worthy attention." — 
Chajining's Emancip., p. 49. "They did not gather of a Lord's-day, in costly temples." — The 
Dial, No. ii, p. 209. " But certain ideas have, by convention between those who speak the same 
language, been agreed to be represented by certain articulate sounds." — Adams's Rhet, ii, 271. 
"A careful study of the language is previously requisite, in all who aim at writing it properly." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 91. "He received his reward in a small place, which he enjoyed to his death." 
—Notes to the Dunciad, B. ii, 1. 283. " Gaddi, the pupil of Cimabue, was not unworthy his mas- 



766 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. , [PART III. 

ter." — Literary History, p. 268. " It is a new, and picturesque, and glowing image, altogether 
worthy the talents of the great poet who conceived it." — Kirkham's Elocution, p. 100. " If the 
right does exist, it is paramount his title." — Aagell, on Tide Waters, p. 237. " The most appro- 
priate adjective should be placed nearest the noun." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 194. " Is not Mr. 
Murray's octavo grammar more worthy the dignified title of a ' Philosophical Grammar ?' " — Kirk- 
ham's Gram., p. 39. " If it shall be found unworthy the approbation and patronage of the 
literary public." — Perley's Gram., p. 3. " When the relative is preceded by two words referring 
to the same thing, its proper antecedent is the one next it." — BuUions's K Gram., p. 101. "The 
magistrates commanded them to depart the city." — Snivel's Hist, p. 97. "Mankind act oftener 
from caprice than reason." — Murray's Gram., i, 272. "It can never view, clearly and distinctly, 
above one object at a time." — Jamieson's Bhet., p. 65. " The theory of speech, or systematic 
grammar, was never regularly treated as a science till under the Macedonian kings." — Knight, on 
Greek Alph., p. 106. "I have been at London a year, and I saw the king last summer." — 
Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 198. "This is a crucifying of Christ, and a rebelling of Christ." — Wal- 
denfield. " There is another advantage worthy our observation." — Bolingbroke, on Hist, p. 26. 
" Certain conjunctions also require the subjunctive mood after them, independently on the sense." 
— Grant's Lot. Gram., p. 77. "If the critical reader will think proper to admit of it at all." — 
Priestley's Gram., p. 191. "It is the business of an epic poet to copy after nature." — Blair's 
Bhet } p. 427. "Good as the cause is, it is one from which numbers have deserted." — Murray's 
Key, 8vo, p. 222. "In respect of the images it will receive from matter." — Spectator, No. 413. 
" Instead of followiug on to whither morality would conduct it." — Dymond's Essays, p. 85. " A 
variety of questions upon subjects on which their feelings, and wishes, and interests, are in- 
volved." — lb., p. 147. " In the Greek, Latin, Saxon, and German tongues, some of these situ- 
ations are termed cases, and are expressed by additions to the Noun instead of by separate words 
and phrases." — Booth's Introd., p. 33. " Every teacher is bound during three times each week, 
to deliver a public lecture, gratis." — Howitt's Student-Life in Germany, p. 35. " But the profes- 
sors of every political as well as religious creed move amongst each other' in manifold circles." — 
lb., p. 113. 

EXERCISE X.— PROMISCUOUS. 
" The inseparable Prepositions making no Sense alone, they are used only in Composition." — 
Buchanan's Gram., p. 66. "The English Scholar learns little from the two last Rules." — lb., 
Pre/., p. xi. "To prevent the body being stolen by the disciples." — Watson's Apology, p. 123. 
"To prevent the Jews rejoicing at his death." — Wood's Diet, p. 584. " After he had wrote the 
chronicles of the priesthood of John Hyrcanus." — Whiston's Josephus, v, 195. "Such words are 
sometimes parsed as a direct address, than which, nothing could be farther from the truth." — 
Goodenow's Gram., p. 89. "The signs of the tenses in these modes are as follows." — C. Adams's 
Gram., p. 33. "The signs of the tenses in the Potential mode are as follows." — Ibid. "And, 
if more promiscuous examples be found necessary, they may be taken from Mr. Murray's English 
Exercises." — Nesbit's Parsing, p. xvi. " One is a numeral adjective, the same as ten." — lb., p. 95. 
" Nothing so much distinguishes a little mind as to stop at words." — Montague : Letter- Writer, 
p. 129. " But I say, again, What signifies words?" — Id., ib. " Obedience to parents is a divine 
command, given in both the Old and the New Testaments." — Nesbit's Parsing, p. 207. " A Com- 
pound Subject is a union of several Subjects to all which belong the same Attribute." — Fosdick's 
Be Sacy, on General Gram., p. 22. "There are other languages in which the Conjunctive does 
not prevent our expressing the subject of the Conjunctive Proposition by a Pronoun." — lb., p. 58. 
" This distinction must necessarily be expressed by language, but there are several different 
modes of doing it." — lb., p. 64. "This action may be considered with reference to the person 
or thing upon whom the action falls." — lb., p. 97. " There is nothing in the nature of things to 
prevent our coining suitable words." — Barnard's Gram., p. 41. "What kind of a book is this?" 
— lb., p. 43. " Whence all but him had fled." — lb., p. 58. " Person is a distinction between indi- 
viduals, as speaking, spoken to, or spoken of." — lb., p. 114. "He repented his having neglected 
his studies at college." — Emmons's Gram., p. 19. " What avails the taking so much medicine, 
when you are so careless about taking cold ?" — lb., p. 29. " Active transitive verbs are those where 
the action passes from the agent to the object." — lb., p. 33. "Active intransitive verbs, are those 
where the action is wholly confined to the agent or actor." — Ibid. "Passive verbs express the 
receiving, or suffering, the action." — lb., p. 34. "The pluperfect tense expresses an action or 
event that passed prior or before some other period of time specified in the sentence." — lb., p. 42. 
" There is no doubt of his being a great ' statesman." — lb., p. 64. " Herschell is the fartherest 
from the sun of any of the planets." — Puller's Gram., p. 66. "There has not been introduced 
into the foregoing pages any reasons for the classifications therein adopted." — lb., p. 80. "There 
must be a comma before the verb, as well as between each nominative case." — lb., p. 98. " Yon, 
with former and latter, are also adjectives." — Brace's Gram., p. 17. " You was." — B>., p. 32. " If 
you was." — lb., p. 39. " Two words which end in ly succeeding each other are indeed a little 
offensive to the ear." — lb., p. 85 ; Lennie's Gram., p. 102. 
" Is endless life and happiness despis'd? 
Or both wish'd here, where neither can be found ?" — Young, p. 124. 

EXERCISE XL— PROMISCUOUS. 
" Because any one of them is placed before a noun or pronoun, as you observe I have done in 
every sentence." — Rand's Gram., p. 74. " Might accompany is a transitive verb, because it ex- 



CHAP. XV.] SYNTAX. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 767 

presses an action which effects the object me" — Gilbert's Gram., p. 94. "Intend is an intransi- 
tive verb because it expresses an action which does not effect any object." — lb., p. 93. " Charles 
and Eliza were jealous of one another." — J. M. Putnam's Gram., p. 44. " Thus one another in- 
clude both nouns." — Ibid. "When the antecedent is a child, that is elegantly used in preference 
to who, whom, or which." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 94. " He can do no more in words, but make 
out the expression of his will." — Bp. Wilkins. " The form of the first person plural of the imper- 
ative, love ice, is grown obsolete." — Lowth's Gram., p. 38. " Excluding those verbs which are 
become obsolete." — Priestley's Gram., p. 47. "He who sighs for pleasure, the voice of wisdom 
can never reach, nor the power of virtue touch." — Wright's Athens, p. 64. "The other branch 
of wit in the thought, is that only which is taken notice of by Addison." — Karnes, El. of Crit, i, 312. 
"When any measure of the Chancellor was found fault with." — Professors' Reasons, p. 14. 
" WJiether was formerly made use of to signify interrogation." — Murray's Gram., p. 54. " Under 
the article of Pronouns the following words must be taken notice of." — Priestley's Gram., p. 95. 
" In a word, we are afforded much pleasure, to be enabled to bestow our most unqualified appro- 
bation on this excellent work." — Wright's Gram., Pec, p. 4. "For Recreation is not being Idle, 
as every one may observe." — Locke, on Ed., p. 365. " In the easier valuing and expressing that 
sum." — Dilworth's Arith., p. 3. " Addition is putting together of two or more numbers." — Alex- 
ander's Arith., p. 8. "The reigns of some of our British Queens may fairly be urged in proof of 
woman being capable of discharging the most arduous and complicated duties of government." — 
West's Letters to Y L., p. 43. " What is the import of that command to love such an one as 
ourselves?" — Wayland's Moral Science, p. 206. "It should seem then the grand question was, 
What is good?" — Harris's Hermes, p. 297. " The rectifying bad habits depends upon our con- 
sciousness of them." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 32. "To prevent our being misled by a mere 
name." — Campbell's Rhet, p. 168. "I was refused an opportunity of replying in the latter re- 
view." — Fowle's True English Gram., p. 10. " But how rare is such generosity and excellence as 
Howard displayed!" — M' Culloch's Gram., p. 39. " The noun is in the Nominative case when it 
is the name of the person or thing which acts or is spoken of." — P., p. 54. " The noun is in the 
Objective case when it is the name of the person or thing which is the object or end of an action 
or movement." — lb., p. 54. " To prevent their being erased from your memory." — Mack's Gram., 
p. 17. " Pleonasm, is when a superfluous word is introduced abruptly." — P., p. 69. 
" Man feels his weakness, and to numbers run, 
Himself to strengthen, or himself to shun." — Crabbe, Borough, p. 137. 

EXERCISE XII.— TWO ERRORS. 

"Independent on the conjunction, the sense requires the subjunctive mood." — Grant's Latin 
Gram., p. 77. "A Yerb in past time without a sign is Imperfect tense." — 0. Adams's Gram., 
p. 33. " New modelling your household and personal ornaments is, I grant, an indispensable 
duty." — West's Letters to Y. L., p. 58. "For grown ladies and gentlemen learning to dance, 
sing, draw, or even walk, is now too frequent to excite ridicule." — lb., p. 123. "It is recorded 
that a physician let his horse blood on one of the evil days, and it soon lay dead." — Constable's 
Miscellany, xxi, 99. "As to the apostrophe, it was seldom used to distinguish the genitive case 
till about the beginning of the present century, and then seems to have been introduced by mis- 
take." — Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 23. " One of the relatives only varied to express the three cases." 
— Loivth's Gram., p. 24. " What! does every body take their morning dr, ught of this liquor ?" 
— Collier's Cebes. " Here, all things comes round, and bring the same appearances a long with 
them." — Collier's Antoninus, p. 103. "Most commonly both the relative and verb are elegantly 
left out in the second member.'' — Buchanan's Gram., p. ix. " A fair receipt of water, of some 
thirty or forty foot square." — Bacon's Essays, p. 127. " The old know more indirect ways of out- 
voting others, than the young." — Burgh's Dignity, i, 60. "The pronoun singular of the third 
person hath three genders." — Lowth's Gram., p. 21. "The preposition to is made use of before 
nouns of place, when they follow verbs and participles of motion." — Murray's Gram., p. 203. 
" It is called, understanding human nature, knowing the weak sides of men, &c." — Wayland's 
Moral Science, p. 284. " Neither of which are taken notice of by this Grammar." — Johnson's 
Gram. Com., p. 279. "But certainly no invention is entitled to such degree of admiration as 
that of language." — Blair's Rhet, p. 54. " The Indians, the Persians, and Arabians, were all 
famous for their tales." — Po., p. 374. " Such a leading word is the preposition and the con- 
junction." — Felch's Comp. Gram., p. 21. "This, of all others, is the most encouraging circum- 
stance in these times." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 37. " The putting any constraint on the organs 
of speech, or urging them to a more rapid action than they can easily perform in their tender state, 
must be productive of indistinctness in utterance." — lb., p. 35. "Good articulation is the founda- 
tion of a good delivery, in the same manner as the sounding the simple notes in music, is the 
foundation of good singing." — lb., p. 33. "The offering praise and thanks to God, implies our 
having a lively and devout sense of his excellencies and of his benefits." — Atterbury : Blair's 
Rhet, p. 295. "The pause should not be made till the fourth or sixth syllable." — Blair, ib., p. 
333. " Shenstone's pastoral ballad, in four parts, may justly be reckoned one of the most elegant 
poems of this kind, which we have in English." — lb., p. 394. " What need Christ to have died, 
if heaven could have contained imperfect souls ?" — Baxter. " Every person is not a man of genius, 
nor is it necessary that he should." — Beattit's Moral Science, i, 69. " They were alarmed from a 
quarter where they least expected." — Goldsmith's Greece, ii, 6. 
" If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak, 
And peg thee in his knotty intrails." — Shak. : Wiite's Yerb, p. 94. 



768 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART III. 

EXERCISE XIII.— TWO ERRORS. 
" In consequence of this, much time and labor are unprofitably expended, and a confusion of ideas 
introduced into the mind, which, by never so wise a method of subsequent instruction, it is very 
difficult completely to remove." — Grenville's Gram., p. 3. " So that the restoring a natural manner 
of delivery, would be bringing about an entire revolution, in its most essential parts." — Sheridan's 
Elocution, p. 170. '"Thou who loves us, will protect us still:' here who agrees with thou, and i3 
nominative to the verb loves." — Alex. Murray's Gram., p. 67. " The Active voice signifies 
action; the Passive, suffering, or being the object of an action." — Adam's Latin Gram., p. 80; 
Gould's, 77. "They sudden set upon him, fearing no such thing." — Walker's Particles, p. 252. 
" That may be used as a pronoun, an adjective, and a conjunction, depending on the office which 
it performs in the sentence." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 110. "This is the distinguishing property 
of the church of Christ from all other antichristian assemblies or churches." — Barclay's Works, i, 
533. " My lords, the course which the legislature formerly took with respect to the slave-trade, 
appears to me to be well deserving the attention both of the government and your lordships." — 
Brougham: Antislavery Reporter, Vol. ii, p. 218. " We speak that we do know, and testify that 
we have seen." — John, hi, 11. "This is a consequence I deny, and remains for him to prove." — 
Barclay's Works, iii, 329. "To back this, He brings in the Authority of Accursius, and Consen- 
sius Romanus, to the latter of which he confesses himself beholding for this Doctrine." — Johnso7i's 
Gram. Com., p. 343. " The compound tenses of the second order, or those in which the participle 
present is made use of." — Priestley's Gram., p. 24. " To lay the accent always on the same sylla- 
ble, and the same letter of the syllable, which they do in common discourse." — Sheridan's Elocu- 
tion, p. 78. " Though the converting the w into a v is not so common as the changing the v into 
a w." — lb., p. 46. "Nor is this all; for by means of accent, the times of pauses also are rendered 
quicker, and their proportions more easily to be adjusted and observed." — lb., p. 72. "By mouth- 
ing, is meant, dwelling upon syllables that have no accent : or prolonging the sounds of the 
accented syllables, beyond their due proportion of time." — lb., p. 76. " Taunt him with the 
license of ink ; if thou thou'st him thrice, it shall not be amiss." — Sliak. : Joh. Diet, w. Tliou. 
" The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley 
shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." — Prov., xxx, 17. "Copying, or merely 
imitating others, is the death of arts and sciences." — Spurzheim, on Ed., p. 170. " He is arrived 
at that degree of perfection, as to surprise all his acquaintance." — Ensell's Gram., p. 296. 
" Neither the King nor Queen are gone." — Buchanan's E. Syntax, p. 155. " Many is pronounced 
as if it were wrote manny." — JDr. Johnson's Gram, with Diet., p. 2. 
" And as the music on the waters float, 
Some bolder shore returns the soften'd note." — Crabbe, Borough, p. 118. 

EXERCISE XIV.— THREE ERRORS. 

" It appears that the Temple was then a building, because these Tiles must be supposed to be 
for the covering it." — Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 281. "It was common for sheriffs to omit or 
excuse the not making returns for several of the boroughs within their counties." — Brown's Esti- 
mate, VoL ii, p. 132. "The conjunction as when it is connected with the pronoun, such, many, 
or same, is sometimes called a relative pronoun." — Kirkham's Gram., the Compend. " Mr. Addi- 
son has also much harmony in his style ; more easy and smooth, but less varied than Lord 
Shaftesbury." — Blair's Rhet., p. 127; Jamieson's, 129. "A number of uniform lines having all 
the same pause, are extremely fatiguing ; which is remarkable in French versification." — Karnes, 
El. of Grit, Vol. ii, p. 104. " Adjectives qualify or distinguish one noun from another." — Powle's 
True Eng. Gram., p. 13. " The words one, other, and none, are used in both numbers." — Kirkham's 
Gram., p. 107. "A compound word is made up of two or more words, usually joined by an 
hyphen, as summer-house, spirit-less, school -master." — Blair's Gram., p. 7. " There is an incon- 
venience in introducing new words by composition which nearly resembles others in use before ; 
as, disserve, which is too much like deserve." — Priestley's Gram., p. 145. " For even in that case, 
the trangressing the limits in the least, will scarce be pardoned." — Sheridan's Led., p. 119. 
" What other are the foregoing instances but describing the passion another feels." — Karnes, El. 
of Grit., i, 388. " ' Two and three are five.' If each substantive is to be taken separately as a 
subject, then 'two is five,' and 'three is five.' " — Goodenow's Gram., p. 87. "The article a joined 
to the simple pronoun other makes it the compound another." — Priestley's Gram., p. 96. " The 
word another is composed of the indefinite article prefixed to the word other." — Murray's Gram., 
p. 57 ; et al. "In relating things that were formerly expressed by another person, we often meet 
with modes of expression similar to the following." — lb., p. 191. "Dropping one 1 prevents the 
recurrence of three very near each other." — Churchill's Gram., p. 202. " Sometimes two or more 
genitive cases succeed each other; as, ' John's wife's father.' "—Dalton's Gram., p. 14. " Some- 
times, though rarely, two nouns in the possessive case immediately succeed each other, in the fol- 
lowing form : ' My friend's wife's sister.' " — Murray's Gram., p. 45. 

EXERCISE XV.— MANY ERRORS. 

"Number is of a two fold nature, — Singular and Plural: and comprehends, accordingly to its 

application, the distinction between them." — Wright's Gram., p. 37. "The former, Figures of 

Words, are commonly called Tropes, and consists in a word's being employed to signify something, 

which is different from its original and primitive meaning." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 337. "The 



CHAP. XV.] SYNTAX. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 769 

former, figures of words, are commonly called tropes, and consist in a word's being employed to 
signify something that is different from its original and primitive meaning." — Blair's Rhet, p. 132. 
"A particular number of connected syllables are called feet, or measured paces." — Blair's Gram., 
p. 118. " Many poems, and especially songs, are written in the dactyl or anapaestic measure, 
some consisting of eleven or twelve syllables, and some of less." — Po., p. 121. "A Diphthong 
makes always a long Syllable, unless one of the vowels be droped." — British Gram., p. 34. 
" An Adverb is generally employed as an attributive, to denote some peculiarity or manner of ac- 
tion, with respect to the time, place, or order, of the noun or circumstance to which it is con- 
nected." — Wrights Definitions, Philos. Gram., pp. 35 and 114. "A Verb expresses the action, 
the suffering or enduring, or the existence or condition of a noun." — lb., pp. 35 and 64. " These 
three adjectives should be written our's, your's, their's." — Fowle's True Eng. Gram., p. 22. 
" Never was man so teized, or suffered half the uneasiness as I have done this evening." — 
Tattler, No. 160; Priestley's Gram., p. 200; Murray's, i, 223. "There may be reckoned in 
English four different cases, or relations of a substantive, called the subjective, the possessive, the 
objective, and the absolute cases." — Goodenow's Gram., p. 31. "To avoid the too often repeat- 
ing the Names of other Persons or Things of which we discourse, the words he, she, it, who, what, 
were invented." — Brightland's Gram., p. 85. " Names which denote a number of the same 
things, are called nouns of multitude." — Infant School Gram., p. 21. "But lest he should think, 
this were too slightly a passing over his matter, I will propose to him to be considered these 
things following." — Barclay's Works, Vol. hi, p. 472. " In the pronunciation of the letters of the 
Hebrew proper names, we find nearly the same rules prevail as in those of Greek and Latin." — 
Walker's Key, p. 223. "The distributive pronominal adjectives each, every, either, agree Avith the 
nouns, pronouns, and verbs of the singular number only." — Lowth's Gram., p. 89. " Having 
treated of the different sorts of words, and their various modifications, which is the first part of 
Etymology, it is now proper to explain the methods by which one word is derived from another." — 
L. Murray's Gram., p. 130. 

EXERCISE XVI.— MANY ERRORS. 

" A Noun with its Adjectives (or any governing Word with its Attendants) is one compound 
Word, whence the Noun and Adjective so joined, do often admit another Adjective, and some- 
times a third, and so on ; as, a Man, an old Man, a very good old Man, a very learned, judicious, 
sober Man." — British Gram., p. 195; Buchanan's, 19. "A substantive with its adjective is 
reckoned as one compounded word ; whence they often take another adjective, and sometimes a 
third, and so on: as, 'An old man; a good old man ; a very learned, judicious, good old man ' " — 
L. Murray's Gram., p. 169; Ingersoll's, 195 ; and others. "But though this elliptical st}*le be in- 
telligible, and is allowable in conversation and epistolary writing, yet in all writings of a serious 
or dignified kind, is ungraceful." — Blair's Rhet., p. 112. "There is no talent so useful towards 
rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune, than that quality gene- 
rally possessed by the dullest sort of people, and is, in common language, called discretion." — 
Swift: Blair's Rhet, p. 113. ""Which to allow, is just as reasonable as to own, that 'tis the 
greatest ill of a body to be in the utmost manner maimed or distorted ; but that to lose the use 
only of one limb, or to be impaired in some single organ or member, is no ill worthy the least 
notice." — Shaftesbury: ib., p. 115; Murray's Gram., p. 322. "If the singular nouns and pro- 
nouns, which are joined together by a copulative conjunction, be of several persons, in making the 
plural pronoun agree with them in person, the second person takes place of the third, and the first 
o/both." — Murray's Gram., p. 151; et al. "' The painter * * * cannot exhibit various stages 
of the same action.' In tins sentence we see that the painter governs, or agrees with, the verb 
can, as its nominative case." — lb., p. 195. "It expresses also facts which exist generally, at all 
times, general truths, attributes vjhich are permanent, habits, customary actions, and the like, 
without the reference to a specific time." — lb., p. 73 ; Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 71. " The dif- 
ferent species of animals may therefore be considered, as so many different nations speaking dif- 
ferent languages, that have no commerce with each other ; each of which consequently understands 
none but their own." — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 142. "It is also important to understand and 
apply the principles of grammar in our common conversation ; not only because it enables us to 
make our language understood by educated persons, but because it furnishes the readiest evidence 
of our having received a good education ourselves." — Frosts Practical Gram., p. 16. 

EXERCISE XVII.— MANY ERRORS. 

" This faulty Tumour in Stile is like an huge unpleasant Rock in a Champion Country, that's 
difficult to be transcended." — Holmes's Rhet., Book ii, p. 16. " For there are no Pelops's, nor 
Cadmus's, nor Danaus's dwell among us." — lb., p. 51. "None of these, except will, is ever used 
as a principal verb, but as an auxiliary to some principal, either expressed or understood." — 
Ingersoll's Gram., p. 134. " Nouns which signify either the male or female are common gender." 
— Perley's Gram., p. 11. "An Adjective expresses the kind, number, or quality of a noun." — 
Parker and Fox's Gram., Part I, p. 9. "There are six tenses; the Present, the Imperfect, the 
Perfect, the Pluperfect, the Future, and the Future Perfect tenses." — lb., p. 18. "My refers to 
the first person singular, either gender. Our refers to the first person plural, either gender. Thy 
refers to the second person singular, either gender. Your refers to the second person plural, 
either gender. Their refers to the third person plural, either gender." — Parker and Fox's Gram., 
Part II, p. 14. " Good use, which for brevity's sake, shall hereafter include reputable, national, 

49 



770 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

and present use, is not always uniform in her decisions." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 44. " Nouns 
which denote but one object are considered in the singular number." — Edward's First Lessons in 
Gram., p. 35. " If, therefore, the example of Jesus should be plead to authorize accepting an in- 
vitation to dine on the sabbath, it should be plead just as it was." — Barnes's Notes: on Luke, xiv, 
1. " The teacher will readily dictate what part may be omitted, the first time going through it." 
— Ainsivorth's Gram., p 4. " The contents of the following pages have been drawn chiefly, with 
various modifications, from the same source which has supplied most modern writers on this sub- 
ject, viz. Lindley Murray's Grammar." — Felton' s Gram., p. 3. "The term person in grammar 
distinguishes between the speaker, the person or thing spoken to, and the person or thing spoken 
of." — lb., p. 9. " In my father's garden grow the Maiden's Blush and the Prince' Feather." — 
Felton, ib., p. 15. "A preposition is a word used to connect words with one another, and show 
the relation between them. They generally stand before nouns and pronouns." — lb., p. 60. 
" Nouns or' pronouns addressed are always either in the second person, singular or plural." — 
Hallock's Gram., p. 154. " The plural men not ending in s, is the reason for adding the apostro- 
phic's." — T. Smith's Gram., p. 19. " Pennies denote real coin; penbe, their value in computa- 
tion." — Hazen's Gram., p. 24. " We commence, first, with letters, which is termed Orthography ; 
secondly, with words, denominated Etymology ; thirdly, with sentences, styled Syntax'; fourthly, 
with orations and poems, called Prosody." — Barrett's Gram., p. 22. "Care must be taken, that 
sentences of proper construction and obvious import be not rendered obscure by the too free use 
of the ellipsis." — Felton' s Grammar, Stereotype Edition, p. 80. 

EXERCISE XVIII.— PROMISCUOUS. 

" Tropes and metaphors so closely resemble each other that it is not always easy, nor is it im- 
portant to be able to distinguish the one from the other." — Parker and Fox, Part III, p. 66. " With 
regard to relatives, it may be further observed, that obscurity often arises from the too frequent 
repetition of them, particularly of the pronouns who, and they, and them, and theirs. When 
we find these personal pronouns crowding too fast upon us, we have often no method left, but to 
throw the whole sentence into some other form." — lb., p. 90; Murray's Gram., p. 311; Blair's 
Rhet., p. 106. "Do scholars acquire any valuable knowledge, by learning to repeat long strings 
of words, without any definite ideas, or several jumbled together like rubbish in a corner, and ap- 
parently with no application, either for the improvement of mind or of language ?" — Cutler's Gram., 
Pref, p. 5. " The being officiously good natured and civil are things so uncommon in the world, 
that one cannot hear a man make professions of them without being surprised, or at least, sus- 
pecting the disinterestedness of his intentions." — Fables: Cutler's Gram., p. 135. "Irony is the 
intentional use of words to express a sense contrary to that which the speaker or writer means to 
convey." — Parker and Fox's Gram., Part III, p. 68. "The term Substantive is derived from sub- 
stare, to stand, to distinguish it from an adjective, which cannot, like the noun, stand alone." — 
Hiley's Gram., p. 11. " They have two numbers, like nouns, the singular and plural; and three 
persons in each number, namely, I, the first person, represents the speaker. Thou, the second 
person, represents the person spoken to. He, she, it, the third person, represents the person or 
thing spoken of." — lb., p. 23. " He, She, It, is the Third Person singular; but he with others, she 
with others, or it with others, make each of them they, which is the Third Person plural." — White, 
on the English Verb, p. 97. "The words had I been, that is, the Third Past Tense of the Verb, 
marks the Supposition, as referring itself, not to the Present, but to some former period of time." 
— lb., p. 88. "A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid a too frequent repetition of 
the same word." — Frazee's Improved Gram., p. 122. 

" That which he cannot use, and dare not show, 
And would not give — why longer should he owe?" — Crabbe. 



PART IV. 

PROSODY. 

Prosody treats of punctuation, utterance, figures, and versification. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The word prosody, (from the Greek rrpoc, to, and o)Srj, song,) is, with regard to its de- 
rivation, exactly equivalent to accent, or the Latin accentus, which is formed from ad, to, and 
cantus, song : both terms, perhaps, originally signifying a singing with, or sounding to, some instru- 
ment or voice. Prosodia, as a Latin word, is defined by Littleton, "Pars Grammaticse quse 
docet accentus, h. e. rationem atollendi et depremendi syllabas, turn quantitatem earundem." 
And in English, " The art of accenting, or the rule of pronouncing syllables truly, long or short." 
— Litt. Diet, 4to. This is a little varied by Ainsworth thus: " The rule of accenting, or pro- 
nouncing syllables truly, whether long or short." — Ains. Diet., 4to. Accent, in English, belongs 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY.— PUNCTUATION. 771 

as much to prose as to poetry; but some deny that in Latin it belongs to either. There is also 
much difficulty about the import of the word ; since some prosodists identify accent with tone ; 
some take it for the inflections of voice; some call it the pitch of vocal sounds; and some, like the 
authors just cited, seem to confound it with quantity, — " loxg or short."* 

Obs. 2. — "Prosody," says a late writer, " strictly denotes only that musical tone or melody 
which accompanies speech. But the usage of modern grammarians justifies an extremely general 
application of the term." — Frosts Practical Grammar, p. 160. This remark is a note upon the 
following definition : " Prosody is that part of grammar which treats of the structure of Poetical 
Composition." — Ibid. Agreeably to this definition, Frost's Prosody, with aU the generality the 
author claims for it, embraces only a brief account of Versification, with a few remarks on " Po- 
etical License." Of Pronunciation and the Figures of Speech, he takes no notice ; and Punctua- 
tion, which some place with Orthography, and others distinguish as one of the chief parts of 
grammar, he exhibits as a portion of Syntax. Not more comprehensive is this part of grammar, 
as exhibited in the works of several other authors ; but, by Lindley Murray, K. C. Smith, and 
some others, both Punctuation and Pronunciation are placed here ; though no mention is made of 
the former in their subdivision of Prosody, which, they not very aptly say, " consists of two parts, 
Pronunciation and Versification." Dr. Bullions, no less deficient in method, begins with saying, 
"Prosody consists of two parts; Elocution and Versification;" {Principles of E. Gram., p. 163 ;) 
and then absurdly proceeds to treat of it under the following six principal heads : viz., Elocution, 
Versification, Figures of Speech, Poetic License, Hints for Correct and Elegant Writing, and 
Composition. 

Obs. 3. — If, in regard to the subjects which may be treated under the name of Prosody, '' the 
usage of modern grammarians justifies an extremely general application of the term," such an 
application is certainly not less warranted by the usage of old authors. But, by the practice of 
neither, can it be easily determined how many and what things ougJit to be embraced under this 
head. Of the different kinds of verse, or " the structure of Poetical Compostiou," some of the 
old prosodists took little or no notice ; because they thought it their chief business, to treat of 
syllables, and determine the orthoepy of words. The Prosody of Smetius, dated 1509, (my edi- 
tion of which was published in Germany in 1691,) is in fact & pronouncing dictionary of the Latin 
language. After a brief abstract of the old rules of George Fabricius concerning quantity and 
accent, it exhibits, in alphabetic order, and with all their syllables marked, about twenty-eight 
thousand words, with a poetic line quoted against each, to prove the pronunciation just. The 
Prosody of John Genuensis, an other immense work, concluded by its author in 1286, improved 
by Badius in 1506, and printed at Lyons in 1514, is also mainly a Latin dictionary, with deriva- 
tions and definitions as in other dictionaries. It is a folio volume of seven hundred and thirty 
closely-printed pages ; six hundred of which are devoted to the vocabulary, the rest to orthogra- 
phy, accent, etymology, syntax, figures, points — almost everything but versification. Yet this vast 
sum of grammar has been entitled Prosody — u Prosodia seu Catholicon," — " Catholicon seu Univer- 
sale Vocabularium ac Summa Grammatices." — See pp. 1 and 5. 

CHAPTER I.— PUNCTUATION". 

Punctuation is the art of dividing literary composition, by points, or 
stops, for the purpose of showing more clearly the sense and relation of 

* (1.) "Accent is the tsne with which one speaks. For, in speaking, the voice of every man is sometimes 
more grave in the sound, and at other times more acute or shrill.'' — Seattle's Moral Science, p. '.5. " Accent is 
the tone of the voice with which a syllable is pronounced." — Dr. Adaru' a Latin and English Gram., p. '2Q&. 

(2.) " Accent in a peculiar stress of the voice on some syllable in a word to distinguish it from the others." — 
Gould's Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 243. 

(3.) " The tone by which one syllable is distinguished from another is the accent; which is a greater stress and 
elevation of voice on that particular syllable." — BicknelVs Eng. Gram., Part II, p. 111. 

(4.) '■'■Quantity is the Length or Shortness of Syllables; and the Proportion, generally speaking, betwixt a 
long and [a] short Syllable, is two to one ; as in Music, two Quavers to one Crotchet. — Accent is the rising and 
falling of the Voice, above or under its usual Tone, but an Art of which we have little Use, and know less, in 
the English Tongue ; nor are we like to improve our Knowledge in this Particular, unless the Art of Delivery or 
Utterance were a little more study'd." — Brightland's Gram., p. 156. 

(5.) "ACCENT, s. m. (inflexion de la voix.) Accent, tone, pronunciation." — Xouveau Dictionnaire Universel, 
4to, Tome Premier, sous le mot Accent. 

"ACCENT, subst. (tone or inflection of the voice.) Accent, ton ou inflexion de voix." — Same Work, Garner's 
New Universal Dictionary, 4to, under the word Accent. 

(6.) " The word accent is derived from the Latin language and signifies the tone of the voice." — Parker and 
Fox's English Gram., Part III, p. 32. 

(7.) " The unity of the word consists in the tone or accent, which binds together the two parts of the compo- 
sition." — Folder's E. Gram., §360. 

(8.) " The accent of the ancients is the opprobrium of modern criticism. Nothing can show more evidently 
the fallibility of the human faculties, than the total ignorance we are in at present of the nature of the Latin 
and Greek accent." — Walker's Principles, No. 486; Diet, p. 53. 

(9.) " It is not surprising, that the accent and quantity of the ancients should be so obscure and mysterious, 
when two such learned men of our own nation as Mr. Foster and Dr. Gaily, differ about the very existence of 
quantity in our own language." — Walker's Observations on Accent, &c. ; Key, p. 311. 

(10.) "What these accents are has puzzled the learned so much that they seem neither to understand each 
other nor themselves." — Walker's Octavo Diet, w. Barytone. 

(11.) "The ancients designated the pitch of vocal sounds by the term accent; making three kinds of accents, 
the acute ('), the grave O, and the circumflex (A), which signified severally the rise, the fall, and the turn of tho 
voice, or union of acute and grave on the same syllable." — Sargent's Standard Speaker, p. 18. 



772 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

the words, and of noting the different pauses and inflections required in 
reading. 

The following are the principal points, or marks ; namely, the Comma 
[,], the Semicolon [;], the Colon [:], the Period [.], the Dash [ — ], the 
Eroteme, or Note of Interrogation [?], the Ecphoneme, or Note of Ex- 
clamation [!], and the Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis, [()]. 

The Comma denotes the shortest pause ; the Semicolon, a pause double 
that of the comma ; the Colon, a pause double that of the semicolon ; 
and the Period, or Full Stop, a pause double that of the colon. The 
pauses required by the other four, vary according to the structure of the 
sentence, and their place in it. They may be equal to any of the fore- 
going. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The pauses that are made in the natural flow of speech, have, in reality, no definite 
and invariable proportions. Children are often told to pause at a comma while they might count 
one ; at a semicolon, one, two ; at a colon, one, two, three ; at a period, one, two, three, four. This 
may be of some use, as teaching them to observe the necessary stops, that they may catch tho 
sense ; but the standard itself is variable, and so are the times which good sense gives to tho 
points. As a final stop, the period is immeasurable ; and so may be the pause after a question or 
an exclamation. 

Obs. 2. — The first four points take their names from the parts of discourse, or of a sentence, 
which are distinguished by them. The Period, or circuit, is a complete round of words, often con- 
sisting of several clauses or members, and always bringing out full sense at the close. The Colon, 
or member, i,s the greatest division or limb of a period, and is the chief constructive part of a 
compound sentence. The Semicolon, half member, or half limb, is the greatest division of a colon, 
and is properly a smaller constructive part of a compound sentence. The Comma, or segment, is 
a small part of a clause cut off, and is properly the least constructive part of a compound sentence. 
A simple sentence is sometimes a whole period, sometimes a chief member, sometimes a half mem- 
ber, sometimes a segment, and sometimes perhaps even less. Hence it may require the period, 
the colon, the semicolon, the comma, or even no point, according to the manner in which it is 
used. A sentence whose relatives and adjuncts are all taken in a restrictive sense, may be con- 
siderably complex, and yet require no division by points ; as, 

" Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge 
On you who wrong me not for him who wrong'd." — Milton. 

Obs. 3. — The system of punctuation now used in English, is, in its main features, common to very 
many languages. It is used in Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and 
perhaps most of the tongues in which books are now written or printed. The Germans, however, 
make less frequent use of the comma than we ; and the Spaniards usually mark a question or an 
exclamation doubly, inverting the point at the beginning of the sentence. In Greek, the difference 
is greater : the colon, expressed by the upper dot alone, is the only point between the comma and 
the period ; the ecphoneme, or note of exclamation, is hardly recognized, though some printers 
of the classics have occasionally introduced it ; and the eroteme, or note of interrogation, retains 
in that language its pristine form, which is that of our semicolon. In Hebrew, a full stop is de- 
noted by a heavy colon, or something like it ; and this is tho only pointing adopted, when the 
vowel points and the accents are not used. 

Obs. 4. — Though the points in use, and the principles on which they ought to be applied, are 
in general well fixed, and common to almost all sorts of books ; yet, through the negligence of 
editors, the imperfections of copy, the carelessness of printers, or some other means, it happens, 
that different editions and different versions of the same work are often found pointed very va- 
riously. This circumstance, provided the sense is still preserved, is commonly thought to be-of little 
moment. But all writers will do well to remember, that they owe it to their readers, to show 
them at once how they mean to be read ; and since the punctuation of the early printers was 
unquestionably very defective, the republishes of ancient books should not be over scrupulous 
about an exact imitation of it : they may, with proper caution, correct obvious faults. 

Obs. 5. — The precise origin of the points, it is not easy to trace in the depth of antiquity. It 
appears probable, from ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, that the period is the oldest of them ; 
and it is said by some, that the first system of punctuation consisted in the different positions of 
this dot alone. But after the adoption of the small letters, which improvement is referred to the 
ninth century, both the comma and the colon came into use, and also the Greek note of interro- 
gation. In old books, however, the comma is often found, not in its present form, but in that of 
a straight stroke, drawn up and down obliquely between the words. Though the colon is of 
Greek origin, the practice of writing it with two dots we owe to the Latin authors, or perhaps to 
the early printers of Latin books. The semicolon was first used in Italy, and was not adopted in 
England till about the year 1600. Our marks for questions and exclamations were also derived 
from the same source, probably at a date somewhat earlier. The curves of the parenthesis have 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. PUNCTUATION. REMARKS. 773 

likewise been in use for several centuries. But the dash is a more recent invention : Lowtk, Ash, 
and Ward, — Buchanan, Bicknell, and Burn, — though they name all the rest, make no mention 
of this mark ; but it appears by their books, that they all occasionally used it. 

Obs. 6. — Of the colon it may be observed, that it is now much less frequently used than it was 
formerly ; its place being usurped, sometimes by the semicolon, and sometimes by the period. 
For this ill reason, some late grammarians have discarded it altogether. Thus Felton: "The 
Colon is now so seldom used by good writers, that rules for its use are unnecessary." — Concise 
Manual of English Gram., p. 140. So Nutting: "It will be noticed, that the cclon is omitted in 
this system ; because it is omitted by the majority of the writers of the present age ; thrc : points, 
with the dash, being considered sufficient to mark the different lengths of the pauses." — Practical 
Grammar, p. 120. These critics, whenever they have occasion to copy such authors sz Milton and 
Pope, do not scruple to mutilate their punctuation by putting semicolons or periods for all the 
colons they find. But who cannot perceive, that without the colon, the semicolon becomes an 
absurdity ? It can no longer be a semicolon, unless the half can remain when the whole is taken 
away ! The colon, being the older point of the two, and once very fashionable, is doubtless on 
record in more instances than the semicolon ; and, if now, after both have been in common use 
for some hundreds of years, it be found out that only one is needed, perhaps it would be more 
reasonable to prefer the former. Should public opinion ever be found to coincide with the sug- 
gestions of the two authors last quoted, there will be reason to regret that Caxton, the old Eng- 
lish tj^pographer of the fifteenth century, who for a while successfully withstood, in his own 
country, the introduction of the semicolon, had not the power, to prevent it forever. In short, 
to leave no literary extravagance unbroached, the latter point also has not lacked a modern im- 
pugner. "One of the greatest improvements in punctuation," says Justin Brenan, "is the 
rejection of the eternal semicolons of our ancestors. In latter times, the semicolon has been 
gradually disappearing, not only from the newspapers, but from books." — Brevaris " Composition 
and Punctuation familiarly Explained," p. 100; London, 1830. The colon and the semicolon are 
both useful, and, not unfrequently, necessary ; and ah correct writers will, I doubt not, continue 
to use both. 

Obs. 7. — Since Dr. Blair published his emphatic caution against too frequent a use of parenthe- 
ses, there has been, if not an abatement of the kind of error which he intended to censure, at 
least a diminution in the use of the curves, the sign of a parenthesis. These, too, some incon- 
siderate grammarians now pronounce to be out of vogue. " The parenthesis is now generally 
exploded as a deformity." — Churchill's Gram., p. 362. "The Parenthesis, ( ) has become nearly 
obsolete, except in mere references, and the like ; its place, by modern writers, being usually sup- 
plied by the use of the comma, and the dash." — Nutting's Practical Gram., p. 126 ; Frazee'a Im- 
proved Grammar, p. 187. More use may have been made of the curves than was necessary, aud 
more of the parenthesis itself than was agreeable to good taste; but, the sign being weU adapted 
to the construction, and the construction being sometimes sprightly and elegant, there are no 
good reasons for wishing to discard either of them; nor is it true, that the former " has become 
nearly obsolete." 

Obs. 8. — The name parenthesis, which literally means a putting-in-oeivoeen, is usually applied 
both to the curves, and to the incidental clause which they enclose. This twofold application of 
the term involves some inconvenience, if not impropriety. According to Dr. Johnson, the en- 
closed " sentence " alone is the parenthesis ; but "Worcester, agreeably to common usage, defines the 
word as meaning also "the mark thus ()." But, as this sign consists of two distinct parts, two 
corresponding curves, it seems more natural to use a plural name: hence L. Murray, when he 
would designate the sign only, adopted a plural expression; as, "the parenthetical characters," — 
" the parenthetical marks." So, in another case, which is similar: "the hooks in which words are 
included," are commonly called crotchets or brackets; though Bucke, in his Classical Grammar, I 
know not why, calls the two "[] a Crotchet;" (p. 23;) and Webster, in his octavo Dictionary, 
defines a "Bracket, in printing," as Johnson does a " Crotchet," by a plural noun: " hooks ; thus, 
[]." Again, in his grammars, Dr. Webster rather confusedly says: "The parenthesis ( ) and 
hooks [] include a remark or clause, not essential to the sentence in construction.'' — Philosophical 
Gram., p. 219 ; Improved Gram., p. 154. But, in his Dictionary, he forgets both the hooks and 
the parenthesis that are here spoken of ; and, with still worse confusion or inaccuracy, says : 
" The parenthesis is usually included in hooks or curved lines, thus, ( )." Here he either improp- 
erly calls these regular little curves " hooks," or erroneously suggests that both the hooks and the 
curves are usual and appropriate signs of " the parenthesis." In Garner's quarto Dictionary, the 
French word Crochet, as used by printers, is translated, "A brace, a crotchet, a parenthesis ;" and 
the English word Crotchet is defined, "The mark of a parenthesis, in printing, thus [ ]." But 
Webster defines Crotchet, "In printing, a hook including words, a sentence or a passage distin- 
guished from the rest, thus [ ]." This again is both ambiguous and otherwise inaccurate. It 
conveys no clear idea of what a crotchet is. One hook includes nothing. There-fore Johnson 
said : " Hooks in which words are included [thus]." But if each of the hooks is a crotchet, as 
Webster suggests, and almost every body supposes, then both lexicographers are wrong in not 
making the whole expression plural: thus, " Crotchets, in printing, are angular hooks usually in- 
cluding some explanatory words." But is this all that Webster meant? I cannot tell. He may 
be understood as saying also, that a Crotchet is "a sentence or a passage distinguished from the 
rest, thus [ ] ;" and doubtless it would be much better to call a hint thus marked, a crotchet, than 
to call it a parenthesis, as some have done. In Parker and Fox's Grammar, and also in Parker's 



774 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV, 

Aids to English Composition, the term Brackets only is applied to these angular hooks ; and, con- 
trary to all usage of other authors, so far as I know, the name of Crotchets is there given to the 
Curves. And then, as if this application of the word were general, and its propriety indisputable, 
the pupil is simply told : "The curved lines between which a parenthesis is enclosed are called 
Crotchets " — Gram., Part III, p. 30 ; Aids, p. 40. " Called Crotchets " by whom? That not even 
Mr. Parker himself knows them by that name, the following most inaccurate passage is a proof; 
" The note of admiration and interrogation, as also the parenthesis, the bracket, and the reference 
marks, [are note^ in the margin] in the same manner as the apostrophe. " — Aids, p. 314. In 
some late grammar.j, (for example, Hazerts and Day's,) the parenthetic curves are called "the Pa- 
rentheses." Prom v. ,::s the student must understand that it always takes two parentheses to make 
one parenthesis ! IfYien it is objectionable, to call the two marks " a parenthesis," it is much more 
so, to call each of thsm by that name, or both " the parentheses." And since Murray's phrases 
are both entirely too long for common use, what better name can be given them than this very 
simple one, the Curves f 

Obs. 9. — The words eroteme and ecphoneme, which, like aposteme and philosopheme, are orderly 
derivatives from Greek roots,* I have ventured to suggest as fitter names for the two marks to 
which they are applied as above, than are any of the long catalogue which other grammarians, 
each choosing for himself, have presented. These marks have not unfrequently been called " the 
interrogation and the exclamation ;" which names are not very suitable, because they have other 
uses in grammar. According to Dr. Blair, as well as L. Murray and others, interrogation and ex- 
clamation are " passionate figures " of rhetoric, and oftentimes also plain "unfigured" expressions. 
The former however are frequently and more fitly called by their Greek names eroiesis and ecpho- 
nesis, terms to which those above have a happy correspondence. By Dr. Webster and some oth- 
ers, all interjections are called " exclamations ;" and, as each of these is usually followed by the 
mark of emotion, it cannot but be inconvenient to call both by the same name. 

Obs. 10. — For things so common as the marks of asking and exclaiming, it is desirable to have 
simple and appropriate names, or at least some settled mode of denomination ; but, it is remarka- 
ble, that Lindley Murray, in mentioning these characters six times, uses six different modes of 
expression, and all of them complex : (1.) "Notes of Interrogation and Exclamation." (2.) "The 
point of Interrogation, ?" — "The point of Exclamation,!" (3.) "The Interrogatory Point." — 
"The Exclamatory Point." (4.) "A note of interrogation," — " The note of exclamation." (5.) 
"The interrogation and exclamation points." (6.) "The points of Interrogation and Exclama- 
tion." — Murray, Flint, Ingersoll, Alden, Pond. With much better taste, some writers denote them 
uniformly thus: (7.) "The Note of Interrogation," — "The Note of Exclamation." — Churchill, 
Hiley. In addition to these names, all of which are too long, there may be cited many others, 
though none that are unobjectionable: (8.) "The Interrogative sign," — "The Exclamatory sign." 
— Peirce, Hazen. (9.) "The Mark of Interrogation," — "The Mark of Exclamation." — Ward, Pel- 
ton, Hendrick. (10.) "The Interrogative point," — "The Exclamation point." — T. Smith, Alger. 
(11.) "The interrogation point," — "The exclamation point." — Webster, St. Quentin, S.Putnam. 
(12.) "A Note of Interrogation," — "A Note of Admiration." — Coar, Nutting. (13.) "The Inter- 
rogative point," — " The Note of Admiration, or of vocation." — Bucke. (14.) "Interrogation (?)," 
— "Admiration (!) or Exclamation." — Lennie, Bullions. (15.) "A Point of Interrogation," — "A 
Point of Admiration or Exclamation." — Buchanan. (16.) " The Interrogation Point (?)," — "The 
Admiration Point (!)." — Perley. (17.) "An interrogation (?)," — "An exclamation (!)." — Cutler. 
(18.) " The interrogator ?" — " The exclaimor!" — Day's Gram., p. 112. [The putting of " exclaim- 
or " for exclaimer, like this author's changing ofquoters to "quotors," as a name for the guillemets, 
is probably a mere sample of ignorance.] (19.) " Question point," — "Exclamation point." — San- 
born, p. 272. 

SECTION I.— THE COMMA. 

The Comma is used to separate those parts of a sentence, which are so 
nearly connected in sense, as to be only one degree removed from that 
close connexion which admits no point. 

Rule I. — Simple Sentences. 
A simple sentence does not, in general, admit the comma; as, "The weakest 
reasoners are the most positive." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 202. " Theology has not 
hesitated to make or support a doctrine by the position of a comma." — Tract on 
Tone, p. 4. 

" Then pain compels the impatient soul to seize 
On promised hopes of instantaneous ease." — Crabbe. 

Exception. — Long Simple Sentences. 
When the nominative in a long simple sentence is accompanied by inseparable adjuncts, or 
■when several words together are used in stead of a nominative, a comma should be placed imme- 

* " Interrogatio, Greece Erotema, Accentum quoque transfert; ut, Ter. Siccine ai& Parmenut Voss. Sus- 
enbr." — PraVs Latin Grammar, 8vo, Part II, p. 190. 



CHAP. I.] PKOSODY. — PUNCTUATION. COMMA. — RULES. 775 

diately before the verb ; as, " Confession of sin without amendment^ obtains no pardon." — Dill- 
wyn's Reflections, p. 6. " To be totally indifferent to praise or censure,; is a real defect in character." 
— Murray's Gram., p. 268. 

" that the tenor of my just complaint,* 
"Were sculpt with steel in rocks of adamant!" — Sandys. 

Rule II. — Simple Members. 

The simple members of a compound sentence, whether successive or involved, 
elliptical or complete, are generally divided by the comma ; as, 

1. " Here stand we both, and aim we at the best." — Shak. 

2. " I, that did never weep, now melt in woe."— Id. 

3. " Tide life, tide death, I come without delay." — Id. 

4. " I am their mother, who shall bar me from them ?" — Id. 

5. " How wretched, were I mortal, were my state !" — Pope. 

6. " Go ; while thou mayst, avoid the dreadful fate." — Id. 

7. " Grief aids disease, remember'd folly stings, 

And his last sighs reproach the faith of kings." — Johnson, 

Exception I. — Restrictive Relatives. 

When a relative immediately follows its antecedent, and is taken in a restrictive sense, the 
comma should not be introduced before it ; as, " For the things which are seen, are temporal ; but the 
things which are not seen, are eternal." — 2 Cor., iv, 18. "A letter is a character that expresses a 
sound without any meaning." — St. Quentin's General Gram., p. 3. 

Exception II. — Short Terms Closely Connected. 
"When the simple members are short, and closely connected by a conjunction or a conjunctive 
adverb, the comma is generally omitted ; as, " Honest poverty is better than wealthy fraud." — 
Dittwyn's Ref., p. 11. " Let him tell me whether the number of the stars be even or odd." — Tay- 
lor: Joh. Diet, w. Even. "It is impossible that our knowledge of words should outstrip our 
knowledge of things." — Campbell: Murray's Gram., p 359. 

Exception III. — Elliptical Members United. 

When two simple members are immediately united, through ellipsis of the relative, the antece- 
dent, or the conjunction that, the comma is not inserted ; as, " Make an experiment on the first 
man you meet." — Berkley's Alciphron, p. 125. "Our philosophers do infinitely despise and pity 
whoever shall propose or accept any other motive to virtue." — lb., p. 126. " It is certain we im- 
agine before we reflect." — lb., p. 359. 

" The same good sense that makes a man excel, 
Still makes him doubt he ne'er has written well." — Young. 

Rule III. — More than Two Words. 

When more than two words or terms are connected in the same construction, or 
in a joint dependence on some other term, by conjunctions expressed or understood, 
the comma should be inserted after every one of them but the last ; and, if they are 
nominatives before a verb, the comma should follow the last also :f as, 
1. " Who, to the enraptur'd heart, and ear, and eye, 

Teach beauty, virtue, truth, and love, and melody." — Beattie. 

* In regard to the admission of a comma before the verb, by the foregoing exception, neither the practice of 
authors nor the doctrine of punctuators is entirely uniform ; but, -where a considerable pause is, and must be, 
made in the reading, I judge it not only allowable, but necessary, to mark it in -writing. In W. Day's "Punc- 
tuation Reduced to a System," a work of no inconsiderable merit, this principle is disallowed ; and even when 
the adjunct of the nominative is a relative clause, -which, by Rule 'id below and its first exception, requires a 
comma after it but none before it, this author excludes both, putting no comma before the principal verb. The 
following is an example: "But it frequently happens, that punctuation is not made a prominent exercise in 
schools ; and the brief manner in which the subject is there dismissed has proved insufficient to impress upon 
the minds of youth a due sense of its importance." — Da;fs Punctuation, p. 32. A pupil of mine would here 
have put a comma after the word dismissed. So, in the following examples, after sake, and after dispenses : 
" The vanity that would accept power for its own sake is the pettiest of human passions." — lb., p. 75. " The 
generous delight of beholding the happiness he dispenses is the highest enjoyment of man." — lb., p. 100. 

t When several nominatives are connected, some authors and printers put the comma only where the con- 
junction is omitted. W. Day separates them all, one from an other; but after the last, when this is singular 
before a plural verb, he inserts no point. Example: "Imagination is one of the principal ingredients which 
enter into the complex idea of genius; but judgment, memory, understanding, enthusiasm, and sensibility are 
also included." — Day's Punctuation, p. 52. If the points are to be put where the pauses naturally occur, here 
should be a comma after sensibility ; and, if I mistake not, it would be more consonant with current usage to 
set one there. John Wilson, however, in a later work, which is for the most part a very good one, prefers the 
doctrine of Day, as in the following instance: '•''Reputation, virtue, and happiness depend greatly on the choice 
of companions." — Wilson's Treatise on Punctuation, p. 30. 



776 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

2. " Ah ! what avails ********* 

All that art, fortune, enterprise, can bring, 

If envy, scorn, remorse, or pride, the bosom wring ?" — Id. 

3. "Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible ; 

Thou, stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless." — ShaJc. 

4. "She plans, provides, expatiates, triumphs there." — Young. 

5. " So eagerly the Fiend 

O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 

With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." — Milton. 

Rule IV. — Only Two Words. 
When only two words or terms are connected by a conjunction, they should not 
be separated by the comma ; as, " It is a stupid and barbarous way to extend do- 
minion by arms ; for true power is to be got by arts and industry? — Spectator, No. 2. 
'•''Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul." — Goldsmith. 

Exception I. — Two Words with Adjuncts. 
When the two words connected have several adjuncts, or when one of them has an adjunct 
that relates not to both, the comma is inserted ; as, " I shall spare no pains to make their in- 
struction agreeable, and their diversion useful." — Spectator, No. 10. " Who is applied to persons, 
or things personified." — Bullions. 

" With listless eyes the dotard views the store, 
He views, and wonders that they please no more." — Johnson. 

Exception II. — Two Terms Contrasted. 

When two connected words or phrases are contrasted, or emphatically distinguished, the com- 
ma is inserted ; as, " The vain are easily obliged, and easily disobliged." — Karnes. 
" Liberal, not lavish, is kind Nature's hand." — Beattie. 
'"Tis certain he could write, and cipher too." — Goldsmith. 

Exception III. — Alternative of Words. 
When there is merely an alternative of names, or an explanatory change of terms, the comma 
is usually inserted; as, "We saw a large opening, or inlet." — W. Allen. "Have we not power 
to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles?" — Cor., ix, 5. 

Exception IV. — Conjunction Understood. 

When the conjunction is understood, the comma is inserted ; and, if two separated words or 
terms refer alike to a third term, the second requires a second comma : as, " Reason, virtue, an- 
swer one great aim." — L. Murray, Gram., p. 269. 

" To him the church, the realm, their pow'rs consign." — Johnson. 
"She thought the isle that gave her birth, 
The sweetest, wildest land on earth." — Hogg. 

Eule V.— Words in Pairs. 
When successive words are joined in pairs by conjunctions, they should be sepa- 
rated in pairs by the comma ; as, " Interest and ambition, honour and shame, friend- 
ship and enmity, gratitude and revenge, are the prime movers in public transactions." 
— W. Allen. " But, whether ingenious or dull, learned or ignorant, clownish or po- 
lite, every innocent man, without exception, has as good a right to liberty as to 
life." — Beattie' 's Moral Science, p. 313. 

" Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate, 
O'erspread with snares the crowded maze of fate." — Br. Johnson. 

Rule VI. — Words put Absolute. 
Nouns or pronouns put absolute, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the 
comma ; as, " The prince, his father being dead, succeeded." — " This done, we 
parted." — " Zaccheus, make haste and come down." — " His prcetorship in Sicily, 
what did it produce ?" — Cicero. 

" Wiug'd with his fears, on foot he strove to fly, 
His steeds too distant, and the foe too nigh." — Pope, Iliad, xi, 440. 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — COMMA. — RULES. 7779 

Rule VII. — Words in Apposition. 

Words in apposition, (especially if they have adjuncts,) are generally set off by 
the comma ; as, " He that now calls upon thee, is Theodore, the hermit of Tene- 
riffer — Johnson. " Lowth, Dr. Robert, bishop of London, horn in 1*710, died in 
1787." — Biog. Diet. " Home, Henry, lord Karnes. 1 '' — lb. 
" What next I bring shall please thee, be assur'd, 
Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, 

Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire." — Milton, P. L., viii, 450. 
" And he, their prince, shall rank among my peers." — Byron. 

Exception I. — Complex Names. 

"When several words, in their common order, are used as one compound name, the comma is 
not inserted; as, "Dr. Samuel Johnson," — "Publius Gavius Cosanus." 

Exception II. — Close Apposition. 

"When a common and a proper name are closely united, the comma is not inserted ; as, " The 
brook Kidron," — "The river Don," — "The empress Catharine," — "Paul the Apostle." 

Exception III. — Pronoun without Pause. 

"When a pronoun is added to an other word merely for emphasis and distinction, the comma is 
not inserted; as, " Ye men of Athens, " — "Imyself," — "Thou flaming minister," — " You princes." 

Exception IY. — Names Acquired. 

"When a name acquired by some action or relation, is put in apposition with a preceding noun 
or pronoun, the comma is not inserted ; as, " I made the ground my bed;" — " To make him king ;" 
— " Whom they revered as God;" — "With modesty thy guide." — Pope. 

Rule VHI. — Adjectives. 

Adjectives, when something depends on them, or when they have the import of a 
dependent clause, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma ; as, 

1. " Among the roots 

Of hazel, pendent o'er the plaintive stream, 

They frame the first foundation of their domes." — Thomson. 

2. " Up springs the lark, 

Shrill-voic'd and loud, the messenger of morn." — Id. 

Exception. — Adjectives Restrictive. 
When an adjective immediately follows its noun, and is taken in a restrictive sense, the comma 
should not be used before it ; as, 

" And on the coast averse 

Prom entrance or cherubic watch." — Milton, P. L., B. ix, 1. 68. 

Rule IX. — Finite Verbs. 
Where a finite verb is understood, a comma is generally required : as, " From law 
arises security ; from security, curiosity ; from curiosity, knowledge." — Murray. 
" Else all my prose and verse were much the same ; 
This, prose on stilts ; that, poetry fallen lame." — Pope. 

Exception. — Yery Slight Pause. 
As the semicolon must separate the clauses when the comma is inserted by this rule, if the 
pause for the omitted verb be very slight, it may be left unmarked, and the comma be used for 
the clauses; as, "When the profligate speaks of piety, the miser of generosity, the coward of 
valour, and the corrupt of integrity, they are only the more despised by those who know them." 
— Cornstoctis Elocution, p. 132. 

Rule X. — Infinitives. 
The infinitive mood, when it follows a verb from which it must be separated, or 
when it depends on something remote or understood, is generally, with its adjuncts, 
set off by the comma ; as, " One of the greatest secrets in composition is, to know 



776< 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 



when to be simple." — Jamieson's Rhet., p. 151. " To confess the truth, I was much 

in fault." — Murray's Gram., p. 271. 

" The Governor of all — has interposed, 
Not seldom, his avenging arm, to smite 
The injurious trampler upon nature's law." — Cowper. 

Rule XL — Participles. 
Participles, when something depends on them, when they have the import of a 
dependent clause, or when they relate to something understood, should, with their 
adjuncts, be set off by the comma ; as, 1. " Law is a rule of civil conduct, prescribed 
by the supreme power in a state, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is 
wrong." — Blackstone : Beatrices Moral Science, p. 346. 

2. " Young Edwin, lighted by the evening star, 

Lingering and listening wander' d down the vale." — Beattie. 

3. " United, we stand; divided, we fall." — Motto. 

4. " Properly speaking, there is no such thing as chance." 

Exception. — Participles Eestrictive. 

"When a participle immediately follows its noun, and is taken in a restrictive sense, the comma 
should not be used before it ; as, 

"A man renown 1 d for repartee, 
Will seldom scruple to make free 
With friendship's finest feeling." — Cowper. 

Eule XII. — Adverbs. 
Adverbs, when they break the connexion of a simple sentence, or when they have 
not a close dependence on some particular word in the context, should, with their 
adjuncts, be set off by the comma ; as, " We must not, however, confound this gen- 
tleness with the artificial courtesy of the world." — "Besides, the mind must be 
employed." — Gilpin. " Most unquestionably, no fraud was equal to all this."— 
Lyttelton. "But, unfortunately for us, the tide was ebbing already." 
" When buttress and buttress, alternately, 
Seem framed of ebon and ivory." — Scott's Lay, p. 33. 

Rule XIII. — Conjunctions. 
Conjunctions, when they are separated from the principal clauses that depend on 
them, or when they introduce examples, are generally set off by the comma ; as, 
" But, by a timely call upon Religion, the force of Habit was eluded."— Johnson. 
"They know the neck that joins the shore and sea, 
Or, ah ! how chang'd that fearless laugh would be." — Crabbe. 

Rule XIY. — Prepositions. 
Prepositions and their objects, when they break the connexion of a simple sen- 
tence, or when they do not closely follow the words on which they depend, are gen- 
erally set off by the comma ; as, " Fashion is, for the most part, nothing but the 
ostentation of riches." — "By reading, we add the experience of others to our own." 
" In vain the sage, with retrospective eye, 
Would from th' apparent What conclude the Why." — Pope. 

Rule XV. — Interjections. 
Interjections that require a pause, though more commonly emphatic and followed 
by the ecphoneme, are sometimes set off by the comma ; as, " For, lo, I will call all 
the families of the kingdoms of the north." — Jeremiah, i, 15. " 0, 'twas about 
something you would not understand." — Columbian Orator, p. 221. "Ha, ha ! you 
were finely taken in, then !" — Aihin. " Ha, ha, ha ! A facetious gentleman, 
truly !"— Id. 

" Oh, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, 
Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame ?" — Pope, 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. COMMA. ERRORS. 779 

Rule XVI. — Words Repeated. 

A word emphatically repeated, is generally set off by the comma ; as, " Happy, 
happy, happy pair !" — Dryden. " Ay, ay, there is some comfort in that." — Skak. 
" Ah ! no, no, no." — Dryden. 

"The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, 
The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well !" — Woodworth. 

Rule XVII. — Dependent Quotations. 

A quotation, observation, or description, when it is introduced in close dependence 
on a verb, (as, say, reply, cry, or the like,) is generally separated from the rest of 
the sentence by the comma ; as, " ' The book of nature,' said he, 'is before thee.' " — 
Hawkesworth. " I say unto all, Watch." — Mark. " ' The boy has become a man,' 
means, ' he has grown to be a man.' ' Such conduct becomes a man,' means, ' such 
conduct befits him.'" — Harts Gram., p. 116. 

" While man exclaims, l See all things for my use !' 
' See man for mine !' replies a pamper'd goose." — Pope. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PUNCTUATION.— ERRORS CONCERNING THE COMMA. 

Under Rule I. — Of Simple Sentences. 

" Short, simple sentences should not be separated by a comma." — Felton's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 
135 ; 3d Ed., Stereotyped, p. 137. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because a needless comma is put after short, the sentence being simple. But, ac- 
cording to Rule 1st for the Comma, "A simple sentence does not, in general, admit the comma." Therefore, 
this comma should be omitted; thus, "Short simple sentences should not be separated by a comma." Or, 
much better: "A short simple sentence should rarely he divided by the comma." For such sentences, com- 
bined to form a period, should generally be separated ; and even a single one may have some phrase that must 
be set off.] 

"A regular and virtuous education, is an inestimable blessing." — Hurray's Key, 8vo, p. 174. 
"Such equivocal expressions, mark an intention to deceive." — lb., p. 256. "They are, This and 
that, with their plurals these and those." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 26 ; Practical Lessons, p. 33. "A 
nominative case and a verb, sometimes make a complete sentence; as, He sleeps." — Felton's 
Gram., p. 78. " Tense, expresses the action connected with certain relations of time; mood, re- 
presents it as farther modified by circumstances of contingency, conditionally, &c." — Bullions, E. 
Gram., p. 37. "The word Noun, means name." — IngersoWs Gram., p. 14. "The present, or 
active participle, I explained then." — lb., p. 97. " Are some verbs used, both transitively and 
intransitively?" — Cooper's PI. and Pract. Gram., p. 54. "Blank verse, is verse without rhyme." 
— HallocVs Gram., p. 242. " A distributive adjective, denotes each one of a number considered 
separately." — lb., p. 51. 

" And may at last my weary age, 
Find out the peaceful hermitage." — Murray's Gr., 12mo, p. 205 ; 8vo, 255. 

Under the Exception concerning Simple Sentences. 

"A noun without an Article to limit it is taken in its widest sense." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 8 ; 
Practical Lessons, p. 10. 

[Formtjle. — Not proper, because no comma is here set before the verb is taken. But, according to the Excep- 
tion to Rule 1st for the Comma, "When the nominative in a long simple sentence is accompanied by inseparable 
adjuncts, or when several words together are used in stead of a nominative, a comma should be placed immedi- 
ately before the verb." Therefore, a comma should be here inserted ; thus, " A noun without an article to limit 
it, is taken in its widest sense." — Lennie's Gram., p. 6.] 

"To maintain a steady course amid all the adversities of life marks a great mind." — Day's Dis- 
trict School Gram., p. 84. " To love our Maker supremely and our neighbor as ourselves com- 
prehends the whole moral law." — Ibid. " To be afraid to do wrong is true courage." — lb., p. 85. 
" A great fortune in the hands of a fool is a great misfortune." — Bullions, Practical Lessons, p. 
89. "That he should make such a remark is indeed strange." — Farnum, Practical Gram., p. 30. 
" To walk in the fields and groves is delightful." — Id., ib. " That he committed the fault is most 
certain." — Id., ib. " Names common to all things of the same sort or class are called Common 
nouns; as, man, woman, day." — Bullions, Pract. Les., p. 12. "That it is our duty to be pious 
admits not of any doubt." — Id., E. Gram., p. 118. "To endure misfortune with resignation is the 
characteristic of a great mind." — Id., ib., p. 81. " The assisting of a friend in such circumstances 
was certainly a duty." — Id., ib., 81. " That a life o L> virtue is the safest is certain." — Eallock's 
Gram., p. 169. "A collective noun denoting the idea of unity should be represented by a pro- 
noun of the singular number." — lb., p. 167. 



780 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Under Rule II. — Of Simple Members. 
" When the sun had arisen the enemy retreated." — Day's District School Gram., p. 85. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because no comma here separates the two simple members which compose the sen- 
tence. But, according to Rule 2d, " The simple members of a compound sentence, whether successive or 
involved, elliptical or complete, are generally divided by the comma." Therefore, a comma should be inserted 
after arisen; thus, " When the sun had arisen, the enemy retreated."] 

"If he become rich he may be less industrious." — Bullions, K Gram., p. 118. "The more I 
study grammar the better I like it." — Id., ib., p. 127. " There is much truth in the old adage that 
fire is a better servant than master." — Id., ib., p. 128. "The verb do, when used as an auxiliary 
gives force or emphasis to the expression." — Day's Gram., p. 39. "Whatsoever it is incumbent 
upon a man to do it is surely expedient to do well." — J. Q. Adams's Rhetoric, Vol. i, p. 46. 
" The soul which our philosophy divides into various capacities, is still one essence." — Charming, 
on Self- Culture, p. 15. "Put the following words in the plural and give the rule for forming it." 
— Bullions, Practical Lessons, p. 19. "We will do it if you wish." — Id., ib., p. 29. "He who 
does well will be rewarded." — Id., ib., 29. "That which is always true is expressed in the pres- 
ent tense." — Id., ib., p. 119. "An observation which is always true must be expressed in the 
present tense." — Id., Prin. of E. Gram., p. 123. "That part of orthography which treats of com- 
bining letters to form syllables and words is called Spelling." — Day's Gram., p. 8. " A noun can 
never be of the first person except it is in apposition with a pronoun of that person." — lb., p. 14. 
" When two or more singular nouns or pronouns refer to the same object they require a singular 
verb and pronoun." — lb., p. 80. " James has gone but he will return in a few days." — lb., 89. 
" A pronoun should have the same person, number, and gender as the noun for which it stands." 
— Ib., 89 and 80. " Though he is out of danger he is still afraid." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 80. 
" She is his inferior in sense but his equal in prudence." — lb., p. 81. "The man who has no 
sense of religion is little to be trusted." — lb., 81. "He who does the most good has the most 
pleasure." — lb., 81. " They were not in the most prosperous circumstances when we last saw 
them." — lb., 81. "If the day continue pleasant I shall return." — Felton's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 22; 
Ster. Ed., 24. " The days that are past are gone for ever." — lb., pp. 89 and 92. " As many as 
are friendly to the cause will sustain it." — lb., 89 and 92. "Such as desire aid will receive it." 
— lb., 89 and 92. "Who gave you that book which you prize so much?" — Bullions, Pract. 
Lessons, p. 32. " He who made it now preserves and governs it." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 83. 

" Shall he alone, whom rational we call, 
Be pleased with nothing if not blessed with all?" — Felton's Gram., p. 126. 

Under the Exceptions concerning Simple Members. 
" Newcastle is the town, in which Akenside was born." — Buckets Classical Gram., p. 54. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because a needless comma here separates the restrictive relative which from its ante- 
cedent town. But, according to Exception 1st to Rule 2d, " When a relative immediately follows its antecedent, 
and is taken in a restrictive sense, the comma should not be introduced before it." Therefore, this comma 
Should be omitted ; thus, " Newcastle is the town in which Akenside was born."] 

" The remorse, which issues in reformation, is true repentance." — Campbell's Philos. of Rhet, p. 
255. " Men, who are intemperate, are destructive members of community." — Alexander's Gram., 
p. 93. "An active-transitive verb expresses an action, which extends to an object." — Felton's 
Gram., pp. 16 and 22. "They, to whom much is given, will have much to answer for." — Mur- 
ray's Key, 8vo, p. 188. "The prospect, which we have, is charming." — Cooper's PL and Pr. 
Gram , p. 143. "He is the person, who informed me oftiie matter." — lb., p. 134; Cooper's Mur- 
ray, 120. "These are the trees, that produce no fruit." — lb., 134; and 120. " This is the book, 
which treats of the subject." — lb., 134; and 120. "The proposal was such, as pleased me." — 
Cooper, PI. and Pr. Gram., p. 134. "Those, that sow in tears, shall reap in joy." — Id., ib., pp. 
118 and 124; and Cooper's Murray, p. 141. "The pen, with which I write, makes too large a 
mark." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 71. " Modesty makes large amends for the pain, it gives the per- 
sons, who labour under it, by the prejudice, it affords every worthy person in their favour." — lb., 
p. 80. " Irony is a figure, whereby we plainly intend something very different from what our 
words express." — Bucke's Gram., p. 108. " Catachresis is a figure, whereby an improper word is 
used instead of a proper one." — lb., p. 109. "The man, whom you met at the party, is a French- 
man." — Frost's Practical Gram., p. 155. 

Under Rule II r. — Op More than Two Words. 

"John, James and Thomas are here : that is, John and James, &c." — Cooper's Plain and Prac- 
tical Grammar, p. 153. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because no comma is here used after James, or after Thomas, or again after John, 
in the latter clause ; the three nouns being supposed to be in the same construction, and all of them nominatives 
to the verb are. But, according to Rule 3d for the Comma, "When more than two words or terms are con- 
nected in the same construction, or in a joint dependence on some other term, by conjunctions expressed or 
understood, the comma should be inserted after every one of them but the last ; and, if they are nominatives 
before a verb, the comma should follow the last also." Therefore, the comma should be inserted after each; 
thus, " John, James, and Thomas, are here : that is, John, and James, and Thomas, are here."]* 

" Adverbs modify verbs adjectives and other adverbs." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 97. "To Nouns 

* Some printers, and likewise some authors, suppose a series of words to require the comma, only where the 
conjunction is suppressed. This is certainly a great error. It gives us such punctuation as comports neither 
with the sense of three or more words in the same construction, nor with the pauses which they require in read- 



CHAP. I.]" PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — COMMA. — ERRORS. 781 

belong Person, Gender, Number and Case." — Id., Practical Lessons, p. 12. "Wheat, corn, rye, 
and oats are extensively cultivated." — Id., ib., p. 13. " In many, the definitions, rules and lead- 
ing facts are prolix, inaccurate and confused." — Finch's Report on Gram., p. 3. '"Most people 
consider it mysterious, difficult and useless." — lb., p. 3. " His father and mother, and uncle re- 
side at Rome." — Farnum's Gram., p. 11. "The relative pronouns are who, which and thaV — 
Bullions, Practical Lessons, p. 29. " That is sometimes a demonstrative, sometimes a relative and 
sometimes a conjunction." — Id., ib., p. 33. " Our reputation, virtue, and happiness greatly depend 
on the choice of our companions." — Day's Gram., p. 92. " The spirit of true religion is social, 
kind and cheerful." — Felton's Gram., p. 81. " Do, be, have and will are sometimes principal 
verbs." — lb., p. 26. "John and Thomas and Peter reside at Oxford." — Webster, Philos. Gram., 
p. 142 ; Improved Gram., p. 96. "The most innocent pleasures are the most rational, the most 
delightful and the most durable." — Id., ib., pp. 215 and 151. "Love, joy, peace and blessedness 
are reserved for the good." — Id., ib., 215 and 151. " The husband, wife and children, suffered 
extremely." — Murray's Gram., 4th Am. Ed., 8vo, p. 269. " The husband, wife, and children 
suffer extremely." — Sanborn's Analytical Gram., p. 268. " He, you, and. I have our parts 
assigned us." — Ibid. 

" He moaned, lamented, tugged and tried, 
Repented, promised, wept and sighed." — Felton's Gr., p. 108. 

Under Rule IV. — Of Only Two Words. 
" Disappointments derange, and overcome, vulgar minds." — Murray's Exercises, p. 15. 

[Fobmttle. — Not proper, because the two verbs here connected by and, are needlessly separated from each 
other, and from their object following. But, according to Rule 4th, "When only two words or terms are con- 
nected by a conjunction, they should not be separated by the comma." Therefore, these two commas should be 
omitted ; thus, " Disappointments derange and overcome vulgar minds."] 

"The hive of a city, or kingdom, is in the best condition, when there is the least noise or buzz 
in it." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 171. "When a direct address is made, the noun, or pronoun, is in 
the nominative case independent." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 88. " The verbs love and teach, make 
loved, and taught, in the imperfect and participle." — lb., p. 97. " Neither poverty, nor riches were 
injurious to him." — Cooper's PI. and Pr. Gram., p. 133. "Thou, or I am in fault." — Wright's 
Gram., p. 136. "A verb is a word that expresses action, or being." — Day's District School 
Gram., pp. 11 and 61. "The Objective Case denotes the object of a verb, or a preposition." — 
lb., pp. 17 and 19. "Verbs of the second conjugation maybe either transitive, or intransitive." — 
lb., p. 41. "Verbs of the fourth conjugation may be either transitive, or intransitive." — lb., 41. 
"If a verb does not form its past indicative by adding d, or ed to the indicative present, it is said 
to be irregular." — lb., 41. "The young lady is studying rhetoric, and logic." — Cooper's PI. and 
Pr. Gram., p. 143. "He writes, and speaks the. language very correctly." — lb., p. 148. "Man's 
happiness, or misery, is, in a great measure, put into his own hands." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 
183. " This accident, or characteristic of nouns, is called their Gender." — Bullions, E. Gram., 
1843, p. 195. 

" Grant that the powerful still the weak controul ; 
Be Man the Wit, and Tyrant of the whole." — Pope: Brit. Poets, vi, 375. 

Under Exception I. — Tavo Words with Adjuncts. 
" Franklin is justly considered the ornament of the new world and the pride of modern philoso- 
phy." — Day's District School Gram., p. 88. 

[Fosmitle. — Not proper, because the words ornament and pride, each of which has adjuncts, are here con- 
nected by and without a comma before it. But, according to Exception 1st to Rule 4th, " When the two words 
connected have several adjuncts, or when one of them has aji adjunct that relates not to both, the comma is in- 
serted." Therefore, a comma should be set before and; thus, " Frankliu is justly considered the ornament of 
the New World, and the pride of modern philosophy."] 

" Levity and attachment to worldly pleasures, destroy the sense of gratitude to him." — Mur- 
ray's Key, 8vo, p. 183. "In the following Exercise, point out the adjectives and the substan- 
tives which they qualify." — Bullions, Practical Lessons, p. 100. "When a noun or pronoun is 
used to explain or give emphasis to a preceding noun or pronoun." — Day's Gram., p. 87. 
" Superior talents and briliancy of intellect do not always constitute a great man." — Bo., p. 92. 
" A word .that makes sense after an article or the phrase speak of, is a noun." — Bullions, Practical 
Lessons, p. 12. " All feet used in poetry, are reducible to eight kinds; four of two sjllables and 
four of three." — Hiley's Gram., p. 123. " He would not do it himself nor let me do it." — Bullions, 
E. Gram., p. 113.* " The old writers give examples of the subjunctive mode and give other 

ing. "John. James and Thomas are here," is a sentence which plainly tells John that James and Thomas are 
here ; and which, if read according to this pointing, cannot possibly have any other meaning. Yet this is the 
way in which the rules of Cooper, Felton, Frost, Webster, and perhaps others, teach us to point it, when we 
mean to tell somebody else that all three are here ! In his pretended "Abridgment of Murray's English Gram- 
mar," (a work abounding in small thefts from Brown's Institutes,) Cooper has the following example: "John, 
James or Joseph intends to accompany me." — Page 120. Here, John being addressed, the punctuation is 
right; but, to make this noun a nominative to the verb, a comma must be put after each of the others. In 
Cooper's " Plain and Practical Grammar," the passage is found in this form : "John, James, or Joseph intends 
to accompany us." — Page 132. This pointing is doubly wronc; because it is adapted to neither sense. If the 
three nouns have the same construction, the principal pause will be immediately before the verb ; and surely a 
comma is as much required by that pause, as by the second. See the Note on Rule 3d, above. 

* In punctuation, the grammar here cited is unaccountably defective. This is the more strange, because many 
of its errors are mere perversions of what was accurately pointed by an other hand. On the page above referred 



782 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

modes to explain what is meant by the words in the subjunctive." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., 
p. 352. 

Under Exception II. — Two Terms Contrasted. 
"We often commend as well as censure imprudently." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 214. "It is as 
truly a violation of the right of property, to take little as to take much ; to purloin a book, or a 
penknife, as to steal money ; to steal fruit as to steal a horse ; to defraud the revenue as to rob 
my neighbour ; to overcharge the public as to overcharge my brother ; to cheat the postoffice as 
to cheat my friend." — Wayland's Moral Science, 1st Edition, p. 254. " The classification of verbs 
has been and still is a vexed question." — Bullions, E. Grammar, Revised Edition, p. 200. 
" Names applied only to individuals of a sort or class and not common to all, are called Proper 
Nouns." — Id., Practical Lessons, p. 12. " A hero would desire to be loved as well as to be rever- 
enced." — Day's Gram., p. 108. " Death or some worse misfortune now divides them." — Cooper's 
PI. and Pr. Gram., p. 133. " Alexander replied, ' The world will not permit two suns nor two 
sovereigns.' " — Goldsmith's Greece, Vol. ii, p. 113. 

" From nature's chain, whatever link you strike, 
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike." — Felton's Gram., p. 131. 

Under Exception III. — Alternative op "Words. 

" Metre or Measure is the number of poetical feet which a verse contains." — Hiley's Gram., p. 
123. " The Cozsura or division, is the pause which takes place in a verse, and which divides it 
into two parts." — lb., 123. "It is six feet or one fathom deep." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 113. 
" A Brace is used in poetry at the end of a triplet or three lines which rhyme together." — Felton's 
Gram., p. 142. " There are four principal kinds of English verse or poetical feet." — Po., p. 143. 
" The period or full stop denotes the end of a complete sentence." — Sanborn's Analytical Gram., 
p. 271. " The scholar is to receive as many jetons or counters as there are words in the sentence." 
— St. Quentin's Gram., p. 16. " That [thing] or the thing which purines, fortifies also the heart." 
— Peirce's Gram., p. 74. " That thing or the thing which would induce a laxity in public or private 
morals, or indifference to guilt and wretchedness, should be regarded as the deadly Sirocco." — lb., 
74. " What is elliptically what thing or that thing which." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 99. " Demon- 
strate means show or point out precisely." — Po., p. 139. " The man or that man, who endures to 
the end, shall be saved." — Hiley's Gram., p. 73. 

Under Exception IV. — A Second Comma. 

"Reason, passion answer one great end." — Bullions's E. Gram., p. 152; Hiley's, p. 112. 
"Reason, virtue answer one great aim." — Cooper's PI. and Pract. Gram., p. 194; Butler's, 204. 
" Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from^ above." — Felton's Gram., p. 90. " Every plant, 
and every tree produces others after its kind." — Day's Gram., p. 91. " James, and not John 
was paid for his services." — lb., 91. "The single dagger, or obelisk f is the second." — lb., p. 113. 
"It was I, not he that did it." — St. Quentin's Gram., p. 152. "Each aunt, (and) each cousin hath 
her speculation." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 139. " ' I shall see you when you come,' is equivalent to 
'I shall see you then, or at that time when you come.' " — Butler's Pract. Gram., p. 121. 

" Let wealth, let honour wait the wedded dame, 
August her deed, and sacred be her fame." — Pope, p. 334. 

Under Rule V. — Op Words in Pairs. 

" My hopes and fears, joys and sorrows centre in you." — B. G-reenleaf : Sanborn's Gram., 
p. 268. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because no comma here separates the second pair of nominatives from the verb. 
But, according to Rule 5th, " When successive words are joined in pairs by conjunctions, they should be sepa- 
rated in pairs by the comma." Therefore, an other comma should be inserted after sorrows; thus, " My hopes 
and fears, joys and sorrows, centre in you."] 

"This mood implies possibility, or liberty, will, or obligation." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 113. 
" Substance is divided into Body, and Spirit into Extended and Thinking." — Brightland's Gram., 
p. 253. " These consonants, [d and t,] like p, and b, f, and v, k, and hard g, and s, and z, are let- 
ters of the same organ." — Walker's Diet, p. 41 ; Principles, No. 358. "Neither fig nor twist pig- 
tail nor cavendish have passed my lips since, nor ever shall they again." — Boston Cultivator, Vol. 
vii, p. 36. " The words whoever, or whosoever, whichever, or whichsoever, and what- 
ever, or whatsoever are called Compound Relative Pronouns." — Day's Gram., p. 23. 
" Adjectives signifying profit or disprofit, likeness or unlikeness govern the dative." — Bullions, Lot. 
Gram., 12th Ed., 215. 

Under Rule VI. — Op Words Absolute. 

" Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 135. 

[Fobmttle.— Not proper, because no comma is here set after staff, which, with the noun rod, is put absolute 
by pleonasm. But, according to Rule 6th, " Nouns or pronouns put absolute, should, with their adjuncts, be set 
off by the comma." Therefore, a comma should be here inserted ; thus, " Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort 
me." — Psalm xxiii, 4.] 

"Depart ye wicked." — Wright's Gram., p. 70. "He saith to his mother, Woman behold thy 

to, Dr. Bullions, in copying from Lennie's syntactical exercises a dozen consecutive lines, has omitted nine need' 
ful commas, which Lennie had been careful to insert ! 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — COMMA. — ERRORS. 783 

son." — Gurney's Portable Evidences, p. 44. . "Thou God seest me." — Bullions, K Gram., p. 9; 
Practical Lessons, p. 13. "Thou, God seest me." — Id., E. Gram., Revised Ed., p. 195. "John 
write me a letter. Henry go home." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 356. "John; write a letter. 
Henry; go home." — lb., p. 317. "Now, G. Brown; let us reason together." — lb., p. 326. 
" Smith: You say on page 11, the objective case denotes the object." — lb., p. 344. " Gentlemen: 
will you always speak as you mean ?" — lb., p. 352. "John: I sold my books to "William for his 
brothers." — lb., p. 47. "Walter and Seth: I will take my things, and leave yours." — lb., p. 69. 
"Henry: Julia and Jane left their umbrella, and took yours." — lb., p. 73. "John; harness the 
horses and go to the mine for some coal. William; run to the store for a few pounds of tea." — lb., 
p. 160. "The king being dead the parliament was dissolved." — Chandler's Gram., p. 119. 

" Cease fond nature, cease thy strife, 

And let me languish into life." — Bullions's E. Gram., p. 173. 
"Forbear great man, in arms renown'd, forbear." — Po., p. 174. 
" Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, 

Each prayer accepted and each wish resign'd." — Hiley's Gr., p. 123. 

Under Rule VII. — "Words in Apposition. 

""We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice," 
&c. — Hallock's Gram., p. 200. 

[Fohmitle. — Not proper, because no comma is here set after the pronoun We, with which the word people, 
which has adjuncts, is in apposition. But, according to Rule 7th, " Words in apposition, (especially if they have 
adjuncts,) are generally set off by the comma." Therefore, an other comma should be here inserted ; thus, 
"We, the people of the United States," &c] 

" The Lord, the covenant God of his people requires it." — Anti-Slavery Magazine, Vol. i, p. 
73. "He as a patriot deserves praise." — Hallock's Gram., p. 124. " Thomson the watchmaker 
and jeweller from London, was of the party." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 128. "Every body knows 
that the person here spoken of by the name of the conqueror, is "William duke of Normandy." — 
Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 33. " The words myself, thyself, himself, herself, and their plurals our- 
selves, yourselves, and themselves are called Compound Personal Pronouns." — Day's Gram., p. 22. 

" For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey, 
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd, 
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 
Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind ?" — U. Poems, p. 68. 

Under Exceptions concerning Apposition. 

"Smith and Williams' store; Nicholas, the emperor's army." — Pay's Gram., p. 17. "He was 
named William, the conqueror." — lb., p. 80. "John, the Baptist, was beheaded." — Po., p. 87. 
"Alexander, the coppersmith, did me great harm." — Part's Gram., p. 126. "A nominative in 
immediate apposition ; as, ' The boy, Henry, speaks.' " — Smart's Accidence, p. 29. " A noun 
objective can be in apposition with some other ; as, ' I teach the boy, Henry.' " — lb., p. 30. 

Under Rule VIII. — Op Adjectives. 
" But he found me, not singing at my work ruddy with health vivid with cheerfulness ; but 
pale and dejected, sitting on the ground, and chewing opium." 

[Fobmttle. — Not proper, because the phrases, " ruddy with health" and "vivid with cheerfulness" which 
begin with adjectives, are not here commaed. But, according to Rule Sth, "Adjectives, when something de- 
pends on them, or when they have the import of a dependent clause, should, with their adjuncts, be Bet off by 
the comma." Therefore, two other commas should be here inserted ; thus, " But he found me, not singing at 
my work, ruddy with health, vivid with cheerfulness; but pale," &c. — Dr. Johnson.'] 

" I looked up, and beheld an inclosure beautiful as the gardens of paradise, but of a small ex- 
tent." — See Key. "A is an article, indefinite and belongs to ' booh.' " — Bullions, Practical Les- 
sons, p. 10. " The first expresses the rapid movement of a troop of horse over the plain eager for 
the combat." — Id., Lat. Gram., p. 296. "He [, the Indian chieftain, King Philip,] was a patriot, 
attached to his native soil ; a prince true to his subjects and indignant of their wrongs ; a soldier 
daring in battle firm in adversity patient of fatigue, of hunger, of every variety of bodily suffering 
and ready to perish in the cause he had espoused." — See Key. 

"For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd dead 
Dost in these fines their artless tale relate." — Union Poems, p. 68. 

"Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest: 

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood." — Day's Gram., p. 117. 
" Idle after dinner in his chair 

Sat a farmer ruddy, fat, and fair." — Hiley's Gram., p. 125. 

Under the Exception concerning Adjectives. 
""When an attribute becomes a title, or is emphatically applied to a name, it follows it; as 
Charles, the Great; Henry, the First; Lewis, the Gross."— Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 153 ; Im- 
proved Gram., p. 107. " Feed me with food, convenient for me." — Cooper's Practical Gram., p. 
118. " The words and phrases, necessary to exemplify every principle progressively laid down, 
will be found strictly and exclusively adapted to the illustration of the principles to which they 



784 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

are referred." — IngersolVs Gram., Pre/., p. x. "The Infinitive Mode is that form of the verb 
which expresses action or being, unlimited by person, or number." — Bay's Gram., p. 35, "A 
man, diligent in his business, prospers." — Frosts Practical Gram., p. 113. 

" wretched state! oh bosom, black as death!" — Hallock's Gram., p. 118. 

"0, wretched state ! 0, bosom, black as death I" — Singer's Shak., Vol. ii, p. 494. 

Under Rule IX. — Or Finite Verbs. 
" The Singular denotes one; the Plural more than one." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 12; Pract. 
Lessons, p. 16; Lennie's Gram., p. 7. 

[Fokmttle. — Not proper, because no comma is here set after Plural, where the verb denotes is understood. 
But, according to Rule 9th, "Where a finite verb is understood, a comma is generally required." Therefore, 
a comma should be inserted at the place mentioned ; thus, " The Singular denotes one; the Plural, more than 
one."] 

" The comma represents the shortest pause ; the semicolon a pause longer than the comma ; the 
colon longer than the semicolon; and the period longer than the colon." — Riley's Gram., p. 111. 
"The comma represents the shortest pause; the semicolon a pause double that of the comma; 
the colon, double that of the semicolon; and the period, double that of the colon." — Bullions, E. 
Gram., p. 151 ; Pract. Lessons, p. 127. " Who is applied only to persons; which to animals and 
things; what to things only; and that to persons, animals, and things." — Day's Gram., p. 23. 
" A or an is used before the singular number only ; the before either singular or plural." — Bul- 
lions, Practical Lessons, p. 10. " Homer was the greater genius; Virgil the better artist." — Lay's 
Gram., p. 96. "Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artist." — Pope's Preface: 
British Poets, Vol. vi, p. viii. "Words are formed of syllables; syllables of letters." — St. Quen- 
tin's General Gram., p. 2. " The Conjugation of an active verb is styled the active voice ; and 
that of a passive verb the passive voice." — Frost's El. of E. Gram., p. 19. "The conjugation 
of an active verb is styled the active voice, and that of a passive verb the passive voice."— 
Smith's New Gram., p. 171. "The possessive is sometimes called the genitive case; and the 
objective the accusative." — L. Murray's Gram., 12mo, p. 44. "Benevolence is allied to few 
vices; selfishness to fewer virtues." — Karnes, Art of Thinking, p. 40. " Orthography treats of 
Letters, Etymology of Words, Syntax of Sentences, and Prosody of Versification." — Hart's 
English Gram., p. 21. 

" Earth praises conquerors for shedding blood ; 
Heaven those that love their foes, and do them good." — See Key. 

Under Rule X. — Op Infinitives. 

" His business is to observe the agreement or disagreement of words." — Bullions, E. Grammar, 
Revised Edition, p. 189. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because no comma here divides to observe from the preceding verb. But, according 
to Rule 10th, " The infinitive mood, when it follows a verb from which it must be separated, or when it depends on 
something^ remote or understood, is generally, with its adjuncts, set off by the comma." Therefore, a comma 
should be inserted after is; thus, " His business is, to observe the agreement or disagreement of words."] 

" It is a mark of distinction to be made a member of this society." — Farnum's Gram., 1st Ed., 
p. 25 ; 2d Ed., p. 23. " To distinguish the conjugations let the pupil observe the following rules." 
— Day's D. S. Gram., p. 40. " He was now sent for to preach before the Parliament." — Life of 
Dr. J. Owen, p. 18. " It is incumbent on the young to love and honour their parents." — Bullions, 
E. Gram., p. 83. "It is the business of every man to prepare for death." — Id., ib., 83. "It 
argued the sincerest candor to make such an acknowledgement." — Id., ib., p. 115. "The proper 
way is to complete the construction of the first member, and leave that of the second under- 
stood." — lb., ib., p. 125. "enemy is a name. It is a term of distinction given to a certain per- 
son to show the character in which he is represented." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 23. "The 
object of this is to preserve the soft sound of c and g." — Hart's Gram., p. 29. " The design of 
grammar is to facilitate the reading, writing, and speaking of a language." — Barrett's Gram., 10th 
Ed., Pref., p. hi. " Four kinds of type are used in the following pages to indicate the portions 
that are considered more or less elementary." — Hart's Gram., p. 3. 

Under Rule XI. — Of Participles. 
" The chancellor being attached to the king secured his crown."— Wright's Gram., p. 114. 
[Fobmule.— Not proper, because the phrase, "being attached to the king," is not commaed. But, according 
to Rule 11th, "Participles, when something depends on them, when they have the import of a dependent clause, 
or when they relate to something understood, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma." There- 
fore, two commas should be here inserted; thus, "The chancellor, being attached to the king, secured his 
crown." — Murray's Gram., p. 66.] 

" The officer having received hia orders, proceeded to execute them." — Day's Gram., p. 108. 
" Thus used it is in the present tense."— Bullions, E. Gram., Revised Ed., p. 33. " The Imperfect 
tense has three distinct forms corresponding to those of the present tense." — Id., ib., p. 40. 
"Every possessive case is governed by some noun denoting the thing possessed "—Id., ib., p. 87. 
" The word that used as a conjunction is preceded by a comma."— Id., ib., p. 154. " His narra- 
tive being composed upon such good authority, deserves credit."— Cooper's PL and Pr. Gram., p. 
97. " The hen being in her nest, was killed and eaten there by the eagle."— Murray's Key, 8vo, 
p. 252. "Pronouns being used instead of nouns are subject to the same modifications."— San- 
born's Gram., p. 92. " When placed at the beginning of words they are consonants."— Halhck's 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. COMMA. ERRORS. 78o 

Gram., p. 14. " Man starting from his couch, shall sleep no more." — lb., p. 222. " His and her 
followed by a noun are possessive pronouns : not followed by a noun they are personal pronouns." 
■ — Bullions, Practical Lessons, p. 33. 

" He with viny crown advancing, 
First to the lively pipe his hand addressed." — Id., E. Gram., p. 83. 

Under the Exception concerning Participles. 

" But when they convey the idea of many, acting individually, or separately, they are of the 
plural number." — Day's Gram., p. 15. " Two or more singular antecedents, connected by and 
require verbs and pronouns of the plural number." — lb., pp. 80 and 91. "Words ending in y, 
preceded by a consonant, change y into i when a termination is added." — Butler's Gram., p. 11. 
"A noun, used without an article to limit it, is generally taken in its widest, sense."' — Ingtrsoll's 
Gram., p. 30. " Two nouns, meaning the same person or thing, frequently come together." — 
Buckets Gram., p. 89. " Each one must give an account to God for the use, or the abuse of the 
talents, committed to him." — Cooper's PL and Pr act. Gram., p. 133; "Two vowels, united in 
one sound, form a diphthong." — Frost's El. of Gram., p. 6. " Three vowels, united in one sound, 
form a triphthong." — lb. " Any word, joined to an adverb, is a secondary adverb." — Barrett's 
Revised Gram., p. 68. " The person, spoken to, is put in the Second person. The person, spoken 
of, in the Third person." — Cutler's Gram., p. 14. "A man, devoted to his business, prospers." — 
Frost's Pr. Gram., p. 113. 

Under Eule XII. — Of Adverbs. 

" So in indirect questions ; as, ' Tell me when he will come.' " — Butler's Gram,, p. 121. 

[Fokmtjle. — Not proper, because the adverb So is not set off by the comma. But according to Eule 12th, "Ad- 
verbs, when they break the connexion of a simple sentence, or when they have not a close dependence on some 
particular word in the context, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma." Therefore, a comma 
should be inserted after So; thus, " So, in indirect questions; as," &c] 

" Now when the verb tells what one person or thing does to another, the verb is transitive." — 
Bullions, Pract. Les., p 37. "Agreeably to your request I send this letter." — Id., E. Gram., p. 
141. "There seems therefore, to be no good reason for giving them a different classification." — 
Id., E. Gram., p. 199. " Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman, seeking 
goodly pearls." — Alger's Bible : Matt, xiii, 45. " Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a 
net, that was cast into the sea." — lb., ib., verse 47. " Cease however, is used as a transitive verb 
by our best writers." — Webster's Philos. Gram,, p. 171. " Time admits of three natural divisions, 
namely : Present, Past, and Future." — Day's Gram., p. 37. " There are three kinds of compari- 
son, namely: regular, irregular, and adverbial." — lb., p. 31. "There are five Personal Pronouns 
namely: I, thou, he, she, and it." — lb., p. 22. "Nouns have three cases, viz. the Nominative, 
Possessive, and Objective." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 16; P. Lessons, p. 19. "Hence in studying 
Grammar, we have to study words." — Frazee's Gram., p. 18. "Participles like Verbs relate to 
Nouns and Pronouns." — Miller's Ready Grammarian, p. 23. "The time of the participle like 
that of the infinitive is estimated from the time of the leading verb." — Bullions, Lot. Gram., p. 97. 
" The dumb shall sing the lame his crutch forego, 
And leap exulting like the bounding roe." — Hiley's Gram., p. 123. 

Under Rule XIII. — Of Conjunctions. 
" But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." 
— Friends' Bible, and Smith's : Matt., xiii, 29. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because no, comma is inserted after lest. But, according to Eule 13th, "Conjunc- 
tions, when they are separated from the principal clauses that depend on them, or when they introduce exam- 
ples, are generally set off by the comma." Therefore, a comma should be put after the word Jest; thus, "But 
he said, Nay; lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." — Scott's Bible, Al- 
gek's, Bbuce's.] 

" Their intentions were good ; but wanting prudence, they missed the mark at which they 
aimed." — Murray's Key, 8vo, Vol. ii, p. 221. "The verb be often separates the name from its 
attribute; as war is expensive." — Webster's Philos. Gram., -p. 153. " Either and or denote an 
alternative; as 'I will take either road at your pleasure.' " — lb., p. 63: Imp. Gram., 45. " Either 
is also a substitute for a name ; as ' Either of the roads is good.' " — Webster, both Grams., 63 and 
45. "But alas ! I fear the consequence." — Day's Gram., p. 74. "Or if he ask a fish, will he for 
a fish give him a serpent?" — Scott's Bible, and Smith's. " Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer 
him a scorpion?" — Smiths Bible. " The infinitive sometimes performs the office of a nominative 
case, as ' To enjoy is to obey.' — Pope." — Cutler's Gram., p. 62. " The plural is commonly formed 
by adding s to the singular, as book, books." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 12. "As 'I were to blame, 
if I did it' " — Smart's Accidence, p. 16. 

" Or if it be thy will and pleasure 
Direct my plough to find a treasure." — Hiley's Gram., p. 124. 

" Or if it be thy will and pleasure, 
Direct my plough to find a treasure." — Hart's Gram., p. 185. 

Under Rule XIY. — Of Prepositions. 
" Pronouns agree with the nouns for which they stand in gender, number, and person." — But- 
ler's Practical Gram., pp. 141 and 148; Bullions' s Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 150. 

50 



7" 
786 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

[FoEMTTLE. — Not proper, because the preposition in has not the comma before it, as the text requires. But, 
according to Rule 14th, "Prepositions and their objects, when they break the connexion of a simple sentence, 
or when they do not closely follow the words on which they depend, are generally set off by the comma." 
Therefore, a comma should be here inserted; thus, " Pronouns agree with the nouns for which they stand, in 
gender, number, and person." Or the words may be transposed, and the comma set before with; thus, "Pro- 
nouns agree in gender, number, and person, with the nouns for which they stand."] 

" In the first two examples the antecedent is person, or something equivalent ; in the last it is 
thing." — Butler, ib., p. 53. " In what character he was admitted is unknown." — lb., p. 55. "To 
what place he was going is not known." — lb., p. 55. " In the preceding examples John, Ccesar, 
and James are the subjects." — lb., p. 59. " Yes is generally used to denote assent in the answer 
to a question." — lb., p. 120. " Ttiat in its origin is the passive participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb 
thean, to take." — lb., p. 127. "But in all these sentences as and so are adverbs." — lb., p. 127. 
"After an interjection or exclamatory sentence is placed the mark of exclamation." — Blair's 
Gram., p. 116. " Intransitive verbs from their nature can have no distinction of voice." — Bullions, 
E. Gram., p. 30. "To the inflection of verbs belong Voices, Moods, Tenses, Numbers, and Per- 
sons." — Id., ib., p. 33 ; Pract. Lessons, p. 41. "As and so in the antecedent member of a com- 
parison are properly adverbs." — Id., E. Gram., p. 113. " In the following Exercise point out the 
words in apposition." — Id., P. Lessons, p. 103. " In the following Exercise point out the noun or 
pronoun denoting the possessor." — Id., ib., p. 105. " Its is not found in the Bible except by mis- 
print." — Hallock's Gram., p. 68. "No one's interest is concerned except mine." — lb., p. 70. "In 
most of the modern languages there are four concords." — St. Quentin's Gen. Gram., p. 143. "In 
illustration of these remarks let us suppose a case." — Hart's Gram., p. 104. " On the right man- 
agement of the emphasis depends the life of pronunciation." — lb., p. 172 ; Murray's, 8vo, p. 242. 

Under Rule XV. — Of Interjections. 
" Behold he is in the desert." — Scott's Bible : Matt., xxiv, 26. 

[Foemttle. — Not proper, because the interjection Behold, which has usually a comma after it in Scripture, 
has here no point. But, according to Rule 15th, " Interjections that require a pause, though more commonly 
emphatic and followed by the ecphoneme, are sometimes set off by the comma." In this instance, a comma 
should be used ; thus, " Behold, he is in the desert." — Common Bible.'] 

"And Lot said unto them, Oh not so my Lord." — Scott's Bible : Gen., xix, 18. " Oh let me 
escape thither, (is it not a little one ?) and my soul shall live." — Scott : Gen., xix, 20. " Behold 1 
I come quickly. — Bible." — Day's Gram., p. 74. " Lo ! I am with you always." — Day's Gram., 
pp. 10 and 73. "And lo! I am with you always." — lb., pp. 78 and 110. "And lo, I am with 
you alway." — Scott's Bible, and Brttce's: Matt., xxviii, 20. "Hal ha! ha! how laughable 
that is." — Bullions, Pract Les., p. 83. " Interjections of Laughter, — Hal he! hi! ho!" — Wrights 
Gram., p. 121. 

Under Rule XVI. — Op "Words Repeated. 

" Lend lend your wings ! I mount! I fly I" — Example varied. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the repeated word lend has here no comma. But, according to Rule 16th, 
"A word emphatically repeated, is generally set off by the comma." In this instance, a comma is required 
after the former lend, but not after the latter ; thus, 

" Lend, lend your wings ! I mount! I fly!" — Pope's Poems, p. 317.] 
" To bed to bed to bed. There is a knocking at the gate. Come come come. "What is done 
cannot be undone. To bed to bed to bed." — See Burgh's Speaker, p. 130. "I will roar, that 
the duke shall cry, Encore encore let him roar let him roar once more once more." — See ib., p. 136. 
" Vital spark of heav'nly flame, 

Quit oh quit this mortal frame. " — Hiley's Gram., p. 126. 
" Vital spark of heav'nly flame, 

Quit, oh quit, this mortal frame!" — Bullions, E. Gr., p. 172. 
" the pleasing pleasing Anguish, 

When we love, and when we languish." — Ward's Gram., p. 161. 
" Praise to God immortal praise 
For the love that crowns our days !" — Hiley's Gram., p. 124. 

Under Rule XVII. — Op Dependent Quotations. 

"Thus, of an infant, we say l It is a lovely creature.' " — Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 12. 

[FoKMrjxE. — Not proper, because no comma is here inserted between say and the citation which follows. But, 
according to Rule 17th, "A quotation, observation, or description, when it is introduced in close dependence 
on a verb, (as, say, reply, cry, or the like,) is generally separated from the rest of the sentence bv the comma." 
Therefore, a comma should be put after say; as, " Thus, of an infant, we say, ' It is a lovely crea'ture.' "] 

" No being can state a falsehood in saying lam; for no one can utter it, if it is not true." — Car- 
dell's Gram., 18mo, p. 118. "I know they will cry out against this and say 'should he pay, 
means if he should pay.' " — O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 352. " For instance, when we say ' the house 
is building,' the advocates of the new theory ask, « building what f We might ask in turn, when 
you say ' the field ploughs well,' ploughs what f ' Wheat sells well,' sells what f If usage allows 
us to say ' wheat sells at a dollar ' in a sense that is not active, why may it not also allow us to 
say 'wheat is selling at a dollar' in a sense that is not active?" — Hart's English Gram., p. 76. 
" Man is accountable, equals mankind are accountable." — S. Barrett's Revised Gram., p. 37. 
" Thus, when we say ' He may be reading,' may is the real verb; the other parts are verbs by 
name only." — Smart's English Accidence, p. 8. " Thus we say an apple, an hour, that two vowel 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — SEMICOLON. — ERRORS. 787 

sounds may not come together." — lb., p. 21. "It would be as improper to say an unit, as to 
say an youth; to say an one, as to say an wonder." — lb., p. 27. " When we say ' He died for the 
truth,' for is a preposition." — lb., p. 28. "We do not say 'I might go yesterday,' but 'I might 
have gone yesterday.' " — lb., p. 11. " By student, we understand one who has by matriculation 
acquired the rights of academical citizenship ; but, by bursche, we understand one who has already 
spent a certain time at the university." — Howitts Student-Life in Germany, p. 27. 

SECTION II.— THE SEMICOLON. 

The Semicolon is used to separate those parts of a compound sentence, 
which are neither so closely connected as those which are distinguished 
by the comma, nor so little dependent as those which require the colon. 

Rule I. — Complex Members. 

When two or more complex members, or such clauses as require the comma in 
themselves, are constructed into a period, they are generally separated by the semi- 
colon : as, " In the regions inhabited by angelic natures, unmingled felicity forever 
blooms ; joy flows there with a perpetual and abundant stream, nor needs auy mound 
to check its course." — Carter. "When the voice rises, the gesture naturally ascends ; 
and when the voice makes the falling inflection, or lowers its pitch, the gesture follows 
it by a corresponding descent ; and, in the level and monotonous pronunciation of the 
voice, the gesture seems to observe a similar limitation, by moving rather in the hor- 
izontal direction, without much varying its elevation." — Comstock's Elocution, p. 107. 

" The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me ; 
But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it." — Addison. 

Rule II. — Simple Members. 
When two or more simple members, or such clauses as complete their sense with- 
out subdivision, are constructed into a period ; if they require a pause greater 
than that of the comma, they are usually separated by the semicolon : as, " Straws 
swim upon the surface ; but pearls lie at the bottom." — Murray's Gram., p. 276. 
" Every thing grows old ; every thing passes away ; every thing disappears." — HUey's 
Gram., p. 115. "Alexander asked them the distance of the Persian capital ; what 
forces the king of Persia could bring into the field ; what the Persian government 
was ; what was the character of the king ; how he treated his enemies ; what were 
the most direct ways into Persia." — Whelpley's Lectures, p. 175. 

"A longer care man's helpless kind demands ; 
That longer care contracts more lasting bands." — Pope. 

Rule III. — Of Apposition, &c. 

Words in apposition, in disjunct pairs, or in any other construction, if they re- 
quire a pause greater than that of the comma, and less than that of the colon, may 
be separated by the semicolon : as, " Pronouns have three cases ; the nominative, 
the possessive, and the objective." — Murray's Gram., p. 51. " Judge, judgement ; 
lodge, lodgement ; acknowledge, acknowledgement." — Butler's Gram., p. 11. "Do 
not the eyes discover humility, pride ; cruelty, compassion ; reflection, dissipation ; 
kindness, resentment?" — Sheridan's Elocution, p. 159. " This rule forbids parents 
to lie to children, and children to parents ; instructors to pupils, and pupils to in- 
structors ; the old to the young, and the young to the old ; attorneys to jurors, and 
jurors to attorneys ; buyers to sellers, and sellers to buyers." — Wayland's Moral 
Science, p. 304. 

" Make, made ; have, had ; pay, paid ; say, said ; leave, left ; 
Dream, dreamt ; mean, meant ; reave and bereave have reft." — Ward's Gr., p. 66. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PUNCTUATION.— ERRORS CONCERNING THE SEMICOLON. 
Under Rule I. — Op Complex Members. 
" The buds spread into leaves, and the blossoms swell to fruit, but they know not how they 
grow, nor who causes them to spring up from the bosom of the earth." — Bay's E. Gr., p. 12. 



788 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the two chief members which compose this period, are separated only by the 
comma after "fruit." But, according to Rule 1st for the Semicolon, " When two or more complex members, 
or such clauses as require the comma in themselves, are constructed into a period, they are generally separated 
by the semicolon." Therefore, the pause after "fruit" should be marked by a semicolon.] 

" But he used his eloquence chiefly against Philip, king of Macedon, and, in several orations, 
he stirred up the Athenians to make war against him." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 84. "For the 
sake of euphony, the n is dropped before a consonant, and because most words begin with a con- 
sonant, this of course is its more common form.' " — lb., p. 192. " But if I say ' Will a man be able to 
carry this burden ?' it is manifest the idea is entirely changed, the reference is not to number, but to 
the species, and the answer might be ' No ; but a horse will.' " — lb., p. 193. " In direct discourse, 
a noun used by a speaker or writer to designate himself, is said to be of the first person — used to 
designate the person addressed, it is said to be of the second person, and when used to designate 
a person or thing spoken of, it is said to be of the third person." — lb., p. 195. " Vice stings us, 
even in our pleasures, but virtue consoles us, even in our pains." — Day's Gram., p. 84. " Vice 
is infamous though in a prince, and virtue honorable though in a peasant." — lb., p. 72. " Every 
word that is the name of a person or thing, is a Noun, because ' A noun is the name of any per- 
son, place, or thing.' " — Bullions, Pract. Les., p. 83. 

" This is the sword, with which he did the deed, 
And that the shield by which he was defended." — Buckets Gram., p. 56. 

Under Bule II. — Of Simple Members. 

"A deathlike paleness was diffused over his countenancee, a chilling terror convulsed his 
frame ; his voice burst out at intervals into broken accents." — Principles of Eloquence, p. 73. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the first pause in this sentence is not marked by a suitable point. But, 
according to Rule 2d for the Semicolon, "When two or more simple members, or such clauses as complete their 
sense without subdivision, are constructed into a period ; if they require a pause greater than that of the comma, 
they are usually separated by the semicolon." Therefore, the comma after " countenance" should be changed 
to a semicolon.] 

" The Lacedemonians never traded — they knew no luxury — they lived in houses built of rough 
materials — they lived at public tables — fed on black broth, and despised every thing effeminate or 
luxurious." — Whelpley's Lectures, p. 167. " Government is the agent. Society is the principal." 
— Waylands Moral Science, 1st Ed., p. 377. "The essentials of speech were anciently supposed 
to be sufficiently designated by the Noun and the Verb, to which was subsequently added, the 
Conjunction.' 1 '' — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 191. " The first faint gleamings of thought in its mind are 
but the reflections from the parents' own intellect, — the first manifestations of temperament are 
from the contagious parental fountain, — the first aspirations of soul are but the warmings and 
promptings of the parental spirit." — Jocelyn's Prize Essay, p. 4. " Older and oldest refer to ma- 
turity of age, elder and eldest to priority of right by birth. Farther and farthest denote place or 
distance : Further and furthest, quantity or addition." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 148. " Let the di- 
visions be natural, such as obviously suggest themselves to the mind, and as may aid your main 
design, and be easily remembered." — Goldsbury's Manual of Gram., p. 91. 
" Gently make haste, of labour not afraid : 
A hundred times consider what you've said." — Dryden's Art of Poetry. 

Under Kule III. — Op Apposition, &c. 

(1.) " Adjectives are divided into two classes : Adjectives denoting quality, and Adjectives denoting 
number." — Frost's Practical Gram., p. 31. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because the colon after the word "classes," is not the most suitable sign of the pause 
required. But, according to Rule 3d for the Semicolon, " Words in apposition, in disjunct pairs, or in any other 
construction, if they require a pause greater than that of the comma, and less than that of the colon, may be 
separated by the semicolon." In this case, the semicolon should have been preferred to the colon.] 

(2.) "There are two classes of adjectives — qualifying adjectives, and limiting adjectives." — But- 
ler's Practical Gram., p. 33. (3.) " There are three Genders, the Masculine, the Feminine, and 
the Neuter." — Frost's Pract. Gram., p. 51; Hihy's Gram., p. 12; Alger's, 16; S. Putnam's, 14; 
Murray's, 8vo, 37; and others. (4.) "There are three genders: the masculine, the feminine, 
and the neuter." — Murray's Gram., 12mo, p. 39 ; Jaudon's, 25. (5.) " There are three genders : 
The Masculine, the Feminine, and the Neuter." — Hendrick's Gram., p. 15. (6.) " The Singular de- 
notes one, and the Plural more than one." — Hart's Gram., p. 40. (7.) " There are three Cases 
viz., the Nominative, the Possessive, and the Objective." — Hendrick's Gram., p. 7. (8.) " Nouns 
have three cases, the nominative, the possessive, and the objective." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 41. 
(9.) "In English, nouns have three cases — the nominative, the possessive, and the objective." — 
R. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 47. (10.) " Grammar is divided into four parts, namely, Orthog- 
raphy, Etymology, Syntax, Prosody."— lb., p. 41. (11 ) " It is divided into four parts, viz. 
Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody."— L. Murray's Grammars all ; T.Smith's 
Grain., p. 5. (12.) "It is divided into four parts: viz. Orthography — Etymology — Syntax — 
Prosody."— Bucke's Gram., p. 3. (13.) "It is divided into four parts, namely, Orthography, Ety- 
mology, Syntax and Prosody."— Day's Gram., p. 5. (14.) "It is divided into four parts: viz. 
Orthography, Etymology, Syntax and Prosody." — Hendrick's Gram., p. 11. (15.) " Grammar is 
divided into four parts: viz. Orthography, Etymology, Syntax and Prosody." — Chandler's Gram., 
p. 13. (16.) "It is divided into four parts: Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody." — 
Cooper's PI. and Pract. Gram., p. 1; Frost's Pract. Gram., 19. (17.) "English grammar has 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — COLON. — RULES. 789 

been usually divided into four parts, viz: Orthography, Etymology, Syntax and Prosody." — Nutr 
ting's Gram., p. 13. (18.) "Temperance leads to happiness, intemperance to misery." — Hiley's 
Gram., p. 137; Hart's, 180. (19.) "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy his crimes." 
— Hiley's Gram., p. 137. (20.) "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues: an enemy his crimes." 
— Murray's Ch'am., 8vo, p. 325. (21.) "Many writers use a plural noun after the second of two 
numeral adjectives, thus, ' The first and second pages are torn.' " — Bullions, E. Gram., 5th 
Ed., p. 145. (22.) "Of these, the Latin has six, the Greek, five, the German, four, the Saxon, 
six, the French, three, &c." — Id., ib., p. 196. 

" In (ing) it ends, when doing is express'd, 
In d, t, n, when suffering's confess'd." — Brightland's Gram., p. 93. 

MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROE. 

"In old books i is often used for/, v for u, vv for w, and ii or ij for y." — Hart's E. Gram., p. 22. 
"The forming of letters into words and syllables is also called Spelling." — lb., p. 21. "Labials 
are formed chiefly by the lips, dentals by the teeth, palatals by the palate, gutturals by the throat, 
nasals by the nose, and Unguals by the tongue." — lb., p. 25. "The labials are p, b. f, v; the dent- 
als t, d, s, z ; the palatals g soft and/; the gutturals k, q, and c and g hard; the nasals m and 
n; and the linguals I and r." — lb., p. 25. " Thus, 'the man having finished his letter, will carry 
it to the post office.' " — lb., p. 75. " Thus, in the sentence 'he had a dagger concealed under his 
cloak,' co needled is passive, signifying being concealed; but in the former combination, it goes to 
make up a form, the force of which is active." — lb., p. 75. " Thus, in Latin, 'he had concealed 
the dagger' would be l pugionem abdiderat;' but 'he had the dagger concealed' would be 'pugio- 
nem abditum habebat.'" — lb., p. 75. "Here, for instance, means 'in this place,' now, 'at this 
time,' &c." — lb., p. 90. " Here when both declares the time of the action, and so is an adverb, and 
also connects the two verbs, and so is a conjunction." — lb., p. 91. " These words were all no 
doubt originally other parts of speech, viz.: verbs, nouns, and adjectives." — lb., p. 92. "The 
principal parts of a sentence are the subject, the attribute, and the object, in other words the 
nominative, the verb, and the objective." — lb., p. 104. " Thus, the adjective is connected with 
the noun, the adverb with the verb or adjective, pronouns with their antecedents, &c." — lb., p. 104. 
" Betvjeen refers to two, among to more than two." — lb. p. 120. " At is used after a verb of rest, 
to after a verb of motion." — lb., p. 120. " Verbs are of three kinds, Active, Passive, and Neuter." 
— Lennie's Gram., p 19 ; Bullions, Prin., 2d Ed., p. 29. " Verbs are divided into two classes : 
Transitive and Intransitive." — Hendrick's Gram., p. 28. " The Parts of Speech in the English 
language are nine, viz. The Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Inter- 
jection and Conjunction." — Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p 7. "Of these the Noun, Pronoun, and 
Verb are declined, the rest are indeclinable." — Id., ib., p. 7 ; Practical Lessons, p. 9. " The first 
expression is caUed the ' Active form.' The second the ' Passive form.' " — Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., 
p. 83 ; Abridged, p. 66. 

" O 'tis a godlike privilege to save, 
And he that scorns it is himself a slave." — Cowper, Vol. i, p. 123. 

SECTION III.— THE COLON. 
The Colon is used to separate those parts of a compound sentence, 
which are neither so closely connected as those which are distinguished 
by the semicolon, nor so little dependent as those which require the 
period. 

Rule I. — Additional Remarks. 

"When the preceding clause is complete in itself, but is followed by some addi- 
tional remark or illustration, especially if no conjunction is used, the colon is gen- 
erally and properly inserted : as, " Avoid evil doers : in such society, an honest man 
may become ashamed of himself." — " See that moth fluttering incessantly round the 
candle : man of pleasure, behold thy image !" — Art of Thinking, p. 94. " Some 
things we can, and others we cannot do : we can walk, but we cannot fly." — 
Beanie's Moral Science, p. 112. 

" Remember Heav'n has an avenging rod : 
To smite the poor, is treason against God." — Cowper. 

Rule II. — Greater Pauses. 
When the semicolon has been introduced, or when it must be used in a subsequent 
member, and a still greater pause is required within the period, the colon should be 
employed : as, " Princes have courtiers, and merchants have partners ; the voluptu- 
ous have companions, and the wicked have accomplices : none but the virtuous can 
have friends." — " Unless the truth of our religion be granted, a Christian must be 



790 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

the greatest monster iu nature : he must at the same time be eminently wise, and 
notoriously foolish ; a wise man in his practice, and a fool in his belief: his reason- 
ing powers must be deranged by a constant delirium, while his conduct never 
swerves from the path of propriety." — Principles of Eloquence, p. 80. 
" A decent competence we fully taste ; 

It strikes our sense, and gives a constant feast : 

More we perceive by dint of thought alone ; 

The rich must labour to possess their own." — Young, 

Rule III. — Independent Quotations. 
A quotation introduced without a close dependence on a verb or a conjunction, is 
generally preceded by the colon ; as, " In his last moments, he uttered these words : 
' I fall a sacrifice to sloth and luxury? " — " At this the kiDg hastily retorted : ' No 
put-offs, my lord; answer me presently.'" — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 367. "The 
father addressed himself to them to this effect: ' O my sons, behold the power of 
unity 1' " — Rippingham y s Art of Speaking, p. 85. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PUNCTUATION.— ERRORS CONCERNING THE COLON. 

Under Rule L — Additional Remarks. 

u Of is a preposition, it expresses the relation between fear and Lord.'' 1 — Bullions, E. Gram., 

p. 133. 

[Fohmtjle. — Not proper, because the additional remark in this sentence is not sufficiently separated from the 
main clause, by the comma after the word preposition. But, according to Rule 1st for the Colon, "When the 
preceding clause is complete in itself, but is followed by some additional remark or illustration, especially if no 
conjunction is used, the colon is generally and properly inserted." Therefore, the colon should here be substi- 
tuted for the comma.] 

" "Wealth and poverty are both temptations to man ; that tends to excite pride, this discontent- 
ment." — Id., ib., p. 98; see also Lennie's Gram., p. 81; Murray's, 56; IngersolVs, 61; Alger's, 
25 ; Merchant's, 44; Hart's, 137 ; et al. "Religion raises men above themselves, irreligion sinks 
them beneath the brutes ; this binds them down to a poor pitiable speck of perishable earth, that 
opens for them a prospect in the skies." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 98; Lennie's Gram., p. 81. 
" Love not idleness, it destroys many." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 71. "Children, obey your parents; 
honour thy father and mother, is the first commandment with promise." — Bullions, Pract. Les- 
sons, p. 88. " Thou art my hiding place, and my shield, I hope in thy promises." — 0. B. Peirce's 
Gram., p. 56. " The sun shall not smite me by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will pre- 
serve from evil. He will save my soul. — Bible." — lb., p. 57. " Here Greece is assigned the 
highest place in the class of objects among which she is numbered — the nations of antiquity — she 
is one of them." — Lennie's Gram., p. 79. 

" From short (as usual) and disturb'd repose 
I wake; how happy they who wake no more !" — Hallock's Gram., p. 216. 

Uistder Rule II. — Greater Pauses. 
" A taste of a thing, implies actual enjoyment of it; but a taste for it, implies only capacity for 
enjoyment ; as, ' When we have had a true taste of the pleasures of virtue, we can have no relish 
for those of vice.' " — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 147. 

[Fobmuxe. — Not proper, because the pause after enjoyment is marked only by a semicolon. But, according to 
Rule 2d for the Colon, "When the semicolon has been introduced, or when it must be used in a subsequent 
member, and a still greater pause is required within the period, the colon should be employed." Therefore, 
the second semicolon here should be changed to a colon.] 

" The Indicative mood simply declares a thing; as, He loves; He is loved; Or, it asks a ques- 
tion; as, Lovest thou me?" — Id., ib., p. 35 ; Pract. Lessons, p. 43 ; Lennie's Gr., p. 20. " The In- 
dicative Mood simply indicates or declares a thing: as, 'He loves, he is loved:' or it asks a ques- 
tion: as, 'Does he love?' 'Is he loved?"' — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 63; 12mo, p. 63. 
"The Imperfect (or Past) tense represents an action or event indefinitely as past; as, Caesar 
came, and saw, and conquered ; or it represents the action definitely as unfinished and continuing 
at a certain time, now entirely past ; as, My father was coming home when I met him." — Bullions, 
P. L., p. 45 ; E. Gr., 39. "Some nouns have no plural; as, gold, silver, wisdom, health; others 
have no singular ; as, ashes, shears, tongs ; others are alike in both numbers ; as, sheep, deer, 
means, news." — Day's School Gram., p. 15. " The same verb may be transitive in one sense, and 
intransitive in another ; thus, in the sentence, ' He believes my story,' believes is transitive ; but 
in this phrase, ' He believes in God,' it is intransitive." — Butler's Gram., p. 61. " Let the divi- 
sions be distinct ; one part should not include another, but each should have its proper place, and 
be of importance in that place, and all the parts well fitted together and united, should present a 
whole." — Goldsbury's C. S. Gram., p. 91. " In the use of the transitive verb there are always 
three things implied, — the actor, the act, and the object acted upon. In the use of the intransitive 



CHAP. I.] PEOSODT. — PUNCTUATION. — COLON. — EKRORS. — PERIOD. 791 

there are only two — the subject or thing spoken of} and the state, or action attributed to it." 

Bullions, E. Gram., p. 30. 

" Why labours reason ? instinct were as well ; 
Instinct far better; what can choose, can err." — Brit. Poets, Yol. viii, p. 326. 

Under Rule III. — Independent Quotations. 

" The sentence may run thus ; ' He is related to the same person, and is governed by him.' " 

Harts Gram., p. 118. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because the semicolon is here inserted, in an unusual manner, before a quotation not 
closely dependent. But, according to Rule 3d for the Colon, "A quotation introduced -without a close depend- 
ence on a verb or a conjunction, is generally preceded by the colon." Therefore, the colon should be here pre- 
ferred.] 

"Always remember this ancient proverb, ' Know thyself.' " — Hallock's Gram., p. 26. "Con- 
sider this sentence. The boy runs swiftly." — Frazee's Gram., Stereotype Ed., p. 107 ; 1st Ed., 
1 10. " The comparative is used thus ; ' Greece was more polished than any other nation of an- 
tiquity.' The same idea is expressed by the superlative when the word other is left out. Thus, 
'Greece was the most polished nation of antiquity."' — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 114: see Lennie's 
Gram., p. 78. "Burke, in his speech on the Carnatic war, makes the following allusion to the 
well known fable of Cadmus's sowing dragon's teeth ; — ' Every day you are fatigued and disgusted 
with this cant, the Carnatic is a country that will soon recover, and become instantly as prosperous 
as ever. They think they are talking to innocents, who believe that by the sowing of dragon's teeth, 
men may come up ready grown and ready made.' " — Riley's Gram., p. 137 ; see also Harts, 180. 

" Eor sects he car'd not, ' they are not of us, 
Nor need we, brethren, their concerns discuss.' " — Crabbe. 

" Habit with him was all the test of truth, 

' It must be right : I've done it from my youth.' 
Questions he answer'd in as brief a way, 

1 It must be wrong — it was of yesterday.' " — Id., Borough, p. 33. 

MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROR. 

"This would seem to say, 'I doubt nothing save one thing, namely, that he will fulfil his prom- 
ise;' whereas, that is the very thing not doubted." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 147. " The common 
use of language requires that a distinction be made between morals and manners, the former de- 
pend upon internal dispositions, the latter on outward and visible accomplishments." — Beanie's 
Moral Science, p. 233. " Though I detest war in each particular fibre of my heart yet I honor 
the Heroes among our fathers who fought with bloody hand : Peacemakers in a savage way they 
were faithful to their light ; the most inspired can be no more, and we, with greater light, do, it may 
be, far less." — Barker's Idea of a Church, p. 21. "The Article the, like a, must have a substantive 
joined with it, whereas that, like one, may have it understood ; thus, speaking of books, I may select 
one, and say, ' give me that ;' but not, ' give me the ;' ' give me one;' but not ' give me a.' " — Bullions 's 
E. Gram., p. 194. " The Present tense has three distinct forms — the simple ; as, I read ; the em- 
phatic; as, I do read; and the progressive; as, I am reading." — lb., p. 39. "The tenses in 
English are usually reckoned six. The Present, the Imperfect, the Perfect, the Pluperfect, the 
Future, and the Future Perfect." — lb., p. 38. "There are three participles, the Present or Active, 
the Perfect or Passive, and the Compound Perfect; as, 'loving, loved, having loved.'" — L. Mur- 
ray's Gram., 2d Edition, p. 52; Alger's, 28; Fisk's,82; Bacon's, 24. " The Participles are three, 
the Present, the Perfect, and the Compound Perfect; as, loving, loved, having loved." — Hart's 
Gram., p. 74. "Will is conjugated regularly, when it is a principal verb, as, present, I will, past, 
I willed, &c." — Frazee's Gram., Ster. Ed., p. 42; Old Ed., p. 40. "And both sounds of x are- 
compound, one is that of gz, and the other, that of ks." — lb., Ster. Ed., p. 16. "The man is 
happy: he is benevolent : he is useful." — Cooper's Murray, -p. 18; PI. and Pract. Gr., 33. "The 
Pronoun stands instead of the noun; as, The man is happy ; he is benevolent; he is useful.' " — L. 
Murray's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 27. "A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too 
frequent repetition of the same word: as, ' The man is happy,' l he is benevolent,' he is useful.' " — 
lb., p. 37. " A pronoun is a word, used in the room of a noun, or as a substitute for one or more 
words, as: the man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful." — Cooper's PI. and Pr. Gram., p. 
14; his Abridg. of Mur., 34. "A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class of beings, or 
things, as: animal; tree; insect; fish; fowl." — Cooper's PL and Pr. Gram,, p. 17. "Nouns have 
three persons: the first; the second; and the third." — lb., 17. 

" (Eve) so saying, her rash hand in evil hour 

Forth reaching to the fruit ; she pluck'd, she ate 

Earth felt the wound : and nature from her seat, 

Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo» 

That all was lost." — Cooper's PL and Pr. Gram., p. 175. 

SECTION IV.— THE PEKIOD. 

The Period, or Full Stop, is used to mark an entire and independent 
sentence, whether simple or compound. 



792 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Rule I. — Distinct Sentences. 

When a sentence, whether long or short, is complete in respect to sense, and inde- 
pendent in respect to construction, it should be marked with the period : as, " Every 
deviation from truth is criminal. Abhor a falsehood. Let your words be ingenuous. 
Sincerity possesses the most powerful charm." — " The force of a true individual is 
felt through every clause and part of a right book ; the commas and dashes are alive 
with it." — R. W. Emerson. 

" By frequent trying, Troy was won. 
All things, by trying, may be done." — Lloyd, p. 184. 

Rule II. — Allied Sentences. 
The period is often employed between two sentences which have a general con- 
nexion, expressed by a personal pronoun, a conjunction, or a conjunctive adverb : 
as, " The selfish man languishes in his narrow circle of pleasures. They are con- 
fined to what affects his own interests. He is obliged to repeat the same gratifica- 
tions, till they become insipid. But the man of virtuous sensibility moves in a 
wider sphere of felicity." — Blair. 

" And whether we shall meet again, I know not. 
Therefore our everlasting farewell take." — Shak., J. C. 

Rule III. — Abbreviations. 
The period is generally used after abbreviations, and very often to the exclu- 
sion of other points ; but, as in this case it is not a constant sign of pause, other 
points may properly follow it, if the words written in full would demand them : 
as, " A. D. for Anno Domini ; — Pro tern, for pro tempore ; — Ult. for ultimo ; — i. e. 
for id est, that is ; — Add., Spect., No. 285 ; i. e., Addison, in the Spectator, Number 
285th. 

" Consult the statute ; ' quart.' I think, it is, 
4 Edwardi sext./ or ' prim, et quint. Eliz.' " — Pope, p. 399. 

OBSERVATIONS. 
Obs. 1. — It seems to be commonly supposed, whether correctly or not, that short sentences 
which are in themselves distinct, and which in their stated use must be separated by the period, 
may sometimes be rehearsed as examples, in so close succession as not to require this point : as, 
" But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which ? Jesus 
said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt 
not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother : and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
as thyself." — Scott, Alger, and others: Matt, xix, 17, 18, 19. "The following sentences ex- 
emplify the possessive pronouns : — 'ify lesson is finished ; Thy books are defaced ; He loves his 
studies ; She performs her duty ; We own our faults ; Your situation is distressing ; I admire their 
virtues.' " — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 55. What mode of pointing is best adapted to examples 
like these, is made a very difficult question by the great diversity of practice in such cases. The 
semicolon, with guillemets, or the semicolon and a dash, with the quotation marks, may some- 
times be sufficient ; but I see no good reason why the period should not in general be preferred 
to the comma, the semicolon, or the colon, where full and distinct sentences are thus recited. 
The foregoing passage of Scripture I have examined in five different languages, ten different 
translations, and seventeen different editions which happened to be at hand. In these it is found 
pointed in twelve different ways. In Leusden's, GTriesbach's, and Aitton's Greek, it has nine 
colons ; in Leusden's Latin from Montanus, eight; in the common French version, six; in the old 
Dutch, five ; in our Bibles, usually one, but not always. In some books, these commandments 
are mostly or wholly divided by periods ; in others, by colons ; in others, by semicolons ; in others, 
as above, by commas. The first four are negative, or prohibitory ; the other two, positive, or man- 
datory. Hence some make a greater pause after the fourth, than elsewhere between any two. 
This greater pause is variously marked by the semicolon, the colon, or the period ; and the others, 
at the same time, as variously, by the comma, the semicolon, or the colon. Dr. Campbell, in his 
Four Gospels, renders and points the latter part of this passage thus : "Jesus answered, ' Thou 
shalt not commit murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt 
not give false testimony. Honour thy father and mother; and love thy neighbour as thyself.' " 
But the corresponding passage in Luke, xviii, 20, he exhibits thus : " Thou knowest the com- 
mandments. Do not commit adultery ; do not commit murder ; do not steal ; do not give false 
testimony ; honour thy father and thy mother." This is here given as present advice, referring 
to the commandments, but not actually quoting them ; and, in this view of the matter, semicolons, 



CHlP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. PERIOD. — OBSERVATIONS. 793 

not followed by capitals may be right. See the common reading under Rule XXV for Capitals, on 
page 166. 

Obs. 2. — Letters written for numbers, after the manner of the Romans, though read as words, 
are never words in themselves ; nor are they, except perhaps in one or two instances, abbrevia- 
tions of words. C, a hundred, comes probably from Centum ; and M, a thousand, is the first 
letter of Milk ; but the others, I, V, X, L, D, and the various combinations of them all, are 
direct numerical signs, as are the Arabic figures. Hence it is not really necessary that the period 
should be set after them, except at the end of a sentence, or where it is suitable as a sign of 
pause. It is, however, and always has been, a prevalent custom, to mark numbers of this kind 
with a period, as if they were abbreviations ; as, " While pope Sixtus Y. who succeeded Greg- 
ory XIII. fulminated the thunder of the church against the king of Navarre." — Smollet's Eng., 
hi, 82. The period is here inserted where the reading requires only the comma; and, in my 
opinion, the latter point should have been preferred. Sometimes, of late, we find other points 
set after this period ; as, " Otho II., surnamed the Bloody, was son and successor of Otho I. ; 
he died in 983." — Univ. Biog.Dict. This may be an improvement on the former practice, but 
double points are not generally used, even where they are proper ; and, if the period is not indis- 
pensable, a simple change of the point would perhaps sooner gain the sanction of general usage. 

Obs. 3. — Some writers, judging the period to be wrong or needless in such cases, omit it, and 
insert only such points as the reading requires; as, "For want of doing this, Judge Blackstone 
has, in Book IY, Chap. 17, committed some most ludicrous errors." — Cobbett's Gram., Let. XIX, 
Y 251. To insert points needlessly, is as bad a fault as to omit them when they are requisite. 
In Wm. Day's " Punctuation Reduced to a System," (London, 1847.) we have the following ob- 
scure and questionable Rule : " Besides denoting a grammatical pause, the full point is used to 
mark contractions, and is requisite after every abbreviated word, as well as after numeral letters." 
— Page 102. This seems to suggest that both a pause and a contraction may be denoted by the 
same point. But what are properly called " contractions,'''' are marked not by the period, but by 
the apostrophe, which is no sign of pause; and the confounding of these with words "abbrevi- 
ated," makes this rule utterly absurd. As for the period " after numeral letters" if they really 
needed it at all, they would need it severally, as do the abbreviations ; but there are none of them, 
which do not uniformly dispense with it, when not final to the number ; and they may as well 
dispense with it, in like manner, whenever they are not final to the sentence. 

Obs. 4. — Of these letters, Day gives this account: "J/, denotes mille, 1,000; D., dimidium 
milk, half a thousand, or 500; C. centum, 100; L. represents the lower half of C, and ex- 
presses 50; X. resembles V. V., the one upright, the other inverted, and signifies 10; V. stands 
for 5, because its sister letter U is the fifth vowel ; and 1. signifies 1, probably because it is the 
plainest and simplest letter in the alphabet." — Day's Punctuation, p. 103. There is some fancy in 
this. Dr. Adam says, " The letters employed for this purpose [i. e., to express numbers.'] were C. 
I. L. Y. X" — Latin and Eng. Gram., p. 288. And again : " A thousand is marked thus CIq. which 
in later times was contracted into M. Five hundred is marked thus, Iq. or bv contraction, D." — 
lb. Day inserts periods thus : " IY. means 4 ; IX, 9 ; XL., 40 ; XC, 90 ; CD., 400 ; CM., 900." 
— Page 103. And again: "4to., quarto, the fourth of a sheet of paper; 8vo., octavo, the eighth 
part of a sheet of paper; 12mo., duodecimo, the twelfth of a sheet of paper; X. L., 8°., 9'., 10"., 
North latitude, eight degrees, nine minutes, ten seconds." — Page 104. But IY may mean 4, 
without the period ; 4to or 8vo has no more need of it than 4th or 8th ; and N. L. 8° 9' 10" is an 
expression little to be mended by commas, and not at all by additional periods. 

Obs. 5. — To allow the period of abbreviation to supersede all other points wherever it occurs, 
as authors generally have done, is sometimes plainly objectionable ; but, on the other hand, to 
suppose double points to be always necessary wherever abbreviations or Roman numbers have 
pauses less than final, would sometimes seem more nice than wise, as in the case of Biblical and 
other references. A concordance or a reference Bible pointed on this principle, would differ 
greatly from any now extant. In such references, numbers are very frequently pointed with the 
period, with scarcely any regard to the pauses required in the reading ; as, " DIADEM. Job 29. 
14. Isa. 28. 5. and 62. 3. Ezek. 21. 26." — Brown's Concordance. "Where no vision is, the 
people perish, Prov. xxix. 18. Acts iv. 12. Rom. x. 14." — Brown's Catechism, p. 104. "What 
I urge from 1. Pet. 3. 21. in my Apology." — Barclay's Works, iii, 498. "I. Kings — II. Kings." 
— Alger's Bible, p. iv. "Compare iii. 45. with 1. Cor. iv. 13." — Scott's Bible, Pref. to Lam. Jer. 
" Hen. v. A. 4. Sc. 5."— Butler's Gram., p. 41. " See Rule iii. Rem. 10."— lb., p. 162. Some set 
a colon between the number of the chapter and that of the verse ; which mark serves weU for 
distinction, where both numbers are in Arabic figures : as, " ' He that formed the eye, shall he 
not see?' — Ps. 94: 9." — Wells's Gram,, p. 126. "He had only a lease-hold title to his service. 
Lev. 25 : 39, Exod. 21 : 2." — True Amer., i. 29. Others adopt the following method which seems 
preferable to any of the foregoing: "Isa. Iv, 3; Ezek. xviii, 20; Mic. vi, 7." — Gurney's Essays, 
p. 133. Churchill, who is uncommonly nice about his punctuation, writes as follows : " Luke. 
vi, 41, 42. See also Chap, xv, 8 ; and Phil., iii. 12." — New Gram., p. 353. 

Obs. 6. — Arabic figures used as ordinals, or used for the numeral adverbs, first, or firstly, sec- 
ondly, thirdly, &c, are very commonly pointed with the period, even where the pause required 
after them is less than a full stop ; as, "We shall consider these words, 1. as expressing resolution ; 
and 2. as expressing futurity." — Bidler's Gram., p. 106. But the period thus followed by a small 
letter, has not an agreeable appearance, and some would here prefer the comma, which is, un- 
doubtedly, better suited to the pause. A fitter practice, however, would be, to change the 



T94 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

expression thus : ""We shall consider these words, 1st, as expressing resolution; and, 2dly, as 
expressing futurity," 

Obs. 1. — Names vulgarly shortened, then written as they are spoken, are not commonly marked 
with a period; as, Ben for Benjamin. "0 rare Ben Johnson!" — Biog. Bid. 

" From whence the inference is plain, 
Your friend Mat Prior wrote with pain." — Lloyd: B. P., Vol. viii, p. 188. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 
FALSE PUNCTUATION.— ERRORS CONCERNING- THE PERIOD. 
Under Rule I. — Distinct Sentences. 
" The third person is the position of the name spoken of; as, Paul and Silas were imprisoned, 
the earth thirsts, the sun shines." — Frazee's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 21; Ster. Ed., p. 23. 

[Fobmule. — Not proper, because three totally distinct sentences are here thrown together as examples, with 
no other distinction than what is made by two commas. But, according to Rule 1st for the Period, " When a sen- 
tence, whether long or short, is complete in respect to sense, and independent in respect to construction, it should 
be marked with the period." Therefore, these commas should be periods; and, of course, the first letter of 
each example must be a capital.] 

" Two and three and four make nine ; if he were here, he would assist his father and mother, 
for he is a dutiful son ; they live together, and are happy, because they enjoy each other's society ; 
they went to Roxbury, and tarried all night, and came back the next day." — Goldsbury's Parsing 
Lessons in his Manual of E. Gram., p. 64. 

" We often resolve, but seldom perform ; she is wiser than her sister ; though he is often ad- 
vised, yet he does not reform ; reproof either softens or hardens its object ; he is as old as his 
classmates, but not so learned ; neither prosperny, nor adversity, has improved him ; let him that 
standeth, take heed lest he fall ; he can acquire no virtue, unless he make some sacrifices."— Ibid. 
" Down from his neck, with blazing gems array 'd, 
Thy image, lovely Anna ! hung portray'd, 
Th' unconscious figure, smiling all serene, 
Suspended in a golden chain was seen," — S. Barrett's E. Gr., p. 92. 

Under Rule II. — Allied Sentences. 

" This life is a mere prelude to another, which has no limits, it is a little portion of duration. 
As death leaves us, so the day of judgment will find us." — Merchant's School Gram., p. 16. 

[Fosmule. — Not proper, because the pause after limits, which is sufficient for the period, is marked only by 
the comma. But, according to Rule 2d, " The period is often employed between two sentences which have a 
general connexion, expressed by a personal pronoun, a conjunction, or a conjunctive adverb." It would improve 
the passage, to omit the first comma, change the second to a period, and write the pronoun it with a capital. 
Judgment also might be bettered with an e, and another is properly two words.] 

" He went from Boston to New York ; he went from Boston ; he went to New York ; in walk- 
ing across the floor, he stumbled over a chair." — Goldsbury's Manual of E. Gram., p. 62. 

" I saw him on the spot, going along the road, looking towards the house ; during the heat of 
the day, he sat on the ground, under the shade of a tree." — Id., ib. 

" George came home, I saw him yesterday, here ; the word him, can extend only to the indi- 
vidual George? — S. Barrett's E. Gram., 10th Ed., p. 45. 

" Commas are often used now, where parentheses were formerly; I cannot, however, esteem 
this an improvement." — See the Key. 

" Thou, like a sleeping, faithless sentinel 
Didst let them pass unnoticed, unimproved, 
And know, for that thou slumb'rest on the guard, 
Thou shalt be made to answer at the bar 
For every fugitive." — Bollock's Gram., p. 222; Enfield's Sp., p. 380. 

Under Rule III. — Op Abbreviations. 

" The term pronoun (Lat pronomen) strictly means a word used for, or instead of a noun." — 
Bullions, E. Gram., p. 198. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because the syllable here put for the word Latin, is not marked with a period. But, 
according to Rule 3d, " The period is generally used after abbreviations, and very often to the exclusion of other 
points ; but, as in this case it is not a constant sign of pause, other points may properly follow it, if the words 
written in full would demand them." In this instance, a period should mark the abbreviation, and a comma be 
set after of. By analogy, in stead is also more properly two words than one.] 

"The period is also used after abbreviations; as, A. D. P. S. G. W. Johnson." — Butler's Pract 
Gram., p. 211. "On this principle of classification, the later Greek grammarians divided words 
into eight classes or parts of speech, viz : the Article, Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Participle, Adverb, 
Preposition, and Conjunction." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 191. 

" ' Metre is not confined to verse : there is a tune in all good prose ; and Shakspeare's was a 
sweet one.' — Epea Pter, II, 61. Mr. H. Tooke's idea was probably just, agreeing with Aristotle's ; 
but not accurately expressed." — Churchill's New Gram., p. 385. 

" Mr. J. H. Tooke was educated at Eton and at Cambridge, in which latter college he took the 
degree of A. M ; being intended for the established church of England, he entered into holy 



CHAP. I.] PROSOD.Y. — PUNCTUATION. — PERIOD. — ERRORS. — THE DASH. 795 

orders when young, and obtained the living of Brentford, near London, which he held ten or 
twelve years." — Div. of Purhy, 1st Amer. Edition, Yol. i, p. 60. 
" I, nor your plan, nor book condemn, 
But why your name, and why A. M !" — Lloyd. 

MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROR. 

" If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, &c. Isaiah, lviii. 7." — Butler's Gram., p. 67. 
" 'He that hath eeris of herynge, here he. Wiclif. Matt xi" — Butler's Gram., p. 16. " See Gen- 
eral Rules for Spelling, hi., v., and vii." — Butler's Gram., p. 81. " 'Ealse witnesses did rise up.' 
Ps. xxxv. ii." — Butler's Gram., p. 105. 

" An explicative sentence is used for explaining. An interrogative sentence for enquiring. An 
imperative sentence for commanding." — S. Barrett's Prin. of Language, p. 87. "In October, corn 
is gathered in the field by men, who go from hill to hill with baskets, into which they put the 
ears ; Susan labors with her needle for a livelihood ; notwithstanding his poverty, he is a man of 
integrity." — Goldsbury's Parsing, Manual of E. Gram., p. 62. 

" A word of one syllable, is called a monosyllable. A word of two syllables; a dissyllable. A 
word of three syllables ; a trissy liable. A word of four or more syllables; a polysyllable." — 
Frazee's Improved Gram., 1st Ed., p. 15. "A word of one syllable, is called a monosyllable. A 
word of two syllables, a dissyllable. A word of three syllables, a trissyllable. A word of four 
or more syllables, a polysyllable." — Frazee's Improved Gram., Ster. Ed., p. 17. 

"If I say, Hf it did not rain, I would take a walk;' I convey the idea that it does rain, at the 
time of speaking, If it rained, or did it rain, in the present time, implies, it does not rain ; If it 
did not rain, or did it not rain, in present time, implies that it does rain; thus in this peculiarity, 
an affirmative sentence always implies a negation, and a negative sentence an affirmation." — Frazee's 
Gram., 1st Ed., p. 61; Ster. Ed., 62. " If I were loved, and, were 1 loved, imply, I am not loved; 
if I were not loved, and, were I not loved, imply, I am loved ; a negative sentence implies an affir- 
mation: and an affirmative sentence implies a negation, in these forms of the subjunctive." — lb., 
Old Ed.', p. 73 ; Ster. Ed., 72. 

"What is Rule III. ?"— Harts Gram., p. 114. "How is Rule in. violated?"— lb., p. 115. 
" How do you parse 'letter ' in the sentence, ' James writes a letter ' ? Ans. — ' Letter is a noun 
com., of the masc. gend., in the 3d p., sing, num., and objective case, and is governed by the verb 
'writes,' according to Rule III., which says. 'A transitive verb,' &c." — lb., p. 114.* 
" Creation sleeps. 'T is as the general pulse 
Of life stood still, and nature made a pause ; 
An awful pause ! prophetic of her end, 
And let her prophecy be soon fulfilled ; 
Fate drop the curtain; I can lose no more." — Bollock's Gram., p. 216. 

SECTION V.— THE DASH. 

The Dash is mostly used to denote an unexpected or emphatic pause, 
of variable length; but sometimes it is a sign of faltering, or of the 
irregular stops of one who hesitates in speaking : as, " Then, after many 
pauses, and inarticulate sounds, he said : ' He was very sorry for it, was 
extremely concerned it should happen so — but — a — it was necessary — a — ' 

Here lord E stopped him short, and bluntly demanded, if his post 

were destined for an other/' — See Churchill's Gram., p. 170. 

Rule I. — Abrupt Pauses. 
A sudden interruption, break, or transition, should be marked with the dash ; as, 

1. "'I must inquire into the affair; and if — 'And iff interrupted the farmer." 

2. "Whom I — But first 't is fit the billows to restrain." — Dryd. Virg. 

3. " Here lies the great — False marble ! where ? 

Nothing but sordid dust lies here." — Young. 

Rule IT. — Emphatic Pauses. 
To mark a considerable pause, greater than the structure of the sentence or the 
points inserted would seem to require, the dash may be employed ; as, 1. "I pause 
for a reply. — None ? — Then none have I offended. — I have done no more to Caesar, 
than you should do to Brutus." — Shakspeare : Enfield's Speaker, p. 182. 

2. " Tarry a little. There is something else. — 

This bond — doth give thee here — no jot of blood." — Id. : Burgh's Sp., p. 167. 

* Needless abbreviations, like most tbat occur in this example, are in bad taste, and ought to be avoided. 
Tbe great faultiness of this text as a model for learners, compels me to vary the words considerably in suggest- 
ing the correction. See the Key. — G-. B. 



796 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

3. " It thunders ; — but it thunders to preserve." — Young. 

4. "Behold the picture ! — Is it like ? — Like whom ?" — Cowper. 

Rule III. — Faulty Dashes. 
Dashes needlessly inserted, or substituted for other stops more definite, are in gen- 
eral to be treated as errors in punctuation ; as, " Here Greece stands by itself as 
opposed to the other nations of antiquity — She was none of the other nations — She 
was more polished than they." — Lennie^s Gram., p. *78. "Here Greece stands by 
herself, as opposed to the other nations of antiquity. She was none of the other 
nations : She was more polished than they." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 114. If this 
colon is sufficient, the capital after it is needless : a period would, perhaps, be better. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The dash does not appear to be always a rhetorical stop, or always intended to lengthen 
the pause signified by an other mark before it. As one instance of a different design, we may 
notice, that it is now very often employed between a text and a reference ; — i. e., between a quota- 
tion and the name of the author of the book quoted; — in which case, as fm. Day suggests, "it 
serves as a connecting mark for the two." — Day's Punctuation, p. 131. But this usage, being com- 
paratively recent, is, perhaps, not so general or so necessary, that a neglect of it. may properly be 
censured as false punctuation. 

Obs. 2. — An other peculiar use of the dash, is its application to side-titles, to set them off from 
other words in the same line, as is seen often in this Grammar as well as in other works. Day 
says of this, ""When the substance of a paragraph is given as a side-head, a dash is necessary to 
connect it with its relative matter." — Ibid. Wilson also approves of this usage, as weU as of the 
others here named; saying, " The dash should be inserted between a title and the subject-matter, 
and also between the subject-matter, and the authority from which it is taken, when they occur in 
the same paragraph." — Wilson's Punctuation, Ed. of 1850, p. 139. 

Obs. 3. — The dash is often used to signify the omission of something; and, when set between 
the two extremes of a series of numbers, it may represent all the intermediate ones; as, " Page 
10—15;" i. e., "Page 10, 11, 12, &c. to 15."— "Matt., vi, 9—14." 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PUNCTUATION.— ERRORS CONCERNING THE DASH. 

Under Rule I. — Abrupt Pauses. 

" And there is something in your very strange story, that resembles . . . Does Mr. Bevil know 
your history particularly ?" — See Key. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because the abrupt pause after resembles is here marked by three periods. But, ac- 
cording to Rule 1st for the Dash, " A sudden interruption, break, or transition, should be marked with the 
dash." Therefore, the dash should be preferred to these points.] 

"Sir, Mr. Myrtle, Gentlemen I You are friends; I am but a servant. But." — See Key. 

"Another man now would have given plump into this foolish story; but I? No, no, your 
humble servant for that." — See Key. 

" Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten thy trial ; which if Lord have mercy 
on thee for a hen !" — See Key. 

" But ere they came, 0, let me say no more ! 
Gather the sequel by that went before." — See Key. 

Under Rule II. — Emphatic Pauses. 

"M, Malvolio; M, why, that begins my name." 

[Fohmtjle. — Not proper, because the pauses after M and Malvolio seem not to be sufficiently indicated here. 
But, according to Rule 2d for the Dash, " To mark a considerable pause, greater than the structure of the sen- 
tence or the points inserted would seem to require, the dash may be employed." Therefore, a dash may be set 
after the commas and the semicolon, in this sentence.] 

" Thus, by the creative influence of the Eternal Spirit, were the heavens and the earth finished 
in the space of six davs, so admirably finished, an unformed chaos changed into a system of per- 
fect order and beauty, that the adorable Architect himself pronounced it very good, and all the 
sons of God shouted for joy." — See Key. 

" If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop remained in my 
country, I NEVER would lay down my arms; NEVER, NEVER, NEVER."— Columbian 
Orator, p. 265. 

" Madam, yourself are not exempt in this, 
Nor your son Dorset, Buckingham, nor you." — See Key. 

Under Rule III. — Faulty Dashes. 
" — You shall go home directly, Le Fevre, said my uncle Toby, to my house, — and we'll send 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — ERRORS. — THE EROTEME. 797 

for a doctor to see what's the matter, — and we'll have an apothecary, — and the corporal shall be 
your nurse; — and I'll be your servant, Le Fevre." — Sterne : Enfield's Speaker, p. 306. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because all the dashes here quoted, except perhaps the last, are useless, or obviouBly 
substituted for more definite marks. But, according to Rule 3d, " Dashes needlessly inserted, or substituted for 
other stops more definite, are in general to be treated as errors in punctuation." Therefore, the first of these 
should be simply expunged ; the second, third, and fourth, with their commas, should be changed to semicolons ; 
and the last, with its semicolon, may well be made a colon.] 

"He continued — Inferior artists may be at a stand, because they want materials." — Harris: 
Enfield's Speaker, p. 191. "Thus, then, continued he — The end in other arts is ever distant and 
removed." — Id., ib. 

" The nouns must be coupled with and, and when a pronoun is used it must be plural, as in 
the example — When the nouns are disjoined the pronoun must be singular." — Lennie's Gram., 
5th Ed., p. 57. 

" Opinion is a noun or substantive common, — of the singular number, — neuter gender, — nomi- 
native case, — and third person." — Wright's Philos. Gram., p. 228. 

" The mountain — thy pall and thy prison — may keep thee ; 
I shall see thee no more ; but till death I will weep thee." — Felton's Gram., p. 146. 

MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROR 

" If to accommodate man and beast, heaven and earth ; if this be beyond me, 'tis not possible. 
— "What consequence then follows ? or can there be any other than this — If I seek an interest of 
my own, detached from that of others ; I seek an interest which is chimerical, and can never have 
existence." — Harris: Enfield's Speaker, p. 139. 

" Again — I must have food and clothing — Without a proper genial warmth, I instantly perish 
— Am I not related, in this view, to the very earth itself? To the distant sun, from whose beams 
I derive vigour ?" — Id., ib., p. 140. 

" Nature instantly ebb'd again — the film returned to its place — the pulse flutter' d — stopp'd — 
went oh — throbb'd — stopp'd again — mov'd — stopp'd — shall I go on? — No." — Sterne: ib., p. 307. 

" Write ten nouns of the masculine gender. Ten of the feminine. Ten of the neuter. Ten 
indefinite in gender." — Pardon Davis's Gram., p. 9. 

" The Infinitive Mode has two tenses — the Indicative, six — the Potential, two — the Subjunctive, 
six, and the Imperative, one." — Frazee's Gram., Ster. Ed., p. 39 ; 1st Ed., 37. "Now notice the 
following sentences. John runs, — boys run — thou runnest." — lb., Ster. Ed., p. 50 ; 1st Ed., p. 48. 

" The Pronoun sometimes stands for a name — sometimes for an adjective — a sentence — a part 
of a sentence — and, sometimes for a whole series of propositions." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., 1st Ed., 
12mo, p. 321. 

" The self-applauding bird, the peacock, see — 

"Mark what a sumptuous pharisee is he !" — Cowper, i, 49. 

SECTION VI— THE EKOTEME. 

The Eroterne, or Note of Interrogation, is used to designate a question. 

Rule I. — Questions Direct. 

Questions expressed directly as such, if finished, should always be followed by the 

note of interrogation ; as, "Was it possible that virtue so exalted should be erected 

upon injustice? that the proudest and the most ambitious of mankind should be 

the great master and accomplished pattern of humility ? that a doctrine so pure as 

the Gospel should be the work of an uncommissioned pretender ? that so perfect a 

system of morals should be established on blasphemy ?" — Jerningliam } s Essay, p. 81. 

" In life, can love be bought with gold ? 

Are friendship's pleasures to be sold ?" — Johnson. 

Rule II. — Questions United. 

When two or more questions are united in one compound sentence, the comma, 
semicolon, or dash, is sometimes used to separate them, and the eroteme occurs after 
the last only; as, 1. "When — under what administration — under what exigencies 
of war or peace—did the Senate ever before deal with such a measure in such a man- 
ner ? Never, sir, never." — D. Webster, in Congress, 1846. 

2. " Canst thou, and honour'd with a Christian name, 

Buy what is woman-born, and feel no shame ; 
Trade in the blood of innocence, and plead 
Expedience as a warrant for the deed ?" — Cowper. 

3. " Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land ? 

All fear, none aid you, and few understand." — Pope. 



798 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Rule III. — Questions Indirect. 

When a question is mentioned, but not put directly as a question, it loses both 
the quality and the sign of interrogation ; as, " The Cyprians asked me why I wept." 
— Murray. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The value of the eroteme as a sign of pause, is stated very differently by different 
grammarians ; while many of the vast multitude, by a strange oversight, say nothing about it. 
It is unquestionably variable, like that of the dash, or of the ecphoneme. W. H. Wells says, 
" The comma requires a momentary pause ; the semicolon, a pause somewhat longer than the 
comma ; the colon, a pause somewhat longer than the semicolon ; and the period, a full stop. 
The note of interrogation, or the note of exclamation, may take the place of either of these, and 
accordingly requires a pause of the same length as the point for which it is substituted." — Wells' 's 
School Gram., p. IT 5. This appears to be accurate in idea, though perhaps hardly so in language. 
Lindley Murray has stated it thus : " The interrogation and exclamation points are intermediate 
as to their quantity or time, and may be equivalent in that respect to a semicolon, a colon, or a 
period, as the sense may require." — Octavo Gram., p. 280. But Sanborn, in regard to his " Ques- 
tion Point," awkwardly says: " This pause is generally some longer than that of a period." — Ana- 
lytical Gram., p. 271. Buchanan, as long ago as 1767, taught as follows: "The Pause after the 
two Points of Interrogation and Admiration ought to be equal to that of the Period, or a Colon at 
least." — English Syntax, p. 160. And J. S. Hart avers, that, "A question is reckoned as equal to 
a complete sentence, and the mark of interrogation as equal to a period." — Harts English Gram., 
p. 166. He says also, that, "the first word after a note of interrogation should begin with a cap- 
ital." — lb., p. 162. In some instances, however, he, like others, has not adhered to these excep- 
tionable principles, as may be seen by the false grammar cited below. 

Obs. 2. — Sometimes a series of questions may be severally complete in sense, so that each may 
require the interrogative sign, though some or all of them may be so united in construction, as not 
to admit either a long intermediate pause or an initial capital ; as, " Is there no honor in gener- 
osity ? nor in preferring the lessons of conscience to the impulses of passion ? nor in maintaining 
the supremacy of moral principle, and in paying reverence to Christian truth ?" — Gannett. " True 
honour is manifested in a steady, uniform train of actions, attended by justice, and directed by 
prudence. Is this the conduct of the duellist ? will justice support him in robbing the community 
of an able and useful member ? and in depriving the poor of a benefactor ? will it support him in 
preparing affliction for the widow's heart? in filling the orphan's eyes with tears ?" — Jerning- 
ham's Essay, p. 113. But, in this latter example, perhaps, commas might be substituted for the 
second and fourth erotemes ; and the word will might, in both instances, begin with a capital. 

Obs. 3. — When a question is mentioned in its due form, it commonly retains the sign of inter- 
rogation, though not actually asked by the writer ; and, except perhaps when it consists of some 
little interrogative word or phrase, requires the initial capital : as, " To know when this point 
ought to be used, do not say : [,] ' Is a question asked ?' but, ' Does the sentence ask a question?' " 
— OhurchilVs Gram., p. 368. "They put their huge inarticulate question, 'What do you mean to 
do with us?' in a manner audible to every reflective soul in the kingdom." — Carlyle's Past and 
Present, p. 16. "An adverb may be generally known, by its answering to the question, How? 
how much? when? or where? as, in the phrase, 'He reads correctly,' 1 the answer to the question, 
How does he read? is correctly. ," — L. Murray's Gram., p. 28. This passage, which, without ever 
arriving at great accuracy, has been altered by Murray and others in ways innumerable, is every- 
where exhibited with five interrogation points. But, as to capitals and commas, as well as the 
construction of words, it would seem no easy matter to determine what impression of it is nearest 
right. In Flint's Murray it stands thus: "An adverb may generally be known by its answering 
the question, How ? How much ? When ? or Where ? As in the phrase, ' He reads correctly. 
The answer to the question, ' How does he read ?' is, ' correctly? " Such questions, when the 
pause is slight, do not, however, in all cases, require capitals : as, 
" Rosal. Which of the visors was it, that you wore? 
Biron. Where ? when ? what visor ? why demand you this ?" 

Shakspeare, Love's Labour Lost, Act V, Sc. 2. 
Obs. 4. — A question is sometimes put in the form of a mere declaration; its interrogative 
character depending solely on the r eroteme, and the tone, or inflection of voice, adopted in the 
utterance : as, " I suppose, Sir, you are his apothecary ?" — Swift : Burgh's Speaker, p. 85. " I 
hope, you have, upon no account, promoted sternutation by hellebore ?" — Id., ib. " This priest 
has no pride in him ?" — Singer's Shak., Henry VIII, ii, 2. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PUNCTUATION.— ERRORS CONCERNING- THE EROTEME. 
Under Rule I. — Questions Direct. 
"When will his ear delight in the sound of arms." — 0. B. Pence's Gram., 12mo, p. 59. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because here is a finished question -with a period set after it. But, according to Rule 
1st for the Eroteme, "Questions expressed directly as such, if finished, should always he followed by the note 
of interrogation." Therefore, the eroteme, or note of interrogation, should here be substituted for the period.] 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. PUNCTUATION. THE EROTEME. ERRORS. 799 

""When shall I, like Oscar, travel in the light of my steel." — lb., p. 59. "Will Henry call on 
me while he shall be journeying South." — Peirce, ib., p. 133. 

"An Interrogative Pronoun is one that is used in asking a question ; as, ' who is he, and what 
does he want?' " — Bay's School Gram., p. 21. " Who is generally used when we would inquire 
for some unknown person or persons; as, who is that man." — lb., p. 24. "Our fathers, where 
are they, and the prophets, do they live forever?" — lb., p. 109. 

" It is true, that some of our best writers have used than whom ; but it is also true, that they 
have used other phrases which we have rejected as ungrammatical : then why not reject this too. — 
The sentences in the Exercises [with than who] are correct as they stand." — Lennie's Gram., 5th 
Ed., 1819, p. 79. 

"When the perfect participle of an active-intransitive verb is annexed to the neuter verb to be ? 
"What does the combination form ?" — Hallock's Gram., p. 88. " Those adverbs which answer to 
the question where, whither or whence, are called adverbs of place." — lb., p. 116. 

" Canst thou, by searching, find out God; Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ; It ia 
high as heaven, what canst thou do ? deeper than hell, what canst thou know ?" — Blair's Bhet n 
p. 132. 

" Where, where, for shelter shall the guilty fly, 
When consternation turns the good man pale." — lb., p. 222. 

Under Rule II. — Questions United. 
"Who knows what resources are in store? and what the power of God may do for thee ?" 
[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because an eroteme is 6et after store, where a comma would be sufficient. But, ac- 
cording to Ihilc ~d for the Eroteme, " When two or more questions are united in one compound sentence, the 
comma, semicolon, or d:ish, is sometimes used to separate them, and the eroteme occurs after the last only." 
Therefore, the comma should here be preferred, as the author probably wrote the text. See Key.] 

" The Lord is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath 
he said it ? and irhall he not do it ? Hath he spoken it ? and shall he not make it good ?" — Mur- 
ray's Gram., 8vo, p. 353; 12mo, 277; Hiley's, 139; Harts, 181. " Hath the Lord said it? and 
shall he not do it? Hath he spoken it? and shall he not make it good?" — Lennie's Gram., p. 113; 
Bullions's, 176. 

" Who calls the council, states the certain day ? 
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way." — Brit. Poets, vi, 376. 

Under Rule III. — Questions Indirect. 
" To be, or not to be? — that is the question." — Enfield's Sp., p. 367 ; Kirkham's Eloc, 123* 
[Foejiuxe. — Not proper, because the note of interrogation is here set after an expression which has neither 
the form nor the nature of a direct question. But, according to Rule 3d for the Eroteme, "When a question is 
mentioned, but not put directly as a question, it loses both the quality and the sign of interrogation." There- 
fore, the semicolon, which seems adapted to the pause, should here be preferred.] 

" If it be asked, why a pause should any more be necessary to emphasis than to an accent ? or 
why an emphasis alone, will not sufficiently distinguish the members of sentences from each other, 
without pauses, as accent does words ? the answer is obvious ; that we are pre-acquainted with 
the sound of words, and cannot mistake them when distinctly pronounced, however rapidly ; but 
we are not pre-acquainted with the meaning of sentences, which must be pointed out to us by the 
reader or speaker." — Sheridan's PJiet. Gram., p. ivi. 

" Cry, By your Priesthood tell me what you are ?" — 

Pope : British Poets, London, 1800, Yol. vi, p. 411. 

MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROR. 

" Who else can he be. Where else can he go." — & Barrett's Gram., 1845, p. 71. " In familiar 
language here, there and where are used for hither, thither and whither." — N. Butler's Gram., p. 
183. "Take, for instance, this sentence, 'Indolence undermines the foundation of virtue.' " — 
Hart's Gram., p. 106. "Take, for instance, the sentence before quoted. ' Indolence undermines 
the foundation of virtue.' " — lb., p. 110. " Under the same head are considered such sentences as 
these, ' he that heareth, let him hear,' 'Gad, a troop shall overcome him,' &c." — lb., p. 108. 

" Tenses are certain modifications of the verb which point out the distinctions of time." — 
Bullions, E. Gram., p. 38 ; Pract. Les., p. 44. " Calm was the day and the scene delightful." — 
Id., E. Gr., p. 80. " The capital letters used by the Romans to denote numbers, were C. I. L. 
V. X. which are therefore called Numeral Letters. I, denotes one ; Y, five : X, ten ; L, fifty ; 
and C, a hundred." — Id., Lot. Gram., p. 56. " 'I shall have written;' viz, at or before some fu- 
ture time or event." — Id., ib., p. 89. "In Latin words the liquids are I and r only. In Greek 
words I, r, m, n." — Id., ib., p. 277. " Each legion was divided into ten cohorts, each cohort into 
three maniples, and each maniple into two centuries." — Id., ib., p. 309. " Of the Roman literature 
previous to A. U. 514 scarcely a vestige remains." — Id., ib., p. 312. 
" And that, which He delights in must be happy. 
But when! — or where ! — This world was made for Caesar." — Burgh's Sp., p. 122. 

* " To be, or not to be? — that's the question." — HallocJc's Gram., p. 220. " To be, or not to be, that is the 
question :" — Singer's Shak., ii, 4S8. " To be. or not to be ; that is the Question." — Ward's Gram., p. 160. " To 
be, or not to be, that is the Question;" — Brightlavd's Gram., p. 209. "To be, or not to be?" — MandevilWs 
Course of Reading, p. 141. " To be or not to be ! That is the question." — Pinned" s Gram., p. 1T6. " To be — 
or not to be — that is the question — " — Burgh's Speaker, p. 179. 



800 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

" And that which he delights in must be happy. 

But when, or where? This world was made for Caesar." — Enfield's Sp., p. 321. 
" Look next on greatness. Say, where greatness lies ? 

Where but among the heroes and the wise." — Burgh's Sp., p. 91. 
" Look next on greatness ! say where greatness lies. 

"Where, but among the heroes and the wise?" — Essay on Man, p. 51. 
" Look next on Greatness ; say where Greatness lies : 

Where, but among the Heroes and the Wise?" — Brit. Poets, vi, 380. 

SECTION VII.— THE ECPHONEME. 

The Ecphoneme, or Note of Exclamation, is used to denote a pause 
with some strong emotion of admiration, joy, grief, or other feeling ; and, 
as a sign of great wonder, it is sometimes, though not very elegantly, re- 
peated : as, " Grammatical consistency ! ! ! What a gem !" — Peirce's 
Gram., p. 352. 

Rule I. — Interjections, &g. 

Emphatic interjections, and other expressions of great emotion, are generally fol- 
lowed by the note of exclamation ; as, " Hold ! hold ! Is the devil in you ? Oh ! I 
am bruised all over." — Moliere : Burgh's Speaker, p. 250. 
" And O ! till earth, and seas, and heav'n decay, 
Ne'er may that fair creation fade away !" — Dr. Lowth. 

Rule II. — Invocations. 
After an earnest address or solemn invocation, the note of exclamation is now gen- 
erally preferred to any other point : as, " Whereupon, king Agrippa ! I was not 
disobedient unto the heavenly vision." — Acts, xxvi, 19. 
" Be witness thou, immortal Lord of all ! 
Whose thunder shakes the dark aerial hall." — Pope. 

Rule III. — Exclamatory Questions. 

Words uttered with vehemence in the form of a question, but without reference to 
an answer, should be followed by the note of exclamation ; as, " How madly have I 
talked !" — Young. 

" An Author ! 'Tis a venerable name ! 
How few deserve it, and what numbers claim !" — Id., Br. Po., viii, 401. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PUNCTUATION.— ERRORS CONCERNING- THE ECPHONEME. 
Under Rule I. — Of Interjections, &c. 
(1.) " O that he were wise." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 111. 

[Fobmtjle. — Not proper, because this strong wish, introduced by " O," is merely marked with a period. But, 
according to Rule 1st for the Ecphoneme, "Emphatic interjections, and other expressions of great emotion, ar« 
generally followed by the note of exclamation." Therefore, the pause after this sentence, should be marked 
with the latter sign ; and, if the " O" be read with a pause, the same sign may be there also.] 

(2.) " that his heart was tender." — Exercises, ib., p. 111. (3.) " Oh, what a sight is here 1" — 
Lennie's Gram., -p. 48. (4.) "Oh! what a sight is here." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 71; (Obs. 2;) 
Pract. Les., p. 83. (5.) " O virtue! How amiable thou art." — Id., ib., p. 71; Pract. Les., p. 82. 
(6.) "O virtue! how amiable thou art."— Day's Gram., p. 109. (7.) "O, virtue! how amiable 
thou art."— S. Putnam's Gram., p. 53. (8.) " Oh! virtue, how amiable thou art!"— Ha Hock's 
Gram., p. 191 ; 0. B. Peirce's, 375. (9.) " O virtue ! how amiable thou art!"— Hallock's Gram., 
p. 126. (10.) "Ohl that I had been more diligent."— Hart's Gram., p. 167 ; see Hiley's, 117. 
(11.) "O! the humiliation to which vice reduces us." — Farnum's Gram., p. 12; Murray's Ex., 
p. 5. (12.) "O! that he were more prudent." — Farnum's Gram., p. 81. (13.) "Ah! me." — P. 
Davis's Gram., p. 79. (14.) "Ah me!"— Ib., p. 122. (15.) "Lately alas I knew a gentle boy," 
&c.—The Dial, Yol. i, p. 71. 

(16.) "Wo is me Alhama,"— Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 190. 
(17.) " Wo is me, Alhama."— Ib id., " 113th Thousand," p. 206. 

Under Rule II. — Op Invocations. 
"Weep on the rocks of roaring winds, O maid of Inistore." — Kirkham's Gram., p. 131; 
Cooper's Plain and Practical Gram., p. 158. 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — ERRORS. — THE CURVES. 801 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because the emphatic address in this sentence, is marked with a period after it. But, 
according to Rule 2d for the Ecphoneme, "After an earnest address or solemn invocation, the note of exclama- 
tion is now generally preferred to any other point." Therefore, this period should be changed to the latter 
sign.] 

" Cease a little while, wind; stream, be thou silent a while; let my voice be heard around. 
Let my wanderer hear me. Salgar, it is Colma who calls. Here is the tree, and the rock. 
Salgar, my love, I am here. Why delay est thou thy coming? Lo, the calm moon comes forth. 
The flood is bright in the vale." — See Key. 

" Ah, stay not, stay not, guarclless and alone ; 
Hector, my lov'd, my dearest, bravest son." — See Key. 

Under Rule III. — Exclamatory Questions. 
" How much better is wisdom than gold." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 153 ; Hiley, p. 113. 

[Foemtjle. — Not proper, because this exclamatory sentence is pointed with a period at the end. But, accord- 
ing to Rule 3d for the Ecphoneme, " Words uttered with vehemence in the form of a question, but without refer- 
ence to an answer, should be followed by the note of exclamation." Therefore, this period should be changed 
to the latter sign.] 

"0 virtue! how amiable art thou." — Flints Murray, p. 51. "At that hour, how vain was 
all sublunary happiness." — Bay's Gram., p. 74. "Alas! how few and transitory are the joys 
which this world affords to man." — lb., p. 12. " Oh ! how vain and transitory are all things here 
below."— A, p. 110. 

" And oh ! what change of state, what change of rank, 

In that assembly everywhere was seen." — Bay's Gram., p. 12. 
" And ! what change of state ! what change of rank ! 
In that assembly every where was seen!" — Follok, B. is, 1. 781. 

MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROR. 

" shame ! where is thy blush." — S. Barretts Principles of Language, p. 86. " shame, where 
is thy blush; John, give me my hat." — lb., p. 98. "What! is Moscow in flames." — lb., p. 86. 
"Ah! what happiness awaits the virtuous." — lb., 86. 

"Ah, welladay, — do what we can for him, said Trim, maintaining his point, — the poor soul 
will die." — Sterne: Enfield's Speaker, p. 306. "A well o'day ! do what we can for him, said 
Trim, maintaining his point: the poor soul will die." — Kirkharrts Elocution, p. 340. 

" Will John return to-morrow." — S. Barretts Gram., Tenth Ed., p. 55. "Will not John return 
to-morrow." — lb., 55. "John! return to-morrow; Soldiers! stand firm." — lb., 55. "If mea 
which means my is an adjective in Latin, why may not my be so called in English, and if my is 
an adjective, why not Barretts. 11 — lb., p. 50. 

"Oh? Absalom, my son." — O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 375. "Oh! star-eyed science!! whither 
hast thou fled?" — lb., p. 366. "Why do you tolerate your own inconsistency, by calling it the 
present tense !" — lb.-, p. 360. "Thus the declarative mode may be used in asking a question ; 
as, what man is frail." — lb., p. 358. "What connexion has motive wish, or supposition, with the 
term subjunctive!" — lb., p. 348. "A grand reason, truly! for calling it a golden key." — lb., p. 
347. "What 'suffering 1 ! the man who can say this, must be 'enduring. 111 — lb., p. 345. "What 
is Brown's Rule ! in relation to this matter ?" — lb., p. 334. 

"Alas! how short is life." " T/wmas, study your book." — Bay's District School Gram., p. 109. 
" As, ' alas V how short is life ; Thomas, study your book.' " — lb., p. 82. " Who can tell us who 
they are." — Sanborn's Gram., p. 178. "Lord have mercy on my son; for he is a lunatic, etc." 
— Felton's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 138 ; Ster. Ed., 140. " O, ye wild groves, O, where is now your 
bloom!"— lb., p. 88; Ster. Ed., 91. 

" who of man the story will unfold !" — Farnum's Gr., 2d Ed , p. 104. 
" Methought I heard Horatio say to-morrow. 

Go to I will not hear of it — to-morrow." — HaTlock 1 s Gr., 1st Ed., p. 221. 
" How his eyes languish? how his thoughts adore 

That painted coat which Joseph never wore ?" — Love of Fame, p. 66. 

SECTION VIII.— THE CUKVES. 
The Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis, are used to distinguish a clause 
or hint that is hastily thrown in between the parts of a sentence to which 
it does not properly belong ; as, " Their enemies (and enemies they will 
always have) would have a handle for exposing their measures." — Watyole. 
" To others do (the law is not severe) 
What to thyself thou wishest to be done." — Beattie. 

Obs. — The incidental clause should be uttered in a lower tone, and faster than the principal 
sentence. It always requires a pause as great as that of a comma, or greater. 

Rule I. — The Parenthesis. 
A clause that breaks the unity of a sentence or passage too much to be incorpo- 

51 



802 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

rated with it, and only such, should be inclosed within curves, as a parenthesis ; as, 
" For I know that in me, (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." — Mom., 
vii, 18. 

" Know then this truth, (enough for man to know,) 
Virtue alone is happiness below." — Pope. 

Rule II. — Included Points. 
The curves do not supersede other stops ; and, as the parenthesis terminates with 
a pause equal to that which precedes it, the same point should be included, except 
when the sentences differ in form : as, 1. " Now for a recompense in the same, (I 
speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged." — 2 Cor., vi, 13. 

2. " Man's thirst of happiness declares it is : 

(For nature never gravitates to nought :) 

That thirst uuquench'd, declares it is not here." — Young. 

3. " Night visions may befriend : (as sung above :) 

Our waking dreams are fatal. How I dreamt 
Of things impossible ! (could sleep do more ?) 
Of joys perpetual in perpetual change !" — Young. 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PUNCTUATION".— ERRORS CONCERNING THE CURVES . 
Under Rule I. — Op the Parenthesis. 

" Another is composed of the indefinite article an, which etymological!/ means one and other, 
and denotes one other." — Hallock's Gram., p. 03. 

[Foemdle. — Not proper, because the parenthetic expi'ession, "which etymologically means one," is not suffi- 
ciently separated from the rest of the passage. But, according to Rule 1st for the Curves, " A clause that breaks 
the unity of a sentence or passage too much to be incorporated with it, and only such, should be enclosed within 
curves, as a parenthesis." Therefore, the curves should be here inserted ; and also, by Rule 2d, a comma at 
the word one.'] 

" Each mood has its peculiar Tense, Tenses (or Times)." — Bucke's Gram., p. 58. 

[Fokmule. — Not proper, because the expression, "or Times," which has not the nature of a parenthesis, is 
here marked with curves. But, according to Rule 1st for the Curves, "A clause that breaks the unity of a 
sentence or passage too much to be incorporated with it, and only such, should be enclosed within curves, as a 
parenthesis." Therefore, these marks should be omitted ; and a comma should be set after the word " Tenses" 
by Rule 3d.] 

"In some verj ancient languages, as the Hebrew, which have been employed chiefly for express- 
ing plain sentiments in the plainest manner, without aiming at any elaborate length or harmony 
of periods, this pronoun [the relative] occurs not so often." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 127. 

" Before I shall say those Things, (0 conscript Fathers) about the Public Affairs, which are to 
be spoken at this Time ; I shall lay before you, in few Words, the Motives of the Journey, and the 
Return." — Brightland's Gram., p. 149. 

" Of well-chose Words some take not care enough, 
And think they should be (like the Subject) rough." — lb., p. 113. 
" Then having shewed his wounds, he'd sit (him) down." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 32. 

Under Rule II. — Of Included Points. 
" Then Jael smote the Nail into his Temples, and fastened it to the Ground : (for he was fast 
asleep and weary) so he died. Old Test." — Ward's Gram., p. 17. 

[Foemule. — Not proper, because this parenthesis is not marked as terminating with a pause equal to that 
which precedes it. But, according to Rule 2d above, " The curves do not supersede other stops ; and, as the 
parenthesis terminates with a pause equal to that which precedes it, the same point should be included, except 
when the sentences differ in form." Therefore, a colon should be inserted within the curve after weary.] 

" Every thing in the Iliad has manners (as Aristotle expresses it) that is, every thing is acted 
or spoken." — Pope, Pre/, to Homer, p. vi. 

" Those nouns, that end in f, or fe (except some few I shall mention presently), form plurals 
by changing those letters into ves: as, thief, thieves; wife, wives."— Buckets Gram., p. 35. 

" As, requires as ; (expressing equality) Mine is as good as yours. As, so ; (expressing 

equality) As the stars, so shall thy seed be. So, as ; (with a negative expressing inequality) 

He is not so wise as his brother. So, that ; (expressing consequence) I am so weak that I 

cannot walk." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 113; Pract. Les., p. 112. 

" A captious question, sir (and yours is one,) 
Deserves an answer similar, or none." — Cowper, ii. 228. 

MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROR. 
" Whatever words the verb to be serves to unite referring to the same thing, must be of the 



CHAP. I.] PKOSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — ERRORS. — OTHER MARKS. SO 



Q 



same case; § 61, as, Alexander is a student." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 15. ""When the objective 
is a relative or interrogative, it comes before the verb that governs it. § 40, E. 9. (Murray's 6tb! 
rule is unnecessary.)" — Id., ib., p. 90. "It is generally improper (except in poetry,) to omit the 
antecedent to a relative; and always to omit a relative when of the nominative case." — Id., ib. 
p. 130. " In every sentence there must be a verb and a nominative (or subject) expressed or un- 
derstood." — Id., ib., p. 87; Pract. Lessons, p. 91. "Nouns and pronouns, and especially words 
denoting time, are often governed by prepositions understood ; or are used to restrict verbs cr ad- 
jectives without a governing word, § 50. Rem. 6 and Rule; as, He gave (to) me a full account of 
the whole affair." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 80. "When should is used instead of ought, to express 
present duty, § 20, 4, it may be followed by the present; as, "You should study that you may 
become learned." — Id., ib., p. 123. " The indicative present is frequently used after the words, 
when, till, before, as soon as, after, to express the relative time of a future action; (§ 24, I, 4,) as, 
'When he comes, he will be welcome.' " — Id., ib., p. 124. " The relative is parsed by stating its 
gender, number, case, and antecedent, (the gender and number being always the same as those of 
the antecedent) thus, ' The boy who.' ' Who' is a relative pronoun, masculine, singular, the nom- 
inative, and refers to l boy' as its antecedent." — Bullions, Pract. Les., p. 31. 

" Now, now, I seize, I clasp thy charms, 
An d now you burst; ah! cruel from my arms." 

Here is an unnecessary change from the second person singular to the second plural. It would 
have been better thus, 

" Now, now I seize, I clasp your charms, 
And now you burst ; ah ! cruel from my arms." — J. Burn's Gram., p. 193. 

SECTION IX.— THE OTHER MARKS. 
There are also several other marks, which are occasionally used for 
various purposes, as follow : — 

I. ['] The Apostrophe usually denotes either the possessive case of a noun, or 
the elision of one or more letters of a word : as, " The girVs regard to her parents* 
advice ;" — ''gan, lov'd, e'en, thro' ; for began, loved, even, through. It is sometimes 
used in pluralizing a mere letter or sign ; as, Two a's — three 6's.* 

II. [-] The Hyphen connects the parts of many compound words, especially such 
as have two accents ; as, ever-living. It is also frequently inserted where a word is 
divided into syllables ; as, con-tem-plate. Placed at the end of a line, it shows that 
one or more syllables of a word are carried forward to the next line. 

III. [ • • ] The Diaeresis, or Dialysis, placed over either of two contiguous vowels, 
shows that they are not a diphthong ; as, Dande, aerial. 

IV. [ ] The Acute Accent marks the syllable which requires the principal stress 
in pronunciation ; as, e'qual, equal'ity. It is sometimes used in opposition to the 
grave accent, to distinguish a close or short vowel ; as, " Fancy :" (Murray :) or to 
denote the rising inflection of the voice ; as, " Is it he ?" 

V. [ ] The Grave Accent is used in opposition to the acute, to distinguish an 
open or long vowel ; as, "Favour:" {Muri-ay:) or to denote the falling inflection 
of the voice ; as, " Yes ; it is Ae." It is sometimes placed over a vowel to show 
that it is not to be suppressed in pronunciation ; as, 

" Let me, though in humble speech, 
Thy refined maxims teach." — Amer. Review, May, 1848. 

VI. [ ] The Circumflex generally denotes either the broad sound of a or an 
unusual sound given to some other vowel ; as in all, heir, machine. Some use it to 
mark a peculiar wave of the voice, and when occasion requires, reverse it ; as, "If 
you said so, then I said so." 

VII. [ w ] The Breve, or Stenotone, is used to denote either the close, short, shut 
sound of a vowel, or a syllable of short quantity ; as, live, to have life, — rdv'en, to 
devour,f — calamus, a reed. 

* In the works of some of our older poets, the apostrophe is sometimes irregularly inserted, and perhaps 
needlessly, to mark a prosodial syngeresis, or synalepha, where no letter is cut off or left out ; as, 
" Retire, or taste thy folly 1 , and learn hy proof, 
Hell-horn, not to contend with spirits of Heaven." — Milton, P. L., ii, 6S6. 
In the following example, it seems to denote nothing more than the open or long sound of the preceding 
vowel e : 

" That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour, 
Even till a lethe'd dulness." — Singer's Shakspeare, Vol. ii, p. 280. 
t The breve is properly a mark of short quantity, only when it is set over an unaccented syllable or an unem- 
phatic monosyllable, as it often is in the scanning of verses. In the examples above, it marks. the close or short 



804 THE GEAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

VIII. ["] The Macron, or Macrotone,* is used to denote either the open, long, 
primal sound of a vowel, or a syllable of long- quantity ; as, live, having life, — ra'ven, 
a bird, — e'qulne, of a horse. 

IX. [ ] or [* * * *] or [. . . .] The Ellipsis, or Suppression, denotes the 

omission of some letters or words : as, K — g, for King ; c****d, for coward ; 
d....d, for damned. 

X. [a] The Caret, used only in writing, shows where to insert words or letters 
that have been accidentally omitted. 

XL [ — -a. — ] The Brace serves to unite a triplet ; or, more frequently, to con- 
nect several terms with something to which they are all related. 

XII. [ § ] The Section marks the smaller divisions of a book or chapter ; and, 
with the help of numbers, serves to abridge references. 

XIII. [^f] The Paragraph (chiefly used in the Bible) denotes the commence- 
ment of a new subject. The parts of discourse which are called paragraphs, are, in 
general, sufficiently distinguished by beginning a new line, and carrying the first 
word a little forwards or backwards. The paragraphs of books being in some in- 
stances numbered, this character may occasionally be used, in lieu of the word 
paragraph, to shorten references. 

XIV. [" "] The Guillemets, or Quotation Points, distinguish words that are 
exhibited as those of an other author or speaker. A quotation within a quotation, is 
usually marked with single points ; which, when both are employed, are placed within 
the others: a% "And again he saith, 'Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people."' — 
Horn., xv, 10. 

XV. [ ] The Crotchets, or Brackets, generally inclose some correction or 
explanation, but someiimes the sign or subject to be explained ; as, " He [Mr. Mau- 
rice] was of a different opinion." — Allen's Gram., p. 213. 

XVI. [ jfST] The Index, or Hand, points out something remarkable, or what the 
reader should particularly observe. 

XVII. [*] The Asterisk, or Star, [f ] the Obelisk, or Dagger, [J] the Diesis, or 
Double Dagger, and [||] the Parallels, refer to marginal notes.. The Section also 
[§], and the Paragraph [^[], are often used for marks of reference, the former being 
usually applied to the fourth, and the latter to the sixth note on a page ; for, by the 
usage of printers, these signs are commonly introduced in the following order : 1, * ; 
2, f ; 3, J ; 4, § ; 5, || ; 6, ^[ ; 7, ** ; 8, f f ; &c. Where many references are to be 
made, the small letters of the alphabet, or the numerical figures, in their order, may 
ba conveniently used for the same purpose. 

XVIII. [ *^* ] The Asterism, or Three Stars, a sign not very often used, is placed 
before a long or general note, to mark it as a note, without giving it a particular 
reference. 

XIX. [ ,] The Cedilla, is a mark borrowed from the French, by whom it is 
placed under the letter c, to give it the sound of s, before a or o ; as in the words, 

power of the vowels ; but, under the accent, even this power may become part of a long syllable ; as it does in 
the word rdv'en, where the syllable rav, having twice the length of that which follows, must be reckoned long. 
In poetry, rdv-en and ra-ven are both trochees, the former syllable in each being long, and the latter short. 

* 1. The signs of long and short sounds, and especially of the former, have been singularly slow in acquiring 
appropriate names — or any appellatives suited to their nature, or such as could obtain the sanction of general 
use. The name breve, from the French br^ve, (which latter word came, doubtless, originally from the neuter of 
the Latin adjective brevis, short,) is now pretty generally applied to the one ; and the Greek term macron, long, 
(also originally a neuter adjective,) is perhaps as common as any name for the other. But these are not quite so 
well adapted to each other, and to the things named, as are the substitutes added above. 

2. These signs are explained in our grammars under various names, and often very unfit ones, to say the 
least ; and, in many instances, their use is, in some way, awkwardly stated, without any attempt to name them, 
or more than one, if either. The Rev. T. Smith names them " Long ("), and Short (")." — Smith's Murray, p. 
72. Churchill calls thum " The long ' and the short "."—New Gram., p. 170. Gould calls them " a horizontal 
line" and "a curved line." — Gould's Adam's Gram., p. 3. Coar says, " Quantity is distinguished by the char- 
acters of ' long, and " short."— Eng. Gram., p. 197. But, in speaking of the signs, he calls them, "A long 
syllable. '," and " A short syllable '."—Gram., pp. 222 and 228. S. S. Greene calls them " the long sound," and 
"the breve or short sound"— Gram., p. 257. W. Allen says, " The lona : svllable mark, (") and the breve, or 
short-syllable mark, (" ) denote the quantity of words poetically employed." — Gram., p. 215. Some call them, 
"the Long Accent," and "the Short Accent;" as does Guy's' Gram., p. 95. This naming seems to confound 
accent with quantity. By some, the Macron is improperly called " a Dash:" as by Lennie, p. 137 ; by Bullions, 
p. 157; by Hiley, p. 123; by Butler, p. 215. Some call it "a small dash;" as does Well's, p. 183; so Hiley, p. 
117. By some it is absurdly named "Hyphen;" as by Buchanan, p. 162; by Alden, p. 165 ; by Chandler, 189 ; 
by Parker and Fox, iii, 36 ; by Jaudon, 193. Sanborn calls it " the hyphen, or macron." —AnalyL Gr., p. 279. 
Many, who name it not, introduce it to their readers by a " this '," or " thus " ;" as do Alger, Blair, Dr. Adam, 
Co. nly, Cooper, Jngersoll, L. Murray, Sanders, Wright, and others! 



CHAP. I.] PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — OTHER MARKS. — ERRORS. 805 

"facade," " Alencon." In Worcester's Dictionary, it is attached to three other letters, 
to denote their soft sounds : viz., " G as J ; S as Z ; x as gz." 

%W~ [Oral exercises in punctuation should not be confined to the correction of errors. An application of its 
principles to points rightly inserted, is as easy a process as that of ordinary syntactical parsing, and perhaps as 
useful. For this purpose, the teacher may select a portion of this grammar, or of any well-pointed book, to 
which the foregoing rules and explanations may be applied by the pupil, as reasons for the points that occur.] 

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PUNCTUATION.— MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROR. 

" The principal stops are the following: — 

The Comma ( , ) the semicolon ( ; ) the colon ( : ) the period, or fall stop ( . ) the note of interroga- 
tion (?) the note of exclamation ( ! ) the parenthesis ( ) and the dash ( — ) [ . ] " — Bullions, E. Gram., 
p. 151 ; Pract. Les., p. 127. " The modern punctuation in Latin is the same as in English. The 
marks employed, are the Comma ( , ) ; Semicolon ( ; ) ; Colon ( : ) ; Period ( . ) ; Interrogation ( ? ) ; 
Exclamation (!)." — Bullions, Lot. Gram,., p. 3. 

" Plato reproving a young man for playing at some childish game ; you chide me, says the 
youth, for a trifling fault. Custom, replied the philosopher, is no trifle. And, adds Montagnie, 
he was in the right; for our vices begin in infancy." — Home's Art of Thinking, (N. Y. 1818,) p. 5L 

" A merchant at sea asked the skipper what death his father died ? ' My father, ' says the 
skipper, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather, were all drowned. 'Well,' replies the mer- 
chant, and are not you afraid of being drowned too?' " — lb., p. 135. 

" The use of inverted comma's derives from France, where one Guillemet was the author of 
them ; [and] as an acknowledgement for the improvement his countrymen caU them after his 
name guillemets." — History of Printing, (London, IT TO.) p. 266. 

" This, however, is seidein if ever done unless the word following the possessive begins with s; 
thus we do not sa3 r , 'the prince' feather,' but, ' the prince's feather.' " — Bullions, E. Grain., p. IT. 
" And this phrase must mean the feather of the prince but princesfeather written as one word is the 
name of a plant : a species of amaranth." — See Key. 

" Boethius soon had the satisfaction of obtaining the highest honour his country could bestow." 
— Ingersoll's Gram., 12mo, p. 2T9. "Boethius soon had," &c. — Murray's Gram., 8vo, Yol. ii, p. 83. 

" When an example, a quotation, or a speech is introduced, it is separated from the rest of the 
sentence either by a semicolon or a colon ; as, ' The scriptures give us an amiable representation 
of the Deity, in these words ; God is love." 1 " — Hiley's Gram., p. 116. " Either the colon or semi- 
colon may be used when an example, a quotation, or a speech is introduced ; as, ' Always re- 
member this ancient maxim ; Know thyself ' The scriptures give us an amiable representation 
of the Deity, in these words : God is love.'' " — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 155. 

" The first word of a quotation, introduced after a colon [, must begin with a capital] ; as, al- 
ways remember this ancient maxim : Know thyself " — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 159 ; Bennies Gram., 
p. 106. [Lennie has "Always" with a capital.] "The first word of a quotation, introduced 
after a colon, or when it is in a direct form : as, ' Always remember this ancient maxim : Know 
thyself ' Our great lawgiver says, Take up thy cross daily, and follow me.' " — Murray's Gram., 
8vo, p. 284. " 8. The first word of a quotation, introduced after a colon, or when it is in a direct 
form. Examples. — ' Always remember this ancient maxim, ' Know thyself.' ' ' Our great Law- 
giver says, Take up thy cross daily, and follow me.' " — Weld's Gram., Abridged, p. IT. 

" Tell me in whose house do you live." — N. Butler's Gram., p. 55. " He, that acts wisely, de- 
serves praise." — lb., p. 50. " He, who steals my purse, steals trash." — lb., p. 51. " The antece- 
dent is sometimes omitted, as, 'Who steals my purse, steals trash;' that is, he who, or person 
who." — lb., p. 51. "Thus, ' Whoever steals my purse steals trash;' 'Whoever does no good 
does harm.' " — lb., p. 53. " Thus, 'Whoever sins will suffer.' This means that any one without 
exception who sins will suffer." — lb., 53. 

" Letters form syllables, syllables words, words sentences, and sentences, combined and con- 
nected form discourse." — Cooper's Plain and Practical Gram., p. 1. "A letter which forms a 
perfect sound, when uttered by itself, is called a vowel, as : a, e, t." — lb., p. 1. "A proper nouu 
is the name of an individual, as: John; Boston: Hudson; America." — lb., p. IT. 

. " Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few 
a generous thing." — P. Davis's Gram., p. 96. "In the place of an ellipsis of the verb a comma 
must be inserted."— 1ft., p. 121. "A common noun unlimited by an article is sometimes under- 
stood in its broadest acceptation : thus, ' EisJies swim' is understood to mean all fishes. ' Man is 
mortal.' all men." — lb., p. 13. 

" Thus those sounds formed principally by the throat are called gutturals. Those formed prin- 
cipally by the palate are called palatals. Those formed by the teeth, dentals — those by the lips, 
labials — those by the nose, nasals, &c." — P. Davis's Gram., p. 113. 

" Some adjectives are compared irregularly; as, Good, better, best. Bad, worse, worst. Little, 
less, least." — Felton's Gram., 1st Ed, p. 63 ; Ster. Ed., p. 66. 

" Under the fourth head of grammar, therefore, four topics will be considered, viz. Punctua- 
tion, Orthoepy, Figures, and Versification." — Hart's Gram., p. 161. 

" Direct her onward to that peaceful shore, 
Where peril, pain and death are felt no more!" 

Falconer's Poems, p. 136; Barrett's New Gram.,?- 94- 



806 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

BAD ENGLISH BADLY POINTED. 

Lesson I. — Under Various Rules. 

"Discoveries of such a character are sometimes made in grammar also, and such, too, is often 
their origin and their end." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 191. 

i; Traverse, (to cross.) To deny what the opposite party has alleged. To traverse an indict- 
ment, &c. is to deny it." — Id., ib., p. 216. 

"The Ordinal [numerals] denote the order or succession in which any number of persons or 
things is mentioned, as first, second, third, fourth, &c." — Hiley's Gram,, p. 22. 

" Nouns have three persons, First, Second, and Third. The First person is the speaker, the 
Second is the one spoken to, the Third is the one spoken of." — Hart's Gram., p. 44. 

" Nouns have three cases, Nominative, Possessive, and Objective. The relation indicated 
by the case of a noun includes three ideas, viz: those of subject, object, and ownership. 11 — lb., p. 45. 

" In speaking of animals that are of inferior size, or whose sex is not known or not regarded, 
they are often considered as without sex: thus, we say of a cat l it is treacherous,' of an infant 
' it is beautiful,' of a deer Ht was killed.' " — lb., p. 39. 

" "When this or these, that or those, refers to a preceding sentence ; this, or these, refers to the 
latter member or term; that, or those, to the former." — Churchill 's Gram., p. 136; see Lowih's 
Gram., p. 102. 

" The rearing of them [i. e. of plants] became his first care, their fruit his first food, and mark- 
ing their kinds his first knowledge." — N. Butler's Gram., p. 44. 

" After the period used with abbreviations we should employ other points, if the construction 
demands it; thus, after Esq. in the last example, there should be, besides a period, a comma." — 
lb., p. 212. 

" In the plural, the verb is the same in all the persons ; and hence the principle in Rem. 5, 
under Rule iii. [that the first or second person takes precedence,] is not applicable to verbs." — 
lb., p. 158. 

" Rex and Tyrannus are of very different characters. The one rules his people by laws to 
which they consent ; the other, by his absolute will and power : that is called freedom, this, tyr- 
anny." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 190. 

" A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, which can be known, or mentioned, as : 
George; London; America; goodness; charity." — Cooper's Plain and Fr act. Gram., p. 17. 

" Etymology treats of the classification of words ; their various modifications and derivations." 
— Bay's School Gram., p. 9. 

" To punctuate correctly implies a thorough acquaintance with the meaning of words and 
phrases, as well as of all their corresponding connexions ." — W. Bay's Punctuation, p. 31. 

" All objects which belong to neither the male nor female kind are called neuter." — Weld's 
Gram., 2d Ed., p. 51. " All objects, which belong to neither the male nor female kind, are said 
to be of the neuter gender." — Weld's Gram., Abridged, p. 51. 

" The Analysis of the Sounds in the English language presented in the preceding statements 
are sufficiently exact for the purpose in hand. Those who wish to pursue it further can consult 
Dr. Rush's admirable work, ' The Philosophy of the Human Voice.' " — Fowler's E. Gram., 1850, 
§ 65. " Nobody confounds the name of w or y with their sound or phonetic import." — lb., § 74. 

" Order is Heaven's first law ; and this confest. 
Some are and must be greater than the rest." — lb., p. 96. 

Lesson II. — Under Various Rules. 

"In adjectives of one syllable, the Comparative is formed by adding -er to the positive; and 
the Superlative by adding -est; as, sweet, sweeter, sweetest." — Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 19. 

" In monosyllables the comparative is formed by adding er or r to the positive, and the superla- 
tive by adding est or st ; as, tall, taller, tallest; wise, wiser, wisest." — Id., Pract. Les., p. 24. 

"By this method the confusion and unnecessary labor occasioned by studying grammars, in 
these languages, constructed on different principles is avoided, the study of one is rendered a 
profitable introduction to the study of another, and an opportunity is furnished to the enquiring 
student of comparing the languages in their grammatical structure, and seeing at once wherein 
they agree, and wherein they differ." — Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., Pref. to 5th Ed., p. vii. 

" No larger portion should be assigned for each recitation than the class can easily master, and 
till this is done, a new portion should not be given out." — Id., ib., p. viii. " The acquisitions made 
in every new lesson should be rivetted and secured by repeated revisals." — Id., ib., p. viii. 

" The personal pronouns may be parsed briefly thus ; /, the first personal pronoun, masculine 
(or feminine), singular, the nominative. His, the third personal pronoun, masculine, singular, the 
possessive, &c." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 23 : Pract. Les., p. 28. 

" When the male and female are expressed by distinct terms ; as, shepherd, shepherdess, the 
masculine term has also a general meaning, expressing both male and female, and is always to 
be used when the office, occupation, profession, &c, and not the sex of the individual, is chiefly 
to be expressed. The feminine term is used only when the discrimination of sex is indispensably 
necessary. Thus, when it is said ' the Poets of this country are distinguished by correctness of 
taste,' the term ' Poet ' clearly includes both male and female writers of poetry." — Id. t E. Gram., 
p. 12 ; his Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 24. 



CHAP. II.] PROSODY. — UTTERANCE. SECTION I. ARTICULATION. 807 

"Nouns and pronouns, connected by conjunctions, must be in the same cases." — IagersolVs 
Gram., p. 78. " Verbs, connected by conjunctions, must be in the same moods and tenses, and, 
when in the subjunctive present, they must be in the same form." — lb., p. 112. 

" This will habituate him to reflection — exercise his judgment on the meaning of the author, 
and without any great effort on his part, impress indelibly on his memory, the rules which he is 
required to give. After the exercises under the rule have been gone through as directed in the 
note page 96, they may be read over again in a corrected state the pupil making an emphasis on 
the correction made, or they may be presented in writing at the next recitation." — Bullions, Prin. 
of E. Gram., 2d Ed. Revised and Cor., p. viii. 

" Man, but for that, no action could attend 
And but for this, be thoughtful to no end." — 0. B. Petrels Gram., Pref., p. 5. 

Lesson III. — Under Various Rules. 

"' Johnson the bookseller and stationer,' indicates that the bookseller and the stationer are 
epithets belonging to the same person ; ' the bookseller and the stationer ' would indicate that 
they belong to different persons." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 127. 

" Past is an adjective ; passed, the past tense or perfect participle of the verb, and they ought 
not, as is frequently done, to be confounded with each other." — Id., ib., p. 148. 

" Not only the nature of the thoughts and sentiments, but the very selection and arrangement 
of the words, gives English poetry a character, which separates it widely from common prose." — 
Id., ib., p. 178. 

" Men of sound, discriminating, and philosophical minds — men prepared for the work by long 
study, patient investigation, and extensive acquirements, have labored for ages to improve and per- 
fect it, and nothing is hazarded in asserting, that should it be unwisely abandoned, it will be long 
before another equal in beauty, stability and usefulness, be produced in its stead." — Id., ib., p. 191. 

"The Article The, on the other hand, is used to restrict, and is therefore termed Definite. Its 
proper office is to call the attention to a particular individual or class, or to any number of such, 
and is used with nouns in either the singular or plural number." — Id., ib., p. 193. 

" Hence also the infinitive mood, a participle, a member of a sentence, or a proposition, forming- 
together the subject of discourse, or the object of a verb or preposition, and being the name of an 
act or circumstance, are in construction, regarded as nouns, and are usually called ' substantive 
phrases;' as ' To play is pleasant,' ' His being an expert dancer is no recommendation,' 'Let your 
motto be Honesty is the best policy.'' " — Id., ib., p. 194. 

" In accordance with his definition, Murray has divided verbs into three classes, Active, Passive, 
and Neuter, and includes in the first class transitive verbs only, and in the last all verbs used in- 
transitively." — Id., ib., p. 200. 

" Moreover, as the name of the speaker or the person spoken to is seldom expressed, (the pro- 
nouns i" and thou being used in its stead,) a noun is very seldom in the first person, not often in 
the second, and almost never in either, unless it be a proper noun, or a common noun personified." 
— Bullions, Pract. Les., p. 13. 

" In using the above exercises it will save much time, which is all important, if the pupil be 
taught to say every thing belonging to the nouns in the fewest words possible, and to say them 
always in the same order as above." — Id., ib., p. 21. 

" Jn any phrase or sentence the adjectives qualifying a noun may generally be found by prefix- 
ing the phrase 'What kind of,' to the noun in the form of a question; as, What kind of a horse? 
What kind of a stone? What kind of a way? The word containing the answer to the question 
is an adjective." — Id., ib., p. 22. 

" In the following exercise let the pupil first point out the nouns, and then the adjectives ; and 
tell how he knows them to be so." — Id., ib., p. 23. 

" In the following sentences point out the improper ellipsis. Show why it is improper, and 
correct it." — Id., ib., p. 124. 

" Singular Pronouns. Plural Pronouns. 

1. I — am being smitten. 1. We — are being smitten. 

2. Thou — art being smitten. 2. Ye or yon — are being smitten. 

3. He — is being smitten. 3. They — are being smitten." 

Wright's Philos. Gram., p. 98. 



CHAPTER II.— UTTERANCE. 

Utterance is the art or act of vocal expression. It includes the prin- 
ciples of articulation, of pronunciation, and of elocution. 

SECTION I.— OF ARTICULATION. 

Articulation is the forming of words, by the voice, with reference to 
their component letters and sounds. 



808 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

ARTICLE I.— OF THE DEFINITION. 

Articulation differs from pronunciation, in having more particular regard to the 
elements of words, and in not embracing accent.* A recent author defines it thus : 
" Articulation is the act of forming, with the organs of speech, the elements of 
vocal language." — Comstock's Elocution, p. 16. And again: "A good articulation 
is the perfect utterance of the elements of vocal language." — Ibid. 

An other describes it more elaborately thus : " Articulation, in language, is the 
forming of the human voice, accompanied by the breath, in some few consonants, 
into the simple and compound sounds, called vowels, consonants, and diphthongs, by 
the assistance of the organs of speech ; and the uniting of those vowels, consonants, 
and diphthongs, together, so as to form syllables and words, and constitute spoken 
language." — Bolus's Diet., Introd., p. 7. 

ARTICLE II.— OF GOOD ARTICULATION. 

Correctness in articulation is of such importance, that without it speech or read- 
ing becomes not only inelegant, but often absolutely unintelligible. The opposite 
faults are mumbling, muttering, mincing, lisping, slurring, mouthing, drawling, 
hesitating, stammering, misreading, and the like. 

"A good articulation consists in giving every letter in a syllable its due propor- 
tion of sound, according to the most approved custom of pronouncing it ; and in 
making such a distinction between the syllables of which words are composed, that 
the ear shall without difficulty acknowledge their number; and perceive, at once, to 
which syllable each letter belongs. Where these points are not observed, the 
articulation is proportionably defective." — Sheridan's Rhetorical Grammar, p. 50. 

Distinctness of articulation depends, primarily, upon the ability to form the sim- 
ple elements, or sounds of letters, by the organs of speech, in the manner which 
the custom of the language demands; and, in the next place, upon the avoidance 
of that precipitancy of utterance, which is greater than the full and accurate play 
of the organs will allow. If time be not given for the full enunciation of any word 
which we attempt to speak, some of the syllables will of course be either lost by 
elision or sounded confusedly. 

Just articulation gives even to a feeble voice greater power and reach than the 
loudest vociferation can attain without it. It delivers words from the lips, not muti- 
lated, distorted, or corrupted, but as the acknowledged sterling currency of thought ; 
— "as beautiful coins newly issued from the mint, deeply and accurately impressed, 
perfectly mushed, neatly struck by the proper organs, distinct, sharp, in due succes- 
sion, and of due weight." — Austin's Chironomia, p. 38. 

Obs. — The principles of articulation constitute the chief exercise of all those who are learning 
either to speak or to read. So far as they are specifically taught in this work, they will be found 
in those sections which treat of the powers of the letters. 

SECTION II.— OF PEONUNCIATION. 

Pronunciation, as distinguished from elocution, or delivery, is the ut- 
terance of words taken separately. The correct pronunciation of words, 
or that part of grammar which teaches it, is frequently called Orthoepy. 

Pronunciation, or orthoepy, requires a knowledge of the just powers of 
the letters in all their combinations ; of the distinction of quantity in 
vowels and syllables ; and of the force and seat of the accent. 

ARTICLE I.—OF THE POWERS OF LETTERS. 

The just powers of the letters, are those sounds which are given to them by the 
best readers. These are to be learned, as reading is learned, partly from example, 
and partly from such books as show or aid the pronunciation of words. 

It is to be observed, however, that considerable variety, even in the powers of the 

* " As soon as language proceeds, from mere articttlation, to coherency, and connection, accent becomes the 
guide of the voice. It is founded upon an obscure perception of symmetry, and proportion, between the differ- 
ent sounds that are uttered." — Noehderts Grammar of the German Language, p. 66. 



CHAP. II.] PROSODY. — UTTERANCE. — SECTION II. — PRONUNCIATION. 809 

letters, is produced by the character and occasion of what is uttered. It is noticed 
by Walker, that, " Some of the vowels, when neither under the accent, nor closed 
by a consonant, have a longer or a shorter, an opener or a closer souud, according 
to the solemnity or familiarity, the deliberation or rapidity of our delivery." — Pro- 
nouncing Diet, Pre/ace, p. 4. In cursory speech, or in such reading as imitates it, 
even the best scholars utter many letters with quicker and obscurer sounds than 
ought ever to be given them in solemn discourse. " In public speaking," says Rip- 
pingbam, "every word should be uttered, as though it were spoken singly. The 
solemnity of an oration justifies and demands such scrupulous distinctness. That 
careful pronunciation which would be ridiculously pedantic in colloquial intercourse, 
is an essential requisite of good elocution." — Art of Public Speaking^ p. xxxvii. 

ARTICLE IL— OF QUANTITY. 

Quantity, or time in pronunciation, is the measure of sounds or syllables in re- 
gard to their duration ; and, by way of distinction, is supposed ever to determine 
them to be either long or short* 

The absolute time in which syllables are uttered, is very variable, and must be 
different to suit different subjects, passions, and occasions ; but their relative length 
or shortness may nevertheless be preserved, and generally must be, especially in re- 
citing poetry. 

Our long syllables are chiefly those which, having sounds naturally capable of 
being lengthened at pleasure, are made long by falling under some stress either of 
accent or of emphasis. Our short syllables are the weaker sounds, which, being the 
less significant words, or parts of words, are uttered without peculiar stress. 

Obs. — As quantity is chiefly to be regarded in the utterance of poetical compositions, this 
subject will be farther considered under the head of Versihcation. 

ARTICLE III.— OF ACCENT. 

Accent, as commonly understood, is the peculiar stress which we lay upon some 
particular syllable of a word, whereby that syllable is distinguished from and above 
the rest; as, gram' -mar, gram-ma' ri-an. 

Every word of more than one syllable, has one of its syllables accented ; and 
sometimes a compound word has two accents, nearly equal in force ; as, e'ven- 
hand'ed, home' -depart' ment.\ 

* According to Johnson, Walker, Webster, Worcester, and perhaps all other lexicographers, Quantity, in 
grammar, is — "The measure of time in pronouncing a syllable." And, to this main idea, are conformed, 60 far 
as I know, all the different definitions ever given of it by grammarians and critics, except that which appeared 
in Asa Humphrey's English Prosody, published in 1S47. In this work — the most elaborate and the most com- 
prehensive, though not the most accurate or consistent treatise we have on the subject — Time and Quantity are 
explaiued separately, as being "two distinct things;" 1 and the latter is supposed not to have regard to duration, 
but solely to the amount of sound given to each syllable. 

This is not only a fanciful distinction, but a radical innovation — and one which, in any view, has little to rec- 
ommend it. The author's explanations of both time and quantity — of their characteristics, differences, and 
subdivisions — of their relations to each other, to poetic numbers, to emphasis and cadence, or to accent and non- 
accent — as well as his derivation and history of " these technical terms, time and quantity" — are hardly just or 
clear enough to be satisfactory. According to his theory, " Poetic numbers are composed of long and short sylla- 
bles alternately;" (page 5;) but the difference or proportion between the times of these classes of syllables he 
holds to be indeterminable, " because their lengths are various." He began with destroying the proper dis- 
tinction of quantity, or time, as being either long or short, by the useless recognition of an indefinite number of 
"intermediate lengths;'" saying of our syllables at large, " some are long, some short, and some are of inter- 
mediate lkngths ; as, mat, not, con, &c. are short sounds; mate, note, cone, and grave are long. Some of our 
diphthongal sounds are longer still ; as, voice, noise, sound, bound, &c. Othees are seen to be of interme- 
diate lengths." — Humphrey's Prosody, p. 4. 

On a scheme like this, it must evidently be impossible to determine, with any certainty, either what syllables 
are long and what short, or what is the difference or ratio between any two of the innumerable "lengths" of 
mat time, or quantity, which is long, short, variously intermediate, or longer still, and again variously interme- 
diate ! No marvel then that the ingenious author scans some lines in a manner peculiar to himself. 

t It was the doctrine of Sheridan, and perhaps of our old lexicographers in general, that no English word can 
have more than one full accent; but, in some modern dictionaries, as Bolles's, and Worcester's, many words 
^re marked as if they had two ; and a few are given by Bolles as having three. Sheridan erroneously affirmed, 
that "every word has an accent," even "all monosyllables, the particles alone excepted." — Lecture on Elocu- 
tion, pp. 61 and 71. And again, yet more erroneously : " The essence of English words consisting in accent, as 
that of syllables in articulation; we know that there are as many s]/llables as we hear articulate sounds, and as 
vnany words as we hear accents." — lb., p. 70. Yet he had said before, in the same lecture : " The longer poly- 
syllables, have frequently two accents, but one is so much stronger than the other, as to shew that it is but one 
word ; and the inferior accent is always less forcible, than any accent that is the single one in a word."— lb., p. 
31. Wells defines accent as if it might lie on many syllables of a word ; but, in his examples, he places it on no 
more than one: "Accent is the stress which is laid on one or more syllables of a word, in pronunciation; as, 
reverberate, undertake." — Wells's School Gram., p. 185. According to this loose definition, he might as well 
have accented at least one other syllable in each of these examples; for there seems, certainly, to be some 
little stress on ate and un. For sundry other definitions of accent, see Chap. IV, Section 2d, of Versification ; 
and the marginal note referring to Obs. 1st on Prosody. 



810 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Besides the chief or primary accent, when the word is long, for the sake of har- 
mony or distinctness, we often give a secondary or less forcible accent to an other 
syllable ; as, to the last of tern' ' -per-a-ture' ', and to the second of in dem' -ni-fi-ca' -tion. 

"Accent seems to be regulated, in a great measure, by etymology. In words 
from the Saxon, the accent is generally on the root ; in words from the learned 
languages, it is generally on the termination ; and if to these we add the different 
accent we lay on some words, to distinguish them from others, we seem to have the 
three great principles of accentuation ; namely, the radical, the terminational, and 
the distinctive." — Walker's Principles,^ o. 491 ; L. Murray's Grammar, 8vo, p. 236. 

A full and open pronunciation of the long vowel sounds, a clear articulation of 
the consonants, a forcible and well-placed accent, and a distinct utterance of the 
unaccented syllables, distinguish the elegant speaker. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The pronunciation of the English language is confessedly very difficult to be mastered. 
Its rules and their exceptions are so numerous, that few become thoroughly acquainted with any 
general system of them. Nor, among the different systems which have been published, is there 
any which is worthy in all respects to be accounted a standard. And, if we appeal to custom, 
the custom even of the best speakers is far from an entire uniformity. Perhaps the most popular 
directory on this subject is Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary. The " Principles of Eng- 
lish Pronunciation," which this author has furnished, occupy fifty-six closely -printed octavo pages, 
and are still insufficient for the purpose of teaching our orthoepy by rule. They are, however, highly 
valuable, and ought to be consulted by every one who wishes to be master of this subject. In its 
vocabulary, or stock of words, this Dictionary is likewise deficient. Other lexicographers have 
produced several later works, of high value to the student ; and, though no one has treated the 
subject of pronunciation so elaborately as did "Walker, some may have given the results of their 
diligence in a form more useful to the generality of their consulters. Among the good ones, is the 
Universal and Critical Dictionary of Joseph E. Worcester. 

Obs. 2. — Our modern accentuation of Greek or Latin words is regulated almost wholly by the 
noted rule of Sanctius, which Walker has copied and Englished in the Introduction to his Key, 
and of which the following is a new version or paraphrase, never before printed : 

Rule for the Accenting of Latin. 

One syllable has stress of course, 
And words of two the first enforce; 
In longer words the penult guides, . 
Its quantity the point decides ; 
If long, 'tis there the accent's due, 
If short, accent the last but two; 
For accent, in a Latin word, 
Should ne'er go higher than the third. 

This rule, or the substance of it, has become very important by long and extensive use; but it 
should be observed, that stress on monosyllables is more properly emphasis than accent ; and that, 
in English, the accent governs quantity, rather than quantity the accent. 

SECTION III.— OF ELOCUTION. 

Elocution is the graceful utterance of words that are arranged into sen- 
tences, and that form discourse. 

Elocution requires a knowledge, and right application, of emphasis, 
pauses, inflections, and tones. 

ARTICLE I— OF EMPHASIS. 

Emphasis is the peculiar stress of voice which we lay upon some particular word 
or words in a sentence, which are thereby distinguished from the rest as being more 
especially significant.* 

As accent enforces a syllable, and gives character to a word ; so emphasis 
distinguishes a word, and often determines the import of a sentence. The right 
placiug of accent, in the utterance of words, is therefore not more important, than 

* According to Dr. Rush, Emphasis is — "a stress of voice on one or more -words of a sentence, distinguishing 
tbem by intensity or peculiarity of meaning." — Philosophy of the Voice, p. 282. Again, he defines thus : " Ac- 
cent is the fixed but inexpressive distinction of syllables by quantity and stress: alike both in place and nature, 
whether the words are pronounced singly from the columns of a vocabulary, or connectedly in the series of dis- 
course. Emphasis may be defined to be the expressive but occasional distinction of a syllable, and consequently 
of the whole word, by one or more of the specific modes of time, quality, force, or pitch.'" — Ibid. 



CHAP. II.] PROSODY. — UTTERANCE. — SECTION III. — ELOCUTION. 811 

the right placing of emphasis, in the utterance of sentences. If no emphasis be used, 
discourse becomes vapid and inane ; if no accent, words can hardly be recognized as 
English. 

" Emphasis, besides its other offices, is the great regulator of quantity. Though 
the quantity of our syllable is fixed, in words separately pronounced, yet it is muta- 
ble, when [the] words are [ar]ranged in[to] sentences ; the long being changed into 
short, the short into long, according to the importance of the words with regard to 
meaning : and, as it is by emphasis only, that the meaning can be pointed out, 
emphasis must be the regulator of the quantity." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 246.* 

" Emphasis changes, not only the quantity of words and syllables, but also, in 
particular cases, the seat of the accent. This is demonstrable from the following 
examples : ' He shall increase, but I shall decrease.' ' There is a difference between 
giving and /orgiving.' ' In this species of composition, feasibility is much more 
essential than probability.' In these examples, the emphasis requires the accent to 
be placed on syllables to which it does not commonly belong." — /&., p. 24 7. 

In order to know what words are to be made emphatic, the speaker or reader must 
give constant heed to the sense of what he utters; his only sure guide, in this mat- 
ter, being a just conception of the force and spirit of the sentiment which he is about 
to pronounce. He must also guard against the error of multiplying emphatic words 
too much ; for, to overdo in this way, defeats the very purpose for which emphasis 
is used. To manage this stress with exact propriety, is therefore one of the surest 
evidences both of a quick understanding, and of a delicate and just taste. 

ARTICLE II.— OF PAUSES. 

Pauses are cessations in utterance, which serve equally to relieve the speaker, and 
to render language intelligible and pleasing. 

Pauses are of three kinds : first, distinctive or sentential pauses, — such as form the 
divisions required by the sense ; secondly, emphatic or rhetorical pauses, — such as 
particularly call the hearer's attention to something which has been, or is about to 
be, uttered ; and lastly, poetical or harmonic pauses, — such as are peculiar to the 
utterance of metrical compositions. 

The duration of the distinctive pauses should be proportionate to the degree of 
connexion between the parts of the discourse. The shortest are long enough for the 
taking of some breath ; and it is proper, thus to relieve the voice at every stop, if 
needful. This we may do, slightly at a comma, more leisurely at a semicolon, still 
more so at a colon, and completely at a period. 

Pauses, whether in reading or iu public discourse, ought always to be formed after 
the manner in which we naturally form them in ordinary, sensible conversation ; and 
not after the stiff, artificial manner which many acquire at school, by a mere mechan- 
ical attention to the common punctuation. 

Forced, unintentional pauses, which accidentally divide words that ought to be 
spoken in close connexion, are always disagreeable ; and, whether they arise from 
exhaustion of breath, from a habit of faltering, or from unacquaintance with the text, 
they are errors of a kind utterly incompatible with graceful elocution. 

* 1. This doctrine, though true in its main intent, and especially applicable to the poetic quantity of monosyl- 
lables, (the class of words most frequently used in English poetry,) is, perhaps, rather too strongly stated by 
Murray ; because it agrees not with other statements of his, concerning the power of accent over quantity ; and 
because the effect of accent, as a "regulator of quantity," may, on the whole, be as great as that of emphasis. 
Sheridan contradicts himself yet more pointedly on this subject ; and his discrepancies may have been the effi- 
cients of Murray's. " The quantity of our syllables is perpetually varying with the sense, and is for the most 
part regulated by emphasis." — Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram., p. 65. Again: " It is by the accent chiefly that 
the quantity of our syllables is regulated." — Sheridan 1 s Lectures on Elocution, p. 57. See Chap. IV, Sec. 2d, 
Obs. 1 ; and marginal note on Obs. 8. 

2. Some writers erroneously confound emphasis with accent ; especially those who make accent, and not 
quantity, the foundation of verse. Contrary to common usage, and to his own definition of accent, Wells takes 
it upon him to say, "The term accent is also applied, in poetry, to the stress laid on monosyllabic words ; as, 

' Content is wealth, the riches of the mind.' — Dryden." — Wells's School Grammar, p. 185. 
It does not appear that stress laid on monosyllables is any more fitly termed accent, when it occurs in the read- 
ing of poetry, than when in the utterance of prose. Churchill, who makes no such distinction, thinks accent 
essential alike to emphasis and to the quantity of a long vowel, and yet, as regards monosyllables, dependent 
on them both! His words are these : "Monosyllables are sometimes accented, sometimes not. This depends 
chiefly on their being more or less emphatic; and on the vowel sound being long or short. We cannot give em- 
phasis to any word, or it's [its] proper duration to a long vowel, without accenting it." — Churchill's New Gram., 
p. 182. 



812 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Emphatic or rhetorical pauses, the kind least frequently used, may be made im- 
mediately before, or immediately after, something which the speaker thinks par- 
ticularly important, and on which he would fix the attention of his audience. Their 
effect is similar to that of a strong emphasis ; and, like this, they must not be em- 
ployed too often. 

The harmonic pauses, or those which are peculiar to poetry, are of three kinds : 
the final pause, which marks the end of each line ; the cwsural or divisional pause, 
which commonly divides the line near the middle ; and the minor rests, or demi- 
ccesuras, which often divide it still further. 

In the reading of poetry, these pauses ought to be observed, as well as those which 
have reference to the sense ; for, to read verse exactly as if it were prose, will often 
rob it of what chiefly distinguishes it from prose. Yet, at the same time, all appear- 
ance of singsong, or affected tone, ought to be carefully guarded against. 

ARTICLE in.— OF INFLECTIONS. 

Inflections are those peculiar variations of the human voice, by which a continu- 
ous sound is made to pass from one note, key, or pitch, into an other. The passage 
of the voice from a lower to a higher or shriller note, is called the rising or upward 
inflection. The passage of the voice from a higher to a lower or graver note, is 
called the falling or downward inflection. These two opposite inflections may be 
heard in the following examples: 1. The rising, "Do you mean to g6 V 2. The 
falling, " When will you go ? n 

In general, questions that may be answered by yes or no, require the rising inflec- 
tion ; while those which demand any other answer, must be uttered with the fall- 
ing inflection. These slides of the voice are not commonly marked in writing, or 
in our printed books ; but, when there is occasion to note them, we apply the acute 
accent to the former, and the grave accent to the latter.* 

A union of these two inflections upon the same syllable, is called a circumflex, a 
wave, or a "circumflex inflection? When the slide is first downward and then 
upward, it is called the rising circumflex, or "the gravo-acute circumflex ;" when 
first upward and then downward, it is denominated the falling circumflex, or " the 
acuto-grave circumflex? Of these complex inflections of the voice, the emphatic 
words in the following sentences may be uttered as examples: "And it shall go 
hard but I will use the information." — " Of but he paused upon the brink." 

When a passage is read without any inflection, the words are uttered in what is 
called a monotone ; the voice being commonly pitched at a gram note, and made to 
move for the time, slowly and gravely, on a perfect level. 

" Rising inflections are far more numerous than falling; inflections; the former 
constitute the main body of oral language, while the latter are employed for the 
purposes of emphasis, anil in the formation of cadences. Rising inflections are often 
emphatic ; but their emphasis is weaker than that of falling inflections." — Comstock^s 
JElocution, p. 50. 

" Writers on Elocution have given numerous rules for the regulation of inflec- 
tions ; but most of these rules are better calculated to make bad readers than good 
ones. Those founded on the construction of sentences might, perhaps, do credit to 
a mechanic, but they certainly do none to an elocutionist? — lb., p. 51. 

* Not only are these inflections denoted occasionally by the accentual marks, hut they are sometimes expressly 
identified with accents, being called by that name. This practice, however, is plainly objectionable. It con- 
founds things known.to be different, — mere stress with elevation or depression, — and may lead to the supposi- 
tion, that to accent a syllable, is to inflect the voice upon it. Such indeed has been the guess of many concerning 
the nature of Greek and Latin accents, but of the English accent, the common idea is, that it is only a greater 
force distinguishing some one syllable of a word from the rest. "Walker, however, in the strange account he 
gives in his Key, of " what we mean by the. accent and quantity of our own language," charges this current 
opinion with error, dissenting from Sheridan and Nares, who held it; and, having asserted, that, " in speaking, 
the voice is continually sliding upwards or downwards," proceeds to contradict himself thus : "As high and low, 
loud and soft, forcible and feeble, are comparative terms, words of one syllable pronounced alone, and without 
relation to other words or syllables, cannot be said to have am; accent. The only distinction to which such 
words are liable, is an elevation or depression of voice, when we compare the beginning with* the end of the 
word or syllable. Thus a monosyllable, considered singly, rises from a lower to a higher tone in the question 
No t which may therefore be called the acute accent : and falls from a higher to a lower tone upon the same 
word in the answer No, which may therefore be called the grave [accent]." — Walker's Key, p. 316. Thus he 
tells of different accents on " a monosyllable," which, by his own showing, " cannot be said to have any accent" ! 
and others read and copy the text with as little suspicion of its inconsistency! See Worcester's Universal and 
Critical Dictionary, p. 934. 



CHAP. II.] PROSODY. — UTTERANCE. SECTION III. — ELOCUTION. 813 

" The reader should bear in mind that a falling inflection gives more importance 
to a word than a rising inflection. Hence it should never be employed merely for 
the sake of variety; but for emphasis and cadences. Neither should a rising in- 
flection be used for the sake of mere ' harmony] where a falling inflection would 
better express the meaning of the author. The sense should, in all cases, determine 
the direction of inflections." — lb. 

Cadence is a fall of the voice, which has reference not so much to pitch as to 
force, though it may depress both ; for it seems to be generally contrasted with 
emphasis,* and by some is reprehended as a fault. " Support your voice steadily 
and firmly," says Rippingham, " and pronounce the concluding words of the sen- 
tence with force and vivacity, rather than with a languid cadence." — Art of Speak- 
ing, p. 17. 

The pauses which L. Murray denominates the suspending and the closing pause, 
he seems to have discriminated chiefly by the inflections preceding them, if he can 
be said to have distinguished them at all. For he not only teaches that the former 
may sometimes be used at the close of a sentence, and the latter sometimes where 
" the sense is not completed ;" but, treating cadence merely as a defect, adds the 
following caution : " The closing pause must not be confounded with that fall of 
the voice, or cadence, with which many readers uniformly finish a sentence. Nothing 
is more destructive of propriety and energy than this habit. The tones and inflec- 
tions of the voice at the close of a sentence, ouoht to be diversified, according to the 
general nature of the discourse, and the particular construction and meaning of the 
sentence." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 250; 12mo, p. 200. 

ARTICLE IV.— OF TONES. 

Tones are those modulations of the voice which depend upon the feelings of the 
speaker. They are what Sheridan denominates "the language of emotions." And 
it is of the utmost importance, that they be natural, unaffected, and rightly adapted 
to the subject and to the occasion ; for upon them, in a great measure, depends all 
that is pleasing or interesting in elocution. 

" How much of the propriety, the force, and [the] grace of discourse, must depend 
on these, will appear from this single consideration ; that to almost every sentiment 
we utter, more especially to every strong emotion, nature has adapted some peculiar 
tone of voice ; insomuch, that he who should tell another that he was angry, or 
much grieved, in a tone that did not suit such emotions, instead of being believed, 
would be laughed at." — Blair 's Rhet., p. 333. 

" The different passions of the mind must be expressed by different tones of the 
voice. Love, by a soft, smooth, languishing voice ; anger, by a strong, vehement, 
and elevated voice ; joy, by a quick, sweet, and clear voice ; sorrow, by a low, flexi- 
ble, interrupted voice ; fear, by a dejected, tremulous, hesitating voice ; courage, by 
a full, bold, and loud voice ; and perplexity, by a grave and earnest voice. In exor- 
diums, the voice should be low, yet clear ; in narrations, distinct ; in reasoning, slow ; 
in persuasions, strong: it should thunder in anger, soften in sorrow, tremble in fear, 
and melt in love? — Hilefs Gram., p. 121. 

Obs. — Walker observes, in his remarks on the nature of Accent and Quantity, "As to the tones 
of the passions, which are so many and various, these, in the opinion of one of the best judges 
in the kingdom, are qualities of sound, occasioned by certain vibrations of the organs of speech, 
independent on [say of] high, low, loud, soft, quick, slow, forcible, or feeble: which last may not 
improperly be called different quantities of sound." — Walker's Key, p. 305. 

* In Humphrey's English Prosody, cadence is taken for the reverse of accent, and is obviously identified or 
confounded with short quantity, or what the author inclines to call " small quantity." He defines it as follows : 
" Cadence is the reverse or counterpart to accent ; a falling or depression of voice on syllables unaccented : ana 
by ivhich the sound is shortened and depressed." — P. 3. This is not exactly what is generally understood by the 
word cadence. Lord Kames also contrasts cadence with accent; but, by the latter term, he seems to have meant 
somethinsr different from our ordinary accent. "Sometimes to humour the sense," says he, "and sometimes 
the melody, a particular syllable is sounded in a higher tone ; and this is termed accenting a syllable, or gra- 
cing it with an accent. Opposed to the accent, is the cadence, which I have not mentioned as one of the requi- 
sites of verse, because it is entirely regulated by the sense, and hath no peculiar relation to verse." — Elements 
of Criticism, Vol. ii, p. 78. 



814 THE GKAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

CHAPTER III.— FIGURES. 

A Figure, in grammar, is an intentional deviation from the ordinary 
spelling, formation, construction, or application, of words. There are, 
accordingly, figures of Orthography, figures of Etymology, figures of Syn- 
tax, and figures of Ehetoric. When figures are judiciously employed, 
they both strengthen and adorn expression. They occur more frequently 
in poetry than in prose ; and several of them are merely poetic licenses. 

SECTION I.— FIGURES OF ORTHOGRAPHY. 

A Figure of Orthography is an intentional deviation from the ordinary 
or true spelling of a word. The principal figures of Orthography are 
two ; namely, Mi-me'-sis and At '-clia-ism. 

EXPLANATIONS. 

I. Mimesis is a ludicrous imitation of some mistake or mispronunciation of a 
word, in which the error is mimicked by a false spelling, or the taking of one word 
for another ; as, " Maister, says lie, have you any wery good weal in you vdllet P* 
— Columbian Orator, p. 292. 'Ay, he was, porn at Monmouth, captain Gower." — 
Shak. " I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it." — Id. 

" Perdigious ! I can hardly stand." — Lloyd : Brit. Poets, Vol. viii, p. 184. 

II. An Archaism is a word or phrase expressed according to ancient usage, and not 
according to our modern orthography ; as, JVcwe grene chese of smalle clammynes 
comfortethe a hotte stomake." — T. Paynel : Tooks's Diversions, ii, 132. " He hath 
holpen his servant Israel." — Luke, i, 54. 

" With him was rev'rend Contemplation pight, 

Bow-bent with eld, his beard of snowy hue." — Beattie. 

Obs. — Among the figures of this section, perhaps we might include the foreign words or phrases 
which individual authors now and then adopt in writing English ; namely, the Scotticisms, the 
Gallicisms, the Latinisms, the Grecisms, and the like, with which they too often garnish their 
English style. But these, except they stand as foreign quotations, in which case they are ex- 
empt from our rules, are in general offences against the purity of our language ; and it may there- 
fore be sufficient, just to mention them here, without expressly putting any of them into the cate- 
gory of grammatical figures. 

SECTION II— FIGUKES OF ETYMOLOGY. 

A Figure of Etymology is an intentional deviation from the ordinary 
formation of a word. The principal figures of Etymology are eight ; 
namely, A-phcer'-e-sis, Pros' -thesis, Syn'-co-pe, A-poc'-o-pe, Par-a- 
go'-ge* Di-cer'-e-sis, Syn-oer'-e-sis, and Tme'-sis. 

EXPLANATIONS. 

I. Apharesis is the elision of some of the initial letters of a word : as, ''gainst, for 
against ; 'gan, for began ; y neath, for beneath ; Hhout, for without. 

II. Prosthesis is the prefixing of an expletive syllable to a word : as, adown, for 
down; appaid, fov paid; 6estrown, for strown ; evanished, for vanished; yclad, for clad. 

III. Syn'cope is the elision of some of the middle letters of a word : as, medicine, 
for medicine ; e'en, for even ; o'er, for over ; conq'ring, for conquering ; se'nnight, 
for sevennight. 

IV. Apoc'ope is the elision of some of the final letters of a word : as, tho\ for 
though ; th\ for the ; t other, for the other ; thro 1 , for through. 

V. Parago'ge is the annexing of an expletive syllable to a word : as, Johnny, for 
John ; deary, for dear ; withouten, for without. 

VI. Diazresis is the separating of two vowels that might be supposed to form a 
diphthong : as, cooperate, not cooperate y aeronaut, not aeronaut ; or'thoepy, not 
orthoepy. 



CHAP. III.] PROSODY. — FIGURES. — SECTION III. — EXPLANATIONS. 815 

VIX. Synceresis is the sinking of two syllables into one: as, seest, for seest; 
tacked, for tack-ed ; drowned, for drown-ed; sj^oksH, for spok-est ; show'dst for 
shoiv-edst ; His, for it is ; I'll, for I will. 

VIII. Tmesis is the inserting of a word between the parts of a compound, or 
between two words which should be united if they stood together : as, " On which 
side soever. 11 — Rolla. " To us ward ;" " To God ivard? — Bible. " The assembling 
of ourselves together P — Id. "With what charms soever she will." — Cowper. " So 
new a fashion'd robe." — Shak. " Lament the fo've day long.' 1 '' — Burns. _ 

Obs. — In all our pronunciation, except that of the solemn style, such verbal or participial termi- 
nations as can be so uttered, are usually sunk by synaresis into mere modifications of preceding 
syllables. The terminational consonants, if not uttered with one vowel, must be uttered with an 
other. "When, therefore, a vowel is entirely suppressed in pronunciation, (whether retained in 
writing or not,) the consonants connected with it, necessarily fall into an other syllable : thus, 
tried, triest, sued, suest, loved, latest, mov'd, mov'st, are monosyllables ; and studied, studiest, studi'dst, 
argued, arguest, argu'dst, are dissyllables ; except in solemn discourse, in which the e is generally 
retained and made vocal. 

SECTION III.— FIGURES OF SYNTAX. 

A Figure of Syntax is an intentional deviation from the ordinary con- 
struction of words. The principal figures of Syntax are five ; namely, 
El-lip'-siSj Ple'-o-nasm, Syl-lep'-sis, En-al'-la-ge, and Hy-per' -ba-ton. 

EXPLANATIONS. 

I. Ellipsis is the omission of some word or words which are necessary to complete 
the construction, but not necessary to convey the meaning. Such words are said, 
in technical phrase, to be understood /* because they are received as belonging to 
the sentence, though they are not uttered. 

Of compound sentences, a vast many are more or less elliptical ; and sometimes, 
for brevity's sake, even the most essential parts of a simple sentence, are suppressed :f 
as, "But more of this hereafter." — Harris's Hermes, p. 77. This means, "But / 
shall say more of this hereafter." " Prythee, peace." — Shak. That is, U I pray thee, 
hold thou thy peace." 

There may be an omission of any of the parts of speech, or even of a whole clause, 
when this repeats what precedes ; but the omission of mere articles or interjections 
can scarcely constitute a proper ellipsis, because these parts of speech, wherever 
they are really necessary to be recognized, ought to be expressed. 

EXAMPLES OF ELLIPSIS SUPPLIED. 

1. Of the Article : — "A man and [a] woman." — " The day, [the'] month, and [the] year." — 
" She gave me an apple and [a] pear, for a fig and [an] orange." — Jaudoris Gram., p. 170. 

2. Of the Noun: — "The common [law] and the statute law." — "The twelve [apostles].' 1 '' — 
"The same [man] is he." — "One [book] of my books." — " A dozen [dottles] of wine." — "Con- 
science, I say; not thine own [conscience], but [the conscience] of the other." — 1 Cor., x. 29. 
" Every moment subtracts from [our lives] what it adds to our fives." — Dillvnjrfs Ref., p. 8. "Bad 
actions mostly lead to worse" [actions]. — lb., p. 5. 

3. Of the Adjective: — "There are subjects proper for the one, and not [proper] for the other." 
— Karnes. "A just weight and [a just] balance are the Lord's." — Prov., xvi, 11. True ellipses 
of the adjective alone, are but seldom met with. 

4. Of the Pronoun: — "Leave [thou] there thy gift before the altar, and go [thou] thy way; 
first be [thou] reconciled to thy brother, and then come [thou] and offer [thou] thy gift." — Matt., v, 
24. " Love [ye] your enemies, bless [ye] them that curse you, do [ye] good to them that hate 
you." — lb., v, 44. " Chastisement does not always immediately follow error, but [it] sometimes 
comes when [it is] least expected." — Dillvjyn, Ref., p. 31. " Men generally put a greater value upon 
the favours [lohich] they bestow, than upon those [which] they receive." — Art of Thinking, p. 48. 
"Wisdom and worth were all [that] he had." — Allen's Gram.,.ip. 294. 

5. Of the Verb: — "The world is crucified unto me, and I [am crucified] unto the world." — 
Gal, vi, 14. " Hearts should not [differ], though heads may, differ." — Dillvnjn, p. 11. " Are ye 
not much better than they" [are] ? — Matt, vi, 26. "Tribulation worketh patience ; and patience 
[worketh] experience ; and experience [worketh] hope." — Romans, v, 4. " Wrongs are engraved 

* The Latin terra, (made plnral to agree -with verba, tcords,) is svbaudita, underlieard — the perfect participle 
of subaudio, to underhear. Hence the noun, subauditio, subaudition, the recognition of ellipses. 

t " Thus, in the Proverhs of all Languages, many Words are usually left to be supplipd from the trite obvious 
Nature of what they express; as, out of Sight out of Mind; the more the merrier, &c." — W. Ward's PracL 
Gram., p. 147. 



81 G THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

on marble ; benefits [are engraved] on sand." — Art of Thinking, p. 41. " To whom thus Eve, yet 
sinless" [spoke]. — Milton. 

6. Of the Participle : — " That [being] o'er, they part." — " Animals of various natures, some 
adapted to the wood, and some [adapted] to the wave." — Melmoth, on Scripture, p. 13. 
" His knowledge [being] measured to his state and place, 
His time [being] a moment, and a point [being] his space." — Pope. 

*I. Of the Adverb: — " He can do this independently of me, if not [independently] of you." 
" She shows a body rather than a life ; 
A statue, [rather] than a breather." — SJiak., Ant. and Cleop., hi, 3. 

8. Of the Conjunction : — " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, [and] joy, [and] peace, [and] long 
suffering, [and] gentleness, [and] goodness, [and] faith, [and] meekness, [and] temperance." — 
Gal., v, 22. The repetition of the conjunction is called Polysyndeton; and the omission of it, 
Asyndeton. 

9. Of the Preposition: — " It shall be done [on] this very day." — ""We shall set off [at] some 
time [in] next month." — "He departed [from] this life." — "He gave [to] me a book." — "We 
walked [through] a mile." — " He was banished [from] the kingdom." — W.Allen. "He lived 
like [to] a prince." — Wells. 

10. Of the Interjection: — "Oh! the frailty, [oh!] the wickedness of men." — " Alas for Mex- 
ico! and [alas] for many of her invaders!" 

11. Of Phrases or Clauses: — "The active commonly do more than they are bound to do; the 
indolent [commonly do] less" [than they are bound to do]. — " Young men, angry, mean less than 
they say; old men, [angry, mean] more" [than they say]. — "It is the duty of justice, not to injuro 
men; [it is the duty] of modesty, not to offend them." — W. Allen. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Grammarians in general treat of ellipsis without defining it; and exhibit such rules 
and examples as suppose our language to be a hundred-fold more elliptical than it really is.* 
This is a great error, and only paralleled by that of a certain writer elsewhere noticed, who denies 
the existence of all ellipsis whatever. (See Syntax, Obs. 24th on Rule 22d.) Some have defined 
this figure in a way that betrays a very inaccurate notion of what it is: as, "Ellipsis is when one 
or more words are wanting to complete the sense." — Adam's Lat. and Eng. Gram., p. 235 ; Gould's, 
229. "Ellipsis is the omission of one or more words necessary to complete the sense." — Bullions, 
Lat. Gram., p. 265. These definitions are decidedly worse than none ; because, if they have any 
effect, they can only mislead. They absurdly suggest that every elliptical sentence lacks a part of 
its own meaning ! Ellipsis is, in fact, the mere omission or absence of certain suggested words ; or 
of words that may be spared from utterance, without defect in the sense. There never can be an 
ellipsis of any thing which is either unnecessary to the construction or necessary to the sense : for 
to say what we mean and nothing more, never can constitute a deviation from the ordinary gram- 
matical construction of words. As a figure of Syntax, therefore, the ellipsis can only be of such 
words as are so evidently suggested to the reader, that the writer is as fully answerable for them 
as if he had written them. 

Obs. 2. — To suppose an ellipsis where there is none, or to overlook one where it really occurs, 
is to pervert or mutilate the text, in order to accommodate it to the parser's or reader's ignorance 
of the principles of syntax. There never can be either a general uniformity or a self-consistency 
in our methods of parsing, or in our notions of grammar, till the true nature of an ellipsis is clearly 
ascertained ; so that the writer shall distinguish it from a blundering omission that impairs tho 
sense, and the reader or parser be barred from an arbitrary insertion of what would be cumbrous 
and useless. By adopting loose and extravagant ideas of the nature of this figure, some pretend- 
ers to learning and philosophy have been led into the most whimsical and opposite notions con- 
cerning the grammatical construction of language. Thus, with equal absurdity, Cardell and Sher- 
man, in their Philosophic Grammars, attempt to confute the doctrines of their predecessors, by 
supposing ellipses at pleasure. And while the former teaches, that prepositions do not govern the 
objective case, but that every verb is transitive, and governs at least two objects, expressed or 
understood, its own and that of a preposition ; the latter, with just as good an argument, contends 
that no verb is transitive, but that every objective case is governed by a preposition expressed or 
understood. A world of nonsense for lack of a definition ! 

II. Pleonasm is the introduction of superfluous words ; as, " But of the tree of 
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it" — Gen., ii, IV. This figure 
is allowable only, when, in animated discourse, it abruptly introduces an emphatic 
word, or repeats an idea to impress it more strongly ; as, "He that hath ears to hear, 
let him hear." — Bible. " All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth." 
— Id. " There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown 
down." — Id. " I know thee who thou art." — Id. A Pleonasm, as perhaps in these 

* Lindley Murray and some others say, "As the ellipsis occurs in almost every sentence in the English lan- 
guage, numerous examples of it might be given."— Murray's Gram., p. 220; Weld's, 292; Fish's, 147. They 
couid, without doubt, have exhibited many true specimens of Ellipsis; but most of those which they have 
given, are only fanciful and false ones ; and. their notion of the frequency of the figure, is monstrously hyper- 
bolical. 



CHAP. III.] PROSODY.— FIGURES. — SECTION III. — EXPLANATIONS. 817 

instances, is sometimes impressive and elegant ; but an unempliatic repetition of the 
same idea, is one of the worst faults of bad writing. 

Obs. — Strong passion is not always satisfied with saying a thing once, and in the fewest words 
possible; nor is it natural that it should be. Hence repetitions indicative of intense feeling may 
constitute a beauty of the highest kind, when, if the feeling were wanting, or supposed to be so, 
they would be reckoned intolerable tautologies. The following is an example, which the reader 
may appreciate the better, if he remembers the context: "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay 
down,- at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead." — Judges, v, 27. 

III. Syllepsis is agreement formed according to the figurative sense of a word, 
or the mental conception of the thing spoken of, and not according to the literal or 
common use of the term ; it is therefore in general connected with some figure of 
rhetoric : as " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his 
glory." — John, i, 14. "Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached 
Christ unto them? — Acts, viii, 5. "The city of London have expressed their senti- 
ments with freedom and firmness." — Junius, p. 159. "And I said [to backsliding 
Israel,] after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me ; but she returned 
not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it." — Jer., in, 7. "And he surnamed 
them Moaner ges, which is, The sons of thunder." — Mark, iii, 17. 

"While Evening draws her crimson curtains round." — Thomson, p. 63. 
"The Thunder raises his tremendous voice." — Id., p. 113. 

OBSERVATION'S. 

Obs. 1. — To the parser, some explanation of that agreement which is controlled by tropes, is 
often absolutely necessary ; yet, of our modern grammarians, none appear to have noticed it ; 
and, of the oldest writers, few, if any, have given it the rank which it deserves among the figures 
of syntax. The term Syllepsis literally signifies conception, comprehension, or taking-together. 
Under this name have been arranged, by the grammarians and rhetoricians, many different forms 
of unusual or irregular agreement ; some of which are quite too unlike to be embraced in the same 
class, and not a few, perhaps, too unimportant or too ordinary to deserve any classification as 
figures. I therefore omit some forms of expression which others have treated as examples of 
Syllepsis, and define the term with reference to such as seem more worthy to be noticed as devi- 
ations from the ordinary construction of words. Dr. "Webster, allowing the word two meanings, ex- 
plains it thus: "Syllepsis, n. [Gr. ov'AA?ppic.~] 1. In grammar, a figure by which we conceive the 
sense of words otherwise than the words import, and construe them according to the intention 
of the author; otherwise called substitution* 2. The agreement of a verb or adjective, not with 
the word next to it, but with the most worthy in the sentence." — American Bid. 

Obs. 2. — In short, Syllepsis is a conception of which grammarians have conceived so variously, 
that it has become doubtful, what definition or what application of the term is now the most ap- 
propriate. Dr. Prat, in defining it, cites one notion from Sanctius, and adds an other of his own, 
thus: " Syllepsis, id est, Conceptio, est quoties G-eneribus, aut Numeris videntur voces discrepare. 
Sanct. 1. 4. c. 10. Vel sit Comprehensio indignioris sub digniore." — Prats Lat. Gram., Part ii, p, 
164. John Grant ranks it as a mere form or species of Ellipsis, and expounds it thus : " Syllep- 
sis is when the adjective or verb, joined to different substantives, agrees with the more worthy." — 
Institutes of Lat. Gram., p. 321. Dr. Littleton describes it thus: "Sylllepsis, — A Grammatical 
figure where two Nominative Cases singular of different persons are joined to a Yerb plural." — 
Latin Diet, 4to. By Dr. Morell it is explained as follows : " Syllepsis, — A grammatical figure, 
where one is put for many, and many for one, Lat. Conception — MorelVs Ainsiuorth's Diet, 4to, 
Index Yitand. 

IV. Enallage is the use of one part of speech, or of one modification, for an other. 
This figure borders closely upon solecism ; and, for the stability of the language, it 
should be sparingly indulged. There are, however, several forms of it which can 
appeal to good authority : as, 

1. " You know that you are Brutus, that say this." — Shak. 

2. " They fall successively'], and successively] rise." — Pope. 

3. " Than whom [who] a fiend more fell is nowhere found." — Thomson. 

4. " Sure some disaster has befell " [befallen]. — Gay. 

5. "So furious was that onset's shock, 

Destruction's gates at once unlock" [unlocked]. — Hogg. 

* Who besides Webster has called syllepsis '■'■substitution" I do not know. Substitution and conception are 
terms of quite different import, and many authors have explained syllepsis by the latter word. Dr. Webster 
gives to " Substitution" two meanings, thus : "1. The act of putting one person or thing in the place of 
another to sux>ply [his or] its place. — 2. In grammar, syllepsis, or the use of one word for another." — American 
Diet., 8vo. This explanation seems to me inaccurate; because it confounds both substitution and syllepsis with 
enallage. It has signs of carelessness throughout ; the former sentence being both tautological aud ungram- 
matical. — G. B. 

52 



818 • THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Enallage is a Greek word, signifying commutation, change, or exchange. " Enallage, in 
a general sense, is the change of words, or of their accidents, one for another." — Grant's Latin 
Gram., p. 322. The word Antimeria, which literally expresses change of parts, was often used 
by the old grammarians as synonymous with Enallage ; though, sometimes, the former was taken 
only for the substitution of one part of speech for an other, and the latter, only, or more particu- 
larly, for a change of modification — as of mood for mood, tense for tense, or number for number. 
The putting of one case for an other, has also been thought worthy of a particular name, and been 
■called Antiptosis. But Enallage, the most comprehensive of these terms, having been often of old 
applied to all such changes, reducing them to one head, may well be now defined as above, and 
6ti.ll applied, in this way, to all that we need recognize as figures. The word Enallaxis, preferred 
by some, is of the same import. "Enallaxis, so called by Longinus, or Enallage, is an Exchange 
of Gases, Tenses, Persons, Numbers, or Genders." — Holmes's Ehet., Book i, p. 57. 

"An Enallaxis changes, when it pleases, 
Tenses, or Persons, Genders, Numbers, Cases." — lb., B. ii, p. 50. 

Obs. 2.— Our most common form of Enallage is that by which a single person is addressed in 
the plural number. This is so fashionable in our civil intercourse, that some very polite gramma- 
rians improperly dispute its claims to be called a, figure; and represent it as being more ordinary, 
and even more literal than the regular phraseology ; which a few of them, as we have seen, would 
place among the archaisms. The next in frequency, (if indeed it can be called a different form.) 
is the practice of putting we for i", or the plural for the singular in the first person. This has never 
yet been claimed as literal and regular syntax, though the usages differ in nothing but common- 
ness ; both being honourably authorized, both still improper on some occasions, and, in both, the 
Enallage being alike obvious. Other varieties of this figure, not uncommon in English, are the 
putting of adjectives for adverbs, of adverbs for nouns, of the present tense for the preterit, and of 
the preterit for the perfect participle. But, in the use of such liberties, elegance and error some- 
times approximate so nearly, there is scarcely an obvious line between them, and grammarians 
consequently disagree in making the distinction. 

Obs. 3. — Deviations of this kind are, in general, to be considered solecisms; otherwise, the rules 
of grammar would be of no use or authority. Bespauter, an ancient Latin grammarian, gave an 
improper latitude to this figure, or to a species of it, under the name of Antiptosis; and Behourt 
and others extended it still further. But Sanctius says, u Antiptosi grammaticorum nihil imperi- 
tius, quod figmentum si esset verum, frustra qucereretur, quern casum verba regerent." And the 
Messieurs Be Port Royal reject the figure altogether. There are, however, some changes of this 
kind, which the grammarian is not competent to condemn, though they do not accord with the 
ordinary principles of construction. 

V. Hyperbaton is the transposition of words ; as, " He wanders earth around." — 
Coioper. "Rings the world with the vain stir." — Id. " Whom therefore ye igno- 
rantly worship, him declare I unto you." — Acts, xvii, 23. " ' Happy\ says Mon- 
tesquieu, ''is that nation whose annals are tiresome.' " — Corwin,in Congress, 1847. 
This figure is much employed in poetry. A judicious use of it confers harmony, 
variety, strength, and vivacity upon composition. But care should be taken lest it 
produce ambiguity or obscurity, absurdity or solecism. 

Obs. — A confused and intricate arrangement of words, received from some of the ancients the 
name of Syn'chysis, and was reckoned by them among the figures of grammar. By some authors, 
this has been improperly identified with Hyper' baton, or elegant inversion; as may be seen under 
the word Synchysis in Littleton's Dictionary, or in Holmes's Rhetoric, at page 58th. Synchysis 
literally means confusion, or commixtion; and, in grammar, is significant only of some poetical 
jumble of words, some verbal kink or snarl, which cannot be grammatically resolved or disen- 
tangled: as, 

" Is piety thus and pure devotion paid ?" — Milton, P. L., B. xi, 1. 452. 
"An ass will with his long ears fray 
The flies that tickle him, away ; 
But man delights to have his ears 
Blown maggots in by flatterers." — Butler's Poems, p. 161. 

SECTION IV.— FIGURES OF RHETORIC. 
A Figure of Rhetoric is an intentional deviation from the ordinary 
application of words. Several of this kind of figures are commonly called 
Tropes, i. e.,turns ; because certain words are turned from their original 
signification to an other.* 

* Between Tropes and Figures, some writers attempt a full distinction ; but this, if practicable, is of little use. 
According to Holmes, " Tropes affect only single Words; but Figures, whole Sentences " —Rhetoric, B. i, p. 
28. " The Chief Tropes in Language," says this author, "are seven ; a Metaphor, an Allegorii, a Metonymy, 
a Synecdoche, an Irony, an Hyperbole, and a Catachresis." — lb., p. 30. The term Figure or Figures is more 
compreheusive than Trope or Tropes; I have therefore not thought it expedient to make much use of the latter, 



CHAP. III.] PROSODY. — FIGURES. — SECTION IV. — EXPLANATIONS. 819 

Numerous departures from perfect simplicity of diction, occur in almost 
every kind of composition. They are mostly founded on some similitude 
or relation of things, which, by the power of imagination, is rendered con- 
ducive to ornament or illustration. 

The principal figures of Khetoric are sixteen ; namely, Sim'-i-le, Met'- 
a-phor, AV-le-gor-y, Me-tori '-y-my , Syn-ec'-do-che, Hy-per' -bo-le, Vis- 
ion, A-pos r -tro-phe, Person' -i-ji-ca' -tion, Er-o-te'sis, PJc-pho-ne'sis, 
An-tith'-esis, Cli-max, P-ro-ny, A-poph'-asis, and On-o-ma-to-poe '-ia. 

EXPLANATIONS. 

I. A Simile is a simple and express comparison; and is generally introduced by 
like, as, or so : as, " Such a passion is like falling in love with a sparrow flying over 
your head ; you have but one glimpse of her, and she is out of sight." — Collier's 
Antoninus, p. 89. " Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early 
dew that passeth away ; as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the 
floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney." — Hosea, xih, 3. 

" At first, like thunder's distant tone, 

The rattling din came rolling on." — Hogg. 
" Man, like the generous vine, supported lives ; 

The strength he gains, is from th' embrace he gives." — Pope. 

Obs. — Comparisons are sometimes made in a manner sufficiently intelligible, without any ex- 
press term to point them out. In the following passage, we have a triple example of what seems 
the Simile, without the usual sign — without like, as, or so : "Away with all tampering with such 
a question! Away with all trifling with the man in fetters! Give a hungry man a stone, and tell 
what beautiful houses are made of it; — give ice to a freezing man, and tell him of its good properties 
in hot weather; — throw a drowning man a dollar, as a mark of your goodiuill; — but do not mock 
the bondman in his misery, by giving him a Bible when he cannot read it." — Frederick Doug- 
L>ass : Liberty Bell, 1848. 

II. A Metaphor is a figure that expresses or suggests the resemblance of two 
objects by applying either the name, or some attribute, adjunct, or action, of the one, 
directly to the other ; as, 

1. " The Lord is my rock, and my fortress" — Psal., xviii, 1. 

2. " His eye was morning's brightest ray." — Hogg. 

3. " An angler in the tides of fame." — Id., Q. W., p. 30. 

4. " Beside him sleeps the warrior's bow." — Langhorne. 

5. " Wild fancies in his moody brain 

GamboVd unbridled and unbound." — Hogg, Q. W., p. 90. 

6. " Speechless, and fix'd in all the death of wo." — Thomson. 

Obs. — A Metaphor is commonly understoood to be only the tropical use of some single word, or 
short phrase ; but there seem to be occasional instances of one sentence, or action, being used 
metaphorically to represent an other. The following extract from the London Examiner has 
several figurative expressions, which perhaps belong to this head : "In the present age, nearly 
all people are critics, even to the pen, and treat the gravest writers with a sort of taproom 
familiarity. If they are dissatisfied, they throw a short and spent cigar in the face of the offender; 
if they are pleased, they lift the candidate off his legs, and send him, away with a hearty slap on the 
shoulder. Some of the shorter, when they are bent to mischief, dip a twig in the gutter, and drag^ 
it across our polished boots : on the contrary, when they are inclined to be gentle and generous, 
they leap boisterously upon our knees, and kiss us with bread-and-butter in their mouths." — Walter 
Savage Landor. 

III. An Allegory is a continued narration of fictitious events, designed to repre- 
sent and illustrate important realities. Thus the Psalmist represents the Jewish na- 
tion under the symbol of a vine : " TBou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : thou 

in either the singular or the plural form. Holmes's seven tropes are all of them defined in the main text of this 
section, except Catachres/is, which is commonly explained to be " an abuse of a trope." According to this sense, 
it seems in general to differ but little from impropriety. At best, a Catachresis is a forced expression, though 
sometimes, perhaps, to be indulged where there is great excitement. It is a sort of figure by which a word is 
used in a sense different from, yet connected with, or analogous to, its own ; as, 

"And pity, like a naked new-born babe, 
Striding the blast, as heaven's cherubim 
Hots' d upon the sightless couriers of the air, 
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
That tears shall drown the wind." — Shah, Macbeth, Act i, Sc 7. 



820 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst 
cause it to take deep root ; and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the 
shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars." — Psalms, lxxx, 
8—10. 

Obs. — The Allegory, agreeably to the foregoing definition of it, includes most of those simil- 
itudes which in the Scriptures are called parables ; it includes also the better sort of fables. The 
rerm allegory is sometimes applied to a true history in which something else is intended, than is con- 
tained in the words literally taken. See an instance in Galatians, iv, 24. In the Scriptures, the 
term fable denotes an idle and groundless story : as, in 1 Timothy, iv, 7 ; and 2 Peter, i, 16. It 
is now commonly used in a better sense. " A fable may be defined to be an analogical narrative, 
intended to convey some moral lesson, in which irrational animals or objects are introduced as 
speaking." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 280. 

IV. A Metonymy is a change of names between things related. It is founded, 
not on resemblance, but on some such relation as that of cause and effect, of progeni- 
tor and posterity, of subject and adjunct, of place and inhabitant, of container and 
thing contained, or of sign and thing signified : as, (1.) "God is our salvation;' 1 '' 
i. e., Saviour. (2.) "Hear, O Israel;" i. e., O ye descendants of Israel. (3.) 
" He was the sigh of her secret soul ;" i. e., the youth she loved. (4.) " They smote 
the city;" i. e., the citizens. (5.) "My son, give me thy heart ;" i. e., affection. 
(6.) "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah ;" i. e., kingly power. (7.) "They 
have Moses and the prophets ;" i. e., their writings. See Luke, xvi, 29. 

V. Synecdoche, (that is, Comprehension^) is the naming of a part for the whole, 
or of the whole for a part; as, (l.) "This roof [i. e., house] protects you." (2.) 
"Now the year [i. e., summer] is beautiful." (3.) " A sail [i. e., a ship or vessel] 
passed at a distance." (4.) " Give us this day our daily bread ;" i. e., food. (5.) 
" Because they have taken away my Lord, [i. e., the body of Jesus,] and I know, not 
where they have laid him." — John. (6.) " The same day there were added unto 
them about three thousand souls ;" i. e., persons. — Acts. (7.) " There went out a 
decree from Cagsar Augustus, that all the world [i. e., the Roman empire] should be 
taxed." — Luke, ii, 1. 

VI. Hyperbole is extravagant exaggeration, in which the imagination is indulged 
beyond the sobriety of truth ; as, " My little finger shall be thicker than my father's 
loins." — 2 Chron., x, 10. "When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock 
poured me out rivers of oil? — Job, xxix, 6. 

" The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread, 
And trembling Tiber div'd beneath his bed." — Dryden. 

VII. Vision, or Imagery, is a figure by which the speaker represents the objects 
©f his imagination, as actually before his eyes, and present to his senses ; as, 

" I see the dagger-crest of Mar ! 
I see the Moray's silver star 
Wave o'er the cloud of Saxon war, 
That up the lake comes winding far !" — Scott, L. L., vi, 15. 

VIII. Apostrophe is a turning from the regular course of the subject, into an 
animated address ; as, " Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death ! where is thy 
sting ? O Grave ! where is thy victory ?" — 1 Cor., xv, 55. 

IX. Personification is a figure by which, in imagination, we ascribe intelligence 
and personality to unintelligent beings or abstract qualities ; as, 

1. "The Worm, aware of his intent, 

Harangued him thus, right eloquent." — Cowper. 

2. " Lo, steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears V—rPogers. 

3. " Hark ! Truth proclaims, thy triumphs cease !" — Idem. 

X. Erotesis is a figure in which the speaker adopts the form of interrogation, not 
to express a doubt, but, in general, confidently to assert the reverse of what is asked ; 
as, " Hast thou an arm like God ? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him ?" — 
Job, xl, 9. " He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? he that formed the eye, 
shall he not see ?" — Psalms, xciv, 9. 

XL Ecphonesis is a pathetic exclamation, denoting some violent emotion of the 
mind ; as, " liberty ! — sound once delightful to every Roman ear ! — sacred 



CHAP. III.] PROSODY. — FIGURES. — SECTION V. — PARSING. 821 

privilege of Roman citizenship! — once sacred — now trampled upon." — Cicero. 
" And I said, O that I had wings like a dove ! for then would I fly away, and be at 
rest." — Psalms, lv, 6. 

XII. Antithesis is a placing of things in opposition, to heighten their effect by 
contrast ; as, " I will talk of things heavenly, or things earthly ; things moral, or 
things evangelical ; things sacred, or things profane; things past, or things to come ; 
things foreign, or things at home ; things more essential, or things circumstantial ; 
provided that all be done to our profit." — Bunyan, P. P., p. 90. 

" Contrasted faults through all his manners reign ; 
Though poor, luxurious ; though submissive, vain ; 
Though grave, yet trifling ; zealous, yet untrue ; 
And e'en in penance, planning sins anew." — Goldsmith. 

XIII. Climax is a figure in which the sense is made to advance by successive 
steps, to rise gradually to what is more and more important and interesting, or to 
descend to what is more and more minute and particular ; as, " And besides this, 
giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to 
knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; 
and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." — 2 
Peter, i, 5. 

XIV. Irony is a figure in which the speaker sneeringly utters the direct reverse 
of what he intends shall be understood ; as, " We have, to be sure, great reason to 
believe the modest man would not ask him for a debt, when he pursues his life." — 
Cicero. " No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you." — Job, xii, 
2. " They must esteem learning very much, when they see its professors used with 
such little ceremony !" — Goldsmith's Essays, p. 150. 

XV. Apophasis, or Paralipsis* is a figure in which the speaker or writer pretends 
to omit what at the same time he really mentions ; as, "I Paul have written it with 
mine own hand, I will repay it ; albeit / do not say to thee, how thou owest unto 
me even thine own self besides." — Philemon, 19. 

XVI. Onomatopoeia is the use of a word, phrase, or sentence, the sound of which 
resembles, or intentionally imitates, the sound of the thing signified or spoken of: as, 
" Of a knocking at the door, Pat a tat tat." — J. W. Gibbs : in Fowler's Gram., p. 
334. "Ding-dong! ding-dong! Merry, merry, go the bells, Ding-dong! ding- 
dong /" — H. K. White. " Bow'wow n. The loud bark of a dog. Booth." — Wor- 
cester's Diet. This is often written separately ; as, "Bow ivow." — Fowler's Gram., 
p. 334. The imitation is better with three sounds : "Bow wow wow" The follow- 
ing verses have been said to exhibit this fio-ure : 

"But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, 
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar." — Pope, on Crit., 1. 369. 

Obs. — The whole number of figures, which I have thought it needful to define and illustrate in 
this work, is only about thirty. These are the chief of what have sometimes been made a very 
long and minute catalogue. In the hands of some authors, Rhetoric is scarcely anything else than 
a detail of figures ; the number of which, being made to include almost every possible lorm of ex- 
pression, is. according to these authors, not less than two hundred and forty. Of their names, 
John Holmes gives, in his index, two hundred and fifty-three ; and he has not all that might be 
quoted, though he has more than there are of the forms named, or the figures themselves. To find 
a learned name for every particular mode of expression, is not necessarily conducive to the right 
use of language. It is easy to see the inutility of such pedantry ; and Butler has made it suffi- 
ciently ridiculous by this caricature : 

" For all a rhetorician's rules 
Teach nothing but to name his tools." — Eudibras, P. i, C. i, 1. 90. 

SECTION V.— EXAMPLES FOE PASSING. 

PRAXIS XIV.— PROSODICAL. 

In the Fourteenth Praxis, are exemplified the several Figures of Orthography, of 
Etymology, of Syntax, and of Rhetoric, lohich the parser may name and define ; 

* Holmes, in his Art of Rhetoric, writes this word " Paraleipm's" retaining the Greek orthography. So does 
Fowler in his recent " English Grammar," § 646. Wehster, Adam, and some others, write it " Paralepsis." I 
write it as above on the authority of Littleton, Ainsworth, and some others; and this is according to the anal- 
ogy of the kindred word ellipsis, which we never write either ellepsia, or, as the Greek, elleipsis. 



822 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

and by it the pupil may also be exercised in relation to the principles of Punctu- 
ation, Utterance, Analysis, or whatever else of Grammar, the examples contain. 

Lesson I. — Figures op Orthography. 

MIMESIS AND ARCHAISM. 

" I ax'd you what you had to sell. I am fitting out a wessel for Wenice, loading 
her with warious Jceinds of prowisions, and wittualling her for a long woyage ; and 
I want several undred weight of weal, wenison, &c, with plenty of inyons and win- 
egar, for the preserwation of ealth." — Columbian Orator, p. 292. 

" God bless you, and lie still quiet (says I) a bit longer, for my shister-'s afraid of 
ghosts, and would die on the spot with the fright, was she to see you come to life all 
on a sudden this way without the least preparation." — Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, 
p. 143. 

" None [else are] so desperately evill, as they that may bee good and will not : or 
have beene good and are not." — Rev. John Rogers, 1620. "A Carpenter finds his 
work as hee left it, but a Minister shall find his sett back. You need preach con- 
tinually." — Id. 

" Here whilom ligg'd th' Esopus of his age, 

But call'd by Fame, in soul ypricked deep." — Thomson. 
" It was a fountain of Nepenthe rare, 
Whence, as Dan Homer sings, huge pleasaunce grew." — Id. 

Lesson II. — Figures of Etymology. 

APH&RESIS, PROSTHESIS, SYNCOPE, APOCOPE, PARAGOGE, DLERESIS, SYN.ERESIS, AND TMESIS. 

" Bend ''gainst the steepy hill thy breast, 

Burst down like torrent from its crest." — Scott. 
u 'Tis mine to teach th' inactive hand to reap 

Kind nature's bounties, o'er the globe diffused? — Dyer. 
" Alas ! alas ! how impotently true 

Th" 1 aerial pencil forms the scene anew." — Cawthorne. 
" Here a deformed monster joy'd to won, 

"Which on fell rancour ever was ybent." — Lloyd. 
" Withouten trump was proclamation made." — Thomson* 
" The gentle knight, who saw their rueful case, 

Let fall adown his silver beard some tears. 

4 Certes,' quoth he, ' it is not e'en in grace, 

T' undo the past and eke your broken years." — Id. 
"Vain tampering has but fostered his disease; 

'Tis desperate, and he sleeps the sleep of death." — Cowper. 
" ' I have a pain upon my forehead here' — 

' Why that's with watching ; 'twill away again.' " — Shahspeare. 
" I'll to the woods, among the happier brutes ; 

Gome, let's away ; hark ! the shrill horn resounds." — Smith. 
"What prayer and supplication soever be made." — Bible. "By the grace of God, 
we have had our conversation in the world, find more abundantly to you ward." — lb. 

Lesson III. — Figures of Syntax. 

FIGURE I. — ELLIPSIS. 

" And now he faintly kens the bounding fawn, 

And [ — ] villager [ — ] abroad at early toil." — Beattie. 
" The cottage curs at [ — ] early pilgrim bark." — Id. 
" 'Tis granted, and no plainer truth appears, 

Our most important [ — ] are our earliest years." — Cowper. 
" To earn her aid, with fix'd and anxious eye, 

He looks on nature's [ — ] and on fortune's course." — Akenside. 
" For longer in that paradise to dwell, 

The law [ — ] I gave to nature him forbids." — Milton. 



CHAP. III.] PROSODY. FIGURES. — PARSING. — PRAXIS XIV. 823 

"So little mercy shows [ — ] who needs so much." — Cowper. 
"Bliss is the same [ — ] in subject, as [ — ] in king ; 

In [ — ] who obtain defence, and [ — ] who defend." — Pope. 
" Man made for kings ! those optics are but dim 

That tell you so — say rather, they [ — ] for him." — Cowper. 
"Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, 

But God will never [ ]." — Id. 

" Vigour [ — ] from toil, from trouble patience grows." — Beattie t 
" Where now the rill melodious, [ — ] pure, and cool, 

And meads, with life, and mirth, and beauty crown'd ?" — Id. 
" How dead the vegetable kingdom lies ! 

How dumb the tuneful [— ] !" — Thomson. 

"Self-love and Reason to one end aspire, 

Pain [ — ] their aversion, pleasure [ — ] their desire ; 

But greedy that its object would devour, 

This [ — ] taste the honey, and not wound the flower." — Pope* 

Lesson IV. — Figures of Syntax. 

FIGURE U. — PLEONASM. 

" According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, rec- 
ompense to his enemies ; to the islands he will repay recompense." — Isaiah, lix, 18. 
" Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undeflled : for my head is filled with 
dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. v — Song of Sol., v, 2. " Thou hast 
chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke : turn thou 
me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my God." — Jer., xxxi, 18. " Con- 
sider the lilies of the field how they grow? — Matt., vi, 28. "He that glorieth, let 
him glory in the Lord." — 2 Cor., x, 17. 

" He too is witness, noblest of the train 
That wait on man, the flight-performing horse." — Cowper. 

FIGURE m. — SYLLEPSIS. 

" ' Thou art Simon the son of Jona : thou shalt be called Cephas :' which is, by 
interpretation a stone." — John, i, 42. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, 'Behold, I 
will break the bow of Mam, the chief of their might.'" — Jer., xlix, 35. " Behold, 
I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence : and wdiosoever believeth on 
him shall not be ashamed." — Rom., ix, 33. 

" Thus Conscience pleads her cause within the breast, 

Though long rebell'd against, not yet suppress'd." — Cowper. 
" Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much ; 
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." — Id. 
" For those the race of Israel oft forsook 
Their living strength, and unfrequented left 
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 
To bestial gods." — Milton, Paradise Lost, B. i, 1. 432. 

Lesson V. — Figures of Syntax. 

FIGURE IV. — ENALLAGE. 

" Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself 

Are much condemned to have an itching palm, 

To sell and mart your offices for gold." — ShaJcspeare. 
" Come, Philomel us; let us instant go, 

O'erturnhis bow'rs, and lay his castle low." — Thomson. 
" Then palaces shall rise ; the joyful son 

Shall finish what the short-liv'd sire begun. 1 " 1 — Pope. 
" Such was that temple built by Solomon, 

Than whom none richer reign'd o'er Israel." — Author. 
" He spoke : with fatal eagerness we burn, 

And quit the shores, undestin'd to return." — Day. 



824 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IT. 

" Still as lie pass'd, the nations he sublimes." — Thomson. 
" Sometimes, with early morn, he mounted gay." — Id. 
" ' IVe lost a day ' — the prince who nobly cried, 
Had been an emperor without his crown." — Young. 

FIGURE V. — HYPERBATON. 

" Such resting found the sole of unblest feet. 11 — Milton. 
" Yet, though successless, ivill the toil delight." — Thomson. 
" Where, 'midst the changeful scen'ry ever new, 

Fancy a thousand wondrous forms descries." — Beattie. 
" Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace, 

That who advance his glory, not their own, 

Them he himself to glory will advance." — Milton. 
" No quick reply to dubious questions make ; 

Suspense and caution still prevent mistake." — Denham. 

Lesson VI. — Figures of Rhetoric. 

FIGURE I. — SIMILE. 

" Human greatness is short and transitory, as the odour of incense in the fire" — 
Dr. Johnson. " Terrestrial happiness is of short continuance : the brightness of the 
fame is wasting its fuel, the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odours." — 
Id. " Thy nod is as the earthquake that shakes the mountains ; and thy smile, as 
the dawn of the vernal day." — Id. 

" Plants raised with tenderness are seldom strong ; 
Man's coltish disposition asks the thong ; 
And, without discipline, the fav'rite child, 
Like a neglected forester, runs wild." — Cowper. 
" As turns a flock of geese, and, on the green, 
Poke out their foolish necks in awkward spleen, 
(Ridiculous in rage !) to hiss, not bite, 

So war their quills, when sons of dullness write." — Young. 
" AVho can unpitying see the flowery race, 
Shed by the morn, their new-flush'd bloom resign, 
Before th' unbating beam ? So fade the fair, 
When fevers revel through their azure veins." — Thomson. 

FIGURE II. — METAPHOR. 

" Cathmon, thy name is a pleasant gale." — Ossian. " Rolled into himself he flew, 
wide on the bosom of winds. The old oak felt his departure, and shook its whistling 
head." — Id. " Carazan gradually lost the inclination to do good, as he acquired the 
power ; as the hand of time scattered snow upon his head, the freezing influence 
extended to his bosom." — Hawkesworth. " The sun grew weary of gilding the palaces 
of Morad ; the clouds of sorrow gathered round his head ; and the tempest of hatred 
roared about his dwelling." — Dr. Johnson. 

Lesson VII. — Figures of Rhetoric. 

FIGURE III. — ALLEGORY. 

" But what think ye ? A certain man had two sons ; and he came to the first, and 
said, ' Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.' He answered and said, ' I will not ;' 
but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. 
And he answered and said, ' I go, sir ;' and went not. Whether of them twain 
did the will of his father? They say unto him, 'The first.' " — Matt., xxi, 28 — 31. 

FIGURE IV. — METONYMY. 

"Swifter than a whirlwind, flies the leaden death." — Hervey. " 'Be all the dead 
forgot,' said Foldath's bursting wrath. ' Did not I fail in the field V " — Ossian. 
" Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke." — Gray. 
" Firm in his love, resistless in his hate, 
His arm is conquest, and his frown is fate." — Day. 



CHAP. III.] PROSODY. — FIGURES. PARSING. — PRAXIS XIV. 825 

" At length the world, renew'd by calm repose, 
Was strong for toil ; the dappled mora arose." — Parnell. 

" What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, 
The mole's dim curtain and the lynx's beam ! 
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, 
To that which warbles through the vernal wood !" — Pope. 

FIGURE Y. — SYNECDOCHE. 

"'Twas then his threshold first receiv'd a guest." — Parnell. 

" For yet by swains alone the world he knew, 
Whose feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew." — Id. 

" Flush'd by the spirit of the genial year, 
Now from the virgin's cheek a fresher bloom 
Shoots, less and less, the live carnation round." — Thomson. 

Lesson VIII. — Figures of Rhetoric. 

FIGURE VI. — HYPERBOLE. 

" I saw their chief, tall as a rock of ice ; his spear, the blasted fir ; his shield the 
rising moon ; he sat on the shore, like a cloud of mist on the hill." — Ossian. 
" At which the universal host up sent 
A shout, that tore Hell's concave, and beyond 
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night." — Milton. 
" Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green one red !" — Shakspeare. 

FIGURE VII. — VISION. 

" How mighty is their defence who reverently trust in the arm of God ! How 
powerfully do they contend who fight with lawful weapons ! Hark ! 'Tis the 
voice of eloquence, pouring forth the living energies of the soul ; pleading, with 
generous indignation and holy emotion, the cause of injured humanity against law- 
less might, and reading the awful destiny that awaits the oppressor ! — I see the stern 
countenance of despotism overawed ! I see the eye fallen, that kindled the elements 
of war! I see the brow relaxed, that scowled defiance at hostile thousands! I see 
the knees tremble, that trod with firmness the embattled field ! Fear has entered 
that heart which ambition had betrayed into violence ! The tyrant feels himself a 
man, and subject to the weakness of humanity ! — Behold ! and tell me, is that power 
contemptible which can thus find access to the sternest hearts ?" — Author. 

FIGURE VUI. — APOSTROPHE. 

" Yet still they breathe destruction, still go on, 
Inhumanly ingenious to find out 
New pains for life, new terrors for the grave ; 
Artificers of death ! Still monarchs dream 
Of universal empire growing up 
From universal ruin. Blast the design, 
Great God of Hosts ! nor let thy creatures fall 
Unpitied victims at Ambition's shrine." — Porteus. 

Lesson IX. — Figures of Rhetoric. 

FIGURE IX. — PERSONIFICATION. 

" Hail, sacred Polity, by Freedom rear'd ! 

Hail, sacred Freedom, when by Law restrain'd ! 

Without you, what were man ? A grov'ling herd, 

In darkness, wretchedness, and want, enchain'd." — Beattie. 
" Let cheerful Memory, from her purest cells, 

Lead forth a godly train of Virtues fair, 

Cherish'd in early youth, now paying back 

With tenfold usury the pious care." — Porteus. 



825 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

FIGURE X. — EROTESIS. 

" He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct ? He that teacheth man 
knowledge, shall not he know ?" — Psalms, xciv, 10. " Can the Ethiopian change 
his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed 
to do evil." — Jeremiah, xiii, 23. 

FIGURE XI. ECPHONESIS. 

" O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might 
weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people ! O that I had in the 
wilderness a lodging place of way-faring men, that I might leave my people, and go 
from them !" — Jeremiah, ix, 1. 

FIGURE XU. ANTITHESIS. 

" On this side, modesty is engaged ; on that, impudence : on this, chastity ; on 
that, lewdness : on this, integrity ; on that, fraud : on this, piety ; on that, profane- 
ness : on this, constancy ; on that, fickleness : on this, honour ; on that, baseness : on 
this, moderation ; on that, unbridled passion." — Cicero. 

" She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies, 
Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise ; 
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes ; 
Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods." — Pope. 

Lesson X. — Figures of Rhetoric. 

FIGURE XIII. — CLIMAX. 

" Virtuous actions are necessarily approved by the awakened conscience ; and 
when they are approved, they are commended to practice ; and when they are prac- 
tised, they become easy ; and when they become easy, they afford pleasure ; and 
when they afford pleasure, they are done frequently ; and when they are done fre- 
quently, they are confirmed by habit : and confirmed habit is a kind of second 
nature." — Inst., p. 246. 

" Weep all of every name : begin the wo, 

Ye woods, and tell it to the doleful winds; 

And doleful winds, wail to the howling hills ; 

And howling hills, mourn to the dismal vales ; 

And dismal vales, sigh to the sorrowing brooks ; 

And sorrwing brooks, weep to the weeping stream ; 

And weeping stream, awake the groaning deep ; 

And let the instrument take up the song, 

Responsive to the voice — harmonious wo !" — PolloJc, B. vi, 1. 115. 

FIGURE XIV. — IRONY. 

" And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, * Cry aloud ; 
for he is a god : either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in \on~\ a journey, or 
peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked !' " — 1 Kings, xviii, 21. 

" After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, 
each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years ; and ye shall 
know my breach of promise." — Numbers, xiv, 34. 

" Some lead a life unblamable and just, 
Their own dear virtue their unshaken trust ; 
They never sin — or if (as all offend) 
Some trivial slips their daily walk attend, 
The poor are near at hand, the charge is small, 
A slight gratuity atones for all." — Cowper. 

FIGURE XV. — APOPRASIS, OR PARALIPSIS. 

I say nothing of the notorious profligacy of his character ; nothing of the reckless 
extravagance with which he has wasted an ample fortune ; nothing of the disgusting 
intemperance which has sometimes caused him to reel in our streets ; — but I aver 
that he has not been faithful to our interests, — has not exhibited either probity or 
ability in the important office which he holds. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — PRINCIPLES. 827 

FIQURE XVI. — ONOMATOPOEIA. 
[The following lines, from Swift's Poems, satirically mimick the imitative music of a violin.] 

" Now sweep, sweep the deep. 
See Celia, Celia dies, 
While true Lovers' eyes 
Weeping sleep, Sleeping* weep, 
Weeping sleep, Bo-peep, bo-peep." 



" Now slowly move your fiddle-stick ; 
Now, tan tan, tantantivi, quick ; 
Now trembling, shivering, quivering, 

quaking, 
Set hoping hearts of Lovers aching." 



CHAPTER IV.— VERSIFICATION. 

Versification is the forming of that species of literary composition 
which is called verse; that is, poetry, or poetic numbers. 

SECTION I.— OF YEKSE. 

Verse, in opposition to prose, is language arranged into metrical lines 
of some determinate length and rhythm — language so ordered as to pro- 
duce harmony, hyadue succession of poetic feet, or of syllables differing in 
quantity or stress. 

DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES. 

The rhythm of verse is its relation of quantities ; the modulation of its numbers ; 
or, the kind of metre, measure, or movement, of which it consists, or by which it is 
particularly distinguished. 

The quantity of a syllable, as commonly explained, is the relative portion of time 
occupied in uttering it. In poetry, every syllable is considered to be either long or 
short. A long syllable is usually reckoned to be equal to two short ones. 

In the construction of English verse, long quantity coincides always with the pri- 
mary accent, generally also with the secondary, as well as with emphasis ; and short 
quantity, as reckoned by the poets, is found only in unaccented syllables, and unem- 
phatical monosyllabic words.* 

The quantity of a syllable, whether long or short, does not depend on what is called 
the long or the short sound of a vowel or diphthong, or on a supposed distinction 
of accent as affecting vowels in some cases and consonants in others, but principally 
on the degree of energy or loudness with which the syllable is uttered, whereby a 
greater or less portion of time is employed. 

The open vowel sounds, which are commonly but not very accurately termed long, 
are those which are the most easily protracted, yet they often occur in the shortest 
and feeblest syllables ; while, on the other hand, no vowel sound, that occurs under 
the usual stress of accent or of emphasis, is either so short in its own nature, or 
is so " quickly joined to the succeeding letter," that the syllable is not one of long 
quantity. 

Most monosyllables, in English, are variable in quantity, and may be made either 
long or short, as strong or weak sounds suit the sense and rhythm ; but words of 
greater length are, for the most part, fixed, their accented syllables being always 
long, and a syllable immediately before or after the accent almost always short. 

One of the most obvious distinctions in poetry, is that of rhyme and blank verse. 
Rhyme is a similarity of sound, combined with a difference : occurring usually be- 
tween the last syllables of different lines, but sometimes at other intervals ; and so 

* To this principle there seems to he now and then an exception, as when a weak dissyllable begins a foot in 
an anapestic line, as in the following examples : — 

" I think — let me see — yes, it is, I declare, 

As long ago now as that Buckingham there." — Leigh Hunt. 
"And Thomson, though hest in his indolent fits, 
Either slept himself weary, or blasted his wits." — Id. 
Here, if we reckon the feet in question to be anapests, Ave have dissyllables Avith both parts short. But some, 
accenting "ago" on the latter syllable, and "Either" on the former, Avill call "ago now" a bacchy, and "Either 
slept" an amphimac : because they make them such by their manner of reading. — G. B. 



828 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

ordered that the rhyming syllables begin differently and end alike. Blank verse is 
verse without rhyme. 

The principal rhyming syllables are almost always long. Double rhyme adds 
one short syllable ; triple rhyme, two. Such syllables are redundant in iambic and 
anapestic verses; in lines of any other sort, they are generally, if not always, included 
iu the measure. 

A Stanza is a combination of several verses, or lines, which, taken together, make 
a regular division of a poem. It is the common practice of good versifiers, to form 
ali stanzas of the same poem after one model. The possible variety of stanzas is in- 
finite ; and the actual variety met with in print is far too great for detail. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Verse, in the broadest acceptation of the term, is poetry, or metrical language, in gen- 
eral. This, to the eye, is usually distinguished from prose by the manner in which it is written and 
printed. For, in very many instances, if this were not the case, the reader would be puzzled to 
disceru the difference. The division of poetry into its peculiar lines, is therefore not a mere acci- 
dent. The word verse, from the Latin versus, literally signifies a turning. Each full line of metre 
is accordingly called a verse ; because, when its measure is complete, the writer turns to place an 
other under it. A verse, then, in the primary sense of the word with us, is, " A line consisting of 
a certain succession of sounds, and number of syllables." — Johnson, Walker, Todd, Bolles, and 
others. Or, according to Webster, it is, "A poetic line, consisting of a certain number of long and 
short syllables, disposed according to the rules of the species of poetry which the author intends to 
compose." — See American Diet., 8vo. 

Obs. 2. — If to settle the theory of English verse on true and consistent principles, is as difficult 
a matter, as the manifold contrarieties of doctrine among our prosodists would indicate, there can 
be no great hope of any scheme entirely satisfactory to the intelligent examiner. The very ele- 
ments of the subject are much perplexed by the incompatible dogmas of authors deemed skilful to 
elucidate it. It will scarcely be thought a hard matter to distinguish true verse from prose, yet 
is it not well agreed, wherein the difference consists : what the generality regard as the most 
essential elements or characteristics of the former, some respectable authors dismiss entirely 
from their definitions of both verse and versification. The existence of quantity in our language ; 
the dependence of our rhythms on the division of syllables into long and short ; the concurrence 
of our accent, (except in some rare and questionable instances,) with long quantity only ; the con- 
stant effect of emphasis to lengthen quantity ; the limitation of quantity to mere duration of sound ; 
the doctrine that quantity pertains to all syllables as such, and not merely to vowel sounds ; the 
recognition of the same general principles of syllabication in poetry as in prose ; the supposition 
that accent pertains not to certain letters in particular, but to certain syllables as such ; the limita- 
tion of accent to stress, or percussion, only ; the conversion of short syllables into long, and long 
into short, by a change of accent ; our frequent formation of long syllables with what are called 
short vowels ; our more frequent formation of short syllables with what are called long or open 
vowels; the necessity of some order in the succession of feet or syllables to form a rhythm; the 
need of framing each line to correspond with some other line or hues in length ; the propriety of 
always making each line susceptible of scansion by itself: all these points, so essential to a true 
explanation of the nature of English verse, though, for the most part, well maintained by some 
prosodists, are nevertheless denied by some, so that opposite opinions may be cited concerning 
them alL I would not suggest that all or any of these points are thereby made doubtful ; for 
there may be opposite judgements in a dozen cases, and yet concurrence enough (if concurrence 
can do it) to establish them every one. 

Obs. 3. — An ingenious poet and prosodist now living,* Edgar Allan Poe, (to whom I owe a 
word or two of reply,) in his "Notes upon English Verse," with great self-complacency, represents, 
that," While much has been written upon the structure of the Greek and Latin rhythms, compar- 
atively nothing has been done as regards the English;" that, "It maybe said, indeed, we are 
without a treatise upon our own versification ;"that, " The very best" definition of versificationf to 
be found in any of u our ordinary treatises on the topic," has u not a single point which does not 
involve an error;" that, "A leading defect in each of these treatises is the confining of the subject 
to mere versification, while metre, or rhythm, in general, is the real question at issue;" that, "Ver- 
sification is not the art, but the act,''' 1 of making verses; that, " A correspondence in the length of 
lines is by no means essential ;" that, " Harmony,'" produced "by the regular alternation of sylla- 
bles differing in quantity," does not include "melody" that. " A regular alternation, as described, 
forms no part of the principle of metre;" that, " There is no necessity of any regularity in the suc- 
cession of feet;" that, "By consequence," he ventures to " dispute the essentiality of any alterna- 
tion, regular or irregular, of syllables long and short ;" that, " For anything more intelligible or more 
satisfactory than this definition [i. e., G. Brown's former definition of versification,] we shall look 
in vain in any published treatise upon the subject ;" that, " So general and so total a failure can be 

* "Edgar A. Poe, the author, died at Baltimore on Sunday" [the 7th].— Daily Evening Traveller, Boston 
Oct. 9, 1849. This was eight or ten months after the writing of these observations.— G. B. 

t " Versification is the art of arranging words into lines of correspondent length, so as to produce harmony by 
the regular alternation of syllables differing in quantity."— Brown's Institutes of E. Gram., p. 235. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — PRINCIPLES. 829 

referred only to some radical misconception ;" that, " The word verse is derived (through versus 
from the Latin verto, 1 turn, and * * * * it can be nothing but this derivation, which has led to 
the error of our writers upon prosody;" that, "It is this which has seduced them into regarding 
the line itself— the versus, or turning — as an essential, or principle of metre;" that, "Hence the 
term versification has been employed as sufficiently general, or inclusive, for treatises upon rhythm 
in general;" that, "Hence, also, [comes] the precise catalogue of a few varieties of English lines, 
when these varieties are, in fact, almost without limit;" that, " 1," the aforesaid Edgar Allan 
Poe, "shall dismiss entirely, from the consideration of the principle of rhythm, the idea of versifi- 
cation, or the construction of verse ;" that, " In so doing, we shall avoid a world of confusion ;" that, 
" Verse is, indeed, an afterthought, or an embellishment, or an improvement, rather than an element 
of rhythm;" that, " This fact has induced the easy admission, into the realms of Poesy, of such 
works as the 'Telemaque' of Fenelon;" because, forsooth, "In the elaborate modulation of their 
sentences, they fulfil the idea of METRE." — The Pioneer, a Literary and Critical Magazine 
(Boston, March, 1843,) Vol. I, p. 102 to 105. 

Obs. 4. — " Holding these things in view," continues this sharp connoisseur, " the prosodist who 
rightly examines that which constitutes the external, or most immediately recognisable, form of 
Poetry, will commence with the definition of Rhythm. Now rhythm, from the Greek ufuO/uoc, 
number, is a term which, in its present application, very nearly conveys its oven idea. No more 
proper word could be employed to present the conception intended; for rhythm, in prosody, is, in 
its last analysis, identical with time in music. For this reason" says he, "I have used, throughout 
this article, as synonymous with rhythm, the word metre from uerpov, measure. Either the one 
or the other may be defined as the arrangement of words into two or more consecutive, equal, pulsa- 
tions of time. These pulsations are feet. Two feet, at least, are requisite to constitute a rhythm ; 
just as, in mathematics, two units are necessary to form [a] number* The syllables of which the 
foot consists, when the foot is not a syllable in itself, are subdivisions of the pulsations. No 
equality is demanded in these subdivisions. It is only required that, so far as regards two con- 
secutive feet at least, the sum of the times of the syllables in one, shall be equal to the sum of the 
times of the sjdlables in the other. Beyond two pulsations there is no necessity for equality of 
time. All beyond is arbitrary or conventional. A third or fourth pulsation may embody half or 
double, or any proportion of the time occupied in the two first. Rhythm being thus understood, 
the prosodist should proceed to define versification as the making of verses, and verse as the arbi- 
trary or conventional isolation of rhythm into masses of greater or less extent." — lb., p. 105. 

Obs. 5. — No marvel that all usual conceptions and definitions of rhythm, of versification, and 
of verse, should be found dissatisfactory to the critic whose idea of metre is fulfilled by the pomp- 
ous prose of Fenelon's Telemaque. No right or real examination of this matter can ever make 
the most immeciately recognizable form of poetry to be any thing else than the form of verse — the 
form of writing in specific lines, ordered by number and chime of syllables, and not squared by gage 
of the composing-stick. And as to the derivation and primitive signification of rhythm, it is plain 
that in the extract above, both are misrepresented. The etymologj^ there given is a gross error ; 
for, "the Greek dpcduoc, number," would make, in English, not rhythm, but arithm, as in arith- 
metic. Between the two combinations, there is the palpable difference of three or four letters in 
either six; for neither of these forms can be varied to the other, but by dropping one letter, and 
adding an other, and changing a third, and moving a fourth. Rhythm is derived, not thence, but 
from the Greek fivO/Lioc ; which, according to the lexicons, is a primitive word, and means, rhyth- 
mus, rhythm, concinnity, modulation, measured tune, or regular flow, and not "number." 

Obs. 6. — Rhythm, of course, like every other word not misapplied, " conveys its own idea ;" and 
that, not qualifiedly, or "very nearly," but exactly. That this idea, however, was originally that 
of arithmetical number, or is nearly so now, is about as fanciful a notion, as the happy suggestion 
added above, that rhythm in lieu of arithm or number, is the fittest of words, because "rhythm 
in prosody is time in music!" "Without dispute, it is important to the prosodist, and also to the 
poet or versifier, to have as accurate an idea as possible of the import of this common term, though 
it is observable that many of our grammarians make little or no use of it. That it has some rela- 
tion to numbers, is undeniable. But what is it ? Poetic numbers, and numbers in arithmetic, and 
numbers in grammar, are three totally different sorts of things. Rhythm is related only to the first. 
Of the signification of this word, a recent expositor gives the following brief explanation : 

* This appears to be an error; for, according to Dilworth, and other arithmeticians, "a unit is a number;" 
and so is it expounded by Johnson, Walker, Webster, and Worcester. See, in the Introduction, a note at the 
foot of p. 117. Mulligan, however, contends still, that one is no number; and that, "to talk of the singular 
number is absurd — a contradiction in terms;" — because, "in common discourse," a " number" is "always a 
plurality, except" — when it is '■'■number one /" — See Grammatical Structure of the E. Language, § 33. Some 
prosodists have taught the absurdity, that two feet are necessary to constitute a metre, and have accordingly 
applied the terms, monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, and hexameter, — or so many of them 
as they could so misapply, — in a sense very different from the usual acceptation. The proper principle is, that, 
"One* foot constitutes a metre." — Dr. P/Wilson's Greek Prosody, -p. 53. And verses are to be denominated 
Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter, &c, according to "the number of feet." — See ib., p. 6. But Worcester's, 
Universal and Critical Dictionary has the following not very consistent explanations: " Monometer, n. One 
metre. Beck. Dimetee, n. A poetic measure of four feet; a series of two metres. Beck. Trimeter, a. 
Consisting of three poetical measures, forming an iambic of six feet. Tyrwhitt. Tetrameter, n. A Latin or 
Greek verse consisting of four feet; a series of four metres. Tetrameter, a. Having four metrical feet. 
T/jrwhitt. Pentameter, n. A Greek or Latin verse of Jive feet; a series of five metres. Pentameter, a. 
Having five metrical feet. Warton. Hexameter, n. A verse or line of poetry, having six feet, either dactyls 
or spondees ; the heroic, and most important, verse among the Greeks and Romans : — a rhythmical series of six 
metres. Hexameter, a. Having six metrical feet. Dr. Warton." According to these definitions, Dimeter haa 
as many feet as Tetrameter ; and Trimeter has as many as Hexameter ! 



830 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

"Rhythm, %. Metre; verse; numbers. Proportion applied to any motion whatever." — Bolus's 
Dictionary, 8vo. To this definition, "Worcester prefixes the following : " The consonance of meas- 
ure and time in poetry, prose composition, and music; — also in dancing." — Universal and Critical 
Diet. In verse, the proportion which forms rhythm — that is, the chime of quantities — is applied 
to the sounds of syllables. Sounds, however, may be considered as a species of motion, especially 
those which are rhythmical or musical.* It seems more strictly correct, to regard rhythm as a 
property of poetic numbers, than to identify it with them. It is their proportion or modulation, 
rather than the numbers themselves. According to Dr. "Webster, " Rhythm, or Rhythmus, in 
music [is] variety in the movement as to quickness or slowness, or length and shortness of the 
notes ; or rather the proportion which the parts of the motion have to each other." — American 
Diet. The " last analysis " of rhythm can be nothing else than the reduction of it to its least parts. 
And if, in this reduction, it is "identical with time" then it is here the same thing as quantity, 
whether prosodical or musical; for, "The time of a note, or syllable, is called quantity. The time 
of a rest is also called quantity; because rests, as well as notes are a constituent of rhythm." — Com- 
stock's Elocution, p. 64. But rhythm is, in fact, neither time nor quantity ; for the analysis which 
would make it such, destroys the relation in which the thing consists. 

SECTION II.— OF ACCENT AND QUANTITY. 
Accent and Quantity have already been briefly explained in the second 
chapter of Prosody, as items coming under the head of Pronunciation. 
What we have to say of them here, will be thrown into the form of crit- 
ical observations ; in the progress of which, many quotations from other 
writers on these subjects, will be presented, showing what has been most 
popularly taught. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

' Obs. 1. — Accent and quantity are distinct things ;f the former being the 'stress, force, loudness, 
or percussion of voice, that distinguishes certain syllables from others ; and the latter, the time, 
distinguished as long or short, in which a syllable is uttered. But, as the great sounds which we 
utter, naturally take more time than the small ones, there is a necessary connexion between quan- 
tity and accent in English, — a connexion which is sometimes expounded as being the mere rela- 
tion of cause and effect; nor is it in fact much different from that. "As no utterance can be agree- 
able to the ear, which is void of proportion ; and as all quantity, or proportion of time in utterance, 
depends upon a due observation of the accent ; it is a matter of absolute necessity to all, who 
would arrive at a good and graceful delivery, to be master of that point. Nor is the use of accent 
in our language confined to quantity alone ; but it is also the chief mark by which words are dis- 
tinguished from mere syllables. Or rather I may say, it is the very essence of words, which with- 
out that, would be only so many collections of syllables." — Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution, p. 61. 
"As no utterance which is void of proportion, can be agreeable to the ear; and as quantity, or 
proportion of time in utterance, greatly depends on a due attention to the accent ; it is absolutely 
necessary for every person, who would attain a just and pleasing delivery, to be master of that 
point." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 241; 12mo, 194. 

Obs. 2. — In the first observation on Prosody, at page 710, and in its marginal notes, was refer- 
ence made to the fact, that the nature and principles of accent and quantity are involved in diffi- 
culty, by reason of the different views of authors concerning them. To this source of embarrass- 
ment, it seems necessary here again to advert ; because it is upon the distinction of syllables in 
respect to quantity, or accent, or both, that every system of versification, except his who merely 
counts, is based. And further, it is not only requisite that the principle of distinction which we 
adopt should be clearly made known, but also proper to consider which of these three modes is 
the best or most popular foundation for a theory of versification. "Whether or wherein the accent 
and quantity of the ancient languages, Latin and Oreek, differed from those of our present English, we 
need not now inquire. From the definitions which the learned lexicographers Littleton and Ains- 
worth give to prosodia, prosody, it would seem that, with them, " the art of accenting " was noth- 
ing else than the art of giving to syllables their right quantity, " whether long or short." And 

* It is common, at any rate, for prosodists to speak of " the movement of the voice," as do Sheridan, Murray, 
Humphrey, and Everett; but Kames, in treating of the Beauty of Language from Resemblance, says, "There 
is no resemblance of sound to motion, nor of sound to sentiment." — Elements of Criticism, Vol. ii, p. 63. This 
usage, however, is admitted by the critic, and cited to show how, "causes that have no resemblance may pro- 
duce resembling effects." — lb., ii, 64. " By a number of syllables in succession, an emotion is sometimes raised 
extremely similar to that raised by successive motion ; which may be evident even to those who are defective in 
taste, from the following fact, that the term movement in all languages is equally applied to both." — lb., ii, 66. 

t " From what has been said of accent and quantity in our own language, we may conclude them to be essen- 
tially distinct and perfectly separable : nor is it to be doubted that they were equally separable in the learnecj 
languages." — Walker's Observations on Gr. and Lot. Accent and Quantity, § 20; Key, p. 326. In the specula." 
tive essay here cited, Walker meant by accent the rising or the falling inflection, — an upward or a downward 
slide of the voice ; and by quantity, nothing but the open or close sound of some vowel ; as of " the a in scatter" 
and in " skater" the initial syllables of which words he supposed to differ in quantity as much as any two sylla- 
bles can! — lb., § 24 ; Key, p. 331. With these views of the thinys, it is perhaps the less to be wondered at, that 
Walker v who appears to have been a candid and courteous writer, charges " that excellent scholar Mr. Forster 
- — with a total ignorance of the accent and quantity of his own language ;" {lb., Note on § S ; Key, p. 317 ;) and, 
in regard to accent, ancient or modern, elsewhere confesses his own ignorance, and that of every body else, to 
be as " total." See marginal note on Obs. 4th, below. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ACCENT AND QUANTITY. 831 

some have charged it as a glaring error, long prevalent among English grammarians, and still a 
fruitful source of disputes, to confound accent with quantity in our language.* This charge, how- 
ever, there is reasou to believe, is sometimes, if not in most cases, made on grounds rather fanciful 
than real ; for some have evidently mistaken the notion of concurrence or coincidence for that of 
identity. But, to affirm that the stress which we call accent, coincides always and only with long 
quantity, does not necessarily make accent and quantity to be one and the same thing. The 
greater force or loudness which causes the accented syllable to occupy more time than any other, 
is in itself something different from time. Besides, quantity is divisible, — being either long or short : 
these two species of it are acknowledged on all sides, and some few prosodists wul have a third, 
which they call " common."\ But, of our English accent, the word being taken in its usual ac- 
ceptation, no such division is ever, with any propriety, made ; for even the stress which we call 
secondary accent, pertains to long s\*llables rather than to short ones ; and the mere absence of 
stress, which produces short quantity, we do not call accent.% 

Obs. 3. — The impropriety of affirming quantity to be the same as accent when its most frequent 
species occurs only in the absence of accent, must be obvious to every body ; and those writers 
who anywhere suggest this identity, must either have written absurdly, or have taken accent in 
some sense which includes the sounds of our unaccented syllables. The word sometimes means, 
"The modulation of the voice in speaking." — Worcester's Diet., w. Accent. In this sense, the 
lighter as well as the more impressive sounds are included ; but still, whether both together, con- 
sidered as accents, can be reckoned the same as long and short quantities, is questionable. Some 
say, they cannot ; and insist that they are yet as different, as the variable tones of a trumpet, 
which swell and fall, are different from the merely loud and soft notes of the monotonous drum. 
This illustration of the "easy Distinction betwixt Quantity and Accent," is cited with commenda- 
tion, in Brightland's Grammar, on page 157th ; § the author of which grammar, seems to have 
understood Accent, or Accents, to be the same as Inflections — though these are still unlike to 
quantities, if he did so. (See an explanation of Inflections in Chap. II, Sec. hi, Art. 3, above.) 

* (1.) "We shall now take a view of sounds when united into syllables. Here a beautiful variation of quan- 
tity presents itself as the next object of our attention. The knowledge of lung and short syllables, is the most 
excellent and most neglected quality in the whole art of pronunciation. 

The disputes of our modern writers on this subject, have arisen chiefly from an absurd notion that has long 
prevailed ; viz. that there is no difference between the accent and the quantity, in the English language ; that 
the accented syllables are always long, and the unaccented always short. 

An absurdity so glaring, does not need refutation. Pronounce any one line from Milton, and the ear will de- 
termine whether or not the accent and quantity always coincide. Very seldom they do.' 1 — Hebries: BicknelVs 
Gram., Part ii, p. 108. 

(2.) " Some of our Moderns (especially Mr. Bishe, in his Art of Poetry) and lately Mr. Mattaire, in what he 
calls, The English Grammar, erroneously use Accent for Quantity, one signifying the Length or Shortness of a 
Syllable, the other the raising or falling of the Voice in Discourse.''' — Brightland's Gram., London, 1746, p. 156. 

(3.) "Tempus cum accentu a nonnullis male confunditur; quasi idem sit acui et produci. Cum brevis autem 
syllaba acuitur, elevatur quidem vox in ea proferenda, sed tempus non augetur. Sic in voce hominibus acuitur 
mi; at ni qua? sequitur, sequam in efferendo moram postulat." — Lily's Gram., p. 1'25. Version: "By some 
persons, time is improperly confounded with accent; as if to acute and to lengthen were the same. But when 
a short syllable is acuted, the voice indeed is raised in pronouncing it, but the time is not increased. Thus, in 
the word hominibus, mi has the acute accent ; but ni. which follows, demands equal slowness in the pronun- 
ciation." To English ears, this can hardly seem a correct representation; for, in pronouncing hominibus, it is 
not mi, but min, that we accent; and this syllable is manifestly as much longer than the rest, as it is louder. 

t (1.) "Syllables, with respect to their quantity, are either long, short, or common." — Gould's Adam's Lat. 
Gram., p. 243. "Some syllables are common; that is, sometimes long, and sometimes short." — Adam's Lat. 
and Eng. Gram., p. 25?. Common is here put for variable, or not •permanently settled in respect to quantity : 
in this sense, from which no third species ought to be inferred, our language is, perhaps, more extensively 
"common" than any other. 

(2.) " Most of our Monosyllables either take this Stress or not, according as they are more or less emphatical ; 
and therefore English Words of one Syllable may be considered as common; i. e. either as long or short in cer- 
tain Situations. These Situations are chiefly determined by the Pause, or Cesure, of the Verse, and this Pause 
by the Sense. And as the English abounds in Monosyllables, there is probably no Language in which the Quan- 
tity of Syllables is more regulated by the Sense than in English." — W. Ward's Gram., Ed. of 1765, p. 156. 

(3.) BicknelTs theory of quantity, for which he refers to Herries. is this: " The English quantity is divided 
into long, short, and common. The longest species of syllables are those that end in a vowel, and are under the 
accent ; as, mo in harmonious, sole in console, &c. When a monosyllable, which is unemphatic, ends in a vowel, 
it is always short ; but when the emphasis is placed upon it, it is always long. Short syllables are such as end 
in any of the- six mutes ; as cut, stop, rapid, rugged, lock. In all such syllables the sound cannot be length- 
ened : they are necessarily and invariably short. If another consonant intervenes between the vowel and mute, 
as vend, so/?, flasAj- the syllable is rendered somewhat longer. The other species of syllables called common, are 
such as terminate m a half-vowel or aspirate. For instance, in the word's run, swim, crush, pur?, the conclud- 
ing sound can be continued or shortened, as we please. This scheme of quantity," it is added, "is founded on 
fact and experience."— BicknelVs Gram., Part ii, p. 109. But is it not a fact, that such words as cuttest, stop- 
ping, rapid, rugged, are trochees, in verse? and is not unlock an iambus f And what becomes of syllables that 
end with vowels or liquids and are not accented ? 

% I do not say the mere absence of stress is never called accent; for it is, plainly, the doctrine of some authors 
that the English accent differs not at all in its nature from the accent of the -ancient Greeks or Romans, which 
was distinguished as being of three sorts, acute, grave, inflex; that "the stronger breathing, or higher sound," 
which distinguishes one syllable of a word from or above the rest, is the acute accent only; that "the softer 
brealhing, or lower sound," which belongs to an unacuted (or unaccented) syllable, is the grave accent; and that 
a combination of these two sounds, or "breathings," upon one syllable, constitutes the inflex or circumflex ac- 
cent. Such, I think, is the teaching of Rev. William Barnes; who further says, " English verse is constructed 
upon sundry orders of acute and grave accents and matchings of rhymes, while the poetic language of the Ro- 
mans and Greeks is formed upon rules of the sundry clusterings of long and short syllables." — Philological 
Grammar, p. 263. This scheme is not wholly consistent, because the author explains accent or accents as being 
applicable only to "words of two or more syllables;" and it is plain, that the accent which includes the three 
sorts above, must needs be " some other thing than what we call accent," if this includes only the acute. 

§ Sheridan used the same comparison, "To illustrate the difference between the accent of the ancients and 
that of ours" [our tongue]. Our accent he supposed, with {fares and others, to have " no reference to inflections 
of the voice." — See Art of Reading, p. 75; Lectures on Elocution, p. 56; Walker's Key, p. 313. 



832 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

His exposition is this: "Accent is the rising and falling of the Voice, above or under its usual 
Tone. There are three Sorts of Accents, an Acute, a Grave, and an Inflex, which is also call'd a Cir- 
cumflex. The Acute, or Sharp, naturally raises the Voice ; and the Grave, or Base, as naturally 
falls it. The Circumflex is a kind of Undulation, or Waving of the Voice." — Brightland's Gram., 
Seventh Ed., Lond., 1746, p. 156. 

Obs. 4. — Dr. Johnson, whose great authority could not fail to carry some others with him, too 
evidently identifies accent with quantity, at the commencement of his Prosody. " Pronuncia- 
tion is just," says he, "when every letter has its proper sound, and when every syllable has its 
proper accent, or which in English versification is the same, its proper quantity." — Johnson's 
Gram., before Diet., 4to, p. 13 ; John Burn's Gram., p. 240 ; Jones's Prosodial Gram., before 
Diet., p. 10. Now our most common notion of accent — the sole notion with many — and that 
which the accentuation of Johnson himself everywhere inculcates — is, that it belongs not to 
"every syllable,'" but only to some particular syllables, being either "a stress of voice on a certain 
syllable," or a small mark to denote such stress. — See Scott's Bid, or Worcester's. But Dr. 
Johnson, in the passage above, must have understood the word accent agreeably to his own im- 
perfect definition of it ; to wit, as " the sound given to the syllable pronounced." — Joh. Diet. An 
unaccented syllable must have been to him a syllable unpronounced. In short he does not appear 
to have recognized any syllables as being unaccented. The word unaccented had no place in his 
lexicography, nor could have any without inconsistencey. It was unaptly added to his text, after 
sixty years, by one of his amenders, Todd or Chalmers ; who still blindly neglected to amend his 
definition of accent. In these particulars, Walker's dictionaries exhibit the same deficiencies as 
Johnson's ; and yet no author has more frequently used the words accent and unaccented, than did 
Walker.* Mason's Supplement, first published in 1801, must have suggested to the revisers of 
Johnson the addition of the latter term, as appears by the authority cited for it : " UNA'C- 
CENTED, adj. Not accented. ' It being enough to make a syllable long, if it be accented • and 
short, if it be unaccented.' 1 Harris's Philological Inquiries." — Mason's Sup. 

Obs. 5. — This doctrine of Harris's, that long quantity accompanies the accent, and unaccented 
syllables are short, is far from confounding or identifying accent with quantity, as has already 
been shown ; and, though it plainly contradicts some of the elementary teaching of Johnson, 
Sheridan, Walker, Murray, Webster, Latham, Fowler, and others, in regard to the length or short- 
ness of certain syllables, it has been clearly maintained by many excellent authors, so that no 
opposite theory is better supported by authority. On this point, our language stands not alone ; for 
the accent controls quantity in some others.f G-. H. Noehden, a writer of uncommon ability, in 

* (1 .) It may in some measure account for these remarkable omissions, to observe that Walker, in his lexi- 
cography, followed Johnson in almost every thing but pronunciation. On this latter subject, his own authority is 
perhaps as great as that of any single author. And here I am led to introduce a remark or two touching the 
accent and. quantity with which he was chiefly concerned ; though the suggestions may have no immediate con- 
nexion with the error of confounding these properties. 

(2.) Walker, in his theory, regarded the inflections of the voice as pertaining to accent, and as affording a sat- 
isfactory solution of the difficulties in which this subject has been involved; but, as an English orthoepist, he 
treats of accent, in no other sense, than as stress laid on a particular syllable of a word — a sense implying con- 
trast, and necessarily dividing all syllables into accented and unaccented, except monosyllables. Having ac- 
knowledged our "total ignorance of the nature of the Latin and Greek accent," he adds: " The accent of the 
English language, which is constantly sounding in our ears, and every moment open to investigation, seems as 
much a mystery as that accent which is removed almost two thousand years from our view. Obscurity, per- 
plexity, and confusion, run through every treatise on the subject, and nothing could be so hopeless as an attempt 
to explain it, did not a circumstance present itself, which at once accounts for the confusion, and affords a clew 
to lead us out of it. Not one writer on accent has given such a definition of the voice as acquaints us with its 
essential properties. * * * But let us once divide the voice into its rising and falling inflections, the obscurity 
vanishes, and accent becomes as intelligible as any other part of language. * * * On the present occasion it will 
be sufficient to observe, that the stress we call accent is as well understood as is necessary for the pronunciation 
of single words, which is the object of this treatise." — Walker's Diet, p. 53, Princip. 4S6, 4S7, 48S. 

(3.) Afterwards, on introducing quantity, as an orthoepical topic, he has the following remark: " In treating 
this part of pronunciation, it will not be necessary to enter into the nature of that quantity which constitutes 
poetry; the quantity here considered will be that which relates to words taken singly; and this is nothing more 
than the length or shortness of the vowels, either as they stand alone, or as they are differently combined with 
the vowels or consonants." — lb., p. 62, Princip. 539. Here is suggested a distinction which has not been so well 
observed by grammarians and prosodists, or even by Walker himself, as it ought to have been. So long as the 
practice continues of denominating certain mere vowel sounds the long and the short, it will be very necessary 
to notice that these are not tha same as the syllabic quantities, long and short, which constitute English verse. 

t (1.) In the Latin and Greek languages, this is not commonly supposed to be the case ; but, on the contrary, 
the quantity of syllables is professedly adjusted by its own rules independently of what we call accent; and, in 
our English pronunciation of these languages, the accentuation of all long words is regulated by the quantity of 
the last syllable but one. Walker, in the introduction to his Key, speaks of "The English pronunciation of 
Greek and Latin [as] injurious to quantity." And no one can deny, that we often accent what are called short 
syllables, and perhaps oftener leave unaccented such as are called long ; but, after all, were the quantity of 
Latin and Greek syllables always judged of by their actual time, and not with reference to the vowel sounds 
called long and short, these our violations of the old quantities would be found much fewer than some suppose 
they are. 

(2. ) Dr. Adam' s view of the accents, acute and grave, appears to be peculiar ; and of a nature which may per- 
haps come nearer to an actual identity with the quantities, long and short, than any other. He says, 

"1. The acute or sharp accent raises the voice in pronunciation, and is thus marked [']; profero,prnfer. 
[The English word is written, not thus, but with two Effs, proffer. — G. B.J 

" 2. The grave or base accent depresses the voice, or keeps it in its natural tone ; and is thus marked [ v ' ] ; as, 
docU. SW This accent properly belongs to all syllables which have no other. 

"The accents are hardly ever marked in English books, except in dictionaries, grammars, spelling-books, or 
the like, where the acute accent only is used. The accents are likewise seldom marked in Latin books, unless 
for the sake of distinction ; as in these adverbs, aliquo, continub, doctc, unci, &c." — Adam's Latin and English 
Grammar, p. 266. . 

(3.) As stress naturally lengthens the syllables on which it falls, if we suppose the grave accent to be the op- 
posite of this, and to belong to all syllables which have no peculiar stress, — are not enforced, not acuted, not 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. VERSIFICATION. — ACCENT AND QUANTITY. 833 

his German Grammar for Englishmen, defines accent to be, as we see it is in English, "that stress 
which marks a particular syllable in speaking ;" and recognizing, as we do, both a full accent and 
a partial one, or " demi-accent, " presents the syllables of his language as being of three condi- 
tions: the "accented" which "cannot be used otherwise than as long;" the " half -accented," 
which "must be regarded as ambiguous, or common;" and the " accentless," which '"are in their 
nature short." — See Noehden's Gram., p. 87. His middle class, however, our prosodists in general 
very properly dispense with. In Fiske's History of Greek Literature, which is among the addi- 
tions to the Manual of Classical Literature from the German of Eschenburg, are the following pas- 
sages : " The tone [i. e. accent] in Greek is placed upon short syllables as well as long ; in Ger- 
man, it accompanies regularly only long syllables." — "In giving an accent to a syllable in an 
English word we thereby render it a long syllable, whatever may be the sound given to its vowel, 
and in whatever way the syllable may be composed ; so that as above stated in relation to the 
German, an English accent, or stress in pronunciation, accompanies only a long syllable." — Manual 
of Class. Lit, p. 437. With these extracts, accords the doctrine of some of the ablest of our 
English grammarians. "In the English Pronunciation," says "William Ward, " there is a certain 
Stress of the Voice laid on some one syllable at least, of every Word of two or more Syllables ; 
and that Syllable on which the Stress is laid may be considered long. Our Grammarians have 
agreed to consider this Stress of the Voice as the Accent in English ; and therefore the Accent and 
long Quantity coincide in our Language." — Ward's Practical Gram., p. 155. As to the vowel 
sounds, with the quantity of which many prosodists have greatly puzzled both themselves and 
their readers, this writer savs, "they may be made as long, or as short, as the Speaker pleases." 
—lb., p.. 4. 

Obs. 6. — From the absurd and contradictory nature of many of the principles usually laid down 
by our grammarians, for the discrimination of long quantity and short, it is quite apparent, that 
but very few of them have well understood either the distinction itself or their own rules concern- 
ing it. Take Fisher for an example. In Fishers Practical Grammar, first published in London 
in 1753, — a work not unsuccessful, since Wells quotes the " 2Slh edition" as appearing in 1795, 
and this was not the last — we find, in the first place, the vowel sounds distinguished as long or 
short thus: " Q. How many Sounds has a Vowel? A. Two in general, viz. 1. A Loxg Scuxd, 
When the Syllable ends with a Vowel, either in Monosyllables, or in Words of more Syllables ; 
as, take, we, I, go, nit ; or, as, Nature, Nero, Nitre, Novice, Nuisance. 2. A Siioet Sound, When 
the Syllable ends with a Consonant, either in Monosyllables, or others; as Hat, her, bit, rob, Tun; 
or, as Barber, bitten, Button." — See p. 5. To this rule, the author makes needless exceptions of 
all such words as balance and banish, wherein a single consonant between two vowels goes to the 
former; because, like Johnson, Murray, and most of our old grammarians, he divides on the 
vowel ; falsely calls the accented syllable short ; and imagines the consonant to be heard tvnee, or 
to have "a double Accent." On page 35th, he tells us that, "Long and short Yoioels, and long and 
short Syllables, are synonimous [ — synonymous, from owCjvvuoc — ] Terms;" and so indeed have 
they been most erroneously considered by sundry subsequent writers ; and the consequence is, 
that all who judge by their criteria^ mistake the poetic quantity, or prosodical value, of perhaps 
one half the syllables in the language. Let each syllable be reckoned long that "ends with a 
Vowel," and each short that "ends with a Consonant," and the decision will probably be oftener 
wrong than right ; for more syllables end with consonants than with vowels, and of the latter class a 
majority are without stress and therefore short. Thus the foregoing principle, contrary to the 
universal practice of the poets, determines many accented syllables to be "short ;" as the first in 
"barber, bitten, button, balance, banish; — " and many unaccented ones to be " long ;" as the last in 
sofa, specie, noble, metre, sorrow, daisy, valley, nature, native ; or the first in around, before, delay, 
divide, remove, seclude, obey, cocoon, presume, propose, and other words innumerable. 

Obs. 7. — Fisher's conceptions of accent and quantity, as constituting prosody, were much truer 
to the original and etymological sense of the words, than to any just or useful view of English 
versification : in short, this latter subject was not even mentioned by him ; for prosody, in his 
scheme, was nothing but the right pronunciation of words, or what we now call orthoepy. This 
part of his Grammar commences with the following questions and answers : 

" Q. What is the Meaning of the Word Prosody? A. It is a Word borrowed from the Greek; 
which, in Latin, is rendered Accentus, and in English Accent. 

" Q. What do you mean by Accent? A. Accent originally signified a Modulation of the Voice, 
or chanting to a musical Instrument ; but is now generally used to signify Due Pronunciatian, i. e. 
the pronouncing [of] a syllable according to its Quantity, (whether it be long or short.) with a 
stronger Force or Stress of Voice than the other Syllables in the same Word; as, a in able, o in 
above, &c. 

" Q. What is Quantity f A. Quantity is the different Measure of Time in pronouncing Sylla- 
bles, from whence they are called long or short. 

" Q. What is the Proportion between a long and a short Syllable? A. Two to one; that is, a 

circumflected, not emphasized ; then shall we truly have an accent with which our short quantity may fairly 
coincide. But I have said, "the mere absence of stress, which produces short quantity, we do not call accent;" 
and it may be observed, that the learned improver of Dr. Adam's Grammar, B. A. Gould, has totally rejected 
all that his predecessor taught concerning accent, and has given an entirely different definition of Ibe thing. 
See marginal notes on page 771, above. Dr. Johnson also cites from Holder a very different explanation of it, as 
follows: "Accent, as in the Greek names and usage, seems to have regarded the tune of the voice; the acute 
accent, raising the voice in some certain syllables, to a higher, (£. e. more acute) pitch or tone ; and the grave, 
depressing it lower ; EST" and both having some emphasis, i. e. more vigorous pi'onunciation. Holdee." — John- 
son's Quarto Diet., id. Accent. 

53 



834 / THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

long Syllable is twice as long in pronouncing as a short one ; as, Hate, Eat. This mark (") set 
over a Syllable, shows that it is long, and this ( ' ) that it is short ; as, record, record. 

" Q. How do you know long and short Syllables ? A. A Syllable is long or short according to 
the Situation of the Vowel, i. e. it is generally long when it ends with a Vowel, and short when 
with a Consonant; as, Fa- in Favour, and Man- in Manner." — Fisher's Practical Gram., p. 34. 

Now one grand mistake of this is, that it supposes syllabication to fix the quantity, and quan- 
tity to determine the accent ; whereas it is plain, that accent controls quantity, so far at least that, 
in the construction of verse, a syllable fully accented cannot be reckoned short. And this mis- 
take is practical ; for we see, that, in three of his examples, out of the four above, the author him- 
self misstates the quantity, because he disregards the accent : the verb re-cord', being accented on 
the second syllable, is an iambus; and the nouns rec'-ord and man'-ner, being accented on the 
first, are trochees ; and just as plainly so, as is the word, fcivour. But a still greater blunder here 
observable is, that, as a " due pronunciation" necessarily includes the utterance of every syllable, 
the explanation above stolidly supposes all our syllables to be accented, each " according to its 
Quantity, (whether it be long or short,)" and each " with a stronger Force or Stress of Voice, than 
the other Syllables!" Absurdity akin to this, and still more worthy to be criticised, has since been 
propagated by Sheridan, by Walker, and by Lindley Murray, with a host of followers, as Alger, 
D Blair, Comly, Cooper, Cutler, Davenport, Felton, Fowler, Frost, G-uy, Jaudon, Parker and Fox, 
Picket, Pond, Putnam, Russell, Smith, and others. 

Obs. 8. — Sheridan was an able and practical teacher of English pronunciation, and one who ap- 
pears to have gained reputation by all he undertook, whether as an actor, as an elocutionist, or as 
a lexicographer. His publications that refer to that subject, though now mostly superseded by 
others of later date, are still worthy to be consulted. The chief of them are, his Lectures on Elo- 
cution, his Lectures on the Art of Reading, his Rhetorical Grammar, his Elements of English, and 
his English Dictionary. His third lecture on Elocution, and many pages of the Rhetorical Gram- 
mar, are devoted to accent and quantity — subjects which he conceived to have been greatly mis- 
represented by other writers up to his time.* To this author, as it would seem, we owe the in- 
vention of that absurd doctrine, since copied into a great multitude of our English grammars, that 
the accent on a syllable of two or more letters, belongs, not to the whole of it, but only to some one 
letter; and that according to the character of this letter, as vowel or consonant, the same stress 
serves to lengthen or shorten the syllable's quantity ! Of this matter, he speaks thus: " The great 
distinction of our accent depends upon its seat ; which may be either upon a vowel or a conso- 
nant. Upon a vowel, as in the words, glory, father, holy. Upon a consonant, as in the words, 
hab'it, borrow, bat'tle. "When the accent is on the vowel, the syllable is long ; because the 
accent is made by dwelling upon the vowel. When it is on the consonant, the syllable is short ;\ 
because the accent is made by passing rapidly over the vowel, and giving a smart stroke of the 
voice to the following consonant. Obvious as this point is, it has wholly escaped the observation of 
all our grammarians and compilers of dictionaries ; who, instead of examining the peculiar genius 
of our tongue, implicitly and pedantically have followed the Greek method of always placing the 
accentual mark over a vowel." — Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram., p. 51. The author's reprehension 
of the old mode of accentuation, is not without reason; but his "great distinction" of short and 
long syllables i3 only fit to puzzle or mislead the reader. For it is plain, that the first syllables of 
hab'it, bor'row, and bat' tie, are twice as long as the last; and, in poetry, these words are trochees, 
as well as the other three, glo'ry, fa'ther, and ho'ly. 

Obs. 9. — The only important distinction in our accent, is that of 'the primary and the secondary, 
the latter species occurring when it is necessary to enforce more syllables of a word than one ; but 
Sheridan, as we see above, after rejecting all the old distinctions of rising and falling, raising and 
depressing, acute and grave, sharp and base, long and short, contrived a new one still more vain, 
which he founded on that of vowels and consonants, but " referred to time, or quantity." He 
recognized, in fact, a vowel accent and a consonant accent ; or, in reference to quantity, a lengthening 
accent and a shortening accent. The discrimination of these was with him " the great distinction 

* (1.) "Amongst them [the ancients,] we know that accents were marked by certain inflexions [inflections] of 
the voice like musical notes ; and the grammarians to this day, with great formality inform their pupils, that 
the acute accent, is the raising [of] the voice on a certain syllable; the grave, a depression of it ; and the cir- 
cumflex, a raising and depression both, in one and the same syllable. This jargon thej/ constantly preserve, 
though they have no sort of ideas annexed to these words; for if they are asked to shew how this is to be done, 
they cannot tell, and their practice always belies their precept." — Sheridan's Lectures on Eloc, p. 54. 

(2.) " It is by the accent chiefly that the quantity of our syllables is regulated ; but not aocording to the mis- 
taken rule laid down by all who have written on the subject, that the accent always makes the syllable long; 
than which there cannot be any thing more false." — lb., p. 57. 

(3.) " And here I cannot help taking notice of a circumstance, which shews in the strongest light, the amazing 
deficiency of those, who have hitherto employed their labours on that subject, [accent, or pronunciation,] in 
point of knowledge of the true genius and constitution of our tongue. Several of the compilers of dictionaries, 
vocabularies, and spelling books, have undertaken to mark the accents of our words ; but so little acquainted 
were they with the nature of our accent, that they thought it necessary only to mark the syllable on which the 
stress is to be laid, without marking the particular letter of the syllable to which the accent belongs."— lb., 
p. 53. 

(4.) " The mind thus taking a bias under the prejudice of false rules, never arrives at a knowledge of the true 
nature of quantity : and accordingly we find that all attempts hitherto to settle the prosody of our language, 
have been vain and fruitless." — Sheridaii's Rhetorical Gram., p. 52. 

t In the following extract, this matter is stated somewhat differently : " The quantity depends upon the seat of 
the accent, whether it be on the vowel or [on the] consonant; if on the vowel, the syllable is necessarily long; 
as it makes the vowel long ; if on the consonant, it may be either long or short, according to the nature of the 
consonant, or the time taken up in dwelling upon it."— -Sheridan's Lectures on Eloc, p. 57. This last clause 
shows the " distinction" to be a very weak one. — GK Beown. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. VERSIFICATION. — ACCENT AND QUANTITY. 835 

of our accent." He has accordingly mentioned it in several different places of his works, and net 
always with that regard to consistency which becomes a precise theorist. It led him to new and 
variant ways of defining accent ; some of which seem to imply a division of consonants from their 
vowels in utterance, or to suggest that syllables are not the least parts of spoken words. And no 
sooner has he told us that our accent is but one single mode of distinguishing a syllable, than he 
proceeds to declare it two. Compare the following citations : "As the pronunciation of English 
words is chiefly regulated by accent, it will be necessary to have a precise idea of that term. Ac- 
cent with us means no more than a certain stress of the voice upon one letter of a syllable, which dis- 
tinguishes it from all the other letters in a word." — Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram., p. 39. Again : 
" Accent, in the English language, means a certain stress of the voice upon a particular letter of a 
syllable which distinguishes it from the rest, and, at the same time, distinguishes the syllable itself 
to which it belongs from the others which compose the word." — Same icork, p. 50. Again: ' ; But 
as our accent consists in stress only, it can just as well be placed on a consonant as [on] a vowel." 
— Same, p. 51. Again: "By the word accent, is meant the stress of the voice on one letter in a 
syllable." — Sheridan's Elements of English, p. 55. Again: "The term [accent] with us has no 
reference to inflexions of the voice, or musical notes, but only means a peculiar manner of distin- 
guishing one syllable of a word from the rest, denominated by us accent ; and the term for that rea- 
son [is] used by us in the singular number. — This distinction is made by us in two ways ; either 
by dwelling longer upon one syllable than the rest; or by giving it a smarter percussion of the voice 
in utterance. Of the first of these, we have instances in the words, glory, father, holy ; of the 
last, in bat/ tie, hab'it, bor'row. So that accent, with us, is net referred to tune, but to time; to 
quantity, not quality; to the more equable or precipitate motion of the voice, not to the variation 
of notes or inflexions.'''' — Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution, p. 56; Flint's Murray s Gram., p. 85. 

Obs. 10. — How "precise" was Sheridan's idea of accent, the reader may well judge from the 
foregoing quotations; in four of which, ho describes it as "a certain stress," u the stress," and 
" stress only,'" which enforces some u letter ;" while, in the other, it is whimsically made to consist 
in two different modes of pronouncing " syllables" — namely, with equability, and with precipitance 
— with " dwelling longer," and with " smarter percussion" — which terms the author very improperly 
supposes to be opposites: saying, "For the two ways of distinguishing syllables by accent, as 
mentioned before, are directly opposite, and produce quite contrary effects ; the one, by dwelling on 
the syllable, necessarily makes it long; the other, by the smart percussion — of the voice, as neces- 
sarily makes it short." — lb., p. 57. Now it is all a mistake, however common, to suppose that 
our accent, consisting as it does, in stress, enforcement, or "percussion of voice," can ever shorten 
the syllable on which it is laid; because what increases the quantum of a vocal sound, cannot 
diminish its length ; and a syllable accented will always be found longer as well as louder, than 
any unaccented one immediately before or after it. Though weak sounds may possibly be pro- 
tracted, and shorter ones be exploded loudly, it is not the custom of our speech, so to deal with 
the sounds of syllables. 

Obs. 11. — Sheridan admitted that some syllables are naturally and necessarily short, but denied 
that any are naturally and necessarily long. In this, since syllabic length and shortness are rela- 
tive to each other, and to the cause of each, he was, perhaps, hardly consistent. He might have 
done better, to have denied both, or neither. Bating his new division of accent to subject it 
sometimes to short quantity, he recognized very fully the dependence of quantity, long or short, 
whether in syllables or only in vowels, upon the presence or absence of accent or emphasis. In 
this he differed considerably from most of the grammarians of his day ; and many since have 
continued to uphold other views. He says, "It is an infallible rule in our tongue that no vowel 
ever has a long sound in an unaccented syllable." — Lectures on Elocution, p. 60. Again : " In 
treating of the simple elements or letters, I have shown that some, both vowels and consonants, 
are naturally short ; that is, whose sounds cannot possibly be prolonged ; and these are the [short 
or shut] sounds of e, i, and u, of vocal sounds ; and three pure mutes, k, p, t, of the consonant ; 
as in the words beck, lip, cut. I have shown also, that th« sounds of all the other vowels, and of 
the consonant semivowels, may be prolonged to what degree we please ; but at the same time it 
is to be observed, that all these may also be reduced to a short quantity, and are capable of being 
uttered in as short a space of time as those which are naturally short. So that they who speak 
of sjdlables as absolutely in their own nature long, the common cant of prosodians, speak of a 
nonentity : for though, as I have shown above, there are syllables absolutely short, which 
cannot possibly be prolonged by any effort of the speaker, yet it is in his power to shorten or 
prolong the others to what degree he pleases." — Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram., p. 52. And again : 
" I have already mentioned that when the accent is on the vowel, it of course makes the syllable 
long ; and when the accent is on the consonant, the syllable may be either long or short, according 
to the nature of the consonant, or will of the speakers. And as all unaccented syllables are short, 
the quantity of our syllables is adjusted by the easiest and simplest rule in the world, and in the 
exactest proportion." — Led. on Elocution, p. 66. 

Obs. 12. — This praise of our rule for the adjustment of quantity, would have been much more 
appropriate, had not the rule itself been greatly mistaken, perplexed, and misrepresented by the 
author. If it appear, on inspection, that "beck, lip, cut," and the like syllables, are twice as long 
when under the accent, as they are when not accented, so that, with a short syllable annexed or 
a long one prefixed, they may form trochees ; then is it not true, that such syllables are either 
always necessarily and inherently short, or always, "by the smart percussion of the voice, as neces- 
sarily mac?e short;" both of which inconsistent ideas are above affirmed of them. They may 



83G THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

not be so long as some other long syllables ; but, if they are twice as long as the accompanying 
short ones, they are not short. And, if not short, then that remarkable distinction in accent, 
which assumes that they are so, is as needless as it is absurd and perplexing. Now let the words, 
beck'on, lip' ping, cutter, be properly pronounced, and their syUables be compared with each other, 
or with those of Urn' beck, fil' lip, Drd'cut; and it cannot but be perceived, that beck, Up, and cut, 
like other syllables in general, are lengthened by the accent, and shortened only in its absence ; so 
that all these words are manifestly trochees, as all similar words are found to be, in our versifica- 
tion. To suppose "as many words as we hear accents," or that "it is the laying of an accent 
on one syllable, which constitutes a word,' 1 ' 1 and then say, that "no unaccented syllable or vowel 
is ever to be accounted long," as this enthusiastic author does in fact, is to make strange scansion 
of a very large portion of the trissyllables and polysyllables which occur in verse. An other 
great error in Sheridan's doctrine of quantity, is his notion that all monosyllables, except a few 
small particles, are accented ; and that their quantity is determined to be long or short by the 
seat or the mode of the accent, as before stated. Now, as our poetry abounds with monosylla- 
bles, the relative time of which is adjusted by emphasis and cadence, according to the nature and 
importance of the terms, and according to the requirements of rhythm, with no reference to this 
factitious principle, no conformity thereto but what is accidental, it cannot but be a puzzling ex- 
ercise, when these difficulties come to be summed up, to attempt the application of a doctrine so 
vainly conceived to be "the easiest and simplest rule in the world!" 

Obs. 13. — Lindley Murray's principles of accent and quantity, which later grammarians have 
so extensively copied, were mostly extracted from Sheridan's; and, as the compiler appears to 
have been aware of but few, if any, of his predecessor's errors, he has adopted and greatly spread 
well-nigh all that have just been pointed out; while, in regard to some points, he has considera- 
bly increased the number. His Scheme, as he at last fixed it, appears to consist essentially of 
propositions already refuted, or objected to, above ; as any reader may see, who will turn to his 
definition of accent, and his rules for the determination of quantity. In opposition to Sheridan, 
who not very consistently says, that, " All unaccented syllables are short," this author appears to 
have adopted the greater' error of Fisher, who supposed that the vowel sounds called long and 
short, are just the same as the long and short syllabic quantities. By this rule, thousands of syl- 
lables will be called long, which are in fact short, being always so uttered in both prose and poet- 
ry ; and, by the other, some will occasionally be called short, which are in fact long, being made 
so by the poet, under a slight secondary accent, or perhaps none. Again, in supposing our 
numerous monosyllables to be accented, and their quantity to be thereby fixed, without except- 
ing " the particles, such as a, the, to, in, &c," which were excepted by Sheridan, Murray has much 
augmented the multitude of errors which necessarily flow from the original rule. This principle, 
indeed, he adopted timidly; saying, as though he hardly believed the assertion true: "And some 
writers assert, that every monosyllable of two or more letters, has one of its letters thus distin- 
guished." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 236; 12mo, 189. But still he adopted it, and adopted it fully, 
in his section on Quantity ; for, of his twelve words, exemplifying syllabic time so regulated, no 
fewer than nine are monosyllables. It is observable, however, that, in some instances, it is not 
one letter, but two, that he marks; as in the words, "mood, house." — lb., p. 239; 12mo, 192. 
And again, it should be observed, that generally, wherever he marks accent, he follows the old 
mode, which Sheridan and "Webster so justly condemn ; so that, even when he is speaking of " the 
accent on the consonant,' 1 '' the sign of stress, as that of time, is set over a vowel: as, "Sadly, rob- 
ber." — lb., 8vo, 240; 12mo, 193. So in his Spelling-Book, where words are often falsely divided: 
as, " Ve nice," for Ven'-ice ; " Ha no ver," for Han'o-ver; &c— See p. 101. 

Obs. 14. — In consideration of the great authority of this grammarian, now backed by a score 
or two of copyists and modifiers, it may be expedient to be yet more explicit. Of accent Murray 
published about as many different definitions, as did Sheridan ; which, as they show what notions 
he had at different times, it may not be amiss for some, who hold him always in the right, to 
compare. In one, he describes it thus: " Accent signifies that stress of the voice, which is laid 
on one syllable, to distinguish it from the rest." — Murray's Spelling-Book, p. 138. He should here 
have said, (as by his examples it would appear that he meant,) "on one syllable of a word;" for, as 
the phrase now stands, it may include stress on a monosyllable in a sentence; and it is a matter of 
dispute, whether this can properly be called accent. "Walker and Webster say, it is emphasis, and 
not accent. Again, in an other definition, which was written before he adopted the notion of 
accent on consonants, of accent on monosyllables, or of accent for quantity in the formation of 
verse, he used these words : " Accent is the laying of a peculiar stress of the voice on a certain 
vowel or syllable in a word, that it may be better heard than the rest, or distinguished from them ; 
as, in the word presume, the stress of the voice must be on the second syhable, sume, which takes 
the accent." — Murray's Gram., Second Edition, 12mo, p. 161. In this edition, which was pub- 
lished at York, in 1196, his chief rules of quantity say nothing about accent, but are thus ex- 
pressed : [1.] " A vowel or syllable is long, when the vowel orvoivels contained in it are slowly joined 
in pronunciation with the following letters ; as. ' Fall, bale, mood, house, feature.' [ 2.] A sylla- 
ble is short, when the vowel is quickly joined to the succeeding letter; as, 'art, bonnet, hunger.' " 
— lb., p. 166. Besides the absurdity of representing "a vowel" as having "vowels contained in 
it," these rules are made up of great faults. They confound syllabic quantities with vowel sounds. 
They suppose quantity to be, not the time of a whole syllable, but the quick or slow junction of 
some of its parts. They apply to no sjdlable that ends with a vowel sound. The former applies 
to none that ends with one consonant only; as, "mood" or the first of "feai-ure.'" In fact, it 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION.- — ACCENT AND QUANTITY. 837 

does not apply to any of the examples given ; the final letter in each of the other words being silent 
The latter rule is worse yet: it misrepresents the examples; for "bonnet" and "hunger" are 
trochees, and "art," with any stress on it, is long. 

Obs. 15. — In all late editions of L. Murray's Grammar, and many modifications of it, accent is 
defined thus : " Accent is the laying of a peculiar stress of the voice, on a certain letter or syllable 
in a word, that it may be better heard than the rest, or distinguished from them ; as, in the word 
presume, the stress of the voice must be on the letter u, and [the] second syllable, sume, which 
takes the accent." — Murray's Ch'am., 8vo, p. 235; 12mo, 188; ISmo, 57; Alger's. 72; Bacons, 
52; Comly's, 168; Cooper's, 176; Davenport's, 121; Felton's, 134; Frost's El., 50; Fish's, 32; 
Merchants, 145; Farmer and Fox's, hi, 44; Pond's, 197; Putnam's, 96; Russell's, 106; R. C. 
Smith's, 186. Here we see a curious jumble of the common idea of accent, as "stress laid on 
some particular syllable of a word," with Sheridan s doctrine of accenting always '"a particular 
letter of a syllable," — an idle doctrine, contrived solely for the accommodation of short quantity 
with long, under the accent. When this definition was adopted, Murray's scheme of quantity was 
also revised, and materially altered. The principles of his main text, to which his copiers all con- 
fine themselves, then took the following form : 

" The quantity of a syllable, is that time which is occupied in pronouncing it. It is considered 
as long or SHORT. 

" A vowel or syllable is long, when the accent is on the vowel; which occasions it to be slowly 
joined in pronunciation with the following letters : as, ' Fall, bale, mood, house, feature.' 

" A syllable is short, when the accent is on the consonant; which occasions the vowel to be 
quickly joined to the succeeding letter : as, ' ant, bonnet, hunger. 1 

"A long syllable generally requires double the time of a short one in pronouncing it: thus, 
'Mate 'and 'Note' should be pronounced as slowly again as 'Mat' and 'Not.'" — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 239; 12mo, 192; 18mo, 57; Alger's, 72; D. C. Aliens, 86; Bacon's, 52; Comly's, 
168; Cooper's, 176; Cutler's, 165; Davenport's, 121; Felton's, 134; Frost's El, 50; Fisk's, 32; 
Maltby's, 115 ; Parker and Fox's, hi, 47; Pond's, 198; S. Putnam's, 96; R. C. Smith's. 187 ; Rev. 
T. Smith's, 68. 

Here we see a revival and an abundant propagation of Sheridan's erroneous doctrine, that our 
accent produces both short quantity and long, according to its seat ; and since none of all these 
grammars, but the first two of Murray's, give any other rules for the discrimination of .quantities, 
we must infer, that these were judged sufficient Now, of all the principles on which any have 
ever pretended to determine the quantity of syllables, none, so far as I know, are more defective 
or fallacious than these They are liable to more objections than it is worth while to specify. 
Suffice it to observe, that they divide certain accented syllables into long and short, and say noth- 
ing of the unaccented; whereas it is plain, and acknowledged even by Murray and Sheridan 
themselves, that in "ant, bonnet, hunger," and the like, the unaccented syllables are the only short 
ones : the rest can be, and here are, lengthened.* 

Obs. 16. — The foregoing principles, differently expressed, and perchance in some instances more 
fitly, are found in many other grammars, and in some of the very latest; but they are everywhere 
a mere dead letter, a record which, if it is not always untrue, is seldom understood, and never ap- 
plied in any way to practice. The following are examples : 

(1.) "In a long syllable, the vowel is accented; in a short syllable [,] the consonant ; as[.] 
roll, poll; top, cut." — Rev. W. Allen's Gram., p. 222. 

(2.) "A syllable or word is long, when the accent is on the vowel: as no, line, la, me ; and 
short, when on the consonant: as not, lln, Latin, met." — S. Barrett's Grammar, ("Principles of 
Language,' 1 ') p. 112. 

(3.) " A syllable is long when the accent is on the vowel, as, Pall, sale, mouse, creature. A 
syllable is short when the accent is placed on the consonant; as great', let'ter, mas'ter." — Rev. 
D. Blair's Practical Gram., p. 117. 

(4.) "When the stress is on the vowel, the measure of quantity is long: as, Mate, fate, com 
plain, playful, un der mine. When the stress is on a consonant, the quantity is short : as, Mat', 
fat', com pel', prog'ress, dis man'tle." — Pardon Davis's Practical Gram., p. 125. 

(5.) " The quantity of a syllable is considered as long or short. It is long when the accent is 
on the vowel ; as, Fall, bale, mood, house, feature. It is short when the accent is placed on the 
consonant; as, Mas'ter, let'ter." — Guy's School Gram., p. 118; Picket's Analytical School Grain., 
2d Ed., p. 224. 

(6.) " A syllable is long when the accent is on the vowel; and short, when the accent is on the 
consonant. A long syllable requires twice the time in pronouncing it that a short one does. Long 
svllables are marked thus-; as, tube; short syllables, thus ~; as, man." — Hiley's English Gram., 
p". 120. 

(7.) " When the accent is on a vowel, the syllable is generally long; as alehouse, amusement, 
features. But when the accent is on a consonant, the syllable is mostly short ; as, hap'py, mdn- 

* "If the consonant be in its nature a short one, the syllable is necessarily short. If it be a long one, that is, 
one whose sound is capable of being lengthened, it may be long or short at the will of the speaker. By a short 
consonant I mean one whose sound cannot be continued after a vowel, such as c or k p t, as ac, ap, at — whilst 
that of long consonants can, as, el em en er ev, &C." 1 — Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution, p. 58. Sheridan hero 
forgets that " bor'row" is one of his examples of short quantity. 

Murray admits that " accent on a semi-vowel" may make the syllable long; and his semivowels are these: 
"/, I, m, n, r, v, s, z, x, and c and g soft" See his Octavo Gram., p. 240 and p. 8. 



838 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

ner. A long syllable requires twice as much time in the pronunciation, as a short one ; as, hate, 
hat; note, not; cane, can ; fine, fin." — Jaudon's Union Gram., p. 173. 

(8.) "If the syllable be long, the accent is on the vowel; as, in bale, mood, education; Sec. If 
short, the accent is on the consonant; as, in ant, bonnet, hunger, &c." — Merchant's American 
School Gram., p. 145. 

The quantity of our unaccented syllables, none of these authors, except Allen, thought it worth 
his while to notice. But among their accented syllables, they all include words of one syllable, 
though most of them thereby pointedly contradict their own definitions of accent. To find in 
our language no short syllables but such as are accented, is certainly a very strange and very 
great oversight. Frazee says, "The pronunciation of an accented syllable requires double the time 
of that of an unaccented one." — Frazee's Improved Gram., p. 180. If so, our poetical quantities 
are greatly misrepresented by the rules above cited. Allen truly says, " Unaccented syllables are 
generally short; as, return, turner." — Elements of E. Gram., p. 222. But how it was ever found 
out, that in these words we accent only the vowel u, and in such as hunter and bluntly, some one 
of the consonants only, he does not inform us. 

Obs. 17. — As might be expected, it is not well agreed among those who accent single con- 
sonants and vowels, what particular letter should receive the stress and the mark. The word or 
syllable "ant," for example, is marked " an't " by Alger, Bacon, and others, to enforce thew; 
"ant' " by Frost, Putnam, and others, to enforce the t; " ant" by Murray, Russell, and others, to 
show, as they say, u the accent on the consonant !" But, in "a'ntler," Dr. Johnson accented the 
a; and, to mark the same pronunciation, Worcester now writes, "ant'ler;" while almost any 
prosodist, in scanning, would mark this word " antler,'' 1 and call it a trochee* Churchill, who is 
in general a judicious observer, writes thus : " The leading feature in the English language, on 
which ifs melody both in prose and verse chiefly depends, is it's accent. Every word in it of more 
than one syllable has one of it's syllables distinguished by this from the rest ; the accent being in 
some cases on the vowel, iu others on the consonant that closes the syllable : on the vowel, when it 
has it's long sound ; on the consonant, when the vowel is short " — Churchill's New Gram., p. 181. 
But to this, as a rule of accentuation, no attention is in fact paid nowadays. Syllables that have 
long vowels not final, very properly take the sign of stress on or after a consonant or a mute 
vowel; as, an'gel, cham'ber, slay'er, bead'roll, slea'zy, sleep'er, sleeve'less, Hve'ly, mind'fuh 
slight'y, slid'ing, bold'ness, gross'ly, whol'lv, use'less." — See Worcester's Diet. 

Obs. 18. — It has been seen, that Murray's principles of quantity were greatly altered by himself, 
after the first appearance of his grammar. To have a full and correct view of them, it is neces- 
sary to notice something more than his main text, as revised, with which all his amenders content 
themselves, and which he himself thought sufficient for his Abridgement. The following positions, 
which, in some of his revisals, he added to the large grammar, are therefore cited : — 

(1.) "Unaccented syllables are generally short : as, 'admire, boldness, sinner.' But to this 
rale there are many exceptions : as, ' also, exile, gangrene, umpire, foretaste, ' &c. 

(2.) " When the accent is on the consonant, the syllable is olten more or less short, as it ends 
with a single consonant, or with more than one: as, 'Sadly, robber; persist, matchless.' 

(3.) "When the accent is on a semi-vowel, the time of the syllable may be protracted, by dwell- 
ing upon the semi-vowd: as, ' Cur', can', fulfil' :' but when the accent falls on a mute, the syllable 
cannot be lengthened in the same manner: as, 'Bubble, captain, totter.'" — L. Murray's Gram. t 
8vo, p. 240 ; 12mo, 193. 

(4.) "In this work, and in the author's Spelling-book, the vowels eand o, in the first syllable 
of such words as, behave, prejudge, domain, propose ; and in the second syllable of such as pulley, 
turkey, borrow, follow ; are considered as long vowels. The second syllables in such words as, 
baby, spicy, holy, fury, are also considered as long syllables." — lb., 8vo, p. 241. 

(5.) "In the words scarecrow, wherefore, both the syllables are unquestionably long, but not of 
equal length. We presume therefore, that the syllables under consideration, [i. e., those which 
end with the sound of e or o without accent,] may also be properly styled long syllables, though 
their length is not equal to that of some others." — Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 241. 

Obs. 19. — Sheridan's " infallible rule, that no vowel ever has a long sound in an unaccented 
syllable," is in striking contrast with three of these positions, and the exact truth of the matter is 
with neither author. But, for the accuracy of his doctrine, Murray appeals to " the authority of 
the judicious Walker," which he thinks sufficient to prove any syllable long whose vowel is called 
so ; while the important distinction suggested by Walker, in his Principles. No. 529, between "the 
length or shortness of the vowels," and "that quantity which constitutes poetry," is entirely over- 
looked. It is safe to affirm, that all the accented syllables occurring in the examples above, are 
hng ; and all the unaccented ones, short ; for Murray's long syllables vary in length, and his short 
ones in shortness, till not only the just proportion, but the actual relation, of long and short, is 
evidently lost with some of them. Does not match in " match'less" sad in u sad'ly," or bub in 
"bub'ble," require more time, than so in " aVso," key in u tur'key," or ly in "ho'ly"? If so, four 

* O i .account of the different uses made of the breve, the macron, and the accents, one grammarian has pro- 
posed a new mode of marking poetic quantities. Something of the kind might be useful ; but there; seems to be 
a reversal of order in this scheme, the macrotone being bore made light, and the stenotone dark and heavy. 

" Long and short syllables have sometimes been designated by the same marks which are used for accent, 
tones, and the quality of the vowels ; but it will be better [ , ] to prevent confusion [ , ] to use different marks. 
This mark ° may represent a long syllable, and this • a short syllable ; as, 

• • o » <t • m o • o 

4 At the close of the day when the hamlet is still.* " — Perley's Gram., p. T3. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ACCENT AND QUANTITY. 839 

of the preceding positions are very faulty. And so, indeed, is the remaining one ; for where is 
the sense of saying, that " when the accent foils on a mute, the syllable cannot be lengthened by 
dwelling upon the semi-vowel " ? This is an apparent truism, and yet not true. For a semivowel 
in the middle or at the beginning of a syllable, may lengthen it as much as if it stood at the end. 
" Cur" and "can" here given as protracted syllables, are certainly no longer by usage, and no 
more susceptible of protraction, than "mat" and "not," "art" and "ant" which are among the 
author's examples of short quantity. And if a semivowel accented will make the syllable long, 
was it not both an error and a self-contradiction, to give " bonnet " and " hunger " as examples of 
quantity shortened by the accent ? The syllable man has two semivowels ; and the letter I, as in 
"fulfil 1 ," is the most sonorous of consonants; yet, as we see above, among their false examples 
of short syllables accented, different authors have given the words "man" and "man'ner" "dis- 
mantle" and " corn-pel'," "master" and "let'ter," with sundry other sounds which may easily be 
lengthened. Sanborn says, "The breve distinguishes a short syllable ; as, manner" — 'Analytical 
Gram., p. 273. Parker and Fox say, "The Breve (thus ~) is placed over a vowel to indicate its 
short sound ; as, St. Helena." — English Gram., Part hi, p. 31. Both explanations of this sign are 
defective; and neither has a suitable example. The name " St. Helena" as pronounced by Wor- 
cester, and as commonly heard, is two trochees; but "Hcl'ina," for Helen, having the penult 
short, takes the accent on the first syllable, which is thereby made long, though the vowel sound 
is called short. Even Dr. Webster, who expressly notes the difference between "long and short 
vowels" and "long and short syllables," allows himself on the very same page, to confound 
them: so that, of his three examples of a short syllable, — "that, not', melon," — all are errone- 
ous ; two being monosyllables, which any emphasis must lengthen ; and the third, — the word 
"mel'on," — with the first sjdlable marked short, and not the last! See Webster 's Improved 
Gram., p. 157. 

Obs. 20. — Among the latest of our English Grammars, is Chandler's new one of 1847. The 
Prosody of this work is fresh from the mint; the author's old grammar of 1821, which is the 
nucleus of this, being " confined to Etymology and Syantax." If from anybody the public have 
a right to expect correctness in the details of grammar, it is from one who has had the subject so 
long and so habitually before him. "Accent," says this author, "is the stress on a syllable, or 
letter." — Chandler's Common School Gram., p. 188. Now, if our less prominent words and sylla- 
bles require any force at all, a definition so loose as this, may give accent to some words, or to 
ail; to some syllables, or to all; to some letters, or to all — except those which are silent! And, 
indeed, whether the stress which distinguishes some monosyllables from others, is supposed by 
the writer to be accent, or emphasis, or both, it is scarcely possible to ascertain from his elucida- 
tions. " The term emphasis," says he, "is used to denote a fuller sound of voice after certain 
words that come in antithesis ; that is, contrast. ' He can write, but he cannot read? Here, read 
and write are antithetical (that is, in contrast), and are accented, or emphasized." — P. 189. The 
word " after" here may be a misprint for the word upon ; but no preposition reall}- suits the con- 
nexion : the participle impressing or affecting would be better. Of quantity, this work gives the 
following account : " The quantity of a syllable is that time which is required to pronounce it. A 
syllable may be long or short. Hate is long, as the vowel a is elongated by the final e ; hat is 
short, and requires about half the time for pronunciation which is used for pronouncing hate. So 
of ate, at ; bate, bat ; cure, cur. Though unaccented syllables are usually short, yet many of 
those which are accented are short also. The following are short: advent, sf/<'ner, swp'per. In 
the following, the unaccented syllables are long : also, exile, gang?~ene, umpire. It may be re- 
marked, that the quantity of a syllable is short when the accent is on a consonant ; as, art', bon'- 
net, hun'ger. The hyphen (-), placed over a syllable, denotes that it is long: na'ture. The breve 
(") over a syllable, denotes that it is short; as, detract." — Chandler's Common School Gram., p. 189. 
This scheme of quantity is truly remarkable for its absurdity and confusion. What becomes of the 
elongating power of e, without accent or emphasis, as mjun'cate, pal'ate,prei'ate? Who does not 
know that such syllables as "at, bat, and cur," are often long in poetry? What more absurd, 
than to suppose both syllables short in such words as, " advent, sin'ner, sup)' per" and then give 
"sermon, filter, spirit, gather," and the like, for regular trochees, with "the first syllable long, 
and the second short," as does this author ? What more contradictory and confused, than to 
pretend that the primal sound of a vowel lengthens an unaccented syllable, and accent on the 
consonant shortens an accented one, as if in " al'so" the first syllable must be short and the second 
long, and then be compelled, by the evidence of one's senses to mark "echo" as a trochee, and 
" detract" as an iambus ? What less pardonable misnomer, than for a great critic to call the sign 
of long quantity a " hyphen" t 

Obs. 21. — The following suggestions found in two of Dr. Webster's grammars, are not far from 
the truth : "Most prosodians who have treated particularly of this subject, have been guilty of a 
fundamental error, in considering the movement of English verse as depending on long and short 
syllables, formed by long and short vowels. This hypothesis has led them iDto capital mistakes. 
The truth is, many of those syllables which are considered as long in verse, are formed by the 
shortest vowels in the language ; as, strength, health, grand. The doctrine that long vowels are 
necessary to form long syllables in poetry is at length exploded, and the principles which regulate 
the movement of our verse, are explained; viz. accent and emphasis. Every emphatical word, and 
every accented syllable, will form what is called in verse, a long syllable. The unaccented sylla- 
bles, and unemphatical monosyllabic words, are considered as short syllables." — Webster's Philo- 
sophical Gram., p. 222 ; Improved Gram., 158. Is it not remarkable, that, on the same page 



840 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

with this passage, the author should have given the first syllable of "melon" as an example of 
short quantity? 

Obs. 22. — If the principle is true, which every body now takes for granted, that the foundation 
of versifying is some distinction pertaining to syllables ; it is plain, that nothing can be done to- 
wards teaching the Art of Measuring Verses, till it be known upon what distinction in syllables 
our scheme of versification is based, and by what rule or rules the discrimination is, or ought to 
be, made. Errors here are central, radical, fundamental. Hence the necessity of these present 
disquisitions. Without some effectual criticism on their many false positions, prosodists may con- 
tinue to theorize, dogmatize, plagiarize, and blunder on, as they have done, indefinitely, and 
knowledge of the rhythmic art be in no degree advanced by their productions, new or old. For 
the supposition is, that in general the consulters of these various oracles are persons more fallible 
still, and therefore likely to be misled by any errors that are not expressly pointed out to them. 
In this work, it is assumed, that quantity, not laboriously ascertained by " a great variety of rules 
applied from the Greek and Latin Prosody," but discriminated on principles of our own — quantity, 
dependent in some degree on the nature and number of the letters in a syllable, but still more on 
the presence or absence of stress — is the true foundation of our metre. It has already been 
stated, and perhaps proved, that this theory is as well supported by authority as any ; but, since 
Lindley Murray, persuaded wrong by the positiveness of Sheridan, exchanged his scheme of feet 
formed by quantities, for a new one of " feet formed by accents 1 ' — or, rather, for an impracticable 
mixture of both, a scheme of supposed " duplicates of each foot" — it has been becoming more and 
more common for grammarians to represent the basis of English versification to be, not the dis- 
tinction of long and short quantities, but the recurrence of accent at certain intervals. Such is 
the doctrine of Butler, Felton, Fowler, S. S. Greene, Hart, Hiley, R. C. Smith. Weld, "Wells, and 
perhaps others. But, in this, all these writers contradict themselves; disregard their own defini- 
tions of accent ; count monosyllables to be accented or unaccented ; displace emphasis from the 
rank which Murray and others give it, as " the great regulator of quantity ;" and suppose the length 
or shortness of syllables not to depend on the presence or absence of either accent or emphasis ; 
and not to be of much account in the construction of English verse. As these strictures are run- 
ning to a great length, it may be well now to introduce the poetic feet, and to reserve, for notes 
under that head, any further examinatian of opinions as to what constitutes the foundation of verse. 

SECTION III.— OF POETIC FEET. 

A verse, or line of poetry, consists of successive combinations of syl- 
lables, called feet. A poetic foot, in English, consists either of two or of 
three syllables, as in the following examples : 

1. " Can ty | -rants but | by ty | -rants con | -quered be ?" — Byron. 

2. " Holy, j holy, | holy I | all the | saints a | -dore thee/' — Heber. 

3. " And the breath | of the Da | -Ity cir | -cled the room." — Hunt. 

4. "Hail to the | chief who in | triumph ad | -vanees !" — Scott 

EXPLANATIONS AND DEFINITIONS. 

Poetic feet being arbitrary combinations, contrived merely for the measuring of 
verses, and the ready ascertainment of the syllables that suit each rhythm, there is 
among prosodists a perplexing diversity of opinion, as to the number which we ought 
to recognize in our language. Some will have only two or three ; others, four ; 
others, eight ; others, twelve. The dozen are all that can be made of two syllables 
and of three. Latinists sometimes make feet of four syllables, and admit sixteen 
more of these, acknowledging and naming twenty-eight in all. The principal 
English feet are the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and iheDactyl. 

1. The Iambus, or Iamb, is a poetic foot consisting of a short syllable and a long 
one ; as, betray, confess, demand, intent, degree. 

2. The Trochee, or Choree, is a poetic foot consisting of a long syllable and a 
short one ; as, hateful, pettish, legal, measure, holy. 

3. The Anapest is a poetic foot consisting of two short syllables and one long one ; 
as, contravene, acquiesce, importune. 

4. The Dactyl is a poetic foot consisting of one long* syllable and two short ones ; 
as, labourer, possible, wonderful. 

These are our principal feet, not only because they are oftenest used, but because 
each kind, with little or no mixture, forms a distinct order of numbers, having a 
peculiar rhythm. Of verse, or poetic measure, we have, accordingly, four principal 
kinds, or orders ; namely, Iambic, Trochaic, Anape&tic, and Dactylic ; as in the 
four lines cited above. 



CHAP. IV. PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — POETIC FEET. 841 

The more pure these several kinds are preserved, the more exact and complete is 
the chime of the verse. But exactness being difficult, and its sameness sometimes 
irksome, the poets generally indulge some variety ; not so much, however, as to 
confound the drift of the rhythmical pulsations : or, if ever these be not made obvious 
to the reader, there is a grave fault in the versification. 

The secondary feet, if admitted at all, are to be admitted only, or chiefly, as occa- 
sional diversifications. Of this class of feet, many grammarians adopt four ; but 
they lack agreement about the selection. Brightland took the Spondee, the Pyrrhic, 
the Moloss, and the Tribrach. To these, some now add the other four ; namely, 
the Amphibrach, the Amphimac, the Bacchy, and the Antibacchy. 

Few, if any, of these feet are really necessary to a sufficient explanation of English 
verse ; and the adopting of so many is liable to the great objection, that we thereby 
produce different modes of measuring the same lines. But, by naming them all, we 
avoid the difficulty of selecting- the most important ; and it is proper that the student 
should know the import of all these prosodical terms. 

5. A Spondee is a poetic foot consisting of two long syllables ; as, cold night, 
poor souls, amen, shrovetlde. 

6. A Pyrrhic is a poetic foot consisting of two short syllables ; as, presumpt- | 
uous, perpet- | ual, unhap- | pily, inglo- | rious. 

7. A Moloss is a poetic toot consisting of three long syllables ; as, Death's pale 
horse, — great white throne, — deep damp vault. 

8. A Tribrach is a poetic foot consisting of three short syllables ; as, prohib- | 
Xtory, unnat- | urdlly, author- | itafive, innum- | erable. 

9. An Amphibrach is a poetic foot of three syllables, having both sides short, the 
middle long ; as, imprudent, consider, transported. 

10. An Amphimac, Amphimacer, or Cretic, is a poetic foot of three syllables, 
having both sides long, the middle short ; as, wlndingsheet, life-estate, soul-dlseascd. 

11. A Bacchy is a poetic foot consisting of one short syllable and two long ones ; 
as, the whole world, — a great vase, — of pure gold. 

12. An Antibacchy, or Hypobacchy, is a poetic foot consisting of two long sylla- 
bles and a short one ; as, knight-service, globe-daisy, grape-flower, gold-beater. 

Among the variegations of verse, one emphatic syllable is sometimes counted for 
a foot. " When a single syllable is [thus] taken by itself, it is called a Caesura, 
which is commonly a long syllable."* 
For Example : — " Keeping | time, \ time, \ time, 

In a | sort of | Runic | rhyme, 

To the | tintin | -nabu | -lation | that so | musi | -cally | wells 

From the | bells, j bells, \ bells, | bells, 

Bells, | bells, | bells." — Edgar A. Poe : Union Magazine, for 
Nov. 1849 ; Literary World, No. 143. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — In defining our poetic feet, many late grammarians substitute the terms accented and 
unaccented for long and short, as did Murray, after some of the earlier editions of his grammar ; 
the only feet recognized in his second edition being the Iambus, the Trochee, the Dactyl, and the 
Anapest, and all these beiug formed by quantities only. This change has been made on the suppo- 
sition, that accent and long quantity, as well as their opposites, nonaccent and short quantity, may 
oppose each other ; and that the basis of English verse is not, like that of Latin or Greek poetry, a 
distinction in the time of syllables, not a difference in quantity, but such a course of accenting and 
nonaceenting as overrides all relations of this sort, and makes both length and shortness compati- 
ble alike with stress or no stress. Such a theory, I am persuaded, is untenable. Great authority, 
however, may be quoted for it, or for its principal features. Besides the several later gramma- 
rians who give it countenance, even "the judicious Walker," who, in his Pronouncing Dictionary, 
as before cited, very properly suggests a difference between u that quantity which constitutes 
poetry,'' 1 and the mere " length or slwrtness ofvoivels," when he comes to explain our English ac- 
cent and quantity, in his " Observations on the Greek and Latin Accent and Quantity" finds '"ac- 
cent perfectly compatible with either long or short quantity;" {Key, p. 312 ;) repudiates that vulgar 
accent cf Sheridan and others, which "is only a greater force upon one syllable than another;" 

* Dr. Adam's Gram., p. 267; B. A. Gould's, 25T. The Latin -word caesura signifies " a cutting, or division.'' 
This name is sometimes Anglicized, and written u Cesure." See Brightland' « Gram., p. 161; or Worcester « 
Diet., w. Cesure. 



842 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

(Key, p. 313 ;) prefers the doctrine which "makes the elevation or depression of the voice in- 
separable from accent;" (Key, p. 314;) holds that, "unaccented vowels are frequently pronounced 
long when the accented vowels are short;" (Key, p. 312;) takes long or short vowels and long or 
short syllables to be things everywhere tantamount; saying, "We have no concept-ion of quantity 
arising from any thing but the nature of the vowels, as they are pronounced long or short ;" (ibid. ;) 
and again : " Such long quantity" as consonants may produce with a close or short vowel, " an 
English ear has not the least idea of. Unless the sound of the vowel be altered, we have not any 
conception of a long or short syllable." — Walker's Key, p. 322 ; and Worcester's Octavo Diet., p. 935. 

Obs. 2. — In the opinion of Murray, "Walker's authority should be thought sufficient to settle any 
question of prosodial quantities. "But," it is added, "there are some critical writers, who dis- 
pute the propriety of his arrangement." — Murray's Octavo Grain., p. 241. And well there may 
be ; not only by reason of the obvious incorrectness of the foregoing positions, but because the 
great orthoepist is not entirely consistent with himself. In his " Preparatory Observations," which 
introduce the very essay above cited, he avers that, " the different states of the voice," which are 
indicated by the comparative terms high and low, loud and soft, quick and slow, forcible and feeble, 
"may not improperly be called quantities of sound." — Walker's Key, p. 305. Whoever thinks 
this, certainly conceives of quantity as arising from several other things than " the nature of the 
vowels." Even Humphrey, with whom, " Quantity differs materially from time," and who defines 
it, " the weight, or aggregate quantum of sounds," may find his questionable and unusual " con- 
ception" of it included among these. 

Obs. 3. — Walker must have seen, as have the generality of prosodists since, that such a dis- 
tinction as he makes between long syllables and short, could not possibly be the basis of English 
versification, or determine the elements of English feet; yet, without the analogy of any known 
usage, and contrary to our customary mode of reading the languages, he proposes it as applicable 
— and as the only doctrine conceived to be applicable — to Greek or Latin verse. Ignoring al) 
long or short quantity not formed by what are called long or short vowels,* he suggests, "as a 
last refuge," (§ 25,) the very doubtful scheme of reading Latin and Greek poetry with the vowels 
conformed, agreeably to this English sense of long and short vowel sounds, to the ancient rules 
of quantity. Of such words as fallo and ambo, pronounced as we usually utter them, he says. 
" nothing can be more evident than the long quantity of the final vowel thougl) without the accen^ 
and the short quantity of the initial and accented syllable." — Obs. on Greek and Lat. Accent, § 23; 
Key, p 331. Now the very reverse of this appears to mo to be "evident." The a, indeed, may 
be close or short, while the o, having its primal or name sound, is called long ; but the first sylla- 
ble, if fully accented, will have twice the time of the second; nor can this proportion be reversed 
but by changing the accent, and misplacing it on the latter syllable. Were the principle true, 
which the learned author pronounces so " evident," these, and all similar words, would constitute 
iambic feet ; whereas it is plain, that in English they are trochees ; and in Latin. — where "o final is 
common," — either trochees or spondees. The word ambo, as every accurate scholar knows, is al- 
ways a trochee, whether it be the Latin adjective for " both," or the English noun for " a reading 
desk, or pulpit." 

Obs. 4. — The names of our poetic feet are all of them derived, by change of endings, from simi- 
lar names used in Greek, and thence also in Latin ; and, of course, English words and Greek or 
Latin, so related, are presumed to stand for things somewhat similar. This reasonable presump- 
tion is an argument, too often disregarded by late grammarians, for considering our poetic feet to 
be quantitative, as were the ancient, — not accentual only, as some will have them, — nor separ- 
ately both, as some others absurdly teach. But, whatever may be the difference or the coincidence 
between English verse and Greek or Latin, it is certain, that, in our poetic division of syllables, 
strength and length must always concur, and any scheme which so contrasts acent with long 
quantity, as to confound the different species of feet, or give contradictory names to the same foot, 
must be radically and grossly defective. In the preceding section it has been shown, that the 
principles of quantity adopted by Sheridan, Murray, and others, being so erroneous as to be wholly 
nugatory, were as unfit to be the basis of English verse, as are Walker's, which have just been 
spoken of. But the puzzled authors, instead of reforming these their elementary principles, so as 
to adapt them to the quantities and rhythms actually found in our English verse, have all chosen 
to assume, that our poetical feet in general differ radically from those which the ancients called by 
the same names ; and yet the coincidence found — the " exact sameness of nature " acknowledged — 
is sagely said by some of them to duplicate each foot into two distinct sorts for our especial advan- 
tage ; while the difference, which they presume to exist, or which their false principles of accent 
and quantity would create, between feet quantitative and feet accentual, (both of which are 
allowed to us,) would implicate different names, and convert foot into foot — iambs, trochees, spon- 
dees, pyrrhics, each species into some other — till all were confusion ! 

Obs. 5. — In Lindley Murray's revised scheme of feet, we have first a paragraph from Sheridan's 
Rhetorical Grammar, suggesting that the ancient poetic measures were formed of syllables divided 

* " As to the long quantity arising from the succession of two consonants, which the ancients are uniform in 
asserting, if it did not mean that the preceding vowel was to lengthen its 6ound, as we should do hy pronouncing 
the a in scatter as we do in skater, (one who skates,) / have no conception of what it meant; for if it meant that 
only the time of the syllable was prolonged, the vowel retaining the same sound, I must confess as ut er an ina- 
bility of comprehending this source of quantity in the Greek and Latin as in English." — Walker on Gr. and L. 
Accent, §24; Key, p. 331. This distinguished author seems unwilling to admit, that the consonants occupy 
time in their utterance, or that other vowel sounds than those which name the vowels, can be protracted and 
become long; but these are truths, nevertheless; and, since every letter adds sonnething to the syllable in which 
it is uttered, it is by consequence a " source of quantity" whether the syllable be long or short. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. FEET. — OBSERVATIONS. 843 

" into long and short" and affirming, what is not very true, that, for the forming of ours, " In Eng- 
lish, syllables are divided into accented and unaccented. 11 — Rhet. Gram., p. 64 ; Murray 's Gram., 
8vo, 253; Harts Gram., 182; and others. Now some syllables are accented, and others are un- 
accented ; but syllables singly significant, i. e., monosyllables, which are very numerous, belong 
to neither of these classes. The contrast is also comparatively new ; our language had much good 
poetry, long before accented and unaccented were ever thus misapplied in it. Murray proceeds 
thus : " When the feet are formed by accent on vowels, they are exactly of the same nature as an- 
cient feet, and have the same just quantity in their syllables. So that, in this respect, we have all 
that the ancients had, and something which they had not. We have in fact duplicates of each foot, 
yet with such a difference, as to fit them for different purposes, to be applied at our pleasure." — 
lb., p. 253. Again : " We have observed, that English verse is composed of feet formed by accent; 
and that when the accent falls on vowels, the feet are equivalent to those formed by quantity." — 
lb., p. 258. And again : " From the preceding view of English versification, we may see what a 
copious stock of materials it possesses. For we are not only allowed the use of all the ancient poetic 
feet, in our heroic measure, but we have, as before observed, duplicates of each, agreeing in move- 
ment, though differing in measure,* and which make different impressions on the ear ; an opulence 
peculiar to our language, and which may be the source of a boundless variety." — lb., p. 259. 

Obs. 6. — If it were not dullness to overlook the many errors and inconsistencies of this scheme, 
there should be thought a rare ingenuity in thus turning them all to the great advantage and pe- 
culiar riches of the English tongue 1 Besides several grammatical faults, elsewhere noticed, theso 
extracts exhibit, first, the inconsistent notion — of " duplicates with a difference- 11 or, as Churchill 
expresses it, of " two distinct species of each foot ;" (New Gram., p. 1 89 ;) and here we are gravely 
assured withal, that theso different sorts, which have no separate names, are sometimes forsooth, 
" exactly of the same nature "/ Secondly, it is incompatibly urged, that, " English verse is com- 
posed of feet formed by accent, 11 and at the same time shown, that it partakes largely of feet 
" formed by quantity. 11 Thirdly, if " we have all that the ancients had, 11 of poetic feet, and " dupli- 
cates of each, 11 " which they had not, 11 we are encumbered with an enormous surplus; for, of tho 
twenty-eight Latin feet,f mentioned by Dr. Adam and others, Murray never gave the names of 
more than eight, and his early editions acknowledged but four, and these single, not " duplicates " 
— unigenous, not severally of " two species. 11 Fourthly, to suppose a multiplicity of feet to bo 
" a copious stock of materials " for versification, is as absurd as to imagine, in any other case, a va- 
riety of measures to be materials for producing the thing measured. Fifthly, " our heroic measure " 
is iambic pentameter, as Murray himself shows ; and, to give to this, " all the ancient poetic feet, 11 is to 
bestow most of them where they are least needed. Sixthly, "feet differing in measure, 11 so as to 
"make different impressions on the ear, 11 cannot well be said to " agree in movement, 11 or to be "ex- 
actly of the same nature /" 

Obs. 1. — Of the foundation of metre, Wells has the following account : " The quantity of a syl- 
lable is the relative time occupied in its pronunciation. A syllable may be long in quantity, as 
fate ; or short, as let. The Greeks and Romans based their poetry on the quantity of syllables ; 
but modern versification depends chiefly upon accent, the quantity of syllables being almost 
wholly disregarded." — School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 185. Again : " Versification is a measured ar- 
rangement of words [.] in which the accent is made to recur at certain regular intervals. This 
definition applies only to modern verse. In Greek and Latin poetry, it is the regular recurrenco 
of long syllables, according to settled laws, which constitutes verse." — lb., p. 186. The contrasting 
of ancient and modern versification, since Sheridan and Murray each contrived an example of it, 
has become very common in our grammars, though not in principle very uniform ; and, however 
needless where a correct theory prevails, it is, to such views of accent and quantity as were adopt- 
ed by these authors, and by Walker, or their followers, but a necessary counterpart. The notion, 
however, that English verse has less regard to quantity than had that of the old Greeks or Ro- 
mans, is a mere assumption, originating in a false idea of what quantity is ; and, that Greek or 
Latin verse was less accentual than is ours, is another assumption, left proofless too, of what many 
authors disbelieve and contradict. Wells's definition of quantity is similar to mine, and perhaps 

* Mm*ray has here a marginal note, as follows : " Movement and measure are thus distinguished. Movement 
expresses the progressive order of sounds, whether from strong to weak, from long to 6hort, or vice versa. 
Measure signifies the proportion of time, both in sounds and pauses." — Octavo Gram., p. 259. This distinction 
is neither usual nor accurate; though Humphrey adopts it, with slight variations. Without some species of 
measure, — Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, Dactylic, or some other, — there can be no regular movement, no "pro- 
gressive order of 6ounds." Measure is therefore too essential to movement to be in contrast with it. And the 
movement "from strong to weak, from long to short" is but one and the same, a trochaic movement; its re- 
verse, the movement, " vice versa," from weak to strong, or from short to long, is, of course, that of iambic 
measure. But Murray's doctrine is, that strong and lo)ig, weak and short, may be separated; that strong may 
be short, and weak be long; so that the movement from weak to strong maybe from long to short, and vice versa: 
as if a trochaic movement might arise from iambic measure, and an iambic movement from trochaic feet ! This 
absurdity comes of attempting to regulate the movement of verse by accent, and not by quantity, while it is ad- 
mitted that quantity, and not accent, forms the measure, which "signifies the proportion of time." The idea 
that pauses belong to measure, is an other radical error of the foregoing note. There are more pauses in 
poetry than in prose, but none of them are properly '■'■parts" of either. Humphrey says truly, '■'Feet are the 
constituent parts of verse." — English Prosody, p. 8. But L. Murray says, "■Feet and pauses are the constitu- 
ent parts of verse." — Octavo Gram., p. 252. Here Sheridan gave bias, intending to treat of verse, and "the 
pauses peculiarly belonging to it," the " Cossural" pause and the "Final," the rhetorician had improperly said, 
"The constituent parts of verse are, feet, and pauses." — Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram., p. 64. 

t " But as many Ways as Quantities may be varied by Composition and Transposition, so many different Feet 
have the Greek Poets contrived, and that under distinct Names, from two to six Syllables, to the Number of 124. 
But it is the Opinion of some Learned Men in this Way, that Poetic Numbers may be sufficiently explain' d by 
those of two or three Syllables, into which the rest are to he resolvM."— Brighttand y s Grammar, Xth Ed;.,, p. 161. 



844 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

unexceptionable ; and yet his idea of the thing, as he gives us reason to think, was very different, 
and very erroneous. His examples imply, that, like Walker, he had "no conception of quantity 
arising from any thing but the nature of the vowels," — no conception of a long or a short syllable 
without what is called a long or a short vowel sound. That "the Greeks and Romans based their 
poetry on quantity" of that restricted sort, — on such "quantity " as "/ate" and "let" may serve 
to discriminate, — is by no means probable ; nor would it be more so, were a hundred great mod- 
ern masters to declare themselves ignorant of any other. The words do not distinguish at all the 
long and short quantities even of oar own language; much less can we rely on them for an idea 
of what is long or short in other tongues. Being monosyllables, both are long with emphasis, 
both short without it ; and, could they be accented, accent too would lengthen, as its absence 
would shorten, both. In the words phosphate and streamlet, we have the same sounds, both 
short ; in lettuce and fateful, the same, both long. This cannot be disproved. And, in the scan- 
sion of the following stanza from Byron, the word " Let" twice used, is to be reckoned a long syl- 
lable, and not (as "Wells would have it) a short one : 

" Cavalier ! and man of worth ! 
Let these words of mine go forth ; 
Let the Moorish Monarch know, 
That to him I nothing owe : 

Wo is me, Alhama 1" 

Obs. 8. — In the English grammars of AUen H. Weld, works remarkable for their egregious 
inaccuracy and worthlessness, yet honoured by the Boston school committee of 1848 and '9, the 
author is careful to say, " Accent should not be confounded with emphasis. Emphasis is a stress 
of voice on a word in a sentence, to m rk its importance. Accent is a stress of voice on a syllable 
in a word." Yet, within seven lines of this, we are told, that, " A verse consists of a certain num- 
ber of accented and unaccented syllables, arranged according to certain rules." — Weld's English 
Grammar, 2d Edition, p. 207; "Abridged Edition," p. 137. A doctrine cannot be contrived, 
which will more evidently or more extensively confound accent with emphasis, than does this ! 
In English verse, on an average, about three quarters of the words are monosyllables, which, ac- 
cording to Walker, "have no accent," certainly none distinguishable from emphasis; hence, in 
fact, our syllables are no more " divided into accented and unaccented," as Sheridan and Murray 
would have them, than into emphasized and unempliasized, as some others have thought to class 
them. Nor is this confounding of accent with emphasis at all lessened or palliated by teaching 
with Wells, in its justification, that, "The term accent is also applied, in poetry, to the stress laid 
on monosyllabic words." — Wells's School Gram., p. 185 ; 113th Ed., § 273. What better is this, 
than to apply the term emphasis to the accenting of syllables in poetry, or to all the stress in ques- 
tion, as is virtually done in the following citation ? " In English, verse is regulated by the em- 
phasis, as there should be one ernphatick syllable in every foot ; for it is by the interchange of 
emphatick and non-emphatick syllables, that verse grateful to the ear is formed." — Thomas Coar } s 
E. Gram., p. 196. In Latin poetry, the longer words predominate, so that, in Yirgil's verse, not 
one word in five is a monosyllable ; hence accent, if our use of it were adjusted to the Latin quan- 
tities, might have much more to do with Latin verse than with English. With the following 
lines of Shakspeare, for example, accent has, jDroperly speaking, no connexion : 

" Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet ; 

But thou shalt have ; and creep time ne'er so slow, 

Yet it shall come for me to do thee good. 

I had a thiug to say, — But let it go." — King John, Act hi, Sc. 3. 
Obs. 9. — T. 0. Churchill, after stating that the Greek and Latin rhythms are composed of sylla- 
bles long and short, sets ours in contrast with them thus : " These terms are commonly employed 
also in speaking of English verse, though it is marked, not by long and short, but by accented and 
unaccented syllables; the accented syllables being accounted long; the unaccented, short." — 
ChurchiWs New Gram., p. 183. This, though far from being right, is very different from the doc- 
trine of Murray or Sheridan; because, in practice, or the scansion of verses, it comes to the same 
results as to suppose all our feet to be " formed by quantity." To account syllables long or short 
and not believe them to be so, is a ridiculous inconsistency: it is a shuffle in the name of science. 

Obs. 10. — Churchill, though not apt to be misled by others' errors, and though his own scanning 
has no regard to the principle, could not rid himself of the notion, that the quantity of a S} r llable 
must depend on the "vowel sound." Accordingly he says, "Mr. Murray justly observes, that our 
accented syllables, or those reckoned long, may have either a long or [a] short vowel sound, so that 
we have two distinct species of each foot." — New Gram., p. 189. The obvious impossibility of 
" two distinct species" in one, — or, as Murray has it, of " duplicates fitted for different purposes," 
— should have prevented the teaching and repeating of this nonsense, propound it who might. 
The commender himself had not such faith in it as is here implied. In a note, too plainly incom- 
patible with this praise, he comments thus : " Mr. Murray adds, that this is ' an opulence peculiar 
to our language, and which may be the source of a boundless variety:' a point, on which, I con- 
fess, i" have long entertained doubts. I am inclined to suspect that the English mode of reading 
verse is analogous to that of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Dion. Hal., de Comp., Verb. § xi, 
speaks of the rhythm of verse differing from the proper measure of the syllables, and often revers- 
ing it : does not this imply, that the ancients, contrary to the opinion of the learned author of 
Metronariston, read verse as we do?" — ChurchiWs New Gram., p. 393, note 329. 



CHAP. IV.] PKOSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — FEET. — OBSERVATIONS. 845 

Obs. 11. — The nature, chief sources, and true distinction of quantity, at least as it pertains to our 
language, I have set forth with clearness, first in the short chapter on Utterance, and again, more 
fully, in this, which treats of Versification ; but that the syllables, long and short, of the old Greek 
and Latin poets, or the feet they made of them, are to be expounded on precisely the same prin- 
ciples that apply to ours, I have not deemed it necessary to affirm or to deny. So far as the 
same laws are applicable, let them be applied. This important property of syllables, — their quan- 
tity, or relative time, — which is the basis of all rhythm, is, as my readers have seen, very variously 
treated, and in general but ill appreciated, by our English prosodists, who ought, at least in this 
their own province, to understand it all alike, and as it is ; and so common among the erudite 
is the confession of Walker, that "the accent and quantity of the ancients" are, to modern readers, 
"obscure and mysterious," that it will be taken as a sign of arrogance and superficiality, to pre- 
tend to a very certain knowledge of them. Nor is the difficulty confined to Latin and Greek 
verse: the poetry of our own ancestors, from any remote period, is not easy of scansion. Dr. 
Johnson, in his History of the English Language, gave examples, with this remark: "Of the 
Saxon poetry some specimen is necessary, though our ignorance of the laws of their metre and the 
quantities of their syllables, which it ivould be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to recover, excludes 
us from that pleasure which the old bards undoubtedly gave to their contemporaries." 

Obs. 12. — The imperfect measures of "the father of English poetry," are said by Dryden to have 
been adapted to the ears of the rude age which produced them. " The verse of Chaucer," says he, 
" I confess, is not harmonious to us ; but it is like the eloquence of one whom Tacitus commends, 
it was ' aurious istius temporis acccmmodata :' they who lived with him, and sometime after him, 
thought it musical ; and it continues so even in our judgment, if compared with the numbers of 
Lidgate and Gower, his contemporaries : there is the rude sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which 
is natural and pleasing, though not perfect. It is true, I cannot go so far as he who published 
the last edition of him ; for he would make us believe that the fault is in our ears, and that there 
were really ten syllables in a verse where we find but nine : but this opinion is not worth confut- 
ing ; it is so gross and obvious an error, that common sense (which is a rule in every thing but 
matters of faith and revelation) must convince the reader that equality of numbers in every verse, 
which we call Heroic, was either not known, or not always practised in Chaucer's age. It were 
an easy matter to produce some thousands of his verses, which are lame for want of half a foot, 
and sometimes a whole one, and which no pronunciation can make otherwise. "We can only say, 
that he lived in the infancy of our poetry, and that nothing is brought to perfection at the first." — 
British Poets, Vol. iii, p. 171. 

Obs. 13. — Dryden appears to have had more faith in the ears of his own age than in those of 
an earlier one ; but Poe, of our time, himself an ingenious versifier, in his Notes upon English 
Verse, conveys the idea that all ears are alike competent to appreciate the elements of metre. 
" Quantity," according to his dogmatism, " is a point in the investigation of which the lumber of 
mere learning may be dispensed with, if ever in any. Its appreciation," says he, " is universal. It 
appertains to no region, nor race, nor era in especial. To melody and to harmony the Greeks 
hearkened with ears precisely similar to those which we employ, for similar purposes, at present ; 
and a pendulum at Athens would have vibrated much after the same fashion as does a pendulum 
in the city of Penn." — The Pioneer, Vol. i, p. 103. Supposing here not even the oscillations of 
the same pendulum to be more uniform than are the nature and just estimation of quantity the 
world over, this author soon after expounds his idea of the thing as follows : " I have already 
said that all syllables, in metre, are either long or short. Our usual prosodies maintain that a 
long syllable is equal, in its time, to two short ones; this, however, is but an approach to the 
truth. It should be here observed that the quantity of an English syllable has no dependence upon 
the sound of its vowel or dipthong [diphthong], but [depends] chiefly upon accentuation. Mono- 
syllables are exceedingly variable, and, for the most part, may be cither long or short, to suit the 
demand of the rhythm. In polysyllables, the accented ones [say, syllables] are always long, while 
those which immediately precede or succeed them, are always short. Emphasis will render any 
short syllable long." — Ibid, p. 105. In penning the last four sentences, the writer must have had 
Brown's Institutes of English Grammar before him, and open at page 235. 

Obs. 14. — Sheridan, in his Rhetorical Grammar, written about 1780, after asserting that a dis- 
tinction of accent, and not of quantity, marks the movement of English verse, proceeds as follows: 
" From not having examined the peculiar genius of our tongue, our Prosodians have fallen into a 
variety of errors ; some having adopted the rules of our neighbours, the French ; and others hav- 
ing had recourse to those of the ancients ; though neither of them, in reality, would square with 
our tongue, on account of an essential difference between them. [He means, " between each lan- 
guage and ours," and should have said so.] With regard to the French, they measured verses by 
the number of syllables whereof they were composed, on account of a constitutional defect in their 
tongue, which rendered it incapable of numbers formed by poetic feet. For it has neither accent 
nor quantity suited to the purpose ; the syllables of their words being for the most part equally 
accented ; and the number of long syllables being out of all proportion greater than that of the short. 
Plence for a long time it was supposed, as it is by most people at present, that our verses were com- 
posed, not of feet, but syllables; and accordingly they are denominated verses often, eight, six, or 
four syllables, even to this day. Thus have we lost sight of the great advantage which our lan- 
guage has given us over the French, in point of poetic numbers, by its being capable of a geomet- 
rical proportion, on which the hormony of versification depends; and blindly reduced ourselve? to 
that of the arithmetical kind which contains no natural power of pleasing the ear. And hence 



846 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

like the French, our chief pleasure in verse arises from the poor ornament of rhyme." — Sheridan's 
Rhetorical Gram., p. 64. 

Obs. 15. — In a recent work on this subject, Sheridan is particularly excepted, and he alone, 
where Hallam, Johnson, Lord Karnes, and other " Prosodians" in general, are charged with 
" astonishing ignorance of the first principles of our verse;" and, at the same time, he is as par- 
ticularly commended of having " especially insisted on the subj set of Quantity." — Everett's 
English Vtrsification, Preface, p. 6. That the rhetorician was but slenderly entitled to these com- 
pliments, may plainly appear from the next paragraph of his Grammar just cited ; for therein he 
mistakingly represents it as a central error, to regard our poetic feet as being "formed by quan- 
tity" at all. " Some few of our Prosodians," says he, " finding this to be an error, and that our 
verses were really composed of feet, not syllables, without farther examination, boldly applied all 
the rules of the Latin prosody* to our versification; though scarce any of them answered exactly, 
and some of them were utterly incompatible with the genius of our tongue. Thus because the 
Roman feet were formed by quantity, they asserted the same of ours, denominating all the accented 
syllables long ; whereas I have formerly shewn, that the accent, in some cases, as certainly makes the 
syllable on which it is laid, short, as in others it makes it long. And their whole theory of quan- 
tity, borrowed from the Roman, in which they endeavour to establish the proportion of long and 
short, as immutably fixed to the syllables of words constructed in a certain way, at once falls to 
the ground ; when it is shewn, that the quantity of our syllables is perpetually varying with the 
sense, and is for the most part regulated by emphasis : which has been fully proved in the course 
of Lectures on the Art of reading Verse ; where it has been also shewn, that this very circumstance 
has given us an amazing advantage over the ancients in the point of poetic numbers." — Sheridan's 
Rhetorical Gram., p. 64. 

Obs. 16. — The lexicographer here claims to have "shewn," or "proved," what he had only 
affirmed, or asserted. Erroneously taking the quality of the vowel for the quantity of the syllable, 
he had suggested, in his confident way, that short quantity springs from the accenting of conson- 
ants, and long quantity, from the accenting of vowels — a doctrine which has been amply noticed 
and refuted in a preceding section of the present chapter. Nor is he, in what is here cited, con- 
sistent with himself. For, in the first place, nothing comes nearer than this doctrine of his, to an 
"endeavour to establish the proportion of long and short, as immutably fixed to the syllables of 
words constructed in a certain way" ! Next, although he elsewhere contrasts accent and em- 
phasis, and supposes them different, he either confounds them in reference to verse, or contradicts 
himself by ascribing to each the chief control over quantity. And, lastly, if our poetic feet are not 
quantitative, not formed of syllables long and short, as were the Roman, what " advantage over 
the ancients," can we derive from tho fact, that quantity is regulated by stress, whether accent or 
emphasis ? 

Obs. 17. — We have, I think, no prosodial treatise of higher pretensions than Erastus Everett's 
"System of English Versification," first published in 1848. This gentleman professes to have 
borrowed no idea but what he has regularly quoted. " He mentions this, that it may not be 
supposed that this work is a compilation. It will be seen," says he, "how great a share of it is 
original ; and the author, having deduced his rules from the usage of the great poets, has the best 
reason for being confident of their correctness." — Preface, p. 5. Of the place to be filled by this 
System, he has the following conception: "It is thought to supply an important desideratum. It 
is a matter of surprise to the foreign student, who attempts the study of English poetry and the 
structure of its verse, to find that we have no work on which he can rely as authority on this sub- 
ject. In the other modern languages, the most learned philologers have treated of the subject of 
versification, in all its parts. In English alone, in a language which possesses a body of poetical 
literature more extensive, as well as more valuable than any other modern language, not except- 
ing the Italian, the student has no rules to guide him, but a few meagre and incorrect outlines ap- 
pended to elementary text-books." Then follows this singularly inconsistent exception: "We 
must except from this remark two works, published in the latter part of the sixteenth century. 
But as they were written before the poetical language of the English tongue was fixed, and as 
the rules of verse were not then settled, these works can be of little practical utility." — Preface, 
p. 1. The works thus excepted as of reliable authority without practical utility, are " a short tract 
by Gascoyne," doubtless George Gascoigae's ' Notes of Instruction concerning the making of Verse 
or Rhyme in English,' published in 1575, and Webbe's 'Discourse of English Poetry,' dated 
1586, neither of which does the kind exceptor appear to have ever seen! Mention is next made, 
successively, of Dr. Carey, of Dryden, of Dr. Johnson, of Blair, and of Lord Karnes. " To these 
guides," or at least to the last two, "the author is indebted for many valuable hints;" yet he 
scruples not to say, " Blair betrays a paucity of knowledge on this subject ;" — " Lord Kames has 
slurred over the subject of Quantity," and "shown an unpardonable ignorance of the first prin- 
ciples of Quantity in our verse;" — and, " Even Dr. Johnson speaks of" syllables in such a man- 
ner as would lead us to suppose that he was in the same error as Kames. These inaccuracies," 
it is added, " can be accounted for only from the fact that Prosodians have not thought Quantity of 
sufficient importance to merit their attention." — Sie Preface, p. 4 — 6. 

Obs. 18. — Everett's Versification consists of seventeen chapters, numbered consecutively, but 
divided into two parts, under the two titles Quantity and Construction. Its specimens of verse 
are numerous, various, and beautiful. Its modes of scansion — the things chiefly to be taught — 
though perhaps generally correct, are sometimes questionable, and not always consonant with the 
writer's own rules of quantity. From the citations above, one might expect from this author 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. FEET. — OBSERVATIONS. 847 

such an exposition of quantity, as nobody could either mistake or gainsay ; but, as the following 
platform will show, his treatment of this point is singularly curt and incomplete. He is so spar- 
ing of words as not even to have given a definition of quantity. He opens his subject thus : 
" Versification is the proper arrangement of words in a line according to their quantity, and the 
disposition of these lines in couplets, stanzas, or in blank verse, in such order, and according to 
such rules, as are sanctioned by usage. — A Foot is a combination of two or more syllables, whether 
long or short. — A Line is one foot, or more than one. — The Quantity of each word depends on 
its accent. In words of more than one syllable, all accented syllables are long, and all unaccented 
syllables are short. Monosyllables are long or short, according to the following Rules: — 1st. All 
Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, and Participles are long. — 2nd. The articles are always short. — 3rd. 
The Pronouns are long or short, according to emphasis. — 4th. Interjections and Adverbs are gen- 
erally long, but sometimes made short by emphasis. — 5th. Prepositions and Conjunctions are almost 
always short, but sometimes made long by emphasis." — English Versification, p. 13. None of 
these principles of quantity are unexceptionable ; and whoever follows them implicitly, will often 
differ not only from what is right, but from their author himself, in the analysis of verses. Nor 
are they free from important antagonisms. "Emphasis," as here spoken of, not only clashes with 
"accent," but contradicts itself, by making some syllables long and some short; and, what is 
more mysteriously absurd, the author says, " It frequently happens that syllables long by quan- 
tity become short by emphasis." — Everett's Eng. Versif., 1st Ed., p. 99. Of this, he takes the 
first syllable of the following line, namely, "the word bids" to be an example : 
" Bids me live but to hope for posterity's praise." 

Obs. 19. — In the American Review, for May, 1848, Everett's System of Versification is named 
as " an apology and occasion" — not for a critical examination of this or any other scheme of 
prosody — but tor the promulgation of a new one, a rival theory of English metres, " the princi- 
ples and laws" of which the writer promises, " at an other time" more fully "to develop." The 
article referred to is entitled, " The Art of Measuring Verses." The writer, being designated by 
his initials, "J. D. W." is understood to be James D. "Whelpley, editor of the Review. Believ- 
ing Everett's principal doctrines to be radically erroneous, this critic nevertheless excuses them, 
because he thinks we have nothing better! "The views supported in the work itself," says his 
closing paragraph, " are not, indeed, such as we would subscribe to, nor can we admit the numerous 
analyses of the English metres which it contains to be correct ; yet, as it is as complete in design and 
execution as anything that has yet appeared on the subject, and well calculated to excite the at- 
tention, and direct the inquiries, of English scholars, to the study of our own metres, we shall 
even pass it by without a word of criticism." — American Review, New Series, Vol. I, p. 492. 

Obs. 20. — Everett, although, as we have seen, he thought proper to deny that the student of 
English versification had any well authorized "rules to guide him," still argues that, "The laws 
of our verse are just as fixed, and may be as clearly laid down, if we but attend to the usage of 
the great Poets, as are the laws of our syntax." — Preface, p. 1. But this critic, of the American 
Review, ingenious though he is in many of his remarks, flippantly denies that our English Prosody 
has either authorities or principles which one ought to respect ; and accordingly cares so little 
whom he contradicts, that he is often inconsistent with himself. Here is a sample : " As there 
are no established authorities in this art, and, indeed, no acknowledged principles — every rhymester 
being permitted to invent his own method, and write by instinct or imitation — the critic feels quite 
at liberty to say just what he pleases, and offer his private observations as though these were really 
of some moment." — Am.. Rev., Vol. i, p. 484. In respect to writing, " to invent," and to " imitate," 
are repugnant ideas ; and so are, after a " method," and " by instinct." Again, what sense is 
there in making the "liberty" of publishing one's " private observations" to depend on the pre- 
sumed absence of rivals ? That the author did not lack confidence in the general applicability of 
his speculations, subversive though they are of the best and most popular teaching on this subject, 
is evident from the following sentence : " We intend, also, that if these principles, with the others 
previously expressed, are true in the given instances, they are equally true for all languages and 
all varieties of metre, even to the denial that any poetic metres, founded on other principles, can 
properly exist." — lb., p. 491. 

Obs. 21. — J. D. "W. is not one of those who discard quantity and supply accent in expounding 
the nature of metre ; and yet he does not coincide very nearly with any of those who have here- 
tofore made quantity the basis of poetic numbers. His views of the rhythmical elements beina- in 
several respects peculiar, I purpose briefly to notice them here, though some of the peculiarities 
of this new "Art of Measuring Verses," should rather be quoted under the head of Scanning, to 
which they more properly belong. "Of every species of beauty," says this author, "and more 
especially of the beauty of sounds, continuousness is the first element ; a succession of pulses of 
sound becomes agreeable, only when the breaks or intervals cease to be heard." Again: " Quan- 
tity, or the division into measures of time, is a second element of verse ; each line must be stuffed 
out with sounds, to a certain fullness and plumpness, that will sustain the voice, and force it to 
dwell upon the sounds." — Rev., p. 485. The first of these positions is subsequently contradicted, 
or very largely qualified, by the following: "So, the line of significant sounds, in a verse, is also 
marked by accents, or pulses, and divided into portions called feet. These are necessary and nat- 
ural for the very simple reason that continuity by itself is tedious ; and the greatest pleasure arises 
from the union of continuity with variety. [That is, with " interruption," as he elsewhere calls 
it !] In the line, 

' Full many a tale their music tells,' 



848 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

there are at least four accents or stresses of the voice, with faint pauses after them, just enough to 
separate the continuous stream of sound into these four parts, to be read thus : 

Fullman — yataleth — eirmus — ictells,* 
by which, new combinations of sound are produced, of a singularly musical character. It is evi- 
dent from the inspection of the above line, that the division of the feet by the accents is quite 
independent of the division of words by the sense. The sounds are melted into continuity, and 
re-divided again in a manner agreeable to the musical ear." — lb., p. 48G. Undoubtedly, the due 
formation of our poetic feet occasions both a blending of some words and a dividing of others, in 
a manner unknown to prose ; but still we have the authority of this writer, as well as of earlier 
ones, for saying, "Good verse requires to be read with the natural quantites of the syllables" (p. 
487,) a doctrine with which that of the redivisioa appears to clash. If the example given be read 
with any regard to the ccesural pause, as undoubtedly it should be, the th of their cannot be joined, 
as above, to the word tale; nor do I see any propriety in joining the s of music to the third foot 
rather than to the fourth. Can a theory which turns topsyturvy the whole plan ot syllabication, 
fail to affect "the natural quantities of syllables ?" 

Obs. 22. — Different modes of reading verse, may, without doubt, change the quantities of very 
many syllables. Hence a correct mode of reading, as well as a just theory of measure, is essen- 
tial to correct scansion, or a just discrimination of the poetic feet. It is a very common opinion, 
that English verse has but few spondees ; and the doctrine of Brightland has been rarely dis- 
puted, that, " Heroic Verses consist of five short, and five long Syllables intermixt, but not so very 
strictly as never to alter that order." — Gram., 7th Ed., p. 160. f J. D. W., being a heavy reader, 
will have each line, so" stuffed out with sounds," and the consonants so syllabled after the vowels, 
as to give to our heE^ros three spondees for every two iambuses ; and lines like the following, 
which, with the elisions, I should resolve into four iambuses, and without them, into three iam- 
buses and one anapest, he supposes to consist severally of four spondees : — 

" ' When coldness wraps this suffering clay, 
Ah! whither strays the immortal mind?' 

[These are] to be read," according to this prosodian, 

" Whencoldn — esswrapsth — issuffr — ingclay, 
Ah ! whith — erstraystlr — immort — alraind ?" 

" The verse," he contends, "is perceived to consist of six [probably he meant to say eight] heavy 
syllables, each composed of a vowel followed by a group of consonantal sounds, the whole meas- 
ured into four equal feet. The movement is what is called spondaic, a spondee being a foot of 
two heavy sounds. The absence of short syllables gives the line a peculiar weight and solemnity 
suited to the sentiment, and doubtless prompted by it." — American Review, Vol. i, p. 487. Of his 
theory, he subsequently says : " It maintains that good English verse is as thoroughly quantitative 
as the Greek, though it be much more heavy and spondaic." — lb., p. 4914 

Obs. 23. — For the determining of quantities and feet, this author borrows from some old Latin 
grammar three or four rules, commonly thought inapplicable to our tongue, and, mixing them up 
with other speculations, satisfies himself with stating that the " Art of Measuring Verses" requires 
yet the production of many more such ! But, these things being the essence of his principles, it 
is proper to state them in his own words : " A short vowel sound followed by a double consonantal 
sound, usually makes a long quantity ;§ so also does a long vowel like y in beauty, before a con- 
sonant. The metrical accents, which often differ from the prosaic, mostly fall upon the heavy 
sounds ; which must also be prolonged in reading, and never slurred or lightened, unless to help 
out a bad verse. In our language the groupings of the consonants furnish a great number of spon- 
daic feet, and give the language, especially its more ancient forms, as in the verse of Milton and 
the prose of Lord Bacon, a grand and solemn character. One vowel followed by another, unless 
the first be naturally made long in the reading, makes a short quantity, as in the old. So, also, a 
short vowel followed by a single short consonant, gives a short time or quantity, as in to give. 
t^P A great variety of rules for the detection of long and short quantities have yet to be invented, 
or applied from the Greek and Latin prosody. In all languages they are of course the same, mak- 
ing due allowance for difference of organization ; but it is as absurd to suppose that the Greeks 
should have a system of prosody differing in principle from our own, as that their rules of musical 
harmony should be different from the modern. Both result from the nature of the ear and of 

* " The Bells of St. PETEESinjRGir." 
" Those ev'ning bells, those ev'ning bells. 
How many a tale their music tells!" — Moore's Melodies, p. 263. 
This couplet, like all the rest of the piece from -which it is taken, is iambic verse, and to be divided into feet 
thus : — 

"Those ev' | -ning bells, | those ev 1 | -ning bells, 
How man | -y a tale | their mu | -sic tells!" 
t Lord Karnes, too, speaking of " English Heroic verse," says: "Every line consists of ten syllables, five 
short and five long; from which [rule] there are but two exceptions, both of them rare." — Elements of Criti- 
cism, Vol. ii, p. 89. 

X " The Latin is a far more stately tongue than our own. It is essentially spondaic ; the English is as essen- 
tially dactylic. The long syllable is the spirit of the Roman (and Greek) v.:rse ; the short syllable is the essence 
of ours." — Poe's Notes upon English Verse; Pioneer, Vol. i, p. 110. "We must 6earch for spondaic words, 
•which, in English, are rare indeed." — lb., p. 111. 

§ " There is a rule, in Latin prosody, that a vowel before two consonants is long. We moderns have not only 
no such rule, but profess inability to comprehend its rationale." — Foe's Notes: Pioneer, p. 112. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — FEET. OBSERVATIONS. 849 

the organ of speech, and are consequently the same in all ages and nations.'" — Am. Rev., Vol. 
i, p. 488. 

Obs. 24. — Quantity is here represented as " time " only. In this author's first mention of it, 
it is called, rather less accurately, " the division into measures of time." With too little regard for 
either of these conceptions, he next speaks of it as including both " time and accent." But I 
have alread} r shown that " accents or stresses " cannot pertain to short syllables, and therefore can- 
not be ingredients of quantity. The whole article lacks that clearness which is a prime requisite 
of a sound theory. Take all of the writer's next paragraph as an example of this defect : " The 
two elements of musical metre, time and accent, both together constituting quantity, are equally 
elements of the metre of verse. Each iambic foot or metre, is marked by a swell of the voice, 
concluding abruptly in an accent, or interruption, on the last sound of the foot; or. [omit this ^ori* 
it is improper,] in metres of the trochaic order, in such words as dandy, handy, bottle, favor, labor, 
it [the foot] begins with a heavy accented sound, and declines to a faint or light one at the close. 
The line is thus composed of a series of swells or waves of sound, concluding and beginning alike. 
The accents, or points at which the voice is most forcibly exerted in the feet, being the divisions of 
time, by which a part of its musical character is given to the verse, are usually made to coincide, 
in our language, with the accents of the words as they are spoken ; which [coincidence] dimin- 
ishes the musical character of our verse. In Greek hexameters and Latin hexameters, on the 
contrary, this coincidence is avoided, as tending to monotony and a prosaic character." — Ibid. 

Obs. 25. — The passage just cited represents " accent" or " accents" not only as partly constitut- 
ing quantity, but as being, in its or their turn, " the divisions of time ;" — as being also stops, 
pauses, or " interruptions " of sound else continuous ; — as being of two sorts, " metrical " and 
" prosaic," which "usually coincide," though it is said, they "often differ," and their "interfer- 
ence" is "very frequent;" — as being "the points" of stress "in the feet," but net always such 
in "the words," of verse; — as striking different feet differently, "each iambic foot 1 ' on the latter 
syllable and every trochee on the former, yet causing, in each line, only such waves of sound as 
conclude and begin " alike;" — as coinciding with the long quantities and " the prosaic accents," in 
iambics and trochaics, yet not coinciding with these always; — as giving to ve^e "a part of its 
musical character," yet diminishing that character, by their usual coincidence with " the prose ac- 
cents;" — as being kept distinct in Latin and Greek, " the metrical" from " the prosaic" and their 
"coincidence avoided," to make poetry more poetical, — though the old prosodists, in all they say 
of accents, acute, grave, and circumflex, give no hint of this primary distinction! In all this 
elementary teaching, there seems to be a want of a clear, steady, and consistent notion of the 
things spoken of. The author's theory led him to several strange combinations of words, some of 
which it is not easy, even with his whole explanation before us, to regard as other than absurd. 
With a few examples of his new phraseology, Italicized by myself, I dismiss the subject: "It 
frequently happens that word and verse accent fall differently." — P. 489. "The verse syllables, liko 
the verse feet, differ in the prosaic and [the] metrical reading of the fine." — lb. "If we read it by 
the prosaic syllabication, there will be no possibility of measuring the quantities." — lb. "The 
metrical are perfectly distinct from the prosaic properties of verse." — lb. "It may be called an 
iambic dactyl, formed by the substitution of two short for one long time in the last portion of the 
foot. Iambic spondees and dactyls are to be distinguished by the metrical accent falling on the last 
syllable."— P. 491. 

SECTION IV— THE KINDS OF YEKSE. 

The principal kinds of verse, or orders of poetic numbers, as has already 
been stated, are four ; namely, Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, and Dactylic. 
Besides these, which are sometimes called " the simple orders" being un- 
mixed, or nearly so, some recognize several " Composite orders" or (with 
a better view of the matter) several kinds of mixed verse, which are said 
to constitute " the Composite order." In these, one of the four principal 
kinds of feet must still be used as the basis, some other species being in- 
serted therewith, in each line or stanza, with more or less regularity. 

PRINCIPLES AND NAMES. 

The diversification of any species of metre, by the occasional change of a foot, or, 
in certain cases, by the addition or omission of a short syllable, is not usually re- 
garded as sufficient to change the denomination, or stated order, of the verse ; and 
many critics suppose some variety of feet, as well as a studied diversity in the posi- 
tion of the csesural pause, essential to the highest excellence of poetic composition. 

The dividing of verses into the feet which compose them, is called Scanning, or 
Scansion. In this, according to the technical language of the old prosodists, when 
a syllable is wanting, the verse is said to be catalectic ; when the measure is exact, 
the line is acatalectic ; when there is a redundant syllable, it forms hypermeter. 

Since the equal recognition of so many feet as twelve, or even as eight, will often 

54 



850 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

produce different modes of measuring the same lines ; and since it is desirable to 
measure verses with uniformity, and always by the simplest process that will well 
answer the purpose ; we usually scan by the principal feet, in preference to the 
secondary, where the syllables give us a choice of measures, or may be divided in 
different ways. 

A single foot, especially a foot of only two syllables, can hardly be said to consti- 
tute a line, or to have rhythm in itself; yet we sometimes see a foot so placed, and 
rhyming as a line. Lines of two, three, four, five, six, or seven feet, are common ; 
and these have received the technical denominations of dim'eter, trim'eter, tetram'eter, 
pentamleter, hexam'eter, and heptam'eter. On a wide page, iambics and trochaics 
may possibly be written in octom'eter ; but lines of this measure, being very long, 
are mostly abandoned for alternate tetrameters. 

ORDER I.— IAMBIC VERSE. 

In Iambic verse, the stress is laid on the even syllables, and the odd ones are 
short. Any short syllable added to a line of this order, is supernumerary ; iambic 
rhymes, which are naturally single, being made double by one, and triple by two. But 
the adding of one short syllable, which is much practised in dramatic poetry, may 
be reckoned to convert the last foot into an amphibrach, though the adding of two 
cannot. Iambics consist of the following measures : — 

MEASURE I.— IAMBIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER. 

Psalm XL VII, 1 and 2. 

"0 all | ye peo | -pie, clap [ your hands, | and with | trium | -pliant voi | -ces sing; 
No force | the might | -y power | withstands | of God, | the u | -niver | -sal King." 

See the "Psalms of David, in Metre,'''' p. 54. 

Each couplet of this verse is now commonly reduced to, or exchanged for, a simple stanza of 
four tetrameter lines, rhyming alternately, and each commencing with a capital ; but sometimes, 
the second line and the fourth are still commenced with a small letter: as, 
" Your ut | -most skill I in praise | be shown, 
for Him | who all j the world | commands, 
"Who sits | upon | his right | -eous throne, 

and spreads | his sway | o'er heath | -en lands." 

lb., verses 7 and 8 ; Edition bound with Com. Prayer, N. T., 1819. 

An other Example. 

" The hour | is come | — the cher | -ish'd hour, 
"When from | the bus | -y world | set free, 
I seek | at length | my lone | -ly bower, 
And muse | in si | -lent thought | on thee." 

Theodore Hook's Remains : The Examiner, No. 82. 

MEASURE II— IAMBIC OP SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER. 

Example I. — Hat-Brims. 

" It's odd | how hats | expand | their brims | as youth | begins | to fade, 
As if | when life | had reached | its noon, | it want | -ed them | for shade." 

Oliver Wendell Holmes : From a Newspaper. 

Example II. — Psalm XLII, 1. 

" As pants | the hart | for cool | -ing streams, | when heat | -ed in | the chase ; 
So longs | my soul, | God, | for thee, | and thy | refresh | -ing grace." 

Episcopal Psalm-Book: The Rev. W. Allen's Eng. Gram., p. 227. 

Example III. — The Shepherd's Hymn. 

"Oh, when | I rove | the des | -ert waste, | and 'neath | the hot | sun pant, 
The Lord I shall be | my Shep | -herd then, | he will | not let | me want ; 
He'll lead j me where | the past | -ures are | of soft j and shad { -y green, 
And where | the gen | -tie wa | -ters rove, | the qui | -et hills j between. 
And when | the sav | -age shall | pursue, | and in | his grasp | I sink, 
He will | prepare | the feast | for me, | and bring | the cool | -ing drink, 



and strength | -en me | in toil, 
and crown | my head | with oil. 



And save | me harm | -less from | his hands, 

And bless | my home | and cot | -tage lands, 

With such | a Shep | -herd to | protect, | to guide | and guard | me still, 

And bless j my heart | with ev | -'ry good, | and keep | from ev j -'ry ill, 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. VERSIFICATION. — ORDER I. — IAMBICS. 851 

Surely | I shall | not turn | aside, [ and scorn | his kind J -ly | care, 
But keep | the path | he points | me out, | and dwell | for ev | -er there." 

W. Gilmore Simms : North American Reader, p. 376. 

Example IV. — " The Far, Far East." — First six Lines. 
" It was | a dream | of earl | -y years, | the long | -est and | the last, 
And still | it ling | -ers bright j and lone | amid | the drear | -y past ; 
When I | was sick |. and sad | at heart | and faint | with grief | and care, 
It threw | its ra | -diant smile | athwart | the shad | -ows of | despair: 
And still | when falls | the hour | of gloom | upon | this way | -ward breast, 
Unto | the far, j far east | I turn j for sol | -ace and | for rest." 

Edinburgh Journal; and The Examiner. 

Example V. — " Lament of the Slave." — Eight Lines from thirty-four. 
" Behold | the sun | which gilds j yon heaven, | how love j -ly it | appears ! 



And must | it shine 
Shall hu | -man pas 
And beau | -ty, wis 



to light | a world | of war | -fare and | of tears ? 
-sion ev | -er sway J this glo | -rious world | of God, 
-dom, hap j -piness, | sleep with | the tram | -pled sod ? 

Shall peace | ne'er lift | her ban f -ner up, | shall truth | and rea | -son cry, 

And men | oppress | them down | with worse | than an | -cient tyr | -anny ? 

Shall all | the les | -sons time | has taught, | be so | long taught | in vain ; 

And earth | be steeped | in hu | -man tears, | and groan j with hu | -man pain ?" 

Alonzo Lewis: Freedom's Amulet, Dec. 6, 1848. 

Example VI. — " Greek Funeral Chant." — First four of sixty-four Lines. 
"A wail | was heard | around | the bed, | the death | -bed of | the young; 
Amidst | her tears, | the Fu | -neral Chant | a mourn | -ful moth | -er sung. 
'I-an | -this I dost | thou sleep? — | Thou sleepst! — | but this j is not | the rest, 
The breath | -ing, warm, | and ros | -y calm, | I've pil | -low'd on | my breast!'" 

Felicia Hemans: Poetical Works, Vol. ii, p. 37. 

Everett observes, " The Iliad was translated into this measure by Chapman, and the JEneid 
by Phaer." — Eng. Versif., p. 68. Prior, who has a ballad of one hundred and eighty such lines, 
intimates in a note the great antiquity of the verse. Measures of this length, though not very 
uncommon, are much less frequently used than shorter ones. A practice has long prevailed of 
dividing this kind of verse into alternate lines of four and of three feet, thus : — 

" To such | as fear | thy ho | -ly name, 
myself | I close | -ly join ; 
To all | who their | obe | -dient wills 
to thy | commands | resign." 

Psalms with Com. Prayer : Psalm cxix, 63. 
This, according to the critics, is the most soft and pleasing of our lyric measures. "With the 
slight change of setting a capital at the head of each line, it becomes the regular ballad-metre of 
our language. Being also adapted to hymns, as well as to lighter songs, and, more particularly, 
to quaint details of no great length, this stanza, or a similar one more ornamented with rhymes, 
is found in many choice pieces of English poetry. The following are a few popular examples : — 

"When all | thy mer | -cies, | my God! 
My ris | -ing soul | surveys, 
Transport | -ed with j the view I I'm lost 



In won | -der, love, | and praise." 

Addison's Hymn of Gratitude. 
" John Gil | -pin was | a cit | -izen 
Of cred | -it and | renown, 
A train | -band cap | -tain eke | was he 
Of fam | -ous Lon | -don town." 

Cowper's Poems, Vol. i, p. 275. 



; God pros | -per long | our no | -ble king, 
Our lives | and safe | -ties all ; 
A wo | -ful hunt | -ing once | there did 
In Chev | -y Chase | befall," 

Later Beading of Chevy Chase. 
1 Turn, An | -geli | -na, ev | -er dear, 
My charm j -er, turn | to see 
Thy own, | thy long | -lost Ed | -win here, 
Restored | to love | and thee." 

Goldsmith's Poems, p. 67. 

"'Come back! | comeback!' | he cried | in grief, 

Across | this storm | -y wafer : 
' And I'll | forgive | your High | -land chief, 
My daugh | -ter !— oh | my daughter / 
'Twas vain : | the loud | waves lashed | the shore, 

Return | or aid | prevent^; — 
The wa | -ters wild | went o'er | his child, — 

And he | was left | lamentm^." — Campbell's Poems, p. 110. 

The rhyming of this last stanza is irregular and remarkable, yet not unpleasant. It is contrary 
to rule, to omit any rhyme which the current of the verse leads the reader to expect. Yet here 
the word " shore," ending the first line, has no correspondent sound, where twelve examples of 
such correspondence had just preceded ; while the third line, without previous example, is so 
rhymed within itself that one scarcely perceives the omission. Double rhymes are said by some 



852 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

to unfit this metre for serious subjects, and to adapt it only to what is meant to be burlesque, 
humorous, or satiric. The example above does not c >nfirm this opinion, yet the rule, as a general 
one, may still be just. Ballad verse may in some degree imitate the language of a simpleton, and 
become popular by clownishness, more than by elegance : as, 



"Father | and I | went down | to the camp 
Along | with cap | -tain Goodwin, 

the men | and boys 
-y pudding; 



And there | we saw 
As thick I as hast 



And there | we saw | a thun | -dering gun, — 

It took | a horn | of powder, — 
It made | a noise j like fa | -ther's gun, 

Only | a na | -tion louder." 

Original Song of Yankee Doodle. 



Even the line of seven feet may still be lengthened a little by a double rhyme: as, 
How gay | -ly, o | -ver fell I and fen, | yon sports | -man light | is dashing ! 
And gay | -ly, in | the sun f -beams bright, | the mow | -er's blade J is flashing ! 

Of this length, T. 0. Churchill reckons the following couplet ; but by the general usage of the 
day, the final ed is not made a separate syllable : — 

" "With hie J and hac, | as Pris | -cian tells, | sacer | -dos was | decli | -ned ; 
But now [ its gen | -der by | the pope | far bet j -ter is | defi \ -ned." 

ChurchilVs New Grammar, p. 188. 

MEASURE III.— IAMBIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER. 
Example I. — A Couplet. 
"So va | -rjjing still | their moods, | observ | -ing yet | in all 
Their quan | -tities, | their rests, | their cen | -sures met | -rical." 

Michael Drayton: Johnson 's Quarto Diet., w. Quantity. 

Example II. — From a Description of a Stag-Hunt. 

"And through | the cumb | -rous thicks, | as fear | -fully | he makes, 
He with | his branch | -ed head | the ten | -der sap | -lings shakes, 
That sprink | -ling their | moist pearl | do seem | for him | to weep ; 
When aft | -er goes | the cry, | with yell | -ings loud | and deep, 
That all | the for | -est rings, | and ev | -ery neigh | -bouring place : 
And there j is not | a hound | but fall | -eth to | the chase." 

Drayton : Three Couplets from twenty-three, in Everett's Versif., p. 66. 

Example III. — An Extract from Shakspeare. 



" If love | make me | forsworn, 
0, nev | -er faith | could hold, 



how shall I I swear | to love ? 

if not | to beau | -ty vow'd : 
Though to | myself | forsworn, | to thee | I'll con | -stant prove ; 
Those thoughts, | to me j like oaks, | to thee | like o | -siers bow'd. 
Study | his bi | -as leaves, | and makes | his book | thine eyes, 
Where all | those pleas | -ures live, j that art | can com | -prehend. 
If knowl | -edge be | the mark, | to know | thee shall suffice ; 
Well learn | -ed is | that tongue | that well | can thee commend ; 
All ig | -norant | that soul | that sees | thee with' | out wonder ; 
Which is | to me | some praise, | that I | thy parts | admire : 
Thine eye | Jove's light | -ning seems, | thy voice | his dread | -ful thunder, 
Which (not j to an | -ger bent) | is mu | -sic and | sweet fire. 
Celes | -tial as | thou art, | 0, do | not love | that wrong, 
To sing | the heav | -ens' praise | with such | an earth | -ly tongue." 

The Passionate Pilgrim, Stanza IX; Singer's Shak., Vol. ii, p. 594. 

Example IV. — The Ten Commandments Versified. 

"Adore | no God | besides | me, to | provoke | mine eyes; 
Nor wor | -ship me | in shapes | and forms | that men | devise; 
With rev | 'rence use | my name, | nor turn | my words | to jest; 
Observe | my sab | -bath well, | nor dare | profane | my rest ; 
Honor | and due | obe | -dience to | thy pa | -rents give ; 
Nor spill I the guilt | -less blood, | nor let j the guilt | -y live ;* 
Preserve | thy bod | -y chaste, | and flee | th' unlaw | -ful bed ; 
Nor steal | thy neigh | -bor's gold, | his gar | -ment, or | his bread ; 
Forbear | to blast | his name with false | -hood or deceit ; 
Nor let | thy wish | -es loose upon | his large ] estate." 

Dr. Isaac Watts : Lyric Poems, p. 46. 
This verse, consisting, when entirely regular, of twelve syllables in six iambs, is the Alexan- 
drine; said to have been so named because it was "first used in a poem called Alexander." — 
Worcester's Diet. Such metre has sometimes been written, with little diversity, through an entire 

* The opponents of capital punishment will hardly take this for a fair version of the sixth commandment — 
G. B. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. ORDER I. — IAMBICS. 85 



D 



English poem, as in Drayton's Polyolbion ; but, couplets of this length being generally esteemed 
too clumsy for our language, the Alexandrine has been little used by English versifiers, except to 
complete certain stanzas beginning with shorter iambics, or, occasionally, to close a period in he- 
roic rhyme. French heroics are similar to this ; and if, as some assert, we have obtained it 
thence, the original poem was doubtless a French one, detailing the exploits of the hero "Alex- 
andre? The phrase, " an Alexandrine verse? is, in French, u un vers Alexandrin? Dr. Gregory, 
in his Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, copies Johnson's Quarto Dictionary, which says. "Alex- 
andrine, a kind of verse borrowed from ihe French, first used in a poem called Alexander. 
They [Alexandrines] consist, among the French, of twelve and thirteen syllables, in alternate 
couplets; and, among us, of twelve." Dr. Webster, in his American Dictionary, improperly (as 
I think) gives to the name two forms, and seems also to acknowledge two sorts of the English 
verse: " ALEXAN'DRINE, or ALEXANDRIAN, n. A kind of verse, consisting of twelve syl- 
lables, or of twelve and thirteen alternately." " The Pet-Lamb." a modern pastoral by "Words- 
worth, has sixty-eight fines, all probably meant for Alexandrines; most of which have twelve 
syllables, though some have thirteen, and others, fourteen. Bat it were a great pity, that versifica- 
tion so faulty and unsuitable should ever be imitated. About half of the said lines, as they appear 
in the poet's royal octavo, or " the First Complete American, from the Last London Edition," are 
as sheer prose as can be written, it being quite impossible to read them into any proper rhythm. 
The poem being designed for children, the measure should have been reduced to iambic trimeter, 
and made exact at that. The story commences thus : — 

" The dew j was fall | -ing fast, | the stars j began | to blink ; 
I heard j a voice ; | it said, | ' Drink, pret | -ty crea | -ture, drink !' 
And, look | -ing o'er | the hedge, | before | me I | espied 
A snow j -white moun j -tain Lamb J with a Maid ] -en at J its side." 

All this is regular, with the exception of one foot ; but who can make any thing but prose of the 
following ? 

" Thy limbs will shortly be twice as stout as they are now, 
Then I'll yoke thee to my cart like a pony in the plough." 
" Here thou needest not dread the raven in the sky ; 
Night and day thou art safe, — our cottage is hard by." 

Wobdswoetii's Poems, New-Haven Ed., 1836, p. 4. 

In some very ancient English poetry, we find lines of twelve syllables combined in couplets 
with others of fourteen ; that is, six iambic feet are alternated with seven, in lines that rhyme. 
The following is an example, taken from a piece of fifty lines, which Dr. Johnson ascribes to the 
Earl of Surry, one of the wits that flourished in the reign of Henry VIII: — 

" Such way | -ward wayes j hath Love, | that most j part in j discord, 
Our willes | do stand, | whereby | our hartes | but sel j -dom do J accord : 
Deeyte | is hys | delighte, | and to j begyle j and mocke, 

The sim | -pie hartes | which he | doth strike | with fro | -ward di ] vers stroke. 
He caus | -eth th' one | to rage j with gold | -en burn | -ing darte, 
And doth | allay | with lead | -en cold, ) again j the oth j -er's harte: 
Whose gleames | of burn | -ing fyre j and eas j -y sparkes | of flame, 
In bal j -anee of J une j -qual weyght j he pon | -dereth | by a me." 

See Johnson's Quarto Diet, History of ihe Eng. Lang., p. 4; 

MEASURE IV.— IAMBIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER. 

Example I. — Hector to Andromache* 

" Androm j -ache ! | my soul's | far bet ] -ter part, 
Why with | untime j -ly j sor | -rows heaves | thy heart? 
No hos | -tile hand | can an j -tedate | my doom, 
Till fate condemns j me to j the si j -lent tomb. 
Fix 1 d is the term j to all | the race | of earth ; 
And such | the hard | conditi ] -on of | our birth, 
No force | can then | resist, | no flight | can save ; 
All sink j alike, J the fear J -ful and ] the brave." 

Pope's Homer; Iliad, B. vi, L 624—632. 

Example II. — Angels 1 Worship. 

"No soon I -er had | th' Almight ] -y ceas'd \ out all 
The mul j -titude | of an j -gels with j a shout 
Loud as from num | -bers with' j -out num | -ber, sweet 
As from blest voi | -ces ut | tiring joy, | heav'n rung 
With ju -bilee, | and loud | hosan | -nas fill'd 
Th' eter -nal | re | -gions: low | -ly rev | -erent 
Tow'rds ei | -ther throne | they bow, | and to \ the ground 
With sol | -emn ad | -ora | -tion down | they cast 
Their crowns ] inwove j with am j -arant | and gold. 1 ' 

Milton : Paradise Lost, B. iii, I 344. 



"Ye bead | -long tor 
Ye soft f -er floods, 



854 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Example III. — Deceptive Glosses. 

"The world | is still | deceiv'd I with or | -nament. 
In law, I what plea | so taint | -ed and | corrupt, 
But, be J -ing sea | -son'd with \ a gra | -cious voice, 
Obscures | the show | of e [ -vil ? In | religion, 
What dam [ -ned er | -ror, but | some so | -ber brow 
Will bless | it, and [ approve [ it with | a text, 
Hiding [ the gross | -ness with [ fair or | -nament ?" 

Shakspeare : Merch. of Venice, Act iii, Sc. 2. 

Example IV. — Praise God. 

-rents; rap | -id, and | profound ; 
that lead | the hu | -mid maze 
Along | the vale ; | and thou, | majes | -tic main, 
A se | -cret world | of won I -ders- in | thyself, 
Sound His | stupen | -dous ] praise ; | whose great | -er voice 
Or bids | you roar, | or bids [ your roar [ -ings fall." 

Thomson : Hymn to the Seasons. 

Example V. — The Christian Spirit. 

"Like him f the soul, f thus kin [ -died from | above, 
Spreads wide | her arms | of u | -niver -sal love ; 
And, still | enlarg'd | as she | receives [ the grace, 
Includes [ erea | -tion in | her close | embrace. 
Behold | a Chris | -tian ! and | without | the fires 
The found J -er of \ that name f alone f inspires, 
Though ah | accom | -plishment, [ all knowl [ -edge meet,. 
To make f the shin | -ing prod | -igy | complete, 
Whoev | -er boasts [ that name — [ behold | a cheat!" 

Cowper : Charity ; Poems, Vol. i, p. 135. 

Example VI. — To London. 
u Ten right I -eous would | have sav'd | a cit | -y once, 
And thou | hast man | -y right | -eous. — Well | for thee — 
That salt | preserves | thee ; more [ corrupt | -ed else, 
And there [ -fore more [ obnox | -ious, at | this hour, 
Than Sod | -om in [her day [ had pow'r [ to be, 
For whom | God heard j his Abr' [ -ham plead [ in vain." 

Idem : The Task, Book iii, at the end. 

This verse, the iambic pentameter, is the regular English heroic — a stately species, and that in 
which most of our great poems are composed, whether epic, dramatic, or descriptive. It is well 
adapted to rhyme, to the composition of sonnets, to the formation of stanzas of several sorts ; and 
yet is, perhaps, the only measure suitable for blank verse — which latter form always demands a 
subject of some dignity or sublimity. 

The Elegiac Stanza, or the form of verse most commonly used by elegists, consists of four 
heroics rhyming alternately ; as, 

" Thou knowst | how trans [ -port thrills \ the ten \ -der breast,, 
Where love | and fan | -cy fix [ their ope | -ning reign ; 
How na [ -ture shines [ in live [ -lier col | -ours dress'd, 
To bless [ their un | -ion, and | to grace f their train." 

Shenstone : British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 106. 

Iambic verse is seldom continued perfectly pure through a long succession of lines. Among its 
most frequent diversifications, are the following; and others may perhaps be noticed here- 
after : — 

(1.) The first foot is often varied by a substitutional trochee* as, 

" Bacchus, | that first | from out | the pur | -pie grape 
Crush? d the \ sweet poi | -son of | mis-us | -ed wine, 
After | the Tus | -can mar | -iners | transform'd, 
Coasting | the Tyr | -rhene shore, | as the f winds listec?, 
On Cir | -ce's isl \ -and fell. | Who knows | not Circ£ r 
The daugh | -ter of [ the sun ? | whose charm | -ed cup 
Whoev |. -er tast | -ed, lost | his up [ -right shape, 
And down [ -ward fell | into | a grov | -elling swine." 

Milton : Comus ; British Poets, Vol. ii, p. 147. 

(2.) By a synaeresis of the two short syllables, an anapest may sometimes be employed for an 
iambus ; or a dactyl, for a trochee This occurs chiefly where one unaccented vowel precedes an 
other in what we usually regard as separate syllables,, and both are clearly heard, though uttered 
perhaps in so quick succession that both syllables may occupy only half the time of a long one. 
Some prosodists,, however,, choose to regard these substitutions as instances of trissyllabic feet 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER I. — IAMBICS. 855 

mixed with the others ; and, doubtless, it is in general easy to make them such, by an utter- 
ance that avoids, rather than favours, the coalescence. The following are examples: — 
" No rest : | through man | -y a dark | and drear | -y vale 
They pass'd, | and man | -y are \ -gion dol | -orous, 

O'er man j -y afro | -zen, man | -y afi \ -ery Alp." — Milton: P. L., B. ii, 1. 618. 
" Rejoice | ye na | -tions, vin | -dicate | the sway 
Ordain'd | for com j -mon hap j -piness. j "Wide, o'er 
The globe | terra | -queous, let j Britan | -nia pour 

The fruits | of plen | -ty from | her co j -pious horn" — Dyer: Fleece, B. iv, 1. 658. 
"Myriads | of souls | that knew | one pa | -rent mold, 
See sad | -ly sev | er'd by | the laws | of chance 1 
Myriads, | in time's | peren j -nial list | enroll'd, 

Forbid | by fate | to change | one tran | -stent glance /" 

Shenstone: British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 109. 
(3.) In plays, and light or humorous descriptions, the last foot of an iambic line is often varied 
or followed by an additional short syllable ; and, sometimes, in verses of triple rhyme, there is an 
addition of two short syllables, after the principal rhyming syllable. Some prosodists call the 
variant foot, in the former instance, an amphibrach, and would probably, in the latter, suppose 
either an additional pyrrhic, or an amphibrach with still a surplus syllable ; but others scan, in 
these cases, by the iambus only, calling what remains after the last long syllable hypermeter ; and 
this is, I think, the better way. The following examples show these and some other variations 
from pure iambic measure : — 

Example I. — Grief. 

11 Each sub J stance of | a grief | hath twen | -ty shadows, 
Which show | like grief j itself, | but are | not so : 
For sor | -row's eye, | glazed j with blind | -ing tears, 
Divides | one thing | entire | to man | -y objects ; 
Like per j -spectives, | which, right j -ly gaz'd | upon, 
Show noth j -ing but | confu | -sion ; ey'd | awry, 
Distin | -guish form : } so your j sweet maj J -esty, 



Looking | awry | upon 
Finds shapes | of grief, 



your lord's | departure, 

more than | himself | to wail ; 

Which, look'd | on as | it is, | is nought | but shadows." 

Shakspeare : Richard II, Act ii, Sc. 2. 
Example II. — A Wish to Please. 
11 0, that J I had ] the art j of eas } -y writing 

What should | be eas J -y read | -ing ! could | I scale 
Parnas j -sus, where | the Mus { -es sit | inditing 

Those pret } -ty po j -ems nev J -er known j to fail, 
How quick j -ly would J I print | (the world | delighting) 

A Gre | -cian, Syr j -ian, or | Assy | -ian tale ; 
And sell j you, mix'd j with west j -ern sen | -timentalism, 
Some sam f -pies of j the fin j -est | -vientalism." 

Lord Byron : Beppo, Stanza XLVIIL 

MEASURE V.— IAMBIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER. 
Example I. — Presidents of the United States of America. 



" First stands J the loft | -y Wash | -ington, 
That no j -ble, great, | immor j -tal one ; 
The eld [ -er Ad | -ams next | we see ; 
And Jef | -ferson | comes num J -ber three 
Then Mad | -ison j is fourth, J you know ; 
The fifth j one on | the list, | Monroe ; 
The sixth j an Ad J -ams comes | again ; 



And Jack | -son, sev j -enth in j the train ; 
Van Bu J -ren, eighth | upon | the line ; 
And Har J -rison J counts num | -ber nine ; 
The tenth j is Ty | -ler, in J his turn ; 
And Polk, j elev J -enth, as | we learn ; 
The twelfth | is Tay | -lor, peo | -pie say ; 
The next j we learn | some fu | -ture day." 
Anonymous : From Newspaper, 1849. 
Example II. — The Shepherd Bard. 



" The bard | on Ett 
In Na | -ture's bo 



-rick's moun I -tain green 

-som nursed f had been, 
And oft J had marked | in for | -est lone 
Her beau j -ties on J her moun | -tain throne ; 
Had seen | her deck J the wild | -wood tree, 
And star J with snow j -y gems | the lea ; 
In love | -llest col | -ours paint | the plain, 
And sow | the moor | with pur | -pie grain; 
By gold } -en mead | and moun | -tain sheer, 
Had viewed ] the Ett | -rick wav | -ing clear, 
Where shad | -owij flocks \ of pur | -est snow 
Seemed graz ] -ing in J a world | below." 

James Hogg: The Queers Wake, p. 76. 



856 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



Example III. — Two Stanzas from Eighteen, Addressed to the Ettrich Shepherd. 



The Gift | of God | distrust | no more, 
His in | -spira | -tion be | thy guide ; 
Be heard | thy harp | from shore | to shore, 
Thy song's | reward | thy coun | -try's 
pride." 
B. Barton : Verses prefixed to the Queen's Wake. 

Example IV. — " Elegiac Stanzas, 1 ' in Iambics of Four feet and Three. 



" Shep | -herd ! since | 'tis thine | to boast 
The fas | -cinat | -ing pow'rs | of song, 
Far, far j above | the count | -less host, 
Who swell | the Mus | -es' sup | -pliant 
throng, 



" for f a dirge ! | But why | complain ? 
Ask rath | -er a | trium | -phal strain 

"When Fer | mor's race | is run ; 
A gar | -land of | immor | -tal boughs 
To bind | around | the Chris | -tian's brows, 
Whose glo I -rious work I is done. 



We pay | a high | and ho | -ly debt ; 
No tears | of pas | -sionate | regret 

Shall stain | this vo | -tive lay ; 
Ill-wor | -thy, Beau | -mont ! were | the grief 
That flings | itself | on wild | relief 

When Saints | have passed | away." 



W. Wordsworth: Poetical Works, First complete Amer. Ed., p. 208. 
This line, the iambic tetrameter, is a favourite one, with many writers of English verse, and has 
been much used, both in couplets and in stanzas. Butler's Hudibras, Gay's Fables, and many 
allegories, most of Scott's poetical works, and some of Byron's, are written in couplets of this meas- 
ure. It is liable to the same diversifications as the preceding metre. The frequent admission of 
an additional short syllable, forming double rhyme, seems admirably to adapt it to a familiar, hu- 
morous, or burlesque style. The following may suffice for an example : — 
" First, this | large par | -eel brings | you tidings 
Of our | good Dean's | eter | -nal chidings ; 
Of Nel | -ly's pert | -ness, Rob | -in's leasings, 
And Sher | -idan's | perpet | -ual teasings. 
This box j is cramm'd J on ev | -ery side 
With Stel | -la's mag | -iste | -rial pride." 

Dean Swift : British Poets, Yol. v, p. 334. 
The following lines have ten syllables in each, yet the measure is not iambic of five feet, but that 
of four with hypermeter : — 

" There was | an an | -cient sage | philosopher, 

Who had | read Al | -exan | -der Boss over." — Butler's Hudibras. 
" I'll make | them serve | for per | -ipendiculars, 
As true | as e'er | were us'd | by bricklayers." — lb., Part ii, C. hi, 1. 1020. 



MEASURE VI 



-IAMBIC OF THREE FEET, 
Example. — To Evening. 



OR TRIMETER. 



" Now teach | me, maid compos'd, 
To breathe | some soft -en'd strain." — Collins, p. 39. 
This short measure has seldom, if ever, been used alone in many successive couplets ; but it 
is often found in stanzas, sometimes without other lengths, but most commonly with them. The 
following are a few examples : — 

Example I. — Two ancient Stanzas, out of Many, 



" This while | we are [ abroad, 

Shall we ( not touch | our lyre ? 

Shall we j not sing [ an ode ? 
Shall now | that ho | -ly fire, 

In us, | that strong I -ly glow'd, 
In this [ cold air, [ expire ? 



Though in the ut | -most peak, 
A while we do | remain, 

Amongst | the moun | -tains bleak, 
Expos'd | to sleet | and rain, 

No sport | our hours j shall break, 
To ex | -ercise | our vein." 



Drayton : Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 13 ; John Burn's, p. 244. 



Example II- 
" For us | the zeph | -yr blows, 
For us | distils | the dew, 
For us [ unfolds | the rose, 

And flow'rs | display J their hue ; 

Example III. — u Mene. 
" The king I was on | his throne, 

The sa [ -traps thronged | the hall; 
A thou | .-sand bright | lamps shone 

O'er that | high fes | -tival. 
A thou | -sand cups | of gold, 

In Ju \ -dah deemed | divine — 
Jeho | -vah's ves | -sels, hold 

The god | -less Hea [ -then's wine 1 



-Acts and Galatea. 

For us | the win | -ters rain, 

For us | the sum | -mers shine, 
Spring swells | for us | the grain, 
And au | -tumn bleeds | the vine." 
John Gay: British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 376. 

Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" 

In that | same hour | and hall, 

The fin | -gers of | a hand 
Came forth f against | the wall, 

And wrote | as if | on sand : 
The fin | -gers of | a man, — 

A sol | -ita | -ry hand 
Along | the let | -ters ran, 

And traced | them like | a wand." 
Lord Byron : Vision of Belshazzar. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER I. — IAMBICS. 



857 



Example IV- 
u Descend, | celes | -tial fire, 
And seize | me from | above, 
Melt me | in flames | of pure | desire, 
A sac | -rifice | to love. 

Example V— 

" I would | begin | the mu | -sic here, 
" And so | my soul | should rise : 
for | some heav'n | -ly notes | to bear 
My spir | -it to | the skies ! 



" The hur | -ricane 
Along I the In 
And far, f by Gan 
Is heard I the ti 



Example VI— 
hath might 
-dian shore, 
I -ges' banks | at night, 
J -ger's roar. 



Lyric Stanzas. 

Let joy | and wor | -ship spend 
The rem | -nant of | my days, 
And to | my God, | my soul | ascend, 

In sweet | perfumes | of praise." 
Watts : Poems sacred to Devotion, p. 50. 
Lyric Stanzas. 

There, ye | that love | my sav | -iour, sit, 

There I | would fain | have place 
Amongst | your thrones | or at | your feet, 
So I | might see | his face." 
"Watts: Same work, " Horoz Lyricce," p. 71. 
England s Dead. 



But let | the sound 

It hath 
For those 
— There slum 
Hemans : 



roll on ! 

no tone of dread 

that from | their toils | are gone ; 
-ber Eng | -land's dead." 
Poetical Works, Vol. ii, p. 61. 



The following examples have some of the common diversifications already noticed under the 
longer measures : — 

Example I — " Languedocian Air.' 1 



" Love is | a hunt | -er boy, 

"Who makes | young hearts | his prey ; 
And in | his nets | of joy 

Ensnares | them night | and day. 

In vain | coneeal'd [ they lie, 



Love tracks 
In vain | aloft 
Love shoots 



them ev' | -ry where ; 

they fly, 

them fly | -ing there. 



But 'tis | his joy | most sweet, 
At earl I -y dawn | to trace 

The print f of Beau | -ty's feet, 
And give | the trem I -bier chase. 



And most | he loves | through snow 
To track | those foot | -steps fair, 
For then | the boy | doth know, 
None track'd | before | him there." 
Moore's Melodies and National Airs, p. 274. 
Example II — From " a Portuguese AirT 



" Flow on, | thou shin | -ing river, 
But ere | thou reach | the sea, 
Seek El | -la's bower, | and give her 
The wreaths | I fling | o'er thee. 



But, if | in wand' | -ring thither, 

Thou find | she mocks | my pray'r, 
Then leave | those wreaths | to wither 
Upon | the cold | bank there." 

Moore : Same Volume, p. 261. 
Example III — Resignation. 



" Res | -igna | -tion ! yet | unsung, 
Untouch'd | by for | -mer strains ; 
Though claim | -ing ev | -ery mu | -se's smile, 
And ev | -ery po | -et's pains ! 



" There was | a man 
Whose name | was Dan, 



Who sel 
His part 
He thus 
Without 



My love 

Thou art 

Of all | my joys ; 

Without | thee, I 

Should sure | -ly die 

For want I of noise. 



MEASURE VII.— IAMBIC OF 

Example. — A Scolding Wife. 
3. 
0, prec | -ious one, 
Let thy | tongue run 
In a | sweet fret ; 
And this | will give 
A chance | to live, 
A long | time yet. 

4. 
When thou | dost scold 
So loud | and bold, 
I'm kept | awake ; 
But if | thou leave, 
It will I me grieve, 



All oth j -er du | -ties cres | -cents are 

Of vir | -tue faint j -ly bright ; 
The g:lo j -rious con j -summa | -tion. thou, 
Which fills | her orb | with light!" 

Young: British Poets, Vol. viii, p. 377. 
TWO FEET, OR DIMETER. 



-dom spoke; 
-ner sweet 
did greet, 
a joke : 

2. 

-ly wife, 

the life 



5. 

Then said | his wife, 
I'll have | no strife 
With you, j sweet Dan ; 
As 'tis | your mind, 
I'll let | you find 
I am | your man. 

6. 
And fret | I will 
To keep | you still 
Enjoy | -ing life ; 
So you | may be 
Content | with me, 
A scold | -ing wife." 



Till life | forsake. 

Anonymous: Cincinnati Herald, 1844. 
Iambic dimeter, like the metre of three iambs, is much less frequently used alone than in 
stanzas with longer lines; but the preceding example is a refutation of the idea, that no piece is 
ever composed wholly of this measure, or that the two feet cannot constitute a line. In Humphrey's 
English Prosody, on page 16th, is the following paragraph; which is not only defective in style, 
but erroneous in all its averments : — 

" Poems are never composed of lines of two [-] feet metre, in succession: they [combinations 
of two feet] are only used occasionally in poems, hymns, odes, &c. to diversify the metre; and 



858 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



are, in no case, lines of poetry, or verses; but hemistics, [hemistichs,'] or half lines. The shortest 
metre of which iambic verse is composed, in lines successively, is that of three feet; and this is 
the shortest metre which can be denominated lines, or verses; and this is not frequently used." 

In ballads, ditties, hymns, and versified psalms, scarcely any line is more common than the iam- 
bic trimeter, here denied to be "frequently used;" of which species, there are about seventy lines 
among the examples above. Dr. Young's poem entitled "Resignation," has eight hundred and 
twentj' such lines, and as many more of iambic tetrameter. His " Ocean" has one hundred and 
forty-five of the latter, and two hundred and ninety-two of the species now under consideration ; 
i. e., iambic dimeter. But how can the metre which predominates by two to one, be called, in 
such a case, an occasional diversification of that which is less frequent ? 

Lines of two iambs are not very uncommon, even in psalmody ; and, since we have some lines 
yet shorter, and the lengths of all are determined only by the act of measuring, there is, surely, no 
propriety in calling dimeters "hemistichs," merely because they are short. The following are 
some examples of this measure combined with longer ones : — 



Example I. — From 
1, 2. 

11 Te bound | -less realms | of joy, 
Exalt | your Ma | -ker's fame ; 
His praise | your songs | employ 
Above | the star | -ry frame : 

Your voi | -ces raise, 
Ye Cher -ubim, 
And Ser -aphim, 
To sing | his praise. 

The Book 

Example II. — From Psalm CXXXVI. 
" To God | the might | -y Lord, 
your joy | -ful thanks | repeat ; 
To him | due praise | afford, 
as good | as he | is great : 
For God | does prove 
Our con | -stant friend, 
His bound | -less love 
Shall nev | -er end."— lb., p. 164. 



Psalm C XL VIII. 

3, 4. 
Thou moon, | that rul'st | the night, 
And sun, | that guid'st | the day, 
Ye glitt' | -ring stars | of light, 
To him | your hom | -age pay : 

His praise | declare, 
Ye heavens | above, 
And clouds | that move 
In liq | -uid air." 
of Psalms in Metre, {with Com. Prayer,) 1819. 

Example III. — Gloria Patri. 
" To God | the Fa | -ther, Son, 
And Spir | -it ev | -er bless'd, 
Eter | -nal Three | in One, 
All wor | -ship be | address'd ; 
As here | -tofore 
It was, | is now, 
And shall | be so 

For ev | -ermore." — lb., p. IT 9. 



Example IV. 

[0] "Lord, | how man | -y are | my foes! 

How man | -y those 
That [now] | in arms | against | me rise ! 

Many | are they 
That of | my life | distrust j -fully | thus say: 
'No help | for him | in God | there lies.' 

Milton 



Part of Psalm III. 

But thou, | Lord, art | my shield | my glory ; 

Thee, through | my story, 
Th' exalt | -er of | my head | I count ; 

Aloud | I cried 
Unto | Jeho | -vah, he | full soon | replied, 
And heard | me from | his ho | -ly mount." 
Psalms Versified, British Poets, Vol. ii, p. 161. 

Example V. — Six Lines of an "Air." 



" As when | the dove 
Laments I her love 



All on | the na | -ked spray ; 



Gold pleas 

But pleas | 
Too soon | the gross 

Though rapt 

The sense | is short, 
But vir I -tue kin I -dies liv 



When he | returns, 
No more | she mourns, 
But loves | the live | -long day." 
John Gay: British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 377. 

Example VI. — Four Stanzas of an Ode. 
xxviii. xxx. 

ure buys ; The soul | refin'd 

ure dies. Is most | inclin'd 

To ev | -en) mor | -al ex | -cellence; 
All vice I is dull, 



fruiti | -on cloys : 
-ures court, 



-mg joys 



XXIX. 

Joys felt | alone ! 

Joys ask'd | of none ! 
"Which Time's | and For | -tune's ar | -rows miss; 

Joys that | subsist, 

Though fates | resist, 
An un | -preca | -rious, end | -less bliss ! 



A knave's | a fool ; 
And Vir | -tue is | the child | of Sense. 

XXXI. 

The vir | -tuous mind 
Nor wave, | nor wind, 

Nor civ | -il rage, | nor ty | -rant's frown, 
The shak | -en ball, 
Nor plan | -ets' fall, 

From its I firm ba I -sis can I dethrone." 



Young's "Oc an:" British Poets, Vol. viii, p 211. 
There is a line of five syllables and double rhyme, which is commonly regarded as iambic di- 
meter with a supernumerary short syllable ; and which, though it is susceptible of two other divi- 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER I. — IAMBICS. 



859 



sions into two feet, we prefer to scan in this manner, because it usually alternates with pure 
iambics. Twelve such lines occur in the following extract : — 



" Could Love | for ever 
Eun like | a river, 
And Time's | endeavour 

Be tried | in vain, — 
No oth | -er pleasure 
With this | could measwre ; 
And like | a treasure 
We'd hug | the chain. 



Love Teansitoky. 



But since | our sighing 
Ends not | in dying, 
And, formed | for Hying, 

Love plumes | his wing; 
Then for | this reason 
Let's love | a season ; 
But let | that seasow 

Be on | -ly spring." 



Lord Byron : See Everett 1 s Versification, p. 19 ; Fowler's E. Gram., p. 650. 

MEASURE VIII.— IAMBIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER. 
"The shortest form of the English Iambic," says Lindley Murray, "consists of an Iambuff 
with an additional short syllable : as, 

Disdaining, Consenting, 

Complaining, Repenting. 

We have no poem of this measure, but it may be met with in stanzas. The Iambus, with this 
addition, coincides with the Amphibrach." — Murray's Gram., 12mo, p. 204; 8vo, p. 254. This, 
or the substance of it, has been repeated by many other authors. Everett varies the language 
and illustration, but teaches the same doctrine. See E. Vers?/., p. 15. 

Now there are sundry examples which may be cited to show, that the iambus, without any 
additional syllable, and without the liability of being confounded with an other foot, may, and 
sometimes does, stand as a line, and sustain a regular rhyme. The following pieces contain 
instances of this sort : — 

Example I. — " How to Keep Lent." 



"Is this | a Fast, j to keep 
The lard | -er lean 
And clean 
From fat | of neats | and sheep? 

Is it | to quit | the dish 
Of flesh, | yet still 
To fill 
The plat | -ter high | with fish? 

Is it | to fast | an hour, 
Or ragg'd | to go, 
Or show 
A down I -cast look I and sour ? 



No :— 'Tis | a Fast | to dole 
Thy sheaf | of wheat, 
And meat, 
Unto | the hun | -gry soul. 

It is | to fast | from strife, 
From old | debate, 
And hate ; 
To cir | -cumcise | thy life ; 

To show | a heart | grief-rent ; 
To starve j thy sin, 
Not bin: 
Ay, that's J to keep | thy Lent." 
Robert Herrick : Glapp's Pioneer, p. 48. 



Example II. — " To Mary Ann." 

[This singular arrangement of seventy-two separate iambic feet, I find without intermediate 
points, and leave it so. It seems intended to be read in three or more different ways, and the 
punctuation required by one mode of reading would not wholly suit an other.] 

" Your face Your tongue Your wit 

So fair So sweet So sharp 

First bent Then drew Then hit 

Mine eye Mine ear Mine heart 



Mine eye 

To like 
Your face 

Doth lead 

Your face 

With beams 
Doth blind 

Mine eye 

Mine eye 

With life 
Your face 

Doth feed 

face 

With frowns 
Wrong not 

Mine eye 



Mine ear 
To learn 

Your tongue 
Doth teach 

Your tongue 
With sound 

Doth charm 
Mine ear 

Mine ear 

With hope 
Your tongue 

Doth feast 

tongue 

With check 
Vex not 

Mine ear 



Mine heart 

To love 
Your wit 

Doth move 

Your wit 
With art 

Doth rule 
Mine heart 

Mine heart 
With skill 

Your wit 
Doth fill 

wit 

With smart 
Wound not 

Mine heart 



860 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



This eye 
Shall joy 

Tour face 
To serve 



This ear This heart 

Shall bend Shall swear 

Your tongue Your wit 

To trust To fear." 

Anonymous: Sundry American Newspapers, in 1849. 



Example III. — Umbrellas. 
" The late George Canning, of whom Byron said that ' it was his happiness to be at once a wit, 
poet, orator, and statesman, and excellent in all,' is the author of the following clever jeu d esprit:''' 1 
[except three lines here added in brackets :] 



" I saw | a man | with two | umbrellas, 
(One of | the Ion | -gest kind | of fellows,) 
"When it rained. 
Meet a lady 
On the shady 
Side of thirty J -three, 
Minus | one of | these rain | -dispellers. 
'I see,' 
Says she, 
' Your qual | -ity ] of mer | -cy is | not strain 
ed. 



an inkling, 

hu I -mour twink- 



I. SPRING. 

" The cuck | -oo then, | on ev | -ery tree, 
Mocks mar | -ried men, | for thus | sings he, 
Cuckoo'; 
cuckoo', — | word | of fear, 
•in°r to I a mar I -ried ear!" 



[Not slow | to comprehend 
His eye | with wag | -gish 

ling,] 

Replied | he, 'Ma'am, 

Be calm ; 
This one | under ] my arm 
Is rotten, 
[And can | -not save | you from | a sprinkling.] 

Besides, j to keep | you dry, 
'Tis plain | that you | as well | as I, 

' Can lift | your cotton.' " 
See The Essex County Freeman, Yol. i, No. 1. 

Example IV. — Shreds of a Song. 

II. WINTER. 

" When blood | is nipp'd, | and ways 



Cuckoo', 
Unpleas 



Then night 



be foul, 
-ing owl, 



-ly sings | the star 
To-who ; 
To- whit, | to-who, | a mer | -ry note, 
While greas | -y Joan | doth keel | the pot." 
Shakspeare : Love's Labour 's Lost, Act v, Sc. 2. 

Example V. — Puck's Charm. 

[When he has uttered the fifth line, he squeezes a juice on Lysander's eyes.'] 



" On the ground, 
Sleep sound : 
I'll apply 
To your eye, 
Gentle | lover, | remedy. 



Idem 



When thou wak'st, 

Thou tak'st 
True delight 
In the sight 
Of thy | former | lady's eye."* 
Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act hi, Sc. 2. 



ORDER IT.— TROCHAIC VERSE. 

In Trochaic verse, the stress is laid on the odd syllables, and the even ones are 
short. Single-rhymed trochaic omits the final short syllable, that it may end with a 
long one ; for the common doctrine of Murray, Chandler, Churchill, Bullions, Butler, 
Everett, Fowler, Weld, Wells, Mulligan, and others, that this chief rhyming syllable 
is •' additional to the real number of feet in the line, is manifestly incorrect. One 
long syllable is, in some instances, used as afoot ; but it is one or more short sylla- 
bles only, that we can properly admit as hypermeter. Iambics and trochaics often 
occur in the same poem ; but, in either order, written with exactness, the number of 
feet is always the number of the long syllables. 



Examples from Gray's Bard. 



" Weave the 
The wind 
Give am | 
The char | 
Mark the \ 
When Sev | -em 
affright." 



"Ruin | seize thee, \ ruthless king! 
Confu | -sion on | thy ban -ners wait, 
Though, fann'd | by Con | -quest's crim | -son 

wing, 
They mock | the air | with, i | -die state. 
Helm, nor \ hauberk's \ twisted \ mail, 
Nor e'en | thy vir | -tues, ty | -rant, shall | 
avail. 

11 The Bard, a Pindaric Ode:" British Poets, Yol. vii, p. 281 and 282. 

OBSERVATION'S. 
Obs. 1. — Trochaic verse without the final short syllable, is the same as iambic would be with- 
out the initial short syllable ; — it being quite plain, that iambic, so changed, becomes trochaic, and 

* These versicles, except the two which are Italicized, are not iambic. The others are partly trochaic ; and, 
according to many of our prosodists, wholly so ; but it is questionable whether they are not as properly amphi- 
raacric, or Cretic. 



(2.) 
J warp, and \ weave the \ woof, 
-ing-sheet | of Ed | -ward's race, 
■pie room, | and verge | enough, 
-acters | of hell | to trace. 
year, and | mark the | night, 

shall I re-ech | -o with I 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER II. — TROCHAICS. 861 

is iambic no longer. But trochaic, retrenched of its last short syllable, is trochaic still ; and can 
no otherwise be made iambic, than by the prefixing of a short syllable to the line. Feet, and the 
orders of verse, are distinguished one from an other by two things, and in general by two only ; 
the number of syllables taken as a foot, and the order of their quantities. Trochaic verse is al- 
ways as distinguishable from iambic, as iambic is from any other. Yet have we several gramma- 
rians and prosodists who contrive to confound them — or who, at least, mistake catalectic trochaic 
for catalectic iambic ; and that too, where the syllable wanting affects only the last foot, and makes 
it perhaps but a common and needful cassura. 

Obs. 2. — To suppose that iambic verse may drop its initial short sjdlable, and still be iambic, 
still be measured as before, is not only to take a single long syllable for a foot, not only to recog- 
nize a pedal caesura at the beginning of each line, but utterly to destroy the only principles on 
which iambics and trochaics can be discriminated. Y'et Hiley, of Leeds, and Wells, of Andover, 
while they are careful to treat separately of these two orders of verse, not only teach that any order 
may take at the end "an additional syllable," but also suggest that the iambic may drop a sylla- 
ble "from the first foot," without diminishing the number of feet. — without changing the succes- 
sion of quantities, — without disturbing the mode of scansion I "Sometimes," say they, (in treat- 
ing of iambics,) " a syllable is cut off from the first foot ; as, 
Praise | to God, | immor | -tal praise, 
For | the love | that crowns | our days."[ — Barbatjld.] 
Hiley's E. Gram., Third Edition, London, p. 124; Wells's, Third Edition, p. 198. 
Obs. 3. — Now this couplet is the precise exemplar, not only of the thirty-six lines of which it 
is a part, but also of the most common of our trochaic metres ; and if this may be thus scanned 
into iambic verse, so may all other trochaic lines in existence : distinction between the two orders 
must then be worse than useless. But I reject this doctrine, and trust that most readers will 
easily see its absurdity. A prosodist might just as well scan all iambics into trochaics, by pro- 
nouncing each initial short syllable to be liypermeter. For, surely, if deficiency may be discovered 
at the beginning of measurement, so may redundance. But if neither is to be looked for before 
the measurement ends, (which supposition is certainly more reasonable,) then is the distinction 
already vindicated, and the scansion above-cited is shown to be erroneous. 

Obs. 4. — But there are yet other objections to this doctrine, other errors and inconsistencies in 
the teaching of it. Exactly the same kind of verse as this, which is said to consist of "four iam- 
buses" from one of which " a syllable is cut off" is subsequently scanned by the same authors as 
being composed of " three trochees and an additional syllable ; as, 

' Haste thee, | Nymph, and | bring with | thee 
Jest and | youthful | Jolli | -ty.' — Milton." 

Wells's School Grammar, p. 200. 
" Vital | spark of | heav'nly | flame, 
Quit oh | quit this | mortal | /rdme."*f — Pope.] 

Udey's English Grammar, p. 126. 
There is, in the works here cited, not only the inconsistency of teaching two very different modes 
of scanning the same species of verse, but in each instance the scansion is wrong ; for all the lines 
in question are trochaic of four feet, — single-rhymed, and, of course, catalectic, and ending with a 
cresura, or elision. In no metre that lacks but one syllable, can this sort of foot occur at the be- 
ginning of a line ; yet, as we see, it is sometimes imagined to be there, by those who have never 
been able to find it at the end, where it oftenest exists ! 

Obs. 5. — I have hinted, in the main paragraph above, that it is a common error of our proso- 
dists, to underrate, by one foot, the measure of all trochaic lines, when they terminate with single 
rhyme ; an error into which they are led by an other as gross, that of taking for hypermeter, or 
mere surplus, the whole rhyme itself, the sound or syllable most indispensable to the verse. 
' ' (For rhyme the rudder is of verses, 
With which, like ships, they steer their courses.)" — Hudibras. 

Iambics and trochaics, of corresponding metres, and exact in them, agree of course in both the 
number of feet and the number of syllables ; but as the former are slightly redundant with double 
rhyme, so the latter are deficient as much, with single rhyme ; yet, the number of feet may, and 
should, in these cases, be reckoned the same. An estimable author now living says, " Trochaic 
verse, with an additional long syllable, is the same as iambic verse, without the initial short syll- 
able." — N. Butler's Practical Gram., p. 193. This instruction is not quite accurate. Nor would 
it be right, even if there could be " iambic verse without the initial short syllable," and if it 
were universally true, that, " Trochaic verse may take an additional long syllable." — Ibid. For 
the addition and subtraction here suggested, will inevitably make the difference of a foot, between 
the measures or verses said to be the same ! 

Obs. 6. — "I doubt," says T. 0. Churchill, "whether the trochaic can be considered as a legiti- 
mate English measure. All the examples of it given by Johnson have an additional long syllable 
at the end : but these are iambics, if we look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning, 
which is much more agreeable to the analogy of music. 11 — Churchill's New Gram., p. 390. This 
doubt, ridiculous as must be all reasoning in support of it, the author seriously endeavours to raise 
into a general conviction that we have no trochaic order of verse! It can hardly be worth while to 
notice here all his remarks. "An additional long syllable" Johnson never dreamed of — " at the 
* See exercises in Punctuation, on page TS6, of this work. — G. B. 



862 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

end" — "at the beginning" — or anywhere else. For he discriminated metres, not by the number 
of feet, as he ought to have done, but by the number of syllables he found in each line. His doc- 
trine is this: "Our iambick measure comprises verses — Of four syllables, — Of six, — Of eight, — Of 
ten. Our trochaick measures are — Of three syllables, — Of five, — Of seven. These are the meas- 
ures which are now in use, and above the rest those of seven, eight and ten syllables. Our ancient 
poets wrote verses sometimes of twelve syllables, as Drayton's Polyolbion ; and of fourteen, as 
Chapman's Homer." " "We have another measure very quick and lively, and therefore much used 
in songs, which may be called the anapestick. 

' May I govern my passion with absolute sway, 
And grow wiser and better as life wears away.' Dr. Pope. 

" In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, [;] as [,] 
1 When present we love, and when absent agree, 
I think not of I'ris [,] nor I'ris of mV Dryden. 
" These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by double endings, either with 
or without rhyme, as in the heroick measure. 

1 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us, 
'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter.'' Addison. 
" So in that of eight syllables, 

1 They neither added nor confounded, 
They neither wanted nor abounded.' Prior. 
" In that of seven, 

1 For resistance I could fear none, 

But with twenty ships had done, 
"What thou, brave and happy Vernon, 
Hast achieved with six alone.' Glover. 

" To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse." — Dr. John- 
son's Grammar of the English Tongue, p. 14. See his Quarto Did. Here, except a few less important 
remarks, and sundry examples of the metres named, is Johnson's whole scheme of versification. 

Obs. 7. — How, when a prosodist judges certain examples to " have an additional long syllable 
at the end," he can "look upon the additional syllable to be at the beginning," is a matter of 
marvel ; yet, to abolish trochaics, Churchill not only does and advises this, but imagines short syl- 
lables removed sometimes from the beginning of lines ; while sometimes he couples final short 
syllables with initial long ones, to make iambs, and yet does not always count these as feet in the 
verse, when he has done so 1 Johnson's instructions are both misunderstood and misrepresented 
by this grammarian. I have therefore cited them the more fully. The first syllable being re- 
trenched from an anapest, there remains an iambus. But what countenance has Johnson lent to 
the gross error of reckoning such a foot an anapest still ? — or to that of commencing the meas- 
urement of a line by including a syllable not used by the poet ? The preceding ttanza from 
Glover, is trochaic of four feet; the odd lines full, and of course making double rhyme; the even 
lines catalectic, and of course ending with a long syllable counted as a foot. Johnson cited it 
merely as an example of " double endings," imagining in it no " additional syllable," except perhaps 
the two which terminate the two trochees, "fear none "and "Vernon." These, it may be in- 
ferred, he improperly conceived to be additional to the regular measure ; because he reckoned 
measures by the number of syllables, and probably supposed single rhyme to be the normal form 
of all rhyming verse. 

Obs. 8. — There is false scansion in many a school grammar, but perhaps none more uncouthly 
false, than Churchill's pretended amendments of Johnson's. The second of these — wherein "the 
old seven\f\foot iambic" is professedly found in two lines of Glover's trochaic tetrameter — I shall 
quote : — 

"In the anapaestic measure, Johnson himself allows, that a s}dlable is often retrenched from the 
first foot ; yet he gives as an example of trochaics with an additional syllable at the end of the even 
lines a stanza, which, by adopting the same principle, would be in the iambic measure : 
For | resis- | tance I | could fear | none, 
But | with twen | ty ships | had done, 
v "What | thou, brave | and hap | py Ver- | non, 
Hast | achiev'd | with six | alone. 
In fact, the second and fourth lines here stamp the character of the measure; [|^"] which is the old 
seven[-]foot iambic broken into four and three, with an additional syllable at the beginning." 
— Churchill's New Gram., p. 391. 

After these observations and criticisms concerning the trochaic order of verse, I 
proceed to say, trochaics consist of the following measures, or metres : — 

MEASURE I.— TROCHAIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER. 
Example I. — "The Raven." — First Two out of Eighteen Stanzas. 

1. 
" Once up | -on a | midnight | dreary, | while I | pondered, | weak and | weary, 
Over | many a j quaint and | curious | volume | of for | -gotten | lore, 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER II. — TROCHAICS. 863 



While I | nodded, | nearly | napping, | sudden | -ly there | came a [ tapping, 
As of | some one | gently | rapping, | rapping | at my | chamber | door. 

muttered, | ' tapping | at my | chamber | door — 

this, and I nothing | more. ' 



"Tis some | visit | -or,' I 
Only 



2. 
Ah ! dis | -tinctly | I re | -member | it was | in the | bleak De | -cember, 
And each | separate | dying | ember | wrought its | ghost up | -on the | floor ; 
Eager | -ly I | wished the | morrow ; — | vainly | had I | tried to | borrow 
From my | books sur | -cease of j sorrow — [ sorrow j for the | lost Le | -nore — 
For the | rare and | radiant | maiden, | whom the j angels | name Le | -nore — 
Nameless | here for | ever | -more." 

Edgar A. Poe: American Review for February, 1845. 

Double rhymes being less common than single ones, in the same proportion, is this long verse 
less frequently terminated with a full trochee, than with a single long syllable counted as a foot. 
The species of measure is, however, to be reckoned the same, though catalectic. By Lindley Mur- 
ray, and a number who implicitly re-utter what he teaches, the verse of six trochees, in which are 
twelve syllables only, is said "to be the longest Trochaic line that our language admits." — Murray's 
Octavo Gram., p. 257 ; Weld's E. Gram., p. 211. The examples produced here will sufficiently 
show the inaccuracy of their assertion. 

Example II. — u The Shadow of the Obelisk." — Last two Stanzas. 

8. 
" Herds are | feeding in the | Forum, | as in | old E | -vander's | time : 
Tumbled | from the steep Tar | -peian \ every | pile that | sprang sub | -lime. 
Strange ! that what seemed | most in | -constant I should the | most a | -biding | prove ; 
Strange ! that what is | hourly j moving | no mu j -tation | can re | -move : 
Ruined | lies the | cirque ! the | chariots, | long a | -go, have | ceased to | roll — 
E'en the | Obe | -lisk is | broken | — but the | shadow | still is [ whole. 

9. 

Out a | -las ! if | mightiest \ empires | leave so | little | mark be | -hind, 
How much | less must | heroes | hope for, | in the | wreck of | human | kind ! 
Less than | e'en this | darksome | picture, | which I | tread be | -neath my | feet, 
Copied | by a | lifeless | moonbeam | on the | pebbles | of the | street ; 
Since if | Caesar's | best am | -bition, | living, | was, to | be re | -nowned, 
"What shall | Csesar | leave be | -hind him, | save the | shadow | of a | sound ?" 

T. W. Parsons : Lowell and Carter's " Pioneer," Vol. i, p. 120. 

Example III. — u The Slaves of Martinique." — Nine Couplets out of Tliirty-six. 

" Beams of | noon, like | burning | lances, | through the | tree-tops | flash and | glisten, 
As she | stands be | -fore her | lover, | with raised | face to | look and | listen. 

Dark, but | comely, [ like the | maiden | in the | ancient J Jewish | song, 
Scarcely | has the | toil of | task-fields | done her | graceful | beauty | wrong. 

He, the | strong one, | and the | manly, | with the | vassal's | garb and | hue, 
Holding | still his | spirit's | birthright, | to his J higher | nature | true ; 

Hiding | deep the | strengthening | purpose | of a J freeman | in his | heart, 
As the | G-reegree [ holds his | Fetish | from the | white man's | gaze a | -part. 

Ever | foremost | of the | toilers, | when the | driver's | morning | horn 
Calls a | -way to | stifling | millhouse, | or to | fields of | cane and | corn ; 

Fall the | keen and | burning | lashes | never j on his | back or | limb ; 
Scarce with | look or | word of | censure, | turns the | driver | unto | him. 

Yet his | brow is [ always | thoughtful, | and his | eye is | hard and | stern ; 
Slavery's | last and | humblest | lesson j he has | never | deigned to [ learn." 

"And, at evening | when his | comrades J dance be | -fore their | master's | door, 
Folding arms and [ knitting | forehead, | stands he | silent | ever | -more. 

God be | praised for | every | inetinct | which re | -bels a | -gainst a | lot 

Where the | brute sur | -vives the | liuman, | and man's | upright | form is | not !" 

J. G-. Whittier : National Era, and other Newspapers, Jan. 1848. 

Example IV. — u The Present Crisis." — Two Stanzas out of sixteen. 

" Once to | every | man and | nation | comes the | moment | to de | -cide, 
In the | strife of | Truth with | Falsehood, | for the | good or | evil | side ; 
Some great | cause, God's | new Mes | -siah, | offering | each the | bloom or | blight, 
Parts the | goats up | -on the | left hand, | and the | sheep up | -on the | right, 
And the | choice goes | by for | -ever | 'twixt that | darkness | and that | light. 



864 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



Have ye | chosen, | my | people, j on whose | party | ye shall | stand, 
Ere the | Doom from | its worn | sandals | shakes the | dust a | -gainst our | land ? 
Though the | cause of | evil | prosper, | yet the | Truth a | -lone is | strung, 
And, al | beit she | wander | outcast | now, I | see a | -round her | throng 
Troops of | beauti | -ful tall | angels | to en | -shield her | from all | wrong." 

James Russell Lowell : Liberator, September 4th, 1846. 



" In the 
In the 
In the 



Example V. — The Season of Love. — A short Extract. 
Spring, a | fuller | crimson | comes up | -on the | robin's j breast ; 
Spring, the | wanton | lapwing | gets him 
Spring, a 



In the Spring, a 

Then her | cheek was 
And her | eyes on | all my 
And I | said, ' My | cousin 
Trust me, I cousin, I all the 



livelier | iris | changes | on the 
young man's | fancy | lightly | 



| -self an | other | crest 
burnished J dove ; 
turns to I thoughts of ! 



love. 



pale, and | thinner | than should | be for | one so | young; 
motions, | with a | mute ob | -servance, | hung. 
Amy, | speak, and | speak the | truth to | mc ; 
current | of my | being | sets to | thee.' " 

Poems by Alfred Tennyson, Vol. ii, p. 35. 



Trochaic of eight feet, as these sundry examples will suggest, is much oftener met with than 
iambic of the same number ; and yet it is not a form very frequently adopted. The reader will 
observe that it requires a considerable pause after the fourth foot ; at which place one might 
divide it, and so reduce each couplet to a stanza of four lines, similar to the following exam- 
ples: — 

Part op a Song, in Dialogue. 



Sylvia. 
" Corin, | cease this | idle | teasing ; 

Love that's | forc'd is | harsh and | sour: 
If the | lover | be dis | -pleasing, 

To per | -sist dis | -gusts the | more." 

Corin. 
" 'Tis in | vain, in | vain to | fly me, 
Sylvia, | I will | still pur | -sue ; 
Twenty | thousand | times de | -ny me, 
I will | kneel and | weep a J -new." 



Sylvia. 
" Cupid | ne'er shall | make me | languish, 

I was | born a | -verse to | love ; 
Lovers' | sighs, and | tears, and | anguish, 
Mirth and | pastime | to me | prove." 

Corin. 
" Still I | vow with | patient | duty 

Thus to | meet your | proudest | scorn ; 
You for | unre I -lenting | beauty 

I for | constant | love was | born." 
Poems by Anna L^etitia Barbauld, p. 56. 



Part of a Charity Hymn. 



" Lord of j life, all | praise ex | -celling, 

thou, in | glory | uncon | -fin'd, 
Deign'st to | make thy | humble | dwelling 
with the | poor of | humble | mind. 

2. 
As thy | love, through | all ere I -ation, 

beams like | thy dif | -fusive | light ; 
So the | scorn'd and | humble | station 

shrinks be I -fore thine I equal | sight. 



3. 

Thus thy | care, for | all pro j -vicling, 

warm'd thy | faithful | prophet's | tongue ; 
"Who, the | lot of | all de | -ciding, 
to thy | chosen | Israel | sung: 

4. 
' When thine | harvest | yields thee | pleasure, 

thou the | golden | sheaf shalt | bind ; 
To the | poor be | -longs the | treasure 

of the | scatter'd I ears be I -hind.' " 



Psalms and Hymns of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Hymn LV. 

A still more common form is that which reduces all these tetrameters to single rhymes, pre- 
serving their alternate succession. In such metre and stanza, is Montgomery's "Wanderer of 
Switzerland, a Poem, in Six Parts," and with an aggregate of eight hundred and forty -four lines. 
Example : — 



" ' Wanderer, 
To what 
Bend thy | 
In the I 



| whither | wouldst thou 
| region J far a | -way, 
steps to j find a | home, 
twilight | of thy I day?' 



roam ? 



2. 
; In the j twilight | of my | day, 

I am | hastening | to the | west; 
There my | weary limbs | to lay, 
Where the | sun re | -tires to | rest. 

3. 
Far be | -yond the At | -lantic | floods, 

Stretched be | -neath the | evening | sky, 
Realms of | mountains, | dark with j woods, 

In Co J -lumbia's | bosom | lie. 



4. 

There, in | glens and | caverns j rude, 
Silent | since the | world be | -gan, 

Dwells the | virgin | Soli [ -tude, 
Unbe | -trayed by | faithless | man: 

5. 

Where a | tyrant | never [ trod, 

Where a | slave was | never [ known, 

But where | nature | worships | God 
In the | wilder | -ness a | -lone. 

6. 

Thither, | thither | would I | roam ; 
There my | children | may be | free : 

I for | them will | find a | home ; 

They shall | find a | grave for | me.' " 
First six stanzas of Part VI, pp. 71 and 72. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER II. — TROCHAICS. 865 

MEASURE II.— TROCHAIC OP SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER. 

Example. — Psalm LXX* Versified. 
Hasten, j Lord, to | rescue | me, and | set me | safe from | trouble ; 
Shame thou | those who | seek my | soul, re | -ward their | mischief | double. 
Turn the | taunting | scorners | back, who | cry, 'A | -ha!' so | loudly; 
Backward | in con | -fusion | hurl the | foe that | mocks me | proudly. 
Then in | thee let | those re \ -joice, who | seek thee, | self-de | -nying ; 
All who | thy sal | -vation | love, thy | name be | glory | -fying. 
So let | God be | magni | -lied. But | I am | poor and | needy : 
Hasten, | Lord, who | art my j Helper ; j let thine j aid be | speedy. 

This verse, like all other that is written in very long lines, requires a csesural pause of propor- 
tionate length ; and it would scarcely differ at all to the ear, if it were cut in two at the place of 
this pause — provided the place were never varied. Such metre does not appear to have been at 
any time much used, though there seems to be no positive reason why it might not have a share 
of popularity. To commend our versification for its "boundless variety," and at the same time 
exclude from it forms either unobjectionable or well authorized, as some have done, is plainly 
inconsistent. Pull trochaics have some inconvenience, because all their rhymes must be double ; 
and, as this inconvenience becomes twice as much when any long line of this sort is reduced to 
two short ones, there may be a reason why a stanza precisely corresponding to the foregoing 
couplets is seldom seen. If such lines be divided and rhymed at the middle of the fourth foot, 
where the csesural pause is apt to fall, the first part of each will be a trochaic line of four feet, 
single-rhymed and catalectic, while the rest of it will become an iambic line of three feet, with double 
rhyme and hypermeter. Such are the prosodial characteristics of the following lines ; which, if two 
were written as one, would make exactly our full trochaic of seven feet, the metre exhibited 
above : — 

" Whisp'ring, | heard by | wakeful | maids, 

To whom | the night | stars guide \ us, 
Stolen | walk, through | moonlight | shades, 

With those | we love | beside \ us." — Moore's Melodies, p. 276. 

But trochaic of seven feet may also terminate with single rhyme, as in the following couplet, 
which is given anonymously, and, after a false custom, erroneously, in N. Butler's recent Gram- 
mar, as "trochaic of six feet, with an additional long syllable: — 

" Night and | morning | were at | meeting | over | "Water | -loo ; 
Cocks had | sung their | earliest | greeting ; | faint and | low they | crew, "f 

In Frazee's Grammar, a separate line or two, similar in metre to these, and rightly reckoned to 
have seven feet, and many lines, (including those above from Tennyson, which W. C. Powler erro- 
neously gives for Heptameter,) being a foot longer, are presented as trochaics of eight feet ; but Ev- 
erett, the surest of our prosodists, remaining, like most others, a total stranger to our octometers, and 
too little acquainted with trochaic heptameters to believe the species genuine, on finding a couple 
of stanzas in which two such lines are set with shorter ones of different sorts, and with some 
which are defective in metre, sagely concludes that all lines of more than " six trochees" must 
necessarily be condemned as prosodial anomalies. It may be worth while to repeat the said stan- 
zas here, adding such corrections and marks as may suggest their proper form and scansion. But 
since they commence with the shorter metre of six trochees only, and are already placed under 
that head, I too may take them in the like connexion, by now introducing my third species of 
trochaics, which is Everett's tenth. 

MEASURE III.— TROCHAIC OP SIX PEET, OR HEXAMETER. 
Example. — Health. 



bounding | lightly ; 
with | richest | posies: 
smiling | sprighthly; 



"Up the | dewy | mountain, | Health is 

On her | brows a | garland, | twin'd 

Gay is | she, e | -late with | hope, and 

Redder | is her | cheek, and | sweeter | than the | rose is." 

G. Brown: The Institutes of English Grammar, p. 258. 

This metre appears to be no less rare than the preceding ; though, as in that case, I know no 
good reason why it may not be brought into vogue. Professor John S. Hart sa} r s of it: "This 
is the longest Trochaic verse that seems to have been cultivated." — Harts Eng. Gram., p. 187. The 
seeming of its cultivation he doubtless found only in sundry modern grammars. Johnson, Bick- 
nell, Bum, Coar, Ward, Adam, — old grammarians, who vainly profess to have illustrated "every 
species of English verse," — make no mention of it ; and, with all the grammarians who notice it, 
one anonymous couplet, passing from hand to hand, has everywhere served to exemplify it. 

Of this, "the line of six Trochees," Everett says: "This measure is languishing, and rarely 
used. The following example is often cited : — 

* The Seventieth Psalm is the same as the last five verses of the Fortieth, except a few unimportant differ- 
ences of words or points. 

t It is obvious, that these two lines may easily be reduced to an agreeable stanza, by simply dividing each after 
the fourth foot.— G. B. 

55 



866 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

1 On a | mountain, | stretched be | -neath a | hoary | willow, 
Lay a | shepherd | swain, and j view'd the | rolling | billow.' "* 

Again*. "We have the following from Bishop Heber: — 

' Holy, | holy | h51y I | all the | saints a [ -dore thee, 

Casting | down their | golden | crowns a j -round the | glassy | sea; 
Cherii | -bim and | sera | -phim [are,] | falling | down be | -lore thee, 
Which wert, | and art, | and ev | -ermore j shalt be 1 

Holy, | holy, | holy ! | though the | darkness | hide thee, 

Though the j eye of | sinful | man thy | glory | may not | see, 

Only | thou, [<9 | God,] art | holy; | there is | none be | -side thee, 
Perfect | in pow'r, | in love, | and pu J -rity.' 

Only the first and the third lines of these stanzas are to our purpose," remarks the prosodist. 
That is, only these he conceived to be " lines of six Trochees." But it is plain, that the third 
line of the first stanza, having seven long syllables, must have seven feet, and cannot be a trochaic 
hexameter ; and, since the third below should be like it in metre, one can hardly forbear to think 
the words which I have inserted in brackets, were accidentally omitted. 

Further : " It is worthy of remark," says he, " that the second line of each of these stanzas is 
composed of six Trochees and an additional long syllable. As its corresponding line is an Iambic, 
and as the piece has some licenses in its construction, it is far safer to conclude that this line is an 
anomaly than that it forms a distinct species of verse. We must therefore conclude that the tenth 
[the metre of six trochees] is the longest species of Trochaic line known to English verse." — Ever- 
ett's Versification, pp. 95 and 96. 

This, in view of the examples above, of our longer trochaics, may serve as a comment on the 
author's boast, that, " having deduced his rules from the usage of the great poets, he has the best 
reason for being confident of their correctness." — Ibid., Pref., p. 5. 

Trochaic hexameter, too, may easily be written with single rhyme ; perhaps more easily than a 
specimen suited to the purpose can be cited from any thing already written. Let me try : — 

Example I. — The Sorcerer. 

Lonely | in the | forest, | subtle | from his | birth, 
Lived a I necro | -mancer, | wondrous | son of | earth. 
More of ] him in | -quire not, | than I | choose to | say : 
Nymph or | dryad | bore him — | else 'twas | witch or | fay : 
Ask you | who his | father ? — | haply | he might | be 
Wood-god, | satyr, | sylvan : | — such his | pedi | -gree. 
Reared mid | fauns and | fairies, | knew he | no com | -peers ; 
Neither | cared he | for them, | saving | ghostly I seers. 



gaunt and | grim,' 
stars to I him." 



Mistress | of the | black-art, | "wizard 
Nightly | on the | hill- top, | " read the 

These were | welcome | teachers ; | drank he | in their | lore : 
Witchcraft | so en | -ticed him, | still to | thirst for | more. 
Spectres | he would | play with, | phantoms | raise or | quell ; 
G-nomes from | earth's deep | centre | knew his | potent | spell. 
Augur | or a | -ruspex | had not | half his | art; 
Master | deep of | magic, | spirits | played his | part : 
Demons, | imps in | -fernal, | conjured | from be | -low, 
Shaped his [ grand en | -chantments | with im | -posing | show. 

Example II. — An Example of Hart's, Corrected 

" Where the I wood is | waving, | shady, | green, and | high, 
Fauns and f dryads, | nightly, | watch the | starry | sky." 

See Harts E. Gram., p. 187 ; or the citation thence below. 

A couplet of this sort might easily be reduced to a pleasant little stanza, by severing each line 
after the third foot, thus : — 



Hearken ! | hearken ! | hear ye ; 

Voices | meet my j ear. 
Listen, | never | fear ye; 

Friends — or | foes — are | near. 



Friends 1 "So | -hoi" they're | shouting. — 

"Ho! so | -ho, a | -hoy!"— 
'Tis no | Indian, | scouting. 

Cry, so | -ho ! with j joy. 



But a similar succession of eleven syllables, six long and five short, divided after the seventh, 
leaving two iambs to form the second or shorter line, — (since such a division produces different 

* In Sanborn's Analytical Grammar, on page c 79th, this couplet is ascribed to "Pope;" but I have sought in 
vain for this quotation, or any example of similar verse, in the works of that poet. The lines, one or both of 
them, appear, without reference, in L. Murray's Grammar, Second Edition, 1796, p. 176, and in subsequent edi- 
tions; in W. Allen's, p. 225; Bullions' s, 178; N. Butler's, 192; Chandler's New, 196; Clark's, 201; Churchill's, 
187 ; Cooper' s Practical, 185; Davis's, 137; Famum's, 106; Felton's, 142; Frazee's, 184; Frost's, 164; S. S. 
Greene's, 250; Hallock's, 244; Hart's, 187; Hiley's, 127; Humphrey's Prosodii, 17; Parker and Fox's Gram., 
Part iii, p. 60; Weld's, 211; Ditto Abridged, 138; Wells's, 200; Fowler's, 658; and doubtless in many other 
such books. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER II. — TROCHAICS. 867 

orders and metres both, — ) will, I think, retain but little resemblance in rhythm to the foregoing, 
though the actual sequence of quantities long and short is the same. If this be so, the particular 
measure or correspondent length of lines is more essential to the character of a poetic strain than 
some have supposed. The first four hues of the following extract are an example relevant to this 
point : — 

Ariel's Song. 

"Come iin |-to'these | yellow | sands, 
And then | take hands : 
Court'sied | when you | have and | kiss'd, 

(The w T ild | waves whist,) 
Foot it | featly | here and | there ; 
And, sweet | sprites, the | burden | bear." 

Singer's Shakspeare : Tempest, Act i, Sc. 2. 

MEASURE TV.— TROCHAIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER. 
Example I. — Double Rhymes and Single, Alternated. 
" Mountain | winds ! oh ! | whither | do ye | call me ? 
Vainly, | vainly, | would my j steps pur | -sue : 
Chains of | care to | lower | earth en | -thrall me, 
Wherefore | thus my | weary | spirit | woo ? 

Oh ! the | strife of | this di | -vided | being ! 

Is there | peace where | ye are | borne, on ] high ? 
Could we | soar to | your proud | eyries | fleeing, 

In our | hearts, would | haunting | memories | die ?" 
Felicia Hemans : " To the Mountain Winds :" Everett's Versify p. 95. 

Example II. — Rhymes Otherwise Arranged. 

" Then, me | -thought, I | heard a | hollow | sound, 
Gathering | up from | all the | low r er | ground : 
Narrowing | in to | where they | sat as | -sembled, 
Low vo | -luptuous | music, | winding, | trembled." 

Alfred Tennyson: Frazee's Improved Gram., p. 184; Fowler's, 657. 

This measure, whether with the final short syllable or without it, is said, by Murray, Everett, 
and others, to be "very uncommon." Dr. Johnson, and the other old prosodists named with him 
above, knew nothing of it. Two couplets, exemplifying it, now to be found in sundry grammars, 
and erroneously reckoned to differ as to the number of their feet, were either selected or composed 
by Murray, for his Grammar, at its origin — or, if not then, at its first reprint, in 1796. They are 
these : — 

(1.) " All that walk on | foot or | ride in | chariots, 
All that dwell in | pala | -ces or | garrets." 
L. Murray's Gram., 12mo, 175; 8vo, 257; Cliandler's, 196; Churchill's, 187; Hiley' s, 126; et al. 

(2.) " Idle | after | dinner, | in his | chair, 

Sat a | farmer, | ruddy, | fat, and | fair." 
Murray, same places ; K Butler's Gr., p. 193 ; Hallock's, 244; Hart's, 187 ; Weld's, 211 ; et al. 

Richard Hiley most absurdly scans tins last couplet, and all verse like it, into " the Heroic 
measure," or a form of our iambic pentameter ; saying, " Sometimes a syllable is cut off from the 
first foot ; as, 

I | die af | ter din | -ner in | his chair [,] 

Sat | a, far | -mer [,] rud | -dy, fat, | and fair." 

Hiley' s English Grammar, Third Edition, p. 125. 

J. S. Hart, who, like many others, has mistaken the metre of this last example for " Trochaic 
Tetrameter," with a surplus " syllable," after repeating the current though rather questionable 
assertion, that, "this measure is very uncommon," proceeds with our " Trochaic Pentameter •," 
thus : " This species is likewise uncommon. It is composed of five trochees ; as, 

In the | dark and | green and j gloomy | valley, 
Satyrs | by the | brooklet | love to | dally." 

And again : [SJP] " The same with an additional accented syllable ; as, 

"Where the wood is | waving | green and | high, 
Fauns and Dryads ] watch the | starry | sky" 

Hart's English Grammar, First Edition, p. IS 7. 

These examples appear to have been made for the occasion ; and the latter, together with its 
introduction, made unskillfully. The lines are of five feet, and so are those about the ruddy farm- 
er; but there is nothing u additional " in either case; for, as pentameter, they are all cataleciic, 
the final short syllable being dispensed with, and a caesura preferred, for the sake of single rhyme, 
otherwise not attainable. " Five trochees" and a rhyming " syllable" will make trochaic hex- 
ameter, a measure perhaps more pleasant than this. See examples above. 



86S 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



MEASURE V.— TROCHAIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER. 



" Raving | winds a | -round her | blowing, 
Yellow | leaves the | woodlands | strowing, 
By a | river | hoarsely | roaring, 
Isa | -bella | strayed de | -ploring. 

' Farewell | hours that | late did | measure 
Sunshine | days of | joy and | pleasure ; 
Hail, thou | gloomy | night of | sorrow, 
Cheerless I night that I knows no I morrow. 



Example I. — A Mournful Song. 

2. 
O'er the | past too | fondly | wandering, 
Ou the | hopeless | future | pondering, 
Chilly | grief my | life-blood | freezes, 
FeU de | -spair my | fancy | seizes. 
Life, thou | soul of | every | blessing, 
Load to | misery | most dis | -tressing, 
how | gladly | I'd re | -sign thee, 
And to | dark ob | -livion j join thee.' " 
Robert Burns : Select Works, Vol. ii, p. 131. 



Example II— 

" Powers ce | -lestial, | whose pro | -tection 

Ever | guards the | virtuous | fair, 
While in | distant | climes I | wander, 

Let my | Mary | be your care : 
Let her | form so | fair and faultless, 

Fair and | faultless | as your | own ; 
Let my | Mary's | kindred | spirit 

Draw your | choicest | influence | down. 



-A Song Petitionary. 

Make the | gales you | waft a | -round her 

Soft and | peaceful | as her | breast ; 
Breathing | in the | breeze that | fans her, 

Soothe her | bosom | into | rest : 
Guardian | angels, | pro | -tect her, 

When in | distant | lands I | roam ; 
To realms \ unknown I while fate \ exiles me, 

Make her | bosom [ still my | home." 
Burns's Songs, Same Volume, p. 165. 



Example III. — Song of Juno and Ceres. 



Ju. 



Cer 



"Honour, | riches, marriage | -blessing, 
Long con | -tinuance, | and in | -creasing, 
Hourly | joys be | still up | -on you ! 
Juno | sings her | blessings | on you." 

"Earth's in | -crease, and | foison | plenty; 
Barns and | garners | never | empty ; 



Vines with | clust'ring | bunches | growing; 
Plants with | goodly | burden | bowing ; 
Spring come | to you, | at the j farthest, 
In the I very | end of I harvest ! 



Scarci 
Ceres' 



■ty and 
blessing 



Shakspeare 



want shall | shun you ; 
so is | on you." 
Tempest, Act iv, Sc. 1. 



Example IV. — On the Vowels. 



"We are | little | airy | creatures, 
All of | diff rent | voice and | features; 



One of 
One of 



us in | glass is | set, 
us you'll | find in | jet; 



you may | see in | tin, 
fourth a I box with I -in ; 



T' other 
And the _ 

If the | fifth you | should pur | -sue, 
It can | never | fly from | you." 
Swift: Johnson's British Poets, Vol. v, p. 343. 



Example V. — Use Time for Good. 



"Life is | short, and | time is | swift; 
Roses | fade, and | shadows | shift; 
But the | ocean | and the | river 
Rise and I fall and I flow for I ever ; 



Bard! not j vainly j 
Bard! not | vainly | 
Be thy | song, then, 
Blessing | now, and 
Ebenezer Elliot: 



heaves the | ocean ; 
flows the | river ; 
| like their | motion, 
| blessing | ever." 
From a Newspaper. 



Example IV. — " The Turkish Lady." — First Four Stanzas. 



1. 

" 'Twas the | hour when | rites un | -holy 
Called each | Paynim | voice to | pray'r, 
And the | star that | faded | slowly, 
Left to I dews the I freshened I air. 



Day her | sultry | fires had | wasted, 
Calm and | sweet the | moonlight | rose : 

E'en a | captive's j spirit | tasted 
Half ob I -livion I of his I woes. 



3. 

Then 'twas from an | Emir's | palace 
Came an eastern | lady | bright ; 

She, in | spite of | tyrants | jealous, 
Saw and | loved an | English | knight. 

4. 
' Tell me, | captive, | why in | anguish 

Foes have | dragged thee | here to | dwell 
Where poor | Christians, | as they j languish, 
Hear no | sound of | sabbath | bell ?' " 
Thomas Campbell: Poetical Works, p. 115. 



Example VII. — The Palmer's Morning Hymn. 



" Lauded | be thy | name for | ever, 
Thou, of | life the | guard and | giver ! 
Thou canst | guard thy | creatures | sleeping, 



Heal the 
Rule the 
That vex 
And all \ 
Of boil j 



heart long | broke with | weeping, 
ouphes and | elves at | will 
the air \ or haunt | the hill, 
the fu | -ry sub \ -jectkeep 
■ing cloud \ and chdf \ -ed deep ! 



I have | seen, and | well I | know it ! 
Thou hast | done, and | Thou wilt | do it ! 



God of 

Of the 
Of the 
Blessed 
I have 



stillness 
rainbow | 

mountain, 
| be Thy | 
seen thy 



and of | motion ! 
and the | ocean! 
| rock, and | river! 
name for | ever ! 
wondrous | might 



Through the J shadows | of this | night ! 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER II. — TROCHAICS. 



869 



Thou, who | slumber'st | not, nor | sleepest ! 
Blest are | they thou | kindly j keepest ! 
Spirits, j from the | ocean | under, 
Liquid | flame, and | levell'd | thunder, 
Need not | waken | nor a | -larm them — 
All com | -bined, they | cannot | harm them. 



God of evening's | yellow [ ray, 
God of yonder | dawning | day, 
Thine the | flaming | sphere of | light ! 
Thine the [ darkness | of the | night! 
Thine are | all the | gems of | even, 
God of | angels ! | God of | heaven !" 



James Hogg: Mador of the Moor, Poems, p. 206. 



Example VIII. — A Short Song, of Two Stanzas. 



" Stay, my | charmer, | can you | leave me ? 
Cruel, | crueL | to de | -ceive me ! 



Well you | know how 
Cruel charmer, 
Cruel charmer, 



much you | grieve me: 



can you 
can you 



go? 
go? 



2. 
By my | love, so | ill re | -quited ; 
By the | faith you | fondly | plighted ; 
By the | pangs of | lovers | slighted ; 



Do not, 
Do not, 



do not 
do not 



leave me 
leave me 



so! 
sol' 



Eobert Burns: Select Works, Vol. ii, p. 129. 



Example IX. — Lingering Courtship. 



1. 

"Never I wedding, | ever | wooing, 
Still a f lovelorn | heart pur | -suing, 
Read you | not the | wrong you're | doing, 

In my | cheek's pale | hue ? 
All my | life with j sorrow | strewing, 

"Wed, or j cease to | woo. 

2. 

Rivals | banish' d, | bosoms j plighted, 
Still our | days are | disu | -nited ; 
Now the | lamp of | hope is J lighted, 



Now half | quench'd ap | -pears, 
Damp'd, and | wavering, | and be | -nighted, 
Midst my | sighs and | tears. 

3. 

Charms you | call your | dearest | blessing, 
Lips that | thrill at | your ca | -ressing, 
Eyes a | mutual | soul con | -fessing, 

Soon you'll | make them | grow 
Dim, and | worthless | your pos j -sessing, 

Not with I age, but I woe!" 



Campbell: Everett s System of Versification, p. 91. 
Example X. — " Boadicea." — Four Stanzas from Eleven. 



1. 

"When the | British | warrior | queen, 
Bleeding | from the | Roman | rods, 
Sought, with | an in | -dignant | mien, 
Counsel | of her | country's | gods, 



2. 



Sage be | -neath the | spreading 
Sat the | Druid, | hoary | chief. 

Every | burning j word he | spoke 
Full of | rage, and | full of j grief. 



oak, 



3. 

Princess ! | if our | aged | eyes 

Weep up | -on thy | matchless | wrongs, 
'Tis be | -cause re | -sentment | ties 

All the | terrors | of our | tongues. 

4. 
Rome shall | perish — | write that | word 

In the | blood that | she hath | spilt ; 
Perish, | hopeless | and ab | -horr'd, 

Deep in | ruin | as in | guilt." 
William Cowper: Poems, Vol. ii, p. 244. 



Example XI. — u The Tliunder Storm." — Two Stanzas from Ten. 



"Now in | deep and | dreadful | gloom, 

Clouds on | clouds por | -tentous | spread, 
Black as | if the | day of j doom 

Hung o'er | Nature's | shrinking | head: 
Lo! the | lightning | breaks from | high, 
God is | coming ! | — God is | nigh ! 



Hear ye | not his | chariot ] wheels, 
As the J mighty | thunder | rolls? 

Nature, | startled | Nature | reels, 
From the | centre | to the | poles : 

Tremble ! | — Ocean, | Earth, and | Sky! 

Tremble! | — God is | passing | by!" 



J. Montgomery: Wanderer of Switzerland, and other Poems, p. 130. 



Ecample XII. — u The Triumphs of 

"Owen's | praise de | -mands my song, 
Owen | swift and I Owen | strong; 
Fairest | flow'r of j Rodericks | stem, 
Gwyneth's | shield, and | Britain's | gem. 
He nor | heaps his | brooded | stores, 
Nor the | whole pro j -fusely j pours ; 
Lord of | every | regal | art, 
Liberal | hand and | open | heart. 

Big with | hosts of | mighty | name, 
Squadrons | three a | -gainst him | came ; 
This the | force of | Eirin | hiding, 
Side by | side as | proudly | riding, 



Owen," King of North Wales.* 

On her | shadow | long and j gay, 
Lochlin j ploughs the | watery | way : 
There the | Norman | sails a | -far 
Catch the | winds, and | join the | war ; 
Black and | huge, a | -long they j sweep, 
Burthens | of the | angry | deep. 

Dauntless | on his | native | sands, 
The Brag \ -on-son \ of Mo \ -na stands ;\ 
In glit | -tering arms \ and glo | -ry drest, 
High he | rears his | ruby | crest. 
There the j thundering | strokes be | -gin, 
There the | press, and | there the | din ; 



* "Owen succeeded his father Griffin in the principality of North Wales, A. D. 1120. This battle was fought 
near forty years afterwards. North Wales is called, in the fourth line, ' Gwyneth;' and '■Lochlin,'' in the four- 
teenth, is Denmark." — Gray. Some say " Lochlin," in the Annals of Ulster, means Norway. — G. B. 

t "The red dragon is the device of (Jadwallader, which all his descendants bore on their banners." — Gray. 



870 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



Taly | -malfra's | rocky | shore 
Echoing | to the | battle's | roar; 
Where his | glowing | eyeballs | turn, 
Thousand | banners | round him | burn 
"Where he | points his | purple | spear, 
Hasty, | hasty | rout is | there, 



Marking | with in | -dignant | eye 
Fear to | stop, and | shame to | fly. 
There Con | -fusion, | Terror's | child, 
Conflict | fierce, and | Ruin | wild, 
Ago | -ny, that | pants for | breath, 
Despair, j and hon | -oura | -ble Death." 



Thomas Gray: Johnson's British Poets, Yol. vii, p. 285. 
Example XIII. — " Grongar HilV — First Twenty-six Lines. 



" Silent | Nymph, with | curious | eye, 
Who, the | purple | eve, dost | lie 
On the | mountain's | lonely | van, 
Beyond | the noise | of bus \ -y man ; 
Painting | fair the | form of | things, 
While the | yellow | linnet | sings ; 
Or the | tuneful | nightin | -gale 
Charms the I forest | with her | tale ; 
Come, with [ all thy I various | hues, 
Come, and | aid thy | sister | Muse. 
Now, while | Phoebus, | riding j high, 
Gives lus | -tre to j the land | and sky, 
G-rongar [ Hill in | -vites my | song ; 



Draw the | landscape | bright | and strong ; 
Grongar, | in whose j mossy | cells, 
Sweetly | -musing | Quiet | dwells ; 
Grongar, | in whose | silent | shade, 
For the | modest | Muses | made, 
So oft | I have, \ the eve \ -ning still, 
At the | fountain | of a | rill, 
Sat up | -on a | flowery | bed, 
With my | hand be | -neath my | head, 
Wliile strayed \ my eyes \ o'er Tow \ -y's flood, 
Over | mead and | over | wood, 
From house \ to house, | from hill | to hill, 
Till Con | -templa \ -tion had | her fill." 
John Dyer : Johnson's British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 65. 



OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — This is the most common of our trochaic measures ; and it seems to be equally popu- 
lar, whether written with single rhyme, or with double ; in stanzas, or in couplets ; alone, or with 
some intentional intermixture. By a careful choice of words and style, it may be adapted to all 
sorts of subjects, grave, or gay ; quaint, or pathetic ; as may the corresponding iambic metre, with 
which it is often more or less mingled, as we see in some of the examples above. Milton's 
L 1 Allegro, or Gay Mood, has one hundred and fifty-two lines ; ninety-eight of which are iambics ; 
fifty-four trochaic tetrameters ; a very few of each order having double rhymes. These orders the 
poet has not — "very ingeniously alternated,'" as Everett avers; but has simply interspersed, or 
commingled, with little or no regard to alternation. His It Penseroso, or Grave Mood, has twenty- 
seven trochaic tetrameters, mixed irregularly with one hundred and forty -nine iambics. 

Obs. 2. — Everett, who divides our trochaic tetrameters into two species of metre, imagines that 
the catalectic form, or that which is single-rhymed, " has a solemn effect," — ►" imparts to all pieces 
more dignity than any of the other short measures," — " that no trivial or humorous subject should 
be treated in this measure," — and that, "besides dignity, it imparts an air of sadness to the sub- 
ject." — English Versif, p. 87. Our " line of four trochees" he supposes to be " difficult of con- 
struction," — " not of very frequent occurrence," — " the most agreeable of all the trochaic measures," 
— "remarkably well adapted to lively subjects," — and "peculiarly expressive of the eagerness and 
fickleness of the passion of love." — lb., p. 90. These pretended metrical characteristics seem 
scarcely more worthy of reliance, than astrological predictions, or the oracular guessings of our 
modern craniologists. 

Obs. 3. — Dr. Campbell repeats a suggestion of the older critics, that gayety belongs naturally 
to all trochaics, as such, and gravity or grandeur, as naturally, to iambics ; and he attempts to 
find a reason for the fact ; while, perhaps, even here — more plausible though the supposition is— 
the fact maybe at least half imaginary. "The iambus," says he, "is expressive of dignity and 
grandeur ; the trochee, on the contrary, according to Aristotle, (Rhet. Lib. Ill,) is frolicsome and 
gay. It were difficult to assign a reason of this difference that would be satisfactory ; but of the 
thing itself, I imagine, most people will be sensible on comparing the two kinds together. I know 
not whether it will be admitted as a sufficient reason, that the distinction into metrical feet hath 
a much greater influence in poetry on the rise and fall of the voice, than the distinction into 
words ; and if so, when the cadences happen mostly after the long syllables, the verse will natu- 
rally have an air of greater gravity than when they happen mostly after the short." — Campbell 1 s 
Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 354. 



MEASURE VL— TROCHAIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER 

Example I. — Youth and Age Contrasted. 

age and [ youth 
| live to | -gether ; 
full of | pieasance, 
full of [ care : 



" Crabbed j 

Cannot 
Youth is 

Age is 
Youth, like | summer | morn, 

Age, like j winter | weather 
Youth, like [ summer, | brave : 



Age, like f winter, | bare. 

Youth is f full of | sport, 

Age's | breath is j short, 
Youth is | nimble, | age is | lame ; 

Youth is | hot and | bold, 

Age is | weak and f cold ; 
Youth is I wild, and I as;e is | tame. 



T/ie Passionate Pilgrim ; Singer's Shakspeare, Vol. h, p. 594. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER II. — TROCHAICS. 



871 



Example II. — Common Sense and Genius. 



" While I | touch the | string, 
"Wreathe my | brows with | laurel ; 
For the | tale I | sing, 
Has, for | once, a | moral! 



Common | Sense went | on, 
Many | wise things | saying; 
While the | light that | shone, 
Soon set | Genius | straying. 



One his eye ne'er | rais'd 
From the | path be | -fore him ; 
T' other | idly | gaz'd 
On each | night-cloud | o'er him. 



While I | touch the | string, 
Wreathe my | brows with | laurel; 
For the | tale I | sing, 
Has, for | once, a | moral! 



So they j came, at | last, 
To a | shady j river ; 
Common ] Sense soon | pass'd 
Safe, — as | he doth | ever. 



While the | boy whose | look 
Was in | heav'n that | minute, 
Never | saw the | brook, — 
But turn | -bled head \ -long in it." 



Six Stanzas from Twelve. — Moore's Melodies, p. 211. 

This short measure is much oftener used in stanzas, than in couplets. It is, in many instances, 
combined with some different order or metre of verse, as in the following : — 

Example III. — Part of a Song. 



" Go where | glory | waits thee, 
But while | fame e | -lates thee, 

Oh ! still | remem | -her me. 
When the | praise thou | meetest, 
To thine | ear is | sweetest, 

Oh ! then \ remem \ -her me. 
Other | arms may | press thee, 
Dearer | friends ca | -ress thee, 
All the | joys that | bless thee, 

Sweeter | far may J be: 
But when j friends are j nearest, 
And when | joys are | dearest, 

Oh ! then I remem I -her me. 



When, at j eve, thou | rovest, 
By the | star thou | lovest, 

Oh I then | remem \ -her me. 
Think when | home re j -turning, 
Bright we've | seen it j burning; 

Oh! thus | remem | -ber me. 
Oft as | summer j closes, 
When thine | eye re | -poses 
On its | hng'ring ] roses, 

Once so j loved by | thee, 
Think of | her who | wove them, 
Her who | made thee j love them; 

Oh! then \ remem J -ber me." 
Moobe's Melodies, Songs, and Airs, p. 107. 



Example IV. — From an Ode to the TJiames. 



" On thy j shady | margin, 
Care its | load dis j -charging, 
Is lulVd J to gen ( -tie rest: 

See Rowe's Poems . 



Britain | thus dis | -arming, 
Nothing | her a | -larming, 

Shall sleep \ on Cce \ -sar's breast." 
Johnson's British Poets, Vol. iv, p. 58. 



Example V. — " Tfie True Poet? — First Two of Nine Stanzas. 



"Poet | of the | heart, 
Delving j in its | mine, 
From man | -kind a J -part, 
Yet where | jewels ! shine ; 
Heaving I upward | to the J light, 
Precious [ wealth that | charms the | sight ; 

Jane E. Locke 



Toil thou | still, deep | down, 

For earth's | hidden | gems ; 
They shall I deck a | crown, 
Blaze in | dia | -dems; 
And when \ thy hand \ shall fall j to rest, 
Brightly | jewel | beauty's | breast." 
N. Y. Evening Post ; The Examiner, No. 98. 



Example VI. — " Summer Longings.'' 1 — First Two of Five Stanzas. 



11 Ah ! my | heart is j ever J waiting, 
Waiting | for the | May, — 
Waiting ] for the | pleasant | rambles 
Where the | fragrant j hawthorn | brambles, 
With the j woodbine | alter j -nating, 

Scent the | dewy | way. 
Ah ! my | heart is | weary | waiting, 
Waiting | for the j May. 



Ah ! my ] heart is | sick with | longing, 

Longing | for the | May, — 
Longing | to e j -scape from J study, 
To the j young face | fair and j ruddy, 

And the | thousand | charms be | -longing 

To the | Summers | day. 
Ah ! my | heart is | sick with | longing, 
Longing | for the | May." 



"D. F. M C.:" Dublin University Magazine; Liberator, No. 952. 



872 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



MEASURE VII.— TROCHAIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER. 



Example I. — Three Short Excerpts. 



" My flocks | feed not, 
My ewes j breed not, 
My rams J speed not, 

All is | amiss : 
Love's de | -nying, 
Faith's de j -fying, 
Heart's re ] -nying, 

Causer j of this." 



" In black 
All fears 
Love hath 

Living 
Heart is 
All help 
(Cruel 



mourn I, 
scorn I, 
| lorn me, 
in thrall : 
bleeding, 
needing, 
speeding,) 



Fraughted | with gall." 



3. 

" Clear wells | spring not, 
Sweet birds | sing not, 
Loud bells | ring not 

Cheerfully ; 
Herds stand | weeping, 
Flocks all | sleeping, 
Nymphs back | creeping 

Fearfully" 



Shakspeare : The Passionate Pilgrim. See Sec. xv. 



Example II. — Specimen with Single Rhyme. 
" To Quiribus Ftestrin, the Man-Mountain." 



" In a | -maze, 
Lost, I | gaze. 
Can our | eyes 
Reach thy | size ? 
May my | lays 
Swell with | praise, 
Worthy I thee. 
Worthy 
Muse, in 
All thy 
Bards of 
Of him 
When they [ said 
Atlas' | head 
Propp'd the | skies : 
Seel and | believe 
eyes ! 




your 



A LILLIPUTIAN ODE. 






II. 


III. 


" See him | stride 


" Turn'a a | -side 


Valle] 
Over 


78 \ wide: 
woods, 


From his | hide, 
Safe from | wound, 


Over 


floods, 


Darts re | -bound. 


When he | treads, 


From his | nose, 


Mountains' | heads 


Clouds he | blows ; 


Groan and | shake : 


When he | speaks, 


Armies | quake, 


Thunder | breaks! 


Lest his | spurn 


When he | eats, 


Over | -turn 


Famine | threats I 


Man and | steed : 


When he | drinks, 


Troops, take | heed! 
Left and | right 
Speed your | flight ! 
Lest an 1 host 
Beneath | his foot \ be lost. 


Neptune 
Nigh th 
In mid 
On thy 
Let me 


i | shrinks! 
v | ear, 

air, 

hand, 

stand. 




So shall '| I rsky." 


John Gay: Johnson's 


(Lofty | 
British Poets, 


poet!) touch the 
Vol. vii, p. 376. 



Example III. — Two Feet with Four. 



" Oh, the I pleasing, | pleasing | anguish, 
When we | love, and | when we | languish ! 
Wishes | rising ! 
Thoughts sur | -prising ! 
Pleasure | courting ! 



Oh, 



Charms trans | -porting 1 
Fancy | viewing 
Joys en | -suing ! 
the | pleasing, | pleasing f anguish!" 
Addison's Rosamond, Act i, Scene 6. 



Example IV. — Lines of TJiree Syllables with Longer Metres. 



1. With Trochaics. 
" Or we | sometimes | pass an | hour 
Under | a green | willow, 
That de | -fends us | from the | shower, 
Making | earth our | pillow ; 



may 
P r ay, 



Where we 
Think and 
Before | death 
Stops our | breath: 
Other | joys, 
Are but | toys, 
And to | be la | -mented."* 

Example V. — u The Shower." 

1. 

" In a [ valley | that I | know — 
Happy | scene ! 
There are | meadows | sloping | low, 
There the I fairest I flowers I blow. 



2. With Iambics. 
" What sounds | were heard, 
What scenes | appear'd, 
O'er all [ the drear | -y coasts ! 
Dreadful | gleams, 
Dismal | screams, 
Fires that I glow, 
Shrieks of | wo, 
Sullen | moans, 



Hollow 
And cries 



groans, 
of tor I 



Pope : Johnson's Brit. Poets, 



-tur'd ghosts!" 
Vol. vi, p. 315. 



-In Four Regular Stanzas. 

And the | brightest | waters | flow, 

All se | -rene ; 
But the | sweetest | thing to | see, 
If you | ask the j dripping | tree, 
Or the | harvest j -hoping | swain, 

Is the I Rain. 



* This passage, or some part of it, is given as a trochaic example, in many different systems of prosody. 
Everett ascribes it entire to " John Chalkhill ;" and Nutting, more than twenty years before, had attached the 
name of " ChalkhiW to apart of it. Bat the six lines "of three syllables," Dr. Johnson, in his Grammar, 
credits to " Walton's Angler;" and Bicknell, too, ascribes the same to " Walton.'" The readings also have be- 
come various. Johnson, Bicknell, Burn, Churchill, and Nutting, have "Here" for " Where" in the fifth line 
above; and Bicknell and Burn have " Stop" in the eighth line, where the rest read " Stops." Nutting has, for 
the ninth line, " Others' 1 joys," and not, " Other joys," as have the rest G-. B. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER II. — TROCHAICS. 



873 



2. 

Ah, the | dwellers | of the | town, 

How they | sigh, — 
How un | -grateful | -ly they | frown, 
When the | cloud-king | shakes his | crown, 
And the | pearls come | pouring | down 

From the | sky ! 
They de | -scry no | charm at | all 
Where the | sparkling | jewels | fall, 
And each | moment | of the | shower, 

Seems an I hour ! 



3. 

Yet there's | something | very | sweet 

In the | sight, 
When the | crystal | currents | meet 
In the | dry and | dusty street, 



And they | wrestle | with the | heat, 

In theh | might ! 
While they | seem to | hold a | talk 
With the | stones a | -long the | walk, 
And re | -mind them | of the | rule, 

To 'keep | cool!' 



4. 
Ay, but | in that | quiet | dell, 

Ever | fair, 
Still the | Lord doth | all things | well, 
When his } clouds with j blessings | swell, 
And they f break a | brimming | shell 

On the | air ; 
There the | shower | hath its | charms, 
Sweet and j welcome | to the | farms 
As they | hsten | to its | voice, 

And re | -joice !" 
Rev. Ralph Hott's Poems : The Examiner, Nov. 6, 1847. 



Example VI. — "A Good Name? — Two Beautiful Little Stanzas. 



1. 

" Children, | choose it, 

Don't re | -fuse it, 
'Tis a | precious | dia | -dem ; 

Highly | prize it, 

Don't de j -spise it, 
You will | need it | when you're j men. 



2. 
Love and | cherish, 
Keep and | nourish, 
'Tis more | precious | far than j gold ; 
Watch and | guard it, 
Don't dis | -card it, 
You will | need it | when you're | old." 
The Family Christian Almanac, for 1850, p. 20. 



OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Trochaics of two feet, like those of three, are, more frequently than otherwise, found 
in connexion with longer lines, as in some of the examples above cited. The trochaic line of 
three syllables, which our prosodists in general describe as consisting, not of two feet, but " of one 
Trochee and a long syllable," may, when it stands alone, be supposed to consist of one amphimac ; 
but, since this species of foot is not admitted by all, and is reckoned a secondary one by those 
who do admit it, the better practice is, to divide even the three syllables into two feet, as above. 

Obs. 2. — Murray, Hart, Weld, and many others, erroneously affirm, that, " The shortest Tro- 
chaic verse in our language, consists of one Trochee and -a long syllable." — Murray's Gram., p. 
256 ; Hart's, First Edition, p. 186 ; Weld's, Second Edition, p. 210. The error of this will be 
shown by examples below — examples of true " Trochaic Monometerf and not of Dimeter mis- 
taken for it, like Weld's, Hart's, or Murray's. 

Obs. 3. — These authors also aver, that, " This measure is defective in dignity, and can seldom 
be used on serious occasions." — Same places. " Trochaic of two feet — is likewise so brief, that," 
in their opinion, " it is rarely used for any very serious purpose." — Same places. Whether the ex- 
pression of love, or of its disappointment, is "any very serious purpose" or not, I leave to the 
decision of the reader. What lack of dignity or seriousness there is, in several of the foregoing 
examples, especially the last two, I think it not easy to discover. 



MEASURE VIII.— TROCHAIC OF ONE 

Examples with Longer 

1. With Iambics. 
" From walk | to walk, | from shade | to shade, 
From stream | to purl | -ing stream | con- 

vey'd, 
Through all the ma | -zes of | the grove, 
Through all the ming J -ling tracks j I rove, 
Turning, 
Burning, 
Changing, 
Ranging, 
Full of | grief and | full of j love." 

Addison's Rosamond, Act I, Sc. 4 : Geo 

Everett's Versification, p. 81. 



FOOT, OR MONOMETER. 
Metres. 

2. With Anapestics, &c. 
To love and to languish, 

To sigh | and complain, 
How crueTs the anguish ! 

How torment | -ing the pain 1 
Suing, 
Pursuing, 
Flying, 
Denying, 
the curse | of disdain ! 
How torment | -ing's the pain !" 
Granville : Br. Poets, Vol. v, p. 31. 



OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The metres acknowledged in our ordinary schemes of prosody, scarcely amount, with 

ah their "boundless variety," to more than one half, or three quarters, of what may be found in 

actual use somewhere. Among the foregoing examples, are some which are longer, and some 

which are shorter, than what are commonly known to our grammarians ; and some, also, which 



874 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

seem easily practicable, though perhaps not so easily quotable. This last trochaic metre, so far as 
I know, has not been used alone, — that is, without longer lines, — except where grammarians so 
set examples of it in their prosodies. 

Obs. 2. — " Trochaic of One foot," as well as " Iambic of One foot," was, I believe, first recog- 
nized, prosodically, in Brown's Institutes of English Grammar, a work first published in 1823. 
Since that time, both have obtained acknowledgement in sundry schemes of versification, con- 
tained in the new grammars ; as in Farnum's, and Hallock's, of 1842 ; in Pardon Davis's, of 1815; 
in S. W. Clark's, and S. S. Greene's, of 1848 ; in Professor Fowler's, of 1850. Wells, in his 
School Grammar, of 1846, and D. 0. Allen, in an other, of 1847, give to the length of lines a laxity 
positively absurd: "Rhymed verses," say they, "may consist of any number of syllables." — 
Wells, 1st Ed., p. 187; late Ed., 204; Allen, p. 88. Everett has recognized " The line of a single 
Trochee,' 1 '' though he repudiates some long measures that are much more extensively authorized. 

ORDER III.— ANAPESTIC VERSE. 

In full Anapestic verse, the stress is laid on every third syllable, the first two sylla- 
bles of each foot being short. The first foot of an anapestic line, may be an iambus. 
This is the most frequent diversification of the order. But, as a diversification, it is, 
of course, not regular or uniform. The stated or uniform adoption of the iambus for 
a part of each line, and of the anapest for the residue of it, produces verse of the Com- 
posite Order. As the anapest ends with a long* syllable, its rhymes are naturally 
single ; and a short syllable after this, producing double rhyme, is, of course, super- 
numerary : so are the two, when the rhyme is triple. Some prosodists suppose, a sur- 
plus at the end of a line may compensate for a deficiency at the beginning of the next 
line ; but this I judge to be an error, or at least the indulgence of a questionable 
license. The following passage has two examples of what may have been meant for 
such compensation, the author having used a dash where I have inserted what seems 
to be a necessary word : — 

" Apol | -lo smil'd shrewd | -ly, and bade | him sit down, 
With ' Well, | Mr. Scott, | you have man | -aged the town ; 



-tie temer | -ity- 
-age poster | -ity. 



Now pray, | copy less — | have a lit 

[And] Try | if you can't I also man 

[For] All yon add now j only les | -sens your cred | -it ; 

And how could you think, | too, of tak | -ing to ed | -ite V " 

Leigh Hunt's Feast of the Poets, page 20. 

The anapestic measures are few ; because their feet are long, and no poet has 
chosen to set a great many in a line. Possibly lines of five anapests, or of four and an 
initial iambus, might be written ; for these would scarcely equal in length some of the 
iambics and trochaics already exhibited. But I do not find any examples of such 
metre. The longest anapestics that have gained my notice, are of fourteen syllables, 
being tetrameters with triple rhyme, or lines of four anapests and two short surplus syl- 
lables. This order consists therefore of measures reducible to the following heads : — 

MEASURE I.— ANAPESTIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER. 

Example I. — A " Postscript." — An Example with Hypermeter. 

" Lean Tom, | when I saw | him, last week, | on his horse | awry, 
Threaten'd loud | -ly to turn | me to stone | with his sor \ -eery. 
But, I think, | little Dan, | that, in spite | of what our \ foe says, 
He will find | I read Ov | -id and his | Metaraor | -phoses. 
For, omit | -ting the first, | (where I make | a compar | -ison, 
With a sort | of allu | -sion to Put | -land or Ear \ -rison,) 
Yet, by | my descrip | -tion, you'll find | he in short \ is 
A pack | and a gar | -ran, a top | and a tor \ -toise. 
So I hope | from hencefor | -ward you ne'er | will ask, can \ I maul 
This teas | -ing, conceit | -ed, rude, in | -solent an j -im,al ? 
And, if | this rebuke | might be turn'd | to his ben \ -efit, 
(For I pit | -y the man,) | I should | be glad then \ of it." 

Swift's Poems: Johnson's British Poets, Yol. v, p. 324 

Example II. — " The Feast of the Poets." — First Twelve Lines. 
" T' other day, j as Apol | -lo sat pitch | -ing Ms darts 
Through the clouds | of Novem | -ber, by fits | and by starts, 
He began | to consid | -er how long | it had been 
Since the bards | of Old Eng | -land had all | been rung in. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER III. — ANAPESTICS. 875 

'I think,' | said the god, | recollect | -ing, (and then 

He fell twid | -dling a sun | -beam as I | may my pen,) 
1 1 think — | let me see — | yes, it is, | I declare, 

As long I ao;o now I as that Buck I -ingham there : 



And yet | I can't see 
Unless | it may be — 



why I've been | so remiss, 

and it cer | -tainly is, 
That since Dry | -den's fine ver | -ses and Mil | -ton's sublime, 
I have fair | -ly been sick | of their sing | -song and rhyme.' " 

Leigh Hunt : Poems, New- York Edition, of 1814. 

Example III. — The Crowning of Four Favourites. 
"Then, 'Come,' | cried the god | in his el I -egant mirth, 
' Let us make | us a heav'n | of our own | upon earth, 

And wake, | with the lips | that we dip | in our bowls, 

That divin | -est of mu | -sic — conge | -nial souls.' 

So say | -ing, he led j through the din | -ing-room door, 

And, seat | -ing the po | -ets, cried, 'Lau | -rels for four!' 

No soon | -er demand | -ed, than, lo ! | they were there, 

And each I of the bards I had a wreath I in his hair. 



Tom Camp 

And South 



-bell's with wil | -low and pop | -lar was twin'd, 
-ey's, with moun | -tain-ash, pluck'd | in the wind; 
And Scott's, | with a heath | from his old | garden stores, 
And, with vine | -leaves and jump | -up-and-kiss | -me, Tom Moore's." 

Leigh Hunt: ib., from line 330 to line 342. 

Example IV — " Glenara." — First Two of Eight Stanzas. 
"0 heard | ye yon pi | -broch sound sad | in the gale, 
Where a band | cometh slow | -ly with weep | -ing and wail ! 
'Tis the chief | of Grlena | -ra laments | for his dear ; 
And her sire, | and the peo | -pie, are called | to her bier. 

Glena | -ra came first | with the mourn | -ers and shroud ; 
Her kins .| -men, they fol | -lowed, but mourned | not aloud : 
Their plaids | all their bo j -soms were fold | -ed around : 
They marched | all in si | -lence — they looked | on the ground." 

T. Campbell's Poetical Works, p. 105. 

Example V. — " LochieTs Warning.'' 1 — Ten Lines from Eighty-six. 
" 'Tis the sun | -set of life | gives me mys | -tical lore, 

And com j -ing events | cast their shad | -ows before. 

I tell | thee, Cullo | -den's dread ech | -oes shall ring 

With the blood | -hounds that bark | for thy fu | -gitive king. 

Lo ! anoint | -ed by Heav'n | with the vi | -als of wrath, 

Behold, | where he flies | on his des | -olate path ! 

Now, in dark | -ness and bil | -lows he sweeps | from my sight : 

Eise ! rise ! | ye wild tem | -pests, and cov | -er his flight ! 

'Tis fin | -ished. Their thun | -ders are hushed | on the moors ; 

Cullo | -den is lost, | and my coun | -try deplores." — lb., p. 89. 

Example VI. — " The Exile of Erin." — The First of Five Stanzas. 
"There came | to the beach | a poor Ex | -ile of E | -rin, 

The dew | on his thin | robe was heav | -y and chill': 
For his coun | -try he sighed, | when at twi | -Ught repair | -ing 

To wan | -der alone | by the wind | -beaten hill. 
But the day | -star attract | -ed his eye's | sad devo | -Hon, 
For it rose | o'er his own | native isle | of the o | -cean, 
Where once, | in the fire | of his youth j -ful emo | Hon, 

He sang | the bold an | -them of E j -rin go bragh." — lb., p. 116. 

Example VII. — " The Poplar Field." 
" The pop | -lars are fell'd, | farewell | to the shade, 
And the whis | -pering sound j of the cool | colonnade ; 
The winds | play no Ion | -ger and sing | in the leaves, 
Nor Ouse | on his bo | -som their im | -age receives. 
Twelve years | have elaps'd, | since I last | took a view 
Of my fa | -vourite field, | and the bank | where they grew ; 
And now | in the grass | behold j they are laid, 
And the tree | is my seat | that once lent | me a shade. 
The black | -bird has fled | to anoth | -er retreat, 
Where the ha | -zels afford | him a screen | from the heat, 
And the scene, | where his mel | -ody charm'd | me before, 
Resounds | with his sweet | -flowing dit j -ty no more. 



876 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

My fu | -gitive years | are all hast | -ing away, 
And 1 1 must ere long | lie as low | -ly as they, 
"With a turf | on rny breast, | and a stone | at my head, 
Ere anoth | -er such grove | shall arise | in its stead. 
'Tis a sight | to engage { me, if an | -y thing can, 
To muse | on the per | -ishing pleas | -ures of man ; 
Though his life | be a dream, | his enjoy | -ments, I see, 
Have a be } -ing less dur | -able e | -ven than he." 

Cowper's Poems, Yol. i, p. 257. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Everett avers, that, " The purely Anapestic measure is more easily constructed than 
the Trochee, [Trochaic,] and of much more frequent occurrence." — English Versification, p. 97. 
Both parts of this assertion are at least very questionable ; and so are this author's other sug- 
gestions, that, " The Anapest is [necessarily] the vehicle of gayety and joy ;" that, " Whenever 
this measure is employed in the treating of sad subjects, the effect is destroyed,;" that, ""Whoever 
should attempt to write an elegy in this measure, would be sure to fail ;" that, " The words might 
express grief, but the measure would express joy ;" that, " The Anapest should never be employed 
throughout a long piece ;" because "buoyancy of spirits can never be supposed to last," — "sad- 
ness never leaves us, but joy remains but for a moment;" and, again, because, "the measure is 
exceedingly monotonous." — Ibid., pp. 97 and 98. 

Obs. 2. — Most anapestic poetry, so far as I know, is in pieces of no great length ; but Leigh 
Hunt's "Feast of the Poets," which is thrice cited above, though not a long poem, may certainly 
be regarded as "a long piece," since it extends through fifteen pages, and contains four hundred 
and thirty-one lines, all, or nearly all, of anapestic tetrameter. And, surely, no poet had ever 
more need of a metre well suited to his purpose, than he, who, intending a critical as well as a 
descriptive poem, has found so much fault with the versification of others. Pope, as a versifier, 
was regarded by this author, "not only as no master of his art, but as a very indifferent practiser." 
— Notes on the Feast of the Poets, p. 35. His " monotonous and, cloying" use of numbers, with that 
of Darwin, G-oldsmith, Johnson, Haley, and others of the same " school," is alleged to have 
wrought a general corruption of taste in respect to versification — a fashion that has prevailed, not 
temporarily, 

u But ever since Pope spoiVd the ears of the town 
With his cuckoo-song verses, half up and half down." — lb. 

Obs. 3. — Excessive monotony is thus charged by one critic upon all verse of " the purely An- 
apestic measure;" and, by an other, the same fault is alleged in general terms against all the 
poetry "of the school of Pope," well-nigh the whole of which is iambic. The defect is probably 
in either case, at least half imaginary ; and, as for the inherent joyousness of anapestics, that is 
perhaps not less ideal. Father Humphrey says, " Anapaestic and amphibrachic verse, being sim- 
ilar in measure and movement, are pleasing to the ear, and well adapted to cheerful and humour- 
ous compositions ; and sometimes to elegiac compositions, and subjects important and solemn." — 
Humphrey's English Prosody, p. 17. 

Obs. 4. — The anapest, the dactyl, and the amphibrach, have this in common, — that each, with 
one long syllable, takes two short ones. Hence there is a degree of similarity in their rhythms, 
or in their several effects upon the ear ; and consequently lines of each order, (or of any two, if 
the amphibrachic be accounted a separate order,) are sometimes commingled. But the propriety 
of acknowledging an order of " Amphibrachic verse," as does Humphrey, is more than doubtful ; 
because, by so doing, we not only recognize the amphibrach as one of the principal feet, but make 
a vast number of lines ambiguous in their scansion. For our Amphibrachic order will be made 
up of lines that are commonly scanned as anapestics — such anapestics as are diversified by an 
iambus at the beginning, and sometimes also by a surplus short syllable at the end; as in the fol- 
lowing verses, better divided as in the sixth example above : — 

" There came to | the beach a | poor Exile | of Erin, 
The dew on | his thin robe | was heavy | and chill : 
For his coun j -try he sighed, | when at twi | -light repair | -Ing 
To wander | alone by | the wind-beat | -en hill" 

MEASURE II.— ANAPESTIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER. 
Example I. — " Alexander Selkirk." — First Two Stanzas. 

I. I II. 

"I am mon | -arch of all | I survey, I am out | of human | -ity's reach, 

My right | there is none | to dispute ; I must fin | -ish my jour | -ney alone, 



From the cen | -tre all round | to the sea, 
I am lord | of the fowl | and the brute. 

Sol | -itude 1 where | are the charms 
That sa | -ges have seen | in thy face ? 

Better dwell I in the midst I of alarms, 



Never hear | the sweet mu | -sic of speech, 
I start | at the sound j of my own. 

The beasts | that roam o | -ver the plain, 
My form | with indif [ -ference see ; 

They are so j unacquaint | -ed with man, 



Than reign | in this hor | -rible place. Their tame | -ness is shock j -ing to me." 

Cowper's Poems, Vol. i, p. 199. 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER III. — ANAPESTICS. 877 



Example II. — " Catharina." 

IV. 
"Though the pleas | -ures of Lon | -don ex- 
ceed 
In num | -ber the days j of the year, 
Cathari | -na, did noth | -ing impede, 

Would feel I herself hap | -pier here ; 
For the close | -woven arch | -es of limes 
On the banks | of our riv | -er, I know, 
Are sweet | -er to her | many times 
Than aught j that the cit | -y can show. 



-Two Stanzas from Seven. 

V. 

So it is, | when the mind | is endued 

With a well | -judging taste | from above ; 
Then, wheth j -er embel | -lish'd or rude, 

'Tis na | -ture alone | that we love. 
The achieve | -ments of art | may amuse, 

May e } -ven our won ] -der excite, 
But groves, | hills, and val [ -leys, diffuse 

A last | -ing, a sa | -cred delight." 

Cowper's Poems, Vol. ii, p. 232. 



Example III.— U A Pastoral BaUad." — Two Stanzas from Twenty-seven. 



(8.) 
" Not a pine | in my grove | is there seen, 
But with ten | -drils of wood | -bine 
bound ; 
Not a beech | 's more beau | -tiful green, 
But a sweet | -briar twines | it around. 
Not my fields | in the prime | of the year 

More charms | than my cat j -tie unfold ; 
Not a brook I that is lim | -pid and clear, 
But it glit | -ters with fish { -es of gold. 



is 



, (9) 
One would think | she might like j to retire 

To the bow'r | I have la J -bour'd to rear; 
Not a shrub j that I heard j her admire, 

But I hast | -ed and plant | -ed it there. 
how sud | -den the jes | -samine strove 

With the li | -lac to ren | -der it gay ! 
Alread | -y it calls | for my love, 

To prune | the wild branch | -es away." 
Shenstone : British Poets, Vol. vii, p. 139. 



Anapestic lines of four feet and of three are sometimes alternated in a stanza, as in the follow- 
ing instance : — 

Example IV.— u The Rose." 

" The rose | had been wash'd, | just wash'd | in a show'r, 
Which Ma | -ry to An | -na convey'd ; 
The plen | -tiful moist | -ure encum | -ber'd the fiow'r, 
And weigh'd | down its beau | -tiful head. 

• The cup | was all fill'd, | and the leaves | were all wet, 

And it seem'd j to a fan | -ciful view, 
To weep | for the buds | it had left, | with regret, 
On the flour | -ishing bush | where it grew- 

I hast | -ily seized | it, unfit | as it was 

For a nose | -gay, so drip | -ping and drown' d, 
And, swing | -ing it rude | -ly, too rude | -ly, alas I 



I snapp'd | it, — it fell 

And such, ] I exclaim'd, 

Some act | by the del 

Regard | -less of wring 



to the ground. 

{ is the pit | -iless part 
-icate mind, 
■ing and break | -ing a heart 



Alread | -y to cor | -row resign'd. 

This el | -egant rose, | had I shak | -en it less, 
Might have bloom'd | with its own | -er a while ; 



And the tear 
May be fol 



that is wip'd | with a lit | -tie address, 
-low'd perhaps | by a smile." 
Cowper : Poems, Vol. i, p. 216; English Reade> ^ 



212. 



MEASURE III.— ANAPESTIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER. 

Example I. — Lines with Hypermeter and Doable Rhyme. 

" Coronach," or Funeral Song. 



1. 

" He is gone | on the mount | -am 

He is lost | to the for | -est 
Like a sum { -mer-dried foun | -tain 

When our need | was the sor | -est. 
The font, | reappear | -ing, 

From the rain | -drops shall bor | -row, 
But to us j comes no cheer | -ing, 

Do Dun I -can no mor I -row ! 



The hand | of the reap { -er 



-y» 



Takes the ears | that are hoar j 
But the voice | of the weep -er 

Wails man | -hood in glo -ry ; 
The au } -tumn winds rush | -ing, 

Waft the leaves | that are sear | -est, 
But our flow'r | was in flush | -ing, 

When blight | -ing was near | -est." 
Walter Scott : Lady of the Lake, Canto iii, St. 16. 



Example II. — Exact Lines of Two Anapests. 



"Prithee, Cu | -pid, no more 
Hurl thy darts | at threescore ; 
To thy girls | and thy boys, 

Addison: 



Give thy pains | and thy joys ; 
Let Sir Trust | -y and me 
From thy frol | -ics be free." 
Rosamond, Act ii, Scene 2 ; Ev. Versif, p. 100. 



878 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



Example III. — An 

" This An | -na so fair, 

So talk'd | of by fame, 
"Why dont | she appear? 

Indeed, | she's to blame ! 
Lewis sighs | for the sake 

Of her charms, | as they say ; 
What excuse | can she make 

For not com | -ing away ? 
If he does | not possess, 

He dies | with despair ; 
Let's give | him redress, 

And go find | out the fair." 

William 



Ode, from the French of Malherbe. 

" Cette Anne si belle, 

Qu'on vante si fort, 
Pourquoi ne vient elle ? 

Vraiment, elle a tort I 
Son Louis soupire, 

Apres ses appas ; 
Que veut elle dire, 

Qu'elle ne vient pas ? 
S'il ne la possede, 

II s'en va mourir ; 
Donnons y remede, 

Allons la querir." 
King, LL. D. : Johnson's British Poets, Yol. iii, p. 590. 



Example IV. — ' Tis the Last Rose of Summer. 

Thus kind | -ly I scat | -ter 

Thy leaves | o'er thy bed, 
Where thy mates | of the gar 

Lie scent I -less and dead. 



mer, 



ions 



" 'Tis the last | rose of sum 

Left bloom | -ing alone ; 
All her love | -ly compan 

Are fad | -ed and gone ; 
No flow'r | of her kin | -dred, 

No rose | -bud is nigh, 
To reflect | back her blush | -es, 

Or give | sigh for sigh. 

2. 
I'll not leave | thee, thou lone | one! 

To pine | on the stem ! 
Since the love | -ly are sleep | -ing, 

Go, sleep | thou with them ; 



-den 



So, soon | may I fol | -low, 

When friend | -ships decay, 
And, from love's | shining cir | -cle, 

The gems | drop away; 
When true | hearts lie with | -er'd, 

And fond | ones are flown, 
Oh ! who | would inhab | -it 

This bleak | world alone ?" 
T. Moore: Melodies, Songs, and Airs, p. 171. 



Example V. — Nemesis Calling up the Dead Astarte. 



"Shadow! | or spir j -it I 

Whatev | -er thou art, 
Which still | doth inher | -it 

The whole | or a part 
Of the form | of thy birth, 

Of the mould I of thy clay, 
Which return'd [ to the earth, 

Example VI- 
First Voice. 
" Make room , for the com | -bat, make room ; 
Sound the trum | -pet and drum ; 
A fair | -er than Ve | -nus prepares 
To encoun | -ter a great | -er than Mars. 
Make room | for the com | -bat, make room ; 
Sound the trum | -pet and drum." 



Re-appear | to the day ! 
Bear what | thou bor | -est, 

The heart | and the form, 
And the as | -pect thou wor | -est t 

Redeem | from the worm ! 
Appear ! — Appear ! — Appear!" 
Lord Byron : Manfred, Act ii, Sc. 4. 

Anapestic Dimeter with Trimeter. 

Second Voice. 
" Give the word | to begin, 
Let the com | -batants in, 
The chal | -lenger en | -ters all glo \ rwus ; 
But Love | has decreed, 
Though Beau | -ty may bleed, 
Vet Beau I -ty shall still I be vicfo I -rious." 



George Granville : Johnson's British Poets, Vol. v, p. 58. 
Example VII. — Anapestic Dimeter with Tetrameter. 



" Let the pipe's 
For our wish 



Air. 
merry notes | aid the skill | of the voice ; 
-es are crown'd, | and our hearts | shall rejoice. 
Rejoice, | and be glad ; 
For, sure, | he is mad, 
Who, where mirth, | and good hu | -mour, and har | -mony's found, 
Never catch | -es the smile, | nor lets pleas | -ure go round. 
Let the stu I -pid be grave, 



'Tis the vice 
But can nev 
With a maid 



of the slave ; 
-er agree 
-en like me, 



Who is born J in a coun | -try that's hap | -py and free." 

Lloyd: Johnson's British Poets, Vol. viii, p, 178. 

MEASURE IV.— ANAPESTIC OF ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER. 
This measure is rarely if ever used except in connexion with longer lines. The following ex- 
ample has six anapestics of two feet, and two of one ; but the latter, being verses of double rhyme, 
have each a surplus short syllable ; and four of the former commence with the iambus : — 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY.— VERSIFICATION. ORDER III. ANAPESTICS. 879 

Example I. — A Song in a Drama. 



"Now, mor | -tal, prepare, 
For thy fate | is at hand ; 
Now, u mor | -tal, prepare, 
And surren I -der. 



For Love | shall arise, 

"Whom no pow'r | can withstand, 
Who rules | from the skies 
To the cen | -tre." 



Granville, Viscount Lansdowne : Joh. Brit. Poets, Vol. v, p. 49. 

The following extract, (which is most properly to be scanned as anapestic, though considerably 
diversified,) has two lines, each of which is pretty evidently composed of a single anapest: — 

Example II. — A Chorus in the Same. 



" Let trum | -pets and tym | -bals, 
Let ata | -bals and cym | -bals, 
Let drums | and let haut | -boys give o | -ver ; 
But let flutes, 



Our pas 
To gent 



And let lutes 
-sions excite 
-ler delight, 



Andev | -eryMars | bealov | -er." — lb., p. 56. 



OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — That a single anapest, a single foot of any kind, or even a single long syllable, may 
be, and sometimes is, in certain rather uncommon instances, set as a fine, is not to be denied. 
"Dr. Caustic," or T. G-. Fessenden, in his satirical "Directions for Doing Poetry," uses in this 
manner the monosyllables, " Whew" "Say" and "Dress," and also the iambs, " The gay," and, 
"All such," rhyming them with something less isolated. 

Obs. 2. — Many of our grammarians give anonymous examples of what they conceive to be 
"Anapestic Monometer," or "the line of one anapest" while others — (as Allen, Bulbous, Churchill, 
and Hiley — ) will have the length of two anapests to be the shortest measure of this order. 
Prof. Hart says, " The shortest anapaestic verse is a single anapaest; as, 

' In a sweet All their feet AH the night 

Resonance, In the dance Tinkled light' 

This measure," it is added, "is, however, ambiguous ; for by laying an accent on the first, as well 
as the third syllable, we may generally make it a trochaic." — Hart's English Gram., p. 188. The 
same six versicles are used as an example by Prof. Fowler, who, without admitting any ambiguity 
in the measure, introduces them, rather solecistically, thus: "Each of the following lines consist 
of a single Anapest." — Fowler's E. Gram., 8vo, 1850, § 694. 

Obs. 3. — Verses of three syllables, with the second short, the last long, and the first common, or 
variable, are, it would seem, doubly doubtful in scansion; for, while the first syllable, if made 
short, gives us an anapest, to make it long, gives either an amphimac or what is virtually two 
trochees. For reasons of choice in the latter case, see Observation 1st on Trochaic Dimeter. For 
the fixing of variable quantities, since the case admits no other rule, regard should be had to the 
analogy of the verse, and also to the common principles of accentuation. It is doubtless possible 
to read the six short lines above, into the measure of so many anapests ; but, since the two mono- 
syllables " In " and "All " are as easily made long as short, whoever considers the common pro- 
nunciation of the longer words, " Resonance " and " Tinkled," may well doubt whether the 
learned professors have, in this instance, hit upon the right mode of scansion. The example may 
quite as well be regarded either as Trochaic Dimeter, cataletic, or as Amphimacric Monometer, 
acatalectic. But the word resonance, being accented usually on the first syllable only, is naturally 
a dactyl; and, since the other five little verses end severally with a monosyllable, which can be 
varied in quantity, it is possible to read them all as being dactylics ; and so the whole may be 
regarded as trebly doubtful with respect to the measure. 

Obs. 4. — L. Murray says, " The shortest anapozstic verse must be a single anapaest; as, 

But in vain 
They complain." 

And then he adds, "This measure is, however, ambiguous; for, by laying the stress of the voice 
on the first and third syllables, we might make a trochaic. And therefore the first and simplest 
form of our genuine Anapaestic verse, is made up of two anapaests." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 
257 ; 12mo, p. 207. This conclusion is utterly absurd, as well as completely contradictory to his 
first assertion. The genuineness of this small metre depends not at all on what may be made of 
the same words by other pronunciation ; nor can it be a very natural reading of this passage, that 
gives to "But" and " They" such emphasis as will make them long. 

Obs. 5. — Yet Chandler, in his improved grammar of 1847, has not failed to repeat the substance 
of all this absurdity and self-contradiction, carefully dressing it up in other language, thus: 
" Verses composed of single Anapaests are frequently found in stanzas of songs ; and the same is 
true of several of the other kinds of feet ; but we may consider the first [i. e., shortest] form of 
anapaestic verse as consisting of two Anapaests." — Chandler's Common School Gram., p. 196. 

Obs. 6. — Everett, speaking of anapestic lines, says, " The first and shortest of these is com- 
posed of a single Anapest following an Iambus." — English Versification, p. 99. This not only de- 
nies the existence of Anapestic Monometer, but improperly takes for the Anapestic verse what is, 
by the statement itself, half Iambic, and therefore of the Composite Order. But the false assertion 
is plainly refuted even by the author himself, and on the same page. For, at the bottom of the 
page, he has this contradictory note : "It has been remarked (§ 15) that though the Iambus with 



880 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

an additional short syllable is the shortest line that is known to Iambic verse, there are isolated in- 
stances of a single Iambus, and even of a single long syllable. There are examples of lines made 
up of a single Anapest, as the following example will show: — 



1 Jove in his chair, 
Of the sky lord mayor, 
"With his nods 
Men and gods 

Keeps in awe ; 
"When he winks, 
Heaven shrinks ; 

* * * * 



Cock of the school, 
He bears despotic rule ; 
His word, 
Though absurd, 
Must be law. 
Even Fate, 
Though so great, 
Must not prate ; 



His bald pate 
Jove would cuff, 
He's so bluff, 

For a straw. 
Cowed deities, 
Like mice in cheese, 
To stir must cease 

Or gnaw.' 



O'Hara: — Midas, Act i, Sc. 1." — Everett's Versification, p. 99. 

ORDER IV.— DACTYLIC VERSE. 

In pure Dactylic verse, the stress is laid on the first syllable of each successive 
three ; that is, on the first, the fourth, the seventh, and the tenth syllable of each 
line of four feet. Full dactylic generally forms triple rhyme. When one of the 
final short syllables is omitted, the rhyme is double ; when both, single. These 
omissions are here essential to the formation of such rhymes. Dactylic with double 
rhyme, ends virtually with a trochee ; dactylic with single rhyme, commonly ends 
with a caesura ; that is, with a long syllable taken for a foot. Dactylic with single 
rhyme is the same as anapestic would be without its initial short syllables. Dac- 
tylic verse is rather uncommon ; and, when employed, is seldom perfectly pure and 
regular. 

MEASURE I.— DACTYLIC OF EIGHT FEET, OR OCTOMETER. 
Example. — Nimrod. 

Nimrod the | hunter was | mighty in | hunting, and | famed as the | ruler of | cities of | yore ; 
Babel, and | Erech, and | Accad, and | Calneh, from | Shinar's fair J region his | name afar { 
bore. 

MEASURE IL— DACTYLIC OF SEVEN FEET, OR HEPTAMETER. 
Example. — Christ's Kingdom. 



Out of the 
All that of 



kingdom of | Christ shall be | gathered, by | angels o'er | Satan vie | -torious, 
-fendeth, that | lieth, that | faileth to | honour his | name ever | glorious. 



MEASURE III.— DACTYLIC OF SIX FEET, OR HEXAMETER. 

Example I. — Time in Motion. 

Time, thou art | ever in | motion, on | wheels of the | days, years, and | ages ; 
Restless as | waves of the | ocean, when | Eurus or | Boreas | rages. 

Example II. — Where is Grand-Pre f 
" This is the | forest pri | -meval ; but | where are the | hearts that be | -neath it 
Leap'd like the | roe, when he | hears in the | woodland the J voice of the | huntsman ? 
"Where is the | thatch-roofed | village, the | home of A | -cadian | farmers?" 

H. W. Longfellow: Evangeline, Part i, 1. ? — 9. 

MEASURE IV.— DACTYLIC OF FIVE FEET, OR PENTAMETER. 
Example.— Salutation to America. 
11 Land of the J beautiful, | beautiful, | land of the | free, 
Land of the | negro-slave, | negro-slave, | land of the | chivalry, 
Often my | heart had turned, | heart had turned, | longing to | thee ; 
Often had | mountain-side, { mountain-side, | broad lake, and | stream, 
Gleamed on my | waking thought, | waking thought, | crowded my | dream. 
Now thou dost | welcome me, | welcome me, | from the dark | sea, 



Land of the 
Land of the 



beautiful, | beautiful, | land of the | free, 
negro-slave, | negro-slave, | land of the | chivalry." 



MEASURE V— DACTYLIC OF FOUR FEET, OR TETRAMETER. 
Example I. — The Soldier's Wife. 
"Weary way | -wanderer, | languid and | sick at heart, 
Travelling | painfully | over the | rugged road, 
"Wild-visaged | Wanderer ! | God help thee, | wretched one ! 
Sorely thy | little one | drags by thee I barefooted ; 
Cold is the | baby that | hangs at thy | bending back, 
Meagre, and J livid, and j screaming for | misery. 



CHAP. IV.] PKOSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER IV. — DACTYLICS. 881 

Woe-begone j mother, half | anger, half | agony, 

Over thy | shoulder thou | lookest to | hush the babe, 

Bleakly the | blinding snow | beats in thy | haggard face. 

Ne'er will thy | husband re | -turn from the | war again, 

Cold is thy | heart, and as | frozen as | Charity ! 

Cold are thy J children. — Now | God be thy { comforter!" 

Robert Southey: Poems, Philad., 1843, p. 250. 

Example II. — Boys. — A Dactylic Stanza. 
" Boys will an | -ticipate, | lavish, and | dissipate 
All that your | busy pate j hoarded with | care ; 
And, in their j foolishness, | passion, and | mulishness, 
Charge you with j churlishness, j spurning your pray'r." 

Example III. — " Labour." — The First of Five Stanzas. 
" Pause not to j dream of the j future be | -fore us ; 
Pause not to j weep the wild | cares that come j o'er us: 
Hark, how Cre | -ation's deep, | musical | chorus, 

Uninter j -mitting, goes | up into | Heaven 1 
Never the ocean- wave | falters in j flowing ; 
Never the ) little seed | stops in its | growing ; 
More and more | richly the j rose-heart keeps | glowing, 
Till from its | nourishing | stem it is | riven." 

Frances S. Osgood: Clapp's Pioneer, p. 94. 

Example IV. — " Boat Song." — First Stanza of Four. 
" Hail to the j chief who in | triumph ad j -vances ! 
Honour'd and | bless'd be the | ever-green | pine ! 
Long may the | tree in his | banner that | glances, 
Flourish, the | shelter and | grace of our J line ! 
Heaven send it happy dew, 
Earth lend it sap anew, 
Gayly to | bourgeon, and | broadly to J grow, 
While ev'ry j Highland glen 
Sends our shout | back agen, 
'Roderigh Vich Alpine Dhu, ho! ieroe!'" 

"Walter Scott : Lady of the Lake, C. ii, St. 19. 

MEASURE VI.— DACTYLIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER, 
Example. — To the Katydid. 



:, Ka-ty-did, | Ka-ty-did, j sweetly sing, — 
Sing to thy | loving mates | near to thee ; 
Summer is } come, and the | trees are green, — Every | bough shall an | answer ring, 
Summer's glad j season so j dear to thee. j Sweeter than | trumpet of | victory 



Cheerily, | cheerily, | insect, sing; 

Blithe be thy J notes in the | hickory: 



MEASURE VIL— DACTYLIC OF TWO FEET, OR DIMETER. 
Example I. — The Bachelor. — Four Lines from Many. 
" Free from sa | -tiety, 
Care, and anx | -iety, 
Charms in va | -riety, 
Fall to his | share." — Anon.: Newspaper. 

Example II. — The Pibroch. — Sixteen Lines from Forty. 



" Pibroch of | Donuil Dhu, 

Pibroch of | Donuil, 
Wake thy wild | voice anew, 

Summon Clan | -Conuil. 
Come away. | come away ! 

Hark to the | summons ! 
Come in your | war-array, 

Gentles and 1 commons ! 



" Come as the | winds come, when 

Forests are | rended ; 
Come as the | waves come, when 

Navies are | stranded : 
Faster come, | faster come, 

Faster and | faster 1 
Chief, vassal | page, and groom, 

Tenant and | master." — W. Scott. 



Example III. — " My Boy." 

1 There is even a happiness that makes the heart afraid.'' — Hood. 



1. 

" One more new | claimant for 
Human fra | -ternity, 
Swelling the | flood that sweeps 
On to e I -ternity 1 

56 



I who have | filled the cup, 
Tremble to | think of it ; 

For, be it | what it may, 
I must yet | drink of it. 



882 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



2. 
Eoom for him | into the 

Ranks of hu | -manity; 
Give him a | place in your 

Kingdom of | vanity 1 
"Welcome the | stranger with 

Kindly af | -fection ; 
Hopefully, | trustfully, 

Not with de J -jection. 

3. 

See, in his | waywardness, 

How his fist j doubles ; 
Thus pugi | -listical, 

Daring life's | troubles: 
Strange that the | neophyte 

Enters ex | -istence 
In such an | attitude, 

Feigning re j -sistance. 

4. 

Could he but | have a glimpse 

Into fu | -turity, 
"Well might he j fight against 

Farther ma | -turity; 
Yet does it | seem to me 

As if his | purity 
"Were against | sinfulness 

Ample se | -curity. 

5. 

Incompre | -hensible, 

Budding im | -mortal, 
Thrust all a | -mazedly 

Under life's | portal ; 
Born to a J destiny 

Clouded in | mystery, 
Wisdom it | -self cannot 

Guess at its | history. 



Something too j much of this 

Timon-like | croaking; 
See his face | wrinkle now, 

Laughter pro | -voking. 
Now he cries | lustily — 

Bravo, my | hearty one 1 
Lungs like an | orator 

Cheering his | party on. 

7. 
Look how his merry eyes 

Turn to me pleadingly ! 
Can we help j loving him — 

Loving ex [ -ceedingly ? 
Partly with | hopefulness, 

Partly with | fears, 
Mine, as I | look at him, 

Moisten with | tears. 

8. 
Now then to | find a name ; — 

"Where shall we | search for it ? 
Turn to his | ancestry, 

Or to the | church for it ? 
Shall we en | -dow him with 

Title he | -roic, 
After some | warrior, 

Poet, or | stoic? 

9. 

One aunty | says he will 

Soon 'lisp in | numbers,' 
Turning his | thoughts to rhyme, 

E'en in his | slumbers ; 
"Watts rhymed in j babyhood, 

No blemish | spots his fame — 
Christen him | even so: 

Young Mr. j Watts his name." 
Anonymous: Knickerbocker, and Newspapers, 1849. 



MEASURE VIII, 



-DACTYLIC OP ONE FOOT, OR MONOMETER. 

" Fearfully, 
Tearfully." 



OBSERVATIONS. 
Obs. 1. — A single dactyl, set as a line, can scarcely be used otherwise than as part of a stanza, 
and in connexion with longer verses. The initial accent and triple rhyme make it necessary to 
have something else with it. Hence this short measure is much less common than the others, 
which are accented differently. Besides, the line of three syllables, as was noticed in the obser- 
vations on Anapestic Monometer, is often peculiarly uncertain in regard to the measure which it 
should make. A little difference in the laying of emphasis or accent may, in many instances, 
change it from one species of verse to an other. Even what seems to be dactylic of two feet, 
if the last syllable be sufficiently lengthened to admit of single rhyme with the full metre, becomes 
somewhat doubtful in its scansion ; because, in such case, the last foot may be reckoned an amphi- 
mac, or amphimacer. Of this, the following stanzas from Barton's lines " to the Gallic Eagle, " (or to 
Bonaparte on St. Helena,) though different from all the rest of the piece, may serve as a specimen : — 



" Far from the | battle'' s shock, 
Fate hath fast | bound thee; 
Chain'd to the | rugged rock, 
Waves warring I round thee. 



[Now, for] the J trumpet's sound, 
Sea-birds are f shrieking ;- 

Hoarse on thy | rampart's bound, 
Billows are | breaking." 



Obs. 2. — This may be regarded as verse of the Composite Order ; and, perhaps, more properly 
so, than as Dactylic with mere incidental variations. Lines like those in which the questionable 
foot is here Italicized, may be united with longer dactylics, and thus produce a stanza of great 
beauty and harmony. The following is a specimen. It is a son?, written by I know not whom, 
but set to music by Dempster. The twelfth line is varied to a different measure. 



"Address to the Skylark." 
" Bird of the | wilderness, i Emblem of | 

Blithesome and | cumberless, Blest is thy | 

Light be thy | matin o'er | moorland and I lea ; 10 ! to a I -bide in the 



happiness, 
dwelling-place ; 
I desert with I thee! 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. ORDER IV. — DACTYLICS. 



883 



" "Wild is thy | lay. and loud, Over the cloudlet dim, 

Far on the | downy cloud ; Over the rainbow's rim. 

Love gives it | energy, | love gave it | birth: 
Where, on thy | dewy wing, 
"Where art thou | journeying? 

Thy lay | is in heav | -en, thy love j is on earth. 

" O'er moor and | mountain green, 
O'er fell and | fountain sheen, 
O'er the red | streamer that j heralds the | day ; 

Obs. 3. — It is observed by Churchill, (New Gram., p. 387,) that, Shakspeare has used the dac- 
tyl, as appropriate to mournful occasions." The chief example which he cites, is the following: — 



Musical | cherub, hie, | hie thee a | -way. 

" Then, when the | gloamin comes, 
Low in the | heather blooms. 

Sweet will thy | welcome and j bed of love | be. 
Emblem of | happiness, 
Blest is thy | dwelling-place ; 

! to a I -bide in the I desert with I thee!" 



"Midnight, as | -sist our moan, 

Help us to | sigh and groan 

Heavily, | heavily. 



Graves, yawn and | yield your dead, 
Till death be | uttered 

Heavily, | heavily." — Much Ado, V, 3 



Obs. 4. — These six lines of Dactylic (or Composite) Dimeter are subjoined by the poet to four of 
Trochaic Tetrameter. There does not appear to me to be any particular adaptation of either 
measure to mournful subjects, more than to others ; but later instances of this metre may be cited, 
in which such is the character of the topic treated. The following long example consists of lines 
of two feet, most of them dactylic only; but, of the seventy-six, there are twelve which may be 
otherwise divided, and as many more which must be, because they commence with a short 
syllable. 

"The Bridge of Sighs." — By Thomas Hood. 



Even God's 
Seemin 



providence 
o | -stranged. 



"One more un | -fortunate, 

Weary of | breath, 
Rashly im | -portunate, 

Gone to her j death ! 
Take her up | tenderly, 

Lift her with | care • 
Fashioned so | slenderly, 

Young, and so | fair! 

Look at her | garments 
Clinging like | cerements, 
Whilst the wave constantly 

Drips from her clothing; 
Take her up | instantly, 

Loving, not | loathing. 

Touch her not | scornfully ; 
Think of her | mournfully, 

Gently, and ] humanly; 
Not of the | stains of her : 
All that re | -mains of her 

Now, is pure | womanly. 

Make no deep | scrutiny 
Into her | mutiny, 

Rash and un | -dutiful ; 
Past all dis | -honour, 
Death has left | on her 

Only the | beautiful. 

Obs. 5. — As each of our principal feet, — the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and the Dactyl, 
— has always one, and only one long syllable ; it should follow, that, in each of our principal or- 
ders of verse, — the Iambic, the Trochaic, the Anapestic, and the Dactylic, — any line, not diversi- 
fied by a secondary foot, must be reckoned to contain just as many feet as long syllables. So, 
too, of the Amphibrach, and any line reckoned Amphibrachic. But it happens, that the common 
error by which single-rhymed Trochaics have so often been counted a foot shorter than they are, 
is also extended by some writers to single-rhymed Dactylics — the rhyming syllable, if long, being 
esteemed supernumerary ! For example, three dactylic stanzas, in each of which a pentameter 
couplet is followed by a hexameter line, and this again by a heptameter, are introduced by Prof 
Hart thus : " The Dactylic Tetrameter, Pentameter, and Hexameter, with the additional or hypermeter 
syllable, are all found combined in the following extraordinary specimen of versification. * * * 
This is the only specimen of Dactylic hexameter or even pentameter verse that the author recollects 
to have seen." 

Lament of Adam. 

" Glad was our | meeting : thy | glittering | bosom I | heard, 
Beating on | mine, like the | heart of a | timorous | bird ; 

Bright were thine | eyes as the | stars, and their | glances were | radiant as | gleams 
Falling from | eyes of the | angels, when | singing by { Eden's pur | -pureal | streams. 



Still, for all | slips of hers, — 

One of Eve's j family — 
Wipe those poor | lips of hers, 

Oozing so I clammily. 
Loop up her | tresses, 

Escaped from the comb, — 
Her fair auburn tresses ; 
Whilst wonderment guesses, 

Where was her | home ? 

Who was her | father ? 

Who was her | mother? 
Had she a | sister? 

Had she a | brother ? 
Was there a | dearer one 

Yet, than aU | other ? 

Alas, for the rarity 
Of Christian charity 

Under the | sun ! 
0, it was | pitiful! 
Near a whole | city full, 

Home she had | none. 

Sisterly, | brotherly, 
Fatherly, | motherly 

Feelings had J changed : 
Love, by harsh | evidence, 
Thrown from its I eminence : 



Where the lamps | quiver 
So far in the river, 

With many a light, 
From window and casement, 
From garret to basement, 
She stood, with amazement, 

Houseless, by j night. 

The bleak wind of March 

Made her tremble and shiver; 
But not the dark arch. 

Or the black-flowing river: 
Mad from life's | history, 
Glad to death's | mystery, 

Swift to be | hurled,— 
Anywhere, | anywhere, 

Out of the | world ! 

In she plung'd | boldly, — 
No matter how coldly 

The rough j river ran, — 
Over the | brink of it : 
Picture it, | think of it, 

Dissolute j man!" 

Clapp's Pioneer, p. 54. 



884 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

" Happy as | seraphs were | we, for we | wander'd a | -lone, 
Trembling with | passionate | thrills, when the I twilight had | flown : 
Even the | echo was | silent : our | kisses and [ whispers of | love 
Languish'd un | -heard and un | -known, like the j breath of the | blossoming | buds 
of the | grove. 

" Life hath its | pleasures, but | fading are | they as the | flowers : 
Sin hath its j sorrows, and | sadly we | turn'd from those | bowers: 
Bright were the | angels be | -hind with their | falchions of | heavenly | flame ! 
Dark was the | desolate | desert be | -fore us, and | darker the | depth of our | shame /" 

Henry B. Hirst: Harts English Grammar, p. 190. 

Obs. 6. — Of Dactylic verse, our prosodists and grammarians in general have taken but very 
little notice ; a majority of them appearing by their silence, to have been utterly ignorant of the 
whole species. By many, the dactyl is expressly set down as an inferior foot, which they imagine 
is used only for the occasional diversification of an iambic, trochaic, or anapestic line. Thus 
Everett: "It is never used except as a secondary foot, and then in the first place of the line." — 
English Versification, p. 122. On this order of verse, Lindley Murray bestowed only the following 
words : " The Dactylic measure being very uncommon, we shall give only one example of one 
species of it : — 

From the low pleasures of this fallen nature, 

Rise we to higher, &c." — Gram., 12mo, p. 207 ; 8vo, p. 257. 

Read this example with "we rise" for "Rise we," and all the poetry of it is gone! Humphrey 
says, " Dactyle verse is seldom used, as remarked heretofore ; but is used occasionally, and has 
three metres ; viz. of 2, 3, and 4 feet. Specimens follow. 2 feet. Free from anxiety. 3 feet. 
Singing most sweetly and merrily. 4 feet. Dactylic measures are wanting in energy." — English 
Prosody, p. 18. Here the prosodist has made his own examples ; and the last one, which unjustly 
impeaches all dactylics, he has made very badly — very prosaically; for the word "Dactylic," 
though it has three syllables, is properly no dactyl, but rather an amphibrach. 

Obs. 7. — By the Rev. David Blair, this order of poetic numbers is utterly misconceived and 
misrepresented. He says of it, "Dactylic verse consists of a short .syllable, with one, two, or 
three feet, and a long syllable ; as, 

' Distracted with woe, 

'I'll rush on the foe.' Addison." — Blair's Pract. Gram., p. 119. 
" ' Ye shepherds so cheerful and gay, 
' Whose flocks never carelessly roam ; 
' Should Corydon's happen to stray, 
'Oh! call the poor wanderers home.' Shenstone." — lb., p. 120. 

It is manifest, that these lines are not dactylic at all. There is not a dactyl in them. They are 
composed of iambs and anapests. The order of the versification is Anapestic ; but it is here 
varied by the very common diversification of dropping the first short syllable. The longer exam- 
ple is from a ballad of 216 lines, of which 99 are thus varied, and 117 are full anapestics. 

Obs. 8. — The makers of school-books are quite as apt to copy blunders, as to originate them ; 
and, when an error is once started in a grammar, as it passes with the user for good learning, no 
one can guess where it will stop. It seems worth while, therefore, in a work of this nature, to be 
liberal in the citation of such faults as have linked themselves, from time to time, with the several 
topics of our great subject. It is not probable, that the false scansion just criticised originated 
with Blair ; for the Comprehensive Grammar, a British work, republished in its third edition, by 
Dobson, of Philadelphia, in 1789, teaches the same doctrine, thus: "Dactylic measure may con- 
sist of one, two, or three Dactyls, introduced by a feeble syllable, and terminated by a strong 
one ; as, 



So | fair and so | bright, 
They'll | give you de | -light : 
Ob I -serve how they | glister and | shine. Swift. 



My | dear Irish | folks, 
Come | leave off your | jokes, 
And | buy up my | halfpence so | fine ; 

A | cobler there | was and he | liv'd in a | stall, 

"Which | serv'd him for | kitchen for | parlour and | hall ; 

No f coin in his | pocket, no | care in his | pate ; 

Noam | -bition he | had, and no | duns at his | gate." — Comp. Gram., p. 150. 
To this, the author adds, " Dactylic measure becomes Anapestic by setting off an Iambic foot in 
the beginning of the line." — lb. These verses, all but the last one, unquestionably have an iam- 
bic foot at the beginning ; and, for that reason, they are not, and by no measurement can be, 
dactylics. The last one is purely anapestic. All the divisional bars, in either example, are 
placed wrong. 

ORDER V.— COMPOSITE VERSE. 

Composite verse is that which consists of various metres, or different feet, com- 
bined, — not accidentally, or promiscuously, but by design, and with some regularity. 
Tn Composite verse, of any form, the stress must be laid rhythmically, as in the 
simple orders, else the composition will be nothing better than unnatural prose. 
The possible variety of combinations in this sort of numbers is unlimited ; but, the 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER V. — COMPOSITES. 



)OJ 



pure and simple kinds being generally preferred, any stated mixture of feet is com- 
paratively uncommon. Certain forms which may be scanned by other methods, are 
susceptible also of division as Composites. Hence there cannot be an exact enume- 
ration of the measures of this order, but instances, as they occur, may be cited to 
exemplify it. 

Example I — From Swift's Irish Feast 
" O'Rourk's | noble fare | will ne'er | be forgot, 

By those | who were there, | or those j who were not. 

His rev | -els to keep, | we sup | and we dine 

On sev | -en score sheep, j fat bul | -locks, and swine. 

Usquebaugh ] to our feast | in pails | was brought up, 

An hun j -dred at least, | and a mad j -der our cup. 

O there | is the sport ! j we rise | with the light, 

In disor | -derly sort, | from snor j -ing all night. 

how | was I trick'd ! | my pipe | it was broke, 

My pock | -et was pick'd, j I lost | my new cloak. 

I'm ri J -fled, quoth Nell, j of man { -tie and kerch j -er: 

"Why then j fare them well, j the de'il | take the search j -er." 

Johnson'' s Works of the Poets, Vol. v, p. 310. 
Here the measure is tetrameter; and it seems to have been the design of the poet, that each 
hemistich should consist of one iamb and one anapest. Such, with a few exceptions, is the ar- 
rangement throughout the piece ; but the hemistichs which have double rhyme, may each be 
divided into two amphibrachs. In Everett's Versification, at p. 100, the first six lines of this ex- 
ample are broken into twelve, and set in three stanzas, being given to exemplify "The Line of a 
single Anapest preceded by an Iambus ," or what he improperly calls " The first and shortest species 
of Anapestic lines." His other instance of the same metre is also Composite verse, rather than 
Anapestic, even by his own showing. "In the following example," says he, "we have this 
measure alternating with Amphibrachic lines :" 

-From Byron's Manfred. 

I broke through his slumbers, 

I shiv | -er'd his chain, 
I leagued him with numbers — 
He's Ty J -rant again! 
-ion he'll an { -swer my care, 
-tion — his flight | and despair." — Act ii, Sc. 3. 
Here the last two lines, which are not cited by Everett, are pure anapestic tetrameters ; and it 
may be observed, that, if each two of the short lines were printed as one, the eight which are 
here scanned otherwise, would become four of the same sort, except that these would each begin 
with an iambus. Hence the specimen sounds essentially as anapestic verse. 



Example II- 
" The Captive Usurper, 

Hurl'd down | from the throne, 
Lay buried in torpor, 
Forgotten and lone ; 

With the blood | of a mill { 
With a na I -tion's destruc I 



Example III- 

" Gentle and | lovely form, 
What didst | thou here, 
When the fierce j battle storm 
Bore down | the spear? 

Banner and | shiver'd crest, 

Beside ] thee strown, 
TelL that a | -midst the best 

Thy work | was done ! 

Low lies the J stately head, 
Earth-bound { the free: 

How gave those j haughty dead 
A place ) to thee ? 

Slumb'rer ! thine | early bier 
Friends should j have crown'd, 

Many a | flow'r and tear 
Shedding | around. 

Soft voices, j dear and young, 
Mingling j their swell, 

Should o'er thy | dust have sung 
Earth's last | farewell. 

Sisters a J -bove the grave 

Of thy | repose 
Should have bid | vi'lets wave 

With the \ white rose. 



Woman on the Field of Battle. 

Now must the | trumpet's note, 
Savage | and shrill, 

For requi'm | o'er thee float, 
Thou fair J and still 1 

And the swift | charger sweep, 
In full j career, 



Trampling thy 
Why cam'st 



place of sleep- 
thou here ? 



Why ? — Ask the | true heart why 

Woman | hath been 
Ever, where | brave men die, 

Unshrink | -ing seen. 

Unto this | harvest ground, 
Proud reap J -ers came, 

Some for that j stirring sound, 
A warr | -ior's name : 

Some for the | stormy play, 

And joy | of strife, 
And some to J fling away 

A wea \ -ry life. 

But thou, pale | sleeper, thou, 
With the | slight frame, 

And the rich | locks, whose glow 
Death can j -not tame ; 



886 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



[PART IV. 



Only one | thought, one pow'r, Only the | true, the strong, 

Thee could | have led, The love | whose trust 

So through the | tempest's hour "Woman's deep | soul too long 

To lift [ thy head 1 Pours on [ the dust." 

Hemans : Poetical Works, VoL ii, p. 157. 

Here are fourteen stanzas of composite dimeter, each having two sorts of lines ; the first sort 
consisting, with a few exceptions, of a dactyl and an amphimac ; the second, mostly, of two iambs ; 
but, in some instances, of a trochee and an iamb ; — the latter being, in such a connexion, much 
the more harmonious and agreeable combination of quantities. 

Example IV. — Airs from a " Serenata." 



Air I. 

" Love sounds | the alarm, 

And fear | is a fly | -ing : 
When beau [ -ty's the prize, 

What mor | -tal fears dy [ -ihg ? 
In defence [ of my treas | -ure, 

I'd bleed j at each vein : 
Without | her no pleas | -ure ; 

For life [ is a pain." 



Air 2. 
" Consid | -er, fond shep | -herd, 

How fleet | -ing's the pleas | -ure, 
That flat [ -ters our hopes 
In pursuit | of the fair : 
The joys | that attend [ it, 

By mo | -ments we meas | -ure ; 
But life | is too lit [ -tie 
To meas I -ure our care." 



Gay's Poems: Johnson's Works of the Poets, Vol. vii, p. 378. 
These verses are essentially either anapestic or amphibrachic. The anapest divides two of them 
in the middle ; the amphibrach will so divide eight. But either division will give many iambs. 
By the present scansion, the first foci is an iamb in all of them but the two anapestics. 



Example "P".- 
1. 

" I saw [ him once f before 
As he pass | -ed by \ the door, 

And again 
The pave \ -ment stones f resound 
As he tot | -ters o'er \ the ground 

With his cane. 

2. 
They say | that in j. his prime, 
Ere the prun | -ing knife \ of Time 

Cut him down, 
Not a bet \ -ter man \ was found 
By the cri f -er on [ his round 

Through the town. 

3. 

But now | he walks | the streets, 
And he looks | at all [ he meets 

So forlorn ; 
And he shakes [ his fee f -ble head, 
That it seems \ as if \ he said, 

They are gone.. 

4. 
The mos } -sy mar \ -bles rest 
On the lips | that he | has press'd 

In their bloom ; 
And the names | he lov'd | to hear 
Have been carv'd | for man \ -y a year 

On the tomb. 



-" The Last LeafT 



5. 



My grand [ -mamma f has said, — 
Poor old La | -dy ! she | is dead 

Long ago — 
That he had | a Ro f -man nose, 
And his cheek \ was like \ a rose 

In the snow. 

6. 

But now | his nose | is thin, 
And it rescs | upon | his chin 

Like a staff; 
And a crook f is in [ his back, 
And a mel [ -anchol | -y crack 

In his laugh. 

7. 
I know | it is | a sin 
For me [thus] } to sit \ and grin 

At him here ; 
But the old | three-cor | -ner'd hat, 
And the breech \ -es, and ( all that, 

Are so queer 1 

8. 
And if I [ should live | to be 
The last leaf | upon | the tree 

In the spring, — 
Let them smile, | as I | do now, 
At the old | forsak f -en bough 
Where I cling." 
Oliver W. Holmes: The Pioneer, 1843, p. 108. 



OBSERVATION'S. 
Obs. 1. — Composite verse, especially if the lines be short, is peculiarly liable to uncertainty, 
and diversity of scansion ; and that which does not always abide by one chosen order of quantities, 
can scarcely be found agreeable ; it must be more apt to puzzle than to please the reader. The 
eight stanzas of this last example, have eight lines of iambic trimeter; and, since seven times in 
eight, this metre holds the first place in the stanza, it is a double fault, that one such line seems 
strayed from its proper position. It would be better to prefix the word Now to the fourth line, 
and to mend the forty-third thus : — 

"And should [ I live f to be "— 

The trissyllabic feet of this piece, as I scan it, are numerous ; being the sixteen short lines of 
monometer, and the twenty-four initial feet of the lines of seven syllables. Every one of the forty 
— (except the thirty-sixth, " The last leaf" — \ begins with a monosyllable which may be varied 



CHAP. IV.] PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ORDER V. — COMPOSITES. 887 

in quantity ; so that, with stress laid on this monosyllable, the foot becomes an amphimac ; with- 
out such stress, an anapest. 

Obs. 2. — I incline to read this piece as composed of iambs and anapests ; but E. A. Poe, who 
has commended " the effective harmony of these lines," and called the example " an excellently 
well conceived and well managed specimen of versification," counts many syllables long, which 
such a reading makes short, and he also divides all but the iambics in a way quite different from 
mine, thus: " Let us scan the first stanza. 



The pave- | ment stones j resound 
As he | totters | o'er the | ground 
With his cane.' 



' I saw | him once j before 
As he j passed j by the j door, 
And a- | gain 

This," says he, "is the general scansion of the poem. "We have first three iambuses. The sec- 
ond fine shifts the rhythm into the trochaic, giving us three trochees, with a caesura equivalent, in 
this case, to a trochee. The third fine is a trochee and equivalent caesura."— Poe's Notes upon 
English Verse : Pioneer, p. 109. These quantities are the same as those by which the whole 
piece is made to consist of iambs and amphimacs. 

Obs. 3. — In its rhythmical effect upon the ear, a supernumerary short syllable at the end of a 
line, may sometimes, perhaps, compensate for the want of such a syllable at the beginning of the 
next line, as may be seen in the fourth example above; but still it is unusual, and seems im- 
proper, to suppose such syllables to belong to the scansion of the subsequent line ; for the division 
of lines, with their harmonic pauses, is greater than the division of feet, and implies that no foot 
can ever actually be split by it. Poe has suggested that the division into lines may be disregard- 
ed in scanning, and sometimes must be. He cites for an example the beginning of Byron's " Bride 
of Abydos," — a passage which has been admired for its easy flow, and which, he saj's, has greatly 
puzzled those who have attempted to scan it. Regarding it as essentially anapestic tetrameter, 
yet as having some initial iambs, and the first and fifth fines dactylic, I shall here divide it accord- 
ingly, thus: — 

" Kndw ye the | land where the | cypress and | myrtle 

Are em I -blems of deeds j that are done | in their clime — 
Where the rage ) of the vul | -ture, the love | of the tur | -tie, 

Now melt | into soft | -ness, now mad j -den to crime ? 

Know ye the | land of the | cedar and | vine, 

Where the flow'rs j ever bios | -som, the beams | ever shine, 

And the light | wings of Zeph | -yr, oppress'd | with perfume, 

Wax faint | o'er the gar j -dens of Gul j in her bloom ? 

Where the cit | -ron and ol j -ive are fair | -est of fruit, 

And the voice I of the night | -jngale nev j -er is mute ? 

Where the vir ] -gins are soft | as the ros j -es they twine, 

And all, j save the spir J -it of man, | is divine ? 

'Tis the land | of the East — | 't is the clime | of the Sun — 

Can he smile | on such deeds j as his chil | -dren have done ? 

Oh, wild } as the ac j -cents of lov j -ers' farewell, 

Are the hearts | that they bear, j and the tales j that they tell." 

Obs. 4. — These lines this ingenious prosodist divides not thus, but, throwing them together like 
prose unpunctuated, finds in them " a regular succession of dactylic rhythms, varied only at three 
points by equivalent spondees, and separated into two distinct divisions by equivalent terminating 
caesuras." He imagines that, " By aU who have ears — not over long — this will be acknowledged 
as the true and the sole true scansion." — E. A. Poe: Pioneer, p. 107. So it may, for aught I 
know ; but, having dared to show there is an other way quite as simple and plain, and less ob- 
jectionable, I submit both to the judgement of the reader : — 

" Know ye the | land where the | cypress and j myrtle are | emblems of | deeds that are | 
done in their | clime where the j rage of the | vulture the | love of the j turtle now | melt into 
| softness now | madden to | crime. Know ye the j land of the | cedar and j vine where the | 
flow'rs ever j blossom the j beams ever | shine where the | light wings of | zephyr op | -press'd 



Gul in her | bloom where the | citron and J 
nightingale | never Is | mute where the | vir- 



with per | -fume wax \ faint o'er the j gardens of 

olive are j fairest of | fruit and the | voice of the 

gins are | soft as the | roses they j twine, and ] all save the | spirit of | man is dl- j vine 'tis the | 

land of the | East 'tis the | clime of the | Sun can he | smile on such | deeds as his | children 

have | done oh | wild as the | accents of j lovers' fare- ] well are the j hearts that they j bear and 

the | tales that they | tell" — lb. 

Obs. 5. — In the sum and proportion of their quantities, the anapest, the dactyl, and the amphi- 
brach, are equal, each having two syllables short to one long; and, with two short quantities 
between two long ones, lines may be tolerably accordant in rhythm, though the order, at the com- 
mencement, be varied, and their number of syllables be not equal Of the following sixteen lines, 
nine are pure anapestic tetrameters ; one may be reckoned dactylic, but it may quite as well be 
said to have a trochee, an iambus, and two anapests or two amphimacs ; one is a spondee and 
three anapests ; and the rest may be scanned as amphibrachics ending with an iambus, but are 
more properly anapestics commencing with an iambus. Like the preceding example from Byron, 
they lack the uniformity of proper composites, and are rather to be regarded as anapestics irregu- 
larly diversified. 



888 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

The Albatross. 

"'Tis said the Albatross never rests." — Buffbn. 
" Where the fath | -ornless waves | in magnif | -icence toss, 
Homeless | and high | soars the wild | Albatross; 
Unwea | -ried, undauat j -ed, unshrink J -ing, alone, 
The o | -cean his em | -pire, the tern | -pest his throne. 
When the ter j -rible whirl j -wind raves wild | o'er the surge, 
And the hur | -ricane howls | out the mar -iner's dirge, 
In thy glo | -ry thou spurn | -est the dark -heaving sea, 
Proud bird | of the o | -cean- world, home | -less and free. 
When the winds | are at rest, ( and the sun | in his glow, 
And the glit | -tering tide | sleeps in beau | -ty below, 
In the pride j of thy pow | -er trium | -phant above, 
With thy mate | thou art hold | -ing thy rev | -els of love. 
Untir | -ed, unfet | -tered, unwatched, | unconfined, 
Be my spir | -it like thee, j in the world | of the mind ; 
No lean | -ing for earth, | e'er to wea | -ry its flight, 
And fresh | as thy pin J -ions in re | -gions of light." 

Samuel Daly Langtree : North American Reader, p. 443. 
Obs. 6. — It appears that the most noted measures of the Greek and Latin poets were not of 
any simple order, but either composites, or mixtures too various to be called composites. It is 
not to be denied, that we have much difficulty in reading them rhythmically, according to their 
stated feet and scansion ; and so we should have, in reading our own language rhythmically, in 
any similar succession of feet. Noticing this in respect to the Latin Hexameter, or Heroic verse, 
Poe says, " Now the discrepancy in question is not observable in English metres ; where the scan- 
sion coincides with the reading, so far as the rhythm is concerned — that is to say, if we pay no 
attention to the sense of the passage. But these facts indicate a radical difference in the genius of 
the two languages, as regards their capacity for modulation. In truth, * * * the Latin is a 
far more stately tongue than our own. It is essentially spondaic ; the English is as essentially dac- 
tylic." — Pioneer, p. 110. (See the marginal note in Section 3d, at Obs. 22d, above.) Notwith- 
standing this difference, discrepance, or difficulty, whatever it may be, some of our poets have, in 
a few instances, attempted imitations of certain Latin metres ; which imitations it may be proper 
briefly to notice under the present head. The Greek or Latin Hexameter line has, of course, six 
feet, or pulsations. According to the Prosodies, the first four of these may be either dactyls or 
spondees; the fifth is always, or nearly always, a dactyl; and the sixth, or last, is always a 
spondee: as, 

"Ludere | qua? vel I -lem cala [ -mo per | -misit a | -gresti." — Virg. 
" Infan- | dum, Re j -glna, ju } -bes reno | -vare do | -lorem." — Id. 
Of this sort of verse, in English, somebody has framed the following very fair example: — 
" Man is a | complex, | compound | compost, | yet is he j God-born." 
Obs. 7. — Of this species of versification, which may be called Mixed or Composite Hexameter, 
the most considerable specimen that I have seen in English, is Longfellow's Evangeline, a poem 
of one thousand three hundred and eighty-two of these long lines, or verses. This work has 
found admirers, and not a few ; for, of these, nothing written by so distinguished a scholar could 
fail : but, surely, not many of the verses in question exhibit truly the feet of the ancient Hexa- 
meters ; or, if they do, the ancients contented themselves with very imperfect rhythms, even in 
their noblest heroics. In short, I incline to the opinion of Poe. that, " Nothing less than the de- 
servedly high reputation of Professor Longfellow, could have sufficed to give currency to his lines 
as to Greek Hexameters. In general, they are neither one thing nor another. Some few of them 
are dactylic verses — English dactylics. But do away with the division into lines, and the most 
astute critic would never have suspected them of any thing more than prose." — Pioneer, p. 111. 
The following are the last ten lines of the volume, with such a division into feet as the poet is 
presumed to have contemplated : — 

" Still stands the | forest pri | -meval ; but | under the | shade of its | branches 
Dwells an | -other | race, with j other j customs and | language. 
Only a | -long the | shore of the | mournful and | misty At | -lantic 
Linger a ( few A | -cadian | peasants, whose | fathers from j exile 
Wandered | back to their | native | land to f die in its | bosom. 
In the | fisherman's [ cot the | wheel and the | loom are still | busy ; 
Maidens still | wear their | Norman | caps and their | kirtles of J homespun, 
And by the | evening | fire re | -peat E | -vangeline's | story, 
While from its | rocky | caverns the | deep-voiced, | neighbouring | ocean 
Speaks, and in | accents dis | -consolate | answers the | wail of the | forest." 

Henry W. Longfellow : Evangeline, p. 162. 
Obs. 8. — An other form of verse, common to the Greeks and Romans, which has sometimes 
been imitated — or, rather, which some writers have attempted to imitate — in English, is the line 
or stanza called Sapphic, from the inventress, Sappho, a Greek poetess. The Sapphic verse, ac- 
cording to Fabricius, Smetius, and all good authorities, has eleven syllables, making " five feet — 
the first a trochee, the second a spondee, the third a dactyl, and the fourth and fifth trochees." 
The Sapphic stanza, or what is sometimes so called, consists of three Sapphic lines and an Ado- 



CHAI. IV.] PROSODY. VERSIFICATION. — ORDER V. — COMPOSITES. 889 

nian, or Adonic, — this last being a short line composed of " a dactyl and a spondee." Example 
from Horace : — 

" lnte | -ger vl | -tas, scele | -risque | purus 

Non e | -get Man | -ri jacu j -lis ne | -qu' arcu, 

Nee ven j -ena | -tis gravi | -da sa | -gittis, 
Fusee, pha | -retra." 
Obs. 9. — To arrange eleven syllables in a line, and have half or more of them to form trochees, 
is no difficult matter; but, to find rhythm, in the succession of "a trochee, a spondee, and a dac- 
tyl," as we read words, seems hardly practicable. Hence few are the English Sapphics, if there 
be any, which abide by the foregoing formule of quantities and feet. Those which I have seen, 
are generally, if not in every instance, susceptible of a more natural scansion as being composed 
of trochees, with a dactyl, or some other foot of three syllables, at the beginning of each line. 
The csesural pause falls sometimes after the fourth syllable, but more generally, and much more 
agreeably, after the fifth. Let the reader inspect the following example, and see if he do not 
agree with me in laying the accent on only the first syllable of each foot, as the feet are here 
divided. The accent, too, must be carefully laid. Without considerable care in the reading, 
the hearer will not suppose the composition to be any thing but prose : — 

"The Widow."— (In "Sapphics.") 
" Cold was the j night-wind, | drifting | fast the | snow fell, 
Wide were the J downs, and { shelter | -less and | naked, 
When a poor | Wanderer j struggled | on her | journey, 

Weary and | way-sore. 
Drear were the | downs, more | dreary | her re | -flections ; 
Cold was the | night- wind, | colder | was her | bosom ; 
She had no } home, the | world was j all be | -fore her ; 

She had no | shelter. 

Fast o'er the | heath a | chariot | rattlee | by her ; 
'Pity me!' | feebly | cried the | lonely | wanderer; 
' Pity me, | strangers ! | lest, with j cold and | hunger, 

Here I should | perish. 
'Once I had J friends, — though | now by | all for | -saken ! 
1 Once I had | parents, | — they arc | now in | heaven ! 
'I had a | home once, | — I had | once a | husband — 

Pity me, j strangers ! 

' I had a | home once, | — I had J once a J husband — 
'I am a [ widow, j poor and | broken | -hearted!' 
Loud blew the j wind ; un { -heard was | her com j -plaining ; 

On drove the | chariot. 
Then on the | snow she [ laid her | down to | rest her; 
She heard a | horseman; [ ' Pity | me !' she | groan'd out; 
Loud was the j wind ; un | -heard was | her com j -plaining ; 

On went the | horseman. 
Worn out with | anguish, j toil, and | cold, and | hunger, 
Down sunk the | Wanderer; | sleep had | seized her | senses; 
There did the | traveller | find her | in the | morning; 

God had re | -leased her." 
Robert Southey: Poems, Philad., 1843, p. 251. 

Obs. 10. — Among the lyric poems of Dr. Watts, is one, entitled, " The Day op Judgement ; 
an Gde attempted in English Sapphic." It is perhaps as good an example as we have of the spe- 
cies. It consists of nine stanzas, of which I shall here cite the first three, dividing them into 
feet as above : — 

" When the fierce | North Wind, | with his | airy J forces, 
Rears up the | Baltic | to a | foaming | fun r ; 
And the red j lightning | with a | storm of | hail comes 

Rushing a | -main down ; 

How the poor | sailors | stand a | -maz'd and | tremble ! 
While the hoarse | thunder, | like a bloody | trumpet, 
Roars a loud | onset | to the | gaping j waters, 

Quick to de | -vour them. 
Such shall the | noise be, | and the j wild dis } -order, 
(If things e | -ternal j may be j like these | earthly,) 
Such the dire \ terror, | when the | great Arch | -angel 

Shakes the ere | -ation." — Horm Lyricce, p. 6*7. 
Obs. 11. — "These lines," says Humphrey, who had cited the first four, "are good English 
Sapphics, and contain the essential traits of the original as nearly as the two languages, Greek 
and English, correspond to each other. This stanza, together with the poem, from which this 
Was taken, may stand for a model, in our English compositions." — Humphrey's E. Prosody, p. 19. 
This author erroneously supposed, that the trissyllabic foot, in any line of the Sapphic stanza, 



890 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

must occupy the second place : and, judging of the ancient feet and quantities by what he found, 
or supposed he found, in the English imitations, and not by what the ancient prosodists say of 
them, yet knowing that the ancient and the modern Sapphics are in several respects unlike, he 
presented forms of scansion lor both, which are not only peculiar to himself, but not well adapted 
to either. " We have," says he, " no established rule for this kind of verse, in our English com- 
positions, which has been uniformly adhered to. The rule for which, in Greek and Latin verse, 
as far as I can ascertain, was this :" v | | v "|"'|~"a trochee, a moloss, a pyrrhic, a 

trochee, and [a] spondee; and sometimes, occasionally, a trochee, instead of a spondee, at the end. 
But as our language is not favourable to the use of the spondee and moloss, the moloss is seldom 
or never used in our English Sapphics ; but, instead of which, some other trissyllable foot is used. 
Also, instead of the spondee, a trochee is commonly used; and sometimes a trochee instead of the 
pyrrhic, in the third place. As some prescribed rule, or model for imitation, may be necessary, 
in this case, I will cite a stanza from one of our best English poets, which may serve for a model. 

' "When the | fierce north-wind, | with his | airy | forces [ , ] 
Rears up | the Baltic | to a | foaming | fury ; 
And the | red lightning | with a | storm of | hail comes 

Rushing | amain down.' — Watts." — lb., p. 19. 
Obs. 12. — In "the Works of George Canning," a small book published in 1829, there is a poet- 
ical dialogue of nine stanzas, entitled, "The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-Grinder," said to 
be "a burlesque on Mr. Southey's Sapphics." The metre appears to be near enough like to the 
foregoing. But these verses I divide, as I have divided the others, into trochees with initial 
dactyls. At the commencement, the luckier party salutes the other thus: — 
"'Needy knife | -grinder! | whither | are you | going? 
Rough is the | road, your | wheel is | out of | order — 
Bleak blows the | blast; — your | hat has | got a | hole hrt, 
So have your | breeches 1 

' Weary knife | -grinder ! | little | think the | proud ones 
Who in thoir | coaches | roll a | -long the | turnpike- 
Road, what hard | work 'tis, | crying | all day, | ' Knives and 

Scissors to | grind 0!' " — P. 44. 
Obs. 13. — Among the humorous poems of Thomas Green Fessenden, published under the 
sobriquet of Dr. Caustic, or " Christopher Caustic, M. D.," may be seen an other comical example 
of Sapphics, which extends to eleven stanzas. It describes a contra-dance, and is entitled, " Hor- 
ace Surpassed." The conclusion is as follows : — 

" Willy Wagnimble dancing with Flirtilla, 
Almost as light as air-balloon inflated, 
Rigadoons around her, 'till the lady's heart is 

Forced to surrender. 

Benny Bamboozle cuts the drollest capers, 
Just like a camel, or a hippopot'mus ; 
Jolly Jack Jumble makes as big a rout as 

Forty Dutch horses. 
See Angelina lead the mazy dance down ; 
Never did fairy trip it so fantastic ; 
How my heart flutters, while my tongue pronounces, 

' Sweet little seraph !' 
Such are the joys that flow from contra-dancing, 
Pure as the primal happiness of Eden, 
Love, mirth, and music, kindle in accordance 

Raptures extatic." — Poems, p. 208. 

SECTION V.— OEAL EXERCISES. 
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. 

FALSE PROSODY, OR ERRORS OF METRE. 
Lesson I. — Restore the Rhythm. 
"The lion is laid down in his lair." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 134. 

[Foemule.— Not proper, because the word " lion," here put for Cowper's word " beast" destroys the metre, 
and changes the line to prose. But, according to the definition given on p. 827, "Verse, in opposition to prose, 
is language arranges into metrical lines of some determinate length and rhythm — language so ordered as to pro- 
duce harmony by a due succession of poetic feet." This line was composed of one iamb and two anapests; and, 
to such form, it should be restored, thus: "The beast is laid down in his lair." — Cowper's Poems, Vol. i, p. 
201.] 

" Where is thy true treasure ? Gold says, not in me." — HallocWs Gram., 1842, p. 66. 
"Canst thou grow sad, thou sayest, as earth grows bright ?" — Frazee's Gram., 1845, p. 140. 
"It must be so, Plato, thou reasonest well." — Wells's Gram., 1846, p. 122. 
" Slow rises merit, when by poverty depressed." — lb., p. 195; Hiley, 132 ; Hart, 179. 
"Rapt in future times, the bard begun." — Wells's Gram., 1846, p. 153. 



CHAP. V.] PROSODY. — ERRORS OF METRE. QUESTIONS. 891 

" Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens 

To wash it white as snow ? Whereunto serves mercy, 

But to confront the visage of offence 1" — Hallock's Gram., 1842, p. 118. 
" Look ! in this place ran Cassius's dagger through." — Karnes, El. of Or., Vol. i, p. 14. 
" "When they list their lean and flashy songs, 

Harsh grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw." — Jamieson's Bhet., p. 135. 
" Did not great Julius bleed for justice's sake?" — Bodd's Beauties of Shah, p. 253. 
"Did not great Julius bleed for justice sake?" — Singer's Shakspeare, Vol. ii, p. 266. 
" May I. unblam'd, express thee ? Since God is light." — 0. B. Feirce's Gram., p. 290. 
"Or hearest thou, rather, pure ethereal stream!" — 2d Perversion, ib. 
" Republics ; kingdoms ; empires, may decay ; 

Princes, heroes, sages, sink to nought." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 28*7. 
"Thou bringest, gay creature as thou art, 

A solemn image to my heart." — E. J. HallocVs Gram., p. 19?. 
" Know thyself, presume not God to scan ; 

The proper study of mankind is Man." — 0. B. Feirce's Gram., p. 285. 
"Raised on a hundred pilasters of gold." — Charlemagne, C. i, St. 40. 
"Love in Adalgise's breast has fixed his sting." — lb., C. i, St. 30. 



" Thirty days hath September, 
April, June, and November, 



February twenty-eight alone, 
All the rest thirty and one." 
ColeVs Grammar, or PauVs Accidence. Lond., 1193, p. 15. 

Lesson II. — Restore the Rhythm. 
" 'Twas not the fame of what he once had been, 

Or tales in old records and annals seen." — Rowe's Lucan, B. i, 1. 214. 
" And Asia now and Afric are explor'd, 

For high-priced dainties, and citron board." — Eng. Poets; ib., B. i, 1. 311. 
" Who knows not, how the trembling judge beheld 

The peaceful court with arm'd legions fill'd?" — Eng. Poets; ib., B. i, 1. 578. 
" With thee the Scythian wilds we'll wander o'er, 

With thee burning Libyan sands explore." — Eng. Poets: ib., B. i, 1. 661. 
"Hasty and headlong different paths they tread, 

As blind impulse and wild distraction lead." — Eng. Poets: ib., B. i, 1. 858. 
" But Fate reserv'd to perform its doom, 

And be the minister of wrath to Rome." — Eng. Poets: ib., B. ii, 1. 136. 
"Thus spoke the youth When Cato thus exprest 

The sacred counsels of his most inmost breast." — Eng. Poets: ib., B. ii, 1. £35. 
" These were the strict manners of the man, 

And this the stubborn course in which they ran ; 

The golden mean unchanging to pursue, 

Constant to keep the proposed end in view." — Eng. Poets : ib., B. ii, 1. 586. 
" Whau greater grief can a Roman seize, 

Than to be forc'd to live on terms like these!" — Eng. Poets : ib., B. ii, 1. 1G2. 
"He views the naked town with joyful eyes, 

While from his rage an arm'd people flies." — Eng. Poets : ib., B. ii, 1. 880. 
"For planks and beams he ravages the wood, 

And the tough bottom extends across the flood." — Eng. Poets : ib., B. ii, 1. 1040. 
" A narrow pass the horned mole divides, 

Narrow as that where Euripus' strong tides 

Beat on Eubcean Chalcis' rocky sides." — Eng. Poets : ib., B. ii, L 1095. 
" No force, no fears their hands unarm'd bear, 

But looks of peace and gentleness they wear." — Eng. Poets: ib., B. iii, 1. 112. 
" The ready warriors all aboard them ride, 

And wait the return of the retiring tide." — Eng. Poets : ib., B. iv, 1. 116. 
" He saw those troops that long had faithful stood, 

Friends to his cause, and enemies to good, 

Grown weary of their chief, and satiated with blood." — Eng. Poets: ib., B. v, L 331. 



CHAPTER V.— QUESTIONS. 

ORDER OF REHEARSAL, AND METHOD OF EXAMINATION. 
PART FOURTH, PROSODY. 

QW [The following questions call the attention of the student to the main doctrines in the foregoing code of 
Prosody, and emhrace or demand those facts which it is most important for him to fix in his memory ; they 
may, therefore, serve not only to aid the teacher in the process of examining his classes, hut also to direct the 
learner in his manner of preparation for recital.] 

Lesson I. — Of Punctuation. 
1. Of what does Prosody treat? 2. "What is Punctuation? 3. "What are the principal points, 



892 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

or marks ? 4. What pauses are denoted by the first four points ? 5. "What pauses are required 
by the other four ? 6. What is the general use of the Comma? 7. How many rules for the 
Comma are there, and what are their heads? 8. What says Rule 1st of Simple Sentences'? 9. 
What says Rule 2d of Simple Members? 10. What says Rule 3d of More than Two Words? 
11. What says Rule 4th of Only Two Words? 12. What says Rule 5th of Words in Pairs ? 
13. What says Rule 6th of Words put Absolute ? 14. What says Rule 7th of Words in Apposi- 
tion ? 15. What says Rule 8th of Adjectives ? 16. What says Rule 9th of Finite Verbs f 17. 
What says Rule 10th of Infinitives? 18. What says Rule 11th of Participles? 19. What says 
Rule 12th of Adverbs? 20. What says Rule 13th of Conjunctions? 21. What sa3"S Rule 14th 
of Prepositions ? 22. What says Rule 15th of Interjections ? 23. What says Rule 16th of Words 
Repeated? 24. What says Rule 17th of Dependent Quotations? 

Lesson II. — Op the Comma. 

1. How many exceptions, or forms of exception, are there to Rule 1st for the comma? 2. — to 
Rule 2d? 3.— to Rule 3d? 4.— to Rule 4th? 5.— to Rule 5th? 6.— to Rule 6th ? 7.— to 
Rule 7th? 8.— to Rule 8th ? 9.— to Rule 9th ? 10.— to Rule 10th? 11.— to Rule 11th? 12.— 
to Rule 12th? 13.— to Rule 13th? 14.— to Rule 14th? 15.— to Rule 15th? 16.— to Rule 
16th? 17. — to Rule 17th? 18. What says the Exception to Rule 1st of a Long Simple Sen- 
tence? 19. What says Exception 1st to Rule 2d of Restrictive Relatives? 20. What says Ex- 
ception 2d to Rule 2d of Short Terms closely Connected? 21. What says Exception 3d to Rule 
2d of Elliptical Members United? 22. What says Exception 1st to Rule 4th of Two Words with 
Adjuncts? 23. What says Exception 2d to Rule 4th of Two Terms Contrasted? 24. What says 
Exception 3d to Rule 4th of a mere Alternative of Words ? 25. What says Exception 4th to 
Rule 4th of Conjunctions Understood ? 

Lesson III. — Op the Comma. 

1. What rule speaks of the separation of Words in Apposition ? 2. What says Exception 1st 
to Rule 7th of Complex Names? 3. What says Exception 2d to Rule 7th of Close Apposition? 
4. What says Exception 3d to Rule 7th of a Pronoun without a Pause ? 5. What says Excep- 
tion 4th to Rule 7th of Names Acquired ? 6. What says the Exception to Rule 8th of Adjectives 
Restrictive? 7. What is the rule which speaks of a finite Verb Understood? 8. What says the 
Exception to Rule 9th of a Very Slight Pause ? 9. What is the Rule for the pointing of Partici- 
ples? 10. What says the Exception to Rule 11th of Participles Restrictive? 

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various exam- 
ples of False Punctuation, which are arranged under the rules for the Comma in Section First.] 

Lesson IV. — Op the Semicolon. 
1. What is the general use of the Semicolon? 2. How many rules are there for the Semicolon? 
3. What are their heads ? 4. What says Rule 1st of Complex Members ? 5. What says Rule 2d 
of Simple Members ? 6. What says Rule 3d of Apposition, &c. ? 

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various exam- 
ples of False Punctuation, which are arranged under the rules for the Semicolon in Section Second.] 

Lesson V. — Op the Colon. 
1. What is the general use of the Colon? 2. How many rules are there for the Colon? 3. 
What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of Additional Remarks? 5. What says Rule 2d 
of Greater Pauses ? 6. What says Rule 3d of Independent Quotations ? 

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various exam- 
ples of False Punctuation, which are arranged under the rules for the Colon in Seetion Third.] 

Lesson VL — Op the Period. 
1. What is the general use of the Period? 2. How many rules are there for the Period? 3. 
What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of Distinct Sentences? 5. What says Rule 2d of 
Allied Sentences? 6. What says Rule 3d of Abbreviations? 

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various exam- 
ples of False Punctuation, which are arranged under the rules for the Period in Section Fourth.] 

Lesson VII. — Op the Dash. 

1. What is the general use of the Dash ? 2. How many rules are there for the Dash? 3. 
What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of Abrupt Pauses'? 5. What says Rule 2d of 
Emphatic Pauses? 6. What says Rule 3d of Faulty Dashes ? 

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various ex- 
amples of False Punctuation, which are arranged under the rules for the Dash in Section Fifth.] 

Lesson VIII. — Op the Eroteme. 
1. What is the use of the Eroteme, or Note of Interrogation? 2. How many rules are there 
for this mark? 3. What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of Questions Direct? 5. 
What says Rule 2d of Questions United? 6. What says Rule 3d of Questions Indirect? 

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various ex- 
amples of False Punctuation, which are arranged under the rules for the Eroteme in Section Sixth.] 



CHAP. V.] PROSODY. — QUESTIONS. PUNCTUATION. UTTERANCE. 893 

Lesson IX — Of the Ecphoneme. 

1. "What is the use of the Ecphoneme, or Note of Exclamation ? 2. How many rules are there 
for this mark? 2. What are their heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of Interjections? 5. What 
says Rule 2d of Invocations? 6. What says Rule 3d of Exclamatory Questions? 

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various ex- 
amples of False Punctuation, which are arranged under the rules for the Ecphoneme in Section Seventh.] 

Lesson X. — Of the Curves. 
1. What is the use of the Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis? 2. How many rules are there for 
the Curves? 3. What are their titles, or heads? 4. What says Rule 1st of the Parenthesis? 5. 
What says Rule 2d of Included Points ? 

[Now, if you please, you may correct orally, according to the formules given, some or all of the various ex- 
amples of False Punctuation, which are arranged under the rules for the Curves in Section Eighth.] 

Lesson XL — Of the Other Marks. 
1. What is the use of the Apostrophe ? 2. What is the use of the Hyphen ? 3. What is the 
use of the Diaeresis, or Dialysis? 4. What is the use of the Acute Accent? 5. What is the use 
of the Grave Accent? 6. What is the use of the Circumflex? 7. What is the use of the Breve, 
or Stenotone ? 8. What is the use of the Macron, or Macrotone ? 9. What is the use of the 
Ellipsis, or Suppression? 10. What is the use of the Caret? 11. What is the use of the Brace? 
12. What is the use of the Section? 13. What is the use of the Paragraph? 14. What is the 
use of the Guillemets, or Quotation Points ? 15. How do we mark a quotation within a quota- 
tion? 16. What is the use of the Crotchets, or Brackets? 17. What is the use of the Index, or 
Hand ? 18. What are the six Marks of Reference in their usual order ? 19. How can references 
be otherwise made? 20. What is the use of the Asterism, or the Three Stars ? 21. What is the 
use of the Cedilla? 

[Having correctly answered the foregoing questions, the pupil should he taught to" apply the principles of 
punctuation ; and, for this purpose, he may be required to read a portion of some accurately pointed hook, o r 
may be directed to turn to the Fourteenth Pi-axis, beginning on p. 821, — and to assign a reason for every mark 
he finds.] 

Lesson XII. — Of Utterance. 

1. What is Utterance ? 2. What does it include ? 3. What is articulation ? 4. How doe3 
articulation differ from pronunciation ? 5. How does Comstock define it ? 6. What, in his view, 
is a good articulation ? 7. How does Bolles define articulation ? 8. Is a good articulation im- 
portant? 9. What are the faults opposite to it? 10. What says Sheridan, of a good articulation ? 

11. Upon what does distinctness depend? 13. Why is just articulation better than mere loud- 
ness? 13. Do we learn to articulate in learning to speak or read? 

Lesson XIII. — Of Pronunciation. 
1. What is pronunciation ? 2. What is it that is called Orthoepy ? 3. What knowledge does 
pronunciation require ? 4. What are the just powers of the letters ? 5. How are these learned ? 
6. Are the just powers of the letters in any degree variable? 7. What is quantity? 8. Are all 
long syllables equally long, and all short ones equally short ? 9. What has stress of voice to do 
with quantity ? 10. What is accent? 11. Is every word accented ? 12. Do we ever lay two 
equal accents on one word? 13. Have we more than one sort of accent? 14. Can any word 
have the secondary accent, and not the primary? 15. Can monosyllables have either? 16. 
What regulates accent? 17. What four things distinguish the elegant speaker? 

Lesson XIV. — Of Elocution. 

1. What is elocution? 2. What does elocution require? 3. What is emphasis? 4. What 
comparative view is taken of accent and emphasis ? 5. How does L. Murray connect emphasis 
with quantity ? 6. Does emphasis ever affect accent ? 7. What is the guide to a right emphasis ? 
8. Can one read with too many emphases? 9. What are pauses? 10. How many and what 
kinds of pauses are there ? 11. What is said of the duration of pauses, and the taking of breath ? 

12. After what manner should pauses be made ? 13. What pauses are particularly ungraceful ? 
14. What is said of rhetorical pauses? 15. How are the harmonic pauses divided? 16. Are 
such pauses essential to verse ? 

Lesson XY. — Of Elocution. 
17. What are inflections? 18. What is called the rising or upward inflection? 19. What is 
called the falling or downward inflection ? 20. How are these inflections exemplified? 21. How 
are they used in asking questions? 22. What is said of the notation of them? 23. What con- 
stitutes a circumflex ? 24. What constitutes the rising, and what the falling, circumflex? 25. 
Can you give examples? 26. What constitutes a monotone, in elocution? 27. Which kind of 
inflection is said to be most common? 28. Which is the best adapted to strong emphasis? 29. 
What says Comstock of rules for inflections? 30. Is the voice to be varied for variety's sake? 
31. What should regulate the inflections? 32. What is cadence ? 33. What says Rippingham 
about it? 34. What says Murray ? 35. What are tones? 36. Why do they deserve particular 
attention? 37. What says Blair about tones? 38. What says Hiley? 



894 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Lesson XVI. — Of Figures. 

1. What is a Figure in grammar? 2. How many kinds of figures are there ? 3. "What is a 
figure of orthography ? 4. What are the principal figures of orthography ? 5. What is Mimesis ? 
6. What is an Archaism ? 7. What is a figure of etymology ? 8. How many and what are the 
figures of etymology? 9. What is Aphaeresis? 10. What is Prosthesis? 11. What is Syncope? 
12. What is Apocope? 13. What is Paragoge? 14. What is Diasresis? 15. What is Synseresis? 
16. What is Tmesis ? 17. What is a figure of syntax ? * 18. How many and what are the figures 
of syntax? 19. What is Ellipsis, in grammar? 20. Are sentences often elliptical? 21. What 
parts of speech can be omitted, by ellipsis? 22. What is Pleonasm? 23. When is this figure 
allowable? 24. What is Syllepsis? 25. What is Enallage? 26. What is Hyperbaton? 27. 
What is said of this figure ? 

Lesson XVII. — Of Figures. 

28. What is a figure of rhetoric? 29. What peculiar name have some of these? 30. Do 
figures of rhetoric often occur? 31. On what are they founded? 32. How many and what are 
the principal figures of rhetoric ? 33. What is a Simile? 34. What is a Metaphor ? 35. What 
is an Allegory ? 36. What is a Metonymy? 37. What is Synecdoche? 38. What is Hyper- 
bole ? 39. What is Vision ? 40. What is Apostrophe ? 41. What is Personification ? 42. What 
is Erotesis? 43. What is Ecphonesis? 44. What is Antithesis? 45. What is Climax? 46. 
What is Irony? 47. What is Apophasis, or Paralipsis? 48. What is Onomatopoeia ? 

[Now, if you please, you may examine the quotations adopted for the Fourteenth Praxis, and may name and 
define the various figures of grammar which are contained therein.] 

Lesson XVIII. — Of Versification. 

1. What is Versification ? 2. What is verse, as distinguished from prose ? 3. What is the 
rhythm of verse? 4. What is the quantity of a syllable? 5. How are poetic quantities deno- 
minated? 6. How are they proportioned? 7. What quantity coincides with accent or emphasis? 
8. On what but the vowel sound does quantity depend ? 9. Does syllabic quantity always follow 
the quality of the vowels? 10. Where is quantity variable, and where fixed, in English? 11. 
What is rhyme ? 12. What is blank verse? 13. What is remarked concerning the rhyming syl- 
lables ? 14. What is astanza ? 15. What uniformity have stanzas ? 16. What variety have they ? 

Lesson XIX. — Of Versification. 

17. Of what does a verse consist? 18. Of what does a poetic foot consist? 19. How many 
feet do prosodists recognize? 20. What are the principal feet in English? 21. What is an 
Iambus? 22. What is a Trochee? 23. What is an Anapest? 24. What is a Dactyl? 25. 
Why are these feet principal ? 26. What orders of verse arise from these ? 27. Are these kinds 
to be kept separate? 28. What is said of the secondary feet? 29. How many and what second- 
ary feet are explained in this code? 30. What is a Spondee? 31. What is a Pyrrhic? 32. 
What is a Moloss ? 33. What is a Tribrach? 34. What is an Amphibrach? 35. What is an 
Amphimac? 36. What is a Bacchy? 37. What is an Antibachy ? 38. What is a Caesura? 

Lesson XX. — Of Versification. 

39. What are the principal kinds, or orders, of verse ? 40. What other orders are there ? 41. 
Does the composite order demand any uniformity ? 42. Do the simple orders admit anj^ diver- 
sity? 43. What is meant by scanning or scansion? 44. What mean the technical words, cata- 
lectic, acatahctic, and hypermeter f 45. In scansion, why are the principal feet to be preferred to 
the secondary ? 46. Can a single foot be a line ? 47. What are the several combinations that form 
dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, and octometer? 48. What 
syllables have stress in a pure iambic line ? 49. What are the several measures of iambic verse ? 
50. What syllables have stress in a pure trochaic line? 51. Can it be right, to regard as hyper- 
meter the long rhyming syllables of a line ? 52. Is the number of feet in a line to be generally 
counted by that of the long syllables ? 53. What are the several measures of trochaic verse? 

Lesson XXI. — Of Versification. 

54. What syllables have stress in a pure anapestic line ? 55. What variation may occur in the 
first foot? 56. Is this frequent ? 57. Is it ever uniform? 58. What is the result of a uniform 
mixture ? 59. Is the anapest adapted to single rhyme? 60. May a surplus ever make up for a 
deficiency ? 61. Why are the anapestic measures few ? 62. How many syllables are found in 
the longest ? 63. What are the several measures of anapestic verse ? 64. What syllables have 
stress in a pure dactylic line ? 65. With what does single-rhymed dactylic end ? 66. Is dactylic 
verse very common ? 67. What are the several measures of dactylic verse ? 68. What is com- 
posite verse? 69. Must composites have rhythm? 70. Are the kinds of composite verse nu- 
merous? 71. Why have we no exact enumeration of the measures of this order? 72. Does 
this work contain specimens of different kinds of composite verse ? 

[It may now be required of the pupil to determine, by reading and scansion, the metrical elements of any 
good English poetry which may be selected for the purpose — the feet being marked by pauses, and the long 
syllables by stress of voice. He may also correct orally the few Errors of Metre which are given in the Fifth 
Section of Chapter IV.] 



CHAP. VI.] PROSODY. EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 895 



CHAPTER VI— FOR WRITING. 

EXERCISES IN PROSODY. 

["When the pupil can readily answer all the questions on Prosody, and apply the rules of punctuation to 
any composition in which the points are rightly inserted, he should write out the following exercises, supplying 
what is required, and correcting what is amiss. Or, if any teacher choose to exercise his classes orally, hy 
means of these examples, he can very well do it ; hecause, to read words, is always easier than to write them, 
and even points or poetic feet may be quite as readily named as written.] 

EXERCISE I.— PUNCTUATION. 
Copy the following sentences, and insert the Comma where it is requisite. 

Examples under Rule I. — Of Simple Sentences. 

"The dogmatist's assurance is paramount to argument." " The whole course of his argument- 
ation comes to nothing." " The fieldmouse builds her garner under ground." 

Exc. — " The first principles of almost all sciences are few." "What he gave me to publish 
was but a small part." "To remain insensible to such provocation is apathy." "Minds ashamed 
of poverty would be proud of affluence." " To be totally indifferent to praise or censure is a real 
delect in character." — Wilson's Punctuation, p. 38. 

Under Rule II.— Of Simple Members. 

" I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame." " They are gone but the remembrance 
of them is sweet." " He has passed it is likely through varieties of fortune." " The mind though 
free has a governor within itself." " They I doubt not oppose the bill on public principles." " Be 
silent be grateful and adore." "He is an adept in language who always speaks the truth." 
" The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong." 

Exc. I. — " He that has far to go should not hurry." " Hobbes believed the eternal truths 
which he opposed." " Feeble are all pleasures in which the heart has no share" "The love 
which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul." — Wilson's Punctuation, 
p. 38. 

Exc. II. — " A good name is better than precious ointment." " Thinkst thou that duty shall have 
dread to speak ?" " The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns." 

Under Rule III. — Of More than Two Words. 
" The city army court espouse my cause." " Wars pestilences and diseases are terrible in- 
structors. " " Walk daily in a pleasant airy and umbrageous garden." " Wit spirits faculties but 
make it worse." "Men wives and children stare cry out and run." "Industry, honesty, and 
temperance are essential to happiness." — Wilson's Punctuation, p. 29. "Honor, affluence, and 
pleasure seduce the heart." — lb., p. 31. 

Under Rule IV. — Of Two Terms Connected. 

" Hope and fear are essentials in religion." " Praise and adoration are perfective of our souls." 
" We know bodies and their properties most perfectly." " Satisfy yourselves with what is rational 
and attainable." " Slowly and sadly we laid him down." 

Exc. I. — " God will rather look to the inward motions of the mind than to the outward form 
of the body." " Gentleness is unassuming in opinion and temperate in zeal." 

Exc. II. — "He has experienced prosperity and adversity." "All sin essentially is and must 
be mortal." " Reprove vice but pity the offender." 

Exc. III. — " One person is chosen chairman or moderator." "Duration or time is measured by 
motion." " The governor or viceroy is chosen annually." 

Exc. IY. — " Reflection reason still the ties improve." " His neat plain parlour wants our 
modern style." "We are fearfully wonderfully made." 

Under Rule V. — Of Words in Pairs. 
" I inquired and rejected consulted and deliberated." " Seed-time and harvest cold and heat 
summer and winter day and night shall not cease." 

EXERCISE II.— PUNCTUATION. 
Copy the following sentences, and insert the Comma where it is requisite. 

Examples under Rule YI. — Of Words put Absolute. 
" The night being dark they did not proceed." " There being no other coach we had no alter- 
native." "Remember my son that human life is the journey of a day." "All circumstances 
considered it seems right." " He that overcometh to him will I give power." " Your land 
strangers devour it in your presence." " Ah sinful nation a people laden with iniquity 1" 

" With heads declin'd ye cedars homage pay ; 
Be smooth ye rocks ye rapid floods give way !" 



896 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Under Rule VII. — Op Words in Apposition. 

" Now Philomel sweet songstress charms the night." " Tis chanticleer the shepherd's clock 
announcing day." " The evening star love's harbinger appears." " The queen of night fair DiaD 
smiles serene." " There is yet one man Micaiah the son of Imlah." " Our whole company man 
by man ventured down." " As a work of wit the Dunciad has few equals." 
" In the same temple the resounding wood 
All vocal beings hymned their equal God." 

Exc. I. — " The last king of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus." " Bossuet highly eulogizes Maria 
Theresa of Austria." " No emperor has been more praised than Marcus Aurelius, Antoninus." 

Exc. II. — " For he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith." " Remember the example of the 
patriarch Joseph." " The poet, Milton, excelled in prose as well as in verse." 

Exc. III. — "I wisdom dwell with prudence." "Ye fools be ye of an understanding heart." 
" I tell you that which you yourselves do know." 

Exc. IV. — " I crown thee king of intimate delights " " I count the world a stranger for thy 
sake." " And this makes friends such miracles below." "God has pronounced it death to taste 
that tree." " Grace makes the slave a freeman." 

Under Rule VIII.— -Of Adjectives. 

" Deaf with the noise I took my hasty flight." "Him piteous of his youth soft disengage." 
" I played a while obedient to the fair." "Love free as air spreads his light wings and flies." 
" Physical science separate from morals parts with its chief dignity." 
" Then active still and unconfined his mind 

Explores the vast extent of ages past." 
" But there is yet a liberty unsung 
By poets and by senators unpraised." 

Exc. — " I will marry a wife beautiful as the Houries." " He was a man able to speak upon 
doubtful questions." "These are the persons, anxious for the change." "Are they men worthy 
of confidence and support?" " A man, charitable beyond his means, is scarcely honest." 

Under Rule IX. — Of Finite Verbs. 

" Poverty wants some things — avarice all things." " Honesty has one face — flattery two." 
" One king is too soft and easy — an other too fiery." 

" Mankind's esteem they court — and he his own : 
Theirs the wild chase of false felicities ; 
His the compos'd possession of the true." 

EXERCISE III.— PUNCTUATION. 

Copy the following sentences, and insert the Comma where it is requisite. 
Examples Under Rule X. — Of Infinitives. 

" My desire is to live in peace." " The great difficulty was to compel them to pay their debts." 
"To strengthen our virtue God bids us trust in him." "I made no bargain with you to live 
always drudging." "To sum up all her tongue confessed the shrew." "To proceed my own 
adventure was still more laughable." 

" "We come not with design of wasteful prey 
To drive the country force the swains away." 

Under Rule XI. — Of Participles. 

" Having given this answer he departed." " Some sunk to beasts find pleasure end in pain." 
"Eased of her load subjection grows more light." "Death still draws nearer never seeming 
near." "He lies full low gored with wounds c.nd weltering in his blood." " Kind is fell Lucifer 
compared to thee." " Man considered in himself is helpless and wretched." " Like scattered 
down by howling Eurus blown." " He with wide nostrils snorting skims the wave." " Youth is 
properly speaking introductory to manhood." 

Exc. — " He kept his eye fixed on the country before him." " They have their part assigned 
them to act." " Years will not repair the injuries done by him." 

Under Rule XII. — Of Adverbs. 
"Yes we both were philosophers." " However Providence saw fit to cross our design." "Be- 
sides I know that the eye of the public is upon me." "The fact certainly is much otherwise." 
" For nothing surely can be more inconsistent." 

Under Rule XIII. — Of Conjunctions. 
11 For in such retirement the soul is strengthened." " It engages our desires ; and in some de- 
gree satisfies them also." " But of every Christian virtue piety is an essential part." " The Eng- 
lish verb is variable* as love lovest loves." 



CHAP. VI.] PROSODY. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 897 

Under Rule XIV. — Op Prepositions. 
"In a word charity is the soul of social life." " By the bowstring I can repress violence and 
fraud." " Some by being too artful forfeit the reputation of probity." " With regard to morality 
I was not indifferent." " Of all our senses sight is the most perfect and delightful." 

Under Rule XV. — Op Interjections. 
"Behold I am against thee inhabitant of the valley!" "0 it is more like a dream than a 
reality." " Some wine ho !" " Ha ha ha ; some wine eh ?" 

" When lo the dying breeze begins to fail, 
And flutters on the mast the flagging sail." 

Under Rule XVI. — Of Words Repeated. 
" I would never consent never never never." " His teeth did chatter chatter chatter still." 
" Come come come — to bed to bed to bed." 

Under Rule XVII. — Of Dependent Quotations. 
"He cried ' Cause every man to go out from me.' " " ' Almet' said he ' remember what thou 
hast seen.' " "I answered ' Mock not thy servant who is but a worm before thee.' " 

EXERCISE IV.— PUNCTUATION. 

I. The Semicolon. — Copy the following sentences, and insert the Comma and the Semicolon 
where they are requisite. 

Examples under Rule I. — Of Compound Members. 
" ' Man is weak' answered his companion ' knowledge is more than equivalent to force.' " "To 
judge rightly of the present we must oppose it to the past for all judgement is compartive and of 
the future nothing can be known." " ' Contentment is natural wealth' says Socrates to which I 
shall add ' luxury is artificial poverty.' " 

" Converse and love mankind might strongly draw 
When love was liberty and nature law." 

Under Rule II. — Of Simple Members. 
" Be wise to-day 'tis madness to defer." "The present all their care the future his." "Wit 
makes an enterpriser sense a man." " Ask thought for joy grow rich and hoard within." " Song 
soothes our pains and age has pains to soothe." " Here an enemy encounters there a rival sup- 
plants him." " Our answer to their reasons is ' No' to their scoffs nothing." 

"Here subterranean works and cities see 
There towns aerial on the waving tree." 

Under Rule III. — Of Apposition. 
" In Latin there are six cases namely the nominative the genitive the dative the accusative the 
vocative and the ablative." " Most English nouns form the plural by taking s : as boy boys nation 
nations king kings bay bays. 11 " Bodies are such as are endued with a vegetable soul as plants a 
sensitive soul as animals or a rational soul as the body of man." 

II. The Colon. — Copy the following sentences, and insert the Comma, the Semicolon, and the Colon, 
where they are requisite. 

Under Rule I. — Of Additional Remarks. 
" Indulge not desires at the expense of the slightest article of virtue pass once its limits and you 
fall headlong into vice." " Death wounds to cure we fall we rise we reign." " Beware of usur- 
pation God is the judge of all." 

" Bliss ! — there is none but unprecarious bliss 
That is the gem sell all and purchase that." 

Under Rule II. — Of Greater Pauses. 
" I have the world here before me I will review it at leisure surely happiness is somewhere to 
be found." " A melancholy enthusiast courts persecution and when he cannot obtain it afflicts 
himself with absurd penances but the holiness of St. Paul consisted in the simplicity of a pious life." 

" Observe his awful portrait and admire 
Nor stop at wonder imitate and five." 

Under Rule III. — Of Independent Quotations. 
"Such is our Lord's injunction 'Watch and pray.'" "He' died praying for his persecutors 
' Father forgive them they know not what they do.' " "On the old gentleman's cane was inscribed 
this motto ' Festina lente. 1 " 

III. — The Period. — Copy the following sentences, and insert the Comma, the Semicolon, the Co- 
lon, and the Period, where they are requisite. 

Under Rule I. — Of Distinct Sentences. 
"Then appeared the sea and the dry land the mountains rose and the rivers flowed the sun 

57 



898 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

and moon began their course in the skies herbs and plants clothed the ground the air the earth 
and the waters were stored with their respective inhabitants at last man was made in the image 
of God" 

" In general those parents have most reverence who most deserve it for he that Uvea well can- 
not be despised" 

Under Rule II. — Of Allied Sentences. 

" Civil accomplishments frequently give rise to fame but a distinction is to be made between 
fame and true honour the statesman the orator or the poet may be famous while yet the man him- 
self is far from being honoured" 

Under Rule III. — Of Abbreviations. 
" Glass was invented in England by Benalt a monk A D 664" " The Roman era U C com- 
menced A C 1153 years" " Here is the Literary Life of S T Coleridge Esq" " Plato a most illus- 
trious philosopher of antiquity died at Athens 348 B C aged 81 his writings are very valuable his 
language beautiful and correct and his philosophy sublime" — See Univ Biog Diet 

EXERCISE V.— PUNCTUATION". 

I. The Dash. — Copy the following sentences, and insert, in their proper places, the Dash, and such 
oilier points as are necessary. 

Examples under Rule I. — Of Abrupt Pauses. 

" Tou say famous very often and I don't know exactly what it means a famous uniform fam- 
ous doings What does famous mean" 

" why famous means Now don't you know what famous means It means It is a word that 
people say It is the fashion to say it It means it means famous." 

Under Rule II. — Of Emphatic Pauses. 
"But this life is not all there is there is full surely another state abiding us And if there is what 
is thy prospect remorseless obdurate Thou shalt hear it would be thy wisdom to think thou 
now hearest the sound of that trumpet which shall awake the dead Return yet return to the 
Father of mercies and live" 

" The future pleases "Why The present pains 
But that's a secret yes which all men know" 

II. The Eroteme. — Copy the following sentences, and insert rightly the Eroteme, or Note of In- 
terrogation, and such other points as are necessary. 

Under Rule I. — Of Questions Direct. 



"Does Nature bear a tyrant's breast 
Is she the friend of stern control 



"Wears she the despot's purple vest 
Or fetters she the freeborn soul" 



" Why should a man whose blood is warm within 

Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster" 
" Who art thou courteous stranger and from whence 

Why roam thy steps to this abandon'd dale" 

Under Rule II. — Of Questions United. 
" Who bid the stork Columbus-like explore 
Heav'ns not his own and worlds unknown before 
Who calls the council states the certain day 
Who forms the phalanx and who points the way" 

Under Rule III. — Of Questions Indirect. 
" They asked me who I was and whither I was going." " St. Paul asked king Agrippa if he 
believed the prophets ? But he did not wait for an answer." 

" Ask of thy mother Earth why oaks are made 
Taller and stronger than the weeds they shade" 

III. The Ecphoneme. — Copy the following sentences, and insert rightly the Ecphoneme, or Note 
OF Exclamation, and such other points as are necessary. 

Under Rule I. — Of Interjections. 
" Oh talk of hypocrisy after this Most consummate of all hypocrites After instructing your 
chosen official advocate to stand forward with such a defence such an exposition of your motives 
to dare utter the word hypocrisy and complain of those who charged you with it" Brougham 
" Alas how is that rugged heart forlorn" 
<( Behold the victor vanquish'd by the worm" 
" Bliss sublunary Bliss proud words and vain" 

Under Rule II. — Of Invocations. 
" Popular Applause what heart of man 

Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms" 
" More than thy balm Gilead heals the wound" 



CHAP. VI.] PROSODY. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 899 

Under Rule III. — Op Exclamatory Questions. 
"With what transports of joy shall I be received In what honour in what delightful repose shall 
I pass the remainder of my life What immortal glory shall I have acquired" Hooke's Roman 
History 

" How often have I loiter' d o'er thy green 
Where humble happiness endear'd each scene" 

IY. — The Curves. — Copy the following sentences, and insert rightly the Curves, or Marks op 
Parenthesis, and such other points as are necessary. 

Under Rule I. — Op the Parenthesis. 
" And all the question wrangle e'er so long 

Is only this If God has plac'd him wrong" 
" And who what God foretells who speaks in things 

Still louder than in words shall dare deny" 

Under Rule II. — Op Included Points. 
" Say was it virtue more though Heav'n ne'er gave 

Lamented Digby sunk thee to the grave" 
" Where is that thrift that avarice of time 

glorious avarice thought of death inspires" 
" And oh the last last what can words express 

Thought reach the last last silence of a friend" 

EXERCISE YL— PUNCTUATION. 

Copy the following Mixed Examples, and insert the points which they require. 

" As one of them opened his sack he espied his money" " They cried out the more exceedingly 
Crucify him" " The soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners" " Great injury these ver- 
min mice and rats do in the field" "It is my son's coat an evil beast hath devoured him" 
"Peace of all worldly blessings is the most valuable" "By this time the very foundation \v«s 
removed" "The only words he uttered were I am a Roman citizen" "Some distress cither 
felt or feared gnaws like a worm" " How then must I determine Have I no interest If I have 
not I am stationed here to no purpose" Harris "In the fire the destruction was so swift sudden 
vast and miserable as to have no parallel in story" " Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily was far from 
being happy" " I ask now Verres what thou hast to advance" " Excess began and sloth sus- 
tains the trade" " Fame can never reconcile a man to a death bed" " They that sail on the sea 
tell of the danger" " Be doers of the word and not hearers only" " The storms of wintry time 
will quickly pass" " Here Hope that smiling angel stands" " Disguise I see thou art a wicked- 
ness" " There are no tricks in plain and simple faith" " True love strikes root in reason pas- 
sion's foe" " Two gods divide them all Pleasure and Gain" " I am satisfied My son has done his 
duty" " Remember Almet the vision which thou hast seen" " I beheld an enclosure beautiful 
as the gardens of paradise" "The knowledge which I have received I will communicate" " But 
I am not yet happy and therefore I despair" " Wretched mortals said I to what purpose are you 
busy" "Bad as the world is respect is always paid to virtue" "In a word he views men as the 
clear sunshine of charity" " This being the case I am astonished and amazed" "These men ap- 
proached him and saluted him king" " Excellent and obliging sages these undoubtedly" " Yet 
at the same time the man himself undergoes a change" " One constant effect of idleness is to 
nourish the passions" " You heroes regard nothing but glory" " Take care lest while you strive 
to reach the top you fall" " Proud and presumptuous they can brook no opposition" " Nay some 
awe of religion may still subsist" " Then said he Lo I come to do thy will God" Bible "As 
for me behold I am in your hand" lb " Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not 
see him saiththe Lord" Jer xxiii 24 "Now I Paul myself beseech you" " Now for a recom- 
pense in the same I speak as unto my children be ye also enlarged" 2 Cor vi 13 " He who lives 
always in public cannot five to his own soul whereas he who retires remains calm" " Therefore 
behold I even I will utterly forget you" " This text speaks only of those to whom it speaks" 
"Yea he warmeth himself and saith Aha I am warm" "King Agrippa belie vest thou the 
prophets" 

EXERCISE YIL— PUNCTUATION. 

Copy the following Mixed Examples, and insert the points which they require. 

To whom can riches give repute or trust 

Content or pleasure but the good and just Pope 

To him no high no low no great no small 

He fills he bounds connects and equals all Id 

Reasons whole pleasure all the joys of sense 

Lie in three words health peace and competence Id 

Not so for once indulged they sweep the main 

Deaf to the call or hearing hear in vain Anon 

Say will the falcon stooping from above 

Smit with her varying plumage spare the dove Pope 



900 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Throw Egypts by and offer in its stead 

Offer the crown on Berenices head Id 

Falsely luxurious will not man awake 

And springing from the bed of sloth enjoy 

The cool the fragrant and the silent hour Thomson 

Yet thus it is nor otherwise can be 

So far from aught romantic what I sing Young 

Thyself first know then love a self there is 

Of virtue fond that kindles at her charms Id 

How far that little candle throws his beams 

So shines a good deed in a naughty world Shakspeare 

You have too much respect upon the world 

They lose it that do buy it with much care Id 

How many things by season seasoned are 

To their right praise and true perfection Id 

Canst thou descend from converse with the skies 

And seize thy brothers throat For what a clod Young 

In two short precepts all your business lies 

"Would you be great be virtuous and be wise Denham 

But sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed 

"What then is the reward of virtue bread Pope 

A life all turbulence and noise may seem 

To him that leads it wise and to be praised 

But wisdom is a pearl with most success 

Sought in still waters and beneath clear skies Cowper 

All but the swellings of the softened heart 

That waken not disturb the tranquil mind Thomson 

Inspiring G-od who boundless spirit all 

And unremitting energy pervades 

Adjusts sustains and agitates the whole Id 

Ye ladies for indifferent in your cause 

I should deserve to forfeit all applause 

"Whatever shocks or gives the least offence 

To virtue delicacy truth or sense 

Try the criterion tis a faithful guide 

Nor has nor can have Scripture on its side. Cowper 

EXERCISE VIII.— SCANNING. 
Divide the following Verses into the feet which compose them, and distinguish by marks the long 
m,d the short syllables. 

Example I. — " Our Daily Paths' 1 — By F. Hemans. 

" There's Beauty all around our paths, if but our watchful eyes 
Can trace it 'midst familiar things, and through their lowly guise ; 
"We may find it where a hedgerow showers its blossoms o'er our way, 
Or a cottage-window sparkles forth in the last red light of day." 

Example II. — " Fetching Water." — Anonymous. 

11 Early on a sunny morning, while the lark was singing sweet, 
Came, beyond the ancient farmhouse, sounds of lightly -tripping feet. 
'Twas a lowly cottage maiden, going, — why, let young hearts tell, — 
With her homely pitcher laden, fetching water from the well." 

Example III. — Deity. 

Alone thou sitst above the everlasting hills 

And all immensity of space thy presence fills : 
For thou alone art God ; — as God thy saints adore thee ; 
Jehovah is thy name ; — they have no gods before thee. — G. Brown. 

Example IV. — Impenitence. 
The impenitent sinner whom mercy empowers, 

Dishonours that goodness which seeks to restore ; 
As the sands of the desert are water'd by showers, 

Yet barren and fruitless remain as before. — G. Brown. 

Example V. — Piety. 
Holy and pure are the pleasures of piety, 

Drawn from the fountain of mercy and love ; 
Endless, exhaustless, exempt from satiety, 

Rising unearthly, and soaring above. — G. Brown. 



4HAP. VI.] PROSODY. — EXERCISES FOR WRITING. 901 

Example VI. — A Simile. 
The bolt that strikes the tow'ring cedar dead, 
Oft passes harmless o'er the hazel's head. — G. Brown. 

Example VII. — A Simile. 

11 Tet to their general's voice they soon obey'd 
Innumerable. As when the potent rod 
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, 
Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud 
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 
Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile." — Milton. 

Example VIII. — Elegiac Stanza. 
Thy name is dear — 'tis virtue balm'd in love ; 

Yet e'en thy name a pensive sadness brings. 
Ah ! wo the day, our hearts were doom'd to prove, 

That fondest love but points affliction's stings! — G. Brown. 

Example IX. — Cupid. 

Zephyrs, moving bland, and breathing fragrant 

"With the sweetest odours of the spring, 
O'er the winged boy, a thoughtless vagrant, 

Slumb'ring in the grove, their perfumes fling. — G. Brown. 

Example X. — Divine Power. 

"When the winds o'er Gennesaret roar'd, 

And the billows tremendously rose, 
The Saviour but utter' d the word, 

They were hush'd to the calmest repose. — G. Brown. 

Example XI. — Invitation. 
Come from the mount of the leopard, spouse, 

Come from the den of the lion ; 
Come to the tent of thy shepherd, spouse, 

Come to the mountain of Zion. — G. Brown. 

Example XII. — Admonition. 

In the days of thy youth, ! forsake not his truth, 

Remember thy God: Incur not his rod. — G. Brown. 

Example XIII. — Commendation. 



Constant and duteous, 
Meek as the dove, 



How art thou beauteous, 

Daughter of love! — G. Brown. 



EXERCISE IX.— SCANNING. 
Mark (he feet and syllables which compose the following lines — or mark a sample of each metre. 

Edwin, an Ode. 

I. STROPHE. 

Led by the pow'r of song, and nature's love, 
Which raise the soul all vulgar themes above, 
The mountain grove 
Would Edwin rove, 
In pensive mood, alone ; 
And seek the woody dell 
Where noontide shadows felL 
Cheering, 
Veering, 
Mov'd by the zephyr's swelL 
Here nurs'd he thoughts to genius only known, 
When nought was heard around 
But sooth'd the rest profound 
Of rural beauty on her mountain throne. 

Nor less he lov'd (rude nature's child) 
The elemental conflict wild ; 
When, fold on fold, above was pil'd 
The watery swathe, careering on the wind. 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. [PART IV. 

Such scenes he saw 

"With solemn awe, 
As in the presence of the Eternal Mind. 

Fix'd he gaz'd, 

Tranc'd and rais'd, 
Sublimely rapt in awful pleasure undefin'd. 

II. ANTTSTROPHE. 

Eeckless of dainty joys, he finds delight 
Where feebler souls but tremble with affright. 
Lo ! now, within the deep ravine, 
A black impending cloud 
Infolds him in its shroud, 
And dark and darker glooms the scene. 
Through the thicket streaming, 
Lightnings now are gleaming ; 
Thunders rolling dread, 
Shake the mountain's headj 
Nature's war 
Echoes far, 
O'er ether borne, 
That flash 
The ash 
Has scath'd and torn ! 
Now it rages ; 
Oaks of ages, 
Writhing in the furious blast, 
Wide their leafy honours cast ; 
Their gnarled arms do force to force oppose- 
Deep rooted in the crevic'd rock, 
The sturdy trunk sustains the shock, 
Like dauntless hero firm against assailing foes. 

III. EPODE. 

1 Thou who sitst above these vapours dense. 
And rul'st the storm by thine omnipotence I 
Making the collied cloud thy car, 
Coursing the winds, thou rid'st afar, 

Thy blessings to dispense. 
The early and the latter rain, 
Which fertilize the dusty plain, 

Thy bounteous goodness pours. 
Dumb be the atheist tongue abhorr'd t 
All nature owns thee, sovereign Lord ! 

And works thy gracious will ; 
At thy command the tempest roars, 
At thy command is still. 
Thy mercy o'er this scene sublime presides ; 
'Tis mercy forms the veil that hides 
The ardent solar beam ; 
While, from the volley 'd breast of heaven, 
Transient gleams of dazzling light, 
Flashing on the balls of sight, 

Make darkness darker seem. 
Thou mov'st the quick and sulph'rous leven — 
The tempest-driven 
Cloud is riven; 
And the thirsty mountain-side 
Drinks gladly of the gushing tide.' 
So breath 'd young Edwin, when the summer shower, 
From out that dark o'erchamb'ring cloud, 
With lightning flash and thunder loud, 
Burst in wild grandeur o'er his solitary bower. — G. Brown* 



THE END OF PART FOURTH. 



KEY 



IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION, 



CONTAINED IN 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS, 

AND 

DESIGNED FOE OEAL EXERCISES 

T7NDEB 

ALL THE RULES AND NOTES OF THE WORK 



tW [The various examples of error which are exhibited for oral correction, in the Grammar of English Gram- 
mars, are all here explained, in their order, by full amended readings, sometimes -with authorities specified, and 
generally with references of some sort. They are intended to be corrected orally by the pupil, according to the 
formules given under corresponding heads in the Grammar. Some portion, at least, under each rule or note, 
should be used in this way ; and the rest, perhaps, may be read and compared more simply.] 



THE KEY.— PART L— ORTHOGRAPHY. 

CHAPTEK I—OF LETTERS. 

CORRECTIONS RESPECTING- CAPITALS. 
Under Rule L — Of Books. 
"Many a reader of the Bible knows not who wrote the Acts of the Apostles. 11 — G. B. "The 
sons of Levi, the chief of the fathers, were written in the book of the Chronicles. ." — Alger's 
Bible : Neh., xii, 23. " Are they not written in the book of the Acts of Solomon?" — Friends' 
Bible : 1 Kings, xi, 41. " Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Is- 
rael?" — Alger corrected : 1 Kings, xxii, 39. "Are they not written in the book of the Chron- 
icles of the Kings of Judah." — See Alger : ib., ver. 45. "Which were written in the law of Moses, 
and in the prophets, and in the Psalms." — Alger, et al. : Luke, xxiv, 44. "The narrative of 
which may be seen in Josephus's History of the Jewish War." — Br. Scott cor. [Obs. — The word 
in Josephus is "War," not " Wars." — G. Brown.'] "This History of the Jewish War was Jo- 
sephus's first work, and published about A. D. 75." — WJiiston cor. " ' I have read,' says Photius, 
'the Chronology of Justus of Tiberias.' " — Id. " A Philosophical Grammar, written by James 
Harris, Esquire." — Murray cor. " The reader is referred to Stroud's Sketch of the Slave Laws." — 
A. S. Mag. cor. " But Ood has so made the Bible that it interprets itself." — Idem. "In 1562, 
with the help of Hopkins, he completed the Psalter." — Gardiner cor. " Gardiner says this of 
Sternhold ; of whom the Universal Biographical Dictionary and the American Encyclopedia affirm, 
that he died in 1549." — G. B. "The title of a book, to wit: ' English Grammar in Familiar Lec- 
tures, 1 " &c. — Kirkliam cor. "We had not, at that time, seen Mr. Kirkham's ' Grammar in Famil- 
iar Lectures.' " — Id. " When you parse, you may spread the Compendium before you." — Id. right* 
"Whenever you parse, you may spread the Compendium before you." — Id. cor. " Adelung was 
the author of a Grammatical and Critical Dictionary of the German Language, and other works." 
Biog. Diet. cor. "Alley, William, author of ' The Poor Man's Library, 1 and a translation of the 
Pentateuch, died in 1510."— Id. 

Under Rule II. — Of First Words. 
" Depart instantly ;" — " Improve your time ;" — " Forgive us our sins." — Murray corrected. Ex- 
amples: — "Gold is corrupting;" — " The sea is green;" — "A lion is bold." — Mur. et al. cor. 
Again: "It may rain;" — " He may go or stay;" — He would walk;" — " They should learn." — 
lidem. Again : " Oh ! I have alienated my friend ;" — "Alas! I fear for life." — lidem. See Air 
ge^s Gram., p. 50. Again: "He went from London to York;" — " She is above disguise;'' 

* Diss. — Of this, and of every other example which requires no amendment, let the learner simply say, after 
reading the passage, " This sentence is correct as it stands." — G. Bbown. 



904 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I. 

" They are supported by industry." — Iidem. " On the foregoing examples, I have a word to say. 
They are better than a fair specimen of their kind. Our grammars abound with worse illustra- 
tions. Their models of English are generally spurious quotations. Few of their proof-texts have 
any just parentage. Goose-eyes are abundant, but names scarce. Who fathers the foundlings? 
Nobody. Then let their merit be nobody's, and their defects his who could write no better." — 
Author. " Goose-eyes!" says a bright boy; "pray, what are they? Does this Mr. Author make 
new words when he pleases ? Dead-eyes are in a ship. They are blocks, with holes in them. 
But what are goose-eyes in grammar?" Answer: " Goose eyes are quotation points. Some of 
the Germans gave them this name, making a jest of their form. The French call them guille- 
mets, from the name of their inventor." — Author. " It is a personal pronoun, of the third person 
singular." — Gomly cor. " Ourselves is a personal pronoun, of the first person plural." — Id. " Thee 
is a personal pronoun, of the second person singular." — Id. " Contentment is a common noun, 
of the third person singular." — Id. " Were is a neuter verb, of the indicative mood, imperfect 
tense." — Id. 

Under Rule III. — Of Deity. 

" thou Dispenser of life ! thy mercies are boundless." — Allen cor. " Shall not the Judge of all 
the earth do right?" — Alger, Friends, et al. : Gen., xviii, 25. "And the Spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters." — Scott, Alger, Friends, et al. : Gen., i, 2. "It is the gift of 
Him, who is the great Author of good, and the Father of mercies." — Murray cor. " This is thy 
God that brought thee up out of Egypt." — Friends' Bible: Neh., ix, 18. " For the Lord is our 
defence ; and the Holy One of Israel is our King." — Psal, lxxxix, 18. " By making him the re- 
sponsible steward of Heaven 1 s bounties." — A. S. Mag. cor. "Which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give me at that day." — Alger: 2 Tim., iv, 8. "The cries of them * * * entered 
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoih." — Alger, Friends : James, v, 4. " In Horeb, the Deity 
revealed himself to Moses, as the Eternal 'I AM,' the Self-existent One; and, after the first dis- 
couraging interview of his messengers with Pharaoh, he renewed his promise to them, by the 
awful name, Jehovah — a name till then unknown, and one which the Jews always held it a fear- 
ful profanation to pronounce." — G. Brown. "And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I 
am the Lord : and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God 
Almighty ; but by my name JEHOVxYH was I not known to them." — Scott, Alger, Friends: 
Exod., vi, 2. "Thus saith the Lord* the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts; 
I am the First, and I am the Last ; and besides me there is no God." — See Isa., xliv, 6. 
"His impious race their blasphemy renew' d, 
And nature's King, through nature's optics view'd." — Dry den cor. 

Under Rule IV. — Of Proper Names. 

" Islamism prescribes fasting during the month Ramadan." — Balbi cor. " Near Mecca, in Ara- 
bia, is Jebel Nor, or the Mountain of Light, on the top of which the Mussulmans erected a mosque, 
that they might perform their devotions where, according to their belief, Mohammed received from 
the angel Gabriel the first chapter of the Koran." — G. Brown. " In the Kaaba at Mecca there is 
a celebrated block of volcanic basalt, which the Mohammedans venerate as the gift of Gabriel to 
Abraham, but their ancestors once held it to be an image of Remphan, or Saturn ; so ' the image 
which fell down from Jupiter,'' to share with Diana the homage of the Ephesians, was probably 
nothing more than a meteoric stone." — Id. "When the Lycaonians at Lystra took Paul and 
Barnabas to be gods, they called the former Mercury, on account of his eloquence, and the latter 
Jupiter, for the greater dignity of his appearance." — Id. " Of the writings of the apostolic fathers 
of the first century, but few have come down to us ; yet we have in those of Barnabas, Clement of 
Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, very certain evidence of the authenticity of the New Tes- 
tament, and the New Testament is a voucher for the Old." — Id. " It is said by Tatian, that 
Theagenes of Rhegium, in the time of Cambyses, Stesimbrotus the Thracian, Antimachus the Co- 
lophonian, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Dionysius the Olynthian, Ephorus of Cumos, Philochorus 
the Athenian, Metaclides and Chammleon the Peripatetics, and Zenodotus, Aristophanes, Calli- 
machus, Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, and Apollodorus, the grammarians, all wrote concern- 
ing the poetry, the birth, and the age of Homer." — See Coleridge's Introd., p. 57. " Yet, for aught 
that now appears, the life of Homer is as fabulous as that of Hercules ; and some have even sus- 
pected, that, as the son of Jupiter and Alcmena has fathered the deeds of forty other Herculeses, 
so this unfathered son of Critheis, Themisto, or whatever dame — this Melesigenes, Mceonides, Ho- 
mer — the blind schoolmaster, and poet, of Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, 
Athens, or whatever place — has, by the help of Lycurgus, Solon, Pisistratus, and other learned 
ancients, been made up of many poets or Homers, and set so far aloft and aloof on old Parnassus, 
as to become a god in the eyes of all Greece, a wonder in those of all Christendom." — G. Brown. 
" Why so sagacious in your guesses ? 
Your Effs, and Tees, and Ars, and Esses ?" — Swift corrected. 

" Observation-. — In the Bible, the -word Loed, whenever it stands for the Hebrew name Jehovah, not only 
commence!-' with a full capital, but has small or half capitals for the other letters; and I have thought proper to 
print both words in that manner here. In correcting the last example, I follow Dr. Scott's Bible, except in the 
word " God,"'' which he writes with a small g. Several other copies have "first" and " last" with small initials, 
which I think not so correct; and some distinguish the word "hosts'" with a capital, which seems to be need- 
1 ss. The sentence here has eleven capitals : in the Latin Vulgate, it has but six, and one of them is for the last 
word, "Deus" God.— -G. B. 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO FALSE ORTHOGRAPHY. — CAPITAL LETTERS. 905 

Under Rule V. — Op Titles. 
" The king has conferred on him the title of Duke'' 1 — Murray cor. "At the court of Queen 
Elizabeth." — Priestley's E. Gram., p. 99 : see Bullions' s, p. 24. " The laws of nature are, truly, 
what Lord Bacon styles his aphorisms, laws of laws." — Murray cor. " Sixtus the Fourth was, if 
I mistake not, a great collector of books." — Id. "Who at that time made up the court of King 
Charles the Second." — Id. "In case of his Majesty's dying without issue." — Kirkham cor. 
"King Charles the First was beheaded in 1649." — W. Allen cor. "He can no more impart, or 
(to use Lord Bacon's word) transmit convictions." — Kirkham cor. "I reside at Lord Stormont's, 
my old patron and benefactor." Better : " I reside with Lord Stormont, my old patron and bene- 
factor." — Murray cor. " We staid a month at Lord Lyttelton's, the ornament of his country." 
Much better : " We stayed a month at the seat of Lord Lyttelton, who is the ornament of his coun- 
try." — Id. "Whose prerogative is it? It is the ifr'n^-of-Great-Britain's;"* — "That is the Duke 
of-Bridgewater's canal ; " — " The JBz's/iop-of-LandafTs excellent book ; " — " The Lord Mayor-of- 
London's authority." — Id. (See Murray's Note 4th on his Rule 10th.) "Why call ye me, Lord, 
Lord, and do not the things which I say?" — Luke, vi, 46. "And of them he chose twelve, whom 
also he named Apostles." — Alger, Friends, et al. : Luke, vi, 13. "And forthwith he came to 
Jesus, and said, Hail, Master ; and kissed him." — Matt., xxvi, 49. "And he said, Nay, Father 
Abraham : but if one went unto them from the dead, they would repent."— Bible cor. 

Under Rule VI. — Of One Capital. 

" Fallriver, a village in Massachusetts, population (in 1830) 3,431." — Williams cor. " Dr. An- 
derson died at Westham, in Essex, in 1808." — Biog. Diet. cor. " Madriver, the name of two towns 
in Clark and Champaign counties, Ohio." — Williams cor. " Whitecreek, a town of Washington 
county, New York." — Id. " Saltcr«ek, the name of four towns in different parts of Ohio." — Id. 
" Saltlick, a town of Fayette county, Pennsylvania." — Id. " Yellowcreek, a town of Columbiana 
county, Ohio." — Id. " Whiteclay, a hundred of Newcastle county, Delaware." — Id. " Newcastle, 
a town and half-shire of Newcastle county, Delaware." — Id. " Singsing, a village of Westchester 
county, New York, situated in the town of Mountpleasant." — Id. " Westchester, a county of New 
York: East Chester and West Chester are towns in Westchester county." — Id. " Westtown, a vil- 
lage of Orange county, New York." — Id. " Whitewater, a town of Hamilton county, Ohio." — 
Worcester's Gaz. " Whitewater River, a considerable stream that rises in Indiana, and flowing 
southeasterly unites with the Miami in Ohio." — See ib. " Blackwater, a village of Hampshire, in 
England, and a town in Ireland." — See ib. " Blackwoier, the name of seven different rivers, in 
England, Ireland, and the United States." — See ib. " Redhook, a town of Dutchess county, New 
York, on the Hudson." — Williams cor. " Kinderhook, a town of Columbia county, New York, 
on the Hudson." — Williams right. " Newfane, a town of Niagara county, New York." — Williams 
cor. " Lakeport, a town of Chicot county, Arkansas." — Id. " Moosehead Lake, the chief source 
of the Kennebeck, in Maine." — Id. (See Worcester's Gaz.) "Macdonough, a county of Illinois, 
population (in 1830) 2,95.9." — Williams's Univ. Gaz., p 408. " Macdonough, a county of Illinois, 
with a court-house at Macomb." — Williams cor. " Halfmoon, the name of two towns in New 
York and Pennsylvania ; also of two bays in the West Indies." — S. Williams's Univ. Gaz. "Le- 
bceuf a town of Erie county, Pennsylvania-, near a small lake of the same name." — See ib. 
" Charlescity, Jamescity, Eiizabethcily, names of counties in Virginia, not cities, nor towns." — See 
Univ. Gaz., p. 404.f " The superior qualities of the waters of the Frome, here called Stroudwater." 
— Balbi cor. 

Under Rule VII. — Of Two Capitals. 

"The Forth rises on the north side of Ben Lomond, and runs easterly." — Glasgow Geog., 8vo, 
corrected. "The red granite of Ben Nevis is said to be the finest in the world." — Id. "Ben More, 
in Perthshire, is 3,915 feet above the level of the sea." — Id. " The height of Ben Cleugh is 2,420 
feet." — Id. " In Sutherland and Caithness, are Ben Ormod, Ben Clibeg, Ben Grin, Ben Hope, 
and Ben Lugal." — Glas. Geog. right. '■'Ben Vracky is 2,756 feet high; Ben Ledi, 3,009; and Ben 
Voirloich, 3,300." — Glas. Geog. cor. "The river Dochart gives the name of Glen Dochart to the 
vale through which it runs." — Id. " About ten miles from its source, it [the Tay] diffuses itself 
into Loch Dochart." — Glasgow Geog., Vol. ii, p. 314. Lakes: — "Loch Ard, Loch Achray, Loch 
Con, Loch Doine, Loch Katrine, Loch Lomond, Loch Voil." — Scott corrected. Glens : — " Glen 
Finlas, Glen Fruin, Glen Luss, Boss Dhu, Leven Glen, Strath Endrick, Strath Gartney, Strath Ire." 
— Id. Mountains: — "Ben An, Ben Harrow, Ben Ledi, Ben Lomond, Ben Voirlich. Ben Venue, 
or, (as some spell it,) Ben Ivenew." — ld.% "Fenelon died in 1115, deeply lamented by all the in- 
habitants of the Low Countries." — Murray cor. "And Pharaoh Necho§ made Eliakim, the son of 

* Oiss. — This construction I dislike. Without hyphens, it is improper ; and with them it is not to be com- 
mended. See Syntax, Obs 24th on Rule IV— G. B. 

t On the page here referred to, the author of the Gazetteer has written " Charles city •" &c. Analogy requires 
that the words be compounded, because they constitute three names which are applied to counties, and not to cities. 

X Obs. — The following words, as names of towns, come under Rule 6th, and are commonly found correctly 
compounded in the books of Scotch geography and statistics; " Strathaven, Stonehaven, Strathdon, Glenluce, 
Greenlaw, Coldstream, Lochwinnoch, Lochcarron, Lochmaber, Prestonpans, Prestonkirk, Peterhead, Queens- 
ferry, Newmills," and many more like them. 

§ Ok8. — This name, in both the Vulgate and the Septuagint, is Pharao Nechao, with two capitals and no hy- 
phen. Walker gives the two words separately in his Key, and spells the latter Necho, and not Nechoh. See the 
same orthography in Jer., xlvi, 2. In our common Bibles, many such names are needlessly, if not improperly, 
compounded; sometimes with one capital, and sometimes with two. The proper manner of writing Scripture 
names, is too little regarded even by good men and biblical critics. 



906 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I. 

Josiah, king." — See Alger : 2 Kings, xiii, 34. " Those who seem so merry and well pleased, 
call her Good Fortune; but the others, who weep and wring their hands, Bad Fortune." — Collier 
cor. 

Under Rule VIII. — Op Compounds. 

11 "When Joab returned, and smote Edom in the Valley of SaM." — Friends' Bible: Fs. lx, title. 
" Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said," &c. — Scott cor. " And at night he went 
out, and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives." — Bible cor. " Abgillus, son of 
the king of the Frisii, surnamed Prester John, was in the Holy Land with Charlemagne." — IT. 
Biog. Diet. cor. " Cape Palmas, in Africa, divides the Grain Coast from the Ivory Coast." — Diet, 
of Geog. cor. " The North Esk, flowing from Loch Lee, falls into the sea three miles north of Mon- 
trose." — Id. "At Queen's Ferry, the channel of the Forth is contracted by promontories on 
both coasts." — Id. " The Chestnut Ridge is about twenty-five miles west of the Alleghanies. and 
Laurel Ridge, ten miles further west." — Balbi cor. "Washington City, the metropolis of the 
United States of America." — Williams, U. Gaz., p. 380. " Washington City, in the District of 
Columbia, population (in 1830) 18,826." — Williams cor. " The loftiest peak of the White Moun- 
tains, in New Hampshire, is called Mount Washington." — G. Brown. "Mount's Bay, in the west 
of England, lies between the Land's End and Lizard Point." — Id. " Salamis, an island of the 
Egean Sea, off the southern coast of the ancient Attica." — Diet, of Geog. " Rhodes, an island of 
the Egean Sea, the largest and most easterly of the Cyclades." — Id. cor. " But he overthrew 
Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea." — Scott: Fs. exxxvi, 15. "But they provoked him at 
the sea, even at the Red Sea.' 1 — Alger, Friends: Fs. cvi, 7. 

Under Rule IX. — Op Apposition. 

" At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus." — Scott, Friends, et al. : Matt, 
xiv, 1. "Who has been more detested than Judas the traitor f — G. Brown. "St. Luke the 
evangelist was a physician of Antioch, and one of the converts of St. Paul." — Id. " Luther, the 
reformer, began his bold career by preaching against papal indulgences." — Id. "The poet Lyd- 
gate was a disciple and admirer of Chaucer: he died in 1440." — Id. " The grammarian Yarro, 
'the most learned of the Romans,'* wrote three books when he was eighty years old." — Id. 
" John Despauter, the great grammarian of Flanders, whose works are still valued, died in 
1520." — Id. " Nero, the emperor and tyrant of Rome, slew himself to avoid a worse death." — Id. 
"Cicero the orator, 'the Father of his Country,' was assassinated at the age of 64." — Id. " Eurip- 
ides, the Greek tragedian, was born in the island of Salamis, B. C. 476." — Id. " I will say unto 
God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me ?" — Alger, et al. : Fs. xlii, 9. " Staten Island, an 
island of New York, nine miles below New York city." — Williams cor. "When the son of 
Atreus, Icing of men, and the noble Achilles first separated." — Coleridge cor. 
"Hermes, his patron-god, those gifts bestow'd, 
Whose shrine with weanling lambs he wont to load." — Pope cor. 

Under Rule X. — Op Personifications. 
u But Wisdom is justified of all her children." — Friends' Bible : Luke, vii, 35. " Fortune and 
the Church are generally put in the feminine gender : that is, when personified." " Go to your 
Natural Religion ; lay before her Mahomet and his disciples." — Bp. Sherlock. " O Death! where 
is thy sting? O Grave! where is thy victory." — Pope: 1 Cor., xv, 55; Merchant's Gram., p. 
172. " Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." — Matt., vi, 24. "Ye cannot serve God and Mam- 
mon." — See Luke, xvi, 13. "This house was built as if Suspicion herself had dictated the plan." 
— Rasselas. " Poetry distinguishes herself from Prose, by yielding to a musical law." — Music of 
Nature, p. 501. " My beauteous deliverer thus uttered her divine instructions : ' My name is Re- 
ligion. I am the offspring of Truth and Love, and the parent of Benevolence, Hope, and Joy. That 
monster, from whose power I have freed you, is called Superstition : she is called the child of Dis- 
content, and her followers are Fear and Sorrow.' " — E. Carter. " Neither Hope nor Fear could 
enter the retreats ; and Habit had so absolute a power, that even Conscience, if Religion had em- 
ployed her in their favour, would not have been able to force an entrance." — Dr. Johnson. 
" In colleges and halls in ancient days, 
There dwelt a sage called Discipline." — Cowper. 

Under Rule XI. — Of Derivatives. 
" In English, I would have Gallicisms avoided." — Felton. " Sallust was born in Italy, 85 years 
before the Christian era." — Murray cor. "Dr. Doddridge was not only a great man, but one of 
the most excellent and useful Christians, and Christian ministers." — Id. " They corrupt their 
style with untutored Anglicisms." — Milton. " Albert of Stade, author of a chronicle from the 
creation to 1286, a Benedictine of the 13th century." — Biog. Diet. cor. "Graffio, & Jesuit of Capua 
in the 16th century, author of two volumes on moral subjects." — Id. " They Frenchify and Ital- 
ianize words whenever they can." — Bucke's Gram., p. 86. " He who sells a Christian, sells the 
grace of God^' — Mag. cor. " The first persecution against the Christians, under Nero, began A. 
D. 64." — Gregory cor. " P. Rapin, the Jesuit, uniformly decides in favour of the Roman writ- 
ers." — Blair's Rhet, p. 248. " The Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher Lucretius has said," 

* " [Marcus] Terentius Yarro, vir Ronianorum eruditissimus." — Qtjintilian. Lib. x, Cap. 1, p. 577. 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO FALSE ORTHOGRAPHY. — CAPITAL LETTERS. 907 

&c. — Cohen cor. Spell " Calvinistic, Atticism, Gothicism, Epicurism, Jesuitism, Sabianism, So- 
cinianism, Anglican, Anglicism, Anglicize, Vandalism, Gallicism, and Romanize." — Webster cor. 
" The large Ternate bat." — Id. and Bolles cor. 

" Church-ladders are not always mounted best 
By learned clerks, and Latinists profess'd." — Cowper cor. 

Under Rule XII. — Op I and 0. 
" Fall back, fall back; /have not room: — 01 methinks I see a couple whom I should know." 
— Lucian. " Nay, I live as / did, I think as I did, /love you as I did; but all these are to no 
purpose ; the world will not live, think, or love, as I do." — Swift to Pope. "Whither, 01 whither 
shall /fly? wretched prince I cruel reverse of fortune ! father Micipsa! is this the conse- 
quence of thy generosity?" — Tr. of Sallust. " When / was a child, / spake as a child, /under- 
stood as a child, / thought as a child ; but when / became a man, / put away childish things." — 
1 Cor., xiii, 11. "And / heard, but / understood not; then said I, my Lord, what shall be 
the end of these things ?" — Ban., xii, 8. " Here am /; / think / am very good, and / am quite 
sure I am very happy, yet / never wrote a treatise in my life." — Few Days in Athens, p. 127. 
" Singular, Vocative, master ! Plural, Vocative, masters !" — Bicknell cor. 
"I, /am he; father! rise, behold 
Thy son, with twenty winters now grown old!" — Pope's Odyssey, B. 24, 1. 375. 

Under Rule XIII. — Of Poetry. 

" Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, 

Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence ; 

But health consists with temperance alone, 

And peace, Virtue ! peace is all thy own." — Pope. 
" Observe the language well in all you write, 

And swerve not from it in your loftiest flight. 

The smoothest verse and the exactest sense 

Displease us, if ill English give offence : 

A barbarous phrase no reader can approve ; 

Nor bombast, noise, or affectation love. 

In short, without pure language, what you write 

Can never yield us profit or delight. 

Take time for thinking ; never work in haste ; 

And value not yourself for writing fast." — Dry den. 

Under Rule XIV. — Of Examples. 

" The word rather is very properly used to express a small degree or excess of a quality ; as, 
l She is rather profuse in her expenses.' " — Murray cor. "Neither imports not either; that is, not 
one nor the other: as, ' Neither of my friends was there.' " — Id. "When we say, '■He is a tall 
man,' — ' This is a fair day,' we make some reference to the ordinary size of men, and to different 
weather." — Id. "We more readily say, 'A million of men,' than, l A thousand of men.' " — Id. 
" So in the instances, ''Two and two are four;' — ' The fifth and sixth volumes will complete the 
set of books.' " — Id. " The adjective may frequently either precede or follow the verb : as, ' The 
man is happy ;' or, l Happy is the man ;' — ' The interview was delightful ;' or, ' Delightful was the 
interview.'" — Id. "If we say, 'Rewrites a pen;' — ' They ran the river;' — ' Th e tower fell the 
Greeks;' — 'Lambeth is Westminster Abbey ;' — [we speak absurdly;] and, it is evident, there is a 
vacancy which must be filled up by some connecting word: as thus, ' He writes with a pen;' — 
1 Tliey ran towards the river;' — *■ The tower fell upon the Greeks;' — 'Lambeth is over against 
Westminster Abbey.' 1 " — Id. " Let me repeat it; — He only is great, who has the habits of great- 
ness." — Id. " I say not unto thee, Until seven times ; but, Until seventy times seven." — Matt, 
xviii, 22. 

" The Panther smil'd at this ; and, ' When,'' said she, 
'Were those first councils disallow'd by me ?' " — Dryd. cor. 

Under Rule XV. — Of Chief Words. 

11 The supreme council of the nation is called the Divan." — Balbi cor. "The British Parlia- 
ment is composed of King, Lords, and Commons." — Comly's Gram., p. 129; and Jaudon's, 127. 
"A popular orator in the House of Commons has a sort of patent for coining as many new terms 
as he pleases." — See Campbell's Rhet, p. 169; Murray's Gram., 364. "They may all be taken 
together, as one name ; as, ' The House of Commons.' 1 " — Merchant cor. " Intrusted to persons in 
whom the Parliament could confide." — Murray cor. " For 'The Lords' 1 House, 1 it were certainly 
better to say, ' The House of Lords;' and, in stead of 'The Commons' vote,' to say, 'The vote of 
the Commons.' " — Id. and Priestley cor. " The House of Lords were so much influenced by these 
reasons." — Iidem. " Rhetoricians commonly divide them into two great classes ; Figures of Words, 
and Figures of Thought. The former, Figures of Words, are commonly called Tropes." — Murray's 
Gram., p. 337. " Perhaps, Figures of Imagination, and Figures of Passion, might be a more use- 



908 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I. 

ful distribution.". — lb. " Hitherto we have considered sentences, under the heads of Perspicuity, 
Unity, and Strength." — See Murray's Gram., p. 356. 

" The word is then depos'd; and, in this view, 
You rule the Scripture, not the Scripture you." — Dryd. cor. 

Under Rule XVI. — Op Needless Capitals. 
"Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." — Friends' Bible, and Scott's: Matt, xiv, 21. 
" Between passion and lying, there is not a finger's breadth." — Mur. cor. " Can our solicitude 
alter the course, or unravel the intricacy, of human events?" — Id. "The last edition was care- 
fully compared with the original manuscript." — Id. " And the governor asked him, saying, Art 
thou the king of the Jews ?" — Scott : Matt., xxvii, 11. "Let them be turned back for a reward 
of their shame, that say, Aha, aha!" — Scott et al. : Ps., lxx, 3. "Let them be desolate for a 
reward of their shame, that say unto me, Aha, aha !" — Iidem: Ps., xl, 15. " What think ye of 
Christ ? whose son is he ? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then 
doth David in spirit call him Lord?" — Alger: Matt, xxii, 42, 43. "Among all things in the 
universe, direct your worship to the greatest. And which is that ? It is that Being who manages 
and governs all the rest." — Colliers Antoninus cor. "As for modesty and good faith, truth and 
justice, they have left this wicked world and retired to heaven : and now what is it that can keep 
you here ?" — Idem. 

" If pulse of verse a nation's temper shows, 
In keen iambics English metre flows." — Brightland cor. 

PROMISCUOUS CORRECTIONS RESPECTING- CAPITALS. 
Lesson I. — Mixed Examples. 

"Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come." — Thomson's Seasons, p. 29. As, " He is the 
Cicero of his age;" — " He is reading the Lives of the Twelve Caesars :" — or, if no particular book 
is meant, — "the lives of the twelve Caesars;" (as it is in Fish's Grammar, p. 57 ;) for the sentence, 
as it stands in Murray, is ambiguous. " In the History of Henry the Fourth, by Father Daniel, 
we are surprised at not rinding him the great man." — Smollett's Voltaire, Vol. v, p. 82. "Do not 
those same poor peasants use the lever, and the wedge, and many other instruments ?" — Harris 
and Mur. cor. " Arithmetic is excellent for the gauging of liquors ; geometry, for the measuring 
of estates ; astronomy, for the making of almanacs ; and grammar, perhaps, for the drawing of 
bonds and conveyances." — See Murray's Gram., p. 288. " The [History of the] Wars of Flanders, 
written in Latin by Famianus Strada, is a book of some note. " — Blair cor. " William is a noun. 
Why ? Was is a verb. Why ? J. is an article. Why ? Very is an adverb. Why ?" &c. — 
Merchant cor. " In the beginning was the Word, and that Word was with God, and God was 
that Word." — See Gospel of John, i, 1. " The Greeks are numerous in Thessaly, Macedonia, 
Romelia, and Albania." — Balbi's Geog., p. 360. " He [the Grand Seignior] is styled by the Turks, 
Sultan, Mighty, or Padishah, Lord." — Balbi cor. " I will ransom them from the power of the 
grave ; I will redeem them from death. Death! I will be thy plague; Grave! I will be thy 
destruction." — Bible cor. " Silver and gold have I none ; but such as I have, give I [unto] thee." 
— See Acts, hi, 6. " Return, we beseech thee, God of hosts ! look down from heaven, and be- 
hold, and visit this vine." — See Psalm lxxx, 14. " In the Attic commonwealth, it was the privi- 
lege of every citizen to rail in public." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 316. " They assert, that in 
the phrases, ' Give me that,' — ' This is John's,' and, ; Such were some of you,' — the words in Italics 
are pronouns ; but that, in the following phrases, they are not pronouns: ' This book is instructive;' 
— ' Some boys are ingenious;' — l My health is declining;' — ' Our hearts are deceitful.' " — Murray 
partly corrected* "And the coast bends a^ain to the northwest, as far as Farout Head." — Geog. 
cor. " Dr. "Webster, and other makers of spelling-books, very improperly write Sunday, Monday, 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, without capitals." — G. Brown. " The 
commander in chief of the Turkish navy is styled the Capitan Pacha." — Balbi cor. "Shall we 
not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live ?" — Alger's Bible : Heb., 
xii, 9. " He [Dr. Beattie] was more anxious to attain the character of a Christian hero." — Mur- 
ray cor. "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion."— W. Allen's Gram., 
p. 393. " The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." — Alger, Friends, 
et al. : Heb., xiii, 6. "Make haste to help me, Lord my salvation." — Iidem: Psalms, 
xxxviii, 22. 

" The city which thou seest, no other deem 
Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth." — Paradise Regained, B. iv. 

Lesson II. — Mixed Examples. 
"That range of hills, known under the general name of Mount Jura." — Account of Geneva. 
"He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up." — Friends' Bible : Ps. cvi, 9. "Jesus 
went unto the Mount of Olives." — Bible cor. " Milton's book in reply to the Defence of the King, 
by Salmasius, gained him a thousand pounds from the Parliament, and killed his antagonist with 
vexation." — G. B. " Mandeville, Sir John, an Englishman famous for his travels, born about 

* Note.— By this amendment, we remove a multitude of errors, but the passage is still very faulty. What 
Murray here calls "phrases" are properly sentences; and, in his second clause, he deserts the terms of the first 
to bring in "my" "our" and also "dbc," which seem to be out of place there. — G. Bsown. 



CHAP. II.] KEY TO FALSE ORTHOGRAPHY. — SYLLABICATION. 909 

1300, died in 1312." — B. Diet cor. "Ettrick Pen, a mountain in Selkirkshire, Scotland, height 
2.200 feet." — G. Geog. cor. " The coast bends from Dungsby Head, in a northwest direction, to 
the promontory of Dunnet Head." — Id. " General Gaines ordered a detachment of nearly 300 
men, under the command of Major Twiggs, to surround and take an Indian village, called JPowl~ 
town, about fourteen miles from Fort Scott." — Cohen Cor. " And he took the damsel by the 
hand, and said unto her, ' Talitha, cumV " — Bible Editors cor. " On religious subjects, a frequent 
adoption of Scripture language is attended with peculiar force." — Murray cor. " Contemplated 
with gratitude to their Author, the Giver of all good." — Id. " "When he, the Spirit of truth, is 
come, he will guide you into all [the] truth." — Scott, Alger, et al. : John, xvi, 13. " See the 
Lecture on Verbs, Rule XV, Note 4th." — Fisk cor. "At the commencement of Lecture 2d, I in- 
formed you that Etymology treats, thirdly, of derivation." — Kirkham cor. "This 8th Lecture is 
a very important one." — Id. "Now read the 11th and 12$, lectures, four or five times over." — 
Id. " In 1752, he [Henry Home] was advanced to the bench, under the title of Lord Kames." — 
Murray cor. " One of his maxims was, ' Know thyself.'" — Lempriere cor. " Good Master, what 
good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" — Friends' Bible: Matt, xix, 16. "His 
best known works, however, [John Almon's] are, ; Anecdotes of the Life of the Earl of Chatham,' 
2 vols. 4to, 3 vols. 8vo ; and ' Biographical, Literary, and. Political Anecdotes of several of the Most 
Eminent Persons of the Present Age; never before printed,' 3 vols. 8vo, 1797." — Biog. Diet. cor. 
" O gentle Sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee ?" — Shak. : Kames, El. of Grit, 
YoL ii, p. 175. " And peace, O Virtue ! peace is all thy own." — Pope et al. cor. 

Lesson III. — Mixed Examples. 
" Fenelon united the characters of a nobleman and a Christian pastor. His book entitled, 'An 
Explication of the Maxims of the Saints, concerning the Interior Life, ' gave considerable offence 
to the guardians of orthodoxy." — Murray cor. " When Natural Religion, who before was only a 
spectator, is introduced as speaking by the Centurion's voice." — Murray's Gram., Yol. i p. 347. 
" You cannot deny, that the great Mover and Author of nature constantly explaineth himself to 
the eyes of men, by the sensible intervention of arbitrary signs, which have no similitude to, or 
connexion with, the things signified." — Berkley cor. " The name of this letter is DoubU-u, its 
form, that of a double Y." — Dr. Wilson cor. "Murray, in his Spelling-Book, wrote Charlestown 
with a hyphen and two capitals." — G. Brown. " He also wrote European without a capital." — Id. 
"They profess themselves to be Pharisees, who are to be heard and not imitated." — Calvin cor. 
"Dr. Webster wrote both Neichaven and Nevj York with single capitals." — G. Brown. " Gay 
Head, the west point of Martha's Vineyard." — Williams cor. "Write Crab Orchard, Egg Har- 
bour, Long Island, Perth Amboy, West Hampton, Little Compton, Nevj Paltz, Crown Point, FelVs 
Point, Sandy Hook, Port Penn, Port Royal. Porto Bdlo, and Porto Rico." — G. Brown. " Write 
the names of the months : January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, 
October, November, December." — Id. " Write the following names and words properly : Tuesday, 
Wednesday, Tfiursday, Friday, Saturday, Saturn; — Clirist, Christian, Christmas, Christendom, 
Michaelmas, Indian, Bacchanals ; — East Hampton, Omega, Johannes, Aonian, Levitical, Deuter- 
onomy, European." — Id. 

" Eight letters in some syllables we find, 
And no more syllables in words are join'd." — Brightland cor. 



CHAPTER II.-OF SYLLABLES. 

CORRECTIONS OF FALSE SYLLABICATION. 
Lesson I. — Consonants. 

1. Correction of Murray, in words of two syllables: civ-il, col-our, cop-y, dam-ask, dozen, ev- 
er, feath-er, gath-er, heav-en, heav-y, hon-ey, lem-on, lin-en, mead-ow, mon-ey, nev-er, ol-ive, or- 
ange, oth-er, pheas-ant, pleas-ant, pun-ish, rath-er, read-y, riv-er, rob-in, schol-ar, shov-el, stom- 
ach, tim-id, whith-er. 

2. Correction of Murray, in words of three syllables: ben-e-fit, cab-i-net, can-is-ter, cat-a-logue, 
char-ac-ter, char-i-ty, cov-et-ous, dil-i-gence, dim-i-ty, el-e-phant, ev-i-dent, ev-er-green, friv-o-lous, 
gath-er-ing, gen-er-ous, gov-ern-ess, gov-ern-or, hon-est-y, kal-en-dar, lav-en-der, lev-er-et, lib-er- 
al, mem-or-y, min-is-ter, mod-est-ly, nov-el-ty, no-bod-y, par-a-dise, pov-er-ty, pres-ent-ly, prov-i- 
dence, prop-er-ly, pris-on-er, rav-en-ous, sat-is-fy, sev-er-al, sep-ar-ate, trav-el-ler, vag-a-bond ; — 
con-sid-er, con-tm-ue, de-liv-er, dis-cov-er, dis-fig-ure, dis-hon-est, dis-trib-ute, in-hab-it, me-chan- 
ic, what-ev-er; — rec-om-mend, ref-u-gee. rep-ri-mand. 

3. Correction of Murray, in words of four syllables : cat-er-pil-lar, char-i-ta-ble, dil-i-gent-ly, 
mis-er-a-ble, prof-it-a-ble, tol-er-a-ble ; — be-nev-o-lent, con-sid-er-ate, di-min-u-tive, ex-per-i-ment, 
ex-trav-a-gant, in-hab-i-tant, no-bil-i-ty, par-tic-u-lar, pros-per-i-ty, ri-dic-u-lous, sin-cer-i-ty ; — 
dem-on-stra-tion, ed-u-ca-tion, em-u-la-tion, ep-i-dem-ic, mal-e-fac-tor, man-u-fac-ture, mem-o-ran- 
dum. mod-er-a-tor, par-a-lyt-ic, pen-i-ten-tial, res-ig-na-tion, sat-is-fac-tion, sem-i-co-lon. 

4. Correction of Murray, in words of five syllables: a-bom-i-na-ble. a-poth-e-ca-ry, con-sid-er- 
a-ble, ex-plan-a-to-ry, pre-par-a-to-ry ; — ac-a-dem-i-caL cu-ri-os-i-ty, ge-o-graph-i-cal, man-u-fac- 
tor-y. sat-is-fac-tor-y, mer-i-to-ri-ous ; — char-ac-ter-is-tic, ep-i-gram-mat-ic, ex-per-i-ment-al, pol-y- 
syl-la-ble, eon-sid-er-a-tion. 



910 GRAMMAB OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I. 

5. Correction of Murray, in the division of proper names : Hel-en, Leon-ard, Phil-ip, Rob-ert, 
Hor-ace, Thom-as; — Car-o-line, Cath-a-rine, Dan-i-el, Deb-o-rah, Dor-o-thy, Fred-er-ick, Is-a-bel, 
Jon-a-than, Lyd-i-a, Nich-o-las, Ol-i-ver, Sam-u-el, Sim-e-on, Sol-o-mon, Tim-o-thy, Val-en-tine ; — 
A-mer-i-ca, Bar-thol-o-mew, E-liz-a-beth, Na-than-i-el, Pe-nel-o-pe, The-oph-i-lus. 

Lesson II. — Mixed Examples. 

1. Correction of Webster, by Rule 1st: — ca-price, e-steem, dis-e-steem, o-blige; — a-zure, ma- 
tron, pa-tron, pha-lanx, si-ren, trai-tor, tren-cher, bar-ber, bur-nish, gar-nish, tar-nish, var-nish, 
mar-ket, mus-ket, pam-phlet; — bra-ver-y, kna-ver-y, sla-ver-y, e-ven-ing, sce-ner-y, bri-ber-y, ni- 
ce-ty, chi-ca-ner-y, ma-chin-er-y, im-a-ger-y ; — a-sy-lum, ho-ri-zon, — fin-an-cier, her-o-ism, sar-do- 
nyx, scur-ri-lous, — co-me-di-an, pos-te-ri-or. 

2. Correction of Webster, by Rule 2d : o-yer, fo-li-o, ge-ni-al, ge-ni-us, ju-ni-or, sa-ti-ate, vi-ti-ate; 
— am-bro-si-a, cha-me-Ze-on, par-he-li-on, con-ve-ni-ent, in-ge-ni-ous, om-nis-ci-ence, pe-cu-li-ar, so- 
ci-a-ble, par-ti-al-i-ty, pe-cu-ni-a-ry ; — an-nun-ci-ate, e-nun-ci-ate, ap-pre-ci-ate, as-so-ci-ate, ex-pa - 
ti-ate, in-gra-ti-ate, in-i-ti-ate, li-cen-ti-ate, ne-go-ti-ate, no-vi-ti-ate, of-fi-ci-ate, pro-pi-ti-ate, sub- 
stan-ti-ate. 

3. Correction of Cobb and Webster, by each other, under Rule 3d : " dress-er, hast-y, past-ry, 
seiz-ure, roll-er, jest-er, weav-er, vamp-er, haud-y, dross-y, gloss-y, mov-er, mov-ing, ooz-y, full-er, 
trust-y, weight-y, nois-y, drows-y, swarth-y." — Webster. Again : " east-em, ful-ly, pul-let, ril-let, 
scant-y, need-y." — Cobb. 

4. Correction of Webster and Cobb, under Rule 4th : a-wry, a-thwart', pros-pect'-ive, pa-ren'- 
the-sis, re-sist-i-bil'-i-ty, hem-i-spher'-ic, mon'-o-stich, hem'-i-stich, to'-wards. 

5. Correction of the words under Rule 5th ; Eng-land, an oth-er,* Beth-es'-da, Beth-ab'-a-ra. 

Lesson III. — Mixed Examples. 

1. Correction of Cobb, by Rule 3d: bend-er, bless-ing, brass-y, chaff-y, chant-er, clasp-er, craft-y, 
curd-y, fend-er, film-y, fust-y, glass-y, graft-er, grass-y, gust-y, hand-ed, mass-y, musk-y, rust-y, 
swell-ing, tell-er, test-ed, thrift-y, vest-ure. 

2. Corrections of Webster, mostly by Rule 1st: bar-ber, bur-nish, bris-ket, can-ker, char-ter, 
cuc-koo, fur-nish, gar-nish, guilt-y, han-ker, lus-ty, por-tal, tar-nish, tes-tate, tes-ty, trai-tor, 
trea-ty, var-nish, ves-tal, di-ur-nal, e-ter-nal, in-fer-nal, in-ter-nal, ma-ter-nal, noc-tur-nal, 
pa-ter-nal. 

3. Corrections of Webster, mostly by Rule 1st : ar-mor-y, ar-ter-y, butch-er-y, cook-er-y, eb-on-y, 
em-er-y, ev-er-y, fel-on-y, fop-per-y, frip-per-y, gal-ler-y, his-tor-y, liv-er-y, lot-ter-y, mock-er-y, 
mys-ter-y,\ nun-ner-y, or-rer-y, pil-lor-y, quack-er-y, sor-cer-y, witch-er-y. 

4. Corrections of Cobb, mostly by Rule 1st: an-kle, bas-ket, blan-ket, buc-kle, cac-kle, cran-kle, 
crin-kle, Eas-ter, fic-kle, frec-kle, knuc-kle, mar-ket, mon-key, por-tress, pic-kle, poul-tice, pun- 
cheon, quad-rant, quad-rate, squad-ron, ran-kle, shac-kle, sprin-kle, tin-kle, twin-kle, wrin-kle. 

5. Corrections of Emerson, by Rules 1st and 3d : as-cribe, blan-dish, branch-y, cloud-y, dust-y, 
drear-y, e-ven-ing, fault-y, filth-y, frost-y, gaud-y, gloom-y, health-y, heark-en, heart-y, hoar-y, 
leak-y, loun-ger, marsh-y, might-y, milk-y, naught-y, pass-ing, pitch-er, read-y, rock-y, speed-y, 
stead-y, storm-y, thirst-y, thorn-y, trust-y, vest-ry, west-ern, wealth-y. 



CHAPTER III.— OF WORDS. 

CORRECTIONS RESPECTING THE FIGURE, OR FORM, OF WORDS. 

Rule I. — Compounds. 
"Professing to imitate Timon, the manhater." — Goldsmith corrected. " Men load hay with a 
pitchfork." — Webster cor. "A peartree grows from the seed of a pear." — Id. " A toothbrush ia 
good to brush your teeth." — Id. " The mail is opened at the post-office." — Id. " The error seems 
tome twofold." — Sanborn cor. " To preengage means to engage beforehand." — Webster cor. "It 
is a mean act to deface the figures on a milestone." — Id. "A grange is a farm, with its farm- 
house." — Id. "It is no more right to steal apples or watermelons, than [to steal] money." — Id. 
"The awl is a tool used by shoemakers and harness-makers." — Id. " Twenty-five cents are equal 
to one quarter of a dollar." — Id. " The blowing-up of the Fulton at New York, was a terrible 
disaster." — Id. " The elders also, and the bringers-up of the children, sent to Jehu." — Alger, 
Friends, et al. : 2 Kings, x, 5. " Not with eyeservice as menpleasers." — Col, hi, 22. " A good- 
natured and equitable construction of cases." — Ash cor. "And purify your hearts, ye double- 
minded." — James, iv, 8. " It is a mean-spirited action to steal ; i. e., To steal is a mean-spirited 
action." — A. Murray cor. " There is, indeed, one form of orthography which is akin to the sub- 
junctive mood of the Latin tongue." — Booth cor. " To bring him into nearer connexion with real 
and everyday life." — Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 459. " The commonplace, stale declamation 
of its revilers would be silenced." — Id. cor. " She [Cleopatra] formed a very singular and un- 
heard-of project." — Goldsmith cor. "He [William Tell] had many vigilant, though feeble-talented 
and mean-spirited enemies." — R. Vaux cor. " These old-fashioned people would level our psalm- 

* An other is a phrase of two words, which ought to be written separately. The transferring of the n to the 
latter word, is a gross vulgarism. Separate the words, and it will he avoided. 
t Mys-ter-y, according to Scott and Cobb ; mys-te-ry, according to Walker and Worcester. 



CHAP. III.] KEY TO FALSE ORTHOGRAPHY. — FIGURE OF WORDS. 911 

ody," &c. — Gardiner cor. " This slow-shifting scenery in the theatre of harmony." — Id. " So we 
are assured from Scripture itself.' 1 — Harris cor. " The mind, being disheartened, then betake3 
itself to trifling.' 1 — R. Johnson cor. "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them." — 
Bible cor. " Tarry we ourselves how we will." — W. Walker cor. " Manage your credit so, that 
you need neither swear yourself, nor seek a voucher." — Collier cor. " "Whereas song never conveys 
any of the abovenamed sentiments." — Dr. Rush cor. "I go on horseback.' 1 ' 1 — Guy cor. " This re- 
quires purity, in opposition to barbarous, obsolete, or new-coined words." — Adam cor. "May the 
ploughshare shine." — White cor. "Whichever way we consider it." — Locke cor. 
li Where'er the silent e a place obtains, 
The voice foregoing, length and softness gains." — Brightland cor. 

Rule II. — Slmples. 
"It qualifies any of the four parts of speech above named." — Kirkham cor. " After a while 
they put us out among the rude multitude." — Fox cor. " It would be a shame, if your mind 
should falter and give in." — Collier cor. "They stared a while in silence one upon an other.' 1 '' — 
Johnson cor. " After passion has for a while exercised its tyrannical sway." — Murray cor. 
"Though set within the same general frame of intonation." — Rush cor. "Which do not carry 
any of the natural vocal signs of expression." — Id. " The measurable constructive powers of a few 
associable constituents." — Id. " Before each accented syllable or emphatic monosyllabic v:ord." — 
Id. "One should not think too favourably of ones self." — Murray's Gram., i, 154. " Know ye 
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you?" — 2 Cor., xiii, 5. "I judge not my own 
self, for I know nothing of my own self." — See 1 Cor., iv, 3. "Though they were in such a rage, 
I desired them to tarry a while." — Josephus cor. " A, in stead of an, is now used before words 
beginning with u long." — Murray cor. "John will have earned his wages by next new years 
day." — Id. " A new year's gift is a present made on the first day of the year." — Johnson et al. cor. 
" When he sat on the throne, distributing new year's gifts." — Id. " St. Paul admonishes Timothy 
to refuse old wives' fables." — See I Tim., iv, 7. " The world, take it all together, is but one." — 
Collier cor. " In writings of this stamp, we must accept of sound in stead of sense." — Murray 
cor. " A male child, a, female child ; male descendants, female descendants." — Goldsbury et al. cor. 
"Male servants, female sen-ants; male relations, female relations." — Felton cor. 
" Reserved and cautious, with no partial aim, 
My muse e'er sought to blast an other's fame." — Lloyd cor. 

Rule III — The Sense. 
" Our discriminations of this matter have been but four-footed instincts." — Rush cor. " He is 
in the right, (says Clytus,) not to bear free-born men at his table." — Goldsmith cor. "To the 
short-seeing eye of man, the progress may appear little." — The Friend cor. " Knowledge and 
virtue are, emphatically, the stepping-stones to individual distinction." — Town cor. " A tin-peddler 
will sell tin vessels as he travels." — Webster cor. " The beams of a wooden house are held up by 
the posts and joists." — Id. " What you mean by future-tense adjective, I can easily under- 
stand." — Tooke cor. " The town has been for several days very well-behaved." — Spectator cor. 
"A rounce is the handle of a printing-press." — Websttr cor. "The phraseology [which] we call 
thee-and-thouing [or, better, thoutheeing,~\ is not in so common use with us, as the tutoyant among 
the French." — Walker cor. "Hunting and other outdoor sports, are generally pursued." — Balhi 
cor. " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden." — Scott et al. cor. " God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son to save it." — See Alger's Bible, and Friends': 
John, iii. 16. "Jehovah is a prayer-hearing God : Nineveh repented, and was spared." — Observer 
cor. "These are iv ell-pleasing to God, in all ranks and relations." — Barclay cor. "Whosoever 
cometh anything near unto the tabernacle." — Bible cor. "The words coalesce, when they have a 
long -established association." — Mur. cor. "Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will go into 
them." — Modern Bible: Fs. cxviii, 19. "He saw an angel of God coming in to him." — Acts, 
x, 3. "The consequences of any action are to be considered in a twofold light." — Wayland cor. 
"We commonly write twofold, threefold, fourfold., and so on up to tenfold, without a hyphen; and, 
after that, we use one." — G. Brown. "When the first mark is going off, he cries, Turn! the 
glassholder answers, Done!" — Bowditch cor. "It is a kind of familiar shaking-hands (or shaking 
of hands) with all the vices." — Maturin cor. " She is a good-natured woman ;" — "James is self- 
opinionated ;" — " He is broken-hearted." — Wright cor. " These three examples apply to the pres- 
ent-tense construction only." — Id. "So that it was like a game of hide-and-go-seek." — Gram. cor. 
" That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, 
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face." — Shak. 

Rule IY. — Ellipses. 
" This building serves yet for a schoolhouse and a meeting-house." — G. Brown. "Schoolmas- 
ters and schoolmistresses, if honest friends, are to be encouraged." — Discip. cor. " We never 
assumed to ourselves a faith-making or a worship-making power." — Barclay cor. "Potash and 
pearlash are made from common ashes." — Webster cor. "Both the ten-syllable and the eight-sylla- 
ble verses are iambics." — Blair cor. " I say to myself, thou say'st to thyself, he says to himself, 
&c." — Dr. Murray cor. " Or those who have esteemed themselves skillful, have tried for the 
mastery in two-horse or four-horse chariots." — Ware cor. "I remember him barefooted and 



912 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I. 

bareheaded, running through the streets." — Edgeworth cor. "Friends have the entire control of 
the schoolhouse and dwelling-house." Or: — "of the schoolhouses and dwelling-houses." Or: — "of 
the schoolhouse and the dwelling-houses." Or: — " of the schoolhouses and the dwelling-house." Or: — 
" of the school, and of the dwelling-houses." [For the sentence here to be corrected is so ambiguous, 
that any of these may have been the meaning intended by it.] — The Friend cor. "The meeting 
is held at the first-mentioned place in Firstmonth ; at the last-mentioned, in Secondmonih ; and so 
on." — Id. " Meetings for worship are held, at the same hour, on Firstday and Fourthday." Or: — 
"on Firstday s and Fourthday s." — Id. " Every part of it, inside and outside, is covered with gold 
leaf." — Id. "The Eastern Quarterly Meeting is held on the last Seventhday in Secondmonih, 
Fifthmonlh, Eighthmonth, and Eleventhmonth." — Id. " Trenton Preparative Meeting is held on 
the third Fifthday in each month, at ten o'clook ; meetings for worship [are held,] at the same 
hour, on Firstday s and Fifthday s." — Id. "Ketch, a vessel with two masts, a mainmast and a 
mizzenmast." — Webster cor. "I only mean to suggest a doubt, whether nature has enlisted 
herself [either] as a Cis- Atlantic or [as a] Trans- Atlantic partisan." — Jefferson cor. " By large 
hammers, like those used for paper-mills and fulling-mills, they beat their hemp." — Johnson cor. 
" Ant-hill, or Ant-hillock, n. A small protuberance of earth, formed by ants, for their habitation." 
— Id. "It became necessary to substitute simple indicative terms called pronames or pronouns." 

" Obscur'd, where highest woods, impenetrable 
To light of star or sun, their umbrage spread." — Hilton cor. 

Eule Y. — The Hyphen. 

" Evil-thinking ; a noun, compounded of the noun evil and the imperfect participle thinking ; 
singular number;" &c. — Churchill cor. "Evil-speaking; a noun, compounded of the noun evil 
and the imperfect participle speaking" — Id. "lam a tall, broad-shouldered, impudent, black 
fellow." — Sped, or Joh. cor. "Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend." — Shak. or Joh. cor. "A 
popular license is indeed the many-headed tyranny." — Sydney or Joh. cor. " He from the many- 
peopled city flies." — Sandys or Joh. cor. " He many-languaged nations has surveyed." — Pope or 
Joh. cor. " The horse-cucumber is the large green cucumber, and the best for the table." — Mori. 
or Joh. cor. "The bird of night did sit, even at noon-day, upon the market-place." — Shak. or Joh. 
cor. " These make a general gaol-delivery of souls not for punishment." — South or Joh. cor. " Thy 
air, thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first." — Shak. or Joh. cor. " His person was deformed 
to the highest degree; flat-nosed and blobber-lipped." — EEstr. or Joh. cor. "He that defraudeth 
the labourer of his hire, is a blood-shedder." — Ecclus., xxxiv, 22. " Bloody-minded, adj., from 
bloody and mind; Cruel, inclined to bloodshed." — Johnson cor. " Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in de- 
meanour." — Shak. or Joh. cor. " A young fellow, with a bob-wig and a black silken bag tied to 
it." — Sped, or Joh. cor. "I have seen enough to confute all the bold-faced atheists of this age." — 
BramhaU or Joh. cor. "Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound." — Joh. Did., w. Bolt. 
"For what else is a red-hot iron than fire? and what else is a burning coal than red-hot wood?" 
— Newton or Joh. cor. " Poll-evil is a large swelling, inflammation, or imposthume, in the horse's 
poll, or nape of the neck, just between the ears." — Far. or Joh. cor. 

" Quick-witted, brazen-fac 'd, with fluent tongues, 
Patient of labours, and dissembling wrongs." — Drydencor. 

Rule YI. — No Hyphen. 

"From his fond parent's eye a teardrop fell." — Snelling cor. "How great, poor jackdaw, would 
thy sufferings be 1" — Id. " Placed, like a scarecrow in a field of corn." — Id. " Soup for the alms- 
house at a cent a quart." — Id. " Up into the watchtower get, and see all things despoiled of fal- 
lacies." — Donne or Joh. cor. " In the daytime she [Fame] sitteth in a watchtower, and fliethmost 
by night." — Bacon or Joh. cor. " The moral is the first business of the poet, as being the ground- 
work of his instruction." — Dryd. or Joh. cor. " Madam's own hand the mousetrap baited." — Prior 
or Joh. cor. "By the sinking of the air shaft, the air has liberty to circulate." — Ray or Joh. cor. 
"The multiform and amazing operations of the airpump and the loadstone." — Watts or Joh. cor. 
" Many of the firearms are named from animals." — Johnson cor. " You might have trussed him 
and all his apparel into an eelskin." — Shak. or Joh. cor. " They may serve as landmarks, to show 
what lies in the direct way of truth." — Locke or Joh. cor. " A packhorse is driven constantly in 
a narrow lane and dirty road." — Locke or Joh. cor. " A millhorse, still bound to go in one circle." 
— Sidney or Joh. cor. " Of singing birds, they have linnets, goldfinches, ruddocks, Canary birds, 
blackbirds, thrushes, and divers others." — Carew or Joh. cor. " Cartridge, a case of paper or parch 
ment filled with gunpowder ; [or, rather, containing the entire charge of a gun]." — Joh. cor. 

"Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, 
The time of night when Troy was set on fire, 
The time when screechowls cry, and bandogs howl." 

Shakspeare : in Johnson's Did., w. Screechowl. 

PROMISCUOUS CORRECTIONS IN THE FIGURE OF WORDS. 
Lesson I. — Mixed Examples. 
"They that live in glass houses, should not throw stones." — Adage. "If a man profess Chris- 
tianity in any manner or form whatsoever." — Watts cor. "For Cassius is aweary of the world." 



CHAP. III.] KEY TO FALSE ORTHOGRAPHY. — FIGURE OF WORDS. 913 

Better: "For Cassius is weary of the world." — Shak. cor. "By the coming-tog ether of more, the 
chains were fastened on." — W. Walker cor. " Unto the carrying-away of Jerusalem captive in 
the fifth month." — Bible cor. " And the goings-forth of the border shall be to Zedad." — Id. " And 
the goings-out of it shall be at Hazar Enan." — See Walker's Key " For the taking-place of effects, 
in a certain particular series." — West cor. "The letting-go of which was the occasion of all that 
corruption." — Owen cor. " A falling '-off at the end, is always injurious." — Jamieson cor. "As 
all holding s-f or th were courteously supposed to be trains of reasoning." — Dr. Murray cor. "Whose 
goings-forth have been from of old, from everlasting." — Bible cor. " Sometimes the adjective be- 
comes a substantive." — Bradley cor. "It is very plain, that I consider man as visited anew." — 
Barclay cor. "Nor do I anywhere say, as he falsely insinuates." — Id. "Everywhere, anywhere, 
elsewhere, somewhere, nowhere." — L. Murray's Gram., Yol. i, p. 115. "The world hurries off 
apace, and time is like a rapid river." — Collier cor. "But to new-model the paradoxes of ancient 
skepticism." — Dr. Brown cor. "The southeast winds from the ocean invariably produce rain." — 
Webster cor. " Northwest winds from the highlands produce cold clear weather." — Id. " The 
greatest part of such tables would be of little use to Englishmen. 111 — Priestley cor. "The ground- 
floor of the east wing of Mulberry-street meeting-house was filled." — The Friend cor. " Prince 
Rupert's Drop. This singular production is made at the glasshouses." — Barnes cor. 
" The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife 
Gives all the strength and colour of our life." — Pope. 

Lesson II. — Mixed Examples. 
" In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah." — 
Bible cor. " In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, began Omri to reign over Israel." — Id. 
"He cannot so deceive himself as to fancy that he is able to do a rule-of-three sum." Better — "a 
sum in the rule of three." — Or. Rev. cor. "The best cod are those known under the name of Lie- 
of-Shoals dun-fish." — Balbi cor. "The soldiers, with downcast eyes, seemed to beg fcr mercy." — 
Goldsmith cor. " His head was covered with a coarse, wornout piece of cloth." — Id. " Though 
ihaj had lately received a reinforcement of a thousand heavy-armed Spartans." — Id. "But he laid 
them by unopened ; and, with a smile, said, ' Business to-morrow. ,' " — Id. " Chester Monthly Meeting 
is held at Moorestown, on the Thirdday following the second Secondday." — Die Friend cor. " Egg- 
harbour Monthly Meeting is held on the first Secondday." — Id. " Little- Eg gharl our Monthly Meet- 
ing is held at Tuckerton on the second Fifthday in each month." — Id. " At three o'clock, on 
Firstday morning, the 24th of Eleventhmonth, 1834," &c. — Id. "In less than one fourth part of 
the time usually devoted." — Kirkham cor. " The pupil will not have occasion to use it one tmth 
part so much." — Id. "The painter dips his paintbrush in paint, to paint the carriage." — Id. "In 
an ancient English version of the New Testam.ent." — Id. " The little boy was bareheaded." — Fed 
Book cor. " The man, being a little short-sighted, did not immediately know him." — Id. " Picture- 
frames are gilt with gold." — Id. " The parkkeeper killed one of the deer." — Id. " The fox was 
killed near the brickkiln." — Id. "Here comes Esther, with her milkpail." — Id. "Ihe cabinet- 
maker would not tell us." — Id. "A fine thorn-hedge extended along the edge of the hill." — Id. 
" If their private interests should be everso little affected." — Id. " Unios are fresh-water shells, 
vulgarly called fresh-water clams." — Id. 

" Did not each poet mourn his luckless doom, 
Jostled by pedants out of elbow-room." — Lloyd cor. 

Lesson III. — Mixed Examples. 
"The captive hovers a while upon the sad remains." — Johnson cor. "Constantia saw that the 
hand-writing agreed with the contents of the letter." — Id. "Thej^have put me in a silk night- 
gown, and a gaudy foolscap." — Id. "Have you no more manners than to rail at Hocus, that has 
saved that clod-pated, numb-skulled ninny-hammer of yours from ruin, and all his family?" -Id. 
"A noble, (that is, six shillings and eight pence,) is [paid], and usually hath been paid." — Id. 
" The king of birds, thick-feathered, and with full-summed wings, fastened his talons east and 
west." — Id. " To-morrow. This — supposing morrow to mean morning, as it did originally — is 
an idiom of the same kind as to-night, to-day." — Johnson cor. " To-day goes away, and to-morrow 
comes." — Id. "Young children, who are tried in Gocarts, to keep their steps from sliding." — Id. 
"Which, followed well, would demonstrate them but goers-backward" — Id. "Heaven's golden- 
winged herald late he saw, to a poor Galilean virgin sent." — Id. " My pent-house eyebrows and 
my shaggy beard offend your sight." — Id. " The hungry lion would fain have been dealing with 
good horseflesh." — Id. " A broad-brimmed hat ensconsed each careful head." — Snelling cor. 
" With harsh vibrations of his three-stringed lute." — Id. " They magnify a hundred-fold an author's 
merit." — Id. "I'll nail them fast to some oft-opened door." — Id. " Glossed over only with saint- 
like show, still thou art bound to vice." — Johnson's Diet, w. Saintlike. " Take of aqua-fortis two 
ounces, of quicksilver two drachms." — Id. cor. " This rainbow never appears but when it rains 
in the sunshine." — Id. cor. 

"Not but there are, who merit other palms; 
Hopkins and Sternhold glad the heart with psalms." — Pope. 

58 



914 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I. 

CHAPTER IV.— OF SPELLING. 

CORRECTIONS OF FALSE SPELLING-. 
Rule I. — Final F, L, or S. 
"He will observe the moral law, in his conduct." — Webster corrected. "A cliff ia a steep bank, 
or a precipitous rock." — Walker cor. "A needy man's budget ia full of schemes." — Maxim cor. 
" Few large publications, in this country, will pay a printer." — N. Webster cor. " I shall, with 
cheerfulness, resign my other papers to oblivion." — Id. " The proposition was suspended till 
the next session of the legislature." — Id. " Tenants for life will make the most of lands for 
themselves." — Id. " While every thing is left to lazy negroes, a state will never be well culti- 
vated." — Id. "The heirs of the original proprietors still hold the soil." — Id. "Say my annual 
profit on money loaned shall be six per cent." — Id. " No man would submit to the drudgery of 
business, if he could make money as fast by lying stilly — Id. " A man may as well feed himself 
with a bodkin, as with a knife of the present fashion." — Id. "The clothes will be ill washed, the 
food will be badly cooked; you will be ashamed of your wife, if she is not ashamed of herself." 
— Id. " He will submit to the laws of the state while he is a member of it." — Id. " But will our 
sage writers on law forever think by tradition ?" — Id. "Some still retain a sovereign power in 
their territories." — Id. " They sell images, prayers, the sound of bells, remission of sins, &c." — 
Perkins cor. "And the law had sacrifices offered every day, for the sins of all the people." — Id. 
"Then it may please the Lord, they shall find it to be a restorative." — Id. " Perdition is repent- 
ance put off till a future day." — Maxim cor. " The angels of God, who will good and cannot will 
evil, have nevertheless perfect liberty of will." — Perkins cor. " Secondly, this doctrine cuts off 
the excuse of all sin." — Id. " Knell, the sound of a bell rung at a funeral." — Diet cor. 
" If gold with dross or grain with chaff you find, 
Select — and leave the chaff and. dross behind." — G. Brown. 

Rule II. — Other Finals. 

" The mob hath many heads, but no brains." — Maxim cor. "Clam ; to clog with any glutinous 
or viscous matter." — See Webster's Diet. "Whur ; to pronounce the letter r with too much 
force." — See ib. "Flip; a mixed liquor, consisting of beer and spirit sweetened." — See ib. 
"Glyn ; a hollow between two mountains, a glen." — See Walker's Diet. "Lam, or belam ; to beat 
soundly with a cudgel or bludgeon." — See Bed Book. "Bun ; a small cake, a simnel, a kind of 
sweet bread." — See Webster's Diet. "Brunei, or Brunette; a woman with a brown complexion." 
— See ib., and ScoWs Diet. " Wadset ; an ancient tenure or lease of land in the Highlands of 
Scotland." — Webster cor. " To dod sheep, is to cut the wool away about their tails." — Id. "In 
aliquem arietare. Cic. To run full butt at one." — W. Walker cor. "Neither your policy nor 
your temper would permit you to kill me." — Phil. Mu. cor. "And admit none but his own off- 
spring to fulfill them." — Id. " The sum of all this dispute is, that some make them Participles." 
— R. Johnson cor. "As the whistling winds, the buzz and hum of insects, the hiss of serpents, 
the crash of falling timber." — Murray's Gram., p. 331. " Van; to winnow, or a fan for winnow- 
ing." — See Scott. "Creatures that buzz, are very commonly such as will sting." — G. Brown. 
"Beg, buy, or borrow; but beware how you find." — Id. "It is better to have a house to let, than 
a house to get." — Id. " Let not your tongue cut your throat." — Precept cor. "A little wit will 
save a fortunate man." — Adage cor. " There is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip." — Id. 
" Mothers' darlings make but milksop heroes." — Id. " One eye-witness is worth ten hearsays." 
—id 

" The judge shall job, the bishop bite the town, 
And mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown." 

Pope : in Johnson's Diet, w. Job. 
Rule III. — Doubling. 

"Friz, to curl; frizzed, curled ; frizzing, curling." — Webster cor. "The commercial interests 
served to foster the principles of Whiggism." — Payne cor. "Their extreme indolence shunned 
every species of labour." — Robertson cor. " In poverty and strippedness, they attend their little 
meetings." — The Friend cor. " In guiding and controlling the power you have thus obtained." — 
Abbott cor. " I began, Thou begaanest or beganst, He began, &c." — A. Murray cor. " Why does 
began change its ending ; as, I began, Thou begannest or beganst f" — Id. " Truth and conscience 
cannot be controlled by any methods of coercion." — Hints cor. " Dr. Webster nodded, when he 
wrote knit, knitter, and knitting-needle, without doubling the t." — G.Brown. "A wag should 
have wit enough to know when other wags are quizzing him." — Id. "Bonny ; handsome, beauti- 
ful, merry." — Walker cor. " Coquettish ; practising coquetry; after the manner of a jilt." — See 
Worcester. "Pottage ; a species of food made of meat and vegetables boiled to softness in wa- 
ter." — See Johnson's Diet. "Pottager ; (from pottage;) a porringer, a small vessel for children's 
food." — See ib. " Compromit, compromiited, compromitting ; manumit, manumitted, manumit- 
ting." — Webster cor. "Inferrible; that may be inferred or deduced from premises." — Walker. 
"Acids are either solid, liquid, or gasseous." — Gregory cor. " The spark will pass through the 
interrupted space between the two wires, and explode the gasses." — Id. " Do we sound gasses 
and gasseous like cases and caseous ? No: they are more like glasses and osseous." — G. Brown. 
" I shall not need here to mention Swimming, when he is of an age able to learn." — Locke cor. 
" Why do lexicographers spell thinnish and mannish with two Ens, and dimmish and rammish 



CHAP. IV.] KEY TO FALSE ORTHOGRAPHY. — SPELLING. 915 

with one Em, each?" — G. Brown. "Gas forms the plural regularly, gasses." — Peirce cor. " Sin- 
gular, gas; Plural, gasses." — Clark cor. "These are contractions from shedded, bursted." — Hiley 
cor. " The Present Tense denotes what is occurring at the present time." — Day cor. " The verb 
ending in eth is of the solemn or antiquated style ; as, He loveth, He walketh, He runneth" — 
Davis cor. 

" Thro' Freedom's sons no more remonstrance rings, 
Degrading nobles and controlling kings." — Johnson. 

Rule IV. — No Doubling. 
" A bigoted and tyrannical clergy will be feared." — See Johnson, Walker, &c. " Jacob wor- 
shiped his Creator, leaning on the top of his staff." — Murray's Kty, 8vo, p. 165. "For it is all 
marvellously destitute of interest." — See Johnson, Walker, and Worcester. " As, box, boxes ; 
church, churches; lash, lashes; kiss, kisses; rebus, rebuses." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 40. 
" Gossiping and lying go hand in hand." — See Webster's Diet, and Worcester's, w. Gossiping. 
" The substance of the Criticisms on the Diversions of Purley was, with singular industry, gossiped 
by the present precious Secretary at [of] war, in Payne the bookseller's shop." — Tooke's Diver- 
sions, Vol. i, p. 187. " Worship makes worshiped, worshiper, worshiping; gossip, gossiped, gos- 
siper, gossiping ; fillip, fiilliped, filliper, filliping.'" — Web. Diet. " I became as fidgety as a fly in a 
milk-jug." — See ib. " That enormous error seems to be riveted in popular opinion." — See ib. 
" Whose mind is not biased by personal attachments to a sovereign." — See ib. "Laws against 
usury originated in a bigoted prejudice against the Jews." — Webster cor. " The most critical pe- 
riod of life is usually between thirteen and seventeen." — Id. "Generalissimo, the chief com- 
mander of an army or military force." — Every Diet. " Tranquilize, to quiet, to make calm and 
peaceful." — Webster's Diet. "Pommelled, beaten, bruised; having pommels, as a sword-hilt." — 
Webster et al. cor. " From what a height does a jeweller look down upon his shoemaker !" — Red 
Book cor. " You will have a verbal account from my friend and fellow-traveller." — Id. " I ob- 
serve that you have written the word counselled with one Z only." — Ib. " They were offended at 
such as combated these notions." — Robertson cor. "From libel, come libelled, libeller, libelling, libel- 
lous ; from grovel, grovelled, groveller, grovelling ; from gravel, gravelled, and gravelling." — Webster 
cor. " Woolliness, the state of being woolly." — Worcester's Diet. " Yet he has spelled chapelling, 
bordeller, medalist, metaline, metalisi, metalize, clavellated, &c, with 11, contrary to his rule." — 
Webster cor. " Again, he has spelled cancellation and snivelly with single I, and cupellation, pan- 
ellation, wittolly, with 11." — Id. "Oily, fatty, greasy, containing oil, glib." — Walker cor. "Med~ 
alist, one curious in medals ; Metalist, one skilled in metals." — Walker's Rhym. Diet. " He is 
benefited." — Webster. "They travelled for pleasure." — Clark cor. 

" Without you, what were man ? A grovelling herd, 
In darkness, wretchedness, and want enchain'd." — Beattie cor. 

Rule V.— Final CK. 

" He hopes, therefore, to be pardoned by the critic." — Kirkham corrected. " The leading object 
of every public speaker should be, to persuade." — Id. " May not four feet be as poetic as five ; 
or fifteen feet as poetic as fifty ?" — Id. " Avoid all theatrical trick and mimicry, and especially all 
scholastic stiffness." — Id. " No one thinks of becoming skilled in dancing, or in music, or in 
mathematics, or in logic, without long and close application to the subject." — Id. " Caspar's sense 
of feeling, and susceptibility of metallic and magnetic excitement, were also very extraordinary." 
— Id. "Authorship has become a mania, or, perhaps I should say, an epidemic." — Id. "What 
can prevent this republic from soon raising a literary standard ?" — Id. " Courteous reader, you 
may think me garrulous upon topics quite foreign to the subject before me." — Id. "Of the Tonic, 
Subtonic, and Atonic elements." — Id. " The subtonic elements are inferior to the tonics, in all the 
emphatic and elegant purposes of speech." — Id. " The nine atonies and the three abrupt sub- 
tonics cause an interruption to the continuity of the syllabic impulse."* — Id. " On scientific prin- 
ciples, conjunctions and prepositions are [not] one [and the same] part of speech." — Id. "That 
some inferior animals should be able to mimick human articulation, will not seem wonderful." — 
L. Murray cor. 

" When young, you led a life monastic, 

And wore a vest ecclesiastic ; 

Now, in your age. you grow fantastic ." — Denham's Poems, p. 235. 

Rule VI. — Retaining. 
"Fearlessness ; exemption from fear, intrepidity." — Johnson cor. "Dreadlessness ; fearlessness, 
intrepidity, undauntedness." — Id. "Regardlessly, without heed ; Regardlessness, heedlessness." — 
Id. "Blamelessly, innocently; Blamekssness, innocence." — Id. "That is better than to be flat- 
tered into pride and carelessness." — Id. " Good fortunes began to breed a proud recklessness in 
them." — Id. "See whether he lazily and listlessly dreams away his time." — Id. "It maybe, 
the palate of the soul is indisposed b)' listlessness or sorrow." — Id. "Pitilessly, without mercy; 
Pitilessness, unmercifulness." — Id. " What say you to such as these ? abominable, accordable, 
agreeable, &c." — Tooke cor. "Artlessly ; naturally, sincerely, without craft." — Johnson cor. " A 

* Kirkham borrowed this doctrine of " Tonics, Subtonics, and Atonies," from Eush : and dressed it up in bis 
own worse bombast. See Obs. 13 and 14, on the Powers of the Letters. — G. B. 



916 GKAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I. 

chillness, or shivering of the body, generally precedes a fever." — See Webster. " Smallness ; lit- 
tleness, minuteness, weakness." — Walker's Diet, et al. "Galless, adj. Free from gall or bitter- 
ness." — Webster cor. " Tallness ; height of stature, upright length with comparative slenderness." 
— Webster's Did. " Willful ; stubborn, contumacious, perverse, inflexible." — See ib. " He guided 
them by the skillfulness of his hands." — See ib. " The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness there- 
of." — Friends' Bible: Ps. xxiv, 1. "What is now, is but an amassment of imaginary concep- 
tions." — Glanville cor. " Embarrassment ; perplexity, entanglement." — Walker. " The second is 
slothfulness, whereby they are performed slackly and carelessly." — Perkins cor. " Installment; 
induction into office, part of a large sum of money, to be paid at a particular time." — See Web- 
ster's Diet. " Inthr ailment ; servitude, slavery, bondage." — Ib. 

" I, who at some times spend, at others spare, 
Divided between carelessness and care." — Pope cor. 

Rule VII. — Retaining. 
"Shall, on the contrary, in the first person, simply foretells." — Lowth's Gram., p. 41 ; Comly's, 
38; Cooper's, 51; Lennie's, 26. "There are a few compound irregular verbs, as befall, bespeak, 
&c." — Ash cor. " That we might frequently recall it to our memory." — Calvin cor. " The angels 
exercise a constant solicitude that no evil befall us." — Id. " Inthrall; to enslave, to shackle, to 
reduce to servitude." — Johnson. " lie makes resolutions, and fulfills them by new ones." — See 
Webster. " To enroll my humble name upon the list of authors on Elocution." — See Webster. 
"Forestall; to anticipate, to take up beforehand." — Johnson. "Miscall; to call wrong, to name 
improperly." — Webster. "Bethrall; to enslave, to reduce to bondage." — Id. "Befall; to happen 
to, to come to pass." — Walker's Diet. "Unroll; to open what is rolled or convolved." — Web- 
ster's Diet. " Counterroll ; to keep copies of accounts to prevent frauds" — See*6. " As Sisyphus 
uprolls a rock, which constantly overpowers him at the summit." — G. Brovm. "Unwell; not 
well, indisposed, not in good health." — Webster. "Undersell; to defeat by selling for less, to sell 
cheaper than an other." — Johnson. "Inwall; to enclose or fortify with a wall." — Id. "Tvnbill ; 
an instrument with two bills, or with a point and a blade ; a pickaxe, a mattock, a halberd, a bat- 
tleaxe." — Did. cor. " What you miscall their folly, is their care." — Dryden cor. " My heart 
will sigh when I miscall it so." — Shak. cor. " But if the arrangement recalls one set of ideas 
more readily than an other." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 334. 

" 'Tis done ; and since 'tis done, 'tis past recall 
And since 'tis past recall, must be forgotten." — Dryden cor. 

Rule VIII.— Final LL. 
"The righteous is taken away from the evil to come." — Isaiah, lvii, 1. "Patrol; to go the 
rounds in a camp or garrison, to march about and observe what passes." — See Joh. Die. "Mar- 
shal; the chief officer of arms, one who regulates rank and order." — See ib. " Weevil; a destruct- 
ive grub that gets among corn." — See ib. "It much excels all other studies and arts." — W. 
Walker cor. "It is essential to all magnitudes, to be in one place." — Perkins cor. "By nature I 
was thy vassal, but Christ hath redeemed me." — Id. " Some being in want, pray for temporal 
blessings." — Id. " And this the Lord doth, either in temporal or in spiritual benefits." — Id. " He 
makes an idol of them, by setting his heart on them." — Id. "This trial by desertion serveth for 
two purposes." — Id. " Moreover, this destruction is both perpetual and terrible." — Id. " Giving 
to several men several gifts, according to his good pleasure." — Id. " Until ; to some time, place, 
or degree, mentioned." — See Did. " Annul ; to make void, to nullify, to abrogate, to abolish." — 
See Did. "Nitric acid combined with argil, forms the nitrate of argil." — Gregory cor. 

"Let modest Foster, if he will, excel 
Ten metropolitans in preaching well." — Pope cor. 

Rule IX. — Final E. 
" Adjectives ending in able signify capacity ; as, comfortable, tenable, improvable." — Priestly cor. 
" Their mildness and hospitality are ascribable to a general administration of religious ordinances." 
— Webster cor. "Retrench as much as possible without obscuring the sense." — J. Brown cor. 
" Changeable, subject to change; Unchangeable, immutable." — Walker cor. " Tamable, susceptive 
of taming; Untamable, not to be tamed." — Id. "Reconcilable, Unreconcilable, Reconcilableness ; Ir- 
reconcilable, Irreconcilably, Irreconcilableness." — Johnson cor. '" We have thought it most advis- 
able to pay him some little attention." — Merchant cor. " Provable, that may be proved ; Reprov- 
able, blamable, worthy of reprehension." — Walker cor. "Movable and Immovable, Movably and 
Immovably, Movables and Removal, Movableness and Improvableness, Unremovable and Unimprov- 
able, Unremovably and Removable, Provable and Approvable, Improvable and Reprovable, Unre- 
provable and Improvable, Unimprovableness and Improvably." — Johnson cor. " And with this cru- 
elty you are chargeable in some measure yourself" — Collier cor. " Mothers would certainly resent 
it, as judging it proceeded from a low opinion of the genius of their sex."— Brit. Gram. cor. 
" Tithable, subject to the payment of tithes ; Salable, vendible, fit for sale ; Losable, possible to be 
lost; Sizable, of reasonable bulk or size." — See Webster's Did. "When he began this custom, he 
was puling and very tender." — Locke cor. 

" The plate, coin, revenues, and movables, 
Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd." — Shak. cor. 



CHAP. IV.] KEY TO FALSE ORTHOGRAPHY. — SPELLING. 917 

Rule X.- — Final E. 

" Diversely; in different ways, differently, variously." — See Walker's Diet. " The event there- 
of contains a wholesome instruction." — Bacon cor. "Whence Scaliger falsely concluded that Arti- 
cles were useless." — Brightland cor. " The child that we have just seen is wholesomely fed." — Mur- 
ray cor. " Indeed, falsehood and legerdemain sink the character of a prince." — Collier cor. "In 
earnest, at this rate of management, thou usest thyself very coarsely.'' — Id. "To give them an 
arrangement and a diversity, as agreeable as the nature of the subject would admit." — Murray cor 
"Alger's Grammar is only a trifling enlargement of Murray's little Abridgement." — G. Brown. 
" You ask whether you are to retain or to omit the mute e in the words, judgement, abridgement, 
acknowledgement, lodgement, adjudgement, and prejudgement." — Bed Book cor. " Fertileness, fruit- 
fulness; fertilely, fruitfully, abundantly." — Johnson cor. " Chastely, purely, without contamina- 
tion; Chasteness, chastity, purity." — Id. " Rhymester, n. One who makes rhymes ; a versifier; a 
mean poet." — Walker, Chalmers, Maunder, Worcester. "It is therefore a heroical achievement to 
disposess this imaginary monarch." — Berkley cor. "Whereby is not meant the present time, a3 
he imagines, but the time past." — B. Johnson cor. " So far is this word from affecting the noun, 
in regard to its definiteness, that its own character of dejiniteness or indefiniteness, depends upon the 
name to which it is prefixed." — Webster cor. 

"Satire, by vjholesome lessons, would reclaim, 
And heal their vices to secure their fame." — Brightland cor. 

Rule XI. — Final Y. 
"Solon 's the veriest fool in all the play." — Dryden cor. " Our author prides himself upon his 
great sliness and shrewdness." — Merchant cor. " This tense, then, implies also the signification 
of debeo." — B. Johnson cor. " That may be applied to a subject, with respect to something ac- 
cidental." — Id "This latter author accompanies his note with a distinction." — Id. " This rule is 
defective, and none of the annotators have sufficiently supplied its deficiencies.'" — Id. "Though 
the fancied supplement of Sanctius, Scioppius, Yossius, and Mariangelus, may take place." — lb. 
" Yet, as to the commutableness of these two tenses, which is denied likewise, they [the lbregoing 
examples] are all one [; i. e., exactly equivalent].'" — Id. "Both these tenses may represent a fu- 
turity, implied by the dependence of the clause." — Id. "Cry. cries, crying, cried, crier, decrial; 
Shy, shier, shiest, shily, shiness ; Fly, flies, flying, flier, high-flier; Sly, slier, sliest, slily, sliness; 
Spy, spies, spying, spied, espial; Dry, drier, driest, drily, driness." — Cobb, Webster, and Chalmers 
cor. "I would sooner listen to the thrumming of a dandizette at her piano." — Kirkham cor. 
" Send her away; for she crieth after us." — Matt., v, 23. "Ivied, a. overgrown with ivy." — Cobb's 
Diet., and Maunder' s. 

" Some drily plain, without invention's aid, 
Write dull receipts how poems may be made." — Pope cor. 

Rule XII. — Final Y. 

"The gayety of youth should be tempered by the precepts of age." — Murray cor. "In the 
storm of 1703, two thousand stacks of chimneys were blown down in and about London." — Bed 
Book cor. "And the vexation was not abated by the hackneyed plea of haste." — Id. " The fourth 
sin of our days is lukewarmness." — Perkins cor. " God hates the workers of iniquity, and destroys 
them that speak lies." — Id. " For, when he lays his hand upon us, we may not fret." — Id. 
"Care not for it; but if thou mayst be free, choose it rather." — Id. "Alexander Scverus saith, 
' He that buyeth, must sell ; I will not suffer buyers and sellers of offices.' " — Id. " With these 
measures, fell in all moneyed men." — See Johnson's Bid. "But rattling nonsense in full volleys 
breaks." — Murray's Ft ader, q. Pope. " Valleys are the intervals betwixt mountains." — Woodward 
cor. "The Hebrews had fifty-two journeys or marches." — Wood cor. "It was not possible to 
manage or steer the galleys thus fastened together." — Goldsmith cor. " Turkeys were not known 
to naturalists till after the discovery of America." — Gregory cor. "I would not have given it for 
a wilderness of monkeys." — Shak. : in Johnson's Diet. " Men worked at embroidery, especially 
in abbeys." — Constable cor. "By which all purchasers or mortgagees may be secured of all moneys 
they lay out." — Temple cor. " He would fly to the mines or the galleys, for his recreation." — 
South cor. " Here pulleys make the pond'rous oak ascend." — Gay cor. 

" You need my help, and you say, p 

Shylock, we would have moneys." — Shak. cor. 

Rule XIII.— IZE and ISE. 

" Will any able writer authorize other men to revise his works?" — G. B. "It can be made as 
strong and expressive as this Latinized English." — Murray cor. " Governed by the success or 
failure of an enterprise." — Id. "Who have patronized, the cause of justice against powerful op- 
pressors.'" — Id., et al. " Yet custom authorizes this use of it." — Priestley cor. " They surprise my- 
self, **** ; and I even think the writers themselves will be surprised." — Id. " Let the interest 
rise to any sum which can be obtained." — Webster cor. "To determine what interest shall arise 
on the use of money." — Id. " To direct the popular councils and check any rising opposition." — 
Id. "Five were appointed to the immediate exercise of the office." — Id. "No man ever offers 
himself as a candidate by advertising." — Id. " They are honest and economical, but indolent, and 
destitute of enterprise." — Id. "I would, however, advise you to be cautious." — Id. " We are ac- 



918 GKAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ORTHOGRAPHY. [PART I. 

countable for what we patronize in others." — Murray cor. " After he was baptized, and was sol- 
emnly admitted into the office." — Perkins cor. " He will find all, or most, of them, comprised in 
the exercises." — Brit. Gram. cor. "A quick and ready habit of methodizing and regulating their 
thoughts." — Id. "To tyrannize over the time and patience of his readers." — Kirkham cor. 
" Writers of dull books, however, if patronized at all, are rewarded beyond their deserts." — Id. 
" A little reflection will show the reader the reason for emphasizing the words marked." — Id. 
"The English Chronicle contains an account of a surprising cure." — Red Book cor. " Dogmatize, 
to assert positively; Dogmatizer, an assertor, a magisterial teacher." — Chalmers cor. " And their 
inflections might now have been easily analyzed. 1 ' 1 — Murray ror. " Authorize, disauthorize, and 
unauthorized; Temporize, contemporize, and extemporize." — Walker cor. "Legalize, equalize, 
methodize, sluggardize, womanize, humanize, patronize, cantonize, gluttonize, epitomize, anatomize, 
phlebotomize, sanctuarize, characterize synonymize, recognize, detonize, colonize." — Id. cor. 
"This beauty sweetness always must comprise, 
"Which from the subject, well express'd, will rise." — Brightland cor. 

Rulk XIV. — Compounds. 
" The glory of the Lord shall be thy rear-ward." — Scott, Alger : Isa., lviii, 8. " A mere van- 
courier to announce the coming of his master." — Tooke cor. " The party-coloured shutter appeared 
to come close up before him." — Kirkham cor. "When the day broke upon this handful of for- 
lorn but dauntless spirits." — Id. " If, upon a plumtree, peaches and apricots are engrafted, nobody 
will say they are the natural growth of the plumtree" — Berkley cor. "The channel between 
Newfoundland and Labrador is called the Straits of Bdleisle." — Worcester cor. "There being 
nothing that more exposes to the headache :" — or, (perhaps more accurately,) " headake." — Locke 
cor. " And, by a sleep, to say we end the heartache ;" — or, " heartake." — Shah. cor. " He that 
sleeps, feels not the toothache:" — or, " toothake." — Id. "That the shoe must fit him, because it 
fitted his father and grandfather." — Phil. Museum cor. " A single word misspelled [or misspelt] in 
a letter is sufficient to show that you have received a defective education." — C. Bucke cor. 
" Which misstatement the committee attributed to a failure of memory."— Professors cor. " Then 
he went through the Banqueting-House to the scaffold." — Smollet cor. "For the purpose of main- 
taining a clergyman and a schoolmaster." — Webster cor. "They however knew that the lands 
were claimed by Pennsylvania." — Id. "But if you ask a reason, they immediately bid farewell to 
argument." — Barnes cor. "Whom resist, steadfast in the faith." — Alger's Bible. "And they 
continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine." — Id. " Beware lest ye also fall from your own 
steadfastness." — lb. " Galiot, or Galliot, a Dutch vessel carrying a main-mast and a mizzen-mast" 
— Webster cor. "Infinitive, to overflow; Preterit, overflowed; Participle, overflowed." — Cobbeti 
cor. "After they have misspent so much precious time." — Brit. Gram. cor. "Some say, 'two 
handsful; 1 some, 'two handfuls ;' and others, 'two handful. 1 The second expression is right." — G. 
Brown. " Lapful, as much as the lap can contain." — Webster cor. " Dareful, full of defiance." — 
Walker cor. " The road to the blissful regions is as open to the peasant as to the king." — Mur. 
cor. " Misspell is misspelled [or misspelt] in every dictionary which I have s en." — Barnes cor. 
" Downfall ; ruin, calamitv, fall from rank or state." — Johnson cor. "The whole legislature like- 
wise acts as a court." — Webster cor. " It were better a millstone were hanged about his neck." — 
Perkins cor. u Plumtree, a tree that produces plums ; Hogplurntree, a tree." — Webster cor. " Tris- 
syllables ending in re or le, accent the first syllable." — Murray cor. 

"It happened on a summer's holyday, 
That to the greenwood shade he took his way." — Dryden. 

Roxe XT. — Usage. 
"Nor are the moods of the Greek tongue more uniform." — Murray cor. "If we analyze a con- 
junctive preterit, the rule will not appear to hold." — Priestley cor. "No landholder would have 
been at that expense." — Id. "I went to see the child whilst they were putting on its clothes." — 
Id. -'This style is ostentatious, and does not suit grave writing." — Id. "The king of Israel 
and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, sat each on his throne." — 1 Kings, xxii, 10 ; 2 Chron., xviii, 9. 
" Lysias, speaking of his friends, promised to his father never to abandon them." — Murray cor. 
" Some, to avoid this error, run into its opposite." — Gliurchill cor. " Hope, the balm of life soothes 
us under every misfortune." — Jaudorts Gram., p. 182. " Any judgement or decree might be 
heard and reversed by the legislature." — N. Webster cor. " A pathetic harangue will screen from 
punishment any knave." — Id. " For the same reason the women would be improper judges." — « 
Id. " Every person is indulged in worshiping as he pleases." — Id. " Most or all teachers are ex- 
cluded from genteel company." — Id. " The Christian religion, in its purity, is the best institution 
on earth." — Id. " Neither clergymen nor human laws have the least authority over the conscience." 
— Id. " A guild is a society, fraternity, or corporation." — Barnes cor. " Phillis was not able to 
untie the knot, and so she cut it." — Id. " An acre of land is the quantity of one hundred and 
sixty perches." — Id. " Ochre is a fossil earth combined with the oxyd of some metal." — Id. 
" Genii, when denoting aerial spirits ; geniuses, when signifjung persons of genius." — Murray 
cor.; also Frost; also Nutting. "Acrisius, king' of Argos, had a beautiful daughter, whose name 
was Danae." — Classic Tales cor. "Phaeton was the son of Apollo and Clymene." — Id. "But, 
after all, I may not have reached the intended goal." — Buchanan cor. " ' Pittacus was offered a 
large sum.' Better: ' To Pittacus was offered a large sum.'" — Kirkham cor. "King Micipsa 
charged his sons to respect the senate and people of Rome." — Id. " For example : ' Galileo 



CHAP. IV.] KEY TO FALSE ORTHOGRAPHY. — SPELLING. 910 

greatly improved the telescope.' " — Id. " Cathmor's warriors sleep in death." — Macpherson's 
Ossian. " For parsing will enable you to detect and correct errors in composition." — Kirkham cor. 
" O'er barren mountains, o'er the flow'ry plain, 
Extends thy uncontrolled and boundless reign." — Dryden cor. 

PROMISCUOUS CORRECTIONS OF FALSE SPELLING-. 
Lesson I. — Mixed Examples. 
" A bad author deserves better usage than a bad critic." — Pope (or Johnson) cor. " Produce a 
single passage, superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, governor of this 
state." — Jefferson's Notes, p. 94. " We have none synonymous to supply its place." — Jamieson 
cor. " There is a probability that the effect will be accelerated." — Id. " Nay, a regard to sound 
has controlled the public choice." — Id. " Though learnt [better, learned~\ from the uninterrupted 
use of guttural sounds." — Id. " It is by carefully filing off all roughness and all inequalities, that 
languages, like metals, must be polished." — Id. "That I have not misspent my time in the ser- 
vice of the community." — Buchanan cor. " The leaves of maize are also called blades." — Webster 
cor. " Who boast that they know what is past, and can foretell what is to come." — Robertson cor. 
"Its tasteless dullness is interrupted by nothing but its perplexities." — Abbott, right. "Sen- 
tences constructed with the Johnsonian fullness and swell." — Jamieson, right. "The privilege of 
escaping from his prefatory dullness and prolixity." — Kirkham, right. "But, in poetry, this char- 
acteristic of dullness attains its full growth." — Id. corrected. " The leading characteristic consists in 
an increase of the force and fullness." — Id cor. " The character of this opening fullness and feebler 
vanish." — Id. cor. "Who, in the fullness of unequalled power, would not believe himself the fa- 
vourite of Heaven?" — Id. right. "They mar one an other, and distract him." — Philol. Mus. cor. 
"Let a deaf worshiper of antiquity and an English prosodist settle this." — Bush cor. " This Phil- 
ippic gave rise to my satirical reply in self-defence." — Merchant cor. " We here saw no innuendoes, 
no new sophistry, no falsehoods."— Id. " A witty and humorous vein has often produced ene- 
mies." — Murray cor. ''Cry hollo! to thy tongue, I pray thee:* it curvets unseasonably." — Shak. 
cor. "I said, in my sliest manner, 'Your health, sir.'" — Blackwood cor. "And attorneys also 
travel the circuit in pursuit of business." — Barnes cor. " Some whole counties in Virginia would 
hardly sell for the value of the debts due from the inhabitants." — Webster cor. " They were called 
the Court of Assistants, and exercised all powers, legislative and judicial." — Id. "Arithmetic is 
excellent for the gauging of liquors." — Harris's Hermes, p. 295. " Most of the inflections may be 
analyzed in a way somewhat similar." — Murray cor. 
" To epithets allots emphatic state, 
While principals, ungrac'd, like lackeys wait." — T. 0. ChurchilVs Gram., p. 326. 

Lesson II. — Mixed Examples. 
" Hence less is a privative suffix, denoting destitution ; as in fatherless, faithless, penniless." — Web- 
ster cor. " Bay ; red, or reddish, inclining to a chestnut colour." — Id. " To mimick, to imitate or 
ape for sport ; a mimic, one who imitates or mimicJcs." — Id. " Counterroll, a counterpart or copy 
of the rolls; Counterrollment, a counter account." — Id. " Millennium, [from mille and annus,] 
the thousand years during which Satan shall be bound." — See Johnson's Diet. "Millennial, [like 
septennial, decennial, &c.,j pertaining to the millennium, or to a thousand years." — See Worcester's 
Diet. " Thralldom ; slavery, bondage, a state of servitude." — Webster's Diet. "Brier, a prickly 
bush ; Briery, rough, prickly, full of briers ; Sweetbrier, a fragrant shrub." — See Ainswortli's Bid., 
Scott's, Cobb's, and others. " Will, in the second and third persons, barely foretells." — Brit. Gram. 
cor. "And therefore there is no word false, but what is distinguished by Italics." — Id. "What 
should be repeated, is left to their discretion." — Id. " Because they are abstracted or separated 
from material substances." — Id. "All motion is in time, and therefore, wherever it exists, implies 
time as its concomitant." — Harris's Hermes, p. 95. "And illiterate grown persons are guilty of 
blamable spelling." — Brit. Gram. cor. " They will always be ignorant, and of rough, uncivil man- 
ners." — Webster cor. "This fact will hardly be believed in the northern states." — Id. "The 
province, however, was harassed with disputes." — Id. "So little concern has the legislature for 
the interest of learning." — Id. "The gentlemen will not admit that a schoolmaster can be a gen- 
tleman." — Id. "Such absurd quid-pro-quoes cannot be too strenuously avoided." — Churchill cor. 
" When we say of a man, ' He looks slily ;' we signify, that he takes a sly glance or peep at some- 
thing." — Id. " Peep ; to look through a crevice; to look narrowly, closely, or slily." — Webster 
cor. "Hence the confession has become a hackneyed proverb." — Way land cor. "Not to men- 
tion the more ornamental parts of gilding, varnish, &c." — Tooke cor. "After this system of self- 
interest had been riveted." — Dr. Brown cor. " Prejudice might have prevented the cordial appro- 
bation of a bigoted Jew." — Dr. Scott cor. 

" All twinkling with the dewdrop sheen, 
The brier-rose fell in streamers green." — Sir W. Scott cor. 

Lesson III. — Mixed Examples. 
" The infinitive mood has, commonly, the sign to before it." — Harrison cor. " Thus, it is advisa- 

* There is, in most English dictionaries, a contracted form of this phrase, -written prithee, or I prithee ; but 
Dr. Johnson censures it as "a familiar corruption, which some writers have injudiciously used ;" and, as the 
abbreviation amounted to nothing but the slurring of one vowel sound into an other, it has now, I think, very 
deservedly become obsolete. — G. Bbown. 



920 GRAMMAK OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ETYMOLOGY. [PART II. 

lie to write singeing, from the verb to singe, by way of distinction from singing, the participle of 
the verb to sing." — Id. " Many verbs form both the preterit tense and the preterit participle irreg- 
ularly." — Id. "Much must be left to every one's taste and judgement." — Id. "Verses of differ- 
ent lengths, intermixed, form a Pindaric poem." — Priestley cor. " He'll surprise you." — Frost cor. 
" Unequalled archer! why was this concealed?" — Knowles. " So gayly curl the waves before each 
dashing prow." — Byron cor. " When is a diphthong called a proper diphthong?" — Inf. S. Gram, 
cor. " How many Esses would the word then end with? Three; for it would be goodness 's" — 
Id. " Qu. What is a triphthong ? Ans. A triphthong is a coalition of three vowels in one sylla- 
ble." — Bacon cor. "The verb, noun, or pronoun, is referred to the preceding terms taken separ- 
ately." — Murray. " The cubic foot of matter which occupies the centre of the globe." — Carded cor. 
" The wine imbibes oxygen, or the acidifying principle, from the air." — Id. " Charcoal, sulphur, 
and nitre, make gunpowder." — Id. "It would be readily understood, that the thing so labelled, 
was a bottle of Madeira wine." — Id. "They went their ways, one to his farm, an other to his 
merchandise." — Mait., xxii, 5. "A diphthong is the union of two vowels, both in one syllable." — 
Russell cor. " The professors of the Mohammedan religion are called Mussulmans." — Maltby cor. 
"This shows that let is not a mere sign of the imperative mood, but a real verb." — Id. "Those 
preterits and participles which are first mentioned in the list, seem to be the most eligible." — Mur- 
ray's Gram., p. 107 ; Fish's, 81 ; Ingersoll's, 103. " Monosyllables, for the most part, are com- 
pared by er and est, and dissyllables, by more and most." — Murray's Gram., p. 47. " This ter- 
mination, added to a noun or an adjective, changes it into a verb : as, modern, to modernize ; a 
symbol, to symbolize." — Churchill cor. " An Abridgement of Murray's Grammar, with additions 
from Webster, Ash, Tooke, and others." — Maltby 's Gram., p. 2. " For the sake of occupying the 
room more advantageously, the subject of Orthography is merely glanced at." — Nutting cor. " So 
contended the accusers of Galileo." — 0. B. Peirce cor. Murray says, "They were travelling post 
when he met them." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 69. " They fulfill the only purposes for which 
they were designed." — Peirce cor. — See Webster's Diet. " On the fulfillment of the event." — Peirce, 
right. " Fullness consists in expressing every idea." — Id. " Consistently with fullness and perspi- 
cuity." — Peirce cor. " The word veriest is a regular adjective ; as, ' He is the veriest fool on earth.' " 
— Wright cor. "The sound will recall the idea of the object." — Hiley cor. "Formed for great en- 
terprises." — ffiley's Gram., p. 113. "The most important rules and definitions are printed in 
large type, Italicized." — Hart cor. "Hamleted, a., accustomed to a hamlet, countrified." — Web- 
ster, and Worcester. "Singular, spoonful, cupful, coachful, handful; plural, spoonfuls, cupfuls, 
eoachfuls, handfuls." — Worcester's Universal and Critical Dictionary. 

" Between superlatives and following names, 
Of, by grammatic right, a station claims." — Brightland cor. 



THE KEY.— PART II.— ETYMOLOGY. 

CHAPTER I.— PAETS OF SPEECH. 

The first chapter of Etymology, as it exhibits only the distribution of words into the ten 
Parts of Speech, contains no false grammar for correction. And it may be here observed, 
that as mistakes concerning the forms, classes, or modifications of words, are chiefly to be 
found in sentences, rather than in any separate exhibition of the terms ; the quotations of this 
kind, with which I have illustrated the principles of etymology, are many of them such as 
might perhaps with more propriety be denominated false syntax. But, having examples 
enough at hand to show the ignorance and carelessness of authors in every part of gram- 
mar, I have thought it most advisable, so to distribute them as to leave no part destitute 
of this most impressive kind of illustration. The examples exhibited as false etymology, are 
as distinct from those which are called false syntax, as the nature of the case will admit. 



CHAPTER II.— ARTICLES. 

CORRECTIONS RESPECTING A, AN, AND THE. 

Lesson I. — Articles Adapted. 
" Honour is a useful distinction in life." — Milnes cor. " No writer, therefore, ought to foment 
a humour of innovation." — Jamieson cor. "Conjunctions [generally] require a situation between 
the things of which they form a union." — Id. "Nothing is more easy than to mistake a u for an 
a." — Tooke cor. "From making so ill a use of our innocent expressions." — Penn cor. "To grant 
thee a heavenly and incorruptible crown of glory." — Sevjel cor. "It in no wise follows, that such 
a one was able to predict." — Id. " "With a harmless patience, they have borne most heavy op- 
pressions." — Id. " My attendance was to make me a happier man." — Sped. cor. " On the won- 
derful nature of a human mind." — Id. "I have got a hussy of a maid, who is most craftily given 
to this." — Id. "Argus is said to have had a hundred eyes, some of which were always awake." 
— Stories cor. "Centiped, having a hundred feet; centennial, consisting of a hundred }'ears." — 
Town cor. "No good man, he thought, could be a heretic." — Gilpin cor. "As, a Christian, an 
infidel, a heathen." — Ash cor. " Of two or more words, usually joined by a hyphen." — Blair cor. 
" We may consider the whole space of a hundred years as time present." — Ingersoll's Gram., p. 



CHAP. II.] KEY TO FALSE ETYMOLOGY. — ARTICLES. 921 

138. " In guarding against such a use of meats and drinks." — Ash cor. ""Worship is a homage 
due from man to his Creator." — Monitor cor. " Then a eulogium on the deceased was pronounced." 

. — Grimshaw cor. "But for Adam there was not found a help meet for him." Bible cor. 

" My days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth." — Id. " A foreigner 
and a hired servant shall not eat thereof." — Id. "The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan- a 
high hill, as the hill of Bashan." — Id. "But I do declare it to have been a holy offering, and 
such a one too as was to be once for all." — Perm cor. "A hope that does not make ashamed 
those that have it." — Barclay cor. '• Where there is not a unity, we may exercise true charity." 
— Id. " Tell me, if in any of these such a union can be found?" — Br. Brown cor. 
" Such holy drops her tresses steeped, 
Though 'twas a hero's eye that weeped." — Sir W. Scott cor. 

Lesson II. — Articles Inserted. 
" This veil of flesh parts the visible and the invisible world." — Sherlock cor. " The copulative 
and the disjunctive conjunctions operate differently on the verb." — L. Murray cor. " Every com- 
bination of a preposition and an article with the noun." — Id. " Either signifies, ' the one or the 
other:' neither imports, 'not either;' that is, 'not the one nor the other.'" — Id. "A noun of 
multitude may have a pronoun or a verb agreeing with it, either of the singular number or of the 
plural." — Bucke cor. " T/ie principal copulative conjunctions are, and, as, both, because, for, if, 
that, then, since." — Id. "The two real genders are the masculine and the feminine." — Id. "In 
which a mute and a liquid are represented by the same character, th." — Gardiner cor. "They 
said, John the Baptist hath sent us unto thee." — Bible cor. " They indeed remember the names 
of an abundance of places." — Sped. cor. "Which created a great dispute between the young 
and the old men." — Goldsmith cor. " Then shall be read the Apostles' or the Nicene Creed." — 
Coin. Prayer cor. " The rules concerning the perfect tenses and the supines of verbs are Lily's.' " 
— K. Henry's Gr~. cor. " It was read by the high and the low, the learned and the illiterate." — 
Dr. Johnson cor. "Most commonly, both the pronoun and the verb are understood." — Buchanan 
cor. " To signify the thick and the slender enunciation of tone." — Knight cor. "The difference 
between a palatial and a guttural aspirate is very small." — Id. " Leaving it to waver between 
the figurative and the literal sense." — Jamieson cor. "Whatever verb will not admit of both an 
active and a passive signification." — Alex. Murray cor. " The is often set before adverbs in the 
comparative or the superlative degree. "—Id. and Kirkham cor. "Lest any should fear the effect 
of such a change, upon the present or the succeeding age of writers." — Fowle cor. "In all these 
measures, the accents are to be placed on the even syllables ; and every line is, in general, the 
more melodious, as this rule is the more strictly observed." — L. Murray et al. cor. " How many 
numbers do nouns appear to have ? Two ; the singular and the plural." — R. G. Smith cor. 
" How many persons ? Three; the first, the second, and the third." — Id. " How many cases ? 
Three ; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective." — Id. 
" Ah ! what avails it me, the flocks to keep, 
Who lost my heart while I preserv'd the sheep :" — or, "my sheep." 

Lesson III. — Articles Omitted. 

" The negroes are all descendants of Africans." — Morse cor. " Sybarite was applied as a term 
of reproach to a man of dissolute manners." — Id. "The original signification of knave was boy." 
— Webster cor. "The meaning uf these will be explained, ibr greater clearness and precision." — 
Bucke cor. "What sort of noun is man? A noun substantive, common." — Buchanan cor. "Is 
what ever used as three kinds of pronoun f" — Kirkham' s Question cor. [Answer: "No; as a pro- 
noun, it is either relative or interrogative." — G. Brown.~\ "They delighted in having done it, as 
well as in the doing of it." — R. Johnson cor. "Both parts of this rule are exemplified in the fol- 
lowing sentences." — Murray cor. " He has taught them to hope for an other and better world." 
— Knapp cor. " It was itself only preparatory to a future, better, and perfect revelation." — Keith 
cor. "i?sthen makes an other and distinct syllable." — Brightland cor. "The eternal clamours 
of a selfish and factious people." — Dr. Brown cor. " To those whose taste in elocution is but little 
cultivated." — Kirkham cor. "They considered they had but a sort of gourd to rejoice in." — Ben- 
net cor. " Now there was but one such bough, in a spacious and shady grove." — Bacon cor. " Now 
the absurdity of this latter supposition will go a great way towards making a man easy." — Collier 
cor. " This is true of mathematics, with which taste has but little to do." — Todd cor. "To stand 
prompter to a pausing yet ready comprehension." — Rush cor. "Such an obedience as the yoked 
and tortured negro is compelled to yield to the whip of the overseer." — Chalmers cor. "For 
the gratification of a momentary and unholy desire." — Wayland cor. " The body is slenderly put 
together; the mind, a rambling sort of thing." — Collier cor. "The only nominative to the verb, 
is officer." — Murray cor. "And though in general it ought to be admitted, &c." — Blair cor. 
" Philosophical writing admits of a polished, neat, and elegant style." — Id. " But notwithstand- 
ing this defect, Thomson is a strong and beautiful describer." — Id. " So should he be sure to be 
ransomed, and many poor men's lives should be saved." — Shak. cor. 
" Who felt the wrong, or feared it, took alarm, 
Appealed to law, and Justice lent her arm." — Pope cor. 

Lesson IV. — Articles Changed. 
" To enable us to avoid too frequent a repetition of the same word." — Bucke cor. " The for- 



922 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ETYMOLOGY. [PART II. 

mer is commonly acquired in a third part of the time." — Burn cor. " Sometimes an adjective be- 
comes a substantive ; and, like other substantives, it may have an adjective relating to it : as, ' The 
chief good.'' " — L. Murray cor. " An articulate sound is a sound of the human voice, formed by 
the organs of speech." — Id. "A tense is a distinction of time: there are six tenses." — Maunder 
cor. "In this case, an ellipsis of the last article would be improper." — L. Murray cor. " Con- 
trast always has the effect to make each of the contrasted objects appear in a stronger light." — 
Id. et al. " These remarks may serve to show the great importance of a proper use of the arti- 
cles." — Lowth et al. cor. "'Archbishop Tillotson,' says the author of a history of England, 
'died in this year.' " — Dr. Blair cor. "Pronouns are used in stead of substantives, to prevent 
too frequent a repetition of them." — A. Murray cor. "That, as a relative, seems to be introduced 
to prevent too frequent a repetition of who and which." — Id. "A pronoun is a word used in 
stead of a noun, to prevent too frequent a repetition of it." — L. Murray cor. "That is often 
used as a relative, to prevent too frequent a repetition of who and which." — Id. et al. cor. 
" His knees smote one against the other." — Logan cor. " They stand now on one foot, then on 
the other." — W. Walker cor. " The Lord watch between thee and me, when we are absent one 
from the other." — Bible cor. " Some have enumerated ten parts of speech, making the participle 
a distinct part." — L. Murray cor. " Nemesis rides upon a hart because the hart is a most lively 
creature." — Bacon cor. "The transition of the voice from one vowel of the diphthong to the 
other." — Dr. Wdson cor. "So difficult it is, to separate these two tilings one from the other." — 
Dr. Blair cor. "Without a material breach of any rule." — Id. "The great source of looseness 
of style, in opposition to precision, is an injudicious use of what are termed synonymous words" — 
Blair cor.; also Murray. "Sometimes one article is improperly used for the other." — Sanborn cor. 
" Satire of sense, alas ! can Sporus feel ? 
Who breaks a butterfly upon the wheel ?" — Pope cor. 

Lessor V. — Mixed Examples. 

"He hath no delight in the strength of a horse." — Maturin cor. "The head of it would be a 
universal monarch." — Butler cor. " Here they confound the material and the formal object of 
faith." — Barclay cor. " The Irish [Celtic] and the Scottish Celtic are one language; the Welsh, 
the Cornish, and the Armorican, are an other." — Dr. Murray cor. " In a uniform and perspicu- 
ous manner." — Id. "Scripture, n. Appropriately, and by way of distinction, the books of the 
Old and the New Testament ; the Bible." — Webster cor. " In two separate volumes, entitled, 
' The Old and New Testaments.' " — Wayland cor. " The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testa- 
ment, contain a revelation from God." — Id. " Q has alivays a u after it ; which, in words of 
French origin, is not sounded." — Wilson cor. "What should we say of such a one? that he is 
regenerate? No." — Hopkins cor. "Some grammarians subdivide the vowels into simple and 
compound." — L. Murray cor. " Emphasis has been divided into the weaker and the stronger em- 
phasis." — Id. " Emphasis has also been divided into the superior and the inferior emphasis." — Id. 
" Pronouns must agree with their antecedents, or the nouns which they represent, in gender, 
number, and person." — Merchant cor. "The adverb where is often used improperly, for a rela- 
tive pronoua and a preposition " : as, " Words where [in which] the h is not silent." — Murray, p. 
31. "The termination ish imports diminution, or a lessening of the quality." — Merchant cor. 
"In this train, all their verses proceed: one half of a line always answering to the other." — Dr. 
Blair cor. "To a height of prosperity and glory, unknown to any former age." — L. Murray cor. 
" Hwilc, who, which, such as, such a one, is declined as follows." — Gwilt cor. "When a vowel 
precedes the y, s only is required to form the plural; as, day, days." — Bucke cor. "He is asked 
what sort of word each is ; whether a primitive, a derivative, or a compound." — British Gram, 
cor. " It is obvious, that neither the second, the third, nor the fourth chapter of Matthew, is the 
first; consequently, there are not 'four first chapters.' " — Churchill cor. " Some thought, which 
a writer wants the art to introduce in its proper place." — Dr. Blair cor. " Groves and meadows 
are the most pleasing in the spring." — Id. " The conflict between the carnal and the spiritual mind, 
is often long." — Gurney cor. "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sub- 
lime and the Beautiful." — Burke cor. 

" Silence, my muse ! make not these jewels cheap, 
Exposing to the world too large a heap." — Waller cor. 



CHAPTER III— NOUNS. 

CORRECTIONS IN THE MODIFICATIONS OF NOUNS. 
Lessor I. — Numbers. 

"All the ablest of the Jewish rabbles acknowledge it." — Wilson cor. " Who has thoroughly 
imbibed the system of one or other of our Christian rabbies." — Campbell cor. " The seeming sin- 
gularities of reason soon wear off." — Collier cor. "The chiefs and arikies, or priests, have the 
power of declaring a place or object taboo." — Balbi cor. " Among the various tribes of this fam- 
ily, are the Pottawatomies, the Sauks and Foxes, or Saukies and Ottogamies." — Id. " The 
Shawnees, Kickapoos, Menom'onies, Miamies, and Delawares, are of the same region." — Id. " The 
Mohegans and Abenaquies belonged also to this family." — Id. " One tribe of this family, the 
Winnebagoes, formerly resided near lake Michigan." — Id. "The other tribes are the Ioways, 



CHAP. III.] KEY TO FALSE ETYMOLOGY. — NOUNS. 923 

the Otoes, the Missouries, the Quapaws." — Id. "The great Mexican family comprises the Az- 
tecs, the Toltecs. and the Tarascoes." — Id. " The Mulattoes are born of negro and white pa- 
rents ; the Zamboes, of Indians and Negroes." — Id. " To have a place among the Alexanders, 
the Caesars, the Louises, or the Charleses, — the scourges and butchers of their fellow-creatures." 
■ — Burgh cor. " Which was the notion of the Platonic philosophers and the Jewish rabbles." — Id. 
"That they should relate to the whole body of virtuosoes." — Cobbett cor. " What thanks have ye? 
for sinners also love those that love them." — Bible cor. " There are five ranks of nobility ; dukes, 
marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons." — Balbi cor. " Acts which were so well known to the two 
Charleses." — Payne cor. " Courts-martial are held in all parts, for the trial of the blacks." — Ob- 
sewer cor. " It becomes a common noun, and may have the plural number ; as, the two Davids, 
the two Scipios, the two Pompeys." — Stamford cor. " The food of the rattlesnake is birds, 
squirrels, hares, rats, and reptiles." — Balbi cor. " And let folds multiply in the earth." — Bible cor. 
" Then we reached the hillside, where eight buffaloes were grazing." — Martineau cor. " Cokset, 
n. a bodice for a woman." — Worcester cor. "As, the Bees, the Cees, the Double-ues." — Peirce cor. 
" Simplicity is the mean between ostentation and rusticity." — Pope cor. " You have disguised 
yourselves like tipstaffs." — Gil Bias cor, "But who, that has any taste, can endure the inces- 
sant quick returns of the alsoes, and the likewises, and the moreovers, and the howevers, and the 
notwithstanding s ?" — Campbell cor. 

" Sometimes, in mutual sly disguise, 
Let ays seem noes, and noes seem ays." — Gay cor. 

Lesson II. — Cases. 
"For whose name's sake, I have been made willing." — Penn cor. "Be governed by your con- 
science, and never ask any body's leave to be honest." — Collier cor. "To overlook nobody's merit 
or misbehaviour." — Id. " And Hector at last fights his way to the stern of A j ax's ship." — 
Coleridge cor. "Nothing is lazier, than to keep one's eye upon words without heeding their 
meaning." — Museum cor. " Sir William Jones's division of the day." — Id. "I need only refer 
here to Yoss's excellent account of it." — Id. " The beginning of Stesichorus's palinode has been 
preserved." — Id. " Though we have Tibullus's elegies, there is not a word in them about Glycera." 
— Id. "That Horace was at Tlialiarchus's country-house." — Id. "That Sisyphus's foot-tub 
should have been still in existence." — Id. " How everything went on in Horace's closet, and 
in Mecenas's antechamber." — Id. "Who, for elegant brevity's sake, put a participle for a verb." — 
W. Walker cor. " The country's liberty being oppressed, we have no more to hope." — Id. "A 
brief but true account of this people's principles." — Barclay cor. "As, The Church's peace, or, 
Hit peace of the Church; Virgil's ^Ineid, or, Die jEneid of Yirgil." — Brit. Gram. cor. "As, 
Virgil's iEneid, for, The iEneid of Virgil; TJie Church's peace, for, Tlie peace of the Church." — 
Buchanan cor. " Which, with Hubner's Compend, and Wells's Geographia Classica, will be suffi- 
cient." — Burgh cor. "Witness Homer's speaking horses, scolding goddesses, and Jupiter en- 
chanted with Venus's girdle." — Id. "Dr. Watts's Logic may with success be read to them and 
commented on." — Id. " Potter's Greek, and Kennet's Roman Antiquities, Strauchius's and Eel- 
vicus's Chronology." — Id. " Sing. Alice's friends, Felix's property ; Plue. The Alices' friends, 
the Felixes' property." — Peirce cor. " Such as Bacchus' s company — at Bacchus's festivals." — 
Ainsworth cor. " Burns' s inimitable Tarn o' Sharder turns entirely upon such a circumstance." — 
Scott cor. "Nominative, men; Genitive, [or Possessive,] men's; Objective, men." — Cutler cor. 
"Men's happiness or misery is mostly of their own making." — Locke cor. " That your son's clothes 
be never made strait, especially about the breast." — Id. " Children's minds are narrow and 
weak." — Id. " I would not have little children much tormented about punctilios, or niceties of 
breeding." — Id. "To fill his head with suitable ideas." — Id. "The Burgusdisciuses and the 
Scheiblers did not swarm in those days, as they do now." — Id. "To see the various ways of 
dressing — a calfs head!" — Shenstone cor. 

" He puts it on, and for decorum's sake 
Can wear it e'en as gracefully as she." — Cowper cor. 

Lesson III. — Mixed ExiiiPLES. 
" Simon the wizard was of this religion too " — Bunyan cor. " Mammodess, n. Coarse, plain, 
India muslins." — Webster cor. "Go on from single persons to families, that of the Pompeys for 
instance." — Collier cor. " By which the ancients were not able to account for phenomena." — 
Bailey cor. " After this I married a woman who had lived at Crete, but a Jewess by birth." — 
Josephus cor. " The very heathens are inexcusable for not worshiping him." — Todd cor. "Such 
poems as Camoens's Lusiad, Voltaire's Henriade, &c." — Dr. Blair cor. " My learned correspond- 
ent writes a word in defence of large scarfs." — Sped. cor. " The forerunners of an apoplexy are 
dullness, vertigoes, tremblings." — Arbuthnot cor. " Vertigo, [in Latin,] changes the o into ines, 
making the plural vertigines:" [not so, in English.] — Cliur chill cor. " Noctambido, [in Latin,] 
changes the o into ones, making the plural noctambulones :" [not so. in English.] — Id. " What shall 
we say of noctambuloes ? It is the regular English plural." — G.Brown. "In the curious fret- 
work of rocks and grottoes." — Blair cor. " Wliarf makes the plural wharfs, according to the best 
usage." — G. Brown. "A few cents' worth of macaroni supplies all their wants." — Balbi cor. " C 
sounds hard, like k, at the end of a word or syllable." — Blair cor. " By which the virtuosoes try 
The magnitude of every lie." — Butler cor. " Quartoes, ociavoes, shape the lessening pyre." — Pope 
cor. "Perching within square royal roofs." — Sidney cor. "Similes should, even in poetry, be 



924 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ETYMOLOGY. [PART II. 

used with moderation." — Dr. Blair cor. " Similes should never be taken from low or mean ob- 
jects." — Id. " It were certainly better to say, ' The House of Lords," 1 than, ' The Lords' 1 House.'' " — 
Murray cor. " Read your answers. Units' 1 figure ? 'Five.' Tens' 1 ? 'Six.' Hundreds' ?' Seven.' " 
— Abbott cor. " Alexander conquered Bariums army." — Kirkham cor. "Three days' time was 
requisite, to prepare matters." — Dr. Brown cor. " So we say, that Cicero's style and Sallust's were 
not one; nor Cozsar' 's and Livy's ; nor Homer's and Hesiod's; nor Herodotus' s and Thucydides's ; 
nor Euripides 's and Aristophanes 's ; nor Erasmus's and Budazus's." — Puttenham cor. " Lex (i. e., 
legs, a law,) is no other than our ancestors' past participle lozg, laid down." — Tooke cor. " Achaia's 
sons at Ilium slain for the Atridw's sake." — Gowper cor. "The corpses of her senate manure the 
fields of Thessaly." — Addison cor. 

" Poisoning, without regard of fame or fear ; 
And spotted corpses load the frequent bier." — Dryden cor. 



CHAPTER IV.— ADJECTIVES. 

CORRECTIONS IN THE FORMS OF COMPARISON, &c. 
Lesson I. — Degrees. 
"I have the real excuse of the most honest sort of bankrupts." — Cowley corrected. " The most 
honourable part of talk, is, to give the occasion." — Bacon cor. " To give him one of the most 
modest of his own proverbs." — Barclay cor. " Our language is now, certainly, more proper and 
more natural, than it was formerly." — Burnet cor. " Which will be of the greatest and most fre- 
quent use to him in the world." — Locke cor. " The same is notified in tbe most considerable places 
in the diocese." — Whitgift cor. " But it was the most dreadful sight that ever I saw." — Bunyan 
cor. " Four of the oldest, soberest, and discreetest of the brethren, chosen for the occasion, shall 
regulate it." — Locke cor. "Nor can there be any clear understanding of any Roman author, es- 
pecially of more ancient time, without this skill." — W. Walker cor. " Far the most learned of the 
Greeks." — Id. " The more learned thou art, the humbler be thou." — Id. " He is none of the best, 
or most honest." — Id. "The most proper methods of communicating it to others." — Burn cor. 
" "What heaven's great King hath mightiest to send against us." — Hilton cor. "Benedict is not 
the most unhopeful husband that I know." — Shakspeare cor. " That he should immediately do 
all the meanest and most trifling things himself." — Kay cor. "I shall be named among the most 
renown' d of women." — Milton cor. "Those have the most inventive heads for all purposes." — 
Ascham cor. " The more wretched are the contemners of all helps." — B. Johnson cor. " I will 
now deliver a few of the most proper and most natural considerations that belong to this piece." — 
Wotton cor. " The most mortal poisons practised by the West Indians, have some mixture of the 
blood, fat, or flesh of man." — Bacon cor. " He so won upon him, that he rendered him one of 
the most faithful and most affectionate allies the Medes ever had." — Rollin cor. " ' You see before 
you,' says he to him, 'the most devoted servant, and the most faithful ally, you ever had.' " — Id. 
" I chose the most flourishing tree in all the park." — Cowley cor. "Which he placed, I think, 
some centuries earlier than did Julius Africanus afterwards." — Bolingbroke cor. "The Tiber, the 
most noted river of Italy." — Littleton cor. 

" To farthest shores th' ambrosial spirit flies." — Pope. 

" That what she wills to do or say, 

Seems wisest, worthiest, discreetest, best." — Milton cor. • 

Lesson II. — Mixed Examples. 
"During the first three or four years of its existence." — Taylor cor. "To the first of these 
divisions, my last ten lectures have been devoted." — Adams cor. " There are, in the twenty-four 
states, not fewer than sixty thousand common schools." — J. 0. Taylor cor. " I know of nothing 
which gives teachers more trouble, than this want of firmness." — Id. "I know of nothing else 
that throws such darkness over the line which separates right from wrong." — Id. " None need 
this purity and this simplicity of language and thought, more than does the instructor of a common 
school." — Id. " I know of no other periodical that is so valuable to the teacher, as the Annals of 
Education." — Id. " Are not these schools of the highest importance? Should not every indi- 
vidual feel a deep interest in their character and condition?" — Id. " If instruction were made a 
liberal profession, teachers would feel more sympathy for one an other." — Id. "Nothing is more 
interesting to children, than novelty, or change." — Id. "I know of no other labour which affords 
so much happiness as the teacher's." — Id. "Their school exercises are the most pleasant and 
agreeable duties, that they engage in." — Id. "I know of no exercise more beneficial to the pupil 
than that of drawing maps." — Id. " I know of nothing in which our district schools are more 
defective, than they are in the art of teaching grammar." — Id. " I know of no other branch of 
knowledge, so easily acquired as history." — Id. " I know of no other school exercise for which pupils 
usually have such an abhorrence, as for composition." — Id. " There is nothing belonging to our 
fellow-men, which we should respect more sacredly than their good name." — Id. " Surely, never 
any other creature was so unbred as that odious man." — Congreve cor. " In the dialogue between 
the mariner and the shade of the deceased." — Phil. Museum cor. "These master-works would 
^till be less excellent and finished." — Id. " Every attempt to staylace the language of polished 
conversation, renders our phraseology inelegant and clumsy." — Id. " Here are a few of the most 



CHAP. V.] KEY TO FALSE ETYMOLOGY. — PRONOUNS. 925 

unpleasant words that ever blotted paper." — ShaJcspeare cor. "With the most easy and obliging 
transitions." — Broome cor. "Fear is, of all affections, the least apt to admit any conference with 
reason." — Hooker cor. " Most chymists think glass a body less destructible than gold itself." — 
Boyle cor. "To part with unhacked edges, and bear back our barge undinted." — Shak. cor. 
" Erasmus, who was an unbigoted Roman Catholic, was transported with this passage." — Addison 
cor. " There are no fewer than five words, with any of which the sentence might have termi- 
nated." — Campbell cor. " The ones preach Christ of contention ; but the others, of love." Or, " The 
one party preach," &c. — Bible cor. " Hence we find less discontent and fewer heart-burnings, than 
where the subjects are unequally burdened." — H. Home, Ld. Karnes, cor. 

" The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field." — Milton, P. L., B. ix, 1. 86. 
"Thee, Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field, 

I knew, but not with human voice indued." — Id., P. L., B. is, L 560. 
" How much more grievous would our lives appear, 

To reach th' eight-hundredth, than the eightieth year !" — Denham cor. 

Lesson III. — Mixed Examples. 
" Brutus engaged with Aruns ; and so fierce was the attack, that they pierced each other at the 
same time." — Lempriere cor. "Her two brothers were, one after the other, turned into stone." — 
Karnes cor. "Nouns are often used as adjectives; as, A gold ring, & silver cup." — Lennie cor. 
" Fire and water destroy each other." — Wanostrocht cor. "Two negatives, in English, destroy 
each other, or are equivalent to an affirmative." — Lowth, Murray, et at. cor. "Two negatives de- 
stroy each other, and are generally equivalent to an affirmative." — KirkhamandFeltoncor. "Two 
negatives destroy each other, and make an affirmative." — Flint cor. " Two negatives destroy each 
other, being equivalent to an affirmative." — Frost cor. "Two objects, resembling each other, are 
presented to the imagination." — Parker cor. " Mankind, in order to hold converse with one an 
other, found it necessary to give names to objects." — Kirkham cor. " Derivative words are formed 
from their primitives in various ways." — Cooper cor. "There are many different wars of deriv- 
ing words one from an other. 11 — Murray cor. ""When several verbs have a joint construction in a 
sentence, the auxiliary is usually expressed with the first only." — Frost cor. "Two or more verbs, 
having the same nominative case, and coming in immediate succession, are also separated by the 
comma." — Murray et al. cor. " Two or more adverbs, coming in immediate succession, must be 
separated by the comma." — Iidem. "If, however, the two members are very closely connected, 
the comma is unnecessary." — lidem. " Gratitude, when exerted towards others, naturally produces 
a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a generous man." — L. Murray cor. " Several verbs in the 
infinitive mood, coming in succession, and having a common dependence, are also divided by com- 
mas." — Comly cor. "The several words of which it consists, have so near a relation one to an 
other." — Murray et al. cor. " When two or more verbs, or two or more adverbs,* occur in imme- 
diate succession, and have a common dependence, they must be separated by the comma." — Comly 
cor. " One noun frequently folloivs an other, both meaning the same thing." — Sanborn cor. " And 
these two tenses may thus answer each other." — P. Johnson cor. " Or some other relation which 
two objects bear to each other." — Jamieson cor. "That the heathens tolerated one an other is al- 
lowed." — A. Fuller cor. " And yet these two persons love each other tender]}-." — F. Ptader cor. 
" In the six hundred and first year." — Bible cor. "Nor is this arguing of his, any thing but a 
reiterated clamour." — Barclay cor. "In several of them the inward life of Christianity is to be 
found." — lb. "Though Alvarez, Despauter, and others, do not allow it to be plural." — P. Johnson 
cor. "Even the most dissipated and shameless blushed at the sight." — Lempriere cor. "We feel 
a higher satisfaction in surveying the life of animals, than [in contemplating'] that of vegetables." — 
Jamieson cor. " But this man is so full-fraught with malice." — Barclay cor. " That I suggest 
some things concerning the most proper means." — Dr. Blair cor. 

"So, hand in hand, they passed, the loveliest pair 
That ever yet in love's embraces met." — Milton cor. 

" Aim at supremacy ; without such height, 
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long." — Id. cor. 



CHAPTE.K V.— PEONOUNS. 

CORRECTIONS IN THE FORMS AND USES OF PRONOUNS. 
Lesson I. — Relatives. 
u While we attend to this pause, every appearance of singsong must be carefully avoided." — 
Murray cor. "For thou shalt go to all to whom I shall send thee. 1 ' — Bible cor. "Ah! how 
happy would it have been for me, had I spent in retirement these twenty-three years during ichick 
I have possessed my kingdom." — Sanborn cor. " In the same manner in which relative pronouns 
and their antecedents are usually parsed." — Id. " Parse or explain all the other nouns contained 
in the examples, after the very manner of the word which is parsed for you." — Id. " The passive 
verb will always have the person and number that belong to the verb be, of which it is in part 

* This is the doctrine of Murray, and his hundred copyists; hut it is by no means generally true. It is true 
of adverbs, only when they are connected by conjunctions; and seldom applies to two words, unless the conjunc- 
tion which may be said to connect them, be suppressed and understood. — G. BaowN. 



923 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ETYMOLOGY. [PART II. 

omposed." — Id. " You have been taught that a verb must alwaj'-s agree in person and number 
with it subject or nominative." — Id. "A relative pronoun, also, must always agree in person, in 
number, and even in gender, with its antecedent." — Id. "The answer always agrees in case with 
the pronoun which asks the question." — Id. " One sometimes represents an antecedent noun, in 
the definite manner of a personal pronoun."* — Id. " The mind, being carried forward to the time 
at which the event is to happen, easily conceives it to be present." " Save and saving are [sel- 
dom to be] parsed in the manner in which except and excepting are [commonly explained]." — 
Id. " Adverbs qualify verbs, or modify their meaning, as adjectives qualify nouns [and describe 
things.]'' — Id. "The third person singular of verbs, terminates in s or es, like the plural number 
of nouns." — Id. " He saith farther : that, ' The apostles did not baptize anew such persons as 
had been baptized with the baptism of John.' " — Barclay cor. " For we who live," — or, " For we 
that are alive, are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake." — Bible cor. " For they who be- 
lieve in God, must be careful to maintain good works." — Barclay cor. "Nor yet of those who 
teach thing3 that they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." — Id. " So as to hold such bound in 
heaven as they bind on earth, and such loosed in heaven as they loose on earth." — Id. " Now, 
if it be an evil, to do any thing out of strife ; then such things as are seen so to be done, are they 
not to be avoided and forsaken?" — Id. " All such as do not satisfy themselves with the superfices 
of religion." — Id. " And he is the same in substance, that he was upon earth,— the same in spirit, 
soul, and body." — Id. " And those that do not thus, are such, as the Church of Rome can have 
no charity for." Or : " And those that do not thus, are persons toward whom the Church of Rome 
can have no charity." — Id. " Before his book, he places a great list of what he accounts the blas- 
phemous assertions of the Quakers." — Id. "And this is what he should have proved." — Id. 
"Three of whom were at that time actual students of philosophy in the university." — Id. 
" Therefore it is not lawful for any whomsoever * * * to force the consciences of others." — 
Id. u Why were the former days better than these?" — Bible cor. "In the same manner in 
which" — or, better, "Just as — the term my depends on the name books." — Peirce cor. " Just as 
the term house depends on the [preposition to, understood after the adjective'] near." — Id. 
" James died on the day on which Henry returned." — Id. 

Lesson II. — Declensions. 
" Other makes the plural others, when it is found without its substantive." — Priestley cor. 
" But his, hers, ours, yours, and theirs, have evidently the form of the possessive case." — Lowth 
cor. " To the Saxon possessive cases, hire, ure, eower, hira, (that is, hers, ours, yours, theirs,) we 
have added the s, the characteristic of the possessive case of nouns." — Id. " Upon the name of 
Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." — Friends cor. " In this place, His is clearly prefer- 
able either to H-ir or to Its." — Harris cor. " That roguish leer of yours makes a pretty woman's 
heart ache." — Addison cor. " Lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block." 
— Bible cor. "First person: Sing. I, my or mine, me; Plur. we, our or ours, us." — Wilbur and 
Livingston cor. " Second person : Sing, thou, thy or thine, thee ; Plur. ye or you, your or yours, 
you." — lid. "Third person: Sing, she, her or hers, her; Plur. they, their or theirs, them." — lid. 
" So shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours." — Alger, Bruce, et al. : Jer., v, 19. 
"Second person, Singular: Nom.. thou, Poss. thy or thine, Obj. thee." — Frost cor. " Second per- 
son, Dual ; Nom. G-yt, ye two ; Gen. Incer, of you two ; Dat. Inc, incrurn, to you two ; Ace. Inc, 
ym two; Voc. Eala inc. ye two; Abl. Inc, incrum, from you two." — Gwilt cor. " Second per- 
son, Plural : Nom. Ge, ye ; Gen. Eower, of you ; Dat. Eow, to you ; Aoc. Eow, you ; Voc Eala 
ge, ye ; Abl. Eow, from you." — Id. " These words are, mine, thine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs, 
and whose." — Cardell cor. " This house is ours, and that is yours. Theirs is very commodious." 
— Murray's Gram., p. 55. " And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread : they shall eat up 
thy flocks and thy herds." — Bible cor. " Whoever and Whichever are thus declined : Sing. Nom. 
whoever, Poss. whosever, Obj. whomever; Plur. Nom. whoever, Poss. whosever, Obj. whomever. 
Sing. Nom. whichever, Poss. (wanting,) Obj. whichever; Plur. Nom. whichever, Poss. (ivanting,) 
Obj. whichever." — Cooper cor. " The compound personal pronouns are thus declined : Sing. Nom. 
myself, Poss. (wanting,) Obj. myself; Plur. Nom. ourselves, Poss. (wanting,) Obj. ourselves. Sing. 
Nom. thyself or yourself, Poss. (wanting,) Obj. thyself, &c." — Perley cor. " Every one of us, each 
for himself, laboured to recover him." — Sidney cor. " Unless when ideas of their opposites 
manifestly suggest themselves." — Wright cor. "It not only exists in time, but is itself time." — 
Id. "A position which the action itself will palpably •confute." — Id. "A difficulty sometimes 
presents itself" — Id. "They are sometimes explanations in themselves." — Id. "Ours, Tours, 
Theirs, Hers, Its." — Barrett cor. 

" Theirs, the wild chase of false felicities; 
His, the composed possession of the true." — Young, K Th., N. viii, 1. 1100. 

Lesson III. — Mixed Examples. 
"It is the boast of Americans, without distinction of parties, that their government is the most 
free and perfect that exists on the earth." — Dr. Allen cor. " Children that are dutiful to their 
parents, enjoy great prosperity." — Sanborn cor. " The scholar that improves his time, sets an ex- 
ample worthy of imitation." — Id. " Nouns and pronouns that signify the same person, place, or 
thing, agree in case." — Cooper cor. "An interrogative sentence is one that asks a question." — 

* Example: "Imperfect articulation comes not so much from bad organs, as from the abuse of good ones." — 
Porter's Analysis. Here ones represents organs, and prevents unpleasant repetition. — G. Baowsr. 



CHAP. VI.] KEY TO FALSE ETYMOLOGY. — VERBS. 927 

Id. " In the use of words and phrases that in point of time relate to each other, the order of time 
should be duly regarded." — Id. " The same observations that show the effect of the article upon 
the participle, appear to be applicable [also] to the pronoun and participle." — Murray cor. " The 
reason why they have not the same use of them in reading, may be traced to the very defective 
and erroneous method in which the art of reading is taught." — Id. " Ever since reason began to 
exert her powers, thought, during our waking hours, has been active in every breast, without a 
moment's suspension or pause." — Id. et al. cor. "In speaking of such as greatly delight in the 
same." — Pope cor. "Except him to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he 
may live." — Bible cor. " But the same day on which Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and 
brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." — Bible cor. " In the next place, I will explain 
several constructions of nouns and pronouns, that have not yet come under our notice." — Kirkham 
cor. " Three natural distinctions of time are all that can exist." — Hall cor. "We have exhibited 
such only as are obviously distinct ; and these seem to be sufficient, and not more than sufficient." 
— Murray et al. cor. " The parenthesis encloses a phrase or clause that may be omitted without 
materially injuring the connexion of the other members." — Hall cor. " Consonants are letters 
that cannot be sounded without the aid of a vowel." — Bucke cor. " Words are not mere sounds, 
but sounds that convey a meaning to the mind." — Id. "Nature's postures are always easy; 
and, what is more, nothing but your own will can put you out of them." — Collier cor. " There- 
fore ought we to examine our own selves, and prove our own selves. 11 — Barclay cor. " Certainly, 
it had been much more natural, to have divided Active verbs into Immanent, or those whose ac- 
tion is terminated within itself, and Transient, or tltose whose action is terminated in something 
without itself." — R. Johnson cor. " This is such an advantage as no other lexicon will afford." — 
Dr. Taylor cor. " For these reasons, such liberties are taken in the Hebrew tongue, with those 
words which are of the most general and frequent use." — Pike cor. " Wliile we object to the 
laws which the antiquarian in language would impose on us, we must also enter our protest against 
those authors who are too fond of innovations." — L. Murray cor. 



CHAPTER VI.— VERBS. 

CORRECTIONS IN THE FORMS OF VERBS. 
Lesson I. — Preterits. 
" In speaking on a matter which touched their hearts." — Phil. Museum cor. " Though Horace 
published it some time after." — Id. " The best subjects with which the Greek models furnished 
him." — Id. " Since he attached no thought to it." — Id. " By what slow steps the Greek alpha- 
bet reached its perfection." — Id. " Because Goethe wished to erect an affectionate memorial." — 
Id. " But the Saxon forms soon dropped away." — Id. " It speaks of all the towns that perished 
in the age of Philip." — Id. " This enriched the written language with new words." — Id. "He 
merely furnished his friend with matter for laughter." — Id. " A cloud arose, and stopped the 
light." — Swift cor. " She slipped spadillo in her breast." — Id. " I guessed the hand." — Id. " The 
tyrant stripped me to the skin; My skin he flayed, my hair he cropped; At head and foot my 
body lopped." — Id. " I see the greatest owls in you, That ever screeched or ever flew." — Id. " I 
sat with delight, From morning till night." — Id. "Dick nimbly skipped the gutter." — Id. "In 
at the pantry door this morn I slipped." — Id. " Nobody living ever touched me, but you." — ■ 
W. Walker cor. "Present, I ship; Preterit, I shipped; Perf. Participle, shipped." — A. Mur- 
ray cor. " Then the king arose, and tore his garments." — Bible cor. " When he lifted up his 
foot, he knew not where he should set it next." — Bunyan cor. " He lifted up his spear against 
eight hundred, whom he slew at one time." — Bible cor. "Upon this chaos rode the distressed 
ark." —Burnet cor. " On whose foolish honesty, my practices rode easy." — Shakspeare cor. 
" That form of the first or primogenial Earth, which rose immediately out of chaos." — Burnet cor. 
"Sir, how came it, you have helped to make this rescue?" — Shak. cor. "He swore he would 
rather lose all his father's images, than that table." — Peacham cor. "When our language drop- 
ped its ancient terminations." — Dr. Murray cor. "When themselves they vilified." — Milton 
cor. "But I chose rather to do thus." — Barclay cor. "When he pleaded (or pled) against the 
parsons." — Hist. cor. " And he that saw it, bore record." Or : " And he that saw it, bare 
record." — John, xix, 35. " An irregular verb has one more variation; as, drive, drivest, [driveth,] 
drives, drove, drovest, driving, driven." — Matt. Harrison cor. "Beside that village, Hannibal 
pitched his camp." — W. Walker cor. " He fetched it from Tmolus." — Id. "He supped with his 
morning-gown on." — Id. " There stamped her sacred name." — Barlow cor. 
" Fix'd* on the view the great discoverer stood, 
And thus addressed the messenger of good." — Barlow cor. 

Lesson II. — Mixed Examples. 
"Three freemen were on trial" — or, u were receiving their trial — at the date of our last informa- 
tion." — Editor cor. " While the house was building, many of the tribe arrived." — Cox cor. " But 

* From the force of habit, or to prevent the possibility of a false pronunciation, these ocular contractions are 
6till sometimes carefully made in printing poetry; but they are not very important, and some_ modern authors, 
or their printers, disregard them altogether. In correcting short poetical examples, I shall in general take no 
particular pains to distinguish them from prose. All needful contractions however will be preserved, and some- 
times also a capital letter, to show where the author commenced a line. 



928 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ETYMOLOGY. [PART II. 

a foundation has been laid in Zion, and the church is built — (or, continues to be built — ) upon it." — 
The Friend cor. "And one fourth of the people are receiving education." — E. I. Mag. cor. "The 
present [fe/ise,] or that [form of the verb] which [expresses what] is now doing." — Beck cor. " A 
new church, called the Pantheon, is about being completed, in an expensive style." — Thompson 
cor. " When I last saw him, he had grown considerably." — Murray cor. "I know what a rug- 
ged and dangerous path I have got into." — Duncan cor. " You might as well preach ease to one 
on the rack." — Locke cor. " Thou hast heard me, and hast become my salvation." — Bible cor. 
" While the Elementary Spelling-Book was preparing or, was in progress of preparation) for the 
press." — Cobb cor. "Language has become, in modern times, more correct." — Jamieson cor. "If 
the plan has been executed in any measure answerable to the author's wishes." — Bobbins cor. 
" The vial of wrath is still pouring out on the seat of the beast." — Christian Ex. cor. " Christianity 
had become the generally-adopted and established religion of the whole Roman Empire." — Gur- 
ney cor. "Who wrote before the first century had elapsed." — Id. "The original and analogical 
form has grown quite obsolete." — Lowth cor. " Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, have 
perished." — Murray cor. " The poems had got abroad, and were in a great many hands." — Wal- 
ler cor. " It is more harmonious, as well as more correct, to say, 'The bubble is ready to bursV " 
— Gobbett cor. " I drove my suitor from his mad humour of love." — Shak. cor. "Se viriliter ex- 
pedivit." — Gic. " He has played the man." — Walker cor. " Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the 
Egyptian yesterday ?" — Bible lor. "And we, methought, [or thought I,] looked up to him from 
our hill." — Cowley cor. " I fear thou dost not think so much of the best things as thou ought." — 
Memoir cor. "When this work was commenced.": — Wright cor. " Exercises and a Key to this 
work are about being prepared." — Id. " James is loved b} r John." — Id. " Or that which is ex- 
hibited." — Id. "He was smitten." — Id. "In the passive voice we say, 'I am loved.'" — Id. 
"Subjunctive Mood: If I be smitten, If thou be smitten, If he be smitten." — Id. "I shaU not be 
able to convince you how superficial the reformation is." — Chalmers cor. " I said to myself, I 
shall be obliged to expose the folly." — Ghazotte cor. " When Clodius, had he meant to return 
that day to Rome, must have arrived." — J. Q. Adams cor. " That the fact has been done, is 
doing, or will be done." — Feirce cor. " Am I to be instructed?" — Wright cor. " I choose him." — 
Id. " John, who respected his father, was obedient to his commands." — Barrett cor. 

" The region echoes to the clash of arms." — Beattie cor. 

" And sitst on high, and mak'st creation's top 
Thy footstool ; and beholdst below thee — all." — Pollok cor. 

" And see if thou canst punish sin and let 
Mankind go free. Thou failst — be not surprised." — Idem. 

Lesson III — Mixed Examples. 
"What follows, might better have been wanting altogether." — Dr. Blair cor. " This member oi 
the sentence might much better have been omitted altogether." — Id. " One or the other of them, 
therefore, 'might better have been omitted." — Id. " The whole of this last member of the sentence 
might better have been dropped." — Id. " In this case, they might much better be omitted." — Id. 
" He might better have said ' the productions.' 1 " — Id. " The Greeks ascribed the origin of poetry to 
Orpheus, Linus, and Musasus." — Id. " It was noticed long ago, that all these fictitious names 
have the same number of syllables." — Phil. Museum cor. " When I found that he had commit- 
ted nothing worthy of death, I determined to send him." — Bible cor. " I would rather be a door- 
keeper in the house of my God." — Id. " As for such, I wish the Lord would open their eyes." Or, 
better: " May the Lord open (or, I pray the Lord to open) their eyes." — Barclay cor. " It would 
have made our passage over the river very difficult." — Walley cor. "We should not have been 
able to carry our great guns." — Id. " Others would have questioned our prudence, if we had." — 
Id. "Beware thou be not bec^esared; i. e., Beware that thou do not dwindle — or, lest thou 
dwindle — into a mere Caesar." — Harris cor. " Thou raisedst (or, familiarly, thou raised) thy voice 
to record the stratagems of needy heroes." — Arbuthnot cor. "Life hurries off apace; thine is 
almost gone already." — Collier cor. " ' How unfortunate has this accident made me !' cries such 
a one." — Id. " The muse that soft and sickly woos the ear." — Pollok cor. "A man might better 
relate himself to a statue." — Bacon cor. " I heard thee say but now, thou liked not that." — Shak. 
cor. "In my whole course of wooing, thou criedst, (or, familiarly, thou cried,) Indeed!" — Id. 
"But our ears have grown familiar with ' I have wrote, 1 '■I have drank, 1 &c, which are altogether as 
ungrammatical." — Lowth et al. cor. " The court was in session before Sir Roger came." — Addison 
cor. " She needs — (or, if you please, need, — ) be no more with the jaundice possessed." — Swift cor. 
"Besides, you found fault with our victuals one day when you were here." — Id. " If spirit of 
other sort, So minded, hath (or has) o'erleaped these earthy bounds." — Milton cor. " It ivnuld have 
been more rational to have forborne this." — Barclay cor. "A student is not master of it till he has 
seen all these." — Dr. Murray cor. " The said justice shall summon the party."— Brevard cor. 
" Now what has become of thy former wit and humour ?" — Sped. cor. " Young stranger, whither 
wanderst thou ?" — Burns cor. " Subj. Pres. If I love, If thou love, If he love. Imp. If I loved, 
If thou loved, If he loved." — Merchant cor. " Subj. If I do not love, If thou do not love. If he do 
not love." — Id. " If he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." — Bible cor. "Subjunc- 
tive Mood of the verb to call, second person singular: If thou call, (rarely, If thou do call) If thou 
called." — Hiley cor. " Subjunctive Mood of the verb to love, second person singular : If thou love, 
(rarely, If thou do love,) If thou loved." — Bullions cor. "I was; thou wast; he, she, or it, was: 
We, you or ye, they, were." — White cor. "I taught, thou taughtest, (familiarly, thou taught,) he 



CHAP. VII.] KEY TO FALSE ETYMOLOGY. — PARTICIPLES. 929 

taught." — Coar cor. " We say, 'If it rain, 1 ' Suppose it rain 1 *■ Lest it rain, 1 ' Unless it rain 1 This 
manner of speaking is called the Subjunctive Mood." — Weld cor. " He has arrived at what is deem- 
ed the age of manhood." — Priestley cor. " He might much better have let it alone." — Tooke cor. 
" He were better without it. Or: He would Abetter without it." — Locke cor. "Hadst thou not been 
by. Or: If thou hadst not been by. Or, in the familiar style : Had not thou been by." — Shale, 
cor. " I learned geography. Thou learned arithmetic. He learned grammar." — Fuller cor. 
"Till the sound has ceased." — Sheridan cor. "Present, die; Preterit, died ; Perf. Participle, 
died 11 — Six English Grammars corrected. 

" Thou bow'dst thy glorious head to none, fear'dst none." Or: — 

" Thou bowed thy glorious head to none, feared none." — Pollok cor. 

" Thou lookst upon thy boy as though thou guess'd it." — Knowles cor. 

" As once thou slept, while she to life was formed." — Milton cor. 

" Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, 
But may imagine how the bird was killed? 11 — Shak. cor. 

"Which might have well become the best of men." — Idem cor. 



CHAPTER VII.— PARTICIPLES. 

CORRECTIONS IN THE FORMS OF PARTICIPLES. 
Lesson I. — Irregulaes. 
" Many of your readers have mistaken that passage." — Steele cor. " Had not my dog of a 
steward run away." — Addison cor. " None should be admitted, except he had broken his collar- 
bone thrice." — Id. " We could not know what was written at twenty." — Waller cor. " I have 
written, thou hast written, he has written; we have written, you have written, they have written. 11 
— Ash cor. " As if God had spoken his last words there to his people." — Barclay cor. " I had 
like to have come in that ship myself." — Observer cor. "Our ships and vessels being driven out 
of the harbour by a storm." — Hutchinson cor. " He will endeavour to write as the ancient author 
would have written, had he written in the same language." — Bolingbroke cor. " When his doc- 
trines grew too strong to be shaken by his enemies." — Atterbury cor. " The immortal mind that 
hath forsaken her mansion." — Milton cor. " Grease that's sweated (or sweat) from the murderer's 
gibbet, throw into the flame." — Shak. cor. " The court also was chidden (or chid) for allowing 
such questions to be put." — Stone cor. " He would have spoken. 11 — Milton cor. " Words interwoven 
(or interweaved) with sighs found out their way." — Id. " Those kings and potentates who have 
strived (or striven.) 11 — Id. " That even Silence was taken. 11 — Id. " And envious Darkness, ere they 
could return, had stolen them from me." — Id. " I have chosen this perfect man." — Id. "I shall 
scarcely think you have svmm in a gondola." — Shak. cor. " The fragrant brier was woven (or weaved) 
between." — Dryden cor. " Then finish what you have begun. 11 — Id. " But now the years a 
numerous train have run. 11 — Pope cor. " Repeats your verses written (or writ) on glasses." — 
Prior cor. "Who by turns have risen. 11 — Id. "Which from great authors I have taken." — Id. 
"Even there he should have fallen. 11 — Id. 

" The sun has ris\ and gone to bed, 
Just as if Partridge were not dead." — Swift cor. 

" And, though no marriage words are spoken, 
They part not till the ring is broken. 11 — Swift cor. 

Lesson II. — Regulars. 

"When the word is stripped of all the terminations." — Dr. Murray cor. " Forgive him, Tom; 
his head is cracked. 11 — Swift cor. " For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer hoised (or hoisted) with 
his own petar." — Shak. cor. "As great as they are, I was nursed by their mother." — Swift cor. 
" If he should now be cried down since his change." — Id. " Pipped over head and ears — in 
debt." — Id. "We see the nation's credit cracked. 11 — Id. "Because they find their pockets 
picked. 11 — Id. " what a pleasure mixed with pain !" — Id. " And only with her brother linked. 11 
— Id. " Because he ne'er a thought allowed, That might not be confessed. 11 — Id. " My love to 
Sheelah is more firmly fixed. 11 — Id. " The observations annexed to them will be intelligible." — 
Phil. Mus. cor. " Those eyes are always fixed on the general principles." — Id. " Laborious conjec- 
tures will be banished from our commentaries." — Id. " Tiridates was dethroned, and Phraates was 
reestablished, in his stead." — Id. "A E.oman who was attached to Augustus." — Id. " Nor should 
I have spoken of it, unless Baxter had talked about two such." — Id. " And the reformers of lan- 
guage have generally rushed on." — Id. "Three centuries and a half had then elapsed since the 
date." — Po. " Of such criteria, as has been remarked already, there is an abundance." — Id. 
" The English have surpassed every other nation in their services." — Id. " The party addressed 
is next in dignity to the speaker." — Harris cor. "To which we are many times helped. 11 — W. 
Walker cor. "But for him, I should have looked well enough to myself." — Id. "Why are you 
vexed, Lady? why do frown?" — Milton cor. " Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb." — 
Id. "But, like David equipped in Saul's armour, it is encumbered and oppressed." — Campbell 
cor. 

"And when their merchants are blown up, and cracked, 
Whole towns are cast away in storms, and wrecked. 11 — Butler cor. 

59 



930 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ETYMOLOGY. [PART II. 

Lesson III. — Mixed Examples. 

" The lands are held in free and common soccage." — Trumbull cor. " A stroke is drawn under 
such words." — GobbeWs Gr., 1st Ed. " It is struck even, with a strickle." — W. Walker cor. " Whilst 
I was wandering, without any care, beyond my bounds." — Id. "When one would do something, 
unless hindered by something present." — R. Johnson cor. "It is used potentially, but not so as 
to be rendered by these signs." — Id. " Now who would dote upon things hurried down the stream 
thus fast?" — Gollier cor. "Heaven hath timely tried their growth." — Hilton cor. "0! ye mis- 
took, ye should have snatched his wand." — Id. "Of true virgin here distressed." — Id. "So that 
they have at last come to be substituted in the stead of it." — Barclay cor. "Though ye have lain 
among the pots." — Bible cor. " And, lo ! in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off." — ScoWs 
Bible, and Alger's. "Brutus and Cassius Have ridden, (or rode,) like madmen, through the gates 
of Rome."- — Sliak. cor. " He shall be spit upon.''' 1 — Bible cor. " And are not the countries so over- 
flowed still situated between the tropics ?" — Bentley. " Not tricked and frounced as she was wont, 
But kerchiefed in a comely cloud." — Milton cor. "To satisfy his rigour, Satisfied never." — Id. 
" With him there crucified.'''' — Id. " Th' earth cumbered, and the wing'd air darked with plumes." 
— Id. " And now their way to Earth they had descried." — Id. " Not so thick swarmed once the 
soil Bedropped with blood of G-orgon." — Id. " And in a troubled sea of passion tossed." — Id. " The 
cause, alas! is quickly guessed." — Swift cor. "The kettle to the top was hoised, or hoisted." — Id. 
"In chains thy syllables are linked." — Id. " Rather than thus be overtopped, Would you not wish 
their laurels cropped." — Id. " The hyphen, or conjoiner, is a little line drawn to connect words, 
or parts of words." — Gobbett cor. "In the other manners of dependence, this general rule is 
sometimes broken." — R. Johnson cor. " Some intransitive verbs may be rendered transitive by 
means of a preposition prefixed to them." — Grant cor. "Whoever now should place the accent 
on the first syUable of Valerius, would set every body a laughing." — J. Walker cor. " Being 
mocked, scourged, spit upon, and crucified." — Gurney cor. 

"For rhyme in Greece or Rome was never known, 
Till barbWous hordes those states had overthrown." — Roscommon cor. 

" In my own Thames may I be drowned, 
If e'er I stoop beneath the crowned." Or thus : — 

" In my own Thames may I be drowrfd dead, 
If e'er I stoop beneath a crown'd head." — Swift cor. 



CHAPTEK VIII.— ADVERBS. 

CORRECTIONS RESPECTING THE FORMS OF ADVERBS. 

14 We can much more easily form the conception of a fierce combat." — Blair corrected. "When 
he was restored agreeably to the treaty, he was a perfect savage." — Webster cor. " How I shall 
acquit myself suitably to the importance of the trial." — Duncan cor. " Can any thing show your 
Holiness how unworthily you treat mankind?" — Sped. cor. " In what other, consistently with 
reason and common sense, can you go about to explain it to him?" — Loivth cor. " xigreeably to 
this rule, the short vowel Sheva has two characters." — Wilson cor. "We shall give a remarkably 
fine example of this figure." — See Blair' 1 s Rhet., p. 156. "All of which is most abominably false." 
— Barclay cor. " He heaped up great riches, but passed his time miserably." — Murray cor. " He 
is never satisfied with expressing any thing clearly and simply." — Dr. Blair cor. " Attentive only 
to exhibit his ideas clearly and exactly, he appears dry." — Id. " Such words as have the most liquids 
and vowels, glide the most softly." Or: " Where liquids and vowels most abound, the utterance 
is softest." — Id. " The simplest points, such as are most easily apprehended." — Id. " Too his- 
torical to be accounted a perfectly regular epic poem." — Id. "Putting after them the oblique 
case, agreeably to the French construction." — Priestley cor. "Where the train proceeds with an 
extremely slow pace." — Karnes cor. " So as scarcely to give an appearance of succession." — Id. 
" That concord between sound and sense, which is perceived in some expressions, independently 
of artful pronunciation." — Id. "Cornaro had become very corpulent, previously to the adoption 
of his temperate habits." — Hitchcock cor. " Bread, which is a solid, and tolerably hard, sub- 
stance." — Day cor. " To command every body that was not dressed as finely as himself." — Id. 
" Many of them have scarcely outlived their authors." — J. Ward cor. " Their labour, indeed, did 
not penetrate very deeply." — Wilson cor. "The people are miserably poor, and subsist on fish." 
— Hume cor. " A scale, which I took great pains, some years ago, to make." — Bucke cor. " There 
is no truth on earth better established than the truth of the Bible." — Taylor cor. " I know of no 
work more wanted than the one which Mr. Taylor has now furnished." — Dr. Nott cor. " And 
therefore their requests are unfrequent and reasonable." — Taylor cor. " Questions are more easily 
proposed, than answered rightly." — Dilhvyn cor. " Often reflect on the advantages you possess, 
and on the source from which they are all derived." — Murray cor. " If there be no special rule 
which requires it to be put further forward." — Milnes cor. "The masculine and the neuter have 
the same dialect in all the numbers, especially when they end alike." — Id. 
" And children are more busy in their plajr 
Than those that wiseliest pass their time away." — Butler cor. 



CHAP. X.] KEY TO FALSE ETYMOLOGY. — PREPOSITIONS. 931 

CHAPTER IX.— CONJUNCTIONS. 

CORRECTIONS IN THE USE OE CONJUNCTIONS. 

"A Verb is so called from the Latin verbum, a word." — Bucke cor. "References are often 
marked by letters or figures." — Adam and Gould cor. (1.) " A Conjunction is a word which joins 
words or sentences together." — Lennie, Bullions and Brace, cor. (2.) "A Conjunction is used to 
connect words or sentences together." — R. C. Smith cor. (3.) "A Conjunction is used to con- 
nect words or sentences." — Maunder cor. (4.) " Conjunctions are words used to join words or sen- 
tences." — Wilcox cor. (5.) "A Conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences." — 
MCulloch, Hart, and Day, cor. (6.) "A Conjunction joins words or sentences together." — Mac- 
intosh and Hiley cor. (7.) " The Conjunction joins words or sentences together." — L. Murray 
cor. (8.) " Conjunctions connect words or sentences to each other." — Wright cor. (9.) " Conjunc- 
tions connect words or sentences." — Wells and Wilcox cor. (10.) "The conjunction is a part of 
speech, used to connect words or sentences." — Weld cor. (11.) " A conjunction is a word used to 
connect words or sentences together." — Fowler cor. (12.) "Connectives are particles that unite 
words or sentences in construction." — Webster cor. "English Grammar is miserably taught in 
our district schools ; the teachers know little or nothing about it." — J. 0. Taylor cor. " Lest, 
instead of preventing diseases, you draw them on." — Locke cor. " The definite article the is fre- 
quently applied to adverbs in the comparative or the superlative degree." — Murray et al. cor. 
" When nouns naturally neuter are assumed to be masculine or feminine." — Murray cor. " This 
form of the perfect tense represents an action as completely past, though often as done at no great 
distance of time, or at a time not specified." — Id. "The Copulative Conjunction serves to connect 
words or clauses, so as to continue a sentence, by expressing an addition, a supposition, a cause, 
or a consequence." — Id. " The Disjunctive Conjunction serves, not only to continue a sentence by 
connecting its parts, but also to express opposition of meaning, either real or nominal.''' 1 — Id. " If 
we open the volumes of our divines, philosophers, historians, or artists, we shall find that they 
abound with all the terms necessary to communicate the observations and discoveries of their au- 
thors." — Id. " When a disjunctive conjunction occurs between a singular noun or pronoun and a 
plural one, the verb is made to agree with the plural noun or pronoun." — Murray et al. cor. 
" Pronouns must always agree with their antecedents, or the nouns for which they stand, in gen- 
der and number." — Murray cor. " Neuter verbs do not express action, and consequently do not 
govern nouns or pronouns." — Id. " And the auxiliary of the past imperfect as well as of the pres- 
ent tense.' 1 '' — Id. " If this rule should not appear to apply to every example that has been pro- 
duced, or to others which might be cited." — Id. "An emphatical pause is made, after something 
pf peculiar moment has been said, on which we desire to fix the hearer's attention." — Murray and 
Bart cor. " An imperfect* phrase contains no assertion, and does not amount to a proposition, 
or sentence." — Murray cor. " The word was in the mouth of every one, yet its meaning may still 
be a secret." — Id. " This word was in the mouth of every one, and yet, as to its precise and defi- 
nite idea, this may still be a secret." — Harris cor. " It cannot be otherwise, because the .French 
prosody differs from that of every other European language." — Smollet cor. " So gradually that 
it may be engrafted on a subtonic." — Rush cor. "Where the Chelsea and Maiden bridges now 
are." Or better: "Where the Chelsea or the Maiden bridge now is." — Judge Parker cor. "Adverbs 
are words added to verbs, to participles, to adjectives, or to other adverbs." — R. C. Smith cor. "I 
could not have told you who the hermit was, or on what mountain he lived." — Bucke cor. "An 
and Be (for they are the same verb) naturally, or in themselves, signify being." — Brightland cor. 
" Words are signs, either oral or written, by which we express our thoughts, or ideas." — Mrs. Bethune 
cor. "His fears will detect him, that he shall not escape." — Comly cor. " Wliose is equally ap- 
plicable to persons and to things." — Webster cor. "One negative destroys an other, so that two 
are equivalent to an affirmative." — Bullions cor. 

" No sooner does he peep into the world, 
Than he has done his do." — Hudibras cor. 



CHAPTER X.— PREPOSITIONS. 

CORRECTIONS IN THE USE OF PREPOSITIONS. 

"Nouns are often formed from participles." — L. Murray corrected. " What tenses are formed 
from the perfect participle ?" — Ingersoll cor. " Which tense is formed from the present, or root of 
the verb?" — Id. "When a noun or a pronoun is placed before a participle, independently o/the 
rest of the sentence." — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 348. " If the addition consists of two or more words." 
r-Mur. et al. cor. "The infinitive mood is often made absolute, or used independently of the 
rest of the sentence."— Lowe's Gram., 80; ChurchilVs, 143; Buckets, 96; Merchants, 92. "For 
the great satisfaction of the reader, we shall present a variety of false constructions." — Murray cor. 
"For your satisfaction, I shall present you a variety of false constructions." — Ingersoll cor. "I 
shall here present [to] you a scale of derivation." — Bucke cor. " These two manners of repre- 
sentation in respect to number." — Lowth and Churchill cor. "There are certain adjectives which 

* The word '■'■imperfect" is not really necessary here ; for the declaration is true of any phrase, as this name 
is commonly applied. — G. Beown. 



932 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO ETYMOLOGY. [PART II. 

seem to be derived from verbs, without any variation." — Lowth cor. " Or disqualify us for receiving 
instruction or reproof from others." — Murray cor. " For being more studious than any other pupil 
in the school." — Id. "Misunderstanding the directions, we lost our way." — Id. "These people 
reduced the greater part of the island under their own power." — Id. "The principal accent dis- 
tinguishes one syllable of a word from the rest." — Id. "Just numbers are in unison with the 
human mind." — Id. "We must accept of sound in stead of sense." — Id. "Also, in stead of 
consultation, he uses consult." — Priestley cor. " This ablative seems to be governed by a preposition 
understood." — W. Walker cor. " Lest my father hear of it, by some means or other." — Id. " And, 
besides, my wife would hear of it by some means." — Id. "For insisting on a requisition so odious 
to them." — Robertson cor. " Based on the great self-evident truths of liberty and equality." — 
Manual cor. "Very little knowledge of their nature is acquired from the spelling-book." — Mur- 
ray cor. "They do not cut it off: except from- a few words; as, due, duly, &c." — Id. " "Whether 
passing at such time, or then finished." — Lowth cor. "It hath disgusted hundreds with that con- 
fession." — Barclay cor. " But they have egregiously fallen into that inconveniency." — Id. " For 
is not this, to set nature at work ?" — Id. " And, surely, that which should set all its springs at work, 
is God." — Atterbury cor. " He could not end his treatise without a panegyric on modern learning." 
— Temple cor. " These are entirely independent of the modulation of the voice." — J. Walker cor. 
" It is dear at a penny. It is cheap at twenty pounds." — W. Walker cor. " It will be despatched, 
on most occasions, without resting." — Locke cor. " Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!" — Pope. 
"When the objects or the facts are presented to him." — R. C. Smith cor. "I will now present 
you a synopsis." — Id. " The disjunctive conjunction connects words or sentences, and suggests 
an opposition of meaning, more or less direct." — Id. "I shall now present to you a few lines." — 
Bucke cor. " Common names, or substantives, are those which stand for things assorted." — Id. 
"Adjectives, in the English language, are not varied by genders, numbers, or cases; their only 
inflection is for the degrees of comparison." — Id. "Participles are [little more than] adjectives 
formed from verbs." — Id. "I do love to walk out on a fine summer evening." — Id. "Ellipsis, 
when applied to grammar, is the elegant omission of one or more words of a sentence." — Mer- 
chant cor. "The preposition to is generally required before verbs in the infinitive mood, but after 
the following verbs it is properly omitted ; namely, bid, dare, feel, need, let, make, hear, see : as, 
'He bid me do it;' not, 'He bid me to do it.' " — Id. "The infinitive sometimes follows than, for 
the latter term of a comparison ; as, [' Murray should have known better than to write, and Mer- 
chant, better than to copy, the text here corrected, or the ambiguous example they appended to 
it.']" — Id. " Or, by prefixing the adverb more or less, for the comparative, and most or least, for 
the superlative." — Id. "A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun." — Id. "From monosyl- 
lables, the comparative is regularly formed by adding r or er." — Perley cor. " He has particu- 
larly named these, in distinction from others." — Harris cor. " To revive the decaying taste for 
ancient literature." — Id. " He found the greatest difficulty in writing." — Hume cor. 

" And the tear, that is wiped with a little address, 

May be followed perhaps by a smile." — Gowper, i, 216. 



CHAPTEK XI.— INTERJECTIONS. 

CORRECTIONS IN THE USE OF INTERJECTIONS. 

" Of chance or change, let not man complain." — Beattie's Minstrel, B. ii, 1. i. "0 thou per- 
secutor! ye hypocrites!" — Russell's Gram., p. 92. u thou my voice inspire, Who touched 
Isaiah's hallow'd lips with fire ! " — Pope's Messiah. "0 happy we ! surrounded by so many bless- 
ings ! " — Merchant cor. " thou who art so unmindful of thy duty ! " — Id. " If I am wrong, teach 
my heart To find that better way." — Murray's Reader, p. 248. " Heus! evccate hue Davum." — 
Ter. "Ho! call Davus out hither." — W. Walker cor. " It was represented by an analogy (0 
how inadequate!) which was borrowed from the ceremonies of paganism." — Murray cor. "0 
that Ishmael might live before thee!" — Friends' 1 Bible, and Scotfs. "And he said unto him, 
let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak." — Alger 's Bible, and Scotfs. " And he said, Olet not 
the Lord be angry." — Alger ; Gen., xviii, 32. "0 my Lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a 
word." — Scott's Bible. "0 Virtue! bow amiable thou art!" — Murray's Gram., p. 128. "Alas! 
I fear for life." — See lb. "Ah me ! they little know How dearly I abide that boast so vain ! " — 
See Buckets Gram., p. 8*7. " that I had digged myself a cave! " — Fletcher cor. "Oh, my good 
lord ! thy comfort comes too late." — Shak. cor. " The vocative takes no article : it is distin- 
guished thus: Pedro! Peter! Bios ! God ! "— Bucke cor. "Oho! But, the relative is 
always the same." — Cobbett cor. "All-hail, ye happy men ! " — Jaudon cor. "0 that I had wings 
like a dove! ' — Scotfs Bible. "0 glorious hope! bless 'd abode!" — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 
304. "Welcome friends! how joyous is your presence ! " — T. Smith cor. "0 blissful days! — but, 
ah ! how soon ye pass ! " — Parker and Fox cor. 

" golden days ! bright unvalued hours 1 — 
"What bliss, did ye but know that bliss, were yours ! " — Barbauld cor. 

" Ah me ! what perils do environ 
The man that meddles with cold iron ! " — Hudibras cor. 



CHAP. II.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — ARTICLES. — RULE I. 933 

THE KEY.— PART III.— SYNTAX. 
CHAPTER I.— SENTENCES. 

The first chapter of Syntax, being appropriated to general views of this part of grammar, to 
an exhibition of its leading doctrines, and to the several forms of sentential analysis, with an ap- 
plication of its principal rules in parsing, contains no false grammar for correction ; and has, of 
course, nothing to correspond to it, in this Key, except the title, which is here inserted for form's 
sake. 

CHAPTER II.— ARTICLES. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER THE NOTES TO RULE I. 
Under Note I. — AN or A. 
"I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel." — Bible cor. "There is a harshness in 
the following sentences." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 152. " Indeed, such a one is not to be looked 
for." — Dr. Blair cor. " If each of you will be disposed to approve himself a useful citizen." — Id. 
u Land with them had acquired almost a European value." — Webster cor. " He endeavoured to 
find out a wholesome remedy." — Neef cor. li At no time have we attended a yearly meeting 
more to our own satisfaction." — The Friend cor. " Addison was not a humorist in character." — 
Karnes cor. "Ah me! what a one was he! " — Lily cor. "He was such a one as I never saw 
before. 11 — Id. " No man can be a good preacher, who is not a useful one." — Br. Blair cor. U A 
usage which is too frequent with Mr. Addison." — Id. " Nobody joins the voice of a sheep 
with the shape of a horse." — Locke cor. "A universality seems to be aimed at by the omission of 
the article." — Priestley cor. " Architecture is a useful as well as a fine art." — Karnes cor. "Be- 
cause the same individual conjunctions do not preserve a uniform signification." — Nutting cor. 
"Such a work required the patience and assiduity of a hermit." — Johnson cor. "Resentment 
is a union of sorrow with malignity." — Id. " His bravery, we know, was a high courage of 
blasphemy." — Pope cor. "Hyssop ; an herb of bitter taste." — Pike cor. 
" On each enervate string they taught the note 
To pant, or tremble through a eunuch's throat." — Pope cor. 

Under Note II. — AN or A with Plurals. 
" At a session of the court, in March, it was moved," &c. — Hutchinson cor. " I shall relate my 
conversations, of which I kept memoranda." — D. DAb. cor. " I took an other dictionary, and 
with a, pair of scissors cut out, for instance, the word Abacus." — A. B. Johnson cor. "A person 
very meet seemed he for the purpose, and about forty-five years old." — Gardiner cor. "And it 
came to pass, about eight days after these sayings." — Bible cor. " There were slain of them about 
ihree thousand men." — 1 Mace. cor. " Until I had gained the top of these white mountains, 
which seemed other Alps of snow." — Addison cor. " To make them satisfactory amends for all 
the losses they had sustained." — Goldsmith cor. "As a, first-fruit of many that shall be gath- 
ered." — Barclay cor. " It makes indeed a little amend, (or some amends,) by inciting us to oblige 
people." — Sheffield cor. "A large and lightsome back stairway (or flight of backstairs) leads up to 
an entry above." — Id. "Peace of mind is an abundant recompense for any sacrifices of interest." 
■ — Murray et al. cor. " With such a spirit, and such sentiments, were hostilities carried on." — Rob- 
ertson cor. " In the midst of a thick wood, he had long lived a voluntary recluse." — G. B. " The 
flats look almost like a young forest. 11 — Chronicle cor. " As we went on, the country for a little 
way improved, but scantily." — Freeman cor. " Whereby the Jews were permitted to return into 
their own country, after a captivity of seventy years at Babylon." — Eollin cor. "He did not go a 
great way into the country." — Gilbert cor. 

" A large amend by fortune's hand is made, 
And the lost Punic blood is well repay'd." — Rowe cor. 

Under Note III. — Nouns Connected. 
" As where a landscape is conjoined with the music of birds, and the odour of flowers." — Karnes 
ipr. " The last order resembles the second in the mildness of its accent, and the softness of its 
yause." — Id. " Before the use of the loadstone, or the knowledge of the compass." — Dryden cor. 
" The perfect participle and the imperfect tense ought not to be confounded." — Murray cor. " In 
proportion as the taste of a poet or an orator becomes more refined." — Blair cor. "A situation 
can never be more intricate, so long as there is an angel, a devil, or a musician, to lend a helping 
Land." — Karnes cor. "Avoid rude sports: an eye is soon lost, or a bone broken." — Inst, p. 262. 
( 'Not a word was uttered, nor a sign given." — lb. "I despise not the doer, but the deed." — 
lb. "For the sake of an easier pronunciation and a more agreeable sound." — Lowth cor. " The 
levity as well as the loquacity of the Greeks made them incapable of keeping up the true stand- 
ard Jf history." — Bolingbroke cor. 

Under Note IV. — Adjectives Connected. 
"It is proper that the vowels be a long and a short one." — Murray cor. " Whether the per- 
son mentioned was seen by the speaker a long or a short time before." — Id. et al. "There are 



934 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

three genders; the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter." — Adam cor. " The numbers are two; 
the singular and the plural." — Id. et al. " The persons are three ; the first, the second, and the 
third." — lidem. " Nouns and pronouns have three cases ; the nominative, the possessive, and the 
objective." — Comly and Ing. cor. " Verbs have five moods ; namely, the infinitive, the indicative, 
the potential, the subjunctive, and the imperative." — Bullions et al. cor. " How many numbers 
have pronouns ? Two, the singular and the plural." — Bradley cor. " To distinguish between an 
interrogative and an exclamatory sentence." — Murray et al. cor. " The first and the last of 
which are compound members." — Lowth cor. " In the last lecture, I treated of the concise and the 
diffuse, the nervous and the feeble manner." — Blair cor. " The passive and the neuter verbs I 
shall reserve for some future conversation." — Ingersoll cor. " There are two voices ; the active 
and the passive." — Adam et al. cor. " Whose is rather the poetical than the regular genitive of 
which." — Johnson cor. " To feel the force of a compound or a derivative word." — Town cor. 
" To preserve the distinctive uses of the copulative and the disjunctive coi junctions." — Murray et 
al. cor. " E has a long and a short sound in most languages." — Bicknell cor. " When the figu- 
rative and the literal sense are mixed and jumbled together." — Dr. Blair cor. " The Hebrew, 
with which the Canaanitish and the Phoenician stand in connexion." — Gonant and Fowler cor. 
" The languages of Scandinavia proper, the Norwegian and the Swedish." — Fowler cor. 

Under Note V. — Adjectives Connected. 

" The path of truth is a plain and safe path." — Murray cor. " Directions for acquiring a just 
and happy elocution." — Kirkham cor. "Its leading object is, to adopt a correct and easy 
method." — Id. " How can it choose but wither in a long and sharp winter ?" — Cowley cor. " Into 
a dark and distant unknown." — Dr. Chalmers cor. "When the bold and strong enslaved his 
fellow man." — Ghazotte cor. "We now proceed to consider the things most essential to an ac- 
curate and perfect sentence." — Murray cor. "And hence arises a second and very considerable 
source of the improvement of taste." — Dr. Blair cor. " Novelty produces in the mind a vivid and 
agreeable emotion." — Id. " The deepest and bitterest feeling still is that of the separation." — Dr. 
MBie cor. "A great and good man looks beyond time." — See Brown's Inst., p. 263. "They 
made but a weak and ineffectual resistance." — lb. " The light and worthless kernels will float." 
— lb. " I rejoice that there is an other and better world." — lb. " Eor he is determined to revise 
his work, and present to the public an other and better edition." — Kirkham cor. " He hoped that 
this title would secure to him an ample and independent authority." — L. Murray cor. et al. " There 
is, however, an other and more limited sense." — J. Q. Adams cor. 

Under Note YI. — Articles or Plurals. 
" This distinction forms what are called the diffuse style and the concise." — Dr. Blair cor. " Two 
different modes of speaking, distinguished at first by the denominations of the Attic manner and 
the Asiatic" — Adams cor. " But the great design of uniting the Spanish and French monarchies 
under the former, was laid." — Bolingbroke cor. "In the solemn and poetic styles, it [do or did] is 
often rejected." — Allen cor. " They cannot be, at the same time, in both the objective case and the 
nominative." Or: "They cannot be. at the same time, in both the objective and the nominative 
case." Or: "They cannot be, at the same time, in the nominative case, and also in the objective." 
Or: "They cannot be, at the same time, in the nominative and objective cases." — Murray's 
Gram., 8vo, p. 148. Or, better: "They cannot be, at the same time, in both cases, the nomina- 
tive and the objective." — Murray et al. cor. " They are named the positive, comparative, and su- 
perlative degrees." — Smart cor. " Certain adverbs are capable of taking an inflection ; namely, 
that of the comparative and superlative degrees." — Fowler cor. " In the subjunctive mood, the 
present and imperfect tenses often carry with them a future sense." — Murray et al. cor. " The 
imperfect, the perfect, the pluperfect, and the first-future tense, of this mood, are conjugated like 
the same tenses of the indicative." — Kirkham bettered. " What rules apply in parsing personal 
pronouns of the second and third persons?" — Id. " Nouns are sometimes in the nominative or 
the objective case after the neuter verb be, or after an active-intransitive or a passive verb." — Id. 
"The verb varies its ending in the singular, in order to agree with its nominative, in the first, 
second, and third persons:' 1 — Id. " They are identical in effect with the radical and the vanishing 
stress." — Bush cor. "In a sonnet, the first, the fourth, the fifth, and the eighth line, usually rhyme 
to one an other: so do the second, third, sixth, and seventh lines; the ninth, eleventh, and 
thirteenth lines ; and the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth lines."— Churchill cor. "The iron and 
golden ages are run ; youth and manhood are departed." — Wright cor. " If, as you say, the iron 
and the golden age are past, the youth and the manhood of the world." — Id. " An Exposition of the 
Old and New Testaments." — Henry cor. " The names and order of the books of the Old and tlie 
New Testament." — Bible cor. "In the second and third persons of that tense." — Murray cor. 
" And who still unites in himself the human and the divine nature." — Gurney cor. "Among 
whom arose the Italian, Spanish, French, and English languages." — Murray cor. "Whence 
arise these two numbers, the singular and the plural." — Burn cor. 

Under Note VII. — Correspondent Terms. 

" Neither the definitions nor the examples are entirely the same as his." — Ward cor. " Because 

it makes a discordance between the thought and the expression." — Karnes cor. " Between the 

adjective and the following substantive." — Id. " Thus Athens became both the repository and the 

nursery of learning." — Chazotte cor. " But the French pilfered from both the Greek and the Latin." 



CHAP. II.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — AKTICLES. — RULE I. 935 

■ — Id. "He shows that Christ is both the power and the wisdom of God." — Tlie Friend cor. 
"That he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." — Bible cor. " This is neither the 
obvious nor the grammatical meaning of his words." — Blair cor. " Sometimes both the accusative 
and the infinitive are understood." — Adam and Gould cor. "In some cases, we can use either the 
nominative or the accusative, promiscuously." — lidem. " Both the former and the latter substan- 
tive are sometimes to be understood." — lidem. "Many of which have escaped both the commen- 
tator and the poet himself." — Pope cor. " The verbs must and ought, have both a present and a 
past signification." — L. Murray cor. " How shall we distinguish between the friends and the 
enemies of the government?" — Dr. Webster cor. "Both the ecclesiastical and the secular powers 
concurred in those measures." — Dr. Campbell cor. " As the period has a beginning and an end 
within itself, it implies an inflection." — J. Q. Adams cor. "Such as ought to subsist between a 
principal and an accessory." — Ld. Karnes cor. 

Under Note VIII.— Correspondence Peculiar. 

" "When both the upward and the downward slide occur in the sound of one syllable, they are called 
a Circumflex, or "Wave." — Kirkham cor. " The word that is used both in the nominative and 
in the objective case." — Sanborn cor. "But in all the other moods and tenses, both of the active 
and of the passive voice [the verbs] are conjugated at large." — Murray cor. " Some writers on 
grammar, admitting the second-future tense into the indicative mood, reject it from the subjunctive." 
— Id. " After the same conjunction, to use both the indicative and the subjunctive mood in the 
same sentence, and under the same circumstances, seems to be a great impropriety." — Id. "The 
true distinction between the subjunctive and the indicative mood in this tense." — Id. " I doubt 
of his capacity to teach either the French or the English language." — Ghazotte cor. "It is as 
necessary to make a distinction between the active-transitive and the active-intransitive verb, as 
between the active and the passive." — Nixon cor. 

Under Note IX. — A Series or Terms. 
"As comprehending the terms uttered by the artist, the mechanic, and the husbandman." — 
Ghazotte cor. " They may be divided into four classes ; the Humanists, the Philanthropists, the 
Pestalozzians, and the Productives." — Smith cor. "Verbs have six tenses; the present, the im- 
perfect, the perfect, the pluperfect, the first-future, and the second-future." — Murray et at cor. 
"Is it an irregular neuter verb [from be, was, being, been; found in] the indicative mood, present 
tense, third person, and singular number." — Murray cor. "Should give is an irregular active- 
transitive verb [from give, gave, given, giving ; found] in the potential mood, imperfect tense, first 
person, and* plural number." — Id. " Us is a personal pronoun, of the first person, plural number, 
masculine gender, and objective case." — Id. " Them is a personal pronoun, of the third person, 
plural number, masculine gender, and objective case." — Id. "It is surprising that the Jewish 
critics, with all their skill in dots, points, and accents, never had the ingenuity to invent a point 
of interrogation, a point of admiration, or a parenthesis." — Dr. Wilson cor. "The fifth, sixth, 
seventh, and eighth verses." Or: "The fifth, the sixth, the seventh, and the eighth verse." — 0. B. 
Peirce cor. " Substitutes have three persons; the First, the Second, and the Third." — Id. " John's 
is a proper noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and possessive case : 
and is governed by 'wife,' according to Eule" [4th, which says, &c] — Smith cor. "Nouns, in 
the English language, have three cases ; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective." — Bar. 
and Alex. cor. " The potential mood has four tenses ; viz., the present, the imperfect, the perfect, 
and the pluperfect." — Ingersoll cor. 

" Where Science, Law, and Liberty depend, 

And own the patron, patriot, and friend." — Savage cor. 

Under Note X. — Species and Genus. 
" The pronoun is a part of speech* put for the noun." — PauVs Ac. cor. " The verb is a part of 
speech declined with mood and tense." — Id. " The participle is a part of speech derived from 
the verb." — Id. " The adverb is a part of speech joined to verbs, [participles, adjectives, or other 
adverbs,] to declare their signification." — Id. " The conjunction is a part of speech that joins 
words or sentences together." — Id. " The preposition is a part of speech most commonly set be- 
fore other parts." — ld. " The interjection is a part of speech which betokens .a sudden emotion or 
passion of the mind." — Id. " The enigma, or riddle, is also a species of allegory." — Blair and 
Murray cor. "We may take from the Scriptures a very fine example of the allegory." — lidem. 
"And thus have you exhibited a sort of sketch of art." — Harris cor. " "We may 'imagine a sub- 
tle kind of reasoning,' as Mr. Harris acutely observes." — Churchill cor. "But, before entering 
on these, I shall give one instance of metaphor, very beautiful, ( or, one very beautiful instance of 
metaphor,) that I may show the figure to full advantage." — Blair cor. " Aristotle, in his Poetics, 
uses metaphor in this extended sense , for any figurative meaning imposed upon a word ; as, the 
whole put for a part, or a part for the whole ; a species for the genus, or the genus for a species." 
— Id. "It shows what kind of apple it is of which v^e are speaking." — Kirkham cor. "Cleon 

* Apart of speech is a sort of words, and not one word only. We cannot say, that every pronoun, or every 
verb, is apart of speech, because the parts of speech are only ten. But eve.y pronoun, verb, or other word, is 
a word; and, if we will ref r to this genus, there is no difficulty in denning all the parts of speech in the singu- 
lar, with an or a : as, " A pronoun is a word put for a noun." Murray and others say, " An Adverb is a part 
of speech'" 1 &c, " A Conjunction is apart of speech" &c, wkich is the same as to say, " One adverb is a sort of 
words" &c. This is a palpable absurdity. — G-. Bbown. 



936 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

was an other sort of man." — Goldsmith cor. "To keep off his right wing, as a kind of reserved 
body." — Id. "This part of speech is called the verb." — Mack cor. "What sort of thing is it?" 
— Hiley cor. "What sort of charm do they possess?" — Bullions cor. 

"Dear Welsted, mark, in dirty hole, 
That painful animal, the mole." — Dunciad cor. 

Under Note XI. — Articles not Requisite. 
" Either thou or the boys were in fault." — Gomly cor. "It may, at first view, appear to be too 
general." — Murray et al. cor. " When the verb has reference to future time." — lidem. " No ; 
they are the language of imagination, rather than of passion." — Blair cor. " The dislike of Eng- 
lish Grammar, which has so generally prevailed, can be attributed only to the intricacy of [our] 
syntax." — Russell cor. "Is that ornament in good taste?" — Karnes cor. "There are not many 
fountains in good taste." Or: " Not many fountains are [ornamented] in good taste." — Id. " And 
I persecuted this way unto death." — Bible cor. " The sense of feeling can, indeed, give us a no- 
tion of extension. " — Addison, Sped, No. 411. "The distributive adjectives, each, every, either, 
agree with nouns, pronouns, or verbs, of the singular number only." — Murray cor. " Expressing 
by one word, what might, by a circumlocution, be resolved into two or more words belonging to 
other parts of speech." — Blair cor. " By certain muscles which operate [in harmony, and] all at 
the same time." — Murray cor. " It is sufficient here to have observed thus much in general con- 
cerning them." — Campbell cor. " Nothing disgusts us sooner than empty pomp of language." — 
Murray cor. 

Under Note XII. — Titles and Names. 

"He is entitled to the appellation of gentleman." — G. Brown. "Cromwell assumed the title of 
Protector? — Id. " Her father is honoured with the title of Earl." — Id. "The chief magistrate is 
styled President." — Id. " The highest title in the state is that of Governor." — Id. " That boy is 
known by the name of Idler." — Murray cor. " The one styled Mufti, is the head of the ministers 
of law and religion." — Balbi cor. "Ranging all that possessed them under one class, he called 
that whole class tree." — Blair cor. " For oak, pine, and ash, were names of whole classes of ob- 
jects." — Id. " It is of little importance whether we give to some particular mode of expression 
the name of trope, or of figure." — Id. " The collision of a vowel with itself is the most ungracious 
of all combinations, and has been doomed to peculiar reprobation under the name of hiatus." — 
Adams cor. " We hesitate to determine, whether Tyrant alone is the nominative, or whether the 
nominative includes the word Spy." — Gobbett cor. "Hence originated the customary abbreviation 
of twelve months into twelvemonth ; of seven nights into sennight; of fourteen nights into fortnight." 
— Webster cor. 

Under Note XIII — Comparisons and Alternatives. 

" He is a better writer than reader." — W. Allen. " He was an abler mathematician than linguist." 
— Id. " I should rather have an orange than an apple." — G. Brown. " He was no less able as 
a negotiator, than courageous as a warrior." — Smollett cor. "In an epic poem, we pardon many 
negligences that would not be permitted in a sonnet or an epigram." — Karnes cor. " That figure 
is a sphere, globe, or ball." — ChurchiWs Gram., p. 357. 

Under Note XIV. — Antecedents to Who or Which. 

" The carriages which were formerly in use, were very clumsy." — Key to Inst. " The place is not 
mentioned by the geographers who wrote at that time."— lb. " Those questions which a person puts 
to himself in contemplation, ought to be terminated with points of interrogation." — Mur. et al. cor. 
" The work is designed for the use of those persons who may think it merits a place in their libraries." 
— Mur. cor. "That those who think confusedly, should express themselves obscurely, is not to be 
wondered at." — Id. u Those grammarians who limit the number to two, or three, do, not reflect." 
— Id. " The substantives which end in ian, are those that signify profession." Or: " Those sub- 
stantives which end in ian, are such as signify profession." — Id. " To these may be added those 
verbs which, among the poets, usually govern the dative." — Adam and Gould cor. " The conso- 
nants are those letters which cannot be sounded without the aid of a vowel." — Bucke cor. "To 
employ the curiosity of persons skilled in grammar:" — "of those who are skilled in grammar:" — 
"of persons that are skilled in grammar:" — "of such persons as are skilled in grammar:" or — 
" of those persons who are skilled in grammar." — L. Murray cor. " This rule refers only to those 
nouns and pronouns which have the same bearing, or relation." — Id. " So that the things which 
are seen, were not made of things that do appear." — Bible cor. " Man is an imitative creature ; 
he may utter again the sounds which he has heard." — Dr. Wilson cor. "But those men whose 
business is wholly domestic, have little or no use for any language but their own." — Br. Webster 
cor. 

Under Note XV. — Participial Nouns. 

" Great benefit may be reaped from the reading of histories." — Sewel cor. " And some at- 
tempts were made towards the writing of history." — Bolingbroke cor. "It is an invading of the 
priest's office, for any other to offer it" — Leslie cor. "And thus far of the forming of verbs." — 
W. Walker cor. " And without the shedding of blood there is no remission." — Bible cor. " For 
the making of measures, we have the best method here in England." — Printer's Gram. cor. " This 
is really both an admitting and a den}ung at once." — Butler cor. " And hence the origin of the 
making of parliaments." — Br. Brc/mx cor. " Next thou objectest, that the having of saving light 



CHAP. III.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE II. — NOUNS. 937 

and grace presupposes conversion. But that I deny: for, on the contrary, conversion presupposes 
the having of light and grace." — Barclay cor. " They cried down the wearing of rings and other 
superfluities, as we do." — 7c?. " Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning, of the plait- 
ing of the hair, and of the wearing of gold, or of the putting-on of appareL" — Bible cor. " In the 
spelling of derivative words, the primitives must be kept whole." — Brit. Gram, and Buchanan's cor. 
" And the princes offered for the dedicating of the altar." — Numb. cor. "Boasting is not only a 
telling of lies, but also of many unseemly truths." — Sheffield cor. " "We freely confess that the 
forbearing of prayer in the wicked is sinful." — Barclay cor. " For the revealing of a secret, there 
is no remedy." — G. Brown. "He turned all his thoughts to the composing of laws for the good of 
the State." — RoUin cor. 

Under Note XVI. — Participles, not Nouxs. 
" It is salvation to be kept from falling into a pit, as truly as to be taken out of it after falling 
in." — Barclay cor. " For in receiving and embracing the testimony of truth, they felt their souls 
eased." — 7c?. " True regularity does not consist in having but a single rule, and forcing every 
thing to conform to it." — Phil. Museum cor. " To the man of the world, this sound of glad tidings 
appears only an idle tale, and not worth attending to." — Say cor. "To be the deliverer of the 
captive Jews, by ordering their temple to be rebuilt," &c. — Rollin cor. " And for preserving them 
from being defiled." — Discip. cor. "A wise man will forbear to shoiu any excellence in trifles." — 
Karnes cor. "Hirsutus had no other reason for valuing a book." — Johnson, and Wright, cor. 
" To being heard with satisfaction, it is necessary that the speaker should deliver himself with 
ease." Perhaps better: " To be heard, &c." Or: "In order to be heard. &c." — Sheridan cor. 
" And, to the end of being well heard and clearly understood, a good and distinct articulation con- 
tributes more, than can even the greatest power of voice." — 7c?. 

"Potential purports, having power or will; 
As, If you would improve, you should be still." — Tobitt cor. 

TJkder Note XYII. — Various Errors. 
"For the same reason, a neuter verb cannot become passive." — Lowih cor. U A period is a 
whole sentence complete in itself." — 7c?. " A colon, or member, is a chief constructive part, or the 
greatest division, of a sentence." — 7c?. " A semicolon, or half-member, is a smaller constructive 
part, or a subdivision, of a sentence or of a member. " — 7c?. ' ' A sentence or a member is again 
subdivided into commas, or segments." — 7c?. " The first error that I would mention is, too gen- 
eral an attention to the dead languages, with a neglect of our own tongue.' 1 '' — Webster cor. "One 
third of the importations would supply the demands of the people." — Id. " And especially in a 
grave style.''' — Murray's Gram., i, 178. "By too eager a pursuit, he ran a great risk of being 
disappointed." — Murray cor. " Tlie letters are divided into vowels and consonants." — Mur. et al. 
cor. " The consonants are divided into mutes and semivowels." — lidem. " The first of these 
forms is the most agreeable to the English idiom." — Murray cor. "If they gain, it is at too dear 
a rate." — Barclay cor. "A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun, to prevent too frequent 
a repetition of it." — Maunder cor. "This vulgar error might perhaps arise from too partial a 
fondness for the Latin." — Ash cor. " The groans which too heavy a load extorts from her." — 
Hitchcock cor. " The numbers of a verb are, of course, the singular and the plural." — Bucke cor. 
11 To brook no meanness, and to stoop to no dissimulation, are indications of a great mind." — 
Murray cor. " This mode of expression rather suits the familiar than the grave style." — Id. " This 
use of the word best suits a familiar and low style." — Priestley cor. " According to the nature of 
the composition, the one or the other may be predominant." — Blair cor. " Yet the commonness 
of such sentences prevents in a great measure too early an expectation of the end." — Campbell 
cor. " A eulogy or a philippic may be pronounced by an individual of one nation upon a subject 
of an other." — J. Q. Adams cor. " A French sermon is, for the most part, a warm animated ex- 
hortation." — Blair cor. "I do not envy those who think slavery no very pitiable lot." — Channing 
cor. " The auxiliary and the principal united constitute a tense." — Murray cor. "There are 
some verbs which are defective with respect to the persons." — 7c?. " In youth, habits of industry 
are the most easily acquired." — 7c?. " The apostrophe (' ) is used in place of a letter left out." — 
Bullions cor. 



CHAPTER III.— CASES, or NOUNS. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE II; OF NOMINATIVES. 
" The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." — Bunyan cor. " He will in no wise 
cast out whosoever cometh unto him." Better : "He will in no wise cast out any that come unto 
him." — 77a?? cor. "He feared the enemy might fall upon his men, who, he saw, were off their 
guard." — Hutchinson cor. " Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." — 
Matt., v, 41. " The ideas of the author have been conversant with the faults of other writers." — 
Swift cor. " You are a much greater loser than 7, by his death." Or: " Tliou art a much greater 
loser by his death than 7.'* — Id. "Such peccadilloes pass with him for pious frauds." — Barclay 
cor. " In whom I am nearly concerned, and who, I know, would be very apt to justify my whole 
procedure." — 7c?. " Do not think such a man as 7 contemptible for my garb." — Addison cor. 
" His wealth and he bid adieu to each other." — Priestley cor. " So that, 'He is greater than 7,' 
will be more grammatical than, ' He is greater than me.' "—7c?. " The Jesuits had more interests 



938 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS.— KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

at court than he." — Id. and Smollett cor. "Tell the Cardinal that I understand poetry better than 
he." — lid. " An inhabitant of Crim Tartary was far more happy than he." — lid. " My father and 
he have been very intimate since." — Fair Am. cor. " Who was the agent, and who, the object 
struck or kissed ?" — Mrs. Bethune cor. " To find the person who, he imagined, was concealed 
there." — Kirkham cor. "He offered a great recompense to whosoever would help him." Better: 
" He offered a great recompense to any one who would help him." — Hume and Pr. cor. " They 
would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever (or any one who) might exer- 
cise the right of judgement." — Haynes cor. "They had promised to accept whosoever (or any one 
who) should be born in Wales." — Groker cor. " We sorrow not as they that have no hope." — 
Maturin cor. "If he suffers, he suffers as they that have no hope." — Id. " We acknowledge that 
he, and he only, hath been our peacemaker." — Gratton cor. " And what can be better than he 
that made it?" — Jenks cor. " None of his school-fellows is more beloved than Tie." — Cooper cor. 
" Solomon, who was wiser than they all." — Watson cor. "Those who the Jews thought were the 
last to be saved, first entered the kingdom of God." — Tract cor. " A stone is heavy, and the sand 
weighty ; but a fool's wrath i3 heavier than both." — Bible cor. " A man of business, in good com- 
pany, is hardly more insupportable, than she whom they call a notable woman." — Steele cor. " The 
king of the Sarmatians, who we may imagine was no small prince, restored to him a hundred 
thousand Roman prisoners." — Life of Anton, cor. " Such notions would be avowed at this time 
by none but rosicrucians, and fanatics as mad as they." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 203. "Unless, as 
I said, Messieurs, you are the masters, and not I." — Hall cor. " We had drawn up against peace- 
able travellers, who must have been as glad as we to escape " — Barnes cor. " Stimulated, in turn, 
by their approbation and that of better judges than they, she turned to their literature with re- 
doubled energy." — Quarterly Rev. cor. " I know not who else are expected." — Scott cor. "He i8 
great, but truth is greater than we all." Or: "He is great, but truth is greater than any of us." 
— H. Mann cor. " He I accuse has entered." Or, by ellipsis of the antecedent, thus: " Whom I 
accuse has entered." — Fowler cor. ; also Shakspeare. 

" Scotland and thou did each in other live." — Dryden cor. 

" We are alone ; here's none but thou and I." — Shak. cor. 

"/rather would, my heart might feel your love, 
Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy." — Shak. cor. 

" Tell me, in sadness, who is she you love?" — Shak. cor. 

"Better leave undone, than by our deeds acquire 
Too high a fame, when he we serve 's away." — Shak. cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE III ; OF APPOSITION. 

"Now, therefore, come thou, let us make a covenant, thee and me." — Bible cor. "Now, there- 
fore, come thou, we will make a covenant, thou and I." — Variation corrected. " The word came 
not to Esau, the hunter, that stayed not at home ; but to Jacob, the plain man, him that dwelt 
in tents." — Penn cor. "Not to every man, but to the man of God, (i. e.,) him that is led by the 
spirit of God." — Barclay cor. " For, admitting God to be a creditor, or him to whom the debt 
should be paid, and Christ him that satisfies or pays it on behalf of man the debtor, this question 
will arise, whether he paid that debt as God, or man, or both?" — Penn cor. "This Lord Jesus 
Christ, the heavenly Man, the Emmanuel, God with us, we own and believe in : him whom the 
high priests raged against," &c. — Fox cor. " Christ, and He crucified, was the Alpha and Omega 
of all his addresses, the fountain and foundation of his hope and trust." — Exp. cor. "Christ, and 
He crucified, is the head, and the only head, of the church." — Benison cor. "But if Christ, and 
He crucified, is the burden of the ministry, such disastrous results are all avoided." — Id. " He 
never let fall the least intimation, that himself, or any other person whosoever, was the object of 
worship." — View cor. "Let the elders that rule well, be counted worthy of double honour, es- 
pecially them who labour in the word and doctrine " — Bible cor. '" Our Shepherd, he who is styled 
King of saints, will assuredly give his saints the victory." — Sermon cor. "It may seem odd, to 
talk of us subscribers." — Fowle cor. " And they shall have none to bury them: they, their wives, 
nor their sons, nor* their daughters; for I will pour their wickedness upon them." — Bible cor. 
" Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, 
and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and him that ministered to my wants." — Bible cor. 
" Amidst the tumult of the routed train, 

The sons of false Antimachus were slain ; 

Him who for bribes his faithless counsels sold, 

And voted Helen's stay for Paris' gold." — Pope cor. 
" See the vile King his iron sceptre bear — 

His only praise attends the pious heir ; 

Him in whose soul the virtues all conspire, 

The best good son, from the worst wicked sire." — Lowth cor. 
" Then from thy lips poured forth a joyful song 

To thy Redeemer ! — yea, it poured along 

In most melodious energy of praise, 

To God, the Saviour, him of ancient days." — Arm Chair cor. 

* The propriety of this conjunction, '■'■nor''' is somewhat questionable: the reading in both the Vulgate and 
the Septuagint is — " they, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters." 



CHAP. III.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE IV. — POSSESSIVES. 939 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE IY; OF POSSESSIVES. 
Under Note I. — The Possessive Form. 
"Man's chief good is an upright mind." — Key to Inst. " The translator of Mallets History has the 
following note." — Webster cor. " The act, while it gave five years' full pay to the officers, allowed 
but one year's pay to the privates." — Id. " For the study of English is preceded by several years' 
attention to Latin and Greek." — Id. " The first, the Court-Baron, is the freeholders' or freemen's 
court." — Coke cor. " I affirm that Vaugelas's definition labours under an essential defect." — Camp- 
bell cor. ; and also Murray. " There is a chorus in Aristophanes' s plays." — Blair cor. " It denotes 
the same perception in my mind as in theirs." — Duncan cor. " This afterwards enabled him to read 
Hickes's Saxon Grammar." — Life of Dr. Mur. cor. " I will not do it for ten's sake." — Ash cor. Or : 
" I will not destroy it for ten's sake." — Gen., xviii, 32. "I arose, and asked if those charming infants 
were hers." — Werter cor. " They divide their time between milliners' shops and the taverns." — Dr. 
Brown cor. " The angels' adoring of Adam is also mentioned in the Talmud." — Sale cor. " Quar- 
rels arose from the winners' insulting of those who lost." — Id. " The vacancy occasioned by Mr. 
Adams's resignation." — Adv. to Adams's Rhet. cor. "Read, for instance, Junius's address, com- 
monly called his Letter to the King." — Adams cor. " A perpetual struggle against the tide of 
Hortensius's influence." — Id. "Which, for distinction's sake, I shall put down severally." — R. 
Johnson cor. " The fifth case is in a clause signifying the matter of one's fear." — Id. " And they 
took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field." — Alger cor. " Arise for thy servants' help, 
and redeem them for thy mercy's sake." — Jenks cor. " Shall not their cattle, their substance, and 
every beast of theirs, be ours?" — Com. Bible: Gen., xxxiv, 23. " Its regular plural, bullaces, is 
used by Bacon." — Churchill cor. " Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's 
house." — Scott cor. "Behold, they that wear soft clothing, are in kings' houses." — Alger's Bible. 
" Then Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses's wife, and her two sons : and Jethro, 
Moses's father-in-law, came, with his sons and his wife, unto Moses." — Scott's Bible. " King 
James's translators merely revised former translations." — Frazee cor. " May they be like corn on 
houses' tops." — White cor. 

"And for his Maker's image' sake exempt." — Milton cor. 

" By all the fame acquired in ten years' war." — Rowe cor. 

" Nor glad vile poets with true critics' gore." — Pope cor. 

" Man only of a softer mold is made, 
Not for his fellows' ruin, but their aid." — Dryden cor. 

Under Note II. — Possessives Connected. 
"It was necessary to have both the physician's and the surgeon's advice." — L. Murray's False 
Syntax, Rule 10. " This outside fashionableness of the tailor's or the tirewoman's making." — Locke 
cor. " Some pretending to be of Paul's party, others of Apollos's, others of Cephas's, and others, 
(pretending yet higher,) to be of Christ's." — Wood cor. "Nor is it less certain, that Spenser and 
Milton's spelling agrees better with our pronunciation." — Phil. Museum cor. " Law's, Edwards's, 
and Watts's Survey of the Divine Dispensations." Or thus: " Law, Edwards, and Watts' s, Sur- 
veys of the Divine Dispensations." — Burgh cor. " And who was Enoch's Saviour, and the 
prophets' V — Bayly cor. " Without any impediment but his own, his parents', or his guardian's 
will" — Journal corrected. " James relieves neither the boy's nor the girl's distress." — Nixon cor. 
" John regards neither the master's nor the pupil's advantage." — Id. " You reward neither the 
man's nor the woman's labours." — Id. "She examines neither James's nor John's conduct." — 
Id. " Thou pitiest neither the servant's nor the master's injuries." — Id. " We promote England's 
or Ireland's happiness." — Id. "Were Cain's and Abel's occupation the same?" — G. Brown. 
" Were Cain and Abel's occupations the same ?" — Id. " What was Simon and Andrew's employ- 
ment?" — Id. "Till he can read for himself Sanctius's Minerva with Scioppius's and Perizonius's 
Notes." — Locke cor. 

" And love and friendship's finely-pointed dart 
Falls blunted from each indurated heart." Or: — 

" And love's and friendship's finely-pointed dart 
Fall blunted from each indurated heart." — Goldsmith cor. 

Under Note III. — Choice op Forms. 
" But some degree of trouble is the portion of all men." — L. Murray et al. cor. " With the names 
of his father and mother upon the blank leaf — Abbott cor. " The general, in the name of the army, 
published a declaration." — Hume cor. " The vote of the Commons." — Id. " The House of Lords." 
— Id. "A collection of the faults of writers ;" — or, "A collection of literary faults." — Swift cor. 
" After ten years of wars." — Id. "Professing his detestation of such practices as those o/his pre- 
decessors." — Pope cor. " By that time I shall have ended my year of office." — W. Walker cor. 
"For the sake of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip." — Bible and Mur. cor. "I endure all 
things for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain salvation." — Bibles cor. " He was heir to the 
son of Louis the Sixteenth." — W. Allen. " The throne we honour is the people's choice." — Rolla. 
" An account of the proceedings of Alexander's court." — Inst. " An excellent tutor for the child of 
a person of fashion ! " — Gil Bias cor. " It is curious enough, that this sentence of the Bishop's is, 
itself, ungrammatical.'' — Cobbett cor. " The troops broke into the palace o/the Emperor Leopold." 
— Nixon cor. " The meeting was called by desire of Eldon the Judge." — Id. " The occupation 



940 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

of Peter, John, and Andrew, was that of fishermen." — Murray's Key, R. 10. " The debility o/the 
venerable president of the Royal Academy, has lately increased." — Maunder cor. 

Under Note IV. — Nouns with Possessives Plural. 
"God hath not given us our reason to no purpose." — Barclay cor. " For our sake, no doubt, 
this is written." — Bible cor. " Are not health and strength of body desirable for their own sake?" 
— Harris and Murray cor. " Some sailors who were boiling their dinner upon the shore." — Bay 
cor. " And they, in their turn, were subdued by others." — Pinnock cor. " Industry on our part 
is not superseded by God's grace." — Arrowsmith cor. " Their health perhaps may be pretty well 
secured." — Locke cor. " Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor." — See 2 Cor., viii, 
9. " It were to be wished, his correctors had been as wise on their part. 11 — Harris cor. " The 
Arabs are commended by the ancients for being most exact to their word, and respctful to their 
kindred." — Sale cor. "That is, as a reward of some exertion on our party — Gurney cor. " So that 
it went ill with Moses for their sake." — Ps. cor. " All liars shall have their part in the burning lake." 
— Watts cor. " For our own sake as well as for thine." — Pre/, to Waller cor. " By discovering 
their ability to detect and amend errors." — L. Murray cor. 

" This world I do renounce ; and, in your sight, 

Shake patiently my great affliction off." — Shak. cor. 
" If your relenting anger yield to treat, 
Pompey and thou, in safety, here may meet." — Rowe cor. 

Under Note V. — Possessives with Participles. 
" This will encourage him to proceed without acquiring the prejudice." — Smith cor. " And the 
notice which they give of an action as being completed or not completed." — L. Mur. et al. cor. 
"Some obstacle, or impediment, that prevents it from taking place." — Priestley and A. Mur. cor. 
" They have apostolical authority for so frequently urging the seeking of the Spirit." — The Friend 
cor. " Here then is a wide field for reason to exert its powers in relation to the objects of taste." — 
Br. Blair cor. " Now this they derive altogether from their greater capacity of imitation and de- 
scription." — Id. " This is one clear reason why they paid a greater attention to that construc- 
tion." — Id. " The dialogue part had also a modulation of its own, which was capable of being 
set to notes." — Id. " Why are we so often frigid and unpersuasive in public discourse ?" — Id. 
" Which is only a preparation for leading his forces directly upon us." — Id. " The nonsense 
about which, as relating to things only, and having no declension, needs no refutation." — Fowle 
cor. " Who, upon breaking it open, found nothing but the following inscription." — Rollin cor. 
" A prince will quickly have reason to repent of having exalted one person so high." — Id. " Not- 
withstanding it is the immediate subject of his discourse." — Churchill cor. " With our definition 
of it, as being synonymous with time." — Booth cor. " It will considerably increase our danger of 
being deceived." — Campbell cor. "His beauties can never be mentioned without suggesting his 
blemishes also." — Br. Blair cor. " No example has ever been adduced, of a man conscientiously 
approving an action, because of its badness." Or: — " of a man who conscientiously approved of 
an action because of its badness." — Gurney cor. " The last episode, of the angel showing to 
Adam the fate of his posterity, is happily imagined." — Br. Blair cor. " And the news came to my 
son, that he and the bride were in Dublin." — M. Edgeworth cor. " There is no room for the mind 
to exert any great effort." — Br. Blair cor. " One would imagine, that these critics never so much 
as heard that Homer wrote first." — Pope cor. " Condemn the book, for not being a geography:" 
or, — " because it is not a geography." — Peirce cor. " There will be in many words a transition 
from being the figurative to being the proper signs of certain ideas." — Campbell cor. "The 
doctrine that the Pope is the only source of ecclesiastical power." — Pel. World cor. " This was the 
tnore expedient, because the work was designed for the benefit of private learners." — L. Murray 
cor. " This was done, because the Grammar, being already in type, did not admit of enlargement." 
— Id. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE V; OF OBJECTIVES. 

Under the Rule itself.— The Objective Form. 
" Whom should I meet the other day but my old friend !" — Sped. cor. "Let not him boast 
ttiat puts on his armour, but him that takes it off." — Barclay cor. " Let none touch it, but them 
Who are clean." — Sale cor. "Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and them 
ihat dwell therein." — Ps. cor. " Pray be private, and careful whom you trust." — Mrs. Goffe cor. 
" How shall the people know whom to entrust with their property and their liberties ?" — J. 0. 
Taylor cor. "The chaplain entreated my comrade and me to dress as well as possible." — World 
cor. " And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." — John, vi, 37. " Whom, during 
this preparation, they constantly and solemnly invoke." — Hope of Is. cor. " Whoever or what- 
ever owes us, is Debtor; and vjhomever or whatever we owe, is Creditor." — Marsh cor. "De- 
claring the curricle was his, and he should have in it whom he chose." — A. Ross cor. " The 
fact is, Burke is the only one of all the host of brilliant contemporaries, whom we can rank as a 
first-rate orator."— Knickerb. cor. " Thus you see, how naturally the Fribbles and the Daffodils 
have produced the Messalinas of our time." — Br. Brown cor. " They would find in the Roman 
list both the Scipios." — Id. "He found his wife's clothes on fire, and her just expiring." — Ob- 
server cor. "To present you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovdble in his sight." — Colossians, i, 
22. "Let the distributer do his duty with simplicity; the superintendent, with diligence; him 



CHAP. III.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE V. — OBJECTIVES. 941 

who performs offices of compassion, with cheerfulness." — Stuart cor. " If the crew rail at the 
master of the vessel, whom will they mind?" — Collier cor. "He having none but them, they 
having none hut him." — Drayton cor. 

" Thee, Nature, partial Nature, I arraign ; 

Of thy caprice maternal I complain." — Burns cor. 
"Nor weens he who it is, whose charms consume 
His longing soul, but loves he knows not whom." — Addison cor. 

Under Note I. — Of Verbs Transitive. 
"When it gives that sense, and also connects sentences, it is a conjunction." — L. Murray cor. 
" Though thou wilt not acknowledge thyself to be guilty, thou canst not deny the fact stated." — 
Id. " They specify some object, like many other adjectives, and also connect sentences." — Kirk- 
ham cor. "A violation of this rule tends so much to perplex the reader and obscure the sense, that 
it is safer to err by using too many short sentences." — L. Murray cor. "A few exercises are sub- 
joined to each important definition, for him [the pupil] to practise upon as he proceeds in com- 
mitting the grammar to memory." — Nutting cor. "A verb signifying an action directly transitive, 
governs the accusative." — Adam et al. cor. "Or, any word that can be conjugated, is a verb." — 
Kirkham cor. "In these two concluding sentences, the author, hastening to a close, appears to 
write rather carelessly." — Dr. Blair cor. " He simply reasons on one side of the question, and 
then leaves it." — Id. " Praise to God teaches us to be humble and lowly ourselves." — Atterbury 
cor. " This author has endeavoured to surpass his rivals." — R. W. Green cor. " Idleness and pleas- 
ure fatigue a man as soon as business." — Webster cor. "And, in conjugating any verb" — or, "And 
in learning conjugations, you must pay particular attention to the manner in which these signs 
are applied." — Kirkham cor. " He said Virginia would have emancipated her slaves long ago." — 
Lib. cor. "And having a readiness"— or, "And holding ourselves in readiness" — or, "And being in 
readiness — to revenge all disobedience." — Bible cor. "However, in these cases, custom generally 
determines what is right." — Wright cor. "In proof, let the following cases be taken." — Id. "We 
must marvel that he should so speedily have forgotten his first principles." — Id. " How should 
we wonder at the expression, 'This is a soft question!' " — Id. "And such as prefer this course, 
can parse it as a possessive adjective." — Goodenovj cor. "To assign all the reasons that induced 
the author to deviate from other grammarians, would lead to a needless prolixity." — Alexander cor. 
"The Indicative Mood simply indicates or declares a thing." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 63. 

Under Note II. — Of Verbs Intransitive. 
" In his seventh chapter he expatiates at great length." — Barclay cor. " He quarrels with me 
for adducing some ancient testimonies agreeing with what I say." — Id. " Eepenting of his de- 
sign." — Hume cor. " Henry knew, that an excommunication could not fail to produce the most 
dangerous effects." — Id. " The popular lords did not fail to enlarge on the subject." — Mrs. Ma- 
caulay cor. "He is always master of his subject, and seems to play with it:" or, — "seems to 
sport himself with it." — Blair cor. " But as soon as it amounts to real disease, all his secret infirm- 
ities show themselves." — Id. " No man repented of his wickedness." — Bible cor. " Go one way 
or other, either on the right hand, or on the left." — Id. "He lies down by the river's edge." 
Or: " He lays himself down on the river's brink." — W. Walker cor. "Por some years past, I have 
had an ardent wish to retire to some of our American plantations." — Cowley cor. " I fear thou 
wilt shrink from the payment of it." — Ware cor. "We never retain an idea, without acquiring 
some combination." — Rippingham cor. 

" Vet more ; the stroke of death he must abide, 
Then lies he meekly down, fast by his brethren's side." — Milton cor. 

Under Note III. — Of Verbs Misapplied. 
" The parliament confiscated the property of all those who had borne arms against the king." — 
Hume cor. " The practice of confiscating ships that had been wrecked." — Id. " The nearer his 
military successes brought him to the throne." Or: "The nearer, through his military successes, 
he approached the throne." — Id. "In the next example, '■you' represents 'ladies? therefore it is 
plural." — Kirkham cor. "The first 'its' stands for 'vale;' the second 'its' represents 'stream.'" 
— Id. " Pronouns do not always prevent the repetition of nouns." — Id. " Very is an adverb of de- 
gree ; it relates to the adjective good." — Id. "You will please to commit to memory the following 
paragraph." — Id. " Even the Greek and Latin passive verbs form some of their tenses by means 
of auxiliaries." — L. Mur. cor. " The deponent verbs in Latin also employ auxiliaries to/orra sev- 
eral of their tenses." — Id. " I have no doubt he made as wise and true proverbs, as any body has 
made since." — Id. "Monotonous delivery assumes as many set forms, as ever Proteus did of fleet- 
ing shapes." — Kirkham cor. "When words in apposition are uttered in quick succession." — Nix- 
on cor. "Where many such sentences occur in succession." — L. Mur. cor. "Wisdom leads us to 
speak and do what is most proper." — Blair and L. Murray cor. 

" Jul. Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague ? 
Rom. Neither, fair saint, if either thee displease." Or : — 

"Neither, fair saint, if either thou dislike." — Shak. cor. 

Under Note IV. — Of Passive Verbs. 
" To us, too, must be allowed the privilege of forming our own laws." Or: " We too must 



942 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

have the privilege," &c. — L. Murray cor. "For not only is the use of all the ancient poetic feet 
allowed [to] us, " &c. — Id. ei al. cor. " By what code of morals is the right or privilege denied me V — 
Bartlett cor. " To the children of Israel alone, has the possession of it been denied." — Keith cor. 
" At York, all quarter was refused to fifteen hundred Jews." — Id. " He would teach the French 
language in three lessons, provided there were paid him fifty-five dollars in advance." — Prof. 
Chazotte cor. " And when it was demanded of him by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God 
should come." Or: "And whence Pharisees demanded of him," &c. — Bible cor. " A book has been 
shown me." — Dr. Campbell cor. " To John Home Tooke admission was refused, only because he had 
been in holy orders." — W. Buane cor. "Mr. Home Tooke having taken orders, admission to the bar 
was refused him. ' ' — Churchill cor. ' ' Its reference to place is disregarded. " — Dr. Bullions cor. ' ' What 
striking lesson is taught by the tenor of this history?" — Bush cor. "No less a sum than eighty 
thousand pounds had been left him by a friend." — Dr. Priestley cor. " Where there are many 
things to be done, there must be allowed to each its share of time and labour." — Dr. Johnson cor. 
" Presenting the subject in a far more practical form, than has heretofore been given it." — Kirkham 
cor. " If to a being of entire impartiality should be shown the two companies." — Dr. Scott 
cor. "The command of the British army was offered to him." — Grimshaw cor. " To whom a 
considerable sum had been unexpectedly left." — Johnson cor. " Whether such a privilege may 
be granted to a maid or a widow." — Sped. cor. " Happily, to all these affected terms, the public 
suffrage has been denied." — Campbell cor. "Let the parsing table next be shown him,." — Nutting 
cor. " Then the use of the analyzing table may be explained to him." — Id. " To Pittacus there 
was offered a great sum of money." — Sanborn cor. "More time for study had been allowed 
him." — Id. " If a little care were bestowed on the walks that lie between them." — Blaifs Bhet., p. 
222. " Suppose an office or a bribe be offered me." — Pierpont cor. 
"Is then one chaste, one last embrace denied? 
Shall I not lay me by his clay-cold side ?" — Rowe cor. 

Under Note V. — Of Passive Verbs Transitive. 

" The preposition to is used before nouns of place, when they follow verbs or participles of mo- 
tion." — Murray et al. cor. " They were not allowed to enter the house." — Mur. cor. " Their sepa- 
rate signification has been overlooked." — Tooke cor. "But, whenever ye is used, it must be in the 
nominative case, and not in the objective." — Cobbett cor. " It is said, that more persons than one 
receive handsome salaries, to see that acts of parliament are properly worded." — Churchill cor. 
" The following Rudiments of English Grammar have been used in the University of Pennsylva- 
nia." — Dr. Rogers cor. " It never should he forgotten." — Newman cor. "A very curious fact has 
teen noticed by those expert metaphysicians." — Campbell cor. "The archbishop interfered, that 
Michelet's lectures might be stopped." — The Friend cor. " The disturbances in Gottengen have 
been entirely quelled." — Daily Adv. cor. "Besides those which are noticed in these exceptions." 
— Priestley cor. "As one, two, or three auxiliary verbs are employed." — Id. " The arguments which 
have been used." — Addison cor. "The circumstance is properly noticed by the author." — Blair 
cor. "Patagonia has never been taken into possession by any European nation." — Gumming cor. 
" He will be censured no more." — Walker cor. " The thing was to be terminated somehow." — 
Sunt cor. "In 1798, the Papal Territory was seized by the French." — Pinnock cor. " The idea 
has not for a moment escaped the attention of the Board." — C. S. Journal cor. "I shall easily be 
excused from the labour of more transcription." — Johnson cor. "If I may be allowed to use that 
expression." — Campbell cor. " If without offence I may make the observation." — Id. " There are 
other characters, which are frequently used in composition." — Mur. et al. cor. "Such unaccount- 
able infirmities might be overcome, in many cases, and perhaps in most." — Beattie cor. " Which 
ought never to be employed, or resorted to." — Id. " That care may be taken of the widows." Or: 
"That the widows may be provided for." — Barclay cor. " Other cavils will yet be noticed." — Pope 
cor. "Which implies, that to all Christians is eternal salvation offered." — West cor. "Yet even 
the dogs are allowed to eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table." — Campbell cor. " For 
we say, the light within must be heeded." — Barclay cor. "This sound of a is noticed in Steele's 
Grammar." — J. Walker cor. "One came to receive ten guineas for a pair of silver buckles." — 
M. Edgeworth cor. " Let therefore the application of the several questions in the table be care- 
fully shown [to] him." — Nutting cor. "Alter a few times, it is no longer noticed by the hearers." — 
Sheridan cor. " It will not admit of the same excuse, nor receive the same indulgence, from peo- 
ple of any discernment." — Id. " Of inanimate things, property may be made." Or: "Inani- 
mate things may be made property ;" i. e., " may become property." — Beattie cor. 
" And, when some rival bids a higher price, 
Will not be sluggish in the work, or nice." — Butler cor. 

Under Note VI. — Of Perfect Participles. 
" All the words employed to denote spiritual or intellectual things, are in their origin metaphors." 
— Dr. Campbell cor. "A -reply to an argument commonly brought forward by unbelievers." — Dr. 
Blair cor. "It was once the only form used in the past tenses." — Dr. Ash cor. "Of the points 
and other characters used in writing." — Id. "If thy be the personal pronoun adopted." — 
Walker cor. " The Conjunction is a word used to connect [words or] sentences." — Burn cor. 
"The points which answer these purposes, are the four following." — Harrison cor. "Incense 
signifies perfume exhaled by fire, and used in religious ceremonies." — L. Mur. cor. " In most of 
his orations, there is too much art ; he carries it even to ostentation." — Blair cor. " To illustrate 



CHAP. III.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE VI. — SAME CASES. 943 

the great truth, so often overlooked in our times." — G. S. Journal cor. "The principal figures cal- 
culated to affect the heart, are Exclamation, Confession, Deprecation, Commination, and Impre- 
cation." — Formey cor. " Disgusted at the odious artifices employed by the judge." — Junius cor. 
" All the reasons for which there was allotted to us a, condition out of which so much wickedness 
and misery would in fact arise." — Bp. Butler cor. " Some characteristical circumstance being 
generally invented or seized upon.'' 1 — Ld. Karnes cor. 

" And by is likewise used with names that shew 
The method or the means of what we do." — Ward cor. 

Under Note VII. — Of Constructions Ambiguous. 
" Many adverbs admit of degrees of comparison, as do adjectives." — Puesiley cor. " But the 
author who, by the number and reputation of his works, did more than any one else, to bring our 
language into its present state, was Dryden." — Blair cor. " In some states, courts of admiralty 
have no juries, nor do courts of chancery employ any at all." — Webster cor. "I feel grateful to 
my friend." — Murray cor. " This requires a writer to have in his own mind a very clear appre- 
hension of the object which he means to present to us." — Blair cor. "Sense has its own har- 
mony, which naturally contributes something to the harmony of sound." — Id. " The apostrophe 
denotes the omission of an i, which was formerly inserted, and which gave to the word an additional 
syllable." — Priestley cor. " There are few to whom I can refer with more advantage than to Mr. 
Addison." — Blair cor. " Death, (in theology,) is a perpetual separation from God, a stale of eter- 
nal torments." — Webster cor. " That could inform the traveller as well as could the old man him- 
self I" — 0. B. Peirce cor. ' 

Under Note VIII. — Op YE and YOU in Scripture. 
"Ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth." — Scott, Friends, and the Comprehen- 
sive Bible: Jer., xlix, 3. "Wash you, make you clean." — Scott, Alger, Friends, et al. : 
Isaiah, i, 16. "Strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins." — Scott, 
Friends, et al. : Isaiah, xxxii, 11. " Ye are not ashamed that ye make j^ourselves strange to 
me." — Scott, Bruce, and Blayney: Job, xix, 3. "If ye knew the gift of God." Or: "If thou 
knew the gift of God." — See John, iv, 10. " Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity ; I know you 
not." — Penington cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE VI; OF SAME CASES. 
Under the Rule itself. — Of Proper Identity. 
""Who would not say, ' If it be I, 1 rather than, 'If it be mef " — Priestley cor. " Who is there? 
It is Z" — Id. " It is he."*-Id. "Are these the houses you were speaking of? Yes; they are 
the same." — Id. "It is not I, that you are in love with." — Addison cor. "It cannot be /." — 
Swift cor. " To that which once was thou." — Prior cor. " There is but one man that she can have, 
and that man is myself." — Priestley cor. "We enter, as it were, into his body, and become in 
some measure he." Or, better: — "and become in. some measure identified with him." — A. 
Smith and Priestley cor. " Art thou proud yet ? Ay, that I am not thou." — Shak. cor. " He*knew 
not who they were." — Milnes cor. "Whom do you think me to be?" — Br. LowthJs Gram., p. 
11. " Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" — Bible cor. "But who say ye that I 
am?" — Id. " Who think ye that I am? I am not he." — Id. "No; I am in error; I per- 
ceive it is not the person that I supposed it was." — Winter in London cor. " And while it is 
He that I serve, life is not without value." — Ware cor. "Without ever dreaming it was he." — 
Charles XII cor. " Or he was not the illiterate personage that he affected to be." — Montgom. cor. 
"Yet was he the man who was to be the greatest apostle of the Gentiles." — Barclay cor. 
" Sweet was the thrilling ecstacy ; , I know not if 'twas love, or thou." — J. Hogg cor. " Time was, 
when none would cry, that oaf was I." — Dryden cor. "No matter where the vanquished be, or 
who." — Rowe cor. " No ; I little thought it had been he." — Gratton cor. "That reverence, that 
godly fear, which is ever due to ' Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell' " — Maturin cor. 
" It is we that they seek to please, or rather to astonish." — J. West cor. " Let the same be her 
that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac." — Bible cor. " Although I knew it to be him." — 
Bickens cor. " Dear gentle youth, is 't none but thou?" — Dorset cor. " Who do they say it is?',' 
— Fowler cor. 

" These are her garb, not she ; they but express 
Her form, her semblance, her appropriate dress." — More cor. 

Under Note I. — Of the Case Doubtful. 
"I had no knowledge of any connexion between them." — Got. Stone cor. " To promote iniquity 
in others, is nearly the same thing, as to be the actors of it ourselves." (That is, " For us to pro- 
mote iniquity in others, is nearly the same thing as for us to be the actors of it ourselves.") — Mur- 
ray cor. " It must arise from a delicate feeling in ourselves." — Blair and Murray cor. " Because 
there has not been exercised a competent physical power for their enforcement." — Mass. Legist, cor. 
" Pupilage, n. The state of a pupil, or scholar." — Dictionaries cor. " Then the other part, being 
the definition, would include all verbs, of every description." — Peirce cor. "John's friendship for 
me saved me from inconvenience." — Id. " William's judgeship " — or, "William's appointment to 
the office of judge, — changed his whole demeanour." — Id. "William's practical acquaintance 
with teaching, was the cause of the interest ho felt." — Id. "To be but one among many, stifleth 



944 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

the chidings of conscience." — Tupper cor. "As for the opinion that it is a close translation, I doubt 
not that many have been led into that error by the shortness of it." — Pope cor. "All presumption 
that death is the destruction of living beings, must go upon the supposition that they are com- 
pounded, and therefore discerptible." — Bp. Butler cor. " This argues rather that they are proper 
names." — Churchill cor. " But may it not be retorted, that this gratification itself, is that which 
excites our resentment?" — Campbell cor. " Under the common notion, that it is a system of the 
whole poetical art." — Blair cor. " Whose want of time, or whose other circumstances, forbid them 
to become classical scholars " — Lit. Jour. cor. " It would prove him not to have been a mere ficti- 
tious personage." Or : " It would preclude the notion that he was merely a fictitious personage." 
— Phil. Mu. cor. "For heresy, or under pretence that they are heretics or infidels." — Oath cor. 
" We may here add Dr. Home's sermon on Christ, as being the Object of religious adoration." — 
Rel. World cor. "To say nothing of Dr. Priestley, as being a strenuous advocate," &c. — Id. 
" Through the agency of Adam, as being their public head." Or: "Because Adam was their public 
head." — Id. " Objections against the existence of any such moral plan as this." — Butler cor. " A 
greater instance of a man being a blockhead." — Sped. cor. " We may insure or promote what will 
make it a happy state of existence to ourselves." — Gurney cor. " Since it often undergoes the same 
kind of unnatural treatment." — Kirkham cor. " Their apparent foolishness " — " Their appearance 
of foolishness " — or, " That they appear foolishness, — is no presumption against this." — Butler cor. 
" But what arises from them as being offences ; i. e., from their liability to be perverted." — Id. 
"And he went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one that worshiped God." — Acts cor. 

Under Note II. — Op False Identification. 
" But popular, he observes, is an ambiguous word." — Blair cor. " The infinitive mood, a phrase, 
or a sentence, is often made the subject of a verb." — Murray cor. "When any person, in speaking, 
introduces his name after the pronoun I, it is of the first person; as, ' I, James, of the city of Bos- 
ton.'" — R. C. Smith cor. "The name of the person spoken to, is of the second person; as, 
1 James, como to me.' " — Id. " The name of the person or thing merely spoken of, or about, is of 
the third person ; as, ' James has come.' " — Id. " The passive verb has no object, because its sub- 
ject or nominative always represents what is acted upon, and the object of a verb must needs be in 
the objective case." — Id. " When a noun is in the nominative to an active verb, it denotes the 
actor." — Kirkham cor. " And the pronoun thou or ye, standing for the name of the person or per- 
sons commanded, is its nominative." — Ingersoll cor. " The first person is that which denotes the 
speaker." — Brown's Institutes, p. 32. " The conjugation of a verb is a regular arrangement of 'its 
different variations or inflections throughout the moods and tenses." — Wright cor. "The first 
person is that which denotes the speaker or writer." — G. Brown: for the correction of Parker and 
Fox, Riley, and Sanborn. "The second person is that which denotes Jhe hearer, or the person ad- 
dressed." — Id. : for the same. "The third person is that which denotes the person or thing merely 
spoken of." — Id. : for the same, "/is of the first person, singular; We, of the first person, plu- 
ral." — Mur. et al. cor. " Thou is of the second person, singular ; Ye or You, of the second per- 
son, plural." — lid. "He, She, or It, is of the third person, singular; They, of the third person, 
plural." — lid. " The nominative case denotes the actor, and is the subject of the verb." — Kirkham 
cor. " John is the actor, therefore the noun John is in the nominative case." — Id. " The actor is 
always expressed by the nominative case, unless the verb be passive." — R. C. Smith cor. " The nomina- 
tive case does not always denote an agent or actor." — Mack cor. " In mentioning each name, tell 
the part of speech." — John Flint cor. " Of what number is boy ? Why ?" — Id. " Of what number 
is pens? Why?" — Id. " The speaker is denoted by the first person; the person spoken to is de- 
noted by the second person ; and the person or thing spoken of is denoted by the third person." — Id. 
" What nouns are of the masculine gender? The names o/all males are of the masculine gender." 
— Id. "An interjection is a word that is uttered merely to indicate some strong or sudden emotion 
of the mind." — G. Brown's Grammars. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE VII; OF OBJECTIVES. 
Under the Rule itself. — Of the Objective in Form. 
" But I do not remember whom they were for." — Abbott cor. " But if you can't help it, whom 
do you complain of?" — Collier cor. " Whom was it from? and what was it about?" — M. Edge- 
worth cor. " I have plenty of victuals, and, between you and me, something in a corner." — Day 
cor. " The upper one, whom I am now about to speak of." — Leigh Hunt cor. " And to poor us, 
thy enmity is most capital." — Shak. cor. "Which, thou dost confess, 'twere fit for thee to use, as 
them to claim." That is, — " as for them to claim." — Id. " To beg of thee, it is my more dis- 
honour, than thee of them." That is, — " than for thee to beg of them." — Id. " There are still a 
few, who, like thee and me, drink nothing but water." — Gil Bias cor. "Thus, 'I shall fall,' — 
'Thou shalt love thy neighbour,' — ' He shall be rewarded,' — express no resolution on the part of 
me, thee, or him." Or better: — " on the part of the persons signified by the nominatives, I, Thou, 
He." — Lennie and Bullions cor. " So saucy with the hand of her here — what's her name ?" — 
Shak. cor. " AU debts are cleared between you and me." — Id. " Her price is paid, and she is 
sold like thee." — Harrison's E. Lang., p. 172. " Search through all the most flourishing eras of 
Greece." — Dr. Brown cor. " The family of the Rudolphs has been long distinguished." — The 
Friend cor. " It will do well enough for you and me." — Edgeworth cor. " The public will soon 
discriminate between him who is the sycophant, and him who is the teacher." — Chazotte cor. 
" We are still much at a loss to determine whom civil power belongs to." — Locke cor. " What do 



CHAP. IV.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE IX. — ADJECTIVES. 945 

you call it? and to whom does it belong?" — Collier cor. " He had received no lessons from the 
Socrateses, the Platoes, and the Confuciuses of the age." — Hallcrcor. "I cannot tell whom to com- 
pare them to." — Bunyan cor. " I see there was some resemblance betwixt this good man and me" 
— Id. " They, by those means, have brought themselves into the hands and house of I do not 
know whom." — Id. "But at length she said, there was a great deal of difference between Mr. 
Cotton and us." — Hutch. Hist. cor. " So you must ride on horseback after us." — Mrs. Gilpin cor. 
"A separation must soon take place between our minister and me." — Werter cor. "When she 
exclaimed on Hastings, you, and me." — Shak. cor. " To whom ? to thee ? "What art thou ?" — Id. 
" That they should always bear the certain marks of him from whom they came." — Bp. Butler cor. 

" This life has joys for you and me, 
And joys that riches ne'er could buy." — Burns cor. 

Under the Note. — Of Time or Measure. 
" Such as almost every child, ten years old, knows." — Town cor. " Four months' schooling will 
carry any industrious scholar, often or twelve years of age, completely through this book." — Id, 
" A boy of six years of age may be taught to speak as correctly, as Cicero did before the Roman 
senate." — Webster cor. " A lad about twelve years old, who was taken captive by the Indians." — 
Id. "Of nothing else than that individual white figure of five inches in length, which is before 
him." — Campbell cor. " Where lies the fault, that boys of eight or ten years of age are with great 
difficulty made to understand any of its principles?" — Guy cor. "Where language three centu- 
ries old is employed." — Booth cor. " Let a gallows be made, of fifty cubits in height." Or : " Let 
a gallows fifty cubits high be made." — Bible cor. "I say to this child, nine year3 old, 'Bring me 
that hat.' He hastens, and brings it me." — Osborn cor. " 'He laid a floor, twelve feet long, and 
nine feet wide :' that is, the floor was long to the extent of twelve feet, and wide to the extent of 
nine feet." — Merchant cor. " The Goulah people are a tribe of about fifty thousand in strength" 
Or: " The Goulah people are a tribe about fifty thousand strong." — Examiner cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE VIII; NOM. ABSOLUTE. 
" He having ended his discourse, the assembly dispersed." — Inst, of K G., p. 190. "/being 
young, they deceived me." — lb., p. 279. " They refusing to comply, I withdrew." — lb. u Thou 
being present, he would not tell what he knew." — lb. " The child is lost ; and I, whither shall I 
go ?" — lb. " happy we! surrounded with so many blessings." — lb. " ' Thou too ! Brutus, my 
son!' cried Caesar, overcome." — lb. " Thou! Maria! and so late! and who is thy companion?" 
— Mirror cor. " How swiftly our time passes away! and ah! we, how little concerned to im- 
prove it!" — Greenleafs False Syntax, Gram., p. 47. 

" There all thy gifts and graces we display, 
Thou, only thou, directing all our way." — Pope, Bunciad. 



CHAPTER IV.— ADJECTIVES. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER THE NOTES TO RULE IX. 
Under Note I. — Of Agreement. 
"lam not recommending this kind of sufferings to your liking." — Sherlock cor. "I have not 
been to London these five years." — Webster cor. " Verbs of this kind are more expressive than 
their radicals." — Dr. Murray cor. "Few of us would be less corrupted than kings are, were we, 
like them, beset with flatterers, and poisoned with those vermin." — Karnes cor. " But it seems 
these literati had been very ill rewarded for their ingenious labours." — R. Random cor. "If I had 
not left off troubling myself about things of that kind." — Swift cur. " For things of this sort are 
usually joined to the most noted fortune." — Bacon cor. "The nature of those riches and that 
long-suffering, is, to lead to repentance." — Barclay cor. "I fancy it is this kind of gods, thai Hor- 
ace mentions." — Addison cor. " During those eight days, they are prohibited from touching the 
skin." — Hope of Is. cor. " Besides, he had but a small quantity of provisions left for his army." — 
Goldsmith cor. " Are you not ashamed to have no other thoughts than those of amassing wealth, 
and of acquiring glory, credit, and dignities?" — Murray's Sequel, p. 115. "It distinguishes still 
more remarkably the feelings of the former from those of the latter." — Karnes cor. " And these 
good tidings of the reign shall be published through all the world." — Campbell cor. " These twenty 
years have I been with thee." — Gen. cor. " In this kind of expressions, some words seem to be 
understood." — W. Walker cor. "He thought this kind of excesses indicative of greatness." — 
Hunt cor. " This sort of fellows is very numerous." Or thus: " Fellows of this sort are very nu- 
merous." — Sped. cor. "Whereas men of this sort cannot give account of their faith." Or: 
"Whereas these men cannot give account of their faith." — Barclay cor. "But the question is, 
whether those are the words." — Id. " So that exp>ressions of this sort are not properly optative." 
— R. Johnson cor. "Many things are not such as they appear to be." — Sanborn cor. "So that 
all possible means are used." — Formey cor. 

" We have strict statutes, and most biting laws, 
Which for these nineteen years we have let sleep." — Shak. cor. 
"They could not speak, and so I left them both, 
To bear these tidings to the bloody king." — Shak. cor. 

60 



946 GRAMMAS OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

Under Note II. — Of Fixed Numbers. 
"Why, I think she cannot be above six feet two inches high." — Sped. cor. "The world is 
pretty regular for about forty rods east and ten west." — Id. "The standard being more than two 
feet above it." — Bacon cor. " Supposing, among other things, that he saw two suns, and two 
Thebeses." — Id. " On the right hand we go into a parlour thirty-three feet by thirty -nine." — Shef- 
field cor. " Three pounds of gold went to one shield." — 1 Kings cor. " Such an assemblage of 
men as there appears to have been at that session." — The Friend cor. "And, truly he has saved 
me from this labour." — Barclay cor. "Within these three miles may you see it coming." — Shah, 
cor. " Most of the churches, not all, had one ruling elder or more." — Butch, cor. " While a 
Minute Philosopher, not six feet high, attempts to dethrone the Monarch of the universe." — Berk- 
ley cor. "The wall is ten feet high." — Harrison cor. "The stalls must be ten feet broad." — 
Walker cor. " A close prisoner in a room twenty feet square, being at the north side of his cham- 
ber, is at liberty to walk twenty feet southward, not to walk twenty feet northward." — Locke cor. 
" Nor, after all this care and industry, did they think themselves qualified." — G. Orator cor. " No 
fewer than thirteen Gypsies were condemned at one Suffolk assize, and executed." — Webster 
cor. "The king was petitioned to appoint one person or more." — Mrs. Macaiday cor. " He carries 
weight ! he rides a race ! 'Tis for a thousand pounds." — Cowper cor. " They carry three tiers of 
guns at the head, and at the stem, two tiers." — Joh. Diet. cor. " The verses consist of two sorts 
of rhymes." — Formey cor. " A present of forty camel-loads of the most precious things of Syria." 
— Wood's Diet. cor. "A large grammar, that shall extend to every minutia." — S. Barrett cor. 

" So many spots, like nasves on Venus' soil. 
One gem set off with many a glittring foil." — Dryden cor. 

"For, off the end, a double handful 
It had devour'd, it was so manful." — Butler cor. 

Under Note III. — Op Reciprocals. 
" That shall and will might be substituted one for the other." — Priestley cor. " We use not 
shall and will promiscuously the one for the other." — Brightland cor. "But I wish to distinguish 
the three high ones from one an other also." — Fowle cor. " Or on some other relation which two 
objects bear to each other." — Blair cor. "Yet the two words lie so near to each other in meaning, 
that, in the present case, perhaps either of them would have been sufficient." — Id. "Both or,ators 
use great liberties in their treatment of each other." — Id. " That greater separation of the two 
sexes from each other." — Id. "Most of whom live remote from one an other." — Webster cor. 
" Teachers like to see their pupils polite to one an other." — Id. " In a little time, he and I must 
keep company with each other only." — Sped. cor. " Thoughts and circumstances crowd upon 
one an other." — Karnes cor. " They cannot perceive how the ancient Greeks could understand 
one an other." — Lit. Oonv. cor. " The poet, the patriot, and the prophet, vied with one an other 
in his breast." — Hazlitt cor. "Athamas and Ino loved each other." — G. Tales cor. "Where two 
things are compared or contrasted owe with the other." Or: "Where two things are compared 
or contrasted with each other." — Blair and Mur. cor. " In the classification of words, almost all 
writers differ from one an other." — Bullions cor. 

" I wiU not trouble thee, my child. Farewell ; 
We'll no more meet ; well no more see each other." — Shak. cor. 

Under Note IV. — Op Comparatives. 

" Errors in education should be less indulged than any others." — Locke cor. " This was less his 
case than any other man's that ever wrote."- Pref. to Waller cor. "This trade enriched some 
other people more than it enriched them."— Mur. cor. "The Chaldee alphabet, in which the Old 
Testament has reached us, is more beautiful than any other ancient character known." — Wilson 
r cor. " The Christian religion gives a more lovely character of God, than any other religion ever 
did."— Murray cor. "The temple of Cholula was deemed more holy than any other in New 
Spain." — Robertson cor. " Cibber grants it to be a better poem of its kind than any other that 
ever was written." — Pope cor. " Shakspeare is more faithful to the true language of nature, than 
any other writer." — Blair cor. " One son I had — one, more than all my other sons, the strength 
of Troy." Or : " One son I had — one, the most of all my sons, the strength of Troy." — Cowper cor. 
" Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other children, because he was the son of his old 
age." — Bible cor. 

Under Note V. — Op Superlatives. 

"Of all simpletons, he was the greatest."— Nutting cor. "Of all beings, man has certainly the 
greatest reason for gratitude."— Id "This lady is prettier than any of her sisters."— Pey ton cor. 
" The relation which, of all the class, is by far the most fruitful of tropes, I have not yet men- 
tioned."— Blair cor. "He studied Greek the most of all noblemen."— W. Walker cor. "And 
indeed that was the qualification which was most wanted at that time." — Goldsmith cor. " Yet 
we deny that the knowledge of him as outwardly crucified, is the best of all knowledge of him." — 
Barclay cor. " Our ideas of numbers are, of all our conceptions, the most accurate and distinct." — 
Duncan cor. " This indeed is, of all cases, the one in which it is least necessary to name the 
agent." — J. Q. Adams cor. " The period to which you have arrived, is perhaps the most critical 
and important moment of your lives." — Id. " Perry's royal octavo is esteemed the best of all the 
pronouncing dictionaries yet known." — D. H. Barnes cor. " This is the tenth persecution, and, 



CHAP. IV.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE IX. — ADJECTIVES. 947 

of all the ten the most bloody." — Sammes cor. " The English tongue is the most susceptible of 
sublime imagery, of all the languages in the world." — Bucke cor. " Of all writers whatever, Ho- 
mer is universally allowed to have had the greatest Invention." — Pope cor. " In aversion of this 
particular work, which, more than any other, seems to require a venerable, antique cast." — Id. 
" Because I think him the best-informed naturalist that has ever written." — Jefferson cor. " Man 
is capable of being the most social of all animals ." — Sheridan cor. " It is, of all signs (or expres- 
sions) that which most moves us." — Id. "Which, of all articles, is the most necessary." — Id. 

" Quoth he, ' This gambol thou advisest, 
Is, of all projects, the unwisest.' " — S. Butler cor. 

Under Note VI. — Of Inclusive Terms. 

"Noah and his family were the only antediluvians who survived the flood." — Webster cor. " I 
think it superior to any other grammar that we have yet had."— iftcm' cor. " "We have had no 
other grammarian who has employed so much labour and judgement upon our native language, as 
has the author of these volumes." — British Critic cor. " Those persons feel most for the dis- 
tresses of others, who have experienced distresses themselves." — L. Murray cor. "Never was 
any other people so much infatuated as the Jewish nation." — Id. et al. cor. " No other tongue is so 
full of connective particles as the Greek." — Blair cor. "Never was sovereign so much beloved by 
the people." Or: " Never was any other sovereign so much beloved by his people." — L. Murray 
cor. "Nothing else ever affected her so much as this misconduct of her child." — Id. et al. cor. 
" Of all the figures of speech, no other comes so near to painting as does metaphor." — Blair et 
al. cor. "I know no other writer so happy in his metaphors as is Mr. Addison." — Blair cor. 
" Of all the English authors, none is more happy in his metaphors than Addison." — Jamieson cor. 
"Perhaps no other writer in the world was ever so frugal of his words as Aristotle." — Blair and 
Jamieson cor. " Never was any other writer so happy in that concise and spirited style, as Mr. 
Pope." — Blair cor. " In the harmonious structure and disposition of his periods, no other writer what- 
ever, ancient or modern, equals Cicero." — Blair and Jamieson cor. " Nothing else delights me so 
much as the works of nature." — L. Mur. cor. " No person was ever more perplexed than he has 
been to-day." — Id. " In no other case are writers so apt to err, as in the position of the word 
only." — Maunder cor. " For nothing is more tiresome than perpetual uniformity." — Blair cor. 
" Naught else sublimes the spirit, sets it free, 
Like sacred and soul-moving poesy." — Sheffield cor. 

Under Note VII. — Extra Comparisons. 
" How much better are ye than the fowls !" — Bible cor. " Do not thou hasten above the Most 
High.' 1 '' — Esdras cor. " This word, peer, is principally used for the nobility of the realm." — Cornell 
cor. "Because the same is not only most generally received, &c." — Barclay cor. " This is, I say, 
not the best and most important evidence." — Id. " Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy 
vows unto the Most High.' 1 ' 1 — The Psalter cor. "The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most 
High." — Id. " As boys should be educated with temperance, so the first great lesson that should 
be taught them, is, to admire frugality." — Goldsmith cor. " More general terms are put for such 
as are more restricted." — Rev. J. Brown cor. " This, this was the unkindest cut of all." — Enfield's 
Speaker, p. 353. "To take the basest and most squalid shape." — Shak. cor. "I'll forbear: 1 
have fallen out with my more heady will." — Id. " The power of the Most High guard thee from 
sin." — Percival cor. " Which title had been more true, if the dictionary had been in Latin and 
Welsh." — Verstegan cor. " The waters are frozen sooner and harder, than further upward, within 
the inlands." — Id. " At every descent, the worst may become more depraved." — Mann cor. 

" Or as a moat defensive to a house 
Against the envy of less happy lands." — Shak. cor. 

" A dreadful quiet felt, and worse by far 
Than arms, a sullen interval of war." — Dryden cor. 

Under Note VIII. — Adjectives Connected. 
"It breaks forth in its highest, most energetic, and most impassioned strain." — Kirkham cor. 
" He has fallen into the vilest and grossest sort of railing." — Barclay cor. " To receive that higher 
and more general instruction which the public affords." — J. 0. Taylor cor. " If the best things 
have the best and most perfect operations." — Hooker cor. " It became the plainest and most 
elegant, the richest and most splendid, of all languages." — Bucke cor. " But the principal and most 
frequent use of pauses, is, to mark the divisions of the sense." — Blair cor. "That every thing 
belonging to ourselves is the best and the most perfect." — Clarkson cor. " And to instruct their 
pupils in the best and most thorough manner." — School Committee cor. 

Under Note IX. — Adjectives Superadded. 
" The Father is figured out as a venerable old man." — Brownlee cor. " There never was exhibited 
an other such masterpiece of ghostly assurance." — Id. " After the first three sentences, the 
question is entirely lost." — Sped. cor. " The last four parts of speech are commonly called par- 
ticles." — Al. Murray cor. "The last two chapters will not be found deficient in this respect." — 
Todd cor. "Write upon your slates a list of the first ten nouns." — J. Abbott cor. " We have a 
few remains of two other Greek poets in the pastoral style, Moschus and Bion." — Blair cor. " The 



948 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs are highly poetical." — Id. " For, of these five heads, 
only the first two have any particular relation to the sublime." — Id. " The resembling sounds of 
the last two syllables give a ludicrous air to the whole." — Karnes cor. " The last three are arbi- 
trary." — Id. " But in the sentence, ' She hangs the curtains,' hangs is an active-transitive verb." — 
Gomly cor. ' "If our definition of a verb, and the arrangement of active-transitive, active-intransi- 
tive, passive, and neuter verbs, are properly understood." — Id. " These last two lines have an 
embarrassing construction." — Rush cor. " God was provoked to drown them all, but Noah and 
seven other persons." — Wood cor. " The first six books of the iEneid are extremely beautiful." — 
Formey cor. " Only a few instances more can here be given." — Murray cor. " A few years more 
will obliterate every vestige of a subjunctive form." — Nutting cor. " Some define them to be 
verbs devoid of the first two persons." — Crombie cor. "In an other such Essay-tract as this." — 
White cor. " But we fear that not an other such man is to be found." — Edward Irving cor. " for 
an other such sleep, that I might see an other such man !" Or, to preserve poetic measure, say : — 
" for such sleep again, that I might see 
An other such man, thougli but in a dream !" — Shak. cor. 

Under Note X. — Adjectives for Adverbs. 
"Tlie is an article, relating to the noun balm, agreeably to Rule 11th." — Comly cor. "Wise is 
an adjective,, relating to the noun man's, agreeably to Rule 11th." — Id. "To whom I observed, 
that the beer was extremely good." — Goldsmith cor. " He writes very elegantly." Or: " He writes 
with remarkable elegance." — 0. B. Peirce cor. "John behaves very civilly (or, with true civility) 
to all men." — Id. "All the sorts of words hitherto considered, have each of them some meaning, 
even when taken separately." — Beattie cor. "He behaved himself confor ma Uy to that blessed 
example." — Sprat cor. "Marvellously graceful." — Clarendon cor. " The Queen having changed 
her ministry, suitably to her wisdom." — Swift cor. "The assertions of this author are more easily 
detected." — Id. " The characteristic of his sect allowed him to affirm no more strongly than 
that." — Bentley cor. " If one author had spoken more nobly and loftily than an other." — Id. 
" Xenophon says expressly." — Id. "lean never think so veiy meanly of him." — Id. "To con- 
vince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have impiously 
committed." — Bible cor. " I think it very ably written." Or : "I think it written in a very mas- 
terly manner." — Swift cor. " The whole design must refer to the golden age, which it represents 
in a lively manner." — Addison cor. "Agreeably to this, we read of names being blotted out of 
God's book." — Burder et al. cor. "Agreeably to the law of nature, children are bound to support 
their indigent parents." — Paley. " Words taken independently of their meaning, are parsed as 
nouns of the neuter gender." — Maltby cor. 

"Conceit in weakest bodies strongliest works." — Shak. cor. 

Under Note XL— THEM for THOSE. 

" Though he was not known by those letters, or the name Christ." — Bayly cor. " In a gig, or 
some of those things." Better : "In a gig, or some such vehicle." — M. Edgeworth cor. " When 
cross-examined by those lawyers." — Same. " As the custom in those cases is." — Same. " If you 
had listened to those slanders." — Same. " The old people were telling stories about those fairies ; 
but, to the best of my judgement, there is nothing in them." — Same. " And is it not a pity that 
the Quakers have no better authority to substantiate their principles, than the testimony of tlwse 
old Pharisees ?" — Hibbard cor. 

Under Note XIL— THIS and THAT. 

" Hope is as strong an incentive to action, as fear : that is the anticipation of good, this of evil." 
— Inst, -p. 265. "The poor want some advantages which the rich enjoy; but we should not 
therefore account these happy, and those miserable." — Inst., p. 266. 



Then turned their ghastly look each one, 
That to her sire, this to her son." — Scott cor. 



"Ellen and Margaret, fearfully, 
Sought comfort in each other's eye ; 

" Six youthful sons, as many blooming maids, 
In one sad day beheld the Stygian shades ; 
Those by Apollo's silver bow were slain, 
These Cynthia's arrows stretch'd upon the plain." — Pope cor. 

" Memory and forecast just returns engage, 
That pointing back to youth, this on to age." — Pope, on Man. 

Under Note XIIL— EITHER and NEITHER. 
" These make the three great subjects of discussion among mankind ; namely, truth, duty, and 
interest: but the arguments directed towards any of them are generically distinct." — Br. Blair cor. 
"A thousand other deviations may be made, and still any of the accounts may be correct in prin- 
ciple ; for all these divisions, and their technical terms, are arbitrary." — R. W. Green cor. " Thus it 
appears, that our alphabet is deficient ; as it has but seven vowels to represent thirteen different 
sounds; and has no letter to represent any of five simple consonant sounds." — Churchill cor. 
" Then none of these five verbs can be neuter." — 0. B. Peirce cor. " And the assertor* is in none 

* All our lexicographers, and all accurate authors, spell this word with au o; but the gentleman who has fur- 
nished us with the last set of new terms for the science of grammar, writes it with an e, and applies it to the 



CHAP. IV.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE IX. — ADJECTIVES. 949 

of the four already mentioned." — Id. " As it is not in any of these four." — Id. " See whether or 
not the word comes within the definition of any of the other three simple cases." — Id. " No me 
of the ten was there." — Frazee cor. " Here are ten oranges, take any one of them." — Id. 
" There are three modes, by any of which recollection will generally be supplied ; inclination, 
practice, and association." — Rippingham cor. " Words not reducible to any of the three preced- 
ing heads." — Fowler cor. " Now a sentence may be analyzed in reference to any of these four 

Under Note XIV.— WHOLE, LESS, MORE, and MOST. . 

" Does not all proceed from the law, which regulates all the departments of the state ?" — Blair 
cor. " A messenger relates to Theseus all the particulars." — Ld. Karnes cor. " There are no 
fewer than twenty-m'we diphthongs in the English language." — Ash cor. "The Redcross Knight 
runs through all the steps of the Christian fife." — Sped. cor. " There were not fewer than fifty 
or sixty persons present." — Mills and Merchant cor. " Greater experience, and a more cultivated 
state of society, abate the warmth of imagination, and chasten the manner of expression." — Blair 
and Murray cor. " By which means, knowledge, rather than oratory, has become the principal 
requisite." — Blair cor. "No fewer than seven illustrious cities disputed the right of having given 
birth to the greatest of poets." — Lempriere cor. " Temperance, rather than medicines, is the 
proper means of curing many diseases." — Murray cor. "I do not suppose, that we Britons are 
more deficient in genius than our neighbours." — Id. " In which, he says, he has found no fewer 
than twelve untruths." — Barclay cor. "The several places of rendezvous were concerted, and all 
the operations were fixed." — Hume cor. " In these rigid opinions, all the sectaries concurred." — 
Id. " Out of whose modifications have been made nearly all complex modes." — Locke cor. " The 
Chinese vary each of their words on no fewer than five different tones." — Blair cor. " These peo- 
ple, though they possess brighter qualities, are not so proud as he is, nor so vain as she." — Mur- 
ray cor. " It is certain, that we believe our own judgements more firmly, after we have made a 
thorough inquiry into the things.' 1 '' — Brightland cor. "As well as the whole course and all the 
reasons of the operation." — Id. " Those rules and principles which are of the greatest practical 
advantage." — Newman cor. " And all curse shall be no more.' 1 '' — Rev. cor. — (See the Greek.) 
" And death shall be no more? — Id. "But, in recompense, we have pleasanter pictures of ancient 
manners." — Blair cor. "Our language has suffered a greater number of injurious changes in 
America, since the British army landed on our shores, than it had suffered before, in the period 
of three centuries." — Webster cor. "All the conveniences of life are derived from mutual aid and 
support in society." — Ld. Karnes cor. 

Under Note XV. — Participial Adjectives. 
" To such as think the nature of it deserving of their attention." — Bp. Butler cor. "In all points, 
more deserving o/the approbation of their readers." — Keepsake cor. "But to give way to childish 
sensations, was unbecoming to our nature." — Lempriere cor. "The following extracts are deserv- 
ing of the serious perusal of all." — The Friend cor. "No inquiry into wisdom, however super- 
ficial, is undeserving of attention." — Bulwer cor. " The opinions of illustrious men are deserving 
of great consideration." — Porter cor. " And resolutely keep its laws, tTncaring for consequences." 
Or : — " Not heeding consequences." — Burns cor. " This is an item that is deserving of more atten- 
tion." — Goodell cor. 

"Leave then thy joys, unsuiting to such age:" — Or, 
" Leave then thy joys not suiting such an age, 
To a fresh comer, and resign the stage." — Dry den cor. 

Under Note XVI. — Figure of Adjectives. 

"The tall dark mountains and the deep-toned seas." — Dana. "0! learn from him To sta- 
tion quick-eyed Prudence at the helm." — Frost cor. " He went in a one-horse chaise." — David Blair 
cor. "It ought to be, 'in a one-horse chaise.'" — Crombie cor. "These are marked with the 
above-mentioned letters." — Folker cor. " A many-headed faction." — Ware cor. " Lest there should 
be no authority in any popular grammar, for the perhaps heaven-inspired effort. " — Fowle cor. 
" Common-metre stanzas consist of four iambic lines; one of eight, and the next of six syllables. 
They were formerly written in two fourteen-syllable lines." — Goodenow cor. " Short-metre stanzas 
consist of four iambic lines ; the third of eight, the rest of six syllables." — Id. " Particular- 
metre stanzas consist of six iambic lines ; the third and sixth of six syllables, the rest of 
eight." — Id. " Hallelujah-metre stanzas consist of six iambic lines; the last two of eight syllables, 
and the rest of six." — Id. " Long-metre stanzas are merely the union of four iambic lines, of ten 
syllables each." — Id. "A majesty more commanding than is to be found among the rest of the 
Old- Testament poets." — Blair cor. 

" You, sulphurous and thought-executed fires, 
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, 
Singe my white head ! And thou, all-shaking thunder, 
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world!" — Lear, Act iii, Sc. 2. 

verb and the participle. With him, every verh or participle is an " asserier;" except when he forgets his creed, 
as he did in writing the preceding example about certain " verbs." As he changes the names of all the parts 
of speech, and denounces the entire technology of grammar, perhaps his innovation would have been suffi- 
ciently broad, had he for THE VERB, the most important class of all, adopted some name which he knew how to 
spell.— G. B. 



950 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

CHAPTEK V.— PRONOUNS. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE X AND ITS NOTES. 
Under the Rule itself. — Of Agreement. 
" The subject is to be joined with its predicate." — Wilkins cor. " Every one must judge of his 
own feelings." — Byron cor. "Every one in the family should know his or her duty." — Penn 
cor. " To introduce its possessor into that way in which he should go." — Inf. S. Gram. cor. 
" Do not they say, that every true believer has the Spirit of G-od in him?" — Barclay cor. " There 
is none in his natural state righteous ; no, not one." — Wood cor. " If ye were of the world, the 
world would love its own." — Bible cor. " His form had not yet lost all its original brightness." — 
Milton cor. "No one will answer as if I were his friend or companion." — Steele cor. "But, in 
lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself ." — Bible cor. "And let none of you 
imagine evil in his heart against his neighbour." — Id. " For every tree is known by its own fruit." 
— Id. " But she fell to laughing, like one out of his right mind." — M. Edgeworth cor. " Now these 
systems, so far from having any tendency to make men better, have a manifest tendency to make 
them worse." — Wayland cor. " And nobody else would make that city his refuge any more." — 
Josephus cor. "What is quantity, as it respects syllables or words? It is the time which a 
speaker occupies in pronouncing them." — Bradley cor. "In such expressions, the adjective so 
much resembles an adverb in its meaning, that it is usually parsed as such." — Bullions cor. 
" The tongue is like a racehorse ; which runs the faster, the less weight he carries." Or thus : 
" The tongue is like a racehorse ; the less weight it carries, the faster it runs." — Addison, Mur- 
ray, et at. cor. " As two thoughtless boys were trying to see which could lift the greatest weight 
with his jaws, one of them had several of his firm-set teeth wrenched from their sockets." — News- 
paper cor. " Every body nowadays publishes memoirs; every body has recollections which he 
thinks worthy of recording." — Duchess D'Ab. cor. "Every body trembled, for himself or for his 
friends." — Goldsmith cor. 

" A steed comes at morning : no rider is there ; 
But his bridle is red with the sign of despair." — Campbell cor. 

Under Note I. — Pronouns Wrong or Needless. 
" Charles loves to study ; but John, alas ! is very idle." — Merchant cor. " Or what man is there 
of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone?" — Bible cor. "Who, in stead of going 
about doing good, are perpetually intent upon doing mischief." — Tillotson cor. "Whom ye de- 
livered up, and denied in the presence of Pontius Pilate." — Bible cor. " Whom, when they had 
washed her, they laid in an upper chamber." — Id. "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was 
God." — Id. " Whatever a man conceives clearly, he may, if he will be at the trouble, put into 
distinct propositions, and express clearly to others." — See Blair's Rhet., p. 93. " But the painter, 
being entirely confined to that part of time which he has chosen, cannot exhibit various stages 
of the same action." — Murray's Gram., i, 195. "What he subjoins, is without any proof at all." 
— Barclay cor. "George Fox's Testimony concerning Robert Barclay." — Title cor. "According 
to the advice of the author of the Postcript." — Barclay cor. "These things seem as ugly to the 
eye of their meditations, as those Ethiopians that were pictured on Nemesis's pitcher." — Bacon 
cor. " Moreover, there is always a twofold condition propounded with the Sphynx's enigmas." 
— Id. " Whoever believeth not therein, shall perish." — Koran cor. " When, at Sestius's entftaty, 
I had been at his house." — W. Walker cor. 

" There high on Sipylus's shaggy brow, 
She stands, her own sad monument of wo." — Pope cor. 

Under Note II. — Change of Number. 
" So will I send upon you famine, and evil beasts, and they shall bereave you." — Bible cor. 
" Why do you plead so much for it ? why do you preach it up?" Or: "Why do ye plead so 
much for it? why do ye preach it up ?" — Barclay cor. " Since thou hast decreed that I shall bear 
man, thy darling." — Edward's Gram. cor. "You have my book, and I have yours; i. e., your 
book." Or thus: "Thou hast my book, and I have thine; i. e., thy book." — Chandler cor. 
" Neither art thou such a one as to be ignorant of what thou art." — Bullions cor. "Return, thou 
backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon thee." — Bible cor. 
" The Almighty, unwilling to cut thee off in the fullness of iniquity,, has sent me to give thee 
warning." — Ld. Karnes cor. " Wast thou born only for pleasure ? wast thou never to do any 
thing?" — Collier cor. "Thou shalt be required to go to God, to die, and to give up thy account." 
— Barnes cor. "And canst thou expect to behold the resplendent glory of the Creator? would 
not such a sight annihilate thee?" — Milton cor. " If the prophet had commanded thee to do some 
great thing, wouldst thou have refused?" — C. S. Journal cor. "Art thou a penitent? evince thy 
sincerity, by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance." — Vade-Mecum cor. " I will call thee my 
dear son: I remember all thy tenderness." — C Tales cor. "So do thou, my son: open thy ears, 
and thy eyes." — Wright cor. "I promise you, this was enough to discourage you."- — Bunyan cor. 
" Ere you remark an other's sin, Bid your own conscience look within." — Gay cor. "Permit that 
I share in thy wo, The privilege canst thou refuse ?" — Perfect cor. " Ah ! Strephon, how canst thou 
despise Her who, without thy pity, dies ?" — Swift cor. 

"Thy verses, friend, are Kidderminster stuff; 
And I must own, thou'st measured out enough." — Shensi. cor. 



CHAP. V.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE X. — PRONOUNS. 



951 



" This day, dear Bee, is thy nativity ; 
Had Fate a luckier one, she'd give it thee." — Swift cor. 

Under Note III. —WHO and WHICH. 

"Exactly like so many puppets, which are moved by wires." — Blair cor. " They are my serv- 
ants, whom I brought forth* out of the land of Egypt." — Leviticus, xxv, 55. " Behold, I and 
the children whom God hath given me." — See Isaiah, viii, 18. "And he sent Eliakim, who was 
over the household, and Shebna the scribe." — Isaiah, xxxvii, 2. " In a short time the streets 
were cleared of the corpses which filled them." — Mllvaine cor. "They are not of those who 
teach things that they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." — Barclay cor. " As a lion among the 
beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep ; which, if he go through, both 
treadeth down and teareth in pieces." — Bible cor. " Frequented by every fowl which nature has 
taught to dip the wing in water." — Johnson cor. " He had two sons, one of whom was adopted 
by the family of Maximus." — Lempriere cor. "And the ants, which are collected by the smell, 
are burned with fire." — The Friend cor. " They being the agents to ivhom this thing was trusted." 
— Nixon cor. "A packhorse which is driven constantly one way and the other, to and from mar- 
ket." — Locke cor. " By instructing children, whose affection will be increased." — Nixon cor. " He 
had a comely young woman, who travelled with him." — Hutchinson cor. " A butterfly, who 
thought himself an accomplished traveller, happened to light upon a beehive." — Inst, p. 267. "It 
is an enormous elephant of stone, which disgorges from his uplifted trunk a vast but graceful 
shower." — Ware cor. "He was met by a dolphin, which sometimes swam before him, and some- 
times behind him." — Edward 's Gram. cor. 



" That Ceesar's horse, which, as fame goes, 
Had corns upon his feet and toes, 



Was not by half so tender-hoofd, 

Nor trod upon the ground so soft." — Butler cor. 



Under Note TV. — Nouns op Multitude. 

"He instructed and fed the crowds that surrounded him." — Murray's Key. "The court, which 
gives currency to manners, ought to be exemplary." — lb., p. 187. " Nor does he describe classes 
of sinners that do not exist." — Mag. cor. " Because the nations among which they took their 
ris3, were not savage." — Murray cor. "Among nations that are in the first and rude periods of 
society." — Blair cor. "The martial spirit of those nations among which the feudal government 
prevailed." — Id. "France, which was in alliance with Sweden." — Priestley's Gram., p. 97. 
"That faction, in England, which most powerfully opposed his arbitrary pretensions." — lb. "Wo 
may say, ' the crowd which was going up the street.' " — CobbeWs E. Gram., "([ 204. " Such mem- 
bers of the Convention which formed this Lyceum, as have subscribed this Constitution." — N. Y. 
Lyceum cor. 

Under Note Y. — Confusion of Senses. 

" The name of the possessor shall take a particular form to show its case." — Kirkham cor. 
" Of which reasons, the principal one is, that no noun, properly so called, implies the presence of 
the thing named." — Harris cor. " Boston is a proper noun, which distinguishes the city of Boston 
from other cities." — Sanborn cor. " The word conjunction means union, or the act of joining 
together. Conjunctions are used to join or connect either words or sentences." — Id. " The word 
interjection means the act of throwing between. Interjections are interspersed among other 
words, to express strong or sudden emotion." — Id. " Indeed is composed of in and deed. The 
words may better be written separately, as they formerly were." — Car dell cor. u Alexander, on 
the contrary, is a particular name ; and is employed to distinguish an individual only." — Jamieson 
cor. " As an indication that nature itself had changed its course." Or : — " that Nature herself 
had changed her course." — History cor. "Of removing from the United States and their ter- 
ritories the free people of colour." — Jenifer cor. " So that gh may be said not to have its proper 
sound." Or thus: "So that the letters, g and h, maybe said not to have their proper sounds." — 
Webster cor. "Are we to welcome the loathsome harlot, and introduce her to our children?" — 
Maturin cor. "The first question is this: 'Is reputable, national, and present use, which, for* 
brevity's sake, I shall hereafter simply denominate good use, always uniform, [i. e., undivided, and 
unequivocal,] in its decisions ?" — Campbell cor. "In personifications, Time is always masculine, 
on account of his mighty efficacy; Virtue, feminine, by reason of her beauty and loveliness.''' — 
Murray, Blair, et al. cor. "When you speak to a person or thing, the noun or pronoun is in the 
second person." — Bartlett cor. "You now know the noun; for noun means name." — Id. " T. 
What do you see ? P. A book. T. Spell book." — R. W. Green cor. " T. What do you see now ? 
P. Two books. T. Spell books." — Id. "If the United States lose their rights as a nation." — 
Liberator cor. "When a person or thing is addressed or spoken to, the noun or pronoun is in the 
second person." — Frost cor. " When a person or thing is merely spoken of, the noun or pronoun 
is in the third person." — Id. "The word ox also, taking the same plural termination, makes 
oxen." — Bucke cor. 

" Hail, happy States ! yours is the blissful seat 
Where nature's gifts and art's improvements meet." — Everett cor. 

Under Note VI.— The Relative THAT. 
(1.) "This is the most useful art that men possess." — L. Murray cor. " The earliest accounts 
* It would be better to omit the word "forth" or else to say— "whom I brought forth from the land of 
Egypt. 1 ' The phrase, "forth out of" is neither a Yery common nor a very terse oue. — G. Bbown. 



952 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

that history gives us, concerning all nations, bear testimony to these facts." — Blair et al. cor. " Mr. 
Addison was the first that attempted a regular inquiry into the pleasures of taste. " — Blair cor. 
" One of the first that introduced it, was Montesquieu." — Murray cor. " Massillon is perhaps the 
most eloquent sermonizer that modern times have produced." — Blair cor. " The greatest barber 
that ever lived, is our guiding star and prototype." — Hart cor. 

(2.) " When prepositions are subjoined to nouns, they are generally the same that are subjoined 
to the verbs from which the nouns are derived." — Murray's Gram., p. 200. Better thus: " The 
prepositions which are subjoined to nouns, are generally the same that" &c. — Priestley cor. " The 
same proportions that are agreeable in a model, are not agreeable in a large building." — Karnes 
cor. "The same ornaments that we admire in a private apartment, are unseemly in a temple." — 
Murray cor. " The same that John saw also in the sun." — Milton cor. 

(3.) " Who can ever be easy, that is reproached with his own ill conduct?" — T. a Kempis cor. 
" Who is she that comes clothed in a robe of green?" — Inst., p. 267. " Who that has either sense 
or civility, does not perceive the vileness of profanity ?" — G. Brown. 

(•i.) " The second person denotes the person or thing that is spoken to." — Kirkham cor. " The 
third person denotes the person or thing that is spoken of." — Id. " A passive verb denotes action 
received or endured by the person or thing that is signified by its nominative." — Id. "The prin- 
ces and states that had neglected or favoured the growth of this power." — Bolingbroke cor. " The 
nominative expresses the name of the person or thing that acts, or that is the subject of discourse." 
— Hiky cor. 

(5.) " Authors that deal in long sentences, are very apt to be faulty." — Blair cor. " Writers that 
deal," &c. — Murray cor. " The neuter gender denotes objects that are neither male nor female." 
— Merchant cor. " The neuter gender denotes things that have no sex." — Kirkham cor. " Nouns 
that denote objects neither male nor female, are of the neuter gender." — Wells's Gram, of late, p. 
55. Better thus: " Those nouns which denote objects that are neither male nor female, are of the 
neuter gender." — Wells cor. " Objects and ideas that have been long familiar, make too faint an im- 
pression to give an agreeable exercise to our faculties." — Blair cor. " Cases that custom has left 
dubious, are certainly within the grammarian's province." — L. Murray cor. " Substantives that 
end in ery, signify action or habit." — Id. " After all that can be done to render the definitions 
and rules of grammar accurate." — Id. "Possibly, all that I have said, is known and taught." — 
A. B. Johnson cor. 

(6.) " It is a strong and manly style that should chiefly be studied." — Blair cor. " It is this 
[viz., precision] that chiefly makes a division appear neat and elegant." — Id. " I hope it is not I 
that he is displeased with." — L. Murray cor. "When it is this alone that renders the sentence 
obscure." — Campbell cor. " This sort of full and ample assertion, 'It is this that, 1 is fit to be used 
when a proposition of importance is laid down." — Blair cor. " She is not the person that I un- 
derstood it to have been." — L. Murray cor. " Was it thou, or the wind, that shut the door?" — 
Inst, p. 267. "It was not I that shut it." — lb. 

(7.) "He is not the person that he seemed to be." — Murray and lngersoll cor. "He is really 
the person that he appeared to be." — lid. " She is not now the woman that they represented her 
to have been." — lid. "An only child is one that has neither brother nor sister; a child alone is 
one that is left by itself, or unaccompanied" — Blair, Jam., and Mur., cor. 

Under Note VII. — Relative Clauses Connected. 

(1.) " A Substantive, or Noun, is the name of a thing ; (i. e.,) of whatever we conceive to sub- 
sist, or of ivhatever we merely imagine." — Lowth cor. (2.) " A Substantive, or Noun, is the name 
of any thing lohich exists, or of which we have any notion." — Murray et al. cor. (3.) " A Sub- 
stantive, or Noun, is the name of any person, place, or thing, that exists, or that we can have an 
idea of." — Frost cor. (4.) " A noun is the name of any thing which exists, or of which we form 
an idea." — Hallock cor. (5.) "A Noun is the name of any person, place, object, or thing, that 
exists, or that we may conceive to exist." — D. C. Allen cor. (6.) " The name of every thing which 
exists, or of which we can form a notion, is a noun." — Fisk cor. (7.) "An allegory is the repre- 
sentation of some one thing by an other that resembles it, and that is made to stand for it." — 
Blair's Rhet, p. 150. (8.) " Had he exhibited such sentences as contained ideas inapplicable to 
young minds, or such as were of a trivial or injurious nature." — L. Murray cor. (9.) " Man would 
have others obey him, even his own kind ; but he will not obey God, who is so much above him, 
and who made him." — Penn cor. (10.) " But what we may consider here, and what few persons 
have noticed, is," &c. — Brightland cor. (11.) "The compiler has not inserted those verbs which 
are irregular only in familiar writing or discourse, and which are improperly terminated by t in 
stead of ed." — Murray, Fisk, Hart, lngersoll, et at, cor. (12.) " The remaining parts of speech, 
which are called the indeclinable parts, and which admit of no variations, (or, being words that 
admit of no variations,) will not detain us long." — Dr. Blair cor. 

Under Note VIII. — The Relative and Preposition. 
"In the temper of mind in which he was then." — Lowitis Gram., p. 102. " To bring them into 
the condition in which I am at present." — Add. cor. "In the posture in which I lay." — Lowth' s 
Gram., p. 102. "In the sense in which it is sometimes taken." — Barclay cor. " Tools and uten- 
sils are said to be right, when they answer well the uses for which they were made." — Collier cor. 
"If, in the extreme danger in which I now am," &c. Or: "If, in my present extreme danger," 
&c. — Murray's Sequel, p. 116. " News was brought, that Dairus was but twenty miles from the 



CHAP. V.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE X. — PRONOUNS. 953 

place in which they then were." — Goldsmith cor. " Alexander, upon hearing this news, continued 
four days where he then was:" or — "in the place in which he then was." — Id. "To read in the 
best manner in which reading is now taught." — L. Murray cor. "It may be expedient to give a 
few directions as to the manner in which it should be studied." — Hallock cor. " Participles are 
words derived from verbs, and convey an idea of the acting of an agent, or the suffering of an 
object, with the time at which it happens."* — A. Murray cor. 

" Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal 
With which I serv'd my king, he would not thus, 
In age, have left me naked to my foes." — Shak. cor. 

Under Note IX. — Adverbs for Relatives. 
"In compositions that are not designed to be delivered in public." — Blair cor. "They framed a 
protestation in which they repeated their claims." — Priestley's Gram., p. 133 ; Murray's, 197. 
11 "Which have reference to inanimate substances, in which sex has no existence." — Harris cor. 
" "Which denote substances in which sex never had existence." — IngersolVs Gram., p. 26. " There 
is no rule given by which the truth may be found out." — W. Walker cor. "The nature of the 
objects from which they are taken." — Blair cor. " That darkness of character, through which we 
can see no heart:" [i. e., generous emotion.] — L. Murray cor. "The states with which [or be- 
tween which~\ they negotiated." — Formey cor. " Till the motives from which men act, be known." 
— Beattie cor. " He assigns the principles from which their power of pleasing flows." — Blair cor. 
" But I went on, and so finished this History, in that form in which it now appears." — Sewel cor. 
" By prepositions we express the cause for which, the instrument by which, and the manner in 
which, a thing is done." — A. Murray cor. " They are not such in the language from which they 
are derived." — Town cor. " I find it very hard to persuade several, that their passions are affect- 
ed by words from which they have no ideas." — Burke cor. " The known end, then, for which we 
are placed in a state of so much affliction, hazard, and difficulty, is our improvement in virtue 
and piety." — Bp. Butler cor. 

" Yet such his acts as Greeks unborn shall tell, 
And curse the strife in which their fathers fell." — Pope cor. 

Under Note X. — Repeat the Noun. 

" Youth may be thoughtful, but thoughtfulness in the young is not very common." — Webster cor. 
"A proper name is a name given to one person or thing." — Bartlett cor. "A common name is 
a name given to many things of the same sort." — Id. " This rule is often violated ; some instan- 
ces of its violation are annexed." — L. Murray et al. cor. " This is altogether careless writing. 
Such negligence respecting the pronouns, renders style often obscure, and always inelegant.' - — Blair 
cor. " Every inversion which is not governed by this rule, will be disrelished by every person of 
taste." — Karnes cor. " A proper diphthong, is a diphthong in which both the vowels are sound- 
ed." — Brown's Institutes, p. 18. "An improper diphthong, is a diphthong in which only one of 
the vowels is sounded." — lb. " Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the descendants of Jacob, are called 
Hebrews."- — Wood cor. "In our language, every word of more than one syllable, has one of its 
syllables distinguished from the rest in this manner." — L. Murray cor. "Two consonants proper 
to begin a word, must not be separated ; as, fa-ble, sti-fle. But when two consonants come be- 
tween two vowels, and are such as cannot begin a word, they must be divided, as, ut-most, un- 
der." — Id. "Shall the intellect alone feel no pleasures in its energy, when we allow pleasures 
to the grossest energies of appetite and sense ?" — Harris and Murray cor. " No man has a pro- 
pensity to vice as such : on the contrary, a wicked deed disgusts every one, and makes him abhor 
the author." — Ld. Karnes cor. " The same grammatical properties that belong to nouns, belong 
also to pronouns." — Greenleaf cor. "What is language? It is the means of communicating 
thoughts from one person to an other." — 0. B. Peirce cor. " A simple word is a word which is not 
made up of other words." — Adam and Gould cor. " A compound word is a word which is made up 
of two or more words." — lid. " When a conjunction is to be supplied, the ellipsis is called Asyn- 
deton." — Adam cor. 

Under Note XI. — Place of the Relative. 

" It gives to words a meaning which they would not have." — L. Murray cor. " There are in the 
English language many words, that are sometimes used as adjectives, and sometimes as adverbs." 
— Id. " Which do not more effectually show the varied intentions of the mind, than do the aux- 
iliaries which are used to form the potential mood." — Id. " These accents, which will be the sub- 
ject of a following speculation, make different impressions on the mind." — Ld. Karnes cor. "And 
others differed very much from the words of the writers to whom they were ascribed." — John 
Ward cor. " Where there is in the sense nothing which requires the last sound to be elevated, 
an easy fall will be proper." — Murray and Bullions cor. " In the last clause there is an ellipsis 
of the verb ; and, when you supply it, you find it necessary to use the adverb not, in lieu of no." — 
Campbell and Murray cor. " Study is of the singular number, because the nominative I, with 
which it agrees, is singular." — R. C. Smith cor. " John is the person who is in error, or thou art." 
— Wright cor. "Eor he hath made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us." — Harrison's & 
Lang., p. 197. 

" My friend, take that of we, who have the power 
To seal th' accuser's lips." — Shakspeare cor. 
* This doctrine, that participles divide and specify time, I have elsevrhere 6ho\ro to be erroneous.— G. Beown. 



964 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III 

Under Note XII.— WHAT for THAT. 
" I had no idea but that the story was true." — Brown's Inst, p. 268. " The postboy is not so 
weary but that he can whistle." — lb. " He had no intimation but that the men were honest." — 
lb. " Neither Lady Haversham nor Miss Mildmay will ever believe but that I have been entirely 
to blame." — Priestley cor. " I am not satisfied but that the integrity of our friends is more essen- 
tial to our welfare than their knowledge of the world." — ld. "Indeed, there is in poetry noth- 
ing so entertaining or descriptive, but that an ingenious didactic writer may introduce it in some 
part of his work." — Blair cor. "Brasidas, being bit by a mouse he had catched, let it slip out of 
his fingers: 'No creature,' says he, 'is so contemptible but that it may provide for its own safety, 
if it have courage.' " — Ld. Karnes cor. 

Under Note XIII. — Adjectives for Antecedents. 
"In narration, Homer is, at all times, remarkably concise, and therefore lively and agreeable." 
— Blair cor. " It is usual to talk of a nervous, a feeble, or a spirited style ; which epithets plainly 
indicate the writer's manner of thinking." — Id. "It is too violent an alteration, if any altera- 
tion were necessary, whereas none is." — Knight cor. " Some men are too ignorant to be humble ; 
and without humility there can be no docilit} r ." — Berkley cor. "Judas declared him innocent; 
but innocent he could not be, had he in any respect deceived the disciples." — Porteus cor. " They 
supposed him to be innocent, but he certainly was not so." — Murray et al. cor. " They accounted 
him honest, but he certainly was not so." — Fetch cor. " Be accurate in all you say or do ; for ac- 
curacy is important in all the concerns of life." — Brown's Inst, p. 268. " Every law supposes 
the transgressor to be wicked; and indeed he is so, if the law is just." — lb. "To be pure 
in heart, pious, and benevolent, (and all may be so,) constitutes human happiness." — Murray 
cor. "To be dexterous in danger, is a virtue ; but to court danger to show our dexterity, is a 
weakness." — Penn cor. 

Under Note XIV. — Sentences for Antecedents. 
" This seems not so allowable in prose ; which fact the following erroneous examples will de- 
monstrate." — L. Murray cor. " The accent is laid upon the last syllable of a word ; which cir- 
cumstance is favourable to the melody." — Karnes cor. " Every hne consists of ten syllables, five 
short and five long ; from which rule there are but two exceptions, both of them rare." — Id. " The 
soldiers refused obedience, as has been explained." — Nixon cor. " Caesar overcame Pompey — a 
circumstance which was lamented." — Id. " The crowd hailed William, agreeably to the expectations 
of his friends." — Id. "The tribunes resisted Scipio, who knew their malevolence towards him.'' 1 — 
Id. " The censors reproved vice, and were held in great honour." — Id. "The generals neglected 
discipline, which fact has been proved." — Id. " There would be two nominatives to the verb was, 
and such a construction is improper." — Adam and Gould cor. " His friend bore the abuse very 
patiently; whose forbearance, however, served only to increase his rudeness ; it produced, at length, 
contempt and insolence." — Murray and Emmons cor. "Almost all compound sentences are more 
or less elliptical ; and some examples of ellipsis may be found, under nearly all the different parts 
of speech." — Murray, Guy, Smith, lngersoll, Fisk, et al. cor. , 

Under Note XV. — Repeat the Pronoun. 

" In things of Nature's workmanship, whether we regard their internal or their external struc- 
ture, beauty and design are equally conspicuous." — Karnes cor. " It puzzles the reader, by making 
him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper, or in its figurative sense." — Id. 
"Neither my obligations to the muses, nor my expectations from them, are so great." — Cowley 
cor. "The Fifth Annual Report of the Antislavery Society of Ferrisburgh and its vicinity." — 
Title cor. "Meaning taste in its figurative as well as its proper sense." — Karnes cor. "Every 
measure in which either your personal or your political character is concerned." — Junius cor. "A 
jealous and righteous God has often punished such in themselves or in their offspring." — Extracts 
cor. "Hence their civil and their religious history are inseparable." — Milman cor. "Esau thus 
carelessly threw away both his civil and his religious inheritance." — ld. "This intelligence ex- 
cited not only our hopes, but our fears likewise." — Jaudon cor. "In what way our defect of 
principle, and our ruling manners, have completed the ruin of the national spirit of union." — Dr. 
Brown cor. " Considering her descent, her connexion, and her present intercourse." — Webster 
cor. " His own and his wife's wardrobe are packed up in a firkin." — Parker and Fox cor. 

Under Note XVI. — Change the Antecedent. 
"The sounds of e and o long, in their due degrees, will be preserved, and clearly distinguished." 
— L. Murray cor. " If any persons should be inclined to think," &c, " the author takes the lib- 
erty to suggest to them," &c. — Id. " And he walked in all the way of Asa his father ; he turned 
not aside from it" — Bible cor. " If ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brethren their 
trespasses." — Id. " None ever fancied they were slighted by him, or had the courage to think 
themselves his betters." — Collier cor. " And Rebecca took some very good clothes of her eldest son 
Esau's, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son." — Gen. cor. 
" Where all the attention of men is given to their own indulgence." — Maturin cor. " The idea 
of a father is a notion superinduced to that of the substance, or man — let one's idea of man be 
what it will." — Locke cor. " Leaving all to do as they list." — Barclay cor. " Each person per- 



CHAP. V.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XII. — PRONOUNS. 955 

formed his part handsomely." — J. Flint cor. "This block of marble rests on two layers of stones, 
bound together with lead, which, however, has not prevented the Arabs from forcing out several 
of them." — Parker and Fox cor. 

" Love gives to all our powers a double power, 

Above their functions and their offices." Or: — 
" Love gives to every power a double power, 
Exalts all functions and all offices." — Shak. cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XI; OF PRONOUNS. 
Under the Rule itself. — The Idea of Plurality. 
" The jury will be confined till they agree on a verdict." — Brown's Inst, p. 145. "And mankind 
directed their first cares towards the needful." — Formey cor. " It is difficult to deceive a free 
people respecting their true interest." — Life of Charles XII cor. "All the virtues of mankind 
are to be counted upon a few fingers, but their follies and vices are innumerable." — Swift cor. 
" Every sect saith, ' Give us liberty :' but give it them, and to their power, and they will not yield 
it to any body else." — Cromwell cor. "Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift 
up themselves as a young lion." — Bible cor. " For all flesh had corrupted their way upon the 
earth." — Id. " There happened to the army a very strange accident, which put them, in great 
consternation." — Goldsmith cor. 

Under Note I. — The Idea of Unity. 

"The meeting went on with its business as a united bcdy." — Foster cor. " Every religious 
association has an undoubted right to adopt a creed for itself. " — Gould cor. " It would therefore 
be extremely difficult to raise an insurrection in that state against its own government." — Br. 
Webster cor. "The mode in which a lyceum can apply itself in effecting a reform in common 
schools." — K T. Lye. cor. "Hath a nation changed its gods, which yet are no gods?" — Jer. cor. 
" In the holy Scriptures, each of the twelve tribes of Israel is often called by the name of the 
patriarch from whom it descended." Or better : — " from whom the tribe descended." — Adams cor. 

Under Note II. — Uniformity of Number. 
" A nation, by the reparation of the wrongs which it has done, achieves a triumph more glorious 
than any field of blood can ever give." — Adams cor. " The English nation, from whom we de- 
scended, have been gaining their liberties inch by inch." — Webster cor. " If a Yearly Meeting 
should undertake to alter its fundamental doctrines, is there any power in the society to prevent 
it from doing so?" — Foster's Rep. cor. "There is* a generation that curse their father, and do 
not bless their mother." — Bible cor. " There is* a generation that are pure in their own eyes, 
and yet are not washed from their filthiness." — Id. " He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, 
neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel : the Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a 
king is among them." — Id. "My people have forgotten me, they have burnt incense to vanity." 
— Id. " "When a quarterly meeting has come to a judgement respecting any difference, relative 
to any monthly meeting belonging to it," &c. — Biscip. cor. "The number of such compositions 
is every day increasing, and it appears to be limited only by the pleasure or the convenience of 
writers." — Booth cor. " The Church of Christ has the same power now as ever, and is led by the 
same spirit into the same practices." — Barclay cor. "The army, whom their chief had thus 
abandoned, pursued meanwhile their miserable march." Or thus : " The army, which its chief 
had thus abandoned, pursued meanwhile its miserable march." — Lockhart cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XII; OF PRONOUNS. 
Antecedents connected by AND. 
" Discontent and sorrow manifested themselves in his countenance." — Brown's Inst, p. 146. 
" Both conversation and public speaking became more simple and plain, such as we now find 
them.'"'' — Blair cor. " Idleness and ignorance, if they be suffered to proceed, &c." — Johnson and 
Priestley cor. "Avoid questions and strife : they show a busy and contentious disposition." — Penn 
cor. " To receive the gifts and benefits of God with thanksgiving, and witness them blessed and 
sanctified to us by the word and prayer, is owned by us." — Barclay cor. "Both minister and 
magistrate are compelled to choose between their duty and their reputation." — Junius cor. "All 
the sincerity, truth, and faithfulness, or disposition of heart or conscience to approve them, found 
among rational creatures, necessarily originate from God." — Rev. J. Brown cor. "Your levity 
and heedlessness, if they continue, will prevent all substantial improvement." — Brown's Inst, p. 
269. " Poverty and obscurity will oppress him only who esteems them oppressive." — lb. " Good 
sense and refined policy are obvious to few, because they cannot be discovered but by a train of 
reflection." — lb. " Avoid haughtiness of behaviour, and affectation of manners : they imply a want 
of solid merit." — lb. " If love and unity continue, they will make you partakers of one an other's 
joy." — lb. "Suffer not jealousy and distrust to enter: they will destroy, like a canker, every 
germ of friendship." — lb. "Hatred and animosity are inconsistent with Christian charity: 

* Perhaps it would be as well or better, in correcting these two examples, to say, " There are a generation." 
But the article a, as well as the literal form of the noun, is a sign of unity ; and a complete uniformity of num- 
bers is not here practicable. 



956 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

guard, therefore, against the slightest indulgence of them." — lb. " Every man is entitled to lib- 
erty of conscience,' and freedom of opinion, if he does not pervert them to the injury of others." — 
lb. 

" "With the azure and vermilion 
Which are mix'd for my pavilion." — Byron cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XIII ; OP PRONOUNS. 
Antecedents connected by OR or NOR. 

" Neither prelate nor priest can give his [flock or] flocks any decisive evidence that you are 
lawful pastors." — Brownlee cor. " And is there a heart of parent or of child, that does not beat 
and burn within him V — Maturin cor. " This is just as if an eye or a foot should demand a salary 
for its service to the body." — Collier cor. " If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut it off, and cast 
it from thee." — Bible cor. "The same might as well be said of Virgil, or any great author; whose 
general character will infallibly raise many casual additions to his reputation." — Pope cor. " Either 
James or John, — one or the other, — will come." — Smith cor. "Even a rugged rock or a barren 
heath, though in itself disagreeable, contributes, by contrast, to the beauty of the whole." — Karnes 
cor. " That neither Count Rechteren nor Monsieur Mesnager had behaved himself right in this 
affair." — Sped. cor. " If an Aristotle, a Pj r thagoras, or a Galileo, suffers for his opinions, he is a, 
1 martyr.'' " — Fuller cor. " If an ox gore a man or a woman, that he or she die ; then the ox shall 
surely be stoned." — Exod. cor. "She was calling out to one or an other, at every step, that a 
Habit was ensnaring him." — Johnson cor. " Here is a task put upon children, which neither this 
author himself, nor any other, has yet undergone." — R. Johnson cor. " Hence, if an adjective or 
a participle be subjoined to the verb when the construction is singular, it will agree both in 
gender and in number with the collective noun." — Adam and Gould cor. " And if you can find a 
diphthong or a triphthong, be pleased to point that out too." — Bucke cor. "And if you can find 
a trissyllable or a polysyllable, point it out." — Id. " The false refuges in which the atheist or the 
sceptic has intrenched himself." — Ghr. Sped. cor. "While the man or woman thus assisted by 
art, expects his charms or hers will be imputed to nature alone." — Opie cor. " When you press a 
watch, or pull a clock, it answers your question with precision ; for it repeats exactly the hour of 
the day, and tells you neither more nor less than you desire to know." — Bolingbroke cor. 
" Not the Mogul, or Czar of Muscovy, 
Not Prester John, or Cham of Tartary, 
Is in his mansion monarch more than I." — King cor. 



CHAPTER VI— VERBS. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XIY AND ITS NOTES. 
Under the Rule itself. — Verb after the Nominative. 
" Before you left Sicily, you were reconciled to Verres." — Duncan cor. " Knowing that you were 
my old master's good friend." — Sped. cor. " When the judge dares not act, where is the loser's 
remedy?" — Wtbster cor. "Which extends it no farther than the variation of the verb extends." 
— Mur. cor. " They presently dry without hurt, as myself have often proved." — R. Williams cor. 
"Whose goings-forth have been from of old, from everlasting." — Micah, v, 2. "You were paid 
to fight against Alexander, not to rail at him." — Porter cor. " Where more than one part of 
speech are almost always concerned." — Churchill cor. "Nothing less than murders, rapines, and 
conflagrations, employs their thoughts." Or: "No less things than murders, rapines, and con- 
flagrations, employ their thoughts." — Duncan cor. "I wondered where you were, my dear." — 
Lloyd cor. " When thou most sweetly singst." — Drummond cor. " Who dares, at the present day, 
avow himself equal to the task?" — Gardiner cor. " Every body is very kind to her, and not dis- 
courteous to me." — Byron cor. " As to what thou sayst respecting the diversity of opinions." — 
M. B. cor. "Thy nature, Immortality, who knows V — Everest cor. "The natural distinction of 
sex in animals, gives rise to what, in grammar, are called genders." — Id. " Some pains have 
likewise been taken." — Scott cor. " And many a steed in his stables was seen." — Penwarne cor. 
" They were forced to eat what never was esteemed food." — Josephus cor. " This that you your- 
self have spoken, I desire that they may take their oaths upon." — Hutchinson cor. " By men 
whose experience best qualifies them to judge." — Committee cor. "He dares venture to kill and 
destroy several other kinds offish." — Walton cor. "If a gudgeon meet a roach, He ne'er will 
venture to approach." Or thus: "If a gudgeon meets a roach, He dares not venture to ap- 
proach." — Swift cor. " Which thou endeavourst to establish to thyself." — Barclay cor. "But 
they pray together much oftener than thou insinuafst." — Id. " Of people of all denominations, 
over whom thou presidest." — N. Wain cor. " I can produce ladies and gentlemen whose progress 
has been astonishing." — Chazotte cor. " Which of these two kinds of vice is the more criminal?" — 
Dr. Brown cor. " Every twenty-four hours afford to us the vicissitudes of day and night." — 
Smith's False Syntax, New Gram., p. 103. Or thus: " Every period of twenty -four hours affords to 
us the vicissitudes of day and night." — Smith cor. " Every four years add an other day." — Smith's 
False Syntax, Gram., p. 103. Better thus: " Every fourth year adds an other day." — Smith cor. 
" Every error I could find, Has my busy muse employed.'' — Swift cor. " A studious scholar deserves 
the approbation of his teacher." — Sanborn cor. " Perfect submission to the rules of a school 



CHAP. VI.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XIV. — VERBS. 957 

indicates good breeding." — Id. " A comparison in which more than two are concerned." — Len- 
nies Gram., p. 18. "By the facilities which artificial language affords them." — 0. B. Peirce cor. 
"Now thyself hast lost both lop and top." — Spencer cor. " Glad tidings are brought to the poor." 
— Campbell cor. " Upon which, all that is pleasurable or affecting in elocution, chiefly depends." 
— Sher. cor. "No pains have been spared to render this work complete." — Bullions cor. "The 
United States contain more than a twentieth part of the land of this globe." — Clinton cor. "I 
am mindful that myself am strong." — Fowler cor. "Myself am (not is) weak;" — "Thyself 
art (not is) weak." — Id. 

" How pale each worshipful and reverend guest 
Bises from clerical or city feast I" — Pope cor. 

Under the Rule itself. — Verb before the Nominative. 
" Where were you born ? In London." — Buchanan cor. " There are frequent occasions for" 
commas." — Ingersoll cor. "There necessarily follow from thence these plain and unquestionable 
consequences." — Priestley cor. "And to this impression contributes the redoubled effort." — 
Karats cor. "Or, if he was, were there no spiritual men then?" — Barclay cor. "So, by these 
two also, are signified their contrary principles." — Id. "In the motions made with the hands, 
consists the chief part of gesture in speaking." — Blair cor. " Dares he assume the name of a pop- 
ular magistrate ?" — Duncan cor. " There were no damages as in England, and so Scott lost his 
wager." — Byron cor. " In fact, there exist such resemblances." — Karnes cor. " To him give all 
the prophets witness." — Acts, x, 43. "That there were so many witnesses and actors.' — Addison 
cor. "How do this man's definitions stand affected?" — Collier cor. "Whence come all the 
powers and prerogatives of rational beings ?" — Id. " Nor do the scriptures cited by thee prove thy 
intent." — Barclay cor. " Nor does the scripture cited by thee prove the contrary." — Id. "Why 
then citest thou a scripture which is so plain and clear for it ?" — Id. " But what say the Scrip- 
tures as to respect of persons among Christians?" — Id. " But in the mind of man, while in the 
savage state, there seem to be hardly any ideas but what enter by the senses." — Robertson cor. 
" What sounds has each of the vowels ?" — Griscom cor. " Out of this have grown up aristocra- 
cies, monarchies, despotisms, tyrannies." — Brownson cor. " And there were taken up, of frag- 
ments that remained to them, twelve baskets." — Bible cor. "There seem to be but two general 
classes." — Day cor. " Hence arise the six forms of expressing time." — Id. "There seem to bo 
no other words required." — Cliandler cor. "If there are two, the second increment is the sylla- 
ble next to the last." — Bullions cor. " Hence arise the following advantages." — Id. " There aro 
no data by which it can be estimated." — Calhoun cor. " To this class, belongs the Chinese lan- 
guage, in which we have nothing but naked primitives." — Fowler cor. [IdF* " Nothing but naked 
roots" is faulty; because no word is a root, except some derivative spring from it." — 0. B.] 
"There were several other grotesque figures that presented themselves." — Spect. cor. "In these 
consists that sovereign good which ancient sages so much extol." — Percival cor. "Here come 
those I have done good to against my will." — Shak. cor. " Where there are more than one aux- 
iliary." Or: "Where there are more auxiliaries than one." — 0. B. Peirce cor. 

"On me to cast those eyes where shines nobility." — Sidney cor. 
"Here are half-pence in plenty, for one you'll have twenty." — Swift cor. 
"Ah, Jockey, ill advisest thou, I wis, 
To think of songs at such a time as this." — Churchill cor. 

Under Note I. — The Relative and Verb. 

" Thou, who lovest us, wilt protect us still." — A. Murray cor. " To use that endearing language, 
'Our Father, who art in heaven.'" — Bates cor. "Resembling the passions that produce these 
actions." — Karnes cor. "Except dwarf, grief, hoof muff, &c, which take s to make the plural." 
— Ash cor. "As the cattle that go before me, and the children, be able to endure." — Gen. cor. 
"Where is the man who dares affirm that such an action is mad?" — Dr. Pratt cor. "The ninth 
book of Livy affords one of the most beautiful exemplifications of historical painting, that are 
anywhere to be met with." — Dr. Blair cor. "In some studies, too, that relate to taste and fine 
writing, which are our object," &c. — Id. " Of those affecting situations which make man's heart 
feel for man." — Id. " We see very plainly, that it is neither Osmyn nor Jane Shore that speaks." 
— Id. " It should assume that briskness and ease which are suited to the freedom of dialogue." — Id. 
" Yet they grant, that none ought to be admitted into the ministry, but such as are truly pious." 
— Barclay cor. "This letter is one of the best that have been written about Lord Byron." — Hunt 
cor. "Thus, besides what were sunk, the Athenians took above two hundred ships." — Goldsmith 
cor. " To have made and declared such orders as were necessary." — Hutchinson cor. " The idea 
of such a collection of men as makes an army." — Locke cor. "I'm not the first that has been 
wretched." — Southern cor. "And the faint sparks of it which are in the angels, are concealed 
from our view." — Calvin cor. " The subjects are of such a nature, as allows room (or, as to alloio 
room) for much diversity of taste and sentiment." — Dr. Blair cor. " It is in order to propose ex- 
amples of such perfection, as is not to be found in the real examples of society." — Formey cor. 
" I do not believe that he would amuse himself with such fooleries as have been attributed to him." 
— Id. " That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed." —Mlton, P. L., B. i, 1. 8. "With 
respect to the vehemence and warmth which are allowed in popular eloquence." — Dr. Blair cor. 
"Ambition is one of those passions that are never to be satisfied." — Home cor. "Thou wast he 



058 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

that led out and brought in Israel." — Bible cor. "Art thou the man of God, that came from 
Judah?"— Id. 

" How beauty is excell'd by manly grace 

And wisdom, which alone are truly fair." — Milton cor. 
"What art thou, speak, that on designs unknown, 
While others sleep, thus roarnst the camp alone?" — Pope cor. 

Under Note II. — Nominative with Adjuncts. 

"The literal sense of the words is, that the action had been done." — Dr. Murray cor. "The 
rapidity of his movements was beyond example." — Wells cor. " Murray's Grammar, together with 
his Exercises and Key, has nearly superseded every thing else of the kind." — Murray's Bee. cor. 
"The mechanism of clocks and watches was totally unknown." — Hume cor. "The it, together 
with the verb to be, expresses a state of being." — Gobbett cor. " Hence it is, that the profuse va- 
riety of objects in some natural landscapes, occasions neither confusion nor fatigue." — Karnes cor. 
"Such a clatter of sounds indicates rage and ferocity." — Gardiner cor. " One of the fields makes 
threescore square yards, and the other, only fifty-five." — Duncan cor. "The happy effects of this 
fable are worth attending to." — Bailey cor. "Yet the glorious serenity of its parting rays, still 
lingers with us." — Gould cor. " Enough of its form and force is retained to render them uneasy." 
— Maturin cor. " The works of nature, in this respect, are extremely regular." — Pratt cor. "No 
small addition of exotic and foreign words and phrases, has been made by commerce." — Bicknell 
cor. " The dialect of some nouns is noticed in the notes." — Milnes cor. " It has been said, that 
a discovery of the full resources of the arts, affords the means of debasement, or of perversion." 
— Rush cor. " By which means, the order of the words is disturbed." — Holmes cor. " The two- 
fold influence of these and the others, requires the verb to be in the plural form." — Peirce cor. 
" And each of these affords employment." — Percival cor. " The pronunciation of the vowels is 
best explained under the rules relative to the consonants." — Goar cor. " The judicial power of 
these courts extends to all cases in law and equity." — Hall and Baker cor. " One of you has stolen 
my money." — Humorist cor. " Such redundancy of epithets, in stead of pleasing, produces sa- 
tiety and disgust." — Karnes cor. "It has been alleged, that a compliance with the rules of Rhet- 
oric, tends to cramp the mind." — Hiley cor. " Each of these is presented to us in different 
relations." — Hendrick cor. " The past tense of these verbs, {should, would, might, could,) is very 
indefinite with respect to time." — Bullions cor. " The power of the words which are said to gov- 
ern this mood, is distinctly understood." — Chandler cor. 

" And now, at length, the fated term of years 
The world's desire hath brought, and lo ! the God appears." — Lowth cor. 

" Variety of numbers still belongs 
To the soft melody of odes, or songs." — Brightland cor. 

Under Note III. — Composite or Converted Subjects. 
" Many are the works of human industry, which to begin and finish, is hardly granted to the 
same man." — Johnson cor. " To lay down rules for these, is as inefficacious." — Pratt cor. " To pro- 
fess regard and act injuriously, discovers a base mind." — L. Murray et al. cor. " To magnify to the 
height of wonder things great, new, and admirable, extremely pleases the mind of man." — Fisher 
cor. " In this passage, '■according as ' is used in a manner which is very common." — Webster cor. 
"A cause de, is called a preposition ; a cause que, a conjunction." — Webster cor. " To these 
it is given to speak in the name of the Lord." — The Friend cor. " While wheat has no plural, oats 
has seldom any singular." — Gobbett cor. " He cannot assert that 11 (i. e., double Ell) is inserted in 
fullness to denote the sound of u." — Cobb cor. " Gh, in Latin, has the power of k." — Gould cor. 
" Ti, befora a vowel, and unaccented, has the sound of si or ci." — Id. " In words derived from 
French, as chagrin, chicanery, and chaise, ch is sounded like sh." — Bucke cor. " But, in the words 
schism, schismatic, Sec, the ch is silent." — Id. " Ph, at the beginning of words, is always sounded 
like/." — Bucke cor. " Ph has the sound of/, as in philosophy." — Webster cor. " Sh has one 
sound only, as in shall." — Id. " Th has two sounds." — Id. " Sc, before a, o, u,or r, has the sound 
of sk." — Id. " Aw has the sound of a in hall." — Bolles cor. " Ew sounds like u." — Id. " Ow, 
when both vowels are sounded, has the power of ou in thou." — Id. " Ui, when both vowels are 
pronounced in one syllable, sounds like wi short, as in languid." — Id. 

" Ui three other sounds at least expresses, 
As who hears g-uile, rebuild, and bruise, confesses." — Brightland cor. 

Under Note IV.— EACH, ONE, EITHER, and NEITHER. 
"When each of the letters which compose this word, has been learned." — Dr. Weeks cor. " As 
neither of us denies that both Homer and Virgil have great beauties." — Dr. Blair cor. "Yet 
neither of them is remarkable for precision." — Id. " How far each of the three great epic poets 
has distinguished himself." — Id. " Each of these produces a separate, agreeable sensation." — Id. 
" On the Lord's day, every one of us Christians keeps the sabbath." — Tr. of Iren. cor. " And each 
of them bears the image of purity and holiness." — Hope of Is. cor. " Was either of these meet- 
ings ever acknowledged or recognized?" — Foster cor. "Whilst neither of these letters exists in 
the Eugubian inscription." — Knight cor. " And neither of them is properly termed indefinite." — 
Dr. Wilson cor. " As likewise of the several subjects, which have in effect their several verbs ;" 



CHAF- VI.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XIV. VERBS. 959 

or, — " each of which has in effect its own verb." — Lowth cor. " Sometimes, when the word ends 
ins, neither of the signs is used." — A. Mur. cor. "And as neither of these manners offends the 
ear." — J. Walker cor. " Neither of these two tenses is confined to this signification only." — R. 
Johnson cor. "But neither of these circumstances is intended here." — Tookecor. "So that all 
are indebted to each, and each is dependent upon all." — Bible Rep. cor. "And yet neither of 
them expresses any more action in this case, than it did in the other." — Bullions cor. " Each of 
these expressions denotes action." — Hallock cor. "Neither of these moods seems to be defined 
by distinct boundaries." — Butler cor. "Neither of these solutions is correct." — Bullions cor. 
" Neither bears any sign of case at all." — Foiuler cor. 

"Each in his turn, like Banquo's monarchs, stalks." Or: — 
"All in their turn, like Banquo's monarchs, stalk." — Byron cor. 
" And tell what each doth by the other lose." — Shak. cor. 

Under Note V. — Verb between two Nominatives. 

"The quarrels of lovers are but a renewal of love." — Adam et al. cor. "Two dots, one placed 
above the other, are called a Sheva" — Wilson cor. "A few centuries more or less are a matter 
of small consequence." — Id. " Pictures were the first step towards the art of writing ; hieroglyph- 
ics were the second step." — Parker cor. "The comeliness of youth is modesty and frankness; 
of age, condescension and dignity." Or, much better: "The great ornaments of youth are" &c. 
— Murray cor. " Merit and good works are the end of man's motion" — Bacon cor. "Divers 
philosophers hold, that the lips are parcel of the mind." — Shak. cor. " The clothing of the na- 
tives was the skins of wild beasts." Or thus: "The clothes of the natives were skins of wild 
beasts." — Hist. cor. "Prepossessions in favour of our native town, are not a matter of surprise." 
— Webster cor. "Two shillings and sixpence are half a crown, but not a half crown." — Priestley 
and Bicknell cor. " Two vowels, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice, and uniting in one 
sound, are called a diphthong." — Cooper cor. " Two or more sentences united together are called 
a Compound Sentence." — Day cor. " Two or more words rightly put together, but not com- 
pleting an entire proposition, are called a Phrase." — Id. " But the common number of times is 
five." Or, to state the matter truly: "But the common number of tenses is six." — Brit. Gram, 
cor. "Technical terms, injudiciously introduced, are an other source of darkness in composition." 
— Jamieson cor. "The United States are the great middle division of North America." — Morse 
cor. "A great cause of the low state of industry, was the restraints put upon it." — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 199; ChurchilVs, 414. "Here two tall ships become the victor's prey." — Rowe cor. 
" The expenses incident to an outfit are surely no object." — The Friend cor. 

" Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, 
Were all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep." — Milt. cor. 

Under Note YI. — Change op the Nominative. 

"Much care has been taken, to explain all the kinds of words." — Inf. S. Gr. cor. " TXotfevjer 
[years] than three years, are spent in attaining this faculty." Or, perhaps better: "Not less 
than three years' time, is spent in attaining this faculty." Or thus: "Not less time than three 
years, is spent," &c. — Gardiner cor. "Where this night are met in state Many friends to 
gratulate His wish'd presence." — Milton cor. "Peace! my darling, here's no danger, Here's no 
ox anear thy bed." — Watts cor. " But all of these are mere conjectures, and some of them very 
unhappy ones." — Coleridge cor. "The old theorists' practice of calling the Interrogative s and 
Repliers Adverbs, is only a part of their regular system of naming words." — 0. B. Peirce cor. 
i; \Y here several sentences occur, place them in the order of the facts." — Id. " And that all the 
events in conjunction make a regular chain of causes and effects." — Karnes cor. " In regard to 
their origin, the Grecian and Roman republics, though equally involved in the obscurities and un- 
certainties of fabulous events, present one remarkable distinction." — Adams cor. " In these re- 
spects, man is left by nature an unformed, unfinished creature." — Bp. Butler cor. " The Scriptures 
are the oracles of God himself." — Hooker cor. "And at our gates are all kinds of pleasant fruits." 
— iS. Song cor. "The preterits of pluck, look, and toss, are, in speech, pronounced pluckt, lookt, 
tosst." — Fowler corrected. 

" Severe the doom that days prolonged impose, 
To stand sad witness of unnumbered woes!" — Melmoth cor. 

Under Note VII. — Forms adapted to Different Styles. 
1. Forms adapted to the Common or Familiar Style* 
"Was it thou* that built that house?" — Brown's Institutes, Key, p. 2?0. "That boy writes 
very elegantly." — lb. " Could not thou write without blotting thy book ?" — lb. " Host not thou 
think — or, Don't thou think, it wiU rain to-day?" — lb. " Does not — or, Don't your cousin intend 
to visit you?" — lb. " That boy has torn my book." — lb. "Was it thou that spread the hay ?" 
— lb. " Was it James, or thou, that let him in ?" — lb. " He dares not say a word." — lb. " Thou 
stood in my way and hindered me." — lb. 

"Whom do I see? — Whom dost thou see now? — Whom does he see? — Whom dost thou love 

* Though the pronoun thou is not much used in common discourse, it is as proper for the grammarian to 
consider and show, what form of the verb beloners to it when it is so used, as it is for him to determine what 
form is adapted to any other pronoun, when a difference of style affects the question. 



960 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

most? — "What art thou doing to-day? — "What person dost thou see teaching that boy ? — He has 
two new knives. — Which road dost thou take ? — What child is he teaching V — Ingersoll cor. 
" Thou, who maWst my shoes, sellst many more." Or thus : " You, who make my shoes, sell many 
more." — Id. 

" The English language has been much cultivated during the last two hundred years. It has 
been considerably polished and refined." — Lowth cor. "This style is ostentatious, and does not 
suit grave writing." — Priestley cor. " But custom has now appropriated who to persons, and 
which to things" [and brute animals]. — Id. " The indicative mood shows or declares something ; 
as, Ego amo, I love: or else asks a question; as, Amas tuf Dost thou love?" — PauVs Ac. cor. 
" Though thou cannot do much for the cause, thou may and should do something." — Murray cor. 
"The support of so many of his relations, was a heavy tax: but thou knowst (or, you know) ho 
paid it cheerfully." — Id. " It may, and often does, come short of it." — Murray's Gram., p. 359. 
" 'Twas thou, who, while thou seem'd to chide, 
To give me all thy pittance tried." — Mitford cor. 

2. Forms adapted to the Solemn or Biblical Style. 
" The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens ; and his kingdom ruleih over all." — Psalms, 
ciii, 19. "Thou answeredst them, Lord our God: thou wast a God that forgave* them, though 
thou tookest vengeance of their inventions." — See Psalms, xcix, 8. " Then thou spakest in vision 
to thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty." — lb., lxxxix, 19. " 'So 
then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy;' who 
dispenseth his blessings, whether temporal or spiritual, as seemeth good in his sight." — Christian 
Experience of St. Paul, p. 344 ; see Pom., ix, 16. 

" Thou, the mean while, wast blending with my thought; 
Yea, with my life, and life's own secret joy." — Coleridge cor. 

Under Note VIII. — Express the Nominative. 

""Who is here so base, that he would be a bondman?" — Shak. cor. "Who is here so rude, he 
would not be a Roman F" — Id. "There is not a sparrow which falls to the ground without his 
notice." Or better: " Not a sparrow falls to the ground, without his notice." — Murray cor. " In 
order to adjust them in such a manner as shall consist equally with the perspicuit} r and the 
strength of the period." — Id. and Blair cor. " But sometimes there is a verb which comes in." 
Better: "But sometimes there is a verb introduced." — Cobbett cor. " Mr. Prince has a genius 
which would prompt him to better things."— Sped. cor. " It is this that removes that impenetra* 
ble mist." — Harris cor. " By the praise which is given him for his courage." — Locke cor. " There 
is no man tvho would be more welcome here." — Steele cor. " Between an antecedent and a con- 
sequent, or what goes before, and what immediately follows." — Blair cor. " And as connected 
with what goes before and what follows." — Id. " No man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake." — 
Bacon cor. " All the various miseries of life, which people bring upon themselves by negligence 
or folly, and which might have been avoided by proper care, are instances of this." — Bp. But- 
ler cor. "Ancient philosophers have taught many things in favour of morality, so far at least as 
it respects justice and goodness towards our folio w-creatures." — Fuller cor. " Indeed, if there be 
any such, who have been, or who appear to be of us, as suppose there is not a wise man among 
us all, nor an honest man, that is able to judge betwixt his brethren ; we shall not covet to med- 
dle in their matters" — Barclay cor. " There were some that drew back ; there were some that 
made shipwreck of faith ; yea, there were some that brought in damnable heresies." — Id. " The 
nature of the cause rendered this plan altogether proper ; and, under similar circumstances, the 
orator's method is fit to be imitated." — Blair cor. "This is an idiom to which our language is 
strongly inclined, and which was formerly very prevalent." — Churchill cor. " His roots are wrapped 
about the heap, and he seeth the place of stones." — Bible cor. 

"New York, Fifthmonth 3d, 1823. 
Dear friend, 

/ am sorry to hear of thy loss ; but / hope it may be retrieved. I should be happy to render 
thee any assistance in my power. / shall call to see thee to-morrow morning. Accept assurances 
of my regard. A. B." 

" New York, May 3d, P. M., 1823. 
Dear sir, 

/ have just received the kind note you favoured me with this morning ; and I cannot forbear to 
express my gratitude to you. On further information, / find i" have not lost so much as / at 
first supposed ; and /believe /shall still be able to meet all my engagements, /should, however, 
be happy to see you. Accept, dear sir, my most cordial thanks. C. D." 

See Brown's Institutes, p. 271. 

" Will martial flames forever fire thy mind, 
And wilt thou never be t.o Heaven resign'd ?" — Pope cor. 

Under Note IX. — Application of Moods. 

First Clause of the Note. — The Subjunctive Present. 

" He will not be pardoned unless he repent." — Inst, p. 191. "If thou find any kernelwort in 

* " Forgavest" as the reading is in our common Bible, appears to be wrong; because the relative that and 
its antecedent Ood are of the third person, and not of the second. 



CHAP. YI.] KEY TO FALSE SYXTAX. — EULE XIY. — YEEBS. 961 

this marshy meadow, bring it to me." — Neef cor. " If thou leave the room, do not forget to shut 
that drawer." — Id. "If thou grasp it stoutly, thou wilt not be hurt:" or, (familiarly,) — "thou 
will not be hurt." — Id. " On condition that he come, I will consent to stay." — Murray's Key, p. 
208. " If he be but discreet, he will succeed." — Inst., p. 280. " Take heed that thou speak not 
to Jacob." — Gen., xxxi, 24. " If thou cast me off, I shall be miserable." — Inst, p. 280. " Send 
them to me, if thou please." — lb. ""Watch the door of thy lips, lest thou utter folly." — lb. 
"Though a liar speak the truth, he will hardly be believed." — Bartlett cor. " I will go, unless I 
be ill." — L. Murray cor. "If the word or words understood be supplied, the true construction 
will be apparent." — Id. " Unless thou see the propriety of the measure, we shall not desire thy 
support." — Id. "Unless thou make a timely retreat, the danger will be unavoidable." — Id. 
"We may live happily, though our possessions be small." — Id. "If they be carefully studied, 
they will enable the student to parse all the exercises." — Id. " If the accent be fairly preserved 
on the proper syllable, this drawling sound will never be heard." — Id. " One phrase may, in 
point of sense, be equivalent to an other, though its grammatical nature be essentially different." 
— Id. "If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man." — 2 Thess., iii, 14. " Thy 
skill will be the greater, if thou hit it." — Putnam, Cobb, or Knowles, cor. " We shall overtake 
him, though he run." — Priestley ei al. cor. " We shall be disgusted, if he give us too much." — 
Blair cor. 

" What is't to thee, if he neglect thy urn, 
Or without spices let thy body burn ?" — Dry den cor. 

Second Clause of Note IX. — The Subjunctive Imperfect* 

" And so would I, if I were he." — Inst, p. 191. " If I were a Greek, I should resist Turkish 
despotism." — Cardell cor. " If he were to go, he would attend to your business." — Id. " If thou 
felt as I do, we should soon decide." — Inst, p. 280. " Though thou shed thy blood in the cause, 
it would but prove thee sincerely a fool." — lb. "If thou loved him, there would be more evidence 
of it." — lb. "If thou convinced him, he would not act accordingly." — Murray cor. "If there 
were no liberty, there would be no real crime." — Formey cor. " If the house ivere burnt down, 
the case would be the same." — Foster cor. "As if the mind were not always in action, when it 
prefers any thing." — West cor. " Suppose I vjere to say, ' Light is a body.' " — Harris cor. "If 
either oxygen or azote were omitted, life would be destroyed." — Gurney cor. " The verb dare is 
sometimes used as if it were an auxiliary." — Priestley cor. " A certain lady, whom I could 
name, if it were necessary." — Spect cor. " If the e were dropped, c and g would assume their 
hard sounds." — Buchanan cor. " He would no more comprehend it, than if it were the speech of 
a Hottentot." — Neef cor. "If thou knew the gift of God," &c. — Bible cor. "I wish I were at 
home." — 0. B. Peirce cor. "Fact alone does not constitute right : if it did, general warrants 
were lawful" — Junius cor. " Thou lookst upon thy boy, as though thou guessed it." — Putnam, 
Cobb, or Knowles, cm: "He fought as if he contended for life." — Hiley cor. "He fought as if he 
vjere contending for his life." — Id. 



" The dewdrop glistens on thy leaf, 
As if thou shed for me a tear ; 



As if thou knew my tale of grief, 

Felt all my sufferings severe." — Letham cor. 



Last Clause of Note IX. — The Indicative Mood. 

"If he knows the way, he does not need a guide." — Inst, p. 191. " And if there is no differ- 
ence, one of them must be superfluous, and ought to be rejected." — Murray cor. " I cannot say 
that I admire this construction, though it is much used." — Priestley cor. " We are disappointed, 
if the verb does not immediately follow it." — Id. "If it was they, that acted so ungratefully, they 
are doubly in fault." — Murray cor. " If art becomes apparent, it disgusts the reader."' — Jamieson 
cor. " Though perspicuity is more properly a rhetorical than a grammatical quality, I thought it 
better to include it in this book." — Campbell cor. " Although the efficient cause is obscure, the 
final cause of those sensations lies open." — Blair cor. " Although the barrenness of language, or 
the want of words, is doubtless one cause of the invention of tropes." — Id. " Though it enforces 
not its instructions, yet it furnishes a greater variety." — Id. "In other cases, though the idea is 
one, the words remain quite separate." — Priestley cor. "Though the form of our language is more 
simple, and has that peculiar beauty." — Buchanan cor. " Human works are of no significancy till 
they are completed." — Karnes cor. "Our disgust lessens gradually till it vanishes altogether." — 
Id. " And our relish improves by use, till it arrives at perfection." — Id. " So long as he keeps 
himself in his own proper element." — Coke cor. "Whether this translation was ever published 
or not, I am wholly ignorant." — Sale cor. " It is false to affirm, ' As it is day, it is light,' unless 
it actually is day." — Harris cor. " But we may at midnight affirm, 'If it is day, it is light' " — 
Id. " If the Bible is true, it is a volume of unspeakable interest." — Dickinson cor. " Though he 
vjas a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." — Bible cor. "If David 
then calleth (or calls) him Lord, how is he his son ?" — Id. 

" 'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill 
Appears in writing, or in judging, ill." — Pope cor. 

* All the corrections under this head are directly contrary to the teaching of "William S. Cardell, Oliver B. 
Peirce, and perhaps some other such writers on grammar ; and some of them are contrary also to Murray's late 
editions. But I am confident that these authors teach erroneously; that their use of indicative forms for mere 
suppositions that are contrary to the facts, is positively ungrammatical ; and that the potential imperfect is less 
elegant, in such instances, than the simple subjunctive, which they reject or distort. 

61 



962 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

Under Note X. — False Subjunctives. 
" If a man has built a house, the house is his." — Wayland cor. " If God has required them of 
him, as is the fact, he has time." — Id. "Unless a previous understanding to the contrary has 
been had with the principal." — Berrian cor. " ! if thou hast hid them in some flowery cave." — 
Milton cor. "01 if Jove's will has linked that amorous power to thy soft lay." — Id. "Sub- 
junctive Mood: If thou love, If thou loved." — Dr. Priestley, Dr. Murray, John Burn, David 
Blair, Harrison, and others. " Till Religion, the pilot of the soul, hath lent thee her unfathom- 
able coil." — Tapper cor. "Whether nature or art contributes most to form an orator, is a trifling 
inquiry." — Blair cor. "Year after year steals something from us, till the decaying fabric totters 
of itself, and at length crumbles into dust." — Murray cor. "If spiritual pride has not entirely van- 
quished humility." — West cor. " Whether he has gored a son, or has gored a daughter." — Bible 
cor. "It is doubtful whether the object introduced by way of simile, relates to what goes before 
or to what follows." — Karnes cor. 

" And bridle in thy headlong wave, | " And bridle in thy headlong wave, 

Till thou our summons answer'd hast.^ Or : — I Till thou hast granted what wecrave." — Milt. cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XV AND ITS NOTE. 
Under the Rule itself. — The Idea of Plurality. 

"The gentry are punctilious in their etiquette." — G. B. "In France, the peasantry go bare- 
foot, and the middle sort make use of wooden shoes." — Harvey cor. " The people rejoice in that 
which should cause sorrow." — Murray varied. " My people are foolish, they have not known 
me." — Bible and Lowth cor. " For the people speak, but do not write." — Phil. Mu. cor. " So that 
all the people that were in the camp, trembled." — Bible cor. "No company like to confess that 
they are ignorant." — Todd cor. " Far the greater part of their captives were anciently sacrificed." 
— Robertson cor. " More than one half of them were cut off before the return of spring." — Id. 
" The other class, termed Figures of Thought, suppose the words to be used in their proper and 
literal meaning." — Blair and Mur. cor. " A multitude of words in their dialect approach to the 
Teutonic form, and therefore afford excellent assistance." — Dr. Murray cor. " A great majority 
of our authors are defective in manner." — J. Brown cor. "The greater part of these new-coined 
words have been rejected." — Tooke cor. " The greater part of the words it contains, are subject 
to certain modifications or inflections." — TJie Friend cor. "While all our youth prefer her to the 
rest." — Waller cor. " Mankind are appointed to live in a future state." — Bp. Butler cor. " The 
greater part of human kind speak and act wholly by imitation." — Rambler, No. 146. "The 
greatest part of human gratifications approach so nearly to vice." — lb., No. 160. 
"While still the busy world are treading o'er 
The paths they trod five thousand years before." — Young cor. 

Under the Note. — The Idea of Unity. 

"In old English, this species of words was numerous." — Dr. Murray cor. "And a series of 
exercises in false grammar is introduced towards the end." — Frost cor. "And a jury, in conform- 
ity with the same idea, was anciently called homagium, the homage, or manhood." — Webster cor. 
" With respect to the former, there is indeed a plenty of means." — Karnes cor. " The number of 
school districts has increased since the last year." — Tliroop cor. " The Y"early Meeting has pur- 
chased with its funds these publications." — Foster cor. il Has the legislature power to prohibit 
assemblies ?" — Sullivan cor. " So that the whole number of the streets was fifty." — Rollin cor. 
" The number of inhabitants was not more than four millions." — Smollett cor. " The house of 
Commons was of small weight." — Hume cor. " The assembly of the wicked hath (or has) in- 
closed me." — Psal. cor. " Every kind of convenience and comfort is provided." — O. S. Journal 
cor. " Amidst the great decrease of the inhabitants in Spain, the body of the clergy has suffered 
no diminution ; but it has rather been gradually increasing." — Payne cor. " Small as the number 
of inhabitants is, yet their poverty is extreme."-— id "The number of the names was about one 
hundred and twenty." — Ware and Acts cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XYI AND ITS NOTES. 
Under the Rule itself — The Vebb after Joint Nominatives. 
"So much ability and [so much] merit are seldom found." — Mur. et al. cor. "The etymology 
and syntax of the language are thus spread before the learner." — Bullions cor. " Dr. Johnson 
tells us, that, in English poetry, the accent and the quantity of syllables are the same thing." — 
Adams cor. " Their general scope and tendency, having never been clearly apprehended, are not 
remembered at all." — L. Murray cor. "The soil and sovereignty were not purchased of the na- 
tives." — Knapp cor. "The boldness, freedom, and variety, of our blank verse, are infinitely more 
favourable to sublimity of style, than [are the constraint and uniformity of] rhyme." — Blair cor. 
" The vivacity and sensibility of the Greeks seem to have been much greater than ours." — Id. 
"For sometimes the mood and tense are signified by the verb, sometimes they are signified of the 
verb by something else." — R. Johnson cor. " The verb and the noun making a complete sense, 
whereas the participle and the noun do not." — Id. " The growth and decay of passions and emo- 
tions, traced through all their mazes, are a subject too extensive for an undertaking like the pres- 
ent." — Karnes cor. " The true meaning and etymology of some of his words were lost." — Knight 



CHAP. VI.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. RULE XYI. — YEEBS. 963 

cor. " When the force and direction of personal satire are no longer understood." — Junius cor. 
" The frame and condition of man admit of no other principle.'' — Dr. Broivn cor. " Some consid- 
erable time and care were necessary." — Id. " In consequence of this idea, much ridicule and cen- 
sure have been thrown upon Milton." — Blair cor. '• With rational beings, nature and reason are 
the same thing." — Collier cor. "And the flax and the barley were smitten." — Bible cor. " The 
colon and semicolon divide a period ; this with, and that without, a connective." — Ware cor. " Con- 
sequently, wherever space and time are found, there God must also be. ; ' — Newton cor. "As the 
past tense and perfect participle of love end in ed, it is regular." — Chandler cor. " But the usual 
arrangement and nomenclature prevent this from being readily seen." — N. Butler cor. "Do and 
did, simply imply opposition or emphasis." — A. Murray cor. " /and an other make the plural we ; 
thou and an other are equivalent to ye; he, she, or it, and an other, make they." — Id. "/and an 
other or others are the same as we, the first person plural; thou and an other or others are the same 
as ye, the second person plural ; he, she, or it, and an other or others, are the same as they, tho 
third person plural." — Buchanan and Brit. Gram. cor. " God and thou are two, and thou and thy 
neighbour are two." — Love Conquest cor. "Just as ax and a have arisen out of the numeral one." 
— Fowler cor. " The tone and style of all of them, particularly o/the first and the last, are very 
different." — Blair cor. " Even as the roebuck and the hart are eaten." — Bible cor. " Then I may 
conclude that two and three do not make five." — Barclay cor. ""Which, at sundry times, thou 
and thy brethren have received from us." — Id. "Two and two are four, and one is five:" i. e., 
"and one, added to four, is five." — Pope cor. "Humility and knowledge with poor apparel, exctl 
pride and ignorance under costly array." — See Murray's Key, Eule 2d. " A page and a half have 
been added to the section on composition." — Bullions cor. " Accuracy and expertness in this ex- 
ercise are an important acquisition." — Id. 

" "Woods and groves are of thy dressing, 

Hill and dale proclaim thy blessing." Or thus : — 
"Hill and valley boast thy blessing." — Milton cor. 

UXDER THE KULE ITSELF. — THE YeRB BEFORE JOIXT XOilLXATIVES. 

" There are a good and a bad, a right and a wrong, in taste, as in other things." — Blair cor. 
" Whence have arisen much stiffness and affectation." — Id. " To this error, are owing, in a great 
measure, that intricacy and [that] harshness, in his figurative language, which I before noticed.'' 
— Blair and Jamieson cor. " Hence, in his Night Thoughts, there prevail an obscurity and a 
hardness of style." — Blair cor. See Jamieson 's Rhet., p. 167. " There are, however, in that work, 
much good sense and excellent criticism." — Blair cor. "There are too much low wit and scur- 
rility in Plautus." Or: "There is, inPlautus, too much of low wit and scurrility." — Id. "There 
are too much reasoning and refinement, too much pomp and studied beauty, in them." Or: 
" There is too much of reasoning and refinement, too much o/pomp and studied beauty, in them." 
— Id. "Hence arise the structure and characteristic expression of exclamation." — Bush cor. 
" And such pilots are he and his brethren, according to their own confession." — Barclay cor. 
" Of whom are Hymeneus and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred." — Bible cor. " Of 
whom are Hymeneus and Alexander ; whom I have delivered unto Satan." — Id. " And so were 
James and John, the sons of Zebedee." — Id. " Out of the same mouth, proceed blessing and 
cursing." — Id. " Out of the mouth of the Most High, proceed not evil and good." — Id. " In which 
there are most plainly a right and a wrong." — Bp. Butler cor. "In this sentence, there are both 
an actor and an object." — R. C. Smith cor. "In the breastplate, were placed the mysterious 
Urim and Thummim." — Milman cor. " What are the gender, number, and person, of thepronoun* 
in the first example f — B. C. Smith cor. " There seem to be a familiarity and a want of dignity 
in it." — Priestley cor. "It has been often asked, what are Latin and Greek ?" — Lit. Journal cor. 
"For where do beauty and high wit, But in your constellation, meet?" — Sam. Butler cor. 
" Thence to the land where flow Ganges and Indus." — Milton cor. '"On these foundations, seem 
to rest the midnight riot and dissipation of modern assemblies." — Dr. Brown cor. "But what 
have disease, deformity, and filth, upon which the thoughts can be allured to dwell ?" — Dr. John- 
son cor. " How are the gender and number of the relative known?" — Bullions cor. 
" High rides the sun, thick rolls the dust, 
And feebler speed the blow and thrust." — Scott cor. 

Uxder Note I. — Chaxge the Coxxective. 
" In every language, there prevails a certain structure, or analogy of parts, which is understood 
to give foundation to the most reputable usage." — Dr. Blair cor. " There runs through his whole 
manner a stiffness, an affectation, which renders him [Shaftsbury] very unfit to be considered a 
general model." — Id. " But where declamation for improvement in speech is the sole aim." — Id. 
"For it is by these, chiefly, that the train of thought, the course of reasoning, the whole progress 
of the mind, in continued discourse of any kind, is laid open." — Loivth cor. " In all writing and 
discourse, the proper composition or structure of sentences is of the highest importance. "-^-Dr. 
Blair cor. " Here the wishful and expectant look of the beggar naturally leads to a vivid concep- 
tion of that which was the object of his thoughts." — Campbell cor. " Who say, that the outward 
naming of Christ, with the sign o/the cross, puts away devils." — Barclay cor. "By which an oath 

* This is what Smith mast have meant hy the inaccurate phrase, " those in the first," For his first example 
is, " He went to school;" which contains only the one pronoun " He."— See Smith's New Oram., p. 19. 



964 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

with a penalty was to be imposed on the members." — Junius cor. " Light, or knowledge, in what 
manner soever afforded us, is equally from God." — Bp. Butler cor. " For instance, sickness or 
untimely death is the consequence of intemperance." — Id. " When grief or blood ill-tempered 
vexeth him." Or: " When grief, with blood ill-tempered, vexes him." — Shak.cor. " Does contin- 
uity, or connexion, create sympathy and relation in the parts of the body?" — Collier cor. " His 
greatest concern, his highest enjoyment, was, to be approved in the sight of his Creator." — L. 
Murray cor. " Know ye not that there is* a prince, a great man, fallen this day in Israel?" — 
Bible cor. "What is vice, or wickedness? No rarity, you may depend on it." — Collier cor. 
" There is also the fear or apprehension of it." — Bp. Butler cor. " The apostrophe with s ('s) is an 
abbreviation for is, the termination of the old English genitive." — Bullions cor. " Ti, ce, or ci, 
when followed by a vowel, usually has the sound of sh; as in partial, ocean, special." — Weld cor. 

" Bitter constraint of sad occasion dear 
Compels me to disturb your season due." — Hilton cor. 

" Debauchery, or excess, though with less noise, 
As great a portion of mankind destroys." — Waller cor. 

Under Note II. — Affirmation with Negation. 
"Wisdom, and not wealth, procures esteem." — Inst., Key, p. 272. "Prudence, and not pomp, 
is the basis of his fame." — lb. " Not fear, but labour has overcome him." — lb. " The decency, 
and not the abstinence, makes the difference." — lb. " Not her beauty, but her talents attract at- 
tention." — lb. " It is her talents, and not her beauty, that attract attention." — lb. " It is her 
beauty, and not her talents, that attracts attention." — lb. 

"His belly, not his brains, this impulse gives: 
He'll grow immortal; for he cannot live." Or thus: — 

"His bowels, not his brains, this impulse give: 
He'll grow immortal ; for he cannot live." — Young cor. 

Under Note III.— AS WELL AS, BUT, or SAVE. 

"Common sense, as well as piety, tells us these are proper." — Fam. Com. cor. " For without it 
the critic, as well as the undertaker, ignorant of any rule, has nothing left but to abandon him- 
self to chance." — Karnes cor. "And accordingly hatred, as well as love, is extinguished by long 
absence." — Id. " But at every turn the richest melody, as well as the sublimest sentiments, is 
conspicuous." — Id. " But it, as well as the lines immediately subsequent, defies all translation." 
— Coleridge cor. "But their religion, as well as their customs and manners, was strangely mis- 
represented." — Bolingbroke, on History, Paris Edition of 1808, p. 93. "But his jealous policy, as 
well as the fatal antipathy of Fonseca, was conspicuous." — Robertson cor. " When their extent, 
as well as their value, was unknown."' — Id. " The etymology, as well as the syntax, of the more 
difficult parts of speech, is reserved for his attention at a later period." — Parker and Fox cor. 
"What I myself owe to him, no one but myself knoivs." — Wright cor. "None, but thou, 
mighty prince ! can avert the blow." — Inst, Key, p. 272. "Nothing, but frivolous amusements, 
pleases the indolent." — lb. 

"Nought, save the gurglings of the rill, was heard." — G. B. 

"All songsters, save the hooting owl, were mute." — G. B. 

Under Note IV.— EACH, EVERY, or NO. 
" Give every word, and every member, its due weight and force." — Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 
316. " And to one of these belongs every noun, and every third person of every verb." — Dr. 
Wilson cor. "No law, no restraint, no regulation, is required to keep him within bounds." — Lit. 
Journal cor. "By that time, every window and every door in the street was full of heads." — 
Observer cor. "Every system of religion, and every school of philosophy, stands back from this 
field, and leaves Jesus Christ alone, the solitary example." Or: "All systems of religion, and all 
schools of philosophy, stand back from this field, and leave Jesus Christ alone, the solitary exam- 
ple." — Abbott cor. "Each day, and each hour, brings its portion of duty." — Inst, Key, p. 272. 
" And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was dis- 
contented, resorted unto him." — Bible cor. " Every private Christian, every member of the 
church, ought to read and peruse the Scriptures, that he may know his faith and belief to be 
founded upon them." — Barclay cor. " And every mountain and every island was moved out of 
its place." — Bible cor. 

" No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, 
No cavern'd hermit rests self-satisfied." — Pope. 

Under Note V.— WITH, OR, &c, for AND. 
"The sides, A, B, and C, compose the triangle."— Tobitt, Fetch, and Ware cor. "The stream, 
the rock, and the tree, must each of them stand forth, so as to make a figure in the imagination." — 
Dr. Blair cor. " While this, with euphony, constitutes, finally, the whole." — 0. B. Peirce cor. " The 
bag, with the guineas and dollars in it, was stolen." — Cobbett cor. " Sobriety, with great indus- 
try and talent, enables a man to perform great deeds." Or: "Sobriety, industry, and talent, 

* According to modern usage, has would here be better than is,— though is fallen is still allowable.— G. 
Bbown. 



CHAP. VI.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XVII. — VERBS. 965 

enable a man to perform great deeds." — Id. " The it, together with the verb, expresses a state of 
being." — Id. " Where Leonidas the Spartan king, and his chosen band, fighting for their coun- 
try, were cut off to the last man." — Karnes cor. "And Leah also, and her children, came near 
and bowed themselves." — Bible cor. " The First and the Second will either of them, by itself, 
coalesce with the Third, but they do not coalesce with each other." — Harris cor. " The whole 
must centre in the query, whether Tragedy and Comedy are hurtful and dangerous representa- 
tions." — Formey cor. " Both grief and joy are infectious : the emotions which they raise in the 
spectator, resemble them perfectly." — Karnes cor. " But, in all other words, the a and u are both 
sounded." — Ensell cor. " Q and u (which are always together) have the sound of kw, as in queen; 
or of k only, as in opaque." Or, better: " Q has always the sound of k ; and the u which follows 
it, that of w ; except in French words, in which the u is silent." — Goodenow cor. " In this selec- 
tion, the a and i form distinct syllables." — Walker cor. " And a considerable village, with gar- 
dens, fields, &c, extends around on each side of the square." — Lib. cor. "Affection and interest 
guide our notions and behaviour in the affairs of life ; imagination and passion affect the sentiments 
that we entertain in matters of taste." — Jamieson cor. " She heard none of those intimations of 
her defects, which envy, petulance, and anger, produce among children." — Johnson cor. "The 
King, Lords, and Commons, constitute an excellent form of government." — Crombie et al. cor. 
"If we say, 'I am the man who commands you,' the relative clause, with the antecedent man, 
forms the predicate." — Crombie cor. 

And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame, 
Their great Original proclaim." — Addison cor. 



" The spacious firmament on high, 
The blue ethereal vault of sky, 



Under Note VI. — Elliptical Constructions. 
"There are a reputable and a disreputable practice." Or: "There is a reputable, and there is 
a disreputable practice." — Adams cor. " This man and this were born in her." — Milton cor. 
" This man and that were born in her." — Bible cor. " This and that man were born there." — 
Hendrick cor. " Thus le in lego, and le in legi, seem to be sounded equally long." — Adam and 
Gould cor. "A distinct and an accurate articulation form the groundwork of good delivery." 
Or: "A distinct and accurate articulation forms the groundwork of good delivery." — Kirkham 
cor. "How are vocal and written language understood?" — Sanders cor. " The good, the wise, 
and the learned man, are ornaments to human society." Or: " The good, wise, and learned man 
is an ornament to human society." — Bartlett cor. "In some points, the expression of song and 
that of speech are identical." — Bush cor. " To every room, there were an open and a secret pass- 
age." — Johnson cor. " There are such things as a true and a false taste ; and the latter as often 
directs fashion, as the former." — Webster cor. " There are such things as a prudent and an impru- 
dent institution of life, with regard to our health and our affairs." — Bp. Butler cor. " The lot of 
the outcasts of Israel, and that of the dispersed of Judah, however different in one respect, have 
in an other corresponded with wonderful exactness." — Hope of Israel cor. " On these final sylla- 
bles, the radical and the vanishing movement are performed." — Rush cor. "To be young or old, 
and to be good, just, or the contrary, are physical or moral events." — Spurzheim cor., and Fetch. 
" The eloquence of -.George Whitfield and that of John Wesley were very different in character 
each from the other-," — Dr. Sharp cor. " The affinity of m for the series beginning with b, and 
that of n for the series beginning with t, give occasion for other euphonic changes." — Fowler cor. 
" Py lades' soul, and mad Orestes', were 

In these, if right the Greek philosopher." Or thus : — 
" Pylades' and Orestes' soul did pass 
To these, if we believe P} r thagoras." Or, without ellipsis: — 
. " Pylades and Orestes' souls did pass 

To these, if we believe Pythagoras." — Cowley corrected. 

Under Note VII. — Distinct Subject Phrases. 
"To be moderate in our views, and to proceed temperately in the pursuit of them, are the best 
ways to ensure success." — L. Murray cor. " To be of any species, and to have a right to the 
name of that species, are both one." — Locke cor. " With whom, to will, and to do. are the same." 
— Dr. Jamieson cor. "To profess, and to possess, are very different things." — Inst, Key, p. 272. 
" To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, are duties of universal obligation." 
— lb. "To be round or square, to be solid or fluid, to be large or small, and to be moved 
swiftly or slowly, are all equally alien from the nature of thought." — Dr. Johnson. " The resolv- 
ing of a sentence into its elements, or parts of speech, and [a] stating [of] the accidents which 
belong to these, are called parsing." Or, according to Note 1st above: "The resolving of a 
sentence into its elements, or parts of speech, with [a] stating [of] the accidents which belong to 
these, is called parsing." — Bullions cor. "To spin and to weave, to knit and to sew, were once 
a girl's employments; but now, to dress, and to catch a beau, are all she calls enjoyments." — 
Kimball cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XVII AND ITS NOTES. 

Under the Rule itself. — Nominatives Connected by OR. 
" We do not know in what either reason or instinct consists." — Johnson corrected. " A noun or 
a pronoun joined with a participle, constitutes a nominative case absolute." — Bicknell cor. " The 
relative will be of that case which the verb or noun following, or the preposition going before, 



966 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

uses to govern:" or, — "usually governs." — Adam, Gould, et al, cor. "In the different modes of 
pronunciation, which habit or caprice gives rise to." — Knight cor. " By which he, or his deputy, 
was authorized to cut down any trees in Whittlebury forest." — Junius cor. " Wherever objects 
were named, in which sound, noise, or motion, was concerned, the imitation by words was abund- 
antly obvious." — Dr. Blair cor. " The pleasure or pain resulting from a train of perceptions in 
different circumstances, is a beautiful contrivance of nature for valuable purposes." — Karnes cor. 
" Because their foolish vanity, or their criminal ambition, represents the principles by which they 
are influenced, as absolutely perfect." — D. Boileau cor. "Hence naturally arises indifference or 
aversion between the parties." — Dr. Brown cor. "A penitent unbeliever, or an impenitent be- 
liever, is a character nowhere to be found." — Tract cor. " Copying whatever is peculiar in the talk 
of all those whose birth or fortune entitles them to imitation." — Johnson cor. " "Where love, 
hatred, fear, or contempt, is often of decisive influence." — Duncan cor. " A lucky anecdote, or 
an enliyening tale, relieves the folio page." — D^ Israeli cor. " For outward matter or event fashions 
not the character within." Or: (according to the antique style of this modern book of proverbs :) 
— " fashioneth not the character within." — Tupper cor. " Yet sometimes we have seen that wine, 
or chance, has warmed cold brains." — Dry den cor. "Motion is a genus; flight, a species; this 
flight or that flight is an individual." — Harris cor. "When et, aut, vel, sive, or nee, is repeated 
before different members of the same sentence." — Adam, Gould, and Grant, cor. " Wisdom or 
folly governs us." — Fisk cor. "A or an is styled the indefinite article." — FolJcer cor. "A rusty 
nail, or a crooked pin, shoots up into a prodigy." — Spect. cor. " Is either the subjeet or the predi- 
cate in the second sentence modified ?" — Prof. Fowler cor. 

" Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, 
Is lost on hearers that our merits know." — Pope cor. 

Under the Rule itself. — Nominatives Connected by NOR. 

"Neither he nor she has spoken to him." — Per r in cor. "For want of a process of events, 
neither knowledge nor elegance preserves the reader from weariness." — Johnson cor. " Neither 
history nor tradition furnishes such information." — Robertson cor. "Neither the form nor the 
power of the liquids has varied materially." — Knight cor. "Where neither noise nor motion is 
concerned." — Blair cor. " Neither Charles nor his brother was qualified to support such a sys- 
tem." — Junius cor. "When, therefore, neither the liveliness of representation, nor the warmth 
of passion serves, as it were, to cover the trespass, it is not safe to leave the beaten track." — 
Campbell cor. " In many countries called Christian, neither Christianity, nor its evidence, is fairly 
laid before men." — Bp. Butler cor. " Neither the intellect nor the heart is capable of being driven." 
— Abbott cor. " Throughout this hymn, neither Apollo nor Diana is in any way connected with 
the Sun or Moon." — Coleridge cor. " Of which, neither he, nor this grammar, takes any notice." 
— R. Johnson cor. "Neither fheir solicitude nor their foresight extends so far." — Robertson cor. 
" Neither Gomara, nor Oviedo, nor Herrera, considers Ojeda, or hi3 companion Yespucci, as the 
first discoverer of the continent of America." — Id. " Neither the general situation of our colonies, 
nor that particular distress which forced the inhabitants of Boston to take up arms, has been 
thought worthy of a moment's consideration." — Junius cor. 

" Nor war nor wisdom yields our Jews delight, 

They will not study, and they dare not fight." — Crabbe cor. 
" Nor time nor chance breeds such confusions yet, 

Nor are the mean so rais'd, nor sunk the great." — Rowe cor. 

Under Note I. — Nominatives that Disagree. 
"The definite article, the, designates what particular thing or things are meant." — Merchant cor. 
" Sometimes a word, or several words, necessary to complete the grammatical construction of a 
sentence, are not expressed, but are omitted by ellipsis." — Burr cor. " Ellipsis, (better, Ellipses,) 
or abbreviations, are the wheels of language." — Maunder cor. " The conditions or tenor of none 
of them appears at this day." Or : " The tenor or conditions of none of them appear at this day." 
— Hutchinson cor. "Neither men nor money was wanting for the service." Or: "Neither 
money nor men were wanting for the service." — Id. " Either our own feelings, or the representa- 
tion of those of others, requires emphatic distinction to be frequent." — Dr. Barber cor. " Either 
Atoms and Chance, or Nature, is uppermost : now I am for the latter part of the disjunction." — 
Collier cor. " Their riches or poverty is generally proportioned to their activity or indolence." — 
Cox cor. " Concerning the other part of him, neither he nor you seem to have entertained an 
idea." — Home cor. " Whose earnings or income is so small." — Discip. cor. "Neither riches nor 
fame renders a man happy." — Day cor. "The references to the pages always point to the first 
volume, unless the Exercises or Key is mentioned." Or, better: — "unless mention is made of the 
Exercises or Key." Or: "unless the Exercises or Key lie named." — L. Murray cor. 

Under Note II. — Complete the Concord. 

"My lord, you wrong my father; neither is he, nor am I, capable of harbouring a thought 
against your peace." — Walpole cor. "There was no division of acts; there were no pauses, or 
intervals, in the performance ; but the stage was continually full ; occupied either by the actors, 
or by the chorus." — Dr. Blair cor. "Every word ending in b, p, or/, is of this order, as also are 
many that end in v." — Dr. Murray cor. " Proud as we are of human reason, nothing can be more 



CHAP. VI.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XVII. — VERBS. 967 

absurd than is the general system of human life and human knowledge." — Bolingbroke cor. " By 
which the body of sin and death is done away, and we are cleansed." — Barclay cor. "And those 
were already converted, and regeneration was begun in them." — Id. " For I am an old man, and 
my wife is well advanced in years." — Bible cor. " Who is my mother ? or who are my brethren ?" 
— See Matt, xii, 48. " Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor are the beasts thereof sufficient for 
a burnt-offering." — Bible cor. "Information has been obtained, and some trials have been made." 
— Martineau cor. " It is as obvious, and its causes are more easily understood." — Webster cor. 
" All languages furnish examples of this kind, and the English contains as many as any other." 
— Priestley cor. "The winters are long, and the cold is intense." — Morse cor. " How have I 
hated instruction, and how hath my heart despised reproof !" — Prov. cor. " The vestals were abol- 
ished by Theodosius the Great, and the fire of Vesta was extinguished." — Lempriere cor. " Eiches 
beget pride ; pride begets impatience." — Bullions cor. " Grammar is not reasoning, any more than 
organization is thought, or letters are sounds." — Enclytica cor. "Words are implements, and 
grammar is a machine." — Id. 

Under Note III. — Place of the Ptrst Person. 
" Thou or I must undertake the business." — L. Murray cor. " He and I were there." — Ash cor. 
"And we dreamed a dream in one night, he and I." — Bible cor. "If my views remain the same 
as his and mine were in 1833." — Goodell cor. " My father and /were riding out." — Inst, Key, p. 
273. " The premiums were given to George and me." — lb. "Jane and I are invited." — lb. 
" They ought to invite my sister and me." — lb. " You and I intend to go." — Guy cor. " John 
and I are going to town." — Brit. Gram. cor. " He and /are sick." — James Broivn cor. " Thou 
and I axe well." — Id. " He and I are." — Id. " TJwu and I are." — Id. "He and I write." — Id. 
" They and I are well" — Id. " She, and thou, and I, were walking." — Id. 

Under Note IV. — Distinct Subject Phrases. 

" To practise tale-bearing, or even to countenance it, is great injustice." — Inst., Key, p. 273. 
" To reveal secrets, or to betray one's friends, is contemptible perfidy." — Id. " To write all sub- 
stantives with capital letters, or to exclude capitals from adjectives derived from proper names, 
may perhaps be thought an offence too small for animadversion ; but the evil of innovation is 
always something." — Br. Barrow cor. " To live in such families, or to have such servants, is a 
blessing from God." — Fam. Com. cor. " How they portioned out the country, what revolutions 
they experienced, or what wars they maintained, is utterly unknown." Or: " How they por- 
tioned out the country, what revolutions they experienced, and what wars they maintained, are 
things utterly unknown." — Goldsmith cor. " To speak or to write perspicuously and agreeably, 
is an attainment of the utmost consequence to all who purpose, either by speech or by writing, to 
address the public." — Dr. Blair cor. 

Under Note V. — Make the Verbs Agree. 

" Doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go into the mountains, and seek that which is gone 
astray ?" — Bible cor. " Did he not fear the Lord, and beseech the Lord, and did not the Lord re- 
pent of the evil wdiich he had pronounced ?" — Id. " And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a 
one, and bring me into judgement with thee?" — Id. "If any man among you seemeth to be reli- 
gious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." — Id. 
" If thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buy aught of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not op- 
press one an other." — Id. " And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee, become poor, and be sold 
to thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant." — Id. " If thou bring thy 
gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee," &c. — Id. " An- 
thea was content to call a coach, and so to cross the brook." Or : — " and in that she crossed tht> 
brook."' — Johnson cor. " It is either totally suppressed, or manifested only in its lowest and most 
imperfect form." — Blair cor. "But if any man is a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him 
he heareth." Or : " If any man be a worshiper of God, and do his wili, him will he hear." — Bin 
ble cor. " Whereby his righteousness and obedience, death and sufferings without, become pro- 
fitable unto us, and are made ours." — Barclay cor. " Who ought to have been here before thee, 
and to have objected, if they had any thing against me." — Bible cor. 

" Ves! thy proud lords, unpitied land, shall see, 
That man has yet a soul, and dares be free." — Campbell cor. 

Under Note VI. — Use Separate Nominatives. 

u H is only an aspiration, or breathing; and sometimes, at the beginning of a word, it is not 
sounded at all." — Lowth cor. " Man was made for society, and he ought to extend his good will 
to all men." — Id. " There is, and must be, a Supreme Being, of infinite goodness, power, and 
wisdom, who created, and who supports them." — Beattie cor. "Were you not affrighted, and did 
you not mistake a spirit for a body ?" — Bp. Watson cor. " The latter noun or pronoun is not gov- 
erned by the conjunction than or as, but it either agrees with the verb, or is governed by the verb 
or the preposition, expressed or understood." — Mur. et al. cor. " He had mistaken his true inter- 
est, and he found himself forsaken." — Murray cor. "The amputation was exceedingly well per- 
formed, and it saved the patient's life." — Id. " The intentions of some of these philosophers, 
nay, of many, might have been, and probably they were, good." — Id. " This may be true, and 
yet it will not justify the practice." — Webster cor. " Prom the practice of those who have had a 



968 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

liberal education, and who are therefore presumed to be best acquainted with men and things." — 
Campbell cor. " For those energies and bounties which created, and which preserve, the uni- 
verse." — J. Q. Adams cor. "I shall make it once for all, and I hope it will be remembered." — 
Blair cor. " This consequence is drawn too abruptly. The argument needed more explanation." 
Or : " This consequence is drawn too abruptly, and without sufficient explanation." — Id. " They 
must be used with more caution, and they require more preparation." — Id. " The apostrophe de- 
notes the omission of an i, which was formerly inserted, and which made an addition of a syllable 
to the word." — Priestley cor. " The succession may be rendered more various or more uniform, 
but, in one shape or an other, it is unavoidable." — Karnes cor. " It excites neither terror nor 
compassion; nor is it agreeable in any respect." — Id. 

" Cheap vulgar arts, whose narrowness affords 
No flight for thoughts, — they poorly stick at words." — Denham cor. 

Under Note YII. — Mixture of Different Styles. 

" Let us read the living page, whose every character delights and instructs us." — Maunder cor. 
" For if it is in any degree obscure, it puzzles, and does not please." — Karnes cor. " When a 
speaker addresses himself to the understanding, he proposes the instruction of his hearers." — 
Campbell cor. " As the wine which strengthens and refreshes the heart." — H. Adams cor. " This 
truth he wraps in an allegory, and feigns that one of the goddesses had taken up her abode with 
the other." — Pope cor. " God searcheth and understandeth the heart." Or : " God searches and 
understands the heart." — T. a Kempis cor. " The grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath 
appeared to all men." — Titus, ii, 11. "Which things also we speak, not in the words which 
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." — 1 Cor., ii, 13. " But he has an 
objection, which he urges, and by which he thinks to overturn all." — Barclay cor. " In that it 
gives them not that comfort and joy which it gives to them who love it." — Id. " Thou here mis- 
understood the place and misapplied it." Or: "Thou here misunderstoodst the place and misap- 
pliedst it." Or: (as many of our grammarians will have it:) "Thou here misunderstoodest the 
place and misappliedst it." — Id. " Like the barren heath in the desert, which knoweth not when 
good cometh." — See Jer., xvii, 6. "It speaks of the time past, and shows that something was then 
doing, but not quite finished." — Devis cor. "It subsists in spite of them; it advances unob- 
served." — Pascal cor. 

" But where is he, the pilgrim of my song? — 
Methinks he lingers late and tarries long." — Byron cor. 

Under Note VIII. — Confusion of Moods. 

"If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them go (or be gone) astray, &c. — Matt, xviii, 12. 
Or: "If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes (or is gone) astray," &c. Or : " If a 
man hath a hundred sheep, and one of them goeth (or is gone) astray," &c. — Kirkham cor. "As 
a speaker advances in his discourse, and increases in energy and earnestness, a higher and a louder 
tone will naturally steal upon him." — Id. " If one man esteem one day above an other, and an 
other esteem every day alike ; let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." — Barclay cor. 
See Bom., xiv, 5. "If there be but one body of legislators, it will be no better than a tyranny : if 
there be only two, there will want a casting voice." — Addison cor. " Should you come up this way, 
and I be still here, you need not be assured how glad I should be to see you." — Byron cor. " If 
he repent and become holy, let him enjoy God and heaven." — Brownson cor. " If thy fellow ap- 
proach thee, naked and destitute, and thou say unto him, ' Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, 
and yet thou give him not those things which are needful to him, what benevolence is there in thy 
conduct?" — Kirkham cor. 

" Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, 

And show us to be watchers." — Singer's Shakspeare. 
" But if it climb, with your assisting hand, 

The Trojan walls, and in the city stand." — Dryden cor. 

< ; Though Heaven's King 

Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, 

Used to the yoke, draw his triumphant wheels." — Milton cor. 

Under Note IX. — Improper Ellipses. 
"Indeed we have seriously wondered that Murray should leave some things as he has left 
them." — Reporter cor. "Which they neither have done nor can do." — Barclay cor. "The Lord 
hath revealed, and doth and will reveal, his will to his people ; and hath raised up, and doth raise 
up, members of his body," &c. — Id. "We see, then, that the Lord hath given, and doth give, 
such." — Id. " Towards those that have declared, or do declare, themselves members." — Id. 
" For which we can give, and have given, our sufficient reasons." — Id. " When we mention the 
several properties of the different words in sentences, as we have mentioned those of the word 
Williams above, what is the exercise called ?" — R. C. Smith cor. " It is however to be doubted, 
whether this Greek idiom ever has obtained, or ever will obtain, extensively, in English." — Nut- 
ting cor. " Why did not the Greeks and Romans abound in auxiliary words as much as we do f 1 
— Murray cor. " Who delivers his sentiments in earnest, as they ought to be delivered in order 
to move and persuade." — Kirkham cor. 



CHAP. VI.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX.— RULE XVII. — VERBS. 969 

Under Note X. — DO, used as a Substitute. 

" And I would avoid it altogether, if it could be avoided." Or : "I would avoid it altogether, 
if to avoid it were practicable." — Karnes cor. " Such a sentiment from a man expiring of his 
wounds, is truly heroic ; and it must elevate the mind to the greatest height to which it can be 
raised by a single expression." — Id. " Successive images, thus making deeper and deeper im- 
pressions, must elevate the mind more than any single image can." — Id. "Besides making a 
deeper impression than can be made by cool reasoning." — Id. " Yet a poet, by the force of genius 
alone, may rise higher than a public speaker can." Or : — " than can a public speaker." — Blair 
cor. "And the very same reason that has induced several grammarians to go so far as they have 
gone, should have induced them to go farther." — Priestley cor. " The pupil should commit the 
first section to memory perfectly, before he attempts (or enters upon) the second part of grammar." 
— Bradley cor. " The Greek ch was pronounced hard, as we now pronounce it in chord." — Booth 
cor. "They pronounce the syllables in a different manner from what they adopt (or, in a manner 
different from that which they are accustomed to use) at other times." — L. Murray cor. " And give 
him the cool and formal reception that Simon had given." — Scott cor. "I do not say, as some 
have said." — Bolingbroke cor. "If he suppose the first, he may the last." — Barclay cor. "Who 
are now despising Christ in his inward appearance, as the Jews of old despised him in his outward 
[advent]." — Id. " That text of Revelations must not be understood as he understands it." — Id. 
"Till the mode of parsing the noun is so familiar to him that he can parse it readily." — R. G. 
Smith cor. " Perhaps it is running the same course that Rome had run before." — Middleton cor. 
" It ought even on this ground to be avoided ; and it easily may be, by a different construction." 
— Churchill cor. " These two languages are now pronounced in England as no other nation in 
Europe pronounces them." — Oreighton cor. "Germany ran the same risk that Italy had run." — 
Bolingbroke, Murray, et al., cor. 

Under Note XI. — Preterits and Participles. 
"The beggars themselves will be broken in a trice." — Sioift cor. "The hoop is hoisted above 
his nose." — Id. " And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord." — 2 Chron., xvii, 6. " Who 
sin so oft have mourned, Yet to temptation run." — Burns cor. " Who would not have let them 
appear." — Steele cor. " He would have had you seek for ease at the hands of Mr. Legality." — 
Bunyan cor. " From me his madding mind is turned ; He woos the widow's daughter, of the 
glen." — Spenser cor. "The man has spoken, and he still speaks." — Ash cor. " For you have but 
mistaken me all this while." — Shak. cor. "And will you rend our ancient love asunder?" — Id. 
" Mr. Birney has pled (or pleaded) the inexpediency of passing such resolutions." — Liberator cor. 
" Who have worn out their years in such most painful labours." — Littleton cor. " And in the con- 
clusion you were cJwsen probationer." — Spectator cor. 

" How she was lost, id! en captive, made a slave ; 
And how against him set that should her save." — Bunyan cor. 

Under Note XII. — Of Verbs Confounded. 
"But Moses preferred to while away his time." — Parker cor. " His face shone with the rays of 
the sun." — John Alien cor. " Whom they had set at defiance so lately." — Bolingbroke cor. " And 
when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him." — Bible cor. " When he had sat down on 
the judgement-seat." Or: " While he was sitting on the judgement-seat." — Id. "And, they 
having kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and sat down together, Peter sat down among 
them." — Id. " So, after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and had sat down 
again, [or, literally, 'sitting down again,' 1 '] he said to them. Do ye know what I have done to you?" 
— Id. "Even as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne." — Id. Or: 
(rather less literally :) " Even as I have overcome, and am sitting with my Father on his throne." 
— Id. " We have such a high priest, who sitteth on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty 
in the heavens." — Id. " And is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God." — Id. " He 
set on foot a furious persecution." — Payne cor. " There lieth (or lies) an obligation upon the 
saints to help such." — Barclay cor. " There let him lie." — Byron cor. "Nothing but moss, and 
shrubs, and stunted trees, can grow upon it." — Morse cor. " Who had laid out considerable sums 
purely to distinguish themselves." — Goldsmith cor. " Whereuntothe righteous flee, and are safe." 
— Barclay cor. " He rose from supper, and laid aside his garments." — Id. " Whither— oh ! 
whither — shall I flee?" — L. Murray cor. " Fleeing from an adopted murderer." — Id. " To you I 
flee for refuge." — Id. " The sign that should warn his disciples to ./Zee from the approaching ruin." 
— Keith cor. " In one she sits as a prototype for exact imitation." — Bush cor. " In which some' 
only bleat, bark, mew, whinny, and bray/a little better than others." — Id. "Who represented 
to him the unreasonableness of being affected with such unmanly fears." — Rollin cor. " Thou sawest 
every action." Or, familiarly: " Thou saw every action." — Guy cor. " I taught, thou taughtest, 
or taught, he or she taught." — Coar cor. "Valerian was taken by Sapor and flayed alive, A. D. 
260." — Lempriere cor. " What a fine vehicle has it now become, for all conceptions of the mind !" 
— Blair cor. " What has become of so many productions ?" — Volney cor. " What has become of 
those ages of abundance and of life?" — Keith cor. " The Spartan admiral had sailed to the Hel- 
lespont." — Goldsmith cor. "As soon as he landed, the multitude thronged about him." — Id. 
" Cyrus had arrived at Sardis."— Id. " Whose year had expired."— 7cZ. " It might better have 
been, 'that faction which.'" Or: "'That faction which,' would have been better."— Murray's 



970 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

Gram., p. 157. "This people has become a great nation." — Murray and Ingersoll cor. "And 
here we enter the region of ornament." — Dr. Blair cor. " The ungraceful parenthesis which fol- 
lows, might far better have been avoided." — Id. " Who forced him under water, and there held 
him until he was drowned." — Hist. cor. 

" I would much rather be myself the slave, 
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him." — Oowper cor. 

Under Note XIII. — Words that Express Time. 

" I finished my letter before my brother arrived." Or : "I had finished my letter when my 
brother arrived." — Kirkham cor. " I wrote before I received his letter." — Dr. Blair cor. " From 
what was formerly delivered." — Id. " Arts were at length introduced among them." Or: "Arts 
have teen of late introduced among them." — Id. [But the latter reading suits not the Doctor's con- 
text.] " I am not of opinion that such rules can be of much use, unless persons see them exem- 
plified." Or: — " could be" and " saw." — Id. "If we use the noun itself, we say, (or must say,) 
' This composition is John's.' " Or: "If we used the noun itself, we should say," &c. — L. Murray 
cor. " But if the assertion refer to something that was transient, or to something that is not sup- 
posed to be always the same, the past tense must be preferred:" [as,] " They told him that Jesus 
of Nazareth was passing by." — Luke and L. Murray cor. " There is no particular intimation but 
that I have continued to work, even to the present moment." — R. W. Green cor. " Generally, as 
has been observed already, it is but hinted in a single word or phrase." — Campbell cor. "The 
wittiness of the passage has been already illustrated." — Id. " As was observed before." Or: "As 
has been observed already." — Id. " It has been said already in general terms." — Id. "As I 
hinted before." Or: " As I have hinted already." — Id. " What, I believe, was hinted once before." 
— Id. " It is obvious, as was hinted formerly, that this is but an artificial and arbitrary connex- 
ion." — Id. " They did anciently a great deal of hurt." — Bolingbroke cor. " Then said Paul, I 
knew not, brethren, that he was the high priest." — See Acts, xxiii, 5 ; Webster cor. "Most prep- 
ositions original^ denoted the relations of place ; and from these they were transferred, to denote, 
by similitude, other relations." — Loioth and Churchill cor. " His gift was but a poor offering, in 
comparison with his great estate." — L. Murray cor. "If he should succeed, and obtain his end. he 
ivould not be the happier for it." Or, better: "If he succeed, and fully attain his end, he will 
not be the happier for it." — Id. "These are torrents that swell to-day, and that will have spent 
themselves by to-morrow." — Dr. Blair cor. " Who have called that wheat on one day, which 
they have called tares on the next." — Barclay cor. "He thought it was one of his tenants." — Id. 
"But if one went unto them from the dead, they would repent." — Bible cor. "Neither would 
they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." — Id. " But it is while men sleep, that the arch- 
enemy always sows his tares." — The Friend cor. " Crescens would not have failed to expose him." 
— Addison cor. 

"Bent is his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound; 
Fierce as he moves, his silver shafts resound." — Pope cor. 

Under Note XIY. — Verbs of Commanding, &c. 

"Had I commanded you to do this, you would have thought hard of it." — G. B. "I found 
him better than I expected to find him." — L Murray 's Gram., i, 187. " There are several smaller 
faults which I at first intended to enumerate." — Webster cor. "Antithesis, therefore, may, on 
many occasions, be employed to advantage, in order to strengthen the impression which we in- 
tend that any object shall make." — Dr. Blair cor. " The girl said, if her master would but have 
let her have money, she might have been well long ago." — Priestley et al. cor. " Nor is there the 
least ground to fear that we shall here be cramped within too narrow limits." — Campbell cor. 
"The Romans, flushed with success, expected to retake it." — Eooke cor. "I would not have let 
fall an unseasonable pleasantry in the venerable presence of Misery, to be entitled to all the wit 
that ever Rabelais scattered." — Sterne cor. "Yfe expected that he would arrive last night." — 
Brown's Inst., p. 282. " Our friends intended to meet us." — lb.' "We hoped to see you." — lb. 
" He would not have been allowed to enter." — lb. 

Under Note XV. — Permanent Propositions. 
" Cicero maintained, that whatsoever is useful is good." — G. B. " I observed that love consti- 
tutes the whole moral character of God." — Dwight cor. " Thinking that one gains nothing by be- 
ing a good man." — Voltaire cor. " I have already told you, that I am a gentleman." — Fontaine cor. 
"If I should ask, whether ice and water are two distinct species of things." — Locke cor. "A 
stranger to the poem would not easily discover that this is verse." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, 
i, 260. "The doctor affirmed that fever always produces thirst." — Brown's Inst, p. 282. " The 
ancients asserted, that virtue is its own reward." — lb. " They should not have repeated the error, 
of insisting that the infinitive is a mere noun." — Tooke cor. "It was observed in Chap. Ill, that 
the distinctive or has a double use." — Churchill cor. "Two young gentlemen, who have made a 
discovery that there who God." — Campbell's Rhet., p. 206. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XVIII; INFINITIVES. 
Instances Demanding the Particle To. 
" William, please to hand me that pencil." — Smith cor. " Please to insert points so as to make 



CHAP. VII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. 971 

sense." — P. Davis cor. "I have known lords to abbreviate almost half of their words." — Cobbett 
cor. "We shall find the practice perfectly to accord with the theory." — Knight cor. "But it 
would tend to obscure, rather than to elucidate, the subject." — L. Murray cor. "Please to divide 
it for them, as it should be divided.'''' — J. Willetvs cor. "So as neither to embarrass nor to weaken 
the sentence." — Blair and Mur. cor. " Carry her to his table, to view his poor fare, and to hear 
his heavenly discourse." — Same. " That we need not be surprised to find this to hold [i. e., to find 
the same to be true, or to find it so] in eloquence." — Blair cor. " Where he has no occasion either 
to divide or to explain" [the topic in debate.'] — Id. " And they will find their pupils to improve by 
hasty and pleasant steps." — Russell cor. " The teacher, however, will please to observe," &c. — 
Inf. S. Gr. cor. "Please to attend to a few rules in what is called syntax." — Id. "They may 
dispense with the laws, to favour their friends, or to secure their office." — Webster 1 cor. " To take 
back a gift, or to break a contract, is a wanton abuse." — Id. " The legislature has nothing to do, 
but to let it bear its own price." — Id. " He is not to form, but to copy characters." — Rambler 
cor. " I have known a woman to make use of a shoeing-horn." — Sped. cor. " Finding this ex- 
periment to answer, in every respect, their wishes." — Day cor. "In fine, let him cause his ar- 
rangement to conclude in the term of the question." — Barclay cor. 

" That he permitted not the winds of heaven 
To visit her too roughly." [Omit "face" to keep the measure: or say,] 

"That he did never let the winds of heaven 
Visit her face too roughly." — Shak. cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER RULE XIX.— OF INFINITIVES. 
Instances after Bid, Dare, Feel, Hear, Let, Make, Need, See. 
" I dare not proceed so hastily, lest I give offence." — See Murray's Key, Rule xii- " Their 
character is formed, and made to appear." — Butler cor. " Let there be but matter and opportunity 
offered, and you shall see them quickly revive again." — Bacon cor. " It has been made to appear, 
that there is no presumption against a revelation." — Bp. Butler cor. " Manifest, v. t. To reveal ; 
to make appear; to show plainly." — Webster cor. "Let him reign, like good Aurelius, or let 
him bleed like Seneca :" [Socrates did not bleed, he was poisoned.] — Kirkham's transposition of 
Pope cor. " Sing I could not; complain I durst not." — FoihergiU cor. "If T. M. be not so 
frequently heard to pray by them." — Barclay cor. " How many of your own church members were 
never heard to pray?" — Id. "Yea, we are bidden to pray one for an other." — Id. "He was 
made to believe that neither the king's death nor his imprisonment would help him." — Sheffield 
cor. "I felt a chilling sensation creep over me." — Inst, p. 279. " I dare say he has not got home 
yet." — lb. "We sometimes see bad men honoured." — lb. "I saw him move" — Fetch cor. 
" For see thou, ah ! see thou, a hostile world its terrors raise." — Kirkham cor. " But that he make 
him rehearse so." — Lily cor. "Let us rise." — Fowle cor. 

" Scripture, you know, exhorts us to it ; 

It bids us ' seek peace, and ensue it.' " — Swift cor. 
"Who bade the mud from Dives' wheel 
Bedash the rags of Lazarus ? 
Come, brother, in that dust we'll kneel, 
Confessing heaven that ruled it thus." — Christmas Book cor. 



CHAPTEK VII.— PAKTICIPLES. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER THE NOTES TO RULE XX. 
Under Note I. — Expunge OF. 

" In forming his sentences, he was very exact." — L. Murray. "For not believing which, I con- 
demn them." — Barclay cor. "To prohibit his hearers from reading that book." — Id. "You will 
please them exceedingly in crying down ordinances." — Mitchell cor. " The warwolf subsequently 
became an engine for casting stones." Or : — " for the casting of stones." — Cons. Misc. cor. " The 
art of dressing hides and working in leather was practised." — Id. " In the choice they had made 
of him for restoring order." — Rollin cor. " The Arabians exercised themselves by composing 
orations and poems." — Sale cor. "Behold, the widow- woman was there, gathering sticks." — 
Bible cor. " The priests were busied in offering burnt-offerings." — Id. " But Asahel would not 
turn aside from following him." — Id. " He left off building Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah." — Id. 
" Those who accuse us of denying it, belie us." — Barclay cor. " And breaking bread from house 
to house." — Acts, iv, 46. " Those that set about repairing the walls." — Barclay cor. " And 
secretly begetting divisions." — Id. " Whom he has made use of in gathering his church." — Id. 
" In defining and distinguishing the acceptations and uses of those particles." — W. Walker cor. 

" In making this a crime, we overthrow 
The laws of nations and of nature too." — Dry den cor. 

Under Note II. — Articles Require OF. 
" The mixing o/them makes a miserable jumble of truth and fiction." — Karnes cor. "The same 
objection lies against the employing of statues.." — Id. "More efficacious than the venting of 



972 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III, 

opulence upon the fine arts." — Id. u It is the giving of different names to the same object." — Id. 
" When we have in view the erecting of a column." — Id. " The straining of an elevated subject 
beyond due bounds, is a vice not so frequent." — Id. " The cutting of evergreens in the shape of 
animals, is very ancient." — Id. " The keeping of juries without meat, drink, or fire, can be ac- 
counted for only on the same idea." — Webster cor. " The writing of the verbs at length on his 
slate, will be a very useful exercise." — Beck cor. " The avoiding of them is not an object of any 
moment." — Sheridan cor. " Comparison is the increasing or decreasing of the signification of a 
word by degrees." — Brit. Gram. cor. " Comparison is the increasing or decreasing of the quality 
by degrees." — Buchanan cor. " The placing of a circumstance before the word with which it is 
connected is the easiest of all inversion." — Id. " What is emphasis ? It is the emitting of a 
stronger and fuller sound of voice," &c. — Bradley cor. " Besides, the varying of the terms will 
render the use of them more familiar." — A. Mur. cor. " And yet the confining of themselves to 
this true principle, has misled them." — Tooke cor. "What is here commanded, is merely the re- 
lieving o/his misery." — Wayland cor. " The accumulating of too great a quantity of knowledge 
at random, overloads the mind in stead of adorning it." — Formey cor. " For the compassing of 
his point." — Rollin cor. " To the introducing of such an inverted order of things." — Bp. Butler cor. 
11 Which require only the doing of an external action." — Id. " The imprisoning o/my body is to 
satisfy your wills." — Fox cor. " Who oppose the conferring of such extensive command on one 
person." — Duncan cor. " Luxury contributed not a little to the enervating of their forces." — Sale 
cor. " The keeping of one day of the week for a sabbath." — Barclay cor. " The doing of a thing 
is contrary to the forbearing of it." — Id. " The doubling of the Sigma is, however, sometimes 
regular." — Knight cor. "The inserting of the common aspirate too, is improper." — Id. "But in 
Spenser's time the pronouncing of the ed [as a separate syllable,] seems already to have been 
something of an archaism." — Phil. Mu. cor. " And to the reconciling o/the effect of their verses 
on the eye." — Id. "When it was not in their power to hinder the taking of the whole." — Dr. 
Brown cor. " He had indeed given the orders himself for the shutting of the gates." — Id. " So 
his whole life was a doing of the will of the Father." — Penington cor. " It signifies the suffering 
or receiving of the action expressed." — Priestley cor. "The pretended crime therefore was the 
declaring of himself to be the Son of G-od." — West cor. " Parsing is the resolving o/a sentence 
into its different parts of speech." — Beck cor. 

Under Note II. — Adjectives Require OF. 

" There is no expecting o/the admiration of beholders." — Baxter cor. " There is no hiding of 
you in the house." — Shah cor. " For the better regulating of government in the province of 
Massachusetts." — Brit. Pari. cor. " The precise marking of the shadowy boundaries of a com- 
plex government." — Adams cor. " This state of discipline requires the voluntary foregoing of 
many things which we desire, and the setting of ourselves to what we have no inclination to." — 
Bp. Butler cor. " This amounts to an active setting of themselves against religion." — Id. " Which 
engaged our ancient friends to the orderly establishing of our Christian discipline." — Friends cor. 
"Some men are so unjust that there is no securing o/our own property or life, but by opposing 
force to force." — Rev. John Brown cor. "An Act for the better securing of the Rights and Lib- 
erties of the Subject." — Geo. Ill cor. " Miraculous curing of the sick is discontinued." — Barclay 
cor. "It would have been no transgressing of the apostle's rule." — Id. "As far as consistent 
with the proper conducting of the business of the House." — Elmore cor. " Because he would 
have no quarrelling at the just condemning of them at that day." Or: — "at their just condemna- 
tion at that day." — Bunyan cor. "That transferring of this natural manner will insure propri- 
ety." — Bush cor. " If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old [i. e., frequent] turning 
of the key." — Singer's Shakspeare cor. 

Under Note II. — Possessives Require OF. 

"So very simple a thing as a man's wounding of himself." — Dr. Blair cor., and Murray. " Or 
with that man's avowing of his designs." — Blair, Mur., et al. cor. " On his putting of the ques- 
tion." — Adams cor. " The importance of teachers' requiring of their pupils to read each section 
many times over." — Kirkham cor. "Politeness is a kind of forgetting of one's self, in order to 
be agreeable to others." — Ramsay cor. " Much, therefore, of the merit and the agreeableness of 
epistolary writing, will depend on its introducing of us into some acquaintance with the writer." 
— Blair and Mack cor. " Richard's restoration to respectability depends on his paying of his 
debts." — 0. B. Peirce cor. "Their supplying of ellipses where none ever existed; their parsing 
of the words of sentences already full and perfect, as though depending on words understood." — 
Id. " Her veiling of herself, and shedding of tears, &o, her upbraiding of Paris for his coward- 
ice," &c. — Blair cor. " A preposition may be made known by its admitting of& personal pronoun 
after it, in the objective case." — Murray et al. cor. " But this forms no just objection to its de- 
noting of time." — L. Mur. cor. " Of men's violating or disregarding of the relations in which God 
has here placed them." — Bp. Butler cor. " Success, indeed, no more decides for the right, than a 
man's killing of his antagonist in a duel." — Campbell cor. " His reminding o/them." — Kirkham 
cor. " This mistake was corrected by his preceptor's causing of him to plant some beans." — Id. 
"Their neglecting of this was ruinous." — Frost cor. "That he was serious, appears from his 
distinguishing of the others as 'finite.' " — Felch cor. "His hearers are not at all sensible of his 
doing of it." Or ; — " that he does it." — Sheridan cor. 



CHAP. VII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XX. PARTICIPLES. 973 

Under Note III. — Change the Expression. 

" An allegory is a fictitious story the meaning of which is figurative, not literal ; a double mean- 
ing, or dilogy, is the saying o/only one thing, when we have two in view." — Phil Mu. cor. "A 
verb may generally be distinguished by the sense which it makes with any of the personal pro- 
nouns, or ivith the word TO, before it." — Murray et al. cor. "A noun may in general be distin- 
guished by the article which comes before it, or by the sense which it makes of itself." — Merchant 
et al. cor. " An adjective may usually be known by the sense which it makes with the word thing ; 
as, a good thing, a lad thing." — lid. " It is seen to be in the objective case, because it denotes the 
object affected by the act of leaving." — 0. B. Peirce cor. " It is seen to be in the possessive case, be- 
cause it denotes the possessor of something." — Id. " The noun man is caused by the adjective 
whatever to seem like a twofold nominative, as if it denoted, of itself, one person as the subject 
of the two remarks." — Id. " When, as used in the last line, is a connective, because it joins that 
line to the other part of the sentence." — Id. "Because they denote reciprocation." — Id. "To allow 
them to make use of that liberty ;" — " To allow them to use that liberty ;" — or, " To allow them 
that liberty." — Sale cor. " The worst effect of it is, that it fixes on your mind a habit of inde- 
cision." — Todd cor. "And you groan the more deeply, as you reflect that you have not power to 
shake it off." — Id. " I know of nothing that can justify the student in having recourse to a Latin 
translation of a Greek writer." — Coleridge cor. "Humour is the conceit of making others act 
or talk absurdly." — Hazlitt cor. " There are remarkable instances in which they do not affect each 
other." — Bp. Butler cor. " TJiat Cozsar was left out of the commission, was not from any slight." — 
Life cor. "Of the thankful reception of this toleration, I shall say no more," Or: "Of the pro- 
priety of receiving this toleration thankfully, I shall say no more." — Dryden cor. "Henrietta 
was delighted with Julias skill in working lace." — 0. B. Peirce cor. ' ' And it is because each of them 
represents two different words, that the confusion has arisen." — Booth cor. "iEschylus died of a 
fracture of his skull, caused by an eagle's dropping of a tortoise on his head." Or : — " caused by 
a tortoise which an eagle let fall on his head." — Biog. Diet. cor. "He doubted whether they had 
it." — Fetch cor. " To make ourselves clearly understood, is the chief end of speech." — Sheridan 
cor. " One cannot discover in their countenances any signs which are the natural concomitants 
of the feelings of the heart." — Id. " Nothing can be more common or less proper, than to speak 
of a river as emptying itself."— Campbell cor. " Our non-use of the former expression, is owing to 
this." — Bullions cor. 

Under Note IV. — Disposal of Adverbs. 

" To this generally succeeds the division, or the laying-down of the method of the discourse." — 
Br. Blair cor. " To the pulling-down of strong holds." — Bible cor. " Can a mere buckling-on of a, 
military weapon infuse courage ?" — Dr. Brown cor. " Expensive and luxurious living destroys 
health." — L. Murray cor. " By frugal and temperate living, health is preserved." Or : " By living 
frugally and temperately, we preserve our health." — Id. " By the doing-away of the necessity." — 
The Friend cor. "He recommended to them, however, the immediate calling of — (or, imme- 
diately to call — ) the whole community to the church." — Gregory cor. " The separation of large 
numbers in this manner, certainly facilitates the right reading of them." — Churchill cor. " From 
their mere admitting of a twofold grammatical construction." — Phil. Mu. cor. "His grave lec- 
turing of his friend about it." — Id. " For the blotting-out of sin." — Curney cor. " From the not- 
using of water." — Barclay cor. "By the gentle dropping-in of a pebble." — Sheridan cor. "To 
the carrying-on of a great part of that general course of nature." — Bp. Butler cor. "Then the 
not-interposing is so far from being a ground of complaint." — Id. " The bare omission, (or rather, 
the not-employing.) of what is used." — Campbell and Jamieson cor. "The bringing-together of in- 
congruous adverbs is a very common fault." — Churchill cor. "Tins is a presumptive proof that it 
does not proceed from them." — Bp. Butler cor. " It represents him in a character to which any 
injustice is peculiarly unsuitable." — Campbell cor. "They will aim at something higher than a 
mere dealing-out of harmonious sounds." — Kirkham cor. " This is intelligible and sufficient ; and 
any further account of the matter seems beyond the reach of our faculties." — Bp. Butler cor. 
" Apostrophe is a turning-off from the regular course of the subject." — Mur. et al. cor. " Even 
Isabella was finally prevailed upon to assent to the sending-out of a commission to investigate his 
conduct." — Life of Columbus cor. " For the turning-away of the simple shah slay them." — 
Bible cor. 

" Thick fingers always should command 
"Without extension of the hand." — King cor. 

Under Note Y. — Of Particdples with Adjectives. 
"Is there any Scripture which speaks of the light as being inward?" — Barclay cor. " For I be- 
lieve not positiveness therein essential to salvation." — 7c?. " Our inability to act a uniformly 
right part without some thought and care." — Bp. Butler cor. " On the supposition that it is recon- 
cilable with the constitution of nature." — Id. " On the ground that it is not discoverable by reason 
or experience." — Id. " On the ground that they are unlike the known course of nature." — Id. 
" Our power to discern reasons for them, gives a positive credibility to the history of them." — 
Id. " From its lack of universality.' 11 — Id. " That they may be turned into passive participles in 
dus, is no decisive argument to prove them passive." — Grant cor. "With the implied idea that 
St. Paul was then absent from the Corinthians." — Kirkham cor. " Because it becomes gradually 
weaker, until it finally dies away into silence." — Id. " Not without the author's full knowledge." 



974 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

— Id. " Wit out of season is one sort of folly." — Sheffield cor. " Its general susceptibility of a 
much stronger evidence." — Campbell cor. "At least, that they are such, rarely enhances our 
opinion, either of their abilities or of their virtues." — Id. " "Which were the ground of our unity." 
— Barclay cor. " But they may be distinguished from it by their intransitiveness." — L. Murray 
cor. " To distinguish the higher degree of our persuasion of a thing's possibility." — Churchill cor. 
" That he was idle, and dishonest too, 
"Was that which caused his utter overthrow." — Tobitt cor. 

Under Note VI. — Of Compound Verbal Nouns. 
" When it denotes subjection to the exertion of an other." — Booth cor. " In the passive sense, 
it signifies a subjection to the influence of the action." — Fetch cor. " To be abandoned by our 
friends, is very deplorable." — Goldsmith cor. " Without waiting to be attacked by the Macedoni- 
ans." — Id. " In progress of time, words were wanted to express men's connexion with certain 
conditions of fortune." — Br. Blair cor. " Our acquaintance with pain and sorrow has a tendency to 
bring us to a settled moderation." — Bp. Butler cor. " The chancellor's attachment to the king, secured 
to the monarch his crown." — L. Murray et al. cor. " The general's failure in this enterprise occa- 
sioned his disgrace." — lid. "John's long application to writing had wearied him." — lid. " The 
sentence may be, ' John's long application to writing has wearied him.' " — Wright cor. " Much de- 
pends on the observance o/this rule." — L. Murray cor. " He mentioned that a boy had been corrected 
for his faults." — Alger and Merchant cor. "The boy's punishment is shameful to him." — lid. 
" The greater the difficulty of remembrance is, and the more important the being-remembered is 
to the attainment of the ultimate end."— Campbell cor. " If the parts in the composition of sim- 
ilar objects were always in equal quantity, their being -compounded (or their compounding) would 
make no odds." — Id. " Circumstances, not of such importance as that the scope of the relation 
is affected by their being -known" — or, "by the mention of them." — Id. "A passive verb ex- 
presses the receiving of an action, or represents its subject as being acted upon ; as, ' John is 
beaten.' " — Frost cor. " So our language has an other great advantage; namely, that it is little 
diversified by genders." — Buchanan cor. " The slander concerning Peter is no fault of his." — 
Frost cor. " Without faith in Christ, there is no justification." — Penn cor. " Habituation to dan- 
ger begets intrepidity ; i. e., lessens fear." — Bp. Butler cor. " It is not affection of any kind, but action 
that forms those habits." — Id. " In order that we may be satisfied of the truth of the apparent 
paradox." — Campbell cor. " A trope consists in the employing of a word to signify something that 
is different from its original or usual meaning." — Blair, Jamieson, Murray, and Kirkham cor ; also 
Hiley. " The scriptural view of our salvation from punishment." — Gurney cor. "To submit and 
obey, is not a renouncing of the Spirits leading." — Barclay cor. 

Under Note VII. — Participles for Infinitives, &c. 
" To teach little children is a pleasant employment." Or: " The teaching of little children," 
&c. — Bartlett cor. " To deny or compromise the principles of truth, is virtually to deny their divine 
Author." — Reformer cor. " A severe critic might point out some expressions that would bear 
retrenching" — " retrenchment " — or, " to be retrenched." — Dr. Blair cor. " Never attempt to prolong 
the pathetic too much." — Id. " I now recollect to have mentioned — (or, that I mentioned — ) a 
report of that nature." — Whiting cor. " Nor of the necessity which there is, for their restraint — 
(or, for them to be restrained — ) in them." — Bp. Butler cor. " But, to do what God commands because 
he commands it, is obedience, though it proceeds from hope or fear." — Id. " Simply to close the 
nostrils, does not so entirely prevent resonance." — Gardiner cor. " Yet they absolutely refuse to 
do so." — Harris cor. " But Artaxerxes could not refuse to pardon him." — Goldsmith cor. " The 
doing of them in the best manner, is signified by the names of these arts." — Rush cor. " To be- 
have well for the time to come, may be insufficient." — Bp. Butler cor. " The compiler proposed to 
publish that part by itself." — Adam cor. " To smile on those whom we should censure, is, to bring 
guilt upon ourselves." — Kirkham cor. " But it would be great injustice to that illustrious orator, 
to bring his genius down to the same level." — Id. " The doubt that things go ill, often hurts more, 
than to be sure they do." — Shah cor. " This is called the straining of a metaphor." — Blair and 
Murray cor. " This is what Aristotle calls the giving of manners to the poem." — Dr. Blair cor. " The 
painter's entire confinement to that part of time which he has chosen, deprives him of the power 
of exhibiting various stages of the same action." — L. Mur. cor. "It imports the retrenchment o/all 
superfluities, and a pruning of the expression." — Blair et al. cor. " The necessity for us to be thus 
exempted is further apparent." — Jane West cor. " Her situation in life does not allow her to be 
genteel in every thing. " — Same. " Provided you do not dislike to be dirty when you are invisible." 
— Same. " There is now an imperious necessity for her to be acquainted with her title to eternity." 
— Same. " Disregard to the restraints of virtue, is misnamed ingenuousness." — Same. "The 
legislature prohibits the opening of shops on Sunday." — Same. " To attempt to prove that any 
thing is right." — 0. B. Peirce cor. " The comma directs us to make a pause of a second in dura- 
tion, or less." — Id. " The rule which directs us to put other words into the place of it, is wrong." 
— Id. " They direct us to call the specifying adjectives, or adnames, adjective pronouns." — Id. 
"William dislikes to attend court." — Frost cor. " It may perhaps be worth while to remark, that 
Milton makes a distinction." — Phil. Mu. cor. " To profess regard and act injuriously, discovers a 
base mind." — Murray et al. cor. " To profess regard and act indifferently, discovers a base mind." 
— Weld cor. "You have proved beyond contradiction, that this course of action is the sure way 
to procure such an object." — Campbell cor. 



CHAP. VII,] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XX. — PARTICIPLES. 975 

Under Note YIIL — Participles after BE, IS, &c. 
" Irony is a figure in which the speaker sneeringly utters the direct reverse of what he intends shall 
be understood." — Brown's Inst., p. 235. [Correct by this the four false definitions of " Irony" 
cited from Murray, Peirce, Fisher, and Sanborn.] " This is, in a great measure, a delivering of 
their own compositions." — Buchanan cor. " But purity is a right use of the words of the language." 
— Jamieson cor. " But the most important object is the settling of the English quantity." — Walk- 
er cor. " "When there is no affinity, the transition from one meaning to an other is a very wide 
step taken." — Campbell cor. " It will be a loss of time, to attempt further to illustrate it." — Id. 
"This leaves the sentence too bare, and makes it to be, if not nonsense, hardly sense." — Cobbett 
cor. " This is a requiring of more labours from every private member." — J. West cor. " Is not 
this, to use one measure for our neighbours and an other for ourselves?" — Same. "JDo we not 
charge God foolishly, when we give these dark colourings to human nature ?" — Same. " This is 
not, to endure the cross, as a disciple of Jesus Christ ; but, to snatch at it, like a partisan of Swift's 
Jack." — Same. " What is spelling ? It is the combining of letters to form syllables and words." 

— 0. B. Peirce cor. "It is the choosing o/such letters to compose words," &c. — Id. "What is 
parsing? (1.) It is a describing of the nature, use, and powers of words." — Id. (2.) "For Pars- 
ing is a describing of the words of a sentence as they are used." — Id. (3.) " Parsing is only a 
describing of the nature and relations of words as they are used." — Id. (4.) "Parsing, let the 
pupil understand and remember, is a statement of facts concerning words ; or a describing of words 
in their offices and relations as they are." — Id. (5.) "Parsing is the resolving and explaining of 
words according to the rules of grammar." — Id. Better : " Parsing is the resolving or explaining 
of a sentence according to the definitions and rules of grammar." — Brown's Inst., p. 28. (6.) " The 
parsing of a word, remember, is an enumerating and describing of its various qualities, and its 
grammatical relations to other words in the sentence." — Peirce cor. (1.) " For the parsing of a 
word is an enumerating and describing of its various properties, and [its] relations to [other words 
in] the sentence." — Id. (8.) " The parsing of a noun is an explanation of its person, number, gen- 
der, and case ; and also of its grammatical relation in a sentence, with respect to some other ivord 
or words." — Ingersoll ccr. (9.) " TJie parsing of any part of speech is an explanation of all its 
properties and relations." — Id. (10.) " Parsing is the resolving of a sentence into its elements." — 
Fowler cor. " The highway of the upright is, to depart from evil" — Prov., xvi, 17. "Besides, 
the first step towards exhibiting the truth, should be, to remove the veil of error." — 0. B. Peirce 
cor. " Punctuation is the dividing of sentences, and the words of sentences, by points for pauses." 
— Id. " An other fault is the using of the imperfect tense shook in stead of the participle shaken." 

— Churchill cor. " Her employment is the drawing of maps." — Alger cor. "To go to the play, 
according to his notion, is, to lead a sensual life, and to expose one's self to the strongest tempta- 
tions. This is a begging of the question, and therefore requires no answer." — Formey cor. "It 
is an overvaluing of ourselves, to reduce every thing to the narrow measure of our capacities." — 
Comly's Key, in his Gram., p. 188; Fish's Gram., p. 135. "What is vocal language? It is 
speech, or the expressing of ideas by the human voice." — C. W. Sanders cor. 

Under Note IX. — Verbs of Preventing. 
" The annulling power of the constitution prevented that enactment from becoming a law." — 
0. B. Peirce cor. "Which prevents the manner from being brief" — Id. "This close prevents 
them from bearing forward as nominatives." — Rush cor. "Because this prevents it from growing 
drowsy." — Formey cor. "Yet this does not prevent him from being great." — Id. "To prevent 
it from being insipid." — Id. " Or whose interruptions did not prevent its continuance.'" Or thus : 
"Whose interruptions did not prevent it from being continued." — Id. "This by no means pre- 
vents them from being also punishments." — Way land cor. "This hinders them not from being 
also, in the strictest sense, punishments." — Id. " The noise made by the rain and wind, prevented 
them from being heard." — Goldsmith cor. " He endeavoured to prevent it from taking effect." — 
Id. "So sequestered as to prevent them from being explored." — Jane West cor. "Who pre- 
vented her from making a more pleasant party." — Same. " To prevent us from being tossed about 
by every wind of doctrine." — Same. " After the infirmities of age prevented him from bearing his 
part of official duty." — E. Adam cor. " To prevent splendid trifles from passing for matters of 
importance." — Karnes cor. " W r hich prevents him from exerting himself to any good purpose." 
— Beattie cor. "The nonobservance of this rule very frequently prevents us from being punctual 
in the performance o/our duties." — Todd cor. "Nothing will prevent him from being a student, 
and possessing the means of study." — Id. "Does the present accident hinder you from being 
honest and brave?" — Collier cor. " The e is omitted to prevent two Fes from coming together." 
— Fowle cor. " A pronoun is used for, or in place of, a noun, — to prevent a repetition of the noun." 
— Sanborn cor. " Diversity in the style relieves the ear, and prevents it from being tired with the 
frequent recurrence of the rhymes." — Campbell cor. ; also Murray. " Timidity and false shame 
prevent us from opposing vicious customs." — Mur. etal. cor. " To prevent them from being moved 
by such." — Campbell cor. "Some obstacle, or impediment, that prevents it from taking place." 
— Priestley cor. " Which prevents us from making a progress towards perfection." — Sheridan cor. 
" This method of distinguishing words, must prevent any regular proportion of time from being 
settled." — Id. " That nothing but affectation can prevent it from always taking place." — Id. 
" This did not prevent John from being acknowledged and solemnly inaugurated Duke of Nor- 
mandy." Or : " Notwithstanding this, John was acknowledged and solemnly inaugurated Duke of 
Normandy." — Henry, Webster, Sanborn, and Fowler cor. 



976 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

Under Note X. — The Leading Word in Sense. 

"This would make it impossible for a noun, or any other word, ever to hem the possessive case." 
— 0. B. Peirce cor. " A great part of our pleasure arises from finding the plan or story well con- 
ducted." — Br. Blair cor. " And we have no reason to wonder that this was the case." — Id. " She 
objected only, (as Cicero says,) to Oppianicus as having two sons by his present wife." — Id. " The 
subjugation of the Britons by the Saxons, was a necessary consequence of their calling of these 
Saxons to their assistance." — Id. " "What he had there said concerning the Saxons, that they ex- 
pelled the Britons, and changed the customs, the religion, and the language of the country, is a 
clear and a good reason why our present language is Saxon, rather than British." — Id. " The 
only material difference between them, except that the one is short and the other more prolonged, 
is, that a metaphor is always explained by the words that are connected with it." — Id. et Mur. cor. 
" The description of Death, advancing to meet Satan on his arrival." — Rush cor. " Is not the 
bare fact, that G-od is the witness of it, sufficient ground for its credibility to rest upon ?" — Chalmers 
cor. "As in the case of one who is entering upon a new study." — Beattie cor. "The manner 
in which these affect the copula, is called the imperative wood" — Wilkins cor. "We are freed 
from the trouble, because our nouns have scarcely any diversity of endings." — Buchanan cor. " The 
verb is rather indicative of the action as being doing, or done, than of the time of the event ; but 
indeed the ideas are undistinguishable." — Booth cor. "Nobody would doubt that this is a suffi- 
cient proof." — Campbell cor. "Against the doctrine here maintained, that conscience as well as 
reason, is a natural faculty." — Beattie cor. "It is one cause why the Greek and English lan- 
guages are much more easy to learn, than the Latin." — Bucke cor. *' I have not been able to make 
out a solitary instance in which such has been the fact.," — Lib. cor. " An angel, forming the appear- 
ance of a hand, and writing the king's condemnation on the wall, checked their mirth, and filled 
them with terror." — ■ Wood cor. " The prisoners, in attempting to escape, aroused the keepers." — 
0. B. Peirce cor. " I doubt not, in the least, that this has been one cause of the multiplication 
of divinities in the heathen world." — Br. Blair cor. " From the general rule he lays down, that 
the verb is the parent word of all language." — Tooke cor. " He was accused of being idle." Or : 
"He was accused of idleness." — Fetch cor. " Our meeting is generally dissatisfied with him for 
so removing." Or: "with the circumstances of his removal." — Edmondson cor. "The spectacle 
is too rare, of men deserving solid fame while not seeking it." — Bush cor. " What further need 
was there that an other priest should rise f" — Heb., vii, 11. 

Under Note XL — Reference of Participles. 
"Viewing them separately, we experience different emotions." Or: " Viewed separately, they 
produce different emotions." — Karnes cor. "But, this being left doubtful, an other objection oc- 
curs." — Id. " As he proceeded from one particular to an other, the subject grew under his hand." 
— Id. " But this is still an interruption, and a link of the chain is broken." — Id. " After some 
days' hunting, — (or, After some days spent in hunting,) — Cyrus communicated his design to his 
officers." — Rollin cor. " But it is made, without the appearance of being made in form." — Br. Blair 
cor. " These would have had a better effect, had they been disjoined, thus." — Blair and Murray 
cor. " In an improper diphthong, but one of the vowels is sounded." — Murray, Alger, et al. cor. 
"And / being led to think of both together, my view is rendered unsteady." — Blair, Mur., and 
Jam. cor. " By often doing the same thing, we make the action habitual." Or: " What is often 
done, becomes habitual." — L. Murray cor. " They remain with us in our dark and solitary hours, 
no less than when we are surrounded with friends and cheerful society." — Id. " Besides showing 
what is right, one may further explain the matter by pointing out what is wrong." — Lowth cor. 
"The former teaches the true pronunciation of words, and comprises accent, quantity, emphasis, 
pauses, and tones." — L. Murray cor. " A person may reprove others for their negligence, by saying, 
'You have taken great care indeed.' " — Id. "The word preceding and the word following it, are 
in apposition to each other." — Id. "He having finished his speech, the assembly dispersed." — 
Cooper cor. " Were the voice to fall at the close of the last line, as many a reader is in the habit 
of allowing it to do." — Kirkham cor. " The misfortunes of his countrymen were but negatively 
the effects of his wrath, which only deprived them of his assistance." — Karnes cor. " Taking them 
as nouns, we may explain this construction thus." — Grant cor. " These have an active significa- 
tion, except those which come from neuter verbs." — Id. " Prom its evidence not being universal." 
Or : " From the fact that its evidence is not universal." — Bp. Butler cor. " And this faith will contin- 
ually grow, as we acquaint ourselves with our own nature." — Channing cor. "Monosyllables 
ending with any consonant but /, I, or s, never double the final consonant, when it is preceded by 
a single vowel; except add, ebb," &c. — Kirkham's Gram., p. 23. Or: " Words ending with any 
consonant except/, I, or s, do not double the final letter. Exceptions. Add, ebb, &c." — Bullions' s 
E. Gram., p. 3. (See my 2d Rule for Spelling, of which this is a partial copy.) " The relation of 
Maria as being the object of the action, is expressed by the change of the noun Maria to Mariam :" 
[i. e., in the Latin language.] — Booth cor. " In analyzing a proposition, one must first divide it 
into its logical subject and predicate." — Andrews and Stoddard cor. " In analyzing a simple sen- 
tence, one should first resolve it into its logical subject and logical predicate." — Wells cor. 

Under Note XII. — Of Participles and Nouns. 
" The instant discovery of passions at their birth, is essential to our well-being." — Karnes cor. 
"I am now to enter on a consideration o/the sources of the pleasures of taste." — Blair cor. " The 



CHAP. VIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. RULE XXI. — ADVERBS. 977 

varieties in the use of them are indeed many." — Murray cor. " The changing of times and 
seasons, #ie removing and the setting-up of kings, belong to Providence alone." — Id. " Adherence 
to the partitions, seemed the cause of France ; acceptance of the will, that of the house of Bour- 
bon." — Bolingbroke cor. "An other source of darkness in composition, is the injudicious intro- 
duction of technical words and phrases." — Campbell cor. " These are the rules of grammar; by 
observing which, you may avoid mistakes." — L. Murray et cd. cor. " By observing the rules, you 
may avoid mistakes." — Alger cor. " By observing these rules, he succeeded." — Frost cor. " The 
praise bestowed on Mm was his ruin." — Id. " Deception is not convincement." — Id. "He never 
feared the loss of 'a Mend." — Id. " The making of books is his amusement." — Alger cor. " We 
call it the declining — (or, the declension — ) of a noun." — Inger soil cor. " "Washington, however, 
pursued the same policy of neutrality, and opposed firmly the taking of any part in the wars of 
Europe." — Hall and Baker cor. "The following is a note of Interrogation, or of a question: (?)." 
— Inf. S. Gram. cor. "The following is a note of Admiration, or of wonder: (!)." — Id. " The 
use or omission o/the article a forms a nice distinction in the sense." — Murray cor. " The placing 
of the preposition before the word vjhich it governs, is more graceful." — Churchill cor. (See 
LowiKs Gram., p. 96; Murray's, i, 200; Fistis, 141; Smith's, 167.) "Assistance is absolutely 
necessary to their recovery, and the retrieving of their affairs." — Bp. Butler cor. "Which termination. 
[ish,] when added to adjectives, imports diminution, or a lessening of the quality." — Mv.r. and, 
Kirkham cor. "After what has been said, will it be thought an excess of refinement, to suggest 
that the different orders are qualified for different purposes ?" — Karnes cor. " Who has nothing 
to think of, but the killing of time." — West cor. "It requires no nicety of ear, as in the distin- 
guishing of tones, or the measuring o/time." — Sheridan cor. " The possessive case [is that form or 
state of a noun or pronoun, which] denotes possession, or the relation of property." — S. B. Hall cor. 

Under Note XIII. — Perfect Participles. 

" Garcilasso was master of the language spoken by the Incas." — Robertson cor. "When an in- 
teresting story is broken off in the middle." — Karnes cor. " Speaking of Hannibal's elephants driven 
back by the enemy." — Id. " If Du Ryer had not written for bread, he would have equalled therm" 
— Formey cor. " Pope describes a rock broken off from a mountain, and hurling to the plain." — 
Karnes cor. " I have written, Thou hast written, He hath or has written; &c." — Ash and Maltby 
cor. "This was spoken by a pagan." — Webster cor. "But I have chosen to follow the common 
arrangement." — Id. "The language spoken in Bengal." — Id. " And sound sleep thus broken off 
with sudden alarms, is apt enough to discompose am^ one." — Locke cor. " This is not only the 
case of those open sinners before spoken of." — Leslie cor. " Some grammarians have ivriiten a 
very perplexed and difficult doctrine on Punctuation." — Ensell cor. " There hath a pity arisen in 
me towards thee." — G. Fox Jun. cor. "Abel is the only man that has undergone the awful 
change of death." — Be Genlis, Death of Adam. 

" Meantime, on Afric's glowing sands, 
Smit with keen heat, the traveller stands." — Ode cor. 



CHAPTER VIII.— ADVERBS. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER THE NOTES TO RULE XXI. 
Under Note I. — The Placing of Adverbs. 

" Not all that is favoured by good use, is proper to be retained." — L. Murray corrected. " Not 
everything favoured by good use, is on that account worthy to be retained." — Campbell cor. 
" Most men dream, but not all." — Beattie cor. " By hasty composition, we shall certainly acquire 
a very bad style." — Dr. Blair cor. " The comparisons are short, touching on only one point of resem- 
blance." — Id. " Having once had some considerable object set before us." — Id. " The positive 
seems to be improperly called a degree.'.'* — Adam and Gould cor. " In some phrases, the genitive 
only is used." — lid. "This blunder is said to have actually occurred." — Smith cor. "But not 
every man is called James, nor every woman, Mary." — Buchanan cor. " Crotchets are employed 
for nearly the same purpose as the parenthesis." — Churchill cor. " There is a still greater impro- 
priety in a double comparative." — Priestley cor. " We often have occasion to speak of time." — 
Loivthcor. "The following sentence cannot possibly be understood." — Id. " The words must 
generally be separated from the context." — Comly cor. "Words ending in ator, generally have 
the accent on the penultimate." — L. Mur. cor. " The learned languages, with respect to voices, 
moods, and tenses, are, in general, constructed differently from the English tongue." — Id. "Ad- 
verbs seem to have been originally contrived to express compendiously, in one word, what must 
otherwise have required two or more." — Id. " But it is so, only when the expression can be con- 
verted into the regular form of the possessive case." — Id. " ' Enter boldly,'' says he, 'for here too 
there are gods.' " — Harris cor. " For none ever work for so little a pittance that some cannot be 
found to work for less." — Sedgwick cor. "For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive again as 
much." — Bible cor. Or, as Campbell has it in his version : — " that they may receive as much in 
return." — Luke, vi, 34. " They must be viewed in exactly the same light." — L. Murray cor. "If 
he speaks but to display his abilities, he is unworthy of attention." — Id. 

* From this opinion, I dissent. See Obs. 1st on the Degrees of Comparison, and Obs. 4th on Regular Compar- 
ison, in the Etymology of this work, at pp. 279 and 285. — G-. Brown. 

62 



978 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

Under Note II. — Adverbs for Adjectives. 

" Upward motion is commonly more agreeable than motion downward. 11 — Dr. Blair cor. " There 
are but two possible ways of justification before God." — Cox cor. " This construction sounds rather 
harsh.' 1 '' — Mur. and Ing. cor. " A clear conception, in the mind of the learner, of regular and well- 
formed letters." — C. S. Jour. cor. "He was a great hearer of * * * Attalus, Sotion, 
Papirius, Fabianus, of whom he makes frequent mention." — L 'Estrange cor. " It is only the fre- 
quent doing of a thing, that makes it a custom." — Leslie cor. " Because W. R. takes frequent oc- 
casion to insinuate his jealousies of persons and things." — Barclay cor. "Yet frequent touching 
will wear gold." — Shak. cor. " Uneducated persons frequently use an adverb when they ought to 
use an adjective: as, 'The country looks beautifully ;' in stead of beautiful.' 1 * — Bucke cor. "The 
adjective is put absolute, or without its substantive." — Ash cor. " A noun or a pronoun in the 
second person, may be put absolute in the nominative case." — Harrison cor. " A noun or a pro- 
noun, when put absolute with a participle," &c. — Id. and Jaudon cor. "A verb in the infinitive 
mood absolute, stands independent of the remaining part of the sentence." — Wilbur and Liv. cor. 
" At my late return into England, I met a book entitled, 'The Iron Age.' " — Cowley cor. "But 
he can discover no better foundation for any of them, than the mere practice of Homer and Virgil." 
— Karnes cor. 

Under Note III.— HERE for HITHER, &c. 

" It is reported, that the governor will come hither to-morrow." — Kirkham cor. " It has been 
reported that the governor will come hither to-morrow." — Id. "To catch a prospect of that lovely 
land whither his steps are tending." — Maturin cor. "Plautus makes one of his characters ask an 
other, whither he is going with that Vulcan shut up in a horn ; that is, with a lantern in his 
hand." — Adams cor. " When we left Cambridge we intended to return thither in a few days." — 
Anon- cor. " Duncan comes hither to-night." — Churchill 1 s Gram., p. 323. "They talked of re- 
turning hither last week." — See J. AT. Putnam's Gram., p. 129. 

Under Note IV.— FROM HENCE, &o. 
* " Hence he concludes, that no inference can be drawn from the meaning of the word, that a 
constitution has a higher authority than a law or statute," — Webster cor. " Whence we may like- 
wise date the period of this event." — L. Murray cor. " Hence it becomes evident that Language, 
taken in the most comprehensive view, implies certain sounds, [or certain written signs,] having 
certain meanings." — Harris cor. " They returned to the city whence they came out." — A. Murray 
cor. " Respecting ellipses, some grammarians differ strangely in their ideas ; and thence has arisen 
a very whimsical diversity in their systems of grammar." — G. Brown. "What am I, and whence ? 
That is, What am I, and whence am 1 V — Jaudon cor. 

Under Note V. — The Adverb HOW. 
" It is strange, that a writer so accurate as Dean Swift, should have stumbled on so improper 
an application of this particle." — Dr. Blair cor. " Ye know, that a good while ago God made choice 
among us," &c. — Bible cor. " Let us take care lest we sin ; i. e.,- — that we do not sin." — Priestley 
cor. "We see by these instances, that prepositions may bo necessary, to connect such words as 
are not naturally connected by their own signification." — L. Murray cor. " Know ye not your 
own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?" — Bible cor. " That thou mayst 
know that the earth is the Lord's." — Id. 

Under Note VI.— WHEN, WHILE, or WHERE. 

" Ellipsis is the omission of some word or words which are necessary to complete the construction, 
hut not requisite to complete the sense." — Adam, Gould, and Fisk, cor. " Pleonasm is the 
insertion of some word or words more than are absolutely necessary either to complete the con- 
struction, or to express the sense." — lid. cor. " Hysteron-proteron is a figure in which that 
is put in the former part of the sentence, which, according to the sense, should be in the latter." 
— Adam and Gould cor. " Hysteron-proteron is a rhetorical figure in which that is said last, 
which was done first." — Webster cor. "A Barbarism is a foreign or strange word, an expres- 
sion contrary to the pure idiom of the language. 11 — Adam and Gould cor. "A Solecism is an 
impropriety in respect to syntax, an absurdity or incongruity in speech. 11 — lid. cor. "An Idiotism 
is a manner of expression peculiar to one language childishly transferred to an other. 11 — lid. cor. 
"Tautology is a disagreeable repetition, either o/the same words, or of the same sense in different 
words." — lid. cor. "Bombast, or Fustian, is an inflated or ambitious style, in which high-sounding 
words are used, with little or no meaning, or upon a trifling occasion." — lid. cor. " Amphibology 
is ambiguity of construction, phraseology which may be taken in two different senses." — lid. cor. 
"Irony is a figure in which one means the contrary of what is said." — Adam and Gould cor. 
" Periphrasis, or Circumlocution, is the use of several words, to express what might be said in 
fewer." — lid. cor. " Hyperbole is a figure in which a thing is magnified above the truth." — lid. cor. 
Personification is a figure which ascribes human life, sentiments, or actions, to inanimate beings, 
or to abstract qualities." — lid. cor. " ApostPvOPHE is a turning from the tenor of one's discourse, 
into an animated address to some person, present or absent, living or dead, or to some object per- 

* " The country looks beautiful ;" that is, arrears beautiful — is beautiful. This is right, and therefore the use 
which Bucke makes of it, may be fairly re-yersed. But the example was ill chosen ; and I incline to think, it 
may also be right to say, " The country lo(Jcs beautifully ."" for the quality expressed by beautiful, is nothing 
else than the manner in which the thing slpws to the eye. See Obs. 11th on Rule 9th. — G. Beown. 



CHAP. VIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XXI. — ADVERBS. 9 79 

sonified." — lid. cor. " A Simile is a simple and express comparison ; and is generally introduced 
by like, as, or so." — G. B., Inst, p. 233 ; Kirkham cor. ; also Adam and Gould. " Antithesis 
is a placing of things in opposition, to heighten their effect by contrast." — Inst, p. 234 ; Adam, 
and Gould corrected. "Vision, or Imagery, is a figure in which what is present, only to the 
mind, is represented as actually before one's eyes, and present to the senses." — G. B. ; Adam cor. 
" Emphasis is a particular stress of voice laid on some word in a sentence." — Gould's Adam's 
Gram., p. 241. " Epanorthosis, or Correction, is the recalling or correcting by the speaker, 
of what he last said." — Ibid. " Paralepsis, or Omission, is the pretending to omit or pass 
by, what one at the same time declares." — Ibid. " Incrementum, or Climax in sense, is the ris- 
ing of one member above an other to the highest." — Ibid. "Metonymy is a change of names : as 
when the cause is mentioned for the effect, or the effect for the cause ; the container for the thing 
contained, or the sign for the thing signified." — Kirkham cor. " The Agreement of words is their 
similarity in person, number, gender, case, mood, tense, or form." — Brown's Inst, p. 104. " The 
Government of words is that power which one word has over an other, to cause it to assume some 
particular modification." — lb. " Fusion is the converting of some solid substance into a fluid by 
heat." — G. B. " A proper diphthong is a diphthong in which both the vowels are sounded to- 
gether; as, oi in voice, ou in house." — Fisher cor. "An improper diphthong is a diphthong in 
which the sound of but one of the two vowels is heard ; as, eo in people." — Id. 

Under Note VII. — The Adverb NO for NOT. 

" An adverb is added to a verb to show how, or when, or where, or whether or not, one is, does, 
or suffers." — Buchanan cor. " We must be immortal, whether we will or not." — Maturin cor. " He 
cares not whether the world was made for Csesar or not." — A. Q. Rev. cor. "I do not know 
whether they are out or not" — Byron cor. " Whether it can be proved or not, is not the thing." — 
Bp. Butler cor. " Whether he makes use of the means commanded by God, or not"— Id. " Whether 
it pleases the world or not, the care is taken." — L 'Estrange cor. "How comes this to be never 
heard of, nor in the least questioned, whether the Law was undoubtedly of Moses's writing oi* 
not ?" — Tomline cor. " Whether he be a sinner or not, I do not know." Or, as the text is more 
literally translated by Campbell : " Whether he be a sinner, I know not." — Bible cor. " Can I 
make men live, whether they will or not?" — Shak. cor. 

" Can hearts not free, be tried whether they serve 
Willing or not, who will but what they must ?" — Milton cor. 

Under Note VIII. — Of Double Negatives. 
"We need not, nor do we, confine the purposes of God." Or: "We need not, and do not, con- 
fine," &c. — Bentley cor. " I cannot by any means allow him that." — Id. " We must try whether 
or not we can increase the attention by the help of the senses." — Brightland cor. "There is 
nothing more admirable or more useful." — Tooke cor. " And what in time to come he can never 
be said to have done, he can never be supposed to do." — R. Johnson cor. "No skill could obvi- 
ate, no remedy dispel, the terrible infection." — Goldsmith cor. "Prudery cannot be an indication 
either of sense or of taste." — Spurzheim cor. "But neither that scripture, nor any other, speaks 
of imperfect faith." — Barclay cor. "But neither this scripture, nor any other, proves that faith 
was or is always accompanied with doubting." — Id. " The light of Christ is not, and cannot be, 
darkness." — Id. " Doth not the Scripture, which cannot lie, give some of the saints this testi- 
mony ?" — Id. " Which do not continue, and are not binding." — Id. " It not being perceived 
directly, any more than the air." — Campbell cor. " Let us be no Stoics, and no stocks, I pray." 
— Shak. cor. "Where there is no marked or peculiar character in the style." — Br. Blair cor. 
"There can be no rules laid down, nor any manner recommended." — Sheridan cor. 

" Bates. l He hath not told his thought to the king ?' 
K. Henry. ' No ; and it is not meet he should.' " 
Or thus: " ' No ; nor is it meet he should.' " — Shak. cor. 

Under Note IX.— EVER and NEVER. 

" The prayer of Christ is more than sufficient both to strengthen us, be we ever so weak ; and to 
overthrow all adversary power, be it ever so strong." — Hooker cor. "He is like to have no share 
in it, or to be never the better for it." Or : " He is not likely to have any share in it, or to be ever 
the better for it." — Bunyan cor. " In some parts of Chili it seldom or never rains." — Willetts cor. 
" If Pompey shall but everso little seem to like it." — W. Walker cor. " Though everso great a 
posse of dogs and hunters pursue him." — Id. "Though you be everso excellent." — Id. "If you 
do amiss everso little." — Id. " If we cast our eyes everso little down." — Id. " A wise man 
scorneth nothing, be it everso small or homely." — M. F. Tapper cor. "Because they have seldom 
if ever an opportunity of learning them at all." — Clarkson cor. "We seldom or never see those 
forsaken who trust in God." — Atterbury cor. 

" Where, playing with him at bo-peep, 
He solved all problems, e'er so deep." — S. Butler cor. 

Under Note X. — Of the Form of Adverbs. 
" One can scarcely think that Pope was capable of epic or tragic poetry ; but, within a certain 
limited region, he has been outdone by no poet." — Dr. Blair cor. " I who now read, have nearly 



980 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

finished this chapter." — Harris cor. " And yet, to refine our taste with respect to beauties of art 
or of nature, is scarcely endeavoured in any seminary of learning." — Karnes cor. " The numbers 
being confounded, and the possessives wrongly applied, the passage is neither English nor gram- 
mar." — Buchanan cor. "The letter G- is wrongly named Jee." — Creighton cor. "Lastly, remem- 
ber that in science, as in morals, authority cannot make right what in itself is wrong." — 0. B. 
Peirce cor. " They regulate our taste even where we are scarcely sensible of them." — Karnes 
cor. "Slow action, for example, is imitated by words pronounced slowly." — Id. " Surely, if it be 
to profit withal, it must be in order to save." — Barclay cor. " Which is scarcely possible at best." 
— Sheridan cor. " Our wealth being nearly finished." — Harris cor. 



CHAPTER IX.— CONJUNCTIONS. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER THE NOTES TO RULE XXII. 
Under Note I. — Op Two Terms with One. 

" The first proposal was essentially different from the second, and inferior to it" — Inst. " A 
neuter verb expresses the state which a subject is in, without acting upon any other thing, or being 
acted upon by an other." — A. Murray cor. "I answer, You may use stories and anecdotes, 
and ought to do so." — Todd cor. "Oracle, n. Any person from whom, or place at which, certain 
decisions are obtained." — Webster cor. "Forms of government may, and occasionally must, be 
changed." — Lytielton cor. "I have been, and / still pretend to be, a tolerable judge." — Sped. cor. 
" Are we not lazy in our duties, or do we not make a Christ of them ?" — Baxter cor. " They may 
not express that idea which the author intends, but some other which only resembles it, or is akin 
to it." — Dr. Blair cor. "We may therefore read them, we ought to read them, with a distinguish- 
ing eye." — lb. " Compare their poverty with what they might possess, and ought to possess." — 
Sedgwick cor. "He is much better acquainted with grammar than they are." — L. Murray cor. 
" He was mora beloved than Cinthio, but [he was] not so much admired." — L. Murray's Gram., i, 
222. " Will it be urged, that the four gospels are as old as tradition, and even older ?" — Campbell's 
Rhet., p. 207. " The court of chancery frequently mitigates and disarms the common law." — 
Sped, and Ware cor. "Antony, coming along side of her ship, entered it without seeing her, or 
being seen by her." — Goldsmith cor. " Into candid minds, truth enters as a welcome guest." — L. 
Murray cor. " There are many designs in ivhich we may succeed, to our ultimate ruin." — Id. 
"From many pursuits in which we embark with pleasure, we are destined to land sorrowfully." — 
Id. " They gain much more than I, by this unexpected event." — Id. 

Under Note II. — Op Heterogeneous Terms. 

"Athens saw them entering her gates and filling her academies." — Chazotte cor. "Neither 
have we forgot his past achievements, nor do we despair of his future success." — Duncan cor. 
" Her monuments and temples had long been shattered, or had crumbled into dust." — Journal 
cor. " Competition is excellent ; it is the vital principle in all these things." — Id. "Whether 
provision should, or should not, be made, in order to meet this exigency." — lb. " That our Sa- 
viour was divinely inspired, and that he was endued with supernatural powers, are positions that 
are here taken for granted." — L. Mur. cor. " It would be much more eligible, to contract or 
enlarge their extent by explanatory notes and observations, than to sweep away our ancient land- 
marks and set up others." — Id. " It is certainly much better to supply defects and abridge su- 
perfluities by occasional notes and observations, than to disorganize or greatly alter a system which 
has been so long established." — Id. " To have only one tune, or measure, is not much better than 
to have none at all." — Dr. Blair cor. " Facts too well known and too obvious to be insisted on." 
— Id. " In proportion as all these circumstances are happily chosen, and are of a sublime kind." 
— Id. "If the description be too general, and be divested of circumstances." — Id. "He gained 
nothing but commendation." — L. Mur. cor. "I cannot but think its application somewhat strained 
and misplaced." — Vethake cor. "Two negatives standing in the same clause, or referring to the 
same thing, destroy each other, and leave the sense affirmative." — Maunder cor. " Slates are thin 
plates of stone, and are often used to cover the roofs of houses." — Webster cor. "Every man of 
taste, and of an elevated mind, ought to feel almost the necessity of apologizing for the power he 
possesses." — Translator of De Stael cor. " They very seldom trouble themselves with inquiries, 
or make any useful observations of their own." — Locke cor. 

" We've both the field and honour won ; 
Our foes are profligate, and run." — S. Butler cor. 

Under Note III. — Import of Conjunctions. 
" The is sometimes used before adverbs in the comparative or the superlative degree." — Lennie, 
Bullions, and Brace cor. " The definite article the is frequently applied to adverbs in the com- 
parative or the superlative degree." — Lowth, Murray, et al, cor. " Conjunctions usually connect 
verbs in the same mood and tense." Or, more truly : " Yerbs connected by a conjunction, are 
usually in the same mood and tense." — Sanborn cor. " Conjunctions connect verbs in the same 
stjde, and usually in the same mood, tense, and form." Or better: "Yerbs connected by a con- 
junction, are usually of the same mood, tense, and form, as well as style." — Id. " The ruins of 
Greece or Rome are but the monuments of her former greatness." — P. E. Day cor. " It is not 



CHAP. IX.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — RULE XXII. — CONJUNCTIONS. 981 

improbable, that in many of these cases the articles were used originally." — Priestley cor. " I can- 
not doubt that these objects are really what they appear to be." — Karnes cor. " I question not 
that my reader will be as much pleased with it." — Sped. cor. "It is ten to one that my friend 
Peter is among them." — Id. " I doubt not that such objections as these will be made." — Locke 
cor. " I doubt not that it will appear in the perusal of the following sheets." — Buchanan cor. 
"It is not improbable, that in time these different constructions may be appropriated to different 
uses." — Priestley cor. " But to forget and to remember at pleasure, are equally beyond the power 
of man." — Idler cor. "The nominative case follows the verb, in interrogative or imperative sen- 
tences." — L. Mur. cor. "Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? or a vine, figs?" — 
Bible cor. " Whose characters are too profligate for the managing of them to be of any conse- 
quence." — Swift cor. " You, that are a step higher than a philosopher, a divine, yet have too 
much grace and wit to be a bishop." — Pope cor. " The terms rich and poor enter not into their 
language." — Robertson cor. "This pause is but seldom, if ever, sufficiently dwelt upon." Or: 
"This pause is seldom or never sufficiently dwelt upon." — Gardiner cor. "There would be no 
possibility of any such thing as human life or human happiness." — Bp. Butler cor. " The multitude 
rebuked them, that they should hold their peace." — Bible cor. 

Under Note IV. — The Conjunction THAN. 

"A metaphor is nothing else than & short comparison." Or: "A metaphor is nothing but a 
short comparison." — Adam and Gould cor. "There being no other dictator here than use." — 
Murray* s Gram., i, 364. " This construction is no otherwise known in English, than by supply- 
ing the first or the second person plural." — Buchanan cor. " Cyaxares was no sooner on the 
throne, than he was engaged in a terrible war." — Rollin cor. "Those classics contain little else 
than histories of murders." — Am. Mu. cor. "Ye shall not worship any other than God." — Sale 
cor. "Their relation, therefore, is not otherwise to be ascertained, than by their place." — Campbell 
cor. " For he no sooner accosted her, than he gained his point." — Burder cor. " And all the mod- 
ern writers on this subject, have done little else than translate them." — Dr. Blair cor. " One who 
had no other aim than to talk copiously and plausibly." — Id. "We can refer it to no other cause 
than the structure of the eye." — Id. " No more is required than singly an act of vision." — Karnes 
cor. " We find no more in its composition, than the particulars now mentioned." — Id. " He does 
not pretend to say, that it has any other effect than to raise surprise." — Id. "No sooner was the 
princess dead, than he freed himself." — Br. S. Johnson cor. " Ought is an imperfect verb, for it has 
no modification besides this one." — Priestley cor. " The verb is palpably nothing else than the 
tie." — Neef cor. " Does he mean that theism is capable of nothing else than of being opposed to 
polytheism or atheism ?" — Br. Blair cor. " Is it meant that theism is capable of nothing else than 
of being opposed to polytheism or atheism ?" — L. Murray cor. " There is no other method of teach- 
ing that of which any one is ignorant, than by means of something already known." — Inger soil's 
Grammar, Titlepage: Dr. Johnson cor. "0 fairest flower, no sooner blown than blasted!" — Mil- 
ton cor. "Architecture and gardening cannot otherwise entertain the mind, than by raising 
certain agreeable emotions or feelings." — Karnes cor. " Or, rather, they are nothing else than 
nouns." — Brit. Gram. cor. 

" As if religion were intended 
For nothing else than to be mended." — S. Butler cor. 

Under Note V. — Relatives Exclude Conjunctions. 
" To prepare the Jews for the reception of a prophet mightier than himself a teacher whose 
shoes he was not worthy to bear." — Anon, or Mur. cor. " Has this word, which represents an 
action, an object after it, on which the action terminates ?" — Osborne cor. " The stores of literature 
lie before him, from which he may collect for use many lessons of wisdom." — Knapp cor. " Many 
and various great advantages of this grammar over others, might be enumerated." — Greenleaf 
cor. " The custom which still prevails, of writing in lines from left to right, is said to have been 
introduced about the time of Solon, the Athenian legislator." — Jamieson cor. "The fundamental 
rule for the construction of sentences, the rule into which all others might be resolved, undoubt- 
edly is, to communicate, in the clearest and most natural order, the ideas which we mean to ex- 
press." — Blair and Jamieson cor. " He left a son of a singular character, who behaved so ill that 
he was put in prison." — L. Murray cor. "He discovered in the youth some disagreeable quali- 
ties which to him were wholly unaccountable." — Id. " An emphatical pause is made after some- 
thing of peculiar moment has been said, on which we wish to fix the hearer's attention." Or: 
"An emphatical pause is made after something has been said which is of peculiar moment, and 
on which we ivish to fix the hearer's attention." — Blair andtMurray cor. "But we have dupli- 
cates of each, agreeing in movement, though differing in measure, and making different impressions 
on the ear." — Murray cor. 

Under Note VI. — Of the word THAT. 
"It will greatly facilitate the labours of the teacher, and, at the same time, it will relieve the 
pupil from many difficulties." — Frost cor. " While the pupil is engaged in the exercises just 
mentioned, it will be proper for him to study the whole grammar in course." — Bullions cor. " On 
the same ground on which a participle and an auxiliary are allowed to form a tense." — Beattie and 
Murray cor. " On the same ground on which the voices, moods, and tenses, are admitted into 
the English tongue." — L. Murray cor. " The five examples last mentioned, are corrected on the 



982 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

same principle that is applied to the errors preceding them," — Murray and Ingersoll cor. " The 
brazen age began at the death of Trajan, and lasted till Rome was taken by the Goths." — Gould 
cor. " The introduction to the duodecimo edition is retained in this volume, for the same reason 
for which the original introduction to the Grammar is retained in the first volume." — L. Murray 
cor. " The verb must also agree in person with its subject or nominative." — Ingersoll cor. " The 
personal pronoun ' their ' is plural for the same reason for which 'who 1 is plural." — Id. "The 
Sabellians could not justly be called Patripassians, in the same sense in which the Noetians were 
so called." — R. Adam cor. " This is one reason why we pass over such smooth language without 
suspecting that it contains little or no meaning." — L. Murray cor. " The first place at which the 
two armies came within sight of each other, was on the opposite banks of the river Apsus." — 
Goldsmith cor. " At the very time at which the author gave him the first book for his perusal." — 
Campbell cor. " Peter will sup at the time at which Paul will dine." — Fosdick cor. " Peter will 
be supping when Paul will enter." — Id. " These, while they may serve as models to those who 
may wish to imitate them, will give me an opportunity to cast more light upon the principles of 
this book."— Id 

" Time was, like thee, they life possessed, 
And time shall be, wlien thou shalt rest." — Parnell cor. 

Under Note VII. — Op the Correspondents. 
"Our manners should be neither gross nor excessively refined." — Murray's Key, ii, 165. "A 
neuter verb expresses neither action nor passion, but being, or a state of being." — 0. B. Peirce cor. 
" The old books are neither English grammars, nor in any sense grammars of the English lan- 
guage." — Id. "The author is apprehensive that his work is not yet so accurate and so much sim- 
plified as it may be." — Kirkham cor. " The writer could not treat some topics so extensively as 
[it] was desirable [to treat them]." — Id. " Which would be a matter of such nicety, that no 
degree of human wisdom could regulated." — L. Murray cor. "No undertaking is so great or 
difficult, that he cannot direct iV — Duncan cor. " It is a good which depends neither on the will 
of others, nor on the affluence of external fortune." — Harris cor. " Not only his estate, but his 
reputation too, has suffered by his misconduct." — Murray and Ingersoll cor. " Neither do they 
extend so far as might be imagined at first view." — Dr. Blair cor. " There is no language so poor, 
but that it has (or, as not to have) two or three past tenses." — Id. " So far as this system is found- 
ed in truth, language appears to be not altogether arbitrary in its origin." — Id. "I have not such 
command of these convulsions as is necessary." Or: "I have not that command of these con- 
vulsions which is necessary." — Spject. cor. " Conversation with such as (or, those who) know no 
arts that polish life." — Id. "And which cannot be either very lively or very forcible." — Jamieson 
cor. " To such a degree as to give proper names to rivers." — Dr. Murray cor. " In the utter 
overthrow of such as hate to be reformed." — Barclay cor. "But still so much of it is retained, 
that it greatly injures the uniformity of the whole." — Priestley cor. " Some of them have gone 
to such a height of extravagance, as to assert," &c. — Id. " A teacher is confined, not more than 
a merchant, and probably not so much." — Abbott cor. "It shall not be forgiven him, neither in 
this world, nor in the world to come." Or: " It shall not be forgiven him, either in this world, 
or in the world to come." — Bible cor. " Which nobody presumes, or is so sanguine as to hope." — 
Swift cor. " For the torrent of the voice left neither time, nor power in the organs, to shape the 
words properly." — Sheridan cor. "That he may neither unnecessarily waste his voice by throw- 
ing out too much, nor diminish his power by using too little." — Id. " I have retained only such 
as appear most agreeable to the measures of analogy." — Littleton cor. "He is a man both 
prudent and industrious." — P. E. Day cor. ' " Conjunctions connect either words or sentences." — 
Browrts Inst, p. 169. 

" Such silly girls as love to chat and play, 
Deserve no care ; their time is thrown away." — Tobitt cor. 

u Yice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
That to be hated she but needs be seen." — Pope cor. 

" Justice must punish the rebellious deed ; 
Yet punish so that pity shall exceed." — Dry den cor. 

Under Note VIII. — Improper Ellipses. 
" That, whose, and as, relate either to persons or to things." Or better: — " relate as well to per- 
sons as to things." — Sanborn cor. " Which and what, as adjectives, relate either to persons or 
to things." Or better: — " relate to persons as toell as to things." — Id. " Whether of a public or 
of a private nature." — J. Q Adarrm cor. "Which are included among both the public and the 
private wrongs." — Id. " I might extract, both from the Old and from the New Testament, num- 
berless examples of induction." — Id. " Many verbs are used both in an active and in a neuter 
signification." Or thus: " Many verbs are used in both an active and a neuter signification." — 
Lovjth, Market al, cor. " Its influence is likely to be considerable, both on the morals and on the 
taste of a nation." — Dr. Blair cor. " The subject afforded a variety of scenes, both of the awful and 
of the tender kind." — Id. " Restlessness of mind disqualifies us both for the enjoyment of peace, 
and for the performance of our duty." — Mur. and Ing. cor. " Pronominal adjectives are of a mixed 
nature, participating the properties both of pronouns and of adjectives." — Mur. et al. cor. " Pro- 
nominal adjectives have the nature both of the adjective and of the pronoun." — Frost cor. Or: 
" [Pronominal adjectives] partake of the properties of both adjectives and pronouns." — Buckets 



CHAP. X.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — KULE XXIII. — PREPOSITIONS. 9S3 

Gram., p. 55. " Pronominal adjectives are a kind of compound part of speech, partaking the na- 
ture both of pronouns and of adjectives." — Nutting cor. " Nouns are used either in the singular 
or in the plural number." Or perhaps better : " Nouns are used in either the singular or the plu- 
ral number." — David Blair cor. " The question is not, whether the nominative or the accusative 
ought to follow the particles than and as ; but, whether these particles are, in such particular 
cases, to be regarded as conjunctions or as prepositions" — Campbell cor. "In English, many- 
verbs are used both as transitives and as intransitives." — Churchill cor. " He sendeth rain both 
on the just and on the unjust." — See Matt, v, 45. "A foot consists either of two or of three syl- 
lables." — David Blair cor. " Because they participate the nature both of adverbs and of conjunc- 
tions." — L. Murray cor. " Surely, Romans, what I am now about to say, ought neither to bo 
omitted, nor to pass without notice." — Duncan cor. " Their language frequently amounts, not 
only to bad sense, but to nonsense." — Kirkham cor. " Hence arises the necessity of a social state 
to man, both for the unfolding, and for the exerting, of his nobler faculties." — Sheridan cor. 
"Whether the subject be of the real or of the feigned kind." — Dr. H. Blair cor. " Not only was 
liberty entirely extinguished, but arbitrary power was felt in its heaviest and most oppressive 
weight." — Id. "This rule is also applicable both to verbal Critics and to Grammarians." — Riley 
cor. " Both the rules and the exceptions of a language must have obtained the sanction of good 
usage." — Id. 

CHAPTEK X.— PREPOSITIONS. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER THE NOTES TO RULE XXIII. 
Under Note I. — Choice of Prepositions. 
" You have bestowed your favours upon the most deserving persons." — Swift corrected. " But, 
to rise above that, and overtop the crowd, is given to few." — Dr. Blair cor. " This [also is a 
good] sentence [, and] gives occasion for no material remark." — Blair's Rhel., p. 203. "Though 
Cicero endeavours to give some reputation to the elder Cato. and those who were his contempora- 
ries." Or: — "to give some favourable account of the elder Cato," &c. — Dr. Blair cor. "The 
change that was produced in eloquence, is beautifully described in the dialogue." — Id. "With- 
out carefully attending to the variation which they make in the idea." — Id. "All on a sudden, 
you are transported into a lofty palace." — Hazlitt cor. "Alike independent of one an other." Or: 
"Alike independent one of an other." — Campbell cor. "You will not think of them as distinct 
processes going on independently of each other." — Channing cor. " Though we say to depend on, 
dependent on, and dependence on, we say, independent of, and independently of." — Churchill cor. 
" Independently of the rest of the sentence." — Lowttis Gram., p. 80; Buchanan's, 83; Bullions 's, 
110 ; ChurchilVs, 348.* " Because they stand independent of the rest of the sentence." — Allen 
Fisk cor. " When a substantive is joined with a participle, in English, independently of the rest 
of the sentence." — Dr. Adam cor. " Conjunction comes from the two Latin words con, together, 
and jungo, to join." — Merchant cor. "How different from this is the life of Fulvia!" — Addison 
cor. "Loved is a participle or adjective, derived from the word love." — Ash cor. " But I would 
inquire o/him, what an office is." — Barclay cor. " For the capacity is brought into action." — Id. 
" In this period, language and taste arrive at purity." — Webster cor. "And, should you not aspire 
to (or after) distinction in the republic of letters." — Kirkham cor. " Delivering you up to the syna- 
gogues, and into prisons." — Luke, xxi, 12. " He that is kept from falling into a ditch, is as truly 
saved, as he that is taken out of one." — Barclay cor. " The best of it is, they are but a sort of 
French Hugonots." — Addison cor. " These last ten examples are indeed of a different nature 
from the former."— R. Johnson cor. " For the initiation of students into the principles of the Eng- 
lish language." — Ann. Rev. cor. " Richelieu profited by every circumstance which the conjunc- 
ture afforded." — Bolingbroke cor. " In the names of drugs and plants, the mistake of a word may 
endanger life." — Merchants Key, p. 185. Or better: "In naming drugs or plants, to mistake a 
word, may endanger life." — L. Murray cor. " In order to the carrying of its several parts into 
execution."— Bp. Butler cor. " His abhorrence of the superstitious figure." — Priestley. " Thy prej- 
udice against my cause." — Id. " Which is found in every species of liberty." — Hume cor. "In a 
hilly region on the north of Jericho." — Milman cor. "Two or more singular nouns coupled by 
and require a verb or pronoun in the plural." — Lennie cor. 

" Books should to one of these four ends conduce, 
To wisdom, piety, delight, or jise." — Denham cor. 

Under Note II. — Two Objects or More. 
" The Anglo-Saxons, however, soon quarrelled among themselves for precedence." — Const. 
Misc. cor. "The distinctions among the principal parts of speech are founded in nature." — 
Webster cor. "I think I now understand the difference between the active verbs and those 
which are passive or neuter." — Ingersoll cor. " Thus a figure including a space within three lines, 
is the real as well as nominal essence of a triangle." — Locke cor. " We must distinguish between 

* Many examples and authorities may be cited in favour of these corrections ; as, " He acted independently of 
foreign assistance."— Murray's Key, Gram,., Vol. ii, p. 222. "Independently o/any necessary relation."— Mw- 
rav's Gram., Vol. i, p. 225. "Independently of this peculiar mode of construction." — Blair's lihet., p. 413. 
" Independent of the will of the people."— Webster's Essays, p. 13. " Independent one of an other.'*— Barclay's 
Works, i, 84. "The infinitive is often independent of the rest of the sentence."— Lennie's Gram., p. 85. " Some 
sentences are independent of each other." — Murray's Gram., i, 277. " As if it were independent of it." — Priest- 
ley's Gram., p. 186. "Independent of appearance and show." — Blair's Rhet., p. 13. 



984 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

an imperfect phrase and a simple sentence, and between a simple sentence and a compound sen- 
tence." — Loivth, Murray, et al., cor. " The Jews are strictly forbidden by their law to exercise 
usury towards one an other." — Sale cor. " AU the writers have distinguished themselves among 
themselves." — Addison cor. " This expression also better secures the systematic uniformity of 
the three cases." — Nutting cor. " When two or more infinitives or clauses are connected disjunc- 
tively as the subjects of an affirmation, the verb must be singular." — Jaudon cor. " Several nouns 
or pronouns together in the same case, require a comma after each ; [except the last, which must 
sometimes be followed by a greater point.]" — David Blair cor. " The difference between one 
vowel and an other is produced* by opening the mouth differently, and placing the tongue in a dif- 
ferent manner for each." — Churchill cor. "Thus feet composed of syllables, being pronounced 
with a sensible interval between one foot and an other, make a more lively impression than can be 
made by a continued sound." — Karnes cor. "The superlative degree implies a comparison, some- 
times between two, but generally among three or more." — R. C. Smith cor. " They are used to 
mark a distinction among several objects." — Levizac cor. 

Under Note III. — Omission of Prepositions. 

"This would have been less worthy of notice." — Churchill cor. " But I passed it, as a thing 
unworthy of my notice." — Werter cor. "Which, in compliment to me, perhaps you may one 
day think worthy of your attention." — Bucke cor. "To think this small present worthy of an 
introduction to the young ladies of your very elegant establishment." — Id. " There are but a 
few miles of portage." — Jefferson cor. "It is worthy of notice, that our mountains are not soli- 
tary." — Id. " It is about one hundred feet in diameter."* — Id. " Entering a hill a quarter or 
half of a mile." — Id. "And herself seems passing to an awful dissolution, whose issue it is not 
given to human foresight to scan." — Id. " It was of a spheroidical form, about forty feet in 
diameter at the base, and had been about twelve feet in altitude." — Id. " Before this, it was 
covered with trees of twelve inches in diameter ; and, round the base, there was an excavation of 
five feet in depth and five in width." — Id. " Then thou mayst eat grapes to thy fill, at thine own 
pleasure." — Bibh cor. " Then he brought me back by the way of the gate of the outward sanc- 
tuary." — Id. "They will bless G-od, that he has peopled one half of the world with a race of free- 
men." — Webster cor. " O/what use can these words be, till their meaning is known?" — Town 
cor. " The tents of the Arabs now are black, or of a very dark colour." — The Friend cor. " They 
may not be unworthy of the attention of young men." — Kirkham cor. " The pronoun that is 
frequently applied to persons as well as to things." — Merchant cor. "And l who' is in the same 
case that ' man ' is in." — Sanborn cor. " He saw a flaming stone, apparently about four feet in 
diamrter." — The Friend cor. " Pliny informs us, that this stone was of the size of a cart." — Id. 
" Seneca was about twenty years of age in the fifth year of Tiberius, when the Jews were ex- 
pelled from Rome." — V Estrange cor. " I was prevented from reading a letter which would have 
undeceived me." — Hawkesworth cor. " If the problem can be solved, we may be pardoned for 
the inaccuracy of its demonstration." — Booth cor. " The army must of necessity be the school, 
not of honour, but of effeminacy. " — Br. Brown cor. "Afraid of the virtue of a nation in its op- 
posing of bad ni3asures:" or, — "in its opposition to bad measures." — Id. "The uniting of them 
in various ways, so as to form words, would be easy." — Gardiner cor. " I might be excused from 
taking any more notice of it." — Watson cor. " Watch therefore ; for ye know not at what hour 
your Lord will come." — Bible cor. " Here, not even infants were spared from the sword." — 
M'llvaine cor. " To prevent men from turning aside to false modes of worship." — John Allen cor. 
"G-od expelled them from the garden of Eden." — Burder cor. "Nor could he refrain from ex- 
pressing to the senate the agonies of his mind." — Hume cor. " Who now so strenuously opposes 
the granting to him of any new powers." — Duncan cor. " That the laws of the censors have ban- 
ished him from the forum." — Id. " We read not that he was degraded from his office in any 
other way." — Barclay cor. "To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting." — Hutchinson 
cor. " On the 1st of August, 1834." — Brit. Pari. cor. 

" Whether you had not some time in your life 
Err'd in this point on which you censure him." — Shak. cor. 

Under Note IY. — Of Needless Prepositions. 

i 

" And the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter." — Barclay cor. ; also Acts. 
"Adjectives, in our language, have neither case, nor gender, nor number; the only variation they 
have, is comparison." — Buchanan cor. " 'It is to you that I am indebted for this privilege ;' that 
is, 'To you am I indebted;' or, ' It is you to whom I am indebted.' " — Sanborn cor. " Books is 
a common noun, of the third person, plural number, and neuter gender." — Ingersoll cor. 
" Brother's is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and pos- 
sessive case." — L. Murray cor. " Virtue's is a common noun, of the third person, singular 
number, [neuter gender,] and possessive case." — Id. " When the authorities on one side greatly 
preponderate, it is vain t*) oppose the prevailing usage." — Campbell and Murray cor. " A captain 
of a troop of banditti, had a mind to be plundering Rome." — Collier cor. " And, notwithstanding 
its verbal power, we have added the to and other signs of exertion." — Booth cor. " Some of 
these situations are termed cases, and are expressed by additions to the noun, in stead of separate 

* The preposition of which Jefferson nses before about, appears to me to be useless. It does not govern the noun 
diameter, and is therefore no substitute for the in which I suppose to be wanting; and, as the preposition about 
seems to be sufficient between is and feet, I omit the of. So in other instances below. — G. Beown. 



CHAP. XI.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — PROMISCUOUS EXERCISES. 985 

words:" or, — " and not by separate words." — Id. " Is it such a fast that I have chosen, that a 
man should afflict his soul for a day, and bow down his head like a bulrush?" — Bacon cor. Cora- 
pare Isa., lviii, 5. " And this first emotion comes at last to be awakened by the accidental in 
stead of the necessary antecedent." — Way land cor. "About the same time, the subjugation of 
the Moors was completed." — Balbi cor. " God divided between the light and the darkness." — 
Burder cor. " Notwithstanding this, we are not against outward significations of honour." — 
Barclay cor. " Whether these words and practices of Job's friends, ought to be our rule." — Id. 
" Such verb cannot admit an objective case after it." — Lowth cor. "For which, God is now visibly 
punishing these nations." — 0. Leslie cor. "In this respect, Tasso yields to no poet, except 
Homer." — Dr. Blair cor. " Notwithstanding the numerous panegyrics on the ancient English 
liberty." — Hume cor. " Their efforts seemed to anticipate the spirit which became so general 
afterwards." — Id. 

Under Note Y. — The Placing or the Words. 

"But how short of its excellency are my expressions!" — Baxter cor. . "In his style, there is a 
remarkable union of harmony with ease." — Dr. H. Blair cor. " It disposes of the fight and shade 
in the most artificial manner, that every thing may be viewed to the best advantage." — Id. " For 
brevity, Aristotle too holds an eminent rank among didactic writers." — Id. " In an introduc- 
tion, correctness of expression should be carefully studied." — Id. "In laying down a method, 
one ought above all things to study precision." — Id. "Which shall make on the mind the im- 
pression of something that is one, whole, and entire." — Id. " At the same time, there are in the 
Odyssey some defects which must be acknowledged." Or: "At the same time, it must be ac- 
knowledged that there are some defects in the Odyssey." — Id. "In the concluding books, how- 
ever, there are beauties of the tragic kind." — Id. " These forms of conversation multiplied by 
degrees, and grew troublesome." — Karnes, El. of Crit., ii, 44. "When she has made her own 
choice, she sends, for form's sake, a conge-d'elire to her friends." — lb., ii, 46. " Let us endeavour 
to establish to ourselves an interest in him who holds in his hand the reins of the whole creation." 
— Spectator cor. ; also Karnes. " Next to this, the measure most frequent in English poetry, is 
that of eight syllables." — David Blair cor. " To introduce as great a variety of cadences as pos- 
sible." — Jamieson cor. " He addressed to them several exhortations, suitable to their circum- 
stances." — L. Murray cor. "Habits of temperance and self-denial must be acquired." — Id. " In 
reducing to practice the rules prescribed." — Id. " But these parts must be so closely bound to- 
gether, as to make upon the mind the impression of one object, not of many." — Blair and Mur. 
cor. " Errors with respect to the use of shall and will, are sometimes committed by the most 
distinguished writers." — K Butler cor. 



CHAPTER XL—PROMISCUOUS EXERCISES. 

CORRECTIONS OF THE PROMISCUOUS EXAMPLES. 

Lesson I. — Any Parts of Speech. 

" Such a one, I believe, yours will be proved to be." — Peet and Farnum cor. " Of the distinc- 
tion between the imperfect and the perfect tense, it may be observed," &c. — L. Ainsworth cor. 
" The subject is certainly worthy of consideration." — Id. " By this means, all ambiguity and 
controversy on this point are avoided." — Bullions cor. " The perfect participle, in English, has both 
an active and a passive signification." Better: "The perfect participle, in English, has some- 
times an active, and sometimes a passive, signification." — Id. " The old house has at length fallen 
down." — Id. " The king, the lords, and the commons, constitute the English form of govern- 
ment." — Id. "The verb in the singular agrees with the person next to it." Better: "The 
singular verb agrees in person with that nominative which is next to it." — Id. " Jane found Seth's 
gloves in James's hat." — 0. C. Felton cor. " Charles's task is too great." — Id. " The conjugation 
of a verb is the naming of its several moods, tenses, numbers, and persons, in regular order." — Id. 
" The long -remembered beggar was his guest." — Id. " Participles refer to nouns or pronouns." — Id. 
"F has a uniform sound, in every position, except in of." Better: " F has one unvaried sound, 
in every position, except in of." — E. J. Uallock cor. "There are three genders; the masculine, 
the feminine, and the neuter." — Id. "When so and that occur together, sometimes the particle 
SO is taken as an adverb." — Id. "The definition of the articles shows that they modify [the im- 
port ofj the words to which they belong." — Id. "The auxiliary, shall, will, or should, is 
implied." — Id. " Single-rhymed trochaic omits the final short syllable." — Brown's Inst., p. 237. 
" Agreeably to this, we read of names being blotted out of God's book." — Burder, Hallock, and 
Webster, cor. "The first person is that which denotes the speaker.'"' — Inst, p. 32. " Accent is the 
laying of a peculiar stress of the voice, on a certain letter or syllable in a word." — L. Murray's 
Gram., p. 235; Felton 's, 134. "Thomas's horse was caught." — Felton cor. " You were loved." 
— Id. " The nominative and the objective end alike." — T. Smith cor. " The numbers of pronouns, 
like those of substantives, are two ; the singular and the plural." — Id. " I is called the pronoun 
of the first person, because it represents the person speaking." — Frost cor. " The essential elements, 
of the phrase are an intransitive gerundive and an adjective." — Hazen cor. " Wealth is no justifi- 
cation for such impudence." — Id. " That he was a soldier in the revolution, is not doubted." — Id. 
"Fishing is the chief employment of the inhabitants." — Id. " The chief employment of the in- 
habitants, is the catching of fish." — Id. " The cold weather did not prevent the work from being 



986 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

finished at the time specified." — Id. " The man's former viciousness caused him to be suspected 
of this crime." — Id. "But person and number, applied to verbs, mean certain terminations." — 
Barrett cor. " Robert felled a tree." — Id. " Charles raised himself up." — Id. " It might not be 
a useless waste of time." — Id. " Neither will you have that implicit faith in the writings and 
works of others, which characterizes the vulgar." — Id. "I is of the first person, because it de- 
notes the speaker." — lb. " I would refer the student to Hedge's or Watts's Logic." — Id. " Hedge's 
Watts's, Kirwin's, and Collard's Logic." — Parker and Fox cor. " Letters that make a full and 
perfect sound of themselves, are called vowels." Or: " The letters which make," &c. — Cutter 
cor. "It has both a singular and a plural construction." — Id. "For he beholds (or beholdetli) 
thy beams no more." — Id. Carthon. " To this sentiment the Committee have the candour to in- 
cline, as it will appear by their summing-up." — Macpherson cor. "This reduces the point at 
issue to a narrow compass." — Id. " Since the English set foot upon the soil." — Exiles cor. " The 
arrangement of its different parts is easily retained by the memory." — Riley cor. " The words 
employed are the most appropriate that could have been selected." — Id. "To prevent it from 
launching!" — Id. "Webster has been followed in preference to others, where he differs from 
them." Or: "Webster's Grammar has been followed in preference to others, where it differs 
from them." — Frazee cor. " Exclamation and interrogation are often mistaken the one for the 
other." — Buchanan cor. " When all nature is hushed in sleep, and neither love nor guilt keeps its 
vigils." — Felton cor. Or thus: — 

"When all nature 's hush'd asleep, 
Nor love, nor guilt, doth vigils keep." 

Lesson - II. — Any Parts of Speech. 

" A Versifier and a Poet are two different things." — Brightland cor. " Those qualities will 
arise from the well-expressing of the subject." — Id. " Therefore the explanation of network is 
not noticed here." — Mason cor. " When emphasis or pathos is necessary to be expressed." — Hum- 
phrey cor. " Whether this mode of punctuation is correct, or whether it is proper to close the 
sentence with the mark of admiration, may be made a question." — Id. " But not every writer 
in those days was thus correct." — Id. " The sounds of A, in English orthoepy, are no fewer than 
four." — Id. " Our present code of rules is thought to be generally correct." Or : " TJie rules in 
our present code are thought to be generally correct." — Id. " To prevent it from running into an 
other." — Id. " Shakspeare, perhaps, the greatest poetical genius that England has produced." 
— Id " This I will illustrate by example; but, before doing so, a few preliminary remarks may 
be necessary." — Id. " All such are entitled to two accents each, and some of them to two accents 
nearly equal." — Id. " But some cases of the kind are so plain, that no one needs to exercise 
(or, need exercise) his judgement therein." — Id. "I hav e forborne to use the word." — Id. " The 
propositions, 'He may study,' 'He might study,' 'He could study,' affirm an ability or power 
to study." — E. J. Hallock cor. " The divisions of the tenses have occasioned grammarians much 
trouble and perplexity." — Id. "By adopting a familiar, inductive method of presenting this sub- 
ject, one may render it highly attractive to young learners." — Wells cor. "The definitions and 
rules of different grammarians were carefully compared with one an other:" or — " one with an 
other." — Id. " So as not wholly to prevent some sound from issuing." — Sheridan cor. " Letters 
of the Alphabet, not yet noticed." — Id. " ' It is sad,' 'It is strange' &c, seem to express only 
that the thing is sad, strange, &c." — Well- Wishers cor. " The winning is easier than the preserv- 
ing of a conquest." — Same. " The United States find themselves the owners of a vast region of 
country at the west. ' — H. Mann cor. " One or more letters placed before a word are a prefix." 
— & W. Clark cor. " One or more letters added to a word, are a Suffix." — Id. " Two thirds of my 
hair have fallen off." Or: "My hair has, two thirds of it, fallen off." — Id. "' Suspecting ' de- 
scribes us, the speakers, by expressing, incidentally, an act of ours." — Id. " Daniel's predictions 
are now about being fulfilled." Or thus: "Daniel's predictions are now receiving their fulfillment." 
t — Id. " His scholarship entitles him to respect," — Id. " I doubted lohether he had been a 
soldier." — Id. " The taking of a madman's sword to prevent him from doing mischief, cannot be 
regarded as a robbery." — Id. " I thought it to be him ; but it was not he." — Id. " It was not I 
that you saw." — Id. " Not to know what happened before you were born, is always to be a 
boy." — Id. "How long were you going? Three days." — Id. "The qualifying adjective is 
placed next to the noun." — Id. " All went but I." — Id. " This is a parsing of their own lan- 
guage, and not of the author's." — Wells cor. " Those nouns which denote males, are of the mas- 
culine gender." Or: "Nouns that denote males, are of the masculine gender." — Wells, late Ed. 
" Those nouns which denote females, are of the feminine gender." Or : " Nouns that denote fe- 
males, are of the feminine gender." — Wells, late Ed. " When a comparison among more than two 
objects of the same class is expressed, the superlative degree is employed." — Wells cor. "Where 
d or t goes before, the additional letter d or t, in this contracted form, coalesces into one letter with 
the radical d or t." — Br. Johnson cor. "Write words which will show what kind of house you 
live in — what kind of book you hold in your hand — what kind of day it is." — Weld cor. " One 
word or more are often joined to nouns or pronouns to modify their meaning." — Id. " Good is an 
adjective ; it explains the quality or character of every person to whom, or thing to which, it is 
applied." Or: — " of every person or thing that it is applied to." — Id. "A great public as well 
as private advantage arises from every one's devoting of himself to that occupation which he 
prefers, and for which he is specially fitted." — Wayland, Wells, and Weld, cor. "There was a 



CHAP. XI.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — PROMISCUOUS EXERCISES. 9S7 

• 
chance for him to recover his senses." Or : " There was a chance that he might recover his senses." 
— Wells and Macaulay cor. "This may be known by the absence of any connecting word im- 
mediately preceding it." — Weld cor. " There are irregular expressions occasionally to be met 
with, which usage, or custom, rather than analogy, sanctions." — Id. "He added an anecdote of 
Quin relieving Thomson from prison." Or: "He added an anecdote of Quin as relieving 
Thomson from prison." Or : " He added an anecdote of Quin's relieving of Thomson from 
prison." Or better: u ~Ke also told how Quin relieved Thomson from prison." — Id. "The daily 
labour of her hands 'procures for her all that is necessary." — Id. " Tfiat it is I, should make 
no change in your determination." — Hart cor. "The classification of words into what are called 
the Parts of Speech." — Weld cor. "Such licenses may be explained among what are usually 
termed Figures." — Id. 

" Liberal, not lavish, is kind Nature's handy — Beattie. 

" They fall successive, and successive rise." — Paps. 

Lesson III. — Any Parts of Speech. 

" A Figure of Etymology is an intentional deviation from the usual form of a word." — See 
Brown's Institutes, p. 229. " A Figure of Syntax is an intentional deviation from the usual con- 
struction of a word." — See Brown's Inst., p. 230. " Synecdoche is the naming of the whole of any 
thing for a part, or a part for the whole." — Weld cor. " Apostrophe is a tuming-off* from the 
regular course of the subject, to address some person or thing." — Id. " Even young pupils will 
perform such exercises with surprising interest and facility, and will unconsciously gain, in a 
little time, more knowledge of the structure of language, than they can acquire by a drilling of 
several years in the usual routine of parsing." — Id. "A few rules of construction are employed 
in this part, to guide the pupil in the exercise of parsing." — Id. " The name of any person, ob- 
ject, or thing, that can be thought of, or spoken of, is a noun." — Id. " A dot, resembling our 
period, is used between every two words, as well as at the close of each verse." — W. Day cor. 
" The casting of types in matrices was invented by Peter Schoeffer, in 1452." — Id. " On perus- 
ing it, he said, that, so far [was it] from showing the prisoner's guilt [that] it positively estab- 
lished his innocence." — Id. " By printing the nominative and verb in Italic letters, we shall 
enable the reader to distinguish them at a glance." — Id. " It is well, no doubt, to avoid unneces- 
sary words." — Id. " / meeting a friend the other day, he said to me, ' Where are you going?' " 
— Id. " To John, apples were first denied ; then they were promised to him ; then they were 
offered to him." — Lennie cor. " Admission was denied him." — Wells cor. " A pardon was offered 
to them." — L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 183. "A new potato was this day shown me." — Darwin, 
Webster, Frazee, and Weld, cor. " Those nouns or pronouns which denote males, are of the mas- 
culine gender." — S. S. Greene, cor. " There are three degrees of comparison ; the positive, the 
comparative, and the superlative." — Id. " The first two refer to direction ; the third refers to 
locality." — Id. " The following are some of the verbs w r hich take a direct and an indirect object." 
— Id. "I was not aware that he was the judge of the supreme court." — Id. "An indirect ques- 
tion may refer to any of the five elements of a declarative sentence." — Id. "I am not sure that 
he will be present." — Id. " "We left New York on Tuesday." — Id. "He left the city, as he told 
me, before the arrival of the steamer." — Id. "We told him that he must leave us;"= li We told 
him to leave us." — Id. " Because he was unable to persuade the multitude, he left the place, in 
disgust." — Id. "He left the company, and took his brother with him." — Id. " This stating, or 
declaring, or denying of any thing, is called the indicative mood, or manner of speaking." — Weld 
cor. "This took place at our friend Sir Joshua Beynolds 's." — Id. "The manner in which a, 
young lady may employ herself usefully in reading, will be the subject of an other paper." — Id. 
" Yery little time is necessary for Johnson to conclude a treaty with the bookseller." — Id. "My 
father is not now sick; but if he were, your services would be welcome." — Chandler's Common 
School Gram., Ed. of 1847, p. 79. " Before we begin to write or speak, we ought to fix in our 
minds a clear conception of the end to be aimed at." — Dr. Blair cor. " Length of days is in her 
right hand; and, in her left hand, are riches and honour." — See Proverbs, iii, 16. "The active 
and the passive present express different ideas." — Bullions cor. " An Improper Diphthong, (some- 
times called a Digraph,) is a diphthong in which only one of the vowels is sounded." — Fowler cor. 
(See G. Brown's definition.) "The real origin of the words is to be sought in the Latin." — Fow- 
ler cor. " What sort of alphabet the Gothic languages possess, we know; what sort of alphabet 
they require, we can determine." — Id. " The Runic alphabet, whether borrowed or invented by 
the early Goths, is of greater antiquity than either the oldest Teutonic or the Mceso-Gothic alpha- 
let." — Id. "Common to the masculine and neuter genders." — Id. "In the Anglo-Saxon, 
His was common to both the masculine and the Neuter Gender." — Id. " When time, number, or 
dimension, is specified, the adjective follows the substantive." — Id. "Nor pain, nor grief, nor 
anxious fear, Invades thy bounds." — Id. "To Brighton, the Pavilion lends a lath -and-plaster 
grace." — Fowler cor. " From this consideration, / have given to nouns but one person, the third." 
— D. C. Allen cor. 

" For it seems to guard and cherish 
E'en the wayward dreamer — me." — Anon. cor. 

* Murray, Jamieson, and others, have this definition with the article "a," and the comma, but without the 
hyphen: "Apostrophe is a turning of from the regular course," &c. See errors under Note 4th to Rule 
20th. 



988 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

CHAPTER XII.— GENERAL REVIEW. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER ALL THE PRECEDING RULES AND NOTES. 
LESSON L— ARTICLES. 

"And they took stones, and made a heap." — Alger's Bible: Gen., xxxi, 46. "And I do 
know many fools, that stand in better place." — Shak. cor. " It is a strong antidote to the turbu- 
lence of passion, and the violence of pursuit." — Karnes cor. " The word news may admit of 
either a singular or a plural application." — Wright cor. " He has gained a fair and honourable 
reputation." — Id. " There are two general forms, called the solemn and the familiar style." 
Or : — " called the solemn and familiar styles." — Sanborn cor. " Neither the article nor the preposi- 
tion can be omitted." — Wright cor. "A close union is also observable between the subjunctive 
and the potential mood." — Id. " Should we render service equally to a friend, a neighbour, and an 
enemy?" — Id. " Till a habit is obtained, of aspirating strongly." — Sheridan cor. "There is a 
uniform, steady use of the same signs." — Id. " A traveller remarks most of the objects which he 
sees." — Jamieson cor. "What is the name of the river on which London stands? Thames.'''' 
— G. B. " We sometimes find the last line of a couplet or a triplet stretched out to twelve 
syllables." — Adam cor. " The nouns which follow active verbs, are not in the nominative case." — 
David Blair cor. " It is a solemn duty to speak plainly of the wrongs which good men perpetrate." 
— Charming cor. " The gathering of riches is a pleasant torment." — L. Cobb cor. " It is worth 
being quoted." Or better: " It is worth quoting." — Coleridge cor. "Council is a noun which 
admits of a singular and a plural form." — Wright cor. " To exhibit the connexion between the 
Old Testament and the New." — Keith cor. " An apostrophe discovers the omission of a letter or 
of letters." — Guy cor. " He is immediately ordained, or rather acknowledged, a hero." — Pope 
cor. "Which is the same in both the leading and the following state." — Brighiland cor. "Pro- 
nouns, as will be seen hereafter, have three distinct cases; the nominative, the possessive, and the 
objective." — D. Blair cor. " A word of many syllables is called a polysyllable." — Beck cor. 
" Nouns have two numbers ; the singular and the plural." — Id. " They have three genders ; the 
masculine, the feminine, and the neuter." — Id. "They have three cases; the nominative, the pos- 
sessive, and the objective." — Id. "Personal pronouns have, like nouns, two numbers; the sin- 
gular and the plural; — three genders; the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter; — three cases; 
the nominative, the possessive, and the objective." — Id. " He must be wise enough to know the 
singular from the plural." — Id. "Though they may be able to meet every reproach which any 
one of their fellows may prefer." — Chalmers cor. "Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, 
being such a one as Paul the aged." — Bible cor.; also Webster. "A people 'that jeoparded 
their lives unto death." — Bible cor. "By preventing too great an accumulation of seed within 
too narrow a compass." — The Friend cor. " Who fills up the middle space between the animal 
and the intellectual nature, the visible and the invisible world." — Addison cor. "The Psalms 
abound with instances of the harmonious arrangement of words." — Murray cor. " On an other 
table, were a ewer and a vase, likewise of gold." — Mirror cor. "Tri is said to have two sounds, 
a sharp and a flat." — Wilson cor. " The Section (§) is sometimes used in the subdividing of a 
chapter into lesser parts." — Brightland cor. " Try it in a dog, or a horse, or any other creature." 
— Locke cor. " But particularly in the learning of languages, there is the least occasion to pose 
children." — Id. " Of what kind is the noun river, and why?" — R. C. Smith cor. " Is AVil- 
liam's a proper or a common noun?" — Id. "What kind of article, then, shall we call the?" Or 
better: "What then shall we call the article the V — Id. 

" Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write, 
Or with a rival's, or a eunuch's spite." — Pope cor. 

LESSON II.— NOUNS, OR CASES. 
" And there are stamped upon their imaginations ideas that follow them with terror and 
affright." — Locke cor. " There's not a wretch that lives on common charity, but's happier than 
I." — Ven. Pres. cor. "But they overwhelm every one who is ignorant of them." — H. Mann cor. 
"I have received a letter from my cousin, her that was here last week." — Inst., p. 129. " Gentle- 
men's houses are seldom without variety of company." — Locke cor. "Because Fortone has laid 
them below the level of others, at their masters 1 feet." — Id. " We blamed neither John's nor 
Mary's delay." — Nixon cor. "The book was written by order of Luther the reformer." — Id. " I 
saw on the table of the saloon Blair's sermons, and somebody's else, (I forget whose,) and [about 
the room] a set of noisy children." — Byron cor. "Or saith he it altogether for our sake?" — Bible 
cor. " He was not aware that the Luke was his competitor." — Sanborn cor. " It is no condition 
of an adjective, that the word must be placed before a noun." Or: "It is no condition on which 
a word becomes an adjective, that it must be placed before a noun." — Id., and Fowle cor. 
" Though their reason corrected the wrong ideas which they had taken in." — Locke cor. " It was 
he that taught me to hate slavery." — Morris cor. " It is he and his kindred, who live upon the 
labour of others." — Id. "Payment of tribute is an acknowledgement of him as being King — 
(of him as King — or, that he is King — ) to whom we think it due." — C. Leslie cor. "When we 
comprehend what is taught us." — Ingersoll cor. " The following words, and parts of words, must 
be noticed." — Priestley cor. " Hence tears and commiseration are so often employed." — Dr. H. 
Blair cor. " John-a-Nokes, n. A fictitious name used in law proceedings." — A. Chalmers cor. 
"The construction of words denoting matter, and the part grasped." — B. F. Fisk cor. " And suclj 



CHAP. XII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL REVIEW. 989 

other names as carry with them the idea of something terrible and hurtful" — Locke cor. " Every 
learner then would surely be glad to be spared from the trouble and fatigue." — Pike cor. "It is 
not the owning of one's dissent from an other, that I speak against." — Locke cor. " A man that 
cannot fence, will be more careful to keep out of bullies and gamesters' 1 company, and will not be 
half so apt to stand upon punctilios.''' 1 — Id " From such persons it is, that one may learn more in 
one day, than in a year's rambling from one inn to an other." — Id. " A long syllable is generally 
considered to be twice as long as a short one." — D. Blair cor. "I is of the first person, and the 
singular number. Thou is of the second person singular. He, She, or It, is of the third person 
singular. We is of the first person plural. Ye or You is of the second person plural. They is 
of the third person plural." — Kirkham cor. " This actor, doer, or producer of the action, is 
denoted by some word in the nominative case." — Id. "Nobody can think, thai a boy of three or 
seven years of age should be argued with as a grown man." — Locke cor. "This was in the house 
of one of the Pharisees, not in Simon the leper's." — Hammond cor. " Impossible ! it can't be I." 
— Swift cor. "Whose grey top shall tremble, He descending." — Milton, P. L., xii, 227. "Of 
what gender is woman, and why ?" — R. C. Smith cor. " Of what gender, then, is man, and 
why?" — Id. "Who is this I; whom do you mean when you say If — R. W. Green cor. "It 
has a pleasant air, but the soil is barren." — Locke cor. "You may, in three days' time, go from 
Galilee to Jerusalem." — W. Whiston cor. "And that which is left of the meat-offering, shall be 
Aaron's and his so?is\" — Friends' Bible. 

" For none in all the world, without a he, 
Can say o/this, ' Tis mine,' but Bunyan, I." — Bunyan cor. 

LESSON III.— ADJECTIVES. 
"When he can be their remembrancer and advocate at all assizes and sessions." — Leslie cor. 
"Doing denotes every manner of action; as, to dance, to play, to write, <fcc." — Buchanan cor. 
" Seven feet long," — " eight feet long," — " fifty feet long." — IV. Walker cor. " Nearly the whole of 
these twenty-five millions of dollars is a dead loss to the nation." — Fowler cor. " Two negatives 
destroy each other." — R. W. Green cor. "We are warned against excusing sin in ourselves, or 
in one an other." — Friend cor. "The Eussian empire is more extensive than any other govern- 
ment in the world." — Inst, p. 265. "You will always have the satisfaction to think it, of all 
your expenses, the money best laid out." — Locke cor. " There is no other passion which all man- 
kind so naturally indulge, as pride." — Steele cor. " 0, throw away the viler part of it." — Shak. cor. 
"He showed us an easier and more agreeable way." — Inst, p. 265. "And the last four are to 
point out those further improvements." — Jamieson and Campbell cor. " Where he has not clear 
ideas, distinct arid different." — Locke cor. " Oh, when shall we have an other such Rector of Lar- 
acor !" — Hazlitt cor. " Speech must have been absolutely necessary previously to the formation of 
society." Or better thus : " Speech must have been absolutely necessary to the formation of society." 
— Jamieson cor. " Go and tell those boys to be still." — Inst, p. 265. " Wrongs are engraved 
on marble; benefits, on sand: those are apt to be requited; these, forgot." — G. B. "None of 
these several interpretations is the true one." — G. B. " My friend indulged himself in some freaks 
not befitting the gravity of a clergyman." — G. B. " And their pardon is all that any of their im- 
propriators will have to plead." — Leslie cor. " But the time usually chosen to send young men 
abroad, is, I think, of all periods, that at which they are least capable of reaping those advantages." 
— Locke cor. " It is a mere figment of the human imagination, a rhapsody of the iranscendenily 
unintelligible." — Jamieson cor. " It contains a greater assemblage of sublime ideas, of bold and 
daring figures, than is perhaps anywhere else to be met with." — Dr. Blair cor. " The order in 
which the last two words are placed should have been reversed." — Dr. Blair cor. ; also L. Murray. 
"In Demosthenes, eloquence shone forthwith higher splendour, than perhaps in any other that 
ever bore the name of orator." — Dr. Blair cor. "The circumstance of his poverty (or, that he is 
poor) is decidedly favourable." — Todd cor. "The temptations to dissipation are greatly lessened 
by his poverty. " — Id. " For, with her death, those tidings came." — Shak. cor. "The next objec- 
tion is, that authors of this sort are poor." — Cleland cor. "Presenting Emma, as Miss'Castlemain,, 
to these acquaintances :" or, — " to these persons of her acquaintance. " — Opie cor. " I doubt not that 
it will please more persons than the opera:" or, — "that it will be more pleasing than the opera." — 
Sped. cor. "The world knows only two; these are Rome and I." — Ben Jonson cor. "I distin- 
guish these two things from each other." — Dr. Blair cor. "And, in this case, mankind recipro- 
cally claim and allow indulgence to one an other." — Sheridan cor. "The last six books are said 
not to have received the finishing hand of the author." — Dr. Blair cor. " The best-executed part of 
the work, is the first six books." — Id. 

" To reason how can w T e be said to rise ? 
So hard the task for mortals to be wise!" — Sheffield cor. 

LESSON IV.— PRONOUNS. 
" Once upon a time, a goose fed her young by & pond's side:" or — "hyapondside." — Goldsmith 
cor. (See Obs. 33d on Rule 4th.) " If either has a sufficient degree of merit to recommend it to 
the attention of the public." — J. Walker cor. " Now W. Mitchells deceit is very remarkable." — 
Barclay cor. " My brother, I did not put the question to thee, for that I doubted of the truth of 
thy belief." — Bunyan cor. "I had two elder brothers, one of whom was a lieutenant-colonel." — 
De Foe cor. "Though James is here the object of the action, yet the word James is in the nomina- 
tive case." — Wright cor. "Here John is the actor; and the word John is known to be in the 



990 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

nominative, by its answering to the question, ' Who struck Richard?'" — Id. "One of the most 
distinguished privileges that Providence has conferred upon mankind, is the power of communicat- 
ing their thoughts to one an other." — Dr. Blair cor. " With some of the most refined feelings that 
belong to our frame." — Id. " And the same instructions that assist others in composing works o) 
elegance, will assist them in judging of, and relishing, the beauties of composition." — Id. " To over- 
throw all that had been yielded in favour of the army." — Macaulay cor. " Let your faith stand 
in the Lord God, who changes not, who created all, and who gives the increase of all." — Friends 
cor. " For it is, in truth, the sentiment of passion which lies under the figured expression, that 
gives it all its merit." — Dr. Blair cor. "Verbs are words that affirm the being, doing, or suffering 
of a thing, together with the time at which it happens." — A. Murray cor. "The bias will aiways 
hang on that side on which nature first placed it." — Locke cor. " They should be brought to do the 
things which are fit for them." — Id. " The various sources from which the English language is 
derived." — L. Murray cor. " This attention to the several cases in which it is proper to omit or 
to redouble the copulative, is of considerable importance." — Dr. Blair cor. "Cicero, for instance, 
speaking of the cases in which it is lawful to kill an other in self-defence, uses the following words." 
— Id. " But there is no nation, hardly are there any persons, so phlegmatic as not to accompany 
their words with some actions, or gesticulations, whenever they are much in earnest." — Id. " Wil- 
liam's is said to be governed by coat, because coat follows William's." Or better: — "because coat 
is the name of the thing possessed by William." — R. G. Smith cor. "In fife, there are many oc- 
casions on tuhich silence and simplicity are marks of true wisdom." — L. Murray cor. " In choos- 
ing umpires whose avarice is excited." — Nixon cor. " The boroughs sent representatives, according 
to law." — Id. " No man believes but that there is some order in the universe." — G. B. " The 
moon is orderly in her changes, and she could not be so by accident." — Id. ' ' The riddles of the Sphynx 
(or, The Sphynx 1 s riddles) are generally of two kinds." — Bacon cor. "They must generally find 
either their friends or their enemies in power." — Dr. Brown cor. "For, of old, very many took 
upon them to write what happened in their own time." — Whiston cor. "The Almighty cut off 
the family of Eli the high priest, for their transgressions." — The Friend, vii, 109. "The convention 
then resolved itself into a committee of the whole." — Inst., p. 269. "The severity with which 
'persons of this denomination were treated, appeared rather to invite them to the colony, than to de- 
ter them from flocking thither." — H. Adams cor. " Many Christians abuse the Scriptures and the 
traditions of the apostles, to uphold things quite contrary to them." — Barclay cor. "Thus, a cir- 
cle, a square, a triangle, or a hexagon, pleases the eye by its regularity, and is a beautiful figure." — 
Dr. Blair cor. " Elba is remarkable for being the place to which Bonaparte was banished in 
1814." — Olney's Geog. " The editor has the reputation of being a good linguist and critic." — Bel. 
Herald. " It is a pride which should be cherished in them." — Locke cor. "And to restore to us 
the hope of fruits, to reward our pains in their season." — Id. " The comic representation of Death's 
victim relating his own tale." — Wright cor. " As for Scioppius's Grammar, that wholly concerns 
the Latin tongue." — Wilkins cor. 

," And chiefly Thou, Spirit, that dost prefer 
Before all temples tti upright heart and pure, 
Instruct me, for Thou knowst." — Milton, P. L., B. i, 1. 17. 

LESSON V.— VERBS. 
" And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field." — Friends' Bible ; also 
Bruce 1 s, and Alger's. " Whereof every one bears [or beareth] twins." — Bible cob, : Song, vi, 6. 
" He strikes out of his nature one of the most divine principles that are planted in it." — Addison 
cor. "Genii [i. e., the word genii] denotes aerial spirits." — Wright cor. "In proportion as the 
long and large prevalence of such corruptions has been obtained by force." — Halifax cor. " Neither 
of these is set before any word of a general signification, or before a proper name." — Brightland 
cor. " Of which, a few of the opening lines are all I shall give." — Moore cor. " The wealth we 
had in England, was the slow result of long industry and wisdom." Or : " The riches we had in 
England were," &c. — Davenant cor. "The following expression appears to be correct: 'Much 
public gratitude is due.' " Or this : " ' Great public thanks are due.'" — Wright cor. " He has been 
enabled to correct many mistakes." — Lowth cor. "Which road dost thou take here?" — Ingersoll 
cor. " Dost thou learn thy lesson ?" — Id. " Did they learn their pieces perfectly ?" — Id. " Thou 
learned thy task well." — Id. " There are some who can't relish the town, and others can't bear 
with the country." — Sir Wilful cor. "If thou meet them, thou must put on an intrepid mien." — 
Neef cor. " Struck with terror, as if Philip ivere something more than human." — Dr. Blair cor. 
" If the personification of the form of Satan were admissible, the pronoun should certainly have 
been masculine." — Jamieson cor. " If only one follows, there seems to be a defect in the sentence." 
— Priestley cor. " Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him." — Bible 
cor. " Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound." — Id. " Every auditory takes in good 
part those marks of respect and awe with which a modest speaker commences a public discourse." — 
Dr. Blair cor. " Private causes were still pleaded in the forum; but the public were no longer 
interested, nor was any general attention drawn to what passed there." — Id. " Nay, what evi- 
dence can be brought to show, that the inflections of the classic tongues were not originally formed 
out of obsolete auxiliary words ?" — L. Murray cor. " If the student observe that the principal 
and the auxiliary form but one verb, he will have little or no difficulty in the proper application of 
the present rule." — Id. "For the sword of the enemy, and fear, are on every, side." — Bible cor. 
" Even the Stoics agree that nature, or certainty, is very hard to come at." — Collier cor. " His 



CHAP. XII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL REVIEW. 991 

politeness, his obliging behaviour, was changed." Or thus: "His polite and obliging behaviour 
was changed." — Priestley and Hume cor. " War and its honours were their employment and am- 
bition." Or thus: " War was their employment; its honours were their ambition." — Goldsmith 
cor. " Do a and an mean the same thing?" — R. W. Green cor. "When several words come in 
between the discordant parts, the ear does not detect the error." — Cobbett cor. " The sentence 
should be, ' When several words come in,' &c." — Wright cor. " The nature of our language, the 
accent and pronunciation of it, incline us to contract even all our regular verbs." — ChurchilVs New 
Gram., p. 104. Or thus: "The nature of our language, — (that is, the accent and pronunciation of 
it, — ) inclines us to contract even all our regular verbs." — Lowth cor. " The nature of our lan- 
guage, together with the accent and pronunciation of it, inclines us to contract even all our regular 
verbs." — Hiley cor. "Prompt aid, and not promises, is what we ought to give." — G. B. 
" The position of the several organs, therefore, as well as their functions, is ascertained." — Med. 
Mag. cor. " Every private company, and almost every public assembly, affords opportunities of 
remarking the difference between a just and graceful, and a faulty and unnatural elocution." — 
Enfield cor. " Such submission, together with the active principle of obedience, makes up in us 
the temper or character which answers to his sovereignty." — Bp. Butler cor. "In happiness, as 
in other things, there are a false and a true, an imaginary and a real." — A. Fuller cor. " To con- 
found things that differ, and to make a distinction where there is no difference, are equally unphil- 
osophical." — G. Brown. 

" I know a bank wheron doth wild thyme Now, 
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grow.'' 1 — Shah. cor. 

LESSON YL— YERBS. 

"Whose business or profession prevents their attendance in the morning." — Ogilby cor. "And 
no church or officer has power over an other T — Lechford cor. " While neither reason nor experience 
is sufficiently matured to protect them." — Woodbridge cor. " Among the Greeks and Romans, 
almost every syllable was known to have a fixed and determined quantity." Or thus: "Among 
the Greeks and Romans, all syllables, (or at least the far greater number.) were known to have 
severally a fixed and determined quantity." — Blair and Jamieson cor. " Their vanity is awakened, 
and their passions are exalted, by the irritation which their self-love receives from contradiction." 
■ — Tr. of Mad. Be Stael cor. "He and I were neither of us any great swimmer." — Anon. " Vir- 
tue, honour — nay, even self-interest, recommends the measure." — L. Murray cor. (See Obs. 5th 
on Rule 16th.) "A correct plainness, an elegant simplicity, is the proper character of an intro- 
duction." — Dr. Blair cor. " In syntax, there is what grammarians call concord or agreement, and 
there is government." — Inf. S. Gram. cor. " People find themselves able, without much study, 
to write and speak English intelligibly, and thus are led to think that rules are of no utility." — 
Webster cor. " But the writer must be one who has studied to inform himself well, who has pon- 
dered his subject with care, and who addresses himself to our judgement, rather than to our imagi- 
nation." — Dr. Blair cor. "But practice has determined it otherwise; and has, in all the languages 
with which we are much acquainted, supplied the place of an interrogative mood, either by parti- 
cles of interrogation, or by a peculiar order of the words in the sentence." — Lowth cor. " If the 
Lord hath stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering." — Bible cor. " But if the priest's 
daughter be a widow, % or divorced, and have no child, and she return unto her father's house, as in 
her youth, she shall eat of her father's meat." — Id. " Since we never have studied, and never 
shall study, your sublime productions." — Neef cor. " Enabling us to form distincter images of 
objects, than can be formed, with the utmost attention, where these particulars are not found." — 
Karnes cor. " I hope you will consider that what is spoken comes from my love." — Shah. cor. 
" We shall then perceive how the designs of emphasis may be marred." — Bush cor. "I knew it 
was Crab, and went to the fellow that whips the dogs." — Shah cor. " The youth was consuming 
by a slow malady."— Murray 's Gram., p. 64; IngersolVs, 45; Fish, 82. "If all men thought, 
spoke, and wrote alike, something resembling a perfect adjustment of these points might be ac- 
complished." — Wright cor. "If you will replace what has been, for a long time expunged from 
the language." Or : " If you will replace what was long ago expunged from the language." — 
Campbell and Murray cor. "As in all those faulty instances ivhich I have just been giving." — 
Dr. Blair cor. " This mood is also used improperly in the following places." — L. Murray cor. 
" He seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to have known what it was 
that nature had bestowed upon him." — Johnson cor. " Of which I have already given one instance, 
the worst indeed that occurred in the poem." — Dr. Blair cor. " It is strange he never commanded 
you to do it." — Anon. "History painters would have found it difficult, to invent such a species of 
beings." — Addison cor. " Universal Grammar cannot be taught abstractedly ; it must be explained 
with referenc to some language already known." — Lowth cor. "And we might imagine, that if 
verbs had been so contrived assimply to express these, no other tenses would have been needful." — 
Dr. Blair cor. " To a writer of such a genius as Dean Swift's, the plain style is most admirably 
fitted.''— Id "Please to excuse my son's absence."—/^., p. 279. "Bid the boys come in im- 
mediately." — lb. 

" Gives us the secrets of his pagan helL 
Where restless ghosts in sad communion dwell." — Crabbe cor. 

" Alas ! nor faith nor valour now remains ; 
Sighs are but wind, and I must bear my chains." — Walpole cor. 



992 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

LESSON" YIL— PARTICIPLES. 

" Of which the author considers himself, in compiling the present work, as merely laying the 
foundation-stone." — David Blair cor. " On the raising o/such lively and distinct images as are 
here described." — Karnes cor. "They "are necessary to the avoiding of ambiguities." — Brightland 
cor. " There is no neglecting of it without falling into a dangerous error." Or better : " None can 
neglect it without falling," &c. — Burlamaqui cor. "The contest resembles Don Quixote's fight- 
ing of (or vjith) windmills." — Webster cor. "That these verbs associate with other verbs in all 
the tenses, is no proof that they have no particular time of their own." — L. Murray cor. " To 
justify myself in not following the track of the ancient rhetoricians." — Dr. II. Blair cor. "The 
putting-together of letters, so as to make words, is called Spelling." — Inf. S. Gram. cor. "What 
is the putting -tog ether of vowels and consonants called ?" — Id. " Nobody knows of their charita- 
bleness, but themselves." Or : " Nobody knows that they are charitable, but themselves." — Fuller 
cor. " Payment was at length made, but no reason was assigned for so long a postponement of 
it." — Murray et al. cor. " Which will bear to be brought into comparison with any composition 
of the kind." — Dr. Blair cor. " To render vice ridiculous, is to do real service to the world." — 
Id. "It is a direct copying from nature, a plain rehearsal of what passed, or was supposed to 
pass, in conversation." — Id. "Propriety of pronunciation consists in giving to every word that 
sound which the most polite usage of the language appropriates to it." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 
200 ; and again, p. 219. " To occupy the mind, and prevent us from regretting the insipidity of a 
uniform plain." — Karnes cor. " There are a hundred ways in which any thing may happen." — 
Steele co. "Tell me, seignior, for what cause (or wliy) Antonio sent Claudio to Venice yesterday." 
— Bucke cor. " As you are looking about for an outlet, some rich prospect unexpectedly opens to 
view." — Karnes cor. "A hundred volumes of modern novels may be read without communicating 
a new idea." Or thus: "A person may read a hundred volumes of modern novels without ac- 
quiring a new idea." — Webster cor. "Poetry admits of greater latitude than prose, with respect 
to the coining, or at least the new compounding, of words." — Dr. Blair cor " When laws were 
written on brazen tablets, and enforced by the sword." — Pope cor, " A pronoun, which saves the 
naming o/a person or thing a second time, ought to be placed as near as possible to the name of 
that person or thing." — Karnes cor. " The using o/a preposition in this case, is not always a mat- 
ter of choice." — Id. "To save the multiplying of words, I would be understood to comprehend 
both circumstances." — Id. "Immoderate grief is mute: complaint is a struggle for consolation." 
— Id. "On the other hand, the accelerating or the retarding of the natural course, excites a 
pain." — Id. " Human affairs require the distributing of our attention." — Id. " By neglecting 
this circumstance, the author of the following example has made it defective in neatness." — Id. 
"And therefore the suppressing of copulatives must animate a description." — Id. " If the omis- 
sion of copulatives gives force and liveliness, a redundancy of them must render the period lan- 
guid." — Id. " It skills not, to ask my leave, said Richard." — Scott cor. " To redeem his credit, 
he proposed to be sent once more to Sparta." — Goldsmith cor. " Dumas relates that he gave drink to 
a dog.' — Stone cor " Both are, in a like way, instruments of our reception o/such ideas from ex- 
ternal objects." — Bp. Butler cor. " In order to your proper handling of such a subject." — Sp>ect. 
cor. " For I do not recollect it preceded by an open vowel." — Knight cor. " Such is the setting- 
up of the form above the power of godliness." — Barclay cor. "I remember that I was walking 
once with my young acquaintance." — Hunt cor. "He did not like to pay a debt." — Id. "I do 
not remember to have seen Coleridge when I was a child." — Id. " In consequence of the dry 
rot discovered in it, the mansion has undergone a thorough repair." — Maunder cor. " I would 
not advise the following of the German system in all its parts." — Lieber cor. " Would it not be 
to make the students judges of the professors?" — Id. "Little time should intervene between 
the proposing of them and the deciding upon them." — Verthake cor. " It would be nothing less 
than to find fault with the Creator." — Lit. Journal cor. " That we were once friends, is a powerful 
reason, both of prudence and of conscience, to restrain us from ever becoming enemies." — Seeker 
cor. "By using the word as a conjunction, toe prevent the ambiguity." — L. Murray cor. 

" He forms his schemes the flood of vice to stem, 
But faith in Jesus has no part in them." — J Taylor cor. 

LESSON TILT.— ADVERBS. 
"Auxiliaries not only can be inserted, but are really understood." — Wright cor. "He was 
afterwards a hired scribbler in the Daily Courant." — Pope's Annotaior cor. " In gardening, luckily, 
relative beauty never need stand (or, perhaps better, never needs to stand) in opposition to intrinsic 
beauty." — Karnes cor. "I much doubt the propriety of the following examples." — Lowth cor. 
" And [we see] how far they have spread, in this part of the world, one of the worst languages 
possible." — Locke cor. " And, in this manner, merely to place him on a level with the beast of the 
forest." — R. 0. Smith cor. "Whither, ah! whither, has my darling fled." — Anon. "As for this 
fellow, we know not whence he is." — Bible cor. "Ye see then, that by works a man is justified, 
and not by faith only." — Id. " The Mixed kind is that in which the poet sometimes speaks in his 
own person, and sometimes makes other characters speak." — Adam and Gould cor. " Interroga- 
tion is a rhetorical figure in which the writer or orator raises questions, and, if he pleases, returns 
answers." — Fisher cor. " Prevention is a figure in which an author starts an objection which he 
foresees may be made, and gives an answer to it." — Id. " Will you let me alone, or not?" — W. 
Walker cor. "Neither man nor woman can resist an engaging exterior." — Chesterfield cor. 



CHAP. XII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL REVIEW. 0*93 

" Though the cup be everso clean." — Locke cor. " Seldom, or never, did any one rise to eminence, 
by being a witty lawyer." Or thus : " Seldom, if ever, has any one risen to eminence, by being a 
witty lawyer." — Dr. Blair cor. " The second rule which I give, respects the choice of the objects 
from which metaphors, and other figures, are to be drawn." — Id. "In the figures which it uses, 
it sets mirrors before us, in which we may behold objects reflected in their likeness." — Id. "Whoso 
business it is, to seek the true measures of right and wrong, and not the arts by which he may 
avoid doing the one, and secure himself in doing the other." — Locke cor. " The occasions on 
which you ought to personify things, and those on which you ought not, cannot be stated in any 
precise rule." — Cobbett cor. "They reflect that they have been much diverted, but scarcely can 
they say about what." — Karnes cor. " The eyebrows and shoulders should seldom or never be 
remarked by any perceptible motion." — J. Q. Adams cor. " And the left hand or arm should sel- 
dom or never attempt any motion by itself." — Id., right. " Not every speaker purposes to please 
the imagination." — Jamieson cor. " And, like Gallio, they care for none of these things." Or : 
" And, like Gallio, they care little for any of these things." — S. cor. " They may inadvertently 
be used where their meaning w r ould be obscure." — L. Murray cor. " Nor can a man make him 
laugh." — Shak. cor. " The Athenians, in their present distress, scarcely knew whither to turn." 

— Goldsmith cor. "I do not remember wmere God ever delivered his oracles by the multitude." 
— Locke cor. "The object of this government is twofold, outward and inward." — Barclay cor. 
"In order rightly to understand what we read" — R. Johnson cor. "That a design had been 
formed, to kidnap or forcibly abduct Morgan." — Col. Stone cor. " But such imposture can never 
long maintain its ground." — Dr. Blair cor. " But surely it is as possible to apply the principles 
of reason and good sense to this art, as to any other that is cultivated among men." — Id. " It 
would have been better for you, to have remained illiterate, and even to have been hewers of 
wood." — L. Murray cor. " Dissyllables that have two vowels which are separated in the pro- 
nunciation, always have the accent on the first syllable." — Id. " And they all turned their backs, 
almost without drawing a sword." Or : " And they all turned their backs, scarcely venturing to 
draw a sword." — Karnes cor. "The principle of duty naturally takes precedence of every other." 
— Id, " Not all that glitters, is gold." — Maunder cor. "Whether now, or everso many myriads 
of ages hence." — Edwards cor, 

" England never did, nor ever shall, 
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror." — Shak. cor. 

LESSON IX.— CONJUNCTIONS. 

" He readily comprehends the rules of syntax, their use in the constructing of sentences, and their 
applicability to the examples before him." — Greenleaf cor. "The works of iEschylus have suf- 
fered more by time, than those of any other ancient tragedian." — Dr. Blair cor. "There is much 
more story, more bustle, and more action, than on the French theatre." — Id. (See Obs. 8th on 
Rule 16th.) " Such an unremitted anxiety, or such a perpetual application, as engrosses all our 
time and thoughts, is forbidden." — Jenynscor. " It seems to be nothing else than the simple form 
of the adjective." — Wright cor. " But when I talk of reasoning, I do not intend any other than 
such as is suited to the child's capacity." — Locke cor. " Pronouns have no other use in language, 
than to represent nouns." — Jamieson cor. " The speculative relied no farther on their own judge- 
ment, than to choose a leader, whom they implicitly followed." — Karnes cor. " Unaccommodated 
man is no more than such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art." — Shak. cor. " A Parenthesis 
is a suggestion which is introduced into the body of a sentence obliquely, and which may be omit- 
ted without injuring the grammatical construction." — Mur. et cd. cor. " The Caret (marked thus a) 
is placed where something that happened to be left out, is to be put into the line." — lid. "When 
I visit them, they shall be cast down." — Bible cor. " Neither our virtues nor our vices are all 
our own." — Johnson and Sanborn cor. " I could not give him so early an answer as he had desired." 

— 0. B. Peircecor. "He is not so tall as his brother." — Nixon cor. "It is difficult to judge 
whether Lord Byron is serious or not." — Lady Blessington cor. "Some nouns are of both the sec- 
ond and the third declension." — Gould cor. " He was discouraged neither by danger nor by mis- 
fortune." — Wells cor. " This is consistent neither with logic nor with history." — Dial cor. " Parts 
of sentences are either simple or compound." — David Blair cor. " English verse is regulated 
rather by the number of syllables, than by feet :" or, — " than by the number of feet." — Id. " I 
know not what more he can do, than pray for him." — Locke cor. "Whilst they are learning, 
and are applying themselves with attention, they are to be kept in good humour." — Id. "A 
man cannot have too much of it, nor have it too perfectly." — Id. "That you may so run, as to- 
obtain; and so fight, as to overcome." Or thus: "That you may so run, that you may obtain; 
and so fight, that you may overcome." — Penn cor. " It is the artifice of some, to contrive false 
periods of business, that they may seem men of despatch." — Bacon cor. " 'A tall man and a 
woman.' In this phrase, there is no ellipsis; the adjective belongs only to the former noun ; the 
quality respects only the man." — Ash cor. " An abandonment of the policy is neither to be ex- 
pected nor to be desired." — Jackson cor. " Which can be acquired by no other means than by 
frequent exercise in speaking." — Dr. Blair cor. " The chief or fundamental rules of syntax are 
common to the English and the Latin tongue." Or : — " are applicable to the English as well as 
to the Latin tongue." — Id. " Then I exclaim, either that my antagonist is void of all taste, or that 
his taste is corrupted in a miserable degree." Orthus : " Then I exclaim, that my antagonist is 
either void of all taste, or has a taste that is miserably corrupted." — Id. " I cannot pity any one 
who is under no distress either of body or of mind." — Karnes cor. " There was much genius in 

63 



094 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS.— KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

the world, before there were learning and arts to refine it."' — Dr. Blair cor. " Such a writer can 
have little else to do, than to new-model the paradoxes of ancient scepticism." — Dr. Brown cor. 
" Our ideas of them being nothing else than collections of the ordinary qualities observed in 
them." — Duncan cor. "A non-ens, or negative, can give neither pleasure nor pain." — Karnes cor. 
" So that they shall not justle and embarrass one an other." — Dr. Blair cor. " He firmly refused 
to make use of any other voice than his own." — Murray's Sequel, p. 113. "Your marching 
regiments, sir, will not make the guards their example, either as soldiers or as subjects." — Junius 
cor, " Consequently they had neither meaning nor beauty, to any but the natives of each 
country." — Sheridan cor. 

" The man of worth, who has not left his peer, 
Is in his narrow house forever darkly laid." — Burns cor. 

LESSON X.— PREPOSITIONS. 
" These may be carried on progressively beyond any assignable limits." — Karnes cor. " To 
crowd different subjects into a single member of a period, is still worse than to crowd them into 
one period." — Id. " Nor do we rigidly insist on having melodious prose." — Id. " The aversion 
we have to those who differ from us." — Id. "For we cannot bear his shifting o/the scene at 
every line." — Halifax cor. " We shall find that we come by it in the same way." — Locke cor. 
"Against this he has no better defence than that." — Barnes cor. " Searching the person whom ho 
suspects of having stolen his casket." — Dr. Blair cor. " Who, as vacancies occur, are elected by 
the whole Board." — Lit. Jour. cor. "Almost the only field of ambition for a German, is science." 
— Lieber cor. " The plan of education is very different from the one pursued in the sister country." — 
Coley cor. "Some writers on grammar have contended, that adjectives sometimes relate to verbs, 
and modify their action." — Wilcox cor. " They are therefore of a mixed nature, participating the 
properties both of pronouns and of adjectives." — Ingersoll cor. " For there is no authority which 
can justify the inserting of the aspirate or the doubling of the vowel." — Knight cor. " The dis- 
tinction and arrangement of active, passive, and neuter verbs." — Wright cor. "And see thou a 
hostile world spread its delusive snares." — Kirkham cor. "He may be precautioned, and be 
made to see how those join in the contempt." — Locke cor. " The contenting of themselves in the 
present want of what they wished for, is a virtue." — Id. " If the complaint be about something 
really worthy o/your notice." — Id. " True fortitude I take to be the quiet possession of a man's 
self, and an undisturbed doing of his duty " — Id " For the custom of tormenting and killing 
beasts, will, by degrees, harden their minds even towards men." — Id. " Children are whipped to 
it, and made to spend many hours of their precious time uneasily at Latin." — Id. " On this sub- 
ject, [the Harmony of Periods,] the ancient rhetoricians have entered into a very minute and par- 
ticular detail ; more particular, indeed, than on any other head that regards language." — See 
Blair 's Rhet., p. 122. "But the one should not be omitted, and the other retained." Or: "But 
the one should not be used without the other." — Bullions cor. " From some common forms of 
speech, the relative pronoun is usually omitted." — Murray and Weld cor. " There are very 'many 
causes which disqualify a witness for being received to testify in particular cases." — Adams cor. 
" Aside from all regard to interest, we should expect that," &c. — Webster cor. " My opinion was 
given after a rather cursory perusal of the book." — L. Murray cor. "And, [on] the next day, he 
was put on board of his ship." Or thus: "And, the next day, he was put aboard his ship." — 
Id. " Having the command of no emotions, but what are raised by sight." — Karnes cor. " Did 
these moral attributes exist in some other being freshes himself." Or: — "in some other being 
than himself" — Wayland cor. " He did not behave in that manner from pride, or [from] con- 
tempt of the tribunal." — Murray's Sequel, p. 113. " These prosecutions against William seem to 
have been the most iniquitous measures pursued by the court." — Murray and Priestley cor. " To 
restore myself to the good graces of my fair critics." — Dryden cor. "Objects denominated beau- 
tiful, please not by virtue of any one quality common to them all." — Dr. Blair cor. " This would 
have been less worthy of notice, had not a writer or two of high rank lately adopted it." — Churchill 
cor. 

"A Grecian youth, of talents rare, 
Whom Plato's philosophic care," &c. — Whitehead: E. R., p. 196. 

LESSON XL— PROMISCUOUS. 

" To excel has become a much less considerable object." — Dr. Blair cor. " My robe, and my 
integrity to Heav'n, are all I dare now call my own." — Enfield 's Speaker, p. 347. "For thou the 
garland wearst successivel}*-." — Shak. cor.; also Enfield. "If then thou art a Roman, take it 
forth." — lid. " If thou prove this to be real, thou must be a smart lad indeed." — Neef cor. "And 
an other bridge of four hundred feet in length." — Brightland cor. " Metonymy is the putting of 
one name for an other, on account of the near relation which there is between them." — Fisher 
cor. " Axtonomasia is the putting of an appellative or common name for a proper name." — Id. 
" That it is I, should make no difference in your determination." — Bullions cor. "The first and 
second pages are torn." Or. "The first and the second page are torn." Or: "The first page 
and the second are torn." — Id. " John's absence from home occasioned the delay." — Id. " His 
neglect of opportunities for improvement, was the cause of his disgrace." — Id. "He will regret 
his neglect of his opportunities for improvement, when it is too late." — Id. "His expertness at 
dancing does not entitle him to our regard." — Id. " Cassar went back to Rome, to take possession 
of the public treasure, which his opponent, by a most unaccountable oversight, had neglected to 



CHAP. XII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL REVIEW. 995 

carry away with him." — Goldsmith cor. "And Caesar took out of the treasury, gold to the amount 
of three thousand pounds' weight, besides an immense quantity of silver."* — Id. " Rules and defi- 
nitions, which should always be as clear and intelligible as possible, are thus rendered obscure." 
— Greenleaf cor. " So much both of ability and of merit is seldom found." Or thus: " So much 
of both ability and merit is seldom found."f — B. Murray cor. "If such maxims, and such prac- 
tices prevail, what has become of decency and virtue ?"| — Murray's False Syntax, ii, 62. Or : " If 
such maxims and practices prevail, what will become of decency and virtue ?" — Murray and 
Bullions cor. ' " Especially if the subject does not require so much pomp." — Br. Blair cor. " How- 
ever, the proper mixture of light and shade in such compositions, — the exact adjustment of all the 
figurative circumstances with the literal sense, — has ever been found an affair of great nicety." — 
Blair's Rhet., p. 151. "And adding to that hissing in our language, which is so much noticed by 
foreigners." — Addison, Coote, and Murray, cor. " To speak impatiently to servants, or to do any 
thing that betrays unkindness, or ill-humour, is certainly criminal." Or better: "Impatience, un- 
kindness, or ill-humour, is certainly criminal." — Mur. et cd. cor. "Here are a fullness and grand- 
eur of expression, well suited to the subject." — Br. Blair cor. " I single out Strada from among 
the moderns, because he had the foolish presumption to censure Tacitus." — B. Murray cor. "I 
single him out from among the moderns, because," &c- — Bolinglroke cor. "This rule is not 
always observed, even by good writers, so strictly as it ought to be." — Br. Blair cor. " But 
this gravity and assurance, which are beyond boyhood, being neither wisdom nor knowledge, do 
never reach to manhood." — Pope cor. " The regularity and polish even of a turnpike-road, have 
some influence upon the low people in the neighbourhood." — Karnes cor. " They become fond of 
regularity and neatness; and this improvement of their taste is displayed, first upon their yards 
and little enclosures, and next within doors." — Id. " The phrase, ' it is impossible to exist,' gives 
us the idea, that it is impossible for men, or any body, to exist." — Priestley cor. " I'll give a thou- 
sand pounds to look upon him." — Shah. cor. " The reader's knowledge, as Dr. Campbell observes, 
maj^ prevent him from mistaking it." — Grombie and Murray cor. "When two words are set in 
contrast, or in opposition to each other, they are both emphatic." — B. Murray cor. " The num- 
ber of the persons — men, women, and children — who were lost in the sea, was very great." Or 
thus : " The number of persons — men, women, and children — that were lost in the sea, was very 
great." — Id. " Nor is the resemblance between the primary and the resembling object pointed 
out." — Jamieson cor. "I think it the best book of the kind, that I have met with." — Mathews cor. 

"Why should not we their ancient rites restore, 
And be what Rome or Athens was before ?" — Roscommon cor. 

LESSON" XII— TWO ERRORS. 

" It is labour only that gives relish to pleasure." — B. Murray cor. " Groves are never more 
agreeable than in the opening of spring." — Id. " His Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of 
our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, soon made him known to the literati." — See Blair's 
Ltd., pp. 34 and 45. "An awful precipice or tower from, which we look down on the objects 
Which are below." — Br. Blair cor. " This passage, though very poetical, is, however, harsh and 
obscure; and for no other cause than this, that three distinct metaphors are crowded together."' — 
Id. "I purpose to make some observations." — Id. " I shall here follow the same method that I 
have all along pursued." — Id. " Mankind at no other time resemble one an other so much as they 
do in the beginnings of society." — Id. " But no ear is sensible of the termination of each foot, in 
the reading of a hexameter line." — -Id. " The first thing, says he, that a writer either of fables or 
of heroic poems does, is, to choose some maxim or point of morality." — Id. " The fourth book 
has always been most justly admired, and indeed it abounds with beauties of the highest kind." — 
Id. " There is in the poem no attempt towards the painting of characters." — Id. " But the arti- 
ficial contrasting of characters, and the constant introducing of them in pairs and by opposites, 
give too theatrical and affected an air to the piece." — Id. " Neither of them is arbitrary or local." 
— Kames cor. "If the crowding of figures is bad, it is still worse to graft one figure upon an 
other." — Id. " The crowding-together of so many objects lessens the pleasure." — Id. " This there- 
fore lies not in the putting -off of the hat, nor in the making of compliments." — Bocke cor. "But 
the Samaritan Yau may have been used, as the Jews used the Chaldaic, both for a vowel and for 
a consonant." — Wilson cor. "But if a solemn and a familiar pronunciation really exist in our 
language, is it not the business of a grammarian to mark both ?" — J. Walker cor. " By making 
sounds follow one an other agreeably to certain laws." — Gardiner cor. " If there were no drink- 
ing of intoxicating draughts, there could be no drunkards." — Peirce cor. " Socrates knew his 
own defects, and if he was proud of any thing, it was of being thought to have none." — Goldsmith 
cor. " Lysander, having brought his army to Ephesus, erected an arsenal for the building of gal- 
leys" — Id. " The use of these signs is worthy of remark." — Brightland cor. " He received me 

* This sentence may be •written correctly in a dozen different ways, with precisely the same meaning, and very 
nearly the same words. I have here made the noun gold the object of the verb took, which in the original ap- 
pears to govern the noun treasure, or money, understood. The noun amount might about as well be made its 
object, by a suppression of the preposition to. And again, for '■'■pounds'' iveight," we may say, "pounds in 
weight." The words will also admit of many different positions. — G-. Bbown. 

t See a different reading of this example, cited as the first item of false syntax under Rule 16th above, and 
there corrected differently. The words " both of," which make the difference, were probably added by L. Mur- 
ray in some of his revisals; and yet it does not appear that this popular critic ever got the sentence right. — G. 
Beows. 

% "If such maxims, and such practices prevail, what has become of national liberty?" — Hume's History, Vol. 
vi, p. 254; Priestley's Oram., p. 128. 



996 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

in the same manner in which I would receive you." Or thus : " He received me as I would re- 
ceive you." — R. C. Smith cor. " Consisting- of both the direct and the collateral evidence." — Bp. 
Butler cor. " If any man or woman that believeth hath widows, let him or her relieve them, and 
let not the church be charged." — Bible cor. " For men's sake are beasts bred." — W. Walker cor. 
" From three o'clock, there were drinking and gaming." — Id. " Is this he that I am seeking, or 
not?" — Id. "And for the upholding of every one's own opinion, there is so much ado." — Sewel 
cor. " Some of them, however, will necessarily be noticed." — Sale cor. " The boys conducted 
themselves very indiscreetly." — Merchant cor. " Their example, their influence, their fortune, — 
every talent they possess, — dispenses blessings on all persons around them." — Id. and Murray cor. 
" The two Reynoldses reciprocally converted each other." — Johnson cor. " The destroying of the 
. last two, Tacitus calls an attack upon virtue itself." — Goldsmith cor. " Moneys are your suit." — 
Shak. cor. " Ch is commonly sounded like tch, as in church; but, in words derived from Greek, 
it has the sound of k." — L. Murray cor. "When one is obliged to make some utensil serve for 
purposes to which it was not originally destined." — Campbell cor. "But that a baptism with 
water is a washing-away of sin, thou canst not hence prove." — Barclay cor. "Being spoken to 
but one, it infers no universal command." — Id. "For if the laying-aside of copulatives gives force 
and liveliness, a redundancy of them must render the period languid." — Buchanan cor. " Jameg 
used to compare him to a cat, which always falls upon her legs." — Adam cor. 
" From the low earth aspiring genius springs, 
And sails triumphant, borne on eagle's wings." — Lloyd cor. 

LESSON XIII.— TWO ERRORS. 

"An ostentatious, a feeble, a harsh, or an obscure style, for instance, is always faulty" — Br. 
Blair cor. "Yet in this we find that the English pronounce quite agreeably to rule." Or thus: 
" Yet in this we find the English pronunciation perfectly agreeable to rule." Or thus: "Yet in 
this we find that the English pronounce in a manner perfectly agreeable to rule." — J. Walker cor. 
"But neither the perception of ideas, nor knowledge of any sort, is a habit, though absolutely 
necessary to the forming of habits." — Bp. Butler cor. " They were cast ; and a heavy fine vjos 
imposed upon them." — Goldsmith cor. ""Without making this reflection, he cannot enter into 
the spirit of the author, or relish the composition." — Br. Blair cor. "The scholar should be in- 
structed in re lotion to the finding of his words." Or thus: "The scholar should be told how to 
find his words." — Osborn cor. " And therefore they could neither have forged, nor have rever- 
sified them." — Knight cor. " A dispensary is a place at which medicines are dispensed to the poor.' 1 
— L. Mur. cor. " Both the connexion and the number of words are determined by general laws." — 
Neef cor. " An Anapest has the first two syllables unaccented, and the last one accented ; as, 
contravene, acquiesce." — L. Mur. cor. " An explicative sentence is one in which a thing is said, 
in a direct manner, to be or not to be, to do or not to do, to suffer or not to suffer." — Lowth and 
Mur. cor. "But is a conjunction whenever it is neither an adverb nor a preposition."* — R. C. 
Smith cor. " He wrote in the name of king Ahasuerus, and sealed the writing with the king's 
ring." — Bible cor. "Camm and Audland had departed from the town before this time." — Sewel 
cor. " Before they will relinquish the practice, they must be convinced." — Webster cor. " Which 
he had thrown up before he set out." — Grimshaw cor. " He left to him the value of a hundred 
drachms in Persian money." — Sped. cor. " All that the mind can ever contemplate concerning 
them, must be divided among the three." — Cardell cor. "Tom Puzzle is one of the most eminent 
immethodical disputants, of all that have fallen under my observation." — Sped. cor. " When you 
have once got him to think himself compensated for his suffering, by the praise which is given 
him for his courage." — Locke cor. "In all matters in ivhich simple reason, or mere speculation, 
is concerned." — Sheridan cor. " And therefore he should be spared from the trouble of attend- 
ing to any thing else than his meaning." — 7c?. " It is this kind of phraseology that is distinguished 
by the epithet idiomatical ; a species that was originally the spawn, partly of ignorance, and parrly 
of affectation." — Campbell and Murray cor. " That neither the inflection nor the letters are such 
as could have been employed by the ancient inhabitants of Latium." — Knight cor. " In those 
cases in which the verb is intended to be applied to any one of the terms." — L. Murray cor. 
" But these people who know not the law, are accursed." — Bible cor. "And the magnitude of 
the choruses has weight and sublimity." — Gardiner cor. "Bares he deny that there are some of 
his fraternity guilty?" — Barclay cor. "Giving an account of most, if not all, of the papers 
which had passed betwixt them." — Id. "In this manner, as to both parsing and correcting, 
should all the rules of syntax be treated, being taken up regularly according to their order." — L. 
Murray zor. " To Ovando were allowed a brilliant retinue and a body-guard." — Sketch cor. 
" Was it I or he, that you requested to go ?" — Kirkham cor. " Let thee and me go on." — Bunyan 
cor. "This I nowhere affirmed; and / do wholly deny it." — Barclay cor. "But that I deny; 
and it remains for him to prove it." — Id. " Our country sinks beneath the yoke : She weeps, she 
bleeds, an i each new day a gash Is added to her wounds." — Shak. cor. " Thou art the Lord who 
chose Abraham, and brought him forth «5ut of Ur of the Chaldees." — Bible and Mur. cor. " He is 
the exhaustless fountain, from which emanate all these attributes that exist throughout this wide 
creation." — Wayland cor. " I am he who has communed with the son of Neocles ; I am he who 
has entered the gardens of pleasure." — Wright cor. 

" Such were in ancient times the tales received, 
Such by our good forefathers were believed." — Rowe cor. 

* According to my notion, but is never a preposition ; but there are some who think otherwise. — G-. Bbown. 



CHAP. XII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL REVIEW. 997 

LESSON XIV.— TWO ERRORS. 

" The noun or pronoun that stands before the active verb, usually represents the agent." — A. 
Murray cor. " Such seem to have been the musings of our hero of the gramrnar-quill, when he 
penned the first part of his grammar." — Merchant cor. " Two dots, the one placed above the 
other [:], are called Sheva, and are used to represent a very short e." — Wilson cor. "Great have 
been, and are, the obscurity and difficulty, in the nature and application of them" [ : i. e. — of nat- 
ural remedies]. — Butler cor. " As two are to four, so are four to eight." — Everest cor. " The- 
invention and use of arithmetic, reach back to a period so remote, as to be beyond the knowledge 
of history." — Robertson cor. "What it presents as objects of contemplation or enjoyment, fill 
and satisfy his mind." — Id. " If he dares not say they are, as I know he dares not, how must I 
then distinguish ?" — Barclay cor. " He had now grown so fond of solitude, that all company had 
become uneasy to him." — Life of Cic. cor. " Violence and spoil are heard in her ; before me 
continually are grief and wounds." — Bible cor. " Bayle's Intelligence from the Republic of Let- 
ters, which makes eleven volumes in duodecimo, is truly a model in this kind." — Formey cor. 
"Pauses, to be rendered pleasing and expressive, must not only be made in the right place, but 
also be accompanied with a proper tone of voice." — L. Murray cor. " To oppose the opinions and 
rectify the mistakes of others, is what truth and sincerity sometimes require of us." — Locke cor. 
" It is very probable, that this assembly was called, to clear some doubt which the king had, 
whether it were lawful for the Hollanders to throw off the monarchy of Spain, and withdraw en- 
tirely their allegiance to that crown." Or: — "About the lawfulness of the Hollanders' rejection 
of the monarchy of Spain, and entire withdrawment of their allegiance to that crown." — L. Mur- 
ray cor. " A naming of the numbers and cases of a noun in their order, is called the declining 
of it, or its declension" — Frost cor. " The embodying of them is, therefore, only a collecting of 
such component parts of words." — Town cor. "The one is the voice heard when Christ was bap- 
tized; the other, when he was transfigured." — Barclay cor. "An understanding of the literal 
sense" — or, " To have understood the literal sense, would not have prevented them from condemn- 
ing the guiltless." — Bp. Butler cor. "As if this were, to take the execution of justice out of the 
hands of God, and to give it to nature." — Id. " They will say, you must conceal this good opin- 
ion of yourself; which yet is an allowing of the thing, though not of the showing of it." Or: — 
"which yet is, to allow the thing, though not the showing of it." — Sheffield cor. "So as to signify- 
not only the doing of an action, but the causing of it to be done." — Pike cor. " This, certainly, was 
both a dividing of the unity of God, and a limiting of his immensity." — Calvin cor. " Tones being 
infinite in number, and varying in almost every individual, the arranging of them under distinct 
heads, and the reducing of them to any fixed and permanent rules, may be considered as the last 
refinement in language." — Knight cor. " The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he 
hath done it, and until he hath performed the intents of his heart." — Bible cor. " We seek for 
deeds more illustrious and heroic, for events more diversified and surprising." — Dr. Blair cor. 
" We distinguish the genders, or the male and the female sex, in four different ways." — Buchanan 
cor. " Thus, ch and g are ever hard. It is therefore proper to retain these sounds in those He- 
brew names which have not been modernized, or changed by public use." — Dr. Wilson cor. " A 
Substantive, or Noun, is the name of any thing which is conceived to subsist, or of which we 
have any notion." — Murray and Lowth cor. " A Noun is the name of any thing which exists, or 
of which we have, or can form, an idea." — Maunder cor. " A Noun is the name of any thing in 
existence, or of any thing of which we can form an idea." — Id. " The next thing to be attended 
to, is, to keep him exactly to the speaking of truth." — Locke cor. " The material, the vegetable, 
and the animal world, receive this influence according to their several capacities." — Died cor. "And 
yet it is fairly defensible on the principles of the schoolmen ; if those things can be called princi- 
ples, which consist merely in words." — Campbell cor. 

" Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness, 
And fearst to die ? Famine is in thy cheeks, 
Need and oppression starve in thy sunk eyes." — Shak. cor. 

LESSON XV.— THREE ERRORS. 
" The silver age is reckoned to have commenced at the death of Augustus, and to have contin- 
ued till the end of Trajan's reign." — Gould cor. "Language has indeed become, in modern times, 
more correct, and more determinate." — Dr. Blair cor. " It is evident, that those words are the 
most agreeable to the ear, which are composed of smooth and liquid sounds, and in which there 
is a proper intermixture of vowels and consonants." — Id. "It would have had no other effect, 
than to add to the sentence an unnecessary word." — Id. " But as rumours arose, thai the judges 
had been corrupted by money in this cause, these gave occasion to much popular clamour, and 
threw a heavy odium on Cluentius." — Id. "A Participle is derived from a verb, and partakes of 
the nature both of the verb and of an adjective." — Ash and Devis cor. " I shall have learned my 
grammar before you will have learned yours." — Wilbur and Livingston cor. "There is no other 
earthly object capable of making so various and so forcible impressions upon the human mind, as 
a complete speaker." — Perry cor. " It was not the carrying of the bag, that made Judas a thief 
and a hireling." — South cor. " As the reasonable soul and the flesh are one man, so God and man 
are one Christ." — Creed cor. " And I will say to them who were not my people, Ye are my peo- 
ple; and they shall say, Thou art our God." — Bible cor. "Where there is in the sense nothing 
that requires the last sound to be elevated or suspended, an easy fall, sufficient to show that the 



998 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

sense is finished, will be proper." — L. Mur. cor. "Each party produce words in which the letter 
a is sounded in the manner for which they contend." — J. Walker cor. " To countenance persons 
that are guilty of bad actions, is scarcely one remove from an actual commission of the same 
crimes. " — L. Mur. cor. " 'To countenance persons that are guilty of bad actions,' is a phrase or 
clause which is made the subject of the verb 'is.' " — Id. "What is called the splitting of particles, 
— that is, the separating of a preposition from the noun which it governs, is always to be avoided." 
— Dr. Blair et al. cor. (See Obs. 15th on Rule 23d.) "There is properly but one pause, or rest, 
in the sentence; and this falls betwixt the two members into which the sentence is divided." — lid. 
" To go barefoot, does not at all help a man on, in the way to heaven." — Steele cor. " There is 
nobody who does not condemn this in others, though many overlook it in themselves." — Locke cor. 
"Be careful not to use the same word in the same sentence either too frequently or in different 
senses." — L. Murray cor. "Nothing could have made her more unhappy, than to have married 
a man of such principles." — Id. "A warlike, various, and tragical age is the best to write of, but 
the worst to write in." — Cowley cor. "When thou instancest Peter's babtizing of Cornelius." — 
Barclay cor. " To introduce two or more leading thoughts or topics, which have no natural 
affinity or mutual dependence." — L. Murray cor. " Animals, again, are fitted to one an other, 
and to the elements or regions in which they live, and to which they are as appendices." — Id. 
•• This melody, however, or so frequent varying of the sound of each word, is a proof of nothing, 
but of the fine ear of that people." — Jamieson cor. "They can, each in its turn, be used upon 
occasion." — Duncan cor. " In this reign, lived the poets Glower and Chaucer, who are the first 
authors that can properly be said to have written English." — Bucke cor. "In translating expres- 
sions of this kind, consider the [phrase] Ht is,' as if it were they are." — W. Walker cor. " The 
chin has an important office to perform ; for, by the degree of its activity, we disclose either a polite 
or a vulgar pronunciation." — Gardiner cor. "For no other reason, than that he was found in 
bad company." — Webster cor. " It is usual to compare them after the manner of polysyllables. 1 '' — 
Priestley cor. " The infinitive mood is recognized more easily than any other, because the preposi- 
tion to precedes it." — Bucke cor. "Prepositions, you recollect, connect words, and so do conjunc- 
tions: how, then, can you tell a conjunction from a preposition^ Or: — "how, then, can you 
distinguish the former from the latter V — R. G. Smith cor. 

" No kind of work requires a nicer touch, 
And, this well finish' d, none else shines so much." — Sheffield cor. 

LESSON XVI.— -THREE ERRORS. 

" On many occasions, it is the final pause alone, that marks the difference between prose and 
verse : this will be evident from the following arrangement of a few poetical lines." — L. Murray 
cor. " I shall do all I can to persuade others to take for their cure the same measures that I have 
taken for mine." — Guardian cor.; also Murray. "It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, that 
they will set a house on fire, as it were, but to roast their eggs." — Bacon cor. " Did ever man 
struggle more earnestly in a cause in which both his honour and his life were concerned ?" — Dun- 
can cor. " So the rests, or pauses, which separate sentences or their parts, are marked by points." 
— Lowth cor. " Yet the case and mood are not influenced by them, but are determined by the 
nature of the sentence." — Id. " Through inattention to this rule, many errors have been com- 
mitted : several of which are here subjoined, as a further caution and direction to the learner." — 
L. Murray cor. ." Though thou clothe thyself with crimson, though thou deck thee with orna- 
ments of gold, though thou polish thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair."* — 
Bible cor. " But that the doing of good to others, will make us happy, is not so evident ; the 
feeding of the hungry, for example, or the clothing of the naked." Or: " But that, to do good to 
others, will make us happy, is not so evident ; to feed the hungry, for example, or to clothe the 
naked." — Karnes cor. " There is no other G-od than he, no other light than his." Or : " There is 
no G-od but he, no light but his." — Penn cor. ".How little reason is there to wonder, that a power- 
fid and accomplished orator should be one of the characters that are most rarely found." — Dr. 
Blair cor. " Because they express neither the doing nor the receiving of an action." — Inf. S. 
Gram. cor. '" To find the answers, will require an effort of mind ; and, when right answers are 
given, they will be the result of reflection, and show that the subject is understood." — Id. " ' The 
sunrises,' is an expression trite and common; but the same idea becomes a magnificent image, 
when expressed in the language of Mr. Thomson." — Dr. Blair cor. " The declining of a word is 
the giving of its different endings." Or : " To decline a word, is to give it different endings." — 
Ware cor. " And so much are they for allowing everyone to follow his own mind." — Barclay cor. 
" More than one overture for peace were made, but Cleon prevented them from taking effect." — 
Goldsmith cor. ' " Neither in English, nor in any other language, is this word, or that which cor- 
responds to it in meaning, any more an article, than two, three, or four." — Webster cor. " But 
the most irksome conversation of all that I have met with in the neighbourhood, has been with 
two or three of your travellers." — Sped. cor. " Set down the first two terms of the supposition, 
one under the other, in the first place." — Smiley cor. " It is a useful practice too. to fix one's eye 
on some of the most distant persons in the assembly." — Dr. Blair cor. " He will generally please 

*"Cdm vestieris te coccino, cum ornata fueris monili aureo, etpinzeris stibio oculos tuos, frustra componeris." 
— Vulgate. " 'Edv 7teoi:3dAv iiokklvov, nal noouhon Koajj.u> xpvay' tuv eyxplcy crifii rove 6(pdaXfiovg 
o:)v i','f udraiov cjoiica/n.nc aov." — Septuagint. "Quoique tu te revetes de pourpre, que tu te pares d'orne- 
mens d'or, et que tu tepeignes les yeuz avoc du/ard^ tu t'embellis en vain." — French Bible. 



CHAP. XII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL REVIEW. 990 

his hearers most, when to please them is not his sole or his chief aim." — Id. " At length, the con- 
suls return to the camp, and inform the soldiers, that they could obtain for them no other terms 
than those of surrendering their arms and passing under the yoke." — Id. "Nor are mankind so 
much to blame, in their choice thus determining them." — Swift cor. "These forms are what are 
called the Numbers.'''' Or: "These forms are called Numbers." — Fosdick cor. "In those languages 
which admit but two genders, all nouns are either masculine or feminine, even though they de- 
signate beings that are neither male nor female." — Id. " It is called Verb or Word by way of 
eminence, because it is the most essential word in a sentence, and one without which the other 
parts of speech cannot form any complete sense." — Gould cor. " The sentence will consist of two 
members, and these will commonly be separated from each other by a comma." — Jaraieson cor. 
"Loud and soft in speaking are like the forte and piano in music ; they only refer to the different 
degrees of force used in the same key: whereas high and low imply a change of key." — Sheridan 
cor. " They are chiefly three : the acquisition of knowledge ; the assisting of the memory to 
treasure up this knowledge; and the communicating of it to others." — Id. 

"This kind of knaves I know, who in this plainness 
Harbour more craft, and hide corrupter ends, 
Than twenty silly ducking observants." — Shah cor. 

LESSON XVII.— MANY ERRORS. 

"A man will be forgiven, even for great errors, committed in a foreign language; but, in the 
use he makes of his own, even the least slips are justly pointed out and ridiculed." — Amer. Chester- 
field cor. " Let expresses not only permission, but entreaty, exhortation, and command.' 1 '' — Lowth 
cor. ; also Hurray, et at " That death which is our leaving of this world, is nothing else than the 
putting-ojf of these bodies." — Sherlock cor. " They differ from the saints recorded in either the Old 
or the New Testament." — Newton cor. " The nature of relation, therefore, consists in the referring 
or comparing of two things to each other ; from which comparison, one or both ccme to be de- 
nominated." — Locke cor. " It is not credible, that there is any one who will say, that through 
the whole course of his life lie has kept himself entirely undefiled, without the least spot or stain of 
sin." — Witsius cor. " If to act conformably to the will of our Creator, — if to promote the welfare 
of mankind around us, — if to secure our own happiness, is an object of the highest moment; then 
are we loudly called upon to cultivate and extend the great interests of religion and virtue." Or: 
" If, to act conformably to the will of our Creator, to promote the welfare of mankind around us, 
and to secure our own happiness, are objects of the highest moment ; then," &c. — Murray et al. 
cor. " The verb being in the plural number, it is supposed, that the officer and his guard are joint 
agents. But this is not the case : the only nominative to the verb is 'officer.'' In the expression, 
1 with his guard,' the noun ' guard 1 is in the objective case, being governed by the preposition with; 
and consequently it cannot form the nominative, or any part of it. The prominent subject for the 
agreement, the true nominative to the verb, or the term to which the verb peculiarly refers, is the 
word ' officer. 1 " — L. Murray cor. " This is on other use, that, in my opinion, contributes to make 
a man learned rather than wise; and is incapable of pleasing either the understanding or the 
imagination." — Addison cor. " The work is a dull performance ; and is wearable of pleasing 
either the understanding or the imagination." — L. Murray cor. "I would recommend the 'Ele- 
ments of English Grammar,' by Mr. Frost. The plan of this little work is similar to that of Mr. L. 
Murray's smallest Grammar; but, in order to meet the understanding of children, its definitions 
and language are simplified, so far as the nature of the subject will admit. It also embraces more 
examples for Parsing, than are usual in elementary treatises." — S. E. Ball cor. " ftlore rain falls 
in the first two summer months, than in the first two months of winter; but what falls, makes a 
much greater show upon the earth, in winter than in summer, because there is a much slower 
evaporation." — L. Murray cor. " They often contribute also to render seme persons prosper- 
ous, though wicked ; and, what is still worse, to reward some actions, though vicious ; and punish 
other actions, though virtuous."— Bp. Butler cor. "Hence, to such a man, arise naturally a secret 
satisfaction, a sense of security, and an implicit hope of somewhat further." — Id. " So much for 
the third and last cause of illusion, that was noticed above; which arises from the abuse of very 
general and abstract terms; and which is the principal source of the abundant nonsense that has 
been vented by metaphysicians, mystagogues, and theologians."— Campbell cor. "As to those 
animals which are less common, or which, on account of the places they inhabit, fall less under 
our observation, as fishes and birds, or which their diminutive size removes still further from our 
observation, we generally in English, employ a single noun to designate both genders, the mascu- 
line and the feminine."— Fosdick cor. "Adjectives may always be distinguished by their relation 
to other words : they express the quality condition, or number, of whatever things ore mentioned." 
— Emmons cor. "An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other 
adverb; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner." — Brown's Inst, p. 29. "The join- 
ing-together of two objects, so grand, and the representing o/them both, as subject at one moment 
to the command of God, produce a noble effect."— Dr. Blair cor. " Twisted columns, lor mstance, 
are undoubtedly ornamental ; but, as they have an appearance of weakness, they displease the 
eye, whenever they are used to sunport any massy part of a building, or what seems to require a 
more substantial prop."— Id. "In a vast number of inscriptions, some upon rocks, some upon 
stones of a defined shape, is found an Alphabet different from the Greeks', the Latins-, and the 
Hebrews', and also unlike that of any modern nation."— IT. C. Fowler corT 



1000 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

LESSON XVIII.— MANY ERRORS. 
" The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated on the northeast side of Lilliput, from which it is 
parted by a channel of only 800 yards in width." — Swift and Karnes cor. " The nominative case 
usually denotes the agent or doer ; and any noun or pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, is 
always in this case." — B. G. Smith cor. "There are, in his allegorical personages, an originality, 
a richness, and a variety, which almost vie with the splendours of the ancient mythology." — Haz- 
lilt cor. " As neither the Jewish nor the Christian revelation has been universal, and as each has 
been afforded to a greater or a less part of the world at different times ; so likewise, at different 
times, both revelations have had different degrees of evidence." — Bp. Butler cor. " Thus we see, 
that, to kill a man with a sword, and to kill one with a hatchet, are looked upon as no distinct 
species of action; but, if the point of the sword first enter the body, the action passes for a distinct 
species, called stabbing." — Locke cor. " If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and 
lie unto his neighbour concerning that which was delivered him to keep, or deceive his neighbour, 
or find that which was lost, and lie concerning it, and swear falsely ; in any of all these that a 
man doeth, sinning therein, then it shall be," &c. — Bible cor. "As, to do and teach the command- 
ments of G-od, is the great proof of virtue ; so, to break them, and to teach others to break them, 
are the great proofs of vice." — Wayland cor. " The latter simile, in Pope's terrific maltreatment 
of^, is true neither to the mind nor to the eye." — Coleridge cor. "And the two brothers were 
seen, transported with rage and fury, like Eteocles and Polynices, each endeavouring to plunge his 
sword into the other's heart, and to assure himself of the throne by the death of his rival." — Gold- 
smith cor. " Is it not plain, therefore, that neither the castle, nor the planet, nor the cloud, which 
you here see, is that real one which you suppose to exist at a distance ?" — Berkley cor. "I have 
often wondered, how it comes to pass, that every body should love himself best, and yet value his 
neighbours' opinion about himeslf more than his own." — Collier cor. " Virtue, ('Aper?/, Virtus,) as 
well as most of its species, when sex is figuratively ascribed to it, is made feminine, perhaps from 
its beauty and amiable appearance." — Harris cor. " Virtue, with most of its species, is made 
feminine when personified ; and so is Vice, perhaps for being Virtue's opposite." — Brit. Gram. cor. ; 
also Buchanan. " From this deduction, it may easily be seen, how it comes to pass, that personifi- 
cation makes so great a figure in all compositions in vjhich imagination or passion has any con- 
cern." — Dr. Blair cor. "An Article is a word, placed before a noun, to point it out as such, and to 
show how far its signification extends." — Folker cor. " All men have certain natural, essential, 
and inherent rights; — among which are the rights of enjoying and defending life and liberty; of 
acquiring, possessing, and protecting property ; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining happi- 
ness." — Const, of K H. cor. " From those grammarians who form their ideas and make their de- 
cisions, respecting this part of English grammar, from the principles and construction of other lan- 
guages, — of languages which do not in these points accord with our own, but which differ con- 
siderably from it, — we may naturally expect grammatical schemes that will be neither perspicuous 
nor consistent, and that will tend rather to perplex than to inform the learner." — Murray and 
Hall cor. " Indeed there are but very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or who have a 
relish for any pleasures that are not criminal ; every diversion which the majority take, is at the 
expense of some one virtue or other, and their very first step out of business is into vice or folly." 
— Addison cor. ^ 

" Hail, holy Love ! thou bliss that sumst all bliss ! 
Giv'st and receiv'st all bliss ; fullest when most 
Thou giv r st ; spring-head of all felicity I" — Pollok cor. 



CHAPTER XIIL— GENERAL RULE. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER THE GENERAL RULE. 
LESSON I.— ARTICLES. 
(L) " The article is a part of speech placed before nouns." Or thus: "An article is a word 
placed before nouns." — Comly cor. (2.) " The article is a part of speech used to limit nouns." — 
Gilbert cor. (3.) " An article is a word set before nouns to fix their vague signification." — Ash 
cor. (4.) " The adjective is a part of speech used to describe something named by a noun." — Gil- 
bert cor. (5.) "A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun." — Id. and Weld cor. : Inst, p. 45. 
(6.) " The pronoun is a part of speech which is often used in stead of a noun." — Brit. Gram, and 
Buchanan cor. (7.) "A verb is a word which signifies to be, to do, or to be acted upon." — Mer- 
chant cor. (8.) " The verb is a part of speech which signifies to be, to act, or to receive an action." 
— Comly cor. (9.) " The verb is the part of speech by which any thing is asserted." — Weld cor. 
(10.) " The verb is a part of speech, which expresses action or existence in a direct manner." 
— Gilbert cor. (11.) " A participle is a word derived from a verb, and expresses action or exist- 
ence in an indirect manner." — Id. (12.) " The participle is a part of speech derived from the 
verb, and denotes being, doing, or suffering, and implies time, as a verb does." — Brit. Gram, and 
Buchanan cor. (13.) " The adverb is a part of speech used to add some modification to the mean- 
ing of verbs, adjectives, and participles." — Gilbert cor. (14.) " An adverb is an indeclinable word 
added to a verb, \a participle,] an adjective, or an other adverb, to express some circumstance, 
accident, or manner of its signification." — Adam and Gould cor. (15.) " An adverb is a word 
added to a verb, an adjeolive, a participle, or an other adverb, to express the circumstance of 
time, place, degree, or manner." — Dr. Ash cor. (16.) " An adverb is a word added to a verb, an 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. 1001 

adjective, a participle, or, sometimes, an other adverb, to express some circumstance respecting the 
sense." — Bsck cor. (17.) " The adverb is a part of speech, which is added to verbs, adjectives, par- 
ticiples, or to other adverbs, to express some modification or circumstance, quality or manner, of 
their signification." — Buchanan cor. (18.) " The adverb is a part of speech which we add to the 
verb, (whence the name,) to the adjective or participle likewise, and sometimes even to an other ad- 
verb." — Bucke cor. (19.) "A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences." — Gil- 
bert and Weld cor. (20.) " The conjunction is a part of speech that joins words or sentences 
together." — Ash cor. (21.) " The conjunction is that part of speech which connects sentences, or 
parts of sentences, or single words." — D. Blair cor. (22.) " The conjunction is a part of speech 
that is used principally to connect sentences, so as, out of two, three, or more sentences, to make 
one." — Bucke cor. (23.) " The conjunction is a part of speech that is used to connect words or sen- 
tences together ; but, chiefly, to join simple sentences into such as are compound." — Kirkham cor. 
(24.) " A conjunction is a word which joins words or sentences together, and shows the manner 
of their dependence, as they stand in connexion." — Brit. Gram, et al. cor. (25.) "A preposition is 
a word used to show the relation between other words, and govern the subsequent term."- — Gilbert 
cor. (26.) "A preposition is a governing word which serves to connect other words, and to show 
the relation between them." — Frost cor. (27.) " A preposition is a governing particle used to con- 
nect words and show their relation." — Weld cor. (28.) " The preposition is that part of speech 
which shows the various positions of persons or things, and the consequent relations that certain 
words bear toward one an other." — David Blair cor. (29.) " The. preposition is a part of speech, 
which, being added to certain other parts of speech, serves to show their state of relation, or their 
reference to each other." — Brit. Gram, and Buchanan cor. (30.) " Tlie interjection is a part of 
speech used to express sudden passion or strong emotion." — Gilbert cor. (31.) "An interjection 
is an unconnected word used in giving utterance to some sudden feeling or strong emotion." — Weld 
cor. (32.) " The interjection is that part of speech which denotes any sudden affection or strong 
emotion of the mind." — David Blair cor. (33.) " An interjection is an independent word or sound 
thrown into discourse, and denotes some sudden passion or strong emotion of the soul." — Brit. 
Gram, and Buchanan cor. 

(34.) " The scene might tempt some peaceful sage 

To rear a lonely hermitage." — Gent, of Aberdeen cor. 

(35.) " Not all the storms that shake the pole, 
Can e'er disturb thy halcyon soul, 
And smooth unaltered brow." — BarbauWs Poems, p. 42. 

LESSON II.— NOUNS. 

" The throne of every monarchy felt the shock." — Frelinghuysen cor. " These principles ought 
to be deeply impressed upon the mind of every American." — Dr. N. Webster cor. " The words 
church and shire are radically the same." — Id. " They may not, in their present form, be 
readily accommodated to every circumstance belonging to the possessive case of nouns." — L. 
Murray cor. " Will, in the second and third persons, only foretells." — Id. : Loivth's Gram., p. 41. 
" Which seem to form the true distinction between the subjunctive and the indicative mood." — 
L. Murray cor. ''The very general approbation which this performance of Walker's has received 
from the public." — Id. " Lest she carry her improvements of this kind too far." Or thus : " Lest 
she carry her improvements in this way too far." — Id. and Campbell cor. " Charles was ex- 
travagant, and by his prodigality became poor and despicable." — L. Murray cor. "We should 
entertain no prejudice against simple and rustic persons." — Id. " These are indeed the founda- 
tion of all solid merit." — Dr. Blair cor. " And his embellishment, by means of figures, musical 
cadences, or other ornaments of speech." — Id. " If he is at no pains to engage us by the employ- 
ment of figures, musical arrangement, or any other ornament of style." — Id. "The most eminent 
of the sacred poets, are, David, Isaiah, and the author of the Book of Job." — Id. "Nothing in 
any poem, is more beautifully described than the death of old Priam." — Id. " When two vowels 
meet together, and are joined in one syllable, they are,called a diphthong." — Inf. S. Gram. cor. 
"How many Esses would goodness' then end with? Three; as goodnesses." — Id. "Birds is a 
noun; it is the common name of feathered animals." — Kirkham cor. "Adam gave names to all 
living creatures." Or thus: " Adam gave a name to every living creature." — Bicknellcor. "The 
steps of a flight of stairs ought to be accommodated to the human figure." Or thus: " Stairs 
ought to be accommodated to the ease of the users." — Karnes cor. " Nor ought an emblem, more 
than a simile, to be founded on a low or familiar object." — Id. " Whatever the Latin has not from 
the Greek, it has from the Gothic." — Tooke cor. " The mint, and the office of the secretary of state, 
are neat buildings." — The Friend cor. " The scenes of dead and still existence are apt to pall upon 
us." — Blair cor. "And Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, the angelical doctor and the subtle, 
are the brightest stars in the scholastic constellation." — Lit. Hist. cor. "The English language 
has three methods of distinguishing the sexes." — Murray et al. cor. ; also R. G. Smith. "In Eng- 
lish, there are the three following methods of distinguishing the sexes." — Jaudon cor. "There are 
three ways of distinguishing the sexes " — Lennie et al. cor. ; also Merchant. " The sexes are dis- 
tinguished in three ways." — Maunder cor. " Neither discourse in general, nor poetry in particular, 
can be called altogether an imitative art." — Dr. Blair cor. 

" Do we for this the gods and conscience brave, 
That one may rule and all the rest enslave f" — Eowe cor. 



1002 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

LESSON III.— ADJECTIVES. 

"There is a deal more of heads, than of either heart or horns." — Barclay cor. "For, of all 
villains, I think he has the most improper name." — Bunyan cor. " Of all the men that I met in 
my pilgrimage, he, I think, bears the wrongest name." — Id. " I am surprised to see so much of 
the distribution, and so many of the technical terms, of the Latin grammar, retained in the gram- 
mar of our tongue." — Priestley cor. "Nor did the Duke of Burgundy bring him any assistance." 
— Hume and Priestley cor. " Else he will find it difficult to make an obstinate person believe 
him." — Brightland cor. "Are there any adjectives which form the degrees of comparison in a 
manner peculiar to themselves ?" — Inf. S. Gram. cor. " Ytt all the verbs are of the indicative 
mood." — Lowth cor. " The word candidate is absolute, in the nominative case." — L. Murray cor. 
" An Iambus has the first syllable unaccented, and the last accented." — L. Murray, D. Blair, 
Jamieson, Kirkham, Bullions, Guy, Merchant, and others. "A Dactyl has the first syllable ac- 
cented, and the last two [syllables] unaccented." — Murray et al. cor. "It is proper to begin with 
a capital the first word of every book, chapter, letter, note, or* other piece of writing." — Jaudon's 
Gram., p. 195; John Flint's, 105. "Five and seven make twelve, and one more makes thirteen." 
— L. Murray cor. "I wish to cultivate a nearer acquaintance with you." — Id. "Let us consider 
the means which are proper to effect our purpose." Or thus: "Let us consider what means are 
proper to effect our purpose." — Id. " Yet they are of so similar a nature as readily to mix and 
blend." — Dr. Blair cor. " The Latin is formed on the same model, but is more imperfect." — Id. 
" I know very well how great pains have been taken." Or thus: " I know very well how much 
care has been taken." — Temple cor. "The management of the breath requires a great deal of 
care."— Dr. Blair cor. " Because the mind, during such a momentary stupefaction, is, in a great 
measure, if not totally, insensible." — Karnes cor. " Motives of reason and interest alone are not 
sufficient." — Id. " To render the composition distinct in its parts, and on the whole impressive." — 
Id. "A and an are named the Indefinite article, because they denote indifferently any one thing 
of a kind." — Maunder cor. " The is named the Definite article, because it points out some par- 
ticular thing or things." — Id. "So much depends upon the proper construction of sentences, that, 
in any sort of composition, we cannot be too strict in our attention, to it." Or: — "that, in every 
sort of composition, we ought to be very strict in our attention to it." Or: — "that, in no sort of 
composition, can we be too strict," &c. — Dr. Blair cor. " Every sort of declamation and public 
speaking was carried on by them." Or thus: "All sorts of declamation and public speaking, 
were carried on by them." — Id. " The former has, on many occasions, a sublimity to which the 
latter never attains." — Id. "When the words, therefore, consequently, accordingly, and the like, 
are used in connexion with conjunctions, they are adverbs." — Kirkham, cor. " Rude nations 
make few or no allusions to the productions of the arts." — Jamieson cor. "While two of her 
maids knelt on each side of her." Or, if there were only two maids kneeling, and not four : 
"While two of her maids knelt one on each side of her." — Mirror cor. "The personal pronouns 
of the third person, differ fron one an other in meaning and use, as follows." — Bullions cor. "It 
was happy for the state, that Fabius continued in the command with Minutius : the phlegm of 
the former was a check on the vivacity of the latter." — L. Murray and others cor. : see Maunders 
Gram., p. 4. "If it be objected, that the words must and ought, in the preceding sentences, are 
both in the present tense." Or thus : " If it be objected, that in all the preceding sentences the 
words must and ought are in the present tense." — L. Murray cor. " But it will be well, if you 
turn to them now and then." Or: — "if you turn to them occasionally." — Bucke cor. "That 
every part should have a dependence on, and mutually contribute to support, every other." — Rol- 
lin cor. "The phrase, ' Good, my lord, 1 is not common, and is low." Or: — "is uncommon, and 
low." — Priestley cor. 

" That brother should not war with brother, 
And one devour or vex an other." — Cowper cor. 

LESSON IV.— PRONOUNS. 
" If I can contribute to our country's glory." Or : — " to your glory and that of my country? — 
Goldsmith cor. "As likewise of the several subjects, which have in effect each its verb." — Lowth 
cor. "He is likewise required to make examples for himself." Or: " He himself is likewise re- 
quired to make examples." — J. Flint cor. " If the emphasis be placed wrong, it will pervert and 
confound the meaning wholly." Or : "If the emphasis be placed wrong, the meaning will be per- 
verted and confounded wholly." Or : " If we place the emphasis wrong, we pervert and confound 
the meaning wholly." — L. Murray cor.; also Dr. Blair. "It was this, that characterized the 
great men of antiquity ; it is this, that must distinguish the moderns who would tread in their 
steps." — Dr. Blair cor. "lama great enemy to implicit faith, as well the Popish as the Presby- 
terian; for, in that, the Papists and the Presbyterians are very much alike." — Barclay cor. " Will 
he thence dare to say, the apostle held an other Christ than Mm that died ?" — Id " Why need 
you be anxious about this event '?" Or: " What need have you to be anxious about this event." 
— Collier cor. " If a substantive can be placed after the verb, the latter is active." — A. Murray 
cor. " To see bad men honoured and prosperous in the world, is some discouragement to virtue." 
Or: "It is some discouragement to virtue, to see bad men," &c. — L. Murray cor. " It is a happi- 

* The word " raw/" is here omitted, not merely because it is unnecessary, but because " every any other piece? 
— with which a score of oir grammarians have pleased themselves, — is not good English. The impropriety 
might perhaps be avoided, though less elegantly, by repeating tfie preposition, and saying, — " or of any other 
piece of writing." — G. Bkown. 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. 1003 

ness to young persons, to be preserved from the snares of the world, as in a garden enclosed." — 
Id. "At the court of Queen Elizabeth, where all was prudence and economy." — Bullions cor. 
" It is no wonder, if such a man did not shine at the court of Queen Elizabeth, who was so re- 
markable for her prudence and economy." — Priestley, Murray, et al. cor. " A defective verb is a 
verb that wants some parts. The defective verbs are chiefly the auxiliaries and the impersonal 
verbs." — Bullions cor. "Some writers have given to the moods a much greater extent than/ 
have assigned to them." — L. Murray cor. " The personal pronouns give such information as no 
other words are capable of conveying." — M Culloch cor. " "When the article a, an, or the, precedes 
the participle, the latter also becomes a noun." — Merchant cor. " To some of these, there is a 
preference to be given, which custom and judgement must determine." — L. Murray cor. "Many 
writers affect to subjoin to an}' word the preposition with which it is compounded, or that of 
which it literally implies the idea." — Id. and Priestley cor. 

" Say, dost thou know Yectidius ? Whom, the wretch 
"Whose lands beyond the Sabines largely stretch?" — Dryden cor. 

LESSON V.— VERBS. 
" "We should naturally expect, that the word depend would require from after it." — Priestley's 
Gram., p. 158. " A dish which they pretend is made of emerald." — L. Murray cor. " For the 
very nature of a sentence implies thai one proposition is expressed." — Murray's Gram,, 8vo, p. 
311. " Without a careful attention to the sense, we should be naturally led, by the rules of syn- 
tax, to refer it to the rising and setting of the sun." — Br. Blair cor. " For any rules that can bo 
given, on this subject, must be very general." — Id. "He would be in the right, if eloquence were 
what he conceives it to be." — Id. " There I should prefer a more free and diffuse manner." — Id. 
"Yet that they also resembled one an other, and agreed in certain qualities." — Id. "But, since he 
must restore her, he insists on having an other in her place." — Id. " But these are iar from being 
so frequent, or so common, as they have been supposed to be." — Id. " W r e are not led to assign a 
wrong place to the pleasant or the painful feelings." — Karnes cor. " W r hich are of greater im- 
portance than they are commonly thought." — Id. " Since these qualities are both coarse and com- 
mon, let us find out the mark of a man of probity." — Collier cor. "Cicero did what no man had 
ever done before him; 'he drew up a treatise of consolation for himself." — Biographer cor. "Then 
there can remain no other doubt of the truth." — Brightland cor. "I have observed that some 
satirists use the term." Or: "I have observed some satirists to use the term." — Bullions cor. 
"Such men are ready to despond, or to become enemies." — Webster cor. "Cummon nouns are 
names common to many things." — Inf. S. Gram, cor. " To make ourselves heard by one to 
whom we address ourselves." — Dr. Blair cor. "That, in reading poetry, he may be the better 
able to judge of its correctness, and may relish its beauties." Or: — "and to relish its beauties." 
— L. Murray cor. " On the stretch to keep pace with the author, and comprehend his meaning." — 
Dr. Blair cor. " For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and the money 
have been given to the poor." — Bible cor. " He is a beam that has departed, and has left no 
streak of light behind." — Ossian cor. " No part of this incident ought to have been represented, 
but the ivhole should have been reserved for a narrative." — Karnes cor. "The rulers and people 
debauching themselves, a country is brought to ruin." Or: " When the rulers and people debauch 
themselves, they bring ruin on a country." — Ware cor. "When a title, (as Doctor, Miss, Master, 
&c.,) is prefixed to a nam^, the latter only, of the two words, is commonly varied to form the plu- 
ral; as, ' The Doctor Nettletons,' — 'The two Miss Hudsons.' " — A. Murray cor. "Wherefore that 
field has been called, ' The Field of Blood,' unto this day." — Bible cor. " To comprehend the situa- 
tions of other countries, which perhaps it may be necessary for him to explore." — Dr. Brown cor. 
" We content ourselves now with fewer conjunctive particles than our ancestors used." — Priestley 
cor. "And who will be chiefly liable to make mistakes where others have erred before them." — 
Id. " The voice of nature and that of revelation unite." Or: " Revelation and the voice of nature 
unite." Or: " The voice of nature unites with revelation." Or: " The voice of nature unites with 
that of rev elation." — Wayland cor. 

" This adjective, you see, we can't admit; 
But, changed to ' worse,' the word is just and fit." — Tobitt cor. 

LESSON VI.— PARTICIPLES. 
"Its application is not arbitrary, or dependent on the caprice of readers." — L. Murray cor. "This 
is the more expedient, because the work is designed for the benefit of private learners." — Id. " A 
man, he tells us, ordered by his will, to have a statue erected for him." — Dr. Blair cor. " From 
some likeness too remote, and lying too far out of the road of ordinary thought." — Id. " In the 
commercial world, money is a fluid, running from hand to hand." — Dr. Webster cor. " He pays 
much attention to the learning and singing of songs." — Id. " I would not be understood to 
consider the singing of songs as criminal." — Id. "It is a case decided by Cicero, the great master 
of writing." — Editor of Waller cor. "Did they ever bear a testimony against the writing of 
books?"— Bates's Rep. cor. "Exclamations are sometimes mistaken for interrogations." — Hist, 
of Print, cor. " Which cannot fail to prove of service." — Smith cor. " Hewn into such figures as 
would make them incorporate easily and firmly." — Beat, or Mur. cor. "After the rule and ex- 
ample, there are practical inductive questions." — J. Flint cor. " I think it will be an advantage, 
that I have collected my examples from modern writings." — Priestley cor. " He was eager to 
recommend it to his fellow-citizens."— Id and Hume cor. " The good lady was careful to serve 



1004 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

me with every thing." — Id. "No revelation would have been given, had the light of nature been 
sufficient, in such a sense as to render one superfluous and useless." — Bp. Butler cor. " Description, 
again, is a representation which raises in the mind the conception of an object, by means of some 
arbitrary or instituted symbols." — Dr. Blair cor. " Disappointing the expectation of the hearers, 
when they look for an end." Or: — " for the termination of our discourse." — Id. " There is a dis- 
tinction, which, in the use of them, is worthy of attention." — Maunder cor. "A model has been 
contrived, which is not very expensive, and which is easily managed." — Ed. Reporter cor. " The 
conspiracy was the more easily discovered, because the conspirators were many." — L. Murray cor. 
" Nearly ten years had that celebrated work been published, before its importance was at all un- 
derstood." — Id. " That the sceptre is ostensibly grasped by a female hand, does not reverse the 
general order of government." — West cor. "I have hesitated about signing the Declaration of 
Sentiments." — Lib. cor. " The prolonging of men's lives when the world needed to be peopled, 
and the subsequent shortening of them when that necessity had ceased." — Rev. John Brown cor. 
" Before the performance commences, we see displayed the insipid formalities of the prelusive 
scene." — Kirkham cor. " It forbade the lending of money, or the sending of goods, or the embark- 
ing o/capital in anyway, in transactions connected with that foreign traffic." — Brougham cor. " Even 
abstract ideas have sometimes the same important prerogative conferred upon them." — Jamieson cor. 
"Ment, like other terminations, changes y into i, when they is preceded by a consonant." — Eirkham's 
Gram., p. 25. "The term proper is from the French propre, own, or the Latin proprius ; and a 
Proper noun is so called, because it is peculiar to the individual or family bearing the name. The 
term common is from the Latin communis, pertaining equally to several or many ; and a Common 
noun is so called, because it is common to every individual comprised in the class." — Fowler cor. 
"Thus oft by mariners are showed (Unless the men of Kent are liars) 
Earl Godwin's castles overflowed, And palace-roofs, and steeple-spires." — Swift cor. 

LESSON VII.— ADVERBS. 

" He spoke to every man and woman who was there."— L. Murray cor. tl Thought and lan- 
guage act and react upon each other." — Murray's Eey, p. 264. "Thought and expression act and 
react upon each other." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 356. " They have neither the leisure nor the 
means of attaining any knowledge, except what lies within the contracted circle of their several 
professions." — Campbell's RheL, p. 160. " Before they are capable of understanding much, or in- 
deed any thing, of most other branches of education." — Olney cor. " There is no more beauty in 
one of them, than in an other." — L. Murray cor. " Which appear to be constructed according to 
no certain rule." — Dr. Blair cor. " The vehement manner of speaking became less universal." — 
Or better: — " less general." — Id. " Not all languages, however, agree in this mode of expression." 
Or: "This mode of expression, however, is not common to all languages." — Id. "The great oc- 
casion of setting apart this particular day." — Atterbury cor. " He is much more promising now, 
than he was formerly." — L. Murray cor. " They are placed before a participle, ivithout dependence 
on the rest of the sentence." — Id. " This opinion does not appear to have been well considered." 
Or: "This opinion appears to have been formed ivithout due consideration." — Id. "Precision in 
language merits a full explication; and merits it the more, because distinct ideas are, perhaps, 
but rarely formed concerning it." — Dr. Blair cor. " In the more sublime parts of poetry, he is 
less distinguished." Or: — "he is not so highly distinguished." — Id. " Whet/ier the author was 
altogether happy in the choice of his subject, may be questioned." — Id. " But, with regard to this 
matter also, there is a great error in the common practice." — Webster cor. "This order is the 
very order of the human mind, which makes things we are sensible of, a means to come at those 
that are not known." Or: — " which makes things that are already known, its means of finding out 
those that are not so." — Foreman cor. " Now, who is not discouraged, and does not fear want, 
when he has no money?" — C. Leslie cor. "Which the authors of this work consider of little or 
no use." — Wilbur and Liv. cor. " And here indeed the distinction between these two classes 
begins to be obscure." — Dr. Blair cor. " But this is a manner which deserves to be avoided." 
Or : — " which does not deserve to be imitated." — Id. " And, in this department, a person effects 
very little, whenever he attempts too much." — Campbell and Murray cor. " The verb that signi- 
fies mere being is neuter." — Ash cor. " I hope to tire but little those whom I shall not happen 
to please." — Rambler cor. " Who were utterly unable to pronounce some letters, and who pro- 
nounced others very indistinctly." — Sheridan cor. " The learner may point out the active, passive, 
and neuter verbs in the following examples, and state the reasons for thus distinguishing them." 
Or: " The learner may point out the active, the passive, and the neuter verbs in the following ex- 
amples, and state the reasons for calling them so." — C. Adams cor. "These words are almost 
always conjunctions." — Barrett cor. 

" How glibly nonsense trickles from his tongue! 
How sweet the periods, neither said nor sung!" — Pope cor. 

LESSON VIII.— CONJUNCTIONS. 
" Who, at least, either knew not, or did not love to make, a distinction." Or better thus : " Who, 
at least, either knew no distinction, or did not like to make any." — Dr. Murray cor. " It is childish 
in the last degree to let this become the ground of estranged affection." — L. Murray cor. " When 
the regular, and when the irregular verb, is to be prefered, p. 107." — Id. " The books were to 
have been sold this day." Or: — "on this day." — Priestley cor. " Do, an j r ou will." Or: "Do, if 
you will." — Shak. cor. " If a man had a positive idea either of infinite duration or of infinite 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. 1005 

space, he could add two infinites together." Or: "If a man had a positive idea of what & infinite, 
either in duration or in space, he could," &c. — Murray's proof -text cor. "None shall more willing- 
ly agree to and advance the same than L" — Morton cor. "That it cannot hut be hurtful to con- 
tinue it." — Barclay cor. " A conjunction joins words or sentences." — Beck cor. " The copulative 
conjunction connects words or sentences together, and continues the sense." — Frost cor. "The 
copulative conjunction serves to connect [words or clauses,'] and continue a sentence, by expressing 
an addition, a cause, or a supposition." — L. Murray cor. "All construction is either true or appar- 
ent; or, in other words, either literal or figurative." — Buchanan and Brit. Gram. cor. " But the 
divine character is such as none but a divine hand could draw." Or: " But the divine character 
is such, that none but a divine hand could draw it." — A. Keith cor. " Who is so mad, that, on 
inspecting the heavens, he is insensible of a God?" — Gibbons cor. "It is now submitted to an 
enlightened public, with little further desire on the part of the author, than for its general utilit} r ." 
— Town cor. "This will sufficiently explain why so many provincials have grown old in the cap- 
ital without making any change in their original dialect." — Sheridan cor. " Of these, they had 
chiefly three in general use, which were denominated accents, the term being used in the plural 
number." — Id. " And this is one of the chief reasons why dramatic representations have ever 
held thefirst rank amongst the diversions of mankind." — Id. " Which is the chief reason vjhy pub- 
lic reading is in general so disgusting." — Id. " At the same time in ivhich they learn to read." 
Or: " While they learn to read." — Id. " He is always to pronounce his words with exactly the 
same accent that he uses in speaking." — Id. "In order to know what an other knows, and in the 
same manner in which he knows it." — Id. " For the same reason for which it is, in a more limited 
state, assigned to the several tribes of animals." — Id. " Were there masters to teach this, in 
the same manner in which other arts are taught." Or: "Were there masters to teach this, as other 
arts are taught." — Id. 

" Whose own example strengthens all his lavs ; 
Who is himself that great sublime ho draws." — Pope cor. 

LESSON IX.— PREPOSITIONS. 

" The word so has sometimes the same meaning as also, likewese, or the same." — Priestley 
cor. "The verb use relates not to 'pleasures of the imagination;' but to the terms fancy and 
imagination, which he was to employ as s}monymous." — Dr. Blair cor. " It never can view, clearly 
and distinctly, more than one object at a time." — Id. " This figure [Euphemism] is often the 
same as the Periphrasis." — Adam and Gould cor. " All the intermediate time between youth and 
old age." — W. Walker cor. " When one thing is said to act upon an other, or do something to it." 
— Lowth cor. " Such a composition has as much of meaning in it, as a mummy has of life." Or: 
" Such a composition has as much meaning in it, as a mummy has life." — Lit. Conv. cor. " That 
young men, from fourteen to eighteen years of age, were not the best judges." — Id. " This day is 
a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy." — Isaiah, xxxvii, 3. " Blank verse has the 
same pauses and accents that occur in rhyme." — Karnes cor. " In prosody, long syllables are dis- 
tinguished by the macron (") ; and short ones by what is called the breve (")." — Bucke cor. " Some- 
times both articles are left out, especially from poetry." — Id. " From the following example, the 
pronoun and participle are omitted." Or: " In the following example, the pronoun and participle 
are not expressed." — L. Murray cor. [But the example was faulty. Say,] " Conscious of his 
weight and importance," — or, "Being conscious of his own weight and importance, he did not 
solicit the aid of others." — Id. " He was an excellent person ; even in his early youth, a mirror of 
the ancient faith." — Id. "The carrying of its several parts into execution." — Bp. Butler cor. 
" Concord is the agreement which one word has with an other, in gender, number, case, or per- 
son." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 142. " It might perhaps have given me a greater taste for its an- 
tiquities." — Addison cor. "To call on a person, and to wait on him." — Priestley cor. "The great 
difficulty they found in fixing just sentiments " — Id. and Hume cor. "Developing the differences 
of the three." — James Broion cor. "When the singular ends in x, ch soft, sh, ss, or s, we add es 
to form the plural." — L. Murray cor. "We shall present him a list or specimen of them." — Id. 
"It is very common to hear of the evils of pernicious reading, how it enervates the mind, or how 
it depraves the principles." — Dymond cor. "In this example, the verb arises is understood be- 
fore ' curiosity' and before ' knowledge.' " — L. Murray et al. cor. "The connectire is frequently 
omitted when several words have the same construction." — Wilcox cor. "He shall expel them 
from before you, and drive them out from your sight." — Bible cor. " Who makes his sun to shine 
and his rain to descend, upon the just and the unjust." Or thus: " Who makes his sun shine, and 
his rain descend, upon the just and the unjust." — Mllvaine cor. 

LESSON X.— MIXED EXAMPLES. 
"This sentence violates an established rule of grammar." — L. Murray cor. "The words thou 
and shalt are again reduced to syllables of short quantity." — Id, " Have the greatest men always 
been the most popular? Bv no means." — Lieber cor. "St. Paul positively stated, that 'He 
that loveth an other, hath fulfilled the law.' "—Pom., xiii, 8. " More organs than one are concerned 
in the utterance of almost every consonant." — MCulloch cor. " If the reader will pardon me for 
descending so low." — Campbell cor. "To adjust them in such a manner as shall consist equally 
with the perspicuitv and the grace of the period." Or : " To adjust them so, that they shall con- 
sist equally." &c.—B>r. Blair and L Mur. cor. "This class exhibits a lamentable inefficiency, and 
a great want of simplicity." — Gardiner cor. "Whose style, in all its course, flows like a limpid 



1006 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

stream, through which we 83e to the very bottom." — Dr. Blair cor. ; also L. Murray. " We ad- 
mit various ellipses." Or thus: " An ellipsis, or omission, of some words, is frequently admitted." 
— Lennie's Gram., p. 11G. "The ellipsis, of articles may occur thus." — L. Murray cor. "Some- 
times the article a is improperly applied to nouns of different numbers ; as, ' A magnificent house 
and gardens.' " — Id. "In some very emphatical expressions, no ellipsis should bo allowed." — Id. 
" Ellipses of the adjective may happen in the following manner." — Id. " The following examples 
show that there may be an ellipsis of the pronoun." — Id. " Ellipses of the verb occur in the following 
instances." — Id. " Ellipses of the adverb may occur in the following manner." — Id. " The follow- 
ing brief expressions are all of them elliptical."* — Id. " If no emphasis be placed on any words, 
not only will discourse be rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning will often be left ambigu- 
ous." — Id. ; also J. S. Hart and Dr. Blair cor. " He regards his word, but thou dost not regard 
thine." — Bullions, Murray, et al., cor. " I have learned my task, but you have not learned yours." 
— lid. " When the omission of a word would obscure the sense, weaken the expression, or be at- 
tended with impropriety, no ellipsis must be indulged." — Murray and Weld cor. "And therefore 
the verb is correctly put in the singular number, and refers to them all separately and individually 
considered." — L. Murray cor. " He was to me the most intelligible of all who spoke on the sub- 
ject." — Id. "I understood him better than / did any other who spoke on the subject." — Id. 
" The roughness found on the entrance into the paths of virtue and learning decreases as we ad- 
vance." v_ r : " The roughnesses encountered in the paths of virtue and learning diminish as we ad- 
vance." — Id. " T.iere is nothing which more promotes knowledge, than do steady application and 
habitual observation." — Id. " Virtue confers on man the highest dignity of which he is capable; it 
should therefore be the chief object of his desire." — Id. and Merchant cor. "The supreme Author 
of our being has so formed the human soul, that nothing but himself can be its last, adequate, and 
proper happiness." — Addison and Blair cor. "The inhabitants of China laugh at the plantations 
of our Europeans: 'Because,' say they, ' any one may place trees in equal rows and uniform fig- 
ures.' " — lid. " The divine laws are not to be reversed by those of men." — L. Murray cor. " In 
both of these examples, the relative which and the verb was are understood." — Id. et al. cor. 
" The Greek and Latin languages, though for many reasons they cannot be called dialects of one 
and the same tongue, are nevertheless closely connected." — Dr. Murray cor. " To ascertain and 
settle whether a white rose or a red breathes the sweetest fragrance." Or thus : " To ascertain and 
settle which of the two breathes the sweeter fragrance, a white rose or a red one." — J. Q. Adams 
cor. " To which he can afford to devote but Utile of his time and labour." — Dr. Blair cor. 

" Avoid extremes ; and shun the fault of such 
As still are pleased too little or too much." — Pope cor. 

LESSON XL— OF BAD PHRASES. 

"He might as well leave his vessel to the direction of the winds." — South cor. " Without good' 
nature and gratitude, men might as well five in a wilderness as in society." — L Estrange cor. 
" And, for this reason, such lines very seldom occur together." — Dr. Blair cor. " His greatness did 
not make him happy." — Grombie cor. " Let that which tends to cool your love, be judged iu all." 

— Grisp cor. " It is worth observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak but it 
mates and masters the fear of death." — Bacon cor. "Accent dignifies the syllable on which it is 
laid, and makes it more audible than the rest." — Sheridan and Murray cor. "Before he proceeds 
to argue on either side." — Dr. Blair cor. " The general change of manners, throughout Europe." 
— Id. "The sweetness and beauty of Virgil's numbers, through all his works." — Id. "The 
French writers of sermons, study neatness and elegance in the division of their discourses." — Id. 
" This seldom fails to prove a refrigerant to passion." — Id. " But their fathers, brothers, and 
uncles, cannot, as good relations and good citizens, excuse themselves for not standing forth to de- 
mand vengeance." — Murray's Sequel, p. 114. " Alleging, that their decrial of the church of Rome, 
was a uniting with the Turks." — Barclay cor. " To which is added the Catechism by the Assem- 
bly of Divines." — N. E. Prim. cor. " This treacheiy was always present in the thoughts of both of 
them." — Robertson cor. " Thus far their words agree." Or: " Thus far the words of both agree." 

— W. Walker cor. " Aparithmesis is an enumeration of the several parts of what, as a whole, 
might be expressed in few words." — Gould cor. "Aparithmesis, or Enumeration, is a figure in 
which what might be expressed in a few words, is branched out into several parts." — Dr. Adam 
cor. "Which may sit from time to time, where you dwell, or in the vicinity." — J. 0. Taylor cor. 
'• Place together a large-sized animal and a small one, of the same species." Or: " Place together 
a large and a small animal of the same species." — Karnes cor. "The weight of the swimming 
body is equal to that of the quantity of fluid displaced by it." — Percival cor. "The Subjunctive 
mood, in all its tenses, is similar to the Optative." — Gwilt cor. "No feeling of obligation remains, 
except that of an obligation to fidelity." — Wayland cor. "Who asked him why whole audiences 
should be moved to tears at the representation of some story on the stage." — Sheridan cor. " Are 
you not ashamed to affirm that the best works of the Spirit of Christ in his saints are as filthy 
rags ?" — Barclay cor. " A neuter verb becomes active, when followed by a noun of kindred sig- 
nification." — Sanborn cor. " But he has judged better in forbearing to repeat the article the." — 
Dr. Blair cor. " Many objects please us, and are thought highly beautiful, which have scarcely any 
variety at all." — Id. " Yet they sometimes follow them." — Emmons cor. " For I know of noth- 

* This correction, as well as the others which relate to what Murray says of the several forms of ellipsis, doubt- 
less conveys the sense which he intended to express ; but, as an assertion, it is by no means true of all the examples 
which he .subjoins, neither indeed are the rest. But that is a fault of his which I cannot correct. — G. Bbown. 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. 1007 

ing more important in the whole subject, than this doctrine of mood and tense." — R. Johnson cor. 
" It is by no means impossible for an error to be avoided or suppressed.'' — Philol Museum cor. 
"These are things of the highest importance to children and youth." — Murray cor. " He ought to 
have omitted the word many." Or : "He might better have omitted the word many." — Dr. Blair 
cor. " Which might better have been separated." Or : " Which ought rather to have been sepa- 
rated." — Id. " Figures and metaphors, therefore, should never be used profusely." — Id. and Jam. 
cor. "Metaphors, or other figures, should never be used in too great abundance." — Murray and 
EusseU cor. " Something like this has been alleged against Tacitus." — Bolingbroke cor. 
" thou, whom all mankind in vain withstand, 
Who with the blood of each must one day stain thy hand !" — Sheffield cor. 

LESSON XII.— OF TWO ERRORS. 
" Pronouns sometimes precede the terms which they represent." — L. Murray cor. " Most prep- 
ositions originally denoted relations of place." — Lowth cor. "Which is applied to brute animals, 
and to things without life." — Bullions cor. "What thing do they describe, or of what do they tell 
the kind?" — Inf. S. Gram. cor. "Iron cannons, as well as brass, are now universally cast solid." 
— Jamieson cor. " We have philosophers, more eminent perhaps than those of any other nation." 
— Br. Blair cor. " This is a question about words only, and one which common sense easily deter- 
mines." — Id. " The low pitch of the voice, is that which approaches to a whisper." — Id. " Which, 
as to the effect, is just the same as to use no such distinctions at all." — Id. " These two systems, 
therefore, really differ from each other but very little." — Id. "It is needless to give many instan- 
ces, as examples occur so often." — Id. " There arc many occasions on which this is neither requi- 
site nor proper." — Id. "Dramatic poetry divides itself into two forms, comedy and tragedy." — 
Id. " No man ever rhymed with more exactness than he." [I. e., than Roscommon.] — Editor of 
Waller cojr. " The Doctor did not reap from his poetical labours a profit equal to that of his 
prose." — Johnson cor. "We will follow that which we find our fathers practised." Or: "We 
will follow that which we find to have been our fathers' practice." — Sale cor. " And I should deeply 
regret that I had published them." — Inf. S. Gram. cor. "Figures exhibit ideas with more vivid- 
ness and power, than could be given them by plain language." — Kirkham cor. " The allegory is 
finely drawn, tlwugh the heads are various." — Sped. cor. " I should not have thought it worthy 
of this place." Or: "I should not have thought it worthy of being placed here." — Crombie cor. 
"In this style, Tacitus excels all other writers, ancient or modern." — Karnes cor. "No other 
author, ancient or modern, possesses the art of dialogue so completely as Shakspeare." — Id. " The 
names of all the things we see, hear, smell, taste, or feel, are nouns." — Inf. S. Gram. cor. "Of 
what number are the expressions, 'these boys,' 'these pictures,' &c. ?'' — Id. "This sentence has 
faults somewhat like those of the last." — Br. Blair cor. " Besides perspicuity, he pursues propriety, 
purity, and precision, in his language ; which qualities form one degree, and no inconsiderable 
one, of beauty." — Id. "Many critical terms have unfortunately been employed in a sense too 
loose and vague ; none with less precision, than the word sublime." — Id. " Hence no word in the 
language is used with a more vague signification, than the word beauty." — Id. " But still, in 
speech, he made use of general terms only." — Id. " These give life, body, and colouring, to the 
facts recited; and enable us to conceive of them as present, and passing before our eyes." — Id. 
" Which carried an ideal chivalry to a still more extravagant height, than the adventurous spirit of 
knighthood had ever attained in fact." — Id. "We write much more supinely, and with far less 
labour, .than did the ancients." — Id. " This appears indeed to form the characteristical difference 
between the ancient poets, orators, and historians, and the modern." — Id. " To violate this rule, 
as the English too often do, shows great incorrectness." — Id. " It is impossible, by means of any 
training, to prevent them from appearing stiff and forced." — Id. " And it also gives to the speaker 
the disagreeable semblance of one who endeavours to compel assent." — Id. " And whenever a 
light or ludicrous anecdote is proper to be recorded, it is generally better to throw it into a note, 
than to run the hazard of becoming too familiar." — Id. "It is the great business of this life, to 
prepare and qualify ourselves for the enjoyment of a better." — B. Murray cor. "From some diction- 
aries, accordingly, it was omitted; and in others it is stigmatized as a barbarism." — Crombie cor. 
"You cannot see a thing, or think of one, the name of which is not a noun." — Mack cor. "All 
the fleet have arrived, and are moored in safety." Or better: " The whole fleet has arrived, and 
is moored in safety." — B. Murray cor. 

LESSON XIII.— OF TWO ERRORS. 
" They have severally their distinct and exactly-limited relations to gravity." — Hosier cor. " But 
where the additional s would give too much of the hissing sound, the omission takes place even in 
prose." — B. Murray cor. " After o, it [the w] is sometimes not sounded at all ; and sometimes it is 
sounded like a single u." — Bowth cor. "It is situation chiefly, that decides the fortunes and char- 
acters of men." — Hume cor.; also Murray. "The vice of covetousness is that [vice] which 
enters more deeply into the soul than any other." — Murray et al. cor. " Of all vices, covetousness 
enters the most deeply into the soul." — lid. "Of all the vices, covetousness is that which enters 
the most deeply into the soul." — Campbell cor. " The vice of covetousness is a fault which enters 
more deeply into the soul than any other." — Guardian cor. "Would primarily denotes inclina- 
tion of will ; and should, obligation : but they vary their import, and are often used to express 
simple events." Or: — "but both of them vary their import," &c. Or: — "but both vary their 
import, and are used to express simple events." — BovAh, Murray, et al. cor. • also Comly and 



1008 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

Ingersoll; likewise Abel Flint. "A double condition, in two correspondent clauses of a sen- 
tence, is sometimes made by the word had ; as, ' Had he done this, he had escaped.' " — 
Murray and Ingersoll cor. " The pleasures of the understanding are preferable to those of 
the imagination, as well as to those of sense." — L. Murray cor. '* Claudian, in a fragment upon 
the wars of the giants, has contrived to render this idea of their throwing o/the mountains, which 
in itself has so much grandeur, burlesque and ridiculous." — Dr. Blair cor. " To which not onb/ 
no other writings are to be preferred, but to tuhich, even in divers respects, none are comparable." 
— Barclay cor. " To distinguish them in the understanding, and treat of their several natures, in 
the same cool manner that we use with regard to other ideas." — Sheridan cor. " For it has noth- 
ing to do with parsing, or the analyzing of language." — Eirkham cor. Or : " For it has nothing 
to do with the parsing, or analyzing, of language." — Id. "Neither has that language [the Latin] 
ever been so common in Britain." — Swift cor. "All that I purpose, is, to give some openings into 
the pleasures of taste." — Br. Blair cor. " But the following sentences would have been better with- 
out it." — L. Murray cor. "But I think the following sentence would be better without it" Or : 
" But I think it should be expunged from the following sentence." — Priestley cor. " They appear, 
in this case, like ugly excrescences jutting out from the body." — Dr. Blair cor. " And therefore the 
fable of the Harpies, in the third book of the JSneid, and the allegory of Sin and Death, in the 
second book of Paradise Lost, ought not to have been inserted in these celebrated poems." — Id. 
" Ellipsis is an elegant suppression, or omission, of some word or words, belonging to a sentence." 
— Brit. Gram, and Buchanan cor. " The article A or an is not very proper in this construction." 
— D. Blair cor. " Now suppose the articles had not been dropped from these passages." — Bucke 
cor. "To have given a separate na me to every one of those trees, would have been an endless 
and impracticable undertaking." — Blair cor. " Ei, in general, has the same sound as long and 
slender a." Or better : " Ei generally has the sound of long or slender a." — L. Murray cor. " "When 
a conjunction is used with apparent redundance, the insertion of it is called Polysyndeton." — Adam 
and Gould cor. " Each, every, either, and neither, denote the persons or things that make 
up a number, as taken separately or distributively." — M 1 Culloch cor. "The principal sentence 
must be express?d by a verb in the indicative, imperative, or potential mood." — S. W. Clark cor. 
" Hence he is diffuse, where he ought to be urgent." — Dr. Blair cor. " All sorts of subjects admit 
of explanatory comparisons." — Id. et al. cor. " The present or imperfect participle denotes being, 
action, or passion, continued, and not perfected." — Eirkham cor. " What are verbs ? Those words 
which chiefly express what is said of things." — Fowle cor. 

" Of all those arts in which the wise excel, 
The very masterpiece is writing-well." — Sheffield cor. 

" Such was that muse whose rules and practice tell, 
That art's chief masterpiece is writing -well." — Pope cor. 

LESSON XIV.— OF THREE ERRORS. 

H From some words, the metaphorical sense has justled out the original sense altogether ; so 
that, in respect to the latter, they have become obsolete." — Campbell cor. " Surely, never any 
other mortal was so overwhelmed with grief, as I am at this present moment." — Sheridan cor. 
" All languages differ from one an other in their modes of inflection." — Bidlions cor. " Tlie noun 
and the verb are the only indispensable parts of speech ; the one, to express the subject spoken 
of; and the other, the predicate, or what is affirmed of the subject." — if' Culloch cor. "The words 
Italicized in the last three examples, perform the office of substantives." — L. Murray cor. " A sen- 
tence so constructed is always a mark of carelessness in the writer." — Dr. Blair cor. " Nothing is 
more hurtful to the grace or the vivacity of a period, than superfluous and dragging words at the 
conclusion." — Id. " When its substantive is not expressed with it, but is referred to, being under- 
stood." — Lowth cor. "Yet they always have substantives belonging to them, either expressed or 
understood." — Id. " Because they define and limit the import of the common names, or general 
terms, to which they refer." — Id " Every new object surprises them, terrifies them, and makes a 
strong impression on their minds." — Dr. Blair cor. " His argument required a more full development, 
in order to be distinctly apprehended, and to have its due force." — Id. " Those participles which 
are derived from active-transitive verbs, will govern the objective case, as do the verbs from which 
they are derived." — Emmons cor. " Where, in violation of the rule, the objective case whom fol- 
lows the verb, while the nominative /precedes it." — L. Murray cor. " To use, after the same con- 
junction, both the indicative and the subjunctive mood, in the same sentence, and under the same 
circumstances, seems to be a great impropriety." — LovAh, Murray, et al. cor. " A nice discern- 
ment of the import of words, and an accurate attention to the best usage, are necessary on these 
occasions." — L. Murray cor. " The Greeks and Romans, the former especially, were, in truth, much 
more musical than we are ; their genius was more turned to take delight in the melody of speech." 
— Dr. Blair cor. "In general, if the sense admits it early, the sooner a circumstance is introduced, 
the better ; that the more important and significant words may possess the last place, and be quite 
disencumbered." — Murray et al. cor. ; also Blair and Jamieson. " Thus we find it in both the 
Greek and the Latin tongue." — Dr. Blair cor. " Several sentences, constructed in the same manner, 
and having the same number of members, should never be allowed to come in succession." — Blair 
et al. cor. " I proceed to lay down the rules to be observed in the conduct of metaphors ; and these, 
with little variation, will be applicable to tropes of every kind." — Dr. Blair cor. " By selecting words 
with a proper regard to their sounds, we may often imitate other sounds which we mean to describe." 
— Dr. Blair and, L. Mur. cor. "The disguise can scarcely be so perfect as to deceive." — Dr. Blair 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — GENERAL RULE. 1009 

cor. " The sense does not admit of any other pause, than one after the second syllable ' sit ;' this 
therefore must be the only pause made in the reading." — Id. " Not that I believe North Amer- 
ica to have been first peopled so lately as in the twelfth century, the period of Madoc's migration." 
— Webster cor. " Money and commodities will always flow to that country in which they are 
most wanted, and in which they will command the most profit." — Id. " That it contains no visi- 
ble marks of certain articles which are of the utmost importance to a just delivery." — Sheridan cor. 
"And Virtue, from her beauty, we call a fair and favourite maid." — Mack cor. "The definite 
article may relate to nouns of either number." — Inf. S. Gram. cor. 

LESSON XV.— OF MANY ERRORS. 
(1.) " Compound words are [, by L. Murray and others, improperly] included among the deriva* 
tives." — L. Murray corrected. (2.) " The Apostrophe, placed above the line, thus ', is used to ab- 
breviate or shorten words. But its chief use is, to denote the possessive case of nouns." — Id. (3.) 
" The Hyphen, made thus -, connects the parts of compound words. It is also used when a word 
is divided." — Id. (4.) " The Acute Accent, made thus ', denotes the syllable on which stress is laid, 
and sometimes also, that the vowel is short : as, ' Fancy. ' The Grave Accent, made thus *, usually 
denotes, (when applied to English words,) that the stress is laid where a vowel ends the syllable : as, 
' Favour. 1 " — Id. (5.) " The stress is laid on long vowels or syllables, and on short ones, indiscrim- 
inately. In order to distinguish the long or open vowels from the close or short ones, some writers 
of dictionaries have placed the grave accent on the former, and the acute on the latter." — Id. (6.) 
" The Diaeresis, thus made ", is placed over one of two contiguous vowels, to show that they are not 
a diphthong." — Id. (1.) " The Section, made thus §, is sometimes used to mark the subdivisions 
of a discourse or chapter." — Id. (8.) " The Paragraph, made thus *[f, sometimes denotes the be- 
ginning of a new subject, or of a passage not connected with the text preceding. This character is 
now seldom used [for such a purpose], except in the Old and New Testaments." Or better: — 
" except in the Bible." — Id. (9.) u The Quotation Points, written thus " ", mark the beginning 
and the end of what is quoted or transcribed from some speaker or author, in his own words. In 
type, they are inverted commas at the beginning, apostrophes at the conclusion." — Id. (10.) 
" The Brace was formerly used in poetry at the end of a triplet, or where three lines rhymed to- 
gether in heroic verse ; it also serves to connect several terms with one, when the one is common to 
all, and thus to prevent a repetition of the common term." — Id. (11.) " Several asterisks put to- 
gether, generally denote the omission of some letters belonging to a word, or of some bold or in- 
delicate expression ; but sometimes thsy imply a defect in the manuscript from which the text is 

copied." — Id. (12.) " The Ellipsis, made thus , or thus ****, is used where some letters of 

a word, or some words of a verse, are omitted." — Id. (13.) " TJie Obelisk, which is made thus f ; 
and the Parallels, which are made thus |; and sometimes the letters of the alphabet; and also the 
Arabic figures ; are used as references to notes in the margin, or at the bottom, of the page." — Id. 
(14.) " T/ie note of interrogation should not be employed, where it is only said that a question has 
been asked, and where the words are not used as a question ; as, ' The Cyprians asked me why 
I wept.' " — Id. et al. cor. (15.) " The note of interrogation is improper after mere expressions of 
admiration, or of any other emotion, though they may bear the form of questions." — lid. (16.) 
il The parenthesis incloses something which is thrown into the body of a sentence, in an under 
tone ; and which affects neither the sense, nor the construction, of the main text." — Lowth cor. 
(17.) u Simple members connected by a relative not used restrictively, or by a conjunction that 
implies comparison, are for the most part divided by the comma." — Id. (18.) " Simple members, 
or sentences, connected as terms of comparison, are for the most part separated by the comma." — 
L. Murray et al. cor. (19.) " Simple sentences connected by a comparative particle, are for the most 
part divided by the comma." — Russell cor. (20.) " Simple sentences or clauses connected to form 
a comparison, should generally be parted by the comma." — Merchant cor. (21.) " The simple 
members of sentences that express contrast or comparison, should generally be divided by the 
comma." — Jaudon cor. (22.) " The simple members of a comparative sentence, when they are long, 
are separated by a comma." — Cooper cor. (23.) " Simple sentences connected to form a compar- 
ison, or phrases placed in opposition, or contrast, are usually separated by the comma." — Hiley 
and Bullions cor. (24.) " On whichever word we lay the emphasis, — whether on the first, the 
second, the third, or the fourth, — every change of it strikes out a different sense." — L. Murray cor. 
(25.) " To say to those who do not understand sea phrases, ' We tacked to the larboard, and stood 
off to sea,' would give them little or no information." — Murray and Hiley cor. (26.) " Of those 
dissyllables which are sometimes nouns and sometimes verbs, it may be observed, that the verb is 
commonly accented on the latter syllable, and the noun on the former." — L. Murray cor. (2V.) " And 
this gives to our language an advantage over most others, in the poetical or rhetorical style." — Id. 
et al. cor. (28.) " And this gives to the English language an advantage over most others, in the 
poetical and the rhetorical style." — Lowth cor. (29.) " The second and the third scholar may read 
the same sentence ; or as many may repeat the text, as are necessary to teach it perfectly to the 
whole class." — Osborn cor. 

(30.) " Bliss is the same, in subject, or in king, 

In who obtain defence, or who defend." — Pope's Essay on Man, IV, 58. 

LESSON XVL— OF MANY ERRORS. 
"The Japanese, the Tonquinese, and the Coreans, speak languages differing from one an other, 
and from that of the inhabitants of China ; while all use the same written characters, and, by 

64 



1010 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

means of them, correspond intelligibly with one an other in writing, though ignorant of the lan- 
guage spoken by their correspondents : a plain proof, that the Chinese characters are like hiero- 
glyphics, and essentially independent of language." — Jamieson cor.; also Dr. Blair. " The curved 
line, in stead of remaining round, is changed to a square one, for the reason before mentioned." — 
Knight cor. " Every reader should content himself with the use of those tones only, that he is 
habituated to in speech ; and should give to the words no other emphasis, than what he would give 
to the same words, in discourse. [Or, perhaps the author meant: — and should give to the emphatic 
words no other intonation, than what he would give, &c] Thus, whatever he utters, will be 
delivered with ease, and will appear natural." — Sheridan cor. " A stop, or pause, is a total cessa- 
tion of sound, during a perceptible, and, in musical or poetical compositions, a measurable space 
of time." — Id. " Pauses, or rests, in speaking or reading, are total cessations of the voice, during 
perceptible, and, in many cases, measurable spaces of time." — L. Murray et at. cor. " Those deri- 
vative nouns which denote small things of the kind named by their primitives, are called Diminutive 
Nouns: as, lambkin, hillock, satchel, gosling; from lamb, hill, sack, goose." — Bullions cor. " Why 
is it, that nonsense so often escapes detection, its character not being perceived either by the writer 
or by the reader ?" — Campbell cor. "An Interjection is a word used to express sudden emotion. 
Interjections are so called, because they are generally thrown in between the parts of discourse, 
and have no reference to the structure of those parts." — M 1 Culloch cor. " The verb ought has no 
other inflection than ou ghtest, and this is nearly obsolete." — Macintosh cor. "But the arrange- 
ment, government, and agreement of words, and also their dependence upon others, are referred 
to our reason." — Osborn cor. "Me is a personal pronoun, of the first person, singular number, 
and objective case." — Guy cor. "The noun self is usually added to a pronoun; as, herself, him- 
self, &c. The compounds thus formed are called reciprocal pronouns." — Id. "One cannot but 
think, that our author would have done better, had he begun the first of these three sentences, with 
saying, ' It is novelty, that bestows charms on a monster.'" — Dr. Blair cor. "The idea which 
they present to us, of nature resembling art, of art considered as an original, and nature as a 
copy, seems not very distinct, or well conceived, nor indeed very material to our author's purpose." 
— Id. " This faulty construction of the sentence, evidently arose from haste and carelessness." — 
Id. " Adverbs serve to modify terms of action or quality, or to denote time, place, order, degree, 
or some other circumstance which we have occasion to specify." — Id. " We may naturally expect, 
that the more any nation is improved by science, and the more perfect its language becomes, the 
more will that language abound with connective particles." — Id. " Mr. G-reenleaf 's book is far 
better adapted to the capacity of learners, than any other that has yet appeared, on the subject." — 
FMus and Onderdonks false praise Englished. " Punctuation is the art of marking, in writing or 
in print, the several pauses, or rests, which separate sentences, or the parts of sentences ; so as to 
denote their proper quantity or proportion, as it is exhibited in a just and accurate delivery." — 
Lowth cor. " A compound sentence must generally be resolved into simple ones, and these be sep- 
arated by the comma." Or better: "A compound sentence is generally divided, by the comma, 
into its simple members." — Greenleaf and Fish cor. " Simple sentences should in general be sep- 
arated from one an other by the comma, unless a greater point is required ; as, ' Youth is passing 
away, age is approaching, and death is near.' " — S. R. Hall cor. " Fhas always one uniform sound, 
which is that of / flattened, as in thieve from thief: thusv bears to/ the same relation that b does 
to p, d to t, hard g to k, or z to s." — L. Murray and Fisk cor. ; also Walker ; also Greenleaf. 
" The author is explaining the difference between sense and imagination, as powers o/tho human 
mind." — L. Murray cor. Or, if this was the critic's meaning : " The author is endeavouring to 
explain a very abstract point, the distinction between the powers of sense and those of imagin- 
ation, as two different faculties of the human mind." — Id. ; also Dr. Blair cor. "He — (from the 
Anglo-Saxon He — ) is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, masculine 
gender, and nominative case. Decline he." — Fowler cor. 

CORRECTIONS UNDER THE CRITICAL NOTES. 
Under Critical Note I. — Of the Parts of Speech. 
"The passive voice denotes an action received." Or: "The passive voice denotes the receiving of 
an action." — Maunder corrected. " Milton, in some of his prose works, has many very finely-turned 
periods." — Dr. Blair and Alex. Jam. cor. " These will be found to be wholly, or chiefly, of that 
class." — Dr. Blair cor. " All appearances of an author's affecting of harmony, are disagreeable." 
— Id. and Jam. cor. " Some nouns have a double increase ; that is, they increase by more syllables 
than one: as iter, itineris." — Adam el al. cor. "The powers of man are enlarged by progressive 
cultivation." — Gurney cor. " It is always important to begin well; to make a favourable impres- 
sion at the first setting-out." — Dr. Blair cor. " For if one take a wrong method it his first setting- 
out, it will lead him astray in all that follows." — Id. "His mind is full of his subject, and all his 
words are expressive." — Id. " How exquisitely is all this performed in Greek!" — Harris cor. 
" How unworthy is all this to satisfy the ambition of an immortal soul!" — L. Murray cor. "So 
as to exhibit the object in its full grandeur, and its most striking point of view." — Dr. Blair cor. 
" And that the author know how to descend with propriety to the plain style, as well as how to 
rise to the bold and figured." — Id. "The heart alone can answer to the heart." — Id. "Upon 
the fast perception of it." Or: u As it is first perceived." — Harris cor. "Call for Samson, that 
he may make sport for us." — Bible cor. "And he made sport before them." — Id. "The term k to 
suffer,'' in this definition, is used in a technical sense ; and means simply, to receive an action, or 
to be acted upon." — Bullions cor. "The text only is what is meant to be taught in schools." — 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — CRITICAL NOTE II. 1011 

Brighfland cor. " The perfect participle denotes action or existence perfected or finished." 

Kirkham cor. " From the intricacy and confusion which are produced when they are blended to- 
gether." — L. Murray cor. " This very circumstance, that the word is employed antithetically, ren- 
ders it important in the sentence." — Kirkham cor. " It [the pronoun that,] is applied loth to 
persons and to things." — L. Murray cor. " Concerning us, as being everywhere traduced.' 1 ' — Bar- 
clay cor. " Every thing else was buried in a profound silence." — Steele cor. " They raise fuller con- 
viction, than any reasonings produce." — Dr. Blair cor. "It appears to me nothing lut a fanciful 
refinement." Or: " It appears to me nothing more than a fanciful refinement." — Id. "The reg- 
ular and thorough resolution of a complete passage." — Churchill cor. "The infinitive is distin- 
guished by the word to, which immediately precedes */." — Maunder cor. "It will not be a gain of 
much ground, to urge that the basket, or vase, is understood to be the capital." — Karnes cor. 
" The disgust one has to drink ink in reality, is not to the purpose, where the drinking of it is 
merely figurative." — Id. "That we run not into the extreme of pruning so very closely." — See 
L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 318. "Being obliged to rest for & little while on the preposition 
itself." Or: " Being obliged to rest a while on the preposition itself." Or: "Being obliged to 
rest [for] a moment on the preposition alone." — Blair and Jam. cor. " Our days on the earth 
are as a shadow, and there is no abiding." — Bible cor. "There may be attempted a more par- 
ticular expression of certain objects, by means of imitative sounds." — Blair, Jam., and Mur. 
cor. " The right disposition of the shade, makes the light and colouring the more apparent." — 
Br. Blair cor. " I observe that a diffuse style is apt to run into long periods." — Id. " Their poor 
arguments, which they only picked up in the highways." — Leslie cor. " Which must be little else 
than a transcribing of their writings." — Barclay cor. "That single impulse is & forcing-out of 
almost all the breath." Or: "That single impulse forces out almost all the breath." — Rush cor. 
"Picini compares modulation to the turning-off from a road." — Gardiner cor. "So much has 
been written on and off almost every subject." — Sophist cor. "By the reading of books written 
by the best authors, his mind became highly improved." Or : " By the study of the most instruc- 
tive books, his mind became highly improved." — L. Mur. cor. " For I never made a rich provision 
& token of a spiritual ministry." — Barclay cor. 

Under Critical Note II. — Of Doubtful Reference. 

" However disagreeable the task, we must resolutely perform our duty." — L. Murray cor. " The 
formation of all English verbs, whether they be regular or irregular, is derived from the Saxon 
tongue." — Lowth cor. " Time and chance have an influence on all things human, and nothing do 
they affect more remarkably than language." — Campbell cor. " Time and chance have an influence 
on all things human, and on nothing a more remarkable influence than on language." — Jamieson 
cor. " That Archytases, who was a virtuous man, happened to perish once upon a time, is with 
him a sufficient ground," &c. — Phil. Mu. cor. "He will be the better qualified to understand 
the meaning of the numerous words into which they enter as material parts." — L. Murray cor. 
"We should continually have the goal in view, that it may direct us in the race." — Id. "But 
Addison's figures seem to rise of their own accord from the subject, and constantly to embellish 
it." Or: — "and they constantly embellish it." — Blair and Jam. cor. "/So far as they signify 
persons, animals, and tilings that we can see, it is very easy to distinguish nouns." — Coblett cor. 
" Dissyllables ending in y or mute e, or accented on the final syllable, may sometimes be compared 
like monosyllables." — Frost cor. "If the foregoing objection be admitted, it will not overrule the 
design." — Rush cor. "These philosophical innovators forget, that objects, like men, are kn own 
only by their actions." — Br. Murray cor. " The connexion between words and ideas, is arbitrary 
and conventional ; it has arisen mainly from the agreement of men among themselves." — Jamie- 
son cor. " The connexion between words and ideas, ma}^ in general be considered as arbitrary 
and conventional, or as arising from the agreement of men among themselves." — Br. Blair cor. 
"A man whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and who had great abilities to manage and 
multiply and defend his corruptions." — Swift cor. " They have no more control over him, than 
have any other men." — Wayland cor. "All his old words are true English, and his numbers are 
exquisite." — Sped. cor. " It has been said, that not Jesuits only can equivocate." — Mur. in Ex. 
and Key, cor. " In Latin, the nominative of the first or second person, is seldom expressed." 
— Adam and Gould cor. " Some words have the same form in both numbers." — Murray 
et al. cor. "Some nouns have the same form in both numbers." — Merchant et al. cor. " Others 
have the same form in both numbers; as, deer, sheep, swine." — Frost cor. "The following list 
denotes the consonant sounds, of which there are twenty- two." Or: " The following list denotes 
the twenty-two simple sounds of the consonants." — Mur. et al. cor. "And is the ignorance of 
these peasants a reason for other persons to remain ignorant ; or does it render the subject the less 
worthy of our inquiry ?" — Harris and Mur. cor. " He is one of the most correct, and perhaps 
he is the best, of our prose writers." — Lowth cor. " The motions of a vortex nd of a whirlwind 
are perfectly similar." Or : " The motion of a vortex and that of a whirlwind are perfectly simi- 
lar." — Jamieson cor. " What I have been saying, throws light upon one important verse in the 
Bible; which verse I should like to hear some one read." — Abbott cor. " When there are any cir- 
cumstances of time, place, and the like, by which the principal terms of our sentence must 
be limited or qualified." — Blair, Jam. and Mur. cor. "Interjections are words that express 
emotion, affection, or passion, and dimply suddenness." Or: "Interjections express emotion, 
affection, or passion, and imply suddenness." — Bucke cor. " But the genitive expressing the meas- 
ure of things, is used in the plural number only."— Adam and Gould cor. " The buildings of the 



1012 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

institution have been enlarged ; and an expense has been incurred, which, with the increased price 
of provisions, renders it necessary to advance the terms of admission." — L. Murray cor. " These 
sentences are far less difficult than complex ones." — S. S. Greene cor. 

" Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife 
They sober lived, nor ever wished to stray." — Gray cor. 

Under Critical Note III. — Of Definitions. 

(1.) " A definition is a short and lucid description of a thing, or species, according to its naturt 
and properties." — G-. Brown: Rev. David Blair cor. (2.) "Language, in general, signifies the 
expression of our ideas by certain articulate sounds, or written words, which are used as the signsi 
of those ideas." — Dr. Hugh Blair cor. (3.) " A word is one or more syllables used by common 
consent as the sign of an idea." — Bullions cor. (4.) " A word is one or more syllables used as the 
sign of an idea, or of some manner of thought." — Hazen cor. (5.) "Words are articulate sounds, 
or their written signs, used to convey ideas." — Riley cor. (6.) " A word is one or more syllables 
used orally or in writing, to represent some idea." — Hart cor. (7.) " A word is one or more syl- 
lables used as the sign of an idea." — S. W. Clark cor. (8.) " A word is a letter or a combination 
of letters, a sound or a combination of sounds, used as the sign of an idea." — Wells cor. (9.) 
" Words are articulate sounds, or their written signs, by which ideas are communicated." — Wright 
cor. (10.) " Words are certain articulate sounds, or their written representatives, used by common 
consent as signs of our ideas." — Bullions, Lowth, Murray, et al. cor. (11.) "Words are sounds 
or written symbols used as signs of our ideas." — W. Allen cor. (12.) " Orthography literally means 
correct writing." — Kirkham and Smith cor. [The word orthography stands for different things: 
as, 1. The art or practice of writing words with their proper letters ; 2. That part of grammar 
which treats of letters, syllables, separate words, and spelling.] (13.) " A vowel is a letter which 
forms a perfect sound tohen uttered alone." — Inst, p. 16; Hazen, Lennie, and Brace, cor. (14 — 18.) 
" Spelling is the art of expressing words by their proper letters." — G-. Brown: Lowth and 
Churchill cor. ; also Murray, Ing. et al. ; also Comly ; also Bullions ; also Kirkham and Sanborn. 
(19.) "A syllable is one or more letters, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice, and 
constituting a word, or part of a word." — Lowth, Mur., et al, cor. (20.) " A syllable is a 
letter or a combination of Utters, uttered in one complete sound." — Brit. Gram, and Buch. 
cor. (21.) "A syllable is one or more letters representing a distinct sound, or what is 
uttered by a single impulse of the voice." — Kirkham cor. (22.) " A syllable is so much 
of a word as is sounded at once, whether it be the whole or apart." — Bullions cor. (23.) " A syl- 
lable is so many letters as are sounded at once ; and is either a word, or a part of a word." — Picket 
cor. (24.) " A diphthong is a union of two vowels in one syllable, as in bear and beat." — Bucke cor. 
Or: "A diphthong is the meeting of two vowels in one syUable." — Brit. Gram., p. 15 ; Buchanan's, 
3. (25.) "A diphthong consists of two vowels put together in one syllable; as ea in beat, oi in 
voice." — Guy cor. (26.) "A triphthong consists of three vowels put together in one syllable ; as, 
eau in beauty." — Id. (27.) " But a triphthong is the union of three vowels in one syllable." — Bucke 
cor. Or: "A triphthong is the meeting of three vowels in one syllable." — British Gram., p. 21 ; 
Buchanan's, 3. (28.) "What is a noun? A noun is the name of something; as, a man, a boy." 
— Brit. Gram, and Buchanan cor. (29.) " An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, to 
describe the object named or referred to." — Maunder cor. (30.) " An adjective is a word added 
to a noun or pronoun, to describe or define the object mentioned." — R. C. Smith cor. (31.) " An 
adjective is a word which, without assertion or time, serves to describe or define something ; as, a 
good man, every boy." — Wilcox cor. (32.) " An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, 
and generally expresses a quality."; — Mur. and Lowth cor. (33.) "An adjective expresses the 
quality, not of the noun or pronoun to which it is applied, but of the person or thing spoken of; and 
it may generally be known by the sense which it thus makes in connexion with its noun ; as, ' A 
good man,' 'A genteel woman.' " — Wright cor. (34.) "An adverb is a word used to modify the 
sense of a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb." — Wilcox cor. (35.) "An adverb is 
a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb, to modify the sense, or de- 
note some circumstance." — Bullions cor. (36.) " A substantive, or noun, is a name given to some 
object which the senses can perceive, the understanding comprehend, or the imagination enter- 
tain." — Wright cor. (37 — 54.) " Genders are modifications that distinguish objects in regard to 
sex." — Brown's Inst, p. 35: Bullions cor.; also Frost; also Perley ; also Cooper; also L. Murray 
et al. ; also Alden et al. ; also Brit. Gram., with Buchanan ; also Fowle ; also Burn ; also Web- 
ster ; also Coar; also Hall; also Wright; also Fisher; also W. Allen; also Parker and Fox; 
also Weld; also Weld again. (55 and 56.) "A case, in grammar, is the state or condition of a 
noun or pronoun, with respect to some other word in the sentence." — Bullions cor. ; also Kirkham. 
(57.) " Cases are modifications that distinguish the relations of nouns and pronouns to other 
words." — Brown's Inst., p. 36. (58.) " Government is the power which one word has over an 
other, to cause it to assume some particular modification." — Sanborn et al. cor. See Inst., p. 104. 
(59.) " A simple sentence is a sentence which contains only one assertion, command, or question." 
— Sanborn et al. cor. (60.) " Declension means the putting of a noun or pronoun through the different 
cases and numbers." — Kirkham cor. Or better : " The declension of a word is a regular arrange- 
ment of its numbers and cases." — See Inst., p. 37. (61.) "Zeugma is a figure in which two or 
more words refer in common to an other which literally agrees with only one of them." — B. F Fisk cor. 
(62.) " An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by as- 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — CKITICAL NOTE V. 1013 

suming d or ed; as, smite, smote, smitten." — Inst, p. 15. (63). " A personal pronoun is a pro- 
noun that shows, by its form, of what person it is." — Inst., p. 46. 

Under Critical Note IV. — Op Comparisons. 
" Our language abounds more in vowel and diphthong sounds, than most other tongues." Or* 
" We abound more in vowel and diphthongal sounds, than most nations." — Dr. Blair cor. " A line 
thus accented has a more spirited air, than one which takes the accent on any other syllable." — 
Karnes cor. " Homer introduces his deities with no greater ceremony, that [w/ia^] he uses towards 
mortals ; and Virgil has still less moderation than he." — Id. " Which the more refined taste of later 
writers, whose genius was far inferior to theirs, would have taught them to avoid." — Dr. Blair 
cor. " As a poetical composition, however, the Book of Job is not only equal to any other of the 
sacred writings, but is superior to them all, except those of Isaiah alone." — Id. "On the whole, 
Paradise Lost is a poem which abounds with beauties of every kind, and which justly entitles its 
author to be equalled in fame with any poet." — Id. " Most of the French writers compose in short 
sentences ; though their style, in general, is not concise ; commonly less so than that of most 
English writers, whose sentences are much longer." — Id. " The principles of the Reformation 
were too deeply fixed in the prince's mind, to be easily eradicated." — Hume cor. "Whether they 
do not create jealousy and animosity, more than sufficient to counterbalance the benefit derived 
from them." — Leo Wolf cor. " The Scotch have preserved the ancient character of their music 
more entire, than have the inhabitants of any other country." — Gardiner cor. "When the time 
or quantity of one syllable exceeds that of the rest, that syllable readily receives the accent." — 
Rush cor. " What then can be more obviously true, than that it should be made as just as we 
can make it." — Dymond cor. " It was not likely that they would criminate themselves more than 
they could not avoid." — Clarkson cor. " In their understandings they were the most acute people 
that have ever lived." — Knapp cor. " The patentees have printed it with neat types, and upon 
better paper than was used formerly." — John Ward cor. " In reality, its relative use is not 
exactly like that of any other word." — Felch cor. " Thus, in stead of having to purchase two 
books, — the Grammar and the Exercises, — the learner finds both in one, for a price at most not 
greater than that of the others.'"' — Alb. Argus cor. " They are not improperly regarded as pro- 
nouns, though they are less strictly such than the others." — Bullions cor. " We have had, as will 
readily be believed, a much better opportunity of becoming conversant with the case, than the 
generality of our readers can be supposed to have had" — Brit Friend cor. 

Under Critical Note V. — Of Falsities. 

" The long sound of i is like a very quick union of the sound of a, as heard in bar, and that of 
e, as heard in be." — Churchill cor. "The omission of a word necessary to grammatical propriety, 
is of course an impropriety, and not a true ellipsis." — Priestley cor. " Not every substantive, or 
noun, is necessarily of the third person." — A. Murray cor. " A noun is in the third person, when 
the subject is merely spoken of; and in the second person, when the subject is spoken to ; and in 
the first person, when it names the speaker as such." — Nutting cor. " With us, no nouns are 
literally of the masculine or the feminine gender, except the names of male and female creatures." 
—Dr. Blair cor. " The apostrophe is a little mark, either denoting the possessive case of nouns, or 
signifying that something is shortened : as, ' William's hat;' — ' the learrtdj for 'the learned? " — 
Inf. S. Gram. cor. " When a word beginning with a vowel is coupled with one beginning with 
a consonant, the indefinite article must not be repeated, if the two words be adjectives belonging to 
one and the same noun; thus, ' Sir Matthew Hale was a noble and impartial judge ;' — ' Pope was 
an elegant and nervous writer.' " — Maunder cor* " Wand y are consonants, when they precede 
a vowel heard in the same syllable: in every other situation, they are vowels." — L. Mur. et al. cor. 
See Inst, p. 16. " The is not varied before adjectives and substantives, let them begin as they 
wfll." — Bucke cor. " A few English prepositions, and many which we have borrovsed from other 
languages, are often prefixed to words, in such a manner as to coalesce with them, and to become 
parts of the compounds or derivatives thus formed." — Lowth cor. " H, at the beginning of syllables 
not accented, is weaker, but not entirely silent; as in historian, widowhood." — Rev. D. Blair cor. " Not 
every word that will make sense with to before it, is a verb ; for to may govern nouns, pronouns, 
or participles." — Kirkham cor. "Most verbs do, in reality, express actions; but they are not in- 
trinsically the mere names of actions: these must of course be nouns." — Id. "The nominative 
denotes the actor or subject ; and the verb, the action which is performed or received by this actor 
or subject." — Id. " But if only one creature or thing acts, more than one action may, at the 
same instant, be done ; as, ' The girl not only holds her pen badly, but scowls and distorts her 
features, while she writes? " — Id. " Nor is each of these verbs of the singular number because it de- 
notes but one action which the girl performs, but because the subject or nominative is of the singu- 
lar number, and the words must agree." — Id. " And when I say, ' Two men walk," 1 is it not equally 
apparent, that walk is plural because it agrees with men V " — Id. " The subjunctive mood is 
formed by using the simple, verb in a suppositive sense, and without personal inflection." — Beck cor. 
" The possessive case of nouns, except in instances of apposition or close connexion, should always 
be distinguished by the apostrophe." — Frost cor. "'At these proceedings of the Commons:' 
Here of is a sign of the objective case ; and ' Commons' is of that case, being governed by this prepo- 
sition." — A. Murray cor. " Here let it be observed again, that, strictly speaking, all finite verbs 

* The article may be repeated in examples like these, without producing impropriety; but then it will alter 
the construction of the adjectives, and render the expression more formal and emphatic, by suggesting a repeti- 
tion of the noun. — G. Bbowx. 



1014 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS.— KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

have numbers and persons ; and so have nearly all nouns and pronouns, even when they refer to 
irrational creatures and inanimate things." — Barrett cor. " The noun denoting the person or per- 
sons addressed or spoken to, is in the nominative case independent: except it be put in apposition 
. with a pronoun of the second person ; as, ' Woe to you lawyers ;' — ' You political men are constantly 
manoeuvring.' " — Frost cor. " Every noun, when used in a direct address and set off by a comma, 
becomes of the second person, and is in the nominative case absolute; as, ' Paul, thou art beside 
thyself." — Jaudon cor. " Does the conjunction ever join words together? Yes; the conjunction 
sometimes joins words together, and sometimes sentences, or certain parts of sentences." — Brit. 
Gram, cor.; also Buchanan. " Every noun of the possessive form has a governing noun, expressed 
or understood: as, St. James's. Here Palace is understood. But one possessive may govern 
an other; as, ' William 's father's house.' " — Buchanan cor. " Every adjective (with the exceptions 
noted under Rule 9 th) belongs to a noun or pronoun expressed or understood." — L. Murray et al. cor. 
"Not every adjective qualifies a substantive, expressed or understood." — Bullions cor. "Not 
every adjective belongs to a noun expressed or understood." — Ingersoll cor. " Adjectives belong 
to nouns or pronouns, and serve to describe things." — R. G. Smith cor. " English adjectives, in 
general, have no modifications in which they can agree with the nouns to which they relate." — Allen 
Fisk cor. " The adjective, if it denote unity or plurality, must agree with its substantive in num- 
ber." — Buchanan cor. "Not every adjective and participle, by a vast many, belongs to some 
noun or pronoun, expressed or understood." — Frost cor. "Not every verb of the infinitive mood, 
supposes a verb before it, expressed or understood." — Buchanan cor. " Nor has every adverb its 
verb, expressed or understood ; for some adverbs relate to participles, to adjectives, or to other ad- 
verbs." — Id. " A conjunction that connects one sentence to an other, is not always placed betwixt 
the two propositions or sentences which it unites." — Id. "The words for all that, are by no 
means 'low;' but the putting of this phrase for yet or still, is neither necessary nor elegant." — 
L. Murray cor. ; also Dr. Priestley. " The reader or hearer then understands from and, that the 
author adds one proposition, number, or thing, to an other. Thus and often, very often, connects one 
thing with an other thing, or one word with an other word." — James Brown cor. " 'Six and 
six are twelve.' Here it is affirmed, that the two sixes added together are twelve." — Id. " 'John 
AND his wife have six children.' This is an instance in which and connects two nominatives in a 
simple sentence. It is not here affirmed that John has six children, and that his wife has six other 
children." — Id. " That 'Nothing can be great which "is not right,' is itself a great falsity : there 
are great blunders, great evils, great sins." — L. Murray cor. "The highest degree of reverence 
should be paid to the most exalted virtue or goodness." — Id. " There is in all minds some knowledge, 
or understanding." — L. Murray et al. cor. " Formerly, the nominative and objective cases of our 
pronouns, were more generally distinguished in practice, than they now are." — Kirkham cor. "As 
it respects a choice of words and expressions, the just rules of grammar may materially aid the 
learner." — S. S. Greene cor. " The name of whatever exists, oris conceived to exist, is a noun." 
— Fowler cor. " As not all men are brave, brave is itself distinctive." — Id. 

Under Critical Note VI. — Of Absurdities. 

(1.) " And sometimes two unaccented syllables come together." — Dr. Blair cor. (2.) " What nouns 
frequently stand together V Or: " What nouns are frequently used one after an other f" — Sanborn 
cor. (3.) " Words are derived from other words in various ways." — Idem et al. cor. (4.) " The 
name preposition is derived from the two Latin words prce and pono, which signify before and 
place." — Mack cor. (5.) "He was much laughed at for such conduct." — Bullions cor. (6.) 
" Every pronominal adjective belongs to some noun, expressed or understood." — Ingersoll cor. 
(1.) " If he [Addison] fails in any thing, it is in strength and precision ; the want of which renders 
his manner not altogether a proper model." — Dr. Blair cor. (8.) " Indeed, if Horace is deficient in 
any thing his fault is this, of not being sufficiently attentive to juncture, or the connexion of pai|s." 
— Id. (9.) " The pupil is now supposed to be acquainted with the ten parts of speech, and their 
most usual modifications." — Taylor cor. (10.) "I could see, feel, taste, and smell the rose." — San- 
born cor. (11.) "The vowels iou are sometimes pronounced distinctly in two syllables; as in 
various, abstemious; but not in bilious." — Murray and Walker cor. (12.) "The diphthong aa 
generally sounds like a short ; as in Balaam, Canaan, Isaac ; in Baal and Gaol, we make no diph- 
thong." — L. Mur. cor. (13.) "Participles cannot be said to be 'governed by the article;' for any 
participle, with an article before it, becomes a substantive, or an adjective used substantively : as, 
the learning, the learned." — Id. (14.) " From words ending with y preceded by a consonant, we 
form the plurals of nouns, the persons of verbs, agent nouns, perfect participles, comparatives, and 
superlatives, by changing the y into i, and adding es, ed, er, eth, or est." — Walker, Murray, et al. 
cor. (15.) " But y preceded by a vowel remains unchanged, in the derivatives above named; as, 
boy, boys." — L. Murray et al. cor. (16.) " But when the final y is preceded by a vowel, it remains 
unchanged before an additional syllable; as, coy, coyly." — lid. (17.) "But y preceded by a vowel, 
remains unchanged, in almost all instances; as, coy, coyly." — Kirkham cor. (18.) "Sentences are 
of two kinds, simple and compound." — Wright cor. (1 9.) " The neuter pronoun it may be employed 
to introduce a nominative of any person, number, or gender : as, ' It is he ;' — ' It is she ;' — ' It is 
they ;' — ' It is the land." 1 " — Bucke cor. (20 and 21.) "It is and it was, are always singular; but 
they may introduce words of a plural construction : as, ' It was the heretics that first began to rail.' 
Smollett." — Merchant cor.; also Priestley et al. (22.) "Wand y r as consonants, have each of 
them one sound." — Town cor. (23.) " The word as is frequently a relative pronoun." — Bucke cor. 
(24.) "From a series of clauses, the conjunction may sometimes be omitted with propriety." — Mer- ■ 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — CRITICAL NOTE VII. 1015 

chant cor. (25.) "If, however, the two members are very closely connected, the comma is un- 
necessary ; as, ' Revelation tells us how we may attain happiness.' " — L. Murray et al. cor. (26-27.) 
" The mind has difficulty in taking effectually, in quick succession, so many different views of the 
same object."' — Br. Blair cor. ; also L. Mur. (28.) " Pronominal adjectives are a kind of definitives, 
which may eitJier accompany their nouns, or represent them understood.''' 1 — Kirkham cor. (29.) 
" When the nominative or antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the verb or 
pronoun must agree with it in the plural number?' — Id. et al. cor. (30-34.) "A noun or a pro- 
noun in the possessive case, is governed by the name of the thing possessed." — Brown's Inst, p. 176 : 
Greenleaf cor. ; also Wilbur and Livingston ; also Goldsbury ; also P. E. Bay ; also Kirkham, 
Frazee, and Miller. (35.) "Here the boy is represented as acting: the word boy is therefore in 
the nominative case." — Kirkham cor. (36.) "Bo, be, have, and will, are sometimes auxiliaries, and 
sometimes principal verbs." — Cooper cor. (37.) "Names of males are masculine. Names of females 
are feminine." — Adam's Gram., p. 10 ; Beck cor. (38.) " ' To-day's lesson is longer than yes- 
terday's.' Here to-day's and yesterday's are substantives." — L. Murray et al. cor. (39.) " In this 
example, to-day's and yesterday's are nouns in the possessive case." — Kirkham cor. (40.) "An 
Indian in Britain would be much surprised to find by chance an elephant feeding at large in the 
open fields." — Karnes cor. (41.) "If we were to contrive a new language, we might make any 
articulate sound the sign of any idea : apart from previous usage, there would be no impropriety 
in calling oxen men, or rational beings oxen." — L. Murray cor. (42.) " All the parts of a sentence 
should form a consistent wlxole." — Id et al. cor. 

(43.) " Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped, 

Along the pavement rolled the culprit's head." — Pope cor. 

Under Critical Note TIL — Of Self-Coxtradictiox. 
(1.) " Though ' The king, with the lords and commons,' must have a singular rather than a plural 
verb, the sentence would certainly stand better thus : ' The king, the lords, and the commons, 
form an excellent constitution.' " — Mur. and Big. cor. (2-3.) " L has a soft liquid sound ; as in 
love, billow, quarrel. This letter is sometimes silent ; as in half, task, psalm." — Mur. and Fisk 
cor. : also Kirkham. (4.) " The words means and amends, though regularly derived from the sin- 
gulars mean and amend, are not now, evegi by polite writers, restricted to the plural number. Our 
most distinguished modern authors often say, 'by this means,' as well as, 'by these means'" — 
Wright cor. (5.) " A friend exaggerates a man's virtues; an enemy, hh crimes." — Mur. cor. (6.) 
"The auxiliary have, or any form of the perfect tense, belongs not properly to the subjunctive 
mood. We svppose past facts by the indicative; as, If I have loved, If thou hast loved, &c." — Mer- 
chant cor. (7.) " There is also an impropriety in using both the indicative and the subjunctive 
mood with the same conjunction ; as, ' If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them is gone 
astray,' &c. [This is Merchant's perversion of the text. It should be, 'and one of them go 
astray:' or, ' be gone astray,' as in Matt., xviii, 12.]" — Id. (8.) "The rising series of contrasts con- 
veys transcendent dignity and energy to the conclusion." — Jamieson cor. (9.) " A groan or a shriek 
is instantly understood, as a language extorted by distress, a natural language which conveys a 
meaning that words are not adequate to express. A groan or a shriek speaks to the ear with a far 
more thrilling effect than words : yet even this naturcd language of distress may be counterfeited 
by art." — Br. Porter cor. (10.) "If these words [book and pen] cannot be put together in such a 
way as will constitute plurality, then they cannot be ' these words;' and then, also, one and one 
cannot be two." — James Brown cor. (11.) "Nor can the real pen and the real book be added or 
counted together in words, in such a manner as will not constitute plurality in grammar." — Id. 
(12.) " Our is a personal pronoun, of the possessive case. Murray does not decline it." — Mur. cor. 
(13.) " Tliis and that, and their plurals these and those, are often opposed to each other in a sen- 
tence. When this or that is used alone, i. e., icithout contrast, this is applied to what is present or 
near; that, to ivhat is absent or distant." — Buchanan cor. (14.) "Active and neuter verbs may 
be conjugated by adding their imperfect participle to the auxiliary verb be, through all its varia- 
tions." — " Be is an auxiliary whenever it is placed before either the perfect or the imperfect parti- 
ciple of an other verb; but, in every other situation, it is a principal verb." — Kirkham cor. (15.) 
" A verb in the imperative mood is almost always of the second person." — "The verbs, according 
to a foreign idiom, or the poet's license, are used in the imperative, agreeing with a nominative 
of the first or third person." — Id. (16.) "A personal pronoun, is a pronoun that shows, by its form, 
of what person it is." — " Pronouns of the first person do not disagree in person with the nouns 
they represent." — Id. (17.) " Nouns have three cases; the nominative, the possessive, and the ob- 
jective." — "Personal pronouns have, like nouns, three cases; the nominative, the possessive, and 
the objective." — Beck cor. ( 18.) " In many instances the preposition suffers a change and becomes an 
adverb by its mere application." — L. Murray cor. (19.) "Some nouns are used only in the plural; 
as, ashes, literati, mmutio?. Some nouns have the same form in both numbers ; as. sheep, dee?', series, 
species. Among the inferior parts of speech, there are some pairs or couples." — Rev. B. Blair 
cor. (20.) " Concerning the pronominal adjectives, that may, or may not. represent their nouns."— 
O. B. Peirce cor. (21.) " The word a is in a few instances employed in the sense of a preposition ; 
as, ' Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing;' i. e., I go to fishing." — Weld cor. (22.) " So, 
too, verbs that are commonly transitive, are used intransitively, when they have no object." — Bui- 
lions cor. 

(2? } .) "When first young Maro, in his boundless mind, 

A work t' outlast imperial Rome design' d." — Pope cor. 



1016 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

Under Critical Note VIII. — Op Senseless Jumbling. 

" There are two numbers, called the singular and the plural, which distinguish nouns as signify- 
ing either one thing, or many of the same kind." — Br. H. Blair cor. " Here James Monroe is 
addressed, he is spoken to ; the name is therefore a noun of the second person."— Mack cor. " The 
number and person of an English verb can seldom be ascertained until its nominative is known." — 
Emmons cor. " A noun of multitude, or a singular noun signifying many, may have a verb or a 
pronoun agreeing with it in either number ; yet not without regard to the import of the noun, as 
conveying the idea of unity o: plurality." — Lowth et al. cor. " To form the present tense and the 
past imperfect of our active or neuter verbs, the auxiliary do, and its preterit did, are sometimes 
used : as, I do now love ; I did then love." — Lowth cor. " If these be perfectly committed to 
memory, the learner will be able to take twenty lines for his second lesson, and the task may be in- 
creased each day." — Osborn cor. " Gh is generally sounded in the same manner as if it were tch: 
as in Charles, church, cheerfulness, and cheese. But, in Latin or Greek words, ch is pronounced 
like k : as in Chaos, character, chorus, and chimera. And, in words derived from the French, ch 
is sounded like sh : as in Chagrin, chicanery, and chaise." — Bucke cor. " Some nouns literally 
neuter, are made masculine or feminine by a figure of speech." — L. Murray et al. cor. " In the 
English language, words may be classified under ten general heads : the sorts, or chief classes, of 
words, are usually termed the ten parts of speech." — Nutting cor. " 'Mercy is the true badge of 
nobility.' Nobility is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and 
objective case ; and is governed by of." — Kirkham cor. " Gh is either silent, as in plough, or has 
the sound of/, as in laugh." — Town cor. " Many nations were destroyed, and as many languages 
or dialects were lost and blotted out from the general catalogue." — Ghazotte cor. "Some lan- 
guages contain a greater number of moods than others, and each exhibits its own as forms peculiar 
to itself." — L. Murray cor. " A simile is a simple and express comparison ; and is generally in- 
troduced by like, as, or so." — Id. See Inst., p. 233. " The word what is sometimes improperly 
used for the conjunction that." — Priestley, Murray, et al., cor. " Brown makes no ado in condemn- 
ing the absurd principles of preceding works, in relation to the gender of pronouns." — 0. B. Peirce 
cor. "The nominative usually precedes the verb, and denotes the agent of the action." — Wm. Beck 
cor. " Primitive words are those which are not formed from other words more simple." — Wright 
cor. " In monosyllables, the single vowel i always preserves its long sound before a single con- 
sonant withe final; as in thine, strive : except in give and live, which are short; and in shire, 
which has the sound of long e." — L. Murray, et al. cor. "But the person or thing that is merely 
spoken of, being frequently absent, and perhaps in many respects unknown to the hearer, it is 
thought more necessary, that the third person should be marked by a distinction of gender." — 
Lowth, Mur., et al., cor. " Both vowels of every diphthong were, doubtless, originally vocal. Though 
in many instances they are not so at present, the combinations in which one only is heard, still re- 
tain the name of diphthongs, being distinguished from others by the term improper." — L. Mur., et 
al. cor. " Moods are different forms of the verb, each of which expresses the being, action, or pas- 
sion, in some particular manner." — Inst., p. 33 ; A. Mur. cor. " The word that is a demonstra- 
tive adjective, whenever it is followed by a noun to which it refers." — L. Mur. cor. 

" The guilty soul by Jesus washed, 
Is future glory's deathless heir." — Fairfield cor. 

Under Critical Note IX. — Op "Words Needless. 
11 A knowledge of grammar enables us to express ourselves better in conversation and in writ- 
ing." — Sanborn cor " And hence we infer, that there is no dictator here but use." — Jamieson 
cor. " Whence little is gained, except correct spelling and pronunciation." — Town cor. " The 
man who is faithfully attached to religion, may be relied on with confidence." — Merchant cor. 
" Shalt thou build me a house to dwell in ?" Or : u Shalt thou build a house for me to dwell 
in ?" — Bible cor. " The house was deemed polluted which was entered by so abandoned a woman." 
— Dr. Blair cor. "The farther he searches, the firmer will be his belief." — Keith cor. "I deny 
not that religion consists in these things." — Barclay cor. " Except the king delighted in her, 
and she were called by name." — Bible cor. " The proper method of reading these lines, is, to 
read them as the sense dictates." — Dr. Blair cor. " "When any words become obsolete, or are used 
only in particular phrases, it is better to dispense with their service entirely, and give up the 
phrases." — Campbell and Mur cor. "Those savage people seemed to have no element but war." 
— L. Mur cor. " Man is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, 
and nominative case." — J. Flint cor. " The orator, as circumstances require, will employ them 
all." — Dr. Blair cor. " By deferring repentence, we accumulate our sorrows." — L Murray cor. 
" There is no doubt that public speaking became early an engine of government." — Dr. Blair cor. 
" The different meanings of these two words, may not at first occur." — Id. " The sentiment is well 
expressed by Plato, but much better by Solomon." — L. Murray et al. cor. " They have had a greater 
privilege than we." — L. Mur. cor. " Every thing should be so arranged, that what goes before, may 
give light and force to what follows." — Dr. Blair cor. " So that his doctrines were embraced by 
great numbera" — Hist. cor. "They have taken an other and shorter cut." — South cor. "The 
imperfect tense of a regular verb is formed from the present by adding d or ed ; as, love, loved." 
— Frost cor. "The pronoun their does not agree in number with the noun 'man, 1 for which it 
stands." — Kirkham cor. " This mark [!] denotes wonder, surprise, joy, grief, or sudden emo- 
tion." — Bucke cor. " We all are accountable, each for himself." — L. Mur. et al. cor. " If he has 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — CRITICAL NOTE X. 1017 

commanded it, I must obey." — R. C. Smith cor. " I now present him a form of the diatonic scale." 
— Barber cor. " One after an other, their favourite rivers have been reluctantly abandoned." Or: 
"One after an other of their favourite rivers have they reluctantly abandoned." — Hodgson cor. 
" Particular and peculiar are words of different import." — Dr. Blair cor. " Some adverbs admit oi 
comparison; as, soon, sooner, soonesV — Bucke cor. "Having exposed himself too freely in differ- 
ent climates, he entirely lost his health." — L. Mur. cor. " The verb must agree with its nominative 
in number and person." — Buchanan cor. "Write twenty short sentences containing adjec- 
tives." — Abbott cor. " This general tendency of the language seems to have given occasion to 
a very great corruption." — GhurchiWs Gram., p. 113. "The second requisite of a perfect sen- 
tence is unity y — L. Murray cor. "It is scarcely necessary to apologize for omitting their names." 
— Id. "The letters of the English alphabet are twenty-six." — Id. et al. cor. " He who employs 
antiquated or novel phraseology, must do it with design ; he cannot err from inadvertence, as he 
may with respect to provincial or vulgar expressions." — Jamieson cor. " The vocative case, in 
some grammars, is wholly omitted; why, if we must have cases, I could never understand." — 
Bucke cor. "Active verbs are conjugated with the auxiliary verb have; passive verbs, with the 
auxiliary am or &e." — Id. " What then may and be called ? A conjunction." — Smith cor. " Have 
they ascertained who gave the information ?" — Bullions cor. 

Under Critical Note X. — Of Improper Omissions. 

"All words signifying concrete qualities of things, are called adnouns, or adjectives." — Rev. D. Blair 
cor. " The macron ["] signifies a long or accented syllable, and the breve ["] indicates a short or 
unaccented syllable." — Id. " Whose duty it is, to help young ministers." — Friends cor. " The 
passage is closely connected with what precedes and what follows." — Phil. Mu. cor. " The work 
is not completed, but it soon will be." — R. G. Smith cor. " Of whom hast thou been afraid, or 
whom hast thou feared ?" — Bible cor. " There is a God who made, and who governs, the world." — 
Bp Butler cor. " It was this that made them so haughty." — Goldsmith cor. "How far the whole 
charge affected him, it is not easy to determine." — Id. " They saw these wonders of nature, and 
worshiped the God that made them." — Bucke cor. " The errors frequent in the use of hyperboles, 
arise either from overstraining them, or from introducing them on unsuitable occasions." — L. Mur. 
cor. " The preposition in is set before the names of countries, cities, and large towns; as, ' He lives 
in France, in London, or in Birmingham.' But, before the names of villages, single houses, or for- 
eign cities, at is used; as, 'He lives at Hackney.' " — Id. et al. cor. "And, in such recollection, 
the thing is not figured as in our view, nor is any image formed." — Karnes cor. " Intrinsic beauty 
and relative beauty must be handled separately." — Id. " He should be on his guard not to do 
them injustice by disguising them or placing them in a false light." — Dr. Blair cor. " In perusing 
that work, we are frequently interrupted by the author's unnatural thoughts." — L. Murray cor. 
" To this point have tended all the rules which I have just given." — Dr. Blair cor. " To this point 
have tended all the rules which have just been given." — L. Murray cor. " Language, as written, or 
as oral, is addressed to the eye, or to the ear." — Journal cor. " He will learn, Sir, that to accuse 
and to prove are very different." — Walpole cor. " They crowded around the door so as to prevent 
others from going out." — Abbott cor. il A word denoting one person or thing, is of the singular 
number ; a word denoting more than one person or thing, is of the plural number." — J. Flint cor. 
" Nouns, according to the sense or relation in which they are used, are in the nominative, the 
possessive, or the objective case : thus, Nom. man, Poss. man's, Obj. man." — Rev. D. Blair cor. 
" Nouns or pronouns in the possessive case are placed before the nouns which govern them, and 
to which they belong." — Sanborn cor. "A teacher is explaining the difference between a noun 
and a verb." — Abbott cor. " And therefore the two ends, or extremities, must directly answer to 
the north and the south pole." — Harris cor. "Walks or walketh, rides or rideth, and 
stands or standeth, are of the third person singular." — Kirkham cor. " I grew immediately 
roguish and pleasant, to a high degree, in the same strain." — Sioift cor. " An Anapest has the first 
two syllables unaccented, and the last one accented." — Rev. D. Blair cor. ; also Kirkham et al. ; also 
L. Mur. et al. " But hearing and vision differ not more than words spoken and words written." 
Or: " But hearing and vision do not differ more than spoken words and written." — Wilson cor. 
"They are considered by some authors to be prepositions." — Cooper cor. "When those powers 
have been deluded and have gone astray." — Phil. Mu. cor. " They will understand this, and will 
like it." — Abbott cor. "They had been expelled from their native country Romagna." — Hunt cor. 
" Future time is expressed in two different ways." — Adam and Gould cor. " Such as the borrowing 
of some noted event from history." — Karnes cor. " Every finite verb must agree with its nom- 
inative in number and person." — Bucke cor. " We are struck, we know not how, with the sym- 
metry of any handsome thing we see." — L. Murray cor. " Under this head, I shall consider every- 
thing that is necessary to a good delivery." — Sheridan cor. "A good ear is the gift of nature ; it 
may be much improved, but it cannot be acquired by art." — L. Murray cor. " ' Truth ' is a common 
noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case. v — Bullions cor. by 
Brown's Form. " 'Possess ' is a regular active-transitive verb, found in the indicative mood, present 
tense, third person, and plural number." — Id. "' Fear* is a common noun, of the third person, 
singular number, neuter gender, and nominative case : and is the subject of is ; according to the 
Rule which says, 'A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nomina- 
tive case. 1 Because the meaning is — '■fear is? " — Id. " ' Is ' is an irregular neuter verb, from be, 
was, being, been ; found in the indicative mood, present tense, third person, and singular number : 
and agrees with its nominative fear; according to the Rule which says, ' Every finite verb must 



1018 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number ' Because the meaning is — ' fear is.' 1 " — 
Id. " Aein the word Gaelic, has the sound of long a." — Wells cor. 

Under Critical Note XI. — Of Literary Blunders. 

" Repeat some adverbs that are composed of the prefix or preposition a and nouns." — Kirkham 
cor. " Participles are so called, because they participate or partake the properties of verbs and of 
adjectives or nouns. The Latin word participium , which signifies a participle, is derived from par- 
ticipo, to partake." — Merchant cor. " The possessive precedes an other noun, and is known by 
the sign 's, or by this', the apostrophe only." — Beck cor. "Reciprocal pronouns, or compound 
•personal pi onouns, are formed by adding self or selves to the simple possessives of the first and sec- 
ond persons, and to the objectives of the third person; as, myself, yourselves, himself, themselves." — Id. 
" The word self, and its plural selves, when used separately as names, must be considered as 
nouns; but when joined to the simple pronouns, they are not nouns, but parts of the compound per- 
sonal pronouns." — Wright cor. "The Spondee * rolls round, 1 expresses beautifully the majesty of 
the sun in his course." — Webster and Frazee cor. " Active-transitive verbs govern the objective 
case ; as, ' John learned his lesson. 1 " — Frazee cor. " Prosody primarily signified accent, or the 
modulation of the voice; and, as the name implies, related to poetry, or song." — Hendrick cor. "On 
such a principle of forming them, there would be as many moods as verbs; and, in stead of four 
moods, we should have four thousand three hundred, which is the number of verbs in the English 
language, according to Lowth."* — Hallock cor. " The phrases, ' To let out blood,' — ' To go a hunt- 
ing,' are not elliptical; for out is needless, and a is a preposition, governing hunting." — Bullions 
cor. " In Rhyme, the last syllable of every line corresponds in sound with that of some other line 
or lines." — Id. "The possessive case plural, where the nominative ends in s, has the apostrophe 
only; as, 'Eagles 1 wings,' — l lions 1 whelps,' — ' bears 1 claws.'" — Weld cor. " ' Ilorses-manes 1 plu- 
ral, should be written possessively, ' horses 1 manes: 1 " [one "mane" is never possessed by many 
" horses."] — Id. " W takes its usual form from the union of two Vees, V being the figure of the 
Roman capital letter which was anciently called U." — Fowler cor. " In the sentence, ' I saw the 
lady who sings,' what word is nominative to sings?" — J. Flint cor. " In the sentence, ' This is the 
pen which John made,' what word expresses the object of made ?" — Id. " ' That we fall into no sin :' 
no is a definitive or pronominal adjective, not compared, and relates to sin." — Rev. D. Blair cor. 
"'That all our doings maybe ordered by thy governance:' all is a pronominal adjective, not 
compared, and relates to doings." — Id. " 'Let him be made to study.' WJiy is the sign to ex- 
pressed before study ? Because be made is passive; and passive verbs do not take the infinitive 
after them without the preposition to." — Sanborn cor. " The following verbs have both the pre- 
terit tense and the perfect participle like the present : viz., Cast, cut, cost, shut, let, bid, shed, hurt, 
hit, put, &c." — Buchanan cor. " The agreement which any word has with an other in person, 
number, gender, or case, is called concord ; and the power which one vjord has over an other, in 
respect to ruling its case, mood, or form, is called government." — Bucke cor. "The word ticks 
tells what the watch is doing." — Sanborn cor. " The Breve (") marks a short vowel or syllable, 
and the Micron ("), a long one." — Bullions and Lennie cor. " ' Charles, you, by your diligence, 
make easy work of the task given you by your preceptor.' The first you is in the nominative case, 
being the subject of the verb make." — Kirkham cor. " Uoy in buoy is a proper triphthong; eau 
in flambeau is an improper triphthong." — Sanborn cor. " ' While I of things to come, As past re- 
hearsing, sing.' — Pollok. That is, 'While I sing of things to come, as if I were rehearsing 
things that are past.' " — Kirkham cor. "A simple sentence usually has in it but one nominative, 
and but one finite verb." — Folker cor. " An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit 
and the perfect participle by assuming dor ed." — Brown 1 s Inst., p. 75. "But, when the anteced- 
ent is used in a restricted sense, a comma is sometimes inserted before the relative ; as, 'There is 
no charm in the female sex, which can supply the place of virtue.' " — L. Murray's Gram., p. 273. 
Or: " But, when the antecedent is used in a restricted sense, no comma is usually inserted before 
the relative ; as, ' There is in the female sex no charm which can supply the place of virtue.' " — 
Kirkham cor. "Two capitals used in this way, denote different words ; but one repeated, marks 
the plural number: as, L. D, Legis Doctor ; LL. D. Legum Doctor." — Gould cor. "Was any per- 
son present besides the mercer? Yes; his clerk." — L. Murray cor. "The word adjective comes 
from the Latin adjectivum ; and this, from ad, to, and jacio, I cast." — Kirkham cor. " Vision, or 
Imagery, is a figure by which the speaker represents the objects of his imagination, as actually before 
his eyes, and present to his senses. Thus Cicero, in his fourth oration against Cataline : ' I seem 
to myself to behold this city, the ornament of the earth, and the capital of all nations, suddenly 
involved in one conflagration. I see before me the slaughtered heaps of citizens hying unburied 
in the midst of their ruined country. The furious countenance of Cethe'gus rises to my view, 
while with savage joy he is triumphing in your miseries.' " — Dr. Blair cor. ; also L. Murray. 
" When two or more verbs follow the same nominative, an auxiliary that is common to them both or 
all, is usually expressed to the first, and understood to the rest : as, ' Pie has gone and left me;' that 
is, ' He has gone and has left me.' " — Oomly cor. " When I use the Wordstar to denote a column 
that supports an edifice, I employ it literally." — Hiley cor. " In poetry, the conjunction nor is often 
used for neither ; as, 

1 A stately superstructure, that nor wind, 
Nor wave, nor shock of falling years, could move.' — Pollok." — Id. 

* " The -whole number of verbs in the English language, regular and irregular, simple and compounded, take* 
together, is about 4300." — Lowth's Gram., p. 59; Murray's, 12mo, p. 98 ; 8vo, p. 109 ; et al. 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — CRITICAL NOTE XIII. 1019 

Under Critical Note XII. — Of Perversions. 

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." — Genesis, i, 1. "Canst thou by- 
searching find out God ?" — Job, xi, 7. " Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty ; 
just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." — Rev., xv, 3. " Not every one that saith unto 
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." — Matt., vii, 21. "Though he was rich, 
yet for your sakes he became poor." — 2 Cor., viii, 9. "Whose foundation was overthrown with a 
flood." — Scott's Bible: Job, xxii, 16. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;" &c. — Matt., 
xi, 29. "I go to prepare a place for you." — John, xiv, 2. " And you hath he quickened, who 
were dead in trespasses and sins." — Ephesians, ii, 1. " Go, flee thee away into the land of Ju- 
dah." — Amos, vii, 12; Lowth's Gram., p. 44. Or- "Go, flee away into the land of Judah." — 
Hart cor. " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." — Job, xxxviii, 11. " The day is thine, the 
night also is thine." — Psal., lxxiv, 16. " Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; 
and experience, hope." — Romans, v, 4. " Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; and 
the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." — Ecclesiastes, xii, 7. " At the last it biteth like a 
serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall 
utter perverse things: Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea." — Prov., 
xxiii, 32, 33, 34. " The memopy of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot." — 
Prov., x, 7. "He that is slow to anger, is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, 
than he thattaketh a city." — Prov., xvi, 32. " For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth; even as 
a father the son in whom he clelighteth." — Prov., iii, 12. " The first-future tense is that which ex- 
presses what will take place hereafter." — Brown's Inst, of E. Gram., p. 54. " Teach me to feel 
another's woe, To hide the fault I see." — Pope's Univ. Prayer. "Surely thou art one of them; 
for thou art a Galilean." — Mark, xiv, 70. "Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech be- 
wrayeth thee." — Matt, xxvi, 73. " Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto 
life." — Matt., vii, 14. " Thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king." — Nehemiah, vi, 
6. " There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." — Psalms, cxxx, 4. " But 
yesterday, the word of Ccesar might Have stood against the world." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 
250. "The North-East spends his rage." — Thomson's Seasons, p. 34. "Tells how the drudging 
goblin swet." — Milton's Allegro, 1. 105. " And to his faithful champion hath in place Borne witness 
gloriously." — Milton's Sam. Agon., 1. 1752. "Then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, Thou fall'st a 
blessed martyr." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 173. Better: "Then, if thou fall, Cromwell ! thou 
fallst a blessed martyr." — Shak. and Kirk, cor " I see the dagger-crest of Mar, I see the Moray's 
silver star, Wave o'er the cloud of Saxon war, That up the lake comes winding far !" — Scott's Lady 
of the Lake, p. 162. "Each beast, each insect, happy in its own." — Pope, on Man, Ep. i, 1. 185. 
" And he that is learning to arrange his sentences with accuracy and order, is learning, at the same 
time, to think with accuracy and order." — Blair's Led, p. 120. " We, then, as workers together 
with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." — 2 Cor., vi, 1. " And 
on the boundless of thy goodness calls." — Young's Last Bay, B. ii, 1. 320. "Knowledge dwells 
In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own." — Cowpefs 
Task, B. vi, 1. 90. " 01 let me listen to the words of life!" — Thomson's Paraphrase on Matt. vi. 
"Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower," &c. — Gray's Elegy, 1. 9. " Weighs the men's wits 
against the Lady's hair." — Pope's Rape of the Lock, Canto v, 1. 72. " Till the publication of Br. 
Lowth's small Introduction, the grammatical study of our language formed no part of the ordinary 
method of instruction." — Hiley's Preface, p. vi. "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me 
and thee." — Gen., xiii, 8. 

"What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?" — Shakspeare. 

" Till then who knew the force of those dire arms?" — Milton. 

" In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold ; 
Alike fantastic, if too new or old : 
Be not the first by whom the new are tried 
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." — Pope, on Criticism, 1. 333. 

Under Critical Note XIII. — Of Awkwardness. 

" They slew Varus, whom I mentioned before." — L. Murray cor. "Maria rejected Valerius, 
whom "she had rejected before." Or: "Maria rejected Valerius a second time." — Id. "In the 
English language, nouns have but two different terminations for cases." — Churchill's Gram., p. 64. 
" Socrates and Plato were the wisest men, and the most eminent philosophers in Greece." — 
Buchanan's Gram., Pref, p. viii. " Whether more than one were concerned in the business, does 
not yet appear." Or : "How many were concerned in the business, does not yet appear." — L. Mur- 
ray cor. " And that, consequently, the verb or pronoun agreeing with it, can never with pro- 
priety be used in the plural number." — Id. et al. cor. " A second help may be, frequent and free 
converse with others of your own sex who are like minded." — Wesley cor. " Four of the semi- 
vowels, namely, I, m, n, and r, are termed liquids, on account of the fluency of their sounds." — See 
Brown's Inst, p. 16. " Some conjunctions are used in pairs, so that one answers to an other, as 
its regular correspondent." — Lowth et al. cor. " The mutes are those consonants whose sounds 
cannot be protracted ; the semivowels have imperfect sounds of their own, which can be continued 
at pleasure." — Murray et al. cor. " He and she are sometimes used as nouns, and, as such, are 
regularly declined: as, 'The hes in birds.' — Bacon. 'The shes of Italy.' — Shak." — Churchill 
cor. " The separation of a preposition from the word which it governs, is [censured by some 



1020 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

writers, as being improper." — C. Adams cor. " The word whose, according to some critics, should 
be restricted to persons ; but good writers still occasionally use it with reference to things." — 
Priestley et al. cor. " New and surpassing wonders present themselves to our viewy — Sherlock 
cor. " The degrees of comparison are often inaccurately applied and construed." — Alger's Murray. 
Or : " Passages are often found in which the degrees of comparison have not an accurate construc- 
tion." — Campbell cor. ; also Murray et al. "The sign of possession is placed too far from thename, 
to form a construction that is either perspicuous or agreeable." — L. Murray cor. " The simple 
tenses are those which are formed by the principal verb without an auxiliary." — Id. " The more 
intimate men are, the more they affect one another's happiness." — Id. "This is the machine that 
he invented."— Nixon cor. "To give this sentence the interrogative form, we must express it thus." 
Or: "This sentence, to have the interrogative form, should be expressed thus." — L. Murray cor. 
" Never employ words that are susceptible of a sense different from that which you intend to con- 
vey." — Hiley cor. "Sixty pages are occupied in explaining what, according to the ordinary 
method, would not require more than ten or twelve." — Id. " The participle in ing always ex- 
presses action, suffering, or being, as continuing, or in progress." — Bullions cor. "The first par- 
ticiple of all active verbs, has usually an active signification ; as, ' James is building the house.' 
Often, however, it takes a passive meaning; as, i The house is building.'" — Id. " Previously to 
parsing this sentence, the young pupil may be taught to analyze ii, by such questions as the follow- 
ing: viz." — Id. " Since that period, however, attention has been paid to this important subject." 
— Id. and Hiley cor. "A definition of a word is a brief explanation 0/ what it means." — Gr. 
Brown : Hiley cor. 

Under Critical Note XIV. — Op Ignorance. 

" "What is a verb f It is a word which signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon." Or thus: 
" "What is an assertor t Ans. ' One who affirms positively ; an affrrmer, supporter, or vindicator.' 
— Webster's Dict." — Peirce cor. " Virgil wrote the JEneid." — Kirkham cor. " Which, to a su- 
percilious or inconsiderate native of Japan, would seem very idle and impertinent." — Locke cor. 
"Will not a look of disdain cast upon you throw you into a ferment f — Say cor. " Though only 
the conjunction if is here set before the verb, there are several others, (as that, though, lest, unless, 
except,) which may be used with the subjunctive mood." — L. Murray cor. " When proper names 
have an article before them, they are used as common names." — Id. et al. cor. "When a proper 
noun has an article before it, it is used as a common noun." — Merchant cor. " Seeming to rob the 
death-field of its terrors." — Id. " For the same reason, we might, without any detriment to the 
language, dispense with the terminations of our verbs in the singular." — Kirkham cor. " It re- 
moves all possibility of being misunderstood." — Abbott cor. " Approximation to perfection is all 
that we can expect." — Id. " I have often joined in singing with musicians at Norwich." — 
Gardiner cor. " When not standing in regular prosaic order." Or: — "in the regular order of 
prose." — 0. B. Peirce cor. " Regardless of the dogmas and edicts of the philosophical umpire." — 
Kirkham cor. " Others begin to talk before their mouths are open, prefixing the mouth-closing M 
to most of their words; as, ' M-yes,' for l Tes.' " — Gardiner cor. "That noted close of his ' esse 
videatur,' exposed him to censure among his contemporaries." — Br. Blair cor. "A man's own is 
what he has, or possesses by right; the word own being a past participle of the verb to owe, which 
formerly signified to have or possess." — Kirkham cor. "As requires so; expressing a com- 
parison of manner ; as, ' As the one dieth, so dieth the other.' " — L. Mur. et al. cor. " To obey our 
parents, is an obvious duty." — Parker and Fox cor. " Almost all the political papers of the king- 
dom have touched upon these things." — H. C. Wright cor. " I shall take the liberty to make a 
few observations on the subject." — Hiley cor. " His loss I have endeavoured to supply, so far as 
by additional vigilance and industry / could." — Id. " That they should make vegetation so exuber- 
ant as to anticipate every want." — Frazee cor. " The guillemets, or quotation points, [" "J denote 
that one or more words are extracted from an other author." — P. E. Day cor. "Nineveh, the 
capital of Assyria, was one of the most noted cities of ancient times." — Id. " It may, however, be 
rendered definite by the mention of some particular time ; as, yesterday, last week, &c." — Bullions 
cor. " The last is called heroic measure, and is the same that is used by Milton, Young, Thom- 
son, Pollok, Sec." — Id. "Perennial ones must be sought in the delightful regions above." — Hallock 
cor. " Intransitive verbs are those which are inseparable from the effect produced." Or better : 
"Intransitive verbs are those which express action without governing an object." — Cutler cor. "The 
Feminine gender belongs to women, and animals of the female kind." — Id. " Wo unto you, 
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" — Alger's Bible: Luke, xi, 44. "Apyrrhic, which has both 
its syllables short." — Day cor. " What kind of jessamine ? A jessamine in flower, or a flowery 
jessamine." — Barrett cor. " Language, a word derived from lingua, the tongue, now signifies 
any series of sounds or letters formed into words, and used for the expression of thought." — Id. See 
this Gram, of E. Grammars, p. 145. "Say 'none,' not ' ne'er a one.' "—Staniford cor. " l E'er a 
one,' [is sometimes used for ' any '] or ' either.' " — Pond cor. 

" Earth loses thy pattern for ever and aye ; 
sailor-boy ! sailor-boy ! peace to thy soul." — Dymond. 

11 His brow was sad : his eye beneath 
Flashed like & falchion from its sheath." — Longfellow's Ballads, p. 129. 



[The examples exhibited for exercises under Critical Notes 15th and 16th, being judged either incapable 
of correction, or unworthy of the endeavour, are submitted to the criticism of the reader, without any attempt 
to amend them, or to offer substitutes in this place.] 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — VARIOUS RULES. 1021 

PROMISCUOUS CORRECTIONS OF FALSE SYNTAX 
LESSON I.— UNDER VARIOUS RULES. 
" Why is our language less refined than that of Italy, Spain, or France ?" — L. Murray cor. " Why 
is our language less refined than the French t" — Ingersoll cor. " I believe your Lordship will 
agree with me, in the reason why our language is less refined than that of Italy, Spain, or France." 
— Swift cor. " Even in this short sentence, ' why our language is less refined than those of Italy, 
Spain, or France,' we may discern an inaccuracy; the pronominal adjective l those' is made plu- 
ral, when the substantive to which it refers, or the thing for which it stands, ' the language of 
Italy, Spain, or France,' is singular." — Dr. 3. Blair cor. " The sentence would have run much better 
in this way : — 'why our language is less refined than the Italian, the Spanish, or the French.' " — 
Id. " But when arranged in an entire sentence, as they must be to make a complete sense, they 
show it still more evidently." — L. Murray cor. " This is a more artificial and refined construction, 
than that in which the common connective is simply used." — Id. " /shall present to the reader a 
list of certain prepositions or prefixes, which are derived from the Latin and Greek languages." — ■ 
Id. " A relative sometimes comprehends the meaning of & personal pronoun and a copulative con- 
junction." — Id. "Personal pronouns, being used to supply the places of nouns, are not often em- 
ployed in the same clauses with the nouns which they represent." — Id. and Smith cor. " There 
is very seldom any occasion for a substitute where the principal word is present." — L. Mur. cor. 
"We hardly consider little children as persons, because the term person gives us the idea of reason, or 
intelligence." — Priestley etal. cor. "The occasions for exerting these two qualities are different." — 
Dr. Blair et al. cor. " I'll tell you with vjhom time ambles withal, with whom time trots withal, with 
whom time gallops withal, and with whom he stands still withal. I pray thee, with whom doth he 
trot withal?" — Buchanan's Gram., p. 122. " By greatness, I mean, not the bulk of any single ob- 
ject only, but the largeness of a whole view." — Addison cor. " The question may then be put, 
What more does he than mean ?" — Dr. Blair cor. " The question might be put, What more does he 
than mean ?" — Id. " He is surprised to find himself at so great a distance from the object with 
which he set out." — Id. ; also Murray cor. " Few rules can be given which will hold good in all 
cases." — Loivth and Mur. cor. "Versification is the arrangement of words into metrical lines, ac- 
cording to the laws of verse." — Johnson cor. "Versification is the arrangement of words into rhyth- 
mical lines of some particular length, so as to produce harmony by the regular alternation of syllables 
differing in quantity ." — L. Murray et al. cor. " Amelia's friend Charlotte, to whom no one im- 
puted blame, was too prompt in her own vindication." — L. Murray cor. "Mr. Pitfs joining of the 
war party in 1793, the most striking and the most fatal instance of this offence, is the one which 
at once presents itself." — Brougham cor. "To the framing o/such a sound constitution of mind." 
— Lady cor. " ' I beseech you,' said St. Paul to his Ephesian converts, 'that ye walk worthy of 
the vocation wherewith ye are called.' " — See Eph., iv, 1. " So as to prevent it from being equal 
to that." — Booth cor. " When speaking of an action as being performed." Or: " When speaking 
of the performance of an action." — Id. "And, in all questions of actions being so performed, est is 
added for the second person." — Id. " No account can be given of this, but that custom has 
blinded their eyes." Or: "No other account can be given of this, than that custom has blinded 
their eyes." — Dymond cor. 

" Design, or chance, makes others wive ; 
But nature did this match contrive." — Waller cor. 

LESSON II.— UNDER VARIOUS RULES. 
"I suppose each of you thinks it is his own nail." — Abbott cor. "They are useless, because they 
are apparently based upon this supposition." — Id. " The form, or manner, in which this plan 
may be adopted is various." — Id. " The making of intellectual effort, and the acquiring of knowl- 
edge, are always pleasant to the human mind." — Id. " This will do more than the best lecture 
that ever was delivered." — Id. " The doing of easy things is generally dull work." — Id. " Such 
are the tone and manner of some teachers." — Id. " Well, the fault is, that some one was disorderly 
at prayer time." — Id. " Do you remember to have spoken on this subject in school ?" — Id. " The 
course* above recommended, is not the trying of lax and inefficient measures " — Id. " Our com- 
munity agree that there is a God." — Id. "It prevents them from being interested in what is said." 
— Id. " We will also suppose that I call an other boy to me, whom I have reason to believe to 
be a sincere Christian." — Id. " Five minutes' notice is given by the bell." — Id. "The Annals of 
Education give notice of it." Or : " The work entitled 'Annals of Education' gives notice of it." — Id. 
" Teachers' meetings will be interesting and useful." — Id. " She thought a half hour's study 
would conquer all the difficulties." — Id. " The difference between an honest and a hypocritical 
confession." — Id. " There is no point of attainment at which we must stop." — Id. " Now six 
hours' service is as much as is expected of teachers." — Id. " How many are seven times nine ?" 
— Id. " Then the reckoning proceeds till it comes to ten hundred." — Frost cor. " Your success 
will depend on your own exertions ; see, then, that you be diligent." — Id. " Subjunctive Mood, 
Present Tense: If I be known, If thou be kno^", If he be known;" &c.—Id. "If I be loved, If 
thou be loved, If he be loved;" &c. — Frost right. "An Interjection is a word used to express 
sudden emotion. Interjections are so called because they are generally thrown in between the 
parts of discourse, without any reference to the structure of those parts." — Frost cor. " The Car- 
dinal numbers are those which simply tell how many; as, one, two, three." — Id. "More than 
one organ are concerned in the utterance of almost every consonant." Or thus : " More organs 



1022 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

than one are concerned in the utterance of almost any consonant." — Id. " To extract from them 
all the terms which we use in our divisions and subdivisions of the art." — Holmes cor. "And 
there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe." — Bible cor. " If I were to be 
judged as to my behaviour, compared with that of John." — Winston's Jos. cor. " The preposition 
to, signifying in order to, was auciently preceded by for ; as, ' What went ye out for to see V " — L. 
Murray's Gram., p. 184. " This makes the proper perfect tense, which in English is always ex- 
pressed by the auxiliary verb have ; as, ' I have written.' " — Dr. Blair cor. " Indeed, in the forma- 
tion of character, personal exertion is the first, the second, and the third virtue.' 1 ' 1 — Sanders cor. 
"The reducing of them to the condition of the beasts that perish." — Dymond cor. "Yet this 
affords no reason to deny that the nature of the gift is the same, or that both are divine." Or: 
"Yet this affords no reason to aver that the nature of the gift is not the same, or that both are not 
divine." — Id. " If God has made known his will." — Id. " If Christ has prohibited them, nothing 
else can prove them right." — Id. " That the taking of them is wrong, every man who simply 
consults his own heart, will know." — Id. " From these evils the world would be spared, if one did 
not write." — Id. "It is in a great degree our own fault." — Id. "It is worthy of observation, 
that lesson-learning is nearly excluded." — Id. '' Who spares the aggressor's life, even to the en- 
dangering of his own." — Id. " Who advocates the taking of the life of an aggressor." — Id. " And 
thence up to the intentionally and voluntarily fraudulent." — Id. " And the contention was so 
sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other." — Scott's, Friends', Al- 
ger's, Bruce's Bible, and others : Acts, xv, 39. " Here the man is John, and John is the 
man; so the words are imagination and fancy ; but the imagination and the fancy are not words: 
they are intellectual powers." — Rev. M. Harrison cor. " The article, which is here so emphatic 
in the Greek, is quite forgotten in our translation." — Id. " We have no fewer than twenty-four 
pronouns."— Id. " It will admit of a pronoun joined to it." — Id. " From intercourse and from 
conquest, all the languages of Europe participate one with an other." — Id. "It is not always ne- 
cessity, therefore, that has been the cause of our introducing of terms derived from the classical 
languages." — Id. " The man of genius stamps upon it any impression that pleases him." Or : " any 
impression that he chooses." — Id. " The proportion of names ending in son preponderates greatly 
among the Dano-Saxon population of the North." — Id. "As a proof of the strong similarity be- 
tween the English language and the Danish." — Id. "A century from the time when (or at which) 
Hengist and Horsa landed on the Isle of Thanet." — Id. 

" I saw the colours waving in the wind, 
And them within, to mischief how combin'd." — Bunyan cor. 

LESSON III.— UNDER VARIOUS RULES. 
"A ship excepted: of which we say, ' She sails well.' " — Jonson cor. "Honesty is reckoned of 
little worth." — Lily cor. "Learn to esteem life as you ought." — Dodsley cor. "As the soundest 
health is less perceived than the lightest malady, so the highest joy toucheth us less sensibly than 
the smallest sorrow." — Id. " Youth is no apology for frivolous ness." — Whiting cor. "The porch 
was of the same width as the temple." — Mil/nan cor. " The other tribes contributed neither to his 
rise nor to his downfall." — Id. " His whole religion, with all its laws, would have been shaken to 
its foundation." — Id. " The English has most commonly been neglected, and children have been 
taught only in the Latin syntax." — J. Ward cor. " They are not noticed in the notes." — Id. " He 
walks in righteousness, doing what he would have others do to him." — Fisher cor. "They stand 
independent of the rest of the sentence." — Ingersoll cor. " My uncle and his son were in town 
yesterday." — Lennie cor. "She and her sisters are well." — Id. "His purse, with its contents, 
ivas abstracted from his pocket." — Id. " The great constitutional feature of this institution being, 
that directly after the acrimony of the last election is over, the acrimony of the next begins." — 
Dickens cor. " His disregarding of his parents' advice has brought him into disgrace." — Farnum 
cor. " Can you tell me why his father made that remark?" — Id. " Why does our teacher detain 
us so long?" — Id. "lam certain that the boy said so." — Id. "Which means any thing or 
thing3 before named; and that may represent any person or persons, thing or things, that have 
been speaking, spoken to, or spoken of." — Perley cor. "A certain number of syllables occurring 
in a particular order, form a foot. Poetic feet are so called because it is by their aid that the voice, 
as it were, steps along." — L. Murray et at. cor. " Questions asked by a principal verb only — as, 
'Teach IV ' Burns he? 1 &c, — are archaisms, and now peculiar to the poets." — A. Murray cor. 
"Tell whether the 18th, the 19th, the 20th, the 21st, the 22d, or the 23d rule is to be used, and re- 
peat the rule." — Parker and Fox, cor. "The resolution was adopted without much deliberation, 
and consequently caused great dissatisfaction." Or : " The resolution, which caused great dissatis- 
faction, was adopted without much deliberation." — lid. " The man is now much noticed by the 
people thereabouts." — Webb's Edward's Gram. cor. " The sand prevents them from sticking to 
one an other." — Id. " Defective verbs are those which are used only in some of the moods and 
tenses." — Greenleafs Gram., p. 29; IngersoWs, 121; Smith's, 90; Merchant's, 64; Nutting's, 68: 
L. Murray, Guy, Russell, Bacon, Frost, Alger, S. Putnam, Goldsbury, Felton, et al. cor. " Defect- 
ive verbs are those which want some of the moods or tenses." — Lennie et al. cor. "Defective 
verbs want some of the parts common to other verbs." — Bullions cor. " A Defective verb is one 
that wants some of the parts common to verbs." — Id. " To the irregular verbs may be added the 
defective; which are not only irregular, but also wanting in some parts." — Lowth cor. " To the 
irregular verbs may be added the defective ; which are not only wanting in some parts, but 
are, when inflected, irregular." — Churchill cor. "When two or more nouns occur together in the 



CHAP. XIII.] KEY TO FALSE SYNTAX. — VARIOUS ROLES. 1023 

possessive case." — Farnum cor. " When several short sentences come together." — Id. " Words 
are divided into ten classes, called Parts of Speech." — L. Ainsworth cor. " A passive verb has its 
agent or doer always in the objective case, governed by a preposition." — Id. " I am surprised at 
your inattention.'" — Id. "Singular: Thou lovest, not You love. Youh&s always a plural verb." 
— Bullions cor. " How do you know that love is of the first person ? Ans. Because we, the pro- 
noun, is of the first person." — Id. and Lennie cor. " The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea." 
— Gray's Elegy, 1. 2 : Bullions cor. " Iambic verses have their second, fourth, and other even syl- 
lables accented." — Bullions cor. " Contractions that are not allowable in prose, are often made in 
poetry." — Id. " Yet to their general's voice they soon obey'd." — Milton. "It never presents to 
his mind more than one new subject at the same time." — Felton cor. "An abstract noun is the 
name of some particular quality considered apart from its substance." — Brown's Inst, of E. Gram., 
p. 32. " A noun is of the first person when it denotes the speaker." — Felton cor. " Which of the 
two brothers is a graduate V — Hallock cor. "lama linen-draper bold, As all the world doth 
know." — Cowper. " Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!" — Pope. "This do; take to you censers, 
thou, Korah, and all thy company." — Bible cor. " There are three participles ; the imperfect, the 
perfect, and the preperfect : as, reading, read, having read. Transitive verbs have an active and 
passive participle : that is, their form for the perfect is sometimes active, and sometimes passive ; 
as, read, or loved." — -S. S. Greene cor. 

" Heav'n, in my connubial hour decree 
My spouse this man, or such a man as he." — Pope cor. 

LESSON" IV.— UNDER VARIOUS RULES. 

"The past tenses (of Hiley's subjunctive mood) represent conditional past facts or events, of 
which the speaker is uncertain." — Riley cor. " Care also should be taken that they be not intro- 
duced too abundantly." — Id. "Till they have become familiar to the mind." Or: "Till they 
become familiar to the mind." — Id. " When once a particular arrangement and phraseology have 
become familiar to the mind." — Id. "I have furnished the student with the plainest and most 
practical directions that I could devise." — Id. " When you are conversant with the Rules of 
Grammar, you will be qualified to commence the study of Style." — Id. " C before e, i, or y, al- 
ways has a soft sound, like s." — L. Murray cor. " G before e, i, or y, is generally soft ; as in ge- 
nius, ginger, Egypt." — Id. " before e, i, or y, always sounds soft, like s." — Hiley cor. " G is 
generally soft before e, i, or y ; as in genius, ginger, Egypt." — Id. "A perfect alphabet must al- 
ways contain just as many letters as there are elementary sounds in the language : the English 
alphabet, having fewer letters than sounds, and sometimes more than one letter for the same sound, is 
both defective and redundant." — Id. "A common noun is a name given to a whole class or spe- 
cies, and is applicable to every individual of that class." — Id. " Thus an adjective has usually a 
noun either expressed or understood." — Id. " Emphasis is extraordinary force used in the enun- 
ciation of such ivvrds as we wish to make prominent in discourse." Or: " Emphasis is a peculiar 
stress of voice, used in the utterance of words specially significant." — Dr. H. Blair cor. ; also L. Mur- 
ray. " So simple a question as, ' Do you ride to town to-day?' is capable of as many as four 
different acceptations, the sense varying as the emphasis is differently placed." — lid. " Thus, 
bravely, for 'in a brave manner,' is derived from brave-like." — Hiley cor. " In this manner, sev- 
eral different parts of speech are often formed from one root by means of different affixes." — Id. 
"Words derived from the same root, are always more or less allied in signification." — Id. " When 
a noun of multitude conve3 r s the idea of unity, the verb and pronoun should be singular ; but 
when it conveys the idea of plurality, the verb and pronoun must be plural." — Id. "They have 
spent their whole time to make the sacred chronology agree with the profane." — Id. "I have 
studied my lesson, but you have not looked at yours." — Id. " When words are connected in pairs, 
there is usually a comma after each pair." — Hiley, Bullions, and Lennie, cor. "When words are 
connected in pairs, the pairs should be marked by the comma."- — Farnum cor. " His book entitled, 
'Studies of Nature,' is deservedly a popular work." — Biog. Diet. cor. 

" Here rests his head upon the lap of earth, 
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown." — Gray. 
" ' Youth,' here, is in the nominative case, (the verb Wests' being, in this instance, transitive,) and 
is the subject of the sentence. The meaning is, ' A youth here rests his head,' &c." — Hart cor. " The 
pronoun I, as well as the interjection 0, should be written with a capital." Or: "The pronoun 
I, and the interjection 0, should be written with capitals." — Weld cor. " The pronoun / should 
always be written with a capital." — Id. "He went from London to York." — Id. "An adverb 
is a -word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb, to modify its meaning." — 
Id. (See Lesson 1st under the General Rule.) " Singular signifies, ' expressing only one ;' de- 
noting but one person or thing. Plural, (Latin pluralis, from plus, more,) signifies, ' expressing 
more than one.' " — Weld cor. " When the present ends in e, d only is added to form the imper- 
fect tense and the perfect participle of regular verbs." — Id. "Synasresis is the contraction of two 
syllables into one ; as, seest for seest, drowned for drown-ed." — Id. (See Brown's Inst, p. 230.) 
" Words ending in ee are often inflected by mere consonants, and without receiving an additional 
syllable beginning with e: as, see, seest, sees; agree, agreed, agrees." — Weld cor. "In monosylla- 
bles, final/, I, or s, preceded by a single vowel, is doubled; as in staff, mill, grass." — Id. "Be- 
fore ing, words ending in ie drop the e, and change the i into y ; as, die, dying." — Id. " One 
number may be used "for the other — or, rather, the plural may be used for the singular ; as, we for 



1024 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO SYNTAX. [PART III. 

I, you for thou." — S. S. Greene cor. " Strob'ile, n. A pericarp made up of scales that lie one 
over an other." — Worcester cor. 

" Yet ever, from the clearest source, hath run 
Some gross alloy, some tincture of the man." — Lowth cor. 

LESSON V.— UNDER VARIOUS RULES. 
" The possessive case is usually followed by a noun, expressed or understood, which is the name 
of the thing possessed." — Felton cor. " Hadmer of Aggstein was as pious, devout, and praying 
a Christian, as was Nelson, Washington, or Jefferson ; or as is Wellington, Tyler, Clay, or Polk." 
— H. C. Wright cor. " A word in the possessive case is not an independent noim, and cannot 
stand by itself." — J. W. Wright cor. " Mary is not handsome, but she is good-natured ; and good- 
nature is better than beauty." — St. Quentin cor. " After the practice of joining all words together 
had ceased, a note of distinction was placed at the end of every word." — L. Murray et al. cor. 
" Neither Henry nor Charles dissipates his time." — Hallock cor. " ' He had taken from the 
Christians above thirty small castles.' Knolles:" — Brown's Institutes, p. 200; Johnson's Quarto 
Diet, w. What. "In what character Butler was admitted, is unknown." Or: "In whatever 
character Butler was admitted, that character is unknown." — Hallock cor. " How are the agent 
of a passive and the object of an active verb often left ?" — Id. " By subject, is meant the word 
of whose object something is declared." Or : "By subject, is meant the word which has some- 
thing declared of the thing signified." — Chandler cor. " Care should also be taken that a transi- 
tive verb be not used in stead of a neuter or intransitive ; as, lay for lie, raise for rise, set for sit, &c." 
— Id. " On them depends the duration of our Constitution and our country." — Calhoun cor. " In 
the present sentence, neither the sense nor the measure requires what." — Chandler cor. " The 
Irish thought themselves oppressed by the law that forbid them to draw with their horses' tails." 
— Brightland cor. " So and willingly are adverbs. So is an adverb of degree, and qualifies will- 
ingly. Willingly is an adverb of manner, and qualifies deceives." — Cutler cor. " Epicurus, for ex- 
periment's sake, confined himself to a narrower diet than that of the severest prisons." — Id. 
" Derivative words are such as are formed from other words by prefixes or suffixes ; as, injustice, 
goodness, falsehood." — Id. " The distinction here insisted on is as old as Aristotle, and should not 
be lost from sight." Or : " and it should still be kept in view." — Hart cor. " The Tenses of the Sub- 
junctive and Potential Moods." Or: "The Tenses of the Subjunctive and the Potential Mood." 
— Id. " A triphthong is a union of three vowels, uttered by a single impulse of the voice ; as, uoy 
in buoy." — Pardon Davis cor. " A common noun is the name of a species or kind." — Id. " The 
superlative degree implies a comparison either between two or among more." — Id. " An adverb 
is a word serving to give an additional idea to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or a.n other ad- 
verb." — Id. " When several nouns in the possessive case occur in succession, each showing pos- 
session of things of the same sort, it is generally necessary to add the sign of the possessive case 
to each of them : as, 'He sells men's, women's, and children's shoes.' — ' Dogs', cats', and tigers' 
feet are digitated.' " — Id. " ' A rail-road is being made,' should be, 'A railroad is making;' ' A 
school-house is being built,' should be, ' A schoolhouse is building.' " — Id. " Auxiliaries are of them- 
selves verbs ; yet they resemble, in their character and use, those terminational or other inflections 
which, in other languages, serve to express the action in the mood, tense, person, and number de- 
sired." — Id. " Please to hold my horse while I speak to my friend." — Id. " If I say, ' Give me the 
book,' I demand some particular book." — Noble Butler cor. " Here are five men." — Id. " After the act- 
ive verb, the object may be omitted ; after the passive, the name of the agent may be omitted." — Id. 
" The Progressive and Emphatic forms give, in each case, a different shade of meaning to the verb." — 
Hart cor. " That may be called a Redditive Conjunction, when it answers to so or such." — Ward cor. 
" He attributes to negligence your want of success in that business." — Smart cor. " Do will and GO 
express but one action ?" Or : " Does ' will go' express but one action ?" — Barrett cor. " Language is 
the principal vehicle of thought." — G. Brown's Inst, Pref, p. iii. "Much is applied to things weighed 
or measured ; many, to those that are numbered. Elder and eldest are applied to persons only; older 
and oldest, to either persons or things." — Bullions cor. " If there are any old maids still extant, while 
misogynists are so rare, the fault must be attributable to themselves." — Kirkham cor. " The second 
method, used by the Greeks, has never been the practice of any other people of Europe." — Sheri- 
dan cor. " Neither consonant nor vowel is to be dwelt upon beyond its common quantity, when 
it closes a sentence." Or: " Neither consonants nor vowels are to be dwelt upon beyond their 
common quantity, when they close a sentence." Or, better thus : " Neither a consonant nor a 
vowel, when it closes a sentence, is to be protracted beyond its usual length." — Id. " Irony is a 
mode of speech, in which what is said, is the opposite of what is meant." — McElligott's Manual, p. 
103. " The person speaking, and the person or persons spoken to, are supposed to be present." — 
Wells cor. ; also Murray. " A Noun is a name, a word used to express the idea of an object." — 
Wells cor. " A syllable is such a word, or part of a word, as is uttered by one articulation." — 



Weld cor. 



" Thus wond'rous fair ; thyself how wond'rous then ! 

Unspeakable, who sitst above these heavens." — Milton, B. v, L 156. 
" And feel thy sovran vital lamp ; but thou 

Revisitst not these eyes, that roll in vain." — Id., iii, 22. 
" Before all temples th upright heart and pure." — Id., i, 18. 
" In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den." — Id., vii, 458. 
" The rogue and fool by fits are fair and wise ; 

And e'en the best, by fits, what they despise." — Pope cor. 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO PROSODY.— PUNCTUATION. — THE COMMA. 1025 

THE KEY.— PART IV.— PROSODY. 

CHAPTER I.— PUNCTUATION. 
SECTION I.— THE COMMA. 

Corrections under Rule I. — Of Simple Sentences. 
" A short simple sentence should rarely be divided by the comma," — Felton cor. " A regular and 
virtuous education is an inestimable blessing." — L. Mur. cor. " Such equivocal expressions mark 
an intention to deceive." — Id. " They are this and that, with their plurals these and those.' 1 — Bul- 
lions cor. "A nominative and a verb sometimes make a complete sentence; as, He sleeps." 

Felton cor. " Tense expresses the action as connected with certain relations of time ; mood repre- 
sents it as further modified by circumstances of contingency, conditionality, &c." — Bullions cor. 
"The word noun means name. 1 ' 1 — Ingersoll cor. "The present or active participle I explained 
then." — Id. " Are some verbs used both transitively and intransitively ?" — Cooper cor. " Blank 
verse is verse without rhyme."— Brown's Institutes, p. 235. "A distributive adjective denotes 
each one of a number considered separately." — Hallock cor. 
" And may at last my wear}- age 
Find out the peaceful hermitage." — Milton: Ward's Gr., 158; Hiley's, 124. 

Under the Exception concerning Simple Sentences. 
" A noun without an article to limit it, is taken in its widest sense." — Lennie, p. 6. " To main- 
tain a steady course amid all the adversities of life, marks a great mind." — Bay cor. " To love 
our Maker supremely and our neighbour as ourselves, comprehends the whole moral law." — Id. 
" To be afraid to do wrong, is true courage." — Id. " A great fortune in the hands of a fooL is a 
great misfortune." — Bullions cor. "That he should make such a remark, is indeed strange." — 
Farnum cor. " To walk in the fields and groves, is delightful." — Id. " That he committed the 
fault, is most certain." — Id. " Names common to all things of the same sort or class, are called 
Common nouns ; as, man, woman, day." — Bullions cor. " That it is our duty to be pious, admits 
not of any doubt". — Id. "To endure misfortune with resignation, is the characteristic of a great 
mind." — Id. "The assisting of a blend in such circumstances, was certainly a duty." — Id. 
"That a life of virtue is the safest, is certain." — BTallock cor. "A collective noun denoting the 
idea of unity, should be represented by a pronoun of the singular number." — Id. 

Under Rule II. — Of Simple Members. 

" When the sun had arisen, the enemy retreated." — Bay cor. " If he hecome rich, he may be 
less industrious." — Bullions cor. " The more I study grammar, the better I like it." — Id. " There 
is much truth in the old adage, that fire is a better servant than master." — Id. " The verb do, 
when used as an auxiliary, gives force or emphasis to the expression." — P. E. Bay cor. "What- 
soever is incumbent upon a man to do, it is surely expedient to do well." — Adams cor. "The 
soul, which our philosophy divides into various capacities, is still one essence." — Charming cor. 
" Put the following words in the plural, and give the rule for forming it." — Bullions cor. " We 
will do it, if you wish." — Id. " He who does well, will be rewarded." — Id. " That which is 
always true, is expressed in the present tense." — Id. " An observation which is always true, 
must be expressed in the present tense." — Id. " That part of orthography which treats of com- 
bining letters to form syllables and words, is called Spelling." — Bay cor. "A noun can never 
be of the first person, except it is in apposition with a pronoun of that person." — Id. "When 
two or more singular nouns or pronouns refer to the same object, they require a singular verb and 
pronoun." — Id. "James has gone, but he will return in a few days." — Id. "A pronoun 
should have the same person, number, and gender, as the noun for which it stands." — Id. 
" Though he is out of danger, he is still afraid." — Bullions cor. " She is his inferior in sense, but 
his equal in prudence." — Murray's Exercises, p. 6. " The man who has no sense of religion, is 
little to be trusted." — Bullions cor. " He who does the most good, has the most pleasure." — Id. 
"They were not in the most prosperous circumstances, when we last saw them." — Id. "If the 
day continue pleasant, I shall return." — Felton cor. " The days that are past, are gone forever." 
— Id. " As many as are friendly to the cause, will sustain it." — Id. " Such as desire aid, will re- 
ceive it." — Id. " Who gave you that book, which you prize so much?" — Bullions cor. " He who 
made it, now preserves and governs it." — Id. 

" Shall he alone, whom rational we call, 
Be pleas'd with nothing, if not blest with all ?" — Pope. 

Under the Exceptions concerning Simple Members. 
" Newcastle is the town in which Akenside was born." — Bucke cor. " The remorse which 
issues in reformation, is true repentance." — Campbell cor. "Men who are intemperate, are de- 
structive members of community." — Alexander cor. "An active-transitive verb expresses an 
action which extends to an object." — Felton cor. " They to whom much is given, will have much 
to answer for." — B. Murray cor. "The prospect which we have, is charming." — Cooper cor. 
" He is the person who informed me of the matter." — Id. " These are the trees that produce no 
fruit."— Id. "This is the book which treats of the subject."— id "The proposal was such as 

65 



1026 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO PROSODY. [PART IV. 

pleased me." — Id. "Those that sow in tears, shall reap in joy." — Id. "The pen with which I 
write, makes too large a mark." — Ingersoll cor. "Modesty makes large amends for the pain it gives 
the persons who labour under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy person, in their favour." 
— Id. " Irony is a figure whereby we plainly intend something very different from what our words 
express." — JBucke cor. " Catachresis is a figure whereby an improper word is used in stead of a 
proper one," — Id. "The man whom you met at the party, is a Frenchman." — Frost cor. 

Under Rule III. — Of More than Two "Words. 

"John, James, and Thomas, are here: that is, John, and James, and Thomas, are here." — 
Cooper cor "Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 116. 
"To Nouns belong Person, Gender, Number, and Case." — Id., ib., p. 9. "Wheat, corn, r} r e, and 
oats, are extensively cultivated." — Bullions cor. "In many, the definitions, rules, and leading 
facts, are prolix, inaccurate, and confused." — Finch cor. "Most people consider it mysterious, 
difficult, and useless." — Id. " His father, and mother, and uncle, reside at Rome." — Farnum cor. 
"The relative pronouns are who, which, and that." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 23. "T/iat is some- 
times a demonstrative, sometimes a relative, and sometimes a conjunction." — Bullions cor. " Our 
reputation, virtue, and happiness, greatly depend on the choice of our companions." — Day cor. 
"The spirit of true religion is social, kind, and cheerful." — Felton cor. " Do, be, have, and will, 
are sometimes principal verbs." — Id. "John, and Thomas, and Peter, reside at Oxford." — Web- 
ster cor. " The most innocent pleasures are the most rational, the most delightful, and the most 
durable." — Id. " Love, joy, peace, and blessedness, are reserved for the good." — Id. " The hus- 
band, wife, and children, suffered extremely." — L. Murray cor. " The husband, wife, and children, 
suffer extremely." — Sanborn cor. " He, you, and I, have our parts assigned us." — Id. 

" He moaned, lamented, tugged, and tried, 
Repented, promised, wept, and sighed." — Cowper. 

Under Rule IV.— Op Only Two "Words. 

" Disappointments derange and overcome vulgar minds." — L. Murray cor. " The hive of a city 
or kingdom, is in the best condition, when there is the least noise or buzz in it." — Id. " When a 
direct address is made, the noun or pronoun is in the nominative case, independent." — Ingersoll 
cor. "The verbs love and teach, make loved and taught, in the imperfect and participle." — Id. 
" Neither poverty nor riches were injurious to him." — Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 152. " Thou or 
I am in fault." — lb., p. 152. " A verb is a word that expresses action or being." — P. E. Day cor. 
" The Objective Case denotes the object of a verb or a preposition." — Id. " Verbs of the second 
conjugation may be either transitive or intransitive." — Id. "Verbs of the fourth conjugation may 
be either transitive or intransitive." — Id. " If a verb does not form its past indicative by adding 
d or ed to the indicative present, it is said to be irregular." — Id. " The young lady is studying 
rhetoric and logic." — Cooper cor. "He writes and speaks the language very correctly." — Id. 
" Man's happiness or misery is, in a great measure, put into his own hands." — Mur. cor. " This 
accident or characteristic of nouns, is called their Gender." — Bullions cor. 

"Grant that the powerful still the weak control; 
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole." — Pope cor. 

Under Exception I. — Two Words with Adjuncts. 

" Franklin is justly considered the ornament of the New World, and the pride of modern phi- 
losophy." — Day cor. "Levity, and attachment to worldly pleasures, destroy the sense of grati- 
tude to Him." — L. Mur. cor. "In the following Exercise, point out the adjectives, and the sub- 
stantives which they qualify." — Bullions cor. " When a noun or pronoun is used to explain, or 
give emphasis to, a preceding noun or pronoun." — Day cor. " Superior talents, and brilliancy of 
intellect, do not always constitute a great man." — Id. " A word that makes sense after an arti- 
cle, or after the phrase speak of, is a noun." — Bullions cor. " All feet used in poetry, are reducible 
to eight kinds ; four of two syllables, and four of three." — Hiley cor. " He would not do it him- 
self, not let me do it." — Lennie's Gram., p. 64. "The old writers give examples of the subjunctive 
mood, and give other moods to explain what is meant by the words in the subjunctive." — 0. B. 
Peirce cor. 

Under Exception II. — Two Terms Contrasted. 

" We often commend, as well as censure, imprudently " — L. Mur. cor. " It is as truly a viola- 
tion of the right of property, to take a little, as to take much ; to purloin a book or a penknife, as 
to steal money ; to steal fruit, as to steal a horse ; to defraud the revenue, as to rob my neigh- 
bour ; to overcharge the public, as to overcharge my brother ; to cheat the post-office, as to cheat 
my friend." — Wayland cor. "The classification of verbs has been, and still is, a vexed question." 
— Bullions cor. " Names applied only to individuals of a sort or class, and not common to all, are 
called Proper nouns." — Id. " A hero would desire to be loved, as well as to be reverenced." — 
Day cor. "Death, or some worse misfortune, now divides them." Better: "Death, or some 
other misfortune, soon divides them." — Murray's Gram.,j). 151. "Alexander replied, 'The world 
will not permit two suns, nor two sovereigns.' " — Goldsmith cor. 

" From nature's chain, whatever link you strike, 
Tenth, or ten-thousandth, breaks the chain alike." — Pope. 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — THE COMMA. 1027 

Under Exception III. — Op an Alternative op "Words. 

"Metre, or Measure, is the number of poetical feet which a verse contains." — Hiley cor. "The 
Caesura, or division, is the pause which takes place in a verse, and which divides it into two 
parts." — Id. " It is six feet, or one fathom, deep." — Bullions cor "A Brace is used in poetry, at 
the end of a triplet, or three lines which rhyme together." — Felton cor. " There are four princi- 
pal kinds of English verse, or poetical feet." — Id. "The period, or full stop, denotes the end of a 
complete sentence." — Sanborn cor. " The scholar is to receive as many jetons, or counters, as there 
are words in the sentence." — St. Quentin cor. " That [thing], or the thing, which purifies, fortifies 
also the heart." — 0. B. Peirce cor. " That thing, or the thing, which would induce a laxity in 
public or private morals, or indifference to guilt and wretchedness, should be regarded as the 
deadly Sirocco." — Id. " What is, elliptically, what thing, or that thing which." — Sanborn cor. 
" Demonstrate means shovj, or point out precisely." — Id. " The man, or that man, who endures to 
the end, shall be saved." — Hiley cor. 

Under Exception IY. — Op a Second Comma. 
" That reason, passion, answer one great aim." — Pope: Bullions and Hiley cor. " Reason, vir- 
tue, answer one great aim." — L. Murray's Gram., p. 269; Cooper's Murray, 182; Comly, 145; 
Ingersoll, 282 ; Sanborn, 268; Kirkham, 212; et al. " Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is 
from above." — James, i, 17. " Every plant, and every tree, produces others after its kind." — Day 
cor. " James, and not John, was paid for his services." — Id. " The single dagger, or obelisk f, 
is the second." — Id. "It was I, not he, that did it." — St. Quentin cor. "Each aunt, each 
cousin, hath her speculation." — Byron. " 'I shall see you when you come,' is equivalent to. 'I 
shall see you then, or at that time, when you come.' " — N. Butler cor. 

" Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame ; 
August her deed, and sacred be her fame." — Pope cor. 

Under Rule Y. — Op Words in Pairs. 

"My hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, centre in you." — Greenleaf or Sanborn cor. "This 
mood implies possibility or liberty, will or obligation." — Ingersoll cor. "Substance is divided into 
body and spirit, into extended and thinking." — Brightland cor. " These consonants, [d and t,~\ like 
p and b, f and v, k and hard g, and s and z, are letters of the same organ." — J Walker cor. 
" Neither fig nor twist, pigtail nor Cavendish, has passed my lips since; nor ever shall again." — 
Cultivator cor. " The words whoever or whosoever, whichever or whichsoever, and whatever or what- 
soever, are called Compound Relative Pronouns.'' — Day cor. "Adjectives signifying profit or 
disprofit, likeness or unlikeness, govern the dative." — Bullions cor. 

Under Rule YI. — Op Words Absolute. 
"Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." — Psalm xxiii, 4. "Depart, ye wicked." — J. W. 
Wright cor. "He saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!" — John, xix, 26. "Thou, 
God, seest me." — Bullions cor. "John, write me a letter. Henry, go home." — 0. B. Peirce cor., 
twice. "Now, G. Brown, let us reason together." — Id. " Mr. Smith, you say, on page 11th, ' The 
objective case denotes the object.' " — Id. "Gentlemen, will you always speak as you mean?" — 
Id. " John, I sold my books to William, for his brothers." — Id. " Walter, and Seth, I will take 
my things, and leave yours." — Id. " Henry, Julia and Jane left their umbrella, and took yours." 
— Id. "John, harness the horses, and go to the mine for some coal." — Id. "William, run to 
the store, for a few pounds of tea" — Id. " The king being dead, the parliament was dissolved." 
— Chandler cor. 

" Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife, 

And let me languish into life." — Pope, Brit. Poets, vi, 317. 
"Forbear, great man, in arms renown'd, forbear." — Hiley 's Gram., p. 127. 
" Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind ! 
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd." — Pope, Brit. Poets, vi, 335. 

Under Rule YII. — Of Words in Apposition. 
"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice," 
«fec. — Constit. of U. S. "The Lord, the covenant God of his people, requires it." — A. S. Mag. cor. 
" He, as a patriot, deserves praise." — Hallock cor. " Thomson, the watchmaker and jeweller 
from London, was of the party." — Bullions cor. " Every body knows that the person here spoken 
of by the name of '■the Conqueror ■,' is William, duke of Normandy." — L. Mur. cor. " The words 
myself, thyself, himself, herself, itself, and their plurals, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves, are 
called Compound Personal Pronouns." — Day cor. 

" For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, 

This pleasing, anxious being e'er resign'd, 
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day 

Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind?" — Gray: Mur. Seq. 

Under the Exceptions concerning Apposition. 
"Smith & Williams's store; Nicholas the emperor's army." — Day cor. " He was named Wil- 
liam the Conqueror" — Id. "John the Baptist was beheaded."— id "Alexander the copper- 



1028 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO PROSODY. [P^RT IV. 

smith did me much evil." — 2 Tim., iv, 14. "A nominative in immediate apposition: as, 'The 
boy Henry speaks.' " — Smart cor. "A noun objective can be in apposition with some other ; as, 
' I teach the boy Henry? " — Id. 

Under Rule YIII. — Of Adjectives. 

" But he found me, not singing at my work, ruddy with health, vivid with cheerfulness ; but 
pale," &c. — Dr. Johnson: Murray's Sequel, p. 4. " I looked up, and beheld an inclosure, beau- 
tiful as the gardens of paradise, but of a small extent." — Hawkesworth: ib., p. 20. "i is an 
article, indefinite, and belongs to ' book.' 1 " — Bullions cor. " The first expresses the rapid move- 
ment of a troop of horse over the plain, eager for the combat." — Id. " He [, the Indian chieftain, 
King Philip,] was a patriot, attached to his native soil ; a prince, true to his subjects, and indig- 
nant of their wrongs ; a soldier, daring in battle, firm in adversity, patient of fatigue, of hunger, of 
every variety of bodily suffering, and ready to perish in the cause be had espoused." — W. Irving. 

" For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead, 

Dost in these lines their artless tale relate." — Gray : Mur. Seq., p. 258. 
" Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest; 

Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood." — Gray : Enf. Sp., p. 245. 
" Idle after dinner [,] in his chair, 

Sat a farmer, ruddy, fat, and fair." — Murray's Gram., p. 257. 

Under the Exception concerning Adjectives. 
" When an attribute becomes a title, or is emphatically applied to a name, it follows it : as, 
Charles the Great; Henry the First; Lewis the Gross." — Webster cor. " Feed me with food con- 
venient for me." — Prov., xxx, 8. " The words and phrases necessary to exemplify every princi- 
ple progressively laid down, will be found strictly and exclusively adapted to the illustration of 
the principles to which they are referred." — Ingersoll cor. " The Infinitive Mood is that form of 
the verb which expresses being or action unlimited by person or number." — Day cor. "A man 
diligent in his business, prospers." — Frost cor. 

" Oh wretched state! oh bosom black as death!" — Shak. : Enfield, p. 368. 

Under Rule IX. — Of Finite Yerbs. 
"The Singular denotes one; the Plural, more than one." — Bullions and Lennie cor. "The 
Comma represents the shortest pause ; the Semicolon, a pause longer than the comma ; the 
Colon, longer than the semicolon; and the Period, longer than the colon." — Hiley cor. "The 
Comma represents the shortest pause ; the Semicolon, a pause double that of the Comma ; the 
Colon, double that of the semicolon; and the Period, double that of the colon." — L. Murray's 
Gram., p. 266. "Who is applied only to persons; which, to animals and things; what, to 
things only ; and that, to persons, animals, and things." — Day cor. " A or an is used before 
the singular number only; the, before either singular or plural." — Bullions cor. "Homer was 
the greater genius; Yirgil, the better artist." — Day cor. ; also Pope. "Words are formed of syl- 
lables; syllables, of letters." — St. Quentin cor. " The conjugation of an active verb is styled the 
active voice ; and that of a passive verb, the passive voice." — Frost cor. ; also Smith : L. 
Murray's Gram., p. 77. "The possessive is sometimes called the genitive case; and the objec- 
tive, the accusative." — L. Murray cor. " Benevolence is allied to few vices ; selfishness, to fewer 
virtues." — Karnes cor. "Orthography treats of Letters; Etymology, of words; Syntax, of Sen- 
tences ; and Prosody, of Yersification." — Hart cor. 

" Earth praises conquerors for shedding blood ; 
Heaven, those that love their foes, and do them good." — Waller. 

Under Rule X. — Of Infinitives. 
" His business is, to observe the agreement or disagreement of words." — Bullions cor. "It is 
a mark of distinction, to be made a member of this societj^." — Farnum cor. " To distinguish the 
conjugations, let the pupil observe the following rules." — Day cor. " He was now sent for, to 
preach before the Parliament." — E. Williams cor. " It is incumbent on the young, to love and 
honour their parents." — Bullions cor. " It is the business of every man, to prepare for death." — 
Id. " It argued the sincerest candor, to make such an acknowledgement." — Id. " The proper 
way is, to complete the construction of the first member, and leave that of the second ellipticaV 
— Id. " Enemy is a name. It is a term of distinction, given to a certain person, to show the 
character in which he is represented." — Peirce cor. " The object of this is, to preserve the soft 
sounds of c and a." — Hart cor. " The design of grammar is, to facilitate the reading, writing, 
and speaking of a language." — Barrett cor. " Four kinds of type are used in the following pages, 
to indicate the portions that are considered more or less elementary." — Hart cor. 

Under Rule XL — Of Participles. 
" The chancellor, being attached to the king, secured his crown." — Murray's Grammar, p. 66. 
"The officer, having received his orders, proceeded to execute them." — Day cor. " Thus used, 
it is in the present tense." — Bullions, E. Gr., 2d Ed., p. 35. " The imperfect tense has three 
distinct forms, corresponding to those of the present tense." — Bullions cor. " Every possessive 
case is governed by some noun, denoting the thing possessed." — Id. " The word that, used as a 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — THE COMMA. 1029 

conjunction, is [generally] preceded by a comma." — Hiley's Gram., p. 114. " His narrative, being 
composed upon so good authority, deserves credit." — Cooper cor. "The hen. being in her nest, 
was killed and eaten there by the eagle." — Murray cor. " Pronouns, being used in dead of nouns, 
are subject to the same modifications." — Sanborn cor. " When placed at the beginning of words, 
they are consonants." — Hallock cor. " Man, starting from his couch, shall sleep no more." — Young. 
" His and her, followed by a noun, are possessive pronouns ; not followed by a noun, they are 
personal pronouns." — Bullions cor. 

" He, with viny crown advancing, 
First to the lively pipe his hand address'd." — Collins. 

Under the Exception concerning Participles. 
" But when they convey the idea of many acting individually, or separately, they are of the 
plural number." — Day cor. " Two or more singular antecedents connected by and, [when they 
happen to introduce more than one verb and more than one pronoun,] require verbs and pro- 
nouns of the plural number." — Id. " "Words ending in y preceded by a consonant, change y into 
i, when a termination is added." — V. Butler cor. "A noun used without an article to limit it, is 
generally taken in its widest sense." — Ingersoll cor. " Two nouns meaning the same person or 
thing, frequently come together." — Bucke cor. " Each one must give an account to God for the 
use, or abuse, of the talents committed to him." — Cooper cor. " Two vowels united in one sound, 
form a diphthong." — Frost cor. " Three vowels united in one sound, form a triphthong." — Id. 
"Any word joined to an adverb, is a secondary adverb." — Barrett cor. " The person spoken to, 
is put in the Second person; the person spoken of, in the Third person." — Cutler cor. " A man 
devoted to his business, prospers." — Frost cor. 

Under Rule XII. — Of Adverbs. 
" So, in indirect questions ; as, ' Tell me when he will come.' " — Butler cor. " Now, when the 
verb tells what one person or thing does to an other, it is transitive." — Bullions cor. " Agreeably 
to your request, I send this letter." — Id. " There seems, therefore, to be no good reason for 
giving them a different classification." — Id. " Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a mer- 
chant-man seeking good pearls." — Scotfs Bible, Smiths, and Bruce's. " Again, the kingdom of 
heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea." — Same. " Cease, however, is used as a 
transitive verb by our best writers." — Webster cor. "Time admits of three natural divisions; 
namely, Present, Past, and Future." — Day cor. "There are three kinds of comparison ; namely, 
Regular, Irregular, and Adverbial." — Id. "There are five personal pronouns; namely,/ thou, 
he, she, and iV — Id. "Nouns have three cases: viz., the Nominative, the Possessive, and the 
Objective." — Bullions cor. " Hence, in studying Grammar, we have to study words." — Frazee 
cor. " Participles, like verbs, relate to nouns and pronouns." — Miller cor. "The time of the 
participle, like that of the infinitive, is estimated from the time of the leading verb." — Bullions 
cor. 

" The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego, 
And leap exulting, like the bounding roe." — Pope. 

Under Rule XIII. — Op Conjunctions. 
" But he said, Nay; lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." — 
Scotfs Bible et al. " Their intentions were good ; but, wanting prudence, they missed the mark 
at which they aimed." — L. Mur. cor. " The verb be often separates the name from its attribute ; 
as, ' War is expensive.' " — Webster cor. " Either and or denote an alternative ; as, ' I will take 
either road at your pleasure.' " — Id. " Either is also a substitute for a name; as. ' Either of the 
roads is good.' " — Id. "But, alas! I fear the consequence." — Day cor. " Or, if he ask a fish, 
will he for a fish give him a serpent?" — Luke, xi, 11. "Or, if he shall ask an egg, will he oiler 
him a scorpion?" — Alger's Bible: Luke, xi, 12. "The infinitive sometimes performs the office 
of a nominative case ; as, ' To enjoy is to obey.' — Pope." — Cutler cor. " The plural is commonly 
formed by adding s to the singular; as, book, books." — Bullions, P. Lessons, p. 16. "As, 'I were 
to blame, if I did it' " — Smart cor. 

" Or, if it be thy will and pleasure, 
Direct my plough to find a treasure." 

Under Rule XIV. — Op Prepositions. 
" Pronouns agree with the nouns for which they stand, in gender, number, and person." — But- 
ler and Bullions cor. " In the first two examples, the antecedent is person, or something equiva- 
lent ; in the last [one], it is thing." — K Butler c&r. " In what character he was admitted, is 
unknown."— Id. " To what place he was going, is not known." — Id. " In the preceding exam- 
ples, John, Ccesar, and James, are the subjects." — Id. " Yes is generally used to denote assent, 
in answer to a question." — Id. " That, in its origin, is the passive participle of the Anglo-Saxon 
verb thean, [thegan, Megan, thicgean, or thigan,] to take:'— Id. "But, in all these sentences, as 
and so are adverbs." — Id. " After an interjection or an exclamatory sentence, is usually placed 
the mark of exclamation." — D.Blair cor. "Intransitive verbs, from their nature, can have no 
distinction of voice." — Bullions cor. " To the inflection of verbs, belong Voices, Moods, Tenses, 
Numbers, and Persons." — Id. " As and so, in the antecedent member of a comparison, are prop- 
erly Adverbs." Better: " As or so, in the antecedent member of a comparison, is properly an 



1030 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO PROSODY. [PART IV. 

adverb.' 1 '' — Id. "In the following Exercise, point out the words in apposition." — Id. "In the 
following Exercise, point out the noun or pronoun denoting the possessor." — Id. " Its is not 
found in the Bible, except by misprint." — Brown 1 s Institutes, p. 49. "No one's interest is con- 
cerned, except mine." — Hallock cor. " In most of the modern languages, there are four con- 
cords." — St. Quentin cor. "In illustration of these remarks, let us suppose a case." — Hart cor. 
" On the right management of the emphasis, depends the life of pronunciation." — J. S. Hart and 
L. Murray cor. See Blair's Rhet., p. 330. 

Under Rule XY. — Of Interjections. 

" Behold, he is in the desert." — Friends' 1 Bible. " And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord." 
— Alger's Bible. " Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one ?) and my soul shall live." — 
Friends' 1 Bible, and Alger's. "Behold, I come quickly." — Rev., xxii, 7. "Lo, I am with you 
always." — Day cor. " And, lo, I am with you alway." — Alger's Bible : Day cor.; also Scott and 
Bruce. "Ha, ha, ha; how laughable that is!" — Bullions cor. "Interjections of laughter; ha, 
ha, ha." — Wright cor. 

Under Rule XVI. — Of "Words Repeated. 

" Lend, lend your wings !" &c. — Pope. " To bed, to bed, to bed. There is a knocking at the gate. 
Come, come, come. "What is done, cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed." — Shakspeare : 
Burgh's Speaker, p. 130. " I will roar, that the duke shall cry, Encore, encore, let him roar, let 
him roar, once more, once more." — Id., ib., p. 136. 

" Vital spark of heavenly flame ! 

Quit, oh quit this mortal frame!" — Pope. 
" the pleasing, pleasing anguish, 

"When we love, and when we languish." — Addison. 
" Praise to God, immortal praise, 
Eor the love that crowns our days !" — Barbauld. 

Under Rule XVIL — Of Dependent Quotations. 

" Thus, of an infant, we say, ' It is a lovely creature.' " — Bullions cor. " No being can state a 
falsehood in saying, 1 1 am;' for no one can utter this, if it is not true." — Cardell cor. " I know 
they will cry out against this, and say, 'Should he pay,' means, 'If he should pay.'" — 0. B. 
Peirce cor. " For instance, when we say, ' The house is building,' the advocates of the new theory 
ask, — ' building what V We might ask in turn, "When you say, ' The field ploughs well,' — ploughs 
what f ' Wheat sells well,' — sells what ? If usage allows us to say, ' Wheat sells at a dollar,' in a 
sense that is not active ; why may it not also allow us to say, ' Wheat is selling at a dollar,' in a 
sense that is not active ?" — Hart cor. " Man is accountable,' equals, ' Mankind are accounta- 
ble.' " — Barrett cor. " Thus, when we say, ' He may be reading,' may is the real verb ; the other 
parts are verbs by name only." — Smart cor. " Thus we say, an apple, an hour, that two vowel 
sounds may not come together." — Id. " It would be as improper to say, an unit, as to say, an 
youth ; to say, an one, as to say, an wonder." — Id. " When we say, ' He died for the truth,' for 
is a preposition." — Id. "We do not say, 'I might go yesterday;' but, 'I might have gone 
yesterday.' " — Id. "By student, we understand, one who has by matriculation acquired the rights 
of academical citizenship ; but, by bursche, we understand, one who has already spent a certain 
time at the university." — Howitt cor. 

SECTION II.— THE SEMICOLON. 

Corrections under Rule I. — Of Complex Members. 
" The buds spread into leaves, and the blossoms swell to fruit; but they know not how they 
grow, nor who causes them to spring up from the bosom of the earth." — Day cor. " But he used 
his eloquence chiefly against Philip, king of Macedon ; and, in several orations, he stirred up the 
Athenians to make war against him." — Bullions cor. " For the sake of euphony, the n is dropped 
before a consonant ; and, because most words begin with a consonant, this of course is its more 
common form." — Id. " But if I say, ' "Will a man be able to carry this burden ?' it is manifest 
the idea is entirely changed ; the reference is not to number, but to the species ; and the answer 
might be, 'No; but a horse will.' " — Id. "In direct discourse, a noun used by the speaker or 
writer to designate himself [in the special relation of speaker or writer], is said to be of the first 
person ; used to designate the person addressed, it is said to be of the second person ; and, when 
used to designate a person or thing [merely] spoken of, it is said to be of the third person." — Id. 
" Vice stings us, even in our pleasures ; but virtue consoles us, even in our pains." — Day cor. 
"Vice is infamous, though in a prince; and virtue, honourable, though in a peasant." — Id. 
" Every word that is the name of a person or thing, is a noun ; because, ' A noun is the name of 
any person, place, or thing.' " — Bullions cor. 

" This is the sword with which he did the deed ; 
And that, the shield by which he was defended." — Bucke cor. 

Under Rule II. — Of Simple Members. 
" A deathlike paleness was diffused over his countenance ; a chilling terror convulsed his frame; 
his voice burst out at intervals into broken accents." — Jerningham cor. " The Lacedemonians 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO PKOSODY. — PUNCTUATION". — THE SEMICOLON. 1031 

never traded ; they knew no luxury ; they lived in houses built of rough materials ; they ate at 
public tables; fed on black broth ; and despised everything effeminate or luxurious." — Whelp- 
ley cor. " Government is the agent; society is the principal." — Wayland cor. " The essentials 
of speech were anciently supposed to be sufficiently designated by the Noun and the Verb ; to 
which was subsequently added the Conjunction." — Bullions cor. " The first faint gleamings of 
thought in its mind, are but reflections from the parents' own intellect ; the first manifestations of 
temperament, are from the contagious parental fountain ; the first aspirations of soul, are but the 
warmings and promptings of the parental spirit." — Jocelyn cor. " Older and oldest refer to matu- 
rity of age ; elder and eldest, to priority of right by birth. Farther and farthest denote place or 
distance; further and furthest, quantity or addition." — Bullions cor. "Let the divisions be nat- 
ural ; such as obviously suggest themselves to the mind ; such as may aid your main design ; and 
such as may be easily remembered." — Goldsbury cor. 

" Gently make haste, of labour not afraid; 
A hundred times consider what- you 1 ve said." — Dryden cor. 

Under Edle III. — Of Apposition, &o. 

(1.) "Adjectives are divided [, in Frost's Practical Grammar,] into two classes; adjectives de- 
noting quality, and adjectives denoting number." — Frost cor. (2.) " There are [, according to 
some authors,] two classes of adjectives ; qualifying adjectives, and limiting adjectives." — N. 
Butler cor. (3 — 5.) " There are three genders ; the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter." — 
Frost et al. cor. ; also L. Mur. et al. ; also Hendrick: Inst, p. 35. (6.) "The Singular denotes 
one; the Plural, more than one." — Hart cor. (7.) " There are three cases; viz., the Nominative, 
the Possessive, and the Objective." — Hendrick cor. (8.) "Nouns have three cases; the nom- 
inative, the possessive, and the objective." — Kirkham cor. (9.) " In English, nouns have three 
cases; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective." — Smith cor. (10.) "Grammar is divided 
into four parts ; namely, Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, Prosody." — Hazen. (11.) "It is di- 
vided into four parts; viz., Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, Prosody." — Mur. et al. cor. (12.) 
" It is divided into four parts ; viz., Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, Prosody." — Bucke cor. 
(13.) " It is divided into four parts; namely, Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody." 
— Lennie, Bullions, et al. (14.) "It is divided into four parts; viz., Orthography, Etymology, 
Syntax, and Prosody." — Hendrick cor. (15.) " Grammar is divided into four parts; viz., Orthog- 
raphy, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody." — Chandler cor. (16.) "It is divided into four parts; 
Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody." — Cooper and Frost cor. (17.) " English Gram- 
mar has been usually divided into four parts ; viz., Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Pros- 
ody." — Nutting cor. (18.) " Temperance leads to happiness; intemperance, to misery." — Hiley 
and Hart cor. (19, 20.) " A friend exaggerates a man's virtues; an enemy, his crimes." — Hiley 
cor.; also Murray. (21.) "Many writers use a plural noun after the second of two numeral 
adjectives; thus, 'The first and second pages are torn.' " — Bullions cor. (22.) " Of these, [i. e., 
of Cases,] the Latin has six; the Greek, five; the German, four; the Saxon, six; the French, 
three; &c"—Id. 

" In ing it ends, when doing is expressed ; 
In d, t, n, when suffering's confessed." — Brightland cor. 

MIXED EXAMPLES CORRECTED. 
" In old books, i is often used for j ; v, for u ; vv, for w ; and ii or ij, for y." — Hart cor. " The 
forming of letters into words and syllables, is also called Spelling." — Id. " Labials are formed 
chiefly by the lips; dentals, by the teeth; palatals, by the palate; gutturals, by the throat; 
nasals, by the nose ; and Unguals, by the tongue." — Id. " The labials are p, b, f v ; the dentals, 
t, d, s, z; the palatals, g soft and j; the gutturals, k, q. and c and g hard; the nasals, ',n and n; 
and the Unguals, I and r." — Id. " Thus, ' The man, having finished his letter, will cany it to the 
post-office.''" — Id. "Thus, in the sentence, ' He had a dagger concealed under his cloak,' con- 
cealed is passive, signifying being concealed ; but, in the former combination, it goes to make up 
a form the force of which is active." — Id. "Thus, in Latin, 'He had concealed the dagger,' 
would be, ' Pugionem abdiderat;' but, ' He had the dagger concealed,' would be, ' Pugionem 
abditum habebaV" — Id. " Here, for instance, means, 'in this place;' now, 'at this time;' 
&c." — Id. " Here when both declares the time of the action, and so is an adverb ; and also con- 
nects the two verbs, and so resermles a conjunction." — Id. " These words were all, no doubt, 
originally other parts of speech; viz., verbs, nouns, and adjectives. '' — Id. "The principal parts 
of a sentence, are the subject, the attribute, and the object ; in other words, the nominative, the 
verb, and the objective." — Id. " Thus, the adjective is connected with the noun ; the adverb, 
with the verb or adjective ; the pronoun, with its antecedent, ; &c." — Id. " Between refers to two ; 
among, to more than two." — Id. " At is used after a v&rb of rest ; to, after a verb of motion." — 
Id. " Verbs are of three kinds; Active, Passive, and Neuter." — L.Murray. [Active] "Verbs 
are divided into two classes; Transitive and Intransitive." — Hendrick cor. " The Parts of Speech, 
in the English language, are nine; viz., the Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun. Verb, Adverb, 
Preposition, Interjection, and Conjunction." — Bullions cor. See Lennie. " Of these, the Noun, 
Pronoun, and Verb, are declined; the rest are indeclinable." — Bullions, Analyt. and Pract Gram., 
p. 18. " The first expression is called ' the Active form ;' the second, ' the Passive form.' *'. _ Weld cor- 

" 0, 'tis a godlike privilege to save ; 
And he that scorns it, is himself a slave." — Cowper cor. 



1032 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO PROSODY. [PART IV. 

SECTION III.— THE COLON. 

Corrections under Rule I. — Of Additional Remarks. 
" Of is a preposition : it expresses the relation between fear and Lord" — Bullions cor. "Wealth 
and poverty are both temptations to man : that tends to excite pride ; this, discontentment." — Id. 
et al. cor. "Religion raises men above themselves; irreligion sinks them beneath the brutes : 
this binds them down to a poor pitiable speck of perishable earth ; that opens for them a prospect 
to the skies." — Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 189. " Love not idleness : it destroys many." — Inyersoll cor. 
" Children, obey your parents: 'Honour thy father and mother,' is the first commandment with 
promise." — Bullions cor. "Thou art my hiding-place and my shield; I hope in thy word" — 
Psalm cxix, 114. "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall 
preserve thee from all evil : he shall preserve thy soul." — Psalm cxxi, 6. "Here to Greece is assigned 
the highest place in the class of objects among which she is numbered — the nations of antiquity: 
she is one of them." — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 114. 

" From short (as usual) and disturb'd repose, 
I wake: how happy they who wake no more 1" — Young, N. T., p. 3. 

Under Rule II. — Of Greater Pauses. 
"A taste of a thing, implies actual enjoyment of it; but a tase for it, implies only capacity for 
enjoyment : as, ' When we have had a true taste of the pleasures of virtue, we can have no relish 
for those of vice.' " — Bullions cor. " The Indicative mood simply declares a thing: as, ' He loves? 
' He is loved:' or it asks a question; as, l Lovest thou me ?' " — Id. and Lennie cor. ; also Murray. 
"The Imperfect (or Past) tense represents an action or event indefinitely as past; as, 'Caesar 
came, and saw, and conquered ;' or it represents the action definitely as unfinished and con- 
tinuing at a certain time now entirely past ; as, ' My father was coming home when I met him.' " 
— Bullions cor. "Some nouns have no plural; as, gold, silver, wisdom: others have no singular: 
as, ashes, shears, tongs : others are alike in both numbers ; as, sheep, deer, means, news." — Bay cor. 
' ' The same verb may be transitive in one sense, and intransitive in an other : thus, in the sen- 
tence, "He believes my story,' believes is transitive; but, in this phrase, 'He believes in God,' it 
is intransitive." — Butler cor. " Let the divisions be distinct: one part should not include an other, 
but each should have its proper place, and be of importance in that place ; and all the parts, well 
fitted together and united, should present a perfect whole." — Goldsbury cor. "In the use of the 
transitive verb, there are always three things implied ; the actor, the act, and the object acted upon : 
in the use of the intransitive, there are only two ; the subject, or the thing spoken of, and the state 
or action attributed to it." — Bullions cor. 

"Why labours reason? instinct were as well; 
Instinct, far better: what can choose, can err." — Young, vii, 622. 

Under Rule III. — Of Independent Quotations. 

" The sentence may run thus : ' He is related to the same person, and is governed by him.' " — 
Hart cor. "Always remember this ancient proverb: 'Know thyself.'" — Hallock cor. "Con- 
sider this sentence: 'The boy runs swiftly.'" — Frazee cor. -"The comparative is used thus: 
' Greece was more polished than any other nation of antiquity.' The same idea is expressed by 
the superlative, when the word other is left out : thus, ' Greece was the most polished nation of 
antiquity.' " — Bullions and Lennie cor. " Burke, in his speech on the Carnatic war, makes the 
following allusion to the well known fable of Cadmus sowing dragon's teeth : — ' Every day you 
are fatigued and disgusted with this cant: ' The Carnatic is a country that will soon recover, and 
become instantly as prosperous as ever.' They think they are talking to innocents, who believe 
that by the sowing of dragon's teeth, men may come up ready grown and ready made.' " — Hiley 
and Hart cor. 

" For sects he car'd not : ' They are not of us, 
Nor need we, brethren, their concerns discuss.' " — Grabbe cor. 

"Habit, with him, was all the test of truth: 

' It must be right ; I've done it from my youth.' 
Questions he answer'd in as brief a way : 

'It must be wrong ; it was of yesterday.'/' — Id. 

MIXED EXAMPLES CORRECTED. 
"This would seem to say, 'I doubt nothing, save one thing; namely, that he will fulfill his 
promise:' whereas that is the very thing not doubted." — Bullions cor. " The common use of 
language requires, that a distinction be made between morals and manners : the former depend 
upon internal dispositions ; the latter, upon outward and visible accomplishments." — Beattie cor. 
"Though I detest war in each particular fibre of my heart, yet I honour the heroes among our 
fathers, who fought with bloody hand. Peacemakers in a savage way, they were faithful to their 
light : the most inspired can be no more ; and we, with greater fight, do, it may be, far less." — 
T. Parker cor. " The article the, like a, must have a substantive joined with it ; whereas that, 
like one, may have it understood : thus, speaking of books, I may select one, and say, ' Give me 
that;'' but not, 'Give me the; 1 — [so I may say,] ' Give me one ;' but not, ' Give me a.' " — Bullions 
cor. " The Present tense has three distinct forms: the simple ; as, I read: the emphatic; as, I 
do read: and the progressive ; as, lam reading." Or thus: "The Present tense has three dis- 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — THE PERIOD. 1033 

tinct forms; — the simple ; as. ( I read;' — the emphatic ; as, 'I do read;' — and the progressive ; 
as, 'lam reading.'" — Id. " The tenses in English are usually reckoned six; the Present, the 
Imperfect, the Perfect, the Pluperfect, the First-future, and the Second-future." — Id. " There are 
three participles ; the Present or Active, the Perfect or Passive, and the Compound Perfect : as 
loving, loved, having loved." Or, better: "There are three participles from each verb; namely, 
the Imperfect, the Perfect, and the Preperfect ; as, turning, turned, having turned." — Murray et al. 
cor. " The participles are three ; the Present, the Perfect, and the Compound Perfect : as, loving, 
loved, having loved." Better : " The participles of each verb are three ; the Imperfect, the Per- 
fect, and the Preperfect: as, turning, turned, having turned." — Hart cor. "Will is conjugated 
regularly, when it is a principal verb : as, present, I will ; past, I willed; &c." — Frazee cor. " And 
both sounds of x are compound: one is that of gz, and the other, that of ks." — Id. "The man is 
happy; he is benevolent; he is useful." — L. Mur., p. 28: Cooper cor. "The pronoun stands in 
stead of the noun: as, ' The man is happy ; he is benevolent; he is useful.' " — L.Murray cor. "A 
Pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun, to prevent too frequent a repetition of it : as, ' The 
man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful.' " — Id. " A Pronoun is a word used in the room 
of a noun, or as a substitute for one or more words : as, ' The man is happy ; he is benevolent ; 
he is useful.' " — Cooper cor. "A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or 
things ; as, Animal, tree, insect, fish, fowl." — Id. " Nouns have three persons ; the first, the 
second, and the third." — Id. 

" So saying, her rash hand in evil hour 
Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eat : 
Earth felt the wound ; and Xature from her seat, 
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, 
That ah was lost."— Milton, P. L., Book ix, 1. 780. 

SECTION IV.— THE PERIOD. 

Corrections under Rule I. — Of Distinct Sentences. 
"The third person is the position of a word by which an object is merely spoken of; as, ' Paul 
and Silas were imprisoned.' — ' The earth thirsts.' — 'The sun shines.' " — Frazee cor. 

" Two, and three, and four, make nine. If he were here, he would assist his father and mother ; 
for he is a dutiful son. They live together, and are happy, because they enjoy each other's 
society. They went to Roxbury, and tarried all night, and came back the next day." — Golds- 
bury cor. 

" We often resolve, but seldom perform. She is wiser than her sister. Though he is often ad- 
vised, yet he does not reform. Reproof either softens or hardens its object. He is as old as his 
classmates, but not so learned. Neither prosperity, nor adversity, has improved him. Let him 
that standeth, take heed lest he fall. He can acquire no virtue, unless he make some sacrifices." 
—Id. 

"Down from his neck, with blazing gems array'd, 
Thy image, lovely Anna ! hung portray'd ; 
Th' unconscious figure, smiling all serene, 
Suspended in a golden chain was seen." — Falconer. 

Under Rule II: — Of Allied Sentences. 

" This life is a mere prelude to an other which has no limits. It is a little portion of duration. 
As death leaves us. so the day of judgement will find us." — Merchant cor. 

" He went from Boston to New York. — He went (I say) from Boston ; he went to New York. 
In walking across the floor, he stumbled over a chair." — Goldsbury corrected. 

"I saw him on the spot, going along the road, looking towards the house. During the heat 
of the day, he sat on the ground, under the shade of a tree." — Goldsbury corrected. 

" ' George came home : I saw him yesterday.' Here the word him can extend only to the in- 
dividual George. " — Barrett corrected. 

" Commas are often used now, where parentheses were [adopted] formerly. I cannot, how- 
ever, esteem this an improvement." — Buckes Classical Grammar, p. 20. 
'• Thou, like a sleeping, faithless sentinel, 
Didst let them pass unnotie'd, uniinprov'd. 
And know, for that thou slumberst on the guard, 
Thou shalt be made to answer at the bar 
For eveiy fugitive." — Cotton : Hallock and Enfield cor. 

Under Rule III. — Of Abbreviations. 

" The term pronoun (Lat. pronomen) strictly means a word used for, or in stead of, a noun." — 
Bullions connected. 

" The period is also used after abbreviations ; as. A. D., P. S., G. W. Johnson."— N. Butler cor. 

" On this principle of classification, the later Greek grammarians divided words into eight classes, 
or parts of speech : viz., the Article, Noun, Pronoun, Yerb, Participle, Adverb, Preposition, and 
Conjunction." — Bullions cor. 

'" Metre [Melody] is not confined to verse: there is a tune in all good prose; and Shak- 
speare's was a sweet one.'— Epea Pter., ii, 61. [First American Ed., ii, 50.] Mr. H. Tooke'a 



1034 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO PROSODY. [PART IV. 

idea was probably just, agreeing with Aristotle's; but [, if so, it is] not accurately expressed." 
— Churchill cor. 

" Mr. J. H. Tooke was educated at Eton and at Cambridge, in which latter college he took the 
degree of A. M. Being intended for the established church of England, he entered into holy 
orders when young ; and obtained the living of Brentford, near London, which he held ten or 
twelve years." — Tooke's Annotator cor. 

a I, nor your plan, nor book condemn ; 
But why your name? and why A. M. ?" — Lloyd cor. 

MIXED EXAMPLES CORRECTED. 

" If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath," &c. — Isaiah, lviii, 13. "He that hath eeris 
of hervnge, here he." — "Wickliffe: Matt., xi, 15. "See General Rules for Spelling, hi, v, and vii." 
— N. Butler cor. " False witnesses did rise up." — Ps., xxxv, 11. 

"An explicative sentence is used for explaining; an interrogative sentence, for inquiring ; an 
imperative sentence, for commanding." — Barrett cor. "In October, corn is gathered in the field 
by men, who go from hill to hill with baskets, into which they put the ears. — Susan labours with 
her needle for a livelihood. — Notwithstanding his poverty, he is a man of integrity." — Golds, cor. 

"A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; a word of two syllables, a dissyllable; a 
word of three syllables, a trissy liable ; a word of four or more syllables, a polysyllable." — Frazee 
cor. 

" If I say, ' If it did not rain, I would take a walk ;' I convey the idea that it does rain at the 
time of speaking. ' If it rained,'' or, ' Did it rain,'' in [reference to] the present time, implies 
that it does not rain. ' If it did not rain,' or, ' Did it not rain,' in [reference to the] present time, 
implies that it does rain. Thus, in this peculiar application, an affirmative sentence always implies 
a negation; and a negative sentence, an affirmation." — Id. "'If I were loved,' and, 'Were I 
loved;' imply I am not loved: 'If I were not loved,' and, 'Were I not loved,' imply I am loved. 
A negative sentence implies an affirmation, and an affirmative sentence implies a negation, in 
these forms of the subjunctive." — Id. 

"What is Rule III?" — Hart cor. " How is Rule III violated ?" — Id. " How do you parse 
letter in the sentence, ' James writes a letter ?' Ans. Letter is a common noun, of the third per- 
son, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case ; and is governed by the verb writes, ac- 
cording to Rule III, which says, ' A transitive verb governs the objective case.' " — Id. 
" Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the gen'ral pulse 
Of life stood still, and nature made a pause ; 
An awful pause ! prophetic of her end. 
And let her prophecy be soon fulfill'd : 
Fate, drop the curtain ; I can lose no more." — Young. 

SECTION V.— THE DASH. 

Corrections under Rule I. — Of Abrupt Pauses. 

" And there is something in your very strange story, that resembles — Does Mr. Bevil know 
your history particularly?" — Burgh's Speaker, p. 149. "Sir, — Mr. Myrtle — Gentlemen — You are 
friends — I am but a servant — But — " — lb., p. 118. 

" An other man now would have given plump into this foolish story ; but I — No, no, your 
humble servant for that." — Garrick, Neck or Nothing. 

" Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten thy trial ; which if — Lord have mercy 
on thee for a hen!" — Shakspeare, All's Well. 

" But ere they came, — 0, let me say no more ! 
Gather the sequel by that went before." — Idem, Com. of Errors. 

Under Rule II. — Of Emphatic Pauses. 

U M, — Malvolio; — M, — why, that begins my name." — Singer's Shak., Twelfth Night. 

"Thus, by the creative influence of the Eternal Spirit, were the heavens and the earth finished 
in the space of six days — so admirably finished — an unformed chaos changed into a system of 
perfect order and beauty — that the adorable Architect himself pronounced it very good, and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy." — Historical Reader, p. 10. 

" If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop remained in my country, 
I never would lay down my arms — never, never, never." — Pitt's Speech. 

" Madam, yourself are not exempt in this, — 
Nor your son Dorset ; — Buckingham, nor you." — Shak. 

Under Rule III. — Of Faulty Dashes. 

" 'You shall go home directly, Le Fevre,' said my uncle Toby, ' to my house ; and we'll send 
for a doctor to see what's the matter ; and we'll have an apothecary ; and the corporal shall be 
your nurse : and I'll be your servant, Le Fevre.' " — Sterne cor. 

" He continued : ' Inferior artists may be at a stand, because they want materials.' " — Harris 
cor. " Thus, then, continued he : ' The end, in other arts, is ever distant and removed.' " — Id. 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — THE EROTEME. 1035 

"The nouns must be coupled with and; and when a pronoun is used, it must be plural, as in 
the example. When the nouns are disjoined, the pronoun must be singular." — Lennie cor. 

" Opinion is a common noun, or substantive, of the third person, singular number, neuter gen- 
der, and nominative case." — Wright cor. 

" The mountain, thy pall and thy prison, may keep thee ; 
I shall see thee no more, but till death I will weep thee." — 

See Feltorfs Gram., p. 93. 
MIXED EXAMPLES CORRECTED. 
" If to accommodate man and beast, heaven and earth — if this be beyond me, 'tis not possible. 
— What consequence then follows ? Or can there be any other than this ? — if I seek an interest 
of my own. detached from that of others, I seek an interest which is chimerical, and can never 
have existence." — Harris. 

"Again : I must have food and clothing. Without a proper genial warmth, I instantly perish. 
Am I not related, in this view, to the veiy earth itself? — to the distant sun, from whose beams I 
derive vigour?" — Id. 

" Nature instantly ebbed again ; the film returned to its place ; the pulse fluttered — stopped — 
went on — throbbed — stopped again — moved — stopped. — Shall I go on ? — No." — Sterne cor. 

" Write ten nouns of the masculine gender ; — ten of the feminine ; — ten of the neuter ; ten 
indefinite in gender." — Davis cor. 

"The infinitive mood has two tenses; the indicative, six; the potential, four ; the subjunctive, 
two ; and the imperative, one." — Frazee cor. " Now notice the following sentences : ' John runs.' 
— ' Boys run.' — ' Tbou runnest.' " — Id. 

" The Pronoun sometimes stands for a name ; sometimes for an adjective, a sentence, or a part 
of a sentence ; and, sometimes, for a whole series of propositions." — Peirce cor. 
" The self-applauding bird, the peacock, see ; 

Mark what a sumptuous pharisee is he !" — Cowper cor. 

SECTION VI.— THE EROTEME. 

Corrections under Rule I. — Of Questions Direct. 

" When will his ear delight in the sound of arms ? When shall I, like Oscar, travel in the fight 
of my steel?" — Ossian, Vol. i, p. 357. "Will Henry call on me, while he shall be journeying 
south?" — Peirce cor. 

" An Interrogative Pronoun is one that is used in asking a question; as, l Who is he? and 
what does he want?'" — P. E. Day cor. "Who is generally used when we would inquire about 
some unknown person or persons; as, l Who is that man?'" — Id. "Your fathers, where are 
they? and the prophets, do they live forever?" — Zech., i, 5. 

" It is true, that some of our best writers have used than wham ; but it is also true that they 
have used other phrases which we have rejected as ungrammatical : then why not reject this too ? 
— The sentences in the exercises, with than v:ho, are correct as they stand." — Lennie cor. 

" When the perfect participle of an active-intransitive verb is annexed to the neuter verb to be, 
what does the combination form ?" — Hallock cor. "Those adverbs which answer to the question 
where? vjhither? or whence? are called adverbs of place." — Id. "Canst thou by searching find 
out God ? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven ; what canst 
thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" — Scott, Alger, Bruce, and others: 
Job, xi, 7 and 8. 

" Where, where, for shelter shall the wicked fly, 
When consternation turns the good man pale ?" — Young. 

Under Rule II. — Of Questions United. 
" Who knows what resources are in store, and what the power of God may do for thee ?" — ■ 
Sterne : Enfield's Speaker, p. 307. 

" God is not a man, that he should lie ; neither the son of man, that he should repent : hath 
he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"' — Scott's 
Bible, Alger's, Eriends', Bruce's, and others : Numb., xxiii, 19. " Hath the Lord said it, 
and shall he not do it? hath he spoken it, and shall he not make it good?" — Lennie and Bullions 
cor. 

" Who calls the council states the certain day, 
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ?" — Pope's Essay. 

Under Rule III. — Of Questions Indirect. 
" To be, or not to be ; — that is the question." — Sliak. et al cor. " If it be asked, why a pause 
should any more be necessary to emphasis than to an accent, — or why an emphasis alone will not 
sufficiently distinguish the members of sentences from each other, without pauses, as accent does 
words. — the answer is obvious : that we are preacquainted with the sound of words, and cannot 
mistake them when distinctly pronounced, however rapidly ; but we are not preacquainted with 
the meaning of sentences, which must be pointed out to us by the reader or speaker." — Sher- 
idan cor. 

"Cry, 'By your priesthood, tell me what you are.' " — Pope cor. 



1036 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO PROSODY. [PART IV. 

MIXED EXAMPLES CORRECTED. 

" Who else can he be? 1 ' — Barrett cor. " Where else can he go ?" — Id. " In familiar language, 
here, there, and where, are used for hither, thither, and whither." — N. Butler cor. "Take, for in- 
stance, this sentence : 'Indolence undermines the foundation of virtue.' " — Hart cor. "Take, for 
instance, the sentence before quoted : ' Indolence undermines the foundation of virtue.' " — Id. 
" Under the same head, are considered such sentences as these : ' He that hath ears to hear, let 
him hear.' — ' Gad, a troop shall overcome him.' " — Id. 

"Tenses are certain modifications of the verb, which point out the distinctions of time." — Bul- 
lions cor. " Calm was the day, and the scene, delightful." — Id. See Murray's Exercises, p. 5. 
" The capital letters used by the Romans to denote numbers, were C, I, L, V, X ; which are 
therefore called Numeral Letters. I denotes one ; V, five; X, ten; L, fifty ; and C, a hundred." 
— Bullions cor. " ' I shall have written ;' viz., at or before some future time or event." — Id. "In 
Latin words, the liquids are I and r only; in Greek words, I, r, m, and »." — Id. "Each legion 
was divided into ten cohorts ; each cohort, into three maniples ; and each maniple, into two cen- 
turies." — Id. " Of the Roman literature previous to A. U. 514, scarcely a vestige remains." — Id. 

" And that which He delights in, must be happy. 

But when? or where? This world was made for Caesar." — Cato. 
" Look next on greatness. Say where greatness lies. 

Where, but among the heroes and the wise?" — Pope. 

SECTION VII.— THE ECPHONEME. 

Corrections under Rule I. — Op Interjections, &c. 

(1.) " ! that he were wise !" — Bullions cor. (2.) " ! that his heart were tender !" — See Mur- 
ray's Ex. or Key, under Rule xix. (3 and 4.) " Oh ! what a sight is here 1" — Bullions, E. Gram., p. 
71 ; (§ 37 ;) Pract. Les., p. 82 ; Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 111. (5-9.) " Virtue ! how ami- 
able thou art!" — Farnum's Gram., p. 12; Bullions' 's Analyt. and Pract. Gram., p. 111. (10.) "Oh! 
that I had been more diligent !" — Hart cor. ; and Hiley. (11.) " ! the humiliation to which vice 
reduces us!" — Farnum and Mur. cor. (12.) "0! that he were more prudent!" — Farnum cor. 
(13 and 14.) " Ah me !" — Davis cor. 

(15.) " Lately, alas! I knew a gentle boy," &c. — Dial cor. 
(16 and 17.) "Wo is me, Alhama!" — Byron's Poems : Wells cor. 

Under Rule II.— Of Invocations. 
"Weep on the rocks of roaring winds, maid of Inistore !" — Ossian. " Cease a little while, 
wind ! stream, be thou silent a while ! let my voice be heard around. Let my wanderer hear 
me ! Salgar ! it is Colma who calls. Here is the tree, and the rock. Salgar, my love ! I am 
here. Why delayest thou thy coming? Lo ! the calm moon comes forth. The flood is bright in 
the vale."— Id., Vol. i, p. 369. 

" Ah, stay not, stay not ! guardless and alone : 
Hector ! my lov'd, my dearest, bravest son!" — Pope, II., xxii, 51. 

Under Rule III. — Of Exclamatory Questions. 

"How much better is wisdom than gold!" — See Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 272. "0 Virtue! 
how amiable art thou!" — See Murray's Grammar, 2d Edition, p. 95. "At that hour, how 
vain was all sublunary happiness!" — Brown's Institutes, p. 117; see English Reader, p. 135. 
" Alas ! how few and transitory are the joys which this world affords to man !" — P. E. Day cor. 
"Oh! how vain and transitory are all things here below!" — Id. 

" And ! what change of state, what change of rank, 
In that assembly everywhere was seen!" — Pollok cor. ; also Day. 

MIXED EXAMPLES CORRECTED. 

" Shame! where is thy blush ?" — Shak* " John, give me my hat." — Barrett cor. " What ! 
is Moscow in flames?" — Id. " 01 what happiness awaits the virtuous!" — Id. 

" Ah, welladay ! do what we can for him, said Trim, maintaining his point, — the poor soul will 
die." — Sterne or Enfield cor. ; also Kirkham. 

" Will John return to-morrow ?" — Barrett cor. " Will not John return to-morrow ?" — Id. 
" John, return to-morrow." — Id. "Soldiers, stand firm." — Id. "Ifrnea, which means my, is an 
adjective in Latin, why may not my be so called in English ? and if my is an adjective, why not 
Barrett's V'—Id. 

" Absalom, my son !" — See 2 Sam., xix, 4. " star-eyed Science ! whither hast thou fled?" 
— Peirce cor. " Why do you tolerate your own inconsistency, by calling it the present tense ?" — 
Id. " Thus the declarative mood [i. e., the indicative mood] may be used in asking a question ; 
as, ' What man is frail?'" — Id. "What connection has motive, wish, or supposition, with the 
the term subjunctive V — Id. "A grand reason, truly, for calling it a golden key!" — Id. " What 

* In Singer's Shakspeare, Vol. ii, p. 495, this sentence is expressed and pointed thus: " O, shame ! where is 
thy blush ?''— Hamlet, Act iii, Sc. 4. This is as if the speaker meant, " O ! it is a shame ! where is thy blush ?" 
Such is not the sense above ; for there " Shame" is the person addressed. 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO PROSODY. — PUNCTUATION. — THE CURVES. 1037 

'suffering' the man who can say this, must be enduring!" — Id. "What is Brown's Rule in re- 
lation to this matter?" — Id. 

"Alas! how short is life!" — P. E. Day cor. "Thomas, study your book." — Id. "Who can 
tell us who they are ?" — Sanborn cor. " Lord, have mercy on my son ; for he is lunatic, and 
sorely vexed. "-—See Matt, xvii, 15. " ye wild groves ! where is now your bloom?" — FeV 
ton cor. 

" who of man the story will unfold ?" — Farnum cor. 
" Methought I heard Horatio say, To-morrow. 

Go to — I will not hear of it — to-morrow !" — Cotton. 
"How his eyes languish! how his thoughts adore 
That painted coat which Joseph never wore!" 

SECTION VIII— THE CUKYES. 

Corrections under Rule I. — Of Parentheses. 

" Another [, better written as a phrase, An other,'] is composed of the indefinite article an, 
(which etymologically means one,) and other; and denotes one other" — Eallock cor. 

" Each mood has its peculiar Tense, Tenses, or Times." — Bucke cor. 

"In some very ancient languages, (as the Hebrew,) which have been employed chiefly for ex- 
pressing plain sentiments in the plainest manner, without aiming at any elaborate length or har- 
mony of periods, this pronoun [the relative] occurs not so often." — L. Murray cor. 

" Before I shall say those things, Conscript Fathers ! about the public affairs, which are to 
be spoken at this time ; I shall lay before you, in few words, the motives of the journey and the 
return." — Brightland cor. 

" Of well-chose words some take not care enough, 

And think they should be, like the subject, rough." — Id. 
" Then, having showed his wounds, he'd sit him down." — Bullions cor. 

Under Rule II. — Of Included Points. 

"Then Jael smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: (for he was fast 
asleep, and weary:) so he died." — Scott's Bible: Judges, iv, 21. 

" Every thing in the Iliad has manners, (as Aristotle expresses it,) that is, every thing is acted 
or spoken." — Pope cor. 

"Those nouns that end in/, or/e, (except some few which I shall mention presently,) form plu- 
rals by changing those letters into ves : as, thief, thieves ; wife, wives. 11 — Bucke cor. 

"As requires as; (expressing equality of degree;) thus, 'Mine is as good as yours.' As [re- 
quires] so ; (expressing equality or proportion ;) thus, ' As the stars, so shall thy seed be.' So [re- 
quires] as ; (with a negative expressing inequality ;) as, ' He is not so wise as his brother.' So 
[requires] that; (expressing a consequence;) as, 'I am so weak that I cannot walk.'"* — Bul- 
lions cor. 

" A captious question, sir. (and yours is one.) 
Deserves an answer similar, or none." — Couper cor. 

MIXED EXAMPLES CORRECTED. 

" Whatever words the verb to be serves to unite, referring to the same thing, must be of the 
same case ; (§ 61 ;) as, ' Alexander is a siudenV "— Bullions cor. "When the objective is a rela- 
tive or [an] interrogative, it comes before the verb that governs it: (§ 40, Rule 9 :) Murray's 6th 
rule is unnecessary." — Id. " It is generally improper, except in poetry, to omit the antecedent 
to a relative; and always, to omit a relative, when of the nominative case." — Id. "In every sen- 
tence, there must be a verb and a nominative or subject, expressed or understood." — Id. "Nouns 
and pronouns, and especially words denoting time, are often governed by prepositions under- 
stood; or are used to restrict verbs or adjectives, without a governing word: (§ 50, Rem. 6 and 
Rule:) as, ' He gave [to] me a full account of the affair.' " — Id. "When should is used in stead of 
ought, to express present duty, (§ 20, 4,) it may be followed by the present ; as, ' You should study 
that you may become learned.' " — Id. " The indicative present is frequently used after the words 
when, till, before, as soon as, after, to express the relative time of a future action ; (§ 24, I, 4 ; ) as, 
'When he comes, he will be welcome.' " — Id. "The relative is parsed, [according to Bullions,] by 
stating its gender, number, case, and antecedent; (the gender and number being always the 
same as those of the antecedent ;) thus, ' The boy who ' — ' Who is a relative pronoun, masculine, 
singular, the nominative ; and refers to ' boy ' as its antecedent." — Id. 

" ' Now, now, I seize, I clasp thy charms ; 

And now you burst, ah cruel ! from my arms.' — Pope. 

* If, in each of these sentences, the colon were substituted for the latter semicolon, the curves might well be 

spared. Lowth has a similar passage, which (bating a needful variation of guillemots) he pointed thus : "as , 

as; expressing a comparison of equality; 'as white as snow:' as , so; expressing a comparison sometimes 

of equality ; 'cwthe stars, so shall thy seed be;' that is, equal in number: but" &c. — Lowth 1 s Gram., p. 1O0. 
Murray, who broke this passage into paragraphs, retained at first these semicolons, but afterwards changed them 
all to colons. Of later grammarians, some retain the former colon in each sentence ; some, the latter ; and some, 
neither. Hiley points thus: "As requires as, expressing equality; as, 'He is as good as she. 1 " — Hiley's E. 
Gram., p. 107. 



1038 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO PROSODY. [PART IV. 

"Here is an unnecessary change from the second person singular to the second person pluraL 
The text would have been better, thus : — 

1 Now, now, I seize, I clasp your charms ; 
And now you burst, ah cruel 1 from my arms.' " — John Burn cor. 

See Lowth's Gram., p. 35 ; GhurchilVs, 293. 

SECTION IX— ALL POINTS. 

MIXED EXAMPLES CORRECTED. 

" The principal stops are the following : the Comma [ , ], the Semicolon [ ; ], the Colon [ : ], the 
Period, or Full Stop [ . ], the Note of Interrogation [ ? ], the Note of Exclamation [ ! ], the Parenthe- 
Bis [()], and the Dash [ — ]." — Bullions cor. " The modern punctuation in Latin is the same as 
in English. The chief marks employed are the Comma [ , ], the Semicolon [ ; ], the Colon [ : ], the 
Period [ . ], the Note of Interrogation [? ], the Note of Exclamation ( I ), the Parenthesis [ ()], and 
the Bash [ — ]."— Id. 

" Plato reproving a young man for playing at some childish game, 'You chide me,' says the 
youth, ' for a trifling fault.' 'Custom,' replied the philosopher, 'is no trifle.' 'And,' adds Mon- 
taigne, 'he was in the right; for our vices begin in infancy.' " — Home cor. 

"A merchant at sea asked the skipper what death his father died. 'My father,' says the 
skipper, ' my grandfather, and my great-grandfather, were all drowned.' ' "Well,' replies the 
merchant, ' and are not you afraid of being drowned too ?' " — Id. 

"The use of inverted commas derives from France, where one Guillemet was the author of 
them; [and,] as an acknowledgement for the improvement, his countrymen call them after his 
name, guillemets." — Hist. cor. 

" This, however, is seldom if ever done, unless the word following the possessive begins with s ; 
thus, we do not say, 'the prince 1 feather;' but, 'the prince's feather.'" — Bullions cor. "And 
this phrase must mean, ' the feather of the prince ;' but ' prince 's-feather,' written as one word, 
[and with both apostrophe and hyphen,] is the name of a plant, a species of amaranth." — G. 
Brown. " Boethius soon had the satisfaction of obtaining the highest honours his country could 
bestow." — Ingersoll cor. ; also L. Murray. 

" When an example, a quotation, or a speech, is introduced, it is separated from the rest of the 
sentence either by a comma or by a colon ; as, ' The Scriptures give us an amiable representation of 
the Deity, in these words: God is love.' " — Hiley cor. " Either the colon or the comma may be 
used, [according to the nature of the case,] when an example, a quotation, or a speech, is intro- 
duced; as, 'Always remember this ancient maxim: Know thyself 1 — ' The Scriptures give us an 
amiable representation of the Deity, in these words: God is love.' 1 " — Bullions cor. 

"The first word of a quotation introduced after a colon, or of any sentence quoted in a direct 
form, must begin with a capital: as, ' Always remember this ancient maxim: Know thyself.' — 
' Our great lawgiver says, Take up thy cross daily, and follow me.' " — Bullions and Lennie cor. ; 
also L. Murray ; also Weld. See Luke, ix, 23. 

"Tell me, in whose house do you live?" — N. Butler cor. "He that acts wisely, deserves 
praise." — Id. "He who steals my purse, steals trash." — Id. "The antecedent is sometimes 
omitted; as, ' Who steals my purse, steals trash.' — [Shak.~\ That is, l He who,' or, 'The person 
who.'" — Id. "Thus, ' Whoever steals my purse, steals trash;' — 'Whoever does no good, does 
harm.' " — Id. " Thus, ' Whoever sins, will suffer.' This means, that any one, without exception, 
who sins, will suffer." — Id. 

"Letters form syllables; syllables, words; words, sentences; and sentences, combined and 
connected, form discourse." — Cooper cor. " A letter which forms a perfect sound when uttered by 
itself, is called a vowel ; as, a, e, *'." — Id. " A proper noun is the name of an individual, [or of 
a particular people or place] ; as, John, Boston, Hudson, America." — Id. 

" Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing; more, a cunning thing; but very few, a 
generous thing." — Davis cor. " In the place of an ellipsis of the verb, a comma must be in- 
serted." — Id. " A common noun unlimited by an article, is sometimes understood in its broadest 
acceptation: thus, ' Fishes swim,' is understood to mean all fishes; l Man is mortal,' all men." 
— Id. 

"Thus, those sounds formed principally by the throat, are called gutturals; those formed prin- 
cipally by the palate, palatals; those formed by the teeth, dentals; those by the lips, labials; and 
those by the nose, nasals." — Davis cor. 

"Some adjectives are compared irregularly: as, Good, better, best; Bad, worse, worst; Little, 
less, leasts — Felton cor. 

" Under the fourth head of grammar, therefore, four topics will be considered ; viz., Punctua- 
tion, Orthoepy, Figures, and Versification. " — Hart cor. 
" Direct her onward to that peaceful shore, 
Where peril, pain, and death, are felt no more !" — Falconer cor. 

GOOD ENGLISH RIGHTLY POINTED. 
LESSON I.— UNDER VARIOUS RULES. 
" Discoveries of such a character are sometimes made in grammar also ; and such, too, are often 
their origin and their end." — Bullions cor. 



CHAP. I.] KEY TO PROSODY. — BAD ENGLISH CORRECTED. 1039 

" Traverse, [literally to cross,] To deny what the opposite party has alleged. To traverse an 
indictment, or the like, is to deny it." — Id. 

"The Ordinal numerals denote the order, or succession, in which any number of persons or 
things are mentioned ; as, first, second, third, fourth, &c." — Hiley cor. 

" Nouns have three persons ; the First, the Second, and the Third. The First person is that 
which denotes the speaker ; the Second is that which denotes the person or thing spoken to ; the 
Third is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of." — Hart cor. 

"Nouns have three cases; the Nominative, the Possessive, and the Objective. The relations 
indicated by the cases of a noun, include three distinct ideas ; viz., those of subject, object, and 
ownership." — Id. 

" In speaking of animals that are of inferior size, or whose sex is not known or not regarded, 
we often treat them as without sex: thus, we say of a cat, ' It is treacherous ;' of an infant, ' It is 
beautiful;' of a deer, ' It was killed.' " — Id. 

"When this and that, or these and those, refer to a preceding sentence; this or these rep- 
resents the latter member or term, and that or those, the former." — Churchill cor. ; and Lowth. 

" The rearing of them became his first care; their fruit, his first food; and the marking of their 
kinds, his first knowledge." — K Butler cor. 

" After the period used with abbreviations, we should employ other points, if the construction 
demands them; thus, after 'Esq.,' in the last example, there should be, besides the period, a 
comma." — Id. 

" In the plural, the verb has the same form in all the persons ; but still the principle in Bern. 5, 
under Rule iii, that the first or second person takes precedence, is applicable to verbs, in pars- 
ing.' 11 — Id. 

" Rex and Tyrannus are of very different characters. The one rules his people by laws to 
which they consent ; the other, by his absolute will and power : that government is called free- 
dom; this, tyranny." — L. Murray cor. 

" A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned: as, 
George, London, America, goodness, charity." — See Brown's Institutes, p. 31. 

" Etymology treats of the classification of words, their various modifications, and their deriva- 
tion. 11 — B. E. Day cor. 

" To punctuate correctly, implies a thorough acquaintance with the meaning of words and 
phrases, as well as with all their corresponding connexions." — W. Day cor. 

" All objects that belong to neither the male nor the female kind, are said to be of the neuter 
gender, except certain things personified. 11 — Weld cor. twice. 

" The Analysis of the Sounds in the English language, presented in the preceding statements, 
is sufficiently exact for the purpose in hand. Those who wish to pursue the subject further, can 
consult Dr. Rush's admirable work, ' The Philosophy of the Human Voice.' " — Fowler cor. " No- 
body confounds the name of w or y with the sound of the letter, or with its phonetic import." — Id. 
[UdF" This assertion is hardly true. Strange as such a blunder is, it has actually occurred. See, 
in Orthography, Obs. 5, on the Classes of the Letters, at p. 156. — G-. B.] 

" Order is Heav'n's first law; and, this confess 1 d, 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest." — Bope. 

LESSON II.— UNDER VARIOUS RULES. 

" From adjectives of one syllable, and some of two, the comparative is formed by adding r or er 
to the positive ; and the superlative, by adding st or est : as, sweet, sweeter, sweetest ; able, abler, 
ablest. 1 ' — Bullions cor. 

" From monosyllables, or from dissyllables ending with a voivel or the accent, the comparative is 
formed by adding er or r to the positive ; and the superlative, by adding est or st : as, tall, taller, 
tallest; wise, wiser, wisest; holy, holier, holiest; complete, completer, completest. 11 — Id. 

" By this method, the confusion and unnecessary labour occasioned by studying grammars, in 
these languages, constructed on different principles, are avoided ; the study of one is rendered a 
profitable introduction to the study of an other ; and an opportunity is furnished to the inquiring 
student, of comparing the languages in their grammatical structure, and of seeing at once wherein 
they agree, and wherein they differ." — Id. 

"No larger portion should be assigned for each recitation, than the class can easily master; 
and, till the previous lessons are well learned, a new portion should not be given out." — Id. " The 
acquisitions made in every new lesion, should be riveted and secured by repeated revisals." — Id. 

" The personal pronouns may be parsed briefly, thus : '/is a personal pronoun, of the first per- 
son, singular number, masculine gender, (feminine, if the speaker is a female,) and nominative case. 1 
1 His is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and possessive 
case. 1 " — Id. 

" When the male and the female are expressed by distinct terms, as, shepherd, shepherdess, the 
masculine term has also a general meaning, expressing both male and female ; and is always to 
be used when the office, occupation, or profession, and not the sex, of the individual, is chiefly 
to be expressed; the feminine term being used only when the discrimination of sex is indis- 
pensably necessary. Thus, when it is said, 4 The poets of this country are distinguished for 
correctness of taste,' the term 'poets' clearly includes both male and female writers of poetry." 
— Id. 

" Nouns and pronouns connected by conjunctions, must be in the same case. 11 — Ingersoll cor. 



1040 GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. — KEY TO PROSODY. [PART IV. 

" Verbs connected by and, or, or nor, must generally be in the same mood and tense; and, when 
the tense has different forms, they must be in the same form." — Id. 

" This will habituate him to reflection ; exercise his judgement on the meaning of the author ; 
and, without any great effort on his part, impress indelibly on his memory the rules which he is 
required to give. After the exercises under any rule have been gone through, agreeably to the 
direction in the note at the bottom o/page 88th, they may be read over again in a corrected state, 
the pupil making an emphasis on the correction made ; or they may be presented in writing, at 
the next recitation." — Bullions cor. 

" Man, but for that, no action could attend ; 
And, but for this, were active to no end." — Pope. 

LESSON III.— UNDER VARIOUS RULES. 

" 'Johnson, the bookseller and stationer,' indicates that bookseller and stationer are terms be- 
longing to the same person; ' the bookseller and the stationer,' would indicate that they belong to 
different persons." — Bullions cor. 

11 Fastis [commonly] an adjective; passed, the past tense or perfect participle of the verb: 
and they ought not (as they frequently are) to be confounded with each other." — Id. 

"Not only the nature of the thoughts and sentiments, but the very selection or arrange- 
ment of the words, gives English poetry a character which separates it widely from common 
prose." — Id. 

" Men of sound, discriminating, and philosophical minds — men prepared for the work by long 
study, patient investigation, and extensive acquirements — have laboured for ages to improve and 
perfect it ; and nothing is hazarded in asserting, that, should it be unwisely abandoned, it will be 
long before an other, equal in beauty, stability, and usefulness, will be produced in its stead." — Id., 
on the common " system of English Grammar." 

" The article the, on the other hand, is used to restrict ; and is therefore termed Definite. Its 
proper office is, to call the attention to a particular individual or class, or to any number of such ; 
and accordingly it is used with nouns of cither number, singular or plural." — Id. 

" Hence, also, the infinitive mood, a participle with its adjuncts, a member of a sentence, or a 
whole proposition, forming the subject of discourse, or the object of a verb or preposition, and being 
the name of an act or circumstance, is, in construction, regarded as a noun; and is usually called, 
'a substantive phrase :' as, ' To play, is pleasant.' — ' That he is an expert dancer, is no recommend- 
ation.' — 'Let your motto be, Honesty is the best policy.'' " — Id. 

" In accordance with his definition, Murray has divided verbs into three classes: Active, Pass- 
ive, and Neuter ; — and included in the first class transitive verbs only ; and, in the last, all verbs 
used intransitively." — Id. 

" Moreover, as the name of the speaker or that of the person spoken to is seldom expressed, (the 
pronoun I being used for the former, and Thou or You for the latter, ) a noun is very rarely in the 
first person ; not often in the second ; and hardly ever in either, unless it is a proper noun, or a 
common noun denoting an object personified." — Id. 

" In using the parsing exercises, it will save much time, (and this saving is all-important,) if the 
pupil be taught to say all things belonging to the noun, in the fewest words possible; and to say 
them always in the same order, after the example above." — Id. 

" In any phrase or sentence, the adjectives qualifying a noun may generally be found by pre- 
fixing the phrase, 'What kind of,' to the noun, in the form of a question; as, 'What kind of 
horse?' 'What kind of stone?' 'What kind of way?' The word containing the answer to the 
question, is an adjective." — Id. 

" In the following exercise, let the pupil first point out the nouns, and then the adjectives ; and 
tell how he knows them to be such." — Id. 

" In the following sentences, point out the improper ellipses ; show why they are improper; and 
correct them. v — Id. 

"Singular. Plural. 

1. I am smitten, 1. We are smitten, 

2. Thou art smitten, 2. You are smitten, 

3. He is smitten; 3. They are smitten." — Wright cor. 

CHAPTER II— UTTERANCE. 

The second chapter of Prosody, treating of articulation, pronunciation, elocution and the minor 
topics that come under Utterance, contains no exercises demanding correction in this Key. 

CHAPTER III.— FIGURES. 

In the third chapter of Prosody, the several Figures of speech are explained ; and, as the illus- 
trations embrace no errors for correction, nothing here corresponds to the chapter, but the title. 

CHAPTER IV.— VERSIFICATION. 
FALSE PROSODY, OR ERRORS OP METRE, CORRECTED. 

LESSON I.— RHYTHM RESTORED. 
" Where thy true treasure? Gold says, ' Not in me.' " — Young. 
" Canst thou grow sad, thou say'st, aa earth grows bright." — Dana. 



CHAP. IV.] KEY TO PROSODY. — VERSIFICATION. — ERRORS CORRECTED. 1041 

" It must be so ; — Plato, thou reason 'st well" — Cato : Enfield, p. 321. 
" Slow rises worth by poverty depressed." — Wells's Gram., Late Ed., p. 211. 
11 Rapt into future times, the bard begun." — Pope. — lb., p. 165. 
11 Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens 

To wash it white as snow ? Whereto serves mercy 

But to confront the visage of offence?" — Shak., Hamlet. 
"Look! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through." — Id., J. Cozsar. 

" And when they list, their lean and flashy songs 

Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw." — Milton, Lycidas. 
"Did not great Julius bleed tor justice' sake?" — Dodd and Shak. cor. 
" May I express thee 1 unblam'd ? since G-od is light." — Milton, B. iii, L 3. 
" Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream?" — Id., B. hi, 1. ?. 
"Republics, kingdoms, empires, may decay; 

Great princes, heroes, sages, sink to nought."— Peirce or La-Rue cor. 
" Thou hringst, gay creature as thou art, 

A solemn image to my heart." — Hallock cor. 
" Know then thyself, presume not God to scan ; 

The proper study of mankind is Man." — Pope, on Man, Ep. ii, L 1. 
"Raised on pilasters high of burnished gold." — Dr. S. Butler cor. 
" Love in Adalgise' breast has fixed his sting." — Id. 



" Thirty days each have September, 
April, June, and old November; 
Each of the rest has thirty-one, 



Bating February alone, 
"Which has twenty-eight in fine, 
Till leap-year gives it twenty-nine." 
— Dean Colet cor. 
LESSON II.— RHYTHM RESTORED. 

" 'Twas not the fame of what he once had been, 

Or tales in records old and annals seen." — Howe cor. 
" And Asia now and Afric are explored 

For high-priced dainties and the citron board." — Fowe cor. 
" Who knows not how the trembling judge beheld 

The peaceful court with armed legions fill'd ?" — Eowe cor. 
" With thee the Scythian wilds we'll wander o'er, 

With thee the burning Libyan sands explore." — Rowe cor. 
" Hasty and headlong, different paths they tread, 

As impulse blind and wild distraction lead." — Rowe cor. 
" But Fate reserv'd him to perform its doom, 

And be the minister of wrath to Rome." — Rowe cor. 
41 Thus spoke the youth. When Cato thus expressed 

The sacred counsels of his inmost breast." — Rowe cor. 
" These were the rigid manners of the man, 

This was the stubborn course in which they ran ; 

The golden mean unchanging to pursue, 

Constant to keep the purposed end in view." — Rowe cor. 
" What greater grief can on a Roman seize, 

Than to be forced to live on terms like these !" — Rowe cor. 
" He views the naked town with joyful eyes, 

While from his rage an armed people flies." — Rowe cor. 
" For planks and beams, he ravages the wood, 

And the tough oak extends across the flood." — Rowe cor. 
" A narrow pass the horned mole divides, 

Narrow as that where strong Euripus' tides 

Beat on Eubcean Chalcis' rocky sides." — Rowe cor. 
" No force, no fears their hands unarmed bear," — or, 
" No force, no fears their hands unarm'd now bear, 

But looks of peace and gentleness they wear." — Rowe cor. 
" The ready warriors all aboard them ride, 

And wait return of the retiring tide." — Rowe cor. 
" He saw those troops that long had faithful stood, 

Friends to his cause, and enemies to good, 

Grown weary of their chief, and satiate with blood." — Rowe cor. 



END OF THE KEY. 



APPENDIX I. 

TO PART FIRST, OR ORTHOGRAPHY. 

OF THE SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS. 

In the first chapter of Part I, the powers of the letters, or the elementary sounds of the English 
language, were duly enumerated and explained; for these, as well as the letters themselves, are 
few, and may be fully stated in few words : but, since we often express the same sound in many 
different ways, and also, in some instances, give to the same letter several different sounds, — or, 
it may be, no sound at all, — any adequate account of the powers of the letters considered severally 
according to usage, — that is, of the sound or sounds of each letter, with its mute positions, as 
these occur in practice, — must, it was thought, descend to a minuteness of detail not desirable in 
the first chapter of Orthography. For this reason, the following particulars have been reserved 
to be given here as an Appendix, pertaining to the First Part of this English Grammar. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — A proper discrimination of the different vowel sounds by the epithets most commonly used for this 
purpose, — such as long and short, broad and slender, open and close, or open and shut, — is made difficult, if not 
impossible, by reason of the different, and sometimes directly contradictory senses in which certain orthoepists 
have employed such terms. Wells says, " Vowel sounds are called open or close, according to the relative size 
of the opening through which the voice passes in forming them. Thus, a in father, and o in nor, are called open 
sounds, because they are formed by a wide opening of the organs of speech ; while e in one, and u in rule, are 
called close sounds, because the organs are nearly closed in uttering them." — School Grammar, 1S50, p. 32. 
Good use should fix the import of words. How does the passage here cited comport svith this hint of Pope? 
" These, equal syllables alone require, 
Though oft the ear the open vowels tire." — Essay on Criticism, 1. 344. 

Obs. 2. — Walker, too, in his Principles, 64 and 65, on page 10th of his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, men- 
tions a similar distinction of vowels, " which arises from the different apertures of the mouth in forming them ;" 
and says, " We accordingly find vowels denominated by the French, ouvert and ferme ; by the Italians, aperto 
and chiuso ; and by the English [,] open and shut. But whatever propriety there may be in the use of these 
terms in other languages, it is certain they must be used with caution in English for fear of confounding them 
with long and short. Dr. Johnson and other grammarians call the a in father the open a: which may, indeed, 
distinguish it from the slender a in paper ; but not from the broad a in water, which is still more open. Each of 
these letters [the seven vowels] has a short sound, which maybe called a shut sound ; but the long sounds cannot 
be sor properly denominated open as more or less broad; that is, the a in paper, the slender sound ; the a in 
father, the broadish or middle sound ; and the a in water, the broad sound. The same may be observed of the 
o. This letter has three long sounds, heard in move, note, nor; which graduate from slender to broadish, and 
broad [,] like [those three sounds of] the a. The i also in mine may be called the broad i, and that in machine, 
the slender i ; though each of them is equally long ; and though these vowels that are long [,] may be said to be 
more or less open according to the different apertures of the mouth in forming them, yet the short vowels cannot 
be said to be more or less shut; for as short always implies shut (except in verse,) though long does not always 
imply open, we must be careful not to confound long and open, and close and shut, when we speak of the quan- 
tity and quality of the vowels. The truth of it is," continues he, " all vowels either terminate a syllable, or are 
united with a consonant. In the first case, if the accent be on the syllable, the vowel is long, though it may not 
be open : in the second case, where a syllable is terminated by a consonant, except that consonant be r, whether 
the accent be on the syllable or not, the vowel has its short sound, which, compared with its long one, may be 
called shut: but [,] as no vowel can be said to be shut that is not joined to a consonant, all vowels that end sylla- 
bles may be said to be open, whether the accent be on them or not." — Crit. Pron. Diet., New York, 1827, p. 19. 

Obs. 3. — These suggestions of Walker's, though each in itself may seem clear and plausible, are, undoubtedly, 
in several respects, confused and self-contradictory. Open and shut are here inconsistently referred first to one 
principle of distinction, and then to another; — first, (as are "open and close''' by Wells,) to "the relative size 
of the opening," or to " the different apertures of the mouth ;" and then, in the conclusion, to the relative posi- 
tion of the vowels with respect to other letters. These principles improperly give to each of the contrasted 
epithets two very different senses: as, with respect to aperture, wide and narrow; with respect to position, 
closed and unclosed. Now, that open may mean unclosed, or close be put for closed, is not to be questioned ; 
but that open is a good word for wide, or that shut (not to say close) can well mean narrow, is an assumption 
hardly scholarlike. According to Walker, "we must be careful not to confound" open with long, or shut with 
short, or close with shut ; and yet, if he himself does not, in the very paragraph above quoted, confound them 
all, — does not identify in sense, or fail to distinguish, the two words in each of these pairs, — I know not who can 
need his "caution." If there are vowel sounds which graduate through several degrees of openness or broad- 
ness, it would seem most natural to express these by regularly comparing the epithet preferred ; as, open, opener, 
openest; or broad, broader, broadest. And again, if " all vowels that end syllables maybe said to be open," 
then it is not true, that " the long sounds" of a in paper, father, water, cannot be 60 " denominated ;" or that 
to " call the a in father the open a, may, indeed, distinguish it from the slender a in paper." Nor, on this prin- 
ciple, can it be said that " the broad a in water is still more open;" for this a no more "ends a syllable" than 
the others. If any vowel sound is to be called the open sound because the letter ends a syllable, or is not shut 
by a consonant, it is, undoubtedly, the primal and most usual sound, as found in the letter when accented, and 
not some other of rare occurrence. 

Oi5S. 4. — Dr. Perley says, " It is greatly to be regretted that the different sounds of a vowel should be called 
by the names long, short, slender, and broad, which convey no idea of the nature of the sound, for mat and not 
are as long in poetry as mate and note. The first sound of a vowel [,] as [that of a in] fate [,] may be called 
open,^ because it is the sound which the vowel generally has when it ends a syllable; the second sound as [that 
of a in] fat, may be called close, because it is the sound which the vowel generally has when it is joined with a 
consonant following in the same syllable, as fat-ten ; when there are more than two sounds of any vowel [,] 
they may be numbered onward ; as 3 far, 4 fall." — Perley' s Gram., p. T3. 

Oiss. 5. — Walker thought a long or short vowel sound essential to a long or short quantity in any syllable. By 
this, if he was wrong in it, (as, in the chapter on Versification, I have argued that he was,) he probably dis- 



APPENDIX I. — (ORTHOGRAPHY.) — SOUNDS OF LETTERS. 1043 

turbed more the proper distinction of quantities, than that of vowel sounds. As regards long and sJiort, there- 
fore, Perley's regret seems to have cause ; but, in making the same objection to " slender and broad" he reasons 
illogically. So far as his view is right, however, it coincides with the following earlier suggestion; "The 
terms long and short, which are often used to denote certain vowel sounds ; being also used with a different im- 
port, to distinguish the quantity of syllables, are frequently misunderstood ; for which reason, we have sub- 
stituted for them the terms open and close; — the former, to denote the sound usually given to a vowel when it 
forms or ends an accented syllable ; as, ba, be, bi, bo, bu, by ; — the latter, to denote the sound which the vowel 
commonly takes when closed by a consonant; as, ab, eb, ib, ob, ub." — Brown's Institutes, p. 285. 

I. OF THE LETTER A. 

The vowel 4 has four sounds properly its own ; they are named by various epithets : as, 

1. The English, open, full, long, or slender a ; as in aid, fame, favour, efficacious. 

2. The French, close, curt, short, or stopped a ; as in bat, banner, balance, carrying. 

3. The Italian, broadish, grave, or middle a; as in far, father, aha, comma, scoria, sofa. 

4. The Dutch, German, Old-Saxon, or broad a ; as in wall, haul, walk, warm, water. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Concerning the number of sounds pertaining to the vowel a, or to certain other particular letters, and 
consequently in regard to the whole number of the sounds which constitute the oral elements of the English lan- 
guage, our educational literati, — the grammarians, orthoepists, orthographers, elocutionists, phonographers, and 
lexicographers, — are found to have entertained and inculcated a great variety of opinions. In their different 
countings, the number of our phonical elements varies from twenty-six to more than forty. Wells says there 
are "about for ty elementary sounds." — School Gram., § 64. His first edition was more positive, and stated them 
at "forty-one." See the last avd very erroneous passage which I have cited at the foot of page 16'?. In Wor- 
cester's Universal and Critical Dictionary, there appear to be noted several more than forty-one, but I know not 
whether this author, or Walker either, has anywhere told us how many of his marked sounds he considered to 
be severally different from all others. Sheridan and Jones admitted twenty-eight. Churchill acknowledges, as 
undisputed and indisputable, only twenty-six ; though he enumerates, "Of simple vowel sounds, twelve, or per- 
haps thirteen" (New Grammar, p. 5,) and says, " The consonant sounds in the English language, are nineteen, 
or rather twenty." — P. 13. 

Oi?s. 2. — Thus, while Pitman, Comstock, and others, are amusing themselves with the folly of inventing new 
" Phonetic Alphabets," or of overturning all orthography to furnish " a character for each of the 38 element- 
ary sounds," more or fewer, one of the acutest observers among our grammarians can fix on no number more 
definite or more considerable than thirty-one, thirty-two, or thirty-three ; and the finding of these he announces 
with a '■'■perhaps," and the admission that other writers object to as many as five of the questionable number. 
Churchill's vowel sounds, he says, "may be found in the following words: 1. Bate, 2. Bat, 3. Ball; 4. Bet, 5. 
Be; 6. Bit; 7. Bot, 8. Bone, 0. Boon; 10. But, 11. Bull; 12. Lovely; 13. Wool."— New Grammar, p. 5. To 
this he adds : " Many of the writers on orthoepy, however, consider the first and fourth of the sounds above 
distinguished as actually the same, the former differing from the latter only by being lengthened in the pronun- 
ciation. They also reckon the seventh sound, to be the third shortened; the twelfth, the fifth shortened ; and 
the eleventh, the ninth shortened. Some consider the fifth and 6ixth as differing only in length ; and most es- 
teem the eleventh and thirteenth as identical." — Ib. 

Obs. 3. — Now, it is plain, that these six identifications, or so many of them as are admitted, must diminish by 
six, or by the less number allowed, the thirteen vowel sounds enumerated by this author. By the best authori- 
ties, W initial, as in "Tfool," is reckoned a consonant ; and, of course, its sound is supposed to differ in some 
degree from that of 00 in " Boon," or that of u in " B?<11," — the ninth sound or the eleventh in the foregoing 
series. By Walker, Murray, and other popular writers, the sound of y in " Lovely" is accounted to be essen- 
tially the same as that of e in " Be." The twelfth and the thirteenth, then, of this list, being removed, and 
three others added, — namely, the a heard in far, the i in fine, and the u in fuse, — we shall have the fourteen 
vowel sounds which are enumerated by L. Murray and others, and adopted by the author of the present work. 

Obs. 4. — Wells says, "A has six sounds : — 1. Long ; as in late. 2. Grave ; as in father. 3. Broad ; as in 
fall. 4. Short ; as in man. 5. The sound heard in care, hare. 6. Intermediate between a in man and a in. 
father ; as in grass, p>ass, branch." — School grammar, 1850, p. 33. Besides these six, Worcester recognizes a 
seventh sound, — the "A obscure; as in liar, Hval." — Univ. and Crit. Diet., p. ix. Such a multiplication of the 
oral elements of our first vowel, — or, indeed, any extension of them beyond four, — appears to me to be unadvi- 
sable ; because it not only makes our alphabet the more defective, but is unnecessary, and not sustained by our 
best and most popular orthoepical authorities. The sound of a in liar, (and in rival too, if made " obscure") is 
a borrowed one, pertaining more properly to the letter u. In grass, pass, and branch, properly uttered, the a is 
essentially the same as in man. In care and hare, we have the first sound of a, made as slender as the r will 
admit. 

Obs. 5. — Concerning his fifth sound of a, Wells cites authorities thus: " Walker, Webster, Sheridan, Fulton 
and Knight, Kenrick, Jones, and Nares, give a in care the long sound of a, as in late. Page and Day give it the 
short sound of a, as in mat. See Page's Normal Chart, and Day's Art of Elocution. Worcester and Perry 
make the sound of a in care a separate element ; and this distinction is also recognized by Russell, Maudeville, 
and Wright. See Russell's Lessons in Enunciation, Mandeville's Elements of Reading and Oratory, and 
Wright's Orthography." — Wells's School Grammar, p. 34. Now the opinion that a in care has its long, primal 
sound, and is not properly "a separate element," is maintained also by Murray, Hiley, Bullions, Scott, and 
Cobb ; and is, undoubtedly, much more prevalent than any other. It accords, too, with the scheme of Johnson. 
To count this a by itself, seems too much like a distinction without a difference. 

Obs. 6. — On his sixth sound of a, Wells remarks as follows: " Many persons pronounce this a incorrectly, 
giving it either the grave or the short sound. Perry, Jones, Nares, Webster, and Day, give to a in grass the 
grave sound, as in father ; while Walker, Jamieson, and Russell, give it the short sound, as in man. But good 
speakers generally pronounce a in grass, plant, etc.. as a distinct element, intermediate between the grave and 
the short sound." — School Gram., p. 34. He also cites Worcester and Smart to the same effect ; and thinks, with 
the latter, " There can be no harm in avoiding the censure of both parties by shunning the extreme that offends 
the taste of each." — lb., p. 35. But I say, that a needless multiplication of questionable vowel powers difficult 
to be discriminated, is "harm," or a fault in teaching ; and, where intelligent orthoepists dispute whether words 
have "the grave or the short sound" of a, how can others, who condemn both parties, acceptably split the dif- 
ference, and form "a distinct element" in the interval? Words are often mispronounced, and the French or 
close a may be mistaken for the Italian or broadish a, and vice versa; but, between the two, there does not ap- 
pear to be room for an other distinguishable from both. Dr. Johnson says, (iuaccurately indeed,) "A has three 
sounds, the slender, [the] open, and [the] broad. A slender is found in most words, as face, mane. A open is 
the a of the Italian, or nearly resembles it ; as father, rather, congratulate, fancy, glass. A broad resembles 
the a of the German ; as all, wall, call. ZW The short a approaches to the a open, as grass.'" — Johnson's 
Grammar, in his Quarto Dictionary, p. 1. Thus the same word, grass, that serves Johnson for an example of 
" the short a," is used by Wells and Worcester to exemplify the " a intermediate ;" while of the Doctor's five 
instances of what he calls the " a open," three, if not four, are evidently such as nearly all readers nowadays 
would call close or short ! 

Obs. 7. — There are several grammarians who agree in ascribing to our first vowel five sounds, but who never- 



1044 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

theless oppose one an other in making up the five. Thus, according to Hart, " A has five sounds of its own, as 
in fate, fare, far, fall, fat," — Hart's E. Gram., p. 26. According to W. Allen, " A has five sounds ; — the long or 
slender, as in cane; the short or open, as in can; the middle, as in arm ; the hroad, as in all; and the broad 
contracted, as in want." — Allen's E. Gram., p. G. P. Davis has the same sounds in a different order, thus : " a 
[as in] mane, mar, fall, mat, what." — Davis's E. Gram., p. xvi. Mennye says, " A has five sounds; as, 1 fame, 
2 fat, 3 false, 4 farm, 5 beggar." — Mennye' s E. Gram., p. 55. Here the fifth sound is the seventh of Worcester, 
— the " a obscure.'" 

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH A. 

The only proper diphthong in which a is put first, is the word ay, meaning yes : in which a has 
its middle sound, as in ah, and y is like open e, or ee, uttered feebly — ah-ee. 

Aa, when pronounced as an improper diphthong, and not as pertaining to two syllables, usually 
takes the sound of close a; as in Balaam, Canaan, Isaac. In many words, as in Baal, Gadl, 
Gaush, the diaeresis occurs. In baa, the cry of a sheep, we hear the Italian sound of a ; and, since 
we hear it but once, one a or the other must be silent. 

JE, a Latin improper diphthong, common also in the Anglo-Saxon, generally has, according to 
modern orthoepists, the sound of open e or ee ; as in Cozsar, cenigma, pcean ; — sometimes that of 
close or short e ; as in aphceresis, diaeresis, et ccetera. Some authors, judging the a of this diphthong 
to be needless, reject it, and write Cesar, enigma, &c. 

Ai, an improper diphthong, generally has the sound of open or long a ; as in sail, avail, vainly. 
In a final unaccented syllable, it sometimes preserves the first sound of a ; as in chilblain, mort- 
main : but oftener takes the sound of close or short i ; as in certain, curtain, mountain, villain. In 
said, saith, again, and against, it takes the sound of close or short e ; and in the name Britain, that 
of close or short u. 

Ao, an improper diphthong, occurs in the word gaol, now frequently written as it is pronounced, 
jail ; also in gaoler, which may be written jailer ; and in the compounds of gaol : and, again, it 
is found in the adjective extraordinary, and its derivatives, in which, according to nearly all or- 
thoepists, the a is silent. The name Pharaoh, is pronounced Faro. 

Au, an improper diphthong, is generally sounded like broad a ; as in cause, caught, applause. 
Before n and an other consonant, it usually has the sound of grave or middle a ; as in aunt, flaunt, 
gaunt, launch, laundry. So in laugh, laughter, and their derivatives. Gauge and gauger are pro- 
nounced gage and gager, and sometimes written so. 

Aw, an improper diphthong, is always sounded like broad a ; as in draw, drawn, drawl. 

Ay, an improper diphthong, like ai, has usually the sound of open or long a ; as in day, pay, 
delay : in sayst and says, it has the sound of close or short e. 

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH A. 

Awe is sounded au, like broad a. Aye, an adverb signifying always, has the sound of open or 
long a only ; being different, both in sound and in spelling, from the adverb ay, yes, with which 
it is often carelessly confounded. The distinction is maintained by Johnson, Walker, Todd, 
Chalmers, Jones, Cobb, Maunder, Bolles, and others ; but Webster and Worcester give it up, 
and write " ay, or aye," each sounded ah-ee, for the affirmation, and "aye," sounded a, for the 
adverb of time : Ainsworth on the contrary has ay only, for either sense, and does not note 
the pronunciation. 

II. OF THE LETTER B. 

The consonant B has but one sound ; as in boy, robber, cub. B is silent before t or after m in 
the same syllable ; as in debt, debtor, doubt, dumb, lamb, climb, tomb. It is heard in subtile, fine ; 
but not in subtle, cunning. 

III. OF THE LETTER C. 

The consonant C has two sounds, neither of them peculiar to this letter ; the one hard, like 
that of k, and the other soft, or rather hissing, like that of s. C before a, o, u, I, r, t, or when it 
ends a syllable, is generally hard, like k ; as in can, come curb, clay, crab, act, action, accent, flac- 
cid. C before e, i, or y, is always soft, like s ; as in cent, civil, decency, acid. 

In a few words, c takes the flat sound of s, like that of z ; as in discern, suffice, sacrifice, sice. 
C before ea, ia, ie, io, or eou, when the accent precedes, sounds like sh ; as in ocean, special, spe- 
cies, gracious, cetaceous. C is silent in czar, czarina, victuals, indict, muscle, corpuscle, and the 
second syllable of Connecticut. 

Ch is generally sounded like tch, or tsh, which is the same to the ear ; as in church, chance, child. 
But in words derived from the learned languages, it has the sound of k ; as in character, scheme, 
catechise, chorus, choir, chyle, patriarch, drachma, magna charta : except in chart, charter, charity. 
Ch, in words derived from the French, takes the sound of sh ; as in chaise, machine. In Hebrew 
words or names, in general, ch sounds like k ; as in Chebar, Sirach, Enoch : but in Rachel, cherub, 
and cherubim, we have Anglicized the sound by uttering it as tch. Loch, a Scottish word, some- 
times also a medical term, is heard as lok. 

"Arch, before a vowel, is pronounced ark; as in archives, archangel, archipelago: except in 
arched, archer, archery, archenemy. Before a consonant it is pronounced artch ; as in archbishop, 
archduke, archfiend." — See W. Allen's Gram., p. 10. Ch is silent in schism, yacht, and drachm. 
In schedule, some utter it as k ; others, as sh ; and many make it mute : I like the first practice. 

IV. OF THE LETTER D. 

The general sound of the consonant D, is that which is heard in dog, eddy, did. D, in the termina- 
tion ed, preceded by a sharp consonant, takes the sound of t, when the e is suppressed or un- 



APPENDIX I. — (ORTHOGRAPHY.) — SOUNDS OF LETTERS. 1045 

heard : as in faced, stuffed, cracked, tripped, passed ; pronounced faste, stuft, cract, tript, past. D 
before ia, ie, io, or eou, when the accent precedes, generally sounds like .;' ; as in Indian, soldier, 
tedious, hideous. So in verdure, arduous, education. 

V. OF THE LETTER E. 

The vowel E has two sounds properly its own, — and I incline to think, three : — 

1. The open, long, full, or primal e ; as in me, mere, menial, melodious. 

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped e ; as in men, merry, ebony, strength. 

3. The obscure or faint e ; as in open, garden, shovel, able. This third sound is scarcely percep- 
tible, and barely sufficient to articulate the consonant and form a syllable. 

E final is mute and belongs to the syllable formed by the preceding vowel or diphthong ; as 
in age, eve, ice, ore. Except — 1. In the words, be, he, me, we, she, in which it has the open 
sound ; and the article the, wherein it is open before a vowel, and obscure before a consonant. 
2. In Greek and Latin words, in which it has its open sound, and forms a distinct syllable, or the 
basis of one ; as in Penelope, Pasiphae, Cyanee, Gargaphie, Arsinoe, apostrophe, catastrophe, simile, 
extempore, epitome. 3. In the terminations ere, gre, tre, in which it has the sound of close or curt 
u, heard before the r ; as in acre, meagre, centre. 

Mute e, after a single consonant, or after st or th, generally preserves the open or long sound of 
the preceding vowel ; as in cane, here, pine, cone, tune, thyme, baste, waste, lathe, clothe : except in 
syllables unaccented ; as in the last of genuine ; — and in a few monosyllables ; as bade, are, were, 
gone, shone, one, done, give, live, shove, love. 

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH E. 

E before an other vowel, in general, either forms with it an improper diphthong, or else belongs 
to a separate syllable. We do not hear both vowels in one syllable, except perhaps in eu or ew. 

Ea, an improper diphthong, mostly sounds like open or long e; as in ear, fear, tea : frequently 
like close or curt e ; as in head, health, leather : sometimes, like open or long a ; as in steak, bear, 
forswear: rarely, like middle a; as in heart, hearth, hearken. Ea in an unaccented syllable, 
sounds like close or curt u ; as in vengeance, pageant. 

Ee, an improper diphthong, mostly sounds like one open or long e ; as in eel, sheep, tree, trustee, ref- 
eree. The contractions e'er and ne'er, are pronounced air and nair, and not like ear and near. E'en, 
however, preserves the sound of open e. Been is most commonly heard with the curt sound of i, bin. 

Ei, an improper diphthong, mostly sounds like the primal or long a; as m reign, veil: frequently, 
like open or long e ; as in deceit, either, neither, seize : sometimes, like open or long i; as in height, 
sleight, heigh-ho : often, in unaccented syllables, like close or curt i ; as in foreign, forfeit, surfeit, 
sovereign : rarely, like close e ; as in heifer, nonpareil. 

Eo, an improper diphthong, in people, sounds like open or long e ; in leopard and jeopard, like 
close or curt e ; in yeoman, according to the best usage, like open or long o ; in George, Georgia, 
georgic, like close o ; in dungeon, puncheon, sturgeon, &c, like close u. In feoff, and its derivatives, 
the close or short sound of e is most fashionable ; but some prefer the long sound of e ; and some 
write the word "fief." Feod, feodal feodary, feodatory, are now commonly written as they are pro- 
nounced, feud, feudal, feudary, feudatory. 

Eu and ew are sounded alike, and almost always with the diphthongal sound of open or long u; 
as in feud, deuce, jewel, dew, few, new. These diphthongs, when initial, sound like yu. Noung 
beginning with this sound, require the article a, and not an, before them ; as, A European, a ewer. 
After r or rh, eu and ew are commonly sounded like oo ; as in drew, grew, screw, rheumatism. In 
sew and Shrewsbury, ew sounds like open o : Worcester, however, prefers the sound of oo in tho 
latter word. Shew and strew, having the same meaning as show and strow, are sometimes, by 
sameness of pronunciation, made to be the same words ; and sometimes distinguished as different 
words, by taking the sounds shu and stroo. 

Ey, accented, has the sound of open or long a ; as in bey, prey, survey : unaccented, it has tbo 
sound of open e ; as in alley, valley, money. Key and ley are pronounced A;ee, lee. 

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH E. 

Eau, a French triphthong, sounds like open o ; as in beau, flambeau, portmanteau, bureau : ex- 
cept in beauty, and its compounds, in which it is pronounced like open u, as if the word were 
written buty. 

Eou is a combination of vowels sometimes heard in one syllable, especially after c or g ; as in 
crus-ta-ceous, gor-geous. Walker, in his Rhyming Dictionary, gives one hundred and twenty 
words ending in eous, in all of which he separates these vowels ; as in ex-tra-ne-ous. And why, 
in his Pronouncing Dictionary, he gave us several such anomalies as fa-ba-ce-ous in four syllables 
and her-ba-ceous in three, it is not easy to telL The best rule is this : after c or g, unite these 
vowels ; after the other consonants, separate them. 

Ewe is a triphthong having the sound of yu, and forming a word. The vulgar pronunciation 
yoe should be carefully avoided. 

Eye is an improper triphthong which also forms a word, and is pronounced like open i, or the 
pronoun 1. 

VI. OF THE LETTER F. 

The consonant .Fhas one unvaried sound, which is heard in fan, effort, staff: except of, which, 
when simple, is pronounced ov. 



1046 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

VII. OF THE LETTER G. * 

The consonant G has two sounds ; — the one hard, guttural, and peculiar to this letter ; the 
other soft, like that of j. G before a, o, u, I, r, or at the end of a word, is hard ; as in game, gone, 
gull, glory, grace, log, bog ; except in gaol. G before e, i, or y, is soft ; as in gem, ginger, elegy. 
Except — 1. In get, give, gewgaw, finger, and a few other worda 2. "When a syllable is added to 
a word ending in g: as, long, longer; fog, foggy. 

G is silent before m or n in the same syllable ; as in pMegm, apothegm, gnaw, design. G, when 
silent, usually lengthens the preceding vowel ; as in resign, impregn, impugn. 

Gh at the beginning of a word has the sound of g hard ; as in ghastly, gherkin, Ghibelline, 
ghost, ghoul, ghyll : in other situations, it is generally silent ; as in high, mighty, plough, bough, 
though, through, fight, night, bought. Gh final sometimes sounds like/; as in laugh, rough, tough; 
and sometimes, like g hard; as in burgh. In hough, lough, shough, it sounds like k, or ck; thus, 
hock, lock, shock. 

VIII. OF THE LETTER H. 

The sound of the consonant H, (though articulate and audible when properly uttered,) is little 
more than an aspirate breathing. It is heard in hat, hit, hot, hut, adhere. 

H at the beginning of a word, is always sounded ; except in heir, herb, honest, honour, hospital, 
hostler, hour, humble, humour, with their compounds and derivatives. H after r, is always silent ; 
as in rhapsody, rhetoric, rheum, rhubarb. H final, immediately following a vowel, is always 
silent ; as in ah, Sarah, Nineveh, Shiloh. 

IX. OF THE LETTER I. 

The vowel i" has three sounds, each very common to it, and perhaps properly its own : — 

1. The open, long, full, or primal i; as in life, fine, final, time, bind, child, sigh, pint, resign. This 
is a diphthongal sound, equivalent to the sounds of middle a and open e quickly united. 

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped i; as in ink, limit, disfigure, mimicking. 

3. The feeble, faint, or^slender i, accentless ; aS in divest, doctrinal, diversity. 

This third sound is equivalent to that of open e, or ee uttered feebly. / generally has this sound 
when it occurs at the end of an unaccented syllable : except at the end of Latin words, or of 
ancient names, where it is open or long; as in literati, Nervii, Eli, Levi. 

In some words, (principally from other modern languages,) i has the full sound of open e, under 
the accent ; as in Porto Rico, machine, magazine, antique, shire. 

Accented i followed by a vowel, has its open or primal sound ; and the vowels belong to sep- 
arate syllables ; as in pliant, diet, satiety, violet, pious. Unaccented i followed by a vowel, has its 
feeble sound ; as in expatiate, obedient, various, abstemious. 

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH I. 

I, in the situation last described, readily coalesces with the vowel which follows, and is often 
sunk into the same syllable, forming a proper diphthong : as in fustian, quotient, question. The 
terminations cion, sion, and Hon, are generally pronounced shun ; and cious and tious are pro- 
nounced shus. 

Ie is commonly an improper diphthong. Ie in die, hie, lie, pie, tie, vie, and their derivatives, has 
the sound of open i. Ie in words from the French, (as cap-a-pie, ecurie, grenadier, siege, bier,) has 
the sound of open e. So, generally, in the middle of English roots; as in chief, grief thief; but, 
in sieve, it has the sound of close or short i. In friend, and its derivatives or compounds, it takes 
the sound of close e. 

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH I. 

The triphthongs ieu and iew both sound like open or long u ; as in lieu, adieu, view. 

The three vowels iou, in the termination ious, often fall into one syllable, and form a triphthong. 
There are two hundred and forty-five words of this ending ; and more than two hundred deriva- 
tives from them. Walker has several puzzling inconsistencies in their pronunciation ; such as 
fas-tid-i-ous and per-fid-ious, con-ta-gi-ous and sac-ri-le-gious. After c, g, t, or x, these vowels 
should coalesce : as in gra-cious, re-li-gious, vex-a-tious, ob-nox-ious, and about two hundred other 
words. After the other consonants, let them form two syllables ; (except when there is a syn- 
ssresis in poetry ;) as in du-bi-ous, o-di-ous, va-ri-ous, en-vi-ous. 

X. OF THE LETTER J. 

The consonant J, the tenth letter of the English alphabet, has invariably the sound of soft g, 
like the g in giant, which some say is equivalent to the complex sound dzh ; as, jade, jet, jilt, joy, 
justice, jewel, prejudice. 

XL OF THE LETTER K. 

The consonant K, not silent, has uniformly the sound of c hard ; and occurs where c would 
have its soft sound : as in keep, looking, kind, smoky. 

K before n is silent ; as in knave, know, knuckle. In stead of doubling c final, we write ck ; as 
in lack, lock, luck, attack. In English words, k is never doubled, though two Kays may come 
together in certain compounds ; as in brickkiln, jackknife. Two Kays, belonging to different syl- 
lables, also stand together in a few Scripture names ; as in Akkub, Bakbakkar, Bukki, Bukkiah, 
Habakkuk, Flakkoz, Jkkesh, Sukkiims. G before k„ though it does not always double the sound 



APPENDIX I. — (ORTHOGRAPHY.) — SOUNDS OF LETTERS. 1047 

which c or k in such a situation must represent, always shuts or shortens the preceding vowel ; 
as in rack, speck, freckle, cockle, wicked. 

XII. OF THE LETTER L. 
The consonant L, the plainest of the semivowels, has a soft, liquid sound ; as in line, lily, roll, 
follow. L is sometimes silent ; as in Holmes, alms, almond, calm, chalk, walk, calf, half, could, 
would, should. L, too, is frequently doubled where it is heard but once ; as in hill, full, travelled. 
So any letter that is written twice, and not twice sounded, must there be once mute ; as the last 
in baa, ebb, add, see, staff, egg, all, inn, coo, err, less, buzz. 

XIII. OP THE LETTER M. 

The consonant M is a semivowel and a liquid, capable of an audible, humming sound through 
the nose, when the mouth is closed. It is heard in map, murmur, mammon. In the old words, 
compt, accompt, comptroller, (for count, account, controller,) the m is sounded as n. M before n, at 
the beginning of a word, is silent ; as in Mnason, Mnemosyne, mnemonics. 

XIY. OP THE LETTER N. 

The consonant K, which is also a semivowel and a liquid, has two sounds ; — the first, the pure 
and natural sound of n ; as in nun, banner, cannon ; — the second, the ringing sound of ng, heard 
before certain gutturals ; as in think, mangle, conquer, congress, singing, twinkling, Cen'chrea. The 
latter sound should be carefully preserved in all words ending in ing, and in such others as 
require it. The sounding of the syllable ing as if it were in, is a vulgarism in utterance ; and the 
writing of it so, is, as it would seem by the usage of Burns, a Scotticism. 

N final preceded by m, is silent ; as in hymn, solemn, column, damn, condemn, autumn. But 
this n becomes audible in an additional syllable ; as in autumnal, condemnable, damning. 

XV. OP THE LETTER 0. 

The vowel has three different sounds, which are properly its own : — 

1. The open, full, primal, or long o ; as in no, note, opiate, opacity, Roman. 

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped o ; as in not, nor, torrid, dollar, fondle. 

3. The slender or narrow o, like oo ; as in prove, move, who, to, do, tomb. 

0, in many words, sounds like close or curt u ; as in love, slwve, son, come, nothing, dost, attor- 
ney, gallon, dragon, comfit, comfort, coloration. One is pronounced wun ; and once, wunce. In the 
termination on immediately after the accent, o is often sunk into a sound scarcely perceptible, like 
that of obscure e ; as in mason, person, lesson. 

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH 0. 

Oa, an improper diphthong, has the sound of open or long o; as in boat, coal, roach, coast, coast- 
wise : except in broad and groat, which have the sound of broad a. 

Oe, an improper diphthong, when final, has the sound of open or long o ; as in doe, foe, throe : 
except in canoe, shoe, pronounced canoo, shoo. (E, a Latin diphthong, generally sounds like open e ; 
as in Antceci, foztus : sometimes, like close or curt e ; as in foetid, foeticide. But' the English word 
fetid is often, and perhaps generally, written without the o. 

Oi is generally a proper diphthong, uniting the sound of close o or broad a, and that of open e ; 
as in boil, coil, soil, rejoice. But the vowels, when they appear together, sometimes belong to sep- 
arate syllables ; as in Stoic, Stoicism. Oi unaccented, sometimes has the sound of close or curt i ; 
as in avoirdupois, connoisseur, tortoise. 

Oo, an improper diphthong, generally has the slender sound of o ; as in coo, too, woo, fool, room. 
It has, in some words, a shorter or closer sound, (like that of u in bull,) as in foot, good, wood, 
stood, wool ; — that of close u in blood and flood ; — and that of open o in door and floor. Deriva- 
tives from any of these, sound as their primitives. 

Ou is generally a proper diphthong, uniting the sound of close or curt o, and that of u as heard 
in bull, — or u sounded as oo ; as in bound, found, sound, ounce, thou. Ou is also, in certain in- 
stances, an improper diphthong; and, as such, it has six different sounds: — (1.) That of close or 
curtu; as in rough, tough, young, flourish. (2.) That of broad a; as in ought, bought, thought. 
(3.) That of open or long o ; as in court, dough, four, thmgh, (4.) That of close or curt o ; as in 
cough, trough, lough, shough : which are, I believe, the only examples. (5.) That of slender o, or 
oo ; as in soup, you, through. (6.) That of u in bull, or of oo shortened ; only in would, could, 
should. 

Ow generally sounds like the proper diphthong ou, — or like a union of short o with oo ; as in 
brown, dowry, now, shower : but it is often an improper diphthong, having only the sound of open 
or long o ; as in know, shoio, stow. 

Oy is a proper diphthong, equivalent in sound to oi; as in. joy, toy, oyster. 

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH 0. 
CEu is a French triphthong, pronounced in English as oo, and occurring in the word manozuvre, 
with its several derivatives. Owe is an improper triphthong, and an English word, in which the 
o only is heard, and heard always with its long or open sound. 



1048 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

XVI. OF THE LETTER P. 

The consonant P, when not written before h, has commonly one peculiar sound ; which is heard 
in pen, pine, sup, supper. The word cupboard is usually pronounced kubburd. P, written with 
an audible consonant, is sometimes itself silent ; as in psalm, psalter, pseudography, psychology, 
ptarmigan, ptyalism, receipt, corps. 

Ph generally sounds like/; as in philosophy. In Stephen and nephew, ph has the sound of v. 
The h after p, is silent in diphthong, triphthong, naphtha, ophthalmic; and both the p and the h are 
silent in apophthegm, phthisis, phthisical. From the last three words, ph is sometimes dropped. 

XVII. OF THE LETTER Q. 

The consonant Q, being never silent, never final, never doubled, and not having a sound pecu- 
liar to itself, is invariably heard, in English, with the power of k; and is always followed by the 
vowel u, which, in words purely English, is sounded like the narrow o, or oo, — or, perhaps, is 
squeezed into the consonantal sound of w ; — as in queen, quaver, quiver, quarter, request. In some 
words of French origin, the u after q is silent ; as in coquet, liquor, burlesque, etiquette. 

XVIII. OF THE LETTER R. 

The consonant R, called also a semivowel and a liquid, has usually, at the beginning of a word, 
or before a vowel, a rough or pretty strong sound; as in roll, rose, roam, proudly, prorogue. " In 
other positions," it is said by many to be "smooth" or "soft;" "as in hard, ford, word." — W. 
Allen. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The letter R turns the tip of the tongue up against or towards the roof of the mouth, where the sound 
may be lengthened, roughened, trilled, or quavered. Consequently, this element may, at the will of the speaker, 
have more or less — little or nothing, or even very much — of that peculiar roughness, jar, or whur, which is com- 
monly said to constitute the sound. The extremes should here be avoided. Some readers very improperly omit 
the sound of r from many words to which it pertains ; pronouncing or as awe, nor as knaw, for as faugh, and 
war as the first syllable of water. On the other hand, " The excessive trilling of the r, as practised by some 
speakers, is a great fault." — D. P. Page. 

Obs. 2. — Dr. Johnson, in his " Grammar of the English Tongue," says, "R has the same rough snarling sound, 
as in other tongues." — P. 3. Again, in his Quarto Dictionary, under this letter, he says, "i2 is called the canine 
letter, because it is uttered with some resemblance to the growl or snarl of a cur : it has one constant sound in Eng- 
lish, such as it has in other languages; as, red, rose, more, muriatick." Walker, however, who has a greater 
reputation as an orthoepist, teaches that, " There is a distinction in the sound of this letter, which is," says he, 
"in my opinion, of no small importance; and that is, the [distinction of] the rough and [the] smooth r. Ben 
Jonson," continues he, "in his Grammar, says, ' It is sounded firm in the beginning of words, and more liquid 
in the middle and ends, as in rarer, riper; and so in the Latin.' The rough r is formed by jarring the tip of 
the tongue against the roof of the mouth near the fore teeth : the smooth r is a vibration of the lower part of the 
tongue, near the root, against the inward region of the palate, near the entrance of the throat." — Walker's Prin- 
ciples, No. 419 ; Octavo Diet., p. 48. 

Ojjs. 3. — Wells, with his characteristic indecision, forbears all recognition of this difference, and all intimation 
of the quality of the sound, whether smooth or rough; saying, in his own text, only this: " R has the 60und 
heard in rare." — School Grammar, p. 40. Then, referring the student to sundry authorities, he adds in a foot- 
note certain "quotations," that are said to "present a general view of the different opinions which exist among 
orthoepists respecting this letter." And so admirably are these authorities or opinions balanced and offset, one 
class against an other, that it is hard to tell which has the odds. First, though it is not at all probable that 
Wells's utterance of "rare" exhibits twice over the rough snarl of Johnson's r, the "general view" 6eems in- 
tended to confirm the indefinite teaching above, thus : " 'i2 has one constant sound in English.' — Johnson. The 
same view is adopted by Webster, Perry, Kendrick, Sheridan, Jones, Jameson, Knowles, and others." — School 
Grammar, p. 40. In counterpoise of these, Wells next cites about as many more — namely, Frazee, Page, Rus- 
sell, Walker, Rush, Barber, Comstock, and Smart, — as maintaining or admitting that r has sometimes a rough 
sound, and sometimes a smoother one. 

XIX. OF THE LETTER S. 

The consonant & has a sharp, hissing, or hard sound ; as in sad, sister, thus : and a flat, buzzing, 
or soft sound, like that of z ; as in rose, dismal, bosom, husband. S, at the beginning of words, or 
after any of the sharp consonants, is always sharp ; as in see, steps, cliffs, sits, stocks, smiths. S, 
after any of the flat mutes, or at the end of words when not preceded by a sharp consonant, is 
generally flat ; as in eyes, trees, beds, bags, calves. But in the English termination ous, or in the 
Latin us, it is sharp ; as joyous, vigorous, hiatus. 

Ss is generally sharp ; as in pass, kiss, harass, assuage, basset, cassock, remissness. But the first 
two Esses in possess, or any of its regular derivatives, as well as the two in dissolve, or its proxi- 
mate kin, sound like two Zees ; and the soft or flat sound is commonly given to each s in hyssop, 
hussy, and hussar. In scissel, scissible, and scissile, all the Esses hiss; — in scissors, the last three 
of the four are flat, like z; — but in the middle ofscissure and scission we hear the sound of zh. 

S, in the termination sion, takes the sound of sh, after a consonant ; as in aspersion, session, 
passion, mission, compulsion: and that of zh, after a vowel; as in evasion, elision, confusion. 

In the verb assure, and each of its derivatives, also in the nouns pressure and fissure, with their 
derivatives, we hear, according to Walker, the sound of sh for each s, or twice in each word; but, 
according to the orthoepy of Worcester, that sound is heard only in the accented syllable of each 
word, and the vowel in each unaccented syllable is obscure. 

S is silent or mute in the words, isle, island, aisle, demesne, corps, and viscount. 

XX. OF THE LETTER T. 

The general sound of the consonant T, is heard in time, letter, set. T, immediately after the ac- 
cent, takes the sound of tch, before u, and generally also before eou; as in nature, feature, virtue, 



APPENDIX I. — (ORTHOGRAPHY.) — SOUNDS OF LETTERS. 1049 

righteous, courteous: when s or x precedes, it takes this sound before ia or to; as in fustian, bas- 
tion, mixtion. But the general or most usual sound of t after the accent, when followed by i and 
an other vowel, is that of sh ; as in creation, patient, cautious. 

In English, t is seldom, if ever, silent or powerless. In depot, however, a word borrowed from 
the French, we do not sound it ; and in chestnut, which is a compound of our own, it is much 
oftener written than heard. In often and soften, some think it silent ; but it seems rather to take 
here the sound of/. In chasten, hasten, fasten, castle, nestle, whistle, apostle, epistle, bustle, and sim- 
ilar words, with their sundry derivatives, the / is said by some to be mute ; but here it seems to 
take the sound of s ; for, according to the best authorities, this sound is heard twice in such 
words. 

Th, written in Greek by the character called Tlieta, (0 or capital, ■& or 6 small,) represents an 
elementary sound; or, rather, two distinct elementary sounds, for which the Anglo-Saxons had 
different characters, supposed by Dr. Bosworth to have been applied with accurate discrimination 
of "the hard or sharp sound of th," from "the soft or flat sound." — (See Bosworth 1 s Compendious 
Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, p. 268.) The English th is either sharp, as in thing, ethical, thinketh; or 
fiat, as in this, whither, thither. 

" Th initial is sharp ; as in thought : except in than, that, the, thee, their, them, then, thence, there, 
these, they, thine, this, thither, those, thou, thus, thy, and their compounds." — W. Allen's Grammar, 
p. 22. 

Th final is also sharp; as in south: except in beneath, booth, with, and several verbs formerly 
with th last, but now frequently (and more properly) written with final e; as loathe, mouthe, 
seethe, soothe, smoothe, clothe, wreathe, bequeathe, unclothe. 

Th medial is sharp, too, when preceded or followed by a consonant ; as in Arthur, ethnic, 
swarthy, athwart: except in brethren, burthen, farther, farthing, murther, northern, worthy. But 
" th between two vowels, is generally flat in words purely English ; as in gather, neither, whither: 
and sharp in words from the learned languages ; as in atheist, ether, method." — See W. Allen's 
Gram., p. 22. 

" Th, in. Tliames, Thomas, thyme, asthma, phthisis, and their compounds, is pronounced like t" 
—lb. 

XXI. OF THE LETTER U. 

The vowel £7 has three sounds which may be considered to be properly its own: — 

1. The open, long, full, primal, or diphthongal u ; as in tube, cubic, juvenile. 

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped u ; as in tub, butter, justice, unhung. 

3. The middle u, resembling a short or quick oo ; as in pull, pulpit, artful. 

U forming a syllable by itself, or U as naming itself, is nearly equivalent in sound to you, and 
requires the article a, and not an, before it ; as, a U, a union. 

U sometimes borrows the sound of some other vowel ; for bury is pronounced berry, and busy 
is pronounced bizzy. So in the derivatives, burial, buried, busied, busily, and the like. 

The long or diphthongal u, commonly sounded as yu, or as ew in ewer, — or any equivalent 
diphthong or digraph, as ue, ui, eu, or ew, — when it follows r or rh, assumes the sound of slender 
o or oo ; as in rude, rhubarb, rue, rueful, rheum, fruit, truth, brewer. 

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH U. 

U, in the proper diphthongs, ua, ue, ui, uo, uy, has the sound of w or of oo feeble; as in persuade, 
query, quell, quiet, languid, quote, obloquy. 

Ua, an improper diphthong, has the sound — 1. Of middle a; as in guard, guardian. 2. Of 
close a; as in guarantee, piquant. 3. Of obscure e; as in. victuals and its compounds or kindred. 
4. Of open u ; as in mantuamaker. 

Ue, an improper diphthong, has the sound — 1. Of open u; as in blue, ensue, ague. 2. Of close 
e; as in guest, guesser. 3. Of close u; as in leaguer. Ue final is sometimes silent; as in league, 
antique. 

Ui, an improper diphthong, has the sound — 1. Of open i; as in guide, guile. 2. Of close i; as 
in conduit, circuit. 3. Of open u; as in juice, sluice, suit. 

Uo can scarcely be called an improper diphthong, except, perhaps, after q in liquor, liquorice, 
liquorish, where uor is heard as ur. 

Uy, an improper diphthong, has the sound — 1. Of open y ; as in buy, buyer. 2. Of feeble y, or 
of ee feeble ; as in plaguy, roguy. 

TRIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH U. 
Uai is pronounced nearly, if not exactly, like way ; as in guai-a-cum, quail, quaint. Uaw is 
sounded like wa in water ; as in squaw, a female Indian. Uay has the sound of way ; as in Par- 
a-guay : except in quay, which nearly all our orthoepists pronounce kee. Uea and uee are each 
sounded wee ; as in queasy, queer, squeal, squeeze. Uoi and woy are each sounded woi ; as in 
quoit, buoy. Some say, that, as u, in these combinations, sounds like w, it is a consonant ; others 
allege, that w itself has only the sound of oo, and is therefore in all cases a vowel. U has, certainly, 
in these connexions, as much of the sound of oo, as has w ; and perhaps a little more. 

XXII. OF THE LETTER V. 

The consonant V always has a sound like that of f flattened ; as in love, vulture, vivacious. In 



1050 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



pure English, it is never silent, never final, never doubled : but it is often doubled in the dialect 
of Graven ; and there, too, it is sometimes final. 

XXIII. OF THE LETTER W. 

W, when reckoned a consonant, (as it usually is when uttered with a vowel that follows it,) has 
the sound heard at the beginning of wine, win, woman, woody ; being a sound less vocal than that 
of oo, and depending more upon the lips. 

W before h, is usually pronounced as if it followed the h ; as in what, when, where, while : but, 
in who, whose, whom, whole, whoop, and words formed from these, it is silent. Before r, in the 
same syllable, it is also silent ; as in wrath, wrench, wrong. So in a few other cases ; as in sword, 
answer, two. 

Wis never used alone as a vowel; except in some "Welsh or foreign names, in which it is equiv- 
alent to oo ; as in " Gwm Gothy," the name of a mountain in Wales; " Wkra," the name of a 
small river in Poland. — See Lockharfs Napoleon, Vol. ii, p. 15. In a diphthong, when heard, it 
has the power of u in bull, or nearly that of oo ; as in new, now, brow, frown. Aw and ow are fre- 
quently improper diphthongs, the w being silent, the a broad, and the o long ; as in law, flaw, — 
tow, snow. fc W, when sounded before vowels, being reckoned a consonant, we have no diphthongs 
or triphthongs beginning with this letter. 

XXIV. OF THE LETTER X. 

The consonant "Zhaa a sharp sound, like les ; as in ox: and a flat one, like gz ; as in ex- 
ample. X is sharp, when it ends an accented syllable ; as in exercise, exit, excellence : or when 
it precedes an accented syllable beginning with a consonant ; as in expand, extreme, expunge. X 
unaccented is generally flat, when the next syllable begins with a vowel ; as in exist, exemption, 
exotic. X initial, in Greek proper names, has the sound of z ; as in Xanthus, Xantippe, Xenophon, 
Xerxes." — See W. Allen's Gram., p. 25. 

XXV. OF THE LETTER Y. 

T, as a consonant, has the sound heard at the beginning of yarn, young, youth ; being rather less 
vocal than the feeble sound of i, or of the vowel y, and serving merely to modify that of a suc- 
ceeding vowel, with which it is quickly united. Y, as a vowel, has the same sounds as * ; — ' 

1. The open, long, full, or primal y ; as in cry, crying, thyme, cycle. 

2. The close, curt, short, or stopped y ; as in system, symptom, cynic. 

3. The feeble or faint y, accentless ; (like open e feeble ;) as in cymar, cycloidal, mercy. 

The vowels i and y have, in general, exactly the same sound under similar circumstances, 
and, in forming derivatives, we often change one for the other : as in city, cities ; tie, tying ; 
easy, easily. 

Y, before a vowel heard in the same syllable, is reckoned a consonant ; we have, therefore, no 
diphthongs or triphthongs commencing with this letter. 

XXVI. OF THE LETTER Z. 

The consonant Z, the last letter of our alphabet, has usually a soft or buzzing sound, the same as 
that of s flat ; as in Zeno, zenith, breeze, dizzy. Before u primal or i feeble, z, as well as s flat, 
sometimes takes the sound of zh, which, in the enumeration of consonantal sounds, is reckoned a 
distinct element; as in azure, seizure, glazier; osier, measure, pleasure. 



* 



E&D OF THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



^' 







APPENDIX II. 



TO PART SECOND, OR ETYMOLOGY. 

OF THE DERIVATION OF WORDS. 

Derivation, as a topic to be treated by the grammarian, is a species of Etymology, which ex- 
plains the various methods by which those derivative words which are not formed by mere gram- 
matical inflections, are deduced from their primitives. Most of those words which are regarded 
as primitives in English, may be traced to ulterior sources, and many of them are found to be 
compounds or derivatives in the other languages from which they have come to us. To show 
the composition, origin, and literal sense of these, is also a part, and a highly useful part, of this 
general inquiry, or theme of instruction. 

This species of information, though insignificant in those whose studies reach to nothing better, 
— to nothiug valuable and available in life, — is nevertheless essential to education and to science ; 
because it is essential to a right understanding of the import and just application of such words. 
All reliable etymology, all authentic derivation of words, has ever been highly valued by the 
wise. The learned James Harris has a remark as follows : " How useful to Ethic Science, and 
indeed to Knowledge in general, a Grammatical Disquisition into the Etymology and Meaning 
of "Words was esteemed by the chief and ablest Philosophers, may be seen by consulting Plato in 
his Cratylus ; Xenophoris Memorabilia, IY, 5, 6; Arrian. Epict. I, 17 ; II, 10; Marc. Anton. Ill, 
11 ;" &c. — See Harris 1 s Hermes, p. 407. 

A knowledge of the Saxon, Latin, Greek, and French languages, will throw much light on this 
subject, the derivation of our modern English ; nor is it a weak argument in favour of studying 
these, that our acquaintance with them, whether deep or slight, tends to a better understanding 
of what is borrowed, and what is vernacular, in our own tongue. But etymological analysis may 
extensively teach the origin of English words, their composition, and the import of their parts, with- 
out demanding of the student the power of reading foreign or ancient languages, or of discoursing at 
all on General Grammar. And, since many of the users of this work may be but readers of our cur- 
rent English, to whom an unknown letter or a foreign word is a particularly uncouth and repulsive 
thing, we shall here forbear the use of Saxon characters, and, in our explanations, not go beyond 
the precincts of our own language, except to show the origin and primitive import of some of 
our definitive and connecting particles, and to explain the prefixes and terminations which are 
frequently employed to form English derivatives. 

The rude and cursory languages of barbarous nations, to whom literature is unknown, are 
among those transitory things which, by the hand of time, are irrecoverably buried in oblivion. 
The fabric of the English language is undoubtedly of Saxon origin ; but what was the particular 
form of the language spoken by the Saxons, when about the year 450 they entered Britain, cannot 
now be accurately known. It was probably a dialect of the Gothic or Teutonic. This Anglo- 
Saxon dialect, being the nucleus, received large accessions from other tongues of the north, 
from the Norman French, and from the more polished languages of Borne and Greece, to form the 
modern English. The speech of our rude and warlike ancestors thus gradually improved, as 
Christianity, civilization, and knowledge, advanced the arts of life in Britain ; and, as early as the 
tenth century, it became a language capable of expressing all the sentiments of a civilized people. 
Prom the time of Alfred, its progress may be traced by means of writings which remain ; but it 
can scarcely be called English, as I have shown in the Introduction to this work, till about the 
thirteenth century. A.nd for two or three centuries later, it was so different from the modern 
English, as to be scarcely intelligible at all to the mere English reader ; but, gradually improving 
by means upon which we need not here dilate, it at length became what we now find it, — a lan- 
guage copious, strong, refined, impressive, and capable, if properly used, of a great degree of 
beauty and harmony. 

SECTION I.— DEKIVATION OF THE AETICLES. 

1. For the derivation of our article The, which he calls " an adjective," Dr. "Webster was satis- 
fied with giving this hint: " Sax. the; Dutch, de." — Amer. Diet. According to Home Tooke, this 
definite article of ours, is the Saxon verb "the," imperative, from thean, to take; and is nearly 
equivalent in meaning to that or those, because our that is "the past participle of thean," and 
" means taken" — Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 49. But this is not very satisfactory. Exam- 
ining ancient works, we find the word, or something resembling it, or akin to it, written in various 
forms, as se, see, ye, te, de, the, thd, and others that cannot be shown by our modern letters ; and, 
tracing it as one article, or one and the same word, through what we suppose to be the oldest of 
these forms, in stead of accounting the forms as signs of different roots, we should sooner regard 
it as originating in the imperative of seon, to see. 



1052 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

2. An, our indefinite article, is the Saxon cen, arte, an, one ; and, by dropping n before a con- 
sonant, becomes a. Gawin Douglas, an ancient English writer, wrote ane, even before a con- 
sonant; as, "Ane book" — " Ane lang spere," — " A ne volume." 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — The words of Tooke, concerning the derivation of That and The, as nearly as they can be given in 
our letters, are these: "That (in the Anglo-Saxon Thset, i. e. Thead, Theat) means taken, assumed; being 
merely the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Thean, Thegan, Thion, Thihan, Thicgan, Thigian ; sumere, 
assumere, accipere ; to the, to get, to take, to assume. 

' III mote he the That caused me 
To make myselfe a frere.' — Sir T. Move's Workes, pag. 4. 

The (our article, as it is called) is the imperative of the same verb Thean : which may very well supply the 
place of the correspondent Anglo-Saxon article Se, which is the imperative of Seon, videre : for it answers the 
same purpose in discourse, to say. . . . see man, or take man." — Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 49. 

Ons. 2. — Now, between Thoet and Theat, there is a considerable difference of form, for ce and ea are not the 
same diphthong ; and, in the identifying of so many infinitives, as forming but one verb, there is room for error. 
Nor is it half so probable that these are truly one root, as that our article Ttie is the same, in its origin, as the 
old Anglo-Saxon Se. Dr. Bosworth, in his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, gives no such word as Thean or Thegan, no 
such participle as Thead or Theat, which derivative is perhaps imaginary ; but he has inserted together " Thic- 
gan, thicgean, thigan, to receive, or take;" and separately, "Theon, to thrive, or flourish" — "Thihan, to 
thrive," — and " Thion, to flourish ;" as well as the preterit " Theat, howled," from " Theotan, to howl." And 
is it not plain, that the old verb " the," as used by More, is from Theon, to thrive, rather than from Thicgan, 
to take? "Ill mote he the"=" 111 might he thrive," not, " 111 might he take." 

Obs. 3. — Professor Hart says, " The word the was originally thoet, or that, In course of time [,] it became 
abbreviated, and the short form acquired, in usage, a shade of meaning different from the original long one. 
That is demonstrative with emphasis ; the is demonstrative without emphasis." — Hart's E. Grammar, p. 32. 
This derivation of The is quite improbable ; because the shortening of a monosyllable of five letters by striking 
out the third and the fifth, is no usual mode of abbreviation. Bosworth' s Dictionary explains The as " An in- 
declinable article, often used for all the case6 of Se, seo, thset, especially in adverbial expressions and in corrupt 
Anglo-Saxon, as in the Chronicle after the year 1138." 

Obs. 4 — Dr. Latham, in a section which is evidently neither accurate nor self-consistent, teaches us — " that 
there exist in the present English two powers of the word spelled t-h-e, or of the so-called definite article ;" 
then, out of sixteen Anglo-Saxon equivalents, he selects two for the roots of this double-powered the ; 6aying, 
" Hence the the that has originated out of the Anglo-Saxon thy is one word ; whilst the the that has origin- 
ated out of the Anglo-Saxon the, [is] another. The latter is the common article : the former the the in expres- 
sions like all the more, all the better=more by all that, better by all that, and the Latin phrases eo majus, eo 
melius." — Latham's Hand-Book, p. 153. This double derivation is liable to many objections. The Hand-Book 
afterwards says, " That the, in expressions like all the more, all the better, &c, is no article, has already been 
shown." — P. 196. But in fact, though the before comparatives or superlatives be no article, Dr. Latham's ety- 
mologies prove no such thing ; neither does he anywhere tell us what it is. His examples, too, with their 
interpretations, are all of them fictitious, ambiguous, and otherwise bad. It is uncertain whether he meant hia 
phrases for counterparts to each other or not. If the means " by that," or thereby, it is an adverb ; and so is its 
equivalent " eo" denominated by the Latin grammarians. See Obs. 10, under Rule I. 

SECTION II.— DEKIVATION OF NOUNS. 

In English, Nouns are derived from nouns, from adjectives, from verbs, or from participles. 
I. Nouns are derived from Nouns in several different ways : — 

1. By the adding of ship, dom, ric, wick, or, ate, hood, or head : as, fellow, fellowship ; king, 
kingdom; bishop, bishopric; bailiff, or baily, bailiwick; senate, senator; ietrarch, tetrarchate; child, 
childhood; God, Godhead. These generally denote dominion, office, or character. 

2. By the adding of ian : as, music, musician ; physic, physician ; theology, theologian ; gram- 
mar, grammarian; college, collegian. These generally denote profession. 

3. By the adding of r, ry, or ery : as, grocer, grocery ; cutler, cutlery ; slave, slavery ; scene, 
scenery ; fool, foolery. These sometimes denote state or habit ; sometimes, an artificer's wares or 
shop. 

4. By the adding of age or ade : as, patron, patronage ; porter, porterage ; band, bandage ; lemon, 
lemonade; baluster, balustrade; wharf, wharfage; vassal, vassalage. 

5. By the adding of kin, let, ling, ock, el, erel, or et : as, lamb, lambkin ; ring, ringlet ; cross, 
crosslet ; duck, duckling; hill, hillock; run, runnel; cock, cockerel ; pistol, pistolet; eagle, eaglet; circle, 
circlet. All these denote little things, and are called diminutives. 

6. By the addition of ist : as, psalm, psalmist ; botany, botanist ; dial, dialist ; journal, jour- 
nalist. These denote persons devoted to, or skilled in, the subject expressed by the primi- 
tive. 

7. By the prefixing of an adjective, or an other noun, so as to form a compound word : as, 
foreman, broadsword, statesman, tradesman; bedside, hillside, seaside; bear-berry, bear-fly, bear- 
garden; beards-ear, beards-foot, goafs-beard. 

8. By the adoption of a negative prefix to reverse the meaning : as, order, disorder ; pleasure, 
displeasure; consistency, inconsistency; capacity, incapacity; observance, nonobservance ; resistance, 
nonresistance ; truth, untruth; constraint, unconstraint. 

9. By the use of the prefix counter, signifying against or opposite : as, attraction, counter-attrac- 
tion; bond, counter-bond; current, counter-current; movement, counter-movement. 

10. By the addition of ess, ix, or ine, or the changing of masculines to feminines so terminating: 
as, heir, heiress; prophet, prophetess; abbot, abbess; governor, governess ; testator, testatrix; hero, 
heroine. 

11. Nouns are derived from Adjectives in several different ways : — 

1. By the adding of ness, ity, ship, dom, or hood: as, good, goodness; real, reality ; hard, hard- 
ship ; wise, wisdom ; free, freedom ; false, falsehood. 



APPENDIX II. — (ETYMOLOGY.) — DERIVATION OF WORDS. 1053 

2. By the changing of Unto ce or cy : as, radiant, radiance; consequent, consequence; flagrant, 
flagrancy ; current, currency ; discrepant, discrepance, or discrepancy. 

3. By the changing of some of the letters, and the adding of t or th : as, long, length ; broad, 
breadth ; wide, width ; high, height. The nouns included under these three heads, generally de- 
note abstract qualities, and are called abstract nouns. 

4. By the adding oiard: as, drunk, drunkard; dull, dullard. These denote ill character. 

5. By the adding of ist : as, sensual, sensualist ; separate, separatist ; royal, royalist ; fatal, fa- 
talist. These denote persons devoted, addicted, or attached, to something. 

6. By the adding of a, the Latin ending of neuter plurals, to certain proper adjectives in an : 
as, Mdtonian, Miltoniana; Johnsonian, Johnsoniana. These literally mean, Miltonian things, say- 
ings, or anecdotes, &c. ; and are words somewhat fashionable with the journalists, and are some- 
times used for titles of books that refer to table-talk. 

III. Nouns are derived from Verbs in several different ways : — 

1. By the adding of ment, ance, ence, ure, or age: as, punish, punishment;- abate, abatement; 
repent, repentance ; condole, condolence ; forfeit, forfeiture ; stow, stowage ; equip, equipage ; truck, 
truckage. 

2. By a change of the termination of the verb, into se, ce, sion, Hon, aiion, or ition : as, expand, 
expanse, expansion ; pretend, pretence, pretension ; invent, invention ; create, creation ; omit, omis- 
sion ; provide, provision ; reform, reformation ; oppose, opposition. These denote either the act 
of doing, or the thing done. 

3. By the adding of er or or : as, hunt, hunter ; write, writer ; collect, collector ; assert, assertor ; 
instruct, instructer, or instructor. These generally denote the doer. To denote the person to 
whom something is done, we sometimes form a derivative ending in ee : as, promisee, mortgagee, 
appellee, consignee. 

4. Nouns and Verbs are sometimes alike in orthography, but different in pronunciation : as, a 
house, to house ; a use, to use ; a reb'el, to rebel' ; a rec'ord, to record' ; a cem'ent, to cement'. Of 
such pairs, it may often be difficult to say which word is the primitive. 

5. In many instances, nouns and verbs are wholly alike as to form and sound, and are dis- 
tinguished by their sense and construction only : as, love, to love ; fear, to fear ; sleep, to sleep ; 
— to revise, a revise ; to rebuke, a rebuke. In these, we have but the same word used differently. 

IV. Nouns are often derived from Participles in ing ; as, a meeting, the understanding, mur- 
murings, disputing s, sayings, and doings : and, occasionally, one is formed from such a word and 
an adverb or a perfect participle joined with it; as, " The turning-away" — "His goings-forth, v — 
" Your having-boasted of it." 

SECTION III.— DERIVATION OF ADJECTIVES. 

In English, Adjectives are derived from nouns, from adjectives, from verbs, or from par* 
ticiples. 

I. Adjectives are derived from Nouns in several different ways : — 

1. By the adding of ous, ious, eous, y, ey, ic, al, ical, or ine: (sometimes with an omission 
or change of some of the final letters :) as, danger, dangerous; glory, glorious; right, righteous; 
rock, rocky ; clay, clayey ; poet, poetic, or poetical ; nation, national ; method, metlwdical ; vertex, 
vertical ; clergy, clerical ; adamant, adamantine. Adjectives thus formed, generally apply the 
properties of their primitives, to the nouns to which they relate. 

2. By the adding offul: as, fear, fearful; cheer, cheerful; grace, graceful; shame, shameful; 
power, powerful. These come almost entirely from personal qualities or feelings, and denote 
abundance. 

3. By the adding of some : as, burden, burdensome; game, gamesome; toil, toilsome. These de- 
note plenty, but do not exaggerate. 

4. By the adding of en : as, oak, oaken ; silk, silken ; wheat, wheaten ; oat, oaten ; hemp, hemp- 
en. Here the derivative denotes the matter of which something is made. 

5. By the adding of ly or ish : as, friend, friendly ; gentleman, gentlemanly ; child, childish ; 
prude, prudish. These denote resemblance. The termination ly signifies like. 

6. By the adding of able or ible : as, fashion, fashionable ; access, accessible. But these ter- 
minations are generally, and more properly, added to verbs. See Obs. 17th, 18th, &c, on the 
Rules for Spelling. 

7. By the adding of less: as, house, houseless ; death, deathless; sleep, sleepless ; bottom, bottom- 
less. These denote privation or exemption — the absence of what is named by the primitive. 

8. By the adding of ed : as, saint, sainted ; bigot, bigoted ; mast, masted ; wit, witted. These 
have a resemblance to participles, and some of them are rarely used, except when joined with 
some other word to form a compound adjective: as, three-sided, bare-footed, long-eared, hundred- 
handed, flat-nosed, hard-hearted, marble-hearted, chicken-hearted. 

9. Adjectives coming from proper names, take various terminations: as, America, American; 
England, English ; Dane, Banish ; Portugal, Portuguese ; Plato, Platonic. 

10. Nouns are often converted into adjectives, without change of termination : as, paper cur- 
rency ; a gold chain ; silver knee-buckles. 

11. Adjectives are derived from Adjectives in several different ways : — 

1. By the adding of ish or som.e: as, white, whitish; green, greenish; lone, lonesome; glad, 
gladsome. These denote quality with some diminution. 



1054 



THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



2. By the prefixing of dis, in, or un : as, honest, dishonest ; consistent, inconsistent ; wise, unwise. 
These express a negation of the quality denoted by their primitives. 

3. By the adding of y or ly : as, swarth, swarthy ; good, goodly. Of these there are but few ; 
for almost all the derivatives of the latter form are adverbs. 

III. Adjectives are derived from Verbs in several different ways : — 

1. By the adding of able or ible : (sometimes with a change of some of the final letters :) as, 
perish, perishable ; vary, variable ; convert, convertible ; divide, divisible, or dividable. These, ac- 
cording to their analogy, have usually a passive import, and denote susceptibility of receiving 
action. 

2. By the adding of ive or ory : (sometimes with a change of some of the final letters:) as, 
elect, elective; interrogate, interrogative, interrogatory; defend, defensive; defame, defamatory ; ex- 
plain, explanatory. 

3. "Words ending in ate, are mostly verbs ; but some of them may be employed as adjectives, in 
the same form, especially in poetry ; as, reprobate, complicate. 

IV. Adjectives are derived from Participles, not by suffixes, but in these ways : — 

1. By the prefixing of un, meaning not; as, unyielding, unregarded, unreserved, unendowed, un- 
endeared, unendorsed, unencountered, unencumbered, undisheartened, undishonoured. Of this sort 
there are very many. 

2. By a combining of the participle with some word which does not belong to the verb ; as, 
way-faring, hollow -sounding, long-drawn, deep-laid, dear-purchased, down-trodden. These, too, are 
numerous. 

3. Participles often become adjectives without change of form. Such adjectives are dis- 
tinguished from participles by their construction alone: as, "A lasting ornament;" — "The starv- 
ing chymist;" — " "Words of learned length;" — "With counterfeited glee." 

SECTION IV.— DEKIVATION OF THE PKONOUNS. 

I. The English Pronouns are all of Saxon origin; but, in them, our language differs very 
strikingly from that of the Anglo-Saxons. The following table compares the simple personal 
forms: — 



Eng. 
Sax. 


I, 

Ic, 


My or 


Eng. 
Sax. 
Eng. 


Thou, 

Thu, 

He, 


Thy or 


Sax. 


He, 


His or 


Eng. 


She, 


Her or 


Sax. 


Heo, 


Hire or 


Eng. 


It, 




Sax. 


Hit, 


His or 



Mine, Me ; 

Min, Me or Mec; 
Thine, Thee; 

Thin, The or Thee ; 
His Him ; 

Hys, Him or Hine ; 
Hers, Her ; 

Hyre, Hi ; 

Its, It; 

Hys, Hit: 



We, Our or Ours, Us. 

We, Ure or User, Us. 

Ye, Your or Yours, You. 
Oe Eower, Eow or Eowic. 

They, Their or Theirs, Them. 

Hi or Hig, Hira or Heora, Heom or Hi. 

They, Their or Theirs, Them. 

Hi or Hig, Hira or Heora, Heom or Hi. 

They, Their or Theirs, Them. 

Hi or Hig, Hira or Heora, Heom or Hi. 



Here, as in the personal pronouns of other languages, the plurals and oblique cases do not all 
appear to be regular derivatives from the nominative singular. Many of these pronouns, perhaps 
all, as well as a vast number of other words of frequent use in our language, and in that from 
which it chiefly comes, were very variously written by the Middle English, Old English, Semi- 
Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon authors. He who traces the history of our language, will meet with 
them under all the following forms, (or such as these would be with Saxon characters for the 
Saxon forms,) and perhaps in more : — 

1. I, J, Y, y, i, ay, ic, che, ich, Ic; — My, mi, min, Mine, myne, myn; — Me, mee, me, meh, mec, 
mech ; — We, wee, ve ; — Our or Ours, oure, ure, wer, urin, uren, urne, user, usse, usser, usses, 
ussum ; — Us, ous, vs, uss, usic, usich, usig, usih, uz, huz. 

2. Thou, thoue, thow, thowe, thu, tou, to, tu; — Thy or Thine, thi, thyne, thyn, thin; — Thee, 
the, theh, thee ; — Ye, yee, yhe, ze, zee, ge, ghe ; — Your or Yours, youre, zour, hure, goure, yer, 
yower, yowyer, yorn, yourn, youre, eower ; — You, youe, yow, gou, zou, ou, iu, iuh, eow, iow, 
geow, eowih, eowic, iowih. 

3. He, hee, hie, se ; — His, hise, is, hys, ys, hyse, hus ; — Him, hine, hiene, hion, hen, hyne, hym, 
im ;— They, thay, thei, the, tha, thai, thii, yai, hi, hie, heo, hig, hyg, hy ; — Their or Theirs, ther, 
theyr, theyrs, thair, thare, theora, hare, here, her, hir, hire, hira, hiora, hiera, heora, hyra ; — Them, 
thym, theym, thaym, thaim, thame, tham, em, hem, heom, hiom, eom, horn, him, hi, hig. 

4. She, shee, sche, scho, sho, shoe, sca3, seo, heo, hio, hiu, hoo, hue; — Her, (possessive,) hur, 
hir, hire, hyr, hyre, hyra, hera; — Her, (objective,) hire, hyre, hur, hir, hi. The plural forms of 
this feminine pronoun are like those of the masculine He; but the " Well- Wishers to Knowledge, 11 
in their small Grammar, (erroneously, as I suppose,) make hira masculine only, and heora feminine 
only. See their Principles of Grammar, p. 38. 

5. It, yt, itt, hit, hyt, hytt. The possessive Its is a modern derivative ; His or Hys was formerly 
used in lieu of it. The plural forms of this neuter pronoun, It, are like those of He and She. 
According to Home Tooke, who declares ho3t to have been one of its ancient forms, " this pronoun 
was merely the past participle of the verb haitan, hoztan, nominare," to name, and literally signi- 
fies " the said;" {Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 46 ; W Allen's Gram., p. 57 ;) but Dr. Alexander 
Murray, exhibiting it in an other form, not adapted to this opinion, makes it the neuter of a de- 
clinable adjective, or pronoun, inflected from the masculine, thus: " He, heo hita, this." — Hist, of 
Lang., Vol. i, p. 315. 



APPENDIX II. — (ETYMOLOGY.) — DERIVATION OF WORDS. 1055 

H. The relatives and interrogatives are derived from the same source, the Anglo-Saxon tongue, 
and have passed through similar changes, or varieties in orthography ; but, the common relative 
pronoun of the Anglo-Saxons being like their article the, — or, with the three genders, se, seo, thcet, 
— and not like our who, which, and what, it is probable that the interrogative use of these words 
was the primitive one. They have been found in all the following forms : — 

1. Who, ho, hue, wha, hwa, hua, wua, qua, quha; — Whose, who's, whos, whois, whoise, 
wheas, quhois, quhais, quhase, hwses ; — Whom, whome, quham, quhum, quhome, hwom, hwam, 
hwsem, hwsene, hwone. 

2. Which, whiche, whyche, whilch, wych, quilch, quilk, quhilk, hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, whilk, 
huilic, hvilc. For the Anglo-Saxon forms, Dr. Bosworth's Dictionary gives " hwilc, hwylc, and 
hwelc;" but Professor Fowler's E. Grammar makes them " huilic andftw'fc." — See p. 240. Whilk^ 
or quhilk, is a Scottish form. 

3. What, hwat, hwet, quhat, hwaet. This pronoun, whether relative or interrogative, is re- 
garded by Bosworth and others as a neuter derivative from the masculine or femine hwa, who. 
It may have been thence derived, but, in modern English, it is not always of the neuter gender. 
See the last note on page 312. 

4. That, Anglo-Saxon Theet. Tooke's notion of the derivation of this word is noticed above 
in the section on Articles. There is no certainty of its truth ; and our lexicographers make no 
allusion to it. W. Allen reaffirms it. See his Gram., p. 54. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — In the Well-Wishers' Grammar, (p. 39,) as also in L. Murray's and some others, the pronoun Which 
is very strangely and erroneously represented as being always " of the neuter gender." (See what is said of this 
word in the Introduction, Chap, ix, IT 32.) Whereas it is the relative most generally applied to brute animals, 
and, in our common version of the Bible, its application to persona is peculiarly frequent. Fowler says, " In its 
origin it is a Compound." — E. Gram., p. 240. Taking its first Anglo-Saxon form to be "Huilic," he thinks it 
traceable to " hwa, who," or its "ablative hwi," and " lie, like." — lb. If this is right, the neuter sense is not 
its primitive import, or any part of it. 

Ons. 2 — From its various uses, the word That is called sometimes a pronoun, sometimes an adjective, and 
sometimes a conjunction ; but, in respect to derivation, it is, doubtless, one and the same. As a relative pro- 
noun, it is of either number, and has no plural form different from the singular ; as, "Blessed is the man that 
heareth me." — Prov., viii, 34 "Blessed are they that mourn." — Matt., v, 4. As an adjective, it is said by 
Tooke to have been formerly " applied indifferently to plural nouns and to singular ; as, ' Into that holy orders.' 
— Dr. Martin. ' At that dayes.' — Id. ' That euyll aungels the deuilles/ — Sir Tho. More. 'This pleasure un- 
doubtedly farre excelleth all that pleasures that in this life maie be obteined.' — Id." — Diversions of Purley, Vol, 
ii, pp. 47 and 48. The introduction of the plural form those, must have rendered this usage bad English. 

SECTION Y.— DERIVATION OF VERBS. 

In English, Yerbs are derived from nouns, from adjectives, or from verbs. 

I. Yerbs are derived from Nouns in the following different ways: — 

1. By the adding of ize, ise, en, or ate: as, author, authorize; critic, criticise; length, lengthen; 
origin, originate. The termination ize is of Greek origin, and ise is most probably of French : the 
former is generally preferable in forming English derivatives ; but both are sometimes to be used, 
and they should be applied according to Rule 13th for Spelling. 

2. Some few verbs are derived from nouns by the changing of a sharp or hard consonant to a 
flat or soft one, or by the adding of a mute e, to soften a hard sound: as, advice, advise; price, 
prize; lath, bathe; cloth, clothe; breath, breathe; wreath, wreathe; sheath, sheathe; grass, graze. 

II. Yerbs are derived from Adjectives in the following different ways: — 

1. By the adding of ize or en: as, legal, legalize; immortal, immortalize; civil, civilize; human, 
humanize; familiar, familiarize; particular, particularize; deaf, deafen; stiff, stiffen; rough, 
roughen; deep, deepen; weak, weaken. 

2. Many adjectives become verbs by being merely used and inflected as verbs : as, warm, to 
warm, he warms ; dry, to dry, he dries ; dull, to dull, he dulls ; slack, to slack, he slacks ; forward, 
to forward, he forwards. 

III. Yerbs are derived from Verbs in the following modes, or ways : — 

1. By the prefixing oidis or un to reverse the meaning: as, please, displease; qualify, disqualfy ; 
organize, disorganize ; fasten, unfasten ; muzzle, unmuzzle ; nerve, unnerve. 

2. By the prefixing of a, be, for, fore, mis, over, out, under, up, or with : as, rise, arise ; sprinkle, 
besprinkle; bid, forbid; see, foresee; take, mistake; look, overlook; run, outrun; go, undergo; hold, 
uphold; draw, withdraw. 

SECTION VI.— DERIVATION OF PARTICIPLES. 

All English Participles are derived from English verbs, in the manner explained in Chapter 7th, 
under the general head of Etymology; and when foreign participles are introduced into our lan- 
guage, they are not participles with us, but belong to some other class of words, or part of 
speech. 

SECTION VII.— DERIVATION OF ADVERBS. 

1. In English, many Adverbs are derived from adjectives by the addition of ly ; which is an 
abbreviation for like, and which, though the addition of it to a noun forms an adjective, is the 
most distinctive as well as the most common termination of our adverbs : as, candid, candidly ; 
sordid, sordidly ; presumptuous, presumptuously. Most adverbs of manner are thus formed. 



1056 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

2. Many adverbs are compounds formed from two or more English words ; as, herein, thereby, 
to-day, always, already, elsewhere, sometimes, wherewithal. The formation and the meaning of 
these are, in general, sufficiently obvious. 

3. About seventy adverbs are formed by means of the prefix, or inseparable preposition, a ; as, 
Abreast, abroach, abroad, across, afar, afield, ago, agog, aland, along, amiss, atilt. 

4. Needs, as an adverb, is a contraction of need is ; prithee, or pr'ythee, of 1 pray thee ; alone, of 
all one ; only, of one-like ; anon, of the Saxon an on ; i. e., in one [instant] ; never, of ne ever ; i. e., 
not ever. Prof. G-ibbs, in Fowler's Grammar, makes needs " the Genitive case of the noun needy 
—P. 311. 

5. Very is from the French veray, or vrai, true ; and this, probably, from the Latin verus. 
Rather appears to be the regular comparative of the ancient rath, soon, quickly, willingly; which 
comes from the Anglo-Saxon " Bathe, or Hrathe, of one's own accord." — Bosworth. But the pa- 
rent language had also " Hrathre, to a mind." — Id. That is, to one's mind, or, perhaps, more 
willingly. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Obs. 1. — Many of our most common adverbs are of Anglo-Saxon derivation, being plainly traceable to certain 
very old forms, of the same import, which the etymologist regards but as the same words differently spelled : 
as, All, eall, eal, or sell; Almost, ealmaest, or aelmaest ; Also, ealswa, or selswa ; Else, elles; Elsewhere, elles- 
hwaer: Enough, genog, or genoh ; Even, euen, efen, or sefen ; Ever, euer, aster, or aefre ; Downward, dune- 
weard ; Forward, forweard, or foreweard ; Homeward, hamweard ; Homewards, hamweardes; Hmc, hu ; Little, 
lytel; Leas, lass; Least, best; No, na; Not, noht, or nocht , Out, ut, or ute; So, swa; Still, stille, or stylle; 
Then, thenne ; There, ther, thar, thser ; Thither, thider, or thyder ; Thus, thuss, or thus ; Together, togaedere, 
or togaedre ; Too, to ; When, hwenne, or hwaenne ; Where, hwser ; Whither, hwider, hwyder, or hwyther ; Yea, 
ia, gea, or gee ; Yes, gese, gise, or gyse. 

Oi;s. 2 According to Home Tooke, "Still and Else are the imperatives Stell and Ales of their respective 

verbs Stellan, to put, and Alesan, to dismiss." — Diversions, Vol. i, p. 111. He afterwards repeats the doctrine 
thus : " Still is only the imperative Stell or Steall, of Stellan or Steallian, ponere." — lb., p. 140. " This word 
Else, formerly written alles, altis, abjse, elles, ellus, ellis, ells, els, and now else ; is, as I have said, no other 
than Ales or Alys, the imperative of Alesan, or Alysan, dimittere." — lb., p. 148. These ulterior and remote 
etymologies are perhaps too conjectural. 

SECTION VIII— DEKIVATION OF CONJUNCTIONS. 

The English Conjunctions are mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin. The best etymological vocabula- 
ries of our language give us, for the most part, the same words in Anglo-Saxon characters ; but 
Home Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, (a learned and curious work which the advanced stu- 
dent may peruse with advantage,) traces, or professes to trace, these and many other English 
particles, to Saxon verbs or participles. The following derivations, so far as they partake of such 
speculations, are offered principally on his authority : — 

1. Although, signifying admit, allow, is from all and though ; the latter being supposed the 
imperative of Thafian or Thafigan, to allow, to concede, to yield. 

2. An, an obsolete or antiquated conjunction, signifying if, or grant, is the imperative of the 
Anglo-Saxon verb Anan or Unan, to grant, to give. 

3. And, [Saxon, And,] add, is said by Tooke to come from " An-ad, the imperative of Anan- 
ad, Bare congeriem." — B. of P., Vol. i, p. 111. That is, " To give the heap. 1 ' The truth of this, 
if unapparent, I must leave so. 

4. As, according to Dr. Johnson, is from the Teutonic als ; but Tooke says that als itself is a 
contraction for all and the original particle es or as, meaning it, that, or which. 

5. Because, from be and cause, means by cause ; the be being written for by. 

6. Both, the two, is from the pronominal adjective both ; which, according to Dr. Alexander Mur- 
ray, is a contraction of the Visigothic Bagoth, signifying doubled. The Anglo-Saxons wrote for it 
butu, butwu, buta, and batwa; i. e., ba, both, twa, two. 

7. But, — (in Saxon, bute, butan, buton, or butun — ) meaning except, yet, now, only, else than, 
that not, or on the contrary, — is referred by Tooke and some others, to two roots, — each of them 
but a conjectural etymon for it. " But, implying addition,'" say they, " is from Bot, the imperative 
of Botan, to boot, to add; But, denoting exception, is from Be-utan, the imperative of Beon-utan, 
to be out."— See B. of P., Vol. i, pp. Ill and 155. 

8. Either, one of the two, like the pronominal adjective Either, is from the Anglo-Saxon 
iEgther, or Egther, a word of the same uses, and the same import. 

9. Eke, also, (now nearly obsolete,) is from "Eac, the imperative of Eacan, to add." 

10. Even, whether a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a conjunction, appears to come from the 
same source, the Anglo-Saxon word Efen or iEfen. 

11. Except, which, when used as a conjunction, means unless, is the imperative, or (according 
to Dr. Johnson) an ancient perfect participle, of the verb to except. 

12. For, because, is from the Saxon preposition For; which, to express this meaning, our an- 
cestors combined with something else, reducing to one word some such phrase as, For thai, For 
this, For this that; as, " Fortha, Fortham, Forthan, Forthamthe, Forthan the." — See BoswortKs 
Bid. 

13. If, give, grant, allow, is from " G-if, the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon Gifan, to give." — TooJce's 
Biversions, Vol. i, p. 111. 

14. Lest, that not, dismissed, is from " Lesed, the perfect participle of Lesan, to dismiss." 

15. Neither, not either, is a union and contraction of ne either : our old writers frequently used 
ne for not; the Anglo-Saxons likewise repeated it, using ne — ne, in lieu of our corresponsives 
Thither — nor; and our modern lexicographers still note the word, in some of these senses. 



APPENDIX II. (ETYMOLOGY.) — DERIVATION OF WORDS. 1057 

16. Nor, not other, not else, is supposed to be a union and contraction of we or. 

17. Notwithstanding, not hindering, is an English compound of obvious formation. 

18. Or, an alternative conjunction, seems to be a word of no great antiquity. It is supposed 
to be a contraction of other, which Johnson and his followers give, in Saxon characters, either as 
its source, or as its equivalent. 

19. Provided, the perfect participle of the verb provide, becomes occasionally a disjunctive con- 
junction, by being used alone or with the particle that, to introduce a condition, a saving clause, 
a proviso. 

20. Save, anciently used with some frequency as a conjunction, in the sense of hut, or except, 
is from the imperative of the English verb save, and is still occasionally turned to such a use by 
the poets. 

21. Seeing, sometimes made a copulative conjunction, is the imperfect participle of the verb 
see. Used at the head of a clause, and without reference to an agent, it assumes a conjunctive 
nature. 

22. Since is conjectured by Tooke to be " the participle of Seon, to see," and to mean " seeing, 
seeing that, seen that, or seen as." — Diversions of P., Vol. i, pp. Ill and 220. But Johnson and 
others say, it has been formed "by contraction from sithence, or sith thence, from sithe, Sax." — 
Joh. Diet. 

23. Than, which introduces the latter term of a comparison, is from the Gothic than, or the 
Anglo-Saxon thanne, which was used for the same purpose. 

24. That, when called a conjunction, is said by Tooke to be etymologically the same as the 
adjective or pronoun That, the derivation of which is twice spoken of above ; but, in Todd's John- 
son's Dictionary, as abridged by Chalmers, That, the conjunction, is referred to u thatei, Gothic;" 
That, the pronoun, to u that, thata, Gothic; that, Saxon; dat, Dutch." 

25. Then, used as a conjunction, is doubtless the same word as the Anglo-Saxon Thenne, taken 
as an illative, or word of inference. 

26. " Though, allow, is [from] the imperative Thaf, or Thafig, of the verb Thafian or Thafigan, 
to allow." — Tooke's Diversions, Vol. i, pp. Ill and 150. 

27. " Unl' ss, except, dismiss, is [from] Onles, the imperative of Onlesan, to dismiss." — lb. 

28. Whether, a corresponsive conjunction, which introduces the first term of an alternative, is 
from the Anglo-Saxon hwodher, which was used for the same purpose. 

29. Yet, nevertheless, is from "Get, the imperative of Getan, to get." — Tooke. 

SECTION IX.— DERIVATION" OF PREPOSITIONS. 

The following are the principal English Prepositions, explained in the order of the list : — 

1. Aboard, meaning on board of, is from the prefix or preposition a and the noun board, which 
here means " the deck of a ship " or vessel. Abord, in French, is approach, arrival, or a landing. 

2. About, [Sax. Abiitan, or Abuton,] meaning around, at circuit, or doing, is from the prefix 
a, meaning at, and the noun bout, meaning a turn, a circuit, or a trial. In French, bout means 
end ; and about, end, or but-end. 

3. Above, [Sax. Abufan, Abufon, A-be-ufan,] meaning over, or, literally, at-by-over, or at-by- 
top, is from the Saxon or Old English a, be, and ufa, or ufan, said to mean " high, upwards, or the 
top." 

4. Across, at cross, athwart, traverse, is from the prefix a and the word cross. 

5. After, [Sax. ^Efter, or iEftan,] meaning behind, subsequent to, is, in form, the comparative 
of aft, a word common to seamen, and it may have been thence derived. 

6. Against, opposite to, is probably from the Anglo-Saxon, Ongean, or Ongegen, each of which 
forms means again or against. As prefixes, on and a are often equivalent. 

7. Along, [i. e., at-long,] meaning lengthiuise of, near to, is formed from a and long. 

8. Amid, [i. e., at mid or middle.] is from a and mid ; and Amidst [, i. e., at midst,'] is from a 
and midst, contracted from middest, the superlative of mid. 

9. Among, mixed with, is probably an abbreviation of amongst ; and Amongst, according to 
Tooke, is from a and mongst, or the older " Ge-mencged," Saxon for " mixed, mingled." 

1 0. Around, about, encircling, is from a and round, a circle, or circuit. 

11. At, gone to, is supposed by some to come from the Latin ad; but Dr. Murray says, " Wa 
have in Teutonic at for agt, touching or touched, joined, at." — Hist, of Lang., i, 349. 

12. Athwart, across, is from a and thwart, cross ; and this from the Saxon Thweor. 

13. Bating, a preposition for except, is the imperfect participle of bate, to abate. 

14. Before, [i. e., by-fore,'] in front of, is from the prefix be and the adjective fore. 

15. Behind, [i. e., by-hind,] in rear of, is from the prefix be and the adjective hind. 
10. Below, [i. e., by-low,] meaning under, or beneath, is from be and the adjective low. 

17. Beneath [, Sax. or Old Eng. Beneoth,] is from be and neath, or Sax. Neothe, low. 

18. Beside [, i. e., by-side,] is probably from be and the noun or adjective side. 

19. Besides [, i. e., by-sides,] is probably from be and the plural noun sides. 

20. Between, [Sax. Betweonan, or Betwynan,] literally, by-twain, seems to have been formed 
from be, by, and twain, two — or the Saxon Twegen, which also means two, twain. 

21. Betwixt, meaning between, [Sax. Betweox, Betwux, Betwyx, Betwyxt, &c.,] is from be, 
by, and twyx, originally a "Gothic" word signifying " two, or twain." — See Tooke, Vol. i, p. 329. 

22. Beyond, past, [Sax. Begeond,] is from the prefix be, by, and yond, [Sax. Geond,] past, far. 

67 



1058 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

23. By [, Sax. Be, Bi, or Big,] is affirmed by Tooke to be "the imperative Byth, of the An- 
glo-Saxon verb Beon, to be." — Diversions of P., Vol. i, p. 326. This seems to be rather ques- 
tionable. 

24. Concerning, the preposition, is from the first participle of the verb concern. 

25. Down, the preposition, is from the Anglo-Saxon Dune, down. 

26. During, prep, of time, is from the first participle of an old verb dure, to last, formerly in 
use; as, " While the world may dure." — Chaucer 1 s KnigMs Tale. 

27. Ere, before, prep, of time, is from the Anglo-Saxon JEt, a word of like sort. 

28. Except, bating, is from the imperative, or (according to Dr. Johnson) the ancient perfect 
participle of the verb to except; and Excepting, when a preposition, is from the first participle of 
the same verb. 

29. For, because of, is the Anglo-Saxon preposition For, a word of like import, and supposed 
by Tooke to have come from a Gothic noun signifying cause, or sake. 

30. From, in Saxon, Fram, is probably derived from the old adjective Frum, original. 

31. In, or the Saxon In, is the same as the Latin in: the Greek is ev ; and the French, en. 

32. Into, like the Saxon Into, noting entrance, is a compound of in and to. 

33. Mid and Midst, as English prepositions, are poetical forms used for Amid and Amidst. 

34. Notwithstanding, not hindering, is from the adverb not, and the participle withstanding, 
which, by itself, means hindering, or preventing. 

35. Of is from the Saxon Of, or Af ; which is supposed by Tooke to come from a noun signify- 
ing offspring. 

36. Off, opposed to on, Dr. Johnson derives from the " Dutch of." 

37. On, a word very often used in Anglo-Saxon, is traced by some etymologists to the Gothic 
ana, the German an, the Dutch aan ; but no such derivation fixes its meaning. 

38. Oct, [Sax. Ut, Ute, or Utan,] when made a preposition, is probably from the adverb or ad- 
jective Out, or the earlier Ut; and Out-of, [Sax. Ut-of,] opposed to Into, is but the adverb Out 
and the preposition Of — usually written separately, but better joined, in some instances. 

39. Over, above, is from the Anglo-Saxon Ofer, over ; and this, probably, from Ufa, above, high, 
or from the comparative, Ufera, higher. , 

40. Overthwart, meaning across, is a compound of over and thwart, cross. 

41. Past, beyond, gone by, is a contraction from the perfect participle passed. 

42. Pending, during or hanging, has a participial form, but is either an adjective or a preposi- 
tion : we do not use pend alone as a verb, though we have it in depend. 

43. Respecting, concerning, is from the first participle of the verb respect. 

44. Round, a preposition for about or around, is from the noun or adjective round. 

45. Since is most probably a contraction of the old word Sithence; but is conjectured by Tooke 
to have been formed from the phrase, " Seen as." 

46. Through [, Sax. Thurh, or Thurch,] seems related to Thorough, Sax. Thuruh ; and this 
again to Thuru, or Duru, a Door. 

47. Throughout, quite through, is an obvious compond of through and out. 

48. Till, [Sax. Til or Tille,] to, until, is from the Saxon Til or Till, an end, a station. 

49. To, whether a preposition or an adverb, is from the Anglo-Saxon particle To. 

50. Touching, with regard to, is from the first participle of the verb touch. 

51. Toward or Towards, written by the Anglo-Saxons Tovjeard or Toweardes, is a compound 
of To and Ward or Weard, a guard, a look-out ; " Used in composition to express situation or 
direction. ' ' — Bosworth. 

52. Under, [Gothic, Undar ; Dutch, Onder,] beneath, below, is a common Anglo-Saxon word, 
and very frequent prefix, affirmed by Tooke to be " nothing but on-neder," a Dutch compound= 
on lower. — See Diversions of Purley, Yol. i, p. 331. 

53. Underneath is a compound of under and neath, low ; whence nether, lower. 

54. Until is a compound from on or un, and till, or til, the end. 

55. Unto, now somewhat antiquated, is formed, not very analogically, from un and to. 

56. Up is from the Anglo-Saxon adjective, " Up or Upp, high, lofty." 

57. Upon, which appears literally to mean high on, is from two words up and on. 

58. With comes to us from the Anglo-Saxon With, a word of like sort and import ; which 
Tooke says is an imperative verb, sometimes from " Withan, to join," and sometimes from " Wyr- 
than, to be." — See his Diversions, Vol. i, p. 262. 

59. Within [, i. e., by-in,] is from with and in: Sax. Withinnan, Binnan, or Binnon. 

60. Without [, i. e., by-out,] is from with and out: Sax. Withutan,-uten,-uton ; Butan, Buton, 
Biitun. 

OBSERVATION. 

In regard to some of our minor or simpler prepositions, as of sundry other particles, to go beyond the forms 
and constructions which present or former usage has at some period given them as particles, and to ascertain 
their actual origin in something ulterior, if such they had, is no very easy matter ; nor can there be either sat- 
isfaction or profit in studying what one suspects to be mere guesswork. " How do you account for In, Out, 
On, Off, and At?" says the friend of Tooke, in an etymological dialogue at Parley. The substance of his 
answer is, " The explanation and etymology of these words require a degree of knowledge in all the antient 
northern languages, and a skill in the application of that knowledge, which I am very far from assuming; and 
though I am almost persuaded by some of my own conjectures concerning them, I am not willing, by an appa- 
rently forced and far-fetched derivation, to justify your imputation of etymological legerdemain." — Diversions, 
Vol. i, p. 370. 



APPENDIX II. — (ETYMOLOGY.) — DERIVATION OF WORDS. 1059 

SECTION X.— DERIVATION OF INTERJECTIONS. 

Those significant and constructive words which are occasionally used as Interjections, (such as 
Good! Strange ! Indeed!.) do not require an explanation here ; and those mere sounds which are 
in no wise expressive of thought, scarcely admit of definition or derivation. The Interjection 

Hey is probably a corruption of the adjective High; — Alas is from the French Helas; Alack 

is probably a corruption of A las; — Welaway or Well aw ay, (which is now corrupted into Well- 
ad ay,) is said by some to be from the Anglo-Saxon Wd-ld-wd, i. e., Wo-lo-wo ; — "Fie," says 
Tooke, u is the imperative of the G-othic and Anglo-Saxon verb Fian, to hate;" — Heyday is 

probably from high day; — A vaunt, perhaps from the French avant, before; — Lo,' from look; 

Begone, from be and gone ; — Welcome, from well and come ; — Farewell, from fare and well 

SECTION XL— EXPLANATION OF THE PREFIXES. 

In the formation of English words, certain particles are often employed as prefixes ; which as 
they generally have some peculiar import, may be separately explained. A few of them are of 
Anglo-Saxon origin, or character ; and the greater part of these are still employed as separate words 
in our language. The rest are Latin, Greek, or French prepositions. The roots to which they 
are prefixed, are not always proper English words. Those which are such, are called Separable 
Radicals ; those which are not such, Inseparable Radicals. 

CLASS I.— THE ENGLISH OR ANGLO-SAXON PREFIXES. 

1. A, as an English prefix, signifies on, in, at, or to : as in a-board, ashore, a-foot, a-bed, asoak 
a-tilt, a-slant, a-far, a-field ; which are equal to the phrases, on board, on shore, on foot, in bed, in 
soak, at tilt, at slant, to a distance, to the fields. The French a, to, is probably the same particle. 
This prefix is sometimes redundant, adding little or nothing to the meaning ; as in awake arise 
amend. 

2. Be, as a prefix, signifies upon, over, by, to, at, or for : as in bespatter, be-cloud, be-times, be- 
tide, be-howl, be-speak. It is sometimes redundant, or merely intensive ; as in be-gird, be-deck, be- 
loved, be-dazzle, be-moisten, be-praise, be-quote. 

3. Counter, an English prefix, allied to the French Contre, and the Latin Contra, means 
against, or opposite ; as in counter-poise, counter-evidence, counter-natural. 

4. For, as a prefix, unlike the common preposition For, seems generally to signify from: it is 
found in the irregular verbs for-bear, for-bid, for-get, for-give, forsake, forswear ; and in for-bathe, 
for-do, for-pass, for-pine, forsay, for-think, for-waste, which last are now disused, the for in several 
being merely intensive. 

5. Fore, prefixed to a verb, signifies before ; as in fore-know, fore-tell : prefixed to a noun, it is 
usually an adjective, and signifies anterior ; as in foreside, fore-part. 

6. Half, signifying one of two equal parts, is much used in composition; and, often, merely to 
denote imperfection : as, half-sighted, seeing imperfectly. 

7. Mis signifies wrong or ill; as in mis-cite, mis-print, misspell, mis-chance, mis-hap. 

8. Over denotes superiority or excess ; as in over-power, over-strain, over-large. 

9. Out, prefixed to a verb, generally denotes excess ; as in out-do, out-leap, out-poise : prefixed 
to a noun, it is an adjective, and signifies exterior ; as in outside, out-parish. 

10. Self generally signifies one's own person, or belonging to one's own person ; but, in self- 
same, it means very. We have many words beginning with Self, but most of them seem to be 
compounds rather than derivatives ; as, self-love, self-abasement, self-abuse, self-affairs, self-willed, 
self-accusing. 

11. Un denotes negation or contrariety; as in un-kind, un-load, un-truth, un-coif. 

12. Under denotes inferiority ; as in under-value, under-clerk, under-growth. 

13. Up denotes motion upwards; as in up-lift: sometimes subversion ; as in up-set. 

14. With, as a prefix, unlike the common preposition With, signifies against, from, or back ; as 
in withstand, with-hold, with-draw, withstander, with-holdment, with-drawal. 

CLASS II.— THE LATIN PREFIXES. 

The primitives or radicals to which these are prefixed, are not many of them employed sepa- 
rately in English. The final letter of the prefix Ad, Con, Ex, In, Ob, or Sub, is often changed 
before certain consonants ; not capriciously, but with uniformity, to adapt or assimilate it to the 
sound which follows. 

1. A, Ab, or Abs, means From, or Away: as, a-vert, to turn from, or away; ab-duce, to lead 
from ; ab-duction, a carrying-away ; abstract, to draw from, or away. 

2. Ad, — forming ac, af, al, an, ap, as, at, — means To, or At : as, ad-vert, to turn to ; ac-cord, to 
yield to ; afflux, a flowing-to ; al-ly, to bind to ; an-nex, to link to ; ap-ply, to put to ; assume, 
to take to ; at-test, to witness to ; ad-mire, to wonder at. 

3. Ante means Fore, or Before : as, ante-past, a fore-taste ; ante-cedent, foregoing, or going be- 
fore ; ante-mundane, before the world ; ante-date, to date before. 

4. Circum means Round, Around, or About : as circum-volve, to roll round ; circumscribe, to 
write round ; circum-vent, to come round ; circumspect, looking about one's self. 

5. Con, — which forms com, co, col, cor, — means Together : as, con-tract, to draw together ; com- 



1060 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

pel, to drive together ; co-erce, to force together ; col-led, to gather together ; cor-rade, to rub or 
scrape together ; con-junction, a joining-together. 

6. Contra, or Contro, means Against, or Counter : as, contra-diet, to speak against ; contra- 
vene, to come against ; contra-mure, countermure ; contro-vert, to turn against. 

7. De means Of, From, or Down : as, de-note, to be a sign of; de-tract, to draw from ; de-pend, 
to hang down ; de-press, to press down ; de-crease, to grow down to grow less. 

8. Dis. or Di, means Away, or Apart : as, dis-pel, to drive away ; dissect, to cut apart ; di-vert, 
to turn away. 

9. E, or Ex, — making also ec, ef, — means Out: as, e-ject, to cast out; e-lect, to choose out; ex- 
clude, to shut out ; ex-cite, to summon out ; ec-stacy, a raising out ; ef-face, to blot out. 

10. Extra means Beyond, or Out of: as, extra-vagant, syllabled ex-trav' a-gant, roving be- 
yond ; extra-vasate, ex-trav' a-sate, to flow out of the vessels ; extra-territorial, being out of the 
territory. 

11. In, — which makes also il, im, ir, — means In, Into, or Upon: as, inspire, to breathe in ; il-lude, 
to draw in by deceit ; im-mure, to wall in ; ir-ruption, a rushing in ; inspect, to look into ; in- 
scribe, to write upon; insult, to jump upon. These syllables, prefixed, to English nouns or adjec- 
tives, generally reverse their meaning; as in in-justice, il-legality, im-partiality, ir-religion, ir- 
rational, insecure, insane. 

12. Inter means Between, or In between : as, intersperse, to scatter in between ; inter-jedion, 
something thrown in between ; inter-jacent, lying between ; inter-communication, communication 
between. 

13. Intro means In, Inwards, or Within : as, intro-duce, to lead in ; intro-vert, to turn inwards; 
introspect, to look within; intro-mission, a sending-in. 

14. Ob, — which makes also oc, of, op, — means Against: as, ob-trude, to thrust against; oc-cur, 
to run again&t ; of-fer, to bring against ; op-pose, to place against ; ob-ject, to cast against. 

15. Per means Through or By : as, per-vade, to go through ; per-chance, by chance ; per -cent, by 
the hundred ; per-plex, to tangle through, or to entangle thoroughly. 

16. Post means After: as, post-pone, to place after; post-date, to date after. 

17. Prjs, or Pre, means Before: as, presume, to take before; pre-position, a placing-before, or 
thing placed before ; prce-cognita, things known before. 

18. Pro means For, Forth, or Forwards: as, pro-vide, to take care for; pro-duce, to bring forth ; 
pro-trude, to thrust forwards ; pro-ceed, to go forward ; pro-noun, for a noun. 

19. Preter means By, Past, or Beyond: as, preter-it, bygone, or gone by; preter-imperfect, 
past imperfect ; preter-natural, beyond what is natural ; preter-mit, to put by, to omit. 

20. Re means Again or Back: as, re-view, to view again; re-pel, to drive back. 

21. Retro means Backwards, Backward, or Back: as, retro-active, acting backwards; retro- 
grade, going backward ; retro-cede, to cede back again. 

22. Se means Aside or Apart: as, se-duce, to lead aside; se-cede, to go apart. 

23. Semi means Half : as, semi-colon, half a colon; semi-circle, half a circle. 

24. Sub, — which makes suf, sug, sup, sur, and sus, — means Under, and sometimes Up: as, sub- 
scribe, to write under ; suf-fossion, an undermining ; sug-gest, to convey under ; sup-ply, to put 
under ; sur-reption, a creeping-under ; sus-tain, to hold up ; sub-ject, cast under. 

25. Subter means Beneath : as, subter-fluous, flowing beneath. 

26. Super means Over or Above: as, super-fluous, flowing over; super-natant, swimming 
above ; super-lative, carried over, or carrying over ; super-vise, to overlook, to oversee. 

27. Trans, — whence Tran and Tra, — means Beyond, Over, To another state or place: as, 
trans-gress, to pass beyond or over; trans-cend, to climb over; trans-mit to send to an other 
place ; trans-form, to change to an other shape ; tra-montane, from beyond the mountains ; i. e., 
Trans-Alpine, as opposed to Gis- Alpine. 

CLASS III.— THE GREEK PREFIXES. 

1. A and An, in Greek derivatives, denote privation : as, a-nomalous, wanting rules ; an-ony- 
mous, wanting name ; an-archy, want of government ; a-cephalous, headless. 

2. Amphi means Two, Both, or Double : as, amphi-bious, living in two elements; amphi-brach, 
both [sides] short ; amphi-theatre, a double theatre. 

3. Anti means Against : as, anti-slavery, against slavery ; anti-acid, against acidity ; anti-febrile, 
against fever ; anti-thesis, a placing-against. 

4. Apo, Aph, — From : as, apostrophe, a turning-from ; aph-wresis, a taking from. 

5. Dia, — Through : as, dia-gonal, through the corners ; dia-meter, measure through. 

6. Epi, Eph, — Upon : as, epi-demic, upon the people ; eph-emera, upon a day. 

7. Hemi m3ans Half: as, hemisphere, half a sphere; hemistich, half a verse. 

8. Hyper means Over : as, hyper-critical, over-critical ; hyper-meter, over measure. 

9. Hypo means Under : as, hypostasis, substance, or that which stands under ; hypo-thesis, 
supposition, or a placing-under ; hypo-phyllous, under the leaf. 

10. Meta means Beyond, Over, To an other state or place : as, meta-morphose, to change to an 
other shape ; meta-physics, mental science, as beyond or over physics. 

11. Para means Against: as, para-dox, something contrary to common opinion. 

12. Peri means Around: as, peri-phery, the circumference, or measure round. 

13. Syn, — whence Sym, Syl, — means Together : as, syn-tax, a putting-together; sym-pathy, a 
suffering-together ; syl-lable, what we take together ; syn-thesis a placing-together. 



APPENDIX II. — (ETYMOLOGY.) — DERIVATION OF WORDS. 1061 

CLASS IV.— THE FRENCH PREFIXES. 

1. A is a preposition of very frequent use in French, and generally means To. I have suggested 
above that it is probably the same as the Anglo-Saxon prefix a. It is found in a few English 
compounds or derivatives that are of French, and not of Saxon origin : as, a-dieu, to God ; i^ e., I 
commend you to God; a-larm, from alarme, i. e., a Varme, to arms. 

2. De means Of or From : as in de-mure, of manners ; de-liver, to ease from or of. 

3. Demi means Half : as, demi-man, half a man ; demi-god, half a god ; demi-devil, half a devil; 
demi-deify, to half deify ; demi-sized, half sized ; demi-quaver, half a quaver. 

4. En, — which sometimes becomes em, — means In, Into, or Upon : as, en-chain, to hold in 
chains ; em-brace, to clasp in the arms ; en-tomb, to put into a tomb ; em-boss, to stud upon. Many 
words are yet wavering between the French and the Latin orthography of this prefix : as, embody, 
or imbody ; ensurance, or insurance ; ensnare, or insnare ; enquire, or inquire. 

5. Sur, as a French prefix, means Upon, Over, or After : as, sur-name, a name upon a name ; 
sur-vey, to look over ; sur-mount, to mount over or upon ; sur-render, to deliver ever to others ; 
sur-feit, to overdo in eating ; sur-vive, to live after, to over-live, to outlive. 



END OF THE SECOND APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX III. 

TO PART THIRD, OR SYNTAX. 
OP THE QUALITIES OF STYLE. 

Style, as a topic connected with syntax, is the particular manner in which a person expresses 
his conceptions by means of language. It is different from mere words, different from mere 
grammar, in any limited sense, and is not to be regulated altogether by rules of construction. It 
always has some relation to the author's peculiar manner of thinking ; involves, to some extent, 
and shows hi3 literary, if not his moral, character ; is, in general, that sort of expression which 
his thoughts most readily assume ; and, sometimes, partakes not only of what is characteristic of 
the man, of his profession, sect, clan, or province, but even of national peculiarity, or some 
marked feature of the age. The words which an author employs, may be proper in themselves, 
and so constructed as to violate no rule of syntax, and yet his style may have great faults. 

In reviews and critical essays, the general characters of style are usually designated by such 
epithets as these ;— concise, diffuse, — neat, negligent, — terse, bungling, — nervous, weak, — forcible, 
feeble, — vehement, languid, — simple, affected,— easy, stiff, — pure, barbarous, — perspicuous, ob- 
scure, — elegant, uncouth, — florid, plain, — flowery, artless, — fluent, dry, — piquant, dull, — stately, 
flippant, — majestic, mean, — pompous, modest, — ancient, modern. A considerable diversity of 
style, may be found in compositions all equally excellent in their kind. And, indeed, different 
subjects, as well as the different endowments by which genius is distinguished, require this diver- 
sity. But, in forming his style, the learner should remember, that a negligent, feeble, affected, 
stiff, uncouth, barbarous, or obscure style is always faulty ; and that perspicuity, ease, simplicity, 
strength, neatness, and purity, are qualities always to be aimed at. 

In order to acquire a good style, the frequent practice of composing and writing something, is 
indispensably necessary. Without exercise and diligent attention, rules or precepts for the at- 
tainment of this object, will be of no avail. When the learner has acquired such a knowledge 
of grammar, as to be in some degree qualified for the undertaking, he should devote a stated por- 
tion of his time to composition. This exercise will bring the powers of his mind into requisition, 
in a way that is well calculated to strengthen them. And if he has opportunity for reading, he 
may, by a diligent perusal of the best authors, acquire both language and taste as well as senti- 
ment ; — and these three are the essential qualifications of a good writer. 

In regard to the qualities which constitute a good style, we can here offer nothing more than 
a few brief hints. With respect to words and phrases, particular attention should be paid to 
three things — -purity, propriety, and precision ; and, with respect to sentences, to three others, — ■ 
perspicuity, unity, and strength. Under each of these six heads, we shall arrange, in the form of 
short precepts, a few of the most important directions for the forming of a good style. 

SECTION L— OF PUKITY. 

Purity of style consists in the use of such words and phrases only, as belong to the language 
which we write or speak. Its opposites are the faults aimed at in the following precepts. 

Precept I. — Avoid the unnecessary use of foreign words or idioms : such as the French words 
fraicheur, hauteur, delicatesse, politesse, noblesse ; — the expression, " He repented himself ';"— or, "It 
serves to an excellent purpose." 

Precept II. — Avoid obsolete or antiquated words, except there be some special reason for their 
use : that is, such words as deception, addressful, administrate, affamish, affrontiveness, belikely, 
blusterous, clergical, cruciate, rutilate, timidous. 

Precept III. — Avoid strange or unauthorized words : such as, fiutteration, inspectator, judge- 
matical, incumberment, connexity, electerized, martyrized, reunition, marvelize, limpitude, affectated, 
adorement, absquatulate. Of this sort is 0. B. Peirce's " assimilariiy" used on page 19th of his 
English (Grammar; and still worse is Jocelyn's " irradicable," for uneradicable, used on page 
5th of his Prize Essay on Education. 

Precept IV. — Avoid bombast, or affectation of fine writing. It is ridiculous, however serious 
the subject. The following is an example : " Personifications, however rich the depictions, and 
unconstrained their latitude ; analogies, however imposing the objects of parallel, and the media 
of comparison ; can never expose the consequences of sin to the extent of fact, or the range of 
demonstration." — Anonymous. 

SECTION II.— OF PEOPRIETY. 

Propriety of language consists in the selection and right construction of such words as the best 
usage has appropriated to those ideas which we intend to express by them. Impropriety em- 



APPENDIX III. — (SYNTAX.) — QUALITIES OF STYLE. 1063 

braces all those forms of error, which, for the purpose of illustration, exercise, and special criti- 
cism, have been so methodically and so copiously posted up under the various heads, rules, and 
notes, of this extensive Grammar. A few suggestions, however, are here to be set down in the 
form of precepts. 

Precept I. — Avoid low and provincial expressions : such as, " Now, says I, boys ;" — "TJiinks I 
to myself;" — "To get into a scrape;' 1 '' — " Stay here while I come back ;" — u By jinkers ;" — " By the 
living jingoes? 

Precept II. — In writing prose, avoid words and phrases that are merely poetical : such as, 
morn, eve, plaint, corse, weal, drear, amid, oft, steepy; — " what time the winds arise." 

Precept III. — Avoid technical terms : except where they are necessary in treating of a parti- 
cular art or science. In technology, they are proper. 

Precept IV. — Avoid the recurrence of a word in different senses, or such a repetition of words 
as denotes paucity of language : as, " His own reason might have suggested better reasons? — 
" Gregory favoured the undertaking, for no other reason than this ; that the manager, in counte- 
nance, favoured his friend." — " I want to go and see what he wants? 

Precept V. — Supply words that are wanting: thus, instead of saying, "This action increased 
his former services," say, " This action increased the merit of his former services." — " How many 
[kinds of~\ substantives are there? Two; proper and common." — See E. Devis's Gram., p. 14. 
" These changes should not be left to be settled by chance or by caprice, but [should he determined} 
by the judicious application of the principles of Orthography." — See Fowler's E. Gram,, 1850, 
p. 110. 

Precept VI. — Avoid equivocal or ambiguous expressions : as, " His memory shall be lost on 
the earth." — " I long since learned to like nothing but what you do? 

Precept VII. — Avoid unintelligible, inconsistent, or inappropriate expressions: such as, "I 
have observed that the superiority among these coffee-house politicians proceeds from an opinion 
of gallantry and fashion." — " These words do not convey even an opaque idea of the author's 
meaning." 

Precept VIII. — Observe the natural order of things or events, and do not put the cart "before 
the horse: as, "The scribes taught and studied the Law of Moses.' 1 — " They can neither return to 
nor leave their houses." — " He tumbled, head over heels, into the water." — " ' Pat, how did you 
carry that quarter of beef?' ' Why, I thrust it through a stick, and threw my shoulder over it. 1 " 

SECTION III.— OF PKECISION. 

Precision consists in avoiding all superfluous words, and adapting the expression exactly to 
the thought, so as to say, with no deficiency or surplus of terms, whatever is intended by the 
author. Its opposites are noticed in the following precepts. 

Precept I. — Avoid a useless tautology, either of expression or of sentiment ; as, " "When will 
you return again f" — "We returned back home again? — " On entering into the room, I saw and 
discovered he had fallen down on the floor and could not rise up." — " They have a mutual disliko 
to each other." — " Whenever I go, he always meets me there." — " Where is he all In there." — 
"His faithfulness and fidelity should be rewarded." 

Precept II. — Repeat words as often as an exact exhibition of your meaning requires them ; 
for repetition may be elegant, if it be not useless. The following example does not appear 
faulty : " Moral precepts are precepts the reasons of which we see ; positive precepts are precepts 
the reasons of which we do not see." — Butler's Analogy, p. 165. 

Precept III. — Observe the exact meaning of words accounted synonymous, and employ those 
which are the most suitable ; as, "A diligent scholar may acquire knowledge, gain celebrity, obtain 
rewards, win prizes, and get high honour, though he earn no money." These six verbs have 
nearly the same meaning, and yet no two of them can here be correctly interchanged. 

Precept IV. — Observe the proper form of each word, and do not confound such as resemble 
each other. "Professor J. W. Gibbs, of Yale College," in treating of the "Peculiarities of the 
Cockney Dialect," says, " The Londoner sometimes confounds two different forms ; as contagious 
for contiguous ; eminent for imminent ; humorous for humor some ; ingeniously for ingenuously ; 
luxurious for luxuriant; scrupulosity fox scruple;, successfully for successively? — See Fowler's E. 
Gram., p. 81 ; and Pref., p. vi. 

Precept V. — Think clearly, and avoid absurd or incompatible expressions. Example of 
error : " To pursue those remarks, would, probably, be of no further service to the learner than that 
of burdening his memory with a catalogue of dry and uninteresting peculiarities ; which may 
gratify curiosity, without affording information adequate to the trouble of the perusal." — Wright's 
Gram., p. 122. 

Precept VI. — Avoid words that are useless; and, especially, a multiplication of them into 
sentences, members, or clauses, that may well be spared. Example : " If one could really be 
a spectator of what is passing in the w r orld around us without taking part in the events, or 
sharing in the passions and actual performance on the stage ; if we could set ourselves down, as it 
were, in a private box of the world's great theatre, and quietly look on at the piece that is playing, no 
more moved than is absolutely implied by sympathy with our fellow-creatures, what a curious, what 
an amusing, what an interesting spectacle would life present." — G. P. E. James: " The Forger," 
commencement of Chap. xxxi. This sentence contains eighty-seven words, "of which sixty -one 
are entirely unnecessary to the expression of the author's idea, if idea it can be called." — 
Holden's Review. 



1064 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

OBSERVATION. 

Verbosity, as well as tautology, is not so directly opposite to precision, as to conciseness, or brevity. From 
the manner in which lawyers usually multiply terms in order to express their facts precisely, it would seem that, 
with them, precision consists rather in the use of many words than of few. But the ordinary style of legal in- 
struments no popular writer can imitate without becoming ridiculous. A terse or concise style is very apt to be 
elliptical: and, in some particular instances, must be so; but, at the same time, the full expression, perhaps, 
may have more precision, though it be less agreeable. For example : " A word of one syllable, is called a mono- 
syllable ; a word of two syllables, is called a dissyllable : a word of three syllables, is called a trisyllable: a word 
of four or more syllables, is called a polysyllable." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 19. Better, perhaps, thus: "A 
word of one syllable is called a monosyllable ; a word of two syllables, a dissyllable ; a word of three syllables, 
a trissyllable; and a word of four or more syllables, a polysyllable."' — Brovm's Institutes, p. 17. 

SECTION IV.— OF PERSPICUITY. 

Perspicuity consists in freedom from obscurity or ambiguity. It is a quality so essential to 
every kind of writing, that for the want of it no merit of other name can compensate. " With- 
out this, the richest ornaments of style, only glimmer through the dark, and puzzle in stead of 
pleasing the reader." — Dr. Blair. Perspicuity, being the most important property of language, 
and an exemption from the most embarrassing defects, seems even to rise to a degree of positive 
beauty. We are naturally pleased with a style that frees us from all suspense in regard to the 
, meaning ; that carries us through the subject without embarrassment or confusion ; and that al- 
ways flows like a limpid stream, through which we can " see to the very bottom." Many of the 
errors which have heretofore been pointed out to the reader, are offences against perspicuity. 
Only three or four hints will here be added. 

Precept I. — Place adjectives, relative pronouns, participles, adverbs, and explanatory phrases 
near enough to the words to which they relate, and in a position which will make their reference 
clear. The following sentences are deficient in perspicuity : " Reverence is the veneration paid 
to superior sanctity, intermixed with a certain degree of awe." — Unknown. "The Romans un- 
derstood liberty, at least, as well as we." — See Murray's Gram., p. 307. "Taste was never made 
to cater for vanity." — J. Q. Adams's Bhet., Yol. i, p. 119. 

Precept II. — In prose, avoid a poetic collocation of words. For example: "Guard your 
weak side from being known. If it be attacked, the best way is, to join in the attack." — 
Kames: Art of Thinking, p. 75. This maxim of prudence might be expressed more poetically, 
but with some loss of perspicuity, thus : " Your weak side guard from being known. Attacked 
in this, the assailants join." 

Precept III. — Avoid faulty ellipses, and repeat all words necessary to preserve the sense. The 
following sentences require the words which are inserted in crotchets: "Restlessness of mind 
disqualifies us, both for the enjoyment of peace, and [/or] the performance of our duty." — Mur- 
ray's Key, 8vo, p. 166. "Double Comparatives and [Double'] Superlatives should be avoided." — 
Fowkfs E. Gram., 1850, p. 489. 

Precept IY. — Avoid the pedantic and sense-dimming style of charlatans and new theorists, 
which often demands either a translation or a tedious study, to make it at all intelligible to the 
ordinary reader. For example: " Rule XI. Part 3. An intransitive or receptive asserter in the 
unlimited mode, depending on a word in the possessive case, may have, after it, a word in the 
subjective case, denoting the same thing : And, when it acts the part of an assertive name, de- 
pending on a relative, it may have after it a word in the subjective case. Examples: — John's 
being my friend, saved me from inconvenience. Seth Hamilton was unhappy in being a slave to 
party prejudice." — 0. B. Peirce's Gram., 1839, p. 201. The meaning of this third part of a Bule 
of syntax, is, in proper English, as follows: "A participle not transitive, with the possessive case 
before it, may have after it a nominative denoting the same thing ; and also, when a preposition 
governs the participle, a nominative may follow, in agreement with one which precedes." In 
doctrine, the former clause of the sentence is erroneous : it serves only to propagate false syntax 
by rule. See the former example, and a note of mine, referring to it, on page 531 of this work. 

SECTION V.— OF UNITY. 

Unity consists in avoiding needless pauses, and keeping one object predominant throughout a 
sentence or paragraph. Every sentence, whether its parts be few or many, requires strict unity. 
The chief faults, opposite to this quality of style, are suggested in the following precepts. 

Precept I. — Avoid brokenness, hitching, or the unnecessary separation of parts that naturally 
come together. Examples: "I was, soon after my arrival, taken out of my Indian habit." — 
Addison, Tattler, No. 249. Better: "Soon after my arrival, I was taken out of my Indian 
habit." — OhurchilVs Gram., p. 326. "Who can, either in opposition, or in the ministry, act 
alone ?" — lb. Better: "Who can act alone, either in opposition, or in the ministry?' — Bo. "I, 
like others, have, in my youth, trifled with my health, and old age now prematurely assails me." 
— lb., p. 327. Better: "Like others, I have trifled with my health, and old age now prematurely 
assails me." 

Precept II. — Treat different topics in separate paragraphs, and distinct sentiments in separate 
sentences. Error : " The two volumes are, indeed, intimately connected, and constitute one uniform 
system of English Grammar." — Murray's Br -ej 'ace, p. iv. Better thus: "The two volumes are, 
indeed, intimately connected. They constitute one uniform system of English grammar.'" 

Precept III. — In the progress of a sentence, do not desert the principal subjects in favour of 



APPENDIX III. — (SYNTAX.)— QUALITIES OF STYLE. 1065 

adjuncts, or change the scene unnecessarily. Example: "After we came to anchor, they put me 
on shore, where I was welcomed by all my friends, who received me with the greatest kindness, 
which was not then expected." Better: "The vessel having come to anchor, I was put on 
shore ; where I was unexpectedly welcomed by all my friends, and received with the greatest 
kindness." — See Blair's Rhet., p. 107. 

Pkecept IV. — Do not introduce parentheses, except when a lively remark may be thrown in 
without diverting the mind too long from the principal subject. Example: " But (saith he) since 
I take upon me to teach the whole world, (it is strange, it should be so natural for this man to 
write untruths, since I direct my TJieses only to the Christian world : but if it may render me 
odious, such Peccadillo 's pass with him, it seems, but for Pice Fraudes :) I intended never to write 
of those things, concerning which we do not differ from others." — E. Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 
279. The parts of this sentence are so put together, that, as a whole, it is scarcely intelligible. _ 

SECTION VI.— OF STKENGTH. 

Strength consists in giving to the several words and members of a sentence, such an arrange- 
ment as shall bring out the sense to the best advantage, and present every idea in its due import- 
ance. Perhaps it is essential to this quality of style, that there be animation, spirit, and vigour 
of thought, in all that is uttered. A few hints concerning the Strength of sentences, will here be 
given in the form of precepts. 

Precept I. — Avoid verbosity : a concise style is the most favourable to strength. Examples : 
" No human happiness is so pure as not to contain any alloy." — Hurray's Key, 8vo, p. 27.0. Bet- 
ter: "No human happiness is unalloyed. 11 "He was so much skilled in the exercise of the oar, 
that few could equal him." — lb., p. 271. Better: "He was so skillful at the oar, that few could 
match him." Or thus: "At the oar, he was rarely equalled.'" "The reason why they [the pro- 
nouns] are considered separately is, because there is something particular in their inflections."— 
Priestley's Gram., p. 81. Better: "The pronouns are considered separately, because there is 
something peculiar in their inflections." 

Precept II. — Place the most important words in the situation in which they will make the 
strongest impression. Inversion of terms sometimes increases the strength and vivacity of an ex- 
pression: as, " All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." — Matt, 
iv, 9. " Righteous art thou, Lord, and upright are thy judgements." — Psalms, cxix, 137. " Pre- 
cious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." — Ps., cxvi, 15. 

Precept III. — Have regard also to the relative position of clauses, or members ; for a weaker 
assertion should not follow a stronger ; and, when the sentence consists of two members, the 
longer should be the concluding one. Example : " We flatter ourselves with the belief that we 
have forsaken our passions, when they have forsaken us." Better: "When our passions have 
forsaken us, we flatter ourselves with the belief that we have forsaken them." — See Blair's Rhet., 
p. 117 ; Murray's Gram., p. 323. 

Precept IV. — When things are to be compared or contrasted, their resemblance or opposition 
will be rendered more striking, if a pretty near resemblance in the language and construction of 
the two members, be preserved. Example: "The wise man is happy, when he gains his own 
approbation ; the fool when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him." Better : 
" The wise man is happy, when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains the ap- 
plause of others." — See Murray's Gram., p. 324. 

Precept V. — Remember that it is, in general, ungraceful to end a sentence with an adverb, a 
preposition, or any inconsiderable word or phrase, which may either be omitted or be introduced 
earlier. "For instance, it is a great deal better to say, 'Avarice is a crime of which wise men 
are often guilty,' than to say, ' Avarice is a crime which wise men are often guilty of.' " — Blair's 
Rhet., p. 117 ; Murray's Gram., p. 323. 



END OF THE THIRD APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX IV. 

TO PART FOURTH, OR PROSODY. 

OF POETIC DICTION. 

Poetry, as defined by Dr. Blair, " is the language of passion, or of enlivened imagination, 
formed, most commonly, into regular numbers." — Rhet., p. 377. The style of poetry differs, in 
many respects, from that which is commonly adopted in prose. Poetic diction abounds in bold 
figures of speech, and unusual collocations of words. A great part of the figures, which have 
been treated of in one of the chapters of Prosody, are purely poetical The primary aim of a 
poet, is, to please and to move ; and, therefore, it is to the imagination, and the passions, that ho 
speaks. He may also, and he should, have it in his view, to instruct and to reform ; but it is in- 
directly, and by pleasing and moving, that such a writer accomplishes this end. The exterior 
and most obvious distinction of poetry, is versification : yet there are some forms of verse so loose 
and familiar, as to be hardly distinguishable from prose ; and there is also a species of prose, so 
measured in its cadences, and so much raised in its tone, as to approach very nearly to poetic 
numbers. 

This double approximation of some poetry to prose, and of some prose to poetry, not only 
makes it a matter of acknowledged difficulty to distinguish, by satisfactory definitions, the two 
species of composition, but, in many instances, embarrasses with like difficulty the attempt to 
show, by statements and examples, what usages or licenses, found in English works, are proper 
to be regarded as peculiarities of poetic diction. It is purposed here, to enumerate sundry devi- 
> ations from the common style of prose ; and perhaps all of them, or nearly all, may be justly 
considered as pertaining only to poetry. 

t 

POETICAL PECULIAKITIES. 

The following are among the chief peculiarities in which the poets indulge, and are in- 
dulged: — 

I. They not unfrequently omit the ARTICLES, for the sake of brevity or metre ; as, 

" What dreadful pleasure ! there to stand sublime, 
Like shipwrecked mariner on desert coast I" — Beanie's Minstrel, p. 12. 

" Sky loured, and, muttering thunder, some sad drops 
"Wept at completing of the mortal sin." — Milton, P. L., B. ix, 1. 1002. 

II. They sometimes abbreviate common NOUNS, after a manner of their own : as, amaze, for 
amazement ; acclaim, for acclamation ; consult, for consultation ; corse, for corpse ; eve or even, for 
evening ; fount, for fountain ; helm, for helmet ; lament, for lamentation ; mom, lor morning ; plaint, 
for complaint ; targe, for target ; weal, for wealth. 

III. By enallage, they use verbal forms substantively, or put verbs for nouns ; perhaps for brev- 
ity, as above : thus, 

1. "Instant, without disturb, they took alarm." — P. Lost: Joh. Diet, w. Aware. 

2. " The gracious Judge, without revile reply'd." — P. Lost, B. x, 1. 118. 

3. " If they were known, as the suspect is great." — Shakspeare. 

4. " Mark, and perform it : seest thou? for the fail 

Of any point in't shall be death." — Shakspeare. 

IY. They employ several nouns that are not used in prose, or are used but rarely; as, benison, 
boon, emprise, fane, guerdon, guise, ire, ken, lore, meed, sire, steed, welkin, yore. 

V. They introduce the noun self after an other noun of the possessive case ; as, 

1. " Affliction's semblance bends not o'er thy tomb, 

Affliction's self deplores thy youthful doom." — Byron. 

2. " Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self — Thomson. 

VI. They place before the verb nouns, or other words, that usually come after it; and, after it, 
those that usually come before it : as, 

1. " No jealousy their dawn of love o'ercast, 

Nor blasted were their wedded days with strife." — Beattie. 

2. " No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets" — W. Allen's Gram. 

3. " Thy chain a wretched weight shall prove." — Langhorne. 



APPENDIX IV. — (PROSODY.) — POETIC DICTION. 1067 

4. " Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar. 1 ' 1 — Thomson. 

5. " That purple grows the primrose pale." — Langhorne. 

"TO. They more frequently place ADJECTIVES after their nouns, than do prose writers; as, 

1. "Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, 

Show'rs on her kings barbaric, pearl and gold." — Milton, P. L., B. ii, 1. 2. 

2. "Come, nymph demure, with mantle blue." — W. Allen's Gram., p. 189. 

3. " This truth sublime his simple sire had taught." — Beattie's Minstrel, p. 14. 

VIII. They ascribe qualities to things to which they do not literally belong ; as, 

1. " The ploughman homeward plods his weary way." — Gray's Elegy, L 3. 

2. " Or drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds." — Ibidem, 1. 8. 

3. " Imbitter'd more and more from peevish day to day." — Thomson. 

4. " All thin and naked, to the numb cold night." — Shakspeare. 

IX. They use concrete terms to express abstract qualities; (i. e., adjectives for nouns;) as, 

1. " Earth's meanest son, all trembling, prostrate falls, 

And on the boundless of thy goodness calls." — Young. 

2. " Meanwhile, whate'er of beautiful or new, 

Sublime or dreadful, in earth, sea, or sky, 

By chance or search, was offer'd to his view, 

He scann'd with curious and romantic eye." — Beattie. 

3. " Won from the void and formless infinite." — Milton. 

4. " To thy large heart give utterance due ; thy heart 

Contains of good, wise, just, the perfect shape." — Id., P. R, B. hi, 1. 10. 

X. They often substitute quality for manner; (i. e., adjectives for adverbs;) as, 

.1. " The stately-sailing swan 

Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale, 

And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet, 

Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier isle." — Thomson. 

2. " Thither continual pilgrims crowded still." — Id., Cos. of Ind., i, 8. 

3. " Level at beauty, and at wit ; 

The fairest mark is easiest hit." — Butler's Hudibras. 

XL They form new compound epithets, oftener than do prose writers ; as, 

1. " In world-rejoicing state, it moves sublime." — Thomson. 

2. " The dewy-skirted clouds imbibe the sun." — Idem. 

3. " By brooks and groves in hollow-whispering gales." — Idem. 

4. " The violet of sky-woven vest." — Langhorne. 

5. "A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd, 

Before the always-wind-obeying deep 

Gave any tragic instance of our harm." — Shakspeare. 

6. " k Blue-eyed, strange-voiced, sharp-beaked, ill-omened fowl, 

"What art thou ?' ' What I ought to be, an owl.' " — Day's Punctuation, p. 139. 

XH. They connect the comparative degree to the positive, before a verb ; as, 

1. " Near and more near the billows rise." — Merrick. 

2. " Wide and wider spreads the vale." — Dyer's Grongar Hill. 

3. " Wide and more wide, the o'erflowings of the mind 

Take every creature in, of every kind." — Pope. 

4. " Thick and more thick the black blockade extends, 

A hundred head of Aristotle's friends." — Id., Dunciad. 

XIII. They form many adjectives in y, which are not common in prose ; as, The dimply flood, 
— dusky veil, — a gleamy ray, — heapy harvests, — moony shield, — paly circlet, — sheely lake, — stilly 
lake, — spiry temples, — steely casque, — steepy hill, — towery height, — vasty deep, — writhy snake. 

XIV. They employ adjectives of an abbreviated form : as, dread, for dreadful ; drear, for dreary; 
ebon, for ebony ; hoar, for hoary ; lone, for lonely ; scant, for scanty ; slope, for sloping ; submiss, for 
submissive ; vermil, for vermilion ; yon, for yonder. 

XV. They employ several adjectives that are not used in prose, or are used but seldom ; as, 
azure, blithe, boon, dank, darkling, darksome, doughty, dun, fell, rife, rapt, rueful, sear, sylvan, 
twain, wan. 

XVI. They employ the personal PRONOUNS, and introduce their nouns afterwards ; as, 

1. " It curl'd not Tweed alone, that breeze." — Sir W. Scott. 

2. " What may it be, the heavy sound 

That moans old Branksome's turrets round ?" — Idem, Lay, p. 21. 

3. " Is it the lightning's quivering glance, 

That on the thicket streams ; 
Or do they flash on spear and lance, 

The sun's retiring beams ?" — Idem, L. of L., vi, 15. 



1068 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

XYII. They use the forms of the second person singular oftener than do others ; as, 

1. " Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse, 

Thy service in some graver subject use, 

Such as may make thee search thy coffers round, 

Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound." — Milton's Works, p. 133. 

2. " But thou, of temples old, or altars new, 

Standest alone — with nothing like to thee." — Byron, Pilg., iv, 154. 

3. " Thou seest not all ; but piecemeal thou must break, 

To separate contemplation, the great whole." — Id., ib., iv, 157. 

4. " Thou rightly deemst, fair youth, began the bard ; 

The form thou sawst was Virtue ever fair." — Pollok, C. of T, p. 16. 

XVIII. They sometimes omit relatives that are nominatives; (see Obs. 22, at p. 555 ;) as, 

" For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?" — Thomson. 

XIX. They omit the antecedent, or introduce it after the relative ; as, 

1. " Who never fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys, 

Who never toils or watches, never sleeps." — Armstrong. 

2. " Who dares think one thing and an other tell, 

My soul detests him as the gates of hell." — Pope's Homer. 

XX. They remove relatives, or other connectives, into the body of their clauses ; as, 

1. " Parts the fine locks, her graceful head that deck." — 'Darwin. 

2. " Not half so dreadful rises to the sight 

Orion's dog, the year when autumn weighs." — Pope, Iliad, B. xxii, 1. 37. 

XXI. They make intransitive VERBS transitive, changing their class; as, 

1. " A while he stands, 

Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid 

To meditate the blue profound below." — Thomson. 

2. " Still in harmonious intercourse, they liv'd 

The rural day, and taWd the flowing heart." — Idem. 

3. " I saw and heard, for we sometimes 

"Who dweU this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth." — Milton, P. R., B. i, 
1. 330. 

XXII. They make transitive verbs intransitive, giving them no regimen ; as, 

1. " The soldiers should have toss'd me on their pikes, 

Before I would have granted to that act." — Shakspeare. 

2. " This minstrel-god, well-pleased, amid the quire 

Stood proud to hymn, and tune his youthful lyre." — Pope. 

XXIII. They give to the imperative mood the first and the third person ; as, 

1. " Turn we a moment fancy's rapid flight." — Thomson. 

2. " Be man's peculiar work his sole delight." — Beattie. 

3. " And what is reason ? Be she thus defined : 

Reason is upright stature in the soul." — Young. 

XXIV. They employ can, could, and would, as principal verbs transitive; as, 

1. " What for ourselves we can, is always ours." — Anon. 

2. " Who does the best his circumstance allows, 

Does well, acts nobly ; angels could no more." — Young. 

3. " What would this man? Now upward will he soar, 

And, little less than angel, would be more." — Pope. 

XXV. They place the infinitive before the word on which it depends ; as, 

1. " When first thy sire to send on earth 

Virtue, his darling child, designed." — Gray. 

2. " As oft as I, to kiss the flood, decline; 

So oft his lips ascend, to close with mine." — Sandys. 

3. " Besides, Minerva, to secure her care, 

Diffused around a veil of thicken'd air." — Pope. 

XXVI. They place the auxiliary verb after its principal, by hyperbaton ; as, 

1. " No longer heed the sunbeam bright 

That plays on Carron's breast he can." — Langhorne. 

2. " Follow I must, I cannot go before." — Beauties of Shakspeare, p. 147. 

3. " The man who suffers, loudly may complain ; 

And rage he may, but he shall rage in vain." — Pope. 

XXVII. Before verbs, they sometimes arbitrarily employ or omit prefixes: as, bide, or abide; 



APPENDIX IV. — (PROSODY.) — POETIC DICTION. 1069 

dim, or bedim ; gird, or begird ; lure, or allure ; move, or emove ; reave, or bereave ; vails, or avails ; 
vanish, or evanish ; wail, or bewail ; weep, or beweep ; wilder, or bewilder : — 

1. " All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide 

In heav'n, or earth, or under earth in hell." — Milton, P. L., B. iii, 1. 321. 

2. " Of a horse, ware the heels ; of a bull-dog, the jaws ; 

Of a bear, the embrace; of a Hon, the paws." — ChurchilVs Gram., p. 215. 

XXVIII. Some few verbs they abbreviate : as list, for listen ; ope, for open ; hark, for hearken ; 
dark, for darken ; threat, for threaten ; sharp, for sharpen. 

XXIX. They employ several verbs that are not used in prose, or are used but rarely ; as, ap- 
pal, astound, brook, cower, doff, ken, wend, ween, trow. 

XXX. They sometimes imitate a Greek construction of the infinitive; as, 

1. " Who would not sing for Lycidas ? he knew 

Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme." — Milton. 

2. " For not, to have been dipped in Lethe lake, 

Could save the son of Thetis from to die." — Spenser. 

XXXI. They employ the PARTICIPLES more frequently than prose writers, and in a con- 
struction somewhat peculiar ; often intensive by accumulation : as, 

1. " He came, and, standing in the midst, explain'd 

The peace rejected, but the truce obtained." — Pope. 

2. " As a poor miserable captive thrall 

Comes to the place where he before had sat 

Among the prime in splendor, now deposed, 

Ejected, emptied, gaz'd, unpitied, shunn'd, 

A spectacle of ruin or of scorn." — Milton, P. R., B. i, 1. 411. 

3. " Though from our birth the faculty divine 

Is chained and tortured — cabin' d, cribVd, confined." — Byron, Pilg., C. iv, St. 121. 

XXXII. In turning participles to adjectives, they sometimes ascribe actions, or active proper- 
ties, to things to which they do not literally belong ; as, 

" The green leaf quivering in the gale, 
The warbling hill, the lowing vale." — Mallet : Union Poems, p. 26. 

XXXIII. They employ several ADVERBS that are not used in prose, or are used but seldom ; 
as, oft, haply, inly, blithely, cheerily, deftly, felly, rifely, starkly. 

XXXIV. They give to adverbs a peculiar location in respect to other words ; as, 

1. " Peeping from/or^ their alleys green." — CoUins. 

2. " Erect the standard there of ancient Night." — Milton. 
8. " The silence often of pure innocence 

Persuades, when speaking fails." — Shakspeare. 

4. " "Where Universal Love not smiles around." — Thomson. 

5. " Robs me of that which not enriches him." — Shakspeare. 

XXXV. They sometimes omit the introductory adverb there ; as, 

" Was nought around but images of rest." — Thomson. 

XXXVI. They briefly compare actions by a kind of compound adverbs, ending in like ; as, 

11 Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 
Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before ?" — Pope. 

XXXVII. They employ the CONJUNCTIONS, or — or, and nor — nor, as correspondents ; as, 

1. " Or by the lazy Scheldt or wandering Po." — Goldsmith. 

2. " Wealth heap'd on wealth, nor truth, nor safety buys." — Johnson. 

3. " Who by repentance is not satisfied, 

Is nor of heaven, nor earth ; for these are pleas'd." — Shakspeare. 

4. " Toss it, or to the fowls, or to the flames." — Young, N. T., p. 157. 

5. " Nor shall the pow'rs of hell, nor wastes of time, 

Or vanquish, or destroy." — Gibborts Elegy on Davies. 

XXXVIIT. They oftener place PREPOSITIONS and their adjuncts, before the words on which 
they depend, than do prose writers ; as. 

" Against your fame with fondness hate combines ; 
The rival batters, and the lover mines." — Dr. Johnson. 

XXXTX. They sometimes place a loug or dissyllabic preposition after its object ; as, 

1. " When beauty, Eden's bowers within, 
First stretched the arm to deeds of sin, 
When passion burn'd and prudence slept, 
The pitying angels bent and wept." — James Hogg. 



1070 THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 

2. " The Muses fair, these peaceful shades among, 

"With skillful fingers sweep the trembling strings." — Lloyd. 

3. " "Where Echo walks steep hills among, 

List'ning to the shepherd's song." — J. Warton, U. Poems, p. 33. 

XL. They have occasionally employed certain prepositions for which, perhaps, it would not be 
easy to cite prosaic authority ; as, adown, aloft, aloof, anear, aneath, askant, aslant, aslope, atween, 
atwixt, besouth, traverse, thorough, sans. (See Obs. 10th, and others, at p. 441.) 

XLI. They oftener employ INTERJECTIONS than do prose writers ; as, 
" let me gaze! — Of gazing there's no end. 
let me think! — Thought too is wilder'd here." — Young. 

XLII. They oftener employ ANTIQUATED WORDS and modes of expression ; as, 

1. " Withouten that, would come an heavier bale." — Thomson. 

2. " He was, to weet, a little roguish page, 

Save sleep and play, who minded nought at all." — Id. 

3. " Not one eftsoons in view was to be found." — Id. 

4. "To number up the thousands dwelling here, ■ 

An useless were, and eke an endless task." — Id. 
• 6. " Of clerks good plenty here you mote espy." — Id. 
6. " But these I passen by with nameless numbers moe." — Id. 



THE END OP APPENDIX FOURTH. 



INDEX 

TO 

THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



%,* In the followfng Index, the page of the Grammar is directly re/erred to : Obs. or N. before a numeral, 
stands for Observation or Observations, or for Note or Notes of the text: E. after a reference, stands for Rule. 
The small lett-er n., with an asterisk or other mark affixed to it, relates to a footnote with such mark in the 
Grammar. Occasionally, t., m., or b., or u., or 1., accompanies a reference, to indicate the top, middle, or 
bottom, or the upper or the lower balf, of the page referred to. Few abbreviations are employed beyond those 
of the ordinary grammatical terms. The Index is not intended to supersede the use of the Table of Contents, 
which stands after the Preface. It is occupied wholly with the matter of the Grammar proper ; hence there 
are in it no references to the Introduction Historical and Critical, ivhich precedes the didactic portion of the 
work. In the Table before-mentioned must be sought the general division of English grammar, and matters 
pertaining to praxis, to examination, and to the writing of exercises. 



A. 



A, lett., names itself, 153, Obs. 12: — its plur., 
150, Obs. 1 : — sounds properly its own, 1043 : 
— numb, of sounds pertaining to, orthoepists 
differ concerning, ib., Obs. 1, et sq. : — diph- 
thongs beginning "with, 1044 — triphth. do., 
ib. : — its true sound to be carefully preserved 
at end of words, 243, Obs. 6. A, as prep, or 
prefix, 230, Obs. 20-22; 1059; 1061 :— be- 
fore part, in ing, 231, Obs. 23; 379, Obs. 4; 
441, Obs. 11, 12. A and an, in Or. deriva- 
tives, 1060. A or an, art., see An, A. 

Abbreviations, frequent in writt. lang, 186, Obs. 
4:— rule of punct. for, 792. C, M, D, &c, 
as numerals, see Letters. Needless abbrevia- 
tions, to be avoided, 795, n. *. 

Able, ible, class of adjectives in, numerous in 
Eng. ; difficulty with resp. to the prop, form 
and signif. of; to what able most properly 
belongs, 200, Obs. 17 : — application of able 
to nouns, its propriety doubtf., ib., Obs. 18. — 
Able or ible, prop, application of, how far de- 
termined from Lat. etymol., 201, Obs. 20. — 
Able and ible, words of the same meaning in, 
how formed from different roots, ib., Obs. 21. 

About, with infin., as substitute for Lat. fut. 
part, in rus, 342, Obs. 7 ; 622, Obs. 24.— 
About, with of preced., ("Of about one hun- 
dred feet") 984, n. * — About, derivat. of, from 
Sax., 1057, m. 

Abrupt transitions in the Bible, 320, n. *. 

Absolute, when, and in what case, a noun or a 
pron. is put, 536, R. — Absol., case, defect of 
the common rule for, ib., Obs. 1 : — in how 
many ways the nom. case is put, ib., ib. : — 
nom. case put, with part., to what often 
equivalent ; what part, frequently under- 
stood after nouns put, 537, Obs. 2 : — case, 
its existence denied by what authors, ib., 
Obs. 6, 7: — words put, punct. of, 776, R., b. 

Abstract numbers, synt. of the phraseology 
used in speaking of, (" Twice two is four" or 
" Twice two AEE/owr,") 587, Obs. 14, et sq. 



Absurd or incompatible expressions, to be 
avoided, 1063, prec. v, 1. 

Absurdities of expression, Crit. N. concerning, 
718. 

Acatalectic, when a fine is said to be, 849, b. 

Accent and quantity, critical observations on, 
830-840. 

Accent, difficulty with respect to the import of 
the word, 830, Obs. 2 : — various definitions 
of, cited, 771, n. *; 810, n. * ; 832, n. f, 
(2.) — Accent, confounded by some with em- 
phasis, 811, n. * (2 :) — defined, as commonly 
understood, 809 : — chief or primary and 
secondary, 810. — Accent, by what regulated, 
"Walk., ib. : — compared with emphasis, ib., b. : 
— as affected by do., Murr., 811 : — is distinct 
from quantity, 830, Obs. 1 : — as understood 
by Dr. Joh., 832, Obs. 4 : — Sherid. teach- 
ings concerning, 834, Obs. 8, et sq. ; mostly 
adopted by Murr., 836, Obs. 13, et sq. : — 
what lett. of a word receives the mark of, 
838, Obs. 17 : — stress on a monosyl. more 
properly emphasis than, 810, Obs. 2, fin. — 
Accents, more than one on a word, 809, and 
n. f :— Dr. Adam's view of, 832, n. f, (2.) 

Accentuation, modern, of Or. and Lat. words, 
by what regulated ; Sanctius's rule for, new 
vers, of, 810, Obs. 2. 

According to, as to, resolved, 438, Obs. 16. Ac- 
cordingly, whether may be said for the ques- 
tionable according, ib., Obs. 17. 

Accusative before infin., in Lat. and Gr., of 
what reckoned the subject, 495, Obs. 7 : — 
whether the construe, can in general be im- 
itated in Eng., ib., Obs. 8 : — who adopt the 
Lat. doctrine of, ib., Obs. 9, 10 : — what our 
nearest approach to the Lat. construe, of, 
496, Obs. 12. 

Active, in reference to verbs, in what sense 
may be used, 332, Obs. 4. 

Active-transitive verb, defined, 331. — Act.-trans. 
verbs gov. obj. case, 517, R. ; 526, Obs. 1 : — 
place of agent and object in respect to, 335, 
Obs. 13 ; 502, Obs. 17. — Act.-trans. verb, or 



1072 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OP ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



part., has some noun or pron. for its object, 
517, Obs. 3: — with two words in appos., 
("Proclaim thee King,") 519, Obs. 7: — 
with do., neither in appos. nor connected by 
conjunc, ("7 paid him the money,") 520, 
Obs. 8, 9: — with redund. me, thee, you, 522, 
Obs. 15 : — should not be used without an 
object, ib., N. i: — should not assume a gov- 
ernm. incompatible with its signif., ib., N. iii. 

Active-intransitive verb, defined, 331. — Act.-in- 
trans. verb, with prep, and its object, put in 
the pass, form, 336, Obs. 16: — in pass, form 
with neut. signif., ("7 am come,") 388, Obs. 
1 : — should not be used transitively, 522, 
N. ii. 

Addison, undeservedly criticised by Blair, for 
his frequent use of that, as a relative, 307, 
Obs. 32. 

Addition, enumeration, of numbers, by what 
number of the verb to be expressed, 594, 
Obs. 7. 

Address, ordinary fashion of, in Eng., the plur. 
numb., 320, Obs. 20; 551, Obs. 3:— has in- 
troduced the anomal. compound yourself, 
552, Obs. 4. — Address, direct, nom. absol. 
by, 536, Obs. 1, (n:) — terms of, your Ma- 
jesty, your Highness, &c, in what construe, 
used, 552, Obs. 5 : — general usage of, in Er. ; 
in Span., Portug., or Germ., ib., Obs. 6. 

Adjectives, Etymol. of, 268-291 : — Classes of, 
named and defined, 270: — Modifications of, 
278 : — Comparison of, reg., 283; by adverbs, 
284; irreg., 286. — Adjectives in able and ible, 
(see Able, Ible.) — Adjectives, number of, in 
Eng., 221, Obs. 1: — how have been other- 
wise called, 268, Obs. 1: — how distinguished 
from nouns, ib., Obs. 2 : — other parts of speech 
may become, 269, Obs. 4: — Murr., on nouns 
assuming the nature of, ib., Obs. 5 : — whether 
nouns piur. can assume the character of, 291, 
Obs. 18. — Adjectives that cannot be compared, 
278 ; 286, Obs. 10 :— that are compared by 
means of adverbs, 278. — (See Comparison, 
Comparative Beg., and Superlative Deg.) — 
Adjectives requiring the article the, 226, t.: 
— denoting place or situation, comparison of, 
286, Obs. 1 : — become adverbs, 420, Obs. 4, 
(3:) — use of, for adv., improper, 424, Obs. 
4; 542, Obs. 11; 543, N. x; comp. 425, 
Obs. 5; ib., Obs. 7: — with prep., ellipt., 
equivalent to adv., 435, Obs. 2 ; 532, Obs. 
3 ; 541, Obs. 8 : — poet, for nouns, 1067, ix: 
—do., for adverbs, 542, Obs. 11 ; 1067, x.— 
Adjectives, Synt. of, 538-544: — do.,' in what 
consists, 658: — to what relate, 539, R., and 
exc. : — substituted ellipt. for their abstr. 
nouns, ib., exc. 4: — relate to nouns or pro- 
nouns understood, ib., Obs. 1: — used with 
def. art, ellipt, as nouns, 540, Obs. 5 ; comp. 
226, t. : — two or more before a noun, order 
of, 542, Obs. 12; 543, N. ix: — two, joined 
by hyphens, 542, Obs. 12 : — denoting unity 
or plurality, how agree with their nouns, 
541, Obs. 9; 542, N. i: — connected, position 
of, 543, N. viil: — differing in numb., con- 
nected without repetition of noun, ("One 
or more letters,' 1 ) 542, n. * ; 605, Obs. 10 : — 
much, little, &c, preceded by too, how, &c, 
taken substantively, 659, exc. 4. — Adjectives, 
punct of, 777, R., and exc. : — derivation of, 



from nouns, from adjectives, &c, 1053 : — 
poet, peculiarities in respect to, 1067. — Ad- 
jective, taken abstractly with infin. or part., 
539, exc. 3: — following a finite verb, with- 
out a noun. 540, Obs. 3 : — do. an infin. or a 
part, ib., Obs. 4 : — position of, in Eng., ib., 
Obs. 6 : — when may either precede or follow 
its noun, 541, Obs. 7. — Whether adj. or adv. 
is required, how determined, 542, Obs. 11 ; 
978, n. * — Adjective, one superadded to an 
other, without conjunc, position of, 543, N. 
ix: — when the figure of, affects the sense, 
what to be done, 544, N. xvi : — should not 
be represented by a pronoun, 558, N. xiii : 
— ellipsis of, shown, 815. 
Adjectives, common, probable numb, of, in Eng., 

270, Obs. 1: — enumeration of, according to 
their endings, ib., ib. 

Adjectives, compound, analogies of their forma- 
tion, traced, 277, Obs. 23: — nouns derived 
from, generally disapproved, ib., Obs. 24. 

Adjectives, numeral, kinds of, named, 272, Obs. 
4. — Cardinal numb, and its corresponding 
numeral, what denote, ib., Obs. 5. — Con- 
struction and figure of the numerals, ib., 
Obs. 6. 

Adjectives, participial, what words to be referred 
to the class of, 277, Obs. 21, 22; 415, Obs. 
11; 270, Obs. 8: — cannot be construed to 
govern obj. case, 544, N. xv. 

Adjectives, pronominal, list of, 273, Obs. 7: — 
which, sometimes used adverbially, ib., Obs. 
8 : — which, sometimes used partitively, 
appar. as nouns, 274, Obs. 9, et sq. : — with- 
out nouns expressed, how parsed, 290, Obs. 
14: — distribution of, by Church., 275, Obs. 
14 See Other, &c. 

Adjectives, proper, peculiarities of, considered, 

271, Obs. 2, 3: — rule for initial capital in, 
166, m. ; 171, Obs. 14. 

Adjuncts of nominative in the agreement of a 
verb, 576, N. ii; comp. 573, Obs. 14. 

Admitting, allowing, &c, appar. independent, to 
what may relate, 635, Obs. 4. 

Adverbs, Etymol. of, 419-425. — Adverb, de- 
fined, 419. — Adverbs, serve to abbreviate ex- 
pression, ib., Obs. 1 : — other classes of words 
sometimes take the nature of, 420, Obs. 4 : — 
appar. take the nat of other parts of speech, 
ib., Obs. 5 : — how distinguished from adjec- 
tives, 270, Obs. 9 : — Classes of, named and 
defined, 421, 422: — proper classification of, 
by what indicated, 421, Obs. 7 : — of time, 
place, and manner, with what connected ; of 
degree, do., 422, Obs. 3: — conjunctive, (see 
Conjunctive Adverb :) — Modifications of, 424 : 
— number of, in Eng., 221, Obs. 1. — Whether 
adverb or adjective required, how determined, 
542, Obs. 11.— Adverbs, Synt. of, 658-667 : 
— in what do. consists, 658 : — to what re- 
late, ib., R. — Adverb before a prep., ("Con- 
siderably beyond, 11 ) 659, exc. 3. — Adverbs, 
whether sometimes qualify nouns, ib., Obs. 
1 ; 677, Obs. 26 : — of participles which be- 
come nouns, how managed, 659, Obs. 2; 
650, N. iv: — above, then, &c, as relating 
directly to a noun, how parsed, 659, Obs. 3, 
4. — Adverbs, of degree, to what adjectives 
not applicable, 543, N. vii: — direct use of, 
for pronouns, inelegant, 423, Obs. 7 ; 558, 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1073 



(78. ix:— position of, 661, Obs. 10; 661, N. 
i : — needless use of, for adjectives, 424, Obs. 
4; 659, Obs. 3; 660, Obs. 4; 667, N. ii:— 
hither, &c., for here, &c, with, verb of motion, 
667, N. iii: — hence, &c., with from prefixed, 
ib., N". iv: — when, &c., not to follow is in a 
definition, (" Concord is when," &c.,) ib., N. 
vi: — ever and never, to be carefully distin- 
guished, ib., N. ix: — in ly, when preferable 

\l to other forms, ib,, N. x. — Adverb, appar. 
x made object of a prep., (" At once,") 533, 
Obs. 5 : — emphatic, with verb of self-motion 
suppressed, ("/'« hence,") 660, Obs. 7. — 
Adverb how, misuse of, ("He said how," 
&c.,) 667, N. v: — no, not to be used in ref- 
erence to a verb or a part., ib., N. vii. — Ad- 
verbial form or character, words of, how 
parsed, 660, Obs. 5, 6. — Adverbs, punct. of, 
778, R. — Adverb, ellips. of, shown, 816. — Ad- 
verbs, derivation of, 1055, '6: — many com- 
mon Eng., of Anglo-Sax. origin, 1056, Obs. 
1 : — poet, peculiarities in the use of, 1069: — 
I peculiar use of those of two syllables in ly, 
I by Milt, and his contemporaries, 424, Obs. 
2. — Adverbial phrase, a needless and im- 
proper designation in analysis, 287, Obs. 2, 
fin. ; 419, Obs. 2 ; 533, Obs. 5. 

Affectation of fine writing, prec. against, 1062, 
iv. 

Ago and since, difference between, 423, Obs. 10. 

Agreement, of words, defined, 457 : — with 
what synonymous, 460, Obs. 2. — Agree- 
ment, how many of the parts of speech in 
Eng., incapable of; none necessary between 
words unrelated, ib., ib. : — as differing from 
relation, ib.; 461, n. *: — of words in the 
same construe, not easy to determine, 606, 
Obs. 13, et sq. : — rules of, as applied to 
articles, impertinent, 229, Obs. 12. — Agree- 
ments, syntactical, in Eng., specified, 467, 
Obs. 20. — Agreement, general principles of, 
ib., Obs. 21: — figurative, of pronouns with 
antecedents, 552, Obs. 8, et sq. 

Ah, sometimes departs from usage, 448, n. * 

Alexandrine verse, description of, 852, b. 

Alias, for the equivocal or, use of, in judicial 
proceedings, 432, t. 

All, when may be reckoned a noun, 274, Obs. 
11. 

Allegory, defined, 819. — Allegory includes most 
parables of Script., and some fables, 820, 
Obs. 

Alphabet, Eng., names and plur. numb, of the 
letters, 150 ; ib., Obs. 1: — Hebrew, names 
and characters of, given, 152, Obs. 8: — 
Greek, do., 153, Obs. 9: — Latin, names of 
the letters of, scarcely known even to the 
learned, ib., Obs. 10 ; account of its letters, 
ib., Obs. 11. — A perfect alphabet in Eng., 
what it would effect, 155, Obs. 1. — Letters 
of the alphabet, when and how used in the 
sciences, 167, Obs. 1. 

Alphabetic writing, its advant ige over the 
syllabic, Blair, 157, Obs. 8. 

Ambiguous, construe., with respect to the class 
of a word, 303, Obs. 18; 718, Crit. N. i:— 
do., with resp. to the case of a word, 523, N. 
vii: — expressions, prec. against, 1063, vi, u. 

Amen, use and import of, 659, exc. 2. 

Among and amongst, amid and amidst, differ- 



ent in sense and construe, from between and 
betwixt, 685, Obs. 13 : — incompatible with 
the distributive one an other, ib.* 687, N". ii: 
— derivation of, from Sax.. 1057, 1. 

Amphibrach, defined, 841, m. 

Amphimac, amphimacer, or Cretic, defined, 
841, m. 

An, conjunc, obsolete for if, (" Nay, an thou 'It 
mouthe," &c, Shak.,) 2-30, Obs. 19: — deri- 
vation of, from Sax., M)56, m. 

An, a, art., one and the same, 225: — preferable 
form before a particular sound, ib.; 229, 
Obs. 13, et sq.; 485, Obs. 13, 14; 486, N. 
i. — A or an before genus, 225 ; comp. 487, 
N. x ; — how commonly limits the sense, 225 ; 
— belongs to sing. numb, only, 226; 229, 
Obs. 11 ; comp. 485, Obs. 12 ; 486, N. ii :— 
with adjective of numb., 226; 232, Obs. 26, 
et sq.; 483, R., exc. 2; 571, Obs. 4: — its 
effect upon proper and common nouns, 227, 
Obs. 5 ; 240, Obs. 1, t. : — is without agreem., 
228, Obs. 10-12.— Whether an is from a 
or a from an, 230, Obs. 16. — An, a, origin of, 
ib., Obs. 17, 18; 1052, t.:— of proportion, 
232, Obs. 25 :— with numerals, ib., Obs. 26, 
et sq. : — by what definitives superseded, 484, 
Obs. 7 : — implies unity ; sometimes precedes 
collective noun conveying the idea of plural- 
ity, 485, Obs. 12: — present usage of, how 
differs from that of ancient writers, ib., Obs. 
13 : — use of, before humble, and its com- 
pounds and derivatives, ib., Obs. 14: — er- 
roneous use of, as relating to a plural, 486, 
N. ii : — not to be used for the, to denote em- 
phat. a whole kind, 487, K x ; 935, n. *. 

Analysis, "to analyze a sentence," what, 469, 
m. — Analysis of sentences shown in five dif- 
ferent methods, 469-47 1 ; which method 
Brown calls "the best and most thorough," 
471, 1. — Analysis, notices of the different 
methods of, 471, Obs. 1, et sq. : — importance 
of, in teaching grammar ; the truest method 
of, parsing. 474, Obs. 13. 

Anapest, defined, 840. 

Anapestic verse, treated, 874-880 : — what syll. 
of, has stress ; first foot of, how may be varied, 
874, u. : — what variation of, produces com- 
posite verse, ib. : — whether a surplus syll. 
in, may compensate for a deficient one, ib. : — 
what number of syllables in the longest meas- 
ure of, ib., 1. — Anapestic verse shown in its 
four measures, ib., et sq. — Anapestic, meas- 
ures, why few, 874 : — poetry, pieces in gen- 
eral short, — (instance of a long piece, L. 
Hunt's " Feast of the Poets,") 876. 

And, discriminated from or, 431, Obs. 7, 8: — 
when preferable to with, or, or nor, 599, E". 
v: — whether emphatic of word or phrase 
following it, (" Part pays, and justly?" &c, 
Pope,) 672, Obs. 6 : — derivation of, from 
Sax., 1056, L 

Anglo-Saxon dialect, and accessions thereto, as 
forming the modern Eng. lang., 1051, 1. 

An other, see Other. 

Antecedent, proper sense of the term, 296, Obs. 
1 : — sometimes placed after its pronoun, 297, 
Obs. 6 ; 553, Obs. 13 : — sometimes doubly 
restricted, 307, Obs. 34: — of pron., applied 
figuratively, 552, Obs. 10-12 :— sing., with 
the adj. many, and a plur. pron., 550, exc. 



68 



1074 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



4: — suppressed, 556, Obs. 23. — Antecedents 
of different persons, numbers, and genders, 
disjunctively connected, how represented, 
508, Obs. 2-4: — joint, agreem. of pron. in 
ellipt. construct, of, 599, N. vi. 

Antibacchy. or hypobacchy, defined, 841. 

Antiquated words and modes of expression, 
more frequent in poetry than in prose, 1070. 

Antithesis, defined, 821, t. 

Aorist, or indefinite, may be applied to imperf. 
tense pot. and subjunc, 369, m. 

Aphaeresis, defined, 814, 1. 

Apocope, defined, 814. 

Apophasis, or paralipsis, explained, 821, m. 

Apostrophe, mark, what denotes; for what 
sometimes used, 803 ; 358, Obs. 36 : — at 
what period introduced into the poss. case, 
263, Obs. 20. Apostrophe, figure, defined, 
820, 1. 

Apposition, 497-502, Synt. : — agreement be- 
tween words in, 497, R. — Apposition, what, 
and from whom received this name, 498, Obs. 
1 : — different from same cases put after verbs 
and participles not trans. ; false teachings of 
Murr. et al. hereon, ib., Obs. 2 : — the rule for, 
to which apposed term applied ; whether words 
in, should be parsed separately, ib., Obs. 3 : — 
common rule and definition of, wherein faulty, 
ib., Obs. 4 : — which word of, the explanatory 
term ; when explan. word placed first, 499, 
Obs. 5 : — in what case of, either word may be 
taken as the explan. term, ib., Obs. 6: — why 
two possessive words cannot be in, ib., Obs. 
7, 9 : — two or more nouns in, where sign of 
possession put, ib., Obs. 8 : — whether compat. 
with, to supply relative and verb between 
the apposed words, ib., Obs. 9. — Apposition, 
appar., of noun without poss. sign, with 
pron. possess., ("Your success as an in- 
structed ") 500, Obs. 10: — noun or pron. em- 
phat. repeated, (" Cisterns, broken cisterns," 
&c.,) ib., Obs. 11: — appar., of a noun to a 
sentence, ib., Obs. 12 : — of words differing in 
numb, (" Go ye every man,") ib., Obs. 13: 
— of proper nouns with appellatives, (" The 
river Thames,") 501, Obs. 16 : — act. verb 
followed by two words in, 502, Obs. 17 : — 
whether requires any other agreem. than 
that of cases, ib., Obs. 18: — words in, punct. 
of, 777, R., t. : — of a common with a prop, 
name, use of capital lett., 166, R. 

Archaism what, 814, m. 

Aristotle, division of the Greek letters, 156, 
Obs. 3 : — what neoterics wiser than, ib., ib. : 
how considers the compounding or non-com- 
pounding of terms, 188, n. *. 

Arithmetical numbers, relation of the terms in, 
539, exc. 2. 

Arrangement of words, term defined, 457. — 
Arrang. of words, of what importance in 
synt. ; whether it affects the method of 
parsing words, 467, Obs. 23. 

Articles, Etymol. of, 225-233. — Article, de- 
fined, 225. — Article, common noun without ; 
Eng. nouns without, taken indefinitely parti- 
tive, ib. : — words of mere being, used without, 
ib. — Articles, how often inserted, 226; comp. 
233, Obs. 29 ; 815, 1. : — needless, to be omitted, 
226 : — Classes of, named and defined, ib. : — 
Modificat, (an short, to a, the only,) ib.; 



228, Obs. 10. — Articles, the frequent use of; ' 
freq. misapplication of, 226, Obs. 1 : — to be 
distinguished from adjectives, and from each 
other, 227, Obs. 3 : — appar. used for adverbs, 
420, Obs. 4, (1.) — Article, Eng., its demon- 
strative character, 227, Obs. 6: — do., com- 
pared with the Gr. def. art. ; no rule for 
agreement of, appropriate in Eng., 228, Obs. 
10: — use of, before names of rivers, 228, 
Obs. ^.—Articles, Synt. of, 482-488 ;— to 
what relate, 483, R. — Article, with the 
poss. and its governing noun, only one, used, 
ib., n. *: — one noun admits of one, only; 
before an adj., relates to a noun understood, 
ib., Obs. 1 : — why not repeated, as in Fr., 
before every noun of a series ; why the omis- 
sion of, cannot constitute a proper ellips.. ib., 
Obs. 2 : — position of, with respect to its 
noun; ditto, with respect to an adj. and 
noun, 484, Obs. 3 : — relative position of, and 
adj., not a matter of indifference, ib., Obs. 4 : 
— excluded by certain pronom. adjectives ; 
what ones precede it ; its position in respect 
to an adj. of quality, limited by too, so, as, or 
how, ib., Obs. 5 : — position of, when an adj. is 
preceded by another adv. than too, so, as, or 
how, ib., Obs. 6 : — do., when an adj. follows 
its noun, ib., Obs. 8 :— whether the insertion 
or the omission of, can greatly aft'ect the im- 
port of a sentence, 485, Obs. 15. — Article, 
repetition of, with nouns connected, 486, N. 
iii: — do. with adjectives connected, ib., N. 
iv; and, oppos., N. v: — added to each of 
two or more nouns sing., or a plural put, 
("The nominative and the objective case," or 
"The nominative and , objective cases,") ib., 
Obs. 16; ib., N. vi: — use of, in special cor- 
respondence of phrases, 487, N. vii: — do., in 
correspondence peculiar, ib., N. viii: — do., in 
a series of terms, ib., N. ix : — erroneous use 
of, before the species, for the ; do., when the 
species is said to be of the genus, ("A jay is 
a sort of a bird,") ib., N. x; 935, n. *: — 
not used before names of the virtues, vices, 
&c, before limited terms, and before nouns 
of definite signif., 487, N. xi :— do. before 
titles or names mentioned merely as such, 
ib., N. xii : — do. before a part, not taken as 
a noun, 488, N. xvi: — insertion or omission 
of, with respect to a comparison or an alter- 
nation made with two nouns, 487, N. xiii: — 
required in the construe, which converts a 
part, into a verbal noun, 488, N. xv. — Articles, 
what the false synt. of, includes, ib., N. xvii. 
— Ellips. of article, shown, 815. — Articles, 
derivation of, 1051 : — frequently omitted by 
the poets, 1066, m. See also Definite Article, 
and An, A. 

Articulate or elementary sound, nature of, 149, 
t. ; ib., n. *. 

Articulation, as defined by Comst. ; do. by 
Bolles, 808. — Articulation, how differs from 
pronunciation, ib. : — the principles of, what 
they constitute, ib., Obs. : — a good one, what, 
in the view of Comst. ; do., in what consists, 
according to Sherid., ib. ; do., importance of, 
ib. ; do., how delivers words, ib. 

As, as subject or object of a verb, its class, 
303, Obs. 19; 672, Obs. 9 :— with a clause 
or sentence as anteced., do., 672, Obs. 9. — 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1075 



As, as relative, "Webst. absurd explanation 
of, 304, Obs. 20; Chand. do., ib., Obs. 21; 
Bull, denial, 305, n. * : — to what construe, 
limited, 304, Obs. 22 : — peculiarities with 
respect to position, ib., Obs. 23 : — declined, 
313, t. : — derivation of, from Teuton., Dr. 
Joh., 1056, m. — As follow, as follows, &c, 
construction of, 673, Obs. 10; Murr., him- 
self perplexed by Tooke and Campb., delivers 
dubious instructions concerning, ib., Obs. 
11, 12: — Opinion of Nix. and Oromb. con- 
cerning, 674, Obs. 13. As, as a conjunc, 
uniting words in appos., 672, Obs. 7 : — be- 
tween adj. or part, and its noun, ("Actions 
AS such/ 1 ) ib., Obs. 8 : — with ellips. of latter 
term of comparison, (" For such as he,") 674, 
Obs. 15. — As and than, character and import 
of, ib., Obs. 16 : — words connected by, gen- 
erally put in the same case, 675, Obs. 17. — 
As — as ; as — so ; so, (preceded by a nega- 
tive,) — as; so — as, (with an infin. follow- 
ing;) correspondents; 678, N. vii. 

Asking and exclaiming, simple and appropriate 
names for the marks of, desirable. 774, Obs. 
10. 

Aspirates, see Semivowels. 

Asterisk, use of, 804. Asterism, do., ib. 

Ate, particular words ending in, peculiarities 
of, 269, Obs. 7 ; 1054, u. 

Auxiliary, defined, 361. — Auxiliary, form of 
a verb, when preferable to the simp., 390, 
Obs. 1 : — verbs, are mostly defective, 360, 
b. ; 361, Obs. 4 : — do., are needful in the 
conjug. of English verbs, ib., Obs. 5: — do., 
inflection of, shown, 363, 364. — Auxiliaries 
used as expletives, 364, Obs. 11. — Auxiliary, 
poet, placed after verb, 1068, xxvi. 

Averse, aversion, whether to be construed with 
from or to, 686, Obs. 17. 

Avoiding, verbs of, with part, in stead of infin., 
638, Obs. 18, (4.) 

Awkwardness, literary, Crit. N. censuring, 719, 
m. 

Ay, I, assentive adv., 162, n. f; 320, Obs. 19; 
658, b. — Ay, sometimes improp. written for 
ah, 447, Obs. 2. 



B. 



B, its name and plur. number, 150 ; ib., Obs. 
1:— its sound, 1044: — in what situations 
silent, ib. 

Bacchy, described, 841, 1. 

Be, how varied, 363 : — conjugated, affirmat, 
373, 374. — Use of the form be for the pres. 
indie, 375, Obs. 1. — Be, ellips. of the infin. 
often needlessly supposed by Allen et al., 
624, Obs. 30 : — whether it should be inserted 
after the verb make, 625, Obs. 31. — Is, con- 
tracted, giving its nom. the same form as that 
of the poss. case, (" A wit's a feather" &c, 
Pope,) 264, Obs. 23. 

Become, &c, whether they demand the auxili- 
ary am or have, 389, Obs. 5. 

Besides, prep., in what cases proper to be used 
after else or other, in lieu of than, 678, n. * 

Between, cannot refer to more than two things, 
275, n. f; 446, Obs. 3; 687, N. ii.— Between 
or betwixt, how differs in use from among or 



amongst, 685, Obs. 13. — Between, betwixt, 
derivation of, from Sax., 1057, b. 

Bible, the Holy, application of the name, 165, 
n. * : — what is shown by Italics in the text 
of, 164, 1. : — quotations in, how indicated, 
172, Obs. 17 : — abrupt transitions in, 320, 
n. *: — its general accuracy of lang., 321, n.*: 
— in the lang. of, ye. and you, in what con- 
structions not found, 523, N. viii. 

Bid, as commanding, or as promising, its con- 
struction with the infin., 628, Obs. 6. 

Blair, Dr., unjustly censures Addison's frequent 
use of that, as a relative, 307, Obs. 32. 

Blank verse, as distinguished from rhyme, 827. b. 

Blunders, as readily copied, as originated, by 
makers of school-books, 884, Obs. 8 ; 738, 
n. *: — literary, Crit. N. concerning, 719. 

Bombast, as opposed to purity, prec. against, 
1062, iv. 

Books, mentioned by name, rule for capitals, 
165, t.; 167, Obs. 3. 

Both, as conjunc, corresponding to and, 274, 
Obs. 12; 678, N. vii :— as adj., 274, Obs. 12: 
— derivation of, ace. to Dr. Murr., 1056, L 

Brace, its purpose, 804, u. 

Breve, or stenotone, for what used, 803, b. ; 
804, n. * 

Brevity of expression, sought in the ordinary 
business of life, 186, Obs. 4. 

Brokenness, or hitching, as a fault of style, 
prec. censuring, 1064, i, 1. 

But, save, as well as, construe, of two nouns 
connected by, 595, Obs. 12. — But, how has 
acquired the signif. of only, 666, Obs. 28 : — 
in ambiguous construe, (" There cannot be 
but one," &c, Kames,) ib., Obs. 29: — as used 
for that, contrary to its import, 677, N. hi: — 
derivation of, from Sax., 1056, 1. — But and 
save, whether they ever govern the obj. 
case as prepositions, 595, Obs. 13, et sq. ; 
996, n. * — Cannot but, construe, and signif. 
of, 639, n. * — Not but, to what equivalent, 
and the class of but, 666, Obs. 28. 



c. 



C, name and plur. numb, of, 150; ib., Obs. 1 : 
— sounds of, 159 ; 1044 : — where silent, 
1044: — with cedilla placed under, (c,) 804, 
1. : — written for a number, 793, Obs. 2, 4. 
Gh, sounds of, 1044. Arch, sound of, before 
a voweL and before a conson., ib. Ck, final, 
for double c, 194, R. v. 

Cadence, explained, 813 : — faulty, precept 
against, by Ripp., ib. : — Murr. direction 
concerning, ib. 

Cadmus, carried the Phoenician alphabet into 
Greece, 149, Obs. 4. 

Ccesura, signif. and application of, 841, 1. 
Cozsural or divisional pause; demi-caisuras, 
or minor rests ; (see Pauses.) 

Can, verb, varied, 364: — derivation and signif. 
of, ib., Obs. 14. — Can not and cannot with 
what distinction used, 391, Obs. 3. — Cannot, 
with a verb of avoiding, or with but, 639, 
n. * — Can, could, would, as principal verbs, 
by poet, use, 1068, xxiv. 

Capital letters, capitals, for what used; how 
marked for the printer, in manuscript, 164, 



1076 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1. : — what things are exhibited wholly in, 
ib., b. : — Rules for the use of, 165, &c. : — use 
of, in comp. prop, names, 165, R. ; 166, R. ; 
169, Obs. 9; 170, Obs. 11 :— needless, 167, 
R. : — lavish use of, its effect, ib., Obs. 2 : — 
discrepancies with respect to, abound in 
books, ib., Obs. 3. 

Cardinal numeral, distinguished from its corre- 
sponding ordinal, 272, Obs. 4: — should fol- 
low the ordinal, in a specification of a part of 
a series, (" The first two,") 280, Obs. 7, (7 ;) 
542, Obs. 12; 543, N. ix. 

Caret, in what used, and for what purpose, 
804, t. 

Cases, in grammar, what, 258 : — named and 
defined, ib. : — nom. and obj., alike in form, 
how distinguished, ib. : — on what founded, 
and to what parts of speech belong, ib., Obs. 
1 ; 493. — (See Nominative Case, &c.) — Cases, 
whether infinitives, participles, &c, can take 
the nature of, 258, Obs. 2 : — what is the 
proper number of, to be assigned to Eng. 
nouns, 259, Obs. 3, 4 : — what authorities 
for the true doctrine of three, ib., Obs. 
5 : — discordant doctrine of sundry gram- 
marians concerning the numb, of, 260, 
Obs. 6, 7 : — Webst. and Murr. opposite 
instructions concerning do., ib., & 261, 
Obs. 9. — Cases, whether personal pronouns 
have two, only, 316, Obs. 9, et sq. : — 
rules for the construe, of, 493-538, Synt. : — 
whether a noun may be in two, at once, 
494, Obs. 6 : — whether Eng. verbs govern 
two, 520, Obs. 10: — whether in Eng., as in 
Lat, when a verb governs two, the pass, re- 
tains the latter case, 521, Obs. 11. — Cases, 
same, (see Same Cases.) — Cases, what kinds 
of words take different, after them, 527, Obs. 
6. — Case of noun or pron. after part, gov- 
erned by prep., whether undetermined ; err. 
of Sanb. and Bull, hereon, expos., 527, 
Obs. 7 ; G-ree. false teaching, do., ib., Obs. 
8 : — doubtful, after participles, in what kind 
of examples found, 528, Obs. 9, 10 ; canon 
concerning do., 529, N. i. 

Case, technical term with printers, ("Letters 
of the lower case, ,) ) 176, n. * 

Coiachresis, how commonly explained, and 
what sort of fig., 818, n. *. 

Catalectic, when a measure is said to be, 
849, b. 

Cedilla, from whom borrowed, and how ap- 
plied, 804. 

Change, of numb, in the second pers., ineleg., 
557, N. ii: — of the connective of two nomi- 
natives appar. requiring a plur. verb, canon 
concerning, 598, N. i. — Changing the scene, 
or deserting the principal subj., in a sent., 
prec. against, 1064, b. 

Chaucer's imperfect measures, Dryden's re- 
marks on, 845, Obs. 12. 

Cherokee alphabet, some account of, 157, Obs. 7. 

Cherubim and seraphim, Heb. plurals, some- 
times mistaken for singulars, 253, b. 

Chief terms, or principal parts, of a verb, neces- 
sary to be first ascertained, 331 ; 360. — 

Chief words may be distinguished by capitals, 
167, R., t. 

Circumflex, inflection, (see Inflection:) — mark, 
use of, 803, L 



Classes under the parts of speech, what meant 
by, 220. 

Classification of words, explanations to assist 
beginners in making, 221, Obs. 1 : — Dr. 
Wilson's observations on, 222, Obs. 3. 

Clause, see Member. 

Climax, defined, 821, u. 

Cognomination, relation of the article, in in- 
stances of, (" Alexander the Great, v ) 484, Obs. 
9, fin. 

Collective noun, defined, 239, 1. — Collective nouns, 
forms of, sing, and plur. ; how understood, 
247, Obs. 25: — gend. of, how determined, 
255, Obs. 7 : — by what relative represented, 
557, N. iv. — Collec. noun, represented by 
plur. pron., 564, R. : — in what two ways 
may be taken, and with what accord of 
pron. ; the plur. construe, of, under what fig. 
of synt. ranked by the old grammarians, ib., 
Obs. 1 : — whether with a sing, definitive, 
admits a plur. verb or pronoun, 565, Obs. 2. 
— Collec. nouns generally admit of plur. form, 
ib., Obs. 3. — Collect, noun, represented by 
sing. pron. neut., ib., N. i: — uniformity of 
numb, to be preserved in words constructed 
with, ib., N. ii; 586, Obs. 7: — agreem. of 
verb with, 584, R., & 591, N. t. :— how 
determined whether it conveys the idea of 
plurality or not, 584, Obs. 1 : — strictures on 
the rules of* Adam, Lowth, et al., concerning, 
ib., Obs. 2 : — Nix. notion of the construe, of 
verb and, ib., Obs. 3. — Coll. nouns, partitive 
of plur., construe, of, 586, Obs. 8 : — as ex- 
pressing collections of persons, or coll. of 
things, which most often taken plurally, ib., 
Obs. 9 : — when not plur. in form, whether it 
admits of plur. adj. before it, ib., Obs. 10. 

Colon, from what takes its name, 772: — for 
what used, 789: — in what year adopted in 
England, 772, Obs. 5 : — its utility maintained 
against some objectors, 773, Obs. 6: — Rules 
for the use of, 789 : — used by some between 
numb, of chap, and that of verse, in quota- 
tions from the Bible, 793, Obs. 5. 

Comma, from what takes its name, 772, Obs. 
2 : — what denotes, ib., ib. : — less common 
in Germ, than in Eng., ib., Obs. 3 : — its 
ancient form, ib., Obs. 5 : — Rules for the use 
of, 774, &c. : — use of, in a series of words, 
780, n. * 

Commanding, desiring, expecting, &c, verbs of, 
to what actions or events, refer, 609, N. xiv. 

Commandments, the ten, how expressed as to 
forms of verb, 340, Obs. 11, fin. : — by what 
points divided in books, 792, Obs. 1: — ex- 
ample of, versified in iamb, hexameter, by 
Dr. Watts, 852. 

Common gender, unnecessary and improper 
term in Eng. gram., 254, Obs. 2. 

Common noun, defined, 239 : — when admits of 
no art, 225 : — with def. art. sometimes be- 
comes proper, 240, Obs. 2: — by personif. 
often do., ib., Obs. 3. — Common nouns in- 
clude the classes, collective, abstract, and verbal, 
239, 1. — Common nouns, their nature and 
numerical distribution, as distinguished from 
proper, 227, Obs. 4. 

Comparative degree, defined, 278. — Compar. 
degree, why Brown presents a new definit. 
of, in place of his former one, 279, Obs. 6:— 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1077 



true nature of, 281, Obs. 9: — whether always 
required in a comparison of two objects, 282, 
Obs. 12, 13 : — with what construe, proper in 
exclusive comparisons, 286, Obs. 7 ; canon 
of Brown, 543, N. iv. — Comparatives, cer- 
tain, not construed with the conjunc. than, 
287, Obs. 4 : — double, how to be considered 
and treated, 288, Obs. 5; 543, N. vh. — 
Comparative terminations, to what adjectives 
not to be applied, 543, N. vii; 286, Obs. 8- 
10. — Compar. degree in Gr. and in Lat., con- 
strue, of, 675, Obs. 18: — poet, connected to 
the positive, 1067, xii. 

Comparison, defined, 278. — Comparison, de- 
grees of, named and defined, ib. : — what ad- 
jectives admit not of, 286, Obs. 8, 9. — 
Church, on the different, 278, Obs. 1 ; (and 
Brown on Church., ib., Obs. 2 :) — character 
of Brown's definitions of; do. of those of 
Murr. et al, exhibited, ib., Obs. 3 : — Murr. 
definitions of, criticised, 279, Obs. 4: — relative 
nature of, 279, Obs. 5, 6; 280, Obs. 7.— 
Comparison, regular, 283 : — to what adjec- 
tives applicable, ib. : — when preferable to the 
comparison by adverbs, 284, u. — Comparison, 
Harr on the degrees of; the positive a 
degree — (in oppos. to Harr. et al.,) 285, Obs. 
4. — Comparison of equality, what ; sometimes 
involves solec, ("Nothing SO uncertain as,") 
ib., Obs. 6. — Comparison of equality and of 
ineq., canon on, 543, N. vi. — Comparison, 
adaptation of the terms of, to the deg. to be 
expressed, 286, Obs. 7 ; 543, N. iv & v : — 
belongs chiefly to comm. adjectives, 286, Obs. 
10. — Comparis., irregular, ib. — Comparis., 
whether to be mentioned in parsing adverbs, 
424, Obs. 1 : — inclusive, and exclusive, 543, 
N. iv, N. v, & 678, N. iv. — Comparisons, 
extra, their impropriety, 543, N. vii: — Crit. 
N. on, 718. See also Comparative Degree, 
and Superlative Degree. 

Comparison or contrast of things, the resem- 
blance or opposition how rendered more 
striking, 1065, prec. iv, 1. 

Complex prepositions, how maybe formed, 437, 
Obs. 13. 

Composite orders of verse, what uniformity of 
construe, they require, 849. — Composite verse, 
884-890 : — description of; why requires 
rhythm, 884: — kinds of, unlimited; which 
preferable, ib. : — liable to doubtful scansion, 
886, Obs. 1. 

Composition, the frequent practice of, necessary, 
in order to acquire a good style, 1062, m. 
Composition of language, two kinds of 146, t. 

Compound or progressive form of verb, how 
made, 376: — exemplified in the verb Read, 
conjugated, 376, '7 ; what verbs do not ad- 
mit of; what it implies, 377, Obs. 1: — verbs 
of. having a pass, signif., 378. Obs. 2. 

Compound word, defined, 184. — Compounds, 
permanent, consolidated; temporary, formed 
by hyphen, ib. ; 513, Obs. 31. — Comp. 
words, not to be needlessly broken, 184, R. : 
— two or more, not to be split, 185, R. : — 
when to be written with hyphen ; when 
without it, ib., R. — Compounding of words, 
unsettled usage respecting; manner of, in 
Lat. and Gr. ; arbitrary practice of, in Eng., 
its effect, 187, Obs. 7 : — does not necessarily 



preclude their separate use, 513, Obs. 32: — 
propriety of, sometimes difficult to decide, 
287, Obs. 2. — Compounds, orthog. of, 196, 
R. ; 513, Obs. 31. — Compounding the words 
ofareg. phrase, its impropriety, 185, R., t. ; 
187, Obs. 8. — Compound adjectives, see Ad- 
jectives, Compound. 

Concord, (see Agreement.) — Concords and gov- 
ernments, examples of false ones from the 
grammarians, 462, Obs. 7 : — in Lat., diversely 
enumerated by the Lat. grammarians. 466, 
Obs. 16. 

Concrete terms for abstract qualities, poet, use 
of, 1067, ix. 

Confusion of senses, in use of pron., to be 
avoided, 557, N. v. 

Conjugation of a verb, defined, 360: — what 
some teachers choose to understand by, 366, 
Obs. 20. — Conjugating a verb, four ways of, 
named, ib., Obs. 21. — Conjugation of an Eng. 
verb, what the simplest form of, 366. — Con- 
jug, of verbs, shown in five Examples, 366- 
388. — (See also Compound or Progressive, 
&c) — Conjugat. negative, how made, 389 : — 
interrogative, do., 390 : — interrog. and nega- 
tive, do., ib. 

Conjunctions, Etymol. of, 428-432. — Conjunc- 
tion, defined, 428. — Conjunctions, how differ 
from other connectives, ib., Obs. 1 : — nature 
and office of; R. F. Mott quot, ib., Obs. 2: 
— nature of the connexions made by, 429, 
Obs. 3 : — how many in common use, 222, 
u. : — how parsed, 429, Obs. 3, 4 : — as " con- 
necting the same moods, &c," strictures on 
the doctrine of Murr. et al., concerning, ib., 
Obs. 5. — Conjunctions, classes of, named and 
defined, 430. — (See Copulative Conjunction, 
Disjunc. Conj., and Corresp. Conjunc.) — Con- 
junctions, List of, 430: — appar. used as ad- 
verbs, 420, Obs. 4, (7 :) — -peculiar phrases 
having the force of, 431. Obs. 5, 6 : — import- 
ance o£, as copulative or as disjunctive, to be 
carefully observed, ib., Obs. 7. — Conjunctions, 
Synt. of, 670-679: — do., in what consists, 
(Murr et al. teaching erron.,) 670 : — what 
connect, ib., R. : — declinable words connected 
by, why in the same case, 671, Obs. 1 : — 
power and position of those that connect 
sentences or clauses, ib., Obs. 2: — absurd 
and contradictory notions concerning the 
office of, by Lenn., Bull., et al, ib., Obs. 4 : 
— two or three coming together, how parsed, 
672, Obs. 5. — Conjunction, followed by a 
phrase, and not a whole member, 671, Obs. 
3 : — connecting two terms to one, 677, N. i: 
— do. two terms the same in kind or quality, 
ib., N. ii. — Conjunctions, to be used with due 
regard to import and idiom, ib., N. hi: — 
punct. of, 778, R. ; 776, exc. 4: — ellips. of, 
shown, 816 : — derivation of, 1056 : — are 
mostly of Anglo-Sax. origin, ib., m. : — H. 
Tooke's derivations of, given, ib., et sq. : — 
poet, usage of or — or, and nor — nor, 1069, 1. 

Conjunctive adverbs, what office perform ; what 
classes of words embrace, 422 : — often relate 
equally to two verbs in different clauses, ib., 
Obs. 1 ; 423, Obs. 8 ; 661, Obs. 9 :— list of, 
422, Obs. 2: — whence, whither, &c, some- 
times partake of the nature of pronouns, 423, 
Obs. 6, 7 ; 558, N. ix. 



1078 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



Connected terms, two, limited by a third, what 
both must be, 677, N. i: — should be the 
same in kind or quality, ib., N. ii. Connected 
adjectives, how should be placed, 543, N. 
viii. Connective words, or 'connectives, kinds 
of, named, 428, Obs. 1 : — do., how may be 
distinguished, ib., ib. 

Consonants, divisions and subdivisions of, 155: 
— properties of, as sharp, flat, labial, &c, 
157, Obs. 6. 

Construing, whether differs from parsing, 325, 
n. * 

Continuance of action, see Compound or Pro- 
gressive, &c. 

Contractions, in the orthog. and the pronuncia- 
tion of words, 351, Obs. 19, et sq. ; 353, Obs. 
24, et sq. ; 357, Obs. 34; 359, Obs. 40, et sq. ; 
392, Obs. 2, 3 : — ocular, in printing poetry, 
not important, 927, n. *. 

Correlatives, combinations of, (" Father's son") 
how to be regarded, 513, Obs. 34. 

Corresponding, or corresponsive conjunctions, in 
what manner used, 430: — named and ex- 
emplified in their several pairs, 678, N. vii : — 
nature of the terms standing in the relat. of, 
430, Obs., m. ; 677, Obs. 26: — the former of 
two, how parsed, 671, exc. 2: — Church. 
canon on the use of, 679, N. viii. — Or — or, 
and nor — nor, by poet, usage, 1069. 

Crotchets, or brackets, how used, 804: — con- 
fused and inaccurate teaching of Webst. et 
al, concerning, 773, Obs. 8. 

Cum with an ablative, Lat, ( ; ' Dux CUM aliqui- 
bus," Sec.,) the construe, imitated in Eng., 
597, Obs. IS, et sq. : — canon on do., 599, 
N. v. 

Curves, or marks of parenthesis, 772 : — have 
been in use for centuries, ib., Obs. 5: — the 
use of, not to be discarded, 773, Obs. 7 : — 
confused teaching of Webst. et al., respect- 
ing do., ib., Obs. 8 : — what used to distin- 
guish, 801, b. : — clause enclosed by, how to 
be uttered ; pause of do., ib., Obs. : — Rules 
for the application of, 801, '2. 

Customary actions require to be expressed by 
indie, pres., 342, Obs. 4; 609, N. xv. 



D. 



D, name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : — 
sounds of, 1044: — written for a number. 793, 
Obs. 2, 4. 

Dactyl, defined, 840. 

Dactylic verse, 880-884 : — stress, on what syll. 
laid; what rhyme it generally forms, 880: — 
is not very common ; seldom pure and regu- 
lar, ib. : — shown in its eight measures, 880, 
et sq. : — has been but little noticed by proso- 
dists and grammarians, 884, Obs. 6: — mis- 
conceived and misrepresented Rev. D. Blair, 
ib., Obs. 7, 8. 

Dare, construe, with infin. foil., 628, Obs. 7. — 
Use of the form dare for the third pers. sing., 
630, Obs. 15; 629, n. *. 

Dash, the mark, explanation of, 795: — Lowth 
et al. make no mention of, 773, t. : — Rules 
for the application of, 795. — Dash, needless, 
how to be treated, 796 : — between quotation 
and name of the author, ib., Obs. 1 :— applied 



to side-title, ib., Obs. 2: — used to signify 
omission, ib., Obs. 3. 

Dates, ordinarily abbreviated ; how best writ- 
ten, 186, Obs. 4: — objectives in, without 
their prepositions, 535, Obs. 11. 

Dative case, faulty relic, in Eng., of old Sax., 
("It ascends me into," &c, Shak,) 522, Obs. 1 5. 

Days of the week, names of, to be reckoned 
prop, names, and written with capital, 168, 
Obs. 7 ; (908, 1.) 

Deaf and dumb. — The deaf and dumb, to whom 
the letters represent no sounds, learn to read 
and write ; what inferred herefrom, 149, 
Obs. 3. 

Defective verb, what verb so called, 360, b.* 
402 : — which tenses of, wanting, 402, Obs. 
1. — Defective verbs, whether they should be 
reckoned a distinct class, 332, Obs. 3: — may, 
can, must, and shall, not to be referred to the 
class of, 402, Obs. 1 : — will, beware, &c, 
construe, and import of explained, ib., Obs. 
2, et sq. — Defec. verbs, List of, 404. 

Definite article, defined, 226. — Definite art., its 
demonstrative character, 227, Obs. 6: — used 
before names of rivers, 228, Obs. 8 : — do. by 
way of eminence, ib., Obs. 9 : — no rule of 
agreem. for, in Eng., 228, Obs. 10: — prefixed 
as an adv., to comparatives and superlatives, 
485, Obs. 10; 420, Obs. 4, (1 ;) 483, exc. 1 : 
— repeated before every term in a series of 
adjectives used ellipt. as nouns, ib., Obs. 2 : — 
used for a poss. pron., (" Full in the face,"*'-) 
485, Obs. 11: — position with respect to its 
noun, 484, Obs. 9 : — required before antece- 
dent to a restricted relative, 488, N. xiv. 
See also The. 

Definition, defined, 734, 1. — A perfect definition, 
what, 145. — Definitions, needful qualities of 
certain, in gram., 240, Obs. 2, 1. : — bad, pecu- 
liar vice of, 734, n. *: — Crit. N. on, 718, iii. 

Definitives, what, in Eng., and how to be 
classed, 233, Obs. 30: — example to show 
what is meant by, ib., Obs. 31. — Definitive 
word required before antecedent to restricted 
relative, 488, N. xiv. 

Degrees of comparison, see Comparison. 

Deity, names of, use of capitals in, 165, R. ; 
168, Obs. 5; 904, n. *: — in all languages, 
masc. ; direct names of, do., 255, n. *. The 
sing. numb, universally employed in refer- 
ence to the Supreme Being, 345, Obs. 6. 

Demonstratives, from the class, pronominal ad- 
jectives, 275, Obs. 14. 

Derivation, as a topic of gram., what explains, 
1051 : — importance of, ib. : — a knowledge of 
what languages will throw light on the sub- 
ject of Eng., ib. 

Desiring, verbs of, see Commanding. 

Desisting, verbs of, with part., in stead of infin., 
638, Obs. 18, (1.) 

Despauter, (Despauterius Joannes,) grammarian, 
when died, 906, m. : — his Lat. Gram., 345, 
n. * ; 462, n. * : — his remark on the origin 
of using plur. pron. of second pers. for sing., 
345, n. *: — gives the rule that the verb gov- 
erns the nominative before it, 462, n. *. 

Diaresis, or dialysis, mark, place and use of, 
803 : — explained, 814, b. 

Diesis, or double dagger, for what purpose used, 
804.- 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1079 



Dimeter, line, iambic, examples of, 851 : — 
trochaic, do., 872: — anapaestic, do., 877, '8: 
— dactylic, do., 881. 

Diphthong, defined, 179.— Diphthongs, distinc- 
tion of, 180 : — enumeration and specification 
of the Eng., ib. 

Discourse, or narration, its nature and require- 
ments, 146. 

Disjunctive conjunction, defined, 430. — Disjunc- 
tives, List of, ib. — Disjunctive or, see Or. 

Distance, see Time, &c. 

Distribution, of words into classes, a matter of 
some difficulty; explanations concerning, for 
learners, 221, Obs. 1 : — of verbs in Lat., 
grammarians have disputed respecting, 334, 
Obs. 8, 9. 

Distributives, of the class pronominal adjectives, 
275, Obs. 14. — Distributive term sing, in ap- 
posit. with a plur., 500, Obs. 13. 

Division, literary, see Literary Division. 

Do, verb, how varied, 363: — particular uses of, 
358, Obs. 38, 361, Obs. 6; 364, Obs. 11:— 
in what manner may be substituted for an 
other term, 607, Obs. 18, 19; canon, 609, 
N. x 

Double comparatives and double superlatives, 
how may be regarded, 288, Obs. 5 ; canon, 
543, N. vii; (Lath, and Child, 543, n. *.) 
Double negatives, see Negation, and Negatives. 

Doubling of the final consonant before additional 
syll., 193, R. ; not doubling, before do., ib., 
R. — Double letter retained, 194, R. — Doubling, 
certain letters incline to; others, do not, 198, 
Obs 11, et sq. 

Doubtful case after a part., in what kind of 
examples found. 528, Obs. 9, 10 ; the con- 
strue, to be avoided, 529, N. i. 

Drink, verb, grammarians greatly at variance 
respecting the pret. and the perf. part, of, 
393, n. % 

Dual number, found in Gr. and in Arab., what 
denotes, 242, Obs. 1. 

Duplication, see Doubling. 

Du Vivier, G. } his Grammaire des Grammaires, 
and his Traite des Participes, a copious treat- 
ment of the Fr. participle, 640, Obs. 23. 



E. 



E, (as A, 0, 1, and U,) self-naming, 153, Obs. 12 : 
— how spoken and written, 150: — its plur., 
ib., Obs. 1 : — sounds properly its own, 1045 : 
— final, mute, and to what belongs ; excep- 
tions, ib* : — effect on preced. vowel, of e mute 
after a sing, conson., or after st, or th, ib. : — 
diphthongs beginning with, ib. : — triphthongs 
do., ib. 

Each, pronom. adj., always of the third pers. 
sing. ; its agreements, 576, N. iv. Each 
other, see Other. 

Ecphoneme, or note of exclamation, 772, t. : — 
occasional introduction into the classics, ib., 
Obs. 3: — diversely called by Murr. et al, 
774, Obs. 10 : — for what used, and of what a 
sign, 800 : — Rules for the application of, ib. 

Ecphonesis, defined, 820. 

Either and neither, pronom. adjectives; relate to 
two only, 544, N. xiii: — M. Harr. on the 
illegit. use of, ib., n. *: — their numb, and 



pers. ; what agreements they require, when 
they are the leading words in their clauses, 
576, N. iv: — derivation of, from the Sax., 
1056, 1. 

Either — or, neither — nor, corresponsives, 678, 
N. vii : — transposed, with repeated disjunc- 
tion or negat, 671, exc. 3. 

Elegiac stanza, description of, 854, 1. 

Elementary sound, or elements of speech, defined, 
148 ; 149, t. See Sounds. 

Ellipsis, figure defined, 815 :— either not de- 
fined by grammarians in general, or absurdly 
defined, 816, Obs. 1: — frequent in comp. 
sentences, 815, m. : — to be supplied in pars- 
ing, 458, m. : — supposed, may change the 
construe, without affecting the sense, 468, 
Obs. 28: — the principle of, as explaining 
several questionable but customary expres- 
sions, (" Fair and softly goes far") 593, Obs. 
2. — Murr. on "the ellipsis," 727, n. *— 
Ellipsis supplied, examples of, 815. — Need- 
less ellipses, the supposition of, to be avoided, 
436, Obs. 10; 459, t. ; 503, Obs. 2; 571, 
Obs. 5; 816, Obs. 2; ib., n. *— Ellipses, 
faulty, as opposed to perspicuity, preg. 
against, 1064. hi, m. Ellipsis, or suppres- 
sion, mark of, how figured, and what used 
to denote, 804, ix. 

Elliptical construction of nouns, (" A horse, a 
horse," &c, Shak.,) 537, Obs. 4, 5. 

Elocution, defined, 810. 

Else, other, &c, with than, in exclusive com- 
parisons, 678, N. iv. — Else or other, some- 
times construed with besides, ib., n. * — Else, 
derivation of, 1056, Obs. 2. 

Emphasis, defined, 810: — comparative view of 
accent and, ib. : — as connected with quantity, 
Murr., 811, t. : — as affecting accent, ib., 
n> * (2 :) — what the guide to a right, ib. — 
Emphatic words, not to be multiplied, ib. 

Enallage, defined, 817 : — signif. of the Gr. word, 
818, Obs. 1: — special application of the 
term, ib. : — with what other terms synony- 
mous, ib. : — the most common forms of, in 
Eng., ib., Obs. 2 : — examples of, how differ 
from solecisms, ib., Obs. 3 : — too much lati- 
tude was given to the fig. by Despauter, and 
by others, ib., ib. 

Enallixis, see Enallage. 

Ending of a sentence with an adv., a prep., or 
any inconsid. word or phrase, prec. concern- 
ing, 1065, v; 305, Obs. 24. 

English Grammar, see Grammar. 

English language, some account of its origin, 
1051 : — its character, ib. : — its simplicity and 
facility asserted by Lowth, 338, Obs. 6: — 
its chief defect, according to Dr. Joh., 355, 
Obs. 29. 

Enumeration of numbers, see Addition. 

Epicene nouns, see Generic Names. 

Epithets, new compound, poets frequently form, 
1067, xi. 

Equivalence, the argument of, has often led into 
errors, 425, Obs. 7, fin. , 

Equivocal, or ambiguous construe, of cases, to 
be avoided, 523, N. vii —of rel. prom, by 
misplacement, 558, N. xi : — of prep, with 
converted part., how amended, 635, Obs. 9 ; 
650, N. iii : — of the word but, (" There can- 
not be but one," &c.,) 666, Obs. 29:— of 



1080 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



words, leaving the classification doubtful, 
Crit. N. concerning, 718, i: — Equiv., or 
ambig. expressions, as opposed to propriety, 
prec. against, 1063, vi, u. 

Eroteme, its form in Greek, 772, Obs- 3: — deri- 
vation; fitness of the name, 774, Obs. 9 : — 
diversely called byMuRR. et al., ib., Obs. 10: 
— its use, 797 : — Rules for do., ib. : — its value 
as a sign of pause, 798, Obs. 1 : — retained 
by a quoted question, ib., Obs. 3. 

Erotesis, explained, 820, x. 

Errors, incorrigible, Crit. N. concerning, 719, 
xvi. 

Etymology, 220-450. — Etymol, of what 
treats, 220 : — when and how should be 
taught, 222, Obs. 2: — -figures of, term de- 
fined ; the principal do., named and defined, 
814. — Etymology and meaning of words, 
Harris on the usefulness of disquisitions 
into, 1051. 

Ever, contrac., e'er ; so in comp. rel. pronouns, 
323, Obs. 31. — Ever a one, contrac. by the 
comm. people into e'er a one, 665, Obs. 24. — 
Ever and never, opposite to each other in 
sense, yet freq. confounded and misapplied, 
664, Obs. 22 ; canon on the employment of, 
667, N. ix. — Ever so, (prop., everso,) signif. 
of, 664, Obs. 22. — Everso wisely, its propriety 
determined, against the false phraseology 
never so wisely, ib., Obs. 23. — Ever, deriva- 
tion of, from Sax., 1056, Obs. 1. 

Example, as used in teaching, meaning of, 145. 
— Examples, use of capitals in, 163, b., R. ; 
172, Obs. 17. 

Exception, noun, and except, verb, whether 
more properly followed by from or by to, 
686, Obs. 17. 

Exclamation, note of, (see Ecphoneme.) — Excla- 
mation, nom. absolute by, 536, Obs. 1, (iv:) 
— the case of nouns used in, 537, Obs. 4. 

Exclusive and inclusive terms of a comparison, 
543, N. iv, v, & vi. 

Exercise, in grammar, what, 145. 

Expecting, &c, verbs of, see Commanding. 

Extended compositions, gradation of the parts 
in, 146. 

F. 

F, its name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : 
— 'final in monosyllables, to be doubled, 193, 
R. : — formation of the plur. of nouns in, and 
in/, 246, Obs. 18 :— 4ts sound, 1045, b. 

Fable, how may be defined, 820, Obs. — "What 
the term denotes in the Scriptures, ib. 

Fall short of make bold with, &c, how the ad- 
jective in such phrases is to be explained in 
parsing, 540, Obs. 3. 

False identification, (under synt. of same cases,) 
Note exposing the error of, 530, ii. 

Falsities in sentences, Crit. N. directed against, 
718, v. 

Feel, its construe, with the infin., 626, R. ; 628, 
Obs. 8. 

Few and many, form and construe, of, 232, Obs. 
27. Fewer, see Little. 

Figures, treated, 814-821. — Figure, in gram., 
what, 814.— Figures, distinctive names of 
some ; frequent occurrence of those of rhet- 
oric, ib. — Figure of words, signif. of the term, 



184. — Figure of words, Rules for, 184, '5:--. 
suggestions additional to do., 513, Obs. 31: 
— unsettled and variable usage in that which 
relates to, 187, Obs. 7. — Figure of orihog., 
what; what the principal figures of do., 814. 
— Figure of etymol., what, ib. — Figures of 
etymol., the principal, named and defined, 
814 & 815. — Figure of synt., what, 815. — 
Figures of synt, the principal, named and de- 
fined, ib. — Figure of rhei., what, 818. — 
Figures of rhet, why certain are called 
tropes, ib.: — on what mostly founded, 819: 
— the principal, named and defined. 819, et 
sq. : — affect the agreem. of pronouns with 
their antecedents, 552, Obs. 8. — Figures, how 
many Brown deems it needful to define and 
illustrate, 821, Obs. — Figures, definitions of 
sundry, in the lang. of authors, corrected, 
Key, 978, 1., & 979, u. Figures, Arabic, in 
what cases pointed by some, 793, Obs. 6. 

Final f I, ors, in spelling, 193, R. ; other finals 
than, in do., ib., R. : — ck or c, use of, 194, 
R. ; 197, Obs. 3, etsq. : — 11, to what confined, 
194, R. : — e of a primitive, when omitted; 
when retained, 195, R. : — y of a prim, word 
before a terminat., how managed, ib., R. : — 
ise or ize, which termination to be taken, ib., 
R. — Finals, what letters may assume the 
position of; what may not, and why, 201, 
Obs. 23. 

Finite verbs, agreem. of, with subjects, a principle 
of Univ. Gram., 343, Obs. 1 : — Rules con- 
cerning, 460. — Fin. verb understood, punct. 
of, 777, R. 

First words, initial capital to, 165, R. : — faulty 
practice of grammarians with respect to, 167, 
Obs. 4. 

Foot, poetic, see Poetic Feet. 

Foreign words or idioms, unnecessary use of, 
in opposition to purity, 1062, prec. i. 

For, with all, as equivalent to although, 431, 
Obs. 5. — For as much as, &c, having the 
nature of conjunctions, ib., Obs. 6. — For 
that, 441, Obs. 9. — For, with perf. part., 
("For lost, 11 ) 532, Obs. 4:— with ever, 533, 
Obs. 5: — before to and infin., 622, Obs. 24: 
— as introducing its object before an infin., 
572, Obs. 11 ; 683, exc. 2. For, conj., be- 
cause, from Sax. ; anc. expressed for that, 
Sec, 1056, b. ; 1058, u. 

Forever, or for ever, its class, 533, Obs. 5. 

Former and latter, nature and applic. of, 269, 
Obs. 3; 511, Obs. 26, 27. 

Forms of letters, in type or character, 164, b. — 
Forms of verbs, a knowledge of the true, 
nothing more important in gram, than, 338, 
Obs. 6. 

Forsooth, signif. and use of, 422, n. *. 

Friends, the Society of, their employment, in 
familiar discourse, of the sing. pron. of the 
second pers., 345, Obs. 6; 348, Obs. 12, 13; 
350, Obs. 17 : — generally neglect to com- 
pound their numeral names of the months 
and days, 186, Obs. 3: — their misemploy- 
ment of thee for thou, 320, Obs. 21; 357, 
Obs. 33 : — their manner of speaking, different 
from the solemn style, 320, Obs. 21: — ex- 
amples of their manner of forming the verb 
with the pron. thou; their simplificat. of the 
verb, 353, Obs, 25. 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1081 



From, derivation of, from Sax., 1058, u. — From 
forth, from out, construe, of, explained, 438, 
Obs. 19. — Off from, examp. of the use of, 
443, Obs. 16. 

Full, in permanent compounds, how written; 
in temporary do., do., 196, R. xiv, exc. : — 
compounds in, (spoonful, handful, &c.,) how 
pluralized, 247, Obs. 21. 

Future contingency, how best expressed. 577, 
N. ix; 369, Obs., t. 

Future tense, first, how formed, and what ex- 
presses, 367, b. ; 341 : — second, do., do., 
and how varied, 368, t, & Obs. 

Futurity, often denoted by the infin., (" The 
world to COME,") 342, Obs. 7 ; 623, (7.) 



G. 



G, its name and plur., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : — its 
sounds, 159, m. ; 1046: — when silent, ib. — 
Gh, sounds of, and silence, ib. 

Gardiner, W., his new analysis of the Eng. 
alphab., noticed, 163, Obs. 12. 

Genders, term defined, 254. — Genders, the diff., 
named and defined, ib. : — on what founded, 
and to what belong, ib., Obs. 1. — Gender, in- 
consistent views of, as given by many of the 
grammarians ; Wells and Murr. criticised, 

254, Obs. 3 : — confounded with sex by some 
writers ; others otherwise confuse the matter, 

255, Obs. 4; 735, n. * — Common gender, of 
the old grammarians, the term objectionable 
with respect to Eng, 254, Obs. 2. — Gender, 
how in many instances determined, 255, 
Obs. 6 : — figuratively ascribed, how indi- 
cated, 257, Obs. 14: — denoted by he and 
she prefixed to nouns, 269, Obs. 6: — denied 
by Murr. et al. to pronouns of the first and 
second persons, 310, Obs. 3 : — of pron., the 
preference of, when joint antecedents are of 
different genders, 567, Obs. 2. 

General truths and customary actions, to be 
expressed by the indie, pres., 342, Obs. 4; 
609, N. xv. 

Generic names, sense and construe, of, 255, 
Obs. 5. 

" Genitives, double,'''' discovered by our gram- 
marians, the true explanation of all such, 
510, Obs. 22. 

Gentile names, nature and construe, of, 257, 
Obs. 13. 

German language, form of its type, 149, Obs. 
4 : — use of the comma less freq. in, than in 
Eng., 772, Obs. 3. 

Gerund, Lat., explanation of, 466, Obs. 18 ; 

639, Obs. 21 & foil. :— what form of an Eng. 
participle corresponds to, 639, Obs. 21. — 
"Gerund in English," how becomes "a sub- 
stantive," according to Dr. Adam et al., 

640, Obs. 22. Gerundives, what, 466, Obs. 
18; 610, Obs. 23. 

Giving, paying, procuring, &c, verbs of, with 
ellips. of to or for before the objective of the 
person, 534, Obs. 10. 

Government, of words, defined, 457 : — to what 
parts of speech has respect, 466, Obs. 18 : — 
the rules of, whether to be applied to the 
governing or the governed words, ib. : — 
do., how many in the best Lat. grammars ; 



usual faults in the distribution of these., 467, 
Obs. 22. — Governments in Eng. synt, how 
many, ib. : — false, examples of, cited from 
grammarians, 462, Obs. 7. 

Grecism, literal, in Eng., ("Before Abraham 
was, I AM,") 342, Obs. 5 ; comp. 609, N. xv, 
latt. cl. 

GRAMMAR, defined, 145.— .^n Httqlfsf) 
(iSrammat, what professes to be, ib. — 
English Grammar, what in itself; what 
knowledge implies, ib. : — when worthy to 
be named a science, 411, Obs. 1, fin. — 
Grammar, how to be taught, and its princi- 
ples how made known, 145; (291, 1.; 412, 
t. :) — the true principles of, in whose posses- 
sion, 317, Obs. 11 : — a rule of, what, 145. — 
Grammar, how divided; its parts, of what 
severally treat, 146 : — what it requires, 150, 
Obs. 2; 721, Obs. 4: — rightly learned, what 
ability it confers, 467, Obs. 23 : — what many 
vain pretenders to, have shown by their 
works, 146, Obs. 1: — on questions of, the 
practice of authors should have more weight 
than the dogmatism of grammarians, 630, 
Obs. 14. Grammars of different languages, 
how far must needs differ ; strictures on 
those of Prof. Bull., 464, Obs. 13-15; 334, 
n. * A grammar designed for English, the 
chief end of, 474, Obs. 11. Grammatical 
doctrine, the truth of, in what consists, 462, 
Obs. 6. 

Granting, supposing, &c, see Admitting. 

Grave accent, as opposed to acute, 803 : — as 
preserving the vocality of e, ib. 

Greek alphabet, characters of, shown and 
named, 153. 

Gvillemets, or quotation points, what words they 
distinguish, 804 ; 904, t. : — how applied to a 
quotation within a quotation, 804: — not used 
in our common Bibles ; the defect in what 
measure relieved, 172, Obs. 17. 



H. 



H, its name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : 
— its sound, 1046 : — in what words silent, 
ib. ; 485, Obs. 14: — in what positions do., 
1046: — an used formerly before all words 
beginning with, 485, Obs. 13. 

Hand, or index, use of, 804, xvi. 

Handwriting, script letters in, 164. 

Harmonical pauses, see Pauses. 

Have, verb, how varied, 363 : — derivation of; 
with perf. part., import of the tense, 365, 
Obs. 15. — Had, with better, rather, &c, be- 
fore the infin., ib., Obs. 17. 

He and she, sometimes used as nouns, 238, Obs. 
2, (2 :) — as prefixed to nouns to denote gend., 
269, Obs. 6 : — whether to be connected by 
a hyphen to the nouns to which prefixed, ib. 

Hear, with objective, and an infin. without to, 
628, Obs. 9 : — with infin. alone, perhaps 
ellipt., (" /have heard tell,") ib. — Heard, 
verb, why irregular, 392, Obs. 1 : — its pro- 
nunc, ib. 

Hebrew letters, some account of; names, char- 
acters, and significations of, 152, Obs. 8 : — 
whether they are, or are not, all consonants, 
long a subject of dispute, 157, Obs. 9. — The 



1082 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



Hebrew names for the months, were prop, 
nouns, 168, Obs. 7, fin. — Hebrew, what point- 
ing adopted in, 772, Obs. 3. 

Hence, thence, whence, with from prefixed, 667, 
N. iv. " Til hence," see Adverbs. 

Heptameter line, iambic, examples of, 850: — 
trochaic, do., 865 : — dactylic, do., 880. 

Here, there, where, force of, when compounded 
with prepositions, 422, Obs. 4: — with verb 
of motion, perh. allowable for hither, thither, 
whither, 667, N. hi. Hereof, thereof, whereof, 
placed after nouns, what to be called, 422, 
n. \. Herein, therein, &c, their class and 
nature, ib., m. ■ 

Heroic verse, see Pentameter. 

Heterogeneous terms, in general, two such not 
to be connected by a conjunc, 677, N. ii. 

Hexameter line, iambic, examples of, 852: — 
trochaic, do., 865 : — dactylic, do., 880. 

Hissing sounds, concurrence ofj in forming the 
poss. case, how avoided, 512, Obs. 28. 

Hold, noun, after lay, take, &c, whether prefer- 
ably construed with of on, or upon, 687, 
Obs. 18. 

Hoping, &c, verbs of, see Commanding. 

How, after nouns of manner, its nature, 558, N. 
ix: — not to be used before that, or in stead 
of it, 667, N. v: — derivation of, from Anglo- 
Sax., 1056, Obs. 1. 

Hyperbaion, explained, 818 : — its frequency in 
poetry ; how should be used, ib. : — is dilf. 
from synchysis, ib., Obs. 

Hyperbole, defined, 820. — Hyperboles, by what 
commonly expressed, 283. Obs. 14. 

Ilypermeter, meaning of, in scansion, 849, b. 

Hyphen, its uses, 803 : — present use in com- 
pound names, 170, Obs. 12: — Rules for the 
insertion of, in compounds, 185; 513, Obs. 
31:— signif. of the name, 187, Obs. 7.— 
Hyphen, abuse of, ib., Obs. 8: — Church, on 
the use of, in comp. words, 188, Obs. 9: — 
in the figure of an adj., with a change of the 
synt. and sense, 544, N. xvi: — necessary 
with a verbal noun and an adjunct, 636, 
Obs. 11; 650, N. iv: — do. with comp. par- 
ticiples, converted, 650, N. vi. 

Hypobacchy, or antibacchy, defined, 841. 



I. 



I, lett, self-naming, 153, Obs. 12 ; its plur., 
150, Obs. 1 : — its usual sounds, 1046 : — 
diphthongs beginning with ; triphth. do., ib. 
I, pron. with cap. lett, 166, R. I, as writ- 
ten for a number, 793, Obs. 2, 4. I, adv., 
see Ay. 

Iambic verse, treated, 850-860. — Iamb, verse, 
stress where laid in; effect of a short syll. 
added to a line of, 850 : — shown in its eight 
measures, ib., et sq. : — is seldom pure through 
a long succession of lines, 854: — some of its 
diversifications shown, ib., & 856. See also 
Dimeter, Trimeter, &c. 

Iambus, or iamb, defined, 840. 

Idea of unity, and of plurality, how formed, 
584, Obs. 1; 585, Obs. 4, fin.; 586, Obs. 9. 
(See 738, n. f.) 

Identity of words, the principle of, considered, 
186, Obs. 5 & foil — Identity, proper, rule 



for, (" Same Cases,") 526. Identification, 
false, N. concerning, 530, ii. 

Idioms or peculiarities of expression, when to 
be approved or valued, 647, Obs. 41, 

If, the Biblical use of, to express an emphat. 
negation, 431, Obs. 4: — its derivation from 
Sax., 1056, b. 

Ignorance, literary, Crit. N. concerning, 719. 

Imagery, or Vision, explained, 820. 

Imperative mood, defined, 337. — Imperat. mood, 
why so called ; in what manner applied, 340, 
Obs. 11; 369, b. : — its one tense, and the 
import of do., 342, Obs. 6; — its inflection 
shown in the verb love, conjugated, 370, t. : 
— what nominatives only it takes, 494, Obs. 
4; 571, Obs. 6: — use of, in the Gr. lang. ; 
do., in Lat, Ital., Fr., and Span., 370. Obs. : 
— may have all the persons and numbers, 
ib. : — poet, 1068, xxiii. 

Imperfect tense, defined, 340. — Imperf tense, 
the form, how far applicable to the Eng. 
tense so called, 341, Obs. 2: — in its simple 
form is the preterit, 367 : — in the pot. and 
subj. moocis, an aorist, 369, m. : — of tho 
indie, and the subj., how distinguished, ib., 
Obs. : — of the sub., to express a mere sup- 
position, with indef. time, N. ix, 577. 

Imperfect participle, or first part, defined, 331; 
411 :— its form, 331, n. *— The first part., 
has been variously called, 411, Obs. 2 : — 
why rightly termed imperfect participle, 412, 
Obs. 3 : — for what forms of the Lat. gram., 
stands, 410, Obs. 7 . — is applicable to time 
pres., past, or fut. ; is not always active, 
even when derived from an act. verb, 413, 
Obs. 4; 380, Obs. 10, et sq. ; 625, Obs. 33: 
— may be turned to a multiplicity of uses, 
634, Obs. 3: — appar. put absolute, (Admit- 
ting, — Allowing, &c.,) 635, Obs. 4 : — distin- 
guished, with respect to governm., from a 
particip. noun, ib., Obs. 7 : — as equivalent to 
infin. mood; heads of regular equivalence, 
637, Obs. 15: — how compares with the Lat 
gerund, 639, Obs. 21: — its nature and con- 
strue, 646, Obs. 38. 

Impersonal verbs, so called, their peculiarity of 
use, 403, Obs. 7: — called monopersonal by 
some, 404, Obs. 8. 

Impropriety of language, what embraces, 1062. 

In and into, difference between ; nature of the 
relation expressed by each, 685, Obs. 12; 
derivation of, from Sax., 1058, u. 

Inclusive and exclusive terms of a comparison, 
543, N. iv, v, & vi. 

Incorrigible errors, Crit. N. concerning, 719, 
xvi. 

Indefinite article, see An, A. 

Indefinite pronouns, of the class pronom. adjec- 
tives, 275, Obs. 14. 

Independent, see Absolute. 

Index, or hand, use of, 804, xvi. 

Indicative mood, defined, 336. — Indie, mood, 
why so called ; its nature and use, 337, Obs. 
2 : — use of its pres. tense, 342, Obs. 4. 6 ; 
609, N. xv : — do. of its form of the pluperf. 
in lieu of the pot. pluperf, 365, Obs. 16 : — 
wherein differs characteristically from the 
subj. ; the two moods continually confounded 
by writers, 375, Obs. 4; 575, Obs. 21:— 
Indie, mood, format, and inflec. of its tenses 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1083 



shown in the verb love, conjug., 367, '8 : — 
employed to express a conditional circum- 
stance assumed as a fact, 577, N. ix.' 

Inelegance of language, see Awkwardness. 

Infinitive mood, defined, 336. — Infin. mood, so 
called in oppos. to the other moods, 337, 
Obs. 1 : — usually distinguished by the prep. 
to before it, ib., ib. ; 361, Obs. 1 ; 336, b. ; 
625, Obs. 32: — its pres., the root, or radical 
verb, 366, b. ; what time it expresses, 342, 
Obs. 7 : — archaic form in en, 364, Obs. 12: 
— its two tenses shown in. the verb love, 
conjug., 366, b.:— Synt. of, 615-632.— Infin. 
mood, by what governed, 615, R. ; (see To:) 
— true construe, of, explained by the 18th 
Rule of the Synt, 616, Obs. 7: — why simple 
of solution in Eng. ; whether ever governed 
by a prep, in Fr., Span., or Ital., 619, Obs. 
17 : — whimsical account of, given by Nix., 
ib., Obs. 18: — how expressed in the Anglo- 
Sax, of the 11th century, ib., Obs. 19: — why 
may not, as some grammarians teach, be 
considered a noun, 620, Obs. 20 : — Dr. Wils. 
on the charac. and import of, 621, Obs. 22: 
— to what other terms may be connected, 
622, Obs. 24: — what in its nature, and for 
what things chiefly may stand, ib., Obs. 25 
& foil. : — taken abstractly, as subject of finite 
verb, 572, Obs. 10. — Loose infinitives, im- 
prop. in precise language, 529, Obs. 13. — 
Infin. mood, position of, 624, Obs. 28: — mis- 
placement of, to be avoided, ib., Obs. 29: — 
distinction of voice in, often disregarded, 
(" You are to blame;") hypercrit. teachings 
of Saxb. and Blair hereon, 625, Obs 33.— 
Infin., after bid, dare, &c, without to, 626, 
R. : — whether used with to after have, 
help, and find, 631, Obs. 18. — Infin., by 
what governed, often imposs. to say, ac- 
cording to the instructions of Murr., 627, 
Obs. 3. — Infinitives connected, governed by 
one preposition, 631, Obs. 19. — Infinitive, 
ellipsis of, after to, whether to be approved, 
632, Obs. 22: — sometimes doubtful whether 
transitive or intransitive, ib., Oba 23 : — in 
pause, or in remote dependence, punct. of, 
777, b. : — poet, placing of, 1068, xxv: — 
Greek construe, of, in poetic use, 1069, xxx. 

Inflections, defined, 812 : — rising and falling, 
explained, ib. ; do., as applied to questions, 
ib. : — notation of, in writing and printing, 
ib., m. : — the rising more numerous than the 
falling; predominance of the rising in oral 
lang. ; the falling, for what used, Comst., 
ib. : — what kind of rules for, have been given 
by writers, id., ib. : — the rising and the fall- 
ing, to be used with prop, discrimination ; 
what should determine the direction of, id., 
813, t. — Inflection, what constitutes the cir- 
cumflex, 812, m. 

Innovation extravagant, into the system of 
synt. or gram., a particular instance of, 
noticed, 464, Obs. 12. 

Inscriptions appear best in full capitals, 164, b. 

Instead, what reckoned, and how best written, 
438, Obs. 18; 185, R., t. 

Intending, &c, verbs of, see Commanding. 

Intensive nature of comparatives and superla- 
tives, A. Murr., 291, Obs. 16. 

Interrogative pronouns, defined, 298 : — what 



they severally demand, ib. : — their use and 
construe, 297, Obs. 4:— in what differ from 
relatives, 308, Obs. 37 : — are always of the 
third pers., 309, Obs. 1 :— declined, 312:— 
their place in a sentence, 554, Obs. 18: — 
their construe, of cases, to what similar, 555, 
Obs. 21. 

Interrogative sentences, agreem. of verbs in, 
575, Obs. 19. 

Interjections, Etymol. of, 446-448. — Inter- 
jection, defined, 44( : — derivation and signif. 
of the term ; Lqwth's error in describing the 
interjections, ib., Obs. 2. — Interjections, numb. 
of, in common use, 222, (10:) — List of, 447. — 
Interjections, the frequent use of, an indication 
of thoughtlessness ; expressiveness of some 
interjections in earnest utterance, &c, ib., 
Obs. 1 : — should be discriminative!? used, 
ib., Obs. 2 : — chief characteristics of; referred 
to the class of adverbs by the Gr. grammari- 
ans, 448, Obs. 3 : — significant words uttered 
as, (•' Out! out /") ib., Obs. 4: — appar. taken 
substantively, ib., Obs. 5 : — Synt. of, 690- 
696 : — absolute construe, of, 690, R. : — have 
no construe, with cases, as in Lat. and Gr., 
691, Obs. 3 : — appar., sometimes connected 
to other words by a prep., or by that, 695, 
Obs. 15: — place of, ib., Obs. 16: — punct. of, 
778, b.: — ellips. of, shown, 816: — derivation 
of, 1059: — frequency of, in poet, lang., 1070. 

Inversion of terms, sometimes of advantage, in 
respect to strength and vivacity of expres- 
sion, 1065, prec. ii. 

Irony, figure explained, 821. 

Is being, with a perf. part., or the subject of 
the unco-passive form of verbs, canvassed, 
379, Obs. 5, et sq. ; 538, Obs. 7, fin. 

Ise or ize, which of these terminations to be 
taken in forming derivatives, 195, R. xiii ; 
1055, under Deriv. of Yerbs. 

Ish, termination, whether it may be accounted 
a degree of comparison, 285, Obs. 5. 

It, its chief use, 298, Obs. 3 :— declined, 311: 
— to what creatures may be applied, 550, 
exc. 2 ; 255, Obs. 8 : — put for the distance, 
(" How far do you call it ?" &c, Priestl.,) 
296, Obs. 3 : — without definite reference to 
an anteced., 550, exc. 3 : — as explet., and 
referring to something expressed afterwards, 
ib., ib. ; 554, Obs. 17 ; faulty omission of, 
before verb, in such construe, 572, Obs. 9 : 
— had formerly no variation of cases, 322, 
Obs. 24: — its poss. form its, for of it, of 
recent origin, and not found in the text of 
the common Bible, ib., ib. : — wrongly ex- 
cluded by some from the list of pers. pro- 
nouns, 298, n. *: — its derivation from Sax., 
traced, 1054, b. 

Italic letters, Italics, some account of, 149, Obs. 
4: — for what purpose used, 164: — how de- 
noted in preparing manuscripts, ib. 



J, its name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : — 
why never doubled, 159; 1046: — why never 
ends a word in Eng., 201, Obs. 23: — impro- 
priety of dividing on the letter, in syllabica- 
tion, 202, Obs. 24:— sounds of, 1046; 159 



1084 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



Johnson, Dr. S., his authority in Eng. orthog- 
raphy, 197, Obs. 2, et sq. ; 252, Obs. 37. 

Joint nominatives, agreem. of verb with, 591, 
R. : — whether words connected by with can 
be used as, 597, Obs. 18. Joint antecedents, 
agreem. of pron. with, 566, R. : — of different 
persons, agreem. of verb or pron. with, in 
ellipt. construe, 599, N. vi. 

Jumbling together of the active voice and the 
passive, the manner of some, 636, Obs. 10. — 
Jumbling, senseless, Crit. N. censuring, 719, 
viii. 



K. 



K, its name and plur., 150; ib., Obs. 1; 153, 
Obs. 12: — in general, not needed in words 
derived from the learned languages, 194, R. 
v; 197, Obs. 3, 6, et sq. : — its sounds, 1046: 
— when silent, ib. — Two Kays standing to- 
gether, ib. 

Kind, sort, with these or those improp. preced- 
ing, 586, Obs. 10; 542, N. i. 



L. 



L, its name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1: 
— -of the class liquids, 155 : — final, mono- 
syllables ending in, 193, R. : — final double, 
to what words peculiar, 194, R. : — its sound; 
in what words silent, 1047 : — where doubled, 
193, b. ; 1047 ; comp. 199, Obs. 13, et sq. :— 
written for a number, 793, Obs. 2, 4. 

Labial letters, how articulated, 157, Obs. 6. 

Language, the primitive sense of the term, what 
embraced; signif. of do., as now used, 145: 
— in opposition to some grammarians, Brown 
confines the term to speech and writing, 146, 
Obs. 2 : — loose explanations of the word by 
certain slack thinkers ; Webst. notion of, 
ib., ib. : — Sherid. idea of; Kirkh. wild and 
contradictory teachiugs concerning, 147, Obs. 
3, et sq. — Language, propriety of, in what 
consists; mpropriety of, what embraces, 
1062, b. : — precision of, in what consists ; 
Precepts concerning its opposites, 10G3. — 
Language, Eng., (see English Language.) — 
Languages, uniform series op grammars for 
teaching the Eng., Lai, and Gr., that of Dr. 
Bull., noticed, 464, Obs. 13-15. 

Lay, pay, and say, how written in the pret. 
and the perf. part, 398, Obs. 8, 9. 

Leading principles in the construe, of sentences, 
in what embraced in the Grammar, 459, t. 

Least parts of language, as written, as spoken, 
&c, what constituents so called, 146, t. 

Legal phraseology, in contrast with that of com- 
mon life, 186, Obs. 4; 1064, Obs. 

Less, improper use of, for fewer, (" No less 
than three dictionaries," Dr. Webst.,) 544, 
N. xiv. 

Lest, use of, for that, without due regard to its 
import, ("//eared lest," &c.,) 677, N iii: — 
derivation of, from Sax., 1056, b. 

Let, verb, its construe, with an infin. following, 
628, Obs. 10. 

Letters, in the Eng. alphabet, numb, of, and 
numb, of sounds which they represent, 148 : 
—a knowledge of, in what consists, ib, : — 



infinite variety in, yet the letters alwaya 
the same, ib. : — different sorts of types, or 
styles* of, used in Eng., ib. : — names of, in 
Eng., 150 ; do., sing, and plur., ib., Obs. 1 : 
— Classes of, named and defined, 154 : — 
powers of— the just powers of; (see Power :) 
— Forms of, and their distinctions, in the 
Eng. lang., 164: — different sorts of, to be 
kept distinct, ib. : — slanting strokes of the 
Roman, described, ib. : — Italic, chief use of, 
ib. : — capital, employment of, ib. : — small, do., 
ib. — Letters, history of, 149, Obs. 4: — the 
names of, are words of a peculiar kind, 150, 
Obs. 1 : — the names and powers of, not 
always identical, ib., Obs. 2: — general ne- 
glect of learning to write the names of, in 
Eng, ib., Obs. 3: — importance of learning to 
write do., 151, Obs. 4: — erron. teaching with 
respect to certain names of, ib., Obs. 5. — 
Letters of the Heb. alphabet given, with 
their names, and the significations of do., 
152, Obs. 8 : — of the Gr. alphabet, with their 
names, 153, Obs. 9: — of the Lat. alphab., 
their names nearly lost, ib., Obs. 10: — of do., 
as now printed, ib., Obs. 11. — Letters, the 
twenty-six, possible combinations and muta- 
tions of, 159: — of the alphab., read by their 
names, how taken, 167, Obs. 1 : — do., written 
for numbers, what their nature, 793, Obs. 2 ; 
omission of period after such letters, ib., Obs. 
3: — Day's account of do., ib., Obs. 4. — 
Letters, the sounds of, treated, 1042-1050. 
— Letters, the small, period of their adop- 
tion, 772, Obs. 5 : — used for references, 
804, 1. — Letter, definition of, 148. — Letter, 
the sound of, called its power, ib. ; yet its 
power not necessarily identified with its 
sound, 149, Obs. 3. — A letter, in what con- 
sists, 148, Obs. 1. 

Like, near, nigh, appar., prepositions ; why not 
placed by Brown with the prep., 533, Obs. 7. 

Lily, W., grammarian, his arrangement of Lat. 
syntax, 466, Obs. 16. 

Lines, poetic, technical denominations of, 850, 
t. ; 829, n. * 

Liquids, what letters so called, 155. 

Literary division of a work, common order of, 
downwards, and throughout, 146; but all 
literary works not thus divided, ib. Literary 
blunders, Crit. N. concerning, 719, xi: — awk- 
wardness, do., ib., xiii: — ignorance, do., ib., 
xiv : — silliness, do., ib., xv. 

Little, lesser, less, different uses and import of, 
288, Obs. 6. — Little, much, &c. preceded by 
not, too, or other such adv., how taken, 659, 
exc. 4. — Less, improp. used as an adj. of 
number; does not signify fewer; not to be 
used in the sense of do, 288, Obs. 6; 544, 
N. xiv. — Less, least, adv., to be parsed sepa- 
rately, in the comparison of adjectives and 
adverbs, 284, Obs. 2 ; 424, Obs. 1. 

Love, verb active-trans., conjugated affirma- 
tively, 366, et sq. : — be loved, pass., do., 
386, et sq. — Love, conjug. negatively, 389, 
et sq. : — do., interrogatively, 390 : — do., inter- 
rogatively and negatively, ib. 

Low and provincial expressions, use of, as opp. 
to purity, prec. against, 1063, i, u. 

Ly, most common terminal of Eng. adverbs; 
added to nouns to form adjectives, 422, Obs., 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1085 



(1,) u. ; 1055, b. ; 1053, 1. :— when adverbs 
ending in, are preferable to those of other 
forms, 667, N. x. 



M. 

M, its name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib. Obs. 
1 : — of the class liquids, 155 : — its sounds, 
1047: — when silent, ib. : — as written for a 
number, 793, Obs. 2, 4. 

Macron, or macrotone, mark, its use, 804. 

Make, verb, whether to should be suppressed, 
and be, inserted, after, (" Make yourself be 
heard," Blair,) 625, Obs. 31: — its construe, 
with infin. following, 629, Obs. 11. 

Man and woman, comp. nouns in, (man-servant, 
woman-servant, &c-,) how pluralized, 247, 
Obs. 22. 

Many &, with noun sing, represented by a 
plur. pronoun, 550, exc. 4. 

Marls, or points, used in literary composition, 
the principal, 772 ; occasional, 803. See 
Punctuation. 

May, verb, how varied, 364, u.: — derivation 
and uses of, ib., Obs. 13. 

Mmu, means, use and construe, of, 251, Obs. 
33, 34. 

Measure, &c, see Time. Measure, poetical, see 
Verse. 

Melody or beauty of a sentence, words neces- 
sarj' to, rarely to be omitted, 719, Crit. N. x. 

Member, or clause, defined, 458. — Memb. and 
clause, generally used as synonymous, are 
discriminated by some, ib., n. % — Clause and 
phrase, confounded by some, ib., ib. — Mem- 
bers, simple, of a sent, punct. of, 775; 7S7: 
— complex, do., do., 787. — Members of a sen- 
tence, arrangem. of, as affecting strength, 
1065, prec. iii. 

Mstapthor, defined, 819 : — what commonly un- 
derstood to be, ib., Obs. : — agreem. of pron. 
with antecedent in cases of, 552, Obs. 10. 

Methinks, explanation of; the lexicographers 
on the word, 403, Obs. 6. 

Metonymy, defined, 820. — Meton., on what 
founded, ib. : — agreem. of pron. with its ante- 
cedent, in cases of, 553, Obs. 11. 

Metres, more found in actual use, than those 
acknowledged in the ordinary schemes of 
prosody, 873, Obs. 1, b. Metre, see Verse. 

Milton, Murr. proposed amendment of the 
" unintelligible" language of a certain passage 
of, criticised, 283, Obs. 14, 15 : — double 
solec. in a pass, of, noticed, 286, Obs. 7: — 
his poem, V Allegro, what its versificat. ; 
what the management of the orders of its 
verse, 870, Obs. 1 : — do., II Penseroso, what 
its extent and construction, ib., ib. 

Miss or Misses, Mr. or Messrs., what the proper 
applicat. of, when name and title are to be 
used together, in a plur. sense, 245, Obs. 16, 17. 

Mistaken, to be, irregularity of the verb; its im- 
port as applied to persons, and as applied to 
things, 388, Obs. 2. 

Mimesis, explained; droll examples of, 814. 

Minus, plus, versus, via, Lat., use of, in Eng., in 
partic. constructions, 443, Obs. 15. 

Mixing of synt. with etymol., the manner of 
Ingers., Kirkh., etal, censured, 466, Obs. 16. 



Mixture of the forms of style, inelegance of, 
608, N. vii. 

Modifications, defined, 220, t. : — sense of the 
term as employed by Brown, 226, n. * ; 309, 
Obs. 1. 

Moloss, defined, 841. 

Monometer, scarcely constitutes a line, yet is 
sometimes so placed, 850, t. ; 859. — Mono- 
meter fine, iambic, examples of, 859 : — 
trochaic, do., 873: — anapestic, do., 878: — 
dactylic, an examp. of, 882. 

Monopersonal verbs, see Impersonal Verbs. 

Monotone, what, and how produced in elocution, 
812. 

Months and days, names of, appar. proper 
names, and require capitals, 168, Obs. 7: — 
how best expressed in literary compositions, 
186, Obs. 4. 

Moods of a verb, term defined, 336: — the five, 
named and defined, ib. — Mood, or mode, the 
name, ib., n. * See Infinitive Mood, Indie. 
Mood, &c. 

More and most, in ambiguous construction, 
(" Some people more than them, v Murr.,) 
544, N. xiv: — how parsed in comparisons of 
adjectives and adverbs, 284, Obs. 2. 

Moses, in what characters, is supposed to have 
written, 149, Obs. 4. 

Most, for almost, by vulgarism, 667, Obs. 32. 

Motion, verbs of, with hither, &c, in stead of 
here, &c., 667, N. iii. 

Much, little, all, &c, as nouns, 274, Obs. 9: — 
preceded by not, too, or other such adv., 659, 
exc. 4. — This much, in stead of thus much, 
Dr. Blair, 274, n. * 

Mulkey, W., strictures on his system of or- 
thoepy, 181, Obs. 3, & foil. 

Multiplication, subject of the verb in, see Ab- 
stract Numbers. 

Multiplicative numerals, as running: on in a 
series; how written above decuple or ten- 
fold, 272, Obs. 4, (3.) 

Multitude, noun of, see Collective Noun. 

Mute or silent, epithet applied to what letters, 
148. — Mutes, what so reckoned; of these, 
which imperfect, 155. — Where a letter must 
be once mute, 1047, t. 

My and mine, thy and thine, as duplicate forms 
of the poss. case, use of, 313, Obs. 1, et sq. 



N. 



N, its name and plur. numb., 150; ib., Obs. 1: 
— of the class liquids, 155 : — its sounds, 
1047 : — in what position silent, ib. 

Name and title, see Proper Names. 

Naming the letters of the alphab., importance 
of, 150, Obs. 3. 

Narration, see Discourse. 

Nasals, what consonants so called, 157, Obs. 6. 

Near and nigh, see Like. 

Need, as an uninflected third pers. sing, of the 
verb, 362, Obs. 8; 570, n. *; 629, '"Obs. 13, 
et sq. : — has perh. become an auxiliary of the 
pot. mood, 362, Obs. 8; 629, Obs. 12:— to 
what tenses must be understood to belong, 
if to be recognized as an auxil. of the pot. 
mood, ib., Obs. 9 ; ib., ib. : — that good writ- 
ers sometimes inflect the verb, and sometimes 



1086 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



do not, and that they sometimes use to after 
it, and sometimes do not, how may be ac- 
counted for, 629, Obs. 13 : — three authorized 
forms of expression, with respect to the verb, 
630, Obs. 14. Needs, as an adv., its com- 
position, 1056, t. 

Needless, mixing of characters in printing, bad 
effect of, 164: — capitals, 167, R. ; effect of, 
ib., Obs. 2: — articles, to be omitted, 226: — 
ellipses, the supposition of, a common error 
among grammarians, 436, Obs. 10 ; 468, Obs. 
25; ib., Obs. 28; 571, Obs. 5:— use of par- 
ticiples for nouns, or nouns for participles, 
651, N. xii : — words, ineleg., 667, N. iv, fin. ; 
719, Crit. N. ix: — possessive or art. before 
a part., how corrected, 636, Obs. 10 : — peri- 
ods, or other points, after certain numeral 
expressions, 793, Obs. 4 : — abbreviations, 
offend against taste, 795, n. *: — dashes in- 
serted, how to be treated, 796, R. 

Negation, expressed in the early Eng. by multi- 
plied negatives ; such manner of expression 
now obsolete and improper, 662, Obs. 13 ; 
667, N. viii. — Effect on a negation, of two 
negatives in the same clause, ib., &c. 

Negatives, the comm. rule of the grammars, 
that " two negatives, in Eng., destroy each 
other, or &c," whether a correct one, 662, 
Obs. 14. 

Neither, see Either. 

Neuter verb, defined, 331. — Neuter verbs, the 
active-trans, verbs are so called in most gram- 
mars and dictionaries, 332, Obs. 4; the ab- 
surdity of this, ib., Obs. 5 : — extent of this 
class of verbs ; their existence in any lang. 
denied by some grammarians, 335, Obs. 12. 
— Neut. verb be, conjugated, 373, '4. — Neuter 
verbs, made from active-transitives, (am come, 
is gone, &c. ;) these called by some, M neuter 
passives," 388, Obs. 1 : — of passive form, 
(am grown, are flown, &c.,) as errors of 
conjugat, or of synt, ib., Obs. 2, 4 : — do., 
how may be distinguished from pass, verbs, 
ib., Obs. 3 : — do., Dr. Priestl. mistaken 
notions concerning their nature and pro- 
priety, 389, Obs. 5. — Neut. verbs, and their 
participles, take the same case after as before 
them, 526, Obs. 1; 529, Obs. 14.— Neuter 
verb between two nominatives, its agreem. 
576, N. v. 

Nevertheless, its composition and class, 431, 
Obs. 5. 

No or none, pronom. adj., 273, Obs. 7. No, as 
negative adj., " remarkable ambiguity in the 
use of," noticed by Priestl., ("No laws are 
better than the English ;") how the ambiguity 
may be avoided, 542, Obs. 13 : — as a simple 
negation, its construe, 658, exc. 1 ; 661, 
Obs. 12: — as an adv. of deg., relating only 
to comparatives, ("No more," — "No better") 
661, Obs. 12 : — set before a noun, is an adj., 
corresponding to Lat. nullus, ib., ib. — In the 
phrases, no longer, no more, no where, Dr. 
Joh. appar. suggests wrongly the class ; its 
true class according to its several relations, 
ib., ib. — No, or an other independent negative, 
repeated, its effect, 662, Obs. 13.— Aft, adv., 
not to be used with reference to a verb or 
part., 667, N. vii: — derivation of, from Anglo- 
Sax., 1056, Obs. 1. 



Nominative case, defined, 258. — Nom. case, how 
distinguished from the objective in nouns, 
ib. ; 264, Obs. 24: — as subj. of a finite verb, 
493, R. : — different ways of using, ib., Obs. 
1. — Nominative and verb, usual position of, 
and when varied, 494, Obs. 2. — Nom. case 
and object., at the same time, noun placed in 
the relation of, ib., Obs. 6. — Nom. following 
a verb or part., with what must accord in 
sign if, 530, N. ii. See also Subject, &c. 

Nominative sentences, examples of what Murr. 
erron. so terms; the prop, construe, shown, 
573, Obs. 14. 

Nor, see Or. 

Nut, its place in negative questions, 391, Obs. 
4 : — how spoken in grave discourse, and how 
ordiuarily, ib., Obs. 5 : — vulg. contractions of, 
with certain verbs, ib., Obs. 6 : — used with 
other negatives, 662, Obs. 14: — do. with nor 
(in stead of or) following, whether correctly, 
or not, ib., Obs. 15, et sq. : — derivation of, 
from Anglo-Sax., 1056, Obs. 1. Not but, how 
resolved, 666, Obs. 28. Not only, not merely, 
tc what are correspondents, 679, m. 

Notwithstanding, import and construe, of; mis- 
understood by Dr. Webst., 441, Obs. 8: — 
formation and signif. of, 1057, t. ; 1058, u. 

Nouns, Etymol. of, 238-268.— Noun, denned, 
238. — Nouns, Classes of, named and defined, 
239 : — Modifications of, named, 240 : — Per- 
sons of, named and denned, ib. ; (see Per- 
sons :) — Numbers of, do., 242 ; (see Plural 
Number :) — Genders of, do., 254 ; (see Gen- 
ders :) — Cases of, do., 258; (see Cases:) — 
Declension of, 264, '5. — Nouns, number of, 
in Eng., 221, m. : — the sense of, how made 
indefinitely partitive, 225 : — examples of 
words commonly belonging to other classes, 
used as, 238, Obs. 2 : — collective, abstract, 
and verbal or participial, included among 
common nouns, 239 ; (see Collective Noun, 
and Particip. Noun :) — proper, (see Proper 
Names.) — Nouns, Synt. of, 493-538. — Noun, 
why may not be put in the relation of two 
cases at once, 494, Obs. 6: — taken figura- 
tively sing, for literally plur, 514, N. iv: — 
required to be repeated, or inserted, in 
stead of a pronoun, 558, N. x: — ellips. of, 
shown, 815. — Nouns of time, measure, dis- 
tance, &c, (see Time.) — Nouns, derivation of, 
from nouns, adjectives, verbs, or participles, 
1052: — poet, peculiarities of, 1066. 

Numbers, the distinction of, to what belongs, 
and how applied, 242, Obs. 1. (See Plural 
Number) Numbers, cardinal, ordinal, &c., 
(see Cardinal Numbers, &c.) — Numbers, ab- 
stract, expressions of multiplication in, 
(" Twice one is two," — " Twice two are 
four," &c.,) seven different opinions of gram- 
marians respecting, examined by Brown, 
587, Obs. 14, et sq. ; who determines the 
prop, forms of expression, 590, Obs. 25. — 
Numbers, expressed by letters, how to be 
considered; whether to be marked by the 
period, 793, Obs. 2 : — combined arithmeti- 
cal, one 1 ' adjective relating to an other, 539, 
exc. 2. 

Numerals, numeral adjectives, see Adjectives, 
Numeral. Numerical figures used for refer- 
ences, 804, 1. 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1087 



0, lett., as A, E, I, and U, self-naming, 153, 
Obs. 12 : — its plural, 150, Obs. 1 : — forma- 
tion of the plur. of nouns in, 243, Obs. 8 : 
— sounds properly its own, 1041 : — where 
sounded as short u, ib. : — do. as obscure 
e, ib. : — diphthongs beginning with, ib. : — 
triphth. do., ib. 

0, interj., with cap. lett., 166, R. : — what emo- 
tion indicates, 447 : — differs from oh, 448, t.: 
— as denoting earnestness, before nouns or 
pronouns put absol. by direct address ; is no 
positive index of the vocative, 691, Obs. 2. 
— 0, &c, Mure, erron. doctrine concerning, 
to what teaching it has given rise, ib., Obs. 
4, et sq. — 0, &c, with a case following, Lat. 
construc.of, examined, 694, Obs. 11. — 0, not 
rmfreq. confounded with oh, even by gram- 
marians, 171, Obs. 15; 448, t; 692, Obs. 
6 ; 695, Obs. 14 ; comp. 448, n. *. 

Obelisk, or dagger, as mark of reference, 804. 

Objective case, defined, 258. — Obj. case, how 
distinguished from the nom. in nouns, 264, 
Obs. 24 : — before the infin. mood, how taken 
inEng., 495, Obs. 8: — as governed by active- 
trans, verb or part, 517, R. — "Active verbs 
govern the obj. case," Murr., defect of this 
brief assertion ; its uselessness as a rule for 
"the syntax of verbs." ib., Obs. 1; 521, Obs. 
13. — Obj. case, of how many constructions 
susceptible, 517, Obs. 1 : — whether infini- 
tives, participles, &c, can be in, 518, Obs. 5: 
— two nouns in, after a verb, how parsed, 

520, Obs. 8. — Whether any verb in Eng. 
governs two objectives not coupled, ib., Obs. 
9, 10; 534, Obs. 10. — Obj. case as governed 
by passive verbs, erron. allowed by some, 

521, Obs. 11 ; Murr. on this construe, ib., 
Obs. 12 ; syntac. N. concerning, 522, v : — 
what verbs not to be employed without, ib., 
N. i; do. with, N. ii. — Obj. case as governed 
by prep., 532, R. — "Prepositions gov. the 
obj. case," why the brief assertion is excep- 
tionable, as the sole rule, in parsing prep., 
ib., Obs. 2. 

Obsolete or antiquated words, use of, as opposed 
to purity, preo. against, 1062, ii. — Things 
obsolete in Eng., Dr. Latham's attempts to 
revive, 348, n. *. 

Ocean, figurative representation of, as uttering 
his voice in tones of varied quantity, 162, 
Obs. 9. 

Odometer line, may be reduced to tetrameter, 
850 : — iambic, examples of, ib. : — trochaic, 
do., 862, et sq. : — dactylic, example of, 880. 
— Odometer, trochaic, rhyme and termina- 
tion of, 863, t. ; its pauses, and how may be 
divided, 864 ; the most common form of, 
ib., b. 

Of and on or upon, difference between, 686, 
Obs. 18. 

Old English, characters of its alphabet, shown, 
148; — occasional use of do., 164. 

Omissions of words that are needful to the sense, 
Crit. N. against, 719, x. 

Omitting, verbs of, with part, in stead of infin., 
638, Obs. 18. 

One, employment of, as a noun or as a substi- 
tute for a noun ; how classed by some gram- 



marians, 275, Obs. 13: — may be preceded 
by the articles, or by adjectives, ib., ib. : — 
like Fr. on or Yon, used indef. for any person ; 
in this sense preferable to a pers. pron. ap- 
plied indefinitely, ib., ib. : — Church., citation 
ridiculing the too frequent use of, for pers. 
pron., ib., ib. : — as pronom. adj., requires 
verb and pron. in the third pers. sing, to 
agree with it, 576, N. iv. One an other, seo 
Other. One, or a unit, whether it is a num- 
ber, 829, n. * 

Only, derivation of; class and meaning of, in 
its several different relations, 665, Obs. 26 . 
659, Obs. 1 ; 273, Obs. 7 : — strictures on the 
instructions of grammarians respecting the 
classification and placing of, 665, Obs. 27 : — 
ambiguous use of, (as also of but,) 666, Obs. 
29 : — use of, for but, or except that, not ap- 
proved of by Brown, ib., ib. — Not only, not 
merely — but, &c, correspondents, 679, m. 

Onomatopozia described and exemplified, 821 ; 
827, t, (extr. from Swift.) 

Or, as expressing an alternation of terms, (Lat., 
sive.) 431, Obs. 8; puna, 776, exc. hi: — in 
Eng., is frequently equivocal ; the ambiguity 
how avoided, 431, Obs. 8. — Or, perh. con- 
tracted from other, 1057, t. — Or and nor 
discriminated, 431, Obs. 7, 8. — Or, nor, 
grammarians dispute which of these words 
should be adopted after an other nega- 
tive than neither or nor; Murr., following 
Priestl., teaches that either word may be 
used with equal propriety ; Burn's doctrine, 
662, Obs. 15, et sq. ; Brown, after revising 
Church., attempts to settle the question, 
664, Obs. 21. — Or ever, (" Or ever the earth 
was") the term explained, 431, Obs. 4. 

Or or our, terminal, number of Eng. words in ; 
how many of these may be written with our ; 
Brown's practice and views in respect to 
this matter, 197, Obs. 4. 

Oral spelling, the advantage of, to learners, 
182, Obs. 8. 

Order of things or events, the natural, prec. 
directing the -observance of, in the use of 
lang., 1063, m. 

Orders of verse, see Verse. 

Ordinal numeral, (see Numerals.) — Ordinal ad- 
jectives may qualify card, numbers; cannot 
properly be qualified by do., 542, Obs. 12 ; 
280, Obs. 7, (7.) 

Orthoepy, see Pronunciation. 

Orthography, 148-203. — Orthography, 
of what treats, 148 : — difficulties attending 
it in Eng., 193, t. ; 196, Obs. 1 :— Dr. John- 
son's improvements in, 197, Obs. 2 : — Dr. 
Webster's do., in a different direction, 202, 
Obs. 25: — ignorance of, with respect to, any 
word used, what betokens in the user, 719, 
Crit. N. xiv. (See also Spelling.) Orthog- 
raphy, figures of, mimesis and archaism, 814. 

Other, pronom. adj., 273, Obs. 7 : — its sub- 
stantive or pronominal character ; (with one,) 
how classed by some ; may be preceded by 
the articles, 275, Obs. 13 : — requires than 
before the latter term of an exclusive com- 
parison, 678, N. iv; yet sometimes perhaps 
better takes the prep, besides, ib., n. *. Each 
other, one an other, import and just applica- 
tion of, 275, Obs. 15; 501, Obs. 14; 543, 



1088 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



N". iii : — misapplication of, frequent in books, 
276, Obs. 16 ; 295, n. *— Dr. Webst. erron. 
explanation of other, as "a correlative to 
each" 276, Obs. 16. — One and other, fre- 
quently used as terms relative and partitive, 
appar. demanding a plur. form, ib., Obs. 18. 
— An oilier, in stead of another, 275, n. *; 
910, n. *. Somehow or other, somewhere or 
other, how other is to be disposed of, in, 274, t. 

Ought, principal verb, and not auxiliary, as 
called by Murr. el al., 361, Obs. 3: — origin- 
ally part of the verb to owe ; now used as 
defec. verb, 402, Obs. 4: — its tense, as 
limited by the mfin. which follows, ib., ib. 

Ourself, anomalous form peculiar to the regal 
style, 551, Obs. 2, Jin. : — peculiar construe, 
of, 552, Obs. 4. 

Own, its origin and import ; its class and con- 
strue, 323, Obs. 28; comp. 402, Obs. 4: — 
strangely called a noun by Dr. Joii., 323, 
Obs. 28. 



P. 



P, its name and plur. numb., 150, ib., Obs. 1 : 
— its sound, 1048 : — when silent, ib. — Ph, its 
sounds, ib. 

Pairs, words in, punct. of, 776, R. 

Palatals, what consonants so called, 157, Obs. 6. 

Parables, in the Scriptures, see Allegory. 

Paragoge, explained, 814. 

Paragraph mark, for what used, 804, xiii & xvii. 

Paralipsis, or apophasis, explained, 821. 

Parallels, as marks of reference, 804. 

Parenthesis, signif. and twofold application of 
the term, 773, Obs. 8. — Parenthesis, marks 
of, (see Curves.) — What clause to be inclosed 
within the curves as a parenthesis, 801, b., 
R. ; and what should be its punct.. 802, R. 
— Parentheses, the introduction of, as affecting 
unity, prec, 1065, iv, u. 

Parsing, defined, 223. — Parsing, its relation to 
grammar, ib. : — what must be considered in, 
238, Obs. 2; 269, Obs. 4: — the distinction 
between etymological and syntactical, to be 
maintained, against Kirkh. et al., 325, Obs. 
34 : — character of the forms of etymological 
adopted by Brown, ib., Obs. 35 : — what im- 
plied in the right performance of, 683, Obs. 
2, fin. : — whether different from analysis, 
474, Obs. 13 : — what to be supplied in, 458. 
— Parsing, of a prep., how performed, 435, 
Obs. 5 ; 683, Obs. 1 : — of a phrase, implies 
its separation, 420, Obs. 3 ; 533, Obs. 5 : — 
the rules of governm., how to be applied 
in, 466, Obs. 18 : — of words, is not varied by 
mere transposition, 467, Obs. 23. — Parsing, 
. etymological and syntactical, in what order 
to be taken. 474, Obs. 13 : — the sense, why 
necessary to be observed in ; what required 
of the pupil in syntactical, 475 : — syntactical, 
example of, ib. — Parsing or correcting, 
which exercise perh. the more useful, 482, b. 

Participial adjectives, see Adjectives, Participial. 

Participial or verbal noun, defined, 239 : — how 
distinguished from the participle, 415, Obs. 
13. — Participial noun and participle, the dis- 
tinction between, ill preserved by Murr. 
and bis amenders, 505, Obs. 9. — Participial 



noun, distinc. of voice in, sometimes disre- 
garded, (" The day of my burying,") 509, 
Obs. 18: — with infix, following, strictures on 
Murr., Lenn., and Bull., with respect to 
examples of, 637, Obs. 13, 14. 
Participles, Etymol. of, 409-415. — Partici- 
ple, defined, 409. — Participles, whether they 
ought to be called verbs, 332, Obs. 2 : — ap- 
propriate naming of the kinds of, 380, Obs. 
11: — often become adjoctives, 270, Obs. 8; 
415, Obs. 11: — become adjectives by com- 
position with something not belonging to the 
verb, 635, Obs. 6: — number of; simp, and 
comp., 22 J, t. : — imply time, but do not divide 
it, 409. Obs. 1: —retain the essential mean- 
ing of their verbs, but differ from them in 
the formal, ib., Obs. 2 ; 410, Obs. 3, 4: — in 
E„g., from what derived, 410, Obs. 5: — H. 
Tooke's view of the time of, ib., Obs. 6 ; 
with whom Brown differs, ib., Obs. 7. — 
Participles, Classes of, named and defined, 
410, 411. — (See Imperfect Participle and 
Perfect Part.) — Participles, grammarians dif- 
fer in their opinion with respect to the time 
and voice of, 411, Obs. 1 : — how have been 
called and treated by some, ib., Obs. 2: — 
explanation of the different, 412, Obs. 3-9: 
— how distinguished from particip. nouns, 
415, Obs. 13 : — elegantly taken as plur. 
nouns, ( U AU his redeemed,") ib., Obs. 15: — 
appar. used for adverbs, 420, Obs. 4, (6:) — 
some become prepositions, 441, Obs. 8. — 
Participle and adjuncts, as forming " one 
name," and as such, governing the poss., 
whence the doctrine ; Priestl. criticised, 
505, Obs. 10; Murr. et al. adopt Priestl. 
doctrine, which they badly sustain, 506, Obs. 
11, et sq. ; teachers of do. disagree among 
themselves, 508, Obs. 15: — governm. ofpos- 
sessives by, how Brown generally disposes 
of, ib., Obs. 16; how determines with respect 
to such governm., 509, Obs. 17. — Participles, 
Synt. of, 633-652 : — regular synt. of, two- 
fold ; nature of the two constructions ; other 
less regular constructions; which two con- 
structions of all, are legitimate uses of 
the participle ; which constructions are of 
doubtf. propriety, 633. — Participles, to what 
relate, or in what state governed, ib., R. 
— Participle, as relating to a phrase or sen- 
tence, ib., exc. 1 : — taken abstractly, ib., exc. 
2 : — irregularly used in Eng. as substitute for 
infin. mood, ib., exc. 3 : — in irreg. and mixed 
construe, 634, exc. 4 ; 635, Obs. 7. — Parti- 
ciple, transitive, what case governs, 517, R.: 
— nom. absol. with, to what equivalent, 537, 
Obs. 2 : — each requires its appropriate form, 
609, N. xii : — questionable uses of, admitted 
by Murr. et al, 634, Obs. 1 ; why Brown 
is disposed to condemn these irregularities, 
ib., Obs. 2. — Participle and particip. noun, dis- 
tinction between, with respect to governm., 
635, Obs. 7. — Participle in ing, multiplied 
uses of, lawful and forced, illustrated, 634, 
Obs. 3 : — equivalence of do. to infin. mood, 
instances of, 637, Obs. 15:— every mixed 
construe, of, how regarded by Brown v j*H7, 
Obs. 41 :— the " double nature" of, C# I. 
on, 648, Obs. 44 ; his views, how accord 
with those of Murr. et al, ib., Obs. 45 : — 



oaejjjw 



iO^^ SOe\\. VtwlA*aa*i 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1093 



exc. 6 : — what the main point with respect 
to ; what application of the rule of agreem., 
in parsing, 551, Obs. 1. — Pronouns, agreem. 
of, with their antecedents, as affected by the 
figures of rhetoric, 552, Obs. 8, etsq.: — place 
of 553, Obs. 13. — Pronoun, as representing 
a phrase or sentence, ib., Obs. 14; 558, N. 
xiv: — under what circumstances can agree 
with either of two antecedents, 553, Obs. 15 : 
— the parsing of, commonly requiring the 
application of two rules, 555, Obs. 21 : — with 
suppressed anteced., 556, Obs. 23: — need- 
less introduction of, ("Pallas, her glass, 11 
Bacon,) ib., N. i: — with change of numb, in 
the second pers., or promise, use of ye and 
you, 557, N ii; 350, Obs. 16: — must pre- 
sent the same idea as the anteced., and never 
confound the name with the thing signified, 
557, N. v: — employment of the same, with 
respect to connected relative clauses, 558, 
N. vii : — in what instances the noun must be 
repeated, or inserted in stead of, ib., N. x : — 
should never be used to represent an adj., 
{"Be attentive; ioWioutwm.cn" &c.,) ib., 
N. xiii: — change of anteced. to accord with, 
559, N. xvi: — agreem. with collective nouns, 
564, R. ; 565, N. : — do. with joint antece- 
dents, 566, R. : — do. with connected ante- 
cedents in apposition, ib., exc. 1; 593, Obs. 
3 : — do. with connected antecedents emphat. 
distinguished, 566, exc. 2 : — do. with con- 
nected antecedents preceded by each, every, 
or no, ib., exc. 3; 599, N. iv: — do. with 
connected antecedents of different persons, 
566, Obs. 1 : — agreeing with implied nomi- 
natives, 567, Obs. 5 : — agreem. with disjunct 
antecedents, ib., R., & 568, Obs. 1 : — what 
agreem. with disjunct, antecedents of differ- 
ent persons, numbers, and genders, 568, Obs. 
2, et sq. : — do. with antecedents taken affirm- 
atively and negatively, 598, N. ii: — do. with 
two antecedents connected by as well as, &c, 
ib., N. iii: — ellips. of, shown, 815: — punct. 
of, without pause, 777. — Pronouns, deriva- 
tion of, from Sax., 1054, '5 : — poet, peculiar- 
ities of, 1067. 

Pronunciation, importance of an early habit of 
distinct, 159, Obs. 2 : — how best taught to 
children, 182, Obs. 5. — Pronunc, as distin- 
guished from elocution, what; how differs 
from articulation, 808, t. — Pronunc. of the 
Eng. lang., what knowledge requires ; its 
difficulties ; whether we have any system 
of, worthy to be accounted a standard, 810, 
Obs. 1. 

Proof-texts, not to be perverted in the quota- 
tion, Grit. N., 719, xii: — not quoted, but in- 
vented, by some, in their false illustrations of 
gram., 573, Ob^. 13, fin. 

Proper names begin with capitals, 165, 166, R. 
— Gomm. and proper name associated, how 
written, 166, R. — Prop, names, derivatives 
from, do., ib., R. — (Names of Deity, see 
Deity.) — Prop, names, application of rule 
concerning; distinc. between do. and com- 
mon appellatives, 168, Obs. 6, 7 ; 227, Obs. 
4 : — of places, comparative difficulty of writ- 
ing them, 169, Obs. 9-11 : — modern com- 
pound, sparing use of hyphen in, 170, Obs. 
12. — Prop, names, what their relative im- 



portance in lang., 185, Obs. 1 : — structure 
and signif. of; how should be written. 186, 
Obs. 3 : — of plur. form, preceded by def. art, 
228, Obs. 7; 244, Obs. 10.— Prop, name, 
with def. art., acquires the import of a comm., 
240, Obs. 1, t. — Proper, from a comm. noun 
personified, ib., Obs. 3, u. — Prop, names of 
individuals, strictly used as such, have no 
plur. ; prop, name, how made plur., and how 
then considered, 244, Obs. 10 : — when they 
form a plur., how form it, ib., Obs. 11, 12 ; 
245, Obs. 13 : — of persons, generally desig- 
nate their sex, 257, Obs. 12. — Prop, name, 
in appos. with an appellative, 501, Obs. 16: 
— represented by which, (" Herod — which 
is," &c.,) 556, Obs. 25. — Prop, name and 
title, when taken together in a plur. sense, in 
what form to be written, 245, Obs. 15-17. 

Property, the relation of, how may be other- 
wise expressed than by the poss. case, 514, 
N. iii; comp. 319, Obs. 18; 510, Obs. 21. 

Prophecy, the past tenses substituted for the 
fut, in the lang. of, 343, Obs. 9. 

Propositions, permanent, in what tense should 
be expressed, 342, Obs. 4 ; 609, N. xv. 

Propriety, as a quality of style, in what con- 
sists, 1062: — its oppos., impropriety, what 
embraces, ib. : — Precepts aiming at offences 
against, 1062, '3. 

Prose and. verse, in the composition of lang., 
how differ, 146. 

Prosody, 770-890. — Prosody, of what sub- 
jects treats, 770 : — etymol. and signif. of the 
word, ib., Obs. 1. — Prosody, meagrely and 
immethodically treated in the works of many 
grammarians, 771, Obs. 2: — undetermined 
usage as to what things belong to ; how 
treated by some of the old prosodists ; ac- 
count of Smetius's treatise of; do. Genu- 
ensis's, ib., Obs. 3. 

Prosthesis, explained, 814. 

Proverbs, their elliptical character, 537, Obs. 
4, 5; 815, m. 

Provincial expressions, use of, as opposed to 
purity, 1063, prec, t. 

Punctuation, arranged under the head of 
Prosody, 770. — Punct, what, 771: — prin- 
cipal marks of, named and shown ; what 
they severally denote, 772 : — Rules of: for 
Comma, 774, et sq. ; for Semicolon, 787; for 
Colon, 789, 790; for Period, 791, 792; for 
Dash, 795, 796 ; for Eroteme, 797 ; for 
Ecphoneme, 800 ; for Curves, 801, '2 :— 
description of the other marks of, 803, 804. — 
(S^e Comma, Semicolon, &c.) — Punct, the 
present system of, in Eng., common to many 
languages, 772, Obs. 3: — why often found 
diverse, in diff. editions and diff. versions of 
the same work, ib., Obs. 4 : — duty of writers 
in respect to, and of publishers in reproducing 
ancient books, ib., ib. : — some account of the 
orig. and prog, of, ib., Obs. 5: — "improve- 
ment" in, which is no improvement, 773, 
Obs. 6: — confused and discordant explana- 
tions, by some, of certain of the marks of, ib., 
Obs. 7. 

Purity, as a quality of style, in what consists, 
1062 : — Precepts aiming at offences against, 
1062. 

Pyrrhic, defined, 841. » 



10F 1094' 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAS OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



a. 



Q, its name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib., Obs. i : 
— has no sound peculiar to itself; its power, 
159 : — is always followed by u, 1048. 

Quakers, or Friends, their style of address, see 
Friends. 

Qualities of style, treated, 1062-1065, App. iii. 
— See Style. 

Quantity, or time in pronunciation, explained, 
S09: — as defined by the lexicographers, ib., 
n. * : — its effect in the prolation of sounds, 
162, Obs. 9, et sq.: — Walker's views of, 
unsatisfac. to Brown, 163, Obs. 11 : — as 
regulated by emphasis, Murr., 811. — Quant. 
of a syll., how commonly explained, 827: — 
by what marks may be indicated, 803, 804. 
— Quantities poetic, how denominated, and 
how proportioned, 821. — What quantity co- 
incides with accent or emphasis, ib. — Quan- 
tity, on what depends, ib. : — where variable, 
and where fixed, in Eng., ib. — Crit. observa- 
tions on accent and quantity, 830, et sq. — 
Quantity, its distinction from accent, ib., Obs. 
1, — Accent and quantity, differing views of 
authors relative to, ib., Obs. 2. — Quantity, 
impropriety of affirming it to be the same as 
accent, 831, Obs. 3 : — Dr. Joh. identification 
of accent with; such, also, that of others, 
832, Obs. 4 ; (not so Harris ;) Noehd. 
rightly defines; so Fisk, (in Eschenb. Man. 
Class. Lit.,) et al., ib., Obs. 5 : — our gram- 
marians seem not to have understood the 
distinc. of long and short, e. g., Fisher ; so 
Sherid., Walk., Murr., et al, 833, Obs. 
6, et sq. : — Chand. absurd and confused 
scheme of, noticed, 839, Obs. 20 : — sugges- 
tion of Webst. on, approved, ib., Obs. 21. 

Questions, can be asked only in the indie, or 
the pot. mood, 337, Obs. 3: — direct, to be 
marked by the eroteme, 79*7, R. : — united, 
how to be marked, ib., R. : — indirect, do., 
798, R. : — a series of, how may be united 
and marked, ib., Obs. 2 : — exclamatory, how 
to be marked, 800, R. — Question, mentioned 
in due form, how marked, 798, Obs. 3: — 
declaratively put, how uttered and marked, 
ib., Obs. 4 : — in Spanish, doubly marked, 
( u iQuien llama?";) in Greek, how, 772, 
Obs. 3. 

Quite, with art. and adj., construe, how differs 
according to position of art., 484, Obs. 6. 

Quotation, direct, first word of, written with 
capital, 166, R. ; 172, Obs. 17. — Quotations 
of proof-texts, &c, should be literally given, 
719, Crit. N. : — dependent, separated from 
say, See., by comma, 779, R. : — indep., pre- 
ceded by colon, 790, R. — Quotat. within a 
quotat., how usually marked, 804, m. 

Quoth and quod, signif. and use of, in ludicrous 
lang. or in the old writers, 403, Obs. 5. 



R. 

R, name and plur. numb., 150; ib., Obs. 1: — 
of the class liquids, 155 : — sound of, 1048 ; 
do., how can be varied in utterance, ib. : — 
what faults to be avoided in do., ib., Obs. 1 : 
— Dr. Joh. account of; Walk. do.,*6., Obs. 2. 



Radicals, separable and inseparable, what are 
so called in Eng. derivation, 1059. 

Rath, adv., used only in the compar. deg., 424 
t. — Rather, with the exclusive term of com- 
paris. introduced by than, 678, N. iv: — de- 
rivation of, 1056, u. 

Reading, to read, in gram., what the signif. of, 
145. — Read, verb, conjugated affirmatively 
in Comp. Form, 376, 377. 

Reciprocal terms, reciprocals, what pronom. ad- 
jectives may be so termed, 275, Obs. 14, fin. 
— Reciprocals, each other, one an other, 
their nature and import, ib., Obs. 15: — mis- 
applicat. of, frequent in books; Webst. errs 
in the signif. and applicat. of other, 276, Obs. 
16. See also Other. 

Reciprocal or reflected verbs, constructions in 
imitation of the French, 522, Obs. 15. 

Recurrence of a word in different senses, a fault 
opposed to propriety, 1063, prec. iv, u. 

Redundant verb, defined, 331. — Redund. verbs, 
why made a separate class, 332, Obs. 3 : — 
treated, 396-401 :— List of, 400, 401. 

Reference, marks of, asterisk, obelisk, &c, 
shown; in what order are introduced, 804: 
— what other signs of, may be used. ib. 
Reference, doubtful, Crit. N. concerning, 718, 
ii. 

Reformers of the Eng. alphabet and orthog., 
some account of, 203, Obs. 28, 29. 

Rejoice, resolve, incline, &c, import of, in the 
pass, form, 389, Obs. 6. 

Relations of things, their infinitude and divers- 
ity ; the nature of relation, 435, Obs. 1. — 
Relation of words, what, 457 : — is diff. from 
agreem., but may coincide with it, 460, Obs. 
2. — Relatian according to the sense, an im- 
portant principle in Eng. synt. ; what rules 
of relation commonly found in the grammars, 
461, Obs. 3. — Simple relation, what parts of 
speech have no other syntact. property than. 
ib., ib. ; what simp, relations there are in 
Eng., 467, Obs. 19. — Relation, with respect 
to a prep., anteced. term, what may be ; sub- 
seq., do., 435, Obs. 2. — Relation, do., terms 
of, to be named in parsing a prep., 683, Obs. 
1 ; how the terms may be ascertained by a 
learner, ib., Obs. 2 : — terms of, to a prep., 
may be transposed., ib., Obs. 3 ; are very 
various, ib., Obs. 4 ; both usually expressed, 
684, Obs. 5. 

Relative pronouns, defined, 298. — Relative pro- 
nouns, and their compounds, named, ib. ; de- 
clined, 312, 313: — chief constructional pecu- 
liarities of, 554, Obs. 19 : — two faulty special 
rules given by the grammarians, for construe, 
of, noticed, ib., Obs. 20: — construe, of, with 
respect to case, 555, Obs. 21 : — ellips. of, in 
famil. lang., (" The man I trust") ib., Obs. 
22 ; do., poet., 1068. — Relative and prep, 
governing it, when should not be omitted, 
558, N. viii. — Relative pron., place of, ib. t 
K xi; 554, Obs. 18: — clauses, connected, 
employment of, with same pron. in eacfy 558, 
N. vii; 556, Obs. 26. — Rel. pronouns, ex- 
clude conjunctions, 678, N. v; 676, n. *: — 
derivat. of, from Sax. : — poet, peculiarities 
with respect to, 1068. See also Who, Which, 
&c. 

Repetition^ of a noun or pronoun, what con 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1095 



struc. it produces, 500, Obs. 11: — of words, 
emphatic, punct., 779, R., t. : — of words, 
through paucity of lang., against propriety, 
1063, prec. iv, u. : — of do., as demanded by 
precision, 1063, prec. ii, L — Repetitions, see 
Pleonasm. 

Restrictive and resumptive senses of the rel. 
pronouns, distinc. between, expl., 305, Obs. 

. 26, et sq. — Restrictive, relation, most approp. 
expressed by the pron. that, 306, Obs. 31 ; 
557, N. vi : — admits not a comma before 
the relative, 775, exc. 1: — adj.. admits not a 
comma before it, 777, exc: — part., do., 778, 
exc. 

Rhetoric, figure of, denned, 818. — Figures of 
rhetoric, see Figures. 

Rhetorical pauses, see Pauses. 

Rhode Island, the name how acquired ; peculi- 
arity of its application, 169, Obs. 10. 

Rhyme, defiued, 827. — Rhyming syllables, their 
nature and quality, 828, t. 

Rhythm,, of verse, defined, 827. — Fancifully ex- 
plained by E. A. Poe, (who without intelli- 
gence derives the term from upid/xoc,) 829 : — 
sense and signif. of the word, 829, Obs. 6. 

Roman letters, some account of, 149, Obs. 4. 

Rules, of relation, what, commonly found in 
grammars, 461, Obs. 3: — of syxt., those 
common in grammars ill adapted to then- 
purpose ; examples of such, ib., Obs. 5 : — 
of do., exposition of the faulty charac. of 
those in Eng. grammars, 462, Obs. 7, etsq. — 
Rules of grammar, advantage of, in the writ- 
ten language, 721, Obs. 4. 

Rush, Dr. J., his new doctrine of the vowels 
and consonants, in oppos. to the old, how 
estimated by Brown, 156, Obs. 3: — his doc- 
trine of a duplicity of the vocal elements, 
perstringed, 163, Obs. 13: — his strange divis- 
ion of the vowels " into two parts," and con- 
version of most of them into diphthongs ; his 
enumeration aud specification of the alpha- 
betic elements, 164, Obs. 14. 



s. 



S, its name and plur. numb., 150, ib., Obs. 1 : 
— final, in monosyllables, spell., 193, R. : — 
of the poss. case, occas. dropping of; the 
elis. how to be regarded, and when to be 
allowed, 262, Obs. 16; 512, Obs. 28 :— its 
sounds, 1048 ; 159 : — in what words silent, 
1048.— Ss, sound of, ib. 

S or es, verbal termin., Dr. Lowth's account 
of, 352, Obs. 22. 

Sans, from Fr., signif., and where read, 443, 
Obs. 15. 

Sabaoth. see Deity. 

Same cases, construe, of, 526, R, : — do., on 
what founded, ib., Obs. 1 : — what position 
of the words, admitted by the construe, ib., 
Obs. 2-5. — Same case, after what verbs, ex- 
cept those which are pass., taken, 529, Obs. 
14. — Same cases, notice of the faulty rules 
given by Lowth, Murr., et al., for the con- 
strue, of, ib., Obs. 15. 

Sameness of signif., what should be that of the 
nom. following a verb or part., 530, N. ii. 
— Sameness of words, see Identity. 



Sapphic, verse, described, 8S8, Obs. 8: — stanza, 
composition of; examp. from Hor., ib., ib.— 
Sapphic verse, difficulty of; Eng. Sapphics 
few; scansion of; "The Widow," of Southey, 
scanned, 889, Obs. 9. — Eng. Sapphic, Dr. 
Watts'S ode, (in part,) "The Day of Judge- 
ment," " attempted in," ib., Obs. 10: — Humph. 
on, cited, ib., Obs. 11. — Sapphics, burlesque, 
examples of, 890,. Obs. 12, 13. 

Save, saving, as denoting exception, class and 
construe, of, 430, Obs. 3 ; 595, Obs. 13, et 
sq. — Save, derivation of, 1057, u. 

Saxon, alphabet, some account of, 149, Obs. 4: 
— lang., its form about the year 450; do. 
subsequently, 1051, L 

Scanning, or scansion, explained, 849, b. — 
Why, in scanning, the principal feet are to 
be preferred to the secondary, 850, t. — The 
poetry of the earliest Eng. poets, not easy of 
scansion, 845, Obs. 11. 

Script letters, the alphabet exhibited in, 148 : 
— the forms of, their adaptation to the pen, 
164. 

Scripture names, many discrepancies in. found 
in different editions of the Bible, 171, t. ; 905, 

• n. §. Scriptures, see Bible. 

Section, mark, uses of, 804, xii & xvii. 

See, verb, irreg., act., conjugated affirma- 
tively, 371, '2: — takes infin. without prep. 
to, 626, R.: — its construe, with infin. with- 
out to, 630, Obs. 16. 

Seeing and provided, as connectives, their class, 
430, Obs. 1. 

Seldom, adv., its comparison; use of, as an 
adj., 424, n. * 

Self in the format, of the comp. pers. pronouns, 
311: — Church, explan of, 322, Obs. 26: — 
signif. and use of, 323, Obs. 29: — as an Eng. 
prefix, 1059, 1. : — after a noun poss., in poet, 
diction, 1066, L 

Self-contradiction, Crit. N. respecting, 719, t. 

Self -naming letters, 153, Obs. 12; 150, Obs. 2. 

Semicolon, point, 772, t. : — for what purpose 
used, 787 : — from what takes its name, 772, 
Obs. 2 : — when adopted in England, ib., Obs. 

5 : — is useful and necessaiy, though dis- 
carded by some late grammarians, 773, Obs. 

6 : — Rules for the use of, 787. 
Semivowel, defined, 155.— Semivowels named; 

nature of w and y ; sound of certain, as aspi- 
rates, ib. 

Sense and construe, to be considered, in joining 
together or writing separately words other w 
liable to be misunderstood, 185. R. hi. — Sense 
or meaning, necessary to be observed in 
parsing, 475. 

Senseless jumbling, Crit. N. concerning, 719, t. 

Sentence, defined, 457. — Sentence, its parts, 
principal and subordinate, 45S, t. — Sentences, 
the two kinds of, named and defined, ib. : — 
whether a tripartite distribut. of, is expedi- 
ent, ib., n. f — Simple sent, false notions 
amongst grammarians of what constitutes 
one ; the parsing of words not affected there- 
by, 467, Obs. 24. — Sentences, simp, and 
comp., Dr. Wils. explanation of, 468, Obs. 
25: — component parts of, what these are, 
469, m. : — whether all, can be divided into 
clauses, ib. : — in what five ways, can be 
analyzed, 469-471. — Sentences, simp., punct 



1096 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



of. 114, R., & exc. : — distinct, do., 792 : — 
allied, do., ib. : — short, rehearsed in close 
succession, how pointed, ib., Obs. 1. 

Series, of terms, proper use of the articles in, 
487, N. ix: — of words, how to be commaed, 
775, R. iii; 780, n. * 

Set and sit, signif. and employment of, 613, n.*. 

Sex, to what persons ascribed ; why a young- 
child may be spoken of without distinc. of, 
255, Obs. 8 : — whether animals may be rep- 
resented as of no, 256, Obs. 9 : — inanimate 
objects fig. represented as having, 257, Obs. 
14. — Sexes, distinction of, by words, in diif. 
ways, 256, Obs. 10 : — denoted by terminat. 
of words, ib., Obs. 11 : — designated by proper 
names, 257, Obs. 12. 

Shall, verb, how varied, 363 : — original signif. 
of, 365, t. : — explet. use of, 364, Obs. 11. — 
Shall and will, discriminative application of, 
in the fut. indie, 367, b. ; comp. 391, Obs. 2. 

Sheridan, 71, actor and orthoepist, his literary 
reputation ; the worth of his writings, 834, 
Obs 8. 

Side, noun, peculiarities of usage in regard to, 
513, Obs. 33. 

Silent, or mute, when a letter is said to be, 
148. 

Silliness, literary, Crit. N. concerning, 719, xv. 

Simile, explained, 819. 

Since, improp, v ye of, for ago, 423, Obs. 10: — 
derivation oi, from Anglo-Sax., 1057, u., 
1058. 

Sit and set, use and signif. of, 613, n. *. 

So, as expressing the sense of a preced. word 
or phrase, 423, Obs. 9 : — derivation of, from 
Sax., 1056, Obs. 1. — So — as, as — so, corre- 
spondents, 679, N. viL 

Soever or soe'er, whether a word or only a part 
of an other word ; how explained by Webst., 
665, Obs. 25. 

Solemn style, as distinguished from the familiar, 
347, Obs. 10, et sq. ; 353, Obs. 24 :— should 
not be displaced from the paradigms in a 
grammar, 345, Obs. 7 : — is not adapted to 
familiar discourse. 356, Obs. 32 : — pres. and 
pret. terminations of, what, and how uttered, 
357, Obs. 34 : — examp. of, second pers. 
sing., negat., throughout the verb love, 
conjugated, 389. 

Some, classed, 273, Obs. 7 : — vulg. used for 
somewhat, or in some degree, ("Some longer,'''' 
Sanb.,) ib., n. f. Somehow or other, some- 
where or other, what the construe, 274, t. 
Somewhere, nowhere, anywhere, &c, their 
class, and how should be written, 662, t. 

Sort, see Kind. 

Sound, of a letter, commonly called its power, 
148: — elementary, of the voice, defined, ib. — 
Sounds, simp, or primary, numb, in Eng., ib. ; 
158; 161, Obs. 6-8; 1043, et sq. /—elemen- 
tary, what meant by, 149, t. ; are few in 
numb. ; their combinations may be innumer- 
able, 158. — Vowel sounds, or vocal elements, 
how produced, and where heard, ib., m. ; 
what those in Eng, and how may be modified 
in the format, of syllables, ib. ; do., how may 
be written, and how uttered, ib. — Consonant 
sounds, simp., in Eng., how many, and what; 
by what letters marked, ib., b. ; in what 
words heard, 159. — Sounds, long and short, 



signs used to denote them, 803, b., & 804, t. 
— Sounds, a knowledge of, how acquired 
159, Obs. 1 : — importance of being early 
taught to pronounce those of one's native 
lang., ib., Obs. 2.— Passage exemplifying all 
the letters, and all the sounds, in Eng., 1 60, 
Obs. 5. — Sounds oj the Letters, treated, 1042- 
1050. 

Speak, to speak, what is meant by, 145. 

Speaker, why often speaks of himself in the 
third pers., 242, Obs. 7: — represents him- 
self and others by we, 551, Obs. 2: — in Eng., 
should mention himself last, 608, N. iii; 
605, Obs. 11. — The elegant speaker, by what 
distinguished, 810. 

Species and figure of words, what so called, 
184: — unsettled usage of the lang. with re- 
gard to what relates to the latter, 187, Obs. 
7. Species and genus of things, how admits 
limitation by the article, 487, N. x. 

Spelling, defined, 192. — Spelling, how to be 
acquired, ib. : — cause of the difficulty of its 
acquisition, 193, t. :— Rules for, 193-196 :— 
usage, as a law of, 192, b. ; 196, R., m. : — 
uniformity and consistency in, how only can 
be attained, ib., Obs. 1. — The right spelling 
of a word, what, Philolog. Mus., ib., ib. — 
Oral spelling, how should be conducted, 182, 
Obs. 8. — Charac. of Brown's rules for spell- 
ing, 202, Obs. 26. 

Spondee, defined, 841. 

St, unsyllab. suffix, whether, wherever found, 
is a modern contrac. of the syllable est, 352, 
Obs. 21. 

Standards of English orthog., the books pro- 
posed as such, abound in errors and incon- 
sistencies, 196, Obs. 1. — Whether we have a 
system of Eng. orthoepy worthy to be ac- 
counted a standard, 810, Obs. 1. 

Stanza, defined, 828. — Stanzas, uniformity of, 
in the same poem, ib. : — varieties of, ib. — 
Elegiac stanza, described, 854. — Stanzas, 
lyric, examples of, 857 : — " A Good Name," 
(" two beautiful little stanzas," Brown,) 873, 
u. 

Star, or asterisk, use of, 804. — Three stars, or 
aster ism, do., ib. 

Stenotone, or breve, for what used, 803, b. ; 
804, n. * 

Stops, in printing or writing, see Points. 

Strength, as a quality of style, in what consists, 
1065 : — essentials of, ib. : — Precepts aiming 
at offences against, ib. 

Strew, whether, or not, an other mode of spell- 
ing strow ; whether to be distinguished in 
utterance from do. ; whether reg. or irreg., 
397, Obs. 4. 

Style, qualities of, treated, 1062-1065, App. 
— Style, as connected with synt., what, 1062 : 
— differs from mere words and mere gram- 
mar; not regulated entirely by ruks of con- 
strue, ib. : — what relation has to the author 
himself, and what shows, ib. : — general char- 
acters of, by what epithets designated, ib. — 
What must be remembered by the learner, 
in forming his style; a good style how ac- 
quired, ib. — Style, solemn, familiar, &e, as 
used in gram., what meant by, 346, Obs. 9. 
— (See Solemn Style.) 

Subaudition, meaning of the term, 815, n. *. 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1097 



Subdisjunciive particle, of the Latins, expressed 
in Eng. by or of alternat., 431, Obs. 8. 

Subject of a finite verb, what, and how may be 
known, 258 : — must be the NOM. case, 493, 
R. : — what besides a noun or pronoun may 
be, 572, Obs. 8, — Subject phrases, joint, what 
agreements require, 599, "N". vii. — Subject 
and predicate, in analysis, 4*70, m. See also 
Nominative Case. 

Subjunctive mood, defined, 33 7. — Subj. mood, 
why so called ; what denotes, 337, Obs. 4 : 
— differing views of grammarians in regard 
to the numb, and form of its tenses, 338, 
Obs. 5, et sq. ; 575, Obs. 21. — The true subj. 
mood rejected by some late grammarians; 
strictures on Wells, 339, Obs. 8. — "Weld's er- 
roneous teaching respecting the subj., noticed, 
340, Obs. 9 :— Chand. do., do., ib., Obs. 10. — 
Chief characteristical diff. between the indie. 
and the subj. mood, 375, Obs. 4; 575, Obs. 
21. — Subj. mood described, 368, b. : — its 
two tenses do., and their forms shown, in 
the verb love, conjugated, 369 : — whether 
ever put after a rel. pronoun, 575, Obs. 20; 
554, Obs. 19 : — proper limits of, 575, Obs. 
21 :— how properly employed, 577, N. ix. — 
False subj., ib., N. x. — Subj. mood, not neces- 
sarily governed by if, lest, &c, 677, Obs. 25. 

Such, corresponding to that, with infin. foil., 
679, t. : — with rel. as following, in stead of 
who or which, 303, Obs. 19. 

Sui generis, what thing is thus designated, 
239, b. 

Superlative degree, defined, 278: — Brown's de- 
linit. of, and of the other degrees, new ; the 
faulty charac. of those of Murr., shown, ib., 
Obs. 3 : — the true nature of; how may be 
used ; to what is applicable ; the explana- 
tions of, by the copyists of Murr,, criticised, 
281, Obs. 10, 11 : — whether not applicable 
to two objects, 282, Obs. 12, 13; 280, Obs. 
7 : — when employed, what construe, of the 
latter term should follow, 286, Obs. 7 ; 543, 
N. v. — Double superlatives, to be avoided, 
543, N. vii; 288, Obs. 5. — Superl. termina- 
tion, contractions of, 291, Obs. 17. 

Supplied, in parsing, what must be, 458. See 
also Ellipsis. 

Suppression, mark of, see Ellipsis. 

Syllabic writing, far inferior to the alphabetic, 
Blair, 157, Obs. 8. 

Syllabication, Rules of, 180, 181 : — the doctrine 
of, why attended with difficulty, 181, Obs. 1: 
— object of; Walk, on; strictures on Mulk. 
rules of, ib., Obs. 2-5 : — which of the four 
purposes of, is preferable in spelling-books 
and dictionaries, 182, Obs. 5 : — Dr. Lowth 
on, ib., Obs. 6 : — nature of Brown's six 
Rules of; advantage of a system of, founded 
on the pronuueiat., ib., Obs. 7 : — Lath, and 
Fowl, fictitious dilemmas in, 180, n. * — Syl- 
labication, erroneous, samples of, from Murr., 
Webst., et al, 183, 184; comp. 202, Obs. 
24. 

Syllables, treated, 179-183. — Syllable de- 
fined, 179. — Sijllable, cannot be formed with- 
out a vowel, ib. : — cannot be broken, 181, R., 
t. — Syllables, numb, of, in a word, 179 : — 
words denominated from their numb, of, ib. : 
— the ear chiefly directs in the division of 



words into, 180, m. — (See Syllabication.) — 
Syllable, its quantity in poetry, 827 : — do., 
on what depends, ib. 

Syllepsis, explained, 817 : — literal signif. of the 
term ; extended applicat. of do. by the gram- 
marians and rhetoricians ; Brown, by his 
definition, gives it a more restricted appli- 
cat. ; id. disapproves of Webst. explanat. of 
the term, ib., Obs. 1 : — what definition or 
what applicat. of the term is the most ap- 
prop., has become doubtful, ib., Obs. 2. 

Synceresis, explained, 815. 

Synchysis, what was so termed by some of the 
ancients; is different from hyperbaton; its 
import in gram. ; its literal signif., 818, 
Obs.. 

Syncope, explained, 814. 

Synecdoche, (comprehension,) explained, 820. — 
Synecd., agreem. of pron. with anteced., in 
cases of, 553, Obs. 12. 

Synonymous, words so accounted, prec. con- 
cerning the use of, 1063, iii, 1. 

Syntactical parsing, see Parsing. 

Syntax, 457-721. — Synt., of what treats, 
457 ; 460, Obs. 1 : — the relation of words, 
the most important principle of; defects of 
the grammars in treating of do., 461, Obs. 
3 : — false exhibitions of grammarians with 
respect to the scope and parts of, ib., Obs. 4 : 
— character of the rules of, . und in most 
grammars, ib., Obs. 5 : — divided by some 
grammarians into concord and governm., and 
yet treated by them without regard to such 
division, 462, Obs. 7 : — common fault of 
grammarians, noticed, of joining together diff. 
parts of speech in the same rule of, ib., Obs. 
8, 9 : — do., of making the rules of, double or 
triple in their form, 463, Obs. 11 : — whether 
the principles of etymol. affect those of, 466, 
Obs. 17. — All synt., on what founded, 471, 
u. — Why Brown deemed it needful to add 
to his code of synt. a general rule and 
critical notes, 718. Figures of syntax, 
815. 



T. 



T, name and plur. numb, of, 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : 
— substitution of, for ed, how far allowable, 
392, Obs. 2, 3 :— sounds of, 1048 :— is seldom 
silent ; in what words not sounded, 1049. 
Th, (0, ■&, or 6, Gr.,) what represents ; how 
was represented in Anglo-Sax., and to what 
sounds applied ; the two sounds of, ib. To a 
Tee, the .olloq. phrase, explained, 151, n. * 

Tautolr ^ of expression or of sentiment, a fault 
opposed to precision, 1063, prec. i, m. 

Teacher, what should be his aim with respect 
to gram., 149, Obs. 5. 

Technical terms, unnec. use of, as opposed to 
propriety, 1063, prec. iii, u. Technically, 
words and signs taken, how to be construed, 
238, Obs. 1; 576, N. iii. 

Tenses, term defined, 340. — Tenses, the different, 
named and defined, ib. : — whether the names 
of, are approp., or whether they should be 
changed, 341, Obs. 1 : — whether all express 
time with equal precision, ib., Obs. 3 : — who 
reckon only three, and who two; who still 
differently and variously name their tenses, 



1098 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



ib., n. * — Tenses, past and present, occurring 
together, 342, Obs. 5. See Present Tense, 
Imperf. Tense, &c. 
Terminating a sentence with a prep, or other 
small particle, 305, Obs. 24; 1065, prec, b. 
Terminations, of words, separated in syllabicat, 
180, R. : — of verbs, numb, of different, in each 
tense, 344, Obs. 2 : — of the Eng. verb, ib., 
Obs. 3 ; Dr. A. Murr. account of, 347, Obs. 
10 : — tendency of the lang. to lay aside the 
least agreeable, ib., ib. : — usage of famil. dis- 
course in respect to those of second pers. 
sing., 353, Obs. 24, et sq.: — verbal orparticip., 
how are found written in old books, 355, Obs. 
28 : — the only reg. ones added to Eng. verbs; 
utterance of ed and edst, 358, Obs. 39, 40 : — 
ed, participial, and n, verbal, Walk, on the 
contrac. of, 359, Obs. 41. — Termination t, for 
ed, forced and irreg., 392, Obs. 3. 

Terms of relation, see Relation. 

Tetrameter line, iambic, examples of, 855, '6 : — 
a favorite with many Eng. writers; Butl. 
Hudib., Gay's Fab., and most of Scott's 
poems, writt. in couplets of this meas., 856: 
— admits the doub. rhyme adapted to familiar 
and burlesque style, ib. : — trochaic, examples 
of, 868-870 :— character of do., 870, Obs. 1 : 
— Everett's fanciful notions about do., ib., 
Obs. 2 : — anapestic, examples of, 874-876: — 
L. Hunt's " Feast of the Poets," an extended 
examp. of do., 876, Obs. 2: — dactylic, exam- 
ples of, 880, '81. 

Than, as, with ellips. in latter term of compari- 
son, 674, Obs. 15 : — character and import 
of, ib., Obs. 16 : — declinable words con- 
nected by, put in same case, 675, Obs. 17 ; 
671, Obs. 1. — TJian whom, as Or. genitive 
governed by comparat., Milt., 675, Obs. 18: 
— what grammarians have inferred from the 
phrase, ib., Obs. 19: — Murr. expedient to 
dispose of do., 676, Obs. 20 : — Church. 
makes the rel. in do. "the obj. case absol.," 
ib., Obs. 21 : — Brown determines with re- 
spect to the construe, ib., Obs. 22; ib., n. * 
— Than, as demanded after else, other, &c, 
and Eng. comparatives, 678, N. iv: — deriva- 
tion of, from Goth, or Anglo-Sax., 1057. 

That, its class determined, 302, Obs. 17 : — its 
various uses, ib., ib.; 1055, Obs. 2: — as rel. 
pronoun, to what applied, 302, Obs. 17; 
557, N. vi: — as used in anomalous construe, 
303, Obs. 18; 678, N. vi:— its peculiarity of 
construe, as a relative, 304, Obs. 23 : — its 
especial use as the restrictive relative, 306, 
Obs. 31 : — the frequent employment of, by 
Addison, wrongly criticised by Blair, 307, 
Obs. 32, 33: — as a relative, in what cases 
more appropriate than who or which, 557, N. 
vi. — That, ellipt., repeating the import of the 
preceding words, ("And that," — ml ravra,) 
303, n. * — That, in the phrases in that, &c, 
how to be reckoned, 441, Obs. 7. — That, as 
introducing a dependent clause, how to be 
ranked, 519, Obs. 6 : — -as introducing a sent. 
made the subj. or obj. of a finite verb, 671, 
exc. 1 : — its power at the head of a sent, or 
clause, ib., n. *: — its derivation, 1052. 

The, before the species, what may denote, 225 ; 
comp. 487, N. x : — how commonly limits 
the sense, 225 : — applied to nouns of either 



numb., 226 : — before what adjectives, re- 
quired, ib. : — distinctive use of, (" The Psalm- 
ist,'") 228, Obs. 9 : — as relating to compara- 
tives and superlatives, 483, exc. 1 ; 485 
Obs. 10: — used for poss. pron., ib., Obs. 11: 

— repetition of, how avoided, 486, Obs. 16: 

derivation of, from Sax., 1051; 1052, Obs. 
1-3:— pronunc. of e in, 161, Obs. 7; 'l045, 
Lett. E. See also Definite Article. 

Them., in vulg. use as an adj., for those, 543, N. 
xi ; 

Thence, &c, with from prefixed, whether allow- 
able, 667, N. iv. 

There, introductory and idiomatic, notions of 
grammarians concerning ; its posit, and use; 
is a regular adv. of place, and not " without 
signification," 494, Obs. 2, (9;) 666, Obs. 30: 
— derivation of, from Anglo-Sax., 1056, Obs. 
1 : — poet, omission of, 1069, pecul. xxxv. 

TJiey, put indefinitely for men or people, 296, 
Obs. 3. 

This and that, as explained by Church., 275, 
Obs. 14 : — placed before conjoint singulars, 
("This power and will do," &c.,) 542, Obs. 
10: — in contrasted terms, 544, N. xii. 

Three stars, or asterism, use of, 804. 

Time, the order and fitness of, to be observed 
in constructions expressing it, 609, N. xiii: 
— nouns of, with adv. when, as a special 
relative, following, 423, Obs. 6; 558, N. ix. 
Time, measure, or weight, part made pos- 
sessive of the whole, (" An hour's time") 

513, Obs. 34: — noun of, not poss., immedi- 
ately before an other, ("A pound weight,") 

514, Obs. 36. Time, place, &c, the obj case 
in expressions of, taken after the fashion of 
an adv., 517, Obs. 1; 533, Obs. 6. Time, 
measure, distance, or value, nouns of, their 
peculiarity of construe. ; the parsing of, 533, 
Obs. 6 ; 590, Obs. 26. Time, obj. noun of, 
qualifying a subsequent adj., ("A child of ten 
years old,") 533, Obs. 6 : and canon, 535, 
N. Four times, Jive times, &c, how to be 
reckoned, 421, Obs., m. ; 533, Obs.'6. Times, 
before an other noun, by way of multiplica- 
tion, the nature and construe, of, discussed, 
587, Obs. 14, etsq.; decision, 590, Obs. 24, 
25. Times, in what construe, may be called 
the objective of repetition, or of time repeated, 
ib., Obs. 26. Time in pronunciation, or quan- 
tity, 809. 

Titles, of books, are printed in capitals, 164, b. : 
— of office, &c, begin with do., 165, R. ; 
169, Obs. 8: — merely mentioned as such, are 
without art., 487, N. xii. — Name and title, 
(see Proper Names.) Side-titles, use of dash 
in application to, 796, Obs. 2. 

Tmesis, explained, 815. 

To, as governing infin. mood, 337, Obs. 1 ; 361, 
Obs. 1; 615, R. : — do., variously explained 
by grammarians, 615, Obs. 1, etsq.: — is a 
sign of inf., but not a part of it, 616. Obs. 6: 
— what Brown claims for his rule respect- 
ing the infin. as gov. by ihe prep, to, &c. ; he 
shows that the doctrine originated not with 
himself, ib., Obs. 7. — To and the verb, what 
Fisher (anno 1800) taught respecting ; 
what, Lowth, and what, absurdly, Murr., 
his copyist, 617, Obs. 8, 9. — To, as govern* 
ing infin., traced from the Sax. to the Eng. 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1099 



ofWiOKL., 619, Obs. 19.— lb, before infin., 
evasive teachings of the later grammarians 
concerning its class and construe, 617, Obs. 
10 : — do., how considered by most Eng. 
grammarians, ib., Obs. 11 : — do., how proved 
to be a prep., 620, Obs. 21 : — do., preceded 
by for, ana, 622, Obs. 24: — after what verbs, 
omitted, 626, R. ; (see also 630, Obs. 17 :)— 
whether to be repeated before infinitives in 
the same construe, 631, Obs. 19 : — some- 
times required, and sometimes excluded, 
after than or as, ib., Obs. 21: — whether it 
may be separated from it3 verb by an adv. ; 
is placed more elegantly after an adv., 
(" Properly to respect,'") .661, Obs. 11: — in 
what cases has no prop, antec. term of relat., 
683, exc. 1 ; 684, Obs. 7, 8.— To suppressed 
and be inserted after make, whether cor- 
rectly, 625, Obs. 31. — To, prep, or adv., from 
Anglo-Sax., 1058. — To, as prefix to noun, 
(to-day, to-night, to-morrow,) 616, Obs. 5. 

Tones of the voice, what; why deserving of 
particular attention, 813 : — what denomi- 
nated by She rid. ; what should be their 
character, ib. : — Blair's remark on ; Hil. 
do., ib. — Tones of the passions, Walk, ob- 
servation on, ib., Obs. 

Topics, different, to be treated in separate para- 
graphs, prec. of Unity, 1064. 

Transposition, of the terms of relat., when a 
preposition begins or ends a sentence or 
clause, 683, Obs. 3 : — rhetorical, of words, or 
hyperbaton, 818. 

Tribrach, defined, 841. 

Trimeter line, iambic, the measure seldom used 
alone ; examples of, — and do., with diversifi- 
cations, 856, '7 : — trochaic, examples of, 870, 
871: — anapestic, examples of, 876: — alter- 
nated with the tetram., examp., "The Rose," 
of Cowp. ; the same scanned, 877: — dac- 
tylic, examples of, 881. 

Triphthong, defined, 180 : — proper, do., the 
only, in Eng., ib. : — improp., do. ; and the 
improp. triphthongs named, ib. 

Trochaic verse, treated, 860-874. — Troch. verse, 
the stress in, 860 : — nature of the single- 
rhymed ; error of Murr. et al. concerning 
the last syll. in, ib. : — how may be changed to 
coincide with other measures ; how is affected 
by retrenchment, ib., Obs. 1 : — confounded 
with iambic by several grarnm. and proso- 
dists, ib., ib.; 861, Obs. 2, et sq. — Strictures 
on Church., who doubts the existence of 
the troch. ord. of verse, ib., Obs. 6, et sq. — 
Troch. verse shown in its eight measures, 
862-373. — Trochaics, Eng., the tetrameter 
the most common meas. of, 870, Obs. 1 : — 
Dr. Campb. on, ib., Obs. 3. — " Trochaic of 
One foot," account of, 874, Obs. 2. 

Trochee, or choree, defined, 840. 

Tropes, what figures of rhetoric are so called ; 
signif. of the term. 818. 

Trow, its signr.. and where occurs; in what 
person and tenses read, 403, Obs. 5. 

Truisms and senseless remarks, how to be dealt 
with in gram., 719, Crit. N. xv; 746, u. 

Tutoyant, to what extent prevalent among the 
French, 346, Obs. 8. See Youyouing, &c. 

Type or character, two forms of the letters in 
every kind of, 164. 



u. 



U, lett., which (as A, E, I, or O) names itself, 
150, Obs. 2 ; 153, Obs. 12 :— its pirn*, numb. 
150, Obs. 1 : — sounds properly its own, 1049 : 
— as self-naming, to what equivalent; re- 
quires art. a, and not an, before it, ib. : — 
pronounced with borrowed sound, ib. : — long 
or diphthongal sound, as yu; sound of slender 
o or oo, after r or rh, ib. 

Unamendable imperfections sometimes found in 
ancient writings, remarks in relation to, 721, 
Obs. 4, 5. 

Unauthorized words, use of, as opposed to purity, 
prec. concerning, 1062, hi. 

Unbecoming, adj.. from participle compounded, 
error of using transitively words of this form ; 
such error how corrected, 635, Obs. 6 ; 544, 
N. xv. 

Uncertain, the part of speech left, see Equivocal, 
&c. 

Unco-passive voice, or form, of the verb, ("is 
being built") the use of. conflicts with the 
older and better usage of the lang., 380, Obs. 
9: — the subject of, discussed by Brown, ib., 
Obs. 10, et sq. : — the true principle with re- 
spect to, stated, 386, Obs. 29. 

Underlining words, in preparing manuscripts, 
to denote Italics &c, 164, 1. 

Understood, words said, in technical phrase, to 
be, what such, 815, m. ; (Lat., subaudita, ib., 
n.*.) 

Uagrammatical language by which grammar 
itself is professedly taught, sample from 
Murr., 278, Obs. 3, 4; from Pinneo, 720, 
n. *; et al. e diversis, Gram, of E. Gram., 
passim. 

Unity, as a quality of style, in what consists, 
1064: — required by every sentence, ib. : — 
Precepts aiming at offences against, ib. 
Unity, the idea of, how generally deter- 
mined, in respect to a collect, noun, whether 
it conveys such idea or not, 584, Obs. 1. 

Usage, as a law of orthography for particular 
words, 196, R., m. — Usage, as it has been, 
and as it is, the advantage of an exhibition 
of, by the grammarian, 355, Obs. 29. 

Useless words, employment of, as opposed to 
precision, 1063, prec. vi, b. 

Utterance, treated, 807-813. — Utterance, 
what, and what includes, 807. 



V. 



V, name and plur. of, 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : — 
written for a number, 793, Obs. 2, 4 : — sound 
of, 1049. 

Value, &c, nouns of, see Time. 

Verbal or participial noun, (see Participial, &c.) 
— Verbal forms used substantively, by poet, 
pecul., 1066, hi. 

Yerbs, Etymol. of, 330-404.— Verb, defined, 
330 : — why so called, 331, t. : — a perf. defini- 
tion of, why difficult to form, ib., Obs. 1. — 
Chief terms, or princip. parts, of an Eng. 
verb, named and defined, ib. — Verbs, Classes 
of, with respect to their form, named and 
defined, ib. : — do., with respect to their signif., 
do., ib. — (See Active- Transitive Verb, &c.) — 



1100 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



Verbs, whole numb, of, in Eng. ; the regular, 
far the most numerous ; account of the others, 
332, Obs. 3; 221, Obs. 1, (5:)— how divided 
with respect to signif , in most grammars and 
dictionaries; Brown's division, 332, Obs. 4: 
— divided by certain grammarians into act., 
pass., and neut, ib., Obs. 5 : — Murr. on the 
distribution of, 333, Obs. 6: — Nix. on do., 
ib., Obs. 7. — Verbs, in Lac, grammarians of 
old differed respecting the distribut. of, 334, 
Obs. 9 : — different methods of distribut. of, 
by several other authors, noticed, ib., Obs. 
10, & 335, Obs. 11, 12.— Verbs, most act.; 
may be used either as trans, or as intraus., 
335, Oba 14 : — some may bo used either in 
an act. or a neut. sense, 336, Obs. 15 : — act. 
form of, used in a pass, sense ; so also part. 
in ing, (" The books continue selling,") ib., 
Obs. 17. — Verbs, Modifications of, named, 
ib. : — Moods of, named and defined, ib. &, 
foil. ; (see Infinitive Mood, Indie. Mood, &c. :) 
— Tenses of, named and defined, 340 & 341 ; 
(see Present Tense, Imperf. Tense, Sec.:) — 
Persons and numbers of, what, 343 : — Con- 
jugations of, 360-392 : — how principally con- 
jugated, 361, Obs. 5. — (See Conjugation.) — 
Verbs, Irreg., List of, 393-396 : — simp, irreg., 
numb, of; whence derived, 392, Obs. 4: — 
Redundant, List of, 400 & 401 :— Defective, 
do., 402. — Verbs irreg. and redund., of what 
character all former lists of, have been, 399, 
Obs. 11; 397, Obs. 5. — Verbs, of asking and 
teaching, construe, of, 520, Obs. 9: — whether 
any, in Eng., can govern two cases, ib., Obs. 
10; 534, Obs. 10: — suppressed in exclamat. 
&c, 494, Obs. 3.— Verbs, Synt. of, 569-632. 
— Verbs requiring a regimen, should not be 
used without an object; 522, N. i. — Verb, 
agreem. of, with its subject, 569, R. : — do., 
inferred, 343, txt, & ib., Obs. 1 : — do., by 
sylleps., in plur., title of a book, 570, Obs. 
2: — do., in imperat. mood, 571, Obs. 6. — 
Verb of the third pers. sing, with a plur. 
noun of the neut. gend., the use of, a strange 
custom of the Greeks ; such use not existent 
in Eng., 570, t. — Verb, agreem. of, with 
infin. phrase or sentence as subject, 572, 
Obs. 8 : — do., with infin. subject limited, 
("For men to search their own glory, is," 
he.,) ib., Obs. 11, 12: — do., with a nom. in 
interrog. sentences, 575, Obs. 19: — do., with 
a rel., according to the true anteced. of the 
pron. ; (examp. of error from Dr. Blair ;) 
ib., N. i: — do., with a nom. limited by ad- 
juncts, 576, N. ii: — do., with composite or 
converted subjects, ib., N. iii: — do., with each, 
every, one. &c, as leading words, ib., N. iv : 
— do., by change of nominative, ib., N. vi. — 
Verb, the form of, to be adapted to the style, 
577, N. vii: — when requires a separate nom. 
expressed, ib., N. viii. — Verb, agreem. of, 
with a nom. noun collective, 584, R., & 591, 
N. : — do., with joint nominatives, 591, R. :— 
do., with two connected nominatives in ap- 
pos., 592, exc. 1 : — do., with two conn, nomi- 
natives emphatically distinguished, ib., exc. 
2 : — -do., with two conn, nominatives preceded 
by each, every, or no, ib., exc. 3. — do., with 
nearest of connected nominatives, and under- 
stood to the rest ; whether the usage is proper 



in Eng., 594, Obs. 8 : — do., with connected 
nominatives of different persons, ib., Obs. 9 : 
—do., with connected subjects, one taken 

affirmat. and the other negat., 598, N. ii: 

do., with two subjects connected by as well 
as, but, or save, ib., N. iii : — do., with con- 
nected subjects preceded by each, every, or 
no, 599, N. iv : — do., in ellipt. construe, of 
joint nominatives, ib., N. vi: — do., with dis- 
tinct subject phrases connected by and, ib., 
N. vii : — do., with disjunct, nominatives, 603, 
R. : — do., with disagreeing nominatives con- 
nected disjunctively, ib., Obs. 3, et sq. ; 608, 
N. i : — do., when connected nominatives re- 
quire different forms of the verb, ib., ib. ; 
ib., N. ii : — do., with distinct phrases dis- 
junct, connected, 608, N. iv. — Verbs, con- 
nected by and, or, or nor, how must agree, 
ib., N. v: — discordant, how managed with 
respect to agreem., 604, Obs. 8, 9; 608, N. 
vi. — Verb, mixture of the diff. styles of, in- 
eleg., 608, N. vii: — diff. moods of, not to be 
used under the same circumstances, ib., N. 
viii : — when two connected terms require 
diff. forms of, what insertion is necessary, ib., 
N. ix. — Verbs of commanding, desiring, ex- 
pecting, &c, to what actions or events refer, 
609, N. xiv : — of desisting, omitting, &c, 
with a part, following, rather than an infin., 
638, Obs. 18 : — of preventing, what should 
be made to govern, 651, N. ix. — Verb, finite, 
punc. of, 777, R. : — cllips. of. shown. 815: — 
derivation of, from nouns, adjectives, and 
verbs, 1055 : — poet, peculiarities in the use 
of, 1068, m. 

Verbosity, as affecting strength, 1065, prec. i. 

Verse, in oppos. to prose, what, 827. — Blank 
verse, as distinguished from rhyme, 828, t, — 
Verse, general sense of the term ; its deriva- 
tion and literal signif. ; the visible form of 
verse, ib., Obs. 1. — Verse, as defined by Joh., 
Walk., et al. ; do. by Webst., ib., ib. — Verse, 
Eng., the difficulty of treating the subject of, 
and from what this arises, ib., Obs. 2. — A 
verse, or line of poetry, of what consists, 840. 
— Verse, or poetic measure, the kinds, or 
orders of, named ib., b. ; 849 ; (see Iambic 
Verse, Trochaic Verse, &c.) — Verse, the proper 
reading of, 812, u. 

Versification, treated, 827-890. — Versifica- 
tion, defined, 827. — Versification, Poe's (E. 
A.) notions concerning ; his censure of 
Brown's former definition of; his rejection 
of the idea of versif. from the principle of 
rhythm ; his unfortunate derivat. of rhythm 
from upcQudg, and vain attempts to explain 
the term : the farrago summarily disposed 
of by Brown, 828, Obs. 3, et sq. — Everett's 
"System of Eng. Versification, " account of, 
and strictures on, 846, Obs. 17, et sq. 

Vision, or imagery, explained, 820. 

Vocative case of Lat. and Gr. gram., not known 
in Eng., 537, Obs. 3. 

Voice, active, and passive, whether necessary 
terms in Eng. gram., 365, Obs. 18. 

Vowel, defined, 154. — Vowels named, 155. — 
Wand Y, when vowels; comp. 156, Obs. 
4, 5. — Vowel sounds, or vocal elements, the 
different, how produced, 158 : — what are 
those in Eng., ib. : — how each may be vari- 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



1101 



ously expressed by letters ; notation of, ib. 
— Vowels, two coming together, where may 
be parted in syllabication, 180, R. 



w. 



W, its name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1: 
— simpler term than Double-u perhaps desir- 
able; Dr. Webst. on the lett., 154, Obs. 14. 
— W, when a vowel, 155: — with vowel foil., 
sound of, 1050 : — before h, how pronounced, 
ib. : — in Eng. never used alone as a vowel, 
ib. ; comp. 156, Obs. 4. 5: — no diphthongs 
or triphth. in Eng., beginning with, 1050. 

Wages, noun, plur. by formation ; its construe, 
with a verb, 249, t. & n. f ; 576, N. v. 

Walker, J., estimate of his Critical Pronouncing 
Dictionary, 359, Obs. 41; 810, Obs. 1:— in 
his lexicography how far followed Dr. Joh., 
832, m. 

Was, contrary to usage preferred by some to 
were, in the imperf. sing, of the subj., 374, n. * 

We, plur., as representing the speaker and 
others ; how sometimes used in stead of the 
sing. ; sometimes preferred by monarchs to 
I 551, Obs. 2; comp. 818, Obs. 2. 

Webster, Dr. K, describes language as compre- 
hending the voice of brutes, 146, Obs. 2 : — 
never named the Eng. letters rightly, 154, 
Obs. 14: — his orthography as a standard; 
do. compared with that of Dr. Joh., 197, 
Obs. 5: — the result to himself of his various 
attempts to reform our orthog. ; the value of 
his definitions, ib., ib. 

Weight, measure, &c\, see Time. 

Wert, as used in lieu of wast, 373: — its mood 
not easy to determine ; authorities for a vari- 
ous use of, 375, Obs. 2, 3. 

What, its class and nature, 298: — to what 
usually applied ; its twofold relat. explained, 
300, Obs. 8: — its numb.; example of solec. 
in the use of, ib., Obs. 9 : — as a mere adj., or 
as a pron. indef., ib., Obs. 10: — its use both 
as an adj. and as a relative at the same 
time ; do. for who or which, ludic. and vulg., 
ib., Obs. 11 : — declined, 312 : — how to be 
disposed of in etymolog. parsing ; how to be 
parsed syntactically, 325, Obs. 36; 298; 
comp. 324, Obs. 32, 33: — how becomes an 
interj., 325, Obs. 37 : — used appar. for an 
adv. ; uttered exclamatorily before an adj., 
to be taken as an adj., (""What partial 
judges are our," &c.,) 273, n. t; 300, Obs. 10 : 
— followed by that, by way of pleonasm, 
(" "What / tell you in darkness, that," &c.,) 
300, n. f : — with but preceding, (" To find a 
friend, but what" &c.,) 312, n. \: — vulg. 
use of, for that, 558, N. xii : — derivation of, 
from Sax., shown, 1055. 
Whatever or whatsoever, its peculiarities of con- 
strue, the same as those of what ; its use in 
simp, relation, 300, Obs. 12: — its construe, 
as a double relative ; whether it may be 
supposed ellipt., 301, Obs. 13: — its declen- 
sion, 313. 
When, where, or while, in what instance not fit 
to foUow the verb is, 661, Obs. 9 ; 667, N. 
vl — When, where, whither, as partaking of 



the nature of a pron. ; construe, of do., with 
antecedent nouns of time, &c, how far allow- 
able, 423, Obs. 6, 7; 558, N. ix:— deriva- 
tion of, from Anglo-Sax., 1056, Obs. 1. 

Whether, as an interrog. pron. ; as a disjunc 
conjunc, 308, Obs. 36: — conjunc. correspom 
sive to or, 678, N. vii: — as do., its deriva- 
tion from Sax., 1057, m. 

Which, relative, 298: — its former use; to what 
objects now confined, 299, Obs. 6; 312; 
556, Obs. 24; 557, N. iii: — its use after a 
personal term taken by meton. for a thing ; 
do., as stili applicable to persons, 299, Obs. 
6; 556, Obs. 24: — is of all the genders, (in 
oppos. to Murr., Webst., et al.,) 299, n. *: 
— is less approp. than who, in all personifi- 
cations, ib., Obs. 7 ; 557, N. iii : — its con- 
strue, when taken in its discrim. sense, 300, 
n. * : — how differs from the rel. that, 306, 
Obs. 31 : — Blair's incorrect remarks respect- 
ing, 307, Obs. 32. — Which, as rel. or inter- 
rog., declined, 312. — Which, sometimes takes 
whose for its poss., ib., n. f ; 299, Obs. 4, 5: 
— represents a prop, name taken merely as a 
name, ("Herod — which is but," &c.,) 556, 
Obs. 25 : — do. nouns of mult, expressing 
persons, when such are strictly of the neut 
gend., (" The committees which" &c.,) 557, 
1ST. iv : — in what cases is less approp. than 
that, ib., N. vi : — does not fitly represent an 
indicative assertion, ("Be attentive, without 
which," &c.,) 558, N. xiv: — its Sax. deriva- 
tion shown, 1055. — The which, obsol., 463, 
Obs. 9. — Which, interrog., what demands, 

298, m. : — to what objects applied, 312 : 
— now used for the obsol. whether, 308 
Obs. 36. 

Wliichever, whichsoevt ', signif. and construe. 

of, 302. Obs. 14 :— declension of, 313. 
Wlw, relative, 298 : — to what usually applied, 

299, Obs. 4; 557, N. iii: — has superseded 
which, formerly applied to persons, (" Our 
Father who art" &c.,) 299, Obs. 6:— to be 
preferred to ivhich, in all personifications, ib., 
Obs. 7 : — how differs from the rel. that, 306, 
Obs. 31. — Wlw, as rel. or interrog., declined, 
312. — Whose, use of, for the defec. poss., of 
which. 299, Obs. 4, 5 ; 312, n. \— Than whom, 
(see Than.)— W7w, interrog., what demands, 
298, m. : — may be the anteced. of the rel. 
that, 297, Obs. 7. — Who, derivation of, from 
Sax., 1055, t. 

Whoever, and whoso or whosoever, signif. and 
construe of, 302, Obs. 14:— declens. of, 313. 
— Whoso and whatso, antiq.. import and use 
of, 298, n. f. 

Whole, improp. use of, for all, ("Almost the 
whole inhabitants" Hume.,) 544, N. xiv. 

Why, after nouns of cause, (see When, &c.) — 
Why, wherefore, therefore, their class, 422, 
m. ; 423, Obs. 6-8 ; 558, N ix. 

Will, verb, how varied, 363: — use of, as a 
principal verb, 402, Obs. 2. 

Wis, verb, pret. wist, signif. and use of, 403, 
Obs. 5.— Had I wist, 404, n. \. 

With, for and, (see Cum:)— added to adv. of 
direc, with emphat. imperat., (" Up with 
it,") 661, Obs. 8. Withal, its class and con- 
strue, 443, Obs. 15. Without, obsol. use of, 
for unless or except, 430, t. Withouten, para- 



1102 



INDEX TO THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



gog. and poet, form, 814; 1070. Within- 
side of, 443, Obs. 16. 

Won't, whence formed; its pronunc., 392, t. 

Worcester, Br. J. E., his Universal and Critical 
Dictionary, 810, Obs. 1. 

Words, treated, 184-188.— Word, defined, 1S4. 

— Words distinguished, and the divisions of, 
defined, ib. — (See Compound Word.) — Words, 
Rules for the figure of; 184, '5; 513, Obs. 
31 : — simp., when compounding is to be 
avoided, 183, R. : — when to be joined, or to 
be written separately, ib., R. — Words, the 
nature of, explained, ib., Obs. 1 : — the con- 
sid. of, as eomm., 186, Obs. 2, and as prop., 
ib., Obs. 3: — brevity sought in the comm. 
use of, ib., Obs. 4: — the identity of, in what 
consists, ib., Obs. 5, & 187, Obs. 6: — un- 
settled and variable usage with respect to 
the figure ofj ib., Obs. 8, et sq. — Words that 
may constitute dirf. parts of speech, their con- 
strue, not to be left doubtf., 718, Crit. N. i : — 
the reference of, to other words, do., ib., Crit. 
N. ii: — senselessly jumbled, charac. of, 719, 
Crit. N. viii : — entirely needless, how to be 
disposed of, ib., Crit. N. ix : — unintelli gently 
misapplied, what indicates, ib., Crit. N. xiv. 

— Words, punct. of: in pairs, 776, R. ; alter- 
nated, ib. ; put absol., ib., R..; in appos., 
777, R. ; repeated, 779, R. — Words, deriva- 
tion of, treated, 1051-1061: — most of those 
regarded as primitives in Eng., may be traced 
to ulterior sources, 1051, t. : — the study of, 
its importance, ib. : — how the knowledge of, 
may be promoted with respect to Eng. ib. — 
Words, the use of, as affecting Purity, 1062, 
prec. i, ii, iii: — do., as affect. Propriety, 
prec. ii, iv, v: — do., as affect. Precision, ii, 
hi, iv, vi : — do., as affect. Perspicuity, prec. 
ii, iii: — do., as affect. Strength, prec. i, ii, v. 

Worshiper, whether properly written with a 

single or a double p, 194, n. *. 
Worth, its class and construe, 534, Obs. 8, 9. 
Worthy, admits not ellips. of prep, of before 

obj. following, 534, Obs. 8; 687, N. iii. 
Writing, to write, what meant by, 145. 



X. 



X, its name and plur. num., 150; ib., Obs. 1: 
— format, of the plur. of nouns in. 253, Obs. 
39, (5:)— why never doubled, 159; 193:— 
written for a number, 793, Obs. 2, 4: — its 
sounds, 1050. 



Y. 

T, its name and plur. numb., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : 
— borrowed first by the Romans from the 
Greeks, by whom called Ypsilon, 153, Obs. 
11: — in Eng. is either a vowel or a conson., 
155: — elassed with the semivowels, ib. : — 
final, changed or unchanged before termina- 
tions, 195, R. : — do., when, by former prac- 
tice, retained in verbs ending in y, before 
conson. terminations, 360, Obs. 42 :— sounds 
ot; 1050 : — in poet, format, of adjectives, 
1067, xiii. 

Ye, nora. plur., solemn style, 311, n. § ; 321, 
Obs. 22 : — its use as the obj. case, ib., ib. :-^ 
as a mere explet., in burlesque, 321, Obs. 
23 : — its use in the lang. of tragedy, ib., n. \: 
— used for thee, 322, t. : — in the Eng. Bible 
not found in the obj. case, 523, N. viii. — Ye 
and you, promise, use of, in the same case 
and the same style, ineleg., 557, N. ii. 

Yes, yea, in a simp, affirmation, construe, and 
class of, 658, exc. 1 : — derivation of, from 
Anglo-Sax., 1056, Obs. 1. 

You, use of, for thou, 311, n. {; 312, n. *; 
320, Obs. 20; 344, Obs. 3; 348, Obs. 12, 
13; 356, Obs. 30.— You, with was, ("You 
was building,") approved by Dr. "VYedst. 
et al., as the better form for the sing, numb., 
345, Obs. 5. — You, and verb plur., in ref- 
erence to one person, how to be treated in 
parsing, 551, Obs. 3. Your, facet, in con- 
versation, and how uttered, ("Dwells, like 
your miser, sir," &c, Shak.,) 556, Obs. 27. 
Yourself, its pecul. of construe, 552, Obs. 4. 

Your Majesty, your Highness, &c, see Address. 

Youyouing and theethouing, history of, '645, 
Obs. 6. 



z. 



Z, its name and plur., 150 ; ib., Obs. 1 : — has 
been called by several names; Walk., on 
the name, 152, t. : — peculiarity of its ordi- 
nary form, 164, 1. : — its sounds described, 
1050; 159. 

Zeugma, (i. e., jugatio, vel connexio, Sand.,) 
the various forms of, were named and noticed, 
but not censured, by the ancient grammari- 
ans, 604, Obs. 7 : — constructions of adjec- 
tives, referred to the figure, ("One or a few 
judges,'') 542, n. * ; 605, Obs. 10 ; do. of verbs, 
("Bui he nor I feel more," Young,) 603, 
Obs. 3, et sq. 



THE END OF THE INDEX, 

AND 

THE END OF THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS. 



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